Month: August 2019

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Tuesday that 70 years after countries adopted the Geneva Conventions to limit the barbarity of war, the terrible suffering in conflicts today shows they are not being respected.

Peter Maurer told a U.N. Security Council meeting marking the anniversary that continued violations of the rules in the conventions doesn’t mean they are inadequate, “but rather that efforts to ensure respect are inadequate.”

“We can — and must — do more. You can do more,” he told the 15 council members.

The four Geneva Conventions were adopted on Aug. 11, 1949, and have been universally ratified by the world’s countries. 
 
The first three were revised from earlier treaties to update rules on protecting the wounded and sick in the armed forces on land and sea and prisoners of war. The fourth was the first-ever treaty specifically dedicated to protecting civilians in times of war. A new provision is now included in all four conventions to provide protections in conflicts that aren’t between countries, such as civil wars and those involving armed groups not affiliated with governments.

Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, told the council the Geneva Conventions are “the cornerstone of international humanitarian law, and their spirit is upheld by the brave men and women in humanitarian operations worldwide who dedicate their lives to saving the lives of others.”

But Maas said respect for humanitarian law “is declining” and the complexity of modern warfare is adding deadly challenges. He pointed to extremist groups, conflicts without borders, and daily attacks on civilians, medical facilities and schools.

“We are failing the most vulnerable,” Maas said. “We are not living up to our legal and ethical obligations. … It is a threat to peace and security when thousands of people die, when tens of thousands fear for their lives.”

Polish Foreign Minster Jacek Czaputowicz, who presided as this month’s council president, said the greatest challenge to protecting lives in modern conflict is ensuring that armed forces and armed groups respect the rules of warfare.

“These violations of humanitarian law occur for a number of circumstances: brutal conduct of warfare, willingness to intimidate opponents, feeling of impunity of perpetrators,” Czaputowicz said. “If existing rules were followed, much of the human suffering in contemporary armed conflicts would not occur.”  
 
Maurer said the challenge is to ensure not only that the conventions are part of military doctrine and rules but that they become an ethical standard of behavior and “that fighters facing a choice to act in violation of the law know and say, ‘This is wrong; this is not who I am.'”

…

The United Nations refugee agency urgently appealed to European governments Tuesday to let two migrant rescue ships disembark more than 500 passengers who remain stranded at sea as countries bicker over who should take responsibility for them. 
 
The people rescued while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa are on ships chartered by humanitarian aid groups that the Italian government has banned from its territory. The archipelago nation of Malta also has refused to let the ships into that country’s ports.

It’s unclear where they might find safe harbor, even though the Italian island of Lampedusa appears closest. About 150 of the rescued passengers have been on the Spanish-flagged charity ship the Open Arms since they were plucked from the Mediterranean 13 days ago. 

“This is a race against time,” Vincent Cochetel, the International Red Cross special envoy for the central Mediterranean, said in a statement. “Storms are coming, and conditions are only going to get worse.” 
 
While the number of migrants reaching Europe by sea has dropped substantially so far this year, the Red Cross says nearly 600 people have died or gone missing in waters between Libya, Italy and Malta in 2019.  
 
The agency said many of the people on the ships “are reportedly survivors of appalling abuses in Libya.” Cochetel said the ships “must be immediately allowed to dock” and their passengers “allowed to receive much-needed humanitarian aid.” 
 
“To leave people who have fled war and violence in Libya on the high seas in this weather would be to inflict suffering upon suffering,” the envoy said.

The captain of the Open Arms, Marc Reig, sent a letter Monday to the Spanish Embassy in Malta asking Madrid to grant asylum to 31 minors on his ship. A senior Spanish official said Tuesday that Reig’s request carries no legal weight because the captain doesn’t have authority to seek protection for the minors.

Two charity groups that are operating the Ocean Viking rescue ship — Doctors Without Borders and sea rescue group SOS Mediterranee — also formally asked Italy and Malta to allow the 356 migrants aboard that vessel to be allowed to disembark.

The limbo of the Open Arms and Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking is the latest in a string of standoffs that kept Europe-bound migrants at sea in miserable conditions. 
 
Southern nations that have been the main arrival points since 2015 — notably Italy, but also Malta and Greece — have complained of feeling abandoned by their European Union partners to cope with the influx.

Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, reiterated Tuesday his intent to ensure that the ships don’t enter Italian ports.

Differences among EU member nations over how to manage mass migration have sparked a political crisis in Europe, while attempts to reform the bloc’s asylum system have failed. The issue has been a vote-winner for far-right and populist parties. 
 
The EU’s executive commission said it has urged member countries to take action to resolve the status of the recently rescued passengers and stands ready to offer national governments support but cannot act alone.

“There’s nothing more we can do,” a European Commission spokeswoman said Tuesday.

…

 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 that’s becoming less and less likely,” Shah said. “That does set up the market possibly for a correction at this point,” he said.

Stocks could dip between 5% to 10% but prompt long-term investors to enter the market as valuations fall, he said. Half of Shah’s portfolio is corporate debt with the remainder tech stocks and shares with solid dividends, he said.

MSCI’s gauge of stock performance in 47 countries fell 0.85%, driven lower by tumbling U.S. stocks. The benchmark S&P 500 index is now almost 5% off its all-time high set just 11 sessions ago.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 391 points, or 1.49%, to 25,896.44. The S&P 500 lost 35.96 points, or 1.23%, to 2,882.69 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 95.73 points, or 1.2%, to 7,863.41.

European shares fell, with the pan-regional FTSEurofirst 300 of leading European shares closing down 0.31%, while Germany’s export-heavy DAX off 0.12%.

Germany’s Ifo survey echoed the growth concerns with its measures for current conditions and economic expectations both having worsened in the third quarter.

Gold edged up, holding above the psychological $1,500 level.

Spot gold added 1.1% to $1,512.51 an ounce.

The yen rose to its highest against the dollar since March 2018 — barring a flash crash in January — gaining 0.37% versus the greenback at 105.30 per dollar.

The euro rose 0.11% to $1.121, while the dollar index fell 0.07%.

“The longer the trade war drags on, the more likely it would weigh (on) the global outlook and crimp the world economy, a negative for market morale,” said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions.

U.S. Treasury yields dropped across the board as trade worries and political tensions around the world in places such as Hong Kong and Argentina supported safe-haven assets.

