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This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd.
President Donald Trump says that he called off military strikes against Iran Thursday night just minutes before they were set to occur. AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani has details on the president's move from the Pentagon. "Cocked & loaded," the president says the Pentagon was ready to retaliate after Iran downed an American drone. But he tweets he called off the strikes ten minutes before they were to be launched after being told 150 people could die. The tweet raises several questions such as how the president could only have learned about potential casualties minutes ahead of time. Military planners here at the Pentagon would typically have shared that much earlier. The pullbacks are another indication the president does not want to escalate the clash with Iran though he is not ruling out future strikes. Sagar Meghani, at the Pentagon In a related story, U.S. airlines have been warned to avoid Iranian airspace. But as Reuters correspondent Julian Satterthwaite reports, some European and Asian airlines are choosing to do the same without being told. The move comes after Iran shot down a U.S Navy drone. Washington and Tehran can't agree where that incident took place. The U.S. says the drone was downed in international airspace over the Gulf. Iran says the drone violated its airspace. On Friday, it said it refrained from shooting down an accompanying U.S. patrol plane at the same time. It says a P8, an adapted 737 airliner, also violated its airspace. Whatever the truth, it's alarming for airlines. Julian Satterthwaite of Reuters. On Wall Street, a down day Friday, with all three major indices closing in negative territory. The Dow and the S&P lost point one three percent. The NASDAQ dropped point two four percent. This is VOA news. Thousands of protesters blockaded Hong Kong's police headquarters Friday evening, demanding the resignation of the city's pro-Beijing leader and the release of demonstrators arrested during the territory's worst political crisis in decades. The latest protest comes after the government refused to meet the demands of demonstrators who have marched in the millions to oppose a bill that would allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland. Opposition groups have called for the complete withdrawal of the extradition legislation and for city leader Carrie Lam to step down. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó says that U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet will leave two delegates in Venezuela to monitor the country's human rights situation. Speaking after meeting with Bachelet in Caracas on Friday, Guaidó said that the U.N. officials team would investigate issues related to the country's lack of food and medicine. They will also look into allegations that President Nicholás Maduro's government has violated human rights while cracking down on the opposition. Bachelet's visit comes just ahead of the U.N. Human Rights Council's opening of a three-week session. Missouri health officials on Friday refused to renew the license of the state's only abortion clinic. But the facility will remain open for now as a judge left in place an injunction blocking its closure. At a brief state circuit court hearing on Friday, Judge Michael Stelzer said it might be days before the court would come to a decision on whether the state could shut its only abortion clinic operated by Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Advocates Missouri director M'Evie Mead says the clinic will remain open for now. "We will continue to fight for our ability to deliver high-quality, patient-centered health care, and that includes the full range of reproductive health care." If the clinic were to close, Missouri would become [only] the only U.S. state, that is, without a legal abortion clinic. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Friday that he will be deploying 1,000 additional National Guard troops to the border amid what he called an escalating crisis. Abbott said Congress has left the border states to fend for themselves. "... while we wait for Congress to act. Texas will do all we can to protect our communities and to secure the border." The announcement comes as U.S. Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced legislation to provide $4.5 billion in humanitarian assistance to address the surge of migrants at the southern U.S. border. For more on these stories, be sure to log on to our website. That's voanews.com. I'm David Byrd, VOA news. |