Elon Musk said Sunday that he plans to change the logo of Twitter to an “X” from the bird, marking what would be the latest big change since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year. 

In a series of posts on his Twitter account starting just after 12 a.m. ET, Twitter’s owner said that he’s looking to make the change worldwide as soon as Monday. 

“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk wrote on his account. 

Earlier this month, Musk put new curfews on his digital town square, a move that came under sharp criticism that it could drive away advertisers and undermine its cultural influence as a trendsetter. 

In May, Musk hired longtime NBC Universal executive Linda Yaccarino as Twitter’s CEO in a move to win back advertisers. 

Luring advertisers is essential for Musk and Twitter after many fled in the early months after his takeover of the social media platform, fearing damage to their brands in the ensuing chaos. Musk said in late April that advertisers had returned, but provided no specifics. 

 
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DALLAS — As the Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan, in the summer of 2021, Fahima Sultani and her fellow university students tried for days to get into the Kabul airport, only to be turned away by gun-wielding extremists.

“No education, just go back home,” she recalled one shouting.

Nearly two years later, Sultani, now 21, is safely in the U.S. and working toward her bachelor’s degree in data science at Arizona State University in Tempe on a scholarship. When she’s not studying, she likes to hike up nearby Tempe Butte, the kind of outing she enjoyed in her mountainous homeland.

Seeing students like Sultani rush to leave in August 2021 as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years, colleges, universities and other groups across the U.S. started piecing together the funding for hundreds of scholarships so they could continue their educations outside of their home country.

Women of Sultani’s generation, born around the time the U.S. ousted the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, grew up attending school and watching as women pursued careers. The Taliban’s return upended those freedoms.

“Within minutes of the collapse of the government in Kabul, U.S. universities said, ‘We’ll take one;’ ‘We’ll take three;’ ‘We’ll take a professor;’ ‘We’ll take a student,'” said Allan Goodman, CEO of the Institute of International Education, a global not-for-profit that helps fund such scholarships.

The fears leading the students to quickly board flights were soon justified as the Taliban ushered in a harsh Islamic rule: Girls cannot attend school beyond the sixth grade and women, once again required to wear burqas, have been banned from universities and are restricted from most employment.

Sultani is one of more than 60 Afghan women who arrived at ASU by December 2021 after fleeing Afghanistan, where she had been studying online through Asian University for Women in Bangladesh during the pandemic.

“These women came out of a crisis, a traumatic experience, boarded a plane not knowing where they were going, ended up in the U.S.,” said Susan Edgington, executive director and head of operations of ASU’s Global Academic Initiatives.

After making their way to universities and colleges across the U.S. over the last two years, many are nearing graduation and planning their futures.

Mashal Aziz, 22, was a few months from graduating from American University of Afghanistan when Kabul fell and she boarded a plane. After leaving, she scoured the internet, researching which schools were offering scholarships and what organizations might be able to help.

“You’ve already left everything and you are thinking maybe there are barriers for your higher education,” she said.

Aziz and three other Afghan students arrived at Northeastern University in Boston in January 2022 after first being taken to Qatar and then a military base in New Jersey. She graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting management and plans to start work on her master’s degree in finance this fall at Northeastern.

Just two days after the fall of Kabul, the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma announced it had created two scholarships for Afghans seeking refuge in the U.S. Later, the university created five more scholarships that went to some of the young Afghans who had settled in the area. Five more Afghans have received scholarships to study there this fall.

Danielle Macdonald, an associate anthropology professor at the school, has organized a regular meetup between TU students and college-aged Afghans who have settled in the Tulsa area.

Around two dozen young people attend the events, where they’ve talked about everything from U.S. slang to how to find a job. Their outings have included visiting a museum and going to a basketball game, Macdonald said.

“It’s become a really lovely community,” she said.

Sultani, like many others who left Afghanistan, often thinks about those who remained behind, including her sister, who had been studying at a university, but now must stay home.