U.S. long-term yields have fallen in six of the past nine sessions, reflecting investors’ diminished risk appetite. Bond yields in Europe also were lower on the day.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes rose 28/32 in price to push their yield lower at 1.6386%.

The Argentine peso collapsed, falling to 55.85 to the dollar, after voters snubbed market-friendly President Mauricio Macri by giving the opposition a greater-than-expected victory in Sunday’s primary election.

The Merval stock index fell 30% and declines of between 18-20 cents in Argentina’s benchmark 10-year bonds left them trading at around 60 cents on the dollar or even lower.

The victory by Alberto Fernandez — whose running mate is former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner — “paves the way for the return to left-wing populism that many investors fear,” consultancy Capital Economics told clients.

Oil prices rose despite worries about a global economic slowdown and the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, which has reduced demand for commodities such as crude.

International benchmark Brent crude futures rose 4 cents to settle at $58.57 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures gained 43 cents to settle at $54.93 a barrel.

…

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 million have fled their homes.

Security funds

Before any unity government is formed, the parties are supposed to canton their fighters and redeploy them as part of the national army, police and other security forces. 

Foreign donors say it is up to Kiir’s administration to fund the security reforms. Parties to the peace deal say its implementation will cost $285 million but that only around $10 million has been provided.  

Machar’s party says he will not return to Juba until the security reforms are complete. 

“We have to see a sense of urgency and we do not want to see another situation where we give all sorts of excuses for having failed to form the transitional government,” Jame David Kolok, another member of the Civil Society Forum, told AFP Monday. “The campaign is to make sure every second from now onwards counts.”

…

European researchers say a vaccine for chlamydia — the world’s most common sexually transmitted disease — shows promise in preliminary clinical trials, but more tests are needed.

A study in the medical journal Lancet says the vaccine triggered an immune response in tests on 35 healthy women.

The researchers say they must now determine if the vaccine can actually prevent chlamydia.

Doctors say a vaccine against the disease would have a huge impact on public health and the economy around the world.

“Given the impact of the chlamydia epidemic on women’s health, infant health through transmission, and increased susceptibility to other sexual diseases, a global unmet medical need exists for a vaccine,” said Peter Anderson, Imperial College of London professor and co-author of the study.

Although chlamydia is easily diagnosed and treated with antibiotics, such treatment has failed to curb the epidemic. About 130 million people around the world are infected every year.

Untreated, it can lead to pelvic inflammation in women and possible infertility. Chlamydia in pregnancy could cause miscarriage, stillbirth, or premature delivery. 

…

Once considered the Islamic State’s de facto capital, the Syrian city of Raqqa is slowly recovering, nearly two years after its liberation from the terror group.

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) liberated Raqqa from IS in October 2017. But during the 3-month-long battle, much of the city’s infrastructure was reduced to rubble.

Local officials complain the international coalition to defeat IS, which helped free the city, lost interest in rebuilding Raqqa as the focus has shifted to other areas recently liberated from IS.

“We used to meet second-tier coalition officials – sometimes from the first tier,” said Abdullah Aryan, head of the planning department at the Raqqa Civil Council, which has been largely responsible for reconstruction.

“But now we only get visits by an employee from the French ministry of defense or British ministry of agriculture or an employee responsible for civil society in the U.S. government,” he told VOA.

Emergency solutions

The lack of funding is forcing local officials to concentrate the limited money on restoring essential services, which will allow more displaced people to return.

For other restoration projects, they rely on low-cost efforts.

“To repair roads and bridges, we had to use primitive methods. We basically brought rubble from elsewhere in the city and used it to backfill destroyed bridges and roads,” Abdullah al-Ali, an engineer with the Raqqa Reconstruction Committee, said.

“We have too little money for anything more than this emergency solution,” al-Ali added.

According to local officials, the battle against IS destroyed nine main bridges over the Euphrates River and nearby irrigation canals. So far only three bridges have been repaired.

City in ruins

Upon returning, Raqqa residents find much of the city still littered with wreckage.

“We found our properties were knocked to the ground,” said Abdulkarim Issa, 41, who returned to Raqqa five months after it was liberated.

Issa pointed to a nearby building, destroyed in fighting, but that recently had been rebuilt. “But the owners of another building were asked to pay 1 billion Syrian pounds (roughly US $2 million) to rebuild it. But they didn’t have that money, so they went to regime-controlled areas,” he told VOA.

The deteriorating local economy makes some returnees question their decision.  

“The economic situation is bad,” said Um Hassan, whose children chose not to return to Raqqa, citing a lack of job opportunities.

“The market movement is slow and prices are too high. And there is no electricity,” she added.

Return of extremism?

If some progress isn’t made soon in Raqqa, local officials warn, they worry extremism could rise again, here and in other areas liberated from IS.

“War on terror isn’t only military. If we don’t pay attention to agriculture, education and health care in the next 10 years, a new generation of terrorists will rise here,” Aryan, of the Raqqa Civil Council, said.

He said that during four years of IS rule, children, in particular, were educated with the most extremist curriculum.

“We need to act fast and amend the situation before it’s too late,” Aryan said.

US contribution

The United States last year cut about $230 million in funding for northeast Syria. Washington said other members of the anti-IS coalition, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, should increase financial contributions to the Syrian rebuilding effort.

Despite the cuts, the U.S. remains the largest single national humanitarian donor for the Syrian response, providing nearly $8.1 billion in humanitarian assistance since the start of the crisis for displaced people inside Syria and in the region.

The U.S. has also been a major contributor of mine-clearance efforts in Raqqa and other parts of Syria, where IS and other militant groups have left behind thousands of landmines and other improvised explosives.

From 2013 to 2018, the U.S. contributed more than $81 million to humanitarian mine action efforts in northeast Syria, according to a State Department annual report on U.S. mine removal efforts worldwide.

…

Gold medal fencer Race Imboden says he has no regrets about getting down on one knee instead of standing before the U.S. flag at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

Imboden is one of two U.S. athletes facing sanctions from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for their acts of protest at the medal ceremonies.

African American hammer thrower Gwen Berry raised a clenched fist while the “Star Spangled Banner” played during her team’s gold medal ceremony on Saturday.

Imboden told CNN television Sunday that the two mass shootings last week in El Paso and Dayton while he was in Peru were the catalyst for his protest during the medal ceremony on Friday.

