Icetruck

Trump unlikely to rebuke Duterte for drug war killings

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has sanctioned a bloody drug war that features extrajudicial killing. He called Barack Obama a "son of a whore." This week, he boasted that he murdered a man with his own hands.

All that may well go unmentioned in public by President Donald Trump when the leaders hold talks Monday.

Breaking with his presidential predecessors, Trump has largely abandoned publicly pressing foreign leaders on human rights, instead showing a willingness to embrace international strongmen for strategic gain. He has cozied up to autocrats such as Saudi Arabia's King Salman, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. And earlier in this trip to Asia he made no mention of human rights during multiple appearances in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"Trump seems very comfortable with strongmen. It's not just that he won't criticize Duterte. I wouldn't be surprised if he patted him on the back," said Mike Chinoy, senior fellow at U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California.

Duterte's war on drugs has alarmed human rights advocates around the world who say it has allowed police officers and vigilantes to ignore due process and to take justice into their own hands. Government officials estimate that well over 3,000 people, mostly drug users and dealers, have died in the ongoing crackdown. Human rights groups believe the victim total is far higher, perhaps closer to 9,000.

"Human rights groups, I think, will be quite disappointed by the visit," said Amy Searight, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It's unlikely that human rights or rule of law or due process are going to be topics that President Trump will raise."

Duterte has strenuously defended the violence and boasted of participating himself.

Late last year, he bragged that he personally pulled the trigger and killed three people years ago while serving as mayor of Davao City. And last week, while in Vietnam for an international summit, he said he took his first life years earlier.

"When I was a teenager, I had been in and out of jail, rumble here and there," Duterte said during a speech in Danang, where he briefly crossed paths with Trump on the sidelines of an international summit. "At the age of 16, I already killed someone."

He claimed he fatally stabbed the person "just over a look." His spokesman later tried to downplay the comment, saying, "I think it was in jest."

Trump has shown little interest in pressuring Duterte to rein in the violence, instead saluting him during a May phone call.

"I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem," Trump told Duterte, according to a transcript of the conversation that later leaked. "Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that."

Trump also criticized Obama during the call, noting that his predecessor "did not understand" the drug problem the Philippines faces. Meanwhile, Duterte was openly critical of Obama in the final year of his presidency, including cursing his name.

White House officials have suggested there is a strategy behind Trump's flattery of Duterte.

Advisers have said that while Trump is unlikely to publicly chastise the Philippine president, he may offer criticisms during private meetings. Trump would plan to hold his tongue in public in order not to embarrass Duterte, whom he is urging to help pressure North Korea and fight terrorism, and to avoid pushing him into the arms of China.

"If the administration is not going to care about human rights in China, why would you care in the Philippines?" asked Gordon Chang, Asia expert and author of "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World." He said the "logical thing to do is keep them close and not let Duterte flirt with China. In our struggle with China, we need all the friends when we can get."

Duterte has seemed less committed to the strategic partnership with the U.S. Searight said a good relationship is "vital to the United States given its location on the South China Sea and the enhanced access that the American military has gotten in recent years with the Philippines."

White House aides have suggested that Trump's strategy has worked before, pointing to his interactions with el-Sissi. Trump refrained from chastising the Egyptian leader but worked with him behind closed doors to help engineer the release of American prisoner Aya Hijazi in April.

Trump dismissed the notion that he buddied up to dictators. He said Saturday he has great relationships with all sorts of leaders, "every person in that room today," after leaving a summit in Vietnam attended by Duterte and Putin, among others.

Human rights groups have expressed dismay at Trump's public silence, believing that the spotlight an American president can shine on human rights abuses overseas can rally pressure on an authoritarian regime to change its ways.

"In the old days, we used to call on the U.S. government to raise human rights issues during these trips," said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. But given the administration's lack of credibility in raising human rights abuses, he said, they have pivoted to a different tack, focusing on international attention.

"We haven't given up," Sifton said.

———

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

———

Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire

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New mass graves found in Iraq could contain up to 400 bodies

Iraqi security forces have found mass graves in an area recently retaken from the Islamic State group that could contain up to 400 bodies, an Iraqi official said Sunday.

The bodies of civilians and security forces were found in an abandoned base near Hawija, a northern town retaken in early October, Kirkuk governor Rakan Saed said. He didn't say when authorities will start exhuming the bodies from the mass graves.

