POPGAZETA

Aid workers in Uganda say armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has doubled the flow of refugees in past weeks, straining humanitarian funding.  Many DRC refugees brave cold nights and risk big waves on Lake Albert to reach the Ugandan border. In the pitch-black hours of the early morning, a boatload of refugees from the DRC arrives on Uganda’s side of Lake Albert.  Some of the babies are hysterical. Aid workers say the number of Congolese refugees fleeing armed conflict to Uganda has more than doubled since June to about 300 per day. Refugee Gipato Margaret says there has been intensive fighting in the last two weeks in the DRC town of Chomya. “There are so many soldiers, yet the enemy rebel groups are in the surrounding forests.  If they find a person in the garden, they kill you.  They completely finish you.  And when they see government soldiers, they follow and kill and fight them.  We saw it was too much, there is a lot of gunshots nearby and staying there got difficult.  So, we had to find a way out,” Margaret said. Refugee Joshua Oshaki lost contact with his wife during fighting in the DRC’s …

Aid workers in Uganda say armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has doubled the flow of refugees since June, straining humanitarian funding. Many of the DRC refugees brave the harsh waters of Lake Albert on the Uganda border to make the crossing to safety. Halima Athumani reports from Sebagoro Landing Site in southwestern Uganda. …

Financier Jeffrey Epstein will remain behind bars for now as a federal judge mulls whether to grant bail on charges he sexually abused underage girls. The judge said he needed more time to make a decision during a hearing Monday in New York. Federal prosecutors maintained the well-connected Epstein, 66, is a flight risk and danger to the community _ saying he should remain incarcerated until he is tried on charges that he recruited and abused dozens of underage girls in New York and Florida in the early 2000s. Prosecutors said their case is getting “stronger by the day” after several more women contacted them in recent days to say he abused them when they were underage. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Rossmiller also revealed Monday that authorities found “piles of cash,” “dozens of diamonds” and an expired passport with Epstein’s picture and a fake name during a raid of his Manhattan mansion following his July 6 arrest . Epstein’s lawyers said he has not committed crimes since pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution charges in Florida in 2008 and that the federal government is reneging on a 12-year-old plea deal not to prosecute him. They said they planned …

Palestinians on Monday denounced President Donald Trump’s attack on U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, accusing him of racism and saying it once again proves his bias against the Palestinian people.   Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat and daughter of Palestinian immigrants, was one of four congresswomen of color who were targeted in a Trump Twitter barrage over the weekend.   Trump said the women should go back to the “broken and crime infested” places they came from, ignoring the fact that all are American citizens and three, including Tlaib, were born in the U.S. Trump also accused them of saying “terrible things” about the U.S. and said they “hate Israel.”   Although Tlaib has never lived in the West Bank, she still has relatives in the area and is widely seen as a local hero for making her way to the highest levels of American government.   Bassam Tlaib, an uncle of the congresswoman who lives in the West Bank, called the president’s comments “a racist statement meant to target Rashida because she has Palestinian roots.”   “This statement proves that Trump is anti-Palestinian, anti-Islam and completely biased toward Israel,” he added.   Ibrahim Milhim, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, said Trump’s …

The head of the World Health Organization warns the spread of Ebola to a large city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo could have dire consequences.  The WHO chief spoke Monday at a high-level meeting that examined current efforts to contain the growing Ebola epidemic in Congo.  The Ebola outbreak in Congo’s conflict-ridden North Kivu and Ituri provinces is the second largest after the historic 2014 epidemic that killed 11,300 people in West Africa.   As the first anniversary of the DRC epidemic draws near, the WHO reports nearly 2,500 people have been infected with the virus and 1,665 people have died.   World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (R) listens to a delegate at the end of a meeting organised the United Nations on the Ebola disease in DRC, on July 15, 2019, in Geneva. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the effort to stop the spread of the disease has received another blow with the news that the first case of Ebola had been detected in the eastern Congolese city of Goma.   He says WHO was informed Sunday that a pastor who had traveled from Butembo was infected with the deadly virus. “The identification …

