Author: Worldcrew

Even before the suicide bombing that killed 22 people at a Manchester, England, arena Monday night, the Chicago Cubs were evaluating ways to make the area around Wrigley Field safer.

The City Council Budget Committee on Tuesday approved a $1 million donation by the World Series champions for the installation of 30 security cameras around the stadium in a densely populated neighborhood. The timing was coincidental — it was in the works for over a year — but the expensive undertaking underscores how difficult it is to keep large locales secure, especially after events.

Manchester police would not say if the bomber blew himself up inside or outside the arena, so it is not clear if rigorous bag screening or additional pre-event security would have helped prevent the deaths and injuries. The venue tweeted on Monday night that it happened “outside the venue in a public space.”

“The risks now are higher outside of a stadium or venue than inside,” Cubs spokesman Julian Green said. “Being able to check and monitor activity outside is becoming increasingly important.”

The cameras will provide a 360-degree view outside the stadium, Green said. They will be installed around Wrigleyville and on a highway exit near the ballpark, but aren’t likely to be ready until next season.

“We’re being vigilant, not only for our fans but for the larger community that calls this place home,” Green said.

After the 2005 suicide bombings that killed 52 people riding subways and a bus in London, Britain installed barriers around airports, transportation hubs and government buildings. However, bag checks are not routinely conducted on passengers boarding the country’s trains and buses. Security at sporting events and museums remains scattershot, experts say.

The attack in Manchester illustrated the challenges in securing public spaces and potentially the limits of existing methods, although security protocols vary by country and venue. Most of the 130 people killed in the November 2015 attacks at multiple Paris locations were attending a show at the Bataclan concert hall.

“The level of screening is dependent on two things – the level of processes undertaken and the size of the venue. But nothing is consistent,” Bob Ayers, a security expert who used to work for the CIA, said. “Think about (the) London Underground. If you try to do airport-style screening, people would never get anywhere on time. Nothing is ever 100 percent.:

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for security at the arena on Monday. Telephone calls and emails were not immediately answered on Tuesday.

Bag checks and going through metal detectors have been standard procedure at stadiums and arenas in North America for at least the last seven years. Since 2012, fans attending National Football League games could only bring clear plastic bags into stadiums.

Major League Baseball mandated metal detectors at all ballparks in 2014. Spokesmen for MLB and the NFL said the leagues continue to improve and modify security plans as necessary in conjunction with law enforcement officials.

“I think our people have done a really good job doing everything they can to protect our fans and protect the players and everyone involved that’s here in this building, you me, but you’re always worried,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said before Tuesday’s game against the Royals.

Security was at a heightened level before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night between the Celtics and Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Fans were having bags checked before entering a plaza near the arena where bands were performing and fans could watch the game without a ticket.

This was the first time that there have been large trucks blocking all access to the perimeter roads around the arena and outdoor area.

Survivors of the bombing said security screening ahead of the Ariana Grande show was haphazard, raising the question of whether public arenas and other crowded spaces are being safeguarded to the extent they could be.

“There was almost no security check,” concert-goer Nikola Trochtova, who was leaving the Manchester Arena when she heard an explosion, told Czech public radio on Tuesday. “They let us get in without any check.”

Another survivor of the Monday night attack, Ryan Molloy, said some people had their bags checked on the way into the concert, while others did not.

Grande’s panicked fans stumbled to escape the arena after hearing loud noises and seeing people running toward the exits. The bombing took place at the end of the concert when security is much more relaxed as some audience members already were streaming toward the city’s main train station. An 8-year-old girl was among the dead.

“Authorities could consider a perimeter farther away from the main space of the arena, but the practical matter then becomes where the screening should be done,” Wendy Patrick, a California lawyer and threat assessment expert, said. “But the focus of our attention is generally driven by the latest attack.”

Sean Braisted, an official with the mayor’s office in Nashville, Tennessee, said the city is still moving ahead with plans for outdoor events and watch parties near Bridgestone Arena during the Stanley Cup Finals. Residents gathered outside Bridgestone Arena during Monday’s Western Conference finals game against Anaheim.

Large screens were set up outside but security was tight, with many officers restricting traffic around the arena and monitoring the crowd.

Ansley Bancroft, a resident of neighboring Franklin said she is often anxious.

