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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Smith reporting.
President Trump said on Twitter Sunday that the United States is considering cutting trade with any country doing business with North Korea. Earlier, North Korea said it had tested an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile. On Fox News Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration had decided to consider excluding from U.S. trade any country supporting North Korea. "We've already started with sanctions against North Korea, but I am going to draft a sanctions package to send to the president for his strong consideration that anybody that wants to do trade or business with them would be prevented from doing trade or business with us. We're going to work with our allies. We'll work with China, but people need to cut off North Korea economically. This is unacceptable behavior." In Twitter comments, President Trump said, "North Korea has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success." In another tweet, Trump criticized South Korea. He said Seoul "is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!" Nine days after a powerful hurricane dropped record amounts of rain on the city of Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in America, people are finally beginning to return home and assess the damage. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is saying the cost to help the state recover will be high well more than $100 billion. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said some people must leave their homes near two overflowing reservoirs. He said up to 20,000 homes will remain flooded for another two weeks. This is VOA news. Australia's Northern Territory is to rename racist names on a number of landmarks that have long demeaned indigenous groups. It follows similar measures in the state of Queensland. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports. The official Northern Territory place names register shows several entries with the pejorative term "blackgin." This refers to a phrase used by white Australians to describe an Aboriginal woman, or "gin," who were used for sexual services. Other racially insensitive place names, including "murdering creeks" and "skull holes," which are derived from the slaughter of indigenous people, will also be changed. The Northern Territory government has asked a formal committee to look at ways to replace offensive place names with Aboriginal words or phrases. The Territory's chief minister, Michael Gunner, says some colonial-era place names should be changed. "There are some obvious ones that will be fixed up, but I think it is really important (to) take a deep breath, work through these things in a way that provides proper meaning and recognition of the First people and those languages that were here thousands of years before we were." Phil Mercer, for VOA news, Sydney. Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga says his coalition will not share power. He made the comment two days after the Supreme Court annulled presidential election results, citing irregularities. Odinga spoke at a church service in Nairobi. He said his party would not share power with "thieves." Incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta similarly said a day earlier that his Jubilee party would not share power with the opposition. He also lashed out at Supreme Court judges. "Who even elected you?" he asked. "Were you? you have a problem. We have a problem and we must fix it," he said Saturday, speaking on live television at State House in Nairobi. The Supreme Court judges responded on Sunday, calling Kenyatta's remarks "an assault on the judiciary," the Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association late Saturday asked people to ignore what it called "political rhetoric." Al-Shabaab militants carried out a suicide car bombing on a Somali military base, killing at least seven soldiers north of the main city of Kismayo. Officials said militants detonated two suicide car bombs on Sunday at a military checkpoint before heavily armed militants attacked the base at Bulogudud town. A spokesman for the Jubbland regional administration told VOA Somali that more than 10 other soldiers were wounded in the attack which came at dawn. You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com. I'm Jonathan Smith reporting from VOA world headquarters in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |