Lee Juhyun in Seoul and Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb in Tokyo contributed to this report.

North Korea launched a fresh round of ballistic missiles into the sea early Tuesday and warned it could take a “new road” in response to U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began this week.

The North fired two short-range ballistic missiles from South Hwanghae province in the western part of the country, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The missiles traveled about 450 kilometers and reached a height of about 37 kilometers, it added. 

North Korea has conducted four rounds of short-range ballistic missile launches in less than two weeks, raising doubts about working-level nuclear talks that U.S. officials had hoped would begin last month.

‘Flagrant violation’

Minutes before the latest test, North Korea’s foreign ministry released a statement slamming the U.S.-South Korean military drills as a “flagrant violation” of its recent agreements with Washington and Seoul.

“We have already warned several times that the joint military exercises would block progress in the DPRK-U.S. relations and the inter-Korean relations and bring us into reconsideration of our earlier major steps,” said a North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The United States and South Korea on Monday moved ahead with the joint exercises, even while calling on North Korea to engage in working-level nuclear talks. 

“The U.S. and South Korean authorities remain outwardly talkative about dialogue. But when they sit back, they sharpen a sword to do us harm,” the KCNA statement said, adding Pyongyang may “be compelled to seek a new road as we have already indicated.”

Washington and Seoul say the drills are defensive in nature, while Pyongyang sees them as preparation to invade.

A U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson said the U.S. military will continue training with South Korean forces, but declined to discuss military exercises “in order to preserve space for diplomacy to work.”

“We continue to train in a combined manner at echelon while harmonizing our training program with diplomatic efforts by adjusting four dials: size, scope, volume and timing,” the spokesperson said in an email to VOA. 

The United States and South Korea have scaled back or canceled several rounds of military exercises since last year, as part of an agreement reached between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking to reporters aboard a military aircraft en route to Tokyo, said Washington would like to see Pyongyang reciprocate.  But some analysts say North Korea appears to have no plans to do so. 

“So they’re going to continue their winter training exercises per normal, not downgrading them in any substantial way. And yet, they want us to completely end ours?” asks Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“It’s bordering on ridiculous. And you start to have to wonder about at some point, whether he’s (Kim) really sincere and wanting a deal.”

All of S. Korea within reach

South Korea’s presidential Blue House convened an emergency meeting to discuss the latest North Korean launch, a spokesperson said.

Speaking in Tokyo Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said the United States takes the launchings seriously.

“We monitor them. We try to understand what they’re doing and why. We also need to be careful not to overreact and not to get ourselves in a situation where diplomacy is closed off,”  he said.

U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials say the weapons North Korea launched Tuesday appear similar to the short-range ballistic missiles tested on July 25, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

North Korea on July 25 launched its version of a Russian-made Iskander short-range ballistic missile, which appears to be designed to evade U.S. and South Korean missile defenses. Since then, North Korea has also tested a new type of multiple rocket launcher.

Regardless of whether the latest launch involved missiles or a multiple rocket launcher, a distance of 450 kilometers from South Hwanghae province “means that all of South Korean territory is within firing range,” says Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea specialist at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. 

Trump, who wants to continue talks with North Korea, has said he has “no problem” with North Korea’s recent missile launches, since they are short-range.

In a series of tweets last week, the president said the missile tests “are not a violation of our signed Singapore agreement, nor was there discussion of short-range missiles when we shook hands.”

“There may be a United Nations violation, but Chairman Kim (Jong Un) does not want to disappoint me with a violation of trust,” Trump said. “There is far too much for North Korea to gain.”

Working-level talks

Trump has met North Korean leader Kim three times since last June — in Singapore, Vietnam and at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.

At the DMZ meeting in late June, both sides agreed to soon hold working-level talks. But North Korea has not agreed to set a date to begin those talks.

In the KCNA statement Tuesday, the North held out the possibility of more dialogue.

“We remain unchanged in our stand to resolve the issues through dialogue. But the dynamics of dialogue will be more invisible as long as the hostile military moves continue,” the KCNA statement said.

“A constructive dialogue cannot be expected at a time when a simulated war practice targeted at the dialogue partner is being conducted, and there is no need to have a fruitless and exhausting dialogue with those who do not have a sense of communication,” it continued.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had hoped to meet his North Korean counterparts at a regional summit last week in Bangkok, Thailand. But North Korea did not send any officials to the meeting.

“I wish they’d have come here,” Pompeo told reporters before heading home from Thailand. “I think it would have given us an opportunity to have another set of conversations, and I hope it won’t be too long before I have a chance to do that.”

Increasing actions

North Korea has slowly been increasing its threats and provocations — a strategy analysts say is designed to increase pressure on Washington and Seoul without completely derailing the talks.

“As long as Trump has good rapport with Kim Jong Un, I’m not too concerned,” said David Kim, a North Korea specialist at the Stimson Center. But Kim said he doesn’t expect much traction while the drills continue. “It may be awhile until we see lower-level talks resume,” he says. 

North Korea has given the United States until the end of the year to change its approach to nuclear talks, warning it could resume longer range missile or nuclear tests. In a New Year’s speech, Kim warned North Korea could take a “new path” if the United States does not remove sanctions against his country. 

