| UN: Car bomb kills 3 UN staff outside mall in Libya Posted: 10 Aug 2019 05:26 PM PDT ![UN: Car bomb kills 3 UN staff outside mall in Libya]( "UN: Car bomb kills 3 UN staff outside mall in Libya") A bomb-laden vehicle exploded Saturday outside a shopping mall in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, killing at least three U.N. staff members, a spokesman for the United Nations secretary-general said. The attack came even as the country's warring sides said they accepted a cease-fire proposed by the U.N. aimed at halting combat in the capital Tripoli during an upcoming Muslim holiday. The Benghazi municipal council said the attack targeted a convoy for the U.N. Support Mission in Libya.
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| N. Korea says leader Kim supervised tests of weapons systems Posted: 10 Aug 2019 04:50 PM PDT  North Korea said Sunday leader Kim Jong Un supervised test-firings of an unspecified new weapons system, which extended a streak of weapons demonstrations that are seen as an attempt to build leverage ahead of negotiations with the United States. The report by North Korean state media came hours after President Donald Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has expressed a desire to meet again to start nuclear negotiations after joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises end and apologized for the flurry of recent short-range ballistic launches that rattled U.S. allies in the region.
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| Security officials: Yemeni separatists control city of Aden Posted: 10 Aug 2019 04:01 PM PDT ![Security officials: Yemeni separatists control city of Aden]( "Security officials: Yemeni separatists control city of Aden") Yemeni separatists have wrested control of the port city of Aden — and the grounds of the presidential palace — from forces loyal to the internationally backed government, security officials said Saturday. The separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates had been fighting as part of the Saudi-led coalition that supports the government but turned against those forces in clashes in the southern city. The latest development could further fracture the coalition that has battled Iran-aligned Houthi rebels since 2015 on behalf of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's government, which is largely confined to Aden.
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| India to bring supplies to Kashmir; Pakistan to go to UN Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:00 PM PDT  Authorities enforcing a strict curfew in Indian-administered Kashmir will bring in trucks of essential supplies for an Islamic festival next week, as the divided Himalayan region remained in a lockdown Saturday after India's decision to strip it of its constitutional autonomy. Pakistan said that with the support of China, it will take up India's unilateral actions in Kashmir with the U.N. Security Council and may approach the U.N. Human Rights Commission over what it says is the "genocide" of the Kashmiri people. Kashmir is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan and is divided between the archrivals.
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| Yemen, pounded by war for five years Posted: 10 Aug 2019 12:29 PM PDT  Impoverished Yemen has been mired in a devastating conflict since Iran-backed rebels seized the capital Sanaa five years ago. The war escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition intervened in support of the embattled government, although Sanaa remains under rebel control. In September, they enter Sanaa, seizing the government's headquarters.
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| Israeli army kills 4 militants trying to cross Gaza fence Posted: 10 Aug 2019 12:06 PM PDT ![Israeli army kills 4 militants trying to cross Gaza fence]( "Israeli army kills 4 militants trying to cross Gaza fence") Israeli troops killed four Palestinian militants who attempted to cross through the perimeter fence from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, and in the West Bank arrested members of a Palestinian cell suspected in the killing of an off-duty soldier this week. The army said in a statement that militants who killed Dvir Sorek, 18, outside a settlement near Hebron were arrested and the car they used in the attack was seized. Israel's Channel 13 TV reported that the suspects included two brothers from Hebron.
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| The Latest: Congress party says people dying in Kashmir Posted: 10 Aug 2019 11:47 AM PDT  India's main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has demanded a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the situation in Kashmir, saying there are reports of violence and people dying. Pakistan says that with the support of China, it will take up India's unilateral actions in the disputed region of Kashmir with the U.N. Security Council and may approach the U.N. Human Rights Commission over what it says is the "genocide" of the Kashmiri people. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the comment Saturday after meeting in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart and other top leaders.
