VOA NEWS

October 17, 2019

This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd.



President Trump shrugged off the face-off in northern Syria between Syrian forces, Turkey and Syrian Kurds at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday.

AP correspondent Sagar Meghani has more.

To the president, it's simple. Turkey, Syria and the Kurds have issues.

"Let them work it out. We shouldn't be over there."

But he's facing backlash at home for abandoning the Kurds who fought Islamic State militants alongside the U.S. Turkey considers them terrorists and is now attacking them. The president says they'll be fine.

"I say this with great respect: they're no angels."

The criticism's coming from allies like Senate GOP chief Mitch McConnell. "... the Kurds did the heavy lifting here ...."

And Lindsey Graham, who worries about the U.S. being isolationist.

"... to those who think the Mideast doesn't matter to America, remember 9/11 ...."

Sagar Meghani, at the White House.

Meanwhile, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders cut short a meeting with President Trump after the president had what Pelosi called a "meltdown" over a resolution condemning his removal of U.S. troops from Syria.

The speaker said she believed the president was upset over the 354-60 House vote which included many members of his own party.

"I think that vote - the size of the vote, more than 2-1 of the Republicans voted to oppose what the president did - probably got to the president because he was shaken up by it."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says that Pelosi and other Democrats stormed out of the meeting in what he called a "political" move.

"(He) talked with the general while listened to the plan. Very productive between the Democrats who actually stayed in the meeting. Unfortunately, the speaker tries to make everything political."

Some other Democrats did remain for the discussion with Republicans in the White House calling it productive.



This is VOA news.



A former State Department aide has told impeachment investigators that he resigned last week because he could no longer look the other way as colleagues were denied professional support and respect.

Michael McKinley was a career foreign service officer and top aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

He said that he was disturbed by the Trump administration's efforts to obtain negative information on political opponents.

McKinley said the department failed to support foreign service employees caught up in the Ukraine inquiry.

House Democrats' impeachment probe is focused on efforts by President Donald Trump to urge Ukraine to investigate his lead political rival, Joe Biden and his family.



Jennifer King tells us now about jury selection getting underway in a landmark opioid trial in Cleveland.

It's the first federal trial over the opioid epidemic. Two Ohio counties claimed the drug companies engaged in a deadly conspiracy that damaged their communities and created a public nuisance.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster is overseeing more than 2,000 lawsuits that have been merged into a class action known as multi-district litigation.

The list of defendants has been little down to six after five drug manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma, used settlements or bankruptcy filings to be dismissed from the trial.

Judge Polster denied the motion to delay the case after news leaked the three big distributors might be offering a total of $18 billion to settle the suits, saying he'll question potential jurors to see if they are aware of the coverage.

I'm Jennifer King.



Wednesday was World Food Day and Pope Francis lamented the paradox of hunger and obesity in the modern world.

AP's Walter Ratliff reports.

Pope Francis is calling for lifestyle and dietary changes to address the paradox of a world in which people suffer from malnutrition in some areas and obesity in others.

Francis lamented the "distorted relationship between food and nutrition" that he blamed on the world economy's profit-at-all-cost mentality.

Francis noted that while obesity used to be a problem of the developed world, it is increasingly wreaking havoc in poorer countries, leading to increased cases of diabetes, heart problems and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.

I'm Walter Ratliff.



Retail sales dropped in September by the largest amount in seven months, possibly signaling that rising trade tensions and turbulent markets are having an impact on consumer spending.

Gasoline sales were down along with car purchases. Consumers weren't shopping as much as sales at department stores were down as was grocery shopping. But restaurants saw an increase along with health care and clothing stores.



For more on these stories and the rest of the day's news, be sure to log on to our website voanews.com. I'm David Byrd, VOA news.