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Police and protesters are gearing up for a fight in Hawaii as construction is set to begin on a massive telescope on Mauna Kea, the islands’ highest peak, considered sacred by some native Hawaiians.

State officials said the road to the top of Mauna Kea mountain on the Big Island will be closed starting Monday as equipment is delivered to the construction site.

Scientists chose Mauna Kea in 2009 after a five-year, worldwide search for the ideal site for the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere. Construction was supposed to begin in 2014 but was halted by protests.

Opponents of the $1.4 billion telescope will desecrate sacred land. According to the University of Hawaii, ancient Hawaiians considered the location kapu, or forbidden. Only the highest-ranking chiefs and priests were allowed to make the long trek to Mauna Kea’s summit above the clouds.

Supporters of telescope say it will not only make important scientific discoveries but bring educational and economic opportunities to Hawaii.

The company behind the telescope is made up of a group of universities in California and Canada, with partners from China, India and Japan.  

Astronomers hope the telescope will help them look back 13 billion years to the time just after the Big Bang and answer fundamental questions about the universe.

It is not clear what the opponents of the project have planned for Monday but Gov. David Ige said unarmed National Guard units will be on hand to help enforce road closures and transport workers and supplies.

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India aborted the launch Monday of a spacecraft intended to land on the far side of the moon less than an hour before liftoff.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission was called off when a “technical snag” was observed in the 640-ton, 14-story rocket launcher, Indian Space Research Organization spokesman B.R. Guruprasad said.

The countdown abruptly stopped at T-56 minutes, 24 seconds, and Guruprasad said that the agency would announce a revised launch date soon.

Chandrayaan, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, is designed for a soft landing on the lunar south pole and to send a rover to explore water deposits confirmed by a previous Indian space mission.

With nuclear-armed India poised to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, the ardently nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is eager to show off the country’s prowess in security and technology. If India did manage the soft landing, it would be only the fourth to do so after the U.S., Russia and China.

Dr. K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, said at a news conference last week that the estimated $140 million Chandrayaan-2 mission was the nation’s “most prestigious” to date, in part because of the technical complexities of soft landing on the lunar surface, an event he described as “15 terrifying minutes.”

After countdown commenced Sunday, Sivan visited two Hindu shrines to pray for the mission’s success.

Criticized program pays off

Practically since its inception in 1962, India’s space program has been criticized as inappropriate for an overpopulated, developing nation.

But decades of space research have allowed India to develop satellite communications and remote sensing technologies that are helping solve everyday problems at home, from forecasting fish migration to predicting storms and floods.

With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission this month, the world’s biggest space agencies are returning their gaze to the moon, seen as ideal testing grounds for technologies required for deep space exploration, and, with the confirmed discovery of water, as a possible pit stop along the way.

“The moon is sort of our backyard for training to go to Mars,” said Adam Steltzner, NASA’s chief engineer responsible for its 2020 mission to Mars.

Seeking water on the moon

Because of repeated delays, India missed the chance to achieve the first soft landing near the lunar south pole. China’s Chang’e 4 mission landed a lander and rover there last January.

India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission orbited the moon in 2008 and helped confirm the presence of water. The Indian Space Research Organization wants its new mission’s rover to further probe the far side of the moon, where scientists believe a basin contains water-ice that could help humans do more than plant flags on future manned missions.

The U.S. is working to send a manned spacecraft to the moon’s south pole by 2024.

Modi has set a deadline of 2022 for India’s first manned spaceflight.

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The power of song can heal the hearts and bring people together.  A girls’ chorus named Pihcintu sings to do just that.  Most members are from war-torn countries and refugee camps around the world. Together they sing as one and spread a message of hope. VOA’s June Soh caught up with the group in Washington and has this story narrated by Carol Pearson 
 

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At a time when podcasts, e-books and smartphones are blossoming, old-fashioned books are still popular in the United States. That is why tiny free libraries, where people exchange books, are sprouting up across the nation to help book lovers. For VOA, Iryna Matviichuk visited some exchanges in the Washington area. Anna Rice narrates our story.
 

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Tall buildings made of wood are beginning to pop up around the world, from the United States and Canada to Norway and soon England. Builders say wood may well be the construction material of the future. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
 

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A team of researchers across three universities is working on a cell-killing machine invisible to the naked eye.

“We want to be bacteria’s worst nightmare,” said James Tour, T.T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry at Rice University in Houston. He is also a professor of materials science and nanoengineering, and computer science.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose one of the biggest threats to global health, according to the World Health Organization. Researchers at Rice University, Durham University in Britain and North Carolina State University may have discovered a way to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Harmful Bacteria’s Worst Nightmare May Be a Microscopic Drill video player.

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They’re experimenting with tiny, manmade nanomachines that can drill into a cell, killing it. The machines are single molecule motors that can spin at about 3 million rotations a second when a blue light shines on them. As they spin, they drill into the cell. Harmful bacteria cannot mutate to overcome this type of weapon, Tour said.

“We may have found something that the cell could never build a resistance to,” he added.