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| Dozens arrested at huge opposition rally in Moscow Posted: 10 Aug 2019 11:11 AM PDT  Nearly 50,000 opposition supporters rallied and dozens were arrested in Moscow on Saturday at one of the largest authorised protests since President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin in 2012. Demonstrators crowded the central Prospekt Andreya Sakharova street, where city authorities deployed a massive police presence, including officers in riot gear, after giving permission for the rally to go ahead. The White Counter, an NGO that tracks participants in rallies, counted 49,900 people, while Moscow police gave a much lower attendance figure of 20,000.
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| The Latest: Israel says suspects in soldier's death arrested Posted: 10 Aug 2019 10:55 AM PDT ![The Latest: Israel says suspects in soldier's death arrested]( "The Latest: Israel says suspects in soldier's death arrested") The Israeli military says it has arrested Palestinians suspected of involvement in the killing of an off-duty Israeli soldier in the West Bank this week. Israel's Channel 13 TV reported that the suspects were two brothers from Hebron. A Hamas spokesman says four Palestinian militants who were killed crossing the Gaza perimeter fence were engaging in "an individual act," stressing that the operation was not planned by Hamas.
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| Car bomb kills 2 UN personnel in Libya's Benghazi: security official Posted: 10 Aug 2019 09:29 AM PDT  A car bombing in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi killed two United Nations staff on Saturday, a security official said. "Two members of the UN mission, one them a foreigner, were killed and at least eight others wounded including a child, by a car bomb" in a shopping area of the Al-Hawari district, the official said. Benghazi, Libya's second city and the cradle of the 2011 uprising that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi, was hit by years of violence targeting diplomatic offices and security forces after his fall.
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| Anti-Putin Leader Detained as Russians Hold New Election Protest Posted: 10 Aug 2019 09:11 AM PDT ![Anti-Putin Leader Detained as Russians Hold New Election Protest]( "Anti-Putin Leader Detained as Russians Hold New Election Protest") (Bloomberg) -- Russian opposition leader Lyubov Sobol said she'd been detained by police as tens of thousands protested against the exclusion of anti-Kremlin candidates from Moscow city council elections."They won't succeed in frightening us, they won't be able to stop us demanding our electoral rights," said Sobol, a lawyer who's been on hunger strike for nearly a month in protest against the rejection of her candidacy, in a video posted on Twitter Saturday as armed and masked police broke into her election office. "It won't stop us going out to protests because we will keep doing it for as long as the authorities won't listen to Muscovites."Almost 50,000 people attended Saturday's protest, which had been agreed with the authorities, the White Counter crowd-monitoring organization said on Facebook. Police said 20,000 took part, the Interfax news service reported. Organizers had sought permission for as many as 100,000 to attend.Sobol was later bundled into a van by police and driven away. She was practically the last major opposition figure still at liberty amid the harshest state crackdown on dissent since Vladimir Putin suppressed months of protests against his return to the Kremlin as president in 2012 after four years as prime minister. Most of the other leaders were given jail terms after riot police beat and detained protesters in the largest numbers for years at unsanctioned meetings held in the capital on each of the past two weekends. More than 20,000 people attended an authorized demonstration in Moscow last month.Protesters DetainedRiot police blocked off parts of the city center after the demonstration ended and detained at least 106 people, according to the OVD Info monitoring group. Another 78 were detained by police at a protest in St. Petersburg, it said.Sobol is one of the leaders of the protest movement that erupted after officials last month refused to register opposition and independent candidates for September's elections, saying they failed to gather the required number of signatures from supporters. Opposition leaders insisted they had met the threshold and accused the Kremlin of seeking to crush any challenge amid a slide in Putin's popularity among Russians after a slump in living standards over