Bill Richardson, a two-term Democratic governor of New Mexico and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who dedicated his post-political career to working to free Americans detained overseas, has died. He was 75.

The Richardson Center for Global Engagement, which he founded and led, said in a statement Saturday that he died in his sleep at his home in Chatham, Massachusetts.

“He lived his entire life in the service of others — including both his time in government and his subsequent career helping to free people held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” said Mickey Bergman, the center’s vice president. “There was no person that Governor Richardson would not speak with if it held the promise of returning a person to freedom. The world has lost a champion for those held unjustly abroad, and I have lost a mentor and a dear friend.”

Before his election in 2002 as governor, Richardson was U.N. ambassador and energy secretary under President Bill Clinton and served 14 years as a congressman representing northern New Mexico.

Richardson also traveled the globe as an unofficial diplomatic troubleshooter, negotiating the release of hostages and American servicemen from North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Sudan. He bargained with a who’s who of America’s adversaries, including Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It was a role that Richardson relished, once describing himself as “the informal undersecretary for thugs.”

Armed with a golden resume and wealth of experience in foreign and domestic affairs, Richardson ran for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president in hopes of becoming the nation’s first Hispanic president. He dropped out of the race after fourth-place finishes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

Richardson was the nation’s only Hispanic governor during his two terms. He described being governor as “the best job I ever had.”

“It’s the most fun. You can get the most done. You set the agenda,” Richardson said.

As governor, Richardson signed legislation in 2009 that repealed the death penalty. He called it the “most difficult decision in my political life” because he previously had supported capital punishment.

Other accomplishments as governor included $50,000-a-year minimum salaries for the most qualified teachers in New Mexico, an increase in the state minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.50 an hour, pre-kindergarten programs for 4-year-olds, renewable energy requirements for utilities and financing for large infrastructure projects, including a commercial spaceport in southern New Mexico and a $400 million commuter rail system.

Richardson continued his freelance diplomacy even while serving as governor. He had barely started his first term as governor when he met with two North Korean envoys in Santa Fe. He traveled to North Korea in 2007 to recover remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War. In 2006, he persuaded Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to free Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Paul Salopek.

Richardson transformed the political landscape in New Mexico. He raised and spent record amounts on his campaigns. He brought Washington-style politics to an easygoing western state with a part-time Legislature.

Lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, complained that Richardson threatened retribution against those who opposed him. Democratic state Sen. Tim Jennings of Roswell once said Richardson was “beating people over the head” in his dealings with lobbyists on a health care issue. Richardson dismissed criticisms of his administrative style.

“Admittedly, I am aggressive. I use the bully pulpit of the governorship,” Richardson said. “But I don’t threaten retribution. They say I am a vindictive person. I just don’t believe that.”

Longtime friends and supporters attributed Richardson’s success partly to his relentlessness. Bob Gallagher, who headed the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said if Richardson wanted something done then “expect him to have a shotgun at the end of the hallway. Or a ramrod.”

After dropping out of the 2008 presidential race, Richardson endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. That happened despite a long-standing friendship with the Clintons.

Obama later nominated Richardson as secretary of commerce, but Richardson withdrew in early 2009 because of a federal investigation into an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving his administration in New Mexico.

Months later, the federal investigation ended with no charges against Richardson and his former top aides. Richardson had a troubled tenure as energy secretary because of a scandal over missing computer equipment with nuclear weapons secrets at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the government’s investigation and prosecution of former nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee.

Richardson approved Lee’s firing at Los Alamos in 1999. Lee spent nine months in solitary confinement, charged with 59 counts of mishandling sensitive information. Lee later pleaded guilty to one count of mishandling computer files and was released with the apology of a federal judge.

William Blaine Richardson was born in Pasadena, California, but grew up in Mexico City with a Mexican mother and an American father who was a U.S. bank executive.

He attended prep school in Massachusetts and was a star baseball player. He later went to Tufts University and its graduate school in international relations, earning a master’s degree in international affairs.

Richardson moved to New Mexico in 1978 after working as a Capitol Hill staffer. He wanted to run for political office and said New Mexico, with its Hispanic roots, seemed like a good place. He campaigned for Congress just two years later — his only losing race.

In 1982, he won a new congressional seat from northern New Mexico that the state picked up in reapportionment. He resigned from Congress in 1997 to join the Clinton administration as U.N. ambassador and became secretary of energy in 1998, holding the post until the end of the Clinton presidency.
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Gushiken Takamatsu balances his spectacles on the tip of his nose before switching on his headlight, revealing the blackened fragments on the floor of the cave. Using an old plasterer’s tool, he gently combs through the debris before picking out a jagged, triangular piece of bone.

