Less than two months after a landmark U.S.-North Korea summit in  Singapore, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew back to the city state on Friday and suggested that continued work on weapons programs by North Korea was inconsistent with its leader’s commitment to denuclearize. Pompeo was asked en route to Singapore about his statement in the U.S. Senate last month that North Korea was continuing to make bomb fuel and reports that North Korea, led by Kim Jong Un, was building new missiles. “Chairman Kim made a commitment to denuclearize,” Pompeo told reporters. “The world demanded that they [North Korea] do so in the U.N. Security Council resolutions. To the extent they are behaving in a manner inconsistent with that, they are a) in violation of one or both the U.N. Security Council resolutions and b) we can see we still have a ways to go to achieve the …

The U.S. Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions Friday on a Russian bank for helping North Korea avoid U.N. Security Council actions to restrain Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The development comes as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to urge leaders of Southeast Asian countries in Singapore on Saturday to maintain sanctions against Pyongyang, which is negotiating with the U.S. to dismantle its weapons programs. The agency said Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank expedited “a significant transaction” with an individual who the U.S. blacklisted for being involved in North Korea’s weapons development programs. Treasury said the Russian bank conducted the transaction for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based head of North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), Pyongyang’s primary foreign exchange bank. Han’s deputy, Ri Jong Won, who is also based in Moscow, also was targeted. The department said both Han and Ri should be expelled from Russia …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with his Turkish counterpart Friday in an effort to obtain the release of Andrew Brunson, a detained U.S. pastor who Turkey accuses of backing terrorism. The Trump administration has placed sanctions on Turkish officials because of Brunson’s detention. Turkey says the sanctions are unacceptable. Pompeo and Mevlut Cavusoglu met on the sidelines of a meeting of regional ministers in Singapore. Pompeo told reporters traveling with him before the meeting that the U.S. has warned Turkey “that the clock had run out and it was time for Pastor Brunson to be returned.” The top U.S. diplomat said, “Brunson needs to come home as do all the Americans being held by the Turkish government. Pretty straightforward. They’ve been holding these folks for a long time. These are innocent people.” Turkey has also detained three Turkish employees of the U.S. consulate in Istanbul. US sanctions The …

The U.N. human rights chief defended his outspoken criticism of abuses in dozens of countries from Myanmar and Hungary to the United States, insisting that his office doesn’t “bring shame on governments, they shame themselves.” Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein stressed at a farewell news conference at U.N. headquarters Thursday that “silence does not earn you any respect — none.” Looking back at his four-year term as U.N. high commissioner for human rights, the Jordanian prince said he will give his successor the same advice his predecessor, Navi Pillay, gave him — “be fair and don’t discriminate against any country” and “just come out swinging.” ​Authoritarianism leads to war Zeid said he leaves the Geneva-based post Aug. 31 very concerned about populism, intolerance and oppression “becoming fashionable again.” “It all builds because once you start down the path of intolerance, it’s very difficult to stop it, unless at the end of the …

Not many museums can say they have 500,000 items on display, but the Poster Museum in New York can. Established in 1973 in Manhattan by a passionate collector, the museum has the largest collection of posters in the world. Olga Loginova has the story. …

The U.S. “remains deeply concerned with China’s long-standing restrictions on freedom of expression online,” a State Department official said Thursday, reacting to Google’s reported plan to relaunch its search engine in China. “We strongly object to all efforts by China to force U.S. companies to block or censor online content as a condition for market access,” the official said. Google shut down its Chinese search engine in 2010, citing government attempts to “limit free speech on the web.” But a company whistle-blower who spoke to the online publication The Intercept said Google was in the advanced stages of launching a custom Android search app in China that will comply with the Communist Party’s censorship policies on human rights, democracy, free speech and religion.  The Intercept cited internal Google documents and people familiar with the rollout. The publication said the project, code-named Dragonfly, has been in development since 2017. It said the project began …

