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A package that officials thought might contain the deadly nerve agent sarin at a mail facility near Facebook’s headquarters has been declared safe, according to the FBI and local authorities.
The package initially tested positive for sarin at a mail facility on Facebook’s campus on Monday. Four buildings near the facility were evacuated and two individuals were tested for exposure to the substance.
Workers at the mail facility reported no injuries or side effects.
On Tuesday, the FBI said in a statement it had, alongside local authorities, “thoroughly tested the items in question and determined them to be non-hazardous.”
Sarin is a chemical that can hurt a person’s nervous system and has been used as a chemical weapon. Exposure to sarin can cause paralysis and death.
In Malawi, a young albino man is using music to fight discrimination and misconceptions about the genetic condition in a country where more than 100 people with albinism have been attacked since 2014. Lazarus Chigwandali has long been performing on the streets of Lilongwe. But after catching the eye of a Swedish producer, he began work on an album that is due out in August. He’s also about to embark on a nationwide tour to promote a documentary, produced by American pop star Madonna, about the plight of albinos in Malawi. Lameck Masina reports from Lilongwe.
After investigating the nature of a mysterious and apparently cigar-shaped object called ‘Oumuamua spotted in 2017 speeding through our solar system, astronomers remain uncertain over how to classify it, but are confident it is not an alien spaceship.
Its odd shape and motion had prompted some scientists to wonder whether ‘Oumuamua, the first object from another star system found passing through our solar system, was some sort of alien technology perhaps exploring the cosmos. But after poring over the data, an international team of researchers wrote that “we find no compelling evidence to favor an alien explanation.”
Scientists tracked the reddish-colored ‘Oumuamua from Oct. 14, 2017, until Jan. 2, 2018, after which it became too faint to detect even using the most powerful telescopes. It is estimated to be a half-mile (800 meters) long, tumbling through space.
Consistent with natural origin
“Our key finding is that ‘Oumuamua’s properties are consistent with a natural origin and an alien explanation is unwarranted,” said University of Maryland astronomer Matthew Knight, co-leader of the research published in the Nature Astronomy.
“Yes, if it made a sudden, unexplainable turn that would certainly have warranted further exploration,” Knight added.
‘Oumuamua was first detected by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 telescope. Its name in the native Hawaiian language means a messenger arriving from a great distance.
Knight said it is not easy to fit ‘Oumuamua into familiar classifications such as a comet or asteroid.
“We have tried to avoid putting it in one of those boxes and prefer to call it more generically an ‘object,’” Knight said. “In simple terms, asteroids are rocky and devoid of ices, while comets are a mixture of rock and ice, so-called ‘dirty snowballs,’” Knight added.
Planetary building block
‘Oumuamua was somehow ejected from a distant star system, traversing through interstellar space and through our solar system. It deviated slightly from a path that would be explained purely by the Sun’s gravitational pull because of what some researchers said was apparently a very small emission of gas from its surface, indicative of a comet, though any such emission was so slight as to be undetected. It lacked a dust tail or gas jets, characteristic of comets.
The researchers wrote that a “straightforward explanation for ‘Oumuamua is that it is a planetesimal” — a planetary building block, or a fragment of one — formed in faraway star system.
Its composition remains a mystery, including whether it is just rock or includes some metal or other ingredients. It is currently beyond Saturn, dashing out of our solar system.
Despite rising incidence of far-right violence in the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Justice Department continue to deprioritize investigating the violence and prosecuting its perpetrators, according to a report released Monday.
While a handful of high-profile cases are sometimes designated as acts of “domestic terrorism” and receive the law enforcement agencies’ full investigative attention, the overwhelming majority are treated as hate crimes, gang violence and run-of-the-mill homicides, pushing them down the agencies’ list of priorities, the report says.
The report was prepared by the Brennan Center for Justice a nonpartisan law and policy institute at New York University School of Law.
Labels matter
The label the FBI chooses to characterize an act of violence is important in determining the amount of resources devoted to the case and how wide an investigative net is cast, according to the report. Investigating terrorism currently tops the FBI’s list of eight priorities and is well resourced. Hate crimes rank fifth while gang violence comes in sixth.
FILE – A person pauses in front of Stars of David with the names of those killed in a deadly shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, in Pittsburgh, Oct. 29, 2018.
