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A Syrian regime bombardment has killed 14 civilians including seven children in northwestern Syria, a war monitor said Saturday, in the latest deadly raids on the embattled opposition bastion. Warplanes and helicopters late Friday carried out airstrikes on Mahambel village in Idlib province, killing 13 civilians including the seven children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A woman was also killed early Saturday in regime rocket fire on the outskirts of the town of Khan Sheikhun in the south of the province, the Britain-based war monitor said. Idlib, a region of about 3 million people, many of whom fled former rebel-held areas retaken by the government, is the last major bastion of opposition to the Russia-backed Damascus government after eight years of civil war. The region on Turkey’s doorstep is administered by Syria’s former Al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but other jihadist and rebel groups are also present. Idlib is supposed to be protected from a major regime assault by a September deal between Moscow and Ankara, but Damascus and its Russian ally have ramped up their deadly bombardment of the region since late April. More than 520 civilians have been killed since then, according to the Observatory. The …

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos’ divorce from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Bezos, was finalized by a Seattle-area judge Friday, paving the way for her to receive $38.3 billion worth of Amazon stock, Bloomberg reported. In April, Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, said in a filing that 4% of its outstanding stock or 19.7 million shares would be registered in MacKenzie Bezos’ name after court approval of the divorce. The couple announced their plan to divorce in a joint Twitter statement in January, causing some to worry that Jeff Bezos could wind up with reduced Amazon voting power or that he or MacKenzie would liquidate large position. He retains a 12% stake worth $114.8 billion and remains the world’s richest person, Bloomberg said. MacKenzie Bezos has said she would give him voting control of her shares. MacKenzie in May pledged to give half her fortune to charity to join the “Giving Pledge,” a campaign announced by billionaire Warren Buffett and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates in 2010. …

Many senior living communities in America are encouraging residents to socialize more with young people, something experts say will benefit both generations. Faiza Elmasry visited one of these senior living facilities where high school students serve and interact with residents. Faith Lapidus narrates. …

As governments around the world try to tackle air pollution problems, some cities are looking to ban fossil-fuel-powered vehicles. But cars and tractor trailers are not the only things that run on dirty fuels. A new vehicle will hit the market to tackle another source of emissions: ice cream trucks. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more. …

Leftovers. It’s what’s for dinner. In Germany that saying does not just apply to people who cook too much at home. These days, more and more restaurants are selling their leftovers to hungry city dwellers at reduced prices. It’s good for business, good for the consumer and good for the environment. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.  …

Turkey fired its central bank governor Saturday and replaced him with the bank’s deputy governor, a presidential decree published on the official gazette showed. Murat Cetinkaya, who had been serving as the governor since April 2016, was removed from the role and was replaced by his deputy Murat Uysal, the order showed. No official reason was given for the sacking, but markets have speculated over recent weeks that Cetinkaya may be pushed out by the government because of his reluctance to cut rates. The central bank has faced pressure in the past from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to lower interest rates to boost economic growth. Two government sources told Reuters that differences between the government and the governor over the conduct of monetary policy have deepened in the past few months. “The difference of opinions between the governor and the ministers in charge of the economy has deepened in the recent period,” said one of the sources. “The president and the finance minister demanded his resignation, but Cetinkaya reminded of the bank’s independence and declined to resign,” the other source said. In a statement Saturday, the central bank said it will continue to operate independently and that the new governor …

President Donald Trump said Friday that mass deportation roundups would begin “fairly soon” as U.S. migrant advocates vowed their communities would be ready when immigration officers come. Trump, who has made a hard-line immigration stance a key issue of his presidency and his 2020 re-election bid, postponed the operation last month after the planned date was leaked to the press, but Monday he said the roundups would take place after the July 4 holiday. “They’ll be starting fairly soon, but I don’t call them raids, we’re removing people, all of these people who have come in over the years illegally,” he told reporters at the White House Friday. Targeting the recently arrived U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last month said raids would target undocumented migrants who had recently arrived in the United States so as to discourage a surge of Central American families at the southwest border. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s statement. ICE operations are expected to involve “collateral arrests” in which undocumented migrants not directly targeted by officers are picked up in raids. Government documents published this week by migrant rights groups showed some past ICE raids had more collateral …