The nanomachines are so small that about 50,0000 of them can fit across the diameter of a human hair. In comparison, only about 50 cells can take up that amount of space.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are not the only enemies this weapon can fight.

Cancer killer

The nanomachines can drill into cancer cells, causing the cells’ nucleus to disintegrate into fragments.

“We’ve tried four different types, and every cancer cell that it touches is toast,” said Tour, whose team tested the nanomachines on a couple strains of human breast cancer cells, cancerous skin cells and pancreatic cancer cells.

The way it works is that a peptide, also a molecule that consists of amino acids, is added to the nanomotor. That peptide recognizes specific cells and binds the nanomachine to that cell so that only cancer cells, not healthy cells, are targeted. A blue light activates the machine.

“Generally, it’s not just one nanomachine, it’s 50, and each cell is going to get 50 holes drilled in it generally,” Tour said.

The nanomachines can fight cancerous cells in the mouth, upper and lower gastrointestinal tracts and bladder “wherever you can get a scope in, a light, apply it right there, and use the light” to activate the motors, Tour said.

It would only take a few minutes to kill cancerous cells with nanomachines, in contrast to days or longer using radiation or chemotherapy, Tour said.

Sculpt away fat

In another application, nanomachines could be used to sculpt away fat cells when applied onto the skin through a gel.

“You just take a bright light and just pass it over and these start attacking the adipocytes, which are the fat cells and blow those open,” Tour said.

Next steps

Researchers have only worked with nanomachines in a lab, so using this method in a clinical setting is still some time off. Later this year, researchers will start testing nanomachines on staphylococcus bacteria skin infections on live rodents.

One challenge scientists will have to overcome as nanomachine research progresses is how to get the blue light deep into the body if the motors are to fight bacteria or tumor cells that are well below the skin’s surface.

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A report submitted to the UN human rights council this week accuses Nicaragua of continuing to repress, threaten and harass human rights defenders and other opponents one year after the government’s violent crackdown on nationwide demonstrations.

More than 300 people were killed, 2000 injured, and hundreds arbitrarily arrested during last year’s violent repression of peaceful nationwide protests.  More than 70,000 people also fled into exile to escape the heavy-hand of the Nicaraguan government.  

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, says peaceful protests and dissent continue to be repressed in Nicaragua.   She says more than 440 imprisoned protestors have been released, but more than 80 remain in custody under severe conditions.

“Our Office has received allegations that some of them were subjected to torture or ill-treatment by correction officers. . . . We are deeply concerned that human rights defenders and community leaders continue to be targets of attacks, of threats, harassment and constant surveillance,” Gilmore said.

Nicaragua Says Released all Considered Political Prisoners

President Daniel Ortega’s government said in a statement that it has complied with a 90-day period for releasing such prisoners as part of negotiations this spring, a period that expired Tuesday

Gilmore says people are deprived of the right to freedom of expression, including freedom of the media.  She says journalists and other media workers are threatened, harassed and censored.  She notes two prominent journalists were detained for more than five months under terrorism charges.

She urges the government of President Daniel Ortega to engage in a genuine and meaningful dialogue to address people’s legitimate demands for justice and reparation.

Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Carlos Ernesto Morales Davila dismisses the charges as ill-founded.  He says human rights defenders are not persecuted.  They can freely promote and defend human rights.  However, he accuses some of these groups of perverting their cause and engaging in destructive activities.

He says they are trying to destroy the constitutional order of the country and to undermine the work of the government to restore peace and reconciliation.

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New Zealand has held its first public fire-arms collection event in Christchurch Saturday as part of the government’s response to the city’s mosque shootings in March.  Ownership of the types of high-powered weapons used in the attacks that killed 51 people has been restricted.

There were long lines at a racecourse in Christchurch as gun-owners waited to hand in weapons that are now illegal.  It is the first of more than 250 buy-back events that will be held across New Zealand.  The police expect that tens of thousands of guns will be surrendered, although the exact number is unknown.

Semi-automatic weapons were outlawed following attacks on two mosques in Christchurch that left 51 people dead.  The government said the law would remove the most dangerous guns from the community.

New Zealand Announces Assault Weapons Ban in Wake of Christchurch Mass Shootings

Nearly one week after 50 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand were gunned down, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed an immediate ban on all military-style semi-automatic and automatic assault rifles.

The ban, which Prime Minister Ardern announced Thursday in Wellington, includes high-capacity magazines, which can hold multiple rounds of ammunition, and accessories that can convert ordinary rifles into fast-acting assault rifles.

Chris Cahill, from the New Zealand Police Association, which represents officers, believes the buy-back scheme will go smoothly. 

“We know the vast majority of firearms owners are law-abiding citizens,” said Cahill. “While disappointed they have to lose these sorts of firearms they understand why and they want to abide by the law.”

More than $130 million has been set aside to compensate owners of semi-automatic weapons.  The amount each individual will receive will depend on the value and condition of their guns.