“Under current Justice Department policies, how far-right violence targeting people based on race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability gets categorized is often arbitrary,” report authors Michael German and Emmanuel Mauleon write in “Fighting Far-Right Violence and Hate Crimes.” “But it has significant consequences for how federal officials label these crimes in public statements, how they prioritize and track them, and whether they will investigate and prosecute them.”
The report follows a string of high-profile far-right attacks that have highlighted the problem of right wing violence in the United States. Last October, white supremacist Robert Bowers burst into a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, synagogue, gunning down 11 worshippers and wounding six others. In April, another far-right extremist, John T. Earnest, walked into a San Diego synagogue, shooting four people, one fatally, just weeks after setting fire to a nearby mosque.
FILE – A makeshift memorial was placed by a light pole a block away from a shooting where one person was killed at the Congregation Chabad synagogue in Poway, north of San Diego, Calif., April 27, 2019.
Yet the FBI doesn’t keep track of the casualties, which serves to keep analysts and policymakers in the dark about the extent of the problem and how best to tackle it.
“It’s astonishing that with the FBI transitioning into an intelligence agency (in the post-9/11 era), it doesn’t know how many people white supremacists kill across this country every year,” said German, a former FBI undercover agent.
The FBI publishes an annual tally of hate crimes by race, religion, gender and a host of other categories. Last year, the bureau reported a total of more than 7,000 hate crimes in 2017.
Handing off hate crimes
The Brennan Center report also criticized the Justice Department for deferring the vast majority of hate crime investigations to state and local authorities who “are often ill-equipped or unwilling to properly respond to these crimes.” The report recommended that the FBI “treat all hate crime cases where deadly violence is involved among its top investigative priorities.”
The Justice Department prosecutes about 25 hate crime cases a year.
Asked for comment on the report, a Justice Department spokeswoman cited recent statements by top Justice officials that prosecuting hate crimes and domestic terrorism remains a top priority for the Justice Department.
FILE – Eric Dreiband testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 6, 2017, regarding his nomination to be Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division.
“Anyone who commits a crime motivated by hatred for the race, color, religion, national origin or other protected trait of any person should be on notice: The United States government will use its enormous power to bring perpetrators to justice, and we will continue to do so for as long as it takes to rid our nation of these vile and monstrous crimes,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband said in a statement Friday after a federal judge imposed a life sentence on James Alex Fields Jr., who drove his car into a crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia, murdering a civil rights activist.
The FBI did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the report.
In May, Mike McGarrity, the FBI’s top counterterrorism official, told U.S. lawmakers that the bureau doesn’t “differentiate between a domestic attack we’re trying to stop or an international terrorism attack.”
“It’s a terrorist attack we’re trying to stop,” McGarrity testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security.
Cattleman Laurentino Cortizo was sworn in as Panama’s president Monday, saying he will work during his five-year term to boost the economy and bring transparency in contracting for public works projects.
The 66-year-old won an election two weeks ago that was the tightest in Panama’s recent history, triumphing with only 31 percent of the vote as the candidate of the Democratic Revolutionary Party.
Cortizo, who succeeds Juan Carlos Varela, said he would stoke the economy by pushing for public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects and also address corruption in government contracting.
“We have monumental challenges,” Cortizo said. “We’re coming off a decade lost to corruption. There’s no place for indifference in the country.”
Noting that some 700,000 of Panama’s 4 million citizens live in poverty, Cortizo said, “What a tremendous responsibility we have to those who have been left behind.”
Cortizo inherits a slowing economy and growing frustration among Panamanians about official corruption. The economy grew 3.7% last year and unemployment reached 6%.
The new president said he would create next week a Unit for the Competitiveness of International Services to make sure Panama is the top business services and logistics center in Latin America.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the presidents of Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic were among those at the ceremony. Ross said he had met with Cortizo on Sunday and discussed a desire to grow their economies together.
Cortizo also said he would work to repair Panama’s image as a fiscal haven that has not effectively cooperated in the fight against money laundering.
“This is a new beginning … (to) rescue Panama,” he said after being sworn in by the new leader of congress at a Panama City convention center. “Our country has been disrespected and mistreated. … It stops here! It stops today!”
Some analysts said the new president will have to focus on an internal cleanup regarding recurring scandals, some of them of international scope, such as a regionwide bribery case involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.
“If Cortizo wants to improve Panama’s international reputation, he will have to attack corruption at home,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialoge in Washington. “If he has success on that internal front, that will help repair the Panama’s image.”
