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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sri Lanka Tuesday rejected as “unwarranted and unacceptable” mounting international criticism of the appointment of a general accused of war crimes as the island nation’s army chief.

The foreign ministry called the appointment of Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva as commander of the Sri Lankan army a “sovereign decision” by President Maithripala Sirisena.  

“Foreign entities trying to influence the decisions and internal administrative processes of public service promotions in Sri Lanka is unwarranted and unacceptable,” the ministry said in a statement.

Colombo added that the international condemnations were “based on allegations”.

“Articulating a position of concern… is regrettable and contrary to the principles of natural justice,” the ministry added.

The statement came amid a chorus of opposition to Silva, who has been accused by the United Nations of committing war crimes during the final stages of Sri Lanka’s separatist conflict.

Silva was the commanding officer of an army division in the island’s northern warzone in the final months of the military offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Monday she was “deeply troubled” by Silva’s appointment.

She said it compromised the government’s commitment to promote justice and accountability and could jeopardise the island’s participation in peacekeeping missions abroad.

The American embassy in Colombo described allegations of gross human rights violations against Silva as “serious and credible”.

Sri Lanka’s armed forces crushed separatist rebels in 2009 in a no-holds-barred offensive that ended a 37-year war which killed 100,000 people.

There were mass atrocities against civilians in Sri Lanka’s predominantly Tamil north towards the end of the conflict, with rights groups saying some 40,000 ethnic Tamils were killed by government forces.

Sri Lanka’s successive governments have resisted calls for an independent investigation into the conduct of troops during the final months of the conflict.

Seattle is home to giant multinational companies such as Microsoft and Amazon. But it’s also the home of glass art in the United States. The Chihuly Glass Museum is home to thousands of glass artworks by artist Dale Chihuly. Valdya Baraputri from VOA’s Indonesian Service reports.

This year, 700 leaders from Sub Saharan Africa participated in the Young African Leaders Initiative, or YALI fellowship, across the U.S. Launched in 2014, YALI’s flagship program – the Mandela Washington Fellowship — is funded by the U.S. Department of State. The program brings young African leaders between the ages of 25 to 35 who excel in business, public management, or civic engagement to the U.S. Sahar Majid has more about the program and the YALI fellows in this report narrated by Kathleen Struck. 

The streets of Srinagar were largely deserted on Monday and most schools and shops were closed even though authorities say they were re-opening close to 200 elementary schools in Kashmir’s largest city. Residents are angered over the Indian government’s decision to downgrade the status of the Indian-administered side – Jammu and Kashmir – from a federal state and split into two union territories ruled by Delhi. Frequent protests have led to the government’s clampdown in the area and residents fear for their safety.  Video footage by VOA’s Urdu service shows Srinagar as a ghost city. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.

Indonesia must change its laws to end child marriage in the world’s most populous Muslim country where thousands of girls are trapped in a kind of “hell,” an Indonesian lawmaker said on Monday.

Indonesia has one of the worst records for under-age marriage – its high number of child brides puts it among the top 10 countries worldwide, according to campaign group Girls Not Brides.

The Constitutional court ruled last year to change the minimum marriage age for girls, currently at 16, in a move applauded by women’s rights groups.

The ruling did not specify an increase and gave legislators three years to decide what the new minimum age should be.

But a senior lawmaker from the ruling party of Indonesian President Joko Widodo said there have been no progress.

“Why has there have been a lack of response on the child marriage issue? It is as if we don’t care,” said Eva Kusuma Sundari from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.

Sundari wants a minimum marriage age of 18 introduced urgently and has the support of 20 lawmakers from different political parties.

“It is like living in hell when a child gets married and made to carry another child,” the 53-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Jakarta.

“They lose their freedom, their rights to education and their future. It kills their dreams especially for the girls who cannot continue school,” she added.

Campaigners say the law should be changed because it discriminates against girls, who can marry at 16 whereas the legal age for men is 19.

Poverty and tradition often lead families to marry their children in the Southeast Asia archipelago of 260 million people where one in four girls is wed before they turn 18, according to the United Nations’ children agency, UNICEF.

