A U.S. senator from Missouri has written the state university system and a private liberal arts university to express his concerns about Chinese espionage and Confucius Institutes on campus.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley directed his concerns to the University of Missouri and Webster University, which host Confucius Institutes.

Confucius Institutes and centers around the world offer language and cultural programs that, in the past few years, have been accused of spreading Chinese propaganda. Several colleges and universities worldwide have ended their relationships with the institutes and shuttered their on-campus facilities as tensions over Chinese spying in the U.S. have grown.

Hawley was motivated by a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week with FBI Director Chris Wray.

‘Source of concern’

Chinese Confucius Institutes at American universities are a “source of concern,” Hawley said, because they allow the Chinese government to disseminate communist propaganda, encourage censorship and restrict academic freedom.

Hawley said a number of U.S. colleges and universities have closed their Confucius Institutes in the past year, including Texas A&M University, the University of Iowa, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and North Carolina State University.

“Both the University of Missouri and Webster University should follow their examples,” Hawley tweeted.

University of Missouri spokesman Christian Basi said the school appreciated Hawley’s letter and shared many of his concerns related to academic espionage.

“This is something that has been on the radar of our top leadership for the last one to two years,” Basi said. “We also have periodically met with the FBI, both at national conferences when they provided information, as well as meeting with them here on campus.”

Webster University, in suburban St. Louis, said it felt confident its oversight of the campus Confucius Institute was sound.

“We take academic freedom very seriously and will not sacrifice it for the sake of any relationship,” Webster President Elizabeth Stroble wrote. “Our arrangement with Hanban expressly reserves for Webster University the right to determine the curricula and the manner of instruction for all programs that we offer. Nothing in our agreements concerning the Confucius Institutes restricts us from addressing any academic subject.”

The Hanban is a Chinese state agency chaired by a member of the Politburo and the vice premier of the People’s Republic of China.

Of the more than 1 million international students in the U.S., more than 300,000 are Chinese, according to the Institute of International Education. 

Organization cites demand

“As China’s economy and exchanges with the world have seen rapid growth, there has also been a sharp increase in the world’s demands for Chinese learning,” according to the Confucius Institute website.

Chinese influence has been a top concern of U.S. intelligence agencies.

The FBI’s Wray, who testified before lawmakers including Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, said the agency has “a thousand open investigations … involving attempted theft of intellectual property,” and almost all the cases involved the Chinese. He called it “deep, diverse, wide and vexing.”

A statement from the American Association of University Professors published in 2014 said, “Confucius Institutes function as an arm of the Chinese state and are allowed to ignore academic freedom.”

This week #VOAOurVoices joins the international community in marking the World Day against Trafficking Persons. Yearly millions of vulnerable victims, mainly adult women, fall into human trafficking, through violence, manipulation and false promises. Our team, joined by VOA Zimbabwe Digital Lead Marvelous Nyahuye, takes a closer look at the myths and misconceptions of trafficking, measures to combat the act and how survivors cope.

U.S. President Donald Trump is pressing the World Trade Organization to stop designating China and other countries as “developing” nations, a label that allows them to receive lenient treatment under global trade rules. 
 
In a memo Friday, Trump directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to “use all available means” to get the WTO to stop describing countries as “developing” if their economies are strong.  
  
He said the WTO uses “an outdated dichotomy between developed and developing countries that has allowed some WTO members to gain unfair advantages.”  
  
Trump said that if the United States decides the WTO has not made “substantial progress” after 90 days, it will unilaterally stop treating those nations as developing countries. 
 
The statement notes that seven of the 10 wealthiest economies in the world, including China, claim developing country status with the WTO. The status allows governments the ability to protect some domestic industries and maintain subsidies, as well as to receive longer time limits to implement trade commitments. 
 
In a tweet Friday, Trump said the “WTO is BROKEN when the world’s RICHEST countries claim to be developing countries to avoid WTO rules and get special treatment. NO more!!! Today I directed the U.S. Trade Representative to take action so that countries stop CHEATING the system at the expense of the USA!” 

Retaliation against France
 
In another trade development Friday, Trump vowed to retaliate against France for imposing a tax against U.S. tech giants, hinting that the United States could adopt tariffs on French wine. 
 
“France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies,” Trump tweeted, referring to France’s announcement that it would tax tech giants, including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.  
  
“If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the USA. We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron’s foolishness shortly,” Trump tweeted, referring to French President Emmanuel Macron.  
  
“I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!” he added. 
 
The French tax targets companies that use consumer data to sell online advertising. Britain has announced plans for a similar tax. 
 
Deputy White House spokesman Judd Deere said Friday that Washington was “extremely disappointed by France’s decision to adopt a digital services tax at the expense of U.S. companies and workers.” 

This story originated in VOA’s Albanian service.

PRISTINA, KOSOVO — Kosovo’s outgoing Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj is calling on the international community, the United States and the European Union to stop pressuring his country to remove tariffs against Serbia as a precondition for negotiations between the countries. 
 
Haradinaj offered his resignation last week before being questioned as a suspect by a special court investigating alleged war crimes by the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). 

Appearing before prosecutors in The Hague on Wednesday, Haradinaj refused to answer questions. As he left, he said his response was made “at the advice of my lawyer.”  
 
In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Albanian service, his first since returning from the Netherlands, Haradinaj insisted tariffs should remain in place until Serbia recognizes Kosovo. 
 

Haradinaj gained popular support after introducing a 100 percent tax on goods produced in Serbia last November, immediately prompting Belgrade to pull out of talks with Pristina. Many saw the move as a way to block Kosovar President Hashim Thaci and Serbian President Alexandar Vucic from discussing a change of borders as a formula for normalizing relations between the two countries. 
 
