Seven environmental and animal rights groups are suing the Trump administration for its regulations that would make drastic changes to the implementation of the Endangered Species Act.

The environmental law group Earthjustice filed the joint suit Wednesday in San Francisco.

They charge the administration with breaking the law by announcing changes to the implementation of the landmark act without first analyzing the effects the changes would have.

“In the midst of an unprecedented extinction crisis, the Trump administration is eviscerating our most effective wildlife protection law,” the National Resources Defense Council said. “These regulatory changes will place vulnerable species in immediate danger – all to line the pockets of industry. We are counting on the courts to step in before it is too late.”

An Interior Department spokesman responded by saying “We will see them in court and we will be steadfast in our implementation of this important act with the unchanging goal of conserving and recovering species.”

Attorneys general from two states — California and Massachusetts — also say they will sue.

Environmentalists credit the 1973 Endangered Species Act with saving numerous animals, plants and other species from extinction.

About 1,600 species are currently protected by the act and the administration says streamlining regulations is the best way to ensure they will stay protected.

“The revisions finalized with this rule-making fit squarely within the president’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said last week. 

The finalized changes include requiring consideration of economic cost when deciding whether to save a species from extinction. The law currently says the cost to logging or oil interests will have no bearing on whether an animal or other species deserves protection. 

The revised regulations would also end blanket protection for a species listed as threatened, a designation that is one step away from declaring it endangered, and reduce some wildlife habitat.

Conservation and wildlife groups call the changes U.S. President Donald Trump’s gift to logging, ranching, and oil industries, saying they take a bulldozer through protections for America’s most vulnerable wildlife.  

A number of congressional Democrats have also denounced the changes, including New York Senator Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,

Republican President Richard Nixon signed the act into law in 1973 as part of the response to the new environmental awareness sweeping the country in the early 1970s, which included Earth Day and the Clear Water and Air acts.

Microplastics contained in drinking water pose a “low” risk to human health at current levels, but more research is needed to reassure consumers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.

Studies over the past year on plastic particles detected in tap and bottled water have sparked public concerns, but the limited data appears reassuring, the U.N. agency said its first report on potential health risks associated with ingestion.

Microplastics enter drinking water sources mainly through run-off and wastewater effluent, the WHO said. Evidence shows that microplastics found in some bottled water seem to be at least partly because of the bottling process and/or packaging such as plastic caps, it said.

“The headline message is to reassure drinking water consumers around the world, that based on this assessment, our assessment of the risk is that it is low,” Bruce Gordon of the WHO’s department of public health, environmental and social determinants of health, told a briefing.

What happens to plastic in the body?

The WHO did not recommended routine monitoring for microplastics in drinking water. But research should focus on issues including what happens to chemical additives in the particles once they enter the gastrointestinal tract, it said.

The majority of plastic particles in water are larger than 150 micrometres in diameter and are excreted from the body, while “smaller particles are more likely to cross the gut wall and reach other tissues,” it said.

Health concerns have centered around smaller particles, said Jennifer De France, a WHO technical expert and one of the report’s authors.

“For these smallest size particles, where there is really limited evidence, we need know more about what is being absorbed, the distribution and their impacts,” she said.

More research is needed into risks from microplastics exposure throughout the environment — “in our drinking water, air and food,” she added.

Alice Horton, a microplastics researcher at Britain’s National Oceanography Centre, said in a statement on the WHO’s findings: “There are no data available to show that microplastics pose a hazard to human health, however this does not necessarily mean that they are harmless.”

“It is important to put concerns about exposure to microplastics from drinking water into context: we are widely exposed to microplastics in our daily lives via a wide number of sources, of which drinking water is just one,” she added.

A credit card’s worth a week

Plastic pollution is so widespread in the environment that you may be ingesting five grams a week, the equivalent of eating a credit card, a study commissioned by the environmental charity WWF International said in June. That study said the largest source of plastic ingestion was drinking water, but another major source was shellfish.

The biggest overall health threat in water is from microbial pathogens, including from human and livestock waste entering water sources, that cause deadly diarrhea disease, especially in poor countries lacking water treatment systems, the WHO said.

About 2 billion people drink water contaminated with feces, causing nearly 1 million deaths annually, Gordon said, adding: “That has got to be the focus of regulators around the world.”

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has accused nongovernmental organizations of setting forest fires a day after the government monitoring agency said the country has seen a record number of wildfires this year.

Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, which monitors deforestation and wildfires, said as of Tuesday, 74,155 were burning in the Amazon rainforest, an 84% increase from the same period last year. 

“Maybe — I am not affirming it — these [NGOs] are carrying out some criminal actions to draw attention against me, against the government of Brazil,” Bolsonaro told reporters.  When asked if he had evidence, he said he had “no written plan,” adding “that’s not how it’s done.”

Earlier this month, the head of the NISR was fired after he opposed the president’s claim that the agency had manipulated deforestation data to make the administration look bad.

