At two of the world’s biggest coal mines, the finances got so bad that their owner couldn’t even get toilet paper on credit.

Warehouse technician Melissa Worden divvied up what remained of the last case, giving four rolls to each mine and two to the mine supply facility where she worked.

Days later, things got worse.

Mine owner Blackjewel LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection July 1. Worden at first figured the accounts would get settled quickly and vendors of everything from copy paper to parts for house-sized dump trucks would soon be back to doing normal business with the mines.

“The consensus was: In 30 days, we’ll look back on this, and we made it through, and we’ll be up and running, and it’s a fresh start,” Worden said.

What happened instead has shaken the top coal-producing region in the United States like a charge of mining explosive. Blackjewel furloughed most of its Wyoming employees and shut down Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines, the first idled by hardship since coal mining in the Powder River Basin exploded in the 1970s.

It’s a big hit to the region straddling northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana, where coal has quietly supported the economies of both states for decades and fuels a shrinking number of power plants in 28 states.

Negotiations that could reopen the two Wyoming mines under new ownership — potentially previous owner Bristol, Tennessee-based Contura Energy — are stalled more than two months later. Some 600 employees remain off the job. They lost health insurance coverage in late August.

And doubts are growing about the long-term viability of the region’s coal mines — particularly Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr, the fourth- and sixth-biggest in the U.S. by production, respectively.

“I don’t think we’ll ever be that naive again,” said Worden, 44.

Blackjewel, based in Milton, West Virginia, told its Wyoming employees this week that the mines might be up and running soon and to let the company know if they wanted their jobs back.

Worden said she felt little reassurance. On a break at a part-time electrical contracting job in North Dakota, she wondered if she should accept any offer of full-time work or hold out for her old job.

She’s not the only one questioning long-held assumptions about Powder River Basin coal mines, which produce cleaner-burning coal less expensively than mines in other parts of the U.S. and weren’t widely thought of being at risk despite a push for renewable energy to combat climate change.

But with coal in long-term decline, how the basin might eventually scale down production to a sustainable level has become a big question, said Rob Godby, director of the Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy at the University of Wyoming.

“The irony here — and it’s really a cruel irony — is everybody is focused on getting these miners back to work. But really the solution to creating a healthy industry is some mines close,” Godby said.

For now, little appears changed in Gillette, a city of 30,000 people at the heart of the basin of rolling grasslands midway between the Black Hills and snowcapped Bighorn Mountains. Tattoo shops are abundant, and big, late-model pickup trucks still cruise the main drag.

This year, however, has been especially tumultuous. Three of the Powder River Basin’s nine producers — Westmoreland Coal, Cloud Peak Energy and Blackjewel — have filed for bankruptcy since March. Two others, Arch Coal and Peabody, have announced they will merge assets in the region.

The turmoil comes as U.S. coal production is down more than 30% since peaking in 2008. Utilities are retiring aging coal-fired power plants and switching to solar, wind and cheaper and cleaner-burning natural gas to generate electricity despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to prop up the coal industry.

A decade ago, about half of U.S. electricity came from coal-fired power. Now it’s less than 30%, a shift that heavy equipment operator Rory Wallet saw as utilities became less willing to lock in multiyear contracts for Belle Ayr mine’s coal.

“The market’s changed,” Wallet said. “The bankruptcies all tie into that.”

Wallet, 40, followed his father, an equipment mechanic, into the Belle Ayr mine in 2008. He said the recent mine closures and loss of his $80,000-a-year job took him by surprise.

He has four children, ages 11 to 16, and his wife’s job at the Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant in Gillette is their main income while they await news about the mines.

Blackjewel said Thursday that it was working on plans to restart the mines while pursuing their sale. There were no indications in federal bankruptcy court filings in West Virginia that the mines were set to reopen, however.

“This is a fast-moving and sometimes unpredictable process, and accordingly, we do not have answers to all of your questions at this time,” the company’s statement said.

