After an explosive day of testimony in the U.S. House impeachment hearings, lawmakers are set to hear Thursday from Fiona Hill, the National Security Council’s former top Russia expert who previously told investigators the removal of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was the result of a campaign set in motion by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.

Also scheduled to testify is David Holmes, a career foreign service officer who serves as the political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, and who in his own earlier closed-door testimony said he overheard a phone call in which Trump asked U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would be investigating former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump has been denying allegations that he held up nearly $400 million in badly needed military aid to Ukraine until Kyiv promised to investigate Biden, one of the president’s leading 2020 presidential rivals.

Sondland testified Wednesday that there was a quid pro quo between Trump and Ukraine.

In his opening statement, Sondland said impeachment investigators “have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a quid pro quo? As I testified previously … the answer is yes.”

According to the ambassador, “it was no secret” and a number of senior Trump administration officials were “in the loop,” including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

WATCH: Sondland to US Lawmakers: Trump Conditioned Aid to Ukraine on Investigations

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Sondland talked about long and complicated behind-the-scenes machinations that took place between April, with the election of Zelenskiy, and September, when the aid to Ukraine was finally released after a 55-day delay.

Sondland said he joined Energy Secretary Rick Perry and special envoy Kurt Volker in following Trump’s “orders” to work with the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who was pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden and alleged Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election to help Democrats.

“We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani,” Sondland said. “Simply put, we played the hand we were dealt. We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine.”

WATCH AMBASSADOR SONDLAND HEARING ON-DEMAND

Aid released after whistleblower complaint

Sondland said Giuliani was acting at Trump’s behest when the lawyer told Ukrainian officials that the president wanted Zelenskiy to publicly commit to investigating the Bidens and the Democrats.

Sondland said efforts to push for the investigations were a quid pro quo in arranging a White House meeting for Zelenskiy.

Sondland said while Trump never told him directly that military aid to Ukraine was conditional on the investigations, he later concluded that had to be the reason because Sondland said there was no other credible reason Ukraine was not getting the money it had been promised.

Republicans on the impeachment inquiry have argued there could not have possibly been a quid pro quo with Ukraine because the military aid was eventually released and there were no investigations of Biden and the Democrats. They also say Ukraine was unaware that the money was being held up.

But in later testimony Wednesday, Pentagon official Laura Cooper said Ukrainian officials began asking questions about the aid in July. 

“It’s the recollections of my staff that they likely knew,” she said.

Trump released the aid to Ukraine on Sept. 11 after reports emerged that an intelligence community whistleblower told the inspector general he was concerned about July phone call in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden. That whistleblower complaint is what led to the impeachment probe.

No evidence of Biden wrongdoing

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said that Sondland’s testimony “made clear” that in his calls with Trump, the president “clearly stated that he ‘wanted nothing’ from Ukraine, and repeated ‘no quid pro quo over and over again.’ The U.S. aid to Ukraine flowed, no investigation was launched, and President Trump has met and spoken with President Zelenskiy. Democrats keep chasing ghosts.”

Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Ukraine got the money and there were no investigations only because Trump got caught.

Trump has alleged that when Biden was vice president, he threatened to withhold loan guarantees to Ukraine unless it fired a prosecutor looking into corruption in Burisma, a gas company where Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board.

No evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens has ever surfaced. Allegations that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to help Democrats are based on a debunked conspiracy theory that likely originated in Russia.

July call central to inquiry

Trump’s July 25 White House call with Zelenskiy, in which the U.S. leader asked Zelenskiy to “do us a favor,” to undertake the politically tinged investigations, is at the center of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against Trump.

It is against U.S. campaign finance law to solicit foreign government help in a U.S. election, but it will be up to lawmakers to decide whether Trump’s actions amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the standard in the U.S. Constitution sets for impeachment and removal of a president from office. Trump could be impeached by the full Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in the coming weeks, which would be similar to an indictment in a criminal trial. He then would face a trial in the Republican-majority Senate, where his conviction remains unlikely.

Sondland confirmed the essence of a cellphone conversation he had with Trump on July 26, the day after Trump’s conversation with Zelenskiy, as he sat at a Kyiv restaurant with other State Department officials.

Late last week, David Holmes, an aide to William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Kyiv, told impeachment investigations in private testimony that he overheard the Trump-Sondland call because Trump’s voice was loud and Sondland held the phone away from his ear.

Holmes said Sondland in the call assured Trump that Zelenskiy “loves your ass,” which Sondland said “sounds like something I would say.”

“So, he’s gonna do the investigation?” Holmes quoted Trump as asking. Sondland, according to Holmes, replied, “He’s gonna do it,” while adding that Zelenskiy will do “anything you ask him to.”

Holmes said he later asked Sondland if Trump cared about Ukraine, with the envoy replying that Trump did not “give a s**t about Ukraine.” Sondland said he did not recall this remark but did not rebut Holmes’ account.

“I asked why not,” Holmes recalled, “and Ambassador Sondland stated that the president only cares about big stuff. I noted that there was ‘big stuff’ going on in Ukraine, like a war with Russia, and Ambassador Sondland replied that he meant ‘big stuff’ that benefits the president, like the Biden investigation.”‘

Disdain from Trump

Before Sondland revised his testimony last month to say there had been a quid pro quo — the military aid for the Biden investigation — Trump had called Sondland a “great American.” But after Sondland changed his testimony, Trump said, “I hardly know the gentleman.”

Trump has repeatedly described the July 25 call with Zelenskiy as “perfect” and denied any wrongdoing. Trump has often assailed the impeachment inquiry but did not immediately comment on Twitter about Sondland’s testimony.

…

Layleen Cubilette-Polanco had experienced some rough patches in her 27 years but had tried to change course, seeking to switch out of previous jobs as a go-go dancer and sex worker for employment in places like McDonald’s and Walgreens, her sister said.

She never completed that journey. Cubilette-Polanco died in June of complications from epilepsy in New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail where she spent her final two months, unable to make $500 bail.

