Nearly 50,000 workers at General Motors are on strike, the largest labor action against the automaker in 50 years. It comes at a critical time in the industry as the economy slows and a major industry transition looms. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
 

North Korea angrily walked away from working-level nuclear talks with the United States on Saturday, with Pyongyang’s top negotiator saying he was “greatly disappointed” with Washington’s inflexible approach.

The quick breakdown of the first substantive nuclear negotiations in months raises the possibility North Korea will intensify its provocations, days after testing a new medium-range ballistic missile designed to be launched from a submarine.

But the North’s decision to walk away may amount to little more than a rehash of a long-standing negotiating tactic meant to raise pressure on the U.S., some analysts say, predicting Pyongyang may soon return to the talks.

After a day of negotiations on the outskirts of Stockholm, Sweden, North Korea’s top delegate to the talks read a brief statement to reporters explaining why the North ended the negotiations.

“It is entirely because the U.S. has not discarded its old stance and attitude that the negotiation failed this time,” Kim Myong Gil said outside North Korea’s embassy in the Swedish capital.

“The U.S. came to the negotiations empty-handed and this shows after all it is not willing to solve the issue,” he added.

‘Good discussions’

U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus quickly disputed that characterization, saying Kim’s comments “do not reflect the content or spirit of today’s 8½ hour discussion.”

“The U.S. brought creative ideas and had good discussions with its DPRK counterparts,” said Ortagus, using the abbreviation of North Korea’s official name.

Ortagus said the U.S. accepted a Swedish invitation to continue the talks in two weeks.

“The United States and the DPRK will not overcome a legacy of 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean Peninsula through the course of a single Saturday. These are weighty issues, and they require a strong commitment by both countries. The United States has that commitment,” Ortagus said.

There was no immediate indication that North Korea also accepted the invitation to return to Sweden for more talks.

February talks broke down

The previous round of U.S.-North Korea talks broke down in February, after U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly ended a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam.

At that summit, Trump rejected Kim’s offer to dismantle a key nuclear complex in exchange for the removal of five United Nations sanctions that hurt North Korea’s economy. Trump instead wanted Kim to agree to give up his entire nuclear program in a so-called “big deal.”

In recent months, Trump had hinted at increased flexibility. Last month, he spoke of the need for a “new method” to the talks — language that closely mirrored Pyongyang’s call for Washington to make more concessions. Trump also fired John Bolton, his hawkish national security adviser, who had opposed the North Korea talks.

“Having so far hinted at a flexible approach, new method and creative solution, the U.S. has heightened expectations,” said Kim, the top North Korean negotiator, Saturday. “But it came out with nothing, greatly disappointed us, and sapped our appetite for negotiations.”

Negotiations likely to continue

While the breakdown of the talks could lead to additional provocations by North Korea, it isn’t clear the negotiations have completely ended, Mintaro Oba, a former U.S. diplomat focused on Korea, said.

“The North Koreans have a long history of being tough negotiators willing to cancel or withdraw as a tactic, and I think it’s far more likely that they carefully conceived this move ahead of time rather than spontaneously combusting at the negotiating table,” Oba said.

“I don’t think this is necessarily the end of working-level diplomacy just yet,” he added.

Since the breakdown of the Hanoi talks, North Korea has looked to increase its negotiating leverage by testing 11 separate rounds of missiles — most or all of which appeared to use ballistic missile technology.

The latest launch, conducted last week, involved a medium-range ballistic missile designed to be fired from a submarine, according to U.S. officials. The technology adds a dangerous and unpredictable new component to North Korea’s arsenal.

Trump has downplayed the North Korean launches, saying they are not long-range and cannot threaten the United States. The launches violate United Nations Security Council resolutions.

“The lack of a U.S. response to Kim’s missile tests over the last few months likely reinforces his views that he’s in the driver’s seat,” said Eric Brewer, a former White House National Security Council official who worked on North Korea issues.

“Kim can keep growing the program with little or no consequence and hold out for a better deal and/or that next summit with Trump,” said Brewer, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Trump hasn’t yet responded to the breakdown of the latest talks, but on Friday said North Korea would “like to do something.” In those comments, Trump also mentioned what he called the “witch hunt” — a likely reference to the fast-expanding impeachment inquiry against him.

Fourth Trump-Kim meeting

In recent weeks, Trump has said he is interested in holding a fourth meeting with Kim. But it’s not clear how that could advance nuclear talks, without substantive, expert-level discussions on North Korea’s nuclear program.

Van Jackson, a former Pentagon official, said Trump’s desire to meet directly with Kim is effectively handcuffing U.S. working-level negotiators.

