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US vows it will 'never accept a nuclear North Korea' after new missile test

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson vowed Tuesday that the U.S. would "never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea" while U.S. and South Korean forces held joint ballistic missile drills after the Communist nation successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Tillerson also called for all nations to fully implement United Nations sanctions against North Korea, saying "global action is required to stop a global threat."
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it had conducted a "precision firing" demonstration off the coast of the Korean Peninsula in response to what it called North Korea's "destabilizing and unlawful actions."
Pentagon spokesman Dana White also condemned the missile test and reiterated that, "we remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies and to use the full range of capabilities at our disposal against the growing threat from North Korea."
President Trump did not directly mention North Korea or the missile launch during his Independence Day remarks at a picnic for military families on the South Lawn of the White House. However, he did note that "we do have challenges, but we will handle those challenges. Believe me."
U.S., South Korean and Japanese officials say the North Korean missile flew for about 40 minutes and reached an altitude of 1,500 miles, which would be longer and higher than any similar North Korean test previously reported. It also covered a distance of about 580 miles.
A veteran North Korea watcher told Fox News Tuesday that the missile was fired from a mobile launcher, making such tests more difficult for the U.S. to track and disrupt.
"This is the big story we have all been waiting for,” Professor Bruce Bechtol of Angelo State University in Texas wrote in an email. “All of the paradigms have changed. It is now time to see what action the USA will take."
Bechtol added that the mobile launcher "nearly destroys our warning time and also means that the North Koreans have a real shot at launching this system at us without us being able to destroy it on the ground."
Shortly after news of the test broke Monday night, Trump tweeted, "North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life? Hard to believe that South Korea and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!"
"This guy" presumably refers to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. China is North Korea's economic lifeline and only major ally, and the Trump administration is pushing Beijing to do more to push the North toward disarmament.
The U.N. Security Council was due to hold an emergency meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss its response to the launch. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley tweeted her frustration at spending her Independence Day holiday in high-level meetings with the hashtag, "#ThanksNorthKorea."
The missile test could invite a new round of international sanctions, but North Korea is already one of the most sanctioned countries on Earth. U.N. Security Council resolutions ban it from engaging in any ballistic activities. Since late 2012, North Korea has placed two satellites into orbit with long-range rockets, each time triggering new U.N. sanctions and worldwide condemnation.
Earlier Tuesday, the Chinese and Russian foreign ministries proposed that North Korea declare a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests while the United States and South Korea refrain from large-scale joint military exercises. North Korea views the exercises as preparation for an invasion and has repeatedly demanded their cancellation. It says it needs nuclear weapons and powerful missiles to cope with what it calls rising U.S. military threats.
Moscow and Beijing issued the proposal in a joint statement after talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
They urged other nations to create a "peaceful atmosphere of mutual trust" to encourage talks between the two sides on commitments not to use force and to make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
Regional disarmament talks on North Korea's nuclear program have been deadlocked since 2009, when the North pulled out of the negotiations to protest international condemnation over a long-range rocket launch.
North Korea has a reliable arsenal of shorter-range missiles and is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs, but is still trying to perfect its longer-range missiles. Some outside civilian experts believe the North has the technology to mount warheads on shorter-range Rodong and Scud missiles that can strike South Korea and Japan, two key U.S. allies where about 80,000 American troops are stationed. But it's unclear if it has mastered the technology needed to build an atomic bomb that can fit on a long-range missile.

EPA-funded lab faked research results on respiratory illnesses, whistleblower lawsuit claims