the past five years.Armed police also entered an internet TV studio used by supporters of opposition leader Alexey Navalny on Saturday and detained 10 staff and volunteers, according to a post on his Twitter account. Navalny himself is in prison after being jailed for 30 days last month for urging supporters to join an unsanctioned protest.Investigators have also targeted Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation as part of efforts to dismantle the revived opposition movement, alleging that unnamed employees laundered about 1 billion rubles ($15 million). The investigation came as at least 10 people arrested at the peaceful rallies face mass unrest charges that could see them jailed for up to 15 years.(Updates with detentions in fourth, fifth paragraphs)To contact the reporter on this story: Irina Reznik in Moscow at ireznik@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, John DeaneFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Libyan Rivals Sign Up to UN-Backed Truce Marking Eid Holiday Posted: 10 Aug 2019 08:53 AM PDT ![Libyan Rivals Sign Up to UN-Backed Truce Marking Eid Holiday]( "Libyan Rivals Sign Up to UN-Backed Truce Marking Eid Holiday") (Bloomberg) -- East Libya military commander Khalifa Haftar accepted a truce on Saturday for the first time since launching an offensive in April to capture the capital Tripoli, which has spiraled into an increasingly deadly proxy war between regional powers and killed more than 1,000 people.Haftar's rivals in the internationally recognized government in Tripoli on Friday had accepted the truce proposed by the United Nations. Haftar's Libyan National Army said in a statement the truce would last until Monday, but the UN hopes it will be extended and lead to peace negotiations in the North African oil producer.Still, in a sign of the unpredictability that has plagued the country since a 2011 NATO-backed revolt overthrew dictator Muammar Qaddafi, a car bombing in the east killed two staff members with the United Nations mission, the pan Arab broadcaster Al-Arabiya reported. A spokesman for the UN mission said they were still gathering information on the bombing.The U.S. has urged all parties to return to UN-directed political mediation, the success of which a State Department official on Friday said depends on a cease-fire in and around Tripoli. The fighting has put civilians in danger and damaged infrastructure, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss the situation.Earlier on Saturday the UN mission to Libya had expressed concern about how long it was taking Haftar to respond to the truce proposal. A source close to the field marshal had earlier indicated that he was concerned by reports of an inbound ship said to be carrying arms for the opposing side.The UN's Libya envoy, Ghassan Salame, has said a holiday cease-fire should be followed by an international conference to end the war, which has drawn in escalating foreign intervention. Backers of the Tripoli-based government include Turkey, while Haftar's Libyan National Army is supported by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.U.S. SupportThe U.S. supports Salame's efforts and that of the UN Support Mission to avoid further escalation, the State Department official said.France and the UN have been pushing for a comprehensive political and economic deal that better allocates resources between Libya's west and east, a key demand by Haftar, three diplomats told Bloomberg, asking not to be identified citing confidential discussions.None of the diplomats elaborated on whether the plan for a cease-fire also envisages a withdrawal by Haftar's forces, a demand of the government in Tripoli. Talks with Haftar would require his withdrawal at least to his main forward base of Jufra in central Libya, a senior official for the Tripoli government told Bloomberg.\--With assistance from Nick Wadhams and Abbas Al Lawati.To contact the reporter on this story: Samer Khalil Al-Atrush in Cairo at skhalilalatr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, John Deane, Sara MarleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| US military says service member killed in Iraq Posted: 10 Aug 2019 08:37 AM PDT ![US military says service member killed in Iraq]( "US military says service member killed in Iraq") The U.S. military says a U.S. service member has died during a combat mission with Iraqi security forces in Iraq's north. The statement by the U.S Central Command said the service member died Saturday in Iraq's northern Nineveh province. The service member was advising and accompanying the Iraqi Security Forces on a planned operation, according to the statement.
