In Sudan’s North Darfur state, displaced people and doctors say the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are attacking hospitals and camps in the capital, El Fasher. Meanwhile, nonprofit groups say the world is paying little attention as a city that was supposed to be a haven for those forced out of their homes by war is being torn apart. Henry Wilkins has the story.
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Month: June 2024
Thousands turn out for LA Pride Parade, events
LOS ANGELES — Tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Hollywood on Sunday for the L.A. Pride Parade, one of the biggest events during a month of celebrations honoring the LGBTQ+ community in and around Los Angeles.
Rainbow flags ruled the day as revelers cheered the lively procession that featured “Star Trek” star and activist George Takei as the Icon Grand Marshal.
“As someone who has witnessed the struggles and triumphs of our community over the years, I am filled with gratitude for the progress we have made and inspired to continue the fight for full acceptance and equality for all,” Takei said in a statement.
The parade’s Community Grand Marshal was L.A. Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. The department’s first openly gay chief said she was “overjoyed” by the honor.
Following the parade, the L.A. Pride Block Party offered DJs, live performances, food trucks and a beer garden.
On Saturday night, Latin pop superstar Ricky Martin headlined a concert dubbed Pride in the Park at Los Angeles State Historic Park.
Other events scheduled for Pride Month include celebrations at Dodger Stadium and Universal Studios Hollywood.
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Success of Ugandan children’s show highlights film industry growth
Ugandan film producer Allan Manzi is an award-winning filmmaker known for his work on a Ugandan local series called “Juniors Drama Club.” VOA’s Jackson Mvungani spoke with him about the state of the Ugandan film industry. Videographer: Mugue Davis Rwakaringi.
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US reconstructive surgeons step up to help Ukrainian counterparts
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the West responded, sending military weaponry and aid to the embattled nation. But as the war drags on, there is also a need for doctors. One nonprofit is sending American surgeons to Ukraine, and Ukrainian surgeons to train in the United States. Iryna Solomko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Pavlo Terekhov.
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US presidential candidates contrast sharply on LGBTQ rights
The number of adults in the United States identifying as something other than heterosexual is holding steady at about 7.2%, and the two presidential candidates are taking note. VOA senior Washington correspondent Carolyn Presutti tells us how they are trying to attract that population.
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China probes top exec at state investment firm for corruption
Beijing — A top executive at a major Chinese state-backed investment company is under investigation for corruption, the government’s anti-corruption body said Sunday, as an unrelenting crackdown on graft sweeps through the finance sector.
Xu Zuo, vice president at China Citic Group, is “suspected of serious disciplinary and legal violations,” the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in an online statement, without giving further details.
Citic Group is a vast state-run investment conglomerate with the equivalent of over $1.5 trillion in total assets as of last year, according to its official website.
Xu, a senior economist with a background in overseas acquisitions and restructuring, has been on the firm’s executive committee since 2019.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a near-constant crackdown on official corruption since coming to power over a decade ago.
Proponents say the campaign encourages clean governance, while critics argue it also serves as a vehicle for Xi to purge political rivals.
Anti-graft bodies have trained their sights on the financial sector in recent months, including banking, insurance and state-owned enterprises.
Last month, Bai Tianhui, the former general manager at another huge state-backed asset management firm, Huarong, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of taking over 1.1 billion yuan ($151.8 million) in bribes.
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G7 to warn small Chinese banks over Russia ties, sources say
Washington — U.S. officials expect the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy democracies to send a tough new warning next week to smaller Chinese banks to stop assisting Russia in evading Western sanctions, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Leaders gathering at the June 13-15 summit in Italy hosted by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are expected to focus heavily during their private meetings on the threat posed by burgeoning Chinese-Russian trade to the fight in Ukraine, and what to do about it.
Those conversations are likely to result in public statements on the issue involving Chinese banks, according to a U.S. official involved in planning the event and another person briefed on the issue.
The United States and its G7 partners — Britain, Canada France, Germany, Italy and Japan — are not expected to take any immediate punitive action against any banks during the summit, such as restricting their access to the SWIFT messaging system or cutting off access to the dollar. Their focus is said to be on smaller institutions, not the largest Chinese banks, one of the people said.
Negotiations were still ongoing about the exact format and content of the warning, according to the people, who declined to be named discussing ongoing diplomatic engagements. The plans to address the topic at the G7 were not previously reported.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Treasury Department had no immediate comment, but Treasury officials have repeatedly warned financial institutions in Europe and China and elsewhere that they face sanctions for helping Russia skirt Western sanctions.
Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, told the Center for a New American Security this week that he expected G7 leaders to target China’s support for a Russian economy now reoriented around the war.
“Our concern is that China is increasingly the factory of the Russian war machine. You can call it the arsenal of autocracy when you consider Russia’s military ambitions threaten obviously the existence of Ukraine, but increasingly European security, NATO and transatlantic security,” he said.
Singh and other top Biden administration officials say Washington and its partners are prepared to use sanctions and tighter export controls to reduce Russia’s ability to circumvent Western sanctions, including with secondary sanctions that could be used against banks and other financial institutions.
Washington is poised to announce significant new sanctions next week on financial and nonfinancial targets, a source familiar with the plans said.
This year’s G7 summit is also expected to focus on leveraging profits generated by Russian assets frozen in the West for Ukraine’s benefit.
Russia business moves to China’s small banks
Washington has so far been reluctant to implement sanctions on major Chinese banks – long deemed by analysts as a “nuclear” option – because of the huge ripple effects it could inflict on the global economy and U.S.-China relations.
Concern over the possibility of sanctions has already caused China’s big banks to throttle payments for cross-border transactions involving Russians, or pull back from any involvement altogether, Reuters has reported.
That has pushed Chinese companies to small banks on the border and stoked the use of underground financing channels or banned cryptocurrency. Western officials are concerned that some Chinese financial institutions are still facilitating trade in goods with dual civilian and military applications.
