Day: July 4, 2017

Gambian, Afghan Students Refused US Visas for Science Contest

A team of teenage Gambian students are upset and mystified at being denied visas to attend a major global robotics contest in Washington later this month.

This comes days after an Afghan girls team was also turned down by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Neither team was given any reason.

“It’s very disappointing, knowing that we are the only two countries that aren’t going to take part in the competition,” Gambian student Fatoumata Ceesay said.

The two teams will instead enter the competition via Skype. But the video link is no substitute after the youngsters worked for months perfecting their projects and dreamed of the thrill of visiting Washington.

“It would be an experience to see and discover other robots and ask questions and exchange ideas with others. It’s more than 160 countries, so we’d have the chance to mingle,” Ceesay said.

The Gambian and Afghan students are especially puzzled because teams from Iran and Sudan, and a group of Syrian refugees were given visas. All three Muslim-majority countries are on President Donald Trump’s travel ban. Afghanistan and Gambia are not.

Lida Azizi, a 17-year old from Herat, calls the visa rejection “a clear insult for the people of Afghanistan.”

The U.S. embassies in Afghanistan and Gambia and the State Department say they cannot discuss visa requests.

WATCH: Robotics contest for youth promotes innovation

A group called FIRST Global Challenge holds the yearly robotics competition to build interest in science, technology, engineering and math around the world.

The group says the focus of the competition is finding solutions to problems in such fields as water, energy, medicine and food production.

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Trump, Merkel on G-20 Collision Course Over Climate, Trade

As police step up patrols and protesters set up camp in Hamburg, Germany, no one is expecting an easy weekend when U.S. President Donald Trump joins other heads of the world’s 20 leading economies.

Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are on a collision course on issues of climate and trade, but counterterrorism efforts, recent North Korean missile tests and Chinese steel dumping could bring them together.

Merkel pledges to work toward consensus on wider issues, but foresees no miracles in her relations with the U.S. administration.

“I do not think we will have unified positions on all issues at the end, but it is sensible and honest to talk to each other on all issues of international diplomacy,” Merkel told reporters ahead of the summit.

WATCH: Preview of G-20 meeting

President Trump said he has “bold” plans to impose steep tariffs or quotas on steel imports, the latest and perhaps most serious of threats to protect U.S. industry, and part of his America First strategy, one that has G-20 partners feeling nervous.

“What he is doing is he is throwing all kinds of cards up in the air — NAFTA, critique of climate change — because he actually wants a bit of a zero base policy,” said Tim Evans, a political economist at Middlesex University. “I think at the end of the day he probably, of course, wants free trade in the win-win sense, but what he is trying to expose is perhaps some of the hypocrisy of countries like China who talk the talk of openness but do not always deliver. So there is going to be a real clash of the titans at this summit.”

Shock talk brings results

After threatening to not stand by NATO allies unless they pay their share of defense, members pledged to boost their contributions. Trump said he would rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, and now he has a deal with Mexico on sugar exports.

The U.S. leader’s target now is China and its cheap steel exports that are blamed for killing jobs not only in the United States, but in Britain and other G-20 states, including Germany.

Chinese officials are closely watching the direction of U.S. policy and have called on Washington to exercise caution.

Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord has stoked the anger of demonstrators in Hamburg as well as concern among Merkel and some other G-20 leaders, but analysts say the threat of cheap Chinese steel imports could be a common cause, and take precedence.

“Many of the G-20 members are experiencing exactly the same kinds of economic forces and constraints the U.S. is facing,” Shanker Singham, director of economic policy and prosperity studies at the Legatum Institute in London, told VOA. “So for example, in the U.K., the steel mills in Port Talbot and Redcar were closed because of, really, overcapacity of supply by the China steel sector. That is not very much different from what has been going on in Ohio and Pennsylvania. So I think this actually has the opportunity or a chance to get a lot of support.”

Wait-and-see approach

G-20 leaders, while nervous, are waiting to see what Trump actually does before taking any action, and all indications are that they are not rushing to adopt protectionist measures.

