VOA NEWS

August 28, 2018

VOA news. I'm Christopher Cruise reporting.



President Trump says the United States and Mexico have reached a trade agreement. He says, however, the U.S. has not reached an agreement with Canada.

"We will see whether or not we decide to put up Canada or just do a separate deal with Canada if they want to make the deal."

The deal with Mexico changes NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

On Monday, President Trump told reporters at the White House that the new deal will be called the United States-Mexico Trade Agreement.

Trump said Mexico has agreed to immediately begin purchasing as many agricultural products from the United States as possible.

The White House is expected to notify Congress by the end of this week that it intends to sign a new trade agreement within 90 days.

The three North American countries do about a trillion dollars in trade among themselves annually.



Iran on Monday warned judges at the International Court of Justice that reimposed American sanctions would cripple its economy and plunge the volatile Middle East deeper into crisis. It asked the United Nations' highest court to suspend the Trump administration's economic pressure on the country.

Rulings by the world court, which settles disputes between nations, are final and legally binding. But it is not known if the Trump administration would obey a court order to suspend sanctions on Iran.



New U.S. sanctions against Russia over a nerve agent attack in Britain went into effect on Monday. Russia said it will review the sanctions before considering a possible response.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says the new sanctions will only make dialogue more difficult.

The sanctions would end some financial assistance and arms sales to Russia, as well as deny the country credit.



This is VOA news.



Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani have agreed to indefinitely postpone a meeting on the Afghan peace process planned for next week.

In a statement, Ghani said the peace talks should be Afghan-owned and -led.

The statement said Lavrov agrees the peace process should be controlled by Afghans. Lavrov said Russia is "ready to cooperate."



A United Nations fact-finding mission says the International Criminal Court should prosecute Myanmar's senior leaders for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority in northern Rakhine state, as well as for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Correspondent Lisa Schlein has more on the report for VOA from Geneva.

The report finds the civilian authorities have little power to control the actions of the military; however, it blames them for enabling these crimes by ignoring the atrocities being committed. It also criticizes Aung San Suu Kyi, the human rights activist-turned-politician, as head of the government for not using her moral authority to prevent the events unfolding in Rakhine state.

The government refused to grant the mission access to majority Buddhist Myanmar. So, the mission gathered evidence from the testimony of 875 victims and eyewitnesses, satellite imagery, documents, photographs and videos.

The mission sent an advance copy of its report to the Myanmar government. So far, there has been no response.

Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.



Pope Francis has refused to confirm or deny the contents of a bombshell letter by former Vatican ambassador to the United States Carlo Maria Vigano. Vigano urged the pope to set a good example and resign.

Correspondent Sabina Castelfranco reports for VOA from Rome.

The 11-page document, given on Sunday to Catholic media outlets as the pontiff was on his second day in Ireland, accused Pope Francis of having known for years about the allegations of sexual misconduct by U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. After credible evidence of abuse of a 16-year-old emerged, Pope Francis last month accepted McCarrick's resignation, the first of its kind by a cardinal.



President Trump and his wife met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his wife at the White House Monday.

Trump told reporters the U.S. was "working on a major infrastructure project in Kenya on massive [run] roadway."

Kenyatta told VOA he expected their meetings to focus on trade and security issues. He said he wants to encourage more U.S. investment in Kenya.



You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. I'm Christopher Cruise, VOA news.