The Republican National Committee is putting a college twist on its grassroots voter registration efforts, seeking to mobilize President Donald Trump’s supporters.

The “Make Campus Great Again” initiative is offering dozens of participants training and free pizza, plus swag like campaign buttons and drink insulators to distribute. 

It started with trainings at four schools in Ohio last week. Organizers describe it as a national effort, with similar swing state training sessions already held or planned for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Denver and college Republicans in Michigan.  

It’s aimed at building on young voters’ enthusiasm and higher-than-usual turnout in last year’s midterm election and pushing back against any stifling of conservative voices in campus environments, said Mandi Merritt, a regional spokeswoman for the Trump-RNC reelection effort.  

“It serves as a way to bring conservative supporters out of the shadows of college campuses and show that they have a home in the Republican movement,” Merritt said.

In the 2018 midterms, 67% of voters ages 18 to 22 voted for Democratic House candidates, according to AP VoteCast, which surveyed voters in last year’s election. Just 31% voted for Republicans.

The outreach and mobilizing also show how the GOP is enlisting the youngest voters in its field operations and fighting for Republican votes outside the party’s base, in a demographic that favored Democrats by significant margins in recent elections, said University of Cincinnati political scientist David Niven. 

“If you think the election is going to be close, this is the margin of victory,” Niven said. “This is the 1% difference that helps you get over the top… They are proclaiming: This is a state we need to fight for.”

‘Make Campus Great Again’

In Akron, which last week had the first “Make Campus Great Again” session for more than 50 students from several northeastern Ohio universities, junior Brooke Bihlman said she and fellow members of the University of Akron College Republicans will be talking with students between classes and going door-to-door on weekends in a friendly competition with their Democratic counterparts on campus to see who can register the most voters.

“I think everyone in the club right now is just feeling very excited about the future and what we can do to help,” said Bihlman, 20. “Seeing hard work pay off is obviously something that keeps a lot of us going, so it starts with the little stuff right now.” 

Persuading peers to actually cast ballots might be tougher. Eighteen-to-29-year-olds typically have a much lower turnout rate than older voters, a point noted by some of the Democratic presidential candidates already organizing heavily on campuses in Iowa, which has the first caucuses. 

Support from young voters helped propel Democrat Barack Obama to victory in 2008 and 2012, and they heavily favored Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016. 

This time around, young Republicans touting Trump to their classmates point to a promising job market with the U.S. unemployment rate near a 50-year low , and to the president’s executive order earlier this year that required U.S. colleges to protect free speech on their campuses or risk losing federal research funding.

Even for a generation saturated in social media, there is no replacement for talking about the issues and candidates face-to-face with potential voters, said Seth Koellner, a Kent State University junior who leads the Ohio College Republican Federation. 

“It’s different than someone just scrolling past a post on Twitter,” he said. “So it really grabs someone’s attention and will cause them to actually think about what your message is.”

Climate activists plan to carry out a protest Monday in Washington by blocking key intersections and “bringing the whole city to a gridlocked standstill.”

Organizers called on people to skip work and school to participate in the protest, which follows mass rallies Friday of young people in cities around the world, that drew hundreds of thousands of people demanding urgent action to combat climate change.

It is not clear how many people will take part in the Washington protests, how authorities will deal with those blocking intersections, or the ultimate effects on those commuting in the U.S. capital.

The Vietnamese comedy channel FAP TV has become the first YouTube account to hit the 10 million subscribers mark in the Southeast Asian country of nearly 100 million people, according to an announcement on Thursday from the Asia Pacific office of Google, which owns YouTube.

Vietnam has been one of the fastest growing markets for the video site, especially after Google invested in computer servers in the country, which have sped up streaming and download times. YouTube has also invested heavily in Vietnamese language content and advertising. 

But the process has come with growing pains, too, most notably in the realms of taxes and censorship. The site has blocked videos with content critical of the government. While these actions are taken following requests from the state, YouTube says it follows the same protocol around the world when it gets requests from governments to take down clips. Videos have been blocked in countries from Algeria to Germany, with reasons cited ranging from hate speech to terrorism.

