VOA Connect Episode 90 – Explore some old-time pastimes, from riding a steam locomotive, to watching a wingwalker take to the sky, and digging into the original Buffalo wings. Plus, see how one small town reinvented itself to become an artist’s paradise
Want to know what esthetician Jana-Leigh Scheaffer does for fun? Here’s a hint, it’s a predominantly male sport and it involves major stunts. We promise you will enjoy watching her walk in the air, literally.
Reporter: Philip Alexiou; Camera: Philip Alexiou, Martin Secrest; Adapted by: Jacquelyn De Phillips
European cheese makers complained Thursday of being held “hostage” in a transatlantic trade battle that had nothing to do with them after the United States slapped 25% tariffs on the sector in retaliation for state aid to aerospace group Airbus.
The dismayed reaction came a day after the World Trade Organization gave Washington the green light to slap punitive tariffs on a range of European products, including spirits and cheese, in punishment for illegal EU aircraft subsidies.
“What is happening is absurd; we have to see if the American customers are willing to accept the price increase,” said Giuseppe Ambrosi, president of Italian dairy association Assolatte. Earlier, the consortium that oversees production of Parmesan said U.S. consumers could expect to pay $5 per kilo (2.2 lbs) more for the hard Italian cheese.
In the jargon of trade negotiations, cheese is what is sometimes referred to as an “offensive” product for the European Union — one it has a particular interest in selling and thus one that is particularly vulnerable to punitive tariffs.
While sales of dairy products account for less than 5% of EU agri-food exports to the U.S. market, the symbolic importance of European cheeses has made them a target for trade officials seeking to make a point while limiting the hurt to American consumers.
High-profile products like Parmesan or various kinds of blue-veined cheeses have been targeted periodically over the years in trade disputes between the United States and Europe.
‘Problem of accessibility’
The EU exports 133,000 tons of cheese to the United States every year, according to figures from the European Dairy Association (EDA). Most are what it called “‘typical’ European cheeses with unique characteristics” with particular importance for the regions where they are traditionally produced.
“It’s an enormous market for us. It’s our No.1 cheese market outside the EU,” said Benoit Rouyer, economist at French dairy industry body CNIEL. “Even for premium products, it creates a problem of accessibility. Our ambition is to reach the broadest possible population in the U.S., our cheeses are not intended for an elite.”
Most high-quality cheese can take several months to mature, meaning the immediate impact on producers may not be felt immediately and some may find new markets.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office told the industry it will not offer a grace period for goods still in transit when the tariffs take effect Oct. 18, the Cheese Importers Association of America said.
For cheese ready for sale, exporters face a choice of imposing higher prices or accepting a cut themselves.
“But as 25% is not an insignificant amount, that will be hard to do,” said David Swales — head of Strategic Insight at the UK Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.
No final product list
With a final list of what products will be hit not due until Oct. 18, the industry was still seeking details. But Parmesan and pecorino sheep’s cheese from Italy, English Cheddar and Stilton, as well as Emmentaler, Gruyere varieties are all likely to be affected.
Other well-known varieties, including French blue-veined Roquefort and two Dutch artisanal cheeses — Gouda Holland and Edam Holland — were not on the list issued by U.S. authorities.
However, the EDA said it was concerned by discrepancies in treatment offered to different member states and said the whole EU area should be treated as a single bloc in WTO terms.
In broader terms, it said the sector was being made to pay for a battle in which it was not involved.
“Agri-food products and hence the farming community is now regularly taken as hostage in trade disputes, this is a development that is unacceptable,” EDA General Secretary Alexander Anton said in a statement.
Google pledged Thursday to help train a quarter of a million people for technology jobs, adding its name to a White House initiative designed to get private companies to expand training opportunities for Americans.
CEO Sundar Pichai announced the commitment during an appearance with White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump at El Centro community college in Dallas.
Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter, oversees the administration’s worker training efforts.
Google is also expanding a program it developed to prepare people for entry-level jobs in information technology support in less than six months — no college degree or prior experience required, Pichai said.
More than 85,000 students have enrolled in the course since its launch in January 2018.
Expanding the course and creating another pathway to the fast-growing, high-paying field of IT support is part of the tech giant’s decision to join more than 350 U.S. companies and add its name to the Trump administration’s Pledge to America’s Workers.
“Through this pledge, as Ivanka mentioned, we are committed to creating 250,000 new training opportunities for American workers over the next five years,” Pichai said at a roundtable discussion with school administrators and students who have completed the IT support program.
“I cannot tell you how excited we are about this,” added Ivanka Trump. “IT is such a critical industry to this nation.”
Last July, President Trump created the National Council for the American Worker and the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board — the latter made up of business, education and other leaders who have been asked to make recommendations to the council on a national workforce strategy.
The president also called on U.S. businesses to commit to expanding education and skills-training programs by signing the pledge.
To date, more than 350 companies have committed to train and retrain more than 14 million students and workers since Trump introduced the pledge in July 2018.
7 million job openings
The overall goal is to increase the number of skilled workers at a time when many businesses are struggling to find qualified help.
More than 7 million job openings exist in the U.S., according to a September report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Google initially signed the pledge through the Internet Association, which lobbies on behalf of the industry. But the tech giant said it decided to strengthen its commitment after developing more programs, including its IT Support Professional Certificate.
Google is expanding the online course to 100 community colleges — more than triple the current number — in 16 states by the end of 2020 through a $3.5 million grant to JFF, a nonprofit organization focused on jobs and education.
The course was released in January 2018 to 30 community colleges in California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, Colorado and Wisconsin. Expansion will place the program in schools in Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Virginia and West Virginia.
Tanzania denied Thursday it was withholding information from the World Health Organization (WHO) on suspected cases of Ebola, saying it was not hiding any outbreak of the deadly disease in the country.
