European nations appealed Sunday for Iran to reverse its decision to raise its enrichment of uranium beyond the levels of a 2015 nuclear deal that placed limits on its nuclear program.  

Iran announced earlier Sunday that it would soon begin enriching uranium beyond the 3.67% limit mandated in its agreement with international powers. Reuters reports that Iran may raise the enrichment level to 5% to produce fuel for power plants.

Britain urged Iran to “immediately stop and reverse” all actions that are inconsistent with the agreement, under which it accepted restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions.

The United States subsequently repudiated the agreement and has reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran, arguing that it has used the sanctions relief to finance destabilizing activities throughout the Middle East. European powers have tried to save the deal.

Germany also issued a statement Sunday calling for Iran to reverse its decision, adding that the signatories to the agreement are in discussions about the next steps. An EU spokesperson told the Associated Press that an emergency meeting of the participants may be convened.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani first suggested last week that his country would begin enriching uranium at higher levels unless it received more help on sanctions relief from the other signatories to the 2015 agreement.

That agreement was meant to allay fears that Iran was working toward a nuclear weapon.  The deal barred Iran from enriching uranium above 3.67% and said it could hold only 300 kilograms of such material in its stockpiles.

The 3.67% level is sufficient for nuclear power purposes, but far below the 90% enrichment that is needed for nuclear arms.

Rouhani said recently, Iran was prepared to enrich “any amount that we want” beyond the 3.67% level.  He further pledged to resume construction of the Arak heavy water reactor, a project that Iran agreed to shut down when it signed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Iran has been seeking European support after the United States withdrew from the agreement last year and imposed several rounds of new sanctions, including measures targeting Iran’s key oil sector.

Last week, Iran announced that it had already surpassed the 300 kilogram enriched uranium limit, but officials including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have said Iran was ready to go back to observing the limits under the JCPOA if it gets the economic help from the other nations involved in the deal.

The remaining signatories have all voiced concern about Iran’s stockpile limit breach.  

Britain, France, Germany and the European Union said in a joint statement recently they had been “consistent and clear that our commitment to the nuclear deal depends on full compliance by Iran” and urged the Islamic Republic “to refrain from further measures that undermine” the accord.

The three countries and the EU said they “are urgently considering next steps.”

Russia and China, two other world powers that have stuck to the 2015 agreement, have also objected to Iran’s breaching of the uranium stockpile provision.

Sofia Lysenko’s parents moved to the United States from the Ukraine when she was 3 years old. Today, at 17, some of the biggest American pharmaceutical companies want to team up with this teenage science prodigy because she has created an artificial macromolecule robot that can deliver drugs directly to the brain cells of patients with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Iryna Matviichuk met with Sofia to learn more. Anna Rice narrates her report.

Protesters in Hong Kong were taking their message to visitors from mainland China on Sunday in a march to a high-speed rail station that connects to Guangdong city and other mainland destinations.

A mostly young crowd gathered in the midafternoon ahead of a march through a high-end shopping area popular with Chinese tourists and ending at West Kowloon station.

Police put up large barricades blocking a main entrance to the station to prevent any attempt to enter it. Only passengers with train reservations would be allowed into the station, the mass transit authority said, and Hong Kong media reported that ticket sales had been suspended for afternoon trains.

Hong Kong has been riven by protests for the past month, sparked by proposed changes to extradition laws that would have allowed suspects to be sent to the mainland to face trial. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam suspended the bill and apologized for how it was handled, but protesters want it to be formally withdrawn and for Lam to resign.

March organizers said they want to explain their cause to people from the mainland, where media coverage of the movement has been limited and focused largely on the damage to public property.

The high-speed rail station, which opened last September, was a source of contention, as passengers pass through Chinese immigration and customs inside. Some opposition lawmakers said the fact that Chinese law applies in the immigration area violates the agreement giving Hong Kong its own legal system.

The July 1 break-in at the legislature overshadowed a peaceful march the same day by hundreds of thousands of people also opposed to the extradition legislation.

Protesters also are demanding an independent investigation into a crackdown on demonstrations June 12 in which officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds blocking major city streets. The tactics used were harsher than usual for Hong Kong, which police have said were justified after some protesters turned violent. Dozens were injured in the clashes, both protesters and police.

The protesters are also calling for direct election of Hong Kong’s leader. Lam was chosen by an elite committee of mainly pro-Beijing electors.

Stevie Wonder surprised concertgoers in London Saturday night by announcing that he will take a break from performing so that he can receive a kidney transplant this fall.

