KATHMANDU, NEPAL – Floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains have killed at least 40 people across South Asia in the last two days, officials said Saturday. 
 
The monsoon, which lasts from June to September, causes widespread death and destruction across South Asia each year. 
 
In Nepal, 27 people have died in floods and landslides after heavy rains hit the country’s eastern region and the southern plains.  
 
Bishwaraj Pokharel, spokesperson for Nepal police, added that another 11 people were injured and 15 others reported missing.  
 
Three of the victims were killed when a wall collapsed in Kathmandu. 
 
“Our first priority is lifesaving rescue and all our resources have been deployed,” Home Ministry official Umakanta Adhikari told AFP. 

Rescues by boat

Police used boats to bring people to safety as rivers swelled, inundating their settlements, while parents were seen wading through chest-high waters carrying children on their shoulders.  
 
Nepal’s weather department issued a high alert for the southern Sapta Koshi river on Saturday and sent text warnings to people in the area. 
 
In neighboring India, 11 deaths have been recorded in the northeastern states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, officials said Friday. 
 
Monsoon floods have inundated 21 districts in Assam, affecting thousands, officials said Friday. 
 
In Bangladesh, aid groups were providing rations to Rohingya refugees in the southeast of the country, with the U.N. World Food Program saying Friday that two people, including a child, had died. 
 
Last year, more than 1,200 people were killed across South Asia in monsoon storms, with India’s Kerala suffering its worst floods in nearly 100 years. 

LONDON — British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt told his Iranian counterpart on Saturday that Britain would facilitate the release of the detained Grace 1 oil tanker if Tehran gave guarantees it would not go to Syria. 
 
British Royal Marines seized the tanker last week off the coast of the British Mediterranean territory of Gibraltar on suspicion of violating sanctions against Syria. 
 
Iran on Saturday reiterated its call for the ship’s release. It denies the tanker was taking oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions. 
 
The affair has stoked tension in the Persian Gulf region, with Britain saying Thursday that it had fended off Iranian ships that tried to block a British tanker in the area. 
 
Hunt said the call with Iran’s foreign minister had been constructive. He said Mohammad Javad Zarif had told him that Iran wanted to resolve the issue and was not seeking to escalate tensions. 
 
“I reassured him our concern was destination not origin of the oil on Grace One & that UK would facilitate release if we received guarantees that it would not be going to Syria, following due process in [Gibraltar] courts,” Hunt wrote on Twitter. 
 
A statement on the Iranian Foreign Ministry website said Zarif told Hunt during the call that Britain should quickly release the tanker. 
 
Iran will continue its oil exports under any conditions, Zarif also told Hunt, according to the statement. 

U.S. blamed
 
Tehran blames the United States for arranging the seizure of the tanker. Washington has imposed sanctions against Iran with the aim of halting Iranian oil exports. 
 
European countries do not have sanctions against Iran, but have had them in place against Iran’s ally Syria since 2011. Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told the territory’s parliament on Friday that the decision to detain the tanker, which he said was carrying 2.1 million barrels of oil, had not been taken at the request of any other country. 
 
“Also spoke to @FabianPicardo who is doing an excellent job co-ordinating issue and shares UK perspective on the way forward,” Hunt said. 
 
Gibraltar police said four crew members who had been arrested, including the vessel’s captain and chief officer, were released on bail without charge, but that their investigation was ongoing. 

Pennsylvania’s message was clear: The state was taking a big step to keep its elections from being hacked in 2020. Last April, its top election official told counties they had to update their systems. So far, nearly 60% have taken action, with $14.15 million of mostly federal funds helping counties buy brand-new electoral systems.

But there’s a problem: Many of these new systems still run on old software that will soon be outdated and more vulnerable to hackers.

An Associated Press analysis has found that like many counties in Pennsylvania, the vast majority of 10,000 election jurisdictions nationwide use Windows 7 or an older operating system to create ballots, program voting machines, tally votes and report counts.

That’s significant because Windows 7 reaches its “end of life” on Jan. 14, meaning Microsoft stops providing technical support and producing “patches” to fix software vulnerabilities, which hackers can exploit. In a statement to the AP, Microsoft said Friday it would offer continued Windows 7 security updates for a fee through 2023.

