A Sudanese judge formally indicted former president Omar al-Bashir on charges of possessing illicit foreign currency and corruption on Saturday.

Questioned in court for the first time, Bashir said that he had received $25 million from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as funds from other sources, but that he had not received or used the money for his own benefit.

A lawyer for Bashir said that his client denied the charges against him and that witnesses for the defense would be presented at the next hearing.

The judge denied a request for bail and said a decision on the duration of Bashir’s detention would be taken at a hearing on Sept. 7.

Sudan’s military ousted and arrested Bashir in April after months of protests across the country. His prosecution is seen as a test of how far military and civilian authorities now sharing power will go to counter the legacy of his 30-year rule.

Bashir was also charged in May with incitement and involvement in the killing of protesters. He has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of masterminding genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.

A police detective told the court earlier this month that Bashir had acknowledged receiving millions from Saudi Arabia.

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The Taliban have staged a “large-scale” predawn attack on an important city in northern Afghanistan, even as leaders of the insurgent group are engaged in marathon peace talks with the United States on ending the deadly war.

Residents and officials said Saturday insurgents assaulted Kunduz, the capital of the province with the same name, from several different directions, triggering intense gun battles with Afghan government forces.

Both sides reportedly have suffered casualties and civilians also have been harmed, though exact details of the battlefield losses could not be ascertained from independent sources. The fighting disrupted power supplies and cell phone services to Kunduz, cutting off all communications.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Roohullah Amadzai told reporters the Taliban managed to enter central parts of Kunduz and took positions in civilian population, including the main hospital.

Ahmadzai said security forces, backed by airpower, were responding to the insurgent attack to force them out of the city while making sure civilians and patients were not harmed in the process. He confirmed both Afghan and foreign forces carried out airstrikes against Taliban positions in the city, killing at least 25 insurgents.

The Afghan city, located on a key highway providing easy access to much of northern border provinces, repeatedly has come under Taliban attack since 2015 and was briefly held twice by the insurgents. The Taliban has since taken control of much of the province.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed in his latest statement that insurgents remained in control of areas they overran at the start of the assault, and they have inflicted heavy casualties on pro-government forces during ongoing clashes.

The Taliban advances prompted top Afghan security officials to arrive in Kunduz later in the day along with the U.S. commander of international forces, General Scott Miller. A Kabul government spokesman, Feroz Bashari, said the officials will “lead clearance operations” against the insurgents. He also tweeted a picture of Miller with other officials from a meeting in the embattled city.

The latest battlefield insurgent attack came on a day when Taliban leaders resumed talks with U.S. interlocutors in the Gulf state of Qatar after taking a one-day break for internal consultations.

The crucial ninth round in the yearlong dialogue between the two adversaries in the 18-year-old Afghan war started on August 22 amid exceptions it would lead to a peace agreement. But it was not clear whether a deal was imminent.

The Taliban is pressing the United States and its NATO allies to pull out their troops from Afghanistan, while Washington wants counterterrorism guarantees from the insurgents, a nationwide cease-fire and the Taliban’s participation in intra-Afghan talks to permanently end hostilities in the country.

President Donald Trump said this week he plans to reduce U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 8,600 from the current level of roughly 14,000. He would not discuss the fate of the residual force.

The Taliban has not responded to Trump’s latest statement, which runs counter to repeated insurgent assertions that in ongoing peace talks with the U.S., an understanding has been reached on a complete withdrawal of foreign troops.

…

About two million people living in India’s northeastern state of Assam face the unnerving prospect of becoming stateless as authorities wind down a mammoth process to identify illegal immigrants.
 
Their names did not appear on an updated citizens’ register published Saturday. Human right activists say they would potentially add up to the largest number of people effectively stripped of their citizenship.
 
The state government has said they will be given the opportunity to prove that they are Indian citizens before foreigners’ tribunals, but many will find it difficult to navigate the legal process as they are poor and marginalized.
 
In an unprecedented exercise that began four years ago, the state’s 33 million people were called on to show documentary evidence that they or their ancestors had resided in India before 1971. Mandated by the Supreme Court, it aimed to weed out migrants from neighboring Bangladesh – an emotive issue that had triggered communal strife in the past in a border state where local communities complained of losing jobs and land to migrants.
 
The controversial exercise was backed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party which has vowed to end “illegal infiltration.” It left millions in one of the country’s poorest states scrambling to produce documents dating back five decades to prove their Indian heritage. Critics slammed the process as one that targeted Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh.  

It is unclear what happens next to the two million who now do not figure in the state’s citizens list. The number is half of the four million who were excluded from a draft list published last year, but is still massive.
 
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in a video message on Friday said that no one excluded from the final list of the National Register of Citizens would be treated as a foreigner until their appeal was heard by a foreigners tribunal. They have been given 120 days to make an appeal and promised legal aid. The government says it will expand the number of tribunals from 200 to 1000 and will not send people to detention centers.

 That is likely to do little to reassure the hundreds of thousands who have to produce papers to prove their citizenship in a country where many poor people did not attend schools, do not own property or have bank accounts and voting cards.
 