On Wednesday, transgender advocates across the United States commemorated people like Cubilette-Polanco for the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Vigils such as one in New York that culminated in front of the Stonewall Inn LGBTQ landmark drew attention to at least 22 transgender people, almost all of them black women, who have been killed so far in 2019. A similar number have been killed in each of the past seven years, as tracked by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the United States.

Globally, at least 311 were killed in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, the second-highest total on record, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring project of the Berlin-based group Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide.

Of those 130 were killed in Brazil and 63 in Mexico, the project said.

The U.S. campaign made special note of Cubilette-Polanco.

Though she was not a homicide victim, her story illustrates the insecurity of trans women of color, who are more likely to be unemployed and lack access to healthcare.

After a youth spent helping others, whether rescuing stray animals or bringing home runaway kids needing a place to stay, she decided to start helping herself, sister Melania Brown said.

“The last couple of months of her life, she wanted the change. She wanted to get a real job. She wanted to fulfill herself in society, and society let her down,” said Brown, who believed that discrimination never gave the Dominican-born U.S. citizen a fair chance in the job market.

Cubilette-Polanco was arrested in April on charges of misdemeanor assault and theft over an altercation with a taxi driver. Bail was set at $500 because of a 2017 prostitution arrest, local media reported, citing arrest records.

She lived with epilepsy and schizophrenia, according to a lawsuit her family filed against New York City’s Department of Correction.

The Human Rights Campaign has recorded at least 157 homicides of transgender people since 2013, nearly all of them women of color.

More than 100 demonstrators gathered in New York on Wednesday night to remember those slain, meeting at the Christopher Street pier, where transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson died in 1992, and marching to the Stonewall, site of the 1969 uprising considering the birth of the modern queer rights movement.

“We need to invest more in our trans community. Don’t just send me roses when I’m gone,” said Kiara St. James, executive director of the New York Transgender Advocacy Group.

The names of victims were read, and people dressed in white, their faces veiled, held up portraits of the dead.

Another speaker, who goes only by the name Synthia, said she had been the victim of a hateful act of aggression in which a man pulled a gun on her.

“I survived that day knowing my name could have been on the list I just read,” she said. “So for me, Transgender Day Remembrance is about living survivors that walk these streets daily just trying to survive.”

…

The fate of four Eritrean football players seeking asylum in Jinja, Uganda, remains uncertain, weeks after they fled their hotel during a tournament.
 
The players had been set to compete with the Eritrean National Team in the Cecafa Under-20 Challenge Cup in October. For the past six weeks, they have been moving from house to house to avoid being caught by Eritrean agents in Uganda, their lawyer told VOA.

Kimberley Motley, an American attorney dealing with international law and representing the four men, said they fear being returned to Eritrea, where they could face imprisonment and torture.

“They simply want to be able to live free in a country that is not going to imprison them, and which is a great fear that they have if they’re sent back to Eritrea. And they’re very fearful that they will be sent back by the Ugandan authorities,” Motley said.

Ugandan officials didn’t respond to VOA’s requests for updates on the footballers’ case.

“They’ve been in hiding,” Motley said. “They’ve been moving from place to place, hoping that a country is kind enough to accept them as asylum seekers based on their very solid claim of being persecuted if they were sent back to their country.”

In a video posted by “One Day Seyoum,”  a group focused on human rights for Eritreans, the footballers said there is a campaign against them, and they fear being tracked and illegally detained by Eritrean agents in Uganda.

Hear from the 4 Eritrean footballers currently living in fear in Uganda. It has been more than 3 weeks since they defected & the UNHCR has still not relocated them to safety. Join our Twitter storm against @Refugees to pressure them to immediately #ProtectFleeingFootballerspic.twitter.com/GeYgdjsTgn

— One Day Seyoum (@onedayseyoum) October 29, 2019

“We are in grave danger,” Mewael Yosief, one of the footballers, said. “We are in need of help. Because if they catch us, when we go back home, it’s going to be an unimaginably severe danger for us, because we might face imprisonment — unimaginable punishments. And it might even cause us death,” the 19-year-old said.

In 2015, 10 players on the Eritrean national football team sought and secured asylum during a World Cup qualifying match in Botswana. In 2009, the team made worldwide headlines when the entire roster defected and refused to fly home after a match in Kenya.
 
To support the remaining players who did not defect during the Uganda tournament, some members of Eritrea’s diaspora started a GoFundMe drive that has raised more than $44,000 to allow “these young men to be able to enjoy their careers at home and allow them to enjoy their return.”

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The Israeli military says its warplanes struck dozens of Iranian and Syrian military targets outside of Damascus Wednesday in retaliation for a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights the day before.

The military says the targets, including surface-to-air missiles, weapons depots and troop headquarters, belonged to Iran’s elite Quds force, the overseas arm of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards.

Syria’s state-run media said two civilians were killed in the airstrikes, but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has learned that 11 people died in the strikes.  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Wednesday that he has “made clear that whoever hurts us, we will hurt them.”

…

U.S. Democratic presidential candidates hold their fifth debate Wednesday in Atlanta, with the showdown taking place amid shifting polls and a growing sense of uncertainty about where the primary race is heading.

A total of 10 contenders will be on stage in a race that of late has been overshadowed by the unfolding impeachment saga involving President Donald Trump in Washington.

The two leading contenders, according to national polls, former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, will be center stage in the Atlanta debate.

Buttigieg rising

But one candidate drawing extra attention at the moment is South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Buttigieg has surged into the lead in the early voting state of Iowa, according to the latest CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of likely Iowa voters.

Buttigieg placed first with 25 percent support, followed by Warren at 16 percent, and Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders both at 15 percent. The rest of the Democratic field trailed in single digits.

Buttigieg said in Los Angeles that his campaign has been making steady progress for months.

“The more voters hear my message, the more supportive they become and the more we are able to grow our base,” he said.

Biden’s lead

Biden continues to lead in national polls and in a new Quinnipiac University survey of voters in South Carolina, which is also an early voting state in the primary process.

