A solution to potential shortages of two critical minerals used in making semiconductors and advanced military equipment — exports of which were restricted by China this month — may be lying in some waste storage ponds in central Tennessee.

Owners of a zinc processing facility in the southern U.S. state say they are developing a plan to extract the two minerals — gallium and germanium — from the ponds where for years the company has deposited the residue from its refining of zinc from five mines located in central and eastern Tennessee.

Now the company — Netherlands-headquartered Nyrstar — is looking for ways to finance the project. Industry experts say the United States should be willing to pay the price to develop a guaranteed source of the minerals, which are deemed critical for the manufacture of the tiny chips that control electronic devices ranging from smart bombs to refrigerators.

Beijing announced last month that it was imposing export controls on the two minerals effective Aug. 1 in what was seen as retaliation for U.S. export controls on finished computer chips that China could use in the manufacture of high-tech weapons.

While Western chipmakers say they have ample supplies of the two minerals in the short term, Beijing’s action has prompted a scramble to secure new sources. China currently accounts for 98% of the gallium used worldwide in chipmaking and about 60% of refined germanium.

While the minerals can be obtained in other countries, aggressive Chinese pricing has effectively put everyone else out of business, according to Christopher Ecclestone, a London-based minerals and commodities strategist interviewed by VOA.

“The reason why the Chinese ended up with dominance in these metals is because they’ve been prepared to produce and sell these metals at knock-down prices, sometimes at a loss, to make sure that nobody else produces them,” he said.

“This is all part of their strategic thinking that ‘we’ve got it and other people don’t have it, so we’re potentially in control.'”

The United States has not produced primary (low-purity, unrefined) gallium since 1987 and has none in its government stockpile.

“The remaining producers outside of China most likely restricted output owing to China’s dominant production capacity,” a U.S. Geological Survey report on critical minerals stated.

The picture is a little less extreme with germanium, with Canadian mining conglomerate Teck Resources providing about one-third of the world’s supply, Ecclestone said.

Enter the Clarksville, Tennessee-based zinc refinery with its plan to extract the two minerals from residue in its waste storage ponds, where they have been sitting as natural byproducts of the zinc-refining process. Existing stocks would be augmented with residue from future zinc processing at a new $150 million state-of-the-art facility.

“Both germanium and gallium are by-product metals,” Ecclestone explained. “There’s no gallium mine out there.” Rather, he said, gallium is a byproduct of bauxite smelting and zinc smelting. Germanium, similarly, is derived from the process of zinc smelting and also resides in the fly ash of coal production.

Recycled minerals

Other efforts to extract the minerals are also underway. The Pentagon has initiated a program to recycle germanium from decommissioned military equipment that could be used in night-vision, thermal-sensing devices and other products, according to information released by the U.S. government.

Windows of decommissioned tanks and other military vehicles are also said to be a reliable source of germanium. Altogether the Pentagon programs are expected to produce up to 3 metric tons per year of high-purity germanium ingot.

But that is dwarfed by Nyrstar’s plans, first reported in Tennessee media, which call for the production of up to 30 tons of germanium and 40 tons of gallium a year. That would make up for much of the 43.7 tons of germanium that China exported in 2022 and its 94 tons of gallium.

The company says it is exploring funding opportunities from federal and state governments as well as private U.S. sources. Company officials are hopeful that funding will be in place in the next few months and that construction can begin soon afterward.

Colorado-based mineral economist David Hammond told VOA he thinks the company’s timeline for the construction’s completion of two to two and a half years is realistic and, like Ecclestone, he believes the United States should be willing to shoulder the added cost of establishing domestic sources for critical minerals such as gallium and germanium.

“Over the last 30 years, China has managed to outstrip the U.S. in critical minerals supply chain and related technical expertise,” he said. “We’re only recently beginning to rebuild what we need.”

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misidentified the location of the zinc refinery. It is in Clarksville, Tennessee.
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Google plans to train 20,000 Nigerian women and youth in digital skills and provide a grant of $1.6 million to help the government create 1 million digital jobs in the country, its Africa executives said on Tuesday. 