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| Activists say pro-Syrian government journalist released Posted: 10 Aug 2019 08:10 AM PDT ![Activists say pro-Syrian government journalist released]( "Activists say pro-Syrian government journalist released") A Syrian pro-government journalist has been released nearly eight months after he was detained by security agents and held incommunicado, activists and family members said Saturday. The brother of Wissam al-Teer thanked Syria's President Bashar Assad for the release in a Facebook post, in an apparent reference to a presidential amnesty. Other journalists and media groups also reported al-Teer's release, suggesting Assad was behind it.
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| Trump: Kim wants to meet again, apologized for missile tests Posted: 10 Aug 2019 07:50 AM PDT  President Donald Trump said Saturday that North Korea's Kim Jong Un wants to meet once again to "start negotiations" after joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises end. Trump is tweeting more details from the "beautiful" three-page letter he told reporters on Friday that he'd received from Kim. Trump, who is on vacation at his golf club in New Jersey, said Kim spent much of his letter complaining about "the ridiculous and expensive exercises," which North Korea sees as a threat.
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| The Latest: Officials say car bomb kills 2 UN staff in Libya Posted: 10 Aug 2019 07:35 AM PDT ![The Latest: Officials say car bomb kills 2 UN staff in Libya]( "The Latest: Officials say car bomb kills 2 UN staff in Libya") Libyan health officials say two U.N. security staff were killed when a bomb-laden vehicle exploded outside a shopping mall in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi. Benghazi is the stronghold of the self-styled Libyan National Army. The officials say the blast took place Saturday outside Arkan Mall in the Hawari neighborhood, where people were gathering for shopping a day before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
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| Muslim hajj pilgrims ascend Mount Arafat for day of worship Posted: 10 Aug 2019 05:27 AM PDT  More than 2 million Muslims gathered Saturday at the sacred hill of Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia for an intense day of worship and reflection on what's considered the climax of the Islamic hajj pilgrimage. Many had tears streaming down their faces as they raised their hands in worship on the slopes of the rocky hill where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon some 1,400 years ago, calling for equality and unity among Muslims. As one of the largest religious gatherings on earth, this second day of the hajj on Mount Arafat, or the hill of mercy as it's also known, is often the most memorable for pilgrims.
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| UPDATE 1-Iran unveils 'improved' radar air defence system Posted: 10 Aug 2019 05:27 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Iran unveils 'improved' radar air defence system]( "UPDATE 1-Iran unveils 'improved' radar air defence system") Iran unveiled on Saturday what authorities said was a locally upgraded radar system with a range of 400 km (250 miles) that could help defend against cruise and ballistic missiles and drones. The announcement comes at a time of rising tension between Iran and United States. Iran shot down a U.S. military surveillance drone in the Gulf with a surface-to-air missile in June.
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| UN Says Regrets Lack of Response From Haftar on Libya Truce Posted: 10 Aug 2019 05:24 AM PDT ![UN Says Regrets Lack of Response From Haftar on Libya Truce]( "UN Says Regrets Lack of Response From Haftar on Libya Truce") (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations mission in Libya in a statement expressed regret at not yet having received a commitment from eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar's forces for a cease-fire in the North African state after their rivals in Tripoli agreed to the proposal.The UN had suggested a humanitarian truce over the Muslim Eid holiday next week to halt fighting between the eastern commander and the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.To contact the reporter on this story: Samer Khalil Al-Atrush in Cairo at skhalilalatr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, John Deane, Sara MarleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| India Ends Kashmir Autonomy, Massacres Rock U.S.: Weekend Reads Posted: 10 Aug 2019 05:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended seven decades of autonomy in the disputed region of Kashmir, two gun massacres in the U.S. sparked a national furor, and the world's largest forest has been on fire for months.Delve into these and other stories about the top events in the past seven days with the latest edition of Weekend Reads. Click here for more of Bloomberg's most compelling political photos.Two Armies