United States news

Cyberattack Disrupts Hospitals, Health Care in Several States

Posted on 08/04/2023 by SeeUS

A cyberattack disrupted hospital computer systems in several states, forcing some emergency rooms to close and ambulances to be diverted. Many primary care services remained closed Friday as security experts worked to determine the extent of the problem and resolve it.

The “data security incident” began Thursday at facilities operated by Prospect Medical Holdings, which is based in California and has hospitals and clinics there and in Texas, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

“Upon learning of this, we took our systems offline to protect them and launched an investigation with the help of third-party cybersecurity specialists,” the company said in a statement Friday. “While our investigation continues, we are focused on addressing the pressing needs of our patients as we work diligently to return to normal operations as quickly as possible.”

In Connecticut, the emergency departments at Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals were closed for much of Thursday. Patients were diverted to other nearby medical centers.

“We have a national Prospect team working and evaluating the impact of the attack on all of the organizations,” Jillian Menzel, chief operating officer for the Eastern Connecticut Health Network, said in a statement.

The FBI in Connecticut issued a statement saying it is working with “law enforcement partners and the victim entities” but could not comment further on an ongoing investigation.

Elective surgeries, outpatient appointments, blood drives and other services were suspended, and while the emergency departments reopened late Thursday, many primary care services were closed on Friday, according to the Eastern Connecticut Health Network, which runs the facilities. Patients were being contacted individually, according to the network’s website.

Similar disruptions were reported at other facilities systemwide.

“Waterbury Hospital is following downtime procedures, including the use of paper records, until the situation is resolved,” spokeswoman Lauresha Xhihani said in a statement. “We are working closely with IT security experts to resolve it as quickly as possible.”

In Pennsylvania, the attack affected services at facilities including the Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill and Springfield Hospital in Springfield, according the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In California, the company has seven hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties, including two behavioral health facilities and a 130-bed acute care hospital in Los Angeles, according to Prospect’s website. Messages sent to representatives for these hospitals were not immediately returned.
…

your ad here

Survey of Arab Youth Finds Changing Views on China, US

Posted on 08/04/2023 by SeeUS

As China’s investment and trade in the Middle East and North Africa grow, young Arabs’ views of the Asian country are changing in that region, as are their views of the United States. Graham Kanwit has more on this story.
…

your ad here

US Employers Added Solid 187,000 Jobs in July; Unemployment Dips to 3.5%

Posted on 08/04/2023 by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added 187,000 last month, fewer than expected, as higher interest rates continued to weigh on the economy. But the unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% in a sign that the job market remains resilient.

Hiring was up from 185,000 in June, a figure that the Labor Department revised down from an originally reported 209,000. Economists had expected to see 200,000 new jobs in July.

Still, last month’s hiring was solid, considering that the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest 11 times since March 2022. The Fed’s inflation fighters will welcome news that more Americans entered the job market last month, easing pressure on employers to raise wages to attract and keep staff.

The U.S. economy and job market have repeatedly defied predictions of an impending recession. Increasingly, economists are expressing confidence that inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve can pull off a rare “soft landing” — raising interest rates just enough to rein in rising prices without tipping the world’s largest economy into recession. Consumers are feeling sunnier too: The Conference Board, a business research group, said that its consumer confidence index last month hit the highest level in two years.

There’s other evidence the job market, while still healthy, is losing momentum. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job openings fell below 9.6 million in June, lowest in more than two years. But, again, the numbers remain unusually robust: Monthly job openings never topped 8 million before 2021. The number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence they can find something better elsewhere — also fell in June but remains above pre-pandemic levels.

The Fed wants to see hiring cool off. Strong demand for workers pushes up wages and can lead companies to raise prices to make up for the higher costs.
…

your ad here

Endangered Species Act’s Future in Doubt

Posted on 08/04/2023 by SeeUS

Biologist Ashley Wilson carefully disentangled a bat from netting above a tree-lined river and examined the wriggling, furry mammal in her headlamp’s glow. “Another big brown,” she said with a sigh.

It was a common type, one of many Wilson and colleagues had snagged on summer nights in the southern Michigan countryside. They were looking for increasingly scarce Indiana and northern long-eared bats, which historically migrated there for birthing season, sheltering behind peeling bark of dead trees.

The scientists had yet to spot either species this year as they embarked on a netting mission.

“It’s a bad suggestion if we do not catch one. It doesn’t look good,” said Allen Kurta, an Eastern Michigan University professor who has studied bats for more than 40 years.

The two bat varieties are designated as imperiled under the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock U.S. law intended to keep animal and plant types from dying out. Enacted in 1973 amid fear for iconic creatures such as the bald eagle, grizzly bear and gray wolf, it extends legal protection to 1,683 domestic species.

More than 99% of those listed as “endangered” — on the verge of extinction — or the less severe “threatened” have survived.

“The Endangered Species Act has been very successful,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in an Associated Press interview. “And I believe very strongly that we’re in a better place for it.”

Fifty years after the law took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say it’s as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk.

Yet the law has become so controversial that Congress hasn’t updated it since 1992 — and some worry it won’t last another half-century.

Conservative administrations and lawmakers have stepped up efforts to weaken it, backed by landowner and industry groups that contend the act stifles property rights and economic growth. Members of Congress try increasingly to overrule government experts on protecting individual species.

The act is “well-intentioned but entirely outdated … twisted and morphed by radical litigants into a political firefight rather than an important piece of conservation law,” said Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, who in July announced a group of GOP lawmakers would propose changes.

Environmentalists accuse regulators of slow-walking new listings to appease critics and say Congress provides too little funding to fulfill the act’s mission.

“Its biggest challenge is it’s starving,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife.

Some experts say the law’s survival depends on rebuilding bipartisan support, no easy task in polarized times.

“The Endangered Species Act is our best tool to address biodiversity loss in the United States,” Senate Environment and Public Works chairman Tom Carper said during a May floor debate over whether the northern long-eared bat should keep its protection status granted in 2022.

“And we know that biodiversity is worth preserving for many reasons, whether it be to protect human health or because of a moral imperative to be good stewards of our one and only planet.”

Despite the Delaware Democrat’s plea, the Senate voted to nullify the bat’s endangered designation after opponents said disease, not economic development, was primarily responsible for the population decline.

That’s an ominous sign, said Kurta the Michigan scientist, donning waders to slosh across the mucky river bottom for the bat netting project in mid-June.

“Its population has dropped 90% in a very short period of time,” he said. “If that doesn’t make you go on the endangered species list, what’s going to?”

Turbulent history

It’s “nothing short of astounding” how attitudes toward the law have changed, largely because few realized at first how far it would reach, said Holly Doremus, a University of California, Berkeley law professor.

Attention 50 years ago was riveted on iconic animals like the American alligator, Florida panther and California condor. Some had been pushed to the brink by habitat destruction or pollutants such as the pesticide DDT. People over-harvested other species or targeted them as nuisances.

The 1973 measure made it illegal to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect” listed animals and plants or ruin their habitats.

It ordered federal agencies not to authorize or fund actions likely to jeopardize their existence, although amendments later allowed permits for limited “take” — incidental killing — resulting from otherwise legal projects.

The act cleared Congress with what in hindsight appears stunning ease: unanimous Senate approval and a 390-12 House vote. President Richard Nixon, a Republican, signed it into law.

“It was not created by a bunch of hippies,” said Rebecca Hardin, a University of Michigan environmental anthropologist. “We had a sense as a country that we had done damage and we needed to heal.”

But backlash emerged as the statute spurred regulation of oil and gas development, logging, ranching and other industries. The endangered list grew to include little-known creatures — from the frosted flatwoods salamander to the tooth cave spider — and nearly 1,000 plants.

“It’s easy to get everybody to sign on with protecting whales and grizzly bears,” Doremus said. “But people didn’t anticipate that things they wouldn’t notice, or wouldn’t think beautiful, would need protection in ways that would block some economic activity.”

