Speaking at the White House after John Bolton’s surprise exit as national security adviser, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo couldn’t hide a smile of satisfaction.

With the departure of Bolton, Pompeo has become the undisputed king of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy — with the exception, that is, of Trump himself.

The former soldier, lawyer and businessman has made a quick ascent in Washington since arriving as a Kansas congressman elected in the 2010 right-wing populist “Tea Party” movement.

But many speculate that Pompeo will choose not to stay long in his newly powerful position, enticed by an opening to represent Kansas in the Senate next year, perhaps with an eye on running for the top prize in the 2024 presidential election.

Knowing when to give up

First tapped as CIA director before moving to the State Department last year, Pompeo is so close to Trump that the president last year said he was his only adviser with whom he has never argued.

Expectations even rose that Trump would name Pompeo to replace Bolton — a rare dual-role as national security adviser and secretary of state last held by Henry Kissinger.

Trump Thursday ruled out the possibility but called Pompeo “fantastic” and said, “I get along with him so well.”

Yet Pompeo’s power, analysts say, comes with a paradox. While Bolton, a Washington insider for over four decades, bulldozed his way to steer U.S. foreign policy to the right on issues from Iran to Venezuela, Pompeo has risen because he is careful to follow Trump’s lead.

“Pompeo is influential but it is important to be realistic about his influence — he’s influential because he does not push his agenda too much,” said Tom Wright, a foreign policy scholar at the Brookings Institution.

“He knows when to give up. He is the last person standing but also he’s not particularly influential on policy,” he said.

“He pushes his views and then he gives up quite early on if he sense that Trump is going in another direction.”

Criticism of Clinton

Pompeo, 55, made his name in Congress by blasting Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, for not stopping the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

As the top U.S. diplomat, Pompeo hit the ground running with assertive conservative positions, such as demanding far-reaching concessions by Iran if it wants to remove unilateral U.S. sanctions.

But Pompeo on Tuesday instead left open the possibility that Trump would meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and said there were no preconditions.

Pompeo became Trump’s fixer on North Korea, flying four times last year to the totalitarian state as the U.S. leader sought a potentially landmark deal with Pyongyang.

Pompeo’s State Department has also negotiated with the Taliban in hopes of achieving Trump’s goal of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and ending the U.S. involvement in the 18-year conflict.

“Trump wants to have this diplomatic outreach to America’s rivals. It’s not Pompeo’s idea. It’s the president having an agenda and getting rid of people who oppose this,” Wright said.

Trump’s pivot toward diplomacy comes as he gears up for an election campaign next year, when he hopes to be able to present concrete achievements on the foreign policy front.

Pompeo has until June 1 to decide whether to run for the seat in Kansas, a state that has the longest streak of any state in electing Republicans to the Senate.

A Senate seat would ensure Pompeo retains a senior post in Washington regardless of the outcome of next year’s election or the whims of Trump.

But for now, Pompeo is a rare Trump official whose job appears secure.

Asked in an interview last month about their relationship, Pompeo said he often voiced disagreements with Trump.

“But when he makes a decision and it’s legal, it is my task to go execute that with all the energy and power that I have.”
 

An explosion and fire has struck a major Saudi Aramco oil processing facility in the kingdom’s east, a Saudi-owned satellite channel reported Saturday, without offering a cause for the blast.

Online videos apparently from Buqyaq, which is near Dammam in the kingdom’s Eastern Province, included the sound of gunfire in the background.

State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately report on the incident. Requests for comment sent to Aramco and officials in the kingdom were not immediately acknowledged.

The Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabiya first acknowledged the blaze, citing its own correspondent in the area. The channel said the blaze had been brought under control, without elaborating or offering a cause.

Saudi Aramco describes its oil processing facility there as “the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world.”

The facility processes sour crude oil into sweet crude, then later transports it onto transshipment points on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Estimates suggest it can process up to 7 million barrels of crude oil a day.

The plant has been targeted in the past by militants. Al-Qaida-claimed suicide bombers tried but failed to attack the oil complex in February 2006.
 

Like many kids, Rihanna dreamed of someday growing up to be rich, but helping others was at the forefront of her vision. 
 
“It’s always been important to me before any success,” she told The Associated Press on Thursday at her annual Diamond Ball charity gala. “As a kid, just seeing those commercials on television with the kids in Africa, where it’s like, ‘It just takes 10 cents or 25 cents to help somebody’ — I used to think, `When I grow up, I’m a gonna be rich and I’m going to make a lot of money and I could make a lot of 10 cents and a lot of 25 cents.’ ” 
 
She’s made a lot more than that as superstar singer and now fashion and beauty mogul, and with her Clara Lionel Foundation has doled out money around the globe to help support education programs, women’s health and emergency response organizations for people in need.  

The foundation, named after Rihanna’s grandparents, raised more than $5 million Thursday night. Cardi B and Offset, A$AP Rocky, Karlie Kloss, DJ Khaled, 21 Savage, Pharrell Williams and others came out to support the glittering charity dinner, which even featured an impromptu performance by Rihanna and Williams. 
 
“I’m a fan of her energy. She has a beautiful soul,” DJ Khaled said before entering the event at Cipriani’s in downtown Manhattan with his wife.  “In my book, she keeps it mad real. It’s just a beautiful day, we’re putting beautiful energy out there.” 
 
It was the second all-star event Rihanna staged this week. Khaled, Halsey and more turned out for her New York Fashion Week show on Tuesday, an extravaganza for her lingerie line, Savage X Fenty, that featured musical performances along with a catwalk. 
 
The star wowed on the red carpet dressed in a black velvet turtleneck dress with a flared skirt. 
  