With talks stalled yet again, some U.S. officials are hinting that a fourth Trump-Kim summit may be in the works. Asked about that possibility last week in Thailand, Pompeo said: “Stay tuned.”

Newtown. Charleston. Orlando. Parkland.

And now after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, Congress again is confronted with the question of what, if anything, lawmakers should do to combat the scourge of gun violence afflicting the country.

While both parties are calling for action, the retreat to familiar political corners was swift. Democrats demanded quick approval of gun-control legislation — some of it already passed by the House — while Republicans looked elsewhere for answers, focusing on mental health and violent video games.

With Congress away from Washington for a five-week recess, and the parties intractably divided, the odds appear stacked in favor of gridlock. But Democrats and some Republicans said this time can and should be different.

“While no law will end mass shootings entirely, it’s time for Congress to act to help keep our communities safer,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., as he vowed to again push bipartisan legislation to expand background checks to all commercial firearm sales.

Toomey and his co-sponsor, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., each spoke with President Donald Trump about the background checks bill and a separate proposal making it easier to take guns away from people believed to be a danger to themselves or others.

Trump “showed a willingness to work with us” on background checks and other measures, Toomey told reporters in a conference call. “He was very constructive.”

Toomey and Manchin have tried to pass a background check bill since 2013, in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting, and could not even muster a Senate vote last year.

Manchin called mass shootings and other gun violence “tragic American problems,” and said it was “past time for Congress to take action.”

Other Democrats put the burden on Trump, saying he should demand Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put a House-passed bill strengthening background checks up for a vote.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate GOP leader is blocking gun safety reforms that more than 90% of Americans support. He and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said McConnell, R-Ky., should call the Senate into emergency session to take immediate action on the House-passed bill, which would require federal background checks for all firearms sales and transfers, including those sold online or at gun shows. Another bill allows an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases.

The House approved the bills in February but they have not come up for consideration in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Trump offered a slightly different message earlier in the day, tweeting that “Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!”

It was not clear how or why he was connecting the issues.

Trump’s omission of background checks in his White House remarks showed he was already backing away from his morning tweet, Democrats said.

“It took less than three hours for the president to back off his call for stronger background check legislation,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement. “When he can’t talk about guns when he talks about gun violence, it shows the president remains prisoner to the gun lobby,” especially the National Rifle Association.

Congress has proven unable to pass substantial gun violence legislation, despite the frequency of mass shootings, in large part because of resistance from Republicans, particularly in the GOP-controlled Senate.

But in a show of bipartisanship, Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., announced an agreement to create a federal grant program to help states that adopt “red flag” protection order laws to take guns away from people believed to be a danger to themselves or others. A similar bill did not come up for a vote in the Senate last year.

The grants would enlist mental health professionals to help determine which cases need to be acted on, Graham said, adding that while the program allows for quick action, it requires judicial review.

Trump signaled openness to red-flag laws in his White House speech, saying, “We must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms and that if they do those firearms can be taken through rapid due process.”

In a statement, the NRA offered “deepest sympathies” to the families and victims and said it is “committed to the safe and lawful use of firearms” by gun owners.

“We will not participate in the politicizing of these tragedies but, as always, we will work in good faith to pursue real solutions that protect us all from people who commit these horrific acts,” the NRA said.

A spokesman for Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the panel is planning to hold hearings on domestic terrorism when lawmakers return next month.

Mexico will investigate the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas,  that killed 22 people, including eight Mexican citizens, as an act of terrorism and may request the suspected shooter be extradited to Mexico for trial, the country’s foreign minister said on Monday.

Mexico’s involvement in the criminal process against accused shooter Patrick Crusius comes at a time of high tension between Mexico City and Washington over issues of immigration and trade.

Eight Mexicans were killed in Saturday’s rampage at a Walmart store in the Texas border city, and six of the wounded Mexican nationals remained hospitalized on Monday, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters at the Mexican consulate in El Paso.

He said he would ask U.S. authorities to turn the bodies over to their Mexican families as soon as possible.

Ebrard said he would meet with the Mexican attorney general on Tuesday to share results of the U.S. investigation and build a terrorism case.

“We consider this an act of terrorism, in this case carried out in U.S. territory, but an act of terrorism against Mexicans,” Ebrard said at the Mexican consulate in El Paso. “It will be the first investigative case of this importance in the history of Mexico regarding terrorism in United States territory,” he added.

A four-page statement believed to have been authored by the suspect and posted on 8chan, an online message board often used by extremists, called the El Paso attack “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Ebrard also said Mexico may open a case against the sale and distribution of the weapon used in the massacre. He did not elaborate or take questions from the media. El Paso police have said Crusius purchased his weapon legally.

Crusius, 21, has been charged with one Texas state count of capital murder and is being held without bail in El Paso County Jail. The magistrate judge who ordered Crusius to be held, Penny Hamilton, said he likely would face additional state charges and possibly U.S. federal charges as well.

