Nigeria generates an estimated 32 million tons of solid waste per year, one of the highest amounts in Africa. Of that figure, plastic constitutes 2.5 million tons. 

Every day in a junk yard provides an opportunity to make ends meet for 30-year-old Awodu Suleiman.

He has been here every day for six years, scouring heaps of waste for recyclables.

When he’s done gathering and sorting plastic or aluminum, Suleiman sells what he has found to recyclers for processing.

He says the work is money for him and that is why he does it with passion. Thanks to this job, Suleiman says, he was able to marry his wife. He says the money sustains them and that life has been easy with him.

Recycle, reuse

Local recyclers, including 55-year-old Mahmud Ahmed, buys plastic and aluminum waste at a low price, then converts it into reusable products, especially pots, local burners and cookware before they are sold.

Ahmed said he has recycled aluminum for more than 25 years.

“I started this work in Lagos before I came to this place,” he said. “From what I get from the sales of my pots, I’m able to pay school fees for my seven children,” he added.

The venture is nothing more than a means of daily survival for the recyclers,  but experts say local recycling has more significance.

Millions of tons of trash

Nigeria is one of the biggest contributors of solid waste in Africa with an estimated 32 million tons each year.

Environmental engineer Maryann Atseyinku, the founder of Community Waste and Recycling, says that while small in scale, local recyclers are making an impact exchanging trash for cash.

“Almost any country in the world has problems with waste management, so Nigeria is not a particularly peculiar case. The thing is the fundamental problem we have is because of the logistics that’s in the same. Waste management is pretty expensive.”

In 2009, the government awarded contracts for the procurement and installation of recyclers in 26 Nigerian cities, including the capital, but little of what they recycle is plastic.

Solid waste management is the most pressing environmental challenge facing urban and rural areas.

Nigeria’s population is estimated to double by 2050 and that could mean more solid waste hanging around and more plastic for recycling.

Lawmakers around the country are making a renewed push to ban high-capacity magazines that gunmen have used in many recent massacres, allowing them to inflict mass casualties at a startling rate before police can stop the carnage. 

Nine states have passed laws restricting magazine capacity to 10 to 15 bullets, and the Democratic-led U.S. House plans to consider a similar ban at the federal level in the coming weeks.

In arguing for the bans, politicians, experts and gun-control advocates point out that in the time it takes for a driver to wait through a stop light, a shooter with a 100-round magazine can kill and injure dozens of people.

The man who opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, last month killed nine people and injured 27 others in only 30 seconds, in part because of the 100-bullet drum attached to his rifle. It only took 85 seconds for a gunman to empty several 30-round magazines at an IHOP in Carson City, Nevada, killing four people and injuring 14 in 2011. 

Authorities have not released any information on the accessories the gunman in Odessa, Texas, used over the weekend when he opened fire on police and bystanders with an AR-style weapon.

The deadliest example occurred in Las Vegas two years ago when a gunman possessed a dozen 100-round magazines that helped him squeeze off 10 rounds per second onto a crowd of concert-goers from his hotel room, killing 58 people. 

Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock had an arsenal of high-powered rifles along with his large-capacity magazines and bump stocks – now-banned devices that attach to a gun to make it fire bullets more rapidly. The Trump administration banned bump stocks after that massacre, but the high-capacity magazines that smoothly fed hundreds of bullets into Paddock’s rifles remain legal.

“We know from video evidence that he was firing about 10 rounds per second,” said Louis Klarevas, a research professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. “The reason he was able to do that was he had a combination of assault rifles with bump stocks and large-capacity magazines. Imagine if he only had 10-round magazines. He would only have shot 10 rounds at a time.”

The Keep Americans Safe Act will soon be debated in the House Judiciary Committee. It would prohibit the transfer, importation or possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The bill is co-sponsored by three Democratic members of Congress whose states suffered mass shooting involving these magazines: Ted Deutch of Florida, Diana DeGette of Colorado and Dina Titus of Nevada.

“There is only one purpose for a high-capacity magazine: to maximize human casualties and allow gunmen to fire more rounds of ammunition at a time without reloading,” Deutch said in a statement. “But those precious seconds it takes to reload can mean saving countless lives.”

Firearm magazines are not regulated by federal law, but some states have set limits on their sizes. They include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Washington D.C. 

More Republicans are warming up to the idea as well. Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio called for legislation after the Dayton killings that would put a limit on magazine sizes, as well as a ban on the sale of military-style weapons. 

But federal legislation is expected to face deep resistance in the Republican-led Senate and from the National Rifle Association. Critics point out that there are millions of high-capacity magazines in circulation, limiting the effectiveness of a ban.

Alan Gottlieb, with the Bellevue, Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation, said large-capacity magazines are important for self-defense and can help when there are multiple attackers in a home.

“Plus, it only takes one second to switch out one magazine for another,” he said. “There are lots of videos on how easy it is to do that.”

