Indian officials say at least 42 people have been killed in landslides and flooding caused by heavy rains.  

Emergency officials say 100,000 people have been evacuated. The Indian state of Kerala has been worst hit, but Karnataka and Maharashtra states are also affected.

June to September is India’s monsoon season which brings the heavy rains that farmers depend on, but the rains also bring heavy death and destruction.

China’s central government has dismissed Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters as clowns and criminals while bemoaning growing violence surrounding the monthslong demonstrations.

That’s partly out of concern that protesters’ demands for expanded democracy could inspire like-minded officials and intellectuals on the mainland.

Yet, Beijing shows no signs of preparing for a major crackdown, content instead to ignore the protests in the hopes that frustration will lead to further violence that will eventually turn the territory’s silent majority against the movement, according to experts.

“Hong Kong poses a serious problem for the Chinese government. It can’t allow the protesters to challenge its authority or deface symbols of its authority unpunished but it also does not want to attempt a military crackdown,” said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

‘Isolate, undermine’

Under those circumstances, Beijing would prefer to “isolate and undermine the protesters so the movement in Hong Kong fizzles out,” Tsang said.

The protests also come at a sensitive time for President Xi Jinping, who after removing presidential term limits last year effectively made himself leader for life. That has intensified criticism over his concentration of power, even as his propaganda machine relentlessly promotes his image and achievements ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on Oct. 1.

Meanwhile, China is grappling with a slowing economy and the ongoing impacts of the U.S.-China trade war, as well as pushback against its ambitious multibillion dollar “Belt and Road” infrastructure program that is seen as miring poorer nations in debt.

China’s international image has suffered as well from its mass incarceration of members of its Uighur Muslim minority and aggressive moves in the foreign policy sphere, including what professor Anne-Marie Brady of New Zealand’s University of Canterbury described in a recent article as “uncharacteristically undiplomatic activity” by Chinese diplomats in Canada, Sweden, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

China’s activities have included encouraging mainland Chinese students overseas in their attacks on supporters of the Hong Kong protests and Chinese human rights more generally, sparking calls from politicians in those countries for foreign policy adjustments to reduce Beijing’s influence.

News from Hong Kong spreads

Despite massive Chinese censorship, details of the events in Hong Kong have spread through southern China and among officials and intellectuals in major cities, raising concerns about potential calls for political freedoms like those enjoyed by Hong Kong.

“Beijing fears there might be a copy-cat effect in other cities in China,” said Willy Lam, a longtime observer of Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Attacks on police stations and symbols of Chinese authority and displaying disregard for the law are seen as “potentially very dangerous” because they challenge the legitimacy of Beijing’s rule in Hong Kong under the “one country, two systems,” Lam said.

At the same time, many Hong Kongers believe China has broken its promise to allow Hong Kong a high-degree of self-rule, driving protesters to rebel, Lam said. Beijing, he said, is seen as no longer having a “valid legitimacy to rule Hong Kong.”

‘A contest of wills’

The refusal to offer concessions or even open a dialogue with the protesters creates a “vicious circle” whereby those in the movement have no choice other than to continue demonstrating or tow Beijing’s line, said Joseph Cheng, a political analyst now retired from the City University of Hong Kong.

“There’s no prospect for reconciliation. It’s now a contest of wills,” Cheng said.

And while Beijing condemns the violence, violence is “precisely what it is hoping for” in the expectation that frustrated protesters will provide more images of melees and fire bombings that will alienate the general population, Lam said.

Another Tiananmen unlikely

However, one tactic Beijing is highly unlikely to use is deploying its military, as was used with deadly effect against pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, the last time the party saw such open defiance of its authority on the streets of a Chinese city.

Deploying the People’s Liberation Army would be an “irrevocable and fateful decision, which would have devastating consequences for Beijing,” Lam said. “China would lose face internationally because, after 20 years of Chinese rule, not only has Beijing failed miserably to win hearts and minds, but it now has to use brute force to enforce its will.”

Such a move would have an equally devastating effect on Hong Kong’s economy, possibly causing the local stock market that is key to funding the Chinese economy to crash and prompting a mass outflow of foreign investors and capital.

Based on Beijing’s fiery rhetoric, the numbers of arrests already made and the range of charges being brought — including rioting, which carries a potential 10-year prison sentence — Lam said the authorities are likely to come down much harder than after 2014 demonstrations.

“They hope to use those charges to serve as a warning, but so far the protesters have not been cowed,” Lam said.