“Just glam. She’s so glamorous, she’s so gorgeous. Anytime I think of Rihanna, I just think of just glam,” said rapper Megan Thee Stallion. 
 
Rihanna told the crowd she was “humbled” by the support for Clara Lionel, and noted that her grandmother Clara Brathwaite, who died seven years ago, would tell her helping others is “about the collective joining forces.” 
 
She told the AP her connection to her grandparents makes the event a sentimental one. 
 
“So these things get really personal, emotional, and I just want to expand this every year to a different cause, because I don’t feel like people deserve to be left out. That’s really the core of the foundation,” she said. 
 

Inside the event, which started two hours late and was hosted by Seth Meyers, stars mingled in a hall that was decorated with a tropical, colorful motif. A$AP Rocky, recently freed after a legal battle in Sweden that saw him behind bars there for weeks, held court at one table as he chatted with 2 Chainz and others; Cardi B bid a very exact $109,000 for a rare copy of a book on Rihanna, along with a two-thousand pound marble stand designed to hold it. 
 
The night was not without some controversy: One of the honorees, activist and journalist Shaun King, has been accused of mishandling money he claims he’s received for various causes he supports. The Clara Lionel Foundation was almost immediately met with backlash after it was announced King would be a Diamond Ball honoree, forcing King to release a 72-page report to try to defend himself against the allegations. 
 
The foundation’s executive director, Justine Lucas, stood by the decision to honor King, who has been a supporter of Clara Lionel. “We decided to honor Shaun King for a reason, and we decided to honor Shaun King for that same reason tonight,” she said. 

King, who defended himself on Twitter just before the event, did not address the allegations as he accepted his honor, instead imploring the crowd to work harder to fight injustice: “It’s not good enough to have good intentions.” 

Support for King
 
Cardi B stood up for King just before the event. 
 
“One of the main reasons why it is so important for me to be here is because Rihanna is honoring Shaun King. A lot of people need to follow Shaun King on Instagram. He protests so much for all minorities, he protests so much for the whole entire world,” said the Grammy-award winning rapper. 
  
Also honored was Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, where Rihanna was born. Mottley is the first woman to ascend to the position, and Rihanna personally presented her with an award. 
 
Mottley said no matter how global Rihanna is, she always brings Barbados with her. 
  
“Rihanna is one of our citizens of whom we are very, very proud,” Mottley said. “When you come from 166 square miles and you can produce people who make a global impact, it gives your heart a certain amount of warmth.” 

Joshua Wong, one of the most visible leaders of the Hong Kong protest movement, has arrived in the United States to rally support following a whirlwind visit to Berlin.

Wong, who has been permitted to travel internationally while on bail facing charges stemming from more than three months of pro-democracy protests, will spend the next several days speaking to legislators, human rights advocates and students in New York and Washington.

College students are among the audiences Wong, 22, and fellow protest leaders are aiming to address on their U.S. tour, with a stop at New York’s Columbia University on Friday and an appearance scheduled for Wednesday at Georgetown University in Washington.

Wong and other protest leaders will also testify at a hearing organized by the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), aimed at examining recent developments in Hong Kong and the future of U.S.-Hong Kong relations.

At a recent diplomatic event in Washington, Randall Schriver, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security, told VOA that Washington maintains regular contact with the Hong Kong government through the U.S. consulate there, “and we also, of course, have conveyed our concerns in Beijing about the potential for a heavier hand or use of violence, which we strongly discourage.”

Schriver added, “We support freedom of expression in Hong Kong. We believe that’s a right that is guaranteed under the Basic Law, so we’re hopeful that this is resolved between the citizens of Hong Kong and the governing authorities there.”

Winston Lord, who served as the United States’ ambassador to China and later assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, believes China’s leaders will try a range of other measures before resorting to a crackdown and the global criticism that would bring.

“I think that through the combination of propaganda, nationalism, censorship, rounding up the leaders, getting the tycoons upset, playing up supposed violence, they hope to exhaust the protesters and win that way,” Lord told VOA.

“They know it would be a mistake to go in there,” he said. “Trust me, if they have to, they’ll go in, but they’re going to try to avoid that if at all possible.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned that India’s recent actions concerning the disputed region of Kashmir will give rise to extremism among Muslims in India and around the world.

“When you marginalize human beings, when you push them to the wall, they become radicalized,” Khan said Friday as he addressed a rally of thousands in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

He also indirectly criticized some Muslim governments that either openly supported Indian actions in Kashmir or hardly said anything at all.

“Some Muslim governments are quiet due to their trade relations with India. But one-and-a-quarter-billion Muslims are watching. Some of them will be pushed to extremism; some of them will also pick up guns,” Khan warned.

Kashmir is India’s only Muslim-majority region.

In August, after India changed its laws on Kashmir, ending the territory’s special status and depriving the region of relative autonomy, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in Delhi issued a statement in favor of the move.

“We expect that the changes would improve social justice and security and confidence of the people in the local governance and will encourage further stability and peace,” said Ambassador Ahmad Al Banna.

Controversial crackdown

Kashmir has been claimed by both Pakistan and India since the two countries gained independence from Britain in 1947. Both countries administer parts of the region, with a so-called Line of Control acting as the de-facto border. In both countries, Kashmir held a special status, with relative autonomy, its own flags, and its own prime ministers until the Indian move last month.

To keep the population from carrying out wide-scale protests, India has imposed a curfew in most of the region, suspended cellphone service, and banned newspapers or television news broadcasts.

Citing Indian government data, Reuters news agency recently reported there have been at least 4,000 arrests and detentions. Human rights organizations have strongly criticized the curfew, ongoing for about six weeks, saying it has led to severe shortages of food and medicines.

