Australia on Tuesday announced a Aus$500 million ($340 million) climate change package for Pacific island countries, which have been increasingly vocal in demanding their powerful neighbor curb its carbon emissions. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the funding, drawn from Australia’s existing international aid budget, would help Pacific island nations invest in renewable energy and climate change resilience. The climate-sceptic leader made the announcement before traveling to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Tuvalu, where island nations threatened by rising seas have vowed to put global warming at the top of the agenda. Smaller members of the 18-nation grouping have been sharply critical of Australia’s climate policies ahead of this year’s summit amid a diplomatic push from Canberra to counter China’s growing power in the region. High-level representatives from the likes of Tuvalu, Palau and Vanuatu have criticized Australia for not doing enough, with Fiji’s Frank Bainimarama saying Canberra’s reliance on coal poses an “existential threat” to low-lying islands. There has also been disquiet in the Pacific that Australia recently approved the giant Adani coal mine in Queensland state. Morrison has staunchly defended Australia’s climate record, insisting the country will meet its 2030 emissions reduction target set under the Paris Agreement.  …

Hong Kong’s airport reopened on Tuesday but its administrator warned that flight movements would still be affected, after China said protests that have swept the city over the past two months had begun to show the “sprouts of terrorism.” Some flights resumed but many others were cancelled. Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific said it had cancelled more than 200 flights into and out of the airport on Tuesday, according to its website. The airport, one of the world’s busiest, blamed demonstrators for halting flights on Monday. The exact trigger for the closure was not clear because protesters occupying the arrivals hall since Friday have been peaceful. The airport was the latest focus of protests that began two months ago. The sometimes violent protests began as opposition to a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extradition to mainland China but have grown into wider calls for democracy. The protests have plunged the Chinese-ruled territory into its most serious crisis in decades, presenting Chinese leader Xi Jinping with one of his biggest challenges since he came to power in 2012. Analysts said the disruptions and protests in Hong Kong were unsettling Asian stock markets, and the Hang Seng index opened 1.1% …

Arrests and deportations of foreign teachers in China have soared this year, lawyers, schools and teachers say, amid a broad crackdown defined by new police tactics and Beijing’s push for a “cleaner,” more patriotic education system. Four law firms told Reuters that requests for representation involving foreign teachers had surged in the past six months by between four and tenfold, while teachers and schools confirmed arrests and temporary detentions for minor crimes had become commonplace. Switzerland-based Education First (EF), which runs 300 schools across 50 Chinese cities, has seen a “significant” increase in detentions in China for alleged offenses including drugs, fighting and cybersecurity violations, according to a June 27 internal notice sent to employees and seen by Reuters. It said EF staff had been “picked up by police at their home and work as well as in bars and nightclubs and have been questioned and brought in for drug testing”. The notice said the school had also received warnings from embassies about the rise in arrests. A spokeswoman for EF declined to comment on the content of the notices but said the company “values our close collaboration with the Chinese authorities,” adding that it “regularly reminds staff of important …

Singer Taylor Swift has urged her millions of fans to get behind the U.S. women’s soccer team’s fight for equal pay, saying the world champions had taken a “historic stand” for equality. Gender discrimination on pay was “happening everywhere,” the American singer-songwriter said as she accepted the inaugural Icon Award at this year’s Teen Choice Awards from Alex Morgan, co-captain of the women’s team, on Sunday. “While they were winning the World Cup, they were also taking a historic stand in terms of gender equality, gender pay gap,” said Swift, 29. “Please, please, please support her and her teammates because this isn’t over yet. It’s not resolved. Get online and talk about it.” The U.S. women’s soccer team celebrates at City Hall after a ticker tape parade, July 10, 2019, in New York. The squad’s 2-0 victory in the World Cup final in July capped a campaign that attracted vast television audiences. In March they sued the U.S. Soccer Federation, arguing that their pay and working conditions amounted to gender discrimination. The players, who include stars Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan, said they had been consistently paid less than their male counterparts despite performing better. The prize money …

