The U.S. Congress moved to pressure the Burmese military into ending the crisis facing the Rohingya, in a bipartisan effort that proposes a range of options aimed at ending the violence against the Muslim minority. The bill would impose new sanctions, cutting off U.S. cooperation with the military while funding economic assistance. VOA’s congressional reporter Katherine Gypson sat down with the co-sponsors of the bill to learn more.
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Disguised Russian agents on Twitter rushed to deflect scandalous news about Donald Trump just before last year’s presidential election while straining to refocus criticism on the mainstream media and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to an Associated Press analysis of since-deleted accounts.

Tweets by Russia-backed accounts such as “America_1st_” and “BatonRougeVoice” on Oct. 7, 2016, actively pivoted away from news of an audio recording in which Trump made crude comments about groping women, and instead touted damaging emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.

Since early this year, the extent of Russian intrusion to help Trump and hurt Clinton in the election has been the subject of both congressional scrutiny and a criminal investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. In particular, those investigations are looking into the possibility of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

AP’s analysis illuminates the obvious strategy behind the Russian cyber meddling: swiftly react, distort and distract attention from any negative Trump news.

The AP examined 36,210 tweets from Aug. 31, 2015, to Nov. 10, 2016, posted by 382 of the Russian accounts that Twitter shared with congressional investigators last week. Twitter deactivated the accounts, deleting the tweets and making them inaccessible on the internet. But a limited selection of the accounts’ Twitter activity was retrieved by matching account handles against an archive obtained by AP.

“MSM [the mainstream media] is at it again with Billy Bush recording … What about telling Americans how Hillary defended a rapist and later laughed at his victim?” tweeted the America_1st_ account, which had 25,045 followers at its peak, according to metadata in the archive. The tweet went out the afternoon of Oct. 7, just hours after The Washington Post broke the story about Trump’s comments to Bush, then host of Access Hollywood, about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women, saying, “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”

Within an hour of the Post’s story, WikiLeaks unleashed its own bombshell about hacked email from Podesta’s account, a release the Russian accounts had been foreshadowing for days.

“WikiLeaks’ [founder Julian] Assange signals release of documents before U.S. election,” tweeted both “SpecialAffair” and “ScreamyMonkey” within a second of each other on Oct. 4. “SpecialAffair,” an account describing itself as a “Political junkie in action,” had 11,255 followers at the time. “ScreamyMonkey,” self-described as a “First frontier.News aggregator,” had 13,224. Both accounts were created within three days of each other in late December 2014.

Twitter handed over the handles of 2,752 accounts it identified as coming from Russia’s Internet Research Agency to congressional investigators ahead of the social media giant’s Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 appearances on Capitol Hill. It said 9 percent of the tweets were election-related but didn’t make the tweets themselves public.

That makes the archive the AP obtained the most comprehensive historical picture so far of Russian activity on Twitter in the crucial run-up to the Nov. 8, 2016, vote. Twitter policy requires developers who archive its material to delete tweets from suspended accounts as soon as reasonably possible, unless doing so would violate the law or Twitter grants an exception. It’s possible the existence of the deleted tweets in the archive obtained by the AP runs afoul of those rules.

Earlier activity

The Russian accounts didn’t just spring into action at the last minute. They were similarly active at earlier points in the campaign.

When Trump reversed himself on a lie about Barack Obama’s birthplace on Sept. 17, declaring abruptly that Obama “was born in the United States, period,” several Russian accounts chimed in to echo Trump’s subsequent false claim that it was Clinton who had started the birther controversy.

Others continued to push birther narratives. The Russian account TEN_GOP, which many mistook for the official account of the Tennessee Republican Party, linked to a video that claimed that Obama “admits he was born in Kenya.” But the Russian accounts weren’t in lockstep. The handle “hyddrox” retweeted a post by the anti-Trump billionaire Mark Cuban that the “MSM [mainstream media] is being suckered into chasing birther stories.”

On Sept. 15, Clinton returned to the campaign trail following a bout with pneumonia that caused her to stumble at a 9/11 memorial service.

The Russian account “Pamela_Moore13” noted that her intro music was “I Feel Good” by James Brown — then observed that “James Brown died of pneumonia,” a line that was repeated at least 11 times by Russian accounts, including by “Jenn_Abrams,” which had 59,868 followers at the time.

According to several obituaries, Brown died of congestive heart failure related to pneumonia.

Racial discord also figured prominently in the tweets, just as it did with many of the ads Russian trolls had purchased on Facebook in the months leading up to and following the election. One Russian account, “Blacks4DTrump,” tweeted a Trump quote on Sept. 16 in which he declared “it is the Democratic party that is the party of slavery, the party of Jim Crow & the party of opposition.”

TEN_GOP, meanwhile, asked followers to “SPREAD the msg of black pastor explaining why African-Americans should vote Donald Trump!”
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When Wilmot Collins knocked on doors across Helena, Montana, residents wanted to know what he would do to address homelessness, affordable housing and other municipal issues.

“They didn’t once ask me if you think a black person can win a race in this town,” the Liberian immigrant told The Associated Press a day after his election.

Fifty years to the date after the nation’s first black mayor was elected to lead a large American city, voters in more than a half-dozen large and small cities chose black candidates as mayors Tuesday. Most of the mayors are Democrats, but some of the races were nonpartisan. Political experts say the results could have national political consequences as the Democratic Party looks to build its bench with a more diverse pool of candidates and the mayors seize opportunities to bring about change at the local level in an era of gridlock in Washington under President Donald Trump.

Vi Lyles was elected mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, becoming the first black woman to run North Carolina’s largest city. City Councilman Melvin Carter was elected the first black mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. Voters in Cleveland and in Flint, Michigan, re-elected black mayoral incumbents. The result in Ohio came 50 years after Carl Stokes made history in Cleveland in becoming the nation’s first big-city black mayor.

Stephanie Mash Sykes, executive director of the nonpartisan African American Mayors Association, said there are about 30 black mayors of U.S. cities with more than 100,000 residents. The 2010 Census lists more than 200 cities and regional areas that size.

Those 30 black mayors include Randall Woodfin, who defeated black incumbent William Bell last month in Birmingham, Alabama. New Orleans will be on that list as two black women are in the runoff for mayor. Atlanta City Councilwomen Keisha Lance Bottoms, who’s black, and Mary Norwood, who’s white, are headed to a runoff for Atlanta mayor.

Not all black candidates found success. Tito Jackson, a black city councilor in Boston, was defeated Tuesday by incumbent Mayor Marty Walsh, who’s white. And in Detroit, Coleman Young II, the son of the city’s first black mayor, lost to incumbent Mayor Mike Duggan, who first was elected in 2013 as Detroit’s first white mayor since 1973.

“We’ll win some. We’ll lose some,” Sykes said, but “voters are looking for a leader that’s effective in developing innovative solutions for jobs, access to affordable housing.”

The victories could translate to national politics, according to Paul Watanabe, political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

“For most of these mayors from the Democrat party, they may provide an answer to the question: Is there any new leadership on the Democratic side?” Watanabe said. “Perhaps one might look to governors or to mayors, particularly, for candidates of color who might be new or fresh on the scene.”

To some political observers, Tuesday’s general elections also were a referendum on the divisive politics and policies emanating from Washington, where Republicans control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Helena voters shut all that down, said Collins, a psychology instructor at Helena College who left West Africa as a refugee about two dozen years ago.

“The people of Helena told (Washington) that they are an accepting community,” said Collins, who will become the city’s first black mayor since the 1800s. “We want diversity.”

Sykes, who didn’t have a historical record showing if the number of black mayors was the most ever, said the candidates elected Tuesday have an opportunity to play a large-than-usual role in setting the agenda with Washington leaders struggling to get much done.

