G-7 leaders are closing their summit Monday with discussions about the climate and digital transformation, though those issues are likely to be overshadowed by a closing joint news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump grabbed early headlines Monday as he expressed optimism to reporters for trade deals with China and Japan, as well as prospects for an agreement with Iran.  

Those comments came while Trump sat next to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi in what is usually a brief encounter with reporters before leaders go into a private meeting.  Trump took questions for about 10 minutes.

Trump downplayed any sense of tension between himself and French President Emmanuel Macron, after the French leader met Sunday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

“I knew he was coming in, and I respected the fact that he was coming in,” said Trump, who added that he gave Macron his approval.

Trump, who withdrew from the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear deal last year, said new negotiations would include Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missiles.  He criticized the length of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as being too short.

“Iran has a chance to really build themselves up and be a very great nation, greater than before.  But they have to stop terrorism,” Trump said.

At the summit, Macron introduced a plan to defuse rising tensions in the Gulf by partially lifting the U.S. oil embargo on Iran in exchange for Tehran’s returning to full compliance to the 2015 deal that restricts its nuclear program.

He told LCI television that members had agreed on a joint action on Iran.

Trump continues to resist pressure from his G-7 counterparts to rejoin the nuclear pact with Iran, a deal that’s considered a signature achievement of the Obama administration. After abandoning the pact, he slapped crippling sanctions on Tehran.

China trade tensions

G-7 leaders here have expressed concern about the escalation of the U.S.-China trade fight, with summit host Macron saying he hopes for leaders to pull back from an all-out trade war.

“I want to convince all our partners that tensions, and trade tensions in particular are bad for everybody,” he said in a speech.

Speaking alongside Trump during a working breakfast meeting, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson publicly refuted Trump’s statement that other leaders have not pressured him to give up the trade war with China, believed to be causing uncertainty in the global economy and volatility in stock markets.

“Just to register the faint, sheep-like note of our view on the trade war, we’re in favor of trade peace on the whole, and dialing it down if we can,” Johnson said.

Johnson is seen as a natural ally to Trump due to similarities in their populist policies and Brexit. 

Trump, in his comments Monday, seemed optimistic about reaching a trade deal with China, saying, “I think we’re going to make a deal.”

He said China had contacted U.S. trade officials by phone seeking to return to the negotiating table.

“We are going to start talking very seriously.  We’ll see how that goes,” Trump said.

The leaders of the world’s major industrialized countries are holding their annual summit.

 The Group of Seven, or G-7, is meeting in Biarritz, France. 

U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on French wine, one of the most iconic industries of the host country, ahead of the summit has added to the tension among the leaders who remain at odds over issues ranging from climate change, how to deal with China and Iran, whether to bring Russia back into the fold, and Britain’s exit from the European Union. 

With these deep divisions, consensus seems unlikely. After Sunday’s first session the leaders failed to come to an agreement on readmitting Russia to the group in 2020.  Russia was ousted after its invasion of Ukraine and seizure of Crimea in 2014.  

The French government announced after the first working session on the global economy, foreign policy and security affairs that the G-7 leaders had agreed to have French President Emmanuel Macron send a message to Iran and hold talks with Iranian officials.  No details were released about the message, and Trump said he had not discussed anything about a message or talks with Iran.  However, later Trump said he is not stopping anybody from talking with Iran.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, has acknowledged that “it has been increasingly difficult for us to find common language.”  

No joint communique planned

French President Emmanuel Macron already has declared that there will be no joint communique at the end of the summit, citing disagreements involving Trump and other leaders on the key issues as one of the reasons.

It will be the first time in G-7 history that a summit will end without a communique. 

The summit marks the first meeting between Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson since Johnson took over from his predecessor Theresa May who failed to deliver on Brexit. 

The members of the G-7 are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States. 

One in a series on Generation Z.

Generation Z, America’s youngest generation, is well on course to eclipse older generations in size and social impact.

Spanning the years 1997 and 2012, Gen Zers are the first generation to be born into digital technology, for one. They also have unique mental health issues, are more diverse than previous generations and have left-leaning political beliefs, according to various reports by Pew Research Center.

Unlike older generations, who either grew up without or came into adulthood during the rise of social media, smartphones and unfettered accessibility of information, Gen Z was born into new technology and has been defined by it more than any other.

“What is unique for Generation Z is that all of the above have been part of their lives from the start,” wrote Michael Dimock, president of the Pew Research Center, in an article about defining generations.