Imboden said he represents what he calls “white privilege” and that it is time for a different face to be seen objecting to what is going on in the U.S. and the world.

“Racism, gun control, mistreatment of immigrants and a president who spreads hate” are more important to him at this time than a gold medal, he said.

Berry said she raised her clenched fist to protest injustice in the U.S. and what she described as a “president who’s making it worse.”

Trump has not commented on the protests. But U.S. Olympics officials said, “Every athlete competing at the 2019 Pan American Games commits to terms of eligibility, including to refrain from demonstrations that are political in nature. … We respect their (Imboden and Berry) rights to express their viewpoints, but are disappointed that they chose not to honor their commitment. Our leadership are reviewing what consequences may result.”

Imboden’s “taking a knee” came three years after National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem at his San Francisco 49ers games, setting off a nationwide debate. He said he was protesting police brutality against young black men.

The 49ers released Kaepernick and he has not been able to find another NFL job since.  

Berry’s raised fist hearkened back to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, when U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists to protest violence and racism. A photo of their gesture has since become a symbol of dissent.

…

Two French charities pulled another 81 migrants from the waters off Libya Sunday, bringing the number of those it rescued at sea since Friday to 211.

Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranean jointly operate the Norwegian-flagged rescue ship Ocean Viking.

Most of those it picked up over the past three days are Sudanese men, including the 81 rescued from a flimsy rubber dinghy Sunday. Witnesses on the Ocean Viking say the men on the raft waved and cheered when they saw the ship approaching.

“We’re the only ones in the area, the Libyan coast guard doesn’t respond,” SOS Mediterranean rescue coordinator Nicholas Romaniuk told an AFP reporter.

He said he expects more migrants leaving Libya over the next few days because of good weather and the Eid al-Adha holiday reducing the number of police patrolling the beaches.

Meanwhile, a Spanish aid group, Open Arms, said it has 160 migrants aboard its rescue ship, including three who need “specialized medical attention.”

Open Arms founder Oscar Camps made another appeal Sunday to European governments for help, especially Italy, which is the closest safe port.

“Tenth day on board on a scorching Sunday in August. We have 160 reasons to carry on, 160 human beings who have the right to disembark at a safe port. Shame on you, Europe,” Camps tweeted.

Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Italy is not “legally bound nor disposed to take in clandestine unidentified migrants.”

Italy has complained it has done more than its share of allowing migrants to dock and wants other EU nations to do more to help.

Thousands of migrants from Africa try to reach EU shores from Libya every year. Those who are not rescued by charities are either left on unsafe boats to or picked up by the Libyan coast guard and returned to Libya, where they are housed in detention facilities.

Some of those facilities have been caught in the fighting between rival governments in Libya. A missile slammed into one detention building outside Tripoli in July, killing 53.

…

Leonard Triyono contributed to this report, which originated on VOA Indonesia.

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — The Indonesian press continues to be constrained by regulations and acts of violence, according to Abdul Manan, chairperson of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).

“The government produced regulations that did not support freedom of the press, with which, as we are aware of in recent times, many have become the victims,” he said last week on the sidelines of the AJI national conference on the challenges of journalism in the digital age.

The regulations that have the potential to impede the press were ratified in 2014 by the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), the People’s Representative Council (DPR), Regional People’s Representatives Council (DPRD) and the Regional Representative Council (DPD).

Known collectively as the MD3, the regulations regulate punishment for those who are charged with insulting the MPR, DPR, DPRD and DPD. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Amended Criminal Code contains 13 articles that can be used to silence criticism of the government, its policies and officials.

However, the Information and Electronic Transaction Law (ITE) originally passed in 2008 and amended in 2016 has been used against 14 journalists, seven media outlets, and dozens of private citizens between 2013 to 2018, according to data from the Southeast Asian Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet).

Threat of violence

In addition to the threats posed by the regulations, members of the Indonesian press are under constant threat of physical violence. AJI notes that between 2006 and 2014 there were an average of 50 cases of violence against journalists each year. Government officials and community groups perpetrated most of the attacks.

“What we have witnessed recently is that the pressure exerted by the mobs has also increased,” Manan said. “This is something that during the New Order era was almost nonexistent. That started to take place a lot after 1999.”

The New Order refers to the three-decade authoritarian rule of Suharto that ended in 1998. Although the government lifted restrictions on the press in May 1998, within the year, journalists were reporting to the international monitors at the Committee to Protect Journalists that they feared reprisals if they reported the details of ethnic killings in Pontianak, West Kalimantan province. 

Media freedom improves

That said, media freedom in Indonesia has improved significantly since the end of the Suharto era. Indonesia now has hundreds of television stations (including cable), more than 2,000 radio stations and 1,000 newspapers, as well as web-based media outlets, according to Human Rights Watch.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which ranks press freedom in 180 countries, notes that Indonesia’s position has gradually improved, from number 130 in 2016 to number 124 in 2017 and 2018. In Asia, Indonesia’s position is better than those of Myanmar, Cambodia and Singapore. However, Indonesia still ranked lower than Timor Leste, Hong Kong and Japan.

But the recent increase in attacks by community groups is an expression of their frustration, said Ade Wahyudin, director of LBH Pers (Legal Aid Center for the Press), because they know of no other mechanism for objecting to coverage. The formal process for registering complaints with the Press Council costs more than most people can afford, because complaints can be filed only in Jakarta.

“The public could not find proper ways to file complaints about what they consider slanderous news. As a result, they took the laws into their own hands,” he said.

Attacks by authorities

However, Ade said acts of violence by government authorities must end because they should know the Press Law guarantees freedom of the press.

“If you say the police do not understand it, then we are somewhat doubtful because the police have the laws and they can read. If it were the general public, it would still be reasonable, but if it is the police, if it is an act of violence committed by the police, whether it is directed to journalists or to anyone, then that is not allowed. You know that journalists are protected by laws. They do their job — they should be protected,” he asserted.

Since the Press Law was enacted 20 years ago, AJI reports, there has been overall progress. There is much less government intervention over content it deems objectionable, Manan said.

“Government’s direct interference has been almost nonexistent, because there is now no authority that can revoke SIUPP [License for Press Publication],” Manan said. “And the government no longer interferes in the affairs of the Press Council. It is because the Press Council has become independent. It is no longer controlled by the government like in the past.”