“Kim has no incentive to make any meaningful concessions to the U.S. under Trump. He has incentive to pocket whatever gains he can get from the U.S. while simultaneously placating Trump and avoiding giving anything that would be irreversible,” Jackson, a lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, said.

At their first meeting in Singapore in June 2018, Trump and Kim signed a short, vaguely worded statement vowing to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. They also agreed to improve bilateral relations.

At the Stockholm talks, U.S. negotiators “previewed a number of new initiatives that would allow us to make progress in each of the four pillars of the Singapore joint statement,” Ortagus, the State Department spokesperson, said.

“In the course of the discussions, the U.S. delegation reviewed events since the Singapore summit, and discussed the importance of more intensive engagement to solve the many issues of concern for both sides,” she added.

At this point, it’s not clear when that engagement will occur.

VOA’s Muhammad Ikram contributed to this report.

Pakistan remains at risk of being placed on the “blacklist” of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog monitoring terror financing and money laundering around the world, experts warn.

The global watchdog’s regional body — Asia Pacific Group (APG) — examined Pakistan’s performance on key issues related to terror financing and money laundering at a two-day preliminary meeting in Bangkok in early September.

The final decision as to whether the country would be placed on the so-called blacklist is pending until the APG presents its final report to the FATF Plenary and Working Group meetings scheduled for later this month in Paris.

With a final decision ahead, some experts warn the stakes are high for Pakistan to be placed in the black list given the country’s lack of notable progress on key demands of the FATF.

“Since no major decisions are made until October, Islamabad must know that no matter what happened in Bangkok, it’s not out of the woods yet.” Michael Kugleman, deputy director of South Asia Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center, said.

“It’s hard to know what transpired in Bangkok, or whether it helped or hindered Pakistan’s prospects for getting relief at the important Paris meeting in October,” Kugleman added.

A 15-member Pakistani delegation led by the Minister for Economic Affairs Division Mohammad Hammad Azhar met with the APG in Bangkok to evaluate Islamabad’s progress.

The outcome of the evaluation has yet to be disclosed by the APG, although Indian media outlets speculated that Pakistan fared poorly in the evaluation and is headed toward blacklisting.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi denied those claims, however, brushing them aside as “Indian propaganda.”

“FATF has not placed Pakistan on the blacklist! The world needs to take notice of Indian propaganda and fake news,” Qureshi said in response to the media reports.

Pakistan’s stance

Pakistan continues to defend its efforts of combating terror groups and their financial networks, emphasizing it takes quite seriously FATF requirements and the fight against terrorism.

“The Pakistan delegation effectively presented Pakistan’s progress on each of the FATF action plan items and provided additional information/clarification to the APG-Joint Group,” Hammad Azhar, Pakistan’s minister for the Economic Affairs Division, said following APG’s meeting in Bangkok.

More recently, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan criticized India for working against Pakistan at FATF and charged that his nation has dismantled militant groups operating on its soil.

“The moment the election ended, we approached India. No response. But then we discovered they were trying to push us in the FAFT blacklist to bankrupt us. That’s when we realized there was an agenda.” Khan stated in his address at the UNGA.

Definitive action

Despite Pakistan’s claims of having made headway in its fight against militant groups and their financial networks, some analysts insist Pakistan has not done enough. They say its lack of definitive action against known terrorist networks like Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad are valid concerns for the international community.

Nadeem ul Haque, a former senior resident representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) charges that Pakistan may have fulfilled other conditions imposed on the country by FATF, but the country has yet to really counter what he called “visible terrorists”.

“Pakistan is failing in catching the visible terrorists the world wants to catch. That seems to be the main problem. The rest of the conditions are virtually done,” Haque said.

James Schwemlein, an expert on South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, charges that Pakistan has taken only modest steps.

“So far, it appears the authorities have taken modest steps to meet FATF requirements, such as freezing banking accounts and seizing properties, but are far from full compliance,” Schwemlein said. “At this point, it does not appear that Pakistan has taken any irreversible step to improve its anti-money laundering and counter terror-financing regime.”

Schwemlein said Pakistan’s intelligence agency continues to maintain ties with militant groups.

“Pakistani authorities argue they have limited ability to constrain terror groups that operate with the support of the Pakistani intelligence services inside Pakistan, though Prime Minister Khan has pledged to gradually constrain and eliminate these militant proxy groups,” he added.

Financial consequences

If Pakistan were to be blacklisted by FATF, it would be of detriment to its already struggling economy, analysts warn.

 “With Pakistan’s economy already suffering through a serious balance of payments crisis and new IMF-funded austerity measures, the last thing Pakistan needs is to be deprived of new capital and investment,” Kugleman said.

“The FATF blacklist is where the worst of the worst end up, and if Islamabad gets put on this list it will likely lose many potential new investors and banks that wouldn’t want to be tainted by a sullied Pakistani brand,” he added.