“Ebola is known as a fast-spreading disease, whose impact can be felt globally. This is not a disease that the Tanzanian government can hide,” Tanzania health minister Ummy Mwalimu told journalists in commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
“Reports suggesting that Tanzania has not been transparent about suspected cases of Ebola and is not sharing information with the WHO are false and should be ignored.”
Last month WHO said Tanzania had refused to provide detailed information on suspected Ebola cases.
Travel advisories
The organization said it was made aware Sept. 10 of the death of a patient in Dar es Salaam, and was unofficially told the next day the person had tested positive for Ebola.
This week the United States and Britain issued travel advisories to their citizens against Tanzania amid persisting Ebola concerns.
Days before WHO’s rebuke of Tanzanian authorities, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traveled to the country at the direction of U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar, who had also criticized the country for not sharing information.
Mwalimu said Tanzania has investigated 28 suspected cases of Ebola over the past year, including two cases in September, but they all tested negative.
She said they had shared that information with WHO.
“We are committed to implement international health regulations in a transparent manner,” Mwalimu said.
High alert for Ebola
Authorities in east and central Africa have been on high alert for possible spillovers of Ebola from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a yearlong outbreak has killed more than 2,100 people.
Tanzania and DRC share a border that is separated by a lake.
Scores of senior doctors in Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have threatened to strike starting Thursday, if the government fails to meet their demand for better salaries and working conditions.
They would join hundreds of their junior counterparts, who’ve been on strike since September 3 for the same reasons. Patients are being turned away from public health facilities amid the southern African country’s protracted economic crisis, given shortages of staffing, medical equipment and supplies.
“Appalling and disgraceful” conditions have left “no option but to openly declare our incapacitation,” the Senior Hospital Doctors Association said in a statement, setting a deadline of Thursday for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to respond.
According to the Zimbabwe Health Service Board, the government employs roughly 1,550 doctors and specialists in public hospitals serving the southern African country of 14 million.
Doctors have complained that their salaries — less than $200 a month for juniors — barely cover their living expenses.
Almost all of the 524 junior doctors are believed to be striking. About 200 more senior doctors, including specialists, would walk off the job.
Dr. Paulinus Sikosana, who chairs the Zimbabwe Health Service Board, urged the senior doctors to keep working for the sake of patients.
“While we try to negotiate, perhaps, we appeal to the doctors’ consciences … to look after the lives of patients, especially those who have no recourse in the private medical sector,” Sikosana told VOA when reached by phone Tuesday in Harare, the capital.
He added that the government allows its senior doctors to have private practices, through which they can earn extra money.
“We have given them permission to do private practice even during working hours,” Sikosana said. He noted that the senior doctors also can admit their private patients into public hospitals for operations.
Sikosana said the government recently began re-equipping some hospitals with the help of foreign donations from the United Arab Emirates and India.
The country’s poor economy has strained the government’s ability to provide much-needed foreign capital, Sikosana said.
The sloth – a super slow tree dweller that spends most of its life hanging upside down – isn’t on an endangered species list. But human activity hasn’t been kind to the popular creature who lives in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi tell us about a rehabilitation program that aims to get sloths back on their feet … and into treetops.
Hawaii’s vibrant reefs are home to amazing populations of corals and fish, which are under growing stress and danger from a spike in ocean temperatures. A similar underwater heatwave damaged the reef four years ago. Now, researchers are using divers and satellites to study these corals and find ways to protect them. VOA’s Jim Randle has our story.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has acknowledged he was on the telephone call that triggered the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump.
“I was on the phone call,” Pompeo confirmed Tuesday at a news conference in Rome, without offering details about what was said during the conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
But during an interview last week on ABC News’ ‘This Week,’ Pompeo was vague about what he knew about the call, which eventually precipitated a whistleblower complaint expressing concern Trump was seeking foreign interference in the 2020 election by asking Ukraine to investigate Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
“So, you just gave me a report about a I.C. (intelligence community) whistleblower complaint, none of which I’ve seen,” Pompeo had said.
U.S. President Donald Trump insists he did nothing wrong in the phone call. He has been criticizing the impeachment inquiry launched by House Democrats against him as a “coup,” while the heads of several House of Representatives committees accuse Pompeo of blocking their efforts to gather documents and interview witnesses.
The State Department’s inspector general is expected to meet Wednesday with staff from the House and Senate appropriations, oversight, foreign affairs and intelligence committees to discuss documents that lawmakers have requested as they probe the July phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy.
The House intelligence, oversight and foreign affairs committees had asked to hear testimony Wednesday from former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, but that session was postponed until next week. Former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker is expected to speak to the committees on Thursday.
Secretary Pompeo sent a letter Tuesday to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel saying requests for State Department documents and depositions with current and former officials “can be understood only as an attempt to intimidate, bully, and treat improperly” the department’s staff.
He said the requests raise “significant legal and procedural concerns,” and dismissed warnings that not cooperating would amount to obstruction.
‘A fact witness’
Engel, along with Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, responded by pointing to reports that Pompeo was on Trump’s call with Zelenskiy, saying that means he has an “obvious conflict of interest” and “should not be making any decisions regarding witness testimony or document production in order to protect himself or the President.”
They wrote that if it is true Pompeo participated in the call, then he is “now a fact witness in the impeachment inquiry.”
Majority Democrats in the House are pursuing the impeachment inquiry to see whether they want to officially bring charges against Trump under their constitutional authority to seek to remove officials who engage in “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Malaysian singer-songwriter, Yuna fourth album “Rouge” was released this summer. The album has a pop and R&B feel because she wanted to bring back the feel of old records — old vinyl. She is best known for the collaboration with Usher on her breakout single, “Crush”, which peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Adult R&B chart.
Nearly two months after the Indian government changed the status of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, new tensions are brewing in Ladakh, a remote and picturesque part of that territory that borders China.