…

NEW DELHI — India’s main opposition Congress party on Saturday appointed Sonia Gandhi to serve as interim president until it elects a new party chief. 
 
The party accepted the resignation of her son Rahul Gandhi, who quit in July after Congress’ crushing defeat in national elections. He continues to be a member of Parliament. 

A party working committee then asked Sonia Gandhi, 72, to take over in a stop-gap arrangement, party spokesman K.C. Venugopal said. 
 
Sonia Gandhi handed the top party post to her son in 2017 after she suffered health problems. The party has long been led by the politically powerful Nehru-Gandhi family. 
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 out of 542 seats in the lower house of Parliament, while the Congress party won 52 seats in April-May elections. 
 
In January, Rahul Gandhi inducted his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into politics as a party general secretary months before the national elections. 
 
Several Congress leaders want Vadra, 47, to  succeed Rahul Gandhi as party president.  She has in the past helped her mother and brother campaign in their constituencies in northern Uttar Pradesh state. 
 
Rahul Gandhi’s father, Rajiv Gandhi, his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, and his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, have all served as prime minister since India’s independence from British colonialists in 1947. 
 
Rahul Gandhi entered politics in 2004. 

…

It didn’t seem to matter that police barred several protest marches Saturday, citing the fear of violence. Thousands of residents, furious with government indifference and harsh policing, fought battles throughout the city as they tried frenzied, urban guerrilla tactics to block roads, occupy the airport terminal, march en masse, participants shrugging off rounds of tear gas.

Protesters staged the flash protests in lieu of organized, legal marches after police took the highly unusual step of denying permits, saying they would invite violence. Instead, groups of several hundred protesters gathered in the Kowloon neighborhoods of Tai Po and Tai Wai before hitting the tourist center of Tsim Sha Tsui.

For many hours people staged a sit-in at the airport, the second since Friday, to attract international attention to their cause. In addition, strikers blocked the Cross Harbour Tunnel briefly before darting away.

Some lit a fire outside the police station in Tsim Sha Tsui. Others hurled taunts and rocks, and shone laser pointers at officers’ faces until squads of riot police pushed forward, dousing the crowd with tear gas. Soon after, the protesters dispersed and moved on to their next target.

Police released a statement, condemning the “violent acts.”

Protesters, however, said they would continue with such provocative actions, because it was proving effective in rattling the government and wining the support of Hong Kong residents.

“Even if the government won’t let us legally protest, we’ll come out,” said Jack, a 25-year-old auditor standing near the front line in Tai Po. “For us, it’s like, ‘live free or die.’ We don’t want to live in a world like China now.”

Three months of protest

Now in their third month, mass protests started in June, when government critics demanded that the city withdraw an amended bill that would allow the government to ship criminal suspects elsewhere for trial, including mainland China.

Residents — more than 2 million marched in June — said the bill would open the door to specious accusations against dissidents, religious figures, businessmen and others who actively oppose China’s Communist Party.

Under pressure from millions of residents, Carrie Lam, the city’s chief executive, agreed to shelve, but not kill, the bill. Hong Kong officials have refused to concede to any demands made by the protesters, including the creation of an independent commission into police actions against protesters and the full withdrawal of the controversial extradition plan.

Young people have staged increasingly risky and provocative actions to get the government to respond. As a result, their decisions to besiege police stations, square off with police and even set fires, has resulted in quicker and harsher police response, as well as hundreds of arrests.

As a result, fewer people are now protesting. About 1,000 protesters flocked to or near the front line in Tai Po Saturday, a substantial drop from earlier weekends. Several protesters said they were sitting out of Saturday’s actions, resting up for Sunday, which has often been a long day of confrontations.

How will this end?

Even some supporters are worried the young people can’t continue either the pace or the frequency of protests.

“What’s the way out? I’m also thinking of that,” said Alvin Yeung, a lawmaker who visited the scene and spoke with protesters. “There is no solution to this mess.”

Yeung said he urged a young protester to consider fall elections, which could reduce the power of the pro-Beijing bloc in the legislature. He realized, though, that young people may not find hope in that.

Tom Lee, a 23-year-old protester near the front line, admitted he is worried about the mass arrests, such as those July 28, when 44 people were charged with riot, a crime that carries a possible 10-year prison term.

“I have no choice,” said Lee, wearing a white construction helmet. He scouted the riot police standing more than 100 yards away. “If no one stands out here, there will be no one to speak out.”
 

…

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO – Puerto Rico’s streets have remained so quiet since Wanda Vazquez took over as governor following weeks of turmoil that one can again hear the island’s famous coqui frog singing at night. 
 
The protests that led to the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rossello a week ago and continued on a smaller scale until the Supreme Court removed his chosen successor have dissipated. Also gone are the sounds of cowbells and whistles, as well as most of the angry graffiti that covered streets in the colonial district of Puerto Rico’s capital that was ground zero for the demonstrations. 
 
People who took to the streets to express disgust with government mismanagement and corruption were united in focusing their anger on Rossello, but now he is gone and there isn’t a common thread on how to proceed. Some Puerto Ricans are urging more protests. Others say people should take a step back and analyze what they want from officials. Yet others wish for stability and say Vazquez should be given a chance. Some worry about who might replace her. 

Coming weeks are key
 
“Many people rose up, and after they accomplished what they did, they’re asking, ‘Now what?’ ” said Mario Negron Portillo, retired head of the school of public administration at the University of Puerto Rico. “In the next few weeks, we’ll really see if that sense of consciousness that was generated … is sustained and how it will be sustained.” 
 
Only a handful of people showed up for a planned protest early Friday evening in front of the governor’s mansion, though Vazquez has said she will not live there, preferring to stay in her own house. Such conciliatory statements — and her earlier insistence that she was not interested in becoming governor — have led many Puerto Ricans to go into wait-and-see mode, activists say. 
 
Some of those protesting politics as usual are also more worried about the alternative. Leaders of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party have suggested replacing Vazquez with Puerto Rico’s congressional representative Jenniffer Gonzalez, a heavyweight in the PNP as well as being head of the territory’s Republican Party. 
 

While Vazquez is also a member of the PNP, she’s a less prominent figure who entered the territory’s cabinet only two years ago as justice secretary. The governorship dropped on her almost accidentally because others in line to succeed Rossello had resigned or were disqualified by the court. 
 
