After meeting for three hours Wednesday at South Sudan’s State House, President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar pledged to resolve all outstanding issues holding up the formation of a unity government in November.  

The two leaders were all smiles as they shook hands and posed in front of flashing cameras outside the State House, but neither man announced any new agreements.

Left unresolved from last year’s peace deal are the number of states and their boundaries along with details over security arrangements involving opposition and government forces.

Still, President Kiir put a positive spin on things.

“Talks between us are going on well. And we will reach a deal soon, so let’s rest assured that things are going on well,” Kiir told reporters in Juba.

For his part, Machar noted that even though he is to become First Vice President once again under the terms of last year’s peace deal, he is still not a free man.

“Juba is home and I have come back to Juba even if I go away for some time. The next coming, maybe [East African regional bloc] IGAD will determine my status to be free to come and discuss more with you here. But our discussion here, we have made important progress,” said Machar.

The SPLM-in Opposition party says Machar is effectively under house arrest in his current home city, Khartoum, and IGAD said his movement was restricted when he lived in exile in South Africa.

SPLM-IO Deputy Chairman Henry Odwar said Wednesday’s talks focused on amending certain laws to come into compliance with the revitalized peace deal.

“We touched on issues of constitutional amendment, the draft that is going to be presented to the parliament and we also discussed the few security laws. We also talked about the issue of non-signatory parties,” said Odwar.

The peace deal mandates that the transitional constitution and laws that govern the national security agencies, the army and the national police service be amended by parliament ahead of the formation of a unity government.

But the country’s lawmakers are on a two-month recess that began two weeks ago. Last month, civil society activists warned that failure to amend the laws before November would affect the formation of a unity government.

Odwar said the two leaders discussed the number of states but only agreed to form another committee.

“The two principals have agreed that yes, we will have a committee and this committee will look into the IBC (Independent Boundaries Commission) report and if we reach a consensus, that will be great. If we don’t reach a consensus, then the principals will have to come together again and come up with a final statement on the number of states and boundaries,” Odwar told reporters.

Despite reaching no agreement on the unresolved issues, Information Minister Michael Makuei says Kiir and Machar are both confident a unity government will come together on time.

“When I say on time, it means on the 12th of November,” said Makuei.

It is not clear if Kiir and Machar will hold more face-to-face talks this week in Juba before Machar departs for Khartoum.
 

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From: MeNeedIt

British scientists say they have found water for the first time in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system.

Researchers at University College London said Wednesday they found water vapor in a planet’s air 110 light years from Earth that has temperatures suitable for life as we know it.

More than 4,000 exoplanets have been detected, but scientists say it is the only known exoplanet that has water, temperatures needed for life and a rocky surface.

It is not known if the planet, twice the size of Earth, eight times its mass, has water flowing on its surface.

But scientists say the so-called Super Earth is an ideal distance from its sun to conceivably harbor life.

The planet, known as K2-18b, was discovered in 2015 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

“Finding water in a potentially habitable world other than Earth is incredibly exciting,” said Angelos Tsiaras, lead author of the UCL report that was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “K2-18b is not ‘Earth 2.0’ but it brings us closer to answering the fundamental question: Is the Earth unique?”

Scientists expect future space missions to detect hundreds of other exoplanets in coming decades.

A new generation of space exploration instruments will be able to describe exoplanet atmospheres in much greater detail.

The European Space Agency’s ARIEL space telescope, for example, is scheduled for launch in 2028 and will observe some 1,000 planets, a sampling large enough to identify patterns and outliers.

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From: MeNeedIt

Beto O’Rourke was back at Keene State College, but the large crowd that flocked to see him six months ago was not.

Far removed from the whirlwind opening days of his presidential campaign, the former Texas congressman faced a far smaller, quieter gathering. An attempted “Beto! Beto!” chant fizzled and when an elderly voter declared that O’Rourke was “so clear and consistent on what the world needs,” the candidate responded, “Could you travel with us to every campaign stop and say what you just said?”

That joke was prophetic since O’Rourke has already undertaken two major campaign reboots since first coming to Keene State in March — and his latest is built on a national approach to running for president that makes a third visit to the New Hampshire campus seem unlikely. Looking to recapture the early enthusiasm surrounding his candidacy, O’Rourke is pursuing the go-anywhere, freewheeling style that made him a Democratic star last year while nearly upsetting Sen. Ted Cruz.