The communication blackout has made it difficult for journalists or independent human rights activists to assess the situation in the area, but stories of alleged torture involving the security agencies have emerged.

A BBC story alleged torture so severe that the victims claimed they wanted to die. Security agencies in India have repeatedly rejected such allegations as “baseless.”

India’s argument

India’s government claims the change in status will bring stability and economic prosperity to the region by opening up investment opportunities.

“The decision removes impediments to the enjoyment of civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights of our citizens in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, especially those dealing with women, children and disadvantaged sections of our society in that region,” India told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva this past week.

In an interview in Brussels with U.S. media outlet Politico, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said, “Internet and telephone outages were needed to stop the activation of ‘terrorist assets’ and to prevent people who are doing violence to contact each other.”

‘Ethnic cleansing’

Pakistani Prime Minister Khan has compared India’s actions to those of Hitler in Nazi Germany during World War Two. Khan also drew a comparison to fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini, Hitler’s World War Two ally.

“RSS founders considered Hitler and Mussolini role models and wanted to carry out a similar ethnic cleansing of Muslims,” he said, pointing to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing, Hindu-nationalist party that has close ideological and organizational links to the current Indian ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Khan pledged to raise the issue in his U.N. General Assembly speech later this month in New York.

Not all Kashmiris were happy with Pakistan’s government or Khan.

“Imran Khan sold Kashmir during his [recent] U.S. visit. Things have been finalized on the division of Kashmir,” said Qazi Anwar, a 55-year-old businessman in Muzaffarabad.

Another man, Atta Ullah Butt, who had come to attend Khan’s rally from 50 kilometers away, said he was unhappy with the actions of the Pakistani prime minister so far.

“Imran Khan announced a month ago that he will be Kashmir’s ambassador; however, he has not visited a single country to lobby on the Kashmir issue in all this time,” he said.

‘Hope in Imran Khan’

Others, however, said they hoped Khan’s efforts at the UNGA will help their cause.

“We have hope in Imran Khan. He will make efforts for liberation of Kashmir,” said Liaqat Ali Awan, a 45-year-old jeweler from border town Chinari.

“Narendra Modi, can you hold a similar rally in Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir?” said Pakistani Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi, challenging the Indian prime minister.

“If you think your decision is popular, remove the curfew and then see what happens.”

“Next week in New York, I am going to the U.N. General Assembly and will not disappoint Kashmiris,” Qureshi said. “I will take a stand so strong that it hasn’t been taken before. I will talk about Kashmir on all international media.”

The U.S. Treasury on Friday announced sanctions on three North Korean hacking groups it said were involved in the WannaCry ransomware attacks and hacking of international banks and customer accounts.

It named the groups as Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff, and Andariel and said they were controlled by the RGB, North Korea’s primary intelligence bureau, which is already subject to U.S. and United Nations sanctions.

The action blocks any U.S.-related assets of the groups and prohibits dealings with them. The Treasury statement said any foreign financial institution that knowingly facilitated significant transactions or services for them could also be subject to sanctions.

“Treasury is taking action against North Korean hacking groups that have been perpetrating cyberattacks to support illicit weapon and missile programs,” said Sigal Mandelker, Treasury undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

“We will continue to enforce existing U.S. and U.N. sanctions against North Korea and work with the international community to improve cybersecurity of financial networks.”

The United States has been attempting to restart talks with North Korea, aimed at pressing the country to give up its nuclear weapons. The talks have been stalled over North Korean
demands for concessions, including sanctions relief.

Earlier this month, North Korea denied U.N. allegations it had obtained $2 billion through cyberattacks on banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, and accused the United States of spreading rumors.

Lazarus Group 

The Treasury statement said Lazarus Group was involved in the WannaCry ransomware attack that the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom publicly
attributed to North Korea in December 2017.

It said WannaCry affected at least 150 countries and shut down about 300,000 computers, including many in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS). The NHS attack led to the cancellation of more than 19,000 appointments and ultimately cost the service over $112 million, the biggest known ransomware attack in history.

The Treasury said Lazarus Group was also directly responsible for 2014 cyberattacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Bluenoroff 

The statement cited industry and press reporting as saying that by 2018, Bluenoroff had attempted to steal over $1.1 billion from financial institutions and successfully carried out operations against banks in Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Chile, and Vietnam.

It said Bluenoroff worked with the Lazarus Group to steal approximately $80 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh’s New York Federal Reserve account.

Andariel

Andariel, meanwhile, was observed by cybersecurity firms attempting to steal bank card information by hacking into ATMs to withdraw cash or steal customer information to later sell on the black market, the statement said.

Andariel was also responsible for developing and creating unique malware to hack into online poker and gambling sites and, according to industry and press reporting, targeted the South Korea government military in an effort to gather intelligence, it said.

A tennis tournament and a London musical are the latest events postponed in Hong Kong out of concerns over safety and disruptions from pro-democracy protests.

K-pop concerts, Chanel fashion shows and international conferences have been canceled, postponed or moved out of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory during more than three months of demonstrations. More rallies are expected this weekend.

On Friday, organizers said the Hong Kong Open women’s tennis tournament scheduled for Oct. 5-13 was being postponed indefinitely. The event was to be held at Victoria Park, a gathering point for many previous protests.

Earlier this week, protesters in the stands at a World Cup soccer qualifier match between Hong Kong and Iran booed the Chinese national anthem and chanted pro-democracy slogans. Iran’s request for a venue change had been rejected.

Lunchbox Theatrical Productions called off a monthlong run of the London West End musical “Matilda” at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Acts that was to open Sept. 20.