Global Trade Alert, a group that monitors protectionism, this week reported a drop in the number of such measures adopted by G-20 members in the last several months compared with the same period last year.

“The Trump administration has said a lot about ‘America First’ and fair trade and so forth, but they haven’t actually done that much so far,” said Singham. “G-20 members will be looking at ‘What do you really mean by this policy?’ in order to determine what their response to that policy will be.”

None of the major issues is likely to be resolved, but analysts say more clarity may emerge, given who the players are.

“The landscape that we see looming in Hamburg is one of showmanship,” said Evans. ”We have a lot of unpredictability because we have a lot of very charismatic, very outspoken leaders — people like [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan from Turkey, [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi from India, Vladimir Putin from Russia and of course President Trump. These people know how to play to global audiences.”

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Environmentalists Protest Logging in Ancient Polish Forest

Hundreds of environmentalists protested in Kraków Tuesday against widespread logging in Europe’s last primeval forest as a conference of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee got underway in the historic city in southern Poland.

The environmentalists demanded that the Polish government stop felling trees in the Białowieża forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site that straddles the border with Belarus. The forest of nearly 142,000 hectares is one of the last and largest remaining parts of an immense primeval forest that stretched across the European Plain 10,000 years ago.

Separated by a police cordon, forest rangers held a counterdemonstration in Kraków. They support the government’s explanation that selective logging will help save the forest, which is north of Brest, the Belarusian capital, and Białystok in Poland.

The forest is home to many rare species of birds and plants as well as hundreds of European bison, the continent’s largest mammals. It contains a number of large, ancient oak trees, survivors of the wars in Eastern Europe during the 20th century and many earlier conflicts; the biggest trees, named after historical figures in many cases, have circumferences of over 600 centimeters (20 feet) and stand over 30 meters (98 feet) tall.

The government said it increased logging to fight an infestation of bark beetles that has affected many spruce trees. Ecologists claim authorities have been felling not only infected trees but also healthy ones. They contend the government’s stand is a pretext to increase timber production for profit.

Scientists and the European Union, which says the increased logging is illegal, have also protested the logging. In late April, the European Commission gave Polish authorities a “final warning” to address its concerns over the forest or face being summoned by the EU’s top court.

The UNESCO committee, meeting in Poland through July 11 in its 41st annual session, is expected to decide Wednesday whether to send a mission of experts to the Białowieża Primeval Forest to reassess the situation.

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Exhibit Walks Tourists Through 241 Years of American History

Ahead of the Independence Day celebration, many museums across the country inaugurate special exhibits dedicated to the most important moments in American history. VOA Russian’s Maxim Moskalkov went to a vast display at the  National Museum of American History.

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African Officials Seek Tougher Penalties Against Fake Drug Imports

Lawyers from around Africa gathered in Cameroon this week to call for tougher legislation against counterfeit medicine.

 

Sixty tons of counterfeit medicine was burned after being seized by customs officials in Cameroon, who say the stockpile had an estimated value of $80,000.

Customs official Marcel Kamgaing said the imitation medicine was being used to treat everything from diabetes and hypertension to cancer and erectile dysfunction. He said the forged drugs were destined for sale at shops and roadside pharmacies.

He says illicit drugs are very dangerous to the health of consumers and may even kill due to poor packaging and preservation. He says importers should be informed that Cameroon’s customs laws give them the authority to destroy all fake drugs.

Counterfeit drugs conference

The burning was scheduled to coincide with an international conference this week in Yaounde on the problem of phony drugs in Africa.

Jackson Ngnie Kamga, president of the Cameroon Bar Association, says the current penalties are not enough of a deterrent. He said traffickers should face jail time.

He says because of its deadly consequences, it is high time for Cameroon to join African states to start considering the transportation and commercialization of bogus drugs as a major crime, not a simple offense punishable by fines and seizure of the illicit goods. He says the number of people who die because of such drugs makes them consider it another form of homicide, which the international community should help Africa tackle.