Lam and others also expect Beijing to double down on what it terms patriotic education in an attempt to inculcate love and respect for the Chinese state. That will include more lessons on patriotism in the school curriculum, more spending on free tours of key sites in mainland China glorifying the party and economic inducements such as the offer of high-paying jobs in the Pearl River Delta surrounding Hong Kong.

Though it’s unclear such efforts will succeed, China has the determination and virtually unlimited funds to make young Hong Kongers “patriotic Chinese citizens,” Lam said.

“Ultimately, they hope people will just keep their heads down and focus on making money,” Cheng said. “But these issues are not resolved and there is a strong chance (a protest movement) will rise again.”
 

Members of the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society like to fight each other with swords made of foam. Participants dress up in costume and attack each other like medieval hordes of yore. And some of them don’t even really know how to hit.  

Reporter/Camera: Mike Osborne; Produced by: Martin Secrest

Radio is alive and well in middle America. In one small town in Nebraska, one of the most popular radio programs is called ‘Swap Shop,’ where listeners call in to sell or trade items on the air for free.  It’s a quick way of selling things, especially in an area where the Internet is not yet king.  

Producer/Camera: Deepak Dhobhal

VOA Connect Episode 82 – Before there was the Internet, there was Tradio – the local radio program to help people buy, sell or trade just about anything.   Also this week, a look at groups sharing cultures and food, as well as hobbies ranging from foam sword fighting to long distance cherry pit spitting.

The wife of a U.S. student imprisoned in Iran on spy charges is reaching out to President Donald Trump to do more to get him out. 
 
“I implore Iran, the U.S., my own country, China, and other members of the international community to come together and find a way to secure the release of this innocent man,” Hua Qu said Thursday on the third anniversary of Xiyue Wang’s arrest. “My husband and our family have become innocent victims in an apparently ever-intensifying quarrel between world powers.”  
 
Hua said Trump should give Wang’s case as much attention as he gave the case of U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky, who was released from a Swedish jail where he was being held for alleged assault.  
 
Iran has proposed a prisoner swap with the U.S. for Iranians it says are being held in the United States. But Washington has demanded that Tehran immediately free all those Americans in Iranian prisoners it says are innocent. 
 
“This case will not be automatically resolved. They definitely need to come to the negotiating table and to speak to each other,” Hua said. 
 
The Chinese-born Wang is a doctoral student in history at Princeton University. He was in Iran in 2016 as part of his academic research into Iranian history when authorities arrested him. He was convicted on espionage charges, and a court sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – The Republican Party, the Trump campaign and other GOP organizations said Thursday that they were freezing their spending on Twitter to protest the platform’s treatment of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  
  
Twitter temporarily locked McConnell’s campaign account Wednesday after it shared a video in which some protesters spoke of violence outside his Kentucky home, where he is recovering from a shoulder fracture. 

The social media platform said in a statement that users were locked out temporarily because of a tweet “that violated our violent threats policy, specifically threats involving physical safety.” The statement did not indicate exactly how long the account was frozen, saying only that it was temporary. The account was active Thursday, but no longer contained the tweet. 
 
The Courier-Journal reported one protester said McConnell should have broken his neck instead of fracturing his shoulder; another spoke of violence when responding to a reference about a hypothetical McConnell voodoo doll.  
  
Republicans say social media platforms censor conservative viewpoints. Social media companies say they have no political bias. 
 
National Republican Congressional Committee Executive Director Parker Hamilton Poling said her organization was halting Twitter spending “until they correct their inexcusable targeting of @Team Mitch.” 
 
“We will stand firmly with our friends against anti-conservative bias,” Poling said.    

The national Republican Party and President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign had projected spending $300,000 to $500,000 this month on Twitter, according to one GOP official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the plans. 
 
The GOP’s criticism of Twitter came as Trump and McConnell were being pressured to endorse gun control measures after last weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that left 31 people dead.  
  
Trump’s denigration of minorities and immigrants has prompted many to blame him for contributing to an anti-immigrant atmosphere.  
  
McConnell has long led Republican efforts in the Senate to stifle gun control proposals and is resisting Democrats’ cries to interrupt Congress’ recess and approve new restrictions. 

Explore VOA’s special report on the 400th anniversary of the start of slavery in America by visiting: https://www.voanews.com/africa-america

A British scientist died instantly after falling from a height on the Greek island of Ikaria, a coroner said Thursday.