But some owners are complaining that the compensation is inadequate.  There are concerns, too, that farming communities, which rely on firearms for hunting and pest control, will suffer because of the ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons.

Judicial Probe Opens Into Christchurch Mosque Shootings

A judicial inquiry into whether New Zealand’s police and intelligence services could have prevented the Christchurch mosque attacks in which 51 worshippers died began taking evidence on Monday.

The royal commission — the most powerful judicial probe available under New Zealand law — will examine events leading up to the March 15 attack in which a lone gunman opened fire on two mosques in a mass shooting that shocked the world.

“This is a critical part of our ongoing response to the attack — the commission’s findings will help to ensure such an attack never happens here again,” Prime

Nicole McKee is a spokesperson for New Zealand’s Council of Licensed Firearms Owners.

“We are a rural and farming community here at the bottom of the world and we use firearms as a tool and there is quite a few of us that hunt as well to put food on the table,” said McKee.

New Zealand authorities hope the scheme will be as successful as one in Australia that was implemented after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 on the island of Tasmania, where a lone gunman murdered 35 people. It prompted more than 700,000 weapons to be surrendered.

The Australian man accused of the Christchurch shootings has denied 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and a terrorism charge.  He is expected to go on trial next year.

The gun collection event in Christchurch will continue Sunday.

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Islamic State media operatives appear to have regrouped, at least in part, intent on showing the world that the terror organization is living up to its motto of “remaining and expanding” despite its lack of a physical caliphate.

For almost a month, the group’s core media channels have been pumping out a series of videos showing fighters pledging allegiance, or renewing their pledges, to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  

Intelligence officials and analysts say, so far, the group, also known as ISIS or by its Arabic acronym, Daesh, has produced and disseminated eight of these videos under the title, “The Best Outcome is for the Pious.”
 
The video series “aims at proving that ISIS has not been defeated and that its militants in several parts of the world remain loyal to their leaders,” a U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA.

IS media operatives issued the most recent of the videos this past Wednesday, the first-ever video from the terror group’s Turkish province.

“If you think that by weakening the Islamic State and its soldiers, that they will divert from their path or leave their jihad, you have great delusions,” said a fighter, identified as Abu Qatada al-Turki, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Turki further threatened Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling him an “arrogant tyrant.”

“Do not think that the swords of the soldiers of the Caliphate are far from you or from those who stand on your side,” he warned.

Previous videos highlighted fighters from IS provinces in West Africa, Sinai, East Asia (Philippines), the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Libya and Azerbaijan, another first.

Some of the videos have featured large groups of fighters. Others, like the video from Turkey and another from Azerbaijan, feature just five and three fighters, respectively.

Yet there is a sense that, in this case, size does not matter.

“Do we really expect ISIS to show us a terror training camp with 200 fighters primed and ready,” Raphael Gluck, the co-founder of Jihadoscope, a company that monitors online activity by Islamist extremists, told VOA in an email.  

“ISIS is in insurgency mode but wants to remind you, its presence and influence remains everywhere,” he added.

And while IS has long been practiced in the art of smoke and mirrors, finding ways to make itself look bigger than it really is, dismissing the latest videos could be a mistake.

“There’s no doubt that the group has a presence in these spots,” according to Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Additionally, that the videos have been disseminated by the group’s official media outlets is significant.

“It is one thing for groups to make bay’at (pledges of allegiance), but it is a much more serious affair when the highest levels of Islamic State leadership accept their allegiance,” said Jade Parker, a former counterterrorism analyst in support of U.S. military activities.

“Is it possible that Islamic State central is recognizing their external governance entities earlier in the provincial development process than they previously did? Yes,” Parker added.  “The external provinces would still need to surpass a common minimum benchmark of organizational requirements, though.”

That IS has retained such a strong degree of organizational integrity has worried U.S. intelligence officials for months, some warning that fighters fleeing the collapsing caliphate in Syria and Iraq would find refuge with IS branches in more than a dozen countries, including Turkey.

Just as concerning for analysts is that along with the videos, there has been a steady drumbeat of IS claims, celebrating attacks on government forces and civilians in places like Nigeria, Mozambique, Afghanistan, the Philippines and Tunisia.

Jihadoscope’s Raphael Gluck believes, at the least, the steady stream of propaganda is unlikely to abate.

“ISIS could possibly still spring a few surprises with more videos from Europe and the West,” he said. “From this point, it looks like ‘Wilayat Internet’ [ Internet province] is very much a thing.”

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South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar has agreed to a face-to-face meeting with President Salva Kiir, a step that could energize the lagging talks on a government for the civil war-wracked country.

In a letter dated July 8 and sent to President Kiir’s security adviser, Tut Gatluak, Machar said he is ready to talk with the president as long as he can freely move about in South Sudan.

The Kiir administration invited Machar to meet with Kiir after the government and opposition groups missed a May deadline to form a transitional government of national unity. The period was extended for another six months.

In the letter viewed by VOA, Machar said he will meet Kiir to discuss the challenges of implementing pre-transition activities since recent months have passed “without substantial progress.”

