On a two-day visit to New York this month, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen vowed in a speech never to “succumb to any threats” from China. She mixed too with U.S. Congress members in America’s largest city. Reporters were allowed to cover some of her events. It is more open and welcoming  than past U.S. trips by Taiwan presidents. Tsai, passing through New York on her way to visit former  diplomatic allies in the Caribbean, will return to Taipei after spending another two days in the United States before July 22.  In the past, Washington has held visits by Taiwanese presidents to shorter periods, smaller cities and lower-profile activities – sometimes just aircraft refueling. The idea was to offer transit stops, for comfort and convenience, but avoid upsetting China. China sees self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory rather than a state entitled to foreign relations. Washington and Beijing recognize each other diplomatically. Tsai is getting to do more than usual this month because the U.S. government is upgrading relations with Taiwan and expressing exasperation with China, experts believe.  “At this moment, I think both the Taiwan government and the U.S. government prefer to see this as kind of  a one-step …

An International relief agency says the Taliban has forced them to close dozens of clinics in an embattled central – eastern region of Afghanistan, depriving  hundreds of thousands of people, particularly women and children, of  receiving medical treatment and health services.  The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) said in a statement issued Wednesday the insurgents’ action in the Wardak province had stemmed from last week’s deadly attack by Afghan security forces against one of the agency’s health clinics. It noted that the condemnable raid killed four people, including SCA doctors, and one employee is still missing. “The Taliban forced SCA to close 42 out of 77 health facilities in six out of nine districts of Wardak province so far, and due to this closure, an estimated number of over 5,700 patients are affected on daily basis,” the aid agency lamented.  Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid justified their action, alleging the July 8th raid against the SCA hospital was jointly conducted by American and Afghan forces. He told VOA the relief agency’s health units have come under regular attack by pro-government forces but the SCA has not effectively protested nor has the Swedish government taken up the issue with Americans or the …

While deforestation has devastated many African countries, in the west African nation of Niger more than 200 million new trees have sprung up in recent decades.  These trees, mainly a variety known locally as Gao – weren’t planted.  Instead, they were protected by Nigerien farmers who realized the trees were assets to agriculture and animal feed.  Moki Edwin Kindzeka has this report by Anne Nzouankeu in Niamey, Niger. …

People everywhere love competitions and the subject is – at times – not that important. Championships are awarded in toe-wrestling, speed burger-eating and mobile phone throwing. The Michigan city of Eau Claire has one of its own – the annual cherry pit-spitting championship. Roman Verkhovsky visited the town to see how far the love of pit spitting stretches. Anna Rice narrates his story.  …

President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense appeared to glide through his nomination hearing in the Senate Tuesday.  All but one senator appeared ready to confirm Secretary of the Army Mark Esper, a military veteran, to head the Defense Department. If confirmed, Esper faces tough problems in Turkey, China and elsewhere around the globe. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details. …

Bolivia, which has one of South America’s highest rates of women being killed because of their gender, has declared femicide a national priority and will step up efforts to tackle growing violence, a top government rights official said on Tuesday. Since January authorities have recorded 73 femicides – the killing of a woman by a man due to her gender – in the highest toll since 2013. The murders amount to one woman killed every two days. “In terms of the femicide rate, Bolivia is in the top rankings,” said Tania Sanchez, head of the Plurinational Service for Women and Ending Patriarchy at Bolivia’s justice ministry, despite legal protections being in place. A 2013 law defined femicide as a specific crime and provided tougher sentences for convicted offenders. “We are not indifferent,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “The national priority is the lives of women, of all ages, and for that reason the president has raised this issue of femicide as the most extreme form (of violence),” Sanchez said. Emergency Plan The latest femicide victim was 26-year-old mother Mery Vila, killed last week by her partner who beat her on the head with a hammer. This week, the government …

