Egypt has urged international mediation over what it called “deadlock” in talks in Sudan over a massive dam under construction on the Nile River, sparking fresh tensions with Ethiopia.

Negotiations between the three countries have been at a stalemate for years after Ethiopia began constructing the Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile in 2012.

Ethiopia says the project is needed to provide electricity.

But Egypt is concerned the huge dam will severely reduce its water supplies and says it has “historic rights” to the river guaranteed by decades-old treaties.

Egypt “called for the involvement of an international party in the Renaissance Dam negotiations to mediate between the three countries,” the irrigation ministry said in a statement late Saturday after a new round of talks ended in Khartoum.

An impasse was reached after Ethiopia “rejected all the proposals that take Egypt’s water interests into account,” the ministry added.

It said Ethiopia presented a proposal that “lacked guarantees” of the minimum water flow as well as how to deal with possible droughts.

The Ethiopian foreign ministry rejected Egypt’s call for international mediation as “an unwarranted denial of the progress” of talks.

“It also goes against the consent and wishes of Ethiopia,” it added.

The Egyptian presidency called on the United States to play “an active role” in the issue, invoking the need for an international party to “overcome the deadlock”.

The White House had on Friday expressed “support” for the negotiations, urging all sides “to put forth good faith efforts to reach an agreement”.

Ethiopia however dismissed Cairo’s assessment of the latest negotiations.

“The allegation that talks ended in a deadlock is completely false,” Ethiopian Minister for Water and Energy Selishi Bekele told reporters on Saturday.

He said that “some progress has been made” but acknowledged that there were “pending issues”.

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said Egypt’s approach in the talks was “another instance of a disruptive tactic it applied to halt the hydrology, environmental and social impact assessment” of the dam.

The Nile, which runs through 10 countries, is Africa’s longest river and a crucial artery for water supplies and electricity for all the countries.

Its main tributaries — the White Nile and the Blue Nile — converge in Khartoum before it flows through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.

Ethiopia has said the $4 billion dam will begin generating power by the end of 2020 and will be fully operational by 2022.

Analysts fear that the three Nile basin countries could be drawn into a conflict if the dispute is not resolved before the dam begins operating.

 

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Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Sunday he was seeking “non-aggression” agreements with Gulf Arab nations that do not formally recognize the country as a prelude to possible future peace deals.

Details of the proposal were not made public, but it was the latest sign of Israel’s push to improve ties with Gulf Arab nations with whom it has no formal diplomatic relations.

Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory has long served as a major factor preventing peace deals with Arab countries, but common concerns over Iran are widely seen as having brought them closer in recent years.

“Recently, I have been promoting, under the backing of the United States, a political initiative to sign ‘non-aggression agreements’ with the Arab Gulf states,” Katz wrote on Twitter.

“The historic move will put an end to the conflict and allow civilian cooperation until peace agreements are signed.”

Katz said he discussed the initiative with unnamed Arab foreign ministers and U.S. President Donald Trump’s outgoing envoy Jason Greenblatt while attending the U.N. General Assembly in late September.

A spokesman for Katz declined to provide further details for now, and it was not clear how much progress he has made in the endeavor.

Only two Arab countries — Jordan and Egypt — have peace treaties with Israel, but there have been overt signs in recent months of improved relations with Gulf nations.

A year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held surprise talks with Oman’s Sultan Qaboos in Muscat.

Katz in July said he had met his Bahraini counterpart publicly for the first time during a visit to Washington.

In late June, a group of Israeli journalists attended the US-led economic conference on Israeli-Palestinian peace in Bahrain.

All did not go well, however, when a group of invitees from Arab states visited Israel in July.

Palestinians hurled abuse and chairs at a member of the delegation — a Saudi blogger — as he visited east Jerusalem’s Old City.

East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.

Israel sees the entire city as its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

 

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Iraq’s Cabinet issued a new reform plan early Sunday following a night of clashes in which security forces opened fire on protesters killing at least 19 people.

The Cabinet met through the night Saturday in an effort to respond to five days of protests that have taken authorities by surprise and led to the deaths of nearly 100 people.

