Seeking diplomatic solutions to foreign conflicts. Immigration reform with aid for Central America. Trade deals that help U.S. workers, but do not involve trade wars. Democratic candidates used their time on the debate stage in Detroit to spell out policy initiatives that would represent a departure from Trump administration approaches, all while making the case they can beat the incumbent president in the 2020 election.

As might be expected among candidates from the same political party, there was a lot of general agreement about how to deal with big issues. But with 20 candidates split into two 10-person debates, nationally known names sought to maintain their leads in polls while others voters might not be as familiar with worked to generate the interest their campaigns badly need.

That led to a lot of sparring among the candidates and even direct questioning of each other’s records and proposals, particularly focused on the current favorites in the race — former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Health care

“We have seen health care as a place where there are more spirited disagreements within the party and between some of the leading candidates and the secondary candidates on what their health care proposal would be,” said David Hopkins, an associate professor of political science at Boston College. “That’s one of the reasons I think there was so much time spent on health care in these debates was that from the moderator’s point of view, it was a good place to really whip up a lot of deliberation debate and fireworks among the various candidates on stage.”

The candidates did agree that what is in place now is not delivering quality, affordable care. The arguments were about how drastically to revamp the system and how to pay for it.

Biden, who served when former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act went into effect, said that law, commonly known as “Obamacare,” needs only reversals of changes done by President Donald Trump and the option for people to buy into a public market.

Senator Michael Bennet and Montana Governor Steve Bullock also want to build on the ACA. But Senator Kamala Harris said that approach leaves in place too much of what is not working.

“Your plan will keep and allow insurance companies to remain with status quo doing business as usual, and that’s going to be about jacking up co-pays, jacking up deductibles,” she said.

Former Congressman John Delaney says the option for people to buy into government health plans does not go far enough.

“I’m proposing universal health care where everyone gets health care as a basic human right for free,” he said.

Foreign wars

Trump campaigned in 2016 on a message of not involving the United States in endless foreign conflicts. With more than half of his term over, there are still U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, and many of the Democratic candidates said they want to bring those forces home and spend money on domestic programs instead.

Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke pledged to withdraw from Afghanistan during his first term.

“We’ve satisfied the reasons for our involvement in Afghanistan in the first place, and it’s time to bring those service members back home from Afghanistan, but also from Iraq, also from Yemen and Somalia and Libya and Syria,” he said.

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who served in Afghanistan, pledged that any authorization of military force would have a three-year limit, unlike the limitless one that authorized the war in 2001 and has been the subject of intense debate over its scope.

Another veteran, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who served in Iraq, called for an end to what she called “these wasteful regime-change wars.”

“This is not about arbitrary deadlines, this is about leadership, the leadership I will bring to do the right thing, to bring our troops home within the first year in office because they shouldn’t have been there this long,” she said.

Foreign policy and trade

Trump has pursued an “America first” approach to foreign policy, whether that is seeking better trade deals through tariff threats or withdrawing from international accords like the Paris climate agreement he argued would hurt the U.S. economy.

Biden said he would seek to counter China’s influence by returning to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal also negotiated during the Obama administration, but only after renegotiating terms.

“Either China is going to write the rules of the road for the 21st century on trade or we are,” he said. “We must have the rest of the world join us to keep them in check.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio objected to Trump’s new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, which Congress has not ratified, saying it would hurt workers and that trade treaties should “empower oranized labor” instead of multinational corporations.

Trump made campaign pledges to use his first day in office to withdraw from the TPP, repeal Obamacare and begin building a southern border wall. Hopkins said so far, the Democratic candidates have not been clear about what they would try to achieve first.

“A lot of these democrats are running on very ambitious platforms. They really have lots of ideas about how to change policy in a lot of different areas. But one of the most important things you do as president is you set priorities, you set the agenda,” he said. “What is going to be the first thing you do? What is going to be the second thing you do? The candidates I think differ on that, but that didn’t come out as much during the debates this time.”

Washington Governor Jay Inslee left no doubt in the debate that climate change would be the top priority of his White House.

“We have to act now,” he said. “Climate change is not a singular issue, it is all the issues that we Democrats care about. It is health. It is national security. It is our economy.”

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said she would rejoin the Paris climate agreement, and cited the U.S. space race with Russia of last century as a model for spurring innovation on climate solutions.

“Why not have a green energy race with China?” she said.

Senator Cory Booker expressed the need to approach trade deals, foreign aid and other policies with climate change in mind, and said the United States has to lead the world to a solution.

“Climate change is not a separate issue. It must be the issue and the lens with which we view every issue. Nobody should get an applause for rejoining the Paris Climate Accords. That is kindergarten.”

Immigration

Taking a more diplomatic approach extends to many candidate’s proposals for immigration. After Trump cut aid to Central American nations as he sought to cut the number of people who travel to seek entry into the United States, Democrats want programs to help those countries be safer and better economically.

“My immigration plan would also make sure that we put undocumented immigrants who haven’t committed a serious crime on a pathway to citizenship, that we do a 21st century Marshall Plan with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala so that we can get to the root of this challenge, so people can find safety and opportunity at home instead of having to come to the United States,” said former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

Sanders pledged to end what he called Trump’s “demonization” of those who flee violence to seek refuge in the United States.

“What we will do in the first week we are in the White House is bring the entire hemisphere together to talk about how we rebuild Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador so that people do not have to flee their own countries,” he said.

The right policy platform will be key for whichever Democrat emerges as the party’s candidate to face Trump in November 2020. Some in the debates, including Congressman Tim Ryan and former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, cautioned that the more progressive proposals such as universal health care, may end up handing the election to Trump.

But Warren said Democrats cannot be afraid to champion policies they believe in.

“There is a lot at stake and people are scared,” she said. “But we can’t choose a candidate we don’t believe in just because we’re too scared to do anything else. And we can’t ask other people to vote for a candidate we don’t believe in. Democrats win when we figure out what is right and we get out there and fight for it.”
 

At least 32 people were killed in an attack on a military parade in the Yemeni port city of Aden Thursday, security and medical sources said.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it launched missile and drone attacks Thursday on a military parade in Aden, the seat of the Saudi-backed government, killing several people including a commander.

A Reuters witness saw nine bodies on the ground after an explosion hit a military camp belonging to Yemeni forces backed by the United Arab Emirates, which is a member of the Saudi-led military coalition battling the Houthis.

A pro-government military source said a commander was among those killed.

“The blast occurred behind the stand where the ceremony was taking place at Al Jalaa military camp in Buraiqa district in Aden,” the witness said. “A group of soldiers were crying over a body believed to be of the commander.”

The Houthi’s official channel Al Masirah TV said the group had launched a medium-range ballistic missile and an armed drone at the parade, which it described as being staged in preparation for a military move against provinces held by the movement.

The parade “was being used to prepare for an advance on Taiz and Dalea,” Masirah cited a Houthi military spokesman as saying.

In a separate attack in another district of Aden Thursday, an explosives-laden car blew up at a police station killing three soldiers, a security source said.

It was not clear if the incidents were related. Previous car attacks in Yemen have been carried out by Islamist militant groups like al-Qaida.

The Sunni Muslim coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government ousted from power in the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in late 2014. The Houthi movement says its revolution is against corruption.

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was center-stage for Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate, and Biden often found himself under attack by several of his nine rivals on stage.  But Biden was quick to counter-attack in what was a free-wheeling debate and also made an impassioned case that he is the Democrat best positioned to defeat President Donald Trump next year. VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone has more on the second night of the second round of Democratic debates.
 

