Five Japanese whaling ships set off Monday to begin the first commercial whale hunt in more than 30 years.
Japan stopped commercial whaling in 1988 after the International Whaling Commission (IWC) imposed a moratorium on killing the giant mammals.
But despite the global ban, Japan continued to hunt whales for what it claimed was scientific research. Critics have long disputed that claim, calling it commercial whaling in disguise.
In the 2017-2018 whaling season, Japanese sailors killed 333 minke whales in Antarctic waters. More than 120 were pregnant females.
In December, Japan announced it was leaving the IWC June 30.
The whaling fleet sailed from the port of Kushiro, on the northern island of Hokkaido. They will hunt minke, sei and Bryde’s whales in Japanese waters.
Japan’s return to commercial whaling has created an international outcry.
“Japan leaving the IWC and defying international law to pursue its commercial whaling ambitions is renegade, retrograde and myopic,” said Kitty Block, president of Humane Society International. “It is undermining its international reputation for an industry whose days are so clearly numbered, to produce a product for which demand has plummeted.”
But some experts say Japan’s move might be a blessing in disguise for some whales, because it will mean that Japan will stop hunting whales in the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic and other sensitive locations.
Japan’s Fisheries Agency set a quota at 227 whales for this year.
Protesters and riot police returned to the streets of Hong Kong early Monday to mark the 22nd anniversary of the city’s reunification with China.
Police fired pepper spray and used batons to keep thousands of protesters from charging an early morning flag-raising ceremony that marks every anniversary of the city’s handover from the United Kingdom in 1997.
A government spokesperson said that a total of 25 protesters and police had been injured.
Police try to disperse protesters near a flag-raising ceremony for the anniversary of Hong Kong handover to China in Hong Kong, July 1, 2019.
By midmorning however, the tense scenes had died down with protesters occupying several large roadways near the government headquarters ahead of a march scheduled for later Monday afternoon.
Protesters also took down the flag of China and replaced it with a black version of Hong Kong’s flag, which features the white Bauhinia flower in the center.
The flag-raising ceremony draws a small number of protesters every year, but Monday’s rally was linked to a controversial legislative bill that would allow for criminal extradition to China.
The bill triggered massive protests for most of June, continuing after Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said previously she would suspend the bill and apologized. The bill is set to expire next year with the legislative session.
Protesters try to break into the Legislative Council building where riot police are seen, during the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China in Hong Kong, July 1, 2019.
On Monday, Lam said at a speech she had learned to be more “responsive to the aspirations, sentiments and opinions of the community.”
“The first and most basic step to take is to change the government’s style of governance to make it more open and accommodating,” Lam said. “We also need to reform the way we listen to public views.”
Lam, however, has failed to withdraw the bill permanently or meet other protest demands including an inquiry into police tactics at a violent demonstration June 12.
She is now facing her lowest popularity ranking since taking office in 2017, according to a survey by the University of Hong Kong.
A protester who was pepper sprayed is detained during the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China in Hong Kong, July 1, 2019.
Protester Leo Wong said many residents mistrust the government, which has promised to cancel unpopular initiatives in the past only for them to change their mind later.
“I understand that people may be saying suspension is the same as withdrawal … but why the protesters are still angry about this is people were tricked by the government for so many times over so many years,” Wong told VOA.
He and many other protesters also spoke of their fears that Hong Kong was losing its autonomy to China, promised until 2047. Citizens are currently protected by the Basic Law, a set of civil and political rights considered Hong Kong’s mini constitution, but they fear this may be eroded.
“There is an actual deadline of Basic Law until 2047, but we aren’t sure they will honor that deadline. Even though we are having one country two systems now. … They try to erode our freedom and encroach into Hong Kong,” Wong said.
The extradition debate has seen the government unwittingly reignite Hong Kong’s protest movement, and a desire for the direct election of its leader, five years after 2014’s so-called Umbrella Movement democracy protests came to an end.
Senior U.S. officials were on hand in Jerusalem Sunday for the opening of part of what is believed to be an ancient Roman-era road to the Jewish temple, angering Palestinians and some Israeli historians.
Ambassador David Friedman, Mideast peace negotiator Jason Greenblatt, and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham attended the unveiling.
The City of David Foundation, which organized Sunday’s ceremony, says visitors will now be able to “touch history” and walk the 300-meter-long portion of the road through a tunnel, uphill to where the Jewish temple stood more than 2,000 years ago in what is now east Jerusalem.
“Were there ever any doubts about the accuracy, the wisdom, the propriety of President Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, I certainly think this lays all doubts to rest,” Friedman said.
People walk inside an ancient tunnel during the opening of an ancient road at the City of David. The site is on what many believe to be the ruins of the biblical King David’s ancient capital and see as centerpieces of ancient Jewish civilization.
Work on the project was carried out in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. The Palestinian Authority condemned the project as another example of pushing the Palestinians out of Jerusalem.