Critics say the situation is an example of what happens when private companies ultimately determine the security level of election systems with a lack of federal requirements or oversight. Vendors say they have been making consistent improvements in election systems. And many state officials say they are wary of federal involvement in state and local elections.

It’s unclear whether the often hefty expense of security updates would be paid by vendors operating on razor-thin profit margins or cash-strapped jurisdictions. It’s also uncertain if a version running on Windows 10, which has more security features, can be certified and rolled out in time for primaries.

“That’s a very serious concern,” said J. Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan professor and renowned election security expert. He said the country risks repeating “mistakes that we made over the last decade or decade-and-a-half when states bought voting machines but didn’t keep the software up-to-date and didn’t have any serious provisions” for doing so.

The AP surveyed all 50 states, the District of Columbia and territories, and found multiple battleground states affected by the end of Windows 7 support, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Arizona and North Carolina. Also affected are Michigan, which recently acquired a new system, and Georgia, which will announce its new system soon.

“Is this a bad joke?” said Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, an election integrity advocacy organization, upon learning about the Windows 7 issue. Her group sued Georgia to get it to ditch its paperless voting machines and adopt a more secure system. Georgia recently piloted a system running on Windows 7 that was praised by state officials.

If Georgia selects a system that runs on Windows 7, Marks said, her group will go to court to block the purchase. State elections spokeswoman Tess Hammock declined to comment because Georgia hasn’t officially selected a vendor.

The election technology industry is dominated by three titans: Omaha, Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software LLC; Denver, Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems Inc.; and Austin, Texas-based Hart InterCivic Inc. They make up about 92% of election systems used nationwide, according to a 2017 study . All three have worked to win over states newly infused with federal funds and eager for an update.

U.S. officials determined that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and have warned that Russia, China and other nations are trying to influence the 2020 elections.

Of the three companies, only Dominion’s newer systems aren’t touched by upcoming Windows software issues — though it has election systems acquired from no-longer-existing companies that may run on even older operating systems.

Hart’s system runs on a Windows version that reaches its end of life on Oct. 13, 2020, weeks before the election.

ES&S said it expects by the fall to be able to offer customers an election system running on Microsoft’s current operating system, Windows 10. It’s now being tested by a federally accredited lab.

For jurisdictions that have already purchased systems running on Windows 7, ES&S said it will be working with Microsoft to provide support until jurisdictions can update. Windows 10 came out in 2015.

Hart and Dominion didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Microsoft usually releases patches for operating systems monthly, so hackers have learned to target older, unsupported systems. Its systems have been ground zero for crippling cyberattacks, including the WannaCry ransomware attack, which froze systems in 200,000 computers across 150 countries in 2017.

For many people, the end of Microsoft 7 support means simply updating. However, for election systems the process is more onerous. ES&S and Hart don’t have federally certified systems on Windows 10, and the road to certification is long and costly, often taking at least a year and costing six figures.

ES&S, the nation’s largest vendor, completed its latest certification four months ago, using Windows 7. Hart’s last certification was May 29 on a Windows version that also won’t be supported by November 2020.

Though ES&S is testing a new system it’s unclear how long it will take to complete the process — federal and possible state recertification, plus rolling out updates — and if it will be done before primaries begin in February.

Election administrators notoriously suffer from insufficient resources. Recently, many jurisdictions splurged on new election systems, some using their portion of $380 million in federal funds provided to states.

Counties in South Dakota, South Carolina and Delaware all recently bought election systems, while many others are evaluating purchases.

The use of election systems that still run on Windows 7 “is of concern, and it should be of concern,” said U.S. Election Assistance Commission Chair Christy McCormick. EAC develops election system guidelines.

McCormick noted that while election systems aren’t supposed to be connected to the internet, various stages of the election process require transfers of information, which could be points of vulnerability for attackers. She said some election administrators are working to address the problem.

Officials in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona say they have discussed the software issue with their vendors. Other states mentioned in this story didn’t respond to AP requests for comment.

Pennsylvania elections spokeswoman Wanda Murren said contract language allows such a software upgrade for free. Arizona elections spokeswoman C. Murphy Hebert said ES&S has also assured the state that it will provide support to counties for an upgrade.