Bolstered by support from African-American voters, Biden leads in South Carolina with 33 percent backing, followed by Warren with 13 percent and Sanders at 11 percent.

On the campaign trail, the former vice president continues to argue he would be the strongest candidate to take on President Trump next year.

“Whoever among us ends up being the nominee for the Democratic Party, the next president is going to inherit two things for certain – a nation that is divided and a world in disarray,” Biden told a rally in Iowa last week.

Even though Warren remains near the top of the Democratic field, she finds herself on the defensive of late over her sweeping plan for a government health care program known as Medicare-for-all.

The senator recently announced a more phased-in approach to her health care plan as she rallied supporters in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Come caucus for me and come fight alongside me, because this is our time to dream big, to fight hard and to win,” she told the crowd.

The newcomers

One new Democratic contender who will not be in the debate is former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who announced last week that he was entering the race.  

“This campaign, I think, is an opportunity to bring people together,” Patrick said.

The former two-term governor has had a long friendship with former President Barack Obama.

In addition, billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is considering joining the race.

Analysts see both Bloomberg and Patrick as moderates who could pose a threat to Biden if they are able to gain traction in the campaign.

Even though Biden continues to lead in national polls, he trails in Iowa and is in a tight race with Warren and Sanders for the New Hampshire primary, another key early contest that comes one week after Iowa.

The interest among additional candidates to join the race raises questions about the current field of contenders, said University of Virginia analyst Larry Sabato.

“It is obvious that many Democratic leaders are very worried about the top echelon (of the Democratic field). Each of the candidates has problems—too old, too young, over-experienced and under-experienced, and then too far left, too far right. You name it,” Sabato told Associated Press Television.

The other contenders who will be on stage in Atlanta include Sanders, California Senator Kamala Harris, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, billionaire Tom Steyer and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

…

U.S. Democrats hold their fifth presidential debate Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia.  Ten Democratic contenders will debate each other in a presidential race that of late has been largely overshadowed by the impeachment drama in Washington involving President Donald Trump.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more on the Democratic race from Washington.

…

From 2008 on, Vietnam was mostly protected from the global financial crisis, not because its banks were stronger than the U.S. banks that created the crisis, but because it was less integrated into global trade back then. More than a decade later, Vietnam does far more trade with foreign countries today, making its banks far more susceptible to global trends.  The government has taken steps to strengthen domestic banks.

In particular Vietnam is transforming banks to require that, when doing credit risk analyses, they take into account environmental, social, and governance risks, known as ESG. The State Bank of Vietnam has set a goal that by 2025, each bank will have created its own department dedicated solely to ESG analysis, and it will incorporate ESG factors into its overall risk analyses.

The central bank says it is making progress, noting that 17 banks in Vietnam have set up these mandatory departments to analyze the environmental and social impact of their lending, and that 25 banks have conducted such analyses so far, based on a survey in early 2019. 

“Vietnamese banks have shown their readiness in pursuing a sustainable finance agenda, which is essential for capturing new business opportunities,” Nguyen Quoc Hung, director of the department of credit policies for economic sectors at the State Bank of Vietnam, said. 

The push for banks and other businesses to consider their impact on the environment has given birth to buzz words like “green finance” and “green bonds” — but what do they actually mean? An important example would be for a bank to provide a loan to a small business that produces wind turbines. The development of wind power would be considered an environmental benefit in the bank’s credit risk analysis, in addition to the social benefit of supporting a small business rather than just working with major corporations.

The example matters particularly to Vietnam because it considers green finance one strategy in its fight to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and it considers itself one of the countries most susceptible to the threat of a changing climate. 

The government is moving to strengthen domestic banks as part of its membership in the Sustainable Banking Network, a network of 38 developing countries pushing ESG factors and supported by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
A benefit of the network is for countries to share best practices, according to Imansyah, who is a co-chair of an SBN working group and who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

“Sharing lessons and knowledge among members has been an important catalyst to drive finance reforms,” Imansyah said.

His country, along with China, is leading the pack of 38 countries, having already implemented many of its planned ESG policies, such as government incentives for environmentally friendly investments. 

However Vietnam is catching up. For instance an October IFC report noted, “Vietnam is one of the few SBN members to require CIs [credit institutions] to report the quantities and values of their green loans.”

Besides the environment, Vietnamese officials are concerned about ensuring social and governance standards at its banks, given the banks’ history of complex cross-ownership and corporate board arrangements that create possible conflicts of interest and that the government aims to clean up. It has also been cleaning up the burden of bad debt, or bank loans that have gone unpaid for a certain period of time, which could threaten the stability of the banking sector.

Social impact is harder to measure at Vietnamese banks. They might look to their U.S. counterparts, which did not fully analyze the social risks of giving out too many subprime mortgages, to be packaged into financial products for investors before 2008. The defaults on those mortgages, leading up to the global financial crisis, are the kind of social impact Vietnam’s banks wish to avoid.

…

Amnesty International says Iranian security forces have killed at least 106 people in nationwide anti-government protests since Friday, four times the death toll of Iran’s last mass protests two years ago.

In a Tuesday interview with VOA Persian, the London-based rights group’s Iran researcher Raha Bahreini said Amnesty determined that security forces killed 106 protesters based on eyewitness accounts, social media videos and reports of exiled Iranian human rights activists. She said Amnesty International soon would provide a breakdown of the number of protesters killed in various Iranian cities.

VOA Persian has independently confirmed the killings of at least seven protesters in shootings by Iranian security forces on Saturday. Iranian state media have said several people have been killed including at least one security force member in the demonstrations that began Friday and spread to dozens of cities. But the Iranian government has not published any official death toll.

The demonstrations erupted in response to the government abruptly raising the subsidized price of gasoline by 50% early Friday. Many Iranians see the increase as putting a further burden on their wallets at a time of worsening economic conditions.

Bahreini said Amnesty has called on the United Nations and European Union to make urgent appeals to Iran to end its violent crackdown on the protests and to respect Iranians’ rights to freedoms of expression and assembly.