“The Israeli occupation is trying to legalize colonial practices in Jerusalem by using a religious cover. Friedman and Greenblatt are ready to fake history for this colonial purpose,” it said.
A group of Israelis who oppose what they call the politicization of archeology also said it resented the American officials being at Sunday’s event, calling it “a political act, which is the closest the U.S. will have come to recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Old City of Jerusalem.”
Greenblatt dismissed the criticism, as “ludicrous,” tweeting: “We can’t “Judaize’ what history/archeology show. We can acknowledge it and you can stop pretending it isn’t true. Peace can only be built on truth.”
Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
Pakistan could still be placed on the blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog monitoring terror financing and money laundering around the world, its president said last week.
Marshall Billingslea, the president of FATF, said Pakistan could still be placed on its blacklist for allegedly not taking adequate action against terror financing and money laundering in the country.
“There absolutely a possibility [of Pakistan being blacklisted, but again I would not because that’s a decision for a future plenary,” Billingslea said in response to a question posed by a Voice of America reporter in Orlando, Florida, where the body convened for its recent meeting.
“The period for the action plan has not expired. The next plenary is in October and Pakistan would be assessed,” Billingslea added.
On the gray list
Pakistan has been in the watchdog’s gray list since June 2018 for its alleged failure to adequately crackdown on terror financing and money laundering in the country. That decision was made in March 2018 in Paris where representatives of different member countries and international organizations met to discuss the global issue of money laundering and financial crimes.
The designation at the time reportedly followed a motion introduced by the United States, along with France, Britain and Germany, alleging that Pakistan has failed to adhere to the FATF guidelines on terror financing and anti-money laundering regulations.
Last year was not the first time that Pakistan was placed in the FATF’s gray list. The country was on the list from 2012 to 2015.
Pakistan has long feared that the country’s economy could be hurt and FATF’s action could take a toll on the country’s access to the international financial markets.
Pakistan defends its records on taking measures against militant groups and their terror financing networks.
Terror financing remains a major concern and challenge in Pakistan, where militant groups allegedly raise money under the guise of religion and welfare for the poor and instead spend it on terror-related activities inside Pakistan, and in India and Afghanistan.
Dr. Asad Majeed Khan is the Pakistan ambassador to the U.S.
Blaming India
Pakistan blames its rival India for what it calls “the politicization of FATF process” by the latter. The country’s foreign office said it is determined to actively fight terror financing in the country.
“We hope the broader FATF membership would take cognizance of this continuing malicious campaign and reject any attempt aimed at the politicization of the FATF process by India.” Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement following FATF’s meeting last week.
Asad Majeed Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. also blamed India for pursuing a political agenda against Pakistan.
“We should not let any one country basically pursue its political agenda vis-à-vis Pakistan through these international institutions and channels,” Khan said this week during an event at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, a Washington-based think-tank.
“We also feel that we have done a lot. We are clear and determined to do more but we would not want the jury to be rigged. And where there are predetermined positions be it the statements issued by the Indian minister of finance, be it statements issued by their other senior leaders publicly calling for the blacklisting of Pakistan,” Khan added.
FILE – India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley speaks at an Economist conference in New Delhi, India, Sept. 9, 2015.
India’s role
India’s Minister of Finance, Arun Jaitley, said last month that the country would push for Pakistan’s inclusion in the FATF’s blacklist of countries that failed to meet international standards in curbing financial crimes.
“We want Pakistan downgraded on the FATF list,” Jaitley told reporters.
Some analysts like Michael Kugleman, deputy director of South Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, charge that Pakistan’s designation in the FATF’s list cannot be blamed on India and Pakistan must assume responsibility.
“Pakistan tends to blame India for all types of misfortunes. You cannot blame India for FAFT’s decision. FAFT is a multilateral organization, it is not defined by unilateral measures. …This is not the first time Pakistan was gray listed by FAFT,” Kugleman told VOA.
Consequences
Placement on the FATF’s gray list or even worse, its blacklist, has dire consequences for an already debt-ridden country like Pakistan, analysts warn.
Pakistani economist Zubair Iqbal says FATF has “very strong political connotations” because they can “recommend restrictions on transactions and financial relations with Pakistan.”
“That becomes an issue because other countries tend to then follow FATF instructions. And that adversely affects Pakistan or any country’s relations with the international financial system,” Iqbal added.
Huma Sattar, a Pakistan-based analyst and economist, believes that should FATF blacklist Pakistan, it will seriously undermine Pakistan’s prospects for attracting investment to the country.
“Placing on the FATF blacklist would send a very wrong signal to the world, especially those looking to Pakistan as an emerging market for investments. Given Pakistan’s recurrent macroeconomic challenges, it needs strong ties with the global community and international financiers,” Sattar said.
“A blacklisted Pakistan may also incur problems with the recently penned IMF program. Not to mention, it would decidedly threaten Pakistan’s efforts to dismantle the global narrative that the Pakistani state sponsors terrorism,” she added.