On Aug. 5, New Delhi stripped Indian-controlled Kashmir of its statehood and divided it into two centrally governed union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
India and Pakistan both claim predominantly Muslim Kashmir, and the territory is divided between them, with insurgents battling Indian forces for three decades. Since the move eight weeks ago by India’s Hindu-led government, it has flooded the region with additional troops that enforced a security crackdown and communication blockade.
Tensions also have existed for years in the Ladakh region in northeastern Kashmir, which is further divided administratively into the Leh district, which is predominantly Buddhist, and the Kargil district, which is mostly Muslim. There also have been occasional border skirmishes between India and China.
On Oct. 31, New Delhi will formally take direct control of Ladakh, which is famous for its sparsely populated and stunning landscapes, Buddhist monks in mountaintop monasteries and elusive snow leopards prowling rugged terrain.
That move is raising fears about the future in both the Buddhist and Muslim communities, although so far the tension has been confined to cultural and political differences, without violence.
When the change in governmental status was announced for Ladakh, there were celebrations by its Buddhist population, which has been demanding separation from Kashmir since shortly after India achieved independence from British rule in 1947.
For decades, Buddhist leaders complained that Muslims controlled funds and jobs allotted by the central government. Those demands gathered momentum in the late 1980s when an insurgency against Indian rule broke out in Kashmir.
But the Buddhists’ joy in August has given way to fears of land grabs, a loss of trade and damage to the fragile ecosystem of the region’s high-altitude deserts.
Buddhist leaders in Leh also are wary of demographic change, as residents from elsewhere in majority-Hindu India seek to put down stakes in the sublime mountain landscape. In both districts, the Indian army maintains dozens of bases along the Pakistan and China frontiers.
“We celebrated for this, true. But we realize that with good things some bad things also come,” said Sonam Dawa, general secretary of Ladakh Buddhist Association, which spearheaded a campaign for the territory to be directly controlled by New Delhi.
He vowed that the community would “not sell even an inch of land to any outsider.”
“We want guarantees that our land, people and businesses are safe. We trust that central government will take measures to protect us on these accounts,” Dawa said.
Their concerns spread beyond political and religious issues. About 370,000 foreign and domestic tourists visited Leh last year. By the end of this year’s peak season in August, however, the region recorded fewer than 200,000 tourists.
Days before the Kashmir reorganization plan was presented in Parliament, tens of thousands of additional troops were deployed to the restive region _ already one of the most militarized in the world _ and authorities ordered tourists, Hindu pilgrims and students to leave.
Tsetan Angchuk, who heads the All Ladakh Tour Operators Association, said its members worry about their future.
“So far, we have had about 45% downfall in tourism. We don’t want direct investment by outsiders in the tourism sector. We should be our own masters,” he said.
The region is also home to world’s highest battlefield: the icy expanse of the Siachen Glacier, where thousands of troops from India and Pakistan are stationed at elevations of up to 6,700 meters (22,000 feet). More soldiers have died there from the harsh weather than combat.
Portions of the Indian-Chinese border also are disputed, with Beijing controlling a part of the territory’s Aksai Chin area. Both countries fought a bitter war in 1962 that spilled into Ladakh. Skirmishes between soldiers from the two countries have occurred as recently as last month.
Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer who runs the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, hopes the Ladakh region can become a model for ecotourism.
“We need to have protection for our people, land and ecology. We need to have safeguards to protect not just Ladakh from outsiders but also from Ladhakis,” he said at his institute outside Leh that is still under construction.
Wangchuk, who is influential among local civil society and policy circles, said his group sent five teams to parts of India that already enjoy protected status to study successful administrative models.
“We’re not alien to the fact that many times these (decisions) are good on paper but disastrous on the ground,” he said. “I’m not afraid of tourism. I’m afraid of lacking management for it.”
The approaching Oct. 31 change in administrative rule from New Delhi is largely unwelcome in Ladakh’s Kargil district, where Muslims want to remain tied to the Kashmir valley. Residents of the area, which is famous for its apricot orchards, initially greeted the news with protests and by shutting down their businesses in August to express their desire to stay linked to the Kashmir valley.
After a few days, the protests ended in the town of Kargil, which has seen unprecedented militarization after India and Pakistan came close to a fourth war when troops from the two nuclear-armed neighbors fought for months along the Kargil Himalayan heights in 1999. India said Pakistani soldiers disguised as Kashmiri rebels had taken over some heights in the region, but Pakistan denied this and said the intruders were local insurgents.
About a dozen people interviewed by The Associated Press said officials had threatened local politicians, religious leaders and activists with being charged under the Public Safety Act that could mean imprisonment for up to two years without trial.
Kargil’s district administrator, Baseer-ul-Haque Chowdhary, insisted there was no coercion involved in ending the demonstrations and that authorities “persuaded the public to return to their businesses.”
Asgar Ali Karbalai, a political and social leader in Kargil, said the population has an “unbreakable cultural, political, religious, geographical and historical relationship” with the Kashmir valley, where many of the region’s 7 million people support a 30-year armed insurgency demanding an independent Kashmir or a merger with Pakistan.
Posters and banners demanding Kashmir’s independence from India dotted several mosques and religious sites where the area’s mainly Shiite Muslims recently commemorated Muharram, marking the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein in the battle of Karbala.
On a recent chilly night at a religious center in the village of Hardaas, where a preacher narrated the tale of the battle, chest-beating worshippers burst into pro-Kashmir slogans and called for an end to India’s crackdown.
“India made the decision against our will. We will rise, and rise we will against this oppression like our leader Imam Hussein,” said apricot farmer Akhoon Mohammed Ali as the crowd dispersed around midnight.
Farmers like Zakir Hussain complained the apricot harvest was rotting because the main market in the Kashmir valley was locked down.
