Trump signs $15.3B debt and disaster aid bill
WASHINGTON — Congress on Friday sent President Donald Trump a massive package of $15.3 billion in disaster aid linked to an increase in the nation’s borrowing authority that angered conservative Republicans who hissed and booed senior administration officials dispatched to Capitol Hill to defend it.
Hours later, Trump signed the measure into law.
The House voted 316-90 for the measure that would refill depleted emergency accounts as Florida braces for the impact of Hurricane Irma and Texas picks up the pieces after the devastation of the Harvey storm.
All 90 votes in opposition were cast by Republicans, many of whom seethed after Trump cut the disaster-anddebt deal with Democratic leaders with no offsetting
North Korea threatens U.S. over Haley remarks
WASHINGTON — North Korea said the U.S. will “pay dearly” after its United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley demanded the strongest sanctions ever to stop Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons program.
Describing Haley as a “political prostitute” who kicked off a “hysteric fit,” a commentary in the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Friday warned the U.S. after she said North Korea’s Sept. 3 nuclear test was evidence the country was “begging for war.” KCNA didn’t specify the threat.
The missive from Pyongyang came hours after President Donald Trump said it wasn’t certain the U.S. would end up in a war with North Korea over its nuclear weapons development, but that military action remained an option.
He declined to say whether he’d accept a nuclear-armed North Korea that can be successfully deterred from using atomic weapons. A senior administration official later told reporters that the U.S. will not allow North Korea to extort or threaten the world with its nuclear program, and that the administration is not sure the country can be deterred.
Muslim group flees Myanmar for Bangladesh
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — The U.N. said Friday that an “alarming number” of 270,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled violence in Myanmar by crossing into Bangladesh in the past two weeks.
The new figure confirmed Friday by U.N. Refugee Agency spokeswoman Vivian Tan is much higher than the 164,000 the agency had previously estimated had arrived since Aug. 25.
“This is an alarming number,” Tan said. “The existing camps are full to the capacity. There is a lot of pressure on relief agencies to accommodate the rising numbers.”
Makeshift camps were quickly appearing and expanding along roadsides, Tan said.
The exodus from Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state began Aug. 25 after Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts. The military responded with what it called “clearance operations” to root out any fighters it said might be hiding in villages of Rakhine state.
Pope Francis urges peace in war-torn Colombia
BOGOTA, Colombia — Pope Francis urged young Colombians on Thursday to take the lead in promoting forgiveness after a half-century of armed conflict, and he demanded the ruling class address the entrenched inequalities that sparked Latin America’s longest-running armed rebellion.
“There has been too much hatred and violence,” Francis told a crowd at Bogota’s presidential palace that included disabled children and soldiers with amputated limbs.
Francis received a raucous welcome on his first full day in Colombia, with young choir members abandoning their positions in the palace courtyard and throwing their arms around him as he arrived. The crowd was equally jubilant at Bogota’s main Plaza Bolivar, where about 22,000 flag-waving Colombians interrupted him repeatedly.
History’s first Latin American pope took the interruptions, protocol hiccups and security breaches in stride, joking with the crowds and relishing in the adoration of one of the continent’s most staunchly Roman Catholic countries.