“I can go to universities while millions of girls back in Afghanistan, they do not have this opportunity that I have,” Sultani said. “I can dress the way I want and millions of girls now in Afghanistan, they do not have this opportunity.”

Since the initial flurry of scholarships, efforts to assist Afghan students have continued, including the creation of the Qatar Scholarship for Afghans Project, which has helped fund 250 scholarships at dozens of U.S. colleges and universities.

But there are still more young people in need of support to continue their educations in the U.S. or even reach the U.S. from Afghanistan or other countries, explained Jonah Kokodyniak, a senior vice president at the Institute of International Education.

Yasamin Sohrabi, 26, is among those still trying to find a way to the U.S. Sohrabi, who had been studying at American University of Afghanistan, realized as the withdrawal of U.S. forces neared that she might need to go overseas to continue her studies. The day after the Taliban took Kabul, she learned of her admission to Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, but wasn’t able to get into the airport to leave Afghanistan.

A year later, she and her younger sister, who has also been accepted at the university, got visas to Pakistan. Now they are trying to find a way to get into the U.S. Their brother, who accompanied them to Pakistan, is applying to the school as well.

Sohrabi said she and her siblings try not to focus on what they have lost, but instead on how to get to WKU, where 20 other Afghans will be studying this fall.

“That’s one of the things in these days we think about,” she said. “It keeps us going.”
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The heaviest rain to hit the Atlantic Canadian province of Nova Scotia in more than 50 years triggered floods causing “unimaginable” damage, and four people are missing, including two children, officials said Saturday.

The storm, which started Friday, dumped more than 25 cm (10 inches) on some parts of the province in just 24 hours — an amount that usually lands in three months. The resulting floods washed away roads, weakened bridges and swamped buildings.

“We have a scary, significant situation,” said Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, adding that at least seven bridges would have to be replaced or rebuilt.

“The property damage to homes … is pretty unimaginable,” he told a news conference. Houston said the province would be seeking significant support from the federal government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Toronto he was very concerned about the floods and promised that Ottawa “will be there” for the province.

The flooding was the latest weather-related calamity to pound Canada this year. Wildfires have already burned a record number of hectares, sending clouds of smoke into the United States. Earlier this month, heavy rains also caused floods in several northeastern U.S. states.

Authorities have declared a state of emergency in Halifax, the largest city in Nova Scotia, and four other regions.

The regional municipality in Halifax reported “significant damage to roads and infrastructure” and urged people to stay at home and not use their cars.

Pictures posted on social media from Halifax showed abandoned cars almost covered with flood waters and rescue workers using boats to save people.

Houston, citing police, said two children were missing after the car they were in was submerged. In another incident, a man and a youth were missing after their car drove into deep water.

At one point, more than 80,000 people were without power.

Environment Canada is predicting torrential rain in the eastern part of the province, continuing into Sunday.

“People should not assume that everything is over. This is a very dynamic situation,” Halifax Mayor Mike Savage told the press conference, saying the city had been hit by “biblical proportions of rain.”

Canadian Broadcasting Corp meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said the Halifax rains were the heaviest since a hurricane hit the city in 1971.

Early on Saturday, authorities in northern Nova Scotia ordered residents to evacuate amid fears that a dam near the St. Croix River system could breach. They later canceled the evacuation order.
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Any hope of a speedy return of the American soldier who illegally crossed into North Korea earlier this week appears all but dashed by the silence from the hermit state on the whereabouts of Pvt. Travis King.

“We have channels of communication. We’ve used them,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday at the Aspen Security Forum, explaining that Washington has been trying to establish dialogue with North Korea since the early days of the administration.

“Here’s the response we got: One missile launch after another,” he said.

As Washington awaits response to outreach through United Nations channels and its intermediary, Sweden, investigations are underway at the U.S. Army and United Nations Command, or UNC, levels to determine how a soldier who was supposed to be on a flight to the United States to face disciplinary measures instead emerged at the border of the two Koreas.

