Українські і світові новини. Новини – це інформація про поточні події або зміни, що відбуваються в світі. Вони розповсюджуються через різні медіа-канали, такі як газети, телебачення, радіо та Інтернет, з метою інформування громадськості. Основні характеристики новин включають:
Актуальність: Новини зазвичай стосуються останніх або поточних подій, які мають суспільний інтерес.
Релевантність: Вони охоплюють теми, які мають значення або впливають на життя людей, такі як політика, економіка, здоров’я, наука та культура.
Точність: Надійні джерела новин прагнуть надавати фактичну та перевірену інформацію.
Об’єктивність: Ідеально, новинні репортажі повинні бути неупередженими та об’єктивними, представляючи різні точки зору на подію.
Наратив: Новини часто подаються у форматі історій, з чітким початком, серединою та кінцем, щоб ефективно залучити та інформувати аудиторію
An Indian court Wednesday acquitted six people accused of murdering a Muslim man who was attacked while transporting cows, which Hindus revere.
Pehlu Khan, a 55-year-old farmer, died after around 200 vigilantes attacked trucks carrying cattle on a highway in the western state of Rajasthan in April 2017.
Nine people were accused of killing Khan, with six of them acquitted by a local court in Rajasthan on Wednesday.
The three other accused are minors and are being tried in a juvenile court, Indian media reported.
The Khan family’s legal team told AFP the prosecution plans to file an appeal against the verdict in the High Court.
Police told AFP that the arrests were made after examining video footage shot by onlookers and eventually broadcast by media.
The verdict comes two months after New Delhi rejected a U.S. State Department report which said religious violence against minorities had spiked under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Cow slaughter is illegal in many Indian states and vigilante squads that roam highways checking livestock trucks for animals being transported across state borders have proliferated since the BJP came to power in 2014.
Rajasthan is among the states that ban cow slaughter, and authorities also require anyone transporting the animals across state borders to have a license.
Marieme Jamme was trafficked from Senegal to France at the age of 13 to work as a prostitute. Later, she lived in a refugee center before making her way to Britain, where Jamme became interested in computer programming. She became a success, and she made it her mission to teach one million women and girls — including refugees — how to program by 2030. Ruud Elmendorp reports from Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.
The death toll from a fuel truck explosion in Tanzania at the weekend has climbed to 82 after seven more people died from their injuries, a hospital official said Wednesday.
A spokesman for the National Hospital in Dar es Salaam said 32 others were being treated, including 17 in intensive care, following one of the deadliest oil tanker blasts in Africa in recent years.
“We are continuing to fight as best we can to save those still alive,” the hospital spokesman, Aminiel Aligaesha, told reporters Wednesday.
The explosion took place Saturday morning near the town of Morogoro, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Dar es Salaam, the financial capital.
Flames engulfed a crowd trying to collect leaking petrol from a tanker that overturned as it swerved to avoid a motorcycle.
Officials said the explosion was triggered when a man tried to retrieve the truck’s battery, creating sparks that ignited the fuel.
An official inquiry was ordered Sunday into the accident, with a preliminary report expected later this week.
It was the latest in a string of such disasters in Africa and at least the third this year.
Last month, 45 people were killed and more than 100 injured in central Nigeria when a petrol tanker crashed and then exploded as people tried to take the fuel. In May, a similar incident in Niger killed nearly 80 people.
Russian scientists are raising the alarm about new Soviet-style restrictions on interactions with foreign colleagues.
The science newspaper Troitsky Variant on Tuesday published a copy of a recent Russian Education Ministry decree that introduces a broad range of restrictions on meetings and communication between employees of state-owned think tanks and institutes and foreign nationals.
Russian scientists are now obliged to inform officials about any visit by a foreign scientist five days in advance and report on the meeting afterward, the published decree said. The newspaper called on the ministry to scrap the order, saying the Soviet-style restrictions would hurt the standing of Russian science in the world.
“Such ridiculous decrees that are impossible to comply with will do nothing to bolster our country’s security but will only increase its isolation from developed nations and discredit authorities,” scientist Alexander Fradkov said.
Similar restrictions were widely used in the Soviet Union but were largely scrapped by the end of the 1980s.
The Education Ministry on Wednesday insisted that the decree was not an order but merely a recommendation and denied suggestions that it aims to control the scientists.