The World Health Organization says falsified medical products may contain no active ingredient, the wrong active ingredient or the wrong amount of the correct active ingredient. The WHO says about 100,000 deaths-a-year in Africa are linked to counterfeit drugs.

Asian source

Issouf Baadhio, an attorney from Burkina Faso, represented the International Association of Lawyers as its vice president. He said the counterfeit drugs are primarily manufactured in Asia, especially in China, and so African countries need to focus on stopping importation.

 

He says besides the fact that this trade is illegal, importing fake drugs has disastrous economic consequences and as such civil society organizations and professional groups like the International Association of Lawyers should join states and make sure that markets are protected and custom controls are set up at entrances to all states to detect and stop the sale of all dangerous drugs.

Identifying counterfeit medicines can be difficult. The WHO urges officials and consumers to look for signs like misspelled words on the packaging and to check that the manufacture and expiration dates inside and outside packaging match.

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Malnourished Children at Risk of Death From Cholera in Yemen, Africa

The U.N. children’s fund warns tens of thousands of malnourished children are at great risk in Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan, which are on the brink of famine.

UNICEF reports an estimated 4.7 million children in the three cholera-stricken countries are malnourished. Of these, UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac tells VOA, more than one million are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

“Let me remind you that a child who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition are nine times more likely to die of disease than a well-nourished child,” he said. “So, having cholera and diarrhea in countries where so many children are so fragile because of malnutrition among other things because of such a bad access to safe water is extremely worrying.”

Sudan outbreak

UNICEF says it also is extremely worried about an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea in Sudan, where the Federal Ministry of Health reports more than 20,000 cases of the disease, including over 400 deaths.

Boulierac says the disease has spread to 14 of 18 states and children account for more than 20 percent of the affected population.

“The situation in White Nile State, which is in central Sudan, is deeply worrying, since it is the most affected with 7,200 reported cases and since it has almost 100,000 refugees living in camps,” he said.

UNICEF says it needs access, security and more money to contain cholera and acute watery diarrhea in all four countries. It says aid operations must be scaled up. Malnourished children must receive special life-saving medication, therapeutic feeding and have access to safe drinking water.

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Soy ‘Milk’? Even Federal Agencies Can’t Agree on Terminology

Dairy farmers want U.S. regulators to banish the term “soy milk,” but documents show even government agencies haven’t always agreed on what to call such drinks.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture “fervently” wanted to use the term “soy milk” in educational materials for the public, according to emails recently released in response to a lawsuit. That irked the Food and Drug Administration, the agency that oversees the rule defining milk as coming from healthy cows.

It’s “not a trivial decision,” the FDA warned in one of the 2011 emails about the USDA’s desire to use the term.

The sour history over who gets to use “milk” reaches back to at least 1997, when a soy foods group petitioned the FDA to recognize the term “soymilk.” A couple of years later, the group pointed out that the FDA itself had used the term. Even now, the National Milk Producers Federation says it’s working to build support for legislation directing the FDA to enforce the federal standard. The dairy group says both “soy milk” and “soymilk” are inappropriate ways to describe non-dairy drinks made from soybeans, and that the one-word version is just an attempt to get around the definition.

There are plenty of other food names at issue. A European Union court recently ruled that a company named TofuTown can’t describe its products as “cheese.” U.S. rice producers have railed against “pretenders ” like diced cauliflower and said they may take the issue to the FDA.

But the FDA hasn’t even always been able to get other agencies to go along, as illustrated in the emails obtained by the Good Food Institute, which advocates alternatives to industrial animal agriculture. The GFI sued the FDA for public records relating to soy milk.

The email exchange started when a nutrition adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services alerted the FDA that the USDA planned to use “soy milk” in educational materials about dietary guidelines.

“USDA staff are preparing consumer publications and fervently want to use the term ‘soy milk’ because beverages are widely marketed this way,” the adviser wrote.