Duke University has admitted that one of its lab technicians falsified or fabricated research data on respiratory illnesses that were used to get large grants from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The admission came Sunday in legal filings that respond to a federal whistleblower lawsuit, which the school tried to get dismissed, by former lab analyst Joseph Thomas, according to the Durham Herald-Sun. Thomas claims in his lawsuit that the allegedly fake research data of Erin Potts-Kant, who worked eight years at a Duke medical school lab, was used by the prestigious university and some of its professors to fraudulently obtain federal grants. Thomas also claims Duke tried to hide the alleged fraud.
Potts-Kant told a Duke investigation panel, which reviewed 36 of her reports, her fake data was “included in various publications and grant applications.”
Thomas alleges that all or nearly all the work Potts-Kant did during her eight years at Duke compromised grants worth $112.8 million to Duke and another $120.9 million to institutions like UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, the Herald-Sun said.
Thomas’ lawsuit uses the False Claims Act that whistleblowers can use to notify authorities of a potential fraud. If such lawsuits are successful, the whistleblower can receive a reward. Damage awards can be as much as three times the size of the alleged fraud.
Potts-Kant, who worked for now-retired pulmonologist Dr. Michael Foster, admitted she had “generated experiment data that was altered,” and that “to the extent she altered” it, “she knew the altered experiment data was false,” according to a lawyer representing her.
In 2007 the EPA gave Foster a grant to determine whether exposure to airborne particulates can negatively affect lung development in newborn mice. Potts-Kant operated a machine that gauged the lung function of mice to learn more about human respiratory ailments, the Daily Caller reported. That project was part of a $7.74 million environmental justice grant for a project that covered a period from 2007 to 2014.
Research from this project goes into EPA data sets the agency uses to link respiratory ailments and airborne particulates.
In 2013 Potts-Kant was accused of embezzlement, which triggered an investigation of her work by Duke. She resigned from the
school and was eventually convicted of embezzlement.

Food stamp rolls plummet in states that restore work requirements

After the food stamp rolls swelled for years under the Obama administration, fresh figures show a dramatic reduction in states that recently have moved to restore work requirements.
States were allowed to waive those rules for able-bodied adults thanks to the 2009 economic stimulus. As the rules loosened and the economy sputtered out of the recession, food stamp enrollment soared to record levels – peaking at nearly 48 million nationwide in 2013.
But while that number has dipped gradually in recent years, some states have moved aggressively to push recipients who can work back into the job market and, in due time, off the program.
Alabama began 2017 by requiring able-bodied adults without children in 13 counties to either find a job or participate in work training as a condition for continuing to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
SEATTLE MINIMUM WAGE HIKE HURTING WORKERS?
According to AL.com, the number of those recipients declined from 5,538 to 831 between Jan. 1 and the beginning of May – an 85 percent drop.
Similar changes were implemented in select counties in Georgia and by the end of the first three months, the number of adults receiving benefits in three participating counties dropped 58 percent, according to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

'Welfare was never intended to be a one-way handout, but a program based on the idea of reciprocity.'
- Heritage Foundation fellow Robert Rector

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported that in 21 additional counties that restored the work requirement, there was a 62 percent drop in SNAP participants.
“Work requirements have been enormously successful at reducing the number of people on food stamps. And while they made sense in the early part of the recession when unemployment was higher, that is no longer the case,” said Robert Doar, a fellow in poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

A key component of the 1996 welfare reform bill, the work requirement applies to able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWD) between the ages of 18 to 49.
However, as part of his 2009 economic stimulus, then-President Barack Obama allowed states to waive SNAP work requirements, which resulted in the number of ABAWDs on food stamps more than doubling from 1.9 million in 2008 to 3.9 million in 2010, according to a 2012 Congressional Research Service study.
The number continued to rise but has since slipped to roughly 4.2 million. According to the USDA, most states still offer full or partial waivers.
Advocates for waivers argue that the flexibility is needed to help people get back on their feet in the wake of the economic crisis. And a call in the Trump administration’s budget to resurrect the work mandate and scale back SNAP’s budget has drawn fire from anti-hunger advocates.
“Parents will work just as hard at unforgiving jobs and see less food on the table for their families. Children will become sicker without the proper nutrition, ending up in hospitals or on the rolls of what social services remain. Some children will die,” Mariana Chilton, a professor of public health at Drexel University, predicted in a column for The Hill.
SNAP reform, however, could be bolstered by the developments at the state level.
“Welfare was never intended to be a one-way handout, but a program based on the idea of reciprocity,” said Robert Rector, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “Those who receive benefits from the government should be required to work or participate in work-training as a condition.”
Doar and Rector cite reforms made by Republican Gov. Paul LePage of Maine.
In October 2014, LePage announced that able-bodied adults would have to find work, spend 20 hours per week in a work program, or perform community service for six hours a week.
Food stamp participation declined 14.5 percent from 235,771 in January 2014 to 201,557 in January 2015, according to the state.
An analysis of a group of 7,000 Mainers who left SNAP in 2014 found their total earnings increased from $3.85 million in the third quarter 2014 to $8.24 million in the last quarter of 2015.
Kansas saw a 75 percent decline after implementing work requirements in 2013. In addition, nearly 60 percent of former beneficiaries found employment within 12 months and their incomes rose by an average of 127 percent per year, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability.
The Maine model taken nationwide could save taxpayers over $8.4 billion per year, according to Rector.
That is the goal of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who have introduced a bill to require able-bodied adults without children to participate in “work activation” initiatives as a condition of their benefits. It also imposes time limits on SNAP participation.
“We should be incentivizing work, not providing a disincentive to find a job, which is a good thing both for the taxpayer as well as for the beneficiary,” Jordan said.
Jordan told Fox News he speaks with business owners in his district every day who cannot find workers to fill open positions.
“The focus of these programs should be on how we can help adults get their families to a better way of life,” Jordan said.