Counterintelligence personnel are leading the army probe in coordination with the U.S. military in South Korea, the Pentagon said Thursday, noting that King’s status is AWOL (absent without leave), or away without permission, for now.

The UNC, the U.S.-led multinational force managing the Joint Security Area, or JSA, through which King bolted, is studying the events of July 18 to “determine what policies or procedures are required to minimize risk to visitors in the JSA,” UNC Public Affairs Director Colonel Isaac Taylor told VOA.

July 18

On a day that a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine made a rare port call to South Korea to coincide with the launch of the U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group, Pvt. King, 23, was in civilian garb taking in a DMZ tour that included a stop at the JSA.

The Joint Security Area is iconified by bright blue buildings that stand on the Military Demarcation Line, the official border that divides North and South Korea, in place for 70 years since an armistice put a pause to the Korean War.

The compound is a popular tourist destination, with bookings often sold out for months, offering the novelty of standing “inside North Korea” within one of the meeting buildings. A tour of the JSA requires submission of additional documents days in advance, including a passport.

King, who was expected at his base in Fort Bliss, Texas, where he faced pending administrative separation from the Army for misdemeanors committed during his South Korea deployment, instead bolted into the North Korean side of the border complex about 3:30 p.m. local time.

He was laughing as he ran, eyewitnesses who were part of the same tour group said. The army private was last seen moving to the back of a North Korean building, then being driven away inside a van by North Korean soldiers, according to a report that cited a Defense Department report on the illegal crossing.

His motive for such a puzzling and dangerous decision remains unknown, as are his whereabouts between checking in for his Dallas-bound flight at Incheon International Airport on Monday and his JSA tour that left from Seoul the following day.

King had served time in a civilian jail in South Korea on assault charges up until a week before his scheduled flight to Texas, and he was facing potential additional repercussions at his base in Fort Bliss.

In interviews with news outlets, his family expressed surprise, his mother recalling she’d heard from him a few days prior and couldn’t see him doing anything like that.

“I just want my son back. I just want my son back,” Claudine Gates told reporters outside her home. “Get my son home and pray, pray that he comes back.”

Rare bolt

King’s dash through the JSA is highly unusual, with few precedents.

While over the decades there have been U.S. soldiers who defected through the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ — the 160-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide buffer running across the Korean peninsula of which the Joint Security Area is a part — this is the first time any person successfully disappeared into North Korea from the South while on a JSA tour.

There was one such attempt in 2001 by a German doctor-turned-activist, Norbert Vollertsen, according to the assistant secretary of the Military Armistice Commission at the time, Stephen M. Tharp.

Vollertsen was caught by armed guards before skipping over the low concrete blocks that mark the border, the retired lieutenant colonel said. His stated purpose was to start an incident to bring North Korea’s human rights plight to the world’s attention.

King’s run also comes as firearms and guard posts were removed at the compound in 2018 amid a detente mood between the two Koreas during the previous administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

North Korean troops had been stationed outside at the JSA just like their South Korean counterparts, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed that. The North Korean government issued border lockdowns and stringent COVID-19 rules, so when North Koreans were spotted at the JSA during the pandemic, they were in Hazmat suits.

In November 2017, a North Korean soldier dodged a shower of live fire rounds by his compatriots, running for his life through the JSA in a bold defection attempt. By the time he got to the south side, he was wounded but alive.

Now, with COVID-19 restrictions and other fears at play, King could be looking at a more complicated processing reality, analysts say, such as weeks of quarantine before questioning by North Korean guards even begins.

Amid escalating tensions

While North Korea has yet to speak on King’s status, it did issue a warning this week against the presence of the USS Kentucky nuclear submarine parked in Busan, South Korea, presumably holding 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“The U.S. military side should realize that its nuclear assets have entered extremely dangerous waters,” North Korea’s defense minister, Kang Sun Nam, said late Thursday via state media KCNA, hours before the submarine would depart.

Kang said the deployment of such strategic assets could trigger North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons, as codified in its nuclear force policy, if “it is judged that the use of nuclear weapons against it is imminent.”