A roadside bomb in Afghanistan killed at least 11 people riding in a truck in the southern Kandahar province, provincial officials said Monday. Ahmad Sadeq Essa, a deputy army spokesman in Kandahar, said that around 35 other civilians were wounded in the explosion in Khakrez district.      Yousof Younosi, a provincial council member in Kandahar, said that women and children were among those killed, but couldn’t provide an exact breakdown. He said some of the wounded were in critical condition. All the victims were members of the same family and their close relatives who were on their way to a shrine, he said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Younosi blamed the Taliban, who often use roadside bombs to target Afghan security forces in the province. Essa, the army spokesman, said, “The army only has a mobile clinic in Khakrez, and right now they are trying to transfer the wounded people to the regional hospital in Kandahar city for further treatment.” The violence comes despite stepped-up efforts by the United States to find a negotiated end to the country’s current 18-year war. All-Afghan talks that brought together the country’s warring sides ended last week in Qatar’s …

The Trump administration is moving to end asylum protections for most Central American migrants.   A rule published Monday bars migrants from seeking asylum in the United States if they’ve traveled through another country first.   Tens of thousands of migrant families from Central America travel through Mexico to the U.S. each month, many claiming asylum. The Trump administration claims families are taking advantage of legal loopholes it says allow migrants a free pass to the country while they wait out phony asylum requests.   The rule is almost certain to face a legal challenge.   U.S. law allows refugees to request asylum when they arrive at the U.S. regardless of how they did so. But there’s an exception for those who have come through a country considered “safe.” Immigrant rights groups say the Republican administration’s policies are a cruel effort to keep immigrants out.   …

Federal prosecutors, preparing for a bail fight Monday, say evidence against financier Jeffrey Epstein is growing “stronger by the day” after several more women contacted them in recent days to say he abused them when they were underage. Prosecutors say Epstein, 66, is a flight risk and danger to the community and should remain incarcerated until he is tried on charges that he recruited and abused dozens of underage girls in New York and Florida in the early 2000s. His lawyers counter that their client has not committed crimes since pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution charges in Florida in 2008 and that the federal government is reneging on a 12-year-old deal not to prosecute him. They say he should be allowed to await trial under house arrest in his $77 million Manhattan mansion, with electronic monitoring. In a written submission Friday to U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman, prosecutors revealed new information about their investigation and why they perceive Epstein as dangerous. They said several additional women in multiple jurisdictions had identified themselves to the government, claiming Epstein abused them when they were minors. Also, dozens of individuals have called the government to report information about Epstein …

Abdikarim Olol contributed to this story from Las Anod. WASHINGTON / LAS ANOD, SOMALIA – Among the 26 people killed at a hotel following a terrorist attack in southern Somalia Friday was Hodan Nalayeh, a television journalist who returned from the diaspora to help locals build a better life. She was achieving her goals until al-Shabab militants gunned her down. FILE – Soldiers patrol the seaport in Somalia’s southern port city of Kismayo, November 29, 2012. Nalayeh was trying to change the narrative of reporting about Somalia, which she considered “mostly negative,” according to Siad Ali, the director of outreach for Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and a relative of Nalayeh. “She was not a fan of promoting politicians or talking about the politics,” Ali told VOA. “Her uniqueness was reporting the positivity of Somalia and the people of Somalia, from Somalia to diaspora. So that has attracted thousands of youth throughout Somalia, and to see the good side of Somalia and the prosperity side of Somalia.” Nalayeh also thought she could impact the lives of the young Somalis who were not receiving an education. Late last month, she visited her home town, Las Anod, where her family opened a school …

