Top Stories Today – June 17, 2019
Top Stories Today – June 17, 2019
China’s Xi to visit N Korea this week
Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea this week, state media announced Monday. Xi will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the visit on Thursday and Friday, state broadcaster CCTV said. It said the trip will be the first by a Chinese leader in 14 years. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency also announced the visit, but provided no further details.
The visit coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and North Korea, CCTV said. It said the leaders will exchange views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula. The visit comes as US talks with North Korea on its nuclear program are at an apparent standstill. A summit in Vietnam between Kim and President Donald Trump failed in February over differences between the two sides. The Voice of America
Iran to breach enriched uranium limit in 10 days
Iran has announced it will breach on 27 June the limit on its stockpile of enriched uranium that was set under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Its atomic energy agency said Iran had quadrupled its production of the material, which is used to make reactor fuel and potentially nuclear weapons. But it added there was “still time” for European countries to act by protecting Iran from reinstated US sanctions. The UK, France and Germany have warned Iran not to violate the deal. They have said they will have no choice but to reimpose their own sanctions, which were lifted in return for limits on the Iranian nuclear programmed.
This latest development comes at a time of high tension in the region, with the US deploying military reinforcements and accusing Iran of being behind suspected attacks that left two oil tankers ablaze on Thursday. Iran denies any involvement. Iran has complained that they have failed to abide by their commitments to mitigate the effects of the US sanctions that took effect after President Donald Trump abandoned the deal last year. BBC
Huawei: Revenue will be billions below forecast
Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei said Monday that the Chinese telecom giant’s revenue will be $30 billion less than forecast over the next two years, as he compared the company to a “badly damaged plane” as a result of US government actions against it. Ren said Huawei will reduce capacity and expects revenues of about $100 billion annually for the next two years, compared to $105 billion in 2018. In February, he said the company was targeting $125 billion in 2019.
Huawei’s overseas cellphone sales will drop by 40%, Ren said, confirming a Bloomberg report published Sunday. But the Chinese market is growing rapidly, and Huawei will not allow restrictive measures to curb its research and development, he added. The Associated Press
Argentina power outage hits 50 million
Argentina is investigating what caused a massive power cut that hit nearly 50 million people. President Mauricio Macri called the outage “unprecedented”, promising a thorough inquiry. Almost all of Argentina, neighboring Uruguay and some areas of Paraguay woke up to darkness on Sunday. The disruption hit public transport while hospitals were forced to run on generators. Power had largely been restored by the end of the day.
Argentine officials said it began with a failure in the country’s “interconnection system” but that the exact cause was unknown. Energy Minister Gustavo Lopetegui said it was unlikely that a cyber-attack was responsible, and that it would take 10-15 days for the results of the investigation to be published. Despite the massive outage he said the country’s electrical network was “very robust”. BBC
Trump campaign fires 3 pollsters
The Trump campaign has fired some of its pollsters following reports that its internal reelection polls showed President Donald Trump losing to former Vice President Joe Biden in a hypothetical matchup in battleground states. NBC News first reported Sunday morning that the Trump campaign would be ending its relationships with some pollsters following the leaks, which had first been reported on earlier last week. The New York Times and ABC News later confirmed the departures, adding that two pollsters would be staying on — Tony Fabrizio and John McLaughlin.
According to the polling numbers obtained by NBC, Trump was trailing Biden by double digits in the key swing states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Michigan. The poll was conducted from March 13-28. USA Today
Record number of African migrants coming to Mexican border
Undaunted by a dangerous journey over thousands of miles, people fleeing economic hardship and human rights abuses in African countries are coming to the US-Mexico border in unprecedented numbers, surprising Border Patrol agents more accustomed to Spanish-speaking migrants. Officials in Texas and even Maine are scrambling to absorb the sharp increase in African migrants. They are coming to America after flying across the Atlantic Ocean to South America and then embarking on an often harrowing overland journey.
In one recent week, agents in the Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector stopped more than 500 African migrants found walking in separate groups along the arid land after splashing across the Rio Grande, children in tow. That is more than double the total of 211 African migrants who were detained by the Border Patrol along the entire 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico border in the 2018 fiscal year. The Associated Press
Gary Woodland wins US Open golf tournament
Gary Woodland won the US Open Sunday in Pebble Beach, California, his first major championship. He was able to defeat Brooks Koepka, the two-time defending champ. Woodland, 35, was in the lead most of Sunday, and shot 2-under-par 69 to finish at 13 under. He started the week ranked No. 25 in the world, with three PGA Tour titles under his belt. USA Today via The Week
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