VIDEO: America’s first cannabis café opened its doors to customers in Los Angeles. The main ingredient in almost everything on the menu is marijuana. VOA visited the new venue.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On October 11, 1968, the first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 7, launches carrying astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham. It was the first manned U.S. mission to space since Gemini XII, launched in 1966. Apollo 7 orbited the Earth for almost 11 days and sent back the first live television footage from space. Less than one year later, Apollo 11 became the first manned mission to land on the moon.

U.S. diplomats are pushing back on Turkey’s incursion into northeastern Syria, labeling the military maneuver a “very big mistake” that could have significant consequences on the security situation in the region and beyond.

VIDEO: Antigovernment protests and unrest in Hong Kong continue after nearly four months. Among those affected by the turmoil are about 400,000 foreign domestic workers, mostly women from Indonesia and the Philippines.

VIDEO: Evolutionary biologists know that humans have traces of DNA that go back millions of years, well before humans were human. But thanks to some amazing new high-resolution imagery, scientists can now see how that ancient DNA shows up, then disappears in early human embryos.

Labor rights advocates are warning that an Oct. 1 U.S. ban on imports from a Malaysian rubber glove maker over evidence of forced labor won’t be the last if employers fail to act quickly to mend conditions for long-suffering migrant workers.