Nigeria plans to create digital jobs for its teeming youth population, Vice President Kashim Shettima told Google Africa executives during a meeting in Abuja. Shettima did not provide a timeline for creating the jobs. 

Google Africa executives said a grant from its philanthropic arm in partnership with Data Science Nigeria and the Creative Industry Initiative for Africa will facilitate the program. 

Shettima said Google’s initiative aligned with the government’s commitment to increase youth participation in the digital economy. The government is also working with the country’s banks on the project, Shettima added. 

Google director for West Africa Olumide Balogun said the company would commit funds and provide digital skills to women and young people in Nigeria and also enable startups to grow, which will create jobs. 

Google is committed to investing in digital infrastructure across Africa, Charles Murito, Google Africa’s director of government relations and public policy, said during the meeting, adding that digital transformation can be a job enabler. 
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A former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge Tuesday, admitting that he agreed after leaving the agency to work for a Russian oligarch he had once investigated to seek dirt on the oligarch’s wealthy rival in violation of sanctions on Russia.

Charles McGonigal, 55, entered the plea in federal court in Manhattan to a single count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and to commit money laundering, saying he was “deeply remorseful for it.”

McGonigal told Judge Jennifer H. Rearden that he carried out his crime in the spring and fall of 2021, accepting over $17,000 to help Russian energy magnate Oleg Deripaska by collecting derogatory information about a Russian oligarch who was a business competitor of Deripaska.

Sentencing was set for Dec. 14, when McGonigal could face up to five years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Dell told the judge that prosecutors had proof McGonigal was making efforts to remove Deripaska from a U.S. sanctions list.

She also said McGonigal in 2021 was in negotiations along with co-conspirators to receive a fee of $650,000 to $3 million to hunt for electronic files revealing hidden assets of $500 million belonging to Deripaska’s rival.

McGonigal, a resident of Manhattan, is separately charged in federal court in Washington with concealing at least $225,000 in cash he allegedly received from a former Albanian intelligence official while working for the FBI.

McGonigal was special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018. McGonigal supervised investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska, who was sanctioned in 2018 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia later affirmed the sanctions against Deripaska, finding that there was evidence that Deripaska had acted as an agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

McGonigal, who became choked up at one point as he described his crime, said Deripaska funneled the $17,500 payment he received through a bank in Cypress and a corporation in New Jersey before it was transferred into McGonigal’s bank account.

“This, as you can imagine, has been a painful process not only for me, but for my friends, family and loved ones,” McGonigal said. “I take full responsibility, as my actions were never intended to hurt the United States, the FBI and my family and friends.”

In a release, Matthew G. Olsen, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said, “McGonigal, by his own admission, betrayed his oath and actively concealed his illicit work at the bidding of a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

“Today’s plea shows the Department of Justice’s resolve to pursue and dismantle the illegal networks that Russian oligarchs use to try to escape the reach of our sanctions and evade our laws,” he said.
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Mohammad Siddiq Habibi crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally and now lives without documents, navigating life and work in the U.S. VOA’s Fahim Siddiqi has the story from San Diego, California, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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In indicting former President Donald Trump and 18 others on racketeering charges, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis included a sweeping charge that she’s used frequently since taking over as the top prosecutor in Georgia’s largest county in early 2021.

For 2½ years, Willis has investigated Trump and his allies for allegedly meddling in the election by pressuring officials to “find” him the votes needed to win the state and naming a bogus slate of presidential electors.

As part of the investigation, prosecutors from Willis’ office looked into a possible violation of Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute as well as other crimes.

The law, known as RICO, is modeled after a federal statute by the same name that was enacted in 1970 to combat organized crime.

In the 1980s, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, then the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, used RICO to prosecute several high-profile members of the New York Mafia.

But in recent decades, RICO statutes, both federal and state, have been applied more broadly to target gangs, corrupt politicians and white-collar criminals.