Beijing has accused Washington of making baseless claims about what it says are normal trade exchanges with Moscow.
The Biden administration this year began probing which sanctions tools might be available to it to thwart Chinese banks, a U.S. official previously told Reuters, but had no imminent plans to take such steps. In December, President Joe Biden signed an executive order threatening sanctions on financial institutions that help Moscow skirt Western sanctions.
The U.S. has sanctioned smaller Chinese banks in the past, such as the Bank of Kunlun, over various issues, including working with Iranian institutions.
China and Russia have fostered more trade in yuan instead of the dollar in the wake of the Ukraine war, potentially shielding their economies from possible U.S. sanctions.
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‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ boosts Will Smith’s comeback with $56M opening
New York — “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth installment in the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence action-comedy series, opened with an estimated $56 million in theaters over the weekend, handing Hollywood a much-needed summer hit and Smith his biggest success since he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.
Expectations were all over the map for “Ride or Die” given the dismal moviegoing market thus far this summer and Smith’s less certain box-office clout. In the end, though, the Sony Pictures release came in very close to, or slightly above, its tracking forecast.
“Ride or Die,” produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is Smith’s first theatrical test since his 2022 slap of Rock earned him a 10-year Oscar ban. The “Bad Boys” film was in development at the time and was momentarily put on hold, but ultimately went forward with about a $100 million production budget.
Smith starred in the Apple release “Emancipation,” but that film — released in late 2022 — was shot before the slap and received only a modest theatrical release before streaming.
This time around, Smith largely avoided soul-searching interviews looking back on the Oscars and instead went on a whistle-stop publicity tour of red carpets from Mexico to Saudi Arabia, where he attended what was billed as the country’s first Hollywood premiere. The 55-year-old Smith, who for years was one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” the YouTube series “Hot Ones” and Friday, made a surprise appearance at a Los Angeles movie theater.
Given that “Bad Boys” trailed May disappointments like “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “The Fall Guy” – both of which struggled to pop with ticket buyers despite very good reviews – the “Ride or Die” opening counts as a critical weekend win for the movie business.
“The fact that a movie overperformed is the best possible news,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “It seems like all we’ve been doing over the past few weeks and almost since the beginning of the year, with a couple of exceptions, is try to figure out why seemingly well-marketed, well-reviewed movies have underperformed. This ignites the spark that the industry has been waiting for.”
“Ride or Die” still didn’t quite manage to match the opening of the previous “Bad Boys” film: 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life.” That movie, released in January 2020, debuted with $62.5 million. After the pandemic shut down theaters, it was the highest grossing North American release of that year, with $204 million domestically.
“Ride or Die” added $48.6 million internationally. Though reviews were mixed (64% on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences gave the film a high grade with an “A-” CinemaScore.
Black moviegoers accounted for 44% of ticket buyers, the largest demographic.
In the film, which comes 29 years after the original, Smith and Lawrence reprise their roles as Miami detectives. The plot revolves around uncovering a scheme to frame their late police captain (Joe Pantoliano). In one of the movie’s most notable scenes, Lawrence slaps Smith and calls him a “bad boy.”
Movie theaters will need a lot more than “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” though, to right the ship. Ticket sales are down 26% from last year and more than 40% below pre-pandemic totals, according to Comscore. A big test comes next weekend with the release of Pixar’s “Inside Out 2.” After sending several Pixar releases straight to Disney+, the studio has vowed a lengthy, traditional theatrical rollout this time.
Last weekend’s top film “The Garfield Movie,” slid to second place. Also from Sony, the family animated comedy collected $10 million in ticket sales over its third weekend, bringing its domestic gross to $68.6 million.
The weekend’s other new wide release, “The Watchers,” failed to click with moviegoers. The horror film, directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, is about a stranded 28-year-old artist in Ireland. Following poor reviews, the Warner Bros. release grossed $7 million in 3,351 theaters.
That allowed “If,” the Ryan Reynolds imaginary friend fantasy, to grab third place in its fourth weekend of release, bringing the Paramount Pictures cumulative domestic total to $93.5 million. Rounding out the top five was “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which added $5.4 million in its fifth weekend of release. It has grossed $150 million domestically and $360 million worldwide.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
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“Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” $56 million.
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”The Garfield Movie,” $10 million.
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“If,” $8 million.
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“The Watchers,” $7 million.
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“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $5.4 million.
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“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” $4.2 million.
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“The Fall Guy,” $2.7 million.
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“Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” $2.4 million.
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“Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” $1.9 million.
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“The Strangers: Chapter 1,” $1.8 million.
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Alcaraz defeats Zverev in French Open final for third Grand Slam title
Paris — Carlos Alcaraz came back to defeat Alexander Zverev 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday and win the French Open for his third Grand Slam title.
Alcaraz is a 21-year-old from Spain who grew up watching countryman Rafael Nadal win trophy after trophy at Roland Garros — a record 14 in all — and now has eclipsed Nadal as the youngest man to collect major championships on three surfaces. Nadal was about 1½ years older when he did it.
Sunday’s victory — in which he trailed two sets to one, just as he had in the semifinals against Jannik Sinner on Friday — allowed Alcaraz to add the clay-court championship at Roland Garros to his triumphs on hard courts at the U.S. Open in 2022 and on grass at Wimbledon in 2023.
Alcaraz is now 3-0 in Grand Slam finals.
Zverev dropped to 0-2 in major title matches. The 27-year-old from Germany was the runner-up at the 2020 U.S. Open after blowing a two-set lead against Dominic Thiem.
This time, Zverev lost after surging in front by reeling off the last five games of the third set. Alcaraz’s level dipped during that stretch and he seemed distracted by a complaint over the condition of the clay at Court Philippe Chatrier, telling chair umpire Renaud Lichtenstein it was “unbelievable.”
But Alcaraz reset himself and surged to the finish, taking 12 of the last 15 games while being treated by a trainer at changeovers for an issue with his left leg.
