New details have emerged of an apparently imminent prisoner swap between the U.S. and Iran, with the U.S. acknowledging for the first time that as part of the deal, it will free five Iranians whose names the Iranian government confirmed to VOA.

The U.S. acknowledgment of its agreement to free five Iranians came in a State Department statement sent to VOA late Monday. Hours earlier, Western news agencies reported that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had notified the U.S. Congress of the impending move.

The U.S. and Iran already had confirmed on August 10 that under the prisoner deal, Tehran also would release five American citizens whom Washington has said were wrongfully detained by Tehran.

“As we have said previously, the U.S. has agreed to allow the transfer of funds from South Korea to restricted accounts held in financial institutions in Qatar and the release of five Iranian nationals currently detained in the United States to facilitate the release of five U.S. citizens detained in Iran,” a State Department spokesperson wrote to VOA.

Iran’s U.N. mission in New York confirmed in a message to VOA the names of the five Iranians whose freedom it expects to secure in the prisoner swap. The names were first reported earlier Monday by the Al-Monitor news site.

The five Iranian nationals named by Iran include Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, Mehrdad Ansari, Amin Hasanzadeh, Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani and Kambiz Attar Kashani. All five were among the 11 Iranians first identified by VOA in an August 24 report as potential candidates for inclusion in a U.S.-Iran exchange.

Asked by VOA to confirm whether the five individuals identified by Iran will be freed, the State Department spokesperson declined to address the issue. All were arrested on federal charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran or providing Tehran with other forms of illicit help.

There also was no confirmation from the U.S. on when or how the five Americans and five Iranians will be swapped.

The State Department spokesperson said the U.S. continues to work for the release of the five American citizens and to monitor their health and welfare closely with the help of its Swiss partners but added: “We have no update to share at this time.”

Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani as saying Monday that the exchange will happen “in the near future.”

Of the five individuals named by Iran, four are Iranians without U.S. citizenship: Afrasiabi, Ansari, Hasanzadeh and Kafrani. Afrasiabi and Hasanzadeh are permanent U.S. residents, while Kafrani has no legal status in the U.S. The fifth Iranian, Kashani, is an Iranian American dual national.

Three of the five are on supervised pre-trial release: Afrasiabi, Hasanzadeh and Kafrani. Their inclusion in a prisoner deal would mean that federal charges against them are dropped and they are freed from restrictions on their movements outside of their homes.

The other two, Ansari and Kashani, are serving sentences in federal prisons in Louisiana and Michigan, respectively. Their inclusion in the deal would mean being freed several months before concluding their prison terms, which end in December for Ansari and February for Kashani.

Speaking to VOA on Monday, Barry Rosen, a former U.S. hostage in Iran, said he expects most of the five Iranians to be freed by the U.S. will not return to Iran as they have significant ties to the U.S. He said an exchange of Iranian and American prisoners on an airport tarmac somewhere in the Middle East would provide Iran with a propaganda boost, but he doubted the U.S. would agree to choreograph the swap in such a way.

Critics of the Biden administration’s Iran policy told VOA that the agreement to free five Iranians would have negative consequences for the U.S.

“The Islamic republic will herald this as a significant win for its long-standing policy of seizing Western hostages in return for ransom and the freeing of duly-convicted Iranian nationals,” said Andrea Stricker of Washington-based research group Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Rather than facing U.S. penalties or repercussions, the regime will be emboldened to continue abducting innocent people,” she added.

The Biden administration has rejected critics’ characterizations of the unfreezing of $6 billion in funds in South Korean banks as a ransom payment. It has said Tehran will regain access to Iranian funds that had been frozen under U.S. sanctions and will be able to access them only via a third party for humanitarian purchases under U.S. supervision.

Jason Brodsky, policy director of U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, said he believes the U.S. unfreezing of $6 billion should have been “more than enough” to secure the release of the Americans held by Iran. “The additional release of Iranians charged with U.S. crimes is an attempt by Tehran to create a false equivalence between the justice system in the United States and the injustice system in Iran,” Brodsky said.

Sina Toosi, a researcher at the Washington-based Center for International Policy and a supporter of the emerging U.S.-Iran deal, reacted positively to Monday’s developments in a post on the X social media platform.

