All media events such as news conferences have been canceled inside the arena hosting Thursday’s NBA preseason game in China between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets, though the matchup itself remains on as scheduled.

The decision to cancel media availabilities is the latest move by Chinese officials in an effort to show their displeasure with a since-deleted tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. The tweet, expressing support for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, set off a rift that has completely overshadowed the NBA’s annual trip to China.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver defended Morey’s right to freely express himself. China’s latest response essentially means the league and its players will not be able to freely express themselves at Mercedes-Benz Arena, which was going to be the site of a news conference by Silver and press conferences likely featuring Lakers star LeBron James, Nets guard Kyrie Irving, Los Angeles coach Frank Vogel and Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson.

The relationship between the NBA and China has been beyond strained since Morey sent the tweet, which was deleted. Multiple Chinese corporations suspended their business deals with the league, several events leading up to the game were called off by Chinese officials – and government officials made clear that they are most displeased.

In the U.S., there was governmental reaction as well leading up to the game.

On Wednesday in Washington, a bipartisan group of lawmakers – including the rare alignment of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York – sent a letter to Silver saying the NBA should show the “courage and integrity” to stand up to the Chinese government. They asked the NBA to, among other things, suspend activities in China until what they called the selective treatment against the Rockets ends.

“You have more power to take a stand than most of the Chinese government’s targets and should have the courage and integrity to use it,” the lawmakers told Silver.

Turkish ground forces pressed their advance against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria on Thursday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said, launching airstrikes and unleashing artillery shelling on Syrian towns and villages the length of its border.

The Turkish invasion, now in its second day, has been widely condemned around the world. In northern Syria, residents of the border areas scrambled in panic on Wednesday as they tried to get out on foot, in cars and with rickshaws piled with mattresses and a few belongings.

It was a wrenchingly familiar scenario for the many who, only a few years ago, had fled the advances on their towns and villages by the Islamic State group.

A Kurdish-led group and Syrian activists claimed Thursday that despite the heavy barrage, Turkish troops had not made much progress on several fronts they had opened over the past hours. But their claims could not be independently verified and the situation on the ground was difficult to assess.

Turkey began its offensive in northern Syria on Wednesday against Kurdish fighters with airstrikes and artillery shelling, before ground troops began crossing the border later in the day. U.S. troops pulled back from the area, paving the way for Turkey’s assault on Syrian Kurdish forces.

Turkey has long threatened to attack the Kurdish fighters whom Ankara considers terrorists allied with a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. Expectations of an invasion increased after President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision Sunday to essentially abandon the Syrian Kurdish fighters, leaving them vulnerable to a Turkish offensive.

The Kurds, who have been America’s only allies in Syria fighting the Islamic State group, stopped on Thursday all their operations against the IS extremists in order to focus on fighting advancing Turkish troops, Kurdish and U.S. officials said.

The Turkish Defense Ministry statement Thursday did not provide further details on the offensive but shared a brief video of commandos in action. The ministry said Turkish jets and artillery had struck 181 targets east of the Euphrates River in Syria since the incursion started.

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said their fighters have repelled Turkish forces ground attacks.

“No advance as of now,” he tweeted Thursday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor that has activists throughout the country, said Turkish troops tried to push ahead on several fronts under the cover of airstrikes and artillery shelling but made no tangible progress. The Observatory said that since Turkey began its operation, seven civilians have been killed.

Turkey says it intends to create a “safe zone” that would push the Kurdish militia away from its border and eventually allow the repatriation of up to 2 million Syrian refugees in the area.

Trump’s decision to have American troops step aside in northeastern Syria was a major shift in U.S. policy and drew opposition from all sides at home. It also marked a stark change in rhetoric by Trump, who during a press conference in New York last year vowed to stand by the Kurds, who have been America’s only allies in Syria fighting IS.

Trump said at the time that the Kurds “fought with us” and “died with us,” and insisted that America would never forget.

After Erdogan announced the offensive, Trump called the operation “a bad idea.” Later Wednesday, he said he didn’t want to be involved in “endless, senseless wars.”

Turkey’s campaign – in which a NATO member rained down bombs on an area where hundreds of U.S. troops had been stationed – drew immediate criticism and calls for restraint from Europe.

Australia on Thursday expressed concerns the Turkish incursion could galvanize a resurgence of the Islamic State group and refused to endorse the close ally U.S. for pulling back its troops from the area. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had been in contact with the Turkish and U.S. governments overnight and admitted to being worried about the situation.

In Washington, officials said Wednesday that two British militants believed to be part of an Islamic State cell that beheaded hostages had been moved out of a detention center in Syria and were in U.S. custody.

The two, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey, along with other British jihadis allegedly made up the IS cell nicknamed “The Beatles” by surviving captives because of their English accents. In 2014 and 2015, the militants held more than 20 Western hostages in Syria and tortured many of them.

The group beheaded seven American, British and Japanese journalists and aid workers and a group of Syrian soldiers, boasting of the butchery in videos released to the world.

