How Walking 30 Minutes A Day Can Boost Weight Loss, Improve Digestion, And Help You Live Longer

Walking 30 minutes a day is linked to numerous health benefits, like weight loss, improved mood, and lowered disease risk, longevity, and more. Image: Kieferpix/Getty

BY MEGHAN RABBITT

Taking a 30-minute walk a day is kind of like that proverbial apple: There's a good chance it'll keep the doctor away.

From helping you lose weight and de-stress to lowering your blood pressure and reducing your risk of many chronic diseases, going for regular walks is one of the best and easiest things you can do for your health, says Melina B. Jampolis, MD, author of The Doctor on Demand Diet.

"Walking is the number one exercise I recommend to most of my patients because it is very easy to do, requires nothing but a pair of tennis shoes, and has tremendous mental and physical benefits," she says. Here's what you can expect when you start walking for just 30 minutes every day, most days of the week.

You know how sometimes it takes a glass of wine or a square (or three) of dark chocolate to blunt the edge of a rough day? Well, going for a walk is a zero-calorie strategy with the same benefits, says Dr. Jampolis.

"Research shows that regular walking actually modifies your nervous system so much that you'll experience a decrease in anger and hostility," she says. What's more, when you make your walks social — you stride with, say, your partner, a neighbor, or a good friend — that interaction helps you feel connected, says Dr. Jampolis, which boosts mood. Finally, walking outdoors exposes you to natural sunlight, which can help stave off seasonal affective disorder (SAD) — making it a potential antidote for the winter blues, says Dr. Jampolis.

Your creative juices will start flowing

Whether you're feeling stuck at work or you've been searching for a solution to a tricky problem, research shows it's a good idea to get moving: According to a 2014 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory, and Cognition, going for a walk can spark creativity. "Researchers administered creative-thinking tests to subjects while seated and while walking and found that the walkers thought more creatively than the sitters," says Dr. Jampolis.

You'll burn calories and lose weight
This one may seem obvious, but it's certainly a happy benefit for those who start walking regularly, says Dr. Jampolis. "As you continue to walk, you may notice your pants begin to fit more loosely around your midsection, even if the number on the scale isn't moving much," she says. "That's because regular walking can help improve your body's response to insulin, which can help reduce belly fat."

Ariel Iasevoli, a personal trainer at Crunch gyms in New York City, adds that walking every day is one of the most effective low-impact ways to mobilize fat and positively alter body composition. "Daily walking increases metabolism by burning extra calories and by preventing muscle loss, which is particularly important as we get older," says Iasevoli. The best part? You don't have to slog it out on a treadmill at the gym to see these benefits. "One of my clients reduced her body fat by 2 percent in just one month by walking home from work each day, which was just under a mile," she says.

The secret to walking off the weight: intervals, says Michele Staten, a walking coach and author of Prevention's Walk Your Way to Better Health. "Interval walking really cranks up your afterburn, the calories you burn long after your official walk is over," Stanten says. To add intervals, warm up for 3 minutes. Then spend 25 minutes alternating between 1 minute of fast walking (almost as fast as you can go) and 1 minute of brisk walking (aiming for a 6 on a 1 to 10 intensity scale). Then cool down for two minutes.

You'll reduce your risk of chronic disease

The statistics are impressive: The American Diabetes Association says walking lowers your blood sugar levels and your overall risk for diabetes. Researchers at the University of Boulder Colorado and the University of Tennessee found that regular walking lowered blood pressure by as much as 11 points and may reduce the risk of stroke by 20 to 40 percent. One of the most cited studies on walking and health, published in a 2002 study in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that those who walked enough to meet physical activity guidelines (30 or more minutes of moderate activity on five or more days per week) had a 30 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with those who did not walk regularly.

"The physical benefits of walking are well documented," says Scott Danberg, director of fitness at Pritikin Longevity Center + Spa in Miami. With impressive results like these, there's a good chance you'll get a pat on the back from your doc at your next checkup.

For disease prevention, longer walks are key, says s Stanten. Include a longer, hourlong walk once or twice a week, she says.

You'll keep your legs looking great

As you age, your risk of unsightly varicose veins increases — it's just not fair. However, walking is a proven way to prevent those unsightly lines from developing, says Luis Navarro, MD, founder, and director of The Vein Treatment Center in New York City.

"The venous system includes a circulatory section known as 'the second heart,' which is formed by muscles, veins, and valves located in our calf and foot," he explains. "This system works to push blood back up to the heart and lungs — and walking strengthens this secondary circulatory system by strengthening and preserving leg muscle, which boosts healthy blood flow."

If you already suffer from varicose veins, daily walking can help ease related swelling and restlessness in your legs, says Dr. Navarro. "Also, if you are genetically predisposed to have varicose and/or spider veins, walking daily can help delay the onset."

Your digestion will improve

If you currently praise coffee for keeping your digestive system going strong, get ready to start thanking your morning walk instead. That's because a regular walking routine can greatly improve your bowel movements, says Tara Alaichamy, DPT, a physical therapist at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. "One of the very first things an abdominal surgery patient is required to do is to walk because it utilizes core and abdominal muscles, encouraging movement in our GI system," she says.
Your other goals will start to seem more reachable

When you become a regular walker, you will have established a regular routine — and when you have a routine, you are more likely to continue with the activity and take on new healthy behaviors. "I firmly believe that walking regularly can help you to accomplish other goals you set your mind to," says Kim Evans, a personal trainer, and daily walker.

You'll protect your joints

Contrary to what you might think, pounding pavement can help improve your range of motion and mobility because walking increases blood flow to tense areas and helps strengthen the muscles surrounding your joints. In fact, research shows that walking for at least 10 minutes a day — or about an hour every week — can stave off disability and arthritis pain in older adults. An April 2019 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine followed 1,564 adults older than 49 years old with lower-body joint pain. Participants were asked to to walk for an hour each week. Those who didn't walk for at least an hour each week reported that they were walking too slowly and had issues performing their morning routine, while participants who stuck with their walking routine had better mobility. 

