wonderlitheracy: June 2016

Thursday 30 June 2016

Tesla Driver Killed While Using 'Autopilot'

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Clinton Leads Trump, But Many Voters Don't Like Either

In the U.S. presidential race, most recent polls show Democrat Hillary Clinton with a steady lead over Republican Donald Trump as both presumptive party nominees prepare for their party conventions next month. Trump’s disapproval ratings have risen in some recent surveys, but Clinton also suffers from high negative ratings, suggesting both candidates have a lot of work to do to improve their images before the November election. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.

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Slow Rebuilding Amid Boko Haram Destruction in Nigeria’s Northeast

Military operations have chased Boko Haram out of towns and cities in Nigeria’s northeast since early last year. But it is only recently that people have begun returning to their homes in Adamawa state, near the border with Cameroon, to try to rebuild their lives. For VOA, Chris Stein traveled to the area and has this report.

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New US Ambassador to Somalia Faces Heavy Challenges

The new U.S. envoy to Somalia, who was sworn into office Monday, will be the first American ambassador to that nation in 25 years. He will take up his post as Somalia faces a number of crucial issues, including insecurity, an upcoming election, and the potential closure of the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. VOA’s Jill Craig asked Somalis living in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi how they feel about the U.S. finally installing a new ambassador.

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At National Zoo, Captivating Animal Sculptures Illustrate Tragedy of Ocean Pollution

The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is home to about 1,800 animals, representing 300 species. But throughout the summer, visitors can also see other kinds of creatures there. They are larger-than-life animal sculptures that speak volumes about a global issue — the massive plastic pollution in our oceans. VOA's June Soh takes us to the zoo's special exhibit, called Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea.

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Baghdad Bikers Defy War with a Roar

Baghdad is a city of contradictions. War is a constant. Explosions and kidnappings are part of daily life. But the Iraqi capital remains a thriving city, even if a little beat up. VOA's Sharon Behn reports on how some in Baghdad are defying the stereotype of a nation at war by pursuing a lifestyle known for its iconic symbols of rebellion: motorbikes, leather jackets and roaring engines.

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Testing Bamboo as Building Material

For thousands of years various species of bamboo - one of the world's most versatile plants - have been used for diverse purposes ranging from food and medicine to textiles and construction. But its use on a large scale is hampered because it's not manufactured to specific standards but grown in the ground. A University of Pittsburgh professor is on track to changing that. VOA’s George Putic reports.

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Orphanage in Iraqi City Houses Kids Who Lost their Parents to Attacks by IS

An orphanage in Iraqi Kurdistan has become home to scores of Yazidi children who lost their parents after Islamic State militants took over Sinjar in Iraq’s Nineveh Province in 2014. Iraqi Kurdish forces backed by the U.S. airstrikes have since recaptured Sinjar but the need for the care provided by the orphanage continues. VOA’s Kawa Omar filed this report narrated by Rob Raffaele.

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Re-Opening Old Wounds in a Bullet-Riddled Cultural Landmark

A cultural landmark before Lebanon’s civil war transformed it into a nest of snipers, Beirut’s ‘Yellow House’ is once again set to play a crucial role in the city. Built in a neo-Ottoman style in the 1920s, in September it is set to be re-opened as a ‘memory museum’ - its bullet-riddled walls and bunkered positions overlooking the city’s notorious ‘Green Line’ maintained for posterity. John Owens reports from Beirut.

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Brexit Resounds in US Presidential Contest

Britain’s decision to leave the European Union is resounding in America’s presidential race. As VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump sees Britain’s move as an affirmation of his campaign’s core messages, while Democrat Hillary Clinton sees the episode as further evidence that Trump is unfit to be president.

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NASA Juno Spacecraft, Nearing Jupiter, to Shed Light on Gas Giant

After a five-year journey, the spacecraft Juno is nearing its destination, the giant planet Jupiter, where it will enter orbit and start sending data back July 4th. As Mike O'Sullivan reports from Pasadena, California, the craft will pierce the veil of Jupiter's dense cloud cover to reveal its mysteries.

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Orlando Shooting Changes Debate on Gun Control

It’s been nearly two weeks since the largest mass shooting ever in the United States. Despite public calls for tighter gun control laws, Congress is at an impasse. Democratic lawmakers resorted to a 1960s civil rights tactic to portray their frustration. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti explains how the Orlando, Florida shooting is changing the debate.

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Australians Prepare to Vote, Focus on Economy

SYDNEY—

Australians are gearing up to hit the polls in a close federal election Saturday where the country will decide whether minor parties will overthrow the incumbent government.

While climate change, immigration and education are key issues, it is the economy that is likely to decide who wins. Australia has avoided recession for 25 years, but the future is unclear as a resources boom fueled by China’s appetite for iron ore and coal continues to fade.

In Sydney, cranes dominate the skyline as a swathe of new apartment blocks emerge alongside upgraded transport links. As a long mining boom comes to an end, Australia is banking on a reinvigorated construction industry, along with manufacturing, tourism and agriculture.

But Britain’s decision to leave the European Union has created great anxiety here, and Australian political leaders have put economic security at the heart of their election campaigns.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has told voters the country needs the stability his center-right coalition government can provide.

FILE - This combination of file photos from April 15, 2016, and July 8, 2014, shows Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, left, and Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten.

But the opposition Labor leader, Bill Shorten, says the prime minister is a weak leader, just like his besieged British counterpart.

“Mr. Turnbull just says because there has been an upset you should vote for him," Shorten said. "The problem is the nature of the upset we have seen arises out of weak leadership and a divided government. David Cameron never wanted to have this referendum. What we saw there is David Cameron hostage to the right wing of his political party, compromising his own beliefs, providing weak leadership. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?"

This election has been shaken by a number of minor parties, including a candidate from the Greens and other independent parties named after their candidates. But all of them must convince voters they have the safe hands the economy needs.

The economy is almost always a top priority for Australian voters, according to Professor Rodney Smith from the department of government and international relations at the University of Sydney.

