In the Nigerian city pf Maiduguri, the popular incense kaaji is a cherished, local tradition.  Kaaji, made from generations-old recipes, is used during important ceremonies such as weddings to dispel evil spirits.  But with the advance of technology and social media, the market for the incense is growing.  Chika Oduah reports from Maiduguri.

Lights went out across large portions of Northern California Wednesday as the state’s largest utility began its second massive blackout in two weeks and hinted that more outages could come this weekend because of the return of dangerous fire weather. 

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said the rolling blackouts stretching from the Sierra foothills in the northeast to areas north of the San Francisco Bay Area would ultimately impact a half-million people — or nearly 180,000 customers — in 17 counties.  

“We understand the hardship caused by these shutoffs,” said Bill Johnson, CEO of PG&E. “But we also understand the heartbreak and devastation caused by catastrophic wildfires.” 

Unpopular power outages

In a televised briefing Wednesday night, Johnson defended the unpopular power outages that the utility says are necessary to reduce the risk of wildfires during periods of high wind, hot weather and low humidity.  

He also addressed growing criticism, saying the company was doing a better job this time communicating with the public, “working in lockstep” with local governments and state agencies and made sure its website where customers can get information was working well, after repeatedly crashing during the earlier outage. 

The current outages will last about 48 hours, the utility said. But its seven-day forecast shows a likelihood of another planned blackout across a much larger area starting Saturday, when even heavier winds are expected to move through. 

“There could be another round of safety shut-offs this weekend into early next week. The timing isn’t clear yet,” Johnson said. 

High winds statewide

PG&E meteorologist Scott Strenfel said of the weekend weather: “This could be the strongest wind event of the season, unfortunately.” 

Strenfel called the current wind event a “Californiawide phenomenon.” Conditions should begin easing in the northern part of the state around midday Thursday, when crews will begin inspecting lines to make sure they’re safe to re-energize.  

That’s when Santa Ana winds are expected to begin whipping up in the south. Southern California Edison said it could cut power Thursday to more than 308,000 customers in seven counties, and San Diego Gas & Electric was warning of power shutoffs to about 24,000 customers.

With winds forecast to top 60 mph (97 kph), utilities worried branches and debris could be thrown into power lines or topple them, sparking wildfires. 

Two weeks ago, a PG&E blackout affected nearly 2 million people from Oct 9-12, prompting frustration and resignation among residents and business owners who are finding the new routine both inconvenient and expensive. 

Major impact

The small city of Calistoga, in the Napa Valley, known for its hot springs and wineries, was among those hit by Wednesday’s outage.  

“It’s very frustrating,” said Michael Dunsford, owner of the 18-room Calistoga Inn, which has rented two powerful generators for the month at a cost of $5,000. Like many, he feels the outages need to be better managed, better targeted and less expansive. 

“Right now, we have no wind. Zero. I don’t even see a single leaf blowing. Did they really have to cut the power right now?” he said, shortly after the lights went out Wednesday afternoon and he revved up the generators. “When the wind picks up to 40 mph maybe that’s a good time to close the power.” 

“They’re not appreciating enough the impact this has on everybody,” he said about PG&E.

Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore said PG&E was better this time about getting information to people who would be affected, but he was still astonished by the need to resort to largescale blackouts.

“I am a big believer in shutdowns to prevent fires. But the thing that erodes public trust is when it doesn’t make sense,” he said. “You say, ‘God, I know if we can put a man on the moon … we can manage a (power) grid.’” 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a sharply worded letter to Johnson Tuesday, blaming the unprecedented mass outage earlier this month on the company’s failure to maintain and upgrade its equipment.

A new CNN poll shows former Vice President Joe Biden with a 15-point lead over his rivals in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.  Other recent polls have shown a closer race between Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders trailing in third place.  As VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports, Warren’s rise in the polls has also brought greater scrutiny from her rivals.

An effort by the U.S. Census Bureau to collect state driver’s license records as part of President Donald Trump’s order to gather citizenship information has been a bust so far.

As of Wednesday, the vast majority of state motor vehicle agencies had not agreed to share their records with the bureau, according to an Associated Press survey of the 50 states. The effort over the past couple of months has alarmed civil rights groups, which see it as part of a backdoor move by the Trump administration to reduce the political power of minorities.

In August, the bureau began requesting five years’ worth of driver’s license records, promising the information would be kept confidential. The effort began after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Trump’s administration plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, and the president instead ordered citizenship data compiled through federal and state administrative records.

Some states saying no

At least 13 states have refused to share the driver’s license data, 17 are still deciding what to do, and 17 haven’t yet received a request, according to the AP survey. Three states didn’t respond to multiple AP queries.

Republican and Democratic states alike have said no, citing privacy concerns and prohibitions in state law.

“Philosophically, we believe the information in the database doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to the people who it pertains to,” Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said. “It’s not ours to give away.”

Two of the biggest states, California and New York, haven’t received requests yet. Three more of the top five most populous states — Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania — are deciding how to respond.

Census Bureau officials had no immediate comment.

Many states got calls or emails similar to one from a Census Bureau official asking an Arkansas Driver Services official if she had time to discuss the bureau’s “new and exciting project.”

