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Syrian authorities opened Thursday a “humanitarian corridor” so civilians from a besieged, rebel-held area in the north of Hama province can leave and move to parts of the country controlled by the government, the Foreign Ministry said.   Government warplanes, meanwhile, carried out an airstrike close to a Turkish military post in northwestern Syria, raising tensions between the two neighbors. Turkey is a strong backer of the Syrian opposition and rebels fighting President Bashar Assad’s forces.   There was no immediate word of any casualties in the strike. The ministry said the corridor was opened in the village of Soran, on the southern edge of the rebel-held area that has been under siege by Syrian troops since Wednesday.  Insurgents in Syria have suffered a series of setbacks over the past three weeks in the face of a stepped-up government offensive in the country’s northwest, the last rebel-held territory in Syria. On Wednesday, government forces fully took control of the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province after an al-Qaida-linked group pulled out and launched a siege on rebel-held towns and villages in the northern province of adjoining Hama province. The besieged area in Hama is home to tens of thousands …

Protests paralyzing Hong Kong’s central district are growing by the week. They are demonstrating to maintain Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms in the face of China’s rule. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines what is at stake and the US policy with VOA Correspondent Mike O’Sullivan on the ground in Hong Kong, VOA Cantonese reporter Raymond Yam and Michael O’Hanlon from the Brookings Institution.   …

VOA White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this report. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has expressed his appreciation to Denmark as a U.S. ally, after President Donald Trump canceled a state visit to the country. The State Department said Pompeo spoke to his Danish counterpart by phone Wednesday and discussed “strengthening cooperation with the Kingdom of Denmark – including Greenland – in the Arctic.” Trump earlier this week cancelled a planned visit to Denmark after his suggestion that the Danes sell Greenland to the U.S. was rejected. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday she regretted and was surprised Trump abruptly canceled his scheduled visit to Denmark for rebuffing his overture to buy Greenland, the strategic Arctic country with mineral wealth that is part of the Danish kingdom. Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen addresses the media regarding U.S. President Donald Trump’s cancellation of his visit to Denmark, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Aug. 21, 2019. Trump later acknowledged he canceled the trip to Denmark because the country’s prime minister made a “nasty” remark in reaction to his suggestion regarding Greenland. “I thought it was not a nice statement, the way she blew me off. She was blowing off the …

Experts are warning that a focus on alleged Islamist militant ties is hindering efforts to respond to insurgencies in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Local insurgent groups have claimed ties to Islamic State to increase their clout, but the groups operate autonomously, experts who study the regions say. On April 18, a FILE – A South African soldier from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) is seen during a patrol to hold off attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces rebels in Oicha, DRC, Oct. 08, 2018. Nearly daily attacks in the Cabo Delgado region have made the insurgency in Mozambique one of Africa’s deadliest. The group in the DRC has pulled off high-profile attacks, killing U.N. peacekeepers. But at their core, they remain local insurgencies, O’Farrell said. “Their targets are primarily local,” O’Farrell said. “That’s very rarely the MO for some of the more peripheral Islamic State affiliates. But within those zones or within any territory in North Kivu (DRC) and within Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, they’re very active.” Yussuf Adam, an associate professor of contemporary history at the University of Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique, said that rather …

Kosovo lawmakers voted to dissolve parliament Friday, paving the way for a parliamentary election after Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned last month. A total of 89 deputies voted to dissolve the 120-seat parliament. An election should take place within 45 days. Haradinaj resigned after being summoned for questioning by the country’s war crimes prosecutor over his role in the 1998-99 insurgency against Serbian forces, when he was a commander of the guerilla Kosovo Liberation Army. He denies any wrongdoing and said he is ready to face any accusations. Polls show that no party will gain enough support to form a government on its own, and lengthy coalition talks are expected. FILE – Former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj arrives for a Kosovo tribunal, at the Hague, Netherlands, July 24, 2019. The last government was a coalition between Haradinaj’s party, the center-right Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the Social Democratic Initiative (NISMA). Haradinaj resigned from the role of prime minister once before in 2005 when he was indicted by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia. He was tried and acquitted twice by that court. A major task facing the new …