A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday in Death Valley National Park, injuring seven people who were at a scenic overlook where aviation enthusiasts routinely watch military pilots speeding low through a chasm dubbed Star Wars Canyon, officials said.

The crash sent dark smoke billowing in the air, said Aaron Cassell, who was working at his family’s Panamint Springs Resort about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away and was the first to report the crash to park dispatch.

“I just saw a black mushroom cloud go up,” Cassell told The Associated Press. “Typically you don’t see a mushroom cloud in the desert.” 

A search was underway for the pilot of the single-seat F/A-18 Super Hornet that was on a routine training mission, said Lt. Cmdr. Lydia Bock, spokeswoman for Naval Air Station Lemoore in California’s Central Valley.

“The status of the pilot is unknown at this time,” Bock said about four hours after the crash.

A military helicopter searched for the pilot.

Ambulances were sent to the crash site near Father Crowley Overlook, but it wasn’t clear if anyone was transported for further medical treatment, said park spokesman Patrick Taylor. He said initial reports were that seven park visitors had minor injuries.

The lookout point about 160 miles (257 kilometers) north of Los Angeles is popular with photographers and aviation buffs who gawk at jets flying in the steep, narrow canyon.

U.S. and foreign militaries train pilots and test jets in the gorge officially called Rainbow Canyon near the park’s western entrance. Military flights there date back to World War II.

The chasm got its nickname because mineral-rich soil and red, gray and pink walls bring to mind the home planet of “Star Wars” character Luke Skywalker.

Training flights are almost a daily feature with jets thundering below the rim of the canyon and passing so close viewers can see the pilots’ facial expressions. 

Cassell said he heard jets roaring through the area and then saw the cloud of smoke. 

“It looked like a bomb,” Cassell said. “To me that speaks of a very violent impact.” 

A jet that was following the downed craft pulled up and began circling, Cassell said. He didn’t see any parachute.

His father drove up to the area after the crash and saw a large black scorch mark and shattered parts of the jet scattered throughout the area between the parking lot and lookout, Cassell said. A nose cone from the jet was the size of a bowling ball and the rest of the debris was no larger than a ball cap.

The jet was from strike fighter squadron VFA-151 stationed at Lemoore. The squadron is part of an air group attached to the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.

The Super Hornet is a twin-engine warplane designed to fly from either aircraft carriers or ground bases on both air-superiority and ground-attack missions.

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden clashed with Democratic presidential rivals Wednesday night on health care, immigration, crime and race as his challengers attempted to knock him off his perch as the leading Democrat to oppose President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

“I’m running for president to restore the soul of the country,” Biden declared at the opening of a second night of Democratic candidate debates on a theater stage in the Midwest industrial hub of Detroit, Michigan.

But as soon as Biden said he thought a health care plan offered this week by California Sen. Kamala Harris was “confusing,” Harris, standing alongside Biden, retorted, “He’s probably confused because he hasn’t read it.”

Biden objected to variations of a national government-run health care system favored by Harris and some other leading Democratic contenders, instead supporting improvements in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the country’s health care system approved in 2010 while he served as former President Barack Obama’s second in command.

Health care discussion

Biden contended the Harris plan “will cost $3 trillion (and) you will lose your employer-based insurance,” the system that now covers 150 million Americans at their workplace. “You can’t beat President Trump with double-talk on this plan.”

Harris contended that Biden’s claims on her proposal were “simply inaccurate,” adding that the cost of doing nothing is far too expensive. “We must act.”

Biden faltered in the first debate a month ago in Miami, seemingly uncertain how to effectively rebut a challenge from Harris about his opposition 40 years ago to forced busing to racially desegregate public schools, which Harris said, as a black girl, had allowed her to attend a better school while growing up in California. They confronted each other again Tuesday on the same issue, with Harris saying, “He still hasn’t admitted he was wrong.”

Standing on the opposite side of Biden, Sen. Cory Booker, an African American former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, assailed Biden’s support in 1994 for get-tough-on-crime legislation that led to the disproportionate imprisonment of black defendants.

Biden recently offered a new criminal justice plan, reversing key provisions of the law, such as ending the stricter sentencing for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. But Booker assailed him for the law’s lingering effects, contending, “The house was set on fire because of your plans.” Biden responded by attacking Booker’s performance as the Newark leader in handling rampant crime and a troubled police department.

“There was nothing done for the entire eight years he was mayor to deal with the police department,” Biden snapped.

Booker responded that Biden was on shaky ground criticizing the past performance of his rivals in light of flaws in his own record as a senator and vice president.

“Mr. Vice President, you’re dipping into the Kool-Aid and you don’t even know the flavor,” he said.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio attacked Biden repeatedly for refusing to say whether he had attempted to counsel Obama to end the deportation of 3 million undocumented migrants, mostly from Central America, who had crossed the U.S.-Mexican border when Obama and Biden were in power from 2009 to 2017.

Biden deflected de Blasio’s attack, saying, “I keep my recommendations private.”

Several Democratic contenders, including former U.S. housing chief Julian Castro, are calling for the end to criminal charges against migrant border crossers, instead making it a civil penalty. But Biden rejected the idea, claiming, “If you say you can just cross the border, you should be able to be sent back” to the migrants’ home countries.

Even with his front-runner status in national polls, questions remain about Biden’s standing, whether at 76 he is too old to lead the country, even though Trump is 73, and whether Democratic voters want a candidate with more progressive views than the moderate, left-of-center Biden on health care, prevention of crime, migrant immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border and other issues.

Sharper on stage

Biden appeared to be much sharper and far more aggressive in dealing with his rivals, especially with Harris and Booker, than he was during the first debate. Still, he occasionally stumbled over a word or a thought, and seemed to struggle to recall Castro’s name.

The two nights of debates — depending on how voters and political pundits perceive them — could help winnow the crowded field of candidates before the next debate in mid-September, when the qualifications become more stringent to reach the debate stage. The debates could also solidify the top tier of candidates, now generally accepted as Biden, Harris, Booker, and the two most liberal candidates in the race, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who were among 10 who debated Tuesday night.

National surveys show Biden defeating the Republican Trump in hypothetical election match-ups 15 months ahead of the Nov. 3, 2020, election. But after the first debate Tuesday, Trump dismissed all the Democratic challengers looking to make him the country’s first single-term president in nearly three decades.

If I hadn’t won the 2016 Election, we would be in a Great Recession/Depression right now. The people I saw on stage last night, & you can add in Sleepy Joe, Harris, & the rest, will lead us into an economic sinkhole the likes of which we have never seen before. With me, only up!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2019

Others on the Wednesday debate stage included Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Tuesday night debate

U.S. health care was the primary topic during Tuesday night’s debate, with more moderate challengers attacking Warren, a former Harvard law professor, and Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, the leading progressives looking to oust Trump.

Warren and Sanders have both called for a sweeping end to the country’s current health care system centered on private company insurance plans offered to 150 million workers through their employers. But moderate Democratic challengers attacked their views almost from the start of the debate and said their calls for a government-run health care system would help Trump win re-election to another four-year term.

“We don’t have to go around and be the party of subtraction and telling half the country who has private health insurance that their health insurance is illegal,” former Maryland Congressman John Delaney said. “It’s also bad policy. It’ll underfund the industry, many hospitals will close, and it’s bad politics.”

Warren, from the northeastern state of Massachusetts, and Sanders, from neighboring Vermont, are friends of long-standing and often political allies. They now are both looking for votes from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Both defended their position calling for a government-run health care system.

“This is not radical,” Sanders shouted at one point, noting that numerous other Western democracies already have adopted government-run systems. “I get a little tired of Democrats who are afraid of big ideas.”

Warren assailed her critics, saying, “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.”