Scott Hardin, a spokesman for the Arkansas agency, said: “We are currently working to determine whether the requested information is eligible for release.”

Utah officials turned down the request because state law says personal data can be shared only for public safety reasons, said Marissa Cote, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety in the Republican-leaning state.

Democratic-leaning Nevada also declined.

“We value our residents’ privacy and hesitate to release records in bulk,” said Kevin Malone, a spokesman for the motor vehicle agency.

States that haven’t decided how to respond said they were researching the legal and privacy implications. In issuing driver’s licenses, most states require documents such as a birth certificate that would reflect citizenship or require that recipients be either citizens or in the U.S. legally.

Civil rights groups weigh in

The American Civil Liberties Union has urged states to turn the Census Bureau down.

The ACLU and other civil rights groups say the requests are part of an overall strategy by the Trump administration to encourage states to use counts of citizens only, as opposed to total population, when redrawing state and local electoral districts. Such a move could make districts older, whiter and more Republican.

“This endeavor appears to be part of a scheme motivated by an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose to dilute the political power of communities of color,” said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.

The Census Bureau said in its requests that the driver’s license records would be used, in part, to help build a statistical model for calculating the number of citizens and noncitizens in the U.S.

Less accurate count

Even though the president’s order requires collecting the citizenship information, Census Bureau officials are concerned that it could hinder efforts to get people to participate in the 2020 census. The bureau’s own research showed adding a citizenship question to the 2020 questionnaire would have reduced participation, making for a less accurate count.

Civil rights groups say driver’s license records do a poor job of showing if a person is a citizen.

They point to what happened earlier this year when Texas’ election chief gave prosecutors a list of 95,000 potential noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. The list was drawn up with the help of motor vehicle records. But it turned out that many of those people had become citizens before casting their ballots.

The battle over whether citizen-only counts can be used for congressional reapportionment or redistricting at the state and local levels is being waged in federal courtrooms in Alabama and Maryland.

It has been longstanding practice in the U.S. to include immigrants living in the country illegally in census counts, which are also used to allocate billions of dollars in federal spending.

Fears that Turkey’s offensive in northeastern Syria allowed untold numbers of captured Islamic State terror group fighters to escape may be overblown, according to U.S. officials.

Since Turkish-backed forces crossed the border and began clashing with Kurdish fighters aligned with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), there have been reports of SDF-run prisons coming under attack and of IS fighters running free.

But Wednesday, the U.S. insisted almost all of the estimated 12,000 captured IS fighters, including about 2,000 fighters from outside Syria and Iraq, were still behind bars.

“The SDF continues to hold the vast majority of the ISIS fighters who were being detained,” a senior administration official said.

“We have assets in the region and good relations with the parties on the ground and so we’re keeping a very close eye on the situation,” the official added, saying that both the SDF and Turkey had given “very strong commitments” that any escaped IS prisoners “will be hunted down and recaptured.”

Estimates for how many IS fighters are on the run have varied greatly in recent weeks, prompted in part by threats from SDF leaders that they might have no choice but to pull prison guards in order to turn back the Turkish offensive.

SDF officials told VOA they never made good on their threats, and earlier this week insisted they even took steps to ensure captured IS fighters would not be able to escape.

“There aren’t any prisons in areas that Turkish forces recently have occupied,” SDF Commander, General Mazloum Abdi said Monday. “We have evacuated all prisoners in those areas and moved them to prisons under our control.”

Still, Turkey claimed last week that about 750 fighters had escaped, most of them freed by the SDF, saying about 200 had been recaptured. On Tuesday, Russia’s defense minister alleged that up to 500 IS prisoners had broken out.

“We’d say that the number is now over 100,” the U.S. Special Representative for Syria, Ambassador James Jeffrey, told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday, just one day after testifying at a separate hearing that the number was likely in the dozens.

The whereabouts of those escaped IS fighters remains unknown, Jeffrey added, though he was contradicted less than an hour later by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“There were a few that got out,” Trump said during a speech at the White House touting the success of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Turkey and the SDF.

“They’ve been largely recaptured,” Trump said. “We also expect Turkey to abide by its commitment regarding ISIS, as a backup to the Kurds watching over them. Should something happen, Turkey is there to grab them.”

A Syrian Kurdish official told lawmakers that including family members, such as wives and children who were being kept separately at displaced persons camps, about 600 IS loyalists were on the loose.

President of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council Ilham Ahmed said that figure included two fighters from Belgium, six fighters from France and 10 IS fighters whose nationalities have not been determined.

White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara, Sirwan Kajjo contributed to this report.

Costa Rican Finance Minister Rocio Aguilar resigned on Wednesday in the middle of a fiscal reform push aimed at avoiding problems with future debt payments, but which has been sharply criticized over austerity measures.

Aguilar, a 62-year-old lawyer, stepped down after being formally rebuked by the country’s comptroller, which called for Aguilar to be suspended from her post after accusing her of authorizing public debt payments last year without congressional approval.

Aguilar told a news conference that she disagreed with the comptroller’s determination.

“I only regret not achieving more things in fiscal matters,” she said.

