London’s Heathrow Airport remained open Friday despite plans by climate-change activists to disrupt flights by flying drones close to the travel hub.

The activists, a group called Heathrow Pause, had planned to halt flights by flying drones within 5 kilometers of the airport. The point was to push the government to move more aggressively to cut carbon emissions, but Reuters reported Friday that the effort was stymied when the drones did not fly and the airport carried on normally.

The airport said on its website that its runways and taxiways “remain open and fully operational despite attempts to disrupt the airport through the illegal use of drones in protest nearby.”

Heathrow Pause said the airport was using signal jamming to frustrate early flights; the airport said it would “continue to work with the authorities to carry out dynamic risk assessment programs and keep our passengers flying safely on their journeys today.”

Two men were arrested Friday in connection with the protest, following arrests of five others Thursday.

Airport officials have called the drone protests “reckless,” saying they “could endanger the lives of the traveling public and our colleagues,” and the airport’s statement Friday said, “We agree with the need for climate change action but illegal protest activity designed with the intention of disrupting thousands of people, is not the answer.”

A British law enacted last year prohibits the flying of drones within 5 kilometers of any airport. It was the result of drone protests in December 2018 and January 2019 that grounded or diverted more than 1,000 flights at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports, affecting tens of thousands of travelers.
 

Australia insists its support for the U.S.-led mission to protect tankers in the Persian Gulf is not to blame for the detention of two Australian travel bloggers being held in Iran. They have been identified as Jolie King and Mark Firkin, a couple from Perth. 

They reportedly were detained 10 weeks ago near Tehran. King also holds a British passport.

News of the couple’s arrest, and that of another British-Australian woman, emerged Wednesday. The cases are not thought to be related. The detentions come amid growing tensions between the West and Iran.

Travel bloggers

King and Firkin have been traveling through Asia and the Middle East. They were documenting their adventures to thousands of followers on Instagram and YouTube, including a recent trip through Pakistan.

“You might have heard of it before but the Karakoram (highway) was built on the same path as the old Silk Route, so that is pretty cool,” King said.

It is reported the couple was arrested in Iran for flying a drone without permission. Videos filmed in other countries do contain drone footage.

Their last social media post was June 30:

Firkin: “We are now in Iran and we are camped on a nice hill here next to the capital, Tehran.”

King: “We just arrived. (It’s) actually really beautiful.”

Firkin: “Just in time for sunset.”

King: “Yeah.”

Possible academic

A second dual British-Australian national reported to have been jailed for 10 years on unknown charges is understood to be an academic from Melbourne. There is speculation the woman, who has not been publicly identified, could have been convicted by Iran of spying.

In August, Canberra said it would send a warship and surveillance aircraft to the Persian Gulf to join an international effort to combat Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes.

The Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, does not believe the detentions are linked to that decision or to other political reasons.

“We have no reason to think that these arrests are connected to international concern over Iran’s nuclear program, United Nations sanctions or sanctions enforcement or maritime security and the safety of civilian shipping,” Payne said.

Australia is advising its citizens, and those with dual nationality, to reconsider their need to travel to Iran because of the risk that foreigners could be randomly detained.

The Iraqi government on Thursday said it has issued life imprisonment for a female Islamic State (IS) member who helped the group develop chemical and biological weapons.

The woman, identified by the Iraqi Interior Ministry as Abrar al-Kubaisi, reportedly played a key role in research as a part of IS’s team to develop chemical and biological weapons.

Iraq’s Falcon Intelligence Cell did not disclose the time of her arrest, saying only that she had been arrested during an operation at an earlier date.

Life in prison

“The convicted terrorist Abrar al-Kubaisi, who was recently sentenced to life imprisonment, was one of the most prominent biological researchers involved in the IS program to manufacture and train special elements within the Development and Manufacturing Body of the terrorist organization responsible for preparation, production and use of chemical weapons in the country and abroad,” said Abu Ali al-Basri, the head of Iraqi Interior Ministry’s Directorate of Intelligence and Counterterrorism, in a statement for semi-official al-Sabah newspaper.