Kugleman of the Woodrow Wilson Center maintains that Pakistan recognizes the sensitivity of remaining in gray list or even moving to the blacklist and expressed optimism that the country would take measures accordingly.
“Pakistan is very sensitive about their global image. Being blacklisted or remaining on the gray list has a bad connotation and gives a bad global image. Pakistan recognizes this and will want to change for the better to avoid risking financial setbacks,” Kugleman said.
FAFT will announce its formal decision in October.
Anti-government protesters in Hong Kong blocked main roads early Monday to limit access to a ceremony marking the anniversary of the city’s handover to China.
Senior officials from Hong Kong and mainland China are to attend the annual flag-raising on the 22nd anniversary of the handover on July 1, 1997.
Pro-democracy activists have called for a march as they have on every anniversary. This year the march is expected to be larger than usual because of widespread opposition to a government proposal that would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China to face charges.
It will be the third protest in three weeks against the extradition bill.
The government has already postponed debate on the bill indefinitely, leaving it to die. But protest leaders want the legislation formally withdrawn. They are also calling for Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to resign.
On Sunday, government supporters held a pro-police rally. Hong Kong police have come under criticism for using tear gas and rubber bullets during a crackdown on a protest that left dozens injured June 12.
New York staged a huge Gay Pride march Sunday, one of several in major U.S. cities marking the 50th anniversary of the clash between police and gay patrons at the city’s Stonewall Inn bar that sparked the modern gay rights movement.
The New York parade could attract three million rainbow flag-waving supporters. More than 650 contingents with 150,000 people, including community groups, corporations, politicians and celebrities, are planning to march through the city’s streets.
“I believe we are going to have the greatest Pride celebration in the history of the globe,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, a vocal defender of gay rights and a Democratic presidential candidate.
In Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, the city’s first openly gay mayor, is one of seven grand marshals for its parade.
The annual celebration of gay rights has its origin in the June 1969 riots sparked by repeated police raids on Stonewall Inn, a prominent gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village. The riots proved to be a pivotal touchpoint in the LGBTQ community’s struggle for civil rights.
The smaller Queer Liberation March started Sunday morning at the bar, with its organizers saying that the Pride march had become too commercialized and heavily policed.
Amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, U.S. President Donald Trump enters the week bolstered by Senate action that indirectly affirmed his latitude to order military strikes against Iran. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, late last week the Senate defeated an effort to force Trump to obtain congressional approval for any non-defensive military action taken against the Islamic nation.
New York staged a huge Gay Pride march Sunday, one of several in major U.S. cities marking the 50th anniversary of the clash between police and gay patrons at the city’s Stonewall Inn bar that sparked the modern gay rights movement.
The New York parade could attract three million rainbow flag-waving supporters. More than 650 contingents with 150,000 people, including community groups, corporations, politicians and celebrities, are planning to march through the city’s streets.
“I believe we are going to have the greatest Pride celebration in the history of the globe,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, a vocal defender of gay rights and a Democratic presidential candidate.
In Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, the city’s first openly gay mayor, is one of seven grand marshals for its parade.
The annual celebration of gay rights has its origin in the June 1969 riots sparked by repeated police raids on Stonewall Inn, a prominent gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village. The riots proved to be a pivotal touchpoint in the LGBTQ community’s struggle for civil rights.
The smaller Queer Liberation March started Sunday morning at the bar, with its organizers saying that the Pride march had become too commercialized and heavily policed.
Both candidates to succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader and Britain’s next prime minister are now laying the political groundwork for a so-called “hard Brexit” — and are ready to leave the European Union without any withdrawal deal, an outcome independent observers and analysts warn could poison relations between Britain and its European neighbors for decades.
The exit Boris Johnson and his rival Jeremy Hunt, the country’s current foreign minister, are plotting would likely involve Britain withholding all or some of the $50 billion the country already agreed formally it would owe the EU for past financial obligations on exiting.
Johnson, the frontrunner, former London mayor and onetime journalist, is turning to hardline Brexiters in his party to draw up his plans and says the withdrawal agreement Theresa May struck with Brussels last November, and which she failed three times to get approved by a deadlocked House of Commons, is dead.
His rival is also hardening his Brexit rhetoric in what is turning into a ‘bidding war’ between the contenders as they vie for the votes of the 160,000 Conservative party members who will choose between them. The party members are being balloted by mail with the result scheduled for July 22. In recent months the party has seen a wave of new members with an estimated 30,000 new recruits being dubbed ‘Brexit entryists.’
Jeremy Hunt, a leadership candidate for Britain’s Conservative Party, leaves BBC studios in London, June 30, 2019. (Reuters)
On Sunday Hunt said in a newspaper interview that he wants “to change the withdrawal agreement” but if it isn’t possible, “I’ll take us out without a deal.” In a no-deal exit Hunt would withhold about half of the withdrawal money already agreed between London and Brussels. “Anyone who thinks I am going to write a blank check to the European Union is sorely mistaken,” he said.
