President Donald Trump launched his 2020 reelection campaign Tuesday with a rally in front of about 20,000 supporters packed into a Florida arena, chanting "USA, USA!" The crowd in Orlando erupted with cheers as Trump entered.
Even if dismal early poll numbers show he faces a difficult reelection, Trump goes into the fight buoyed by a strong economy and confidence in the fierce loyalty of his right-wing base.

Trump kicks off 2020 reelection campaign with Florida rally

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A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan, sparking a tsunami advisory that was later lifted with no reports Wednesday of major damage and only a handful of light injuries.
The nation's meteorological agency had warned Tuesday that a wave of one metre (three feet) could hit the coast of the Sea of Japan, north of Tokyo, but only small ripples of 10 centimetres were recorded.
The agency cancelled the tsunami advisory around two and a half hours after the quake.
The earthquake registered six on the Japanese scale, which goes up to a maximum of seven and was felt in the capital, which is more than 300 kilometres (185 miles) away.
The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 6.4.  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters his government would be "on the maximum alert" to prepare for possible rescue operations in the region and warned citizens to be vigilant for strong aftershocks.
At least 16 were injured after the earthquake, local authorities told AFP.
In Niigata, a ...

Japan quake causes minor tsunami, 16 hurt

Gunmen killed a soldier and three other people in an attack in north-central Nigeria on Tuesday, state police said.
State Commissioner of Police, Isaac Akinmoyete, said the attack took place in the early hours of Tuesday in the village of Tumburok, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Jos, the capital of Plateau State.
Legislator Timothy Danton confirmed the incident in parliament, but gave the toll as five dead.
According to Akinmoyete, the soldier was shot while exchanging fire with the unknown attackers.
"Three corpses were found and of course some houses were burnt. Many houses were burnt, probably 30 or 40," said Akinmoyete, adding that an investigation was underway to identify the attackers.
Violence between farmers and nomadic herders is on the rise in Nigeria over access to fertile land and water, which is becoming scarce in the face of drought and rapid population growth.
Plateau State is one of the hotspots for the deadly violence.

Gunmen kill soldier, three others in central Nigeria: police

Thirty-eight people were killed and many others wounded in attacks on two ethnic Dogon villages in central Mali, the government said Tuesday, in the latest in a cycle of violence in the volatile Sahel country.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks but Mali has seen a spate of massacres this year between ethnic Dogon and Fulani communities.
"The terrorist attacks on Monday evening targeted the villages of Gangafani and Yoro... not far from the border with Burkina Faso. The official provisional toll is 38 dead and numerous people wounded," the Malian government said in a statement.
"Defence and security forces have been dispatched to the location to protect the population and their property and to track down the assailants of these attacks," the statement added, revising upwards an earlier toll of 14 dead..
Goundjou Poudiougou, a local community official, said around a dozen bodies had been counted in both villages.
"They are terrorists because they killed and 

38 killed in attacks on Mali villages

A 10-year-old US girl has made rock climbing history by becoming the youngest person to ever scale Yosemite's iconic El Capitan.
Selah Schneiter, of Colorado, scaled the nearly 3,000-foot (900-meter) "The Nose" route with her father, an experienced climber, and a family friend, over five days -- and celebrated her feat on June 12 with a pizza.
"I just can't believe I just did that," an elated Schneiter said in a video that captured the moment she reached the top of the granite monolith in central California.
"Our big motto was 'How do you eat an elephant?' Small bites," she told KFSN, an ABC affiliate. "One pitch at a time, one move at a time, one day at a time." Her father said Selah was in shock on reaching the top of the peak and broke down in tears.
"She said it was her first happy tears she's ever had," he said.
"We were tired after a long five days and camped out that night, but she was like a little kid again and wanted to check everything out, exploring almost like it was ...