Khalaf Luhaibi, a local shepherd who led troops to the site, said IS used to bring captives to the area and shoot them dead or pour oil over them and light them on fire. The area was strewn with torn clothing and what appeared to be human bones and skulls.

Iraqi forces have driven IS from nearly all the territory it once controlled. Authorities have already uncovered several mass graves in other newly liberated areas.

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have driven the extremists from nearly all the territory they once controlled, with some fighting still underway near the western border with Syria.

On Saturday, Iraq's Prime Minister announced an operation to capture a patch of territory on the western edge of the country near the border with Syria. Hours later, Iraqi Defense Ministry announced capturing Romana area, saying the troops will head to nearby town of Rawa.

According to Ahmed al-Asadi, a spokesman for the Shiite-majority paramilitary forces, Rawa is the last Iraqi town held by IS who still control some scattered small villages in mainly desert areas.

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Trump backs US spy agencies after Putin meddling remark

President Donald Trump appears to have rowed back on comments suggesting he believed the Russian president's denials of meddling in the US election.

He was widely criticised after saying Vladimir Putin had been insulted by the allegations of Russian interference.

On Sunday, Mr Trump clarified that he supported US intelligence agencies, who have long concluded that Russia tried to sway the 2016 poll in his favour.

The two leaders briefly discussed the allegations at an Asia-Pacific summit.

Questions surrounding Russia's role in last year's US elections and allegations of collusion involving Donald Trump's campaign team have dogged his presidency. Legal action has already been taken against several of his former aides as part of a justice department inquiry.

Until now, President Trump has refused to acknowledge intelligence agency findings that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the run-up to the poll.

• Russia: The 'cloud' over the White House
• Who's who in the drama to end all dramas?

How has Mr Trump backtracked?

After brief conversations with President Putin on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec), Mr Trump briefed reporters on Saturday on what had been said about Russian interference in the presidential campaign.

"Every time he sees me he says I didn't do that, and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it.

"I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country."

He also disparaged key figures in the US intelligence community who concluded in January that Russian meddling had taken place, including former national intelligence chief James Clapper, ex-CIA director John Brennan and sacked FBI chief James Comey, whom he called "political hacks".

Asked to clarify his comments on Mr Putin's denials during a press conference with the Vietnamese president on Sunday, Mr Trump said: "As to whether I believe it or not, I'm with our agencies, especially as currently constituted."

Drawing a clear line between the current and previous leadership of the FBI, CIA and national intelligence he said "As currently led, by fine people, I believe very much in our intelligence agencies."

"What he believes, he believes," he added, of Mr Putin's belief that Russia did not meddle in the presidential campaign.

He later took to Twitter to attack "haters and fools", who, he said, did not encourage good relations between Russia and the US.

Image Copyright @realDonaldTrump @realDonaldTrump Report

In his tweets, Mr Trump also said his predecessor, Barack Obama, had lacked "chemistry" with President Putin.

What was the reaction?

Mr Trump's original comments came under vehement criticism at home with lawmakers and intelligence figures questioning whether he had accepted the Russian president's denials of interference, despite intelligence findings to the contrary.

• Republican Senator John McCain, a strident critic of Mr Trump, called him naive for "taking the word of a KGB colonel over that of the American intelligence community"
• Adam Schiff, ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, tweeted: "You know who else is insulted by it, Mr President? The American people. You believe a foreign adversary over your own intelligence agencies."
• Mr Clapper told Reuters: "The fact that he would take Putin at his word over the intelligence community is unconscionable."
• A CIA statement passed to US media said: "The intelligence assessment with regard to Russian election meddling has not changed."

Trump out on a limb again

Aleem Maqbool, BBC News, Da Nang

Donald Trump once again goes against the findings of his own intelligence agencies.

Because although the US justice department is investigating the scale and nature of Russian interference in the election of 2016 (and any links to the Trump campaign), the American intelligence community has already long determined that Russia did, indeed, interfere.

Yet Mr Trump suggested this story was not only entirely fabricated by his political opponents, it might even be costing lives in Syria, because it is getting in the way of his relationship with the Russian president and hampering their ability to help solve the conflict together.

"People will die because of it, and it's a pure hit job, and it's artificially induced and that's a shame," he said.

It is hard to know what the president hopes to achieve with this type of rhetoric. The investigation goes on.