You'll boost your immunity

It turns out that putting one foot in front of the other could help reduce your risk for disease and promote longevity. Research from Arthritis Research & Therapy suggests that high-intensity interval walk training can help improve immune function in older adults with rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory disease that affects the joints. A recent studyfrom Chronic Respiratory Disease also shows that walking may help patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) reduce their morbidity and mortality risk. Patients with COPD tend to be overweight or obese because they're unable to exercise for longer periods of time and may find it hard to breathe during intense movements. But walking can help improve symptoms and lower their risk for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome, among other things.

You'll live longer

Ever wonder how people from Blue Zones are able to live to 100? Their secret to a longer and healthier life involves walking and getting outside. A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society showed that older adults, between the ages of 70 and 90, who left the house and were physically active lived longer than those who didn't. Staying active also helps you stay connected to loved ones and friends who can provide emotional support, which is especially important as you age.

You'll sleep better at night

If you work out regularly, you know that you'll sleep better at night. That's because sleep naturally boosts the effects of melatonin, the sleep hormone. A 2019 study from Sleepfound that postmenopausal women who do light to moderate intensity physical activity snooze better at night than those who are sedentary. Walking also helps reduce pain and stress, which can cause sleep disturbances.

SOURCE: PREVENTION MAGAZINE

Powell's Message To Congress: Rate Cut Is Likely Coming Soon

BY MARTIN CRUTSINGER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pointing to a weaker global economy, rising trade tensions and chronically low inflation, Chairman Jerome Powell signaled Wednesday that the Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates late this month for the first time in a decade.

Delivering the central bank’s semiannual report to Congress, Powell said that since Fed officials met last month, “uncertainties around trade tensions and concerns about the strength of the global economy continue to weigh on the U.S. economic outlook.” In addition, inflation has dipped further below the Fed’s annual target level.

The chairman’s remarks led investors to send stock prices up, bond yields down and the value of the U.S. dollar lower on expectations of lower interest rates. The S&P 500 index briefly traded over 3,000 for the first time.

Testifying to the House Financial Services Committee, Powell was asked, as he has been before, what he would do if President Donald Trump tried to fire or demote him. Powell offered the same terse reply he’s given in the past when asked about Trump’s attacks on his leadership and the president’s insistence that he has authority to remove the chairman: Powell said he intends to serve out his full four-year term, which ends in early 2022.

The president has repeatedly accused Powell and the Fed of keeping credit too tight for too long and of thereby holding back the economy and the stock market. Most experts dispute Trump’s assertion that he has authority to either fire Powell or demote him from the chairman’s post, and his attacks have raised alarms that he’s undermining the Fed’s long-recognized independence from political pressure.

Powell’s description Wednesday of a more downbeat economic landscape led most economists to conclude that a quarter-point rate cut is a virtual certainty at the Fed’s meeting in three weeks, with many forecasting further rate cuts to come. Some characterized a likely rate cut late this month as an “insurance policy” against an economic downturn.

“I think it will be the start of a series of rate cuts,” added Sung Won Sohn, economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “Powell wants to provide fuel for the economy down the road.”

Expectations of a pending rate cut drew additional support Wednesday when the Fed released the minutes of its June 18-19 meeting. The central bank held rates unchanged then, but the minutes showed that some officials felt looser credit could soon be needed to address economic weakness.

Investors have collectively put the odds of a rate cut this month at 100%. The Fed’s benchmark rate stands in a range of 2.25% to 2.5% after it raised rates four times last year — action that incited the initial attacks on the Powell Fed from Trump.

In the prepared remarks he delivered Wednesday before taking questions from the House members, Powell made no mention of the president’s criticism. He did thank Congress for the “independence” it has given the Fed to operate free of political intrusion. But later, in the question-and-answer period, several Democratic committee members offered support for Powell’s leadership and a rejection of Trump’s criticism.

Rep. Maxine Waters, who leads the committee, declared that “this president has made it clear that he has no understanding or respect for the independence of the Federal Reserve.”

Waters and other Democrats urged Powell to stand up to Trump’s attacks.

“Have no fear,” Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., told the chairman. “We in Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have got your back.”

Powell’s remarks Wednesday began two days of his testimony on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, he will address the Senate Banking Committee.

At the moment, the U.S. economic landscape is a mixed one: The job market appears resilient, but economic growth is slowing. Many forecasters predict that growth has slowed to an annual rate of around 2% in the just completed April-June quarter.

In his testimony, Powell said the economy has fared reasonably well over the first half of the year. But he noted that “crosscurrents, such as trade tensions and concerns about global growth, have been weighing on economic activity and the outlook.”

He said that growth in business investment “seems to have slowed notably,” possibly because of concerns over slowing global growth and the trade battle between the Trump administration and China.

The Fed chairman told the House committee that he thinks average worker pay isn’t rising fast enough to accelerate low inflation, even with the unemployment rate near a five-decade low. An absence of inflation pressure makes it easier for the Fed to cut short-term rates. Referring to rates, Powell repeated a pledge the Fed made in its June policy statement that officials would “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion.” But notably, he added that “many” Fed official saw that the case for a looser monetary policy “had strengthened.”

The Fed hasn’t cut rates since 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping declared a truce last month in what had threatened to become an escalating U.S.-China trade war and agreed to resume talks toward a deal that would meet the administration’s demands to better protect U.S. technology. That step eased fears that Trump would extend punitive tariffs to an additional $300 billion in Chinese goods, in the process inviting retaliation from Beijing on American exports and likely weakening both nations’ economies.

And last week the government reported that after a tepid job gain in May, U.S. employers sharply stepped up their hiring in June, an indication of the economy’s durability.

Flooding Swamps New Orleans; Possible Hurricane Coming Next

Terrian Jones reacts as she feels something moving in the water at her feet as she carries Drew and Chance Furlough to their mother on Belfast Street in New Orleans during flooding from a storm in the Gulf Mexico that dumped lots of rain Wednesday, July 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

BY CHEVEL JOHNSON AND JANET McCONNAUGHEY

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A storm swamped New Orleans streets and paralyzed traffic Wednesday as concerns grew that even worse weather was on the way: a possible hurricane that could strike the Gulf Coast and raise the Mississippi River to the brim of the city’s protective levees.

