Trump announces Serbia-kosovo agreement that benefits Israel
President Donald Trump announced Friday that Serbia and Kosovo have normalized economic ties as part of U.s.brokered talks that include Belgrade moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, and Israel and Kosovo agreeing to mutual recognition.
After two days of meetings with Trump administration officials, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo’s prime minister, Avdullah Hoti, agreed to cooperate on a range of economic fronts to attract investment and create jobs. The announcement provided Trump with a diplomatic win ahead of the November presidential election and furthers his administration’s push to improve Israel’s international standing.
UN watchdog says Iran violating 2015 nuclear deal
Iran continues to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium in violation of limitations set in a landmark deal with world powers, but it has begun providing access to sites where it was suspected of having stored or used undeclared nuclear material and possibly conducted nuclear-related activities, the U.N.’S atomic watchdog agency said Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a confidential document distributed to member countries and seen by the Associated Press that Iran as of Aug. 25 had stockpiled 2.32 tons of low-enriched uranium, up from 1.73 tons last reported on May 20. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action allows Iran to keep a stockpile of only 447 pounds.
The IAEA reported that Iran has also continued to enrich uranium to a purity of up to 4.5%, higher than the 3.67% allowed under the deal.
The agency said Iran’s stockpile of heavy water, which helps cool nuclear reactors, has decreased to below the limit set in the deal.
Pelosi, White House vow to avoid government shutdown
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Trump administration have informally agreed to keep a stopgap governmentwide funding bill — needed to avert a shutdown at the end of this month — free of controversy or conflict.
The accord is aimed at keeping any possibility of a government shutdown off the table despite battles over COVID-19 relief legislation. It also sidesteps the potential for other shutdown drama before the November election.
That deal was cited by Democratic and GOP aides on Capitol Hill who have been briefed on a Tuesday conversation between Pelosi, D-calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Russian vaccine’s early results published in Lancet
Russian scientists have belatedly published first results from early trials into the experimental Sputnik V vaccine, which received government approval last month but drew considerable criticism from experts because the shots had been tested on only several dozen people before being more widely administered.
In a report published in the journal Lancet on Friday, developers of the vaccine said it appears to be safe and to have prompted an antibody response in all 40 people tested in the second phase of the study within three weeks. However, the authors noted that participants were followed for only 42 days, the study sample was small, and no placebo or control vaccine was used.
One part of the safety trial included only men, and the study mostly involved people in their 20s or 30s, so it is unclear how the vaccine might work in older populations most at risk of the more severe complications of COVID-19.
2 more survivors of sunken cargo ship found; 1 later dies
Japan’s coast guard rescued a second survivor on Friday in waters where a ship carrying thousands of cows from New Zealand is believed to have sunk during stormy weather, officials said. Hours earlier, an unconscious crew member was also recovered but later died.
The survivor, Jay-nel Rosals, a Filipino deckhand, was wearing a life jacket and floating in a raft north of Amami Oshima island in the East China Sea, where rescuers have been searching for the Gulf Livestock 1 ship and its missing crew since it sent a distress signal early Wednesday.
Coast guard rescuers earlier Friday found an unconscious man who was floating face down about 75 miles northwest of the island. The man, whose identity was unknown, was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
New Zealand officials said Friday they were temporarily suspending new approvals for the export of live cows.
US judge OKS extradition of Americans who aided Ghosn
Two American men accused of smuggling Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan while he was awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges can be extradited, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell issued a ruling approving the extradition of Michael Taylor, an Army Special Forces veteran, and his son, Peter Taylor, but the final decision rests with the State Department.
Ghosn fled the country last year tucked in a box on a private jet that flew first to Turkey and then to Lebanon, where Ghosn has citizenship. It has no extradition treaty with Japan.
Student charged with cyberattack on Miami-dade schools
A 16-year-old student has been arrested after a cyberattack on the MiamiDade school district’s computer network that disrupted virtual classrooms for days in the first week of classes.
The network seemed to be overwhelmed with traffic, and students were confronted with error messages and other technical difficulties.
The student at South Miami Senior High School “admitted to orchestrating eight distributed denial-of-service cyberattacks, designed to overwhelm district networks,” the district said in a statement. That would not necessarily compromise users’ privacy or information.