Asked if he saw any connection between his insistence on keeping tariffs and the summons from the special court in The Hague, Haradinaj said that “he was surprised to be summoned.” 
 
“I have fulfilled the legal obligation to appear as a suspect after being called for questioning,” he said, adding that “there is a lot of suspicion in Kosovo that it can be a conspiracy, but what I can confirm is that I strongly believe in what I have openly and in the most sincere way told the international partners: that Kosovo’s borders are not controversial, and there should be no discussion of territory or borders changes. 
 
“The agreement with Serbia should include mutual recognition within the existing borders, and at the same time free trade must be linked with the recognition,” he told VOA. 
 
The United States and European Union have repeatedly urged Haradinaj to end the tariffs. 
 
“I call upon the international community, our allies, to stop unjust pressure on Kosovo for tariffs as well as other topics, because it is not right to accept Serbia’s conditions for dialogue,” he said. 

Bias accusation
 
Haradinaj, who has twice been exonerated by prior trials before the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, then accused the international community of bias. 
 
“I was called for the second time to testify before an international court; I resigned twice because of that, while, on the other hand, Mr. Aleksandar Vucic, who was part of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime — [which] has committed crimes in the Balkans, not only in Kosovo but also in other countries — he has no such concerns. 
 
“This proves an imbalance of international community pressure logic that needs to be corrected as soon as possible.” 
 
Haradinaj first resigned as prime minister in 2005 upon being indicted by the U.N. tribunal, which exonerated him. The same court then tried and acquitted him again in 2012. 
 
His resignation is expected to prompt snap elections. Thaci is expected to start consultations with political parties to find a way out of the new political situation.  

On Friday, Philip Kosnett, the U.S. ambassador to Kosovo, tweeted that the United States was “watching closely as Kosovo deals, for the first time, with a PM resignation. How it is handled will indicate the strength of Kosovo’s institutions and officials’ willingness to adhere to the Constitution and laws.” 
 
The Kosovo special court was created on 2015 to investigate alleged war crimes between January 1998 and December 2000. Over a dozen former KLA leaders have been called for questioning in various capacities. So far, no indictments have been issued. 

An extraordinary diplomatic dispute between the United States and Sweden has escalated with President Donald Trump alleging unfair treatment for a jailed American rap musician.

Sweden is rejecting demands from Trump that it free Rakim Mayers, known as A$AP Rocky, who along with two other men, has been formally charged with assault after a street fight that was captured on video.

Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Löfven, has “explained and emphasized the complete independence of the Swedish judicial system, prosecutors and courts,” says Karin Olofsdotter, the Swedish ambassador to the United States. “In Sweden, everyone is equal before the law. The government is not allowed, and will not attempt, to influence legal proceedings.”

The White House on Friday did not respond to a VOA query for comment on the Swedish reaction after Trump demanded a day earlier that the Swedes free the artist.

“We do so much for Sweden but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around. Sweden should focus on its real crime problem!”

Give A$AP Rocky his FREEDOM. We do so much for Sweden but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around. Sweden should focus on its real crime problem! #FreeRocky

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2019

Trump also on Twitter accused the Swedish prime minister of “being unable to act,” adding he “has let down “our African American community in the United States.”

Very disappointed in Prime Minister Stefan Löfven for being unable to act. Sweden has let our African American Community down in the United States. I watched the tapes of A$AP Rocky, and he was being followed and harassed by troublemakers. Treat Americans fairly! #FreeRocky

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2019

Prosecutor Daniel Suneson says he’s pressing charges against the three suspects for assault, “because in my judgment what has happened amounts to a crime, despite the objections about self-defense and provocation.”  

The rapper has been in custody since his arrest because he is considered a flight risk.

On his Instagram account, however, Mayer alleges the attack was self-defense in response to a man and a second person, who were harassing women and hitting members of his staff.

In video obtained by American celebrity news website TMZ, Mayers and two other men can be seen punching and kicking the victim on the ground.

Celebrity and criminal justice activist Kim Kardashian West has thanked Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the president’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, for their attention to the case.

Trump’s intervention is criticized by some, though, who note the reputation of Sweden’s judiciary (ranking number 4 out of 126 countries World Justice Project’s 2019 Rule of Law Index), compared to other countries. Detractors also point out the U.S. president has been virtually silent about other high-profile cases..

The opinion page editor of The Washington Post, Karen Attiah, calls it “absolutely absurd” Trump has reacted more angrily to Sweden’s prime minister over the rapper’s case than he did to Saudi Arabia over the killing of the newspaper’s writer, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and U.S. resident.

Absolutely absurd that Trump has reacted more angrily to the Prime Minister of Sweden over the arrest of a rapper than to Saudi Arabia over the vicious killing of U.S. resident and @washingtonpost writer Jamal #Khashoggi.

Signed, A Member of the “African American Community” https://t.co/JzpfwftvGb

— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) July 26, 2019

Others allege a racial motive by the Swedes.

“I don’t want to call the race card but that’s what it’s looking like. If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck,” said Renee Black, Mayers’ mother.

Fellow rapper G-Eazy also contends Mayers’ treatment stems from racism, referencing his own arrest in the country a year earlier.

“The difference between me and Rocky’s treatment and process in Sweden brings to mind two concepts that disgustingly go hand in hand: white privilege and systemic racism. Let’s call it what it is. He should not be behind bars right now. My heart goes out to my brother,” wrote G-Eazy on Instagram.