Wallet is looking for a job and using his downtime to sell “We Will Rise Again” T-shirts to benefit families of out-of-work coal miners. He’s also lobbying Wyoming lawmakers to fight harder to force Washington state to approve a port facility expansion that would allow more coal exports to Asia.

He questions the outlook from Godby of the Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy that some mines must close.

“I think, with Rob, it’s the middle- to worst-case scenario,” Wallet said. “The ports are going to be a big deal. Asia is going to be a big deal.”

Wallet pointed out that the Powder River Basin still has a century or two of recoverable coal left. And just north of Gillette, the state has invested $15 million in a facility to study how to capture climate-changing carbon dioxide from a working power plant and profitably use it in products ranging from concrete to biofuels.

Wallet is optimistic that technology could save coal. But carbon capture, if it happens at all, could arrive too late to do the coal industry much good amid global concern about climate change, Godby said.

“We will not see widespread adoption of carbon capture and storage for at least a decade,” Godby said. “That’s just the reality.”

He also doubted that exports can save the region’s coal industry. There’s no direct rail line to the Pacific Northwest from most of the basin’s mines, and the amount of coal that the proposed export terminal could handle would offset only a small fraction of the amount that production has declined, Godby said.

Powder River Basin mines employ about 5,000 miners — 20% fewer than eight years ago. But the impact is even wider because an additional 8,000 jobs, from teachers to car mechanics, have indirect ties to the broader economy around the coal industry.

Local unemployment rose to 5.7% in July, compared with 4.1% a year earlier.

Trump got 88% of the vote in Campbell County, the heart of the basin. Locals cheered when he lifted a federal moratorium on coal leases that former President Barack Obama imposed, but Worden and Wallet disagree about whether changing environmental regulations will do much good in the long run. Wallet thinks improvement could be just around the corner.

Both say coal should continue to have a place in the economy alongside renewable energy.

“It needs to be a group effort, not green is on one side and black is on the other,” Worden said. “We don’t want this community to die.”
 

Recent efforts by the governments of Australia and New Zealand to tackle online extremism has renewed the debate over the threat of radicalization on the internet, with some analysts seeing new opportunities for states and tech giants for a joint action.

Australian officials earlier this week enacted what they are calling the world’s first law to curb online extremism, as authorities ordered five websites to remove extremist content or face prosecution. The offending websites are all based outside Australia, the country’s eSafety commission told the Financial Times. The commission is charged with investigating and removing such content.

In neighboring New Zealand, a self-avowed white supremacist in March opened fire at two mosques and gunned down 51 people while livestreaming his actions on Facebook. On Monday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Wellington to discuss what his company can do to help eliminate violent extremist content on its platform.

The meeting was a part of Ardern’s efforts through Christchurch Call, a pledge by 18 countries and eight technology companies in Paris on March 15 to collaborate to eradicate violent extremist content from the internet.

“It is in fact the prime minister of New Zealand and the Australian movement in the parliament who have stepped up to do something a little more sharp and more defined,” said Farah Pandith, former U.S. special representative to the Muslim communities.

Evolving threat

Pandith authored the recent book “How We Win: How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat.”

“It is too early to tell whether or not those kinds of action are going to make a difference in the rate and the impact of spreading content that radicalizes. But it’s going to be a very important space to watch,” Pandith told VOA, adding that governments and tech companies have a long way to go in ending this evolving threat.

“As I look at where we are today, 18 years after September 11, and the morphing of the online threat and the more severe and dangerous threat landscape we are in,” she said, “it is critical that private sector companies, not just technology companies, look at what they need to do to help defeat the extremist ideology and the capacity for them to spread hate and extremism around the world.”

Violent extremist content has become a major concern for governments in recent years as violent ideological groups try to use social media platforms to spread propaganda. That threat became more significant when Islamic State (IS), which emerged in mid-2014, began to use the internet to establish a “virtual caliphate” to lure thousands of supporters and inspire several deadly attacks around the world.

In the past, social media giants — particularly Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — have taken several measures to identify and remove millions of extremist propaganda material.