“It is a welcome development that the U.S. and Iran are close to implementing an agreement that will bring some relief to the families of unjustly held prisoners, as well as to millions of Iranians suffering from an economic crisis caused by U.S. sanctions,” Toosi wrote.

In August, Iran confirmed that it had placed the five American prisoners under house arrest. The U.S. named three of them as Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz but declined to name the other two whose detentions had not previously been confirmed, citing their privacy.

Namazi, Shargi, Tahbaz and one of the other U.S. prisoners were moved from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison to house arrest at an undisclosed hotel where they would be held under guard by Iranian officials, human rights lawyer Jared Genser said in a statement August 10. He said the fifth American, a woman, already was under house arrest.
…

A Ukrainian composer has been commissioned to write an opera about mothers from that country going into Russia to rescue their forcibly detained children.

The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater said Monday that 42-year-old Maxim Kolomiiets will compose the work to a libretto by George Brant, whose “Grounded,” with composer Jeanine Tesori, premieres at the Washington National Opera on October 28 and travels to the Met in autumn 2024. Met general manager Peter Gelb hopes the company can present the new work by 2027 or ’28.

The story is fictional but based on events in Ukraine and The Hague. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on March 17 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.

“It will be a story of motherhood and childhood, about this strange, very difficult situation where mothers rescue their children and met with many difficulties,” Kolomiiets said in a telephone interview. “For people, for listeners, it will be a good understanding.”

He was living in Kyiv when the war started last year, then three months later moved to Leipzig, Germany, where he had a project and decided to stay.

Gelb said discussions began last fall with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska when she visited New York and Kolomiiets was picked from among 72 applications after vetting by Met dramaturge Paul Cremo, Gelb and the Met’s artistic staff.

A story framework has been created. A piano-vocal score and libretto will be written in the next year or two and a workshop prepared.

“I felt it was important to have an English-language librettist working with the composer so that story would have the broadest possible audience,” Gelb said.

Gelb has been an advocate of support for Ukraine, banning Russian star soprano Anna Netrebko from the opera house and assisting Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra tours led by his wife, Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson.

Works in the joint commissioning program can appear at either house.

“It’s my hope it will end up as a full-blown opera and hopefully on our stage,” Gelb said.
…

Public sentiment toward U.S. military bases on the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa appears to be changing, amid growing tensions with China and the shock of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The United States has around 30,000 active troops in Okinawa deployed in numerous bases across the main island, including some in the middle of built-up residential areas. 

Washington has maintained a large military presence since the end of World War II, when U.S. forces captured the islands after three months of brutal fighting that killed a quarter of Okinawa’s population.  

Okinawa makes up just 1% of Japanese land mass but hosts 70% of all U.S. military bases in the country. They have long been a source of tension with local residents, explained Yoko Shima, editor of Okinawa’s Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper, which has campaigned for the closure of the military installations.

“People now in their 60s and 70s have memories of the Battle of Okinawa [in World War II] passed down to them from their parents and were involved in campaigns against the bases in the past. So, they feel strongly about the issue,” Shima told VOA.

Aircraft noise, road accidents and a perceived safety risk of the Osprey aircraft deployed in Okinawa have stirred local opposition to the bases. 

The rape of a 12-year-old girl in 1995 by three U.S. Marines prompted large protests calling for the bases to be closed. 

Changing attitudes

Polls show around 70% of residents believe Okinawa bears an unfair burden. There are frequent calls for the Japanese mainland to host more U.S. bases. 

However, sentiment appears to be slowly changing. Younger people tend to have a less negative view of the U.S. presence, Shima said.

“Although there is no overwhelming support for the U.S. military bases, young people feel that there is nothing we can do about the U.S. military bases, since they already exist, and that they are also necessary for the defense of Japan,” Shima said.

Taiwan tensions

Okinawa’s painful history is felt strongly among its people. Its geography puts it on the front line of rising geopolitical tensions.

Taiwan lies just a few hundred kilometers west of Okinawa. On a clear day, it is possible to see the Taiwanese coastline from Yonaguni, the most westerly of the Okinawan islands. 

China has ramped up military exercises around Taiwan over the past year, which Beijing sees as part of its territory. The drills have raised fears that China could launch an invasion, and Okinawans fear their islands could be drawn into any wider conflict, Shima said.