“The iPhone launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen Zers were 10. By the time they were in their teens, the primary means by which young Americans connected with the web was through mobile devices, Wi-Fi and high-bandwidth cellular service,” Dimock wrote. “Social media, constant connectivity and on-demand entertainment and communication are innovations (the generation of) millennials adapted to as they came of age.”

Diversity is another pillar of Gen Z, it is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in history, with 48% in 2018 being nonwhite, according to Pew. This demographic shift might signify societal and political changes, skewing toward liberal in the coming decades, as polling has shown about millennials.

Another aspect that distinguishes Gen Z from others is mental health. Depression and suicide rates for youth continue to rise, hitting its highest peak since World War II in 2017, according to annual research published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Factors contributing to increased depression and suicide rates for Gen Z include social media use, issues that play negatively in the news such as climate change, immigration and mass shootings, and a greater willingness of families and officials to acknowledge suicide as a cause of death, according to Pew.

There are 61 million Gen Zers in the U.S., and they are projected to be about 10% of the voting population in 2020, according to Pew. Add that to 73 million millennials — the generation before Gen Zers, born between 1981 and 1996 — and together, they are projected to make up 37% of the American electorate in 2020.

By comparison, baby boomers — Gen Zers’ parents and grandparents, born before 1964 — will make up 28% of the voting population in 2020, according to Pew.

Gen Zers are seen as predominantly liberal Democrat, typical of the young in previous generations. But unlike earlier generations, self-identified Gen Z Republicans skew more closely to center or left than earlier generations of young Republicans, according to Pew.

“It’s traditionally been the case that generations get more conservative as they get older. But Gen Z is so different that even if they do become a little bit more conservative than they are, they’re going to probably change our politics and how we will act as a society,” William Frey, senior fellow and demographer at the Brookings Institution, said.

Among Gen Z Republicans, 38% say they believe climate change is caused by human activity, compared with less than one-third of millennial Republicans, Pew reported. Gen Z aligns more closely to millennials on climate change, immigration and diversity. A majority, 62%, say diversity is an important consideration in politics, as opposed to 52% of Gen Xers and 48% of baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964.

For example, 52% of Gen Z Republicans say they think the government should be doing more to solve problems, compared with 38% of their millennial counterparts, 29% of Gen Xers, 23% of Republican baby boomers and only 12% of Republicans in the silent generation, born between 1925 and 1945, according to the Pew data.

The eldest Gen Zers are now entering college and the workforce. With access to $44 billion in buying power, they have the power to change the world even more than their elders.

One in a series on Generation Z.

Generation Z, which is predicted to overtake all previous generations in size as they age and older generations die out, has been beset by mental health issues such as depression and suicide more than previous generations at this age.

Gen Z is the least likely to report good or excellent mental health, according to an American Psychological Association (APA) study of Gen Z in October 2018. And just as concerning as the prevalence of stress in this population is its struggle to manage it.

A new study by the JAMA Network of medical journals shows that suicide rates for America’s youth reached a peak in 2017, with the suicide rate for Americans of all ages increasing 30% from the years 2000 to 2016, according to CDC data.

Suicide was the second-leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 10 and 34 in 2017, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
The authors of the study said the youth suicide rate, which reached 14.6 per 100,000, appears to be the highest since the government began collecting such data in 1960.

Suicide rates for girls and young women doubled between 2000 and 2017. Rates for boys and young men showed a similar increase over the same period, but

One in a series on Generation Z.

Smartphones. Social media. Virtual reality. Artificial intelligence.

Generation Z is the first to be born into a time when that technology existed.

Gen Zers are the first digital natives, born between 1997 and 2012, into a world of vast technological advances and innovations. They are unlike other generations, who either grew up without or came into adulthood during the rise of social media, smartphones and instant accessibility of information.

Students across the country are aware of the ways in which their childhood has been unique from their parents and grandparents. New Jersey native and American University student Emily Carnevale said that Facebook has become the key way for people to join together over ideology.

“Gen Z is one of the first groups to grow up with the formations of social media, which has altered the way we think and do everyday things. It has even become a major part of our political engagement,” Carnevale said.

They are finding the world of advanced technology and constant connectivity both helpful and hurtful.

Some students, like 19-year-old Mary Liebers of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, said technological innovations such as YouTube and other digital tools can be beneficial in accessing information, but harmful as a distraction.

“I think (technology) has been a really good tool for doing research, and having all sorts of information at my fingertips has helped me be proactive in my learning in some ways,” Liebers said.

“I also think that social media, specifically, has taken away from my education, in that I have spent so much time on it when I could have been doing other, more beneficial things,” she added.