Norway Ambassador to South Sudan Lars Anderson said two months of the six-month extension of the pretransitional period have already come and gone with little to show.

He said the parties to last year’s peace deal must implement security arrangements immediately in order to pave the way for the formation of a unity government on time.

“There shouldn’t be more extensions. That is clear from the agreement they have, according to themselves. Now it’s fairly predictable by November there will be another form of political crisis around that. And it is really going to be up to the parties how they manage this,” Anderson told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.

Representatives of the various parties who sit on the National Pre-Transitional Committee have held several meetings on implementing the peace deal. Anderson said the international community wants Kiir and Machar to meet regularly to build trust and confidence among their supporters and to show they are working together to achieve peace.

“I think at this point it’s not about people on the ground working together because we have also seen good working cooperation between the military with the different armed groups. So it is not about people on the ground, it is about top leadership now coming together and showing their strong commitment to this,” Anderson said.

In May, shortly after the parties agreed to extend the pretransitional period, the Kiir administration pledged $100 million to fund pretransitional activities including security arrangements. It’s not clear if the government has released the money it pledged.

Machar urged Kiir to “make a special request” to the Transitional Military Council in Khartoum, where he said he’s being held under house arrest. He wants Sudanese authorities to transport him to Juba and back to Khartoum after the talks.

Stephen Par Kuol, SPLM-IO secretary for foreign relations, said Machar should be able to go wherever he wants once Machar arrives in South Sudan.

“We had been demanding as a party that our chairman should be set free to participate physically in peace dissemination in this process of peace implementation,” Kuol told South Sudan in Focus.

Paar said the two leaders will talk about how to quickly implement critical security arrangements that are behind schedule.

CTSAMM, the body monitoring the implementation of the security arrangements, warned last week that by dragging out the pretransitional activities, the parties risk failing to establish the unity government in November. CTSAMM Chairman Desta Abiche confirmed the parties have yet to assemble and integrate their forces, a key component of the security arrangements.

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Editor’s note: We want you to know what’s happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

U.S.: Undocumented people on alert for federal immigration raids, again.
For the second time in a month, there is talk of federal raids to detain undocumented immigrants across the United States. It’s a fearful time for those who are vulnerable.

U.S.: Break in the border spike
A months-long increase in border apprehensions reversed in June, shortly after the U.S. brokered a migration deal with Mexico amid threats of a tariff. It’s also the time of year when temperatures creep up in the southwestern U.S., leading to fewer attempts to enter the country through some of the nation’s remotest, most desolate areas. But it’s too early to say whether the downward trend in border arrivals will continue.

U.S.: Questions over fast-tracking asylum procedures
As the U.S. faces a monumental backlog of asylum cases and an increase in families and unaccompanied children seeking sanctuary in the country, the Trump administration wants to speed up the process. The move worries many immigration lawyers who tell VOA that hurrying cases could jeopardize asylum-seekers’ ability to seek help or advice.

U.N.: Bachelet blasts Washington over border facilities
The UN’s top human rights official joined a chorus of condemnation over the condition of migrant detention facilities in the southwestern United States. Michelle Bachelet is one of the most high profile international voices to criticize how Washington is handling a spike in young children and families crossing the border from Mexico without authorization, overcrowding Border Patrol facilities and being held in substandard conditions. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Democratic lawmakers again pushed for more oversight of the border detention system.

CAR and Cameroon: Refusing to return home
Central African Republic refugees seeking safety in Cameroon are reluctant to return home. They aren’t confident life will be better if they go back, either in terms of security, work or education.

Bangladesh and Burma: Monsoon mayhem
The U.N. relocated thousands of refugees living in a Bangladeshi camp after a monsoon brought heavy rains through Cox’s Bazar, triggering dozens of landslides and destroying hundreds of shelters. The camp primarily houses Burmese refugees, many from the Rohingya community.

Libya: Detainees march for help, freedom
People detained at a Tripoli facility protested and pleaded for aid organizations to relocate them, in the wake of a recent bombing that killed 53. VOA’s Heather Murdock spoke with one detainee. 

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Women in the Syrian city of Raqqa say their lives have changed dramatically after U.S.-backed forces freed their city from the Islamic State terror group.
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Women in the Syrian city of Raqqa say their lifestyle drastically changed after U.S.-backed forces freed their city from the Islamic State terror group.

The Syrian Democratic Forces liberated the city in October 2017. Since then, Raqqa residents have been determined to bring a sense of normalcy back to their city, which was once the de facto capital of IS’s self-proclaimed caliphate. 

Throughout the partially restored market in downtown Raqqa, shops selling women’s clothing and cosmetics now openly showcase their merchandise, something unthinkable during IS rule.

“Now, I can exhibit anything I want in front of my store,” said a 37-year-old man who owns a women’s boutique.  

“When Daesh was here, we had to hide things like revealing clothes and lingerie in the back of the store. Men couldn’t sell these things to women, so we had to hire women to sell to other women,” he told VOA, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. 