Schwemlein of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace believes this is a possibility.

“If Pakistan is deemed as not having made sufficient progress against its action plan, the FATF ministerial in October could choose [by consensus] to issue a call to action’ to international banks and financial institutions to sever ties with Pakistani entities,” he said.

The FATF’s action could simultaneously affect Pakistan’s $6-billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“FATF blacklisting Pakistan would cause a big hiccup. They [the IMF] will remain engaged with the country but can stop or slow the pace of funds if conditions are not met by Pakistan,” Haque said.

Haque confirmed the IMF would have to take into account the FATF’s actions toward Pakistan.

“The economy is at a point where stoppage of flows will be very hurtful …  it will slow international transactions to the point of scaring away investors and even remittances,” he added.

Applying leverage

Analysts charge that Prime Minister Khan’s government may try to use Afghanistan and the stalled peace talks there as leverage to maneuver out of the potential blacklist.

“If the U.S. administration thinks Pakistan is being helpful in advancing U.S. policy objectives in Afghanistan, Washington is unlikely to push for Pakistan’s blacklisting,” Schwemlein said.

But those talks, at least between the U.S. and Taliban, appear dead for now after the Taliban intensified its violence in Afghanistan and prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to end talks with the group.

Others argue there’s too much in play for Pakistan to wield geopolitical issues.

“For Pakistan, FATF is an issue with too much at stake to warrant the use of external geopolitical issues as leverage,” Kugelman said.

The European Union has rejected a British request to hold Brexit talks this weekend, British media reported, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated his commitment to leaving the bloc Oct. 31 despite the possibility of a not reaching an exit deal.

The European Commission said that Johnson’s new Brexit proposals do not provide any basis for finalizing a separation agreement, according to Sky News.

Talks on Johnson’s plan to replace the Irish backstop will not take place over the weekend, EU Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud was quoted as saying by Sky.

She added that the UK will be given “another opportunity to present its proposals in detail” Monday.

“If we held talks at the weekend it would look like these were proper negotiations,” the Times newspaper had earlier cited an EU diplomat as saying. “We’re still a long way from that.”

Johnson has consistently said he will not ask for a Brexit delay, reiterating the point on Friday.

“New deal or no deal — but no delay. #GetBrexitDone #LeaveOct31” Johnson said in a tweet.

However, his government also acknowledged for the first time Friday that Johnson will send a letter to EU asking for a Brexit delay if no divorce deal has been reached by Oct. 19.

Johnson has not explained the apparent contradiction, with opponents believing he will seek some kind of legal escape route to avoid asking for an extension, or try to pressure the EU into refusing to agree to such a request.

Iraqi authorities lifted a dayslong curfew in Baghdad on Saturday that anti-government protesters had defied, as the toll from four days of violent unrest rose to 72 killed and hundreds injured.

Traffic ran as normal through the Iraqi capital and streets and main squares were otherwise quiet. Concrete barriers blocked off areas where protesters in the thousands clashed with police during the week.

Iraq’s semi-official High Commission for Human Rights said security forces had detained hundreds of people for demonstrating but then let most of them go.

Police snipers shot at protesters Friday, Reuters reporters said, escalating violent tactics used by the security forces that have included live fire, tear gas and water cannons.

The security forces have accused gunmen of hiding among demonstrators to shoot at police. Several police officers have died.

The protests over unfair distribution of jobs, lack of services and government corruption erupted Tuesday in Baghdad and quickly spread to other Iraqi cities, mainly in the south.

It is the deadliest unrest Iraq has seen since the declared defeat of Islamic State in 2017 and has shaken the year-old government of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

The government has responded with vague reform promises that are unlikely to placate Iraqis.

Powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has a mass popular following and controls a large chunk of parliament, demanded Friday that the government resign and snap elections be held. At least one other major parliamentary grouping allied itself with Sadr against the government.

Parliament was to meet Saturday to discuss protesters’ demands. Sadr’s bloc has said it will boycott the session.
 

A group that opposes affirmative action is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that Harvard University does not discriminate against Asian American applicants.

Students for Fair Admissions filed a notice Friday with the 1st U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston. The group says it will appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

It is challenging a judge’s Tuesday ruling against all counts of the group’s 2014 lawsuit against Harvard.

The group says Harvard holds down the number of Asian Americans accepted to preserve a racial balance.

Officials from the group and Harvard did not immediately comment on the appeal.

The suit drew support from the Trump administration and reignited a national debate over the use of race in college admissions.
 

The office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights has harshly criticized Iraq’s deadly crackdown on people protesting against corruption, lack of jobs and basic services, including electricity and clean water.

More than 30 people reportedly have been killed in a series of demonstrations in Iraq this week. Hundreds have been injured and dozens detained. 