“This is a sick statement, a pitiful statement,” said Marcio Astrini, Greenpeace Brazil’s public policy coordinator. “Increased deforestation and burning are the result of his anti-environmental policy.”

Conservationists have blamed Bolsonaro for the plight of the Amazon, saying he has encouraged loggers and farmers to clear the land.

“It is very difficult to have natural fires in the Amazon; it happens, but the majority come from the hand of humans,” said Paulo Moutinho, co-founder of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute. 

He said the fires, usually set by farmers and loggers, can easily get out of hand during the dry season. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that the test of a new U.S. missile banned under a now-defunct arms treaty has raised new threats to Russia and will warrant a response.

The U.S. tested a modified ground-launched version of a Navy Tomahawk cruise missile that accurately struck its target more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. Sunday’s test came after the U.S. and Russia withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty that banned such weapons.

Speaking after talks Wednesday with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Putin argued that the quick test indicated the U.S. had begun work on the missile long before declaring its intention to withdraw from the pact.

“The Americans have tested this missile too quickly after having withdrawn from the treaty,” Putin said. “That gives us strong reason to believe that they had started work to adapt the sea-launched missile long before they began looking for excuses to opt out of the treaty.”

The U.S. has explained its withdrawal from the treaty by Russian violations — the claim Moscow has denied.

The Russian leader said that Russia would also work to design such weapons, but reaffirmed that it wouldn’t deploy the missiles previously banned by the INF treaty to any area before the U.S. does that first.

Putin charged that Sunday’s test was performed using a launcher similar to those stationed at a U.S. missile defense site in Romania. He argued that the Romanian facility and a prospective similar site in Poland could also be used for missiles intended to hit ground targets instead of interceptors.

“Such missiles could be launched from facilities in Romania, as well as those to be deployed in Poland,” he said. “It only requires software tweaks. I’m not sure that our American friends will share the information about which software they use even with their European partners.”

He said that for Russia that means “the emergence of new threats, to which we will react accordingly.”

JERUSALEM – Israel’s prime minister on Wednesday steered clear of Donald Trump’s comments questioning the loyalty of American Jews who support the Democratic Party, in sharp contrast to the tide of condemnation from Jewish critics who accused him of trafficking in anti-Semitic stereotypes. 
 
Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to keep quiet on the controversy reflected the importance of his close alliance with Trump — a relationship that has dented the bipartisan support Israel has traditionally enjoyed in Washington as well as Israel’s equally important ties with the American Jewish community. 
 
With an eye on re-election, Trump has attempted to use his close ties with Netanyahu to win over Jewish voters, who overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. Critics say it is part of a broader strategy that has also targeted minorities and immigrants with sometimes racist rhetoric to try to shore up his base of white, working-class voters. 
 
Most recently, Trump has focused these efforts on trying to paint Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan as the faces of the Democratic Party. 
 

Last week, Netanyahu barred the two women, who are both Muslim and outspoken critics of Israel, from visiting his country after a public appeal by Trump. Democratic leaders, who only days earlier had visited Israel in a show of bipartisan support, criticized the Israeli decision. 
 
“Where has the Democratic Party gone? Where have they gone where they are defending these two people over the state of Israel?” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” 
 
The comments triggered an outpouring of condemnations from Jewish American groups and Democratic lawmakers, who accused Trump of invoking anti-Semitic stereotypes by implying American Jews have dual loyalty to the United States and Israel. At a time of rising anti-Semitism in the U.S., some expressed fear that Trump’s words could invite new violence against Jewish targets. 
 
But Netanyahu remained silent about the latest uproar. His office declined comment, while Yuval Steinitz, a Cabinet minister in Netanyahu’s Likud party who is close to the prime minister, dismissed it as internal U.S. politics.  

‘We embrace everyone’
  
“We mustn’t intervene in the elections and the political disagreements in the United States,” Steinitz told Israel Radio. “We have close supporters and friends in both parties, Democrats and Republicans, both Jews and non-Jews, and we embrace everyone and want everyone’s support and friendship.” 
 
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin spoke to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, stopping short of directly criticizing Trump’s remarks but emphasizing the importance of U.S.-Israel ties. 
 
“We must keep the State of Israel above political disputes and make every effort to ensure that support for Israel does not become a political issue,” Rivlin, whose role is largely ceremonial, told Pelosi, according to a statement. 
 
This is not the first time Trump has been accused of making comments seen by some as anti-Semitic.    

On the campaign trail, he told Jewish Republicans in 2015 that “you’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money.” Following a march by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, he said there were “very fine people on both sides” after clashes between protesters and counterprotesters. On international Holocaust Day in 2017, Trump condemned the “horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror,” without mentioning anti-Semitism or the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis and their sympathizers. 
 
Netanyahu’s low profile contrasted with his criticism of Omar this year when she suggested Israel’s supporters were motivated by money and not ideology. Omar, accused by Democrats and Republicans of repeating anti-Semitic tropes, later apologized. 
 