Gonzalez said on Thursday that she was available for the governorship if Vazquez decided to step down, even as Vazquez said she would not do so. 
 
“There’s somewhat of a hiatus in the fight because there is still speculation whether Wanda Vazquez is passing through as governor or actually plans to finish the term [which ends next year],” said Ricardo Santos Ortiz, spokesman of the Socialist Workers’ Movement, which helped organize some of the demonstrations. “As that becomes more defined, people will be reacting in the streets.” 
 
‘A tense calmness’

Ortiz planned to join Friday’s protest and said more demonstrations could materialize in upcoming days. 

“It was unrealistic to think we were going to spend one month, two months, three months with the same intensity,” Ortiz said. “There’s a tense calmness, but people have not checked out.” 

Rossello and more than a dozen other officials resigned following anger about corruption, mismanagement of funds and the leak of an obscenity-laced chat in which they mocked women, gay people and victims of Hurricane Maria, among others. 
 
Since then, hundreds of Puerto Ricans across the island have been showing up at unofficial town hall meetings, often in public plazas, where people bring folding chairs or sit on the ground and debate what path Puerto Rico should take as a volunteer writes down ideas on a display board. No politicians have been invited. 
 
Karla Pesquera, an unemployed 30-year-old who has joined in the protests as well as the town halls, said the gatherings are meant to give power back to the people and take it from politicians. 
 
“People want to be adequately represented,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve very excited, very hopeful.” 

But Negron warned that if people attending these town halls want to enact their ideas, they will have to bring in legislators and mayors: “Otherwise … it’s just catharsis.” 

Special election
 
Some activists have been demanding a special election to choose a new governor, and the tiny Puerto Rican Independence Party introduced a constitutional amendment to allow for that. 
 
Social media posts reflect a certain waffling: Some have shared details of Friday’s protest to demand that Vazquez step down. Others shared a post that calls on Vazquez as governor to audit Puerto Rico’s more than $70 billion public debt load to detect possible corruption. 
 
And the hashtag #wandadontresign began popping up when PNP leaders began floating the idea of having Vazquez resign to let Gonzalez take over. 
 
Shariana Ferrer Nunez, a member of the Feminist Collective under Construction, which helped organize the protests, said activists are trying to identify common goals that most people can get behind. 
 
“That’s the challenge,” she said. “We have to figure out what we want.” 

…

GARDEN GROVE, CALIFORNIA – The suspect in a Southern California stabbing rampage that left four people dead and two injured pleaded not guilty Friday to murder, attempted murder and other counts. 

Zachary Castaneda was arrested Wednesday by police responding to two hours of slashing and stabbing attacks in Garden Grove and Santa Ana. 

Authorities said Castaneda, 33, was covered in blood when he was taken into custody after walking out of a 7-Eleven store and dropping a knife and a gun that he’d cut from the belt of a security guard he’d just killed. 

The 11 felonies filed against Castaneda also included assault with a deadly weapon to cause great bodily injury, aggravated mayhem, robbery and burglary. 

He was arraigned in his jail cell instead of court. Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney, could not immediately say why. 

Castaneda had been kept in restraints when detectives tried to interview him. 

“He remained violent with us through the night,” Garden Grove Police Chief Tom DaRe said. “He never told us why he did this.” 

Information about his defense attorney was not immediately available. 

Neighbors killed

Authorities on Friday said Gerardo Fresnares Beltran, 63, was fatally stabbed in his Garden Grove apartment. His roommate Helmuth Hauprich, 62, was also killed in the attack.  Castaneda was their neighbor. 

Robert Parker, 58, of Orange and Pascual Rioja Lorenzo, 39, of Garden Grove were stabbed separately in Santa Ana. 

Rioja Lorenzo was a construction worker and devout churchgoer from Mexico. 

He had lived in the U.S. for more than a decade but his wife and 16-year-old son remain in Mexico, said Saul Abrego, an official with the United Pentecostal Church La Senda Antigua in Santa Ana. 

Rioja Lorenzo held home Bible study events for the church, and Abrego said he thought he had just come from work and was heading to one such event when he was attacked. 

“It was just a big shock for us,” Abrego said.  

Court records show that Castaneda was a gang member with a criminal history of assault and weapon and drug crimes. 

Castaneda’s criminal history dates to 2004 and includes a prison stint for possession of methamphetamine for sale while armed with an assault rifle. 

Castaneda was convicted in 2009 of spousal abuse and paroled after serving about a year in prison, corrections officials said.  

Police had previously gone to Castaneda’s apartment to deal with a child custody issue, Garden Grove Police Lt. Carl Whitney said. 

The suspect’s mother had been living with him and had once asked police how she could evict her son, Whitney said. 

Wife sought protection

Court records show Castaneda’s wife, Yessica Rodriguez, sought a restraining order last year after she said Castaneda threw a beer can at her 16-year-old daughter. She said she also sought an order against him in 2009 when he broke her arm during a fight. 

Rodriguez filed for divorce earlier this year, court records show, and has custody of two sons. 

Police believe Castaneda killed the two men at the apartment complex where he lived about an hour after burglarizing their unit, then robbed businesses, including a Garden Grove insurance agency where a 54-year-old woman was stabbed. She was hospitalized in critical but stable condition, police said. 

Castaneda is accused of robbing a check-cashing business next door to the insurance agency; a woman there was unharmed. 

Later, a man pumping gas at a Chevron station was attacked without warning and slashed so badly that his nose was nearly severed, police said. He was in stable condition. 

…

A federal judge in Virginia ruled Friday that a school board’s transgender bathroom ban discriminated against a former student, Gavin Grimm.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen in Norfolk is the latest of several nationwide that have favored transgender students facing similar policies. But the issue remains far from settled in the country as a patchwork of differing policies governs the nation’s schools.

The Gloucester County School Board’s policy required Grimm to use girls’ restrooms or private bathrooms. The judge wrote that Grimm’s rights were violated under the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause as well as under Title IX, the federal policy that protects against gender-based discrimination.

“There is no question that the Board’s policy discriminates against transgender students on the basis of their gender noncomformity,” Allen wrote.

“Under the policy, all students except for transgender students may use restrooms corresponding with their gender identity,” she continued. “Transgender students are singled out, subjected to discriminatory treatment, and excluded from spaces where similarly situated students are permitted to go.”