“It’s always been a fear of mine,” Bancroft said. “I am terrified of, like, airports and stuff like that. Just because we are all born to believe that could happen anywhere anytime. … But after hearing about (Manchester), it did make coming to such a large event a lot more nerve-wracking.”
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Developments Tuesday concerning President Donald Trump include his discussions with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying both are “ready to reach for peace”; the release of his federal budget, his current Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testifying before Congress, and his comments on the terror attack in Manchester:

WATCH: US President Trump visits Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem

Trump: Israeli, Palestinian Leaders ‘Ready to Reach for Peace’ — U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared that both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders are “ready to reach for peace.” Trump made the remark alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech at the Israel Museum. Trump had held talks with Netanyahu on Monday and met him again on Tuesday after a brief visit to the West Bank for a one-hour discussion with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Proposed Trump Budget: More Military; Less for Social Programs — The president is proposing major changes in the way Washington’s $4.1 trillion budget is spent, with more money for the military, border security, and veterans. The just-published budget for next year also slashes money for programs that benefit the poor. Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s top budget official, said for the first time the budget looks at spending from the point of view of the taxpayers, rather than the people who get government help.

WATCH: Trump comments on Manchester attack

Trump: Manchester Bomber an ‘Evil Loser’ — Trump responded to the bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, Tuesday, calling the attackers and other terrorists “evil losers. … I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term, they would think that is a great name. I will call them, from now on, losers because that’s what they are: losers,” he said.

Trump’s Intel Chief Mum on Pressure to Rebut Russia Evidence — Trump’s intelligence chief declined to comment Tuesday on media reports that the president pressured him to publicly deny that evidence existed of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential race. National Intelligence Director Dan Coats told a Senate panel: “I don’t feel it’s appropriate to characterize discussions and conversations with the president.” In recent days, news outlets have reported that Trump made separate appeals to Coats and to National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers, urging them to rebut allegations that Russia colluded with Trump campaign aides to help the real estate magnate win the White House.

Veteran Reporter Compares Watergate, Trump’s Travails — Walter Mears, who covered Washington in the early 1970s, says for any parallels between Watergate and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections, there are also major differences. In Watergate, the smoking gun was a White House tape proving that Richard M. Nixon ordered a cover-up – the final evidence that forced him from the White House. In the Russia investigation, the smoke hasn’t cleared because President Donald Trump keeps shooting.
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President Donald Trump has put forward a $668 billion defense budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The proposal released Tuesday would increase the Defense Department’s base budget to $574.5 billion — $52 billion over congressional spending caps. It would buy six ships, several new fighter jets and munitions, while growing the U.S. fighting force by more than 56,000 service members.

Pentagon Chief Financial Officer John Roth told reporters on Tuesday the increases would help with military readiness. “The world has become a more dangerous place,” he said.

John “JV” Venable, senior research fellow for defense policy at the Heritage Foundation, said the budget would need to continue to increase by about $20 billion to $30 billion each year for the next two years — and sustain that budget increase for several years — to ensure the force is properly funded.

“We’ve put so many demands on our services. We ask so much of them,” Venable told VOA. “We have funded it at 75 to 80 percent of what they need to do that job for so long, right now, the dividends are paid in worn equipment and people who are discouraged.”

The budget also calls for about $65 billion for a contingency fund for overseas operations, including $46 billion for operations in Afghanistan. The remainder of this fund would pay for countering Islamic State operations in Iraq and Syria, bolstering NATO allies and U.S. partners in Europe, and building partner capacity around the globe.

The $668 billion total budget also would include about $28 billion for defense-related spending by the Energy and Justice departments.

The overall budget proposal is calling for cuts to many social programs, including those that help the poor pay for food and medical care.

However, Venable said social cuts should not be compared with the government’s defense increases, which he says are needed to maintain borders and allow freedom of movement across the globe.

“The world needs a strong U.S. military to make that happen, like it or not,” he said.

The U.S. Constitution says the government should establish justice, insure domestic peace, provide for defense, promote general welfare and secure freedom.

Air Force desperate for relief

The budget increase comes as U.S. Air Force readiness is at an all-time low, Venable said.

“Since its inception in the late ’40s, the Air Force, I don’t think, has ever been at this level of readiness,” said Venable, a 25-year veteran of the Air Force.

