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Satellite imagery of a North Korean shipyard on Friday shows activity suggestive of preparations for a test of a medium-range submarine-launched ballistic missile, a U.S. think tank reported Friday.The Center for Strategic and International Studies said the images it published on its website of North Korea’s Sinpo shipyard showed several vessels within a secure boat basin, one of which resembled vessels previously used to tow a submersible test stand barge out to sea.It said the activity was “suggestive, but not conclusive, of preparations for an upcoming test of a Pukguksong-3 submarine launched ballistic missile from the submersible test stand barge.”North Korea said last October it had successfully test-fired a Pukguksong-3, a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), from the sea as part of efforts to contain external threats and bolster self-defense.That launch was seen by analysts as the most provocative by North Korea since it entered dialog with the United States over its nuclear weapons and missile programs in 2018.North Korea has suspended long-range missile and nuclear tests since 2017, but efforts led by U.S. President Donald Trump to persuade it to give up its nuclear and missile programs have achieved little.There was no immediate comment from the State Department or the Pentagon on the CSIS report.At a news conference earlier Friday, Trump hailed his relationship with North Korea, saying that when he was elected people had predicted he would be at war with the country within a week.”In the meantime, we’ve gotten along with them. We didn’t get to war,” he said.Trump has held up the absence of intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear tests by North Korea since 2017 as a success from his diplomacy and has sought to play down numerous shorter-range tests in the period.”North Korea already tested a PKS-3 SLBM last October. And it didn’t cross Trump’s red line then and is unlikely to this time. Trump won’t care,” Vipin Narang, a non-proliferation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote on Twitter.South Korea’s military said the Pukguksong-3 tested last year flew 450 kilometers and reached an altitude of 910 kilometers and would have had a range of about 1,300 kilometers on a standard trajectory.News of the activity at Sinpo comes amid signs that North Korea may be preparing for a major military parade in October, which some analysts believe could be used to show off new missiles as the country has done at such events in the past.  
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President Donald Trump said Friday that he won’t allow the Pentagon to cut funding for the military’s independent newspaper, Stars and Stripes, effectively halting Defense leader’s plan to shut the paper down this month.”The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch,” Trump tweeted. “It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!”The Defense Department has ordered the paper to halt publication by September 30 and dissolve the organization by the end of January. The order, in a recent memo to Stripes, follows the Pentagon’s move earlier this year to cut the $15.5 million in funding for the paper from the Defense Department budget.The Trump White House hadn’t spoken out against the Pentagon plan to close the paper before Friday, even though it’s been in the works and publicly written about for months and was in the president’s budget request. Friday afternoon, however, Trump worked to shore up his reputation as a staunch supporter of the nation’s armed services.Trump was alleged to have made the comments about the war dead, calling them “losers,” as he was set to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery during a trip to France in November 2018, according to an article in The Atlantic.Trump denied the allegations, calling them “fake news,” and the White House released a statement Friday that said, “President Trump holds the military in the highest regard.”The Pentagon had no immediate comment on Trump’s tweet regarding the Stars and Stripes or how it may affect Esper’s plan to ultimately shut down the paper.A portion of the Stars and Stripes home page.Members of Congress have objected to the defunding move for months. And senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper this week urging him to reinstate the money. The letter, signed by 15 senators — including Republicans and Democrats — also warns Esper that the department is legally prohibited from canceling a budget program while a temporary continuing resolution to fund the federal government is in effect.”Stars and Stripes is an essential part of our nation’s freedom of the press that serves the very population charged with defending that freedom,” the senators said in the letter.Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in a separate letter to Esper in late August, also voiced opposition to the move, calling Stripes “a valued ‘hometown newspaper’ for the members of the Armed Forces, their families, and civilian employees across the globe.” He added that “as a veteran who has served overseas, I know the value that the Stars and Stripes brings to its readers.”In the memo, the department says Esper made the decision as a result of his department-wide budget review. Signed by Army Col. Paul Haverstick, acting director of the Pentagon’s Defense Media Activity, the memo says plans to close the paper are due on September 15 and the last newspaper is to be published on September 30.The memo adds that if the paper continues to be funded by either a continuing resolution “or other unforeseen circumstances” then Stripes must submit a plan by September 15 to shut down at the end of the next budget year, September 30, 2021. Haverstick’s memo says that in that case, the last date for publication of the newspaper will be determined based on budget or other circumstances.The Stripes ombudsman, Ernie Gates, told The Associated Press on Friday that shutting the paper down “would be fatal interference and permanent censorship of a unique First Amendment organization that has served U.S. troops reliably for generations.”The first newspaper called Stars and Stripes was very briefly produced in 1861 during the Civil War, but the paper began consistent publication during World War One. When the war was over, publication ended, only to restart in 1942 during World War Two, providing wartime news written by troops specifically for troops in battle.Although the paper gets funding from the Defense Department, it is editorially independent and is delivered in print and digitally to troops all over the world.The Pentagon proposed cutting the paper’s funding when making its budget request earlier this year, triggering angry reactions from members of Congress.The House-passed version of the Pentagon budget contains funding for the paper’s publication, but the Senate has not yet finalized a defense funding bill. 