An FBI analysis of crudely made pipe bombs mailed to prominently critics of President Donald Trump has concluded they wouldn’t have worked, according to a report made public Tuesday. The January report on the analysis was filed in Manhattan federal court, where U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff is scheduled to sentence Cesar Sayoc in September after the Florida man pleaded guilty to explosives-related charges in the scary episode weeks before midterm elections last year. Sayoc, 57, faces a mandatory 10-year prison term and up to life. Sayoc has repeatedly said he never intended to injure anyone, a claim that his lawyers will likely argue was supported by the report. The FBI said the devices wouldn’t have functioned because of their design, though it couldn’t be determined whether that was from poor design or the intent of the builder. It said the fuzing system for each device lacked the proper components and assembly to enable it to function as a method of initiation for an explosive. It also said the devices contained small fragments of broken glass, fragmentation often added to explosives to injure or kill people nearby. Whether the devices might have exploded became a major focal point of …

Country singer Luke Combs was just 6 years old when his mom and grandmother snuck him into his first concert by hiding him in the backseat of their car so he could go see Vince Gill play at a minor league baseball stadium.   It came full circle for the singer-songwriter from North Carolina when Gill came out to formally induct Combs, 29, into the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday night in Nashville, Tennessee.   Combs, who has taken country music by storm in the last two years with hit after hit off his debut major label record, told reporters backstage before the induction that he actually didn’t get to see Gill finish that performance 23 years ago.   “I actually missed my favorite song that night because I started crying because there was thunder in the background, so we ended up leaving early,” Combs said. “I am looking forward to saying hello to him.”   Combs sang two of his hits before Gill and ’90s country star Joe Diffie joined several other Opry members on stage for the induction into the country music institution. Gill praised Combs’ top-notch vocals before joking about Combs’ first introduction to his music.   …

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday sought to build on his appeal to rural voters with the release of a broad plan to revitalize rural America through investments in agriculture, rural economies and infrastructure.   “We have to ensure we bring along everyone,” the former vice president said in Manning, an Iowa town of about 1,500 residents. “Doesn’t matter if you live in skyscraper in Manhattan or here in Manning, your child is entitled” to every benefit America has to offer.   The plan builds on policies Biden has already released on health care and climate change and expands on a number of policies first introduced in the Obama administration. It sets the ambitious goal of making America’s agriculture industry the first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions, by expanding a program that incentivizes farmers to engage in conservation and by allowing farmers to participate in carbon markets in which companies can essentially pay them to offset their own emissions. The plan pledges to invest in “bio-based manufacturing” to bring jobs back to rural America by using agricultural byproducts in manufacturing.   It also includes a $20 billion investment in rural broadband infrastructure, a commitment to prioritize the …

Support for U.S. President Donald Trump increased slightly among Republicans after he lashed out on Twitter over the weekend in a racially charged attack on four minority Democratic congresswomen, a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll shows. The national survey, conducted on Monday and Tuesday after Trump told the lawmakers they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” showed his net approval among members of his Republican Party rose by 5 percentage points to 72%, compared with a similar poll that ran last week. Trump, who is seeking re-election next year, has lost support, however, with Democrats and independents since the Sunday tweetstorm. Among independents, about three out of 10 said they approved of Trump, down from four out of 10 a week ago. His net approval – the percentage who approve minus the percentage who disapprove – dropped by 2 points among Democrats in the poll. Trump’s overall approval remained unchanged over the past week. According to the poll, 41% of the U.S. public said they approved of his performance in office, while 55% disapproved. The results showed strong Republican backing for Trump as the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives passed …

At least 12 people were killed and scores wounded on Tuesday in aerial strikes believed to have been carried out by the Syrian air force on a popular market in a village in opposition-held northwestern Syria, rescuers and residents said. Residents and rescuers said bombs dropped on Maar Shoreen village in southern Idlib province by planes which monitors said were Syrian army jets left a trail of death and destruction and wounded scores in a main street of the village’s market. Videos released on social media by activists purportedly showed footage of charred bodies lying on the streets alongside badly burnt people being carried by rescuers. Reuters was unable immediately to independently verify the footage. Hundreds of civilians have been killed since a Russian-led assault on the last rebel bastion in northwestern Syria began nearly two months ago, rights groups and rescuers said. The Russian defense ministry denies it targets civilians and Syrian state media said the army on Tuesday launched strikes on al-Qaida militants in the vicinity of Maar Shoreen, destroying their bases and killing scores of “terrorists.” The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), which monitors casualties and briefs various United Nations agencies, said in its latest report …

