If confirmed, the analysis by respected US-based website 38 North could signal a step forward after last month’s landmark summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, although some experts questioned the significance of the gesture.

After the summit, Trump had declared the North Korean nuclear threat was effectively over, and US media reports suggest he is privately furious at the lack of any subsequent progress on the denuclearisation issue.

His public statements, however, remain upbeat and the 38 North analysis came as the president pronounced himself “very happy” with the way talks were progressing with Pyongyang.

The website said imagery indicated the North had begun taking down a processing building and a rocket-engine test stand that had been used to test liquid-fuel engines at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station.

Sohae, on the northwest coast of North Korea, is ostensibly a facility designed for putting satellites into orbit, but rocket engines are easily repurposed for use in missiles and the international community has labelled Pyongyang’s space program a fig leaf for weapons tests.

38 North analyst Joseph Bermudez called the move an “important first step” for Kim in fulfilling a promise that Trump said the North Korean leader made during their June summit in Singapore.

Since Sohae is “believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence-building measure on the part of North Korea,” Bermudez said.

Trump said in Singapore that Kim had committed to destroying a “major” missile engine test site, without specifying the site.

Sohae has been the North’s primary rocket launch site since 2012, and some experts cautioned against reading too much into the work described in the 38 North analysis.

Melissa Hanham, senior research associate with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, said that while dismantling the engine test site was a “good move”, it amounted to “the bare minimum” that could be done at Sohae.

“Unless they dismantle the whole site, it will remain North Korea’s premier location for space launches,” Hanham said on Twitter.

“North Korea does not need the Sohae engine test stand anymore if it is confident in the engine design. As (Kim Jong Un) said himself, North Korea is moving from testing to mass production,” she said, adding that observers should look for signs of new sites where more missiles could be built.

“We ignored North Korea too long, and now it’s about managing how many nuclear weapons and delivery systems they have, not IF they have them,” she said.

A US defence official also downplayed the news, saying the Sohae site was not a priority in terms of monitoring the North’s denuclearisation efforts.

“It’s not on the radar, so to speak,” the official said.

In a sign of Washington’ impatience with what it sees as North Korean heel-dragging on the denuclearisation issue, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in New York last week urging UN member-states to keep tough economic sanctions in place to pressure Kim into moving forward.

China and Russia have argued that North Korea should be rewarded with the prospect of eased sanctions for opening up dialogue with the United States and halting missile tests.

Some 15,000 delegates — researchers, campaigners, activists and people living with the AIDS-causing virus — gathered for a five-day war council amid dire warnings that complacency and a shortage of funds may yet cause AIDS to spiral out of control.

While reviewing the latest science and policy developments, the 22nd International AIDS conference is also seeking to harness the star power of celebrity activists such as singer Conchita Wurst to bolster a battle that experts warn is losing ground in some parts of the world.

The 2014 Eurovision song winner, an Austrian drag queen who announced in April she was HIV-positive, used the opening ceremony to question why millions of people still have no access to life-saving drugs.

“How long will it take until we make our research and affordable therapies accessible to every single human who needs it?” she asked.

“I would like to know why medical treatment advances that I have access to are still not available to so many affected.”

Other celebrities from actress Charlize Theron and pop star Elton John to Britain’s Prince Harry will pick up the call for action at the conference on Tuesday.

With a record 36.9 million people now living with HIV, experts warn that complacency, and a shortage of billions of dollars, risked undoing, even reversing, many hard-won gains.

“In Eastern Europe and Central Asia new infections have increased 30 percent since 2010,” International AIDS Society (IAS) president Linda-Gail Bekker said.

It was, she said, “the only region in the world where HIV is rapidly increasing, in large part related to injecting drug use.”

A UNAIDS report last week said that new HIV infections, while down overall, were rising in about 50 countries.

Too slow

“Despite all the remarkable advances that have been made, progress on ending AIDS is still slow,” said Tedros Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization.

And he warned the world “will not” meet UN 2020 targets on HIV/AIDS, “because there are too many places in the world where people don’t get prevention and treatment services they need.”

Spread mainly through sex and blood contact, the immune-system attacking HIV virus has infected nearly 80 million people since the early 1980s.

More than 35 million have died.

“When I was born 20 years ago with HIV, the landscape of the epidemic looked very different to what it does now,” said Mercy Ngulube, a youth activist attending the conference.

“It is so wonderful to be able to live a life where I don’t have to wake up and wonder if we have the tools to fight HIV. But it is also sad to live a life where I know that we have the tools and I know that people cannot access them.”

According to UNAIDS, some 1.8 million people were newly infected with AIDS last year.

‘No’ to war on drugs

This is partly due to the criminalisation of injecting drugs, particularly heroin, in many countries.

Fear forces users onto the fringes of society and puts them at risk of infection by sharing soiled needles, then passing the virus on to their sexual partners.