The FDA bristled and provided the federal definition of milk as a “lacteal secretion” from cows. Therefore, the FDA declared that referring to soy, almond and rice drinks as “milk” would be incorrect. It suggested the other agency say “beverage” or “fortified beverage.”

When that didn’t put the matter to rest, the FDA warned that the USDA’s use of the term could undermine the FDA’s regulatory authority.

That apparently didn’t stop the USDA, either.

“They are adamant about using the term in consumer publications,” the nutrition adviser wrote. The USDA had indicated that it would use “soy beverage” in official policy documents, but it wanted to use “plain language” in materials for the public.

Despite the federal regulation, others may also consider “soy milk” an acceptable term. The Merriam-Webster dictionary doesn’t limit milk’s definition to cows, saying it is “a fluid secreted by the mammary glands of females for the nourishment of their young.”

It also allows for a “food product produced from seeds or fruit that resembles and is used similarly to cow’s milk.”

Asked how the spat was resolved, the USDA provided materials from 2011 that use both terms by referring to “soymilk (soy beverage).” The agency also uses the term elsewhere, including on its “Choose My Plate” website, which currently says “calcium-fortified soymilk (soy beverage)” is part of the dairy group.

The National Milk Producers Federation says the USDA’s usage of the term shows even other government agencies are confused about how to describe soy beverages in the absence of consistent enforcement by the FDA.

The FDA declined to comment.

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Top 5 Songs for Week Ending July 8

We’re counting down the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending July 8, 2017.

It’s a big week on the Hot 100, as we finally break a 12-week chart drought.

Number 5: Ed Sheeran ” Shape of You”

Ed Sheeran slips a slot to number five with “Shape Of You.” Ed is vocal in opposing ticket re-sellers, and now he’s taking the fight to another level.

When fans come to see him in one of his seven U.K. stadium dates in 2018, they’ll need four forms of identification. In a statement, Ed’s label Atlantic says the security measures are meant to ensure fans aren’t ripped off by inflated prices on secondary ticket sites.

For 12 weeks, a female voice wasn’t heard in the Top Five. That drought has ended and you can thank Rihanna.

*Hot Shot Debut* Number 4: DJ Khaled Featuring Rihanna & Bryson Tiller “Wild Thoughts”

DJ Khaled takes Hot Shot Debut honors, opening in fourth place with “Wild Thoughts” featuring Rihanna and Bryson Tiller.

Female artists had gone missing from the Top Five for 12 weeks…a streak not equaled since 1972, when the women were shut out for 13 weeks.

 

Number 3: Bruno Mars ” That’s What I Like”

 

From here, things quiet down considerably.  Bruno Mars spends another week in third place with “That’s What I Like.”

Last week, Camila Cabello announced that she’d go on tour with Bruno here in North America – needless to say she was happy about it! Their joint dates begin July 20 in San Jose, California and run through August 22. September finds Dua Lipa taking over, touring with Bruno into 2018.

 

Number 2: DJ Khaled Featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper & Lil Wayne ” I’m The One”

 

DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper and Lil Wayne stay put in second place with “I’m The One.”

TMZ has video footage of Justin meeting Khaled’s little son Asahd during the video shoot for “I’m The One”…and the eight-month-old promptly bursts into tears. Asahd is a celebrity thanks to his father’s social media posts…and he also graces the cover of Khaled’s new album Grateful.

 

Number 1: Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber “Despacito”

Here’s something for Justin Bieber to be grateful for: Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber are your Hot 100 champs for a seventh week with “Despacito.”

Late last month, Justin threw his Yeezy shoes into the crowd at the Wireless Festival in Frankfurt, Germany. The right shoe is being auctioned on ebay…current bid nearly $8,000 — while the left one is now an Instagram star with nearly $10,000 followers.

And so it goes…until we do it again next week!

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Tesla Says its Model 3 Car will Go on Sale on Friday

Electric car maker Tesla says its much-ballyhooed Model 3 car for the masses will go on sale on Friday.

CEO Elon Musk made the announcement Monday on Twitter.