What are the allegations against Russia?

The CIA and other intelligence agencies have already concluded that Russia was behind the DNC hack in the run-up to last year's presidential election.

The contents of the emails, passed to Wikileaks and posted online, were embarrassing to the Democrats and shook up the presidential campaign, which ended in defeat for Hillary Clinton.

In addition to the justice department inquiry, led by special investigator Robert Mueller, congressional committees have been set up to carry out their own investigations.

Relations between the US and Russia have been strained for years, with the Kremlin long accusing Washington of seeking to sway elections in Russia and other ex-Soviet states including Ukraine and Georgia.

While Russian hackers are widely suspected of involvement, there has been no conclusive link to the Kremlin.

Denying that Russia had tried to interfere last year by fostering contacts with Mr Trump's campaign, Mr Putin told reporters in Vietnam: "Everything about the so-called Russian dossier in the US is a manifestation of a continuing domestic political struggle."

• 18 revelations from Wikileaks emails
• Russia's 'cyber war' against the West

How far has US justice department investigation progressed?

Last month, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to having lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about the timing of meetings with alleged go-betweens for Russia.

He testified that Russian nationals had contacted him in an attempt to gain influence with the Trump campaign, offering "dirt" in the form of "thousands of emails" on Mrs Clinton in April 2016 – two months before the DNC emails were leaked.

Mr Trump has played down the importance of Mr Papadopoulos, calling him a "low-level volunteer" and "liar".

On Saturday, Mr Putin brushed aside US media reports that a woman wrongly identified by Mr Papadopoulos as the Russian president's niece had offered to help broker meetings with Kremlin officials.

"I do not know anything about it and I think it is just some fantasies," Mr Putin said.

Mr Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and an associate were also placed under house arrest on charges of money laundering as a result of the Mueller inquiry, but the charges do not relate to the election.

• What do ex-aides' charges mean for Trump?

Source – bbc.com

British govt accused of hurting case of woman jailed in Iran

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson spoke Sunday to the husband of a British woman imprisoned in Iran as pressure mounted on the Conservative government to step up efforts to free her.

The Foreign Office confirmed that Johnson and Richard Ratcliffe spoke by phone, but did not elaborate further.

Ratcliffe has previously urged Johnson to travel to Tehran to press for the release of his wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual British-Iranian citizen in her 30s, is serving a five-year sentence for plotting the "soft toppling" of Iran's government.

Earlier this month, Johnson told lawmakers that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was "teaching people journalism" when she was detained last year. Her family and her employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, insist she is innocent, and was on vacation taking her toddler daughter to meet relatives in Iran.

Johnson later apologized for his comment, but Iran's state broadcaster said it was an implicit admission of guilt.

On Sunday, British Environment Secretary Michael Gove said "I don't know" when asked what Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing in Iran.

Family and friends say the confusion has put Zaghari-Ratcliffe at risk of a longer prison sentence.

Johnson's blunder has triggered calls for his resignation.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said Prime Minister Theresa May should fire Johnson for "embarrassing and undermining our country with his incompetence and colonial throwback views and putting our citizens at risk."

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Trump trades 'short and fat' barb with N Korea's Kim

President Donald Trump has again traded barbs with North Korea, shortly before offering to mediate in a heated regional dispute.

He took to Twitter to complain he would never call North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "short and fat", after its foreign ministry called him "old".

It was one of a series of remarks he made on social media before volunteering his services over maritime claims in the South China Sea.

"I'm a very good mediator," he said.

China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims to territory in the South China Sea.

• Trump's tour leaves observers perplexed

• Why is the South China Sea contentious?

Tensions with China have been high in both Vietnam and the Philippines, inflamed by the formers island-building and naval patrols.

A framework for a code of conduct was agreed in August, but this is still only an outline, with more negotiations due to take place before it can be legally binding.

Mr Trump, who has long styled himself as a dealmaker, suggested his expertise could aid the process.

"If I can help mediate or arbitrate, please let me know," Mr Trump told his Vietnamese counterpart, Tran Dai Quang, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi.

Mr Trump's own dispute with North Korea continues to escalate, at least in the insults traded across Twitter and in official statements.

On Saturday, North Korea denounced Mr Trump's Asia trip, calling it a "warmonger's visit" and again described the president as a "dotard" – a centuries-old insult for an elderly person.