“There is a high possibility that Okinawa will become a target, because there are currently U.S. military bases here. So, it shouldn’t become a target. In other words, we should pursue the ideal of reducing the burden of military bases [in Okinawa], while promoting diplomatic efforts to bring the countries of East Asia closer together,” she said.

The United States and Japan agreed to relocate the Futenma air base, one of the most controversial installations north of the capital, to a remote area of coastline at Henoko on the east coast of Okinawa. A new runway is currently under construction in Henoko Bay.

However, the move has been repeatedly delayed amid legal challenges. Critics say the relocation will fail to relieve the burden on Okinawa and will destroy the fragile ecosystem of the coral reefs in the area.

Local support

Japan and Okinawa must be ready to deal with a more assertive China, and that means embracing the U.S. military presence, leaders in Okinawa say.

“The threat to security from China is becoming more concrete,” said Aiko Shimajiri, an Okinawan lawmaker in the Japanese Parliament. 

In December, China sailed its Liaoning aircraft carrier through the Miyako Strait, just south of Okinawa’s main island, cutting through the archipelago that stretches toward Taiwan. 

Shimajiri said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has reminded many Okinawans that invasion and large-scale warfare are still a possibility.

“I think there are many people in Okinawa who feel that since no one knows what may happen, it is necessary to prepare for that eventuality,” she told VOA.

Divided opinion

Okinawan residents who spoke to VOA gave differing views on the U.S. bases.

“If the peace of Japan is protected, I think that they are a good thing,” said Taro Kishimoto, a student in the Okinawan capital, Naha. “I don’t think my life will change much with or without the U.S. military bases, so I’m not too worried about it.” 

Ayako Yagi, who is in her sixties, wants the bases to close.

“After all, my grandparents experienced the Second World War. So, I would be happier without them,” she said.

Katsufumi Nishime, a retired former member of Japan’s self-defense forces, said the U.S. military is needed in Okinawa. 

“The self-defense forces cannot protect Japan, unless the U.S. military comes to support us. The Taiwan issue is a problem. When I see the news about the Ukraine war, I think that having the power of the U.S. military is absolutely necessary,” he said.
…

The United States on Monday marks the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

President Joe Biden is due to deliver an address to members of the military, first responders and their families at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska.

Biden’s Alaska stop comes as he travels home from an overseas trip that included the G20 summit in India and meeting with leaders in Vietnam.

While Monday will be the rare September 11 anniversary without a president appearing at observances at crash sites in New York, Pennsylvania or the Pentagon, it is not without precedent.

President George W. Bush in 2005 held an observance on the White House lawn, while President Barack Obama in 2015 participated in a moment of silence at the White House before attending an event honoring the work of the military at nearby Fort Meade.

Vice President Kamala Harris is due to attend a ceremony Monday at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York.  Al-Qaida terrorists hijacked two commercial jets and crashed them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, causing both buildings to collapse.

Her husband, Doug Emhoff, is scheduled to visit Shanksville, Pennsylvania to lay a wreath at a memorial where another hijacked plane crashed into a field after passengers fought their attackers.

First lady Jill Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley are all due to participate in a wreath laying ceremony at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial.  Terrorists crashed a hijacked plane into the building, which serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Defense Department.

September 11 is a federally recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance in the United States, aiming to transform a day of tragedy into a day of doing good to honor the memories of victims and those who responded to the terror attacks.
…

Novak Djokovic emerged from an exhilarating and exhausting U.S. Open final with a 24th Grand Slam title on Sunday night, using every ounce of his energy and some serve-and-volley guile to get past Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in a match that was more closely contested than the straight-set score indicated.

Djokovic, a 36-year-old from Serbia, moved one major singles title in front of Serena Williams to become the first player to win 24 in the Open era, which began in 1968. Margaret Court also collected a total of 24, but 13 of those came before professionals were admitted to the Slam events.

“It obviously means the world to me,” said Djokovic, who will return to No. 1 in the rankings on Monday.

There were moments, particularly in the 1-hour, 44-minute second set that was as much about tenacity as talent, when Djokovic appeared to be faltering. After some of the most grueling points — and there were many — he would lean over with hands on knees or use his racket for support or pause to stretch his legs. After one, he dropped to his back on the court and stayed down for a bit as the crowd roared.

