The United States is calling the Chinese government’s violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, “a full-on massacre.” 

“The U.S. has called for, and we will continue to call for, as have others in the international community, a full public accounting for those killed, detained and missing,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told VOA on Thursday during a press briefing. 

“We want those released — who have been jailed for striving to keep the memory of Tiananmen Square alive — and [an] end [to] the continued harassment of demonstration participants and their families,” added Ortagus. 

Thirty years ago, student-led pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, with corruption among the elite a key complaint among demonstrators. Protesters were also calling for political reforms and a fairer and more open society. Human rights groups believe several hundred to several thousand people were killed when tanks rolled through Tiananmen Square to squelch the demonstrations. 

According to Amnesty International, over recent weeks, police in China have detained, placed under house arrest or threatened dozens of activists who are seeking to mark the June 4 anniversary, as well as relatives of those killed. 

“We’ve seen these reports; it couldn’t be more troubling,” said Ortagus. “We shouldn’t forget this.This is a full-on massacre.” 

Mainland China strictly bans commemorations of the event.
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Russia and Japan accused each other of military buildups as their foreign and defense ministers met in Tokyo on Thursday for talks that failed to make progress on decades-long island disputes.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint news conference after the talks that Russia was concerned about Tokyo’s plan to build a pair of land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense systems, saying they pose a “potential threat to Russia.”

The Aegis Ashore systems, planned for deployment in Akita on Japan’s northern coast and in Yamaguchi in the southwest, are part of Japan’s rapidly expanding missile defense system to bolster its ability to counter potential threats from North Korea and China. Under guidelines approved in December, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government plans to increase purchases of expensive American military equipment including F-35 stealth fighter jets and cruise missiles as Japan continues to expand its military cooperation with the U.S.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono accused Russia of a military buildup on Russian-controlled islands claimed by both countries.

The dispute over the islands, which Russia calls the southern Kurils and Japan the Northern Territories, has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their World War II hostilities.

“Our country’s legal position does not accept the missile drills, fighter aircraft deployment, and enhancement of the military presence in the Northern Territories,” Kono said.

Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told his counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, and Lavrov that the Aegis Ashore interceptors are “purely for defensive purposes and never for use to threaten Russia or other countries.”

Lavrov brushed off Kono’s criticism, saying his country is only operating in its own territory. “Under international law, the territory is under Russia’s sovereignty and those are Russian military activities in Russian-held territory,” he said.

Regaining the disputed islands, which are north of Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido, has been a priority for Abe and his conservative base. Abe is eager to make progress on the dispute with Russia and find opportunities to cooperate in developing oil and gas and other natural resources.

In November, Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to accelerate negotiations based on a 1956 Soviet proposal to return two of the islands to Japan, but progress has since stalled.
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President Donald Trump said Thursday he still believes China “would love to make” a new trade deal with the United States and might now regret backtracking on some agreements negotiators for the two countries had reached.

“We had a deal and they broke the deal,” Trump said at the White House. “I think if they had to do it again they wouldn’t have done what they did.”

Trump contended that tariffs he has imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports has prompted some manufacturers in China to move their production to other countries.

“I think we’re doing very well with China,” he said, adding that tariffs have had little effect on inflation in the U.S.

Trade talks between officials of the world’s two biggest economies broke off recently, but U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said he likely will travel to Beijing “in the near future” to continue negotiations.

Meanwhile, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui  accused the U.S. of engaging in “naked economic terrorism” in the trade war. He leveled the accusation in Beijing during a news briefing on President Xi Jinping’s official visit to Russia next week.

Beijing and Washington have been engaged in a trade war since last July, when Trump first imposed tariffs on hundreds of Chinese products worth billions of dollars, leading to a set of retaliatory tit-for-tit tariff increases. Trump and Xi had agreed to de-escalate the trade war last December while they started negotiations to reach a lasting deal.  