The body of Cyprus-based astrophysicist Natalie Christopher, 34, an avid trail runner, was found Wednesday afternoon in a 20-meter (65-foot) deep ravine.  Her Cypriot partner had reported her missing on Monday after she went for a run near their hotel. The area has trails along steep cliffs and ravines.
 
Coroner Nikos Karakoukis, who traveled to the island from Athens, said evidence from an initial assessment of the area where Christopher’s body was found was “consistent with a fall from a height.”
 
Karakoukis told reporters that Christopher had suffered a head injury and died instantly. Her body was being transported Thursday to a morgue in the Greek capital, Athens.

Pakistan has suspended the only passenger rail service with India and banned the screening of Indian movies in the country’s theaters, a day after downgrading relations with New Delhi for its “illegal” revocation of the constitutional autonomy of Kashmir.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government announced Monday it was revoking the special rights granted to the disputed majority Muslim Himalayan region, which is claimed by both New Delhi and Islamabad.

The unprecedented move fueled tensions between the nuclear-armed rival nations, which have already fought two wars over Kashmir.  

On Wednesday, Pakistan announced it was downgrading diplomatic and trade ties, and order the expulsion of the Indian high commissioner.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi reiterated Thursday his country is taking India’s move to the United Nations Security Council, saying the world body has long declared and recognized Kashmir as a disputed territory.

“Pakistan is looking at political, diplomatic and legal options. We are not looking at a military option,” Qureshi said in Islamabad, when asked whether his country is anticipating another war with India.

Qureshi, however, warned of an internal backlash if and when India eases unprecedented security and communications restrictions it has imposed in Kashmir.

Since Sunday, Indian authorities have disabled internet services, the mobile phone network and landlines in the region. Indian media reported troops have been on the streets and a strict curfew remains in place.

Minister Qureshi noted that “illegal” Indian action coupled with a military buildup in Kashmir are a matter of serious concern for Pakistan. He says the Pakistani government has instructed the military to intensify “vigilance” along the so-called Line of Control, which separates Pakistani and Indian portions of the disputed region.  

He rejected Indian assertions that removal of Kashmir’s autonomous status will help bring peace and prosperity to the violence-hit region.

Qureshi spoke hours after New Delhi urged Islamabad to review its decision to lower bilateral diplomatic ties.

“Are they ready to review their steps? Let’s do it jointly because the review will be on both sides and not unilateral,” the foreign minister stressed, when asked whether his country intends to reverse its decision of downgrading ties with India.

Qureshi confirmed that Pakistan has shut down the cross-border Samjhauta Express train, which has been running for decades but faced suspension during times of heightened tensions.

 

The militiamen pointed out across the hills, a landscape of nothing but stone and brush in southern Yemen. Over there, invisible, were the closest positions of the Houthi rebels, they said. Beyond that loomed Nasah Mountain, a peak topped with a fortresslike crag from which the rebels can shell across the area.

They do so every night. Once darkness falls, the hills shake as the militiamen and the rebels exchange rounds of mortars and machinegun fire. Sometimes the militiamen let loose with their tank, dug in at the rear of their position.

It has been this way for months, with neither side advancing but with a constant drain of bloodshed.

“Where you’re standing right there, me and my colleague were talking and in two seconds, his body was torn to pieces,” one militia commander, Col. Taha Saeed, told The Associated Press during a rare visit to the front lines this week.

Locked in a stalemate

Yemen’s civil war, nearly five years long, has been locked into an exhausted stalemate. Little ground is gained or lost between the Iranian-allied Houthi rebels, who hold the north, and forces backed by the U.S.-allied, Saudi-led coalition, who control the south. The war’s bloody grind has killed tens of thousands, destroyed the country’s economy and pushed millions to the brink of famine.

This area in the southern province of Dhale is one of the few front lines that still sees frequent fighting. The fighters battling the Houthis here belong to a number of militias, particularly one known as the Security Belt, which are funded and armed by the United Arab Emirates.

Their equipment is bare-bones.

At one militia position, in an area called Moreys, around 40 fighters touting assault rifles had a single tank — used as an artillery piece — along with a few mortar launchers and a pickup truck mounted with a heavy machine gun. One of the men had bare feet.

During the day, when it is calm, many of them sleep, hidden in shelters they have dug into hillsides and barricaded with stones. Nearby is a field of qat, the stimulant leaf that Yemenis addictively chew; even with a war nearby, workers never stop tending the plants.

