Month: April 2019

Donald Trump has released a copy of a letter from Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, praising their meeting as the start of a "meaningful journey".

The US president called it a "very nice note from Chairman Kim" and said "great progress is being made".

In his letter, which was written 24 days after the June 12 summit in Singapore, Kim addressed Mr Trump as "Your Excellency Mr President".

He wrote: "I deeply appreciate the energetic and extraordinary efforts made by Your Excellency Mr President for the improvement of relations between the two countries and the faithful implementation of the joint statement.

"I sincerely believe that the strong will, sincere efforts, and unique approach of myself and Your Excellency Mr President, aimed at opening up a new future between the DPRK and the US, will surely come to fruition."

Kim said he had "invariable trust and confidence" in Mr Trump and that there had been "epochal progress" in relations between the two countries.

 

Wet and muddy from their trek across the Mexican border, immigrant children say they sat or lay on the cold, concrete floor of the immigration holding centres where they were taken.

It was hard to sleep with lights shining all night and guards kicking their feet, they say. They were hungry, after being given what they say were frozen sandwiches and smelly food.

Younger children cried in caged areas where they were crammed in with teens, and they clamored for their parents. Toilets were filthy, and running water was scarce, they say. They waited, unsure and frightened of what the future might bring.

"I didn’t know where my mother was," said Griselda, 16, of Guatemala, who entered the U.S. with her mother in the McAllen, Texas, area. "I saw girls ask where their mothers were, but the guards would not tell them."

The children’s descriptions of various facilities are part of a voluminous and at times scathing report filed in federal court this week in Los Angeles in a case over whether the Trump administration is meeting its obligations under a long-standing settlement governing how young immigrants should be treated in custody.

Dozens of volunteer lawyers, interpreters and other legal workers fanned out across the Southwest in June and July to interview more than 200 immigrant parents and children in holding facilities, detention centres and a youth shelter.

Advocates said the government isn’t complying with the decades-old Flores agreement, which lays out detention conditions and release requirements for immigrant children.

"They have spoken out loud and clear, and what they’ve said is they are experiencing enforced hunger, enforced dehydration, enforced sleeplessness," said Peter Schey, an attorney for the children who has asked the court to appoint a special monitor to enforce the agreement. "They are terrorized, and I think it is time for the courts and the public to hear their voices."

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration and border enforcement, did not immediately comment. But in their own reports to the court last month, government monitors said that immigration authorities were complying with the settlement agreement.

In his report, Henry Moak Jr., juvenile coordinator for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, documented the air temperature as appropriate at a number of border facilities and said he drank the water himself from five-gallon containers at a processing centre in McAllen.

He said some children and parents told him they disliked the food and weren’t sure the water was drinkable, but there were no allegations the food was spoiled.

At the Yuma station in Arizona, he said he tried the water there, too, and, "I can confirm the water fountains worked and the water tasted clean."

The litany of complaints compiled by advocates comes after a global outcry drove the Trump administration to stop separating immigrant families at the border.

Authorities are now reuniting parents and children under a separate court order and said they will seek to detain families together during their immigration proceedings, though under the Flores agreement immigrant children are generally supposed to be released from custody in about 20 days.

Many of the children described conditions in US Customs and Border Protection facilities where they were taken and processed in the initial days after crossing the border. They were identified in the reports solely by their first names.

Timofei, a 15-year-old from Russia who sought asylum at the border with his parents over their beliefs as Jehovah’s Witnesses, said night and day blended together in the locked, crowded room where he was held with other boys. It had a single window overlooking an empty corridor, he said. He said there was no soap in the bathroom, and he only sometimes got a single-use toothbrush.

He said he was offered a shower upon arriving at the San Ysidro, California, facility but didn’t take one and wasn’t allowed one on his second or third day there.

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Some children were later sent to the Casa Padre shelter in Texas for immigrant children traveling alone or who were separated from their parents. The facility operates under a contract with the Department of Health and Human Services. There, teenage boys described going hungry and not being given enough time to speak with their parents by phone.

Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, said the agency wouldn’t comment on specific cases but if a contractor doesn’t comply with agency procedures, the issue is addressed.

