President Trump departs for Poland Wednesday, where he is due to meet Eastern European leaders before making a public speech in the center of Warsaw on Thursday. The White House says the president will reiterate his commitment to NATO, but also repeat his demand that all alliance members must contribute their share of defense spending. As Henry Ridgwell reports from the Polish capital, where many Poles fear Russian aggression to the east, and are hoping for concrete assurances from the U.S.
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Month: July 2017
Iraqi PM Congratulates Fighters on ‘Big Victory’ in Mosul
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has congratulated Iraqi fighters on what he called “this big victory in Mosul,” even though the fighting against Islamic State militants continues in Mosul’s Old City. Abadi spoke Tuesday during a weekly news conference in Baghdad. He said efforts to secure stability and help the displaced people return to their homes will intensify in the coming days. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
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UN: More than 7 Million Children Displaced in West, Central Africa Every Year
More than 7 million children in West and Central Africa are displaced every year, the United Nations children’s agency said in a report released Wednesday.
Lack of economic opportunities, wars and climate change are forcing more than 12 million people in West and Central Africa to migrate annually, the report said.
“Children in West and Central Africa are moving in greater numbers than ever before, many in search of safety or a better life,” UNICEF regional director Marie-Pierre Poirier said.
Climate change is already a harsh reality in many parts of Africa, where rising temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall have disrupted food production, fueled widespread hunger and forced farmers to abandon their land.
A half-million people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy over the past four years, mainly sub-Saharan Africans who pay smugglers to shepherd them across the desert to Libya, and onward to Europe in unseaworthy dinghies.
But unlike displaced adults, most of the children remain in sub-Saharan Africa, with less than 1-in-5 attempting the perilous journey to Europe.
“Unless the long-term planning of governments and civil society is equipped to anticipate these climate shocks and subsequent migration, the unmitigated impact of these forces will create detrimental outcomes for children across the region,” the report said.
It urged all governments, in West and Central African and Europe to make unaccompanied minors a priority when drafting migrant policies; stop detention of migrant children; try to keep families together; and provide access to education and healthcare for the children.
Globally, 65.6 million people are uprooted and nearly half of them are children, the U.N.’s refugee agency UNHCR says.
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Americans Mark July 4 With Fireworks
Americans Mark July 4 With Fireworks
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Iraqi PM Congratulates Troops on ‘Big Victory’ in Mosul
Iraq’s prime minister on Tuesday congratulated his fighters on “the big victory in Mosul” – even as fighting with Islamic State militants continued in Mosul’s Old City neighborhood where Iraqi forces are about 250 meters from the Tigris River and facing increasingly fierce resistance.
Haider al-Abadi spoke during a press conference in Baghdad, less than a week after he declared an end to IS’ self-styled caliphate after Iraqi forces achieved an incremental win by retaking the landmark al-Nuri Mosque in the Old City.
“Praise be to God, we managed to liberate (Mosul) and proved the others were wrong, the people of Mosul supported and stood with our security forces against terrorism,” al-Abadi said.
His remarks came on the third anniversary of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s sermon at the al-Nuri Mosque, from where he declared an Islamic caliphate on IS-held lands in Syria and Iraq.
Also during the press conference, al-Abadi added that he has given instructions to rebuild and stabilize areas of the city already freed from the militant group.
Inside Mosul’s Old City, civilians fleeing Iraqi advance are increasingly desperate. The elderly and weak are carried across mounds of rubble in blankets. Soldiers – increasingly fearful of the Old City’s inhabitants after a string of suicide bombings – hurry the groups along.
A middle-aged woman with a gaunt, pale face fainted as she fled past the destroyed al-Nuri Mosque. Two soldiers carried her to the roadside and tried to revive her with cold water.
Largely cut off from food and water for months, humanitarian groups are reporting a spike in the number of displaced people suffering from malnutrition and dehydration.
“None of the previous battles were like this,” said Iraqi Maj. Faris Aboud, working at a small field hospital just outside the Old City.
“In a single day we received 300 wounded,” Aboud, a father of three continued. “For me, seeing the wounded children is the hardest, we see children who have lost their entire families under the rubble, they have no one now.”
Lt. Gen. Abdel Ghani al-Asadi, of Iraq’s special forces, said earlier in the day that Iraqi forces are just 250 meters (yards) from the Tigris River, in the western half of Mosul. The Tigris divides the city roughly into its western and eastern half, which was liberated from IS militants back in January.
IS militants who remain trapped in just a few hundred meters of territory in the Old City are now in a “fight to the death,” al-Asadi said, adding that IS fighters are increasingly resorting to suicide bombings and that he expects the fighting to get even heavier as they are pushed closer to the river.
Iraqi forces marked a significant victory this week when the Rapid Response Division retook Mosul’s main hospital complex on the city’s western side.
The building that once held the city’s best medical facilities now sits devastated by the fight. For weeks, a handful of IS snipers perched in the main hospital’s top floors held back hundreds of Iraqi forces.
Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul, the country’s second largest city, in October. IS overran Mosul in a matter of days in 2014. At the height of the extremists’ power, they held nearly a third of Iraq.
A man who asked to only be referred to as Abu Abid, for fear for his family’s safety, was waiting to get a spot on a truck after fleeing the Old City.
“That place, it was absolute death,” he said. “We will never be the same. Once the fear has been planted in your heart, you can’t get rid of it.”
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China Invites Foreign Doctors to Help Treat Cancer-Stricken Nobel Peace Laureate
A Chinese hospital is inviting cancer specialists from the United States and Germany to help in its treatment of imprisoned dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.
The judicial bureau for the northeastern city of Shenyang, where Liu is being treated, said Wednesday the hospital issued the invitation after Liu’s family made the request, and after consulting with the 61-year-old’s medical team. Liu was granted medical parole back in May after he was diagnosed with late-stage kidney cancer.
The decision comes just two days after Germany urged China to allow Liu to travel abroad to receive treatment for his illness. Beijing claims the ailing dissident is too sick to leave the country, but Hu Jia, Liu’s friend and fellow dissident, says a video that emerged on YouTube last weekend appeared to indicate that Liu was in stable condition.
Foreign governments and human rights groups have urged China to allow Liu to travel abroad to seek treatment wherever he chooses.
Liu is a poet and human rights activist who was arrested after writing Charter ’08, a manifesto calling for democratic reforms in China, and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his campaign for democracy and human rights. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power,” a law often used by Chinese authorities to silence dissidents.
Reliable, independent information on Liu’s condition and his desire to travel has been difficult to obtain, as Liu and his wife, Liu Xia, have long been isolated by the authorities, out of the reach of most friends and the media.
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Did North Korean Missile Test Trigger Trump’s ‘Red Line’?
In January, Donald Trump drew what appeared to be a “red line” for North Korea: testing a ballistic missile that could reach parts of the United States with a nuclear warhead.
“It won’t happen!” insisted then President-elect Trump in a statement he posted on Twitter.
Except early Tuesday, it did happen, according to North Korean state television, which reported Kim Jong Un “personally observed” the test of the Hwaseong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile.
The North’s claims were bolstered by the U.S. military, which tracked the missile for 37 minutes, and independent analysts, who estimated its range at 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles) — far enough to reach Alaska, and an apparent violation of Trump’s “red line” warning.
In international geopolitics, a “red line” signifies an unequivocal threat; it could also be described as “a line in the sand.” Breaking the limit set by the “red line” would incur the full fury of the state that issued the threat.
The successful test of an ICBM (generally defined as a rocket with a range of more than 5,500 kilometers, or 3,400 miles) would represent a major challenge for Trump, who has warned the U.S. is willing to act alone to stop the North Korean nuclear threat.
Ultimatum ignored
But in reality, Trump is seen as having few good options to contain the North, and there are concerns his credibility on the issue could be bruised if Pyongyang in fact blew past his Twitter ultimatum, as initial reports suggested.
“His tweet was clearly a kind of red line, and it was a mistake to draw a red line that you don’t have a good ability to enforce,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, who focuses on nonproliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Analysts have long warned that any pre-emptive attack on North Korea would be problematic, endangering not only U.S. allies such as Japan and South Korea, but also U.S. military bases in the region.
The risk of escalation has only increased as the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs advance, and Fitzpatrick said Tuesday’s test hasn’t changed that calculation.
Reaction could make things worse
“It undermines credibility when red lines are not enforced,” he said. “But the bigger problem would be to take action that is terribly risky and could lead to a bad escalation.”
Diplomats’ condemnation of North Korea has been swift. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for global action Tuesday, saying: “All nations should demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences to their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
In a statement that appeared to be at least partially aimed at China, the top U.S. diplomat said any country that hosts North Korean workers, or provides economic or military aid to Pyongyang, or fails to implement United Nations sanctions, “is aiding and abetting a dangerous regime.”
At the United Nations, diplomats said the Security Council would meet late Wednesday to discuss the growing crisis.
All those factors added to the international concern about how the United States would react to North Korea’s launch.
Trump’s shifting positions
Trump has spoken out about his distaste for North Korea’s policies on many occasions, but his own positions have shifted from time to time.
Before last November’s U.S. election, Trump suggested in a campaign appearance that China could possibly assassinate Kim to reduce world tensions. He later walked back that threat, and has said as recently as May that he would be “honored” to meet the North Korean leader, “under the right circumstances.”
Given Trump’s unique rhetorical style and apparent willingness to quickly change positions, many caution against reading too much into any one of the president’s statements, especially those he publishes on Twitter.
“I don’t take President Trump’s tweets as policy,” says Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest. “When it comes to policy issues, specifically North Korea, or anything else, you need to look at the actions, not the tweets.”