“Although Australia is a wealthy country, it is also a country that relies very heavily its resources," he told VOA. "Its natural resources, resource extraction - exporting minerals, exporting its agricultural produce, so in a changing world economy that is always rather fragile base on which to go forward as an economy."

Voting in Australia is compulsory, so turnout will be high, and so are the stakes. But Australia's scattered population across the vast country has called for special missions to help voters. Forty-six Australians cast their votes from an Australian research center in Antarctica, according to the Australian Electoral Commission.

Forty-one mobile teams have also been sent to remote areas of the country to ensure residents are able to vote - including a small cattle station town of 130 voters some 300 kilometers from the nearest city.

Opinion polls have both major parties neck-and-neck as campaigning continues in the final day ahead of Australia’s federal election.

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US Adds 8 Countries to List of Worst Human Traffickers

Published July 01, 2016

The United States has added eight more countries to its blacklist of nations most involved in the human trafficking industry. In a report unveiled Thursday at the U.S. State Department, Burma, Haiti, Djibouti, Papua New Guinea, Sudan, Suriname, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan join others to make up the list of the 27 world's worst offenders. VOA's Zlatica Hoke has more.

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Texas Gun Range Offers Free Training to LGBT People

HOUSTON—

Cheryl Burgin is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who knows how to handle firearms and feels the need to have one now as a lesbian living with her wife in Humble, Texas.

“There is a target that has been painted on people’s backs now if they are part of the LGBT community,” she told VOA.

Since the attack on gays and others at the Pulse night club in Orlando, Florida June 12 that left 49 people dead, LGBT people around the country have felt something similar could happen to them or the people they love. In states like Texas that allow the open carry of firearms for people who obtain a concealed handgun license, many LGBT people now consider wearing a holstered gun or carrying a weapon in a purse or bag as a deterrent to crime as well as senseless attacks.

Gun range offers free lessons

Cheryl Burgin drove for more than half an hour to reach the Shiloh Gun and Archery Range in north Houston to take advantage of a special offer to self-identified LGBT people for free lessons needed to obtain a concealed handgun license.

Cheryl Burgin, a LGBT gun permit class member. (G. Flakus/VOA)

Shiloh Gun Range General Manager Jeff Sanford told VOA the response to the free lessons has been overwhelming.

“What we thought was going to be 40 people, total, has now just totally blown up to 13 classes and we have over 550 signed up, with over a hundred done already.”

There are many gun ranges around the Houston metropolitan area offering these classes for anywhere between $69 and $100, but people who define themselves as part of the LGBT community drive long distances to attend these classes and only partly to save money.

“This is a unique opportunity,” Sanford said. “They can be around like-minded people and they do not have to worry about being judged by anybody in the class.”

Jeff Sanford, general manager of the Shiloh Gun and Archery Range. (G. Flakus/VOA)

Texas gun laws

The Texas license allows someone to carry a pistol in a holster, whether concealed by clothing or not, anywhere in public except places like schools, hospitals, airports and establishments that have posted signs exempting them from allowing guns inside. Most bars and restaurants, and clubs similar to Pulse in Orlando, do not allow guns, so anyone entering with a gun would be in violation of the law.

Burgin concedes that taking a gun into a bar or night club might not be a good idea anyway.

“You don’t want to mix alcohol and firearms,” she said. “It is not the smartest thing to take it into a club, but if I need to have it nearby, I will make sure I have it with me.”

Desaree Reyes and her wife Marcella came together to take the class because of perceived public hostility to their same-sex marriage that makes them fearful, especially after the tragedy in Orlando. But Desaree admits that she is not sure how she would handle such an incident.

“I don’t feel that just because I have my license that I am going to be ready,” she said, “but I do feel like at least I have that protection.”

LGBT groups favor more restrictions on guns

There are a few national LGBT groups favoring gun ownership for protection against bigoted attacks, like the Pink Pistols, which formed well before the Orlando shooting and has cited it as an example of why gay people need guns. But the leaders of most national LGBT organizations call for stricter gun control measures. The Human Rights Campaign, the largest group representing the LGBT community in the United States, issued a call for action on gun control following the Orlando shooting.

“The safety of the LGBTQ community depends on our ability to end both the hatred toward our community and the epidemic of gun violence that has spiraled out of control,” the group's president, Chad Griffin, said in a statement.

Tim Murphy is with a group called Gays Against Guns that staged anti-gun demonstrations in New York City following the Orlando killings.

“We are outraged over the massacre that happened in Orlando,” he said, “and we want to signal that the LGBT community is ready to play a role in the fight for gun control."

Another member of the group, Kendall Thomas, a gay black man, called attention to the gunshot deaths of many young black men in urban centers like Chicago, in arguing against the idea that the solution to gun violence is to have more people with guns.

“We have to deal not just with violence against gays or violence against African-Americans and Latino-Americans, but with the culture of violence that leads so many people in this country to view guns as problem solvers,” he said.

Fear drives people to guns

But gun advocates argue that police can never arrive fast enough to stop violent criminals and terrorists from carrying out a slaughter of innocent people and that having well-trained armed citizens on hand can make a difference.

Whether that is true or not, though, LGBT people taking up firearms are expressing what even many people who disagree with them see as understandable fear in the wake of a horrific incident in which people like them were targeted.

Desaree Reyes, even while conceding that she is a bit of a novice and not fully prepared to use a gun in a chaotic situation, said the pistol she plans to carry provides comfort.

Desaree Reyes and her wife Marcella. (G. Flakus/VOA)

She said, “If someone were to come towards me or my family, I am already ready to protect myself.”

Many of the people who obtain their Texas concealed handgun licenses will go on to practice in gun ranges in order to improve their shooting skills. But those without police or military training may not be prepared to handle a chaotic situation in which it is sometimes difficult even for well-trained and well-equipped police officers to know who is the attacker.

Still, surveys show a large percentage of police officers believe armed citizens on the scene of a shooting could limit the death count. Gun control advocates, however, argue that, even if that were true, the danger to the people owning the guns and the people with whom they interact in daily life may be greater than any benefit they might provide in a mass shooting situation.