Hunt has recruited the former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to lead his Brexit team, if he wins the keys to Downing Street, to help him to try to negotiate a free-trade deal with Brussels along the lines of the one agreed after seven years of talks between Ottawa and the EU.
But such a deal would only cover the trade in goods and not in services, which account for 79 percent of Britain’s economic output.
“Stephen Harper knows how you negotiate trade deals with both the EU and the U.S.. He’s got the T-shirt,” Hunt said.
The hardline positions being crafted by Johnson and Hunt would put whoever is elected on a collision course with Brussels and the national leaders of the EU 27. The French government warned both candidates Saturday that the divorce deal May brokered with EU is not up for renegotiation, echoing warnings from Brussels and across the continent all last week.
“If the United Kingdom wants to leave the union and to leave in an orderly fashion, the deal on the table is the deal we negotiated over two years,” France’s newly appointed European Affairs minister Amelie de Montchalin told the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris. “To reopen the withdrawal agreement, the position of the Council [of EU leaders] is very clear, it’s: ‘no’,” she added.
FILE – British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves the podium after addressing a media conference at the conclusion of an EU summit in Brussels, April 11, 2019. (AP)
May’s premiership was wrecked after she failed to get her Brexit deal approved by the British parliament — the agreement is unpopular with both hardline Brexiters, who say it keeps Britain too closely tied to the bloc, and by Europhiles, who favor greater participation in the EU. She was forced to delay, with reluctant EU agreement, the deadline for Britain’s departure, to October 31.
EU national leaders and senior officials in Brussels have insisted for months that there can be no renegotiation of the withdrawal deal, although they say they are amendable to amending an accompanying political declaration outlining in more detail Britain’s possible future trade relationship with the bloc, which will be negotiated following Brexit.
May herself has warned her possible successors that they will face the same political impasse she did, as well as a parliament determined to block Britain leaving the EU without a withdrawal deal, which is designed to limit the economic pain Brexit will cause on both sides of the English Channel.
Neither Johnson nor Hunt have outlined what the trade-offs would be, if Britain left without a withdrawal agreement, say Conservative critics and EU officials. “Johnson’s sole contribution to the conversation about the difficult trade-offs involved in Britain’s most important political challenge since the Second World War has been a reheating of his two-decade-old adage: ‘My policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it,’” said Matthew Parris, a former Conservative lawmaker and now a columnist at The Times of London.
Both Britain and the EU — especially the near neighbors of Ireland, France, Belgium and The Netherlands — would be hurt economically by a no-deal and the reimposition of trade barriers and tariffs between the bloc and Britain.
According to a study by the University of Leuven in Holland, there will be close to two million job loses across the continent as a result of a no-deal Brexit. With Germany possibly losing nearly 300,000 jobs as a result. But the biggest immediate impact would likely be felt in Britain, which could see more than half-a-million jobs lost and the country’s GDP take a 4.4 percent, according to the study. Bank of England economists have predicted a recession in Britain, if there is a hard Brexit.
Johnson’s supporters say such studies should give Brussels pause and will convince EU leaders to cave to British demands.
EU officials fear both Conservative candidates — especially Johnson — are backing themselves into a corner in a competition of political machismo. Johnson is stating unequivocally that he will, if in Downing Street, lead Britain out of the EU on October 31, deal or no deal, pledging to do so “do or die.” Hunt has allowed himself some wiggle room, saying the deadline could be passed if there is a chance of a new deal.
The Senate’s top Democrat called on the U.S. government Sunday to step up its efforts to investigate the deaths of Americans who traveled to the Dominican Republic and is asking the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to get involved.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the agency should step in to lend investigative support to the FBI and local law enforcement officials after at least eight Americans died in the Dominican Republic this year. Family members of the tourists have called on authorities to investigate whether there’s any connection between the deaths and have raised the possibility the deaths may have been caused by adulterated alcohol or misused pesticides.
The ATF – the agency primarily investigates firearms-related crimes but is also charged with regulating alcohol and tobacco – is uniquely positioned to provide technical and forensic expertise in the investigation, Schumer said. The agency also has offices in the Caribbean.
“Given that we still have a whole lot of questions and very few answers into just what, if anything, is cause for the recent spate of sicknesses and several deaths of Americans in the Dominican Republic, the feds should double their efforts on helping get to the bottom of things,” Schumer said in a statement to The Associated Press.
An ATF spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Francisco Javier Garcia, the tourism minister in the Dominican Republic, said earlier this month that the deaths are not part of any mysterious wave of fatalities but instead are a statistically normal phenomenon that has been lumped together by the U.S. media. He said autopsies show the tourists died of natural causes.
Five of the autopsies were complete as of last week, while three were undergoing further toxicological analysis with the help from the FBI because of the circumstances of the deaths.
Donald Trump on Sunday became the first sitting U.S. president to visit North Korea, stepping across the border during a meeting at the demilitarized zone with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. At the impromptu summit, Trump said they agreed to resume working level negotiations, which had been stalled, as VOA’s William Gallo reports from Seoul.