“Zugaikotsu,” he says, in a gentle Okinawan accent. “Skull.” He points to the patterns created by blood vessels on the inside of the skull, clearly visible after nearly 80 years.

The 69-year-old speaks quietly to himself as he collects other pieces from the cave floor — fragments of finger bones and what appears to be a kneecap. “Is this dead person a soldier or a civilian?” he asks. “I think it was a flamethrower that did this. Everything is burned.”

The jungle caves of Okinawa hide the remains of thousands of civilians and soldiers, victims of the last major battle of World War II.

On April 1, 1945, American forces invaded the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa, triggering one of the bloodiest land battles of the Pacific. Takamatsu has spent decades searching for the remains of those who died. Now he fears Okinawa is once again caught in the crosshairs of potential conflict.

Cave diggers

For decades, the bones of the victims have lain undisturbed as Japan tried to forget its wartime past. That shames the nation, says Takamatsu. The Okinawan native founded Gamafuya, or “cave digger,” a small group of volunteers dedicated to finding the remains of wartime victims and reuniting them with their living descendants.

“I’m often asked why I started doing this,” Takamatsu says. “I was born in Naha city [the Okinawan capital], and there were many remains of people who died in the war around my house. It was the kind of place where you would still see skeletons wearing steel helmets when you went out to play in the mountains. When I was a child it was just scary. But as I got older and matured, I wondered why the victims of this war were still there.”

‘Never-ending’

Through 40 years of searching, Takamatsu has discovered the remains of over 700 people. The Japanese government does not provide financial help. Finally, in 2011, it agreed to offer DNA testing on the remains. However, the number of Japanese citizens registered on the database is small, while many relatives of the victims have likely already died.

“We are one or two volunteers,” Takamatsu tells VOA. “In reality, the government should be doing this. But even though we ask, they refuse. I want to show that if you look for the remains in this way, you can find them. This work isn’t finished yet.”

He gathers together the fragments he has found, before saying a short prayer — and promises that he will return to the cave to finish the search another day. “After about five hours, if I do more than that, I’ll get too tired. So I’ll do it next time,” he says. “This work is never-ending.”

Reunited

Hacking through the jungle, Takamatsu heads to another site where he has found human remains. He climbs over the jagged rocks and into a shaded ravine. At the base, several long bones are neatly aligned beneath the decaying leaves and soil. Other remains are concealed beneath large rocks that have cascaded down the ravine, possibly as a result of the ferocious battles that raged above 78 years ago.

Takamatsu measures a radius, or forearm bone, and determines that the remains belong to an adult male, before jotting his discovery in a battered field notebook. He will have to return with other volunteers to help shift the rocks and remove the other remains.

Takamatsu notifies the police of each of his finds. The bones are taken to a makeshift morgue at the local peace museum before being sent for DNA testing.

So far, Takamatsu has been able to identify four bodies and reunite the bones with their surviving relatives. All were from the Japanese mainland — soldiers sent to Okinawa to fight the American invasion.

The families “didn’t believe me at first,” Takamatsu says. “They were suspicious and thought it was a scam. But I understand how they felt. For 70 years they didn’t hear anything, and then they get a phone call to say their relative had been found. It was like their father was coming home. They were very happy.”

Battle of Okinawa

The American invasion of Okinawa triggered three months of ferocious fighting. Around 90,000 Japanese soldiers and 12,000 U.S. troops had been killed by the time American forces seized the capital, Naha, in early June 1945. The United States feared such losses would continue if its forces invaded the Japanese mainland. Those concerns partly led to the decision to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki two months later. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.

The civilian toll in Okinawa was even higher, with an estimated 100,000 people killed — around a quarter of the prewar population of the islands.

The Japanese government told local inhabitants that they would be beaten and murdered by U.S. forces. Many hid in the island’s caves. Some committed suicide as the fighting approached.

“The inhabitants were not allowed to surrender. If you surrendered to the Americans and tried to walk out with your hands up, the Japanese would shoot you in the back,” Takamatsu tells VOA.

“They were told that no one would survive if captured by the U.S. military,” he says. “They said that women would be beaten and killed, while all the men would be lined up on the road and run over by tanks. So, the residents were very afraid of the American military. However, it wasn’t until after they became prisoners of war that they realized that wasn’t true. The U.S. military provided the residents with food and medical care.”

Allies

Fast forward to the present, and the United States and Japan are now close allies. Okinawa hosts almost 30,000 American troops, and it is among the most important U.S. military bases in the Pacific, seen by Washington as an increasingly vital deterrent amid growing Indo-Pacific tensions.

