Top News Stories for Today – Dec 20, 2018
Top News Stories for Today – Dec 20, 2018
N Korea: US must remove nuclear threat first
North Korea said Thursday that it will never unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons unless the United States first removes what Pyongyang called a nuclear threat. The surprisingly blunt statement jars with Seoul’s more rosy presentation of the North Korean position and could rattle the already fragile diplomacy between Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang to defuse a nuclear crisis that last year had many fearing war.
The latest from North Korea comes as the United States and North Korea struggle over the sequencing of the denuclearization that Washington wants and the removal of international sanctions desired by Pyongyang. The statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency also raises credibility problems for the liberal South Korean government, which has continuously claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is genuinely interested in negotiating away his nuclear weapons as Seoul tries to keep alive a positive atmosphere for dialogue. VOA
London’s Gatwick airport shut after drones seen
A drone attack at one of the UK’s busiest airports has left tens of thousands of passengers facing major disruption. Gatwick’s runway has been shut since Wednesday night, when two devices were seen flying over the perimeter fence. The airport said 110,000 passengers on 760 flights were due to fly on Thursday.
Police were still hunting for the drone operator after another device was reported just before 07:00 GMT. Those due to travel have been told to check the status of their flight, while Easyjet told its passengers not to go to Gatwick if their flights have been cancelled. Sussex Police said it was not terror-related but a “deliberate act” of disruption. BBC
Senate passes bill to avoid government shutdown
The Senate passed a short-term spending bill on Wednesday night to avoid a partial government shutdown, kicking a fight with President Donald Trump over border wall funding until next year.
The legislation was passed by voice vote and will keep the government open until Feb. 8, provided the House will pass it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Senate will remain in session on Thursday pending House action on the spending bill; on Wednesday evening conservatives in the House urged the rejection of the legislation because it shorts the border wall. Politico
WH defends declaration of victory against IS
Without offering specifics on what led to a declaration of victory against the Islamic State (IS) terror group in Syria, the White House defended both the declaration and the decision to start bringing US troops in the war-torn country back home.
The announcement, which seemed to catch some US defense and diplomatic officials, as well as lawmakers, off guard, first came in a tweet from US President Donald Trump Wednesday morning: He tweets “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.” Neither the White House nor the Pentagon was willing to say how long it would take to safely withdraw all US forces from Syria, citing operational security. They noted only that planning was under way and that it would be done in an orderly fashion. VOA
Judge strikes down Trump asylum rules
A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed Justice Department policies that made it harder for immigrants to claim asylum because of domestic violence or gang violence, finding the policies violated existing law. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the US District Court in Washington ruled the harsher Justice Department policies ordered by former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions were “arbitrary, capricious and in violation of the immigration laws.”
Because “it is the will of Congress — not the whims of the Executive—that determines the standard for expedited removal, the Court finds that those policies are unlawful,” Sullivan wrote in his 107-page decision. NBC News
Catholic Church hid 500 priests accused of abuse
In a report released Wednesday, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan concluded that the Catholic Church withheld the names of at least 500 priests in the state accused of sexually abusing minors. Because of this omission, Madigan said, she does not believe the dioceses are able to investigate themselves and “will not resolve the clergy sexual abuse crisis on their own.”
In a statement, the archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, said he wants “to express again the profound regret of the whole church for our failures to address the scourge of clerical sexual abuse.” Madigan did not seek re-election, but her replacement, Kwame Raoul, says he will continue the investigation. The Week