High-level US-North Korea nuclear talks get underway in New York

Kim Young Chol (L), Vice Chairman of North Korea, leaves Corinthian Condominiums following a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 30, 2018 in New York. ( AFP / KENA BETANCUR)
Updated 31 May 2018
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High-level US-North Korea nuclear talks get underway in New York

  • Rare visit to US by close aide to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
  • Trump-Kim summit expected to go ahead June 12 -White House

NEW YORK: High-ranking officials of the United States and North Korea met in New York late on Wednesday in the first of two days of talks about the future of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program and a possible summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung Un.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, a close aide of North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, met for about 90 minutes over dinner and exited without providing any detailed remarks to reporters waiting outside.
Pompeo would only say that the dinner “was great” and that the two men dined on “American beef.”
It was not yet known whether the two men made any progress toward narrowing long-standing differences between Washington and Pyongyang that could end decades of hostile relations.
Earlier in the day, the White House left open the possibility of a Trump-Kim summit on June 12 in Singapore, despite Trump’s cancelation of the meeting just days ago.
As the dinner was underway inside an apartment on New York’s East Side, just south of the United Nations, a senior State Department official separately briefed reporters on the high-level talks that were underway.
Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, “are trying to get to know each other” following their two initial meetings this year in North Korea, said the US official who asked not to be identified.
The official added that before any summit between the two leaders can occur, Pyongyang is “going to have to make clear what they are willing to do” amid demands from Washington that North Korea permanently end its nuclear weapons program.
Trump, the official said, “can make a fly or no-fly decision anytime he wants,” referring to the possible unprecedented Singapore summit.
If not enough progress is made to lead to a productive meeting between Trump and Kim Jung Un, the official said, “We will ramp up the pressure on them and we’ll be ready for the day that hopefully they are ready.”
Shortly before Wednesday’s dinner, Pompeo repeated the Trump administration’s bottom-line demand:
“Looking forward to meeting with Kim Yong Chol in New York to discuss @Potus potential summit with Chairman Kim. We are committed to the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula @StateDept,” Pompeo said in a Twitter post.
Trump last week called off the summit after North Korea expressed anger at comments by senior US officials. But Trump later said he was reconsidering his position and US, North Korean and South Korean officials have gone ahead with summit preparations.
The White House said on Wednesday that negotiations at the demilitarized zone along the border between North and South Korea for the summit were going well.
Separately on Wednesday at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Admiral Harry Harris, the outgoing head of US Pacific Command who is Trump’s pick to be the ambassador to South Korea, said North Korea remained the United States’ most imminent threat. “And a nuclear-capable North Korea with missiles that can reach the United States is unacceptable,” Harris said.
Earlier, a US official said negotiations about the summit’s agenda have so far been slow going, and the two fundamental issues, the definition of North Korean denuclearization and whether both sides would take actions at the same time or separately, remained unsettled.

’DENUCLEARIZATION’
Trump has sworn not to allow North Korea to develop nuclear missiles that could hit the United States and wants North Korea to “denuclearize,” or get rid of its nuclear arms.
But the leadership in Pyongyang is believed to regard nuclear weapons as crucial to its survival and has rejected unilaterally disarming.
The Trump administration, according to US officials, has left open the possibility of North Korea eventually getting US aid and investments if Pyongyang agrees to complete denuclearization.
North Korea’s position going into the meetings with Pompeo was that a pledge of denuclearization alone should open the way to economic relief, said the official who briefed reporters earlier on Thursday and spoke on condition of anonymity.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted Seoul’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon as saying in a speech on Wednesday that the differences between North Korea and the United States on the denuclearization issue remained “quite significant” and it would not be easy to narrow the gap.
However, Cho added that the engagement of the leaders of the two countries meant “chances are high that common ground can be found.”
Kim Yong Chol is the most senior North Korean official to meet top officials for talks in the United States since Jo Myong Rok, a vice marshal, met then-President Bill Clinton at the White House in 2000.
A former military spy chief, he has played a central role in the thaw in relations over the past six months between North Korea and South Korea, as well as the United States.
North Korea defends its nuclear and missile programs as a deterrent against what it sees as US ambitions to overthrow its leadership and unite the Korean Peninsula. The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War.