Iran violently suppressed the last major wave of nationwide protests that swept the country from late December 2017 to early January 2018. At least 22 people were killed in the crackdown on those protests, which were fueled by public anger with government corruption and mismanagement.

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.
 

…

DARPA, the main research and development arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, is funding researchers to develop wearable devices that would have military applications such as using the mind to control unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, commonly known as drones. Instead of using brain implants to achieve this, DARPA is looking for non-invasive to minutely invasive ways of interfacing with the machine. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee got a close-up look at one team’s work at Rice University.

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Google’s head of philanthropy says the company is having “a lot of conversations” internally amid worries about the tech giant’s bottomless appetite for consumer data and how it uses its algorithms.
                   
Vice President Jacqueline Fuller wouldn’t comment on specific data privacy controversies dogging Google lately, but says she shares other concerns many have about Big Tech. Cyberbullying. Hate speech amplified online. The impact of artificial intelligence on everything, from jobs to warfare.
                   
“As a consumer myself, as part of the general public, as a mother, it’s very important to understand what am I seeing, what are my children seeing,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press in Paris, where she announced new grant winners Tuesday for projects aimed at teaching digital skills to poor, immigrant, rural or elderly users.
                   
The philanthropic arm she runs, Google.org, is like the company’s conscience, spending $100 million a year on non-profit groups that use technology to try to counteract problems the tech world is accused of creating, abetting or exacerbating.
                  
“Across the world we want to make sure we’re a responsible citizen,” she said.
But can Google’s do-good arm make up for everything else? At least it’s trying, she argues.
                   `
“The company is having a lot of conversations around things like access to information and access to data and making sure there’s no algorithmic bias,” she said.
                  
Public outrage has grown over Google’s use of consumer data and domination of the online search market, with governments stepping up scrutiny of the company.
                   
Just in the past week, nine groups called for the U.S. government to block Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness-gadget maker Fitbit, citing privacy and antitrust concerns. Then Google came under fire for a partnership with U.S. health care system Ascension that the Wall Street Journal says gives the search giant access to thousands of patient health records without doctors’ knowledge. Both companies say the deal is compliant with health-privacy law.
                   
Fuller wouldn’t comment specifically on either case, but said, “We take our users’ trust very seriously.”
                   
She also insisted that the company has a very vibrant discussion'' internally about sexual misconduct, human rights and other problems that have tarnished Google's reputation.<br />
                   <br />
Its philanthropic arm is focused lately on using artificial intelligence to help society, for example by providing better access to health care and more effective emergency services. It's also working on ways to limit the damage of the breakneck developments of AI, notably after employee departures and public pressure over a Pentagon contract pushed the company to pledge it wouldn't use AI in weapons development.<br />
                   <br />
Among projects Google.org is funding are those that help users create and share digital resumes or map job opportunities, as the company tries to figure out “how can we anticipate some of the impacts of AI in an economy, and understand how can we make sure that everyone has access to jobs that are not only interesting now but jobs that are going to be here in the future,” Fuller said.<br />
                   <br />
Google is also holding a competition this year in Europe for projects on “how we can keep children safe,” she said.<br />
                   <br />
Digital literacy is crucial, she said:All of us need to discern what is truthful of what I see online. How do I ask the questions of who is sponsoring this content.”
                   
In Paris, Fuller announced the winners of Google.org’s latest “Impact Challenge,” contests it holds around the world for non-profits using technology for good. Ten groups won grants worth a total of 3 million euros for projects helping the millions of people in France who lack the basic digital skills that are increasingly crucial for everything from paying taxes to finding a job.
                   
Despite its philanthropic efforts, Google’s critics remain legion _ even within the tech universe.
                   
Former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris argues technology is shortening our attention spans and pushing people toward more extreme views. He couldn’t get Google to tackle these problems when he was there, so he quit and is pushing for change through his Center for Human Technologies.
                   
He says companies like Google won’t change voluntarily but that the tech world has undergone a “sea change” in awareness of problems it’s caused, thanks in part to pressure from a frustrated public.

…

…

Ghana is regarded as a West African hub of invention, with growing numbers of young people looking at local solutions to local problems.  In December, Ghana is hosting two conferences on innovation and technology.

Alhassan Baba Muniru, co-founder of the Recycle Up company, wants to clean up the natural environment in Ghana.

But he also wants to educate, empower and support young people to pursue conservation – and to make money while doing it.

At the December Innovation Africa summit in Accra, he plans to advocate for more support for young inventors, especially those looking to do green business.

“Even while we are in school we are already entrepreneurial so, for me, I can be able to do a formal job but the freedom of being able to bring my own ideas into action and really take charge of doing something practical and something which also makes society better – it’s much more fulfilling,” said Muniru.

Part of Recycle Up’s work includes collecting plastic from schools to sell to people like Nelson Boateng, whose company mixes it with sand to create bricks.  

Muniru and Boateng walk through the factory in the outskirts of Accra, where plastic from across the city is shredded, melted, mixed and then molded into bricks to be used for roads, pavements and buildings.

Boateng, who also manufactures plastic bags, said the bricks are his way of helping to clean up the environment and to provide jobs.

But while Ghana is seeing a spurt in innovation, he said the country needs a lot more infrastructure to support environmentally-friendly business.

“For innovations in Ghana, it’s very, very difficult if you don’t really have the heart.  You will lose hope because honestly speaking when I was doing my polybag that is polluting the environment, I was having a lot of money.  I have money, there wasn’t any problem. When I started this, when you go to the bank they don’t know this, they want something that the money will be flowing, not something you people don’t know –  and not something you say you are trying to save the environment, nobody will mind you on that,” he said.

Supporting local technology startups is expected to be discussed at another December conference in Accra – the second annual Ghana Tech Summit.

Ghanaian inventor Andrew Quao is working to ease the burden on hospitals with technology that allows pharmacies to diagnosis and monitor chronic and tropical diseases.

He said African healthcare sectors like Ghana’s are ripe for innovative solutions.