“Sadly the 14 weeks of civil unrest in Hong Kong have decimated ticket sales, and more importantly we cannot guarantee the safety and wellbeing of our international company, which comprises a large number of young children,” CEO James Cundall said in a statement. He said he hopes the show can be staged next year.

The protests began in June over an extradition bill that would have allowed some Hong Kong suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial. Many saw the bill as an example of Hong Kong’s autonomy eroding since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The government promised last week to withdraw the bill, but the protesters’ demands have widened to include direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in the protests, which have further battered Hong Kong’s economy, which was already reeling from the U.S.-China trade war. Tourist numbers have plunged, and businesses have been hit by the protests that show no signs of abating.

The city’s richest man, Li Ka Shing, said Friday he regretted that his comments over the weekend calling for a way out for the mostly young protesters had been misrepresented after he was berated by Beijing.

In a video broadcast on local TV, the billionaire described the summer of unrest as the worst catastrophe since World War II and urged the government to temper justice with mercy. Chang’an Jian, a social media account belonging to the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, said in a post late Thursday that Li’s remarks shielded those who committed crimes, and that he is not thinking about what is good for Hong Kong.

A spokesman for Li said in a statement that Li does not condone violence and illegal acts, and hopes all parties will create space and initiate a dialogue to resolve the deadlock.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s government dismissed a warning from Canadian think tank Fraser Institute that Chinese interference and the police crackdown on protesters were threatening the city’s position as one of the world’s freest economies.

“Such comments are entirely ungrounded and not borne out by objective facts,” it said in a statement Thursday. It defended police actions, saying they used reasonable force to halt increasing violence by protesters.

At a human rights conference in Taipei on Friday, Hong Kong singer and activist Denise Ho called for international support against mainland Chinese intrusions and government tyranny.

She accused China of pressuring celebrities in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China to take sides. Last month, Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria denied a request by a Chinese artist to host an event that would feature a talk about democracy and Hong Kong, while Hong Kong activists were banned from a gay parade in Montreal after threats of sabotage by pro-China supporters, she said.

“We want a total political reform of the Hong Kong government,” she told the Oslo Freedom Forum. “When government institutions and corporates have their hands tied, it is up to the people to get back that authority … we can find solutions as a global community.”

China has denied meddling in Hong Kong affairs, and accused foreign powers of fomenting the unrest.

More than 200 pro-Beijing supporters held a rally Friday to counter nights of mass singing by thousands of pro-democracy supporters at multiple shopping malls across the city. The mostly older crowd waved Chinese flags and sang the Chinese anthem in a mall in the densely packed Kowloon district.

“I hope the Hong Kong crisis will end soon. The victims are the Hong Kong people,” said a woman who wanted to be identified only as Mrs. Wong.

Protest-related activities were expected to continue Friday, when Chinese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with lanterns and mooncakes. Police banned a planned major march in central Hong Kong on Sunday, but many protesters have said they will turn up anyway.

It was Mouctar Diallo’s fifth attempt to reach Europe by sea. His previous four tries had been foiled by gangs on speedboats who returned him to Libya where he was detained and beaten.

This time, the 28-year-old from Guinea and 49 other sub-Saharan Africans were determined not to let anything stop them.

“Even if the water is not good, we said `today we will go to Europe, or we die,”’ Diallo recalled.

And so they departed from Zuwara, Libya, on a blue inflatable plastic boat in a bid to make it across the Mediterranean Sea.

About 26 kilometers (16 miles) into their journey a fishing boat approached and offered to help. But Diallo was suspicious. He had been warned that fishermen, just like the criminal gangs, were known to return rescued migrants to Libyan traffickers in exchange for money.

Then, a large red boat approached. The migrants recognized it from social media: It was the Ocean Viking, a Norwegian-flagged ship jointly operated by humanitarian groups SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders. Everyone was brought on board.

“First I started crying. I was so happy. I said `yes! This time my life has changed,”’ Diallo told an Associated Press journalist aboard the ship. “It was my fifth try, my last chance. I preferred to die than go back to Libya. I was so happy I can’t even talk about it. I will never forget that day.”

The rescue happened on Sept. 8 — Diallo’s birthday. He is now among dozens of migrants on the ship, waiting for a European country to give them permission to disembark. They pass their time doing laundry or playing chess with plastic bottle caps. Sometimes they sing and dance.

The ship rejected an offer to disembark in Libya. After having a shower and putting on clean clothes donated by the charities, Diallo showed why. He has knife and bullet wounds on his legs and marks on the top of his skull that his hair has yet to cover. He said they are traces of the violence that migrants are subjected to while held by smugglers in Libya, a country wracked by internal conflict.

“Every day they beat you,” said Diallo, whose nickname is “the general” because of all his warlike scars.

Other migrants had similar stories. Of a dozen people who agreed to speak to the AP, every single one said they were beaten, abused or raped in Libya.

In recent years, European Union countries have scaled back their own rescue operations in the central Mediterranean and handed over responsibility to the EU-funded Libyan coast guard. That has helped sharply reduce migrant arrivals in Italy in the past two years. The U.N. refugee agency says this year more than 6,000 migrants were intercepted at sea by the EU-funded Libyan coast guard and brought back to the North African country.

Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui, advocacy adviser at Doctors Without Borders, said that while the EU is celebrating a drop in irregular migration, as well as deaths at sea, “what they don’t tell you is what is happening to the people who are stuck in Libya.”

Migrants are held longer by traffickers “who are realizing that the way to make money is not necessarily by crossing the Mediterranean but by extorting people and their families,” she said.