The nuclear weapon trigger warning is mostly being taken in stride in Seoul, with some analysts saying it shows a North Korea under duress. Pyongyang knows full well a first-use case will almost certainly mean a mutual wipe-out, they say.

Still, a war on the Korean peninsula is a scenario the U.S., Japan and South Korea must be ready for together, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said in an interview published Saturday.

“I think that the Korean situation is an area that the United States could — I’m not saying it will, but could — find itself in a state of war, you know, within a few days, with very little notice,” Milley said, according to the Nikkei news organization based in Japan.

For now, North Korea will have its hands full next week, in part, as it gears up for a second massive military parade of the year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice signing on July 27, which Pyongyang claims as its Victory Day.

Remembrances planned at the JSA on the South Korea side, however, have been canceled as the UNC conducts its investigation.
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TAIPEI – Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai, a front-runner in the island’s planned January presidential elections, announced this week that he plans to make transit stops in the U.S. next month on his way to Paraguay, sparking swift protest from China. Beijing objects to any action that could raise Taiwan’s international profile and has pledged to keep the transit stops from happening.

Analysts say that while it is unlikely that China will succeed, the transit stopovers are likely to test already tense ties between Beijing and Washington.

“Beijing will try to link the stopover to the high-level engagement between Taiwan and the U.S. over the last year and they will look for opportunities to frame this as the U.S. being provocative,” Brian Hart, a fellow with the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA.

Details have yet to be released of where Lai might stop in August and what he might do in the U.S. Taiwan’s Presidential Office has said Lai will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Paraguay’s newly elected president, Santiago Pena, on Aug. 14.

Deep distrust

The planned stopovers are not a first for Lai, but this time he is traveling while he is the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate in the January vote. Beijing is highly skeptical of him because he is a member of the DPP and also because of his stance on Taiwan’s sovereignty. A former doctor turned politician, Lai has previously described himself as a “pragmatic Taiwan independence worker.”

Despite Beijing’s claim that the island is a part of its territory, both Lai and Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen argue that the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name, is already an independent state.

Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations. Beijing took over its seat in 1971. Currently, only  13 countries, including Paraguay, have formal diplomatic relations with the island.

“Beijing distrusts Lai even more than they distrust Tsai Ing-wen,” said Bonnie Glaser, the managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She said Beijing believes U.S. support may embolden current or future leaders in Taiwan to pursue independence.

Like many other countries, the United States does not have formal ties with Taiwan, but it is the island’s biggest international backer.

‘Priority’ to stop visit

Speaking at the Aspen Security Conference on Wednesday, Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the U.S., said it was Beijing’s priority to stop Lai from visiting the U.S. and emphasized that the provocative moves by “Taiwan separatists” should be contained.

In addition, China’s foreign ministry said that Beijing opposes any official interaction between Taiwan and the U.S. and that the Taiwan issue is the insurmountable red line that cannot be crossed in U.S.-China relations.

“The Chinese are very alarmed about what could happen and they are warning that their red lines should be taken seriously,” Glaser said.

Despite warnings from Beijing, Taipei, and Washington both emphasized that Lai’s transit stops in the U.S. are planned based on the principle of “comfort and safety” and that China should not use the stopover to “start a fight.”

During a press conference Wednesday, Sandra Oudkirk, the director of Washington’s de facto embassy in Taiwan, said transits by Taiwanese officials in the U.S. have happened many times before and are part of the routine.

In January of last year, Lai transited through the U.S. during a 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. In April of this year, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen also made two stopovers in the U.S. as part of a trip to Central America.

Another military blockade drill?

China views Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory and has long voiced opposition to high-level interaction between officials from Taipei and those in other countries. That has not stopped a growing number of officials, legislators and leaders from visiting Taiwan, and officials from Taipei traveling to other countries.