Also in Texas, Keylin, a 16-year-old girl from Honduras, said she traveled north with her mother after her mother’s life was threatened back home. The pair turned themselves in at the border near McAllen and were taken to a facility she called the "ice box" because it was so cold.

A day later, they were taken to a facility with caged areas she called the "dog house." There, they were separated and allowed to speak once for 10 minutes over the next four days, she said.

FAQ | Refugee status

In both places, the food was frozen and smelled bad and she couldn’t eat it, she said. She said female guards yelled at her and other girls and made them strip naked and leered at them before they showered.

"I was very frightened and depressed the entire time. I was scared of the guards and scared I would be deported without my mother," she said, adding they were later reunited and sent to a family detention centre.

Angel, a 13-year-old who came from Mexico with his mother, said guards told boys in his cell in McAllen, Texas they were going to be adopted and wouldn’t see their parents again. He was later sent to family detention with his mother where he said they passed an asylum screening and were awaiting release.

"I am excited to get out of here and get past this nightmare," he said.

Russia’s FSB security services raided a top space research centre Friday as part of an investigation into staff alleged to have passed secret information on Moscow’s hypersonic missile programme to the West.

The raid took place on the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TsNIIMash), which is the Russian space agency Roscosmos’s in-house think tank.

Sources told the Kommersant daily newspaper that the probe was over "high treason," with around 10 people suspected of "cooperation with Western secret services."

Vladimir Ustimenko, a Roscosmos spokesman, confirmed the search to the newspaper and said the agency was providing maximum assistance to the security services.  

The search came just one day after the Defense Ministry published several videos of new weapons systems – two of which were Russia’s publicly acknowledged hypersonic missile projects.

The general features of these weapons, known as Avangard and Burevestnik, have been publicly known since March, when they were announced by President Vladimir Putin.

It was not immediately clear what information might have been leaked, with investigators telling Kommersant and other outlets that information on hypersonic projects was revealed to “western intelligence services.”

TsNIIMash is not a military outfit, but Kommersant reports it was involved in some capacity with hypersonic missile research conducted by the Tactical Missile Corporation, a different company. According to unidentified security sources, “it has been established that the leak occurred from employees of TsNIIMash.”

Those employees, Kommersant reported, were in contact with a former TsNIIMash employee, Dmitry Payson, who now works for Roscosmos.

Mr Payson, a soft spoken rocket scientist with thick graying hair, is well known within the Russian – and international – space communities.

Roscosmos is the main international partner of Nasa, and Payson often attended international scientific conferences.

Asked by RBC for comment, he asked not to be named in connection with the investigation. The news shocked the Russian space community.

One well-read industry blogger, Vitaly Egorov, wrote on Facebook that Payson “is one of the most literate experts of Russia’s space industry … for me, the ultimate assessment of the quality of a post was whether Dmitry held it.

"I don’t believe for a minute he was leaking information, he’s too smart for that.” The FSB has not released any statement on the investigation. 

Two children were bitten in the leg in the waters off New York’s Fire Island on Wednesday in possible shark attacks, prompting beach closings, authorities said.

Suffolk County police said they were investigating the separate incidents, which occurred less than 5 miles apart at Sailors Haven and Atlantique beaches. Both beaches were temporarily closed.

A 13-year-old boy was bitten while on a boogie board at Atlantique beach and was treated at a hospital, according to Town of Islip spokeswoman Caroline Smith. EMTs at the scene removed a tooth from the boy’s leg.

Warning: Graphic image below

At Sailors Haven beach, a 12-year-old girl suffered bite marks "consistent with a large fish" while wading, said Elizabeth Rogers, a spokeswoman for Fire Island National Seashore, which runs the beach.

Rogers said authorities had not confirmed the wounds to be shark bites, but said the Suffolk police marine bureau was waiting for the state Department of Environmental Conservation to identify the tooth.

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Philip Pollina said he and his wife heard their daughter Lola scream, then she emerged with a bloody leg.

Pollina says lifeguards initially thought a Portuguese man-of-war had stung her but then concluded there were "teeth marks."

