News Headlines - 22 August 2018

▽North Korea is still developing nuclear weapons, says IAEA | The Guardian

North Korea is continuing to develop its nuclear weapons programme, according to a report by the UN atomic watchdog, raising questions over the country’s commitment to denuclearisation.
In one of the most specific reports on Pyongyang’s recent nuclear activities, the International Atomic Energy Agency observed actions consistent with the enrichment of uranium and construction at the country’s main nuclear site.

▽Xi Jinping to visit Pyongyang for North Korea's 70th anniversary celebrations - The Straits Times

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Pyongyang next month as ties between China and its close neighbour North Korea improve and as Beijing and Washington are locked in escalating trade tensions.
The Straits Times understands that Mr Xi will attend the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of North Korea's founding on Sept 9 at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, barring last-minute changes.

▽Malaysia Can’t Afford $22 Billion Beijing-Backed Projects, Mahathir Tells China - WSJ

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he plans to defer or cancel some $22 billion worth of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects, after explaining his objections to China’s leaders.

▽Researcher at the center of an epic fraud remains an enigma to those who exposed him | AAAS

The first thing that went through Alison Avenell's head when she heard Yoshihiro Sato had died was that it might be a trick. It was March 2017, and in the previous years, Avenell, a clinical nutritionist at the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom, had spent thousands of hours combing through Sato's papers, together with three colleagues in New Zealand. They had discovered that Sato, a bone researcher at a hospital in southern Japan, had fabricated data for dozens of clinical trials published in international journals... Her second thought was that Sato might have killed himself. "We have no indication that he committed suicide, but it concerns us," Avenell said when I met her at her office in late 2017. Three years earlier, Japanese stem cell scientist Yoshiki Sasai had hanged himself in the stairwell of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe after he was caught up in a stem cell scandal. "We were aware of the culture in Japan and the dishonor something like this could bring," Avenell said.

▽U.S. Inmates Launching Nationwide Strike to 'End Prison Slavery'

ncarcerated Americans across the country are set to go on strike Tuesday in what could become the largest industrial action by inmates in the history of the United States.
The strike, which is supposed to last until September 9—the anniversary of the 1971 Attica Prison uprising in upstate New York—calls for an "end to prison slavery" and for a number of prison reforms.
For 19 days, inmates across at least 17 states plan to refuse to work, with some also refusing to eat, to draw attention to poor conditions and what advocates have called exploitative labor practices in the prison system.