The U.N. human rights agency says it considers Iraq’s response to the peaceful demonstrations excessive and unjustified. It urges Iraqi authorities to talk with protestors, who it says have legitimate grievances that need to be heard.

Spontaneous demonstrations have been taking place across the country this past week. U.N. human rights spokeswoman, Marta Hurtado, said most of the protestors are young and unemployed. She said they are demanding the government provide them with jobs and basic services and respect their economic and social rights.

Hurtado said Iraqis have a right to express their grievances in a peaceful way and without interference.

“We are worried by reports that security forces have used live ammunition and rubber bullets in some areas and have also fired tear gas canisters directly at protesters,” Hurtado said. “We call on the Iraqi government to allow people to freely exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The use of force should be exceptional, and assemblies should ordinarily be managed without resort to force.”

She said international law prohibits the use of firearms, except as a last resort to protect against an imminent threat of death or serious injury. She said the peaceful demonstrations do not appear to meet that high bar.

The U.N. human rights office is calling for a prompt, independent and transparent investigation into the deadly actions of Iraqi security forces.

After several days of protests, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Badul-Mahdi said he was willing to meet with demonstrators’ representatives to consider their demands. 

In a conciliatory speech Friday, he agreed the government needed to do more to combat corruption, and called protesters’ demands for jobs and comprehensive reforms “righteous.”

 

With Washington in tumult over the escalating impeachment inquiry, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo toured southeast Europe on Friday, trying to ignore the furor back home that has engulfed his department.

Pompeo did not respond to shouted questions from journalists with him as he traveled to Montenegro and North Macedonia to show support for a current NATO ally and a soon-to-be one, as a Ukraine-focused impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump picked up steam.

The top U.S. diplomat flew to the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica and then on to Ohrid in North Macedonia, a day after one of his former top aides told congressional investigators in Washington about efforts to press Ukraine’s government to open a corruption probe that could have targeted former Vice President Joe Biden’s son.

Pompeo did not speak with reporters about the actions of former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker aboard his plane on either flight or during a photo opportunity with Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dusko Markovic and Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic.

Meanwhile, the State Department had no comment on Volker’s 10-hour congressional interview on Thursday or on the text messages he turned over that detail a push to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to commit to the corruption probe in exchange for a visit to Washington.

Shortly after Pompeo left Rome, where he spent three days on the first leg of a four-nation tour of Europe, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General said his office is reviewing all the cases that were closed by his predecessors, including several related to the owner of a gas company where Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board.

Earlier this week in Rome, Pompeo acknowledged for the first time that he had been on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy during which an investigation was raised. He said the call was part of a broader effort to get Ukraine to crack down on corruption that Volker and others were involved in. He has said previously that no one from the State Department acted inappropriately in dealing with Ukraine.

House Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry over the Ukraine matter after a government whistleblower disclosed Trump’s call with Zelenskiy and the push to have a foreign government interfere in U.S. elections by digging up dirt on Biden.

Montenegro and North Macedonia 

Like Ukraine, Montenegro and North Macedonia are seeking closer ties with the West. Montenegro joined NATO in 2017, 11 years after it regained independence, and is seeking membership in the European Union. North Macedonia will become NATO’s 30th member as soon as the other allies complete their ratification processes.

Pompeo congratulated Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic for progress his country has made in improving its economy and said he had discussed broadening and strengthening U.S.-Montenegro economic and security ties as well as promoting anti-corruption and rule of law reforms.

In the ancient city of Ohrid in North Macedonia, Pompeo was expected to cover similar ground with President Stevo Pendarovski.

Later Friday, Pompeo will travel to Athens where he will meet Greek officials over the weekend before returning to Washington and the center of the impeachment inquiry.
 

Irrigation ministers of three key Nile Basin countries were meeting Friday in Sudan’s capital, seeking to resolve differences over Ethiopia’s soon-to-be-finished Blue Nile dam, which Cairo claims threatens its water supply.
                   
According to the spokesman of Egypt’s irrigation ministry, Muhamed El-Sebai, the meeting of the ministers from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia would last two days.
                   
Egypt fears Ethiopia’s $5 billion project, which is set to be Africa’s largest hydraulic dam, could reduce its share of the Nile River, a lifeline for Egypt’s 100 million people.
                   
Ethiopia has roughly the same population and says the dam will help its economic development. Egypt seeks Sudan’s support in the dispute, as both nations are downriver from the project.
                   
Ethiopia has not revealed how quickly it wants to fill the reservoir created by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, as the project is called, which would affect the amount of water available for Egypt and Sudan.
                   