More El Paso residents than ever before crowded into a class over the weekend to become certified to carry a concealed gun in public in Texas after this month’s mass shooting at a Walmart store that killed 22 people. Guadalupe Segovia, 35, was at the class with her two children. She said her military husband had long been pushing for her to get a concealed-carry license, which allows the holder to wear a gun hidden under their clothes or carry it in a purse when they are in public. Segovia said she felt urgency to do the required training now after the attack hit close to home. “I’m still going to be scared, even carrying a weapon,” she said. The vast majority of people at the classes were Hispanic; El Paso is a predominantly Latino city. Police say the accused gunman deliberately attacked Hispanics in the Walmart. Michael McIntyre, general manager of Gun Central, one of the largest gun shops in El Paso and the host of the class, on Friday said his store tallied double the usual number of sales in the week following the attack, something that did not happen after previous mass shootings in Texas. Most of …

Fifty years ago, Nick and Bobbi Ercoline were just another young couple camped out at the Woodstock festival. But when a photographer snapped their picture early on that Sunday morning as they stood hugging each other while wrapped in a blanket, they unwittingly became part of pop culture history, ending up on the Woodstock festival album cover. Nick and Bobbi are still together and still living near the farm at Bethel Woods, in New York’s Catskills mountains, where the three-day festival was held in 1969, on Aug. 15-18. The couple, now 70, say they don’t remember the picture being taken nor much about what was happening around them that day on a muddy hillside strewn with sleepers huddled in blankets in the morning air. “Just getting up in the morning, standing up, giving my girlfriend a hug,” Nick Ercoline recalled. “I don’t even remember the picture being taken honestly.” Bobbi, who was wearing large sunglasses, said she barely remembered the moment at all. But when she looks at the picture now, “I feel calmness.” “I feel that it’s like the birds waking up in the morning, and we’re just kind of … sorting it out. We’re just waking up, looking …

 Investors piled into gold, safe-haven yen and bonds on Monday over nagging concerns about a prolonged U.S.-China trade war and global growth, while Argentina’s peso plunged 15% after voters handed its president an election mauling. The yen rose to its highest in more than a year and a half versus the dollar on the prospect the Japanese currency could gain more in the case of a drawn-out U.S.-Sino trade conflict. Concerns that a trade deal would not be reached before the 2020 U.S. presidential election grew after Goldman Sachs on Sunday became the latest to cut its U.S. growth outlook and warn a trade stand-off would fester past the election. Stocks on Wall Street fell more than 1% to push a gauge of global equity performance down almost as much. Earlier in China stocks rallied more than 1% as the yuan avoided further drama after Chinese authorities allowed the yuan to slip below the seven-per-dollar level last week. Stocks in the near term lack a catalyst either from company earnings, the Federal Reserve or a trade deal, said Rahul Shah, chief executive of Ideal Asset Management in New York. “The promise of a trade deal coming this year, I think …

South Sudan activists on Monday began a campaign to pressure the country’s warring parties to meet a fast-approaching deadline to form a unity government as part of their 2018 peace agreement.  The Civil Society Forum, a coalition of more than 100 organizations, on Monday marked the beginning of a 90-day countdown to the November deadline for the ruling party and opposition to form a government.  “We have not got much time left. There are a lot of tasks that need to be accomplished and business should not remain as usual,” Geoffrey Lou Duke, a member of the coalition, told AFP. South Sudan descended into war in 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy and fellow former rebel leader Riek Machar of plotting a coup. The parties signed a peace deal in September for Kiir to form a government with Machar, but the sides already missed the first deadline, which was in May.   Activists say scant progress has been made since then, including on vital security measures to stabilize a country reeling from nearly six years of conflict.   The fighting has been marked by ethnic violence and brutal atrocities, and left about 380,000 dead while some four …

Brazilian Justice Minister Sergio Moro, who oversaw Brazil’s biggest corruption probe as a federal judge, said on Monday he has no interest in elected office and that President Jair Bolsonaro is his candidate for the 2022 election. “I am not a candidate for president in 2022. The government candidate, if he wants it, will be Bolsonaro,” Moro told Reuters in an interview. Moro’s popularity has been dented by reports he collaborated with prosecutors investigating jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, based on leaks of their alleged chats published by news website the Intercept and Brazilian media. The Intercept and its editor, Glenn Greenwald, are not being investigated about the leaks, Moro said, although police are looking into those who apparently hacked authorities’ phones. Messages are disputed Moro denied that the leaks had undermined his credibility as Brazil’s top crime fighter. “I’m not in government to compete in a popularity contest or worry about my image,” he said. Moro disputed the authenticity of the messages published by The Intercept and added that he saw nothing “abnormal” about a Brazilian judge communicating with prosecutors in a criminal investigation. Critics and even some supporters of Moro’s anti-graft efforts have expressed concerns …