An early battle involved the snail darter, a tiny Southeastern fish that delayed construction of a Tennessee dam on a river then considered its only remaining home.

The northern spotted owl’s listing as threatened in 1990 sparked years of feuding between conservationists and the timber industry over management of Pacific Northwest forestland.

Rappaport Clark, who headed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton, said there were still enough GOP moderates to help Democrats fend off sweeping changes sought by hardline congressional Republicans.

“Fast-forward to today, and support has declined pretty dramatically,” she said. “The atmosphere is incredibly partisan. A slim Democratic majority in the Senate is the difference between keeping the law on life support and blowing it up.”

The Trump administration ended blanket protection for animals newly deemed threatened. It let federal authorities consider economic costs of protecting species and disregard habitat impacts from climate change.

A federal judge blocked some of Trump’s moves. The Biden administration repealed or announced plans to rewrite others.

But with a couple of Democratic defections, the Senate voted narrowly this spring to undo protections for a rare grouse known as the lesser prairie chicken as well as the northern long-eared bat. The House did likewise in July.

President Joe Biden threatened vetoes. But to wildlife advocates, the votes illustrate the act’s vulnerability — if not to repeal, then to sapping its strength through legislative, agency or court actions.

One pending bill would prohibit additional listings expected to cause “significant” economic harm. Another would remove most gray wolves and grizzly bears — subjects of decades-old legal and political struggles — from the protected list and bar courts from returning them.

“Science is supposed to be the fundamental principle of managing endangered species,” said Mike Leahy, a senior director of the National Wildlife Federation. “It’s getting increasingly overruled by politics. This is every wildlife conservationist’s worst nightmare.”

Elusive middle ground

Federal regulators are caught in a crossfire over how many species the act should protect and for how long — and how to balance that with interests of property owners and industry.

Since the law took effect, 64 of roughly 1,780 listed U.S. species have rebounded enough to be removed, while 64 have improved from endangered to threatened. Eleven have been declared extinct, a label proposed for 23 others, including the ivory-billed woodpecker.

That’s a poor showing, said Jonathan Wood, vice president of law and policy with the Property and Environment Research Center, which represents landowners.

The act was supposed to function like a hospital emergency room, providing lifesaving but short-term treatment, Wood said. Instead, it resembles perpetual hospice care for too many species.

But species typically need at least a half-century to recover and most haven’t been listed that long, said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.

And they often languish a decade or more awaiting listing decisions, worsening their condition and prolonging their recovery, he said. The Fish and Wildlife Service has more than 300 under consideration.

The service “is not getting the job done,” Greenwald said. “Part is lack of funding but it’s mixed with timidity, fear of the backlash.”

Agency officials acknowledge struggling to keep up with listing proposals and strategies for restoring species. The work is complex; budgets are tight. Petitions and lawsuits abound. Congress provides millions to rescue popular animals such as Pacific salmon and steelhead trout while many species get a few thousand dollars annually.

To address the problem and mollify federal government critics, supporters of the act propose steering more conservation money to state and tribal programs. A bill to provide $1.4 billion annually cleared the House with bipartisan backing in 2022 but fell short in the Senate. Sponsors are trying again.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is using funds from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to improve strategies for getting species off the list sooner, Director Martha Williams told a House subcommittee in July.

It’s also seeking accommodation on another thorny issue: providing enough space where imperiled species can feed, shelter and reproduce.

The act empowers the government to identify “critical habitat” where economic development can be limited. Many early supporters believed public lands and waters — state and national parks and wildlife refuges — would meet the need, said Doremus, the California-Berkeley professor.

But now about two-thirds of listed species occupy private property. And many require permanent care. For example, removing the Kirtland’s warbler from the endangered list in 2019 was contingent on continued harvesting and replanting of Michigan jack pines where the tiny songbird nests.

Meeting the rising demand will require more deals with property owners instead of critical habitat designations, which lower property values and breed resentment, said Wood of the landowners group. Incentives could include paying owners or easing restrictions on timber cutting and other development as troubled species improve.

“You can’t police your way” to cooperation, he said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed regulatory changes this year to encourage voluntary efforts, hoping they’ll keep more species healthy enough to reduce listings. But environmentalists insist voluntary action is no substitute for legally enforceable protections.

“Did the makers of DDT voluntarily stop making it? No,” said Greenwald, arguing few landowners or businesses will sacrifice profits to help the environment. “We have to have strong laws and regulations if we want to address the climate and extinction crises and leave a livable planet for future generations.”

Grim prospects

Stars and fireflies provided the only natural light on the June night after Michigan biologists Kurta and Wilson extended fine nylon mesh over smoothly flowing River Raisin, 90 minutes west of Detroit. Frogs croaked; crickets chirped. Mayflies — tasty morsels for bats — swarmed in the humid air.

Long feared by people, bats increasingly are valued for gobbling crop-destroying insects and pollinating fruit, giving U.S. agriculture a yearly $3 billion boost.

“The next time you have some tequila, thank the bat that pollinated the agave plant from which that tequila was made,” Kurta said, tinkering with an electronic device that detects bats as they swoop overhead.

Hour after hour crept by. Eight bats fluttered into the nets. The scientists took measurements, then freed them. None were the endangered species they sought.

A month later, Kurta reported that 16 nights of netting at eight sites had yielded 177 bats — but just one Indiana and no northern long-eared specimens.

“Disappointing,” he said, “but expected.”
…

your ad here

2 US Navy Sailors Charged With Providing Sensitive Military Information to China

Posted on 08/04/2023 by SeeUS

Two U.S. Navy sailors were charged Thursday with providing sensitive military information to China — including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material.

The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese. But they were separate cases, and it wasn’t clear if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme. Federal officials at a news conference in San Diego declined to specify whether the sailors were aware of each other’s actions.

Both men pleaded not guilty in federal courts in San Diego and Los Angeles. They were ordered to be held until their detention hearings, which will take place Aug. 8 in those same cities.

U.S. officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking.

The pair of cases also comes on the heels of another insider-threat prosecution tied to the U.S. military, with the Justice Department in April arresting a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman on charges of leaking classified military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games.

U.S. officials said the cases exemplify China’s brazenness in trying to obtain insight into U.S. military operations.

“Through the alleged crimes committed by these defendants, sensitive military information ended up in the hands of the People’s Republic of China,” said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California. He added that the charges demonstrate the Chinese government’s “determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it could be used to their advantage.”

Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex, was arrested Wednesday while boarding the ship. He is accused of passing detailed information on the weapons systems and aircraft aboard the Essex and other amphibious assault ships that act as small aircraft carriers.

Prosecutors said Wei, who was born in China, was approached by a Chinese intelligence officer in February 2022 while he was applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen and admitted to the officer that he knew the arrangement could affect his application. Even so, at the officer’s request, Wei provided photographs and videos of Navy ships, including the USS Essex, which can carry an array of helicopters, including the MV-22 Ospreys, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

The indictment alleges Wei included as many as 50 manuals containing technical and mechanical data about Navy ships as well as details about the number and training of Marines during an upcoming exercise.

Wei continued to send sensitive U.S. military information multiple times over the course of a year and even was congratulated by the Chinese officer once Wei became a U.S. citizen, Grossman said. He added that Wei “chose to turn his back on his newly adopted country” for greed.

The Justice Department charged Wei under a rarely used Espionage Act statute that makes it a crime to gather or deliver information to aid a foreign government.

After pleading not guilty in San Diego, Wei was assigned a new public defender who declined to comment following the hearing. Wei did not visibly react when read the charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Sheppard told the judge that Wei had passed information to Chinese intelligence as recently as two days ago. He said Wei, who also went by the name Patrick Wei, told a fellow sailor in February 2022 that he was “being recruited for what quite obviously is (expletive) espionage.”

