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President Donald Trump exchanged barbs Sunday with the mayor of Portland, Oregon, less than 24 hours after a man was killed as Black Lives Matter protesters and Trump supporters clashed in the Pacific Northwest city’s streets.At a press conference Sunday afternoon, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler urged protesters not to turn violent or attempt retribution in the wake of Saturday night’s shooting death.The president, apparently watching the broadcast, tweeted his criticism.Ted Wheeler, the wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Democrat Mayor of Portland, who has watched great death and destruction of his City during his tenure, thinks this lawless situation should go on forever. Wrong! Portland will never recover with a fool for a Mayor….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2020After Trump called Wheeler, a Democrat, a “fool” and blamed him for the “great death and destruction” in the liberal city, Wheeler, who was visibly angry, addressed Trump through the TV cameras, calling his comments “classic Trump.”“You’ve tried to divide us more than any other figure in modern history and now you want me to stop the violence that you helped create,” Wheeler said to Trump. “What America needs is you to be stopped so we can come back together as one America.”The mayor continued at length, bringing up everything from Trump’s sexist comments about women to his “racist attacks on Black people.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 6 MB480p | 9 MB540p | 12 MB720p | 29 MB1080p | 50 MBOriginal | 56 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioLast week, as he accepted the Republican nomination for president, Trump used Portland as an example of the dystopian future Americans can expect if his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, defeats Trump in the November 3 election.Voters “won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” the president said.But Biden told MSNBC last week that Trump views the street violence “as a political benefit to him. He’s rooting for more violence, not less.”The rally Saturday in support of the president drew hundreds of trucks full of supporters into Portland, some of whom shot paintball guns from the beds of pickup trucks, while protesters on the street threw objects back at them.A police statement said officers heard gunfire and found a white man dead from a gunshot wound to the chest. Witnesses said the man was wearing a hat bearing the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in Washington state that has previously clashed with protesters.Joey Gibson, the leader of the group, told The Associated Press that he knew the man who died.“I can’t say much right now. All I can do is verify that he was a good friend and a supporter of Patriot Prayer,” Gibson said of the shooting victim in a text exchange.And police are asking anyone with information to come forward.“This violence is completely unacceptable,” Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said early Sunday, “and we are working diligently to find and apprehend the individual or individuals responsible.”A top Trump administration official, acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf, on ABC’s “This Week” show blamed the extended violence in Portland on state and local officials for “not allowing law enforcement to do their jobs.”“The violence needs to end,” Wolf said. He said the federal government continues to offer law enforcement assistance to Portland beyond previously sending in troops that subsequently were withdrawn.“They continue to refuse federal assistance to bring this to an end,” Wolf said of Oregon and Portland officials. In Portland, he said “you see exactly how not to protect your city.”“My message to anyone protesting: Please do that peacefully,” Wolf said.Trump retweeted a video showing the caravan of his supporters driving into Portland, calling them “Great Patriots.” On CBS’s “Face the Nation” show, Wolf rejected a suggestion that by applauding the parade of vehicles, Trump heightened tensions.“Absolutely not,” Wolf said.The Portland shooting was the latest incident stemming from racial unrest across the United States as Americans have protested racial injustice and police abuse of minorities following the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.President Trump on Tuesday is to visit one of those cities, Kenosha, Wisconsin, even though the state’s governor, Tony Evers, has asked him not to come.#Wisconsin governor asks @POTUS not to go to Kenosha on Tuesday. https://t.co/XYim01py5h— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 30, 2020On August 23, a white police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back while trying to arrest him in a domestic dispute, spawning several nights of protests, in one of which two people were shot dead and another wounded.A day later, Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old resident in the nearby state of Illinois, who said he was in Kenosha to protect businesses in the street protests, was charged in the killings.“The circumstances of that are still being investigated,” Wolf said.The Homeland Security chief called on local officials to “take early action” to quell street violence.“You can stop this,” he said. “The federal government will provide assistance.” 