Russia’s economic forecast is not looking good, with the central bank last month lowering its growth projections – though officials maintain the country is not sliding into a recession.  But in Russia’s far east, thousands of kilometers and several time zones away from Moscow, the effects of the economic downturn are obvious.  On the shores of Lake Baikal in Russia’s Buryat republic, unemployment, meager pensions, and low salaries are taking their toll — as reporter Ricardo Marquina learned.  Jim Randle narrates his report for VOA.

Drea Pizziconi premiered her song “Let Her Dance” with Grammy-nominated artist Maimouna Yussef and Dap-Kings Horns at CAMFED’s Anniversary Gala supporting female education in Africa. She is launching a new imitative called Girls First Finance (GFF). Her current single “This Land” premiered in the Jazz Times on the 4 of July, as a soulful reflection of injustice in America.

Apple became the latest company targeted for Chinese pressure over protests in Hong Kong when the ruling Communist Party’s main newspaper criticized the tech giant Wednesday for a smartphone app that allows activists to report police movements.

HKmap.live, designed by an outside supplier and available on Apple Inc.’s online store, “facilitates illegal behavior,” People’s Daily said in a commentary.

“Is Apple guiding Hong Kong thugs?” the newspaper said.

Beijing has pressed companies including Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways to take the government’s side against the protests, which are in their fourth month.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

HKmap.live allows users to report police locations, use of tear gas and other details that are added to a regularly updated map. A version is also available for smartphones that use the Android operating system.

Asked whether the Chinese government had asked Apple to remove the HKmap.live from its online store, a foreign ministry spokesman said he had no information about that.

“What I can tell you is that these radical, violent crimes in Hong Kong have seriously challenged the legal system and social order in Hong Kong, threatened the safety of Hong Kong residents’ lives and property, and undermined the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong,” said the spokesman, Geng Shuang.

“Anyone who has a conscience and justice should resist and oppose instead of supporting and indulging those actions,” Geng said at a regular news briefing.

The demonstrations began over a proposed extradition law and expanded to include other grievances and demands for greater democracy.

Criticism of Apple followed government attacks starting last weekend on the National Basketball Association over a comment by the general manager of the Houston Rockets in support of the protesters. China’s state TV has canceled broadcasts of NBA games.

“Apple jumped into this on its own and mixed together business with politics and commercial activity with illegal activities,” People’s Daily said.

The newspaper warned Apple might be damaging its reputation with Chinese consumers.

Brands targeted in the past by Beijing have been subjected to campaigns by the entirely state-controlled press to drive away consumers or disruptive investigations by tax and other regulators.

“This recklessness will cause much trouble for Apple,” People’s Daily said. “Apple needs to think deeply.”

 

National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country’s military has begun a long-planned incursion into northern Syria to take out Kurdish forces branded by Ankara as terrorists, but viewed by much of the West as key partners in the fight against Islamic State

The military operation began Wednesday, days after a surprise White House announcement that U.S. forces would withdraw from the region.

President Donald Trump is continuing to defend his decision, amid widespread criticism, saying the “stupid endless wars for us are ending!”

“Fighting between various groups that has been going on for hundreds of years. USA should never have been in Middle East. Moved our 50 soldiers out. Turkey MUST take over captured ISIS fighters that Europe refused to have returned. The stupid endless wars, for us, are ending!,” Trump said Wednesday, in a series of tweets on the matter.

Bipartisan criticism

The U.S. announcement of a troop pullout from northern Syria, paving the way for the Turkish military operation against a Kurdish militia in the area, has been widely criticized by both Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers have said the U.S. would be abandoning Syrian Kurds who had fought the Islamic State terror group alongside U.S. troops.  

“If I hear the president say one more time, ‘I made a campaign promise to get out of Syria,’ I’m going to throw up,” Republican Senator Lindsay Graham told Axios. “He took an oath of office to protect the nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. There’s no bigger enemy to our nation than ISIS. And there’s no way we can protect the country from radical Islam without partners like the Kurds.”

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces issued its own call for those involved in the coalition to defeat IS and avoid a humanitarian disaster in northern Syria.

“All indications, field information and military build up on the Turkish side of the border indicate that our border areas will be attacked by Turkey, in cooperation with Syrian opposition tied to Turkey,” the SDF said. “This attack will spill the blood of thousands of innocent civilians because our border areas are overcrowded.”

‘Not abandoning’ Kurds

President Trump has insisted he is not abandoning Kurds that fought with U.S. and coalition partners against IS.  At the same time, he has also praised Turkey, inviting President Erdogan to visit the White House next month (November 13), while calling Ankara a “big trading partner” and crediting the Turkish government with “helping me to save many lives at Idlib Province.”

U.S. military officials confirmed that they have re-positioned about 50 U.S. special force members, who had been operating along the Turkey-Syria border, out of harm’s way.

“Unfortunately, Turkey has chosen to act unilaterally,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said in a statement, Tuesday.