On average over 3,500 Indonesian girls are married every day and in some cases religious courts have endorsed the marriages of Indonesian girls younger than 16.

Globally, 12 million girls become child brides each year, according to Girls Not Brides, exposing them to greater risks of exploitation, sexual violence, domestic abuse and death in childbirth.

Accusing India of waging “fifth-generation warfare,” Pakistan said on Monday New Delhi had failed to inform it about the release of water from a dam that could cause flooding across the border.

Relations between the neighbors, already hostile, have been deeply strained over India’s decision this month to revoke the special status of its portion of the Kashmir region that both countries claim. Pakistan reacted with fury, cutting transport and trade links and expelling India’s ambassador in retaliation.

Islamabad said the unexpected release of water into the River Sutlej that flows from India to Pakistan was part of an attempt by New Delhi to flout a longstanding treaty between the countries.

“They try to isolate diplomatically, they try to strangulate economically, they’re trying to strangulate our water resources — and water automatically will have an impact on your economy, your agriculture and your irrigation,” Muzammil Hussain, chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), told Reuters.

India was using its position upstream to wage “fifth-generation warfare” on the country, said Hussain, whose government agency is responsible for water in Pakistan.

Pakistani emergency authorities were preparing for minor flooding in several areas in Punjab state on Monday as a result of the unexpected rise in water flow, though it was not clear if any had occurred.

“India did not communicate the release of water to Pakistan,” Khurram Shahzed, director general of Punjab Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), told Reuters.

Spokesmen for India’s water ministry and foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

An Indian government official familiar with the matter said release of water was a “routine exercise” during the monsoon season, and that the amounts involved did not require disclosure under the treaty between the two countries.

However, the official added that poor relations between the two countries has affected information sharing.

“It was goodwill on our part that we used to share that information … those days are gone,” the official said.

India and Pakistan have long argued over water resources.

A World Bank-mediated arrangement known as the Indus Water Treaty splits the Indus River and its tributaries – which 80 percent of Pakistan’s irrigated agriculture depends on – between the countries.

India, which lies upstream, threatened in February to stop sharing excess water with Pakistan after a suicide bomb attack by a Pakistan-based militant group in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian paramilitary police.

Hussain said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “threatened very clearly that he could stop water to Pakistan. He couldn’t care less of (for) the treaties.”

In 2016, after suspending a meeting on the Indus Water Treaty, Modi told government officials that “blood and water cannot flow together.”

India says a program of maximizing its water usage by building hydroelectric plants is in line with the treaty.

Vince Gill might make people break down in tears when they listen to his vulnerable new record in which he sings about regret, marriage, faith, sexual abuse and hard choices. But then again, so did he.

When the country singer recorded his song “When My Amy Prays,” about his relationship with God through his wife Amy Grant, he choked up. His normally pristine tenor voice faltered. He decided to leave it as is.

“I don’t so much anymore feel like I want to get impressed by music as much as I want to get in it and be moved,” said the 21-time Grammy winner at his home in Nashville after finishing a recent European tour with The Eagles. “There’s a lot of life tied up in these songs and it gets somewhat emotional sometimes.”

“Okie,” out Friday, is one of his most personal and honest albums in years, full of songs that he waited a lifetime to write and record. Forty years into an unprecedented career, 62-year-old Gill has always been known for his emotionally wrought performances of songs like “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” written after the death of his brother, or heart-wrenching love songs like “Whenever You Come Around.” But “Okie” reveals a lot about Gill’s core truths, whether it’s spiritual or life lessons or wisdom he’s gained from other songwriters like Guy Clark and Merle Haggard.

“These days it’s awful hard to get a fair assessment of what truth is,” Gill said. “Because people are afraid to tell the truth sometimes because they’ll get barbecued for it, you know. And that’s no way to live. It’s no way to be.”

One of the most striking songs on the album is “Forever Changed,” about child sexual abuse. Gill doesn’t assume he knows what that is like, but he said he was inspired by an experience he had as a seventh-grade kid.