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The United States is planning to reduce its troop levels in Iraq, President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials said.Trump tweeted Saturday that the U.S. is “planning to cut” its military presence in Iraq, without giving further details.U.S. planning to cut military presence in Iraq – https://t.co/d1MGNQ2QsA— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2020The president’s tweet included a link to an article reporting that U.S. forces in the region would decrease from 5,200 to 3,500, a figure that was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.U.S. military officials also have confirmed the planned reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq. “We are reducing troop levels as the Iraqi capability to defeat ISIS remnants and prevent its resurgence improves,” said Pentagon spokesperson Commander Jessica L. McNulty, using an acronym for the Islamic State (IS) terror group. “Any reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq will be determined through careful coordination with the government of Iraq, as well as with our coalition and NATO partners, and calibrated to our shared security interests and progress in the campaign against ISIS,” McNulty said in a statement to VOA. Iraqi officials haven’t yet made any announcements about the troop reduction.Discussions between the two countries about the future of U.S. forces in Iraq began earlier this year. The matter was also discussed during last week’s visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to the White House. Experts said after defeating IS in major Iraqi cities, including Mosul, the Iraqi military has proved its effectiveness in combating the militants. “The Iraqi armed forces are able to manage the military operations on the ground,” said Hussein Ali Allawi, professor of national security at Nahrain University in Baghdad. “But the role of the U.S.-led international coalition remains important for close air support, deep reconnaissance and aerial intelligence that are characteristics of the international coalition’s advisory mission in Iraq.”He told VOA that while the campaign to destroy IS remnants in Iraq continues, the Iraqi government still needs the expertise of “the international coalition in reorganizing the Iraqi armed forces, reforming the security sector, strengthening intelligence capacity building and bridging civil-military relations.”The ultimate objective for Washington and Baghdad is to withdraw the remaining 3,500 U.S. troops from Iraq within three years starting from August, Allawi added.Last week, U.S.-led coalition troops withdrew from Iraq’s Taji military base and handed it over to Iraqi security forces. The handover of the base, located north of Baghdad, was the eighth transfer of the coalition portion of an Iraqi base back to Iraqi security forces, the coalition said in a statement.  VOA’s Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report. 
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The Vatican has announced that the faithful will be readmitted to the general audiences Pope Francis holds on Wednesday as the Holy See slowly begins easing restrictions imposed by COVID-19. Francis has spoken about the pandemic on various occasions including the past week when he said it has both “exposed and aggravated” social inequalities. Sabina Castelfranco has more for VOA.For more than six months, due to COVID-19, Pope Francis has been holding his customary Wednesday general audiences in his private library inside the Vatican and the faithful all over the world were able to receive his message streamed online, but no one was present.   The Vatican announced that as it begins easing restrictions imposed by the coronavirus, a limited number of faithful would start to be readmitted to the papal audiences starting Wednesday. The audiences will not be held in Saint Peter’s Square as in the past, but in a closed courtyard of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. There will be a maximum number of 500 seats available in the courtyard and entry to the area will open two hours ahead of the scheduled start of the audience. FILE – A bar employee wears a protective face mask while standing at St. Mark’s Square amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Venice, Italy July 9, 2020.Italy was the first country in Europe to be hard hit by COVID-19, which killed more than 35,000 people on its territory. The situation improved significantly over the summer but the number of infected people over the past week has started to grow again with more than 1,000 daily cases being reported.  This has led authorities to warn there could be new closures and new measures implemented if the numbers cannot be contained.  FILE – Pope Francis reads his “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) message in St. Peter’s Basilica with no public participation due to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Easter Sunday at the Vatican.Due to the virus crisis, Pope Francis was forced to celebrate Easter this year in solitude, in front of an empty Saint Peter’s Square. The Pope has spoken on numerous occasions about the sorrow and hardship caused by the pandemic during these months and the consequent economic difficulties faced by many. Pope Francis has said that the pandemic has both “exposed and aggravated” social inequalities. He added that not everyone can work from home and that school was “abruptly interrupted” for some children. He added that while “some powerful nations can issue money to deal with the crisis,” that would mean “mortgaging the future for others.” He said, “these symptoms of inequality reveal a social illness; it is a virus that comes from a sick economy.” FILE – Pope Francis poses with a baby as her mother (L) takes a picture, during a visit to parish San Gregorio Magno in Rome, April 6, 2014.Pope Francis has always been fond of direct contact with people and shook the hands of many and hugged children and kissed babies in his audiences before the pandemic. He was fond of travelling both in Italy and abroad. It remains unclear if and when the 83-year-old pontiff will be able to return to those habits.  
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The U.N. migration agency reports Insecurity and flash flooding is upending the lives of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in the Lake Chad Basin.  
Chad’s Lake Province borders Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger.  The region has been under repeated attacks by multiple armed groups since 2015 forcing millions of people to flee.   The International Organization for Migration reports more than 360,000 people in this part of Chad are forcibly displaced.  IOM spokesman, Paul Dillon says new figures show a 22 percent increase in the number of people who have fled their homes since April.  This, he says, means that over half of the region’s population now is considered displaced because of the protracted insurgency.  “Recurrent security attacks and incursions by non-state armed groups since the beginning of the year prompted the Chadian Government in March to declare the departments of Fouli and Kaya, two of Lake Chad’s borderlands departments as war zones,” he said. “Complicating the forced displacement in response to the security issues, the Lake Region is experiencing the highest rainfall in nearly 30 years.”   IOM reports flash flooding of villages and fields have prompted nearly 12,000 people to flee between August 8 and 16, one of the highest numbers it has ever recorded in such a short period.    Dillon calls this a worrying trend as the displacement keeps recurring with increasing frequency.  He says people are facing a double security and environmental crisis amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic. “Three-quarters of the displaced persons IOM identified live in displacement sites, most of which are made from straw and metal structures,” he said. “Many of them sleep in the open without adequate protection from the ongoing, continuing bad weather, with limited access to amenities such as water, hygiene installations, health services and COVID-19 protective equipment.”  IOM is providing emergency humanitarian aid to thousands of vulnerable people, including temporary or semi-permanent shelters, and non-food items including hygiene kits, sleeping mats and basic cooking equipment.   The agency says it also is involved in a range of peacebuilding, community stabilization and recovery activities. 
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China’s new rules around tech exports mean ByteDance’s sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations could need Beijing’s approval, a Chinese trade expert told state media, a requirement that would complicate the forced and politically charged divestment.ByteDance has been ordered by President Donald Trump to divest short video app TikTok — which is challenging the order — in the United States amid security concerns over the personal data it handles.Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp are among the suitors for the assets, which also includes TikTok’s Canada, New Zealand and Australia operations.However, China late on Friday revised a list of technologies that are banned or restricted for export for the first time in 12 years and Cui Fan, a professor of international trade at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said the changes would apply to TikTok.”If ByteDance plans to export related technologies, it should go through the licensing procedures,” Cui said in an interview with Xinhua published on Saturday.China’s Ministry of Commerce added 23 items –- including technologies such as personal information push services based on data analysis and artificial intelligence interactive interface technology — to the restricted list.It can take up to 30 days to obtain preliminary approval to export the technology.TikTok’s secret weapon is believed to be its recommendation engine that keeps users glued to their screens. This engine, or algorithm, powers TikTok’s “For You” page, which recommends the next video to watch based on an analysis of your behavior.Cui noted that ByteDance’s development overseas had relied on its domestic technology that provided the core algorithm and said the company may need to transfer software codes or usage rights to the new owner of TikTok from China to overseas.”Therefore, it is recommended that ByteDance seriously studies the adjusted catalog and carefully considers whether it is necessary to suspend” negotiations on a sale, he added.ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.China’s foreign ministry has said that it opposes the executive orders Trump has placed on TikTok and that Beijing will defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese businesses.
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