The Jim Bakker Show

Mexico, U.S. vow to bolster joint fight against drug cartels

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly shake hands with Mexico's Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong after deliver a joint message at the Secretary of Interior Building in Mexico City, Mexico, July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico and the United States are seeking to forge closer ties to fight arms trafficking and organized crime, Mexico’s interior minister said on Friday, as he and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly vowed to redouble efforts to battle drug cartels.

“We’re looking at new forms of cooperation on issues like arms trafficking … and obviously combating international criminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking,” Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told a news conference.

Osorio Chong did not provide details as he spoke alongside Kelly, who was coming to the end of a three-day visit to Mexico.

Kelly, who on Thursday traveled to one of Mexico’s most lawless regions to discuss the military’s efforts to battle drug traffickers and observe opium poppy eradication, said the two sides aimed to strengthen joint security cooperation.

“We are also working together to defeat the scourge of illegal drugs, with special emphasis on the heroin, cocaine and fentanyl that is flooding the hemisphere and resulting in deaths in both of our countries,” Kelly said.

U.S. deaths from opiates including fentanyl and heroin have risen sharply in the last few years, putting the issue at center stage in efforts to strengthen cooperation on security matters between Mexico and the United States.

Kelly said U.S. President Donald Trump aimed to create “stronger, durable bonds” between the two neighbors, which have been at starkly at odds on some areas of policy under Trump, particularly the Republican leader’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

(Reporting by Michael O’Boyle; Editing by Tom Brown)

U.S. Energy Department helping power firms defend against cyber attacks

FILE PHOTO: A man types on a computer keyboard in front of the displayed cyber code in this illustration picture taken on March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo

By Jim Finkle, Scott DiSavino and Timothy Gardner

(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Energy said on Friday it is helping U.S. firms defend against a hacking campaign that targeted power companies including at least one nuclear plant, saying the attacks have not impacted electricity generation or the grid.

News of the attacks surfaced a week ago when Reuters reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a June 28 alert to industrial firms, warning them of hacking targeting the nuclear, power and critical infrastructure sectors.

“DOE is working with our government and industry partners to mitigate any impact from a cyber intrusion affecting entities in the energy sector,” a Department of Energy representative said in an email to Reuters. “At this time, there has been no impact to systems controlling U.S. energy infrastructure. Any potential impact appears to be limited to administrative and business networks.”

It was not clear who was responsible for the hacks. The joint report by the DHS and the FBI did not identify the attackers, though it described the hacks as “an advanced persistent threat,” a term that U.S. officials typically but not always use to describe attacks by culprits.

The DOE discussed its response to the attacks after Bloomberg News reported on Friday that the Wolf Creek nuclear facility in Kansas was among at least a dozen U.S. power firms breached in the attack, citing current and former U.S. officials who were not named.

A representative with the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp declined to say if the plant was hacked, but said it continued to operate safely.

“There has been absolutely no operational impact to Wolf Creek. The reason that is true is because the operational computer systems are completely separate from the corporate network,” company spokeswoman Jenny Hageman said via email.

A separate Homeland Security technical bulletin issued on June 28 included details of code used in a hacking tool that suggest the hackers sought to use the password of a Wolf Creek employee to access the network.

Hageman declined to say if hackers had gained access to that employee’s account. The employee could not be reached for comment.

The June 28 alert said that hackers have been observed using tainted emails to harvest credentials to gain access to networks of their targets.

“Historically, cyber actors have strategically targeted the energy sector with various goals ranging from cyber espionage to the ability to disrupt energy systems in the event of a hostile conflict,” the report said.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear expert at the nonprofit group Union of Concerned Scientists, said reactors have a certain amount of immunity from cyber attacks because their operation systems are separate from digital business networks. But over time it would not be impossible for hackers to potentially do harm.

“Perhaps the biggest vulnerability nuclear plants face from hackers would be their getting information on plant designs and work schedules with which to conduct a physical attack,” Lochbaum said.

The DOE said it has shared information about this incident with industry, including technical details on the attack and mitigation suggestions.

“Security professionals from government and industry are working closely to share information so energy system operators can defend their systems,” the agency representative said.

Earlier, the FBI and DHS issued a joint statement saying “There is no indication of a threat to public safety” because the impact appears limited to administrative and business networks.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not received any notifications of a cyber event that has affected critical systems at a nuclear plant, said spokesman Scott Burnell.

A nuclear industry spokesman told Reuters last Saturday that hackers have never gained access to a nuclear plant.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto, Scott DiSavino in New York and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Additional reporting by Dustin Volz in Washington and Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Kansas nuclear operator is victim in hacking spree: Bloomberg

By Jim Finkle

(Reuters) – Hackers recently breached a Kansas nuclear power operator as part of a campaign that breached at least a dozen U.S. power firms, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing current and former U.S. officials who were not named.