Technology has afforded Gen Zers different learning styles and tools. In August 2018,

Australia and Vietnam on Friday expressed serious concern over tensions in the disputed South China Sea, where Hanoi says China’s gas survey ship has infringed on its territory and has disrupted Vietnam’s exploration activities.
 
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison met in Hanoi with his counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc and both leaders called for respect of international law and freedom of navigation.
 
Earlier the United States said it was deeply concerned that China is continuing to interfere with Vietnam’s longstanding oil and gas activities in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety and has deployed a survey vessel with armed escorts into waters off Vietnam, ignoring Hanoi’s calls to leave the area.

“We all need to uphold) principles that relate to freedom of navigation, freedom of overfly, ensuring that nations can pursuit and develop the opportunities that exist within their EEZ and within their sea boundaries, and they can go about that business in a way that is uninhabited and supported and upheld by the regional architecture and the rule of law that support that free conduct of activities,” Morrison told reporters.
 
Phuc said that the countries were united in their position on the South China Sea, where China has rattled smaller neighbors by constructing seven man-made islands in the disputed waters and equipped them with military runways and outposts.

In Beijing Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang did not directly address the U.S. accusations but said China opposed what he described as a U.S. campaign aimed at division.

“This is to drive a wedge between China and other countries and it is ill-intentioned. The aim is to create chaos in the situation in the South China Sea and damage regional peace and stability. China firmly opposes this,” Geng said.

Morrison and Phuc stopped short of explicitly naming China.
 
“I am not here to make accusations or do anything of that nature. We do not take sides,” Morrison said. Both he and Phuc urged all parties to refrain from the threat or use of force in settling disputes in accordance with international law.

Morrison said he didn’t want to agree or disagree with the U.S., stressing that Australia’s position was consistent.
 
“We are carefully calibrated with what we say but most important, respectful,” he said.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday it would invite Boeing 737 Max pilots from across the world to participate in simulator tests as part of the process to recertify the aircraft for flight following two fatal crashes.

Earlier, Reuters reported that the agency had asked the three U.S. airlines that operate the Max to provide the names of some pilots who had only flown the 737 for around a year, including at least one Max flight.

In a statement, the FAA said it had not specified the number of required hours of flight experience, but said the candidates would be a cross-section of line pilots and must have experience at the controls of the Max.

Boeing Co’s latest 737 narrow-body model, the Max, was grounded worldwide in March after two crashes within five months in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.

Boeing has been reprogramming software for a stall-prevention system at the center of both crashes, which the FAA must approve before the plane flies again commercially.

The FAA said it has not yet specified a firm schedule for the tests. 

Two must-have documents for international students in the United States are a Social Security number and a driver’s license with a photograph or other state-issued photo ID. 
 
The Social Security number is required for any student who wants to get a job in the U.S. The Social Security Administration, an independent agency of the federal government, issues a nine-digit number to each U.S. citizen, permanent resident and temporary resident, including each international student.  

An international student must wait at least 10 days after arriving in the U.S. before applying for a Social Security number. This is to ensure that the person’s Form I-94, “Arrival/Departure Record,” is updated in government computers. 

Necessary documents 
 
A student must appear in person at a Social Security Administration office and bring two valid documents that prove age, identity, and U.S. citizenship or work-authorized immigration status. Those documents — which must be the originals, not photocopies — can include a valid passport as well as any immigration document, such as a Form I-551, I-766 or I-94.

A foreign student who wants to drive in the U.S. must obtain a driver’s license issued by the state in which the person resides.  Most U.S. states recognize international driver’s licenses. The exception is Georgia, which requires a U.S. driver’s license for foreigners, known as an International Driving Permit.  
 
To get a license, a student must have an active status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). Once the student passes the required written test and submits the necessary paperwork, the state motor vehicle department will issue the license.
 
Driving-Tests.org offers sample tests for practice. Some states offer tests in various languages. In Washington, D.C., tests are available in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, Amharic and Korean.  

Massachusetts and some other states require that the driving test be taken in a vehicle with a hand brake between the two front seats so the examiner can reach it if needed.

Photo ID

The driver’s license can serve as photo identification, which in the U.S. may be required for several kinds of transactions, such as shopping with a credit card. Photo ID will also likely be needed at banks, libraries and airports, and for mail pickup at a post office or commercial postal service. Many bars, clubs and liquor stores, particularly in college towns, require all patrons to show proof of identification, regardless of age. 

A student can obtain a state-issued photo identification card from the same state agency that issues driver’s licenses. It cannot be used as a substitute for a driver’s license.  