Under IS rule, strict social codes were imposed on the local population. Men and women who were not related weren’t allowed to interact. 

Women, in particular, were required to wear black dresses covering their entire bodies and faces. Those who disobeyed received harsh punishments, including imprisonment and flogging.

“I remember how my friend’s older sister was humiliated on the street by two female IS members because they thought her face wasn’t covered properly,” said a 21-year-old woman who was a teenager when IS ruled Raqqa. She declined to be identified for security reasons. 

The terror group had established a vice police force, locally known as al-Hisbah, whose sole mission was to implement Islamic laws and persecute those who did not adhere to them. 

“There is no comparison between now and then,” said Khitam al-Musa, 30, of Raqqa.

“At least now, I can walk on the street freely. I can buy what I want. In the past, I could have been arrested for the silliest reason,” she told VOA. “I was taken to interrogation a few times because I painted my fingernails and wore open-toe sandals. It was unbearable to be a woman under [IS] rule.” 

The SDF, a Kurdish-led military alliance that has been an effective partner of the United States in the fight against IS, has established a progressive governing system in areas under its control in northeast Syria. 

Women’s rights and gender equality are the basis of SDF’s newly formed entity, SDF officials claim. 

“What the SDF has offered is a very unique alternative form of governance not only compared to IS’s style, but also compared to the Syrian regime,” said Sadradeen Kinno, a Syrian researcher who closely follows Islamic militancy in the war-torn country. 

Kinno told VOA that while residents in Raqqa and other areas recently liberated from IS enjoy the liberty the SDF offers, it would take a long time before the group could enforce its progressive ideas among a largely conservative population.

“Individual freedoms are important for women and people in general, especially if you’ve just experienced life under one of the most oppressive groups in the world,” he said. “But it will certainly be a major challenge for the SDF to find a receptive population for its broader gender democracy.”  

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could be facing his biggest political challenge, with the resignation of his former economic czar Ali Babacan threatening to split his ruling AKP Party. Party discontent is escalating amidst economic malaise and deteriorating human rights.

“Under the current conditions, Turkey needs a brand-new vision for its future,” Babacan said Monday upon resigning. “It has become inevitable to start a new effort for Turkey’s present and future. Many of my colleagues and I feel a great and historic responsibility toward this effort.”

New political party

Babacan is expected to launch a new political party as early as September. A founding member of AKP, Babacan served as foreign and economy minister in the early years of the party’s rule. He is widely credited with presiding over Turkey’s economic transformation with unparalleled record growth.

“We can normalize the society, end the polarization within society,” said Osman Can, a former national AKP board member, who now supports Babacan’s movement. “We can normalize relations with the United States and Europe. We can also be a hope for the region. This is why I am hopeful, for Babacan lives as a conservative but his thinking is liberal.”

The AKP originally was a coalition of liberals and religious conservatives, ushering in wide-ranging democratic reforms in its early years of rule. However, criticism of Erdogan’s leadership within the party has been building, with his centralizing of power and accusations of increasing authoritarianism. Following the 2016 failed coup, hundreds of thousands have been purged from their jobs or jailed, in a crackdown that continues.

“After the coup attempt, Mr. Erdogan came to the decision [that] he is under attack and only needs loyal people and family advising and working for him,” said Can. “In the AKP, there is only one will, the will of Mr. Erdogan. There is no person able to criticize or willing to criticize.”

Analysts suggest the tipping point for an AKP split and whether a new party succeeds is the economy. For the last year, Turkey has fallen into an economic malaise of recession, near-record unemployment and double-digit inflation.

“According to a recent poll, 30% of AKP voters are extremely unhappy with the economic management,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, a business management consultancy. “The message is simple, if Erdogan improves the economy they [the new party] will have less of a chance. If he screws up once again, then Mr. Babacan, with proven crisis management skills, will be well-placed.”

Gul to support Babacan

According to sources linked to the new movement, Babacan is receiving financial support from conservative businesses, who traditionally back the AKP. Such support is likely facilitated by former President Abdullah Gul. He is another AKP founder, who is backing Babacan and has close links to  conservative companies.

However, analysts warn Babacan has to look for support beyond the AKP. “If it becomes a movement or party built and run by former AKP party members, then forget it. It will be a huge failure,” said sociology professor Mesut Yegen of Istanbul’s Sehir University.

“I think Turkish people are really demanding a new style of politics,” he added, “and you can see this in other parties as well.  This is why they [Babacan’s party] need to find some new faces to introduce to the Turkish public.”

“There should be new faces,” agreed Can, “from the center-right and center-left, not just conservatives. It should be people who are rational, not rigid, and Babacan and others are in talks with such people.”

There could be risks

However, openly challenging Erdogan has risks. Observers say some AKP dissidents who’ve sought to set up a new party or break ranks have run into legal troubles on trumped-up charges from a compliant judiciary.

“There are strong voices in Ankara to make pressure, to make accusations and investigations,” said Can, a law professor at Istanbul’s Marmara University and a former judge-rapporteur at Turkey’s Constitutional Court.