“We don’t see much of anything to impact local communities, particularly communities of color,” she said. “These mayors are the hopes and opportunities to create solutions on the ground.”

Tuesday’s elections also saw Ravi Bhalla, a Sikh, win the mayor’s race in Hoboken, New Jersey.

In Flint, Karen Weaver fended off a recall effort and beat a number of challengers to complete the last two years of her term.

The recall focused on Weaver’s decision to hire a trash hauler that became connected to a federal corruption investigation. It didn’t refer to Flint’s lead-tainted water crisis.

The city was under state control when it switched from Detroit’s water system to the Flint River in 2014 to save money. But the river water wasn’t properly treated, causing lead from pipes to leach into drinking water.

Weaver made the water problems a focus of her successful 2015 mayoral campaign and said she believes her win Tuesday gives a voice to an urban agenda.
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President Donald Trump struck a markedly softer tone on touchy subjects like North Korea and trade with President Xi Jinping of China Thursday, and highlighted his “incredibly warm” feeling toward his counterpart.

During joint statements after talks in Beijing, Trump expressed optimism the U.S. and China will resolve the North Korea nuclear crisis. “I do believe there’s a solution to that, as you do,” Trump said.

Trump said he has “great respect” for Xi’s leadership on trade and noted the U.S. must change its policy. Trump blamed his predecessors in Washington for the trade deficit with China.

“It’s too bad that past administrations allowed it go get so far out of kilter,” Trump added. “But we’ll make it fair, and it will be tremendous for both of us.”

Trump concluded remarks by touting his “great chemistry” with Xi.

The Chinese leader said Beijing’s relationship with Washington “now stands at a new starting point” and vowed to “enhance communication and cooperation on the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula” and other issues.

“For China and the United States, cooperation is the only viable choice, and win-win cooperation can take us to a better future,” said the Chinese president.

Trump administration officials said during the closed talks, Trump pressed Xi on the North Korea nuclear issue. According to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump told Xi, “You’re a strong man, I’m sure you can solve this for me.”

Speaking in Beijing, Tillerson noted “there is no disagreement on North Korea” between the United States and China. The diplomat pointed out the Chinese have been clear and unequivocal over two days of talks that they will not accept a North Korea with nuclear weapons.

“There’s no space between both of our objectives,” said Tillerson. “We have our own views of the tactics, the timing and how far to go with pressure and that’s what we spend a lot of time exchanging views on.”

Tillerson also said the two men also had frank exchanges on human rights and maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

Later, Trump and Xi spoke to a meeting of business leaders. Trump said, “I thank President Xi for his recent efforts to restrict trade with North Korea and cut off banking ties. China can fix this problem easily and quickly.”

Bilateral trade

The shift in Trump’s rhetoric on trade was especially notable because the U.S. leader has long complained about the trade imbalance between China and the United States.

After the talks, Secretary Tillerson said, “The things that have been achieved thus far are pretty small” despite long hours of trade talks between the U.S. and China, adding the U.S. concerns about the pace of progress was communicated to Chinese officials Thursday.

For the first 10 months of the year, China’s trade surplus with the U.S. was $223 billion, according to recent data released by China’s General Administration of Customs.

Trump said the U.S. trade deficit with China is “shockingly hundreds of billions of dollars” annually.

President Xi said there is a wider and prosperous future for U.S.-China cooperation on trade, adding that $250 billion worth of business deals were signed during President Trump’s visit to China and that, “Chinese investment in the United States is rising rapidly.”

But the roughly 15 agreements unveiled in Beijing are mostly non-binding memorandums of understanding, and according to Bloomberg News, “could take years to materialize — if they do at all.”

Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is pessimistic that such deals will do much to address the real hindrances to trade relations with China.

“The president likes deals, and he likes big numbers, but we’re not going to change something he doesn’t like, like the trade deficit, without changing Chinese trade practices,” Scissors said. “China has to have a different approach to trade in the world than it does.”

Scissors said that more than the deficit, it is what is behind the numbers, such as the fact that Chinese state-owned enterprises never go out of business.

“Which means American goods and services can’t ever win in the China market,” he said.

In his joint statement, Xi said, “there needs to be in-depth discussions on the trade imbalance” with the United States, among other issues.

The Chinese leaders predicted “there will be a wider and prosperous future for cooperation on trade,” specifically mentioning the oil and gas sector, beer, agricultural products, education and service contracts. He also invited more American companies to participate in China’s One Belt One Road initiative, an effort to create the world’s largest platform for economic cooperation, inspired by the ancient Silk Road trading network.

The United States and China, respectively, have the world’s largest economies and most powerful militaries.

The two leaders walked side by side on a red carpet at a welcoming ceremony early Thursday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The U.S. and Chinese national anthems were played by a military band, and ceremonial cannon fire from Tiananmen Square saluted Trump. An exuberant crowd of school children waved U.S. and Chinese flags.

Business deals

​The Trump administration is showcasing several business deals signed during the China trip, including a deal for China’s biggest online retailer to buy $1.2 billion of American beef and pork.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said such business deals “are a good example” of how the United States “can productively build up our bilateral trade.”

Trump also met Thursday with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, whose position is similar to that of a prime minister.

Trump and his wife, Melania, were received with great pageantry on their arrival to China. The Trumps also were treated to a private visit to the Forbidden City, China’s ancient imperial palace. They also viewed an outdoor opera featuring costumes, music and martial arts.

The U.S. president arrived in Beijing a day after delivering a speech in Seoul, South Korea, in which he called on other nations to unite and “isolate the brutal regime of North Korea.”

Trump is on a 12-day, five-nation tour of Asia that will take him to Danang,Vietnam, on Friday, where he will speak at a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Bill Ide, Marissa Melton contributed to this report.
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that Janet Yellen has not said yet whether she plans to remain on the Federal Reserve board when her term as chair ends in February, but the administration is moving ahead with filling other vacancies.

There are three vacancies on the seven-member Fed board and there could be a fourth if Yellen decides to leave. Her term as a board member does not end until 2024.

In an interview on Bloomberg TV, Mnuchin said he had breakfast with Yellen on Wednesday from which he came away with the impression that she had not made a decision about her future at the Fed.

Last week, President Donald Trump announced he would nominate Fed board member Jerome Powell as the next Fed chairman, bypassing Yellen.

If Yellen did stay on the board, she would be only the second former chair to do so. Marriner Eccles, whose name is on the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, remained on the board for three years after he was not nominated for another term as chair by Harry Truman in 1948.

Mnuchin said the goal was to fill the vacancies quickly, but the administration did not necessarily see a need to pick someone with a PhD in economics for the vice chair position even though Powell will be the first person to lead the Fed without a degree in economics in nearly four decades.

“I think our priority is that we are going to fill these positions quickly. Our focus was on the chair,” Mnuchin said. “Now that we have resolved that issue, we are already looking at people for these positions. So I am comfortable we will have the jobs filled.”

Before Trump’s announcement last week, Yellen had declined to say what she might do if she was not tapped for a second term.

“I have said that I intend to serve out my term as chair, and that I’m really not going to comment on my intentions beyond that,” she told reporters in September.
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The federal judge overseeing the upcoming criminal trial of two top former Trump aides has imposed a gag order in the case.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson Wednesday ordered defendants Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, their lawyers, and all possible witnesses to “refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings that could pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice.”

In all criminal cases, it is always possible that making statements for or against the defendants in the media could make it very hard to find an impartial jury — one whose members have not already made up their minds.

Former Trump campaign chairman Manafort and his associate Gates have been charged with 12 criminal counts over Manafort’s financial dealings with Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government.