Ten-year-old US girl conquers Yosemite's El Capitan

US authorities said Tuesday they had seized around 16 tonnes of cocaine with an estimated street value of over USD 1 billion in a historic drug bust aboard a ship at the port of Philadelphia.
"This is one of the largest drug seizures in United States history," tweeted William McSwain, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Philadelphia.
"Members of the ship's crew have been arrested and federally charged" following the drug bust at Philadelphia's Packer Marine Terminal, McSwain's office said on Twitter.
The drugs were found in seven containers aboard the MSC Gayane cargo ship, which was leaving for Europe after having previously called in Chile, Panama and the Bahamas, according to local media.
The bust comes after US authorities seized nearly 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in March -- the biggest haul in nearly 25 years at the port of New York/Newark.
The United States, the world's largest consumer of illegal drugs, is currently experiencing a deadly epidemic of opioid use.
Deaths from ..

Historic US drug bust nets 16 tonnes of cocaine

Suspected jihadists killed 15 soldiers at an army base in restive northeast Nigeria, stealing weapons before looting shops in a nearby town, military sources said Tuesday.
The raids late Monday came a day after 30 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing that also bore the hallmarks of the Boko Haram group.
"Fifteen bodies of soldiers have so far been recovered in a search and rescue operation," a military officer, who asked not to be named, told AFP after the latest attack.
"This figure could change as the operation is still ongoing and many troops remain unaccounted" for.
Boko Haram's decade-long campaign of violence has killed some 27,000 people and displaced about two million in Nigeria.
The latest assault targeted a base outside the town of Gajiram, 80 kilometres (50 miles), north of the Borno state capital Maiduguri.
The assailants were suspected to be from an IS-affiliated Boko Haram faction known as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).  They arrived on nine ...

Suspected jihadists kill 15 soldiers at Nigerian army base

Eight of the EU's 28 countries have pledged to phase out coal for electricity production by 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, officials said Tuesday.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, received the pledges as contributions to the bloc's efforts to deliver on the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
"More and more member states are making the political commitment to phase out coal in the next decade," EU climate and energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said.
Canete said that among the European Union countries introducing or confirming such timelines, France intends to phase out coal by 2022 -- before Italy and Ireland by 2025.
Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Finland aim to do so by 2030, the Spanish commissioner told a press conference in Brussels.
Standing by Canete, commission vice president Maros Sefcovic called the pledges "quite a significant signal coming from quite an important number of member states." The commission added that Germany, the EU's ..

Eight EU countries to phase out coal by 2030

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said Tuesday that the institution "doesn't target the exchange rate", shrugging off an allegation of currency manipulation from US President Donald Trump.
"We have our remit. We have our mandate. Our mandate is price stability" or inflation just below two percent, Draghi told a central banking conference in Sintra, Portugal.
"We are ready to use all the instruments that are ready to fulfil this mandate, and we don't target the exchange rate," he added.
Draghi's statement that weak economic growth and sluggish inflation could prompt the ECB to slash further rates already at historic lows had earlier sparked Trump's ire.
"Mario Draghi just announced more stimulus could come, which immediately dropped the Euro against the Dollar, making it unfairly easier for them to compete against the USA," Trump said via Twitter.
"They have been getting away with this for years, along with China and others," he added.
Draghi said in a speech that "further cuts .

ECB's Draghi brushes off Trump charge of currency manipulation

Industrial conglomerate Siemens said Tuesday it would slash 2,700 jobs worldwide at its gas and power unit, including 1,400 in its home country Germany, "over several years".
The division -- set for an independent stock market flotation in 2020 -- will "require further savings of 500 million euros" ($560 million), Siemens said in a statement.
"Measures are required in order to reduce costs (and) adjust to the declining numbers of major projects," the company added.
Around 7,000 jobs cuts and site closures had already been announced at the unit.
"Siemens will now begin consultations with the relevant employee representatives and then implement the planned measures... in a way that is socially responsible," the company said.
Gas and power brings together Munich-based Siemens' oil and gas, conventional power generation, power transmission and related services businesses.
With 64,000 employees in 80 countries, it booked sales of 12.4 billion euros in 2018 and 377 million euros in profit, .