In the remote Henoko Bay on the east coast of the island, a new U.S. air base is being built. It’s hoped the new base will relieve pressure on existing facilities, especially the Futenma air base, which is located in a residential area north of Naha and has long created tensions with locals.

However, some of the earth used in the construction of the Henoko base is being excavated from the south of Okinawa — from battlegrounds where U.S. forces came ashore in 1945.

Local authorities insist the material is screened before it is dug up. Takamatsu says it likely contains the remains of Japanese and American soldiers. “This is blasphemy against the dead. I’m imploring them to stop doing it,” he says.

China tensions

Meanwhile, as regional tensions escalate with China over Taiwan, and with North Korea over its missile and nuclear weapons programs, there are growing fears that these heavily militarized islands could once again be caught in the crosshairs of a Pacific war.

“Missiles will fly to Okinawa again. If there is a war, this place will be attacked. That’s what bothers me the most,” Takamatsu tells VOA. “Let’s all stand together. Let’s eliminate war from the Earth. I believe that if we ordinary citizens join hands, we can do it.”

A solitary figure searching through the caves, Takamatsu is trying to heal the wounds of Okinawa’s past; to offer the victims dignity where the state has failed to intervene; to show respect for sacrifice where much of the nation would rather leave the remains to decay undisturbed, along with that troubled period of Japanese wartime history.

Takamatsu’s painstaking work is also an act of protest against war — an appeal for peace — as the danger of conflict once again edges closer to these islands.
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Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock with the escapist Caribbean-flavored song Margaritaville and turned that celebration of loafing into an empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen concoctions, has died. He was 76.

“Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs,” a statement posted to Buffett’s official website and social media pages said late Friday. “He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”

The statement did not say where Buffett died or give a cause of death. Illness had forced him to reschedule concerts in May and Buffett acknowledged in social media posts that he had been hospitalized but provided no specifics.

Margaritaville, released on Feb. 14, 1977, quickly took on a life of its own, becoming a state of mind for those “wastin’ away,” an excuse for a life of low-key fun and escapism for those “growing older, but not up.”

The song is the unhurried portrait of a loafer on his front porch, watching tourists sunbathe while a pot of shrimp is beginning to boil. The singer has a new tattoo, a likely hangover and regrets over a lost love. Somewhere there is a misplaced salt shaker.

“What seems like a simple ditty about getting blotto and mending a broken heart turns out to be a profound meditation on the often painful inertia of beach dwelling,” Spin magazine wrote in 2021. “The tourists come and go, one group indistinguishable from the other. Waves crest and break whether somebody is there to witness it or not. Everything that means anything has already happened and you’re not even sure when.”

The song — from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes — spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at No. 8. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016 for its cultural and historic significance, became a karaoke standard and helped brand Key West, Florida, as a distinct sound of music and a destination known the world over.

“There was no such place as Margaritaville,” Buffett told the Arizona Republic in 2021. “It was a made-up place in my mind, basically made up about my experiences in Key West and having to leave Key West and go on the road to work and then come back and spend time by the beach.”

The song soon inspired restaurants and resorts, turning Buffett’s alleged desire for the simplicity of island life into a multimillion brand. He landed at No. 13 in Forbes’ America’s Richest Celebrities in 2016 with a net worth of $550 million.

Music critics were never very kind to Buffett or his catalogue, including the sandy beach-side snack bar songs like Fins, Come Monday and Cheeseburgers in Paradise. But his legions of fans, called “Parrotheads,” regularly turned up for his concerts wearing toy parrots, cheeseburgers, sharks and flamingos on their heads, leis around their necks and loud Hawaiian shirts.

“It’s pure escapism is all it is,” he told the Republic. “I’m not the first one to do it, nor shall I probably be the last. But I think it’s really a part of the human condition that you’ve got to have some fun. You’ve got to get away from whatever you do to make a living or other parts of life that stress you out. I try to make it at least 50/50 fun to work and so far it’s worked out.”

His special Gulf Coast mix of country, pop, folk and rock added instruments and tonalities more commonly found in the Caribbean, like steel drums. It was a stew of steelpans, trombones and pedal steel guitar. Buffett’s incredible ear for hooks and light grooves were often overshadowed by his lyrics about fish tacos and sunsets.

Rolling Stone, in a review of Buffett’s 2020 album Life on the Flip Side, gave grudging props. “He continues mapping out his surfy, sandy corner of pop music utopia with the chill, friendly warmth of a multi-millionaire you wouldn’t mind sharing a tropically-themed 3 p.m. IPA with, especially if his gold card was on the bar when the last round came.”