The U.S. Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to pause the enforcement of a sweeping antitrust ruling against mobile chip supplier Qualcomm on Tuesday, citing support from the Energy Department and Defense Department. “For DoD, Qualcomm is a key player both in terms of its trusted supply chain and as a leader in innovation, and it would be impossible to replace Qualcomm’s critical role in 5G technology in the short term,” Ellen M. Lord, Under Secretary for Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, wrote in a filing made in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Qualcomm, the largest supplier of modem chips that connect smartphones to wireless data networks, on May 21 lost in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled that Qualcomm had engaged in anticompetitive patent-licensing practices to keep a monopoly on the mobile chip market. Koh ordered Qualcomm to license its technology to rival chipmakers, which include firms like Taiwan’s MediaTek and Huawei Technologies’s HiSilicon chip unit. Qualcomm has been fighting to have the ruling put on hold while it pursues an appeal. The San Diego, California, company has argued that letting the ruling stand could …

Saudi Arabia’s air force intercepted and destroyed three Yemeni rebel drones before they could reach targets in the southern Saudi cities of Jizan and Abha, a military spokesman said Tuesday. Col. Tukri al-Maliki was quoted in the state-run Saudi Press Agency saying the drones were launched by the Iran-backed rebel Houthis from the northern Yemeni governorate of Amran. Bomb-laden drones launched by Houthis killed a civilian and wounded others at a Saudi airport in Abha in recent weeks. A Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s government has been at war with the Houthis since 2015. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people. A Yemeni human rights group released a report Tuesday detailing how civilians have suffered greatly in the war. In the report released in Paris, Mwatana for Human Rights said humanitarian aid had been blocked at a time of impending famine and civilians can no longer move around the country freely or leave. The group documented 74 cases of obstructing aid or access, largely blaming the Houthis. FILE – Yemeni workers clean a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Abs, in the rebel-held northern province of Hajja, after the hospital was allegedly hit by an airstrike …

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra rejected the demand of a regional governor on Tuesday to cancel within 72 hours the construction permit for a copper mining project that has led to protests. Residents from the area bordering Southern Copper Corp.’s $1.4 billion Tia Maria copper mine project in the south of Peru, which is the second largest copper producer in the world, began protesting on Monday with a blockade of a portion of Peru’s main coastal highway. Officials from the southern region of Arequipa said the government had not taken into account the community’s concern that the mining operation would contaminate its water sources and land when it granted a construction permit on July 9. Arequipa Governor Elmer Caceres called on Vizcarra to cancel the construction permit within three days. “You cannot cancel [a construction permit]. We have to talk,” Vizcarra said in a public appearance in Lima, responding to a reporter’s question about Caceres’ request. Demonstrators protest against the Tia Maria mine in Arequipa, Peru, July 15, 2019. Vizcarra said the government approved the project when legal requirements were met and that Southern Copper said it would not begin construction until it gains more support from people who live in …

John Paul Stevens, who served on the Supreme Court for nearly 35 years and became its leading liberal, has died. He was 99. Stevens’ influence was felt on issues including abortion rights, protecting consumers and placing limits on the death penalty. He led the high court’s decision to allow terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay to plead for their freedom in U.S. courts. As a federal appeals court judge in Chicago, Stevens was considered a moderate when Republican President Gerald Ford nominated him. On the Supreme Court he became known as an independent thinker and a voice for ordinary people against powerful interests. He retired in June 2010 at age 90, the second oldest justice in the court’s history. …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit four Latin American countries this week, with a focus on Venezuela’s crisis, the surge of migrants at the U.S.southern border, and more security cooperation, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Pompeo will travel to Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico and El Salvador from Thursday to Sunday, the State Department said. In Argentina, he will attend the second Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial where he will also hold bilateral meetings with regional counterparts, including from Chile and the Bahamas, a senior State Department official told reporters. “We see this week’s ministerial as an important step in bolstering our collective efforts to address these threats and protect our hemisphere from the scourge of terrorism,” the official said. In Ecuador, Pompeo, making the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in nine years, will discuss increased economic and trade ties, fighting drug trafficking and the surge of migrants from Venezuela fleeing that country’s economic crisis. Ecuador estimates that some 600,000 Venezuelan citizens entered the country in 2018 via the Colombian border, most of whom continue on toward Peru. “They have been taking a heavy pressure of inbound migration from the people expelled by Mr. Maduro’s chaos in Venezuela, …