Al-Basri said Abrar al-Kubaisi had told Iraqi officials that she was lured into the extremist group through the internet and that she helped the IS militants conduct chemical operations in Iraq.

“Confessions of the terrorist Abrar al-Kubaisi show how she was tricked through social media to join the ranks of the terrorist organization,” said the intelligence head, adding that al-Kubaisi followed IS directions to help in the use of chemical weapons materials in several operations in Baghdad.

Chemical weapons in 2015

Reports about the IS use of chemical weapons appeared as early as 2015 when local Iraqi and Kurdish forces complained about sustaining dozens of casualties from the battlefield because of the use of mustard gas by the jihadist group.

U.S. and Iraqi intelligence officials in November 2015 expressed grave concerns that the group was aggressively pursuing the development of chemical weapons. They reported the group was seeking the help of scientists from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region to open a branch devoted to research and experiments of chemical and biological weapons.

By late 2016, the group used chemical weapons, including chlorine and sulfur mustard agents, at least 52 times on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq, according an assessment by London-based intelligence collection and analysis service the IHS Conflict Monitor.

The third Democratic presidential candidate debate took place in Houston Thursday. The

A country boy kneels before the grave of his parents who died of AIDS after becoming infected with the HIV virus because unsafe procedures were used when they sold their blood. Horror colors the eyes of a miner with his face, unprotected by any safety gear, entirely blackened by coal dust. Two men under a yellow sky view a 200-year-old temple surrounded by belching industrial smokestacks. Hours before her death from AIDS, a barely clad woman takes comfort in the arms of her husband, who could not afford to take her to the hospital.

For decades, Chinese independent photojournalist Lu Guang documented China’s dark side, covering the discomfiting economic, social and environmental issues long steamrollered by China’s race become a world power.

Chinese police

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said the United States would issue 50-year bonds if there was “proper demand,” a moved aimed at “de-risking” the government’s $22 trillion of debt and locking in low interest rates. 
 
“We are going to start with 50 years, and if the answer is 50 years is successful, we’ll consider 100-year bonds,” Mnuchin said in an interview with The New York Times’ DealBook and streamed online live, adding that he began looking into the possibility of ultra-long U.S. bonds two years ago. 
 
The longest-dated U.S. Treasury currently is 30 years. 
 
U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed a different fix for the rising cost of the record U.S. debt, calling Wednesday on the “boneheads” at the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates to below zero so as to reduce interest rate payments. 
 
The Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates by a modest quarter of a percentage point next week when U.S. rate-setters meet. 

Powell’s view

Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other policymakers see U.S. economic conditions as still generally favorable despite a global slowdown and a still-unresolved U.S.-China trade war, and they have consistently pushed back against the notion of negative rates or of setting rates to cater to political pressure. 
 
On Thursday, the European Central Bank pushed its target rates further into negative territory to try to boost growth, prompting a complaint from Trump that Europeans are “paid” to borrow money, while the Fed “just sits, and sits, and sits.” 
 
Asked about negative interest rates, Mnuchin indicated that he was not the fan that his boss was. 
 
“Low interest rates are good for economic growth,” Mnuchin said. “I think negative interest rates — unclear whether they are good for economic growth. I think that negative interest rates are bad for banking business. It’s hard to grow an economy without having a healthy banking business.” 
 
Mnuchin did predict that the ECB’s easing policy could push more global capital into U.S. Treasurys, whose yields, though historically low, are much higher than those on German government bonds. 
 
“My expectation is you are going to see a big flow of funds” into 10-year Treasurys, Mnuchin said. That would push U.S. bond prices higher, and yields lower, giving a potential added boost to the case for issuing ultra-long U.S. bonds to lock in low borrowing costs.  

The United States is moving ahead with millions of dollars in aid for Ukraine’s military, money that had until now been held up by the White House.

White House officials Thursday confirmed the release of $250 million in funding from the Pentagon and another $141 million in financial assistance from the State Department shortly before lawmakers were set to admonish the administration for the delay.

