POPGAZETA

The No. 2 in the French government has resigned over reports that he has been living a lavish lifestyle at the expense of France’s taxpayers. Ecology Minister Francois de Rugy said on Tuesday via his verified Facebook page that he submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe “to defend myself.” He has been the object of intense criticism since the investigative news site Mediapart revealed that when he served as president of the lower house of parliament he and his wife hosted lavish dinners with friends.   After recently being appointed ecology minister, he reportedly spent some 60,000 euros ($68,000) to refurbish his government apartment.   …

The crash ended a young woman’s life, and with it, a man’s White House dreams. U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s Oldsmobile sedan veered off a narrow bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, an extension of the resort island of Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast, and plunged into a moonlit pond 50 years ago Thursday. His passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.   Kennedy, 37, survived, but his presidential ambitions did not. The Massachusetts Democrat waited 10 hours to report the accident to police, and the “whys?” dogged him for the rest of his days.   FILE – In this July 22, 1969 file photograph, U.S Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., arrives back home in Hyannis, Mass., after attending the funeral of Mary Jo Kopechne in Pennsylvania. Half a century later, what did and didn’t happen on Chappaquiddick Island on July 18, 1969, continues to fascinate and frustrate.   “Every time there’s an anniversary, it’s like it happened yesterday,” Leslie Leland, who served as foreman of the grand jury that investigated, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home on the Vineyard.   Now 79, Leland was a young pharmacist on the island when he was swept up in the …

Cyberattacks on schools are leading to disruptions in instruction in districts that have thoroughly integrated technology. The FBI says cyberattacks have become common at schools, which are attractive targets because they hold sensitive data and provide critical public services. The agency says perpetrators include criminals motivated by profit, juvenile pranksters and possibly foreign governments. The widespread adoption of education technology, which generates data that officials say can make schools more of a target for hackers, also worsens an attack’s effects when instructional tools are rendered useless by internet outages. A series of attacks over the course of six weeks brought instruction to a halt at a 4,000-student school district in Avon, Connecticut. …

Jennifer Lopez kept her word to fans who were disappointed when a power outage in New York City forced her to postpone her concert over the weekend. Lopez returned to the stage Monday at Madison Square Garden, saying she was going to celebrate “no matter what.” She called it an “amazing night.” Lopez’s show was cut short on Saturday night when problems at a substation left parts of Manhattan without electricity.  The Garden, Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts were all evacuated. The power outage came on the anniversary of the 1977 New York City outage that left most of the city without power. …

Taxpayer-funded family planning clinics must stop referring women for abortions immediately, the Trump administration said Monday, declaring it will begin enforcing a new regulation hailed by religious conservatives and denounced by medical organizations and women’s rights groups. The head of a national umbrella group representing the clinics said the administration is following “an ideological agenda” that could disrupt basic health care for many low-income women. Ahead of a planned conference Tuesday with the clinics, the Health and Human Services Department formally notified them that it will begin enforcing the ban on abortion referrals, along with a requirement that clinics maintain separate finances from facilities that provide abortions. Another requirement that both kinds of facilities cannot be under the same roof would take effect next year. The rule is widely seen as a blow against Planned Parenthood, which provides taxpayer-funded family planning and basic health care to low-income women, as well as abortions that must be paid for separately. The organization is a mainstay of the federally funded family planning program and it has threatened to quit over the issue. Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen said in a statement that “our doors are still open” as her organization and other groups …

The man who led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, former special counsel Robert Mueller, it set to testify next week on July 24th before two congressional committees in what could be a drama-filled appearance on live national television.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington. …

A feud is escalating between President Donald Trump and Democrats after the president launched what some consider to be racist attacks against four congresswomen of color, telling them to “go back to where they came from.” White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.  …

Without a doubt insects are the most successful species on the planet. They make up a clear majority of the world’s 1.5 million total species, and they live almost literally everywhere there is land, including Antarctica. But there is trouble in the insect world. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is considering cutting diplomatic ties with Iceland for leading a push to have the United Nations Human Rights Council investigate his brutal anti-drug crackdown. The measure, approved last Thursday by a vote of 18-14, cites extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and disappearances at the hands of police since Duterte launched his campaign in 2016. Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters in Manila late Monday that the resolution showed “how the western powers are scornful of our sovereign exercise of protecting our people.” Duterte has reacted angrily at any criticism from the international community of his bloody anti-drug crackdown.  He withdrew the Philippines from the International Criminal Court earlier this year after prosecutors at the Hague-based tribunal announced last year that it had opened a preliminary examination of crimes against humanity in connection with the campaign.   Duterte’s administration says about 6,600 people have been killed by police in shootouts with drug dealers. But local activists have claimed some 27,000 people have been killed as police terrorize poor communities, using cursory drug “watch lists” to identify users or dealers.  …

