There are more than a dozen candidates running against U.S. President Donald Trump in the next presidential race, but one Democrat who is standing out in the Asian American community is entrepreneur, Andrew Yang. He may not be one of the top three candidates in the Democratic Party, but he is the first Asian American candidate to make a serious run for the White House.  He has qualified for the next Democratic presidential primary debate near Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 15, while other Democrats have not. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from one of his rallies in Los Angeles.
 

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Banned Books Week happens every year as many children in America begin a new school year. In honor of the occasion, local libraries organize readings of Harry Potter, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird and hundreds of other novels. Despite many of them being considered classical literature, they continue to be banned in some school libraries. Natalka Pisnya has the story narrated by Anna Rice. 
 

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There are thousands of Venezuelans stranded at the border after the Ecuadorian government imposed new rules that bar people from entering the country without a visa. But many of the refugees are stuck because they can’t afford the $50 fee to get a visa. VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports from the Rumichaca International Bridge in Colombia.
 

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With Hong Kong anti-government protests ongoing, tech companies in the U.S. are being drawn into the crisis. The standoff between China and protesters has led some U.S. tech firms to curtail services. Michelle Quinn reports

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Indian and Chinese leaders at an informal summit Saturday sidestepped their differences and said they will tackle a huge trade deficit that has been troubling India, and enhance measures to strengthen border security.  
 
In the coastal heritage town of Mamallapuram in southern India, where the two leaders met, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “we have decided to manage our differences prudently,” and not let them become “disputes.” He said both sides will remain sensitive to each other’s concerns so that the relationship “will be a source of peace and stability in the world.”
 
Without elaborating, Chinese President Xi Jinping said “we have engaged in candid discussions as friends,” as they sat down for talks.
 
Their sharp differences over the disputed region of Kashmir that came to the fore in the weeks ahead of the summit did not figure into the one-on-one talks held for several hours between Xi and Modi, according to Indian officials.
 
China has strongly backed Pakistan in raising strong objections to India’s move to scrap autonomy in the disputed Himalayan region, angering New Delhi, which says it is its internal affair.
 
Saying that there had been “visible progress” since Modi and Xi held their first informal summit in China last year, Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters that the summit had underlined that “there is no fundamental disruption and there is a forward-looking trajectory,” in their ties.

 
The informal summits are aimed at getting past decades of mistrust that have dogged their ties since they fought a war in 1962. Parts of their borders are still disputed and both sides claim parts of each other’s territories.
 
The immediate focus appears to be on addressing a $55 billion trade deficit in Beijing’s favor that is a huge irritant for India, especially as it is grappling with an economic slowdown.
 
The two countries will establish a high-level economic and trade dialogue led by senior leaders to improve business ties and better balance their trade.  
 
Calling the trade deficit economically unsustainable for India, Gokhale said “there is a very significant market in China and we need to find ways in which we can enhance exports and China can increase imports.”
 
Gokhale said Xi had welcomed Indian investment in pharmaceuticals and textiles – areas in which New Delhi has been seeking market access.

“China is ready to take sincere action in this regard and discuss in a very concrete way how to reduce the trade deficit,” he said.  
 
Indian officials also said that both leaders also resolved to work together in facing the challenges of radicalization and terrorism, which continues to pose a common threat.  
 
The Chinese leader has invited Modi for a third informal summit in China.
 
From India, Xi travels to Nepal, the tiny Himalayan country wedged between the two Asian giants. The first visit by a Chinese head of state to Nepal since 1996 comes as the two develop closer ties, raising some concern in India, which worries about Beijing’s growing influence in its immediate neighborhood.
 
Kathmandu hopes to sign agreements to begin infrastructure projects under Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, which India has stayed away from but Nepal has joined.

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A second evacuation flight of 123 asylum-seekers from Libya landed in Rwanda late Thursday at Kigali International Airport.  Most of the 123 are young Africans who were detained in Libya on their way to Europe.  They have been taken to a transit facility in Gashora, where the United Nations refugee agency is providing them assistance. This is the second group following the first plane of 66 asylum-seekers who arrived Sept. 27 as part of a U.N. and African Union agreement with Rwanda to host 500 African evacuees.

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Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrations Saturday were smaller and less disruptive than recent massive rallies that shut down much of the city.
 
The largest event on Saturday was a march that included thousands of protesters in the Mong Kok shopping district in Kowloon, across from the business and financial centers on Hong Kong Island.
 
Some black-clad protesters spray-painted government offices and subway stations with anti-Chinese messages. Others set up impromptu roadblocks. Some vandalized shuttered shops that protesters say have expressed support for Beijing.
 
Riot police nearby displayed a black flag to indicate they would fire tear gas but took no action during the afternoon long march. Some protesters passing by shouted obscenities at the police.
 
Most of the protesters were young and masked but the crowd also included a few parents with young children and babies. One father marching with his young daughter, both in masks, said he was not concerned for their safety at the demonstration but is more worried about the possible repressive control of Hong Kong by the “Chinese government in the future.”
 
Emergency measures
 
Saturday’s turnout was less that last week’s demonstrations, when tens of thousands came out, and much less than the nearly 2 million people that participated in anti-government protests in June.
 