The militias and the Houthis have battled over this patch of Dhale for years, advancing and retreating back and forth along the same stretch of highway, no longer than 30 kilometers (18 miles).

Last year, the militias had the upper hand, holding all the way up to the northern end of the highway. But in May, the Houthis surged forward in an offensive that drove the militiamen back where they started at the southern end of the stretch.

Since then, the front has been locked in place. Sometimes one side or the other tries a foray. The Houthis late on Tuesday launched an assault on several hamlets near Moreys, Yemeni media reported, but were driven back in fighting that officials said left dozens of rebels dead or wounded.

Close to the enemy

At another militia position nearby, at Hajr, the few dozen fighters manned barricaded positions in the abandoned houses of a village. Most residents have fled the front-line areas. But not all: a woman near the fighters tended a herd of goats. Some local men have brought their weapons and volunteered alongside the Belt militiamen.

The Houthi positions are only about 500 meters (yards) away, the fighters said.

One of the militiamen, Ali Abdullah, said the fighters need greater support from the coalition and the Emiratis to tip the balance. 

“We’re very close to the enemy here,” he said.

Soon after, thuds of mortars were heard, the first rounds in the night’s exchanges.

The U.S. administration unveiled rules Wednesday formally banning technology giant Huawei and other Chinese firms from government contracts, in the latest move in an escalating trade war.

The interim rule will preclude any U.S. federal agency from purchasing telecom or technology equipment from the firms “as a substantial or essential component of any system, or as a critical technology as part of any system,” starting August 13.

The rules implement a ban included in the defense authorization act approved by Congress earlier this year.

The document said waivers may be granted “under certain circumstances” by an agency head for up to two years, or in other cases, by the director of national intelligence.

The new rules are part of a sweeping effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to restrict Huawei, which officials claim is linked to Chinese intelligence.

It also comes amid a heated dispute between the two economic powers over international trade rules, which some analysts say could roil the global economic system.

The rules, which require a 60-day comment period, also bar contracts to Chinese firms ZTE, Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company and Dahua Technology Company.

Huawei also faces sanctions that bar the export of US technology to the Chinese firm on national security grounds. That ban, which has been suspended until mid-August, could prevent Huawei from getting key hardware and software including smartphone chips and key elements of the Google Android operating system.

 

The Russian occupation of the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008 created a dividing line in Georgian lands that has affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. On the other side, Russian troops control territory, creating a de facto border that tears the country into three parts, still a painful wound, a decade later. Ricardo Marquina traveled to that border and has this report narrated by Jim Bertel

Turkey and the United States said they agreed on Wednesday to establish a joint operation center in Turkey to coordinate and manage a planned safe zone in northern Syria.

After three days of talks in Ankara, the two countries said the safe zone on Syria’s northeast border with Turkey should be a “peace corridor,” and that every effort would be made so that Syrians displaced by war can return to their country.

The agreement was announced in separate statements issued by Turkey’s Defense Ministry and the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

Neither statement said whether they had overcome two main points that had divided Washington and Ankara: how far the proposed safe zone should extend into Syria, and who would command forces patrolling the area.

Turkey’s lira strengthened after the announcement, which followed warnings from Turkey that it could launch unilateral military action in northern Syria if Ankara and Washington failed to reach agreement on the safe zone. The lira stood at 5.478 at 1413 GMT, up nearly 1% on the day.

Turkey and the United States, allies in NATO, have been deadlocked for months over the scope and command of the zone, given the presence of Kurdish YPG militia that fought alongside U.S. forces against Islamic State militants, but which Ankara sees as terrorists who pose a grave security threat.

Ankara has accused Washington of stalling on setting up the safe zone, which would extend hundreds of kilometers along Syria’s northeastern border, and has demanded that the United States sever its ties with the YPG.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar had said earlier that the United States was shifting closer to Ankara’s views on the proposed safe zone, adding that Turkey’s plans for a military deployment there are complete.

“Our plans, preparations, the deployment of our units in the field are all complete. But we said we wanted to act together with our friend and ally, the United States,” state-owned Anadolu Agency quoted him as saying.

Imminent Incursion

Washington has proposed a two-tiered safe zone, with a 5-kilometer demilitarized strip bolstered by an additional 9 km cleared of heavy weapons – stretching in total less than half the distance into Syria that Turkey is seeking.

Turkey has also said it must have ultimate authority over the zone, another point of divergence with the United States.

