White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this report.

Police officials in El Paso, Texas, say they are investigating as a possible hate crime the mass shooting Saturday at a Walmart that ended with at least 20 people killed and 26 wounded.

Police chief Greg Allen said the police have an online posting reportedly written by the 21-year-old white male suspect now in custody, that indicates the shooting spree was intended to target Hispanics.

The post appeared online about an hour before the shooting and included language that complained about the “Hispanic invasion” of Texas. The author of the manifesto wrote that he expected to be killed during the attack.

“This vile act of terrorism against Hispanic Americans was inspired by divisive racial and ethnic rhetoric and enabled by weapons of war,” Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas said in a statement.

“The language in the shooter’s manifesto is consistent with President Donald Trump’s description of Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders,’” said Castro, who is also the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “Today’s shooting is a stark reminder of the dangers of such rhetoric.”

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado said three Mexicans were killed in the shooting and six Mexicans were wounded.

Trump posted Saturday on Twitter: “Melania and I send our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the great people of Texas.”

Today’s shooting in El Paso, Texas, was not only tragic, it was an act of cowardice. I know that I stand with everyone in this Country to condemn today’s hateful act. There are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2019

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who traveled to El Paso, told reporters, “We as a state unite in support of these victims and their family members. … We pray that God can be with those who have been harmed in any way and bind up their wounds.”

First calls come in 

Police began receiving calls at 10:39 a.m. local time with multiple reports of a shooting at Walmart and the nearby Cielo Vista Mall complex on the east side of the city.

Sgt. Robert Gomez, a spokesman with the El Paso Police Department, said most of the shootings occurred at the Walmart, where there were more than 1,000 shoppers and 100 employees. Many families were taking advantage of a sales-tax holiday to shop for back-to-school supplies, officials said.

“This is unprecedented in El Paso,” Gomez said of the mass shooting.

El Paso Mayor Dee Margo told CNN, “This is just a tragedy that I’m having a hard time getting my arms around.”

Originally, Margo, as well as several witnesses, said there were several shooters involved. But police said they believe there was just one shooter.

“I can confirm that it is a white male in his 20s,” El Paso police spokesman Gomez said. “We believe he’s the sole shooter.”

Gomez said an assault-style rifle was used in the shooting.

249th mass shooting so far this year

The El Paso shooting is the nation’s 249th mass shooting incident this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot or killed, excluding the gunman, at one location.

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who formerly represented the El Paso district in the U.S. House, was at an event in Las Vegas when he heard of the shooting. 

“I just ask for everyone’s strength for El Paso right now. Everyone’s resolve to make sure that this does not continue to happen in this country,” he said, adding he was immediately returning home to El Paso, where his family lives.

Saturday’s shooting comes less than a week after a mass shooting at a festival in Gilroy, California, where three people, including two children, were killed and 13 others were injured. It was also the second fatal shooting in less than a week at a Walmart store. A gunman shot and killed two people and injured two others Tuesday in Mississippi, before he was shot and arrested by police.

El Paso, a city of about 680,000 people in western Texas, shares the border with Juarez, Mexico.
 

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From: MeNeedIt

There are an estimated 12,000 homeless people living in Seattle, in the Northwest U.S. state of Washington, according to the U.S. government. Among those homeless, a significant but difficult to quantify number don’t speak English. But one nonprofit is working to serve English learners and end homelessness all at the same time. VOA’s Valdya Baraputri reports.
 

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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says he wants to see American ground-based intermediate-range conventional missiles deployed to Asia.

Speaking to reporters on his first international trip as head of the Defense Department, Esper said the weapons were important due to the “the great distances” covered in the Indo-Pacific region.

The United States previously was unable to pursue ground-based missiles with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers because of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a decades-old arms control pact with Russia. Washington withdrew from that pact on Friday, citing years of Russian violations.

“It’s about time that we were unburdened by the treaty and kind of allowed to pursue our own interests, and our NATO allies share that view as well,” Esper said.

He declined to discuss when or where in Asia they could be deployed until the weapons were ready, but said he hoped the deployments come within months.

While analysts have primarily focused on what the INF treaty withdrawal means for signatory nations Russia and the United States, the change also allows the United States to strengthen its position against China. Esper said China has more than 80% of its missile inventory with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers.

“So it should not surprise them [China] that we would want to have a like capability,” he added.

