U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Southeast Asian foreign ministers on Thursday to seek their support in pressing North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

Tillerson’s first meeting with all members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations will also address another pressing regional issue – China’s assertive pursuit of territory in the South China Sea, where several ASEAN members have competing claims.

Tillerson told reporters at the start of the Washington meeting that he and his counterparts would discuss North Korea.

Last week in the U.N. Security Council, Tillerson called on all U.N. members to fully implement U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang, which has ignored demands to abandon its weapons programs and is working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States.

He also called on countries to suspend or downgrade diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, saying it abuses diplomatic privileges to help fund the arms programs. Tillerson warned countries that if they did not do so, Washington would sanction foreign firms and people conducting business with North Korea.

All ASEAN members have diplomatic relations with North Korea and five have embassies there.

The Trump administration wants Southeast Asian countries to crack down on money laundering and smuggling involving North Korea and restrict legal business too, U.S. officials said.

The administration has been working to persuade China, North Korea’s neighbor and only major ally, to increase pressure on Pyongyang. U.S. officials say they are also asking China to use its influence with more China-friendly ASEAN members, such as Laos and Cambodia, to persuade them to do the same.

U.S. efforts have included a flurry of calls by President Donald Trump at the weekend to the leaders of the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.

Diplomats say U.S. pressure has caused some irritation in ASEAN, including Malaysia, which has maintained relations with Pyongyang in spite of the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother at Kuala Lumpur International airport on Feb. 13.

On the South China Sea, ASEAN has adopted a cautious approach recently toward China, with a weekend summit of its leaders avoiding references to Beijing’s building and arming of islands there.

Analysts say this reflects concerns among some in the region that former U.S. President Barack Obama’s “pivot” to Asia has been abandoned in favor of Trump’s “America First” agenda, leading to more countries being pulled into Beijing’s orbit.

 
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The Texas Legislature on Wednesday passed a ban on “sanctuary cities” that allows police officers to ask about a person’s immigration status and threatens sheriffs and police chiefs with jail time if they don’t work with federal authorities.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott has pledged to sign the bill into law.

The Republican-led Senate passed the bill Wednesday despite objections from Democrats, who called the bill a “show me your papers” measure that would be used to discriminate against Latinos.

The term “sanctuary cities” has no legal definition, but Republicans want local police to help federal immigration agents crack down on criminal suspects who are in the U.S. illegally.

The bill allows the state to withhold funding from local governments for acting as sanctuary cities.
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International students are welcome and safe at American universities, say educational experts who specialize in the foreign student population at their schools.

Speaking at a Voice of America international student town hall, the experts from a wide range of colleges said international students add value to American society through a collegiate soft diplomacy.

“I truly believe that international students bring such value and enrichment to this country and to our institutions,” said Sam Brown, director of international scholars and services at Brigham Young University. “While there might be some questions and some misunderstandings, and people that don’t quite understand what culture you come from and, perhaps, a religious background, you have an opportunity to share what that is.”

Brown and six other educators appeared at VOA’s “Education Destination: USA,” a 90-minute broadcast and livestream about the challenges and hurdles of coming to the U.S. to participate in higher education.

VOA receives questions every day about receiving an education in the U.S. from its weekly audience of 236 million listeners and viewers. That point was punctuated by VOA Director Amanda Bennett, who opened the program.

“We’ve found that there are few topics that are more interesting to our audience — particularly our younger audience — than education in the United States,” said Bennett, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist.

The intent of the international student town hall, she said, was to connect people from around the world with a panel of experts in higher education through digital platforms and channels, such as Facebook Live and satellite.

Helping people connect

“This is just the first in what we expect will be many, many, many such events as this is where we deal with important questions,” Bennett said, “and help people around the world connect with people here to discuss really important issues.”

Questions included one from Iran, where a student asked if he would be allowed to study in the U.S., given immigration hurdles. President Donald Trump issued a revised executive order that banned travelers from six Muslim-majority countries, but federal courts have prevented the ban from being enforced.