President Carlos Alvarado praised Aguilar’s record as minister in a post on Twitter. “Her hard work was key to stabilizing and cleaning up public finances,” he said.

Aguilar’s resignation was welcomed by many upset with her support for austerity measures, but lamented by those who support the fiscal reform she backed along with the Congress.

The reform includes a tax hike plus limits on public worker salaries.

Costa Rica’s economy is expected to grow 2.6% this year, which would be the country’s lowest expansion rate in a decade.

 

A lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump told a federal appeals court Wednesday that the president did not have to hand over his tax returns to New York state prosecutors because he was immune from criminal investigation. 
 
William Consovoy, an attorney for the president, told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Trump has immunity until he leaves office and said prosecutors would not even have the power to do anything if Trump shot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City. 
 
The remark echoed a past comment by Trump, who has said his supporters are so loyal that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single vote. 
 
The case, which pits Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance against Trump, is one of several legal battles in which the Republican president is seeking to shield his personal finances from scrutiny. 

Criminal probe
 
In August, Vance, a Democrat, subpoenaed Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns from 2011 to 2018, and other records from the president’s longtime accounting firm Mazars USA. The subpoena is part of a criminal probe into Trump and his family business. The scope of that probe is not publicly known. 
 
Trump sued Vance’s office in Manhattan federal court to block the subpoena, arguing that as a sitting president, he cannot be subject to criminal investigation. 
 
“We view the entire subpoena as an inappropriate fishing expedition not made in good faith,” Consovoy, a lawyer for Trump, told the three-judge panel on Wednesday. 
 
Judge Denny Chin asked Convoy if authorities would be powerless to do anything if Trump shot someone. 
 
“That’s correct,” Consovoy replied, adding that immunity would end if Trump were removed from office. 

‘No such thing’
 
Carey Dunne, a lawyer for prosecutors, urged the judges to reject Trump’s argument. 
 
“There’s no such thing as presidential immunity for tax returns,” Dunne said. 
 
Dunne assured the court that if Vance’s office obtained the tax returns, they would be kept confidential. 
 
“This case seems bound for the Supreme Court,” Chief Judge Robert Katzmann said toward the end of the argument. 

House committee’s effort
 
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Washington backed an effort by a House Oversight Committee to obtain Trump’s financial records from Mazars. 
 
The 2nd Circuit has put U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero’s Oct. 7 order on hold until it considers the case. Vance’s office has agreed not to enforce its subpoena for 10 days if the court rules in its favor, to give Trump time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. 
 
The U.S. Department of Justice has weighed in on the case, arguing that Vance must make a “heightened and particularized showing” that he needs the documents for his investigation. 
 
Though the department stopped short of saying Vance could not get the returns under any circumstances, it said it was “unlikely” he could demonstrate an immediate need for them because the U.S. Constitution bars states from prosecuting a sitting president. 

Impeachment inquiry
 
Vance’s investigation comes amid an impeachment inquiry and investigations into Trump’s finances by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. 
 
Two House committees are seeking to obtain Trump’s financial records from Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. The 2nd Circuit is currently considering a lawsuit by Trump to block them from getting those records, which do not include his tax returns. 
 
The House impeachment inquiry focuses on the president’s request in a July phone call for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a key Trump rival and a top contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. 

Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday gave its final seal of approval to a sweeping overhaul of the country’s pension system, bringing to a close months of political wrangling over the government’s keystone policy to stabilize public finances and boost growth.

The landmark bill, which aims to generate savings of 800 billion reais ($197 billion) over the next decade through a range of measures like raising the retirement age and increasing workers’ contributions, now awaits presidential ratification.

Senate President Davi Alcolumbre said that should be done by Nov. 19, once President Jair Bolsonaro returns from a series of official visits to Asia.

Investors, economists and credit ratings agencies welcomed the news, even though it was effectively a formality after the main text of the bill was overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday.

Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa stock index rose to a fresh record high just shy of 108,000 points, and the real firmed to around 4.03 per dollar, the strongest in six weeks.

Samar Maziad, senior analyst at ratings agency Moody’s, said the Senate’s green light completes a “crucial step towards preserving Brazil’s fiscal sustainability,” and that the reform supports Brazil’s credit profile and Ba2 sovereign debt rating.

“We expect the authorities to continue pushing their structural reform agenda as they seek to improve growth on a sustained basis over the coming years by encouraging private sector investment in infrastructure, and simplifying the tax regime,” Maziad said in a statement.

The Ba2 rating is non-investment grade, and the outlook is stable. In a report last month, Moody’s said failure to pursue further reforms and control spending could mean no “material improvements” in Brazil’s credit profile for years to come.

Roberto Secemski, Brazil economist at Barclays, said that although the pension reform “saga” had come to a “happy ending,” other measures were still needed to turn the country’s fiscal and economic fortunes around.

While the bill’s approval means Brazil will almost certainly avoid sliding back into recession, its deficit and debt dynamics will likely take years to improve.

“The majority of the reform savings, which will come from a slower pace in expenditure growth rather than outright reduction in spending, is back-loaded,” Secemski wrote in a client note.