Cortizo sent a strong message on corruption, savaging previous administrations in particular.
“We come from a lost decade … of corruption, of improvisation, of stealing money from Panamanians,” he said, though his party, which was last in power a decade ago, has also been implicated in scandal.
The battle for Tripoli may have hit a turning point over the weekend with the capture of a key town. But with the future of the country at stake, fighting between the warring parties is likely to escalate, as VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Libya.
The U.S. military says it has struck an al-Qaida leadership and training facility in northern Syria where attacks threatening Americans and others were being planned.
The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the strike occurred on Sunday near the northern province of Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked war monitor, said Monday that the strike killed eight members of the al-Qaida-linked Horas al-Din, which is Arabic for “Guardians of Religion.”
The Observatory says the dead included six commanders: two Algerians, two Tunisians, an Egyptian and a Syrian.
Al-Qaida-linked militants control wide parts of northern Syria, mostly in Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the war-torn country.
Protesters and riot police returned to the streets of Hong Kong early Monday to mark the 22nd anniversary of the city’s reunification with China.
Police fired pepper spray and used batons to keep thousands of protesters from charging an early morning flag-raising ceremony that marks every anniversary of the city’s handover from the United Kingdom in 1997.
A government spokesperson said that a total of 25 protesters and police had been injured.
Police try to disperse protesters near a flag-raising ceremony for the anniversary of Hong Kong handover to China in Hong Kong, July 1, 2019.
By midmorning however, the tense scenes had died down with protesters occupying several large roadways near the government headquarters ahead of a march scheduled for later Monday afternoon.
Protesters also took down the flag of China and replaced it with a black version of Hong Kong’s flag, which features the white Bauhinia flower in the center.
The flag-raising ceremony draws a small number of protesters every year, but Monday’s rally was linked to a controversial legislative bill that would allow for criminal extradition to China.
The bill triggered massive protests for most of June, continuing after Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said previously she would suspend the bill and apologized. The bill is set to expire next year with the legislative session.
Protesters try to break into the Legislative Council building where riot police are seen, during the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China in Hong Kong, July 1, 2019.
On Monday, Lam said at a speech she had learned to be more “responsive to the aspirations, sentiments and opinions of the community.”
“The first and most basic step to take is to change the government’s style of governance to make it more open and accommodating,” Lam said. “We also need to reform the way we listen to public views.”
Lam, however, has failed to withdraw the bill permanently or meet other protest demands including an inquiry into police tactics at a violent demonstration June 12.
She is now facing her lowest popularity ranking since taking office in 2017, according to a survey by the University of Hong Kong.
A protester who was pepper sprayed is detained during the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China in Hong Kong, July 1, 2019.
Protester Leo Wong said many residents mistrust the government, which has promised to cancel unpopular initiatives in the past only for them to change their mind later.
“I understand that people may be saying suspension is the same as withdrawal … but why the protesters are still angry about this is people were tricked by the government for so many times over so many years,” Wong told VOA.
He and many other protesters also spoke of their fears that Hong Kong was losing its autonomy to China, promised until 2047. Citizens are currently protected by the Basic Law, a set of civil and political rights considered Hong Kong’s mini constitution, but they fear this may be eroded.
“There is an actual deadline of Basic Law until 2047, but we aren’t sure they will honor that deadline. Even though we are having one country two systems now. … They try to erode our freedom and encroach into Hong Kong,” Wong said.
The extradition debate has seen the government unwittingly reignite Hong Kong’s protest movement, and a desire for the direct election of its leader, five years after 2014’s so-called Umbrella Movement democracy protests came to an end.
The women mountaineers of Africa are reaching for new heights, following in the footsteps of the first black African woman to scale Mount Everest. Now four other South Africans are training to become the first all-female African team to climb the world’s tallest peak.
Deshun Deysel, Lisa Gering, Tumi Mphahlele and Alda Waddell are training on the sandstone cliffs of South Africa’s Drankensberg Mountains. They hope that next year, they can become the first team of African women to conquer Mount Everest.
Their inspiration
The women are inspired by South African business executive Saray Khumalo, who in May became the first black African woman to climb the world’s highest mountain, which stands at 8,848 meters tall.
Africa has few mountains to practice on, but Khumalo says that is not a problem.
