Tech savvy farmers in Nigeria are using a farming technique known as aeroponics, in which plants are grown in humid air. The practice is not well known in Nigeria, but those using it are on a mission to make it more popular.  In the town of Abeokuta, the technique could make a big difference in a country where violence and desertification have made huge amounts of land unfarmable. Biochemist Samson Ogbole is popularly known as Nigeria’s smart farmer. He and his team are growing crops without soil at a tech-based farm they started three years ago in Abeokuta, in southwest Nigeria. Working to end food scarcity They say they’re on a mission to eliminate seasonal food scarcity in Nigeria. “Because we’re the ones controlling everything that the plant requires, we’re not depending on seasons,” Ogbole said. “So it’s no longer seasonal farming, it is just farming anytime of the year, meaning we can plant anytime of the year, we can harvest anytime of the year.” But setting up the smart farm was not easy. It required startup capital of more than $180,000, Ogbole said. “We were called wizards, demons, that we are doing something unnatural. So it took a whole …

Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing visas to people from Congo while citing the Ebola outbreak there, even as the World Health Organization recommends against travel restrictions. Some Muslims in Congo had planned to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month. A letter from the Saudi foreign ministry to Congo’s embassy in Riyadh, obtained by The Associated Press and dated Wednesday, says the kingdom made the decision to protect pilgrims and others.   The letter refers to the WHO decision this month to declare the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo a global health emergency. More than 1,700 people have died in the year-long outbreak. Saudi Arabia also suspended visas during West Africa’s Ebola outbreak a few years ago. The decision affects anyone coming from Congo, including non-citizens. …

A village in central Turkey where Boris Johnson traces his Turkish ancestry to is abuzz with excitement and pride over the news that a man they see as one of their own has become the new prime minister of Britain. Residents of the mainly farming village of Kalfat, in Cankiri province, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the Turkish capital Ankara, gathered at its main assembly place on Tuesday to celebrate after Johnson won a Conservative Party leadership contest triggered by the resignation of Theresa May, according to town administrator, Bayram Tavukcu. Johnson took office as British prime minister on Wednesday. Residents here dismiss as “political rhetoric” past comments by Johnson that were sometimes deemed to be anti-Muslim or anti-Turkish and said they hope that he will visit Kalfat while in office. “We were honored that someone who has Ottoman genes, who comes from these lands, has become the prime minister of a prodigious country,” said Adem Karaagac, the former administrator of the village of 1,300. Britain’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson waves from the steps outside 10 Downing Street, London, Wednesday, July 24, 2019. Johnson’s paternal great-great-grandfather, Haci Ahmet Riza Efendi, was born there in 1813 and the house …

More than one thousand people staged a sit-in at the Hong Kong airport Friday, alerting visitors  to the recent demonstrations in the metropolis, some of which have resulted in casualties. The demonstrators and airport staff, dressed in black also criticized the police response to attacks on pro-democracy protesters. Cellphone video that appeared on social media shows assailants alleged to be Triad gangsters attacking protesters with pipes and poles at a Hong Kong subway station Sunday. The protests stem from a call to end the now-suspended bill to extradite Hong Kong residents charged with criminal offenses to China for trial as well as demonstrations for democratic reforms and an end to Beijing’s tighter grip on the territory. Hong Kong executive Carrie Lam apologized for the turmoil the extradition bill has caused and declared it “dead.” Another march is planned for Saturday in Yuen Long, the neighborhood where a mob of white-clad men brutally attacked people at a rail station last Sunday following a large pro-democracy rally. Dozens were injured and six arrested, with police alleging some had gang ties.   …

Temperature records are being broken across Europe as a heat wave grips the continent. Hot air moving from the Sahara region has caused temperatures to rise. Paris surpassed its heat record Thursday, with temperatures in the city reaching 42.7 degrees Celsius. Paris’ record had been set in 1947 at 40.4 degrees Celsius. In June, France experienced its hottest day on record, with temperatures reaching 47 degrees Celsius, causing the heat alert system to go to its maximum level of red for the first time. The Netherlands experienced its hottest day on record Thursday, with temperatures reaching 41.7 degrees Celsius. The previous record was set Wednesday, with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees Celsius in the Gilze Rijen municipality near the Belgian border. In Germany, heat records are also being broken, with temperatures reaching 42.6 degrees Celsius. The previous record was set Wednesday, with a high of 40.5 degrees Celsius in Geilenkirchen also near the Belgian border. Belgium also experienced its hottest day Thursday, with highs reaching 40.7 degrees Celsius, also in the western town of Beitem. Many public buildings in Europe lack air conditioning. Additionally, only 5% of homes have cooling units, according to reports. Trains across the continent have stopped, …