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Excessive heat warnings began going into effect in California on Friday as forecasters predicted that high pressure building over the western U.S. would send temperatures soaring to dangerous levels during the long Labor Day weekend.Initial warnings issued for Southern California’s valleys, mountains and deserts were expected to expand out to the coast and into Northern California by Saturday.A “brutally hot” four days are in store, the National Weather Service wrote.Downtown Los Angeles was forecast to reach 107 degrees (41.6 Celsius) on Saturday and 108 on Sunday (42.2 Celsius). Napa in the wine country could reach 113 degrees (45 Celsius), and Palm Springs could reach 120 (48.8 Celsius).Fleeing to beaches, mountainsThe forecasts brought calls for Californians to conserve electricity and raised concerns that people flocking to beaches or mountains to escape the heat could spread the coronavirus.The rush was already on in the popular San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles, where high elevations and lakes offer respite.”I got a note that most of the campgrounds in the San Bernardino mountain range are already full and I expect them to be completely full within the hour,” forest spokesman Zach Behrens said at midmorning Friday.The California Independent System Operator, which runs California’s power grid, issued a “Flex Alert” for the hours of 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday through Monday, asking people to conserve power by not using washing machines and other appliances during the period and keeping their air conditioners at 78 degrees (25.5 Celsius) or above.”We’re not forecasting any blackouts” at the moment because of the heat, but the power system could be strained by unforeseen problems, such as a fire that disrupts a power line, Cal ISO Operations Vice President Eric Schmitt said.Cal ISO also ordered power generators to postpone routine maintenance and restore any out-of-service transmission lines.Surfers walk out of the Pacific Ocean on the first day of a record heat wave, amid the global outbreak of coronavirus disease, in Hermosa Beach, near Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 4, 2020.Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Thursday night, temporarily suspending certain pollution regulations and permit requirements for power plants so that they can produce more electricity.The power concern follows a mid-August heat wave that strained the grid to the point where Cal ISO ordered utilities to implement brief rolling blackouts for the first time since 2001. Officials said customers’ conservation significantly helped.”It was an important factor indeed,” Schmitt said. “We’re asking for that kind of support again as we go into this weekend.”The heat also was expected to hike ozone levels, resulting in poor air quality throughout a Southern California area that is home to nearly 20 million people, air regulators warned. Bay Area air quality was also expected to suffer again from wildfire smoke.Authorities, meanwhile, hoped to prevent a surge in COVID-19 infections that could occur if people engage in traditional Labor Day weekend activities.Labor Day holidaygoers were urged to wear masks and avoid large gatherings.Infection spikesCOVID-19 infections spiked in many counties after the Memorial Day weekend and again over the Fourth of July weekend as people held social gatherings or packed recreational areas.Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, did not plan to close beaches. But health authorities warned that could happen if they become too crowded, and masks will be required when people are out of the water.Up the coast, Santa Barbara County planned to allow use of the water and active uses of the beach such as running or walking but no sunbathing. Monterey County said people could cross the sand to reach the water but otherwise barred the use of beaches.Such measures were not in place on the entire coast. Surfing mecca Huntington Beach, for example, was keeping its famous shoreline fully open.FILE – Retired teacher Charles Christianson, 67, returns to his destroyed home after a wildfire in Guerneville, Calif., Aug. 25, 2020.The brewing heat wave was also expected to bring another challenge to thousands of firefighters who have been making progress on numerous wildfires, including massive complexes of multiple fires ignited by lightning last month in the San Francisco Bay Area and wine country.The fires have destroyed nearly 3,300 structures, including homes, and there have been eight deaths.The high-pressure system could produce hot, gusty winds that along with the heat will produce “elevated or near-critical fire weather,” according to a weather service forecast for Southern California.Novice campersIn the San Bernardino National Forest, fire crews will be on 24-hour shifts and extra crews also will be placed where they can quickly respond.Behrens, the forest spokesman, said that with few things to do during the pandemic, people have been flocking to the mountains all summer. Many have never camped before, putting a strain on rangers to keep things under control.Illegal campfires and barbecues outside specifically designated sites were a particular concern. Behrens said rangers planned to be out in force all weekend on “marshmallow patrols.”