G-Eazy, whose real name is Gerald Gillum, was arrested in Sweden for violence against a public servant, resisting arrest and possession of narcotics. The rapper pleaded guilty and was fined $8,400.

Mayers is due in court Tuesday, and the trial is expected to last three days. He faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Prosecutors set to defend Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction in appeals court next month say the accusations from other women are no coincidence, but “the culmination of a decades-long pattern of behavior.”

The 82-year-old comic actor is the first celebrity convicted and sent to prison in the (hash)MeToo era.
 
He is serving a three-to 10-year prison term for drugging and molesting a woman at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004.

Cosby’s lawyers are raising a long list of alleged trial errors on appeal. They include the judge’s decision to let five other accusers testify and references to Cosby’s possession of Quaaludes and other drugs.
 
Montgomery County prosecutors in a filing late Thursday say the women’s testimony is allowed under Pennsylvania law because it points to a “signature” crime.    Arguments in Cosby’s appeal are set for Aug.12.?

Swedish authorities have released court documents in the assault case in which American rapper A$AP Rocky and two other men are charged, with prosecutors saying that the victim was punched and kicked while on the ground and attacked with a bottle.

Rakim Mayers, the 30-year-old rapper’s real name, and two other suspects “deliberately, together and in agreement” assaulted the victim in central Stockholm on June 30, prosecutors said in documents from the Stockholm District Court obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.

The 500 pages of documents, in which prosecutors also said that Rocky pushed the man to the ground, included photos of the victim’s injuries — mostly cuts and bruises — and blood-stained clothes.

The rapper, who has been in custody since July 2, has asserted that it was self-defense. The charges can carry a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

The case has sparked an unusual diplomatic spat between the U.S. and Sweden, after President Donald Trump called for Rocky to be released.

Prosecutors charged Rocky on Thursday, prompting Trump to send two sharply-worded tweets, calling on Sweden to “Treat Americans fairly!” and criticizing Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, whom he had personally lobbied, “for being unable to act.”

A Lofven spokesman responded by emphasizing the independence of the Swedish judicial system.

Rocky, a platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated artist who has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar, Cardi B, Drake and Selena Gomez, has been in custody since July 3 as authorities investigate the fight. The case has also drawn the attention of a long list of U.S. celebrities, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian West.

Trump on Saturday tweeted that he had spoken with Lofven about the case and “offered to personally vouch for his bail,” even though that’s not something available under Swedish law. Urged on by the first lady and celebrities including Kardashian West, the president had said that he would intervene to try to free Rocky.

Lofven’s press secretary, Toni Eriksson, later said the two leaders had a “friendly and respectful” conversation in which Lofven “made certain to emphasize the complete independence of the Swedish judicial system, prosecutors and courts” and stressed that the government cannot and will not attempt to influence the legal proceedings.

The rapper and the other two suspects, who have been described as members of his entourage, will remain in custody until trial.

Prosecutor have recommended that the Stockholm District Court set aside three days for the trial, which defense lawyer Slobodan Jovicic said is expected to start Tuesday.

North Korea has formally announced its latest ballistic missile test, saying the launch was a warning to “military warmongers” in South Korea who are set to soon hold joint military exercises with the United States.

North Korean state media showed pictures of Kim Jong Un personally supervising the Thursday test of what it called a “new-type tactical guided weapon.” U.S. and South Korean officials say the projectile was a short-range ballistic missile.

The official Korean Central News Agency said the test was meant “to send a solemn warning to the south Korean military warmongers who are running high fever in their moves to introduce the ultramodern offensive weapons into south Korea and hold military exercise in defiance of the repeated warnings.”

Complaints about South Korea

North Korea has repeatedly complained about South Korea’s recent acquisition of U.S. F-35 fighter jets, as well as upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises. Pyongyang has warned it may not resume working-level talks with the United States if the drills take place.

“South Korean authorities show such strange double-dealing behavior as acting a ‘handshake of peace’ and fingering joint declaration and agreement and the like before the world people and, behind the scene, shipping ultra-modern offensive weapons and holding joint military exercises,” Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA.

New type of missile

South Korea’s National Security Council expressed “strong concern” about the launch, which it determined was a “new type of short-range ballistic missile.” That is firmer than Seoul’s response after a similar North Korean launch in May. At the time, South Korea referred to the North Korean weapons as “projectiles.”

The U.S. military command in South Korea also assessed that North Korea tested a “new type of missile for the DPRK,” using an acronym for North Korea’s official name. “These two short range ballistic missiles were not a threat directed at the ROK or the U.S., and have no impact on our defense posture,” the statement said.

The test raises further doubts about working-level talks, which were supposed to resume shortly after last month’s meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.

Trump, Pompeo optimistic

In an interview with the U.S. cable network Fox News, Trump was optimistic, saying he still gets along “very well” with Kim. 

“They haven’t done nuclear testing. They really haven’t tested missiles other than, you know, smaller ones. Which is something that lots test,” Trump said.

In an earlier interview with Fox News, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he still believes negotiations will start soon. 

“We’re working our way towards that. I think we’ll be able to pull that off in just a handful of weeks,” Pompeo said.

“North Korea has engaged in activity before we were having diplomatic conversations far worse than this. … I think this allows negotiations to go forward. Lots of countries posture before they come to the table,” he said.

Asked about Kim’s unveiling Tuesday of a newly built submarine that is apparently capable of handling nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, Pompeo said: “We all go look at our militaries. And we all take pictures of them.”