But Trump recently boosted taxes on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods after accusing Beijing of reneging on promises to make structural changes to its economic practices. He has threatened to add tariffs to all Chinese imports, which could amount to levies on another $300 billion worth of Chinese exports to the U.S.  

Zhang said while China does not want a trade war, it is not afraid of it, and described the Trump administration’s actions as “economic bullying.”

Beijing countered Trump’s levies by announcing new tariff increases on $60 billion worth of U.S. exports that will take effect Saturday.

An editorial Wednesday in The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, warned that China could end exports of rare earth minerals to the U.S. as leverage in the trade war. Rare earths are a group of 17 chemical elements used in everything from smartphones and other high-tech electronics to military equipment. 
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The highly anticipated showdown on Wednesday night between Trish Regan of Fox Business and Liu Xin of China Global Television Network (CGTN) — the overseas arm of state-controlled China Central Television (CCTV) — turned out to be a tame question-and-answer session with little exchange of barbs.

Some observers say that, as both are neither policymakers nor experts on trade, their “disappointing” talks contributed nothing of substance, but stoked up emotions of national pride in China.

Others, however, welcome such dialogues that allow free exchange of differing views to continue and set an example for U.S. and Chinese officials to resume their trade negotiations.

The media hype has not only shed light on the increasingly sharp divide between the two countries over trade but also press freedom in China as well, they add.

Face-off

The buildup for the debate started last week when Liu released a commentary, accusing Regan of “economic warmongering,” which led to Regan’s invitation via Twitter for an “honest” debate and Wednesday’s face-off between them.

Liu appeared as a guest, via satellite from Beijing, on Regan’s U.S. based show.

Citing rights issues, CGTN wasn’t allowed to livestream the segment, but many Chinese appeared to watch it on the internet.

As expected, during the 16-minute-long segment, Liu stuck closely to China’s talking points on every question Regan raised, be it China’s intellectual property (IP) theft, state capitalism or tariffs.

When asked by Regan to respond to a hypothetical question if the United States “forces” China’s Huawei to share its technological developments, Liu replied: “if it is through cooperation, if it is through mutual learning… if you pay for the use of this IP or this high-tech knowledge, I think it’s absolutely fine. Why not? We all prosper because we learn from each other.”

Liu, however, admitted that cases of IP theft do exist, but that doesn’t mean all Chinese people are stealing. And IP protection has been a consensus in China, she added.

Analysts, in general, believe Liu is on a mission to defend China’s trade stance although Liu insisted she is neither a member of the Communist Party of China, nor speaks for the party, which controls her station.

State mouthpiece?

“They [state media broadcasters including Liu] all come on the debate or shows with a mission. Many won’t show their true color as the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, but in fact, deep in their mind and thoughts, they have long joined the party,” Lu Nan, an outspoken Chinese dissident, who now lives in the United States, said during a Mingjin TV discussion.

Lu added that he gave Liu credit for having skillfully argued her way out in a language that is not her mother tongue although truth beat many of her arguments.

David Bandurski, co-director of the China Media Project, an independent research program in partnership with the Journalism and Media Studies Center at the University of Hong Kong, also noted “the seemingly ever-present hand of the Chinese party-state,” saying that Liu can’t afford to act as she pleases in a country, where media professionals are asked to pledge loyalty to the party-state.

Stoking nationalistic emotions

“Their debate, so-called… could play a substantial role in stoking emotions of national pride in China, regardless of the outcome. Liu is already being portrayed on social media as a national champion,” Bandurski told VOA in an email, adding the show has little substance.

The show has indeed attracted so much attention in China that, right after it ended, the top-trending sentence on Weibo — a Twitter-like microblogging platform in China — was “Liu was interrupted by Trish three times in the first 30 seconds of the show.”

Many Chinese netizens cheered for Liu’s success.

One Weibo user praised Liu to be “neither overbearing nor servile and have showed good demeanor from a big country” while another wrote that Liu “stands to reason and has done a good job.”

There were, however, others who said they were disappointed with the show because it came nowhere near a heated debate.