Three Turkish officials who spoke to Reuters this week had expressed impatience that the talks have yet to yield results, and warned that Ankara was ready to act on its own.

Turkey has twice sent forces into northern Syria in the last three years, citing security concerns caused by Syria’s eight-year-long civil war, and President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday a third incursion was imminent, targeting YPG-controlled territory east of the Euphrates river.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced last year that U.S. forces would leave Syria and began an initial withdrawal, a decision applauded by Ankara, and the two NATO allies agreed to create the safe zone.
On Tuesday, a U.S. Defense Department report warned about a revival of Islamic State in Syria’s northeast, saying U.S.-backed Kurdish groups were not equipped to handle the resurgent jihadist cells without U.S. support.

“The partial [U.S.] drawdown [has] occurred at a time when these fighters need additional training and equipping to build trust with local communities and to develop the human-based intelligence necessary to confront resurgent [Islamic State] cells and insurgent capabilities in Syria,” the report said.

 

Boeing’s chief executive reaffirmed Wednesday he expects the 737 MAX will be cleared to return to the skies this year, but reiterated the company could further cut production in case of regulatory delays.

Dennis Muilenburg said Boeing planned to submit its certification package to the US Federal Aviation Administration around September, with expected approval around a month later. The planes have been grounded since mid-March following two crashes that claimed 346 lives.

But Boeing could trim cut or even halt production on the MAX if the approval process with civil regulatory authorities drags out much longer.

“Those are not decisions we would make lightly,” he said at a New York investment conference.

A halt to the MAX would affect “600-some suppliers, hundreds of thousands of jobs,” he added.

While the company is “very focused” on the aircraft returning to service “early in the fourth quarter,” Muilenburg said, “I think it also behooves us to make sure we are doing disciplined contingency management and trying to be transparent on this.”

Boeing has been working closely with the FAA and other bodies on a software fix to address a problem with a flight handling system tied to both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes.

But the FAA in June identified problems with microprocessor which extended the timeframe. Muilenburg warned during an earnings conference call last month that “there’s always some risk of new items” until the process is complete.

The airline and the US regulator have faced stiff criticism from pilots and others over the way the MAX was approved to fly, which seemed to allow Boeing to self-certify many of the systems, as well as the response to the deadly crashes.

In addition, the FAA did not ground the plane after the first crash in October 2018.

Muilenburg said the company was in close contact with airlines about compensation for canceled flights and delayed aircraft deliveries and over strategies to reassure the public once the planes are given the green light to fly.

“We know that it will take some time to rebuild public confidence,” he said.

 

President Trump is bringing a message aimed at national unity and healing to the sites of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. But the words he offers for a divided America will be complicated by his own incendiary, anti-immigrant rhetoric that mirrors language linked to one of the shooters.

It is a highly unusual predicament for an American president to at once try to console a community and a nation at the same time he is being criticized as contributing to a combustible climate that can spawn violence.

White House officials said Trump’s visits Wednesday to Texas and Ohio, where 31 people were killed and dozens wounded, would be similar to those he’s paid to grieving communities including Parkland, Florida, and Las Vegas, with the president and first lady saluting first responders and spending time with mourning families and survivors.

“What he wants to do is go to these communities and grieve with them, pray with them, offer condolences,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Tuesday. He said Trump also wants “to have a conversation” about ways to head off future deadly episodes.

“We can do something impactful to prevent this from ever happening again, if we come together,” the spokesman said.

That’s a tough assignment for a president who thrives on division and whose aides say he views discord and unease about cultural, economic and demographic changes as key to his reelection.

At the same time, prominent Democrats have been casting blame on Trump more often than calling for national unity in the aftermath of the shootings, a measure of the profound polarization in the country.

Trump, who often seems most comfortable on rally stages with deeply partisan crowds, has not excelled at projecting empathy, mixing what can sound like perfunctory expressions of grief with awkward offhand remarks. While he has offered hugs to tornado victims and spent time at the bedsides of shooting victims, he has yet to project the kind of emotion and vulnerability of his recent predecessors.

Barack Obama grew visibly shaken as he addressed the nation in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre and teared up while delivering a 2016 speech on new gun control efforts. George W. Bush helped bring the country together following the Sept, 11 attacks, notably standing atop the smoking rubble of the World Trade Center, his arm draped over the shoulder of a firefighter, as he shouted through a bullhorn. Bill Clinton helped reassure the nation after the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City and the mass school shooting at Columbine High School.

