Rev. Franklin Graham did not utter the word “impeachment” as he spoke to thousands of Christians here this week, the latest stop on a long-running tour he has dubbed Decision America — a title with political and religious undertones.

But evangelicals who turned out to see Graham didn’t necessarily need his warning that “our country is in trouble” in order to tap into their deep-rooted support for President Donald Trump during an intensifying political crisis hundreds of miles north in Washington.

“I do feel like we are, as Christians, the first line of defense for the president,” Christina Jones, 44, said before Graham took the stage. Trump is “supporting our Christian principles and trying to do his best,” she added, even as “everybody’s against him.”

The impeachment furor is the latest test of Trump’s seemingly unbreakable bond with conservative evangelical Christians. Trump suggested this week that the peril of impeachment would only cement his ties to that voting bloc, which helped propel him into office, and supporters who have stood by him through accusations of sexual assault and infidelity see no reason to back away from a president they view as unfairly beleaguered.

Frances Lassiter, 65, dismissed Democrats’ pursuit of a case against Trump as “all a bunch of crap” designed to push him from office.

Asked about comments Trump circulated from an ally and Southern Baptist pastor who warned of a “civil warlike fracture” if the investigation succeeds, Lassiter and others in the crowd at Graham’s tour shared concerns about political polarization putting further strain on the country.

“Could have a war … you just don’t know,” Lassiter said. “It’s scary.”

Graham sounded a similar note in an interview with The Associated Press aboard his tour bus. The 67-year-old evangelist and son of the late Rev. Billy Graham said the inquiry into Trump’s solicitation of help from Ukrainian leaders in investigating former Vice President Joe Biden was “a lot over nothing.”

“It’s going to destroy this country if we let this continue,” Graham said of the impeachment investigation, urging Americans “to come together as a nation and focus on the problems” that beset both parties, such as immigration and international trade.

Separate from politics, not Trump

Graham sought to keep his tour, which he opened in 2016 and took to a half-dozen northeastern states earlier this year, separate from politics. But he also openly echoed arguments Trump has made in pressing unfounded Ukraine-related corruption allegations against Biden.

Trump has tried to sully Biden in scandal, questioning his Democratic rival’s role steering the Obama administration’s relationship with Kyiv while son Hunter Biden sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. Although some anti-corruption watchdogs raised eyebrows, no evidence of improper actions by the Democratic presidential hopeful or his son has materialized.

Graham, for his part, encouraged Trump and others to keep looking, citing the vice president’s son’s acknowledged drug addiction as a reason Hunter Biden is “suspect.”

“So it’s probably worth looking into to see what Vice President Biden (did) at the time, what kind of promises he made to help his son with the Ukrainians.”

According to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 13,800 people attended Graham’s Wednesday event in Greenville, seat of a county that Trump won in 2016. Greenville also hosted a July Trump rally where the audience broke into a derogatory chant against a freshman congresswoman who had drawn Trump’s ire. The strong turnout for Graham underscores the formidable reach of the evangelist’s message in his home and occasional swing state of North Carolina.

And the programming was as festive as it was introspective. Graham’s group counseled the faithful after a Christian singer performed live and the night ended with a fireworks display.

Evangelicals on the left

Graham’s preaching tour featured another touch, one more reminiscent of a political rally: counter-programming from evangelicals on the left. An hour outside of Greenville, a group of progressive Christians led by Rev. William Barber and his Poor People’s Campaign held a “Red Letter Revival” this week to offer an alternate vision of policymaking aligned with Biblical values.

That revival aims to redefine public understanding of issues of faith, encompassing an inclusive immigration agenda as well as more focus on helping the poor and the environment, explained Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, a liberal evangelical preacher helping to organize it.

Wilson-Hartgrove described Graham’s tour as a “coordinated effort to intertwine” religion and conservative politics. While he had little hope that supportive evangelicals would abandon the president for “personally offensive” actions — Trump used profanity to slam Democrats this week — Wilson-Hartgrove cast impeachment as “a moral question.”

“Does a president of any party have a sort of unquestioned right to, in this case, break (Federal Election Commission) rules and to break the law in order to win an election?” Wilson-Hartgrove asked in an interview. “It’s a question of right and wrong which people of faith should have concerns about.”

Rallies, polls track

In the crowd at Graham’s tour, which will stop in six more North Carolina cities in the next 10 days, believers had reserved their concern for Trump’s Democratic antagonists.

“They’re just digging things up and making things up just to try to take him down, and I don’t think that’s fair,” said Mike Fitzgerald, 64.

That sentiment tracks with polling, which shows an overwhelming majority of white evangelical Protestants consistently expressing approval of Trump’s handling of his job since his inauguration. Even among white evangelicals, those who attend church weekly have been just as or even more likely to approve of the president over the course of his term, according to Pew Research Center data.

In August, a Pew Research survey found 77% of white evangelical Protestants approving of Trump’s performance. Those who report attending church weekly were more likely to approve than those who attend less often, 81% versus 73%.

Anti-LGBTQ views

Graham has said that he invites all races, religions and sexual orientations to hear him, although he has aired anti-LGBTQ views. He reiterated them when asked about Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., a married gay man and devout Christian seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

Graham’s father, a renowned preacher who died last year, aired regrets later in his life about having “sometimes crossed the line” in his involvement in politics.

Franklin Graham said he is cognizant of his late father’s perspective, averring that “you want to be careful, because politicians are going to want to use you.”

But he did not appear to count Trump in that judgment: “One thing I appreciate about President Trump, he’s not a politician. And that’s why he gets in trouble all the time,” Graham said.

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Yves Manuel in Port-au-Prince, Monica Lindor in Jacmel, Socrate Ameyes Jean Pierre in Miragoane, Charles Makenson in Jeremie, Innocente Desgranges in Petit Goave, Lucson Palmeus in Port-de-Paix and Junior Racine in St. Marc contributed to this report

WASHINGTON / PORT-AU-PRINCE – Thousands filled the streets of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as cities to the north and south again Friday to demand President Jovenel Moise resign.

“Jojo Mele! (Jojo’s in trouble) Jojo Mele!” they chanted in unison to a raboday beat, waving their hands and clapping. Some held tree branches while others lifted posters up high for all to see that read: “Demisyon Jovenel” (Resign Jovenel.) They also had a message for the international community: stop propping up our corrupt government.