The seventh and latest round of peace talks between the U.S. and Taliban is “critical,” said Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Sunday, the second day of talks with Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in the Mideastern state of Qatar, where the militant group maintains a political office.
Shaheen told The Associated Press both sides are looking for “tangible results” as they try to hammer out the fine print of agreements that will see the eventual withdrawal of over 20,000 U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan, and end America’s longest-running war.
The agreements are also expected to provide guarantees that Afghanistan will not again harbor terrorists to carry out attacks worldwide.
The talks began on Saturday and are expected to continue into the next week.
The two sides sat down to negotiate just days after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was hopeful of a deal to end Afghanistan’s protracted war by Sept. 1.
“Getting a comprehensive peace agreement with the Taliban before Sept. 1 would be nothing short of a miracle,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the U.S.-based Wilson’s Center.
“That said, I could certainly envision a more limited deal being in place by Sept. 1 on a U.S. troop withdrawal, given that there’s already been ample progress on this issue.”
Pompeo and Khalilzad have both said the final accord will include not only agreements with the Taliban on troop withdrawal and guarantees of a non-threatening Afghanistan, but also agreement on intra-Afghan dialogue and a permanent cease fire.
Until now the Taliban have refused direct talks with the Afghan government while holding two separate meetings with a wide array of prominent Afghans from Kabul, including former president Hamid Karzai, members of the former northern alliance that fought the Taliban during its five-year rule as well as members of the government.
The Taliban have said they will meet government officials but as ordinary Afghans, labeling President Ashraf Ghani’s government a U.S. puppet and noting that the U.S. is the final arbiter on their central issue, which is troop withdrawal.
The Taliban have refused a ceasefire until the withdrawal is complete, saying that to restart their insurgency if the U.S. reneges on its promises could be difficult.
But the accelerated pace of negotiations and the sudden announcement of a Sept. 1 target date for an agreement could be linked to Afghan President Ghani’s insistence on presidential polls scheduled for Sept. 28 in Afghanistan, say analysts.
The upcoming elections have been criticized by many of his political opponents who often point to last October’s parliamentary polls. The voting was so badly mismanaged that Ghani fired the entire Independent Election Commission, and several of the parliamentary seats are still being contested.
A biometric identification system aimed at reducing election fraud was prematurely rolled out for the polls, with the few people trained on the machines not showing up on election day.
While there were incidences of violence during the polling, analysts widely agreed the greatest flaw was the widespread mismanagement and fraud.
Khalilzad has also suggested that presidential elections could hamper reaching a peace agreement.
“I do think the U.S. government recognizes that the election could pose a major obstacle to peace talks, given that it will be a distraction and given that it will accentuate and intensify the fractures and rivalries in the Afghan political environment that undercut reconciliation prospects,” said Kugelman.
“Another reason for the focus on Sept. 1 is much simpler: President Trump wants out, and he wants a deal as soon as possible.”
The forces of Libya’s Khalifa Hifter said Friday that Turkish vessels and interests are “legitimate targets” in its battle to seize the capital of Tripoli, after it accused Turkey of helping rival militias allied with the U.N.-supported government.
The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Hifter, already controls much of the country’s east and south. It launched an offensive against the weak Tripoli-based government in April. The fighting has threatened to plunge Libya into another bout of violence on the scale of the 2011 conflict that ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and led to his death.
A spokesman for the LNA, Ahmed al-Mesmari, said the country had “come under illegitimate Turkish aggression” in recent weeks.
“Turkey has become directly involved in the battle (for Tripoli), with its soldiers, planes, sea ships and all the supplies that now reach Misrata, Tripoli and Zuwara directly,” al-Mesmari said.
He said Turkey had helped push the LNA out of the town of Gharyan, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Tripoli. The town was a key supply route for Hifter’s forces pushing toward the capital.
Turkish forces also bombed LNA positions and provided air cover for militias allied with the Tripoli-based government to retake the town, he said.
Al-Mesmari said LNA forces have now been ordered to target any Turkish ships, strategic sites or companies operating in Libya or its territorial waters, and to arrest any Turkish nationals in Libya.
Libyan officials said they had carried out “heavy” airstrikes in retaliation against the fighters who retook Gharyan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
The government in the east said LNA forces were killed after being captured alive in hospitals in Gharyan, a claim denied by Gharyan Gov. Yousef Bediri, who is loyal to the Tripoli government.
Bediri called on rights groups to investigate the killing in Gharyan saying the LNA troops were killed earlier during the fighting.
Col. Mohamed Gnono, a spokesman for the Tripoli government forces, told a news conference in Gharyan that they captured over 150 of Hifter’s troops and seized armored vehicles, three drones and U.S.-made weapons and missiles.
Oded Berkowitz, an Israeli security analyst who specializes in the Libyan conflict, said “the most interesting and notable” of these seized weapons were FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles, UAE-made Yabhon drones, and Russia-made Kornet anti-tank guided missiles.
“This is a game changer not only because it’s a highly advanced weapon, but because it’s also American,” he said.