Similar claims

Allen’s ruling will likely strengthen similar claims made by students in eastern Virginia. It could have a greater impact if the case goes to an appeals court that oversees Maryland, West Virginia and the Carolinas.

Harper Jean Tobin, policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, said last month that she expected Grimm’s case to join the “steady drum beat” of recent court rulings favoring transgender students in states including Maryland, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

But she said differing transgender bathroom policies are still in place in schools across the country. Those polices are often influenced by court rulings or by states and cities that have passed protections for people who are transgender.

“Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times for transgender students really can depend on where you live and who your principal is,” she said.

One fight in long battle

The judge’s opinion is the latest step in Grimm’s yearslong legal battle, which has come to embody the debate about transgender student rights.

Grimm, who is now 20, has been fighting the case since the end of his sophomore year at Gloucester High School, which is about 60 miles (95 kilometers) east of Richmond and near the Chesapeake Bay. Since graduating in 2017, he has moved to California where he’s worked as an activist and attended community college.

Grimm’s lawsuit became a federal test case when it was supported by the administration of then-President Barack Obama and scheduled to go before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2017. But the high court hearing was canceled after President Donald Trump rescinded an Obama-era directive that students can choose bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.

The school board has argued that Grimm remains female, even though he obtained a court order and Virginia birth certificate declaring his sex is male in 2016, when he was still in 12th grade.

The board’s attorney, David Corrigan, argued in court last month that gender is not a “societal construct” and that it doesn’t matter that Grimm underwent chest reconstruction surgery and hormone therapy. Corrigan had told the judge that bathroom policy is based on a binary, “two choices for all” view of gender.

Contacted by The Associated Press after the ruling, Corrigan declined to comment in an email.

…

Dialing back annual joint summer U.S.-South Korea military drills runs counter to North Korea’s continued missile launches and lack of denuclearization, said experts pointing to the computer simulation training unaccompanied by field combat exercises that is underway.

“If there were no North Korean threat, maybe I wouldn’t be as concerned,” said Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corp.

“But North Korea keeps building its nuclear capabilities so they’re increasing their threat. They’re testing more missiles, which is increasing their threat. Scaling back the U.S. and South Korean preparations to deal with that threat doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Bennett continued.

North Korea fired two more missiles Tuesday, the fourth test in less than two weeks. This came just as the U.S. and South Korea began their annual joint military exercises that Seoul confirmed began Monday.  

The U.S. has about 28,000 soldiers stationed in South Korea, and every year, U.S. and South Korean military forces conduct joint drills as they prepare to defend against potential attacks from North Korea. President Donald Trump said Wednesday via Twitter that South Korea “agreed to pay substantially more money to the U.S. in order to defend itself from North Korea” as its share of defense cost.

Following the launch Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country’s latest test of a tactical guided missile was a “warning to the joint military drills now underway by the U.S. and South Korean authorities,” according to a statement released Wednesday by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Pyongyang also said Monday that the drills, which it sees as an invasion rehearsal, prompted the country “to develop, test and deploy the powerful physical means essential for national defense.” The KCNA statement said “a constructive dialogue cannot be expected at a time when a simulated war practice” is being conducted, although it said it remained committed to dialogue.

Bennett, who specializes in Northeast Asian military issues, said joint drills are a “fundamental part of the alliance,” and Kim’s objective is to “decouple South Korea and the United States” to get them to “abandon their alliance.”

Military officials are calling the drills “command-post training” this year in a move to avoid using the word “exercises,” which might provoke North Korea. The training is scheduled to end Aug. 20.

Bruce Bechtol, a former intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency and now a professor at Angelo State University in Texas, said that because the exercises are planned months in advance, the decision to exclude field training was not “done in reaction to the missile launches.”

‘Ramping up’ exercises

This year’s drills are not a proportional response to Pyongyang’s continued provocations and military buildup, Bennett said, because the Kim regime’s actions on denuclearization fail to match its words.

“They’ve done zero denuclearization,” he said. “They haven’t surrendered a single weapon. … Instead, they’ve been making more nuclear weapons.”

Bennett estimates Kim “roughly increased his nuclear destructive potential by 50%” since he promised to denuclearize in March.

“That doesn’t justify an end or a major suspension of exercises,” he added. “That instead says we ought to be ramping up our exercises.”

The U.S. and South Korean military trimmed back joint exercises after Trump began his summit with Kim in June 2018. At the Singapore Summit, Trump called for the suspension of “war games,” describing them as expensive and provocative.

The annual exercise dubbed Ulchi Freedom Guardian, usually scheduled for August, was canceled last year following the Singapore Summit. Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, the allies’ biggest annual spring exercises, were also canceled. The computer-simulation Key Resolve was replaced with the scaled-down Dong Maeng (which means alliance in Korean) in March.

David Maxwell, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel and current fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Pyongyang’s complaints about the joint drills reveal “Kim Jong Un’s hypocrisy.”

Maxwell said while the allies have significantly cut back the joint exercises in good faith, “the North has not responded in any positive manner, either with working-level negotiations or a reduction of its own offensive exercises in its winter and summer cycles.”

North Korea has about 70% of its combat forces deployed along its side of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, Maxwell said, even as it protests allies’ exercises designed to defend against potential North Korean attacks.

Computer-simulated exercises

American and South Korean forces will exercise defensive war plans through computer-generated attack scenarios to enhance their coordination and “try to prepare to deal with North Korean threats,” Bennett said.

Multiple giant screens would display computer simulations of friendly and enemy forces as well as lots of maps, displays, tables and weather reports, among other things, that they would see in a real crisis, according to experts.

“The commanders and staff take the intelligence reports of enemy operations [based on intelligence knowledge of how the North Korean military would fight] and the status reports of friendly forces and fight the battles just as if they were real and there were actual troops on the ground and ships and planes at sea and in the air,” Maxwell said.

Bennett said, “The computer would take airstrikes that are ordered and adjudicate what the effects of those airstrikes would be … on stopping an enemy offensive, for example.” 

Crews operating tank simulators would see an enemy tank on the screen, Bennett said, and, “they could fire their tank rounds” that simulators would execute “as if they were in a real tank.”

What they learn from the training is then transferred to operating procedures of field combats, said Maxwell, adding computer-simulated exercises are “the most effective way to train commanders and headquarters’ staffs on the plans to defend South Korea.”