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The militant group Boko Haram continues to recruit children and use them in battlefields across Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad, officials and experts say.While it has suffered major military losses in the Lake Chad Basin, the extremist group seems to be adopting new strategies to revive its influence in the region, according to the experts.Officials with the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a regional military alliance fighting the Boko Haram insurgency, say one strategy of the group is to step up child recruitment.”Information on this disturbing development was brought in by human intelligence sources and corroborated by concerned individuals and groups,” said Colonel Timothy Antiga, a spokesman for the MNJTF.”Boko Haram terrorists themselves further confirmed the atrocious acts when they posted pictures of children dressed in military fatigues and holding assault rifles in a video released during a celebration of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha,” he told VOA in a recent interview.FILE – Woman and children, rescued by Nigerian soldiers from captivity by Boko Haram fighters, rest at a refugee camp in Yola, Nigeria, May 3, 2015.The Nigerian military official added that the recruitment of child soldiers “is the latest in a retinue of brutal and inhuman tactics deployed by Boko Haram” since it began its insurgency a decade ago. Boko Haram has been fighting to create an Islamic caliphate based in Nigeria.Long-standing practiceBoko Haram has long engaged in mass abduction of schoolgirls, sexual enslavement of women and the mass murder of innocent civilians, officials and rights groups say.In July, the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict presented a report to the U.N. Security Council in which it described “gruesome violations against children” in Nigeria’s northeast, Boko Haram’s main stronghold, and other countries where the militant group has an active presence.”The children of Nigeria and neighboring countries continued to endure horrendous violations by Boko Haram, and the expansion of the group’s activities across the Lake Chad Basin region is a serious concern for the secretary-general,” said Virginia Gamba, the special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict.According to the report, which documented violations between January 2017 and December 2019, the recruitment and use of children accounted for the greatest number of verified violations, with a total of 3,601 boys and girls affected.Boko Haram was responsible for the recruitment and use of 1,385 children, mainly through abduction, used in direct combat and other support roles, including as sexual slaves, the report said.In 2014, Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 female students from their school in the Borno state town of Chibok.FILE – A woman holds a sign during a protest demanding the release of abducted secondary school girls from the remote village of Chibok, in Lagos, May 5, 2014.The kidnappings gained international attention when many world leaders campaigned for the release of the schoolgirls. Some of the girls escaped or were rescued by Nigerian military forces. Currently, the militants are believed to be holding about 112 of the girls.New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently said Boko Haram militants used child suicide bombers in an early August attack on a site for displaced people in northern Cameroon, killing at least 17 civilians, including five children and six women.”Using apparent children as suicide bombers to attack displaced people is a grossly repugnant war crime,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at HRW, said in a statement.Exploiting victims of conflictJohn Campbell, a senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, says while Boko Haram has been using children between the ages of 5 and 8, the militant group has also relied on older children whose families have been killed during the conflict.FILE – This Dec. 24, 2014, photo shows Zahra’u Babangida, a 13 -year-old girl arrested with explosives strapped to her body, in Kano, Nigeria.”The small children are being used as suicide bombers and having absolutely no idea whatsoever what is going on,” he told VOA, “but if you take older children, 13, 14 and 15 years old, particularly girls, as far as we can tell they are very often orphans.””They are very often promised immediate entrance into heaven as martyrs, and their position in this earthly life is pretty terrible,” he added.Campbell, who is a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, said, “We have to consider that in some cases what they’re doing may be voluntary.” “Talking about older and female suicide bombers, there is also the question of the extent to which they are trying to avenge family members, spouses and so forth that have been killed by security services,” he said.Terrorism expert Mohammed Tukur Baba, who teaches at the Federal University of Birnin Kebbi in Nigeria, says while the use of child soldiers is nothing new in Africa, regional governments should increase their efforts to create better lives for children, in order to dissuade them from joining armed groups.Tukur Baba added that such efforts “have to be regional so that we get these children out of the street and on to schools and meaningful activities.”VOA’s Carol Guensburg contributed to this report from Washington.