But their challengers lobbed multiple attacks at the pair, saying their proposals would, over four years or longer, upend the long-standing U.S. health care system, including government-subsidized insurance for moderate and low-income families under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

Also taking part Tuesday were Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke of Texas, Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, Montana Governor Steve Bullock, self-help guru Marianne Williamson and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Five other Democratic candidates did not qualify for the Detroit debates, but the 20 who did had to have collected campaign donations from at least 65,000 individuals and hit a 1% threshold in at least three separate polls.

It gets tougher to appear on the stage at the third debate six weeks from now. To qualify then, candidates must have 130,000 campaign contributors and at least 2% support in four polls.

Only seven of this week’s 20 debaters have met the third debate criteria: Biden, Harris, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Booker and O’Rourke.
 

The son and heir of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden is presumed dead, apparently killed in a U.S.-supported operation, according to reports.

Officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the suspected death of Hamza bin Laden, believed to be in his 30s, Wednesday as first reported by NBC News.

The New York Times subsequently reported the younger bin Laden had been killed within the past two years in an operation that involved the U.S. in some capacity. But officials told the Times the government had yet to confirm his death and refused to share additional details.

The U.S. had been offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the capture or death of Hamza bin Laden, who was by his father’s side when al-Qaida launched the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks against New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Groomed from an early age

According to letters found at Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Hamza bin Laden had been groomed from an early age to one day take command of his father’s terror group.

The correspondences, recovered by U.S. forces following the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, also indicated the al-Qaida founder had been hoping his son might be able to join him in Pakistan in what turned out to be his final days.

But notes to the former al-Qaida leader from senior operatives expressed concern it would not be possible to safely smuggle Hamza bin Laden out of Iran, where he had been placed under house arrest.

Prominent voice

In recent years, Hamza bin Laden had become an increasingly prominent voice within al-Qaida, first having been officially introduced to the terror group’s followers by current al-Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahiri in a 2015 audio recording.

The U.S. first designated Hamza bin Laden as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in January 2017.

In his most recent video, issued in March 2018, Hamza bin Laden picked up on one of his father’s favorite themes, denouncing the founders of Saudi Arabia’s current monarchy as traitors to Islam. He also blamed the kingdom’s close ties with the U.S. for the deaths of “hundreds of thousands” of Muslims.

Previously, Hamza bin Laden also issued multiple calls for attacks on the U.S. to avenge his father’s death.

Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza urging Muslims to “rise in rebellion…against the agents of the Americans” in new speech, per @siteintelgrouppic.twitter.com/FzOAAohePu

— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) November 7, 2017

A blow to al-Qaida

According to former FBI agent and counterterror expert Ali Soufan, the operation to kill Hamza bin Laden could have far-reaching implications.

“Hamza’s death will be a significant blow to al-Qaida’s future plans on passing the leadership to the younger generation, and to reunifying the salafi-jihadi movement under another Bin Laden,” Soufan told VOA via email.

“There are probably other veteran al-Qaida operatives ahead of him in the pecking order, so I doubt that he was next in the group’s line of succession,” Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA. “But there’s no question al-Qaida groomed him to be a key leader, someone who could articulate his father’s conspiratorial worldview to a younger generation of jihadists.”

Threat of al-Qaida has not ended

How al-Qaida will now seek to win over younger jihadists is not the only question facing the terror group, which has been competing with the Islamic State terror group for followers and for pre-eminence within the jihadist movement.

“For al-Qaida, this has left the group without a charismatic and recognizable voice, which may limit its presence on the global stage,” said Katherine Zimmerman, a research manager with the Critical Threats Project. 

“But the decapitation strategy does not end the threat al-Qaida poses to the U.S.,” she added.

United Nations report

A United Nations report released to the public this week, based on the intelligence of member states, said terror groups aligned with al-Qaida appear to be stronger than their IS-aligned rivals. But it also raised concerns about al-Qaida’s central leadership.

“The immediate global threat posed by al-Qaida remains unclear, with Aiman Muhammed Rabi al-Zawahiri (sic) reported to be in poor health and doubts as to how the group will manage the succession,” the U.N. report said.

Hamza bin Laden was married to the daughter of al-Qaida senior leader Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah.

Abdullah was charged in the U.S. in connection with the August 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, which killed 224 people and wounded thousands of others.

Hamza bin Laden is also thought to have had at least one son, named Usama.

In December 2017, al-Qaida insiders distributed a letter purportedly from Hamza bin Laden, in which he announced the death of the then-12-year-old Usama.

Letter posted online announcing the death Hamza bin Laden’s son – grandson of #alQaida founder #OsamabinLaden – “We announce to the Islamic Ummah… the Ummah of sacrifice and jihad, the news of the martyrdom of the brave cub” per @siteintelgroup translation pic.twitter.com/awEt3Plyga

— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) December 31, 2017

“In the last few days of his life, as he was playing with the other children, he used to enact his own martyrdom, throwing his body on the ground and shutting his eyes and smiling a simple smile like this is the way I will be when I become a martyr,” the letter said, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday backed General John Hyten to be the second-highest ranking U.S. military official, a day after he denied sexual assault allegations against him. 

The vote was 20-7 in favor of Hyten’s becoming the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

Hyten, the outgoing commander of the U.S. military’s Strategic Command, must still be confirmed by the full Senate. A date for that vote has not been announced. 

Hyten on Tuesday vehemently denied the sexual assault allegations against him at his confirmation hearing. His accuser, Army Colonel Kathryn Spletstoser, sat quietly in the room during the hearing, occasionally shaking her head in disagreement, and afterward told reporters that Hyten had lied to the senators under oath. 

An official Air Force investigation did not substantiate the accusations against Hyten.  

Hyten’s nomination has posed a challenge to the Senate, which for years has criticized the military for failing to do enough to combat sexual assault in its ranks. 

In a rare and dramatic move, the United States has imposed sanctions against the top diplomat of a foreign country.

“This is obviously a highly unusual action,” a senior administration official acknowledged when discussing the U.S. move against Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The executive order accuses Zarif of acting or purporting to act on behalf of his country’s supreme leader, Ali Husseini Khamanei, who was recently added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

“And today, President [Donald] Trump decided enough is enough,” a senior U.S. official told reporters on a background briefing conference call. “We will continue to build on our maximum pressure campaign until Iran abandons its reckless foreign policy that threatens the United States and our allies.”

The United States “is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime that its recent behavior is completely unacceptable,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “At the same time, the Iranian regime denies Iranian citizens’ access to social media, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif spreads the regime’s propaganda and disinformation around the world through these mediums.”  

In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the action is “another step toward denying the Iranian regime the resources to enable terror and oppress the Iranian people.”

Zarif quickly responded, saying the U.S. action will have no effect on him or his family as they have no property or interests outside of Iran.

“Thank you for considering such a huge threat to your agenda,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The US’ reason for designating me is that I am Iran’s “primary spokesperson around the world”
Is the truth really that painful?
It has no effect on me or my family, as I have no property or interests outside of Iran.
Thank you for considering me such a huge threat to your agenda.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 31, 2019

Such sanctions generally prohibit a designated person from visiting or even transiting the United States.

The State Department “will evaluate specific circumstances related to this designation on a case-by-case basis, consistent with existing laws and obligations and this includes the United Nations Headquarters Agreements,” a senior administration official told reporters.

Zarif would be immune from arrest while on official travel to and from the U.N. in New York City, the official added.

U.S. officials made clear on Wednesday they no longer consider Zarif of any value for diplomacy. The previous administration of Barack Obama dealt with him to work out a multinational nuclear deal. But the Trump administration a year ago withdrew from the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).  