He allowed Medvedev to come within a single point of taking that set while returning at 6-5. Djokovic rushed the net behind his serve, and while Medvedev had an opening for a backhand passing shot he did not come through.

That was a key adjustment: When Djokovic was looking more bedraggled, he turned to serve-and-volleying, not his usual sort of tactic, to great success. He won 20 of 22 points he played that way, and 37 of 44 overall on the points when he went to the net.

This triumph against Medvedev, the opponent who beat him in the 2021 final at Flushing Meadows to stop a bid for the first men’s calendar-year Grand Slam in more than a half-century, made Djokovic the oldest male champion at the U.S. Open in the Open era.

“First of all, Novak, I want to ask: What are you still doing here? Come on,” Medvedev joked during the trophy presentation.

Djokovic’s fourth championship in New York, where he was unable to compete a year ago because he isn’t vaccinated against COVID-19, goes alongside his 10 trophies from the Australian Open, seven from Wimbledon and three from the French Open, extending his lead on the men’s Slam list. Rafael Nadal, who has been sidelined since January with a hip problem that required surgery, is next with 22; Roger Federer, who announced his retirement a year ago, finished with 20.

When it was over, Medvedev tapped Djokovic on the chest as they chatted at the net. Djokovic flung his racket away, put his arms up and then knelt on the court, with his head bowed. And then the celebration was on. First, he found his daughter for a hug. His son and wife came next, along with his team.

Soon, Djokovic was donning a shirt with “24” and “Mamba Forever” written on it as a tribute to the late NBA star Kobe Bryant, who wore that jersey number. And on top of that went a white jacket with the same significant number stamped on the chest.

As good as ever, Djokovic went 27-1 in the sport’s most prestigious events this season: The lone blemish was a loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the final at Wimbledon in July. Djokovic will rise to No. 1 in the rankings on Monday, overtaking Alcaraz, who was the defending champion at Flushing Meadows but was eliminated by No. 3 Medvedev.

At the start Sunday, with the Arthur Ashe Stadium retractable roof shut because of rain in the forecast, Djokovic was comfortable as can be. No sign of the occasion weighing on him, no trace of the tension he acknowledged briefly arose late in his semifinal against unseeded American Ben Shelton.

His exemplary movement good as ever, every stroke just so, Djokovic came out as his best self. He grabbed 12 of the first 16 points — three via aces perfectly placed, and with pace, and four via exchanges that lasted 10 strokes or more — along the way to leads of 3-0 and 4-1.

Medvedev, in contrast, seemed tight, jittery, the looping swings of his white racket breaking down repeatedly, whether on a trio of double-faults in the opening set or during the lengthier points, other than on one 37-shot back-and-forth that ended when Djokovic blinked, stumbling as he flubbed a backhand.

Beyond that, though, Djokovic was as reliable as a metronome, anticipating nearly everything headed his way and scurrying this way and that to retrieve and respond, as is his wont.

And the fans sure were appropriately appreciative, which has not always been the case over Djokovic’s career. On this afternoon-into-evening, support came from thousands, not only the folks invoking his two-syllable nickname while chanting, “Let’s go, No-le, let’s go!” or those in his guest box, including Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey, one of many A-listers on hand.

When he got to set point in the first on a miscue by Medvedev, Djokovic showed his first real bit of emotion, raising a fist and turning to the corner where his entourage had jumped to their feet. When another Medvedev miss ended the set, Djokovic simply exhaled and strode to the sideline.

He relies on analytics and what a foe’s tendencies are. He leans on instinct and a masterful ability to read opposing serves and groundstrokes. On Sunday, his blue shoes carried him right where he needed to be, more often than not, and his flexibility — turning, bending, contorting, stretching, sliding, defending with his back to the net, even — allowed him to keep the ball in play, when required, and create flip-the-switch offense, too, if desired.

Medvedev plays a similar type of tennis, and their mirror images would elongate points for 25 shots, 35 shots, more.