In its transparency report for Vietnam Google notes that it received a request from the Vietnamese government to remove 28 YouTube videos inciting violent protests during the Vietnamese Independence Day period (Vietnam’s Independence Day is September 2).  Google says it removed 12 videos for violating YouTube Community Guidelines that prohibit publishing instructions to commit violent acts. It restricted access to 4 other videos in Vietnam. The company did not remove the remaining 12 videos.

Google also appears to be complying with a new cyber security law in Vietnam, which requires foreign companies to set up representative offices inside the country. Some have speculated that one of the factors motivating the law is to ensure that multinational companies do not evade taxes.

Vietnam has been trying to collect taxes from both Google and YouTube, as well as other foreign tech companies that make profits from Vietnamese customers while declaring their profits to tax authorities in other countries with lower tax rates like Singapore. In contrast to a bricks and mortar store that sells bicycles, which are simple to tax, foreign tech companies tend to sell intangible services, like advertising attached to YouTube videos, which are harder to tax. 

“Aside from the matter of studying amendments to laws and regulations of tax administration, cooperation is needed between state agencies and industry,” Luu Duc Huy, head of the policy department at the Vietnamese General Department of Tax, told the government TV station, V News. “Second, cooperation is needed between the Vietnamese tax agency and other countries’ tax agencies.”

Google has said repeatedly that it follows all laws in the countries where it operates. 

It is not just Vietnam. Most countries from Thailand to France are trying to figure out how to collect taxes on YouTube and other businesses that physically operate beyond their borders but make money from citizens within the borders. As Huy noted, the solution is likely to derive from these multiple tax authorities coming together, as is now being proposed by the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Five brothers came to the US from Ukraine almost two decades ago in search of the American Dream — that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed in the United States. During those 20 years, they’ve had all kinds of jobs, from washing floors, to delivering mail to working at construction sites. But they had even bigger dreams, Khrystyna Shevchenko met with this unique family. Anna Rice narrates her story.
 

U.S. President Donald Trump is denying he said anything “wrong” in a telephone conversation with the new president of Ukraine during which Trump allegedly urged him to investigate the son of former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.

Democrats meanwhile stepped up their criticism of the president for what they characterized as an attempt to engage a foreign leader in a scheme to damage the candidacy of Trump’s leading rival in the 2020 campaign.

Trump tweeted Saturday morning he had a “perfectly fine and routine conversation” on July 25 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and that, “Nothing was said that was in any way wrong.”

Trump accused Democrats and the news media of ignoring allegations against the Bidens and creating a false story about him.

“The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat (sic) Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won’t get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate … a story about me …”

The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won’t get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate a…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

The streets of Cairo were jammed on Saturday morning, as police checkpoints were erected across the city.

Hundreds of armed soldiers and police officers in riot gear patrolled Tahrir Square, one of the locations where protests broke out Friday night and the epicenter of previous demonstrations that led to the fall of former Presidents Hosni Mubarak and Mohammad Morsi.

Activists celebrated the demonstrations as a breakthrough after years of fear of police retaliation and called for continued protests against the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

People were on the streets Friday night in at least three cities, carrying signs with slogans such as “Go away Sissi!” and “The people demand the fall of the regime!”

In Cairo, gunshots were heard and tear gas was fired. By Saturday night, 166 families had told human rights workers that a relative had been arrested, according to the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights.

Pro-government news outlets blamed “terrorists” for the demonstrations, saying they were part of a larger plot to overthrow the government.

The demonstrations began after Mohammad Ali, a former contractor and actor now living in Spain, began posting videos accusing el-Sissi and the military of squandering billions of Egyptian pounds on corrupt business deals and luxurious castles.

Sixty percent of Egyptians are “poor or vulnerable,” according to the World Bank, and the gap between the rich and poor is expanding.

“No one knows what will happen, or exactly how angry Egyptian people are, or where this anger will lead them,” Nour Khalil, a human rights lawyer, said in his Cairo office. “But I am certain this time is different from the past. Yesterday, the fear barrier melted down.”

But for many Egyptians, mass protests over the past eight years have had devastating consequences, leaving them with little hope that popular pressure will lead to positive change.

“I think protesting is not good,” Um Essam, 74, said in her Cairo home. “Things will become more expensive. Young men will go to jail and no one knows when they will get out.”

In other parts of Cairo, some residents are more hopeful, saying governmental change may do something to alleviate the deep poverty.

“We were all surprised yesterday when people went out on the streets,” said Mostafa, 28, in the abandoned bakery where he lives with five cousins. The cousins, who sell small fruits, moved to Cairo to escape even deeper poverty in their village.

By Saturday evening, police in downtown Cairo were stopping pedestrians, searching through bags and mobile phones and demanding to know where people were going. In the past few years, other fledgling protest movements have ended quickly in a similar fashion.

Human rights organizations said thousands of Egyptians are already in jail for protesting peacefully. The last major demonstrations in Egypt, calling for the reinstatement of Morsi in 2013, ended in a hail of gunfire that killed up to 1,000 people.

One cousin at the old bakery, Ghareb, 34, said further protests would likely result in more arrests and violence, not the fall of the government.

And even if it were safe to hold demonstrations, Ghareb said, Egypt would face an uncertain future if the president did step down.

“If Sissi went away, who else would fill the position?” he asked.

Protesters burned a Chinese flag and police fired pepper spray during a march Saturday in an outlying district of Hong Kong in renewed clashes over anti-government grievances.
 
Police accused protesters of spraying water at officers during the march by several thousand people in Tuen Mun in Hong Kong’s northwest. Reporters saw at least one person arrested.
 
The event was relatively small compared with previous demonstrations that have taken place every weekend since June. The protests started with opposition to a proposed extradition law and have expanded to include demands for greater democracy in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
 
The events are an embarrassment for China’s ruling Communist Party ahead of Oct. 1 celebrations of its 70th anniversary in power. Hong Kong’s government has announced it has canceled a fireworks display that day, citing concern for public safety.
 
Protesters in Tuen Mun marched about 2 kilometers (1 1/2 miles) from a playground to a government office building. Many were dressed in black and carried umbrellas, a symbol of their movement.
 
Protesters chanted, “Reclaim Hong Kong!” and “Revolution of our times!”
 
Most were peaceful but some took down a Chinese flag outside a government office and set fire to it. Government broadcaster RTHK said some damaged fire hoses in the Tuen Mun light rail station.
 
Organizers announced the event, due to last two hours, was ending after one hour due to the chaotic scene at the station.
 
An organizer quoted by RTHK, Michael Mo, complained that police escalated tensions by sending armed anti-riot officers.
 
That will “only escalate tension between protesters and police,” Mo was quoted as saying.
 
Elsewhere, scuffles were reported as government supporters heeded a call by a pro-Beijing member of the Hong Kong legislature to tear down protest posters at subway stations.
 
Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, has agreed to withdraw the extradition bill. But protesters are pressing other demands, including an independent investigation of complaints about police violence during earlier demonstrations.
 
Protesters complain Beijing and Lam’s government are eroding the “high degree of autonomy” and Western-style civil liberties promised to the former British colony when it was returned to China in 1997.
 
The protests have begun to weigh on Hong Kong’s economy, which already was slowing due to cooling global consumer demand. The Hong Kong airport said passenger traffic fell in August and business is off at hotels and retailers.
 
Police refused permission for Saturday’s march but an appeal tribunal overturned that decision. The panel on Friday gave permission for a two-hour event that it said had to end at 5 p.m.
 
Protesters in Tuen Mun also complained about a group of women from mainland China who sing in a local park. Residents say they are too loud and accuse some of asking for money or engaging in prostitution.
 