“Our market is Kashmir, not Leh,” he said. “The lockdown is destroying our livelihood.”
Muslims in Kargil say the India’s administrative changes in the region won’t alter any of the territorial disputes with either Pakistan or China.
“Even if they carve out 10 union territories out of our land, it’ll remain part of the Kashmir dispute,” said activist Mohammed Rizwan, pointing to a remote barren mountaintop where a Pakistani military post overlooked the town.
Ukraine’s president said Tuesday that no one explained to him why millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to his country was delayed, shrugging off suggestions that President Donald Trump froze the funding to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is struggling to distance himself from U.S. politics, and to contain the damage to Ukraine and his own reputation from a July phone call between him and Trump that unleashed a congressional impeachment inquiry.
“It is impossible to put pressure on me,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Many people try to influence me,” he said, but “I am the president of independent Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy said that in discussions with Trump, he repeatedly stressed the importance of the U.S. military aid to help Ukraine battle Russian-backed separatists. In the July call, he thanked Trump for his “great support in the area of defense” and said Ukraine was ready to “cooperate for the next steps,” according to a rough transcript released by the White House. Zelenskiy didn’t say Tuesday whether the issue was raised in other discussions or when they took place.
The Pentagon in June announced plans to send $250 million in aid to Ukraine, but its delivery was delayed. A defense official said the Trump administration was analyzing the extent to which Ukrainian was addressing long-standing U.S. concerns about corruption.
The funding was then released in September.
“It wasn’t explained to me” why the money didn’t come through earlier, Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy also said he has never met or spoken with Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has been pushing for Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
Zelenskiy is facing a dilemma over how to handle Trump’s request in the July call for Ukraine to “look into” the Bidens.
If Ukraine opens an investigation into the case, that helps Trump and the Republicans. If it doesn’t, that helps the Democrats. And what Ukraine’s current leadership really wants is continued U.S. support, no matter who wins next year’s U.S. elections.
A former Ukrainian security chief argued Tuesday that the best way to show that Ukraine is serious about fighting endemic, crippling corruption is to open new investigations into Burisma.
“The whole world is talking about Ukraine and the whole world wants to know what happened” at Burisma, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko told The Associated Press.
Nalyvaichenko, a parliament member who twice headed Ukraine’s National Security Service, or SBU, said he will initiate a parliamentary inquiry into Burisma.
He insisted he is not trying to do Trump’s bidding. “We have no way to know whether any crimes were committed if we don’t lead a comprehensive, transparent investigation inside Ukraine,” he said.
A previous probe was closed in 2016.
A strike by the United Auto Workers union has caused a parts shortage, forcing General Motors to shut down its pickup truck and transmission factories in Silao, Mexico.
Spokesman Dan Flores confirmed that production at the factories ended Tuesday morning, affecting 6,000 workers.
The plant shutdown means that GM has lost any new supplies of its light-duty Chevrolet Silverado, the company’s top-selling U.S. vehicle. Earlier GM had to close a Mexican engine plant and an assembly plant in Canada due to the strike.
The strike by over 49,000 union workers is now in its third week, and both sides are feeling the impact. Workers are having to get by on $250 per week in strike pay instead of their normal base pay of about $1,200 per week.
The 16-day strike has cost GM just over $1 billion, JP Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman estimated Tuesday in a note to investors.
The losses are mounting each week the strike continues, costing GM about $480 million in the first week and another $575 million in the second, Brinkman wrote. The company is losing $82 million per day.
GM books revenue from building vehicles as soon as they change hands from the factory to the company that ships them to dealers. So revenue has been counted already for nearly all vehicles that are in dealer hands. Many dealers stocked up before the strike and report having plenty of inventory.
Brinkman wrote that GM could recover some of its lost profits by increasing production in the fourth quarter once the strike comes to an end. But the company likely will be limited to add production of vehicles that already are in high demand or where new models are being launched, such as GM’s heavy-duty Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra pickup trucks, Brinkman wrote.
GM’s pickup truck and large SUV plants already were working six or seven days per week to meet demand before the strike, so increasing production will be difficult.
Melania Trump will promote U.S. national parks and her youth initiative later this week in Wyoming.
The White House says the first lady will visit national parks and landmarks Thursday and spread the child well-being message that’s a big component of her year-old “Be Best” initiative.
Last month, Mrs. Trump and fourth-grade students from the District of Columbia participated in the ceremonial reopening of the Washington Monument. She helped hand out National Park Service passes that grant fourth-graders free access to hundreds of national parks, lands and waters.
The White House says Thursday’s visit will be about encouraging fourth-graders to get a pass from the National Park Service so they can spend more time outdoors.
Wyoming is home to Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.
Ugandan’s pop star and presidential hopeful Bobi Wine has denounced the government’s banning of civilian use of red berets, a symbol of his “People Power” movement that he hopes to use to oust longtime President Yoweri Museveni.
The government this month gazetted the red beret and other pieces of military wear as “property of the state.” It warned people who wear or sell them that they would be prosecuted under military law, which can lead to a life sentence.
“This beret ban is a sham. It is a blatant attempt to suffocate a successful threat to the autocratic status quo,” Wine, 37, said in a statement.
“But People Power is more than a red beret, we are bigger than our symbol. We are a booming political movement fighting for the future of Uganda and we will continue our struggle for democracy,” the statement said.
Since he became a legislator in 2017, Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has rattled Ugandan authorities who see him as a formidable threat to end Museveni’s more than three decades in power.
Wine has amassed a large support base, especially among young Ugandans who have been wooed by his bold criticism of Museveni, sometimes delivered in his lyrics.
Authorities have responded by clamping down on his supporters, jailing some. Wine’s rallies have been broken up with tear gas and live rounds.
Last year he was beaten as he campaigned in a parliamentary by-election and had to seek treatment in the United States.