State prosecutors who pre-emptively sued months ago to block anticipated efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken car fuel-efficiency standards blasted the Trump administration Thursday for doing so and vowed to continue their fight in the courts. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the rollback of Obama-era mileage standards would imperil the state’s efforts to curb greenhouse gases and clean up some of the nation’s most polluted air. Becerra also promised another lawsuit if the administration makes good on plans to revoke a longstanding waiver allowing California and other states to set their own stricter auto emissions standards. At least twelve other states and the District of Columbia follow California’s rules. Becerra connected climate change to the deadly wildfires burning out of control throughout the state. “The Earth is not flat, and climate change is real,” Becerra said at a news conference. “Can someone please inform the folks at …

The National Archives and Records Administration warned lawmakers Thursday that it won’t be able to fulfill a GOP request for documents on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until October, throwing a potential wrench into Republicans’ confirmation timeline. Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee have requested documents relating to Kavanaugh’s service from 2001 to 2003, when he was a White House lawyer under former President George W. Bush. Gary Stern, general counsel for the National Archives, sent a letter to the chairman of the committee, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, that said although some records could be produced earlier, a complete review would be completed “by the end of October.” A spokesman for Grassley said the committee will still be able to undertake its review along the same timeline set previously, which puts Kavanaugh on track for confirmation in early October. The chairman “intends to hold a hearing sometime in September,” …

A group of immigrant fathers, recently reunified with their sons and detained in Texas, have gone on a hunger strike to demand their release, an immigrant rights group representing them said Thursday. The immigrants said they were being held at a detention center in Karnes City, Texas, with no notification from U.S. authorities on their immigration status, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) said. It was not immediately clear how many fathers have joined the hunger strike, which began Wednesday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not comment on whether a hunger strike was taking place. ICE said in a statement it respected the rights of detainees to voice their opinion and would not retaliate in any way. “We are desperate, we are tired of being incarcerated and we want to be released with our sons,” read a letter to the media from a detainee …

Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Thursday that talks with the United States to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement would cover all outstanding issues in the negotiations. Guajardo told reporters before a meeting at the U.S. trade representative office in Washington that there will not be a deal on controversial auto sector rules until all NAFTA issues are resolved. “Everything will fall into place or nothing will fall into place,” Guajardo said. Talks among Mexico, the United States and Canada to modernize the 1994 trade pact have dragged on since last year, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wanted a better deal for U.S. business and workers. Guajardo added that he was keeping Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland informed on progress of discussions with the United States. He was scheduled to meet on Thursday with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, without Freeland, to focus on sticking points around autos and possibly wage hikes. Jesus Seade, the chief NAFTA negotiator for …

Top U.S. national security leaders made a rare joint appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday to express concern about efforts by Russia — and potentially others — to meddle in upcoming elections here, and to reassure the public that strong countermeasures are being taken. “We continue to see a pervasive message campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States,” said the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, adding that he was aware “Russia is not the only country that has an interest in trying to influence our domestic political environment.” Coats said President Donald Trump “has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and securing our election process a top priority.” FBI Director Christopher Wray, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Army General Paul Nakasone, who is head of the National Security Agency, also appeared at Thursday’s briefing. As they spoke, a letter …

A letter written by civil rights activist Rosa Parks describing the 1957 bombing of her neighbors’ home has been purchased at auction by the couple who were targeted in the attack.   Alabama State University announced that the Rev. Robert Graetz and his wife Jeannie purchased the letter by Parks describing the bombing of their home. The couple plan to donate the letter to the university.  The Graetzes were among the few white supporters of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the civil rights movement. Parks, who was the couples’ neighbor and friend, sparked the boycott after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. The parsonage where the Graetzes lived was bombed for the second time in 1957, not long after the boycott ended, in a wave of attacks on civil rights leaders and churches. Four black churches and the home of the Rev. Ralph Abernathy …

A 1966 letter from the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. is up for auction for the second time in two weeks. The one-page typed letter, never before seen by the general public, contains King’s thoughts on the Vietnam War a year before he publicly spoke out against it. Era Blakney, the recipient of the letter, sold it at an online auction last week for $6,500, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Now it’s being auctioned again, with requests for a starting bid of $95,000. The newspaper said Gary Zimet, a California-based memorabilia dealer, was trying to flip the letter. Previously, he tried to broker the sale of the hearse that carried King’s body for $2.5 million. It didn’t sell, he told the newspaper. “In my business, pricing is highly subjective. I have been in the business for 40 years and this is the most extraordinary thing to ever hit the market,” Zimet said. …

