U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is crisscrossing the Asia-Pacific region on his first international trip as head of the Defense Department. The trip began as the U.S. withdrew from a decades-old arms control pact with Russia, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The withdrawal means Washington and Moscow are free to develop ground-based missiles with a range of 500-5,500km. And that could be bad news for a country that was never even part of the pact–China. Our VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb is traveling with Esper and explains why.
A daredevil French inventor succeeded Sunday in his second attempt to cross the English Channel on a jet-powered hoverboard, taking off from the northern French coast amid a crowd of onlookers.
Franky Zapata, 40, has to swap out his backpack full of kerosene by landing on a boat about halfway through the expected 20-minute trip toward St. Margaret’s Bay in Dover, on England’s southern coast.
Zapata failed to pull off the tricky refueling maneuver during the first attempt on his Flyboard July 25, hitting the platform and tumbling into the waters of the busy shipping lane.
He hopes to make the 35-kilometer (22-mile) crossing at an average speed of 140 kilometers an hour (87 mph) and at a height of 15-20 meters (50-65 feet) above the water.
This time the refueling boat will be bigger and have a larger landing area, and French navy vessels in the area will again be keeping an eye out in case of trouble.
For one intense week, 40 boys and 20 girls from 29 African countries were chosen for a highly selective program to train with current and former players from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).
The NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program has been scouting and training girls and boys across the continent for 17 years. Teenage girls who took part say working with women from the continent who played for WNBA teams has motivated them to stay in the game.
Iris was scouted by the program from her local team in Gabon. (E. Sarai/VOA)
“This experience has been so enriching for us,” Iris, a 16-year-old from Gabon, told VOA. “It’s helped me a lot, I’ve learned new things and it’s renewed my enthusiasm, my desire to keep going and to become someone in the world of basketball.”
Iris says she was scouted for the program by organizers who watched her local team play in Gabon. Iris was then asked to produce a video of her playing and was later informed that she’d been accepted to the program.
The coaches and mentors are helping these young players through drills and matches, but also serve as role models of what the youngsters can become. One such role model is Astou Ndiaye, originally from Senegal. She played for the Detroit Shock, which won the 2003 WNBA championship.
“We have walked the path that they want to walk,” Ndiaye told VOA. “So just being here being able to talk to them, answer their questions and really give them hopefully, the confidence they need to know that if we can do it, they can because there’s a path for them.”
Ndiaye has been coaching young women in the Basketball Without Borders program for years, but is particularly encouraged this year because it is only the second time that Senegal has hosted the program in its 17-year history.
Ndiaye’s presence and enthusiasm for the program have been particularly inspirational for many young women who hope to follow in her footsteps.
Vanessa, a 16-year-old basketball player from Cameroon, says she is looking forward to returning home and sharing what she has learned at Basketball Without Borders. (E. Sarai/VOA)
“It’s because of them — they’ve inspired us to play basketball, really,” Vanessa, a 16-old player from Cameroon, told VOA. “And it’s because of them that we really apply ourselves here and say that maybe one day we can replace them, or play with them.”
Although only half as many girls as boys are accepted to the program, organizers say that promoting young female players on the continent is just as important to them as working with the boys.
“Our primary mission and goal at NBA Africa, when we launched, was to really increase participation in our sport. So you cannot do that by ignoring more than half the population,” Amadou Gallo Fall, NBA Africa’s managing director, told VOA. “So I think over the years, we’ve seen tremendous progress in the women’s game.”
The NBA sponsors the Basketball Without Borders program each year to scout and train up and coming basketball players on the continent. (E. Sarai/VOA)
Ndiaye agrees that in recent years, the women she coaches will have better opportunities than her generation did.
“It’s getting better. If we remember, we were pioneers then,” Ndiaye said.
“And the salaries, all the benefits and advantages that the kids are getting now — it’s unbelievable — so it can only get better.”
White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this report.
Police officials in El Paso, Texas, say they are investigating as a possible hate crime the mass shooting Saturday at a Walmart that ended with at least 20 people killed and 26 wounded.
Police chief Greg Allen said the police have an online posting reportedly written by the 21-year-old white male suspect now in custody, that indicates the shooting spree was intended to target Hispanics.
The post appeared online about an hour before the shooting and included language that complained about the “Hispanic invasion” of Texas. The author of the manifesto wrote that he expected to be killed during the attack.
Shoppers exit with their hands up after a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 3, 2019.
“This vile act of terrorism against Hispanic Americans was inspired by divisive racial and ethnic rhetoric and enabled by weapons of war,” Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas said in a statement.
“The language in the shooter’s manifesto is consistent with President Donald Trump’s description of Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders,’” said Castro, who is also the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “Today’s shooting is a stark reminder of the dangers of such rhetoric.”
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado said three Mexicans were killed in the shooting and six Mexicans were wounded.
Trump posted Saturday on Twitter: “Melania and I send our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the great people of Texas.”
Today’s shooting in El Paso, Texas, was not only tragic, it was an act of cowardice. I know that I stand with everyone in this Country to condemn today’s hateful act. There are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people….