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Pòtoprens: Manifestasyon pou mande demisyon Prezidan Jovenel Moïse. ?Matiado Vilme, Renan Toussaint #Haiti #Ayiti

A post shared by VOA Creole (@voakreyol) on Oct 4, 2019 at 10:49am PDT

Opposition leaders and anti-corruption militants called for nationwide protests, saying their goal was to march to the United Nations headquarters, this time to make sure their demands are heard.

“We give Mrs. La Lime (Helen Meagher La Lime of the United States, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Haiti) 24 hours to remove Jovenel from the country,” opposition Senator Evaliere Beauplan said. “If she doesn’t do it, we will be back here every day until she gives in. She must stop supporting corruption and the massacre of the people (at the hands of the police).”

Opposition politician Assad Volcy was surrounded by a crowd of protesters as he stood in front of the U.N. office.

“We came to tell Jovenel’s bosses, the people who are working with him, today the people of Haiti are terminating Jovenel’s term,” Volcy told VOA Creole. “If the white people, the international community love him so much, (then) take him. Let him go lead the United States. Let him go lead Brazil. Let him go lead the OAS.”

What sparked protests

Haiti has been plagued for months by an increase in violence, a fuel shortage, high inflation, double-digit unemployment and food insecurity.

Weekly protests have negatively impacted businesses, schools and tourism.

President Moise is blamed for being unable to turn the situation around. He has denied corruption allegations and insists he will not resign. Instead, he ordered his acting prime minister, Jean Michel Lapin, to make new Cabinet appointments, and called for a national dialogue to discuss possible solutions for the country’s problems.

The opposition refused and said Moise’s departure is non-negotiable.

Core Group

Whistleblower and opposition Senator Saurel Jacinthe, viewed by some as a hero for outing lawmaker colleagues for accepting bribes for votes in parliament, joined the protesters in the Carrefour Aeroport neighborhood of the capital.

“The U.N., the Core Group is only waiting for one thing,” he told VOA Creole. “They are consulting with different sectors to see if there is support for Jovenel. If all the sectors they consult with are against Jovenel, they will take the necessary measures.”

The Core Group is comprised of the U.N. secretary-general’s Special Representative for Haiti and the ambassadors of the United States, European Union, France, Canada, Brazil, Spain and the Special Representative of the OAS. Members have been meeting with Haitians from all sectors of society this week, in addition to President Moise, to hear grievances and opinions on how to help the country move forward.

Police presence

Unlike last Friday’s protest in Port-au-Prince, when protesters attacked and looted police stations around town with little to no resistance from law enforcement, the police and special forces teams were highly visible as they patrolled the streets, at times aggressively.

VOA Creole reporter Matiado Vilme said she was injured after a “CIMO” (Corps d’intervention et de maintien d’ordre) agent grabbed her wrist and twisted it as she said she attempted to record a video in front of the U.N. office. Local journalists came to her rescue, yelling at the agent and calling on colleagues to film the attack so everyone could see what happened, she said. Francois Frantz, a reporter for KAPZYNEWS, said he also was pushed around.

“We always say that the police is aware that the people have a constitutional right to protest,” Gary Desrosiers, spokesman for the National Police Force (PNH) told VOA Creole. “The police even has a duty to accompany and protect the protesters. Providing security for both the protesters and the citizens who are not protesting is a work in progress.”

When reporters pressed him about why the officers were being so aggressive toward them, he responded that he was not in charge of the strategy for the day, but that police are trained to see things that civilians don’t see.

To the north and south

Meanwhile, in the town of Jacmel, to the south, protesters put up roadblocks made from tree branches, rocks and tires during the early morning hours. Roads were only accessible on foot or by motorbike.

In Petit Goave, a rara band played as protesters marched through town to the beat of their music.

In Miragoane, protesters were joined by members of the Democratic Sector opposition group as they made their way around the city.

In Port-de-Paix, a large crowd filled the streets with anti-corruption banners in hand. One man held a poster that read, “We’ll keep fighting until the corn ripens to untangle ourselves from the killer Jovenel.” A drum beat accentuated by a horn filled the air.

In Jeremie, also in the south, protesters took to the streets as well.

Affiliate station reporter Charles Makenson said the protest was halted after an unidentified gunman opened fire on the crowd. At least three people were wounded, he said.

To the north in St. Marc, things turned violent as well. A group of protesters armed with rocks and bottles marched to the local jail and pelted it. They were unsuccessful in breaking in. Another group of protesters threw rocks at the national bank, shattering its windows. They also burned a pile of trash to block the main road.

Damages

PNH spokesman Desrosiers told VOA Creole he was not prepared to give an estimate on damages nor how many people were injured or killed during Friday’s protests.

Protesters plan to be back in the streets on Sunday.

 

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The former owner of a California wine business has been sentenced to five months in prison for his role in the college admissions scheme.

Fifty-three-year-old Agustin Huneeus, of San Francisco, was sentenced in Boston’s federal court Friday after pleading guilty to a single count of fraud and conspiracy.

Authorities say Huneeus paid $50,000 to rig his daughter’s SAT exam in 2018 and agreed to pay $250,000 to bribe her way into the University of Southern California as a fake athlete. He was arrested before completing the deal and his daughter was not admitted.

Prosecutors recommended 15 months in prison and a $95,000 fine. His lawyers said he deserved two months and a fine.

Huneeus previously said he was ashamed and saw that his actions represent “the worst sort of entitlement.”

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A group that opposes affirmative action is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that Harvard University does not discriminate against Asian American applicants.

Students for Fair Admissions filed a notice Friday with the 1st U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston. The group says it will appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

It is challenging a judge’s Tuesday ruling against all counts of the group’s 2014 lawsuit against Harvard.

The group says Harvard holds down the number of Asian Americans accepted to preserve a racial balance.

Officials from the group and Harvard did not immediately comment on the appeal.

The suit drew support from the Trump administration and reignited a national debate over the use of race in college admissions.
 

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A high-tech hotel in Japan is science fiction come to life, with virtual ninjas staffing the front desk, facial recognition software that detects customers’ moods, and dinosaur footprints leading to the elevator. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us back to the future.
 

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A University of Georgia researcher reported that about 90 percent of all the plastic ever produced is still around, most of it is in the ocean or the world’s landfills. Its effects on the environment and our health are still being studied. To combat this rising tide of garbage, many cities, states and countries are banning single-use plastic bags. Islamabad recently became the first Pakistan city to take this small step toward reducing this mountain of waste. VOA’s Gaitty Ara Anis has more from Islamabad in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.

