U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday declared a state of emergency in California as raging wildfires threatened thousands of homes. The move made federal funds available to help fight the fires and aid the recovery. Thousands of people in Southern California were forced to evacuate their homes early Saturday to avoid the Cranston Fire, southeast of Los Angeles. It and the Carr Fire in Northern California were the two biggest blazes ravaging the western landscape since the first outbreak Monday. A third fire, the Ferguson Fire, was burning in Yosemite National Park, forcing its closure through the end of next week. Park officials said at least 1,000 campground and hotel bookings had been canceled. Two firefighters died in the week’s battle to save homes, forests and parkland. The state institution that battles California’s seasonal wildfires, Cal Fire, said on its website that continued hot and dry conditions were forecast through the weekend, which could continue …

The U.S. State Department said Saturday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed American pastor Andrew Brunson, who is being detained in Turkey on terrorism and espionage charges. Details of the conversation were not disclosed, but State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the two diplomats were “committed to continued discussions to resolve the matter and address other issues of common concern.” Brunson, an evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, was indicted on charges of helping a network led by U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for a failed 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in addition to supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The detention of Brunson has strained relations between Turkey and the U.S., both NATO allies. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened sanctions as part of a pressure campaign to free the pastor. Brunson had been in jail for 21 months before being put under house …

The nun no longer goes to confession regularly, after an Italian priest forced himself on her while she was at her most vulnerable: recounting her sins to him in a university classroom nearly 20 years ago. At the time, the sister only told her provincial superior and her spiritual director, silenced by the Catholic Church’s culture of secrecy, her vows of obedience and her own fear, repulsion and shame. “It opened a great wound inside of me,” she told the Associated Press. “I pretended it didn’t happen.” After decades of silence, the nun is one of a handful worldwide to come forward recently on an issue that the Catholic Church has yet to come to terms with: The sexual abuse of religious sisters by priests and bishops. An AP examination has found that cases have emerged in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia, demonstrating that the problem is global and …

Pope Francis has accepted U.S. prelate Theodore McCarrick’s offer to resign from the College of Cardinals following allegations of sexual abuse, including one involving an 11-year-old boy, and ordered him to conduct a “life of prayer and penance” in a home to be designated by the pontiff until a church trial is held, the Vatican said Saturday. Francis acted swiftly after receiving McCarrick’s letter of resignation Friday evening, after recent weeks have brought a spate of allegations that the 88-year-old prelate in the course of his distinguished clerical career had sexually abused both boys and adult seminarians. The revelations posed a test of the pontiff’s recently declared resolve to battle what he called a “culture of cover-up” of similar abuse in the Catholic’s church’s hierarchy. McCarrick had been already removed from public ministry since June 20, pending a full investigation into allegations he fondled a teenager over 40 years ago …

Retired and in their 70s, Ru-Liang Zhang and Xan-Xia Hong spend every weekday after lunch socializing at the Chinese Community Center, a few short blocks from their Delancey Street home in lower Manhattan. Inseparable and competitive, they battle in ping-pong, magnetic darts, karaoke, and occasionally practice the erhu, an ancient two-stringed bowed instrument. Twenty-eight years after moving to the U.S. through family-immigrant visas, the two say they are living the best time of their lives. Their kids are financially independent, and their social benefits are stable. Still, they’ve never forgotten how difficult it was to get here. “For the journey, for our whole family, it cost us over 10,000 Chinese Yuan (roughly $2,000 in 1990 U.S. dollars),” Hong said. “What were we to do if we couldn’t get the visa? We would lose everything.” Lacking formal employment and supported financially by an older brother, the couple poured their dreams and savings …

A year-and-a-half into his presidency, Donald Trump’s plans for a legal immigration overhaul, including a steep reduction in family-based immigrant visas, have failed to pick up enough votes in Congress. Though family members of U.S. citizens continue the long process of legally obtaining a visa, the question of whether the law might change worries many immigrants. VOA’s Ramon Taylor reports from New York. …

