BERLIN – The leader of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, a junior party in Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition, is resigning after an election debacle in the European Parliament vote.
Andrea Nahles said in a statement Sunday that she wanted "clarity" after questions were raised in recent weeks about her ability to lead the party, showing she lacked members' support.
Nahles said she will be stepping down from her post as chairwoman of the Social Democrats and leader of its parliamentary faction, to ensure that her successors are found "in an orderly fashion."
The Social Democrats fell to third place behind Merkel's center-right Union bloc and the Greens in last month's European Parliament election in Germany.
China has defended the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in a rare public acknowledgement of events.
Defence Minister Wei Fenghe told a regional forum that stopping the "turbulence" was the "correct" policy.
In spring 1989, students and workers occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square in a massive pro-democracy protest. Many were killed in a brutal clampdown by the communist authorities.
Reporting on the events is heavily censored in China.
Tuesday marks 30 years since six weeks of demonstrations ended with the Beijing massacre of 3-4 June.
"That incident was a political turbulence and the central government took measures to stop the turbulence which is a correct policy," General Wei Fenghe told a security forum in Singapore, responding to a question from the audience.
"The 30 years have proven that China has undergone major changes," he said, adding that because of the government's action at that time "China has enjoyed stability and development".
The Chinese government has never said how many protesters were killed, although estimates range from the hundreds to thousands.
'Acts of forgettance'
There are no official acts of remembrance for the events of 1989 in Beijing. But that statement, although factually correct, is far too neutral.
In truth, what happened in Tiananmen Square is marked faithfully each year by a massive, national act of what might more properly be called "forgettance".
In the weeks leading up to 4 June, the world's biggest censorship machine goes into overdrive as a huge dragnet of automated algorithms and tens of thousands of human expurgators cleanse the internet of any reference, however oblique.
Those deemed to have been too provocative in their attempts to evade the controls can be jailed - with sentences of up to three and a half years recently handed down to a group of men who had tried to commemorate the anniversary with a product label.
FILE PHOTO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 29, 2019. Official President website/Handout via REUTERS
DUBAI (Reuters) - President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday suggested Iran may be willing to hold talks if the United States showed it respect, but said Tehran would not be pressured into negotiations, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Iran and the United States have been drawn into starker confrontation in the past month, a year after Washington pulled out of a deal between Iran and global powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in return for lifting international sanctions.
Washington re-imposed sanctions last year and ratchetted them up in May, ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil. In recent weeks it has also hinted at military confrontation, saying it was sending extra forces to the Middle East to respond to an Iranian threat.
U.S. President Donald Trump says the 2015 nuclear deal was not strong enough and he wants to force Iran to negotiate a new agreement. Some U.S. officials have spoken of the possibility of new talks.
Trump said on Monday: “It (Iran) has a chance to be a great country with the same leadership... We aren’t looking for regime change - I just want to make that clear.”
Fars news agency quoted Rouhani as saying: “We are for logic and talks if (the other side) sits respectfully at the negotiating table and follows international regulations, not if it issues an order to negotiate.”
Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday Iran would not negotiate with Washington. Rouhani had previously signaled talks might be possible if sanctions were lifted.
In Saturday’s speech to a group of Iranian athletes, Rouhani noted Trump’s recent remarks and suggested they were a climb-down from statements last year that encouraged regime change in Iran.
“The same enemy which declared its aim last year to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran today explicitly states that it does not want to do anything to (our) system,” Rouhani said. “If we remain hopeful in the war with America, we will win.”
Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra and Peter Graff
Catania, Sicily — Mount Etna, the largest of Italy's three active volcanoes, is spewing ash and lava once again, but officials say the activity is taking place at its summit and does not pose a risk to people and towns. Etna began a new phase of eruptions on Thursday as two new cracks in the volcano opened up, sending lava down its flank.
Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) noted that prior activity took place before the eruption, with a series of seismic events occurring in the weeks leading up to two fissures opening on Mount Etna's New Southeast Crater.
In this photo taken on Thursday, May 30, 2019 and made available Friday, May 31, 2019 Mount Etna volcano spews lava during an eruption. Mount Etna in Sicily has roared back into spectacular volcanic action from Thursday morning, sending up plumes of ash and spewing lava.
Salvatore Allegra / AP
Eugenio Privitera, Catania's INGV director, says this eruption is taking place at Etna's summit and does not pose risks to residents. But he says visitors to Etna must stay away from the summit for their own safety.
Trending News
Northern lava flow reached a distance of more than 1 mile while southern lava flow reached nearly double that distance, reports INGV.
The volcano previously erupted in December. That eruption was linked to an earthquake which caused injuries and extensive damage to buildings on and near the volcano's slopes.
"90% of the Drugs coming into the United States come through Mexico & our Southern Border," Trump tweeted. "This has gone on for many years & nothing has been done about it."
It's important to note upfront that Trump's claim is not about the origin of where these drugs are manufactured, but rather where they enter the US. Much of the data is derived from drug seizure statistics, which provide a less-complete picture of where these drugs are coming from.
Facts First: While a majority of illicit drugs enter the US through the southern border when considering measurements like the purity of certain drugs, it's unlikely that Trump's 90% figure is accurate.
Due to the difference in the purity of particular drugs, it's difficult to measure what percentage of total drugs are coming from which country since the primary measure (gross weight) provides an incomplete picture. For instance, in the US Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration's 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment the agency notes that it is impossible to determine what country supplies the most fentanyl.
The DEA says that due to rates of purity, "It is currently not possible to determine which source, Mexico or China, is the greater direct threat as a supplier of fentanyl to the United States." While Mexico imports a larger total weight of fentanyl than the US seizes at the border, the fentanyl coming directly into the US from China has an "exceptionally high purity," that can then be diluted to create more drugs.
The DEA also notes that Mexican traffickers get the majority of their supply for chemicals necessary to manufacture fentanyl from China.
In a statement to the Senate's caucus on international narcotics control in October 2018, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement noted that "US law enforcement has identified China as the primary source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues entering our country."
When it comes to heroin, Trump's 90 percent figure is more accurate. In 2017, William Brownfield, the assistant secretary of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told reporters that he estimated "between 90 and 94 percent of all heroin consumed in the United States comes from Mexico."
The DEA reported that "Heroin from Mexico accounted for 86 percent of the heroin by weight analyzed" in 2016 and that the southwest border "remains the primary entry point for heroin into the United States."
As for cocaine, the majority of the drug that winds up in the US comes from Colombia and enters through the southern border with Mexico. According to the DEA, 93 percent of cocaine samples tested were of Colombian origin. The Southwest border is the "principal entry point for the majority of the cocaine entering the United States," according to the DEA. The majority of seizures of cocaine coming into the US take place at ports of entry or Border Patrol checkpoints.
In its analysis of methamphetamine, the DEA also found that the southwest border "remains the main entry point for the majority of methamphetamine entering the United States" accounting for 97% of meth seizures by the Customs and Border Patrol.
Similarly, the report states that "Mexico remains the most significant foreign source for marijuana available in the United States," however the rate of foreign marijuana continues to decrease as domestic production continues to grow as more states legalize the drug.