The advocacy group Everytown For Gun Safety’s study of mass shootings between 2009 and 2017 found that 58 percent involved firearms with high-capacity magazines. The study looked at shootings where the magazine capacity was known and where at least four people were killed, not including the shooter. 

The cases included the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater killings in which the gunman used a 100-round magazine drum, killing 12 and injuring 70. The gunman who killed 77 people at a youth camp and in Oslo, Norway, in 2011 purchased his 30-round magazines from the U.S., according to his manifesto. The 19-year-old man who killed 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year also carried high-capacity magazines, according to the official Public Safety Commission report released in January that said police recovered eight 30- and 40-round magazines from the scene.

The advocacy group Sandy Hook Promise has been running a promotion on Twitter asking people to sign a petition in support of the passage of the Keep Americans Safe Act, the measure being debated Wednesday. The tweets say the man who killed dozens at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 used a 30-round magazine and 11 children were able to escape when he stopped to reload. 

The military-style firearms used in many mass shootings in the U.S. can be fired rapidly, but “the limitation to the carnage is the capacity of the magazine,” said David Chipman, a former agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who works as a policy adviser at Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence.

Others have argued that if the shooter only has smaller-sized magazines, they’ll just carry more guns or extra magazines.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a researcher at Boston University, conducted a study on high-capacity magazines in 2017 that found that states that limit magazine size have fewer mass shootings. 

“The only thing that limits the number of causalities is the number of rounds that are in the gun, because the only thing that stops the shooter is having to reload,” Siegel said. “Even though it might only take a few seconds to reload, it provides a few moments for people to flee or for an intervention.”

Timothee Chalamet is already one of the most acclaimed young actors working today, but he says that the prospect playing young Henry V in “The King” was terrifying.

“It was a real challenge for me,” Chalamet said Monday at the Venice International Film Festival, where the film is having its world premiere. “It was terrifying at the same time but I had an amazing time.”He was drawn to the project simply because he was out of his wheelhouse. The 23-year-old has been nominated for an Oscar, but he’s never done stunts, worked with swords or played a role quite like this. And not many people his age have.

The film is drawn from Shakespeare’s “Henry V” as well as “Henry IV” parts one and two. Co-writer and co-star Joel Edgerton, who plays Falstaff, had had a formative experience doing the plays. But they’d often cast older actors who had the perceived gravitas and experience for the part.

“There was a real aversion to using younger actors for these roles,” Chalamet said. “At the time power was wielded by unusually young people…That felt new and unique to explore.”

He said there is something “disturbed” about young people having so much power.

The film follows young Henry, or Hal, from his drunken days in Eastcheap to his early days as King of England, a position he never wanted and takes reluctantly when his father, Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn), dies.

David Michod (“War Machine”) co-wrote the script with Edgerton and co-wrote the movie even though he never saw himself doing a “swords and horses” epic. But he was intrigued to put his own spin on the plays, adding things from history and making up, “A whole bunch of stuff.”

When asked about Robert Pattinson playing a dandy version of the Dauphin — the son of King Charles of France — and whether or not that was rooted in history, Michod said, “I honestly can’t remember what’s real, what’s made up and what’s from Shakespeare.”

But, he added, having worked with Pattinson before on “The Rover,” that it was “important to me that when he appeard in the movie, he does so with razzle dazzle.”

“The King” is playing out of competition at Venice, and is one of three Netflix films, including “The Laundromat” and “Marriage Story” making their debut on the Lido. It will open in theaters Oct. 11, before hitting Netflix on Nov. 1.

Chalamet, meanwhile, also has “Little Women” coming to theaters this Christmas, reuniting him with his “Lady Bird” director Greta Gerwig.

“I’m really trying to just do great projects and things that are challenging,” Chalamet said. “I feel I’m really still learning and trying to chase whatever best version of an actor I can be.”

Lebanon will declare an economic emergency and the government has begun work on a plan to accelerate public finance reforms, its prime minister said Monday.

Saad al-Hariri also said the policy of keeping stable the Lebanese pound, which is pegged to the dollar, would continue.

Cabinet ministers, politicians and lawmakers who met Monday reached consensus on an outline for a plan that would put public finances and the economy on a more sustainable path, Hariri said.

“There is agreement to announce a state of economic emergency,” Hariri said.

“This difficult economic situation requires us taking speedy measures such as finishing the budget on time and reducing the deficit,” Hariri told reporters after the meeting that President Michel Aoun also attended to address a worsening economic situation.

The government would hold more meetings to speed up the work, he said.

Lebanon is grappling with one of the world’s heaviest public debt burdens at 150% of GDP and years of low economic growth.

Government finances, plagued by corruption and waste, are strained by a bloated public sector, debt-servicing costs and subsidizing the state power producer.

Hariri said accelerating reforms would avoid a crisis similar to Greece, which fell into a debt crisis nine years ago and had to adopt tough austerity measures under tight supervision by foreign creditors.

