Year: 2019

U.S.-Chinese trade contracted again in October, despite optimism about possible progress in talks aimed at ending a tariff war that threatens global economic growth. Chinese imports of U.S. goods fell 14.3% from a year earlier to $9.4 billion, customs data showed Friday. Exports to the United States sank 16.2% to $35.8 billion. President Donald Trump announced a tentative deal Oct. 12 and suspended a planned tariff hike on Chinese imports. But details have yet to be agreed on and earlier penalties stayed in place. That is depressing trade in goods from soybeans to medical equipment. Beijing announced Thursday the two sides agreed to a gradual reduction in punitive tariffs if talks on the “Phase 1” deal make progress. However, there has been no sign of progress on major disputes about China’s trade surplus and technology ambitions. Optimism about the talks “could improve the climate for exports in the coming months by improving global sentiment and trade. But we remain cautious,” said Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics in a report. “It is unlikely that the bulk of existing tariffs will be removed soon,” Kuijs said. He said a “substantial gap” in perceptions about what each side is gaining means “there is a substantial risk of re-escalation of tensions in 2020.” China’s global exports declined 0.9% to $212.9 billion, a slight improvement over September’s 3% contraction. Imports tumbled 6.4% to $170.1 billion, adding to signs Chinese demand also is cooling. …

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck northwestern Iran early Friday, killing at least five people and injuring more than 300 others, officials said. The temblor struck Tark county in Iran’s Eastern Azerbaijan province at 2:17 a.m., Iran’s seismological center said. The area is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Iran’s capital, Tehran. More than 40 aftershocks rattled the rural region nestled in the Alborz Mountains, and residents rushed out of their homes in fear. The quake injured at least 312 people, state television reported, though only 13 needed to be hospitalized. It described many of the injuries happening when people fled in panic. The head of Iran’s emergency medical services, Pirhossein Koulivand, gave the casualty figures to state television. There were no immediate video or images broadcast from the area. Rescuers have been dispatched to the region, officials said. State TV reported the earthquake destroyed 30 homes at its epicenter. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake’s epicenter was at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage. Iran sits on major seismic faults and experiences one earthquake a day on average. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam, killing 26,000 people. A magnitude 7 earthquake that struck western Iran in 2017 killed more than 600 people and injured more than 9,000. …

Studies show when people pet an animal, their blood pressure goes down along with stress and anxiety. That’s why therapy dogs are increasingly found in schools, counseling centers and even in hospitals. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports on two hospitals that use therapy dogs to help patients on their medical journey.   …

After a meeting in Washington this week, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan committed to reach an agreement over the disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam by next January. Before the meeting, the foreign ministers met President Donald Trump at the White House. Trump has taken an interest in the conflict after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi asked him to mediate. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story. …

When billboards in Chinese start appearing, along with Korean and Japanese grocery stores and restaurants that span tastes from almost all of Asia, they are signs that you have entered California’s San Gabriel Valley. For some people, it is a bedroom community of Los Angeles. For others, the Asian enclave is a home away from home. Known to the locals as the “SGV,” San Gabriel Valley spans 36 kilometers east of downtown Los Angeles, with close to half a million Asians living there. Nine cities in the area are majority-Asian. They include the city of Walnut, where Mike Chou’s family settled in 1989 when they immigrated from Taiwan. Walnut already had an established Chinese community. “My parents, they didn’t speak English at the time, so it’s made it easier for them to kind of get around,” said Chou, who was 5 when his family arrived in the United States. “It’s so close to all the shopping. It’s so close to the (Chinese) grocery stores. It made fitting in there a lot easier.” Nearly half a million Asians live in California’s San Gabriel Valley, where nine cities are majority Asian. Chinese arrived in 1970s According to the 2019 San Gabriel Valley Economic Forecast and Regional Overview Report, the SGV has a large ethnic Chinese population that started in the 1970s, with a flood of immigrants from Taiwan. Chou is now a real estate agent with an 80% Asian clientele — half of them Chinese. Speaking fluent Mandarin and English, Chou has …