The Wolf Creek nuclear facility in Kansas was breached in the attack, according to Bloomberg.

A representative with the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp declined to say if the plant was hacked, but said it continued to operate safely.

The report identified the first known victims of a hacking campaign targeting the power sector that was first reported by Reuters on June 30. The attacks were described in a confidential June 28 U.S government alert to industrial firms, warning them of a hacking campaign targeting the nuclear, power and critical infrastructure sectors.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation said that hackers had succeeded in compromising networks of some targets, but did not name victims. The government also released a 30-page bulletin with advice on how firms could bolster security to defend against the attacks.

The alert said that hackers have been observed using tainted emails to harvest credentials to gain access to networks of their targets.

Homeland Security and the FBI issued a statement to Reuters late on Thursday saying that the alert was part of an ongoing effort to advise industry of cyber threats.

“There is no indication of a threat to public safety, as any potential impact appears to be limited to administrative and business networks,” the agencies said.

A nuclear industry spokesman told Reuters on Saturday that hackers have never gained access to a nuclear plant.

The Homeland Security technical bulletin included details of code used in a hacking tool that suggest the hackers sought to use the password of a Wolf Creek employee to access the network.

Hageman declined to say if hackers had gained access to that employee’s account. The employee could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto; Additional reporting by Dustin Volz in Washington; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Trump’s voter fraud panel to meet as U.S. states’ refusals mount

FILE PHOTO: A ballot is placed into a locked ballot box by a poll worker as people line-up to vote early at the San Diego County Elections Office in San Diego, California, U.S., November 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s commission to investigate possible election fraud will convene this month, a government notice said on Friday, as more U.S. states have refused to hand over at least some voter data.

Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May, after claiming without evidence that millions of people voted illegally for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 election.

U.S. civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers have called the panel a voter suppression tactic by Trump, a Republican who won the presidential election by securing a majority in the Electoral College tally of delegates even as he lost the popular vote to Clinton by some 3 million votes.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a watchdog group, has filed a lawsuit to block the commission’s data request until its privacy impact can be weighed. A hearing in the case was scheduled for Friday afternoon.

There is a wide consensus among state officials from both parties and election experts that voter fraud is rare. States rejecting the commission’s attempts to gather voter information have called it unnecessary and a violation of privacy.

The commission will meet on July 19 to swear in members, formulate objectives and discuss next steps after asking the 50 states to turn over potentially sensitive voter information, according to a General Services Administration (GSA) notice published in the Federal Register.

A June 28 letter from the election panel sought names, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, political affiliations, felony convictions and voting histories.

As of Wednesday, at least 44 states had refused to hand over at least some of the data requested, the Washington Post said. Republican Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the commission vice chairman, on Wednesday said such reports were false. He said in a statement sent by the White House that 14 states and Washington, D.C., had rejected the request outright.

Matthew Dunlap, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state and a commission member, on Friday dismissed Trump’s claim that millions of voters illegally cast ballots. “We just don’t see that,” he told CNN. “People are incredibly law abiding.”

Although Maine is one state that has pushed back at the commission’s request, Dunlap said he hopes the panel can tackle voting issues including ballot access and hacking.

A Republican commission member, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, defended the panel, telling CNN on Thursday that fraud with even “one vote per precinct … can change the course of history.”

A court filing in the Electronic Privacy Information Center case also showed the panel plans to house data on White House computers rather than at the GSA. The Washington Post, which earlier reported the filing, noted GSA would be required to follow specific privacy requirements.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow tried to tilt the election in Trump’s favor. Moscow has dismissed the accusations. Trump has denied any collusion and has questioned the agencies’ conclusion as well as any Russian role.

(Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Howard Goller and David Gregorio)

U.S. bombers challenge China in South China Sea flyover

FILE PHOTO - A B-1B Lancer from the U.S. Air Force 28th Air Expeditionary Wing heads out on a combat mission in support of strikes on Afghanistan in this file picture released December 7, 2001. Cedric H.Rudisill/USAF/Handout via REUTERS

TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) – Two U.S bombers have flown over the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. Air Force said on Friday, asserting the right to treat the region as international territory despite China’s claim to virtually all of the waterway.

The flight by the B-1B Lancer bombers from Guam on Thursday came as U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare for a meeting on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Germany.

The two leaders were expected to discuss what China can do to rein in North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapon programs.