“As a result, we have moved the U.S. forces in northern Syria out of the path of [the] potential Turkish incursion to ensure their safety,” he added. “We have made no changes to our force presence in Syria at this time.”

When 40-year-old Svetlana Prokopyeva penned her column about an October 2018 suicide bombing by a 17-year-old student at the Federal Security Service (FSB) offices in Arkhangelsk, Russia, she had no inkling of what she would be bringing on herself.

The perpetrator killed himself in the blast and injured three FSB officers, announcing beforehand on an anarchist chat forum that he was doing so because the security agency “fabricates cases and tortures people.”

Prokopyeva tried in her commentary to enter the state of mind of the teenage bomber, to analyze his motives, arguing the Russian government’s repressive policies and its squelching of dissent and opposition was to blame. “A young citizen who has only seen prohibitions and punishments from the government in his life has not been able to invent any other means of communication. Cruelty breeds cruelty. The ruthless state has created a citizen whose only argument is death,” she wrote.

Now Prokopyeva, who works in the northwestern Russian city of Pskov for the independent Moscow-based radio station Ekho Moskvy and is a freelance reporter for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, is facing a possible seven year jail term. Her apartment was raided by the security services, her laptops, phones and flash drives taken, and in July her name was added to an official list of “extremists and terrorists,” allowing the authorities to block her bank accounts and credit cards.

Last month, she was charged formally with publicly justifying terrorism and banned from traveling beyond the Pskov region. Journalists covering her case have complained they have been harassed.

Her case has prompted an international outcry by journalist organizations. The European Federation of Journalists dubs her case an “obvious attempt to intimidate journalists” and has called on the Russian government to stop misusing terrorism legislation to silence reporters.

Rights groups are highlighting her case as yet another example of the increasingly reduced space authorities are permitting independent journalists in a media landscape dominated by outlets owned by the state or Kremlin-linked oligarchs.

Last week, Russia’s few remaining independent news outlets published an open letter written by Prokopyeva in which she said that as the possibility of a criminal case against her was growing ever more likely she and her colleagues “just laughed and called the bureaucrats crazy. Where in hell was this ‘justification of terrorism’”?

Speaking to VOA via an encrypted messaging app — she has been tipped off her home phone is bugged — Prokopyeva said even Russia’s independent journalists are becoming “accustomed to filter information,” or self-censorship. Now apparently “it is impossible to analyze a terrorist attack, because the government can consider it a justification of terrorism,’” she says.

“My column was in accordance with the law. There’s no slander, the opinions are not formed as facts. Since we have freedom of speech in our Constitution, I thought I had rights to express my opinion and I did. Roskomnadzor (Federal Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Media Regulatory Authority) hasn’t cited any exact words or phrases, where it saw justification of terrorism,” she says.

She says she was surprised by the reaction of the authorities and might think twice about writing such a commentary again. The police raid, she said, was humiliating.

“They came around 12 p.m, I had just came from Moscow where I was presenting a book about the Pskov region. They didn’t talk much to me. There was a crowd in my apartment, I was just sitting on the chair, they said: ‘here’s a warrant to search, we start.’ They checked literally everything, each paper, all laptops, searched all my belongings. This procedure is nasty. It took around five or six hours,” she says.

Intimidation 

Journalists covering her case also face difficulties. Last week, Pskov authorities summoned the editor of Ekho Moskvy’s Pskov affiliate, and the editor of a local independent news-site, after both outlets published Prokopyeva’s open letter. The editors say they were interrogated but are not able to elaborate more because of a non-disclosure agreement they were required to sign.

“The prosecution of journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva and the intimidation and harassment of journalists reporting on her case shows how far Russian authorities will go to silence independent voices,” according to the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists. “The charges against Prokopyeva should be dropped and other journalists must be allowed to cover her case freely,” the organization said in a statement.

Prokopyeva’s case is not the only one prompting the growing alarm of Russia’s independent media. Last week, the website of the Fergana Russian news agency, an outlet mainly covering the central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, was blocked by Roskomnadzor without any justification offered.

The move was condemned by the rights group Amnesty International as “another arbitrary attack on freedom of expression in Russia.”  

“The authorities may have believed that they could silence Fergana without anybody noticing, but they are wrong. Independent media outlets such as Fergana are rare in Russia but, to the authorities’ annoyance, they have a dedicated audience in Russia and beyond,” said Amnesty International’s Russia Director Natalia Zviagina.

The Philippine government imposed martial law on its giant southern island of Mindanao in early 2017 to help fight a war against Muslim rebels who had seized the center of the lakeside university town Marawi. Two years after the war ended, martial law remains and officials are talking about an extension into 2020.

Martial law is not new to the Philippines. Former President Ferdinand Marco ruled as dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981.

But this time some people in Mindanao are pushing back. Martial law, they argue, keeps the island safer. But it may also keep business away.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said in July he would consider extending martial law into 2020 if local officials want it, domestic media outlet Philstar.com reported. He said the island and outlying seas were still at risk.

