EPA head met with a mining CEO -- and then pushed forward a controversial mining project
Updated 0137 GMT (0937 HKT) September 23, 2017
Within hours of meeting with a mining company CEO, the new head of the US Environmental Protection Agency directed his staff to withdraw a plan to protect the watershed of Bristol Bay, Alaska, one of the most valuable wild salmon fisheries on Earth, according to interviews and government emails obtained by CNN.
The meeting between EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Tom Collier, CEO of Pebble Limited Partnership, took place on May 1, Collier and his staff confirmed in an interview with CNN. At 10:36 a.m. that same day, the EPA's acting general counsel, Kevin Minoli, sent an email to agency staff saying the administrator had "directed" the agency to withdraw an Obama-era proposal to protect the ecologically valuable wetland in southwest Alaska from certain mining activities.
Myanmar: images show Rohingya villages still being burned, says Amnesty
The human rights group says attacks on Rohingya Muslim are continuing, despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s claims to the contrary
Saturday 23 September 2017 04.47 BST
Amnesty International has said new satellite images and videos from Myanmar’s strife-torn Rakhine state show smoke rising from Rohingya Muslim villages, contradicting Aung San Suu Kyi’s claims that military operations there have ended.
The London-based group said its sources in Rakhine claim the fires – captured in images as recently as Friday afternoon – were started by members of the Myanmar security forces and vigilante mobs. The latest violence in Myanmar has sent an estimated 429,000 Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh in less than a month.
“This damning evidence from the ground and from space flies in the face of Aung Suu Kyi’s assertions to the world,” Tirana Hasan, Amnesty’s director of crisis response, said in a statement late Friday. “Rohingya homes and villages continue to burn, before, during and after their inhabitants take flight in terror. Not satisfied with simply forcing Rohingya from their homes, authorities seem intent on ensuring they have no homes to return to.”
Iran tests new medium-range missile despite US warnings over weapons programme
Test comes days after Donald Trump criticised Iran's missile programme at the UN
Iran says it has successfully tested a new medium-range missile in defiance of US criticism over its weapons programme, broadcasting a video of the launch on state TV.
The launch of the Khoramshahr missile, which has a range of 2,000 km (1242 miles), was broadcast on Friday, just days after Donald Trump criticised Iran's missile programme at the UN on Tuesday.
The latest ballistic missile, capable of reaching much of the Middle East, including Israel, came as the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would increase its military power “as a deterrent”.
North Korea triggers 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics security scare
Concerns over the security situation in Korea are casting a shadow over the Winter Olympics due to be held in Pyeongchang next February. Austria and France have said if security deteriorates, their teams will not go.
Austria's head of the national Olympic Committee, Karl Stoss said on Friday that it could envisage staying away from the Pyeongchang games next February in South Korea.
"If the situation worsens and the security of our athletes is no longer guaranteed, we will not go to South Korea," Stoss said.
His comments followed a warning from France's Sports Minister Laura Flessel on Thursday: "If this gets worse and we do not have our security assured, then our French team will stay here."
The German foreign ministry issued a statement saying the security question and the possibility of keeping the German team at home would be addressed "in good time."
China imposes limits on oil supply to North Korea
New sanctions by Beijing, a close ally of Pyongyang, also include an import ban on textile products from North Korea.
China is limiting its oil exports to North Korea to comply with new sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council last week, which include fuel import restrictions.
China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website on Saturday that China would limit exports of refined petroleum products from October 1, and ban condensates and liquefied natural gas immediately.
China will also ban textile imports from the North Korea, the ministry said.
THE RISE OF Alternative for Germany, the new far-right political party competing in the upcoming federal election, has unsettled the consensus-driven, moderate politics of postwar Germany with its rabid anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric, unabashed nationalism, and winking gestures embracing the country’s Nazi past.
Election-watchers expected a flood of fake news and inflammatory social media aiding Alternative for Germany, known by its German initials, AfD, to come from Russia. But one of the major publishers of online content friendly to the far-right party is an American website financed in large part and lead by Jewish philanthropist Nina Rosenwald.
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