The last round of talks held in Cairo last month failed to make any progress and was followed by a verbal feuds between Ethiopian and Egyptian governments. Ethiopia’s foreign ministry released a strongly-worded proposal dismissing Egypt’s proposals on a timetable for filling the reservoir.
                   
Ethiopia’s minister of water and irrigation, Sileshi Bekele, had said that Egypt wants Ethiopia to fill the dam’s reservoir over a longer period of time _ seven years _ and to release 40 billion cubic meters of water every year.
                   
However, an Egyptian official later told The Associated Press the two countries had agreed the first of five stages for filling the dam should take two years. After these five stages, all the dam’s hydroelectric turbines would be able to operate.
                   
Otherwise, Egypt could lose more than 1 million jobs and $1.8 billion annually, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
                   
Egypt’s president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi brought the issue to U.N. attention while addressing the General Assembly in New York last month.
                   
“While we acknowledge Ethiopia’s right to development, the water of the Nile is a question of life, a matter of existence to Egypt,” el-Sissi said, calling on the international community to “play a constructive role in urging all parties to show flexibility in the pursuit of a solution that satisfies all.”
                   
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Thursday that the U.S. supports Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan’s ongoing negotiations to reach a sustainable and mutually beneficial agreement.
                   
“All Nile Valley countries have a right to economic development and prosperity,” Grisham said. “The administration calls on all sides to put forth good faith efforts to reach an agreement that preserves those rights, while simultaneously respecting each other’s Nile water equities.”

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam banned protesters from wearing masks Friday in a hardening of the government’s stance on the territory’s most disruptive crisis since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

Lam announced the ban at an afternoon news conference where she decried a recent escalation of violence after four months of anti-government demonstrations. 

The mask ban takes effect Saturday and applies to people at “illegal” gatherings who use violence and exempts those who wear masks for “legitimate need.” Lam said she would go to the legislature later to get legal backing for the rule.

“People are asking can Hong Kong go back to normal? Is Hong Kong still a place where we can have our sweet home?” Lam asked as she announced the ban. “We must stop the violence,” she said. “Now, it’s all over Hong Kong.”

She said the ban targeted violent protesters and rioters and “will be an effective deterrent to radical behavior.”

Protests ahead of ban

Thousands of masked protesters chanted slogans calling for greater democracy as they marched in the city’s business district before Lam spoke. They chanted “I want to wear face masks” and “Wearing mask is not a crime” as many cars, stuck in traffic because of the march, honked in support.

“Will they arrest 100,000 people on the street? The government is trying to intimidate us but at this moment, I don’t think the people will be scared,” one protester, who gave his surname as Lui, told an online live broadcast.

At the nearby Causeway Bay shopping area, a huge crowd also occupied streets to protest the mask ban. Smaller rallies were also held in several other areas.

Emergency Ordinance

Analysts warned the use of the Emergency Ordinance for the first time in more than half a decade set a dangerous precedent. The law, a relic of British rule enacted in 1922 to quell a seamen strike and last used to crush riots in 1967, gives broad powers to the city’s chief executive to implement regulations in an emergency.

“Even though the mask ban is just a small move under the Emergency Ordinance, it is a dangerous first step. If the anti-mask legislation proves to be ineffective, it could lead the way to more draconian measures such as a curfew and other infringement of civil liberties,” said Willy Lam, adjunct professor at the Chinese University.

Widespread violence

The ban followed widespread violence in the city Tuesday that marred China’s National Day and included a police officer shooting a protester, the first victim of gunfire since the protests started in June over a now-shelved extradition bill. The wounded teenager was charged with attacking police and rioting.

The movement has since snowballed into an anti-China campaign amid anger over what many view as Beijing’s interference in Hong Kong’s autonomy. More than 1,750 people have been detained so far.

Activists and many legislators have warned the mask ban could be counterproductive, impractical and difficult to enforce in a city bubbling with anger and where tens of thousands have often defied police bans on rallies.

“Five demands, not one less,” many protesters shouted during Friday’s rallies as they held up five fingers.

The government last month withdrew the extradition bill, widely slammed as an example of the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedom, but protesters have widened their demands to include direct elections for the city’s leaders, an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality, the unconditional release of protesters and not characterizing the protests as riots.
 

Journalists in Indian Kashmir on Thursday staged a small silent protest against what they say has been a “media gag” by Indian authorities that has badly affected their ability to work in the disputed region for the last 60 days.

India stripped its portion of Muslim-majority Kashmir of autonomy on Aug. 5, shutting off phone networks and imposing curfew-like restrictions in some areas to dampen discontent.

Some of those curbs have been slowly relaxed, but mobile and internet communications in the Kashmir valley are largely still blocked, severely impacting the ability of journalists to report from the region.

Carrying placards and wearing black badges, more than 100 Kashmiri journalists gathered inside the Kashmir Press Club premises in Srinagar to stage a protest, as street protests are still restricted.