“Ideally, it is obviously good to see Mindanao freed from security challenges by the end of 2019 and therefore martial law may not be expected to be implemented anymore,” said Henelito Sevilla, assistant international relations professor at University of the Philippines.

“However, Mindanao is Mindanao, and the region should not be compared to other parts of the Philippines where security challenges are less diverse in terms of nature, area and extent as compared to Mindanao islands,” Sevilla said. “The islands of Mindanao are very diverse in terms of tribal affinity, political cleavages and even armed groupings.”

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. had said in mid-2019 via Philippine media that he would propose another year of martial law.

Violent elements remain

Troops declared victory against the Muslim rebels in Marawi in October 2017 after fighting killed more than 1,100. In early 2019, Marawi and surrounding areas formally became the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. It was to be administered at least in part by a rebel group that had signed a peace deal with the government in 2014.

However, an armed splinter of that group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, occasionally stages deadly ambushes including an August attack that killed three military informants. Abu Sayyaf, a separate rebel group known for kidnapping and slaying foreign tourists, remains intact on islands off Mindanao’s west coast. The armed communist New People’s Army has its own camps in Mindanao.

Muslim rebels believe the Philippine Catholic majority controls an unfair share of resources in Mindanao despite five centuries of Muslim settlement. Violence there has killed about 120,000 people in Mindanao and adjacent Sulu Sea since the 1960s.

Light impact

Martial law lets troops and police work together without normal legal checks and balances. Authorities can also enforce curfews and randomly search vehicles.

But in much of Mindanao, martial law is hardly noticeable. Around the port city Cagayan de Oro, for example, cars stop only between the domestic airport and downtown for routine checks. Police do not enforce curfews in the downtown mega-malls, upscale restaurants and major high-rise hotel.

Road checkpoints turn up more often on highways around the Bangsamoro region, home to some 3.8 million mostly Muslim Filipinos.

In Davao, the Philippine archipelago’s second largest city after Manila, people broadly support the extension of martial law, said a scholar who just visited. Davao is on Mindanao’s east coast, removed from most rebel attacks.

“I asked people, they like the army because they feel considerably safe, and it’s actually not hindering the daily life of the people,” said the visitor Enrico Cau, Southeast Asia-specialized associate researcher at the Taiwan Strategy Research Association.

“Just the idea that martial law hinders investment, deters people from going, stops tourists — even not so much,” he said. “Because when I got to Davao on August 17 and when I left in September, for example, hotels didn’t have one single room.”

Is Mindanao safe enough already?

Davao’s mayor and city council expressed formal opposition to continued martial law after ambassadors visited the city in mid-2019 and said the law raises costs of doing business, domestic media say. Much of Mindanao’s 25 million population lives in poverty, largely for lack of investment.

Protest from the mayor may roll back martial law next year to cover only parts of Mindanao where rebels are likely to strike, Cau said. The mayor is also Duterte’s daughter.

Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Manila-based Bagong Alyansang Makabaya alliance of leftist causes, said

Philippine officials should drop martial law to focus instead on a peace process that address poverty and inequality in Mindanao.

The government should use martial law to “expedite the development of new growth centers” in Mindanao to meet economic needs, said Aaron Rabena, a research fellow at Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, a Manila research organization.

“We cannot live in a world where martial law is the norm,” Reyes said. “It should always be the last resort for government. When all civilian agencies or institutions are unable to discharge their functions, that’s when the military will come in.” 

A new public opinion poll shows support is building for the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry now under way in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The latest Washington Post-Schar School poll found 58% of those surveyed now support the impeachment inquiry, while 38% oppose. That is a shift of 21 points in those supporting the inquiry from a previous poll in July. A total of 49% of those who support the inquiry said Congress should impeach U.S. President Donald Trump and remove him from office, while 6%  of that group oppose his ouster.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows voters support the inquiry by a margin of 52% to 45%. The survey also shows voters remain split on whether President Trump should be impeached. Forty-five percent say he should, and 49% oppose the idea.

House Democrats are considering whether the president may have committed an impeachable offense by trying to enlist help from Ukraine and China to investigate Democratic presidential front-runner and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Showdown with Congress

The jump in support for impeachment comes as House Democrats battle the White House for documents and testimony in a probe that seems to be moving quickly.

Several analysts say the likelihood is growing that the Democratic House may be headed toward making Trump only the third U.S. president in history to be impeached.

“These are extraordinarily serious allegations,” George Washington Law School analyst Paul Schiff Berman told VOA. “I am not sure there has ever been a time in our history where we have had a president who has conducted foreign policy for his own personal political gain.”

At the White House, Trump remained defiant and lashed out at Democrats.

“What they did to this country is unthinkable, and it’s lucky that I am the president because a lot of people said very few people could handle it,” Trump told reporters late Monday. “I sort of thrive on it.  You know why?  Because it is so important.”

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said his focus was fighting corruption, not politics.

On Tuesday, the impeachment probe took another turn when the State Department ordered the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, not to appear before Congress to answer questions about the Trump administration’s dealing with Ukraine.