Harris warns Trump will slash Obamacare; Trump says he never mentioned it

Updated 1 sec ago
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Harris warns Trump will slash Obamacare; Trump says he never mentioned it

  • The 2010 Affordable Care Act provides coverage to roughly 40 million Americans as part of the country’s patchwork of health insurance programs
  • A political liability for Democrats when signed into law in 2010, it is now broadly popular
PHOENIX/ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris warned voters on Thursday that Republican Donald Trump and his allies would scale back health care programs if he wins the White House and said his comments at a Wednesday rally were offensive to women.
In a brief press conference, Vice President Harris reminded voters that former President Trump had tried unsuccessfully to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, during his 2017-2021 presidency.
“Healthcare for all Americans is on the line in this election,” she told reporters in Madison, Wisconsin, before flying to Arizona and Nevada as both candidates took the campaign to the Southwest.
In response, Trump said he never wanted to get rid of the program. “I never mentioned doing that, never even thought about such a thing,” he posted on his Truth Social platform after she made the remark.
Opinion polls show a historically close contest between Harris and Trump, with the outcome of Tuesday’s US presidential election likely to be decided in seven battleground states.
Reuters/Ipsos polling in October found the race to be sharply divided along gender lines, with Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points and Trump leading among men by seven percentage points.
More than 63 million people have already voted through in-person early voting and mail-in ballots, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
With both candidates campaigning in the Southwest on Thursday, they made their pitches to Hispanic voters.
OBAMACARE AGAIN AT ISSUE
Once again a campaign issue, the 2010 Affordable Care Act provides coverage to roughly 40 million Americans as part of the country’s patchwork of health insurance programs. A political liability for Democrats when signed into law in 2010, it is now broadly popular.
In his 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to repeal Obamacare and following his election, when the House voted to do just that, he welcomed Republican representatives to the White House for a celebration. But the repeal effort died in the Senate in July 2017 when the late Sen. John McCain cast the deciding vote with a thumbs-down gesture.
Trump has downplayed the issue during this campaign, though on Thursday he reiterated he would as president push insurers to cover the cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.
When asked about health care in the Sept. 10 televised debate with Harris he repeated his contention that “Obamacare was lousy health care” but acknowledged he has yet to propose a comprehensive alternative, saying he has “concepts of a plan.”
Harris has made abortion rights a cornerstone of her campaign, while Trump has vowed to dramatically scale back immigration.

Firecracker ban defiance makes New Delhi the world’s most polluted city

Updated 47 min 38 sec ago
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Firecracker ban defiance makes New Delhi the world’s most polluted city

  • The air quality index stood at 348, said Swiss firm IQ Air, taking pollution into the hazardous category
  • Local government officials have banned use of firecrackers during Diwali and the winter over the last few years

NEW DELHI: New Delhi topped charts on Friday as the world’s most polluted city after revelers defying a ban on firecrackers to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, helped drive air quality to hazardous levels.
Thick smog wreathed the Indian capital, shrouding the presidential palace in the central district and the surrounding gardens popular with joggers and cyclists, after Thursday’s celebrations.
The air quality index stood at 348, said Swiss firm IQ Air, taking pollution into the hazardous category, pushing Delhi to the top of a real-time list as the world’s most polluted city.
Local government officials have banned use of firecrackers during Diwali and the winter over the last few years, in line with Supreme Court directives, but have had difficulty enforcing the measure despite the threat of jail.
Some Hindu groups say the ban interferes with observance of the festival, a position the Delhi government has previously countered by saying the ban aims to save lives.
Friday’s smog also coincided with waste burning on farms in northern India that aggravates air quality at the beginning of winter each year as cold, heavy air traps pollutants from a variety of sources.