The 69-year-old music legend made the announcement after performing “Superstition” at the end of a packed British Summer Time concert in London’s sprawling Hyde Park.

He said he was speaking out to quell rumors and sought to reassure fans that he would be OK.

“I’m going to be doing three shows then taking a break,” he said. “I’m having surgery. I’m going to have a kidney transplant at the end of September this year.”

‘Ain’t gonna hear no rumors’

He said a donor has been found and that he would be fine, drawing cheers from a devoted crowd of tens of thousands that stretched out from the stage as far as the eye could see.

“I came here to give you my love and to thank you for yours,” he said. “You ain’t gonna hear no rumors about us. I’m good.”

He did not provide additional information about his kidney illness. There had been a recent report that Wonder was facing a serious health issue.

A representative for Wonder didn’t immediately respond to a request Saturday for details about his health. He has kept an active schedule, including performing recently at a Los Angeles memorial service for slain rapper Nipsey Hussle.

Wonder, who has received more than two-dozen Grammy Awards, has produced a string of hits over a long career that began when he was a youngster who performed as Little Stevie Wonder. His classic hits include “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “Living for the City.”

Singer in top form

Wonder seemed in top form throughout the concert, performing a series of his hits and paying tribute to musical heroes including Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and John Lennon, performing a stirring rendition of the latter’s “Imagine” near the end of the show.

It was a joyous event, with his fans reveling in the warm summer night, though a light drizzle fell near the end, and the career-spanning retrospective that evoked Wonder’s early days as a young Motown star.

He did seem less ebullient than in the past and made his health announcement in a somber tone with a severe look on his face. But he was smiling as he left the stage with the band playing the memorable conclusion of “Superstition” one final time.
 

British Interior Minister Sajid Javid will soon formally endorse Boris Johnson to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and the country’s next prime minister, the Sunday Times reported. 

Johnson is the front-runner in a contest with Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt to be the next leader. Voting is due to close on July 22, with the winner set to be announced the following day. 

Johnson has pledged to leave the European Union with or without a deal on Oct. 31 if he becomes prime minister, while Hunt has said that he would, if absolutely necessary, go for a no-deal Brexit. 

The Sunday Times said Javid has positioned himself to be Johnson’s finance minister, taking over from current Finance Minister Philip Hammond. 

It reported that in a speech on Tuesday, Javid will say: “Trust in our democracy will be at stake if we don’t make Oct. 31 a ‘deal or no deal’ deadline. To prepare that, we are agreed on the need for ramped-up no-deal preparations, including a budget.” 

The newspaper also said that Johnson would visit the United States before the end of September to meet President Donald Trump. 

Wealthy financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was arrested Saturday in New York on sex-trafficking charges involving allegations that date to the 2000s, according to law enforcement officials. 

Epstein, a wealthy hedge fund manager who once counted as friends former President Bill Clinton, Great Britain’s Prince Andrew, and President Donald Trump, was taken into federal custody, according to two officials.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the pending case. 

Epstein is expected to appear Monday in Manhattan federal court. A message was sent to his attorney seeking comment. 

Epstein’s arrest was first reported by The Daily Beast. 

Plea deal scrutiny

The arrest comes amid renewed scrutiny of a once-secret plea deal that Epstein entered into. 

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to state charges of soliciting and procuring a person younger than 18 for prostitution. The deal ended a federal investigation that could have landed Epstein in prison for life.

Instead, he was sentenced to 13 months in jail and was required to reach financial settlements with dozens of his once-teenage victims. Epstein also was required to register as a sex offender. 
 

Joao Gilberto, a Brazilian singer, guitarist and songwriter considered one of the fathers of the bossa nova genre that gained global popularity in the 1960s and became an iconic sound of the South American nation, died Saturday, his son said. He was 88.

Joao Marcelo said his father had been battling health issues though no official cause of his death in Rio de Janeiro was given. “His struggle was noble. He tried to maintain his dignity in the light of losing his independence,” Marcelo posted on Facebook.

A fusion of samba and jazz, bossa nova emerged in the late 1950s and gained a worldwide following in the 1960s, pioneered by Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, who composed the iconic The Girl From Ipanema that was performed by Gilberto and others. His wife, Astrud Gilberto, made her vocal debut in the song.  

Began guitar at 14

Self-taught, Gilberto said he discovered music at age 14 when he held a guitar in his hands for the first time. With his unique playing style and modern jazz influences, he created the beat that defined bossa nova, helping launch the genre with his song Bim-Bom.