Buffett’s evolving brand began in 1985 with the opening of a string of Margaritaville-themed stores and restaurants in Key West, followed in 1987 with the first Margaritaville Café nearby. Over the course of the next two decades, several more of each opened throughout Florida, New Orleans and California.

The brand has since expanded to dozens of categories, including resorts, apparel and footwear for men and women, a radio station, a beer brand, ice tea, tequila and rum, home décor, food items like salad dressing, Margaritaville Crunchy Pimento Cheese & Shrimp Bites and Margaritaville Cantina Style Medium Chunky Salsa, the Margaritaville at Sea cruise line and restaurants, including Margaritaville Restaurant, JWB Prime Steak and Seafood, 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill and LandShark Bar & Grill.

There also was a Broadway-bound jukebox musical, Escape to Margaritaville, a romantic comedy in which a singer-bartender called Sully falls for the far more career-minded Rachel, who is vacationing with friends and hanging out at Margaritaville, the hotel bar where Sully works.

James William Buffett was born on Christmas day 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and raised in the port town of Mobile, Alabama. He graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and went from busking the streets of New Orleans to playing six nights a week at Bourbon Street clubs.

He released his first record, Down To Earth, in 1970 and issued seven more on a regular yearly clip, with his 1974 song Come Monday from his fourth studio album Living and Dying in ¾ Time, peaking at No. 30. Then came Margaritaville.

He performed on more than 50 studio and live albums, often accompanied by his Coral Reefer Band, and was constantly on tour. He earned two Grammy Award nominations, two Academy of Country Music Awards and a Country Music Association Award.

Buffett was actually in Austin, Texas, when the inspiration struck for Margaritaville. He and a friend had stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant before she dropped him at the airport for a flight home to Key West, so they got to drinking margaritas.

“And I kind of came up with that idea of this is just like Margarita-ville,” Buffett told the Republic. “She kind of laughed at that and put me on the plane. And I started working on it.”

He wrote some on the plane and finished it while driving down the Keys. “There was a wreck on the bridge,” he said. “And we got stopped for about an hour so I finished the song on the Seven Mile Bridge, which I thought was apropos.”

Buffett also was the author of numerous books including Where Is Joe Merchant? and A Pirate Looks at Fifty and added movies to his resume as co-producer and co-star of an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s novel Hoot.

Buffett is survived by his wife, Jane; daughters, Savannah and Sarah; and son, Cameron. 
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On Friday, Texas became the most populous state with a ban in effect against gender-affirming care for minors.

The law was allowed to kick in after a court ruling Thursday, part of a flurry of action across the country on policies aimed at transgender people and their rights. A separate Texas ruling blocked a law that drag show performers feared would shut them down.

Here’s a look at the latest developments and what’s next.

Texas gender-affirming care ban takes effect

In its ruling Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court allowed a law banning gender-affirming care including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for minors.

The ruling is not final, but allows enforcement of the law while courts determine whether it’s constitutional. The decision is also a reversal of a lower court from the week before, when a state judge had said the law should be put on hold while it’s sorted out.

Since 2021, 22 Republican-controlled states have passed laws restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors. At least 13 states, meanwhile, have adopted measures intended to protect access.

Several of the bans are so new that they haven’t taken effect yet. Missouri’s kicked in earlier this week. Enforcement of the laws in Arkansas, Georgia and Indiana are currently on hold.

There are legal challenges to the policies across the country, and there isn’t a clear pattern for how courts handle them. None have reached a final court decision.

Courts in three states hold hearings on care restrictions

Two court hearings on the matter Friday did not immediately change the status quo in three states but showed how thorny the legal issues can be.

In Florida, a judge declined to take steps to immediately ease access to gender-affirming treatment for children or adults. Both age groups were affected by a ban which, unlike other states, also has a provision that restricts access to care for adults. The ban on treatment was signed into law in May by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

District Judge Robert Hinkle said that he would consider changes for adult plaintiffs if he sees medical evidence on how going without treatments could be harmful.

He has a trial scheduled for February on the constitutionality of the Florida law.

But he noted that with similar cases moving through courts across the country, whatever he decides won’t be the final word.

Also Friday, a three-judge panel from the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court heard arguments on whether states can ban puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors in both Kentucky and Tennessee, as lawsuits challenging the statutes makes their way through the courts. The appellate judges did not make a ruling but noted that a key factor would be determining which side was being more compassionate.