“I was on the basketball team and the basketball coach, the gym teacher called me into his office,” Gill said. “I’m sitting on his desk and the hand goes on my leg and it goes further and further up.”

Gill said he ran away and nothing further happened, but he thought about it a lot and kept trying to find the right words. “Sometimes the innocent don’t have a voice,” said Gill. “When you’re a kid and somebody is abusive to you, you don’t know how to handle it. You don’t know how to deal with it.”

He sang the song when he was rehearsing for a show years ago and a woman in his band heard it and ran off the stage crying.

“She came to me later and said, ‘How did you know that’s my story?’” Gill said.

On “What Choice Will You Make,” Gill writes from the perspective of a woman abandoned and shunned because of an unplanned pregnancy, and he asks the listener to just empathize. In a time when women’s reproductive choices are highly politicized, he just wanted to put people in her shoes when no answer seems like the right one.

“Its intent is not me telling you what you should or shouldn’t do,” he said. “I like seeing it be told in the hands of kindness, rather than the hands of judgment.”

Gill’s learned a lot about leading with kindness and his own faith from his wife, the Grammy-winning contemporary Christian music star. Gill didn’t grow up in the church, but he thinks most people assume him to be “a Bible thumper” because of his wife. But he said he’s just striving to be a good person and treat all people with respect.

Charlie Worsham is one of many young country artists that Gill has taken under his wing over the years and they wrote a song together on the album called “Black and White,” which questions the nostalgia for so-called simpler times when the country today seems so divided.

“I got to bear witness to someone with a good heart and with a sharp mind be able to put, so eloquently into three minutes, what I think a lot of people are carrying in their hearts right now,” Worsham said, “no matter what their political beliefs are.”

Even if the album feels weighty in its topics, Gill wants to lift people up with his songs.

“There’s a glimmer of hope in some of these songs,” he said. “I think if you don’t have any hope, then you’re lost.”    

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged China on Monday to “act in a humanitarian manner” to resolve differences with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

Pence called on Beijing to honor its 1984 agreement with Britain, which led to Britain’s 1997 turnover of Hong Kong to China’s control, but allowed freedoms not permissible in mainland China, including the right to protest.

Pence, in an address to the Detroit Economic Club, quoted President Donald Trump as saying that “it’ll be much harder” for the U.S. to reach an accord on a new trade deal with China “if something violent happens in Hong Kong.” 

“I want to assure you, our administration will continue to urge Beijing to act in a humanitarian manner and urge China and the demonstrators in Hong Kong to resolve their differences peaceably,” Pence said.

Pence’s remarks came as Twitter, the social media company, said that 936 accounts originating in China, in “a coordinated state-backed operation,” have been attempting to undermine “the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement” in Hong Kong. 

In addition, Facebook said it had suspended numerous accounts that are tied to China’s disinformation campaign against the protesters.

Twitter and Facebook are blocked from use in China. Twitter said some of its accounts were accessed through unblocked internet addresses. “Covert, manipulative behaviors have no place on our service,” Twitter said.

Canada, EU statement

On Sunday, tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators marched peacefully through the streets of Hong Kong, the 11th weekend in a row of anti-government protests.

The Civil Human Rights Front, the driving force behind the Hong Kong protests throughout the summer, had called for a “rational, non-violent” demonstration Sunday. Protesters had previously clashed with police in the streets during other weekend protests and for two days last week at Hong Kong’s international airport, leading to the cancellation of nearly 1,000 flights.

On the eve of Sunday’s rally, Canada released a joint statement with the European Union in defense of the “fundamental right of assembly” for Hong Kong citizens.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said, “Fundamental freedoms, including the right of peaceful assembly … must continue to be upheld.”

The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa published a statement on its website, saying that Canada should “immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs and China’s internal affairs.”

Taiwan’s offer

Meanwhile, Taiwan has offered to grant political asylum to participants in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, an offer that also has angered China.  
 
The spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Ma Xiaoguang, said Monday the offer would “cover up the crimes of a small group of violent militants’” and encourage their “audacity in harming Hong Kong” and turn Taiwan into a “haven for ducking the law.” 
 
Ma demanded Taiwan’s government “cease undermining the rule of law’” in Hong Kong, cease interfering in its affairs and not “condone criminals.”

Hong Kong residents say they worry about the erosion of freedoms guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” policy that has been in place since the territory’s return from British rule to China.

Demands

The protests have coalesced around five demands, including the complete withdrawal of an extradition bill, an investigation of police violence during the protests and exoneration for all those arrested in the demonstrations.

Most iterations of the demands also call for the resignation of Carrie Lam, the Beijing-backed chief executive in Hong Kong, and some form of enhanced democratic freedoms, such as universal suffrage.

Trump, whose administration is engaged in a lengthy tit-for-tat tariff war with China as the world’s two biggest economies try to negotiate a new trade pact, said last week that Chinese President Xi Jinping should personally negotiate with the demonstrators to reach an accord on the rights of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people.  
 
“If President Xi would meet directly and personally with the protesters, there would be a happy and enlightened ending to the Hong Kong problem. I have no doubt!” Trump said on Twitter.

Turkish authorities have expelled the mayors of the three main cities in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, provoking protests and political condemnation. Their expulsion comes as Turkish forces are poised to launch a military operation against Syrian Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish HDP mayors in Van, Mardin, and Diyarbakir, were replaced by state-appointed trustees Monday. The ruling AKP accuses the mayors of supporting the Kurdish insurgent group the PKK, an allegation the HDP denies.

The Turkish Interior Ministry said the personnel action was part of a terrorism investigation.

“For the health of the investigations, they have been temporarily removed from their posts as a precaution,” read an Interior Ministry statement.

More than 400 people were detained Monday in a nationwide operation against the outlawed PKK, which Turkey, the European Union and United States have designated as a terrorist organization.

“This is a new and clear political coup. It also constitutes a clearly hostile move against the political will of the Kurdish people,” read a joint statement by the HDP leadership.

Under emergency powers introduced after a failed coup in 2016, and a subsequent new constitution, which gave sweeping powers to the presidency, the HDP has faced a significant crackdown.

In the past three years, 88 HDP mayors have been removed from office and dozens of members of parliament jailed, including the party’s former leader, Selahattin Demirtas.

The Van, Mardin and Diyarbakir mayors were elected with more than 50% of the vote in local elections last March. Their election ended the rule of state-appointed trustees.

Protests erupted in all three cities as news spread about their expulsion. Security forces using tear gas and water cannons quickly quelled the unrest. Anger over their dismissals also led to demonstrations in other towns and cities.

Ankara strongly defended the mayors’ removals. 

“Action against municipalities that supported terrorism is inevitable in our struggle for democracy,” said Vice President Fuat Oktay.

The main opposition, CHP, was quick to condemn the dismissals. Deputy leader Sezgin Tanrikulu called the action a “coup.” Veli Agbaba, another senior party figure, equated it with fascism.

“Coups are not just made with tanks, cannons and rifles. The removal of three elected mayors in their fourth month in office and replacement with appointed caretakers is a coup against the political preferences of the people,” Tanrikulu wrote in a statement.

Condemnation extended to former close colleagues of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The dismissal of the newly elected mayors is not right for our democracy,” tweeted former President Abdullah Gul.

While Erdogan’s former prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, also criticized the mayors’ dismissal, saying the democratic will has to be respected, both Davutoglu and Gul, now politically estranged from Erdogan, are reportedly working on setting up rival political parties.

Some observers are interpreting Monday’s development as an attempt by Erdogan to reestablish his political authority after suffering a series of political blows, culminating in the loss in March of the mayorship in Istanbul, ending 15 years of rule by his AKP.

“This is a power play by Erdogan,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University, “as he (Erdogan) is facing challenges of new political parties by Gul and Davutoglu, as well as other challenges in and outside Turkey.

“I expect the other HDP mayors to be removed soon, that is another 11 mayors, I think,” Bagci added.