The Democratic chairmen of the key House committees involved in the impeachment inquiry announced they intend to subpoena Sondland to testify. 

The Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, California Congressman Adam Schiff, said the latest move by the administration appear to be “part of the White House’s effort to obstruct the inquiry and cover up President Trump’s misconduct.”

Schiff also vowed to reporters that Democrats remain focused on allegations that the president abused his power in his dealing with Ukraine.

“This is one of the few impeachment inquiries in the history of our country.  It goes to the core of whether the president abused his office to seek political help in his re-election campaign and did so to the detriment of our nation’s security.”

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has said he was focused on rooting out corruption in Ukraine, not domestic politics.

The process

Eventually, Democrats may move to impeach Trump over his dealings with Ukraine in the House of Representatives where they have a majority.

But it would be only the beginning of a lengthy and unpredictable process, according to Brookings Institution analyst William Galston.

“If there are articles of impeachment voted in the House of Representatives, which in the U.S. system serves as the sort of prosecutor making the case.  But the real jury is the Senate of the United States, and there it would take a two-thirds majority to remove President Trump from office.”

If the House impeaches Trump, that would lead to an impeachment trial in the Senate where the 100 senators would effectively act as jurors on the articles of impeachment passed by the House.

But unlike the House where Democrats hold a majority, Republicans control the Senate by a margin of 53 to 47 seats.  Democrats actually hold 45 Senate seats but can usually count on the votes of independents Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine.

Senate firewall

In the House, it only takes a simple majority vote to pass articles of impeachment.  But in a Senate trial where the president’s fate would be decided, there is a two-thirds majority, or 67 votes, required to convict the president on any article of impeachment, which would lead to his removal from office.

“That would mean that 20 Republican senators out of 53 would have to join with the Democrats in order to carry out that act,” said Galston.  “That requires a much broader coalition of support across party lines than we have seen so far.”

Trump sees the Republican majority in the Senate as his firewall against removal from office.

“And then we will get it to the Senate, and we are going to win. The Republicans have been very unified. This is the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country,” Trump told reporters outside the White House last week.

Trump’s campaign has been raising millions of dollars off the Democratic impeachment effort, and some analysts believe the impeachment drive could help mobilize his supporters in time for next year’s presidential election.

But neither side really knows how an impeachment battle will play out in the 2020 campaign, though it is likely to add fuel to an intensive battle for the White House, and experts are predicting a huge voter turnout.

Recent history

The last impeachment trial in the Senate came in 1999, when President Bill Clinton was acquitted of charges related to his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Clinton and Andrew Johnson are the only two presidents to have been impeached and then acquitted in Senate impeachment trials.

Richard Nixon was the focus of an impeachment inquiry in 1974 over the Watergate scandal. But he resigned the presidency before he was impeached after Republican congressional leaders told him he was likely to be removed from office if there was a Senate trial.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has condemned deadly violence during protests in Iraq and called on the country’s government to “exercise maximum restraint,” the State Department said Tuesday.

In a call with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi, Pompeo “condemned the recent violence in Iraq and noted that those who violated human rights should be held accountable,” the department said in a statement.

“The secretary lamented the tragic loss of life over the past few days and urged the Iraqi government to exercise maximum restraint.

“Pompeo reiterated that peaceful public demonstrations are a fundamental element of all democracies, and emphasized that there is no place for violence in demonstrations, either by security forces or protestors.”

Demonstrations in Iraq began with demands for an end to rampant corruption and chronic unemployment but escalated with calls for a complete overhaul of the political system.

They were unprecedented because of their apparent spontaneity and independence in a deeply politicized society, and have also been bloody — with more than 100 people killed and 6,000 wounded in one week. 

Most people think of rats as dirty, disease-ridden creatures that should be avoided at all cost. But rats are proven to be highly intelligent, with a keen sense of smell. For the past 20 years, a nonprofit organization in Tanzania has been taking advantage of those attributes by training a special breed of rat to help save lives. VOA’s Julie Taboh caught up with a member of their research team in Charleston, South Carolina.

Oprah Winfrey says she’s giving $13 million to increase a scholarship endowment at a historically black college.

Winfrey announced her plan Monday at Morehouse College in Atlanta, adding to the $12 million she gave to the all-male college 30 years ago. She was meeting with 47 students already benefiting from the existing endowment.

Morehouse President David Thomas says Winfrey’s endowment has paid to educate almost 600 students over the past three decades.

Winfrey’s announcement came weeks after Morehouse announced it would cut some employee salaries and retirement contributions to increase student aid, and eliminate some jobs. Billionaire Robert Smith won wide notice earlier this year when he promised to repay all student and family loans accumulated by Morehouse’s class of 2019. That one-time gift will be worth $34 million.

 

The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard highly anticipated cases on whether federal civil rights law should apply to LGBT people, with Chief Justice John Roberts questioning how doing so would affect employers.