The charges include money laundering, failing to register as agents of a foreign government, and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

Manafort and Gates have both pleaded not guilty and are under house arrest.

The charges stem out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to steer the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.

The White House has strongly denied the allegations and the Kremlin said it did not interfere in the election.
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U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping early Thursday, and Trump has said he intends to press Xi to push North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, his first visit as president to China, North Korea’s closest ally. Trump is expected to call on China to expel North Korean workers from the country and eliminate some of its other dealings with Pyongyang.

The talks between Trump and Xi will also deal with trade, a touchy subject since Trump has long complained about the trade imbalance between the countries.

China’s trade surplus with the United States has widened by 12.2 percent in the past year, reaching $26.6 billion, according to Chinese customs data.

Business deals

Yet, the Trump administration is showcasing several business deals signed during the China trip, including a deal for China’s biggest online retailer to buy $1.2 billion of American beef and pork.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said such business deals “are a good example” of how the United States “can productively build up our bilateral trade.”

Trump is also to meet Thursday with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Trump and his wife were received with great pageantry upon their arrival in China, greeted at the airport by a group of children who jumped up and down and waved U.S. and Chinese flags.

The Trumps were also treated to a private visit to the Forbidden City, China’s ancient imperial palace, and they viewed an outdoor opera featuring costumes, music and martial arts.

After touring the Forbidden City, Trump told reporters, “We’re having a great time.”

The U.S. president arrived in Beijing a day after delivering a speech in Seoul, South Korea, in which he called on other nations to unite and “isolate the brutal regime of North Korea.”

“You cannot support, you cannot supply, you cannot accept,” he added.

In that speech to South Korea’s National Assembly, Trump had a forceful message for Pyongyang. He called on leader Kim Jong Un to give up all his nuclear weapons for a chance to step onto “a better path.”

Trump warned the North, “Do not underestimate us and do not try us. We will defend our common security, our shared prosperity and our sacred liberty.”

Backing the president’s words was the presence of three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups and nuclear submarines, which the president said “are appropriately positioned” near the Korean Peninsula.

‘Total failure’

The U.S president referred to North Korea as “a total failure” and a “twisted regime” ruled by a cult and a tyrant who enslaves his people — a characterization certain to provoke a harsh rhetorical reply from Pyongyang.

“The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens it with nuclear devastation,” Trump said in his speech. “All responsible nations must join forces to isolate the brutal regime of North Korea to deny it any form of support.”

The U.S. leader had effusive praise for South Korea, contrasting its economic success with the dark situation in the North.

“The more successful South Korea becomes, the more decisively you discredit the dark fantasy at the heart of the Kim regime,” the U.S. president said.

WATCH: Trump Message to North Korean Leader

The speech ended on a hopeful note, which is the Korean dream: the peaceful reunification of the peninsula. But with Kim’s weapons of mass destruction posing a greater threat, Trump warned, “the longer we wait, the greater the danger grows and the fewer the options become.”

Trump generally took a more optimistic view of diplomacy during his visit to Seoul, which included meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. He said progress has been made toward defusing heightened tensions in the region, a striking departure from the tone of his tweets in recent weeks suggesting talks with Pyongyang to resolve the nuclear crisis were “a waste of time.”

Speaking Wednesday aboard Air Force One on the approach to Beijing, a senior White House official said Trump and the South Korean leader had reaffirmed their commitment to a coordinated global pressure campaign to bring North Korea back to “authentic denuclearization talks,” while also remaining committed to using a “full range of military capabilities” to defend South Korea and Japan.

‘Sincere steps’ to denuclearize

“Authentic” talks, the U.S. official said, would be without preconditions and would entail North Korea’s agreeing to “reduce the threat, end provocations, and move toward sincere steps to ultimately denuclearize.” Preconditions like refusing to put nuclear weapons on the table, the official said, “is a nonstarter” for the United States.

The U.S. also maintains that any agreement would need to include verification of denuclearization efforts — a key sticking point in multination negotiations that have been attempted in the past.

In a separate statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump would also determine whether the United States will designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism before the end of his visit to China.

It is likely Trump will continue to send out tweets while in China, despite a Chinese block on Twitter. Thanks to communications gear aboard Air Force One, the official said, “the president will tweet whatever he wants.”

VOA White House correspondent Steve Herman contributed to this report from Beijing.
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Just across the Hudson river from Manhattan, the “Mile Square” city of Hoboken, New Jersey, elected its first Sikh mayor on Tuesday.

Democrat Ravi Bhalla, who has served on Hoboken’s city council for eight years and was endorsed by outgoing mayor Dawn Zimmer, claimed victory over five rival candidates late Tuesday night.

The city of just over 50,000 people was given the opportunity to elect the first openly gay, Latino, or Sikh mayor – one of many local U.S. elections Tuesday considered a precursor of the battle between the Republican and Democratic parties in the Trump era ahead of mid-term elections next year. 

Hoboken is a fairly diverse city, with 15 percent of residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino, and seven percent identifying as Asian – both figures just shy of the statewide average, according to 2010 census data.

So the story that dominated local news in the days before the election surprised many – reports of flyers distributed throughout the city with Bhalla’s face under a bold red heading of “Don’t let TERRORISM take over our town!” 

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., the backlash against Muslims across the United States at times also included members of the Sikh faith. Followers of the Sikh faith, a monotheistic religion that originated in northern India, are often confused with Muslims.

Devout male followers of the Sikh faith keep their beards and hair long and wear turbans.

“This is not reflective of Hoboken,” Bhalla told VOA as he met with residents on their way to the polls. “I’ve been elected to the city council twice now – if it wasn’t a welcoming city I wouldn’t have been elected. So I think it’s an anomaly – it doesn’t represent what Hoboken is.” 

“That said it’s obviously disturbing,” he added.

Also disturbed by the fliers was one of Bhalla’s six rivals for the Mayoral seat – Michael DeFusco. The distributed fliers said they were paid for by DeFusco’s campaign – a claim he has denied. 

Police are searching for answers regarding who may have paid for these messages, based on surveillance videos of two individuals placing them on car windshields throughout the city. But in the meantime, DeFusco says the incident harmed his campaign as well as Bhalla’s.

“One of my campaign fliers was maliciously reproduced and smeared with racist propaganda aimed at one of my opponents,” he told VOA. “But I was also a victim of this terrible act in that my name was associated with this awful hate-filled speech.”

DeFusco, currently serving on Hoboken’s city council, is the first openly gay person elected in the city.

Erica Commisso, a new Hoboken resident, said she was surprised by the amount of negative campaigning in the local election. “There’s a lot more smear campaigns than I’m used to,” she said. 

“Everyone’s been inundated with literature drops, and mailers, and robocalls,” Joshua Einstein, a ten-year resident of Hoboken, told VOA.

Racist propaganda, however, has been reported even in the most diverse of cities. In Edison, New Jersey, where 28.3 percent of residents identify as Indian-American, locals reported seeing flyers calling to “deport” Indian-American and Chinese-American candidates for the school board.

But Bhalla, who along with rival candidates encouraged voters to look past the flier, is now looking forward to the future of his city.

“I’ve seen a lot of the great things we’ve done in Hoboken,” Bhalla said. “So when the mayor asked me to run for mayor…I felt like it was important to try to continue that forward movement.”
…

In a speech to South Korea’s National Assembly, U.S. President Donald Trump has sent a message north of the border, calling on leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang to give up all his nuclear weapons for a chance to step on to “a better path.”

Trump on Wednesday also warned, “Do not underestimate us and do not try us. We will defend our common security, our shared prosperity and our sacred liberty.”

His words were underscored by the presence of three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups and nuclear submarines, which the president said “are appropriately positioned” near the peninsula.

