The United States and the Taliban have concluded the eighth round of talks aimed at reaching an agreement between the two adversaries to end the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan and jumpstart intra-Afghan peace negotiations.

The nine-day negotiations in the Gulf state of Qatar were wrapped up before dawn on Monday, announced a Taliban spokesman. The talks continued on a day when Muslims around the world began celebrating their three-day annual festival of sacrifice, known as Eid-al-Adha.

“Work was tedious and effective. Both sides agreed to consult their respective leaderships for next steps,” Zabihullah Mujahid said in a brief statement.

He did not explain further nor has there been any statement from the chief American negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, about the outcome of the negotiations with the insurgent group.

Taliban political spokesman, Suhail Shaheen had said before the start of the talks that a deal was expected to follow the eighth round of their year-long dialogue with Americans.

Khalilzad had tweeted during the just concluded talks that “we have made excellent progress,” raising exceptions a deal was imminent. His latest comments on the progress of the talks came on Sunday when he greeted Afghans on the Eid celebration in a series of tweets.

“I hope this is the last Eid where #Afghanistan is at war. I know Afghans yearn for peace. We stand with them and are working hard toward a lasting & honorable peace agreement and a sovereign Afghanistan which poses no threat to any other country,” Khalilzad said.

We’ve concluded this round of talks that started Aug 3 between the US and the Taliban. Over the last few days, the two sides focused on technical details. They were productive. I am on my way back to DC to consult on next steps.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) August 12, 2019

Washington has said it is seeking a peace deal before the Afghan presidential election scheduled for September 28.

The U.S.-Taliban agreement, if reached, would outline the insurgent guarantees that Afghan territory, particularly Taliban-controlled areas, will not be used for staging terrorist attacks against America or its allies in  exchange for a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign troops from the country.

The document, to be inked before international witnesses, would also require the Taliban to immediately start negotiations with stakeholders in Afghanistan, including envoys of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, to discuss a nationwide ceasefire and matters related to future governance in the crisis-hit country.

The U.S.-Taliban dialogue, however, has been under fire from the outset for excluding the Afghan government. The insurgent group refuses to recognise the Kabul administration as a legitimate entity, calling it a U.S. puppet.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday again took a swipe at the ongoing U.S.-led peace effort.  

“Our future cannot be decided outside, whether in the capital cities of our friends, nemeses or neighbors. The fate of Afghanistan will be decided here in this homeland. … We don’t want anyone to intervene in our affairs,” Ghani told an Eid-related gathering at the presidential place in Kabul.

Khalilzad in his tweets on Sunday apparently attempted to respond to Ghani’s criticism and the Taliban’s consistent stance of refusing to talk to the Afghan government.

“Many scholars believe that the deeper meaning of Eid al-Aadha is to sacrifice one’s ego. Leaders on all sides of the war in Afghanistan must take this to heart as we strive for peace.  My very best wishes,” tweeted the Afghan-born American diplomat.

Many scholars believe that the deeper meaning of Eid al-Hadha is to sacrifice one’s ego. Leaders on all sides of the war in Afghanistan must take this to heart as we strive for peace. My very best wishes.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) August 11, 2019

Ghani, who is seeking re-election, maintains the U.S.-Taliban peace talks should not come in the way of the September election, insisting an elected government is better placed to negotiate peace with the insurgents to end decades of hostilities in Afghanistan.

It is widely perceived that a deal with the Taliban may lead to the postponement of the presidential election to allow the process to be held under a transitional setup, inclusive of insurgents. Ghani and his advisors, however have rejected those assertions nor do Taliban envoys support it, causing confusion about the purpose of intra-Afghan talks as and when they start.

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Amid China’s deepening crackdown on labor activists, Wei Zhili, the editor of an online labor rights advocacy platform called iLabour, was officially arrested on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” on Friday – almost five months after he was taken away from his home in China’s southern city of Guangzhou.

Police presented a statement allegedly made by Wei to dismiss the lawyer of his family’s choice – a decision his family said is “clearly against his will.”

“We are afraid that the police may have tortured him and threatened him so that he decided to unhire that lawyer,” one of Wei’s family members told VOA over the weekend anonymously.

Legal Presentation Denied?

Wei’s family said they feel “sad and hopeless,” fearing that Wei has been deprived of his basic rights to seek legal presentation or his next government-appointed lawyer will not look after his best interest. 