After a mass shooting last month in his hometown of El Paso, O’Rourke has again remade his White House bid, this time around decrying what he calls President Donald Trump’s racism and sympathy for white supremacy, as well as combating gun violence. He’s still visiting Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which kick off the presidential contest. But he’s also turned up at places like an Arkansas gun show, where he debated banning assault weapons with self-described conservatives.

O’Rourke became the first presidential candidate to visit Mississippi communities where immigration raids led to the arrest of nearly 700 people and traveled to “Black Wall Street,” site of Oklahoma’s 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. He also hit Charlottesville, Virginia, to blame Trump for the deadly 2017 racial clash there, which former Vice President Joe Biden highlights as a key reason for his own presidential run.

After the El Paso shooting, which saw the suspected gunman drive 600-plus miles to a Walmart near the U.S.-Mexico border and kill 22 people after posting an online screed that echoed some of the president’s anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, O’Rourke suspended his campaign to attend vigils and visit hospitalized victims. He returned to the race vowing to forgo the Ferris wheels and corndogs of places like the Iowa State Fair because “the kind of challenges that we face in this country at this moment of crisis require an urgency.”

That’s since meant nontraditional stops, like visiting Virginia’s deep red Bland County, where about 82% of voters backed Trump in 2016, and hopping a low-cost “BoltBus” for a five-hour trip from New York to Boston.

“I kind of feel like I’m talking at a church or library because there are other passengers here,” O’Rourke said on a Facebook livestream during the journey. “They are reading or taking a nap or doing their own thing, so I want to be respectful.”

O’Rourke’s also begun swearing in public again, even using the f-word live on CNN. That’s something he did frequently while running for Senate last year in Texas but had sworn off during his fourth day of presidential campaigning when a man at a Wisconsin coffee shop complained he wasn’t setting a good example for the nation’s children.

O’Rourke entered the presidential race with promising polling and strong fundraising, reflected by his packed first visit to Keene State. But that early buzz has faded following underwhelming debate performances and as rivals like 37-year-old Pete Buttigieg supplanted him as the Democratic Party’s fresh face. O’Rourke raised only $3.6 million last quarter, down from the $9.3 million he brought in during his campaign’s opening 18 days alone.

Before the El Paso shooting, O’Rourke had concentrated on Iowa with frequent visits and months of building out staff there. But that increased campaign costs and ensured he began spending more money than he was taking in. The new national campaign approach may be helping with that. O’Rourke’s advisers noted that online fundraising in the two weeks leading up to Thursday’s debate in Houston was the highest since he entered the race in March.

The latest overhaul follows a first relaunch in May, when O’Rourke began concentrating more on television appearances, after largely shunning them in favor of rallies where he could see voters “eyeball-to-eyeball.” He also unveiled a series of proposals on combating climate change, protecting LGBT rights and other issues in an effort to boost his policy gravitas.

Still, none of his efforts have translated into better polling. After an initial bump, O’Rourke continues to badly trail the 2020 Democratic presidential primary’s established front-runners: Biden, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

The potential pitfall of the focusing on Trump and guns, meanwhile, is that O’Rourke has a lot of company: All the Democrats seeking the White House slam Trump as racist and support gun control. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker called for a mandatory assault weapon buyback before O’Rourke began making it a centerpiece of his campaign.

And candidates prioritizing states other than Iowa and New Hampshire often don’t survive long.

In 2008, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani entered the Republican primary leading in some national polls. He largely skipped campaigning in the early states in favor of spending weeks in delegate rich Florida, where he finished third and dropped out the following day.

More recently, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand took a break from her frequent trips to Iowa and New Hampshire to begin a bus tour of the swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, which she vowed to take back from Trump over the long haul — only to abandon her 2020 presidential bid barely six weeks later.

“I think it’s very difficult to try to break the mold,” said Democratic strategist Zac Petkanas. “You win the nomination by winning delegates, and you win delegates by winning states, and you win more states by winning early states.”