A Spanish navy frigate sailed from Cadiz Wednesday to escort the humanitarian vessel Open Arms back from Italy with a token number of 10 refugees Spain has agreed to take in what could be the Barcelona-based ship’s last voyage under mounting pressure to stop rescuing shipwrecked African migrants. The Italian government said Tuesday it would hold the ship for two weeks to conduct an investigation after it was allowed to land with 80 migrants following a 20-day ordeal at sea. Interior ministry officials suggested Spain should take all the migrants as the ship’s voyage originated from there. Migrant crisis In an apparent policy shift by Spain’s socialist government, top officials publicly threatened to clamp a $1 million fine on the Open Arms charity after its latest “unauthorized” rescue of 160 refugees off Libya’s coast. Italy also has moved to impound the ship. The humanitarian ordeal caused by the country’s refusal to accept the refugees touched off a government crisis, and led to tense negotiations with the European Union to determine the fate of the migrants on board. Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo attend the final day of the investiture debate at the Parliament in …

Australia is seeing an increase in interest in its millionaires-only visa program from wealthy Hong Kong residents who are eyeing a safety net amid political turmoil in the Chinese-ruled territory, migration lawyers told Reuters. The New South Wales state migration department “has noticed a significant increase in applications” from Hong Kong in recent months, it said in a letter to agents this week, and seen by Reuters. The interest has coincided with the “beginning of the current unrest in Hong Kong,” the department said, referring to a A$5 million ($3.4 million) Significant Investor Visa (SIV) program that provides direct residency to applicants. An alternative plan Bill Fuggle, Sydney-based partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie, said there had been a rise in applicants for the A$5 million SIV program. “What I am hearing from my clients is there definitely has been an uptick in the number of SIV applications from Hong Kong,” Fuggle said. “Anybody who can make an alternate plan is trying to do so.” Protests in the former British colony erupted in early June over a now-suspended bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial. The unrest has been fueled by …

Planned Parenthood clinics in several states are charging new fees, tapping into financial reserves, intensifying fundraising and warning of more unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in the wake of its decision to quit a $260 million federal family planning program in a dispute with the Trump administration over abortion. The fallout is especially intense in Utah, where Planned Parenthood has been the only provider participating in the nearly 50-year-old Title X program, and will now lose about $2 million yearly in federal funds that helped serve 39,000 mostly low-income, uninsured people. It intends to maintain its services, which include contraception, STD testing and cancer screening, but is considering charging a small copay for patients who used to get care for free. Planned Parenthood in Minnesota is in a similar situation, serving about 90% of the state’s Title X patients, and plans to start charging fees thanks to the loss of $2.6 million in annual funding. The organization is concerned about the spread of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. “We believe there will be a public health crisis created by this denial of care,” said Sarah Stoesz, the Minnesota-based president of Planned Parenthood North Central States. “It’s a very …

A fresh push to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar appeared Thursday to fall flat, with no one turning up to hop on five buses and 10 trucks laid on by Bangladesh. “We have been waiting since 9:00 am (0300 GMT) to take any willing refugees for repatriation,” Khaled Hossain, a Bangladesh official in charge of the Teknaf refugee camp, told AFP after over an hour of waiting. “Nobody has yet turned up.” FILE – Rohingya refugees stand in a queue to collect aid supplies in Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Jan. 21, 2018. Nearly 1 million Rohingya About 740,000 of the long-oppressed mostly Muslim Rohingya minority fled a military offensive in 2017 in Myanmar’s Rakhine state that the United Nations has likened to ethnic cleansing, joining 200,000 already in Bangladesh. Demanding that Buddhist-majority Myanmar guarantee their safety and citizenship, only a handful have returned from the vast camps in southeast Bangladesh where they have now lived for two years. The latest repatriation attempt — a previous push failed in November — follows a visit last month to the camps by high-ranking officials from Myanmar led by Permanent Foreign Secretary Myint Thu. Bangladesh’s foreign ministry forwarded a list of more …

The controversy over U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly postponing his trip to Copenhagen continues, as he criticized Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, calling her “nasty” and “inappropriate.” The Danish leader had rebuffed Trump’s overture to buy Greenland, the Arctic country that is part of the kingdom of Denmark. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story. …

In South Sudan, a group of men and boys is trying to break cultural taboos on a topic that often drives young girls out of school — menstruation.  Men4Women is distributing menstrual pads to girls while also encouraging boys and men to engage in conversations and advocate policies that make sanitary hygiene products more accessible to girls. Sheila Ponnie reports from Juba.   …

Spending time on the beach and dancing away pain, fear and despair is what Los Angeles dance movement therapist Julia Vishnepolsky helps her patients do to reduce stress and anxiety while learning how to be at peace with their lives. Angelina Bagdasaryan met with the therapist to learn more about the power of dance. Anna Rice narrates her story.   …