By 1961, Gilberto had finished the albums that would make bossa nova known around the world: Chega de Saudade; Love, a Smile and a Flower; and Joao Gilberto. His 1964 album Getz/Gilberto with U.S. saxophonist Stan Getz sold millions of copies.

“It was Joao Gilberto, the greatest genius of Brazilian music, who was the definitive influence on my music,” singer Gal Costa wrote on social media. “He will be missed but his legacy is very important to Brazil and to the world.”

Born in Bahia in northeastern Brazil, Gilberto moved to Rio de Janeiro at a young age. He was influenced by U.S. jazz greats and recorded songs in the United States, where he lived for much of the 1960s and 1970.

Over his career he won two Grammy Awards and was nominated for six, and the U.S. jazz magazine DownBeat in 2009 named him one of the 75 great guitarists in history and one of the five top jazz singers.

An entire subsequent generation of Brazilian musicians, including Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso, are considered his disciples.

Journalist and bossa nova expert Ruy Castro called the death of Gilberto a “monumental” loss.

Castro wrote in his book The Wave that Built in the Sea that Gilberto loved soccer and was a fan of the Fluminense club, whose games he liked to watch with a guitar in his hands.

‘A mystique’

“He managed to create a mystique about him abroad, being who he was and not even speaking English,” he told the Globo television station.

The musician had spent his final years wrapped in legal troubles, debts and disputes with his children. His last live performance was in 2008 and he canceled a commemorative show to mark his 80th year because of health problems.

With little interest in giving interviews, he’d become known as the “reclusive genius” in the streets of Leblon, the neighborhood in a southern part of Rio where he lived but was seldom seen.  

His funeral is to be held on Monday. He is survived by three children.

Singer Daniela Mercury called Gilberto a “genius who revolutionized popular Brazilian music. He taught us how to sing in the most beautiful way in the world.”

“Go in peace, maestro,” she wrote.

A Kazakhstan court has ordered a reporter for Current Time to leave the country and has banned her from re-entering for five years, citing violations of the country’s immigration regulations.

The court in Nur-Sultan on Friday ordered Zhazgul Egemberdieva, a Kyrgyztan national, to leave within 10 days.

Kazakh officials alleged Egemberdieva failed to notify immigration authorities that she was staying in Kazakhstan longer than 30 days.

Management officials with Current Time, a Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, said they were investigating the circumstances of the order.

Egemberdieva had been in Kazakhstan since May 3 as part of Current Time’s coverage of the June 9 presidential election.

The vote, which was won by Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, the handpicked successor of longtime ruler Nursultan Nazarbaev, was criticized by international observers who cited “detentions of peaceful protesters, and widespread voting irregularities on election day [that] showed scant respect for democratic standards.”

Egemberdieva had been scheduled to help in coverage of more anti-government protests that were taking place in Nur-Sultan on Saturday.

Journalists harassed

Reporters for Current Time and RFE/RL in general have faced increased scrutiny and harassment in Kazakhstan and Central Asia more broadly in recent years.

Ahead of the Kazakh presidential election, more than a half dozen RFE/RL reporters, producers and videographers were denied accreditation to cover the vote.

During the vote itself, several reporters from RFE/RL and other media were briefly detained by Kazakh authorities.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to reassure Western Balkan nations that support for their membership in the European Union remains strong, stressing that it is in the bloc’s “strategic interest” to bring in the new members.

Merkel told a Western Balkan summit in Poznan, Poland, on Friday that concerns expressed by French President Emmanuel Macron that the countries’ governance mechanisms become more efficient should not delay accession talks.

“I share President Macron’s view that the EU’s working mechanisms must be improved,” she said. “I don’t see that as an abandonment of the accession talks.”

She added that the accession process for Balkan nations aspiring for membership — Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia — was sufficiently lengthy to allow time for improvements to be made.

North Macedonia hailed

Speaking at a news conference as the summit concluded, Merkel singled out North Macedonia’s “courage” in trying to overcome divisive issues with its neighbors, especially a dispute over its name with Greece.

Athens opposed the country’s use of the name Macedonia, saying it implied territorial designs on the Greek province of the same name. A compromise was reached, leading Skopje to change the country’s name to North Macedonia.

“That was a huge step. We waited for years for this step and we are very relieved,” Merkel said.

“I look optimistically toward the autumn” for the opening of membership talks, she added.

Last month, EU member states postponed until October a decision on whether to open accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania, amid resistance from some bloc members, including France and the Netherlands.