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday that some experts believe has the range to reach Alaska and Hawaii and perhaps the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

While Trump has been seeking China’s help to press North Korea, the U.S. military has, nevertheless, been asserting its “freedom of navigation” rights in the South China Sea, at the risk of angering China.

Asked about the flight by the two U.S. bombers, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said there was no problem with freedom of navigation or overflight for the East and South China Seas.

“But China resolutely opposes individual countries using the banner of freedom of navigation and overflight to flaunt military force and harm China’s sovereignty and security,” he said.

China’s Defence Ministry, in a short statement sent to Reuters, said China always maintained its vigilance and “effectively monitors relevant countries’ military activities next to China”.

“The Chinese military will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability,” it added, without elaborating.

The United States has criticized China’s build-up of military facilities on South China Sea reefs and tiny islands it has constructed, concerned that they could be used to extend its strategic reach.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims in the sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes each year.

The two Lancers that made the flight had earlier trained with Japanese jet fighters in the neighboring East China Sea, the first time the two forces had conducted joint night-time drills.

Two U.S. Lancers flew from Guam over the South China Sea last month, while a U.S. warship carried out a maneuvering drill within 12 nautical miles of one of China’s artificial islands in the waterway in late May.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly in TOKYO; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)

Seven U.S. states still without budgets a week into new fiscal year

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the joint session of the General Assembly in the House Chambers of the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois February 1, 2012. REUTERS/Sarah Conard/File Photo

By Robin Respaut and Karen Pierog

(Reuters) – Seven U.S. states are still without budgets, nearly a week into the new fiscal year that started July 1.

Legislatures in Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin remain in disagreement about how to close ongoing budget gaps in their states or fund new budget initiatives.

“We always have some states that go into the new fiscal year without budgets, but the number is a bit high this year,” said Eric Kim, a director at Fitch Ratings.

Weak revenues complicated budget negotiations in several states, while idiosyncratic issues pushed others beyond their June 30 deadlines.

The Illinois House was poised to take final budget action on Thursday by attempting to override the governor’s vetoes of a $36 billion spending plan and $5 billion tax hike approved by the Democratic-controlled legislature over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. A hazardous materials situation in the state Capitol in Springfield delayed the House session, but officials determined the substance was harmless and lawmakers were returning.

If enacted, the budget would mark Illinois’ first complete budget since 2015. No other U.S. state has lacked a budget for that long.

Thirty-three of the 50 U.S. states reported revenues that came in below projections in fiscal year 2017, the highest number of states since the recession decimated budgets in 2010, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.

Connecticut and Pennsylvania have the most challenging revenue situations, according to Fitch, as lower-than-anticipated tax collections exacerbated budget gaps and led to disputes over how to close them.

Massachusetts, also amid a revenue shortfall, enacted a one-month interim budget for July to provide additional time to negotiate a full-year budget. Wisconsin legislators are working to close a transportation funding shortfall.

Oregon’s budget process includes multiple bills, most of which have been approved. But the legislature is still debating several measures, including changes to hiring practices.

Rhode Island had appeared ready to finalize a budget by June 30, but late last week the state Senate amended a House proposal to phase out an automobile tax, causing the House to halt the budget process.

Many states retain the authority to make debt service payments without enacted budgets.

Over the holiday weekend, several states came to last-minute budget agreements.

New Jersey and Maine ended partial government shutdowns just in time for the Fourth of July holiday on Tuesday, while governors of Washington state and Alaska signed new operating budgets late last week, hours before deadlines that would have triggered partial government shutdowns.

(Reporting by Robin Respaut in San Francisco and Karen Pierog in Chicago; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Cities dubbed immigrant ‘sanctuaries’ hit back on Trump funding threat

Immigrant supporters protest during the Los Angeles City Council ad hoc committee on immigration meeting in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

By Mica Rosenberg and Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Department of Justice is reviewing letters from 10 local jurisdictions that said they are in compliance with U.S. immigration law, to determine whether to cut federal funding, officials said Thursday, heating up a dispute between so-called sanctuary cities and President Donald Trump’s administration.

In April, the department had asked a handful of states and cities to document by June 30 their compliance with a statute that says local governments cannot prevent their employees from sharing information with U.S. immigration officials.

The Trump administration has said jurisdictions that do not fully cooperate are shielding “criminal illegal aliens,” and has promised to crack down on cities that do not comply. The sanctuary jurisdictions say they are following the law and do not want to spend local resources on immigration enforcement.

“It is not enough to assert compliance, the jurisdictions must actually be in compliance,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement on Thursday. He said the 10 jurisdictions had written in with “alleged compliance information” and that the government would “examine these claims carefully.”