Wei’s wife Zheng Churan, a well-known feminist in China, is barred from talking to foreign media about her husband’s case. Three months ago, she began a running campaign with a goal to complete 10,000 kilometers and hopes that her loved one will be set free by the time she meets the goal. 

If convicted, Wei may face up to a 10-year jail term, according to the lawyer of his family’s choice, whose requests to meet with his client were rejected twice by local police. 

Two of Wei’s colleagues – Yang Zhengjun and Ke Chengbing, who were also seized by police from Shenzhen respectively in January and March – may face a similar fate, according to rights groups, which have been demanding the immediate release of the three journalists, dedicated to labor rights.   

The three, known as “iLabour Three,” had used the news outlet to publish information on the cases of migrant workers from Hunan province who had contracted pneumoconiosis – an occupational lung disease, while also counseling them about defending their labor rights and petitioning over their grievances.

Set iLabour Three Free

“These journalists were serving the public interest by exposing life-threatening labor violations, and therefore they should never have been arrested,” said Christophe Deloire, Secretary-General of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a press statement released last week.

He insisted that the Chinese Constitution “enshrines freedom of the press and safe working conditions.”

RSF estimated that “at least 114 journalists and bloggers are currently imprisoned in life-threatening condition in China.” 

In its 2019 World Press Freedom Index, the international group ranks China’s level of press freedom the 177th out of a total of 180 countries, which suggests China’s reporting environment only outperforms that in Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan.    

Sweeping Crackdown

Also, a group of online campaigners, which run a Facebook page titled Global Support for Disappeared Left Activists in China, noted that, since last July’s Jasic Incident, more than 130 labor rights activists have been detained or disappeared in China. Over 50 of them remain missing or in custody. 

The Jasic incident was a month-long labor rights conflict, in which, workers from Jasic Technologies Co in Shenzhen, dissatisfied with what they alleged were low pay and poor working conditions, staged protests and sought to form a labor union. 

Their calls drew support from students and professors at more than 20 universities. The Facebook group says more than 60 workers and supporters ended up being detained.

China’s state-controlled Xinhua news, in August, placed the blame on labor groups and foreign forces, saying a Shenzhen-based labor center that partners with Hong Kong-based Worker Empowerment, fanned the protests.  It failed to mention that the workers were protesting due to labor rights violations and state violence. 

Since then, the group observed that the authorities’ targets of arrests have ranged from worker organizers, leftist students, labor organizations staff and even social workers.  

Analysts noted that the detention of workers and supporters, plus the state media’s efforts to discredit them, showed the lengths Chinese authorities would go to, to crush worker disputes.

And China’s crackdown on labor activists has become so widespread that it’s hard to tell what activities are viewed by the authorities as crossing the red line, said Li Qiang, founder and executive director of China Labor Watch.

Riskier Labor Activism

In other words, anything that is beyond the Communist Party’s control will threaten the party’s rule and risk being suppressed, Li Qiang added.

“The Communist Party is concerned that, once highly-educated students or intellectuals with ideology join hands with the working class and get involved in the workers’ movement, the situation may get out of control and become detrimental [to its rule]. What worries the party the most is workers groups being organized,” said Li, who is currently based in New York.

Caught in the government’s crackdown, labor rights activists in China face an even more unclear and risker fate if they continue their activism, Li said. 

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In 1988 – sensing a need –  religious leaders began delivering meals to people with HIV and AIDS who couldn’t leave their homes. From that simple idea, the non-profit Food and Friends has grown into a Washington, D.C., institution, bringing thousands of meals a day to the sick and those in need. VOA’s Unshin Lee reports.

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The acting U.S. Homeland Security chief on Sunday defended raids last week on food processing plants in Mississippi searching for hundreds of undocumented migrants, but acknowledged “the timing was unfortunate,” just days after a gunman targeted and killed 22 Hispanics in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.

Kevin McAleenan told NBC’s Meet the Press that of the 680 migrants detained in the raids on operations at five companies, 200 had criminal records and will be subject to deportation to their native countries.

Television footage showed children weeping when they realized parents had been detained in the raids and would not be picking them up as their school day ended last Wednesday. But McAleenan said the raids were “done with sensitivity” and child care issues taken into consideration.

He said 32 of the migrants arrested were released within an hour of their detention and 270 within a day, often times because of child care concerns.

A policy at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, part of Homeland Security, calls for prosecution of companies that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants before arresting their migrant workers. But McAleenan deflected a question of why the workers, not the companies, were charged.