“What excites me even more is that those coming behind us, behind me, effectively won’t have to struggle as much as I have had, you know,” she said. “Even though we’re not born in a place where there’re mountains, there’s ice and snow and more. So, when the ladies go next year, I think it’s going to open up even more doors.”
Each team member does her own intensive mental and physical training along with group sessions to prepare for the difficult climb.
Alda Waddell explains:
“There’s different elements that you need to train for. It is the technical, the equipment that you need to understand. It is the physical that you need to be able to do. And then also the cold. You need to be able to manage the cold. And then lastly, it’s the altitude,” she said.
Levels of experience
The women have different levels of experience in mountaineering.
In 1996, Deshun Deysel became the first black South African woman to set foot on Mount Everest.
While she wasn’t able to reach the summit, since then she’s scaled mountains on five continents.
“When I first started high-altitude climbing there was so few women in the mountains,” she said. “If I look around now, especially in the South African climbing community, that number definitely increased and because of that we have a greater pool of women to choose from. So why not have an all-female team?”
As South African women entrepreneurs, the team sees parallels with running a business in a male-dominated world and climbing the world’s tallest mountain.
They want their attempt to scale Mount Everest to inspire more African women to reach for the top.
Africa’s women mountaineers are reaching new heights. In May, South African businesswoman Saray Khumalo became the first black African woman to summit Mount Everest. Now four other South Africans are preparing to become the first all-women African team to climb the world’s tallest peak. Marize de Klerk reports from Waterval Boven, South Africa.
The third meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has drawn praise as well as criticism. Critics say Trump is showering attention on a dictator without getting any concessions on the North Korean nuclear development, while others see it as a ray of hope for a permanent peace on the Korean peninsula. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took his global message urging immediate climate action to officials gathered in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, where production of hydrocarbons remains a key driver of the economy.
Guterres is calling on governments to stop building new coal plants by 2020, cut greenhouse emissions by 45% over the next decade and overhauling fossil fuel-driven economies with new technologies like solar and wind. The world, he said, “is facing a grave climate emergency.”
In remarks at a summit in Abu Dhabi, he painted a grim picture of how rapidly climate change is advancing, saying it is outpacing efforts to address it.
He lauded the Paris climate accord, but said even if its promises are fully met, the world still faces what he described as a catastrophic three-degree temperature rise by the end of the century.
Arctic permafrost is melting decades earlier than even worst-case scenarios, he said, threatening to unlock vast amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas.
“It is plain to me that we have no time to lose,” Guterres said. “Sadly, it is not yet plain to all the decision makers that run our world.”
He spoke at the opulent Emirates Palace, where Abu Dhabi was hosting a preparatory meeting for the U.N. Climate Action Summit in September. Guterres was expected to later take a helicopter ride to view Abu Dhabi’s Noor solar power plant.
When asked, U.N. representatives said the lavish Abu Dhabi summit and his planned helicopter ride would be carbon neutral, meaning their effects would be balanced by efforts like planting trees and sequestering emissions. The U.N. says carbon dioxide emissions account for around 80% of global warming.
Guterres was in Abu Dhabi fresh off meetings with The Group of 20 leaders in Osaka, Japan. There, he appealed directly to heads of state of the world’s main emitters to step up their efforts. The countries of the G-20 represent 80% of world emissions of greenhouse gases, he said.
At the G-20 meeting, 19 countries expressed their commitment to the Paris agreement, with the only the United States dissenting.
In 2017, President Donald Trump pledged to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement as soon as 2020, arguing it disadvantages American workers and taxpayers. Trump has also moved steadily to dismantle Obama administration efforts to rein in coal, oil and gas emissions. His position has been that these efforts also hurt the U.S. economy.
The secretary-general’s special envoy for the climate summit, Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, told The Associated Press it was disappointing that the U.S. has pulled out from the accord. However, he said there are many examples of efforts at the local and state level in the United States to combat climate change.
“I think it is very important to have all countries committing to this cause… even more when we are talking about the country of the importance and the size – not only in terms of the economy but also the emissions – of the United States,” he said.
Guterres is urging business leaders and politicians to come to the Climate Action Summit later this year with their plans ready to nearly halve greenhouse emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
He suggested taxing major carbon-emitting industries and polluters, ending the subsidization of oil and gas, and halting the building of all new coal plants by next year.
“We are in a battle for our lives,” he said. “But it is a battle we can win.”