Sheppard said Wei has made $10,000 to $15,000 in the past year from the arrangement with the unnamed Chinese intelligence officer. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.

The officer instructed Wei not to discuss their relationship, to share sensitive information and to destroy evidence to help them cover their tracks, officials said.

The Justice Department also charged sailor Wenheng Zhao, 26, based at Naval Base Ventura County, north of San Diego, with conspiring to collect nearly $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for U.S. naval exercise plans, operational orders and photos and videos of electrical systems at Navy facilities between August 2021 through at least this May.

The information included operational plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, which detailed the location and timing of naval force movements.

The Associated Press was unable to reach the federal public defender assigned to Zhao, who pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles.

The indictment further alleges that Zhao photographed electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system stationed on a U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan.

Prosecutors say Zhao, who also went by the name Thomas Zhao, also surreptitiously recorded information that he handed over. If convicted, Zhao could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

It was unclear if federal officials were looking at other U.S. sailors and if the investigation was ongoing.

At the Pentagon, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that, “I think we have clear policies and procedures in place when it comes to safeguarding and protecting sensitive information. And so if those rules are violated, appropriate action will be taken.” He declined to discuss any specifics of the cases.

U.S. Attorney Grossman said the charges reflect that China “stands apart in terms of the threat that its government poses to the United States. China is unrivaled in its audacity and the range of its maligned efforts to subvert our laws.”

He added that the U.S. will use “every tool in our arsenal to counter the threat and to deter China and those who have violated the rule of law and threaten our national security.”
…

your ad here

Republicans Ramp Up Probe on Hunter Biden

Posted on 08/03/2023 by SeeUS

Republican lawmakers are ramping up investigations of Hunter Biden and seeking to equate the legal woes of the president’s son to those of former President Donald Trump, who is accused to trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. VOA’s White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
…

your ad here

Former Burisma Official: Family Ties Were Big Part of Hunter Biden Brand

Posted on 08/03/2023 by SeeUS

Hunter Biden gave the impression to executives at Ukrainian energy company Burisma that he had leverage because of his father, Joe Biden, and sold those family ties as part of his business brand, a witness told congressional investigators.

In a transcript from a closed-door interview released by the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee on Thursday, former Burisma board member Devon Archer said Hunter projected an “illusion” of access to power when he was at the company nearly a decade ago and his father was U.S. vice president.

“He was getting paid a lot of money, and I think, you know, he wanted to show value,” Archer told the committee on Monday.

“Given the brand, I think he would look to, you know, to get the leverage from it,” he said. “A lot of it’s about opening doors … globally in D.C. … and then obviously having those doors opened … sent the right signals.”

House Republicans say Archer’s interview supports unproven claims that President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and other family members have engaged in financial misconduct, allegations the White House denies.

Democrats contend that Republicans are chasing long-discredited bribery allegations.

Archer told investigators Hunter Biden spoke with his father daily and had him talk to associates and others by speakerphone about 20 times over 10 years. But he said the conversations did not involve any business dealings, and that he was not aware of any wrongdoing by the elder Biden.

At one point, Archer told investigators Hunter Biden “called his dad” when Burisma executives appealed for “D.C. help.” But Archer added he had only heard about a call from another Burisma official, who said “we called D.C.”

Allies of former President Donald Trump, angered by the former president’s three criminal indictments, have stepped up calls to begin an impeachment inquiry against the president based on the congressional probe. Some have also introduced legislation to expunge Trump’s two impeachments.

The transcripts were released hours before Trump, the leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate, appeared in court on charges he sought to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.

Trump was impeached in 2019 over his alleged efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and help him win reelection. He was impeached a second time in 2021 for allegedly inciting the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. He was acquitted by the Senate both times.
…

your ad here

US May Arm Commercial Ships in Strait of Hormuz to Stop Iran Seizures

Posted on 08/03/2023 by SeeUS

The U.S. military is considering putting armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, in what would be an unprecedented action aimed at stopping Iran from seizing and harassing civilian vessels, four American officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The U.S. didn’t even take the step during the so-called “Tanker War,” which culminated with the U.S. Navy and Iran fighting a one-day naval battle in 1988 that was the Navy’s largest since World War II.

While officials offered few details of the plan, it comes as thousands of Marines and sailors on both the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and the USS Carter Hall, a landing ship, are on their way to the Persian Gulf. Those Marines and sailors could provide the backbone for any armed guard mission in the strait, through which 20% of all the world’s crude oil passes.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP about the U.S. proposal.

Four U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the proposal, acknowledged its broad details. The officials stressed no final decision had been made and that discussions continue between U.S. military officials and America’s Gulf Arab allies in the region.

Officials said the Marines and Navy sailors would provide the security only at the request of the ships involved.

The Bataan and Carter Hall left Norfolk, Virginia, on July 10 on a mission the Pentagon described as being “in response to recent attempts by Iran to threaten the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and its surrounding waters.” The Bataan passed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea last week on its way to the Mideast.

Already, the U.S. has sent A-10 Thunderbolt II warplanes, F-16 and F-35 fighters, as well as the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, to the region over Iran’s actions at sea.

The deployment has captured Iran’s attention, with its chief diplomat telling neighboring nations that the region doesn’t need “foreigners” providing security. On Wednesday, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched a surprise military drill on disputed islands in the Persian Gulf, with swarms of fast-attack boats, paratroopers and missile units taking part.

The renewed hostilities come as Iran now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The U.S. also has pursued ships across the world believed to be carrying sanctioned Iranian oil. A ship allegedly carrying Iranian oil is stranded off Texas with no company willing to unload it.
…

your ad here

Blinken Criticizes Russia for Impact of War on Global Hunger

Posted on 08/03/2023 by SeeUS

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called out Russia at the United Nations on Thursday for the impact its “unjustified, unconscionable” war in Ukraine is having on global hunger and called for the war to end.

“Every member of this council, every member of the United Nations should tell Moscow, enough. Enough using the Black Sea as blackmail,” Blinken said of Russia’s recent withdrawal from the year-old deal that saw nearly 33 million tons of Ukrainian grain exported to the world. “Enough treating the world’s most vulnerable people as leverage. Enough of this unjustified, unconscionable war.”

Speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting he chaired on global food insecurity as part of the United States’ August presidency of the 15-nation council, Blinken emphasized the link between conflict and hunger in crises around the world.

“Scarce resources, heightened tensions between communities and nations, warring parties weaponizing food to subjugate populations,” he said. “Indeed, conflict is the largest driver of food insecurity, with violence and unrest pushing 117 million people into extreme deprivation last year.”

The council unanimously agreed on a four-page-long presidential statement calling for respect of international humanitarian law and unimpeded access to aid for civilians in need. The council also emphasized the need to “break the vicious cycle between armed conflict and food insecurity.”

Separately, Secretary Blinken said almost 90 countries, many of them in the global south, had signed onto a U.S.-authored joint communique committing to end the use of famine, starvation, and food as weapons of war.

“Hunger must not be weaponized,” he said.

He also announced $362 million in new funding to tackle drivers of food insecurity and enhance resilience in 11 African countries and Haiti.

Since January 2021, Washington has provided more than $17.5 billion to address famine and food insecurity, including more than $7.2 billion to the World Food Program – nearly half its entire budget.

Russia’s envoy dismissed Western interest in the issue of food insecurity, saying it is only driven by a desire to “demonize Russia.”

“How can we talk about any desire on your countries’ part to address international food security issues; all that drives you is the desire to punish Russia in your pipe dreams of dealing it a strategic defeat,” Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said. “You do not care the slightest bit about the interests of the countries of the global south, but we do.”

He said Russia is prepared to return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative if all its demands are met. He pointed to Moscow’s announcement that it would send 25,000 to 50,000 tons of free grain to six African countries in the coming months as proof of its goodwill.