Last month, a Facebook page linked to the Tripoli government posted photos appearing to show more than a dozen armored vehicles arriving at port, without saying who supplied them. Supporters of the various militias allied with the government said the vehicles, which resemble Turkish-made Kirpi armored carriers, were supplied by Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday he was unaware of the LNA’s orders. “If Hifter has given such an order, we’ll get that evaluated,” he said. He said Turkey had already taken “necessary” precautions.
Erdogan said in April his government would stand by Tripoli authorities as they repel the offensive launched by Hifter’s forces.
The U.N.-supported government condemned Hifter threats of targeting Turkey’s interests in Libya.
The Government of National accord, backed by Turkey, urged the U.N. support mission in Libya to have “clear positions” toward these “unprecedented comments” by the LNA spokesman.
In a press conference late Saturday, al-Mesmari said their airstrikes would continue on Gharyan and outskirts of Tripoli.
He said LNA forces repelled attacks by militias allied with the U.N.-supported government on towns of Ain Zara and Wadi al-Rabie outside Tripoli.
“Forensic reports showed that wounded in Gharyan hospitals were knifed, shot deal in their heads or rammed by cars,” he said.
Hifter, who in recent years has been battling Islamic extremists and other militias across eastern Libya, says he is determined to restore stability to the North African country. His opponents view him as an aspiring autocrat and fear a return to one-man rule.
Hifter has received support from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, while his rivals receive support from Qatar and Turkey.
The fight for Tripoli has killed at least 739 people, according to the World Health Organization.
There are hundreds of thousands of churches in the United States. And though some 4,000 to 5,000 new congregations open their doors in the country each year, just as many close, mainly due to economic reasons. The vacant churches are then remodeled and reused as apartment complexes, bookstores and museums. Or turned into breweries, as was done in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nataliya Leonova has the story.
Thousands marched through Madrid on Saturday to ask the Spanish capital’s new mayor not to ditch ambitious traffic restrictions in the center only recently set up to improve air quality.
“Madrid Central,” as it is called, was one of the measures that persuaded the European Commission not to take Spain to court last year over its bad air pollution in the capital and Barcelona, as it did with France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
“Fewer cars, better air” and “The new city hall seriously harms your health” were the messages on banners as protesters walked through the city’s center in 40-degree-Celsius heat.
The capital’s new conservative mayor, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, made ditching “Madrid Central” a priority during his campaign, saying it had done nothing to ease pollution and only caused a nuisance for locals.
But since he has taken power as part of a coalition with center-right party Ciudadanos, city officials have toned this down, saying the government is merely seeking to reform a system that does not work properly, having mistakingly handed out some fines.
When the system was launched in November, Madrid followed in the steps of other European cities such as London, Stockholm and Milan that have restricted traffic in their centers.
A woman takes part in a protest against Madrid’s new conservative People’s Party municipal government plans to suspend some anti-car emissions policies in the city center, June 29, 2019.
But while in these cases drivers can pay to enter such zones, Madrid went a step further, banning many vehicles from accessing the center altogether and fining them if they did.
These fines will be suspended from July 1 to the end of September as the new city hall team audits the system.
For Beatriz Navarro, 44, a university biochemistry professor who took part in the march, the system is working fine.
“It’s a small seed … among everything that has to be done to slow down climate change,” she said.
In a statement, environmental group Ecologistas en Accion said “the levels of pollution from nitrogen dioxide (NO2) registered during May this year were lower than those of 2018 in all the [measuring] stations in the system.”
“In 14 of the 24 stations [in Madrid], the value registered in May 2019 was the lowest in the last 10 years.”
The Trump administration has agreed to postpone implementing a rule allowing medical workers to decline performing abortions or other treatments on moral or religious grounds while the so-called “conscience” rule is challenged in a California court.
The rule was supposed to take effect on July 22 but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its opponents in a California lawsuit mutually agreed Friday to delay a final ruling on the matter until Nov. 22.
The agency called it the “most efficient way to adjudicate” the rule.
A federal judge in San Francisco permitted the change on Saturday.
A California lawsuit alleges that the department exceeded its authority with the rule, which President Trump announced in May.
The measure known as Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care; Delegations of Authority would require institutions that receive money from federal programs to certify that they comply with some 25 federal laws protecting conscience and religious rights.
Most laws pertain to medical procedures such as abortion, sterilization and assisted suicide.
The department has previously said that past administrations haven’t done enough to protect such rights in the medical field.
The rule is a priority for religious conservatives, but critics fear it will become a pretext for denying medical attention to LGBT people or women seeking abortions, a legal medical procedure.
“The Trump administration is trying to systematically limit access to critical medical care for women, the LGBTQ community, and other vulnerable patients,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement announcing Friday’s decision. “Hospitals are no place to put personal beliefs above patient care.”
San Francisco would have faced losing about $1 billion in federal funding for health care-related programs if the rule took effect, according to the statement from his office.