A quake with a magnitude of 7.1 jolted much of California, cracked buildings, set fires, broke roads and caused several injuries while seismologists warned that large aftershocks were expected to continue. The quake, preceded by Thursday’s 6.4-magnitude temblor in the Mojave Desert, was the largest Southern California quake in at least 20 years and was followed by a series of large and small aftershocks, including a handful above magnitude 5.0. There is about a 1-in-10 chance that another 7.0 quake could hit within the next week, said Lucy Jones, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology and a former science adviser at the U.S. Geological Survey. The chance of a 5.0-magnitude quake “is approaching certainty,” she added. However, the quake was unlikely to affect fault lines outside of the area, Jones said, noting that the gigantic San Andreas Fault was far away. The quake struck at 8:19 p.m. and was centered 11 miles from Ridgecrest in the same areas where the previous quake hit.  “These earthquakes are related,” Jones said, adding that the new quake probably ruptured along about 25 miles of fault line. The quake was felt as far north as Sacramento, as far east as Las Vegas …

Officials are gathering in Niger’s capital this weekend for an African Union summit that begins the “operational phase” of a long-sought continental free trade zone. Some 50 heads of state were to arrive in Niamey on Friday, a day behind their foreign ministers, for Sunday’s summit on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). By integrating economies and reducing trade barriers such as tariffs, the pact aims to increase employment prospects, living standards and opportunities for the continent’s 1.2 billion people and to make Africans more competitive regionally and globally. FILE – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is sworn in for a second four-year term in Africa’s most populous nation in Abuja, Nigeria, May 29, 2019. The trade deal got a boost earlier this week when Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, committed to signing the deal this weekend. The ECOWAS Executive Director, Mohamed Ibn Chambas Regional common currency ECOWAS plans to introduce the ECO currency in 2020, though its debut has been delayed repeatedly since 2000. The African free trade zone has been under discussion since 2002, with a draft deal signed in early 2018. In May, it surpassed a threshold of ratification by at least 22 member countries’ legislatures. “And now …

Members of what prosecutors have called one of Britain’s largest-ever modern-day slavery rings have been convicted and sentenced for their role in forcing around 400 Polish people to work and live under inhumane conditions. The cases against all eight suspects, originally from Poland, ended Friday, allowing reporting restrictions to be lifted and details of their trials to be published. Prosecutors say the victims, who were from Poland, were forced to work for barely any money while the organizers of the operation earned several million dollars. They say the human trafficking ring lured homeless people, former convicts and alcoholics from Poland to Britain with promises of well paid work but instead forced them to live in squalid conditions, paying some less than $1 a day. Victims described going to food banks to try to find enough to eat and of being threatened or assaulted if they complained. Jurors in two separate trials in Birmingham heard the accounts of more than 90 victims. All eight suspects, part of a criminal gang led by the Brzezinsky family, were convicted of modern slavery offenses. Seven of them were also convicted of money laundering. They received sentences ranging from 4½ to 11 years. Judge Mary …

VOA’s Khalid Mafton and Mohammad Habibzada contributed to this story. With the United States aiming for a potential deal with the Afghan Taliban by September, analysts and Afghan officials are skeptical that a comprehensive deal could be reached when the Afghan government has yet to hold direct talks with the Taliban. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month, during his visit to Afghanistan and the region, that the U.S. is hoping for a peace deal in Afghanistan before Sept. 1. “I hope we have a peace deal before Sept. 1st. That’s certainly our mission set,” Pompeo told reporters in Kabul. “We have made real progress and are nearly ready to conclude a draft text outlining the Taliban’s commitments to join fellow Afghans in ensuring that Afghan soil never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists,” Pompeo added. FILE – A handout photo released by the official Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Feb. 26, 2019, shows Qatari officials, center, taking part in meeting between the U.S. delegation, left, and the Taliban delegation in Doha. Unrealistic? But some experts charge that expecting a comprehensive deal by September is “unrealistic.” “It is quite unrealistic, to say the least, to think that …

