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New York, Chicago and Washington all experienced significant declines in homicides in 2017, though the murder rate rose in Baltimore, Maryland, amid drug problems and lingering racial tensions.

And while its number of murders was down, Washington saw some particularly brutal killings, including a gruesome decapitation blamed on a gang, and authorities in every city said they still had much work to do.

The homicide decline was dramatic in New York, which experienced 2,245 killings as recently as 1990 but just 286 in 2017 as of December 27, according to The New York Times.

That was down from 334 in 2016 and represented the city’s lowest number of murders since the 1950s.

Every major category of crime declined there, from rape to car theft, the Times reported. Indeed, violent crime in the city has declined for 27 straight years.

Chicago, which in 2016 suffered through its deadliest year in two decades with 754 killings, saw its murder total drop last year to 650, the largest year-to-year decline since 2004, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Anti-police sentiment there fueled a surge in violence after the 2016 release of a video showing a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated Chicago authorities for letting violence run “out of control.” 

But police superintendent Eddie Johnson told the Tribune that new technology and tactics, the hiring of 1,000 additional police officers, and efforts to improve police-community relations had helped lower total shootings. Arrests for gun crimes were up by 27 percent.

Building ‘on the progress’

“None of us are satisfied,” Johnson said in a statement, promising in 2018 to “build on the progress we made last year.”

Homicides fell in Washington from 135 in 2016 to 116 in 2017. That returns the city to a level seen before a spike two years ago.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said her city had stepped up efforts to mediate disputes and prevent retaliation after shootings, while working with non-police agencies to help calm neighborhoods.

But there have been some vicious killings of area teens. One boy was shot in an apparent robbery of his Air Jordan sneakers; a 17-year-old girl was fatally attacked by a stranger as she walked to a mosque during Ramadan; and a teen in suburban Maryland was brutally stabbed and decapitated, allegedly by members of the MS-13 gang.

And Baltimore, which experienced violent riots after the 2015 death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray while in police custody, had at least 343 homicides last year, up from 318 killings the year before, the Baltimore Sun reported.

That left the drug-plagued city of 620,000 with more murders last year — per capita — than New York experienced with its 8.4 million residents.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been quick and forceful in his support for Iranian anti-government protests, will have a chance later this month to further step up pressure on Tehran. 

In mid-January, Trump faces another series of congressionally mandated deadlines to certify whether Iran is complying with the terms of the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers. 

Many Iran watchers say Trump may use the deadlines to reimpose or enact new sanctions in an attempt to deliver a blow to Iran’s government at a moment of vulnerability.

Andrew Peek, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran and Iraq, told VOA further sanctions are possible against Iranian government elements that crack down on protesters.

“We will hold accountable those people and entities who are committing violence — from the top to the bottom — against the [Iranian protesters],” Peek said Monday.

While it is far from certain Trump will formally abandon the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), he could use the protests as further justification to chip away at it.

In October, Trump chose to “decertify” the nuclear deal, a decision that provided a 60-day window in which it was easier for Congress to apply sanctions on Iran. Congress declined to do so.

Trump this month could decide to re-open that window. Perhaps more importantly, Trump must also decide whether to continue issuing a waiver that keeps old Iran sanctions from snapping back into place. 

Reimposing those sanctions would effectively kill the nuclear agreement, which Trump has called an “embarrassment” and “one of the worst deals ever.” A middle ground could be applying new sanctions in a more limited fashion. 

The White House hasn’t previewed its decision. While Trump’s top national security officials have warned against abandoning the nuclear agreement, many congressional Republicans have remained vocal in opposing it. 

But Trump’s long-stated opposition to the deal, combined with his outspoken support for the ongoing Iranian protests, suggests to many observers that Trump could be seeking a new pressure point to squeeze further concessions from Tehran. 

“What many Iranians are fearing is that these protests, which are stemming mostly from economic pressures, might be an inspiration for the U.S. to put extra sanctions, to put extra pressure on Iran,” says Negar Mortazavi, an Iranian-American commentator and journalist with Iran International. 

At least 12 people have been killed in the nationwide protests, which began last week as a response to rising food prices but quickly morphed into sometimes violent displays of discontent with Iran’s conservative leaders. 