“I think it is growing in the right direction, I think the climate is good, you have got a good mix of local talent and experience and expats coming in and seeing Ghana as a good point to start, so that also works.  We have the ‘brain gain.’ The diasporans – people like myself who schooled in the U.S. – coming back and trying to bring innovations in country,” said Quao.

While both public and private sectors are backing innovation, entrepreneurs hope to see a swell of support from the Innovation Africa and Ghana Tech summits.

…

Scientists on Monday unveiled the first global geological map of Saturn’s moon Titan including vast plains and dunes of frozen organic material and lakes of liquid methane, illuminating an exotic world considered a strong candidate in the search for life beyond Earth.

The map was based on radar, infrared and other data collected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which studied Saturn and its moons from 2004 to 2017. Titan, with a diameter of 3,200 miles (5,150 km), is the solar system’s second-biggest moon behind Jupiter’s Ganymede. It is larger than the planet Mercury.

Organic materials — carbon-based compounds critical for fostering living organisms — play a leading role on Titan.

“Organics are very important for the possibility of life on Titan, which many of us think likely would have evolved in the liquid water ocean under Titan’s icy crust,” said planetary geologist Rosaly Lopes of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

“Organic materials can, we think, penetrate down to the liquid water ocean and this can provide nutrients necessary for life, if it evolved there,” added Lopes, who led the research published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

On Earth, water rains down from clouds and fills rivers, lakes and oceans. On Titan, clouds spew hydrocarbons like methane and ethane — which are gases on Earth — in liquid form due to the moon’s frigid climate.

Rainfall occurs everywhere on Titan, but the equatorial regions are drier than the poles, said study co-author Anezina Solomonidou, a European Space Agency research fellow.

Plains (covering 65% of the surface) and dunes (covering 17% of the surface) made up of frozen bits of methane and other hydrocarbons dominate Titan’s mid-latitudes and equatorial regions, respectively.

Titan is the only solar system object other than Earth boasting stable liquids on the surface, with lakes and seas of full of methane being major features at its polar regions. Hilly and mountainous areas, thought to represent exposed portions of Titan’s crust of water ice, represent 14% of the surface.

“What is really fun to think about is if there are any ways that those more complex organics can go down and mix with water in the deep icy crust or deep subsurface ocean,” JPL scientist and study co-author Michael Malaska said.

Noting that on Earth there is a bacterium that can survive just on a hydrocarbon called acetylene and water, Malaska asked, “Could it or something like it live in Titan deep in the crust or ocean where temperatures are a little warmer?”

The map was created seven years before the U.S. space agency is set to launch its Dragonfly mission to dispatch a multi-rotor drone to study Titan’s chemistry and suitability for life.

Dragonfly is scheduled to reach Titan in 2034.

“It is not only scientifically important but also really cool — a drone flying around on Titan,” Lopes said. “It will be really exciting.”

…

Paul McCartney is to headline the 50th anniversary of Glastonbury in June next year, the world’s largest greenfield festival, organizers announced on Monday.

“Hey Glasto – excited to be part of your Anniversary celebrations. See ya next year!” the 77-year-old former Beatle tweeted.

The “Hey Jude” hitmaker will be the headline act on the festival’s main Pyramid Stage on Saturday, June 27, according to the Glastonbury Twitter account. McCartney last appeared on the Pyramid Stage in 2004 alongside Oasis and Muse.

Glastonbury and McCartney’s representatives were not immediately available for further comment.

Tickets for the 2020 event went on sale in October and were sold out in just over half an hour, according to the festival’s website.

Glastonbury Festival was founded by farmer Michael Eavis, 83, and his late wife Jean in 1970, after they were inspired by the Bath Festival of Blues. Marc Bolan played the first event, which had an entry charge of 1 pound with free milk included.

…

In her first public appearance since being deported by U.S. authorities who had jailed her for being a Russian agent, Maria Butina was on Monday offered a job by Moscow to defend Russians imprisoned abroad.

During an event for the media, Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, offered Butina, 31, a job working for her commission.

“I invite you to work in our group defending compatriots abroad. I’m sure together we’ll be able to do a lot of good for people who’ve ended up in tough situations abroad,” Moskalkova said.

Butina, who flew back to Russia on Oct. 26 after being deported, did not say whether she would accept the offer made at what she called her first public appearance since she was mobbed by wellwishers in front of the media at the airport on her arrival home.

Butina pleaded guilty in December last year to one count of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Russia by infiltrating a gun rights group and influencing U.S. conservative activists and Republicans, a conviction slammed as ridiculous by Moscow.

Russia accused Washington of forcing Butina to confess.

The case put strain on relations that were already under pressure from an array of issues including U.S. allegations of Russian election meddling and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Moscow denies any inteference in U.S. elections.

Moskalkova invited Butina to help her commission defend the rights of Russians abroad such as Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot serving 20 years in the United States for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the country.

Moskalkova said she also knew that Butina had been offered a job in the State Duma, the Russian lower house of parliament, and urged her to accept that one too.

The case of Yaroshenko, who was arrested by U.S. special forces in Liberia in 2010, and others like it have prompted Russia to accuse the United States of hunting its citizens across the world.

The United States has accused the Russians in question of specific crimes and sought their extradition and arrest with regard to those crimes.

Russia said last week it had lodged a formal diplomatic protest after Israel extradited a Russian man to the United States where he faces a slew of serious cyber crime charges.

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Twenty-four Malian soldiers were killed and 29 wounded in an attack on an army patrol in northern Mali on Monday in which 17 militants were also killed, a spokesman for the army said.

The West African country is still reeling from an attack on an army post that killed 54 in early November — one of the deadliest strikes against its military in recent memory, which underscored the increasing reach and sophistication of armed jihadist groups active in the wider region.

The Malian patrol attacked on Monday was in Tabankort, Gao region, while on a joint operation with Niger against militants operating near the border.

“During this attack, Malian forces suffered 24 deaths, 29 wounded as well as equipment damage. On the enemy’s side, 17 were killed and a certain number captured,” army spokesman Diarran Kone said.