"I saw something next to me and I kind of felt pain and I saw a fin, I don’t know how to describe it, and then I ran out of the water because I felt it," Lola said at a press conference. "It was not that big like 3 (0.91 metres) or 4 feet (1.22 metres)."

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement saying he had deployed DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos to lead a multi-agency investigation into the possible shark attacks.

"I am relieved that both teenagers who were attacked have been released from the hospital," Cuomo said. "The State will do everything we can to protect beachgoers and keep the community safe." 

 

“England’s going all the way!” a few hundred Three Lions supporters chanted at kickoff, even though the very fact that Gareth Southgate’s team was playing in this third-place match against Belgium meant they weren’t.

The match had been derided as a repeat friendly, as England previously lost to Belgium in Kaliningrad when both teams had already qualified for the knockout stages.

That didn’t stop a cadre of rabid fans from coming to show their love for a side that had defied expectations by reaching its first World Cup semifinal in 28 years. 

“To those of us who have been to all six games, it’s almost churlish to leave the team at the death when we can say thank you and express our support,” said Garford Beck, 56, a civil servant from London who was wearing a bicorne hat with his England jersey. 

Having attended all 10 qualifying matches leading up to the tournament, he also went to all seven of England’s World Cup matches, criss-crossing more than 1,500 miles of eastern Europe.

The third-place game ended in a disappointing 0-2 loss after England failed to convert several agonising second-half opportunities, but fans refused to be deterred. 

The beating will be an afterthought compared to the upwelling of hope and pride in the team in recent weeks and the rehabilitation of manager Gareth Southgate after his infamous 1996 penalty miss. In addition, Tottenham striker Harry Kane is now a lock to become the second Englishman since Gary Lineker to win the World Cup golden boot after Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku failed to score.

Joanne Gover, a Sainsbury’s supply chain manager from Milton Keynes, had followed the team through a third World Cup, only missing the quarterfinal when she had to fly back to the UK for work. 

“We have to be there to show the team we’re with them when they’re with us,” she said.

“All we’ve got is a chest cold, a bunch of (mosquito) bites and a huge hole in our credit card, but it was worth it,” Mr Garford said of the seven-week campaign. England was less than a half-hour from the final when Croatia scored an equalising goal on Wednesday, he added.

“I mustn’t grumble, mustn’t complain, I never thought we’d be using all seven match tickets,” he said.

While some 10,000 Britons attended the semifinal defeat to Croatia, the Football Association estimated that 1,500 attended the third-place match. Among them were Jamie Vardy’s wife Rebekah and Harry Maguire’s girlfriend Fern Hawkins. 

Mr Garford also met goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s parents after the match.

“It’s a strange one,” said Kevin Miles of the Football Supporters Federation. “Everyone is disappointed about losing the semi-final but also proud they’ve come so far.”

The English fans who did attend made more than their share of noise, banging on drums and singing songs. The roar was just as loud when England was on a break as when Belgium was. 

James Monks, 25, of Wolverhampton said he thought third-place World Cup matches should be abolished, but said he was glad to see St Petersburg, the most beautiful Russian city he’s been to yet. 

He was also happy to be part of the football frenzy that had swept through England fans during the World Cup. 

“Before the tournament nobody cared about England, there was no positivity toward the country,” he said. “After we put six past Panama and won the penalty (against Colombia), everyone got behind them. Hopefully that will reflect on the future.”

“It’s united the country for once despite Brexit and everything. It’s the first time in a few years people have felt national pride and togetherness,” said Philip Deaton, 38, who is from Harrogate but now teaches English in China. 

The third-place match also gave less experienced fans the chance to see an England World Cup match, since tickets were much easier to come by than at the semi-final, where supporters paid hundreds or even thousands of pounds. 

Anton Faith, 32, who is from Blackburn but now works at a youth football programme in Florida, was relishing the chance to see England and “get behind football coming home”. With a St George’s cross wrapped around his shoulders, Russian fans were asking for selfies before the game. 

He tried for several World Cup matches in the FIFA random draw but only won tickets to this one. He has woken up to the song “Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home)” every game day this World Cup, his wife Ashley revealed. 

“People want to be able to see their country play,” Mr Faith said.