Trump, too, has been able to summon soothing words. But then he often quickly lapses into divisive tweets and statements – just recently painting immigrants as “invaders,” suggesting four Democratic congresswoman of color should go back to their home countries, though all are citizens, and describing majority-black Baltimore as a rat-infested hell-hole.

In the Texas border city of El Paso, some residents and local Democratic lawmakers said Trump was not welcome and urged him to stay away.

“This president, who helped create the hatred that made Saturday’s tragedy possible, should not come to El Paso,” tweeted Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who served the area for three terms as a congressman. “We do not need more division. We need to heal. He has no place here.”

In Dayton, Mayor Nan Whaley said she would be meeting with Trump on Wednesday, but she told reporters she was disappointed with his scripted remarks Monday responding to the shootings. His speech included a denunciation of “racism, bigotry and white supremacy” and a declaration that “hate has no place in America.” But he made no mention of new efforts to limit sales of certain guns or the anti-immigration rhetoric found in an online screed posted just before the El Paso attack.

The hateful manifesto’s author – police believe it was the shooter but investigation continues – insisted the opinions “predate Trump and his campaign for president.” But the words echoed some of the views Trump has expressed on immigration, including claiming that Democrats “intend to use open borders, free HealthCare for illegals, citizenship and more to enact a political coup by importing and then legalizing millions of new voters.”

Dayton Mayor Whaley said simply, “Everyone has it in their power to be a force to bring people together, and everybody has it in their power to be a force to bring people apart – that’s up to the president of the United States.”

Democrats vying to challenge Trump in the 2020 election have been nearly unanimous in excoriating him for rhetoric they warned has nurtured the racist attitudes of the El Paso shooter as they sought to project leadership during a fraught moment for a bruised nation.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was delivering a speech on gun violence and white nationalism Wednesday at the Charleston, South Carolina, church where nine black parishioners were killed in 2015. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, released a detailed plan for gun control and deterrence.

Gidley and other White House officials denounced suggestions that Trump’s rhetoric was in any way responsible for the shooting. They called it “dangerous,” ‘pathetic,” ‘disgusting.”

“It’s not the politician’s fault when somebody acts out their evil intention,” he said, pointing to other shooters who have expressed political preferences for Democratic politicians including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders.

“It is shameful that Democrats are unable to prevent themselves from politicizing a moment of national grief,” added Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh.

Trump himself, quoting one of the hosts of his favorite “Fox & Friends” show, tweeted: “Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook. President Obama had 32 mass shootings during his reign. Not many people said Obama is out of control. Mass shootings were happening before the president even thought about running for Pres.”

Warren spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said leaders have an obligation to speak out.

“Let’s be clear,” she said in a statement. “There is a direct line between the president’s rhetoric and the stated motivations of the El Paso shooter.”

Recent Pew Research Center polling found 85% of U.S. adults believe the tone and nature of political debate in the country has become more negative, with a majority saying Trump has changed things for the worse. And more than three quarters – 78% – say that elected officials who use heated or aggressive language to talk about certain people or groups make violence against those people more likely.

Advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday in an effort to block a rule published last month that expands the number of migrants who can be subject to a sped-up deportation process without oversight by an immigration judge.

The rule, published in the Federal Register on July 23, broadened the practice of “expedited removal” to apply to anyone arrested anywhere nationwide who entered the United States illegally and cannot prove they have lived continuously in the country for at least two years.

Previously, only migrants caught within 100 miles of a U.S. border and who had been in the country for 14 days or less were subject to the fast-track process.

Under expedited removal, migrants are not entitled to a review of their cases in front of an immigration judge or access to an attorney.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Immigration Council on behalf of three immigration rights groups, claims the government did not go through the proper procedures in issuing the rule and says it violates due process and U.S. immigration laws.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the filing.

President Donald Trump has struggled to stem an increase of mostly Central American families arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, leading to overcrowded detention facilities and a political battle over immigration that is inflaming tensions in the country. 

In El Paso, Texas, last weekend a gunman killed 22 people after apparently posting an anti-immigrant manifesto online.

Nearly 300,000 of the approximately 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally could be quickly deported under the new rule, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

“Hundreds of thousands of people living anywhere in the U.S. are at risk of being separated from their families and expelled from the country without any recourse,” Anand Balakrishnan, an attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.