“Their [AKP’s] power in Ankara is dissolving. They are losing support within the state, within the bureaucracy, the judiciary,” he added. “These people see things are changing. They are changing their minds, and they are starting not to work with the government. They know change is coming and they are protecting themselves.”

For now, Erdogan is dismissing Babacan, saying he “will not reach anything by doing this.” Setting up a new party infrastructure in Turkey is challenging and time-consuming, given the country’s size and population of 80 million.

Erdogan plans tour

However, in a move widely interpreted as shoring up support and containing any defections to Babacan’s movement, Erdogan is set to tour Turkey, visiting party branches.

The president is already reeling from last month’s loss of the Istanbul mayorship in a shock opposition landslide victory.  Yegen suggested Babacan’s move against Erdogan could benefit from a new mood in Turkey.

“There are signs that Turkey is thirsty for new forms of leadership, and this can be translated into new programs and new styles of politics. But on the other hand, we cannot be sure this change will take place in a gradual manner or suddenly,” said Yegen.

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Ride-hailing application Uber, after successful launches in Ghana and Nigeria, is looking to expand in West Africa to Senegal’s capital, Dakar.  But in a city full of taxis, and drivers without smartphones, the Silicon Valley company will have to overcome a lot of challenges to make a profit.  From Dakar, VOA’s Esha Sarai reports.

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The world is dealing with climate refugees, people whose homes have been inundated by rising sea levels. But in Wales, residents of one seaside town are confused and angry because of a political decision to let nature have its way and let the town sink back into the sea. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.

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U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta has defended a plea deal he helped broker with Jeffrey Epstein in 2008 in Florida. The billionaire financier, who socialized with U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton, is detained in New York where federal prosecutors have charged him with sex trafficking of minors between 2002 and 2005. Acosta is under pressure to step down because as U.S. attorney in Florida, he agreed to a mild sentence for Epstein. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
 

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Thailand’s new civilian government will retain the power to arbitrarily detain critics despite the imminent easing of junta-era security controls, prompting warnings from rights groups of enduring “martial law”.

Nearly 2,000 people have been tried in military courts since now-prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha seized power in a 2014 coup.

The junta eased a ban on political activities last year in the run-up to national elections and the former army chief phased out dozens of additional junta-enacted orders Tuesday, transferring military cases to civilian courts.

But the government retained over 100 orders — including the right for the military to detain suspects for seven days on national security grounds.

“This is martial law used during an emergency crisis, but we’ve had elections and a new government so why is it still imposed?” said Anon Chalawan, of the legal monitoring group iLaw.

Prayut, who was also officially endorsed by Thailand’s king Wednesday as defence minister, has called his original invoking of junta-era powers as a way of “solving problems”.

But political analyst Titipol Phakdeewanich said the continuing restrictions showed that full democracy remained a distant prospect for Thais.

“I think they know people will be more critical of this government,” he said.

Thailand held elections in March, and Prayut holds a slim majority in the lower house through a coalition of almost 20 parties, which — together with a military-appointed Senate — voted him in as civilian prime minister.

Prayut’s political opponents slammed the process, which included the temporary suspension from parliament of his biggest rival.

Despite questions over his legitimacy, the ex-army chief got down to the nitty gritty of forming a cabinet.

The picks endorsed by the king Wednesday include junta number two Prawit Wongsuwan as deputy prime minister and pro-marijuana Bhumjaithai party leader Anutin Charnvirakul as health minister.

They still need to be sworn in and present policy statements.

The flurry of political activity came after a rash of attacks on pro-democracy activists that remain unsolved.

In late June, activist Sirawith Seritiwat — known for staging anti-junta protests — was put in hospital after being set upon by stick-wielding men.

Police on Wednesday charged eight people for allegedly posting “false information” on Facebook which accused authorities of being behind the attack.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.

…

Wealthy American financier Jeffrey Epstein, charged with sex trafficking in underage girls, is now confined to a cell in a fortress-like concrete tower jail that has been criticized by inmates and lawyers for harsh conditions.

After his arrest on Saturday at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport on arrival from Paris in his private plane, Epstein was likely put in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in lower Manhattan, according to defense lawyers and others familiar with the jail.

“When you have someone that’s allegedly a sexual predator like Jeffrey Epstein, he’ll need to be in protective custody,” Andrew Laufer, a lawyer who has represented MCC inmates in civil lawsuits against prison officials, said in an interview.

Epstein pleaded not guilty in the nearby federal court on Monday to one count of sex trafficking and one count of sex trafficking conspiracy. He will remain in jail at least until a bail hearing on July 15. Federal prosecutors have said he is a flight risk because of his wealth and international ties.

In the past, Epstein, 66, was known for socializing with politicians and royalty, with friends who have included U.S. President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton and, according to court papers, Britain’s Prince Andrew. None of those people was mentioned in the indictment and prosecutors declined to comment on anyone said to be associated with Epstein.