A Chinese student in the live audience asked the panel what universities were doing about the travel ban and xenophobia.

The upper levels of university administrations need and want to maintain “a welcoming environment,” said James Dorsett, director of international students and scholars at Michigan State University in Lansing. “It’s the responsibility of the whole institution as a learning institution to be a welcoming and supporting place for all students.”

Dorsett pointed to the “You are welcome here” video campaign that many U.S. schools participated in to promote inclusion for international students who might have felt fearful when the executive order was announced.

“Our campus and most campuses provide a prayer room and places where students of different faiths can go and participate in their religion,” Brown told a student from Indonesia who asked if she would be allowed to wear hijab, or a head covering, while in the U.S. “I think you’ll find that across the board in most institutions.”

Other panelists at the town hall included Paul T. White, assistant dean for admissions at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Susan Zuffante Pabon, director of the Slater International Center at Wellesley College; Bianca Schonfeld, manager for the Office of International Student Services and Study Abroad at Houston Community College; Raj Bhargava, entrepreneur and teacher of Stanford University pre-collegiate courses; and Doug Shaw, senior associate provost for International Strategy at the George Washington University and assistant professor of International Affairs.
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Former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, on Wednesday declined an invitation to testify at an upcoming Senate hearing on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Rice’s attorney notified the senators leading the hearing of her decision not to attend in a letter. Two other former Obama administration officials are scheduled to testify before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee Monday. The subcommittee is one of three congressional panels investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 election.

Rice’s refusal to testify is the latest twist in the congressional investigations into possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign and the debate over whether the probes are truly independent and bipartisan. Rice was invited to testify only by the Republican chairman of the subcommittee, and not by the top Democrat on the panel, her attorney said.

CNN first reported Rice’s decision.

Rice became a central part of the Russia investigation when President Donald Trump said she might have committed a crime when she asked intelligence analysts to disclose the name of a Trump associate mentioned in an intelligence report. Rice has said she did nothing improper. But she has become a key former Obama administration official in a position to answer questions from lawmakers.

Probe supported

Rice’s attorney, Kathryn Ruemmler, said Rice was supportive of the committee’s investigation, but it is rare for Congress to ask for testimony from a former president’s national security adviser.

The request for Rice’s testimony also stood out, Ruemmler wrote in the letter, because it came after the hearing was announced and well after the other two witnesses — former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former National Intelligence Director James Clapper — had agreed to appear. But unlike invitations extended to Yates and Clapper, Rice was invited to testify solely by subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., not jointly with the panel’s top Democrat, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Ruemmler said.

Ruemmler said in the letter that Whitehouse notified Rice in writing that he did not agree with Graham’s invitation, which Ruemmler described as a “significant departure from the bipartisan invitations extended to other witnesses.”

Spokespersons for Graham and Whitehouse did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Yates’ and Clapper’s public testimony is much anticipated. They were both scheduled to speak before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in March. But that hearing was canceled, some Democrats think, because the White House wanted to limit what Yates could say. The House intelligence committee has yet to reschedule the hearing.

Comments on Flynn

Yates is expected to give senators details about her January 26 conversation with the White House counsel about Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. She is expected to say that she saw discrepancies between the administration’s public statements about Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. and what really transpired, a person familiar with that discussion and knowledge of Yates’ upcoming testimony told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the hearing.

Yates is expected to say that she told White House counsel Don McGahn that she was concerned Flynn’s communications with the Russian ambassador could leave Flynn in a compromised position as a result of the contradictions between the public depictions of the calls and what intelligence officials knew to be true, the person said.

White House officials have said publicly that Yates merely wanted to give them a “heads-up” about Flynn’s Russian contacts, but Yates is likely to testify that she approached the White House with alarm, according to the person.

The White House has said Flynn was later fired for misleading the vice president about the content of Flynn’s discussions with the ambassador.
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