Facebook reported that it had removed more than 3 million pieces of IS and al-Qaida propaganda in the third quarter of 2018 alone.

Within the first 24 hours of the New Zealand shooting, Facebook said it removed more than 1.2 million videos of the attack at upload, and another 300,000 additional copies after they were posted.

But governments say the companies need to do more to crackdown on extremist content.

In a statement in June at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, world leaders pressed social media companies to improve how they root out terrorism and violent content on the internet.

“The internet must not be a safe haven for terrorists to recruit, incite or prepare terrorist acts,” the world leaders wrote in their statement, pushing the tech companies to, among other measures, develop technologies that prevent extremist content online.

Cooperation

Some analysts charge that more cooperation between states and tech companies is crucial to combat violent extremist content, particularly as the threat crosses country borders.

Laura Pham, an expert with New York-based Counter Extremism Project, argued that countries in Europe have particularly made significant achievements through enacting transnational laws that target online extremist content.

The European Union in late 2015 established its Internet Forum (EUIF), which aims to bring together EU governments and other stakeholders, such as Europol, and technology companies to counter hate speech and terrorist content.

The EU in mid-2016 moved to establish a Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online, the original signatories to which were Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube. An assessment of the code by the organization in February showed that tech companies were assessing 89% of flagged content within 24 hours, with removal of 72% of the content deemed to be illegal hate speech, compared with rates of 40% and 28%, respectively, when the code was first launched in 2016.

“These efforts show that the EU as a whole in parliament will not stand for the continued proliferation and the spread of extremist and terrorist material online. We will probably see more action from member states and from individual states, but there is a clear public understanding of the potential public safety and security concerns that come with proliferating terrorist material online,” Pham told VOA.

Meanwhile, as countries continue their efforts with tech companies to address violent content online, potential risks to free speech and privacy will remain the core of the debate, said Maura Conway, a professor of international security at Dublin City University in Dublin, Ireland.

“The role of the internet and social media, in particular, in the case of violent extremism and terrorism was not something that internet companies wished to countenance early in their development, but is certainly an area that they now acknowledge is one in which workable solutions need to be found,” Conway told VOA.

Despite those concerns, Conway said a workable solution eventually will need to be found to prevent further exploitation of the internet by hate groups to spread their ideology.
 

The Bahamian government has discontinued a tropical storm warning as Humberto moves away from the island nation struggling to recover from Hurricane Dorian. 
 
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tropical Storm Humberto was expected to become a hurricane by Sunday night or early Monday but wouldn’t threaten land by the time it intensified to that strength. 
 
Officials warned that the storm could still cause dangerous swells in the northwest Bahamas and along the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina later this weekend and early next week. 
  
At 5 p.m. EDT, the storm was located about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Great Abaco Island. Humberto was moving 7 mph (11 kph) north-northwest with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph). 

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a possible mutual defense treaty between the two nations, a move that could bolster Netanyahu’s re-election bid just days before Israelis go to the polls. 

“I had a call today with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the possibility of moving forward with a Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Israel, that would further anchor the tremendous alliance between our two countries,” Trump said on Twitter. 

He added that he looked forward to continuing those discussions later this month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York. 

Netanyahu thanked Trump, saying in a tweet that Israel “has never had a greater friend in the White House,” and adding that he looked forward to meeting at the U.N. “to advance a historic Defense Treaty between the United States and Israel.” 

Close race seen

The timing of Trump’s tweet, just days before Israel’s election on Tuesday, appeared aimed at buttressing Netanyahu’s bid to remain in power by showcasing his close ties to Trump. 

Opinion polls predict a close race, five months after an inconclusive election in which Netanyahu declared himself the winner but failed to put together a coalition government. 

Netanyahu’s Likud party is running neck and neck with the  centrist Blue and White party led by former armed forces chief Benny Gantz, who has focused heavily on looming corruption charges Netanyahu faces. 