For decades, Israel has maintained staunch bipartisan support in Washington, saying that warm relations with both parties is the bedrock of the relationship with its closest ally. 

Netanyahu’s speech to Congress
 
Those ties have frayed under Netanyahu, whose conservative worldview largely mirrors the Republican platform. Netanyahu appeared to side with Mitt Romney in his race against Barack Obama in 2012. And in 2015, Netanyahu famously delivered a speech to Congress attacking Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, infuriating the then-president and souring what was already a strained relationship. Netanyahu’s ambassador to Washington, U.S.-born Ron Dermer, is a former Republican Party operative. 
 
The alliance with Trump, who is popular with the Israeli public, has paid great dividends for Netanyahu. Over staunch objections from the Palestinians, Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy to the contested city. With strong Israeli encouragement, he withdrew from the U.S.-led international nuclear deal with Iran, and more recently recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Trump, guided by a team of advisers with close ties to Netanyahu, has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians and closed the Palestinian diplomatic offices in Washington. 
 

But these gains have come at a price. The attention given to Omar and Tlaib has raised their profile at a time when Israel wants to isolate them within the Democratic Party. In addition, Jewish voters continue to overwhelmingly oppose Trump and appear to be linking Netanyahu to the president.  
  
A series of decisions by Netanyahu, ranging from incendiary comments about Israel’s Arab minority seen as racist, along with the cancellation of a mixed-prayer area at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, have further alienated American Jews. Opinion polls in recent years have shown sharp differences in support for Israel among American Jews, with Republicans far more supportive than the Democratic majority. 
 
Columnist Chemi Shalev, writing in the daily Haaretz, said Netanyahu was taking a risky path. 
 
“In the eyes of many if not most U.S. Jews, Trump has now evolved from a suspect accused of anti-Semitism into a felon convicted beyond any reasonable doubt,” Shalev wrote. “Their anger and frustration are compounded by the widespread perception that in their hour of need, the prime minister of Israel is siding with their defamer.” 

Trump’s value
 
Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Jewish People Policy Institute in Israel, said he expected Netanyahu to keep a low profile because the relationship with Trump is too valuable. 
 
“He believes that keeping his relations with Donald Trump is essential for Israel’s well-being and safety,” Rosner said. “I don’t think Israel is going to distance itself from a president whose policies and expression of views are favorable to Israel.” 
 
Rosner said Netanyahu will likely try to assure Democrats that he values their support and reach out to American Jews, even though he said many Israeli leaders quietly believe that support from the Jewish American community is not what it should be. 
 
“There’s a complicated situation here for Israel to navigate,” he said. “Maybe the only way to fix this thing is to wait for a new president or a new prime minister or a new atmosphere.” 

The Trump administration is calling on Cuba to drop criminal charges against a journalist facing a year in prison for “resistance” and “disobedience.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said Washington “strongly condemns” the prosecution of Roberto Quinones. Pompeo said the detention and trial of Quinones showed “flagrant disregard for legal norms.”

According to media watchdog The Committee to Protect Journalists, Quinones was detained and beaten in April by Cuban police while covering a trial in Guantanamo for the website CubaNet.

He was released after five days in detention, but Cuban authorities initiated new proceedings against him, alleging that his conduct during detention constituted “resistance” and “disobedience,” for which they imposed a fine. When Quinones refused to pay the fine, he was ordered to serve a year in jail, the organization said.

CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney called the sentence “outrageous.”

 “If authorities in Cuba want to convey an image of progress and openness to the international community, mistreating, jailing and fining a journalist sends the wrong message,” he said.

Quinones is awaiting the results of an appeal.

 

The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled new rules that would allow officials to detain migrant families indefinitely while judges consider whether to grant them asylum in the United States.

The new rules, which are certain to draw a legal challenge, would replace a 1997 legal agreement that limits the amount of time U.S. immigration authorities can detain migrant children.

The agreement is generally interpreted as meaning families must be released within 20 days.

Administration officials blame the so-called Flores Settlement Agreement for a spike in immigration, saying it encourages migrants to bring children with them so they can be released into the United States while their court cases are pending.

Department of Homeland Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new rule would have a deterrent effect by showing prospective immigrants that they will not necessarily get released into the country if they show up at the border with children.

Families typically have to wait several months for their cases to work their way through immigration court, DHS officials said, and the new rule would allow DHS to keep those families at detention facilities.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has repeatedly said that detention is not suitable for children, who may suffer numerous negative physical and emotional symptoms. Officials said the families would receive mental health treatment and other services.

Trump has made a crackdown on immigration, legal and illegal, central to his presidency. The administration unveiled a sweeping rule last week that would deny visas and permanent residency to poor migrants, a move that experts say could cut legal immigration in half.

Immigration officials have struggled to handle a surge of families and children fleeing violence and poverty in Central America that have at times overwhelmed border officials.