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who traveled to El Paso, told reporters, “We as a state unite in support of these victims and their family members. … We pray that God can be with those who have been harmed in any way and bind up their wounds.”
Sgt. Robert Gomez of the El Paso, Texas, police briefs reporters on a shooting that occurred at a Walmart near Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Aug. 3, 2019.
First calls come in
Police began receiving calls at 10:39 a.m. local time with multiple reports of a shooting at Walmart and the nearby Cielo Vista Mall complex on the east side of the city.
Sgt. Robert Gomez, a spokesman with the El Paso Police Department, said most of the shootings occurred at the Walmart, where there were more than 1,000 shoppers and 100 employees. Many families were taking advantage of a sales-tax holiday to shop for back-to-school supplies, officials said.
Cielo Vista Mall
“This is unprecedented in El Paso,” Gomez said of the mass shooting.
El Paso Mayor Dee Margo told CNN, “This is just a tragedy that I’m having a hard time getting my arms around.”
Originally, Margo, as well as several witnesses, said there were several shooters involved. But police said they believe there was just one shooter.
“I can confirm that it is a white male in his 20s,” El Paso police spokesman Gomez said. “We believe he’s the sole shooter.”
Gomez said an assault-style rifle was used in the shooting.
Mourners in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, take part in a vigil near the border fence between Mexico and the U.S after a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 3, 2019.
249th mass shooting so far this year
The El Paso shooting is the nation’s 249th mass shooting incident this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot or killed, excluding the gunman, at one location.
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who formerly represented the El Paso district in the U.S. House, was at an event in Las Vegas when he heard of the shooting.
“I just ask for everyone’s strength for El Paso right now. Everyone’s resolve to make sure that this does not continue to happen in this country,” he said, adding he was immediately returning home to El Paso, where his family lives.
Saturday’s shooting comes less than a week after a mass shooting at a festival in Gilroy, California, where three people, including two children, were killed and 13 others were injured. It was also the second fatal shooting in less than a week at a Walmart store. A gunman shot and killed two people and injured two others Tuesday in Mississippi, before he was shot and arrested by police.
El Paso, a city of about 680,000 people in western Texas, shares the border with Juarez, Mexico.
Mexican officials said Saturday they would investigate the killing of a journalist in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz who was the third reporter to be killed in a week in Mexico as the country grapples with a record homicide rate.
Jorge Ruiz Vazquez, a reporter at the Grafico de Xalapa newspaper in Veracruz’s capital, died in spite of procedures in place to protect him, the state prosecutor’s office said.
“The prosecutor will investigate why protection measures granted to the victim and his family, which were active, were not enforced,” the entity said in a statement.
Ruiz’s death brings the number of Mexican journalists this year to at least eight compared with nine last year, according to free-speech advocacy group Article 19.
A reporter in Guerrero state who also served as a municipal official was shot and killed Friday, while earlier last week, a reporter who covered the police in the same state was found dead in the trunk of a vehicle with signs he had been shot and tortured.
Homicides in Mexico jumped in the first half of the year to the highest on record, according to official data. The spiraling violence underscores the challenges President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has faced since taking office in December with a vow to reduce violence in the country ravaged by notorious drug cartels.
Ruiz had reported death threats in October and November of 2018, said Ana Laura Perez, president of Veracruz’s commission to protect journalists (CEAPP), in an interview with Veracruz news outlet XEU Noticias.
She added that Ruiz had been shot and killed at his home in a municipality near Xalapa.
Veracruz’s governor, Cuitlahuac Garcia, said Friday evening that efforts were underway to find the people responsible for Ruiz’s death.
“We condemn the cowardly murder of a reporter from a local outlet, Jorge Ruiz,” he said on Twitter. “His killing will not go unpunished.”
LONDON — Lawmakers will be unable to stop a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 by bringing down Britain’s government in a vote of no confidence next month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top aide has advised, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
Dominic Cummings, one of architects of the 2016 campaign to leave the European Union, told ministers that Johnson could schedule a general election after the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline if he loses a vote of no confidence in parliament, the newspaper said, citing sources.
Johnson has promised to lead Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal but has a working majority of just one after his Conservative Party lost a parliamentary seat on Friday.
Some of his lawmakers have hinted they would vote against him to prevent a no-deal Brexit — a rising prospect that has sent the pound tumbling to 30-month lows against the dollar over the last few days.
Lawmakers are unable to table a motion of no confidence before next month because the House of Commons is in recess until Sept. 3.
“[Lawmakers] don’t realize that if there is a no-confidence vote in September or October, we’ll call an election for after the 31st and leave anyway,” Cummings was quoted by one of the Sunday Telegraph’s sources as saying.
Johnson has said he would prefer to the leave the EU with a deal but has rejected the Irish backstop — an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland — which the EU says is key to any agreement.
The main opposition Labour Party has said it will oppose any Brexit deal brought forward by Johnson if it does not protect jobs, workers’ rights and the environment.