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U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in the Oval Office on Friday, the White House said in a statement.Trump will attend a signing ceremony and participate in a trilateral meeting afterward, the statement, issued late Thursday, said, but it did not specify what would be signed.After the first day of negotiations on normalizing economic relations, Vučić said that he was presented with a draft agreement which mentioned mutual recognition and that he rejected it.Trump’s special envoy for the peace talks between Kosovo and Serbia, Richard Grenell, took to Twitter saying that it was not true.Not true. https://t.co/oDyaqs7ZvJ— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) September 3, 2020For his part, Hoti did not comment on whether there was such a proposal but stressed that “harmful agreements for Kosovo, unacceptable for Kosovo, have never come and will never come from the White House.”On Thursday evening, after the leaders from Belgrade and Pristina ended the first day of negotiations, Grenell tweeted:It’s been a productive day. I am hopeful.It’s been a productive day. I am hopeful.— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) September 3, 2020Earlier, Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, who is co-hosting the meeting along with Grenell, struck an optimistic tone about the negotiations.O’Brien also thanked the American Financial Corporation for International Development, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the American Export-Import Bank, for joining the talks.“Very good round of discussions this afternoon with the leaders of #Serbia and #Kosovo. They made real progress today. Thanks to @DFCgov, @MCCgov, and @EximBankUS for joining. #EconomicNormalization means jobs for young people. Talks continue tomorrow!” – NSA Robert O’Brien“Very good round of discussions this afternoon with the leaders of #Serbia and #Kosovo. They made real progress today. Thanks to @DFCgov, @MCCgov, and @EximBankUS for joining. #EconomicNormalization means jobs for young people. Talks continue tomorrow!” – NSA Robert O’Brien pic.twitter.com/7usHrh2w2N— NSC (@WHNSC) September 3, 2020After the meeting Friday at the White House, Hoti and Vučić are scheduled to meet separately with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department.Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but the latter has refused to recognize it. Kosovo’s independence also is not recognized by Russia or China.Kosovo’s independence has been recognized, however, by more than 100 members of the United Nations, including the United States, and most of the European Union member states, except for Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Spain.  
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Four Venezuelans are under arrest in Colombia for their alleged roles in a botched attempt to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power a few months ago.Colombian officials announced Thursday the suspects are accused of arming and training mercenaries who in May invaded Venezuela by boat.The amphibious attacked dubbed “Operation Gideon” was carried out by three former U.S. Special Forces soldiers acting as mercenaries.Venezuelan soldiers arrested former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry, who were sentenced to 20 years in prison in Venezuela.The third former soldier is back in the United States.  Jordan Goudreau, who operates a Florida security firm, has claimed responsibility for the failed attack. 