Ankara is vowing to hit back against Washington’s sanctions on the Turkish justice and interior ministers in connection with the detention of American protestant pastor Andrew Brunson. Turkey Vice President Fuat Oktay threatened retaliation in a tweet Thursday, “We will not hesitate for a split second to do what great nations must do under the leadership of our president.”  However, in a written statement, Berat Albayrak, the powerful economics minister, indicated a less confrontational approach. “Our priority is to ensure that this process is settled through diplomacy and constructive efforts that would be consistent with the relations between the two allied countries sharing a strong historical background,” Albayrak said. Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu were hit by financial and diplomatic measures Wednesday, for what Washington called their role in the unjust detention of Brunson. The American pastor is on trial on terrorism and espionage charges for links to …

Apple made history Thursday when it became the first publicly listed U.S. company to be valued at $1 trillion. The tech giant’s share price climbed well over 2 percent in mid-session trading, boosting it about 9 percent higher since Tuesday, when it announced better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and a buyback of $20 billion worth of its own shares. The Silicon Valley company’s stock has skyrocketed more than 50,000 percent since it went public in 1980, greatly exceeding the S&P 500’s impressive 2,000 percent gain during the same period. Apple’s success was fueled in large part by its iPhone, which transformed it from a niche player in the burgeoning personal computer sector into a global technological powerhouse. The company was co-founded by the late Steve Jobs, a product innovator who helped prevent the company’s collapse in the late 1990s. As the company’s market value climbed over the decades, it revolutionized how consumers …

President Donald Trump is justifying his call for voter ID cards by saying photo identification is a universal requirement in the marketplace. As anyone who frequents a grocery store knows, it’s not. A look at his comments on the subject Tuesday and his press secretary’s attempt to explain them Wednesday: TRUMP: “We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections, which is why the time has come for voter ID like everything else. If you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out, you want to buy anything, you need ID, you need your picture.” — remarks Tuesday at Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. THE FACTS: No photo is required to purchase items at retail stores with cash or to make routine purchases with credit or debit cards. Identifications are required to purchase limited items …

When the #MeToo movement swept across the country, triggering a national reckoning about sexual misconduct, some politicians lost their positions and power amid such allegations. Many others did not. As voters return to the polls this year, The Associated Press has found that scores of politicians accused of sexual misconduct are running again and poised to win — particularly in state races. That includes the deposed speaker of the House in Kentucky, who despite an ethics commission reprimand is running unopposed. What’s happening? Of the 25 state lawmakers who are running for re-election despite allegations of sexual misconduct, 15 have advanced to the Nov. 6 general election. Seven did not face a challenger in their primary. One example is Jeff Hoover. A sexual harassment scandal cost the Kentucky House speaker his leadership position in January. An ethics commission fined him $1,000 and publicly reprimanded him. Gov. Matt Bevin, a fellow …

Urban Meyer’s job appears to be in jeopardy. Ohio State placed Meyer, one of the most successful coaches in college football history, on paid administrative leave Wednesday while it investigates claims that his wife knew about allegations of domestic violence against an assistant coach years before the staff member was fired last week. Courtney Smith, the ex-wife of fired Buckeyes assistant Zach Smith, gave an interview to Stadium and provided text messages to former ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy between her and Shelley Meyer in 2015 about Zach Smith’s behavior. Courtney Smith also provided threatening texts she said came from her ex-husband, and text messages between her and other wives of Buckeyes assistant coaches, discussing Zach Smith. “Shelley said she was going to have to tell Urban,” Courtney Smith told Stadium. “I said: ‘That’s fine, you should tell Urban.’” Zach Smith, who has never been convicted of any crimes, was fired …

Canines have served as working dogs for thousands of years. They guard our homes, help in search and rescue missions and assist people with disabilities. But now scientists are training a special group of Australian dogs to use their sensitive noses — and ears — to help find one of Australia’s most endangered creatures. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. …