“End information clampdown,” “Stop criminalizing journalists,” “Journalism is not a crime,” read placards held up during the silent protest.

The Indian government has provided an internet connection at a media center set up for journalists, but reporters say this is insufficient and it lacks privacy.

“There’s no privacy. Some 300 journalists use that facility daily and it is crowded. It is also being monitored and we are under surveillance,” said Ishfaq Tantray, general secretary of the Kashmir Press Club.

A government spokesman in Kashmir was not immediately reachable for comment.

The president of the Kashmir Press Club, Shuja Thakur said that they had several times approached the Indian government in Kashmir for restoration of mobile and internet services for journalists.

“They keep promising and say they are looking into it, but so far there has been no action,” he said.

New Delhi said the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir state’s special status was necessary to integrate it fully into the rest of India and spur development.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, who both claim the territory in full. More than 40,000 people have been killed in an insurgency in the Indian part of Kashmir since 1989.

Opposition leaders 

Separately on Thursday, local media reported that opposition leaders in Jammu — where restrictions have already been eased to a greater extent — were after almost two months allowed to move out of their homes on Wednesday and resume their political activities.

The lifting of restrictions on movement of around a dozen top opposition leaders in Jammu comes ahead of local council elections in the state that are scheduled for Oct. 24, the Indian Express reported.
 

Four French police officers were killed Thursday in a knife attack inside the Paris police headquarters, a police union official said.

The official, Loic Travers, said the assailant was shot to death by another officer.

Travers said the attacker was believed to have been a staff member at the headquarters, but that has yet to be confirmed.

Travers said the attack seems to have started in an office and continued in other areas of the large compound.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo confirmed “several people” were killed.

There was no immediate word on the motive for the attack, which occurred in the heart of Paris near Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Travers said, however, the suspected attacker never posed any problems in the workplace.

The transport authority said the area surrounding the headquarters was sealed off and the closest subway station was closed for security reasons.

Ebola is again spreading quickly in several African countries, with the Democratic Republic of Congo in particular peril. VOA’s Plugged In traveled with U.S. health officials in mid-September to the epicenter of the outbreak, along the country’s remote northeast border. The U.S.-led delegation brought hope and medicine to the region, but serious challenges remain. Mil Arcega was on the trip and reports from the DRC.

Hawaii’s vibrant reefs are home to amazing populations of corals and fish, which are under growing stress and danger from a spike in  ocean temperatures.  A similar underwater heatwave damaged the reef four years ago. Now, researchers are using divers and satellites to study these corals and find ways to protect them. VOA’s Jim Randle has our story. 

As political tensions flare back home, Hong Kong students on U.S. college campuses say they have been ostracized and in some cases threatened by fellow students from mainland China, and they suspect they are being watched from afar by Beijing.

Some say they see the hand of the Chinese government working in ways that threaten academic freedom.

“Even though many Chinese students are studying right here, sometimes they are all being monitored. They’re not really free of their minds and expression in this country,” said Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law, a 26-year-old graduate student in Asian studies at Yale University.

Law said he was told by a fellow student that other Chinese at the Ivy League school are avoiding contact with him for fear it will be reported back to the Chinese Embassy and they or their families back home will face consequences.

“There will be staring, spotting me and discussing among themselves, and pointing at me in an unfriendly manner,” said Law, whose continuing political work has included visits to Washington to meet with members of Congress.

Chinese students in US

Hong Kong has been beset with huge pro-democracy demonstrations since June that have triggered clashes with riot police in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory and stirred fears of a violent crackdown from Beijing.

More than 360,000 students from mainland China attended U.S. colleges and universities in the 2017-18 school year, compared with about 7,000 from Hong Kong, according to the Institute of International Education.

At Emerson College in Boston, student Frances Hui, of Hong Kong, faced threatening language from classmates from mainland China after she published a column in the student newspaper headlined “I am from Hong Kong, not China.”

She said she was unnerved by comments online by people who said they had seen her on campus and described her as short, which made her feel as if she were under surveillance. And she panicked when an Emerson student posted her column on Facebook along with a comment that any opponents of China “must be executed.”

Hui, 20, said she alerted the Emerson administration.

Emerson spokeswoman Sofiya Cabalquinto said the college supports “the rights of our students’ voicing their opinions and doing so free from threats.” She said the college put a plan in place to address Hui’s concerns, but she would not say whether disciplinary action was taken against the student who made the online post.

Death threats 

Law gained prominence as a student protest leader before winning election to Hong Kong’s legislature in 2016 but was later expelled as a member and jailed for several months for his activism.