Uganda’s next presidential elections are due to be held early 2021. Museveni, president since 1986, is widely expected to stand. While Museveni has not officially declared his intention to run for re-election, top organs of his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party have endorsed him as their flagbearer.
U.S. President Donald Trump pushed Australia’s prime minister to help discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, the New York Times is reporting.
The Times reported Monday that during a recent telephone call, Trump asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help U.S. Attorney General William Barr collect information for a Justice Department probe into Mueller’s investigation.
The paper said its sources were two U.S. officials with knowledge of the call.
The Times also reported that the White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to only a small group of officials, a move that is similar to the handling of Trump’s July phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
That call sparked a whistleblower complaint that led House Democrats to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump. The whistleblower alleges that Trump sought Zelensky’s help in digging up incriminating information about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that would hurt Biden’s prospects of winning the Democratic presidential nomination.
The White House last week released a rough transcript of the call.
The Times said that during his recent call with Morrison, Trump wanted the Australian government to investigate that country’s role in the origins of the Mueller probe. The paper said the FBI’s investigations into Russian interference began as a result of information given to the FBI by Australian officials.
Barr recently began a review of the Russian investigation.
Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation found that the Trump campaign did not conspire with Russia to affect the outcome of the race. However, he reached no conclusion on whether Trump should be charged with obstruction of justice for instances in which he may have tried to sidetrack Mueller’s probe.
Police in China used drones to track down a fugitive human trafficker who had been on the lam for 17 years.
Song Jiang, 63, escaped from a prison camp in 2002 and had successfully evaded capture since then.
Police in Yongshan, in southwestern Yunnan province, received a tip on their WeChat social media page which led them to the mountains near Song’s hometown.
After unsuccessfully searching the rough terrain, police decided to deploy drones in the hunt.
During the aerial search, drones spotted a blue metal roof on the side of a steep cliff. A closer look revealed trash and proof of a human presence.
A team of officers climbed up to find “an unkempt old man” living in a small cave. They said Song had trouble communicating after having lived alone for so long.
He used plastic bottles to fetch water from a nearby river and cooked over small open fires, police said.
Song was returned to jail to complete his sentence for trafficking women and children.
Four years after battling life-threatening cancer in his liver and brain, and four months after falling and breaking his hip, requiring surgery and weeks of intense physical therapy, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter took the stage September 18, unassisted, here for the Annual Jimmy Carter Emory University Town Hall, which he’s participated in, uninterrupted, for 38 years.
Standing without assistance for more than 30 minutes, addressing topics ranging from current polarized U.S. politics to his favorite animal, Carter, a distinguished professor at Emory, showed no signs of fatigue or pain as he enthusiastically answered question after question from those who gathered in the cavernous campus gymnasium by the thousands to hear him speak.
“Before this I really didn’t know much about President Carter,” freshman Stephanie Teng said. “I feel so fortunate to be here. I know that many students won’t have this opportunity in their lifetime, and this is a uniquely Emory thing, and something I’ll remember the rest of my life.”
“I think it’s a problem when we overly lionize political figures, but I do have a great deal of respect for Jimmy Carter,” another freshman, Gian-Luigi Zaninelli, said.
“I’ve heard a great many conservatives being credibly critical of Jimmy Carter and basically view him as an ineffectual president,” he said. However, Zaninelli said that comes from Carter’s presidential term, from 1977 to 1981.
“Because of the good works he’s been doing over the course of the last 30 or more years, we have a high opinion of him as a human being,” Zaninelli said. “What is indisputable is that Jimmy Carter cares about other people and devotes himself to service, and when he did serve as a president, regardless of the success of his policies, he was doing so as a servant leader and not someone who was intending to enrich himself.”
“I would say I still adhere to the advice my school principal gave me, ‘You must accommodate to changing times – and these are really changing times – but cling to principles that never do change,’” Carter told VOA in an exclusive interview at the Atlanta-based Carter Center.
WATCH: VOA interview with President Carter
President Jimmy Carter Interview September 2019 video player.
“So I have faith in those principles, like telling the truth, and helping other people.”
Carter this year became the oldest living former president in U.S. history, surpassing George H.W. Bush for the record, and October 1 becomes the first former occupant of the White House to reach 95.
He reaches the milestone while continuing to engage with new and younger audiences born years after his presidency, and to work on the sorts of projects that have characterized his post-presidency life.
He is still involved in the Carter Center, which he leads with Rosalynn, his wife of 73 years, and which “wages peace, fights disease, and builds hope” around the world through programs including election monitoring, the elimination of river blindness, and the eradication of Guinea worm disease, among others, he told VOA.
“We still have in the neighborhood of 25 cases of Guinea worm, but we started out with three and a half million,” Carter said, with most of those cases in Africa.
During an August 2015 press conference here, when Carter told the world he was battling cancer that had spread to his brain, he said his one key hope was to witness the eradication of Guinea worm disease in his lifetime.
There have been setbacks in the Guinea worm fight, including new cases of transmission between dogs, which can pass the worm to humans through water sources, that could ultimately jeopardize his hopes.
“We think we’ve prevented maybe 80 million people from having Guinea worm who may have had it otherwise,” Carter said, “So we’ve made very good progress but we still have a little ways to go.”
While staff and volunteers around the world continue to work on the various peace and health initiatives that President and Mrs. Carter have championed since establishing the center in 1986, the former peanut farmer continues to participate in the annual weeklong Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity, a global nonprofit housing organization, building homes for those who need them most. This year’s event is in Nashville, Tennessee, occurring soon after Carter’s birthday.
While there are no further signs of cancer and Carter says he is in relatively good health, he concedes age may finally be catching up with him.
“I still feel just about as active as I ever was, but my overseas movements are restrained because of age and health. I used to travel to Africa three or four times a year, and always to China and so forth, so I’ve cut back on my foreign travel,” he said.