“The Departments of State and Defense are proceeding with the obligation of all military and security assistance funding to Ukraine,” according to a senior administration official. “The Administration supports Ukraine’s efforts of reform and self-defense, and these funds will advance Ukrainian efforts toward those ends.”

Earlier Thursday, the State Department announced it had been cleared to release the $141 million in aid.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Assistant Secretary for Political and Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper called it part of “a whole host of security assistance that we have outlined and identified for Ukraine.”

That was followed by the announcement that $250 million in Pentagon aid, for additional training, and equipment for Ukrainian forces, also was being released.

“U.S. assistance has saved lives while helping to build Ukraine’s long-term defense capacity,” a State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We remain committed to a robust partnership with Ukraine.”

Push for action

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers had become increasingly frustrated, and vocal, about continuous delays in sending the aid to Ukraine, which has been struggling against Moscow-backed separatists following Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014.

“Our financial support is absolutely crucial,” Republican Senator Rob Portman, co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, said in statement Thursday, adding he had spoken with President Donald Trump the night before.

“With this funding we will provide vital assistance to help the Ukrainian military continue on their path of increasing their ability to defend their homeland against any threat,” he said.

Portman was one of five senators who signed a letter to Trump’s budget director earlier this month, expressing “deep concerns” that the funding was being held up.

Some administration officials had said the White House was reluctant to release the money due to high levels of corruption in Ukraine.

‘Defeat’ corruption

But U.S. lawmakers have said they are optimistic about efforts by new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address those concerns.

“Zelenskiy says we’re not just going to fight corruption, we’re going to defeat it,” Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who met with Zelenskiy in Kyiv, told VOA’s Ukrainian service Wednesday. “That’s a tall order, but it shows a laudable goal, so we were very encouraged.”

Since 2014, the U.S. has given Ukraine about $1.6 billion in security assistance.

The newly released funds are slated to pay for ongoing training programs for Ukraine’s military as well as improvements to the country’s maritime capabilities.

The money will also pay for sniper rifles, rocket propelled grenades, counter artillery radars, electronic warfare detection systems and night vision goggles.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said Thursday it will subpoena President Donald Trump’s special Afghanistan envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, to testify on Sept. 19, after the abrupt cancellation of talks with the country’s Taliban militia.

Representative Eliot Engel, the committee’s Democratic chairman, said he signed the subpoena after the U.S. State Department ignored numerous requests for briefings by Khalilzad about the Afghanistan peace plan and the administration’s path forward in that country.

Engel released a letter last week expressing frustration with the administration’s failure to arrange briefings by Khalilzad. He said the State Department had refused requests in February, April and earlier this month for briefings or testimony.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the subpoena.

Trump proclaimed negotiations with Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders dead on Monday after scrapping talks with the group planned for Camp David, Maryland, during the weekend after a U.S. soldier was killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul.

The abrupt announcement — and news that Trump had planned to bring Taliban leaders to the American presidential retreat — angered many in Congress.

Bringing U.S. troops home from Afghanistan has been one of Trump’s main foreign policy objectives, and the Republican president said his administration was still thinking about a drawdown of the 14,000 U.S. soldiers in the country.

It was the first subpoena issued by the committee since Democrats took control of the House in January and Engel became chairman.

The Trump administration has thrown out Obama-era rules that expended federal protection of waterways from pollution, a move environmentalists say they will challenge in court.

Getting rid of the 2015 Waters of the United States Act “puts an end to an egregious power grab, eliminates an ongoing patchwork of clean water regulations, and restores a longstanding and familiar regulatory framework,” Environmental Protection Agency Chief Andrew Wheeler said Thursday.

He added that it fulfills one of President Donald Trump’s “key promises.”

Wheeler made his announcement at the Washington headquarters of the National Association of Manufacturers, whose members have been lobbying against the clean water regulations.

The WOTUS rule protected wetlands and streams from pollution by pesticides, mine waste and fertilizers. It solidified what waterways fell under the landmark 1972 Clean Water Act.