In the first of two cases, the justices heard arguments on whether a federal law banning job discrimination on the basis of sex should also protect sexual orientation. Lower courts have split on the issue. A related case on transgender employees is also being heard Tuesday.

Roberts, a possible swing vote in the cases, wondered about the implications of what he described as an expansion of the job-discrimination law.

“If we’re going to be expanding the definition of what `sex’ covers, what do we do about that issue?” Roberts asked.

Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative, suggested that the high court would be usurping the role of Congress by reading protection for sexual orientation into the 1964 Civil Rights Act, when lawmakers at the time likely envisioned they were doing no such thing.

“You’re trying to change the meaning of ‘sex,’” he said.

Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal, suggested sexual orientation is a clear subset of sex discrimination, saying that a man who loves other men cannot be treated differently by an employer than a woman who loves men.

The cases Tuesday are the court’s first on LGBT rights since Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement and replacement by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Kennedy was a voice for gay rights and the author of the landmark ruling in 2015 that made same-sex marriage legal throughout the United States. Kavanaugh generally is regarded as more conservative.

A decision is expected by early summer 2020, amid the presidential election campaign.

A ruling for employees who were fired because of their sexual orientation or gender identity would have a big impact for the estimated 8.1 million LGBT workers across the country because most states don’t protect them from workplace discrimination. An estimated 11.3 million LGBT people live in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA law school.

The Trump administration has changed course from the Obama administration and now supports the employers in arguing that the civil rights law’s Title 7 does not prohibit discrimination because of sexual orientation or transgender status.

People have been waiting in line outside the court since the weekend to try to snag the few seats the court makes available to the public for arguments.

The justices will first hear appeals in lawsuits filed by Gerald Lynn Bostock, who claims he lost his job working for Clayton County, Georgia, after he began playing in a gay recreational softball league. He lost his case in federal district court and at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Skydiving instructor Donald Zarda was fired shortly after telling a woman he was preparing to take on a dive that he was gay. Zarda, who worked for Altitude Express on New York’s Long Island, said he would sometimes reveal his sexual orientation to allay concerns women might have about being strapped together during a dive.

Zarda initially lost his lawsuit, but the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for him. Zarda has since died.

The other case involves fired transgender funeral home director Aimee Stephens. She lost her job when she told Thomas Rost, owner of the Detroit-area R.G. and G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, that she had struggled with gender identity issues almost her whole life. She was planning to exchange the dark suit and tie she had worn to work for nearly six years as an embalmer and funeral director for a conservative dress or skirt that was required for women who worked for Rost.

Rost told Stephens her plan wouldn’t work and let her go. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued on her behalf and, after losing in a district court, won a ruling in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

During the Obama years, the EEOC had changed its longstanding interpretation of civil rights law to include discrimination against LGBT people. The law prohibits discrimination because of sex, but has no specific protection for sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Trump administration and the employers say Congress could easily settle the matter by amending Title 7 to include LGBT people. Legislation to that effect is pending in Congress, but is not likely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate.

But the workers contend, and the lower courts that have ruled for them have reasoned, that the law as it stands plainly covers sexual orientation and gender identity because discrimination against them is based on generalizations about sex that have nothing to do with their ability to do their jobs.

They also argue that they were fired for not conforming to sex stereotypes, a form of sex discrimination that the Supreme Court recognized 30 years ago.

 

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli is known as the “bulldozer” for refusing to tolerate criticism of himself and his policies.  Since coming to office in 2015, critics say Magufuli’s government has squeezed press freedoms through harsh media laws and intimidation.

Tanzanian authorities arrested TV journalist Joseph Gandye in August for “publishing false information” after he broadcast a story alleging police abuse of detainees.

Gandye was held for three days, then released on bail.

He stands by his reporting and says the charges are politically motivated.

Gandye says, “When you want to try to report an issue which has the truth and involves authorities, sometimes a journalist, you’ll end up arrested.  You’ll end up being told that you have written a false story, even if the story is true.”

Gandye’s arrest came a month after police charged reporter Erick Kabendera with tax evasion, money laundering and organized crime.

Kabendera denies the charges and says they are connected to his critical reports of the Magufuli government.  

Rights groups say the arrests are part of a pattern in which Magufuli uses the new media laws in order to silence critics.

Anna Henga is the executive director for Legal and Human Rights Center.

“I would recommend amendment of these laws because even the Universal periodic reviews of the United Nations are recommending that these laws should be amended,” said Henga. “They should remove the restrictions, which are put in place by these laws.”

Under Magufuli, Tanzania enacted strict laws on cyber crimes and “media services.” The laws allow authorities to suspend media outlets and charge journalists with sedition for publishing information deemed a threat to peace, false, or even just misleading.

Tanzania’s authorities deny cracking down on freedom of the press and argue the laws are needed to prevent media abuse. Harrison Mwakyembe is the minister of information.

He says, “We insist there is press freedom. Myself, I’m a journalist. I am deeply concerned with media houses. I will not allow limiting press freedoms, no. For a journalist, you report your story, criticize the government – but for the purpose of building the country.”