MEXICO CITY — U.S. federal prosecutors have accused the Honduran government of essentially functioning as a narco-state, with the current and former presidents having received campaign contributions from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection.
A 49-page document filed in New York’s southern district on Friday refers to Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez as a co-conspirator who worked with his brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, and former President Porfirio Lobo “to use drug trafficking to help assert power and control in Honduras.”
It says that the president and his predecessor “relied on drug proceeds” to fund political campaigns and cites “evidence of high-level political corruption.”
The filing came months after other U.S. federal court documents showed the current president and some of his closest advisers were among the targets of a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation, casting further doubt on the United States’ assertion that Honduras has helped stop the flow of drugs.
U.S. support
The U.S. government has been a staunch supporter of Hernandez’s government, pouring millions of dollars into security cooperation to stop cocaine headed to the U.S. from South America.
The office of the Honduran president said via Twitter on Saturday that Hernandez “categorically denies the false and perverse accusations.”
It later issued a separate, lengthier statement suggesting that the allegations in New York were put forward by drug dealers seeking retaliation against the president, who was head of the Central American country’s congress in 2012 when the legislature authorized extradition of Honduran nationals to face drug-trafficking charges in the U.S.
Since then, the president’s office said, more than 40 Hondurans have been extradited and others have negotiated plea deals with U.S. officials in exchange for information.
“President Hernandez has been relentless in the fight against drug traffickers despite predictable reprisals, to the point that one of his 17 siblings, a younger brother, is now being tried in New York,” the office said.
Specifically, New York prosecutors allege that the president used $1.5 million in drug trafficking proceeds to help secure power in 2013. That campaign support came via cash bribes to Honduran officials as well as gifts and favors to local politicians, prosecutors argue. Hernandez won re-election in 2017, despite term limits in Honduras and widespread allegations of election fraud.
FILE – Former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa.
The filing also alludes to multiple payments of $1 million or more from drug dealers to Lobo.
Lobo’s wife was arrested by Honduran officials in 2018 on charges of diverting $700,000 in public funds. His son, Fabio, was sentenced in the U.S. to 24 years in prison in 2017 for drug trafficking.
Lobo was Hernandez’s mentor and oversaw his rise to power.
Upcoming case
The filing forms part of pre-trial documents in an upcoming case against Tony Hernandez, who was arrested in 2018 in Miami on charges of smuggling thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the U.S.
Prosecutors describe Tony Hernandez as a “violent, multi-ton drug trafficker” with significant influence over high-ranking Honduran officials, who in turn protected his shipments and turf. They also say that members of the Honduran National Police escorted his cocaine through the country’s waters and airspace, while Lobo once deployed military personnel to the nation’s border with Guatemala to deter another drug trafficker from encroaching on territory in western Honduras.
On at least two occasions, prosecutors say Tony Hernandez helped arrange murders of drug-trafficking rivals, one of whom he had executed by a member of the national police. That hit man was later promoted to chief of police, they say.
The court filing included an image of a kilo of cocaine monogrammed with the initials TH, which prosecutors say stood for Tony Hernandez.
The DEA says Tony Hernandez’s trafficking career began in 2004 and continued after he won a seat in Honduras’ congress in 2014. It’s unclear why Hernandez was in Miami when U.S. officials arrested him last year.
Separately, on Friday, a New York judged sentenced Honduran Hector Emilio Fernandez Rosa to life in prison for drug trafficking.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, who is also handling the Tony Hernandez case, said Fernandez paid millions of dollars in bribes to Honduran officials during his career, including a $2 million payment to former President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
Zelaya was forced out of office via a 2009 coup, after which Lobo was elected president.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says he wants to see American ground-based intermediate-range conventional missiles deployed to Asia.
Speaking to reporters on his first international trip as head of the Defense Department, Esper said the weapons were important due to the “the great distances” covered in the Indo-Pacific region.
The United States previously was unable to pursue ground-based missiles with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers because of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a decades-old arms control pact with Russia. Washington withdrew from that pact on Friday, citing years of Russian violations.
“It’s about time that we were unburdened by the treaty and kind of allowed to pursue our own interests, and our NATO allies share that view as well,” Esper said.
He declined to discuss when or where in Asia they could be deployed until the weapons were ready, but said he hoped the deployments come within months.
While analysts have primarily focused on what the INF treaty withdrawal means for signatory nations Russia and the United States, the change also allows the United States to strengthen its position against China. Esper said China has more than 80% of its missile inventory with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers.
“So it should not surprise them [China] that we would want to have a like capability,” he added.
China is the top priority of the Pentagon under the Defense Department’s National Defense Strategy. Beijing and Washington also have been embroiled for months in a trade dispute, with U.S. President Donald Trump announcing Thursday on Twitter that he would impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods starting September 1.
“China is certainly the center of the dialogue right now. It’s a competition, they’re not an enemy, but certainly they are pressing their power in every corner,” Rudy deLeon, a defense policy expert with the Center for American Progress, and a former deputy secretary of defense, told VOA.