Opponents of the Obama administration rules say the regulations created confusion, and likened them to a federal land grab of private property. Farmers and others complained the act also applied to small ponds that do not flow anywhere, leaving them wondering whether they could work their land without violating federal law.

Wheeler says the EPA will now redefine which waterways are subject to federal regulation.

Planned lawsuit

Environmentalists say they will take the EPA to court. They said Thursday that throwing out the 2015 rule means unsafe drinking water, a higher risk of floods when wetlands are destroyed and less wildlife habitat.

“The Clean Water rule represented solid science and smart public policy,” the Natural Resources Defense Council said Thursday.

Betsy Southerland, a top EPA official during the Obama years, calls the repeal a “victory for land developers, oil and gas drillers, and miners.”

California lawmakers confronting the changing definition of work have approved sweeping legislation designed to give many contract workers new pay and benefit protections, but tech giants Uber and Lyft vowed to keep fighting the changes, possibly by bankrolling an expensive fight on the 2020 ballot.

The measure, passed Wednesday, that is heading to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom outlines a three-part test that makes it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors who are not entitled to minimum wage and benefits like workers compensation.
 

Uber has argued that forcing its drivers to become employees would upend a business model that is built on flexibility. General counsel Tony West suggested to reporters that the ride-hailing company won’t start treating its workers as employees come Jan. 1, instead defending its model if it faces legal challenges.
 
“Just because the test is hard does not mean we will not be able to pass it,” he said.
 
Newsom has pledged to sign the measure, but his office hopes to bring ride-hailing and meal delivery companies to the table with labor unions to negotiate a separate set of rules for workers who pick up jobs on their own schedules in the so-called gig economy.
 

The freshman governor faces a test of his ability to broker a compromise between powerful interest groups in Silicon Valley and organized labor. Steve Smith of the California Labor Federation, a sponsor of the legislation, said the companies so far haven’t made acceptable proposals.
 
 “We’re committed to creating the conditions for [negotiations] to happen,” Newsom spokesman Nathan Click said.
 
If Newsom signs the legislation, it could have national implications as politicians and businesses confront the shifting nature of work.
 
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has indicated interest in pursuing a similar measure, and almost all the Democratic presidential contenders have offered similar proposals at the federal level.
 
 “It’s forced the nation to take a look at what the future of work is going to look like,” Democratic Assemblyman Ian Calderon of Whittier said in supporting the bill.
 
The measure would enshrine in law a 2018 California Supreme Court decision that makes it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees. While the court’s decision has set legal precedent since last year, the legislation provides enforcement tactics to the state and to city attorneys, who could sue companies they believe are failing to comply.
 
But Uber, Lyft and delivery companies such as DoorDash and Postmates aren’t ready to concede.
 
Uber and Lyft have already dumped $60 million into a committee for a ballot measure next year if Newsom doesn’t broker a deal. They have said the ballot measure would set a base hourly wage, give workers access to benefits they can take with them to other companies and allow drivers to collectively bargain without making them employees.
 
DoorDash, the meal delivery company, also has pledged $30 million.
 
Lyft spokesman Adrian Durbin would not comment on whether Lyft shares Uber’s position that it will not reclassify its workers come Jan. 1.
 
 “We are fully prepared to take this issue to the voters of California to preserve the freedom and access drivers and riders want and need,” Durbin said in a statement.
 
The legislation is likely of intense interest to the companies’ investors — both Uber and Lyft are publicly traded. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to investors that the firm expects gig economy companies to push back and find middle ground.
 
The measure lays out a three-prong test to decide if workers can be labeled as contractors: The worker must be free from control of the company, perform work “outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business” and be engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature of the work they are performing.

“This isn’t perfect, but I think this goes a long way to protecting workers, legitimate small businesses, legitimate businesses that play by the rules, and we, as taxpayers, that have to clean up the mess when these businesses don’t provide enough for their workers,” said the bill’s author, Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, her voice shaking with emotion.
 