China is the top priority of the Pentagon under the Defense Department’s National Defense Strategy. Beijing and Washington also have been embroiled for months in a trade dispute, with U.S. President Donald Trump announcing Thursday on Twitter that he would impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods starting September 1.

“China is certainly the center of the dialogue right now. It’s a competition, they’re not an enemy, but certainly they are pressing their power in every corner,” Rudy deLeon, a defense policy expert with the Center for American Progress, and a former deputy secretary of defense, told VOA.

In the event of a conflict with China, the United States needs to have various capabilities in place ahead of time in order to prevent sabotage during transport from China’s advanced sensors and artificial intelligence, according to Bradley Bowman, the senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“We need to distribute our assets, and we need to have them in the region when the conflict starts. The idea that we’re going to spend like we did in the first Gulf War, weeks or months, sending large cargo aircraft and cargo vessels across the ocean to get into conflict, they’ll never arrive,” Bowman told VOA.

Esper began his trip Friday with a stop at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii to visit the head of the command, Admiral Philip Davidson. Esper arrived Saturday in Australia for a two-plus-two meeting on Sunday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and their Australian counterparts.

Esper also will visit New Zealand, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea before returning to Washington.

Defense officials have for years referred to the Asia-Pacific as the “priority” theater.

Former secretary of defense Jim Mattis, Esper’s predecessor in the Trump administration, also started his time in office with a trip to Asia, visiting Japan and South Korea in February 2017.

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From: MeNeedIt

Pakistan has accused rival India of breaching international humanitarian laws by using “cluster munitions” in the latest cross-border skirmishes in Kashmir, saying the weapons killed at least two civilians and injured 11 others on the Pakistani side of the divided region.

The allegations come a day after India again rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate a resolution of the Kashmir dispute between the two nuclear-armed countries.

A statement by Pakistan’s military said Saturday the civilian casualties occurred on July 31 in the scenic Neelum Valley near the Line of Control (LoC), the defacto border separating Pakistani and Indian portions of the disputed Himalayan territory.

It alleged the Indian army used cluster ammunitions delivered by artillery on July 31 in the valley, deliberately targeting the civilian population.

Cluster munitions are weapons consisting of a container that opens in the air and scatters a large number of explosive submunitions over a wide area. The related global convention adopted in 2008 prohibits the use of cluster munitions.

There was no immediate reaction from India to the allegation. Indian authorities for their part also accuse Pakistani forces of indulging in unprovoked cross-border shelling, causing civilian and military casualties on their side

The Pakistani military statement urged the international community “to take notice of this Indian blatant violation of international laws on use of cluster ammunition targeting innocent citizens.”

It also released pictures of victims and the purported weapons it said were used by Indian forces. Independent verification was difficult to ascertain.

Trump Reiterates Kashmir Mediation Offer

Speaking together with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House two weeks ago, Trump said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently asked him whether he would like to be a mediator or arbitrator on Kashmir, assertions New Delhi swiftly denied.

Trump, however, reiterated his mediation offer on Thursday, saying he is willing to mediate but a decision would be up to Modi and Khan.

“If I can — if they wanted me to, I would certainly intervene,” Trump told reporters.

Indian Minister for External Affairs S. Jaishankar said he told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Bangkok that any discussion of the disputed Kashmir region would be strictly between India and Pakistan.

New Delhi has long opposed outside attempts to mediate its dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir. Islamabad insists international help is required because of persistent Indian refusals to engage in bilateral talks.

India Accuses Pakistan-Backed Militants of Targeting Hindu Pilgrims in Kashmir

Indian security officials on Friday said they had found evidence of attacks planned by Pakistani military-backed militants on a major Hindu pilgrimage in the disputed Muslim-dominated region of Kashmir

Security Alert in Indian Kashmir

Saturday’s Pakistani allegations come as thousands of people, mostly, visitors, reportedly have started leaving the India-ruled portion of Kashmir since the local government warned of possible militant attacks.

Indian authorities announced Friday they had found evidence of attacks by militants allegedly backed by Pakistan on a major Hindu pilgrimage in Kashmir. The revelation prompted the regional government to order the pilgrims and tourists to return home.  

Regional military tensions have remained high since February 14, when a vehicle-born bomb rammed into an Indian paramilitary convoy in Kashmir, killing 40 security personnel and triggering an aerial dogfight between Indian and Pakistani air force planes. New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants for plotting the attack. The subsequent escalation in tensions brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a fourth war before international diplomatic intervention helped defuse the situation.