The Trump administration’s plan to move the government’s largest land management office from Washington to Colorado evoked a mix of praise, criticism and questions Tuesday. The Bureau of Land Management scheduled a formal announcement of its plans Tuesday afternoon. A day earlier, delighted Republican lawmakers said the bureau’s headquarters would move to Grand Junction, Colorado, and about 300 jobs would be relocated to Colorado, Nevada, Utah and other Western states. The bureau, part of the Interior Department, oversees nearly 388,000 square miles (1 billion square kilometers) of public land, and 99% is in 12 Western states. Those lands produce oil, gas and coal, and ranchers graze livestock on them as well. “This is a victory for local communities, advocates for public lands and proponents for a more responsible and accountable federal government,” said Senator Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican. Gardner released a letter from the Interior Department Tuesday confirming the move to Grand Junction, a city of about 63,000 people 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Denver. FILE – Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., arrives at the Senate Chamber at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 31, 2018. Bill Stringer, a Uintah County, Utah, commissioner and retired Bureau of Land Management employee, …

This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service.  Some information is from AP. WASHINGTON — The Austrian justice minister’s Tuesday announcement that he will extradite Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash to face bribery charges in the United States has been upended by an application to reopen the case in Vienna. Last month, Austria’s Supreme Court upheld a decision granting a U.S. request to extradite the gas tycoon — who prosecutors say had business ties to President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager, Paul Manafort — paving the way for him to face trial in a Chicago courtroom. Firtash, who denies any wrongdoing, is facing a U.S. indictment that accuses him of a conspiracy to pay bribes in India to mine titanium, which is used in jet engines. A longtime supporter of Ukraine’s ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Firtash is alleged to have made billions of dollars selling Russian-subsidized gas to the Kyiv government. He later launched profitable ventures in television and chemicals production, and has long-established connections with businessmen from the inner circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin, attracting the interests of U.S. law enforcement agencies. On Tuesday, the Austria Press Agency reported that Justice Minister Clemens Jabloner had approved Firtash’s extradition, but a …

The White House and Congress are engaged in tough, down-to-the-wire negotiations over raising the U.S. government’s borrowing limit and agreeing to new spending levels for as long as the coming two years.   President Donald Trump’s latest tweetstorm against four Democratic progressive lawmakers and the early stages of the 2020 presidential election campaign are grabbing the headlines in Washington. But the outcome of behind-the-scenes discussions between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the country’s debt ceiling — its cap on borrowing to run the government — and the 2020 budget could prove more consequential. Agreement on a new debt ceiling and a deal on a new two-year spending plan beginning in October could take both issues off the table ahead of Trump’s November 2020 re-election bid and Democratic efforts to oust him after a single term in the White House. The century-old debt ceiling is a legal cap on the amount of money the government can borrow to cover revenue shortages. In March, the debt limit expired and the debt now totals $22.5 trillion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., arrives for a closed-door session with her caucus before a vote on a resolution condemning what she called …