In 2013, Willis, then a top prosecutor in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, led a high-profile RICO indictment of dozens of Atlanta teachers and school administrators involved in manipulating student test scores. Under her watch as DA, the number of RICO cases filed by her office has soared.

Georgia’s RICO statute, enacted in 1980, makes it a crime to engage in a “pattern of racketeering activity” as part of an “enterprise.”

An “enterprise” is not limited to an organization and can extend to individuals participating in criminal schemes.

The “pattern of racketeering activity” is defined as criminal conduct arising from two or more criminal violations. More expansive than federal RICO, the Georgia statute lists more than 40 crimes that qualify.

In Trump’s case, this means that Georgia prosecutors must prove that the former president broke two or more of Georgia’s laws as part of a scheme to overturn the election results.

Accusing Trump and his 18 co-conspirators of participating in a “criminal enterprise,” the indictment lists nearly a dozen criminal violations, including false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, filing false documents and influencing witnesses. In all, Trump was charged with 13 counts.

“They can try to make a case showing, for example, that Mr. Trump made false statements, making phone calls to Georgia officials, and that Mr. Giuliani allegedly made false statements by appearing before the Georgia Legislature,” according to Morgan Cloud, a law professor at Emory University in Georgia.

Racketeering charges are unlike ordinary conspiracy charges, which require proof of an explicit agreement among two or more people to commit a crime.

Anthony Michael Kreis, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University, explained that a racketeering charge relies on a broader theory of criminality.

Citing the Georgia test score scandal, he said, “there was no agreement amongst all the people who were involved with the cheating scandal that they were trying to do something unlawful, but they were all advancing a broader criminal goal.”

“And so you could see how that theory of criminality could be imported in the 2020 election case,” Kreis said.

The stakes are high for anyone charged under Georgia’s RICO statute, because it carries stiff penalties. A defendant could face five to 20 years in prison if convicted of racketeering, compared with five years for making a false statement.

The threat of long prison terms in a racketeering case can induce lower-level participants to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for lighter sentences.

But building and prosecuting a racketeering case is not easy. It requires proving a complex web of criminal activities that spanned a period of time and had a common purpose, Cloud said.  
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Authorities say they rushed to arrest a 17-year-old boy, alleging he was preparing to build bombs and select targets after being in touch with an al-Qaida affiliate in Syria.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced the arrest Monday, calling details of the threat “deeply disturbing.”

An FBI SWAT team was sent to the teenager’s home in West Philadelphia Friday morning after investigators found evidence that he had access to firearms and had been purchasing materials, including chemical and wires, commonly used in making improvised explosive devices.

The suspect, who is not being named since he is currently charged as a juvenile, “presented a grave danger to everyone — himself, his family, the block where he lived and, frankly, people everywhere in Philadelphia and potentially people around the country,” Krasner told reporters in Philadelphia.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire said the suspect first came to the attention of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force as a result of his Instagram social media communications with Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad (KTJ), an al-Qaida affiliate that operates out of parts of Syria.

Some of the messages indicated the suspect was interested in leaving the United States to join the terror group. But officials said other messages include instructions for how to make improvised explosive devices.

Maguire said concern rose quickly after surveillance teams saw the suspect purchase materials to make the bombs last week, including chemicals, wiring and devices that could be used as detonators.

Maguire said agents also found the suspect had access to “quite a significant number of firearms.”

In addition, work by other U.S. agencies found that there had been at least 14 international shipments of military and tactical gear to the suspect’s home.

“This was now a situation where we believed public safety was at risk,” Maguire said. “Knowing that he was purchasing these components, these materials, and knowing what he had accumulated … he could build a viable device.”

Maguire said it appears the suspect was in the early stages of choosing potential targets, and that some appeared to be outside of the Philadelphia region. But she also said that while the investigation is ongoing there is no longer a threat to the public.

Despite the concern, Maguire said the suspect “was cooperative” with the SWAT team sent to his residence to make the arrest.

For now, the state of Pennsylvania is charging him on counts related to weapons of mass destruction, criminal conspiracy, arson, causing or risking catastrophe and reckless endangerment, among others.