Susan Greenhalgh, policy director for the advocacy group National Election Defense Coalition, said even the best scenario has election administrators preparing for primaries while trying to upgrade their systems, which is “crazy.” Her group shared its concerns about Windows 7 with AP.

Certification, which is voluntary at the federal level but sometimes required by state laws, ensures vendor software runs properly on operating systems they’re tested on. But there is no cybersecurity check and the process often fails to keep up with rapidly changing technology.

Kevin Skoglund, chief technologist for Citizens for Better Elections, said county election officials point to EAC and state certifications as “rock-solid proof” their systems are secure, but don’t realize vendors are certifying systems under 2005 standards.

Local officials rely on vendors to build secure systems and EAC and the states to enforce high standards, Skoglund said.

After the AP began making inquiries, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote McCormick asking what EAC, which has no regulatory power, is doing to address a “looming election cybersecurity crisis” that essentially lays the “red carpet” out to hackers.

“Congress must pass legislation giving the federal government the authority to mandate basic cybersecurity for election infrastructure,” Wyden told the AP in a statement.

President Donald Trump was defiant and declarative, with all the hammer-on-anvil subtlety that has charted a now-familiar pattern of his presidency: create a crisis, retreat, declare victory, move on.

“Not only didn’t I back down, I backed up,” Trump insisted Friday. However he may phrase it, though, Trump walked away from his earlier vow to include a contentious question about citizenship on the 2020 census.

The president shifted his bulldozer of an administration into reverse, announcing that he would drop his push to seek the citizenship status of all American residents on the census, instead ordering other agencies to share data with the Department of Commerce, which oversees the decennial survey.

The face-saving measure, announced to fanfare in the Rose Garden on Thursday, underscored the president’s obsession with projecting a “win” even in the face of defeat. He’s demonstrated a reluctance to acknowledge even the minor missteps that have plagued his administration from its start.

After fighting in court and in the press for nearly two years to include the citizenship question, Trump this week insisted it was unnecessary because federal data-sharing would lead to more accurate results.

“We’re already finding out who the citizens are and who they’re not,” Trump said without evidence, barely 12 hours after signing the executive order. “And I think more accurately.”

Critics, including the ACLU, which successfully sued the administration to block the citizenship question, disagreed.

“Trump may claim victory today, but this is nothing short of a total, humiliating defeat for him and his administration,” said Dale Ho, director of the organization’s Voting Rights Project.

And there were indications that Trump supporters, who were clamoring for the president to keep up the fight, also were unsatisfied with the outcome.

Trump’s announcement was met with silence from most of his allies, rather than the usual cacophony of supportive statements for presidential actions.

The scene was reminiscent of one six months earlier in the same spot. In that case, Trump declared he was “very proud” to announce an agreement to end a debilitating government shutdown that had been sparked by his own insistence that Congress fund his long-sought border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Despite Trump’s bravado, no such funding materialized from lawmakers, as the president backed down in the face of mounting criticism and claimed victory anyway.

Weeks later, after lawmakers again rebuffed Trump’s request for wall funding, he boasted that a wall “is being built as we speak.”

“You are going to have to be in extremely good shape to get over this one,” he added. “They would be able to climb Mount Everest a lot easier, I think.”

In fact, Trump has added strikingly little length to barriers along the Mexico border despite his pre-eminent 2016 campaign promise to get a wall done.

Trump followed a similar pattern the day after his party lost the House in the midterm elections, bringing about divided government and a flood of Democratic oversight investigations. The president was unbowed, telling reporters, “I thought it was a very close to complete victory.”

It’s no surprise that Trump has difficulty conceding defeat, even when it’s plain as day.

He rose to celebrity, and then the White House, with relentless self-promotion and touting the “Art of the Deal.” In Trump’s view, admitting defeat would pose an existential political risk to the candidate who famously rallied his supporters with promises that “We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning.”

Overseas, too, Trump rushes to claim victory when the facts paint a very different picture.

After his inaugural meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Trump flatly declared on Twitter that “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea” — despite no change to its established stockpile. And last month, he embraced Kim at the demilitarized zone and insisted their second summit in Vietnam earlier this year had been a success, despite his own highly publicized walkout.