 “It is not about who is a foreigner or who is a national, it is all about whether you have a document or not,” says Suhas Chakma, a writer and Assam-based human rights activist. He points out that in 1971, two thirds of Assamese people were illiterate and did not have any documentation. “People have already been economically ruined and they shall further be ruined. It is unimaginable tragedies cast upon them simply because they don’t have a document.”
 
Critics have also slammed the list for being riddled with errors — sometimes excluding one branch of the family while including the other. Lawyers say it is the first time the burden of proving citizenship is falling on people who have lived in a country for decades.
 
Muslims, who make up about one third of the state’s population, have complained of bias against them and opposition parties have expressed concern that the appeals process could discriminate against minority communities. The BJP has countered by saying that the two million also includes many Hindus.

Critics also point to a proposed citizenship law introduced by the BJP that would grant refugee status to non-Muslim immigrants. That has raised fears that while the majority Hindu community that figures among those left off the citizens roll can eventually hope to get citizenship if the law is adopted, Muslims would be excluded.

Some BJP leaders in the state appeared to step back from the controversial process undertaken in Assam saying it had left off many genuine Indians but said they remain committed to root out illegal immigrants.

Assam is a multi-ethnic state that includes Hindus, Muslims and a medley of indigenous tribes. With a 4,000 kilometer-long border with Bangladesh, it has long complained of illegal immigration.

…

A worsening drought is pushing parts of eastern Australia towards a “Fish Armageddon,” according to senior politicians.

With not much rain on the horizon, as well as record low river levels, there are fears eastern Australia will witness more fish dying at a higher rate than last summer.

A million fish died in January at Menindee, 1,000 kilometers west of Sydney, when a sudden drop in temperature caused algae to die. As the algae decomposed, oxygen was sucked out of the river, suffocating marine life.

Farmers and conservationists accused the state government of allowing cotton growers to drain too much water from the Murray-Darling River Basin, one of Australia’s key waterways. Officials, though, blamed a worsening drought. They have announced a multimillion dollar fish rescue plan to help avert an “ecological disaster.”

Modern Noah’s Ark

The New South Wales Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall says vulnerable native fish will be relocated from the river to hatcheries for safety.

“I cannot sugar-coat it, it will be the equivalent of a ‘Fish Armageddon’ in New South Wales this summer, and I say that based on all the evidence. We will use hatcheries like this to create a modern-day Noah’s Ark for native fish species in New South Wales,” Marshall said.

The fish will be kept in captivity until river conditions improve.

Environmental groups, however, say changes are needed to water policy and management to improve flows to ensure “living, functioning” rivers.

Playing God?

Paul Humphries, an ecologist at Charles Sturt University, believes the Noah’s Ark plan probably will not work.

“It is a terrible choice because it was actually floods that caused the problem that Noah was trying to solve and here we are talking about droughts. It is also, I think, a problem because Noah was essentially being instructed by God and in some ways we are playing God with this sort of stuff,” Humphries said.

Australia is the world’s driest inhabited continent. Scientists are warning that climate change not only threatens national treasures such as the Great Barrier Reef, but also critical river systems that sustain the nation’s agriculture.

…

Among the protesters in Hong Kong, many, such as Terence Lai, are prompted by their religious faith to take part in the demonstrations.

The 46-year-old community worker for the Hong Kong Christian Institute, a nongovernment organization, usually spends his time with low-income scavengers known as “cardboard grannies” — elderly female recyclers who sometimes run afoul of local sanitation laws.

Hong Kong Christians Call for Reform video player.

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Between protesters and police

Since June, however, Lai has worked to defuse tensions between protesters and police as Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrations have become increasingly violent, at times meeting with harsh crackdowns by police.

Christians, like others in Hong Kong, are divided in their politics. But Christians in the pro-democracy movement say they hope to be a voice for peaceful change.

Some pastors and religious workers, such as Lai, have taken “a courageous stand, standing between the protesters … and police,” said Kung Lap-yan, an associate professor in the divinity school of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and one of Lai’s former professors.

Hong Kong’s demonstrators rely on the internet for information, and Lai — mobile phone in hand — alerts them to police locations as he scours planned protest sites in an effort, he says, to avoid violent confrontations.

Lai said he’s “supporting the youngsters, protecting them from injuries during the movement (protests), and especially protecting them from the police.” He also offers conversation and counseling to young people who, in some cases, have parents on the police force, he said.

Chu Yiu-ming, a prominent Baptist pastor, was one of the founders of the Occupy Central movement that led to massive protests five years ago. Seventy-five-year-old Chu was recently handed a suspended sentence for his role in those protests, while several other organizers were given jail terms.

Extradition law

More Hong Kongers have taken to the streets since the effort in June by Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, to push through a controversial extradition bill with China.

The bill’s supporters have argued it is needed to bring to justice those accused of crimes on the mainland.

Following major protests, Lam suspended the bill but did not withdraw it, as protesters demanded. They are also insisting that charges be dropped against more than 700 protesters arrested since June; reversal of the government’s characterization of the demonstrations as “riots;” an independent inquiry into the police response; and universal suffrage, with direct elections for all seats in the legislative council and for chief executive.