U.N. experts say they are investigating at least 30 instances in 17 countries of North Koreans using cyberattacks to illegally raise money for its nuclear program — and they are calling for sanctions against ships providing gasoline and diesel to the country. Last week, The Associated Press reported that North Korea illegally acquired “as much as two billion dollars” from its increasingly sophisticated cyber activities against financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges, quoting the experts’ summary.    Their lengthy report, recently seen by AP, reveals that neighboring South Korea was hardest-hit, the victim of 10 cyberattacks, followed by India with three, and Bangladesh and Chile with two each.    Thirteen countries suffered one attack — Costa Rica, Gambia, Guatemala, Kuwait, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Nigeria, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Tunisia and Vietnam, it said.    …

The Trump administration took steps Monday to significantly weaken the U.S. Endangered Species Act, prompting state attorneys general and conservation groups to threaten legal action to protect at-risk species. The 1970s-era act is credited with bringing back from the brink of extinction species such as bald eagles, gray whales and grizzly bears, but the law has long been a source of frustration for drilling and mining companies, and other industries because new listings can put vast areas of land off-limits to development. The weakening of the act’s protections is one of many moves by U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, to roll back existing regulations to hasten oil, gas and coal production, as well as grazing, ranching and logging on federal land. “These changes crash a bulldozer through the Endangered Species Act’s lifesaving protections for America’s most vulnerable wildlife,” Noah Greenwald, the Center for Biological Diversity’s endangered species director, said in a statement. “For animals like wolverines and monarch butterflies, this could be the beginning of the end.” Changes The changes would end a practice that automatically conveys the same protections for threatened species as for endangered species, and would strike language that guides officials to ignore economic impacts of …

Five countries bordering the energy-rich Caspian Sea met Monday at an economic forum hosted by Turkmenistan in a bid to agree on how to divide the region’s oil wealth. Last year, the leaders of Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan signed a convention aimed at ending decades-long uncertainty over exploitation of its resources. The agreement establishes rules for declaring each country’s territorial waters and fishing zones, but the issue of dividing seabed that contains rich oil and gas fields is subject to further negotiations. Russia and Iran are yet to ratify last year’s agreement. Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who attended Monday’s forum in Turkmenistan, said that the ratification is expected “in the near future.” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev delivers a speech during a session of the First Caspian Economic Forum in Turkmenbashi, Aug. 12, 2019. Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri was non-committal, making no commitments in his speech at the forum. Jahangiri argued that non-Caspian nations shouldn’t meddle in the region’s affairs and charged that the United States’ unilateralist policies and its emphasis on sanctions threaten stability of the region. Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who has wielded all-encompassing power since taking office in 2006, styling himself as the …

Argentina’s peso currency crashed on Monday while stocks and bonds fell by a degree not seen in 18 years as voters signaled they could reject market-friendly President Mauricio Macri at an election in October and return the country to interventionist economics. The peso closed 15.27% weaker at 53.5 per U.S. dollar after plunging some 30% to a record low of 65 to a dollar earlier in the day after Macri suffered a heavy loss in a primary election. Opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez – whose running mate is former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner – dominated the primary vote by a much wider-than-expected 15.5 percentage point margin over the president. Fernandez has said he would seek to “rework” Argentina’s $57-billion standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund if he won October’s general election. Pedestrians walk past an electronic board showing currency exchange rates in Buenos Aires’ financial district, Argentina, Aug. 12, 2019. Argentina’s central bank intervened, selling $105 million in the foreign exchange market to defend the peso in the face of the massive sell-off. The auction used the bank’s own reserves for the first time since September of last year, traders said. Macri Struggles Macri, a scion of one of …