Four Thais killed in Israel by rocket strike from Lebanon: Thai FM

Updated 47 min 38 sec ago
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Four Thais killed in Israel by rocket strike from Lebanon: Thai FM

  • About 30,000 Thai nationals live in Israel
  • Thai nationals in Israel have been particularly hard hit since the start of the war with Hamas

Bangkok: Four Thais were killed in northern Israel by rocket fire from Lebanon, Thailand’s foreign minister said Friday.
Maris Sangiampongsa, in a post on social media platform X, said he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths close to the town of Metula on Thursday, adding another Thai citizen was injured.
The head of the regional council in Metula said late Thursday that five people had been killed in the rocket strike from Lebanon, one local farmer and four foreign farm workers.
About 30,000 Thai nationals live in Israel, where salaries are much higher than in the Southeast Asian kingdom.
Thai nationals in Israel have been particularly hard hit since the start of the war with Hamas, with at least 39 killed as a result of the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
More than two dozen were believed to have been captured by militants during the attack.
During a brief November truce, 23 Thais were released from captivity.
The Israeli army has said two Thai nationals died in captivity in Gaza in May.
After more than 11 months of cross-border clashes that displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border, the Israeli army intensified air strikes against Hezbollah in mid-September and later launched limited ground operations in southern Lebanon.
Foreign Minister Maris added: “Thailand continues to strongly urge all parties to return to the path of peace, in the name of the innocent civilians gravely impacted by this prolonged and deepening conflict.”


Filipinos brave crowds, flooding for All Saints’ Day cemetery visits

Updated 01 November 2024
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Filipinos brave crowds, flooding for All Saints’ Day cemetery visits

  • Hundreds of thousands flock to sprawling graveyards to quietly pray and celebrate the lives of departed relatives
  • In the devout Southeast Asian country, the day is a public holiday to allow for travel to far-flung gravesites across the archipelago

MANILA: Devout Filipinos clutching candles and flowers poured into cemeteries across the heavily Catholic Philippines on Friday to pay tribute to loved ones on All Saints’ Day.
Hundreds of thousands flocked to sprawling graveyards in the capital Manila while others waded through floodwaters left by a deadly tropical storm to quietly pray and celebrate the lives of departed relatives.
At Manila North Cemetery, 64-year-old Virginia Flores lit candles in front of her grandmother’s “apartment,” the local term for tombs packed tightly together and stacked meters high.
“This is my way of remembering her life and our shared memories when she was alive, so I visit her every year,” Flores said.
Erlinda Sese, 52, was joined by her sister and grandchildren to offer prayers for their deceased loved ones.
“Even if they are gone, today is a reminder that our love for them will never fade,” Sese said as she gently laid a bouquet of white flowers on a tombstone.
Police Brig. Gen. Arnold Ibay, tasked with handling crowd control in the capital, said he expected almost a million visitors at Manila North Cemetery alone, where people had begun lining up before dawn to enter.
In Pampanga, a low-lying province 80 kilometers north of the capital, AFP reporters on Thursday saw people trudge through murky floodwaters to visit the submerged Masantol municipal cemetery.
The visitors were making the pilgrimage barely a week after Tropical Storm Trami unleashed landslides and flooding that killed at least 150 people and left more than a dozen missing.
“Visiting dead loved ones is very important to Filipinos. This has been our tradition and culture,” 34-year-old Mark Yamat said.
“Even though the cemetery is submerged here, we will continue to visit.”
In the devout Southeast Asian country, the day is a public holiday to allow for travel to far-flung gravesites across the archipelago.
Maria Cayanan, 52, was supposed to light candles in front of her parents’ tombstone in Pampanga, but the floodwaters prevented her from reaching their burial plots.
“We will just light the candles at home,” Cayanan said.
“We have to visit their graves, so they know they are not forgotten.”


TikTok bandits terrorize, transfix Pakistan riverlands

Updated 35 min 14 sec ago
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TikTok bandits terrorize, transfix Pakistan riverlands

  • Police have proposed countering bandits by downgrading mobile phone towers to 2G in the Katcha lands, preventing social media apps from loading
  • That has not yet happened and would risk cutting communities off further still