In the event of a conflict with China, the United States needs to have various capabilities in place ahead of time in order to prevent sabotage during transport from China’s advanced sensors and artificial intelligence, according to Bradley Bowman, the senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“We need to distribute our assets, and we need to have them in the region when the conflict starts. The idea that we’re going to spend like we did in the first Gulf War, weeks or months, sending large cargo aircraft and cargo vessels across the ocean to get into conflict, they’ll never arrive,” Bowman told VOA.
Esper began his trip Friday with a stop at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii to visit the head of the command, Admiral Philip Davidson. Esper arrived Saturday in Australia for a two-plus-two meeting on Sunday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and their Australian counterparts.
Esper also will visit New Zealand, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea before returning to Washington.
Defense officials have for years referred to the Asia-Pacific as the “priority” theater.
Former secretary of defense Jim Mattis, Esper’s predecessor in the Trump administration, also started his time in office with a trip to Asia, visiting Japan and South Korea in February 2017.
Pakistan has accused rival India of breaching international humanitarian laws by using “cluster munitions” in the latest cross-border skirmishes in Kashmir, saying the weapons killed at least two civilians and injured 11 others on the Pakistani side of the divided region.
The allegations come a day after India again rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate a resolution of the Kashmir dispute between the two nuclear-armed countries.
A statement by Pakistan’s military said Saturday the civilian casualties occurred on July 31 in the scenic Neelum Valley near the Line of Control (LoC), the defacto border separating Pakistani and Indian portions of the disputed Himalayan territory.
It alleged the Indian army used cluster ammunitions delivered by artillery on July 31 in the valley, deliberately targeting the civilian population.
Cluster munitions are weapons consisting of a container that opens in the air and scatters a large number of explosive submunitions over a wide area. The related global convention adopted in 2008 prohibits the use of cluster munitions.
There was no immediate reaction from India to the allegation. Indian authorities for their part also accuse Pakistani forces of indulging in unprovoked cross-border shelling, causing civilian and military casualties on their side
Map of the Line of control, Kashmir
The Pakistani military statement urged the international community “to take notice of this Indian blatant violation of international laws on use of cluster ammunition targeting innocent citizens.”
It also released pictures of victims and the purported weapons it said were used by Indian forces. Independent verification was difficult to ascertain.
Trump Reiterates Kashmir Mediation Offer
Speaking together with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House two weeks ago, Trump said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently asked him whether he would like to be a mediator or arbitrator on Kashmir, assertions New Delhi swiftly denied.
Trump, however, reiterated his mediation offer on Thursday, saying he is willing to mediate but a decision would be up to Modi and Khan.
“If I can — if they wanted me to, I would certainly intervene,” Trump told reporters.
Indian Minister for External Affairs S. Jaishankar said he told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Bangkok that any discussion of the disputed Kashmir region would be strictly between India and Pakistan.
New Delhi has long opposed outside attempts to mediate its dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir. Islamabad insists international help is required because of persistent Indian refusals to engage in bilateral talks.
Saturday’s Pakistani allegations come as thousands of people, mostly, visitors, reportedly have started leaving the India-ruled portion of Kashmir since the local government warned of possible militant attacks.
Indian authorities announced Friday they had found evidence of attacks by militants allegedly backed by Pakistan on a major Hindu pilgrimage in Kashmir. The revelation prompted the regional government to order the pilgrims and tourists to return home.
Regional military tensions have remained high since February 14, when a vehicle-born bomb rammed into an Indian paramilitary convoy in Kashmir, killing 40 security personnel and triggering an aerial dogfight between Indian and Pakistani air force planes. New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants for plotting the attack. The subsequent escalation in tensions brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a fourth war before international diplomatic intervention helped defuse the situation.
New Delhi has suspended official talks with Islamabad since Modi came to power in 2014, demanding Pakistan first stop militants plotting cross-border attacks in India.
Separatist violence and the ensuing Indian crackdown are estimated to have killed more than 70,000 people in Indian Kashmir.
The U.N. refugee agency welcomes the closure of three detention centers in Libya but voices concern about the whereabouts and fate of the refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who were held in the facilities.
The U.N. refugee agency has been advocating for the release of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from Libya’s detention centers for a long time. And, so it says it is pleased that three of the country’s largest facilities–Mistrata, Tajoura and Khoms–have been shut.
However, UNHCR spokesman, Andrej Mahecic tells VOA he has no idea what has happened to the inmates.
“To our knowledge, there are 19 official detention centers run by the authorities that are currently active in Libya with nearly 5,000 refugees and migrants that are arbitrarily detained there,” Mahecic said.
Mahecic says UNHCR is closely following developments. He says refugees should not be put in detention. In Libya, he says people held in facilities near battle zones are at particular risk, as was seen in the tragic events that unfolded in Tajoura last month.
The Tajoura detention center on the outskirts of the capital Tripoli was hit by an airstrike on July 2. More than 50 people, including children were killed and 130 injured. The vast majority were sub-Saharan Africans trying to reach Europe.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, says the attack could amount to a war crime. Mahecic says children should never be locked up and, in all cases, detention should only be a measure of last resort.