He said he started getting death threats of unknown origin online soon after he arrived in August, including warnings that people with guns would go looking for him at Yale and suggestions that Chinese students in the U.S. assault him. He said he was also subjected to insults echoing a Chinese Communist Party campaign labeling him a criminal.

He reported the threats to police and the Yale administration. He said the harassment has subsided since Yale police began monitoring the online threats.

He said he hasn’t faced anything so overt from Yale students, although he said people have circulated his information in a group for Chinese students at Yale on WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, and urged people to say “hi” to him — a gesture he saw as vaguely threatening.

A Yale spokeswoman, Karen Peart, said only that the university police department takes appropriate action whenever a campus community member faces an unsafe situation.

Beijing watching

A report this year by Human Rights Watch said Chinese students at times remain silent in their classrooms out of fear their comments will be reported to Chinese authorities by other students. The organization described the monitoring as one of several ways the Chinese government undermines academic freedom on foreign campuses.

“Schools need to get very clear about these problems and they need to get policies to respond to them,” said Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch’s China director.

At universities in Australia and New Zealand, students on either side of the political divide have built up and torn down displays advocating autonomy for Hong Kong.

And there have been signs of tensions at other U.S. campuses, including Georgetown University in Washington, which has seen dueling chalk messages on the Hong Kong protests, and Columbia University in New York, where Hong Kong democracy advocates were greeted last month by protesters holding China’s flag at a lecture hall where they were giving a talk.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are reportedly in contact following a destructive drone attack on a Saudi oil refinery, despite denials from Riyadh.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani told al-Jazeera TV on Tuesday that Tehran “welcomes any negotiations with Saudi Arabia … because talks with Riyadh can resolve many regional problems and issues.” Iran’s government spokesman Ali Rabiei told journalists that Tehran “has received an indirect message from Riyadh from the leader of another country,” but he refused to say which one.

Riyadh’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel Jubeir, countered those claims in a series of tweets Wednesday, saying “it is not correct that Saudi Arabia sent a message to Tehran, but that the leader of a friendly country sought to calm the situation and Riyadh told him that its position has always been to seek security and stability in the region.”

Former Iranian president Abolhassan Bani Sadr told VOA that Iran is “divided between three factions, each of which is vacillating on the current tensions in the Gulf region.”

He said that Iran’s hard-line faction, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son, Mujtaba, believes that it is useful to take advantage of the current tensions to put Tehran in a better bargaining position with the U.S. The moderate faction, he added, seeks negotiations above all, in order to stop the deterioration of the Iranian economy. A third faction, he noted, changes sides depending on “which way the wind is blowing.”

Bani Sadr argued that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is “in a weak position, since he’s not able to militarily retaliate against Tehran [for the recent strikes on Saudi oil facilities], because of [the Trump administration’s] desire not to go to war with Iran.” Bin Salman “has decided to take the only route open to him, which is to negotiate.”

“The prime ministers of both Iraq and Pakistan have admitted to carrying messages between Riyadh and Tehran,” he added.

Dr. Paul Sullivan, a professor at the U.S. National Defense University, told VOA that “any help to reduce tensions in the region and still save face would be welcome.” Pointing to Jubeir’s denial that talks between Riyadh and Tehran are taking place, he noted that it is “understandable that the parties would not want such negotiations to be public. Some diplomacy is best kept quiet.”

In a possible sign of goodwill, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militia recently released several hundred mostly Yemeni prisoners who had been fighting for the Saudi-led coalition.
 

Asli Pelit from VOA’s Turkish Service contributed to this report.

The killing of prominent Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi shook the world one year ago, when the public learned how a Saudi government team assassinated and dismembered him inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Khashoggi had criticized Saudi Arabia’s leaders for their repeated violations of human rights, persecution of critics and aggressive regional policies, including their role in Yemen’s four-year-long civil war.

The CIA concluded, according to published reports, that Khashoggi’s murder was ordered by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, which led U.S. lawmakers to publicly condemn the country and try to halt U.S. weapon sales to the kingdom.

U.S. President Donald Trump defied members of his party to push through an $8.1 billion weapons sale, maintaining friendly relations with the kingdom which he cites as a bulwark against Iran’s influence. Trump insisted the U.S. couldn’t afford to give up huge arms sales to its Middle East ally.

“We may never know all the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,” Trump said in November 2018. “As President of the United States I intend to ensure that, in a very dangerous world, America is pursuing its national interests and vigorously contesting countries that wish to do us harm. Very simply it is called America First!”

Khashoggi’s fiancée says many countries including the United States failed to do the right thing and hold Saudis leaders responsible.

“Controlling (vast) energy sources shouldn’t be enough to get away with murder,” Khashoggi’s fiancee, Turkish author Hatice Cengiz, said in an interview with VOA.