The storm was associated with a broad area of disturbed weather in the Gulf that forecasters said was on track to strengthen into a hurricane by the weekend. The system was expected to become a tropical depression by Thursday morning, a tropical storm by Thursday night and a hurricane on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Lines of thunderstorms associated with the system ranged far out in into the Gulf and battered New Orleans, where as much as 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain fell over a three-hour period Wednesday morning, forecasters said.

Mississippi and Texas were also at risk of torrential rains.

In New Orleans, streets turned into small, swift rivers that overturned garbage cans and picked up pieces of floating wood. Water was up to the doors of many cars. Other vehicles were abandoned. Kayakers paddled their way down some streets.

Chandris Rethmeyer lost her car to the flood and had to wade through water about 4 feet (1.22 meters) deep to get to safety. She was on her way home after working an overnight shift when she got stuck behind an accident in an underpass and the water started rising.

“I was going to sit in my car and let the storm pass,” she said. “But I reached back to get my son’s iPad and put my hand into a puddle of water.”

Valerie R. Burton woke up Wednesday to what looked like a lake outside her door.

“There was about 3 to 4 feet of water in the street, pouring onto the sidewalks and at my door. So I went to my neighbors to alert them and tell them to move their cars,” she said.

It was all a grim reminder of sudden flooding that surprised the city during an August 2017 rain. That flood exposed major problems at the agency overseeing street drainage. It led to personnel shake-ups at the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board and required major repair efforts.

On Wednesday, the board said 118 of 120 drainage pumps were operational and the agency was fully staffed. But the agency’s director says that much rain in such a short time would have overwhelmed any drainage system.

Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and said National Guard troops and high-water vehicles would be positioned all over the state.

“The entire coast of Louisiana is at play in this storm,” Edwards said.

Forecasters said Louisiana could see up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain by Monday, with isolated areas receiving as much as 18 inches (46 centimeters).

The heavy additional rain could push the already swollen Mississippi River precariously close to the tops of levees that protect New Orleans, officials said.

A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans said the agency was not expecting widespread overtopping of the levees, but there are concerns for areas south of the city. The river was expected to rise to 20 feet (6 meters) by late Friday at a key gauge in New Orleans. The area is protected by levees 20 to 25 feet (6 to 7.6 meters) high, he said.

The Corps was working with local officials to identify any low-lying areas and reinforce them, he said. He cautioned that the situation may change as more information about the storm arrives.

“We’re confident the levees themselves are in good shape. The big focus is height,” spokesman Ricky Boyett said.

Associated Press writers Kevin McGill and Rebecca Santana in New Orleans and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.

The Problem Is Not 'Negative' Western Media Coverage Of Africa

Rather, it is the lack of in-depth and nuanced reporting on the continent and beyond.

BY PATRICK GATHARA

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A recent job ad for Nairobi bureau chief the New York Times posted has sparked controversy [Reuters]

The New York Times is once again in Kenyans' crosshairs. Just six months after it was excoriatedfor publishing graphic pictures of the victims of January's hotel attack in Nairobi, which forced it to shelve the appointment of Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura as head of its Nairobi bureau, the search for a replacement has stirred up another hornet's nest.

In an ad for the position that appears to have been taken straight out of the late Binyavanga Wainaina's famous satirical essay, How To Write About Africa, the Times repeated many of the problematic stereotypes have dominated much reporting on the continent.

The job, it proclaimed, would offer "tremendous opportunity to dive into news and enterprise across a wide range of countries, from the deserts of Sudan and the pirate seas of the Horn of Africa, down through the forests of Congo and the shores of Tanzania". In addition to covering seemingly ubiquitous conflict and suffering, the successful candidate would also get to "delight our readers with unexpected stories of hope" in the region.

Many Kenyans online have predictably responded with outrage. It "says a lot about the kinds of stories they want from Eastern Africa", tweeted Ken Opalo, who is an assistant professor at Georgetown University. He warned that "the biggest losers from this sort of madness" would not be Eastern Africans, but the daily's American audience who "continue to be fed [and believe] myths and as a result are increasingly economically [and] geopolitically uncompetitive in the region".

The NYT's international editor, Michael Slackman, belatedly offered a mea culpa on Twitter in which he took responsibility for the ad, blaming it on his “taking a short cut: Rather than write a new job description, a posting from about 18 months went out”. Why this would have been deemed appropriate in 2017 is left unaddressed and no actual apology was offered. However, despite his non-apology, the offending ad is yet to be taken down.


For many Kenyans, it is reminiscent of the similar non-apology they got in the aftermath of the January incident. Despite acknowledgment of the need to "make decisions based on the fact that we serve a global audience", the offending photo remains on the NYT's website. A promise to "convene a group of people to come up with clearer guidelines" to ensure "consistent standards that apply across the world" has seemingly not been kept.

The complaints about negative coverage in Western media are not new. Media negativity and its consequences have been bemoaned the world over, but perhaps nowhere more than in Africa - where the prevailing perception is that foreign media, and Western correspondents in particular, have gone out of their way to portray the continent as the nadir of human civilisation. A dark continent of unspeakable "tribal" savageries, unmitigated suffering, horrible epidemics and child-like helplessness all bounded by breathtaking vistas of natural beauty.

However, it would be good to keep some perspective. Slackman is right when he urges people to "judge our correspondents on the quality of their work, not that job posting". While it is true that one can readily find examples of racist and colonial stereotypes in many Western news reports, as pointed out by Kenyan writer Nanjala Nyabola, a 2016 study by Dr Toussaint Nothias of the Center for African Studies at Stanford University also found that there is no empirical evidence for the assertion that Western media coverage "systematically refers to 'tribalism' and 'darkness', treats Africa as a country and relies predominantly on Western voices".