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A full 8 hours of sleep just isn’t in the cards for some people. But what about a quick nap? New research suggests short naps can lower a person’s risk for cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes by as much as 48 percent. Karina Bafradzhian visited a new shop that believes in the value of a good nap. 
 

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Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said Thursday that it would benefit U.S. judges to study how other countries handle cases related to important global subjects such as terrorism, immigration, civil rights, health and the environment.

Breyer delivered a speech and answered questions from a moderator before about 500 people at Rhodes College in Memphis as part of the school’s program for Constitution Day, which took place Sept. 17. Breyer is the second sitting Supreme Court justice to speak at the private liberal arts university in recent years. Justice Antonin Scalia spoke at Rhodes in September 2015.

Globalization vs localism

Breyer touched on theories of globalization, versus localism or tribalism, stressing that the perception that those ideas are “at war” with each other is false. He cited cases related to international issues that have been heard in the U.S. because they were tied to the U.S., and U.S. laws or treaties that applied to them.

They include cases related to the internment of Japanese in U.S. camps during World War II, foreign terror suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and a foreign commerce case with ties to Ecuador and The Netherlands. He also discussed ways legal systems have handled immigration and terrorism cases in England and Israel.

Breyer said the Supreme Court is seeing an increasing number of cases in which international law comes into play.

“You have to know what’s going on beyond our shores in order to solve problems, statutes, constitutional interpretations, locally,” Breyer said. “We are a local court. You might all think, ‘Oh well.’ Yeah, we are.”

He said hundreds of bodies and organizations around the world have established laws, rules and standards that could lead to court challenges in the U.S.

“The more you read about this, the more you think it isn’t good versus evil. It isn’t somehow globalization over here, or localism or tribalism over there,” Breyer said. “It’s that we are in a world where there is both.”

Behind the scenes

Breyer also sought to dispel a perception that perhaps the Supreme Court’s liberal and conservative justices are “divided about everything.” Breyer said justices don’t raise their voices at each other while discussing cases. He also said they don’t make snide remarks at each other’s expense.

“We don’t fight all the time,” he said. “I can’t say zero. I can say it’s more just doing your work, and quite often agreeing much more than people think.”

Breyer is former federal appeals court judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

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A U.N. report says the deteriorated security situation across Afghanistan the past four years led to more than 14,000 “grave violations” against children, including nearly 3,500 killed and more than 9,000 injured.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned “the alarming level” of grave violations against children by all parties and said he is “deeply disturbed by the scale, severity and recurrence of grave violations endured by the children in Afghanistan.”

The U.N. chief said in the report circulated Thursday that he is “extremely concerned” especially about the significant increase in child casualties resulting from aerial operations conducted by government and pro-government forces.

According to the report, child casualties from aerial attacks have increased every year since 2015, reversing a downward trend. They totaled 1,049 for the four-year period through 2018.
 

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The Bangladesh military said Thursday it has ordered an investigation after a Rohingya family in a refugee camp accused army troops of raping a 12-year-old girl.

The inquiry comes as around a million Rohingya in vast camps in Bangladesh face increasing hostility two years after fleeing a military offensive in Myanmar.

Mohammad Osman, an elder brother of the alleged victim, said three soldiers entered their shanty at the Nayapara Rohingya camp on Sunday evening and sexually assaulted his sister.

“She was raped as one of them tightly held her mouth,” he told AFP by phone, referring to the border district where the refugee camps are located.

A spokesman of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Abdullah ibn Zaid, said they were investigating.

“We have formed a probe committee to investigate the incident and find out the facts. If (they are) found guilty, exemplary punishment will be given,” ibn Zaid told AFP.

Doctor Shaheen Abdur Rahman said the girl was examined at the central hospital in Cox’s Bazar but he refused to comment on the findings due to court restrictions.

A spokesman of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said they were also investigating the incident.

“We are aware of the reports. In such cases, individuals are entitled to medical, physical and psychological support, as well as access to due process,” UNHCR spokesman Joseph Tripura said in a statement to AFP.

Tensions

Tensions have risen in recent weeks with an increasingly frustrated Bangladeshi government enacting several measures making life harder for the refugees.

These include blocking mobile internet, confiscating SIM cards and mobile phones and filing hundreds of cases for illegally obtaining citizenship cards.

U.N. experts have expressed “serious concerns” about the restrictions.

Last week Bangladesh’s home minister said that barbed-wire fencing, guard towers and cameras would be erected around the Rohingya camps, sparking criticism from rights groups.

Checkpoints set up on the main highways leading to the camps have stopped Rohingya and sent them back to the settlements when they try to travel to other parts of Bangladesh.

Hundreds of Rohingya found elsewhere in the South Asian nation have also been detained and returned to the camps.

Authorities say the internet ban was sparked by security fears after the Rohingya were blamed for the murder of a local politician and drug smuggling.

More than a dozen Rohingya — most accused of involvement in the murder of the politician — have been shot dead by security forces in recent weeks.  

Officials also said on Thursday that 45 Rohingya have been charged with infiltration after they were detained illegally working in a ship-breaking yard.

Rights activists said this could be the first time Rohingya have been charged with infiltration — an offence that carries five years in jail.

 

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Israel was swearing in its newly elected parliament on Thursday for what could be a very short term after the country’s second inconclusive election of the year left it with no new government on the horizon.

The normally festive event also takes place in parallel to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s high-profile pre-indictment hearing on corruption charges, which have threatened to end his political career and contributed to the current paralysis of the country’s political system.

Neither Netanyahu nor his chief rival Benny Gantz has been able to build a parliamentary majority with his natural allies. They now depend on each other for a unity government as the only likely alternative to an unprecedented third election in less than a year.

Talks between the two sides appear to have stalled, though, with Netanyahu insisting on remaining prime minister and holding on to his ultra-Orthodox and nationalist partners. Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party is sticking to its election campaign vow not to sit with Netanyahu because of his perilous legal standing.

“The right thing for the citizens of Israel, especially at this time, is that the prime minister be busy with them and not with his indictments,” Gantz said at his party faction meeting. “I call on Netanyahu: don’t entrench yourself in your position. We’ll take it from here and lead the country.”