Face Off Online as Kashmir Wakes to a New RealityIndia and Pakistan's military chiefs are trading insults and accusations on Twitter over the disputed state of Kashmir. As Faseeh Mangi and Bibhudatta Pradhan report, the possibility of the online dispute escalating into a real-life conflict remains a dangerous prospect. Italy's Woes Show Ungovernable Europe Is the New StandardAs the ruling coalition in Rome collapses and Italy heads for its fourth government in as many years, the nation with the continent's third-largest economy is looking less like Europe's outlier and more like the trendsetter, Raymond Colitt reports.On Guns, Democrats May Be Promising More Than They Can DeliverDemocratic candidates are promising bold executive action on guns if they win the presidency as they respond to two mass shootings last weekend. But as Gregory Korte explains, they may only manage timid steps.World Economy Edges Closer to a Recession as Trade Dread DeepensThe escalating trade war between the U.S. and China is nudging the world economy toward its first recession in a decade, with investors demanding politicians and central bankers act fast to change course. Enda Curran and Katia Dmitrieva explain. In Argentina, Peron's Legacy Is Whatever You Need It to BeImages of Eva Peron at rival presidential campaign rallies almost 70 years after her death are testament to the durability — and flexibility — of the political movement she and her husband, President Juan Peron, unleashed on Argentina in the 1940s. Patrick Gillespie reports.Falling Tear Gas Canisters Raise Risk of Hong Kong Protest DeathAs protesters blocked roads in Hong Kong's central business district this week, something unusual happened: Tear-gas canisters began raining down from the sky. Iain Marlow, Sheryl Tian Tong Lee and Shawna Kwan report.Humming 'Despacito' in Saudi Heartland Where Music Was TabooChange is inching forward even in Saudi Arabia's Qassim province, an important testing ground for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's drive to liberalize the kingdom, Donna Abu-Nasr explains.Ivanka Trump's Jobs Effort Opens White House Doors for CompaniesIvanka Trump has opened her father's administration to companies that participate in a worker-training initiative she's led. Josh Wingrove reports that the move comes even as the president adopts policies labor unions say would weaken apprenticeships.History Holds Few Lessons If Brexit Means Crashing Out of EUU.K. officials wondering how to cope if Britain crashes out of the European Union can generally agree that there's no real precedent for how it might pan out, Craig Stirling and Eddie Spence write.And finally… Since the beginning of the year, the worst-ever Siberian forest fires have consumed more than 13 million hectares — an area larger than Greece. Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent in the army, and even Trump offered U.S. assistance to battle the blazes, which were fed by soaring temperatures and dry conditions. For now, the Krasnoyarsk region's best hope might not come from the military or the U.S. (whose help Putin declined), but rain. \--With assistance from Anthony Halpin.To contact the author of this story: Karl Maier in Rome at kmaier2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Winfrey at mwinfrey@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| David Crosby on How Trump Is ‘Under the Control of Russia’ Posted: 10 Aug 2019 02:16 AM PDT  Axelle/Bauer-GriffinIn the 1950s, in the fearsome early days of the Cold War, American baby boomers learned to dive under their school desks in drills that even 8-year-olds knew were not going to do much good in a nuclear war that could end all human life on Earth. Through the '60s and '70s, the Soviet Union was very, very powerful, and convinced that its next major war would be with us, even as smaller wars raged from Korea and Southeast Asia to Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America.Russian generals formulated a plan to charge through the Fulda Gap in Germany with a few thousand tanks and beat their nemesis, NATO. The Western allies developed counterstrategies. But by the 1980s, even though an apocalypse seemed possible, it no longer seemed likely.And then: the Soviet Union crumbled from within. The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, the East European satellite nations broke away, and by the autumn of 1991 the Soviet Union had collapsed, tearing apart not only the territories of the communist empire, but the Russian empire dating back centuries. Demagogues don't blame themselves, however, and Russia was full of them—including a former KGB spy named Vladimir Putin. The fault, they decided, lay with the United States, which had exploited their internal weaknesses. When Anthony Bourdain Called Out Putin and Trump—in RussiaRussia was no longer the powerhouse the Soviet Union had been, but Putin had a plan: Moscow would erode the Western democracies from within by exploiting their own weaknesses. That's why it started its current campaign of attacks against