If Trump’s rhetoric is left out of the equation, his North Korea strategy does, indeed, appear more traditional. It includes long-standing U.S. tactics such as expanded sanctions and strong displays of U.S. military strength.
In particular, Trump has focused much of his efforts on convincing China, North Korea’s most important ally and trading partner, to apply economic and diplomatic pressure on its neighbor. Trump subsequently tweeted that Beijing’s efforts have “not worked out,” but he took an optimistic turn again on Tuesday, noting on Twitter that “perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”
Swift U.S., South Korean action
In the field, the U.S. Army said that American military personnel and South Korean forces conducted a combined exercise Tuesday intended to show their ability to counter “North Korea’s destabilizing and unlawful actions.”
The American and South Korean forces fired tactical missiles into Seoul’s territorial waters, demonstrating a “system [that] can be rapidly deployed and engaged [with] deep strike precision capability,” according to a statement issued by an Army garrison in the South Korean capital.
Senior U.S. officials have been cautious in their comments about the latest North Korean test. A review of the missile launch is ongoing, military authorities said late Tuesday.
While it’s questioned whether North Korea launched a multistage ballistic missile, evidence suggested that a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile was launched.
There are also questions about whether the North has successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead that it could fit on such a missile, or if it has mastered the technology necessary for an ICBM to re-enter the atmosphere. Both of these are tasks are extremely difficult, even for a military that is capable of producing and firing rockets in rapid-fire fashion.
As the White House formulates its response to the North’s latest provocation, some experts cautioned that Trump should not issue any ultimatums to the North that he is not prepared to back up, whether they take the form of tweets, official statements or “red lines.”
“The world sees his tweets. North Korea reads his tweets,” said Fitzpatrick of the IISS, who previously worked at the State Department for 25 years. “The tweets are there. They’re a reality.”
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Rights Groups Make Appeal for Detained Bahraini Activist
Two London-based human rights groups are warning that a female activist detained in Bahrain is at “serious risk of torture.”
Amnesty International and the Bahrain Center for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) say Ebsitam al-Saegh was arrested at her home Monday night.
“The officers, all masked, had body and head cameras and were armed. They demanded her mobile phone and her CPR [national ID] card,” BIRD said in a statement, citing family members. “Two masked, civilian-clothed female officers cuffed and detained al-Saegh.”
Amnesty said al-Saegh had retweeted a post criticizing the local security forces’ treatment of women. The post also criticized King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who has ruled Bahrain since 1999.
The group said al-Saegh had been “beaten and sexually assaulted by members of the Bahraini National Security Agency” during a previous arrest in May, and that the Bahraini authorities have failed to investigate those claims.
Bahraini authorities have not commented on al-Saegh’s allegations but have previously denied mistreating detainees.
Samah Hadid, Amnesty’s director of campaigns in the Middle East, said Tuesday that the group was demanding that authorities in Manama “immediately and unconditionally” release al-Saegh. The Amnesty statement said the Bahraini activist’s “only crime is speaking up against a government committed to crushing all forms of dissent.”
The tiny Gulf kingdom, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, has been rocked by unrest since its Sunni minority rulers in 2011 crushed Shi’ite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.
Bahrain had been an emirate until Hamad bin Isa, formerly the emir of Bahrain, organized a new national charter that won wide approval in a referendum. He declared the territory a kingdom and became its first ruling monarch in 2002.
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US Senators: Military Surge Alone Will Not Win Afghan War
A group of influential U.S. senators has cautioned President Donald Trump that a military surge alone will not help win the war in Afghanistan, and they view as “very unnerving” a lack of U.S. diplomatic focus on the issue.
The five-member bipartisan congressional delegation, led by Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, made the observation Tuesday during a trip to Kabul as the Trump administration prepares to unveil a plan this month to try to defeat the resurgent Taliban.
The proposed strategy is expected to add several thousand more U.S. troops to about 8,600 already deployed to Afghanistan to help struggling Afghan security forces fight the insurgency.
“We need to have a strategy to win. The strongest nation on Earth should be able to win this conflict, and we are developing the strategy to do that. And we are frustrated that strategy had not been articulated yet, to be honest with you,” McCain told reporters after talks with Afghan leaders.
Tillerson visit urged
He says that the current security situation in Afghanistan is a matter of concern for his delegation. “Each of us may describe that concern in our own way, but none of us would say that we are on a course for success here in Afghanistan,” McCain said.
Another member of the delegation, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, urged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to visit Afghanistan as soon as possible to directly involve himself in terms of filling the vacant embassy posts, as well as State Department vacancies, to be able to deal with the civilian diplomatic challenge facing the U.S. mission.
“You are not going to win this war just though more bombing … and we don’t have the focus we need to make sure that whatever military surge we engage in is accompanied by a diplomatic surge. … And on the secretary of state side, I see a lack of focus that is very unnerving,” Graham said.
