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The United States would hope to see a freeze in the North Korean nuclear program as the start of a process of denuclearization, the State Department said on Tuesday, ahead of fresh talks with Pyongyang supposed to take place this month.

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had a surprise meeting at the end of June in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas and agreed to resume a working-level dialogue, stalled since a failed summit in Vietnam in February.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the talks would likely happen “sometime in July … probably in the next two or three weeks.”

The Trump administration has dismissed a New York Times report that said an idea was taking shape among U.S. officials to seek to negotiate a nuclear freeze by North Korea, rather than its complete denuclearization, thereby tacitly accepting it as a nuclear state.

“(A) freeze, you know, that would never be the resolution of a process. That would never be the end of a process,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told a regular news briefing.

“That would (be) something that we would certainly hope to see at the beginning. But I don’t think that the administration has ever characterized a freeze as being the end goal. That would be at the beginning of the process.”

North Korea has frozen nuclear bomb and missile testing since 2017, but U.S. officials believe it has expanded its arsenal by continuing to produce bomb fuel and missiles. They are keen to see a freeze in this production too.

Ortagus said Washington’s goal remained the complete elimination of all of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction.

She said the U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, would meet his South Korean counterpart during a visit to Europe this week to discuss ways to achieve this.

The DMZ encounter, initiated by a spur-of-the-moment tweet by Trump that Kim said took him by surprise, showed a rapport between the two men but policy analysts said they appear no closer to narrowing the gap between U.S. demands for denuclearization and North Korea’s demand for sanctions relief.

The two sides have yet to even agree a common definition of denuclearization, which North Korea has taken to include the U.S. nuclear umbrella protecting Japan and South Korea.

Washington has demanded that Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons unilaterally.

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The U.S. government will issue licenses to companies seeking to sell goods to China’s Huawei where there is no threat to national security, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Tuesday, leaving industry observers unsure about which products will pass muster.

Seeking to revive trade talks with China, President Donald Trump announced last month that American companies would be allowed to sell products to Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker.

Trump’s comments came after the United States placed Huawei on the Commerce Department’s so-called Entity List in May over national security concerns. U.S. parts and components generally cannot be sold to those on the list without special licenses.

While American chipmakers welcomed Trump’s announcement, many industry and government officials were confused about the new policy.

Speaking at a conference in Washington, Ross affirmed that Huawei would remain on the Entity List, meaning winning licenses would require overcoming a presumption of denial, and said the scope of items requiring licenses would not change. However, he opened the door to some approvals.

“To implement the president’s G20 summit directive two weeks ago, Commerce will issue licenses where there is no threat to U.S. national security,” Ross said, referring to Trump’s announcement at the meeting of world leaders in Japan.

“Within those confines, we will try to make sure that we don’t just transfer revenue from the U.S. to foreign firms,” he said.

After Huawei was added to the Entity List, the semiconductor industry lobbied the U.S. government for carve-outs to sell nonsensitive items that Huawei could easily buy abroad, arguing that a blanket ban would harm American companies.

However, industry observers said Ross’ comments lacked the clarity and relief many hoped for after Trump’s announcement.

“The actual policy, of what is not going to endanger U.S. security, is not clear,” Washington trade lawyer Doug Jacobson said. “The only way that industry can determine the line is by submitting (license) applications and knowing what types will be approved and which types will be denied.”

Separately, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said relaxed U.S. government restrictions on Huawei could help the technology giant but would only be in place for a limited time.

Speaking at the same conference, Nazak Nikakhtar, Commerce’s assistant secretary for industry and analysis and nominee to lead the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, said the agency hoped to have decisions soon on export license requests from companies seeking to sell to Huawei.

The United States has accused Huawei of stealing American intellectual property and violating Iran sanctions.

It also has launched a lobbying effort to persuade U.S. allies to keep Huawei out of next-generation 5G telecommunications infrastructure, citing concerns the company could spy on customers. Huawei has denied the allegations.