The U.S president referred to North Korea as a failure, a “twisted regime” ruled by a cult and a tyrant who enslaves his people – a characterization certain to provoke a harsh rhetorical reply from Pyongyang, which has repeatedly accused the United States of preparing to attack and refers to Trump as a deplorable crazed man.

“The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens it with nuclear devastation,” said Trump in his speech. “All responsible nations must join forces to isolate the brutal regime of North Korea – to deny it any form of support.”

Trump had effusive praise for South Korea, contrasting its economic success with the dark situation in the North.

“The more successful South Korea becomes, the more decisively you discredit the dark fantasy at the heart of the Kim regime,” said the U.S. president. 

Trump’s 35-minute address, which he was still editing at the last minute, according to the National Assembly speaker, came after a surprise but aborted Wednesday morning trip to the Korean DMZ. But it ended on a hopeful note, which is the Korean dream: the peaceful reunification of the peninsula.

But with Kim’s weapons of mass destruction posing a greater threat, Trump warned, “the longer we wait, the greater the danger grows and the few the options become.”

President Trump generally took a more optimistic view of diplomacy during his visit to Seoul, which included meetings on Tuesday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. He said progress has been made to diffuse heightened tensions in the region, a striking departure from the tone of his tweets in recent weeks suggesting talks with Pyongyang to resolve the nuclear crisis were “a waste of time.” 

The president will now travel to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that are expected to focus on the situation in North Korea as well as trade.
…

Tuesday delivered a string of high-profile victories for Democrats in gubernatorial races. 

Democrat Ralph Northam decisively won the Virginia governor’s race in what had become a nail-biter of a contest, defeating Republican Ed Gillespie in the election to replace outgoing Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Northam, currently Virginia’s lieutenant governor, held a comfortable lead in many voter opinion surveys until Gillespie launched a series of television ads attacking Northam on such issues as gang crime, immigration and preserving statues honoring Virginians when the Commonwealth and other southern states broke away from northern states during the 19th-century era American Civil War — tactics similar to those used by Donald Trump in his successful 2016 White House bid.

“Today, Virginians have answered, and have spoken — Virginia has told us to end the divisiveness, that we will not condone hatred and bigotry, and to end the politics that have torn this country apart,” Northam said in his victory speech. “We need to close the wounds that divide and bring unity to Virginia.”

Northam’s victory led a Democratic sweep of all statewide races in the Commonwealth, including the offices lieutenant governor and attorney general. The party also posted several upset legislative victories, winning 14 seats in the House of Delegates, just three seats shy of wresting control from Republicans. The Democratic victors included Danica Roem, who beat veteran lawmaker Robert Marshall to become the Commonwealth’s first openly transgender elected official. Marshall was known as a strong opponent of gay and lesbian rights.

Trump, who is on a 12-day five nation trip to Asia, vouched for Gillespie in a series of tweets early Tuesday. But that changed after Northam’s victory was apparent:

“Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,” the president tweeted from South Korea. “Don’t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before!”

In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy prevailed as expected over Republican Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno in the race to replace outgoing Republican Governor Chris Christie. Guadagno was hurt by her association with Christie, a candidate for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, whose approval rating have hit a record low as he finishes his eight years in office. 

Murphy, who served as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to Germany, has touted a liberal agenda that includes raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, increasing taxes on millionaires, boosting funding for schools and legalizing marijuana.

Tuesday’s balloting provides an important early indication of how the electorate views President Trump, as the Republican and Democratic parties try to gain momentum before next year’s mid-term elections. The victories in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as other states and localities, will surely boost morale among Democrats still reeling over Trump’s upset win over Hillary Clinton in last year’s presidential campaign.

Republicans were hoping wins will help soothe intra-party bickering between Trump and key congressional Republicans.
…

Thousands of Americans are planning to “scream helplessly at the sky” in a show of what organizers say is disgust and frustration at Donald Trump’s election as president exactly one year earlier.

The unprecedented protest being played out in many American cities has been mocked by conservatives, sparking incendiary exchanges on the Internet that illustrate the depth of the partisan chasm that divides the significant minority of staunch Trump loyalists and the equally vocal, and arguably larger group that detests him.

“American politics had begun to polarize long before President Trump, and crystallized into a sense of tribalism that now pervades politics,” said Dan Mahaffee, executive director of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. “We increasingly see ardent Democrats, ardent Republicans, and little in the middle in terms of pragmatism.”

A Washington Post/ABC News poll released this week is evidence that Trump is the least popular president in the 70 years since polling began. Fewer than four in 10 Americans say they approve of his handling of the job. Almost 60 percent say they disapprove, most of them “strongly”.

Even many members of Trump’s traditional Middle American support base say he’s not their ideal president.

“He can be awfully hard to like,” said retired Colorado business executive Eugene Bourque. “But I want someone in the White House who I believe supports the four Cs [Christianity, Capitalism, Conservatism and the Constitution] and is willing to fight down and dirty to protect them.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders shrugs off the low approval ratings, noting public dissatisfaction with Congress is significantly greater.

“His numbers are a lot better than the Congress. I’d take the president’s numbers over Congress any day,” Huckabee Sanders said during a panel discussion at George Washington University marking the election anniversary.

Bad press

The press secretary attributes Trump’s unpopularity in part to overwhelmingly negative reporting from a hostile press. She cited an independent study showing coverage on several TV networks had been 93 percent negative, compared to 40 percent negative during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency.

“For people to pretend like there isn’t a greater sense of hostility towards this administration, I think would be to ignore real facts.”

Faced with this perceived animosity, Trump has rewritten the rulebook on presidential communications.

“Trump uses [Twitter] to bypass the press in ways that convey an utter disregard for the role of journalism in democratic societies,” says Stanford University professor of communications Theodore Glasser. “Presidents often have an adversarial relationship with journalists, but I can’t think of a single president, including Richard Nixon, who comes close to Trump in terms of his fear of public scrutiny.”

Presidential scholar Mahaffee said Trump understood early-on how to exploit the partisan divide and public distrust of the media.

“Social media allows for rancor and sensationalism to triumph over fact and reason,” Mahaffee told VOA. “President Trump harnessed these divides for his own ends to get elected, and his approach has been to further them for his own ends to govern.”

Results?

When it comes to assessing Trump’s accomplishments, academics interviewed for this report were generally dismissive. “What accomplishments?” replied Stanford’s Theodore Glasser, noting that Republicans had failed to fulfill promised health care and tax reform despite controlling both houses of Congress.

Spokeswoman Huckabee Sanders, however, pointed to successes on foreign policy, battling Islamist extremism and the economy.

“He’s done a very good job of developing relationships with a lot of key partners and allies, particularly…[Japanese Prime Minister] Abe and [Chinese President] Xi that are helping to grow the amount of pressure being put on North Korea.”

Huckabee Sanders called Trump’s Middle East trip a “major moment in his presidency.”

“In Saudi Arabia, the speech he gave to, I believe it was 68 Muslim majority countries, bringing a lot of those individuals to talk about working together to combat terrorism; that was a historic moment,” she said.

The economy is doing remarkably well since Election Day, but economists disagree about how much is the “due to the “Trump effect.”

“Ahead of the election, everyone thought Trump would tank markets — futures markets fell the night of the election as it became clear he had won. But as he gave his victory speech, sentiment changed, and by the morning, stocks were up,” analyst Emily Stewart of thestreet.com told VOA .

In a tweet this week Trump noted that market value has increased $5.4 trillion since Election Day, and remains at record high levels.