Nevertheless, Carter remains an admired figure.
“President Carter is a kind of secular saint in America today,” Joe Crespino, the Jimmy Carter professor of history and chair of the history department at Emory University, said. He said Carter has set a high standard for what is expected of U.S. presidents once they leave office.
“His longevity, his commitment to doing as much good as he can do on the time he had left on earth is really a remarkable model, not just for his fellow Americans but for people around the globe,” he said.
Liv first met Bill in 2016 when she was a college student and $5,000 in debt from student loans.
Making rent was next to impossible, she said, but Bill helped her manage her expenses and finances better. They saw each other a few times a week, and soon Bill was paying Liv’s tuition and rent. He sent her on exotic trips to Europe and Thailand. They moved in together.
“He taught me how to do my taxes. He taught me how to get my own car insurance. He helped me pay back student loans,” Liv said. “He just taught me so much and he didn’t have to do any of it.
“I actually grew real feelings for him.”
“Actually” because Liv was 24 and Bill was 70 when they connected on SeekingArrangement, an online sugar-dating site that promotes itself as offering “upfront and honest arrangements with someone who will cater to your needs.”
Typically, the arrangements are between young women (sugar babies) and older men (sugar daddies) with money. Sugar babies seek financial assistance in return for company. Most of the sources VOA Student Union interviewed said financial arrangements often, but not always, include sex in return.
“Join the more than 2.7 million students in the United States who have turned to SeekingArrangement and Sugar Daddies to avoid student debt and secure a better future,” according to their website. VOA Student Union made several attempts for comment from SeekingArrangement.
Liv said she was seeking financial support for student debt and other expenses, and Bill was happy to help.
“On that second date, he gave me $2,000…which paid for about four or five months of campus housing,” she said.
Bill loved to treat Liv, she said, and sent her on international vacations. When they had been dating for nine months, Bill sent Liv on a vacation to Thailand. While there, she got a call that Bill had cancer that had metastasized. After she flew home, she slept by his hospital bedside almost every night. A month later, he died.
Bill bequeathed Liv more than $60,000 in an investment fund.
“The money is definitely a big help for me. It helped me move out of the state, helped me get my own place, helped me get a new car,” she said.
Exchanging companionship for financial support is not novel, but the internet has allowed people to connect more easily. That, combined with record-high tuition debt for many students — $37,000 on average or $1.6 trillion combined nationwide — has some students looking for alternative methods of debt relief. Some, like Liv, become sugar babies.
She’s not alone. At Georgia State University in Atlanta — which registered the most sugar babies of all U.S. colleges, according to SeekingArrangement — more than 1,300 students signed up in 2018. Hundreds of students have signed up at schools in Florida, Alabama, New Jersey, California, Texas and Missouri.
Is it all about sex?
Some women, like Liv, are well compensated in a mutual relationship.
“Sometimes it’s not about sex,” Samantha, a college senior, explained. “Some men are just lonely. Some of them really are looking for someone to hang out with.”
But for others like Helene, the sugar daddies were domineering and violent.
“It’s very rare for sugar babies to find a man that is not looking for sex,” Helene said. When one partner pays for everything, many men feel they are entitled to dominate the relationship.
“I knew that the only way for me to make money was to either sell drugs or get a sugar daddy,” she said.
A 20-year-old international student in the United States, her visa does not allow her to work in the U.S. She says she doesn’t want to burden her family financially. Through SeekingArrangement, she met a 27-year-old man who at first seemed normal, but then became aggressive.
He asked Helene to do things outside their agreement. He told her he would send her $1,000 immediately to have sex with him.
“I was stupid and scared, so I did what I had to do,” Helene said.
When she asked for payment, he taunted her and refused. As she tried to leave, he “took his T-shirt off, wrapped it around my head and tangled it around my neck. … I really thought he was going to keep me hostage.”
Another man Helene met ignored sexual consent. After three months together, he became forceful and “stopped caring about what I thought was uncomfortable. … He would get rougher and more violent with me as if he liked it when I told him to stop.”
Sugar daddies often expect babies to adopt submissive roles in exchange for the money and gifts they receive.
“Some guys, they give you money and they think they have access to you 24/7, like you can never tell them no,” said Liv, who returned to sugaring after Bill died.
Helene said her experiences “kind of ruined my relationship to sex. … I didn’t like to be touched … or hugged from behind … because of what my sugar daddies did to me.”
Still, she is not ready to abandon sugaring, she said.
“It hasn’t changed my relationship to the sugar baby/sugar daddy world, because I need the money,” she said.
Men, too
Men are sugar babies, too. Antonio found his first sugar daddy when he was 18.
“I tried to hang out where I knew men with money hung out, because I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. Like Liv and Helene, he needed money for college. His first sugar daddy paid Antonio’s tuition and gave him money for school books and shopping sprees.
Antonio said he misses the perks of sugar dating.
“I work two jobs now … I want to be able to afford the things I once had. I got accustomed to that lifestyle,” he added.
Samantha said she just wanted exciting experiences with a mature partner. “I don’t really have any real need for money. [It’s] not something that interests me.”
She said she preferred the no-strings-attached nature of sugar dating. “[I wanted] something that wouldn’t be too normal, something that would be more casual … something that wouldn’t get boring.”
Social stigma
Many people see sugar dating as a form of prostitution, or sex work, which is defined as a consensual sexual encounter between two or more adults in exchange for payment. The legal status of sex work is debated all over the world. In the United States, public opinion on sex work appears to favor its criminalization.
Sweta Patel, a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C., said that while there are similarities between sex work and sugar dating, the difference in a sugar relationship is sex and money may be one part of the relationship, but not all.
Patel makes another distinction between sugar babies and sex workers.