Mexico and the United States have periodically cooperated on high-profile criminal cases, but usually for suspected Mexican drug traffickers who are tried in U.S. courts.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday that Mexico would push to make sure that authorities would be held accountable in the case because they allowed “excesses” such as the “indiscriminate use of arms.”

The government of leftist Lopez Obrador has come under pressure in recent months from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to impose tariffs if Mexico did not do more to halt record flows of migrants to the United States.

President Donald Trump has ordered a freeze on all Venezuelan government assets in the United States — the toughest sanctions on Nicolas Maduro’s government so far.

“All property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the United States … are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, or otherwise dealt in,” Trump’s executive order late Monday said.

There has been no response so far from the Venezuelan government.

The United States has been increasing the economic and diplomatic pressure on President Maduro, who has refused to give up power despite a popular uprising against his authoritarian government.

Trump said last week he is considering a blockade or quarantine of Venezuela. He gave no details of such plans but has always said military action in Venezuela remains on the table.

Russia and Cuba have already sent forces to Venezuela in support of Maduro.

The United States was the first to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela after he used his constitutional power as National Assembly leader to declare Maduro’s presidency illegitimate.

Guaido claimed Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent. Guaido led a popular uprising against Maduro earlier this year, which appears to have fizzled out.

The collapse in world energy prices, corruption and failed socialist policies have wrecked oil-rich Venezuela’s economy and millions have fled the country and its severe shortages of fuel, quality medical care and many food staples.

A general strike has paralyzed Hong Kong Monday, preventing people from getting to work and forcing cancellation of more than 200 flights.

Speaking to reporters the city’s embattled leader, Beijing-backed Carrie Lam, said protesters were pushing the city to the verge of an “extremely dangerous situation.”

Lam again rejected repeated calls from protesters for her resignation and said the government is determined to maintaining law and order.

She also said that the government will not satisfy another key demand put forward by protesters to release those who have been arrested during protests of recent weeks. 

Lam also charged the protests were putting Hong Kong on a path of no return and had hurt the city’s economy.

Hong Kong marchers staged sometimes violent protests on multiple fronts Sunday night, introducing their latest tactic to evade riot police and tear gas as the demonstrations against a controversial extradition bill entered their ninth consecutive week. 

Scrambling from the New Territories to Hong Kong island and then back across the harbor to northern Kowloon, the protesters demonstrated their hallmark levels of organization and decentralized decision-making over social media. 

In a now familiar formula, scores of protesters would arrive at a location and build barricades where they would remain until riot police arrived. A minority would stay behind and face tear gas as scores escaped through the public transit network to a new location. 

The Chinese-controlled financial hub is facing its worst political crisis since its handover to China in 1997, which began with protests against an extradition bill, already suspended, that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial and have since evolved into calls for greater democracy.

After two mass shootings in a span of 13 hours, there have now been more than 250 such events this year in which at least four people were shot or killed, besides the shooter. Officials in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, report 29 fatalities and at least 50 injured from shootings this weekend in those cities.  Republican and Democrat politicians shared their reactions to the massacres. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

Pope Francis is offering prayers for the dead and the injured in three U.S. mass shootings this week.

Francis told a crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly Angelus blessing Sunday that “I am spiritually close to the victims of the episodes of violence that have bloodied Texas, California and Ohio, in the United States, striking defenseless people.”

He appealed to the faithful “to join my prayer for the people who lost their lives, the injured and their family members.”

Nine people in Ohio have been killed in the second mass shooting in the United States in less than 24 hours, following the shooting deaths of 20 people Saturday at a Texas shopping area. Just days before, on July 28, a gunman killed three people at a food festival in California.

Tensions have soared along the volatile, highly militarized frontier between India and Pakistan in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, as India deployed more troops and ordered thousands of visitors out of the region.
 
Indian firing Sunday along the Line of Control that separates Kashmir between the rivals wounded a woman as the ongoing skirmishes spread fear in border villages, Pakistani police said. The frontier residents on the Pakistani side are either moving out to safer places or have begun construction of new bunkers, with some strengthening existing shelters near their homes.
 
Pakistan and India, who both claim Kashmir in its entirety, routinely blame each other for initiating border skirmishes, but the latest ones come amid the Indian government’s evacuation order of tourists and Hindu pilgrims and a troop buildup in its part of the region.
 
The measures have sparked fears in Kashmir that New Delhi is planning to scrap an Indian constitutional provision that forbids Indians from outside the region from buying land in the Muslim-majority territory. In recent days, Hindu-majority India has deployed at least 10,000 troops in Kashmir, with media reports of a further 25,000 ordered to one of the world’s most militarized regions.
 
In Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir, Mohammad Fareed, a retired government employee in Tufrabad village near the Line of Control, said he had spent over $3,000 to construct a concrete bunker for his family of 10. “It looks like the situation is getting bad,” he said, adding that the recent shelling and the dropping of cluster bombs had created massive fear.
 
“People are using their savings to build bunkers. After all, if you live you will do other things,” said Fareed.
 
Mohammad Altaf, a trader dealing in construction material, confirmed that people were buying concrete blocks and crushed stone to construct bunkers in and around their homes.
 