Diplomatic efforts lacking
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, also underscored the need for pushing diplomatic efforts that run parallel to the possible military surge in Afghanistan.
“I hope very much that the strong bipartisan message from this delegation, that at least as to south-central Asia, is these important positions need to be filled. They need to be filled with capable experienced people and they need to be empowered to make the decisions that will drive success,” said Whitehouse.
McCain said that in his assessment, getting major areas of the country under government control, keeping the Taliban from urban centers and working toward a cease-fire with the insurgents would be like winning the war.
“It will probably be a simmering crisis for many years to come. … They are not going to negotiate unless they think they are losing. … So, we need to win and have the advantage on the battlefield and then enter into serious negotiations to resolve the conflict,” he said.
Afghan leadership under fire
The Senate delegation, which included Democrat Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts and Georgia Republican David Perdue, visited Kabul at a time when the national unity government of beleaguered President Ashraf Ghani is under growing pressure to quit over a lack of key political and security reforms. New anti-government political alliances have emerged, involving some of Ghani’s governing partners.
The security situation across Afghanistan also has rapidly deteriorated, with Taliban insurgents making more territorial gains, launching major attacks on key cities and inflicting heavy casualties on government forces. Officials say intense fighting has been raging in 21 of the 34 Afghan provinces.
Acting Defense Minister Major General Tariq Shah Bahrami told reporters on Tuesday that the Taliban — with the help of “foreign fighters” — was preparing to conduct a major assault against the strategically important northern city of Kunduz, which fell to the insurgents twice within a year.
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Child Killed in Second Fire at Lebanon Refugee Camp
A young girl died and several people were injured Tuesday when a massive fire broke out at a refugee camp in Lebanon.
It was the second such deadly fire to hit refugee encampments in eastern Lebanon this week amid soaring temperatures. On Sunday, a fire ripped through a settlement near the town of Qab Elias, also killing one person.
That fire destroyed all but three of the camp’s 193 tents.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that in Tuesday’s fire, 22 of the 185 tents in the informal settlement burned down.
It was unclear what caused the fire.
Lebanon is host is to more than 1 million Syrian refugees, though the government says the number is closer to 1.5 million, most of whom live in informal tented settlements in the Bekaa Valley.
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Malawi Faces Resistance to New Bus Safety Measures
Authorities in Malawi have faced resistance from bus operators as they try to implement enhanced traffic safety measures amid a rise in fatal accidents this year.
Two police stations were torched on June 23 in Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre, as minibus drivers and conductors protested the new traffic safety measures. Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrations.
Officials say the new measures are a response to a rise in deadly road accidents, many of them involving buses. The most recent one killed ten people in June when a bus they were travelling in flipped three times in Ntcheu district of central Malawi.
Police spokesperson James Kadadzera told VOA there have been 927 road deaths this year in Malawi, compared to 806 during the same period last year.
“We are talking of over speeding as being the main cause,” he said. “Drink and drive is following as another factor and we have inconsiderate overtaking, dangerous overtaking.”
The government is now requiring passenger buses to install a speed limiter. Under the new by-laws, drivers and conductors of buses that are overcrowded, operating after 10 p.m., or carrying standing passengers can also face fines and as much as 10 years in jail.
The changes went into effect in mid-June. Meanwhile, minibus operators have increased fares, a move aimed to maintain what they were making when they were overloading their buses.
“We now sometimes quarrel with passengers trying to board with bags because we fear of being jailed. So we are losing customers, as many of them take us to be rude,” says Gold Mabukhu, a minibus driver in Blantyre.
The state-owned Malawi News Agency reported Monday the Lilongwe Senior Magistrate Court fined five drivers $140 each for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Police spokesman Kadadzera says police need more speed guns and breathalyzer machines to curb reckless driving.
“In fact, we have these gadgets, but may not be everywhere,” he said. “We have them in insufficient number and they cannot be always there.”
He says police have increased traffic patrols to check vehicles and drivers.
Bus operators say the government needs to do its part as well and improve the country’s roads to ensure safe driving.
“They are not wide enough,” says Benson Chibaka is an operations manager for AXA Bus Company in Malawi. “They are getting smaller and smaller when they are being eaten up by the rains. So the roads need to be worked on as well.”
Malawi President Peter Mutharika has set up a joint committee with the ministries of labor and transport to explore further ways to stop the road carnage.
your ad hereZambia’s Biggest Market Gutted, Government Suspects Arson
Fire gutted part of Zambia’s biggest market in the nation’s capital on Tuesday in what the government suspected was an act of arson as tensions rise following the arrest of an opposition leader.
United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema was arrested in April and charged with treason for impeding president Edgar Lungu’s motorcade.
The arrest of the opposition leader has stoked political tensions in what is regarded as one of Africa’s more stable and functional democracies following a bruising election last year.
The blaze started at dawn and destroyed property worth millions of kwacha and the entire southern part of Lusaka’s City Market, one of the country’s modern markets.