In addition to the alleged communication with KTJ, FBI agents also found the suspect posted images of a Chechnya-based terror group and the Islamic State terror group’s banner on a WhatsApp account.

The District Attorney’s office said given the seriousness of the charges, it is seeking to have the suspect tried as an adult.

Officials also said the suspect could face additional charges from the federal government.
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For the team aboard the Okeanos Explorer off the coast of Alaska, exploring the mounds and craters of the sea floor along the Aleutian Islands is a chance to surface new knowledge about life in some of the world’s deepest and most remote waters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel is on a five-month mission aboard a reconfigured former Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps. The ship, with a 48-member crew, is outfitted with technology and tools to peer deep into the ocean to gather data to share with onshore researchers in real time. The hope is that this data will then be used to drive future research.

“It’s so exciting to go down there and see that it’s actually teeming with life,” said expedition coordinator Shannon Hoy. “You would never know that unless we were able to go down there and explore.”

Using a variety of sonars and two remotely operated vehicles — Deep Discoverer and Serios — researchers aboard the ship are mapping and collecting samples from areas along the Aleutian Trench and the Gulf of Alaska. High-resolution cameras that can operate at depths of up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) allow researchers to document and immediately share their findings. The ship can also livestream dives to the public.

Many factors, such as depth, speed and sonar capability, influence how much sea floor can be mapped. In 2 to 4 weeks, the Okeanos Explorer can map as much as 50,000 square kilometers (31,069 square miles), Hoy said.

During these dives, Hoy said the team plans to investigate some of the area’s cold seep communities — places where gases from under the sea floor rise through cracks and where plants don’t rely on photosynthesis for food production. 

“We’re also going to be looking through the water column to see what interesting animals and fauna that we can see there,” she said. 

Kasey Cantwell, the ship’s operations chief, said the data will help researchers and the public better understand these remote stretches of ocean, including marine life and habitats in the area. That could inform management decisions in fisheries. Data could also help detect hazards and improve nautical charts.

“It’s really hard to care for things you don’t understand, to love things you don’t understand,” Cantwell said.

The deep ocean off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands is one of the least mapped places in the U.S., partly due to its remoteness. Modern mapping standards have covered just 34% of the sea floor around Alaska, which has one of the nation’s largest coastal ecosystems, and only a fraction of that has been seen, according to the expedition’s website.

Closing these gaps is a mission priority and will help meet a goal of mapping all the United States’ deep waters by 2030 and near-shore waters by 2040, according to Emily Crum, a communications specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But the data collection process is laborious.

Thomas Morrow, a physical scientist on the ship, likened the effort to “walking the length of several city blocks in complete darkness with a tiny flashlight.”

Nevertheless, all these small looks add up to a better understanding of what lies in the deepest parts of the sea.

In the expedition’s first two months, researchers recorded methane seeps and saw a Brisingid sea star at a depth of 2,803 meters (9,200 feet) that had not been documented in the Aleutians before. At least two potential new species have also been discovered.

Earlier this year while on an expedition off the coast of Washington state, researchers aboard the ship documented a jellyfish floating in the deep, and soon had a call from an excited scientist who told them the jellyfish was behaving in ways not seen before.

“The feeling of wonder that sometimes happens in that control room is so palpable,” he said.  
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More than 30 news outlets and press freedom organizations have condemned a police raid on a Kansas newspaper.

A joint letter released Sunday said there appeared to be “no justification” for such an intrusive search at a U.S. media outlet.

Police in Marion County Friday seized devices and other material during a raid at the Marion County Record newspaper office and searched the home of the paper’s publisher.

In a report published by the Marion County Record, the newspaper said police seized computers, phones, a server and the personal cellphones of staff, based on a search warrant.

The home of publisher Eric Meyer was also searched, and police took computers, a phone and the home’s internet router. Meyer’s 98-year-old mother Joan Meyer, who was a co-owner of the Record and lived at the same address, collapsed and died Saturday, the Associated Press reported.