The latest EU strategy for the region suggests membership for Montenegro and Serbia by 2025, but officials have said that goal is “extremely ambitious.”

Polish President Andrzej Duda, who hosted the Poznan summit, criticized the EU for delaying accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia and urged the bloc to offer the Balkan states a clear path toward EU membership.

The Balkan states should not be asked to participate in a race “where they cannot see the finish line,” Duda said Friday.

Some EU leaders worry that too many delays on the EU’s part could allow Russia, Turkey and China to increase their influence in the region.

“Russia has used a variety of instruments to exercise — often pernicious — influence in the region,” the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group said in a report last month.

This article contains material from AP, Reuters and dpa.

At least two people have been killed and about 20 others wounded in a bomb blast inside a Shiite mosque in the Afghan city of Ghazni, officials said Saturday.

The explosion occurred late Friday when the Mohammadiya mosque in the Khak-e-Ghariban area of Ghazni was packed with worshippers attending evening prayers, provincial governor spokesman Arif Noor said.

As many as 70 people were present at the time of the explosion, Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, the head of the Ghazni provincial council, and Councilor Amanullah Kamran said.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier, the Taliban denied involvement in the mosque attack and condemned the bombing.

IS, which has a limited presence in Ghazni, is also suspected by locals of destroying a shrine known as Shams Sahib in the western part of Ghazni in May.

In recent months, Ghazni police have arrested several people on suspicion of having links to IS.

This article contains material from dpa, tolonews.com.

A small Ohio city is shooting for the moon in celebrating its native son’s history-making walk 50 years ago this month.

The hometown of Neil Armstrong has expanded its usual weekend “summer moon festival” to 10 days of Apollo 11 commemorations . Tens of thousands of visitors — the biggest crowds here since Armstrong’s post-mission homecoming — are expected.

There will be hot air balloons, ’60s-themed evenings, concerts, rocket launches and a visit from five other Ohio astronauts. And “the world’s largest moon pie,” all 50 pounds of it.

Event planning began two years ago in a city of about 10,000 that has added nearly 3,000 residents since 1969 but retains that everybody-knows-everybody rural town feel. Jackie Martell of the chamber of commerce calls the moon landing anniversary an event that “just resonates for the entire world,” and a continuing source of local pride.

Dave Tangeman turned 12 on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 took Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon, and he and his family gathered around the black-and-white TV in their living room that evening to watch their neighbor. Hundreds of millions of people around the world were watching with them as Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface to make “one giant leap for mankind.”

“It was just so unbelievable that somebody from this little town could accomplish something like that,” said Tangeman, now transportation director for the local schools. He likes to joke that the town puts on a big birthday party for him every July.

Though Tangeman doesn’t remember much else about his 12th birthday, he has vivid memories of Armstrong’s triumphant welcome-home parade that Sept. 6, when most of the city of some 7,000 people joined tens of thousands of visitors to line the streets or climb onto roofs to see Armstrong, celebrities including entertainer Bob Hope, and the marching band from Armstrong’s Purdue University alma mater.

“History will always record that the first person to set foot on the moon was Neil Armstrong from Wapakoneta, Ohio,” said Dante Centuori, executive director of the Armstrong Air and Space Museum. “That’s not going to change.”

Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, at his grandparents’ farm just outside Wapakoneta. His family moved around Ohio before settling back at Wapakoneta for his high school years. Growing up some 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) north of the Dayton home of the aviation-pioneering Wright Brothers, young Neil was fascinated with airplanes from an early age, building models and hanging them up in his bedroom.

As a teen in Wapakoneta, he used earnings from an after-school job at a drugstore to pay for flying lessons, pedaling his bicycle a few miles every day to an airfield to practice his skills. He made his first solo flight at age 16, 20 years before he went into space for the first time inside Gemini 8 for what became a harrowing mission that he survived to make history in 1969.

Celebrations got started last October with a red-carpet gala for a special showing of “First Man ,” starring Ryan Gosling and based on historian James R. Hansen’s Armstrong biography, in the historic downtown Wapa theatre .

Downtown shops are well-supplied with T-shirts, coffee mugs, moon artwork and moon landing memorabilia to sell in the coming days. But the museum — with its moon base-shaped top visible from Interstate 75 — will be the centerpiece for activities around the anniversary, including a NASA livestream broadcast on July 19.