“We don’t want this to happen to us. So we are taking measures to save the country,” the prime minister said.

Credit rating

Hariri said Lebanon’s credit rating downgrade by Fitch to CCC 10 days ago was a warning to take the needed measures to shore investor confidence before it was late.

Fitch said its downgrade from B- reflected “intensifying pressure on Lebanon’s financing model and increasing risks to the government’s debt servicing capacity.”

Lebanese leaders have warned of a financial crisis without changes. The impetus to enact reforms has grown with the slowdown of deposits into Lebanon’s banking sector, a critical source of finance for the state.

Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi has set Oct. 23 as the date for parliamentary and local elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said Monday.

The poll will elect 57 national assembly and 490 local government representatives, IEC spokesman Osupile Maroba said in a statement.

The leader of the political party that wins the most seats in parliament will become president of the country.

Masisi’s Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has been in power since independence from Britain in 1966, but has seen its support erode gradually, and in 2014 lost the popular vote for the first time.

Masisi came to power in April 2018 through a well-scripted transition, succeeding Ian Khama, who had served the maximum 10 years.

The BDP’s main challenger is an opposition coalition, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), which says the BDP has been in power too long and presided over increased corruption, joblessness and inequality.

Masisi has pledged reforms to address unemployment and corruption.

The World Bank has named Botswana as one of the world’s most unequal countries; Masisi has also promised to spread the benefits of economic growth more widely and reduce poverty.

Khama had handpicked Masisi as his successor but the men fell out over Masisi’s actions, most recently the lifting of a suspension on big game hunting, and Khama quit the ruling party in May.

Since then, he has helped to bring a new opposition party, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), into being.

A political storm is brewing between Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as Erdogan continues to publically blast  the opposition mayor with criticism.

“The mayor of Istanbul rubs shoulders with those who have links with terrorism in Diyarbakır,” said Erdogan on Sunday at a rally of supporters in Trabzon, an electoral stronghold.

“Those who cannot take up a position against terrorism cannot be a mayor or a politician,” he added.

Erdogan was referring to Imamoglu’s visit to Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast. 

The Istanbul mayor met last weekend with fellow mayors of Diyarbakir, Van and Mardin. All were removed from office last month by the Interior Ministry as part of a probe into links to the outlawed Kurdish rebel group the PKK.

Imamoglu strongly condemned the mayors’ ousting as an attack on democracy. Analysts warn Erdogan is now setting his sights on the mayors of the main opposition CHP. 

“I lot of people take this as a real threat,” said international relations lecturer, Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir, Has University. “A lot of people take what happened to the three mayors in the Southeast and members to what will happen to the cities where CHP and iyi Party [junior opposition party] party control.”

In March, opposition parties handed Erdogan his worst electoral defeat, taking control of Turkey’s main cities, including Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

The CHP’s victory in Istanbul was the biggest blow to Erdogan’s prestige, ending his 25-year domination of Turkey’s largest and richest city.

Political agenda
 
Imamoglu’s rise to political stardom was assured by successfully winning the mayorship with a landslide in June’s rerun of the vote after Erdogan contested the narrow March victory. 

Imamoglu is already using the powerful platform of the Istanbul mayorship to reset the political agenda. His high-profile Diyarbakir visit is seen as a move to consolidate support among Turkey’s Kurdish vote, which was key to his Istanbul victory. 

“Imamoglu broke tradition with his party by visiting Kurdish southeast and breaking bread with sacked mayors,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “An alliance of sorts is jelling between CHP and HDP [pro-Kurdish party], which Erdogan must reverse if he wishes to cling on to power.”

Imamoglu’s politics of consensus even made inroads into Erdogan’s religious conservative base — a significant political threat to the president. 

The Istanbul mayor is playing down Erdogan’s threats to remove him.  

“Everyone should now know their limits,” Imamoglu said Sunday.

‘Power play’

Erdogan in the last few weeks, backed by pro-government media, has been ramping up his rhetoric against the Istanbul mayor.

The recent flash flooding of Istanbul while Imamoglu was on vacation drew swift condemnation by Erdogan and the media under his control.

“This can be the start of a process which can end with taking control of Istanbul and Ankara,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“Erdogan has crossed a line [removal of Diyarbakir, Van and Mardin mayors] which I think he cannot step back. It’s a power play. “
 
Financial as well as political considerations are also seen as a factor that could influence Erdogan’s decision to move against the Istanbul mayor.

Last week, Imamoglu ended 357 million liras (about $61.5 million) of funding to foundations with close ties to Erdogan’s family and inner political circle.

Among the organizations affected by the cuts include the Turkey Youth and Education Service Foundation (TURGEV), whose board includes Erdogan’s daughter Esra. The Turkish Youth Foundation (TUGVA), has the president’s son Bilal on its high advisory board.

Observers say the impact is being felt by the companies linked to Erdogan and his AKP Party.