New Delhi has suspended official talks with Islamabad since Modi came to power in 2014, demanding Pakistan first stop militants plotting cross-border attacks in India.

Separatist violence and the ensuing Indian crackdown are estimated to have killed more than 70,000 people in Indian Kashmir.

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From: MeNeedIt

The U.N. refugee agency welcomes the closure of three detention centers in Libya but voices concern about the whereabouts and fate of the refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who were held in the facilities.

The U.N. refugee agency has been advocating for the release of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from Libya’s detention centers for a long time.  And, so it says it is pleased that three of the country’s largest facilities–Mistrata, Tajoura and Khoms–have been shut.

Five EU Countries Agree to Take in Migrants, Ending Standoff in Sicilian Port

Five EU countries agree to take in migrants, ending standoff in Sicilian port

However, UNHCR spokesman, Andrej Mahecic tells VOA he has no idea what has happened to the inmates.

“To our knowledge, there are 19 official detention centers run by the authorities that are currently active in Libya with nearly 5,000 refugees and migrants that are arbitrarily detained there,” Mahecic said.

Mahecic says UNHCR is closely following developments. He says refugees should not be put in detention.   In Libya, he says people held in facilities near battle zones are at particular risk, as was seen in the tragic events that unfolded in Tajoura last month.

The Tajoura detention center on the outskirts of the capital Tripoli was hit by an airstrike on July 2.  More than 50 people, including children were killed and 130 injured.   The vast majority were sub-Saharan Africans trying to reach Europe.  

EU States to End Arbitrary Detention of Refugees, Migrants in Libya

The move was triggered by the deadly July 5 bombing of the Tajoura detention center on the outskirts of Tripoli

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, says the attack could amount to a war crime.  Mahecic says children should never be locked up and, in all cases, detention should only be a measure of last resort.

“What we are calling on now is for an orderly release of all refugees in detention centers to urban settings and we stand ready to provide these people with assistance through our urban programs that would include some form of financial assistance, medical and psycho-social support,” Mahecic said.

The United Nations describes Libyan detention centers as appalling, overcrowded places.  It says detainees are denied sufficient food and medical care and are subject to abusive treatment, including torture and rape.

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From: MeNeedIt

Hong Kong is experiencing another round of anti-government weekend protests.

The demonstrations were first staged to protest against an extradition law that would send criminal suspects to mainland China for trials.

That bill has been suspended, but the protests persist, transforming into demonstrations for democratic reforms and an end to Beijing’s tightening grip on the territory.

The demonstrations are the worst social turmoil to rock the former British colony since it was returned to Chinese rule 22 years ago.

In addition to this weekend’s protests, Hong Kong is bracing for a citywide strike Monday in support of the democratic reforms.  

Civil servants gathered in a public park Friday evening to show their support for the protesters.

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From: MeNeedIt

This story originated in VOA’s Serbian Service. Some information is from Reuters.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer says an unresolved extortion investigation in North Macedonia could undermine prospects for the small Balkan nation’s long-awaited European Union accession talks.

North Macedonia’s former chief Special Prosecutor, Katica Janeva, unexpectedly tendered her resignation last month amid allegations that she masterminded a scheme to extort millions from an indicted businessman in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Janeva’s Special Prosecution Office (SPO), an organized-crime-busting outfit also tasked with addressing high-level corruption, has long been emblematic of the former Yugoslav republic’s transatlantic aspirations. By spearheading investigations of the now-ousted authoritarian regime of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Janeva’s office was largely mandated to restore rule of law.

“These are serious charges and all such serious charges require a serious response,” Palmer told VOA’s Serbian Service. “We support a complete, thorough, transparent investigation of these charges and, if the evidence is there, then appropriate prosecution. This is really an opportunity for the authorities in North Macedonia to demonstrate fealty to adherence to the rule of law.”

The country changed its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia in February, ending a more than two-decade dispute with Greece over its name, and removing an obstacle to EU and NATO membership.

Just last week, EU commissioner Johannes Hahn said Skopje needs to reform the judiciary to ensure it can handle high-level crime and corruption cases before the EU can set a date to start accession talks, but that he was “confident that the decision (on the start of EU accession talks) will be taken in October.”