For the sake of unity, his deputy Yair Lapid announced he was forgoing their previous arrangement to share the premiership should they come to power. “It’s far more important to me that there’s unity in the country. That there won’t be another election. That this country begins a healing process,” he said.

At his party faction, Netanyahu said it was the “will of the people” to form a unity government and he had no intention of stepping down. “We need to go together,” he said. “This is what the voter decided upon and this is what is right at this time.”

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has recommended that Netanyahu be indicted on fraud, breach of trust and bribery charges in three separate cases. Under Israeli law, Netanyahu is entitled to plead his case at a hearing in a last-ditch attempt to persuade prosecutors to drop their case.

For a second day in a row, Netanyahu’s team of lawyers held a marathon session at the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem trying to get the looming charges nixed. The first two days so far have focused on the most damaging case against Netanyahu: suspicions that he promoted regulation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Israel’s Bezeq telecom company in return for favorable coverage in Bezeq’s subsidiary news site, Walla.

Netanyahu has long promised he’d clear his name in the hearing, and his lawyers say they will prove that no quid pro quo was involved. If formal charges are filed, Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, could come under heavy pressure to step down.

In the meantime, Netanyahu is desperately trying to stay in power. He’s headed a caretaker government for much of the year after failing to build a coalition government following the initial elections in April.

The previous Israeli parliament had the shortest stint in history, lasting just over four months before it was dissolved. There’s no guarantee the current one will be any longer.

The repeat vote last month left Netanyahu even more weakened, with Gantz’s Blue and White finishing first with 33 seats in the 120-seat parliament, just ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud with 32 seats. However, Netanyahu edged Gantz 55-54 in the number of lawmakers who recommend him as prime minister and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin therefore tasked him first with trying to form a coalition.

Netanyahu has up to six weeks to do so, but he has indicated he will give up before then if he feels he can’t reach a deal with Gantz. The former military chief would then likely be given a chance to try so himself, though his odds of success appear equally slim. After that, Rivlin can either task an alternative lawmaker or, more likely, call new elections again.

Both Netanyahu and Gantz have both expressed general support for a unity government between their parties as a way out of the deadlock but they remain far apart on who should lead it and what smaller parties would join them.

Netanyahu still maintains strong support within his Likud party despite his legal woes. His office suggested he was considering calling an internal Likud party primary to solidify his leadership amid opposition calls that he be ousted. In a first sign of potential discord, though, his top Likud rival Gideon Saar said he would be “ready” for such a vote.

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A group representing French-American taxpayers said Thursday it had filed a suit against France with the European Commission, hoping to avoid strict US compliance rules that could see them blacklisted by French banks starting in January.

The “Accidental Americans” association has been battling for years to be exempt from a US demand that all its citizens overseas file bank details along with yearly tax returns.

The group says thousands of French and other foreigners are deemed Americans because they were born in the US, even though they may have lived there only a few months or years when they were young.

They want to be freed from the annual filing requirements with the Internal Revenue Service, and from seeing their banks forced to hand over their banking details to the US taxman.

In 2017, Washington accepted a partial moratorium on the rule, known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), set up to battle offshore tax evasion.

But the exemptions expire at the end of this year, and the French banking federation FBF has warned that 40,000 accounts could be closed come January if no accord is reached on the filing requirements.

In refusing to hand over information required by the United States, French banks would expose themselves to penalties.

Accidental Americans considers that a Franco-American agreement from 2013 which allows for FATCA’s application in France, “violates EU laws on data protection” by authorising “the transmission and storage of huge amounts of personal data in the United States,” it said in a statement Wednesday.

As a result, the advocacy group says French nationals with dual American citizenship face de facto discrimination, even though “most of these people have no links with the United States.”

It says the European Commission has a year to decide if it will launch any proceedings against Paris on the issue.

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Hong Kong is considering an emergency measure that would include a ban on face masks in an attempt to quell the violent anti-Beijing protests that have rocked the financial hub since June.

Local news outlets say embattled chief executive Carrie Lam will announce the ban Friday after a meeting with the city’s Executive Council.  Many of the protesters have worn the masks to conceal their identities.   The face mask ban would be included in an emergency law that would include a curfew and other measures.  

The proposed emergency law is an apparent response to Tuesday’s violent clashes between pro-democracy demonstrators and Hong Kong security forces, which overshadowed Beijing’s carefully choreographed celebration marking the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule in China.  Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at umbrella-carrying protesters, who hurled homemade gasoline bombs at them and set several fires throughout the main section of the city.

During Tuesday’s unrest, an 18-year-old student protester was shot at close range in the chest by a policeman as the student was about to strike the officer with a metal rod.  The shooting marked the first time Hong Kong police have used live rounds since the demonstrations began.  

Police say the shooting was justified because the officer feared for his life.  The student, identified as Tsang Chi-kin, is in stable condition at a Hong Kong hospital.  He was charged Thursday with rioting, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.  

Hundreds of demonstrators again clashed with police late Wednesday night in a repeat of Tuesday’s protests.  

The protests, which were sparked by a proposed bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China, mark a direct challenge to Beijing’s tightening grip on the autonomous city.  

Although Lam later withdrew the bill, the protests have since evolved into renewed demands for Hong Kongers to choose their own leaders, ending the current system where business elites with ties to Beijing select nearly half the legislative body.

The demonstrators are also demanding an independent inquiry into possible use of excessive force by police and complete amnesty for all activists arrested.  

In his National Day speech Tuesday, President Xi Jinping reaffirmed both Hong Kong and Macau’s one country, two systems autonomy, but emphasized that his government will continue to fight to reunify the entire Chinese population, which includes the autonomously ruled island of Taiwan.

 

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Australia’s ban on Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s involvement in its future 5G networks and its crackdown on foreign covert interference are testing Beijing’s efforts to project its power overseas.

In its latest maneuver, China sent three scholars to spell out in interviews with Australian media and other appearances steps to mend the deepening rift with Beijing — a move that appears to have fallen flat.

In a recent press conference at the Chinese Embassy in Canberra, Chen Hong, the head of Australian studies at East China Normal University, accused Australia of acting as a “pawn” for the United States in lobbying other countries against Huawei’s involvement in the nascent 5G networks.

“Australia has been in one way or another, so to speak, pioneering this kind of anti-China campaign, even some kind of a scare and smear campaign against China,” Chen said. “That is definitely not what China will be appreciating, and if other countries follow suit, that is going to be recognized as extremely unfriendly,” he said.