“The sugar-daddy model is two consenting adults, while often in sex work, that is not always the case,” she said.
Patel said undercover law enforcement monitors websites like SeekingArrangement for relationships that cross into sex work.
“I’m so naive, so I’ve never thought about that,” Helene said.
Because of sex-trafficking and recently passed legislation to control it, such as the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), many apps like SeekingArrangement closely monitor messaging. Last year, the popular online classified site Craigslist stopped offering personal ads because they were being used by sex traffickers.
Free to make choices
Ultimately, say some sugar babies, they are adults engaging in adult relationships on their own terms.
“So many so-called romantic relationships are based on how much money or status or how good looking someone is,” Liv said. “How is that more honest?”
“You give your girlfriends and wives money and pay their bills. The one difference here is the age,” she said. “On the other hand, I would say this lifestyle is not for everyone, and not for everyone to approve of or understand. But it works for us and that’s all that matters.”
Helene says the economics are the last word for her.
“Most people think that sugar babies are too lazy to work and make money or (are) gold-diggers, but that’s not always the case,” Helene said. “If I wasn’t in this situation that I’m in, I would never do this. I don’t like giving my body to strangers I don’t know, but if that’s the way for me to get an income, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz traded blame Sunday over the failure so far of efforts to reach a unity government deal following deadlocked elections.
A new round of negotiations between Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud and Gantz’s centrist Blue and White broke down Sunday and the two sides appeared far from reaching a compromise.
Likud said Netanyahu would make a “last effort” to reach a deal before informing President Reuven Rivlin he is unable to form a government.
That would leave Rivlin to decide whether to ask Gantz to try to do so or call on parliament to agree on a candidate for prime minister by a vote of at least 61 out of 120 members.
Netanyahu “will make a last effort to realize the possibility of forming a government at this stage, before returning the mandate to the president,” Likud said in a statement.
It called the latest round of negotiations a “big disappointment.”
Blue and White accused Likud of “throwing around slogans with the sole aim of generating support in preparation for dragging Israel into another round of elections at the behest of Netanyahu.”
This month’s poll was the second this year, after Netanyahu failed to form a coalition following April polls.
Israel marks the two-day Rosh Hashanah holiday beginning Sunday night and serious negotiations are not expected during that time.
Likud wants to negotiate on the basis of a compromise set out by Rivlin to form a unity government, which takes into account the possibility of Netanyahu being indicted for corruption in the weeks ahead.
The proposal could see Netanyahu remain prime minister for now, but step aside if indicted.
Gantz would step in as acting premier under such a scenario.
Netanyahu also says he will not abandon the smaller right-wing and religious parties supporting him in parliament, giving him a total of 55 seats backing him for prime minister.
Blue and White says Gantz must be prime minister first under any rotation arrangement, since it finished with the most seats in September 17 elections.
Blue and White won 33 seats, just ahead of Likud’s 32, but neither have a clear path to a majority coalition.
Gantz has 54 parliament members backing him for prime minister, but 10 are from Arab parties who say they will not serve in the ex-military chief’s government.
Rivlin tasked Netanyahu with trying to form a government Wednesday and he has 28 days to do so, with a two-week extension possible.
The deadlocked vote has threatened Netanyahu’s reign as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
If another election is called due to the standoff, it would be Israel’s third in a year.
China says its top trade negotiator will lead an upcoming 13th round of talks aimed at resolving a trade war with the United States.
Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said Sunday that Vice Premier Liu He would travel to Washington for the talks sometime after China’s National Day holiday, which ends Oct. 7.
Wang repeated the Chinese position that the two sides should find a solution on the basis of mutual respect and benefit.
The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on Chinese imports in a bid to win concessions from China, which has responded with tit-for-tat tariffs. The escalating dispute between the world’s two largest economies has depressed stock prices and poses a threat to the global economy.
A U.N. Human Rights Expert warns a host of natural and man-made disasters is impeding Somalia’s efforts to stabilize the country and improve conditions for its population. The U.N. human rights council examined the expert’s report this past week.
This is the independent expert’s last report to the Council before his mandate expires.
Bahame Nyanduga said a number of changes have taken place in Somalia over the past six years, many for the better. He said there has been considerable progress in the security, political, socio-economic and human rights situation in the country.
Unfortunately, he said during that period, the conflict with the militant al-Shabab group has continued. He said the clampdown on freedom of expression and other rights, and the failure to hold perpetrators of crimes accountable have continued.
“Somalia has suffered grave human rights violations, in particular the endemic loss of lives due to improvised terrorist bombs by al-Shabab, inter clan violence, and the absence of the rule of law. Violations of the rights of women, through conflict related gender-based violence, and other sexual offenses such as rape…Violations of children’s rights, including abduction and forced recruitment by al-Shabab,” he said.
Besides the man-made disasters, Nyanduga notes Somalia has had to contend with climatic and natural disasters, which have displaced 2.6 million people. He said climate change has exacerbated the competition for pastures and water, which are critical for pastoralism in Somalia.
“Access to water is a fundamental human right. Addressing the problem of water scarcity will contribute significantly to the peace and the reconciliation among clans, because it has been identified as one of the problems creating inter clan conflicts,” said Nyanduga.
Tanzanian human rights attorney, Nyanduga urges the International community to continue its assistance to Somalia. He says helping the government strengthen its institutions will boost the probability of the country one day achieving the peace, security and stability it needs and deserves.
Syria’s top diplomat on Saturday demanded the immediate withdrawal of American and Turkish forces from the country and said his government reserves the right to defend its territory in any way necessary if they remain.
Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem’s remarks to the United Nations General Assembly were made as Turkey and the United States press ahead with a deal to create a safe zone along Syria’s border with Turkey.