Bagci says he thinks Erdogan needs to explain his actions. “The government says the HDP is linked to terrorism, but the courts allowed the party and these mayors to participate in the elections only a few months ago.”

The HDP is calling on all political parties to take a stand. “All political parties and society should react to this coup against the will of the people,” Garo Paylan, an HDP parliamentary deputy, said on Twitter. “If you remain silent, then the next in line could be Ankara and Istanbul.”

In the aftermath of electoral setbacks, Erdogan is increasingly courting Turkish nationalists. The AKP’s parliamentary coalition partner, the national MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, welcomed Monday’s personnel action against the mayors.

In his early years of rule, Erdogan as prime minister had courted Kurdish voters, granting several concessions on language rights and initiating a peace process with the PKK that collapsed amid mutual recrimination in 2015.

“As he (Erdogan) uttered so many times, he really doesn’t understand why Kurds are still demanding,” said sociology professor Mesut Yegen of Istanbul’s Sehir University.

“He basically thinks all their problems have been solved. He is a man that really can’t understand the basics of the Kurdish question. But Kurdish people are really furious,” Yegen added.

There had been speculation that Erdogan was considering resuming peace talks with the PKK in a bid to rejuvenate his political fortunes. Several opinion polls indicate plummeting support for his AKP, and his presidency.

Earlier this month, imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan issued a statement through his lawyers in which he called for a restart of peace talks. Erdogan did not respond to Ocalan’s call.

The firing of the mayors is being interpreted as Erdogan committing his fortunes to courting Turkish nationalists, who vehemently oppose any peaceful resolution of the decades-long conflict with the PKK.

A further escalation in the conflict against the PKK is looming. Turkish forces are poised to launch a major offensive against the Syrian Kurdish militia the YPG, which Ankara accuses of being affiliated with the PKK.

The YPG is a close ally in Washington’s war against the Islamic State terror group. Earlier this month, in talks in Ankara, U.S. officials tentatively agreed to work together to address Turkish security concerns over the YPG. But many details of that cooperation remain unresolved.

Observers say the latest crackdown on the HDP indicates Erdogan remains determined to step up pressure both inside and outside Turkey on what he perceives as security threats.

Women, peace and security are on the agenda at a military conference in Ghana this week, where experts say deploying women into peacekeeping forces will make missions more effective and make civilian women feel safer in reporting abuses. 

Vida Nyekanga, a warrant officer in Ghana’s military, has been deployed for peacekeeping missions across Africa and in Lebanon. Being a woman, she says, gives her certain access to people and information her male counterparts might not have. 

Women felt more comfortable speaking to other women, she found, especially when they took part in their daily activities. 

“When we see the local women cooking, we try to join them to do the cooking,” Nyekanga said. “In the farms, we go to help them, and in the medical outreach we try to interact with them and we see them coming close, so through that we get vital information from them.”

Ghana is well known for its contributions to peacekeeping forces, and deploys large numbers of women in a field that generally has few. 

Currently, women make up 4.9 percent of global peacekeepers, but the United Nations has a target of 15 percent by 2028. 

At the first day of the Africa Endeavor 2019 conference, female military personnel from across the world gathered to discuss the roles men and women play in peacekeeping operations.

Studies show an increase in the number of female peacekeepers increases mission effectiveness and leads to a higher reporting of sexual- and gender-based violence, as well as lower levels of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Ghana Armed Forces Brigadier General Constance Edjeani-Afenu can attest to this.

“Women have specific roles to play in conflict areas where we have had cases of rape, sexual violence and stuff like that,” Edjeani-Afenu said. “We have women who, when they go on patrols, reach out to these women and they open up and are able to talk and they get help when they are supposed to get help.”

In recent years, there have been widespread allegations of peacekeepers sexually abusing civilians while stationed in African conflict zones. 

The United Nations has launched a project on improving peacekeepers’ performance and behavior, with a strong emphasis on leadership and accountability. 