No study has yet determined conclusively which argument is better, so the debate continues.

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Hindu Priest Hacked to Death in Bangladesh

A Hindu priest was hacked to death in Bangladesh Thursday, the most recent in a string of killings by Islamist militants.

Shaymanonda Das, 45, was walking near his temple in the southwestern district of Jhinaidah and preparing for morning prayers when three people on a motorbike attacked him with machetes before fleeing.

Though no group has claimed responsibility, the attack bears the hallmarks of Islamist militants who have targeted and killed over 40 Hindu priests, religious minorities and liberal activists over the past few months.

Das is the third Hindu temple worker to be killed in Bangladesh this past month.

The government of Bangladesh launched a sweeping campaign to counter these attacks two weeks earlier, arresting nearly 5,000 suspected militants. Human rights groups around the globe have condemned the arrests.

Last week, a leading Islamic group in Bangladesh issued a fatwa, or religious decree, condemning terrorism and militancy, including violent attacks on non-Muslims and secular writers and activists, as "Haraam," or forbidden and un-Islamic. Over 100,000 Islamic scholars signed the decree.

Islamic State and an al-Qaida faction have claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, but Bangladesh authorities continue to insist there are no foreign terror groups operating in the country. Instead, officials have blamed local militants or the political opposition.

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Hindu Priest Hacked to Death in Bangladesh

A Hindu priest was hacked to death in Bangladesh Thursday, the most recent in a string of killings by Islamist militants.

Das is the third Hindu temple worker to be killed in Bangladesh this past month.

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Report: US Sailors' Detention by Iranian Forces ‘Wholly Preventable'

Published June 30, 2016

A Navy investigation into the detention of 10 U.S. sailors by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier this year has found the incident could have been prevented. Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports on the series of failures by both the Navy and the Iranian military as the crew traveled from Kuwait to Bahrain.

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US House to Vote on Gun Legislation, Ryan Says

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will vote next week on a bill aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists.

A week after Democrats staged a nearly 26-hour sit-in demanding a vote on gun control measures, Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow Republicans of the vote in a conference call Thursday.

Ryan said the House would vote on a broad bill that will include measures to prevent radicalization and recruitment by extremist groups, as well as a provision to stop suspected terrorists from buying guns.

Ryan called it "just common sense'' to keep firearms from terrorists, but said it must be done while protecting the right to own guns.

Democrats held their daylong protest on the House floor, demanding a vote on gun control legislation in the wake of the shooting rampage that killed 49 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The shooter, Omar Mateen, who was killed by authorities during the siege, was an American who pledged allegiance to a leader of the Islamic State extremist group, according to a transcript of his phone calls with officials during the incident.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office said Ryan might well offer National Rifle Association-backed legislation that would put the burden on the government to prove that someone on a terror watch list should not have a gun. Pelosi's spokesman, Drew Hammill, warned that a vote on an NRA-written bill "just isn't going to cut it.''

The House next week will also take up a bipartisan bill by Pennsylvania Republican Tim Murphy that seeks to address gun violence by overhauling the mental health system.

Republicans believe terrorism and mental illness, not access to guns, have been leading causes of most mass shootings.

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Researchers: Estimate of Americans Identifying as Transgender Doubled

On a day when the Pentagon announced it is lifting its ban on transgender men and women openly serving in the U.S. military, a research institute in California announced findings that the number of men and women identifying as transgender has doubled over the last 10 years.

Jody Herman, a public policy scholar at the Williams Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, told VOA Thursday that the results are from people self-reporting on U.S. government surveys. She said while the study did not examine the factors behind the rise in self-identification, growing social acceptance of transgender people might have influenced the rise in numbers.

"That's one possible explanation," she said, "that it's becoming more mainstream." She says that as social acceptance of transgender identity grows, it is likely that people would be more willing to identify as such on a survey.

Four Williams Institute researchers — Herman, Gary Gates, Andrew Flores and Taylor Brown, all public policy experts — compiled their results from the surveys by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that ask respondents if they identify as transgender.

FILE - Members of the Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus rehearse at a church in Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 7, 2015. The chorus is led by Sandi Hammond, a vocal coach who also trains members how to adjust their voices safely when they transition.

A previous study compiled from data collected in 2003 and 2007-2008 estimated that 0.3 percent of the U.S. population identified as transgender. The new results, using a larger sample size, put the estimate at 0.6 percent across the United States, with extremes of 0.3 percent estimated in the sparsely populated, conservative state of North Dakota and 0.8 percent in the Pacific Island state of Hawaii.

Bigger sample, better data

Because the transgender question was an optional part of the survey, the earlier study had data only from the states of California and Massachusetts. The latest study, using 2014 data, had responses to the question from 19 states, enabling the researchers to use more sophisticated tools to estimate the transgender population across all 50 states.

The newer method relies on demographic information such as race, ethnicity, age and educational level to predict the likelihood that an individual would identify as transgender in states where that information was not available.

Perhaps not surprisingly, younger people — those between the ages of 18 and 24 — were more likely than older people to identify as transgender. They were also more likely to be of racial or ethnic minorities, and to have lower incomes.

In some cases, the demographic factors explained results that might otherwise seem surprising. The conservative southern state of Texas, for example, had a transgender population on the high end of the scale, at 0.6 percent. But 38 percent of the Texas population is Latino, according to the Pew Research Center, and Latinos are more likely than whites to identify as transgender.

FILE - Inmates hang out on their bunks in a unit in the Harris County Jail for gay, bisexual and transgender inmates in Houston, Texas, Dec. 10, 2013.

It might be worth noting that a study of transgender identification does not equal a study of sexual orientation, although those identifications can coincide.

"Transgender people can be of any sexual orientation," Herman said. "But you do of course see LGBT together quite a bit" — the acronym that represents "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender."

Herman explains that those groups might be referenced together because they tend to experience the same types of discrimination, even when they don't overlap.