“We do not consider him to be our primary point of contact,” a U.S. official in the briefing said to reporters. “If we do have an official contact with Iran, we would want to have contact with somebody who’s a significant decision-maker.”

In its announcement, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control accuses Zarif of overseeing a ministry that coordinates with Iran’s “most nefarious state entities,” including the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force and of involvement with efforts to influence elections and facilitating payments to a foreign judiciary official for the release of two IRGC-Quds Force operatives.

Members of the LightSail 2 team declared their mission a success in a teleconference Wednesday. The citizen-funded spacecraft is the highest-performing solar sail to date and the first to demonstrate the ability to orbit Earth in a controlled way. 
 
“This is a very exciting day for us, and for me personally,” said Bill Nye, chief executive officer  of the Planetary Society, the organization behind the mission. “This idea that you could fly a spacecraft with nothing but photons is surprising, and for me, it’s very romantic that you could be sailing on sunbeams.” 
 
LightSail 2 is the latest demonstration of solar sail technology, which uses the gentle pressure of photons — the particles of light — on a lightweight, reflective surface to propel a craft through space, similar to the way the wind pushes a sailing ship across the ocean. However, instead of canvas, solar sails are made of thin sheets of Mylar, the same crinkly silver material often used for helium-filled balloons. 

Faster speeds
 
Although the pressure of the sun’s rays is no greater than the weight of a paperclip dropping on the sail, sunlight is a constant source of energy. Scientists expect that as long as sunlight reaches them, solar sails will keep accelerating to much higher speeds than what is provided by traditional propulsion methods using chemical or nuclear fuel. 
 
By tracking the location of the spacecraft, the team found that it had traveled 1.7 kilometers (1.1 miles) farther from Earth in just four days thanks to the gentle influence of sunlight. This is the first time solar propulsion has been successfully demonstrated in Earth’s orbit. 
 
The technology has been tested before. In 2010, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched a spacecraft called IKAROS, which used a solar sail to propel it past Venus and into orbit around the Sun. 
 
The Planetary Society, which aims to advance space exploration, deployed its first solar sail in 2015. The LightSail 1 mission successfully unfurled a solar sail before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere a week later. 
 
LightSail 2 follows the same trajectory. The $7 million project was funded by Planetary Society members as well as individuals who contributed to a Kickstarter campaign in 2015. 
 
The goal of this project is to demonstrate that solar sails can be used to propel small satellites called CubeSats. These tiny satellites weigh as little as 1 kilogram and can carry scientific instruments like cameras. Specifically, LightSail 2 is carrying a 5-kilogram (11-pound) CubeSat into a controlled orbit around Earth. 

Small package
 
LightSail 2 was launched on June 25, 2019, carefully folded into a spacecraft the size of a loaf of bread. Last week, it successfully unfolded to its full 32-square-meter (344-square-foot) extent — about the size of a boxing ring. 
 
The spacecraft orbits Earth along an elliptical path. Propelled by sunlight, the spacecraft will rise to a higher orbit through Aug. 23, 2019. As the maximum distance between Earth and LightSail 2 increases, part of its orbit will inch closer to Earth. Eventually, the spacecraft will dip low enough into the atmosphere that it will begin to slow down, re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, concluding its mission. 
 
The team members acknowledged the mission’s 50,000 financial backers, who hail from 109 countries. Jennifer Vaughn, chief operating officer of the Planetary Society, thanked the people who “have the dream and who are willing to put down their own financial support to make it happen.” 
 
LightSail 2’s success is encouraging for the future of solar sailing. Nye said solar sails may enable us to travel to distant destinations in the solar system, including his personal goal to “ferry cargo to Mars, look for signs of life and change the course of human history.” 
 
Nye added that LightSail 2 is part of the bigger idea that humanity seeks to explore the universe and understand our place in it. 
 
“Space exploration brings out the best in us,” he said. 

Every day, the soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (“The Old Guard”) carry out the sacred duties of the U.S. Army Caisson Platoon.

The platoon conducts eight full honors funerals a day, carrying fallen servicemen and women to their final resting places at Arlington National Cemetery. This special honor is reserved for former presidents of the United States, military members of high rank, and service members killed in action.

Sergeant 1^st Class Michael Skeens is the caisson platoon Sergeant.

“I have served with the Old Guard from April 2016 until now, and I’ve been given a tremendous opportunity to serve in this platoon. So, from the care of the horses and equipment, to the soldiers’ appearance and riding style, it is an honor and privilege to be a part of this platoon,” he says.  “Every horse in this platoon has its own personality, just like every soldier here. I have 59 soldiers in the platoon and 61 horses. So, this is a pretty big organization,” says Skeens.

Sgt. Skeens says every soldier volunteers for duty in this specialty platoon and must go through the basic horsemanship course.

“We run a 10-week course over our 10-acre ranch on Fort Belvoir. Each soldier, whether they have horse experience or not, is trained on everything they need to know about a horse, from picking the feet to grooming to different types of groundwork. Whether it’s the lead and pass, and half circles or full circles, things like that, all the way up into the saddle into a canter. Even cleaning all the leather and making sure it’s in pristine condition, as well as polishing the brass. So, the instructors of that course have been great at identifying and teaching soldiers exactly how to conduct the mission and how to treat the horses.”

Sgt. Skeens says there are four riding teams, and the horses have to withstand some severe distractions.

“Each horse has to be able to endure different things, like sounds from trumpets playing, airplanes, rifles and even cannons going off. The horses must learn to ride as a team with the caissons. I have two squads of black horses, two squads of gray horses. At any given time, two teams are riding. We rotate them in the cemetery every day. So one black team goes out with a white team and they conduct four full honor funerals per day.”

Sgt. Skeens says a caisson horse typically serves for a decade, and in that period, it will participate in thousands of funerals for service members. The Caisson Platoon of the 3rd U.S. Infantry is the last full-time equestrian unit in the Army.

“One horse, ‘Sergeant York,’ has been with the caisson platoon for 22 years. He’s actually twenty nine years old this year which in horse years makes him about one hundred and one and a half. And he’s still out there performing missions every day. Most notably, he walked in the presidential procession for Ronald Reagan.”

Sgt. Skeens says for him, it’s a solemn duty of honor and respect to serve his part in The Old Guard. 

Algeria’s interim president fired the justice minister on Wednesday and named the Algiers public prosecutor to replace him, the presidency said, amid a series of corruption investigations involving allies of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Abdelkader Bensalah appointed Belkacem Zeghmati to replace Slimane Brahmi “after consultation with the prime minister,” the presidency said in a statement.

The judiciary has been conducting probes and several former senior officials, including ex-prime ministers Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal, have been placed in custody over charges including “dissipation of public funds.”

The investigations followed mass protests that erupted in the North African country on Feb. 22, with demonstrators calling for the removal of the ruling elite and the prosecution of people involved in corruption cases.

Bouteflika resigned under pressure on April 2, but the demonstrations continued as protesters sought the departure of the remaining symbols of the elite that has governed the country since independence from France in 1962.

The army is now the main player in Algeria’s politics, and its chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah has promised to help the judiciary and protect it from pressure.

The departing justice minister, Brahmi, had been in the job since March 31, when Bouteflika named a new government shortly before his resignation.

Protesters are now demanding the departure of Bensalah, a former head of the upper house of parliament, and Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui, regarding them as part of the old guard.

Authorities have postponed a presidential election previously planned for July 4, citing a lack of candidates and have not set a new date for the vote. Bensalah last week named a panel to start talks with the opposition over the election.

The Israeli Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal to build over 700 housing units for Palestinians in addition to 6,000 Israeli settlement housing units in the West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government advanced the proposal late on Tuesday, according to an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the closed-door meeting.