A Virginia teen volunteering at the Alexandria National Cemetery three years ago noticed a rundown plot nearby where overgrown trees blocked the signed marking it as the Douglass Memorial Cemetery.
 
Sixteen-year-old Griffin Burchard says the cemetery named for abolitionist Frederick Douglass was covered in leaves and had signs of flooding. He soon got his Boy Scout troop, Troop 4077, to help restore the site.
 
They unveiled a new historic marker for the plot Thursday, timing the ceremony to coincide with the 400th anniversary of enslaved Africans’ arrival in Virginia. It quotes Douglass: “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.”
 
Burchard led the monthslong restoration as his Eagle Scout project. Spurred by his efforts, the city got state money to determine how people are buried there.

Some schools reopened in Indian Kashmir’s summer capital, Srinagar, on Monday in an effort to ease the unprecedented two-week lockdown in the Himalayan region, but classrooms remained virtually empty as parents were fearful of sending children out.  

“We appeal to parents to send their children wherever schools have been reopened. Security is our responsibility,” Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Srinagar’s top administrative officer, had said.

The government had announced that classes would resume at nearly 200 elementary that were closed after Indian-controlled Kashmir was virtually shut down since it was stripped of its autonomous status and brought under New Delhi’s direct control.

Several residents, however, told reporters that with communication links still down, they preferred to keep children at home due to fears of unrest. “It is better that they first restore mobile phone networks; only then can our child go to school safely,” one parent told an Indian television network.

Some landlines have been restored in the Kashmir valley, but mobile phones and the internet are still cut off.  

Government offices reopened Monday and a smattering of traffic returned to the city’s heavily guarded streets. Some public buses are operating in rural areas and officials say they have begun to lift restrictions.  

 “It’s a step-by-step calibrated process, but the movement is certainly in the direction of further easing,” said Rohit Kansal, principal secretary in Srinagar, on Sunday.

But on the ground, the region continues to be largely shuttered. Markets are still closed and few people are venturing out of their homes amid reports of scattered protests in several parts of the city.

Authorities reimposed curbs in Srinagar on Sunday after reports of weekend clashes involving hundreds of residents and police in several neighborhoods.

Officials have given little information about the demonstrations that have taken place or the number of people who have been arrested since the strict security clampdown. India has defended the crackdown, saying it is necessary to avoid violence.

Hundreds of activists, politicians and separatist leaders are under arrest. The French news agency (AFP) has quoted an unidentified local official as saying that 4,000 people are in detention.

India’s dramatic move to end Kashmir’s autonomy has deepened tensions with its rival Pakistan, which has fiercely opposed the step in the disputed region that is split between the two but claimed by both.

New Delhi appeared to toughen its stand with Pakistan on Sunday with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh stating that there would be no talks with its rival until Pakistan clamped down on anti-India militant groups based in its territory. He also said any negotiations would only focus on Pakistani Kashmir.

India has defended its move to change Kashmir’s status saying it was necessary to integrate it with the rest of the country and end terrorism, but critics fear it could deepen resentment and anger in the region where a three-decade violent separatist insurgency has killed tens of thousands.

Kashmir has been a regional flashpoint for decades. India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers, have fought wars over Kashmir since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.

The U.S. on Monday gave Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei another 90 days to buy supplies it needs from U.S. companies to build its electronic products, for the moment brushing aside concerns that Huawei was a U.S. national security risk.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told the Fox Business Network that the reprieve for Huawei would help U.S. customers, many of whom operate networks in rural America. Huawei spent $70 billion on component purchases in 2018, $11 billion of it from U.S. companies.

“We’re giving them a little more time to wean themselves off” sales to Huawei, Ross said.

At the same time as granting the delay in ending sales to Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, Ross added 46 Huawei affiliates to the Entity List, an economic blacklist covering restrictions on U.S. transactions with the Huawei-related ventures.

The 90-day extension on U.S. sales to Huawei extends to Nov. 19, giving it the ability to maintain existing telecommunication networks and offer software updates for electronic products it has already sold.