Mr Trump responded with a passive aggressive tweet, suggesting he would never call Mr Kim was "short and fat", and complaining: "Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe someday that will happen!"

Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and fat?" Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe someday that will happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2017

Report

End of Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

As the president took to social media, three US aircraft carriers were taking part in a military exercise in the Western Pacific, in a show of strength aimed at North Korea.

US Pacific Fleet commander Scott Swift said the triple-carrier drill was the first in the region since 2007.

South Korean and Japanese ships were also due to take part in the exercises, which began on Saturday and will continue until Tuesday.

Skip Twitter post by @USPacificFleet

The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) and USS Nimitz (CVN 68) strike groups transit international waters in the Western Pacific with ships from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Nov. 12, as part of a three-carrier strike force exercise. @US7thFleet pic.twitter.com/Syr3kXgeXf

— U.S. Pacific Fleet (@USPacificFleet) November 12, 2017

Report

End of Twitter post by @USPacificFleet

President Trump has not ruled out friendly relations with North Korea.

Asked at a news conference in Vietnam if he could see himself being friends with Mr Kim, the president said: "That might be a strange thing to happen but it's a possibility.

"If it did happen it could be a good thing I can tell you for North Korea, but it could also be good for a lot of other places and be good for the rest the world.

"It could be something that could happen. I don't know if it will but it would be very, very nice."

The Vietnamese leg of Mr Trump's five-nation Asia tour was met with protests. Mai Khoi, a singer and dissident, said police confined her to her home and threatened her with eviction, after she defied a ban on protests.

Ms Khoi, who was barred from standing for parliament last year, said she was escorted home after she flashed a sign insulting the president as his motorcade passed by.

She said she was protesting against Donald Trump's attitude to women and his failure to meet with human rights activists in Vietnam.

Mr Trump will travel to Manila later on Sunday for the final stop on his Asia tour, before flying back to the US.

Source – bbc.com

Dozens of records fall as cold grips Northeast, Midwest for one more day

It is another cold November morning in the Northeast. Though not as cold as yesterday, temperatures dropped into the 20s through much of the Northeast and Midwest on Sunday morning.

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Although temperatures are not as cold as Sunday, many daily record lows could be challenged across the entire Northeast. This comes after Boston and New York set back-to-back daily record lows on Friday and Saturday.

Boston; New York; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Newark and Trenton, New Jersey; Pittsburgh and Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Youngstown, Ohio all set or tied record lows for two consecutive days. Some of these locations are going for a third consecutive record low this morning.

Quite a number of low temperature records broken or tied across the Northeast and eastern Great Lakes regions this morning as well as Friday night before midnight. pic.twitter.com/LjKIMoDm8t

— NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) November 11, 2017

Some moderation in temperatures is occurring in parts of Midwest in Indiana, Michigan and Chicago thanks to a weak disturbance. The system is bringing some light rain across parts of Iowa and Illinois. However, some of this moisture is encountering some cold air in southern Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio and a mix of rain and snow is falling in this region. Areas of freezing drizzle will also be possible in the region through the morning.

The arctic chill will lose its grip on the Northeast today with temperatures recovering into the 40s Sunday afternoon. Temperatures will near the 50s during the first few days of the week — just a couple degrees shy of the average temperature for mid-November.

Wet and windy Northwest

A new series of storms is on the way for the Northwest this week. It will be a wet and windy week for parts of Oregon and Washington.

As with most of these autumn storms, we are also expecting heavy mountain snow, especially later in the week.

A storm system moving through the region Sunday will bring wind gusts up to 50 mph in the higher elevations of Washington and Oregon through Monday. While not very likely, some of these strong winds could make it into the Puget Sound region and result in tree and power-line damage in the Seattle metro region.

The lowlands will receive periods of heavy rain and some minor flooding will be possible. Nearly 4 to 7 inches of rain is expected through Wednesday in parts of the region.

Another system will come into the region by midweek that looks colder and stronger. While uncertainty remains over the exact track of the storm, there is potential for much more widespread snow in the mountains across the Northwest and northern Rockies.

Unsettled Midwest ahead

For most of the country, it will be seasonably cool and quiet for the first part of the week. While a couple of disturbances will bring some light rain in the south central U.S., there is no organized weather event to highlight for much of the country.