No-one was killed or injured in the fire.
“Their days are numbered because the police are on their heels and they will soon be arrested,” vice president Inonge Wina said, referring to the suspected arsonists after touring the market.
Police chief Kakoma Kanganja said in a statement on Sunday that some people were planning to vandalize vital installations including bridges and power stations.
The police have since offered 300,000 Zambian kwacha ($32,894.74) for information leading to the arrest of people involved in such acts.
Police spokeswoman Esther Mwaata-Katongo said on Tuesday another fire gutted a charcoal market on Tuesday. “We have insituted investigation in both cases and at the moment we are not ruling out any possibilities,” Mwaata-Katongo said.
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Despite Big Offers, Little Has Changed for Baby Charlie Gard
The president of the United States has offered to help. The pope is willing to have the Vatican hospital take him in. Some 1.3 million pounds ($1.68 million) have been raised to help him leave Britain for treatment.
But little has changed Tuesday for Charlie Gard, a terminally-ill British infant suffering from a rare genetic disease that has left him severely brain damaged.
The child is at the center of a global crusade to have him treated in the United States with a trial therapy. Hospital specialists have said the experimental therapy won’t help. Three British courts have ruled it’s in Charlie’s best interests to be allowed to die with dignity.
Parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates are spending time with their son before his life-support is turned off.
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AP Exclusive: US Tightens Security on Nuclear Inspections
The Pentagon has thrown a cloak of secrecy over assessments of the safety and security of its nuclear weapons operations, a part of the military with a history of periodic inspection failures and bouts of low morale.
Overall results of routine inspections at nuclear weapons bases, such as a “pass-fail” grade, had previously been publicly available. They are now off-limits. The change goes beyond the standard practice of withholding detailed information on the inspections.
The stated reason for the change is to prevent adversaries from learning too much about U.S. nuclear weapons vulnerabilities. Navy Capt. Greg Hicks, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the added layer of secrecy was deemed necessary.
“We are comfortable with the secrecy,” Hicks said Monday, adding that it helps ensure that “as long as nuclear weapons exist, the U.S. will maintain a safe, secure, and effective nuclear stockpile.”
Critics question the lockdown of information.
“The whole thing smells bad,” said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert with the Federation of American Scientists. “They’re acting like they have something to hide, and it’s not national security secrets.”
“I think the new policy fails to distinguish between protecting valid secrets and shielding incompetence,” he added. “Clearly, nuclear weapons technology secrets should be protected. But negligence or misconduct in handling nuclear weapons should not be insulated from public accountability.”
The decision to conceal results from inspections of how nuclear weapons are operated, maintained and guarded follows a secret recommendation generated by in-depth Pentagon reviews of problems with the weapons, workers and facilities making up the nation’s nuclear force.
But the problems that prompted the reviews three years ago weren’t created by releasing inspection results. The problems were actual shortcomings in the nuclear force, including occasional poor performance, security lapses and flawed training, driven in part by underspending and weak leadership.
The overall results of such inspections, minus security-sensitive details, used to be publicly available.
They provided the initial basis for Associated Press reporting in 2013-2014 on missteps by the Air Force nuclear missile corps.
The AP documented security lapses, leadership and training failures, morale problems and other issues, prompting the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to order an in-depth study by an independent group. The review, published in November 2014, found deeply rooted problems and recommended remedies still in the works. In parallel, Hagel ordered what he called an internal review of the nuclear problems. Its findings and recommendation are secret.
Without commenting on the decision to classify inspection grades, Hagel said in an email exchange that excessive government secrecy is dangerous.
“Trust and confidence of the people is the coin of the realm for leaders and nations,” Hagel wrote to the AP. “That requires an openness even on sensitive issues. Certain specifics must always stay classified for national security reasons but should be classified only when absolutely necessary. When you close down information channels and stop the flow of information you invite questions, distrust and investigations.”
Of the two reviews conducted in 2014, the secret report is the one that contains the recommendation to further restrict release of inspection results, according to several officials, including Joseph W. Kirschbaum, director of defense capabilities and management at the Government Accountability Office, the congressional watchdog.
In effect, the Pentagon used the cover of classification to obscure its decision to make nuclear inspection results secret.
The added layer of secrecy did not come to light until an Air Force personnel office posted on its website on June 14 a notice that the “grade,” or overall result, of a nuclear inspection could no longer be mentioned in any personnel documents such as enlisted and officer performance reports, citations or award nominations.
The change is even broader, however. It prohibits any mention of inspection results in any unclassified Defense Department document.
The new rule started going into effect in phases in March, affecting the Navy, which operates the ballistic missile submarine segment of the nuclear force, and the Air Force, which operates land-based nuclear missiles and nuclear bombers.
The Pentagon made the change by rewriting an “instruction” issued by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s office. The revision isn’t publicly available.
Hicks, the Joint Chiefs spokesman, said the instruction is not classified but is authorized for “limited” distribution, keeping it from release. An AP request for a copy was denied.