The approval appeared timed to coincide with a visit by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and chief Mideast envoy Jared Kushner, who is expected in the region this week.

The permits would be for construction in what is known as Area C — the roughly 60% of the West Bank where Israel exercises full control and where most Jewish settlements are located. Netanyahu’s government has approved the construction of tens of thousands of settler homes there, but permits for Palestinian construction are extremely rare.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek these areas as parts of a future state. Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law and an impediment to a two-state solution to the conflict.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, responded to the Israeli decision by saying the Palestinians have the right to build on all territory occupied in 1967, “without needing a permit from anyone.”

“We will not give any legitimacy to the construction of any settlement,” he added.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority has control of civilian affairs in Areas A and B, which include the West Bank’s main Palestinian cities and towns.

Since capturing the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has settled some 700,000 of its citizens in the two areas, which are considered occupied territory by most of the world.

Touring new construction in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Wednesday that “not a single settlement or a single settler will ever be uprooted.”

Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a religious nationalist in Netanyahu’s government, wrote on Facebook that he backed the construction of Palestinian housing in Area C because “it prevents the establishment of a terrorist Arab state in the heart of the land” and asserts Israeli sovereignty over Area C.

Peace Now, an Israeli organization opposed to West Bank settlements, said in a statement that the approval of 700 housing units for Palestinians “is a mockery” because it “will not provide real answers to Palestinians who already live in Area C, and certainly will not help the entire West Bank to be developed as a Palestinian area.”

Kushner is returning to the Middle East this week to promote the administration’s call for a $50 billion economic support plan for the Palestinians, which would accompany a Mideast peace proposal that the administration has yet to release.

The Palestinians have rejected the agreement out of hand and cut off all contact with the Trump administration, saying its policies are unfairly biased toward Israel.

The Trump’s administration’s Mideast team is spearheaded by people with close ties to Israel’s settler movement. His ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, recently told the New York Times that Israel has the “right” to annex some of the West Bank.

Both critics and supporters of the settlements say the White House’s friendly attitude has encouraged a jump in settlement activity.

Democratic presidential contenders struck off notes on the science of global warming and the state of the economy in their Detroit debate Tuesday night. 

As much as scientists see the need for action on climate change, they don’t lay out a looming point of no return , as Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke asserted. Bernie Sanders almost certainly overstated how much new income is soaked up by the richest Americans.

A look at some of their statements in the opening night of the second round of debates, with 10 more Democrats taking the stage Wednesday:

Climate

BETO O’ROURKE, former U.S. representative from Texas, on global warming: “I listen to scientists on this and they’re very clear: We don’t have more than 10 years to get this right. And we won’t meet that challenge with half-steps, half-measures or only half the country.”

PETE BUTTIGIEG, mayor of South Bend, Indiana: “Science tells us we have 12 years before we reach the horizon of our catastrophe when it comes to our climate.” 

THE FACTS: Scientists don’t agree on an approximate time frame, let alone an exact number of years, for how much time we have left to stave off the deadliest extremes of climate change. 

A report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, drawn from the work of hundreds of scientists, uses 2030 as a prominent benchmark because signatories to the Paris climate change agreement have pledged emission cuts by then. But it’s not a last-chance, hard deadline for action, as O’Rourke, Buttigieg and others have interpreted it.

“The hotter it gets, the worse it gets, but there is no cliff edge,” James Skea, co-chairman of the report, told The Associated Press.  

Climate scientists certainly see the necessity for broad and immediate action to address global warming, but they do not agree that 2030 is a “point of no return,” as Buttigieg put it.

“This has been a persistent source of confusion,” agreed Kristie L. Ebi, director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington in Seattle. “The report never said we only have 12 years left.”

 ___

JOHN HICKENLOOPER, former Colorado governor: When it comes to fighting climate change, “What we do here is a best practice and a template that’s got to be done all over the world. … We need every country working together if we’re going to deal with climate change in a real way.” 

THE FACTS: The nations most concerned with climate change certainly do not consider the U.S. a “template” for a solution. Americans per capita are among the world’s biggest emitters of climate-changing carbon. The U.S. is also the top oil and natural gas producer, pumping out more fossil fuels on the front end. 

On Hickenlooper’s point about needing all countries working together, the U.S. under President Donald Trump is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord , a voluntary commitment by countries to combat climate-changing emissions.

  ___

BERNIE SANDERS, Vermont senator: “49 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent.” 

THE FACTS: That is surely exaggerated. The figure comes from a short paper by Emmanuel Saez, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, and leading researcher on inequality, and doesn’t include the value of fringe benefits, such as health insurance, or the effects of taxes and government benefit programs such as Social Security. 

But Saez and another Berkeley economist, Gabriel Zucman, have recently compiled a broader data set that does include those items and finds the top 1% has captured roughly 25% of the income growth since the recession ended. That’s certainly a lot lower but still a substantial share. Income inequality has sharply increased in the past four decades, but since the recession, data from the Congressional Budget Office shows that it has actually narrowed slightly. 

  ___

SANDERS: Benefits under his health care plan “will be better because ‘Medicare for All’ is comprehensive and covers all health care needs.”

THE FACTS: On paper, the Vermont senator is right. In real life, if he’s elected president, the result might be quite different.

Sanders’ “Medicare for All” bill calls for a government plan that would cover all medical care, prescriptions, dental and vision care, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and home and community-based long-term care services with virtually no copays or deductibles. The only exception would be a modest copay for certain high-cost medications.

But other countries with national health care plans are not as generous with benefits and also make use of copays to manage costs. Canada, often held up as a model by Sanders, does not have universal coverage for prescription drugs. Canadians rely on a mix of private insurance and public plans to pay for their prescriptions.

If Sanders is elected president, a Congress grappling with how to pass his plan may well pare back some of its promises. So there’s no guarantee that benefits “will be better” for everybody, particularly people who now have the most generous health insurance.

  ___

TIM RYAN, U.S. representative from Ohio: “The economic system that used to create 30, 40, 50 dollar-an-hour jobs that you could have a good solid  middle class living now forces us to have two or three jobs just to get by.”

THE FACTS: Most Americans, by far, only work one job, and the numbers who juggle more than one have declined over a quarter century. 

In the mid-1990s, the percentage of workers holding multiple jobs peaked at 6.5%. The rate dropped significantly, even during the Great Recession, and has been hovering for a nearly a decade at about 5% or a little lower. In the latest monthly figures, from June, 5.2% of workers were holding more than one job. 

Hispanic and Asian workers are consistently less likely than white and black workers to be holding multiple jobs. Women are more likely to be doing so than men. 

With its latest test Wednesday, North Korea has now launched seven ballistic missiles over the past three months, after having refrained from such launches for a year and a half.

By firing missiles into the ocean, North Korea is expressing its anger at upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises and presumably trying to increase its leverage over the two allies amid stalled nuclear talks.

But the missile tests have more than symbolic importance. North Korea appears to be perfecting a new short-range missile that represents a unique threat to U.S. interests in the region.

Though the latest launch is still being analyzed, South Korean officials say the North appears to have tested some version of the same weapon each time: a modified version of a Russian-developed Iskander missile. 

The North’s missile, dubbed KN-23 by U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials, is easy to hide, can be quickly deployed, and is difficult for U.S. and South Korean missile defenses to intercept, according to analysts. 

“It is not appropriate to shrug off these tests as short range.” says Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “These missiles represent technological developments that threaten U.S. allies and forces in Asia.”

Though he has not commented on the latest launch, U.S. President Donald Trump has downplayed the importance of the prior tests, saying the missiles are not long-range and cannot reach the United States. 