Eric Meyer has said he blames the stress of the home raid for his mother’s death.

A joint letter by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 34 other news organizations to the Marion County police chief on Sunday questioned the legality of the raid.

The letter said that based on a copy of the search warrant, reporting and public statements by the police, “There appears to be no justification for the breadth and intrusiveness of the search.”

“Newsroom searches and seizures are among the most intrusive actions law enforcement can take with respect to the free press, and the most potentially suppressive of free speech by the press and the public,” the joint letter read.

Meyer was cited in his newspaper as saying he believes the raid was prompted by a story published last week about a restaurant owner.

Gideon Cody, the police chief, defended the raid Sunday in an email to the AP, saying that federal law usually requires a subpoena — not just a search warrant — to raid a newsroom, but that there is an exception “when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.”

The email did not state what the alleged wrongdoing was.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said in a statement Sunday that the detail in the search warrant “does not come close to justifying this sweeping infringement against a local newspaper.”

“News media cannot do their jobs if they have to fear a police raid every time they receive information from sources,” said Clayton Weimers, director of RSF’s U.S. Bureau.

Meyer said the newspaper plans to sue the police department and possibly others, calling the raid an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment’s free press guarantee.

Raids on U.S. newsrooms are rare. But data from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker shows nine search warrants obtained to access journalists’ devices since the tracker first started documenting cases six years ago.

The tracker has documented 194 cases of subpoenas or warrants for journalist records or their confidential sources, over the same period.
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Parishioners mourned the dead and prayed for the missing Sunday in Hawaii churches as communities began looking ahead to a long recovery from last week’s wildfire that demolished a historic Maui town and killed more than 90 people.

Maria Lanakila Church in Lahaina was spared from the flames that wiped out most of the surrounding community, but with search-and-recovery efforts ongoing, its members attended Mass about 10 miles up the road, with the Bishop of Honolulu, the Rev. Clarence “Larry” Silva, presiding.

Taufa Samisani said his uncle, aunt, cousin and the cousin’s 7-year-old son were found dead inside a burned car. Samisani’s wife, Katalina, said the family would draw comfort from Silva’s reference to the Bible story of how Jesus’ disciple Peter walked on water and was saved from drowning.

“If Peter can walk on water, yes we can. We will get to the shore,” she said, her voice quivering.

During the Mass, Silva read a message from Pope Francis, who said he was praying for those who lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods. He also conveyed prayers for first responders.

Silva later told The Associated Press that the community is worried about its children, who have witnessed tragedy and are anxious.

“The more they can be in a normal situation with their peers and learning and having fun, I think the better off they’ll be,” Silva said.

Meanwhile, Hawaii officials urged tourists to avoid traveling to Maui as many hotels prepared to house evacuees and first responders.

About 46,000 residents and visitors have flown out of Kahului Airport in West Maui since the devastation in Lahaina became clear Wednesday, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

“In the weeks ahead, the collective resources and attention of the federal, state and county government, the West Maui community, and the travel industry must be focused on the recovery of residents who were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses,” the agency said in a statement late Saturday. Tourists are encouraged to visit Hawaii’s other islands.

Need for rentals

Gov. Josh Green said 500 hotels rooms will be made available for locals who have been displaced. An additional 500 rooms will be set aside for workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some hotels will carry on with normal business to help preserve jobs and sustain the local economy, Green said.

The state wants to work with Airbnb to make sure that rental homes can be made available for locals. Green hopes that the company will be able to provide three- to nine-month rentals for those who have lost homes.

As the death toll around Lahaina climbed to 93, authorities warned that the effort to find and identify the dead was still in its early stages. The blaze is already the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

Crews with cadaver dogs have covered just 3% of the search area, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said Saturday.

Lylas Kanemoto is awaiting word about the fate of her cousin, Glen Yoshino.

“I’m afraid he is gone because we have not heard from him, and he would’ve found a way to contact family. We are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst,” Kanemoto said Sunday. Family members will submit DNA to help identify any remains.