No. 3 Alcaraz and No. 4 Zverev were making their first appearance in a French Open final. Indeed, this was the first men’s title match at Roland Garros since 2004 without Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer.
Nadal lost to Zverev in the first round two weeks ago; Djokovic, a three-time champion, withdrew before the quarterfinals with a knee injury that required surgery; Federer is retired.
There were some jitters at the outset. Zverev started the proceedings with a pair of double-faults — walking to the sideline to change rackets after the second, as though the equipment was the culprit — and eventually got broken. Alcaraz lost serve immediately, too, framing a forehand that sent the ball into the stands — which he would do on a handful of occasions — and double-faulting, trying a so-so drop shot that led to an easy winner for Zverev, then missing a backhand.
Let’s just say they won’t be putting those initial 10 minutes in the Louvre. A lot of the 4-hour, 19-minute match was patchy, littered with unforced errors.
Alcaraz managed to come out strong in the fourth set, grabbing 16 of the first 21 points to move out to a 4-0 edge, including one brilliant, sliding, down-the-line forehand passing winner that he celebrated by thrusting his right index finger overhead in a “No. 1” sign, then throwing an uppercut while screaming, “Vamos!”
No, he is not ranked No. 1 at the moment — Sinner makes his debut at the top spot on Monday — but he has been before and, although a “2” will be beside Alcaraz’s name next week, there is little doubt that he is as good as it gets in men’s tennis right now.
your ad hereMayorkas: Biden administration ready for court challenges to border policy
Washington — President Joe Biden’s administration is prepared to defend in court the sweeping asylum policy put into place at the U.S.-Mexico border last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that generally bars migrants who illegally cross the southern border from claiming asylum and allows authorities to quickly deport or send migrants back to Mexico if the daily number of crossings exceeds 2,500. The asylum ban has exceptions for unaccompanied minors, people who face serious medical or safety threats, and victims of trafficking.
Mayorkas on Sunday said the administration was ready to defend the policy against an expected American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit.
“I respectfully disagree with the ACLU,” Mayorkas said. “We stand by the legality of what we have done. We stand by the value proposition. It’s not only a matter of securing the border, we have a humanitarian obligation to keep vulnerable people out of the hands of exploitative smugglers.”
The ACLU confirmed on Sunday it plans to sue.
“It was illegal when Trump did it, and it is no less illegal now,” ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt said in a statement.
Biden took office in 2021 vowing to reverse some of Republican Donald Trump’s restrictive policies but has grappled with record levels of migrants caught crossing the border illegally ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Mayorkas said initial indications showed the new policy was deterring some illegal immigration.
“It’s early. The signs are positive,” he said.
A U.S. border official told Reuters that authorities arrested around 3,100 people crossing illegally on Friday, down roughly 20% from the days before. The official requested anonymity to discuss preliminary figures.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who installed razor wire fencing along the Rio Grande and has seen a state law to enforce illegal crossings into his state blocked by a judge, told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” he thinks the policy is backfiring.
“All that this new Biden policy is going to do is to actually attract and invite even more people to cross the border illegally,” Abbott said.
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Body of missing British TV presenter Michael Mosley found on Greek island
Athens, Greece — The body of missing British TV presenter Michael Mosley was found on a Greek island Sunday morning after a days-long search, his family said.
A police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation, said a body was found on a rocky coast by a private boat and that formal identification was pending.
Mosley’s wife said in a statement that her husband took the wrong route on a hike and collapsed in a place where his body couldn’t easily be seen. Mosley went missing on the island of Symi on Wednesday afternoon.
“Michael was an adventurous man, it’s part of what made him so special,” Dr. Clare Bailey Mosley said. “It’s devastating to have lost Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband. We had an incredibly lucky life together. We loved each other very much and were so happy together.”
She thanked the people of the island of Symi, whom she said worked tirelessly to find him.
“Some of these people on the island, who hadn’t even heard of Michael, worked from dawn till dusk unasked,” she said. “My family and I have been hugely comforted by the outpouring of love from people from around the world. It’s clear that Michael meant a huge amount to so many of you.”
Lefteris Papakalodoukas, the island’s mayor, told The Associated Press he was on the boat with members of the media representatives when they saw a body some 20 meters above the Agia Marina beach. “We zoomed with the cameras and saw it was him,” he said.
The mayor said that Mosley appeared to have fallen down a steep, rocky slope, stopping against a fence and lying face up with a few rocks on top of it.
As police officers were retrieving Mosley’s body, one fell on the slope and had to be carried away on a stretcher, local media reported. The body will be taken to the nearby island of Rhodes for autopsy.
Mosley, 67, was well known in Britain for his regular appearances on television and radio and his column in the Daily Mail newspaper. He was known outside the U.K. for his 2013 book “The Fast Diet,” which he co-authored with journalist Mimi Spencer. The book proposed the so-called “5:2 diet,” which promised to help people lose weight quickly by minimizing their calorie intake two days a week while eating healthily on the other five.
He subsequently introduced a rapid weight loss program and made a number of films about diet and exercise.
Mosley often pushed his body to extreme lengths to see the effects of his diets and lived with tapeworms in his guts for six weeks for the BBC documentary “Infested! Living With Parasites.”
Mosley had four children with his wife Clare Bailey Mosley, who is also a doctor, author and health columnist.
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Biden honors US war dead with cemetery visit ending French trip
BELLEAU, France — President Joe Biden closed out his trip to France by paying his respects at an American military cemetery that Donald Trump notably skipped visiting when he was president, hoping his final stop Sunday will draw the stakes of the November election in stark relief.
Before returning to the United States, Biden honored America’s war dead at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery about an hour outside Paris. He placed a wreath at the cemetery chapel before an expanse of white headstones marking the final resting place of more than 2,200 U.S. soldiers who fought in World War I.