Was Djokovic perfect? No. But, wow, he came close in sections, and he was absolutely good enough throughout to win, as he so often is.
…

U.S. President Joe Biden has held his highest-level direct talks in months with the Chinese. The talks came during the recent summit of 20 of the world’s largest economies in New Delhi, India. During a historic visit to Vietnam after that, Biden also said a comprehensive strategic partnership between the U.S. and Vietnam is not about containing China. VOA’s State Department bureau chief Nike Ching has more.
…

U.S. President Joe Biden said Sunday he still intends to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping after a 10-month gap in communication, while saying that he had met with Xi’s deputy in New Delhi earlier in the day.

“My team, my staff, still meets with President Xi’s cabinet,” he said at a news conference in Hanoi in response to a question from VOA. “In fact, I met with his No. 2 person … in India today.”

“It’s not like there’s a crisis if I don’t personally speak” with Xi, who skipped the G-20 meeting of world leaders in India. “It would be better if I did. I hope to get to see him again soon.”

On the meeting with Premier Li Qiang, he added: “It wasn’t confrontational at all,” adding they talked about stability and making sure the developing world “had access to change.”

But Biden noted Xi “has his hands full right now. He has overwhelming unemployment with youths” and said a major sector of the Chinese economy, real estate, is faltering.

“I don’t want to contain” Chinese economic growth, Biden said. “I want to see China succeed economically, but I want to see them succeed by the rules” of international norms.

The U.S. leader said the Chinese economy, second in the world behind the United States, has struggled because of a lack of international growth, but didn’t see it as leading to armed conflict over Taiwan, the self-governed territory that China claims as part of Beijing’s domain.

“I don’t think this is going to cause China to invade Taiwan,” Biden said. “As a matter of fact, the opposite, probably doesn’t have the same capacity that it had before.”

Several Biden Cabinet members have traveled recently to Beijing to meet with their counterparts. But the two countries have lately had a contentious relationship over trade, naval patrols near Taiwan and a spy balloon that China sent over the United States earlier this year.

Biden ordered the balloon shot down over the Atlantic Ocean as it reached the U.S. eastern seaboard but not before it lingered over sensitive U.S. military installations as it crossed the entirety of the United States. In addition, China hacked the emails of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo before her recent trip to Beijing.
…

Most of West Maui will officially reopen to travelers Oct. 8 under a new wildfire emergency proclamation signed on Friday by Hawaii Gov. Josh Green.

Nonessential travel to much of the island’s western coastline has been strongly discouraged since devastating wildfires killed at least 115 people in the historic town of Lahaina last month.

State tourism officials initially urged travelers to stay away from Maui so residents and agencies could focus on emergency response efforts and supporting those displaced by the fires. In mid-August, officials began encouraging tourists to return to other parts of Maui, avoiding the burn zone and spending money to help the region recover.

On Thursday, Green told a meeting of the state Council on Revenues that he expected authorities to reopen most of West Maui to travelers in October, with the exception of the fire-damaged neighborhoods. The area, which includes beach resorts in Kaanapali, north of historic Lahaina, has 11,000 hotel rooms. That’s half Maui’s total.

In the emergency proclamation signed Friday, the governor said the previous guidance that strongly discouraged nonessential travel to West Maui will be discontinued Oct. 8.

Tourism is a major economic driver in Hawaii, and the wildfire disaster prompted state officials to lower their 2023 economic growth prediction for the entire state to 1.1%, down from 1.8%.

The number of visitors arriving on Maui sank about 70% after the Aug. 8 fire, down to 2,000 a day, and only half of the available hotel rooms there are occupied, said Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association president Mufi Hannemann. Airlines have begun offering steep discounts on flights to Hawaii, and some resorts have slashed room rates by 20% or are offering a fifth night free.
…

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque drew an immediate court challenge from a gun-rights group Saturday, as legal scholars and advocates said they expected.

The National Association for Gun Rights and Foster Haines, a member who lives in Albuquerque, filed documents in U.S. District Court in New Mexico suing Lujan Grisham and seeking an immediate block to the implementation of her order.

The challenge was expected, but even so, the governor’s action Friday was an attempt to “move the debate,” said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount’s Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, after Lujan Grisham announced she was temporarily suspending the right to carry firearms in her state’s largest city and surrounding Bernalillo County.

The governor, a Democrat, said the 30-day suspension, enacted as an emergency public health measure, would apply in most public places, from city sidewalks to parks.