Asked why the instruction was revised, Hicks said the 2014 Pentagon review recommended that the Air Force “adopt the Navy’s policy” on classification of nuclear inspection results. “The elevated security classification” limits the amount of “potentially vulnerable information to adversary forces,” he added.
The Pentagon has never asserted that reporting on nuclear inspection results has compromised nuclear security.
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Germany Warns of Russian Cyberattacks Ahead of Election
The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency and Germany’s interior minister warn that Russia is engaged in hacking attacks and that officials “assume there will be such attempts on Germany” ahead of national elections on Sept. 24.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Tuesday that documents stolen from the German Parliament in 2015 in a major cyberattack may get leaked to undermine lawmakers or members of the government in the coming weeks. The files have so far not yet been published anywhere.
Hans-George Maassen of the BfV agency said that such attacks may not be so much about weakening one particular party, but to “hamper the trust in the functioning of our democracy.”
your ad hereFrance’s Macron Visits Nuclear Submarine, Simulates Launch
French President Emmanuel Macron is taking part in a missile launch simulation aboard a nuclear submarine in the Atlantic to signal his commitment to the country’s nuclear deterrent.
The simulation is part of a daylong visit to nuclear weapons facilities Tuesday on the Ile Longue base off the Brittany coast. It comes just after North Korea announced that it had tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Macron’s office says he is visiting a warhead assembly and testing facility, then spending a few hours underwater in the Atlantic aboard the nuclear submarine “The Terrible,” where he will take part in a simulated missile launch.
France will be the only EU country with nuclear weapons after Britain’s departure. According to the French constitution, it’s the president who decides whether to fire nuclear missiles.
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North Korea Missile Test Puts China on the Spot
North Korea said it has successfully carried out the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, a crucial milestone in Pyongyang’s efforts to develop its nuclear weapons capability, despite repeated international warnings to the contrary.
The missile, which was launched from an airport near China’s northeastern border with North Korea, landed in Japan’s special economic zone, sending shockwaves through Tokyo’s political establishment and confirming Beijing’s inability to keep Pyongyang in check.
The launch of the missile that North Korea claims can “hit anywhere in the world” will put additional pressure on Beijing to impose even tougher sanctions on Pyongyang. How it will ultimately respond is unclear.
At a regular news briefing Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing has made “relentless efforts” to resolve challenges on the Korean peninsula. He also said China’s role is “indispensible” and called on all parties to exercise restraint to quickly ease tensions.
“[China] urges North Korea to refrain from acts that violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and instead create necessary conditions for resuming dialogue and negotiations,” Geng said.
Trump criticizes launch
Trump has been trying to get China to do more to put an end to North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions, but late last month he said that while he “greatly appreciated” the efforts of President Xi Jinping and China to help, “It has not worked out. At least I know China tried!”
Even so, he renewed his call for more pressure from Beijing earlier on Tuesday in a Tweet shortly after the launch, but before North Korea said it was an ICBM. Trump said that “perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”
Commenting on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un he also said, “Does this guy have anything better to with his life? Hard to believe South Korea and Japan will put up with this much longer.”
On Tuesday, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the latest missile test shows the North Korean threat has increased.
Later this week, the United States, South Korea and Japan will hold a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Nations summit in Hamburg, Germany.
“I will also ask (Chinese) President Xi Jinping and (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin to respond in a more constructive way,” he added.
What will China do?
Cheng Xiaohe, a political science professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, said that while it is still too early to tell what steps China might be willing to take or whether the United Nations will respond by only condemning the launch or enact a new round of sanctions.
“If new sanctions are enacted it should include new measures such as the travel of North Koreans overseas, the export of labor and oil imports,” Cheng said. “All of these are possible measures the Security Council could discuss.”
Cheng said that more research of the launch is needed, but that appears to be a missile with the capability of traveling up to 10,000 kilometers. During the test, the missile climbed 2,800 kilometers before plunging in the sea.
David Wright, a physicist and co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a blog online that if reports are correct, the same missile could have a maximum range of roughly 6,700 km on a standard trajectory.
“That range would not be enough to reach the lower 48 states or the large islands of Hawaii, but would allow it to reach all of Alaska,” Wright said.
Victor Beattie contributed to this story in Washington
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US Carries Out Airstrike Against Al-Shabab in Somalia
The U.S. military says it has carried out an airstrike against al-Shabab in Somalia as the Trump administration quietly steps up efforts against the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa.
Pentagon spokeswoman Maj. Audricia M. Harris said the strike occurred Sunday afternoon Somalia time and the U.S. was assessing the results.
She did not call it a drone strike. Somali officials have said the U.S. has carried out several drone strikes in recent years against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab.
The airstrike follows one in June that the U.S. said killed eight Islamic extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp in the country’s south. Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said Somali and partner forces destroyed the training camp near Sakow, in the Middle Juba region.