Several pro-government media companies have laid off hundreds of workers, following Imamoglu ending lucrative advertising deals. 

A source close to the presidency claims pressure from these powerful Istanbul companies linked to Erdogan had persuaded the president to force a rerun in the Istanbul mayoral election.

Analysts suggest Erdogan could be facing similar pressure from them to oust Imamoglu. 

“He [Erdogan] seems to be decided not taking the risk, is more of the risk,” said Ozel. “I suppose the AKP will not be able to ever win again in these cities [Istanbul and Ankara] or not for a long time. So he [Erdogan] thinks it’s a risk worth taking he will do it. “

The Istanbul mayor is working hard to build on his broad political base, while at the same time introducing popular policies like a 24-hour subway service. 

The removal of a still popular mayor, elected twice this year, is seen as potentially Erdogan’s greatest gamble, threatening both political and financial turmoil.

China has lodged a case against the United States with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over U.S. import duties, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Monday.

The United States began imposing 15% tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods on Sunday – including footwear, smart watches and flat-panel televisions – as China began imposing new duties on U.S. crude, the latest escalation in a bruising trade war.

The latest tariffs actions violated the consensus reached by leaders of China and the U.S. in a meeting in Osaka, the commerce ministry said in the statement. China will firmly defend its legal rights in accordance with WTO rules, it said.
 

Comedian and actor Kevin Hart was hospitalized Sunday with major back injuries after his car crashed into a ditch, according to highway authorities.

According to the California Highway Patrol report, Hart was riding in his 1970 Plymouth Barracuda — a powerful vintage car — with two other people in the wee hours of Sunday on Mulholland Highway in Los Angeles County.

The driver, identified as Jared Black, lost control of the car and it rolled into a gully.

Black, 28, and the third passenger, internet fitness model Rebecca Broxterman, were trapped inside. Hart went for help.

“Hart and Black sustained major back injuries as a result of this collision and were transported and treated at nearby hospitals,” Highway Patrol said in the report.

Broxterman, 31, sustained no injuries.

Black, Broxterman’s fiance, was determined not to have been driving under the influence at the time of the crash.

Hart, 40, is a popular comedian and actor, known for roles in “The Secret Life of Pets” and “Jumanji.”

He was asked to host the 2019 Oscars, but pulled out when old homophobic tweets of his resurfaced.

Plans announced by Myanmar’s military to prosecute soldiers for actions at a village where security forces reportedly killed as many as 400 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority drew skepticism Monday from the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch.

The military announced over the weekend that investigations had determined that orders were not properly followed at a village in Rakhine state. It gave no dates or other details of the offense, but said a court martial is being convened to act “in accordance with the military discipline due to the weakness in following the instructions in some of the incidents at Gutabyin village.”

The Associated Press reported in January last year that evidence indicated that security forces had carried out a massacre in the village, also known as Gu Dar Pyin, and that the victims were buried in at least five mass graves. The military known in Myanmar as the Tatmadaw denied the report, and it is unknown if the new announcement is related to the same incident.

Human Rights Watch said Monday that the announcement did not indicate a change of attitude by the military, which denies carrying out abuses in a self-proclaimed counter-insurgency campaign two years ago that resulted in more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh. It has said its military operations in Rakhine were justified in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

Many human rights groups have accused Myanmar of carrying out genocide or ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. A U.N. fact-finding mission has documented major abuses in Rakhine since 2016, including widespread killings and torching of villages, and said its findings warrant prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity in a forum such as the International Criminal Court.

“The Tatmadaw’s decision to court-martial a few soldiers is hardly enough when we’re talking atrocities that included murder, torture, rape and arson that destroyed people and their communities. This court-martial looks like just another game to divert international attention by sacrificing a few low-level scapegoats,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said in an email, urging that it should be the military’s top commanders who face punishment.

“You can tell the Tatmadaw are not serious since they refuse to review their overall operation and hide these court-martial proceedings behind closed doors, out of sight of the public and media,” Robertson said. “No one should be fooled to think this action marks  any change of attitude in Myanmar’s military, which is still denying they violated the rights of the Rohingya in the first place, and seeking to evade all international accountability for their crimes.”   
 
Myanmar has rejected the legitimacy of the U.N.’s fact-finding mission and asserted it is carrying out its own investigations. The announcement of the planned prosecutions came after what it said was investigations carried out by the military’s own Court of Inquiry.
 
Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan lawyer who is one of the U.N. mission’s three international experts, last month told an informal Security Council meeting on accountability in Myanmar that they believe a domestic judicial process is not possible at this time.

She pointed to seven soldiers who were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison with hard labor for the killings of 10 Rohingya villagers but then were released after just nine months “because of the national and political pressure.” The arrests followed an investigation by two Reuters journalists who were imprisoned for their reporting on the killings.