A student should be aware that for those younger than 21, the state driver’s license or photo ID will be in a vertical rather than horizontal format, so food servers and bartenders will more quickly be able to identify the holder as underage and therefore unable to be served alcohol. 

Students can use valid passports as identification, but carrying a passport all the time puts it at risk of being lost or stolen, which creates major problems for international students. Recovering a lost or stolen passport can mean repeated visits to the issuing consulate or embassy and having to file a report with the local police. Aside from the extra cost in time and money to replace a passport, the loss could subject the passport holder to identify theft, because it contains important personal data.  

For more information about obtaining a Social Security number or driver’s license in the U.S., visit the Study in the States website.

Japan’s prime minister said Friday that South Korea’s decision to end a military intelligence sharing deal with Tokyo damages mutual trust.

Shinzo Abe, speaking a day after Seoul announced its decision, said Tokyo “will continue to closely coordinate with the U.S. to ensure regional peace and prosperity, as well as Japan’s security.”

In an escalation of its bitter dispute with Japan, South Korea decided Thursday to scrap its military intelligence sharing agreement with Tokyo, opening a new divide in trilateral security cooperation among the U.S., Japan, and South Korea.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House said Thursday it is not in its national interest to continue the deal. Seoul will inform Tokyo of its decision before the Saturday deadline to renew the agreement, the South Korean statement said.

Worsening tensions

The decision will worsen tensions between South Korea and Japan, which are involved in a dispute rooted in Japan’s use of forced labor during its colonial occupation of Korea. The move also threatens to further upend security cooperation on U.S. priorities such as North Korea and China.

In announcing its decision, South Korea cited Japan’s recent decision to remove Seoul from its list of trusted trade partners.

“The rationale was that a national security problem had arisen due to a breach of trust, yet no concrete evidence to support those allegations was presented,” the Blue House statement said.

“Under these circumstances, the Government of the Republic of Korea decided that maintaining this Agreement, which was signed to facilitate the exchange of sensitive military information, does not serve our national interest,” it added.

The General Security of Military Information Agreement was signed in November 2016. It’s not clear what the immediate impact of its termination will be.

“I hope there is no impact on policies but there will be an impact on military and intelligence operations,” says David Maxwell, a former U.S. special forces colonel in the U.S. Army, who served in South Korea. “Information will be shared through the U.S. middle man unless South Korea or Japan makes the situation worse by adding caveats such as the information they provide cannot be shared with a third party.”

South Korea’s foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, said the decision to withdraw from the agreement is a “separate issue from the South Korea-U.S. alliance,” according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. The decision, she says, was made because of a “trust issue” between Seoul and Tokyo, Yonhap reported.

But the move cannot be separated from Seoul’s alliance with Washington, insists Maxwell, now with the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“It damages the national security of all three countries, though South Korea suffers the worst,” he said.

“We encourage Japan and Korea to work together to resolve their differences,” said a Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn. “I hope they can do this quickly. We are all stronger — and Northeast Asia is safer — when the United States, Japan, and Korea work together in solidarity and friendship. Intel sharing is key to developing our common defense policy and strategy.”

Trade moves

Japan, last month, removed South Korea from its “white list” of trusted trade partners and restricted exports of high-tech materials to South Korea. The materials are used to produce semiconductors and displays in smartphones and other electronics that serve as the backbone of South Korea’s export-driven economy.

Japan’s moves are widely seen as retaliation for recent South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese companies to compensate Koreans who were forced to work during Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea.

Seoul retaliated earlier this month by removing Japan from its own “white list” of countries that enjoyed minimal trade restrictions.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, last week, signaled a de-escalation in its trade dispute with Japan, saying he would “gladly join hands” with Tokyo if it chooses dialogue.

Historic dispute

The trade dispute is the latest flare-up in tensions rooted in Japan’s brutal 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean Peninsula. A major source of friction is how to compensate those forced into labor and sexual slavery in the colonial era.

Japan says the reparations issue was resolved with a 1965 treaty that normalized Japan-South Korea relations. Japan has complained that subsequent South Korean governments have not accepted further Japanese apologies and attempts to make amends.
 

Hundreds gathered in Congo’s eastern city of Goma Thursday to support Ebola response teams that have seen increasing attacks and resistance among communities where Ebola continues to spread.

North Kivu Governor Carly Kasivita, who organized the march, said that anyone spreading misinformation and claiming that “Ebola is a business” will face arrest.
 