Unemployment is down to 4.1 percent, lowest in 17 years. 1.5 million new jobs created since I took office. Highest stock Market ever, up $5.4 trill

Experts say that among the factors spurring the steady market growth is one Trump rarely trumpets. Yahoo News White House correspondent Olivier Knox told last week’s George Washington University panel discussion that rolling back regulations is Trump’s untold success story.

“It’s one of the signal successes of the Trump administration, something that doesn’t get as much coverage as the latest tweet, but it’s a very important story. The systematic methodical rollback of regulations,” Knox said.

 
…

Rights advocates at home and abroad are calling on U.S. President Donald Trump to use his first presidential visit to China to address the country’s deteriorating human rights situation.

Advocates are calling for the release of Liu Xia, the widow of the late Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, and many other Chinese political prisoners including four rights lawyers who are either awaiting trial or verdicts. They are also calling for the release of a Taiwanese rights activist detained in China for more than 230 days.

Failing to do so, they warn, will only worsen the situation Chinese rights defenders face. Room for dissent and alternative views in China has been shrinking rapidly since Xi Jinping came to power in 2013.

Deteriorating rights conditions

“The international environment, in which few leaders are willing to stand up for human rights internationally and particularly in relations to China, has emboldened the Chinese government even further in undermining human rights at home,” Maya Wang, China researcher of Human Rights Watch, told VOA.

The most recent case that has gained the attention of rights advocates is the criminal detention of lawyer Li Yuhan. Li has been missing since early last month and officially charged with “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” in late October by the Public Security Bureau in Shenyang, Liaoning province, according to Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group.

It’s not clear if she will be able to hire a lawyer of her own choosing. And her family has also been denied any visits to her in prison.

Shenyang authorities have “made various attempts to revenge her as she used to report the police’s malpractices…. It is apparent to us that both power abuses and malfeasances form part of the case,” the Hong Kong-based rights group said in a written statement.

Retaliation by authorities

Li, 60, suffers from hypertension and has a heart condition. But despite that, she has taken up a series of sensitive cases including that of lawyer Wang Yu, one of the main targets of a massive nationwide crackdown on lawyers in China that began over two years ago. She has also taken on other religious freedom cases as well as the case of a wronged police officer in Anhui.

Rights advocates believe her decision to take on Wang Yu’s case is the main reason behind her detention.

“It may be related to her legal representation for Fengrui lawyer Wang Yu that maybe a possibility as a retaliation against her by the authorities” after she had visited the Wang’s in Mongolia, said Patrick Poon, China Researcher at Amnesty International, calling on the international society, including President Trump, to address Li’s case as well as other rights violation cases in China.

Amnesty International joined other international rights groups as well as 85 Chinese lawyers and citizens to call for the immediate release of Li while expressing concerns over her health and the possible use of torture against her.

Shaky trade relations

However, rights advocates at home and abroad said the chance that President Trump will criticize China’s human rights records is slim as he, like many other world leaders, is likely to put more emphasis on trade relations with China.

But true progress in trade, some argue, is dependent on advances in human rights.

“It’ll be a sad thing if [trade] cooperation with China is prioritized before [the improvement of] human rights. I believe human rights pave the core foundation for the world’s development. Without [the protection of] human rights, any such economic cooperation won’t be sustainable,” said Ou Biaofeng, a rights activist from Human province.

Under the banner of “America First” the Trump administration has pledged not to interfere in other countries domestic politics and that is sending a worrying signal, one analysts worry may heighten authoritarianism in the region.

International calls

United Nations’ human rights experts have urged Hong Kong to uphold the fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly before the court heard a final appeal of Joshua Wong and Nathan Law, who were granted bail on Oct 24, against their respective jail sentences of six months and eight months.

The top court in Hong Kong on Tuesday decided to grant a bid by Wong and Law to appeal their prison terms in a hearing to be scheduled in January.

In Taiwan, various non-governmental organizations gathered in Taipei on Tuesday to voice their support for the Taiwanese rights activist Lee Ming-che, whom China has detained since late March, pending a verdict.

Lin Hsiu-hsin, Taiwan Association of University Professors president, told the Associated Press that “China not only didn’t respect international regulations and human rights, but also didn’t care about its own laws because it has detained a Taiwanese citizen,” who hasn’t been freed yet.

Free Liu Xia

Meanwhile, last week, more than 50 internationally-celebrated writers, artists and supporters of PEN America, including Chimamanda Achibie, Margaret Atwood, and Khaled Hosseini, issued a written petition urging China to end all restrictions and surveillance imposed on Liu Xia, saying the only reason for her detention is her connection to her deceased husband.

The writers further called upon President Trump to seek the release of Liu, who was last seen in an online video in late August.

Also, international rights groups are concerned that thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities are being held in re-education camps, which are now formally referred to as “Professional Education Schools,” without contact with their families under a policy designed to counter extremism in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, according to local officials.

 
…

The Trump administration has ended the immigration benefits for nearly 2,500 Nicaraguan nationals who are in the United States, but extended benefits for 57,000 Hondurans.

The Central American migrants were allowed to live and work in the U.S. under a program called Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

The Department of Homeland Security gave the Nicaraguans TPS recipients 12 months after the January 5 expiration of their protected status to arrange their affairs and either leave the country or obtain legal status through a different visa category.

The Nicaraguan and Honduran TPS recipients have been living in the U.S. under protected status since Hurricane Mitch killed 10,000 across Central America in 1998. That means many of them have been living in the United States for two decades.

Martha Irraheta, a Nicaragua native who arrived in the Miami area about 25 years ago and works as a cook at Islas del Caribe restaurant, said she fears having to return to her homeland. “I am very afraid. I don’t want to return to my country, with the violence the way it is – no way.”  She will have to leave behind a 22-year-old U.S.-born daughter who is a citizen.

Roger Castaño, U.S. representative of Nicaragua’s Permanent Commission on Human Rights said the government in Managua cannot guarantee the safety of those who would be forced to return. “How is the United States going to deport or send back all those thousands of people?” he asks.

Another 195,000 Salvadorans and 46,000 Haitians are awaiting the decision on their fate, as DHS must decide in coming weeks what to do with TPS recipients from those countries whose legal residency will expire early next year.  The TPS designation for Haitians expires on January 22, 2018, while that of the Salvadorans on March 9.  Federal officials are required to announce 60 days before any TPS designation expires whether it will be extended.

These immigrants are among more than 320,000 from 10 nations who have time-limited permission to live and work in the U.S. under TPS because of war, hurricanes, earthquakes or other catastrophes in their home countries that could make it dangerous for them to return.

VOA’s Spanish Service and reporter Jose Pernalete in Miami contributed to this report.

 
…

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday defended his sizable business links to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, saying “there is no impropriety.”

Ross, a 79-year-old billionaire industrialist, has a 31 percent stake worth $2 million to $10 million in a shipping venture, Navigator Holdings, with connections to Putin’s son-in-law and an oligarch who is subject to U.S. sanctions and is Putin’s judo partner, according to newly leaked documents.

But Ross, a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, said on the sidelines of a business conference in London, “I think the media has made a lot more out of it than it deserves.”

Navigator earns millions of dollars a year shipping natural gas for Russian energy giant Sibur, which is partly owned by Kirill Shamalov, the husband of Putin’s daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, and Gennady Timchenko, the oligarch who is Putin’s judo partner, according to the documents. Timchenko is subject to the U.S. sanctions because of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its subsequent support for pro-Russian separatists fighting the Kyiv government’s forces in eastern Ukraine.

‘Nothing whatsoever improper’

But in a pair of interviews with the BBC and Bloomberg TV, Ross dismissed concern about his involvement in the operation. He said the Sibur deal was arranged before he joined Navigator’s board.

