The U.S. State Department added nearly 40 people from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, including former presidents and judges, to a list published Wednesday of “corrupt and undemocratic actors.”

Two former Salvadoran presidents — Mauricio Funes, who served from 2009 to 2014, and his successor, Salvador Sanchez, whom Washington links to corruption, money laundering and embezzlement of public funds — were added to the list.

Funes and Sanchez, who both faced legal proceedings in El Salvador, now live in Nicaragua and cannot be extradited after receiving citizenship from the government of President Daniel Ortega.

“Corruption, a root cause of irregular migration, harms our national security,” said Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, as he presented the report.

Guatemalan targets include Fredy Orellana, the judge who ordered the suspension of an anti-graft party after its presidential candidate, Bernardo Arevalo, garnered enough votes to take part in an August 20 presidential runoff.

The so-called Engel list also features judges and prosecutors accused of persecuting journalists in Guatemala.

Meanwhile, Guatemala’s government rejected the accusations on Wednesday, labeling the report, “used by the United States to impose its jurisdiction on people abroad, as despicable.”

It includes ex-officials from the government of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was extradited to the United States over drug trafficking links.

Politicians from Honduras’ opposition Liberal Party also appear, including Liberal leader Yani Rosenthal, previously convicted of money laundering in the United States. Rosenthal responded in a tweet that he “categorically rejects the unfounded accusations made in the list.”

The Nicaraguan section includes all of the country’s parliamentary leaders, barring its president, whom Washington has already sanctioned, and several judges and directors of Nicaragua’s money-laundering watchdog.
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Italy put 23 cities on red alert as it reckoned with another day of scorching temperatures Wednesday, with no sign of relief from the wave of extreme heat, wildfires and flooding that has wreaked havoc from the United States to China.

The heat wave has hit southern Europe during the peak summer tourist season, breaking records – including in Rome – and bringing warnings about an increased risk of deaths.

Wildfires burned for a third day west of the Greek capital, Athens, and firefighters raced to keep flames away from coastal refineries.

Fanned by erratic winds, the fires have gutted dozens of homes, forced hundreds of people to flee and blanketed the area in thick smoke. Temperatures could climb to 109 Fahrenheit on Thursday, forecasters said.

Extreme weather was also disrupting life for millions of Americans. A dangerous heat wave was holding an area stretching from Southern California to the Deep South in its grip, bringing the city of Phoenix its 20th straight day with temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Calvin lashed Hawaii, raising the potential for flash flooding and dangerous surf on the Big Island.

In Texas, at least nine inmates in prisons without air conditioning have suffered fatal heart attacks during the extreme heat this summer, the Texas Tribune newspaper reported.

Another 14 have died of unknown causes during periods of extreme heat.

A Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson said preliminary findings of the deaths indicate that heat was not a factor in the fatalities. Nearly 70 of the 100 prisons in Texas are not fully air-conditioned.

Temperatures soar in China, Italy

In China, which was hosting U.S. climate envoy John Kerry for talks, tourists defied the heat to visit a giant thermometer showing surface temperatures of 80 Celsius (176 Fahrenheit).

In Beijing, which set a record as temperatures remained above 95 Fahrenheit for the 28th consecutive day, Kerry expressed hope that cooperation to combat global warming could redefine troubled ties between the two superpowers, both among the top polluters.

Temperatures remained high across much of Italy on Wednesday, where the health ministry said it would activate an information hotline and teams of mobile health workers visited the elderly in Rome.

“These people are afraid they won’t make it, they are afraid they can’t go out,” said Claudio Consoli, a doctor and director of a health unit.

Carmaker Stellantis said it was monitoring the situation at its Pomigliano plant near Naples on Wednesday, after temporarily halting work on one production line the day before when temperatures peaked.

Workers at battery-maker Magneti Marelli threatened an eight-hour strike at their central Italian plant in Sulmona. A joint statement by the unions said that “asphyxiating heat is putting at risk the lives of workers.”

While the heat wave appears to be subsiding in Spain, residents in Greece were left surveying the wreckage of their homes after the wildfires.

Scientists have long warned that climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions mainly from burning fossil fuels, will make heat waves more frequent, severe and deadly and have called on governments to drastically reduce emissions.

In Germany, the heat wave sparked a discussion on whether workplaces should introduce siestas for workers.

Heat and floods in Asia

In South Korea, heavy rain has pummeled central and southern regions since last week. Fourteen deaths occurred in an underpass in the city of Cheongju, where more than a dozen vehicles were submerged on Saturday when a river levee collapsed. In the southeastern province of North Gyeongsang, 22 people died, many from landslides and swirling torrents.