Germany's Siemens says to cut 2,700 jobs worldwide

The United States announced Tuesday a $250 million military aid package for war-torn Ukraine to strengthen the former Soviet republic's naval and land capabilities.
The amount is part of a series of Pentagon payments now totaling USD 1.5 billion to the country since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and a conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine.
"The United States remains committed to helping Ukraine ... to strengthen democratic civilian control of the military, promote command and control reforms, enhance transparency and accountability in acquisition and budgeting, and advance defense industry reforms," a Pentagon spokesman said.
"These reforms will bolster Ukraine's ability to defend its territorial integrity in support of a secure, prosperous, democratic, and free Ukraine." Almost 13,000 people have been killed since the Moscow-backed insurgency broke out in April 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of funneling ...

US announces USD 250 million in military aid to Ukraine

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday his pick for defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, has withdrawn, leaving the Pentagon without a permanent boss for more than six months amid a ratcheting of tensions in the Mideast.
Shanahan "has decided not to go forward with his confirmation process so that he can devote more time to his family," Trump tweeted after Shanahan faced questions over his past personal life and an allegation of domestic violence.
Trump said the army secretary, Mark Esper, will come in as acting secretary of defense.
There hasn't been a full secretary of defense since the resignation of James Mattis in December last year.

Trump pulls Shanahan from consideration for US defense secretary

Suspected Boko Haram islamists killed fifteen soldiers in an attack on an army base in northeast Nigeria, military sources said Tuesday.
"Fifteen bodies of soldiers have so far been recovered in a search and rescue operation," a military officer, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
"This figure could change as the operation is still ongoing and many troops remain unaccounted" for after the attack late Monday.

Islamists kill 15 soldiers at Nigerian army base: military source

German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed concerns about her health after visibly trembling at an official ceremony Tuesday, saying she was just a bit dehydrated in the heat.
Merkel appeared unsteady and was shaking as she stood in the midday sun next to visiting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, whom she was welcoming to her office building with military honours.
Asked by a reporter about her wellbeing at a news conference about 90 minutes later, Merkel smiled: "I've drunk at least three glasses of water and so I'm doing fine." Zelensky, 41, made light of Merkel's uneasy spell, joking that he would have come to her rescue if necessary.
"She was standing next to me and completely safe," he said.
Merkel, frequently called the European Union's most influential leader and the most powerful woman in the world, turns 65 next month.
She has said she will leave politics at the end of her term, in 2021.
There were brief concerns about her health in 2014 when she was taken ill during a ..

Merkel says she's 'fine' after trembling spell

The United States must have the capability to respond to any Iranian attack on US interests, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.
He spoke at the Florida headquarters of US Central Command, which oversees US forces in the Middle East, a day after the US said it was sending another 1,000 troops to the region in response to what it called hostile behavior by Tehran.
That deployment should "convince the Islamic government of Iran that we are serious and to deter them from further aggression in the region," Pompeo said.
He added that his visit to Tampa was designed to "achieve the strategic objectives" set forth by President Donald Trump.
"But we can't do that without making sure we have the capability to respond if Iran makes a bad decision" and opts to "go after an American, or an American interest, or to continue to proliferate its nuclear weapons program," said Pompeo.
He insisted "President Trump does not want war." The United States has blamed Iran for last week's attacks on 

Pompeo: US must be able to respond to any Iranian attack

At least 14 people were killed in an attack on two ethnic Dogon villages in central Mali, local officials said Tuesday.
Monday's attacks on Ganfafani and Yoro villages near the border with Burkina Faso left "14 people dead according to a provisional toll", said local judicial official Boubacar Sidiki Samake.
A Mali military source said as many as 40 people may have been killed.