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A flurry of high-level visits from foreign officials and legislators has pushed Taiwan’s international visibility to a new peak, despite chronic opposition from China, analysts in Taipei say, and the boost has raised people’s confidence that their normally isolated island is getting international respect.Scholars caution, though, that the run of encounters will not give Taiwan additional, formal diplomatic recognition nor earn it a seat in international bodies.A 90-member parliamentary delegation from the Czech Republic is visiting Taiwan this week through Friday. Delegation head and Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and told legislators in Taipei that he was “Taiwanese.”Last month, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became Washington’s highest-ranking official visitor to Taiwan since the 1970s. A Japanese legislative group led by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori came just after Azar’s trip.International visibilityVisits such as these have special meaning in Taiwan because China urges its more than 170 diplomatic allies worldwide to avoid relations with the island. China sees Taiwan as part of its territory, subject to eventual unification despite widespread opposition among Taiwanese. The two sides have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists lost to the Communists and rebased their government in Taiwan.“Certainly, Taiwan’s international visibility has been raised and we have received a lot of empathy if not solid support coming from Washington, but also from European capitals, and I don’t think it will turn into a war [with China] across the Taiwan Strait as a result,” said Lin Chong-pin, a retired strategic studies professor in Taiwan. “So, it adds to the sense that Taiwan is a sovereign country.”The recent visitors lauded Taiwan’s containment of COVID-19, with cases now at a cumulative 489. Taiwan throttled the outbreak early in the year through border closures, contact tracing and checks on flights from the disease origin in China.Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thursday called results of the Czech delegation’s trip “fruitful” and said relations would become more “diverse and comprehensive.”Overseas attention to Taiwan has stoked confidence among ordinary Taiwanese, who are used to Chinese officials urging that foreign officials avoid Taiwan – and getting their way because of China’s global economic clout. Taiwan has added to the diplomatic momentum over the past two months by announcing the reopening of a representative office in Guam and plans for a new one in France.China has raised questions in parts of the world this year over perceptions it fumbled the world’s first COVID-19 outbreak and that its maritime expansion violates international law. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that the Czech delegation leader would pay a “heavy price” for his Taiwan trip.“In addition to the Czech Republic, I think many countries in the world that were once economically dependent on China are now rethinking their relationship with China, and China is gradually not favored,” said Bernie Huang, 31, a Taipei high school teacher.“The disfavor of China in the world is beneficial for Taiwan to maintain foreign relations,” Huang said, reflecting the view of many citizens.“The Taiwanese government should definitely seize this promising opportunity,” he said.’Makes me proud’Officials in Taiwan will get a boost in trust from citizens via the foreign visits, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei.“Taiwanese people will think, look, people have come from the U.S., the Czech Republic and Japan, so I think it helps Taiwanese people’s confidence in the government of Tsai Ing-wen,” he said.Ruby Liu, 30, who works for a magazine publisher in Taipei, said the number of foreign visitors interested in learning about Taiwan’s disease prevention “makes me proud.”“In the past, Taiwan is isolated by the world,” Liu, 30, said.“We should grasp the opportunities to evaluate our international status,” she added.The recent visits, however, signal no “substantive” change in Taiwan’s foreign relations, Huang Kwei-bo said.Taiwan, for example, still has just 15 formal diplomatic allies, mostly small, impoverished countries in the Americas and South Pacific. Japan, the Czech Republic and the United States all formally recognize China.Recognition for Taiwan’s COVID-19 control by the World Health Organization cannot get Taiwan into the WHO itself, said Chao Chien-min, dean of social sciences at Chinese Culture University in Taipei. China blocks Taiwan’s annual bids to participate.“This year Taiwan has been one of the best countries in terms of disease prevention. It could be called a model student,” Chao said. “All countries including the WHO have approved of what Taiwan’s doing but Taiwan has no way of participating in the WHO.”Brisker arms sales to Taiwan may emerge from stronger Taipei-Washington relations, Chao said, but improvements in that two-way relationship will stop there. Japanese officials are trying to strengthen their own ties with China despite the parliamentary delegation’s visit, he added. Taiwan, he said, needs better relations with China to bolster its diplomacy worldwide.Tsai’s government rejects Beijing’s dialogue condition that both sides identify as part of China. The two sides have not talked formally since Tsai took office in 2016. 