Trump’s laid-back response, which has been echoed by South Korea’s government, is an apparent attempt to preserve the possibility of talks with North Korea that have been stalled for months. 

But by refusing to heavily criticize the launches, Washington and Seoul risk encouraging more tests of North Korean missiles that represent a major threat to South Korea, which hosts nearly 30,000 U.S. troops.

“Trump unfortunately dismisses short-range ballistic missiles, so it enables Pyongyang to continue to develop its weapons,” says Duyeon Kim, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). 

A unique threat

North Korea has long possessed a multitude of short-range weapons capable of striking South Korea. But what makes the KN-23 different is that it may be able to evade U.S. and South Korean missile defense systems. 

“It can disarm our missile defense capacity if the missiles fly lower than 40 kilometers, which is below the coverage of the Thaad missile defense system,” says Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea specialist at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. “And the speed will be faster than Mach 7, so the Patriot (missile defense system) will also be of no use.”

According to pictures released by North Korean state media, the KN-23 appears to have jet vanes, which allows the missile to be maneuvered in-flight, much like a cruise missile. 

“It can be maneuvered during its ballistic trajectory making it difficult to predict where the missile will land and intercept it before it does, and difficult to detect exactly where the missile came from,” says CNAS’ Duyeon Kim. 

Another danger, according to Kim, is the KN-23’s portability, since it is fired via truck launchers. 

“Being road mobile, North Korea can increase survivability of its missiles by continuously moving them, hiding them in tunnels, warehouses, and even highway underpasses. And because the missiles are solid-fueled, they can be kept ready for longer periods of time and can be moved around pre-fueled,” Kim says.

“And the payload could be nuclear or conventional,” she adds. 

‘Full spectrum’ of capabilities

The missiles that North Korea launched Wednesday traveled about 250 kilometers, reaching an altitude of 30 kilometers, the South Korea defense ministry says. 

The launch distances of the missiles North Korea has tested since May have ranged from 270 kilometers to 600 kilometers, according to estimates by South Korea’s military. Their altitude has ranged from 30-60 kilometers. 

If confirmed as the KN-23, the latest launches show that North Korea is “really showing off the full spectrum” of the weapons’ capabilities, says Vipin Narang, a nuclear and geopolitical expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

“(A) scary impressive missile,” Narang said in a tweet. 

North Korea has now conducted seven successful tests over the course of less than three months. The tests have demonstrated “a variety of different ranges and trajectories, simulating different payloads,” tweeted Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Federation of American Scientists.

Bigger provocations coming?

North Korea has given a variety of justifications for its ballistic missile tests. 

Its first launch in early May was part of a “regular and self-defensive” exercise that did not mean to target anyone or escalate regional tensions, North Korea’s foreign ministry insisted at the time. 

But North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last week’s test of the same weapon was aimed at sending a message to “warmongers” in South Korea.

Pyongyang is angry that Seoul and Washington are preparing to conduct joint military exercises. North Korea is also upset at the South’s recent acquisition of U.S.-made F-35 jet fighters.

The launches appear to be part of North Korea’s strategy to slowly increase pressure on Washington and Seoul to gain leverage for future talks, even while avoiding steps that would prompt Trump to walk away.

Trump, who now appears to have established a precedent for not complaining about North Korea’s short-range missile tests, is in an awkward position. 

“Trump’s reactions to the missile tests have to walk that fine line between reacting too strongly and killing talks and not reacting at all which could encourage Kim to keep testing in the future,” says Eric Gomez, a policy analyst focusing on missile defense systems at Washington’s Cato Institute. 

“Trump has leaned more toward a light reaction to keep diplomacy alive,” he says. “This isn’t a bad approach, but he could also stand to be a bit tougher on North Korea rhetorically in order to try and get them to stop testing missiles,” Gomez says.

“For example, Trump or another senior member of the administration could issue a strongly worded message criticizing the test while offering talks on security assurances that could include military drills as a topic. Sending the message that there is a way for Kim to get what he wants but he can only do so via diplomacy and not missile tests,” he adds.

North Korea has warned that bigger provocations may be coming. In July, an unnamed North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson warned that Pyongyang may restart intercontinental ballistic missile or nuclear tests if Washington and Seoul go ahead with their joint military drills.

The Democratic presidential contenders opened a second round of debates in Detroit, Michigan, Tuesday, with a flurry of attacks on President Donald Trump. But the 10 Democrats also went after each other at times and showed some growing strains between moderate and progressive candidates. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports on the first of two nights of debate.

Christy Lee contributed to this report which originated on VOA’s Korean Service.

The National Defense University, an institution funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, has published a journal article suggesting Washington should share its nuclear tactical missiles with Japan and South Korea to deter North Korea’s growing nuclear threat to East Asia and the U.S. 

“The United States should strongly consider … sharing of nonstrategic nuclear capabilities during times of crisis with select Asia-Pacific partners, specially Japan and the Republic of Korea,” according to “Twenty-First Century Nuclear Deterrence,” published by the university in the current issue of Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ). The Republic of Korea is the official name for South Korea.

Publication guidelines on the university’s site say “The views expressed by this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.”

Sharing American nuclear capabilities with Japan and South Korea would involve deploying its nuclear weapons in the territories of its two allies in East Asia so that the weapons can be used in such time as a nuclear war, as the U.S. does with five member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO), according to the article. 

Japan and South Korea are under the U.S. nuclear umbrella that promises defense against threats. The U.S. maintains military bases in both countries, which are currently embroiled in a trade dispute colored by historical animosities. 

The article’s release on July 25 coincided with North Korea’s launch of two short-range missiles. Then, early Wednesday local time, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that North Korea launched multiple unidentified projectiles off the east coast of its Hodo Peninsula.

The four authors, who serve in the U.S. army, navy, and air force, suggest U.S. nuclear weapons deployed in Japan and South Korea would be used for exigent purposes during war but would mainly serve as an extended deterrence against North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons in peacetime, effectively preventing it from launching a nuclear attack. 

The article suggests American nuclear sharing with Japan and South Korea could be undertaken in a manner similar to an agreement the U.S. signed with five NATO member states. 

US weapons

Currently, the U.S. shares approximately 180 tactical nuclear weapons such as B61 nuclear bombs with Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. 

NATO is a multilateral alliance now composed of 29 member-states from North America and Europe established in 1949 by 12 countries to serve as a collective defense against emerging threats in the region. 

American nuclear weapons have been deployed to the five NATO countries since the mid-1950s in an arrangement known as nuclear sharing.  Nuclear sharing allows these countries without nuclear weapons to use American deployed nuclear weapons in case of war at which time the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) will be disabled. 

The NPT, which entered into force in 1970, prohibits signatory states from transferring and accepting direct and indirect control of nuclear weapons.

The JFQ article came out as the process of denuclearization diplomacy with Pyongyang, stalled since the Hanoi summit in February, has started to inch forward.

In June, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump met for an impromptu summit at the inter-Korean border in June where they agreed to resume denuclearization efforts. North Korea has been reluctant to engage in the working-level negotiations since Hanoi where Washington rejected Pyongyang’s demand for sanctions lift.

The JFQ authors highlighted that the U.S. may face “difficulties in shaping [North Korean] behavior” if it does not give up its nuclear program.

“If left unchecked, North Korea will continue to threaten the East Asian region and perhaps one day the United States itself,” they noted.

North Korea threat

On June 25, North Korea fired what South Korea called new types of short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, the body of water between the Korean peninsula and Japan, rattling the East Asian countries.