Air Force General Carlton Everhart, commander of U.S. Air Mobility Command, agreed that force growth is needed in his service branch, which currently is in need of about 1,500 pilots and has an additional 1,600 pilots who are eligible to leave the Air Force within the next four years.

“If you look at things we’re doing every day, it’s a big deal,” Everhart said in a recent interview with VOA.

Even though the United States has the most expensive Air Force in the world, the shortage of pilots, specifically the shortage of fighter jet pilots, has threatened to affect U.S. operations within the next calendar year if left unchecked, Air Force Major General Scott Vander Hamm told VOA in an exclusive interview last November.

The U.S. air campaign has been critical in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve, where the American-led coalition is training local fighters to defeat terrorists on the ground while supporting ground troops’ efforts with multiple airstrikes each day.

In addition to funding more pilots and fighter jets, the budget would also provide money to buy 15 new KC-46 air tankers, which are used for aerial refueling.

“If you look at Inherent Resolve right now, 90 percent of all refuelings that have happened in that operation has been on the backs of our tankers,” Everhart told VOA.

Budget constraints in the past decade have placed the Air Force in a position where its current tanker, the KC-135, could be 100 years old before it is retired, even with the fiscal 2018 budget increases, he added.
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President Donald Trump is proposing to balance the federal budget within 10 years by slashing many social programs, including some that help the poor pay for food and medical care, called food stamps and Medicaid.

Officials have outlined some new details of the president’s first spending plan. A president’s budget has to be approved by Congress, so the final form is often quite different from what the chief executive proposes. Democrats oppose many of Trump’s plans, and the president’s Republican allies in Congress are divided on some budget issues.  

In his campaign, Trump promised not to cut Social Security, a government-run old-age pension program, or Medicare, which helps elderly people pay for doctors, hospitals and medicine. That means deeper cuts to some other programs.  

Critics of Trump’s budget, including a group called “Campaign to Fix the Debt,” says these popular and expensive programs make up just over half of government spending over the next 10 years. They say it is difficult to balance the budget without trimming this spending. They also say administration officials have based the budget on “unrealistic and rosy economic growth projections.”
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The U.S. Senate has confirmed Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as the next ambassador to China.

The confirmation came by a bipartisan vote of 82 to 13 Monday, with all 13 of the votes against the Republican president’s nominee coming from Democrats.

Washington has been trying to persuade China to agree to new sanctions on Pyongyang, which has conducted dozens of missile firings and tested two nuclear bombs since the start of 2016.

President Donald Trump has warned that a “major, major conflict” with North Korea is possible over its weapons programs, although U.S. officials say tougher sanctions, not military force, are the preferred option.

Branstad says he intends to use his decades-long relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping to advance U.S. and international interests. The two met in 1985 when Xi, then a provincial official, led an agricultural trade delegation to Iowa.  

Xi has called Branstad, 70, an “old friend” after decades of dealings on agricultural trade during his long career in politics in Iowa, an important farming state.

Branstad is in his sixth nonconsecutive term as Iowa’s governor. With more than 22 years at the helm of state government, he is the country’s longest-serving governor. He is due to be replaced in Des Moines by Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, who would be the state’s first female governor.
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The United Nations’ top diplomat in Iraq said the so-called Islamic State’s days “are numbered” in that country and the liberation of the city of Mosul is “imminent.”

“The days of so-called ISIL caliphate in Iraq are numbered, thanks to the bravery and patriotism of the Iraqi security forces, including the popular mobilization forces, the peshmerga and the tribal volunteers, as well as the endurance of the Iraqi people,” the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq, Jan Kubis, told Security Council members Monday.

“The liberation of Mosul is imminent,” he said of the terror group’s last stronghold in Iraq. “Operations are shifting to remaining areas and pockets of Daesh presence, including along the borders with Syria,” Kubis said.

ISIL and Daesh are two acronyms by which the terror group is known.

The terrorists seized Iraq’s second largest city in mid-2014. Iraqi national forces with support from the international anti-ISIL coalition began military operations to retake Mosul in October 2016. The eastern part of Mosul was retaken in late January and the battle for the western sector started the following month.

“We have restored 90 percent of the right bank and we have made the protection of civilians our priority, as terrorists are using them as human shields,” Iraq’s U.N. envoy Mohammed Sahib Mejid Marzooq told the meeting.