Those complaints prompted a similar march in July.
 
Also Saturday, there were brief scuffles as government supporters tore down protest posters at several subway stops, according to RTHK.
 
The campaign to tear down protest materials was initiated by a pro-Beijing member of Hong Kong’s legislature, Junius Ho.
 
Near the subway station in the Tsuen Wan neighborhood, a woman who was tearing down posters threw a bag at a reporter and a man shoved a cameraman, RTHK reported. It said there was pushing and shoving between the two sides at stations in Yuen Long and Lok Fu.
 
Ho made an appearance in the Shau Kei Wan neighborhood but residents shouted at him and told him to leave, RTHK said.
 
Ho initially called for protest signs to be torn down in all 18 of Hong Kong’s districts but he said Friday that would be reduced to clearing up trash from streets due to “safety concerns.”
 
On Wednesday, the Hong Kong Jockey Club canceled a horse race after protesters suggested targeting the club because a horse owned by Ho was due to run.
 
Later Saturday, some protesters planned to go to another district, Yuen Long, where a group of men with sticks hit protesters and subway passengers in a July 21 incident that caused controversy in Hong Kong.

 

 

The head of Ukraine’s state-owned oil company says Kyiv will remain able to supply Europe with natural gas from its subterranean storage units even if European Union-mediated talks don’t pan out.

“We are fully confident that Ukraine can maintain gas supply … at least during the first quarter of 2020,” Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev said Friday at a public event in Brussels.

On Thursday, Russia and Ukraine held their third round of ministerial-level talks in Brussels about the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe, where all parties hoped to negotiate

With online shopping becoming more and more popular, traditional retail stores are doing everything they can to get shoppers to visit real stores. They are hoping one new piece of tech might do the trick.  Anna Rice narrates this report by VOA’s Julia Vassey in San Francisco, California.

 

A New York judge has ordered President Donald Trump to give a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit filed by protesters who claim they were roughed up outside Trump Tower.

State Supreme Court Judge Doris Gonzalez of the Bronx on Friday denied Trump’s effort to quash a subpoena seeking the president’s testimony.

She ordered Trump to videotape a deposition before the trial, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 26.

The lawsuit was filed by six activists who say they were assaulted by Trump security staff during a Sept. 3, 2015, protest by people upset over comments Trump made about Mexican immigrants.

The judge says Trump’s testimony is “indispensable” as someone in charge of the business and his campaign.

A lawyer for Trump did not immediately return a phone message.
 

Hundreds protested in central Cairo and several other Egyptian cities late on Friday against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, responding to an online call for a demonstration against government corruption, witnesses said.

Protests have become very rare in Egypt following a broad crackdown on dissent under Sisi, who took power after the overthrow of the former Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

Security forces moved to disperse the small and scattered crowds in Cairo using tear gas but many young people stayed on the streets in the center of the capital, shouting “Leave Sisi,” Reuters reporters at the scene said.

Police arrested some of the demonstrators, witnesses said.

Small protests were also held in Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, Suez on the Red Sea as well as the Nile Delta textile town of Mahalla el-Kubra, about 110 km (68 miles) north of Cairo, according to residents and videos posted online.

There was a heavy security presence in downtown Cairo and on Tahrir Square where mass protests started in 2011 which toppled veteran ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Authorities could not be immediately reached to comment.

State TV did not cover the incidents.

A pro-government TV anchor said only a small group of protesters had gathered in central Cairo to take videos and selfies before leaving the scene. Another pro-government channel said the situation around the Tahrir Square was quiet.

Mohamed Ali, a building contractor and actor turned political activist who lives in Spain, called in a series of videos for the protest after accusing Sisi and the military of corruption.

Last Saturday, Sisi dismissed the claims as “lies and slander.”

Sisi was first elected in 2014 with 97% of the vote, and re-elected four years later with the same percentage, in a vote in which the only other candidate was an ardent Sisi supporter.

His popularity has been dented by economic austerity measures.

