Trump China visit: US leader strikes warmer tone with Xi Jinping
US President Donald Trump has lavished praise on Chinese leader Xi Jinping, a marked contrast to his previous criticism of China on the flashpoint issues of North Korea and trade.
But he also urged Mr Xi to "work very hard" on persuading North Korea to denuclearise.
On China's trade surplus, Mr Trump surprised many when he said he did "not blame China" for "taking advantage".
The US president was speaking in Beijing while on a state visit.
He is in the Chinese capital as part of his five-nation tour of Asia. The two leaders held talks earlier on Thursday after a grand welcome for Mr Trump.
Harassment and house arrest in China as Trump has 'beyond terrific' time
Human rights defenders and their families placed under heavy surveillance by Xi Jinping’s agents as US president is feted
On day one of Donald Trump’s “state visit-plus” to China he was treated to a tour of the Forbidden City, a night at the opera and an intimate dinner with President Xi Jinping. “Beyond terrific,” he boasted.
Li Wenzu got a loud knock at the door from a man claiming to represent the domestic security agency tasked with suppressing political dissent. “The US president is in town,” the 32-year-old mother-of-one says she was informed by the agent. “Do not go anywhere … you must cooperate with our work.”
Li is the wife of Wang Quanzhang, a crusading human rights lawyer whom she has not seen since the summer of 2015 when he was spirited into secret detention during a roundup of attorneys and activists known as Xi’s “war on law”.
It’s North Koreans, not Donald Trump, who will overthrow Kim Jong-un
The defector-led activist group Fighters for Free North Korea drops USB drives, DVDs and pro-democracy literature into the North by balloon. News from the outside world flows into North Korea on these illegal channels
Who does Kim Jong-un fear the most? Not Trump, not Xi, not Putin but his own people. There is an old Korean proverb which says “It’s dark directly under the lantern.” It means that sometimes the answer is right under your nose. While the world focuses on external forces to come up with a solution to the North Korea problem, no one is paying attention to what is actually happening inside the country.
In the real North Korea, beyond the missile tests and the clinical streets of Pyongyang, history is about to repeat itself. According to a UN Report published earlier this year, 4.4 million North Koreans live on the brink of starvation. That is almost a fifth of the population. It is a startling figure, especially as less than two decades ago three million North Koreans starved to death during the so-called “Arduous March”.
'Rapid loss' of US diplomats under Trump Administration prompts fears of weakened influence
In the name of budget cuts US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson slashed promotions and froze hiring. Data shows top diplomat numbers have since dwindled.
The ranks of top US diplomats are being depleted at a "dizzying" speed, the head of America's diplomatic trade union has warned.
Since January the number of "two-star" minister counselors has dropped by 42% and "three-star" career ministers by 14%, according to Barbara Stephenson, president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and former ambassador to Panama.
At the highest ranks of the State Department the number of career ambassadors has dropped from five to two, after the retirement of three top diplomats.
Photojournalist Shawkan turns 30 facing death behind bars in Egypt
As photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as “Shawkan”, prepares to mark his 30th birthday behind bars on Thursday, Katia Roux of Amnesty International tells FRANCE 24 that Shawkan's health is deteriorating and called for his unconditional release.
Shawkan was arrested in 2013 while photographing clashes between Egyptian police and supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first elected civilian president. Months of protests against Morsi’s yearlong rule had led to a military takeover that installed former general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as Egypt’s current president. But supporters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and those objecting to the return of military rule set up protest camps at Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya and al-Nahda squares, where they remained for weeks."
On August 14 security forces launched a raid on the squares, opening fire on thousands of protesters in a crackdown that was to become known as the Rabaa massacre. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 817 people and possibly more than a thousand were killed on that single day. Prime Minister al-Beblawy told Egyptian daily Al-Masry al-Youm in September of that year that the death toll from the Rabaa and al-Nahda square raids was likely around 1,000.
In Life and in Death, White Privilege Protected Texas Shooter Devin Kelley
THIS PAST SUNDAY morning, Devin Patrick Kelley walked into a small country church in the rural south Texas town of Sutherland Springs and shot nearly every single person in the building — brutally slaughtering 26 innocent men, women, and children, and critically injuring at least 20 others.
Armed with an AR-15-style semi-automatic assault rifle, Kelley sprayed the congregation with at least 450 bullets, reloaded, then continued, reloaded, then continued some more, then reloaded again, and continued shooting. He went through 15 magazines of ammunition.
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