An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck south of Indonesia’s Bali on Tuesday, the European earthquake monitoring agency EMSC said, causing minor damage and prompting residents and visitors on the tourist island to briefly flee buildings. There were no reports of casualties and no tsunami warning issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center or the Indonesian quake monitoring agency. The epicenter was 102 km (62 miles) southwest of the island capital Denpasar and was 100 km (60 miles) deep, the EMSC said. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7. One resident said people in Denpasar ran out of their boarding house in pajamas after feeling the quake. A Twitter user with the handle Indounik in the city of Ubud on Bali said the quake was “strong enough to make me adopt the drop, cover & hold approach recommended to survive a quake.” Another Twitter user, Marc van Voorst, described the quake as feeling like “a heavy truck or train passing by at close range.” He said there was no panic, even though his hotel in the Uluwatu area shook quite a bit. Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency distributed a photograph of damage …

European Union foreign ministers on Monday turned up the pressure on Turkey after approving an initial batch of sanctions against the country over its drilling for gas in waters where EU member Cyprus has exclusive economic rights.  The ministers said in a statement that in light of Turkey’s “continued and new illegal drilling activities,” they were suspending talks on an air transport agreement and would call on the European Investment Bank to “review” it’s lending to the country. They also backed a proposal by the EU’s executive branch to reduce financial assistance to Turkey for next year. The ministers warned that additional “targeted measures” were being worked on to penalize Turkey, which started negotiations to join the EU in 2005. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu issued his own warning last week that his country would step up drilling activities off Cyprus if the EU moved ahead with sanctions.  Two Turkish vessels escorted by warships are drilling for gas on either end of ethnically divided Cyprus. The EU ministers repeated the “serious immediate negative impact” that Turkey’s illegal actions are having on EU-Turkey relations and called on Ankara to respect Cyprus’ sovereign rights in line with international law. They also welcomed …

Former Democratic U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke raised a lackluster $3.6 million for his struggling presidential campaign in the second quarter of the year, his campaign said on Monday. The fundraising haul was a warning sign for the Texas politician and a stark drop in campaign cash after he raised more than $9 million in two weeks the previous period. O’Rourke, who entered the race after gaining national prominence in his failed 2018 bid for the U.S. Senate from Texas, has failed to gain traction in opinion polls. Some two dozen Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election. The crowded nominating contest will require candidates to spend millions of dollars to be competitive. U.S. Senator Cory Booker reported on Monday he raised $4.5 million in the three months ended June 30. Booker’s haul, nearly a quarter of it raised in the four days after his strong appearance in the party’s first debate last month, lagged those of other Democratic contenders, including front-runner Joe Biden and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who each raised more than $20 million. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders raised $18 million in the second quarter. U.S. …

Egypt’s parliament on Monday removed jail penalties from a law controlling operations of non-governmental organizations, but rights groups rejected the changes as insufficient. Justified by officials to protect national security from meddling by foreign-funded charities, the 2017 law restricted NGOs’ activity to developmental and social work, with jail terms of up to five years for non-compliance. Activists saw it as an attempt to block humanitarian work and the law contributed to a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to freeze millions of dollars in military aid to Egypt for nearly a year. The new legislation, approved overwhelmingly by parliament on Monday, removes the jail penalty and replaces it with fines between 200,000 and 1 million Egyptian pounds ($12,070-$60,350). As well as ending jail sentences, the changes – which must still be ratified by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi – enable NGOs to receive money from Egypt or abroad as long as it is deposited in a bank account within 30 days. The government has 60 days to challenge payments. Although the new legislation was meant to answer criticisms, 10 Egyptian and international rights groups said last week the impending changes were not enough. They said other laws imposing strict controls …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he hoped both North Korea and the United States could “be a little more creative” as the two sides push to restart talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Pompeo did not say when the negotiations would begin. President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month. During the meeting, Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to cross into North Korea and the pair agreed to restart talks. Trump and Kim have met three times and held two summits over the nuclear issue. Talks in Hanoi in February collapsed without agreement between the two leaders, as the United States insisted North Korea completely denuclearize and North Korea pushed for relief from sanctions. “I hope the North Koreans will come to the table with ideas that they didn’t have the first time. We hope we can be a little more creative too,” Pompeo said in a radio interview on “The Sean Hannity Show” “The president’s mission hasn’t changed: to fully and finally denuclearize North Korea in a way that we can verify. That’s the mission set for these negotiations,” Pompeo added. Pompeo’s remarks come after Chinese President …