“We are very concerned … Some pastors, some politicians, are venturing into the public health debate and disorienting many of our citizens with misinformation. These pastors who deny the existence of Ebola will be put in jail as soon as they are caught,” Kasivita said.
 
The governor also promised more marches and initiatives to raise awareness in other parts of the province, including Beni and Butembo where Ebola also has spread.
 
“The message is to say we must stop this disease in the province. In the same way that we are concerned about security in the province, we are also concerned about Ebola,” he said.

People rode bikes alongside police, soldiers and residents in Goma carrying banners and wearing T-shirts that said STOP.
 
“We do not want other countries to be contaminated through our beautiful province of North Kivu. We want everyone to contribute to Ebola’s end,” Kasivita said. “People need to understand that the disease exists and we call on rebel groups to work with response teams because there are environments where teams cannot get because of insecurity.”

The Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 1,800 people since it was declared one year ago in eastern Congo, has not shown signs of slowing down despite new treatments and vaccines given to more than 197,000 people in the region. New cases emerged in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, in recent months and have spread to a new province in the past week.
 
Insecurity has been one factor in a region where rebel groups have fought for control of mineral-rich lands for decades. Ebola also has spread because of mistrust by communities who have also staged attacks against health workers.
 
The governor of South Kivu and his Rwandan counterpart in the Western Province signed a bilateral agreement on Wednesday in Bukavu to unite their efforts in the fight against Ebola, while respecting peoples’ rights to cross borders.

To help combat further spread of Ebola, however, the two delegations agreed to exchange specific information, including a list of high-risk people, said Daniel Lwaboshi, deputy chief of staff of the governor of South Kivu.

“These are those people who have been in contact with the sick, because we have them in our province,” he said.
 
Measures are already in place. Days ago, several people from South Kivu had been prevented from crossing the border.

The will that Jeffrey Epstein signed just two days before his jailhouse suicide puts more than $577 million in assets into a trust fund that could make it more difficult for his dozens of accusers to collect damages.

Estate lawyers and other experts say prying open the trust and dividing up the financier’s riches is not going to be easy and could take years.

“This is the last act of Epstein’s manipulation of the system, even in death,” said attorney Jennifer Freeman, who represents child sex abuse victims.

Epstein, 66, killed himself Aug. 10 in New York while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. The discovery of the will with its newly created 1953 Trust, named after the year of his birth, instantly raised suspicions he did it to hide money from the many women who say he sexually abused them when they were teenagers.

By putting his fortune in a trust, he shrouded from public view the identities of the beneficiaries, whether they be individuals, organizations or other entities. For the women trying to collect from his estate, the first order of business will be persuading a judge to pierce that veil and release the details.

From there, the women will have to follow the course they would have had to pursue even if Epstein had not created a trust: convince the judge that they are entitled to compensation as victims of sex crimes. The judge would have to decide how much they should get and whether to reduce the amounts given to Epstein’s named beneficiaries, who would also be given their say in court.

“Wealthy people typically attempt to hide assets in trusts or other legal schemes. I believe the court and his administrators will want to do right by Epstein’s victims, and if not, we will fight for the justice that is long overdue to them,” attorney Lisa Bloom, who represents several Epstein accusers, said in an email.

She said attorneys for the women will go after Epstein’s estate in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the will was filed and where he owned two islands.

Bloom said it was “gross negligence” on the part of Epstein’s lawyers and jail personnel to allow him to sign a new will, given that he had apparently attempted suicide a short time before. Bloom called a will “a classic sign of impending suicide for a prisoner.”

The lawyers who handled the will have not returned calls for comment.

The assets listed in the 20-page document include more than $56 million in cash; properties in New York, Florida, Paris, New Mexico and the Virgin Islands; $18.5 million in vehicles, aircraft and boats; and art and collectibles that will have to be appraised.

Typically in any case, trust or not, there is a pecking order of entities that line up to get a share of an estate, said Stephen K. Urice, a law professor at the University of Miami. First in line would be the government – in Epstein’s case, several governments – which will collect any taxes owed on his properties and on his estate itself.

Next would be any other creditor to whom Epstein owed money, such as a bank or mortgage company.

Lawsuits against the estate by victims would come into play somewhere after that.

Epstein’s only known relative is a brother, Mark Epstein, who has not responded to requests for comment. It is unclear whether he was named a beneficiary.

One other possibility is that the U.S. government will seek civil forfeiture of Epstein’s properties or other assets on the grounds that they were used for criminal purposes. Government lawyers would have to produce strong evidence of that at a trial-like proceeding.

If they prevailed, they would be able to seize the properties, sell them and distribute the proceeds to victims.