Joe Biden no longer plans to turn the other cheek.   His front-running status fragile, the former vice president is embracing an aggressive plan to confront Democratic rivals who have tried to undermine his popularity with black voters.   After ignoring his Democratic competition for much of the year, Biden and his team shrugged off the risks Thursday and leaned into a deliberate campaign to push back against New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Sen. Kamala Harris, the only high-profile African-American candidates in the race.   Biden’s team highlighted Booker and Harris’ past praise of Biden while raising questions about their own records related to race. And Biden’s allies made clear that the former vice president was prepared for a fight in next week’s debate. They also point to numerous surveys showing Biden with durable support among black voters that far exceeds that of Booker or Harris.   “He’s going to forcefully defend his record and not let it get distorted,” declared Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana congressman and national co-chairman of Biden’s campaign. The comments echoed Biden’s own from the night before in Detroit when he warned his competitors that he was “not going to be as polite” in …

North Korea has formally announced its latest ballistic missile test, saying the launch was a warning to “military warmongers” in South Korea who are set to soon hold joint military exercises with the United States. North Korean state media showed pictures of Kim Jong Un personally supervising the Thursday test of what it called a “new-type tactical guided weapon.” U.S. and South Korean officials say the projectile was a short-range ballistic missile. The official Korean Central News Agency said the test was meant “to send a solemn warning to the south Korean military warmongers who are running high fever in their moves to introduce the ultramodern offensive weapons into south Korea and hold military exercise in defiance of the repeated warnings.” Complaints about South Korea North Korea has repeatedly complained about South Korea’s recent acquisition of U.S. F-35 fighter jets, as well as upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises. Pyongyang has warned it may not resume working-level talks with the United States if the drills take place. “South Korean authorities show such strange double-dealing behavior as acting a ‘handshake of peace’ and fingering joint declaration and agreement and the like before the world people and, behind the scene, shipping ultra-modern …

There was more flash than substance Thursday as the White House celebrated the anniversary of an initiative to spur job training by companies. The initiative, led by President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, has garnered commitments from 300 companies to provide 12 million training opportunities in the years ahead. But there are questions about how much the administration is willing to spend to help U.S. workers, whether the agreements by companies will result in higher salaries and whether employers will stick to their nonbinding pledge if the economy sours. A look at the celebratory rhetoric: Ivanka Trump: “This administration believes that every American should have a chance to earn a great living doing work that they love. … The president’s call to action for the pledge has become a full-blown national movement. Over the last year, more than 300 businesses, 300 businesses, have signed the pledge, businesses large and small, and today we celebrate reaching 12 million pledged commitments. … This pledge is more than just a number. Every single pledge is a commitment to the promise of an individual and his or her potential.” Vice President Mike Pence: “That is an astonishing accomplishment.” The Facts: It’s much too early to …

RFE/RL contributed to this report. Despite the arrest of a top Kremlin critic and police raids on the homes of several political activists, opposition leaders in Russia remained determined to go ahead with a planned protest in Moscow on Saturday. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was ordered jailed Wednesday for 30 days for calling “unauthorized protests” for this weekend to protest the disqualification of several opposition-minded candidates from the Sept. 8 Moscow city council elections. Election officials have barred about 30 independent candidates from the ballot, saying some of the 5,500 signatures they needed to get on the ballot were invalid. The rejected candidates say the reason for not validating the signatures is to keep genuine independents off the ballots and ensure the ruling United Russia party and others who do President Vladimir Putin’s bidding maintain dominance. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is charged with participation in an unauthorised protest rally, attends a court hearing in Moscow, July 1, 2019. “If the United Russia swindlers don’t register the independent candidates and spit on the opinions of the citizenry, then all of us … will come to the mayor’s office at Tverskaya 13,” Navalny wrote on a social media post earlier …