RAHIM YAR KHAN, Pakistan: With a showman’s flair and an outlaw’s moustache, the Pakistani gangster dials the hotline on his own most wanted notice — taunting the authorities who put a bounty on his head.
Staring down the lens in a social media clip, Shahid Lund Baloch challenges the official on the phone and his thousands of viewers: “Do you know my circumstances or my reasons for taking up arms?”
The 28-year-old is hiding out in riverine terrain in central Punjab which has long offered refuge to bandits — using the Internet to enthrall citizens even as he preys on them, police say.
On TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram he fascinates tens of thousands with messages delivered gun-in-hand, romanticizing his rural lifestyle and cultivating a reputation as a champion of the people.
But he is wanted for 28 cases including murder, abduction and attacks on police — with a 10 million rupee ($36,000) price on his head.
“People who are sitting on the outside think he is a hero, but the people here know he is no hero,” said Javed Dhillon, a former lawmaker for Rahim Yar Khan district close to the hideouts of Baloch, and other bandits like him.
“They have been at the receiving end of his cruelty and violence.”
Baloch is said to dwell on a sandy island in the “Katcha lands” — roughly translating as “backwaters” — on the Indus River which skewers Pakistan from top to bottom.
High-standing crops provide cover for ambushes and the region is riven by shifting seasonal waterways that complicate pursuit over crimes ranging from kidnapping to highway robbery and smuggling.
At the intersection of three of Pakistan’s four provinces, gangs with hundreds of members have for decades capitalized on poor coordination between police forces by flitting across jurisdictions.
“The natural features of these lands support the criminals,” said senior police officer Naveed Wahla. “They’ll hide out in a water turbine, move in boats, or through sugarcane crops.”
Sweeping police operations and even an army incursion in 2016 failed to impose law and order. This August, a rocket attack on a police convoy killed 12 officers.
“In the current state of affairs here there is only fear and terror,” said Haq Nawaz, whose adult son was abducted late September for a five million rupee ransom he cannot afford.
“There is no one to look after our wellbeing,” he complains.
But the gangs are increasingly online.
Some use the web to lay “honey-traps” luring kidnap victims by impersonating romantic suitors, business partners and advertising cheap sales of tractors or cars.
Some parade hostages in clips for ransom or exhibit arsenals of heavy weapons in musical TikToks.
Baloch has by far the largest online profile — irking police with a combined 200,000 followers.
Rizwan Gondal, the head police officer of Rahim Yar Khan district, says that his detectives have a dossier proving his “heinous criminal activities.”
“Police have made multiple efforts to capture him however he escapes,” he added.
“He’s a very media savvy guy. Let him say, ‘I am going to surrender before the state to prove that I am innocent’ and let the media cover it.”
In his clips Baloch protests his innocence whilst casting himself as a vigilante in a lawless land, claiming he chose to fight only after family members were slain in tribal clashes.
“We couldn’t get justice from the courts so I decided to pick up arms and started fighting with my enemies,” Baloch said. “They killed our people, we killed theirs.”
But he also plays off the cycle of state neglect which breeds banditry and in turn relegates the destitute farming communities further to society’s fringes.
“The villagers here are not viewed as human but as animals,” Baloch said. “If they gave us schools, electricity, government hospitals and justice, why would anyone even think of taking up arms?”
In comments sections his viewers call him “beloved brother bandit” and a “real hero.” “You have won my heart,” claims another.
“He is popular in the mainstream because he is giving the police authorities a tough time,” said former lawmaker Dhillon.
“People like that he says the things they can’t say out loud against people they can’t speak out against.”
Police have proposed countering bandits by downgrading mobile phone towers to 2G in the Katcha lands, preventing social media apps from loading.
That has not yet happened and would risk cutting communities off further still.
But more low tech solutions have had some success.
An anti-honey trap police cell cautions citizens against the gangs with the help of billboards and loudspeakers at checkpoints entering the area, preventing 531 people from falling prey since last August, according to their data.
Baloch scoffs at police. But one problem plaguing his bid for online stardom has his attention.
Copycat social media accounts pretend to be him and share duplicates of his videos — earning thousands more followers and views than his legitimate accounts.
He feels robbed. “I don’t know what they are trying to achieve,” he complains.
But for police, his Internet hero status is at odds with the toll of his crimes.
“People will idealize Shahid Lund Baloch but when they ultimately get kidnapped by him, then they will realize who Shahid Lund Baloch really is,” said senior officer Wahla.