But the military operations have come at a high cost to the Iraqi population. The U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs says nearly 660,000 people have been displaced from Mosul city since the operation began last year; nearly a half million of them are from western Mosul.

The United Nations says civilians coming out of the city have reported shortages of food, clean drinking water, fuel, medicines and infant formula.
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Many Muslims around the world reacted positively to U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech Sunday to dozens of Arab and Muslim leaders at the Arab Islamic American Summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh. There, Trump called for Muslim unity in the fight against terrorism.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S.  But Sunday he outlined his vision for U.S.-Muslim relations and the need for Muslim countries to jointly combat terrorism, saying the fight against terrorism was “a battle between good and evil.”

“President Trump gave an effective speech focusing on one of the major challenges facing the Middle East and the world: terrorism and extremism,” said Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations. “His call on Muslim leaders at the summit to do more to take on extremists and terrorists was important.”

The former top Muslim U.S. diplomat praised Trump’s offer to “build partnerships with Muslim majority countries to promote peace and prosperity.”

“Bravo President Trump,” tweeted Anwar Gargash, UAE’s state minister for foreign affairs. “Effective and historic speech defining approach towards extremism and terrorism with candid respect and friendship.”

Muslim leaders and analysts said the U.S.-Saudi initiative would help counter the expanding waves of extremism in the region.

“A Muslim nations -U.S. cooperation would help counter extremism and extremist groups, Siraj Wahab, deputy managing editor of the Arab News daily in Jeddah, told VOA’s Urdu service.  

Buffalo University professor Faizan Haq echoed Wahab’s comments and said “President Trump talks straight and this trip on the whole will enhance the cooperation between Muslim countries and United States.”

Afghan Ambassador to Washington Hamdullah Mohib said the historic battle between good and evil cannot be won unless the world is united and acts as one.

‘Global threat’

“Terrorism is a global threat that demands a global solution, and the Afghan people and security forces have been thrust into the forefront of the fight,” Mohib told VOA’s Afghan service. “As President Trump said, ‘every country in the region has an absolute duty to ensure that terrorists find no sanctuary on their soil,’ and I would add that every country in the region also has a duty to cut off all financing and sponsorship for these groups.”

In his speech, Trump accused Iran of destabilizing the Middle East region. “From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms, and trains terrorists, militias and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region.”

Pakistani politician Shireen Mazari tweeted that it seemed that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have teamed up against Iran.

“After KSA King’s speech & Trump’s speech there can be no doubt that the KSA-led alliance is focused against Iran!”

Khalilzad said Trump should have also mentioned other factors that have contributed to the emergence of extremism in the region.

“Besides highlighting the negative role played by Iran’s policies in producing extremism and terror and calling for an end to providing sanctuaries, it would have been good if the president had also focused on additional factors, especially the challenge of governance that contribute to the rise and persistence of the challenge, and reforms and changes needed to address them.”

Reacting to Trump’s speech in a tweet, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, suggested that the speech was rather a business deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

“Iran – fresh from real elections – attacked by @POTUS [President Trump] in that bastion of democracy & moderation. Foreign Policy or simply milking KSA of $480B?”

Speaking with VOA’s Afghan service prior to Trump’s speech, Afghan Ambassador to Qatar, where the Afghan Taliban has a political office, said that while the Arab governments are concerned about the Islamic State group (IS) and Taliban, some wealthy Arab individuals are supporting them. “It all depends on what President Trump says to them today, to gain their full cooperation in the fight against ISIS,” Faizullah Kakar, the Afghan Ambassador said.

In Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, Foreign Ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir said Saturday the Riyadh meeting was important because “it is the first time a meeting between the new American government and Islamic countries [are] addressing issues that are of concern to us all, especially regarding the fight against radicalism and terrorism.” Indonesia has recently been hit by a wave of terror attacks. As many as 384 Indonesians have joined the Islamic State group, according to Indonesia’s counterterrorism agency.

“Indonesia will convey our experience and the steps we have taken in the fight against terrorism and radicalism. How we use soft power and hard power approach in combating radicalism and terrorism.”

Robertus Robet, an Indonesian analyst, believes the speech indicates the U.S. no longer wants to be at the forefront of the war on terrorism.