Since Moscow unilaterally left the grain deal last month, it has repeatedly targeted several Ukrainian ports, destroying critical infrastructure, facilities, and more than 180,000 tons of grain. Moscow has also warned that it will consider any ships in the Black Sea as carrying military cargo and, therefore, legitimate targets.

Food prices

The World Bank said Monday that food price inflation remains high worldwide. The most-affected countries are in Africa, North America, Latin America, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia.

The Food and Agriculture Organization said in its annual state of food security report released last month that the world is still recovering from economic setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic and coping with the fallout of the war in Ukraine on food and energy markets.

The FAO estimates that between 691 million and 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022, significantly higher than in 2019 before the pandemic. Much of that hunger was at the regional level, with Africa, the Caribbean, and Western Asia all seeing rising hunger levels.

U.N. famine prevention and response coordinator Reena Ghelani told the council that the number of people suffering from acute food insecurity reached a record 250 million last year. She said 376,000 of them were facing famine-like conditions in seven countries. Another 35 million were on the brink of famine.

“Every one of the seven countries where people faced famine-like conditions last year was affected by armed conflict or extreme levels of violence,” she said.

Hunger and famine continue to threaten millions, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In Sudan, the U.N. said this week that more than 6 million people– about 13% of the population – are now one step away from famine. Across Sudan, more than 20 million people face high levels of acute food insecurity, due to a combination of conflict, economic decline and mass displacement.

In Somalia, the risk of famine still lingers among communities of displaced people in parts of the country, despite the scale-up of humanitarian assistance and better-than-forecast rains, which have brought some relief from a devastating drought.

Funding shortfalls are hurting the ability of humanitarian groups to assist the most vulnerable in several at-risk countries.
…

your ad here

Fentanyl Addict: ‘People Don’t Choose to Have This’

Posted on 08/03/2023 by SeeUS

Mexican officials met Tuesday with U.S. and Canadian officials in Mexico to talk about combating the trafficking of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. To get a better understanding of the problem, VOA visited addicts and a counselor from a harm reduction center in Washington. Júlia Riera has the story.
…

your ad here

Biden Calls for Release of Niger’s President After Coup

Posted on 08/03/2023 by SeeUS

U.S. President Joe Biden called Thursday for the immediate release of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted last week in a military coup.

Biden said in a statement that Niger is “facing a grave challenge to its democracy.”

“The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair elections—and that must be respected,” Biden said.

Defense chiefs from the Economic Community of West African States were due to complete a second day of talks in neighboring Nigeria about the situation.

Days after the coup, ECOWAS enacted sanctions against the coup leaders and set a Sunday deadline for Bazoum to be reinstated with the potential of using military force if he is not.

General Abdourahamane Tchiani, who declared himself the new head of state, said in a televised address Wednesday that the junta “rejects these sanctions altogether and refuses to give into any threats, wherever they come from. We refuse any interference in the internal affairs of Niger.” 

Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, told reporters Wednesday in Abuja that the military option was a “last resort” for the West African bloc. But Musah said preparations had to be made for that possibility.

“There is a need to demonstrate that we cannot only bark but can bite,” he said.

ECOWAS also sent a delegation on Wednesday to Niger’s capital, Niamey, for talks with junta members.

Britain said Thursday it was temporarily reducing its embassy staff in Naimey due to security concerns.

On Wednesday, the United States said it was ordering the “temporary departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members from the U.S. Embassy in Niamey.” It also raised its travel advisory to Level 4 – Do Not Travel – for Niger.

France’s military and foreign ministry continued Wednesday to evacuate people from Niger. The foreign ministry said about 1,000 people left Niger on four flights. The evacuees included French nationals along with others from Niger, Portugal, Belgium, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Germany, Canada, India, Austria and the United States.

Italy also carried out its own evacuation flight.

Military leaders put Bazoum under house arrest on July 26 and named Tchiani, commander of the presidential guard, as their new leader on Monday. Coup leaders said they were acting in response to what they described as a worsening security situation and the government’s lack of action against jihadis.

The coup has been condemned by Western countries, including the U.S., which says it stands with Nigeriens, ECOWAS and the African Union as it continues to work to roll back the coup, U.S. officials say.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by telephone Wednesday with Bazoum to discuss the situation in Niger, the State Department said.

Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement about the call that the United States “remains committed to the restoration of the democratically-elected government” in Niger.

“We reiterate that the safety and security of President Bazoum and his family are paramount,” Miller said.  “The United States is dedicated to finding a peaceful resolution that ensures that Niger remains a strong partner in security and development in the region.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
…

your ad here

Trump Due to Appear in Federal Court on Election Charges

Posted on 08/03/2023 by SeeUS

Former U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to appear Thursday in a federal courthouse in Washington to face charges for his attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

Ahead of Thursday’s proceedings, security was heightened in the area surrounding the courthouse.

Trump is expected to undergo intake processing, including having his fingerprints taken, and enter a not guilty plea.

A grand jury indicted Trump on four felony counts this week, including conspiring to defraud the United States, obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to deprive voters of their right to fair elections.

Prosecutors said in the indictment that Trump repeatedly made claims of election fraud that he knew were not true, and that he pressured state election officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence to act to keep Trump in power.

A mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as members of Congress met to certify the election results.

Trump has denied wrongdoing. Since leaving office, he has repeatedly asserted that the 2020 election was fraudulent and cast the investigations against him as politically motivated. He remains a leading candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump has already pleaded not guilty in two other criminal cases.

He was charged in another federal court with unlawfully retaining classified information at his Florida estate and refusing government demands that he return documents.

Trump was also charged in the state of New York with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to a porn actor during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

your ad here

Wildfire Sweeping Through California Desert Threatens Iconic Joshua Trees

Posted on 08/03/2023 by SeeUS

Aided by rain, firefighters fought to contain a massive blaze that swept through the California desert into Nevada and threatens the region’s famous spiky Joshua trees.

The York Fire that erupted last Friday is California’s largest wildfire this year. As of early Wednesday it had burned through more than 333 square kilometers of land and was 30% contained, fire officials said.

Humid monsoonal weather conditions Tuesday afternoon brought brief but heavy rain, especially on the south end of the fire, and kept its spread to a minimum, fire officials said. Similar conditions were expected on Wednesday, with drier weather poised to return on Thursday.

“Right now, the monsoonal influence is still over the fire,” said Marc Peebles, a spokesperson for California’s incident management team for the York Fire. “There’s always the possibility of showers that will help the effort.”

Firefighting amid fragility

The 400 or so firefighters battling the blaze have had to balance their efforts with concerns about disrupting the fragile ecosystem in California’s Mojave National Preserve.

Crews used a “light hand on the land,” clearing and carving fire lines without the use of bulldozers in order to reduce the impact in the ecologically-sensitive region, which is home to some 200 rare plants.

“You bring a bunch of bulldozers in there, you may or may not stop the fire, but you’ll put a scar on the landscape that’ll last generations,” said Tim Chavez, an assistant chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Fire crossed state line

The blaze ignited near the remote Caruthers Canyon area of the vast wildland preserve, crossed the state line into Nevada on Sunday and sent smoke further east into the Las Vegas Valley.

The fire started on private lands within the preserve, but the cause remains under investigation. Less than 3% of the land in the 6,475-square kilometer preserve is privately owned.

While it’s one of the largest national parks outside of Alaska and Hawaii, the vast majority of the Mojave National Preserve’s 880,000 visitors last year were just passing through on their way between Southern California and Las Vegas.

The desert landscape is varied — from mountains and canyons to sand dunes and mesas, to Joshua tree forests and volcanic cinder cones — and features about 10,000 threatened desert tortoises within its boundaries.