President Donald Trump falsely claimed he’s pulled off “an economic turnaround of historic proportions.” Speaking at the White House Friday after the government reported that the economy grew at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the second quarter, Trump declared that the gains were sustainable and would only accelerate. Few economists outside the administration agree with this claim. His remarks followed events Thursday in Iowa and Illinois, where Trump falsely repeated a claim that the U.S. economy is the best “we’ve ever had” and incorrectly asserted that Canada’s trade market is “totally closed.”   WATCH: Trump Says Economy Numbers Sustainable, But Experts Doubtful A look at the claims: Historic turnaround TRUMP: “We’ve accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions.” — remarks Friday at the White House. THE FACTS: Trump didn’t inherit a fixer-upper economy. The U.S. economy just entered its 10th year of growth, a recovery that began under …

CBS said Friday it is investigating sexual misconduct allegations against Les Moonves, the company’s 68-year-old chairman and CEO. The claims were detailed Friday on the website of The New Yorker magazine in an article written by Ronan Farrow. Farrow won a Pulitzer Prize last year for an article in the same magazine about the sexual allegations against powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. In his latest article, Farrow said that he interviewed six women who said they had been sexually harassed by Moonves between the 1980s and the late 2000s. “Four described forcible touching or kissing during business meetings,” he wrote. “Two told me that Moonves physically intimidated them or threatened to derail their careers.” All of them, Farrow said, continue to fear “speaking out would lead to retaliation from Moonves, who is known in the industry for his ability to make or break careers.” Janet Jones, a writer, told Farrow …

Northern California’s wildfires have destroyed 500 structures, and officials say 5,000 more are threatened by the massive blaze. Two firefighters have died combating the so-called Carr Fire. Thousands of people fled for their lives as the inferno reached the city of Redding, home to more than 90,000 people. Tens of thousands were under evacuation orders. The fire has scorched upward of 17,000 hectares of land, the state’s forestry and fire protection department, Cal Fire said. Tourists and hikers whose vacation plans included visiting Yosemite National Park are making other plans because of the raging Ferguson Fire. The park has been closed since July 25 and is not expected to re-open until August 3. Park officials say at least 1,000 campground and hotel bookings have been canceled. The winds fanning the flames of the fire in Northern California have been so strong in some areas that trees have been uprooted. Chad …

A sleek futuristic train that travels through a special tunnel and covers the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 30 minutes. This was the dream of Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX in 2013. And every year he’s getting closer to making that dream a reality. Late July was marked by the third annual Hyperloop pod competition in Los Angeles; a competition that has once again set a new speed record. Genia Dulot has the story. …

Nicaragua is in one of its worst political crises in recent history. Violence between government forces and citizens has left more than 350 dead, according the U.S. Department of State. Vice President Mike Pence has accused President Daniel Ortega’s government of carrying out “state-sponsored violence” against its own people and demanded the country hold early elections. As Cristina Caicedo Smit reports, the Nicaraguan president rejects the allegations and the calls to move up the vote. …

Iran will likely have to agree to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization in any future deal with the United States, just like North Korea, a top diplomatic official signaled Friday. “Nothing in the conduct of foreign policy is ever done in a vacuum,” Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Dr. Yleem D.S. Poblete, told an audience in Washington. “The end state we must seek for the successful conclusion of any future deal with Iran must also inform and be informed by the end state we are seeking for North Korea,” she said. “Inconsistency in our approach to either negotiation will undermine our credibility and most likely doom the prospects for successfully dealing with the threats to our security posed by these and other actors.” Demands that Pyongyang dismantle all of its nuclear facilities have been central to the U.S. position in meetings with top North Korean …

Video and audio recordings from a fatal tourist boat accident in Missouri show that the lake went from calm to deadly dangerous in a matter of minutes, the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday. The NTSB cited preliminary findings gathered from the video recorder camera system salvaged by divers after the duck boat sank July 19 at Table Rock Lake near Branson. Seventeen of the 31 people on board died, including nine family members from Indianapolis. The material was examined at a lab in Washington, but the agency has not yet analyzed the findings, and no conclusions about the cause of the accident, one of the nation’s worst maritime accidents in recent decades, have been drawn. Frightening scene The findings, though, paint a chilling picture of the final few minutes before the boat went under. The captain and driver boarded the vessel at 6:27 p.m. The excursion begins on land …