Diallo decided to leave his village in Guinea after seeing how some families were lifted out of poverty by relatives who had gone to Europe. Families who used to have nothing were now building houses thanks to money sent from Europe. So, he wanted to give his family the same, and pay for the school of his younger brother and sister.

Diallo used to work in construction, making bricks, but he doesn’t know where he will end up or what he will be doing. He just wants to make it to Europe, find work and earn money. Going back to Guinea, where 55% of people live in poverty according to the U.N., is not an option, Diallo said. Not after he’s come this far.

But he’s warned countrymen who are thinking about entering Europe irregularly about taking the route through Libya.

“They don’t even consider us humans in Libya,” he said. “They rape men, they rape women; they do everything there. They do whatever. Only God can help us.”

 

There were no flag outfits, but Michael Kors’ show for New York Fashion Week was very much a patriotic tribute as he saluted American fashion with a collection that ran from nautical chic to classic glamour-girl gowns to whimsical polka-dot designs.

Taking place Wednesday, the last official day of fashion week, the show fell on one of the most solemn days in New York — the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  While the terrorist attack was not referenced, the show radiated not only American pride but themes of love and peace, from a sweater worn by a model that had the word “HATE” crossed out with a red line to the music of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, who serenaded the crowd with songs including Don McLean’s “American Pie” to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” to the O’Jays “Love Train.”

Kors told The Associated Press that the collection was inspired by many different threads of the American experience, from the recently reimagined Broadway musical “Oklahoma” to his immigrant ancestors.

“We got for a gift DNA tests — and in fact Gigi Hadid sent them to me — and we did our DNA and I realized I had never been to Ellis Island — crazy for a native New Yorker,” he said. “We went and we found my great grandmother’s arrival records and she was 14 years old, she had $10, she literally had nothing.  … I walked out feeling incredibly patriotic because I thought about the fact that she built a business, raised a family and her dream was to cross the river to Brooklyn.”

He was, of course, also inspired by American fashion.

“It’s looking at sportswear which, hey, we invented it. America is not the land of the ball gown. And the world dresses in sportswear. It’s looking at all of that sportswear, which is finding this wonderful balance of power and glamour,” he said.

To that end, the show was a mix of casual, sporty outfits to sparkly dresses that harkened back to the Rita Hayworth era of silver screen glamour.

Gigi Hadid wore a fitted black gown with silver studs, poufy long sleeves that had extra draping at both hips; another model wore a blue double-breasted, gold-buttoned blazer with exaggerated, billowing shoulders. There was a one-piece bathing suit dotted by tiny metallic anchors; a belted-black romper suit with gold trim, worn by Bella Hadid; and a whimsical red-and-white checkered outfit that included a blazer, shorts and a bra top paired with chunky white sandals.

Actresses Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson and Yalitza Aparicio were among the stars who turned out for Kors’ show on the banks of Brooklyn in a converted greenhouse that kept its topiary feel with a plethora of trees that decorated the cavernous space.

Actress Lucy Hale raved about the designer: “Michael Kors is just iconic. He’s so classic. He’s so lovely. This is sort of capping off my fashion week and I thought it was a great way to end an amazing week.”

Aparicio, nominated for an Oscar earlier this year for her work in “Roma,” wore a silver wrap gown with ruffles from Kors as she chatted with Kidman before the show.  

“Michael Kors was one of the first designers that provided me his designs to dress me during award season,” she said, “and so I have the opportunity to have a new experience in the fashion world.”

 

London’s Heathrow Airport remained open Friday despite plans by climate-change activists to disrupt flights by flying drones close to the travel hub.

The activists, a group called Heathrow Pause, had planned to halt flights by flying drones within 5 kilometers of the airport. The point was to push the government to move more aggressively to cut carbon emissions, but Reuters reported Friday that the effort was stymied when the drones did not fly and the airport carried on normally.

The airport said on its website that its runways and taxiways “remain open and fully operational despite attempts to disrupt the airport through the illegal use of drones in protest nearby.”

Heathrow Pause said the airport was using signal jamming to frustrate early flights; the airport said it would “continue to work with the authorities to carry out dynamic risk assessment programs and keep our passengers flying safely on their journeys today.”

Two men were arrested Friday in connection with the protest, following arrests of five others Thursday.

Airport officials have called the drone protests “reckless,” saying they “could endanger the lives of the traveling public and our colleagues,” and the airport’s statement Friday said, “We agree with the need for climate change action but illegal protest activity designed with the intention of disrupting thousands of people, is not the answer.”

A British law enacted last year prohibits the flying of drones within 5 kilometers of any airport. It was the result of drone protests in December 2018 and January 2019 that grounded or diverted more than 1,000 flights at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports, affecting tens of thousands of travelers.
 

Australia insists its support for the U.S.-led mission to protect tankers in the Persian Gulf is not to blame for the detention of two Australian travel bloggers being held in Iran. They have been identified as Jolie King and Mark Firkin, a couple from Perth. 

They reportedly were detained 10 weeks ago near Tehran. King also holds a British passport.

News of the couple’s arrest, and that of another British-Australian woman, emerged Wednesday. The cases are not thought to be related. The detentions come amid growing tensions between the West and Iran.

Travel bloggers

King and Firkin have been traveling through Asia and the Middle East. They were documenting their adventures to thousands of followers on Instagram and YouTube, including a recent trip through Pakistan.

“You might have heard of it before but the Karakoram (highway) was built on the same path as the old Silk Route, so that is pretty cool,” King said.

It is reported the couple was arrested in Iran for flying a drone without permission. Videos filmed in other countries do contain drone footage.

Their last social media post was June 30:

Firkin: “We are now in Iran and we are camped on a nice hill here next to the capital, Tehran.”