The next day, Pyongyang said it had tested a new type of “tactical guided weapon” intended to send a “solemn warning” to South Korea to end its joint military exercises with the U.S.

North Korea said the weapons it tested had “rapid anti-firepower capability” and “low altitude gliding and leaping flight orbit…which would be hard to intercept.”  

In May, North Korea tested three short-range missiles off its east coast that experts considered to be similar to a Russian Iskander, a nuclear loadable short-range ballistic missile.

The article said, “Considering North Korea’s history of aggressive nuclear rhetoric and recent missile tests,” sharing U.S. nuclear weapons with its regional allies “would provide renewed physical evidence of U.S. resolve.”

The article also stated that nuclear sharing with Japan and South Korea will strengthen a “military partnership through joint-regional exercises” necessary to deter North Korea.

However, according to Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, the time may not be ripe for the U.S. to propose nuclear sharing with Seoul and Tokyo because of an on-going trade row between the two. 

“My sense is that [in] both South Korea and Japan, there is very little political support for such a step at this time,” said Samore, currently senior fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center’s Korea Project. “It could change, but, for now, I think it would be very controversial.”

Seoul and Tokyo have been involved in a trade dispute after Japan placed export restrictions on three high-tech items South Korean companies use to manufacture parts used in smart phones and other high-tech devices. The trade dispute is widely seen as rooted in Korean anger at Japan for decades of colonization and occupation from 1910 until Japan’s 1945 surrender to the U.S. to end World War II. During that period, many Japanese companies used Korean forced labor. 

Boycotts against Japanese-made products have been widespread in Seoul, and Japan has rejected Seoul’s call for talks to resolve the dispute. 

Samore said, “There may come a time when the domestic politics in South Korea and Japan have changed especially when North Korea continues to maintain and advance nuclear weapons and (a) ballistic missile program.” He added, “And then at that point it would make more sense.”

U.S. health care policies took center stage Tuesday night at the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate, with more moderate challengers attacking Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the leading progressives looking to oust President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Warren and Sanders have both called for a sweeping end to the country’s current health care system centered on private company insurance plans offered to 150 million workers through their employers. But their views were under attack almost from the start of the two-hour debate on a theater stage in Detroit, Michigan, the country’s auto industry hub.

“We don’t have to go around and be the party of subtraction and telling half the country who has private health insurance that their health insurance is illegal,” former Maryland Congressman John Delaney said. “It’s also bad policy. It’ll under-fund the industry, many hospitals will close, and it’s bad politics.”

Often political allies

Warren, a former Harvard law professor, and Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, are friends of long-standing and often political allies. They now are both looking for votes from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Both defended their position calling for a government-run health care system.

“This is not radical,” Sanders of Vermont shouted at one point, noting that numerous other Western societies already have adopted government-run systems. “I get a little tired of Democrats who are afraid of big ideas.”

Warren of Massachusetts rebuffed the critics, saying, “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.” 

But their challengers lobbed multiple attacks at the pair, saying their proposals would, over four years or longer, upend the long-standing U.S. health care system, including government-subsidized insurance for moderate and low-income families under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who has called for more incremental health care policy changes, said, “I have bold ideas, but they are grounded in reality.”

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said that Democrats had picked up 40 seats in the House of Representatives in the 2018 mid-term elections and not one of them had pushed for the Warren-Sanders Medicare for All plan.

“I’m a little more pragmatic,” Hickenlooper declared.

Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan called for a plan allowing Americans to buy into government-run insurance if they want to, but said that closing down the insurance industry “is a recipe for disaster,” especially among union members who would face the loss of hard-won health care benefits through collective bargaining.

First of two nights

Tuesday’s debate was the first of two nights with two groups of 10 Democratic candidates sparring with each other over domestic and foreign policy differences, but more importantly trying to make the case that they are the party’s best hope to defeat Trump when he seeks re-election in 2020.

Trump’s relentless attacks on Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings, a prominent African American political leader, and the predominantly black city of Baltimore that he represents, drew sharp criticism from some of the Democratic presidential candidates.

“Donald Trump disgraces the office of the presidency every single day,” Warren said. Klobuchar added: “I don’t think anyone can justify what this president is doing.”

The two debates are occurring six months ahead of the Democratic Party’s first presidential nominating contests. The two-hour debates could prove pivotal in both winnowing the field, forcing the weakest challengers out of the race before the next debate in mid-September, and in solidifying the list of front-runners. It largely depends on who is perceived by pundits in the post-debate analyses as making a plausible case to be the Democratic standard-bearer, or, conversely, flubbing their opportunity on CNN’s nationally televised broadcasts.

On Wednesday, former Vice President Joe Biden, currently the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in national surveys of Democrats and some independents, will be at center stage. Some party stalwarts say he is the more moderate, center-left, politically safe choice to take on the unpredictable Trump, whose populist base of conservative voters remains strong.

But Biden had a shaky first debate performance a month ago, faltering as California Sen. Kamala Harris challenged him to explain his opposition three decades ago to forced busing of schoolchildren to racially desegregate public schools. Harris said that she, as a black woman and the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, benefited from such a busing program to attend a better school while growing up in California.

Biden, a fixture on the U.S. political scene for four decades, and Harris, a former state attorney general before winning election to the Senate, will be standing alongside each other on the debate stage. Biden is promising a more robust performance than in the first debate, saying, “I’m not going to be as polite this time.” 

But questions remain about Biden’s standing, whether at 76 he is too old to lead the country, even though Trump is 73, and whether Democratic voters want a candidate with more progressive views than Biden on health care, prevention of crime, migrant immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border and other issues.

Some analysts think Biden’s top standing in national polls is at least partly a reflection of name recognition, from his 36 years as a U.S. senator, two unsuccessful runs for the presidency and two terms as vice president under former President Barack Obama.

Tough-on-crime legislation

On the same stage Wednesday, Biden is also likely to face a challenge from Sen. Cory Booker, an African American former mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

Booker has assailed Biden’s support 25 years ago for get-tough-on-crime legislation that led to the disproportionate imprisonment of black defendants.

Biden recently offered a new criminal justice plan, reversing key provisions of the 1994 measure, such as ending the stricter sentencing for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. Booker scoffed that Biden was hardly the best candidate to lay out a new criminal justice plan and has called for slashing mandatory minimum sentences.

Despite Biden’s first debate stumbles, the ranks of the top Democratic candidates have changed little in national surveys.

Biden remains ahead of three challengers, all U.S. senators: Sanders, a democratic socialist lawmaker from the Northeastern state of Vermont; Warren, a former Harvard law professor from neighboring Massachusetts, and Harris. Booker has edged up a bit in the polling, while South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has slipped a notch. The remaining candidates far down the ranks and struggling to gain a foothold.

A new Quinnipiac University national poll this week shows Biden leading the pack with 34% of Democrats and independents leaning Democratic, followed by Warren at 15%, Harris with 12% and Sanders with 11%.

Biden claims he has the best chance of making the Republican Trump the country’s first single-term president in nearly three decades, denying him a second four years in the White House. 

National surveys, 15 months ahead of the Nov. 3, 2020, election, consistently show Biden winning a hypothetical match-up over Trump, whose voter approval ratings remain mired in the mid-40% range. Sanders often defeats Trump as well, although not by Biden’s margin, while surveys show the other top Democrats potentially locked in tight, either-or outcomes with Trump.

Aside from Biden, Harris and Booker, the Wednesday debate stage also includes former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, entrepreneur Andrew Yang and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Five other Democratic candidates did not qualify for the Detroit debates, but the 20 who did had to have collected campaign donations from at least 65,000 individuals and hit a 1% threshold in at least three separate polls.