Shortly after the protests began, Trump tweeted his support, saying the U.S. is “watching very closely for human rights violations!” and insisting it is “TIME FOR CHANGE!” in Iran. 

While the protests may not “materially affect” the Trump administration’s stance on the JCPOA, they could make Washington’s European partners more open to the U.S. idea of further pressure, says James Carafano, a foreign policy specialist at the Heritage Institute.

“The administration is already working to pressure and isolate the regime. So, supporting the protests just adds more pressure,” says Carafano, who worked on the Trump transition team. “I think that what we are next likely to see is an executive order including additional sanctions and restrictions,” he added. 

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, views it as “quite likely” that Trump will refuse to renew the waivers.

“He is a person that likes to make snap decisions, so whatever thing that has happened to him lately is going to have a disproportionate influence on his decision,” Parsi said. 

The U.S., which cut off relations with Iran’s theocratic leaders after they came to power in 1979, has imposed sanctions on Tehran for decades. Though the measures severely damaged the country’s economy, they failed to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

​After the slightly more moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani came to power in 2013, Tehran agreed to scale back its nuclear program temporarily in exchange for sanctions relief. 

However, U.S. critics have said the deal failed to deliver a permanent solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, and say Iran’s support for militants across the Middle East has gone unaddressed.

But Trump’s top defense officials — including National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — have all cautioned against abandoning the deal. 

Trump’s decision must come soon. According to Politico, the first of the sanctions waiver deadlines will come on Jan.12.

Mark Dubowitz, who heads the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which has close ties to the White House, says the protests are unlikely to change the president’s decision on sanctions waivers.

“The protests, however, may increase the incentive for all sides to come together and find a legislative solution,” he said. “The protests reinforce the administration’s view that the Iranian regime is an odious, expansionist and destructive force in the Middle East.”
…

The Trump administration says it is “very concerned” about Tehran blocking Iranians from communicating via social media platforms in a bid to dampen four days of nationwide anti-government protests.

Iran blocked access to messaging app Telegram and photo-sharing app Instagram on Sunday, with state media saying the moves were meant to maintain peace. Iranians had been using the app to communicate about the street demonstrations, the biggest outpouring of public discontent with Iran’s clerical leaders since 2009 protests against the results of a disputed presidential election.

In an exclusive interview with VOA Persian on Sunday, Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications Michael Anton said there is not much Washington can do about Iran’s social media clampdown. But he said the Trump administration expects U.S. and other western companies to halt any concessions to the Iranian government. “(They should) not bow to any demands for censorship or curtailment of information,” Anton said. “(They should) continue doing business the way they always have, and let information flow freely into Iran.” He added that U.S. officials will be watching how those companies handle the issue.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, a Russian entrepreneur whose company has offices in London, posted a tweet on Sunday, saying Iran had blocked access to the messaging app after his refusal to shut down communication channels that he said were being used for peaceful protests.

In an online statement, Durov said it is unclear if the blocking of Telegram will be permanent or temporary. He said Telegram would “rather get blocked in a country by its authorities than limit peaceful expression of alternative opinions.”

In a separate report published on Sunday, the Associated Press said U.S. tech giant Facebook, which owns Instagram, declined to comment about Iran’s blocking of the photo-sharing app.

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the Iranian government in a Sunday tweet for “clos(ing) down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate”.

In his VOA Persian interview, Anton said the White House also is “very concerned” about reports of several deaths and injuries in the four days of anti-government protests in Iran. “We certainly mourn with all of the victims’ families and with the people of Iran,” he said.

Anton said the Trump administration is coordinating with its allies in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere to apply pressure on Tehran to allow the protests to continue and to address the protesters’ complaints about the high cost of living, government corruption and lack of democratic freedoms.

“We want to let them know that the world’s civilized nations stand with them and are in favor of their just grievances being addressed and against the destabilizing behavior and oppression of the regime,” Anton said.

In his first public response to the protests, Iranian state media quoted President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday as acknowledging that Iranians have the right to protest and criticize his government. But, Rouhani said social unrest and destruction of public property are unacceptable. He also said U.S. President Trump had “no right” to sympathize with the Iranian people. The Trump administration labels the Iranian government as the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism, a charge Tehran rejects.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA Persian 
…

A man fired more than 100 rounds at sheriff’s deputies in Colorado early Sunday, killing one and injuring four others, before being fatally shot himself in what authorities called an ambush. Two civilians were also injured.