In a televised interview with Israel’s Channel 12 later Saturday, Netanyahu made a direct appeal to voters based on the treaty. “I’m going to get us a defense pact that will provide us with security for centuries, but for that I need your votes,” he said. 

Trump previously bolstered Netanyahu’s candidacy when he recognized Israel’s claim of sovereignty over the Golan Heights ahead of the elections earlier this year. 

Some Israeli officials have promoted the idea of building on Netanyahu’s strong ties to the Trump administration by forging a new defense treaty with the United States, focused especially on guarantees of assistance in any conflict with Iran. 

Trump provided no details, but a mutual defense treaty could obligate the United States to come to Israel’s defense if it is attacked. 

Nuclear threats, Iran

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said earlier this month that a pact should apply to “defined issues — nuclear threats and the matter of long-range missiles aimed by Iran at Israel.” 

“We have means of offense and defense, but this would spare us the need to earmark enormous resources on a permanent basis and for the long term in the face of such threats,” Katz told Israel’s Ynet TV. 

Netanyahu’s chief rival Gantz assailed the idea as a “grave mistake,” arguing it would strip Israel of military autonomy. 

“This is not what we want,” the centrist candidate told a conference in Jerusalem. “We have never asked anyone to get killed for us. We have never asked anyone to fight for us. And we have never asked anyone’s permission to defend the State of Israel.” 

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation will hold an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intent to annex parts of the West Bank. 
 
The 57-member organization tweeted earlier this week that the meeting would be held “at the request of Saudi Arabia” in Jeddah.
 
On Saturday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said the OIC would meet to discuss “Netanyahu’s statements on the intention to annex Jordan Valley and the illegal settlements in the West Bank by Israel.” 

Jordan Valley, northern Dead Sea
 
Netanyahu said Tuesday that he planned to annex part of the occupied West Bank if he won re-election next week, a move that could significantly alter the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 
 
Netanyahu said in a live televised address that he intended to “apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea,” a strategically important area, if he won on Sept. 17. 
 
Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi tweeted that annexation would destroy any chance of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord: 
 
“Netanyahu’s cheap pandering to his extremist racist base exposes his real political agenda of superimposing ‘greater Israel’ on all of historical Palestine & carrying out an ethnic cleansing agenda. All bets are off! Dangerous aggression. Perpetual conflict.”  

Anticipating Netanyahu’s announcement shortly before it was made, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Israeli leader was “a prime destroyer of the peace process.” 
 
Netanyahu’s announcement reaffirmed his pledge to annex all Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but he has said he will not act before publication of a long-awaited U.S. peace proposal and consultations with President Donald Trump. 
 
There has been no comment from the White House, but the Trump administration has been receptive to Israel’s annexation of at least portions of the West Bank. 
 
The Jordan Valley is a 2,400-square-kilometer (927-square-mile) area that accounts for nearly 30 percent of the territory in the West Bank, which Israel captured in a 1967 war. The Palestinians covet the valley for the eastern perimeter of a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 

Close race
 
Netanyahu is in the midst of a closely contested re-election bid. Voters will go to the polls Tuesday, five months after the country’s parliament was dissolved in a vote in which Netanyahu failed to assemble a government. Polls show he is even or slightly behind Benny Gantz, a moderate former army chief of staff. 
 
The prime minister is also facing a series of corruption charges. 
 
More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements considered illegal by international law. About 2.7 million Palestinians live in the territory. 

While the political and economic crisis worsens in Venezuela, countries in the Western Hemisphere continue to be economically impacted by migrants seeking refuge and asylum. To help alleviate some of the burden, the United States Navy has deployed the Comfort hospital ship to assist countries like Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit visited the ship on one of its last stops, Trinidad and Tobago.

The White House said Saturday that the son of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden has been killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

The White House said in a statement, “The loss of Hamza bin Ladin (Laden) not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group.”

The younger bin Laden was described by the White House as “the high-ranking al-Qaida member” who was “responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups.”