Sessions’ statement said “some of these jurisdictions have boldly asserted they will not comply with requests from federal immigration authorities.” If the government finds the cities are violating the statute, known as Section 1373, it could decide to cut federal funds.

In the letters seen by Reuters, the jurisdictions say they are following the law even though some do not honor all “detainer” requests sent by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.) A “detainer” asks local authorities to hold people in jail up to 48 hours beyond when they are set to be released so immigration officials can take them into custody.

Many of the letters noted that compliance with detainer requests is voluntary and is not required under the statute. The jurisdictions targeted are the states of California and Connecticut, Chicago and Cook County in Illinois, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Miami, Milwaukee and New York.

At least one of the jurisdictions – Nevada’s Clark County, which is dominated by Las Vegas – has a long-standing formal agreement with ICE in which local police officers help with federal immigration enforcement.

New York City said it complies with detainer requests for people who have been convicted of certain “violent or serious” crimes, so long as the request is accompanied by a judicial warrant. Like other cities, New York said its priority is creating trust between immigrant communities and local police to encourage residents, even if they are living in the country illegally, to report crimes.

Mitchell Landrieu, the Mayor of New Orleans made a similar argument in a letter to Sessions. He said the administration has erroneously characterized sanctuary cities as havens for Central American gangs. Landrieu said an audit of gangs in New Orleans did not find a single Latino-dominated group.

“Undocumented people who commit violent crimes must face the criminal and immigration legal systems of this country. But that does not mean that all people are illegal immigrants that are part of violent gangs,” Landrieu wrote.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele called the Justice Department’s statement on Thursday “inflammatory.”

The county is at risk of losing more than $6 million in revenue if the Justice Department follows through, a June 28 letter from its lawyers said. It said Milwaukee would “avail itself of all legal options available” to “protect its grant funding.”

Trump’s executive order early in his presidency pledging to cut funding to sanctuary cities has been challenged in the courts. In April, a federal judge in San Francisco said in a case brought by Santa Clara county that cities were likely to succeed in proving Trump’s order unconstitutional.

The California county wrote in a court filing on Thursday that top administration officials have repeatedly stated that federal funding should be tied to local willingness to honor ICE detainer requests.

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Jonathan Allen in New York; additional reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco; editing by Grant McCool)

U.S. job growth seen accelerating; unemployment rate steady

FILE PHOTO: Leaflets lie on a table at a booth at a military veterans' job fair in Carson, California October 3, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employers likely stepped up hiring in June and boosted wages for workers, signs of labor market strength that could keep the Federal Reserve on course for a third interest rate increase this year.

According to a Reuters survey of economists, the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday will probably show that nonfarm payrolls increased by 179,000 jobs last month after gaining 138,000 in May.

The unemployment rate is forecast steady at a 16-year low of 4.3 percent. It has dropped five-tenths of a percentage point this year and matches the most recent Fed median forecast for 2017.

Economists say labor market buoyancy could also encourage the U.S. central bank to announce plans to start reducing its $4.2 trillion portfolio of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities in September.

“June’s employment report could provide sufficient evidence to Fed officials that they are still positioned to proceed with their monetary policy normalization plans in the second half of the year,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo securities in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Fed raised its benchmark overnight interest rate in June for the second time this year. But with inflation retreating further below the central bank’s 2 percent target in May, economists expect another rate hike only in December.

June’s anticipated employment gains would be close to the 186,000 monthly average for 2016 and reinforce views that the economy regained speed in the second quarter after a sluggish performance at the start of the year.

But the pace of job growth is expected to slow as the labor market hits full employment. There is growing anecdotal evidence of companies struggling to find qualified workers.

As a result, some companies are raising wages in an effort to attract and retain their workforces. Economists expect worker shortages to boost wage growth, which has remained stubbornly sluggish despite the tightening labor market.

EYES ON WAGES

Average hourly earnings are forecast increasing 0.3 percent in June after gaining 0.2 percent in May. That could lift the year-on-year increase in wages to 2.7 percent from 2.5 percent in May.

“The days of month after month of 200,000 jobs being created are likely behind us,” said Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

“We will see trend job growth continue to moderate. That doesn’t necessarily signal that the expansion is running out of juice or that a recession is imminent, it is just a symptom of a full-employment economy.”

The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population.

Republican President Donald Trump, who inherited a strong job market from the Obama administration, has pledged to sharply boost economic growth and further strengthen the labor market by slashing taxes and cutting regulation.

But Republicans have struggled with healthcare legislation and there are also worries that political scandals could derail the Trump administration’s economic agenda.