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said deputies came under fire almost immediately after entering a suburban Denver apartment and trying to talk with the suspect, who was holed up inside a bedroom.

“I do know that all of them were shot very, very quickly. They all went down almost within seconds of each other, so it was more of an ambush-type of attack on our officers,” Spurlock said. “He knew we were coming and we obviously let him know that we were there.”

The wounded deputies tried to pull the fallen officer, identified as Zackari Parrish, out of the line of further gunfire but were unable to because of their own injuries and only managed to “crawl to safety,” Spurlock said.

The incident occurred around 5:15 a.m. at Copper Canyon Apartments, a landscaped apartment complex in Highland Ranch, 16 miles (28 kilometers) south of Denver. Authorities had left the home about four hours earlier to address a noise complaint but returned in response to reports of a disturbance at the home.

There were two men inside the home when deputies arrived and someone let them inside, Spurlock said. The disturbance was initially reported to be domestic but turned out to be noise-related, he said.

“The suspect was just making a ton of noise and annoying everyone around him,” Spurlock said.

Vira Cover, who lives in a building about 50 yards away from the shooting, was woken up by a phone call from her fiance, Steve Silknitter, who warned her about what was happening and urged her to stay inside. Soon afterward she said she heard about 15 to 20 very loud shots fired over about 30 seconds or a minute. She sat on the couch with her cats and called Silknitter back before turning on the television to try to find out more about what was happening.

“I couldn’t believe this was happening in our backyard,” she said.

Silknitter heard the shots fired too but from about a half mile away, stopped at a police roadblock as he tried to get back home from work. Then he said he saw police in tactical gear speed past him in a pickup truck.

Silknitter said he lived 2 miles away from the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado where 12 people were killed in a shooting in 2012. He said he never would have expected anything like this in his apartment complex, where the only noise you might normally hear is children running around upstairs.

“Where do I move to where I don’t have to worry about someone shooting us?” asked Silknitter, who is now considering getting a concealed weapons permit.

The suspect was well-known to authorities in the Denver area but had no criminal record, said Spurlock, who declined to name him until his identity was confirmed.

The sheriff did not release any details about the weapons and ammunition used except to say the suspect had a rifle. He also did not know if law enforcement had any prior knowledge of firearms being in the home but the possibility always weighs on deputies’ minds.

“We respond to every call anticipating that everyone has a gun. This is Colorado. Everybody has a gun,” Spurlock said.

Parrish, the slain officer, was 29 and a married father of two young children. He came to the department seven months ago after working as an officer for the nearby Castle Rock Police Department. Spurlock called him a “good kid” who was eager to work.

“His wife told me today that he loved this job more than he had loved any job he ever had,” the sheriff said.

Gov. John Hickenlooper ordered flags on all public buildings immediately lowered to half-staff until Tuesday evening in Parrish’s honor.

The three deputies and one police officer injured were listed in stable condition. Authorities identified them as deputies Michael Doyle, 28; Taylor Davis, 30; Jeffrey Pelle, 32; and Castle Rock police officer Tom O’Donnell, 41.

The two civilian injuries were not life-threatening.

Pelle is the son of Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle. The sheriff shared a picture of him and two other family members by his son’s hospital bed on his office Twitter account. All four, including Jeffrey Pelle, who underwent surgery, are smiling and giving a thumbs-up gesture.

President Donald Trump expressed sorrow, writing on Twitter, “My deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible shooting in Douglas County @dcsheriff, and their families. We love our police and law enforcement – God Bless them all!”

The shooting occurred on the final day of a year that saw the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history in Las Vegas.
…

President Donald Trump capped 2017 on Sunday with a video self-tribute touching on what he sees as the high points of his achievements and rhetoric from his first year in office. He gave a plug to American exceptionalism, too.

In the video running 3½ minutes, scenes of Trump with military personnel, Border Patrol agents and other world leaders are set to a stirring soundtrack as he declares of his country: “We gave birth to the modern world and we will shape tomorrow’s world with the strength and skill of American hands.”

Trump cited his success in placing a new justice on the Supreme Court, his efforts to cut regulations and his big win on overhauling taxes, which he falsely described as the “largest tax cut in the history of our country.”