He said that “of course” the companies had committed a crime in hiring the workers.

“This case will be pursued,” he said.

Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris told NBC, “I don’t know why they did what they did. Employers have to be responsible.” She accused the administration of President Donald Trump of a “campaign of terror” against immigrants, “making people afraid to go to work, to go to school.”

McAleenan said the raids had been planned for a year and complement stricter immigration enforcement at the southern U.S. border with Mexico to thwart migrants, mostly Central Americans, from entering the U.S. to seek asylum.

“We have to have internal enforcement” against undocumented migrants who are working in the U.S. without official authorization, he said. But the raids, he said, could have been postponed after the massacre at a Walmart store in the U.S.-Mexican border city of El Paso, allegedly carried out by a white nationalist who police said targeted “Mexicans.”

Trump has made tough immigration enforcement a hallmark of his White House tenure as he heads to his 2020 re-election campaign. He has called the surge of migrants reaching the border “an invasion.”

On Friday, he said, “If people come into our country illegally, they’re going out.”  

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The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has protested Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest visit to Ukraine’s Crimea region, calling a it a “gross violation” of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“Attempts by the Russian side and the mass media to describe such ‘visits’ as ‘ordinary’ domestic trips by Russian officials are futile,” the ministry said in a statement on August 11, adding that Crimea was an “integral part” of Ukraine.

On August 10, Putin was shown on state television in a leather jacket at a biker show organized by the Night Wolves motorcycle club in Sevastopol, a city in the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow seized in 2014.

The Night Wolves club is known for its allegiance to the Kremlin.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed from power by the pro-European Maidan protest movement the previous month.

Moscow has also fomented unrest and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, where more than 13,000 people have been killed in the ensuing conflict since April 2014.

Putin’s visit to Sevastopol took place as tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered in Moscow to demand fair municipal elections. More than 250 people were detained by police.

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The apparent suicide while in federal custody of well-connected U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein is being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.

Epstein, who had friendships with U.S. President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was facing the possibility of 45 years in prison if convicted on charges of orchestrating a sex trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

Media reports said Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after a suspected earlier attempt to kill himself, but was removed from the watch at the end of July.   The New York Times reported that Epstein was supposed to have been checked on every 30 minutes, but that procedure was not being followed the night before he was found dead.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement he was “appalled” by Epstein’s death while in federal custody. “Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered,” Barr said.

Epstein was being held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.  

Epstein to plead guilty in 2008 to Florida state prostitution charges, for which he served a 13-month term and most days was freed to work at his office in south Florida. He also was required to register as a sex offender and pay restitution to the underage girls he abused.

President Trump’s former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who had been the federal prosecutor handling the Epstein case in Florida at the time of that plea deal, has resigned over his handling of the matter.

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Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, says it has asked Google to take measures to prevent the advertising of “illegal mass events” on its video-hosting site, YouTube.

Roskomnadzor said on Sunday that it had sent a letter to Google saying that Russia would consider it interference in its sovereign affairs and a hostile influence should the U.S.-based tech giant fail to respond to the request.

The announcement comes a day after tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered outside Moscow’s center for a sanctioned rally demanding fair municipal elections.

Hundreds of people later gathered in more central parts of the city, prompting police to detain more than 250 people, according to the independent watchdog OVD-Info.

OVD-Info said 79 people were also detained in St. Petersburg, 13 in Rostov-on-Don, two in Bryansk, and two more in Syktyvkar as “solidarity” rallies attracted smaller crowds there and in other cities.

Earlier on Sunday, Andrei Klimov, head of the Committee for the Defense of State Sovereignty in Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, said that “foreign opponents took advantage of information and computer technologies in order to manipulate Russian citizens who attended” the unauthorized Moscow protests, TASS news agency reported.

In July, Roskomnadzor fined Google 700,000 rubles ($11,000) for failing to censor content blacklisted by the agency in accordance with strict Russian Internet laws.

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EL PASO, TEXAS — More than 100 people marched through the Texas border city of El Paso on Saturday, denouncing racism and calling for stronger gun laws one week after 22 people were killed in a mass shooting that authorities say was carried out by a man targeting Mexicans.  
 
Chanting “Gun reform now,” ” El Paso strong” and “Aqui estamos y no nos vamos” — Spanish for “Here we are and we are not leaving” — the marchers included Hispanic, white and black people dressed in white to symbolize peace and carrying 22 white wooden crosses to represent the victims of the shooting at an El Paso Walmart. 
 