“America will play a supportive role and the countries in the Middle East are front-line in the so-called ‘good and evil, war,” Robet told VOA. “Whether later will be realized in the form of a policy where American troops are no longer in the front lines, and diplomacy plays a bigger role in the future, we will have to see.”

Possibility of ‘reset’

Some Muslim analysts said the speech would help Trump hit a reset with the Muslim world.  

“The soft tone and positive narrative in Trump’s speech would help eliminate the reservations of Muslims about his narrative during the election campaign,” journalist Wahab said.

As a candidate, Trump proposed temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States which led to a strong condemnation by Muslims in the U.S. and around the world. Analysts say that Sunday’s speech will present a softer image of Trump in the Muslim world. As president, he ordered temporary bans on people from certain Muslim-majority countries, which have been blocked by courts that ruled they were discriminatory.

In Turkey, the opinion remained divided.

“Some of them [Turks] think that Trump picked Saudi Arabia for his first foreign visit to make up for his anti-Muslim stance in the campaign period and also his executive orders to limit travels of some Muslim countries’ citizens,” Ilter Turan, a political science professor at the Istanbul Bilgi University, told VOA’s Turkish service. “Others think that Trump still doesn’t like Muslims but pretend that he likes because of trade agreements and interests.”

Some analysts, however, are skeptical if Trump would be able to effectively execute his vision as he faces many domestic challenges.

“The question is, can president Trump fulfill the promises he made during his visit and the speech?” asked Bilal Wehab, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The answer depends on how Trump will solve his internal problems in Washington, D.C.”

But Dhaka-based Bangladeshi journalist, Mizanur Rahman Khan, believes that Trump’s speech was indicative of “a new angle about how America looks forward to the Muslim World and certainly a departure from earlier perceptions.”

VOA’s Afghan, Bangla, Deewa, Indonesian, Kurdish, Turkish and Urdu Services contributed to this report.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday makes his first official visit to Israel, where he is determined to broker a long elusive peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Trump’s schedule includes talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a wreath-laying ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance center.

He also will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall – Judaism’s holiest site.

Trump, who prides himself as a first-rate dealmaker, has called peace between Israel and the Palestinians the “ultimate deal.” But since becoming president, he has given few hints on how he intends to pursue that goal.

Trump said during the presidential campaign that the best way to negotiate an agreement is taking what he called an “objective” approach to the serious and extremely emotional issues keeping both sides far apart. But he has said continued Israeli settlements do not help the peace process.

He also is backing away from his promise to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Despite what some Israelis may perceive as discouraging rhetoric from Trump, the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, tells the Israel Hayom newspaper that it is time for “the parties to meet with each other without preconditions and to begin a discussion that would hopefully lead to peace.”

There have been no full-fledged peace talks since 2014.

Tensions have festered over Israeli settlement expansion and Palestinian violence sparked by rumors Israel was planning to completely take over an east Jerusalem holy site, sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

Israel Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of its occupation of east Jerusalem, captured during the Six-Day War.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel did not occupy Jerusalem, but instead “liberated” it. He said Jerusalem always was and always will be the Israeli capital. He urged Israeli allies to move their embassies there.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. The international community has said the status of Jerusalem must be settled in peace negotiations.
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President Donald Trump has cast the elusive pursuit of peace between Israelis and Palestinians as the “ultimate deal.” But he will step foot in Israel having offered few indications of how he plans to achieve what so many of his predecessors could not.

Trump has handed son-in-law Jared Kushner and longtime business lawyer Jason Greenblatt the assignment of charting the course toward a peace process. The White House-driven effort is a sharp shift from the practice of previous U.S. administrations that typically gave secretaries of state those responsibilities.

Kushner and Greenblatt were to accompany Trump on his two-day visit, set to begin Monday and include separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Trump also planned to visit the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and the Western Wall, an important Jewish holy site.

On the eve of Trump’s visit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet approved several confidence-building measures, including construction permits for Palestinians near their cities in parts of the West Bank that had previously been off limits, a senior official said. Under interim agreements, 60 percent of the West Bank, known as Area C, site of Israel’s settlements, is under Israeli control and Palestinian development there has mostly been forbidden by Israel.

Speaking on condition of anonymity in line with protocol, he said the package also includes economic concessions and opening the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.