Trump offered the video with a New Year’s Eve message, saying “What a year it’s been, and we’re just getting started. Together, we are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Happy New Year!!”

He later offered another Twitter message, loaded with his signature bombast: “As our Country rapidly grows stronger and smarter, I want to wish all of my friends, supporters, enemies, haters, and even the very dishonest Fake News Media, a Happy and Healthy New Year. 2018 will be a great year for America!”

The president is spending the holidays in Palm Beach, where his Mar-a-Lago club hosts an annual New Year’s Eve bash. At the event last year, hundreds of guests gathered in the club’s grand ballroom, including action star Sylvester Stallone and romance novel model Fabio.

The White House said Trump been briefed on New Year’s Eve security precautions around the country and will continue to monitor those efforts.

Trump offered his condolences Sunday to the victims of a shooting in suburban Denver that killed one sheriff’s deputy and wounded six other people, including four deputies. He tweeted: “We love our police and law enforcement – God Bless them all!”

Trump had lunch with Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Sunday. The White House said they discussed hurricane recovery efforts, the need to improve infrastructure “and many other matters important to the people of Florida.”

The governor came with some specific concerns: the need for repairs to the federally operated Herbert Hoover Dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee and the recovery of Florida’s citrus industry from Hurricane Irma, said his spokesman, John Tupps.

Trump has encouraged Scott to challenge Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, in 2018. Scott said in December that he had not made up his mind, though there have been multiple signs he is considering a run.
…

The U.S. Library of Congress says it will no longer collect every single tweet published on Twitter as it has been doing for the past 12 years. 

The library said this week that it can no longer collect everything across the entire social media platform because of recent changes Twitter has made, including allowing longer tweets, photos and videos. 

It said in a blog post this week that its first objective with collecting and archiving tweets was “to document the emergence of online social media for future generations.” The library says it has fulfilled that objective and no longer needs to be a “comprehensive” collector of tweets. 

The Library of Congress said it will still collect and archive tweets in the future, but will do so on a more selective basis. It said going forward “the tweets collected and archived will be thematic and event-based, including events such as elections, or themes of ongoing national interest, e.g. public policy.”

The library said it generally does not collect media comprehensively, but said it made an exception for public tweets when the social media platform was first developed. 

The library said it will keep its previous archive of tweets from 2006-2017 to help people understand the rise of social media and to offer insight into the public mood during that time. “Throughout its history, the Library has seized opportunities to collect snapshots of unique moments in human history and preserve them for future generations,” it said.

“The Twitter Archive may prove to be one of this generation’s most significant legacies to future generations. Future generations will learn much about this rich period in our history, the information flows, and social and political forces that help define the current generation,” it said.
…

U.S. vice presidents historically have had widely varying influence in the White House, depending on their relationship with the president. As Donald Trump’s administration prepares for its second year, VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports on how Vice President Mike Pence’s role continues to broaden.
…

Despite suffering what appear to be debilitating defeats on the ground in Iraq and parts of Syria, the Islamic State terror group is far from dead, according to military and intelligence officials from several countries that have long been tracking the threat.

Even on the ground in Iraq and parts of Syria, where anti-IS coalition officials believe the terror group’s fighting force, which once numbered in the tens of thousands, is down to less than 1,000 militants, top military officials remain wary.

“The war is not over,” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon Friday. “The hunting down of these guys is not over.”

​Coalition focus

For now, the focus of U.S. and coalition-backed forces is on an area of Syria known as the Middle Euphrates River Valley, an area that extends from the Syrian city of Raqqa to the Iraqi border, where many of the remaining fighters have sought refuge.

“We’re in the process of crushing the life out of the caliphate there, while trying to keep the innocent people safe,” Mattis said.

Yet military officials brush aside any notion that IS will collapse in one, ultimate death knell. As diminished as its force may be, the terror group has a history of biding its time, slowly gathering its strength until an opportunity to strike presents itself.

“ISIS will attempt to mount some form of insurgency,” the anti-IS coalition’s deputy commander for strategy and support, British Maj. Gen. Felix Gedney, told reporters from Baghdad this week, using an acronym for the terror group. “ISIS remains a threat in the region. It remains a threat to our homelands, as well.”

​IS fighters seek safe haven

A key concern is the terror group’s knack for finding safe havens from which to operate.