“This allows the commanders and staffs to train using multiple North Korean attack scenarios and lets them conduct training in two or three weeks that would normally take months if they were actually maneuvering full units on the ground, in the air and at sea,” he said.

Bennett said there are downsides, however, such as unexpected situations and coping with weather and physical terrains like details of rain or tanks slipping in mud that simulators might not capture like drills in the field would.

Nevertheless, Maxwell said, “even though the exercises appear to be scaled back, I have trust and confidence in [South Korean] and U.S. military leadership that they will conduct sufficient training in new, creative ways to sustain readiness.”

…

The leader of Italy’s ruling League party, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, declared the governing coalition to be unworkable on Thursday after months of internal bickering and said the only way forward was to hold fresh elections.

The shock announcement follows a period of intense public feuding between the right-wing League and its coalition partner, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, and it throws the eurozone’s third-largest economy into an uncertain political future.

Salvini said in a statement he had told Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who belongs to neither coalition party, that the alliance with 5-Star had collapsed after barely a year in power and “we should quickly give the choice back to the voters.”

Parliament, which is now in its summer recess, could reconvene next week to carry out the necessary steps, Salvini said, referring to the need for a no-confidence vote in the government and the resignation of the premier.

Tensions came to a head on Wednesday when the two parties voted against each other in parliament over the future of a project for a high-speed train link with France.

5-Star has more parliamentary seats than the League, but Salvini’s party now has twice as much voter support, according to opinion polls, and it has often threatened to try to capitalize on that surge in popularity with new elections.

However, it remains to be seen if things will go as Salvini plans. Pushing the nation back into election mode in August, when Italians are on holiday and parliament is closed for the summer recess, is unusual and could be unpopular and risky.

President Sergio Mattarella is the only person with the power to dissolve parliament, and may be unwilling to do so ahead of preparatory work in September for the 2020 budget, which must then be presented to parliament the following month.

Italy, which has Europe’s second-largest sovereign debt burden after Greece, has already angered the European Union with an expansionary 2019 budget and Salvini wants to make major tax cuts next year, setting up the prospect of another EU clash. Italy has not held an election in the autumn in all the postwar period.

‘We are ready’

If Mattarella decides not to dissolve parliament, he could try to install an unelected “technocrat” administration, of which there have been several examples in Italy’s recent history, though an alternative parliamentary majority appears elusive.

5-Star Leader Luigi Di Maio said his party did not fear elections.

“We are ready. We don’t care in the least about occupying government posts and we never have,” he said in a statement. He accused Salvini of “taking the country for a ride” and said sooner or later Italians would turn against him for it.

Speculation about a government crisis mounted late on Wednesday when Salvini, speaking at a rally south of Rome, peppered his speech with hints that he had had enough of 5-Star, accusing it of stalling the League’s key policies.

Markets sold off Italian government bonds early on Thursday and the day proceeded with closed-door meetings between Salvini and Conte and between Conte and Mattarella.

The League issued a statement listing a raft of areas in which it had a “different vision” from 5-Star, including infrastructure, taxes, justice and relations with the EU.

The two parties were fierce adversaries ahead of an inconclusive election in March 2018, before forming their unlikely alliance that has often ruffled the feathers of financial markets and the European Commission.

5-Star was the largest party at last year’s elections but it has struggled since the government was formed, while Salvini has prospered thanks to his popular hard line on immigration and a charismatic and informal “man of the people” public image.

…

The U.N. human rights chief says she is “deeply worried” the new U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s regime are too broad and will make things worse for the suffering population.

Michelle Bachelet said Thursday that there is lots of evidence to show that wide-ranging unilateral sanctions “can end up denying people’s fundamental human rights, including their economic rights as well as the right to food and health.”

The new U.S. sanctions imposed this week bar American citizens and companies from doing business with President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

Bachelet says although the sanctions do not apply to food, clothing and medicine, she fears many businesses and financial institutions will stop all dealings with Venezuela to avoid the risk of violating the sanctions.

Bachelet did not blame one side or the other for the crisis inside Venezuela, but instead called on “all those with influence in Venezuela and in the international community to work together constructively for a political solution … by putting the interests and human rights of the long-suffering people of Venezuela above all else.”

The new sanctions are the toughest step so far in the Trump administration’s diplomatic and economic pressure to try to force Maduro to give up power.

Military action also remains on the table, U.S. officials have said.

A drop in world oil prices, corruption and failed policies have wrecked the Venezuelan economy and led to a severe shortage of basic foods, fuel and medicine. 

A popular uprising led by Venezuelan opposition leader and National Assembly president Juan Guaido has failed to topple Maduro, who has used force against demonstrators.

…

Expanding access to a promising but costly treatment, Medicare said Wednesday that it would cover for some blood cancers a breakthrough gene therapy that revs up a patient’s own immune cells to destroy malignancies. 

Officials said Medicare would cover CAR-T cell therapies for certain types of lymphoma and leukemia, uses that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The cost can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient, not counting hospitalization and other expenses.

Medicare Administrator Seema Verma said the decision would provide consistent and predictable access nationwide, opening up treatment options for some patients “who had nowhere else to turn.”

Turbocharge, reprogram cells 

CAR-T uses gene therapy techniques to turbocharge the patient’s own immune system cells, reprogramming them to harbor a “receptor” that zeroes in on cancer, and then to grow hundreds of millions of copies. The revved-up immune cells are returned to the patient’s bloodstream and can continue to fight cancer for months or years.

Although side effects can be severe, studies have shown the treatment to be highly effective against certain types of cancers. Researchers are working to add more types to that list.

Medicare has been weighing the decision for months. The program often sets the tone for private insurance as well. 

Special program

In its announcement, Medicare said it would cover CAR-T when the treatment is provided in institutions that are enrolled with the FDA in a special program to promote safety. It will also cover the treatment for other uses, if they are recommended by agency-approved medical research literature.

CAR-T uses a different strategy than other gene-therapy techniques. Instead of trying to fix disease-causing genes, it focuses on the patient’s immune system, specifically the T cells that battle foreign substances in the body. The problem with cancer is that malignant cells can often evade detection by the patient’s T cells. CAR-T helps the body’s own T cells do a better job of spotting tumors.

Medicare covers more than 60 million seniors and people with disabilities.