It also added that Russian scientists are increasingly facing “certain restrictions” while visiting organizations abroad.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Wednesday that he thought that the restrictions were “too much.”
The reports of authorities trying to monitor scientists come amid an intensifying pressure on the scientific community.
Elderly rocket scientist Viktor Kudryavtsev has been in jail for over a year now, facing vague treason charges. His colleague was arrested last month on similar charges. Russian scientists have appealed to authorities to drop the charges against Kudryavtsev and his associate but to no avail.
U.S. President Donald Trump attacked China’s trade and financial policies, but refused to criticize Beijing’s pressure on Hong Kong. In a speech Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Trump said China has manipulated the World Trade Organization and the Chinese currency to its advantage. But he said tensions between Beijing and Hong Kong are to be resolved between them. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
Donald Trump Jr. promoted two Trump-branded resorts in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Tuesday, and defended against allegations that the Trump Organization’s global business empire continues to create conflicts of interest for his father’s administration. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.
Argentina’s peso closed weaker again on Tuesday following a second day of market turmoil triggered by opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez’s landslide victory in a primary election that dealt a severe blow to President Mauricio Macri’s re-election chances.
The peso closed 4.29% lower at 55.9 per U.S. dollar after touching 59 to the dollar earlier. The currency had hit an all-time low on Monday of 65 to the dollar, a drop of 30%, on fears that a Fernandez government could take Argentina back to interventionist economic policies.
The central bank has sold a total $255 million of its own reserves since Monday in an effort to help steady the currency.
“The market thinks Fernandez will likely default and impose capital controls and renegotiate with the IMF. In a nutshell, the market thinks Fernandez is the return of populism,” said Claudio Irigoyen of Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML).
Fernandez, who has former President Cristina Fernandez as his running mate, pulled off a stunning upset in the primary with a wider-than-expected 15-point lead over Macri, a free market proponent.
A woman walks past a currency exchange board in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug. 12, 2019.
Monday’s crash in the peso unnerved global equities investors, with markets already jittery over the Sino-U.S. trade war and protests in Hong Kong.
“Yes, Argentina is a small economy. However, the last thing global markets want to see is another market-friendly government fall to populism and/or geopolitics,” said Rabobank strategist Michael Every.
Blame Game
In an interview Monday, Fernandez said he was willing to collaborate with the current government after his primary triumph on Sunday sent the peso, stocks and bonds reeling.
The primary results showed Fernandez, a former cabinet chief, was well placed to win October’s general election in the first round. He blamed Macri for the market turmoil.
“The dialogue is open, but I don’t want to lie to Argentines. What can I do? I’m just a candidate, my pen doesn’t sign decrees,” Fernandez said in an interview with Argentine TV channel Net TV broadcast on Monday.
“Markets react badly when they realize they were scammed,” Fernandez said earlier on Monday, adding that Argentina lives in a “fictitious economy” and that Macri’s government is not providing answers.
An electronic board shows currency exchange rates in Buenos Aires’ financial district, Argentina, Aug. 12, 2019.
“Accessibility of the market for foreign investors is the key factor here,” said Pavlo Taranenko, executive director of index research at MSCI.
As concerns rise about Argentina’s ability to meet its debt obligations, investors are looking closely at the government’s ability to roll over its short-term notes known as ‘Letes.”
“Markets will be sweating bullets each time one of these maturities come due,” Jeffries Fixed Income said in a note to investors.
The cost of insuring against an Argentine sovereign default jumped again on Tuesday, according to data from IHS Markit.
Markit’s calculations price the probability of a sovereign default within the next five years at more than 72%.
Analysts also predicted the peso’s fall would continue. BAML said it expects the exchange rate at 70.5 by end-2019 and 106.6 by end 2020.
The Los Angeles Opera said on Tuesday it will investigate accusations of sexual misconduct against Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, who described the claims as inaccurate.
The Los Angeles Opera, where Domingo is general director, was responding to accusations made by eight singers, a dancer and others in the classical music world in a report by the Associated Press.
The news agency reported allegations by the women of inappropriate behavior. The Associated Press said it also had spoken to almost three dozen other musicians, voice teachers and backstage staff who said they had witnessed what the report described as “sexually tinged” behavior by Domingo dating back three decades in various cities.
