Year: 2019

Iran is for the first time acknowledging that a rocket explosion took place at its Imam Khomeini Space Center, with an official saying a technical malfunction caused the blast.   Government spokesman Ali Rabiei made the statement on Monday in comments broadcast by Iranian state television.   He said the explosion caused no fatalities and also that officials had found no sign that sabotage was involved in the explosion.   Satellite photos showed a rocket on a launch pad at the space center had exploded Thursday. The space center is located about 240 kilometers, or 150 miles, southeast of the capital, Tehran.   President Donald Trump on Friday tweeted a surveillance photo likely taken of the site by an American spy satellite. He wrote that the U.S. had nothing to do with the blast. …

A senior U.S. naval officer has underlined Washington’s commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific as the United States launched its first joint naval exercise with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations …

The U.S. and Poland signed an agreement on Monday to cooperate on new 5G technology amid growing concerns about Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Vice President Mike Pence and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki signed the deal in Warsaw, where Pence is filling in for President Donald Trump, who scrapped his trip at the last minute because of Hurricane Dorian.   The signing comes amid a global battle between the U.S. and Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of network infrastructure equipment, over network security.   The agreement endorses the principles developed by cybersecurity officials from dozens of countries at a summit in Prague earlier this year to counter threats and ensure the safety of next generation mobile networks.    “Protecting these next generation communications networks from disruption or manipulation and ensuring the privacy and individual liberties of the citizens of the United States, Poland, and other countries is of vital importance,” the agreement says.   Pence said the agreement would “set a vital example for the rest of Europe.”   The U.S. has been lobbying allies to ban Huawei from 5G networks over concerns China’s government could force the company to give it access to data for cyberespionage. Huawei has denied the allegation.   The U.S. has called for an outright ban on Huawei, but European allies have balked.   A senior Trump administration official told reporters during a briefing ahead of the trip that the agreement would help ensure secure supply chains and networks and protect against unauthorized access or …

Atop a string of green mountains in Saudi Arabia, a monthlong festival drew a medley of yoga enthusiasts, extreme adventure seekers, tourists and traditional Saudi families — many wearing colorful flower crowns native to the region as the kingdom looks for ways to revamp its image and build up tourism. The al-Soudah festival, which ran throughout the month of August, gave visitors a chance to experience a unique region in Saudi Arabia and take part in outdoor sports like hiking, mountain biking, paragliding, horseback riding, zip lining and bungee jumping. Thousands also attended concerts by Middle Eastern superstars. Scenes of women zip lining and young Saudis at concerts, while nevertheless in a remote village, are a stark departure from the ultraconservative policies that for decades barred concerts and gender mixing, as well as shunned women’s sports in the kingdom. The reforms are being pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king’s powerful 34-year-old son. He is looking to revamp the country’s economy to become more resilient in the face of lower oil prices. Boosting domestic spending and opening the country to foreign tourists are seen as ways to create more jobs for the millions of young Saudis who will be entering the workforce and looking for jobs in the coming years. Saudi tourists wear helmets and keep their faces and hair covered according to local custom, as they pose for a photo before zip lining between cliffs, during the al-Soudah festival in Abha, southwest Saudi Arabia, Aug. 23, 2019. …

Afghan officials say U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Monday in Kabul to share details of a draft U.S.-Taliban peace agreement, but did not hand a copy of the deal to the president. Afghan presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told reporters that Khalilzad shared all the important details in the document and that the government will discuss it internally. Further discussions with Khalilzad’s team are expected to continue. Khalilzad announced Sunday via Twitter he had concluded the ninth round of peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar and was leaving for Kabul to brief Afghan leaders in his discussions with the insurgents. FILE – Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Doha, speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia, May 28, 2019. Members of Khalilzad team remained in Doha and some technician level talks took place on Sunday, said Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen. “We are at the threshold of an agreement that will reduce violence and open the door for Afghans to sit together to negotiate an honorable & sustainable peace and a unified, sovereign Afghanistan that does not threaten the United States, its allies, or any other country,” Khalilzad tweeted. In the midst of the negotiations, the Taliban continued to launch attacks.   On Sunday, the insurgents attacked its second city in two days. Officials in Baghlan province said the insurgents were on the outskirts of the capital. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said its fighters stormed Afghan security posts around Pul-e-Khumri and were inside …