Cabinet officials released a series of planned reforms, which addressed land distributions and military enlistments as well as increasing welfare stipends for poor families and training programs for unemployed youth.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi told his cabinet late Saturday in televised remarks that he is willing to meet with protesters and hear their demands. He called on the protesters to end their demonstrations.
The protests in Baghdad and in several southern Iraqi cities have grown from initial demands for jobs and improved city services, such as water and power, to calls now to end corruption in the oil-rich country of nearly 40 million people.

On Saturday, the Iraqi parliament tried to respond to the crisis by calling an emergency session, however they were unable to reach a quorum because of legislators who are boycotting parliamentary sessions.

Former Shi’ite militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who leads the largest opposition bloc in parliament, called Friday for the government to resign and said “early elections should be held under U.N. supervision.”
The protests are the first major challenge to Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi, who formed his government a year ago.

The government has blamed the violence on “groups of riot inciters” and has said security forces are working to protect the safety of peaceful protesters.

Iraq’s parliament has ordered a probe into the violence.

Many Iraqi citizens blame politicians and government officials for the corruption that has prevented the country from rebounding from years of sectarian violence and the battle to defeat Islamic State militants, who at one point controlled large areas in the northern and western part of the country.

 

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Thousands of demonstrators gathered in central Kyiv on Sunday to protest broader autonomy for separatist territories, part of a plan to end a war with Russian-backed fighters.

Protesters chanted “No to surrender!”, with some holding placards critical of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the crowd, which police said had swelled to around 10,000 people.

The country’s 41-year-old president is gearing up to hold his first summit with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in an effort to revive a stalled peace process to end the five year separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

This week Ukrainian, Russian and separatist negotiators agreed on a roadmap that envisages special status for separatist territories if they conduct free and fair elections under the Ukrainian constitution.

Zelenskiy’s critics fear that Putin will push the comedian-turned-politician to make damaging concessions in order to retain Moscow’s de-facto control of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

Protesters in Kyiv’s Independence Square said that agreeing to give broader autonomy to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic would mean surrendering Ukraine’s interests.

“We are against a betrayal,” protester Sergiy Lezvinsky, 58, told AFP.

“We want to put an end to the occupation, to the decisions that are being fast-tracked.”

The provisional agreement of a roadmap was a key condition set by Moscow for a meeting that will be hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and also involve German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The plan has been dubbed “the Steinmeier formula”, after the former German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who proposed it.

But many critics say the proposal favors Russia.

Zelenskiy’s predecessor Petro Poroshenko has called it “Putin’s formula,” claiming it will endorse the Russian annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s de-facto control of eastern Ukraine.

“The Steinmeier formula is a Putin project,” said protester Mykola Chepiga.

He said elections could take place in eastern Ukraine only if Kyiv restores control of the country’s borders in the east.

In an address to the nation earlier this week Zelenskiy said he respected the right of Ukrainians to protest but called on people not to “give in to provocations”.

He pledged not to betray the country’s interests.

The ex-Soviet country of 45 million people has gone through two popular uprisings in two decades and has been mired in a conflict with separatists since 2014.

The conflict — the worst East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War — broke out after Russia annexed Crimea in March, 2014 and has claimed some 13,000 lives.

 

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Rights groups and opposition parties in Thailand are warning that a new center authorities plan to open by next month to combat the spread of fake news online may be misused to target and silence government critics.

Thailand emerged from five years of military rule after tainted elections in March that returned the leaders of a 2014 coup to power. The junta sued or arrested hundreds for peacefully protesting its rule and criticizing the military, often online.

Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta announced the center’s pending arrival in August, adding Thailand to the list of countries in the region fortifying their fronts against online fake news.

The state-run National News Bureau of Thailand later reported that the center would open by November 1 to vet dubious news found online and respond to any falsehoods jeopardizing peace and security with the facts via Facebook, the messaging application Line, and a dedicated website. It said the center would focus on natural disasters, the economy and finance, health products and hazards, and government policy.

However, opposition parties and rights groups say the track record of the junta and the government that has replaced it, led by the pro-military Palang Pracharath party, provide reason to worry.