King: “We just arrived. (It’s) actually really beautiful.”

Firkin: “Just in time for sunset.”

King: “Yeah.”

Possible academic

A second dual British-Australian national reported to have been jailed for 10 years on unknown charges is understood to be an academic from Melbourne. There is speculation the woman, who has not been publicly identified, could have been convicted by Iran of spying.

In August, Canberra said it would send a warship and surveillance aircraft to the Persian Gulf to join an international effort to combat Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes.

The Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, does not believe the detentions are linked to that decision or to other political reasons.

“We have no reason to think that these arrests are connected to international concern over Iran’s nuclear program, United Nations sanctions or sanctions enforcement or maritime security and the safety of civilian shipping,” Payne said.

Australia is advising its citizens, and those with dual nationality, to reconsider their need to travel to Iran because of the risk that foreigners could be randomly detained.

The Iraqi government on Thursday said it has issued life imprisonment for a female Islamic State (IS) member who helped the group develop chemical and biological weapons.

The woman, identified by the Iraqi Interior Ministry as Abrar al-Kubaisi, reportedly played a key role in research as a part of IS’s team to develop chemical and biological weapons.

Iraq’s Falcon Intelligence Cell did not disclose the time of her arrest, saying only that she had been arrested during an operation at an earlier date.

Life in prison

“The convicted terrorist Abrar al-Kubaisi, who was recently sentenced to life imprisonment, was one of the most prominent biological researchers involved in the IS program to manufacture and train special elements within the Development and Manufacturing Body of the terrorist organization responsible for preparation, production and use of chemical weapons in the country and abroad,” said Abu Ali al-Basri, the head of Iraqi Interior Ministry’s Directorate of Intelligence and Counterterrorism, in a statement for semi-official al-Sabah newspaper.

Al-Basri said Abrar al-Kubaisi had told Iraqi officials that she was lured into the extremist group through the internet and that she helped the IS militants conduct chemical operations in Iraq.

“Confessions of the terrorist Abrar al-Kubaisi show how she was tricked through social media to join the ranks of the terrorist organization,” said the intelligence head, adding that al-Kubaisi followed IS directions to help in the use of chemical weapons materials in several operations in Baghdad.

Chemical weapons in 2015

Reports about the IS use of chemical weapons appeared as early as 2015 when local Iraqi and Kurdish forces complained about sustaining dozens of casualties from the battlefield because of the use of mustard gas by the jihadist group.

U.S. and Iraqi intelligence officials in November 2015 expressed grave concerns that the group was aggressively pursuing the development of chemical weapons. They reported the group was seeking the help of scientists from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region to open a branch devoted to research and experiments of chemical and biological weapons.

By late 2016, the group used chemical weapons, including chlorine and sulfur mustard agents, at least 52 times on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq, according an assessment by London-based intelligence collection and analysis service the IHS Conflict Monitor.

The third Democratic presidential candidate debate took place in Houston Thursday. The

A country boy kneels before the grave of his parents who died of AIDS after becoming infected with the HIV virus because unsafe procedures were used when they sold their blood. Horror colors the eyes of a miner with his face, unprotected by any safety gear, entirely blackened by coal dust. Two men under a yellow sky view a 200-year-old temple surrounded by belching industrial smokestacks. Hours before her death from AIDS, a barely clad woman takes comfort in the arms of her husband, who could not afford to take her to the hospital.

For decades, Chinese independent photojournalist Lu Guang documented China’s dark side, covering the discomfiting economic, social and environmental issues long steamrollered by China’s race become a world power.

Chinese police

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said the United States would issue 50-year bonds if there was “proper demand,” a moved aimed at “de-risking” the government’s $22 trillion of debt and locking in low interest rates. 
 
“We are going to start with 50 years, and if the answer is 50 years is successful, we’ll consider 100-year bonds,” Mnuchin said in an interview with The New York Times’ DealBook and streamed online live, adding that he began looking into the possibility of ultra-long U.S. bonds two years ago. 
 
The longest-dated U.S. Treasury currently is 30 years. 
 
U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed a different fix for the rising cost of the record U.S. debt, calling Wednesday on the “boneheads” at the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates to below zero so as to reduce interest rate payments. 
 
The Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates by a modest quarter of a percentage point next week when U.S. rate-setters meet. 

Powell’s view

Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other policymakers see U.S. economic conditions as still generally favorable despite a global slowdown and a still-unresolved U.S.-China trade war, and they have consistently pushed back against the notion of negative rates or of setting rates to cater to political pressure. 
 
On Thursday, the European Central Bank pushed its target rates further into negative territory to try to boost growth, prompting a complaint from Trump that Europeans are “paid” to borrow money, while the Fed “just sits, and sits, and sits.” 
 
Asked about negative interest rates, Mnuchin indicated that he was not the fan that his boss was. 
 
“Low interest rates are good for economic growth,” Mnuchin said. “I think negative interest rates — unclear whether they are good for economic growth. I think that negative interest rates are bad for banking business. It’s hard to grow an economy without having a healthy banking business.” 
 
Mnuchin did predict that the ECB’s easing policy could push more global capital into U.S. Treasurys, whose yields, though historically low, are much higher than those on German government bonds. 
 
“My expectation is you are going to see a big flow of funds” into 10-year Treasurys, Mnuchin said. That would push U.S. bond prices higher, and yields lower, giving a potential added boost to the case for issuing ultra-long U.S. bonds to lock in low borrowing costs.  

The United States is moving ahead with millions of dollars in aid for Ukraine’s military, money that had until now been held up by the White House.