The authorities have not named the assailants or identified which group they belonged to. From strongholds in Mali, groups with al Qaeda and Islamic State links have been able to fan out across the Sahel, destabilizing parts of Niger and Burkina Faso.

Violence has surged this autumn with heavy military and civilian losses in Mali and Burkina Faso.

In addition to November’s bloodshed in Mali, 38 Malian soldiers were killed on Sept. 30 in coordinated attacks on two army bases in the center of the country, which has slipped from government control despite the presence of the French army and other international forces.

Meanwhile 39 people were killed in Burkina Faso on Nov. 6 when militants attacked a convoy carrying workers of Canadian gold mining company Semafo.

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The U.S. House of Representatives is holding its second week of public hearings on the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump with testimony by eight aides and officials, including the top diplomat to the European Union, Tuesday through Thursday.

Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert, are set to testify Tuesday morning, followed by former U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and another former NSC official Tim Morrison on Tuesday afternoon.

U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland is set to testify Wednesday morning, followed by career Pentagon official Laura Cooper and Undersecretary of State David Hale on Wednesday afternoon. Former White House adviser Fiona Hill is to testify Thursday.

All eight have testified previously in closed-door hearings about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had served as a board member of a Ukraine natural gas company, and probe a discredited conspiracy theory regarding the 2016 president election. Three of the eight listened in on the July 25 phone conversation between Trump and Ukraine’s president.

Democrats hope the hearings will sway public opinion in favor of impeachment. Republicans have used them to discredit the impeachment proceedings and poke holes in the witnesses’ testimony.

Here is what you need to know about the eight witnesses and their role in the Ukraine affair.

Alexander Vindman

Alexander Vindman is a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel whose role as the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert at the White House has landed him in the national spotlight amid the impeachment investigation. Vindman listened in on a July 25 phone call between  President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which is at the center of the impeachment investigation. Vindman told impeachment investigators on Oct. 30 that he was so troubled by the call that he reported the president’s comments to his superiors. Vindman, who was born in Ukraine in 1975, which was then part of the Soviet Union, was 3 years old when his family fled to the United States. He has served more than 20 years in the U.S. military.

Jennifer Williams

Jennifer Williams is a longtime State Department employee who is currently detailed to the office of Vice President Mike Pence as a senior adviser on European and Russian affairs. She is the first member of Pence’s national security team to testify in the impeachment inquiry. Williams is one of two Pence staffers who listened in on the July 25 phone call between  Trump and  Zelenskiy. In September, Williams accompanied Pence to Warsaw, Poland, where he met with Zelenskiy and discussed the nearly $400 million in military assistance that had been put on hold by the White House.

Kurt Volker

Kurt Volker resigned as U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine on Sept. 27, the day after he was subpoenaed to testify before House committees about his involvement in Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. Along with Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Volker was one of the so-called “three amigos” who ran the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy. Volker’s more than 20-year career in public service began in 1986 when he was an analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency. When Arizona State University launched the McCain Institute for International Leadership in 2012, Volker was its first executive director, before stepping down last month.

Tim Morrison

Tim Morrison served as the senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council before he resigned last month. After graduating from Georgetown Law School, he spent 17 years working for former Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl and as a staffer with the House Armed Services Committee. Morrison was working on arms control and biodefense issues at the NSC when he was promoted to senior director of Russian affairs by then-Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton. In that capacity, Morrison would have intimate knowledge of issues in Ukraine and Russia. He also is one of seven known U.S. officials who listened in on the July phone call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart.

Gordon Sondland

As Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland was in frequent contact with Trump and other administration officials about Ukraine policy. On July 26, the day after Trump and Zelenskiy spoke by phone, Sondland and Trump had their own  phone conversation during which the president was overheard asking whether Ukraine would “do the investigation” he had asked for. A wealthy hotel magnate, Sondland gave $1 million to Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee. In March 2018, Trump picked him as his ambassador to the European Union. He was confirmed by the Senate in July.

Laura Cooper

Laura Cooper is a career Pentagon official responsible for policy on Russia, Ukraine and other nations in that region. Cooper first joined the Department of Defense in 2001. She held a series of posts at the Pentagon before being named the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. In that capacity, she met with Volker in late August to discuss the frozen Ukrainian aid and was told by Volker that the hold might be lifted if Ukraine was willing to issue a statement disavowing election interference and vowing to prosecute anyone engaged in interference. Cooper later told impeachment investigators that she and others had expressed concerns about the legality of withholding congressionally authorized funds for Ukraine.

David Hale

As under secretary of state for Political Affairs, David Hale is the State Department’s No. 3 official, a position to which Trump named him in 2018. A graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Hale joined the foreign service in 1984 and holds the rank of career ambassador. In early March, he traveled to Ukraine where he asked then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovich to extend her diplomatic term by one year and stay in the country through 2020.  Later, when Rudy Giuliani, the president’s point man on Ukraine, launched a smear campaign to oust Yovanovitch, Hale instructed a subordinate, George Kent, to “keep [your] head down.” Hale testified behind closed doors this month about the State Department’s handling of the former ambassador’s recall.

Fiona Hill

A British-born American foreign affairs expert, Fiona Hill served as the National Security Council’s top Russia expert until June. The first former White House official to testify in the House impeachment inquiry, Hill told investigators in October that Yovanovitch’s removal was the “result of the campaign that Mr. Giuliani had set in motion” and that she had personally been the target of similar smear campaigns. Hill also testified about a July 10 White House meeting between U.S. and Ukrainian officials at which Sondland announced that “we have an agreement with the chief of staff for a meeting (between Trump and Zelenskiy) if these investigations in the energy sector start.”

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More international students come to the U.S. from around the world for higher education than any other country, but those metrics show stagnation — and steep declines from some countries — for the second year after decades of growth.

The annual Open Doors report, compiled by the Institute for International Education with the U.S. State Department and released Monday, for the 2018-2019 school year showed enrollment of 1,095,299 international students among 19,828,000 total students in institutions of higher education in the U.S.