Trump also postponed steep tariffs he had announced on Mexico last month in an effort to push that country to curtail a surge in illegal border crossings. Even as he backed off, though, the president found reason to declare a win on a central campaign promise that has been largely unfulfilled as he prepared to formally launch his 2020 campaign.

After Trump claimed the deal would “greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States,” he drew mockery from Democrats, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who sarcastically declared in response that it was “an historic night!”

A British investigation into the leaking of confidential diplomatic memos is raising press freedom issues with a police warning that U.K. media might face a criminal inquiry if leaked documents are published.

The Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command is investigating the leak of private memos written by Britain’s ambassador to the United States as a possible breach of the Official Secrets Act.

Announcing the police inquiry, Counterterrorism police unit leader Neil Basu warned against any further publication of leaked documents.

“The publication of leaked communications, knowing the damage they have caused or are likely to cause, may also be a criminal matter,” he said.

“I would advise all owners, editors and publishers of social and mainstream media not to publish leaked government documents that may already be in their possession, or which may be offered to them, and to turn them over to the police or give them back to their rightful owner, Her Majesty’s Government.”

His warning may be aimed specifically at preventing publication of any more memos that have already been leaked from Britain’s sprawling diplomatic and security services.

Basu also urged the leakers of the already published documents to “turn yourself in at the earliest opportunity, explain yourself and face the consequences.”

The leak led to the resignation of British Ambassador Kim Darroch after President Donald Trump said his administration would no longer work with Darroch, who had criticized Trump in the leaked cables.

Darroch’s defenders said his critical memos showed he was doing his job by providing candid assessments, as diplomats are expected to do, but he said the controversy had made it impossible to fulfill his duties.

British officials say they believe the leak was not a result of computer hacking and seems to have been carried out by an insider.

The Official Secrets Act prohibits public servants from making “damaging” disclosures of classified material. It is aimed at civil servants and others in the government with access to sensitive information and is not designed to target journalists.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is jousting with Boris Johnson to become the next prime minister, tweeted Saturday that the person responsible for the leak must be found and held responsible, but he differed with police over whether the publication of leaks is a possible crime.

“I defend to the hilt the right of the press to publish those leaks if they receive them & judge them to be in the public interest: that is their job,” he said.

Johnson, a former foreign secretary, also said it would be wrong to seek criminal charges against the press for publishing leaked material.

“A prosecution on this basis would amount to an infringement on press freedom and have a chilling effect on public debate,” he said at a campaign event.

The Mail on Sunday, which first obtained the trove of leaked memos, has not faced any legal repercussions for its decision to publish.

The Foreign Office criticized the leak but did not challenge the authenticity of the memos, which characterized the Trump administration as chaotic and inept.

Darroch’s defenders said his critical memos showed he was doing his job by providing candid assessments as diplomats are expected to do, but he said the controversy had made it impossible to function.

 

Taiwan on Saturday defended a proposal to purchase $2.2 billion in arms from the U.S., following a Chinese announcement that it would sanction any American companies involved in the deal.

U.S. weapons help strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense in the face of a growing military threat from China, the defense ministry said.

“The national army will continue to strengthen its key defense forces, ensure national security, protect its homeland and ensure that the fruits of freedom and democracy won’t be attacked,” the ministry said in a statement.

China threatens sanctions

China announced late Friday that it would impose sanctions on any U.S. enterprises involved in the deal, saying it “undermines China’s sovereignty and national security.”

Taiwan split from China during a civil war in 1949, but the mainland still considers the self-governing island as part of its territory.

The U.S., which recognized Beijing as the government of China in 1979, does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but U.S. law requires that it provide Taiwan with sufficient defense equipment and services for self-defense.

The Trump administration announced the proposed $2.2 billion sale, which would include 108 Abrams tanks and 250 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, earlier in the week.

Taiwanese president in US

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, speaking in New York Friday, said her government has strengthened Taiwan’s national defense to protect its democracy, according to a transcript posted on the presidential office website.

China has objected to her U.S. visit, which Taiwan calls a “two-evening transit stop” on the way to Haiti and three other Caribbean nations that recognize Taiwan.

“We urge the U.S. to abide by the ‘One China’ principle and … not allow Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover, cease official exchanges with Taiwan and refrain from providing any platform for separatist Taiwan independence forces,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Friday in Beijng.