“What we are calling on now is for an orderly release of all refugees in detention centers to urban settings and we stand ready to provide these people with assistance through our urban programs that would include some form of financial assistance, medical and psycho-social support,” Mahecic said.
The United Nations describes Libyan detention centers as appalling, overcrowded places. It says detainees are denied sufficient food and medical care and are subject to abusive treatment, including torture and rape.
After three summits and several exchanges of letters between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Washington must now deal with Pyongyang’s five missile tests since February and near muted talks on denuclearization, results generated by Trump’s lack of criticism of the launches, experts said.
North Korea fired two more missiles Friday, making the launch a third test in just more than a week. The launch follows two other tests it conducted Wednesday and last Thursday.
Kim Jong Un and North Korea tested 3 short range missiles over the last number of days. These missiles tests are not a violation of our signed Singapore agreement, nor was there discussion of short range missiles when we shook hands. There may be a United Nations violation, but..
Earlier this year, on May 4 and May 9, North Korea conducted launches and broke 18 months of abstaining from raising provocations on the Korean Peninsula as it began denuclearization diplomacy with the Trump administration that culminated in the historical Singapore summit in June 2018.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo links hands with Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Thailand’s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai at the East Asia Summit meeting in Bangkok, Aug.2, 2019.
Also Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a meeting with North Korea is unlikely to take place in Bangkok at the annual security meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the venue the two sides have used to meet for sideline talks in the past. This year, North Korea did not send Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho to the event.
“We stand ready to continue our diplomatic conversations with the North Koreans,” Pompeo said at a news conference in Bangkok. “I regret that it looks like I’m not going to have the opportunity to do that while I’m here in Bangkok, but we’re ready to go.”
Pompeo remained optimistic that the working-level talks Trump and Kim agreed to resume at their impromptu inter-Korean border summit in June “will happen before too long.”
People watch a TV that shows a file picture of a North Korean missile for a news report on North Korea firing short-range ballistic missiles, in Seoul, South Korea, July 31, 2019.
‘No progress’
Experts said despite the U.S. efforts, the prospects for denuclearizing are fading as North Korea takes opposite steps as seen through its tests.
“There has been no progress toward North Korean denuclearization since the Singapore summit,” said Bruce Klingner, former CIA deputy division chief for Korea and a current fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “Instead, Pyongyang has built another six to seven estimated nuclear weapons and improved the production facilities for its fissile material.”
Evans Revere, acting assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific at the State Department during the George W. Bush administration, said, “The opposite of denuclearization is happening, as North Korea continues to expand and enhance its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals.”
Revere said the string of launches demonstrates Pyongyang’s weapons development is becoming more advanced.
In May, Pyongyang tested “an apparent new ballistic missile system that is designed to conduct deep strikes against U.S. and [South Korean] military bases, forces and population centers,” Revere said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the test-fire of two short-range ballistic missiles, in this undated picture released by North Korea’s Central News Agency, July 26, 2019.
The launch July 25 was aimed at signaling the U.S. that it is determined to ramp up “its nuclear, missile, and first-strike missile capabilities,” he said.
The projectiles launched Friday, assessed by the U.S. and South Korea to be short-range ballistic missiles, are considered similar to the previous ones.
Following Wednesday’s test, North Korea said the new multiple rocket launch system was developed in an effort to modernize its military. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that North Korea’s new submarine, unveiled July 23, is capable of launching ballistic missiles.
FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump holds up the document he and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un signed, June 12, 2018, in Singapore.
Details lacking
The prospects of denuclearizing North Korea began with the historical Singapore summit held in June 2018 when Trump and Kim met and agreed to work toward denuclearization and achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula, although critics argue the joint statement the two issued lacked detailed denuclearization agreements.
Also notable at the Singapore summit was the budding of the so-called Trump-Kim bromance, a relationship that blossomed via several exchanges of “love” letters between the two since then. Trump said he “fell in love” with Kim and has described several letters from him as “beautiful.”
Optimism that had been building toward denuclearization proved to be too tenuous at the Hanoi summit when North Korea revealed it wanted sanctions relief for taking a partial denuclearization step, an offer the U.S. rejected. The summit was abruptly cut short, leading to a diplomatic impasse that lasted several months.
The bromance continued, however, despite lack of progress on denuclearization talks. Even after Pyongyang launched in May what experts described as advanced missiles capable of evading South Korean missile defense system designed to intercept incoming missiles, Trump appeared confident that Kim would denuclearize, emphasizing the pair’s relationship.
FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in leave after a meeting at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019.
While visiting Seoul in June for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Trump invited Kim to “shake his hand and say Hello” via Twitter. Trump met with Kim at the inter-Korean border, even stepping across the North Korean side of the border. There, the two agreed to resume working-level talks.
But less than a month later, Pyongyang fired missiles last Thursday and again this week on Wednesday and Friday, jolting its neighbors and unnerving North Korean observers in the U.S.
