By most indicators, the U.S. economy is doing well. An achievement that President Donald Trump has boasted about on many occasions. But whether Americans see it that way, may depend on which side of the political aisle they’re on. This report by White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara explores partisanship and the American economy.
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A “suicidal” airline mechanic stole an empty Alaska Airlines plane and took off from Sea-Tac International Airport in Washington state before crashing near a small island Friday night, officials said.

Preliminary information suggests that the 29-year-old mechanic stole the Horizon Air Q400 and the crash occurred because the person was “doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills,” Ed Troyer, Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said.

Troyer said on Twitter that the man was suicidal and there was no connection to terrorism.

The sheriff’s department said they were working to conduct a background investigation on the man, whose name was not immediately released.

The man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic controllers that he is “just a broken guy.”

“The guy didn’t know how to fly or intentionally did stunts over Anderson Island, and crashed into Ketron Island,” Troyer said, adding that the FBI is now involved in the investigation.

Witnesses reported seeing the plane being chased by military aircraft before it crashed near Ketron Island, southwest of Tacoma, Washington.

Two F-15 jets were scrambled in response to the stolen plane from the Oregon Air National Guard in Portland, Oregon. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office say on Twitter that the military plane were not involved in the crash.

The U.S. Coast Guard was sending a 45-foot (14-meter) vessel to the crash scene after witnesses reported seeing a large plume of smoke in the air, Petty Officer Ali Flockerzi said.

Horizon Air is part of Alaska Air Group and flies shorter routes throughout the U.S. West. The Q400 is a turboprop aircraft with 76 seats.

Spokesmen for the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration directed inquiries to local authorities.
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North Korea on Thursday denounced U.S. calls for enforcing international sanctions despite its goodwill moves and said progress on denuclearization promises could not be expected if Washington followed an “outdated acting script.”

North Korea’s foreign ministry said Pyongyang had stopped nuclear and missile tests, dismantled a nuclear test ground and returned the remains of some U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Yet Washington was still insisting on “denuclearization first” and had “responded to our expectation by inciting international sanctions and pressure” it said.

“As long as the U.S. denies even the basic decorum for its dialogue partner and clings to the outdated acting script which the previous administrations have all tried and failed, one cannot expect any progress in the implementation of the DPRK-U.S. joint statement including the denuclearization,” the ministry said.

​Willing to implement summit deal

The statement on the KCNA state news agency said North Korea, which calls itself the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was still willing to implement a broad agreement made at a landmark June 12 summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

But it accused unidentified high-level U.S. officials of “going against the intention of President Trump” by “making baseless allegations against us and making desperate attempts at intensifying the international sanctions and pressure.”

It said “expecting any result, while insulting the dialogue partner” was “a foolish act that amounts to waiting to see a boiled egg hatch out.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

​No definite deal

Kim vowed in Singapore to work toward denuclearization, but the two sides have yet to define a deal to meet that goal and Washington insists sanctions pressure must be maintained during negotiations.

The North Korean statement followed comments this week by top American diplomats stressing the need for Pyongyang to take additional steps toward denuclearization and contentious remarks last week by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minster Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of a regional summit in Singapore.

Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said this week that Pyongyang had not taken the necessary steps to denuclearize while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Washington was “not willing to wait for too long.”

Bolton, who spoke Tuesday, said Trump, in a letter to Kim, proposed sending Pompeo back to North Korea, and that Trump was ready to meet with Kim any time.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said at a regular briefing Thursday that the United States was in touch with North Korea virtually every day or every other day but had no travel plans to announce for the moment.

Ri traveled this week to Iran, where President Hassan Rouhani told him the United States cannot be trusted after the Trump administration reneged on a 2015 deal to lift sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s own nuclear program.

U.S. officials have declined to comment on a report on the Vox news website Wednesday saying that North Korea had repeatedly rejected a U.S. proposal for it to cut its nuclear arsenal by 60 to 70 percent within six to eight months.

U.S. officials familiar with the talks, however, told Reuters that North Korea had yet to agree to a timeline for eliminating its nuclear arsenal or to disclose its size, which U.S. estimates have put at between 30 and 60 warheads.

They said it had also not agreed to definitions of the key terms of any agreement, or to any inspection of its nuclear test site, which it claims to have decommissioned, but which U.S. intelligence officials have said may still be operable.