"There has been some research to suggest that people who are [homosexual or bisexual] are discriminated against because they don't express gender in a traditional way, and you hear about trans people experiencing discrimination because of anti-gay bias," she said.

Follow-up

Herman says researchers might do another follow-up study in the future, although nothing has been scheduled. She says five more U.S. states added the transgender question to their surveys for 2015, and if more follow suit, "that would certainly be a reason to re-do the study."

Was the study done in service to any particular policy goal? Herman says while the mission of the Williams Institute is to study law and policy issues centered on sexual orientation and gender identity, the researchers' goal is only to provide data.

"We try to be timely and put out research that can dispel myths with facts and figures. We try to inject policy debates with solid, rigorous research," she said. "To the extent that people can get the information they need, that's great. That's the mission of the Williams Institute."

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#RumiWasntWhite: Outrage over Hollywood Choice to Play Persian Poet

It was only four months ago that the U.S. film industry was slammed for snubbing actors of color by casting white actors to play the part of Asians, Hispanics, or Native Americans, and ignoring great performances by minorities when the nominees for this year's Oscars were announced. But Hollywood, say critics across the Middle East, doesn't appear to have gotten the message.

Oscar-winning screenwriter David Franzoni and producer Stephen Joel Brown are working on a film about Jalaluddin al-Rumi, the 13^th Century theologian, poet and mystic beloved to Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Jews across the globe.

The filmmakers say one of their motives in making the film is to challenge stereotypes about Muslims. But the actors they have in mind to play the leading roles are Leonardo di Caprio as Rumi—or Maulana, as he is known in Iran and Afghanistan—and Robert Downey Jr. as Shams-i-Tabrizi, Rumi's close friend and spiritual mentor.

That revelation sparked outrage across the world, especially in Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan, where Rumi is revered as a national hero, and folks vented their frustration on Twitter using the hashtag #RumiWasntWhite.

Writing in gal-dem, an online magazine that speaks for women of color, Paniz Khosroshahy challenged the producer to explain why he favors casting the two white men in the film.

"Los Angeles is the capital of the Iranian diaspora. So how come, Mr. Brown, there are always enough South Asian and Middle Eastern men to cast as the savage Persians in 300, but somehow only Jake Gyllenhaal available to act in Prince of Persia?"

At least three online petitions have been launched, asking Hollywood to cast actors more appropriate for the roles, such as the Canadian American American star Donnie Keshawarz, of Afghan descent (below left), or Iranian American actor Shaun Toub (below right).

Go into any Afghani home and you are likely to see a copy of Rumi's Masnavi on a shelf, said Crystal Keshawaz, co-founder of Afghan Women in the Diaspora.

"We as children are taught his poetry from a young age, and it becomes part of the core of who we are as adults," she said. "We finally have the opportunity to share our true cultural history with the world through the lens of Maulana's [Rumi's] life story, and they want to give the role to a man who has no dearth of roles available to him."

But not everyone is outraged, pointing out that Rumi, who was born in Afghanistan and spent most of his life in Turkey, was not a "person of color." They launched a counter-hashtag on Twitter, #RumiWasWhite.

Still others believe the issue of skin color should be irrelevant.

No final announcements about casting have yet been made, and sources quote DiCaprio as saying he's not interested in the role.

The actor Donnie Keshawarz, who has played a wide variety of television and film roles, weighed in on the debate.

"The fact that an actor not of Middle-Eastern heritage wants to play Rumi doesn't necessarily affront me as an actor," he said via email.

What would bother him more, he said, would be to see an actor do it badly.

"Since Hollywood seeks to tell stories of the human experience, then I think it should take delicate care to tell the stories in a way that honors the diversity & complexities of said human experience in as truthful way as possible," he said.

Would he consider the part?

"I would be honored to be considered to play Rumi—or any role of such importance and scope, and am humbled that my name would even figure in."

As for Rumi, if he were asked about the controversy today, his answer might well be:

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With Johnson Out, Can a New ‘Margaret Thatcher’ Save Britain?

LONDON—

The contest to replace David Cameron as Conservative Party leader and Britain’s prime minister started in earnest Thursday with top candidates outlining their strategy on how to grapple with the huge consequences of last week’s Brexit vote.

The race, however, will be without the colorful Boris Johnson, the tousle-haired former London mayor, who, after falling out with his "Leave" campaign colleague, Justice Minister Michael Gove, unexpectedly decided not to contest the party leadership. Johnson said he doubted he could unify the party split between pro- and anti-EU camps.

Johnson’s withdrawal shocked political circles and dismayed Britain’s tabloid journalists, who were counting on him for lively copy. His withdrawal, some Conservatives told VOA, was linked to an extraordinary private email by Gove’s wife, the well-connected journalist Sarah Vines, to her husband. It laid bare the distrust between the top two Leave campaigners and the email leaked to the media helped propel Gove to throw his hat in the ring.

In the email, Vines also hinted at the shadowy involvement in the Conservative leadership contest of press baron Rupert Murdoch, who owns a chunk of the British press, and Daily Mail editor Lord Dacre.

Vines argued they “instinctively dislike Boris.”

FILE - Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May speaks at a news conference in London, March 23, 2015.

With Johnson out, Theresa May, the strong-willed interior minister who reminds many in the Tory party of Margaret Thatcher, is now the favorite to replace Cameron. Just before Johnson’s withdrawal from the race, she presented herself confidently as the “unity candidate” in a feisty, no-nonsense speech that included well-aimed slaps at Johnson.

May backed the "Remain" camp in last week’s referendum, but on Thursday reached out to the party’s euro-skeptics.

“Brexit means Brexit,” she said, adding, “The campaign was fought, the vote was held, turnout was high and the public gave their verdict.

“There must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door and no second referendum," she added.

May ruled out also a rerun referendum or a plebiscite on the terms of Brexit once negotiated with the European Union and ruled out an early general election.

Future of freedom of movement

May also said any subsequent free trade deal with the bloc could not include freedom of movement, a likely deal-breaker for European leaders. They are insisting any trade deal include the right of EU citizens to live and work in Britain and Britons accorded the same opportunity in EU states.