Set an example

Nevertheless, Harley Seyedin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in South China, said the conversation between Regan and Liu could set an example for both the United States and China to follow and reach a final resolution for the trade dispute.

“As these two super anchors can come to together and held a very civilized conversation on very difficult issues, I think, as two nations, we should be able to sit down at the table and resolve the issues,” Seyedin told a CGTN show right after the Regan-Liu talk.

Xu Huiming, an associate professor of journalism at Guangzhou University, agreed, saying talks are better than no talks.

“Shall there be no exchange of views, you won’t know what’s on the mind of the others. Any exchange of views, even if they differ from one another, raises attention to those who are interested in the matter,” the professor said.
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More tariffs on Chinese goods are at least a month away, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Testifying before Congress, Mnuchin said the impact on the U.S. economy is a key consideration for next steps in the Trump administration’s trade strategy. In early May, U.S. President Donald Trump again raised tariffs on Chinese goods, which China will then match on U.S. goods. VOA’s Steve Redisch explains what’s at stake in the tariff tit-for-tat.
…

A Chinese state TV anchor and a host from Fox Business, whose sparring over the U.S.-China trade war has been avidly followed on Chinese social media, brought their duel to the American cable network for what turned out to be a respectful encounter.

The showdown between Liu Xin of China’s state-run English channel CGTN and Fox Business Network host Trish Regan was aired on Wednesday evening in the United States but was not shown live on TV in China, though it had been hyped by state and social media.

Following U.S. moves this month to increase tariffs on Chinese imports and blacklist tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd the rhetoric out of Beijing has become more strident.

At the start of the roughly 16-minute segment, Liu corrected

Regan to say that she was not a member of the Chinese Communist Party and was speaking for herself as a CGTN journalist. 

Otherwise, there was little in the way of fireworks.

Liu agreed intellectual property theft was a problem, although not only in China, and that there was a “consensus” in China that “without the protection of IP rights, nobody, no country, no individual, can be strong and can develop itself.”

Regan asked Liu her definition of state capitalism, and Liu described China’s system of “socialism with Chinese characteristics, where market forces are expected to play the dominating or the deciding role in the allocation of resources.”

Liu said state-owned enterprises play “an important but increasingly smaller role, maybe, in the economy,” and said 80 percent of Chinese employment is in the private sector.

Washington argues that Huawei, the world’s largest maker of telecoms network gear, is linked to the government and therefore poses a security risk, which Huawei disputes, arguing that it is owned by employees.

Liu had said on Twitter that because of rights issues, CGTN would not be able to show the debate live, though it would “report on it closely.”

A Fox News spokesperson said a free live stream of the debate would be available on the Fox Business Network website and the entire segment would also be available after the broadcast.

China’s internet is heavily censored and many major foreign media sites are blocked, but many people in China appeared to have followed the debate on state broadcaster CCTV’s live blog or watched via livestream.

The feud between Liu and Regan had started on air and was amplified on Twitter, which is blocked in China, with one social media hashtag on the Twitter-like Weibo garnering more than 120 million views as of Wednesday.

Liu had been critical of Regan’s China coverage and Regan has taken up the challenge, calling on Liu to have an honest debate.

“She’s so sure of U.S. victimhood, so indignant that her eyes practically spit fire, yet in carefully analyzing her words, it’s all emotion and accusation, supported with little substance,” Liu said of Regan on CGTN.

Regan responded this week on air and on Twitter: “They’re launching a full-scale information war against the United States of America, and their latest target is me.”

State broadcaster CCTV and the People’s Daily newspaper had shared news of the debate on Weibo, while other Chinese media outlets had joined in, some even circulating footage of Liu in an English speech competition from 23 years ago.

Chinese state media has opened the floodgates to patriotic commentaries since the latest U.S. tariff hike and there has been a surge in internet chatter about the trade war during the past few weeks.
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New Zealand police believe early accessing of sensitive budget information from the Treasury’s website were not illegal, the department said on Thursday, in the midst of a national furor over hacking accusations in which the opposition National Party confirmed it was responsible for the access.