It gets tougher to appear on the stage at the third debate six weeks from now. To qualify then, candidates must have 130,000 campaign contributors and at least 2 percent support in four polls.

Only seven of this week’s 20 debaters have already met the third debate criteria: Biden, Harris, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Booker and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke.

VOA Asia’s Ira Mellman contributed to this report.

Myanmar is beginning to yield to international pressure to repatriate the more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, but rights advocates worry its commitment is only surface level.

The country stepped up its efforts over the weekend, when Myanmar permanent foreign secretary U Myint Thu led a 10-member delegation to talks with refugee representatives last weekend at Kutupalong — the largest refugee camp in the world.

Rohingya representatives put citizenship and guaranteed safety up as requirements for the ethnic group’s return, but government representatives only offered a path to naturalized citizenship, beginning with an application for a national verification card. 

“[Myanmar] is essentially playing games with the discussions about citizenship,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, told VOA Asia.

Some Rohingya worried that the cards, which the government also proposed in 2018, could be used to further persecute against group members. 

Refugees rejected a previous repatriation offer made in October.

International pressure

Myanmar has been hit with increasing international pressure to repatriate the Rohingya, especially from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Kalam Abdul Momen told VOA Bangla earlier in July that the country expected to hold Rohingya refugees temporarily, as in the past.

“We believed this time they would take them back, because they assured us [they would],” Momen said. “But, they have not created a conducive environment in Myanmar, so that these people feel secure if they go back.”

The two countries signed a repatriation deal in November 2017, but no Rohingya have voluntarily returned. Bangladeshi authorities even gave Myanmar a list on Monday, with the names of 25,000 refugees from 6,000 families for potential repatriation. 

Last weekend’s meetings were part of a push by Myanmar to make conditions livable for returning refugees. But after Myanmar’s refusal to grant the Rohingya citizenship and recognize them as an indigenous group, human rights advocates are skeptical.

“We haven’t seen that political commitment, to be honest,” Robertson said. “We have our doubts.”

He pointed at the 120,000 Rohingya displaced in 2012, still living in camps, as evidence of the government’s true intentions.

“These are people who are essentially locked down in camps or unable to move. They’re unable to pursue livelihoods or have access to basic services like health and education. And they haven’t gotten citizenship,” he added.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh keep in touch with those in Myanmar through WhatsApp and other messaging services, so they know about current conditions, Robertson said. Their awareness of treatment back home could further fuel their distrust of the Myanmar government, he added.

Recent media reports also have shown Myanmar has continued to destroy the remaining Rohingya settlements, further casting doubt on the country’s public statements. Military facilities may now occupy the villages’ locations, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found.

Rohingya want guaranteed safety

Some Rohingya representatives at Sunday’s talks wanted U.N. peacekeepers to ensure the group’s safety, Robertson said, but it’s unlikely that Myanmar would let U.N. forces in.

Still, Robertson echoed a need for international monitoring, saying without it, Rohingya lives could be at risk.

“The Rohingya are very acutely aware that if they go back without a security guarantee, they’re basically placing their fates back in the hands of the military and the police who two years ago were raping and killing them,” he said.

The Myanmar government has restricted the group’s rights for decades, but the military most recently cracked down in 2017. In reaction to attacks by some Rohingya, the military carried out what it called a cleansing campaign, which included mass killings, rapes and arsons. The U.N. and other human rights advocates have called their actions genocide.

The Rohingya were excluded from a 1982 citizenship law that bases full legal status through membership in a government-recognized indigenous group. The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, effectively rendering the ethnic group stateless.

North Korea fired multiple projectiles from its east coast early Thursday, according to South Korea’s military.

The projectiles were launched from near North Korea’s Hodo peninsula in South Hamgyung province, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

“Our military will keep monitoring for additional launches,” the message said.

The launch comes six days after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles, in what it said was a response to South Korea’s decision to purchase U.S. weapons and continue joint military drills with Washington. 

North Korea has said it could restart intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear tests if Seoul and Washington go ahead with the exercises. Pyongyang has also said it may not resume working-level nuclear talks with the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump has not responded to the latest launch, but shrugged off North Korea’s launches last week as short-range missiles that “lots test.” 

“I have a good relationship with him. I like him. He likes me. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said earlier Thursday. 

North Korea is banned from any ballistic missile activity under United Nations Security Council resolutions.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday he was “appalled” that more than 12,000 children were killed or maimed last year in some 20 countries at war or in a state of conflict.

The unprecedented level of violence against boys and girls was recorded in the U.N.’s annual report naming and shaming countries and armed groups that perpetrate such violence.

In all, the U.N. recorded 24,000 grave violations against children in 2018, including killing, maiming, sexual violence, abductions, recruitment and attacking schools and hospitals.

Worst offender

“But without a doubt, the one situation that really comes to my mind is the worst one — the one we have to do our utmost to reverse — is Somalia,” said Virginia Gamba, U.N. special representative for children in armed conflict, whose office prepares the often-controversial report.

She told reporters that the number of violations across all categories there is very high, providing a worrying picture. She said there is also a lack of engagement with the United Nations to improve protections for children, and she said she hopes to visit Somalia in the next two months to see if there is any possibility to open a dialogue.

Both the Somali National Army and the terrorist group al-Shabab, as well as the Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama’a (ASWJ), were included in the report’s annex of perpetrators.

Targeting hospitals and schools

One of the more troubling trends emerging in the 2018 report is the growing targeting of schools and hospitals from Yemen and Syria to Afghanistan and South Sudan.

“Here you can actually see the tactics of war, and we are seeing more and more armed groups on purpose destroying schools — and particularly those that engage in girls’ education,” Gamba said. “If you are destroying schools, you are destroying choices.”

She noted that on a recent visit to Mali, she spoke with youth who told her of having no education or vocational opportunities, which means they will have few job prospects.

“It seems to me that there is every intention of armed groups to destroy the possibility of giving an alternative to children outside of war usage,” she said.

Treading lightly with Saudi Arabia

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has rejected its listing for its role in the Yemen war, which has led to the report’s annex being separated into two lists — one for grave violators and another for parties that are perpetrating violations but have put in place measures aimed at improving the safety of children.

Saudi Arabia is not listed by name in the 2018 report but rather as the “Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen.” It is not among the most grave violators, despite the report citing numerous airstrikes that killed or maimed 685 children last year.

The coalition, which has engaged with the U.N. on the issue, is among those parties that have put in place measures to protect children. The Houthi rebels who they are fighting are on the most serious offenders list.

“It’s baffling that the secretary-general’s ‘not-so-bad’ list gives credit to parties that are increasing, not reducing, their violations against children,” said Human Rights Watch children’s rights advocacy director, Jo Becker, in a statement. “Guterres should return to a single list based solely on evidence of violations on the ground.”

Israel vs. Palestinians

Israel was not listed, despite the U.N. verifying the deaths of 57 Palestinian children — 56 were attributable to Israeli forces and one to an Israeli settler — the highest figures since 2014. The report also found that nearly 3,000 Palestinian children were injured during the Great March of Return in March and April of last year, when there were daily protests at the security fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel.

Gamba said the secretary-general ultimately decides who is listed, and that he has directed her office to further examine the killings and maimings of children in the Palestinian territories and to report back to him by the end of December. She is also to look into the recruitment of children by Palestinian militants.

The special representative also noted that she has repeatedly sought to engage with both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities and has been unsuccessful, and hoped that the secretary-general’s new directive would enable her access.

“My office was not born to name and shame and attribute, and that’s it,” Gamba said of the controversies her annual blacklist generates. “The job is to raise awareness on the plight of children and to try to prevent the violations and better protect children.”