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President Donald Trump strongly denied on Thursday a magazine report saying he had spoken disparagingly about fallen U.S. military personnel buried in Europe and declined to visit an American cemetery during a trip to France because he thought it unimportant.The Atlantic reported that Trump, a Republican who is running for reelection and who has touted his record helping U.S. veterans, had referred to Marines buried in an American cemetery near Paris as “losers” and declined to visit in 2018 because of concern that the rain that day would mess up his hair.Trump told reporters on Thursday the story was false.”To think that I would make statements negative to our military and fallen heroes when nobody has done what I’ve done,” for the U.S. armed forces, Trump said. “It’s a total lie … It’s a disgrace.”The president said he did not go to the cemetery because weather prevented a helicopter flight. The alternative, a long drive, would have meant going through very busy areas of Paris and the Secret Service objected, he said.”The Secret Service told me, ‘You can’t do it.’ I said, ‘I have to do it. I want to be there.’ They said, ‘You can’t do it,'” Trump said.The Atlantic did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment outside regular business hours.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who is leading Trump in national polls ahead of the November 3 election, emphasized his own commitment to helping members of the military in a response to the report.”If the revelations in today’s Atlantic article are true, then they are yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the President of the United States,” Biden said in a statement released by his campaign.”And if I have the honor of serving as the next commander in chief, I will ensure that our American heroes know that I will have their back and honor their sacrifice — always.”As a presidential candidate, Trump made negative comments about now-deceased Sen. John McCain for having been captured during the Vietnam War.“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said in 2015 when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination.Trump said on Thursday he disagreed with McCain but still respected him.”I was never a fan. I will admit that openly,” Trump said.”I disagreed with John McCain. But I still respected him.”  
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Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler on Thursday defended the Trump administration’s record on protecting the nation’s air and water and said a second term would bring a greater focus on pollution cleanups in disadvantaged communities and less emphasis on climate change.In a speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the EPA’s founding, Wheeler said the agency was moving back toward an approach that had long promoted economic growth as well as a healthy environment and drawn bipartisan support.”Unfortunately, in the past decade or so, some members of former administrations and progressives in Congress have elevated single issue advocacy – in many cases focused just on climate change – to virtue-signal to foreign capitals, over the interests of communities within their own country,” he said.Critics say agency now aims ‘to protect polluters’Environmental groups and former EPA chiefs from both parties have accused Wheeler and his predecessor, Scott Pruitt, of undermining the agency’s mission by weakening or eliminating dozens of regulations intended to protect air and water quality, reduce climate change and protect endangered species.”EPA was founded to protect people—you, me and our families—but the Trump administration has turned it into an agency to protect polluters.” said Gina McCarthy, who led the agency during the Obama administration and now is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.Under President Donald Trump, EPA has raised the bar for requiring environmental reviews of highway and pipeline construction; reduced limits and reporting requirements for methane emissions; rolled back vehicle fuel economy and emissions standards; slashed the number of protected streams and wetlands; and repealed federal limits on carbon emissions from power plants.Courts have blocked some of the changes, but others have taken effect.In his remarks, Wheeler said that if Trump is reelected EPA would support “community-driven environmentalism” that emphasizes on-the-ground results such as faster cleanup of Superfund toxic waste dumps and abandoned industrial sites that could be used for new businesses.He pledged to require cost-benefit analyses for proposed rules and to make public the scientific justification for regulations, saying it would “bring much needed sunlight into our regulatory process” and saying opponents “want decisions to be made behind closed doors.”Critics say a science “transparency” policy EPA is considering would hamper development of health and safety regulations by preventing consideration of studies with confidential information about patients and businesses.Wheeler spoke at the Richard Nixon library in Yorba Linda, California. The Republican president established the EPA in 1970 amid public revulsion over smog-choked skies and waterways so laced with toxins they were unfit for swimming or fishing. Some of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, were enacted during his administration.‘Cleaner than it’s ever been in our lifetimes’Wheeler, an EPA and Senate staffer in the 1990s and a former coal industry lobbyist, said the agency had accomplished much. Lead gasoline, paint, asbestos and dioxins and hundreds of hazardous chemicals and compounds have been banned, he said.”America’s environment today is cleaner than it’s ever been in our lifetimes,” he said, adding that during the Trump administration, air pollution has fallen while Superfund cleanups have accelerated and EPA programs have pumped $40 billion into clean-water infrastructure upgrades.But the agency has become too bureaucratic and confrontational, he said — delaying permits needlessly, issuing conflicting orders to businesses and communities, and backing policies that worsen some environmental problems to solve others.East Coast governors have blocked natural gas pipelines in the name of fighting climate change but the result has been more gas imports from Russia, Wheeler said. He blamed California’s support of greater reliance on renewable energy and less on gas for rolling power blackouts that had resulted in sewage spills.”Instead of confusing words with actions, and choosing empty symbolism over doing a good job, we can focus our attention and resources on helping communities help themselves,” Wheeler said.McCarthy and five other former EPA chiefs whose terms date as far back as the Reagan administration issued a statement this month saying Trump had abandoned the agency’s “core mission of protecting human health and the environment.””Actions during the Trump administration have further decreased public confidence in the agency’s credibility, undercut its historic dedication to high ethical standards, and affected employee morale,” they said in a joint statement. 