“LA Opera will engage outside counsel to investigate the concerning allegations about Placido Domingo,” the opera house said in a statement. The LA Opera is “committed to doing everything we can to foster a professional and collaborative environment where all our employees and artists feel equally comfortable, valued and respected.”
FILE – People listen to Spanish tenor Placido Domingo during a gala concert, dedicated to the upcoming World Cup, in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, June 13, 2018.
Domingo, in a statement distributed by his publicist Nancy Seltzer, called the accusations “deeply troubling, and as presented, inaccurate.”
“Still, it is painful to hear that I may have upset anyone or made them feel uncomfortable — no matter how long ago and despite my best intentions,” Domingo’s statement said. “I believed that all of my interactions and relationships were always welcomed and consensual.”
Future performances
The Philadelphia Orchestra Association said on Tuesday it had withdrawn an invitation to Domingo to appear as part of its opening night on Sept. 18.
The Metropolitan Opera in New York, where Domingo is due to perform in “Macbeth” next month and “Madama Butterfly” in November, said in a statement that it took accusations of sexual harassment and abuse of power seriously but would await the results of the LA Opera investigation “before making any final decisions about Mr Domingo’s future at the Met.”
Domingo, 78, is one of the most famous opera singers and directors in the world and the LA Opera described him on Tuesday as a “dynamic force” there for more than 30 years. He was one of the “Three Tenors,” along with Jose Carreras and the late Luciano Pavarotti, who brought opera to a wider audience with concerts around the world in the 1990s.
Changing standards
In the statement released by his publicist, Domingo added that while he would not intentionally harm, offend or embarrass anyone, “I recognize that the rules and standards by which we are — and should be — measured against today are very different than they were in the past.”
Hundreds of women have publicly accused powerful men in business, politics, the news media, sports and entertainment of sexual harassment and abuse since October 2017, fueled by the #MeToo social movement.
Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido warned President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday that any attempts to bring forward parliamentary elections would end in “disaster” for the government.
Elections to renew the National Assembly, the only branch of government under opposition control, are set for December 2020.
But the Constituent Assembly, a rival body created by the Maduro regime and given extraordinary powers superseding the National Assembly, has hinted at the possibility of ordering early elections.
Such a maneuver could threaten the opposition’s hold on the National Assembly and with it Guaido’s claim as head of the legislature to be the country’s legitimate president.
But Guaido insisted it would backfire, further isolating Maduro, who has so far withstood opposition challenges to his presidency with the support of the military.
“What would happen if the regime dared to — and it could — bring forward an irregular convocation for elections without any conditions?” said Guaido.
“They will drown in contradictions, in isolation — they will drown in disaster.”
Constituent Assembly president Diosdado Cabello, the most powerful regime figure after Maduro, admitted on Monday the move was a “counter-attack” after the United States increased its sanctions on the government.
Venezuela has been locked in a political crisis since the legislature branded Maduro a “usurper” in January over his controversial re-election last year in a poll widely denounced as rigged.
As the head of the National Assembly, Guaido demanded Maduro step down and declared himself acting president in a move recognized by more than 50 countries.
The government and the opposition have engaged in Norwegian-mediated talks but those negotiations appear blocked over the opposition’s demand that Maduro step down so new elections can be held.
In the meantime, the regime has stepped up pressure on opposition legislators by stripping 25 of them of their parliamentary immunity over their alleged support for a failed April uprising instigated by Guaido.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini’s spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said these moves were “another direct attack on the only democratically elected body in Venezuela.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton urged the “international community to hold the tyrant Maduro accountable.”
Democrat Stacey Abrams, who vaulted onto the national political stage championing voting rights during an unsuccessful 2018 run for Georgia governor, announced on Tuesday that she’s launching a new multistate voter protection initiative and not running for president in 2020.
Abrams revealed plans for the multimillion-dollar initiative, called Fair Fight 2020, during a speech before a labor union convention in Las Vegas. The project will staff and fund voter protection teams in battleground states across the country ahead of next year’s elections.
The move follows months of speculation over what Abrams’ next move in politics might be, including whether she’d join the crowded field of 2020 presidential hopefuls.