The other 27 EU member states signed a tough statement Wednesday hardening their conditions for allowing Britain access to the EU market after departure.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves after the EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium, June 29, 2016.

At the explicit demand of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the statement included the non-negotiable principles of the European Union, free movement of capital, labor, services and goods.

“Access to the single market requires acceptance of all four freedoms, the statement said.

Asked by the BBC if the European Union would shift on freedom of movement, the Anglophile Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said, “It is a non-starter.”

The Conservative leadership competition features five candidates, including Pensions Minister Stephen Crabb, who was raised in local authority housing by a single mother, an unlikely Conservative background.

As the contest got under way, there were other worrying signs that jilted EU leaders are prepared to squeeze Britain on Brexit negotiations. May said the negotiations won't be able to start until the end of the year.

France launches financial challenge

In a bid to maneuver Paris into a position to be able to grab international banking business, French President Francois Hollande is seeking EU rules that would threaten London’s status as the continent's financial capital. He wants to require banks and clearing houses involved in euro-denominated trading to do so only in the eurozone countries.

With any informal negotiations being ruled out by EU leaders before Britain’s formal notification of departure, the pre-talks positions of the British and Europeans are being pegged out very publicly via television interviews and statements to the press.

This is adding to an escalation in tension, and in the war of words, between the continent’s leaders and the British; but, as tempers flare, the two sides appear to be talking past each other.

Labor party in turmoil

Anger is not only rising when it comes to EU leaders versus the British. An open rebellion by 80 percent of Labor’s lawmakers against leftist party leader Jeremy Corbyn is turning more toxic.

Despite a vote of no-confidence in his leadership being passed earlier this week by lawmakers, Corbyn has rebuffed all appeals to resign, including from former Labor leaders Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (C) leaves his home in London, June 26, 2016.

Corbyn is surrounded by former members of the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party and Stalinist groups, including the Communist Party of Great Britain, says Labor lawmaker Mike Gapes. They also stock the constituency parties.

“They have hijacked the party and don’t care what happens to it, nor if Labor gets trounced in elections,” he told VOA. “They believe in so-called revolutionary defeatism - electoral defeat doesn’t matter for them as long as they recruit a few more members for their cadre,” he said.

Gapes added, “The Labor Party hasn’t a God-given right to exist. We are fighting an existential battle, and if Corbyn remains as party leader, we will face a wipe-out at the polls.”

Several anti-Corbyn lawmakers have been forced to call the police over death threats made by far-left party activists. Corbyn is expected to face a leadership challenge from Anna Eagle, a minister in Gordon Brown’s government.

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Substance in Marijuana Could Benefit Alzheimer’s Patients

More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's Disease, the most damaging form of dementia, and it is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Not every instance of memory loss signals that your brain may be misfiring, of course, so the Alzheimer's Association prepared this list of warning signs:

* Memory loss that disrupts daily life, such as forgetting names or dates, but not instances where you forget a name briefly, then remember it five minutes later

* Difficulty in making plans or solving problems, or unusual difficulty in concentrating

* Familiar tasks become hard to complete, such as remembering the rules of a favorite game or driving to a location you know well

* Confusion about time or place, such as forgetting what day it is

* Trouble with reading or judging distance, apart from organic vision problems such as cataracts

* Problems with words in speaking or writing, such as calling a "wristwatch" a "hand clock"

* Misplacing things or putting them in unusual places, also losing the ability to retrace your steps, and sometimes accusing others of stealing from you

* Poor judgment or decision-making, such as making bad decisions about money or neglecting cleanliness and grooming

* Withdrawal from social activities, such as hobbies, sports or work projects

* Changes in mood or personality such as confusion, suspicion, fear or anxiety, even among friends

If you notice any of these changes in yourself, the Alzheimer's Association recommends that you consult a doctor.

A substance found in marijuana might remove a kind of plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study.

Writing in the journal Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, researchers from the Salk Institute say that the chemical THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and other active components of marijuana can “promote the cellular removal of amyloid beta, a toxic protein associated with Alzheimer's disease” in neurons grown in a lab.

"Although other studies have offered evidence that cannabinoids might be neuroprotective against the symptoms of Alzheimer's, we believe our study is the first to demonstrate that cannabinoids affect both inflammation and amyloid beta accumulation in nerve cells," said Salk Professor David Schubert, the senior author of the paper.

Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain disease leading to memory loss and dementia. According to the National Institutes of Health, it affects more than 5 million Americans.

Amyloid beta accumulation in nerve cells has been associated with Alzheimer’s, and it usually appears before symptoms of the disease, but researchers remain unsure how it forms.

For their study, Salk Institute researchers looked at nerve cells which had been altered to produce higher than normal amounts of amyloid beta.

They found that higher levels of the substance “were associated with cellular inflammation and higher rates of neuron death.”

However, when exposed to THC, the levels of amyloid beta decreased, eliminating the “inflammatory response.”

"Inflammation within the brain is a major component of the damage associated with Alzheimer's disease, but it has always been assumed that this response was coming from immune-like cells in the brain, not the nerve cells themselves," said Antonio Currais, a postdoctoral researcher in Schubert's laboratory and first author of the paper.

"When we were able to identify the molecular basis of the inflammatory response to amyloid beta, it became clear that THC-like compounds that the nerve cells make themselves may be involved in protecting the cells from dying."

While the tests were only done on cells in a lab, the researchers think further study could result in “novel therapeutics” to combat Alzheimer’s.

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Juno Space Probe Ready for July 4 Fireworks

The Juno space probe is still millions of kilometers and 18 days away from Jupiter, but on July 4, the spacecraft will fire its main engine for 35 minutes as it enters a polar orbit around the gas giant.

The probe, which is the size of a basketball court, will skim the planet's clouds, eventually coming within 4,667 kilometers of Jupiter as it attempts to get a look under the massive planet’s thick cloud cover, hopefully leading to better insight on the planet’s “origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.”