Some of the preserve’s plants can take centuries to recover from destruction. The pinyon-juniper woodlands alone could take roughly 200 to 300 years to return, while the blackbrush scrub and Joshua trees — which grow only in the Mojave Desert — are unlikely to regrow after this catastrophic blaze, said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The 2020 Dome Fire in a different part of the national preserve destroyed an estimated 1 million Joshua trees.

But fire itself isn’t the only worry. On federal lands, with few people and little property at risk, firefighters sometimes forgo certain equipment like bulldozers, chainsaws and aircraft.

“You don’t disturb any more soil than you absolutely have to; you don’t cut trees unless they absolutely have to come down,” said Chavez, speaking about the tactics in general.

When there are ecological and cultural sensitivities at stake, firefighters negotiate with federal officials to determine what equipment can and cannot be used.

“It’s not just going out there and throwing everything we’ve got at it,” Chavez said.

In Nevada, the fire has entered the state’s newest national monument, Avi Kwa Ame, said Lee Beyer, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service. But Beyer said the number of acres burned within the boundaries of the vast monument in southern Nevada wasn’t yet known.

President Joe Biden established the monument in March, permanently protecting the desert mountain region considered sacred by some tribes. The area stretches more than 202,300 hectares and includes Spirit Mountain, a peak northwest of Laughlin called Avi Kwa Ame (ah-VEE’ kwa-meh) by the Fort Mojave Tribe and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On Wednesday, firefighters continued to make progress on the Bonny Fire, a 9 square kilometer wildfire that broke out nearly a week ago in California’s Riverside County and is now 60% contained. Evacuation orders remain in place for residents near the fire, but some evacuation warnings were lifted late Tuesday, fire officials said.
…

your ad here

Body Found in Rio Grande Anti-Migrant Buoys, Mexico Says

Posted on 08/03/2023 by SeeUS

The Mexican government said Wednesday that a dead body had been found caught in the controversial floating barriers installed by Texas authorities to stop migrants crossing into the United States.

U.S. authorities informed Mexico that “they found the body of a lifeless person stuck in the southern part of the buoys” on the Rio Grande river, the Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement.

The cause of death and nationality of the victim were unknown, it added.

The ministry expressed “concern about the impact on the human rights and personal safety of migrants that these state policies will have.”

The buoys were installed in the river at a popular migrant crossing point in July on the instructions of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, along with large razor-wire barriers on shore.

In response, the US Justice Department has filed a lawsuit in a federal court, saying the buoys illegally obstruct river navigation and lack federal authorization.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said that the barriers violate his country’s sovereignty.

Hundreds of migrants die each year along the U.S.-Mexico border, mostly while trying to cross the Rio Grande.
…

your ad here

Charges Against Trump Include Effort to Subvert Electoral College

Posted on 08/02/2023 by SeeUS

The historic indictment charging former President Donald Trump with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election alleges, among other things, that Trump and his advisers orchestrated an elaborate plot to undermine the workings of the Electoral College, one of the least understood elements of the U.S. election system.

The indictment, released Tuesday, charges that Trump sought to create confusion surrounding the outcome of the election, which he lost to President Joe Biden, by causing individuals in seven states to send fake election results, known as electoral votes, to Congress.

The hope, according to prosecutors, was that the appearance of the false results alongside officially verified results would give Trump’s allies in Congress justification to claim that the results of the election were unclear and to delay the certification of Biden’s victory.

At minimum, the delay would have provided Trump’s team with more time to contest the result. If the fake results were ultimately accepted — a result that most experts say would have been illegal — the shift in votes across the seven targeted states would have made Trump the winner.

In the end, Congress ignored the fake electoral votes and certified Biden’s victory, but only after a mob of thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, forcing the evacuation of Congress, injuring many police officers and contributing to several deaths.

Trump responds

Trump, who is the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, released a statement angrily denouncing the decision to charge him as “election interference” and decrying the charges against him as “fake.”

“The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” it read. “President Trump has always followed the law and the Constitution, with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys.”

Tuesday’s indictment was filed in federal court in Washington. Trump is also facing a federal indictment in Florida over his retention of classified national security documents after leaving office, and state-level charges in New York for orchestrating an illegal scheme to pay hush money to a former adult film actress during the 2016 presidential election. It is also widely expected that Trump will soon face state charges in Georgia related to his effort to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in that state.

The Electoral College

The indictment accuses Trump and several unnamed associates of persuading people in seven targeted states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to pose as legitimately selected electors. Electors are individuals who play a key role in U.S. presidential elections.

The United States elects presidents through a complex system that involves an entity called the Electoral College, which exists for the sole purpose of choosing the next president every four years.

The Electoral College is made up of 538 individual electors, apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia. Before Election Day, the parties of each candidate name a slate of electors, who pledge to cast a vote for that party’s candidate in the Electoral College if their candidate wins the election in their state. Pledged electors whose candidate loses have no authority to cast electoral votes.

On Election Day, the 50 states and the District of Columbia all hold elections according to local election laws. When Americans cast their votes for president, they are technically not voting for a specific candidate. Rather, they are voting for the slate of electors who have pledged to vote for their preferred candidate when the Electoral College convenes.

Federal requirements

According to federal law, presidential elections are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. After the election, federal law further requires officials in each state to ascertain the identities of the electors who were chosen by the voters.

This ascertainment is the practical equivalent of declaring one candidate the winner of a state’s election, and that is how the process is typically characterized in the news media. In all but two states, electoral votes are awarded on a winner-take-all basis. In Maine and Nebraska, it is possible for each candidate to receive a partial share of the state’s votes.

Then, on a date also specified by federal law, all the electors in each state and the District of Columbia assemble to formally cast their votes for the president. Those votes are counted and certified by the state executive — typically the governor — and are sent to Congress.

On the sixth day of January following the election, members of both houses of Congress meet in a joint session, at which the sitting vice president oversees the formal counting of the electoral votes. To win the presidency, a candidate must receive a majority of the 538 electoral votes, meaning 270 or more.

In a typical U.S. election, every part of this process after the ascertaining of electors is considered a formality. Once the results in each state are declared, it is a simple matter to determine which candidate will receive the most votes when the Electoral College convenes, and that person is considered the president-elect.

However, there was nothing typical about the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

Claims of fraud

The indictment alleges that Trump and his associates attempted to subvert the Electoral College in the aftermath of the election on November 3, 2020.

Immediately after it became apparent that he had lost the election, Trump and his allies began spreading claims that the results in many of the states that Biden won had been fraudulent. Those claims were untrue and were eventually proved false in dozens of lawsuits.

However, while holding out hope that they might be able to persuade some state officials to change their results, Trump’s associates began contacting individuals who had been the former president’s pledged electors in several targeted states.

According to the indictment, Trump and his associates persuaded these individuals to agree to meet on the same day as the certified electors and to hold an election in which they would declare that Trump had received their electoral votes, even though they had no legal authority to cast electoral votes.

Shifting plans

At first, the effort was characterized as an attempt to “preserve” an alternate slate of electors in each of these states in case efforts to get officials to overturn state election results were successful. Some of the individuals who participated in the scheme did so in the belief that their votes would not be sent to Congress unless their states officially declared Trump the winner.

However, according to prosecutors, the plan changed in the weeks following the election. The indictment presents evidence that Trump and his associates ultimately decided that they would cause the false vote counts to be sent to Congress regardless of the outcome of their efforts to change election results in the individual states.

The indictment alleges that an attorney working on Trump’s behalf provided detailed instructions for the creation of fraudulent votes to be sent to Congress. In the end, seven slates of fake electors sent results to Washington before the January 6 joint session of Congress.

State-level prosecutions

While the fake electoral votes were not accepted by Congress, many of the individuals who signed the false certifications have either been charged with crimes under state laws or remain under investigation.

In Michigan, the state attorney general has charged 16 people with forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery for claiming to be duly chosen electors for Trump and submitting fake votes to Congress.