Last year’s Associated Press report said the existence of five mass graves in the village under investigation had been confirmed through multiple interviews with more than two dozen survivors in Bangladesh refugee camps and through time-stamped cellphone videos.  It said its reporting showed a systematic slaughter of Rohingya civilians by the military, with help from Buddhist neighbors.

The story said it was unclear just how many people died, but that community leaders in the refugee camps compiled a list of 75 dead up to that point, and villagers estimated the toll could be as high as 400, based on testimony from relatives and the bodies they’ve seen in the graves and strewn about the area.

U.S. President Donald Trump is praising law enforcement in West Texas where seven people were killed when a gunman opened fire on people after fleeing a traffic stop. Trump on Sunday called the shooting rampage “a very sad situation.” But when asked what legislation might result from the shooting, he did not have a definitive answer. Despite the rising toll from mass shooting in the United States, many politicians are reluctant to call for tougher gun control laws for fear of losing the votes of gun rights supporters and campaign contributions from the gun lobby. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.

Far from just playing backgammon or shuffleboard, today’s senior citizens may want to renew their gym memberships.  A new, small-sample study says that older adults benefit from the types of exercise just years ago thought too risky for their bodies. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi stretches and warms up for this story.

Britain is bracing for an explosive week of political battles this week which could prove crucial in Britain’s proposed exit from the European Union. Lawmakers return from summer break Tuesday, when they will try to seize control of Parliament to prevent Britain leaving the EU without a deal. There have been protests across the country against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue, or suspend parliament – and as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the battle now appears to be now only about Brexit, but about the very fabric of a society and country once seen as one of world’s most stable democracies.

Plastic bags, bottles, cigarette butts and other debris lap against the shore of Virage Beach in northwest Dakar, Senegal. Workers from beachside restaurants and surf shops rake the sand to try to capture the waste, but the garbage always returns.

A lack of infrastructure and education surrounding proper waste disposal in the Senegalese capital has resulted in piles of litter inundating the city’s streets and beaches. Babacar Thiaw, owner of Copacabana Surf Village, a surf shop and restaurant on Virage Beach that was opened in 1970 by Thiaw’s father, is taking matters into his own hands by turning his restaurant into a waste-free haven. It’s the first of its kind in the region.

“Growing up here, I see all these problems that the environment is facing with the trash,” Thiaw said. “People are just throwing, throwing, throwing, throwing.”

Thiaw has spent the past year working with local conservation groups to transition his business into a zero-waste restaurant. He hopes other beachside restaurants will follow suit. But it’s a radical idea in a country where the typical person uses multiple plastic cups throughout the day to drink tea a treasured ritual and consumes water in small plastic sachets.

Despite having a relatively small population of 15 million, Senegal is one of the world’s largest contributors to plastic pollution. A 2010 study by the journal Science estimated the country produced more than 254,000 tons of mismanaged plastic waste that year, making it 21st in the world in annual plastic mismanagement. The United States, which has a vastly larger population and economy, ranked 20th.

At the official launch of Thiaw’s newly transitioned restaurant, attendees could read any of the roughly dozen plaques that described the steps Copacabana has taken to reduce waste.

Plastic straws were abandoned in favor of those made from metal and bamboo, and a refillable water jug had replaced the 100 bottles customers used to consume each week.

The restaurant also switched from disposable napkins to reusable fabric, and instead of cleaning with harmful chemicals, they use natural soaps and vinegar. Leftover food is composted.

Copacabana also eliminated its single-use pods to make coffee.

“I feel like it’s our duty to do that. If you don’t do it, no one will do it for us,” Thiaw said. “The government is here, they’re always talking, talking, talking, talking. We’ve never seen something done. No one’s going to save us if we’re not doing it by ourselves.”

Senegal banned plastic bags in 2015, but the law was never put into effect.

Claire Stragier is a project manager for MakeSense, an organization that works with governments and businesses around the world to help them lower their environmental footprint. The group helped Thiaw create an action plan for his transition to zero-waste.

Stragier said the waste problem in Dakar is primarily due to a lack of infrastructure. There are almost no public garbage cans, and the few that exist are never emptied.

Secondly, she said, is a lack of awareness among residents.

“There’s clearly a lack of education among Senegalese people in that they don’t know the impact of throwing plastic on the ground,” she said. “They don’t know that that plastic will stay there for more than 40 or 50 years and that it will have a very negative impact on the environment.”

On the other end of Virage Beach sits the restaurant Chez Paco. Astou Bodian, who helps manage the business, said she appreciates Thiaw’s initiative and hopes her restaurant will make similar changes.

“It inspires me because it can make beachgoers more aware that it’s forbidden to throw their trash everywhere,” she said. “It’s good, I think it’s a good thing.”

While Virage beach struggles with plastic pollution, it’s in much better shape than many other beaches in Dakar. About 5 kilometers west is the fishermen’s neighborhood of Yoff where Thiaw grew up surfing. The beach there is so badly littered with plastic that surfers often paddle through hordes of it in order to reach the waves.