US: Once-Secret Jeffrey Epstein Sex Offender Deal Must Stand

Some victims claim the deal, known as a non-prosecution agreement or NPA, should be thrown out at least partially because they were not consulted as required under that law

The indictment said Epstein made young girls perform nude “massages” and other sex acts, and paid some girls to recruit others, from at least 2002 to 2005 at his mansion in New York and estate in Florida.  

Marc Fernich, a lawyer for Epstein, declined to comment on Epstein’s current conditions.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) said it does not release information on an inmate’s conditions of confinement for safety and security reasons.

The MCC houses about 800 inmates, most of whom are awaiting trial and have not been convicted. Prominent inmates have included New York Mafia bosses, the fraudster Bernie Madoff and the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Inmates and defense lawyers have complained of rat and cockroach infestations and uncomfortable extremes of heat and cold or problems with the water supply.

The jail’s harshest unit, known colloquially as “10 South”, has been compared unfavorably to the U.S. prison camp Guantanamo Bay. In 2011, rights group Amnesty International said the unit, which has also been used to house people accused of terrorism, flouts “international standards for humane treatment.”

One defense lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Epstein is likely in “9 South,” a separate special housing unit.

Inmates in protective custody are allowed out of their cell for recreation only one hour a day, according to BOP guidelines and interviews with lawyers.

Laufer and other lawyers said they believed that high-profile defendants such as Epstein enjoyed better protections than most, in part because prison officials are mindful of the embarrassment that harm to a well-known inmate could bring.

If Epstein is moved into a general population unit, he would have access to a shared common space with a television used by other inmates in the unit.

There, however, he would likely be a target for other inmates both because of his wealth and because he is a registered sex offender following his 2008 conviction for soliciting a girl for prostitution in Florida.

“The sex offenders have a hard time,” Jack Donson, a former BOP employee who now works as a federal prison consultant in New York, said in an interview. “He’s definitely going to get ostracized.”

There are fewer activities and diversions for inmates at the MCC compared to some other jails, Donson said.

“It’s pretty confining, pretty boring, not dangerous, but still no picnic,” Donson said. “Especially if you’re a man of wealth: one minute you’re on your yacht or in a helicopter; next minute you’re sitting at a table playing cards with the boys.”

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The Justice Department can’t replace nine lawyers so late in the dispute over whether to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census without explaining why it’s doing so, a judge says.

U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman, who earlier this year ruled against adding the citizenship question, put the brakes on the government’s plan on Tuesday, a day after he was given a three-paragraph notification by the Justice Department along with a prediction that the replacement of lawyers wouldn’t “cause any disruption in this matter.”
 
“Defendants provide no reasons, let alone `satisfactory reasons,’ for the substitution of counsel,” Furman wrote, noting that the most immediate deadline for government lawyers to submit written arguments in the case is only three days away.
 
The judge said local rules for federal courts in New York City require that any attorney requesting to leave a case provide satisfactory reasons for withdrawing. The judge must then decide what impact a lawyer’s withdrawal will have on the timing of court proceedings.
 
He called the Justice Department’s request “patently deficient,” except for two lawyers who have left the department or the civil division which is handling the case.
 
President Donald Trump tweeted about the judge’s decision Tuesday night, questioning whether the attorney change denial was unprecedented.
 
“So now the Obama appointed judge on the Census case (Are you a Citizen of the United States?) won’t let the Justice Department use the lawyers that it wants to use. Could this be a first?” Trump tweeted.
 
The new team came about after a top Justice Department civil attorney who was leading the litigation effort told Attorney General William Barr that multiple people on the team preferred not to continue, Barr told The Associated Press on Monday.
 
The attorney who was leading the team, James Burnham, “indicated it was a logical breaking point since a new decision would be made and the issue going forward would hopefully be separate from the historical debates,” Barr said.
 
Furman’s refusal came in a case that has proceeded on an unusual legal path since numerous states and municipalities across the country challenged the government’s announcement early last year that it intended to add the citizenship question to the census for the first time since 1950.
 
Opponents of the question say it will depress participation by immigrants, lowering the population count in states that tend to vote Democratic and decreasing government funds to those areas because funding levels are based on population counts.
 
At one point, the Justice Department succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to block plans to depose Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Nearly two weeks ago, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the plans to add the census question, saying the administration’s justification for adding the question “seems to have been contrived.”
 
Afterward, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau began printing census questionnaires without the question and the Department of Justice signaled it would not attempt to continue the legal fight.
 
It reversed itself after Trump promised to keep trying to add the question.
 
The Justice Department then notified judges in three similar legal challenges that it planned to find a new legal path to adding the question to the census.
 
Furman said the urgency to resolve legal claims and the need for efficient judicial proceedings was an important consideration in rejecting a replacement of lawyers.
 
He said the Justice Department had insisted that the speedy resolution of lawsuits against adding the question was “a matter of great private and public importance.”
 
“If anything, that urgency — and the need for efficient judicial proceedings — has only grown since that time,” Furman said.
 