White House aides have played down expectations for significant progress on the peace process during Trump’s stop, casting it as more symbolic than substantive. Yet Trump may still need to engage in some delicate diplomacy following revelations that he disclosed highly classified intelligence Israel obtained about the Islamic State group with top Russian officials, without Israel’s permission.

Israel also has expressed concern about the $110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia that Trump announced Saturday in Riyadh. Yuval Steinitz, a senior Cabinet minister and Netanyahu confidant, called Saudi Arabia “a hostile country” and said the deal was “definitely something that should trouble us.”

Trump’s first overseas trip as president comes as the dynamics between the United States and the region’s players are moving in unexpected directions.

While Israeli officials cheered Trump’s election, some are now wary of the tougher line he has taken on settlements: urging restraint but not calling for a full halt to construction. Trump has retreated from a campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, bending to the same diplomatic and security concerns as other presidents who have made similar promises.

Seeking ‘real deal’

Palestinians, who viewed Trump’s victory with some trepidation, are said to have been pleasantly surprised by Trump’s openness during a recent meeting with Abbas in Washington.

A senior official who was part of the Palestinian delegation said Trump is planning to try to relaunch peace talks, with a goal of reaching an agreement within a year. The Trump administration rejected a request from the Palestinians to push for an Israeli settlement freeze, but promised to sort out the issue during peace negotiations, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Jibril Rajoub, a senior Palestinian official close to Abbas, said Trump was a “serious president” who “seeks to have a real deal, not just managing the conflict.”

David Friedman, the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, told the newspaper Israel Hayom that Trump’s goal at the start is simply “to begin a discussion that would hopefully lead to peace.”

Friedman attended a celebration Sunday with Netanyahu of Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, days after the White House declined to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the area.

The area is home to sensitive religious sites, including the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray. Israeli officials are on edge over the U.S refusal to say the Western Wall is part of Israel.

​Israel considers the entire city to be its capital. The international community says the fate of east Jerusalem, claimed by the Palestinians, must be resolved through negotiations.

The last round of peace talks, led by then-President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, fell apart in 2014.

Greenblatt has quietly done much of the heavy work for the U.S. thus far. The low-profile Greenblatt, who spent about two decades as a lawyer at the Trump Organization before joining the White House, has traveled to the region twice since the inauguration and is in weekly contact with pivotal players from both sides.

Aaron David Miller, a Middle East peace adviser to Democratic and Republican secretaries of state, said that despite Greenblatt’s positive reviews in the region, there are limits over how much influence he, or any American officials, can have over the process.

“The issue over many years has not been the mediator in the middle – it’s the guys sitting on the other sides of the mediators,” said Miller, now a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Israeli officials say they are largely in the dark about what ideas Trump might present for peace or what concessions he may demand. Hard-liners who dominate Netanyahu’s government grew particularly concerned when White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster voiced support last week for Palestinian “self-determination.”

Naftali Bennett, leader of the nationalist Jewish Home Party, lamented “a kind of change in the spirit” of Trump’s positions since he was elected in November. He urged Netanyahu to reject Palestinian statehood and insist that Jerusalem remain under Israeli sovereignty forever.

While Netanyahu in the past has expressed support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has been vague about this goal since Trump took office.

Trump’s trip began in Saudi Arabia and takes him, after Israel, to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Francis, to Brussels for a NATO summit and to Sicily for a meeting of leaders of the Group of Seven major industrial nations.
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A warmer, wetter climate is helping push dozens of Eastern U.S. trees to the north and, surprisingly, west, a new study finds.

The eastern white pine is going west, more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) since the early 1980s. The eastern cottonwood has been heading 77 miles north (124 kilometers), according to the research based on about three decades of forest data.

The northward shift to get to cooler weather was expected, but lead author Songlin Fei of Purdue University and several outside experts were surprised by the move to the west, which was larger and in a majority of the species.

New trees tend to sprout farther north and west while the trees that are farther south and east tend to die off, shifting the geographic center of where trees live. 

86 tree species

Detailed observations of 86 tree species showed, in general, the concentrations of eastern U.S. tree species have shifted more than 25 miles west (45 kilometers) and 20 miles (33 kilometers) north, the researchers reported in the journal Science Advances Wednesday.

One of the more striking examples is the scarlet oak, which in nearly three decades has moved more than 127 miles (205 kilometers) to the northwest from the Appalachians, he said. Now it’s reduced in the Southeast and more popular in the Midwest.