O’Rourke’s advisers insist he’s not shortchanging early states, holding more events in them than most candidates because he packs so many stops into each campaigning day. They also note that “Super Tuesday” falls on March 3, just three days after South Carolina’s primary, and features voting in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Virginia, Massachusetts and O’Rourke’s native Texas — meaning their candidate’s nontraditional travel could yet payoff.

“There are many paths to the nomination, and none of them include leaving voters out of the conversation,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, O’Rourke’s campaign manager. “That commitment is something every voter — whether they’re in Iowa, New Hampshire, or Oklahoma — can appreciate.”

Some Iowans are used to seeing presidential hopefuls almost laughably frequently. But former 2016 presidential candidate and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who campaigned for O’Rourke in Iowa over Labor Day weekend, while the candidate returned to El Paso for a concert to benefit shooting victims, said seasoned activists know to look for candidates who have presidential wherewithal — something O’Rourke displayed in the face of tragedy.

“I didn’t hear anybody say he’s needs to be here more,” said O’Malley, who said he instead met a couple in Davenport, Iowa, who saw O’Rourke after the El Paso shooting and “noticed a depth of purpose and passion that they had not heard in other appearances when they had seen him.”

…

From: MeNeedIt

President repeats false claim that he spent time at ground zero alongside first responders

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From: MeNeedIt

Families of the passengers who died in one of the Boeing 737 Max crashes lobbied Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Tuesday to slow what they consider a rush to let the plane fly again.

Two of the relatives who took part in the two-hour meeting in Washington said Chao promised that the government will take as long as necessary to ensure that the plane is safe but stopped short of agreeing to an entirely new, top-to-bottom review.

A spokesman for Chao said the department and the Federal Aviation Administration have taken unprecedented steps to understand the accidents and the FAA’s certification of the plane in 2017. One of those steps, he said, included Chao’s appointment of a special committee to review the FAA’s process of certifying planes.

After the meeting, several dozen relatives held a vigil on the steps of the Transportation Department headquarters to mark the six-month anniversary of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302.

They carried pictures of many of the 157 people who died. Another 189 died in the October 2018 crash of a Max jet operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air.

Boeing delivers 18 planes

Separately, Boeing disclosed Tuesday that it delivered just 18 airliners in August, putting the company on pace for its worst showing since 2013. With Max deliveries halted since March, Boeing gave customers 276 planes through August, down from 481 in the same period last year.

Chicago-based Boeing has said it expects FAA approval for the Max to fly again early in the fourth quarter. U.S. airlines don’t expect to use the plane until at least December, and the wait could be longer in other countries because of signs that international regulators will take a slower approach than FAA.

Families call for new review

A group of 11 family members asked Chao to direct the FAA to conduct a completely new review of the Max instead of mainly examining changes Boeing made to flight-control software called MCAS, which was implicated in both crashes. FAA is part of her department.

Chao did not commit to full re-certification but said the FAA will wait for recommendations from a technical review board before it lets the plane fly, according to a department spokesman. The department is also being advised by a review panel that includes international regulators and by the special committee that Chao appointed, but the FAA won’t wait for those reports before deciding whether to approve the Max for flight, the spokesman said.

Michael Stumo, whose daughter Samya died in the Ethiopian crash, said those panels and foreign regulators “can go far beyond just reviewing MCAS. Time will tell, but we were encouraged by the meeting.”

European officials have said they will insist on test flights during extreme maneuvers — both with Boeing’s new software and with MCAS turned off — to judge the stability of the plane.

The families also want pilots to train on flight simulators before airlines can resume using the plane. Boeing, which wants to avoid further delays, believes that computer training is adequate for now, with simulator sessions later.

People in the meeting said Chao pointed to the small number of Max simulators, making immediate simulator training less feasible.

Families describe anguish

For about half the meeting, Chao and several deputies listened to family members describe the passengers who died in the Ethiopian crash.

“It was very emotional,” said Paul Njoroge, whose wife, three young children and mother-in-law died in the crash. The family members described their losses “and how their life has been ever since the crash,” he said.

The relatives are planning their next steps.

“We are not going to away until the correct processes are being followed in ungrounding the plane, if it’s ever ungrounded,” Njoroge said.
 

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From: MeNeedIt

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard is set to meet Tuesday with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and other officials to discuss Mexico’s efforts to reduce the number of migrants arriving at the U.S. southern border.