After meetings in Beijing last week, Richard Marles, the opposition’s defense spokesman, assessed the relationship as “terrible.”

A growing number of Australians are convinced that Beijing has been using inducements, threats, espionage and other clandestine tactics to influence their politics — methods critics believe Beijing might be honing for use in other western democracies.

“Australia is seen as a test bed for Beijing’s high-pressure influence tactics,” said Clive Hamilton, author of “Silent Invasion,” a best seller that focuses on Chinese influence in Australia.

“They are testing the capacity of the Australian democratic system to resist,” he said.

Still, Australian officials have downplayed talk of a diplomatic freeze. They must balance a growing wariness toward China and their desire for strong ties with the U.S. with the need to keep relations with their resource-rich country’s largest export market on an even keel.

Australia relies on China for one-third of its export earnings. Delays in processing of Australia exports of coal and wine at Chinese ports have raised suspicions of retaliation by Beijing.

While Prime Minister Scott Morrison appeared to side with President Donald Trump on the issue of China’s trade status during a recent visit to Washington, he sought to temper suggestions by Trump that he had expressed “very strong opinions on China” in their closed-door meeting.

“We have a comprehensive, strategic partnership with China. We work well with China,” Morrison replied.

Trump and Morrison did agree that China has outgrown trade rule concessions allowed to developing nations, advantages it insists it should still be able to claim.

Australia also chose to side with the U.S, in shutting Huawei, the world’s biggest telecom gear producer, out of its next generation 5G rollout on security grounds.

Huawei, and the Chinese government, objected to that, saying the security concerns were exaggerated for the sake of shutting out competition. But Huawei still renewed a sponsorship deal with an Australian rugby team, saying it hopes the ban will be lifted.

Morrison, the prime minister, has won praise from the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times for standing up for Gladys Liu, the first Chinese-born lawmaker to be elected to Australia’s Parliament, when she was attacked for her associations with the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, whose mission is to exert influence overseas.

Hong Kong-born Liu, a conservative, was elected in May to represent a Melbourne district with a large population of ethnic Chinese voters. She says she has resigned from such organizations and any honorary positions she might have held, some possibly without her “knowledge or consent.”

Morrison accused her critics of smearing the 1.2 million Chinese living in Australia.

That was a “decent gesture,” the Global Times said. But while it seeks to control damage from the tensions with Beijing, the Australian government has been moving to neutralize its influence by banning foreign political donations and all covert foreign interference in domestic politics.

Opposition lawmakers likened Liu’s situation to that of Sam Dastyari, who resigned as a senator in 2017 over his links to Chinese billionaire political donor Huang Xiangmo.

Huang successfully sued Australian media outlets for defamation over the allegations of his involvement in Chinese political interference. But he lost his Australian permanent residency after it was discovered that his company had paid Dastyari’s personal legal bills. Huang also appeared with him at a news conference for Chinese media where Dastyari supported Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, contradicting Australia’s bipartisan policy.

Chen and the other two Chinese scholars recently dispatched to Australia to try to sway public opinion insisted China was without blame.

“If we’re talking about Australia-China relations, I think the responsibility totally is on the Australian side,” Chen said. “China always promotes friendship and mutual benefits between our two countries.”  

The Chinese scholars singled out for criticism Hamilton and another Australian author, John Garnaut, who has described Australia as the canary in the coal mine of Chinese Communist Party interference.     

 Hamilton’s book was published last year, but only after three publishers backed out, fearing retaliation from Beijing. It became a top seller. 

Hamilton told a U.S. congressional commission last year that Beijing was waging a “campaign of psychological warfare” against Australia, undermining democracy and silencing its critics.  

In separate testimony, Garnaut, a former government security adviser, told the House of Representatives Arms Services Committee that China was seeking to undermine the U.S.-Australian security alliance.                   

In 2016, the government commissioned Garnaut to write a classified report that found the Chinese Communist Party has been seeking to influence Australian policy, compromise political parties and gain access to all levels of government.                 

He has said Australia is reacting to a threat that other countries are only starting to grapple with.                  

“This recognition has been assisted by the sheer brazenness of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s drive for global influence and by watching Russian President Vladimir Putin and his agents create havoc across the United States and Europe,” Garnaut wrote.                 

“In the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election, it is far more difficult to dismiss foreign interference as a paranoid abstraction,” he added.     
              
Garnaut, whose friend Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been detained in Beijing since January on suspicion of espionage, declined to comment to The Associated Press.                  

China wants to make an example of Australia, said Chinese-born Sydney academic Feng Chongyi, who was detained for 10 days and interrogated about his friend Garnaut’s investigation while visiting China in 2017.                   

“For the last two decades, Australia has been taken for a soft target because of this myth of economic dependence on China, so they believe they have sufficient leverage to force Australia to back off,” said Feng, a professor of China studies at the University of Technology in Sydney.                 

“They are extremely upset that Australia somehow in the last two years has taken the lead in what we call the democratic pushback” against Chinese interference, he said.

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A Virginia doctor who prosecutors said ran his medical practice like an interstate drug distribution ring was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids.

Dr. Joel Smithers of Greensboro, North Carolina, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.

Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Day Rottenborn said Judge James Jones sentenced Smithers to 40 years. He faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum of life.

Smithers was convicted in May of more than 800 counts of illegally distributing opioids, including oxycodone and oxymorphone that caused the death of a West Virginia woman.

Authorities say Smithers prescribed more than 500,000 doses of opioids to patients from Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee while based in Martinsville, Virginia, from 2015 to 2017.

Smithers, 36, a married father of five, testified that he was a caring doctor who was deceived by some of his patients.

Some patients remained fiercely loyal to him, testifying that they needed the powerful opioids he prescribed for them to cope with chronic pain.

Smithers wrote in a court filing that he plans to appeal his convictions.
 

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WINDSOR LOCKS, CONNECTICUT — A World War II-era B-17 bomber with 13 people aboard crashed and burned at the Hartford airport in an aborted takeoff attempt Wednesday, and a state official said at least five people were killed.

The four-engine, propeller-driven plane struggled to get into the air and slammed into a maintenance shed at Bradley International Airport as the pilots circled back for a landing, officials and witnesses said.

It had 10 passengers and three crew members, authorities said.

The state official who gave the death toll was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Connecticut Public Safety Commissioner James Rovella said hours after the crash that some of those on board suffered severe burns and “the victims are very difficult to identify.”