The verdict in Cengiz’s mind was clear. Perhaps under different circumstances, absent “huge oil and arms deals” between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi’s case would not be so easily dismissed at the highest level.

Instead, she was left to watch a Saudi court try to demonstrate that it is holding people accountable.

Eleven Saudi suspects would eventually stand trial in a Saudi Arabia courtroom. Five of them

Ebola again threatens to spread death through Africa’s core. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren follows US health officials to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda, leading the response to contain this latest health crisis. See how the outbreak is being handled and find out more about the successes and challenges to fight this deadly virus. Interviews include US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar; Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease; and Dr. Malonga Miatudila, one of the first to uncover and identify the Ebola virus. Episode recorded October 2, 2019.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has acknowledged he was on the telephone call that triggered the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump.

“I was on the phone call,” Pompeo confirmed Tuesday at a news conference in Rome, without offering details about what was said during the conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

But during an interview last week on ABC News’ ‘This Week,’ Pompeo was vague about what he knew about the call, which eventually precipitated a whistleblower complaint expressing concern Trump was seeking foreign interference in the 2020 election by asking Ukraine to investigate Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

“So, you just gave me a report about a I.C. (intelligence community) whistleblower complaint, none of which I’ve seen,” Pompeo had said.

U.S. President Donald Trump insists he did nothing wrong in the phone call.  He has been criticizing the impeachment inquiry launched by House Democrats against him as a “coup,” while the heads of several House of Representatives committees accuse Pompeo of blocking their efforts to gather documents and interview witnesses.

The State Department’s inspector general is expected to meet Wednesday with staff from the House and Senate appropriations, oversight, foreign affairs and intelligence committees to discuss documents that lawmakers have requested as they probe the July phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy.

The House intelligence, oversight and foreign affairs committees had asked to hear testimony Wednesday from former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, but that session was postponed until next week.  Former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker is expected to speak to the committees on Thursday.

Secretary Pompeo sent a letter Tuesday to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel saying requests for State Department documents and depositions with current and former officials “can be understood only as an attempt to intimidate, bully, and treat improperly” the department’s staff.

He said the requests raise “significant legal and procedural concerns,” and dismissed warnings that not cooperating would amount to obstruction.

‘A fact witness’

Engel, along with Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, responded by pointing to reports that Pompeo was on Trump’s call with Zelenskiy, saying that means he has an “obvious conflict of interest” and “should not be making any decisions regarding witness testimony or document production in order to protect himself or the President.”

They wrote that if it is true Pompeo participated in the call, then he is “now a fact witness in the impeachment inquiry.”

Majority Democrats in the House are pursuing the impeachment inquiry to see whether they want to officially bring charges against Trump under their constitutional authority to seek to remove officials who engage in “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

 

The European Union made a last-ditch appeal Wednesday to U.S. President Donald Trump to avoid any tit-for-tat tariff war as the global trade governing body prepares to issue a ruling that could allow him to impose billions in duties on EU produce.

The World Trade Organization said in May last year that Europe illegally subsidized planemaker Airbus, hurting U.S. competitor Boeing. It is due to rule Wednesday how much the Trump administration can seek in compensation in the form of new tariffs against the EU.
 
The EU products that could be targeted include wine, cheese and olives, which are produced in many countries involved in the Airbus consortium.

The EU won a similar WTO case accusing the U.S. of illegally subsidizing Boeing, but a ruling allowing possible retaliation is still months off.
 
“We should avoid imposing tariffs on one another. This would be damaging to our economies, to global trade and the broader aircraft industry,” European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said.
 
 “We are ready to work with [the U.S.] on a fair and balanced solution for our respective aircraft industries. We are still ready and willing to find a fair settlement, but if the U.S. decides to impose authorized countermeasures, the EU will do the same,” she told reporters. The commission, the EU’s powerful executive arm, runs trade negotiations on behalf of the 28 EU member countries.
 
Trans-Atlantic trade tensions have soared since Trump slapped tariffs on European steel and aluminum last year. He said the move was to protect U.S. national security interests, but the Europeans claim it is simply protectionism and breaks global trade rules.
 
In response, the EU introduced “rebalancing” tariffs on about 2.8 billion euros ($3 billion) worth of U.S. steel, agricultural and other products.
 
Trump has also threatened to slap duties on European automakers.
 
In an attempt to head off a tariff war, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker traveled to Washington to meet Trump last year, and a rough outline of a limited trade deal on industrial products emerged. But little progress has been made, and both sides accuse each other of dragging their feet.
 
The U.S. envoy to Brussels, Gordon Sondland, said last month that trans-Atlantic trade talks have “not borne a lot of fruit” recently. He said that “with the current [EU] leadership we’re at somewhat of an impasse.” A new commission team is set to take office on Nov. 1.