Thiaw refuses to surf there anymore.

“This is a big pity, you know, because people don’t realize it, or they realize it but it’s just something normal for them,” he said. “If we keep doing this, in 10 or 20 years, we’re going to have a trash ocean.”

 

Tensions are rising between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as the Israeli military said on Sunday that a number of anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanon, targeting an Israeli military base and vehicles.

“A number of hits have been confirmed,” the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that it “is responding with fire towards the sources of fire and targets in southern Lebanon.”

No casualties were reported from the attack, Israeli officials said.

Retaliation

Hours before the incident, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had vowed to retaliate for the recent “Israeli aggression” in south Beirut.

“This time I wanted to say it would be open-ended where we would retaliate from,” he said during a televised speech Saturday night, which was broadcast on Hezbollah channel al-Manar TV.

The leader of the Iranian-backed group said that the first response against Israel was downing its two drones in Lebanon last week.

Two explosive-laden drones crashed and exploded in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh in Beirut last Sunday. The attack was blamed on Israel by the Lebanese government and Hezbollah.

Israel hasn’t officially commented on the alleged incident. But Israeli officials have warned that they would target Iran and its proxies should they continue to threaten Israel’s security.

In the meantime, the Lebanese military said on Sunday that “a drone belonging to the Israeli enemy violated the Lebanese airspace… and threw flammable materials over the area, which led to a fire.”

The Lebanese military added that it was following this incident with U.N. forces in Lebanon.

The Sunday exchange of fire were part of a series of recent events in which Israel has targeted Iranian military targets in Syria and reportedly in Iraq.

The “question is whether Hezbollah will regard this [attack on Israel] as a response to both the Beirut events and the Aqraba incident [in Syria],” said Jonathan Spyer, a research fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies.

He told VOA that as long as there are no Israeli causalities, the situation on the Israel-Lebanon border will eventually calm down.

Last week, the Israeli air force also carried out strikes against a cell belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps near the Syrian capital, Damascus, which Israel says was on its way to launch drone attacks against northern Israel.

Israel believes that Iran, which has a significant military presence in Syria, has been using Hezbollah and its bases in Lebanon and Syria to transport weapons to areas near Israel’s borders with both countries.  

Israel also has accused Iran of helping Hezbollah to stockpile precision-guided missiles that could cause “massive” human casualties in Israel.

Risking Lebanon for Iran?

Experts charge that the Shi’ite militant group has increasingly become a main force for Iran’s hostility towards Israel.  

“Hezbollah seems to be ready to put itself on the frontlines for the Iranians,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former National Security Advisor to the prime minister of Israel and a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA).

He told VOA that, “If the Lebanese let Hezbollah and Iran build their launch pads and facilities in Lebanon, at the end of the day the price will be paid by the Lebanese.”

But Lebanese researcher Michel Shamai believes that Hezbollah doesn’t have the capabilities to enter an all-out war with Israel, because it “isn’t ready to risk the entire state of Lebanon for the sake of its masters in Iran.”

“And it won’t stand by idly in front of its audience that has been mobilized with fulfilling promises,” he said in a recent article in the Lebanese daily newspaper An-Nahar.

Since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the two sides have occasionally exchanged attacks. In the wake of Syria’s war, Israel has also hit Hezbollah targets inside Syria.

Deterrence

Israel continues its military buildup on its northern border with Lebanon. The Israeli military has sent artillery batteries to the area and the Israeli navy also has been put on high alert.

Analyst Amidror said that “this build is primarily to deter Hezbollah from making any mistakes.”

“It is a clear message from Israel that any retaliation from Hezbollah will face a big response from Israel. That’s why Hezbollah’s [Sunday] response was very minor,” he said.

The tensions between the two sides are unlikely to escalate, Amidror added.

The FBI says the gunman who killed seven and wounded 22 in Odessa, Texas Saturday acted alone and likely had no ties to any global or domestic terror group.

The shooter hijacked a mail truck and fired at other cars as he sped along a highway before police killed him.

The dead include a teenager. Three officers are among the wounded. A 17 month-girl was also struck, losing several teeth and leaving her with holes in her tongue and lip.

“There are no definitive answers as to motive or reasons at this point,” Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke said Sunday. But we are fairly certain that the subject did act alone.”

Gerke refused to reveal the shooter’s name during a news conference Sunday, saying he did not want to give him any notoriety.

But police officials have identified him as 36-year-old Saen Ator.

Saturday’s carnage began when Texas state troopers pulled over gunman for failing to signal for a left turn on a highway. He fired a rifle at the rear window of his car, wounding one officer.

The shooter ran off and stole a mail truck, firing at other cars at random before being cornered and gunned down in a movie theater parking lot. Police say he might have run into the theater leaving behind more bloodshed if he has not been killed outside.

This latest shooting comes weeks after double mass shootings on the same day at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas and a nightlife district in Dayton, Ohio, left 31 dead.