DHS officials say they have apprehended 390,000 family units since last October.

The administration sought to deter migrants last year through a “zero tolerance” policy that separated thousands of children from their parents but abandoned the effort in the face of widespread public outrage.

Over the last four years, only 18% of immigrants who have been released into the United States complied with a court order to leave the country, while 97% of those in detention were removed, according to DHS figures.

The new rule is due to take effect in 60 days, but that deadline is likely to slip as it is certain to face numerous legal challenges.

A U.S. MQ-9 drone was shot down over Yemen by Houthi rebels late Tuesday, a U.S. official told VOA.

“It’s the Houthis, but its enabled by Iran,” the official said, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity.

The drone was hit by a surface-to-air missile in the country’s southeast, according to reports.

The latest downing comes amid increased tensions between the United States and Iran. It also comes as Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, commander of U.S Central Command, which overseas U.S. military operations in the Middle East, is in the region to build a coalition to secure maritime routes from Tehran.

Bahrain, Australia, the United States and Britain have joined together in the “International Maritime Security Construct” to secure the region’s vital shipping lanes after Iran seized a British-flagged and Swedish-owned oil tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Gulf.

Stena Impero remains in Iranian detention.

The U.S. has also blamed Iran for attacking tankers in the Gulf of Oman in June and placing mines on four tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in May, accusations Iran has denied.

Tuesday’s downing is not the first time Houthi rebels have shot down a U.S. drone in Yemen. A U.S.-operated MQ-9 drone was shot down by the Iranian-backed rebels in June, according to officials.

The MQ-9 Reaper is a remotely piloted, long-endurance aircraft used to strike dynamic targets. It can also be used to collect intelligence.

The U.S. military flies drones over Yemen to target al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State militants.

There were 36 U.S. military airstrikes in Yemen in 2018.

In January, a U.S. airstrike in Yemen’s Marib governorate targeted Jamal al-Badawi, one of the alleged masterminds of the USS Cole bombing, which killed 17 sailors in 2000.

 

 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday she regretted and was surprised that U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly canceled his scheduled visit to Denmark when she rebuffed his overture to buy Greenland, the Arctic country that is part of the Danish kingdom.

“I had been looking forward to the visit, our preparations were well under way,” she told reporters in Copenhagen. “It was an opportunity, I think, to celebrate Denmark’s close relationship to the U.S., and who remains one of Denmark’s closest allies. I was looking forward to having a dialogue on the many shared interests Denmark has with the U.S.”

But Trump called off the Sept. 2-3 visit late Tuesday, saying that with Frederiksen declaring that “she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time.”

….The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on Tuesday in an official notification to Congress.

The potential deal is for 66 aircraft, 75 General Electric Co engines, as well as other systems, the agency said in a statement, adding it served the interests of the United States and would help Taiwan maintain a credible defense.

China has already denounced the widely discussed sale, one of the biggest yet by the United States to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. It has warned of unspecified “countermeasures.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, a Republican, has welcomed the proposed sale of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 jets.

“These fighters are critical to improving Taiwan’s ability to defend its sovereign airspace, which is under increasing pressure from the People’s Republic of China,” he said in a recent statement. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Monday that President Donald Trump notified Congress of the sale last week.

Pompeo told Fox News the sale was “consistent with past U.S. policy” and that the United States was “simply following through on the commitments we’ve made to all of the parties.”

In Tapei, President Tsai Ing-wen said the sale would help Taiwan build a new air force and boost its air defense capacity.

In a post on Facebook, Tsai said she was grateful for Washington’s “continuous support for Taiwan’s national defense.”

“With strong self-defense capacity, Taiwan will certainly be more confident to ensure the cross-strait and regional peace and stability while facing security challenges,” she said.

Taiwan unveiled its largest defense spending increase in more than a decade last week, amid rising military tensions with China.

Sino-Philippine ties are showing signs of cooling since the two countries made friends in 2016, according to a recent survey on how much Filipinos trust their powerful Asian neighbor.

Social Weather Stations, the Metro Manila research institution behind that survey, released new numbers last month saying people’s trust had fallen to a one-year low. It found that 51% felt “little trust” and 27% placed “much trust” in China.

The institution’s surveys, seen as bellwethers of popular opinion, reflect a growing resentment of Beijing’s pressure on the Philippines over contested claims in the South China Sea and perceptions that Chinese nationals have too much sway over the economy, Philippine citizens told Voice of America this week.

Politics, business

Hundreds of Chinese vessels have passed near Philippine-held islets in the sea’s contested Spratly archipelago this year as late as April. In early June, a Chinese fishing boat hit and sank a Filipino boat near the disputed sea’s Recto Bank, raising questions about a possible ramming incident.

“A sinking of a Filipino vessel, any incident like those gets magnified 100 times, which is probably not good for the relationship with China, because it erodes whatever little trust there remains,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school.