“The fact that there is a will should not stop them,” said Cheryl Bader, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on the possibility of a forfeiture action.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis agreed to push for more solidarity in the European Union over the migrant crisis.
 
Mitsotakis, who took office on July, met with Macron in Paris on Thursday. He said the migrant crisis must not weigh only on the countries that are on the front line like Greece, Italy and Spain.
 
Macron implicitly criticized Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, who recently refused to allow migrants onboard a rescue ship to disembark.

Macron said “unacceptable decisions have been taken, again” and stressed that countries “must find a European solution.”

The United States will get a step closer to establishing a space force next week. 

Vice President Mike Pence and Pentagon officials told the National Space Council on Tuesday the U.S. Space Command will officially be up and running Aug. 29. Creation of the new command is seen as a likely step toward the creation of a space force as a separate military entity.

“The United States Space Force will ensure that our nation is prepared to defend our people, defend our interests, and to defend our values in the vast expanse of space and here on Earth with the technologies that will support our common defense for the vast reaches of outer space,” Pence said. 

Pence said setting up the command still needs congressional funding and authority, but he said he expects that to happen soon. 

The launch of the Space Command will accelerate what has been a decades-long effort to reorganize and improve the military’s technological advances in space, which at times have gotten less attention as the Air Force has focused on warplanes and other combat priorities.

The military’s role in space has been under scrutiny because the United States is increasingly reliant on orbiting satellites that are difficult to protect. Satellites provide communications, navigation, intelligence and other services vital to the military and the national economy.

Over the past year, the issue gained urgency amid growing competition and threats from adversary nations.

Jeffrey Epstein signed a will just two days before he killed himself in jail, new court records show, opening a new legal front in what could be a long battle over the financier’s fortune.

Court papers filed last week in the U.S. Virgin Islands list no details of beneficiaries but valued the estate at more than $577 million, including more than $56 million in cash.

The existence of the will, first reported by the New York Post, raised new questions about Epstein’s final days inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.

Epstein signed the document Aug. 8. Less than 48 hours later, he was found dead in his cell, prompting an investigation that has cast a harsh light on staffing shortages at the Manhattan detention center.

Prosecutors on Monday moved to dismiss the indictment against Epstein but have said they are considering charging others with facilitating his alleged abuse of dozens of girls.

The filing of the will, meanwhile, had been closely followed by lawyers representing women who claim they were sexually abused by Epstein when they were teenagers and recruited into his residences to provide him massages.

Several attorneys vowed to go after his assets even if the will had named beneficiaries, as Epstein’s death means there will be no trial on the criminal charges against him. One woman filed suit against the estate last week, claiming Epstein repeatedly raped her when she was a teenager.

“Give his entire estate to his victims. It is the only justice they can get,” one of those lawyers, Lisa Bloom, wrote in an email. “And they deserve it. And on behalf of the Epstein victims I represent, I intend to fight for it.”

Former federal prosecutor David S. Weinstein, who is now in private practice in Miami but not involved in the Epstein case, said states and U.S. territories have certain timeframes within which to make a claim against someone’s estate.

“There are certainly going to be a lot of lawyers involved,” Weinstein said. “It’s not going to be over any time soon.”

A hedge fund manager who hobnobbed with the rich and famous, Epstein owned a Caribbean island, homes in Paris and New York City, a New Mexico ranch and a fleet of high-price cars.

Epstein had more than $112 million worth of equities, according to the will, and nearly $200 million in “hedge funds & private equity investments.” Among the properties that will be subject to appraisal and valuation are his collection of fine arts, antiques and other collectibles.

As part of his 2008 plea deal to Florida state charges, Epstein made undisclosed financial settlements with dozens of his victims. It’s unclear how those settlements might affect any claims made on his estate.

William Blum, an attorney for Epstein’s estate, said in a statement to The Associated Press that any debts or claims against the estate will be “fairly administered.” He said the document was Epstein’s original last will.

 

The “fundamentals” of the U.S. economy are solid, the White House asserted, invoking an ill-fated political declaration of a decade ago amid mounting concern that a recession could imperil President Donald Trump’s reelection.

Exhibiting no such concern, senior adviser Kellyanne Conway declared to reporters on Monday, “The fact is, the fundamentals of our economy are very strong.”
 
It’s a phrase with a history. Republican John McCain was accused of being out of touch when he made a similar declaration during the 2008 presidential campaign just hours before investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, setting off a stock market crash and global financial decline.
 