Several senior U.S. diplomats, including former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, are key witnesses in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Trump is accused of having withheld U.S. military aid to Ukraine until that country’s new president agreed to investigate one of Trump’s political opponents, former Vice President and current presidential candidate Joe Biden. As transcripts from diplomats’ closed-door Capitol Hill hearings are released, many are questioning why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not shield or even support Yovanovitch from an administration campaign that led to her eventual ouster. Then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Yovanovitch told lawmakers in sworn testimony she was shocked to get a phone call in the middle of the night, telling her to leave her post and take the next plane home. WATCH: Cindy Saine’s video report Pompeo Criticized for Failing to Support Ousted US Ambassador to Ukraine video player. Embed Copy Link She said she was told she had done nothing wrong but was in immediate diplomatic trouble, not from unrest in Ukraine, but from a potential tweet by President Trump undermining her. A transcript of her deposition was released this week. She outlined her 33 years as a Foreign Service officer, serving under six presidents. She said U.S. diplomats frequently put themselves in harm’s way, believing that in return, their government will protect them if they come under attack. However, she said this basic understanding no longer holds true. Testimony: US Former Ambassador to Ukraine Advised to Tweet Support for Trump Marie Yovanovitch …

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova is clear. There is nothing the Kremlin can do about Russian military contractors operating in Africa. During one of her weekly press briefings shortly after news broke that more than two dozen Russians had been killed in Libya, I pressed her about whether the Kremlin endorsed their presence. And if it did not, what would be done to prevent Russian veterans pursing freelance foreign policies. “I have no detailed information about what soldiers you are talking about,” she said. She added there is nothing the Kremlin can do to stop Russian military outfits waging secret wars overseas. It is reminiscent of 2014 when the Kremlin presumably could do nothing about the so-called “little green men” who miraculously appeared in Crimea but paved the way for the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula.  “We have no laws to stop this,” Zakharova said, throwing her arms wide open. No socializing Afterward, I talked with her deputy who, before taking up his role at the foreign ministry in Moscow, had been Russia’s press attaché in Berlin, and someone who I thought therefore might be open to some sociable contact with reporters. I sent a follow-up email and suggested lunch. He has not replied. That is par for the course. Russian officials are wary nowadays of socializing with foreign journalists, especially from international public broadcasters, deemed to be what the Russian government has labeled “foreign agents.” VOA, BBC, France 24, Radio Free Europe and Deutsche Welle are all in …

An 89-year-old Auschwitz survivor who is a senator-for-life in Italy unwittingly provoked one of the country’s most intense confrontations with anti-Semitism since the end of its Fascist dictatorship during World War II. In response to revelations that she is subject to 200 social media attacks each day, Liliana Segre called for the creation of a parliamentary committee to combat hate, racism and anti-Semitism. Parliament approved her motion, but without votes from Italy’s right-wing parties. Matteo Salvini’s euroskeptic League party, Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia and Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy all abstained, in a move that defied the kind of social consensus that has marked Italian post-war politics. FILE – Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre speaks with young students on the occasion of a Holocaust remembrance at the Arcimboldi theatre in Milan, Jan. 24, 2018. The vote last week, along with a round of racist chants in a soccer stadium, focused attention on what observers say is a growing boldness in anti-Semitic and racist attitudes in Italy, and the role of politicians in sanctioning them. Why they abstained Meloni said she abstained because the commission didn’t address the role of Islamic extremism in anti-Semitism. Salvini said he was worried it would introduce limits on freedom of expression and that “the left would pass off for racism what for us is the belief or the right to say ‘Italians first.’” In a similar vein, Forza Italia called the commission an attempt at “political censure.” Riccardo Pacifici, the former leader of Rome’s …

South Korea deported two North Koreans on Thursday after finding they had killed 16 fellow fishermen on a boat and fled to South Korea across the sea border over the weekend. The two North Koreans, both men in their 20s, were found aboard a boat south of the eastern sea border last Saturday, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. It said a South Korean investigation later found the two had killed 16 colleagues aboard a fishing boat and escaped to South Korea. Details of the alleged onboard killings weren’t immediately known. South Korea has a policy of accepting North Koreans who wants to resettle in the South to avoid political oppressions and economic poverty at home. But a Seoul Unification Ministry spokesman, Lee Sang-min, said South Korea has decided to send the two fishermen back to North Korea because they allegedly committed “grave” crimes and couldn’t be protected by the South Korean government. Lee said South Korea expelled the men to North Korea via an inter-Korean border village on Thursday. He said Seoul on Tuesday had informed Pyongyang of their planned deportations and that North Korea on Wednesday responded it would accept them. Lee said Seoul has determined the two’s acceptance to the South Korean society would threaten its own public safety. …