In northern India, flash floods, landslides and accidents related to heavy rainfall have killed more than 100 people since the onset of the monsoon season on June 1, where rainfall is 41% above average.

The Yamuna River reached the compound walls of the Taj Mahal in Agra for the first time in 45 years, submerging several other historical monuments, and flooded parts of the Indian capital.

The Brahmaputra River, which runs through India’s Assam state, burst its banks this month, engulfing almost half of the Kaziranga National Park – home to the rare one-horned rhino – in waist-deep water.

A wall collapse from monsoon rains killed at least 11 construction workers in neighboring Pakistan.

Iraq’s southern Basra governorate, with a population of around 4 million, said government work would be suspended on Thursday as temperatures hit 122 Fahrenheit. In Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, farmers said crops were failing because of heat and drought.

The unprecedented temperatures have added new urgency for nations around the globe to tackle climate change. With the world’s two biggest economies at odds over issues ranging from trade to Taiwan, Kerry told Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Wednesday that climate change must be handled separately from broader diplomatic issues.

“It is a universal threat to everybody on the planet and requires the largest nations in the world, the largest economies in the world, the largest emitters in the world, to come together in order to do work not just for ourselves, but for all mankind,” Kerry told Han.
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U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said more work was needed to iron out agreements with China on major issues after three days of talks in Beijing aimed at rebuilding trust between the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters. 

“We — our team and the United States administration — came to Beijing in order to unstick what has been stuck since almost last August,” Kerry told reporters late on Wednesday. 

Climate talks were suspended last year following the visit of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, an island over which China claims sovereignty. 

“This is our first in-person meeting since that time, and we’re here to break new ground,” Kerry told a briefing on Wednesday. 

Kerry said more meetings would be held between the two countries in the run-up to crucial COP28 talks in Dubai at the end of the year. 

Li Shuo, senior climate adviser with the environmental group Greenpeace in Beijing, said this week’s talks were “a complex rescue operation for the U.S.-China climate dialog” and said it could put relations on a “stronger footing.” 

“Further engagements should help unlock more ambition in reducing coal consumption, cutting methane emissions, and beating a path towards a stronger outcome at COP28,” he said.  

Kerry earlier told Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng that climate change was a “universal threat” that should be handled separately from broader diplomatic issues between China and the United States. 

Kerry told China’s vice president that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius requires significant Chinese efforts to reduce carbon and non-carbon dioxide emissions, the U.S. State Department said after their meeting. 

“[Kerry] further stressed that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius requires significant efforts by the PRC to reduce CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, such as methane, and to contribute to global efforts to eliminate illegal deforestation,” the State Department said. 

Acknowledging the diplomatic difficulties between the two sides in recent years, Kerry said climate should be treated as a “free-standing” challenge that requires the collective efforts of the world’s largest economies to resolve.  

“We have the ability to … make a difference with respect to climate,” he said at a meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, China’s sprawling parliament building. 

“We are only following the best science,” he told reporters. “There is no politics or ideology in what we are doing.” 

‘Positive signal’  

Kerry arrived in Beijing on Sunday as heat waves scorched parts of Europe, Asia and the United States, underscoring the need for governments to take drastic action to reduce carbon emissions, which contribute to global warming and extreme weather events. 

He has held meetings with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Premier Li Qiang as well as veteran climate envoy Xie Zhenhua in a bid to rebuild trust between the two sides ahead of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai.  

“If we can come together over these next months leading up to COP28, which will be the most important since Paris, we will have an opportunity to be able to make a profound difference on this issue,” he told Han.  

Han said the two countries had maintained close communication and dialog on climate since Kerry’s appointment as envoy, adding that a joint statement issued by the two sides has sent a “positive signal” to the world.  

Kerry told reporters earlier that his talks with Chinese officials this week have been constructive but complicated, with the two sides still dealing with political “externalities,” including Taiwan. 

“We’re just reconnecting,” he said. “We’re trying to re-establish the process we have worked on for years.” 

“We’re trying to carve out a very clear path to the COP to be able to cooperate and work as we have wanted to with all the externalities,” Kerry said.  

“The mood is very, very positive,” Kerry said ahead of Wednesday’s meetings. “We had a terrific dinner last night. We had a lot of back and forth. It’s really constructive. 

“We’re focused on the substance of what we can really work on and what we can make happen.”  
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NEW YORK — A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in a civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll, in which a jury found the former U.S. president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer and awarded her $5 million in damages.