Tsai dismissed Chinese criticism of both her visit and the arms deal. 

“We don’t need our neighbor to make irresponsible remarks,” she told reporters in New York, according to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency.

She has rejected Chinese pressure to reunite Taiwan and China under the “one-country, two-systems” framework that governs Hong Kong. She said Friday that the people of Taiwan stand with the young people of Hong Kong who are fighting for democratic freedoms in ongoing protests.

“Hong Kong’s experience under ‘one country, two systems’ has shown the world once and for all that authoritarianism and democracy cannot coexist,” she said.

A U.S. service member was killed in Afghanistan Saturday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement.

It gave no further details and withheld the name of the service member until the next of kin were informed.

The latest fatality brings the tally of U.S. service member deaths in Afghanistan to at least seven in 2019.

About 20,000 foreign troops, most of them American, are in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces. Some U.S. forces carry out counterterrorism operations against hardline Islamist militant groups.

A record 3,804 Afghan civilians were killed last year because of stepped-up air attacks by U.S.-led forces and more suicide bombings, the United Nations said in a February report.

U.S. President Donald Trump wants to secure a political settlement with the Taliban to end the 18-year war in Afghanistan. The Taliban, however, demand a complete foreign force pullout before entering into a formal peace agreement.
 

Somalia’s security forces Saturday ended an overnight attack by the al Shabab Islamist militant group on a hotel in the southern port city of Kismayu that killed at least 13, a police officer said.

“The operation is over,” police officer Major Mohamed Abdi told Reuters by telephone from Kismayu. “So far we know 13 people died. Many people have been rescued. The four attackers were shot dead.”

Members of the al-Qaida-linked group stormed the hotel after targeting it with a car bomb Friday while local elders and lawmakers were meeting to discuss approaching regional elections.

A second witness put the death toll at 14.

“The operation was concluded at 7 a.m. We know at least 14 people died including journalists and (local election) candidates. These are the prominent people. The death toll is sure to rise,” local elder Ahmed Abdulle told Reuters.

A journalists’ group had confirmed Friday that two journalists were among the dead; Somali-Canadian journalist Hodan Naleyah, the founder of Integration TV, and Mohamed Sahal Omar, reporter of SBC TV in Kismayu.

Separately, Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, general secretary of the Federation of Somali Journalists, said in a statement: “We are saddened and outraged by this loss of life, and condemn in the strongest possible terms this appalling massacre.”

Al Shabab was ejected from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been driven from most of its other strongholds.

It was driven out of Kismayu in 2012. The city’s port had been a major source of revenue for the group from taxes, charcoal exports and levies on arms and other illegal imports.

Kismayu is the commercial capital of Jubbaland, a region of southern Somalia still partly controlled by al Shabaab.

Al Shabaab remains a major security threat, with fighters frequently carrying out bombings in Somalia and neighboring Kenya, whose troops form part of the African Union-mandated peacekeeping force that helps defend the Somali government.
 

More than 200 educators and activists, along with presidential candidate Jay Inslee, rallied outside the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) office Friday to protest the Trump administration’s continued detention of children and separation of families.

Organized by the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teachers union in the country, protesters donned white shirts reading “CLASSROOMS NOT CAGES.”

“Whatever it takes, let’s do [immigration] right,” AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus told VOA News.

“But, until then, these kids are dying. These kids are suffering. These kids are not getting schooling the way they should,” DeJesus added. “And the teachers are here, ready to school them, to teach them, to love them.”

During President Donald Trump’s time in office,

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy American financier, was charged this week with child sex trafficking and alleged abuse of dozens of girls as young as 14.

Despite living a life of private jets, celebrity friends and private islands, Epstein remains an enigma.

In a profile published in 2002, New York Magazine called Epstein an “international moneyman of mystery.”

Author James Patterson, who has written a book about Epstein, called him “a total mystery person.”

On CBS News, Patterson compared Epstein to author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s character Jay Gatsby: an impenetrable rich man who “liked to be around famous people and he liked to throw parties.”

Humble beginnings

Epstein’s start was a humble one. He was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. His father worked for the city parks department.

In the mid-1970s, Epstein attended a private college in New York called The Cooper Union. He later attended New York University. Even though he failed to earn a degree from either school, Epstein managed to land a job teaching math at the Dalton School, an elite private school in Manhattan.