“The market’s focus will now likely shift toward economic growth. We will monitor the new fiscal measures expected to be announced by (Economy) Minister Paulo Guedes next week,” he said.

Mourners, constituents and other well-wishers paid respects to U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings on Wednesday as his body lay in repose at a historically black college in Baltimore ahead of the first in a series of services.

A tan hearse with a U.S. House of Representatives seal carrying Cummings’ body arrived Wednesday morning at Morgan State University’s Murphy Fine Arts Center. A group of mourners led by Cummings’ widow, Maya Rockeymoore, followed pallbearers who wheeled the black casket with silver trimmings into the building.

The auditorium opened to the public Wednesday morning and a large group of people waiting in line began to file through.
 
Katrina Hutton, who lives in Baltimore, came out of the viewing area with tears in her eyes.
 
“He’s always been there for us and supported us,” she said. “No scandal. He’s been forthright with everything he’s done for us.”
 
Flowers were laid outside the arts center, including an arrangement from the university’s president that included a note with the message, “Congressman Cummings was a great man and will be truly missed.”
 
The Maryland congressman and civil rights champion died Thursday at age 68 of complications from long-standing health issues.

Inside the auditorium, the open casket was placed in front of the auditorium stage where it was flanked by arrangements of white flowers. Two members of the Masonic group Knights Templar, one on each side of the casket, stood guard in dark uniforms with gold trim.
 
A large screen above the stage showed photos of Cummings along with portions of his news interviews and remarks in Congress. On display were photos of him with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, and MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, whose wedding he officiated in 2018.

Baltimore resident Sandra Whitehurst said she stopped by the auditorium because she wants to be able to tell her 15-year-old grandson that she was present to pay her respects to the late congressman.

“It was important to come,” she said after walking through the auditorium. “I cared about him and what he has done.”

Whitehurst said today’s youth read books about civil rights champions such as Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cummings, but don’t realize the struggle “was real.”

“I lived through Jim Crow. I lived through segregation,” Whitehurst, 72, said. “To them, it’s just a story.”

She said she was “particularly proud” of how Cummings “stood up to [President Donald] Trump” this summer, when he attacked Cummings’ majority-black district.

Morgan State University is in Cummings’ congressional district, and he served on its Board of Regents for 19 years. Following the public viewing that was to last until 5 p.m., a tribute service was to feature remarks from Rockeymoore, U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes and Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young.

Cummings’ body will lie in state on Thursday in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol. A wake and funeral for Cummings is planned for Friday at New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore, where the congressman worshiped for nearly four decades.

A sharecropper’s son, Cummings went on to become a lawyer and elected official, most recently leading one of the U.S. House committees conducting an impeachment inquiry of Trump. He was also known as a powerful orator and passionate advocate for the poor in his Baltimore-area district.
 

President Donald Trump says the U.S. will be lifting sanctions on Turkey, saying he has been informed by Ankara that its ceasefire in an offensive against Kurds in northeastern Syria will be permanent.

“The sanctions will be lifted unless something happens that we are not happy with,” Trump said in a speech at the White House.

Turkey on Tuesday said there is “no need” to resume its military offensive against Syrian Kurds, saying the U.S. has told it that the Kurdish withdrawal from the northern Syrian border is complete.

Turkey made its announcement hours after the five-day long cease-fire expired in the Turkish military incursion into what had been a Kurdish safe zone in northern Syria.  

The Syrian Kurds fought alongside U.S. forces against Islamic State terrorists. But Turkey considers them to be linked with Kurdish separatists who have long fought for autonomy inside Turkey. Turkey calls the Kurds terrorists.

Turkey launched its offensive after Trump ordered nearly all U.S. forces out of northern Syria two weeks ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reached an agreement Tuesday on joint control of the Syrian border region.   

Video provided by VOA’s Kurdish service showed Russian military vehicles entering the city of Kobani, on the border with Turkey.

Under the agreement, Kurdish fighters would be kept 30 kilometers from the entire 440-kilometer Turkish-Syrian border, and also withdraw from the towns of Manbij and Tel Rifaat.

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Mark Esper arrived in Baghdad Wednesday for talks with Iraqi officials about the arrival of U.S. troops recently withdrawn from northern Syria.

Seven hundred or more troops have moved into western Iraq, where 5,000 military personnel are already deployed.  

Angry Kurds screamed obscenities and pelted a U.S. convoy with rotten potatoes as the convoy headed through the streets of Duhok in the Iraqi Kurdistan region on the way to Iraq.

Esper has said the additional troops would help defend Iraq and be available to conduct anti-terrorism operations against Islamic State insurgents inside Syria.

But the Iraqi government says the troops do not have permission to stay in the country.  

During his visit to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. defense chief said that “eventually their destination is home” back in the United States.

 

 

U.S. health officials want women getting breast implants to receive stronger warnings about the possible risks and complications.
 
The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that manufacturers should add a boxed warning – the most serious type – to information used to market and prepare patients for implants.
 

The recommendations are the agency’s latest attempt to manage safety issues with the implants.
 
In recent years, the FDA and regulators elsewhere have grappled with a link between a rare cancer and a type of textured implant, some of which have been recalled. Separately, the agency has received thousands of reports of health problems that some women attribute to the implants, including arthritis, fatigue and muscle pain.
 