But Mohammad Nasim opted to shift his family from Chakoti village to a safer place. “God knows what will happen the next day so it’s not wise to make a bunker. Instead I am moving away from the border area,” he said.
 
Raja Farooq Haider, the prime minister of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, announced Friday the sanctioning of about $19 million for community bunkers for residents living along the border.
 
Kashmir has grabbed the spotlight in recent days, months after a deadly militant attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy sparked cross-border air attacks and brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. The recent escalation has come amid offers by President Donald Trump to mediate to resolve the Kashmir issue. While Pakistan welcomed the offer, India rejected it, saying the dispute was between the two countries.
 
Amid the evacuation order, hundreds of Indian and foreign visitors, including some Hindu pilgrims, continued congregating outside the main terminal at the airport in Srinagar, the region’s main city, seeking seats on flights out.
 
The Indian air force flew 326 tourists out of Srinagar, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Out of 11,301 tourists, only 1,652 remained on Saturday, PTI said.
 
Tourists and pilgrims also took buses out of the region, with authorities busing out hundreds of Indian students from Srinagar colleges.
 
The order on Friday cited the “prevailing security situation” and the “latest intelligence inputs of terror threats with specific targeting” of the annual Hindu pilgrimage as reasons for the advisory. Several governments issued similar travel advisories.
 
Kashmiri politicians and ordinary residents fear the government measures are a prelude to doing away with Kashmir’s special status and intensifying an ongoing crackdown against anti-India dissenters. Kashmir, a region known for lush green valleys, lakes, meadows and dense forested mountains, has become notorious for security lockdowns and crackdowns.
 
In its election manifesto earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party promised to do away with special rights for Kashmiris under India’s constitution.
 
Rumors continued swirling in the region on Sunday, ranging from the disarming of Kashmiri police forces, to the Indian military taking over local police installations, to a sweeping military crackdown being planned ahead of India’s independence day on Aug. 15.
 
“India is getting cornered at the geostrategic level as America seeks Pakistani help for withdrawing from Afghanistan,” said Fayaz Ahmed, a political science teacher in Srinagar. “In turn, India is mounting pressure on Pakistan by building up tensions in Kashmir though militaristic approaches inside Kashmir as well as along the frontier.”
 
Meanwhile, Pakistan late Saturday accused India of using banned cluster munitions to target the civilian population, killing two people. The Indian army rejected the claim, saying Indian soldiers killed at least five attackers while foiling an attempt by gunmen from Pakistan’s side of Kashmir to target an Indian post.
 
Rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting Indian control since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the rebels’ demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown.
 

 
       Mughal reported from Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. Associated Press writer Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.

       AP-WF-08-04-19 1058GMT

White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this report.

Police officials in El Paso, Texas, say they are investigating as a possible hate crime the mass shooting Saturday at a Walmart that ended with at least 20 people killed and 26 wounded.

Police chief Greg Allen said the police have an online posting reportedly written by the 21-year-old white male suspect now in custody, that indicates the shooting spree was intended to target Hispanics.

The post appeared online about an hour before the shooting and included language that complained about the “Hispanic invasion” of Texas. The author of the manifesto wrote that he expected to be killed during the attack.

“This vile act of terrorism against Hispanic Americans was inspired by divisive racial and ethnic rhetoric and enabled by weapons of war,” Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas said in a statement.

“The language in the shooter’s manifesto is consistent with President Donald Trump’s description of Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders,’” said Castro, who is also the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “Today’s shooting is a stark reminder of the dangers of such rhetoric.”

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado said three Mexicans were killed in the shooting and six Mexicans were wounded.

Trump posted Saturday on Twitter: “Melania and I send our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the great people of Texas.”

Today’s shooting in El Paso, Texas, was not only tragic, it was an act of cowardice. I know that I stand with everyone in this Country to condemn today’s hateful act. There are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

The United States on Sunday welcomed a cease-fire in Syria’s northwestern Idlib region after months of deadly government bombardments but insisted attacks against civilians must stop.

Airstrikes on Idlib province stopped Friday after the Syrian regime agreed to a truce on the condition that Turkey, which backs the rebels, implements a buffer zone in the area.

Most of the region and parts of Hama, Aleppo, and Latakia, which currently hosts about 3 million people, are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist group led by Syria’s former al-Qaida affiliate.

The area is supposed to be protected from a massive government offensive under a September Turkish-Russian deal, but it has come under increasing fire by Damascus and its backer Moscow since the end of April.

The government of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has accused Turkey of dragging its feet in implementing the deal, which provided for a buffer zone of up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) between the two sides, free of heavy- and medium-sized weaponry.

Washington welcomed the conditional ceasefire, but “attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure must stop,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

“The United States believes there can be no military solution to the Syrian conflict, and only a political solution can ensure a stable and secure future for all Syrians,” she said.

The U.S. also reiterated its support for a United Nations-led peace effort, with Ortagus calling it “the only viable path to a political solution.”

Since late April, 790 civilians have been killed in regime and Russian attacks, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor says.

Fighting over the same period has claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 combatants, including 900 regime loyalists, according to the monitor.