Tenacious Pursuit of American Technology

Shortly after Huawei was added to the Entity List, the Commerce Department issued a temporary general license allowing the company to buy equipment to maintain existing networks and provide software updates to existing Huawei handsets. That license expires on Aug. 19, but may be extended.

Any further relief granted on Huawei’s entity listing still may not spell the end of troubles for the company. In May, Trump signed an executive order barring U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by companies posing a national security risk.

The move, which required the Commerce Department to draw up an enforcement plan, was seen as paving the way to ban U.S. companies from buying from Huawei, at a time when U.S. wireless carriers are looking for partners as they roll out 5G networks.

On Tuesday, Ross said Commerce would issue an “interim final rule” in mid-October to implement Trump’s executive order.

Interim final rules go into effect immediately, even as they seek public comment that could be used to modify regulations going forward.

The United States has engaged Beijing in a tit-for-tat trade war over accusations that China steals American intellectual property (IP) and forces U.S. companies to transfer their technology to Chinese firms to gain access to markets.

The United States responded last year by passing a law that required Commerce to draft new rules to beef up oversight of certain technology sales abroad. Commerce will “very soon” seek formal comment on the “foundational technologies” rule making, Nikakhtar said.

But Ross warned American companies against putting their technology at risk in order to boost profits.

“The private sector must act responsibly and protect technologies with national security ramifications,” Ross said.

“It is wrong to trade secret or sensitive IP or source code for access to a foreign market, however lucrative that market might be.”

Ross also called out China directly, pointing to “China’s tenacious pursuit of American technologies” to modernize its military. “This cannot be tolerated,” he said.

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Smoke and soot from central Alaska wildfires have afflicted the subarctic city of Fairbanks with some of the world’s worst air pollution in recent days, forcing many residents indoors and prompting one hospital to set up a “clean air shelter.”

Fine particulate matter carried by smoke into the Fairbanks North Star Borough over the past two weeks has been measured at concentrations as high as more than double the minimum level deemed hazardous to human health, borough air quality manager Nick Czarnecki said.

The hazardous threshold was exceeded again on Tuesday in the Fairbanks suburb of North Pole, the borough reported.

The problem is mostly linked to two fires burning since June 21 on either side of the Fairbanks borough – Alaska’s second-most populous metropolitan area, totaling some 97,000 residents.

The Shovel Creek and Nugget fires, both sparked by lightning strikes, have scorched nearly 20,000 acres (8,094 hectares) of timber and brush combined, fire authorities said.

Farther north, the massive Hess Creek blaze, also sparked by lightning, has raged across nearly 173,000 acres (70,000 hectares) of remote timber and grasslands, making it the largest U.S. wildfire so far this year, according to fire command spokeswoman Sarah Wheeler.

Thick smoke drifting into Fairbanks has prompted air quality alerts warning that outdoor exertion is dangerous to health and urging the elderly, the very young and individuals with
respiratory problems to limit their exposure by staying indoors.

That restriction has proved difficult for some because few homes in Fairbanks, a city just 200 miles (322 km) south of the Arctic Circle by road, are equipped with air conditioning, and a heat wave in the region has driven temperatures into the 80s and 90s Fahrenheit.

Fairbanks Memorial Hospital has opened a round-the-clock clean-air room where members of the public can find respite from the pollution. A Fairbanks auto shop was also giving away breathing masks to help residents cope.

“All the HEPA filters and everything are sold out in town, and the smoke is terrible,” Pearson Auto employee Michelle Pippin said.

A similar but somewhat less dire predicament faced residents of Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, about 350 miles (560 km) to the south, where smoke from a major fire raging for the past month in the neighboring Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has caused unhealthy air.

The Swan Lake blaze has charred nearly 97,000 acres (39,200 hectares) of the Kenai Peninsula since it was triggered by lightning on June 5.

Anchorage has also baked in unusually high temperatures, with three of its hottest days on record posted during the past week, including the city’s first-ever 90-degree Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) reading on July Fourth.