Since Sino-Philippine ties began warming in late 2016, China has offered at least $4.7 billion for infrastructure projects in the Southeast Asian country, socioeconomic planning secretary Ernesto Pernia said in February in Manila.

Now some Filipinos believe Chinese nationals are taking over local businesses by marrying Philippine nationals, said Rhona Canoy, president of an international school in the southern Philippines, who is part of a politically influential family in the country. Foreigners legally cannot own businesses outright. 

Chinese or Chinese-Filipino citizens run most Philippine-based businesses today, due to historical trade and investment trends, the consultancy China Philippines United Enterprises says.

“The Chinese being here goes beyond just the maritime border and area dispute,” Canoy said.  “A lot of that which is more directly impacting our people is the fact that they are the ones who are opening businesses.”

Fear, hope and bewilderment

People interviewed randomly this week on two parts of Luzon, the Philippines’ largest island, often hesitated to discuss China. 

Some professed no knowledge of the issues. Others said they worried about China eroding Philippine claims to the South China Sea, including 10 islets their government controls in the Spratly archipelago. One was working in China as an English teacher – dependent on Chinese students for her income. 

For Santy Mallorca, a 50-year-old motor-trike driver, China represents a threat to his government’s maritime claims. “Because so many people get money from fishing – accidents, you know,” he said. 

About 2 million Filipinos depend on fishing for a living. “Maybe China conquers the Philippines,” a roadside breakfast stall vendor said.

Winston Sayson, a 41-year-old who was waiting Tuesday for a flight in the capital Manila, said China showed no obvious signs of deposing the Philippines from the disputed sea – or of helping it economically. He said he wasn’t worried.

Only 27% of Social Weather Stations respondents said most of what the Chinese government wants in the Philippines is “good for the Filipinos.” 

Questions for the Philippine president 

Filipinos may worry little about China because they trust Duterte to handle foreign relations, Araral said. The president had earned a 68% net satisfaction rating in the second quarter this year, Social Weather Stations survey found. Duterte plans to bring up the maritime dispute with China at a meeting before month’s end with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Opposition politicians who tried to make China an issue in the May midterm congressional elections this year couldn’t beat candidates backed by Duterte. 

People’s views about China “depend on who’s handling the relationship,” Araral said. Whoever succeeds Duterte in 2022 may chart Sino-Philippine relations based more on “sentiments on the ground,” he added.

Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.

The latest round of U.S.-South Korean military exercises have finished. The top U.S. envoy for North Korea is in Seoul. Everything seems to be in place for the resumption of long-delayed working-level talks with North Korea. Everything, that is, except for North Korea. 

“We are prepared to engage as soon as we hear from our counterparts in North Korea,” said Stephen Biegun, the U.S. Special Representative for North Korea, who arrived in the South Korean capital Tuesday for a three-day visit.

Biegun met senior South Korean officials in Seoul on Wednesday, a day after the U.S. and South Korea wrapped up joint military drills. Although North Korea had hinted it could return to dialogue at the end of the exercises, it has given no fresh signs it is ready to engage Seoul or Washington.

Instead, a commentary in North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper blasted the United States’ “unchanged hostile policy,” saying the U.S.-South Korean military exercises never should have taken place. 

“We have warned more than twice that such a…scheme as the joint military exercises could prevent improvements in North Korea-U.S. relations and lead us to reconsider important measures that we have taken,” said the North’s ruling party daily.

The U.S., it added, is “pushing our country toward taking self-defense countermeasures to get rid of potential and direct threats.”

North Korea, which aims to split the U.S.-South Korean alliance, has continued to complain about the military exercises, even though Washington and Seoul scaled back the drills to help preserve the idea of talks.

The exercises this month were computer-based, according to reports, meaning there were no bombs dropped on dummy targets or overt, publicized displays of military strength. Instead, the drills mainly tested South Korea’s ability to retake operational control during wartime. 

According to U.S. President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised “to meet and start negotiations,” as well as stop launching missiles, as soon as the joint exercises finished.  

North Korea promises

It wouldn’t be the first time North Korea has dragged its feet on promises to restart talks.

Trump and Kim agreed agreed to resume working level negotiations in late June. Since then, U.S. officials have repeatedly said they hope the talks will begin within weeks.

“We haven’t gotten back to the table as quickly as we would have hoped,” Pompeo acknowledged in an interview with CBS News on Tuesday. “But we’ve been pretty clear all along: we know there’ll be bumps along the way.”

Asked whether he was bothered by North Korea’s repeated testing of short-range ballistic missiles, Pompeo replied: “Yes, I wish that they would not.” 

North Korea has conducted eight rounds of ballistic missile launches since early May, in what analysts say is an attempt to gain leverage ahead of possible talks. 

The missiles also demonstrate a crucial military capability: they are apparently designed to evade missile defense systems and can reach all of South Korea. 

United Nations Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from all ballistic missile activity, but Trump says he has “no problem” with the launches, noting they cannot reach the United States.