Protesters blocked a portion of Peru’s main coastal highway on Monday in the start of a new challenge to a billion-dollar copper mining project that has been a lightning rod for conflict. Protesters from the area bordering Southern Copper Corp.’s $1.4 billion Tia Maria copper mine project in the south of Peru carried signs and flags as they occupied a section of the highway, snarling traffic for cargo vehicles and others. The project has long been lamented by residents in the southern region of Arequipa  where farmers say the mine will pollute their fields and affect water supplies. “We are not going to talk. We want the presence of President (Martin) Vizcarra with the cancellation of the project,” Luis Cornejo, mayor of Cocachacra, told Reuters, referencing the construction permit granted by the government on July 9. Demonstrators protest against Tia Maria mine in Arequipa, Peru, July 15, 2019. Southern Copper spent years awaiting the final green light that former governments had declined to give because of fears it would revive deadly protests that previously derailed the project. At least six protesters were killed in clashes with police in 2011 and 2015. The company said it would not begin construction until …

U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Monday pressed major social media companies on how they plan to handle the threat of deepfake images and videos on their platforms ahead of the 2020 elections. The Democratic congressman wrote letters to the chief executives of Facebook, Twitter and Google, which owns YouTube, asking about the companies’ formal policies on deepfakes and their research into technologies to detect the doctored content. Deepfakes use machine learning to manipulate source material and create hyperrealistic content where a person – such as a political candidate – appears to say or do something they did not. Facebook spokesman Andy Stone confirmed the company had received the letter and said it would respond to Schiff accordingly. Twitter did not comment on the letter but pointed to a statement last month by Nick Pickles, its global senior strategist for public policy, that said Twitter’s rules “clearly prohibit coordinated account manipulation, malicious automation, and fake accounts.” Alphabet’s Google also declined to comment on the letter. Major social media platforms have been used to spread disinformation ahead of previous elections. U.S. intelligence agencies say there was an extensive Russian cyber-influence operation during the 2016 presidential election aimed …

Pearson, the world’s biggest education company, will release all its titles for the United States college market in digital form first, in a break from the traditional and more expensive textbook publishing model. The British provider of textbooks, courseware and testing has been hit in recent years by changes in the U.S. market as students sought to save money by buying second-hand books, hammering its sales and profit. However it hailed a tipping point earlier this year when it said its offering of cheaper e-books, designed to appeal to the “Spotify generation,” had enabled it to forecast sales growth in 2020 following more than five years of declines.  “I am increasingly confident and excited about this,” Pearson Chief Executive John Fallon told Reuters. The rapid switch to digital, which is similar to the changes endured by the music, film and newspaper industries, has forced the 175-year-old firm to cut thousands of jobs and sell assets to rebuild. From now on, all future releases of its 1,500 active U.S. titles will be “digital first” and updated on an ongoing basis when there are new developments in the field of study. Previously many textbooks were updated every 3 years. College students already …

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the Russian S-400 missile defense system, parts of which have been delivered to Turkey over the past four days, would be fully deployed in April 2020. Turkey’s purchase of the Russian system has raised tensions with its NATO allies, particularly the United States, which has warned Turkey that it will respond with sanctions. Speaking at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on the third anniversary of 2016’s attempted coup, Erdogan said eight planes had already brought parts of the Russian system and more were coming, as he had repeatedly promised. “With God’s permission, they will have been installed in their sites by April 2020,” he told the crowd. “The S-400s are the strongest defense system against those who want to attack our country. God willing, we are doing this as a joint investment with Russia, and will continue to do so.” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to supporters following a rally to honor the victims of the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt on July 15, 2019. U.S. officials have said that in addition to being hit with legislation aimed at preventing countries from purchasing military equipment from Russia, known as CAATSA, Turkey could …

White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway defied a subpoena and failed to appear on Monday at a congressional hearing about allegations she violated federal law, prompting a Democratic threat to hold her in contempt of Congress. The top White House lawyer directed Conway not to appear at the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing, arguing that current and former White House officials were “absolutely immune” from being required to testify before Congress, according to a letter released by the committee. Past presidential administrations from both parties have adopted similar arguments, but some legal experts have said such immunity claims would be rejected by a judge if challenged in court. Three weeks ago, Conway declined to appear voluntarily at a similar hearing before the committee, prompting it to vote 25-16 to subpoena her testimony. The committee wants to question her about allegations she violated the Hatch Act, a law that limits federal employees’ political activity. The White House said in a statement that Monday’s hearing was part of a “purely political campaign to harass the President and his close advisers.” President Donald Trump is stonewalling multiple congressional inquiries into him, his policies, family and business holdings. House Oversight Committee Chairman …