Rest assured, British fans: Most baseball games are not like the one played Saturday in London, not even the crazy ones between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
Each team scored six runs in a first inning that lasted nearly an hour, with Aaron Hicks hitting the first European homer. Brett Gardner had a tiebreaking, two-run drive in the third, Aaron Judge went deep to cap a six-run fourth and the Yankees outlasted their rivals 17-13 in a game that stretched for 4 hours, 42 minutes — 3 minutes shy of the record for a nine-inning game.
“Well, cricket takes like all weekend to play, right? So, I’m sure a lot of people are used to it,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We should remind them there’s not 30 runs every game.”
Britain’s Prince Harry, top left, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, watch during the first inning of a baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, June 29, 2019, in London.
The game was played before a sellout crowd of 59,659 that included supporters from Britain, Beantown and the Big Apple plus royalty, and America’s national pastime seemed to make a positive impression on British fans.
“I think we’re getting as good a reception as football has for the last couple years,” Yankees first baseman Luke Voit said.
Great weather
The weather helped. It was a warm, picture-perfect day in often overcast London — baseball weather at its best, played on a midsummer’s eve with sunlight that seemed to never fade.
Things American fans take for granted, like standing for the national anthem, or joshing rival fans without getting overly crude, struck many Brits in London Stadium as a refreshing change.
“It’s brilliant, it’s amazing, it’s so American as well,” said Jack Lockwood, a 23-year-old who pitches and plays catcher in an amateur baseball league in the city of Sheffield. “I’ve been to hundreds of football (soccer) games and it’s just such a different atmosphere. I just like the American positivity.”
Lockwood spent about six hours on a train to get to and from London for the game, but he considered the trip well worth it, even though his favorite team — the Los Angeles Dodgers — wasn’t playing.
He said it would be impossible to have fans from two rival English soccer teams sit in the same stands — intermingled as Yankee and Red Sox fans were Saturday — without violent scenes.
“You put two rival football teams’ fans in the same stands, you’ll get a fight,” he said. “In baseball, you can put the fans together and you can have a laugh with anyone.”
Fans arrive before a baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, June 29, 2019, in London. Major League Baseball was making its European debut with the game at London Stadium.
British touches
There were some British touches at the game, like the roaming vendors selling Pimm’s cocktails and gin and tonics, but the focus was generally on typical American ballpark fare: hot dogs, nachos, burgers and beer. There were even supersized hot dogs, checking in at 2 feet long.
“It’s the way the Americans do sports,” said pleased British fan Stuart Graham, 45. “The way they have the spectator in mind. You know, you’re sitting there and the man comes around with your beer and your hot dogs, and you can relax and enjoy the game. It’s really very different to what we’re used to.”
He and Ian Muggridge bought the tickets months ago, spurred in part by the storied Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, which promised to bring top talent to the British capital.
“Two big heavyweights of U.S. baseball, sort of like Manchester United playing Liverpool in the UK,” he said, referring to British soccer rivals. “Great spectacle to come and see.”
He did find one disappointment to baseball in Britain: The hot dogs weren’t as good as the ones he’d enjoyed at an American park.
Muggridge appreciated the mood in the park, with the playing of the U.S. and British national anthems before the game.
A fan makes a diving catch in the “fan zone” before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankies at London Stadium, Jun 29, 2019. ( S. Flynn/USA Today Sports)
‘Patriotic feel’
“I like the fact that it’s got quite a patriotic feel about it,” he said. “You don’t often get that in British sports. We tend to avoid that, whereas in America you just put it out there.”
While many British fans only had to jump a Tube train to get to the park, thousands of American fans flew across the Atlantic at considerable expense to catch the historic games.
Yankees fan Danielle McCauley of Clifton, N.J., built a weeklong British holiday around Saturday’s game.
“It’s been fun. The whole thing has been really cool,” she said, although she found the crowd far less raucous than those she had been part of in Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park. Call it British reserve.
“It’s quiet,” she said. “It’s the quietest sporting event I’ve ever been to.”
Mexico wants to deepen economic ties with China by increasing its exports and attracting more investment from the Asian country, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Saturday ahead of a visit to Beijing.
Ebrard was speaking to reporters via a video link from the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, where he said that talks with other government officials had demonstrated there was growing interest in boosting trade and investment with Mexico.
This was “very clear” in the case of China, where Ebrard said he would be giving priority to expanding business ties during his visit there at the start of next week.
“What we’re interested in,” he said, “is increasing Mexico’s presence in China, Mexico’s capacity to export to China. And China’s investments in Mexico.”
Ebrard was representing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the summit, who in a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he could not attend because there were “urgent” matters requiring his attention in Mexico.
Ebrard is due to speak to media on Tuesday in China, which exports much more to Mexico than vice versa.
Last year, according to Mexican economy ministry data, Mexico imported $83.5 billion worth of goods from China, while its exports to China were worth $7.4 billion.
FILE – Factory employees are seen working in the plant of General Motors in the city of Silao, in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, Nov. 25, 2008.