In a 59-page decision, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said the jury did not reach a “seriously erroneous result” and the May 9 verdict was not a “miscarriage of justice.”

Carroll had accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and then branding the incident a hoax in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform.

Trump had argued that awarding Carroll $2 million in compensatory damages for sexual assault was “excessive” because the jury found he had not raped her, while the award for defamation was based on “pure speculation.” 

Lawyers for Trump and Carroll did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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China’s top diplomat said the United States needs the “diplomatic wisdom” embodied by Henry Kissinger during a visit with the former U.S secretary of state Wednesday in Beijing.

Wang Yi praised Kissinger’s role in normalizing bilateral relations between Beijing and Washington in the 1970s, describing the 100-year-old former diplomat as “an old friend” who “played an irreplaceable role in enhancing understanding between the two countries,” according to a statement issued by China’s foreign ministry.

Kissinger arrived Tuesday on a surprise visit to the Chinese capital and had talks with Defense Minister Li Shangfu. His visits to Beijing in 1971 while serving as national security advisor under then-President Richard Nixon paved the way for Nixon’s historic visit to the Communist-run nation the next year and the eventual normalizing of ties in 1979.

Wang said current U.S. policy towards China “needs Kissinger-style diplomatic wisdom and Nixon-style political courage.”

Relations between the U.S. and China have been strained in recent years over a growing number of issues, including Washington’s accusations of Beijing’s unfair trade and economic practices and violations of intellectual property rights, plus rising tensions over Taiwan, the self-ruled island China says is part of its territory.

Wang told Kissinger that it would be “impossible” to try and change China, and “even more impossible to encircle and contain” his country.

The U.S. has also accused China of human rights violations in the remote province of Xinjiang, as well as in Tibet and Hong Kong.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department told reporters Tuesday that officials with the administration of President Joe Biden had known Kissinger was planning to travel to China, but was not acting on behalf of the U.S. government.
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An American soldier facing disciplinary action by the U.S. military is believed to be in North Korean custody after illegally crossing the border dividing the two Koreas at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom Tuesday. 

“What we do know is that one of our service members who was on a tour, willfully and without authorization, crossed the Military Demarcation Line, or MDL. We believe he is in DPRK custody,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a briefing Tuesday.  

“And so, we are closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier’s next of kin,” he said. “I’m absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troops. And so, we will remain focused on this.” 

The soldier, who the Army identified as Private Second Class Travis T. King, had been in a detention facility in South Korea for about a month and a half for disciplinary measures, a U.S. official told VOA, adding that he had been taken to the airport to return to the U.S. but never got on the plane. The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, are reporting that King was recently released from a South Korean prison after serving time on assault charges. 

Another official told VOA that the soldier was supposed to be heading to the U.S. for pending administrative separation from the U.S. military. 

It is unclear how King got from the secure area of the airport to the border area. 

Officials say the soldier joined a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom, where he fled across the border. 

The United Nations Command, a multinational military force stationed at the border village to maintain the pause to the 1950’s Korean War, also said it is working with North Korea’s military to “resolve the incident.” 

The soldier in question suddenly crossed north of the MDL, the official border, at around 3:27 p.m. local time on Tuesday afternoon, according to South Korean daily The Chosun Ilbo, citing unnamed sources.  

No gunshots appeared to have been exchanged at the high-tension border town, where soldiers from the two Koreas in pre-COVID times stood guard around the clock, facing each other.  

The incident occurred as South Korea’s military remains on high alert for possible provocations from North Korea after a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine arrived in port in the southern city of Busan on the same day.  

Arrival of the USS Kentucky, capable of launching Trident II ballistic missiles with a range of 12,000 kilometers, is a highly symbolic move that Washington will stand with South Korea in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack.  

It is the first visit of a U.S. nuclear submarine in decades, said the White House Indo-Pacific coordinator, Kurt Campbell, during a press conference in Seoul Tuesday. 

Campbell is leading a 30-person delegation to officially launch the Nuclear Consultative Group, or NCG, with Seoul. South Korea says the initiative will strengthen their alliance to one that is nuclear based. It is the realization of a commitment made by U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in April, as outlined in the Washington Declaration.    

A joint statement following the inaugural meeting of the NCG noted that any North Korean nuclear attack against the United States or its allies would “result in the end of that regime,” and that a nuclear attack against South Korea would “be met with a swift, overwhelming and decisive response.” 

VOA’s Korean Service contributed to this report. 
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