However, looking ahead, we will be monitoring a storm system tracking across the Northwest by the later half of the week. Once this system gets east of the Rockies, it will have the potential to bring some significant winter weather across the Midwest, the Great Lakes and perhaps the interior Northeast by the end of the week.

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Israel warns Gaza militants against carrying out attacks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Gaza militants against attacks as the Islamic Jihad group vowed revenge for the demolition of one of its attack tunnels that crossed into Israel.

The Iranian-backed group has threatened to carry out attacks after the tunnel was demolished last month, killing a dozen militants. It was a rare flare-up along the tense border, which has remained mostly quiet since a 2014 Israel-Hamas war.

Gunmen from Gaza on several occasions infiltrated Israel through a tunnel network during the fighting that year.

Israel "will respond with a heavy hand to anyone who tries to attack us, or does attack us, from any front," Netanyahu said at a weekly Cabinet meeting. Israel holds Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, responsible for any attacks launched from the territory, he added.

Earlier, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, who heads COGAT, the defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian matters, also issued a warning saying the militants "are playing with fire at the expense of the Gaza residents, Palestinian reconciliation efforts and the stability of the entire region."

Toward the end of the 2014 war, Israel destroyed more than 30 tunnels that Hamas had dug under the border. Gaza militants had used the tunnels to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks. Although they did not manage to reach civilian areas, the infiltrations by heavily armed Palestinian gunmen caught Israel off guard and terrified the local population.

Since then Israel has made neutralizing the tunnel threat a top priority, and several cross-border tunnels have been discovered and demolished since the war.

Daoud Shehab, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, called the comments by Netanyahu and Mordechai "a declaration of war." He told The Associated Press that his group "made a decision to respond" with "a response that Israel is not used to." He did not elaborate but said it would not be with rocket fire, hinting at possible attacks from the West Bank.

Israel has indicated it will keep the bodies of five of the militants killed in the tunnel until Hamas agrees to return the remains of two soldiers killed in 2014 as well as two live Israeli civilians believed held in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas is trying to reach a reconciliation agreement with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority through Egyptian mediation, and is widely believed to want to preserve the calm for now.

———

Associated Press writer Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

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Trump faces tough leader, bloody drug war and terror threat in the Philippines

WATCH US relations with the Philippines

President Donald Trump will wrap up his 13-day tour through Asia with a stop in the Philippines Sunday and Monday — a key American ally in the midst of a bloody drug war, dealing with an insurgent ISIS threat and concerned about increasingly stronger ties to America's adversaries China and Russia.

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But most of all, Trump will have to tangle with the country's controversial president, Rodrigo Duterte, who has a reputation for filthy language, has faced charges of crimes for his drug war, and has claimed several times to have killed people himself. His latest claim came Friday while at a summit with Trump and other leaders, claiming that he stabbed someone "just over a look" and forcing a spokesperson to later clarify it was a joke.

Two days later, he will host Trump and other world leaders at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, summit, with a 50th-anniversary gala. The next day Trump and Duterte meet one on one.

Here are the top issues on Trump's visit.

Repairing relations with Duterte

Among Duterte's most infamous comments was what he said about former President Barack Obama. After Obama said he would challenge Duterte about his war on drugs and crime, Duterte ordered Obama not to question him and called him a "son of a whore" in a press conference.

Obama canceled the meeting. Duterte's office issued a statement, saying he regretted the comment. But relations were never the same.

Trump, on the other hand, has embraced Duterte — with a senior administration official saying before the trip that "there's a warm rapport there." The two have exchanged letters, and when they spoke by phone in April, the White House said the call was "very friendly" and the president "invited President Duterte to the White House to discuss the importance of the United States-Philippines alliance, which is now heading in a very positive direction."

That invitation generated some outrage from human rights groups. But the Philippines is a major non-NATO ally, meaning it has special treaty status with the U.S., and the relationship between the two countries dates back to the 19th century and the Spanish-American War, when the U.S. took control of the islands from Spain. It has been an important buffer against Chinese assertion, especially in the South China Sea.

But while the Obama administration refused to look past the alleged human rights abuses, the Trump administration seems to care more about that alliance.

Ezra Acayan/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Addressing the bloody drug war

That doesn't mean the issue won't come up. The senior administration official told reporters, "The president will have frank and friendly discussions in his first meeting with Mr. Duterte."