“This analysis provides solid evidence that changes are occurring,” former U.S. Forest Chief Michael Dombeck said in an email. “It’s critical that we not ignore what analyses like these and what science is telling us about what is happening in nature.”

Dryer South, wetter West

The westward movement helped point to climate change, especially wetter weather, as the biggest of many culprits behind the shift, Fei said. The researchers did factor in people cutting down trees and changes to what trees are planted and where, he said.

With the Southeast generally drying and the West getting wetter, that explanation makes some sense, but not completely, said Brent Sohngen at Ohio State University, who was not involved in the study.

“There is no doubt some signature of climate change,” he said in an email. But given the rapid rates of change reported, harvesting, forest fires and other disturbances, are probably still playing a more significant role than climate change, he wrote.
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President Donald Trump is proposing drastic cuts in many education programs but expansion of programs that favor charter schools, according to The Washington Post, which published a story earlier this week based on a leaked document.

The document is similar, however, to a preliminary budget outline, referred to as “the skinny budget,” that the Trump administration released in March.

The newspaper said the proposed budget would cut $9.2 billion from the Department of Education, a 13.6 percent reduction from its current level.

Chad Miller, a former congressional staff member and current director of education policy for the American Action Forum, told VOA that Trump’s proposed cuts to the Department of Education were no surprise, given the president’s public statements.

“He is definitely looking at shrinking the footprint of the Department of Education,” Miller said, “but along with the shrinking budget proposals, I think he has put forth proposals to spend money or target money elsewhere to produce more benefit for the students.”

The big winner in the education budget would be charter schools, including those that are privately operated but get funds from states or local school districts. The charter school program, which provides incentives for implementing school choice in local districts, would receive $500 million, a 50 percent increase.

Interest from states

Clare McCann, senior policy analyst for the New America think tank in Washington, told VOA an increase in federal funds for charter schools could attract a lot of interest.

“If states find a pot of money that they can use for education, even if it is not for their traditional public schools, I think it is likely that they would flock to that,” McCann said.

Critics say providing government funds to private charter schools could undermine the public school system and hurt schools serving poor neighborhoods. Supporters, however, say charter schools provide students from poor areas a better choice.

Both Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos are champions of school-choice programs, but they also support local control and fewer federal restrictions.

The education budget would cut $700 million in grants that support disadvantaged students and nearly $500 million from a work-study program. It would also end the loan forgiveness program for graduates who work in public service jobs — people like social workers, rural doctors and teachers.

“On the whole, it may make it harder for borrowers who plan to go into public service to have their loans paid down quickly, but on the other hand, I think they did try to mitigate some of those issues with their income-based repayment plan proposal,” McCann said.

Loan repayment plans

The proposed change to the income-based repayment plan would help undergraduate students pay off their loans more quickly. Currently, graduates can pay 10 percent of their income over a 20-year period and have the balance of their loans forgiven.

Under the Trump proposal, the payment would be increased to 12.5 percent of their income and the term would be shortened to 15 years.

In a speech scheduled for Monday, DeVos is expected to present details from the official education budget. After the president officially releases his overall budget, it will be up to Congress to either approve or modify what it contains.

McCann said some of the programs targeted for cuts have strong support from constituents, who could put pressure on lawmakers from both parties to either ignore or tone down some of the proposals, including the plan to cut the public service loan forgiveness program.

“Instead of eliminating public service loan forgiveness, they might limit the amount you can have forgiven, or make some tweaks as to who is eligible that would reduce the cost of the program,” she said.

Changes inevitable

Because Republican majorities control both houses of Congress, McCann said it is likely lawmakers will try to give the president most of what he wants in the budget. However, he added, some changes are inevitable.

Miller, formerly a professional staff member on the House Education and Workforce Committee, said constituents who favor programs slated for elimination will defend them.

“It is really hard to eliminate a program from the federal budget,” he said. “Certainly, you could see cuts from year to year, but to eliminate something like the after-school program would be a difficult challenge for the administration.”

Miller said the same goes for the elimination of the public service loan forgiveness program and other proposed cuts. He also said the success of many of Trump’s budget proposals would be tied to his success in bringing about tax reform in Congress.
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Robot teammates and “snake” arms that can find a crack .005 millimeter long were just two of the U.S. military’s latest technological innovations on display at the Pentagon this week.