Her legislation had been the target of intense lobbying efforts, not just from gig economy companies. Because it would affect all job sectors, many have successfully pushed for exemptions.
 
Jobs excluded from the new test include doctors and dentists; licensed lawyers, architects, engineers and accountants; commercial fishermen; travel agents, marketing consultants, graphic designers, grant writers and others.
 
Critics say by writing so many exceptions, the Legislature is unfairly picking winners and losers.
  

Yahoo Japan Corp. announced on Thursday a tender offer worth an estimated 400 billion yen ($3.7 billion) for Zozo Inc., a Japanese online retailer started by a celebrity tycoon.

Zozo Chief Executive Yusaku Maezawa told reporters at a Tokyo hotel that he was stepping down to devote more time to training for a trip to the moon in 2023. He has plans to ride on Elon Musk’s Space X rocket.

Maezawa owns nearly 37% of the company and will sell nearly 93 million of his more than 112 million shares, according to the plan. Yahoo Japan will own up to 50.1% under the tender offer, set for early October, it said.

Maezawa, known for lavish spending on artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a Stradivarius violin, said he also intends to announce later plans for another business.

“I was so moved by that feeling of building something from scratch,” he said of starting his company 21 years ago when he still lived with his parents.

“I want to thank all the employees for supporting and following someone who is so lacking like me. We laughed and we cried together. We had fun,” he said, choked with emotion.

Maezawa, 43, started out running an import CD business and played in a rock band before he founding his online fashion business with a shopping site called Zozotown when online retailing was still new in Japan.

Recently he drew attention for his Zozosuit, a so-called wearable technology that takes body measures with a software application so that clothes are made to fit.

He never graduated college and is known for a free-wheeling managerial style and corporate culture that are rare in Japan’s staid business world.

Zozo’s tagline is: “Be unique. Be equal.” It said in a statement that becoming a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan will bring stability and a solid partner.

Succeeding Maezawa at Zozo’s helm is Kotaro Sawada, who joined the company about 10 years ago after working at Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Data Corp.

Sawada told reporters that after 21 years it was time for Zozo to grow up. But he promised Zozo will remain creative, and not become boring.

Kawabe said Yahoo, whose revenue comes mostly from advertising, will be able to expand its e-commerce business by adding Zozo. Yahoo aims to be No. 1 in online retail in Japan, he said.

Also appearing at the event was Masayoshi Son, chief executive and founder of SoftBank and a top shareholder of Yahoo Japan. Son acknowledged he had urged Maezawa to stay on as Zozo’s chief.

Son and Maezawa appeared on stage wearing matching T-shirts designed by Maezawa that said “Let’s Start Today” with a peace sign. Zozo originally was named Start Today.

“I guess he wants to live the life of a rocker so I understand,” Son said with a laugh. “I envy him.”

Hiroko Sato, an analyst for Jeffries, said the deal will likely benefit both sides. Yahoo may gain more online shoppers by acquiring Zozo, with its younger customer base.

But Yahoo faces formidable competition from Rakuten in Japan, she said. Amazon is another powerful rival.

“Our initial impression is positive for both companies,” she said.

Zozo’s stock price jumped 13% in Tokyo trading Thursday, while Yahoo Japan Corp. rose 2.3% and SoftBank Group Corp. edged up 0.2%.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday that Mexico’s government doesn’t agree with a U.S. Supreme Court order that would block migrants from countries other than Mexico and Canada from applying for asylum at U.S. borders.

Speaking at President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s daily news conference, Ebrard said that Mexico has a different policy when it comes to asylum seekers and would never implement such a rule.

He also described a Tuesday meeting in Washington about Mexico’s progress in slowing the flow of mostly Central American migrants trying to reach the United States.

Lopez Obrador added that he spoke by phone with President Donald Trump on Wednesday. He said relations between the two countries were very good and Trump recognized Mexico’s efforts.

Mexico cracked down on migrants crossing the country after Trump threatened crippling tariffs on all Mexican imports in late May. Mexico deployed the National Guard to the southern and northern borders and tried to contain migrants to the southern part of the country. 