On the political front, he reaffirmed the government’s support for the recently agreed committee to draft a new constitution for the country. As has been the government’s tone since the start of the 2011 uprising in Syria, the foreign minister took a hard line, stressing there must be no interference from any country or timeline imposed on the process.
Al-Moallem’s speech highlighted the enormous challenges to achieve reconciliation in Syria, where over 400,000 people have been killed during the conflict and millions more have fled.
The more than eight-year conflict has also drawn numerous foreign militaries and thousands of foreign fighters to Syria, many to support the now-defeated Islamic State extremist group and others still there backing the opposition and battling government forces.
“The United States and Turkey maintain an illegal military presence in northern Syria,” al-Moallem said. “Any foreign forces operating in our territories without our authorization are occupying forces and should withdraw immediately.”
If they refuse, he said, “we have the right to take any and all countermeasures authorized under international law.”
There are around 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria on a mission to combat Islamic State militants. The United States also backs and supports Kurdish groups in the northeast that are opposed to the Syrian government and have fought against Sunni extremist groups.
U.S. President Donald Trump had said he wants to bring the troops home, but military officials have advocated a phased approach.
Al-Moallem described Turkey and the United States as “arrogant to the point of holding discussions and reaching agreements on the creation of a so-called `safe zone’ inside Syria” as if it was on their own soil. He said any agreement without the consent of the Syrian government is rejected.
The deal between the U.S. and Turkey keeps U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters, considered terrorists by Turkey, away from Syria’s northeastern border with Turkey. It involves an area five to 14 kilometers deep (three to eight miles), as well as the removal of heavy weapons from a 20-kilometer-deep zone (12 miles). The length of the zone has not yet been agreed to by both parties but will likely stretch hundreds of kilometers.
Most of Syria is now under the control of the Syrian government, which is backed by Russia and Iran. However, Syrian rebels and extremists still hold Idlib in the northwest, and U.S-backed Kurdish groups hold parts of the oil-rich northeast.
The Syrian government maintains that Idlib remains a hotbed for “terrorists” and al-Moallem vowed that its “war against terrorism” will continue “until rooting out the last remaining terrorist.”
In a breakthrough on the political front, earlier this week U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced the formation of the committee that would draft Syria’s new constitution, which he said could be an important step toward ending the war.
The U.N. chief announced Saturday that the committee will meet for the first time in Geneva on Oct. 30. Its rules state that a new constitution will be followed by “free and fair elections under United Nations supervision.”
The committee was authorized at a Russian-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, but it took nearly 20 months for the sides to agree on the 150 members — particularly on a 50-member civil society of experts, independents, tribal leaders and women to serve alongside 50 members from the government and 50 members from the opposition. The U.N. was authorized to put together the civil society list but the choices faced objections, mainly from the Syrian government.
Under the newly announced terms, the “Syrian-led and Syrian-owned” committee, with U.N. envoy Geir Pedersen as facilitator, will amend the current 2012 constitution or draft a new one.
Al-Moallem stressed that the committee will operate without preconditions, its recommendations must be made independently, and “no deadlines or timetables must be imposed on the committee.”
On another long-simmering dispute, al-Moallem accused Israel of starting “another phase of escalation” through its repeated attacks on Syrian territory and the territory of other neighboring countries.
He stressed that “it is a delusion” to think that the Syrian conflict would force the government to forfeit its “inalienable right” to recover the Golan Heights which Israel captured during the June 1967 war. The annexation is not recognized under international law.
The Trump administration in March signed a proclamation recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, reversing more than a half-century of U.S. policy in the Middle East. He also moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in recognition of Israel’s claims of the city as its capital.
“It is a delusion,” al-Moallem stressed, “to think that the decisions of the U.S. administration on the sovereignty over the Golan would alter historical and geographical facts or the provisions of international law.”
“The Golan has been and will forever be part of Syria,” he said.
The British-flagged oil tanker that was seized by Iran in July has docked in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates early Saturday, according to ship-tracking websites and pool reporters.
The Stena Impero, which had been held off Bandar Abbas for more than two months, started moving out of the Iranian port Friday and reached the coast off Dubai early Saturday.
The arrival was reported on several ship-tracking websites.
Erik Hanell, CEO of the company that owns the vessel, Stena Bulk, told the media earlier that the tanker’s crew are “safe and in high spirits” following their release from Iran.
He added that arrangements have been made for them to return to their families.
“The crew will have a period of time to be with their families following 10 weeks of detainment on the vessel. Full support will be offered to the crew and families in the coming weeks to assist with their recovery,” he said.
The company did not release the names of the crew.
Following the release of the vessel, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said his country would cooperate with its overseas partners to protect shipping and uphold international laws.
“The Stena Impero was unlawfully seized by Iran. It is part of a pattern of attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation. We are working with our international partners to protect shipping and uphold the international rule of law,” Raab said.
Iranian authorities accused the Stena Impero and its crew of failing to observe international maritime law at the time of its seizure on July 19, two weeks after British forces near Gibraltar captured an Iranian oil tanker that has since been released and renamed the Adrian Darya 1.
The operator and owner of the 183-meter-long, 50,000-deadweight-ton Stena Impero vehemently denied Tehran’s accusations.
An Iranian government spokesman said Monday that, while the vessel was then free to go, he did not know the exact timing of when it would set sail.
There were 23 crew members of Indian, Russian, Latvian, and Filipino nationalities aboard the Stena Impero when it was seized in the Strait of Hormuz on July 19.
Seven of them were released in early September, while the others reportedly remained aboard the ship off Bandar Abbas.
The Gibraltar and Hormuz seizures came with tensions already ratcheted up by confrontations between Western and Iranian naval and commercial ships in the strategic Gulf region that is a conduit for around one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies.
U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a naval escort campaign to defend commercial shipping interests in the Gulf against harassment and illegal interference, with support from Australia, Britain, and other Western and Gulf states.