Elon Musk to interview Trump on X social media network

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washington — Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is due to interview Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the X social media network on Monday in an event that could inject more surprises into the turbulent U.S. presidential election.

The interview, scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern Time (0000 Tuesday GMT), could provide the former president an opportunity to seize the limelight at a time when his campaign is seen as sagging.

His Democratic rival for the Nov. 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, has erased Trump’s lead in opinion polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies.

The interview on Musk’s social media platform could allow Trump to reach a different audience than the conservative faithful who attend his rallies and watch his interviews on Fox News. However, similar events on the platform have been plagued by technical problems.

“Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation,” Musk wrote on the platform, formerly known as Twitter.

The interview will be hosted live using Trump’s official X account, his campaign said on Sunday. Trump’s access to his account, @realDonaldTrump, was restored a month into Musk’s ownership of X after being suspended by the platform’s previous owners following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his supporters.

Trump frequently posts on his Truth Social social media platform, which was launched in February 2022. On Monday morning, Trump returned to X for the first time in a year, posting an ad that highlighted his claim that the four criminal prosecutions he faces are politically motivated.

His last X post before Monday was one in August 2023 appealing for donations and showing a mug shot after he was booked at an Atlanta jail in relation to felony charges tied to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

Musk could prove to be an unusual interviewer. The world’s richest person backed Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020 but has tacked rightward since and endorsed the Republican following the attempted assassination of Trump in July.

Musk, who heads electric car company Tesla, also started a fundraising organization to support Trump’s campaign. The political action committee is now under investigation in Michigan for possible violations of state laws on gathering voter information.

Trump, a longstanding critic of electric vehicles, shifted gears after Musk’s endorsement.

“I’m for electric cars. I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice,” Trump said at an early August rally.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fein, campaigning in support of Harris, called Trump a “sellout.”

The Biden administration has worked to popularize electric vehicles through tax breaks and other support as part of its broader goal of reducing carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

Republicans in Congress have opposed those subsidies. Senator JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, said the Biden policy merely subsidizes rich people who purchase the cars.

Advertisers have fled X since Musk bought it in 2022 and subsequently reduced content moderation that has resulted in a dramatic increase in hate speech, civil rights groups have said.

In the meantime, the entrepreneur has been involved in a swirl of additional controversies. He has falsely accused Biden and the Democratic Party of opening U.S. borders to undocumented immigrants in a ploy to boost the number of potential Democratic voters. Non-citizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections.

Musk in November 2023 endorsed an antisemitic post on X that said members of the Jewish community were stoking hatred against white people. He defended himself, saying the user was speaking “the actual truth.” Musk has also attacked the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit that works to fight antisemitism, accusing it, without evidence, of being responsible for a drop in advertising on X.
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London police say man arrested after child and adult stabbed in busy square 

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London — A man has been arrested after an 11-year-old girl and a 34-year-old woman were stabbed in central London, London’s Metropolitan Police said Monday.

The attack occurred in Leicester Square, a magnet for tourists with its shops, theaters and cinemas. The square and surrounding area have an estimated 2.5 million visitors every week.

Police said the two victims were taken to a major trauma center. The extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.

The stabbing occurred as Britain is on edge after violence for the past week as crowds spouting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans clashed with police. The disturbances have been fueled by right-wing activists who used social media to spread misinformation about a knife attack that killed three girls during a Taylor Swift-themed dance event.

It was not immediately clear whether the stabbing had any link to the unrest.

Police had been braced for further riots over the weekend, but no widespread unrest emerged. Ministers remained on high alert, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said, adding its work was not done in dealing with the fallout from the violence.
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From Paris to Los Angeles: How the city is preparing for the 2028 Olympics

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Los Angeles — It’s Los Angeles’ turn for the torch. Mayor Karen Bass accepted the Olympic flag at the Paris closing ceremony Sunday, before handing it off to a key representative of LA’s local business — Tom Cruise — who in a pre-recorded trek via motorcycle, plane and parachute kicked off the countdown to 2028.

The city will become the third in the world to host the games three times as it adds to the storied years of 1932 and 1984. Here’s a look forward and back in time at the Olympics in LA.

LA’s Olympic trilogy

Los Angeles got the 2028 games as a consolation prize when Paris was picked for 2024.

Back in 1932, LA hosted its first Olympics. The city was the only bidder for the games at a time marred by the Great Depression and the absence of several nations. Yet memorable sport moments came from athletes including American athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who won golds in the new women’s events of javelin and hurdles.

Financial and cultural success gave 1984 a reputation as the “good” Olympics” which made seemingly every major world city want their own.

Emphasizing both the modern and the classical with a hand from Hollywood, the games opened with decathlon champion Rafer Johnson lighting the torch, a guy in a jetpack descending into the Memorial Coliseum and theme music by “Star Wars” maestro John Williams.

With Eastern Bloc countries boycotting, the U.S. dominated. Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton are among the athletes who became household names. A young Michael Jordan led the men’s basketball team to gold.

The games renewed, for a while, the global reputation of a city that had been perceived to be in decline.

“We want our games to be a modern games, youthful, full of the optimism that Southern California brings to the world and the globe,” Janet Evans, four-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming and chief athlete officer for the LA 2028 organizing committee, told The Associated Press in Paris.

Passing the torch

Bass, who arrives back in LA Monday, spent these games in Paris along with organizers and city officials, learning what it takes to host the world’s largest sporting event.

Joining her were LA28 Chairperson Casey Wasserman, an entertainment executive, and LA councilmember Traci Park, chair of the city Olympic committee.