He echoes a 2015 paper by Martin Scott of the University of East Anglia who reviewed the research into US and UK media representations of Africa in the previous quarter century and concluded that "the widespread belief that we know how Africa is represented in the US and UK media is … a myth".

Still, there is a perception that much of what international audiences hear about Africa is overwhelmingly negative even when not overtly racist. Between May and September 2010, the 10 most-read US newspapers and magazines carried 50 times more articles mentioning poverty in Africa, than mentioning gross domestic product (GDP) growth. But is Africa unique in this? Are we being singled out?

Not exactly. For example, one 2013 study of the coverage of China by three major Western outlets, including the Times, found that nearly half of all political coverage was about corruption. Further, as noted by Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian in Foreign Policy, "US news tends to slant towards the negative and the sensational - making its critical coverage of China a normal feature of the media landscape". The same could be said about the coverage of Africa.

Africans must also focus on the practices of local media, which is just as guilty of the sins which Western journalists are routinely accused of. This week, South Africa's Mail & Guardian published a series of "inspiring, uplifting and positive stories from around the African continent" in a "good news" edition.

That this was deemed necessary only highlights the fact that on the continent, like everywhere else, the telling of the news is largely perceived to default to the negative. Yet here too, the problem is less that we need more good news stories than that the stories we are told are largely decontextualised.

There is no good and bad news; there is just the news. The false dichotomy between positive and negative stories is a reflection of the lack of the sort of storytelling which allows audiences to make sense of events within a wider universe of African experience. Like their Western counterparts, local media engages in shorthand - it reports rather than explains.

The episodic tales which it tells are not related to one another to produce a more complete scene. Each is presented as an isolated, self-contained event - a story with a beginning, middle and end - rather than part of a wider tapestry of experience. This approach is what generates the false dichotomy of positive and negative news that then needs to be "balanced". The picture drawn is poor not because the subject is "bad", but because it is incomplete. And this performs a great disservice to audiences.

One way Western media organisations can address the issue is by rethinking the role of the foreign correspondent. In today's world, is it really possible to justify the anachronistic search for foreign bureau chiefs when local reporters can provide much better local context and feel for the circumstances of their own countries? Given that skewed power dynamics dictate that Africans care more about their representation in Western media than Westerners do about how African media covers them, it is time Western outlets privilege local journalistic expertise and choices.

Recruiting local journalists who can explain rather than simply report, as well as improving the output of local media can provide context for the horror stories the media gravitates to, making Africa seem less of - in the words of journalist Shayera Dark - "a war-torn, disease-ridden, poverty-stricken hellscape where all hope dies".

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.

23 US Governors Join Calif. In Opposing Trump Mileage Freeze

In this June 25, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump listens in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Over 20 state governors are backing California leaders in a showdown with the Trump administration over mileage standards. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing climate-damaging tailpipe emissions, 23 U.S. governors signed a pledge backing California leaders in their showdown with the Trump administration over its plans to relax vehicle mileage standards .

The stand by leaders of states and Puerto Rico, nearly all Democrats, comes as the Trump administration moves to freeze tougher mileage standards laid out by former President Barack Obama, in one of the previous administration’s key efforts against climate change.

The Trump administration says American consumers increasingly want bigger, gas-guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks . It also argues that demanding ever-more fuel-efficient vehicles will drive up automobile costs and keep less-safe, older vehicles on the road longer. Many engineers have challenged that claim.

The governors’ pledge on Tuesday commits to sticking to the pre-Trump mileage goals, a program of annual tightening in mileage standards that reduce climate-changing carbon emissions.

“We will not compromise on our responsibility to protect the health of our communities, our climate, and the savings consumers stand to gain at the pump,” said the pledge, also signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “We will continue to pursue additional concrete actions to fulfill this duty and defend against any threats.”

Besides California and Puerto Rico, leaders of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin signed the mileage pledge.

The Environmental Protection Agency didn’t immediately comment on the pledge, which was made public overnight.

The commitment underscores prospects for years of legal challenges and regulatory uncertainty for automakers if the Trump administration moves ahead on the mileage freeze over objections from California and other states.

President Donald Trump has pushed automakers to support him in his bid to relax mileage standards. Last month, major automakers instead appealed for the administration to return to talks with California, after breaking off negotiations.

Newsom indicated he wasn’t optimistic about any breakthroughs with the administration ahead of it issuing its mileage rule.

“I don’t sense they’re sincere in their commitment to sit down and negotiate,” he said, and cited the administration’s overall backing for the country’s oil and gas industry.

Congress for decades has granted California authority to set its own, tougher mileage standards as a way of fighting the state’s chronic smog. About a dozen states follow California’s mileage standards, although under Obama the federal and state mileage standards were the same.

More Illegal Aliens From Africa And Haiti Reaching United States

Image: AP via New American

BY WARREN MASS

A July 5 Reuters report documented the journey of a migrant from the African nation of Cameroon who crossed nine national borders to reach Mexico on the way to the United States. A map illustrating the report depicted her journey by plane from Lagos, Nigeria, to Quito, Equador. From there, she traveled by land through Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, before arriving in Mexico. The report observed that a record number of fellow Africans are flying to South America, and then traveling long distances to reach the United States.

Our online research found the cost of flights from Lagos, Nigeria, to Quito Ecuador to be $1,466 and higher — a considerable sum for a refugee from Africa.

In our article on July 1 (“Illegal Aliens From Africa and Haiti Among Those Crossing Rio Grande”), we cited reports from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in June noting that illegal aliens crossing our southern border are not just Mexicans and Central Americans, but also included groups from Haiti and Africa.

The Reuters report noted that the number of Africans registered by Mexican authorities tripled in the first four months of 2019 compared with the same period a year ago, reaching about 1,900 people. Most of these were from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

A July 2 report from Texas Monthly took a look at refugees at San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center. The report stated that from just June 4 to June 18, about four hundred migrants from Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo arrived at the center. The report cited Border Patrol figures showing that during the first two weeks of June, the Border Patrol detained 740 African migrants in the Del Rio sector. For comparison, just 211 African migrants were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in all of 2018.