It was a solemn end to five days in which Trump was an unspoken yet unavoidable presence. On the surface, the trip marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day and celebrated the alliance between the United States and France. But during an election year when Trump has called into question fundamental understandings about America’s global role, Biden has embraced his Republican predecessor — and would-be successor — as a latent foil.
Every ode to the transatlantic partnership was a reminder that Trump could upend those relationships. Each reference to democracy stood a counterpoint to his rival’s efforts to overturn a presidential election. The myriad exhortations to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia created a contrast with Trump’s skepticism about providing U.S. assistance.
Biden’s paeans to the struggle between democracy and autocracy drew plaudits in Europe, where the prospect of a return to Trump’s turbulent reign has sparked no shortage of anxiety. But it remains to be seen how the message will resonate with American voters, as Biden’s campaign struggles to connect the dire warnings the Democratic president so often delivers about his rival with people’s daily concerns.
The visit to the cemetery served as a moment to underscore the contrast once more.
“It’s the same story,” Biden said. “America showed up. America showed up to stop the Germans. America showed up to make sure that they did not prevail. And America shows up when we’re needed just like our allies show for us.”
During a 2018 trip to France, Trump skipped plans to go to the cemetery, a decision that the White House blamed on weather at the time. However, subsequent reports said that Trump told aides he didn’t want to go because he viewed the dead soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.” Trump has denied the comments, although they were later corroborated by his chief of staff at the time, John Kelly.
Trump’s purported insults have become a regular feature of Biden’s campaign speeches, including during an April rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“These soldiers were heroes, just as every American who has served this nation,” Biden said. “Believing otherwise, that alone is disqualifying for someone to seek this office.”
Biden ignored a direct question about Trump at the cemetery. “The idea that I would come to Normandy and not make the short trip here to pay tribute,” he added, his voice trailing off as if to express disbelief.
Maura Sullivan, a former Marine officer who served on the American Battle Monuments Commission under President Barack Obama, said Biden’s visit would “set the example, and do what a president should do.” Now an official with the New Hampshire Democratic Party, Sullivan said that “voters can draw their own conclusions” from that.
Biden’s trip was full of emotional moments, and the president grew heavy-eyed after meeting with World War II veterans. A 21-gun salute cast eerie smoke over 9,388 white marble headstones at the Normandy American Cemetery.
“This has been the most remarkable trip that I’ve ever made,” Biden said on Saturday night, his last in Paris before returning to the U.S.
At Aisne-Marne, Biden said the trip “surprised me how much it awakened my sense of why it’s so valuable to have these alliances. Why it’s so critical. That’s the way you stop wars, not start wars.”
His remarks over the last few days were also freighted with political overtones.
On Thursday at Normandy anniversary ceremonies, Biden said D-Day served a reminder that alliances make the United States stronger, calling it “a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget.” He also highlighted how the war effort drew on immigrants, women and people of color who were too often overlooked by history.
Then on Friday, he went to Pointe du Hoc, a spot on the coast where Army Rangers scaled cliffs to overcome Nazi defenses on D-Day that was also the site in 1984 of one of President Ronald Reagan’s most memorable speeches about the struggles between the West and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
By following in an iconic Republican’s footsteps, Biden honed his appeal to traditional conservatives who are often frustrated by Trump’s isolationist vision. Biden issued a call for Americans to protect democracy like the Rangers who scaled the cliffs, a message that synced with campaign rhetoric that paints his election opponent as an existential threat to U.S. values.
While Biden was in France, his campaign announced that it had hired the onetime chief of staff to former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger to lead outreach to GOP voters. Kinzinger clashed with Trump’s foreign policy and efforts to overturn the last presidential election.
At Pointe du Hoc, Biden said the Army Rangers “fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the ’30s and ’40s. Does anyone doubt they wouldn’t move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today?”
Trump has argued that the U.S. needs to devote more attention to its own problems and less to foreign alliances and entanglements. He has also routinely played down the importance of American partnerships, suggesting the U.S. could abandon its treaty commitments to defend European allies if they don’t pay enough for their own defenses.
Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian who wrote a book about Pointe du Hoc and Reagan’s speech, said Biden “had big shoes to step into” by choosing the same location.
Biden’s speech “didn’t equal Reagan’s in grandeur, nor could it,” Brinkley said. Still, he said Biden “said the right words about why democracy matters.”
Paul Begala, a veteran Democratic strategist, said it could help Biden politically “to stand where Reagan stood.”
He noted that Biden is struggling with younger voters but appears to be gaining strength among older ones who may be more receptive to reminders of Reagan’s speech four decades ago.
“He needs a lot of Reagan Republicans to offset his challenges with younger voters,” he said.
Biden’s trip was also punctuated by the pomp of a state visit in Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron arranged a ceremony at the Arc du Triomphe, where four fighter jets flew overhead, and hosted a banquet at the Elysee presidential palace.
“United we stand, divided we fall,” Macron said in toasting Biden. “Allied we are, and allied we will stay.”
Overall, Biden’s visit had a slower pace than other foreign trips. The 81-year-old president had no public events on his first day in Paris after arriving on an overnight flight, and didn’t hold a press conference with reporters, as is customary. John Kirby, a national security spokesman, said that was necessary to prepare “in advance of the weighty engagements” during subsequent days.
“There’s a lot on the calendar,” he said.
Still, it was a contrast to Macron’s tendency to offer prestigious guests an intense schedule with a mix of official meetings, business talks, cultural events and private dinners at fancy restaurants.
When the 46-year-old French leader hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, the two-day agenda was crammed with activities including a trip to the Pyrenees Mountains near the border with Spain where Macron spent time as a child.
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South Korea restarts anti-North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts in retaliation for trash balloons
Seoul, South Korea — South Korea on Sunday resumed anti-North Korean propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas in retaliation for the North sending over 1,000 balloons filled with trash and manure over the last couple of weeks.
The move is certain to anger Pyongyang and could trigger retaliatory military steps as tensions between the war-divided rivals rise while negotiations over the North’s nuclear ambitions remain stalemated.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that the military conducted a loudspeaker broadcast Sunday afternoon. It didn’t specify the border area where it took place or what was played over the speakers.