In response, China has stepped up its military activities around the island. Over the past year, Beijing launched two multiday, blockade-style military exercises around Taiwan to protest high-profile meetings. One drill followed a meeting between President Tsai and former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when she visited Taiwan last August and another after she met with current U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California in April.

Glaser said that while Beijing’s response will likely be determined by the agenda during Lai’s stopovers in the U.S., the outside world should not rule out any possible scenarios.

“[Even though] I don’t think Lai will do any public events, if he did give a speech or said something that is viewed as provocative by the Chinese leadership, that would give them a reason to do something in the military realm,” she said.

Still, she said she thinks Beijing would have to be “very alarmed” by things that Lai did in order to execute a military response that matches what they did when Pelosi visited Taiwan.

Other analysts added that based on past experience, China has learned that high-profile demonstrations of displeasure toward the Taiwanese government through military maneuvers or military drills often backfire, especially during the island’s election season.

“Since this is a presidential campaign year, if Beijing follows this reasoning, they will likely resort to condemnation and perhaps some form of symbolic suspension of dialogue or economic sanctions on selected commodities,” Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australian National University’s Taiwan Studies Program, told VOA.

In his view, past experience may convince China that heightening military pressure on Taiwan will only backfire when Taiwanese voters are about cast their ballots to elect their next president.

Washington’s balancing act

Lai’s scheduled stopover in the U.S. comes at a tricky time for Washington. Over the past few weeks, it has tried to restart diplomatic engagement with China. Analysts think efforts to reduce tension between the world’s two largest economies may cause the U.S. to make its engagements with Taiwan less public in the coming months.

“Taiwan and the U.S. will maintain the same level of exchanges, but Washington’s public rhetoric about Taiwan may be milder,” said Charles Wu, a professor in international relations at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

Rather than reducing interaction with Taiwan, Wu said he thinks the U.S. will likely put “guardrails around interaction” to make sure it doesn’t affect progress made in restoring dialogue with China.  
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Kingston Peel, 11, and his 9-year-old brother, Wynn, got woken up early Friday at their home in the Bahamas. Their mother had a surprise for them.

In only a few hours, they’d fly to South Florida to see superstar Lionel Messi make his Major League Soccer debut with Inter Miami.

“We’re here to see Messi,” Kingston and Wynn said in unison. They arrived at DRV PNK Stadium hours before Inter Miami’s match against Mexican club Cruz Azul in the Leagues Cup.

And Friday night, Messi gave an unforgettable thrill to fans young and old who witnessed his first game, converting a free kick from about 25 yards in the 94th minute to give his new team a 2-1 victory.

Troves of fans, some from as far away as Ecuador and Messi’s native Argentina, bounced around the outskirts of the stadium ahead of Messi’s debut. Some, like Kingston and Wynn, wore black-and-pink Inter Miami jerseys with Messi’s No. 10 on the back. Others wore the 36-year-old’s Argentina jersey. Dozens stood in line for team gear. Even more waited to have their Messi flags and jerseys captured in a photo booth.

Kim Kardashian arrived at the stadium about an hour before the start of the match, with one of her children wearing Messi’s Inter Miami jersey. Serena Williams and LeBron James were there, too, and James greeted Messi before the game.

“It’s insane,” said season ticket holder Christian Zinn, who lives in nearby Parkland and attended the match with his son, Oliver. “We normally come a half hour before the game, and it’s like this. Not two hours before the game. We knew it was going to be crazy.”

Messi and fellow newcomer Sergio Busquets checked into the game in the 54th minute, with phones out all around the stadium to capture the moment. Inter Miami led 1-0 at the time, but Cruz Azul tied it shortly after he checked in, setting up the incredible finish.

After months of speculation, Messi signed a 2 1/2-year contract with the team this past weekend. Tens of thousand of people showed up to see the team introduce Messi Sunday night. Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham said online video of the event was viewed 3.5 billion times.

“That’s a gift that Leo has given the sport,” Beckham said. “He’s at the stage of his career where he’s done everything that any soccer player can do in a sport. He’s one of the greatest players if not the greatest player to ever play that game.”