Mexico sends around 80% of its exports to the United States, and is eager to sell more to other countries to reduce its economic dependence on its neighbor.
That dependence has become an increasing liability since U.S. President Donald Trump last month vowed to slap tariffs on all Mexican exports to the United States if Mexico did not do more to stem a surge in migrants heading to the United States.
During the summit, Ebrard said, Trump had told him the United States “had good signs that things were going well” in Mexico’s bid to cut the flow of mostly Central Americans seeking to cross the U.S. border.
Ebrard also noted India was interested in doing more business with Mexico, and that he would visit New Delhi “soon.”
Despite that, concern in business circles about the Lopez Obrador administration’s ability to attract investment grew last week when Mexican state power utility CFE said it wanted to get “fairer” terms for contracts signed under the last government.
That drew criticism from Canada, whose government voiced its concerns at the G-20 about CFE’s desire to revisit a major pipeline contract involving a Canadian firm, Mexican Finance Minister Carlos Urzua said.
A ship carrying 69 containers of waste mislabeled as plastic recyclables returned to Canada on Saturday from the Philippines, closing a chapter on a dispute that started in 2013 and sparked a diplomatic furor between Ottawa and Manila.
The shipment was taken off the container ship Anna Maersk docked close to Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal and arrived at GCT Deltaport in Delta, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver, GCT said in a statement.
Sarah Lusk, Metro Vancouver spokeswoman, said the waste would be sent to a Waste-to-Energy facility in Burnaby where it will be incinerated, but added that there was “uncertainty with respect to timing” and the facility may not receive the waste over the weekend.
The waste containers became part of a diplomatic dispute between Manila and Ottawa, as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened Canada with war and withdrew top diplomats from Canada after Canada missed a May 15 deadline to take back the waste.
The waste was shipped to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014 and mislabeled as recyclable plastics. Instead, it was filled with garbage including used diapers and newspapers. A Philippine court ruled in 2016 that it be returned.
Canada made arrangements in late May to accept the containers and said they hired Bollore Logistics Canada to safely bring them back as soon as possible.
Waste disposal has emerged as a topic of political dispute between Southeast Asian countries and the developed world, with Malaysia in May becoming the latest to demand nations such as the United States, Japan, France, Canada, Australia and Britain take back 3,000 tonnes of plastic waste.
The government department Environment and Climate Change Canada told Reuters earlier this month that the government was in talks with Malaysia to recover the plastic waste that originated from Canada.
A self-declared “caravan” of Americans bused across the Canada-U.S. border on Saturday, seeking affordable prices for insulin and raising awareness of “the insulin price crisis” in the United States.
The group called Caravan to Canada started the journey from Minneapolis, Minn., on Friday and stopped at London, Ontario, on Saturday to purchase lifesaving type 1 diabetes medication at a pharmacy.
About 20 people made the trip, according to Nicole Smith-Holt, a member of the group. Smith-Holt said her 26-year-old son died in June 2017 because he was forced to ration costly insulin.
Caravan to Canada trekked across the border in May for the same reason, and Smith-Holt was on that trip, too. She said the previous group was smaller than this week’s group. Americans have gone to countries like Mexico and Canada for more affordable medications in the past and continue to do so, she added.
‘Resurgence’ in visitors
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported in May that Canadian pharmacists have seen a “quiet resurgence” in Americans coming to Canada looking for cheaper pharmaceuticals.
Insulin prices in the United States nearly doubled to an average annual cost of $5,705 in 2016 from $2,864 in 2012, according to a study in January.
While not everyone purchased the same amount of insulin, Smith-Holt said most people were saving around $3,000 for three months’ worth of insulin, and as a whole the group was saving around $15,000 to $20,000.
U.S. residents get set to depart a Canadian pharmacy after purchasing lower-cost insulin in London, Ontario, June 29, 2019.
Prescriptions for insulin are not required in Canadian pharmacies Smith-Holt said, but the caravan has them so they can prove to the border patrol they are not intending to resell them when returning to the United States.
T1International, a nonprofit that advocates for increased access to type 1 diabetes medication, has described the situation in U.S. as an insulin crisis. Quinn Nystrom, a leader of T1International’s Minnesota chapter, said on May via Twitter that the price of insulin in the United States per vial was $320, while in Canada the same medication under a different name was $30.
“We know that many people couldn’t make this trip because they cannot afford the costs associated with traveling to another country to buy insulin there,” Elizabeth Pfiester, executive director of T1International, said in a press release.
Banting House
An itinerary said the caravan planned to stop at the Banting House in London later in the day. The Banting House is where Canadian physician and scientist Frederick Banting, who discovered insulin, lived from 1920 to 1921, and the building is called the “birthplace of insulin,” according to the Banting House website.
Smith-Holt said the group was not currently planning any future trips, but they could be organized in the near future depending on need. She hopes for long-term solutions in the United States like price caps, anti-gouging laws, patent reform and transparency from pharmaceutical companies.
