POPGAZETA

Patients are about to be enrolled in the first study to test a gene-editing technique known as CRISPR inside the body to try to cure an inherited form of blindness. People with the disease have healthy eyes but lack a gene that converts light into signals to the brain that enable sight.   The experimental treatment aims to supply kids and adults with a healthy version of the gene they lack, using a tool that cuts or “edits” DNA in a specific spot. It’s intended as a onetime treatment that permanently alters the person’s native DNA. Two companies, Editas Medicine and Allergan, will test this in up to 18 people around the United States, including Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, starting this fall.     …

Chinese tanks at the border? False. Photo of a protester biting off a policeman’s finger? Misleading. In polarized Hong Kong, a fake news fight for public opinion has become as crucial a battleground as the city streets. During weeks of pro-democracy protests that have involved millions of people and frequently turned violent, online rumors and conspiracy theories have sowed confusion and deepened distrust. From 2011 footage of South Korean soldiers misrepresented as an impending Chinese “invasion” to doctored photographs exaggerating the size of rallies, Hong Kong citizens have been bombarded with conflicting claims from both sides of the political divide. The numbers signaling the impact of the disinformation can be shocking. Footage of a convoy of Chinese tanks that posts claimed were being sent “to suppress Hong Kongers and cause bloodshed” quickly racked up more than 800,000 views on one Twitter account alone. Hong Kong authorities have been forced to repeatedly deny claims circulating on social media — most recently, that People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers had been brought in from the mainland to defend government buildings. “There is absolutely no such thing and all these claims are totally false,” Hong Kong’s government said this week, responding to the allegations. …

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s meets with US President Donald Trump at the White House. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines the state of the relationship between the two leaders and the two countries and their common interest in ending the war Afghanistan. Joining the program: VOA White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman; VOA Islamabad Bureau Chief Ayesha Tanzeem; Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director of the Asia Program and Senior Associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center; and Hasib Alikozai from VOA’s Extremism Desk. …

Three bombs rocked the Afghan capital of Kabul Thursday, killing at least 15 people, officials said, as the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff was meeting top U.S. and NATO officials in the city. Eight employees of the ministry of mines and petroleum were killed and 27 wounded in an attack on their bus, ministry officials said in a statement. Five women and a child were among the dead. Minutes after the blast, a suicide bomber blew himself up a few meters away, killing at least seven people and wounding 20. Three blasts “First a magnetic bomb pasted to a minibus exploded, then a suicide bomber blew himself near the bus attack site and the third blast happened when a car was blown up by unknown militants,” said Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman of the interior ministry in Kabul. “The death toll could rise from all the three blasts,” he said. The Taliban, fighting to restore strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster at the hands of U.S.-led troops, claimed responsibility for the car bomb alone. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said nine foreign forces were killed and two vehicles destroyed, but government officials did not confirm the Taliban claim. U.S. …

Americans love ice cream so much that in 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day. VOA’s Karina Bafradzhian traveled to Savannah, Georgia, to try ice cream at a legendary parlor that has been making the cool treat for almost a century.  …

Scientists at IBM’s Zurich-based research lab and the University of Zurich have used machine learning to analyze millions of cells from breast cancer tissue of 140 tumors, creating what they describe as an ‘atlas’ of these tumors. Faith Lapidus reports. …

LGBT activists in the Republic of Georgia this summer have been looking for ways to hold a parade on the streets of the capital, Tbilisi.   While pride parades are common across the West, activists in Georgia face strong opposition from the government and a deeply traditional society.  In a report narrated by Steve Redisch, Ricardo Marquina in Tbilisi looks at the difficult road ahead for those promoting the rights of homosexual, bisexual and transgender people. …

As part of sweeping reforms, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed Meaza Ashenafi to be the first woman to lead the country’s Supreme Court. This charismatic lawyer has built a career advocating for women. VOA’S Salem Solomon has this profile. …

Britain’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party leader, began assembling his political team as soon as he took office Wednesday. New Cabinet members include the country’s first ethnic minority person to head the Treasury and several women. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Johnson’s first day on the job was marked by demonstrations by his supporters, as well as his opponents. …