Many England fans were reluctant to leave the stadium after the match.

“I’m a bit sad that it’s all over to be honest, I didn’t want it to end, but have to get back to work,” Mr Garford said. “We’re a bit down it’s all over with it, but still very proud of the team what they’ve done.”

One thing the English seemed to have picked up here was the old Russian adage that “hope dies last”. “We’re still proud, it’s a good team,” Ms Gover said. “Next time we’ll win it.”

For a few glorious moments, it could have been 1998 all over again. Thousands of supporters on the streets of Paris and beyond, a soundtrack of triumphant bursts of La Marseillaise, and everywhere you looked – red, white and blue. By the end of the night, the picture was grimmer, as police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse unruly mobs.

France’s World Cup win 20 years ago, when Brazil were crushed 3-0 in Paris, will always retain its special place in the hearts of the nation’s footballing fraternity, given it was their maiden triumph on the biggest stage of all. But this summer’s success in Russia has run it pretty close.

In 1998, the numbers in the Champs-Elysees – the “world’s most…

It is a conundrum that has plagued many a French president: how to take a holiday without being accused of falling asleep at the wheel of the nation.

Emmanuel Macron believes he cracked the compromise between presidential work and play by turning an old fortress on the Riviera into France’s Camp David.

The Fort de Brégançon, where Mr Macron is hosting Theresa May to discuss her Chequers plan for Brexit on Friday, is perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Mediterranean and Porquerolles islands, with its own helipad and private beach surrounded by vineyards.

The Prime Minister will be the first foreign dignitary to visit Mr Macron at his “summer Elysée”.

A military fortress for centuries, Charles…

New Caledonia agreed Tuesday to tougher protections around a huge swathe of some of the world’s last near-pristine coral reefs, in a move conservationists hailed as a major breakthrough.

The Pacific nation, a French overseas territory, is home to a rich array of wildlife including 2.5 million seabirds and over 9,300 marine species, such as dugongs – marine mammals related to manatees – and nesting green sea turtles, many of which thrive in and around remote zones off the island nation’s coast.

The archipelago boasts some of the world’s healthiest reefs, including Astrolabe, Petrie, Chesterfield and Bellona, which are considered exceptional examples of coral ecosystems.

After years of work, the New Caledonia government Tuesday voted to set up marine protected areas (MPAs) surrounding the reefs, and to strengthen an existing one around Entrecasteaux, which is already a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The move will see 28,000 square kilometres (10,810 square miles) of waters safeguarded from commercial and industrial fishing and other exploitation, helping conserve habitats and allow marine life to feed and reproduce undisturbed.

Tourist activity around the reefs is also set to be more rigorously controlled.

According to the South Pacific Tourism Organisation, New Caledonia had 27,000 visits in the first three months of the year, making up around six percent of trips to the South Pacific region.

"This is the kind of leadership we need to see in coral reef conservation and we applaud it," said John Tanzer, the head of oceans for WWF International.

"With good management, these marine protected areas will help maintain fish populations and ecosystem health that will build the reef’s resilience to the impacts of climate change in future."

Christophe Chevillon, head of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy in New Caledonia, which helped draft the plans, said it would elevate the territory as a global leader in ocean protection, but more could still be done.

"Although we believe this to be a major breakthrough, we are convinced that New Caledonia can still go further and lead the way for other Pacific countries," he told AFP.

"In fact, the 28,000 square kilometres protected only represents two percent of the Coral Sea Natural Park."

The MPAs fall within New Caledonia’s enormous 1.3 million-square kilometre Coral Sea Natural Park, which was established in 2014 and covers the country’s entire exclusive economic zone.

Britain has urged the Zimbabwean government to remove its troops from the streets of Harare after at least six people were killed in post-election violence between security forces and opposition supporters. 

The intervention came as opposition leader Nelson Chamisa again claimed that he had won the Zimbabwe’s presidential election despite the electoral officials saying they had not completed the process of approval and collation necessary to announce them.

“Announcing it is just a formality,” Mr Chamisa, 40, told reporters in Harare, who said the country’s electoral commission had known the true outcome since Monday. 