The talks come a day after U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the number of migrants intercepted at the U.S.-Mexico border fell 22% in August, and said the drop was due to greater cooperation from Mexico.

CBP acting Commissioner Mark Morgan said the number of migrants taken into custody or turned back at the U.S.-Mexico border numbered 64,000 in August. He said that was a 22% drop from July and a 56% fall from a peak in May.

Despite the drop in crossings, arrest figures in August were still the highest for the month in more than a decade and 17,000 higher than the same period last year.

Morgan told reporters at the White House that Mexico has “stepped up unprecedented ways” and have been “a real partner” with the United States since a June enforcement agreement between the two countries.

However, he said “we know the numbers could spike upwards,” and said “we need Mexico to do more.” Morgan expressed concern about Mexico “sustaining the level of commitment they have.”

Morgan also urged the U.S. Congress to pass an overhaul of immigration laws, saying that is the only long-term solution to the issue. “As a country, we can’t rely upon other countries” to deal with the crisis on our southern border, he said.

When asked if the United States was seeking a so-called “safe third country” agreement with Mexico, Morgan said “we are reaching across the aisle … to come up with a cooperative agreement.” A safe third country agreement between the U.S. and Mexico would mean that refugees from Central American countries would be required to seek protection in Mexico instead of the United States.

However, Ebrard said Monday on Twitter that “Mexico is not and will not accept” a safe third country designation.

After border arrests spiked in May at more than 144,000, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs against Mexico unless its government did more to stop the flow of migrants. Mexico pledged to cooperate and deployed thousands of national guard troops to the border to stop Central American migrants heading north.

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From: MeNeedIt

President Donald Trump dismissed three Republican challengers to his 2020 re-election as “the Three Stooges” on Monday and expressed doubt about ever agreeing to meet them on a debate stage.

“They’re a joke. They’re a laughing stock,” Trump told reporters when asked whether he would agree to debate them during the 2020 nominating contest.

Three Republicans – former U.S. Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld and former U.S. Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois – are mounting long-shot campaigns to deny Trump the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.

They face a formidable re-election effort mounted by Trump, who has consolidated his grip on the party’s national and state machinery. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Aug. 19 and 20 showed 87% of Republicans approved of his performance in office.

Sanford, who announced his candidacy on Sunday, said he did not believe Trump’s popularity would last.

“I sincerely believe Trump is misguided on a whole host of issues. He’s out of sync with voters in South Carolina. I think he has lost touch with the very voters that sent him to office,” he told MSNBC on Monday.

Walsh has called Trump a bully and a coward who is unfit for office. Weld says another Trump term would be bad for America.

Before he left the White House for a rally in North Carolina, Trump also said he planned at some point to put out an “extremely complete” statement on his finances. Trump has refused for years to release his tax returns despite a long history of presidential candidates detailing their finances.

He said the financial statement would make clear he did not need whatever revenue was produced when U.S. military personnel stayed at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland while on refueling stops.

“I’m going to give out my financial condition, and you’ll be extremely shocked that the numbers are many, many times what you think. I don’t need to have somebody take a room overnight at a hotel,” he said.

Trump Promises Report on His Finances Before Election

President promising to release new financial report of his personal holdings to the public before 2020 election, though he was vague on just what he would disclose that is new

In a tweet earlier, Trump recalled Sanford’s disappearance in 2009 when, while governor of South Carolina, he met his Argentine mistress under the cover story of having gone hiking on the Appalachian Trail, only to be found out later.

“The Three Stooges, all badly failed candidates, will give it a go!” the president said, leaning on his penchant for bestowing derisive nicknames on his opponents. The Three Stooges were a vaudeville and slapstick comedy team whose antics regularly appeared on television.

Trump also denied having anything to do with the cancellation of Republican nominating primaries in four states, meaning he will face no opposition there. Canceling their primaries were Nevada and South Carolina, which are critical early voting states, as well as Kansas and Arizona.

“The four states that canceled it don’t want to waste their money. If there was a race, they would certainly want to do that,” Trump said.

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From: MeNeedIt

Hundreds of Guatemalan soldiers were deployed on Monday to an area near the border with Honduras and Mexico, home to long-standing social conflicts, in a bid to improve security after three soldiers were gunned down by suspected drug runners.