Former special counsel Robert Mueller told members of Congress Wednesday that his investigation into Russian interference in the last presidential election did not exonerate U.S. President Donald Trump of allegedly trying to thwart the investigation. As Mike O’Sullivan reports, Mueller’s comments before two congressional committees drew very different responses from Republicans and Democrats. …

In a deeply divided political atmosphere, Democrats and Republicans had hoped special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before two House committees would be a turning point for the Trump administration. Amid the circuslike atmosphere on Capitol Hill, both parties appeared to dig in further on the issue of whether the president should be impeached. As VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the debate over Russian interference during the 2016 election shows no signs of ending. …

U.S. President Donald Trump celebrated former special counsel Robert Mueller’s appearances Wednesday before two House of Representatives committees as “a very good day” for himself and fellow Republicans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after Mueller’s testimony about his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and alleged obstruction of justice by Trump that Democrats would push on in their own probes of the president and his administration. “There was no defense for this ridiculous hoax, this witch hunt that’s been going on for a long time,” Trump told reporters using his oft-repeated dismissals of Mueller’s investigation. “What he showed more than anything else is that this whole thing has been three years of embarrassment and waste of time for our country.” Former special counsel Robert Mueller listens to committee members give their opening remarks before he testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on his report on Russian election interference, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, July 24, 2019. Trump and Republican members of Congress were critical of House Democrats for calling Mueller to speak before the intelligence and judiciary committees, saying they should be moving on from the probe. But House leaders speaking after the testimony signaled their intention to …

U.S. President Donald Trump, who is trying to stem the flow of mostly Central American migrants seeking to enter the United States from Mexico, said on Wednesday that Mexico may put more troops at the two countries’ border. Speaking to reporters at the White House before leaving on a trip to West Virginia, Trump said the numbers of migrants apprehended at the border “are way down” because Mexico has sent troops to the frontier “and they mean business.” “It’s also good for Mexico what they’re doing because the cartels have been running all of the border for years and years. And Mexico is saying, and the president is saying: We’ve got to clean it up. So they’ve got 21,000 soldiers and will probably put up more,” Trump said. The Trump administration has sought to curtail the increasing numbers of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border after fleeing violence and poverty in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Mexico said earlier this month that migrant apprehensions at the U.S. southern border fell 30% in June from the previous month after introducing controls as part of a deal with the United States to curb the flow of migration or face …

“I’ll refer you to the report on that.” “That’s accurate based on what’s in the report.” “I don’t want to wade in those waters.” So it went for more than five hours as former special counsel Robert Mueller appeared before two congressional committees Wednesday to testify about his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and alleged presidential obstruction of justice, closely hewing to a final report he submitted to Attorney General William Barr in March. Ahead of his appearance before the House judiciary and intelligence committees, Mueller, a former FBI director, had warned that he’d not stray beyond his 448-page legal thicket. He stuck to his word, frustrating both Democrats and Republicans in the process. Former special counsel Robert Mueller returns to the witness table following a break in his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, July 24, 2019. Differing outcomes Democrats had hoped the public would hear from the special counsel himself damning details of misdeeds by President Donald Trump. With Mueller clearly unwilling to deliver, they were forced to read portions of the report for him, robbing the hearings of the power of a compelling witness’s words. Republicans wanted to focus …

Half a century after astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon, a new space race is underway to exploit the skies for commercial profit. Tech giants and startups pursuing bold plans such as selling space tourism, mining asteroids and beaming giant adverts into the skies are winning millions in investment with pledges to bring the stars into reach. Annual revenues from space-related business, currently worth $350 billion, could nearly triple in size by 2040, estimates U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley. But the rapid growth of a market with seemingly boundless potential has sparked concerns about a lack of laws and potential conflicts over resources, prompting calls for more rules to govern humanity’s use of the cosmos. “By 2040 (we believe) there will be 1,000 people living and working on the moon and 10,000 annual visitors,” said Aaron Sorenson, a spokesman from the Japanese lunar exploration startup ispace. “Our company vision is to extend human presence into outer space. We believe that begins with the expansion of the earth’s economy to the moon,” he said. Drops in launch costs brought about by technological advances such as the development of commercial reusable rockets have caught the interest of startups …