 

The car is to start around $35,000 and with a $7,500 federal electric car tax credit, could cost $27,500. Tesla says the five-seat car will be able to go 215 miles (133 kilometers) on a single charge and will be sporty, accelerating from zero to 60 miles per hour in under six seconds.

 

Musk had said that production was on track to start in July, but Tesla has often faced delays in getting vehicles to market. The Palo Alto, California-based company aims to make 5,000 Model 3 sedans per week by the end of this year and 10,000 per week in 2018.

 

Tesla hasn’t said how many people have put down $1,000 refundable deposits for the Model 3, but Musk has said people who put down a deposit now won’t get a car until the end of 2018, suggesting it could be close to 500,000.

 

Whether Tesla can meet its production goals is an open question. Its last new vehicle, the Model X SUV, was delayed nearly 18 months. Musk says the Model 3 is much simpler to make, but 14-year-old Tesla has no experience producing and selling vehicles in high volumes. Tesla made just 84,000 cars last year. Bigger rivals like General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota routinely sell around 10 million vehicles per year.

 

Even if the Model 3 is on time, servicing all those vehicles will still be a challenge. Model S and Model X owners are already worried about having to share Tesla’s company-owned charging stations with an influx of new cars. And while Tesla is promising to increase its network of stores and service centers by 30 percent this year, it began 2017 with just 250 service centers worldwide. That leaves many potential owners miles from a service center.

 

Musk has said a new fleet of mobile service trucks will be deployed to help customers who are far from service centers. Tesla also plans to double its global high-speed charging points to 10,000 by the end of this year and increase them by another 50 percent-100 percent in 2018.

 

Until recently, Tesla owned the market for fully-electric vehicles that can go 200 miles (324 kilometers) or more on a charge. But that’s changing. GM beat Tesla to the mass market with the Chevrolet Bolt, a $36,000 car that goes 238 miles (about 200 kilometers) per charge. Audi plans to introduce an electric SUV with 300 miles (486 kilometers) of range next year; Ford will have one by 2020. Volkswagen plans more than 30 electric vehicle models by 2025.

 

Automotive competitors like Mercedes and Volvo – not to mention tech companies like Google and Uber – can also match Tesla’s efforts to develop self-driving vehicles. And they have deeper pockets. Tesla has had only two profitable quarters in its seven years as a public company.

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Review: Holland, Cast Delight in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’

One thing is certain: Culture has not been lacking in takes on Spider-Man for the past 15 years. First there was Tobey Maguire, who under the direction of Sam Raimi for three films ushered in the modern superhero era, and then there was Andrew Garfield whose two films with Marc Webb were immediately forgettable. And now, like all obedient franchises, they’re trying to start all over again, this time with the much more age-appropriate Tom Holland in ” Spider-Man: Homecoming .”

And you know what? Superhero cynicism aside, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is really fun. Director Jon Watts, whose only previous feature film credit is the indie thriller “Cop Car,” has confidently put his stamp on the friendly neighborhood web-slinger by making one bold move: actually casting teenagers to play teenagers.

Yes, after two films with late 20-somethings donning the Spidey suit and getting bitten by that pesky spider, Spider-Man finally gets to be a kid (and we get to skip over the whole origin/ Uncle Ben story). Instead, Watts’ film, which is upsettingly credited to six screenwriters, picks up with Peter Parker (Holland) right before, during and after the events of “Captain America: Civil War,” which introduced Holland’s Spider-Man in that epic airport Avengers battle.

Instead of a “last week in Marvel” segment to catch up, we’re given a refresher via Peter’s perspective. He’s just an excited kid who filmed the whole adventure and ever since has been thirsting for more Avengers action. He tries, endearingly, to prove his mettle on his own as he waits idly in Queens for a call from Tony Stark — giving directions to the elderly, retrieving stolen bikes and doing flips on command.