The FDA will take public comment on the recommendations before adopting them.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will lead an American delegation to Saudi Arabia’s annual financial conference, a year after widespread boycotts of a prior event over the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi writer Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was strangled and dismembered at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.

Dozens of top global officials and business leaders boycotted last year’s Future Investment Initiative, a lavish event dubbed “Davos in the desert,” as international outrage over Khashoggi’s killing peaked.

But Mnuchin will attend this year’s event representing the United States, a key ally of the petro-state, a Treasury Department spokesman said Wednesday.

Also in the senior delegation will be Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, The New York Times reported.

Brian Hook, the State Department’s special envoy overseeing Iran policy, will also attend, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

Global firms including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are also planning to send top executives, according to The Washington Post.

The leaders of India and Pakistan, Narendra Modi and Imran Khan, will also attend, according to local press reports in their countries this week.

The conference, which begins next week, is aimed at drawing foreign investors to help Riyadh diversify its oil-reliant economy.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the conservative kingdom’s de facto leader, was feted by global leaders and business titans before Khashoggi’s gruesome murder.

The global fallout over the killing rendered the heir to the Arab world’s most powerful throne a pariah, casting a shadow on his reforms, putting the kingdom’s human rights record under the microscope and testing old alliances with Western powers.

The CIA has reportedly concluded that the prince, who controls all major levers of power in the Saudi government, likely ordered the killing.

A report by United Nations Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard also said there was “credible evidence” linking him to the murder and an attempted cover up.

Eleven suspects have been put on trial in Riyadh over Khashoggi’s murder, five of whom face the death penalty, but hearings are held behind closed doors and the names of the defendants have not been released.

Amnesty International has denounced the trial in Riyadh as a “sham” and “a mockery of justice.”

 

 

 

In the age of climate change hurricanes are becoming more numerous and stronger. To understand what that means the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel, at the University of Maryland is coming in handy. Voice of America reporter Iacopo Luzi, went there to experience hurricane force winds. 

The recent nuclear negotiations between the United States and North Korea were substantive and lasted longer than anticipated, according to a Swedish diplomat who helped arrange the talks.

The upbeat analysis by Swedish Special Envoy Kent Harstedt stands in contrast to that of North Korean diplomats, who blamed Washington for failing to bring new ideas to the early October talks in Sweden’s capital.

At an event Wednesday in Seoul, Harstedt said the U.S.-North Korea negotiations lasted “many hours” and were “not interrupted.” He said he was “cautiously optimistic” the talks would continue, despite North Korea not accepting Sweden’s invitation for follow-up talks within two weeks.

“The DPRK hasn’t closed the door for continuation at this point,” Harstedt said, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name. “We don’t comment exactly on our dialogue with DPRK. We can just say we have a very good working dialogue with them.”

“We also have to bear in mind that this is a very, very sensitive and complicated matter to discuss,” the envoy added.

Sweden has acted as an intermediary between the United States and North Korea, since the two countries do not have official diplomatic relations. Though Sweden helped set up the U.S.-North Korean talks, Harstedt said he was not involved in the negotiations.

Immediately after the Stockholm talks, U.S. officials characterized the discussions as “good” and insisted that they want them to continue. But North Korea said it has no intention to engage in “sickening negotiations” until the United States takes unspecified steps to withdraw its “hostile policy.”

“I think it’s good that both sides expressed themselves afterwards,” Harstedt said.

Since the breakdown of the Stockholm talks, North Korea has hinted at a return to major provocations.

Last week, North Korean state media published photos of leader Kim Jong Un riding a white horse up the country’s highest mountain while warning of a “great operation to strike the world with wonder.” Similar reports have sometimes preceded major policy shifts.

Pyongyang has also issued a veiled threat it may resume nuclear or long-range missile tests — a move that would risk upsetting the nuclear talks.

North Korea has not conducted a nuclear or long-range missile test since 2017. In 2018, Kim announced a self-imposed moratorium on such tests.

Since May, Pyongyang has conducted 11 rounds of short- or medium-range missile launches. U.S. President Donald Trump has shrugged off the tests, saying short-range missiles do not threaten the United States.

Some analysts view North Korea’s moves as evidence Pyongyang believes it is in a stronger bargaining position, especially amid Trump’s domestic political troubles and upcoming re-election campaign.

U.S.-North Korea talks have been stalled since February, when Trump walked away from a summit with Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam. The two sides disagreed on how to pace sanctions relief with steps to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program.

Although Trump has been reluctant to relax sanctions unless North Korea agrees to abandon its entire nuclear weapons program, he had signaled increased flexibility ahead of the Stockholm talks, speaking of the need for a “new method” to the negotiations.

It’s not clear what Washington was prepared to offer. One possibility: the United States could allow the resumption of inter-Korean economic initiatives such as the Kaesong Industrial Complex and tours to North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort.

Such concessions could provide North Korea much-needed sources of cash without completely dismantling the sanctions regime that Washington has used to pressure Pyongyang.

On Wednesday, North Korean state media signaled Kim may not be interested in such a concession.