Elton John on Wednesday held a celebrity-packed gala in the south of France to raise funds to fight HIV/AIDS in Kenya.    The British singer-songwriter, on a break from his farewell world tour, welcomed the likes of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, The Who guitarist Pete Townshend, actress Joan Collins and Taron Egerton, who plays John in the musical biopic Rocketman, to a villa in Cap d’Antibes.    “We’re here for the Elton John AIDS foundation, our first south of France fundraiser, hopefully to raise money for people who desperately need it in our fight against HIV and AIDS,” John told reporters.    Martin performed Viva La Vida and John sang at the piano for guests gathered for a dinner and an auction, including the sale of a limited-edition luxury Bentley car.    The Elton John AIDS Foundation last year announced a MenStar Coalition that aims to expand diagnosis and treatment of HIV infections, including a push for HIV self-testing particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.    “The thing is for people to get tested, to know their status, not to be ashamed of it. It’s a very treatable disease,” John said Wednesday.    The Elton John AIDS Foundation has donated $450 million to projects since it was founded in …

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military said Wednesday that it sent a Navy warship through the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from China, a move likely to anger China during a period of tense relations between Washington and Beijing.    Taiwan is among a growing number of flash points in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols.    China on Wednesday warned that it is ready for war if there was any move toward Taiwan’s independence, accusing the United States of undermining global stability and denouncing its arms sales to the self-ruled island.    The warship sent to the 112-mile-wide (180-km) Taiwan Strait was identified as the Antietam.    “The [ship’s] transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, said in a statement. “The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”    The voyage risks further raising tensions with China but will likely be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from U.S. President …

Colorado school officials Wednesday abandoned a $60 million proposal to raze and rebuild Columbine High School in an effort to discourage unwanted attention at the site of one the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools, Jason Glass, last month floated the idea of demolishing and rebuilding Columbine in a letter to staff, students, parents and members of the surrounding Denver suburb of Littleton, Colorado. After receiving community response via an online survey, Glass said Wednesday that the plan would not go forward. “It is clear to me that no consensus direction exits to rebuild the school,” Glass said in a written statement. School police officers watch students leave Columbine High School, April 16, 2019, in Littleton, Colo. Authorities were looking for a woman suspected of making threats. ‘Source of inspiration’ On April 20, 1999, two Columbine students armed with semiautomatic weapons and shotguns stormed the high school, fatally shooting a teacher and 12 classmates before committing suicide in the library. Glass said in the June letter that Columbine remained “a source of inspiration” to other mass shooters, and that hoaxers and curiosity seekers have strained the school district’s resources. He cited numerous instances …

Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden defended his civil rights record on Wednesday, reminding a crowd of black leaders of his close relationship with Barack Obama while backing away from his work on the 1994 crime bill. Biden has been under fire in recent weeks from black rivals Kamala Harris and Cory Booker on racial issues. He said Obama, the first black U.S. president, would not have chosen him to be his vice president if he was bad on civil rights. “They did a significant background check on me for months with 10 people. I doubt whether they would have picked me if these accusations about me being wrong on civil rights were correct,” Biden told the annual convention of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. He rejected the idea he was using Obama as a “crutch,” however, saying his administration would not just be a continuation of Obama’s. Biden’s early lead in the nominating contest has been fueled in part by strong support from black voters, who remember his service for eight years as vice president for Obama. But Biden has slipped in the polls after a confrontation at the first debate last month with Harris, who criticized …

SANTIAGO – Chilean lawmakers passed a measure on Wednesday abolishing a decades-old law under which state-run Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner, helped foot the bill for the country’s military.    The bill establishes a dedicated fund to finance the Chilean armed forces and beefs up congressional oversight of the use of those funds, according to a statement from Chile’s Congress.    Codelco’s payments to Chilean state coffers will be phased out over a period lasting more than a decade.    The legislation replaces a 1958 law, strengthened during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, that required Codelco to turn over 10 percent of its export sales to the military.    Center-right President Sebastian Pinera, who spearheaded the bill and is expected to sign it into law, had said it was “absurd” that the strategic spending of Chile’s armed forces was affected by a fluctuating copper price.    Codelco Chief Executive Nelson Pizarro has said the state miner would be better off without the military funding requirement.    The top copper producer, which turns over all its profits to the state, needs to invest nearly $40 billion over 10 years to keep output of the metal flowing from its aging mines.  …