“Whether our military conducts an additional loudspeaker broadcast is entirely dependent on North Korea’s behavior,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
Hours earlier, South Korean national security director Chang Ho-jin presided over an emergency meeting where officials decided to install and begin the broadcasts from loudspeakers. The South had withdrawn such equipment from border areas in 2018, during a brief period of engagement with the North under Seoul’s previous liberal government.
Chang and other South Korean security officials berated Pyongyang for attempting to cause “anxiety and disruption” in South Korea with the balloons and stressed that North Korea would be “solely responsible” for any future escalation of tensions.
The North said its balloon campaign came after South Korean activists sent over balloons filled with anti-North Korean leaflets, as well as USB sticks filled with popular South Korean songs and dramas. Pyongyang is extremely sensitive to such material and fears it could demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken leader Kim Jong Un’s grip on power, analysts say.
South Korea has in the past used loudspeakers to blare anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, K-pop songs and international news across the rivals’ heavily armed border.
In 2015, when South Korea restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border, prompting South Korea to return fire, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported.
Last week, as tensions spiked over the trash-carrying balloons, South Korea also suspended a 2018 agreement to reduce hostile acts along the border, allowing it to resume propaganda campaigns and possibly restart live-fire military exercises in border areas.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik in a meeting with top military commanders called for thorough preparation against the possibility that the North responds to the loudspeaker broadcasts with direct military action, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement.
North Korea continued to fly hundreds of balloons into South Korea over the weekend, a third such campaign since late May, the South’s military said.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the North launching around 330 balloons toward the South since Saturday night and about 80 were found in South Korean territory as of Sunday morning. The military said winds were blowing eastward on Saturday night, which possibly caused many balloons to float away from South Korean territory.
The South’s military said the balloons that did land dropped trash, including plastic and paper waste, but no hazardous substances were discovered.
The military, which has mobilized chemical rapid response and explosive clearance units to retrieve the North Korean balloons and materials, alerted the public to beware of falling objects and not to touch balloons found on the ground but report them to police or military authorities.
In North Korea’s previous two rounds of balloon activities, South Korean authorities discovered about 1,000 balloons that were tied to vinyl bags containing manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, waste batteries and waste paper. Some were popped and scattered on roads, residential areas and schools. No highly dangerous materials were found and no major damage has been reported.
The North’s vice defense minister, Kim Kang Il, later said his country would stop the balloon campaign but threatened to resume it if South Korean activists sent leaflets again.
In defiance of the warning, a South Korean civilian group led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it launched 10 balloons from a border town on Thursday carrying 200,000 anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks with K-pop songs and K-dramas, and $1 U.S. bills. South Korean media reported another activist group also flew balloons with 200,000 propaganda leaflets toward North Korea on Friday.
Kim in recent years has waged an intensifying campaign to eliminate South Korean cultural and language influences. In January, Kim declared the North would abandon its longstanding goal of a peaceful unification with the South and rewrite its constitution to cement the South as a permanent enemy. Experts say Kim’s efforts to reinforce the North’s separate identity may be aimed at strengthening the Kim family’s dynastic rule.
North Korea’s balloon campaign is also possibly meant to cause a divide in South Korea over its conservative government’s hard-line approach to North Korea.
Liberal lawmakers, some civic groups and front-line residents in South Korea have called on the government to urge leafleting activists to stop flying balloons to avoid unnecessary clashes with North Korea. But government officials haven’t made such an appeal in line with last year’s constitutional court ruling that struck down a law criminalizing an anti-North Korea leafletting as a violation of free speech.
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Ukraine says it hit latest-generation Russian fighter jet for first time
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces have for the first time hit a latest-generation Russian Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet at an air base inside Russia, Kyiv’s GUR defense intelligence agency said Sunday, showing satellite pictures which it said confirmed the strike.
In a Telegram post, the GUR did not specify how the Su-57 was hit or by which unit of the Ukrainian military.
A popular Russian pro-war military blogger who calls himself Fighterbomber and focuses on aviation said the report of the strike on the Su-57 was correct and that it had been hit by a drone.
The GUR said the aircraft was parked at the Akhtubinsk airfield, which it said was 589 kilometers from front lines in Ukraine between Ukrainian and Russian invasion forces.
“The pictures show that on June 7, the Su-57 was standing intact, and on (June 8th), there were craters from the explosion and characteristic spots of fire caused by fire damage near it,” the GUR said, with the images posted alongside the message.
Ukraine has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022. Both sides conduct regular strikes hundreds of kilometers into enemy territory with missiles and drones.
Ukraine, which lacks the vast arsenal of missiles available to Moscow, has focused on making long-range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia.
Russian blogger Fighterbomber said the jet fighter was struck by shrapnel and the damage was currently being assessed to see if the aircraft could be repaired.
He said if the plane were to be deemed beyond repair it would be the first combat loss of a Su-57.
Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti’s military correspondent Alexander Kharchenko posted a cryptic message which did not directly acknowledge the strike but decried the lack of hangars to protect military aircraft.
Despite being touted as a Russian fifth-generation fighter aircraft to rival its U.S. equivalent, the Su-57 was plagued by development delays and a crash in 2019. According to its manufacturer, serial production of the aircraft began in 2022.
It is a heavy fighter jet capable of fulfilling a variety of battlefield roles.
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Washington state pioneers program to turn inmates into wildland firefighters
Spokane, Washington — The inmates of Washington state’s prison system tramp through the forest, their yellow uniforms and helmets bright against the brown branches and green leaves.
They are Arcadia 20, or ARC 20, an elite group of firefighters based in Spokane who have been recruited from existing firefighting prison camps.
The aim? Teach the inmates the skills needed to help prevent forest fires – and in the process, give them an opportunity to start on a path to a new career.