Melania Trump is visiting a Boston hospital’s cuddling program that aims to help infants born dependent on drugs or alcohol. The first lady’s stop Wednesday at Boston Medical Center is part of her “Be Best” initiative. The hospital developed the program to nurture babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. The hospital also works with expectant mothers who misuse drugs or alcohol. Mrs. Trump told hospital administrators she hopes her visit will focus more attention on their work. She was joined by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. Dozens of workers at the hospital gathered outside to protest the first lady’s visit. Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley says the Trump administration’s tough stance on immigration is discouraging people from seeking health care for fear of arrest and deportation.   …

French actress Catherine Deneuve, 76, was admitted to hospital in Paris after suffering a “limited” stroke, French media reported. “Catherine Deneuve has suffered a very limited and therefore reversible ischemic stroke. Happily, her motor control has not been affected. She will need a few days’ rest,” French news wire AFP and French daily Le Parisien reported, quoting from a Deneuve family statement. A spokeswoman for Deneuve declined to comment. Nicknamed the “Ice Maiden” because of her exquisite, fragile beauty and detached manner, Deneuve became France’s leading screen actress and a top international star in the 1960s. FILE – President of the Jury at the 47th Cannes Film Festival, U.S. director and actor Clint Eastwood, left , and Vice President and French actress Catherine Deneuve are seen during a photo call, May 12, 1994. She won fame for her portrayal of an umbrella seller’s daughter in Jacques Demy’s 1963 musical “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” (“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”) for which she won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1965, she triumphed as a frigid, schizophrenic woman in Polish director Roman Polanski’s harrowing “Repulsion” and in 1968, she was nominated for a BAFTA Best Actress award for her role in “Belle de Jour.” In 1993, she was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her role in “Indochine.” Often described as the embodiment of French womanhood, Deneuve is a fixture at Paris fashion shows and is known for her biting wit. Last year, she and 99 other …

President Donald Trump is blasting the media for not reporting the name of a person who has been identified in conservative circles as the whistleblower who spurred the impeachment inquiry. Yet Trump has carefully avoided using the name himself. Exposing whistleblowers can be dicey, even for a president. For one thing, it could be a violation of federal law to identify the whistleblower. While there’s little chance Trump could face charges, revealing the name could give Democrats more impeachment fodder. It could also prompt a backlash among some Senate Republicans who have long defended whistleblowers. And, despite wanting the name to be disclosed, Trump sees some benefits to keeping it secret. The anonymity makes it easier for Trump to undermine the credibility of the person behind the complaint as well as the complaint itself, according to three officials and Republicans close to the White House not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. It also allows him to bash the media for supposedly protecting the whistleblower. In recent weeks, a name has circulated in conservative media of a man said to be the whistleblower. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., on Wednesday tweeted a link to a story on the Breitbart website that used the name. He also included the name in his tweet. U.S. whistleblower laws exist to protect the identity and careers of people who bring forward accusations of wrongdoing by government officials. Lawmakers in both parties have historically backed those protections. The Associated Press typically does not reveal …

It’s been 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, marking the beginning of the end to the Cold War and the Soviet Union. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines the lessons learned and the invisible divisions left by the Wall on Germany and Europe in general. Correspondent Henry Ridgwell joins us from Berlin; former Secretary of State James Baker recounts the days surrounding the fall of the Wall and looks at the challenges we now face; correspondent Charles Maynes reports on German nationalism on the rise; and historian Hope Harrison from George Washington University. Aired November 6, 2019. …