That makes international students 5.5% of all college and university students in the U.S.

The numbers showed a slight increase in total international enrollment, 0.05% from the previous year, but a decrease in new international student enrollment, -0.9%.

Decreases were seen in undergraduate (-2.4%), graduate (-1.3%) and non-degree (-5.0%) trends, as well.

China sent the most students — 369,548 — comprising 33.7 percent of all foreign students, a 1.7 percent increase from the previous year.

India sent the second-largest number — 202,014 — or 18.4% of all college and university students, a 2.9% increase from the previous year.

But several other countries, in descending order of number of students sent to the U.S., showed declines: South Korea (-4.2%), Saudi Arabia (-16.5%), Canada (0.8%), Vietnam (0.3%), Taiwan (4.1%), Japan (-3.5%), Brazil (9.8%), Mexico (-1.5%), Nigeria (5.8%), Nepal (-0.3%), Iran (-5.0%), the United Kingdom (-2.7%), Turkey (-3.4%), Kuwait (-9.8%), Germany (-8.5%), France (-1.0%), Indonesia (-3.4%), Bangladesh (10%), Colombia (1.1%), Pakistan (5.6%), Venezuela (-7.3%), Malaysia (-6.8%) and Spain (-3.0%).  

What is turning off international students from coming to study in the U.S.?

Institutions polled indicated the slowdown includes the high cost of tuition at U.S. colleges and universities, difficulty in getting visas or the insecurity of maintaining a student visa throughout a student’s education, students feeling a lack of welcome in the U.S., negative political rhetoric and news of crime in the U.S.

“We are happy to see the continued growth in the number of international students in the United States and U.S. students studying abroad,” said Marie Royce, assistant secretary of state for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

“Promoting international student mobility remains a top priority for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and we want even more students in the future to see the United States as the best destination to earn their degrees,” Royce said. “International exchange makes our colleges and universities more dynamic for all students, and an education at a U.S. institution can have a transformative effect for international students, just like study abroad experiences can for U.S. students.”

The Optional Practical Training (OPT) program showed a 9.6% increase of involvement, indicating that students who were in the international student pipeline of study in the U.S. were taking advantage of OPT, which allows them to stay in the U.S. after graduation for one to three years, depending on their field of study. Science, technology, engineering and math graduates are granted longer OPT visas than some other courses of study.

The most popular fields of study for international students are in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. But declines in enrollments were seen there, as well: engineering (-0.8%), business and management (-7.1%), intensive English (-14.8%) and education (-4.7%).

International students who came to the U.S. to study agriculture increased by 10.3%.

International students contributed $41 billion to the U.S. economy in the 2018-2019 academic year, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Commerce said international students contributed $42 billion to the U.S. economy.

…

“Enough, we cannot deal with this anymore,” a visibly disgusted Predica Jean, coordinator for the League of Haitian Women for Reconstruction(Lig Fanm Ayisyen pou Rekonstruksyon)  (LIFAR) said during a press conference in Port-au-Prince.  

“We’re asking all the political actors who are involved to resolve the situation quickly so we can have a country where we can live (in peace and security), where women’s rights are respected,” she added.

Haiti’s League of women is denouncing the gang rape of female prisoners during an attempted jail break by 300 male prisoners. There are STD and pregnancy fears in addition to the psychological trauma. Female activists demand #justice reparations. #Haiti@hrw ?Renan Toussaint pic.twitter.com/ahpu82SoUF

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 14, 2019

Jean decried the gang rape of a dozen female prisoners by male prisoners attempting to escape from a jail in the northern city of Gonaives last week. She asked for justice and reparations for all the women who were violated.

About 340 male prisoners, angry about the jail’s poor living conditions, broke out Nov. 7-8. They had been reportedly held for days in overcrowded cells without food and water. They managed to disarm a guard and break through the gates. Once out, they sought female prisoners in a separate part of the jail, according to witnesses, and raped them repeatedly until a police unit arrived and fired tear gas to stop the attack.

Jean also demanded the immediate release of a female prisoner who remained jailed even though she was set to be released before the attacks.

“They claimed they couldn’t find her release form and held her in jail where she was subjected to rape,” Jean told reporters.

The LIFAR coordinator cited the Geneva Conventions and other international law statutes that demand prisoners of war, as well as civilian prisoners, be treated humanely. “These laws are being violated in our country,” Jean said.

A human rights activist who spoke to VOA Creole said police officers who arrived at the jail during the incident told him they were shaken by what they heard.

“Some of the officers said they were heartbroken and crying when they heard the screams of the women during the criminal actions of the men,” the activist said.

After the incident, the nongovernmental organization Zanmi Lasante (Friends for Health) stepped in to address the rape victims’ immediate health needs, including testing for sexually transmitted diseases. They were also provided medication to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Jeanne Bolivar, the Haitian Ministry for Women’s Affairs coordinator for the Artibonite Department, visited the female prisoners and told VOA Creole they were visibly distraught. She said she is working to find a psychologist who can counsel the victims. She also denounced the authorities of Gonaives who transferred the women after the attack to a jail in neighboring St. Marc in their underwear.

“The women’s rights were not respected, their dignity was not respected at all,” Bolivar said. She told VOA Creole she spoke to a young woman who told her she was raped by seven men.

Bolivar said she is working to find food for the transferred prisoners as well.

Women’s rights activist Guerline Residor called on law enforcement officials to act responsibly.

“We are asking the Ministry of Justice, the chief of police, police officers, etc., to intervene rapidly to resolve the dangerous situation women in the north find themselves in,” she said.

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Hundreds of Haiti’s national police officers (PNH) were in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the northern city of Cape Haitian Sunday, demanding better work conditions and a union to represent and defend their rights. This is the second time in a month police have protested.

“We need a union that can represent us when things aren’t good,” a member of POLIFRONT, Haiti’s Border Police unit of the National Police, told VOA Creole. He was in uniform and wearing a black face mask. “I’m talking about abuse, our meager 19,000 (Haitian gourdes) salary (about $208), which is not enough.”