Alaska moves to restrict sports participation for transgender girls

The Alaska state board of education on Thursday voted in favor of a policy that would keep transgender girls out of girls sports competitions.

The board’s action is a major step, but not the final one for the policy.

It’s up to Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor to decide whether to implement it. The attorney general, like the school board, was appointed by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has called for such a ban.

At least 24 states have adopted laws restricting sports participation, including four where courts have put enforcement on hold.

Kansas no longer has to change birth certificates

A federal judge ruled Thursday that Kansas officials no longer have to change transgender people’s birth certificates to match their gender identities.

The ruling undoes a 2019 federal consent agreement that required the state to make the changes when asked. The reason for the change is a new state law that defines male and female as the sex assigned at birth.

The ruling puts Kansas among a small group of states, including Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee, that bar such birth certificate changes. Under a separate legal filing from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in July, the state is among a few that do not allow people to change the sex on their driver’s licenses.

Texas law that drag performers feared is put on hold

Not all the latest developments are losses for transgender people.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a new Texas law that drag show artists feared would be used to shut them down or put them in jail.

The law, which expands the definition of what’s considered an illegal public performance of sexual conduct in front of children, was scheduled to take effect on Friday.

But a group of LGBTQ+ rights advocate and drag performers sued to block it. U.S. District Judge David Hittner agreed with their contention that it likely violates the First Amendment and paused enforcement while he prepares a more permanent order in the case.

Judges have also blocked enforcement of bans on drag performances in Florida and Tennessee.

This week, advocates filed a lawsuit in Tennessee trying to stop a local prosecutor who said he intends to enforce the law there despite the federal court ruling. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that law enforcement officials cannot use the limits to interfere with a local Pride festival in Blount County this weekend.

Canada responds with a travel advisory

Canada this week updated its travel advisory to the U.S., alerting members of the LGBTQ+ community that some states have enacted laws that could affect them.

The advisory doesn’t single out states and it doesn’t go as far as telling Canadians not to travel to the neighboring nation. Instead, it tells them to check local laws.

Non-government groups have issued similar warnings. In June, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S.-based group devoted to LGBTQ+ rights, declared a state of emergency for community members in the U.S.

And in May, the NAACP issued a travel advisory about Florida citing policies and laws including bans on gender-affirming care for minors, requirements that transgender people use school bathrooms that don’t match their gender, and restrictions on drag performances — although those were later put on hold.
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Anabel Bodine’s internet service had been down for days. By the time she knew Hurricane Idalia was heading straight for her hometown of Perry, Florida, it was too late to evacuate.

“I was so scared. At one point my mobile home was just rocking back and forth with me in it. I thought it was going to tip over,” she told VOA. “But I’m only 130 pounds [59 kilograms] so I was afraid to go outside because I was worried I’d just blow away.

“Dark skies, wild wind and rising water. And when it finally ended and I opened the door, you saw all the damage it did. Trees slammed into homes. Power lines down everywhere. And it’s so hot here, but the electricity’s pretty much out in the whole town, so we’re just roasting.”

Idalia hit the Big Bend region of Florida as a Category 3 hurricane. Winds of more than 200 kph were the strongest recorded in that part of the state in more than a century, tearing storefronts from foundations, peeling roofs from homes and leaving hundreds of thousands of residents from Florida to North Carolina without power.

But as people survey the damage, it’s clear the hurricane created nightmares for those far outside the storm’s path as well.

“Honestly, the hurricane wasn’t anywhere near us,” said Pete Genova, a resident of the coastal town of Port Richey, Florida, nearly 260 kilometers south of Perry.

“But it didn’t matter – the storm surge got us,” he said.

That storm surge, which rose as high as 2.75 meters above sea level in some places, was the result of a catastrophic combination of a powerful hurricane and a full “supermoon” that — because of the moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth — would have caused higher tides even without the accompanying storm.

“My house flooded with water from the Gulf, same with my neighbors,” Genova said. “Who knows how long this is going to take to clean up? The streets are lined with destroyed personal stuff and waterlogged furniture, and we’re all going to have to replace our floors.”

‘Worst storm I’ve experienced’

Although initial estimates of the damage caused by Hurricane Idalia are between $9 billion and $20 billion, the death toll has been surprisingly low. Officials say that’s thanks to residents heeding evacuation orders and a hurricane path that missed major metropolitan areas.

“I think citizens responded very appropriately,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Thursday. “As of now, [to not] have any reported fatalities is probably something that most people would not have bet on four or five days ago.” Officials later confirmed several traffic-related fatalities linked to the storm in Florida and neighboring Georgia.