“We’re going to win because there are only two things stopping us in 2020: making sure people have a reason to vote and that they have the right to vote. Well I’ve decided to leave it to a whole bunch of other folks to make sure they have a reason to vote,” Abrams said, referring to the field of Democratic candidates.
“But I’m here today to announce Fair Fight 2020 to make sure everyone has the right to vote,” she said.
FILE – Voters fill out their forms as they prepare to vote at a polling station in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Nov. 8, 2016.
Abrams spokesman Seth Bringman confirmed that Abrams was not running for president and would instead focus on the new initiative.
Abrams faced Republican Brian Kemp during her unsuccessful bid for Georgia governor last year. Kemp was secretary of state during their race, and Abrams frequently accused him of using his position to suppress votes, especially in minority communities.
Kemp vehemently denied the claim.
Voters in that election reported a myriad of problems casting ballots including malfunctioning voting equipment and long wait times that caused some voters to give up in frustration.
Abrams said her new group will fight “systematic” voter suppression across the country.
A statement from Fair Fight says the initiative will “either directly fund, or assist in raising the funds for, robust voter protection operations, which will be run by Democratic state parties and allies.”
“Fair Fight staff will provide ongoing support to these operations,” it says.
Earlier this year, Abrams announced she would not run in 2020 for the U.S. Senate seat held by incumbent Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue, after being heavily recruited by Senate Democratic leadership to run.
President-elect Alejandro Giammattei said Tuesday that Guatemala will not be able to hold up its side of an immigration agreement with the United States by serving as a “safe third country” for asylum seekers.
Giammattei told The Associated Press his country cannot tend to its own people, let alone those from other countries. The agreement signed with the United States in July by Guatemala’s current administration would require asylum seekers from other countries transiting Guatemala to seek asylum here rather than in the U.S.
“In order to be a safe country, one has to be certified as such by an international body, and I do not think Guatemala fulfills the requirements to be a third safe country. That definition doesn’t fit us,” said Giammattei, a conservative who won Sunday’s presidential runoff election.
“If we do not have the capacity for our own people, just imagine other people,” Giammattei said.
Guatemalans make up one of the largest groups emigrating from Central America because of poverty, unemployment and crime. Critics say it is hard to see how the country could offer a safe haven to migrants from other nations.
The agreement, signed by the government of outgoing President Jimmy Morales, is aimed at reducing the number of asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pressured Guatemala to sign the deal by threatening to punish Guatemala with taxes.
Giammattei, who takes office Jan. 14, said that annexes to the agreement are still being negotiated with the United States and that he would ask Morales to include members of his transition team in those talks.
The president-elect also noted that the agreement would have to be ratified by the congresses of both nations to go into force. There has been widespread criticism of the deal in Guatemala.
Giammattei pledged to recognize the importance of Guatemalan migrants living in the United States by creating a Washington-based Cabinet-level position to attend to migrant affairs.
“It is about time we had a government that cared for the people,” he said. “It is these people (migrants) who are supporting us” with the remittance money they send back to relatives in Guatemala, he added.
“I do not think physical walls, or walls of weapons, can stop migration,” Giammattei said. “I think what can stop migration are walls of opportunities.”
On another matter, the incoming leader distanced himself from Morales’ unpopular decision to not renew the mandate of the U.N.-sponsored anti-corruption commission that has played a key role in sending high-ranking politicians, including ex-presidents, to jail. But Giammattei also indicated he wouldn’t work to bring back the commission, known as CICIG.
“The mandate has been terminated; the United Nations accepted that,” he said.
He said he has no legal capacity or any other authority to ask Morales to renew the commission.
“The CICIG is disappearing and history will judge whether Morales’ decision was right or not,” he said.
The French soldiers seeking out jihadists in central Mali’s savannahs were prepared for the sandstorms, the thunderstorms, the lack of anything resembling a road, and the need to tow vehicles whose wheels kept getting stuck in floodplains.
They knew getting information out of terrified villagers would be difficult.
But as the multi-week operation wore on in Gourma district, where 400 French troops and 100 allied Malians searched for 50-odd jihadists they estimated were hiding in the shadows, the obstacles kept piling up.
First, there were the storms, forcing them to abandon supper, pack up their mosquito nets and sleep contorted in their vehicles. Then up at 3 a.m. for a mission that couldn’t start because the weather had grounded their helicopters at base.