President Donald Trump has approved expanded military operations against al-Shabab, including more aggressive airstrikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities. The U.S. in April announced it was sending dozens of regular troops to Somalia in the largest such deployment there in roughly two decades, saying it was for logistics training of Somalia’s army.
The Horn of Africa nation is trying to rebuild after more than two decades as a failed state, and its chaos helped in the rise of al-Shabab. Now a new threat has emerged in the country’s north with fighters claiming alliance to the Islamic State group.
Al-Shabab last year became the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016, according to the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The extremist group has vowed to step up attacks after the recently elected government launched a new military offensive against it.
Pressure is growing on Somalia’s military to assume full responsibility for the country’s security. The 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, AMISOM, which has been supporting the fragile central government, plans to start withdrawing in 2018 and leave by the end of 2020.
The U.S. military has been among those expressing concern that Somalia’s forces are not yet ready.
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Angolan Leader Back in Spain a Month After Medical Trip
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos returned to Barcelona on Monday on a “private visit,” the government said, a month after the 74-year-old leader spent several weeks in the Spanish city receiving medical treatment.
At the time, private media reported that dos Santos, Angola’s leader of the last 38 years, had suffered a stroke, although the government has declined to comment on his condition.
It did not say when he was scheduled to return from his latest trip.
Dos Santos, a Soviet-trained oil engineer and veteran of the guerrilla war against Portuguese rule, has presided over an economic boom in Africa’s second-biggest oil producer since the end of a long civil war in 2002.
Several private media outlets said in May he was seriously ill. The government only confirmed the medical nature of his trip after sustained demands for information from the opposition UNITA party.
The southern African nation of 23 million people is due to hold a general election on Aug. 23 that is likely to see dos Santos replaced as state president by defense minister Joao Lorenco, 63.
However, dos Santos will remain leader of the ruling MPLA party, a position that many Angolans believe will allow him to exert considerable political influence behind the scenes should his health permit.
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Dubai’s Emirates Working to Get Out From Under US Laptop Ban
The Middle East’s biggest airline says it is working to implement increased security measures in response to U.S. demands to reverse a ban on laptops and other electronics onboard its U.S.-bound flights.
Dubai-based airline Emirates said in a statement Tuesday it is “working hard in coordination with various aviation stakeholders and the local authorities” to put the heightened security measures and protocols in place.
Emirates’ Dubai hub has grown into the world’s busiest airport for international traffic, in large part thanks to Emirates’ expansion. It was one of 10 airports affected by the ban on cabin electronics put in place by the Trump administration in March.
Another Emirati airport, in Abu Dhabi, this week became the first to be exempted from the cabin electronics ban.
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UN Condemns Attack on Staffers in Central African Republic
The United Nations refugee agency is condemning an attack on its staffers in Central African Republic.
A spokesman in Geneva on Tuesday said armed men entered the agency’s site in the northern town of Kaga Bandoro on Saturday and robbed six U.N. staffers.
The U.N. says the staffers were threatened at gunpoint. It says staffers have been relocated temporarily to the local base of the U.N. peacekeeping mission and some will be moved to the capital, Bangui.
More than half a million people are displaced in Central African Republic as deadly sectarian violence continues.
The situation has worsened in recent months, with more than 300 people killed and 100,000 people displaced since mid-May after attacks in the impoverished country’s southeast and center.
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Trump Criticizes Kim Jong Un After Latest Missile Launch
President Donald Trump criticized North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after that country’s latest missile launch, asking, “Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?”
Trump wrote on Twitter late Monday that it’s “Hard to believe that South Korea … and Japan will put up with this much longer.”
And he urged North Korea’s biggest ally, China, to “put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”
South Korean officials said early Tuesday that North Korea had launched another ballistic missile toward Japan, part of a string of recent test-firings as the North works to build a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the United States.
For its part, North Korea claimed to have tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile. But its declaration conflicted with South Korean and U.S. assessments earlier.
The U.S. Defense Department said U.S. Pacific Command detected and tracked the launch of a land-based, intermediate range ballistic missile from North Korea’s Panghyon Airfield. The missile was tracked for 37 minutes and landed in the Sea of Japan.
A test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, if confirmed, would be a major step forward in developing a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the United States.
Shortly before Trump’s tweets, the White House said he had been briefed on the South Korean report.
The missile launch comes as the Trump administration has displayed increasing frustration with China’s reluctance to put more pressure on North Korea. Last week, the U.S. blacklisted a small Chinese bank over its business ties with North Korea.
The White House said Trump brought up the North Korean missile program during a phone call Sunday with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that “some negative factors” are hurting U.S.-China relations.
The New York Times, citing anonymous administration officials, reported Monday that Trump told Xi the U.S. was ready to act on its own against North Korea.