Jean Homan of Cedar Key, Florida, evacuated as she was told. But now she, like thousands of others, is returning to a life in shambles.

“People are finding random boats in their backyards, some boats that slammed through homes, and of course five or six straight hours where we had two feet of water in our condo,” she told VOA. “I’ve lived in Florida since 1982 and this is the worst storm I’ve experienced.”

By the time Idalia reached Florida’s northern border with Georgia, winds had slowed to just shy of 150 kph but were still powerful enough to wreak havoc on towns in its path.

Shauna Johnson lives in the military community of Valdosta, Georgia, where she estimated 90% of the town was without electricity. That, combined with prohibitively long lines for gasoline, caused her to decide to drive to stay with family in an undamaged part of southern Florida.

“It doesn’t seem to be getting any better,” she told VOA. “Trees and power lines are down, and so are buildings and signage. I think a lot of the locals aren’t used to hurricanes, so they’re struggling with food shortages. And it’s so hot here. I’m going to leave until it gets better, but I have no idea how long that will be.”

Facing the aftermath

As of Friday morning, more than 100,000 residents in Florida and Georgia remained without power. Thousands more in the Carolinas faced the same. In some areas, temperatures rose to 35 degrees Celsius, while some victims remained without clean drinking water.

“It’s a disaster,” Homan said, “but what can I do other than keep fighting?”

As she prepares to assess the damage to her home, she’ll do so without her husband, who is suffering from cancer and needed to be hospitalized during the storm.

“Neighbors helped us get ready for the storm earlier in the week, and we’ll all help each other now again as we recover,” she said. “Helping each other is the only way we’ll get through this.”

Down in Tampa, Florida, nonprofits like Feeding Tampa Bay, a food bank for those in need, are working to provide food and water to evacuees from the storm arriving in their city, as well to those stuck along the coast.

“We’re sending food, water and even some team members throughout west-central Florida,” said Shannon Hannon Oliviero, the food bank’s public relations officer. “And we’re rallying volunteers to join us to pack meal boxes for those impacted by the storm. We’re just trying to help however we can to support our coastal neighbors who are struggling.”

Bodine, who hunkered down through the hurricane in her mobile home, said volunteers arrived in Perry within hours of the storm’s passing.

After receiving assistance from the United Cajun Navy, a large group of volunteers based in Louisiana, Bodine decided she wanted to help as well.

On Friday, she said she would be unloading a trailer full of food, water and supplies that were to go to her fellow victims.

“Someone needs to do it, you know?” she told VOA when asked why she’s volunteering so soon after going through so much herself. “If we’re going to build our community back, we’re going to build it back together. So that’s what I’m trying to do, starting right now.”
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Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

UN chief reaches out to Moscow on grain deal revival

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that he had reached out to Russia with “concrete proposals” to renew the collapsed grain export deal Moscow pulled out of in July and then followed with a series of attacks on Ukraine’s ports and grain infrastructure. He did not go into detail on the proposal, saying only that it addressed some of Moscow’s concerns.

 

Mali peacekeeping drawdown enters new phase

The United Nations entered the second phase of drawing down one of its largest peacekeeping missions, after military authorities in Mali announced in June that they wanted the mission out by the end of this year. The mission, known as MINUSMA, has until December 31 to carry out the Herculean task of repatriating more than 12,000 international peacekeepers and separating from 4,300 civilian staff, against the backdrop of continued instability and threats from armed groups. On Wednesday, Russia vetoed a one-year renewal of the sanctions regime and panel of experts on Mali.

Secretary-general calls for peaceful resolution over Zimbabwe election results

Guterres called for peaceful and transparent resolutions to any challenges to the legitimacy of Zimbabwe’s presidential election that returned Emmerson Mnangagwa to office. In a statement, he expressed concern about the arrest of observers, reports of voter intimidation, threats of violence, harassment and coercion.

War depriving Ukrainian children of education

The U.N. Children’s Fund said millions of children across Ukraine and in seven neighboring asylum countries were being deprived of an education and the skills needed to help Ukraine recover from the devastation caused by Russia’s invasion. An assessment by UNICEF and the Ukrainian Ministry of Education found that Russian attacks had destroyed more than 1,300 schools, and that others were damaged and not ready to open for the academic year, which began this week.

In brief

— U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths released an additional $20 million on Tuesday from the Central Emergency Response Fund to assist people in Sudan. Humanitarian needs continue to rise as more than 4.5 million people have been displaced by the violence sparked by rival generals in mid-April.