He was reportedly hired by then-headmaster Donald Barr, father of Attorney General William Barr, according to Newsweek magazine.

Epstein quit Dalton in 1976 and started work at the Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns, advising clients on tax strategies. By 1980, he “did well enough to become a limited partner — a rung beneath full partner,” Vanity Fair reported.

He left Bear Sterns in 1981 and set up a money management firm, J. Epstein and Co., which later became the Financial Trust Company, based in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Epstein’s company is shrouded in secrecy. While Epstein has long claimed to represent several billionaires, his only known client is Les Wexner, the founder of Victoria’s Secret, The Limited and other retail brands.

And despite his claims of wealth, Forbes magazine says Epstein is not a billionaire. He has never appeared on the magazine’s list of 400 richest Americans.

Notable friends

Along with lavish properties, Epstein also appears to like to collect notable friends.

In 2015, the now-defunct site Gawker published what it said was Epstein’s address book. It contained entries for U.S. President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump; actors Alec Baldwin, Dustin Hoffman and Ralph Fiennes; the Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, singers Courtney Love and Jimmy Buffett, and high-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz among others. He is also known to have traveled on his private jets with former President Bill Clinton and actor Kevin Spacey.

None of his high-profile friends have been linked to the crimes for which Epstein was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York this week.
 

A federal appeals court gave President Donald Trump a rare legal win in his efforts to crack down on “sanctuary cities” Friday, upholding the Justice Department’s decision to give preferential treatment in awarding community policing grants to cities that cooperate with immigration authorities.

The 2-1 opinion overturned a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in Los Angeles. The court said awarding extra points in the application process to cities that cooperate was consistent with the goals of the grant program created by Congress.

“The department is pleased that the court recognized the lawful authority of the administration to provide favorable treatment when awarding discretionary law-enforcement grants to jurisdictions that assist in enforcing federal immigration laws,” the Justice Department said in an emailed statement.

Court block some efforts to withhold money

Federal courts have blocked some efforts by the administration to withhold money from sanctuary cities, including an executive order issued by the president in 2017 that would have barred them from receiving federal grants “except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes.” Courts also barred the Justice Department from imposing new immigration enforcement-related conditions on Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, the biggest source of federal funding to state and local jurisdictions.

The 9th Circuit’s ruling Friday concerned a different grant program, Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, grants, which are used to hire more police officers. Previously, the Justice Department has given extra points to cities that agree to hire veterans, or that operate early intervention systems to identify officers with personal issues, or that have suffered school shootings.

Immigration points

In 2017, under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department for the first time decided extra points would go to cities that listed immigration enforcement as a priority or that certified it would cooperate with federal immigration authorities by allowing them access to detainees in city jails and giving 48 hours’ notice before an undocumented immigrant was released from custody.

Los Angeles applied for a grant that year, but declined to list immigration enforcement as a priority — it listed building community trust instead — or to make the certification. It failed to win, and it sued.

The Justice Department had introduced conditions that impermissibly coerced the grant applicants to enforce federal immigration law, the city said. It also said the immigration-related conditions were contrary to the goals for which Congress had approved the grant money: to get more police on the beat, developing trust with the public.

Opinion ‘Orwellian’

The judges in the majority, Sandra Ikuta and Jay Bybee, both appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, rejected that.

“Cooperation relating to enforcement of federal immigration law is in pursuit of the general welfare, and meets the low bar of being germane to the federal interest in providing the funding to ‘address crime and disorder problems, and otherwise … enhance public safety,’” Ikuta wrote.

Several other jurisdictions did win funding without agreeing to the DOJ’s immigration enforcement preferences, she noted.

Judge Kim Wardlaw, appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, dissented, calling the majority’s opinion “Orwellian” in the way it tried to equate federal immigration enforcement with enhanced community policing.

“Nothing in the congressional record nor the act itself remotely mentions immigration or immigration enforcement as a goal,” she wrote. “In the quarter-century of the act’s existence, Congress has not once denoted civil immigration enforcement as a proper purpose for COPS grants.”

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Supporters of sanctuary cities say that encouraging local police to participate in federal immigration enforcement is counterproductive: People will be less likely to report crimes if they believe they’ll be deported for doing so. But the 9th Circuit’s opinion found that to be a question of policy, not law, said David Levine, a professor at University of California Hastings College of the Law.