The man charged in with capital murder in the attack, Patrick Crusius, 21, told investigators he targeted Mexicans at the store with an AK-47 rifle, an El Paso detective said in an arrest affidavit. Federal prosecutors have said they’re weighing hate-crime charges. 
 
Jessica Coca Garcia, who was among those wounded in the shooting, spoke to those gathered at the League of United Latin American Citizens’ “March for a United America.” 
 
“Racism is something I always wanted to think didn’t exist. Obviously, it does,” Coca Garcia said after rising from a wheelchair. Bandages covered gunshot wounds to her leg. 
 
“I love you, El Paso,” she said, her voice cracking. “This is where I’m going to stay.”  
 
Former U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke, who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also attended and spoke to the crowd.  
 
O’Rourke, who is from El Paso, has blamed President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for spreading fear and hate, leading Trump to tweet that O’Rourke should “be quiet.” 

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Written by Eugen Tomiuc with reporting by RFE/RL’s Romanian Service, Hotnews.ro, G4media.ro, and Digi24.ro. 

Romanians rallied in Bucharest and other cities across the country Saturday to mark the first anniversary of a massive anti-corruption protest that the government violently quelled. 

The demonstrations came amid public outrage over the authorities’ response to the kidnapping and killing last month of a 15-year-old girl, a case that revealed deep flaws in the police system of the European Union and NATO member state. 
 
About 20,000 people turned up for a rally outside government headquarters in central Bucharest, filling much of Victoria Square into the evening, according to G4media.ro. 
 
Protests had also been urged over social media for Brasov, Cluj, Constanta, Iasi and other large cities, under slogans such as, “We don’t forget what you did last summer,” “We’re watching you” and “Reset Romania.”  

2018 crackdown 
 
Last year, about 100,000 Romanians, many of them expatriates, gathered on Aug. 10 in front of the same government building to protest the leftist government’s moves to reverse anti-graft reforms and weaken the judiciary in one of the EU’s most corrupt countries. 
 
Riot police then used water cannons and tear gas in a display of violence unseen since the early 1990s. 
 
Television footage of protesters and bystanders with hands up being chased and beaten with batons sparked fury across the country and prompted condemnation from the EU and the United States. More than 450 people needed medical assistance and one person reportedly died after the crackdown. 
 
Some observers cited the Aug. 10, 2018, violence, as well as the “failure of so-called judicial reforms,” as the reason for the Social Democratic Party (PSD)-led coalition’s losses in European Parliament elections May 26. 
 
A day after the August 2018 crackdown, PSD leader and lower-house speaker Liviu Dragnea was imprisoned following the rejection of his appeal of a conviction in an abuse-of-office case. 

Teen’s death
 
However, public anger has recently grown over what many see as an increasingly corrupt and dysfunctional public administration after the gruesome slaying of a 15-year-old girl from Caracal, in southern Romania, whose calls for help were mishandled by police in July. 
 
Alexandra Macesanu phoned the European emergency number three times to say she had been kidnapped, beaten and raped. It took the authorities 19 hours to locate and enter the premises where she had been taken, as they initially made light of her calls and then struggled to trace them. 
 
Authorities later found burned bone fragments on site, which they identified with DNA tests earlier this month as being Macesanu’s. A 65-year-old car mechanic has confessed to killing Alexandra and Luiza Melencu, 18, in April 2019. 
 
The authorities’ handling of the case has triggered street protests across the country and stark condemnation from opposition-backed center-right President Klaus Iohannis. 
 
Iohannis, who is up for re-election in November, said the PSD-led coalition was “the moral author of the tragedy” because of its measures against the judiciary. 
 
The interior minister resigned, while the chief of Romanian police, the education minister and several other officials were fired. 

Allegations of crime, trafficking
 
However, media allegations of organized crime and human-trafficking networks’ ties to senior politicians and local police continue to surface, adding to what many Romanians already see as growing social insecurity. 
 
According to U.N. estimates, at least 3.4 million people have left Romania since 2007, when it joined the EU — a number second only to the refugee total from war-torn Syria. The World Bank said roughly 3 million to 5 million Romanians are working and living abroad, in jobs ranging from day laborers to doctors. 
 