For over four months, Hong Kong has been in the midst of an uncompromising standoff between increasingly defiant pro-democracy protesters and equally determined government forces backed by Beijing.

 While China regained sovereignty over this former British colony in 1997, Hong Kong has maintained a degree of political autonomy and civil liberties including free speech and a free press that is not tolerated on the mainland.
 
The protests erupted over a failed extradition bill to China but has since grown into calls for direct elections for all Hong Kong officials, instead of the current system under which Beijing appoints the chief executive and committees representing Hong Kong business interests select a number of seats in the legislature.  The protesters are also demanding a release of jailed protesters, an inquiry into police abuse and even the disbandment of the police force.
 
Hong Kong police have used increasing force to quell the protests, employing water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets, and last week an officer shot a young protester with lethal ammunition during a scuffle with activists.
 
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam also invoked partial emergency powers in outlawing the use of face masks that protesters have used to hide their identities and to protect themselves from tear gas attacks by police.
 
Since June, Hong Kong police over apprehended over 2,000 demonstrators, and nearly one-third of those arrested are under the age of 18.
 
Pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip, head of the New People’s Party, credits the increased law enforcement measures with discouraging more people from risking arrest by participating in marches.
 
“Well in terms of the numbers of the so-called peaceful rational nonviolent protesters, those are the real peaceful demonstrators. The numbers are down a lot you know,” she said.

Fire and gasoline
 
It is not clear, however, if the lower turnout at Saturday’s march shows declining support for the democracy movement or is a temporary lull in activity. A march last Saturday attracted only about 1,000 protesters but support rebounded with a massive demonstration the next day.
 
Protesters who came out on Saturday said they would not be discouraged by the threat of arrest for participating in an illegal assembly or breaking the anti-masks law.
 
If “enough people break the law,” one masked woman protester said, “it won’t be illegal anymore.”
 
The activist group Citizen’s Press, in a statement, likened the Hong Kong emergency measures taken to suppress the protests “to extinguishing a fire with gasoline.”
 
Gasoline bombs were ignited at a subway station in Kowloon, likely by pro-democracy activists who have been increasingly engaging in vandalism and clashes with police. No one was injured in the incident, according to the Hong Kong government.
 
The subway system, which had been shut down during past protest marches, was operating Saturday but scheduled to close early at 10 p.m.
 
Some young protesters were seen at one point changing from the black clothing associated with the protester into more colorful attire and blending into a crowd of shoppers after being told police were approaching.
 
Also on Saturday a group of senior citizens calling themselves the “Silver-Haired Marchers” began a 48-hour quiet sit-in at police headquarters to show support for the predominately young protesters and “uphold the core values of Hong Kong and defend the future of our younger generations,” the group said in a statement.

…

Ali Javanmardi from VOA’s Persian Service contributed to this report from Irbil.

The World Food Program says more than 100,000 people have been displaced so far by the Turkish invasion of northern Syria.

The agency said those displaced have come from the towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad.

Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces deny that Turkish forces have taken the border town of Ras al-Ayn as Turkey had claimed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the civilian death toll resulting from Turkey’s offensive has risen to 30.

Ankara launched the cross-border operation on Wednesday, saying it wants to clear a buffer zone in northern Syria of Syrian Kurdish forces, whom it sees as terrorist allies of Kurdish separatists in Turkey.

Turkey reported its first military fatality three days into its incursion into Syria. The defense ministry said three other soldiers were wounded, without giving any details. Civilian casualties also were reported in the Turkish-Syrian border region.

U.S. officials say an American military outpost in Kobane, in northeastern Syria has been evacuated after Turkish artillery shells landed nearby.  The main U.S. base in Kobane was not affected, and the officials said they expect the evacuation of the outpost will be temporary.

NATO urged Turkey, an alliance member, to exercise restraint.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged Turkey’s legitimate security concerns about the Syrian Kurdish fighters but warned that the offensive could “jeopardize” progress made against the Islamic State terror group that previously held territory in northern Syria.

Stoltenberg spoke at a news conference in Istanbul with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Cavusoglu said Turkey expects solidarity from NATO against the threats it faces.

“I am very concerned by reports of civilian casualties on both sides of the border, and of large numbers of people moving inside Syria in the hope of avoiding the fighting,” said Mark Lowcock, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief coordinator. He made the comments in a statement published Friday, the second day of a two-day visit to Ankara and the Turkish-Syrian border.

“I reiterate what the Secretary-General of the United Nations has said: that we urge all parties to exercise restraint, to act in line with their obligations under the U.N. charter and international humanitarian law, to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, and in particular to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure,” Lowcock said.

Speaking to VOA Persian, SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said people in northern Syria were “frustrated and disappointed” that President Donald Trump withdrew dozens of U.S. troops that had been stationed in northern Syria earlier this week, shortly before Turkey launched the offensive. The troops were part of a U.S. military deployment that has partnered with the SDF in the fight against IS.

“The United States didn’t stop the Turks from doing this offensive,” Bali said.

Trump has said he pulled out the U.S. troops because they had defeated IS and he did not want them to be caught up in an offensive that Ankara long had threatened to carry out against Syrian Kurdish forces. His administration has strongly criticized the Turkish offensive and denied green-lighting it.
 