The Taliban has confirmed that it held direct talks with the United States in Qatar this week on finding a negotiated end to the 17-year war in Afghanistan.  A senior Taliban official told VOA on Friday that Alice Wells, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asia, led the American delegation in the meeting in Doha. The insurgent official, speaking on condition of anonymity, explained the “preliminary” dialogue focused merely on “laying the groundwork for future contacts and meetings” between the Taliban and the U.S.  “The overall atmosphere of the meeting was very good and the discussions were also productive,” said the Taliban official,but he shared no further details. Reports of Monday’s landmark meeting in the Qatari capital appeared in American newspapers earlier this week but neither U.S. officials nor the Taliban directly commented on them until now. The U.S. State Department declined to comment on the …

Harvard University is defending its admissions practices in new court records that also offer a scathing rebuke of the group that’s suing over alleged discrimination. Records filed by the school in Boston’s federal court Friday say the legal case made by Students for Fair Admissions amounts to a “45-page press release” with a “misleading narrative.” The two sides have been sparring over the group’s 2014 lawsuit accusing Harvard of discrimination against Asian-American students. An analysis presented by the group says Harvard’s Asian-American applicants bring the strongest academic records but face lower acceptance rates than those of any other race. The school’s Friday filing dismisses the analysis as “deeply flawed” and says the group has no proof of discrimination. A statement from the group says it looks forward to going to trial in October. …

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says equipment has landed at a base in Turkey to prepare Turkish troops for joint patrols with U.S. forces in northern Syria. “Training equipment has landed in Incirlik,” Mattis told reporters Friday at the Pentagon, referring to a strategic air base in southern Turkey used by American forces. Mattis said the training should start within weeks. “I don’t think we’re talking months,” he said. It is unclear when U.S. and Turkish forces would start conducting the joint patrols in Syria once training of Turkey’s troops is complete. Last month, the United States began “coordinated but independent patrols” with Turkey near the volatile northern Syrian city of Manbij. The city houses Kurdish militia fighters. Washington supports the Kurdish fighters there, while Ankara says they are anti-Turkey terrorists. The Pentagon says the purpose of the patrols are to support “long-term security in Manbij” and uphold its commitments …

Facebook Inc and its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, were sued Friday in what could be the first of many lawsuits over a disappointing earnings announcement by the social media company that wiped out about $120 billion of shareholder wealth. The complaint filed by shareholder James Kacouris in Manhattan federal court accused Facebook, Zuckerberg and Chief Financial Officer David Wehner of making misleading statements about or failing to disclose slowing revenue growth, falling operating margins, and declines in active users. Kacouris said the marketplace was “shocked” when “the truth” began to emerge Wednesday from the Menlo Park, California-based company. He said the 19 percent plunge in Facebook shares the next day stemmed from federal securities law violations by the defendants. The lawsuit seeks class-action status and unspecified damages. A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment. Shareholders often sue companies in the United States after unexpected stock price declines, especially if the loss …

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has submitted a list of 35 potential witnesses for the Virginia trial of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort due to begin next Tuesday, court documents filed Friday showed. The list included Manafort’s longtime business associate Richard Gates, who was indicted in October at the same time as Manafort. Gates pleaded guilty in February and has been cooperating in Mueller’s probe. Also on the list was Tad Devine, a consultant who worked with Manafort in Ukraine and served as the chief strategist for Democratic presidential contender Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016. He is assisting federal prosecutors in the case against Manafort. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank and tax fraud and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Many of the witnesses are executives at banks and financial services firms. The list suggests Mueller plans to …

A Pentagon spokesman told VOA on Friday that all of the paperwork had been completed for Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas to start building detention facilities for unaccompanied minors caught illegally crossing the southern U.S. border, “if needed.” That paperwork includes an environmental assessment of the base grounds and memorandums of understanding from both the Pentagon and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) detailing how the base will be used and secured, said the spokesman, Army Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis. Last month, HHS asked the U.S. military to prepare to shelter thousands of undocumented migrants, including as many as 20,000 children, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requested the erection of tents at three separate facilities for up to 4,000 people. The Pentagon offered Goodfellow for HHS to hold unaccompanied minors and Fort Bliss, also in Texas, for DHS to hold detained families. As of June, …