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the United States will continue to support Ukraine in the country’s conflict with Russia and its right to full territorial integrity. Washington “stands with the people of Ukraine and most especially since 2014, we have stood strongly for the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Pence said after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Warsaw on Sunday. “And I can assure you that we will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine on your security, on territorial integrity, including Ukraine’s rightful claim to Crimea,” Pence said. The United States is an important ally for Kyiv, having imposed sanctions on Russia for annexing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backing pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine’s east. Pence and Zelenskiy were in Warsaw for commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II. U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton said on a recent visit to Kyiv that President Donald Trump could meet Zelenskiy in Warsaw this weekend. However, Trump cancelled his plans to attend the event in Poland, citing Hurricane Dorian, which is set to make landfall in Florida this weekend. …

Hurricane Dorian, a dangerous Category 5 storm, made landfall in the northwestern Bahamas Sunday, slamming the island with 295 kilometer an hour winds. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Dorian is the strongest hurricane in modern history to hit the area and warned “catastrophic conditions” are occurring in the Abaco Islands. The hurricane agency had said the storm’s advance is expected to slow over the next day or two, followed by a gradual turn to the northwest as it edges closer to southeastern U.S. state of Florida Hurricane Dorian Lashes Northern Bahamas US forecasters call storm’s 260-kilometer-an-hour winds ‘catastrophic’ “It’s going to stall out…and it hasn’t even touched Florida or the southeast (U.S.) coast,” Peter Gaynor, acting chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Fox News Sunday. “You’ve got to take this storm seriously.” He said emergency officials have been briefing President Donald Trump or his aides on an hourly basis on the storm’s advance. “He has his finger on the pulse,” Gaynor said. Trump visited FEMA headquarters Sunday, where he urged everyone in “Hurricane Dorian’s path to heed all warnings and evacuation orders from local authorities.” Dorian is expected to move near or over Grand Bahama Island on Sunday night and into Monday and “should move closer to the Florida east coast late Monday through Tuesday night.” The hurricane agency said the storm could dump as much as 76 centimeters of rain on the northwestern Bahamas, with life-threatening storm surges pushing tides as much as seven meters above …

Marvelous Nyahuye contributed to this report from New York. WASHINGTON –  Tererai Trent appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show in 2009 and inspired the world with her story of overcoming enormous odds to pursue her dreams of education. This week, she finds herself immortalized alongside Winfrey with a bronze statue in New York City. She is the only African woman to have received this honor. The Zimbabwean educator and humanitarian is one of 10 “Statues For Equality” created by sculptors Gillie and Marc Schattner. Trent’s statue depicts her with her arms aloft, surrounded by the flame lily, the country’s national flower. “It comes without saying that, by projecting these women into larger-than-life-size sculptures, it will help change our society — a change that will elevate the lives of women all around the world. A change that can trigger gender equality in careers, industries and the home,” Gillie Schattner said at the ceremony. “I come from a very poor place, and I grew up very poor. I had four babies before I was even 18 years of age, and to think that because of the power of believing in a dream and today I am being celebrated,” Trent said. “And to think I have a statue in New York, the most celebrated city in the world? It’s just unbelievable. Even my own grandmother and my mother never dreamt of that.” Trent grew up in a village and was denied an education because she was a girl, like her mother and grandmother …