Palmer said he’s optimistic talks can begin this fall, but that resolving the Janeva investigation will be key to ensuring it happens.

Both of North Macedonia’s major political parties have been squabbling over the drafting of a law to regulate the prosecution, which will determine the fate of the special prosecutor’s office that Janeva used to run.

“We believe that North Macedonia has earned that opportunity [to have EU accession talks begin this year], but … signals that the government sends — and the success of the SPO law — will be important to that.”

Whether new legislation can be ratified, a precondition for EU accession talks, will determine the pace of North Macedonia’s European accession process, which is why both U.S. and EU officials have repeatedly pressed both parties, the right-wing opposition VMRO-DPMNE and ruling Social Democratic Union, to come to an agreement.

Meetings between party officials earlier this week produced indications of progress, but working groups are still in negotiations.

“It’s important that these parties come together, negotiate, resolve their differences and reach an agreement on how the SPO can be reformed or modified in a manner that advances the interests of the country,” Palmer told VOA.

“There’s been enough politicking. The time for politicking is over. Now is the time for statesmanship,” he said.

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From: MeNeedIt

Another scientific study has confirmed that trees can have a far-reaching effect in stemming global warming by removing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Tree-planting advocates say this is something they’ve known for decades, and the world is finally getting the message. Mike O’Sullivan has more from Los Angeles.

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From: MeNeedIt

There are 48 insects included on the U.S. Endangered Species List, and the only way any insect has ever come off the list is through extinction. This is especially troubling for the world’s butterfly populations, which have declined by 20% in the last decades. Erika Celeste takes us to visit one of the rarest wild butterfly populations in the world, the Mitchell’s satyr butterfly at the Sarett Nature Center in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
 

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From: MeNeedIt

Boeing is working on new software for the 737 Max that will use a second flight control computer to make the system more reliable, solving a problem that surfaced in June with the grounded jet, two people briefed on the matter said Friday. 
 
When finished, the new software will give Boeing a complete package for regulators to evaluate as the company tries to get the Max flying again, according to the people, who didn’t want to be identified because the new software hasn’t been publicly disclosed. 
 
The Max was grounded worldwide after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed a total of 346 people.  
  
Use of the second computer, reported Thursday by The Seattle Times, would resolve a problem discovered in simulations done by the Federal Aviation Administration after the crashes. The simulations found an issue that could result in the plane’s nose pitching down. Pilots in testing either took too long to recover from the problem or could not do so, one of the people said. 
 
In the new configuration, both of the plane’s flight control computers would be monitored by software, and pilots would get a warning if the computers disagreed on altitude, air speed and the angle of the wings relative to the air flow, the person said. Only one computer was used in the past because Boeing was able to prove statistically that its system was reliable, the person said.  
  
The problem revealed in June is like the one implicated in the two crashes. That problem was with flight-control software called MCAS, which pushed the nose down based on faulty readings from one sensor. MCAS was installed on the planes as a measure to prevent aerodynamic stalling, and initially it wasn’t disclosed to pilots. 

‘More robust’ system
 
The new software would make the entire flight-control system, including MCAS, rely on two computers rather than one, said the person. “It would make the whole flight control system more robust,” the person said. 
 
Boeing Co. spokesman Charles Bickers said only that the company is working with the FAA and other regulators on software to fix the problem that surfaced in June. The company has said it expects to present the changes to the FAA and other regulators in September, and it hopes the Max can return to flight as early as October.  
  
The two people briefed on the matter said Boeing has finished updating the MCAS software by scaling back its power to push the nose down. It is also linking the software’s nose-down command to two sensors on each plane instead of relying on just one in the original design. 
 
The FAA has been widely criticized for its process that certified the Max as safe to fly, largely because it uses company employees to do inspections that are then reviewed by the agency.  

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From: MeNeedIt

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says his pick for national intelligence director has decided to withdraw from the running, citing unfair media coverage. 
 
In a tweet Friday, Trump said Republican Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas had decided to stay in Congress. Questions about Ratcliffe’s experience had dogged him since Trump announced his candidacy Sunday. 
 
Trump didn’t cite any specific media reports but tweeted that “rather than going through months of slander and libel,” Ratcliffe would be returning to Capitol Hill.  
  
Trump accepted the resignation of former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats last week.  
  