Trump faces delicate diplomatic dance with Putin meeting, on G-20 sidelines

WARSAW, Poland –  President Trump lands here in the Polish capital Wednesday where he'll find an audience that's open to his brand of politics. But while the president will try to show he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with eastern European NATO allies, the visit comes just hours ahead of the biggest diplomatic test of his young presidency: his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Poland is a country with a government that's likeminded with Trump. They have a very conservative government that's also favored very restrictive immigration policies,” said Jordan Tama, a professor at American University’s School of International Service. “I think Trump felt that this is a country where he would have a warm reception and he probably will have a warm reception there.”
But Poland also exists in the shadow of Russian aggression and has been concerned the Trump administration isn't fully committed to helping NATO fight it.
Despite campaign rhetoric that questioned the U.S. financial commitment to the alliance, Trump shocked leaders during a May speech when he admonished many of them for not spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
Though it’s a message that’s been repeated for years by both Presidents Barack Obama and Trump, the way it was delivered surprised many of the leaders who stood alongside him during the speech at the grand opening of the new NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“If NATO countries made their full and complete contributions, then NATO would be even stronger than it is today,” the president said.
Poland barely meets the 2 percent minimum and is one of only five nations that cross that bar. While 24 others do not, NATO members have pledged an additional $12 billion this year after Trump challenged them.
But the U.S. is still heavily involved in the defense of NATO’s eastern flank. There are at least 1,000 U.S. troops in Poland, a fourth of the total number dedicated to NATO's Operation Atlantic Resolve -- a show of force that ramped up after Russian-backed forces entered Ukraine in 2014. And a portion of a U.S.-backed missile defense system goes online here next year.
Still, the Polish government will want Trump to take a hard line with Putin when the two meet for the first time on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. The White House won’t say what the two will talk about, but has confirmed the meeting is set for Friday afternoon.
“Well there’s no specific agenda,” said White House National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. “It’s really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about.”
Analysts suggest the president will have a decision to make ahead of the bilateral meeting with Putin.
“Trump has to choose really here to some extent,” Tama said. “He has to choose whether he is going to prioritize the NATO alliance, prioritize transatlantic security and standing with European countries to deter Russia or prioritize improved relations with Russia.”
The president may look to improve relations with European allies too, specifically Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel will host the G-20 summit. After Trump touted his America First agenda at NATO and the G-7 summit last month in Taormina, Italy, Merkel indicated Europe was on its own.
"The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days,” Merkel said. “And that is why I can only say: We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands."
The president and the German chancellor clashed during the meetings over trade deficits and the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. Administration officials have signaled the president is open to renegotiating the climate agreement or starting work on a new one.
But it will be the meeting with Putin amid allegations Russia influenced the 2016 U.S. election that will put the president's diplomacy to the test.
“To the extent that it looks like Trump is too eager to smooth things over with Putin and just cooperate with Russia despite Russian bad behavior, he'll be subject to domestic criticism here at home,” Tama said.
Asked specifically whether Trump will bring up allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, White House officials again declined to share an agenda.
It’s an agenda that will be watched closely at home and around the world.