Two leading UN agencies report nearly 20 million children worldwide—more than one in 10—were not vaccinated against killer diseases, such as measles, diphtheria and tetanus in 2018.  Global life-saving vaccine coverage remains at 86 percent.  This is high, but the World Health Organization says it is not high enough.  It says 95 percent coverage is needed to protect against outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.   The worldwide measles outbreak is the starkest and most alarming example of what can happen when vaccine coverage across countries and communities falls below 95 percent.  Last year, nearly 350,000 measles cases were reported globally, more than double that of 2017. WHO’s director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, Kate O’Brien warns measles outbreaks are not just persisting, but are increasing.  She agrees some of the problem is due to misinformation and false information regarding the safety of the measles vaccine.  But she says low coverage is mainly linked to sharp inequalities in both low-income and high-income countries. “Even in high-income countries, access to vaccines, inequality and quality of care are often the greatest obstacles for parents to get vaccines for their children.  So, we want to emphasize both of these things that barriers …

The health ministry of Democratic Republic of Congo said Monday two community health workers engaged in Ebola prevention have been killed in the eastern North Kivu province. The ministry said the workers had been receiving death threats for months. Ministry officials, meanwhile, have confirmed the first case of Ebola in Goma, a city of more than 2 million people, along the Rwandan border. Authorities said the patient is a pastor who took a bus from Butembo, one of the towns hardest hit by Ebola, to Goma. He arrived in Goma on Sunday and was quickly taken to an Ebola treatment center. The health ministry said in a statement: “Given that the patient was quickly identified, as well as all the passengers on the bus from Butembo, the risk of the disease spreading in the city of Goma is low.” The French news agency AFP reports the bus driver and passengers are receiving vaccinations Monday. Ebola has killed more than 1,600 people in DR Congo. Efforts to contain the disease have been hampered by violent attacks on health care workers and treatment centers. Some Congolese people have also contributed to the spread of the disease by refusing to take their loved …

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Monday that the international deal on Iran’s nuclear program “isn’t dead yet,” and that while the opportunity to find a resolution to the current crisis surrounding the agreement is closing, it is still possible to keep it alive. He spoke ahead of talks with other European Union foreign ministers in Brussels where they planned to discuss the Iran situation. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was agreed to by Iran and a group of world powers that included Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States to allay concerns Iran was working to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran has long said its nuclear program was solely for peaceful purposes, and it won badly needed relief from sanctions in return for limiting its nuclear activity far below what would be needed to make a weapon. Hunt said Monday that Iran was more than a year away from having the capability to build a nuclear device. Boris Johnson, a leadership candidate for Britain’s Conservative Party, and Britain’s former Brexit Minister Dominic Raab visit a pub in Oxshott. Boris Johnson, a Conservative favorite to succeed Theresa May when she steps down as prime minister later …

Taiwan’s presidential race kicked off Monday with China the top issue as a Beijing-friendly mayor won the chief opposition party’s primary to face an incumbent who wants Beijing to keep a distance. The opposition Nationalists announced that Han Kuo-yu, now mayor of the Taiwanese port city Kaohsiung, had won the presidential primary Monday against four other candidates, including the founder of consumer electronics assembler Foxconn Technology. Han will go up against incumbent Tsai Ing-wen in the January 2020 general election. China is expected to define the late-year campaign because the two contenders differ on how to handle it, reflecting divisions among Taiwanese people. A policeman scuffles with a protester inside a mall in Sha Tin District in Hong Kong, July 14, 2019. Divided public Taiwan and China have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, but Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island. Opinion surveys as recent as January show most Taiwanese oppose rule by China, and protests in Hong Kong since June against the territory’s own rule by Beijing have solidified that sentiment. “Now, incidents in Hong Kong actually are having an effect on youth,” said George Hou, mass communications lecturer at Taiwan-based I-Shou University …

Reuters contributed to this report. NEW DELHI — At least eight people were killed when a house collapsed in northern India following heavy monsoon rain, which has left more than 85 dead across South Asia, officials said Monday. Floods and landslides caused by torrential downpours have killed at least 67 people across Nepal while 30 more are missing, police said. In overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps in southeast Bangladesh, 10 people have died and thousands of shanty homes have been destroyed since April.  Rohingya children walk around a landslide area at Balukhali refugee camp in Ukhia, July 7, 2019. Monsoon-triggered landslides in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh have killed one person and left more than 4,500 homeless, said officials said. In Myanmar, days of heavy monsoon rain and dangerously high river levels have forced more than 18,000 people from their homes and flooded at least one camp for people displaced by recent fighting, authorities and a politician said Monday. Four towns along the Ayeyarwady and Chindwin rivers were in danger of being inundated as the rivers rose, the Department of Disaster Management said. “We are working together with local authorities helping the people and providing food,” said the department’s director, Phyu …