A case can be made for the White House position. The U.S. job market is setting records for low unemployment, and the economy has continued uninterrupted growth since Trump took office. But growth is slowing, stock markets have swung wildly in recent weeks on recession fears, and indicators in the housing and manufacturing sectors have given economists pause. A new survey Monday showed a big majority of economists expecting a downturn to hit by 2021 at the latest, according to a report from the National Association of Business Economics.

Trump begs to disagree.
 
 “We’re doing tremendously well. Our consumers are rich. I gave a tremendous tax cut and they’re loaded up with money,” Trump said on Sunday. “I don’t think we’re having a recession.”
 

Still, the Republican president took to Twitter on Monday to urge the Federal Reserve to stimulate the economy by cutting interest rates and returning to “quantitative easing” of its monetary policy, an indication of deep anxiety beneath his administration’s bravado. And he backtracked last week on taking the next step in escalating in his trade war with China, concerned that new tariffs on consumer goods could hamper the critical holiday shopping season.
 
White House aides and campaign advisers have been monitoring the recent turbulence in the financial markets and troubling indicators at home and around the world with concern for Trump’s 2020 chances.
 
Any administration has to walk a fine line between reflecting the realities of the global financial situation and adopting its historical role as a cheerleader for the American economy. For Trump, striking that balance may be even more difficult than for most.
 
For decades, economic performance has proven to be a critical component of presidential job approval, and no American leader so much as Trump has tied his political fortunes to it. The celebrity businessman was elected in 2016 promising to reduce unemployment — a task at which he has succeeded — and to bring about historic GDP growth, where he has had less success.
 
The situation today isn’t nearly as dire as in September 2008, when the U.S. and the world were heading into the Great Recession. There are no waves of home foreclosures, no spike in layoffs, no market meltdowns and no government rescues to save powerful banks and financial companies in order to contain the damage. What does exist is a heightened sense of risk about the economy’s path amid slowing global growth and the volatility caused by the trade dispute between the United States and China.
 
There are other reasons as well for the administration’s rosy pronouncements, said Tony Fratto, a former Treasury Department spokesman in the Bush administration during the onset of the financial crisis. He said he sympathized with the Trump administration for having to choose between answering “honestly or responsibly” or otherwise about the state of the economy, noting that any hint of concern “could be self-fulfilling.”
 
 “So much of the story of the economy is how people feel about it,” said Lanhee Chen, a Hoover Institution fellow and former economic adviser to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney. “And that’s an inherently a difficult thing to measure.”
 
Highlighting a disconnect between the nation’s broad economic indicators and the “personal economies” of voters in swing states is a priority for Democratic candidates and outside groups heading into 2020.
 
Trump’s advisers acknowledge there are few tools at his disposal to avert a slowdown or recession if one materializes: Internal concerns over a ballooning federal deficit, in part due to the president’s 2017 tax law, are stifling talk of stimulus spending, and skepticism abounds over the chances of passing anything through a polarized Congress ahead of the election. But that hasn’t stopped the White House from exploring ways to make the political cost less painful.
 
Seeking to get ahead of a potential slowdown, Trump has been casting blame on the Federal Reserve, China and now Democrats, claiming political foes are “trying to ‘will’ the Economy to be bad for purposes of the 2020 Election.”
 
If the Federal Reserve would reduce rates and loosen its grip on the money supply “over a fairly short period of time,” he tweeted, “our Economy would be even better, and the World Economy would be greatly and quickly enhanced – good for everyone!”

…..The Fed Rate, over a fairly short period of time, should be reduced by at least 100 basis points, with perhaps some quantitative easing as well. If that happened, our Economy would be even better, and the World Economy would be greatly and quickly enhanced-good for everyone!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2019

 
Those actions he’s talking about are the sort a central bank would traditionally take to deal with or try to stave off a slowdown or full-blown recession.
 
Strong fundamentals? A lot depends on which ones the administration highlights or ignores in public comments.
 
Conway and other Trump aides have accurately described the rising retail sales and the solid labor market with its 3.7% unemployment rate as sources of strength.
 
Yet factory output and home sales are declining, while business investment has been restricted because of uncertainties from Trump ratcheting up the China trade tension.
 
Even if the economy avoids a recession, economists still expect growth to weaken.
 
Federal Reserve officials estimate that the gross domestic product will slow to roughly 2% this year, down from 2.5% last year. During his presidential campaign, Trump had boasted he would achieve long-term growth of 4 percent, 5 percent or more.
 

 

An environmental analysis shows the proposed site for David Beckham’s Major League Soccer stadium in Miami is far more toxic than previously expected.