The retired, civilian-registered plane was associated with the Collings Foundation, an educational group that brought its Wings of Freedom vintage aircraft display to the airport this week, officials said.

“Right now my heart really goes out to the families who are waiting,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “And we are going to give them the best information we can as soon as we can in an honest way.”

The plane was a few minutes into the flight when pilots reported a problem and said it was not gaining altitude, officials said. It lost control upon touching down and struck the shed.

One person on the ground was injured, officials said. The airport — New England’s second-busiest — was closed after the crash.

Flight records from FlightAware shows the plane went down about five minutes after it took off. The data shows it had traveled about 8 miles (13 kilometers) and reached an altitude of 800 feet (244 meters).

Brian Hamer, of Norton, Massachusetts, said he was less than a mile away when he saw a B-17, “which you don’t normally see,” fly directly overhead, apparently trying to gain altitude but not succeeding.

One of the engines began to sputter, and smoke came out the back, Hamer said. The plane made a wide turn and headed back toward the airport, he said.

“Then we heard all the rumbling and the thunder, and all the smoke comes up and we kind of figured it wasn’t good,” Hamer said.

Antonio Arreguin said he had parked at a construction site near the airport for breakfast when he heard an explosion. He said he did not see the plane but could feel the heat from the fire, about 250 meters away.

“I see this big ball of orange fire, and I knew something happened,” he said.

Only a few of the roaring Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses are still airworthy. The planes, 74 feet long with a wingspan of 104 feet, were used in daylight strategic bombing raids against Germany during World War II — extremely risky missions that helped break the Nazis’ industrial war machine.

The Collings Foundation said that the same plane in Wednesday’s accident also crashed in 1987 at an air show near Pittsburgh, injuring several people. Hit by a severe crosswind as it touched down, the bomber overshot a runway and plunged down a hillside. It was later repaired.

The B-17 was built in 1945, too late for combat in World War II, according to the foundation.

It served in a rescue squadron and a military air transport service before being subjected to the effects of three nuclear explosions during testing, the foundation said. It was later sold as scrap and eventually was restored. The foundation bought it in 1986.

“This is kind of shocking. It’s a loss to lose a B-17,” said Hamer, whose father served in the Air Force. “I mean, there aren’t very many of those left.”

 

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The director-general of the World Health Organization is calling on the world to rally around the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, “which has not only cost many lives and livelihoods but caused severe damage to essential infrastructure.”

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the WHO issued the statement after visiting the Bahamas to address the impact of the powerful storm.

“It breaks my heart to see the devastation to communities and families who have lost friends and loved ones as well as their homes, possessions and access to crucial services,” Tedros said.  

Early this month, Hurricane Dorian made landfall on the Abaco Islands and then moved on to Grand Bahama Island. The Category 5 hurricane stalled in the Bahamas for more than two days.  

A press release by the WHO said 1,500 people are still being housed in shelters, about 600 are still missing and 56 are confirmed dead.  

“The health sector in Abaco and Grand Bahama suffered a substantial blow, with equipment and medical supplies destroyed and electrical and water supplies interrupted. In Grand Bahama three health clinics have been destroyed and two in Abaco,” the statement said.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report earlier this month projecting climate change would have “sweeping and severe” consequences. The report highlighted natural disasters that are projected to worsen due to climate change.  

“Hurricane Dorian is another urgent reminder that we must address the drivers of climate change and invest more in resilient communities,” Tedras said. “The longer we wait, the more people will suffer. We need to keep the world and people safe.”

WHO called on countries to commit to cutting carbon emissions and significantly scaling up investment in climate change, during the Climate Action Summit in New York.

The World Health Organization has allocated $1 million for natural disaster relief from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies.  
 

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Asli Pelit from VOA’s Turkish Service contributed to this report.

The killing of prominent Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi shook the world one year ago, when the public learned how a Saudi government team assassinated and dismembered him inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Khashoggi had criticized Saudi Arabia’s leaders for their repeated violations of human rights, persecution of critics and aggressive regional policies, including their role in Yemen’s four-year-long civil war.

The CIA concluded, according to published reports, that Khashoggi’s murder was ordered by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, which led U.S. lawmakers to publicly condemn the country and try to halt U.S. weapon sales to the kingdom.

U.S. President Donald Trump defied members of his party to push through an $8.1 billion weapons sale, maintaining friendly relations with the kingdom which he cites as a bulwark against Iran’s influence. Trump insisted the U.S. couldn’t afford to give up huge arms sales to its Middle East ally.

“We may never know all the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,” Trump said in November 2018. “As President of the United States I intend to ensure that, in a very dangerous world, America is pursuing its national interests and vigorously contesting countries that wish to do us harm. Very simply it is called America First!”

Khashoggi’s fiancée says many countries including the United States failed to do the right thing and hold Saudis leaders responsible.

“Controlling (vast) energy sources shouldn’t be enough to get away with murder,” Khashoggi’s fiancee, Turkish author Hatice Cengiz, said in an interview with VOA.

The verdict in Cengiz’s mind was clear. Perhaps under different circumstances, absent “huge oil and arms deals” between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi’s case would not be so easily dismissed at the highest level.

Instead, she was left to watch a Saudi court try to demonstrate that it is holding people accountable.

Eleven Saudi suspects would eventually stand trial in a Saudi Arabia courtroom. Five of them face the death penalty in the ongoing case, if convicted. But their roles in Khashoggi’s murder remain unclear to the public.

No matter the outcome, a United Nations human rights expert says the trial has amounted to nothing more than a sham — held behind closed doors and protected from independent scrutiny  — thus failing to meet international standards for an investigation conducted “in good faith.”

‘A slap in the face’

Following a six-month investigation, U.N. Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard determined that Saudi Arabia was responsible for “premeditated execution” in the Oct. 2, 2018, death of Jamal Khashoggi.

Her report, released June 19, 2019, recalled gruesome details as assessed by Turkish Intelligence and other countries. These included the possible injection of a sedative, suffocation using a plastic bag, movement and heavy panting, and later, the sound of a bone saw dismembering Khashoggi’s body.

The report cited six violations of international law, including arbitrary deprivation of life, extraterritorial use of force, enforced disappearance and torture, and the killing of a journalist.

The international community was swift to embrace the report and condemn Saudi Arabia’s actions, Callamard told VOA. But that accountability was short-lived.