A 23-year-old man who fled conflict in Afghanistan six years ago has died at an Australian immigration detention center. Refugee groups say the death highlights serious concerns about the indefinite detention of asylum seekers. Emergency services were called to the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation Center late Friday. An Afghan national could not be revived and died. The cause of his death is unknown, but police say it is not being treated as suspicious. The man reportedly arrived in Australia seeking asylum as an unaccompanied minor in 2013, and had been asking for legal help to obtain a residency visa. Refugee campaigners believe the tragedy should be the subject of an official inquiry. They say that there are many other Afghan asylum-seekers “languishing” for indefinite periods in detention facilities. Carolyn Grayden is from the Asylum Seeker Resource Center, an independent organization in Melbourne. “What is really needed here is a broader inquiry into the circumstances of how he was treated arriving as an unaccompanied minor through a very protracted refugee determination process, a process that has been designed to punish people that arrive by boat,” she said. Asylum-seekers detained Australia automatically detains all asylum-seekers while health and security checks are carried …

Artists are often at the forefront of social change, as they use their works to address difficult political and cultural issues. Protecting the environment and cultural heritage are the focus of the annual Ballet in the Bush initiative. As Marize de Klerk reports from Sterkrivier, South Africa, American dancers recently joined international and South African ballet talent in the African bush for the sake of their art and an endangered species, the rhino.   …

Public health clinics in cities like Rio de Janeiro report spikes in arboviruses, or mosquito-borne viruses.  One breed of mosquito is the major offender in causing illness.  Researchers in Brazil invented traps to catch them before they strike. Arash Arabasadi has more.   …

China’s economic growth slowed to its lowest level in a decade last quarter amid a tariff war with Washington, adding to pressure on Beijing to reverse a deepening slump. The world’s second-largest economy expanded by 6.2% over a year earlier in the three months ending in June, down from the previous quarter’s 6.4%, government data showed Monday. That was the slowest growth since the first quarter of 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Chinese leaders have stepped up spending and bank lending to shore up growth and avert politically dangerous job losses. But they face an avalanche of unexpectedly bad news including plunging auto sales as they fight a trade battle with President Donald Trump over Beijing’s technology ambitions. The economy faces a “complex environment both at home and abroad,” the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. Growth in retail sales slowed to 8.4% in the first half of 2019, down 0.1 percentage points from the first quarter, the government reported. Growth in factory output decelerated to 6% in the first half, down 0.1 percentage points from the first quarter. Chinese exports to the United States fell 7.8% in June from a year, depressed by …

The U.S. may approve licenses for companies to restart new sales to Huawei in as little as two weeks, according to a senior U.S. official, in a sign President Donald Trump’s recent effort to ease restrictions on the Chinese company could move forward quickly. Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, was added to a Commerce Department list in May that prohibits U.S. companies from supplying it with new American-made goods and services unless they obtain licenses that will likely be denied. But late last month, after meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump announced American firms could sell products to Huawei. And in recent days, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said licenses would be issued where there is no threat to national security. Chip industry, China pressure Trump’s reversal, and rapid implementation by the Commerce Department, suggests chip industry lobbying, coupled with Chinese political pressure, may well reignite U.S. technology sales to Huawei. Two U.S. chipmakers who supply Huawei told Reuters in recent days they would apply for more licenses after Ross’s comments. They asked to remain anonymous. A customer response management company and a firm that simulates cross-sectional radar for Huawei are also likely to file applications …