“As we’ve seen here in Paris, the Olympics are an opportunity to make transformative change,” Bass said at a press conference ahead of the closing ceremony.

Venues old and new, plus a swimming stadium

Amid a stadium-and-arena boom, LA will polish existing structures rather than erect new ones.

“It’s a no-build games,” Evans said.

After Paris’ innovative opening ceremony on the Seine River, LA plans to open with a traditional, stadium-based approach at SoFi Stadium in neighboring Inglewood that also incorporates the century-old Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles itself.

Home to two NFL teams, SoFi has hosted a Super Bowl and several Taylor Swift concerts since opening in 2020. It will become what organizers say is the largest Olympic swimming venue ever. Its opening ceremony role means swimming will come after track and field for the first time since 1972.

Intuit Dome, the soon-to-open Inglewood home of the NBA’s Clippers, would be the games’ newest major venue and is the planned home for Olympic basketball. The Lakers’ downtown Crypto.com Arena will host gymnastics.

The toxicity of swimming in the Seine became a serious issue in Paris. That could put renewed focus on the Long Beach area waterfront when it hosts marathon swimming and triathlon races. Its cleanliness history is mixed but its ocean waters got consistently high marks in a 2023 analysis by nonprofit Heal the Bay.

The Long Beach shore was home to the pre-recorded performances during Sunday’s ceremony of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, though it was easy to mistake for LA’s Venice Beach, where the journey of the flag begun by Cruise was shown ending moments earlier.

Trains, buses and traffic

A city that’s notoriously hard to traverse may seem like an odd fit for the Olympics, but it can work.

Bass said she plans to emulate the tactics of Tom Bradley, the mayor in 1984, whose traffic mitigations had some saying it was better than at non-Olympic times. They include asking local businesses to stagger workforce hours to reduce the number of cars on the road and allow work from home during the 17-day games.

Landing the Olympics under then-Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2017 gave the city an unusually long lead time for planning.

While it’s no Paris Metro, LA has built a subway since its last Olympics, with lines running past major venues.

In 2018, the city planned an ambitious slate of 28 bus and rail projects to transform public transit. Some were scrapped but others moved forward, including the extension of a subway line to connect downtown Los Angeles with UCLA, the planned home of the Olympic Village.

Another high-profile project is the Inglewood People Mover, an automated, three-stop rail line past major Olympic venues. It initially received a commitment of $1 billion in federal funding, but opposition from Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters led to a $200 million reduction, the Los Angeles Times reported. It’s unclear whether the line will be completed by 2028.

Metro recently received $900 million in funding through an infrastructure spending package and grants from the Biden administration, of which $139 million will go directly toward improving transportation by 2028 and the goal of a “car-free” Olympics.

“The biggest challenge is not waiting to 2028, but really taking the opportunity between now and 2028 to help Angelenos and visitors alike reimagine the transportation network as something that will be their first choice,” Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins said.

Crime, safety and perception

While crime rates were considerably higher in 1984 than today, the countdown to 2028 comes as the issue has gotten increased attention and cast a social-media-amplified shadow.

The Olympics are designated as a national special security event, which makes the U.S. Secret Service the lead agency tasked with developing a security plan, supported by significant federal resources.

LA city and county law enforcement sent officers to Paris to observe, learn and assist as they prepare for their own 2028 games.

There are many more encampments on city streets than there were in 1984, and it’s unlikely LA will have solved its homeless crisis in the next four years. As the Paris games ended, California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to withhold funding from cities unable to clear encampments.

Ahead of the Games in Paris, organizers relocated thousands of unhoused people, a practice also used for the 2016 Rio de Janiero games and criticized by activists as “social cleansing.”

Tourists and finances

LA is the “next logical destination” for the Olympics, said Adam Burke, president and CEO of the LA Tourism and Convention Board. “LA has emerged as really one of the world’s sports capitals.”

First though, the city will host a FIFA World Cup event and U.S. Women’s Open in 2026 and another Super Bowl in 2027.

The city’s hotel industry has continued to see growth, adding 9,000 new hotel rooms in the past four years with more to come over the next four.

LA28 organizers are banking on ticket sales, sponsorships, payments from the International Olympic Committee and other revenue streams to cover the games’ $6.9 billion budget. The committee has brought in just over $1 billion toward a goal of $2.5 billion in domestic corporate sponsorships.
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After fire struck Maui’s Upcountry, residents of one town looked to themselves to prep for next one 

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Kiribati’s pro-China government faces election test in Pacific

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Tarawa, Kiribati — Pacific nation Kiribati will begin voting in a general election this week, a poll that will test the strengthening ties between China and the government of the climate-threatened archipelago.

The vote on Wednesday in tiny Kiribati – a country of scattered atolls and islands – has the potential to stir ripples across the South Pacific.

Kiribati has drawn closer to China under longtime President Taneti Maamau, who is looking to extend his almost 10-year stint in charge.

Beijing has been sending small teams of police to train Kiribati’s stretched forces in the lead-up to the election, a development that has raised eyebrows among Pacific watchers.

“What China is doing is normalizing its presence in the region,” said Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Blake Johnson.

“We haven’t seen any kind of agreement that shows what they are doing there or how many there are,” he told AFP.

“So it’s all a mystery.”

In the past five years, Kiribati’s Pacific neighbors, Solomon Islands and Nauru, have also switched diplomatic recognition to China.

The low-lying nation meanwhile faces a raft of economic and environmental challenges, such as the rising sea levels that now regularly taint scarce drinking water supplies.

With waves already encroaching on Kiribati’s outer atolls, its capital Tarawa has become one of the world’s most packed places.

Coastal erosion and the search for higher ground means Tarawa today has a population density comparable to Tokyo or Hong Kong.