The record heat has only added to the general misery index in Alaska, where the National Interagency Fire Center reports about 40 large wildfires have burned more than 810,000 acres (32,780 hectares) across the state.

Wildfires have consumed more than 1 million acres (404,685 hectares) in all so far this year, but that pales in comparison with the record 6.5 million acres (2.6 million hectares) that went up in flames across Alaska in 2004.

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An Ohio soldier reported missing in action in the Korean War and later identified through DNA is returning home.
 
Eighteen-year-old Roger Woods was reported missing in action after fighting in the vicinity of Kochang, Republic of Korea, on July 29, 1950. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said the U.S. Army later issued a “presumptive finding of death” for Pfc. Woods.

Remains found in a grave in South Korea and sent to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii in 1955 were identified last year as Woods.
 
Woods’ coffin arrives Tuesday morning at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and will travel by procession to Evans Funeral Home in Goshen in Clermont County. Visitation will be held Wednesday.
 
The funeral is set for Thursday, followed by burial at Goshen Cemetery.

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Theresa May says Britain’s beleaguered ambassador in Washington still enjoys her “full support” — despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s excoriation of the envoy, Kim Darroch, whose leaked diplomatic cables describing the American leader as “inept and “incompetent” have left British officials writhing in embarrassment.

Despite Downing Street’s backing of the ambassador, British officials concede privately that their top diplomat in Washington will have to be replaced soon, if the political fallout from the cables is to be contained, and to avoid any lasting damage to Anglo-American relations.

On Monday, Trump tweeted he would “no longer deal” with Darroch, who he said was “not well liked or well thought of within the U.S.” Earlier he had said Darroch “has not served the UK well.”

A Downing Street spokesperson said that while Darroch “continues to have the Prime Minister’s full support,” she does not share the envoy’s assessments of the Trump administration.

“We have made clear to the U.S. how unfortunate this leak is. The selective extracts leaked do not reflect the closeness of, and the esteem in which we hold, the relationship. At the same time we have also underlined the importance of ambassadors being able to provide honest, unvarnished assessments of the politics in their country,” the spokesperson added.

In the cache of cables covering the past two years, Darroch describes the Trump administration as “dysfunctional.” One cable to Britain’s Foreign Office read: “We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction driven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept.”

Darroch was also dismissive of Trump’s policy towards Iran.

The cables were leaked to Brexit advocate Isabel Oakeshott, a sometime journalist and friend of Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, and were published in Britain’s Mail on Sunday newspaper. Analysts suspect the leak is part of a wider Brexit-related power struggle between pro-Brexit factions and old guard British diplomats and civil servants opposed to leaving the European Union.

Darroch is a known Europhile and at one time served as Britain’s envoy in Brussels. Colleagues have rallied behind him, saying it is important diplomats are able to feel free to give their honest opinions and assessments to their political bosses.

“I was a good friend to two presidents, George Bush and Bill Clinton, but I had to be able to report honestly to Number 10 what they were likely to do next, any big differences we might have, and if ambassadors can no longer do that then we’re in a very different world,” said Robin Renwick, who served in the 1990s as the British envoy in Washington.

That view is shared by British lawmakers, who worry the leak will persuade other diplomats to hold back on their views. “It is extremely serious because it fundamentally undermines the confidence our envoys can have that the messages they send back are kept private. That puts at risk the ability of the British government to have the best possible advice to make decisions about foreign affairs,” said Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.

But former and current British officials say that Trump’s decision to sever ties between the White House and the British envoy places Darroch in an “untenable” position. They say he will have to be moved quickly with another diplomat slotted in to make sure no lasting damage is done to British-American relations.

Theresa May is due to leave office later this month and is likely to be replaced by Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in a Conservative party leadership race.

The former London Mayor is a friend of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and has been praised by the U.S. President, who has said that he thinks Johnson would make “a terrific prime minister.” British officials and lawmakers are hoping that the change of leadership in Downing Street will bring closure to the quarrel over the leaked cables.

Trump himself appeared to signal that would be the case, noting in a flurry of tweets, “The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a new prime minister.”