…

Samsung unveiled a new version of the Galaxy Note smartphone on Wednesday with fast 5G network connection and improved camera features, hoping the premium model helps it revive slumping profit and widen the gap with struggling rival Huawei.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has emerged as the biggest beneficiary  of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.’s trouble in the second quarter with a nearly 7% jump in smartphone sales, as the Chinese firm sold fewer phones in the global market after it was put on a U.S. trade blacklist in May.

With emphasis on improved video and photography features, which helped Huawei become the world’s No. 2 smartphone vendor, Samsung hopes the Galaxy Note 10 will appeal to YouTubers and fans of social media.

Along with its first foldable phone, the big-screen Note 10, unveiled at an event in New York on Wednesday, is the South Korean tech firm’s most important new product planned in the second half of this year to expand its mobile sales.

With two screen sizes of 6.3 inches and 6.8 inches, the Note 10 boasts enhanced video effects such as augmented reality and stabilization modes, and a front-facing camera centrally located at the top of the display for better selfies. It lacks a headphone jack, a tweak Apple Inc. made to its smartphones three years ago.

The Note 10 will be sold starting at $949.99 while the bigger Note 10 plus will start at $1,099. The Note 10 model with 5G capability will start at $1,299.99.

The phone will go on sale Aug. 23 and square off against Apple’s latest iPhones, which are widely expected to come out later this year.

Samsung declined to disclose its sales target for the new Note series, but said it expected to achieve higher sales volume than the predecessor Note 9 models.

Analysts expect similar shipments of about 9.6 million units, with price likely to be the most important factor in a weak market. The global smartphone market shrank 3% in the June quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

“It is hard to expect strong sales for the new Note with just a few upgrades in its camera features,” said Park Sung-soon, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities.

Samsung is reeling from sagging profits in its mobile division due to weak sales of flagship models, even as it boosted overall shipments by 6.7% and stayed on top with market share of 22% in the second quarter.

Its first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, is set to go on sale in September, but analysts say headlines about glitches with sample Folds will dampen consumer excitement around the launch.

…

North Korea is encouraging its beauty-conscious middle class women to choose domestic cosmetics over foreign brands in an effort to boost self-reliance as international sanctions deepen. 

Promoting homegrown beauty has been a political strategy since the days of state founder Kim Il Sung, but has become more focused under his foreign-educated grandson, Kim Jong Un. 

The international popularity in recent years of South Korea’s K-beauty trend — innovative cosmetic products with natural ingredients such as ginseng and snail slime — has added momentum, say defectors who fled the North and experts who study the isolated state. 

But North Korea’s push has yet to translate to a winning formula, marred by quality issues and constraints in obtaining foreign ingredients because of sanctions over its nuclear program. 

Leader Kim Jong Un was once dismissive of domestic beauty products. 

“Foreign eye liners or mascaras stay on even after get into water, but domestic products make raccoon eyes even with just a yawn,” Kim said during his visit to a Pyongyang cosmetics factory in 2015, according to the Japan-based Choson Sinbo newspaper. 

But Kim has since visited cosmetics factories several times with his wife to promote the products. 

Earlier this year, North Korea’s state-run television KRT aired a video about Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory showing a woman replacing Chanel products with domestic products instead. 

“Lots of foreign customers living in the state visit our shop. Sheet mask, lipstick and cleansing products are best sellers,” Yang Su Jong, a sales assistant at Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory, told Reuters on a rare visit to the capital last year. 

Chanel, in response to Reuters’ questions, said it did not export products to North Korea and any items on sale there were likely counterfeits or diverted products. 

First lady and a girl band

North Korea has long regulated its citizens’ appearance. 

Hair dyeing, blue jeans and clothes with writing in English were banned under Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, as the reclusive country tried to keep Western influences out. 

But that has changed since Kim came to power in 2011 and began making public appearances with first lady Ri Sol Ju, a former member of a pop orchestra. 

Nam Sung-wook, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University, said the young first lady’s short haircut and colorful suits appealed to a desire for self-expression within the constraints of North Korea’s society. 

“There was no role for the first lady in Kim Jong Il’s era,” Nam said. “But the Kim Jong Un era gave rise to first lady Ri Sol Ju, who furthered the regime’s interest in cosmetics.” 

Kang Na-ra is one North Korean defector who said she used to buy South Korean cosmetics at private markets known as jangmadang that are the backbone of the North’s informal market economy.

“I really wanted to copy K-pop idol’s makeup style when I was in the North,” she said. 

Today women are encouraged to follow style trends set by the first lady or the ‘Moranbong’ band, Pyongyang’s all-female answer to K-pop.

“North Korea is such a tightly controlled society and a style we can follow is very limited. Ri Sol Ju or Moranbong band members are our only allowable role models,” said the 21-year-old Kang who fled to the South in 2014 and now runs a YouTube channel sharing tips on beauty and North Korean culture.

New markets and limits

Pyongyang Cosmetic Factory shipped its first batch of Unhasu brand cosmetics to a new boutique in Moscow in May, Russian media reported.

“Korean Care,” another Russian cosmetics shop selling South Korean products online, started importing North Korean beauty products directly from Pyongyang last year.

The company, which targets Russian women and has more than 10,000 customers, said the selling point for North Korean products was their natural ingredients and minimal preservatives.

“I am a fan of all kind of new cosmetics, and it was especially interesting because it’s North Korean,” said Margarita Kiselyova, 45, a Russian customer who bought aloe vera moisturizer and anti-ageing cream. “Overall, I am satisfied with the quality.”

However, Nam, the Korea University expert, and leading South Korean cosmetics firm Amorepacific tested 64 North Korean products and found quality issues in seven of them, including traces of potential harmful ingredients methylparabens, propylparabens and talc. 

Amorepacific told Reuters it did not have further details of the tests. 

Pyongyang Cosmetic Factory says its Unhasu line has received quality assurance certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), but Reuters could not independently verify those claims. 

“Developing new cosmetics products requires supplies of new materials and substances from overseas, but current U.N. sanctions prohibit the North from importing chemicals, which makes product development difficult,” Nam said. 

Most North Koreans still prefer higher priced South Korean products especially for gifts, said Kang Mi-jin, an economics expert who regularly speaks with North Koreans for Daily NK, a news website run by defectors.

“Even if it’s hard to get, people try to buy South Korean cosmetics for their fiancees as a wedding gift, since it is regarded as the best and symbol of wealth,” Kang Mi-jin said.
 

…