us years ago, and why they are still going on. Basically, the Russians take hold of any division in our society—racial prejudice, class war, fear of vaccines, any division that has two sides—and they work it. They pose as a group of radical people of color and say awful stuff about whites, and then they turn around and play white supremacist KKK crazies and say we should ship all blacks back to Africa. They do it with every issue they can. Their plan is to divide us and thus render us helpless.In Donald Trump, they saw an opportunity that could not be better for them. Here was a man so ignorant, and so completely unaware of geopolitics, that he could be outwitted and misled before Putin got out of bed in the morning, easily—even without the very real possibility that Putin has incriminating evidence with which to blackmail the president. U.S. President Donald Trump chats with Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 11, 2017.Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP/GettyIt seems clear to me that Russia may well have some kind of info they are using to blackmail Trump with—"kompromat" as the Russians call it. It could be the alleged "pee tape," could be some truth to the whispers that Trump has been laundering Russian mob money for at least 20 years through his New York real estate deals, stashing illegal money in multimillion-dollar apartments and condos all over town. Could just be the fact he lied about working on a deal for Trump Tower Moscow while he was running to be President of the United States in 2016. This could be why Trump is so completely under the control of Russia and so utterly disloyal to the United States. This could be why the Republican Party is blocking the passage of laws to protect our elections from outside influence, because that's how they installed Trump, and that's how they intend to win again in 2020. I love this country. I believe democracy is the very best way for humans to live together under the rule of law. This next election involves rescuing our country from racism and greed and hatred, but it also involves saving the future of the whole human race from the horrors of climate change. Climate change is real and is coming right at us, as months of record-breaking temperatures all over the world demonstrate. We are a great country. We have the brains, the money, and the know-how to lead this fight, and we should be leading it. I can't just sit by and watch us squander our children's future now that they, too, face a threat to all human life on Earth.So here I am again, speaking my mind.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Iran leader urges Muslims to block 'doomed' US peace plan Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:40 AM PDT ![Iran leader urges Muslims to block 'doomed' US peace plan]( "Iran leader urges Muslims to block 'doomed' US peace plan") Iran's supreme leader called on all Muslims to support the Palestinian people in their opposition to the Trump administration's "deal of the century" Middle East peace plan. This year's hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia comes amid heightened tensions in the nearby Persian Gulf between the U.S. and Iran.
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| South Korea Bracing for More Missile Tests From North Korea Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:23 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- There's a "high chance" of more missile launches from North Korea following the fifth ballistic test in about two weeks, South Korea said.South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff will conduct further analysis with the U.S. on what it said were likely short-range ballistic missiles fired at 5:34 a.m. and 5:50 a.m. local time on Saturday, it said in a statement. The projectiles flew 400 kilometers (249 miles) into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.The missile tests came after President Donald Trump said he received a letter from Kim Jong Un on Thursday, in which the North Korean leader complained about war games conducted jointly by the U.S. and South Korean military forces."There's a high chance that North Korea will fire additional missiles as South Korea-U.S. joint drills have started and North Korea is carrying out summertime drills," South Korea's Joint Chiefs said in the statement. "South Korea military is closely monitoring situation and maintaining full readiness."North Korea's missile tests are a show of force against the joint military drills. They're likely aimed at verifying the capabilities of the country's newly developed short-range weapons, South Korea's presidential Blue House said in a statement, citing a meeting with top security officials, who called for an end to the launches.North Korea also criticized its neighbor for increasing military force, including the purchase of F-35A fighter jets, blaming it for rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, the official Korean Central News Agency said.U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has said current U.S.