Recruited by the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Department of Corrections, the program seeks to provide the dozen or so inmates with enough training to prepare them for jobs as civilian firefighters once they have completed their sentences.
“I do believe one thing for sure, that people deserve a second chance,” said Kenyatta Bridges, 34, who joined the ARC 20 team for training in the middle of last year while serving a 10-year sentence for manslaughter in a 2014 gang-affiliated shooting in Pasco, Washington.
Bridges started a job in a civilian fire crew on June 3, following his release.
Reuters was granted exclusive access to ARC 20 over three months, including a visit last August to the Tonasket Rodeo Grounds, a rural community in northeast Washington near the Canadian border. Bridges and the ARC 20 crew were setting up their tents after a day of helping contain a fire.
Crew members learn how to conduct prescribed burns, how to handle dangerous equipment, and how to ensure fires that have been contained stay that way. And when necessary, they are on the front lines of a fire, digging lines to help reduce the chance a fire will continue to spread.
“Team work, communications skills, an accountability for one’s actions and others as it relates to duties and providing for safety” are an integral part of their mindset, according to ARC 20 management.
“The fellas that I’ve worked shoulder to shoulder with, they’re amazing,” Bridges said. “We all made bad decisions in our life. Some of us got caught, some of us didn’t. But we learn from our mistakes.”
Earning ability
While states across the American West have inmate firefighting crews, Washington’s ARC 20 program is the only one of its kind in the U.S., recruiting incarcerated individuals from full confinement into a reentry center where they continue to build skills in firefighting and prepare for life after release.
They also earn more. Inmates in Washington state’s regular prison firefighting camps, who number around 230, are paid up to $1.50 per hour, based on experience, for their daily duties. When dispatched to an active fire zone, they are paid the state’s minimum wage of $16.28 per hour plus overtime.
Elite crew members who have joined the ARC 20 team are paid a base salary of up to $3,796 per month with potential overtime pay on fire assignments. This year-round crew has a maximum of 20 team members.
It had 13 people on the team during its first full year in 2023 and expects to have 12 as Washington state’s fire season ramps up at the end of June.
The Pacific Northwest is struggling with the effects of climate change, with higher-than-normal chances of wildfires and a longer season this year, according to meteorologists at the Department of Natural Resources, the state agency charged with wildfire prevention and management.
According to DNR officials who manage both fully incarcerated camp crews and the ARC 20 team, a high-earning member of the camp crew received approximately $11,000 in 2023, whereas an ARC 20 crew member earned up to $60,000.
The ARC 20 team is trained to join “hand crews” — teams of 18 to 25 firefighters who work and camp near the front lines of active wildfires, often hiking long distances and carrying their own gear to reach remote areas. They also conduct prescribed burns and chainsaw trees to the ground as part of the state’s fire mitigation and forest management efforts.
ARC 20’s crew superintendent Ben Hood is on the team that selects participants.
“We call it getting bit with the fire bug… Once you get bit with it, you’re hooked in,” said Hood. “It becomes part of, kind of who you are, becomes more than just a job. It kind of becomes a lifestyle.”
When the team isn’t traveling the state fighting fires, they are housed at Brownstone Reentry Center, a minimum security facility in downtown Spokane. Residents participate in work or training programs and are granted additional freedoms like wearing normal clothes or owning a cellphone.
ARC 20 crew members are paid higher wages than some staff in the state’s correctional system, including the facility where they live, according to Brownstone’s manager.
Running a kitchen
Reuters visited another crew of fully incarcerated individuals in September at a Department of Natural Resources facility at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, southwest of the state’s capital city, Olympia.
They had just returned from a weeks-long assignment running a mobile kitchen for almost 1,000 wildland firefighters per day, who were fighting two of the 2023 season’s biggest fires in the state.
Timothy Bullock, 32, an electrician jailed for second-degree assault stemming from a domestic dispute, said he has changed his life goals and wants to become a wildland firefighter.
“I used to drink quite a bit… it was a terrible mistake on my part that affected other people, people I cared about. So it’s hard dealing with that,” said Bullock, acknowledging a prison sentence may have been needed for him to change his path. “I just know that I’m never going to make those types of mistakes ever again.”
Bullock has been a standout member of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center camp crew, according to his bosses at DNR. He has submitted his application for ARC 20 and is being considered for a spot in late 2024.
“I’m getting real close to getting out. It’s kind of working out for the better, you know, to get back on my feet and then have an opportunity when I get out,” said Bullock.
Washington’s model could be a ‘stepping stone’ for state agencies across the U.S., according to transition crew liaison Roy Hardin, who helped form the crew with Hood.
“If a person is employed, has a really good job right when they get out of prison, they’re not homeless, they’re probably not going to come back,” said Hardin. He said four crew members from ARC 20 have gone on to take jobs as members of the state firefighting agency – one engine leader and three engine crew members.
Kenyatta Bridges is one of those crew members.
On June 3, he started fighting fires with DNR’s Arcadia Engine 7405 near Spokane, in one of the most wildfire prone areas of Washington state.
“He’s hard working. He’s motivated,” said superintendent Hood, who recruited Bridges. “He’s becoming one of those leaders. He’s good with the chainsaw. He doesn’t know how to quit working; he’s physically capable of the job. He’s what you want in a firefighter.”
Bridges is elated for this new chapter of his life. Since his release from Brownstone he has been living in transitional housing with other formerly incarcerated individuals in Spokane, and on May 20 his partner gave birth to their son.
“I feel like I couldn’t ask for nothing better,” Bridges said, discussing his life post-release. “To have everything so quickly, it feels like every gear is rotating and spinning just on point.”
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In Burkina Faso, a growing number of children are traumatized by war
Dakar, Senegal — When armed men entered Safi’s village in northern Burkina Faso and began firing, she hid in her home with her four children. The gunmen found them and let them live — to suffer the guilt of survival — after killing her husband and other relatives.
Safi, whose last name has been withheld for security reasons, is among 2 million people displaced in the West African country by growing violence between Islamic extremists and security forces.
About 60% of the displaced are children. Many are traumatized, but mental health services are limited and children are often overlooked for treatment.
“People often think that the children have seen nothing, nothing has happened to them, it’s fine,” said Rudy Lukamba, the health coordinator for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Burkina Faso.
He works on a program to help identify and treat traumatized children. It often relies on mothers to spot signs in children as young as 3 or 4. The chances of a successful outcome after treatment is greater when the children have a parental figure in their lives, he said.
Mass killings of villagers have become common in northern Burkina Faso as fighters linked to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida attack the army and volunteer forces. Those forces can turn on villages accused of cooperating with the enemy. More than 20,000 people have been killed since the fighting began a decade ago, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit group.
Mental health services in Burkina Faso are often reserved for only the most severe cases. A U.N. survey published in 2023 showed 103 mental health professionals in the country of more than 20 million people, including 11 psychiatrists.
Community-based mental health services by social workers are expanding, now numbering in the hundreds and supported by a small team of U.N. psychologists. In addition, traditional medicine practitioners in Burkina Faso say families are increasingly turning to them for help with traumatized children.
But the need is immense. The U.N. said surveys by it and partners show that 10 out of 11 people affected by the conflict show signs of trauma.
With no money and fearing another attack, Safi set off on foot with seven children, including her own, across the arid plains in search of safety. They settled in a community in Ouahigouya, the capital of Yatenga province, and sought help.
It was there that Safi learned how post-traumatic stress can affect children. They had nightmares and couldn’t sleep. During the day, they didn’t play with other children. Through the ICRC, Safi was connected with a health worker who helped through home visits and art, encouraging the children to draw their fears and talk about them.
Traditional medicine practitioners are also helping traumatized children. One, Rasmane Rouamba, said he treats about five children a month, adapting the approach depending on the trauma suffered.
Children in Burkina Faso also have lost access to education and basic healthcare in fighting-affected areas.
The closure of schools is depriving almost 850,000 children of access to education, the U.N. children’s agency has said. The closure of hundreds of health facilities has left 3.6 million people without access to care, it said.
Burkina Faso’s government has struggled to improve security.
The country’s military leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, seized power in 2022 amid frustrations with the government over the deadly attacks. He is expected to remain in office for another five years, delaying the junta’s promises of a democratic transition.
Around half of Burkina Faso’s territory remains outside government control. Civic freedoms have been rolled back and journalists expelled.
And the country has distanced itself from regional and Western nations that don’t agree with its approach, severing military ties with former colonial ruler France and turning to Russia instead for security support.
Safi, adrift with her children, said she plans to stay in her new community for now. She has no money or other place to go.
“There’s a perfect harmony in the community, and they have become like family,” she said.
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Growing community of breast milk donors in Uganda gives mothers hope
KAMPALA, Uganda — Early last year, Caroline Ikendi was in distress after undergoing an emergency Caesarean section to remove one stillborn baby and save two others. Doctors said one of the preterm babies had a 2% chance of living.
If the babies didn’t get breast milk — which she didn’t have — Ikendi could lose them as well.
Thus began a desperate search for breast milk donors. She was lucky with a neighbor, a woman with a newborn baby to feed who was willing to donate a few milliliters at a time.
“You go and plead for milk. You are like, ‘Please help me, help my child,'” Ikendi told The Associated Press.
The neighbor helped until Ikendi heard about a Ugandan group that collects breast milk and donates it to mothers like her. Soon the ATTA Breastmilk Community was giving the breast milk she needed, free of charge, until her babies were strong enough to be discharged from the hospital.
ATTA Breastmilk Community was launched in 2021 in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, by a woman who had struggled like Ikendi without getting support. The registered nonprofit, backed by grants from organizations and individuals, is the only group outside a hospital setting in Uganda that conserves breast milk in substantial amounts.
ATTA, as the group is known, receives calls for support from hospitals and homes with babies born too soon or too sick to latch onto their mothers’ breasts.
More than 200 mothers have donated breast milk to support more than 450 babies since July 2021, with over 600 liters of milk delivered for babies in that period, according to ATTA’s records.
In a measure of efforts to build a reliable community, many donors have given multiple times while others help to find new ones, said ATTA administrator Racheal Akugizibwe.
“We are an emergency fix,” Akugizibwe said. “As the mother is working on their own production, we are giving (her) milk. But we do it under the directive and under the support of a lactation specialist and the medical people.”
She added: “Every mother who has given us milk, they are kind of attached to us. They are we; we are them. That’s what makes it a community.”
ATTA makes calls for donors via social media apps like Instagram. Women who want to donate must provide samples for testing, including for HIV and hepatitis B and C, and there are formal conversations during which ATTA tries to learn more about potential donors and motivations. Those who pass the screening are given storage bags and instructed in safe handling.
Akugizibwe spoke of ATTA’s humble beginnings in the home of its founder, Tracy Ahumuza, who would store the milk in her freezer. Ahumuza started the group amid personal grief: She hadn’t been able to produce breast milk for her newborn who battled life-threatening complications. Days later, after the baby died, she started lactating.
She asked health workers, “Where do I put the milk that I have now?'” Akugizibwe said. “They told her, ‘All we can do for you is give you tablets to dry it out.’ She’s like, ‘No, but if I needed it and I didn’t get it, someone could need it.'”
In the beginning, ATTA would match a donor to a recipient, but it proved unsustainable because of the pressure it put on donors. ATTA then started collecting and storing breast milk, and donors and recipients don’t know each other.
Akugizibwe said the group gets more requests for support than it can meet. Challenges include procuring storage bags in large quantities as well as the costs of testing. And donors are required to own freezers, a financial obstacle for some.
“The demand is extremely, extremely high,” Akugizibwe said, “but the supply is low.”
Lelah Wamala, a chef and mother of three in Kampala who twice has donated milk, said she was spurred to act when, while having a baby in 2022, she saw mothers whose premature babies were dying because they didn’t have milk.