The drug war has become an unavoidable topic — with more than 12,000 people killed, according to estimates by some NGOs and media outlets.

When he came into office in June 2016, Duterte ordered the police and military to violently root out criminals and drug users and sellers, but instead of arrests and prosecutions, there were thousands of extrajudicial killings. Over the last year and a half, the violence has snowballed, with an enormous death toll.

Jes Aznar/Getty Images

Duterte has defended the killings as necessary to "cleanse" the country of a drug scourge and questioned whether or not drug users and dealers are "human" or could be rehabilitated.

Trump applauded the efforts as well, saying in a statement in April, "The Philippine government is fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs, a scourge that affects many countries throughout the world."

But after international pressure — including an economic threat by the European Union to strip the Philippines of trading privileges worth billions — and declining support at home, Duterte scaled back the policy in October. He suspended the Philippine National Police’s anti-drug operations but has allowed the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to continue its work.

With that curtailment, it seems even less likely that Trump will call on Duterte to suspend operations and seek justice for victims.

ISIS threat and counterterror ties

The Trump administration could announce closer ties to the Filipino military as the country battles an ISIS-affiliated insurgency in a southern province called Mindanao.

Long the home to Muslim separatists groups — including one affiliated with al Qaeda — insurgent groups announced their allegiance to ISIS in 2014, with ISIS accepting in early 2016.

In May, the group mounted a surprise assault on the city Marawi, shortly after the government tried to capture one ISIS group's leader. The terrorists seized government offices, a university and other buildings, took hostages and fought back security forces. For weeks, then months, the two sides fought back and forth, block by block.

The U.S. has supported the military's efforts — as it has for years — with aid including special operations training and arms sales, but it did not fight alongside Filipino forces.

After a five-month siege, the government announced on Oct. 23 that it had retaken the city — with nearly 800 militants, including top leaders, 158 government soldiers and 47 civilians dead. While the threat of small-scale attacks and bombings remains, as well as unexploded bombs and other weapons, people are finally beginning to return to their lives.

But ISIS's hold on Iraq and Syria continues to crumble in recent months, so the group has encouraged new recruits to travel to the Philippines and other countries instead — and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in August that some fighters in the Middle East have traveled to the country.

With the danger still imminent, Duterte's government wants more weapons — announcing an interest in purchasing Russian arms Friday. The Trump administration will likely try to counter that, as it pledges continued support for Filipino efforts to eradicate the terror group.

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Water wizards: Dutch flood expertise is big export business

On a calm, clear morning, historic wooden fishing boats float tranquilly on the glassy waters of the Dutch harbor of Spakenburg. Yet just over a century ago, they were slamming through the houses lining the harbor as a powerful storm unleashed flooding that devastated this picturesque fishing village.

These days, an innovative new self-raising dike protects the village on the edge of Eemmeer Lake, 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Amsterdam. The 300-meter (984-foot) long barrier is concealed in the sidewalk when not in use, and is lifted up to 80 centimeters (31 inches) by the very floodwaters it is designed to keep out.

It's just the latest example of Dutch ingenuity and planning in this low-lying nation's constant battle with water — and increasingly, technology like it is becoming a lucrative Dutch export.

"We live here in a very vulnerable place," said Roeland Hillen, director of the Dutch Flood Protection Program. "We have to adapt to survive."

That message resonates with many other flood-prone countries now attending climate change talks in Bonn, where delegates from some 195 nations have gathered to discuss rules for implementing the 2015 Paris climate accord. The meeting in the former German capital, which runs until Friday, is being presided over by Fiji, one of the many small island nations threatened by rising sea levels.

"We will feel the impact of climate change all over the world most profoundly through water," said Henk Ovink, the Netherlands' Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, who is at the Bonn conference.

The Dutch government teamed up earlier this year with Japan and the U. N. Environment Program to create a Global Center of Excellence on Climate Adaptation in the Netherlands that will be formally launched Tuesday on the sidelines of the Bonn conference.

The center aims to "support those who struggle to put climate adaptation effectively into practice in all parts of the world," the government said.

Housing the water expertise center in the Netherlands was a no-brainer. Some 26 percent of this nation of 17 million people lies below sea level and 29 percent is vulnerable to river flooding. The Dutch struggle to keep the country dry has been a constant fact of life for centuries.