Sisi’s supporters say dissent must be quashed to stabilize Egypt, after a 2011 uprising and the unrest that followed, including an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of police, soldiers and civilians.

They also credit him with economic reforms agreed with the International Monetary Fund.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday renewed threats to dump captured Islamic State fighters on Europe’s doorstep if countries there continue to refuse to take back all their foreign fighters. 
 
Trump said he was continuing with plans to draw down forces in Syria, saying the U.S. had done the world a big favor by eliminating the terror group’s self-declared caliphate and that it was time for other countries to step up. 
 
“We’re asking them to take back these prisoners of war,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the Oval Office at the White House. 
 
“They’ve refused,” he added. “And at some point I’m going to have to say, ‘I’m sorry, but you’re either taking them back or we’re going to let them go at your border.’ ” 
 
This is not the first time Trump has chastised Washington’s European allies over the issue of IS foreign fighters. 
 
In February, after tweeting that the IS caliphate was “ready to fall,” the president took allies to task over their reluctance to repatriate the captured fighters:

The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them……..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2019

According to the latest U.S. estimates, the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are still holding more than 2,000 foreign fighters in makeshift prisons in northeastern Syria, along with thousands other IS fighters from Syria and Iraq. 
 
U.S. and SDF officials have warned that attempted jailbreaks have become common, as many of the facilities, designed to serve as temporary prisons, have been pushed to their limits. 
 
“This is not sustainable,” Chris Maier, director of the Pentagon’s Defeat IS Task Force, told reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon. “There are not prisons controlled by forces in northeast Syria that can house 10,000 ISIS fighters.” 

But despite repeated calls by the U.S. and by the political wing of the SDF for countries to repatriate citizens and residents who left to fight for the terror group, the number of prisoners has remained fairly steady. 
 
“We ask for their countries to get them back. Nobody responds,” Sinam Mohammed, the U.S. representative of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), said last week. 
 
Cuban facility

Some U.S. officials and lawmakers have floated the idea that some of the IS fighters could be moved to a facility like the one in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, built after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to hold terrorists and fighters aligned with al-Qaida. 
 
But Trump on Friday rejected the idea. 
 
“The United States is not going to have thousands and thousands of people that we have captured stationed at Guantanamo Bay, held captive at Guantanamo Bay, for the next 50 years, and us spending billions and billions of dollars,” he said. 
 
“They can try them, do whatever they want,” the president said of the European countries. “If they don’t take them back, we’ll probably put them at the border and then they’ll have to capture them again.” 

Sound checks echoed from a distant main stage while Daniel Martinez whirled and danced at dusty makeshift festival grounds just after sunset in Rachel, the Nevada town closest to the once-secret Area 51 military base.

Martinez’s muse was the thumping beat from a satellite set-up pumping a techno tune into the chilly desert night Thursday.

Warm beneath a wolf “spirit hood” and matching faux fur jacket, the 31-year-old Pokemon collectible cards dealer said people, not the military base, drew him drive more than six hours from Pomona, California, alone.

“Here’s a big open space for people to be,” he said. “One person starts something and it infects everybody with positivity. Anything can happen if you give people a place to be.”

Minutes later, the music group Wily Savage started, and campers began migrating toward main stage light near the Little A’Le’Inn.

The music kicked off weekend events — inspired by an internet hoax to “see them aliens” — that Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said had drawn perhaps 1,500 people to two tiny desert towns.

Lee said late Thursday that more than 150 people also made the rugged trip on washboard dirt roads to get within selfie distance of two gates to the Area 51 U.S. Air Force installation that has long fueled speculation about government studies of space aliens and UFOs.

The Air Force has issued stern warnings for people not to try to enter the Nevada Test and Training Range, where Area 51 is located.

Lee said no arrests were made.

“It’s public land,” the sheriff said. “They’re allowed to go to the gate, as long as they don’t cross the boundary.”