The U.S. government plans to resume executions after a 16-year hiatus, picking five killers of children to be the first to die. The five men — four white and one black — range in age from 37 to 67. They are being held in a high-security federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where they will be executed. Here is a look at the five men and their crimes: Daniel Lee, 46, is scheduled for execution Dec. 9. Lee, a white supremacist, was convicted in 1999 for killing an Arkansas gun dealer, along with his wife and 8-year-old daughter. Lezmond Mitchell, 37, is scheduled for execution Dec. 11. Mitchell was convicted in 2003 for killing a 63-year-old grandmother and her 9-year-old granddaughter in Arizona. After stabbing the grandmother to death, Mitchell and his accomplice forced the child to sit next to the body for a more than 50-kilometer drive, before fatally slashing her throat. Wesley Purkey, 67, is scheduled for execution Dec. 13. Purkey was found guilty in 2003 for raping and killing a 16-year-old girl before dismembering and burning her body in Missouri. Months before that murder, Purkey had used a hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who suffered from …

The thigh bone of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French paleontologists at an excavation site in southwestern France where remains of some of the largest animals that ever lived on land have been dug up since 2010. The two-meter long femur at the Angeac-Charente site is thought to have belonged to a sauropod, herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and tails which were widespread in the late Jurassic era, over 140 million years ago. “This is a major discovery,” Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the National History Museum of Paris told Reuters. “I was especially amazed by the state of preservation of that femur.” “These are animals that probably weighed 40 to 50 tons,” he said. Allain said scientists at the site near the city of Cognac have found more than 7,500 fossils of more than 40 different species since 2010, making it one of the largest such finds in Europe. …

CARACAS — A proposal to modify U.S. oil sanctions on Venezuela to allow crude exports to be bartered for food has divided the country’s opposition between those who say the move would stave off famine and those who predict President Nicolas Maduro would abuse it.    Henri Falcon, the former governor of western Lara state, said Thursday that he wrote to the United Nations and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs requesting such an exemption for food and medicine imports.    Falcon attained international prominence last year when he broke a boycott to challenge Maduro in a vote many opposition parties deemed a sham. He faces an uphill battle to convince the United States and other opposition politicians of the merits of the program.    The U.N. implemented a similar program in Iraq, another oil-dependent economy, from 1996 to 2003 to help citizens cope with U.N. sanctions after former leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.  Through early 2019, the United States was Venezuela’s largest crude importer. State oil company PDVSA got cash from the oil it sent to U.S. refiners, while it used exports to other major customers like China’s CNPC and Russia’s Rosneft to pay off …

Islamic State’s West Africa branch on Thursday claimed responsibility for kidnapping six aid workers in northeast Nigeria. International aid agency Action Against Hunger said that a staff member and five others kidnapped in Nigeria last week had appeared in a video released on Wednesday evening and that they were “apparently in a good condition of health.” Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA), which split from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram in 2016, claimed responsibility for the kidnap in a tweet published by the SITE monitoring group. The group has carried out a number of attacks in the northeast over the last few months, including on military bases. It killed a kidnapped aid worker nine months ago. Action Against Hunger said in a statement that the people were abducted last week near the town of Damasak in northeast Nigeria, where the insurgents were active. “Action Against Hunger strongly requests that our staff member and her companions are released,” said the agency. The video was published by The Cable, a Nigerian news organisation, and showed a woman sitting on the floor who identifies herself as “Grace”. Five men sit around her, some with their heads bowed. Behind them is a sheet with …

The U.S. House on Thursday approved legislation aimed at protecting thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States from deportation by granting them Temporary Protected Status. The measure was adopted on a 272-158 vote after a debate that required a simple majority for passage. The same bill failed earlier this week when 154 Republicans voted against it under a procedure for quick passage that required approval from two-thirds of the 435 House members. All 158 votes against the bill Thursday were Republicans, while 39 Republicans voted in favor. Similar legislation has not moved forward in the Senate since it was introduced in February. Arguments for, against Temporary Protected Status is usually granted by the Department of Homeland Security to people from countries ravaged by natural disasters or war and lets them remain in the U.S. until the situation improves back home. Rep. Doug Collin of Georgia, the top Republican on the House judiciary panel, said he opposed the bill because recent court rulings have blocked the Trump administration from terminating the TPS designation for some countries. “We should not ensure renewal is automatic,” Collins said. “If we do not do that, we can continue the same broken TPS designation process.” …