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Most mobile phone connections in Kashmir will be restored, the Indian government said Saturday, after it imposed a shutdown of more than two months since ending the troubled region’s autonomy.

Indian government spokesman Rohit Kansal said the decision had been taken after a review of events in the restive Himalayan region.

“All post-paid mobile phones irrespective of the telecom service provider will stand restored and be functional from noon on Monday,” he told a press conference. He added that the measure would apply to all districts of Kashmir.

The New Delhi government ended Kashmir’s autonomy on August 5 and imposed the mobile phone and internet blackout as part of a huge security clampdown.

…

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, will visit Iran Sunday to meet President Hassan Rouhani before heading to Saudi Arabia as part of his mediation efforts to help defuse tensions between the two countries.

Khan’s peacemaking mission comes days after he announced in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly that U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had both asked him to mediate with Tehran.

“Pakistan maintains close relations with Saudi Arabia and it is our strategic partner. Iran is our neighbor and friend. Pakistan wishes to prevent further deterioration in differences between the two brotherly Islamic countries,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Friday.

“Very soon I will be accompanying the prime minister and we will travel to Iran, we will also visit Saudi Arabia. Our effort will be to help remove the misunderstandings and reduce the tensions to preserve regional peace,” Qureshi told reporters while speaking in his native eastern city of Multan.

The foreign minister noted Pakistan can ill-afford another conflict in the region because it is already dealing with security and economic challenges stemming from the war in neighboring Afghanistan, which entered its 19th year this month.

Washington had blamed Tehran for last month’s attack on the world’s biggest crude oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia, fueling tensions in the Middle East.

Historically strained U.S.-Iran relations have deteriorated over the past year since Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting the Shi’ite Muslim nation to gradually reduce its commitments under the deal to limit controversial uranium enrichment operations.

Tehran denies involvement in the September 14 strikes that were claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen, which are fighting a Saudi-led military coalition.

Pakistan has traditionally relied on financial assistance and import of oil on deferred payments from Saudi Arabia. Pakistani military troops are also stationed on Saudi soil to train local forces.

But with its large Shi’ite minority and a nearly 900-kilometer border with Iran, Pakistan has stayed neutral in Middle East tensions. Islamabad declined a Saudi call a few years back to join the Riyadh-led military alliance fighting the Houthi insurgents.

Asif Durrani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Iran, says Pakistan’s natural stance has in fact provided the opportunity for the country to play the role of a mediator.

“Had Pakistan been siding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or Iran, such a role would have been out of the question. Therefore it is important for Pakistan to maintain a neutral stance, primarily aimed at bringing the two antagonists on the negotiating table,” Durrani said.

Adam Weinstein, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, says Pakistan could offer Riyadh and Tehran a face-saving channel of communication and path towards de-escalation.

“Pakistan’s relationship with Riyadh is far deeper than with Tehran. However, Pakistan has demonstrated that Saudi aid doesn’t buy unquestioning submission to Riyadh’s directives and Islamabad’s position on the sidelines of the Yemen conflict is just one example of this,” said Weinstein who served in Afghanistan and works in international trade and law regulations.

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VOA Connect Episode 91 – We learn that the transition to cleaner energy isn’t always about climate change, as coal miners in the American West are finding out. Yet those working in and running unprofitable mines are having to rethink their future, too, adapting their skills to survive.  Also on the show this week, looking back on Andy Warhol and how his artwork still resonates today.

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Connie Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

When North Korea walked away recently from its first working-level nuclear talks with the United States in months, its negotiators cited what they referred to as U.S. inflexibility and hostile policies.

In some ways, it was a classic North Korean negotiating tactic: citing long-standing complaints about Washington as justification to yet again leave nuclear negotiations.

But the move also shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be emboldened to hold out for a better deal, believing his counterparts in the U.S. and South Korea have been weakened amid domestic political scandals, some analysts say.

In the U.S., President Donald Trump faces a fast-expanding impeachment inquiry related to his attempts to get foreign governments to investigate political opponents, including former Vice President Joe Biden. Most opinion polls show the Democratic front-runner with a substantial lead over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

In South Korea, President Moon Jae-in is dealing with his lowest approval ratings ever, amid a slowing economy and a corruption scandal surrounding his new justice minister. Moon’s signature policy — engagement with North Korea — has also stalled, with Pyongyang recently labeling him a “meddlesome mediator.”

It’s not clear whether Trump and Moon’s domestic problems will necessarily prompt either leader to change his approach toward North Korea; but, the scandals could change North Korea’s calculus, making a nuclear deal more difficult, according to observers.

“I think they have good reasons to take a maximalist position,” says Chun Yung-woo, a former South Korean national security adviser. “I don’t blame Kim Jong Un for having high expectations.”

Confident Kim

Among the possible reasons for Kim’s confidence: He may believe the political calendar works in his favor, and that even the status quo brings important benefits.

Trump, who has suggested he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his outreach to Kim, is entering the final year of his first term as president, having made virtually no progress on getting rid of North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

Over the past several months, Trump has made several moves that suggest he is more eager to reach a deal, including firing National Security Adviser John Bolton, who disagreed with the North Korea talks, and speaking of the need for a “new method” to the nuclear negotiations.