The Treasury said on Wednesday that it was attacked 2,000 times in two days by hackers after the opposition National Party published some details of the much-anticipated economic plan before its full release due later on Thursday.

The saga has dominated headlines, sparked jabs between political parties, and threatened to overshadow the much-vaunted “Wellbeing” budget promised by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government. It aims to move away from traditional economic indicators to use other measures of living standards from loneliness to water quality.

Leader of the center-right National Party Simon Bridges told reporters on Thursday that party officials researching the budget had stumbled upon the access to the information, which he said showed the “incompetence” of the government.

“It was in relation to a lack of confidence in this government which we absolutely have a duty to disclose to New Zealanders,” he said.

He called on the head of Treasury Gabriel Makhlouf and Finance Minister Grant Robertson to resign over their handling of the matter.

Makhlouf and Robertson did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The Treasury statement on Thursday said that police were dropping the investigation into what happened to the website.

“Police have advised the Treasury that, on the available information, an unknown person or persons appear to have exploited a feature in the website search tool but that this does not appear to be unlawful,” it said.

Police confirmed in an email that they had advised Treasury the incident did not appear to be unlawful and they would not be taking further action.

Political analysts said that the way the government had handled the issue could dent public confidence in the government and public service.

“It’s unprecedented what has happened in terms of a government department calling the police, misinterpreting what has happened to the public about their own apparent incompetence,” said Bryce Edwards, Wellington-based political analyst at Critical Politics.

In the statement, Treasury head Gabriel Makhlouf said the agency had created a “clone” website with budget information not publicly accessible, though a special word search could access some content.

He said several internet IP addresses, including one parliamentary one, were involved, but did not give names of those responsible.

The Treasury said it was reviewing its systems and would increase the security of budget information, while a government supervisory body would carry out an inquiry into what happened.
…

Three U.S. senators have introduced a bipartisan bill that they say is aimed at restoring democracy in Cambodia in the face of deteriorating human rights and rising Chinese influence.

The Cambodia Accountability and Return on Investment Act of 2019 (CARI Act or S-1468) was put forward this month by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.,who say they want to see the full implementation of the Paris Peace Agreement that Cambodia signed with the international community in 1991.

The bill provides for stiff financial penalties on Cambodia if it fails to make a number of specified reforms. These penalties include U.S. opposition to loans to Cambodia by international institutions such as the World Bank or International Monetary Fund and visa restrictions on government officials who violate human rights. Some Cambodian officials could also have American-held assets frozen.

Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told VOA’s Khmer service he was also “very concerned” about the growing Chinese influence in Cambodia and called for the Cambodian government to stop its persecution of opposition politicians.

“It’s very important to push back,” Graham said.

The CARI Act requires Cambodia to “protect its sovereignty from interference” by China and demands the release of and the dropping of all criminal charges against the nation’s opposition leaders. The bill, a copy of which was provided to VOA, specifically calls for the “immediate and unconditional release from house arrest of opposition politician Kem Sokha and the dismissal of the politically motivated charges against him.”

The bill also demands the dismissal of politically motivated charges against other opposition leaders and supporters, including opposition leader Sam Rainsy as well as dissidents, government critics and journalists. It specifically mentions Radio Free Asia journalists Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, who have been charged with espionage.

The bill also demands that Cambodia repeal restrictive changes to the law on political parties passed in 2017 and early this year.

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved in late 2017 by Cambodia’s supreme court, and its 118 officials were banned from politics for five years. In a fresh crackdown, 140 former local officials of the party have recently been summoned by the courts and police for questioning in relation to alleged violations of the court’s ruling.

“Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his regime continue to wield their totalitarian iron glove and violate the rights and freedoms of the Cambodian people,” Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., told VOA Khmer by e-mail. “We must not be fooled. We must not be distracted. No matter what [Hun Sen] says, these recent incidents show clearly that he has no desire for a multiparty democracy in Cambodia.”