Texas Monthly did not provide details about the legal status of the migrants from Africa, but references in the article suggest that many are here illegally. The report noted:

In mid-June, as President Trump tweeted out his plans to deport thousands of undocumented immigrants, [an Alliance Francaise volunteer working with migrants] broke down in tears. One of the asylum seekers she had helped get to family in Brooklyn called her sobbing after hearing about the proposed raids on TV. His family members are undocumented and were afraid to risk staying in the U.S. Ultimately, he and his brother decided to leave for the Canadian border.

A July 9 Breitbart report cited Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents who reported the apprehension of more than 1,000 migrants from Haiti who illegally crossed the Rio Grande since June 10, according to information provided by Border Patrol officials. Of those, more than 800 were composed of Family Unit Aliens (FMUA). It appears many of these Haitian migrants moved years ago from Haiti to Brazil and Chile and have now decided to migrate again to the United States, possibly to blend in with the current flood of migrant families crossing the border.

SOURCE: NEW AMERICAN

Nigerian Envoy To Tehran Summoned Over Sheikh Zakzaky’s Conditions

TEHRAN (TEHRAN TIMES) – The Foreign Ministry has summoned Nigeria’s envoy to Tehran to voice the Islamic Republic’s concerns over the conditions of top Shiite cleric and leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky.

“Recently, the Nigerian charge d'affaires was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and was informed about Iran’s concerns over Sheikh Zakzaky’s conditions in the African country,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said at his bi-weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday.

“The Nigerian charge d'affaires offered some explanations and he is supposed to convey our concerns to the Nigerian government,” he added.

The spokesman expressed the hope that the Foreign Ministry’s efforts would yield results and that the prominent cleric would recover soon.

Iran has spared no efforts through diplomatic and political ways to resolve the issue, he stressed.

According to the Tasnim news agency, Sheikh Zakzaky has been held in detention since December 2015 and was charged just in April 2018 with murder, culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, disruption of public peace and other accusations. He has pleaded not guilty.

In 2016, Nigeria’s federal high court ordered his unconditional release from jail following a trial, but the government has so far refused to set him free.

The top cleric, who is in his mid-sixties, lost his left eyesight in a raid which was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria in December 2015.

During the raid, Zakzaky’s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his followers and three of his sons were killed. Zakzaky, his wife, and a large number of the cleric’s followers have since been in custody.

On Friday, the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) announced that it had received reports about Zakzaky’s health condition that it had further worsened.

The IHRC — which had sent a medical team to Nigeria in April to examine the health condition of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife — has already said the specialist treatment they require can only be fully accessed outside the African country.

Separately, members of the IMN had also said last week that the cleric had been poisoned in prison and required urgent medical care abroad.

Iran Breaches Key Uranium Enrichment Iimit In Nuclear Deal

From left to right, spokesman for Iran's atomic agency Behrouz Kamalvandi, Iran's government spokesman Ali Rabiei and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, attend a press briefing in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 7, 2019. The deputy foreign minister says that his nation considers the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to be a "valid document" and seeks its continuation. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

BY JON GAMBRELL

TEHRAN, IRAN (AP) — Iran on Monday began enriching uranium to 4.5%, just breaking the limit set by its nuclear deal with world powers, while it is still seeking a way for Europe to help it bypass U.S. sanctions amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The acknowledgement by the spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to The Associated Press shows that the Islamic Republic trying to increase pressure on those still in the 2015 nuclear deal. It also comes just days after Iran acknowledged breaking the 300-kilogram (661-pound) limit on its low-enriched uranium stockpile, another term of the accord.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, confirmed that Iran surpassed the enrichment threshold.

Experts warn that higher enrichment and a growing stockpile could begin to narrow the one-year window Iran would need to have enough material for an atomic weapon, something Iran denies it wants but the deal prevented. While the steps now taken by Iran remain quickly reversible, Europe so far has struggled to respond.

There are fears that a miscalculation in the crisis could explode into open conflict. President Donald Trump, who withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal over a year ago and re-imposed crippling economic sanctions on Iran, nearly bombed the country last month after Tehran shot down a U.S. military surveillance drone. Even China, engaged in delicate trade negotiations with the White House, openly criticized America’s policy toward Iran.

“What I want to emphasize is that the maximum pressure the U.S. imposes on Iran is the root cause of the crisis in the Iranian nuclear issue,” said Geng Shuang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. “It has been proven that unilateral bullying has become a worsening tumor and is creating more problems and greater crises on a global scale.”

On Sunday, Trump warned that “Iran better be careful.” He didn’t elaborate on what actions the U.S. might consider but told reporters: “Iran’s doing a lot of bad things.”

Under the deal, Iran has been closely monitored by inspectors from the IAEA, which on Monday verified “that Iran is enriching uranium above 3.67%.” The Vienna-based agency did not specify how much beyond the threshold Iran has gone.

Enriched uranium at the 3.67% level is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90%. At the 4.5% level, it is enough to help power Iran’s Bushehr reactor, the country’s only nuclear power plant.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, confirmed the increased enrichment to the AP.

“At the moment our enrichment is at around 4.5%,” Kamalvandi said. He did not elaborate.

Kamalvandi separately hinted in a state TV interview broadcast Monday that Iran might consider going to 20% enrichment or higher as a third step, if the material is needed and the country still hasn’t gotten what it wants from Europe. That would worry nuclear nonproliferation experts because 20% is a short technical step away from reaching weapons-grade levels of 90%. Kamalvandi also suggested using new or more centrifuges, which are limited by the deal.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Iran appreciated the efforts of some nations to save the deal, but offered a jaded tone on whether Tehran trusted anyone in the negotiations.

“We have no hope nor trust in anyone, nor any country, but the door of diplomacy is open,” Mousavi said.

He also gave a sharp, yet unelaborated warning to Europe about another 60-day deadline that Iran set Sunday. That deadline is Sept. 5, though Iran’s senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri described it as being Sept. 7. The different dates could not be immediately reconciled.