Defense Minister Luis Miguel Ralda told reporters that 2,000 soldiers had been sent as part of the mission following a declaration of emergency powers granted by the Congress two days ago.

“We expect them to bring calm, security and peace to the people of this region,” he said, acknowledging that the area was marked by lawlessness due to extortion and other drug-related crime.

The area has played host over decades to a range of conflicts among locals and land owners, miners and palm oil plantations, including indigenous communities.

Guatemala’s army said last week a group of suspected drug traffickers ambushed a patrol of nine soldiers in Izabal province who were sent to detain an aircraft allegedly transporting drugs. Three of the soldiers were killed.

While some community members dispute parts of the army’s account, officials say they identified nearly 50 illegal runways that they say are used to transport drugs.

The attack on the soldiers, one of the worst incidents of violence perpetrated against the army in years, prompted lawmakers to authorize a 30-day emergency decree on Saturday that imposes a night-time curfew in the northeastern provinces of Alta Verapaz, El Progreso, Izabal, Peten, Zacapa and Baja Verapaz.

The six provinces make up a drug-trafficking corridor that runs from Honduras to Mexican border.

The decree also gives the military new powers to arrest and interrogate suspects and prohibits organized protests in the targeted areas.

Soldiers could be seen in the lush Izabal countryside on Monday stopping and inspecting passing vehicles and setting up new bases.

A school in the town of Semuy II, where the soldiers were attacked, was empty on Monday because classes have been suspended indefinitely.

Guatemala, like neighbors El Salvador and Honduras, is a hub for the trafficking of drugs from South America to the United States.

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From: MeNeedIt

Coast Guard rescuers pulled four trapped men alive from a capsized cargo ship Monday, drilling into the hull’s steel plates to extract the crew members more than a day after their vessel overturned while leaving a Georgia port.

All four were described as alert and in relatively good condition and were taken to a hospital for further evaluation.

“Best day of my 16-year career,” Lt. Lloyd Heflin, who was coordinating the effort, wrote in a text message to The Associated Press.

A video posted online by the Coast Guard showed responders clapping and cheering as the final man, wearing only shorts, climbed out of a hole in the hull and stood up.

Three of the South Korean crew members came out in the mid-afternoon. The fourth man, who was trapped in a separate compartment, emerged three hours later.

The rescues followed nearly 36 hours of work after the Golden Ray, a giant ship that carries automobiles, rolled onto its side early Sunday as it was leaving Brunswick, bound for Baltimore.

“All crew members are accounted for,” Coast Guard Southeast wrote on Twitter. “Operations will now shift fully to environmental protection, removing the vessel and resuming commerce.”

In the hours immediately after the accident, the Coast Guard lifted 20 crew members into helicopters before determining that smoke and flames and unstable cargo made it too risky to venture further inside the vessel. Officials were concerned that some of the 4,000 vehicles aboard may have broken loose.

That left responders looking for the remaining four crew members. At first, rescuers thought the noises they were hearing inside could be some of the vehicles crashing around. But by dawn Monday, they were confident that the taps were responses to their own taps, indicating someone was alive inside.

“It was outstanding when I heard the news this morning that we had taps back throughout the night,” Capt. John Reed said. Those sounds helped lead rescuers to the right place on the 656-foot (200 meter) vessel and provided motivation.

“They were charged up knowing the people were alive,” Reed said.

On Monday morning, rescuers landed on the side of the Golden Ray and rappelled down the hull. Heflin, who was coordinating the search, said they found three men in a room close to the propeller shaft, near the bottom of the stern. Responders began drilling, starting with a 3-inch (7.5-centimeter) hole. Coast Guard officials brought the ship’s chief engineer, who was rescued Sunday, out to the ship to translate, and found the three men were “on board and OK,” as Heflin put it.

Reed said rescuers passed food and water through the hole to the men. They also provided fresh air to the propeller room, which Reed said was even hotter than outside, where the high was 93 degrees (34 Celsius).

Responders set up a tent on the hull and began drilling additional holes, eventually making an opening large enough to insert a ladder and help the men climb out.

“It was like connect the dots,” Reed said of the hole, which grew to 2 feet by 3 feet (0.6 meters by 1 meter).