During a visit to Mount Kumgang, Kim slammed dependence on South Korea for the operation of the resort, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

During his visit, KCNA said Kim would like to tear down the “backward” and “shabby” facilities built by the South. It suggested he may try to reopen the facility, regardless of progress in inter-Korean relations.

Amid a warming of relations in 2018, North and South Korea agreed to “normalize operations” at Mount Kumgang when conditions allow. Inter-Korean relations have since worsened, and international sanctions have prevented the resumption of South Korean tours.

South Korean tours of Mount Kumgang were stopped in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a 53-year-old tourist who had allegedly wandered into an off-limits area. Since then, the resort has not seen much activity.

The Philippines has agreed to strengthen defense ties with India, an increasingly significant Western ally in Asia, as part of its accumulation of foreign support in case fragile ties with China suddenly break down.

Last week, the presidents of India and the Philippines decided to work more closely together on defense and security in light of what the presidential office in Manila called a “fast-changing geopolitical landscape in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed India’s role in a Philippine program to upgrade defense, the presidential office said in a statement Saturday after a visit by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind.

Duterte, despite warming up to China after taking office in 2016, is now seeking foreign ties elsewhere fearing pressure from Beijing on a maritime sovereignty dispute over the South China Sea.

“He cannot be sure of China’s one-way goodwill,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “He thought he had China as a friend. Then I think he realized that behind the smiles and the pageantry and all the economic deals, China was actually continuing to militarize its islands in the South China Sea.”

India has its own grievances with China and has been working with a other countries, including the United States,  to check Beijing’s maritime expansion.

China relations

Despite Duterte’s efforts to fostered a friendship with Beijing, with China pledging $24 billion in aid and investment to the Philippines in 2016,  hundreds of Chinese vessels stirred up concerns after passing near Philippine-held islets in the sea’s contested Spratly archipelago in April.

And, in early June, a Chinese fishing boat sank a Filipino vessel near the disputed sea’s Recto Bank, raising questions about a possible ramming incident.

Duterte is now looking for closer relations with powerful third countries, using China as a gambit, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate politics and international studies professor at International Christian University in Tokyo.

“It’s the Philippines really fishing for lots of different assistance and using China as the bait,” Nagy said. “Unofficially, the Chinese are probably not going to be happy that India has increased their relationship with the Philippines. And they will probably read it as the Philippines basically milking every cow rather than really forging a strong and enduring relationship with China.”

Duterte visited Russia earlier this month for talks that analysts say could generate arms sales. He has made efforts to cozy up to Washington this year after a strain in relations in 2016. And, in May, the president made his third visit to Japan, which like India, is working with Washington and other western countries to check China’s maritime expansion.

“As countries strategically located in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, we affirmed our shared interest to protect our maritime commons and advance the rule of law in our maritime domains,” Duterte said after meeting India’s Kovind.

Brunei, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines claim all or parts of the sea. China claims 90% of the waterway as its own and it has taken a military lead there over the past decade.

India’s interests

India, located west of the Indochinese peninsula, does not claim any part of the South China Sea, but in September, it held military drills with Japan and the United States outside the South China Sea.

Even though the drills took place outside the disputed sea, India showed support of a “ruled based order” in Asian seas instead of “giving credence to Beijing’s claims,” said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.

New Delhi probably sees stronger Philippine defense relations as “complementary” to its ties with Japan and the United States, Nagy said.

India’s Act East policy that calls for stronger economic ties with fast-growing Southeast Asia – including the Philippines – would put further weight behind China’s rivals in the maritime dispute. India is the 15th largest investment partner of the Philippines, according to government data from Manila.

But these ties may not be enough.

“India itself is also in a way still exploring what it can do in Southeast Asia in general based on its Act East policy, but in terms of substance it is also been not moving as fast as say China,” Batongbacal said.

A top U.S. Census Bureau official says the agency has pivoted away from verifying addresses and is now kicking off a campaign to recruit and hire as many as a half million temporary workers to help with the largest head count in U.S. history next spring.

Timothy Olson, the agency’s associate director for field operations, said Tuesday that 32,000 workers verified 50 million addresses over an almost two-month period that ended more than a week ago.

Olson called the address verification process a success.

The agency already has 900,000 people who have applied for 2020 Census jobs, but the bureau wants a potential pool of 2.7 million applicants to choose from.

The 2020 Census head count will be the first decennial census when respondents are encouraged to answer questions online.
 

Turkey says there is “no need” to resume its military offensive against Syrian Kurds, saying the U.S. has told it that the Kurdish withdrawal from the northern Syrian border is complete.

Turkey made its announcement hours after the five-day cease-fire expired in the Turkish military incursion into what had been a Kurdish safe zone in northern Syria.

A Kurdish official said earlier that fighters had left the border region. A senior U.S. official said that the chief of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazlum Abdi, told Vice President Mike Pence that all Kurdish fighters have withdrawn.

A senior U.S. official said Washington is working with Turkey to see the cease-fire become permanent.

Turkey launched its offensive when President Donald Trump ordered nearly all U.S. forces out of northern Syria two weeks ago.