Residents are plagued by contagious diseases and other symptoms of overcrowding.

Judicial meddling

Under President Maamau, a former public servant, Kiribati severed diplomatic links with Taiwan in 2019 in favor of Beijing.

A memorandum of understanding followed in 2020, with Chinese President Xi Jinping praising Kiribati for being “on the right side of history.”

Maamau’s government has also been accused of meddling in the judiciary.

Australian-born high court judge David Lambourne, who is married to Kiribati’s main opposition leader, was forced to leave the country in May after running afoul of the government.

Officials accused Lambourne of misconduct, charges that his supporters maintain were trumped up as a political ploy.

Kiribati is home to around 120,000 people spread across about 20 inhabited islands and atolls.

The general election has up to two rounds of voting, and the process can stretch on for months.

Citizens separately elect a president from a pool of lawmakers put forward by parliament.
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Tanzania arrests top opposition figure Lissu in mass round-up

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Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Tanzanian police have detained leading opposition Chadema party figures including former presidential candidate Tundu Lissu, and rounded up several hundred youth supporters, a Chadema official said on Monday.

The Chadema leaders were arrested in the southwestern city of Mbeya, where the party was due to hold a rally on Monday to mark International Youth Day, Chadema’s director of communications and foreign affairs, John Mrema, told AFP on Sunday.

He said that around 500 youth supporters had also been arrested by police as they were making their way to the Mbeya gathering and were being escorted back home.

Tanzanian police had announced Sunday a ban on the Chadema youth gathering, accusing the party of planning violent demonstrations.

The youth wing had said about 10,000 youngsters were expected to meet in Mbeya to mark International Youth Day under the slogan “Take charge of your future.”

Chadema leader Freeman Mbowe said he “strongly” condemned the arrests of his deputy Lissu, secretary general John Mnyika, zonal chair Joseph Mbilinyi and leaders of the youth council.

“We demand the immediate and unconditional release of all our leaders, members, and supporters who were arrested in various parts of the country,” he said on X, formerly Twitter. 

“The party is closely monitoring the situation and will continue to inform the public of every development step by step.”

Chadema officials had on Sunday denounced the police ban and called on President Samia Suluhu Hassan to intervene.

Since taking the helm in 2021 after the sudden death of president John Magufuli, Hassan has moved away from her predecessor’s authoritarian policies and embarked on political reforms, including relaxing some restrictions on the media and the opposition.

In January 2023, she lifted a ban on opposition rallies imposed in 2016 by Magufuli, in an overture to political rivals seeking the restoration of democratic traditions.

Lissu had returned to Tanzania soon after Hassan lifted the ban, ending five years spent largely in exile following a 2017 assassination bid.

In March 2022, Mbowe was freed about seven months after he and other Chadema leaders were arrested just hours before the party was to hold a public forum to demand constitutional reforms.

Announcing the ban on Sunday, Awadh Haji, Tanzania’s police chief in charge of operations and training, said the force had “clear indications that their aim is not to celebrate the International Youth Day but to initiate and engage in violence.”

Lissu had on Sunday vowed that the youth event would go ahead as planned.

“President Samia, don’t bring Magufuli’s strange ways. International Youth Day is celebrated globally. Why are your police blocking Chadema youth on the road and arresting them?” he said on X.

“This is not a time to stay silent, be afraid, or just talk. It’s a time to stand up and be counted. Let’s raise our voices with all our strength!”

Tanzania is due to hold presidential and parliamentary polls late next year.
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Pentagon chief orders submarine to the Middle East, tells aircraft group to hasten its transit

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China test-flies biggest cargo drone as low-altitude economy takes off

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beijing — Engineers sent China’s biggest-yet cargo drone on a test run over the weekend while a helicopter taxi took to the skies on a soon-to-open 100-km route to Shanghai, laying new milestones for the country’s expanding low-altitude economy.

Packing a payload capacity of 2 metric tons, the twin-engine aircraft took off on Sunday on an inaugural flight, state media said, citing developer Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co., for a trip of about 20 minutes in southwestern Sichuan province.

China’s civilian drone makers are testing larger payloads as the government pushes to build a low-altitude economy, with the country’s aviation regulator envisioning a $279-billion industry by 2030, for a four-fold expansion from 2023.

The Tengden-built drone, with a wingspan of 16.1 meters and a height of 4.6 meters, is slightly larger than the world’s most popular light aircraft, the four-seat Cessna 172.

The trial run followed the maiden flight in June of a cargo drone developed by state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), the leading aerospace enterprise.

The AVIC’s HH-100 has a payload capacity of 700 kilograms and a flight radius of 520 km. Next year, AVIC plans to test its biggest cargo drone, the TP2000, which can carry up to 2 tons of cargo and fly four times farther than the HH-100.

China has already begun commercial deliveries by drone.

In May, cargo drone firm Phoenix Wings, part of delivery giant SF Express, started delivering fresh fruit from the island province of Hainan to southern Guangdong, using Fengzhou-90 drones developed by SF, a unit of S.F. Holding 002352.SZ.

Cargo drones promise shorter delivery times and lower transport costs, Chinese industry insiders say, while widening deliveries to sites lacking conventional aviation facilities, such as rooftop spaces in heavily built-up cities.

They could also ferry people on taxi services.
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Harris is pushing joy. Trump paints a darker picture. Will moods matter?

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WASHINGTON — At the top of his first speech as her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz turned to Vice President Kamala Harris and declared, “Thank you for bringing back the joy.” The next day, Harris took the theme a step further, branding the Democratic ticket “joyful warriors.”