The fourth rescue was a greater challenge. That crewman was behind glass in a separate engineering compartment on another deck, Reed said.

The Golden Ray is now stuck in the shipping channel, closing one of the busiest U.S. seaports for shipping automobiles. One ship is unable to leave port and four more are lined up outside waiting to come in, according to ship-tracking website Marine Traffic.

A statement issued Monday by the South Korea foreign ministry said the crew members were isolated in an engine room. It said 10 South Koreans and 13 Filipinos had been on board, along with a U.S. harbor pilot, when the ship began tilting.

Position records for the Golden Ray show the ship arrived in port in Brunswick Saturday evening after making the short sail from a prior stop in Jacksonville, Florida. The ship then departed the dock in Brunswick shortly after midnight and was underway only 23 minutes before its movement stopped in the mouth of the harbor where it capsized, according to satellite data recorded by Marine Traffic.

Port officials were “working closely with the Coast Guard to reopen the channel,” Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch said in a statement after the final man was rescued.

The cause of the capsizing remains under investigation. Marine Traffic shows the Golden Ray overturned as it was passed by another car carrier entering St. Simons Sound.

At the time, the skies were clear and the weather calm, with a southerly breeze of only 5 miles per hour, according to National Weather Service records.

Many of those rescued were taken to the International Seafarers’ Center in Brunswick. Sailors arrived with only what they were wearing when rescued. A restaurant donated a meal, and the volunteer-run center provided the seamen with clothes, toiletries and Bibles.

The vessel is owned by Hyundai Glovis, which carries cars for automakers Hyundai and Kia as well as others.

In a statement, the company thanked the Coast Guard for saving the crew and sought to assure the public that it would now focus on “mitigating damage to property and the environment.”

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From: MeNeedIt

Thousands of students formed human chains outside schools across Hong Kong on Monday to show solidarity after violent weekend clashes between police and activists pushing for democratic reforms in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.

The silent protest came as the Hong Kong government condemned the illegal behavior of radical protesters” and warned the U.S. to stay out of its affairs.

Thousands of demonstrators held a peaceful march Sunday to the U.S. Consulate to seek Washington’s support, but violence erupted hours later in a business and retail district as protesters vandalized subway stations, set fires and blocked traffic, prompting police to fire tear gas.

Hong Kong’s government agreed last week to withdraw an extradition bill that sparked a summer of protests, but demonstrators want other demands to be met, including direct elections of city leaders and an independent inquiry into police actions.

Protesters in their Sunday march appealed to President Donald Trump to “stand with Hong Kong” and ensure Congress passes a bill that would impose economic sanctions and penalties on Hong Kong and mainland China officials found to suppress democracy and human rights in the city.

Hong Kong’s government expressed regret over the U.S. bill, known as the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. It said in a statement Monday that “foreign legislatures should not interfere in any form in the internal affairs” of Hong Kong.

The government said it was “very much in Hong Kong’s own interest to maintain our autonomy to safeguard our interests and advantages under the `one country, two systems’ principle” introduced when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week said Congress looks forward to “swiftly advancing” the Hong Kong bill because the city deserves real autonomy and freedom from fear.

The unrest has become the biggest challenge to Beijing’s rule since it took over Hong Kong, and is an embarrassment to its ruling Communist Party ahead of Oct. 1 celebrations of its 70th year in power. Beijing has slammed the protests as effort by criminals to split the territory from China, backed by what it said were hostile foreigners.
 
Trump has suggested it’s a matter for China to handle, though he also has said that no violence should be used. Political analysts suggest his response was muted to avoid disrupting talks with China over their tariff war.

High school and university students across Hong Kong held hands on Monday, following similar protests last week, forming long human chains that snaked into the streets outside their schools. They were joined by many graduates wearing the protesters’ trademark black tops and masks.

Many also rallied against what they viewed as excessive use of force by police, with one student carrying a placard that read “Stop violence, we are not rioters.”

Anger was fueled over the weekend after images of a youth being bloodily beaten up by riot police at a subway station were widely shared on social media. The boy, who didn’t fight back, was pinned to the floor and appeared unconscious under a pool of blood.