North Korea has warned it may conduct longer-range missile tests, or even nuclear tests, if the United States does not change its approach to nuclear talks by the end of the year.

‘We will get this done’

Despite the setbacks, Biegun, the top U.S. envoy for North Korea, remains optimistic, telling reporters “we will get this done.” 

“I am fully committed to this important mission,” Biegun said. 

Biegun added that he will not take the position of U.S. ambassador to Russia, as recent reports suggested. Trump on Tuesday indicated he may nominate Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan to the position.

Biegun’s visit has fueled speculation in Seoul that talks will resume soon.

“I believe it will start in late August or early September. No later than that,” says Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

There is an urgency for talks to resume soon, Professor Kim believes, in part because the U.S. will soon be in the heart of presidential election season.

“Mr Trump needs to focus on his campaign,” he says. “He won’t be able to work on this very much for over a year and a half.”

Nuclear talks broke down after a February Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam ended without a deal. Neither side could agree on how to pair sanctions relief with steps to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program. 

At their first summit in Singapore in June 2018, Trump and Kim agreed to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But neither side has agreed on what denuclearization means or how to begin working towards it.

The Dominican Republic’s top prosecutor said on Tuesday that the Caribbean nation’s largest drug trafficking gang has been dismantled, a group that allegedly used two former professional baseball players to launder assets.

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Octavio Dotel was arrested earlier on Tuesday, while Luis Castillo, also a former player, was named by authorities as being part of the gang.

More than 40 raids were carried out across the country in connection with the case, according to Dominican Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez.

Rodriguez told reporters at a news conference that the case marks the largest anti-narcotics operation in the recent history of the Dominican Republic.

He said the gang allegedly run by nightclub owner Cesar Emilio Peralta controlled one of the region’s biggest drug trafficking operations, transporting illicit drugs including cocaine from South America to both the United States and Europe.

Reuters could not immediately locate Dotel, Castillo or Peralta, or their lawyers, for comment.

Former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell lost an appeal against his conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choir boys and will remain in prison for at least another three years, an Australian court ruled on Wednesday.

Pell, the highest ranking Catholic worldwide to be convicted of child sex offenses, was sentenced in March to six years in jail after being found guilty on five charges of abusing the two boys at St Patrick’s Cathedral while he was Archbishop of Melbourne in the late 1990s.

There was no immediate comment from the Vatican on the court’s decision.

Pell appealed his conviction to Victoria’s Court of Appeal on three grounds, but mainly on the argument that the jury’s verdict was unreasonable based on the evidence at the trial.

However the court ruled in a 2-1 judgement that the conviction was reasonable, with two judges saying the surviving victim was a “compelling witness, was clearly not a liar, was not a fantasist and was a witness of truth.”

“As might have been expected, there were some things which he could remember and many things which he could not. And his explanations of why that was so had the ring of truth,” said the two judges.

In contrast they said the evidence by people supporting Pell varied in quality and consistency.

They also dismissed Pell’s argument that sexual abuse would have been physically impossible due to his heavy robes, saying “the robes were capable of being maneuvered in a way that might be described as being moved or pulled to one side or pulled apart.”

Under the terms of his sentencing, Pell will be eligible for parole in October 2022, when he will be 81. Pell can seek to appeal this judgement in the High Court of Australia.

Outside the court in Melbourne, small groups of activists and victims of abuse cheered once they heard the verdict.

“Here we have today in our court, in Victoria, the Supreme Court, saying, ‘we believe the victim and we uphold the jury’s verdict’,” Chrissie Foster, a prominent advocate for victims who has followed the case, told reporters.

“No one is above the law,” she said.

But Mick O’Brien, 77, a retired criminal lawyer from Melbourne and practicing Catholic who said he knew Pell from college, described the decision as “perverse” because he felt there was enough evidence to find reasonable doubt.

Speaking outside the court, he said Pell was “authoritarian, but very intelligent and fair.”

Pell has maintained his innocence and his legal team had appealed his conviction on three grounds.

The three Victorian Court of Appeal judges only permitted the defense to pursue one of those grounds, allowing Pell’s team to argue that the verdict was unreasonable because there was insufficient evidence for a jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of his guilt.

“Having reviewed the whole of the evidence, two of the judges of the court of appeal … have decided that it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Cardinal Pell was guilty of the offenses charged,” Supreme Court of Victoria Chief Justice Anne Ferguson said, reading out a summary of the court’s decision.

The dissenting view from Justice Mark Weinberg said a victim “was inclined to embellish aspects of his account” and he said the evidence contained enough discrepancies and inadequacies to cause him to doubt Pell’s guilt. Weinberg said that in his view the convictions could not stand.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he is postponing a planned meeting with Denmark’s prime minister due to her lack of interest in selling Greenland to the United States.

“Based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time,” Trump tweeted.

“The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!” the U.S. president wrote.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump had expressed interest in the self-governing part of Denmark — which is mostly covered in ice — asking advisers if it would be possible for the U.S. to acquire the territory.