“There’s no interlocking of board, there’s no interlocking of shareholders, I had nothing to do with the negotiation of the deal,” he said. “But most importantly the company that is our client itself, Sibur, was not then sanctioned, is not now sanctioned, and never was sanctioned in between. There’s nothing whatsoever improper.”

Ross told Bloomberg, “We have no business ties to those Russian individuals who are under sanction.” Ross said he has been selling his stake in Navigator, “but that isn’t because of this.”

Ross sold off numerous holdings when he joined Trump’s Cabinet earlier this year to avoid conflicts of interest while he promotes U.S. commerce throughout the world. But he kept his Navigator stake, which has been held in a chain of partnerships in the Cayman Islands, an offshore tax haven where Ross has placed much of his estimated $2 billion in wealth.

‘Paradise papers’

Ross did not disclose the Russian business link when he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as commerce secretary, but it surfaced in a trove of more than 13 million documents leaked from Appleby, a Bermuda-based offshore law firm that advises the wealthy elite on global financial transactions as they look to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.  Appleby says it has investigated all the allegations and found “there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, either on the part of ourselves or our clients.”

The cache of documents, called the Paradise Papers, was first leaked to a German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and dozens of other media outlets around the world, including The Guardian in Britain, The New York Times and NBC News in the U.S., all of which reported on the Ross investment on Sunday.

The disclosure of Ross’ financial interests in Russia comes as a special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, and three congressional panels are investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an effort the U.S. intelligence community has concluded was led by Putin in an effort to undermine U.S. democracy and help Trump win the White House.

Several Trump campaign associates have come under scrutiny, but until the disclosures about Ross’ holdings, there have been no reports of business links between top Trump officials and any member of Putin’s family and his inner circle.

The disclosures could put pressure on world leaders, including Trump and British Prime Minister, Theresa May, who have both pledged to curb aggressive tax avoidance schemes.

“Congress has the power to crack down on offshore tax avoidance,” said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “There are copious loopholes in our federal tax code that essentially incentivize companies to cook the books and make U.S. profits appear to be earned offshore. The House tax bill introduced late last week does nothing to close these loopholes.”
…

Republican Ed Gillespie and Democrat Ralph Northam both claim momentum is on their side with one day to go before Election Day in Virginia’s high-stakes, closely watched race for governor.

The candidates are racing across the state Monday after a weekend spent trying to trying to rally supporters ahead of the Tuesday vote.

Northam felt strong enthusiasm from his supporters and said he was heartened by the high number of absentee votes that had been cast so far compared with four years ago, particularly in Democratic-leaning areas. Northam predicted turnout could be significantly higher than recent past gubernatorial elections.

“We may get well over 50 percent, which would be real good for our party,” Northam said.

Gillespie told supporters at a rally Sunday that Republicans were set to sweep statewide races.

“We no longer just have momentum — we have the lead,” Gillespie said.

Virginia is one of only two states electing a new governor this year, and the contest is viewed by many as an early referendum on President Donald Trump’s political popularity.

Democrats are eager to prove they can harness anti-Trump energy into success at the polls, while Republicans are looking to show they have a winning blueprint in a blue-leaning state. Most public polls have shown a close race to succeed Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat who is term limited.

Northam, a pediatric neurologist and the state’s lieutenant governor, spent Saturday in voter-rich northern Virginia, where Democrats have run up huge leads in recent statewide elections. He attended rallies with union members, immigrant groups and others where he sought to use anti-Trump energy as a motivating factor.

“Do you all remember how you felt when you woke up on November the 9th of 2016?” Northam asked a group of canvassers in a supporter’s backyard in Ashburn, referring to the day after Trump won the presidential campaign. “We cannot take any chances and wake up like that again.”

National Democrats, still stinging from last year’s presidential race, are hoping a strong showing by Northam will help motivate the party ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections. A string of high-profile surrogates, including former President Barack Obama, have campaigned on his behalf.

Some volunteers helping Northam said Trump’s victory had spurred them to get involved in a political campaign for the first time.

“Really, a lot of us feel unsettled,” said Kee Jun, a Korean-American from Northern Virginia who helped introduce Northam to voters at a restaurant Saturday. “I feel an obligation to my children, Virginia residents and the nation.”

But some Republicans said they felt Trump’s victory has energized their party in a lasting way that will help Gillespie.

“People realize they can have a voice and can make a difference in an election,” said John Ancellotti, a retired Coast Guard captain and federal agent who attended a Gillespie rally Sunday.

Gillespie, a White House adviser to President George W. Bush and former lobbyist, has kept Trump at a distance and has not campaigned with him. But in a bid to rally Trump supporters, Gillespie has run hard-edge attacks ads against Northam focused on immigrants in the country illegally and preserving Confederate statues. The approach has drawn bipartisan criticism, but Gillespie supporters say he’s been unfairly maligned for taking positions that are popular with voters but may not be politically correct.

“Ed is willing to take those arrows,” said U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who campaigned with Gillespie on Sunday.

Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon said Saturday that Gillespie’s tack to the right will help him “pull this out,” according to the pro-Trump website Breitbart News.

Gillespie did not mention the president during Sunday rallies in Williamsburg and Virginia Beach, instead focusing his message on his plan to boost the state’s economy.

Republicans said a controversial last-minute ad by the Latino Victory Fund, which features a Gillespie supporter chasing down children of different minority groups in a pickup truck, has helped galvanize Gillespie supporters at a key time.

“That was God’s way of helping him,” said Robin Milewski, a York County Republican volunteer.

 
…

Special Counsel Robert Mueller pushed back on Sunday against Paul Manafort’s efforts to avoid house arrest, arguing that President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager needed to further detail the finances behind his proposed $12 million bail agreement.

In a court memorandum, Mueller and his attorneys argued that the court should only agree to a bail agreement if Manafort fully explains his finances to the court.

Prosecutors said his team had not been able to substantiate the value of one of the three properties, as well as several life insurance policies, Manafort wants to pledge for bail.

Manafort, who ran Trump’s presidential campaign for several months last year, and associate Richard Gates pleaded not guilty last week to a 12-count indictment by a federal grand jury. They face charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government. The two are currently under house arrest, and prosecutors have argued they could pose a flight risk.

The charges are part of Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian efforts to tilt the 2016 election in Trump’s favor and potential collusion by Trump associates, allegations that Moscow and the Republican president deny.

In a Saturday court filing, Manafort offered to limit his travel and pledged life insurance worth about $4.5 million as well as about $8 million in real estate assets, including a property on Fifth Avenue in New York that was identified by some media outlets as an apartment in Trump Tower.

But prosecutors said they needed an independent appraisal of that Fifth Avenue property, since Manafort was claiming a fair-market value of the unit that appeared to exceed other outside estimates.

Prosecutors also argued they needed time to talk to Manafort’s insurance company about his policies. The prosecutors noted that Manafort would be required to forfeit one of those policies, worth $2.6 million, should he be convicted, creating additional questions about its value in a potential bail agreement.

In the document, Mueller said his team was in talks with Manafort’s counsel about striking a bail agreement but that Manafort had not provided enough detail yet on his finances.

“Those discussions are best described as ongoing, and the government is not prepared to consent to a change in the current conditions of release at least until Manafort provides a full accounting of his net worth and the value of the assets that he proposes to pledge,” Mueller said in the court memorandum.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said on Thursday that initial bail terms would remain in place and set a bail hearing for Monday to consider changes.
…

While President Donald Trump continues an Asia trip with high geo-strategic stakes, Republicans in Washington are promoting an ambitious tax reform bill that could bring enormous fiscal, and political, consequences. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, a tax cut is Trump’s last hope for a major legislative victory in his first year in office, something Republicans desperately need and something Democrats are determined to deny them.
…

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross shares significant business interests through a shipping venture in Russia with President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law and an oligarch subject to American sanctions, newly leaked documents showed Sunday.