The family was grieving the death of four other relatives. The remains of Faaso and Malui Fonua Tone, their daughter, Salote Takafua, and her son, Tony Takafua, were found inside a charred car.

“At least we have closure for them, but the loss and heartbreak is unbearable for many,” Kanemoto said.

As many as 4,500 people are in need of shelter, county officials said on Facebook, citing figures from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Pacific Disaster Center.

Toxic debris in Lahaina

J.P. Mayoga, a cook at the Westin Maui in Kaanapali, is still making breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis. But instead of serving hotel guests, he’s been feeding the roughly 200 hotel employees and their family members who have been living there since Tuesday’s fire devastated the Lahaina community just south of the resort.

His home and that of his father were spared. But his girlfriend, two young daughters, father and another local are all staying in a hotel room together, as it is safer than Lahaina, which is covered in toxic debris.

Maui water officials warned Lahaina and Kula residents not to drink running water, which may be contaminated even after boiling, and to only take short, lukewarm showers in well-ventilated rooms to avoid possible chemical vapor exposure.

“Everybody has their story, and everybody lost something. So everybody can be there for each other, and they understand what’s going on in each other’s lives,” he said of his co-workers at the hotel.

Maui Mayor Mitch Roth warned that the recovery effort will be a “marathon not a sprint.” In order to keep the effort “coordinated and thoughtful,” Roth urged Hawaii residents to contribute money to established nonprofits and hold off on donating physical items because there is not yet a reliable distribution system in place.

The latest death toll surpassed that of the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California, which left 85 dead and destroyed the town of Paradise.

The cause of the wildfires is under investigation. The fires are Hawaii’s deadliest natural disaster in decades, surpassing a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people. An even deadlier tsunami in 1946 killed more than 150 on the Big Island.

Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, the flames on Maui raced through parched brush covering the island.

The most serious blaze swept into Lahaina on Tuesday and destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000, leaving a grid of gray rubble wedged between the blue ocean and lush green slopes.

Elsewhere on Maui, at least two other fires have been burning: in south Maui’s Kihei area and in the mountainous, inland communities known as Upcountry. No fatalities have been reported from those blazes.
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A small central Kansas police department is facing a firestorm of criticism after it raided the offices of a local newspaper and the home of its publisher and owner — a move deemed by several press freedom watchdogs as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection of a free press.

The Marion County Record said in its own published reports that police raided the newspaper’s office Friday, seizing the newspaper’s computers, phones and file server and the personal cellphones of staff, based on a search warrant. One Record reporter said one of her fingers was injured when Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody wrested her cellphone out of her hand, according to the report.

Police simultaneously raided the home of Eric Meyer, the newspaper’s publisher and co-owner, seizing computers, his cellphone and the home’s internet router, Meyer said. Meyer’s 98-year-old mother — Record co-owner Joan Meyer who lived in the home with her son — collapsed and died Saturday, Meyer said, blaming her death on the stress of the raid of her home.

Meyer said in his newspaper’s report that he believes the raid was prompted by a story published last week about a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell. Newell had police remove Meyer and a newspaper reporter from her restaurant early this month, who were there to cover a public reception for U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Republican representing the area. The police chief and other officials also attended and were acknowledged at the reception, and the Marion Police Department highlighted the event on its Facebook page.

The next week at a city council meeting, Newell publicly accused the newspaper of using illegal means to get information on a drunken driving conviction against her. The newspaper countered that it received that information unsolicited, which it sought to verify through public online records. It eventually decided not to run a story on Newell’s DUI, but it did run a story on the city council meeting, in which Newell confirmed the 2008 DUI conviction herself.

A two-page search warrant, signed by a local judge, lists Newell as the victim of alleged crimes by the newspaper. When the newspaper asked for a copy of the probable cause affidavit required by law to issue a search warrant, the district court issued a signed statement saying no such affidavit was on file, the Record reported.

Newell declined to comment Sunday, saying she was too busy to speak. She said she would call back later Sunday to answer questions.