“Close to half — more than 45 percent of all new HIV infections in the world are in… the most affected and hard to reach groups, and that of course includes people who use drugs,” said Chris Beyrer, director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at John Hopkins University.

The meeting saw an address by UNAIDS head Michel Sidibe interrupted by women protesting what they called the “patriarchy machine.”

Sidibe faces calls for his resignation over complaints that he shielded a deputy from sexual harassment claims and attacked whistleblowers.

“Michel, we call on you to step away from the scripted and rehearsed propaganda machine and for once look us in the face… and speak the truth,” one woman shouted.

Sidibe assured the group saying “I heard you,” but added there must be no division in the fight against AIDS.

“We have come so far, but we have miles to go,” he said.

The conference paid tribute to six IAS colleagues who died when Malaysian Airlines MH17, on its way to the 2014 AIDS conference in Melbourne, was shot down.

“The world continues to seek justice for what happened on that dreadful day,” conference chairman Peter Reiss said.

THAILAND’S 20-year strategy will become obsolete once the US implements its new Indo-Pacific strategy and expands its role across the two oceans, notably on security matters, two prominent Thai scholars on security and military affairs said.

The national strategy on security approved by the National Legislative Assembly last month was unclear about how to deal with the new US strategy, said Chulalongkorn University security expert Surachart Bamrungsuk.

While US President Donald Trump’s strategy expands US power to cover the two oceans from Australia to India and perhaps east of Africa, the Thai strategy merely says the country would balance and engage all countries, notably the superpowers.

The junta’s strategy looks to the US as the main actor and attaches importance to BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – while also dealing from a security standpoint with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation, he said. “We all known the US is there and security is important, but BRICS and IS are not relevant anymore,” he said.

Thailand needs to adjust its grand strategy to cope with new changes in global geopolitics, otherwise the country could lose its position in the international community, he said.

“Only an elected government with full mandate from the people can do it. The military government is not flexible enough to adjust its strategy and policy,” Surachart told The Nation. While Trump has mapped out his government’s strategy to counter China, Thai junta chief Prayut Chan-o-cha has repeatedly made it clear that the military government would go along with China, he said.

The position on leaning towards China is not a strategy, but more a reaction to the criticism by the Barack Obama administration after Prayut’s coup in 2014.

Thailand and the US have moved closer during Trump’s tenure. Prayut was welcomed to the White House in Washington and military-to-military ties have edged closer.

“I understand that Washington might be worried about the close ties between Thailand and China,” Surachart said. “It seems Thailand is now a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.” The military government is now the link between Thailand’s geography and China’s strategy, he said. “We have seen a strong push to build the Kra Isthmus Canal to complete China’s strategy of linking the Pacific and Indian oceans.”

Surachart said Washington needs to readjust its policy to push Thailand back to full democracy. “Of course, military-to-military engagement is necessary, and joint military exercises – bilateral or multilateral such as the Cobra Gold – should continue. But giving a red-carpet welcome to the leader of a military government is the wrong signal,” he said.

Piyaphob Mahamad, a military affairs expert from Rajabhat Rajanagarindra University, said Thailand was continuing to do a great job in nurturing relations with the US despite the increasing influence of China in both the country and the region.

As full military exercises have resumed, high-ranking military officers from the US, in particular Joseph Dunford, have visited the country and chaired meetings of the chiefs of staff, he said. Dunford insisted that relations remained strong, as they have been since after World War II, said Piyaphob.

While Thailand – as a smaller country – seems to benefit from the military exercises, Piyaphob pointed out that there were many things in it for the US, too. Thailand’s varied terrain is great for war drills and is largely unmatched by other countries.

The Thai Army, however, has looked east in recent years, purchasing more weapons from China as it was cost effective. This has led to speculation about possible bigger and more frequent military exercises with China as well.

But Piyaphob said they could not match the multilateral US military exercises led by the US, while drills with China drills were significantly smaller and bilateral.

There could be increased procurement of Chinese hardware, he said, but opaque deals would make it hard to know how much had been spent from the Thai defence budget.

“Unlike procurement from the US, we would never know the real price of Chinese hardware,” he said. “More importantly, if we purchase more Chinese equipment till it dominates the weapon systems, I think the Thai military would need to change its defence doctrine to match the weapon systems being used,” he said.

    After months of silence over a controversial photograph with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May, which sparked questions about his loyalty to Germany, Ozil erupted on Sunday.

The Arsenal midfielder posted a stinging four-page statement taking aim at German Football Association (DFB) bosses, sponsors and the media.

Ozil, a key member of the squad which won the 2014 World Cup, blamed the DFB management, in particular its president Reinhard Grindel, for failing to side with him against his critics.

“In the eyes of Grindel and his supporters, I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose,” Ozil wrote.

The 29-year-old said he was true to both his Turkish and German origins and insisted he did not intend to make a political statement by appearing with Erdogan just before the World Cup finals.