The Defense Laboratory Enterprise showcased more than 80 exhibits on its biennial Lab Day on Thursday. The enterprise is a network of 63 defense laboratories, warfare centers and engineering centers that operate across the United States, and the event provided the Defense Department community with an up-close look at projects in various stages of development and readiness.

Here are some of VOA’s favorites:

Soldier Visual Integrated Technology

Imagine a soldier comes across a suspicious object that she has never seen before. As she stops to explore, she immediately sees an enemy fighter and has to spring into action without time to fully raise her weapon’s sight up to her eye. And she’s unable to see another enemy lurking around the corner.

With Soldier Visual Integrated Technology, the soldier can better see her surroundings and needs less time to react to dangers accurately.

Ronald Geer, a staff sergeant assigned to the Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, says SVIT wirelessly links three pieces of technology on the soldier: a reticle eyepiece, a thermal device on the gun and a communications system attached to the chest.

“What this is going to do is increase my speed and lethality on the battlefield, especially in a close combat situation,” Geer said. “I don’t have to worry so much about raising my weapon to an exact point where I’m able to view through this [his thermal device], because as I raise the weapon, what this is looking at, I’m able to immediately see pulled into the reticle device.”

The connectivity also allows soldiers to use their guns to see what’s around a corner without having to move their bodies into harm’s way.

SVIT updates in real time as well, providing a way to virtually “mark” obstacles or enemy weaponry so that other soldiers can see what the SVIT user views.

Remote Access Nondestructive Evaluation

Jokingly called a “snake on a plane” by some at the Air Force Research Laboratory, R.A.N.D.E. (pronounced Randy) is a robotic arm that can wriggle through an opening as small as 7 centimeters to inspect the interior of aircraft wings or other structures without dismantling them.

Senior Materials Engineer Charles Buynak told VOA that any sensing device can be attached to R.A.N.D.E. to look for minute structural defects.

“We’re looking for things on the order of 1/50,000th of an inch [.00508mm] — before a crack becomes a major thing … and becomes a serious problem to the aircraft,” Buynak said.

The system is driven by a controller from an Xbox 360 home video game console. Buynak said that makes R.A.N.D.E. easy for young operators to use. Another reason is that the Air Force wanted to take advantage of technologies already available.

“Why go spend money developing something that’s easily available that we can adapt to our application here?” he said.

Robots as teammates

The U.S. Army is developing ways to use robots not as tools but as teammates. The Army Research Laboratory displayed several robots this week that can be used as hosts for developing software algorithms for artificial intelligence and machine learning purposes.

Stuart Young, chief of the Asset Control and Behavior Branch, told VOA the goal is to protect soldiers by using technology to “manipulate unknown objects in an unknown world.”

His team is trying to develop AI algorithms that can generalize and understand what’s going on in a robot’s environment. “And then once we have that information,” Young said, “we can manipulate it to accomplish the mission that the robot needs to accomplish.”

Such robot missions could range from breaching an enemy’s defensive position to removing improvised explosive devices, or just moving large objects out of the way while soldiers are in a safer location.
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The U.S. State Department said a clash in Washington this week in which Turkish security personnel apparently attacked demonstrators was “deeply disturbing.”

A State Department statement Friday promised a “thorough investigation’’ to hold those responsible accountable. Tom Shannon, the acting deputy secretary of state, met Wednesday with Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic to discuss the altercation.

“The State Department has raised its concerns about these events at the highest levels,” the statement said.

Watch: Turkish President Erdogan Watched Violent Clash Near Embassy

The clash broke out Tuesday between Turkish security personnel and protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington.

Protesters say they were attacked by Turkish security forces as they demonstrated peacefully. Turkey blamed the clash on the demonstrators, claiming they aggressively provoked people who had gathered to see Erdogan.

VOA reporters recorded images at the scene that indicated the Turkish security detail suddenly turned on the demonstrators, knocking them to the ground and kicking them until American police pushed the Turks away. The video showed Erdogan standing beside his limousine, watching the brawl.

U.S. officials briefly detained two members of Erdogan’s security detail, but they were soon released, under customary diplomatic protocols granting immunity to aides accompanying a visiting dignitary.

Some U.S. lawmakers have demanded the United States take stronger action.
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