“What the Justice Department was doing before, they were trying to force sanctuary cities to do things, and yank money from them retroactively if they didn’t,” Levine said. “They’ve gotten a little more sophisticated now. They’re saying, ‘You don’t have to take this money, but if you want it, it comes with strings attached.’ That’s a well understood way the federal government gets states to do things. You don’t use a stick, you use a carrot.”
 

Forecasters have issued hurricane warnings for parts of the Louisiana coast, as Tropical Storm Barry churns ominously in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in Louisiana Thursday night, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate federal funds and resources to help the state cope with the storm and its aftermath.

The National Hurricane Center expects Barry to strengthen before landfall and hit the coast as a Category 1 storm late Friday or early Saturday. It would be the first Atlantic hurricane of the season.

As of early Friday, Barry was about 170 kilometers southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River, with top winds at 100 kph and crawling about 7 kilometers per hour. The slow movement is enabling Barry to suck up more moisture and energy from the warm Gulf waters.

New Orleans, which is already dealing with floods from Wednesday’s fierce rainstorms, is under a tropical storm warning, increasing the chance of flash flooding. The city of Baton Rouge is also facing threats of flash flooding.

As of Friday afternoon, Barry was on a path toward Morgan City, which is surrounded by water and nearly 140 kilometers southwest of New Orleans.

Forecasters predict the city can expect as much as 51 centimeters of additional rain from Barry, pushing the Mississippi River’s crest close to the top of the 6-meter-high levees protecting New Orleans.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has already declared a state of emergency and deployed the National Guard.

Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for about 10,000 people living near the stretch of the Mississippi closest to the Gulf. A storm surge warning is in effect for southern and southeastern Louisiana.

Along with heavy rain and strong winds, Barry could bring dangerous storm surges and tornadoes before it moves inland and weakens.

Militants stormed a hotel Friday evening in the coastal Somali city of Kismayo, sparking gunbattles and fears of heavy casualties. 
 
The attack began when an explosives-laden car detonated at the front entrance of the Asasey hotel, a popular meeting spot for regional officials and visitors from the diaspora.  Militants then stormed inside and opened fire.  
 
Witnesses told VOA’s Somali service that regional security forces were trading fire with the militants.  The witnesses reported hearing several explosions, presumably from hand grenades. 
 
Jihadist group al-Shabab immediately claimed the responsibility for the attack through al-Andalu Radio, the group’s FM station. 
 
Reuters quoted an al-Shabab spokesman, Abdiasis Abu Musab, as saying, “It was a suicide attack,” and that the fighting was continuing. 
 
A VOA reporter in the town said the number of casualties was unclear. At least one member of Somalia’s federal parliament was thought to have been in the hotel at the time of the attack.  
 
Al-Shabab frequently carries out bombings in Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia against government, military and civilian targets. 
 
The attack in Kismayo, about 485 kilometers south of Mogadishu, came amid preparation for regional elections. The port town once served as a major stronghold for al-Shabab militants. 

Officials on Hawaii’s Maui Island say a wildfire has burned over 4,000 hectares and forced thousands of people to evacuate.
 
Authorities say the fire is not yet contained, but say evacuated residents have been allowed to return to their homes because the immediate threat has passed.
 
Officials cautioned residents and visitors Friday to be on alert for possible changing conditions in the wildfire.
 
The aggressive brushfire broke out in Maui’s central valley on Thursday morning, local time, and quickly spread because of steady winds of up to 30 kph.
 
Two coastal communities were evacuated on Thursday, Maalaea and Kihei, with shelters being set up in nearby areas to accommodate people. Residents have been allowed to return home, but officials say the shelters will remain on standby in case the fire flares up again.
 
No injuries or significant property damage has been reported from the fire.
 
On Thursday, Hawaii Gov. David Ige thanked television star Oprah Winfrey for allowing local authorities access to her private road near her home on Maui to help with the evacuations.
 
“A big mahalo to Oprah for giving mauicounty access to your private road for use to assist in the Mauifire,” he wrote on Twitter.
 
Kahului Airport was briefly closed on Thursday and flights were diverted because of the smoke.