More than 400,000 people have been displaced and dozens of hospitals and schools damaged since April, according to the U.N.

The Syrian conflict has killed more than 370,000 people and driven millions from their homes since it started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.
 

Sudan’s pro-democracy movement signed a power-sharing agreement with the ruling military council on Sunday aimed at paving the way for a transition to civilian rule following the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in April.

Representatives signed a constitutional document that would establish a joint military and civilian council to rule for a little over three years until elections can be held. The agreement would also establish a Cabinet appointed by the activists, as well as a legislative body.
 
The military overthrew al-Bashir in April following months of protests against his three-decade-long rule. The protesters remained in the streets, demanding a rapid transition to a civilian authority. They have been locked in tense negotiations with the military for weeks while holding mass protests.
 
The two sides reached a preliminary agreement last month following international pressure, amid growing concerns the political crisis could ignite civil war.
 
That document provided for the establishment of a joint civilian-military sovereign council. A military leader would head the 11-member council for the first 21 months, followed by a civilian leader for the next 18. There would also be a Cabinet of technocrats chosen by the protesters, as well as a legislative council, the makeup of which would be decided within three months.
 
The constitutional document signed Sunday is aimed at clarifying the division of powers and settling other outstanding disputes.
 
The two sides came under renewed pressure in recent days after security forces opened fire on student protesters in the city of Obeid, leaving six people dead. At least nine troops from the paramilitary Rapid Support forces were arrested over the killings.
 
In June, security forces violently dispersed the protesters’ main sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum, killing dozens of people and plunging the fragile transition into crisis.
 
A key point of dispute in the talks had been whether military leaders would be immune from prosecution over the recent violence. It was not immediately clear what protections, if any, would be provided in the agreement singed Sunday.

BOSTON — Authorities said Friday that they were looking to toxicology reports for clues to the death of Saoirse Kennedy Hill, a granddaughter of assassinated U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. 
 
The Kennedy family confirmed the death in a statement after police responded to a call Thursday afternoon about a possible drug overdose at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The statement was issued by Brian Wright O’Connor, a spokesman for Saoirse Hill’s uncle, former U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II. 
 
Hill, 22, was the daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy’s fifth child, Courtney, and Paul Michael Hill, who was one of four people falsely convicted in the 1974 Irish Republican Army bombings of two pubs. The two are now divorced. 
 
“She lit up our lives with her love, her peals of laughter and her generous spirit,” the statement said, adding she was passionate about human rights and women’s empowerment and worked with indigenous communities to build schools in Mexico. 

‘Gifted student’
 
Hill, whose first name is pronounced SIR-shuh, attended Boston College, where she was a member of the Class of 2020. The college issued a statement Friday saying she was a communications major and “a gifted student.” 
 
“She was also active in the College Democrats, and had many friends on the BC campus,” spokesman Jack Dunn said. 
 
The Cape and Islands district attorney’s office said Barnstable police responded to a home “for a reported unattended death.” Barnstable police and Massachusetts State Police detectives were investigating. The district attorney’s office said Friday that Hill was taken to Cape Cod Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. It said an autopsy showed no signs of trauma, and that toxicology reports would help determine the cause and manner of death. 
 

The family statement did not include a cause of death, but audio of a Barnstable police scanner call obtained by The Associated Press said officers were responding to a report of a drug overdose at the compound. 
 
“The world is a little less beautiful today,” the Kennedy family statement quoted Hill’s 91-year-old grandmother and RFK’s widow, Ethel Kennedy, as saying. 
 
Hill had written frankly and publicly about her struggles with mental health and a suicide attempt while in high school. “My depression took root in the beginning of my middle school years and will be with me for the rest of my life,” she wrote in a February 2016 column in The Deerfield Scroll, the student newspaper at Deerfield Academy, the private school in Massachusetts she attended. 
 
Hill wrote that she became depressed two weeks before her high school junior year started and she “totally lost it after someone I knew and loved broke serious sexual boundaries with me.” She wrote that she pretended it hadn’t happened, and when it became too much, “I attempted to take my own life.” 
 
She urged the school to be more open about mental illness. 

Other activism
 
Hill also helped found a group at the school called Deerfield Students Against Sexual Assault, according to a November 2016 story in the paper, and she attended a March for Our Lives gun violence prevention rally in Barnstable in March 2018, The Barnstable Patriot newspaper reported at the time. 
 
Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot in Los Angeles in 1968 after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. He had served as attorney general in the administration of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. He also served as a U.S. senator from New York. 
 
RFK’s family, like the rest of the Kennedy clan, has been touched by tragedy. 
 
One of his and Ethel Kennedy’s 11 children, Michael Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident in Colorado on New Year’s Eve 1997 at age 39. And in 1984, another son, David Anthony Kennedy, died of a drug overdose in Florida at age 28. 
 
JFK’s son, John F. Kennedy Jr., was killed with his wife and sister-in-law when his small plane crashed off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in July 1999. 
 
One of Hill’s relatives, former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who is now an advocate for substance abuse and mental health treatment, tweeted in tribute to her Friday. 
 