Beckham, an English great who also came to MLS in 2007 after a long career in Europe, said Messi’s move has “raised the bar” for soccer in the United States.

“When I went on the journey in 2007, and when I started my Miami journey 10 years ago, my vision was exactly what we saw the moment that Leo announced,” Beckham said. “That’s what I wanted to see for the sport.”

Miami native Carlos Fierro, who said he’s been a Messi fan his whole life, said Messi’s arrival had a similar impact to James’ signing with the Miami Heat in 2010.

“It’s going to be very different because Messi’s that type of player. He’s going to bring the party,” Fierro said. “We saw it in the presentation how loud it got. I’m expecting everything to be loud and fun. Just typical Miami style.”
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President Joe Biden elevated CIA Director William Burns to his Cabinet on Friday, a symbolic move that underscores the intelligence chief’s influence and his work in U.S. support for Ukraine. 

In a statement, Biden said Burns had “harnessed intelligence to give our country a critical strategic advantage” and credited his “clear, straightforward analysis that prioritizes the safety and security of the American people.” 

Burns has been a central figure in the Biden administration, particularly in the White House strategy to declassify intelligence findings that Russia was intending to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A career diplomat and former ambassador to Russia, Burns was sent to Moscow months before the war to warn Russian President Vladimir Putin of Washington’s analysis. 

In the nearly 18 months since Putin invaded, the U.S. has provided intelligence support to Ukraine along with weapons and ammunition. Burns has gone to Kyiv repeatedly to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He was also sent in November 2022 to warn Russia not to use nuclear weapons in the conflict. 

Burns is known to meet with Biden regularly and often briefs him directly on Ukraine and other world issues. As a Cabinet member, he will serve alongside Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, whose office sets direction for the CIA and other members of the U.S. intelligence community. 

“The president’s announcement today recognizes the essential contributions to national security the Central Intelligence Agency makes every day, and reflects his confidence in our work,” Burns said in a statement. “I am honored to serve in this role, representing the tremendous work of our intelligence officers.” 

Not all administrations have had top intelligence officials in their Cabinets. Former President Donald Trump included his directors of national intelligence and CIA directors. 
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WASHINGTON — The White House on Friday launched an office to prepare for and respond to potential pandemics. It will be led by Paul Friedrichs, a military combat surgeon and retired Air Force major general who helped lead the Pentagon’s COVID response.

The new Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy will also take over the duties of President Biden’s current COVID-19 and monkeypox response teams, the White House said.

The office will be charged with “leading, coordinating and implementing actions related to preparedness for, and response to, known and unknown biological threats or pathogens that could lead to a pandemic or to significant public health-related disruptions in the United States,” its statement read.

Friedrichs is currently special assistant to the president and senior director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council.

The White House had been expected to cut down its COVID-19 response team after the U.S. government in May ended its COVID Public Health Emergency. Biden said in September last year he believed the coronavirus pandemic was over in the United States.

In June, the White House announced the departure of Ashish Jha, the last of the Biden administration’s rotating COVID response coordinators.
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US lawmakers are reviewing a Biden administration proposal to renew 20-year-old agreements with three Pacific Island nations. The goal of the compacts, as they are called, is to counter China’s influence in the region. But time is running out for Congress to approve them. VOA’s Jessica Stone reports from Washington.
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SEOUL, South Korea — So what will North Korea do about the first U.S. soldier in decades to flee into its territory? Its official media have yet to mention Pvt. Travis King, there’s little precedent for his situation and guesses about the country’s next steps vary widely.

Unauthorized crossings across the Koreas’ heavily fortified border are extremely rare. The few Americans who crossed into North Korea in the past were a few soldiers, missionaries, human rights advocates or those simply curious about one of the world’s most cloistered societies. North Korea has used a varied playbook in its handlings of them.

Defecting soldiers, like Charles Jenkins or James Dresnok in the 1960s, were treated as propaganda assets, showcased in leaflets and films projecting anti-U.S. hatred and praising the North’s regime.