“I have two hearts, one German and one Turkish,” said Ozil, who was repeatedly singled out for criticism after Germany’s woeful performance at the World Cup saw them crash out after the group stages.

Ozil’s explosive statement, in three separate postings on Twitter and Instagram, was hailed by Erdogan’s government, which has championed a campaign against what Ankara sees as growing Islamophobia in Europe.

“I congratulate Mesut Ozil who by leaving the national team has scored the most beautiful goal against the virus of fascism,” Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul wrote on Twitter.

But it was met with a mix of dismay and outrage in Germany.

Underlining that sports brings a lot to integration in a country, Chancellor Angela Merkel said she respects Ozil’s decision.

“The chancellor values Mesut Ozil highly. He is a great footballer who has contributed a great deal to the national team,” said Merkel’s spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer, adding that he has “now made a decision that must be respected.”

Justice Minister Katarina Barley wrote on Twitter that it was an “alarm bell if a great German footballer like Mesut Ozil no longer feels wanted in his country or represented by the DFB.”

– ‘Whiny resignation’ –

Cem Ozdemir of the Greens party also voiced dismay that “young German-Turks now get the impression that they have no place in the German national team”.

At the same time, Ozdemir, who himself has Turkish roots, said Ozil “did not live up to his function of setting examples” by failing to distance himself from the hardline Turkish leader.

Germany’s best-selling newspaper Bild led the charge of criticism against Ozil, calling his statement a “whiny resignation” and said he heaped “criticism on everyone but himself”.

Bild, which has for weeks called for Ozil to be dropped from the starting team, also rejected his claims that his Turkish origin and Erdogan photo have been used by some media to pander to the far-right.

“Ozil’s world view here is dangerously close to Erdogan and his despots,” charged the tabloid-style daily.

The photo, which was published on Turkey’s presidential website and the Twitter feed of the ruling party, came just before the June 24 polls Erdogan won to claim sweeping new powers.

Ozil has insisted that “it wasn’t about politics or elections, it was about me respecting the highest office of my family’s country”.

For Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, “all parties in the affair should engage in some soul-searching. I see few here who have really behaved correctly.”

– ‘Watershed’ –

Born and raised in Gelsenkirchen, Ozil has scored 23 goals and made 40 assists in 92 appearances with Die Mannschaft. He is third-generation German-Turk and counts among more than three million people of Turkish origin in Germany.

The DFB has so far stayed mum. In a first reaction from his former teammates, defender Jerome Boateng wrote on Twitter using the Turkish word for “brother”: “It was a pleasure, Abi.”

Former DFB chief Theo Zwanziger warned that the debacle was a “serious blow to the integration efforts in our country that goes beyond football”.

For Tagesspiegel daily, the entire affair was a “watershed for sports, politics and society.”

While noting that Ozil’s thinking that the Erdogan photograph could be non-political was “naive”, it said the fiasco had far reaching consequences.

“Ultimately, Ozil did not fall because of Grindel but because of a heated, populist mood in Germany,” it said.

“The danger exists because many who also have family roots in other countries or culture, can understand Ozil’s mood. And this needs to be countered quickly and decisively.

“Because more is at stake than just the future of the German national football team.”//AFP

The Tanah Abang Police have arrested a suspect identified as Herman, also known as Buyung, for allegedly kidnapping a 5-year-old girl, PA, in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, and forcing her to work as a beggar in West Sumatra.

Herman was reported to the police by a resident of Gerbang Dermaga in West Sumatra, who became suspicious of his and PA’s relationship, according to Tanah Abang Police chief Sr. Adj. Comr. Lukman Cahyono.

“A local resident suspected that the girl had been kidnapped when she called Herman ‘uncle’. The resident then reported it to the Pariaman Police,” Lukman said as quoted by Warta Kota on Monday.

They learned of a missing child who matched PA’s description though the National Police database and worked with their Tanah Abang counterparts to return the girl and hand over custody of Herman.

“PA was reported missing on July 11,” Lukman said, adding that PA and Herman had returned to Jakarta on Sunday.

According to Herman’s statement, Lukman said, Herman had kidnapped PA from her grandmother on July 11 by offering her an ice cream. PA’s grandmother reportedly trusted Herman because they lived in the same residential area.

“He then took PA to Merak Port [in Banten] and they travelled to Bakauheni Port [in Lampung],” he said.

Herman allegedly instructed PA to beg for money from passersby as they made their way from Lampung to West Sumatra.

Herman will be charged under Article 83 in the Child Protection Law, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and between Rp 60 million (US$4,000) and Rp 300 million in fines.

Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department said the fire started at about 950am just now. So far the fire has burned three shophouses, said Bomba Sarawak in its latest update.

Fire-fighters have gone to the site and are still battling the blaze, it said. Betong town is located about 250km from state capital Kuching.