Contrast that with former President Donald Trump, who opened a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida a few days later by saying, “We have a lot of bad things coming up,” and predicting the U.S. could fall into an economic depression unseen since the dark days of 1929 or even another world war.

“I think that our country is, right now, in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in, from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint,” Trump said Thursday.

Democrats are playing up their sunnier outlook, promoting the idea that voters can be inspired to support someone and not just cast their ballot against the other side. The Trump campaign argues their candidate is reflecting the dour mood of the country and dismisses the idea that a growing contrast in tone and upbeat attitude will decide the presidency.

Two-thirds of Americans reported feeling very or somewhat pessimistic about the state of politics, according to polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from last month. Roughly 7 in 10 said things in the country are heading in the wrong direction.

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, said people don’t care about “vibe checks.”

“That’s not making gas or food or housing less expensive,” Miller said.

Walz promotes positivity

Still, just how hard Harris is betting on the opposite approach is evident in her decision to pick Walz, whose personal story includes being on the coaching staff of a high school football team that had gone winless just a few years earlier to clinching a state championship in 1999.

The Minnesota governor’s relentless positivity is meant to give supporters a jolt of new energy and keep the momentum that Harris has built after President Joe Biden — facing mounting pressure from within his own party and increasingly pessimistic views about his chances in November — stepped aside and endorsed his vice president.

Walz spent his first week as Harris’ running mate traveling to swing states with Harris and underscored the point during a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, celebrating what he said was “the ability to talk about what can be good.”

“This idea of caring for our neighbor and kindness, and a hand up when somebody needs it. And just the sense that people go through things and to be able to be there when they need it, that’s who we are,” he said. “It’s not about mocking. It’s not name-calling.”

Biden often ended his speeches saying he’d never been more optimistic. But he built his now-shuttered reelection bid around branding Trump an existential threat to democracy. The president offered dire predictions about the former president, suggesting he’d dismantle the nation’s founding principles should he retake the White House.

Harris’ campaign still relies on many of the same themes, decrying Trump as a threat to democracy, warning that he’ll impose draconian limits to abortion and voting and that he will follow Project 2025, a plan championed by top conservatives to remake large swaths of the federal government.

And despite Walz insisting that smiles were more powerful than insults, he and Harris have continued their share of denunciations, decrying Trump’s conviction in New York on 34 felony counts in a hush-money case and his being found liable for fraudulent business practices and sexual abuse in civil court.

Still, even before she named Walz her running mate, Harris was suggesting that she could help make politics fun again.

“We love our country. And I believe it is the highest form of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country,” Harris declared in campaign speeches before picking Walz. She now tells crowds that she and her running mate “both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down.”

Paula Montagna, who went to see Harris and Walz at a rally outside Detroit last week, highlighted the shift in messaging since Harris took over from Biden.

“Kamala is so positive, and it’s nice to hear positive instead of negative,” Montagna said.

Trump team says their candidate is reflecting reality

Trump’s senior campaign advisers counter that the mood of the country right now is sour over the economy, the state of the U.S.-Mexico border and turmoil in the Middle East and beyond. They see their candidate as reflecting that reality rather than what they believe is a temporary exuberance igniting the Democratic base after months of discouragement over their ticket.

Trump has tried to harness that with his repeated predictions of stock market crashes and war. His campaign appearances have included a long list of other warnings that have veered into the apocalyptic, saying that if he’s not elected, “we’re not going to have a country anymore,” that “the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me,” and that under a Harris administration, “Social Security will buckle and collapse” and “the suburbs will be overrun with violent crime and savage foreign gangs.”

During his Republican National Convention speech last month, where his advisers said Trump would seem changed and more personal after surviving an attempted assassination, the former president did strike a different tone — at least to start.

He said early on that he had “a message of confidence, strength and hope” and sought to “launch a new era of safety, prosperity and freedom for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed.”

But by the end, Trump had returned to predictions of doom, twice warning, “Bad things are going to happen.”

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, has drawn a sharp contrast with Walz. Vance has been cheered on the right for being an aggressive fighter on behalf of the former president, particularly when engaging with reporters.

“Right now, I am angry about what Kamala Harris has done to this country and done to the American southern border,” Vance said at a campaign stop in Michigan. “And I think most people in our country, they can be happy-go-lucky sometimes, they can enjoy things sometimes, and they can turn on the news and recognize that what’s going on in this country is a disgrace.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, not himself known for a sunny disposition, offered much the same assessment Friday at a conservative conference in Atlanta hosted by radio host Erick Erickson.

“The country is obviously in a bad mood,” McConnell said.

Trump supporters waiting to see him at a rally in Bozeman, Montana, said they felt the former president’s campaign made them feel positive — even if his message often isn’t.

“Just looking at the state of the country now, I don’t think Kamala Harris’ campaign is one of joy and hope. I think that’s Trump’s campaign,” said Alex Lustig, a 23-year-old from Billings, Montana.

Fred Scarlett, a 63-year-old retiree from Condon, Montana, said that “everyone understands that we need to be here to support Trump because he has never let us down.”

“They shoot at him,” Scarlett said, “and he still keeps firing back.”
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South Korea, US will start summer military drills next week

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Seoul, South Korea — South Korea and the United States will begin their annual joint military exercises next week with a focus on improving their combined capabilities to deter and defend against growing North Korean nuclear threats, the allies said Monday.

The drills could trigger a belligerent response from North Korea, which portrays them as invasion rehearsals and have used the allies’ military cooperation as a pretext to advance the development of nuclear weapons and missile systems.

South Korean and U.S. military officials said this year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, scheduled for Aug. 19-29, will include computer-simulated exercises designed to enhance readiness against such threats as missiles, GPS jamming and cyberattacks, and concurrent field maneuvers and live-fire exercises.