President Trump praised officers for their quick response Saturday, calling it “a very tough and sad situation!”

“I think Congress has got a lot of thinking to do frankly,” Trump said. “They’ve been doing a lot of work. I think you’re going to see some interesting things coming along.”

But he said he does not believe increased background checks for gun buyers which many lawmakers are demanding would have stopped any of the shootings.  

Texas Governor Greg Abbott talked about the numerous shootings he has had to deal with since becoming governor in 2015.

“I have been to too many of these events,” he said Sunday. I’m heartbroken by the crying of the people of the state of Texas. I’m tired of the dying of the people of the state of Texas…the status quo in Texas is unacceptable and action is needed.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged a grim tally of violent crimes and a weak economy as he delivered the first state of the union address of his six-year term Sunday.

Homicides in Mexico are at a record high and the economy is struggling nine months into his administration. Yet López Obrador, who campaigned on promises to end corruption, continues to enjoy sky-high approval ratings of more than 70% after winning the presidency in a landslide July 2018 election victory that also handed his political party a near-majority in Congress.

Stamping out corruption and impunity remains a top priority, López Obrador said in his address to Cabinet members, generals, businessmen and journalists at the National Palace.

Tackling corruption is a tall task. Mexico scored 28 out of 100 points in Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index, where a lower score indicates higher levels of corruption. That puts Mexico on par with Russia and behind countries such as Bolivia and Honduras in clean business dealings.

“Nothing has damaged Mexico more than the dishonesty of its rulers — and this is the main cause of the economic and social inequality, and of the insecurity and violence, that we suffer,” the president said somberly.

López Obrador has dubbed his tenure the “Fourth Transformation,” saying it represents a change akin to Mexico’s 1810 independence uprising, 1857 Liberal movement and 1910 revolution. He took office in December on promises to help the country regain its moral compass.

Mexican presidents are limited to a single term in office.

The transition has been bumpy, with three top Cabinet members having already resigned. Austerity measures have gutted key institutions, such as the public health system, and contributed to a growing hesitance among Mexicans to invest and spend.

The president touted 145 billion pesos, or roughly $7.25 billion, in savings from spending cuts and other measures that have taken effect since he took office Dec. 1. His administration has confronted fuel theft from the state oil company Pemex, slashed public salaries, eliminated a major social program and decommissioned government offices abroad that promoted investment in Mexico.

As the economy flirts with recession, López Obrador said that well-being should be measured via the happiness of the people rather than by growth in gross domestic product.

He lambasted opulence and the accumulation of wealth, saying he sees a commitment among Mexico’s private sector to create jobs, pay more taxes and accept slightly lower profits.

“Above all we are Mexicans,” he said, calling out by name business leaders such as Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to thank them for their support.

Slim, who attended the address, is the wealthiest man in Latin America. The Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index estimates the Slim family fortune at $54 billion, or nearly 5% of Mexico’s annual economic output.

This wealth has been amassed from a country in which 44% of the people are poor, as defined by the World Bank using indicators of both income and social deprivation. One in four Mexicans gets by on less than $5.50 a day.

López Obrador equated the status quo of prior governments with “prostitution,” saying it is unethical to defend the interests of a few while many struggle to make ends meet. He repeated an oft-used line: “For the good of all, the poor come first.”

Threatening his feel-good message, though, are escalating rates of brutal crime. The president said curbing violence is the country’s “main challenge.”

Mexico set a new record for homicides in the first half of the year — 17,608 killings, fueled partly by cartel and gang violence in several states. Worse yet, violent crime appears to have permeated much of the country, whereas it was once confined to a few hotspots.

López Obrador has opted against confronting cartels head-on, saying he will instead rely on a newly minted National Guard to safeguard Mexicans. Mexico’s drug war, launched in 2006, has had a hydra effect, with new, often more brutal criminal groups arising and multiplying after a gang’s leaders have killed or arrested by soldiers and police.

“The extermination war against so-called organized crime is over,” López Obrador said. “The country will be pacified.”

Why do Americans celebrate Labor Day?

Labor Day is a national holiday, created to honor U.S. workers and their contribution to the economy. Many Americans use the day to celebrate the end of summer and would be surprised to know the day has its roots in the labor movement of the late 1800s.

How did the holiday begin?

During the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution was at its peak, and many Americans worked 12-hour days, seven days a week in harsh conditions for low pay. Even young children worked in factories. Virtually no employers provided their workers with sick days, paid vacation days or health benefits.

As workers became more organized into labor unions they began protesting poor and unsafe working conditions and lobbying for more benefits from employers. The move to recognize workers with a holiday began in state governments, which, one by one, passed legislation to honor the common worker. The U.S. Congress created the federal holiday on June 28, 1894, designating the first Monday in September as Labor Day.

What is the difference between Labor Day and May Day?

Both Labor Day and International Workers’ Day, or May Day, honor the common worker. May Day, which is celebrated in most industrialized countries in the world, got its start because of events in the United States.