Trump has also consistently downplayed the importance of North Korea’s 11 rounds of missile tests since May, including a recent firing of a medium-range ballistic missile designed to be launched from a submarine.

The U.S. president maintains that the missile tests are not long-range and therefore not a threat to the United States, even though they violate United Nations Security Council resolutions.

More leverage

By continuing medium- and short-range missile tests, Kim may be attempting to effectively erode the U.N. resolutions. And by dangling the possibility of bigger, more provocative tests, Kim appears to be attempting to gain additional leverage over Trump at a politically sensitive moment.

“(Kim) believes that he can influence Trump’s electoral chances,” says Chun. “Whether that’s true or not, that’s how he might believe he has the upper hand.”

Kim in April 2018 announced a moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear tests, saying the country no longer needs such tests after having completed the production of nuclear weapons.

Although North Korea’s decision to pause those tests was self-imposed and never formalized in a written agreement, Trump later claimed credit for the change in Kim’s behavior.

With talks now stalled and a U.S. election approaching, Kim has begun routinely issuing threats to resume nuclear or ICBM tests.

“The moment Trump took credit for what Kim Jong Un did voluntarily, he gave power to Kim Jong Un to deny Trump’s self-claimed achievements,” Chun says. “Trump made himself a political hostage of North Korea.”

Kim overconfident?

But if Kim does believe he controls Trump’s reelection chances, the North Korean leader may be mistaken.

Foreign policy is rarely the deciding factor in a U.S. presidential election, and even if North Korea did resume nuclear or ICBM tests, Trump may be able to succeed in convincing the public of the need to return to a “tougher” approach, says Bong Young-shik of Seoul’s Yonsei University.

“If the North Korean nuclear threats get exacerbated, it may enhance popular support for the incumbent president, thanks to the increased sense of crisis,” says Bong.

The Trump impeachment threat, too, may not help give Kim what he desires. Even if Trump did give North Korea a favorable deal, there’s no guarantee his eventual successor would uphold it, many observers point out.

“It’s going to be very difficult, I think, for the North Koreans to be relying on anything that this administration commits to,” says Susan Thornton, who served as a senior U.S. diplomat in East Asia until 2018.

It will be “very erratic” for North Korea to deal with the Trump administration in the near term, Thornton told VOA’s Korean service.

Moon’s problems at home

How South Korea’s domestic politics may impact the North Korea negotiations is also unclear.

In some ways, Moon’s position is relatively stable; he does not leave office until 2022 and has no possibility of reelection.

But with the North Korea talks stalled and South Korea’s economic growth slowing, Moon’s approval ratings have fallen into the low 40s. By comparison, Moon’s approval ratings were roughly twice that high during his first year as president.

While Moon remains more popular than many of his predecessors at this point in his presidency, he faces a growing wave of conservative opposition protests against his justice minister, Cho Kuk, who has been embroiled in fraud and corruption allegations.

So far the protests have been accompanied by mass demonstrations of support for Moon, and the situation has not prompted any major changes in his North Korea strategy, according to Jeffrey Robertson, who specializes in South Korean diplomacy at Yonsei University.

“There are much more significant hurdles to Moon’s plans, including other actors, such as the U.S. and North Korea itself,” Robertson says.

North Korea has explicitly rejected South Korea’s role as mediator, saying it no longer needs Seoul in order to meet with Washington.  

Despite the breakdown in talks, Seoul has attempted to portray the North Korea talks in a positive light, saying there is still momentum for denuclearization.

The U.S. State Department, too, has said the latest working-level talks were “good.”

The only party that seems to disagree is North Korea.

After walking out of the most recent talks, North Korea’s foreign ministry reiterated its end of year deadline, saying it will not engage in “sickening” negotiations unless the U.S. changes its unspecified “hostile policy.”
 

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As coal companies are shutting down in Gillette, Wyoming, workers in the coal industry have lost their jobs.  We talk to some of the people most affected by all the coal plants shutting down.  

Reporter/Camera:  Steve Baragona

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We go to Kemmerer, Wyoming to find out how residents are handling the move away from coal, and hear from economist Robert Godby who offers an explanation as to why the state has been so slow to transition to coal alternatives.

Reporter/Camera: Steve Baragona

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President Donald Trump meets with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He at the White House Friday, amid anticipation of at least a partial trade deal between both countries.

“We had a very very good negotiation with China,” Trump said after a day of talks between Liu and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer Thursday.

These were the first senior-level trade talks between the United States and China since July.

In the three months since, China and the United States continued their tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars of goods that help make up the backbones of both economies. The United States has also imposed visa restriction and other penalties against China over its alleged harsh treatment of Muslim minorities.

Trump said U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports have helped slow down the Chinese economy and said Beijing is eager to make a deal.

Liu declined to make any comment to reporters Thursday. But the official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying, “The Chinese side came with great sincerity, willing to cooperate with the U.S. on the trade balance, market access and investor protection.”

The United States has long accused China of such violations as intellectual property theft, demanding U.S. companies that plan to do business there turn over trade secrets, and currency manipulation that makes Chinese goods cheaper on world markets than U.S. products.

China has said U.S. protectionist trade policies are aimed at stifling its economic growth.