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he would to help relaunch talks to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo in the next few weeks. After meeting his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic, Macron said he would invite delegations from the two countries to Paris along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. An EU-sponsored dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina has been stalled since Kosovo introduced a 100 percent tax on all goods imported from Serbia to put pressure on Belgrade to recognize its sovereignty. Kosovo declared independence with Western backing in 2008, but Serbia still considers it an integral part of its territory. Together with its traditional ally Russia, Serbia is blocking Kosovo from joining international organizations including the United Nations, UNICEF and Interpol. “We are seeing rising tension and sometimes these tensions are fueled here and there by external powers that have an interest in making sure no deal is found,” Macron said. “Reaching an agreement implies that each party abstains from unilateral and non-constructive gestures and, in that respect, developments over the last few weeks have been a concern, and decisions that were against past commitments must be abrogated.” Vucic said he had asked Macron to help Serbia in its …

In a court case that could further strain U.S. relations with Turkey and weigh on the sentencing of former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn, a criminal trial began on Monday involving a former Iranian-American business partner of Flynn. Bijan Rafiekian’s trial in the Eastern District of Virginia turns on whether he conspired with Flynn and others to lobby on Turkey’s behalf to try to persuade the U.S. government to extradite Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Turkey for a failed coup. Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general whose brief tenure in 2017 as part of President Donald Trump’s inner circle is still causing legal aftershocks, is not charged as a co-conspirator with Rafiekian. But the case could influence how U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan sentences Flynn later this year in Washington. FILE – Then-National security adviser General Michael Flynn delivers a statement at the White House in Washington, Feb. 1, 2017. Flynn had previously agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors and testify against Rafiekian, known as “Kian,” in hopes of getting a lighter sentence after he pleaded guilty in December 2017 to having lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators about his contacts with Russian officials. In …

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Monday at the base of Hawaii’s tallest mountain to protest the construction of a giant telescope on land that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred. At about daybreak, a group of kupuna, or elders, tied themselves together with rope at the road to the summit of Mauna Kea. Another group of protesters were on the ground, attached to a cattle grate.  Around them, protesters sang and chanted.  The road was later officially closed, hours after it was essentially blocked by protesters. The prone elders tied together were expecting to be arrested.  After two protest leaders spoke with police, they addressed the crowd and told them anyone who didn’t move would be arrested. The group would move aside, but the elders were expected to remain, protest leaders Kaho’okahi Kanuha and Andre Perez said.  Demonstrators gather to block a road at the base of Hawaii’s tallest mountain, July 15, 2019, in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to protest the construction of a giant telescope on land that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred. Officials said anyone breaking the law will be prosecuted. Protesters who blocked the roadway during previous attempts to begin construction have been arrested. No arrests were immediately reported Monday …

The United Nations told the United States it is concerned by tight travel restrictions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during his visit to New York this week, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said on Monday. Zarif arrived in New York on Sunday after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed off on the visit amid heightened tensions between the two countries. But Zarif is only allowed to travel between the United Nations, the Iranian U.N. mission, the Iranian U.N. ambassador’s residence and New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, a U.S. State Department official said. Threat of blacklist Late last month Washington threatened to blacklist Zarif, a move that could impede any U.S. effort to use diplomacy to resolve disagreements with Tehran. However, sources have told Reuters that Washington had decided to hold off for now. Longtime U.S.-Iran strains have worsened since U.S. President Donald Trump last year quit a 2015 international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Haq told reporters that the U.N. secretariat is “in close contact with the permanent missions of the United States and Iran to the U.N. and has conveyed its concerns to the host country.” U.S. special envoy for …

The European Union says talks are under way on whether a barter mechanism aimed at salvaging some trade with Iran might include oil, as Europeans scramble to ease tensions between Iran and the United States. Following a meeting among European foreign ministers in Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the special barter mechanism with Iran known as INSTEX would be open to third-party countries. The mechanism is aimed at working around U.S. sanctions, and for now, it narrowly targets humanitarian goods. “The issue of whether INSTEX will deal with oil or not is a discussion that is ongoing among the shareholders,” Mogherini said. “We have around 10 member states and some are considering actively dong that.” Europeans are increasingly alarmed the four-year-old Iran nuclear deal, known in shorthand as JCPOA, is on the verge of collapse — a message delivered by France, Britain and Germany as they urged nations to resume talks. Earlier Monday, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt offered a sliver of hope. “Iran is still a good year away from developing a nuclear bomb,” he said. “There is still some closing, but small window to keep the deal alive.” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said …