Then, flash floods turned sandy ground to sludge and burst the wadis so only their newly deployed tracked fighting vehicles could cross.
A French soldier of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment conducts an area control operation in the Gourma region during Operation Barkhane in Ndaki, Mali, July 28, 2019.
Then they reached the thatch-and-wood villages where they suspected jihadists were hiding. Men tended cows. Women pounded millet. Everyone smiled. And nobody told them anything.
“We’re not going to resolve this in a day,” said David, the commander of the French forward base near the town of Gossi.
French military rules permit publication only of his first name.
“This is going to take some time.”
Efforts led by France to stop a region on Europe’s doorstep becoming a launchpad for attacks at home are increasingly trapped in an endless cat-and-mouse game with well-armed jihadists, who know the terrain and hide easily among civilians.
On a rare reporting trip with the French troops into central Mali, Reuters journalists saw first-hand why a five-year-old mission — initially planned as a short-term stopgap to hand over to local forces — may have many more years left to run.
‘Dogged adversary’
The 4,500 French troops deployed in this patchwork of former French colonies for Operation Barkhane face huge logistical challenges in hostile terrain. Hardest of all, they rely on the cooperation of a civilian population spread thinly across vast and remote spaces, often either sympathetic to the Islamists or terrified of informing on them.
A member of a French military medical unit provides medical action for the benefit of the population during Operation Barkhane in Ndaki, Mali, July 29, 2019.
In Gossi, a haven for Islamic State fighters next to the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, the town’s local government councilor had fled after being threatened and was now sleeping in the Malian base, said David, the French base commander.
Operation Barkhane was launched in the wake of Operation Serval, a French offensive that pushed back Tuareg rebels and allied Islamists from northern Mali’s vast desert in 2013.
While Serval had brought moderate stability to northern Mali, unrest had spread to the country’s more populated center, with attacks also reaching neighboring Burkina Faso, Niger and even Ivory Coast.
With no end date announced at its launch, the follow-up operation would try to stabilize countries in the region by assisting their governments in a West African anti-terrorism force. Five years on, no end is in sight.
“We have a dogged adversary, who is tough, drawing from a breeding ground that is favorable to him because the population is isolated,” Colonel Nicolas James, Commander of Desert Tactical Croup Belleface, told Reuters at its base in Gao.
A French soldier of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment inspects a damaged house during an area control operation in the Gourma region during Operation Barkhane in Ndaki, Mali, July 28, 2019.
On the first day of one mission, in 40 degree Celsius (104 F), the French soldiers arrived in a hamlet 10 kilometers north of Ndaki town, next to a small wood where suspected jihadists had been seen fleeing earlier.
They separated the women and children outside a thatched dome where camels chewed cud. They searched the men, took their smartphones and copied them onto a computer. One contained incriminating jihadist propaganda.
‘People will come and kill her’
“Is this your telephone?” a soldier asked the suspect, and he nodded. They fingerprinted him, but with just circumstantial evidence, they let him go.
“I’m sure he’s a jihadist,” a French soldier guarding him later whispered. “He’s making fun of us.”
An elderly man in the flowing robes common to the Fulani people spread across the region brought out some fresh milk as a gesture of hospitality. Only two tried it, before they moved on to the next village.
That night it rained hard, so the next afternoon a logistics team spent all day towing vehicles out of mud. The mission set off before noon. When the troops returned nearly nine hours later, they’d covered just 5 kilometers.
French soldiers of the “Belleface” Desert Tactical Group (GTD) try to move an all terrain armored vehicle from the mud in the Gourma region during Operation Barkhane in Ndaki, Mali, July 28, 2019.
At one stage, they heard reports of an armed group heading toward them. War planes were called in to scare the fighters off. One unit wanted to check a forest where weapons had been abandoned, but the troops were still stuck towing vehicles.
The next morning, a joint Malian-French mission visited a Fulani village next to woodland where they had spotted some men fleeing. The village chief, a bearded man with a green scarf and sky-blue robe, denied seeing any armed men.
“They want to talk to us but they are afraid,” Malian military police unit Captain Balassine later told Reuters.