An Oregon state senator who was among the Republican lawmakers who fled the Capitol last month to scuttle a vote on a bill to fight climate change faces a conduct hearing over remarks tinged with threats of violence about any efforts to force the senators to return. Senator Brian Boquist, who is a former U.S. Army special forces officer, ahead of the Republicans’ departure said on June 19 to the state Senate’s Democratic president: “If you send the State Police to get me, hell is coming to visit you personally.” Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, enlisted the State Police on June 20 to try to bring Republicans back to the Capitol, but ultimately the Democratic-sponsored bill died. By fleeing the Capitol, the Republican senators prevented a vote from being held because, under Senate rules, there were not enough lawmakers present for legislation to be voted on. The state Senate’s Special Committee on Conduct will hold a hearing on Monday over Boquist’s comments. Boquist also told a reporter from a Portland television station that if police came looking for him, “Send bachelors and come heavily armed.” The Senate Special Committee agenda for Monday calls for its two Democrats and two Republicans …

Iraq is celebrating the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s decision to name the historic city of Babylon a World Heritage Site in a vote in Azerbaijan. Friday’s vote comes after Iraq bid for years for Babylon to be added to the list of World Heritage Sites. The city on the Euphrates River is about 85 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad. The 4,300-year-old Babylon, now mainly an archaeological ruin and two important museums, is where dynasties have risen and have fallen since the earliest days of settled human civilization. Parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi and Minister of Culture Abdul-Amir al-Hamadani congratulated the Iraqi people on the announcement. The vote comes years after the Islamic State group damaged another Iraq World Heritage site in the country’s north, the ancient city of Hatra.   …

Alaskans who routinely pack knit caps and fleece jackets in summer on Friday were swapping them for sunscreen and parasols amid a prolonged heatwave.  Residents of Anchorage and other south-central cities completed a fifth week of above-normal temperatures, including a record high 90 degrees (32.22 Celsius) on Thursday in the state’s largest city. On Friday, as temperatures dipped just slightly, Anchorage resident Lucy Davidson sought relief with her grandchildren at a beach at Goose Lake. She said she picked up a portable air conditioner at a garage sale six years ago. It had not been used some summers, but it’s getting a workout lately. “That thing has been a blessing,” Davidson said. “It stays on non-stop.” The temperature Thursday in Anchorage hit 90 degrees (32.22 Celsius) at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, 5 degrees higher than the city’s previous recorded high of 85 degrees (29.44 Celsius). Three other Alaska locations, Kenai, Palmer and King Salmon, set or tied all-time high temperature records on Thursday. A high pressure ridge over much of south-central Alaska is strengthening and responsible for the record temperatures, National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Clay said. Anchorage’s average high temperature for July 4 is 75 degrees (23.89 Celsius), …

PARIS — France wants the world’s leading industrial economies to double funding for girls’ education in the Sahel at a summit next month in the French town of Biarritz.   Speaking Friday in Paris at the headquarters of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, French President Emmanuel Macron laid out initiatives to increase educational and economic opportunities for women, with a special focus on Africa’s Sahel region.    Macron, whose country currently holds the presidency of the Group of Seven advanced economies, challenged fellow G-7 members to not only increase their financial commitment to girls’ education in the Sahel but also to make sure funds are spent efficiently and make a difference.    Macron also denounced anyone seeking to deny girls an education, including on religious grounds. Keeping girls at home, he said, was a form of modern slavery.  Fighting inequality   The French president spoke at the end of a two-day meeting that brought together development and education ministers from G-7 nations under the broader theme of fighting inequality, which is the goal of France’s G-7 presidency.    UNESCO’s director general, Audrey Azoulay, said that while gender parity in education is increasing worldwide, it’s lagging in some places, including conflict zones. In some …

Justice Department attorneys confirmed Friday that they were still working to add a citizenship question to the census, although they did not provide a new rationale for doing so, a requirement the Supreme Court set last week.    In a Maryland court filing, the Justice attorneys said they had been “instructed to examine whether there is a path forward, consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision, that would allow for the inclusion of the citizenship question on the census.”  Critics have said adding such a question could suppress the count of minorities.    Before the filing, President Donald Trump said he was considering “four or five” ways to add the citizenship question to the census.    “We are working on a lot of things, including an executive order,” Trump told reporters Friday outside the White House. He also said that “we could start the printing [of census forms] now and maybe do an addendum after we get a positive decision.”   In court, however, Justice attorneys said the Commerce Department had not yet adopted a new rationale for the citizenship question.  “In the event the Commerce Department adopts a new rationale for including the citizenship question on the 2020 Decennial Census consistent with the decisions of the …