While no one is expecting Trump and Liu to announce a comprehensive trade deal that addresses everyone’s concerns, spokesman Doug Barry of the U.S.-China Business Council tells VOA that even a small deal on intellectual property and farm purchases is a lot more than what most trade skeptics have been expecting.

“What was surprising is that the two sides have at least, for the moment anyway, put aside some of the more difficult issues and seem to be focusing on a short-term win. And if they’re successful, one would hope then that some confidence will be restored on both sides and there will be an opportunity to deal with some of the more vexatious issues in the future,” he said.

The issues Barry calls vexatious include China’s human rights record, U.S. support for the Hong Kong protesters, and the newest controversy — remarks by a U.S. basketball team executive that also supports the protesters.

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Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, two foreign-born associates of U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, were charged Thursday with conspiring to influence U.S. politics with illegal campaign contributions.

Prosecutors identified two other men, Andrey Kukushkin and David Correia, as conspirators in an alleged scheme that aimed to funnel $1 million in donations to politicians and political candidates in Nevada, New York and other states to benefit a planned marijuana business funded by an unnamed Russian businessman.

John Dowd, the lawyer for Parnas and Fruman, declined to comment on the charges. Parnas and Fruman made their initial court appearance in Alexandria, Virginia, with another court date set for next Thursday.

Details emerged about their backgrounds Thursday:  

Lev Parnas

Parnas, 47, who was born in Ukraine, is a businessman who divides his time between Florida and New York City.

He has garnered attention by becoming a mega-donor to Republican Party politicians. In May 2018, Parnas posted pictures on Facebook of himself and Fruman with Trump in the White House and with the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. at a breakfast in Beverly Hills, California.

Parnas told NPR last month that he was “good friends” with Giuliani and that they played golf together.

Parnas helped introduce Giuliani into top Ukrainian political circles as part of Giuliani’s effort to push an investigation of Joe Biden, Trump’s political rival, and his son Hunter, according to widespread media accounts.

Parnas told Reuters in an interview last month any violations of U.S. Federal Election Commission rules were unwitting and a “clerical thing” because he was not an experienced political donor.

Igor Fruman 

Fruman, 53, who is originally from Belarus, is a real estate investor who also runs a U.S. import-export business.

Like Parnas, he has donated widely to pro-Trump politicians and has helped Giuliani with his efforts in Ukraine to discredit the Biden family.

Andrey Kukushkin 

Kukushkin, 46, is a Ukraine native now living in San Francisco and a veteran of the cannabis business.

He was a vice president of a Russian hedge fund, Renaissance Investment Management, before getting into the business of growing and selling marijuana in the United States, according to news reports, legal records and corporate records. One report in Forbes Russia said Kukushkin started with investments in dispensaries in California and Nevada, and quoted him as saying he now made $60 million in revenue annually.

Kukushkin made an initial court appearance in San Francisco on Thursday. His bail hearing will continue Friday.

David Correia

Correia, 44, is the only one of the four defendants born in the United States. He is a businessman and a longtime associate of Parnas. Fraud Guarantee, a Florida-based fraud protection company, lists the two men as co-founders. Correia and Parnas also worked together on a failed moviemaking venture that ended in litigation, according to U.S. media reports.   

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U.S. special forces in Syria are on alert, worried Turkey’s military campaign against the Kurds in northeastern Syria will give fighters loyal to the Islamic State terror group the chance they need to ignite a more intense and deadly insurgency.

The U.S. forces, pulled back from the Syrian-Turkish border at the direction of U.S. President Donald Trump, are not thought to be in danger as a result of Ankara’s offensive, which is focusing for now on Kurdish fighters, many of whom partnered with the U.S. in the fight against IS under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

“We remain vigilant against potential attacks from ISIS,” according to a U.S. official, using an acronym for the terror group.

Concerns about IS

The official, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive situation on the ground, warned that U.S. forces are concerned IS will try to exploit the current fighting and might even put Americans in the crosshairs now that they are no longer working with their former Kurdish allies.

“Our troops in Syria are focused on force protection,” the official added.

Such fears have long been bubbling in the background but have become increasingly prominent since the White House announced late Sunday it was pulling U.S. forces from the border region, essentially allowing Turkey to move ahead with plans for an incursion.

“Any unilateral action in northeastern Syria was of grave concern,” a U.S. defense official said Thursday. “One of the reasons is that it could create scenes that ISIS could exploit.”

Of particular concern are about 11,000 IS prisoners held in more than 30 makeshift prisons across northeastern Syria, guarded by forces loyal to the SDF.

Another 73,000 IS family members are being held in displaced persons camps also under SDF protection, like al Hol, which have seen periodic violence and attempted escapes.

Officials with the Kurdish-led autonomous government in the northeast have warned it may be a matter of time before it has to pull the guards and let prisoners and their relatives go free.

“Either we have to guard the camps or we have to defend ourselves and go to the border. We don’t have any option,” Sinam Mohamad, the Syrian Democratic Council’s U.S. representative said during a news conference Thursday in Washington.

Some prison guards removed

Mohamad said that already some of the SDF troops guarding the prisons and camps have been moved to the border in an effort to repel Turkish forces.