The allies in particular aim to “further strengthen (their) capability and posture to deter and defend against weapons of mass destruction,” military officials said in a joint news conference.

Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said about 19,000 South Korean troops will participate in the drills, which he described as an “essential element for maintaining a strong defense posture to protect the Republic of Korea,” using South Korea’s formal name.

Col. Ryan Donald, spokesperson of U.S Forces Korea, didn’t comment on the number of U.S. troops participating in the exercises and said he couldn’t immediately confirm whether the drills will involve U.S. strategic assets. The United States in recent months has increased its regional deployment of long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carrier strike groups to train with South Korean and Japanese assets in a show of force against the North.

“This exercise will reflect realistic threats across all domains such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s missile threats and we will take in lessons learned from recent armed conflicts,” Donald said, invoking the North’s formal name.

“ROK and U.S. units will execute combined field training exercises across all domains. Field maneuver and live fire exercises will strengthen the alliance’s interoperability while showcasing our combined capabilities and resolve,” he said.

In addition to its military exercises with the United States, the South Korean military will support the country’s civil defense and evacuation drills on Aug. 19-22, which will include programs based on North Korean nuclear attack scenarios, Lee said.

Animosity on the Korean Peninsula is high, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to use Russia’s war on Ukraine as a window to accelerate weapons development while issuing verbal threats of nuclear conflict toward Washington and Seoul.

In response, South Korea, the United States and Japan have been expanding their combined military exercises and sharpening their nuclear deterrence strategies built around U.S. strategic assets.

During last year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests that it described as simulating “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

The North in recent weeks has also flown thousands of balloons carrying trash toward the South in a bizarre psychological warfare campaign that has further deteriorated relations between the war-divided rivals.

Trash from at least one of those balloons fell on the South Korean presidential compound last month, raising worries about the vulnerability of key South Korean facilities. The balloon contained no dangerous material and no one was hurt.
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Talks on Sudan to proceed despite uncertainty over Sudanese army’s attendance

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STATE DEPARTMENT — The United States will proceed with peace talks on Sudan in Geneva this week, even without confirmation of the Sudanese army’s attendance.

U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello said he has arrived in Geneva from Saudi Arabia to launch the “urgent international effort in Switzerland to end the crisis in Sudan.”

On Sunday, consultations between the Sudanese government and the U.S. in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, ended without an agreement on whether a delegation from the army or the government would participate in the Geneva peace talks, casting doubt on the cease-fire negotiations set to begin on Aug. 14.

The United States has invited leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, to discuss a potential cease-fire. The RSF has confirmed its participation in the talks.

A State Department spokesperson told VOA on Sunday that the U.S. will continue discussions with SAF on preparations for the cease-fire negotiations.

“In addition to consultations with the parties, we have heard from tens of thousands of civilians inside and outside of Sudan. Their message is clear: they want an end to the daily terror of shelling, starvation, and sieges, and the United States and our partners stand committed to answering that call,” Perriello wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In Washington, U.S. officials have said that there is no military solution to the crisis in Sudan. They stressed that convening national cease-fire talks—backed by unified pressure from key international stakeholders—is the only way to end the conflict, prevent the spread of famine, and create space to restore the civilian political process.

More than a year of fighting between SAF and paramilitary RSF troops has displaced nearly 10 million people across the Greater Horn of Africa country and left 26 million facing crisis-level hunger.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General António Guterres expressed deep alarm over the evolving situation in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, where fierce fighting between Sudan’s rival military factions, the SAF and RSF, has had devastating consequences for civilians.

“The fighting will further exacerbate humanitarian needs in and around El Fasher at a time when famine conditions have been confirmed in Zamzam camp south of El Fasher,” said U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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Southport, England, mourns young stabbing victim, calls for end to unrest

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London — The people of Southport, England, came together Sunday for the first of the funerals for three girls killed during a dance class, remembering 9-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar’s radiant smile and calling for an end to the unrest that has convulsed Britain since the attack two weeks ago. 

Hundreds of mourners packed St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and spilled into the street outside, which had been decorated with pink ribbons and balloons in Alice’s honor. Chief Constable Serena Kennedy was among them, and she delivered the parents’ message that no one should commit acts of violence in their daughter’s name. 

“I am ashamed and I’m so sorry that you had to even consider this in the planning of the funeral of your beautiful daughter, Alice,” said Kennedy, who heads the Merseyside Police force, which covers the area around Liverpool. “And I hope that anyone who has taken part in the violent disorder on our streets over the past 13 days is hanging their head in shame at the pain that they have caused you, a grieving family.” 

Far-right activists have used misinformation about the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class that killed Alice as a pretext for anti-immigrant demonstrations. They descended into riots and looting as mobs attacked mosques, shops owned by immigrants and hotels housing asylum-seekers. The disturbances have been fueled by social media users who spread misinformation about the suspect in the July 29 stabbing rampage.

Rumors, later debunked, quickly circulated online that the suspect was an asylum-seeker, or a Muslim immigrant. The suspect was born in Wales and moved to the Southport area in 2013. His parents were originally from Rwanda.

The violence calmed Wednesday when far-right demonstrations anticipated in dozens of locations across Britain failed to materialize. Instead, peaceful anti-racism protesters showed up in force. 

But on Sunday, the focus was on Alice. 

Her parents, Sergio and Alexandra, described Alice as a “perfect dream child” who loved animals and moved through the world with confidence and empathy. 

“We feel shocked, unimaginable pain, we miss you,” they said in a tribute read on their behalf. “From time to time, the pin drops. When mommy says, ‘Good night, Sergio, good night, Alice,’ and then it hits us all over again. We don’t hear you back.’’ 