Since the 1997 return of Hong Kong from Britain to China, the chief executive has been selected by a 1,200-member body, and those selected have all been loyal to Beijing. In the Legislative Council, complicated electoral rules have kept pro-democracy legislators in the minority.

Support for protesters

Now, more Christians are joining their fellow Hong Kongers in sponsoring rallies and taking part in protests that have brought millions to the streets.

“People here, they may not agree to all the protesters on what they did or what they’re going to do, but at least they’re standing on their side, trying to support them,” said William, a young man at a recent Christian rally.

Lam, a devout Catholic, is at odds with many of her faith. The Catholic Church has urged restraint, and Cardinal John Tong Hon and the 21-member Hong Kong Christian Council have asked for withdrawal of the extradition bill, as well as for an independent investigation into police actions.

Off the sidelines

In the past, churches have been on the sidelines, said Lo Ping-cheung, a professor of religion and philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University.

“But this time, it is not a matter of politics,” he said. “It is a matter of the well-being of Hong Kong. So, if that (extradition) act is being passed as law… any of us can be arrested and be sent to China. There’s a very acute sense of insecurity,” he said.

The Christian hymn “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” has become an unofficial anthem for the millions who have rallied, and is sometimes sung by church members and pastors standing between protesters and police.

A number of churches have opened their doors to those taking part in the protests, providing a safe haven.

Lai adds that some Christians are taking part in activist efforts, for example, sponsoring widespread screenings of the documentary “Winter on Fire,” which chronicles the 2014 student protests in Ukraine. He says dozens of screenings of the film have been held across Hong Kong, at least one disrupted by Beijing supporters.

Christian pastors and church workers say they’re mostly working as mediators, either in private or on the frontlines, trying to tamp down violence as they work for peaceful political change in Hong Kong.

…

Gavi, the global vaccine alliance that targets developing countries, said Friday that it was appealing for $7.4 billion to immunize 300 million children in 2021-25. 

Gavi’s latest fundraising drive is its most ambitious to date. Officials said they expected huge returns from what would be the agency’s most comprehensive and cost-effective preventive health package ever. 
 
Gavi said the vaccines would protect against 18 diseases, saving up to 8 million lives. Spokeswoman Frederique Tissandier said sustainable investment was needed for the project because there still are 1.5 million people dying every year from vaccine-preventable diseases. 

“The situation is increasingly fragile because of climate change, because of wars, because of the rise of the population in the urban slums,” she said. “So you have more and more epidemics that are spreading around.” 

Tissandier said Gavi planned to introduce new vaccines to prevent deadly diseases. For instance, she said, Gavi is ready to invest up to $150 million in a new Ebola vaccine stockpile once it is prequalified by the World Health Organization. 
 
She told VOA that Gavi also would help the Democratic Republic of the Congo obtain the lifesaving vaccines it needs to immunize children against other killer diseases.  
 
“We are going to fund, for instance, starting in September, measles campaigns in DRC to cover — I think the number is close to 18 million kids — to strengthen routine immunization, because we really focus on routine immunization,” Tissandier said. “We fund the stockpile against cholera, yellow fever or meningitis to respond to outbreaks.” 
 
She said support for the global polio eradication program remained a priority. Tissandier said Gavi would invest up to $800 million to accelerate the rollout of inactivated poliovirus vaccine. This would protect against a re-emergence of the disease in areas such as Africa, which is on the cusp of becoming polio-free, and other regions that already have achieved that status. 

…

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing a crowded field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. But when the president speaks, it is Barack Obama – his predecessor – who takes the brunt of Trump’s barbs and insults.

Trump has criticized the former president on issues ranging from U.S. policy in Syria to trade negotiations with China to the amount of time Obama spent playing golf during his presidency.

Trump’s latest criticism came at the G-7 summit press conference in France this week when he claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin had “outsmarted” Obama by annexing Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

Trump mentioned Obama in 246 tweets

An analysis of the president’s tweets in the Trump Twitter Archive shows that Obama was mentioned or berated 246 times during Trump’s 951 days in office. That compares with Trump’s 313 mentions of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 Democratic rival for president and favorite target for insults.  

Obama’s negotiation of the Iran nuclear deal — which Trump disavowed after taking office — often figures in Trump’s tweets. For example, the president wrote on June 21 that “President Obama made a desperate and terrible deal with Iran – Gave them 150 Billion Dollars plus I.8 Billion Dollars in CASH! Iran was in big trouble and he bailed them out. Gave them a free path to Nuclear Weapons, and SOON. Instead of saying thank you, Iran yelled…”

Experts say criticism of a former commander-in-chief is damaging to the office of the presidency, particularly on matters of foreign policy.

“America is the leader of the world. Presidents need to speak on behalf of the country with one voice,” said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “This president doesn’t care about continuity. He has a new view of America’s role in the world, which is at odds with the views of his predecessors, including Republican presidents.”

Obama has ignored the attacks

Obama has never directly responded to Trump’s verbal attacks but has addressed the current president’s approach to politics.

In a speech two months ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, Obama said the current vitriolic political discourse “did not start with Donald Trump.”  