Other Kurdish officials say the situation has become even more dangerous, alleging Turkish forces have targeted SDF forces assigned to guard IS prisoners.

“One of the prisons in which the ISIS prisoners are kept, under the control of SDF forces, was bombed by Turkish war planes,” Syrian Democratic Council Executive Co-chair Ilham Ahmed told members of the European Parliament in Brussels Thursday. “And probably some of the ISIS members have escaped.”

A social media post by SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali late Wednesday, identified the target as the al-Chirkin prison, calling it, “The place where the most dangerous jihadists are held.”

Vicinity of al-Chirkin prison hosting Daesh prisoners was shelled by Turkish army. The place where the most dangerous jihadists are held in.

— Mustafa Bali (@mustefabali) October 9, 2019

U.S. officials Thursday could not confirm any jailbreaks and said SDF troops charged with keeping the IS fighters behind bars had stayed at their posts.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also rejected the need for any concerns.

IS “will not be able to establish a presence in the region,” he said Thursday. “We will keep in prison those who need to be kept in prison and we will send back those who are accepted by the countries of which they are citizens.”

SDF-run prisons

Senior U.S. officials say few, if any, of the SDF-run prisons are in areas in which Turkey has said it will operate, impacting about 1,300 to 1,500 IS detainees, at most.

“We have received high level commitments from the Turks that if they take over an area where there are such detention facilities, they will assume responsibility,” a senior State Department official said late Thursday. But when asked how that would work, the official cautioned, “There have not been detailed discussions.”

To help minimize any potential problems, U.S. forces have coordinated with Turkey on its air campaign, trying to make sure the SDF-run prisons, as well as the displaced person camps, are not targeted, a second U.S. defense official told VOA.

The official emphasized, though, that Turkey has been cut off from air-based intelligence and is not permitted to fly with U.S. aircraft operating in the area.

Still, Washington remains wary that the fallout from the Turkish incursion, and the benefit to IS, could still be substantial.

For months, U.S. and Western intelligence officials have warned an IS resurgence in Syria, thanks to well-positioned sleeper cells and the terror group’s substantial resources, was near.

Now there are fears Turkey’s military incursion will hasten the process.

“The Kurds have very little interest in expending resources on keeping ISIS fighters in camps when they’re being attacked by Turkey,” said Katherine Zimmerman, a project manager with the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.

“I think that we’re going to see a surge of recruits back into the Islamic State and a quick spike back into an active insurgency inside of eastern Syria,” she said.

…

Sixteen-year old Faithwins Iwuh — who is sometimes referred to as Nigeria’s Greta Thunberg — wants Nigeria to contribute to the global fight against climate change.

To achieve this, she started planting trees around her school and neighborhood, and recycles used plastic bags into shower caps.

Iwuh says she has been concerned about the effects of poor environmental practices for years.

“I started having this guilt anytime I see someone throw something out the window or I see people dispose wrongly,” she said. “I felt as if they were harming me and when I began to think about it, in a certain way they were harming me because it’s my future. If I do not take care of it now, I may not have a generation.”

An estimated 4 million students worldwide have taken part in the “Fridays for Future” movement, launched by Thunberg in Sweden in August 2018.

In recent months, hundreds of schoolchildren in NIgeria joined the movement. Two weeks ago, 300 students from 10 schools walked out of classes to protest in Abuja.

Fanny Nyalander, the Swedish ambassador to Nigeria, calls the action “inspiring.”

“I think it’s fantastic to see the young generation taking responsibilities and asking for climate action to be taken [seriously] — because it is their future and their future planet that is endangered,” she said. “So it is incredible and very inspiring to see that young people of Nigeria are standing up and asking for actions to be taken.”

Iwuh, however, is concerned that awareness of environmental threats in Nigeria remains low.

“Not very many people know about this,” she said. “Only a handful know about this problem. I’m lucky to be one of the few that know about this and I’m trying my best to sell the idea to the world that it needs to save it from ending.”

Nigeria is the biggest importer of fossil fuel-powered generators in Africa, and therefore one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.

Environmental experts like David Michael say climate change has serious consequences in Nigeria.

“Unfortunately, we in Africa contribute very little to the course of climate change, less than 3 percent, but we’re the most vulnerable continent,” he said. “And, of course, in Nigeria here the effects are everywhere — the desertification up north, sea rise down south, in the middle belt, the crisis between farmers and herders.”

At a summit last December, Nigeria was one of 195 countries and territories that agreed to take steps to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In real-world politics, that pledge is more likely to be fulfilled if more schoolchildren like Iwuh demand immediate action toward that goal.
 

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The Trump administration Thursday proposed a rewrite of rules for dealing with lead pipes contaminating drinking water, but critics say the changes appear to give water systems decades more time to replace pipes leaching dangerous amounts of toxic lead.

Contrary to regulatory rollbacks in many other environmental areas, the administration has called dealing with lead contamination in drinking water a priority. Communities and families in Flint, Michigan, Newark, New Jersey, and elsewhere have had to grapple with high levels of lead in tap water and with regulatory failures dealing with the health threat.

Lead in drinking water has been linked to developmental delays in children and can damage the brain, red blood cells and kidneys. It is most often caused by lead service lines — pipes connecting a home to a water main — or lead fixtures in a home or school.