She said state police would be responsible for enforcing what amount to civil violations and carry a fine of up to $5,000.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, who once served as a Democratic Party leader and was appointed by Lujan Grisham, on Saturday joined Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Police Chief Harold Medina saying they wouldn’t enforce the order.

“As an officer of the court, I cannot and will not enforce something that is clearly unconstitutional,” said Bregman, the top prosecutor in the Albuquerque area. “This office will continue to focus on criminals of any age that use guns in the commission of a crime.”

Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said he was uneasy about how gun owners might respond.

“I am wary of placing my deputies in positions that could lead to civil liability conflicts,” Allen said, “as well as the potential risks posed by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from their constitutional right to self-defense.”

Medina noted that Albuquerque police had arrested more than 200 suspects in killings in the last two years. Police spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said enforcing the order also could put Albuquerque police in a difficult position with a U.S. Department of Justice police reform settlement.

Lujan Grisham said she was compelled to act after recent shootings including the death this week of an 11-year-old boy outside a minor league baseball stadium and gunfire last month that killed a 5-year-old girl who was asleep in a motor home. The governor also cited the shooting death in August of a 13-year-old girl in Taos County.

“No person, other than a law enforcement officer or licensed security officer, shall possess a firearm … either openly or concealed,” the governor’s order states.

Levinson told The Associated Press in a phone call Friday that Lujan Grisham would draw a court fight, saying the governor was “bumping up against the Second Amendment, no doubt about it.”

“And we have a very conservative Supreme Court that is poised to expand Second Amendment rights,” Levinson added.

Dudley Brown, founder and president of the Colorado-based gun-rights group, called the governor’s action unconstitutional.

“She needs to be held accountable for stripping the God-given rights of millions away with the stroke of a pen,” he said in a statement announcing the lawsuit and request for a restraining order. A court hearing was not immediately set.

The top Republican in the New Mexico Senate, Greg Baca of Belen, also denounced Lujan Grisham’s order as an infringement on the gun rights of law-abiding citizens. Dan Lewis, who serves on the nonpartisan Albuquerque City Council, called the order an unconstitutional edict.

Lujan Grisham said gun owners still would be able to transport guns to private locations such as a gun range or gun store if the firearm is in a container or has a trigger lock or mechanism making it impossible to discharge.

The governor’s order calls for monthly inspections of firearms dealers statewide to ensure compliance with gun laws and for the state Department of Health to compile a report on gunshot victims at hospitals that includes age, race, gender and ethnicity, along with the brand and caliber of firearm involved.

Levinson said she was not aware of any other governor taking a step as restrictive as Lujan Grisham. But she pointed to a proposal by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, to amend the U.S. Constitution to harden federal gun laws.

“I don’t think it will be a political loss for (Lujan Grisham) to be overturned,” Levinson said. “She can say she did everything she could but was stopped by the courts.”

Jacob Charles, a law professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law who studies the Second Amendment, noted that the Supreme Court, in the June 2022 Bruen case, expanded the right of law-abiding Americans to carry guns in public for self-defense.

He said that ruling takes away the ability to take into account arguments about a compelling government interest, like the gun violence that Lujan Grisham said prompted her order. Now, judges must solely rely on whether any similar historical examples exist.

“They can’t assess whether or not this is going to reduce gun violence. They can’t assess whether or not there are other alternatives that government could have done,” Charles said. He later added, “What it means is that contemporary costs and benefits aren’t part of the analysis.” 
…

The cost of building an artificial intelligence product like ChatGPT can be hard to measure.

But one thing Microsoft-backed OpenAI needed for its technology was plenty of water, pulled from the watershed of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in central Iowa to cool a powerful supercomputer as it helped teach its AI systems how to mimic human writing.

As they race to capitalize on a craze for generative AI, leading tech developers, including Microsoft, OpenAI and Google, have acknowledged that growing demand for their AI tools carries hefty costs, from expensive semiconductors to an increase in water consumption.

But they’re often secretive about the specifics. Few people in Iowa knew about its status as a birthplace of OpenAI’s most advanced large language model, GPT-4, before a top Microsoft executive said in a speech it “was literally made next to cornfields west of Des Moines.”