Authorities reported no serious incidents related to festivals scheduled until Sunday in Rachel and Hiko, the two towns closest to Area 51. They’re about a 45-minute drive apart on a state road dubbed the Extraterrestrial Highway, and a two-hour drive from Las Vegas.

Earlier, as Wily Savage band members helped erect the wooden frame for a stage shade in Rachel, guitarist Alon Burton said he saw a chance to perform for people who, like Martinez, were looking for a scene in which to be seen.

“It started as a joke, but it’s not a joke for us,” he said. “We know people will come out. We just don’t know how many.”

Michael Ian Borer, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, sociologist who researches pop culture and paranormal activity, called the festivities sparked by the internet joke “a perfect blend of interest in aliens and the supernatural, government conspiracies, and the desire to know what we don’t know.”

The result, Borer said, was “hope and fear” for events that include the “Area 51 Basecamp” featuring music, speakers and movies in Hiko, and festivals in Rachel and Las Vegas competing for the name “Alienstock.”

“People desire to be part of something, to be ahead of the curve,” Borer said. “Area 51 is a place where normal, ordinary citizens can’t go. When you tell people they can’t do something, they just want to do it more.”

Eric Holt, the Lincoln County emergency manager overseeing preparations, said he believed authorities could handle 30,000 visitors at the two events in Rachel and Hiko.

Still, neighbors braced for trouble after millions of people responded to the “Storm Area 51” Facebook post weeks ago.

“Those that know what to expect camping in the desert are going to have a good time,” said Joerg Arnu, a Rachel resident who can see the festival grounds from his home.

Those who show up in shorts and flip-flops will find no protection against “critters, snakes and scorpions.”

“It will get cold at night. They’re not going to find what they’re looking for, and they are going to get angry,” Arnu said.

Some cellphones didn’t work Thursday in Rachel, and officials expect what service there was to eventually be overwhelmed.

The Federal Aviation Administration closed nearby airspace, although Air Force jets could be heard in the sun-drenched skies, along with an occasional sonic boom.

George Harris, owner of the Alien Research Center souvenir store in Hiko, said Friday and Saturday’s “Area 51 Basecamp” will focus on music, movies and talks about extraterrestrial lore.

Electronic dance music DJ and recording artist Paul Oakenfold is Friday’s headliner in Hiko.

The event also promises food trucks and vendors, trash and electric service, and a robust security and medical staff.

Harris said he was prepared for as many as 15,000 people and expected they would appreciate taking selfies with a replica of the Area 51 back gate without having to travel several miles to the real thing.

Sharon Wehrly, sheriff in adjacent Nye County, home to a conspicuously green establishment called the Area 51 Alien Center, said messages discouraging Earthlings from trying to find extraterrestrials in Amargosa Valley appeared to work.

She reported no arrests or incidents Thursday.

Her deputies last week arrested two Dutch tourists attracted by “Storm Area 51.” The men pleaded guilty to trespassing at a secure U.S. site nowhere near Area 51 and were sentenced to three days in jail after promising to pay nearly $2,300 each in fines.
 

Kuwait says it has raised security levels at its ports given ongoing regional tensions following an attack on Saudi Arabia.
 
The state-run KUNA news agency reported the decision Friday, quoting Kuwait’s minister of commerce and industry as making the announcement.

Khaled al-Roudhan said it affected both commercial ports and oil facilities.

Small, oil-rich Kuwait separately has told its military to be on heightened alert since the Sept. 14 attack on Saudi Arabia.
 
That attack halved the kingdom’s oil production and has disrupted global energy supplies.

The U.S. alleges Iran carried out the attack. Saudi Arabia says the assault was “unquestionably sponsored by Iran.” Iran denies being involved in the attack and warns any retaliatory strike on it by the U.S. or Saudi Arabia will result in “an all-out war.”

The Washington Monument reopened to the public on Thursday after being closed for years to replace its aging elevator and security system. First lady Melania Trump attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Here’s more from White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara.
 

