US, China Exchange New Round of Tariffs in Trade War

Maldives President Concedes Defeat

Activists Call for Need to Address N. Korean Human Rights Abuses

Poll: Optimism About the Future Greater in Youths from Lower-Income Countries

International Organizations Join Tech Powerhouses to Fight Famine

The United Nations, the World Bank and the International Committee of the Red Cross are partnering with technology powerhouses to launch a global initiative aimed at preventing famines.

"The fact that millions of people -- many of them children -- still suffer from severe malnutrition and famine in the 21st century is a global tragedy," World Bank President Jim Young Kim said announcing the initiative.

The global organization will work with Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services to develop the Famine Action Mechanism (FAM), a system capable of identifying food crisis area that are most likely to turn into a full-blown famine.

"If we can better predict when and where future famines will occur, we can save lives by responding earlier and more effectively," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement.

The tech giants will help develop a set of analytical models that will use the latest technoligies like Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to not only provide early warnings but also trigger pre-arranged financing for crisis management.

"Artificial intelligence and machine learning hold huge promise for forecasting and detecting early signs of food shortages, like crop failures, droughts, natural disasters and conflicts," Smith said.

According to the U.N. and World Bank, there are 124 million people experiencing crisis-level food insecurity in the world today.

FAM will be at first rolled out in five countries that "exhibit some of the most critical and ongoing food security needs," according to the World Bank, which didn't identify the nations. It will ultimately be expanded to cover the world.

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Maldives’ Opposition Presidential Candidate Claims Victory

MALE, MALDIVES — 

Opposition presidential candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a longtime but little-known lawmaker, declared victory at his party’s campaign headquarters in the capital city Male in a contentious election widely seen as a referendum on the island nation’s young democracy.

Supporters draped in the Maldives’ flag took to the streets, hugging one another, cheering and honking horns to celebrate Solih’s unexpected win.

Solih had 58.3 percent of the vote, with nearly 92 percent of ballots counted just after midnight Monday, according to independent newspaper website mihaaru.com. Election watchdog Transparency Maldives tweeted that Solih had won “by a decisive margin.”

Yameen’s campaign had not conceded the race, and no one from the campaign could be immediately reached for comment.

A spokesman for Maldives’ Election Commission said official results wouldn’t be announced for a week, the period reserved for parties to file election petitions in court challenging the result.

The opposition had feared the election would be rigged in favor of strongman President Yameen Abdul Gayoom, whose first term was marked by a crackdown on political rivals, courts and the media.

In a victory speech, Solih called the election results “a moment of happiness, hope and history,” adding that he did not think the election process had been transparent.

A police raid on Solih’s main campaign office the night before the election was seen by the opposition as a worrying sign that Yameen would “muzzle his way” to re-election, according to Hamid Abdul Gafoor, an opposition spokesman and former Maldives lawmaker now based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Famed for its sandy white beaches and luxury resorts, the Maldives under President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has seen economic growth and longer life expectancy, according to the World Bank. But Yameen’s critics, including Solih, say he has systematically rolled back democratic freedoms.

Few foreign media organizations were allowed in to cover the election and there had been warnings that the Maldives was slipping back to autocratic rule, just a decade after achieving democracy.

Yameen used his first term to consolidate power, jailing opponents, including his half brother, a former president, and two Supreme Court Justices.

In February, Yameen declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution and ordered troops to storm the Supreme Court and arrest judges and other rivals to stave off impeachment.

The European Union had said that it was not sending election observers because the Maldives had failed to meet the basic conditions for monitoring. The U.S. had threatened to sanction Maldivian officials if the elections were not free and fair.

Opposition supporters in the Maldives and in neighboring Sri Lanka, where former President Mohamed Nasheed lives in exile, decried Saturday’s raid as a naked attempt to rig the vote in favor of Yameen.

Despite the turmoil, voters flocked to the polls on Sunday, standing in long lines in rain and high temperatures to cast ballots.

More than 260,000 of the Maldives’ 400,000 people were eligible to vote at about 400 polling stations across the approximately 1,200 islands that comprise the Indian Ocean archipelago. Voters also stood in long lines in Malaysia, the U.K., India and Sri Lanka, where the opposition had encouraged overseas Maldivians to participate.

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Pompeo: US Would Win Trade War with China

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vows the United States will be victorious in any trade war with China, a day before the Trump administration's latest tariffs on Chinese imports go into effect.

Pompeo told Fox News on Sunday. "We are going to get an outcome which forces China to behave in a way that if you want to be a power, a global power... you do not steal intellectual property."

The Trump administration has argued tariffs on Chinese goods would force China to trade on more favorable terms with the United States.

It has demanded that China better protect American intellectual property, including ending the practice of cyber theft. The Trump administration has also called on China to allow U.S. companies greater access to Chinese markets and to cut its U.S. trade surplus.

Last week, the United States ordered duties on another $200 billion of Chinese goods to go into effect on September 24 (Monday). China responded by adding $60 billion of U.S. products to its import tariff list.

The Untied States already has imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, and China has retaliated on an equal amount of U.S. goods.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump threatened more tariffs on Chinese goods — another $267 billion worth of duties that would cover virtually all the goods China imports to the United States.

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