Trump downplayed the provocations saying, “I have no problem,” in response to Friday’s launch, in an apparent effort to save diplomacy.
In response to last week’s launch, Revere, of the State Department, said, “The Trump administration is prepared to go very far to keep the prospect of dialogue with North Korea alive.”
Following North Korea’s missile launches Wednesday, “It was unacceptable for the U.S. president to twice dismiss the threat posed by North Korea’s development” of advanced missiles that is intended to attack [South Korea] and U.S. troops deployed in South Korea,” he added.
Questionable relationship
Experts said North Korea’s tests make the Trump-Kim relationship look questionable and prospects for diplomatic solutions dubious, while Trump’s lack of criticism on North Korea’s launches fosters bad behavior.
Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council said, “North Korea’s continued work on its nuclear weapons program and missiles as demonstrated by testing new short-range missiles is beginning to make the Trump-Kim relationship wear thin, if not look like a bit of a fraud.”
Christopher Hill, a chief negotiator with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration, said, “I’m skeptical that they have much traction on [diplomacy] right now.”
Revere said, “The lack of a clear and vigorous response to earlier launches effectively gave [North Korea] carte blanche to continue to develop and test these dangerous weapons.” He added, “We have now basically normalized such launches.”
The missile launches are also making experts doubt the prospects for working-level talks with Pyongyang.
Hill said, “I don’t think the North Koreans are really prepared for a serious negotiation. But since they agreed to have a negotiation, I think they ought to move ahead.”
Dennis Wilder, the National Security Council’s senior director for East Asia affairs during the George W. Bush administration, said, “Kim has never been interested in working-level talks with Washington. And I think that’s going to be kind of his continued position.”
If Pyongyang continues to dodge Washington, Hill said, “It’s possible the talks could reach a dead end. That could happen at some point. It may have happened [already], but we don’t know that.”
Wilder said, “It would certainly lead to another very serious deterioration in the U.S.-North Korean relations, as we had at the end of 2017 where there would be threats and counterthreats.”
Wilder, however, did not rule out a sudden turnaround, a possibility in top-down diplomacy where negotiations occur at the leadership level.
“This is the unique feature of Trump diplomacy at this very high level,” Wilder said. “It can change overnight. … When you have two chief executives, who can suddenly make dramatic shifts, possibilities are much wider.”
WASHINGTON — U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer says an unresolved extortion investigation in North Macedonia could undermine prospects for the small Balkan nation’s long-awaited European Union accession talks.
North Macedonia’s former chief Special Prosecutor, Katica Janeva, unexpectedly tendered her resignation last month amid allegations that she masterminded a scheme to extort millions from an indicted businessman in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Janeva’s Special Prosecution Office (SPO), an organized-crime-busting outfit also tasked with addressing high-level corruption, has long been emblematic of the former Yugoslav republic’s transatlantic aspirations. By spearheading investigations of the now-ousted authoritarian regime of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Janeva’s office was largely mandated to restore rule of law.
“These are serious charges and all such serious charges require a serious response,” Palmer told VOA’s Serbian Service. “We support a complete, thorough, transparent investigation of these charges and, if the evidence is there, then appropriate prosecution. This is really an opportunity for the authorities in North Macedonia to demonstrate fealty to adherence to the rule of law.”
FILE – Newly elected President of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski, right, walks with outgoing president Gjorge Ivanov, during his inauguration ceremony in Skopje, North Macedonia, May 12, 2019.
The country changed its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia in February, ending a more than two-decade dispute with Greece over its name, and removing an obstacle to EU and NATO membership.
Just last week, EU commissioner Johannes Hahn said Skopje needs to reform the judiciary to ensure it can handle high-level crime and corruption cases before the EU can set a date to start accession talks, but that he was “confident that the decision (on the start of EU accession talks) will be taken in October.”
Palmer said he’s optimistic talks can begin this fall, but that resolving the Janeva investigation will be key to ensuring it happens.
Both of North Macedonia’s major political parties have been squabbling over the drafting of a law to regulate the prosecution, which will determine the fate of the special prosecutor’s office that Janeva used to run.
“We believe that North Macedonia has earned that opportunity [to have EU accession talks begin this year], but … signals that the government sends — and the success of the SPO law — will be important to that.”
FILE – Protesters take part in a demonstration near the Greek Parliament against the agreement with Skopje to rename neighbouring country Macedonia as the Republic of North Macedonia, Jan. 20, 2019 in Athens.
Whether new legislation can be ratified, a precondition for EU accession talks, will determine the pace of North Macedonia’s European accession process, which is why both U.S. and EU officials have repeatedly pressed both parties, the right-wing opposition VMRO-DPMNE and ruling Social Democratic Union, to come to an agreement.
Meetings between party officials earlier this week produced indications of progress, but working groups are still in negotiations.
“It’s important that these parties come together, negotiate, resolve their differences and reach an agreement on how the SPO can be reformed or modified in a manner that advances the interests of the country,” Palmer told VOA.