— UNICEF and the World Food Program said Friday that nearly a quarter of Mali’s population was suffering from moderate or acute food insecurity and that almost a million children under 5 years old were at risk of falling into acute malnutrition by December. And for the first time in Mali, the agencies warned that more than 2,500 people were at risk of famine in the Menaka region, many of them children.

— The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees said Sunday that nearly 300,000 Palestinian refugee children were back in school in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA opened three new schools this year to accommodate a growing student population. But the agency, which faces chronic funding shortages, said it would not be able to continue operations in its schools beyond September without a cash injection of nearly $200 million.

— Tuesday was the International Day Against Nuclear Tests. August 29 marks the day in 1991 when Kazakhstan closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. The former Soviet Union used the facility between 1949 and 1989 to carry out more than 450 underground and atmospheric nuclear tests, which caused lasting environmental and health impacts. U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu urged countries that have not yet signed or ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to do so. Since it was agreed upon in 1996, the treaty has 186 signatories and 178 states have ratified it. North Korea is the only country to have carried out nuclear tests in the 21st century.

Quote of note

“Many countries face deep-seated governance challenges. But military governments are not the solution. They aggravate problems. They cannot resolve a crisis; they can only make it worse.”

— Guterres to reporters Thursday on the coup in Gabon. The African continent has seen nine coups since 2020.

Did you know?

September starts a marathon month of diplomacy. There will be meetings of major groups, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the G20 and the G7 plus China. Guterres will be attending all of these gatherings. The month will be capped off by a high-level week at the U.N. General Assembly, which gets underway in the third week in September and is expected to draw a large number of world leaders.
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In 2023, the Trust for the National Mall and the National Park Service unveiled a state-of-the-art project: the U.S. Park Police Horse Stables and Wells Fargo Education Center. Reporting from the National Mall in Washington, Liliya Anisimova has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Elena Matusovsky
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A U.S. congressional delegation visiting Taiwan said Friday the U.S. would act if the island was attacked and promised to resolve the $19 billion backlog in its defense purchases from the U.S.

“Know that any hostile unprovoked attack on Taiwan will result in a resolute reaction from the U.S.,” said Rob Wittman, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, in a speech, ahead of meetings with President Tsai Ing-Wen.

U.S. law requires Washington provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and treat all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern,” but remains ambiguous on whether it would commit forces in response to an attack from China.

Wittman of Virginia, along with Carlos Gimenez of Florida and Jen Kiggans of Virginia, arrived Thursday for a three-day visit to Taiwan. The three Republicans are meeting with Tsai and the head of Taiwan’s National Security Council Wellington Koo.

Taiwan is a self-ruled island claimed by China that has faced increasing military harassment in recent years as Chinese fighter jets and navy ships hold daily exercises aimed at the island, often coming near the island or encircling it. Over the years, to beef up its defense, Taiwan has bought $19 billion in military items from the U.S., but most of that remains undelivered.

“We have an obligation to make sure that we fill the backlog of foreign military sales that exist now between our countries,” Wittman said, adding that both Republicans and Democrats were working on the issue.

The U.S. has started finding new ways to support Taiwan in defense aid. In July, the United States has announced $345 million in military aid in a major package drawing on America’s own stockpiles.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration approved the first-ever U.S. military transfer to Taiwan under a program generally reserved for assistance to sovereign, independent states. The amount was modest at $80 million, and officials did not specify what exactly the money would be used for.
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Nearly 60,000 asylum-seekers are in New York City’s care. Some of them have no choice but to sleep outside, and some residents don’t want them. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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When U.S. President Joe Biden visits Vietnam in early September, experts say Washington and Hanoi are likely to upgrade ties to a strategic partnership, an important step for bilateral relations. Experts add, however, that this should not be misinterpreted as Vietnam aligning with the United States.

In Hanoi’s diplomatic hierarchy, a strategic partnership is the second tier, only surpassed by the highest-level designation – a comprehensive strategic partnership.

The White House said August 28 that U.S. President Joe Biden would be going to Hanoi September 10, to meet with Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who holds the country’s top position, and other leaders on ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation.

While experts said upgraded ties are close to a sure thing if Biden’s visit goes as planned, they said that Vietnamese leaders are upgrading their partnerships more broadly as a defense to China’s growing aggression in the region.

“This is not Vietnam moving into a U.S. orbit. This is Vietnam maintaining its own independent orbit – maintaining its own space from China,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“That leaves a lot of room for pragmatic cooperation and shared interest but Vietnam is not coming to our side of the playground,” he said.

‘Web of partnerships’

Vietnam has been busy on the diplomatic front over the past year, seeking to upgrade ties with many in the region.