In Georgia, an investigation into the submission of fake electoral votes is ongoing, but at least eight of the 16 people have accepted plea deals with prosecutors that will allow them to avoid prosecution. The remainder may still face charges.

Prosecutors in Arizona, New Mexico and Wisconsin are conducting investigations.

In Pennsylvania, the fake electors demanded that the document they signed include language specifying that they were only claiming to be duly chosen electors if state officials changed the election results to declare Trump the winner. They are, therefore, expected to avoid criminal prosecution.

In Nevada, prosecutors have announced they will not pursue a case against that state’s fake electors, saying that state laws did not support any charges.
…

your ad here

US Calls on Afghan Groups to Refrain From Violence, Engage in Talks

Posted on 08/02/2023 by SeeUS

Refusing to recognize the Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan and maintaining sanctions on the group’s leaders, the United States continues to reject calls by some former Afghan allies to help topple the extremist regime.

Last week, Abdul Rashid Dostum, the former vice president of Afghanistan who backed U.S. Special Forces in ousting the Taliban in 2001, claimed he would be able to amass enough forces to overthrow the Taliban again, if only the United States supported him.

At least two other former Afghan generals — Sami Sadat and Khoshal Sadat — have spent several months in the U.S. seeking support from veterans, lawmakers and other groups for a potential war against the Taliban.

But the U.S. government response has been unequivocal.

“The United States does not want to see a return to violence in Afghanistan, and we do not support armed opposition to the Taliban,” said a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, who spoke on background.

The denial of support comes with a piece of advice to Afghan groups that want to defeat the Taliban militarily.

“We call on all sides to exercise restraint and to engage. This is the only way that Afghanistan can confront its many challenges,” the spokesperson told VOA.

U.S. officials say they are aware of former Afghan officials visiting the United States and advocating for armed resistance to the Taliban, but they cannot stop them because the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of expression for everyone inside the country.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 left no military support for former allies in the country and disappointed those that oppose the Taliban.

“We feel betrayed. We feel left alone. … We are empty-handed,” Ahmad Massoud, leader of an anti-Taliban group, told an Aspen Security Forum last week from an undisclosed location via a video call.

Since seizing power two years ago, the Taliban have controlled all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces largely uncontested, except for periodic attacks by Islamic State-Khorasan Province.

The Taliban and IS Khorasan each have declared religious war against each other.

The U.S. government has designated leaders of the Taliban and IS-Khorasan as terrorists. However, the Taliban have made counterterrorism commitments to the U.S. under the 2020 Doha Agreement.

“The Taliban have shown themselves to be an active, and at times, effective actor against the Islamic State,” said Jonathan Schroden, director of the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, a nonprofit military research group.

However, the Taliban have taken no serious actions against other groups such as al-Qaida and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which “is troubling to the U.S. and its Western allies, as well as to China, Russia and other regional countries,” Schroden said.

Last week, an IS-Khorasan propaganda wing reportedly issued pamphlets calling on anti-Taliban groups to join arms in their war against the Taliban.

Nearly all Afghan anti-Taliban leaders reside outside of Afghanistan, making it practically impossible for them to openly align with IS-Khorasan, a globally condemned terrorist group.

The U.S. policy of not supporting anti-Taliban factions is premised on the notion that giving such aid would escalate the conflict and allow for the expansion of terrorist actors, Schroden said.

Taliban engagement

After suspending direct engagement with the Taliban for months, U.S. diplomats resumed face-to-face talks with Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, this week. The talks revolved around some of the most contentious issues, including the Taliban’s ban on women’s work and education, which has drawn universal condemnation.

Both sides have reported progress and a desire to continue the engagement policy.

“The Taliban will not go away by ignoring them,” said Obaidullah Baheer, an Afghan analyst and adjunct lecturer at The New School in New York.

Baheer said U.S. engagement with the Taliban should not solely depend on contentious human rights conditions but include expectations for the establishment of a new constitutional order in Afghanistan and curbing the god-like powers of the Taliban’s unseen supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

For the U.S., a primary objective in engaging the Taliban has been counterterrorism.

During the two-day meetings in Doha, “U.S. officials took note of the Taliban’s continuing commitment to not allow the territory of Afghanistan to be used by anyone to threaten the United States and its allies, and the two sides discussed Taliban efforts to fulfill security commitments,” according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.

Speaking at an online forum on Tuesday, Mohammad Mohaqiq, an ethnic Hazara warlord and a former Afghan minister, said the many anti-Taliban factions also lack support from Afghanistan’s neighboring countries for a number of reasons, including fears of an expanded armed conflict in the region.

“We must wait,” Mohaqiq said.
…

your ad here

Trump to Face Different Jury Pools in Two Federal Indictments

Posted on 08/02/2023 by SeeUS

Former U.S. President Donald Trump will be facing two vastly different pools of possible jurors and judges with divergent views when he goes on trial in Washington, accused of illegally orchestrating an attempt to upend his 2020 election loss, and in Florida for allegedly trying to hoard classified national security documents.

Trump was indicted by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday in the Washington case, and Trump is set to make his first court appearance on Thursday afternoon.

A federal court grand jury handed up a four-count indictment alleging that Trump conspired to defraud the United States to stay in power even though he knew he had lost his reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden and then helped foment the January 6, 2021, riot of Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block lawmakers from certifying the election outcome.

Jurors do not necessarily decide criminal cases the way they voted in elections, but when the case goes to trial — and that could be months from now — Trump will face a pool of would-be jurors, all residents of Washington, the national capital, who voted against him 92% to 5% in the 2020 election.

In the southern state of Florida, where Trump lives at his oceanside Mar-a-Lago estate in the winter months, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has indicated she is likely to hold the classified documents case Smith filed against Trump at the courthouse where she normally presides, in Fort Pierce, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of the resort city of Miami.

If the trial is in Fort Pierce, jurors would be chosen from a list of voters in five counties, four of which handed Trump more than 60% of their votes in the 2020 election, while he eked out a slim majority in the fifth county.

The two federal judges overseeing the cases have already issued rulings for and against Trump.

Cannon, a Trump appointee to the federal bench in the waning days of his presidency, was randomly picked to oversee the classified documents case. Last year, she appointed a special master Trump sought, over the protests of Smith’s prosecutors, to review documents seized from Mar-a-Lago, which at the time delayed the government’s investigation.

The government appealed her decision and an appellate court rebuked Cannon, ruling that she had no right to name the special master.

More recently, when Smith sought to start the classified documents trial in December and Trump’s lawyers wanted to push it past the 2024 election, Cannon pretty much split the difference, ordering the trial to start in May 2024.

In Washington, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, nominated to the federal bench by former Democratic President Barack Obama, was randomly selected to oversee the case accusing Trump of election interference to stay in power.

Smith alleged that Trump knew he had lost but continued to make false claims that he had been cheated out of another four-year term in the White House and then tried to keep Congress from certifying that Biden had won, resulting in the mayhem at the Capitol on January 6 two years ago.

A specially appointed committee in the House of Representatives examined the riot at length in public hearings last year, and Chutkan played a role in the committee’s evidence gathering.

Trump sought to block release of documents sought by the committee by asserting executive privilege over the material, even though he was no longer president and Biden had cleared the way for the National Archives to turn over the papers. Chutkan ruled that Trump could not claim that his privilege “exists in perpetuity.”

Chutkan notably wrote, “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president.”

Chutkan is one of two dozen federal judges in Washington who have overseen the cases of rioters charged with offenses for their roles in the January 6 rampage at the Capitol building.

She has sentenced all 38 defendants convicted in her court to prison terms, ranging from 10 days to more than five years. In four of the cases, prosecutors weren’t seeking any jail time at all.