Ross, a 79-year-old billionaire industrialist, has an investment in partnerships valued at between $2 million and $10 million in the shipper, Navigator Holdings, according to his government ethics disclosures.

The shipping company earns millions of dollars a year transporting natural gas for Sibur, a Russian energy company that is partly owned by Kirill Shamalov, the husband of Putin’s daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, and Gennady Timchenko, the oligarch who is Putin’s judo partner, according to the documents. Timchenko is subject to the U.S. sanctions because of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its subsequent support for pro-Russian separatists fighting the Kyiv government’s forces in eastern Ukraine.

Ross sold off numerous holdings when he joined President Donald Trump’s Cabinet earlier this year to avoid conflicts of interest while he promotes U.S. commerce throughout the world. But he kept his Navigator stake, which has been held in a chain of partnerships in the Cayman Islands, an offshore tax haven where Ross has placed much of his estimated $2 billion in wealth.

‘Paradise Papers’

Ross did not disclose the Russian business link when he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as commerce secretary, but it surfaced in a trove of more than 7 million internal documents leaked from Appleby, a Bermuda-based offshore law firm that advises the wealthy elite on global financial transactions as they look to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.  Appleby, says it has investigated all the allegations, and found “there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, either on the part of ourselves or our clients.”

The cache of documents, called the Paradise Papers, was first leaked to a German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media, including The Guardian in Britain, The New York Times and NBC News in the U.S., all of which reported on the Ross investment on Sunday.

Ross, through a Commerce Department spokesman, said he removes himself as secretary from matters related to trans-oceanic shipping and consults with the agency’s ethics officials “to ensure the highest ethical standards.”

The disclosure of Ross’ financial interests in Russia comes as a special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, and three congressional panels are investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an effort the U.S. intelligence community has concluded was led by Putin in an effort to undermine U.S. democracy and help Trump win the White House.

Several Trump campaign associates have come under scrutiny, but until the disclosures about Ross’ holdings, there have been no reports of business links between top Trump officials and any member of Putin’s family and his inner circle.

The disclosures will likely put pressure on world leaders, including Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May, who have both pledged to curb aggressive tax avoidance schemes.

“Congress has the power to crack down on offshore tax avoidance. There are copious loopholes in our federal tax code that essentially incentivize companies to cook the books and make U.S. profits appear to be earned offshore. The House tax bill introduced late last week does nothing to close these loopholes,” said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
…

President Donald Trump on Sunday began his first official visit to Asia. His first stop is Japan, followed by South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. Here’s what people in those countries have to say about their expectations for the visit.

JAPAN

Yoh Kawakami, employee at an information management solution company:

“I do wonder whether things will be OK, like, what will the world turn into? I wonder about his (Trump’s) response to North Korea and other things. There are things that scare me. He is becoming friendly with Prime Minister Abe, and I don’t know if that is right or not.”

“I do want him (Trump) to be more cool-headed. If he continues only provoking, the situation may actually become explosive.”

​Yumu Katsuyama, employee at nonprofit for international clinical childcare:

“Honestly when he first became president, I did question whether he was OK. But my American friends have said that after he became president, their lives and the economy has gotten better. Personally, I have started thinking that it may be a good thing that he became president.”

SOUTH KOREA

Ock Hyun-woong, company worker:

“President Trump is known to be a man of coercive control who makes controversial statements that get the attention of foreign media. While I don’t oppose President Trump’s visit to South Korea, I hope he can work well with South Korean-U.S. issues, like the economy.”

CHINA

Ding Chenling, technology investor and well-known tech blogger with 700,000 followers on China’s microblogging website Weibo:

“Well, maybe our system is not that perfect yet, but it’s like a kid to the teacher. We don’t want to be lectured by the teacher. We want to have our own way. We want to grow our own self by ourselves. So I think that’s the reason the Chinese people like Trump. He casts aside the political correctness. He says ‘Oh yeah, it’s good, America may do business, we want to do business, we want to make money together.”’

​Zhao Yingran, business development manager for a virtual reality video company:

“So I very much respect President Xi from the bottom of my heart and I think under his leadership, China will lead the world sooner or later especially with the focus on technologies and humanity. I think all of the policies executed by President Xi should set a good example for Donald Trump, which Donald Trump will need to learn to make United States great again.”

VIETNAM

Bach Ngoc Lien, development expert:

“Donald Trump is a controversial character. He often has negative comments about migrants, makes unfavorable policies about climate change, the areas where the U.S. used to be the leader and plays an important role internationally. Human rights, women’s rights are values that the U.S. used to uphold, but I find that these values are fading under Trump’s presidency.”

“During his campaign, President Donald Trump had a slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ and for his Asian trip, I have a slogan for him: ‘Make America Friendly Again’ because the U.S has always been a friendly country, being the dream of many people, up until now. I hope Donald Trump will not distance the U.S and isolate it from other countries. I hope he will make the U.S friendly again like it used to be.”

PHILIPPINES

Jeanne Vivar, student:

“I don’t like the conservative policies of Trump and obviously it has affected the Filipinos working in America. Ironically, there are a lot of people who are in favor of Donald Trump.”

“In Asia, especially the problem in North Korea is escalating, so my message will be when Trump arrives here in Asia and the Philippines, I hope the tensions will ease instead of him making it worse.”

​Lorenzo Nakpil, architect:

“My opinion on Trump is mixed. I don’t agree with some people in the West they say he is racist and he wants to build a wall blocking Mexico and he gives immigrants a hard time. He is very conservative in that sense but in a way I respect that. Where I agree with Trump is where he agrees with (Philippine President Rodrigo) Duterte and he supports the Philippines’ war on drugs. He doesn’t buy it that Duterte’s way of stopping drugs is a human rights violation. Our president with the support of Trump, they’re actually doing a good job.”
…

The U.S. president’s performance as leader of the American people has received failing grades from the public, according to a Washington Post-ABC News survey.

Donald Trump has been in office almost one year, and his approval rating is “demonstrably lower than any previous chief executive at this point in his presidency over seven decades of polling” says a report on the poll in The Washington Post. Only 37 percent of Americans, or fewer than 4 in 10, approve of Trump’s job performance as the U.S. chief executive.

His disapproval rating has reached a stunning 59 percent, and half of that group strongly disapproves of the job he is doing.

At 100 days into the presidency, 42 percent of Americans said they thought Trump has accomplished a great deal, but now that number has slipped to 35 percent.

The newspaper report said a 65 percent of those surveyed say Trump has accomplished “not much” or “little or nothing.”

The survey also indicated 51 percent of Americans trust Trump not at all in his handling of the threat posed by North Korea.

The Post reports that half of all Americans think the president has a bias against black people and more than half, 55 percent, think he is biased against women.

However, of those who voted for Trump in the election, 91 percent continue to approve of his performance.

The poll was conducted between Oct. 29 and Nov. 1. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday told servicemen at Yokota Air Base in Japan that “no one, no dictator, no regime … should underestimate American resolve.” His remarks came at the start of a nearly two-week Asian trip that is expected to focus on North Korea.

Some of his comments, while directed at the American troops, could also be seen as a veiled warning to the isolated nation:

“You are the greatest threat to tyrants and dictators who seek to prey on the innocent.”

Message to North Korea

En route to Japan, the president spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One, where he was asked by VOA’s Steve Herman if he had any message for the North Korean people.

“I think they’re great people,” the president said. “They’re industrious. They’re warm, much warmer than the world really knows and understands, they’re great people. And I hope it all works out for everybody. It’ll be a wonderful thing if we can work it out for those great people and for everybody.”

Trump also indicated he expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in the Philippines later in the trip.