Some media organizations previously reported earlier this summer Hamza bin Laden had been killed about two years ago, but it was not confirmed by the administration of President Donald Trump until Saturday.

Hamza bin Laden was believed to have been in his 30s.
 
His father declared war against the U.S. in 1996 and was the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. U.S. Navy SEALs killed him in a raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed that Hamza bin Laden, the son and designated heir of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, was killed in a counter-terrorism operation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

“The loss of Hamza bin Laden not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group,” Trump said in a statement issued by the White House.

U.S. media reported in early August, citing intelligence officials, that the younger bin Laden had been killed sometime in the last two years in an operation that involved the United States.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper confirmed the death later last month, saying it was “his understanding” that bin Laden was dead, but Trump and other senior officials had not publicly confirmed the news.

The 15th of Osama bin Laden’s 20 children and a son of his third wife, Hamza, thought to be about 30 years old, was “emerging as a leader in the al-Qaida franchise,” the State Department said in announcing a $1 million bounty on his head in February 2019 – perhaps after his actual demise.

As leader of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and others plotted the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. U.S. Navy SEALs killed him in a raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.

With reporting from AP.

VOA reporters Victoria Macchi and Ramon Taylor spoke with a broad sampling of migrants and asylum-seekers in early August. Many departed their home countries months before U.S. policy changes went into effect, under assumptions that no long apply. All are awaiting immigration court hearings. Here are some of their stories.

VOA reporters Victoria Macchi and Ramon Taylor spoke with a broad sampling of migrants and asylum-seekers in early August. Many departed their home countries months before U.S. policy changes went into effect, under assumptions that no long apply. All are awaiting immigration court hearings. Here are some of their stories.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now reports 380 confirmed and probable cases of lung disease associated with e-cigarette use, or vaping. The agency Friday also confirmed six deaths because of e-cigarettes.

Until recently, most teens weren’t concerned about vaping. In fact, one brand of e-cigarettes, Juul, advertised that vaping was safer than regular cigarettes, but vaping is what sent Adam Hergenreder to the hospital.

“I’m 18 years old and my lungs are like a 70-year-old’s,” he said.

Many teens have no idea what chemicals they are inhaling, according to Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician.

“Every time they vape, and bring this aerosol into their lungs, it’s not water vapor,” he said, “it has chemicals, including aldehydes and special alcohols that are produced as a result of heating these solvents that are in the vaping liquids.”

In looking at 150 different e-liquids, scientists found about 200 different chemicals. The effect on the body is unknown. The chemicals are approved by a government agency, but they are approved for consumption, not for inhaling.

A study at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine found that vaping causes changes in the lungs similar to the changes found in smokers with emphysema.

Professor Robert Tarran led the study. Tarran said he found proteins called proteases in the lungs of some vapers. 

“The best way to describing them are they are molecular scissors, so proteasers are proteins that cut up other proteins,” Tarran said by Skype.

Having some proteases in the lungs is normal. But Tarran says proteases increase with lung damage.

“What we found is that these protease levels were up to the same amount in vapers’ lungs as in smokers’ lungs.”

Tarran said nicotine in the vape liquid is connected to high protease levels in the lungs.

It’s too soon for studies to determine the long-term effects of vaping, or whether teens, whose lungs are still growing, are more vulnerable to bad outcomes than adults who vape.

In the meantime, the CDC says “people should consider not using e-cigarette products” while it investigates the soaring number of illnesses and the deaths.

Other medical groups are using stronger language. The American Medical Association is urging the public to avoid the use of e-cigarette products.

And the National Association of County and City Health Officials is calling for swift action to eliminate youth vaping.
 

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

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

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

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

Knowing when to give up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Criticism of Clinton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kashmir is India’s only Muslim-majority region.

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

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

Controversial crackdown

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

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

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

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

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

India’s argument

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

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

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

‘Ethnic cleansing’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Hope in Imran Khan’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lazarus Group 

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

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

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

Bluenoroff 

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

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

Andariel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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