“There’s been enough politicking. The time for politicking is over. Now is the time for statesmanship,” he said.
Another scientific study has confirmed that trees can have a far-reaching effect in stemming global warming by removing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Tree-planting advocates say this is something they’ve known for decades, and the world is finally getting the message. Mike O’Sullivan has more from Los Angeles.
Boeing is working on new software for the 737 Max that will use a second flight control computer to make the system more reliable, solving a problem that surfaced in June with the grounded jet, two people briefed on the matter said Friday.
When finished, the new software will give Boeing a complete package for regulators to evaluate as the company tries to get the Max flying again, according to the people, who didn’t want to be identified because the new software hasn’t been publicly disclosed.
The Max was grounded worldwide after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed a total of 346 people.
Use of the second computer, reported Thursday by The Seattle Times, would resolve a problem discovered in simulations done by the Federal Aviation Administration after the crashes. The simulations found an issue that could result in the plane’s nose pitching down. Pilots in testing either took too long to recover from the problem or could not do so, one of the people said.
In the new configuration, both of the plane’s flight control computers would be monitored by software, and pilots would get a warning if the computers disagreed on altitude, air speed and the angle of the wings relative to the air flow, the person said. Only one computer was used in the past because Boeing was able to prove statistically that its system was reliable, the person said.
The problem revealed in June is like the one implicated in the two crashes. That problem was with flight-control software called MCAS, which pushed the nose down based on faulty readings from one sensor. MCAS was installed on the planes as a measure to prevent aerodynamic stalling, and initially it wasn’t disclosed to pilots.
‘More robust’ system
The new software would make the entire flight-control system, including MCAS, rely on two computers rather than one, said the person. “It would make the whole flight control system more robust,” the person said.
Boeing Co. spokesman Charles Bickers said only that the company is working with the FAA and other regulators on software to fix the problem that surfaced in June. The company has said it expects to present the changes to the FAA and other regulators in September, and it hopes the Max can return to flight as early as October.
The two people briefed on the matter said Boeing has finished updating the MCAS software by scaling back its power to push the nose down. It is also linking the software’s nose-down command to two sensors on each plane instead of relying on just one in the original design.
The FAA has been widely criticized for its process that certified the Max as safe to fly, largely because it uses company employees to do inspections that are then reviewed by the agency.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says his pick for national intelligence director has decided to withdraw from the running, citing unfair media coverage.
In a tweet Friday, Trump said Republican Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas had decided to stay in Congress. Questions about Ratcliffe’s experience had dogged him since Trump announced his candidacy Sunday.
Trump didn’t cite any specific media reports but tweeted that “rather than going through months of slander and libel,” Ratcliffe would be returning to Capitol Hill.
Trump accepted the resignation of former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats last week.
Ratcliffe is a frequent Trump defender who fiercely questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller during a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week. Intelligence experts had criticized his lack of experience in the field of intelligence.
In a statement, Ratcliffe said, “While I am and will remain very grateful to the president for his intention to nominate me as director of national intelligence, I am withdrawing from consideration.”
“I was humbled and honored that the president put his trust in me to lead our nation’s intelligence operations and remain convinced that when confirmed, I would have done so with the objectivity, fairness and integrity that our intelligence agencies need and deserve,” the statement said.
“However,” he added, “I do not wish for a national security and intelligence debate surrounding my confirmation, however untrue, to become a purely political and partisan issue.”
San Francisco International Airport is banning the sale of single-use plastic water bottles.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Friday that the unprecedented move at one of the major airports in the country will take effect Aug. 20.
The new rule will apply to airport restaurants, cafes and vending machines.
Travelers needing plain water will have to buy refillable aluminum or glass bottles if they don’t bring their own.
As a department of San Francisco’s municipal government, the airport is following an ordinance approved in 2014 banning the sale of plastic water bottles on city-owned property.
SFO spokesman Doug Yakel says the shift away from plastics is also part of a broader plan to slash net carbon emissions and energy use to zero and eliminate most landfill waste by 2021.
Stephanie Frappart has been appointed as the referee for the European Super Cup between Liverpool and Chelsea, making her the first woman to officiate a major UEFA men’s showpiece event.
UEFA announced Frappart’s appointment on Friday, adding that the Frenchwoman will lead a team of predominantly female officials, with Manuela Nicolosi of France and Michelle O’Neal from the Republic of Ireland serving as assistant referees. The 35-year-old Frappart was also in charge at the Women’s World Cup Final between the United States and the Netherlands.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin says: “I have said on many occasions that the potential for women’s football has no limits.”
It is not the first time a female has refereed a men’s UEFA competition match. Switzerland’s Nicole Petignat officiated three UEFA Cup qualifying-round matches between 2004 and 2009.
The Super Cup is the traditional curtain raiser to the season, between the winners of the Champions League and Europa League. This year it will take place at the Besiktas Park in Istanbul on Aug. 14.