British officials also draw comfort from President Trump’s continued delight over his state visit to Britain in June, where he was feted with pomp and ceremony. Trump tweeted again this week that he had “thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent state visit last month,” noting he was “impressed” with the Queen.

But there are still concerns in the corridors of power in London about the possible fallout from the cables amid fears that what has been published so far is a small amount of what was leaked. More Darroch cables could appear in the media, they fear.

That could enrage the U.S. leader, they U.S. President. Officials note Trump attacks have intensified in the last 24 hours and that he has also turned his fire on Theresa May now as well, emphasizing once again his criticism of her handling of the Brexit negations with the European Union.

“I have been very critical of about the way the UK and Prime Minister Theresa May handled Brexit,” he tweeted Tuesday. “What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way,” he added.

Downing Street has ordered a mole-hunt for the leaker and is scrambling to try to ensure no other embarrassing cables find their way to the media. The last time a British envoy was forced out of Washington was in 1856, when the then ambassador was accused of trying to recruit Americans to fight in the Crimean War.

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VOA Student Union’s Sahar Majid interviewed 2019 Miss District of Columbia Katelynne Cox, who talked about issues including her pageant journey and advocacy organization.

Katelynne Cox was chosen as the 2019 Miss District of Columbia last month.

Cox, a native of Washington state, is the manager of fundraising and events at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation in Washington, D.C.

In the pageant, Cox was able to speak to her advocacy for the #MeToo movement.

Through the organization Silence Is Not Compliance, which Cox founded in 2016, she is providing rehabilitation resources to survivors of sexual assault and educating kids on how to prevent sexual violence.

Cox is a rape survivor, and works to inspire other women who have gone through similar trauma and have not been able to speak up.

“I am a survivor of sexual assault and was raped in college, and I wanted to turn my terrible experience into a way that could help others,” she said.

As she established Silence Is Not Compliance, Cox began lobbying for the victims for sexual assault before the U.S. Congress.

“I would argue right now, in our current policies, that victims are treated as tools for prosecution rather than victims deserving a rescue and that’s what I want to change,” she said.

Before moving to Washington, D.C., Cox attended the University of Missouri where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree. She also has two graduate certificates in nonprofit and public management from the school.

Cox said she became involved with the Miss District of Columbia organization for several reasons. The Miss DC pageant, which is part of the Miss America program, offers over $25,000 in scholarships each year to contestants. The winner receives a $10,000 scholarship and there are a variety of other awards available for academics.

Cox said the scholarship was one of the reasons she got involved with the organization.

Every year, the Miss District of Columbia Scholarship Organization recognizes high-achieving women between the ages of 18 and 25 who have been living or working in Washington, D.C., for at least six months preceding the date of the pageant. The program’s website says that a contestant who is not a district resident can obtain a waiver by showing her education or employment status in the District of Columbia. There is no entry fee to compete. This year’s event was held June 23.

The Miss DC organization has a partnership with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals – a Utah-based nonprofit organization that raises funds for children’s health care.

“This organization is near and dear to my heart,” Cox said, adding it gave her another reason to become involved with the Miss DC organization. Cox has been working with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals since she was a child.

In addition, the Miss DC organization provides contestants with an opportunity to pick a social impact initiative with which to become involved. “It was an amazing experience to promote my organization, Silence Is Not Compliance, as Miss DC,” Cox said.

This year, the Miss District of Columbia Pageant eliminated the swimsuit segment. It was a decision by the Miss America organization to replace it with onstage interviews of contestants.

Cox is grateful for the decision because it gave her an opportunity to talk about the #MeToo movement on stage and her experience as a survivor to connect with other survivors.

She highlighted her singing abilities for the talent portion.

“Well, my mom likes to say that I started singing before I could even talk,” she said, while telling the story of her musical journey.

Cox has worked with Red Hammer Records, a label based in Portland, Oregon, and released three albums during her teen years. She also had an opportunity to tour nationwide for her musical shows.