“There are serious concerns that the proposed fake news center of the government will be yet another tool for censorship, because up until now all of the anti-fake news operation of Thai authorities focus exclusively on comments of critics and dissidents … while taking no action at all against misinformation and hate campaign from sources known to be connected to the military and Palang Pracharath party,” said Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch in Thailand.

Buddhipongse’s staff told VOA that no one was available to comment for this story.

Another common concern among critics is that the center will combine the government’s alleged bias with the power to sue and arrest.

The digital economy minister “has made it clear that the center will work as an interagency coordinating point and [be] authorized to prosecute people with various laws,” Sunai said. “So all this combined together are very draconian censorship tools that [the] Thai government has been using over the past five years under military rule. Now those rules have been consolidated into one center.”

Arthit Suriyawongkul, co-founder of the Thai Netizen Network, which advocates for online freedom, shared his worry.

“I still hope that they would do the right job. We would love to be positive about this, because in the end … we do think that fake news and disinformation in general, actually they do some harm,” he said, referring in particular of the spread of products speciously claimed to have medicinal value.

Arthit said, however, that authorities have too often applied the “fake news” label to what is really just critical opinion.

“We found that the effort, most of the time, is actually targeted [at] those [who are] anti-government or dissidents in general. And sometimes it’s not actually quite clear if [the] information is actually true or false,” he said.

“So I think they just use the term [for] their convenience, as an excuse to clamp down [on] expression.”

Thailand is not alone.

Lasse Schuldt, a lecturer with the law faculty at Thailand’s Thammasat University, said Southeast Asia has become something of a “world’s laboratory” for so-called fake news laws.

While Malaysia and Singapore have attracted the most attention for recent legislation taking the issue head-on, he said other countries in the region have their own laws covering fake news. In Thailand, the Computer Crimes Act specifically criminalizes the publication or sharing of false information online.

When Thailand’s anti-fake news center is finally up and running, Schuldt said it will be in the company of similarly dedicated operations in Vietnam and Indonesia.

The academic said a multilayered combination of developments was driving the trend, from the viral talk of “fake news” during the 2016 U.S. election to countries in Southeast Asia adopting and adapting the language for their own purposes.

“Local realities influence the discourse as well,” he said. “Singapore points in particular to its perceived vulnerability and the prevention of foreign influence. Protracted political division is the background in Thailand. And Vietnam is mostly concerned about the protection of the [Communist] Party and the state.”

The spread of fake news via social media has been blamed for sparking deadly clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar and for stoking racial and religious tensions ahead of national elections in Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy, earlier this year.

 

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Hundreds of prisoners, including an opposition party leader, were freed Saturday in Cameroon after Cameroon President Paul Biya ordered a halt to court proceedings against them. 

Supporters sang and shouted at the Yaounde military tribunal as opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who claims he won the October 2018 presidential election, was freed along with other members of his party. Among them was 25-year-old Sabastien Ngomfoue, who was one of hundreds arrested last February in Douala for protesting what they called Kamto’s stolen election victory .

“I was arrested on the 28th of February. I have been in SED gendarme [detention] in Yaounde for seven months,” Ngomfoue said. “This is my first time in court and God almighty, I have been liberated. I plead that they should continue to do more [releases], we [prisoners] face lots of difficulties.”

On Friday night at the national dialogue called for by Biya to address the country’s crisis — especially the separatist war that has killed 2,000 people — the president ordered an end to court proceedings against some members of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) of Kamto.

Sosthene Medard Lipot, Kamto’s spokesperson, said they will continue pressing for Kamto to be officially declared the winner and recognized as president.

Lipot said president Biya should have ordered the justice system that he “manipulates” to hasten Kamto’s judgment. He said they wanted to prove in the military tribunal that Kamto’s insurrection charges were based on fabrications by the Biya regime.

Kamto and about 500 CRM members were arrested after taking part in peaceful protests against alleged irregularities in the voting process that Biya easily won to claim a seventh term. Official results said Kamto finished a distant second with 14 percent of the vote.

Amos Oum, a municipal counselor who took part in the national dialogue, said one of the strong recommendations made was that Biya should release all prisoners arrested in connection with the separatist war that has killed more than 2,000 in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, as well as people arrested for protesting the poll results.

Oum said he is very happy that shortly after the president received the report, he ordered the release of the political prisoners — an indication that Biya also wants to restore peace.