“Saoirse will always remain in our hearts. She is loved and will be deeply missed,” he wrote. 
 
Funeral plans were incomplete Friday. 

North Korea has carried out a new projectile launch, U.S. officials said Thursday, adding that initial information indicated it was similar to two other short-range missile tests by Pyongyang in the past eight days.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been hoping to revive denuclearization talks with North Korea, played down the launches when asked about them at the White House, telling
reporters he was not worried as they were short-range missiles and “very standard” and he was still open to negotiations.

South Korea’s military said unidentified short-range projectiles were fired at 2:59 a.m. and 3:23 a.m. local time Friday, from North Korea’s South Hamgyong Province into the East Sea.

“We are monitoring the situation in case of additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the country’s joint chiefs of staff as
saying.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least one projectile was detected that did not pose a threat to North America, although there could have been multiple
projectiles.

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles early Wednesday, only days after it launched two similar missiles on July 25. The tests have come despite a June 30 meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Trump at which they agreed to revive stalled talks.

Trump was asked at the White House before setting off for a campaign trip to Ohio if he thought Kim was testing him by carrying out what appeared to be a third missile test in recent
days.

“I think it’s very much under control, very much under control,” he told reporters, adding that the launches did not violate Kim’s promises to him.

They were “short-range missiles,” Trump said. “We never made an agreement on that. I have no problem. We’ll see what happens. But these are short-range missiles. They are very standard.”

Asked if he could still negotiate with Kim, he replied: “Oh, sure, sure. Because these are short-range missiles. We never discussed that. We discussed nuclear. What we talked about is nuclear. Those are short-range missiles. Sure, and a lot of other countries test that kind of missile also.”

No word on talks

Earlier Thursday and before the latest launch, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton told Fox Business Network that the launches did not violate Kim’s pledge not to test long-range missiles or nuclear bombs. However, he added: “You have to ask when the real diplomacy is going to begin, when the working-level discussions on denuclearization will begin.”

“We’ve been waiting to hear since June the 30th,” he told the network. “We’re ready for working-level negotiations. The president’s ready, when the time is right, for another summit. Let’s hear from North Korea.”

A summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February collapsed after the two sides failed to reconcile differences between U.S. demands for North Korea’s complete denuclearization and North Korean demands for sanctions relief.

Bolton said South Korea and Japan were concerned by the launches, “because they’re within range, we think, of this particular missile.” He made no mention of the tens of thousands of U.S. troops based in both countries.

The North Korea launches have appeared intended to put pressure on South Korea and the United States to stop planned military exercises this month and offer other concessions. Earlier, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped talks would start soon, though he “regretted” that a highly anticipated meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho would not take place in Thailand this week.

Ri has canceled a trip to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference in Bangkok that Pompeo is attending. “We stand ready to continue our diplomatic conversation,” Pompeo told a news conference in Bangkok, adding that he was optimistic Kim would deploy his team for working-level talks “before too long.”

At the United Nations on Thursday, Britain, France and Germany called on North Korea to engage in “meaningful” talks with the United States and said international sanctions needed 
to be fully enforced until Pyongyang dismantled its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Their statement came after a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting.

Despite the setbacks, Trump has continued to hail his good relationship with Kim, and some analysts believe Pyongyang will be emboldened to press more aggressively for U.S. concessions given the American leader’s apparent eagerness to hold up his North Korea policy as a success in his 2020 re-election bid.

North Korea has said the planned military drills could derail dialogue and has also warned of a possible end to its freeze on nuclear and long-range missile tests in place since 2017, which Trump has repeatedly held up as evidence of the success of more than a year of engagement with Kim.

A U.S. citizen who joined the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria in 2014 and was captured by pro-American Kurdish forces earlier this year has been returned to his home state of Texas, where he faces charges of supporting a terrorist organization, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

According to prosecutors, Omer Kuzu, who was born in Dallas, allegedly received weapons training in Iraq and later moved to Syria, where he was paid $125 a month to repair communications equipment for front-line IS fighters. 

Kuzu, 23, is the sixth U.S. citizen or permanent resident to be indicted in the United States on charges of supporting IS overseas. 

A federal grand jury in northern Texas recently indicted Kuzu on one count of traveling to Syria and conspiring to provide material support to IS. He made an initial court appearance before a magistrate judge Tuesday in northern Texas. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.  

“The United States continues to demonstrate its commitment to holding accountable those who have left this country in order to join and support ISIS,” John C. Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement. 

According to a criminal complaint, in October 2014, Kuzu and his brother traveled from Houston to Istanbul, Turkey, then were smuggled into Syria to join IS forces. Kuzu later told investigators that he also traveled to Mosul, Iraq, where he received weapons training from IS.

Kuzu was subsequently sent back to Syria, where he pledged allegiance to the terror group and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he told federal investigators. 

In early 2019, as the Syrian Democratic Forces swooped down on IS strongholds, Kuzu fled the area along with other IS fighters and was eventually captured by the U.S.-backed SDF, he told investigators. SDF has captured thousands of IS fighters in Syria.   