It also accepted the expansion of the “Remain in Mexico’” policy, under which the U.S. has sent thousands of asylum applicants back across the border to wait in Mexico.

China on Thursday extended the latest gesture of good will in the ongoing trade dispute with the United States, as the world’s two largest economies prepare for high-level trade talks.

Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said China was looking into purchasing U.S. agricultural goods such as pork and soybeans.

Gao said China welcomes good will actions from the Trump administration, and that China hopes the two sides will continue to create favorable conditions for the trade negotiations.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was postponing tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15.

He said on Twitter that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had asked for the delay because of celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1.

Trump’s announcement came after China said earlier Wednesday it is exempting a handful of U.S. products from the next round of its sanctions set to begin Sept. 17. They include shrimp, a cancer-fighting machine, industrial grease and assorted chemicals.

Midlevel negotiators plan to meet later this month to prepare for the first high-level trade talks between the United States and China since July.

The talks are set to open next month in Washington.

The series of tariffs on a large number of products the United States and China buy from each other has rattled investors and made consumers uneasy with the outlook of higher prices.

Trump has long accused China of intellectual property theft and manipulating its currency to make its goods cheaper than American products on the world market.

China says U.S. trade policies are aimed at trying to stifle its ability to compete.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee is planning to vote Thursday on a resolution to determine certain parameters for conducting an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump.

The procedural vote would allow the committee’s chairman to designate certain meetings as having the purpose of examining information to determine whether it should recommend articles of impeachment. It would also allow witnesses at such meetings to testify for longer than under usual committee hearing rules.

The resolution would also call for Trump’s legal team to respond in writing to any information presented.

“The adoption of these additional procedures is the next step in that process and will help ensure our impeachment hearings are informative to Congress and the public, while providing the president with the ability to respond to evidence presented against him,” Chairman Jerry Nadler said.

Articles of impeachment would have to be voted on by the full House and it is doubtful the Republican Senate would vote to remove the president from office.

Various legislative committees are looking into a number of matters concerning the president, including his failure to release his tax returns, his payment of hush money to stop embarrassing stories from becoming public, and the spending of taxpayer money at the president’s hotels and properties.
 

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The House on Wednesday approved two bills that would forever ban drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and to extend a moratorium on drilling off Florida’s gulf coast.

“We’re striking back this week against the Trump administration and their agenda to drill everywhere, every time, with no exception,” House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva said.

The White House has said the president will veto the bills if they pass the Senate and get to his desk.

While the opponents say the bill only limits the nation’s energy industry, the supporters of the bill say they will provide protection for vital water ways and help avoid disasters like the 2010 BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“If we’re learning anything from the past, it’s that when you drill, you spill. No one should be comfortable exposing our shorelines to that risk,” South Carolina Congressman Joe Cunningham said.

But the White House said in a statement that the bills “undermine the Administration’s commitment to a prosperous American economy supported by the responsible use of the Nation’s abundant natural resources.”
 

Tongan Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva, who is credited with helping bring democracy to the small Pacific island nation, has died. He was 78.

Political adviser to the prime minister Lopeti Senituli told The Associated Press that Pohiva died at the Auckland City Hospital about 9 a.m. local time after being medically evacuated to New Zealand a day earlier. Before that, Pohiva had been hospitalized in Tonga for two weeks suffering from pneumonia before his condition turned critical, Senituli said.

Pohiva was an immensely significant figure in Tonga. He was behind the push for democracy and getting away from politics dominated by the royal family, said Graeme Smith, a research fellow in the Department of Pacific Affairs at Australian National University.

Tonga is home to 106,000 people.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is urging the governor of California not to sign a bill that would allow college athletes to be paid.

The NCAA, which regulates all U.S. college student athletes, released a letter Wednesday that said the bill “would erase the critical distinction between college and professional athletics” and would “negatively impact more than 24,000 California student-athletes across three divisions.”

The organization urged California Governor Gavin Newsom to not allow the bill to become law. Newsom has not said whether he will sign the bill.