Biya this week also pardoned 333 separatist fighters accused of misdemeanors. But separatist leaders, including Julius Ayuk Tabe, who were sentenced to life in prison by a military tribunal in August, have not been released as requested by some at the national dialogue.

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Thousands marched in Edinburgh Saturday calling for Scottish independence, with a possible British exit from the European Union just weeks away and calls growing for a fresh vote in Scotland on breaking from Britain.

The demonstrators, many carrying Scottish flags, some wearing kilts and a few playing musical instruments – including bagpipes – set off from Holyrood Park in the heart of the Scottish capital.

Among them was lawyer and Scottish Nationalist (SNP) lawmaker Joanna Cherry, who was behind one of the successful legal challenges to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament.

She was also one of main backers of a law passed last month forcing Johnson to ask the European Union for more time to avoid crashing out of the EU without a deal.

The group organizing Saturday’s march, All Under One Banner, said were hoping to get 100,000 people to attend.

Scotland voted against independence in a 2014 referendum by 55 percent.

But nationalists argue that the 2016 British referendum in favor of Brexit means another independence referendum is necessary — because Scotland voted by 62 percent to stay in the EU.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP, has argued that Brexit will devastate the economy.

Nationalists also argue that some people voted against independence thinking it would guarantee their place inside the EU.

Sturgeon, who wants a second independence referendum in 2021, was unable to attend the march, but tweeted a message of support.

Some independence activists also joined the march, while a few pro-Union protesters carrying Union Jack flags staged a small counter-demonstration.

 

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The International Organization for Migration has helped 143 Somali refugees, stranded in war-torn Yemen, return home earlier this week.  

The group of Somali refugees, including 56 children, set off by boat from the port of Aden on Monday and arrived at the port of Berbera in Somaliland the following day.

The U.N. migration agency’s spokesman, Joel Millman, said government officials and representatives from humanitarian agencies were on hand to greet them and provide assistance.

“With the conflict having effects on the economic and security situation in Yemen, many migrants and refugees find themselves without the means to provide for themselves and their families.  Stranded, they then turn to humanitarian organizations for return assistance,” Millman said.

The return project is funded by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center and the Kuwaiti government. Since it began last November, Millman said more than 1,500 Somali refugees have been repatriated.

Somalis comprise the bulk of the 250,000 refugees in Yemen.  Many have been there since the 1980s. That’s when civil war broke out in Somalia, leading to the overthrow of President Mohamed Siad Barre.

The safety enjoyed by Somali refugees in Yemen for many years has long since dissipated. Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war for more than four years that turned situation in the country into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.  The United Nations reports two thirds of the population, or 24 million people, is dependent on international aid for survival.

U.N. refugee spokesman Babar Balloch told VOA conditions in Somalia still are not conducive for returns.  But he adds the UNHCR will assist Somali refugees who voluntarily request help to return home.  

“With the prolonged conflict, the refugees have also been feeling the pressure.  And for those who want to go back home in spite of what is happening inside Somalia, we are able to help them… Once they reach Berbera, we are able to give them some assistance.  In terms of where they want to go and settle down, that is entirely up to the refugees,” he said.

Balloch said the UNHCR and IOM have jointly repatriated nearly 5,000 Somali refugees by boat from Yemen to Somalia since 2017.

 

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Iraqi officials say one person was killed in Baghdad as police fired on anti-government protesters Saturday, the first day of demonstrations since a two-day curfew was lifted.

Demonstrators began taking to the streets last Tuesday to protest unemployment, poor public services and corruption.
 
Saturday’s protests came one day after former Shi’ite militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who leads the largest opposition bloc in parliament, called on the government to resign and said “early elections should be held under U.N. supervision.”
 
Iraqi forces have been opening fire on the protesters, and medical and security sources say at least 65 people have been killed this week.
 
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a statement Friday saying “the deaths of civilians and the growing number of wounded at the ongoing protests across the country is particularly worrying, as is the use of firearms for restoring public order.”

The ICRC has called on both sides to show restraint as it monitors developments on the ground.