The U.S. and China imposed new tariffs on each other’s exported goods on Sunday, the latest skirmish in the lengthy and contentious trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. U.S. President Donald Trump levied 15% taxes on about $112 billion worth of Chinese exported products headed to the United States, with the tariffs likely resulting in higher prices paid by U.S. shoppers on some foods, sports equipment, sportswear, musical instruments and furniture. Meanwhile, Beijing started adding 5% and 10% tariffs on some of the $75 billion worth of U.S. exports being sent to China that it has said it will tax in the tit-for-tat tariff war with Washington. Initially, China said the American export of frozen sweet corn, pork liver, marble and bicycle tires were among the more the 1,700 products it would tax. Trump on Friday ruled out any delay in the new tariffs on the imported Chinese goods, saying, “They’re on.” As they took effect Sunday, Trump declared, “We can’t allow China to rip us off anymore.” China’s official Xinhua news agency said, “The United States should learn how to behave like a responsible global power and stop acting as a ‘school bully.’ As the world’s only superpower, it needs to shoulder its due responsibility, and join other countries in making this world a better and more prosperous place. Only then can America become great again.” FILE – Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, right, sits with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, second from left, and Treasury Secretary …

     The pro-Iranian Lebanese group Hezbollah fired several anti-tank missiles at an Israeli army base and a military ambulance, but there were no casualties, according to the Israeli army. The army said several of the missiles struck their targets and Israel fired dozens of mortars at Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. For the past week, Israel has been bracing for a Hezbollah attack, since an Israeli airstrike that targeted what Israel said was an Iranian plot to bomb northern Israel with armed drones. That attack killed several Iranian fighters, including two members of Hezbollah, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had threatened retaliation.   That came with several anti-tank missiles fired at northern Israel that hit an army base and a military ambulance but did not cause casualties. Hezbollah said the target was an armored personnel carrier and there were injuries.   In a news conference with the visiting president of Honduras, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looked relieved that the Hezbollah strike had not caused casualties.   He said that Israel responded to the attack and that he has ordered the army to be ready to respond to any scenario.   An army spokesman said Israel had launched more than 100 airstrikes at Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.   Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri asked the international community to intervene to stop the attacks.   Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of staff and current Knesset member, said Hezbollah did not want a war with Israel.   He said …

A list of some of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States in the last two years:    — Aug. 31, 2019: Five people were killed in West Texas in shootings in the area of Midland and Odessa.    — Aug. 4, 2019: A gunman wearing body armor shot and killed nine people at a popular nightlife area in Dayton, Ohio. Police were patrolling the area and killed the suspect.     — Aug. 3, 2019: A gunman opened fire at a shopping center in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people and injuring more than two dozen. A suspect was taken into custody.    — May 31, 2019: Longtime city worker DeWayne Craddock opened fire in a building that houses Virginia Beach government offices. He killed 12 people and wounded several others before police shot him.    — Feb. 15, 2019: Gary Martin killed five co-workers at a manufacturing plant in Aurora, Illinois, during a disciplinary meeting where he was fired. He wounded one other employee and five of the first police officers to arrive at the suburban Chicago plant before he was killed during a shootout with police.    — Nov. 7, 2018: Ian David Long killed 12 people at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks, California, before taking his own life. Long was a Marine combat veteran of the war in Afghanistan.   FILE – Flowers and other items are left as memorials outside the Tree of Life synagogue, Nov. 3, 2018, following a mass shooting there in Pittsburgh, …