"At this time last year our New Horizons spacecraft was closing in for humanity's first close views of Pluto," said Diane Brown, Juno program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Now, Juno is poised to go closer to Jupiter than any spacecraft ever before to unlock the mysteries of what lies within."

During the entire mission, Juno will make 37 “close approaches” to Jupiter, and each one could imperil the craft. For example, under the clouds, there is a layer of hydrogen under so much pressure that it conducts electricity. That, along with the planet’s fast rotation [one day on Jupiter is only 10 hours long], creates a strong magnetic field, creating what NASA calls the “harshest radiation environment in the solar system.”

"Over the life of the mission, Juno will be exposed to the equivalent of over 100 million dental X-rays," said Rick Nybakken, Juno's project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "But, we are ready. We designed an orbit around Jupiter that minimizes exposure to Jupiter's harsh radiation environment. This orbit allows us to survive long enough to obtain the tantalizing science data that we have traveled so far to get."

Juno is also fitted with “radiation-hardened electrical wiring and shielding” as well as a unique titanium vault that protects the probe’s most vital equipment, such as the flight computer. The vault is so strong that it will reduce radiation exposure by 800 times. Without it, “Juno's electronic brain would more than likely fry before the end of the very first flyby of the planet.”

Juno launched on August 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its July 4 arrival in orbit around Jupiter coincides with the U.S. independence holiday which is celebrated with fireworks displays.

Here's a video on the Juno mission:

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UN: Aid Has Reached All Besieged Syrian Areas

GENEVA—

In what it called a milestone, the United Nations reported humanitarian aid has now reached all of Syria's 18 besieged areas.

The U.N. said this is the first time the besieged towns of Arbin and Zamalka, outside of Damascus, have received international assistance since November, 2012.

The U.N. reported a 37-truck convoy rolled into the towns of Arbin and Zamalka Wednesday evening. They were carrying food, water, sanitation, hygiene and other emergency supplies for 20,000 needy Syrian men, women, and children.

There was a downside, however. Jan Egeland, senior adviser to the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, said one driver was shot in the chest by a sniper while leaving the area. He said the driver is receiving treatment in a hospital in Damascus.

"But, it was a very close call and it shows how risky this work is because there is no cessation of hostilities in too many places now in Syria," he added. "So, it is in many ways against all odds that we have been able to reach all of the 18 areas at least once and at least with partial assistance."

While the areas have been reached, Egeland said he worries the tens of thousands of starving people who received the first U.N. aid deliveries in January might once again be starving.

He said people in Madaya and Zabadani near Damascus and those in Foah and Kafraya to the north near Idlib have received no further international assistance since then.

He said another matter of great concern is the U.N.'s inability to provide medical services and supplies to the thousands of people trapped in besieged areas.

"The parties to this conflict," he said, "including the government of Syria, have not been willing to follow international law in terms of providing doctors, nurses, medical organizations with all of the permits to serve the civilian population."

Egeland said the warring parties are blocking medical aid to people in besieged areas to prevent doctors from treating wounded soldiers who then might return to the battlefield.

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US Finds Progress Slow Against Human Trafficking in Africa

JOHANNESBURG—

The U.S. State Department released its annual Trafficking in Persons report Thursday and again, Africa continues to be a major source and destination for human trafficking of all kinds — from forced labor to sexual slavery.

Again this year, not one African nation made the report’s top tier — which is dominated by developed Western nations like the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

The State Department says the ratings are based more on the extent of government action to combat trafficking than the size of the country’s problem.

A significant number of African countries remain at the lowest possible ranking.

Migrant crisis

Susan Coppedge, a senior advisor to the U.S. secretary of state, said the migrant crisis that saw more than a million Africans, Iraqis and Syrians flee to Europe last year has had a negative effect. She said the U.S is trying to help the destination countries screen for trafficking victims.

“So the migrant crisis creates a whole new pool of individuals who are vulnerable and susceptible to trafficking. If they are stateless or without documents. or without jobs, without their families they become vulnerable to the false promises that traffickers can give them for jobs, or safety, or shelter,” she said.

Jakob Christensen, a program manager for Awareness Against Human Trafficking, an anti-trafficking group in Nairobi, says he’s especially worried about the effect of ongoing conflict in East and Central Africa.

“I think the main change is the different migration patterns that we are seeing at the moment from places like Burundi and Somalia and South Sudan,” he said.

Anti-trafficking measures

The report notes that in 2015, six African nations improved or introduced anti-trafficking legislation. It also noted that countries that improved — like Burkina Faso, the lone improver in West Africa — stepped up efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers.

Ten African countries slid to the State Department’s tier two watch list this year.

A tier 3 ranking — the lowest level — can have financial consequences. Countries with that rating may face restrictions on non-humanitarian, non-trade-related assistance from the U.S. The U.S. may also lobby the International Monetary Fund to deny loans to Tier 3 nations.

Half of the 27 nations on the tier 3 list are in Africa, including two fresh demotions this year — Djibouti and Sudan.

The tiny East African nation of Djibouti saw some 90,000 migrants pass through last year — creating opportunities for traffickers preying on vulnerable people. The report criticized Djibouti for not doing more to protect victims.

Sudan, which separated from South Sudan in 2011, saw more trafficking because of movement of people between South Sudan and from heavy flows of African and Syrian refugees through the country. The report also expressed concern over child labor in Sudan.

In 2015, law enforcement agencies across Africa reported the discovery of just over 12,000 victims of trafficking. But as anti-trafficking activists often say, such numbers are under-reported — sometimes because of poor law enforcement, chaos, or because victims do not want to come forward.

South Africa

Anti-trafficking activist Natalie Ogden says the continent’s most developed nation, South Africa, is making strides despite not moving up in the rankings this year.

Ogden founded the Red Light Anti Human Trafficking Initiative, which helps victims of sex trafficking in the South African city of Durban.

She says in South Africa — a magnet for migrants from around the continent — the causes of trafficking are complex.

“Human trafficking is almost a byproduct of various different other social ills within South Africa that haven’t been taken care of,” said Ogden.