“He is a symptom, not the cause,” Obama said. “We are Americans. We’re supposed to stand up to bullies, not follow them.”

Trump, a billionaire New York real estate investor, rose to prominence in national politics in part by promoting the “birtherism” conspiracy theory — falsely claiming Obama was not born in the United States and therefore was not eligible for the presidency. Since taking office, Trump has worked systematically to dismantle much of Obama’s legacy, including reforms in health care, climate change and immigration.

“He sees the Obama administration as everything that was wrong with America prior to him, prior to President Trump coming into the White House,” said Jason Mollica, a lecturer at the school of communication at American University.

Rallying Trump’s base

Mollica said Trump’s criticism of Obama helps rally the president’s conservative base of voters heading into the 2020 election.  

“He knows the people that are for him, or maybe on the fence but leaning toward President Trump… will eat this up,” said Mollica. “They’ll see this is great Twitter fodder, great social media fodder. This is wonderful for conservative outlets to continue to poke holes in the Obama business.”

By continuing to bring up Obama, Trump is invoking the successful arguments he made while running for president in 2016, said Matt Dallek, a professor at The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.

“It goes to some of the core critiques that he had about Washington and why they were losing out on trade deals to China,” Dallek said. “It’s another kind of deflection and distraction.”

Dallek noted that it’s not unusual for presidents – and even presidential candidates – to draw attention to the problems left behind by their predecessors.

“Usually they do it in a more elliptical way,” he said. “They’re usually less vitriolic and less explicit than Trump is.”

Republicans back Trump’s tactics

Congressional Republicans have largely supported the president’s criticism of Obama.

In a June 2019 interview, ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos asked Trump if he believed Obama was behind the investigation into allegations the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Trump responded, “He certainly must have known about it because it went very high up in the chain.”

This past week, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham echoed those concerns, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity, “I can’t imagine an investigation of the Republican nominee for president — a counterintelligence investigation of his campaign — was not approved at the highest level.”

Trump has now served in office for more than two-and-a-half years. As the nation moves deeper into the 2020 election cycle, he will have to account for the successes and failures of his first term. He failed to repeal Obamacare – one of the former president’s signature legislative achievements and a continual target of his own attacks – even with control of both chambers of Congress in 2017 and 2018.

Past presidents have shown restraint

Mollica noted that past presidents have shown restraint in criticizing or upstaging their predecessors. For example, when Obama learned that U.S. forces had killed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden May 1, 2011, the first person he called was former President George W. Bush, before the news was released.

“President Obama could have easily criticized George W. Bush, saying you did not get Osama Bin Laden, we got him,” Mollica said. “It wasn’t about that. It was about the fact that we got the person who quote unquote was responsible for 9/11.”

Instead, Bush was one of the first people to publicly congratulate Obama.

Trump is unlikely to let up on his criticism anytime soon, particularly with Obama’s former vice president, Joe Biden, leading the field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. If Biden secures the nomination, Trump could directly connect his attacks on Obama with the battle to secure a second term.

Experts told VOA Trump’s behavior is unique to him and unlikely to have a long-term impact on the presidency.

“This is just one more aspect of President Trump’s personality that is not at all likely to be repeated by subsequent presidents,” said Kamarck. “And for good reason. Most presidents seek to build bridges across parties to get things done. This president has never thought to do that, and to his detriment. It’s not a very successful strategy.”

…

This Monday is Labor Day in the United States — a holiday linked to workers’ rights and wearing white.

That may sound strange, but it is true. Many Americans put away their white clothes on Labor Day and do not wear them again until the following May, after Memorial Day.

One reason for the clothing custom relates to the season. In the United States, the months between June and September are summer.

The weather is usually hot, including in Northeast cities like Boston, Massachusetts and New York, New York. Many people there historically wore light-colored clothing in the summertime to keep cool.

Judith Martin is an expert on manners – in other words, on how to behave politely. She spoke to Time Magazine about the history of wearing white in the summer.

She said that Americans in the 1800s and early 1900s wore formal clothes all year long. Wearing white clothes in the summertime may have felt more comfortable because “white is of a lighter weight,” Martin said.

Then, in about the 1930s, wearing white clothes in the summertime became fashionable, too. That is because some wealthy Americans in Northeast cities went on vacation for weeks or months in the summer. They stayed in costly hotels or summer houses. The white clothes they wore there became linked to ease, beauty and money.

But at the end of summer, around Labor Day, they put those white clothes away and returned to their lives in the city – as well as to their darker, heavier clothes. In time, not wearing white after Labor Day became a bit of a fashion rule. Following it showed that you were wealthy — or at least that you knew how to act like you were.

Today’s fashion magazines, however, advise readers to ignore the rule. They point to Coco Chanel, Kim Kardashian and Michelle Obama, who have appeared in white in all seasons.

But you may want to be careful about wearing white to an American-style Labor Day barbecue. 

The trouble is not fashion – it is ketchup. If it spills, the popular red tomato sauce can ruin a nice set of clothes.

…

British lawmakers will next week pull the trigger on their plans to stop Prime Minister Boris Johnson leading the country out of the European Union without an exit deal. Johnson says he still wants to convince Brussels to give him an improved exit agreement, but will leave without one on Oct. 31 if he has to.