What he doesn’t know is that for eight years, there has been a supervillain emerging in his town in the form of a wronged construction worker, Adrian (Michael Keaton), who decided to break bad after losing a job to a government crew that clears post-superhero fight disaster areas. Peter, with his true-blue heart and naivete and eagerness to prove himself, of course takes on more than he can handle, while also trying to navigate high school, homework, crushes and the awkwardness of just being a teenager. Time passes easily and just when you might worry that you don’t actually care about any of the characters, the story throws a great curveball that carries interest to the end.

The film is overflowing with stellar talent, even in the smallest of roles and not counting the Marvel loaners in Robert Downey Jr. (who oozes charisma and charm even when phoning it in for a handful of scenes) and Jon Favreau. In the high school alone, there’s the too-cool Michelle (Zendaya), the crush Liz (Laura Harrier) and the adorable breakout best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon). Hannibal Buress and Martin Starr are there, too, to add reliable laughs. Adrian’s bad-guy crew includes Logan Marshall-Green and Michael Cernus. Even Spider-Man’s suit has an Oscar winner behind its voice (Jennifer Connelly).

Then of course there is Holland, a terrific actor since “The Impossible,” who is the perfect amount of empathetic, excitable and clueless to make Peter Parker work now and for years to come. For the most part, “Homecoming” is a joy. It’s light-hearted, smart, a little meta and the first Marvel film to really consider what it might be like for kids living in a world where superheroes are real.

My only quibble with “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is that for all of its charming and infectious realism about race, high school life and class issues, it has a bit of a woman problem. Simply: every significant and semi-significant female character looks like a model. It wouldn’t be an issue were the film not so spot-on with casting such a realistic variety of men and teenage boys, or if it were less concerned with hammering down on the “Aunt May is hot” bit that goes a little too far, but when taken together you start to wonder if maybe things would have been different if just one of the six screenwriters was a woman.

But just as Peter has some growing up to do, so does this young franchise.

“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” a Sony Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “sci-fi action violence, some language and brief suggestive comments.” Running time: 133 minutes. Three stars out of four.

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Vegetarian Beef Farmer Moves Herd to Greener Pastures

For committed vegetarian Jay Wilde, taking over his father’s central England beef farm in 2011 gave rise to a significant ethical dilemma: how could he continue running his family business, while adhering to his principles?

This year, Wilde took an unusual decision to resolve that conflict: he donated his Derbyshire farm’s herd of 63 cattle, which would have fetched £45,000 pounds ($58,250) if sold for meat, to an animal sanctuary.

“It just seemed difficult to look after the animals for two to three years and get to really know them, and then send them to slaughter. It felt as if you were betraying them”, Wilde told the BBC.

Wilde believes that his cows have emotions and can sense when they’re going to be killed. After donating the herd, Wilde said that he plans to refocus his farm on growing organic vegetables and field crops without any animal inputs.

The herd now resides at the Hillside Animal Sanctuary near Frettenham, where they will live out the remainder of their lives, effectively as pets.

While Wilde accepted that his new farm may be less profitable, his principal desire was for his animals to be happy.

“I hope that when they arrive at the refuge the cows will run down the ramp of the truck into the field and think ‘wow! We’ve come on holiday'”, he said.

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Qatar, Isolated by Neighbors, Plans Gas Output Boost

Qatar has announced plans to sharply increase its natural gas production, a move that could be seen as preparation for a protracted dispute with its Gulf neighbors.

State-owned Qatar Petroleum said Tuesday that it would boost its production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 30 percent over the next few years. Most of the increased production will come from the North Field, the world’s biggest natural gas field, which Qatar and Iran are developing.

In the background of Tuesday’s energy announcement was a looming deadline for Qatar to comply with a series of demands by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, the three leading states among those that broke off diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar a month ago.

The Saudis and their partners claim Qatar is supporting terrorism in an alliance with Iran. They have demanded that the Doha government downgrade its relations with Tehran, shut down the state-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera and order closure of a Turkish military unit stationed in Qatar. The Arab states’ ultimatum to Qatar did not mention the large military base the United States has in the Gulf state.