“If the remaining countries in the deal, especially the Europeans, do not fulfill their commitments seriously, and not do anything more than talk, Iran’s third step will be harder, more steadfast and somehow stunning,” he said. The remaining signatories to the deal with Iran are Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia.

The U.S. is open to talks but will keep up pressure on Tehran and will “never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon,” Vice President Mike Pence told a pro-Israel Christian organization in Washington

In his prepared remarks, he said that “America will not back down,” although Pence did not use that phrase when he delivered his speech. He did say that Iran should not “confuse American restraint with a lack of American resolve.”

The U.S. has sent thousands of troops, an aircraft carrier, nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and advanced fighter jets to the Middle East. Mysterious oil tanker attacks near the Strait of Hormuz, attacks by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen on Saudi Arabia and Iran’s downing of a U.S. military drone have raised fears of a wider conflict engulfing the region.

French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and said they are trying to find a way by July 15 to resume international dialogue with Iran. It remains unclear what Europe can do, because Iran wants it to help Tehran sell its crude oil abroad.

U.S. sanctions have targeted Iran’s oil sales and top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It’s also unclear what international company would risk U.S. sanctions to help Europe trade with Iran outside of the exceptions granted for food and medicine.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believes Iran’s action would neither help preserve the agreement “nor secure tangible economic benefits for the Iranian people,” according to U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Mousavi said he didn’t know where an Iranian supertanker was heading when it was seized off the coast of Gibraltar. Authorities there said they seized the Grace 1 last week and confirmed Monday it was fully loaded with crude oil. Its suspected destination was a refinery in Syria that is under European Union sanctions.

Hard-liners in Iran have demanded a British oil tanker be seized in response. State TV said Britain’s ambassador to Tehran had been summoned Monday for a third time.

A lawmaker also has suggested that Iran charge ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz, something Mousavi dismissed while insisting Iran’s right to patrol the waters off its coast.

“We are responsible for maritime protection of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. This is our region. This is our gulf,” he said, reiterating Iran’s longtime stance. “This is our innate duty to secure this region and sustain its security. Countries that claim from thousands of miles from here that they should guarantee the maritime security here are speaking exaggeratedly.”

Iran’s Defense Minister Gen. Amir Hatami also offered his own warning to the British over the tanker’s seizure: “It won’t remain without a response.”

Associated Press producers Mohammad Nasiri and Mehdi Fattahi and writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran and Kiyoko Metzler in Vienna contributed.

Mexicans In US Routinely Confront Legal Abuse, Racial Profiling, ICE Targeting And Other Civil Rights Violations

The civil rights of 11.3 million Mexican nationals who live in the US are routinely violated, according to a comprehensive new report on U.S. immigration enforcement since 2009. AP Photo/Matt York

BY DAVID FITZGERALD, ANGELA Y. MCLEAN & GUSTAVO LOPEZ

Officially, the Constitution of the United States gives everyone on U.S. soil equal protection under the law – regardless of nationality or legal status.

But, as recent stories of the neglectful treatment of migrant children in government detention centers demonstrate, these civil rights are not always granted to immigrants.

We are scholars focused on U.S.-Mexico migration. Our report on the enforcement of U.S. immigration law under presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, presented in February to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission, documented pervasive and systematic civil rights violations against Mexicans living in the United States.

Some of the abuses we documented – which include racial profiling, discriminatory treatment and due process violations – result from the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies. Others began much earlier, under Obama or well before.

All paint a troubling picture about the rule of law in the United States and the challenges facing America’s largest immigrant group.

Discrimination and deportation

An estimated 11.3 million people born in Mexico now live in the United States – 3% of the total U.S. population.

About 5 million of them are unauthorized immigrants, meaning Mexicans make up just under half of the 10.5 million undocumented immigrants in the country. The other 6.3 million Mexicans in the U.S. are either lawful permanent residents or dual nationals who are naturalized U.S. citizens.

Based on these figures, we found, Immigration and Customs Enforcement – or ICE, the agency that carries out the nation’s immigration laws – arrests Mexican immigrants at levels that are disproportionate to their share of the unauthorized immigrant population.

Roughly 70% of immigrants deported from the U.S. interior in 2015 were Mexican, the most recent year that such detailed deportation data are available.

Another 550,000 young Mexican American “Dreamers” – immigrants who were brought to the U.S. unlawfully as children – became subject to deportation when Trump in September 2017 rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gave them temporary protection from deportation.

Not all deportations violate immigrants’ civil rights. The Immigration and Nationality Actsays immigrants may be deported for violating a long list of criminal and administrative laws.

But evidence suggests that Mexicans and other Latinos are sometimes targeted for arrest based on their race or ethnicity.

In 2014, independent monitors at a Customs and Border Protection checkpoint in Arivaca, Arizona, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, found that vehicle occupants who appeared to be Latino were 26 times more likely to be asked to show identification than white-looking vehicle occupants, who are frequently waved through the checkpoint.

And in 2012, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation in Alamance County, North Carolina, found that the sheriff had instructed deputies to “go out there and get me some of those taco eaters” by targeting Latinos in traffic stops and other law enforcement activities.

The DOJ concluded that the county demonstrated an “egregious pattern of racial profiling” – a violation of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees everyone equal protection under the law.

Family separation
Mexicans in the United States have seen their constitutional rights violated in other ways.

The most egregious example was the forced separation of families found to have crossed the border illegally.

Under this Trump administration policy, which began in April 2018, at least 2,654 migrant children – and perhaps thousands more – were taken from their parents and held in government custody while their parents were criminally prosecuted for crossing the border unlawfully.

Thirty of the children known to have been separated from their families were Mexican; the rest were from Central America. Poor record-keeping has made it difficult for all of them to be reunited with their families before their parents’ deportation.

Together, these actions violate the constitutional rights to legal due process, equal protection and, according to the Southern District of California, the right of parents to determine the care for their children.

“The liberty interest identified in the Fifth Amendment provides a right to family integrity or to familial association,” wrote Judge Dana M. Sabraw in a June 2018 ruling.