Trump confirmed Sunday that he was indeed interested in buying Greenland, but said it was not a priority for his administration.

“It’s something we talked about,” he told reporters.

“The concept came up and I said certainly, strategically it’s interesting and we’d be interested, but we’ll talk to (Denmark) a little bit,” he said, stressing that it was “not number one on the burner” for the government.

When asked if he would consider trading a U.S. territory for Greenland, Trump replied that “a lot of things could be done.”

“Essentially, it’s a large real estate deal,” he said.

Denmark colonized the 2 million-square-kilometer (772,000-square-mile) island in the 18th century. It is home to only about 57,000 people, most of whom belong to the indigenous Inuit community.

Greenland’s ministry of foreign affairs insisted Friday the island was ready to talk business, but was not for sale.

“#Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism,” it tweeted.

“We’re open for business, not for sale,” it added.

Russia told an agency that verifies a ban on nuclear tests that a military test accident in the country’s north this month was none of its business and that handing it any radiation data was voluntary, Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.

The Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) said on Monday that two Russian monitoring sites closest to the mysterious explosion went offline days after the blast, soon followed by two more, fueling suspicions that Russia tampered with them.

The CTBTO said on Tuesday the radioactive-particle sensors of at least one of the four Russian monitoring stations in question were transmitting again.

Russia’s state nuclear agency, Rosatom, has acknowledged that five of its nuclear workers were killed in the Aug. 8 explosion during a rocket engine test near the White Sea in far northern Russia. Two Russian military personnel were also reported to have been killed.

There has been contradictory information about the accident’s consequences. The Defense Ministry initially said background radiation remained normal after the incident, but Russia’s state weather agency said radiation levels in the nearby city of Severodvinsk had risen by up to 16 times.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday that the accident was not a matter for the CTBTO, which first reported that the radiation monitoring stations went silent, according to Interfax.

“It’s essential to keep in mind that handing over data from our national stations which are part of the international monitoring system is entirely voluntary for any country,” Interfax cited Ryabkov as saying.

The CTBTO’s mandate only covered the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty or national testing moratoriums, Ryabkov added. The treaty was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1996, but has not yet entered into force due to some countries either not signing or ratifying it.

The Aug. 8 accident “should have no connection” to CTBTO activities, Ryabkov said, adding that the agency’s mandate did not extend to weapons development.

“Exhaustive explanations about what happened and what the consequences were have been given by the relevant structures,” said Ryabkov, and the mysterious accident had posed no risks to the environment or people.

Separately, the Kremlin said there was nothing to worry about and that it was confident that government agencies in charge of the relevant radiation monitoring stations had been doing their job correctly.

President Vladimir Putin said on Monday there was no risk of increased radiation levels, but that all necessary safety measures were being taken.

The Defense Ministry, which oversees the work of the monitoring stations, has not responded to a Reuters request for comment.

Gunmen killed 24 soldiers in an attack on an army unit in Burkina Faso, the deadliest yet in the West African nation’s fight against Islamist militants, which the president on Tuesday called a “dark stain” on the country’s history. 

Seven other soldiers were wounded in the attack on Monday and five are still missing, the military and President Roch Marc Kabore said in separate statements.

The army, which earlier put the death toll at 10, said it had launched a land and air operation in response to the attack in Koutougou, in northern Burkina Faso’s Soum province.

“August 19th is a dark stain on the life of our national army,” Kabore said in the statement posted on the presidency website. “It is a heavy toll, which … saddens us.”

Once a pocket of relative calm in the Sahel, Burkina has suffered a homegrown insurgency for the past three years, which has been amplified by a spillover of jihadist violence and criminality from its chaotic neighbor Mali.

Large swathes of Burkina’s north are now out of control, and France’s military Sahel mission began limited operations there earlier this year.

The main opposition party, the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), called for the government to step down, accusing it of failing to counter a jihadist threat which has killed hundreds of civilians and caused more than 150,000 to flee.

“It’s a team overwhelmed by the turn of events, which is currently crossing its arms, waiting for how fate will play them and the Burkinabes,” UPC said in a statement.

Deteriorating security prompted the Ouagadougou government to declare in December a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali, including Soum.

President Rodrigo Duterte warned on Tuesday foreign ships faced “unfriendly” treatment if they ventured into Philippines’ territorial waters without permission, in a swipe at China’s deployment of warships a few miles off the coast.

The warning comes as Duterte faces critics at home who accuse him of being passive over Chinese provocations in exchange for business ties with Beijing, though promised investments have been slow in coming.

Duterte’s frustration over multiple sightings this year of Chinese warships moving within the country’s 12-mile territorial sea, at various locations in the archipelago, was relayed on Tuesday by his spokesman Salvador Panelo.

“All foreign vessels passing our territorial waters must notify and get clearance from the proper government authority well in advance of the actual passage,” Panelo said in a statement, quoting Duterte.