Qatar disavows terrorism

Qatar’s rejection of the Saudi demands is expected, but it has not yet been made public. Kuwait, which has been acting as a mediator in the monthlong dispute, said it received a written response from Doha on Monday, but officials in the UAE said they had yet to see its contents.

Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said Tuesday in Doha, “It’s not about terrorism; it’s about freedom of speech.”

“There is a lot of progress that has been made on that front [countering terrorists’ financing] … but of course there is always room for improvement,” al-Thani said.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said at the same news conference that he thought Qatar had shown restraint in the disputes with the Saudis and their partners, which began June 5. “We hope others will respond in a similar spirit,” Gabriel said.

LNG glut drives down prices

Qatar has said the demands listed by the Saudis would be impossible to meet without sacrificing Qatar’s sovereignty. The Doha government has said the charges by the Saudi-led group are baseless.

Energy-market analysts said the LNG supply increase Qatar announced Tuesday would worsen an existing glut on world markets, which are already dominated by U.S., Russian and Australian production. Qatar has low production costs, and its gas fields are closer to many customers in Europe and Asia than those of its competitors.

An abundant supply of LNG already has driven down prices more than 40 percent in Asian spot markets this year, and prices are down 70 percent from their peaks in 2014. Analysts quoted by Reuters said a surge in production by Qatar could make sales difficult for U.S. producers.

Most liquefied natural gas is supplied through long-term contracts between producers and users that allow for little flexibility, such as the reselling of cargoes. With supplies far outpacing demand, however, analysts expect more LNG will be traded freely. Some producers already have begun offering contracts without resale or destination restrictions.

In what would be an ironic twist on the Saudi-led demands against Qatar for allegedly cooperating with Iran too closely, the Gulf states’ ultimatum to Doha could result in its closer cooperation with Tehran on gas production and exports from the gas field they share.

“Qatar needs the support of Iran now more than ever before,” said Reza Mostafavi Tabatabaei, president of London-based ENEXD, a firm involved in oil and gas extraction equipment. He was interviewed by Reuters.

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Gatsby Theme Party Turns Back the Clock

You would think you were on the lawn of Washington’s National Cathedral in the 1920s. Women dressed like flappers; and men like F. Scott Fitzgerald. The sound of Jazz is in the air. The dead give way that it’s 2017 is the cell phone in everyone’s hands. VOA Russian’s Masha Morton has more.

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Turning Back the Clock with a Gatsby Theme Party

You would think you were on the lawn of Washington’s National Cathedral in the 1920s. Women dressed like flappers; and men like F. Scott Fitzgerald. The sound of Jazz is in the air. The dead give way that it’s 2017 is the cell phone in everyone’s hands. VOA Russian’s Masha Morton has more.

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Appeals Court Rules Against EPA in Methane Gas Regulations

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled Monday that Environmental  Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt lacks the authority to suspend rules that oil and gas companies monitor and fix methane gas leaks.

Two of the three judges on the panel wrote that an order delaying such a rule is the same thing as revoking it.

Pruitt said in April he wanted to put its enforcement on hold for 90 days, later saying he wanted to extend it for two years.

He argued that oil and gas companies are already monitoring methane leaks and that the federal regulations would make some wells unprofitable.

No comment from EPA

Several environmental groups sued to stop Pruitt.

“This ruling … slams the brakes on the Trump administration’s brazen efforts to put the interests of corporate polluters ahead of protecting the public and the environment,” National Resources Defense Council official David Doniger said. This was one of the groups that sued to stop the EPA.

An EPA spokeswoman said the agency is studying the court decision and had no other comment.

Methane emanating from natural gas production is a major contributor to global warming.

A first for Trump

This is the first court decision to go against Trump administration efforts to overturn or block rules and executive orders it believes are unfair to the fossil fuel industry.

Pruitt has joined the White House in arguing that tough regulations hurt industry and jobs as the U.S. strives to become more energy independent — an effort it says must include oil, gas and coal production, along with renewable resources.

Environmentalists say overturning such rules gives industry a blank check to ignore laws protecting the air and streams from pollution.

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