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning that Russia is trying to undermine Americans’ confidence in the security and validity of mail-in voting.In a bulletin labeled “For official use only” circulated Thursday, the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis said Russia was “likely to continue amplifying criticism of vote by mail and shifting voting processes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine public trust in the electoral process.”The bulletin said that in mid-August, Russian state media outlets and proxy websites published criticism of widespread mail-in voting, “claiming ineligible voters could receive ballots due to out-of-date voter rolls, leaving a vast amount of ballots unaccounted for and vulnerable to tampering.”It said that since March, Russian outlets also sought to undermine confidence in mail-in voting processes, alleging that they provide “vast opportunities for voter fraud.”The bulletin said Russia is likely to step up trolling by promoting allegations of U.S. election system corruption, failures and “foreign malign interference” to undermine public trust in U.S. elections. It noted that following the Iowa caucuses earlier this year, Russian outlets claimed that the result was “fixed in favor of establishment candidates” and that voting system problems had resulted in “ballot manipulation.”The Department of Homeland Security had no immediate comment. Russia has denied interfering in U.S. elections.Adam Schiff, the Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said the bulletin validated his concern that Russia is seeking to “sow distrust in our democratic process.”By attacking U.S. mail-in ballot integrity, Schiff said, “Russia is echoing destructive and false narratives around vote by mail that President [Donald] Trump and his enablers, including Attorney General [William] Barr, have been aggressively promoting.”Trump has repeatedly criticized mail-in voting, saying in one July 30 Tweet: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.”
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Trump administration have informally agreed to keep a stopgap government-wide funding bill — needed to avert a shutdown at the end of this month — free of controversy or conflict. The accord is aimed at keeping any possibility of a government shutdown off the table despite ongoing battles over COVID-19 relief legislation, while sidestepping the potential for other shutdown drama in the run-up to the November election. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference in San Francisco, Sept. 2, 2020.That’s according to Democratic and GOP aides on Capitol Hill who have been briefed on a Tuesday conversation between Pelosi, D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. They required anonymity to characterize an exchange they were informed of but not directly party to. “House Democrats are for a clean continuing resolution,” said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammil. The definition of “clean” tends to vary among those steeped in Capitol Hill jargon, but it would not necessarily rule out noncontroversial add-ons like routine extensions of programs like federal flood insurance or authority to spend money for highway programs. Some lawmakers are sure to seek substantive legislation and even COVID-related items if consensus could somehow evolve. “We do believe that we’ll be able to get funding to avoid a shutdown,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Thursday. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 1, 2020.The duration of the temporary funding measure or what noncontroversial items might ride along haven’t been settled, aides say, and the Pelosi spokesman declined to further characterize the agreement. The government faces a Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a shutdown like the 2018-2019 shutdown sparked by Trump’s insistence on more funding to construct his U.S.-Mexico border wall. There is sentiment among some Democrats for the stopgap legislation to extend into next year, but December appears to be the administration’s preference and a more likely result. The development comes as lawmakers are absent from Washington but are preparing to return for a brief pre-election session that’s likely to involve battling over COVID relief legislation. But the chances of another rescue bill have ebbed as the summer is nearing an end. The Mnuchin-Pelosi agreement on preventing a shutdown appears aimed at ensuring that the consequences of gridlock on the COVID relief front do not include a politically-freighted partial shutdown. Monica Crowley, a spokeswoman for Mnuchin, said Treasury would decline to comment. 