The center will have bases in the northern city of Groningen and in a new floating office in the port city of Rotterdam.

The Dutch government earmarks 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion) per year to keep up its defenses against high water. The money is spent on maintaining and strengthening dikes and levees and on other water mitigation measures. By 2050, the country aims to reinforce some 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) of dikes and levees, Hillen said.

But while the costs are high, expertise and technology developed by the Dutch are becoming increasingly valuable commodities. Annual exports of Dutch water technology and expertise have doubled since 2000 to just under 8 billion euros ($9.3 billion) a year.

"Water is an asset and a threat," said Ovink.

Recent contracts involving Dutch companies include Netherlands-based Arcadis being selected as part of a consortium involved in a 10-year "seawall resiliency project" to strengthen a century-old San Francisco harbor wall that protects an area including the city's beloved Fisherman's Wharf.

Back in Spakenburg, experts say the self-raising dike is a good example not only of new techniques for holding back rising tides, but also how to integrate such barriers in spatial planning. Sinking the wall into the sidewalk means that it does not spoil views of the picturesque harbor for tourists or locals. The technology already is being put to use in projects in England, Vietnam and China.

Ovink stresses that it is just one of a multitude of defenses the Dutch have developed to hold water at bay.

"There is no (single) fix," he said. "It's a culture of living with water."

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Trump offers to mediate in protracted South China Sea feud

President Donald Trump on Sunday offered to mediate in the South China Sea disputes, while his Chinese counterpart played down concerns over Beijing's military buildup and the prospects of war in the contested waters.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke separately about the territorial rifts ahead of an annual summit of Southeast Asian nations that also includes the U.S., China and other global players. The disputes are expected to get the spotlight at the summit, along with the North Korean nuclear threat and terrorism.

The long-simmering disputes are one issue where the two major powers' influence, focus and military might have been gauged, with the U.S. and China both calling for a peaceful resolution but taking contrasting positions in most other aspects of the conflict.

Unlike China, the U.S. is not a claimant to the potentially oil-rich and busy waters, but it has declared that it has a national interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and the peaceful resolution of the disputes. Several nations back an active American military presence in the region to serve as a counterweight to China's increasingly assertive actions, including the construction of seven man-made islands equipped with military installations.

"I'm a very good mediator and arbitrator," Trump said at a news conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, before flying to Manila for the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Trump's offer faces major obstacles. For one, China has steadfastly opposed what it calls U.S. meddling in the disputes and has balked at the U.S. Navy's incursions into what Beijing considers its territorial waters in the South China Sea.

The Philippines, the head of ASEAN's rotational chairmanship, said member states of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc have to consult each other but thanked Trump for the offer.

"He is the master of the art of the deal but, of course, the claimant countries have to answer as a group or individually … mediation involves all the claimants and nonclaimants," Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Xi, during a meeting in Danang, Vietnam, where they attended the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum this past week, assured him of China's peaceful intentions in the strategic waterway, where Beijing, the Philippines, Vietnam and three other governments have overlapping claims.

When he raised concerns over China's increasing military capability in the South China Sea, Duterte said Xi replied, "No, it's nothing."

"He acknowledged that war cannot be promoted by anybody, (that) it would only mean destruction for all of us," Duterte told reporters after flying back to Manila. "He knows that if he goes to war, everything will blow up."

The Chinese leader, however, would not back down on Beijing's territorial claim, Duterte said, and justified his decision not to immediately demand Chinese compliance with a ruling by a U.N.-linked tribunal that invalidated China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea on historical grounds.

China has dismissed that ruling as a "sham" and did not participate in the arbitration case that the Philippines filed during the administration of Duterte's predecessor. Duterte took steps to thaw frosty relations with China after he won the presidency last year.

"If you go to the negotiating table and you start with the statement that I am here to claim validity of our ownership, you're wasting your time. They will not talk about it," Duterte said of China.

The ASEAN summit opens Monday under extra-tight security at a theater and convention complex by Manila Bay. Duterte will host a gala dinner for nearly 20 world leaders, including Trump, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Riot police used shields and water hoses Sunday to push back hundreds of left-wing activists who tried to hold a protest at the U.S. Embassy and carried placards that read "Ban Trump." There were no immediate reports of injuries in the brief scuffle and the protesters left after burning a mock U.S. flag.

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Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.

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Source – abcnews.go.com