UN resolution

Under United Nations Security Council resolutions, North Korea is banned from conducting any ballistic missile activity. But Trump administration officials have said they do not see North Korea’s short-range tests as a breach of trust.

Kim last year declared a moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear tests. During their meeting at the DMZ last month, Kim also promised Trump that he would “continue to avoid launching intermediate range and long-range ballistic missiles,” Pompeo said Thursday.

At a State Department briefing Thursday, spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said the Trump administration’s focus is on continued diplomatic engagement with North Korea.

“And we continue to urge the North Koreans to resolve all of the things that the president and Chairman Kim (Jong Un) have talked about through diplomacy. We urge no more provocations, and that all parties should abide by our obligations under Security Council resolutions.”

Trump and Kim have held three meetings since June of last year. At their first meeting, both men agreed to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But neither side has agreed on what that idea means or how to work toward it.

North Korea wants the United States to provide security guarantees and relax sanctions in exchange for partial steps to dismantle its nuclear program. Washington has insisted it will not ease sanctions unless Pyongyang commits to totally abandoning its nuclear program.

North Korea has given the United States until the end of the year to change its approach to the talks. Trump insists he is in no hurry to reach a deal, insisting his friendship with Kim will eventually persuade the young North Korean leader to give up his nuclear weapons.
 

Tech savvy farmers in Nigeria are using a farming technique known as aeroponics, in which plants are grown in humid air. The practice is not well known in Nigeria, but those using it are on a mission to make it more popular. 

In the town of Abeokuta, the technique could make a big difference in a country where violence and desertification have made huge amounts of land unfarmable.

Biochemist Samson Ogbole is popularly known as Nigeria’s smart farmer.

He and his team are growing crops without soil at a tech-based farm they started three years ago in Abeokuta, in southwest Nigeria.

Working to end food scarcity

They say they’re on a mission to eliminate seasonal food scarcity in Nigeria.

“Because we’re the ones controlling everything that the plant requires, we’re not depending on seasons,” Ogbole said. “So it’s no longer seasonal farming, it is just farming anytime of the year, meaning we can plant anytime of the year, we can harvest anytime of the year.”

But setting up the smart farm was not easy. It required startup capital of more than $180,000, Ogbole said.

“We were called wizards, demons, that we are doing something unnatural. So it took a whole lot to try to convince people that there’s nothing demonic about what we are doing,” he added.

Farming difficulties

In Nigeria, about 30 million hectares of farmland is being cultivated, instead of 78.5 million hectares needed for food security.

Widespread communal clashes, insurgency and desertification in the north are the top reasons arable land is lost.

And only 49% of the cultivated land is fertile, a situation that worries traditional farmers like Abubakar Ibrahim.

“I don’t have any other place that I’ll go to farm apart from here,” he said. “And here already the land has become weak. We’re just managing it for us not to stay idle.”

No land needed

In contrast, aeroponics does not require land other traditional farm work. Nutrients for the plants are automatically regulated in a recycling system, greatly increasing productivity.

Philip Ojo is director general of Nigeria’s National Agricultural Seeds Council. He says the government is encouraging new farming methods.

“One very good thing that is actually very important, particularly when you’re using it for yam or cassava, you discover that you can rapidly multiply planting materials that you can use outside there,” he said. “So it’s one of those new technologies that we are even promoting.”

Nigeria’s agricultural sector contributes about 40% of the country’s economic activities. The government wants to expand this percentage substantially.

For the moment, most farmers lack the technical know-how to enhance productivity and do not have access to high quality seeds to guarantee better harvests.

Tech savvy farmers like Ogbole are offering an alternative.
 

Temperature records are being broken across Europe as a heat wave grips the continent.

Hot air moving from the Sahara region has caused temperatures to rise.

Paris surpassed its heat record Thursday, with temperatures in the city reaching 42.7 degrees Celsius. Paris’ record had been set in 1947 at 40.4 degrees Celsius.

In June, France experienced its hottest day on record, with temperatures reaching 47 degrees Celsius, causing the heat alert system to go to its maximum level of red for the first time.

The Netherlands experienced its hottest day on record Thursday, with temperatures reaching 41.7 degrees Celsius. The previous record was set Wednesday, with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees Celsius in the Gilze Rijen municipality near the Belgian border.

In Germany, heat records are also being broken, with temperatures reaching 42.6 degrees Celsius. The previous record was set Wednesday, with a high of 40.5 degrees Celsius in Geilenkirchen also near the Belgian border.

Belgium also experienced its hottest day Thursday, with highs reaching 40.7 degrees Celsius, also in the western town of Beitem.

Many public buildings in Europe lack air conditioning. Additionally, only 5% of homes have cooling units, according to reports.

Trains across the continent have stopped, and authorities have advised people to seek cool environments.

In Germany, Switzerland and Austria, some communities painted vital rail tracks white in hopes that the light color would bring down the temperature a few degrees.
 

There was more flash than substance Thursday as the White House celebrated the anniversary of an initiative to spur job training by companies.

The initiative, led by President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, has garnered commitments from 300 companies to provide 12 million training opportunities in the years ahead. But there are questions about how much the administration is willing to spend to help U.S. workers, whether the agreements by companies will result in higher salaries and whether employers will stick to their nonbinding pledge if the economy sours.

A look at the celebratory rhetoric:

Ivanka Trump: “This administration believes that every American should have a chance to earn a great living doing work that they love. … The president’s call to action for the pledge has become a full-blown national movement. Over the last year, more than 300 businesses, 300 businesses, have signed the pledge, businesses large and small, and today we celebrate reaching 12 million pledged commitments. … This pledge is more than just a number. Every single pledge is a commitment to the promise of an individual and his or her potential.”