At a news conference in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced changes that include requiring water systems to test lead levels in water at schools and child care facilities.

But Wheeler disappointed conservation groups by declining to lower the level of lead contamination in drinking water systems that triggers cleanup action. And another change lowered the amount of lead pipe that water systems have to replace each year once the threshold is hit, cutting it from 7% a year to 3% a year.

That, according to Eric Olson at the Natural Resources Defense Council conservation group, would give water utilities about 20 more years to fully replace all the lead pipes in a contaminated system.

Wheeler said a series of other, smaller changes in the new proposals would offset that. Overall, he argued, the rule changes, if the White House ultimately adopts them, would mean leaking old lead pipes are “replaced at a much faster rate than ever before.”

Betsy Southerland, a senior EPA water official under the Obama administration, said the new proposals largely miss the opportunity to boost the urgency of the country’s rules, issued in 1991, for cleaning up lead in water systems. Asked her overall impression, she said, “I would say disappointing.”

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VOA’s Victoria Macchi contributed to this report.

The Trump administration is touting a drop in enforcement actions along the U.S.-Mexico border for a fourth straight month as proof it is successfully reducing illegal immigration into the United States.

“This administration’s strategies have brought about results — dramatic results,” Acting Customs and Border Protection [CBP] Commissioner Mark Morgan said at the White House Tuesday. 

The agency reported intercepting 52,546 people at the southwest border in September, including unauthorized crossings as well as those deemed inadmissible at legal border crossings. That constituted a 63% reduction from the 144,255 people apprehended or turned back in May, the highest monthly total of the 2019 fiscal year, which ended last month.

Declining numbers coincided with the Trump administration’s implementation of policies restricting access to asylum that have prompted outcries from human rights advocates.

Earlier this year, the administration began forcing asylum-seekers and other migrants to await their U.S. immigration court dates in Mexico. Under the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, more than 50,000 individuals have been returned across the border.

US Government’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ Plan Sparks Tension and Confusion

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Migrants fleeing poverty and the threat of violence have found themselves caught up in fast-shifting US immigration and asylum laws

Meanwhile, the administration has forged agreements designating El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras as asylum destinations, while stipulating that non-Mexicans must seek asylum in a third country they transited en route to the U.S. border before filing a claim in the United States.

Morgan said the policies were needed to curtail “numbers [of border arrivals] that no immigration system in the world is designed to handle, including ours.”

Immigrant rights advocates, however, see a humanitarian disaster in the making.

“The new asylum rule is sufficient to stop almost everyone,” said Helena Olea, an international human rights lawyer and adviser to Alianza Americas, a network of Latin American and Caribbean immigrant organizations in the United States. 

Of concern, she said, are the “extremely weak asylum procedures” in Central American countries, “because no one is seeking protection in countries from which everyone is fleeing.”

Families, mostly from Central America, but increasingly from outside the Americas, accounted for most of the spike in arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this year.

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At US-Mexico Border, Africans Join Diversifying Migrant Community

While the overwhelming majority of these families continue to be from Mexico and the Northern Triangle, a small but growing proportion are from countries outside the Americas, nearly twice as much as two years ago

CBP has not released a detailed breakdown of data for September. It is unclear what proportion of those encountered by the agency last month were families, unaccompanied children, or adults traveling alone.

The drop in arrivals coincided with the hottest months at the U.S.-Mexico border. Immigration experts say the numbers could rise again as temperatures moderate.

Immigration advocates say factors compelling people to flee their home countries continue unabated.

“People may continue trying to cross,” Alianza Americas’ Olea said. “They may fail, but that doesn’t mean they won’t continue attempting to come to the U.S.”

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California power company Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) cut power Wednesday to millions of Californians due to high winds that could down power lines sparking wildfires.

Utilities companies have warned for months that cutoffs were possible, but the power cut seems to have caught many by surprise.  

Twitter was buzzing with comments about the outage from consumers in the Northern California area. Many posted angry tweets about the power company’s website, serving Northern and Central California, being down and making updates on the cuts inaccessible.

While many East Coast residents have learned to cope with power outages from hurricanes, weather-related outages are a relatively new phenomenon in California.

Where are the outages?

PG&E began shutting off power Wednesday morning. Nearly 500,000 homes and businesses in Northern California were without power and by midday it expanded to parts of the Bay Area, including San Jose and Santa Cruz.

Farther south, where Santa Ana winds weren’t expected until early Thursday, Southern California Edison said it might cut power to more than 170,000 customers. It included more than 50,000 in northern Los Angeles County and nearly 20,449 in Ventura County.

San Diego Gas & Electric also said it could cut power to nearly 30,000.

The reason for power cuts

Power lines were to blame for setting off fires nearly a year ago in Northern California that killed 86 people and burned 62 hectares. The town of Paradise was so devastated by the January fire that, by mid-July, only 2,034 residents — of nearly 27,000 before the fire — were living in the city.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after the utility was found liable for igniting multiple fires. In September, PG&E reached an $11 billion settlement in those claims. A third group of claims is still working its way through state and federal courts.

To avoid more legal fights, PG&E and other utilities companies decided to cut power during high-wind episodes. Based on conditions, power cuts could last up to six days.