A narrow majority of lawmakers in parliament has previously voted to try to stop this outcome, known as a “no-deal” Brexit. But, with only a few weeks left before the deadline and limited time in parliament to play with, what options do they have to block the prime minister?

Change the law

British law says that the country will end its membership of the EU on Oct. 31. That date can only be changed by the government of the day. This means members of parliament need to find a way to pass a law that requires Johnson to ask the EU to delay Brexit and then, if the EU agrees to the request, make the required changes to domestic legislation.

In extremis, a law change could even be used to force Johnson to revoke the government’s intention to quite the EU. However, passing a law against the government’s wishes is not easy because ministers have almost complete control over the parliamentary agenda. To do it requires lawmakers to clear three main hurdles: find a procedural opportunity to hijack the agenda in parliament; win several votes to pass a bill through the lower chamber; and then win a series of votes in the upper chamber.

Each stage is fraught with risk. To gain control of the parliamentary agenda will likely require a helping hand from the Speaker John Bercow, who has in the past been supportive of efforts to hinder a no-deal exit. The opposition Labour Party is hoping to use an emergency debate next week to do this, but the method is untested.

To win votes in the 650-seat House of Commons will require members of Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party to rebel against their leader. They have proven willing to do this in the past, but some recent decisions have come down to a single vote.

The House of Lords, which is largely pro-EU, could also prove a stumbling block if eurosceptic Conservative lawmakers there try to filibuster. Above all, each of these steps take parliamentary time, which is in short supply after Johnson announced on Wednesday that he would suspend parliament for more than a month between mid-September and mid-October.

Nevertheless, the approach has been successful once before, earlier this year when parliament passed a law demanding then-Prime Minister Theresa May delay Brexit. In the end, she decided to do so anyway, so the effectiveness of that legislation was not fully tested.

Change the government

Parliament can collapse Johnson’s government using a no-confidence vote, creating two opportunities for lawmakers to try to stop a no-deal Brexit.
Firstly, if the government were to lose a no-confidence vote, this could lead to an election that brings in a new government with a strategy to either delay Brexit or revoke the decision to leave the EU.

But it is within Johnson’s power to delay any election until after Oct. 31, and his aides have indicated he is willing to take this step to ensure Britain’s exit. The second method is untested and harder to predict. Losing a confidence vote triggers a 14-day period in which a new administration can be formed.

If the majority who voted against Johnson were able to prove, by holding a vote in parliament, that they could form a stable alternative government they could try to extend Britain’s EU membership beyond Oct. 31. However, so far rival parties have been reluctant to rally around a single candidate who could lead an alternative
government.

In addition, the electoral legislation allowing for this was introduced in 2011 and has never been tested in this way. It has been criticized for not defining exactly how the 14-day period would work and who has the power to do what during it.
Johnson could argue that he is not obliged to resign, decide to hold out until an election is triggered, and then hold that election after Oct. 31.

…

Marking the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances on Aug. 30, several human rights groups called on China to stop using the practice of disappearances to silence human rights defenders, dissidents and other members of civil society.
 
They are urging the government in Beijing to immediately release those being held, including Yang Hengjun — an Australian writer of Chinese origin, whom Beijing has officially charged with espionage after a months-long detention. The former government official was detained in January as he prepared to head to Shanghai after traveling to Guangzhou from New York with family. He has been held without access to family or lawyers since then. Yang, who was later moved to Beijing, has been a vocal critic of Chinese authorities.
 
Rights groups, including the International Service for Human Rights and Safeguard Defenders, called China’s arrest of foreign citizens, including Yang and two Canadians, part of its aggressive “hostage diplomacy,” according to a joint statement.
 
Hostage diplomacy
 
Some observers believe that Yang’s incarceration may be linked to Australia’s decision to ban the purchase of equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei over security concerns. Others, however, argued that Yang may be a target under China’s campaigns to find double agents in politics or elsewhere.
 
Yang was formerly a diplomat at China’s foreign affairs ministry before working in the private sector in Hong Kong and moving to the United States and then Australia. Yang holds Australian citizenship.
 
Once a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York, the 54-year-old writer, known as the “democracy peddler,” has been a popular political commentator. He has called for democratic reforms in China over the past decade.
 
He is also famous for his spy thriller Fatal Weakness, which is one of three books in a series.
 
Trade barbs
 
During a recent interview with CNN, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison denounced the allegations against Yang as “absolutely untrue” and pledged to “stand up” for him.
 
In response, China on Thursday criticized Morrison for what it called his “wanton” comments.

“China is a country with the rule of law. China’s judiciary independently processes cases according to the law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a press briefing.
 
“I advise the Australian side to immediately stop making comments which are not backed up by evidence and are irresponsible and stop the hype and the pressure,” he added.
 
Under Chinese laws, the range of espionage offenses carries penalties from three years in prison to the death sentence.
 
Non-profit group PEN America noted that China’s legal action against Yang “is a chilling illustration of the abusive lengths the [Chinese] government will go to silence its critics.” Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Yang’s case is indicative of China’s lack of press freedom.
 