Vice President Mike Pence: “That is an astonishing accomplishment.”

The Facts: It’s much too early to declare the pledge a game changer for working Americans.

Spending cut

For one thing, the government has not devoted significant spending to training workers. In fact, the Trump administration has come up with budget proposals calling for cuts in that area. The government spends just 0.03% of the gross domestic product on job training, a level of support that has been halved since 2000, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Of the 36 countries in the organization, only Japan and Mexico spend less than the U.S. by that measure.

By having companies sign the pledge, the Trump administration is relying on the private sector to take on more of the financial burden of training workers. It’s unclear whether the commitment by 300 entities will be honored during the half-decade horizon if the economy begins to weaken and companies have less incentive to invest in employees.

Nor is it clear how many workers were already going to be trained, absent the initiative. In many cases, the pledge simply confers a presidential seal of approval on what some companies are doing anyway.

Not college

Major corporate leaders such as IBM CEO Ginni Rometty have worked with the administration and sincerely committed company resources to training workers. But she also told reporters at an event this year that the government should expand its grant and student debt programs to what were later described as “career-oriented learning programs” other than colleges. That means some workers would need to finance their training with personal debt. Other companies such as the tech firm Infosys have lengthened their training programs and partnered with universities.

Yet on the whole, companies have done relatively little to invest in workers — who increasingly hold college degrees — by paying them more money.

Until 2003, compensation and corporate profits had moved roughly in sync, according to figures compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. But they have sharply diverged in the past 15 years as profits shot upward while spending on employee pay has crept up much more slowly. This gap between profits and incomes has persisted under Trump.

A key victory

The Trump administration can claim one small victory as the number of registered apprentices — a key initiative — increased 10% last year to 585,026 people, according to the Labor Department.

It’s also worth putting the 12 million commitments for job training over five or so years into context.

Roughly 20 million people enroll in a college or university annually, according to the government. This means that plenty of Americans are already seeking out training, though not necessarily the kind of training that employers say they want.
 

RFE/RL contributed to this report.

Despite the arrest of a top Kremlin critic and police raids on the homes of several political activists, opposition leaders in Russia remained determined to go ahead with a planned protest in Moscow on Saturday.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was ordered jailed Wednesday for 30 days for calling “unauthorized protests” for this weekend to protest the disqualification of several opposition-minded candidates from the Sept. 8 Moscow city council elections.

Election officials have barred about 30 independent candidates from the ballot, saying some of the 5,500 signatures they needed to get on the ballot were invalid. The rejected candidates say the reason for not validating the signatures is to keep genuine independents off the ballots and ensure the ruling United Russia party and others who do President Vladimir Putin’s bidding maintain dominance.

“If the United Russia swindlers don’t register the independent candidates and spit on the opinions of the citizenry, then all of us … will come to the mayor’s office at Tverskaya 13,” Navalny wrote on a social media post earlier this week.

Last weekend, more than 20,000 people marched in the streets of Moscow to protest the disqualifications. That’s when Navalny called for an even bigger rally Saturday.

Mass protests

Rejected candidate Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer with Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, also called for mass protests after a meeting between the disqualified candidates and Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova.

The Russian authorities appear to be adopting a carrot-and-stick approach as the July 27 demonstration nears. Pamfilova met with the opposition candidates and heard their complaints — one of which was that Moscow election officials had refused to meet with them and hear their complaints.

Pamfilova promised to consider the complaints of the disqualified candidates, but warned them that the CEC does not have the authority to overturn decisions of the Moscow Election Commission. She said the law grants local election commissions such autonomy to prevent Moscow from exerting influence on them.

Pamfilova also urged candidates not to participate in protests, saying “the influence of street protests on the CEC is zero.”

Navalny was arrested just hours after the meeting with Pamfilova.

On the ballot

Sixteen regions will choose governors in Russia’s Sept. 8 elections, including the city of St. Petersburg. Fourteen regions and the city of Moscow will select legislative assemblies, and 21 other cities will choose municipal councils.

United Russia has entered the election season with a record-low public approval rating. Analysts and Kremlin critics say the authorities are resorting to numerous “dirty tricks” and other tactics to ensure the party maintains the grip on power it has enjoyed through most of Putin’s nearly two decades at the country’s helm.

Joe Biden no longer plans to turn the other cheek.
 
His front-running status fragile, the former vice president is embracing an aggressive plan to confront Democratic rivals who have tried to undermine his popularity with black voters.
 
After ignoring his Democratic competition for much of the year, Biden and his team shrugged off the risks Thursday and leaned into a deliberate campaign to push back against New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Sen. Kamala Harris, the only high-profile African-American candidates in the race.
 
Biden’s team highlighted Booker and Harris’ past praise of Biden while raising questions about their own records related to race. And Biden’s allies made clear that the former vice president was prepared for a fight in next week’s debate. They also point to numerous surveys showing Biden with durable support among black voters that far exceeds that of Booker or Harris.
 
“He’s going to forcefully defend his record and not let it get distorted,” declared Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana congressman and national co-chairman of Biden’s campaign. The comments echoed Biden’s own from the night before in Detroit when he warned his competitors that he was “not going to be as polite” in the upcoming prime-time faceoff, where Biden will share the stage with both Booker and Harris.
 
Biden’s shift underscores the escalating racial rift roiling the Democratic primary just days after President Donald Trump issued racist calls for four female congresswomen of color to leave the country, even though all of them are American citizens. For Democrats, the evolving fight represents an unwelcome distraction away from Trump’s record.
 