Cox believes scholarship programs, such as Miss America or Miss DC, provide young women with a platform to talk about social issues that need to be addressed.

“I think that inherently there is a problem with the thought that being involved in pageants is somehow sexually objectifying someone. I would argue that if you say that pageants are sexually objectifying me, then you are sexually objectifying me, not the pageant itself,” Cox said.

Cox is now gearing up for the 2020 Miss America contest, to be held on September 8 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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First lady Melania Trump is visiting West Virginia to learn how a city at the center of the nation’s opioid epidemic is grappling with the crisis.

Trump on Monday participated in a roundtable discussion on opioids with federal, state and local officials in Huntington, West Virginia. Federal statistics show West Virginia has the highest opioid overdose rate in the U.S.

During the roughly hour-long meeting, Trump heard about how police, schools and health care centers in the area are fighting the opioid scourge. Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said it’s a grim task, and added that his city would still have to deal with the epidemic for at least the next 40 years even if all heroin sales were to abruptly stop.

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Religious publishers say President Donald Trump’s most recent proposed tariffs on Chinese imports could result in a Bible shortage.

That’s because millions of Bibles are printed in China each year. Stan Jantz, president and CEO of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, says more than half of worldwide Bible production takes place in China. 
 
Critics of a proposed tariff say it would make the Bible more expensive for consumers. It would also hurt the efforts of Christian organizations that give away Bibles as part of their ministry.

The proposed 25% tariff would apply to all books, but critics say it would disproportionately affect Bibles and children’s books. Both tend to have specialized printing requirements that Chinese printers are set up to meet, while many domestic printers are not. 

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From the earliest days of the republic, rich white men have had a disproportionate say in the fate of the country. Founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison all came from wealthy land-owning families. 

Money and connections have long helped scions of America’s wealthiest families realize their presidential dreams. These political dynasties include the Adams and the Bushes. However, not all of America’s presidents started off rich; some made all of their money after serving as commander in chief. The annual salary for the president of the United States is $400,000. 

24/7 Wall Street analyzed the finances of American presidents and adjusted the figures for inflation to December 2018 levels. The online financial news company considered assets such as real estate, work savings, inheritance, book royalties, ownership of companies, profits from family estates, and other forms of income.

Here’s 24/7’s list of America’s Top 10 richest presidents of all time — with their net worth adjusted for inflation:

#1  Donald J. Trump
Peak net worth: $3.1 billion
45th president (2017-

Donald Trump was born into wealth and inherited at least $413 million from his father, according to the New York Times. He became even richer after taking over his father’s real estate business and now owns billions of dollars in real estate.

#2 John F. Kennedy
Peak net worth: $1.1 billion
35th president (1961-1963)

John F. Kennedy was born into money and all of his wealth was inherited. His father, Joe Kennedy, was one of the richest men in the United States, having made his money through banking and investing. In addition to his family’s wealth, Kennedy’s wife, Jackie, also had big bucks; she was an oil heiress.   

#3 George Washington
Peak net worth: $587 million
1st  president (1789-1797)

The nation’s first president inherited most of his wealth. George Washington inherited his lucrative plantation, Mount Vernon, from his half-brother. He also earned good money as a general and then as president. Washington’s presidential salary in 1789 was $25,000, which was 2% of the total U.S. budget. 

#4 Thomas Jefferson
Peak net worth: $236.8 million
3rd president (1801-1809)

Thomas Jefferson inherited 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of land near Charlottesville, Virginia, from his father. He added 809 more hectares (2,000 acres) to his real estate portfolio and built his showpiece home Monticello. Although he remained wealthy for most of his life, Jefferson was deeply in debt when he died, in part because income from farming was unreliable and also because Jefferson was a big spender who lived beyond his means.

#5 Theodore Roosevelt
Peak net worth: $139.7 million
26th president (1901-1909)

Theodore Roosevelt inherited a large trust fund and did little to increase his wealth. Elected to the New York State Assembly at the age of 23, Roosevelt spent most of his adult life in public service. However, he did lose a chunk of his fortune after a ranch investment in the Dakotas went bad. 