“By charging a foreign journalist for espionage, the Chinese regime’s record of press freedom has taken another turn for the worse,” said Cedric Alviani, head of the media freedom group’s East Asia Bureau, in a press statement.
 
RSF called on the international community “to ramp up the pressure on Beijing so that they would immediately release Yang and all other [114] detained journalists and bloggers.”

Political scapegoat
 
Although circumstances involving Yang’s arrest remain unclear, Xia Ming, professor of political science and global affairs at The City University of New York, said that infighting among factions of China’s diplomatic and secret services is clearly at play and that Yang is possibly a scapegoat of the defeated factions.
 
In a broader sense, Yang may also be a target of China’s drive in recent years to remove politicians who will not take a position on issues, say analysts.
 
“After Xi Jinping proposed to clean up double-faced people, I’m afraid people [like Yang] who have shuttled between China and Western countries are put at great risk,” Xia said.  
 
Sharing a similar view, Jean-Pierre Cabestan, professor of government and international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, said that the Communist Party now sees Yang, who came out of China’s diplomatic and intelligence systems, but trumpeted democratic values overseas, as a traitor.
 
Through Yang’s case, China further aims to send a message abroad, he said.
 
China-Australia tensions
 
“The Chinese government wants to teach a lesson to the Australian government, remind them that they shouldn’t push too hard against activities in Australia, against what China is doing to influence Australian politics and to promote its interests in Australia,” Cabestan said.
 
Yang’s detention comes amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Canberra.
 
Despite their strong trade bonds, the two countries are clashing on issues, which include China’s rising ambitions in the South Pacific, its alleged attempts to influence Australia’s domestic politics and Canberra’s decision to ban Huawei’s technology from its 5G networks.

…

North Korea’s parliament has approved changes to the country’s constitution to solidify leader Kim Jong Un’s role as head of state, official state media said Thursday. 
 
The move came after Kim was formally named head of state and commander in chief of the military in a new constitution in July that analysts said was possibly aimed at preparing for a peace treaty with the United States. 
 
North Korea has long called for a peace deal with the United States to normalize relations and end the technical state of war that has existed since the 1950-53 Korean War, which concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. 

‘Monolithic guidance’
 
Kim’s legal status as “representing our state has been further consolidated to firmly ensure the monolithic guidance of the Supreme Leader over all state affairs,” state news agency KCNA quoted Choe Ryong Hae, president of the presidium of the supreme people’s assembly, as saying. 
 
The presidium president had historically been the nominal head of state. But the new constitution said Kim, as chairman of the State Affairs Commission (SAC), a top governing body created in 2016, was the supreme representative of all the Korean people, as well as “commander in chief.” 
 
A previous constitution simply called Kim the “supreme leader” who commanded the country’s “overall military force.” 
 
Thursday’s constitutional amendments appear to confirm that North Korea’s legal system will now recognize Kim as head of state. 
 
The new constitution authorizes Kim to promulgate legislative ordinances and major decrees and decisions and appoint or recall diplomatic envoys to foreign countries, KCNA said.  

“With the amendment, Kim Jong Un is reviving his grandfather’s head of state system,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute. “He has become a de facto head of state.” 
 
In reality, Kim, a third-generation hereditary leader, rules North Korea with an iron fist and the title change will mean little to the way he wields power. 
 
The back-to-back constitutional revisions are unprecedented, and Kim is emerging as perhaps the most powerful leader since his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, who founded North Korea, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst with NK News, a website that tracks North Korea. 
 
“By further bolstering the SAC chairman’s authority, Kim Jong Un is now on par with Kim Il Sung,” she said. 
 
Other analysts noted that the moves simply codified the power Kim Jong Un already wields as supreme leader. 
 
“This is more a matter of shuffling the card deck and clarifying a few lines of authority,” said Michael Madden, an expert on North Korean leadership and a fellow at the U.S-based Stimson Center. 
 
“There is no question that Kim Jong Un is the regime’s key and — on strategic policy — sole decider,” he said. 

Little progress toward denuclearization
 
There has been scant progress in the U.S. aim of getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program despite three meetings between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. 
 
Trump has said he and Kim agreed at their last meeting to resume working-level talks, although this has yet to happen. 
 
North Korea has since conducted multiple missile tests, while accusing Washington of breaking a pledge to stop joint military exercises with South Korea. 

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The United States Space Command officially launched Thursday to defend the military’s “ultimate high ground.”

“This is a landmark day — one that recognized the centrality of space to America’s national security and defense,” U.S. President Donald Trump said during the establishment ceremony at the White House Rose Garden.

The military hopes the new command will improve the defense of American interests in outer space.

Space command aims to reorganize and improve U.S. space defenses and technologies, amid increasing aggression from Russia and China.

“Our adversaries are weaponizing Earth’s orbits with new technologies, targeting American satellites that are critical to both battlefield operations and our way of life at home,” Trump said.

Defense concerns

Secretaries of defense have long raised concerns about the need for increased defense capabilities in space.

Earlier this year, acting U.S. Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan warned the U.S. military “is not moving fast enough to stay ahead” of rivals China and Russia in space.