Hundreds of Catholic parishioners in Paraguay donned bird-like costumes and paraded down the streets this week to honor a 16th-century saint said to possess miraculous powers.    The celebration in the municipality of Emboscada, some 45 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of the capital of Asuncion, paid tribute to St. Francis Solano, who was born in Spain in 1549 and died in Peru in 1610. He was canonized in 1726. Wearing a suit made from the feathers of six hens, Maria Estela Pereira said she had come to show thanks.  Blacksmith Pablo Ovelar poses for a photo, dressed in his feathered costume during the feast of St. Francis Solano in Emboscada, Paraguay, July 24, 2019. “I suffer from arthritis and after praying four years ago to St. Francis Solano to allow me to move from one place to another without pain, he granted me a miracle,” said the 52-year-old widow, a mother of 11 children.    Modesto Martinez, a parish priest in the nearby city of San Bernardino, said there was no scholarly explanation for the procession, but birds were believed to have sung to St. Francis Solano as he lay on his deathbed. “It is likely that the story, if …

After months of anticipation, Congress finally heard testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller. So what now?    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mueller’s appearance was “a crossing of a threshold,” raising public awareness of what Mueller found. And Democrats after the hearing said they had clearly laid out the facts about the Mueller report, which did not find a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia but detailed extensive Russian intervention in the 2016 election. Mueller also said in the report that he couldn’t clear President Donald Trump on obstruction of justice.    But it remains to be seen how the testimony will affect public views of Trump’s presidency and the push for impeachment. Mueller said some of the things that Democrats wanted him to say — including a clear dismissal of Trump’s claims of total exoneration — but he declined to answer many of their questions, and he spoke haltingly at times. Trump claimed victory, saying Mueller did “a horrible job.” FILE – Former special counsel Robert Mueller checks pages in the report as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on his report on Russian election interference, on Capitol Hill, July 24, 2019. Democrats say they …

White House officials on Thursday were baffled as to why a doctored presidential seal — including an eagle clutching golf clubs in its talons instead of arrows — was projected on stage at an event at which U.S. President Donald Trump spoke. The seal was displayed on Tuesday at Turning Point USA’s student summit, where Trump gave a raucous 80-minute speech and was greeted warmly by the youthful audience. The image included a two-headed eagle, instead of just one head, which the Washington Post said closely resembles the bird on the Russian coat of arms and also appears on the flags of Serbia, Albania and Montenegro. The eagle has a set of golf clubs in its talons instead of the traditional seal’s clutch of arrows. There were suspicions at the White House that the organizers had found the doctored image online and mistakenly used it. “We never saw the seal in question before it appeared in the video,” said a White House official. “The White House had no knowledge of it.” Officials referred questions to Turning Point USA, which could not immediately be reached for comment. The political nonprofit group was founded to organize conservative students on college campuses by …

U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar struck a chord with other Muslim Americans when she denounced a perceived assumption that she is reluctant to condemn or sympathetic to terrorism and atrocities committed by Islamic groups. “Does this need to be on repeat every five minutes?” Omar asked during a Muslim Caucus Education Collective forum in Washington on Tuesday. “So today, I forgot to condemn al-Qaida,” she continued to resounding applause. “So here’s the al-Qaida one. Today I forgot to condemn a FGM [female genital mutilation.]  So there you go.” Muslim-American progressive activists at the conference said Omar’s outrage mirrored their anger at having their values and loyalty constantly questioned. Attendees applaud while U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) host a town hall meeting on ‘Medicare For All’ in Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 18, 2019. “It was time for someone to say it and she finally did. And we are so proud and so honored to have her in Congress,” said Yasmeen Obeid, a Palestinian-American community activist from San Diego, California. Female genital mutilation Omar was responding to a question about FGM from Ani Zonneveld, president of Muslims for Progressive Values. She asked the Minnesota lawmaker to join with fellow Muslim …

Sixteen U.S. Marines in California have been arrested in connection with an investigation that produced allegations of human smuggling and drug offenses, the Marine Corps said. Officials, including those with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), arrested the Marines early Thursday after they and hundreds of other Marines were called to a battalion formation at Camp Pendleton, 79 kilometers (49 miles) from San Diego. According the Marine Corps, the arrests stemmed from a previous human smuggling investigation that resulted in two arrests.    Marine and NCIS officials said additional information was not being released because the investigations were ongoing.    “None of the Marines arrested or detained for questioning served in support of the Southwest Border Support mission,” the Marine Corps said in a statement.    Charges have yet to be filed in connection with the latest arrests.    The Marine Corps said another eight Marines were also taken in for questioning on unrelated drug allegations.    Thursday’s arrests came one day after U.S. Special Operations Command announced a Navy SEAL platoon stationed in Iraq had been sent back to the United States early because of “perceived deterioration of good order and discipline.”    According to media reports, about 20 of the SEALs had been …