The controversy over U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly postponing his trip to Copenhagen continues, as he criticized Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, calling her “nasty” and “inappropriate.” The Danish leader had rebuffed Trump’s overture to buy Greenland, the Arctic country that is part of the kingdom of Denmark. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.   …

U.S. President Donald Trump again insisted American Jews should vote Republican because voting for a Democrat would show ignorance or a lack of loyalty. His original statement was part of an attack on four Democratic lawmakers, of whom two are not allowed to visit Israel, apparently at his behest. Many American Jews say Trump’s questioning of their loyalty is akin to a historical trope that has fed xenophobia against Jews. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Israelis’ reactions to Trump’s remarks.   …

Microplastics contained in drinking water pose a “low” risk to human health at current levels, but more research is needed to reassure consumers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday. Studies over the past year on plastic particles detected in tap and bottled water have sparked public concerns, but the limited data appears reassuring, the U.N. agency said its first report on potential health risks associated with ingestion. Microplastics enter drinking water sources mainly through run-off and wastewater effluent, the WHO said. Evidence shows that microplastics found in some bottled water seem to be at least partly because of the bottling process and/or packaging such as plastic caps, it said. “The headline message is to reassure drinking water consumers around the world, that based on this assessment, our assessment of the risk is that it is low,” Bruce Gordon of the WHO’s department of public health, environmental and social determinants of health, told a briefing. FILE – A man on a boat collects plastic materials from dirty water in Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 17, 2019. What happens to plastic in the body? The WHO did not recommended routine monitoring for microplastics in drinking water. But research should focus on issues including …

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has accused nongovernmental organizations of setting forest fires a day after the government monitoring agency said the country has seen a record number of wildfires this year. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, which monitors deforestation and wildfires, said as of Tuesday, 74,155 were burning in the Amazon rainforest, an 84% increase from the same period last year.  A charred trunk is seen on a tract of Amazon jungle that was recently burned by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil, Aug. 20, 2019. “Maybe — I am not affirming it — these [NGOs] are carrying out some criminal actions to draw attention against me, against the government of Brazil,” Bolsonaro told reporters.  When asked if he had evidence, he said he had “no written plan,” adding “that’s not how it’s done.” Earlier this month, the head of the NISR was fired after he opposed the president’s claim that the agency had manipulated deforestation data to make the administration look bad. “This is a sick statement, a pitiful statement,” said Marcio Astrini, Greenpeace Brazil’s public policy coordinator. “Increased deforestation and burning are the result of his anti-environmental policy.” Conservationists have blamed Bolsonaro for the plight of …

OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON – Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who made fighting climate change the central theme of his presidential campaign, announced Wednesday night that he was ending his bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination.     Inslee announced his decision on MSNBC, saying it had become clear that he wouldn’t win. He has kept the option of running for a third term as governor open throughout his presidential campaign but didn’t immediately say what his political plans were.     Inslee, 68, became the third Democrat to end his presidential bid after U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell of California pulled out of the primary last month, followed by former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper last week.     While Inslee had qualified for the first two presidential debates this summer, he struggled to gain traction in the crowded Democratic field and was falling short of the requirements needed to appear on two high-profile stages next month: the third DNC debate in Houston and a CNN town hall focused on climate change, Inslee’s key issue.   Low poll ratings   He had recently hit one of the markers — 130,000 unique donors. But he had yet to reach 2% in any poll and would have needed to hit that …

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was looking “very seriously” at ending the right to citizenship for babies born to non-U.S. citizens on American soil. Trump spoke to reporters as he departed the White House for a speech in Louisville, Kentucky. He said birthright citizenship was “frankly ridiculous.” “We’re looking at it very, very seriously,” he said. This isn’t the first time Trump has claimed he’d do away with it — he said something similar in October. But the citizenship proposal would inevitably spark a long-shot legal battle over whether the president can alter the long accepted understanding that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to any child born on U.S. soil, regardless of a parent’s immigration status. Hurdles in President Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship Executive order James Ho, a conservative Trump-appointed federal appeals court judge, wrote in 2006, before his appointment, that birthright citizenship “is protected no less for children of undocumented persons than for descendants of Mayflower passengers.” But Trump has said he was assured by his lawyers that the change could be made “just with an executive order” — an argument he has been making since his early days as a candidate, when he dubbed …