In some respects, however, it is only beginning.

 
Both Harris and Booker have hit Biden in recent weeks by highlighting his support for criminal justice reform that disproportionately hurt the minority community and his willingness to cooperate with segregationist senators in the 1970s, among other trouble spots from his nearly four-decade career in Congress. Booker this week called Biden the “architect of mass incarceration” for his support of a crime bill in 1994.
 
Biden struggled to defend himself against Harris on race in the first debate, but his team insists he won’t be caught off guard again.
 
The strategy marks a critical test for Biden, who has worked in the past month, with varying degrees of success, to stress his eight-year partnership with President Barack Obama over a 36-year Senate career he long saw as worthy of the presidency.
 
In the past month, he has sought to move beyond those early Senate years, attempting to untangle himself from awkward comments lauding his collaboration with segregationist colleagues and his opposition to federally mandated busing. Instead, he has stressed key roles alongside Obama and married his own policy proposals to gains made during that administration.
 
During a speech in South Carolina last month, he apologized for anguish caused by the segregationist comments, but also said he did not plan to relitigate in 60-second debate answers his long Senate career, a sentiment reflected in some supporters’ observations that Biden has appeared defensive or dismissive.
 
Biden’s preemptive criticism of Booker’s time as Newark, New Jersey, mayor suggests Biden sees value in a level of defiance. But in some cases, he has come off as defensive and dismissive, even to his supporters.
 
In an interview, the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose support many candidates covet to help win votes from African Americans, said he didn’t know if Biden could execute the delicate strategy.
 
“In the past he has had fumbles. We’ll see if he can operate with discipline now,” Sharpton said. “He needs to be cautious.”
 
Indeed, Biden’s strategy pits an older white male against two younger people of color at a time when the Democratic Party’s most passionate voters are demanding a new generation of diverse leaders.
 
So far, Biden can take comfort in polls that show him with a commanding edge among black voters. A survey released Thursday by Monmouth University found that 39% of likely South Carolina Democratic voters supported Biden. That was more than any other candidate — including Harris, who had support from just 12%, and Booker, with 2%. Biden’s support was particularly strong among black voters, winning 51%.
 
Biden strategist Kate Bedingfield used his strong support from black voters as ammunition to attack Booker on social media on Thursday, tweeting pictures of poll results that showed Biden far ahead of Booker among black voters.
 
The day before, she released a statement condemning Booker’s tenure as mayor of Newark, where, she said, he ran “a police department that was such a civil rights nightmare that the U.S. Department of Justice intervened.’ She also highlighted Booker’s “zero-tolerance” policy for minor infractions and a stop-and-frisk policy that disproportionately hurt African Americans.
 
Biden himself noted this week that Harris has been a vocal supporter long before she used his record on school busing to attack him in the first debate.

 
At the 2016 California Democratic convention, Harris heaped praise on then-Vice President Biden. “I say from my personal experience that the Biden family truly represents our nation’s highest ideals, a powerful belief in the nobility of public service,” she said.
 
To complement the campaign against his Democratic opponents, Biden has also tweaked his message on the campaign trail.
 
Since the first debate, he has almost completely dropped references to his Republican friendships and focused instead on his eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president.
 
“I think anybody in this race would love to have the record of achievement alongside Barack Obama that Joe Biden has,” Bedingfield said. “If they want to tear it down, I’d say best of luck to them.”
 
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright worries about the long-term consequences of sustained Democratic attacks on Biden’s commitment to minority communities, who will play a vital role in the November 2020 general election. Still, he says Biden has a real opportunity to project strength ahead of a prospective general election matchup against Trump.
 
“When you get swung at, you don’t have to swing back, but you also have to show that you know how to fight,” he said.

After months of anticipation, Congress finally heard testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller. So what now? 
 
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mueller’s appearance was “a crossing of a threshold,” raising public awareness of what Mueller found. And Democrats after the hearing said they had clearly laid out the facts about the Mueller report, which did not find a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia but detailed extensive Russian intervention in the 2016 election. Mueller also said in the report that he couldn’t clear President Donald Trump on obstruction of justice. 
 
But it remains to be seen how the testimony will affect public views of Trump’s presidency and the push for impeachment. Mueller said some of the things that Democrats wanted him to say — including a clear dismissal of Trump’s claims of total exoneration — but he declined to answer many of their questions, and he spoke haltingly at times. Trump claimed victory, saying Mueller did “a horrible job.”

Democrats say they will continue to hold Trump to account. A look at the ways they will try to do that in the coming months: 
 
Investigations continue 
 
Democrats have struggled to obtain testimony from some of the most crucial figures in Mueller’s report, including former White House counsel Donald McGahn. And the few people they have interviewed, such as former White House aide Hope Hicks, have failed to give them new information beyond what’s in Mueller’s report. 
 
But Democrats have multiple investigations of the president ongoing that don’t require cooperation from the White House or Justice Department. The House intelligence and financial services committees are probing Trump’s finances, an area that Mueller appears to have avoided. And the intelligence panel is investigating Trump’s negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the campaign. 
 
Their day in court 
 
To obtain the testimony from McGahn and others, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Wednesday that his panel will file lawsuits this week. 
 
Democrats will seek to obtain secret grand jury material from Mueller’s report that has been withheld from Congress by the Justice Department. They will also try to force McGahn to provide documents and testimony. 
 
As part of the suits, the House is expected to challenge the White House’s claim of “absolute immunity,” which has been used to block McGahn and others who worked in the White House from testifying. 
 