Frappart also became the first female referee to officiate a French league match in April. She has been promoted to the pool of French top-flight referees on a permanent basis for the upcoming season.
Ceferin adds: “I hope the skill and devotion that Stephanie has shown throughout her career to reach this level will provide inspiration to millions of girls and women around Europe and show them there should be no barriers in order to reach one’s dream.”
U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson about trade, next-generation 5G mobile networks and global security, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement on Friday.
Trump told Johnson during a call on Thursday that he looked forward to meeting him at the G7 economic summit in France later this month, the White House said.
The United States is pressuring its allies, including Britain, to avoid using equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd in its 5G mobile networks. Washington says Huawei is a national security risk.
Britain’s National Security Council, chaired by Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May, had decided in principle to give Huawei limited access to sensitive parts of the 5G network. But the council has yet to make a final decision, and Johnson is more publicly aligned with Trump than May was.
Trump has pushed for a trade deal between the United States and Britain following the latter’s planned exit from the European Union.
A powerful earthquake struck off the southern coast of Indonesia’s heavily populated Java island Friday, with the country’s disaster agency warning that it could generate a tsunami.
The 6.8 magnitude quake struck offshore at a depth 42 kilometres (26 miles), some 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Labuan, southwest of the capital Jakarta, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Indonesia’s disaster agency initially pegged the quake at magnitude 7.4 and a depth of 10 kilometres, warning it could spark a tsunami.
Residents in Jakarta fled their homes as buildings in the megacity swayed from the force of the quake.
“The chandelier in my apartment was shaking and I just ran from the 19th floor,” 50-year-old Elisa told AFP.
“Everybody else ran too. It was a really strong jolt and I was very scared.”
At least two people were killed and thousands were forced from their homes after a major 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit the remote Maluku islands in eastern Indonesia this month.
Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.
Last year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island killed more than 2,200 people, with another thousand declared missing.
On December 26, 2004, a devastating 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 across the Indian Ocean region, including around 170,000 in Indonesia.
Despite the reported death of the son and heir apparent of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials warn the global terror group remains a significant threat to the United States.
The officials refused to confirm the death of Hamza bin Laden, said to have been killed in a U.S.-involved operation sometime in the past two years. But they warned Thursday that regardless of his status, al-Qaida should not be underestimated.
“What we see today is an al-Qaida that is as strong as it has ever been,” State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator Ambassador Nathan Sales told reporters during a briefing intended to focus on the terror group’s main rival, Islamic State, also known as IS or ISIS.
“Al-Qaida has been strategic and patient over the last several years,” Sales said. “It’s let ISIS absorb the brunt of the world’s counterterrorism efforts while patiently reconstituting itself.”
“They’re very much in this fight and we need to continue to take the fight to them,” he added.
The U.S. assessment of al-Qaida is in line with a recent United Nations report, which described the terror group as “resilient.”
“Groups aligned with al-Qaida are stronger than their ISIL counterparts in Idlib, Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen, Somalia and much of West Africa,” the report said, using another acronym for Islamic State.
Like the U.N. report, Sales focused U.S. concern on a series of “active and deadly” al-Qaida affiliates, including al-Shabab, which has been operating in Somalia and Kenya, as well as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
AQAP, in particular, has repeatedly been cited as perhaps the most threatening of all al-Qaida affiliates by U.S. officials for its advanced bomb-making capabilities and its desire to strike the U.S.
“No one should mistake the period of relative silence from al-Qaida as an indication that they’ve gotten out of the [terror] business,” Sales said.
In this image from video released by the CIA, Hamza bin Laden is seen as an adult at his wedding. The never-before-seen video of Osama bin Laden’s son and potential successor was released Nov. 1, 2017, by the CIA.
Still, some counterterrorism analysts caution that despite al-Qaida’s savvy long-term planning and relative strength, the reported death of up-and-coming leader Hamza bin Laden, if confirmed, would be a severe blow.
“The death of Hamza, particularly as Osama bin Laden’s son, removes what could have been a powerful voice for the global jihad from the scene,” said Katherine Zimmerman, a research manager with the Critical Threats Project. “Hamza had begun to pick up his father’s mantle to carry on the legacy.”
At the same time, Zimmerman and others warn al-Qaida leadership is more than capable of recovering, even with evidence that current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is in poor health.
Hamza bin Laden “was not going to be the successor to Zawahiri,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a counterterrorism analyst and CEO of Valens Global.
“While there’s not a great deal of high-profile leaders in al-Qaida, at least in respect to those who are recognizable in Western press reporting … they have a fairly deep bench,” he said. “I think it would be very foolish to think that Hamza bin Laden is the only one, even though he’s very identifiable.”
Talk about a possibly weakened al-Qaida began gaining momentum Wednesday, after NBC News reported U.S. officials had intelligence that Hamza bin Laden had been killed.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday refused to confirm the death, or possible U.S. involvement, when questioned by reporters on the White House lawn.
“I will say Hamza bin Laden was very threatening to our country. And you can’t do that,” Trump said. “But as far as anything beyond that, I have no comment.”