More than a half century ago, a group of Puerto Ricans moved to Reading, Pennsylvania, to work the nearby mushroom fields. Since then the Latino and Hispanic population of the city itself has mushroomed — to 65% of the total. That majority-minority population is being closely watched politically because it is a key constituency in a swing state considered a must-win for both parties in next year’s presidential election. VOA’s White House bureau chief, Steve Herman reports from Reading.
 

The Pentagon will present a broad range of military options to President Donald Trump on Friday as he considers how to respond to what administration officials say was an unprecedented Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry.

In a White House meeting, the president will be presented with a list of potential airstrike targets inside Iran, among other possible responses, and he also will be warned that military action against the Islamic Republic could escalate into war, according to U.S. officials familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The national security meeting will likely be the first opportunity for a decision on how the U.S. should respond to the attack on a key Middle East ally. Any decision may depend on what kind of evidence the U.S. and Saudi investigators are able to provide proving that the cruise missile and drone strike was launched by Iran, as a number of officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have asserted.
 
Iran has denied involvement and warned the U.S. that any attack will spark an “all-out war” with immediate retaliation from Tehran.

Both Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence have condemned the attack on Saudi oil facilities as “an act of war.” Pence said Trump will “review the facts, and he’ll make a decision about next steps. But the American people can be confident that the United States of America is going to defend our interest in the region, and we’re going to stand with our allies.”

The U.S. response could involve military, political and economic actions, and the military options could range from no action at all to airstrikes or less visible moves such as cyberattacks. One likely move would be for the U.S. to provide additional military support to help Saudi Arabia defend itself from attacks from the north, since most of its defenses have focused on threats from Houthis in Yemen to the south.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasized to a small number of journalists traveling with him Monday that the question of whether the U.S. responds is a “political judgment” and not for the military.

“It is my job to provide military options to the president should he decide to respond with military force,” Dunford said.

Trump will want “a full range of options,” he said. “In the Middle East, of course, we have military forces there and we do a lot of planning and we have a lot of options.”

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said in an interview Thursday that if Trump “chooses an option that involves a significant military strike on Iran that, given the current climate between the U.S. and Iran, there is a possibility that it could escalate into a medium to large-scale war, I believe the president should come to Congress.”

Slotkin, a former top Middle East policy adviser for the Pentagon, said she hopes Trump considers a broad range of options, including the most basic choice, which would be to place more forces and defensive military equipment in and around Saudi Arabia to help increase security.
 
A forensic team from U.S. Central Command is pouring over evidence from cruise missile and drone debris, but the Pentagon said the assessment is not finished. Officials are trying to determine if they can get navigational information from the debris that could provide hard evidence that the strikes came from Iran.

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Thursday that the U.S. has a high level of confidence that officials will be able to accurately determine exactly who launched the attacks last weekend.

U.S. officials were unwilling to predict what kind of response Trump will choose. In June, after Iran shot down an American surveillance drone, Trump initially endorsed a retaliatory military strike then abruptly called it off because he said it would have killed dozens of Iranians. The decision underscores the president’s long-held reluctance to embroil the country in another war in the Middle East.

Instead, Trump opted to have U.S. military cyber forces carry out a strike against military computer systems used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to control rocket and missile launchers, according to U.S. officials.

The Pentagon said the U.S. military is working with Saudi Arabia to find ways to provide more protection for the northern part of the country.

Air Force Col. Pat Ryder, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters Wednesday that U.S. Central Command is talking with the Saudis about ways to mitigate future attacks. He would not speculate on what types of support could be provided.

Other U.S. officials have said adding Patriot missile batteries and enhanced radar systems could be options, but no decisions have been made.

Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb, National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin and VOA Persian reporter Katherine Ahn contributed to this report

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif issued a warning Thursday against those who might consider attacking Iran in response to an attack on Saudi oil facilities, after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo directly blamed Iran and called what happened in Saudi Arabia “an act of war.”