Building a large language model requires analyzing patterns across a huge trove of human-written text. All that computing takes a lot of electricity and generates a lot of heat. To keep it cool on hot days, data centers need to pump in water — often to a cooling tower outside its warehouse-sized buildings.

In its latest environmental report, Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools), a sharp increase compared to previous years that outside researchers tie to its AI research.

“It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI,” including “its heavy investment in generative AI and partnership with OpenAI,” said Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside, who has been trying to calculate the environmental impact of generative AI products such as ChatGPT.

In a paper due to be published later this year, Ren’s team estimates ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (close to what’s in a 16-ounce water bottle) every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. The range varies depending on where its servers are located and the season. The estimate includes indirect water usage that the companies don’t measure — such as to cool power plants that supply the data centers with electricity.

“Most people are not aware of the resource usage underlying ChatGPT,” Ren said. “If you’re not aware of the resource usage, then there’s no way that we can help conserve the resources.”

Google reported a 20% growth in water use in the same period, which Ren also largely attributes to its AI work. Google’s spike wasn’t uniform — it was steady in Oregon, where its water use has attracted public attention, while doubling outside Las Vegas. It was also thirsty in Iowa, drawing more potable water to its Council Bluffs data centers than anywhere else.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, Microsoft said in a statement this week that it is investing in research to measure AI’s energy and carbon footprint “while working on ways to make large systems more efficient, in both training and application.”

“We will continue to monitor our emissions, accelerate progress while increasing our use of clean energy to power data centers, purchasing renewable energy, and other efforts to meet our sustainability goals of being carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030,” the company’s statement said.

OpenAI echoed those comments in its own statement Friday, saying it’s giving “considerable thought” to the best use of computing power.

“We recognize training large models can be energy and water-intensive” and work to improve efficiencies, it said.

Microsoft made its first $1 billion investment in San Francisco-based OpenAI in 2019, more than two years before the startup introduced ChatGPT and sparked worldwide fascination with AI advancements. As part of the deal, the software giant would supply computing power needed to train the AI models.

To do at least some of that work, the two companies looked to West Des Moines, Iowa, a city of 68,000 people where Microsoft has been amassing data centers to power its cloud computing services for more than a decade. Its fourth and fifth data centers are due to open there later this year.

“They’re building them as fast as they can,” said Steve Gaer, who was the city’s mayor when Microsoft came to town. Gaer said the company was attracted to the city’s commitment to building public infrastructure and contributed a “staggering” sum of money through tax payments that support that investment.

“But, you know, they were pretty secretive on what they’re doing out there,” he said.

Microsoft first said it was developing one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers for OpenAI in 2020, declining to reveal its location to the AP at the time but describing it as a “single system” with more than 285,000 cores of conventional semiconductors and 10,000 graphics processors — a kind of chip that’s become crucial to AI workloads.

Experts have said it can make sense to “pretrain” an AI model at a single location because of the large amounts of data that need to be transferred between computing cores.

It wasn’t until late May that Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, disclosed that it had built its “advanced AI supercomputing data center” in Iowa, exclusively to enable OpenAI to train what has become its fourth-generation model, GPT-4. The model now powers premium versions of ChatGPT and some of Microsoft’s own products and has accelerated a debate about containing AI’s societal risks.

“It was made by these extraordinary engineers in California, but it was really made in Iowa,” Smith said.

In some ways, West Des Moines is a relatively efficient place to train a powerful AI system, especially compared to Microsoft’s data centers in Arizona, which consume far more water for the same computing demand.

“So if you are developing AI models within Microsoft, then you should schedule your training in Iowa instead of in Arizona,” Ren said. “In terms of training, there’s no difference. In terms of water consumption or energy consumption, there’s a big difference.”

For much of the year, Iowa’s weather is cool enough for Microsoft to use outside air to keep the supercomputer running properly and vent heat out of the building. Only when the temperature exceeds 29.3 degrees Celsius (about 85 degrees Fahrenheit) does it withdraw water, the company has said in a public disclosure.
…

Budget for new public buildings includes allotment for original artworks
…

Since China reopened its borders in January, thousands of Chinese have traveled to the United States. Some have asked for asylum. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, where recent migrants are adapting to life in a new country.
…