Gas-powered generators are flying off the shelves at stores, and electricians are busy installing backup power to businesses that knew blackouts could be coming.

Southern California Edison warned that generators need to be placed outdoors and rigged to individual appliances with a heavy-duty extension cord. Connecting generators directly to household circuits can create danger for the utility’s repair crews, they said.

Many schools and universities were closing due the power outages. People were filling their gas tanks in case gas stations lost power. There were also long lines reported at grocery stores ahead of the shutdowns.

Hospitals remained open, using backup generators. But some, like the San Ramon Regional Medical Center, were weighing whether to divert ambulances to other hospitals not affected by outages.

Solar power

Almost all home solar systems are tied into the local power company’s power grid, so the customer can feed solar back into the system and get paid for the electricity their solar panels produce.

But these systems are turned off when utility power is out. That is to keep electrical workers who are working on the grids safe because power flowing into the system could kill them.

This leaves many homes using solar power without electricity. But residents who have a home battery attached to their energy systems are in luck. The solar energy powers the home during the day, and any excess energy is used to charge the battery. The battery can then be used at night or when the grid goes down.

The same is true for electric cars. If the cars have a solar panel with a battery, they will likely have a range of between 160 to 400 kilometers between charges. So if they’re fully charged, they can often outlast power outages.

Climate change, years of drought, and the construction of houses and communities in wildland areas have all contributed to the spate of intense and deadly fires in California in recent years, experts say.

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A woman who worked at NBC News claimed that Matt Lauer raped her at a hotel while on assignment for the Sochi Olympics, an encounter the former “Today” show host claimed was consensual.

The claim outlined by Brooke Nevils in Ronan Farrow’s book, “Catch and Kill,” puts a name and details behind the event that led to Lauer’s firing by NBC in 2017. It also provoked the first public response from Lauer, who said in a defiant and graphic letter made public by his lawyer that “my silence was a mistake.”

Variety first reported Nevils’ charges after obtaining a copy of Farrow’s book. The Associated Press typically does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault, unless they step forward publicly as Nevils has done.

Nevils, who was working for Meredith Vieira in Sochi, met her for drinks one night and Lauer joined them. Nevils said she had six shots of vodka and wound up going to Lauer’s room.

“It was nonconsensual in the sense that I was too drunk to consent,” Nevils told Farrow, according to Variety. 

In his letter, Lauer admitted to his extramarital affair with Nevils. He said on that night in Sochi that they consensually performed a variety of sexual acts.

“She was a fully enthusiastic and willing partner,” he wrote. “At no time did she behave in a way that made it appear she was incapable of consent. She seemed to know exactly what she wanted to do.”

Lauer’s defense of his behavior extends beyond his relationship with Nevils. He said he has “never assaulted anyone or forced anyone to have sex. Period.”

He also acknowledges other extramarital encounters, and criticized the women involved for having “abandoned shared responsibility” for the affairs to shield themselves from blame behind false allegations.

“They have avoided having to look at a boyfriend, a husband or a child in the eye and say, `I cheated,”‘ Lauer said. “And I will no longer provide them the shelter of my silence.”

Lauer said the night in Sochi was the first of several sexual encounters he had with Nevils over several months, including one in his dressing room at NBC, which “showed terrible judgment on my part.”

Nevils’ lawyer did not immediately return a message for comment on Lauer’s letter Wednesday.

Eleanor McManus, who co-founded the group Press Forward to support victims of sexual abuse in the news industry, said Lauer’s letter was “unbelievable.

“Lauer’s statement demonstrates not only his lack of remorse, but his lack of understanding of sexual harassment and the (hash)MeToo movement,” said McManus, who said she was harassed by journalist Mark Halperin (who lost jobs at NBC and elsewhere because of these and other accusations). “Nowhere in his letter does Lauer acknowledge the power he yielded as a celebrity and the star of NBC’s highest-rated show. The two people in that hotel room in Sochi did not have equal power.”

Farrow’s publisher, Little, Brown & Co., said that the book has been fact-checked and incorporates the responses of individuals and institutions that were included. When it is published, “readers will understand the full context and impact of Farrow’s work, and the bravery of the sources who entrusted him with their stories.”

NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack sent a memo to his staff on Wednesday, saying that any suggestion that NBC knew of Lauer’s conduct prior to the night before he was fired for “inappropriate sexual conduct” was wrong. There were no claims or allegations of improper conduct by Lauer prior to that, he said, although settlements were reached with two women regarding Lauer after he was fired.

“Matt Lauer’s conduct was appalling, horrific and reprehensible, as we said at the time,” NBC News said in a statement Wednesday.

“That’s why he was fired within 24 hours of us first learning of the complaint. Our hearts break again for our colleague.”

Nevils’ story was reported Wednesday on the show Lauer hosted for two decades. His former co-host, Savannah Guthrie, called it shocking and appalling.

“We’re disturbed to our core,” Guthrie said.

Lauer said in his letter that he ended the affair poorly and understands how that must have made Nevils feel.

He said that he hadn’t responded publicly before to allegations in order to spare his family pain, but that now he has their support to address them publicly.

“Anyone who knows me will tell you I am a very private person,” Lauer wrote. “I had no desire to write this, but I had no choice.”

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