“It has to be made clear that trying to violently overthrow the government, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power and assaulting law enforcement officers in that effort is going to be met with absolutely certain punishment,” she said at one sentencing.
…

your ad here

US Economy Will Sway 2024 Vote, Small Business Owners Say

Posted on 08/02/2023 by SeeUS

The Biden administration has recently been emphasizing the strength of the U.S. economy, but some small business owners remain skeptical. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias visited their shops and found out more about their economic struggles, ahead of election season.
…

your ad here

DeSantis Joins GOP Rivals Seeking to Revoke China’s Trade Status

Posted on 08/02/2023 by SeeUS

Republican candidates for their party’s presidential nomination are increasingly open to the idea of ending the trade relationship between the U.S. and China that, since 2000, has given Beijing permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status and has smoothed commerce between the world’s two largest economies.

In his effort to gain ground on former President Donald Trump in the Republican primary, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday said he would revoke China’s trade status as part of what he characterized as a “Declaration of Economic Independence.”

“The abusive relationship, the asymmetric relationship between our two countries, must come to an end,” DeSantis told a crowd in New Hampshire. “No more massive trade deficits. No more importing of goods with stolen intellectual property. No more preferential trade status.”

In a statement provided to VOA, the Chinese Embassy in Washington criticized DeSantis and other GOP candidates for “smearing and blame-shifting” on the issue of trade.

Origins of PNTR

China was in negotiations to join the World Trade Organization in 2000, a move that many believed would open the country to foreign investment and allow non-Chinese companies access to its more than 1 billion consumers.

Until 2000, the specific trading relationship between the U.S. and China was the subject of annual reassessment, a situation that created uncertainty for companies looking to develop business relationships in China.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton made the decision to grant China PNTR.

Although trade between the two countries expanded rapidly, the U.S. frequently complained that China had failed to live up to its side of the bargain. They cited government interference to support Chinese firms, currency manipulation and other tactics that critics claimed Beijing was using to tilt the playing field in its favor.

Many of those practices were cited by the Trump administration as justification for the imposition of broad tariffs on Chinese goods during his term in office.

Evolving GOP position

Even Trump did not go as far as revoking China’s trade status with the U.S. It is a move that would be extremely disruptive and would put at risk billions of dollars of two-way trade between the world’s two largest economies.

However, the former president has added a call for the revocation of China’s PNTR status to his campaign for the presidency in 2024. In a campaign video released earlier this year, the former president made his new position clear.

“We will revoke China’s most favored nation trade status, and adopt a four-year plan to phase out all Chinese imports of essential goods — everything from electronics to steel to pharmaceuticals,” Trump said.

“This will include strong protections to ensure China cannot circumvent restrictions by passing goods through conduit countries — countries that don’t make a product, but all of a sudden they’re making a lot of the product, it comes right through China, right out of China, and right into our country.”

Leverage on fentanyl

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has put forward a more comprehensive China policy than many of her rivals for the nomination, and in a speech in June she floated the possibility of using the potential revocation of China’s trade status as leverage in talks with Beijing.

Haley noted that Chinese firms supply Mexican drug cartels with the precursor chemicals used in manufacturing the drug fentanyl, a major contributor to the opioid crisis in the U.S.

“China cannot plead innocence here,” she said in remarks delivered at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “It knows exactly what it’s doing by putting these chemicals into the hands of the cartels.

“We’ve tried sanctions, but they’re not working,” Haley said. “We must ratchet up the pressure. As president, I will push Congress to revoke permanent normal trade relations until the flow of fentanyl ends. If China wants to start normal trade again, it will stop killing Americans.”

Biden administration actions

While the Biden administration’s rhetoric regarding China has not been as pointed as that of Republican presidential contenders, the White House has struggled to maintain a productive relationship with Beijing over the past two and a half years.

When he took office in 2021, President Joe Biden inherited a regime of tariffs on different imports from China that were put in place during the Trump administration. The administration has left most of them in place.

In addition, Biden has overseen the implementation of export controls meant to prevent China from obtaining specific goods, including advanced microprocessors and the machines used to build them. This has led to complaints from Beijing and accusations that the U.S. is attempting to hamstring China’s growth prospects.

The official position of the Biden administration is that China is an economic competitor, not an enemy, a position that Republican candidates for the presidential nomination have derided as naive and shortsighted.

Chinese reaction

In response to an inquiry from VOA, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington issued a statement reacting to calls for revocation of PNTR.

“China-U.S. economic relations are mutually beneficial,” the statement said. “Overstretching the concept of national security and politicizing economic, trade and investment issues run counter to the principles of market economy and international trade rules. Pushing for decoupling with China not only harms the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, but also destabilizes global industrial and supply chains.

“The Chinese side is strongly against drawing attention by smearing and blame-shifting in the election campaign.”

‘Declaration of economic war’

Many economists argue against the elimination of PNTR, warning that such a dramatic change would be damaging to the interests of the U.S.

In a July 19 debate sponsored by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, economist Mary Lovely argued that such a move would be economically disastrous, leading to high prices for American consumers and harm to U.S. manufacturers.

“Revoking permanent normal trade relations with the People’s Republic of China is not in the best interest of American families, American workers or American businesses,” said Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“Removing PNTR is a declaration of economic war with China,” she continued. “An abrupt and destabilizing decoupling of the world’s two largest economies will hurt the United States and undermine ongoing efforts to work with like-minded countries to reduce our exposure to China.”
…

your ad here

Mass-Produced Clothing Causes Serious Air, Water Pollution Worldwide

Posted on 08/02/2023 by SeeUS

A customer goes into a store in the United States that is popular for trendy and cheap clothes — known as “fast fashion” — for an impulsive wardrobe addition.

The person buying those clothes may be planning to keep them for only a short time, and then throwing them out when a new fashion trend arrives.

Fast fashion refers to the mass-produced and low-cost clothing items that manufacturers churn out by the millions each day, especially in China, but also in countries such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Turkey.

But what most people don’t realize is that most of the clothes are made from materials that are bad for the environment and end up in landfills.

“Fast fashion has huge implications for the environment,” said Eliot Metzger, director of sustainable business and innovation at the World Resources Institute in Washington. “Not many people realize how much water and energy it takes to create a T-shirt. And if that T-shirt is going to the landfill, replaced by another T-shirt, that is going to multiply what is already an unsustainable pattern.”

Global issue

Fast fashion is not only a problem in the United States but in poorer countries where donated clothes arrive and are then resold by vendors.

“Kenya and Ghana import quite a lot of fast fashion clothing that is causing a huge amount of pollution,” explained Erica Cirino, communications manager for the Plastic Pollution Coalition in Washington. “The landfills are so overwhelmed by textile waste that they begin flowing into the surrounding waterways.

From stylish to disastrous

When retailers first introduced fast fashion apparel in the 1990s, the inexpensive and trendy clothing appealed to consumers. Today, its omnipresence in stores and on the internet in the U.S. and other wealthy countries, has made the fast fashion industry a disaster for the environment.

The clothes are often made from synthetic plastic fabrics, such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, which are produced from petroleum-based products — fossil fuels that are causing global warming.

“The heavy reliance by brands on polyester, nylon, acrylic is only increasing,” said Cirino, “so a great majority of clothing today is made out of plastic that is much less expensive than natural materials.”

Researchers have found microfibers from clothing in a wide range of land and aquatic ecosystems — from mountains to ocean floors.

“We call this a global microplastic cycle, where tiny microfibers and other microplastics can move thousands of miles from urban areas, where there are tons of people wearing synthetic clothing, to the most remote corners of the planet, including the top of Mount Everest,” said Britta Baechler, associate director of oceans plastics research with the Ocean Conservancy in Portland, Oregon.

Each year, approximately 6.5 million metric tons of microfibers are released into the environment worldwide, according to the Journal of Hazardous Materials. That’s equivalent to more than 32 billion T-shirts.

“As you’re walking, the material is rubbing together and that that causes fibers to break loose that shed directly into the air and make their way into the waterways,” Baechler told VOA.