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s next round of tariffs on Chinese imports is scheduled to take effect Sunday, escalating the trade war between the world’s two largest economies with a big hit to consumer goods. Trump has targeted about $300 billion in annual goods imports from China for 15% tariffs in two parts, on Sept. 1 and Dec. 15. If fully imposed, virtually all Chinese imports, worth about $550 billion, would be subject to punitive U.S. tariffs imposed since July 2018. Here is a look at U.S. tariffs and expected Chinese retaliation scheduled over the next several months. FILE – A woman shops for Chinese made shoes, Aug. 24, 2019, at a store in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles. Sept. 1 tariffs The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency will begin collecting tariffs for Chinese goods at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) Sunday. Guidance issued Friday indicated there will not be a grace period for cargoes that left China before that time, unlike that granted for goods in transit when the United States imposed a tariff increase in May. The Sept. 1 list covers about $125 billion worth of mostly consumer products, based on a Reuters analysis of 2018 U.S. Census Bureau data. The target list includes flat panel television sets, flash memory devices, power tools, cotton sweaters, bed linens, multifunction printers and many types of footwear. The largest category of targeted products covers smart watches, smart speakers, Bluetooth headphones and other internet-connected devices that were spared from an earlier …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Saturday that he and Poland’s president had agreed that sanctions ought to continue against Russia until Ukraine regained the territory it lost in Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.    Zelenskiy, accompanied by some members of his Cabinet, was on his first visit to Poland as president for political talks and to attend ceremonies planned for Sunday to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II.    He said he and Polish President Andrzej Duda had discussed the next steps needed to end the war in eastern Ukraine and to return the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine.    “We have agreed on our next steps to stop the war in eastern Ukraine and to bring back occupied Crimea,” Zelenskiy said. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in a move that Ukraine and almost all the world views as illegal. The European Union and the U.S. imposed sanctions.    In eastern Ukraine, a deadly conflict between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has gone on for five years.     A member of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service gives a sign to people to stop as they approach a checkpoint at the contact line between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian troops in Mayorsk, Ukraine July 3, 2019. Zelenskiy said his and Duda’s “joint and principal position” is that the EU “sanctions should be reviewed only to be increased — not otherwise,” unless existing peace agreements are fully implemented and “the territorial unity of Ukraine according to its internationally agreed borders” is restored.    Duda said he assured Zelenskiy of his …

 At least five people were killed and 21 others were injured Saturday in a mass shooting in western Texas, officials said.    Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke called it a “horrific day” after the shooting deaths in Odessa and nearby Midland, Texas.    Police said the incident started when a suspect hijacked a U.S. Postal Service vehicle, then drove around and randomly fired at people.    The shooter, described as a white male in his 30s, was shot and killed after being trapped by police in the parking lot of a movie theater, authorities said. They did not provide a motive for the attack, in which three police officers were also injured.    Gerke declined to name the gunman.    Police did not release the conditions or ages of the victims. Odessa-Midland, Texas President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday night, “Just briefed by Attorney General Barr about the shootings in Texas. FBI and Law Enforcement is fully engaged. More to follow.”    Texas Governor Greg Abbott released a statement Saturday, saying: “The First Lady and I are heartbroken over this senseless and cowardly attack, and we offer our unwavering support to the victims, their families, and all the people of Midland and Odessa. The state of Texas and the Department of Public Safety are working closely with local law enforcement to provide resources as needed and deliver justice for this heinous attack.”  El Paso, Dayton   Saturday’s shooting came after a mass shooting in early August at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart, where many …

While most migrants who arrive at America’s southern border are from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the U.S. Border Patrol in Texas’ Del Rio Sector reports apprehending people from more than 50 countries in the last year. VOA’s Ramon Taylor and Victoria Macchi spoke with asylum-seeking families who have journeyed across the Atlantic and through the Americas en route to the US-Mexico border, desperate for a new beginning.   …

In Russia, countrywide celebrations have been held to mark the 350th anniversary of the national flag. Yet, only 50 percent of respondents polled in a recent survey could correctly name the sequence of the colors on the flag. Russia recently saw a surge of patriotic celebrations orchestrated by local and federal authorities. Yulia Savchenko has more from Moscow on the state-promoted events.   …

Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg took her Friday school strikes to the gates of the United Nations, surrounded by hundreds of other young activists, calling on adults to take action on climate change. Thunberg will speak at a climate change summit of world leaders next month at the U.N. General Assembly. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from Washington.   …