The opposition leader, who is seeking to unseat Zanu-PF’s Emmerson Mnangagwa as president of Zimbabwe, said his MDC Alliance would releases evidence to prove his victory after the release of official results, which were due to be announced late on Thursday night. 

A source close to Mr Mnangagwa told The Telegraph that the results would actually show a victory for the incumbent. 

Zimbabwe’s electoral commission on Thursday announced that Zanu-PF had taken 145 seats and the MDC Alliance 60 seats in the country’s 210 member parliament. Two went to independents. 

But it said that release of the presidential results had been delayed by an electoral law that requires representatives of all 23 candidates to check and approve returns from over 10,000 polling stations. 

"There’s absolutely no skulduggery or anything untoward happening,” said Emmanuel Magade, the deputy chair of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, said on Thursday when asked why the presidential results had yet to be announced. 

Legally officials said they have until August 4 to release results. 

But the delay has fuelled an atmosphere of mistrust that has already exploded into violence.

Soldiers were seen beating opposition supporters and firing automatic weapons at fleeing  civilians after they were deployed to quell violent opposition protests against alleged vote rigging on Wednesday afternoon. 

Police said the death toll had climbed to six by Thursday afternoon, and that 14 people had been injured. 

The violence and the decision to send in the army in response drew widespread condemnation from the international community, which is pressuring Mr Mnangagwa to prove he has broken with the political violence of the Robert Mugabe era. 

Catriona Liang, the British ambassador, condemded the “excessive use of force” against protesters and called for the immediate withdrawal of troops during a meeting with Zimbabwean ministers on Thursday.

"“The military should be removed from the streets of Harare and the security forces hold act with utmost restraint,” she said in a statement. “All political leaders have a  responsibility to ensure they do not raise tensions or issue statements that make violence more likely."

International election observers and human rights groups said the deployment of troops and use of live ammunition was “indefensible.”

Six international observer missions including those of the Commonwealth and the EU called on the electoral commission to speedily release the presidential results in a bid to defuse tensions. 

Mr Mnangagwa called for an independent investigation into the violence and said he had been “in communication with Mr Chamisa to discuss how to immediately defuse the situation.”

“We believe in transparency and accountability, and those responsible should be identified and brought to justice,” he wrote on his official Twitter account. 

Mr Chamisa denied having spoken directly to Mr Mnangagwa, but confirmed he had been in contact with Obert MPufo, the home affairs minister.

Mr Mpufo earlier said he had requested the deployment of the military after police proved unable to control the rioting that broke out on Wednesday.

But highly placed government and military sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said the decision to deploy troops was informed by doubts about police loyalty rather than lack of capacity.

The sources said the police force was believed to be dominated by Mugabe loyalists and that it had not been denied access to its own armoury since the November coup that ousted the dictator.

Police on Thursday evening raided the MDC’s city centre headquarters and confiscated computers and other materials.

Several people were seen being led away by police, who had surrounded the building with riot officers since Thursday’s violence.

Mr Chamisa said the police were trying to seize evidence of vote rigging, which he said had already been moved to a safe house.

The raid came after police have said they want to interview Tendai Biti, a former finance minister and senior MDC MP who held a press conference on Tuesday where he refused to rule out street protests.

Police said 18 members of the MDC were arrested during the raid.

Mr Chamisa signaled he was prepared to concede the parliamentary vote but insisted he had won the presidential. 

"In all the constituencies where his MPs were winning, Mr Mnangagwa was losing. In all the constituencies where my MPs were not performing well, I won," he said. 

"We won this election. Mr Mnangagwa knows it. Zanu PF knows it. We have the proof."

As Zimbabweans  head to the polls for the presidential election on Monday July 30, the outcome has never been less certain.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the president who came to power by overthrowing his long time boss and ally Robert Mugabe in November, bets that Zimbabweans will back him as the safest pair of hands to repair the country’s ruined economy and usher in an era of national renewal.

Nelson Chamisa, the young leader of the Movement of Democratic Change, hopes to pull off an upset by offering a completely fresh start and persuading voters to punish the ruling Zanu PF party – including Mr Mnangagwa – for decades of misrule.

But whoever wins next week will inherit a legacy of massive economic…