 
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Tuesday marked the first day of school in China’s northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, but a boycott of classes left many classrooms and playgrounds empty. Hundreds of ethnic Mongolian students, parents and teachers are protesting a new bilingual education policy they say will endanger Mongolian language and culture.The policy, announced before the start of the fall semester, requires schools to use national textbooks in Mandarin starting in the first grade of primary schools and in middle schools, replacing the current Mongolian textbooks. The Mandarin instruction is expected to expand to politics and morality courses and history classes over the next two years.Over the past few days, protests by Mongolian students, parents, teachers and ordinary herders have taken place in many cities in Inner Mongolia, all opposing the “bilingual teaching” policy implemented by the Inner Mongolia Education Department.Videos provided by the South Mongolia Human Rights Information Center show hundreds of middle school students in school uniforms chanting, “Defend Mongolian culture and language,” while some of them, with the help of parents and citizens, are seen breaking through a closed gate and leaving school.Many others are not choosing to make public demonstrations against the policy, fearing possible violent retaliation by Chinese authorities. Dagula, a mother of an elementary student, told VOA she was keeping her child at home.’Just stay at home'”Now everyone is saying, ‘Don’t march on the streets or anything, just stay at home. As long as you don’t send your kids to school, everything will be fine,’ ” she said.Like other parents of Mongolian students, Dagula worries that if Mandarin replaces Mongolian in classrooms, it may lead to the disappearance of their language.The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region government’s interpretation of the policy published on August 31 says “the textbooks reflect the will of the Party and the State” and “inherit the advanced achievements of Chinese excellent culture and human civilization.” The moves are being promoted as a major reform initiative that has popular support.Mongolians protest at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ulaanbaatar against China’s plan to introduce Mandarin-only classes at schools in the neighboring Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, Aug. 31, 2020.Yilalatu, another parent, disagrees. He told VOA that the younger generations are already heavily influenced by Mandarin culture and the new policy will further marginalize Mongolian language and culture, which will cause the younger generations to lose their Mongolian identity.”I’m worried that if children learn Mandarin from first grade, they will forget their mother tongue,” he said. “This has happened. The father and mother are Mongolian, the child who learned Mandarin since primary school has become Han and doesn’t know anything [in Mongolian]. He can’t read or speak Mongolian, even doesn’t know how to say eating or drinking in Mongolian.”He said teachers, students and parents in Mongolian schools are simply asking the authorities to withdraw their new policies, resume their previous practices and start Mandarin classes in the third grade of primary school. They argue that starting later won’t affect their Mandarin skills. He explained that was what his own child did. Now a college graduate, his child’s Mandarin is better than Mongolian.Dagula said she agrees, noting that parents can accept teaching solely in Mongolian in primary school and switching to Mandarin in middle school. She said that when she was in middle school, she was one of the best students at Mandarin. She said she thought that mastering Mandarin would be of great help to her children’s future development, but that the descendants of the Mongolian people must first learn their own language and culture.Deadline for home-schoolersChinese authorities appear to be planning consequences for parents who are not sending their children to school.According to sources who asked not to be named to avoid retribution, Mongolians who work for the government or who are Communist Party members were given a deadline of Thursday to send their children back to school. Otherwise, they have been told, they could lose their jobs or be expelled from the party. The government also threatened to take away social benefits of those who disobey.Dagula said she had received phone calls from her boss at work asking her to set an example by taking her child to school.In the face of rising protests, the government also is proposing new security measures.During a tour in the region this week, China’s Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi ordered the police to “severely clamp down on domestic and foreign forces that carry out infiltration and sabotage” and to promote “the fight against separatism” in the ethnic minority region.Police deployedEyewitnesses report seeing armed police deployed on standby in protest locations.  Videos circulating on the internet show hundreds of heavily armed riot police guarding Xinhua Square, the largest square in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, and some of the protesters being taken away by police.According to the South China Morning Post, authorities are using a facial recognition system to identify and then arrest the protesters.Chinese authorities are also controlling the channels of expression of public opinion. The WeChat accounts of groups that expressed opposition to the new policy have been blockedBut Dagula said Mongolians were willing to pay the price to protect their language.”In order to protect the Mongolian language, everyone will pay the price, and we will certainly pay the price,” she said. “There must be a solution. That’s what I’m looking forward to right now.”Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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