Ten days after the release of the report, Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders exchanged pleasantries with the Saudi crown prince.

That day, “we saw a number of political actors more than willing to embrace the crown prince, and to ensure that he was wrapped in the clothes of legitimacy during the G-20 meeting,” Callamard said.

“I took that exhibition of friendship for the crown prince as a slap in the face of the killing of the findings of my report, and of all those around the world that are facing attacks for their independence of mind,” she added.

‘It happened under my watch’

Callamard maintains that it is incumbent upon elected officials to stand up for freedom of expression. She has called for the upcoming G-20 summit, scheduled for November 2020 in Riyadh, to be relocated for fear it will “replenish the legitimacy of Saudi Arabia.”

In a PBS “Frontline” documentary that aired this week, Salman said he holds himself accountable for Khashoggi’s killing, the first such acknowledgment of responsibility. “It happened under my watch,” the crown prince told “Frontline.” “I get all the responsibility because it happened under my watch.”

But his words amount to “a pure political maneuver,” Cengiz charged at a United Nations event on human rights last week.

“By confessing this, he is also distancing himself from the killing of Jamal,” she said. “He’s saying that it happened under his watch, but he means he’s not involved in this crime.”

Callamard, equally skeptical, told VOA, “We now need to see more actions taken if (state responsibility for the killing) was the intention. In particular, we have to have an official apology to the family and the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi.”

Callamard maintains that to achieve justice for crimes involving the highest levels of government is “a marathon, not a 50-meter race.” In the months ahead, she and Cengiz both say that world leaders’ actions, or inactions, may determine the fate of others like Khashoggi.

“[Khashoggi] was the kind of person that gave the U.S. the message, ‘Look, someone like this can also come from the Arab world,’” Cengiz said. “The murder of such a person is like killing those who think like him, that come after him, before they’re even born.”

 

 

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Iran’s state TV says the constitutional watchdog has ratified a bill granting citizenship to children of Iranian mothers but non-Iranian fathers.

Wednesday’s ratification came after parliament approved the bill in May following decades-long demands by rights activists.

Under the new law, children born to Iranian mothers will be eligible for Iranian citizenship.

Until now, more than 100,000 children of Iranian women who had married foreign nationals, mostly Afghans and Iraqis but also men of other nationalities, weren’t recognized as Iranian citizens in the eyes of the law.

The new law is expected to go into effect in less than a month, guaranteeing these children the right to education, health care and other social benefits.

Hard-liners have long opposed the bill, saying it paves the way for foreign influence in Iran.

 

                

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More than 1,000 migrants and refugees have died in the Mediterranean Sea this year, the sixth year in a row that this “bleak milestone” has been reached, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR called for European Union (EU) member states to reactivate search and rescue operations and acknowledge the crucial role of aid groups’ vessels in saving lives at sea.

“The tragedy of the Mediterranean cannot be allowed to continue,” Charlie Yaxley, spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in a statement.

The bodies of five migrants were found on Morocco’s Atlantic coast near Casablanca on Monday, bringing to 12 the number killed when their boat capsized on Saturday, the state news agency reported.

The EU struck a deal with Ankara in 2016 to cut off refugee and migrant flows to Greece from Turkey. Departures, now also diverted largely via Libya and other parts of North Africa, have fallen sharply from a peak of more than 1 million in 2015 to some 78,000 so far this year, UNHCR figures show.

“Of course the number of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean are much lower. So, that points to the fact that the journeys themselves are much more dangerous,” UNHCR spokeswoman Liz Throssell told Reuters Television.

“It is also worth highlighting that 70 percent of the deaths actually occur on the central Mediterranean, namely people attempting to get from Libya across to Italy or Malta.”

More than 18,000 people have lost their lives in

Mediterranean crossings since 2014, according to figures from both the UNHCR and the website of the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

 

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North Korea has conducted another apparent missile launch, hours after announcing it will hold working-level nuclear talks with the United States on Saturday.

The North fired an unknown number of projectiles from the coastal town of Wonsan in Gangwon province early Wednesday, South Korea’s military said in a statement.

Japanese officials described the projectile as missiles, saying one landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone off Shimane Prefecture. The other landed just outside Japan’s EEZ, Tokyo said.

If confirmed, it would be the first time in nearly two years that a North Korean rocket has landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

No further details about the launch were immediately available.

Since May

It is North Korea’s 11th round of launches since May, suggesting Pyongyang intends to continue its provocations even while engaging in negotiations about its nuclear weapons program.

Late Tuesday, North Korea’s vice foreign minister said Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to hold long-delayed, working-level talks on October 5. The two sides will have “preliminary contact” the day before, she said.

It’s not clear how the latest launch will impact the talks. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he has “no problem” with Pyongyang’s previous launches, since they were short-range.

North Korea has given varying justifications for its previous launches this year. Some of the launches, it says, were aimed at sending a warning to South Korea. Others were simply a test of its military capabilities and should not be seen as a provocation, it insisted.

Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the latest launch likely has a dual message: to increase leverage ahead of working-level talks with the U.S., and to respond to South Korea’s unveiling Tuesday of advanced weaponry, including the F-35A stealth fighter acquired from the U.S.

North Korea has repeatedly criticized South Korea and the U.S. for continuing military exercises and Washington’s sale of advanced weapons to Seoul.

Delayed talks

The North’s announcement of talks came almost exactly three months after Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas and agreed to resume working-level talks.

The talks have been stalled since February, when a Kim-Trump meeting in Vietnam broke down over how to pace sanctions relief with steps to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program.

It’s not clear if either side has softened their negotiating stance, though recent developments suggest an increased willingness to work toward a deal.

Late last month, Trump said a “new method” to the nuclear talks would be “very good.” That is especially relevant since North Korean officials have for months said the only way for the talks to survive is if the U.S. adopts a “new method” or a “new way of calculation” or similar language.

Trump also recently dismissed his hawkish National Security Advisor John Bolton, who had disagreed with Trump’s outreach to North Korea.

North Korea praised both developments, even while criticizing the U.S. for what it sees as provocative actions, including the continuation of joint military exercises with South Korea and weapons sales to Seoul.

“It was only last Friday that North Korea indicated it would not resume talks unless Trump made a ‘wise choice,’ so between September 27 and today, the Trump administration likely sent Pyongyang a sign that the U.S. would be open to the phase-by-phase approach that North Korea has consistently called for this past year or so,” says Rachel Minyoung Lee, a Seoul-based analyst with NK News.