In the case of IS fighters in Iraq and Syria, that has meant seeking refuge in parts of Syria under the control of President Bashar al-Assad and Russian-backed, pro-regime forces.

Coalition officials refuse to say just how many IS fighters have successfully fled to such areas, but they say those that do, seem to be able to move with impunity.

For now, U.S. officials are downplaying the danger, calling the flight of IS fighters “normal.”

“I’m not seeing right now that there’s some concentration where they’re going to come up big and have a safe haven,” Mattis said.

Yet intelligence officials say there are plenty of other places for the battle-hardened jihadists to go.

U.S. counterterror officials point to IS branches and even less formal networks in Turkey, Egypt and Libya as potential landing spots for IS fighters, in addition to more than a dozen other countries where they might find a home.

“ISIS has adapted to its more difficult circumstances by changing its operation model and it will continue to adapt,” the outgoing head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Nicholas Rasmussen, said earlier this month.

​Afghanistan

One country where Islamic State’s resilience has been on display is Afghanistan.

Twice this year, the United States used airstrikes to kill the leader of the Islamic State’s so-called Khorasan province. And a third strike, in April, used the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal to target a cave-and-tunnel complex in Nangarhar province.

But according to Afghan officials, since that time, IS-Khorasan has been reborn, growing from about 600 fighters to more than 3,000, thanks in part to an influx of foreign fighters from Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

Afghan officials have said they expect the size of the IS force to grow further, bolstered by fighters from Iraq and Syria, a concern shared by some in the West.

For the most part, there has been little evidence of a mass exodus of IS fighters from Iraq and Syria. While coalition officials believe many of the group’s leaders fled the battlefield at the earliest opportunity, they say there is little to suggest they have gone far.

Yet even if the flow of IS fighters from Iraq and Syria is best described as a trickle not a flood, there is ample reason to be concerned.

“The quality of the fighters after the experience on the ground in Iraq and Syria is something we’re paying very close attention to,” one U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA.

Returning foreign fighters

And the track record of IS foreign fighters who have returned, like those linked to the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels, show how lethal even a handful of returnees can be.

“Even if the numbers are small, they always have a disproportionate effect,” according to Lt. Gen. Michael Nagata, director of the Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning at National Counterterrorism Center.

“They bring leadership. They bring skill. They bring experience. And perhaps most importantly, they are totally committed,” Nagata said. “Two foreign fighters can have a strategic impact.”

That impact of returning foreign fighters is being felt across northern Africa and the Sahel, according to regional intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

“They know how to kill. They know how to use explosives,” Algeria’s Ambassador-Counselor for International Security Issues El Haouès Riache said during a recent visit to Washington. “They are ready for the worst.”

Riache said the knowledge IS operatives passed on to members of the Boko Haram terror group, active in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, has allowed that group to hang on, even under constant pressure.

“They learn from Daesh how to occupy territories, how to manage territories, how to collect taxes,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. “They have implemented what they have learned.”

Need for cooperation

And despite a U.S.-backed campaign to eradicate IS in Libya, which at one time served as a base of operations for thousands of fighters, hundreds remain, taking advantage of an uneven regional and international response.

“This is a threat that is a transnational threat. You cannot fight it individually as Morocco, as Algeria or as Tunisia,” said Amb. Mohamed Salah Tamek with Morocco’s Penitentiary and Reintegration Administration. “We are not cooperating as far as security threats go.”

There are additional concerns that the collapse of the self-declared caliphate has not been enough to prevent IS fighters and operatives from communicating with each other. European counterterror officials say the terror group’s communications unit was continuing to function well after its Iraqi and Syrian capitals were liberated.

And in just the last week of December, IS has claimed attacks in St. Petersburg, Kabul, Cairo and the Sinai Peninsula while churning out a stream of propaganda calling for lone wolf attacks in the West.

“It’s a brand with diminishing appeal but the appeal is still there,” U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis told reporters Friday. But he expressed confidence that time and word of mouth would eventually undermine the terror group.

“They’ve lost a physical caliphate,” Mattis said. “It’s less inspirational, as the stories of what it’s like living under their rule come out.”
…

The Associated Press reported early Saturday that in the first month of U.S. President Donald Trump’s term in office, he sent “an American scholar” to meet with North Korean officials and to relay a message.