MOSCOW – A Russian state official warned on Wednesday that an abandoned chemicals factory in Siberia could cause an environmental disaster akin to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident unless urgent action is taken to address the problems it presents.  The Usolyekhimprom plant, which produced chlorine and other chemicals in the Irkutsk region, was abandoned because of bankruptcy in 2017, according to Russian news agencies. But the factory still contains an array of toxic substances, the head of the state environment watchdog Rosprirodnadzor said.    The official, Svetlana Radionova, said she had recently visited the facility and, among other things, discovered wells filled with oil waste that could burst and flow into the Angara, a major Siberian river.    “This is essentially the territory of an environmental catastrophe. We need to act now. Otherwise, we will have an ‘ecological Chernobyl,’” Radionova said in an interview with pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia.    The meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986 was the world’s worst nuclear accident and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate as it spewed clouds of nuclear material across Europe.    “No one knows what’s there [at the Siberian site],” Radionova said, adding she had seen a huge amount of mercury residue there that needed to be “de-mercurized,” and tanks, some …

Meek Mill, a rap artist from Philadelphia who has become an advocate for reform of the U.S. criminal justice system, is entitled to a new trial on drugs and weapon charges that have kept him on probation for a decade, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Wednesday. A three-judge Pennsylvania Superior Court panel agreed that Philadelphia Judge Genece Brinkley, who presided over a 2008 trial that resulted in his conviction, was no longer impartial, as Meek Mill’s attorneys have argued. It ordered a replacement for Brinkley in the case. FILE – Rapper Meek Mill performs in East Rutherford, N.J., June 10, 2018. After the sentence, Meek Mill, an African-American whose given name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, became a cause celebre for musicians, celebrities and criminal justice reform campaigners who said his case was typical of a U.S. legal system that treats minorities unjustly. The sole witness against Meek Mill at his 2008 trial was a discredited Philadelphia narcotics squad officer who is no longer with the city’s police force. “Williams’ right to be tried before an impartial judge is necessary in this case because the trial judge heard highly prejudicial testimony at the first trial, which was a bench trial, and …

Until his last breath, Salomon Nduhi Kambale insisted he had been poisoned by someone and that was the reason he was vomiting blood. The 30-year-old man wouldn’t give community health teams his phone number, and when they found it, he hung up on them. Health workers were desperate to persuade him to get vaccinated for Ebola after a friend fell ill with the lethal and highly contagious disease. But within days, Nduhi was dead. His widow and their four young children were given his positive Ebola test result and a chilling warning from a team of health workers: “If you don’t accept vaccination, you can prepare to die.” Deep distrust — along with political instability and deadly violence — has severely undermined efforts by public health authorities in Congo to curb the outbreak by tracing and vaccinating those who may have come into contact with infected people. Health experts agree the experimental Ebola vaccine has saved multitudes in Congo. But after nearly a year and some 171,000 doses given, the epidemic shows few signs of waning. The virus has killed more than 1,700 people and has now arrived in the region’s largest city, Goma. The World Health Organization last week …

Turkey on Wednesday slammed a new U.S. proposal for a so-called “safe zone” in northern Syria, saying it was “not satisfactory” and warning that Ankara may launch a new offensive to secure its border if an agreement isn’t reached soon. According to Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, U.S. envoy James Jeffrey and other U.S. officials held talks with Turkish officials in Ankara about Syria, including the setting up of a safe zone along the Turkey-Syrian border. “The United States must come with proposals that are satisfactory to us or are close to our proposals,” Cavusoglu said, adding that Turkey’s patience “has run out.” Turkey views Kurdish fighters who have battled the Islamic State group alongside U.S. forces as terrorists, allied with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. Ankara wants the safe zone established east of the Euphrates River to keep the Kurdish fighters away from the border region. Since 2016, Turkey has launched two cross-border offensives against IS and the Kurdish fighters. It has recently been sending reinforcements to its border area, signaling a possible new offensive. Cavusoglu, speaking to reporters at a joint news conference with visiting Nicaraguan counterpart, Denis Moncada, said the U.S. delegation had offered new proposals on the …