Furthermore, the latest Romanian statistics show that almost 220,000 people emigrated in 2017 after the PSD-led coalition took over in December 2016 and initiated a series of measures to weaken the judiciary and the rule of law. 
 
Many Romanian expatriates had planned to attend Saturday’s protests. 
 
“We were defeated last year,” a woman from the northeastern city of Iasi told reporters on her way to Bucharest. ‘We failed to push for change after August 10. We did not continue the fight to reform the system. As a result of our complacency, two girls are now dead.” 

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JERUSALEM – The Israeli army said its troops fatally shot four heavily armed Palestinians on the Gaza border early Saturday, alleging one of them had crossed and thrown a grenade at soldiers. 
 
Separately, security forces said they had arrested two Palestinians suspected of killing an off-duty Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank earlier this week. 
 
There have been frequent clashes along the Gaza border since the Palestinians began organizing regular mass protests there in March 2018. But Saturday’s exchange was unusual because of the weaponry the Israeli army said was involved on the Palestinian side. 
 
“The terrorists were equipped with AK-47 assault rifles, RPG grenade launchers and hand grenades,” an army statement said.  
 
A spokeswoman said the army “opened fire after one of the terrorists scaled the barrier and hurled a grenade at the soldiers.” 
 
No Israeli casualties were reported. 

‘Uniforms’
 
Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said the four Palestinians were all wearing “uniforms” — without elaborating — and were equipped with food and a medical kit as well as the rifles. 
 
A Hamas statement condemned Israel’s killing of the four Palestinians as a “crime.” 
 
But the Islamist rulers of the Palestinian enclave made no claim of responsibility and did not say whether the four were members of its armed wing. 
 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his government’s stance that Hamas is responsible for all attacks emanating from Gaza. 
 
“Israel will continue to act to thwart infiltrations of its territory and attacks on our citizens,” he said in a statement. 

Blockade spurs protests
 
Palestinian demonstrations at the border demanding the lifting of Israel’s blockade, in effect for more than a decade, have often led to violence and a deadly response from the Israeli army. 
 
At least 301 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza or the border area since March 2018, the majority during the demonstrations. 
 
Seven Israelis have also been killed. 
 
The protests have declined in intensity in recent months following a truce brokered by the United Nations and Egypt, under which Israel agreed to ease aspects of its blockade in return for calm. 
 
Sporadic violence has continued but the Israeli army has said most of it consisted of lone-wolf attacks. 
 
Netanyahu is widely seen as wanting to avoid a major flare-up in the Palestinian territories as Israel prepares for a snap general election on Sept. 17, its second election this year. 
 
But he is likely to face political pressure to act firmly against any significant attack. 
 
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008. 
 
On Aug. 1, a Palestinian seeking to avenge his brother’s death by Israeli fire entered Israel from Gaza armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and hand grenades. He was killed and three Israeli soldiers wounded, the army said. 

Soldier slain
 
The latest killings on the Gaza border came days after off-duty soldier Dvir Sorek was found dead “with stabbing marks” near the West Bank settlement of Migdal Oz. 
 
Israel’s domestic intelligence agency said Saturday that two Palestinians suspected of killing him had been arrested.  
 
“After an intensive intelligence operation by security services, the Israeli police and army arrested suspects” in his slaying, Shin Bet said in a statement. 
 
The killing of the 19-year-old, between Bethlehem and the flashpoint city of Hebron, further hiked Israeli-Palestinian tensions ahead of the elections. 
 
The Israeli army said separately that 100 “rioters” had attacked security forces with rocks as they apprehended “the terrorist squad” suspected of killing him. 
 
Netanyahu commended the swift arrests. “In recent years our forces have laid hands on all of the Palestinian murderers who have attacked Israelis, and today they have done so again,” he said. 

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Some material for this report came from RFE/RL. 

Republican and Democratic lawmakers joined forces to oppose moves by the White House that critics fear could lead to sharp cuts in foreign aid for international health, narcotics and peacekeeping initiatives, and development assistance. 
 
Members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees sent a letter Friday to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) expressing “deep concern” after it had instructed the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to freeze about $4 billion in their budgets until it reviewed any money that hadn’t yet been spent. 
 
Critics have said the freeze could be the first step in making cuts to foreign aid.  The lawmakers sent the letter to the OMB seeking to head off such a move and threatening a response if the administration moved ahead with cuts. They also pointed out that, under the Constitution, it is Congress that appropriates money, which they said was “essential” to U.S. global leadership and security. 
 