In December, Vietnam upgraded ties with South Korea to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the highest level in Vietnam’s diplomatic hierarchy, also held with China, Russia, and India.

Vietnam is also expected to sign a comprehensive strategic partnership with Australia this year, which was announced after Foreign Affairs Minister Bui Thanh Son and his counterpart, Penny Wong, met in Hanoi on August 22.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also visited Hanoi August 27. There, he met with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the two discussed embarking on a comprehensive strategic partnership.

These enhanced ties are a concerted effort by Hanoi to create a bulwark against Beijing, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu.

Vietnam “has to upgrade their relationship with all these countries that can help them in case of crisis or even help them to boost their resilience against Chinese encroachment,” Vuving said. “If you look at that kind of web of partnerships with all the significant powers in the region, you can be a little more secure. That’s the overall strategy for Vietnam. Reaching out – geopolitical promiscuity.”

Threats to Vietnam’s territorial sovereignty often play out in the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea. Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone extends 200 nautical miles off the coastline. China claims nearly all of the resource-rich waters with its nine-dash line – a disputed map demarcation encompassing most of the South China Sea.

China “has coast guard ships and militia ships harassing and disrupting Vietnam’s exploration for oil every day,” Vuving said. “They are pushing the Vietnamese fishermen out of their own EEZ.”

This ceaseless badgering of Vietnamese operations at sea is a top rationale for upgraded ties with the United States and other partners, said Ray Powell, who leads Stanford University’s Project Myoushu on the South China Sea.

“The constant pressure that China puts on [Vietnam] from all kinds of angles factors into their desire to keep raising the levels of those partnerships,” Powell said. “In a lot of ways it is more about balancing against China than it is about aligning with the United States.”

Balancing act

This year marks 10 years since Washington and Hanoi launched a comprehensive partnership. Although experts say the Biden administration is keen to jump two levels to a comprehensive strategic partnership, Vietnamese leaders must be cautious about not angering Beijing even while trying to counter its growing power.

Hanoi and Washington normalized bilateral relations in 1995, and elevated to a comprehensive partnership in 2013. The partnership is a formal designation in Vietnamese foreign policy which puts the U.S. currently in the third tier among Vietnam’s diplomatic partners.

Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said moving one step up to a strategic partnership is the likely outcome of Biden’s visit as Hanoi treads carefully in order to keep peace with Beijing. “Vietnam is quite careful at balancing that relationship with the two great powers,” he said.

Still, the strategic partnership would be an important step for Vietnam to “toughen up” its maritime capabilities, enable potential arms procurement, and send a message to Beijing, he said.

“Very strongly, it would respond to China’s pressure that if you push me too far I will have the U.S. [partnership] at least to help protect my own national interest,” Giang said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the date of the White House statement referenced in graph 3.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has delivered a recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration on marijuana policy, and Senate leaders hailed it Wednesday as a first step toward easing federal restrictions on the drug.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said Wednesday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the agency has responded to President Joe Biden’s request “to provide a scheduling recommendation for marijuana to the DEA.”

“We’ve worked to ensure that a scientific evaluation be completed and shared expeditiously,” he added.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that HHS had recommended that marijuana be moved from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance.

“HHS has done the right thing,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “DEA should now follow through on this important step to greatly reduce the harm caused by draconian marijuana laws.”

Rescheduling the drug would reduce or potentially eliminate criminal penalties for possession. Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD.

According to the DEA, Schedule I drugs “have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse.”

Schedule III drugs “have a potential for abuse less than substances in Schedules I or II and abuse may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.” They currently include ketamine and some anabolic steroids.

Biden requested the review in October 2022 as he pardoned thousands of Americans convicted of “simple possession” of marijuana under federal law.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued a statement calling for marijuana to be completely descheduled.

“However, the recommendation of HHS to reschedule cannabis as a Schedule III drug is not inconsequential,” he added. “If HHS’s recommendation is ultimately implemented, it will be a historic step for a nation whose cannabis policies have been out of touch with reality.”

Bloomberg News first reported on the HHS recommendation.

In reaction to the Bloomberg report, the nonprofit U.S. Cannabis Council said: “We enthusiastically welcome today’s news. … Rescheduling will have a broad range of benefits, including signaling to the criminal justice system that cannabis is a lower priority and providing a crucial economic lifeline to the cannabis industry.”
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A Ukrainian community group in the western U.S. state of Colorado organized a job fair for newly arrived war refugees. Svitlana Prystynska has our story from Denver. Camera: Volodymyr Petruniv.
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