Approach

North Korea has repeatedly said it is not willing to unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons. Pyongyang instead prefers a phased approach, in which the U.S. takes simultaneous steps to relieve sanctions and provide security guarantees. Until now, most Trump White House officials have insisted they are not interested in a phased approach, and that North Korea must agree to completely abandon its nuclear weapons before receiving sanctions relief.

Kim and Trump have met three times since June 2018. At their first meeting in Singapore, the two men agreed to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. But they never agreed on what that means or how to begin working toward it.

Trump has said he is open to holding another summit with Kim. But it has long been unclear how the talks can advance without more substantive discussions — including technical experts — about what each side is prepared to offer and how to get there.

“I hope this will at minimum reacquaint the substantive negotiators with their counterparts and perhaps lead to some actionable leads,” says Melissa Hanham, a weapons expert and deputy director at the Open Nuclear Network. “Any substantive working-level talks are good. Diplomacy is like a muscle and it needs exercise.”

South Korea’s presidential Blue House released a quick statement welcoming the talks, and expressing hope that they will soon result in a process that brings lasting peace and full denuclearization to the peninsula.

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At the edge of an ancient lava flow where jagged black rocks meet the Pacific, small off-the-grid homes overlook the calm blue waters of Papa Bay on Hawaii’s Big Island — no tourists or hotels in sight. Here, one of the islands’ most abundant and vibrant coral reefs thrives just below the surface.
 
Yet even this remote shoreline far from the impacts of chemical sunscreen, trampling feet and industrial wastewater is showing early signs of what’s expected to be a catastrophic season for coral in Hawaii.  
 
Just four years after a major marine heat wave killed nearly half of this coastline’s coral, federal researchers are predicting another round of hot water will cause some of the worst coral bleaching the region has ever experienced.  

“In 2015, we hit temperatures that we’ve never recorded ever in Hawaii,” said Jamison Gove, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “What is really important — or alarming, probably more appropriately — about this event is that we’ve been tracking above where we were at this time in 2015.”
 
Researchers using high-tech equipment to monitor Hawaii’s reefs are seeing early signs of bleaching in Papa Bay and elsewhere caused by a marine heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring to record highs for months. June, July and parts of August all experienced the hottest ocean temperatures ever recorded around the Hawaiian Islands. So far in September, oceanic temperatures are below only those seen in 2015.
 
Forecasters expect high temperatures in the north Pacific will continue to pump heat into Hawaii’s waters well into October.  
 
“Temperatures have been warm for quite a long time,” Gove said. “It’s not just how hot it is. It’s how long those ocean temperatures stay warm.”
 
Coral reefs are vital around the world as they not only provide a habitat for fish — the base of the marine food chain — but food and medicine for humans. They also create an essential shoreline barrier that breaks apart large ocean swells and protects densely populated shorelines from storm surges during hurricanes.
 
In Hawaii, reefs are also a major part of the economy: Tourism thrives largely because of coral reefs that help create and protect iconic white sand beaches, offer snorkeling and diving spots, and help form waves that draw surfers from around the world.

Stressed corals

Ocean temperatures are not uniformly warm across the state, Gove noted. Local wind patterns, currents and even features on land can create hot spots in the water.  

“You have things like two giant volcanoes on the Big Island blocking the predominant trade winds,” making the island’s west coast, where Papa Bay sits, one of the hottest parts of the state, Gove said. He said he expects “severe” coral bleaching in those places.
 
“This is widespread, 100% bleaching of most corals,” Gove said. And many of those corals are still recovering from the 2015 bleaching event, meaning they are more susceptible to thermal stress.
 
According to NOAA, the heat wave’s causes include a persistent low-pressure weather pattern between Hawaii and Alaska that has weakened winds that otherwise might mix and cool surface waters across much of the North Pacific. What’s causing that is unclear: It might reflect the atmosphere’s usual chaotic motion, or it could be related to the warming of the oceans and other effects of human-made climate change.

Beyond this event, oceanic temperatures will continue to rise in the coming years, Gove said. “There’s no question that global climate change is contributing to what we’re experiencing,” he said.

For coral, hot water means stress, and prolonged stress kills these creatures and can leave reefs in shambles.
 
Bleaching occurs when stressed corals release algae that provide them with vital nutrients. That algae also gives the coral its color, so when it’s expelled, the coral turns white.

Gove said researchers have a technological advantage for monitoring and gleaning insights into this year’s bleaching, data that could help save reefs in the future.
 
“We’re trying to track this event in real time via satellite, which is the first time that’s ever been done,” Gove said.

Big picture

In remote Papa Bay, most of the corals have recovered from the 2015 bleaching event, but scientists worry they won’t fare as well this time.

“Nearly every species that we monitor has at least some bleaching,” said ecologist Greg Asner, director of Arizona State University’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, after a dive in the bay earlier this month.

Asner told The Associated Press that sensors showed the bay was about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit above what is normal for this time of year.

He uses advanced imaging technology mounted to aircrafts, satellite data, underwater sensors and information from the public to give state and federal researchers like Gove the information they need.

“What’s really important here is that we’re taking these [underwater] measurements, connecting them to our aircraft data and then connecting them again to the satellite data,” Asner said. “That lets us scale up to see the big picture to get the truth about what’s going on here.”

Scientists will use the information to research, among other things, why some coral species are more resilient to thermal stress. Some of the latest research suggests slowly exposing coral to heat in labs can condition them to withstand hotter water in the future.

“After the heat wave ends, we will have a good map with which to plan restoration efforts,” Asner said.

Educating tourists

Meanwhile, Hawaii residents like Cindi Punihaole Kennedy are pitching in by volunteering to educate tourists. Punihaole Kennedy is director of the Kahalu’u Bay Education Center, a nonprofit created to help protect Kahalu’u Bay, a popular snorkeling spot near the Big Island’s tourist center of Kailua-Kona.

The bay and surrounding beach park welcome more than 400,000 visitors a year, she said.
 
“We share with them what to do and what not to do as they enter the bay,” she said. “For instance, avoid stepping on the corals or feeding the fish.”
 
The bay suffered widespread bleaching and coral death in 2015.
 
“It was devastating for us to not be able to do anything,” Punihaole Kennedy said. “We just watched the corals die.”
 

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