The message was that the new administration was appreciative of a nearly four-month freeze of the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests – and thought it “might just offer a ray of hope,” the news agency said in its account.

However, the AP reported North Korean officials said the lack of testing wasn’t a sign of conciliation and insisted Kim Jong Un would order tests whenever he wanted.  Two days later, the North launched a new medium-range missile, ushering in a year of escalating tensions.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported late Friday that “Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea.”  Reuters attributed the information to two senior Western European security sources.

Russia is a member of the United Nations Security Council.  The sale of oil and oil products to North Korea would be a breach of U.N. sanctions

One security source told Reuters “Russian vessels have made ship-to-ship transfers of petrochemicals to North Korean vessels on several occasions this year in breach of sanctions.”

Another security source told the news agency, “There is no evidence that this is backed by the Russian state, but these Russian vessels are giving a lifeline to the North Koreans.”

Reuters said both sources “cited naval intelligence and satellite imagery of the vessels operating out of Russian Far Eastern ports on the Pacific.”

Denials from China

The new reports come as China has denied facilitating oil shipments to North Korea in violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions, one day after Trump accused Beijing of doing so.

“China has been completely and strictly implementing Security Council resolutions and fulfilling our international obligations,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Friday at a media briefing. “We will never allow Chinese citizens and enterprises to engage in activities that violate Security Council resolutions.”

Despite China’s insistence the sanctions are being enforced, doubts persist in the U.S., South Korea and Japan that loopholes continue to exist. And China’s repeated denials did not preclude Trump from tweeting Thursday he was “very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea.”

The U.N. Security Council last week imposed new sanctions designed to limit North Korea access to oil in response to the country’s recent long-range missile test. In November, it test-launched its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, which many U.S. experts have warned would be capable of striking anywhere on U.S. soil. The sanctions seek to bar 90-percent of refined oil exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and limit crude oil exports at 4 million barrels annually.

Ship seized

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said earlier Friday the country had seized a Hong Kong-flagged ship that transferred oil to a North Korean vessel in international waters despite the sanctions.

Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reported South Korean officials said the Lighthouse Winmore vessel transferred “600 tons of refined petroleum” to a North Korean ship on October 19 and that the ship was seized on November 24 after it sailed into South Korea’s Yeosu Port.

Yonhap reported the vessel was chartered by the Billions Bunker Group, a Taiwanese company. The ship’s “claimed destination” was reportedly Taiwan, but the ship instead “transferred oil to a North Korean ship, Sam Jong 2, and three other non-North Korean vessels in international waters in the East China Sea.”

Yonhap said South Korea informed the U.S. about its “detection of the illegal transaction” involving the Lighthouse Winmore, which is reportedly on the list of ships the U.S. has proposed blacklisting for prohibited trade with North Korea.

Hua, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said authorities investigated a report that an unnamed Chinese ship transferred oil to a North Korean vessel at sea on October 19 and determined it was erroneous. Hua also said she did not have any information about the Hong Kong-flagged vessel.

Satellite images

In November, the U.S. Treasury Department disclosed satellite images that displayed what it said was a North Korean ship receiving oil from an unidentified vessel on October 19. It was not immediately clear if the Lighthouse Winmore was involved in the transaction.

The photos received broader public scrutiny this week when the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reprinted them along with the report that suspected Chinese ships transferred oil to North Korean vessels about 30 times since October.

In an interview with the New York Times Thursday, Trump linked his trade policy with China to its cooperation in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.

“If they’re helping North Korea, I can look at trade a little bit differently, at least for a period of time. And that’s what I’ve been doing. But when oil is going in, I’m not happy about that.”

During a briefing Friday with reporters at the Pentagon, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was asked if the U.S. Navy could begin seizing ships suspected of providing oil to North Korea.

Mattis declined to speculate but said, “Obviously if a government finds that there is a ship in their port conducting trade that was forbidden under the U.N. Security Council resolution, then they have an obligation and so far we have seen nations take that obligation seriously.”

Mattis also predicted the global community will increase pressure on Pyongyang and said physical approaches are among the options under consideration.

“What form that pressure takes in terms of physical operations is something that will be determined by the cognizant governments,” he said.