‘Difficult choices’

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said Friday that the security measures, including the temporary curfew imposed were “difficult choices” but they were needed like “bitter medicine” that had to be swallowed.

In addition to those killed, hundreds of people have been wounded since the demonstrations began. The demonstrations have spread in Baghdad and in areas south of the capital.

The protests are the first major challenge to Abdul-Mahdi, who formed his government a year ago.

The government blamed the violence on “groups of riot inciters” and said security forces worked to protect the safety of peaceful protesters.

Iraq’s parliament has ordered a probe into the violence.

Many Iraqi citizens blame politicians and government officials for the corruption that has prevented the country from rebounding from years of sectarian violence and the battle to defeat Islamic State militants, who at one point controlled large areas in the northern and western part of the country.

At his weekly Cabinet meeting earlier this week, the prime minister released a statement promising jobs for graduates. He also ordered the oil ministry and other government agencies to apply a 50% quota for local workers in future contracts with foreign countries.

 

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Thousands of residents of Pakistan-held Kashmir rallied Saturday on board vehicles and motorbikes to press for their demand that India lift a two-month old controversial clampdown in its controlled portion of the disputed region.

The protest came on a day when U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen arrived in Pakistan after visiting India, where he was refused permission to personally visit Kashmir to assess the situation.

While speaking in the eastern Pakistan city of Multan, Van Hollen urged New Delhi to ensure protection of human rights, restore communications and release political prisoners in the disputed territory.

The protesters in Pakistani-administered Kashmir were calling for the region’s independence from both the countries and they were headed to the Line of Control (LoC), which divides the Himalayan territory, vowing to force their way into the Indian side.

“We want freedom on this [Pakistani] side and that [Indian] side,” chanted the slowly moving and charged up crowd that is expected to reach the boundary line on Sunday.

Local police have placed roadblocks just a few kilometers from the LoC, however, to prevent the rally from reaching the de facto border.

“I am going with this march to express solidarity with our Kashmiri brothers, who have been under curfew for two months now,” Ejaz Ahmed, a 64-year-old medical doctor by profession, told VOA.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government on August 5 unilaterally scrapped a decades old constitutional semi-autonomous status for the country’s only Muslim-majority state.

New Delhi has since deployed tens of thousands of additional troops, cut phone and internet services, and arrested nearly 4,000 people, including the region’s top political leadership, journalists and lawyers, amid serious allegations of torture and abuses.

The unprecedented lockdown to deter dissent and violent reactions by the local population has effectively isolated millions of Kashmiris from the rest of the world. India also has not permitted diplomats or foreign journalists to visit Kashmir. 

“We think it’s important that journalists and others be permitted to see exactly what’s going on with their own eyes. That’s why I had wanted to go there so that we can get the truth and get all the facts,” Hollen said. He is accompanied by U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan on the visit.

Modi has defended his actions in Kashmir, saying they are meant to bring development and prosperity to the violence-plagued region. Critics, including those in India, have rejected these assertions, though, calling for an immediate easing of the lockdown.

Saturday’s protest demonstration was being led by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) group, which operates on both sides and has been seeking total independence from India and Pakistan. The leader of the Indian chapter of JKLF is also among those Indian authorities have detained on the other side of the border.

JKLF activists made a similar attempt to cross the disputed border in 1992, but a police crackdown prevented them from doing so and the ensuing clashes killed at least 12 people.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan asked the protesters to desist from crossing the Kashmir LoC, saying it would give India “an excuse to increase violent oppression of Kashmiris” on the other side. He warned that India also could use it to launch a cross-border attack on Pakistani-held part of the region, known as Azad (free) Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

“I understand the anguish of Kashmiris in AJK seeing their fellow Kashmiris in IOJK [Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir] under an inhuman curfew for over 2 months,” Khan tweeted just before the rally began its march from the main city of Muzaffarabad.

Last week, while Khan was addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he emphatically urged member nations to intervene to persuade India to lift its siege of Kashmir before it results in another direct military conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations.

Khan asserted that Kashmiris would not accept the Indian moves and “what is going to happen when the curfew is lifted will be a bloodbath” for which Pakistan will be blamed, potentially drawing the two neighbors into war that could escalate into a nuclear exchange.