Media groups say the laws are encouraging self-censorship and fueling fears among Tanzania’s journalists that they are a target.

Salome Kitomari is the chairperson for Media Institute of Southern Africa.

She says, ”We have the case that happened two years ago, our colleague Azory Gwanda. Until now we don’t know about his whereabouts. This is something scary in journalism.”

Meanwhile, Tanzania’s journalists do what they can in an increasingly risky profession. For Gandye, that means waiting for his day in court.

It was by Vladimir Putin’s swashbuckling standards all rather low-key. There was no riding horses bare-chested or allegedly saving a television crew by shooting a tranquilizer dart at a wild tiger which obligingly appeared from out of nowhere in the woods.

No stripping to the waist to wade deep in the waters of mountain rivers to catch fish. Nor was there was any flying on an ultralight alongside endangered Siberian white cranes supposedly nudging them on to their migration path.

The Russian leader’s hike Monday on the eve of his 67th birthday in the Siberian wilderness seemed more contemplative than trailblazing — a contrast with other presidential birthdays.

Accompanied by defense minister Sergei Shoigu, a 64-year-old Siberian native, as well as a state media crew, Putin is pictured picking mushrooms and sitting on an elevated spot overlooking the Yenisei River chatting.

“Super,” he says to Shoigu, “we are a bit higher than the clouds.” The video and photographs lapped up by the Russian media seemed almost elegiac in tone.

Is Putin preparing the country for change? Or was he and his aides using his 67th birthday as just another occasion to keep people guessing?

It isn’t the first time that Russia’s defense minister has vacationed with Putin in Siberia, but it comes just days after the normally reclusive defense chief gave his first extensive media interview in seven years, in which he lauded his role in reviving the Russian armed forces “as if by magic.”

For some, Shoigu, whose poll ratings are second only to Putin in terms of popularity, appeared to be auditioning — either to replace the country’s prime minister, the long-serving, some say long-suffering, Dmitry Medvedev, or even with the presidency in mind.

Others are taking the combination of interview and hike as a sign that Shoigu has already been earmarked to succeed Putin. Or is that what the Kremlin want people to think, while in fact no decision has yet been made?  

Anyone’s Guess

One Russian commentator, Alexander Pokrovsky of Tsagrad TV, wondered if in fact Shoigu in his interview was taking leave of the military in preparation for retirement, not promotion.

Since his election last year to his second consecutive term as Russia’s leader, the big political question in Russia has been whether Putin will change constitutional rules governing presidential term limits and remain in power after 2024, or whether instead he will step aside after orchestrating a managed leadership transition.

With the clock ticking, apprehension is building and with it a sense that Russia is being held hostage waiting for the big decision.

“Politics is all about perceptions, and whether the president and his political technologists like it or not, 2019 has been the year when people began seriously and openly talking about 2024,” according to Mark Galeotti, author of the book, “We Need To Talk About Putin.”

But, Galeotti acknowledges, in a series of articles for the Dutch website Raam op Rusland, that it is hard to tell what Putin’s intentions are given his style of governance is “by indirection, by hints and whispers.” The result, though, he says, is dysfunction because “no long-term political strategy can be elaborated” until Putin has decided whether he’ll stay or go.

No Hurry

A Kremlin insider told VOA he suspects Putin won’t make up his mind for some time. “Why does he need to? He has another two or three years to decide,” he said.

But that is adding to rising uncertainty and adding to the fears of various competing Kremlin clans, who want to position themselves to secure their futures.

Aside from Shoigu, a popular politician for his hands-on management style and high visibility during natural disasters when emergencies minister, others appear to be auditioning for a bigger role. Among them economic development minister Maxim Oreshkin.

A newer generation of princelings — the sons of plutocrats and Kremlin bosses — also appear to vying for larger roles. The Kremlin insider says the various divisions within the Kremlin are a lot more complex than appreciated by most Western observers, who tend to see a simple broad split between a security faction (the Siloviki) and modernizing technocrats.

The last time there was uncertainty in the years leading up to 2008 when Putin had to decide whether to re-write the constitution or trade temporarily places with his prime minister Medvedev, it triggered power struggles within the Kremlin as major players maneuvered to ensure their own safety or jockeyed for the chance to succeed Putin, if he decided to quit.

There were casualties then in the factional struggle for supremacy and survival — a struggle Putin seemed to encourage, inadvertently or otherwise, by delaying a decision on what to do, prompting those who reckoned they could succeed him, or who wanted to anoint a successor themselves, to start infighting and intriguing.

That in turn led to a clampdown by Putin. Is that what Putin is doing now, encouraging contenders to show themselves, only to cut them down to size? 

The White House says the next round of U.S-China trade talks will begin in Washington on Thursday.

“United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin will welcome a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He for continued trade negotiations between the two countries starting on October 10, 2019,” a White House statement said. “The two sides will look to build on the deputy-level talks of the past weeks. Topics of discussion will include forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights, services, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, and enforcement.”