Other Americans were detained, criticized and handed harsh penalties based on confessions of anti-state activities they later said were coerced. Behind-the-scenes pleas and lengthy backdoor negotiations followed, and the detainee was freed, often flown home with a high-profile U.S. official who travels to Pyongyang to secure the release.

None of the previous cases, however, seems relevant as a forecast of what lies ahead with King.

The length of his stay will likely depend on whether North Koreans find a way to spin his story for their own propaganda, said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and director of the North Korea-focused 38 North website.

It’s unclear whether the North Korea of today would treat King similarly with Jenkins and Dresnok, whose crossings were six decades ago. And King might be less ideal as propaganda material. Jenkins walked into North Korea in 1965 to avoid combat duty in Vietnam, which made it easier for Pyongyang to paint him as a disillusioned U.S. solider who escaped evil imperialists and chose to live in North Korea’s “socialist paradise.” There’s a big difference with King, who was struggling with legal problems and facing disciplinary action and a possible discharge before he bolted into North Korea.

“If they decide that he’s not a good story, they may just return him so that this doesn’t exacerbate already fragile relations (with the United States),” Town said. “This is largely a wait-and-see as there’s just so little precedent for it.”

But Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in South Korea, says it’s highly unlikely North Korea would pass up the propaganda value of a U.S. soldier who voluntarily entered the country. While King’s immediate value would be propaganda, Pyongyang could seek opportunities to use him as a bargaining chip to wrest concessions from Washington, he said.

It’s possible North Korea may link King’s release with the United States scaling back its military activities with South Korea. The U.S. has increased its deployment of strategic assets like bombers and nuclear-capable submarines since 2022 in a show of force against North Korea’s nuclear threat.

North Korea’s goal would be to create a dilemma for Washington in “choosing between (strengthening) U.S.-South Korean nuclear deterrence strategies and protecting its own citizen,” Yang said. “That would create challenges for South Korea, which has been focusing on strengthening nuclear deterrence strategies with the United States,” he said.

Thae Yong Ho, a former diplomat at the North Korean Embassy in London who defected to South Korea in 2016 and is now a lawmaker, said North Korea has never released any U.S. soldier who walked into the country voluntarily. But it’s also unclear whether North Korea would want to hold King for long, considering the likely low level of U.S. military intelligence he would provide considering his rank and the high costs of managing his life in the North.

“A specialized security and surveillance team must be organized (for King), an interpreter must be arranged, a designated vehicle and driver must be provided, and accommodation must be arranged … You also need to indoctrinate him into the North Korean system, so you will need to organize a team of specialized teachers and a curriculum,” Thae wrote on Facebook.

“Marriage is another problem as North Korea values pure bloodlines and it would be highly difficult to kidnap foreigners from abroad, like they did in the past,” Thae added. He was apparently referring to Jenkins, who married a Japanese nursing student abducted by North Korean agents in 1978. Park Won Gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University, said the currently high tensions between Washington and Pyongyang would complicate diplomatic efforts to bring King home.

During cozier times with the United States, North Korea released U.S. detainees rather swiftly and easily.

In 2018, North Korea released Bruce Byron Lowrance a month after he entered the country illegally through China. Lowrance’s relatively quick deportation came in the afterglow of a highly orchestrated summit between then-President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June that year, where they issued vague goals about a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and vowed to improve ties. Weeks ahead of that summit, North Korea released three American detainees who returned home on a plane with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

That diplomacy collapsed in 2019, and the current environment seems unfavorable for King’s early release.

Starting in 2022, Kim ramped up his weapons testing activity, which prompted the United States to expand its military exercises and nuclear contingency strategies with South Korea. The United States will likely attempt to communicate with the North over the U.S.-led United Nations Command, which administers the southern side of the inter-Korean border village, and through the so-called “New York channel” using North Korea’s diplomatic mission to the United Nations.