More routine civil rights violations happen to Mexicans in the U.S. every day, our report found.

Though children born in the U.S. are entitled by law to American citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status, hundreds of undocumented Mexican women in Texas have been denied birth certificates for their U.S.-born children since 2013, according to a lawsuit filed by parents. In 2016, Texas settled the lawsuit and agreed to expand the types of documents immigrants can use to prove their identity.

And in both Arizona and Texas, so-called “show me your papers” laws allow police to demand identification from anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” may be undocumented, which may lead to discriminatory targeting of Latinos.

Once in government detention, surveys conducted in Mexico of recently deported immigrants show, Mexican deportees are often badly treated.

On average, in 2016 and 2017, about half of all recently deported Mexicans reported having no access to medical services or a bathroom while in government custody. One-third reported experiencing extreme heat or cold.

Mexicans are not alone in their negative experiences at border patrol facilities.

A recent report by the Office of Inspector General found unsafe and unsanitary conditions at several U.S. immigrant detention centers, and immigration lawyers found food shortages at some migrant children’s shelters.

A climate of fear

While Mexicans in the United States have faced biased law enforcement and discriminationfor many decades, their treatment appears to have worsened since President Trump took office in 2017 with an openly anti-Mexican agenda.

A survey of Mexicans recently deported from the United States found that the number of people who reported experiencing verbal abuse or physical assault during their time in the U.S. increased 47% between 2016 and 2017.

The number of hate crimes against Latinos reported to the FBI also rose 24% in 2017 compared to 2016 – increasing from 344 incidents to 427.

Mexico is concerned about its citizens in the United States.

In March, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard announced it would provide more consular services online to increase the reach of Mexico’s 50 brick-and-mortar consulates in the U.S. and provide more legal training to consulate officials.

To support Mexicans in the U.S. with deportation and other immigration cases, the Mexican government will also strengthen its official ties with U.S.-based legal aid providers.

In theory, Mexico shouldn’t have to scramble to defend the rights of its citizens in the U.S. because the U.S. Constitution would. But, in practice, the civil rights of immigrants are simply not always guaranteed.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

‘I Still Get Tweets To Go Back In The Kitchen’ – The Enduring Power Of Sexism In Sports Media

Journalist Jemele Hill speaks on stage during the 2017 Hashtag Sports Conference in New York City. Steve Luciano/APImages for Hashtag Sports.
BY MICHAEL SERAZIO
The story of the 2019 U.S. women’s national soccer team is not yet written, but its opening chapter – a 13-0 drubbing of Thailand – has inspired American fans hoping for a championship repeat.

The U.S. women’s soccer team has long been the envy of the world. And yet, thanks to a scheduling “oversight,” should the squad make the Women’s World Cup final on July 7, they’ll have to complete for viewers with the Copa America and Gold Cup finals, which will be held on the same day.

In other words, two regional men’s soccer tournaments might upstage a signature worldwide women’s sporting event.

To me, this scheduling “oversight” is just a microcosm of the way women are treated in the world of sports. And it isn’t just relegated to the playing field.

In my new book, “The Power of Sports,” I draw upon dozens of interviews to look at the barriers female athletes and journalists face.

It’s worse than you think.

Lack of interest or lack of coverage?
Almost every single survey of sports media over the years – irrespective of the sport or outlet – finds female athletics wildly underrepresented relative to men’s.

For example, one 25-year-long study showed that local news outlets spend only 3% of their airtime covering women’s sports, with ESPN allocating a mere 2% of its coverage.

Not until the 1990s did women’s sports begin receiving – barely – more attention than sports involving horses and dogs. Of course, that didn’t prevent Serena Williams’ 2015 selection as Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsperson of the Year” from igniting a debate over whether Triple Crown thoroughbred American Pharaoh deserved the honor instead.

The typical rebuttal to the lack of coverage is an alleged lack of interest.

But this obscures the circular logic that bedevils women’s sports: The way in which sports media outlets market and cover games partly determines how much fan interest they’re able to gin up. In other words, ratings are often generated by hyping the games. When ratings go up, it justifies the use of those resources.

So when a WNBA game gets punted to an obscure cable channel and has a low production value, it sends a message about priorities to audiences.

Networks like to claim they’re just responding to market forces when they ignore these games. But it’s never been a level playing field: Women’s sports rarely receive the media attention lavished on men’s, so the comparison seems unfair.

When I asked ESPN’s executive vice president for programming and production about this problem, he shrugged. “Any media entity,” he said, “tend[s] to focus the majority of [its] coverage on the topics that are most interesting to your viewers, right?”

In other words, ESPN claims to be amoral on questions of gender equality. Its obligation is to simply give the audience what it thinks it wants.

All men, all the time

Meanwhile, sports media remains an overwhelmingly male field.

More than 90% of anchors, commentators and editors are men. Not until 2017 did a woman announce a men’s March Madness or Monday Night Football game.

Might this color the way female athletes are portrayed? One 2013 review highlighted some notable disparities. When talking and writing about female athletes, commentators tend to focus more on their emotions. They tend to downplay their physical prowess on the field and sexualize their bodies off the field.

Conditions aren’t much better for women working in the media.
Lesley Visser was a sportscaster across multiple networks for four decades. In the late 1970s, as a young reporter for The Boston Globe, she received – and ignored – a media credential stipulation that forbade “women or children in the press box.”

She assumed that waves of women would have followed her lead. But she can’t believe how little progress has been made.

“I go to the NFC Championship, and in the press box there are maybe three women out of 2,000 credentials,” she told me. “I think we’re at the same percentage as in the 1980s.”

Social media mobs swarm

The few that do break through can expect to be targeted on social media.

“I still get tweets to go back in the kitchen,” Tina Cervasio, a sports reporter for Fox’s New York affiliate, told me. “They’re worried about color of hair and how a woman looks. … If I was as fat and bald as [some male sportscasters], I would not have that job.”