Cody, the police chief, defended the raid Sunday, saying in an email to The Associated Press that while federal law usually requires a subpoena — not just a search warrant — to raid a newsroom, there is an exception “when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.”

Cody did not give details about what that alleged wrongdoing entailed.

Cody, who was hired in late April as Marion’s police chief after serving 24 years in the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, did not respond to questions about whether police filed a probable cause affidavit for the search warrant. He also did not answer questions about how police believe Newell was victimized.

Meyer said the newspaper plans to sue the police department and possibly others, calling the raid an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment’s free press guarantee.

Press freedom and civil rights organizations agreed that the police, the local prosecutor’s office and the judge who signed off on the search warrant overstepped their authority. 

“It seems like one of the most aggressive police raids of a news organization or entity in quite some time,” said Sharon Brett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas. The breadth of the raid and the aggressiveness in which it was carried out seems to be “quite an alarming abuse of authority from the local police department,” Brett said.

Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement that the raid appeared to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, “and basic human decency.”

“This looks like the latest example of American law enforcement officers treating the press in a manner previously associated with authoritarian regimes,” Stern said. “The anti-press rhetoric that’s become so pervasive in this country has become more than just talk and is creating a dangerous environment for journalists trying to do their jobs.”
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The death toll from last week’s wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui has reached 93, making it the deadliest conflagration in modern U.S. history, and officials say they expect the count to continue to climb.

Maui Police Chief John Pelletier in the western-most U.S. state in the Pacific Ocean said two of the victims have been identified, but he did not release their names.

Identifying the fragile, burned remains has been difficult, Pelletier said Saturday. “We pick up the remains,” he said, “and they fall apart.”

Saturday was the first day that cadaver-sniffing dogs were used to help find more victims.

 

“The entire historic town of Lahaina burned to the ground,” Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono told CNN’s “State of the Union” show Sunday. “We are in a period of shock and loss.”

But she said that some people feared missing have been found safe in emergency shelters.

“We know that recovery will be long,” she said. “That recovery will take years.”

Island residents have complained that 80 sirens across Maui designed to warn them of an emergency were never activated as the fire steadily spread last Wednesday. Hawaii Governor Josh Green has promised there will be an investigation into the island’s emergency response.

Hirono said, “I’m not going to make any excuses for this tragedy. I can’t even tell you how fast these flames spread.”

She said the immediate focus is “on rescue and [the] discovery of more bodies.”

 
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China’s foreign ministry was quick to voice its opposition to a transit stop in the United States by Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai as he travels to Paraguay, warning Sunday that it could take “resolute and strong measures” in response to the visit.

In its Sunday statement, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said: “China deplores and strongly condemns the US decision to arrange the so-called stopover,” adding that Beijing firmly opposes “the US government having any form of official contact with the Taiwan region.”

Lai, the statement added, “clings stubbornly to the separatist position for ‘Taiwan independence,'” and that he is a “troublemaker through and through.”

Lai, a Harvard-educated doctor turned politician is the front-runner in Taiwan’s upcoming presidential elections. He has previously described himself as a “practical worker for Taiwan independence,” but on the campaign trail he has stressed that he is not seeking to change the current situation. He has also expressed willingness to be friends with China.

Before departing, Lai spoke to reporters but barely mentioned the United States. Arriving at his hotel in New York, he was greeted by dozens of supporters, who waved U.S. and Taiwan flags, as well as the green and white banner of his ruling Democratic Progressive Party. As the crowd shouted, “Go Taiwan!” “Go Vice President!” others waved flags that read “Keep Taiwan Free.” One supporter held a sign that said: “Against War on Taiwan.”

On his social media feed on X, formerly Twitter, Lai wrote that he was happy to arrive in the Big Apple, and that he was “looking forward to seeing friends & attending transit programs in #New York.”

Analysts say that during Lai’s stopovers, Taipei and Washington will try to ensure that they do not further exacerbate U.S.-China tensions, but the visit comes as challenges to relations between the world’s two biggest economies continue to mount.