While going to court can be a lengthy process, Democrats believe it will be their best chance of obtaining information after Trump declared he would fight “all of the subpoenas.”  
 
Calls for impeachment inquiry
 
Almost 90 House Democrats have called for an impeachment inquiry, and more are certain to do so after Mueller’s testimony. Those who support opening proceedings say it would bolster Democrats’ court cases and show the American people they are moving decisively to challenge what they see as Trump’s egregious behavior.

But Pelosi isn’t there, not yet. And a majority of the caucus is siding with her, for now. 
 
Pelosi said Wednesday she wants “the strongest possible hand” by waiting to see what happens in court. 
 
August recess 
 
The House is expected to leave town for a five-week August recess on Friday, so some of the Democrats’ efforts will be on hold until September. 
 
During that time, they’ll be at home listening to their constituents and judging how urgently voters want them to act. Those conversations and town halls could inform next steps in the fall. 
 
Still, not everyone will be taking a break. Rhode Island Representative David Cicilline said Wednesday that members might fly back in August if witnesses are available for testimony. He said the judiciary panel understands “the urgency of the moment and are prepared to do whatever is necessary to secure the attendance of witnesses and documents.” 
 
Election security 
 
Democrats in both the House and the Senate want to move forward with legislation to make elections more secure after Mueller extensively detailed Russian interference. 
 
House Democrats have passed legislation to secure state election systems and try to prevent foreign meddling, but bipartisan legislation in the Senate has stalled. Democrats tried to bring up an election security bill in the Senate on Wednesday, but Republicans objected.  
 
Justice Department reviews 
 
The Justice Department isn’t done with its own investigations into what happened before the 2016 election. 
 
There are two ongoing reviews into the origins of the Russia probe that Mueller eventually took over — one being conducted by the Justice Department’s inspector general and another by U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General William Barr to examine surveillance methods used by the Justice Department. 
 
Republicans have said the department, then led by Obama administration officials, was biased against Trump. They are eagerly anticipating the results of those probes. 
 
Republican say it’s over 
 
Republicans say that nothing should be next, at least when it comes to investigations of the president. They have strongly defended Trump, who’s called Mueller’s probe a hoax, and have said the country wants to move on. 
 
“Today was [the] day we closed the book on this investigation,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy after Mueller’s hearing. 
 
Georgia Representative Doug Collins, the top Republican on the judiciary panel, said at the hearing that “we’ve had the truth for months — no American conspired to throw our elections.”

Said Collins: “What we need today is to let that truth bring us confidence and closure.” 

White House officials on Thursday were baffled as to why a doctored presidential seal — including an eagle clutching golf clubs in its talons instead of arrows — was projected on stage at an event at which U.S. President Donald Trump spoke.

The seal was displayed on Tuesday at Turning Point USA’s student summit, where Trump gave a raucous 80-minute speech and was greeted warmly by the youthful audience.

The image included a two-headed eagle, instead of just one head, which the Washington Post said closely resembles the bird on the Russian coat of arms and also appears on the flags of Serbia, Albania and Montenegro.

The eagle has a set of golf clubs in its talons instead of the traditional seal’s clutch of arrows.

There were suspicions at the White House that the organizers had found the doctored image online and mistakenly used it.

“We never saw the seal in question before it appeared in the video,” said a White House official. “The White House had no knowledge of it.”

Officials referred questions to Turning Point USA, which could not immediately be reached for comment.

The political nonprofit group was founded to organize conservative students on college campuses by Charlie Kirk, an outspoken supporter of Trump. It maintains a controversial Professor Watchlist of college professors it deems too liberal.

As a political nonprofit, the group may raise and spend unlimited sums of money and engage in educational efforts around politics, but it is prohibited from using its resources to campaign for a candidate for elected office.

The prospects of U.S. Democratic lawmakers impeaching President Donald Trump appears to have significantly diminished after former special counsel Robert Mueller offered no new explosive allegations about the U.S. leader in hours of congressional testimony this week.

One of the overseers of Mueller’s hearing, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, told CNN on Thursday, “We do need to be realistic, and that is, the only way he’s leaving office, at least at this point, is by being voted out” in the 2020 election in which Trump is seeking a second four-year term.

“Should we put the country through an impeachment?” Schiff asked rhetorically. “I haven’t been convinced yet that we should. Going through that kind of momentous and disruptive experience for the country, I think, is not something we go into lightly.”

He said Democratic “efforts need to be made in every respect to make sure we turn out our people” to vote against the Republican Trump in the November 2020 election.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee that questioned Mueller for more than three hours on Wednesday, has pushed to launch impeachment hearings against Trump. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has blocked the effort so far, fearing the political repercussions and believing it ultimately would prove to be an empty gesture. 

Even if House Democrats were able to muster the simple majority vote necessary to approve articles of impeachment, the Republican-controlled Senate would not vote by the required two-thirds majority to convict Trump and remove him from office.

Schiff said, “I would be delighted if we had a prospect of removing him through impeachment, but we don’t, and the most attractive thing to me about an impeachment is that it’s among the strongest forms of censure we have. But the same is true of an acquittal for the president. That’s the strongest form of exoneration for him, and that stays my hand.”

After the Mueller hearings before the judiciary and intelligence committees, Pelosi declined to take impeachment off the table as a possibility, but also did not endorse immediate impeachment hearings. Instead, she continued to call for Democrats to pursue multiple investigations of Trump and his administration’s policies and supported legal challenges to the White House’s refusal to allow congressional testimony by key current and former Trump officials.