Jinnie Payne, the headteacher at Churchtown Primary School, remembered that Alice once decorated a teacher’s classroom pointer as a magic wand and outlined the seven “Alice qualities” that she wished every student had. 

Those included having a big smile, a genuine interest in others and treating everyone equally. 

“This has to be my favorite, how a child at such a young age could not favor one friend over another,” she told the congregation. “Friends, she played equally with them all. That is so hard to do, and she mastered it.” 

But she also loved to dance. 

On Sunday, her parents released a photo of Alice standing next to a cardboard cutout of Swift as she waited for her last dance class to begin. 

“The time has come to say, ‘there goes Alice,’” Payne said tearfully. “We are letting you go dancing now, Alice. Teach those angels a few dance moves.” 
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Death toll in east DR Congo attacks climbs, others missing

Posted on by SeeAF

Beni, DRC — The death toll of two attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has climbed to at least 18, with 14 people missing, local sources told AFP on Sunday. 

The attacks, which took place Saturday in the Beni territory in the troubled North Kivu province, were blamed on ADF rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group. 

The death toll of those killed “has been revised from 10 to 18 people,” Kinos Katuo, a civil society leader of the area where the attacks took place, told AFP. 

He added that 14 people are missing, with four houses and two motorcycles also burned. 

Another local leader, Charles Endukado, told AFP the number of people killed in the attacks is “more than 18.” 

“No one can go to recover the bodies that are still lying on the ground,” he said. 

The ADF, originally mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels, have established a presence over the past three decades in eastern DRC, killing thousands of civilians. 

The group pledged allegiance in 2019 to the Islamic State group, which portrays them as its central African branch. 

The ADF was also blamed for an attack that killed 20 at the end of July. 

Local authorities in Beni told AFP in mid-June that since the beginning of the same month 150 people had been killed in attacks attributed to the ADF in eastern DRC. 

Since the end of 2021, the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been conducting joint operations against the ADF in North Kivu and the neighboring province of Ituri, but have so far failed to stop the deadly attacks on civilians.
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China supports Iran in defending security, says foreign minister

Posted on by SeeEA

Beijing — China supports Iran in defending its “sovereignty, security and national dignity,” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told Iran’s acting foreign minister in a phone call Sunday, according to a statement by China’s foreign ministry. 

In the phone call, Wang repeated Beijing’s denunciation of the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, saying the attack violated Iran’s sovereignty and threatened regional stability. 

Iran and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the covert strike that killed Haniyeh. 

Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility for the killing, which has fueled concern that the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was turning into a wider Middle East war. 

Iran has vowed to “harshly punish” Israel over the assassination. 

Wang told Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s acting foreign Minister, that the killing of Haniyeh had “directly undermined the Gaza cease-fire negotiation process and undermined regional peace and stability,” China’s foreign ministry said. 

“China supports Iran in defending its sovereignty, security and national dignity in accordance with the law, and in its efforts to maintain regional peace and stability, and stands ready to maintain close communication with Iran,” Wang was quoted as saying. 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday nominated Abbas Araqchi as the country’s foreign minister. Araqchi had been Iran’s chief negotiator in nuclear talks from 2013 to 2021. 
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Reynolds-Lively husband and wife team wins weekend box office

Posted on by SeeUS

New York — In the Ryan Reynolds-Blake Lively box-office showdown, both husband and wife came out as winners. 

Reynolds’ Marvel Studios smash “Deadpool & Wolverine” remained the top movie in North American theaters for the third straight week with $54.2 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday. Worldwide, it’s now surpassed $1 billion.

“Deadpool & Wolverine,” though, was closely followed by “It Ends With Us,” the romance drama starring Lively, which surpassed expectations with a stellar $50 million debut. 

Together, the films created a kind of family edition of “Barbenheimer,” in which a pair of very different movies thrived in part due to counterprogramming. Only this time, the opposite movies were fronted by one of Hollywood’s most famous couples. The films’ one-two punch wasn’t entirely unprecedented. In 1990, Bruce Willis’ “Die Hard 2” led the box office while Demi Moore’s “Ghost” came in second. 

The weekend also featured a high-priced flop. “Borderlands,” the long-delayed $120-million videogame adaptation directed by Eli Roth, launched with a paltry $8.8 million for Lionsgate. The film, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Jack Black, was shot all the way back in 2021. After delays and reshoots, it finally landed in theaters effectively dead-on-arrival; it scored just 10% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and seems likely to contend for one of the worst movies of the year. 

Meanwhile, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which co-stars Hugh Jackman, continued its march through box-office records. The film, directed by Shawn Levy, is only the second R-rated movie to reach $1 billion, following 2019’s “Joker.” In three weeks, it’s already one of the most lucrative Marvel releases and trails only Disney’s other 2024 smash, “Inside Out” ($1.6 billion worldwide) among movies released this year. 

Lively makes a cameo in “Deadpool & Wolverine” but she both stars in and produced “It Ends With Us.” Adapted from the bestselling romance novel by Colleen Hoover, Lively stars as Lily Bloom, a Boston florist torn between two men, one from her present life (Justin Baldoni, who also directed the film) and another who was her first love (Brandon Sklenar).

“It Ends With Us” cost a modest $25 million to produce, so it will turn a significant profit for co-financers Columbia Pictures and Wayfarer Studios. Like another female-skewing summer-release book adaptation from Sony, “Where the Crawdads Sing,” “It Ends With Us” could hold well through the typically slower August box-office period. Audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore. 