Being a donor is a time-consuming responsibility, “but this is the right thing to do,” she said.
Via motorcycle courier on Kampala’s busy streets, breast milk from donors is taken to ATTA’s storage and delivered to parents in need.
ATTA’s goal is to set up a full-fledged breast milk bank with the ability to pasteurize. The service is necessary in a country where an unknown number of women suffer for lack of lactation support, said Dr. Doreen Mazakpwe, a lactation specialist who collaborates with ATTA.
Mazakpwe cited a range of lactation issues mothers can face, from sore nipples to babies born too sick or too weak to suckle and stimulate milk production.
If both mother and baby are healthy, “this mother should be able to produce as much milk as the baby needs because we work on the principle of supply and demand,” said Mazakpwe, a consultant with a private hospital outside Kampala. “So, in situations where there’s a delay in putting the baby on the breast, or the baby is not fed frequently enough … you can eventually have an issue where you have low supply.”
Mazakpwe said she advises mothers on how to establish their own supply within about a month of receiving donated breast milk, and sometimes all that’s needed is to hold the baby the right way. When mothers start lactating, it frees up supply for new ones who need ATTA’s help, she said.
Akugizibwe said their work is challenging in a socially conservative society where such a pioneering service raises eyebrows. Questions, even from recipients, include fears that babies who drink donated breast milk might inherit the bad habits of their benefactors.
In addition, “If you don’t breastfeed there is a lot of negativity,” said Ikendi, whose premature babies survived on donated milk. “Society looks at you as though you’ve just literally refused to breastfeed.”
She spoke of struggling even when she knew she had no choice after seeing her babies in the intensive care unit for the first time. Through the glass she saw they were so tiny, on oxygen therapy and bleeding from their noses. The babies, a boy and a girl, had been removed at seven months.
Ikendi’s babies received donated breast milk for two months.
One recent morning, an emotional Ikendi held her children as she described how the donated milk “contributed 100% to our babies’ growth.”
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Seoul will restart anti-Pyongyang broadcasts in retaliation against trash balloons
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea says it will restart anti-North Korean propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas in response to continuing North Korean campaigns to drop trash on the South with balloons.
Following an emergency security meeting led by South Korean national security director Chang Ho-jin, the officials decided to install and begin the loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas on Sunday, Seoul’s presidential office said in a statement. The move is certain to anger North Korea and potentially prompt it to take its own retaliatory military steps.
Chang and other South Korean security officials berated Pyongyang for attempting to cause “anxiety and disruption” in South Korea and stressed that North Korea will be “solely responsible” for any future escalation of tensions between the Koreas.
North Korea over the weekend flew hundreds of trash-carrying balloons to South Korea in its third such campaign since late May, the South’s military said, just days after South Korean activists floated their own balloons to scatter propaganda leaflets in the North.
North Korea has so far sent more than 1,000 balloons to drop tons of trash and manure in the South in retaliation against South Korean civilian leafletting campaigns, adding to tensions between the war-divided rivals amid a diplomatic stalemate over the North’s nuclear ambitions.
The resumption of South Korea’s loudspeaker broadcasts has been widely anticipated since last week, when South Korea suspended a 2018 tension-easing agreement with North Korea. The move allowed for the South to resume propaganda campaigns and possibly restart live-fire military exercises in border areas.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the North launching around 330 balloons toward the South since Saturday night and about 80 were found in South Korean territory as of Sunday morning. The military said winds were blowing eastward on Saturday night, which possibly caused many balloons to float away from South Korean territory.
The South’s military said the balloons that did land dropped trash, including plastic and paper waste, but no hazardous substances were discovered.
The military, which has mobilized chemical rapid response and explosive clearance units to retrieve the North Korean balloons and materials, alerted the public to beware of falling objects and not to touch balloons found on the ground but report them to police or military authorities.
Saturday’s balloon launches by North Korea were the third of their kind since May 28. In North Korea’s previous two rounds of balloon activities, South Korean authorities discovered about 1,000 balloons that were tied to vinyl bags containing manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, waste batteries and waste paper. Some were popped and scattered on roads, residential areas and schools. No highly dangerous materials were found and no major damage has been reported.
The North’s vice defense minister, Kim Kang Il, later said his country would stop the balloon campaign but threatened to resume it if South Korean activists sent leaflets again.
In defiance of the warning, a South Korean civilian group led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it launched 10 balloons from a border town on Thursday carrying 200,000 anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks with K-pop songs and South Korean dramas, and U.S. $1 bills. South Korean media reported another activist group also flew balloons with 200,000 propaganda leaflets toward North Korea on Friday.
South Korean officials called the North Korean trash balloon launches and other recent provocations “absurd” and “irrational” and vowed strong retaliation.
With the loudspeakers, South Korea may blare anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, K-pop songs and outside news across the rivals’ heavily armed border. North Korea is extremely sensitive to such broadcasts because it fears it could demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken leader Kim Jong Un’s grip on power, analysts say.
In 2015, when South Korea restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border, prompting South Korea to return fire, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported.
Kim in recent years has waged an intensifying campaign to eliminate South Korean cultural and language influences. In January, Kim declared the North will abandon its longstanding goal of a peaceful unification with the South and rewrite its constitution to cement the South as a permanent enemy. Experts say Kim’s efforts to reinforce the North’s separate identity may be aimed at strengthening the Kim family’s dynastic rule.
North Korea’s balloon campaign is also possibly meant to cause a divide in South Korea over its conservative government’s hard-line approach on North Korea.
Liberal lawmakers, some civic groups and front-line residents in South Korea have called on the government to urge leafleting activists to stop flying balloons to avoid unnecessary clashes with North Korea. But government officials haven’t made such an appeal in line with last year’s constitutional court ruling that struck down a law criminalizing an anti-North Korea leafletting as a violation of free speech.
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