Centuori, the museum director who joined the facility in January, has been overseeing construction and remodeling to get ready for the expected influx eager to see planes and space artifacts associated with Armstrong. Those include the Aeronca Champion plane Armstrong flew as a teen, an F5D Skylancer plane he flew as a Navy test pilot, the Gemini 8 capsule he rode into space, and a small moon rock. The museum also will debut an expanded Armstrong education center for students to focus on science, technology, engineering and math.

The museum, which opened in 1972, also will unveil two of three new statues in town honoring Armstrong. Although James Rhodes, Ohio’s governor at the time, began planning for the museum even before Armstrong was back on Earth, the astronaut himself preferred a low profile in his post-NASA years. He lived in the Cincinnati area until his death in 2012 at age 82.

In keeping with Armstrong’s nature, the museum advises entering visitors that “Mr. Armstrong has never been involved in the management of this museum nor benefited from it in any way.”

He did, though, embrace his Wapakoneta connection, telling his welcome-home crowd: “I’m proud to stand before you today and consider myself one of you.”

Helping represent those who came after him in space at the celebration will be five of the two dozen other astronauts with Ohio ties: Michael Good, Gregory Johnson, Robert Springer, Donald Thomas and Sunita Williams.

The 14 Russian naval officers who died in a military nuclear-powered submarine earlier this week were buried Saturday amid tight security at a St. Petersburg cemetery. The cemetery was cordoned off by the military, and the media was not allowed to attend either the burial or the vigil at a local church.

Details remain scant about Monday’s fire on the research submersible in the Barents Sea. Moscow has indicated the crew was studying the sea floor.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the sailors were killed by toxic fumes from the fire, and that others survived, although the military hasn’t said how many. Officials didn’t name the nuclear-powered vessel, but Russian media has reported it was Russia’s most secret submersible, the Losharik.

News about the accident wasn’t made public until Tuesday — a full day after it occurred. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not confirm until Thursday at the Kremlin that the vessel was nuclear powered.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the unit remains in working order after crew members took all measures to save it.

The submersible was able to return to port in the city of Severomorsk. Russian officials said the officers died of smoke inhalation.

The defense ministry says the fire broke out as the vessel was involved in data collecting in Russian waters.

Norwegian officials who track radiation in those waters say they have not detected any irregular radiation.

North Korea said Saturday that an Australian student who it detained for a week had spread anti-Pyongyang propaganda and engaged in spying by providing photos and other materials to news outlets with critical views toward the North.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said North Korea deported Alek Sigley on Thursday after he pleaded for forgiveness for his activities, which the agency said infringed on the country’s sovereignty.

North Korea has been accused in the past of detaining Westerners and using them as political pawns to gain concessions. KCNA provided few details about Sigley’s alleged spying activities other than that he, at the “instigation” of the media outlets, provided them with photos and data that he had collected.

North Korea, which closely monitors visitors and enforces a stringent information blockade on its citizens, is extremely sensitive about controlling the flow of information, which made Sigley, who had a lively presence on Twitter, an anomaly in the country.

Sigley arrived in Tokyo on Thursday after telling reporters he was in “very good” condition, but without saying what happened to him. His father, Gary Sigley, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Western Australia, said his son was treated well in North Korea.

Sigley had been studying at a Pyongyang university and guiding tours in the North Korean capital before disappearing from social media contact with family and friends.

KCNA said Sigley, who was caught “red-handed” by a “relevant institution” of the North on June 25, had abused his status as a student by “combing” through Pyongyang and providing photos and other information to news sites such as NK News and other “anti-DPRK” media, a reference to the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The news agency said the North expelled Sigley out of “humanitarian leniency.”

“He honestly admitted his spying acts of systematically collecting and offering data about the domestic situation of the DPRK and repeatedly asked for pardon, apologizing for encroachment upon the sovereignty of the DPRK,” the agency said.

The North had not commented on Sigley before Saturday.

Sigley was released following intervention by Swedish diplomats. After his arrival in Beijing, he went to Tokyo to reunite with his Japanese wife, who he married in Pyongyang last year.

During his time in North Korea, Sigley often shared details about his life in Pyongyang through social media and the website of his travel agency, Tongil Tours, frequently challenging negative outside perceptions about the North and at times boasting about the extraordinary freedom he had as one of the few foreign students living there.

He also wrote op-eds and essays that appeared in the Western media, including NK News, although none of them seemed outwardly critical about the North’s government and political system.

In a statement published on its site, NK News CEO Chad O’Carroll said it would be a “misrepresentation” for the North to describe the articles Sigley wrote for the outlet as anti-state. He said NK News is an independent, specialist information website that aims to provide objective news and analysis about North Korea.