A life-size rough wooden sculpture of U.S. first lady Melania Trump was unveiled Friday near her hometown of Sevnica in southeastern Slovenia. Commissioned by Berlin-based American artist Brad Downey and carved with a chainsaw by local folk artist Ales Zupevc, the statue serves as a — perhaps wry — accompaniment to Downey’s exhibition in the capital Ljubljana exploring Melania’s roots in the small Alpine country. The blocky, rustic figure was cut from the trunk of a living linden tree — whose base forms a tall plinth — in a field beside the Sava River in the village of Rozno, 8 km (5 miles) from Sevnica. There is no attempt at an accurate likeness, to the point where the gallery in Ljubljana appears uncertain how seriously to take the statue. “Perhaps we are simply trying vigorously to make sense of things that might only be a slapstick prank,” it says in a leaflet. “Who knows?” Although the statue’s face is rough-hewn and unrecognizable, the figure is shown clothed in the pale blue wraparound coat that Melania wore at Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president. FILE – President Donald Trump waves as he walks with first lady Melania Trump during the inauguration …

Democratic 2020 hopeful Elizabeth Warren says that if elected president she would sign executive orders aimed at addressing the wage and employment leadership gap for women of color, punishing companies and contractors with historically poor records on diversity and equality by denying them contracts with the federal government. The Massachusetts senator detailed her latest plan Friday in a post on Medium, positioning her ideas as moral and economic imperatives. It’s the latest in a parade of proposals that have become a trademark of her 2020 Democratic presidential bid and helped boost her in the primary polls, particularly among black women. “Our economy should be working just as hard for women of color as women of color work for our economy and their families,” Warren wrote. “For decades, the government has helped perpetuate the systemic discrimination that has denied women of color equal opportunities. It’s time for the government to try to right those wrongs — and boost our economy in the process.” Warren’s plan comes on the eve of her appearance at Essence Fest, an annual music and cultural conference that is the largest gathering of black women in the country, with an expected 500,000 attendees. Also expected to speak …

A Russian think tank with links to an infamous troll farm says that two of its employees have been detained in Libya. The Foundation for the Protection of Traditional Values said in a statement Friday that its employees, including well-known spin doctor Maxim Shugaley, have been kept in custody in Libya since May. The think-tank did not explain the nature of the charges but insisted that its employees did not interfere in elections in Libya. The foundation is chaired by the man who has edited an English-language website which is part of a media empire run by President Vladimir Putin’s ally Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin and some of his employees have been indicted by U.S. special investigator Robert Mueller last year as part of a probe into the 2016 election interference. …

VOA Connect Episode 77 – Stories about people who are on a path they didn’t foresee, the career of a successful musician and the benefits of vinyl records …

The average monthly student loan payment is about $400 a month in the United States.  Eddy Encinales, who used student loans to pay for college, talks to us about the effects of the debt and toll it takes trying to make her monthly payments and plan for her future.   Reporter/Camera: Deepak Dobhal.   …

Find out why records are staging a comeback! *Insert record scratching sound effect.*   VOA Ukrainian; Reporter: Alina Golinata; Camera: Konstantin Golubchik; Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki. …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May have joined a high-level meeting in Poland that seeks to reassure Western Balkans nations aspiring to join the European Union that support for their accession remains strong, despite symptoms of a loss of momentum. The meeting in Poznan has brought together foreign, interior and economy ministers from some EU nations and from membership candidates Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, as well as potential candidates Bosnia and Kosovo. The troubled Western Balkans nations are seeking EU reassurance after some leaders in the 28-member bloc have spoken against the enlargement and there is no set time frame for it. Poland is the host because it currently presides over the so-called Berlin Process that brings Western Balkan nations together with EU members.   …

James Samuel Harris Sr. loves to play the blues!  He says music is his gift from God.  Watch this People in America profile about the 91 year old musician, his road to success and how he earned the nickname “Cornbread.”   Executive Producer: Marsha James; Camera: Kaveh Rezaei. …