China is North Korea’s primary trading partner, energy supplier and main diplomatic protector. But Beijing has expressed increasing frustration with North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests. And while China supports the latest sanctions against Pyongyang, it has argued against actions that may be harmful to North Korean citizens or destabilize its government.

 
…

Every attorney general leaves his imprint on the U.S. Justice Department. Jeff Sessions is no exception.

Since being sworn in as the nation’s 84th attorney general in February, the former Republican senator and federal prosecutor has moved to radically overhaul the Justice Department and its approach to law enforcement.

From scrapping civil rights protections for transgender people to ending leniency in sentencing criminal defendants, Sessions has rolled back a host of policies his two immediate predecessors — Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder, both chosen by former President Barack Obama — enacted to promote civil rights and social justice.

The policy reversals have not been without their critics.

While Sessions and his supporters say the attorney general is restoring the rule of law and ending Obama-era policies that amounted to executive overreach, critics say he’s returning to criminal justice policies that led to mass incarceration and undermined civil rights.

​Blistering criticism

Sessions’ singular success in remolding the Justice Department is widely acknowledged. The irony is that it has come in the face of sometimes blistering personal criticism of the attorney general by his boss, President Donald Trump.

An early and ardent supporter of Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, Sessions was rewarded with one of the most coveted positions in the administration.

But his relationship with Trump soured after Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March, following revelations that Sessions had not disclosed meetings with Russia’s former ambassador to Washington during the presidential campaign.

Trump is said to have become so frustrated with his attorney general over the summer that he said he would not have picked Sessions for the job, had he known Sessions would have recused himself from the Russia probe.

But the attorney general largely shrugged off the criticism, saying at a news conference in July that he was “confident that we can continue to run this office in an effective way,” and later traveling around the country to sell Trump’s tough on crime and immigration policies.

Here is a look at seven major Obama-era policies Sessions has rolled back, or attempted to, since taking office:

​Keeping private prisons

In his first act as attorney general in February, Sessions scrapped an Obama administration plan to phase out the use of private prisons for federal inmates. The 2016 direction to the Bureau of Prisons was sent after a harshly critical report about private prisons by the Justice Department’s inspector general. But Sessions said the Obama policy “impaired the bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system.”

Dropping transgender protections

Also in February, Sessions directed the Justice Department to withdraw a guidance issued in 2016, requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.

In October, Sessions rescinded another policy memo issued by the Obama administration that said the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s employment discrimination prohibitions applied to transgender people. Rights group Human Rights Campaign called the move “discriminatory” against the transgender community and a “dangerous change of course.”

​Targeting sanctuary cities

With the Trump administration vowing to crack down on illegal immigration, it has fallen to Sessions to enforce one of the administration’s most controversial policies: cutting off federal funding to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, cities and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

In April, Sessions sent letters to nine sanctuary jurisdictions requiring proof of compliance. In July, he announced that sanctuary cities would not be eligible for millions of dollars in funds for policing.

Chicago and Philadelphia later sued Sessions and the Justice Department over the sanctuary plan. In November, a federal judge permanently blocked Trump’s executive order on sanctuary cities.

Reviewing consent decrees

In April, Sessions ordered a review of Obama-era reform agreements between the Justice Department and police agencies, saying, “It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies.”

Known as “consent decrees,” a dozen such court-enforced agreements were struck between the Obama Justice Department and local police departments. Sessions has said the agreements have demoralized police departments, but civil rights advocates say they have helped produce necessary reforms.

Charging and sentencing policy

In a departure from the Obama administration’s policy of leniency in sentencing low-level, nonviolent offenders, Sessions directed federal prosecutors in May to “pursue the most serious, readily provable offense” with the lengthiest sentences in all criminal cases.

The guideline rescinded a 2013 memo by then-Attorney General Eric Holder directing prosecutors to avoid triggering mandatory-minimum sentences for certain nonviolent, low-level drug offenders.

Sessions said the new charging policy “affirms our responsibility to enforce the law, is moral and just, and produces consistency.” But critics, such as former Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, have slammed it as a failed “one-size-fits-all” policy that has swelled America’s prison population.

​Affirmative action

In October, the Department of Justice announced it had reopened an investigation into Harvard University’s use of race in its admissions policy, raising fears the administration will target affirmative action policies widely practiced by American universities and colleges.