He said Beijing and Moscow were creating weapons to “hold American space capabilities at risk,” adding that the U.S. is “not capable of tracking” some of China’s rapid advancements in space weapons, particularly in hypersonic weapons.

Last year then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis suggested China’s use of a ground-based missile to destroy one of its own nonfunctional weather satellites in 2007 was a calculated demonstration to the United States of Chinese capabilities.

“We understand the message that China was sending — that they could take out a satellite in space,” Mattis said during a trip to Brazil.

Critical to military, commerce

The realm of space hits closer than some may realize, essential to everyday activities from navigation to banking.

Space assets are also critical to military missions, from launching missiles to collecting intelligence.

Space Command is the military’s 11th combatant command, each tasked with either a geographic mission or a functional mission.

The U.S. military previously had a Space Command, but it was dissolved in 2002, and its functions were turned over to a reorganized U.S. Strategic Command. That command’s primary mission remains a deterrent against global threats, including maintaining the U.S. military’s nuclear arsenal.

Administration officials say re-establishing the command brings them closer to realizing one of the president’s major goals, creating a new military branch to train, organize and equip a force specializing in space defense.

“As a unified combatant command, the United States Space Command is the next crucial step towards the creation of an independent Space Force as an additional armed service,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters Thursday.

The Space Force would be the first new military branch since the Air Force was established shortly after World War II.

But a future Space Force needs Congress to approve it and fund it, and that hasn’t happened yet.

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Uber, Lyft and DoorDash threatened Thursday to spend $90 million on a California ballot measure if they can’t reach a deal with unions and lawmakers on legislation that would change the rights of their drivers and other so-called gig workers. 
 
“We remain focused on reaching a deal, and are confident about bringing this issue to the voters if necessary,” Adrian Durbin, senior director of communications at Lyft, said in a statement.  

The companies’ team-up comes as California lawmakers debate a bill that would make it harder to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees. As employees, workers are entitled to more wage protections and benefits. 
 
But the ride-sharing and on-demand delivery companies say labeling workers as such would upend their business model built around driver flexibility. 
 
The California Labor Federation, which sponsored the bill, quickly vowed to fight a ballot measure. 
 
“We will meet the gig companies’ absurd political spending with a vigorous worker-led campaign to defeat this measure to ensure working people have the basic job protections and the right to organize a union they deserve under the law,” said Steve Smith, the federation’s spokesman.

The companies say they would skip the ballot if they can reach a deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom and unions on a new piece of legislation that sets separate rules for drivers who work “gig” jobs. 
 
This isn’t the first time an industry has pressured lawmakers to act by dangling the prospect of a long and costly ballot fight. Last year, beverage companies, the paint industry and a wealthy developer all withdrew initiatives at the last minute after striking deals with lawmakers.

Friday vote

The legislation faces a vote Friday in a key state Senate committee. California’s law would be the strictest on worker classification in the nation and potentially set a precedent for other states to follow, increasing the pressure on the companies.

Durbin and Davis White, of Uber, said the companies have agreed to set a base hourly wage of $21 for drivers, to pay into a fund that drivers could tap for portable benefits and to establish sectoral bargaining. That would allow drivers who work for various companies to bargain together.

DoorDash’s statement says the company supports a minimum pay standard, occupational accident insurance and protection from discrimination, but did not mention collective bargaining rights.

Proposed text for the ballot measure has not been released.

Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, the author of the bill on worker misclassification, suggested the campaign was hypocritical. 
 
“Billionaires who say they can’t pay minimum wages to their workers say they will spend tens of millions to avoid labor laws,” she tweeted.

Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, declined to comment.

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed nearly 900 cases of mumps among people at adult migration detention facilities across the United States in the last year. 
 
The virus swept across 57 detention centers in 19 states, sickening 898 migrants between Sept. 1, 2018, and Aug. 22, the CDC said Thursday.  
 
Thirty-three staff members were also infected.  
 
The CDC said the virus continues to spread as more migrants are arrested or transferred between facilities.  
 
Mumps is a contagious virus that causes swollen glands, puffy cheeks, fever, headaches and, in severe cases, hearing loss and meningitis. 
 
Mumps outbreaks are rare in the U.S. because of vaccinations, but the disease is easily transmittable in spaces where people have close, prolonged contact. 
 
The CDC said most of those infected were men who caught the virus while in detention.  
 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Bryan Cox said all detainees go through a medical screening within 24 hours of arriving at the facilities. 

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Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer made well over a billion dollars over the last decade from holdings that not only include the hedge fund he founded, but also investments in Chinese private equity firms, tech startups, pharmaceutical companies and nursing homes, his tax filings show.

The California hedge fund founder and liberal activist had promised to release his tax forms once he entered the race. He also challenged President Donald Trump, the only president since Richard Nixon who hasn’t released his, to follow suit. On Thursday, Steyer followed through by posting more than 2,600 pages of records to his website.  

“The American public can have a clear picture of his charitable giving, political activities, and taxes paid,” his campaign said in a memo. “Tom has long committed to releasing his tax returns if he ever became a candidate for public office, and today’s disclosure makes good on that commitment.”