Lowenthal added that Hun Sen’s “only desire is quite simply to hold the reins of power and continue ruling.” He said the U.S. Congress “must move forward, quickly and intently, to bring the full weight of the U.S. government against Hun Sen before he destroys, once and for all, the possibility of Cambodia returning to a democratic nation.”

Modest steps toward increased democracy in Cambodia were reversed in the run-up to elections last year in which Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won every seat. Opposition leaders were arrested or forced into exile, new restrictions were placed on social media and more than 30 radio frequencies were shut down while critical news outlets were pressured into closure.

Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, told VOA Khmer via e-mail he believes there “should be consequences” for Hun Sen’s continued harassment of his opponents. “In light of his recent actions it is even more important that Congress pass legislation like the Cambodia Trade Act,” a separate bill that would require the Trump administration to reconsider certain trade preferences granted to Cambodia.

The Cambodian government has dismissed the CARI Act as “political propaganda” that does not “reflect the truth” in Cambodia.

“This is just a dream aiming to interfere and control Cambodia,” said government spokesman Phay Siphan. “If the politicians are happy to help Kem Sokha, they should find a fund to hire the right lawyer to represent him at the trial. I personally advise those senators to reduce their action so that it will not add more burden on Kem Sokha, who has been accused of being a foreign puppet or working with foreigners to overthrow the elected government.”

Siphan maintained that Cambodia is not under China’s influence but remains a good friend to the United States and respects its interests.

China is Cambodia’s largest investor, donor and trading partner. Military-to-military relations between the countries have been steadily progressing since 2010. At the same time, military relations with the United States have been deteriorating since 2017, when Cambodia announced the indefinite suspension of its annual joint military exercise between the two countries.

The United States is also concerned that China will use Cambodia as a naval base in the future.

CNRP activists abroad have welcomed the CARI Act, describing it as a first step toward resolving the political crisis in Cambodia.

“This law does not only serve the interests of democracy and bringing back the CNRP as well as the release of President Kem Sokha and the dropping of all charges against acting president Sam Rainsy, but it is also an action plan to achieve the U.S. goal to bring back democracy to the country,” said Saory Pon, secretary-general of the CNRP Overseas.  
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Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan said Wednesday that China remained his top defense priority, but that message could ring hollow during his current trip to Asia as Iranian threats loom over American plans to focus on great-power competitors. 

Speaking to reporters en route to Jakarta, Shanahan said threats in the Middle East and North Korea would “consume time,” but the United States must not lose sight of China’s growing military power. 

“Implementation of the National Defense Strategy is my top priority, [and] China is the priority within the National Defense Strategy,” he said in response to a question from VOA. He was referring to the Trump administration’s shift from a mostly counterterror approach to a policy that focuses more on competition with Russia and China. 

Shanahan has embarked on what officials call a “listening trip” to the Asia-Pacific region that aims to reassure allies of the U.S. commitment to them. Shanahan is set to deliver a major speech on U.S. military posture in Asia, with a particular focus on China, during the annual Shangri-La defense forum in Singapore later this week.  

“I am not there to sell,” Shanahan said.  

During the forum, the acting U.S. defense secretary is expected to meet with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe. Shanahan said he would identify areas of cooperation with Beijing and candidly point out issues where China and the U.S. disagree. 

The two countries are deeply entrenched in a trade war as their militaries continue to vie for influence in the region. 

The U.S. military has carried out multiple freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea in recent weeks to support universal passage through international spaces controversially claimed by China. U.S. military ships also have transited through the strategic Taiwan Strait at least once a month since the start of this year. 

The U.S. supports self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own. 

Earlier this month, Shanahan identified Beijing’s aggressive military buildup, theft of technology and subversion of international law as major worries. 

The Pentagon refers to China as a “near peer competitor,” but Bradley Bowman, a defense expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that term was quickly becoming “outdated.” 

“In many areas, China now has capabilities that are as good as ours or better,” Bowman said, “and I don’t enjoy saying this, but it’s not clear how certain conflicts might end up today, if we were to go to war with China.”  