The Justice Department probe was triggered by a 2015 complaint against Harvard filed by a coalition of 64 Asian-American groups. The Justice Department said the investigation is limited to the complaint against Harvard, but civil rights activists fear the probe is part of a broader effort to undermine affirmative action policies that date back decades and that supporters say have leveled the playing field for otherwise disadvantaged students.

Return to debtors’ prison?

On Dec. 21, Sessions rescinded a 2016 Justice Department letter advising local courts against hitting indigent defendants with stiff fines and fees.

The 2016 letter said the changes were “needed to guarantee equal justice under law to everyone, regardless of their financial circumstances.”

Sessions said he was rescinding the letter and 25 other so-called “guidance documents” because they were “unnecessary, inconsistent with existing law or otherwise improper.” The move provoked a firestorm, leading critics to decry it as a “criminalization of poverty” and a “return to debtors’ prisons.”
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Readying for his first television interview, Alex Wang gazes at his reflection in the back window of his yellow cab. Wiping his windswept mane behind the ear, he adjusts his red Shanghai Tang jacket and takes a swig of steaming tea.

“Ahh,” he pauses emphatically, “warms your whole body.”

Wang opens the front door and reaches deep inside, revealing a glossy 2018 calendar. On the cover is a shirtless male model, sprawled on his belly atop a yellow taxicab trunk, licking a spiral rainbow-colored lollipop the size of his face.

“It’s me!” he laughs, self-deprecatingly, pointing to his photo. “So ugly, you are!”

The 68-year-old Wang, an 18-year taxicab veteran, self-proclaimed “karaoke king” and “bit of a comedian” from China, flips through the months, each featuring a New York taxi driver. Most are foreign-born, representing seven different countries, and many are middle-aged, reflecting the key demographics of the city’s yellow cab fleet: 96 percent immigrant, median age 46.

WATCH: Is It Hot in Here, or Is It New York’s 2018 Taxicab Models?

The NYC Taxi Drivers Calendar’s co-creators, Philip and Shannon Kirkman, came up with the idea five years ago as a tongue-in-cheek alternative to the famous chisel-chested firefighter pin-up — a steamy parody with the dual-function of celebrating the city’s diversity, while also giving back.

To date, the couple has donated more than $60,000 worth of proceeds to University Settlement, a nonprofit that serves immigrant and low-income families with education, housing, and health services.

​Turning taxi drivers into models

Shannon, the calendar’s photographer, describes the end product’s humor as uniting.

“Particularly when the news is tough, it’s something that you can kind of take a step back, and relax and celebrate with,” Shannon said. “We laugh a lot during the shoots.”

Philip, the calendar’s creative director, explains that the process of turning a taxi driver into a model, during a two-hour shoot, can prove challenging.

“I always think about how courageous it is for these drivers, because it is an open set,” Philip said. “We literally park the cab in front of a fire hydrant in most cases, and there’s people walking by and looking and taking pictures.”

Among the fearless models are pucker-lipped Dan — who sports a bow-tie, cuffs, and not much else before a vintage late 60s-era checker taxicab — and Hassan, who seductively watches you as he eats a messy slice of birthday cake decorated with his own smiling portrait.

Of the year’s 12 participants, only one is a woman, indicative of a male-dominated industry in which 99 percent of New York City yellow cab drivers are men.

Bangladeshi-native Nipa, featured in both the inside cover and October, is the third woman ever to be included in the calendar. Her depiction as a strongwoman was intentional.

“It’s been a tough year for women,” Shannon said. “We felt like we really wanted to put Nipa in a position of power, in a position of strength.”

​‘A little’ fame

Come winter, cover model Wang can be seen enthusiastically squirting a bottle of baby oil across the hood of his vehicle, in his official December photo.

Wang, who started his life in the U.S. as a restaurant deliveryman 37 years ago, says being a taxi driver has been the most rewarding job and career for him.

“Every [time a] passenger comes in … I practice my English,” Wang says. “I see lots of beautiful places, lots of landmarks of New York.”

Everywhere he drives, Wang proudly displays his roots, but there is no place he would rather call home. And now that he has found “a little” fame, he plans to make sure everyone knows about it.

“I will show all the passengers,” he says. “I was in a taxi calendar, and [I was] the cover man. Alex Wang!”
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