-South Korean drills are "largely computer-driven," with fewer troops maneuvering than in exercises that Trump ordered halted."He wasn't happy with the testing," Trump said Friday as he departed the White House for a fundraiser in the Hamptons. "We'll see how it all works out."Trump and his team contend that diplomacy with North Korea remains on track, thanks in part to his personal rapport with Kim. They say Kim has kept his word by holding off testing a nuclear weapon or launching longer-range missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.Japan said it has no confirmation that the missiles entered its territory or exclusive economic zone. "It's a serious problem," Kenji Harada, Japan's vice defense minister, said of the launches. "We want to move forward with missile-defense capabilities to protect the entire nation."(Updates with KCNA response in sixth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Kyungji Cho in Seoul at kcho54@bloomberg.net;Kim Chipman in Chicago at kchipman@bloomberg.net;Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, ;Kasia Klimasinska at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua, Reed StevensonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| North Korea conducts new missile tests as Trump backs Kim on war games Posted: 09 Aug 2019 08:17 PM PDT  North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range missiles on Saturday, South Korea said, in a "show of force" against US and South Korea joint military exercises. More missile launches are highly probable, as the North Korean military is conducting its own summer drills, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The launch came a few hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had received a "very beautiful letter" from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea has fired a series of missiles and rockets since Kim and Trump agreed at a June 30 meeting to revive stalled denuclearisation talks. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un Credit: Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS A US official said that at least one projectile was launched and that it appeared to be similar to previous short-range missiles fired by Pyongyang. Two missiles flew about 400 km (250 miles) at a height of about 48 km, according to the South Korean military. Trump played down the recent North Korean weapons launches when he spoke to reporters earlier on Friday, saying: "I say it again: There have been no nuclear tests. The missile tests have all been short-range. No ballistic missile tests. No long-range missiles." NOT HAPPY Kim has said the weapons tests were a response to US and South Korean military drills being held this month. Trump said Kim had written in his letter that he was "not happy" about the war games and missile tests. He added he could have another meeting with Kim. The United States and South Korea have kicked off largely computer-simulated exercises as an alternative to previous large-scale annual drills that were halted to expedite denuclearisation talks. North Korea decries such exercises as a rehearsal for war aimed at toppling its leadership. The projectiles were fired at dawn on Saturday from an area around the northeastern city of Hamhung, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Large solid-fuel rocket engines for North Korea's ballistic missile program are most likely being produced at a factory complex in Hamhung, monitoring group 38 North said last year. Hamhung also has a testing site for those engines. The missile launches on Saturday were apparently testing capabilities of a new short-range missile Pyongyang is developing, South Korea's presidential office said. "Because of concerns that North Korea's series of launches can raise military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, ministers called for North Korea to stop it," the Blue House said, citing a meeting of South Korea's top security officials. Kim Dong-yup, a former naval officer who teaches at Seoul's Kyungnam University, said the weapons tested on Saturday could be related to the completion of North Korea's new rocket artillery system that required multiple launches of the same kind.
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| N. Korea conducts new missile tests as Trump backs Kim on war games Posted: 09 Aug 2019 07:48 PM PDT  North Korea conducted the latest in a series of missile launches Saturday to protest US-South Korean war games, just hours after US President Donald Trump expressed his own frustration with the exercises. Defence officials in Seoul said what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles were fired at daybreak from near the northeastern city of Hamhung, flying 400 kilometres (250 miles) before splashing down in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan. It was the fifth round of launches in two weeks, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un labelling them a "solemn warning" over the joint military drills that began just days ago.