U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Ukraine’s new president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on holding parliamentary elections which Zelenskiy’s party won, and offered U.S. help to promote reforms in Ukraine, Zelenskiy’s office said on Thursday. Zelenskiy, a television sitcom star who was elected in a landslide in May, called an early parliamentary election to replace a parliament dominated by loyalists of his predecessor. His party won a majority of seats in the vote, held on Sunday. Trump told Zelenskiy by phone he was confident that the new Ukrainian leadership would improve the country’s image, Zelenskiy’s office said. Zelenskiy thanked Trump for maintaining and intensifying sanctions on Russia. The United States and European Union imposed financial sanctions in 2014 after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and backed a separatist uprising. …

The White House on Thursday blasted a federal court action temporarily blocking the Trump administration from enforcing a directive that disqualifies a significant proportion of mostly Central American asylum-seekers who reach the U.S.-Mexico border. “We intend to pursue all available options to address this meritless ruling and to defend this Nation’s borders,” the White House’s press secretary said in a statement. Late Wednesday, Judge Jon Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an injunction halting the administration’s new asylum rule, saying it fails to ensure that asylum-seekers rejected by the United States and sent to a third country, most often Mexico, would be safe there and have access to a fair asylum process. FILE – Migrant children sleep on the floor of a shelter in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, July 17, 2019. “The government’s own administrative record contains no evidence that the Mexican asylum regime provides a full and fair procedure for determining asylum claims,” Tigar wrote. “Rather, it affirmatively demonstrates that asylum claimants removed to Mexico are likely to be exposed to violence and abuse from third parties and government officials, denied their rights under Mexican and international law, and wrongly returned to countries …

With the United States mulling sanctions over Turkey’s recent procurement of Russian missiles, Ankara is warning that America’s use of a critical military air base could be at risk. The U.S.’s decades-long use of Incirlik Air Base is seen as not only of vital military importance, but underscores the strategic relationship between the two NATO allies. “We are currently running the process [of retaliatory measures], whether it’s Incirlik, Kurecik [U.S. radar base in Turkey] or other issues,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned Washington this week, in the latest ratcheting up of bilateral tensions. “If America has very negative steps toward us,” he added, “if there are sanctions or further steps, we will have answers to America.” Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly made a similar threat over Incirlik’s use, in his meeting with President Donald Trump in June on the sidelines of the G-20 economic summit in Osaka, Japan. FILE – President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. This month’s delivery of Russia’s S-400 missile system to Turkey violates the U.S.’s Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions …

Drake has two new partners: SiriusXM and Pandora. The two companies which merged earlier this year announced Thursday that they have signed a new creative partnership with the superstar rapper.   The new deal includes “a dedicated station, curated music, and collaborations with creative talent.” The roll-out will start later this year.   Drake is one of the world’s top-streamed artists. He previously had a radio show on Apple Music, did a commercial for the brand and launched new music on the streaming platform, giving Apple an exclusive for a time period over competitors.   Drake has had 35 Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and won four Grammy Awards. …

Airlines are tallying up the damage and talking to Boeing about compensation for the grounding of the troubled 737 Max jet.   On Thursday, two of the three large U.S. airlines that own Max jets updated their estimates of how the plane is hurting their bottom lines. American Airlines said its 2019 earnings will be reduced by $400 million _ $50 million more than its previous estimate. Southwest Airlines announced that because it has fewer planes without the Max, it will end service at a major airport in the New York City area.   Southwest also dropped the plane from its schedule until early January _ two months longer than American _ to allow time for pilot retraining and avoid disruptions for holiday-season travelers. Airline executives, however, are standing behind the plane and betting that passengers will get back on board. The Max has been grounded since March after two crashes killed a total of 346 people.   American Airlines Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said once the Federal Aviation Administration approves Boeing changes to the plane and pilots are comfortable that they are adequately trained to fly it, that “will make the difference in consumer attitudes about the aircraft …