Catholic authorities in Mexico said that Cardinal Sergio Obeso Rivera has died at the age of 86. The Episcopal Conference of Mexico said Monday that the cardinal from Veracruz state spent 65 years as a priest and was president of the conference for three terms. The Episcopal Conference is the leadership council of the Catholic Church in Mexico. It added that Obeso Rivera was instrumental in improving ties between Mexico and the Vatican in the 1980s. He also participated in peace negotiations with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in 1996.    The Episcopal Conference did not mention a cause of death, but local media had reported on recent health problems. Obeso Rivera was named a cardinal in 2018 by Pope Francis after being named as a bishop in 1971. …

Apple is giving a first look at its upcoming web television series that is centered on a behind-the-scenes view of early morning TV news. The company posted a teaser Monday of “The Morning Show.” It stars Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell and is set to debut will debut this fall on AppleTV+. Apple’s new original video subscription service will feature original shows, movies and documentaries without ads and will be available on demand. …

Bill Cosby’s lawyers will fight to overturn his sexual assault conviction Monday as the 82-year-old comedian serves a three- to 10-year prison term in Pennsylvania. Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the(hash)MeToo era. He insists the sexual encounter with a young woman seeking career advice was consensual. A jury last year found Cosby drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia estate in 2004. Defense lawyers contend the trial judge erred in letting five other accusers testify to bolster the prosecution’s case. A three-judge Superior Court panel will hear arguments Monday but is not expected to rule for several months. The decision will be closely watched by both sexual assault victims and lawyers for Harvey Weinstein and other high-profile men accused of similar misconduct. …

The Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates met in Mecca Monday with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman over the latest developments in Yemen. Yemen’s southern separatists have seized control of the southern capital, Aden, from the internationally recognized government of President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi, but say they will continue to work with the Saudi-led coalition.  Arab media showed the UAE’s Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Zayed meeting with the Saudi King as the Crown Prince looked on. The visit coincided with the capture of government buildings in the southern Yemeni capital, Aden, by the country’s southern separatists in recent days. The separatists have reportedly agreed to attend a meeting in Saudi Arabia to iron out their differences with the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s internationally recognized government of President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi. Separatist leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi indicated in a speech Sunday that his forces would continue to cooperate with the coalition. He says that his side is ready to behave as a faithful and reliable ally and to act on the ground with total transparency, insisting that his men will respect the cease-fire that the Saudi coalition has called for. Southern separatist militia commander Mokhtar al-Nubi indicated …

U.S. President Donald Trump wants to see a successful British exit from the European Union that Washington will support with a U.S.-UK free trade agreement, national security adviser John Bolton told British officials on Monday. As Britain prepares to leave the European Union on Oct. 31, its biggest geopolitical shift since World War II, many diplomats expect London to become increasingly reliant on the United States. Bolton, in London for two days of talks with British officials, is seeking an improved U.S.-British relationship with Prime Minister Boris Johnson after sometimes tense ties between Trump and Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May. A central message Bolton was making is that the United States will help cushion Britain’s exit from the EU with a free trade deal that is being negotiated by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his British counterpart, Liz Truss. A senior Trump administration official, describing Bolton’s message to British officials, said the president “wants to see a successful British exit from the European Union” and that a trade deal would help Britain. Trump had wanted to work with the May government on a trade deal but her government “didn’t want do it. This government does. We’re very happy about it,” …

The apparent suicide of Jeffrey Epstein has brought new scrutiny to a federal jail in New York that, despite chronic understaffing, houses some of the highest-security inmates in the country.   Epstein’s death is also the latest black eye for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the jail’s parent agency that already was under fire for the October death of Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, who was fatally beaten at a federal prison in West Virginia shortly after his arrival. Taken together, the deaths underscore “serious issues surrounding a lack of leadership” within the BOP, said Cameron Lindsay, a former warden who ran three federal lockups, including the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. A defense attorney for Epstein, Marc Fernich, also faulted jail officials, saying they “recklessly put Mr. Epstein in harm’s way” and failed to protect him. The Bureau of Prisons did not respond to repeated requests for details about Epstein’s death. But Attorney General William Barr demanded answers, saying he was appalled by the apparent suicide and announcing a pair of federal inquiries by the FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general. Epstein, 66, had pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. His lawyers maintained the …