The bill, known as the Fair Pay to Play Act, would allow student athletes to hire agents and negotiate payments for the use of their name, image or likeness.

While college athletes are often offered extremely lucrative scholarships, the NCAA does not allow them to be paid. The organization says it is studying the issue of paying student athletes and if the policy is to change, it wants the change to happen on a national scale.

The bill has the support of Los Angeles Lakers basketball star LeBron James, who skipped college to be able to play professionally.

But California colleges have sided with the NCAA, saying the passage of the bill should be delayed until the NCAA reaches some conclusions on the issue.
 

Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc will testify next week before a U.S. Senate panel on efforts by social media firms to remove violent content from online platforms, the panel said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Sept. 18 hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee follows growing concern in Congress about the use of social media by people committing mass shootings and other violent acts. Last week, the owner of 8chan, an online message board linked to several recent mass shootings, gave a deposition on Capitol Hill.

The hearing “will examine the proliferation of extremism online and explore the effectiveness of industry efforts to remove violent content from online platforms. Witnesses will discuss how technology companies are working with law enforcement when violent or threatening content is identified and the processes for removal of such content,” the committee said.

Facebook’s head of global policy management Monika Bickert, Twitter public policy director Nick Pickles and Google’s global director of information policy Derek Slater are due to testify.

Facebook and Google both confirmed they will participate but declined to comment further. Twitter did not immediately comment.

In May, Facebook said it would temporarily block users who break its rules from broadcasting live video. That followed an international outcry after a gunman killed 51 people in New Zealand and streamed the attack live on his page.

Facebook said it was introducing a “one-strike” policy for use of Facebook Live, a service which lets users broadcast live video. Those who broke the company’s most serious rules anywhere on its site would have their access to make live broadcasts temporarily restricted.

Facebook has come under intense scrutiny in recent years over hate speech, privacy lapses and its dominant market position in social media. The company is trying to address those concerns while averting more strenuous action from regulators.

Growing inequality and climate change will not only derail progress toward global sustainability goals but also will threaten human existence, leading scientists said Wednesday at the United Nations. 

The world is falling off track on ambitious global development goals adopted by U.N. members, a panel of scientists said in an independent assessment report released at U.N. headquarters. 

Member nations unanimously adopted 17 sustainable development goals known as SDGs in 2015, setting out a wide-ranging “to-do” list tackling conflict, hunger, land degradation, gender equality and climate change by 2030. 

The bleak assessment report was released ahead of a 
sustainable-goals summit scheduled at the United Nations this month. 

“Overall, the picture is a sobering one,” said Shantanu Mukherjee, policy chief at the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “One element of this is increasing inequality. … Another is the pace at which nature is being degraded by human activity, whether it is climate change or biodiversity loss.” 

The independent panel of scientists investigated the ways 
and systems in which humans and the environment are linked and 
interact, said Peter Messerli of the University of Bern, 
Switzerland, the co-chair of the group of scientists. 

“These systems are on a very worrying trajectory, 
threatening the very existence of humanity,” he told reporters. 
“We have not realized the urgency to act now.” 

‘This has to be corrected’

Countries must put into practice ways to address vast gaps 
in wealth distribution and access to economic opportunities and 
technological advances that undermine innovation and economic 
growth, the report said. 

“Each country has to decide,” Jean-Paul Moatti, chief 
executive of the French Research Institute for Development and 
one of the scientists who compiled the report. 

“This has to be corrected,” he told the Thomson Reuters 
Foundation. 

The report called on nations to focus on food and energy 
production and distribution, consumption and urban growth to 
find ways of building sustainable development. 

The cost of implementing the global goals has been estimated 
at $3 trillion a year. 

These are not the first grim predictions made for the fate 
of the goals. Earlier reports have said they were threatened by the persistence of violence, conflict and destabilizing climate 
change. 

Outside assessments have cited nationalism, protectionism 
and a need to obtain more funding, ease national debts, boost 
wages and expand trade.