Astronomers have created the most precise map to date of the Milky Way by tracking thousands of big pulsating stars spread throughout the galaxy, demonstrating that its disk of myriad stars is not flat but dramatically warped and twisted in shape.

The researchers on Thursday unveiled a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way — home to more than 100 billion stars including our sun — providing a comprehensive chart of its structure: a stellar disk comprised of four major spiral arms and a bar-shaped core region.

“For the first time, our whole galaxy — from edge to edge of the disk — was mapped using real, precise distances,” said University of Warsaw astronomer Andrzej Udalski, co-author of the study published in the journal Science.

Until now, the understanding of the galaxy’s shape had been based upon indirect measurements of celestial landmarks within the Milky Way and inferences from structures observed in other galaxies populating the universe. The new map was formulated using precise measurements of the distance from the sun to 2,400 stars called “Cepheid variables” scattered throughout the galaxy.

“Cepheids are ideal to study the Milky Way for several reasons,” added University of Warsaw astronomer and study co-author Dorota Skowron. “Cepheid variables are bright supergiant stars and they are 100 to 10,000 times more luminous than the sun, so we can detect them on the outskirts of our galaxy. They are relatively young — younger than 400 million years — so we can find them near their birthplaces.”

The astronomers tracked the Cepheids using the Warsaw Telescope located in the Chilean Andes. These stars pulsate at regular intervals and can be seen through the galaxy’s immense clouds of interstellar dust that can make dimmer stellar bodies hard to spot.

The map showed that the galaxy’s disk, far from flat, is significantly warped and varies in thickness from place to place, with increasing thickness measured further from the galactic center. The disk boasts a diameter of about 140,00 light years. Each light year is about 6 trillion miles (9 trillion km).

The Milky Way began to form relatively soon after the Big Bang explosion that marked the beginning of the universe some 13.8 billion years ago. The sun, located roughly 26,000 light years from the supermassive black hole residing at the center of the galaxy, formed about 4.5 billion years ago.

Some of the Democratic presidential contenders dug in their heels with unsupported rhetoric about immigration, the economy and more Wednesday night as they scrambled to stay in contention for the winnowed-down debates to come.

Several persisted in their distorted depiction of caged migrant children as a singular cruelty of President Donald Trump. Others glossed over the intricacies of complex issues, at times dismissing pointed questions as a “Republican talking point” — and not answering.

Ten candidates debated in Detroit , as did 10 the night before. After this, it becomes harder to qualify for the debates ahead and some won’t make the cut.

A look at some of their claims and how they compare with the facts:

BILL DE BLASIO, mayor of New York City, on why he hasn’t fired the police officer who used a chokehold on Eric Garner: “For the first time, we are not waiting on the federal Justice Department which told the city of New York that we could not proceed because the Justice Department was pursuing their prosecution and years went by and a lot of pain accrued.”

THE FACTS: This is false. The Justice Department did not stop the city from moving forward on the matter. The New York Police Department decided to delay disciplinary proceedings for Officer Daniel Pantaleo on its own accord.

While local officials sometimes defer their investigation as federal prosecutors conduct criminal probes, there was no requirement for the police department to wait for the federal civil rights investigation in weighing a decision about whether to fire Pantaleo.

The Justice Department announced this month that it would not bring any charges in connection with Garner’s death. Pantaleo faced an internal departmental trial and a departmental judge hasn’t officially rendered a recommendation yet on whether he should be fired or disciplined.

The police commissioner, who reports to de Blasio, could act at any time to fire Pantaleo.

CORY BOOKER, senator from New Jersey, on decriminalizing illegal entry at the border: “Doing it through the civil courts means you won’t need these awful detention centers that I’ve been to.”

THE FACTS: Not exactly. It’s true that there could be reduced immigration detention at the border if there were no criminal charge for illegal entry. But border officers would still need to process people coming over the border and that could lead to temporary holding, such as the so-called cages that Democrats call inhumane.

Also, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses detention to hold people awaiting deportation who have been accused or convicted of more serious crimes, including those who have green cards or other legal status.

For example, in December 2018, ICE detained 47,486 people, according to an analysis at Syracuse University. Of those, 29,753 had no conviction, and those people probably would not be in detention if illegal entry were a civil issue.

But 6,186 had serious crime convictions, 2,237 had other convictions and 9,310 had minor violations and those people could still be held, according to the analysis.

KAMALA HARRIS, senator from California: “Autoworkers we expect, perhaps, hundreds of thousands will be out of jobs by the end of the year.”

THE FACTS: This dire prediction is faulty. The auto industry is not facing the imminent risk of such a collapse.

That might have happened — as a worst-case scenario — if Trump had followed through on threats to enact new tariffs and policies that would have hurt the auto industry. But he didn’t.

Harris has been citing the Center for Automotive Research’s 2018 study , which examined hypothetical job losses across all U.S. industries touched by the auto business — not just the nation’s nearly 1 million autoworkers — if Trump introduced certain tariffs and policies.

The study gave a wide range of possible job losses, from 82,000 to 750,000. The findings were later revised in February to a worst-case scenario of 367,000 across all industries by the end of this year. Those hypothetical job losses would be spread across car and parts makers, dealers, restaurants, retail stores and any business that benefits from the auto industry.