Furman said the government could re-submit its request to replace attorneys only with a sworn statement by each lawyer explaining satisfactory reasons to withdraw so late. He said he’ll require new attorneys to promise personnel changes will not slow the case.
       

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A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled President Donald Trump cannot silence critics on his Twitter account, maintaining that blocking them violates the Constitution’s right to free speech.

The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled in a 3-0 decision Tuesday the First Amendment prohibits Trump from blocking critics from his account, a public platform.

On behalf of the three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote “The First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise-open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees.”

Trump has used his Twitter account, which has more than 60-million followers, to promote his agenda and to attack critics.

The court ruled on a lawsuit filed by Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute on behalf of seven people who were blocked by Trump after criticizing his policies.

Institute director Jameel Jaffer said the ruling “will ensure that people aren’t excluded from these forums simply because of their viewpoints” and added “It will help ensure the integrity and vitality of digital spaces that are increasingly important to our democracy.”

Justice Department spokesman Kelly Laco said the agency is “disappointed with the ruling and is “exploring possible next steps.” He reiterated the administrations’ argument that “Trump’s decision to block users from his personal Twitter account does not violate the First Amendment.”

The decision upheld a May 2018 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The U.S. Justice Department said the ruling was “fundamentally misconceived,” arguing Trump used the account in a personal capacity to express his views, and not as a forum for public discussion.

Twitter did not immediately comment on the ruling.

Among those who were blocked from Trump’s account were author Stephen King and model Chrissy Teigen.

…

The political action committee for a group founded by former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has reported raising $3.9 million in the past six months.

Abrams founded Fair Fight to support voting rights after narrowly losing to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in November. She accused Kemp of using his previous position as Georgia’s chief election officer to suppress votes in their race, which Kemp has vehemently denied.

The report filed Monday with the state ethics commission shows Fair Fight PAC has raised $4.1 million since its inception and made $3 million in expenditures, leaving $1.1 million in cash on hand. Expenditures include more than $1.2 million given to the group’s nonprofit arm and $100,000 given to abortion rights groups after Georgia’s passage of a restrictive abortion ban.

They also include political contributions to various candidates, payments to consultants, staff salaries and travel expenses.

Many of the contributions came from small donors around the country. The group says that it has had more than 15,000 individual contributions from all 50 states.

The largest contribution was over $1 million from Silicon Valley-based physician and philanthropist Karla Jurvetson. The group banked another $250,000 from the Service Employees International Union, a labor union with 2 million members in service occupations including within the health care industry. 
 
“Fair Fight PAC is grateful for the overwhelming support we have received from across Georgia and around the country,” Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said in a statement. “Fair Fight is advocating for voting rights, supporting progressive organizing and advocacy, and keeping the heat on those who suppress the vote.”

She said the group would soon share details for nationwide voter protection programs to mitigate “attempts to suppress the vote of people of color in this critical election cycle.”

…

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are teaming up on a plan that would designate climate change as an emergency, and at least one of Sanders’ fellow Democratic presidential candidates is planning to sign on.

The measure to be introduced in the House on Tuesday is designed to highlight Democrats’ focus on global warming and push back against President Donald Trump, who’s declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border.
 
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is competing with Sanders for the support of liberal voters in the presidential primary, plans to sign onto the resolution when it’s introduced in the Senate, according to a spokeswoman.

Sanders tells reporters that “strong American leadership” is needed to compel effective worldwide action on climate change.

…

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is among the least popular since the country’s return to democracy three decades ago, but his rating in a poll released on Monday showed his numbers stabilizing.

The Datafolha polling institute found that 33% of respondents said Bolsonaro was doing a “great or good” job. That is technically tied with the 32% in an April Datafolha poll.

Those who think Bolsonaro is doing a “bad or awful” job rose to 33% from 30% in the April poll.

The latest polls show Bolsonaro technically tied with former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso as the leader with the least support at this point in his first term. Thirty-four percent of those asked by Datafolha in June 1995 thought Cardoso was doing “good or great.”

The poll of 2,086 people across Brazil on July 4-5 has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Bolsonaro easily won last year’s election over leftist rival Fernando Haddad, who stepped in to take the top place on the Workers Party ticket after a graft conviction prevented imprisoned former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from running. Datafolha polls last year showed Lula far more popular than Bolsonaro – even after he had been imprisoned.

Lula’s conviction has come under scrutiny since the publication of leaked messages last month by news website The Intercept Brasil showed former federal judge and current Justice Minister Sergio Moro stepping over ethical, and possibly legal, lines by coaching the prosecution in Lula’s trial.

Moro, who presided over the case and found Lula guilty, has alternatively argued that the leaked messages show no improper behavior to questioning their authenticity, is facing withering criticism.

On Monday, Moro’s press office said he would take the week of July 15-19 off for “personal” reasons, and later added he was spending time with his family. Moro’s wife and children do not live with him in the capital. July is winter recess for schools in Brazil.

In August the Supreme Court is expected to weigh an appeal from Lula’s legal team, demanding his release from jail.

Lula has been convicted in a second graft trial and faces at least eight more.

…