The report acknowledges that no nation is without problems — including the U.S. — and that ending trafficking is a difficult task, and one with many complex roots. But the report says it is too important of a problem to ignore.

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Rights Group Calls on Obama to Require Prohibition of Child Soldiers

Human Rights Watch urged President Barack Obama’s administration to require foreign governments receiving United States military assistance to immediately end their use of child soldiers.

The rights group renewed its call Thursday, as the U.S. State Department issued its annual trafficking report with a new list of countries implicated in the use of child soldiers.

Many of the governments listed in Trafficking in Persons Report 2016 “receive U.S. military aid year after year despite their continued use of children as soldiers,” HRW children’s rights advocacy director Jo Becker said. “President Obama should make clear that countries using child soldiers are going to lose U.S. military support.”

Recruiting children

The list names ten countries: Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

А YouTube screen grab from an Islamic State propaganda video shows an IS recruiter with two child soldiers. Children as young as eight years old are reportedly being trained to serve in roles ranging from spies, to front line soldiers, to suicide bombers.

Iraq was added to the list for the first time this year, while Afghanistan was excluded.

“The United States has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to support an Afghan militia that recruits and uses children to fight the Taliban,” Becker said. “Afghanistan should also be on this list and subject to military sanctions.”

Obama must decide by the end of September whether to waive the law’s military sanctions for any of the listed governments for fiscal year 2017.

In 2008, the U.S. Congress approved the Child Soldiers Prevention Act which prohibits certain forms of U.S. military aid to countries that use child soldiers in their national armed forces or support militias or paramilitaries that recruit and use child soldiers.

The U.S. president can waive the prohibition for national security reasons. Since the act went into effect in 2010, Obama has issued a waiver for 26 out of 33 countries using child soldiers.

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Ramadan-related Violence Concerns Turkish Rights Activists

When beer-drinking fans of a British rock band arrived at an Istanbul record shop earlier this month, some Muslim neighbors were so incensed about the perceived disrespect during the Muslim holy month that they attacked patrons.

“Are you not ashamed doing this in Ramadan?” one attacker screamed, according to amateur video taken of the incident.

The assault triggered street protests in the days that followed. The incident and fallout focused attention on what activists say is a growing problem of hate crimes and violence in Turkey during Ramadan, a month set aside by Muslims for peace and spiritual reflection,

“Every year, we witness attacks against those who do not fast in Ramadan,” said Turkish professor Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “As long as systematic hate crimes are not tackled, intolerance and its conducive crimes will continue to escalate.”

Secular nation, religious agenda

Turkey is a secular country. But Islam is the largest religion in Turkey, with nearly 99 percent of the population being Muslim. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has promoted a religious agenda that has angered many secularists.

“Using brute force to interfere is as wrong as organizing an event spilling onto the street during Ramadan,” Erdogan said, equating the record shop attacks with the demonstrations that followed.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses army officers after an "Iftar" meal during the fasting month of Ramadan in Mardin, Turkey, June 14, 2016.

Most Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan. And some Turks who do not fast are wary about how they conduct themselves, because they say they are often subject to both verbal and physical attacks. They often do not eat in restaurants during the day, they say, and conduct many social gatherings in private.

“You could not go around this neighborhood drinking alcohol,” said one young man who was attacked by an angry mob during the first night of Ramadan. He was with several university students shopping at an alcohol-and-tobacco store in Istanbul when the attack occurred. One student’s nose was broken, and several students sustained minor injuries.

The man, who did not wish to be identified, said he had not filed a formal complaint for fear of reprisals. Activists say most victims do not press charges.

Verbal abuse

Not all attacks during Ramadan are physical.

A female university student in Erzurum was verbally abused by two men last year because she was “smoking outside during fasting time,” according to news reports. The incident was recorded and widely shared on social media.

Turkish authorities often condemn the Ramadan violence, and several arrests have been made in connection with the record shop attack.

Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, is an official Islamic institution whose duties, according to its website, include “making decisions on religious matters; expressing views and replying to questions on religion.” Halil Erdogan, a spokesman for the Diyanet, told VOA that the government never approves of Ramadan acts of violence.

Turkish police provide security as posters with pictures of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, left, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, background right, decorate the entrance to a mass Iftar dinner, the traditional meal to break the fast during Ramadan, organized by the ruling party, in Istanbul, June 25, 2016.

“Fasting is a very important form of worship in Islam, but whether people will observe it or not is completely their free choice,” he said. “And no one has the right to pressure others to practice fasting or intervene in their realm of freedom.”

Police intolerance

Some victims say the police, too, can be intolerant.

Sergen Kay, a member of the left-wing Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP), went to a hospital to see a friend who had been wounded in a bombing attack this month in Istanbul. Kay told VOA that he and his two friends were smoking in the garden of the hospital when two men approached them.

“We later learned that they were policemen in plainclothes,” he said. “They shouted at us, saying, ‘Are you smoking during fasting time?’ We started quarrelling. They called us terrorists. ... Then they detained us."

Kay was released from detention after a few hours, and no formal complaints were filed by either party, he said.

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Palestinian Kills Israeli Girl, 13, Sleeping in Her Bedroom

JERUSALEM—

A Palestinian assailant broke into a home in a West Bank settlement early Thursday and stabbed a 13-year-old Jewish girl to death as she slept in bed, the latest in a nine-month wave of violence that had recently shown signs of tapering off.

The attacker, identified as a 17-year-old high school dropout, was fatally shot by security guards.

The Israeli military sealed off the entrances to a nearby village, the home of the attacker, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on both the Palestinian leadership and the international community to condemn the brutal assault.

"The horrifying murder of a young girl in her bed underscores the bloodlust and inhumanity of the incitement-driven terrorists that we are facing,'' Netanyahu said after an emergency meeting with his defense minister. "The entire nation deeply identifies with the family's pain and declares to the murderers: you will not break us.''