Ratcliffe is a frequent Trump defender who fiercely questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller during a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week. Intelligence experts had criticized his lack of experience in the field of intelligence.  
  
In a statement, Ratcliffe said, “While I am and will remain very grateful to the president for his intention to nominate me as director of national intelligence, I am withdrawing from consideration.” 
 
“I was humbled and honored that the president put his trust in me to lead our nation’s intelligence operations and remain convinced that when confirmed, I would have done so with the objectivity, fairness and integrity that our intelligence agencies need and deserve,” the statement said. 
 
“However,” he added, “I do not wish for a national security and intelligence debate surrounding my confirmation, however untrue, to become a purely political and partisan issue.” 

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From: MeNeedIt

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has come under fire for stacking his new cabinet with ageing party loyalists despite hopes he might opt for more technocrats in his final term.

The senate this week approved the list of 43 ministers after the former military ruler finally settled on their names some two months after his inauguration in May.

Buhari, 76, is yet to hand out their portfolios but already his choice of stalwarts from his All Progressives Congress (APC) party has caused dismay.

“One would have expected that the president would shop for more people with more expertise” to assuage worries about the future, said Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, head of Abuja-based Transition Monitoring Group organisation.

She said she doubted the ability of those chosen “to push the agenda for development for Nigeria”.

Buhari faces a raft of challenges in his second term at the helm of Africa’s most populous nation — from tackling a grinding Islamist insurgency and spreading insecurity to trying to bolster a fragile economic recovery.

During his first four years he earned the nickname “Baba go-slow” after he took six months to name a cabinet and was seen to proceed with decisions at a glacial pace.

Far from cutting lose for his second, and final stint in power, he now appears to have fallen back on familiar faces.

In a country with more than half the population under 30, not one of the ministers is less than 40 years old.

Only seven of those chosen are women.

“16.3 percent representation is abysmal,” Ndi Kato, a 28-year-old female politician told local media.

“We have an abundance of qualified women and we have been advocating throughout the process of selecting ministers. The disrespect of tossing out the requests of women like it doesn’t matter is traumatic.”

‘More patronage’

Analysts said the decision to reward loyalists and keep key players in place means there are unlikely to be major reforms in the years ahead.

Fourteen of the ministers in the new cabinet served Buhari during his first term from 2015 to 2019.

Among those coming back are heavyweights like Babatunde Fashola, a former Lagos governor, transport minister Rotimi Amaechi, who ran oil-rich Rivers state, finance minister Zanaib Ahmed, foreign minister Geoffrey Onyema and education minister Adamu Adamu.

“Rewarding APC powerbrokers will improve party cohesion in the second term but also risks eroding first-term gains in curbing patronage,” said the Eurasia consultancy group in a note.

The president appeared to be prioritising APC unity and making up for 2015 when some leading backers in the party complained they had been overlooked, the group said.

“It also signals to party officials that Buhari will condone more patronage and possible leakages from government coffers than during his first term,” it said.  

The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which is still challenging Buhari’s election victory, has been quick to criticise the government selection as uninspiring and unable to tackle the challenges ahead.  

“In recycling failed yesterday’s men for today’s assignment, President Buhari and the APC have left no one in doubt that they have no vision to move our nation out of the economic and security predicaments into which they have plunged us in the last four years,” the party said in statement.

Rooting out graft

Anti-graft crusaders also worried that the appointments did not look promising for attempts to seriously tackle Nigeria’s endemic corruption.

Rooting out graft was one of Buhari’s big pledges in 2015 and he has promised to step it up this time round.

But critics have accused him of using the corruption crackdown to target his political opponents.

Debo Adeniran of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) pressure group, pointed to new ministers with major questions hanging over them.

Although Adeniran did not give their names, Fashola has been asked by CACOL to step down over fraud allegations while at the helm in Lagos.

Goodwill Akpabio, a former opposition leader, senator and governor of southern oil-rich Akwa Ibom state who defected to Buhari’s ruling party ahead of the 2019 elections has also faced accusations of looting his state treasury.

Another name is former information minister Lai Mohammed, who has been summoned by a court to clear his name over a phony contract awarded in his department.

“I don’t think there was due diligence on the nominees. Otherwise, the president would not have considered many of them,” Adeniran said.

“For Buhari’s integrity and fight against corruption to be taken serious, he has to do away with many of his appointees.”

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From: MeNeedIt