Ross dismissed concerns about what happens in three months, saying, “Everybody has had plenty of notice of it. There have been plenty of discussions” with President Donald Trump.

The U.S. first blocked Huawei from U.S. purchases earlier this year, part of the lengthy and so far unsuccessful trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest economies. But Trump, after an appeal from Chinese President Xi Jinping, eased the sanctions against Huawei, allowing continued limited sales.

Huawei is still blocked from buying American parts for new products without special U.S. licenses. Ross said more than 50 companies have sought waivers to sell to Huawei, but none has been granted.

The U.S. has claimed that Huawei’s smartphones and network equipment could be used to spy on Americans, an allegation the company has rejected.

“Technically, Huawei says they’re a privately owned company, ” Ross said, “but under Chinese law, even private companies are required to cooperate with the military and with the Chinese intelligence agencies, and they’re also required not to disclose that they are doing so.”

Even as his administration granted the reprieve on Huawei transactions, Trump said Sunday, “I don’t want to do business at all, because it is a national security threat.”

The U.S. has also alleged that Huawei is linked to foreign policy risks for the U.S.

As part of the blacklist designation against Huawei, the U.S. cited a pending federal criminal case accusing Huawei of violating the U.S. prohibition against business transactions with Iran. Huawei has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are commemorating the 30th anniversary of the “Pan-European Picnic,” an event on the border of Austria and Hungary considered to have helped lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Both leaders are expected to make speeches during a religious ceremony Monday in the border town of Sopron before holding bilateral talks over lunch.

Merkel on Saturday thanked Hungary for “having contributed to making the miracle of German reunification possible” by briefly opening the Iron Curtain on Aug. 19, 1989, allowing 700 refugees from Communist-ruled East Germany to cross the border into the West.

Relations between Berlin and Budapest have grown frostier in recent years amid Orban’s hard-line stance against refugees and German criticism of Hungary’s authoritarian policies.

Italy’s ruling League party would seek tax cuts in the 2020 budget by rising the country’s deficit a little bit, its economics spokesman said on Monday.

League chief Matteo Salvini pulled the plug last week on its coalition government with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, starting a potential countdown to elections, which the country may need to tackle alongside preparing its budget in the fall.

“We need to pursue a tax cut and it is obvious that a small proportion will be funded with the deficit”, League’s economics chief Claudio Borghi said in an interview with state-owned television RAI.

Thousands of protesters in Indonesia’s West Papua province have set fire to a local parliament building.

 Vice Gov. of West Papua province Mohammad Lakotani said Monday’s demonstration was sparked by accusations that security forces arrested and insulted dozens of Papuan students in the East Java province cities of Surabaya and Malang on Sunday.He said an angered mob set fire to tires and twigs in Manokwari, the provincial capital. Television footage showed orange flames and gray smoke billowing from the burning parliament building.

Several thousand protesters also staged rallies in Jayapura, the capital city of the neighboring province of Papua, where an insurgency has simmered for decades. Many in the crowd wore headbands of a separatist flag.

Violence was largely averted in Portland, Oregon, where police established concrete barriers, closed streets and bridges, and seized a multitude of weapons to preempt clashes between right-wing groups and anti-fascist counterprotesters. on Saturday. But at least 13 people were arrested and the protesters vowed to return to the West Coast city

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he has spoken with Apple Inc’s Chief Executive Tim Cook about the impact of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports as well as competition from South Korean company Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Trump said Cook “made a good case” that tariffs could hurt Apple given that Samsung’s products would not be subject to those same tariffs. Tariffs on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, including consumer electronics, are scheduled to go into effect in two stages on Sept. 1 and Dec. 15.

“I thought he made a very compelling argument, so I’m thinking about it,” Trump said.

Trump made the comments while speaking with reporters on the Tarmac at the Morristown, New Jersey, airport.

Apple was not immediately available for comment outside normal business hours.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would likely wait until after Israel’s Sept. 17 elections to release a peace plan for the region that was designed by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.

Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, is the main architect of a proposed $50 billion economic development plan for the Palestinians, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon that is designed to create peace in the region.