The hospital identified the slain girl as Hallel Yaffa Ariel. She was a a cousin of Uri Ariel, a Cabinet minister from the Jewish Home, a party affiliated with the West Bank settler movement. The minister later said Israel would make "every effort'' to build up settlements in the West Bank.

Photographs circulated by the Israeli government showed a pool of blood in a colorful children's bedroom in Kiryat Arba, a hard-line Jewish settlement located near the Palestinian city of Hebron, a focal point of the current wave of violence.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department condemned "in the strongest terms the outrageous terrorist attack,'' calling the stabbing "unconscionable.''

Since last September, Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing, shooting and vehicular ramming attacks that have killed 33 Israelis and two American tourists. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during that time, most identified as attackers by Israel.

The assaults were once near-daily occurrences, but have become less frequent in recent months though they have not stopped altogether. On June 8, a pair of Palestinian gunmen killed four Israeli civilians in a popular Tel Aviv tourist district.

Israeli officials say the violence is the result of anti-Israeli incitement by Palestinian leaders and in Palestinian social media. Palestinian officials say the violence is the result of despair and hopelessness after two decades of failed peace efforts, and the lack of hope for gaining independence after nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation.

Israeli security forces have had a difficult time stopping the attackers, in large part because they have tended to be young "lone wolf'' assailants, often in their teens or early 20s, acting on their own and not sent by organized militant groups.

Thursday's attacker seemed to fit that profile. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified him as Mohammed Tarayreh, 17, from the Bani Naim village near Kiryat Arba. An earlier report had him as being 19.

Adnan Tarayreh, a cousin, said Mohammed had dropped out of school and was working in a bakery. He said the family was surprised by Mohammed's attack and speculated that the teen may have been spurred to action after the death of a cousin who was killed while attempting to ram Israelis in Kiryat Arba.

The military said it had closed the entrances of Bani Naim to all but humanitarian and medical cases. Troops arrived at Tarayreh's family home for investigation, the army said.

Netanyahu said Israel was revoking Israeli work permits for members of Tarayreh's extended family, and preparations were being made to demolish the family's home, a much criticized Israeli tactic.

Residents of Kiryat Arba said Tarayreh had climbed over a fence surrounding the settlement and entered the community undetected. It was not immediately clear how he entered the home.

The military said private Israeli security guards at the settlement had fired at Tarayreh as he tried to flee the attack scene. One guard was stabbed before the assailant was killed, the army said. Emergency services' spokesman Yonatan Yagodovsky said the stabbed man was in serious condition.

Speaking to reporters at the Jerusalem hospital where her daughter died, Ariel's mother, Rina, said the girl was sleeping when the attacker slipped into her room and attacked her. She defiantly said the community would remain strong.

"Kiryat Arba is ours and it's still a place you can live in,'' she said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not comment on the attack. He has spoken out against violence in the past, though Israeli officials say his apologies have been half-hearted and at times he has made comments amounting to incitement.

Abbas faced criticism earlier this month after he repeated an unsubstantiated claim of a plot by Israeli rabbis to call on Jews to poison Palestinian wells. He later disavowed his comments.

A growing number of Israelis believe the roots of the violence go much deeper, and that the lack of hope over a stagnated peace process is driving the unrest.

"People need to see a light at the end of the tunnel,'' retired Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni told Israel Radio. Shamni is among the authors of a new report, endorsed by more than 200 retired security commanders, urging Israel to take steps to improve the political climate and Palestinian economy to create conditions for a final peace deal.

Palestinian political science lecturer Ahmad Jamil Azem at Birzeit University said the past months of violence have persisted because young Palestinians have felt exasperated by Israel's ongoing military occupation.

He noted that in previous grassroots Palestinian campaigns against Israelis, their leadership managed to harness the public's frustration and transform it into a movement.

"Now we don't have anything,'' Azem said. "All the organized sectors, the unions, the political movements, nobody has a political vision.''

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US Adds 8 Countries to List of Worst Human Traffickers

WASHINGTON—

The United States added eight more countries Thursday to its blacklist of nations it said are doing the least to end the $150 billion worldwide human trafficking industry.

The U.S. State Department put the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on the list of its 27 worst offenders, along with the fledgling democracy of Myanmar, Haiti, Djibouti, Papua New Guinea, Sudan and Suriname.

Kuwait and Thailand were moved off the lowest Tier 3 ranking of the annual listing, promoted a higher to a "Tier 2 Watch List" indicating they were making efforts to combat the trade in humans but still under scrutiny. The State Department said that the governments in Libya, Somalia and Yemen were too chaotic to be able to judge their efforts against human trafficking.

Secretary of State John Kerry, in releasing the 16th annual report, said human trafficking remains a major problem in parts of the world, especially sexual slavery involving women and forced, captive labor.

"We're talking about slavery, modern day slavery of 20 million people," he said. "These people are forced to endure a living hell that no human being ought to have to endure. It's stunning, outrageous the magnitude of human trafficking."

FILE - Myanmar government officials and U.N. officials stand on a boat used for human trafficking at a jetty outside Sittwe, Myanmar, May 23, 2015.

'She's not a little girl, she's a slave’

He recalled the plight of a 12-year-old girl in Syria who was repeatedly raped by an Islamic State fighter even as her mother pleaded for the girl's attacker to stop. "He just said, 'She's not a little girl, she's a slave.'"

The top U.S. diplomat decried Thai fishing companies that have enslaved workers, keeping them in isolation on the seas to hide abusive treatment of them, and those who keep domestic workers captive and deny them normal freedoms. Kerry said new model contracts have been drawn up to try to prevent the abuse of care givers hired by the world's wealthiest people.

Thailand moved up the list after its government reported an increase in prosecutions and convictions for trafficking.

But the report said that in neighboring Myanmar, the government continues to coerce men, women, and children into forced labor, while children are recruited into the state armed forces. The State Department said Myanmar's treatment of minority Rohingya Muslims also increased their vulnerability to trafficking.

The U.S. said Uzbekistan was put on Tier 3 list because the Central Asian nation was forcing adults work in the cotton harvest and had made efforts to hide labor violations from independent monitors.

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