Zarif, writing on Twitter, cited a group he has termed the “B team” made up of U.S. officials and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he sees as intent on driving a war against Iran.  He said they are trying to “deceive” U.S. President Donald Trump into launching such a conflict.

“For their own sake, they should pray that they won’t get what they seek,” Zarif said Thursday.  “They’re still paying for much smaller Yemen war they were too arrogant to end 4yrs ago.”

“Act of war”or AGITATION for WAR?

Remnants of #B_Team (+ambitious allies) try to deceive @realdonaldtrump into war.

For their own sake, they should pray that they won’t get what they seek.

They’re still paying for much smaller #Yemen war they were too arrogant to end 4yrs ago.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 19, 2019

US stance
 

Pompeo is in Abu Dhabi for continued talks Thursday about the response to the attacks that at least temporarily cut the Saudis’ daily oil production by 5.7 million barrels, nearly 6% of the global oil supply.

“The U.S. stands with Saudi Arabia and supports its right to defend itself.  The Iranian regime’s threatening behavior will not be tolerated,” Pompeo said, after meeting Wednesday with Saudi officials.

He has been the most declarative among Trump administration officials in placing the blame on Iran. Pompeo told reporters traveling with him, “This was an Iranian attack,” and dismissed claims of responsibility made by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Trump said Wednesday the United States has “many options” in addition to military strikes to respond to Iran.

“We’re in a very strong position,” Trump told reporters on an airport tarmac in California as he headed to a political fundraiser.

Trump’s statement came hours after he said he is “substantially” increasing economic sanctions against Iran in the wake of the oil field attacks that Washington says were launched by Tehran.

Additional Iran sanctions

Trump, on Twitter, said he had directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to stiffen existing sanctions against Iran that American officials say have already hobbled its economy, but gave no details of the new penalties. Trump said the specifics of the sanctions would be announced within 48 hours.

I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019

The Trump administration does not appear to want an all-out war with Iran but also wants to re-establish deterrence in the region, Middle East Institute security analyst Bilal Saab told VOA Persian in an interview.

“To balance between these two (goals) will be a challenge,” Saab said. “In order to send a message to the Iranians not to do this again, and at the same time manage the situation and control escalation, I think covert options should be on the table.”

At a news conference, Saudi officials displayed what they said were remnants of 25 unmanned Iranian Delta Wing drones and “Ya-Ali” cruise missiles they have retrieved from the oil facilities that were attacked.

“The attack was launched from the north and unquestionably sponsored by Iran. The evidence … that you have seen in front of you, makes this undeniable,” Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Wednesday that the government sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. denying involvement in the Saudi oil field attacks and warned that if any actions are taken against Iran, it will respond immediately.

Houthi rebels claim responsibility
 

Shortly after the middle-of-the-night attacks last Saturday, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility and reiterated their claim on Wednesday. A Houthi spokesman also threatened to target the United Arab Emirates for its support of the Saudi-led operations inside Yemen.

“One operation will cost you a lot,” the Houthi spokesman vowed.

But U.S. and Saudi officials say the available evidence shows it is not possible that oil field attacks were launched from Yemen.

“Our working assumption is that this did not come from Yemen or Iraq,” a U.S. defense official told VOA Tuesday, adding that a U.S. forensic team is on the ground working with the Saudis to examine the remnants of the missiles.

“We think that evidence will be compelling,” the official added.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Yemenis carried out the attack as a “warning” to Saudi Arabia over its involvement leading a coalition fighting the Houthis. Human rights groups have criticized Saudi-led airstrikes for devastating civilian areas and worsening what is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Rouhani said the Yemenis “did not hit hospitals, they did not hit schools or the Sanaa bazaar,” and that the Saudis should “learn the lesson from this warning.”

In India’s tourist city of Jaipur, state authorities and civil society groups have launched a major campaign to end the use of child labor as growing numbers of young boys are trafficked into the city from poorer states. They are put to work to make handcrafted products that have made the city a magnet for shoppers from all over the country.  Anjana Pasricha has a report.