After his speech at Yokota, the president took a 25-minute flight on Marine One to the the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama prefecture (state) near Tokyo.

Asked by VOA News if he was ready to play golf, Trump responded “we’re ready.” He was then greeted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in front of the expansive clubhouse. The course will play host to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic golf tournament.

As club members ate lunch, Trump and Abe, in the dining room, signed white hats reading “Donald and Shinzo Make Alliance Even Greater.”

The two leaders, following lunch, went outside to the golf course to play nine holes with professional Japanese golfer Hideki Matsuyama at the private club founded in 1929.

​Stopover in Hawaii

Trump arrived in Japan after a stopover in Hawaii, where he paid a solemn visit to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, the site of the surprise Japanese naval attack in 1941 that plunged the U.S. into World War II. He also received a classified briefing by the military at the U.S. Pacific Command.

Before departing for Japan, his first stop on a multination tour of Asia, Trump stopped at his Trump International Hotel in Waikiki and spoke with some employees.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Trump “wanted to say hello and thank you to the employees for all their hard work.”

North Korea to dominate talks

Trump said he had wanted to spend another day in Hawaii at the end of what he called this “very important trip,” but canceled that plan to stay longer in the Philippines to attend the East Asia Summit, in addition to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting.

Before arriving in the Philippines, the 13-day trip will take Trump to Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam, his longest journey as president. 

In Trump’s meetings with other Asian leaders, the president is expected to tell them the world is “running out of time” to stop North Korea’s nuclear warhead and ballistic missile development, which U.S. administration officials deem to be the biggest threat currently faced.

“The discussions will be around mainly what more we can do now to resolve this, short of war, recognizing that all of us are running out of time,” according to National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. “The United States, South Korea, Japan, China are running out of time on this.”
…

Government documents newly released Friday regarding John F. Kennedy’s assassination say allegations that Lee Harvey Oswald was connected to the CIA were “totally unfounded.”

A 1975 CIA memo says a thorough search of agency records in and outside the United States was conducted to determine whether Oswald had been used by the agency or connected with it in “any conceivable way.”

The memo said the search came up empty. The memo also said there was no indication that any other U.S. agency used Oswald as a source or for recruitment.

Third document release

The National Archives released another 676 government documents related to the assassination, the third public release so far this year. Under law, all the documents were to be disclosed to the public last week.

Most of the latest release includes 553 records from the CIA that previously were withheld in their entirety. There also are records from the Justice and Defense departments, the House Select Committee on Assassinations and the National Archives.

University of Virginia historian Larry Sabato complained that many of the documents in the latest release were heavily redacted. He tweeted about a 144-page record, titled “Material Reviewed at CIA headquarters by House Select Committee on Assassinations staff members,” that had writing on only a handful of pages.

President Donald Trump has ordered the release of all records related to the assassination, and they are expected to be made public on a rolling basis during the next three to four weeks. He also directed agencies to take another look at redactions and withhold information only in the rarest of circumstances.

​Oswald’s Mexico trip

One record showed how U.S. officials scrambled after the assassination to round up information about Oswald’s trip to Mexico City weeks earlier. Officials wondered whether Oswald had been trying to get visas at the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City in order to “make a quick escape after assassinating the president.”

A CIA message sent Nov. 24, 1963, two days after Kennedy was killed, said an “important question” that remained unsolved was whether Oswald had been planning to travel right away or return to the U.S. and leave later.

The message said that although it appeared Oswald “was then thinking only about a peaceful change of residence to the Soviet Union, it is also possible that he was getting documented to make a quick escape after assassinating the president.”

Another record dated April 11, 1964, recounted a visit to the CIA by three staff members of the Warren Commission, which was set up to investigate the assassination.

The memo said the staff members indicated that Thomas Mann, former ambassador to Mexico and then-assistant secretary for inter-American affairs, “still has the ‘feeling in his guts’ that (Cuban leader Fidel) Castro hired Oswald to kill Kennedy. They said, however, that the commission has not been able to get any proof of that.”

MLK document released

Also in the latest release was a 20-page FBI analysis of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. dated March 12, 1968, a month before he was assassinated April 4, 1968. One section alleges that King was attracted to former members of the Communist Party in America. It notes that two previous aides were party members and eight others, who helped shape King’s organization in its early stages, had communist affiliations.

The analysis said that in the early 1960s, the Communist Party was trying to get a black labor coalition to further its goals in the United States. It referenced a May 1961 issue of a communist newspaper that stated, “Communists will do their utmost to strengthen and unite the Negro movement and ring it to the backing of the working people.”

The FBI said King and his organization were “made-to-order” to achieve these objectives.

The FBI’s surveillance of King is well-known, and the analysis includes several pages about his sexual life. One document said a black minister who attended a workshop to train ministers in February 1968 in Miami “expressed his disgust with the behind-the-scene drinking, fornication and homosexuality that went on at the conference.”

“Throughout the ensuing years and until this date, King has continued to carry on his sexual aberrations secretly while holding himself out to public view as a moral leader of religious conviction,” the FBI report said.
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U.S. authorities released a 10-year-old immigrant girl with cerebral palsy who had been detained by border agents after surgery because she is in the U.S. without legal permission.

The American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said that Rosa Maria Hernandez was returned to her family Friday. Her parents brought her into the U.S. from Mexico in 2007, when she was a toddler, and they live in the Texas border city of Laredo.

Surgery, then detention

A cousin who is an American citizen took Rosa Maria from Laredo to a children’s hospital in Corpus Christi on Oct. 24, where she was scheduled to have emergency gallbladder surgery. To get to Corpus Christi, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) away, she had to pass through an interior checkpoint in South Texas operated by the Border Patrol.

Border Patrol agents followed Rosa Maria and the cousin to the hospital, then took the girl into custody after the surgery and transported her to a facility in San Antonio for unaccompanied immigrant minors, under the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Border Patrol has said it had no choice but to detain Rosa Maria, arguing that she was considered an unaccompanied minor under federal law, the same as a child who crosses into the United States alone without legal permission.

ACLU sues; deportation still a threat

The ACLU sued the government on Rosa Maria’s behalf Tuesday, argued that the U.S. government violated federal law on unaccompanied minors and endangered Rosa Maria’s health by not sending her home.

“She never should have been in this situation in the first place,” ACLU lawyer Michael Tan said Friday. “There is no reason Border Patrol had to target a child.”

While Rosa Maria has been reunited with her family, she still faces the threat of deportation. Tan said Friday that Border Patrol agents had issued Rosa Maria a notice to appear in immigration court, but that the case had yet to move forward.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, declined to comment. HHS declined to comment on Rosa Maria’s case, but said the agency’s focus was “on the safety and best interest of each child.”

Leticia Gonzalez, an attorney for Rosa Maria’s family, said the 10-year-old had the mental capacity of a child closer to 4 or 5 years old because of her cerebral palsy. Priscila Martinez, an activist at the Workers Defense Action Fund, said the child had started to show signs of socially withdrawing while in detention and refusing to eat her favorite kind of bread.

Border patrol criticism

Federal immigration authorities have faced strong criticism from advocates and some Texas Democratic congressmen over their handling of the case.

Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, said Friday that he had tried to see Rosa Maria earlier in the day and had spoken to federal officials about her case. He said Border Patrol agents could have chosen to let Rosa Maria pass through the checkpoint without following or detaining her.

But U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a previous statement after she was detained that “there is no discretion with regard to the law whether or not the agents should enforce the law.”
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President Donald Trump may be away on a nearly two-week trip to Asia. But back in Washington, special counsel Robert Mueller is digging up new details in his investigation into possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russians trying to influence the election. VOA’s Peter Heinlein at the White House has the latest.
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