Kim Jones of the NFL Network concurred. “I’ve gotten tweets that the only reason I have a job is because of my looks; I’ve also gotten plenty more tweets that, you know, I’m an unattractive reporter who shouldn’t be on television.”

This highlights the double bind that female sports journalists face: They feel the pressure to look good for the cameras. But then they’re also denigrated by some who say they only have their jobs because of that attractiveness. It’s tough to imagine a handsome male sportscaster having the same charge leveled against him.

And when mistakes get made – as any human is liable to do – the female sports reporter feels like she’s given less leeway than her male counterpart because he doesn’t have to prove that he really belongs there.

As former ESPN anchor Jemele Hill explained to me, whenever she makes an honest error,

“The immediate reaction from a still-too-large segment of the public is going to be, ‘That’s why women shouldn’t talk sports.’ Even though most guys that are in [my] position probably would make a similar mistake, but it’s never going to be about their competence. It’s never going to be about their gender, where it will be for me.”

In 2016, an award-winning public service announcement featured male fans reading actual tweets that had been directed at prominent female sportscasters.

“I hope you get raped again,” one read. Another: “One of the players should beat you to death with their hockey stick like the whore you are.”

One of those targeted on social media, Chicago sports talk radio host Julie DiCaro, weighed in poignantly this past April.

“It always seems to come down to this idea that men have a proprietary interest in sports that women don’t have,” she told The Chicago Tribune. “As if we aren’t the daughters of Title IX. As if some of my earliest memories aren’t sitting on my dad’s lap watching the Bears and Cubs. … Sports belong to all of us.”

They should. They just don’t – yet.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

Iran To Raise Uranium Enrichment Beyond Nuclear Deal Limits

In this April 9, 2018, file photo, released by an official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani listens to explanations on new nuclear achievements at a ceremony to mark "National Nuclear Day," in Tehran, Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif acknowledged Monday, July 1, 2019, Iran had broken the limit set on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by the 2015 nuclear deal, marking its first major departure from the unraveling agreement a year after the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the accord. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

BY JON GAMBRELL, NASSER KARIMI

TEHRAN, IRAN (AP) — Iran announced Sunday it will increase its uranium enrichment to an unspecified level beyond the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, breaking another limit set under the accord and furthering heightening tensions between Tehran and the U.S.

Setting another unspecified 60-day deadline for the deal, Iran took further steps toward pressuring Europe while urging further diplomacy to save an agreement that President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. from a year ago.

Hopes for saving the faltering deal appear increasingly dim, however, as the Europeans have been unable to offer Iran any effective way around U.S. sanctions that block Tehran’s oil sales abroad and target its top officials. But Iran’s recent measures, while of concern to nuclear non-proliferation experts, could be easily reversible if Europeans offer Iran the sanctions relief it seeks.

Tensions began rising in May when the U.S. rushed thousands of additional troops, an aircraft carrier, nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and advanced fighter jets to the Mideast.

Mysterious oil tanker blasts near the Strait of Hormuz, attacks by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen on Saudi Arabia and Iran shooting down a U.S. military drone have raised fears of a wider conflict engulfing a region crucial to global energy supplies.

In Sunday’s news conference, Iranian officials said the new level of uranium enrichment would be reached later in the day, but did not provide a percentage. Under the nuclear deal, the cap for enrichment was set at 3.67%, a percentage closely monitored by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.

“Within hours, the technical tasks will be done and enrichment above 3.67% will begin,” Iran nuclear agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. “We predict that the IAEA measurements early tomorrow morning will show that we have gone beyond 3.67%.”

The IAEA said it was aware of Iran’s comments and “inspectors in Iran will report to our headquarters as soon as they verify the announced development.”

Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made remarks in a video Saturday about Iran’s need for 5% enrichment. Bushehr, Iran’s only nuclear power plant, is now running on imported fuel from Russia that’s enriched around 5%.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sent a letter to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini outlining the steps it had taken, said Abbas Araghchi, a deputy foreign minister. Discussions with European powers are continuing and ministerial-level talks are planned later this month, he said.

“We will give another 60-day period, and then we will resume the reduction of our commitments,” Araghchi said, without elaborating.

On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron told his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, in a phone call that he is trying to find a way by July 15 to resume the dialogue between Iran and Western partners.

Kamalvandi also stressed that Iran will continue to use only slower, first-generation IR-1 centrifuges to increase enrichment, as well as keep the number of centrifuges in use under the 5,060-limit set by the nuclear deal. Iran has the technical ability to build and operate advanced centrifuges that work faster, but is barred from doing so under the deal.

“For the enrichment we are using the same machines with some more pressure and some special technical work,” he said. “So we don’t have an increase in the number of centrifuges for this purpose.”

But Kamalvandi stressed that Iran is able to continue enrichment “at any speed, any amount and any level.”

“For the enrichment we are using the same machines with some more pressure and some special technical work,” he said. “So we don’t have an increase in the number of centrifuges for this purpose.”

Sunday’s announcement about uranium enrichment came a year after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal. Iran has repeatedly warned Europe in recent weeks that it would begin walking away from an accord neutered by a maximalist American campaign of sanctions.

The decision to ramp up uranium enrichment came less than a week after Iran acknowledged breaking the deal’s 300-kilogram (661-pound) limit on its low-enriched uranium stockpile.

Experts warn higher enrichment and a growing stockpile narrow the one-year window Iran would need to have enough material for an atomic bomb, something Iran denies it wants but the deal prevented.

Enriched uranium at the 3.67% level is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons, but the nuclear deal sought to prevent that as a possibility by limiting enrichment and Iran’s stockpile of uranium.

International reaction came swiftly, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who long has described Iran and its nuclear program as a threat to his country. He called on world powers to impose “snapback sanctions” on Iran.

“It is a very, very dangerous step,” Netanyahu said. “I’m asking you, not to provoke but out of joint knowledge of history and what happens when aggressive totalitarian regimes can cross the threshold toward things that are very dangerous to us all. Take the steps that you promised. Enact the sanctions.”

Associated Press writers Kiyoko Metzler in Vienna and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed to this report.