Two U.S. officials said North Korea appeared to view Trump as a softer touch. They said that when a session with Pompeo reached an impasse last month, North Korean officials asked if he would like to step outside to call the president, who declared after the June summit that North Korea was “no longer a nuclear threat.”
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Taiwan’s president will travel to North, Central and South America this month to renew support from two of her government’s few remaining foreign allies and tighten informal ties with the United States, both steps crucial to resisting increased pressure from China.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will leave Sunday for Paraguay, the only Taiwanese ally in South America, and the tiny Central American state of Belize. She is scheduled to stop in the western U.S. cities of Los Angeles and Houston for events that some expect to showcase the strength of Taiwan-U.S. ties.

China has condemned the stopovers as it considers Taiwan part of its territory rather than a country entitled to diplomacy with Washington, which has formal ties with Beijing. Communist officials in Beijing have chipped away at Taiwan’s foreign relations since Tsai took office in 2016. They resent Tsai for declining to see her government and China’s as part of one country.

Tsai needs to stay on the good sides of Belize and Paraguay, two of 18 remaining formal allies, and sustain recent momentum in Taiwan-U.S. relations, experts say.

“Simply making the trip is already a success because it means Washington is willing to take a small hit in its relations with China out of respect for Taiwan,” said Denny Roy, senior fellow at the East-West Center, a research organization in Honolulu.

​Stopovers in the United States

The United States is Taiwan’s strongest informal ally and chief arms supplier. Over the past half-year, relations have surged with a first step toward selling American submarine technology to Taiwan and the U.S. Congress’s Taiwan Travel Act that encourages more high-level visits.

At the same time, trade disputes are straining Washington’s relations with Beijing. Those disputes make the U.S. government more likely to ignore Chinese opposition to stopovers by Taiwanese leaders, experts say.

“Beijing’s problems with U.S. support for Taiwan are always amplified at moments when U.S.-China relations are unusually poor, such as now,” Roy said.

Tsai will probably seek “a little bit more exposure” on this trip compared to in 2017, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei.

It’s not clear whom she will meet in the United States, but any contacts with the government of President Donald Trump would raise Beijing’s anger. 

“You can’t rule out that D.C. would send some officials to meet her, but we wouldn’t necessarily be able to see,” Huang said.

She met Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott on a 2017 stopover.

Taiwanese generally want their presidents to improve relations with major world powers, particularly Japan and the United States. Tsai’s party is now campaigning for votes in city and county elections set for November.

“Whether Tsai Ing-wen is going to deliberately keep this a low-profile issue, I doubt it, because honestly Beijing has been bullying Taiwan since her inauguration,” said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.

Trade issues have raised discontent in China about whether the Beijing government prematurely challenged “U.S. supremacy” before it was ready, Sun said. “On the issue of Taiwan, Beijing does not have as much leverage to fight back,” she said.

​Latin American allies

In Paraguay from August 14-16, Tsai will attend the inauguration of President-elect Mario Abdo Benitez, the foreign ministry in Taiwan says. Tsai also visited Paraguay in 2016 and hosted the country’s head of state in 2017.

“Taiwan now has a lot of actual friends in the world society but not many diplomatic allies,” ruling party lawmaker Lee Chun-yi said. “Paraguay is the only ally in South America, so for us to spend some more time, for the president to go to the inauguration, I think has definite significance.”

Taiwan looks to its formal foreign allies as a way of standing up to China, particularly in the United Nations where Beijing blocks Taiwanese participation. Four allies have left Taiwan since Tsai took office. The foreign ministry in Taipei says China enticed them to switch allegiance.

China and Taiwan have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory today, not as a nation.

Tsai may take lucrative aid money so the new Paraguayan leader does not switch allegiance, Huang said.

“Tsai Ing-wen will actually take quote unquote gifts over there,” Huang said. “These gifts are usually wrapped up as foreign aid. Because China-Taiwan relations are poor now and then Beijing is undermining of Taiwan’s diplomacy is ever stronger, Tsai Ing-wen needs to give out even bigger gifts.”

Tsai will stop too in Belize, an ally in Central America where Panama cut ties in 2017, angering much of Taiwan’s public. In that country from August 16-18, she is set to address the National Assembly and preside over an award ceremony for Taiwan Scholarship Program recipients.
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The Russian ruble fell to its lowest level against the dollar in almost two years after the U.S. imposed new sanctions on Moscow Wednesday over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. Russia has denied a role using novichok, and Moscow on Thursday called the measure illegal under international law and announced retaliatory measures of its own. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports that Russians have reacted stoically to the additional sanctions.
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