The one thing Federal Reserve officials were in broad agreement about at their last meeting was this: not tipping their hands about what happens next. Minutes released Wednesday showed a fractious meeting on many fronts last month when a divided Fed cut interest rates for the first time in a decade. But the consensus to not reveal their intentions was clear, and may show that the steady browbeating by President Donald Trump has begun to influence how the Fed communicates. Undercommit, and it may throw markets off course and draw more fire from Trump, who has been relentless in demanding not one but a slew of rate cuts and even a return to crisis-era bond buying to supercharge a softening but still-growing economy. Overcommit, and it looks like capitulation to the White House, a possible blow to the Fed’s perceived status as an independent, technical agency that does not consider politics in its policy decisions. FILE – Federal Reserve board member Jerome Powell speaks after President Donald Trump announced him as his nominee for the next chair of the Federal Reserve in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Nov. 2, 2017. Trump adamant on rate cuts Yet …

A federal judge on Wednesday allowed President Donald Trump to appeal key preliminary rulings in a lawsuit accusing him of violating anti-corruption provisions of the U.S. Constitution with his private business dealings, most likely freezing the case for months.  The written order by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington was a setback for a group of about 200 Democratic lawmakers, led by Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and including members of the House of Representatives and Senate, who brought the case in 2017.  Sullivan previously declined such an appeal, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit urged him last month to reconsider the president’s request.  FILE – U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan Under Sullivan’s order, Justice Department lawyers arguing for Trump will be able to seek fast-track review of a determination that the Democratic lawmakers had legal standing to bring the case, as well as a ruling that rejected Trump’s interpretation of the constitutional language at issue in the case.  Sullivan’s order will keep on hold the discovery phase of the litigation, in which the Democratic lawmakers intended to serve subpoenas on Trump businesses asking about their foreign customers. The judge had halted that process in July.  The case before Sullivan accuses Trump of violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause that bans the president from accepting gifts or …

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that the test of a new U.S. missile banned under a now-defunct arms treaty has raised new threats to Russia and will warrant a response. The U.S. tested a modified ground-launched version of a Navy Tomahawk cruise missile that accurately struck its target more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. Sunday’s test came after the U.S. and Russia withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty that banned such weapons. Speaking after talks Wednesday with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Putin argued that the quick test indicated the U.S. had begun work on the missile long before declaring its intention to withdraw from the pact. FILE – The Defense Department conducted a flight test of a conventionally configured ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, Calif., Aug. 18, 2019. (Photo courtesy of Defense.gov) “The Americans have tested this missile too quickly after having withdrawn from the treaty,” Putin said. “That gives us strong reason to believe that they had started work to adapt the sea-launched missile long before they began looking for excuses to opt out of the treaty.” The U.S. has explained its withdrawal from the treaty by Russian violations — the claim …

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants Russia back at the Group of Seven summits of the world’s leading economies, even though it still controls Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Moscow was booted from the group over its unilateral 2014 annexation of the peninsula. As the G-7 leaders head to the French Atlantic seaside town of Biarritz for their annual meeting this weekend, Trump said it would make sense for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be part of the group again. Trump seemed unconcerned that Russia considers Crimea part of its territory, instead blaming former U.S. President Barack Obama for Russia’s takeover of Crimea. “They took over during [Obama’s] term, not mine,” Trump said. “The fact is President Putin totally outsmarted President Obama on Crimea and other things. He made a living on outsmarting President Obama and frankly because of it, Obama was upset and he got [Putin] out of what was the G-8 into the G-7.” FILE – Then-U.S. President Barack Obama (L) meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the G-8 Summit at Lough Erne in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, June 17, 2013. “We spend a lot of time talking about Russia at those meetings and they’re not there,” Trump …

JERUSALEM – Israel’s prime minister on Wednesday steered clear of Donald Trump’s comments questioning the loyalty of American Jews who support the Democratic Party, in sharp contrast to the tide of condemnation from Jewish critics who accused him of trafficking in anti-Semitic stereotypes.    Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to keep quiet on the controversy reflected the importance of his close alliance with Trump — a relationship that has dented the bipartisan support Israel has traditionally enjoyed in Washington as well as Israel’s equally important ties with the American Jewish community.    With an eye on re-election, Trump has attempted to use his close ties with Netanyahu to win over Jewish voters, who overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. Critics say it is part of a broader strategy that has also targeted minorities and immigrants with sometimes racist rhetoric to try to shore up his base of white, working-class voters.    Most recently, Trump has focused these efforts on trying to paint Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan as the faces of the Democratic Party.    FILE – U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, right, and Rashida Tlaib, both Democrats, are seen during a news conference at the Capitol, in Washington, July 15, 2019. Last …