Demonstrators returned to an immigration jail in Washington state a day after an armed man threw incendiary devices at the detention center and later died. Willem Van Spronsen, 69, was found dead Saturday after four police officers arrived and opened fire. Demonstrators returned Sunday to the privately run Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, KOMO-TV reported. The demonstrators were protesting the facility and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement roundups that were supposed to begin Sunday. The facility holds migrants pending deportation proceedings. The detention center has also held immigration-seeking parents separated from their children under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, an effort meant to deter illegal immigration. The center’s operator, GEO Group, said in a statement it was aware of a “community gathering” Sunday. “We respect every individual’s right to use their voice and express their opinions,” the center said. ‘I think this was a suicide’ Bullet holes riddled the scene Sunday, The News-Tribune reported. Police searched Van Spronsen’s Vashon Island home, the Tacoma newspaper reported. Van Spronsen’s friend, Deb Bartley, told The Seattle Times she thinks he wanted to provoke a fatal conflict. She described him as an anarchist and anti-fascist. “He was ready to end it,” Bartley said. “I …

Guatemala said on Sunday it would postpone President Jimmy Morales’ visit to Washington to discuss Guatemala’s potential designation as a ‘safe third country’ for asylum seekers, stressing it had no plans to sign such an agreement. In a statement, Guatemala said the planned meeting between Morales and U.S. President Donald Trump this week had been postponed until the Guatemalan Constitutional Court had ruled on legal challenges. Last week, five former senior officials appealed to the court to block any agreement with the United States that would declare Guatemala a ‘safe third country.’ Under such a deal, Guatemala would be obliged to offer asylum to migrants who entered its territory en route to the United States. Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador heading to the U.S.-Mexican border overland usually cross into Mexico via Guatemala. Over the past week, opposition has mounted to such a designation for Guatemala, which would reshape migration in the region. “The government of the republic reiterates that at no point it considers signing an agreement to convert Guatemala into a safe third country,” the Guatemalan government said:  A senior U.S. official said: “The meeting is being rescheduled.” “The United States will continue to work with the Government …

A healthy lifestyle can cut your risk of developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia even if you have genes that raise your risk for these mind-destroying diseases, a large study has found. People with high genetic risk and poor health habits were about three times more likely to develop dementia versus those with low genetic risk and good habits, researchers reported Sunday. Regardless of how much genetic risk someone had, a good diet, adequate exercise, limiting alcohol and not smoking made dementia less likely. “I consider that good news,” said John Haaga of the U.S. National Institute on Aging, one of the study’s many sponsors. “No one can guarantee you’ll escape this awful disease” but you can tip the odds in your favor with clean living, he said. Results were discussed at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Los Angeles and published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association. 50 million people About 50 million people have dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type. Genes and lifestyle contribute to many diseases, but researchers only recently have had the tools and information to do large studies to see how much each factor matters. One such study …

Police and protesters are gearing up for a fight in Hawaii as construction is set to begin on a massive telescope on Mauna Kea, the islands’ highest peak, considered sacred by some native Hawaiians. State officials said the road to the top of Mauna Kea mountain on the Big Island will be closed starting Monday as equipment is delivered to the construction site. Scientists chose Mauna Kea in 2009 after a five-year, worldwide search for the ideal site for the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere. Construction was supposed to begin in 2014 but was halted by protests. Opponents of the $1.4 billion telescope will desecrate sacred land. According to the University of Hawaii, ancient Hawaiians considered the location kapu, or forbidden. Only the highest-ranking chiefs and priests were allowed to make the long trek to Mauna Kea’s summit above the clouds. Supporters of telescope say it will not only make important scientific discoveries but bring educational and economic opportunities to Hawaii. The company behind the telescope is made up of a group of universities in California and Canada, with partners from China, India and Japan.   Astronomers hope the telescope will help them look back 13 billion years to …

Emergency workers in Ridgecrest, Calif., are assessing the damage after a second major earthquake struck the desert community northeast of Los Angeles on Friday night. No deaths or major injuries have been reported from either the Thursday or Friday quake, but as Mike O’Sullivan reports, Friday’s magnitude-7.1 temblor caused additional damage and left residents shaken. …