“The other day we were talking to a young girl,” he continued. “First she lied. Then she said she was scared of talking because, after we leave, people will come and kill her.”
CBS and Viacom have reached a deal to reunite media mogul Sumner Redstone’s U.S. entertainment empire after 13 years apart.
The new company will be named ViacomCBS Inc despite the fact that CBS shareholders will own 61% and Viacom shareholders will own 39%.
Viacom shareholders will receive 0.59625 CBS shares for each share they own, representing a slight premium to Viacom’s closing price Monday.
The merger creates a company with roughly $30 billion market value, which is still small compared to rivals including Netflix, at $136 billion; ABC network owner Walt Disney Co., at about $245 billion; and NBC owner Comcast at $193 billion.
It will combine the CBS television network, CBS News, Showtime cable networks with MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and the Paramount movie studios. Together, they will own more than 140,000 TV episodes and more than 3,600 film titles.
Annually, it is estimated to generate about $28 billion in revenue.
The two companies are controlled by National Amusements, the holding company owned by billionaire Sumner Redstone and his daughter, Shari.
FILE – Shari Redstone, vice-chair of CBS Corporation and Viacom, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, July 10, 2019.
“My father once said ‘content is king,’ and never has that been more true than today,” Shari Redstone said in a prepared statement.
The deal represents a victory for Shari Redstone, president of National Amusement, after three attempts since 2016. Previous merger talks had failed because of clashes between executives over divvying up top jobs and the companies’ relative valuation.
Growing competition
The recombination comes amid an increasingly competitive media landscape dominated by Disney and Netflix, prompting Redstone to pursue a merger.
Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish will be the President and CEO of the combined company. Joe Ianniello, interim CEO of CBS, will be named Chairman and CEO of CBS, which will exclude the Showtime cable network and book publisher Simon & Schuster.
The companies said they expected about $500 million in annual synergies, or cost savings.
The new board of directors will consist of 13 members. Six will come from independent members from CBS, four independent members from Viacom, Bakish, and two National Amusements members. Shari Redstone will be appointed the chairman.
Shares of Viacom rose 2% to $29.11 and shares of CBS rose 1.8% to $48.91 after the merger was announced.
A Mexican judge has ordered former cabinet minister Rosario Robles detained pending criminal proceedings involving the disappearance of public funds, a lawyer for Robles said Tuesday, in a case hailed by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as part of his campaign against corruption.
Robles served in the cabinet of former President Enrique Pena Nieto from 2012 to 2018, first as secretary of social development and then as secretary of agrarian, land and urban development, and earlier became the first woman to serve as mayor of Mexico City.
Prosecutors have accused Robles of “improper exercise of public service.” Robles has appeared in court over prosecution claims that more than 5 billion pesos ($258 million) destined for welfare programs during her tenure had gone missing, according to local media reports.
FILE – Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador attends a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, June 10, 2019.
The investigation has fueled accusations that the money was siphoned off, allegations denied by Robles. Julio Hernandez, a lawyer for Robles, said on local television that she will fight the accusations.
“Truly, Rosario Robles is innocent,” Hernandez said.
Lopez Obrador made rooting out corruption a cornerstone of his campaign for the presidency. The investigation into Robles represents one of the highest-profile cases during his administration.
Asked whether the Robles case represented an achievement for his administration, Lopez Obrador said, “I believe that it is an accomplishment that there is no impunity.”
Robles is one of several officials from Pena Nieto’s administration, including a former head of state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, to end up in the crosshairs of Lopez Obrador’s government. Robles has been a high-profile figure in Mexican politics for two decades. Lopez Obrador succeeded her as mayor of the capital.
During his regular morning news conference, Lopez Obrador said the investigation of Robles will determine whether other people who have served in government are implicated in the case.
Lopez Obrador said that a judge will decide the next steps in the Robles case, stressing the independence of judicial authorities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree Tuesday offering citizenship to Russians suffering political persecution, and also to foreigners who fought on Kyiv’s side in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Zelenskiy had announced such a move last month in response to a Russian decree expanding the number of Ukrainians who can apply for fast-track Russian passports.
Separately Ukraine’s state security service declared a Russian consular officer in the western city of Lviv as persona non grata, accusing him of spying. The officer had already left the country, a statement said.
Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow had expelled a Ukrainian consular worker from St. Petersburg in response, TASS news agency reported.
Relations between Kyiv and Moscow plunged after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for fighters in the eastern Donbass region in a conflict that has killed 13,000 people despite a notional cease-fire.
Zelenskiy has prioritized achieving peace in the Donbass region, but days after his election victory in April Russian President Vladimir Putin eased rules for residents of rebel-controlled parts of Donbass to receive passports. In July, he extended the offer to government-held areas.
Zelenskiy’s decree would apply to citizens of the Russian Federation who had been persecuted for political reasons, a statement on the presidential website said.
They would need to provide a certificate from Ukraine’s foreign ministry or a diplomatic mission or a consular post confirming they were being persecuted in their native country for their political beliefs.
Next step
It is now up to the government and parliament to legislate for the proposal to take effect.
The president’s Servant of the People party will be the largest in the new parliament following its landslide victory in a snap election in July.
Zelenskiy last week pressed Putin for a resumption of peace talks after four Ukrainian soldiers were killed by shelling in the Donbass region. Putin in turn said Ukrainian forces must stop the shelling of settlements in the Donbass that led to civilian casualties.
At least 10 state attorneys general say they will join conservation groups in suing the Trump administration from making drastic changes to the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
U.S. officials have announced a revision of the nearly 50-year-old set of laws that environmentalists credit with saving numerous animals, plants and other species from extinction.
About 1,600 species are currently protected by the act and the administration says streamlining regulations is the best way to ensure those animals stay protected.
“The revisions finalized with this rule-making fit squarely within the president’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.
The proposed changes include considering the economic cost when deciding to save a species from extinction. The law currently says the cost to logging or oil interests will have no bearing on whether an animal, bird, or other species deserves protection.
The revised act would also end blanket protection for a species listed as threatened — a designation that is one step away from declaring an animal population as endangered — and reduce some wildlife habitat.
Conservation and wildlife groups took little time in denouncing the changes, calling them President Donald Trump’s gift to logging, ranching, and oil industries.
FILE – A wolverine makes its first public appearance at the Animal Park of Sainte-Croix in Rhodes, eastern France, Jan. 28, 2016.
‘Beginning of the end’
“These changes crash a bulldozer through the Endangered Species Act’s lifesaving protections for America’s most vulnerable wildlife,” the Center for Biological Diversity’s Noah Greenwald said. “For animals like the wolverine and monarch butterflies, this could be the beginning of the end.”
The center’s Brett Hartl added that putting a price tag on whether a species deserves to live opens the door for political interference.
“You have to be really naive and cynical and disingenuous to pretend otherwise. That’s the reason Congress prohibited the Fish and Wildlife Service from doing that. It’s a science question — is a species going extinct, yes or no?”
Attorneys general from 10 states along with environmental groups say they will take the administration to court to preserve the Endangered Species Act. Several congressional Democrats are also denouncing the changes.
Republican President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law in 1973 as part of the new environmental awareness that was sweeping the country in the early 1970s, which included Earth Day and the Clear Water and Air acts.
The death of a six-year-old YouTube star from a malaria epidemic in Burundi has spotlighted the growing challenge of combating malaria in a warmer world, health experts said on Tuesday.
Darcy Irakoze – known as Kacaman – who was popular for his comedy performances on YouTube and in local theaters, died on Thursday after contracting the mosquito-borne disease in his home city of Gitega, east of the commercial capital Bujumbura.
Neighbors in the tiny central African nation told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the primary school student had been suffering from fever for a few days and his mother had taken him to a local clinic, but he had died the following day.
“The death of Kacaman is very tragic,” said Marshal Mukuvare of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
“We are losing many children to malaria – not just in Burundi, but across sub-Saharan Africa,” he said, adding that Burundi was struggling to stop mosquitoes breeding around homes and to provide bed nets to protect people while sleeping.
The young comic’s death has prompted a wave of tributes and sparked debate about malaria in Burundi, where the United Nations says it has reached “epidemic” proportions with almost 6 million cases and 1,800 deaths reported this year.
The Burundian government says the figures are lower – with 4.3 million recorded cases and 1,400 deaths this year.
Mukuvare, who is the IFRC’s East Africa disaster management delegate, said many families increased risk of death by delaying seeking medical treatment as they did not have money and instead attempting to treat the disease with painkillers.