“Either we get a compliance in a friendly manner or we enforce it in an unfriendly manner,” he added.

Panelo did not refer to China by name, nor elaborate on what that enforcement might entail.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters an unfriendly response could involve escorting the unwelcome vessel out of the area. “There are so many things that we can do to be unfriendly,” he said.

Opinion surveys consistently give Duterte a level of domestic approval never seen at this point in a presidency.

The same polls show growing disdain for China over its conduct in the South China Sea and concerns among some Filipinos over an influx of Chinese online gaming workers under Duterte.

Duterte is scheduled to visit China next week where he has promised to discuss with counterpart Xi Jinping the Philippines’ 2016 international arbitration victory over China.

Duterte has chosen not to push that ruling, which invalidated China’s claim of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, which is at odds with claims by Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Beijing did not participate in the arbitration and rejected the award.

Manila has lodged several diplomatic protests in recent weeks over the activities of Chinese coast guard, navy and paramilitary fishing vessels in Philippine-controlled areas of the South China Sea and in its territorial waters.

The armed forces has released images and cited witness sightings between February and early August of Chinese warships off Palawan and Tawi Tawi islands.

Lorenzana said the Chinese activity was concerning.

“The frequency has increased also, so it’s very alarming why so many navy ships of the Chinese are passing through,” he said.

 

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen thanked the United States on Tuesdsay for approving the sale of 66 advanced F-16V fighter jets and urged rival China to respect Taiwan’s right to defend itself.
 
President Donald Trump announced approval of the $8 billion deal on Sunday. The sale is expected to further inflame U.S. relations with China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

Tsai on Tuesday also applauded previous arm sales already announced by Trump’s administration, saying those reaffirmed the United States’ “long-standing commitment to helping maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

Trump’s announcement begins a period of consultation with Congress, and a formal announcement of the sale could be made as early as next month unless lawmakers object. The State Department, which would ultimately authorize the sale, declined to comment, but members of Congress from both parties welcomed the proposal.

China fiercely opposes all arms sales to Taiwan but has specifically objected to advanced fighter jets such as the F-16V, whose Active Electronically Scanned Array, or AESA, radar is compatible with the F-35 stealth fighters operated by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines. The U.S. is also installing upgraded electronics, including AESA radars, on Taiwan’s existing fleet of 144 older F-16s.
 
While the U.S. cut formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 in order to recognize Beijing, U.S. law requires Washington to ensure Taiwan has the means to defend itself.

Since 2008, U.S. administrations have notified Congress of more than $24 billion in foreign military sales to Taiwan, including in the past two months the sale of 108 M1A2 Abrams tanks and 250 Stinger missiles, valued at $2.2 billion. The Trump administration alone has notified Congress of $4.4 billion in arms sales to Taiwan.

Tsai has rejected Chinese pressure to unite Taiwan and China under a “one-country, two-systems” framework and soon after her 2016 inauguration, Beijing cut contacts with her government over her refusal to endorse its claim that Taiwan is part of China.
 
Beijing has sought to increase Taiwan’s international isolation by reducing its diplomatic allies to just 17 and stepped up military intimidation, including by holding military exercises across the Taiwan Strait and circling the island with bombers and fighters in what are officially termed training missions.

On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing had “made solemn complaints” to the U.S. over the planned F-16V sale. Geng called on Washington to “fully recognize the serious dangers of the arms sale to Taiwan” and cancel it immediately or bear the consequences.

 “China will take necessary measures to safeguard its own interests according to the development of the situation,” Geng said.

Only a dozen airlines will eventually share the aviation market for major international routes, predicts Lufthansa’s CEO, while a possible future economic crisis could “accelerate” a consolidation in air travel.

“The sector is evolving towards a dozen companies operating worldwide” on major international routes, in addition to smaller national or regional airlines, Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr told reporters late Monday.

Without naming them, Spohr forecast there would be “three in the United States, three in China, three in the Gulf and three in Europe”.

The Lufthansa chief executive warned that any future economic crisis could hit European airlines particularly hard, but predicted a downturn could “accelerate” mergers and acquisitions.

“If there is one positive aspect to the flattening of the global economy, and certainly also the worsening figures for all airlines — unfortunately also for us — it is that the consolidation process will tend to accelerate,” Spohr added.

The recent bankruptcies of German low-cost airlines Air Berlin and Germania have enabled Lufthansa to buy back flight routes and aircraft.

The airline industry is “much more cyclical” and at the mercy of economic developments than others, Spohr said, with the sector suffering from international trade tensions.

Lufthansa wants to “and will play an active role” in any future consolidation in the sector, said the airline boss, whose company’s net profit dropped by 70 percent in the second quarter.

Spohr said Lufthansa faced strong competition from low-cost airlines in a “unique price war”, however “we will not be driven out of our domestic market” by low-cost companies like Ryanair, because the German airline “has the financial strength to resist” competition.