The government has said increasing rapid deportations would free up detention space and ease strains on immigration courts, which face a backlog of more than 900,000 cases.

People in rapid deportation proceedings are detained for 11.4 days on average, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. People in regular proceedings are held for 51.5 days and are released into the United States for the months or years it takes to resolve their cases.

The United Nations on Tuesday increased its aid appeal for Zimbabwe to $331.5 million to help it recover from drought that has driven millions to the brink of starvation as well as a cyclone that hit eastern regions earlier this year.

The El Nino-induced drought cut the maize harvest by half and is responsible for low water levels at the biggest hydro plant Kariba that has reduced power generation and triggered rolling power cuts.

The drought comes with Zimbabweans enduring the worst economic crisis in a decade – prices of staples such as sugar, cooking oil and rice have more than doubled since June, jacking up inflation to 175.66%.

David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme, said 2.3 million people in rural Zimbabwe need emergency food aid now and the figure would increase to 5.5 million during the lean season up to March next year.

The government estimates another 2.2 million people in urban areas also require food aid, bringing the total to 7.7 million, more than half of the southern African nation’s population.

The $331.5 million would be used for food aid, provision of water and sanitation and cash handouts to stricken families.

“We are talking about people who truly are marching towards starvation if we are not here to help them,” Beasley told diplomats, aid agencies and government officials at the launch of Zimbabwe’s humanitarian appeal to international donors.

“We are facing a drought unlike any that we have seen in a long time. We don’t have the luxury of fiddling while Rome burns.”

The United Nations had previously appealed for $294 million but as the impact of the drought has spread, it needed more funding.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday declared the drought a national disaster.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told the same meeting that the government was surprised by the impact of the drought on power generation.

Another government official told reporters earlier on Tuesday that Zimbabwe would import 400 MW of electricity from neighboring South Africa’s Eskom after agreeing to make weekly payments of $890,000 to clear its debt.

This was after a treasury official said on Monday Zimbabwe would ramp up electricity imports over the next few weeks, potentially easing rolling power cuts, after agreeing to clear its debt to a regional power utility.

“The impact of weather goes beyond the vulnerable, it is affecting production in the manufacturing sector, agriculture and everywhere, and this is an impact again that was not anticipated,” Ncube said.

The hope and euphoria that greeted long-time leader Robert Mugabe’s departure after a coup in 2017 has gradually turned to despair as Mnangagwa has failed to revive the economy or usher in meaningful political reforms.

Amid rising discontent over the state of the economy, the main opposition party said it was planning street demonstrations next week to protest against the government’s handling of the economy.

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. has sent his resignation letter to President Donald Trump, signaling the end of his two-year stint. 

In the letter, Huntsman thanked the president for “the trust you have placed in me as the United States ambassador to Russia during this historically difficult period in bilateral relations.”

His resignation is effective Oct. 3. 

Huntsman, a Republican, left the Utah governor’s office in 2009, when former President Barack Obama named him as ambassador to China. He had been elected to his second term the year before.

Derek Miller, the president of the Salt Lake Chamber, a business association in Utah, said Huntsman plans to return to his home state and is reportedly weighing another gubernatorial run.

The Russian state news agency Tass quoted a foreign ministry spokesperson as saying Huntsman is a professional, but “the domestic political state of affairs in the U.S.” made it impossible to fully develop bilateral ties.

Trump, Putin phone call

CNN had reported that Trump and Putin discussed the need for a new U.S. ambassador in Russia during a phone call last week. The two men did not mention any names of potential replacements for Huntsman, the network said. 

Huntsman also served as U.S. ambassador to Singapore in the early 1990s, as well as a deputy U.S. trade representative under former President George W. Bush.

Vicheika Kann and Reaksmey Hul in Phnom Penh, and Chenda Hong in Washington contributed to this report.

In his most recent photos, Nuon Chea looks like somebody’s grandfather, wearing big dark glasses that suggest a sensitivity to light possibly tied to other medical problems.

Not that long ago, he’d gone from tottering as he walked to using a wheelchair. There were whispers of liver problems and kidney troubles and whatever else happens as a human body passes through its ninth decade.

That longevity eluded some 1.7 million Cambodians who died between 1975 to 1979, as the Khmer Rouge tried, and failed, to turn Cambodia into a self-sufficient agrarian utopia. Nuon Chea, known as Brother No. 2, is widely believed to have been the mastermind behind the development of a Maoist society without money, religion or intellectuals envisioned by the regime’s founder,