Impact on the auto industry was further minimized when the Trump administration lifted tariffs on steels and aluminum products coming from Canada and Mexico.

The industry has added thousands of jobs since a crisis in 2009 that sent General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy protection.

After a record sales year of 17.55 million in 2016 demand has fallen to an expected 16.8 million new vehicle sales this year. But the industry is still posting strong numbers and is not heading off a cliff.

HARRIS: “Right now in America, we have seniors who every day – millions of seniors – are going into the Medicare system.”

THE FACTS: It’s more like 10,000 people a day who turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare, which offers coverage for hospitalization, doctor visits, prescription drugs and other services.

Medicare covers more than 60 million people, including disabled people of any age.

JOE BIDEN: “We should put some of these insurance executives who totally oppose my plan in jail for the 9 billion opioids they sell out there.”

THE FACTS: The former vice president must have meant drug company executives, since insurance companies pay for medications — they don’t sell them.

HARRIS: “We’ve got a person who has put babies in cages and separated children from their parents.”

MICHAEL BENNET, senator from Colorado, in a message directed at Trump: “Kids belong in classrooms not cages.”

THE FACTS: The “cages” for young migrants at the border were built and used by President Barack Obama . The Trump administration has used them, too. He is referring to chain-link enclosures inside border facilities where migrants have been temporarily housed, separated by sex and age.

It’s true the Trump administration separated at least 2,700 migrant children from their parents under the now-suspended “zero tolerance” policy. Obama did not routinely separate families detained at the border.

Tension between a Nigerian Shiite Muslim group and authorities is growing after a court last week granted permission to label the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) a terrorist organization.  Security forces clashed violently with the group as they took to the streets of Abuja this month to call for the release of their leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who authorities have held since deadly clashes in 2015, despite a court order for his release.  Timothy Obiezu has more from Abuja

Somalia’s government said Thursday the mayor of Mogadishu has died after being badly wounded in an al-Shabab extremist attack in his office last week.

The spokesman for Somalia’s president said Abdirahman Omar Osman died Thursday in Qatar, where he had been airlifted for treatment after the July 24 attack. Officials said he had been in a coma.

The Somalia-based al-Shabab and officials have said a rare female suicide bomber used in the attack had been aiming for the American who is the new United Nations envoy to Somalia. James Swan had left the office just minutes earlier.

It was not clear how the bomber managed to enter the mayor’s office, as visitors are required to pass through at least four metal detectors.

Osman had been a councillor in London before returning to Somalia to enter local politics. Somalia’s president expressed condolences and said Osman’s service as mayor had been selfless.

The U.S. mission to Somalia in a tweet called Osman “an excellent partner and tireless advocate for the people of Mogadishu and all Somalis.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday called the move by the United States to sanctions Iran’s foreign minister “childish.”

In a televised speech, Rouhani said the United States claims to want to negotiate with Iran without any preconditions, “and then they sanction the foreign minister.”

“This is obviously a highly unusual action,” a senior Trump administration official acknowledged when discussing the U.S. action against Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The executive order accuses Zarif of acting or purporting to act on behalf of his country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was recently added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

“And today, President (Donald) Trump decided enough is enough,” a senior U.S. official told reporters on a background briefing conference call. “We will continue to build on our maximum pressure campaign until Iran abandons its reckless foreign policy that threatens the United States and our allies.”

The United States “is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime that its recent behavior is completely unacceptable,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “At the same time, the Iranian regime denies Iranian citizens’ access to social media, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif spreads the regime’s propaganda and disinformation around the world through these mediums.”

In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the action is “another step toward denying the Iranian regime the resources to enable terror and oppress the Iranian people.”

Zarif quickly responded, saying the U.S. action will have no effect on him or his family as they have no property or interests outside of Iran.

The US’ reason for designating me is that I am Iran’s “primary spokesperson around the world”
Is the truth really that painful?
It has no effect on me or my family, as I have no property or interests outside of Iran.
Thank you for considering me such a huge threat to your agenda.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 31, 2019

Such sanctions generally prohibit a designated person from visiting or even transiting the United States.

The State Department “will evaluate specific circumstances related to this designation on a case-by-case basis, consistent with existing laws and obligations and this includes the United Nations Headquarters Agreements,” a senior administration official told reporters.

Zarif would be immune from arrest while on official travel to and from the U.N. in New York City, the official added.

U.S. officials made clear Wednesday they no longer consider Zarif of any value for diplomacy. The previous administration of Barack Obama dealt with him to work out a multinational nuclear deal. But the Trump administration a year ago withdrew from the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“We do not consider him to be our primary point of contact,” a U.S. official in the briefing said to reporters. “If we do have an official contact with Iran, we would want to have contact with somebody who’s a significant decision-maker.”

In its announcement, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control accuses Zarif of overseeing a ministry that coordinates with Iran’s “most nefarious state entities,” including the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force and of involvement with efforts to influence elections and facilitating payments to a foreign judiciary official for the release of two IRGC-Quds Force operatives.