#6 Andrew Jackson
Peak net worth: $132.6 million
7th president (1829-1837)

Andrew Jackson was one of the relatively few U.S. presidents who was actually born poor and earned his own money through a law practice. However, while he wasn’t born into wealth, Jackson did marry money and inherited a fortune from his wife Rachel when she died shortly before he became president. 

#7 James Madison
Peak net worth: $113.3 million
4th president (1809-1817)

James Madison’s parents were extremely wealthy and owned several hectares of land. They had a lucrative plantation in Orange County, Virginia, and built the famed Montpelier estate. However, Madison started to run out of money towards the end of his life.  His plantation wasn’t successful and his stepson lost a lot of his stepdad’s cash due to problems with drinking and gambling.

#8 Lyndon B. Johnson
Peak net worth: $109.3 million
36th president (1963-1969)

Lyndon Johnson was a hardworking ambitious young man without much money until he met and married Claudia “Lady Bird” Taylor, who came from a wealthy Texas family. Together, they owned livestock and 607 hectares (1,500 acres) of land in Texas. However, their main source of income was a radio station owned by Lady Bird.  

#9 Herbert Hoover
Peak net worth: $83 million
31st president (1929-1933)

Herbert Hoover was truly a self-made man. Orphaned as a child, he graduated from Stanford and worked as a mining engineer before entering politics. He wrote a mining engineering textbook and acquired several Burmese silver mines, which made him rich.

#10 Bill Clinton
Peak net worth: $75.9 million
42nd president (1993- 2001)

Bill Clinton made his money after leaving office, earning millions from his 2005 autobiography,  My Life. His wife’s wealth also helps boost the ex-president’s bottom line. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is thought to have gotten a $14 million advance for her 2014 memoir Hard Choices.  Both Clintons have made millions giving paid speeches.

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Two remote California desert communities assessed damage after two major earthquakes hit the area at the end of last week, followed by thousands of smaller aftershocks.

Ridgecrest and neighboring Trona were hit hard by the magnitude 7.1 quake that rocked the Mojave Desert towns Friday. A day earlier, a magnitude 6.4 temblor hit the same patch of the desert.

The area, about 240 kilometers northeast of Los Angeles, is in recovery mode after the quakes crumbled buildings, ignited fires and cut power to thousands of homes and businesses.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Sunday there was just a 1% chance of another magnitude 7 or higher earthquake in the next week, and a rising possibility of no magnitude 6 quakes.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for the area and warned local governments to strengthen alert systems and building codes. “It is a wake-up call for the rest of the state and other parts of the nation,” Newsom told reporters.

The damage wasn’t worse largely because of how remote the area is, but Newsom cautioned after touring Ridgecrest that “it’s deceiving, earthquake damage. You don’t notice it at first.”
 
The Democratic governor estimated the damage at more than $100 million and said U.S. President Donald Trump called him to offer federal support for rebuilding.

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Nearly one in every four Americans say they never plan to retire.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey released Sunday found 23% of Americans have no plans to stop working.

Another 23% say they expect to have to work well beyond their 65th birthday.  

Financial instability is the major reason for Americans to delay retirement, the poll found.

“The average retirement age that we see in the data has gone up a little bit, but it hasn’t gone up that much,” says Anqi Chen, assistant director of savings research at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “So people have to live in retirement much longer, and they may not have enough assets to support themselves in retirement.”

When asked how comfortable they feel about retirement, just 14% of those under age 50 and 29% of those over age 50 felt “extremely or very prepared,” for retirement. About another 4 in 10 older adults say they do feel somewhat prepared, while just about one-third feel unprepared. By comparison, 56% of younger adults say they don’t feel prepared for retirement.

About 25% of those who had already retired said they didn’t feel prepared to stop working, according to the poll. Just 38% of fully retired individuals said they “felt very or extremely prepared.”

U.S. government data shows about 1 in 5 people age 65 and older were working or searching for a job in June, the AP reports.

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