“Slashing crucial diplomacy and development programming would be detrimental to our national security while also undermining Congress’ intended use for these funds,” said the letter, signed by Sens. James Risch, R-Idaho, and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas. 

‘Direct affront’
 
In the letter, the lawmakers wrote, “It would be inappropriate for any administration, under any circumstance, to attempt to override Congress’ most fundamental power. Such action would be precedent-setting and a direct affront to the separation of powers principle upon which our nation was built.” 
 

The freeze affects 10 bank accounts overseen by USAID and the State Department, a senior administration official told RFE/RL. 
 
The OMB made the request to USAID and State Department on Aug. 3 and has yet to receive information about how much is in those accounts and how they plan to use the money. 
 
The funds under scrutiny cover fiscal 2018 and 2019 and would otherwise expire if not spent by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. 
 
Last weekend’s order came at the beginning of an extended congressional recess that ends Sept. 9, a time when lawmakers would have more difficulty blocking such a move. 
 
Funding for a Pakistan space initiative and Uzbek education program are two of the projects funded by the 10 accounts under review. 
 
The chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee urged the heads of the OMB to make money available right away. 
 
Republican dissent

Republicans in both houses of Congress have typically been extremely supportive of President Donald Trump’s policies, although many have spoken up against moves related to foreign affairs, including his close ties to Saudi Arabia, plans to withdraw troops from Syria and a reduction in aid to Central America. 
 
The Trump administration has made repeated efforts to reduce the amount of money Washington spends on foreign aid. 
 
In April, the administration unsuccessfully tried to cut the budget on foreign aid and diplomacy by 23 percent. 
 
At the time, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally, called the proposal “insane.” 
 

Last week, Engel said, “This administration’s contempt for Congress is astounding. … When Congress decides how much we can spend on foreign assistance, it isn’t a suggestion. It’s the law, backed up by the Constitution.” 
 
The Democrat added that the Republican administration’s order “would devastate our ability to project American values and leadership around the globe.” 
 
‘Reckless and irresponsible’

InterAction, a global alliance of nongovernmental organizations that serves “the world’s poor and vulnerable,” also denounced the order. 
 
“It is both disappointing and saddening that President Trump consistently undermines the decisions that our elected representatives in Congress have made to support foreign assistance,” said CEO Sam Worthington. “Data tells us that the small fraction of America’s budget that goes to foreign aid yields big results. The White House’s repeated political ploys to halt aid threaten the effectiveness of U.S. assistance and put America’s global leadership at risk.” 
 
Liz Schrayer, CEO of the nonprofit U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, called the administration’s order “a reckless and irresponsible move” and added, “OMB appears set on taking a sledgehammer to one of the most minuscule parts of the entire federal budget that would significantly damage America’s security and economic interests — and thwart congressional authority.” 
 
OMB spokeswoman Rachel Semmel said federal agencies have a responsibility to appropriately spend the congressionally approved funds.  
 
“In an effort to ensure accountability, OMB has requested the current status of several foreign assistance accounts to identify the amount of funding that is unobligated.”

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HONOLULU — Hawaii experts say two native bird populations have declined by more than half and could face extinction if nothing is done to save them, a report said. 
 
The Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project said 312 Maui parrotbills and 2,411 crested honeycreepers remain in the wild, Hawaii News Now reported Friday. 
 
Those are down more than 50% from previous population estimates of the two Hawaiian honeycreeper species, according to a new interagency monitoring report from the U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife, and other wildlife agencies.  
 
“Without intervention, these changes are projected to cause population decline and additional extinction of the remaining Hawaiian forest birds,” recovery project expert Hannah Mounce said. 
 
Studies over the past several decades found there are multiple threats to these two endangered bird species, including disease and habitat degradation, wildlife officials said. 
 
There are plans to reintroduce the parrotbills, also referred to as kiwikiu, to the Nakula Natural Area Reserve in the south and west regions of Maui in order to boost the endangered species’ numbers, experts said. 
 
In preparation for the reintroduction, more than 200,000 native plants were planted in the Nakula Forest Reserve and Kahikinui Forest Reserve since 2013 covering thousands of acres. 
 
“It is urgent that we move forward with the recovery efforts for these species. If we wait for much longer, we will not have these species left to save,” Mounce said. 
 
Wildlife officials did not mention plans for the crested honeycreepers, also known as akohekohe. 

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