A new study released earlier this week warned that should a nuclear war ever occur between India and Pakistan, it would immediately kill up to 125 million people in both the countries, followed by mass starvation and ecosystem catastrophe far outside of the war zone itself. The research was jointly conducted by University of Colorado Boulder and Rutgers University.

The United States also has called on India to ease restrictions in Kashmir. Since the scrapping of the region’s special status by New Delhi, dozens of U.S. lawmakers have expressed concerns over what they have described as the “humanitarian crisis” in Kashmir.

 

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North Korea’s underwater-launched missile has a longer-range than the missiles the country tested earlier this year and is designed to be launched from a submarine that has a potential to pose a threat to the U.S. allies in northeast Asia, experts said.

“The missile tested … has a maximum range of more than twice that of the shorter-range systems North Korea has been testing” this summer, said Michael Elleman, director of Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). “It does not pose a threat to the continental U.S., but once fully developed, it will threaten U.S. allies and interests in northeast Asia.”

North Korea conducted an underwater launch of a new ballistic missile on Wednesday that flew about 450 kilometers off the country’s eastern coastal town of Wonsan before landing in the waters off Japan. It reached a peak altitude of 950 kilometers, South Korean’s Joint Chief of Staff said.

“It’s indeed the longest-range, solid-fueled missile North Korea has tested to date,” said Ian Williams, deputy director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “[North Korea] has not tested this kind of missile since 2016.”

Reaching South Korea, Japan

The missile tested Wednesday is considered to have a maximum range of about 1,900 kilometers at a standard trajectory. The range makes it possible to target all of South Korea and Japan’s four main islands. The missile is considered the Pukguksong-3, and the last time North Korea tested a Pukguksong-class missile was in August 2016. 

North Korea tested solid-fueled missiles this summer, in an apparent attempt to fine tune the technology. Missiles using solid fuel are harder to detect because the fuel can be loaded long before any launches and then be moved.

The mobile characteristic of the solid-fueled missiles makes it possible to upload the missiles on a submarine or an underwater barge before being launched. This is considered an improvement over liquid-fuel missiles, which have to be loaded immediately before missiles are fired.

 

“This missile is likely based on the Pukuksong-2, previously tested a few years ago,” Elleman said. “It appears some small improvements have been incorporated to enhance the missile’s maximum range by a few hundred kilometers and to fit into the smaller confines of the submarine launch tube.”

Williams said North Korea’s goal is to improve solid fuel missile technology and transfer it to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which can reach the continental U.S.

“It’s one more piece of evidence that North Korea’s growing competency with solid fuel,” Williams said. “This knowledge would likely be applicable to a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, which I believe is Pyongyang’s ultimate goal in its missile development.”

Missile test results

North Korea said Thursday it had successfully conducted a missile test from a submarine, which differs from a U.S. assessment.

“The successful new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test-firing comes to be of great significance as it ushers in a new phase in containing the outside forces’ threat to the DPRK and further bolstering its military muscle for self-defense,” the country’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. DPRK is North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Contrarily, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea tested a missile from a sea-based platform.

“I am not going to get into specifics to what the actual missile was other than to say, again, it was a short — to medium — range and I would say that we have no indication that it was launched from a submarine but rather a sea-based platform,” spokesperson Patrick Ryder said Thursday.

Much of the threat from submarine-launched missiles depends on how advanced the submarine is, experts said.

“If that submarine is noisy and, thus, easily detectable, it may not pose much of a threat to anyone,” Williams said. “It would, however, require near-constant monitoring, which would tie up surveillance and undersea assets that might be assigned elsewhere.”

Elleman said North Korea has not fully developed its submarine technology to deploy a submarine far off the country’s coast.

“North Korea’s submarine will not venture far from the [Korean] peninsula, as the country lacks the supporting infrastructure, ships, logistics, and secure communications to operate them at long distance,” he added.

North Korea unveiled what it called a new submarine in July as a sign indicating Pyongyang was developing SLBM technology.

North Korea’s latest test came days prior to the resumption of the long-stalled working-level talks scheduled to take place Saturday in Sweden. The talks had been stalled since the failed Hanoi Summit in February, and since May, North Korea has been conducting multiple missile tests.

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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

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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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