Police public relations chief Tse Chun-chung said Monday that police have received complaints about the case and are investigating. He said police were doing their best to handle escalating violence, with “radical” protesters attacking police and trying to snatch their weapons. He said 157 people had been detained since Friday.

Hong Kong journalists, some wearing helmets and gas masks, complained at the police briefing Monday that riot police had used pepper spray and threatened media personnel covering the weekend clashes.

Separately, well-known Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was released Monday, a day after he was detained at the airport.
 
Wong, a leader of Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy protest movement, was among several people held last month and charged with inciting people to join a protest in June. His prosecution comes after his release from prison in June for a two-month sentence related to the 2014 protests.

A court said Wong’s overseas trips had been approved earlier and his detention was due to procedural errors.

Wong, who visited Taiwan last week, told reporters before he flew off to Germany and then the U.S. that he would continue to raise global awareness about Hong Kong’s fight for democratic reforms.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas welcomed Wong’s release and said he was prepared to meet him.

“We hope that the conflict there will be de-escalated bit by bit, but without that entailing the rights people are entitled to _ namely the right to express their opinion, including on the street _ in any way being limited,” Maas told reporters in Berlin.

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From: MeNeedIt

British Airways has canceled almost all its flights for 48 hours, affecting as many as 195,000 travelers, due to a strike by pilots over pay.

The U.K.’s flagship carrier said in a statement Monday that it had “no way of predicting how many (pilots) would come to work or which aircraft they are qualified to fly.”

As a result, it said it had “no option but to cancel nearly 100%” of its flights for the duration of the strike.

British Airways operates up to 850 flights a day. London’s sprawling Heathrow Airport was most affected by the work stoppage as it is the airline’s hub and is used for many of the company’s long-haul international flights.

The sprawling departure area at Heathrow Terminal 5 was almost empty, with only a handful of BA flights set to leave on Monday.

There were no queues at any of the check-in desks or security gates and only a handful of people waiting on benches. The terminal is typically quite busy.

British Airways said it stands ready to return to talks with the pilots’ union, Balpa, and that it has offered all affected customers full refunds or the option to rebook. The airline had been preparing for weeks for the strike, giving travelers advanced notice.

“We understand the frustration and disruption Balpa’s strike action has caused our customers,” it said.

“After many months of trying to resolve the pay dispute, we are extremely sorry that it has come to this.”

British Airways says it has offered pilots an 11.5% pay raise over three years but the union says its members want a bigger share of the company’s profits.

The union accuses British Airways of making big profits at the expense of workers who made sacrifices during hard times. British Airways’ parent company, IAG, made a net profit of 2.9 billion euros ($3.2 billion) last year.

Union leader Brian Strutton said pilots are determined to be heard.

“They’ve previously taken big pay cuts to help the company through hard times. Now BA is making billions of pounds of profit, its pilots have made a fair, reasonable and affordable claim for pay and benefits.”

A further strike is penciled in for Sept. 27.

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From: MeNeedIt

A divisive fight over the future of a crude-oil pipeline across Minnesota is pinning presidential candidates between environmentalists and trade unions in a 2020 battleground state, testing their campaign promises to ease away from fossil fuels.

Progressive candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have condemned a Canadian company’s plan to replace its old and deteriorating Line 3 pipeline, which carries Canadian crude across the forests and wetlands of northern Minnesota and into northern Wisconsin. They’ve sided with environmental and tribal groups that have been trying to stop the project for years, arguing that the oil should stay in the ground.

Others candidates — including home-state Sen. Amy Klobuchar and front-runner Joe Biden — have remained largely silent, mindful that such projects are viewed as job creators for some of the working-class voters they may need to win the state next year.

The fight illustrates a hard reality behind the Democratic candidates’ rhetoric on climate change. For months, Democrats vying for the White House have sounded strikingly progressive on the issue, endorsing ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions and putting forward sweeping proposals for investing in the green jobs of the future. But the debate often glosses over the harder, more immediate choices between union jobs and phasing out fossil fuels. Those fights often divide Democrats and may create an opening for President Donald Trump.

Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 project has generated opposition on two main grounds: that the oil it would carry would aggravate climate change and that it would risk spills in pristine areas of the Mississippi River headwaters where Native Americans harvest wild rice. Enbridge says replacing the 1960s-era pipeline, which is increasingly prone to corrosion and cracking, will be safer for the environment while allowing it restore the line’s original capacity and ensure reliable deliveries to refineries. Labor unions, once the bedrock of Democrats’ support in northern Minnesota, backed the plan on the promise it will create scores of new jobs.

Regulators in Canada, North Dakota and Wisconsin have given the necessary approvals, and some work on those segments already has been completed. In Minnesota, the Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge is still waiting for permits while court challenges play out.

While it waits, the pipeline has become a political weapon. Democrats and Republicans in Minnesota are in a tug of war over working-class, rural voters needed to win statewide. Trump won enough of those voters to come within just 1.52 percentage points — fewer than 45,000 votes — of beating Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. He has said repeatedly he intends to win Minnesota in 2020, something not done by a Republican since Richard Nixon in 1972.

While Trump hasn’t taken a specific stand on Line 3, he’s made it clear that he’s all for oil pipelines. Soon after taking office, he signed executive actions to advance the highly disputed Keystone XL and Dakota Access projects, vowing, “From now on we are going to start making pipelines in the United States.” He backed that up in April with more orders to assert presidential power over cross-border pipelines and to make it harder for states to block them over environmental concerns.

Some Democratic candidates have been eager to draw a contrast. Sanders, a Vermont senator, was the first to come out against Line 3. In January, he tweeted a video of himself listening to indigenous activists about the proposal and wrote: “The dangerous Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota would send a million barrels of tar sands oil — the dirtiest fossil fuel in the world — through the headwaters of the Mississippi River, tribal treaty lands and sacred wild rice beds. It must be stopped.”

Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, weighed in just ahead of a recent visit to Minnesota by tweeting: “The Line 3 pipeline would threaten Minnesota’s public waters, lands, and agricultural areas important to several Tribal Nations. I’m with @MN_350 and Minnesota organizers fighting to #StopLine3 and protect our environment.”

She was referring to MN350, a climate change group that’s part of the opposition. Its spokesman, Brent Benson, called on other candidates who’ve spoken out against climate change to oppose Line 3, too.

“It’s folly to be promoting fossil fuel infrastructure in the middle of a climate crisis,” Benson said. “Presidential candidates have an opportunity and a duty to point that out.”

Other Democrats have not taken clear positions on the project. The campaigns of Biden and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg did not respond to repeated requests for comment. A spokesman for Sen. Kamala Harris of California didn’t address whether she has a position on Line 3, but pointed out that she opposed the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.

Klobuchar has also avoided taking a position. She has said she wants to ensure a thorough environmental and scientific review to determine if the Line 3 project should move forward. Minnesota regulators signed off on the main environmental review last year, although an appeals court has ordered additional study on the potential impacts to the Lake Superior watershed. But she recently returned $5,600 in donations from an Enbridge project manager after a liberal watchdog group, the Public Accountability Initiative, revealed them.

In contrast to the divided Democrats, Minnesota Republicans have made it clear that they support Line 3, and that they see it as a winning strategy for 2020, coupled with other issues that split Democrats along ideological and geographic lines, such as copper-nickel mining to northeastern Minnesota.

Just before her visit to Minnesota, Warren also tweeted her opposition to a proposed Twin Metals mine near Ely. Like her position against Line 3, it drew an angry response from labor unions.

“Why would you want to be against something that will create so many jobs, and living (wage) jobs, within an area that desperately needs it?” Mike Syversrud, president of the Iron Range Building and Construction Trades Council, told the online news site MinnPost.

When Republican Jason Lewis launched his U.S. Senate campaign at the Minnesota State Fair, the former congressman said he would focus on greater Minnesota — the mostly rural part outside the Minneapolis-St. Paul area — to make up for Democratic strength in the cities. He highlighted the 8th Congressional District, which covers northeastern Minnesota and has swung from blue to red. Lewis said Trump’s campaign is “dead serious about Minnesota,” and that he expects them to follow the same strategy.

“Greater Minnesota is turning red, deep red. … I don’t know how a Democrat’s going to win the 8th District promising to give pink slips to every trade union member on the Iron Range, promising to stop Enbridge, to stop copper mining, to stop logging, to stop people from having jobs on the Iron Range,” Lewis said.

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From: MeNeedIt