​North Korea 

Shanahan started his trip in the U.S. state of Hawaii, where he met with Adm. Philip Davidson, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, before visiting Indonesia. After the Shangri-La defense forum, Shanahan will visit with his counterparts in South Korea and Japan. 

U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe differed Monday on whether recent North Korean missile tests violated a U.N. Security Council resolution, but they remained united on the goal of achieving a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. 

At a joint news conference in Tokyo, Trump said he viewed the tests as a bid for attention by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and that he was not personally bothered by them. Abe, however, said the tests did violate the Security Council resolution. 

Shanahan condemned the tests Wednesday and told reporters both the U.S. and Japan were committed to denuclearizing the peninsula. 

“Let me just be clear, these were short-range missiles. Those are a violation” of the resolution, he said.  

Michael O’Hanlon, a senior defense expert with the Brookings Institution, told VOA that while the launch was worrisome, it was not a “top-tier concern” yet. 

“North Korea is signaling, I believe, that it could do more,” said O’Hanlon, “and I’m afraid we have to expect more of that, not less, given the path we’re on.” 

​Iran 

Shanahan’s trip follows recent decisions to reinforce U.S. defenses in the Middle East to protect American forces from potential Iranian threats.  

“The Iranian threat to our forces in the region remains,” Shanahan said Wednesday. 

Officials have said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian-backed proxy forces in the region posed credible threats to U.S. service members. They have blamed Iran for the sabotage of oil tankers in the region, a drone attack on a Saudi pipeline and an attack on the Green Zone in Iraq, but have not yet made public evidence to support these claims. 

Shanahan said the Pentagon was being as transparent as possible while protecting its intelligence sources. 

The U.S. is sending about 900 troops to Saudi Arabia and Qatar for additional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support, along with increased air and engineering support to harden the defenses of American facilities.  

A 600-person Patriot battalion has extended its deployment in the region to defend against missile threats, another Patriot battery has been sent to assist this mission, thousands of sailors in an aircraft carrier strike group have deployed to the region ahead of schedule, and the USS Arlington transport landing dock ship has been rerouted to the area. 
…

Water restrictions are to be imposed in Sydney, Australia’s biggest city, for the first time in almost a decade because of falling reservoir levels and a long-standing drought. Residents who breach the regulations could be fined US$150.

The flow of rainwater into some of Sydney’s reservoirs is at its lowest since World War II. From Saturday, households will face restrictions that will target the use of water outdoors. Garden sprinklers will be banned, and tougher measures could follow. The New South Wales state government says that “early and decisive action” will help to conserve supplies as a record-breaking drought worsens.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is predicting below-average rainfall and higher temperatures for the next three months across the much of the continent.

“With the lowest inflows into Sydney’s water storage since 1940, the government has come to a decision that it is best to go into water restrictions,” said Melinda Pavey, the New South Wales state Minister for Water. “We may get rain. The Bureau of Meteorology’s predictions are not fabulous, but as we know as we plan weekends, they are not always right and I hope that they are wrong. We are taking the appropriate course of action to take it to level one.”

New South Wales has been in drought since the middle of 2017.

Catherine Port, from Sydney Water, a government-owned company, says its officers will patrol to ensure the water ban is not broken.

“Sydney Water have a team of community water officers that will be out in the community to monitor and ensure that water restrictions are complied with. Penalties that will apply is AUD$220 for individuals and $550 for businesses,” she said.

Critics, though, insist that Sydney’s plight is in part the result of poor planning and a failure to take water recycling seriously.

Falling reservoir levels prompted authorities to switch on a multi-million dollar desalinization plant in January. At full capacity, it could supply Sydney, a city of 4.6 million people, with 15 per cent of its water needs.

Smaller towns in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, are also facing water crises. In Tamworth, residents are on level four restrictions that ban all use of water outdoors, and swimming pools cannot be filled or topped up. Level five restrictions are considered to be an emergency measure.

Australia is the world’s driest inhabited continent.

 
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