At least 14 killed in attack on Mali villages: official

European financial leaders on Tuesday vowed vigilance after Facebook announced it was diving into the cryptocurrency market, as analysts warned the social media giant could face major regulatory questions.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, whose government initiated a new tax on digital giants like Facebook that has angered the United States, said such digital money could never replace sovereign currencies of governments and insisted Facebook's plan required guarantees.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said Facebook's new currency would have to withstand scrutiny of its operational resilience and not allow itself to be used for money laundering or terror financing.
Facebook and some two dozen partners on Tuesday released a prototype of a cryptocurrency called Libra, whose rollout as global digital money is expected next year.
"If Facebook wants to create an instrument for transactions, why not? But there is no question that this can become a sovereign currency," Le Maire ...

Europe wary as Facebook takes up cryptocurrency challenge

US aircraft giant Boeing got a welcome vote of confidence in its beleaguered 737 MAX plane on Tuesday when International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways, said it wanted to buy 200 of the planes.
The companies said they had signed a letter of intent for the purchase, the first since the 737 MAXs were grounded in March after two of them crashed within six months of each other, killing 346 people.
At list prices the order would be worth $24 billion, but IAG, whose airlines also include Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus, noted that it had negotiated "a substantial discount." It was a coup for Boeing since up to now IAG has been a longtime client of Airbus for its single-aisle jets, used on some of its most popular routes.
"We have every confidence in Boeing and expect that the aircraft will make a successful return to service in the coming months having received approval from the regulators," IAG's chief Willie Walsh said in a statement.  Walsh isn't a stranger to Boeing, however, ..

Boeing's troubled 737 MAX gets huge vote of confidence from IAG

Six days after losing Chris Froome for the Tour de France, Team Ineos were holding their breath Tuesday over Geraint Thomas's shoulder as he was rushed to hospital for tests after crashing out heavily at the Tour de Suisse.
The accident happened 30km from home on stage four with reigning Tour de France champion Thomas in a good position for overall victory in the nine-day Tour warm up in the Alps, but was left ashen-faced, dazed, badly grazed and nursing his right shoulder.
Ineos said on Twitter that Thomas "has been forced to abandon the #TourDeSuisse. He was alert and speaking to the team after the crash and will be taken to hospital for checks." Thomas, a highly popular Tour de France winner in 2018, came down heavily in the peloton's high-pace pursuit of an escape.
Medics swiftly removed the 33-year-old's helmet and gingerly examined his shoulder before deciding on sending him to hospital.
Even if the Welshman has not fractured his collarbone, the crash will severely hinder his ...

Ineos rocked as Thomas crashes out of Tour de Suisse

World number one Naomi Osaka progressed to round two of the Birmingham Classic on Tuesday, but was made to work for a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win over Greece's Maria Sakkari.
Osaka admitted in her pre-tournament press conference that she still does not feel comfortable on grass.
However, she got off to a flying start in her first match since losing in the third round of the French Open.
Osaka broke the Sakkari serve three times in romping through the first set.  The world number 33 fought back in the second to take the match to a deciding set.
Osaka needed to stave off five break points in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead but then pounced immediately for the only break in the final set.
Yulia Putintseva will face Osaka in round two after easing past Harriet Dart 6-1, 6-4.  Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko set up a second round clash with Britain's Johanna Konta with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Iga Swiatek.
World number three Karolina Pliskova will face her twin sister Kristyna Pliskova in .

Osaka grinds out opening win on grass

Police were called after members of the Afghanistan squad were involved in an altercation at a Manchester restaurant on Monday.
The incident took place the night before Afghanistan's World Cup match against tournament hosts England at Manchester's Old Trafford.
According to the BBC, the unnamed squad members took exception to being filmed by a member of the public, and confronted him.
Meanwhile, a statement from Greater Manchester Police issued Tuesday confirmed that officers attended Akbar's restaurant shortly after 11:15 pm local time (2215 GMT).
"Shortly after 11.15pm on Monday 17 June 2019, police were called to reports of an altercation at a premises on Liverpool Road in Manchester," said a GMP statement.
"Officers attended the scene. No one was injured and no arrests have been made. Enquiries are ongoing."
On the field England, aided by some sloppy Afghanistan fielding, piled up their highest World Cup score of 397-6, with captain Eoin Morgan hitting a one-day international ...

AFP

AFP

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