Reynolds and Lively occasionally played up the convergence of their movies. Earlier this week, Reynolds posted a video of himself posing junket questions to Sklenar. The timing paid off especially for Lively, whose film doubled earlier opening-weekend forecasts. 

Neon’s “Cuckoo,” a German Alps-set horror film by filmmaker Tilman Singer, opened with $3 million on 1,503 screen. It stars Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday. 

 

  1. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” $54.2 million. 

  2. “It Ends With Us,” $50 million. 

  3. “Twisters,” $15 million. 

  4. “Borderlands,” $8.8 million. 

  5. “Despicable Me 4,” $8 million. 

  6. “Trap,” $6.7 million. 

  7. “Inside Out 2,” $5 million. 

  8. “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” $3.1 million. 

  9. “Cuckoo,” $3 million. 

  10. “Longlegs,” $2 million. 
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Greek residents flee as wildfire rages uncontrolled near Athens

Posted on by SeeEU

VARNAVA/ATHENS — Residents fled their homes Sunday in the village of Varnava near Athens as fire crews struggled to contain a fast-moving wildfire fueled by hot, windy weather that sent smoke clouds over the Greek capital.

More than 250 firefighters backed by 12 water-bombing planes and seven helicopters battled the blaze that broke out at 3 p.m. and quickly reached the village 35 km (20 miles) north of Athens.

“The village was surrounded in no time, in no time. It’s really windy,” resident Katerina Fylaktou told Reuters. “It started from one point and suddenly the whole village was surrounded,” she said.

Authorities sent evacuation alerts for five nearby areas. By early evening, thick brown smoke hung over much of Athens and reached the island of Aegina to its south.

Hundreds of wildfires have broken out across Greece this summer, which has recorded its hottest June and July after its warmest winter. Like elsewhere in the Mediterranean, scientists have linked the fires to increasingly hot, dry weather driven by global climate change.

A European Commission report in April said the 2023 wildfire season in Europe was among the worst this century. Just this month, fires burned amid extreme heat in Spain and the Balkans as well as Greece.

Greek fire brigade spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said the Varnava blaze spread due to gale force winds.

Flames as high as 25 meters (82 feet) swallowed up trees and shrubland.

Another blaze in a forested area near the town of Megara, west of Athens, had been contained by Sunday afternoon, the fire brigade said. 

Several other regions across Greece were on high alert for fire risk Sunday and Monday. 

“We are expecting a very difficult week,” said Kostas Lagouvardos, research director of the Athens Observatory. “If the Varnava blaze is not contained during the night, we will have a problem tomorrow,” he said. 

Fire-fighting aircraft ceased operations at dusk. 

On Saturday, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said he had called for emergency measures involving the army, police and volunteers to deal with forest fires until Aug. 15. 

“Extremely high temperatures and dangerous weather conditions will prevail,” he said. “Half of Greece will be in the red.” 

In June and July, above-normal temperatures were registered on 57 out of 61 days, Lagouvardos said. Greece is forecast to record its hottest ever summer. 
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Police arrest man climbing Eiffel Tower hours before Olympic closing ceremony 

Posted on by SeeEU

Paris — French police evacuated the area around the Eiffel Tower after a man was seen climbing the Paris landmark hours before the Olympics closing ceremony Sunday.

The shirtless man was seen scaling the 330-meter (1,083-foot) tall tower in the afternoon. It’s unclear where he began his ascent, but he was spotted just above the Olympic rings adorning the second section of the monument, just above the first viewing deck. 

Police escorted visitors away from the area around 3 p.m. Some visitors who were briefly locked on the second floor were allowed to exit around 30 minutes later. 

“An individual started climbing the Eiffel Tower at 2:45 p.m., police intervened and the person was detained,” a Paris police official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation into the incident. 

The Eiffel Tower was a centerpiece of the opening ceremony, with Celine Dion serenading the city from one of its viewing areas. The Tower is not expected to be part of the closing ceremony, which was set to begin at Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis at 9 p.m. 

The incident occurred as the Olympic competition winds down and security services in Paris and beyond are shifting their focus to the closing ceremony that will bring the curtain down on the Games. 

More than 30,000 police officers have been deployed around Paris on Sunday. France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said about 3,000 police officers will be mobilized around the Stade de France, and 20,000 police troops and other security personnel in Paris and the Saint-Denis area will be mobilized late into Sunday night to ensure safety on the last day of the Olympics.
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Wall St Week Ahead — Rollercoaster week in US stocks leaves investors braced for bumps ahead 

Posted on by SeeUS

New York — A week of wild market swings has investors looking ahead to inflation data, corporate earnings and presidential polls for signals that could soothe a recent outbreak of turbulence in U.S. stocks. 

Following months of placid trading, U.S. stock volatility has surged this month as a run of alarming data coincided with the unwinding of a massive, yen-fueled carry trade to deal equities their worst selloff of the year. The S&P 500 .SPX is still down around 6% from a record high set last month, even after making up ground in a series of rallies after Monday’s crushing selloff.  

At issue for many investors is the trajectory of the U.S. economy. After months of betting on an economic soft landing, investors rushed to price in the risk of a more severe downturn, following weaker-than-expected manufacturing and employment data last week.  

“Everybody is now worried about the economy,” said Bob Kalman, a portfolio manager at Miramar Capital. “We are moving away from the greed portion of the program and now the market is facing the fear of significant geopolitical risks, a hotly contested election and volatility that is not going away.”  

Though stocks have rallied in recent days, traders believe it will be a while before calm returns to markets. Indeed, the historical behavior of the Cboe Volatility Index .VIX – which saw its biggest one-day jump ever on Monday – shows that surges of volatility usually take months to dissipate.  