Job gains were likely broad in June. Manufacturing payrolls likely rebounded after factories shed 1,000 jobs in May. But employment in the automobile sector probably declined further as slowing sales and bloated inventories force manufacturers to cut back on production.

Ford Motor Co has announced plans to slash 1,400 salaried jobs in North America and Asia through voluntary early retirement and other financial incentives. Others, like General Motors are embarking on extended summer assembly plant shutdowns, which will temporarily leave workers unemployed.

Further job gains are likely in construction.

The retail sector is expected to have purged jobs for a fifth straight month as department store operators like J.C. Penney Co Inc, Macy’s Inc and Abercrombie & Fitch struggle against stiff competition from online retailers led by Amazon.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Outbreak of hantavirus infections kills three in Washington state

A micrographic study of liver tissue seen from a Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) patient seen in this undated photo obtained by Reuters, July 6, 2017. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Handout via REUTERS

By Laura Zuckerman

(Reuters) – Five people have been stricken with the rare, rodent-borne hantavirus illness in Washington state since February, three of whom have died, in the state’s worst outbreak of the disease in at least 18 years, public health officials reported on Thursday.

The three fatal cases also mark the highest death toll from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in Washington state during a single year since the respiratory ailment was first identified in the “Four Corners” region of the U.S. Southwest in 1993.

The disease has been found to be transmitted to humans from deer mice, either through contact with urine, droppings, saliva or nesting materials of infected rodents or by inhaling dust contaminated with the virus.

Victims in the latest outbreak were men and women ranging in age from their 20s to their 50s from four counties across the state, said David Johnson, spokesman for the Washington State Department of Health.

The first diagnosed case this year was in February and the most recent was last month, when the infection killed a resident of Spokane County in the eastern part of the state near Washington’s border with Idaho. Three of the five cases, including another one that proved fatal, were confirmed in the Puget Sound region of King and Skagit counties.

The only common factor among those infected by the disease, which typically kills more than a third of its victims, is that they were all exposed to infected mice, Johnson said.

The last time five confirmed hantavirus cases were diagnosed in Washington state in a single year was in 1999, although just one of those proved fatal, Johnson said.

Washington has reported 49 of the 690 hantavirus cases tallied nationwide from 1993 to January 2016, ranking fifth among 10 Western states that account for the bulk of all documented infections, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

Eighteen infections with four deaths were reported nationally in 2015. The year before, the CDC counted 35 cases, of which 14 were fatal.

The most highly publicized hantavirus outbreak occurred in 2012, when 10 visitors to Yosemite National Park in California were diagnosed with the infection, three of whom died, prompting a worldwide alert. All but one of those were linked to tent cabins later found to have been infested by deer mice.

(Editing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Paul Tait)

Trump again demands more NATO spending, mulls ‘severe things’ on North Korea

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as Polish President Andrzej Duda and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic listen during the Three Seas Initiative Summit in Warsaw, Poland July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By Marcin Goclowski and Roberta Rampton

WARSAW (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump once more urged NATO allies in Europe on Thursday to spend more on defense, on a visit to Poland that had been billed as an opportunity for him to patch up relations after a tense alliance summit in May.

He also said Washington was thinking about “severe things” in response to North Korea’s test-launch this week of an intercontinental ballistic missile with the potential to reach Alaska.

Trump told a joint news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday that it was “past time” for all countries in the alliance to “get going” on their financial obligations.

The White House had said Trump would use the stopover in Warsaw to showcase his commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which he once called “obsolete”, bemoaning allies’ repeated failure to spend the recommended 2 percent of GDP on defense.

He had unnerved allies in May, not least those in the east concerned about Russia’s more assertive military posture, by failing to explicitly endorse the principle of collective defense enshrined in the NATO treaty.

While he did not directly mention that principle in Warsaw, he did say that the United States was working with Poland to address Russia’s “destabilising behavior”. Duda for his part said he believed Trump took Poland’s security seriously.

Trump said the United States would confront the threat from North Korea very strongly, and that nations must publicly demonstrate to North Korea that there were consequences for bad behavior.

Trump has this week expressed frustration that North Korea’s neighbor China has not put more pressure on Pyongyang, notably through trade, to try to rein in its weapons program.

Trump said “something” would have to be done about North Korea. He said he did not draw “red lines”, but that Washington would take a look over the coming weeks and months with regard to North Korea.

En route to a potentially fractious G20 summit in Germany, Trump was due to take part in a gathering of leaders from central Europe, Baltic states and the Balkans, an event convened by Poland and Croatia to boost regional trade and infrastructure.

Trump said the United States strongly backed their “Three Seas” initiative.

(Writing by Kevin Liffey; editing by Ralph Boulton)

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