“The truth was that it was not in Turkey’s interest as a NATO ally to continue with that incursion,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

The Syrian Kurds fought alongside U.S. forces against Islamic State terrorists. But Turkey considers them to be linked with Kurdish separatists who have long fought for autonomy inside Turkey. Turkey calls the Kurds terrorists.

Joint control

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed on joint control of the Syrian border region.

Kurdish fighters would be kept 30 kilometers from the entire 440-kilometer Turkish-Syrian border, and also withdraw from the towns of Manbij and Tel Rifaat.

“According to this agreement,” Erdogan said, “Turkey and Russia will not allow any separatist agenda on Syrian territory.”

Erdogan said Turkish and Russian forces would conduct joint patrols within 10 kilometers of the border, and the two countries would work together for the safe return of Syrian refugees now living in Turkey.

But Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu also disclosed another result of the two-week Turkish offensive: the escape of about 500 people, including Islamist fighters, from captivity in northern Syria after guards left their posts.

Devastation

The United Nations said the Turkish attack has proved devastating for the region, with more than 176,000 people displaced, including nearly 80,000 children, and “critical infrastructure has been damaged.”

After Trump withdrew most American troops from the region, Putin emerged as a key powerbroker to deal with the fate of the long but narrow strip of land where Erdogan wants to create a “safe zone.” Erdogan has sought the removal of Kurdish fighters and communities established to help resettle up to 2 million Syrian refugees who have been living in Turkey.

Putin said he believed the good relations with Turkey “will let us find an answer to even the most difficult questions.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, said Turkey needs Syria’s permission to deploy its forces inside Syria, although Turkey so far has rejected any direct talks with the Syrian government.

Syrian state media quoted President Bashar al-Assad as calling Erdogan a “thief who robbed factories, wheat and fuel and is today stealing territory.”

The five-day cease-fire largely held, although both Turkey and the Kurdish fighters have accused each other of violations.

A spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces contended in a statement to VOA’s Kurdish service that although the Kurdish forces had honored the cease-fire, “Turkish army and groups supported by it continued attacking them, causing deaths and injuries among their forces.”

U.S. troops

Seven hundred or more U.S. troops have moved out of the border region, headed to Iraq, where the U.S. has already deployed 5,000 military personnel. Baghdad, however, said the new arrivals do not have permission to stay in the country.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper had said the additional troops would help defend Iraq and be available to conduct anti-terrorism operations against Islamic State insurgents inside Syria.

With Baghdad saying there was no agreement with the U.S. for the troops to be stationed in Iraq, Esper said on a visit to Saudi Arabia that “eventually their destination is home” back in the United States.

“The aim isn’t to stay in Iraq interminably,” Esper said, while adding that details of their deployment in Iraq would be worked out with Iraqi defense officials.
 
Meanwhile, the U.S. is keeping some troops near oil fields in northeastern Syria to protect them from being captured by Islamic State, Esper said Monday.

“We presently have troops in a couple of cities that [are] located right near that area. The purpose is to deny access, specifically revenue to ISIS and any other groups that may want to seek that revenue to enable their own malign activities,” Esper said.

In a tweet Sunday, Trump said, “We have secured the oil.”

Jeff Seldin, Nike Ching and the VOA Kurdish service contributed to this report.
 

For the first time, U.S. health regulators have judged a type of smokeless tobacco to be less harmful than cigarettes, a decision that could open the door to other less risky options for smokers.

The milestone announcement on Tuesday makes Swedish Match tobacco pouches the first so-called reduced-risk tobacco product ever sanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration.

FDA regulators stressed that their decision does not mean the pouches are safe, just less harmful, and that all tobacco products pose risks. The pouches will still bear mandatory government warnings that they can cause mouth cancer, gum disease and tooth loss.

But the company will be able to advertise its tobacco pouches as posing a lower risk of lung cancer, bronchitis, heart disease and other diseases than cigarettes.

The pouches of ground tobacco, called snus — Swedish for snuff and pronounced “snoose” — have been popular in Scandinavian countries for decades but are a tiny part of the U.S. tobacco market.

Users stick the teabag-like pouches between their cheek and gum to absorb nicotine. Unlike regular chewing tobacco, the liquid from snus is generally swallowed, rather than spit out. Chewing tobacco is fermented; snus goes through a steamed pasteurization process.

Long-term data

FDA acting commissioner Ned Sharpless said the agency based its decision on long-term, population-level data showing lower levels of lung cancer, emphysema and other smoking-related disease with the use of snus.

Sharpless added that the agency will closely monitor Swedish Match’s marketing efforts to ensure they target adult tobacco users.

“Anyone who does not currently use tobacco products, especially youth, should refrain from doing so,” he said in a statement.

Stockholm-based Swedish Match sells its snus under the brand name General in mint, wintergreen and other flavors. They compete against pouches from rivals Altria and R.J. Reynolds. But pouches account for just 5% of the $9.1 billion U.S. market for chew and other smokeless tobacco products, according to Euromonitor market research firm.
 
And public health experts questioned whether U.S. smokers would be willing to switch to the niche product.

“Snus products have a bit of a challenge” among smokers who are used to inhaling their nicotine, said Vaugh Rees, director of Harvard University’s Center for Global Tobacco Control.