“Taiwan and the U.S. will try to make this trip meaningful for Lai but not in a way that pokes the bear,” Lev Nachman, a political scientist at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, told VOA.

Taiwanese presidential candidates have visited the U.S. during election campaigns in the past but experts say Lai’s role as Taiwan’s sitting vice president will make Washington handle his transit more carefully because it does not want to be perceived as endorsing Lai.

“The U.S. can neither treat Lai too well nor too badly, so letting him transit through New York and San Francisco is a compromise in my opinion,” Chen Fang-yu, a political scientist at Soochow University in Taiwan, told VOA.

Chen added that at a time when Washington hopes to have more military and diplomatic engagement with China, with Washington inviting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to visit Washington next month, it will try to make Lai’s stopovers “less formal” to avoid triggering any overreaction from Beijing.

“Diplomatically, the U.S. would like to avoid too many surprises,” he said.

Lai will be in New York for just about a day before heading on to Paraguay on Sunday. Taiwanese authorities have revealed few details of Lai’s itinerary, but sources with knowledge of the arrangement told VOA that he may hold events with the Taiwanese-American community.

After his arrival on Sunday, Laura Rosenberger, the chair of the American Institute in Taiwan – a U.S. government-run nonprofit that manages unofficial relations with Taiwan – confirmed on X that she would be meeting with Lai when he transits back through San Francisco Wednesday before returning to Taiwan.

Lai made similar transit stops in the U.S. in January 2022 as part of his trip to Honduras. During those stopovers, he conducted online meetings with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Tammy Duckworth and met with members of the Taiwanese community. This time, it is unclear whether he will have such high-level discussions and how Beijing may respond to any of his activities.

Beijing’s response

China views Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory and has long opposed high-level engagement between officials from Taiwan and other countries. Over the past year, China staged two large-scale military exercises around Taiwan in response to visits, once after Pelosi’s visited to Taipei last August and again in April when Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen met with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

Following Tsai’s stopover in California and meeting with McCarthy and other U.S. lawmakers, Beijing staged a multiday, blockade-style military exercise around Taiwan.

This time, experts think Beijing will launch a military response to Lai’s stopovers in the U.S., but the scale will depend on how “official-looking” his trip is. “This includes who he meets with, what he says, and how public those meetings are,” Amanda Hsiao, senior China analyst at the International Crisis Group, told VOA.

As Taiwan gears up for the presidential election, Hsiao said she thinks Beijing will try to moderate its response to Lai’s transit stops, as any reaction deemed too provocative could help increase Lai’s chance of winning the election. However, she added that Beijing also worries about sending the wrong signal if its responses are deemed too weak.

“They may respond with a small-scale military exercise, and it can simply be an increase in what they already do on an almost daily basis,” she said.

China has deployed 79 military aircraft and 23 naval vessels to areas near Taiwan since Sunday, according to Taiwan’s National Defense Ministry. Among them, 25 military craft have crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or intruded Taiwan’s southwestern and southeastern air defense identification zone.

Making a good impression

For Lai, the trip is an opportunity to make a good impression and his positions both on relations with China and the U.S. clear.

Before departing for the trip, in an interview with Taiwanese broadcaster SETN, Lai emphasized that Taiwan is not a part of China, expressed his willingness to “be friends” with China, and highlighted the importance of Taiwan’s relationship with the U.S.

“Pushing away our best partner, the U.S., would be unwise,” he said.

Analysts say Lai has largely inherited the “four commitments” put forward by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in 2021, which focus on defending Taiwan’s democratic system, safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty, pushing back against pressure from China, and letting Taiwan’s people determine the island’s future.

“Tsai’s approach has earned international recognition so it’s a safe approach for Lai and the Democratic Progressive Party,” Chen from Soochow University told VOA.

Nachman from National Chengchi University said he thinks Lai should continue to try to make a good impression on the U.S. government.

“He needs to prove that he can be ‘Tsai Ing-wen 2.0’ and this trip is one of the big tests,” he told VOA.

Mandarin service reporter Yi-hua Lee and video journalist Ning Lu contributed to this report.
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