Known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, the index measures demand for options protection from market swings. When it closes above 35 – an elevated level that it topped on Monday – the index has taken 170 sessions on average to return to 17.6, its long-term median and a level associated with far less extreme investor anxiety, a Reuters analysis showed.  

One potential flashpoint will be when the U.S. reports consumer price data on Wednesday. Signs that inflation is dropping too steeply could bolster fears that the Federal Reserve has sent the economy into a tailspin by leaving interest rates elevated for too long, contributing to market turbulence.  

For now, futures markets are pricing in a 55% chance the central bank will bring down benchmark interest rates by 50 basis points in September, at its next policy meeting, compared with a roughly 5% chance seen a month ago.  

“Slower payroll growth reinforces that U.S. economic risks are becoming more two-sided as inflation cools and activity slows,” said Oscar Munoz, chief U.S. macro strategist at TD Securities, in a recent note.  

Corporate earnings, meanwhile, have been neither strong enough nor weak enough to give the market direction, said Charles Lemonides, head of hedge fund ValueWorks LLC.  

Overall, companies in the S&P 500 have reported second-quarter results that are 4.1% above expectations, in line with the long-term average of 4.2% above expectations, according to LSEG data.  

Walmart WMT.N and Home Depot HD.N are among companies reporting earnings next week, with their results seen as offering a snapshot on how U.S. consumers are holding up after months of elevated interest rates.  

The end of the month brings earnings from chip giant Nvidia NVDA.O, whose shares are up around 110% this year even after a recent selloff. The Fed’s annual Jackson Hole gathering, set for Aug. 22-24, will give policymakers another chance to fine tune their monetary policy message before their September meeting.  

Lemonides believes the recent volatility is a healthy correction during an otherwise strong bull market, and he initiated a position in Amazon.com AMZN.O to take advantage of its weakness.  

The U.S. presidential race is also likely to ramp up uncertainty. 

  

Democrat Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 42% to 37% in the race for the Nov. 5 presidential election, according to an Ipsos poll published on Thursday. Harris, the vice president, entered the race on July 21 when President Joe Biden folded his campaign following a disastrous debate performance on June 27 against Trump.  

With nearly three months until the Nov. 5 vote, investors are braced for plenty of additional twists and turns in an election year that has already been one of the most dramatic in recent memory.  

“While early events suggested a clearer picture of US Presidential and Congressional outcomes, more recent events have again thrown the outcome into doubt,” analysts at JPMorgan wrote.  

Chris Marangi, co-chief investment officer of value at Gabelli Funds, believes the election will add to market volatility. At the same time, expected rate cuts in September could boost a rotation into areas of the market that have lagged in a year that has been dominated by Big Tech, he said.  

“We expect increased volatility into the election but the underlying rotation to continue as lower rates offset economic weakness,” he said. 
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Rwanda’s Kagame sworn in for fourth term 

Posted on by SeeAF

Kigali — Rwanda’s all-powerful President Paul Kagame was sworn in on Sunday for a fourth term after sweeping to victory in elections last month with more than 99% of the vote.  

Several dozen heads of state and other dignitaries from African nations joined the inauguration ceremony at a packed 45,000-seat stadium in Kigali, where crowds had started gathering from the early morning.  

Kagame took the oath of office before Chief Justice Faustin Ntezilyayo, pledging to “preserve peace and national sovereignty, consolidate national unity.”  

The outcome of the July 15 poll was never in doubt for the iron-fisted Kagame, who has ruled the small African nation since the 1994 genocide, as de facto leader and then president.  

He won 99.18% of ballots cast to secure another five years in power, according to the National Electoral Commission.  

Rights activists said the 66-year-old’s overwhelming victory was a stark reminder of the lack of democracy in Rwanda.  

Only two candidates were authorized to run against him out of eight applicants, with several prominent Kagame critics barred.  

Democratic Green Party leader Frank Habineza scraped into second place with 0.5 percent of the vote against 0.32 percent for independent Philippe Mpayimana.   

DRC cease-fire talks

Kagame is credited with rebuilding a ruined nation after the genocide, when Hutu extremists unleashed 100 days of vicious bloodletting targeting the Tutsi minority, killing around 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis but also Hutu moderates.   

But rights activists and opponents say he rules in a climate of fear, crushing any dissent with intimidation, arbitrary detentions, killings and enforced disappearances.  

Kigali is also accused of stoking instability in the east of its much larger neighbor the Democratic Republic of Congo.  

Angola’s President Joao Lourenco, among those attending Sunday’s ceremony, was due to have private talks with Kagame on a DRC ceasefire deal, the Angolan presidency said.  

Luanda brokered the agreement last month after a meeting between the foreign ministers of DRC and Rwanda, which is accused of backing the M23 rebel group fighting Kinshasa’s armed forces.  

But on August 4, the day the deal was supposed to take effect, M23 rebels — who have seized territory in the east since launching a new offensive at the end of 2021 — captured a town on the border with Uganda.  

With 65 percent of the population aged under 30, Kagame is the only leader most Rwandans have ever known.  

“I proudly cast my vote for president Kagame and made it a priority to be here today to witness this historic inauguration,” said Tania Iriza, a 27-year-old trader, one of the tens of thousands who turned out for the ceremony.  

“His leadership has been transformative for our nation. Under his leadership, Rwanda has risen from our tragic past and forged a path towards prosperity, unity and innovation.”  

Kagame has won every presidential election he has contested, each time with more than 93 percent of the ballot.  

In 2015, he oversaw controversial constitutional amendments that shortened presidential terms to five years from seven but reset the clock for the Rwandan leader, allowing him to potentially rule until 2034. 
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