The chant “2 cents, 2 cents, 2 cents”started in the back of a crowd that packed sidewalks at the Iowa State Fair. Elizabeth Warren, basking in the spontaneous adulation of her proposed wealth tax, prompted roars with her call for the ultra-wealthy to “pitch in 2 cents so everybody gets a chance to make it.” A night before, the Massachusetts senator enjoyed similar treatment when Democrats at a party dinner jumped to their feet _ some beginning to dance at the opening bars of Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the song that would usher Warren on stage. For someone whose White House ambitions were dismissed by some Democrats earlier this year, Warren’s reception in Iowa this weekend was a clear warning sign to other 2020 candidates that hers is a campaign to be reckoned with in the state that kicks off the race for the party’s nomination. Warren was one of nearly two dozen candidates who paraded through Iowa this weekend, speaking at the state fair, the annual Wing Ding dinner and a forum on gun control. The sheer volume of visiting contenders signaled a new phase of the campaign, ending the get-to-know-you period and beginning a six-month sprint to …

Thousands of people have attended the burial of five Russian nuclear engineers killed by an explosion during tests of a new rocket.   The engineers, who died on Thursday, were laid to rest Monday in the city of Sarov that hosts Russia’s main nuclear weapons research center.   The Defense Ministry initially said the explosion at the navy’s testing range in Nyonoksa in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region killed two people and injured a further six, but the state-controlled Rosatom nuclear concern acknowledged later that the blast also killed five of its workers and injured three others.   Rosatom said the explosion occurred while the engineers were testing “a nuclear isotope power source” for a rocket. Local authorities in nearby Severodvinsk reported a brief spike in radiation levels after the explosion.     …

The articles on the website of the leading Taiwan newspaper were gushing about a new Chinese government program to lure Taiwanese entrepreneurs to the mainland. China “treated Taiwanese businessmen like its own people,” one of the articles said, citing “multiple perks”. Far from being a threat to Taiwan, the program to give economic incentives to Taiwanese to start businesses in the mainland was an “unprecedented” opportunity, it said. While the articles were presented as straight news, they were actually paid for by the Chinese government, according to a person with direct knowledge of the arrangement and internal documents from the Taipei-based newspaper. The placement of the articles was part of a broader campaign by China to burnish its image in the Taiwanese media as part of efforts to win hearts and minds in Taiwan for China’s “reunification” agenda. Reuters has found evidence that mainland authorities have paid at least five Taiwan media groups for coverage in various publications and on a television channel, according to interviews with 10 reporters and newsroom managers as well as internal documents reviewed by Reuters, including contracts signed by the Taiwan Affairs Office, which is responsible for overseeing China’s policies towards Taiwan. These efforts have …

Trump administration rules that could deny green cards to immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance are going into effect, potentially making it more difficult for some to get legal status in the United States.   Federal law already requires those seeking green cards and legal status to prove they will not be a burden to the U.S., or what’s called a “public charge,” but the new rules, made public on Monday, detail a broader range of programs that could disqualify them.   U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers will now weigh public assistance along with other factors such as education, household income and health to determine whether to grant legal status.   Much of President Donald Trump’s effort to crack down on illegal immigration has been in the spotlight, but the rule change is one of the most aggressive efforts to restrict legal immigration. It’s part of a push to move the U.S. to a system that focuses on immigrants’ skills instead of emphasizing the reunification of families, as it has done.   The rules will take effect in mid-October. They don’t apply to U.S. citizens, even if the U.S. citizen is …

A Belgian company has become the first to announce it is cutting ties with Myanmar’s military after a United Nations fact-finding mission called on businesses to sever all financial links to the country’s generals.  Satellite communications firm Newtec said in a statement it would “follow the recommendations by the UN and stop commercial ties with Mytel,” a local mobile phone operator partially owned by the military.  The call from a panel of three UN experts came a year after they first said Myanmar’s top generals should be prosecuted for genocide for their role in a 2017 crackdown believed to have killed thousands of Rohingya Muslims.  “We will never knowingly sell to any organization or company linked to the Tatmadaw’s campaign of violence… and the atrocities committed against the Rohingya,” Newtec said, using the local name for Myanmar’s military. A company that handles public relations for Mytel did not respond to a request for comment.  Mixed Reactions Christopher Sidoti, a human rights lawyer and member of the UN panel, praised Newtec for following the recommendations.  “It’s a very welcome decision. We’re pleased to see such prompt action on their part and certainly hope that it’s the first among many,” he told …