Malaria, spread when female mosquitoes bite humans, kills almost half a million people each year, with 90% of deaths in Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Irakoze, who played an outspoken, opinionated character in his sketches, had performed with popular Burundian comics and tributes on social media mourned his loss.
“Another precious life lost,” tweeted James Elder, a regional spokesman for the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF. “Malaria robbed his future; as it does to a child every two minutes.”
Although WHO has declared 38 countries malaria-free since 1955, its campaign has stalled as mosquitoes have become resistant to drugs and bed net insecticides and global warming is enabling the malaria parasite to survive in new areas.
“We are seeing increased rainfall across parts of East Africa and more agricultural development, which is increasing the number of mosquito breeding sites,” said Melanie Renshaw, the African Leaders Malaria Alliance’s chief technical advisor. “We are also witnessing higher temperatures and heavier rainfall in mountainous countries such as Rwanda and Burundi which may be driving malaria into areas in the highlands where it didn’t exist before.”
Democrats are using public outrage over this month’s mass shootings in Texas and Ohio to try pressuring President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on curbing gun violence and investigating white supremacists.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office says the New York Democrat wants Trump to divert $5 billion he’s sought to build a wall along the southern border to instead investigate domestic terrorism and research gun violence.
No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer and colleagues planned a Tuesday news conference to press McConnell to allow a vote on House-passed legislation requiring background checks for most gun purchases.
Trump and McConnell have long opposed many gun control measures.
Both have expressed an openness to unspecified curbs since 31 people were killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
Two Ebola patients who were treated with new drugs in the city of Goma in eastern Congo have been declared “cured” and returned to their home.
Top doctors fighting Ebola quickly used the case on Tuesday to press the message that people can recover from the potentially deadly disease if they seek proper care.
Ebola is dangerous but it is also curable with correct treatment, said Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research.
“Ebola kills quickly and Ebola heals quickly. That’s the message,” said Muyembe, at a press conference in Goma.
“These cases were detected very quickly. The husband was infected, he was at home for 10 days and his wife and son were infected,” said Muyembe. “As soon as the response teams detected these cases, they brought them here to the treatment center. We gave them treatment that is effective and here in a short time both are cured.”
Muyembe said two new drugs “are now be used to treat Ebola patients because, according to the studies and the results we obtained in the lab, these are the two drugs that are effective.”
Muyembe and other scientists announced this week that preliminary results from two trials in Congo found two drugs made by Regeneron and the U.S. National Institutes of Health seem to be saving lives. Researchers said more study is needed to nail down how well those two compounds work. The drugs are antibodies that block Ebola. In the trial, significantly fewer people died among those given the Regeneron drug or the NIH’s, about 30%, compared to those who received another treatment.
Esperance Nabintu rejoiced that she and her young son had survived Ebola.
“May the Lord be praised, I thank the Lord very much. I and my child were sick with Ebola, but God has just healed us.”
“My brothers, we must not doubt. Ebola exists, “said Nabintu, whose husband was the second Ebola victim to die in Goma. No other Ebola death has been detected since then.
After a public announcement that Nabintu and her son, Ebenezer Fataki, 1, had recovered from Ebola, the response team accompanied the two former patients their home in the Kiziba area, where the medical team educated the residents about proper Ebola treatment.
There is less danger that Ebola will spread through Goma, the capital of North Kivu province with more than 2 million inhabitants, because about 200 contacts and suspected cases have been identified and have received proper medication, said Muyembe. He said people arriving in Goma are being monitored at the city’s entry points.
“People who come from Beni and Butembo (nearby cities where there are many Ebola cases) must be carefully examined, “said Muyembe. “All of the 200 contacts we are following are doing well. We are waiting until the end of the 21-day surveillance period. We are at day 13, so there are still 8 days to go before we can say that Goma has won against Ebola.”
Health officials have also vaccinated tens of thousands of people in Congo and surrounding countries in an attempt to stop the outbreak, but the virus has now continued to spread for more than a year. Response efforts have been repeatedly hampered by attacks on health workers and continuing mistrust among the affected communities; many people in the region don’t believe the virus is real and choose to stay at home when they fall ill, infecting those who care for them.