Microfibers in washing machines

However, experts say, the biggest source of environmental microfiber is washing machines in the U.S. that do not have filters to catch the tiny fibers.

Wastewater treatment plants filter out the majority of microfibers, but because they are so small, some still get into the waterways. They harm small aquatic organisms that ingest them by creating blockages that hinder their absorption of nutrients from food.

It is not yet clear what the effect of microfibers is on humans.

“When we wear this clothing, we’re inhaling and potentially absorbing these plastic particles and their toxic chemical additives through our skin, so we’re exposed at all times,” said Cirino.

Unlike some materials, there is currently no widespread system for recycling textiles.

There are facilities to recycle paper, glass and some plastics, there isn’t an easy way to recycle textiles by shredding them and making them into new textiles, explained Swarupa Ganguli, lead environmental protection specialist in the office of land and emergency management for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Fashionable options

Instead of buying fast fashions, environmental groups say people should think about purchasing clothes at second-hand shops or on the internet and rent outfits for special occasions.

The Patagonia outdoor clothing and gear company in Ventura, California, has a program called Worn Wear to try to keep its clothes out of landfills. The company rebuys some of its used clothing, which is cleaned and resold.

“Worn Wear is based on the premise that reducing the environmental impact of our products must be a shared responsibility between Patagonia and our customers,” said Corey Simpson, the communications manager for product and sport community. “We want to help you with responsible product care while you’re using your gear, and we want to buy it back from you when you no longer need it, whether it can be passed on to someone new or recycled into something new.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency favors what is being called a circular economy approach. This includes redesigning clothes and encouraging the reuse and recycling of clothing.

“The idea is to shift the consumer mindset from using clothing quickly and then throwing it away, and instead to reuse, reduce and recirculate it back into the economy,” Ganguli told VOA.

While “the circular economy for textiles has huge potential,” said Metzger with the World Resources Institute, “I don’t think you can say it is working until the circular economy for textiles is slowing and reversing the consumption.”
…

your ad here

Trump Indicted, Accused of Illegally Trying to Upend 2020 Election Loss

Posted on 08/02/2023 by SeeUS

Legal jeopardy for Donald Trump is growing after a federal grand jury in Washington indicted the former U.S. president, accusing him of illegally trying to upend his 2020 election loss to retain power. VOA’s Michael Brown reports.
…

your ad here

Trump Indicted Over Attempts to Overturn 2020 Election

Posted on 08/02/2023 by SeeUS

Former U.S. President Donald Trump continues to defy expectations as he surges ahead of other Republican contenders for the presidential nomination despite multiple indictments against him — and with words of support from some of his own rivals. As he was indicted again Tuesday over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, VOA’s Anita Powell looks at the unprecedented path of the former president.
…

your ad here

Trump Probe Prosecutor Is Veteran of Corruption, War Crimes Cases

Posted on 08/01/2023 by SeeUS

Jack Smith, the federal prosecutor who on Tuesday charged Donald Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election, is a seasoned American lawyer who has led Kosovo war crimes probes in The Hague.

In November 2022, shortly after Trump announced another White House bid, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped Smith to oversee two independent investigations into the former president, saying that he had “built a reputation as an impartial and determined prosecutor.”

More than eight months later, Smith has charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States and attempting to obstruct certification of his rival Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory – seismic accusations against a former U.S. leader.

The accusations come on top of separate felony charges Smith brought against Trump over claims he criminally retained classified documents after leaving office and conspired to obstruct the probe.

Prior to his becoming the face of the fiercely divisive Trump cases, Smith spent many years at the Department of Justice and more recently in international tribunals.

A Harvard Law School graduate, Smith began his prosecutorial career in the 1990s.

He boasts a resume that includes several years at the Justice Department in multiple positions, including chief of the agency’s Public Integrity Section, where he led a team handling corruption and election crimes cases, and later acting U.S. attorney for the middle district of Tennessee.

From 2008 to 2010, he served as an investigator for the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, where he was charged with supervising sensitive probes of foreign government officials over war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

His most high-profile work prior to the Trump probe occurred at the special court on Kosovo in The Hague, where he led investigations and adjudications of war crimes committed in the Balkan republic during the 1990s wars that ripped apart Yugoslavia.

‘Milestone’

In 2018, Smith was named chief prosecutor of the court, known as the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.

It opened its first trial in 2021 against former rebel commander Salih Mustafa, who was convicted the following year of murder and torture related to his time at a makeshift jail operated by the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

Smith described the case as a “milestone” for the court, whose activities remain highly sensitive given that former rebel commanders still dominate political life in Kosovo.

The court, which operates under Kosovo law but is based in Netherlands to shield witnesses from intimidation, has issued war crimes charges against several senior members of the KLA, including former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci.

After being appointed special counsel by Garland, Smith pledged to work “independently” and to “move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.”

On Tuesday, he said his office would seek a “speedy” trial for Trump “so that our evidence can be tested in court and judged by a jury of citizens.”

And, while asserting Trump remained innocent until proven guilty, he said that an attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, by the former president’s supporters was “fueled by lies – lies by the defendant, targeted at obstructing” certification of Biden’s victory.

The earlier indictment over the classified documents had sparked outrage among Republicans, but in his first comments after it was unsealed in June, Smith underlined that the United States has “one set of laws … and they apply to everyone.”

“Laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced,” he added.
…

your ad here

Blinken to Chair UN Meeting on Food Insecurity

Posted on 08/01/2023 by SeeUS

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will chair a high-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that will highlight global food insecurity and the conflicts that worsen it.

“We know this for sure: Where there is conflict, there is hunger,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters at a news conference Tuesday to kick off Washington’s Security Council presidency this month.

She said Blinken will have “announcements and deliverables” on Thursday, and she urged nations to sign on to a draft communiqué Washington plans to issue on the subject.

Thomas-Greenfield, who has been the U.S. envoy at the United Nations since February 2021, said she will again use the rotating council presidency to push global food insecurity to the top of the council’s agenda. She has helmed the 15-nation council twice before on behalf of the United States, and both times focused on the issue.

The annual state of food security report released last month by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization found that the world is still recovering from economic setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic and coping with fallout of the war in Ukraine on food and energy markets.

The FAO estimates that 691 million to 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022, significantly higher than in 2019 before the pandemic. Much of that hunger was at the regional level, with Africa, the Caribbean and Western Asia all seeing rising hunger levels.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned when Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative on July 17 that its decision would “strike a blow to people in need everywhere.”

Experts agreed, saying the deal’s collapse would negatively affect the prices of commodities such as wheat, corn and soybeans, ultimately hurting poorer consumers.

The U.N. has so far been unsuccessful in getting Moscow to reverse its decision.

Thomas-Greenfield said Washington has seen indications that Russia might be interested in talks.

“What we have been told is that they are prepared to return to discussions,” she said. “We haven’t seen any evidence of that yet.”

She said if the Russians want to get their fertilizer to global markets and continue to have some access to international financial transactions, they will have to return to the deal.

Thomas-Greenfield said Washington would continue to highlight Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine during its August presidency. It plans a meeting to discuss the protection of civilians in Ukraine, including children, on August 24 — Ukraine’s independence day.

Russia’s deputy ambassador told reporters Tuesday that Moscow objected to the council scheduling any meetings on Ukraine this month. Thomas-Greenfield said that was “a little stunt” and would not stop the U.S. from conducting the council’s business.

Human rights

The U.S. envoy says human rights guide the Biden administration’s foreign policy and will also be a priority during the U.S. presidency in the form of invitations to civil society representatives and human rights organizations to brief the council on relevant topics.

Some council members have opposed the idea of bringing human rights issues into the council, saying there are other U.N. forums such as the Human Rights Council, where such issues should be discussed. Thomas-Greenfield disagrees.

“Human rights belong in the Security Council, because human rights are about peace and security,” she said. “Places where human rights are being violated, we see situations of peace and security being destabilized.”
…