“If we have a case for impeachment, that’s the place we will have to go,” Pelosi told reporters. “Why I’d like it to be a strong case is because it’s based on the facts — the facts and the law, that’s what matters. The stronger our case is, the worse the Senate will look for just letting the president off the hook.”

But Pelosi said the Democrats’ investigations are “not endless in terms of time.”

“If it comes to a point where the cone of silence and the obstruction of justice and the cover up in the White House prevents us from getting that information, that will not prevent us from going forward and in fact, it’s even more grounds to go forward,” Pelosi said.

About 90 of the 235 Democrats in the 435-member House of Representatives have called for Trump’s impeachment or the start of an impeachment inquiry, One more Democratic lawmaker, Congresswoman Lori Trahan of Massachusetts, added her name to the list after Mueller’s testimony. Some Democratic lawmakers had thought many more might support an impeachment call after hearing Mueller’s testimony. 

Republicans have scoffed at even the possibility of attempting to impeach Trump.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Thursday, “Why would you even bring up impeachment after that (Mueller) hearing? Why would they even put the American public through this?”

Schiff’s assessment downplaying impeachment as a way to oust Trump from the White House came a day after hours of Mueller’s sometimes halting testimony about the 448-page report he and his team of prosecutors compiled about their 22-month investigation. They probed Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe.

Mueller, as he had vowed to do, stuck closely to his team’s findings, rebuffing Democratic lawmakers’ entreaties to offer damning new information about Trump or to discuss Republican lawmakers’ claim that his investigation should never have been opened or was biased against Trump. 

The prosecutor had concluded there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with conspiring with Russia to help him win the election, even though his campaign had dozens of contacts with Russian operatives.

 

In his report, Mueller laid out as many as 11 instances when Trump allegedly engaged in obstructive behavior, although Mueller declined to decide whether Trump should be charged with a criminal offense because of a Justice Department policy prohibiting criminal charges against a sitting president. Subsequently, Attorney General William Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said no charges were warranted against Trump.

Trump has repeatedly claimed exoneration in the probe, but Mueller said he had not cleared the president of obstruction allegations and that Trump could be charged after he leaves office.

Trump said this week that lawmakers calling for his impeachment “have gone totally crazy.”

National polls in the U.S. show majorities against impeaching Trump, with a recent Washington Post-ABC News survey saying that 59% oppose Trump’s impeachment and 37% favor it.

Congressional Democrats are pivoting away from questions of impeachment by saying they are going to “own” the August recess on issues like health care and prescription drug costs.

Majority Democrats gathered on the House steps under brilliant sunshine Thursday to talk policy goals as they prepared to leave Washington for five weeks. Not among their talking points was the testimony a day earlier by former special counsel Robert Mueller, which dulled some Democratic hopes of moving closer to formal impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared, “We are going to own August, make it too hot to handle for the Senate” to ignore Democratic legislative goals to streamline government and lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs.

Libya’s coast guard says dozens of Europe-bound migrants are missing and feared drowned after the rubber boats they were traveling on capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.

Spokesman Ayoub Gassim says they rescued around 125 migrants on Thursday. The U.N. refugee agency says up to 150 may have perished at sea.

Libya became a major conduit for African migrants and refugees fleeing to Europe after the uprising that toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Traffickers and armed groups have exploited Libya’s chaos since his overthrow.

 

France plans to launch mini surveillance satellites to enhance the protection and defense of French satellites from 2023, its defence minister said on Thursday, signalling an intensification in the race to militarize space.

Defense Minister Florence Parly said France was not being sucked into an arms race and that the creation of a new French “space command” announced by the president was central to a strategy to bolster defense capabilities, rather than offensive.

“If we want to be able to carry out real military operations in space, then we need to develop the ability to act alone,” Parly said, speaking at the Lyon-Mont Verdun air base.

The “space command,” Parly said, would fall under the air force’s control. With space fast becoming one of the greatest challenges to national security, the government would draw up new legislation to hand oversight of all French activities in space to the Defense Ministry.

President Emmanuel Macron’s desire to create a space command, which Parly announced will go live on Sept. 1, followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to usher in a new space force that will form the sixth branch of the U.S. military by 2020.

Parly described the mini-satellites that will patrol space from 2023 as “fearsome little detectors that will be the eyes of our most valuable satellites.” Space and aeronautics company Thales had ambitions in the field, she said.

She called on France’s European partners to work together on space surveillance. “In particular I count on Germany to be at the heart of space surveillance.”

French convictions of the need to strengthen defense capacities in space were strengthened when a Russian satellite last year attempted to intercept transmissions from a Franco-Italian satellite used by both countries armies for secure communications in what it called an “act of espionage.”

Oversight of French activities in space currently lies with the French Space Agency (CNES).
 

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. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Marine General Joseph Dunford also met U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leading talks with Taliban militants to end the 18-year war.

The United States is trying to negotiate a deal that would see foreign forces pull out of Afghanistan in return for security guarantees by Taliban militants, including a pledge that the country will not become a safe haven for terror groups.

Peace talk leverage

Afghan security experts said the insurgents were increasing attacks to gain greater leverage in the peace talks. The eighth round is expected to begin this month in Qatar.

The Taliban also clashed with Afghan forces in northern province of Takhar to secure control over checkpoints and capture several districts. Both sides said that they have inflicted heavy damage on their opponents.

In the eastern province of Nangarhar, a roadside bomb hit a wedding party on Thursday. Six women and three children were killed in the blast in Khogyani district, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement.

No group has claimed responsibility for that attack.