A senior U.S. official told foreign policy experts last week that the U.S. has made clear to China that Chinese banks and companies conducting business with Pyongyang will face sanctions if there is no movement on North Korea’s nuclear activities, a participant in the meeting told The Associated Press. The individual wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and asked that his name and that of the senior official be withheld.
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China’s Xi in Russia for talks with Putin
Chinese President Xi Jinping is meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for talks on boosting ties between the two allies.
Xi’s visit comes amid a flare-up of tensions in U.S.-China ties and an anxiety caused by North Korea’s missile launch. The missile flew higher and farther than those previously tested.
Welcoming Xi Tuesday, Putin said they would focus on economic and international issues.
Before arriving in Moscow Monday, Xi warned President Donald Trump that “some negative factors” are hurting U.S.-China relations, as tensions soared over a U.S. destroyer sailing within the territorial seas limit of a Chinese-claimed island in the South China Sea.
Trump, Putin and Xi will attend the Group of 20 summit in Germany later this week. Putin and Trump are to hold their first meeting there.
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US Pivots Back to Hard Line on China Over Disputed Sea
A second U.S. naval mission to the disputed South China Sea over the past six weeks indicates President Donald Trump is increasing pressure on Beijing after a wait-and-see period, a windfall for Chinese maritime rivals in Southeast Asia.
But China is prepared for a U.S. role, analysts believe. It has become the dominant force over in the sea the past decade and is expected to answer U.S. moves by increasing economic ties with Southeast Asian countries that dispute Beijing’s maritime expansion.
China will respond
The U.S. government will keep trying to offset China’s might in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea by passing naval vessels in the name of “freedom of navigation,” said Andrew Yang, secretary-general with the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank in Taiwan.
Trump had sidelined the maritime matter since April to seek China’s help in squelching North Korea’s missile program but may not have gotten what he expected.
“Holding back the freedom of navigation operations was trying to encourage China to do more in the nuclear crisis in North Korea, so this will continue to be one of the bargaining positions in the future,” Yang said.
The USS Stethem guided missile destroyer passed Sunday within 12 nautical miles (22.2 kilometers) of Triton Island, a Chinese holding in the South China Sea’s Paracel Islands, the U.S. Naval Institute website said. Vietnam claims the Paracels and disputes China’s control over the archipelago in a sea that’s prized for fish, oil and natural gas.
In late May, the Trump Administration sent its first vessel into the South China Sea. The destroyer USS Dewey passed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, a Chinese-controlled feature in the sea’s Spratly Island chain.
The sea is open
Washington normally uses those ship movements to prove the U.S. government’s position that the sea is open to all despite Beijing’s claim that most of the waters fall under its flag. The United States doesn’t have a claim in the sea.
Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines do contest China’s claims. They resent its control of islets, some built from landfill, for military use and its passage of coast guard vessels through waters overlapping their own claims.
US/North Korea/China
After an early April meeting in Florida with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Trump had hoped for Chinese cooperation in curbing development of North Korean ballistic missiles and nuclear capabilities. Frustration with China, an old ally of Pyongyang, crested last week in sanctions against a Chinese shipping company over suspected help for North Korea’s weapons programs.
“I think the U.S. using either carrots or sticks to get China to apply more pressure on North Korea will not be successful,” said Steven Kim, a Korea scholar and University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. holder.
China sent military ships and fighter planes in response to the U.S. destroyer’s passage Sunday, which the foreign ministry in Beijing called “provocation.”
China is used to this
But China is used to U.S. forays and knows what to expect, said Termsak Chalermpalanupap, political and security affairs fellow with the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
“It’s just becoming routine,” Chalermpalanupap said. “They know the procedure and what to expect. And in the meantime I think the Chinese are making progress in winning hearts and minds on continental Southeast Asia.”
Since a world arbitration court ruled last year that the legal basis for China’s maritime claim was invalid, Beijing has been privately working out deals with the Southeast Asian claimants who the same ruling favored.
China is spending money
In May China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to the outline for a code of conduct aimed at heading off accidents at sea. China has separately tapped its $11.2 trillion economy to offer individual claimants investment, tourism income and development aid.
Those offers have reached a “huge amount,” said Song Seng Wun, economist in the private banking unit of CIMB in Singapore. China also puts pressure on ASEAN chairs, which rotate each year, to play along with its political ambitions, he said.
China extends development aid in the name of its 4-year-old “belt-and-road” initiative that calls for extending Chinese investment as far as Eastern Europe.
“That will always be under the belt and road banner, so perhaps it’s also the case that investment will continue to grow,” Song said. “So (the) investment push will be concurrent with I think what’s happening on the political side.”
Over the past year, China has discussed funding two Philippine railway projects that would cost a combined $8.3 billion. It became Vietnam’s top foreign source of tourism last year and offered Malaysia a $12.8 billion in a railway line.
Southeast Asian maritime claimants will still “welcome” the U.S. government’s refocus on the South China Sea as a “challenge” to the Chinese claim, Chalermpalanupap said.
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