This policeman from the POLIFRONT unit of @pnh_officiel says they need a union to defend and protect their rights. ?Matiado Vilme @VOAKreyol#Haitipic.twitter.com/6AoAu70fBO

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019

The officer said the police are suffering because they don’t enjoy the same benefits reserved for their leaders, and they don’t have anyone to represent and defend them when they need it most.

“If we remain strong, we’ll get everything we need,” another police protester, dressed in civilian clothing, from the Mobilized Intervention Unit (BMI) of the national police told VOA.

This policeman of the Mobilized Intervention unit of @pnh_officiel says an 8 hour workday limit is essential to the officers. He believes the constitution will prevail and their demands will become a reality. ?Matiado Vilme #Haitipic.twitter.com/FErnXQDzt6

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019

“The police is a legal force, recognized by the constitution, which also gives us the right to form a union. So if the constitution allows us to form a union, that means we will have it one way or another. And we should only be working eight hours a day, according to the law,” he added.

According to the officer, although a law was passed and signed by the director of the national police force, it has not gone into effect, and police officers often are subjected to long work days.

The Port-au-Prince protest was festive, with a truck and deejay accompanying the protesters in the streets while blaring motivational songs, ending with the country’s national anthem. “For the flag, for the nation,” they sang to a tune very similar to France’s national anthem “La Marseillaise.”

#Haiti national policemen @pnh_officiel are back in the streets today in PAP demanding better work conditions including higher salary, insurance, health care. They sang the national hymn too, which may sound familiar if you know La Marseillaise. ?Matiado Vilme @VOAKreyolpic.twitter.com/ubmu0SNgs0

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019

Up north in Cape Haitian, hundreds of police officers took over the streets for a noisy, festive, peaceful protest. “Si yo pa reponn nou, nou pral nan rebelyon. We’ll shift to rebellion mode if they don’t respond to our demands” they chanted. Their demands are the same as their colleagues’ in the capital: better wages, insurance, health care and a union.

“Si Yo pa reponn nou, nou pral nan rebelyon” if they don’t respond we’ll shift to rebellion mode policemen in Cape Haitian chanted today. #Haiti ?Yvan Martin Jasmin @VOAKreyolpic.twitter.com/1ehBD89INx

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019

Some of the protesters held posters that said: “Policemen are not slaves,” “Too many policemen have been imprisoned for no good reason” and “19,000 gourdes cannot take care of a family.”

Haiti’s National Police force has been plagued by allegations of corruption. They have also been accused of human rights violations for firing on unarmed civilians and using excessive force during peaceful protests.

Earlier this month, the United Nations human rights office and Amnesty International expressed concern about the situation and asked the Moise administration to investigate the incidents “promptly, thoroughly and effectively.” National Police officials say the force that exists today is a work in progress and far more professional, but that problems persist.

During a recent visit to police stations in Carrefour and Petionville, two suburbs of the capital, President Jovenel Moise told the press he asked for officials to give him a detailed report on the officers’ working conditions so they could be addressed as soon as possible. He also commended the police for their dedication and hard work.

On November 15, a new police inspector general was named. In his inauguration speech, Herve Julien urged young officers to stay far away from politics for the good of the national police force.

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New research has found that U.S. agriculture uses child workers without proper training and care for their safety. The report published last week in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine says 33 children are injured every day while working on U.S. farms, and more child workers die in agriculture than in any other industry. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports rights groups blame loopholes in U.S. laws for failing to protect child workers in agriculture

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British photographer Terry O’Neill, whose images captured London’s Swinging ’60s and who created iconic portraits of Elton John, Brigitte Bardot and Winston Churchill, has died at age 81.

O’Neill died Saturday at his home in London following a long battle with cancer, according to Iconic Images, the agency that represented O’Neill.

“Terry was a class act, quick witted and filled with charm,” the agency said in a statement posted to its website. “Anyone who was lucky enough to know or work with him can attest to his generosity and modesty. As one of the most iconic photographers of the last 60 years, his legendary pictures will forever remain imprinted in our memories as well as in our hearts and minds.”

Born in London in 1938, O’Neill was working as a photographer for an airline at Heathrow Airport when he snapped a picture of a well-dressed man sleeping on a bench. The man turned out to be the British home secretary, and O’Neill was hired by a London newspaper.

In the early 1960s he photographed the Beatles during the recording of their first hit single, and he captured the image of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill clutching a cigar as he was carried to an ambulance after a 1962 hospital stay.

O’Neill later said that when photographing the Beatles he placed John Lennon in the foreground because he thought that “it was obvious John was the one with the personality.”

Soon O’Neill was photographing the hottest stars of the mid and late ’60s: Bardot, Raquel Welch, Michael Caine, Steve McQueen, Diana Ross and Audrey Hepburn.

He photographed many other big names over the course of a career that spanned decades, including model Kate Moss, Queen Elizabeth II, singers David Bowie and Amy Winehouse and former first lady Laura Bush.

O’Neill’s photos of Elton John remain among his most recognizable. One shows the singer, exuberant and sparkling in a sequined baseball uniform, with an audience of thousands in the background.

“He was brilliant, funny and I absolutely loved his company,” John tweeted Sunday.

Another iconic O’Neill photo, this one from 1977, depicted actress Faye Dunaway lounging poolside the morning after winning a best actress Oscar for her performance in “Network,” the statuette sitting on a table and newspapers strewn on the ground.

O’Neill was married to Dunaway for three years in the 1980s. According to British newspaper The Guardian, the couple had a son. O’Neill later married Laraine Ashton, a modelling industry executive.

In an interview with the Guardian last year, O’Neill discussed how he viewed his past photos.

“The perfectionist in me always left me thinking I could have taken a better shot. But now when I look at photos of all the icons I’ve shot – like Mandela, Sir Winston Churchill and Sinatra – the memories come flooding back and I think: ‘Yeah, I did all right.’”

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