In May 1886, a worker demonstration was held in Chicago’s Haymarket Square to push for an eight-hour workday. A bomb went off at the protest killing seven police officers and four civilians. The episode made headlines internationally and the day became an annual occasion for worker protests around the world.

Why don’t Americans celebrate May Day?

Following the Haymarket affair, a strong anti-union movement arose in the United States. Over the years, May Day became more associated with the political far left, while Labor Day, held in September, was recognized by a growing number of municipalities and states. When the United States began to seriously consider creating a national holiday for workers, U.S. President Grover Cleveland did not want to choose the May date because of its association with the Haymaker bombing, so instead picked the alternative day in September.

What do Americans do on Labor Day?

The Labor Day holiday signifies the end of the summer and many Americans use the three-day weekend to try to get in one last summer vacation with trips to parks and beaches, or to spend time at backyard cookouts with family and friends. The weekend also is a big shoppers’ weekend with sales on home items, mattresses, clothes and school supplies.

Do all Americans get the holiday off?

Federal workers in the United States get the day off work, as do most corporate jobs. Many workers, however, especially those in retail, transportation and the restaurant industry still have to go to work, with some working longer hours than on a normal business day.

Labor movement today

The labor movement, which began in the 1800s, led to significant changes in the conditions in which Americans work, as well as worker benefits that are commonplace today, including the eight-hour work day, five-day work weeks, health care insurance and paid vacation days.

In recent years, U.S. labor unions have seen their membership decline as the globalization of the world economy has led to a shift in the types of jobs common in the United States. Now, many union members work for local, state and federal governments in white-collar jobs, rather than in the blue-collar jobs that were common 100 years ago.

 

More and more African countries are taxing digital platforms and mobile money transfers to fund economic development.

Nigeria is the latest country to join the trend, with a new 5%  tax on items bought online. It wants banks to deduct the tax from online transactions for the government. 

Segun Abiona is the founder of Nicole and Giovanni, a Nigerian company that sells men’s accessories. He says more taxes will reduce the gains he has made. 

“It’s a form of double taxation on us because if you tax every transaction that comes online we still end up paying taxes, which is 5% VAT (value-added tax), 5%  of every sale we make in terms of VAT,” Abiona said. “It is going to discourage internet purchases knowing we are fully grown in terms of online space. We are still trying to encourage more people to shop online and at the same time eradicate the fear of people being get scammed online.”

According to some business analysts, at least 100 million people on the continent use mobile financial services. 

Abiona fears for the future of his business if the government implements the 5% tax for online sales.

“A lot of businesses will have to close down small-scale businesses, they are practically online, almost everybody is online,” Abiona said. “So if at any point in time you have most them having to pay double taxes on top of transactions they are doing, it doesn’t make any good sense.”

Technology companies in Africa already face infrastructure challenges and the Internet in some places is slow and expensive.

A year ago, the Ugandan government imposed heavy taxes on social media use, forcing millions to abandon some platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp. Ugandan authorities say they introduced the tax to curb idle talk, but some government critics viewed it as an effort to stop dissent.

In neighboring Kenya, the government has been increasing taxes on mobile money transfers. And this month the Kenya Revenue Authority said it will start taxing many applications developed and downloaded in the country.

The head of Kenya’s Institute of Economic Affairs, Kwame Owino, says people will find ways to avoid paying taxes for using digital platforms.  

“So people may decide if you are going to tax too much [the] transfer of money from one person to another, then people may go back using the informal methods,” Owino said. “So part of it is that transactions will go back down to [lower] levels, it may also affect savings in the formal sector area in the sense that if you have to transfer money and all that, they may decide to do mattress banking as they always did. People feel the government is using [taxes] for social control and surveillance, that’s the biggest risk.”

With more countries taxing the use of technology, many economists and digital users fear business growth could take a big hit.

Israel said it was returning fire Sunday after anti-tank missiles were launched at its territory from Lebanon, raising fears of a serious escalation with Hezbollah after a week of rising tensions.

“A number of anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanon towards an (Israeli military) base and military vehicles,” an Israeli army statement said.

“A number of hits have been confirmed. (Israel’s military) is responding with fire towards the sources of fire and targets in southern Lebanon.”

 

 

 

Greek-born French director Costa-Gavras has been recognized for his “particularly original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema” at the Venice Film Festival, where the Oscar winner also presented his new movie about the Greek debt crisis.

The 86-year-old filmmaker, known for “Z” and “Missing”, was presented with the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award late on Saturday.

While in Venice, he also presented “Adults in the Room”, which is adapted from the book by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and follows Greece’s bailout negotiations in 2015.

“There’s a lot of muddled politics in Europe, it has to clear itself up one day, not in the way it’s been clearing itself up over the past few years,” Costa-Gravas told a news conference, citing concerns over rising populism.

“I hope that all of that will change.”