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| Russian anti-slavery activist disappears trying to bring woman and children out of rebel-held Syria Posted: 09 Aug 2019 09:43 AM PDT  A Russian vigilante activist who freed hundreds of people from slavery has gone missing while trying to bring a woman and two children out of rebel-held areas in Syria. Oleg Melnikov, 28, founder of the anti-slavery group Alternativa, left Turkey for the Idlib province of Syria late on Wednesday, his colleague Maxim Vaganov told The Telegraph. He missed planned calls at 9am, 12pm and 3pm on Thursday, after which Mr Vaganov followed the group's policy and informed the media and the Russian embassy that he had disappeared. Mr Melnikov, who had been to government-held Aleppo to look for missing children last month, had not been heard from on Friday either. His last check-in on social media was at 1:42am on Thursday. Mr Vaganov has also been unable to reach local acquaintances guiding Mr Melnikov, who is married with two small children. "There are lots of rebel groups, and the one that's helping us is helping us, but information could have gotten out, and others could have decided to gain possession of him or kill him," he said. "But I don't know for now." He had previously gone to rebel-held Syria in 2013 to try to free a Russian blogger captured by Islamic militants while hitchhiking. A photograph taken by Oleg Melnikov in Aleppo last month Credit: Instagram Moscow's air force and special forces troops have turned the tide of the war in Syria in favour of Bashar Assad's regime, while thousands of militants from Russia and neighbouring countries joined jihadi forces there. The Russian foreign ministry said it had asked Damascus about the activist's disappearance. The leader of Russia's Chechnya region has returned more than 20 local women and 100 children who lived with militants Syria and Iraq, but Mr Melnikov and Mr Vaganov had a different mission. The pair arrived in the Middle East in July to try to free several women from the former Soviet Union who were married to local men and had complained that they were being kept in "domestic slavery" in Syria and Lebanon. "They move there, and gradually a situation arises where the men have several wives, or a big family, and they force (the women) to work at home and exploit them," Mr Vaganov said. "The husband says if you leave you won't get to see your children." A woman from Kazakhstan with two children had appealed to Alternativa for help getting out of rebel-held Idlib province. She had moved there with her husband to live with his relatives, but was trapped after the war escalated and the father abandoned the family, he said. "Oleg decided to start with the hardest case, in Idlib, and then the easier stuff," said Mr Vaganov, who was unable to accompany Mr Melnikov to Syria after he came down with bronchitis and dislocated a rib. Mr Melnikov also hoped to investigate the conditions in which captured pro-Assad soldiers were being held, he added. A fighter from the former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fires an anti-aircraft gun in Idlib province this week Credit: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP Funded largely out of Mr Melnikov's pocket and responding to online tips or phone calls, Alternativa has freed at least 500 people from exploitative situations in Russia with its unique brand of vigilante activism. "We act with legal and sometimes not very legal methods, and we have a big percent of successful operations," Mr Melnikov previously told the Telegraph. "We're not simple volunteers, we can fight back." Many of those liberated had been offered work or drugged in Moscow train stations and then bussed to the southern region of Dagestan, where their documents were taken from them and they were forced to work on farms or rural brick factories for little or no money. More than 1 million people are being held against their will in Russia, according to Australian-based NGO Walk Free. Alternativa activists typically bypass law enforcement, attempting to spirit people away before their captors realise what's going on, but have sometimes clashed with corrupt cops and come to blows with owners. "We have one golden hour. We should have already left by the time that golden hour ends," Mr Melnikov said. "But if we take away the owner's phone, and he is handcuffed to the radiator, then we have plenty of time." The hard-charging Mr Melnikov is known for both his exploits with Alternativa and colourful personal history. After being raided by police for participating in the Bolotnaya Square protests against Vladimir Putin in 2012, he went to eastern Ukraine in 2014 to fight alongside Russia-backed separatists. There he helped negotiate exchanges of prisoners and dead soldiers between the two sides, switching his attention to modern-day slavery on his return to Russia. In recent years, Alternativa began helping women forced into prostitution in the Middle East and child labourers in Africa. With a knack for showing up at historical turning points, Mr Melnikov was trying to free exploited workers in cooperation with Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe when the longtime leader was overthrown in 2017. "We have a principle that children should study and neither children nor adults should be exploited," Mr Melnikov said. "If the situation is different then we come and fix it."
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