White House officials Thursday confirmed the release of $250 million in funding from the Pentagon and another $141 million in financial assistance from the State Department shortly before lawmakers were set to admonish the administration for the delay.

“The Departments of State and Defense are proceeding with the obligation of all military and security assistance funding to Ukraine,” according to a senior administration official. “The Administration supports Ukraine’s efforts of reform and self-defense, and these funds will advance Ukrainian efforts toward those ends.”

Earlier Thursday, the State Department announced it had been cleared to release the $141 million in aid.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Assistant Secretary for Political and Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper called it part of “a whole host of security assistance that we have outlined and identified for Ukraine.”

That was followed by the announcement that $250 million in Pentagon aid, for additional training, and equipment for Ukrainian forces, also was being released.

“U.S. assistance has saved lives while helping to build Ukraine’s long-term defense capacity,” a State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We remain committed to a robust partnership with Ukraine.”

Push for action

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers had become increasingly frustrated, and vocal, about continuous delays in sending the aid to Ukraine, which has been struggling against Moscow-backed separatists following Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014.

“Our financial support is absolutely crucial,” Republican Senator Rob Portman, co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, said in statement Thursday, adding he had spoken with President Donald Trump the night before.

“With this funding we will provide vital assistance to help the Ukrainian military continue on their path of increasing their ability to defend their homeland against any threat,” he said.

Portman was one of five senators who signed a letter to Trump’s budget director earlier this month, expressing “deep concerns” that the funding was being held up.

Some administration officials had said the White House was reluctant to release the money due to high levels of corruption in Ukraine.

‘Defeat’ corruption

But U.S. lawmakers have said they are optimistic about efforts by new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address those concerns.

“Zelenskiy says we’re not just going to fight corruption, we’re going to defeat it,” Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who met with Zelenskiy in Kyiv, told VOA’s Ukrainian service Wednesday. “That’s a tall order, but it shows a laudable goal, so we were very encouraged.”

Since 2014, the U.S. has given Ukraine about $1.6 billion in security assistance.

The newly released funds are slated to pay for ongoing training programs for Ukraine’s military as well as improvements to the country’s maritime capabilities.

The money will also pay for sniper rifles, rocket propelled grenades, counter artillery radars, electronic warfare detection systems and night vision goggles.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said Thursday it will subpoena President Donald Trump’s special Afghanistan envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, to testify on Sept. 19, after the abrupt cancellation of talks with the country’s Taliban militia.

Representative Eliot Engel, the committee’s Democratic chairman, said he signed the subpoena after the U.S. State Department ignored numerous requests for briefings by Khalilzad about the Afghanistan peace plan and the administration’s path forward in that country.

Engel released a letter last week expressing frustration with the administration’s failure to arrange briefings by Khalilzad. He said the State Department had refused requests in February, April and earlier this month for briefings or testimony.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the subpoena.

Trump proclaimed negotiations with Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders dead on Monday after scrapping talks with the group planned for Camp David, Maryland, during the weekend after a U.S. soldier was killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul.

The abrupt announcement — and news that Trump had planned to bring Taliban leaders to the American presidential retreat — angered many in Congress.

Bringing U.S. troops home from Afghanistan has been one of Trump’s main foreign policy objectives, and the Republican president said his administration was still thinking about a drawdown of the 14,000 U.S. soldiers in the country.

It was the first subpoena issued by the committee since Democrats took control of the House in January and Engel became chairman.

The Trump administration has thrown out Obama-era rules that expended federal protection of waterways from pollution, a move environmentalists say they will challenge in court.

Getting rid of the 2015 Waters of the United States Act “puts an end to an egregious power grab, eliminates an ongoing patchwork of clean water regulations, and restores a longstanding and familiar regulatory framework,” Environmental Protection Agency Chief Andrew Wheeler said Thursday.

He added that it fulfills one of President Donald Trump’s “key promises.”

Wheeler made his announcement at the Washington headquarters of the National Association of Manufacturers, whose members have been lobbying against the clean water regulations.

The WOTUS rule protected wetlands and streams from pollution by pesticides, mine waste and fertilizers. It solidified what waterways fell under the landmark 1972 Clean Water Act.

Opponents of the Obama administration rules say the regulations created confusion, and likened them to a federal land grab of private property. Farmers and others complained the act also applied to small ponds that do not flow anywhere, leaving them wondering whether they could work their land without violating federal law.

Wheeler says the EPA will now redefine which waterways are subject to federal regulation.

Planned lawsuit

Environmentalists say they will take the EPA to court. They said Thursday that throwing out the 2015 rule means unsafe drinking water, a higher risk of floods when wetlands are destroyed and less wildlife habitat.

“The Clean Water rule represented solid science and smart public policy,” the Natural Resources Defense Council said Thursday.

Betsy Southerland, a top EPA official during the Obama years, calls the repeal a “victory for land developers, oil and gas drillers, and miners.”

California lawmakers confronting the changing definition of work have approved sweeping legislation designed to give many contract workers new pay and benefit protections, but tech giants Uber and Lyft vowed to keep fighting the changes, possibly by bankrolling an expensive fight on the 2020 ballot.

The measure, passed Wednesday, that is heading to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom outlines a three-part test that makes it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors who are not entitled to minimum wage and benefits like workers compensation.
 

Uber has argued that forcing its drivers to become employees would upend a business model that is built on flexibility. General counsel Tony West suggested to reporters that the ride-hailing company won’t start treating its workers as employees come Jan. 1, instead defending its model if it faces legal challenges.
 
“Just because the test is hard does not mean we will not be able to pass it,” he said.
 
Newsom has pledged to sign the measure, but his office hopes to bring ride-hailing and meal delivery companies to the table with labor unions to negotiate a separate set of rules for workers who pick up jobs on their own schedules in the so-called gig economy.
 