“Alek Sigley’s well-read columns presented an apolitical and insightful view of life in Pyongyang which we published in a bid to show vignettes of ordinary daily life in the capital to our readers,” O’Carroll said.

“The six articles Alek published represent the full extent of his work with us and the idea that those columns, published transparently under his name between January and April 2019, are ‘anti-state’ in nature is a misrepresentation which we reject,” he said.

Sigley’s ordeal had a much happier ending than that of American college student Otto Warmbier, who was convicted of attempting to steal a propaganda poster and imprisoned in North Korea. Warmbier died shortly after being sent back home to the U.S. in a vegetative state in June 2017.

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 United Nations says 25 health facilities in the region have been hit, the latest including the second attack in two months on an underground hospital in the town of Kafranbel on Thursday.

“The attacks happened despite the fact that the coordinates of this hospital had previously been shared with the parties to the conflict in a deliberate, carefully planned effort to prevent any attacks on it,” an UN official said Friday.

“I am horrified by the ongoing attacks on civilian areas and civilian infrastructure as the conflict in northwest Syria continues,” said Mark Cutts, U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syrian crisis.

Syria’s war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
 

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.

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 has jolted Southern California, but there are no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake hit at 8:19 p.m. local time Friday and was centered 11 miles from Ridgecrest, where a magnitude 6.4 quake struck Thursday. The agency initially said the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1. 

The quake was felt downtown as a rolling motion that seemed to last at least a half-minute. It was felt as far away as Las Vegas, and the USGS says it also was felt in Mexico.

If the preliminary magnitude is correct, it would be the largest Southern California quake in 20 years.

Meanwhile, seismologists say there have been 1,700 aftershocks in the wake of Thursday’s quake.

A magnitude 5.4 quake at 4:07 a.m. Friday is so far the strongest aftershock of Thursday’s 6.4 quake, which struck in the Mojave Desert near the town of Ridgecrest.

Zachary Ross of the California Institute of Technology says the number of aftershocks might be slightly higher than average. He also says a quake of that size could continue producing aftershocks for years.
 

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.

The trade deal got a boost earlier this week when Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, committed to signing the deal this weekend. The

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 Stacey said at the end of the first trial earlier this year that the conspiracy, which ran from 2012 to 2017, was the “most ambitious, extensive and prolific” modern-day slavery network ever uncovered.

The operation was discovered by the anti-slavery British charity Hope for Justice. The group said it alerted police after victims made contact through its outreach efforts.

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 Supreme Court, the government will immediately notify this court so that it can determine whether there is any need for further proceedings or relief,” the filing said. 

Critics’ complaint

Trump’s Democratic opponents have said that including the citizenship question is a Republican ploy to scare immigrants into not participating in the census out of fear that immigration officials might target those found to be in the country illegally for deportation. An undercount in Democrat-leaning areas with large immigrant and Latino populations could result in reduced congressional representation for some states and less federal aid. 

The Supreme Court ruled June 27 that the government’s reasoning for including the citizenship question on census forms did not meet standards for a clear explanation. The matter then seemed settled Tuesday, when the Justice and Commerce departments made public statements and comments in legal cases that the printing of census forms was going forward to meet a deadline. 
 
But with a series of tweets, Trump injected uncertainty back into the citizenship question matter: “We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question.” 

At the start of the country’s Independence Day holiday, Trump tweeted that Commerce and Justice officials “are working very hard on this, even on the 4th of July!” 
 
So far, rulings have focused on the administrative process and whether Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross acted reasonably in pursuing his agency’s goals. An examination of equal protection challenges would bring into the case whether the administration sought to suppress the count of minorities in the census. 

Clarity sought
 
The attorneys general of California and New York asked federal courts to hold conferences Friday so that the Justice Department could make its positions clear after what happened in the Maryland district court and with the changing statements from the Trump administration. 
 
In a conference call with the Maryland court on Wednesday, Justice Department special counsel Joshua Gardner admitted that he was still sorting out how to respond to Trump’s statements. 
 
“The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the president’s position on this issue, just like the plaintiffs and your honor,” Gardner said. “I do not have a deeper understanding of what that means at this juncture, other than what the president has tweeted. But, obviously, as you can imagine, I am doing my absolute best to figure out what’s going on.” 
 
Gardner added, however, that the Census Bureau had not stopped the census forms printing process. 

The Census Bureau had previously set a target date of early July to begin printing the questionnaire in order to have it prepared for delivery to the American public by the April 1, 2020, deadline.