The spacesuit astronaut Neil Armstrong wore during his mission to the moon went on public display for the first time in 13 years on Tuesday, at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum exactly 50 years to the day when Apollo 11 launched into space. Armstrong’s son Rick unveiled the suit along with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence who recalled how the country was deeply divided in the late 1960s but came together in pride when Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong died on Aug. 12, 2012 in Cincinnati, Ohio. “On top of the contributions to science and human understanding, for that brief moment, the man who wore this suit, brought together our nation and the world,” Pence said. “Apollo 11 is the only event of the 20th century that stands a chance of being widely remembered in the 30th century,” said Pence said. “A thousand years from now, July 20, 1969 will likely be a date that will live on in the minds and imaginations of men and women, here on Earth, across our solar system, and beyond.” Armstrong’s suit was displayed for about 30 years at the Smithsonian before it was taken down in …

German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen was narrowly elected president of the European Commission on Tuesday after winning over skeptical lawmakers. The 60-year-old conservative was nominated to become the first woman in Brussels’ top job last month by the leaders of the bloc’s 28 member states, to the annoyance of many MEPs. The Strasbourg parliament would have preferred a candidate chosen by one of its political groups, but in the end a small majority — 383 members of the 751-member assembly voted — for her. She will now replace Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the EU executive on November 1, one day after Britain is due to leave the union, and serve for a five-year mandate. “The task ahead of us humbles me. It’s a big responsibility and my work starts now,” the polyglot mother-of-seven told lawmakers, thanking all members “who decided to vote for me today.” If von der Leyen had lost, Europe faced a summer of institutional infighting instead of preparing for Brexit, battling Italy over its debt and confronting Hungary and Poland over threats to democratic values. In a hearing before the vote, von der Leyen promised: “A climate-neutral Europe in 2015. A more social and …

Activists are calling on Sudan’s military and opposition leaders to open the country’s political process to women when the sides begin to implement their recent power-sharing deal. For most of Sudan’s 63 years as an independent country, women were not allowed to get involved in politics due to cultural norms and other restrictions. Women say they have been marginalized and denied a chance to participate in public affairs, especially during the 30-year regime of former president Omar al-Bashir. Women’s rights activist Manal Bashir, who helped mobilize women during the protests that led to last week’s power-sharing deal, says now is the time for women to speak up for their rights. “We had been oppressed, discriminated within our homes, at the regulations even so we found ourselves lacking behind and we were aware about this status. So, we didn’t leave this status behind but we worked a lot to achieve the change in our lives,” Bashir told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. Activist Naimat Abubaker Mohammed says under Bashir’s rule, women were afraid to speak up because the environment was not safe for anyone, male or female, to be active in opposition parties. FILE – Sudanese women protesters are seen at …

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif says his country is willing to negotiate with the U.S., but only if it lifts harsh economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran in 2017 before withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal last year that requires Iran to slash its uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.   “Once those sanctions are lifted … the room for negotiation is wide open,” Zarif said in an NBC News interview that aired Monday.  Zarif, who is in New York for meetings at the United Nations, said the U.S. abandoned a diplomatic approach when it pulled out of the deal. Zarif accused the U.S. of further escalating Middle East tensions by selling billions of dollars of weapons to regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, threatening his country’s ballistic missile program. “These are American weaponry that is going into our region, making our regional ready to explode,” he said. “So if they want to talk about our missiles, they need to first stop selling all these weapons, including missiles, to our region.” In this picture released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali …

The U.N. refugee agency is reiterating its call for countries in the Americas to work together to develop a coordinated regional response to the growing Central American migration and asylum problem. The U.N. refugee agency expresses deep concern about the Trump Administration’s new asylum policy, warning it will put vulnerable families at risk.  It says the measure sharply curtails the right of people to apply for asylum and jeopardizes their right of protection against deportation to a country where their lives and well-being may be in danger. UNHCR spokeswoman Liz Throssell says the new rule violates international refugee law, which states persons fleeing persecution have the right to international protection.    “We refer often to the gang violence that is endemic in some of the countries of the north of Central America,” said Throssell. “So, what we are saying is that many of the people are fleeing violence and persecution and they are in need of international protection.  And our concerns with these restrictions is that it really is causing problems, excessively curtailing the right to seek asylum.”    At the same time, Throssell says the UNHCR understands the growing movement of people heading for the U.S. southern border is …