U.S. smoking rate

The U.S. smoking rate has fallen to an all-time low of 14% of adults, or roughly 34 million Americans. But smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S., responsible for some 480,000 deaths annually.

The FDA’s decision has been closely watched by both public health experts and tobacco companies.
 
Public health experts have long hoped that alternatives like the pouches could benefit Americans who are unable or unwilling to quit cigarettes and other traditional tobacco products. Tobacco companies are looking for new products to sell as they face declining cigarette demand due to tax increases, health concerns, smoking bans and social stigma.

The FDA itself also has much at stake in the review of snus and similar tobacco alternatives.

Congress gave the FDA the power to regulate key aspects of the tobacco industry in 2009, including designating new tobacco products as “modified risk,” compared with traditional cigarettes, chew and other products.
 
But until Tuesday, the FDA had never granted permission for any product to make such claims.
 
The FDA is reviewing several other products vying for “reduced risk” status, including a heat-not-burn cigarette alternative made by Philip Morris International. While electronic cigarettes are generally considered less harmful than the tobacco-and-paper variety, they have not been scientifically reviewed as posing a lower risk.
 

Slovakia’s top diplomat says last year’s murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée has changed the Central European country and possibly altered how citizens will vote in upcoming parliamentary elections.

“I must say that this killing has changed my country and that this is a different Slovakia after the murder,” Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák told VOA’s Russian Service on Tuesday. “And those who ordered the killing, which are not the same (as those) who committed this horrible crime, achieved an exact opposite of what they wanted to achieve.”

Lajčák’s comments came one day after Slovak authorities brought charges against high-profile businessperson Marian Kocner and three others in the February 2018 shooting deaths of reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirov.

“Our people are now demanding full transparency, zero corruption, zero tolerance for misusing the judiciary and police,” said Lajčák. “There is no doubt that this will play a very important role also in upcoming parliamentary elections that are scheduled for February next year.”

Their killings, which police described as an expert-caliber assassination, sparked nationwide anti-corruption protests that ended the longtime rule of ex-prime minister Robert Fico and other high-level officials.

Although Fico’s ruling three-party coalition survived March 2019 elections, they’ve seen dwindling public support over resentment that legislators and police failed to respond quickly to exposés by Kuciak and other journalists linking a powerful Italian organized crime group to Slovakian government officials.

According to court documents, Kuciak received death threats directly from Kocner, whose business dealings were at the center of Kuciak’s published reports.

Kuciak and Kusnirova were gunned down in their home outside the capital, Bratislava, in what prosecutors have called a contract hit by Kocner, who denies the charges.

Critics of the ruling coalition have also faulted police for failing to take death threats against Kuciak more seriously. Revelations of links between Kocner and security officials exposed during the case have led to more resignations in recent weeks.

Speaking with VOA, Lajčák nonetheless credited security officials for working doggedly to seek justice for Kuciak and Kusnirov, who were both 27.

“It’s extremely important to know that justice will be served, because I cannot imagine the feeling if we (hadn’t) been able to identify the killers,” Lajčák said.

“It’s an element of justice, but it’s also a very important signal, I would say, of a political and moral nature,” he added, alluding to the fact that completion of the investigative phase of the case has been viewed as a litmus test for Slovak police and judicial independence.

But the case could still have a major political impact in a general election in February, with polls showing a slide in support for the ruling Smer Party, and politicians from other parties also playing down their ties to Kocner.

Kocner, who studied journalism in college, was once himself a reporter in Soviet-era Slovakia before gravitating toward the seedy underworld of black market enterprise that flourished after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Kocner would sometimes invite reporters to attend press conferences he staged to discuss his real estate and development projects in what critics called a ruse to court or, if needed, intimidate reporters.

Kocner and two alleged accomplices have pleaded not guilty in the murder, while a fourth suspect confessed involvement in the shooting. A fifth man confessed to the killing and has made a plea deal with prosecutors to act as a witness in the trial of the other four.

All suspects could face life in prison on six charges, including premeditated murder.

This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service. Some information is from Reuters.

Violent riots and protests erupted across Chile on Tuesday for the fifth straight day, prompting the government to extend a curfew imposed over more than half the country.

Clashes between protesters and law enforcement officials have killed at least 15 people, the government in Santiago said Tuesday.

The protests that began last week over a 4% increase in subway fares in Santiago have spread across the nation, inflamed by the frustration of ordinary Chileans who feel they have been left out of the prosperity of Latin America’s wealthiest country.

Protesters have set fire to subway stations, buses and banks, businesses have been damaged and looted, and property has been destroyed as rioters demand the resignation of conservative President Sebastian Pinera.

Late Monday, the government canceled the proposed fare hike and Pinera said he was ready to meet with the different factions and discuss ways to end the violence.

But Pinera’s efforts were rejected by an opposition angered by remarks he made soon after the protests began.

Chile is “at war with a powerful, relentless enemy that respects nothing or anyone and is willing to use violence and crime without any limits,” Pinera said without identifying the enemy.

That remark brought quick rebukes from celebrities, politicians and soccer players.