The two sides last held major talks in July but there was no major breakthrough in the trade dispute between the world’s top two economies.

Washington and Beijing have been engaged in a series of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs for more than a year, sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s initial demand for changes in China’s trade, subsidy and intellectual property practices.  China says U.S. trade policies are aimed at trying to stifle its ability to compete.

The situation has cast uncertainty on financial markets and left companies scrambling to cope with the effects of the tariffs.

President Trump announced last month that he was postponing a new round of tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods from October 1 to October 15 “as a gesture of goodwill.”  China followed up by lifting tariffs on U.S. soybeans, pork and some other farm goods

 

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth dissolved parliament on Sunday and said the Indian Ocean island would hold a general election on November 7.

The country, a popular tourist destination and one of Africa’s most stable nations, holds elections every five years, with the last one in 2014.

By law, the country has between 30 and 150 days to organize elections after the prime minister dissolves parliament.

“I have advised the president of the republic to dissolve Parliament and to issue the writ for general elections,” he said in a video statement, adding that voting would be on Nov 7.

Jugnauth, 57, who is also finance minister will seek another term as leader of the Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM). He has served as prime minister since 2017 when he took over from his father, Anerood Jugnauth.

 

Iran’s oil minister said Sunday that China’s CNPC has withdrawn from the development of an offshore gas field and that state-owned Petropars will take over the entire project.

The South Pars gas field was to be developed jointly by France’s Total, China National Petroleum Corporation and Petropars under a $4.8-billion (4.1 billion-euro) deal signed in July 2017.

The deal came after Iran reached a 2015 agreement with world powers that gave it relief from sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear program, ending years of economic isolation.

Total left the project three months after U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew from the nuclear accord in May last year and reimposed sanctions on Iran’s oil industry and other key sectors of the economy.

“Phase 11 (of South Pars) will be entirely developed by Petropars company,” Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was quoted as saying by the ministry’s official website.

Asked whether CNPC International had abandoned the project, Zanganeh said: “Yes, they have.”

The other parties to the Iran nuclear deal — Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia — have vowed to stay in the accord despite the US withdrawal, but their efforts have so far borne no fruit.

Zanganeh said that Petropars did not take the lead on South Pars from the outset because “we wanted to attract foreign investment for this project” and that Petropars was “supposed to learn alongside these (foreign) companies.”

He added that the development of a pressure booster platform would depend on talks between Iran’s MAPNA Group and other companies.

Petropars signed a $440 million agreement in September with another state-owned firm, Pars Oil and Gas Company, to develop the Balal field in the Gulf.

 

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Sunday rejected as speculation talk of a military coup after recent jihadist attacks left dozens of soldiers dead.

Keita said lessons would be learned after 38 soldiers were killed in two attacks last week near the border with Burkina Faso, a death toll that observers say is probably an underestimate.

“No military coup will prevail in Mali, let it be said,” the president said in remarks recorded Saturday and released on Sunday. “And I don’t think this is on the agenda at all and cannot worry us,” he added.

“We are at war,” the president said after the attacks last Monday and Tuesday  in the towns of Boulkessy and Mondoro, which evoked memories of a 2012 army coup in the former French colony.

“What happened at Boulkessy could unfortunately happen again,” Keita said.

The assailants used heavily armed vehicles in the raids on the two military camps, during which the government said troops killed 15 jihadists.

The jihadists made off with a large quantity of arms, ammunition and equipment — local media said about 20 vehicles were captured, including some mounted with machine guns.

Sources said Malian special forces and foreign allies, including French warplanes and helicopters, helped to quash the attacks.

 

 

Astronauts kicked off the first of five spacewalks to replace old batteries at the International Space Station on Sunday.

Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan had to remove a pair of old batteries and install a new one delivered just a week ago. These new lithium-ion batteries are so powerful that only one is needed for every two old ones, which are original to the orbiting lab.
 
The 400-pound (180-kilogram) batteries — half the size of a refrigerator — are part of the space station’s solar power network. Astronauts have been upgrading them since 2017. They’re halfway done. The old batteries are 10 years old; the new ones are expected to last until the end of the space station’s life.
 
These latest battery swaps are especially difficult given the extreme location on the station’s sprawling frame. It’s too far for the 58-foot (17-meter) robot arm to reach, forcing astronauts to lug the batteries back and forth themselves. That’s why so many spacewalks are needed this time to replace 12 old nickel-hydrogen batteries with six new lithium-ion versions.
 
After removing the first old battery, Koch and Morgan took turns holding it as they made their way, inchworm style, to a storage platform where it needed to be placed. The battery was so bulky that it blocked the spacewalkers’ views of one another, prompting constant updates. “I am right next to you,” Koch said at one point. “I have the battery,” Morgan replied. Then Koch had the battery, and so it went until it was in its final spot.
 
Next came the new battery for installation, with the same methodical handover.
 
Before all the heavy lifting, the astronauts had time to take in the view 250 miles (400 kilometers) below.