The release of Steyer’s taxes offers a detailed yet incomplete look at his massive wealth and business success, which he has made central to his pitch to voters. Yet it also comes immediately after he failed to qualify for the next Democratic primary debate, a setback that could deal a serious blow to his prospects if he doesn’t find ways to generate news coverage and stay in the conversation.  

Steyer and his wife, Kathryn Taylor, made $1.2 billion between 2009 and 2017, much of it earned through capital gains. During that time, they also paid out $405.3 million in federal and state taxes. 

One of Steyer’s most profitable years was 2012, when he reported making $174 million after selling his stake in Farallon Capital, the hedge fund he founded. He reported making $189 million in 2014.

The documents also show that he made millions more through foreign investments, including stakes in companies headquartered in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and China.  

“Tom received income from all over the world,” his campaign memo states. “The fact that these are reported on his taxes demonstrates that the income passed through directly to Tom, was properly reported to the IRS, and all appropriate taxes were paid.”

Yet despite the claims of transparency, much is also left out. The documents, which repeatedly omit details about transactions and line items, are rife with annotations that instruct tax officials to refer to additional notes. Those notes, however, are not included in the release. 

Steyer’s taxes also show his increasing interest in politics. He donated $52,000 to political causes in 2009. But that shot up in 2014, when he plunged $67.6 million into political groups, including his own NextGen America environmental nonprofit. 

Though the memo released by his campaign does not mention Trump by name, much of it is clearly directed at him. 

“This disclosure is unprecedented, compared with many previous candidates’ time in the private sector,” one passage reads. “Tom believes it is important to provide voters with an understanding of his role in the private sector, which he has since left behind to work for the public good.”

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As fires continue burning through the Amazon jungle, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has begun accepting aid from the world governments. Voice of America spoke with Nestor Forster, Brazil’s interim Ambassador in Washington.

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 Top US military officer said Wednesday it was too early to talk about the future of US counterterrorism forces in Afghanistan, where insurgent violence continues  

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An oppressive political climate marked by a lack of rights and freedoms is now a key factor driving emigration from Russia, with more than 1.5 million Russians leaving the country since Vladimir Putin became president, according to the Atlantic Council. 

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New York City garbage man Nelson Molina has been seeing value in other people’s garbage for the past three decades. For years he has been saving unique items that their owners threw away. Vladimir Lenski met with the unusual collector.
 

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Where does your food come from? Many city dwellers look no further than the local grocery store. But each summer American state fairs give farmers the opportunity to show off their skills and give the rest of us a better idea of the work that happens on the farms where food comes from. Saqib Ul Islam has more from the Maryland State Fair in Timonium.
 

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Trade union members in Hong Kong rallied Wednesday against the city’s flagship Cathay Pacific airline for firing employees apparently because of links to this summer’s ongoing pro-democracy protests.

A banner behind a stage in a central public square read “Revoke termination” and “Stop terrorizing CX staff,” referring to the airline by its code.

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions said that 20 employees have been dismissed or forced to resign, including pilots, cabin crew and managers. CEO Rupert Hogg resigned earlier this month to take responsibility following recent events, the airline said.

Cathay has confirmed the dismissal of several employees in the past two weeks. It has said given various reasons, such as a pilot who misused company information or another who is in legal proceedings, without mentioning the protests. One Cathay pilot was charged with rioting during a protest.

The trade union confederation called the rally after Cathay Dragon, a Cathay group airline, fired the head of its cabin crew union.

Chinese aviation authorities have pressured Cathay by banning staff from mainland flights if they support “illegal protests.” China’s central government has been sharply critical of the protests in the semi-autonomous territory.

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An Italian charity ship rescued around 100 migrants in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, bringing the total number of migrants saved to over 200 this week.

The Mare Jonio vessel, run by Italian NGO Mediterranea, said on its Twitter page that those rescued included 22 women and 28 children, most of them under the age of 10.

The charity said it was awaiting instructions from the Italian Maritime Coordination Center for it to try to dock.

Italy has taken a hard line on immigration and has in the past turned away charity rescue ships.

The Mare Jonio was investigated by Italy’s interior ministry in May for allegedly aiding illegal immigration but the case was later dropped.

In the latest standoff, anti-immigration Interior Minister Matteo Salvini refused to let a German rescue ship, carrying some 100 migrants, to enter Italian waters on Tuesday.

The Eleonore, run by German charity Mission Lifeline, said it found the migrants on a collapsing dinghy in the Mediterranean on Monday.

But it ran into the Libyan coastguard, which the charity said threatened the crew and wanted to take the migrants back to the war-stricken country.

In June, Malta investigated a Dutch-flagged rescue ship, the Lifeline, run by the same German charity, after it docked more than 230 migrants.

The captain was accused by Italy and Malta of breaking the law by refusing to comply with Libyan authorities and was handed a hefty fine for incorrect registration of the ship.  

Over 34,000 migrants and refugees have made the dangerous journey into Europe by sea this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported in July.

But Italy and Malta have both repeatedly refused to allow charity vessels to dock until other European nations agree to take them in.

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