Voting in U.S. state and local elections on Tuesday showed no evidence of successful tampering by any foreign government, the Justice Department and six U.S. security agencies said. But Russia, China, Iran and other adversaries of the United States will seek to meddle in U.S. elections moving forward, including through social media manipulation and cyberattacks, the agencies said. “While at this time we have no evidence of a compromise or disruption to election infrastructure that would enable adversaries to prevent voting, change vote counts or disrupt the ability to tally votes, we continue to vigilantly monitor any threats to U.S. elections,” a joint statement, signed by the heads of each agency, said. Cliff Smith, a Ridgeland, Mississippi, poll worker, offers a voter an “I Voted” sticker after they cast their ballot, Nov. 5, 2019. The agencies have increased efforts to protect elections and a new position was created within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to focus solely on U.S. election security. A January 2017 assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies found that Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential election and its goals included aiding President Donald Trump. National security experts have said they believe foreign governments will again target the 2020 presidential election in an effort to influence U.S. voters. In February 2018, the Justice Department created the first ever Cyber Digital Task Force with the mission of protecting future U.S. elections from foreign interference.   …

From ex-prostitutes making jewelry out of bullet casing to drones delivering blood, rising numbers of businesses with a mission to help address social problems are emerging in Ethiopia as the economy opens up. An estimated 55,000 social enterprises operate in Ethiopia, the second-most populous country in Africa and fastest growing economy in the region where about a quarter of 109 million people live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. But the number of ventures set up to do good is on the rise since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came in 18 months ago and vowed to open the economy to private investment, raising hopes of official recognition for the sector and easier access to funds. Kibret Abebe, one of Ethiopia’s best-known social entrepreneurs, said the sector would be boosted as Ethiopia hosts the 12th annual Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) this week, the first developing country to do so. “The economy is opening up and we are seeing more social enterprises in Ethiopia,” said Abebe, first president of Social Enterprise Ethiopia, which was set up last year to advance firms set up to do good that re-invest their profits into their work. “Scaling up has been a nightmare in Ethiopia and it’s been hard to collaborate with the government but I’m optimistic this will change as we have a lot of social problems to fix.” Ethiopia’s Education Minister Tilaye Gete said hosting SEWF, attended by more than 1,200 delegates from 50 or so countries, was a sign …

Brazil’s mining regulator on Tuesday blasted iron ore miner Vale SA for failing to disclose problems with a mining dam before a deadly collapse in January, saying this kept the agency from taking actions that could have saved lives. The dam in Brumadinho collapsed and flooded a nearby company cafeteria and the surrounding countryside with mining waste, killing more than 250 people. It was Vale’s second deadly dam collapse in less than four years. The regulator’s report on its probe into the disaster is the latest blow to the reputation of Vale, which is under criminal investigation over accusations that top executives ignored warning signs about the dam. Based on the report’s findings, ANM will now assess the iron ore miner with 24 new fines. Officials said that the amount of each fine is capped at around 6,000 reais ($1,500) under Brazilian law. The report detailed several problems that it said Vale should have reported. The first occurred in June 2018, seven months before the disaster, when the company installed horizontal drainage pipes and discovered sediment in the drainage water. This worrying sign should have been reported immediately, ANM officials told reporters in a briefing. Members of a rescue team search for victims after a tailings dam owned by Brazilian mining company Vale SA collapsed, in Brumadinho, Brazil, Jan. 28, 2019. “The serious fact is that when there is sediment it must be reported. Period. It wasn’t. If it had been communicated, the area would immediately have been submitted to …

One in four American high schoolers and one in 10 children in middle school have used an e-cigarette in the past 30 days, with most favoring those flavored with mint or menthol. The disturbing findings from two separate studies were published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. One, the 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey by the Food and Drug Administration, found there are now 5.3 million young Americans who vape regularly, compared with about 3.6 million last year. The study found efforts by state and federal officials to discourage underage vaping are falling short, despite a prohibition on sale of e-cigarettes to anyone younger than 18 and a ban on all flavored vaping products, excluding mint and menthol. The study also found that Juul was the preferred brand of nearly 60% of high school students. Another study, led by researchers from the University of Southern California, found most young teens preferred the flavor of mint over menthol. The studies come as the federal government of considering a ban on all e-cigarettes flavored with anything other than tobacco. The findings “call for drastic action to be taken. We are in the midst of an e-cigarette crisis, the aftermath of which we could be dealing with for decades,” Erika Sward, spokeswoman for the American Lung Association, said. Juul, the best-selling vaping brand in the country, voluntarily stopped the sale of all its fruit and dessert flavored vaping products last month. But that move did not include mint and menthol flavors. …