The Miami Herald reports the analysis found arsenic contamination reaching more than twice the legal limit, and surface-level soil samples containing hazardous debris at the Melreese golf course site, where people have played golf for more than 50 years.

The consultant’s report says almost the entire site near Miami International Airport is contaminated by ash from a municipal incinerator shut down long ago.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said Monday night that team officials said the findings could increase cleanup costs to $50 million at the site.

The sprawling $1 billion commercial and stadium complex would serve as home to Beckham’s MLS team, Inter Miami.

 

Growing up with albinism, 24-year-old Allan Herbert, a Kenyan journalism graduate, knew he was different. While he did not experience the same stigmatism and discrimination of his peers living with albinism, he had to be shielded from the sun by his peers.  It is this special treatment and media stories of the brutal attacks suffered against albinos that made Herbert start a football team — his way of helping people with the genetic disorder fight for their space in Kenya. This past weekend, the team won its debut match in what Herbert says he hopes is a first of many. 

Herbert, founder and team captain of Black Albinism Football Club, Kenya’s first football team made up entirely of young people living with albinism, says the sport brings people together.

“Football brings people of different diversity together, and when we decided on a sport, we said football is the easiest, and it is also in the school curriculum so people relate with it easier,” Herbert said.

Across East Africa, people with albinism have been targeted in brutal ritual killings for their body parts to be used in witchcraft, mainly due to their white skin — a condition that is caused by lack of pigmentation. Isaac Mwaura, a senator in Kenya, has been campaigning for the rights of people with albinism. He is Kenya’s first and only lawmaker living with albinism.

“People with albinism really suffer because they are black but not black enough, white but not white enough, disabled but not disabled enough. So, we are caught in between. And when you are caught in between it, you really don’t belong. So, we have to self-define. These are self-definition activities,” Mwaura said.

In their debut match, the 6-month-old team carries the day 4 to 2 in a penalty shootout.

 “Once we fight the discrimination, once we beat the stigmatization, then we can see the greatness in us. We have won fair and square,” Herbert said.

As the match comes to an end, and Herbert celebrates with his teammates, the journalism graduate says there is no turning back on the dream of one day playing in the Kenyan premier league, and hopefully representing his country on the international stage.

“We are not different in any way. The only thing is our skin is a bit pale and we have issues with our eyesight. But that does not make us less as people,” Herbert said.

Britain’s Foreign Office says it is “extremely concerned” by reports that an employee at its Hong Kong consulate has been detained in mainland China.  

Hong Kong’s local news website HK01 says the employee, identified as Simon Cheng, failed to return to the former British colony from the neighboring southern city of Shenzhen on August 9, where he had gone to attend a business meeting.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued a statement  says it is providing support to Cheng’s family and “seeking further information from authorities in Guangdong province and Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong has been gripped by nearly two months of heated and often violent anti-government protests. Beijing was angered when British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had a telephone conversation with Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Friday about the demonstrations earlier this month.

China’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying it “solemnly demands” that the British “immediately stop all actions that meddle in Hong Kong affairs and interfere in China’s internal affairs.”

 

New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that citizenship appears to narrow the economic gap between the foreign-born and native-born in the United States.

The 2018 figures released Monday offer a view of immigrants’ education, wealth, and the jobs they work in. They also look at differences between naturalized immigrants and those who aren’t citizens.
 
Their release come as the U.S. is engaged in one of the fiercest debates in decades about the role of immigration.
 
Stopping the flow of immigrants into the U.S. has been a priority of the Trump administration, which has proposed denying green cards to immigrants who use Medicaid and fought to put a citizenship question on the decennial Census questionnaire.
 
Monday’s figures show naturalized immigrants had a slightly smaller median income than the native-born.

    

 

Few people have turned up for an opposition protest in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, on Monday as armed police maintained heavy presence on the streets and at a courthouse where the opposition is pressing to be allowed to hold the demonstration.

Business in Bulawayo’s usually bustling downtown was subdued with the most traffic from police trucks, water cannons and dozens of police officers patrolling on foot.

The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had called the protest as part of a planned series of demonstrations to push President Emmerson Mnangagwa to agree to a transitional government amid a rapidly deteriorating economy and rising political tensions.

But the police banned the protest in the southern city, citing security concerns. A Bulawayo magistrate is hearing the opposition party’s challenge to the ban.

The protest was planned as a follow up to demonstrations held in the capital, Harare, on Friday when several hundred demonstrators marched in defiance of a police ban that was upheld by the High Court. Police used tear gas and beatings with batons to quell the Harare protest.