The freshman governor faces a test of his ability to broker a compromise between powerful interest groups in Silicon Valley and organized labor. Steve Smith of the California Labor Federation, a sponsor of the legislation, said the companies so far haven’t made acceptable proposals.
 
 “We’re committed to creating the conditions for [negotiations] to happen,” Newsom spokesman Nathan Click said.
 
If Newsom signs the legislation, it could have national implications as politicians and businesses confront the shifting nature of work.
 
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has indicated interest in pursuing a similar measure, and almost all the Democratic presidential contenders have offered similar proposals at the federal level.
 
 “It’s forced the nation to take a look at what the future of work is going to look like,” Democratic Assemblyman Ian Calderon of Whittier said in supporting the bill.
 
The measure would enshrine in law a 2018 California Supreme Court decision that makes it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees. While the court’s decision has set legal precedent since last year, the legislation provides enforcement tactics to the state and to city attorneys, who could sue companies they believe are failing to comply.
 
But Uber, Lyft and delivery companies such as DoorDash and Postmates aren’t ready to concede.
 
Uber and Lyft have already dumped $60 million into a committee for a ballot measure next year if Newsom doesn’t broker a deal. They have said the ballot measure would set a base hourly wage, give workers access to benefits they can take with them to other companies and allow drivers to collectively bargain without making them employees.
 
DoorDash, the meal delivery company, also has pledged $30 million.
 
Lyft spokesman Adrian Durbin would not comment on whether Lyft shares Uber’s position that it will not reclassify its workers come Jan. 1.
 
 “We are fully prepared to take this issue to the voters of California to preserve the freedom and access drivers and riders want and need,” Durbin said in a statement.
 
The legislation is likely of intense interest to the companies’ investors — both Uber and Lyft are publicly traded. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to investors that the firm expects gig economy companies to push back and find middle ground.
 
The measure lays out a three-prong test to decide if workers can be labeled as contractors: The worker must be free from control of the company, perform work “outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business” and be engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature of the work they are performing.

“This isn’t perfect, but I think this goes a long way to protecting workers, legitimate small businesses, legitimate businesses that play by the rules, and we, as taxpayers, that have to clean up the mess when these businesses don’t provide enough for their workers,” said the bill’s author, Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, her voice shaking with emotion.
 
Her legislation had been the target of intense lobbying efforts, not just from gig economy companies. Because it would affect all job sectors, many have successfully pushed for exemptions.
 
Jobs excluded from the new test include doctors and dentists; licensed lawyers, architects, engineers and accountants; commercial fishermen; travel agents, marketing consultants, graphic designers, grant writers and others.
 
Critics say by writing so many exceptions, the Legislature is unfairly picking winners and losers.
  

 

 

Yahoo Japan Corp. announced on Thursday a tender offer worth an estimated 400 billion yen ($3.7 billion) for Zozo Inc., a Japanese online retailer started by a celebrity tycoon.

Zozo Chief Executive Yusaku Maezawa told reporters at a Tokyo hotel that he was stepping down to devote more time to training for a trip to the moon in 2023. He has plans to ride on Elon Musk’s Space X rocket.

Maezawa owns nearly 37% of the company and will sell nearly 93 million of his more than 112 million shares, according to the plan. Yahoo Japan will own up to 50.1% under the tender offer, set for early October, it said.

Maezawa, known for lavish spending on artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a Stradivarius violin, said he also intends to announce later plans for another business.

“I was so moved by that feeling of building something from scratch,” he said of starting his company 21 years ago when he still lived with his parents.

“I want to thank all the employees for supporting and following someone who is so lacking like me. We laughed and we cried together. We had fun,” he said, choked with emotion.

Maezawa, 43, started out running an import CD business and played in a rock band before he founding his online fashion business with a shopping site called Zozotown when online retailing was still new in Japan.

Recently he drew attention for his Zozosuit, a so-called wearable technology that takes body measures with a software application so that clothes are made to fit.

He never graduated college and is known for a free-wheeling managerial style and corporate culture that are rare in Japan’s staid business world.

Zozo’s tagline is: “Be unique. Be equal.” It said in a statement that becoming a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan will bring stability and a solid partner.

Succeeding Maezawa at Zozo’s helm is Kotaro Sawada, who joined the company about 10 years ago after working at Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Data Corp.

Sawada told reporters that after 21 years it was time for Zozo to grow up. But he promised Zozo will remain creative, and not become boring.

Kawabe said Yahoo, whose revenue comes mostly from advertising, will be able to expand its e-commerce business by adding Zozo. Yahoo aims to be No. 1 in online retail in Japan, he said.

Also appearing at the event was Masayoshi Son, chief executive and founder of SoftBank and a top shareholder of Yahoo Japan. Son acknowledged he had urged Maezawa to stay on as Zozo’s chief.

Son and Maezawa appeared on stage wearing matching T-shirts designed by Maezawa that said “Let’s Start Today” with a peace sign. Zozo originally was named Start Today.

“I guess he wants to live the life of a rocker so I understand,” Son said with a laugh. “I envy him.”

Hiroko Sato, an analyst for Jeffries, said the deal will likely benefit both sides. Yahoo may gain more online shoppers by acquiring Zozo, with its younger customer base.

But Yahoo faces formidable competition from Rakuten in Japan, she said. Amazon is another powerful rival.

“Our initial impression is positive for both companies,” she said.

Zozo’s stock price jumped 13% in Tokyo trading Thursday, while Yahoo Japan Corp. rose 2.3% and SoftBank Group Corp. edged up 0.2%.