But, considering the prolonged diplomatic freeze, it could be quite a while before the United States is able to send a high-profile official to Pyongyang to secure King’s release, if that happens at all. “The only thing that’s certain for now is that North Korea will handle King entirely the way it wants to, 100%,” said Park. He also believes it’s likely that North Korea will seek ways to use King for propaganda and diplomatic leverage.

“When an American goes into North Korea, they usually are used for political purposes, regardless of whether they want it or not,” he said.
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The United States and China appear no closer to easing mounting tensions despite a recent flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of upcoming trips by high-profile U.S. officials to the Indo-Pacific region.

Instead, officials from both countries in recent days have spoken publicly of showing strength while also lamenting the lack of progress in a variety of talks.

“Deterrence today is real, and deterrence is strong,” Ely Ratner, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, told lawmakers Thursday during a hearing focused on Washington’s China policy.

“The department is making historic progress toward a regional force posture that is more mobile, distributed, resilient and lethal,” Ratner said. “We have a U.S. military that is more capable, more distributed across the region, and more deeply integrated with our allies and partners.”

Speaking alongside Ratner, Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told lawmakers efforts are underway to ensure that competition between Washington and Beijing does not boil over into conflict.

“Intense competition requires intense diplomacy,” he said. “We are committed to managing this competition responsibly and to maintaining open lines of communication with the PRC [Peoples Republic of China].”

Three senior U.S. officials have made trips to China in recent weeks, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry.

And while not an official U.S. visit, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is in Beijing this week, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The 100-year-old Kissinger is revered in China for the role he played in opening relations between Washington and Beijing in the 1970s.

But according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi’s message for Kissinger was one of caution.

“China and the United States are once again at the crossroads of where to go,” Xi said. “The two sides need to make new decisions.”

Xi’s words echoed warnings a day earlier by China’s ambassador to the U.S.

“This is, frankly speaking, a difficult time for China-U.S. relations,” Xie Feng said during a panel Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, describing the foundations of the relationship between the two countries as “still fragile.”

“There’s a Chinese saying that we will not make provocations, but we will not flinch from provocations,” Xie said, adding that when it comes to some of Washington’s recent actions, “The Chinese people cannot remain silent, and the Chinese government cannot sit idly by.”

Xie and other Chinese officials have pointed to Washington’s support for Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own.

Washington’s long-standing policy has been to acknowledge Beijing’s claims but not endorse them. But U.S. military and political support for Taiwan, including a trip by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last August, have rankled Chinese officials.

“The first and foremost thing we should bear in mind is that Taiwan is China’s Taiwan,” Xie said Wednesday in Aspen, warning that the actions of those he described as “Taiwan separatists” cannot be tolerated.

“This is a very dangerous path they are taking,” he said. “The priority for us is to stop [Taiwanese Vice President William Lai] from visiting the United States, which is like a great rhino charging at us.”

Xie repeated Chinese government assertions that “no one is more eager or sincere than China to see a peaceful solution … to see a peaceful reunification” of China and Taiwan. But U.S. military and intelligence officials have their doubts.

“President Xi [Jinping] said he wants to be ready by 2027” to take Taiwan by force, U.S. Admiral John Aquilino, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said earlier this week in Aspen.

“We certainly ought to be ready before then if we’re doing our jobs,” Aquilino added. “With what we have today, I’m confident that they would fail.”

But Aquilino and other military officials warn China’s rapid military modernization and expansion has been “second to none,” with Beijing also growing bolder in how it uses its military might.

That combination, along with China’s refusal to talk with U.S. military and defense officials, has Washington concerned.

“Military to military communication remained closed, and that’s unfortunate,” John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, told VOA on Thursday.

“You want to be able to pick up the phone and talk to your opposite and try to take the tensions down, and to avoid miscalculation,” he said. “When you have that kind of military hardware sailing so close together, flying so close together, the potential for miscalculation and risk only shoot up if you can’t talk to one another.”

In the meantime, top U.S. officials will continue their outreach to allies in the Indo-Pacific, many of whom are likewise concerned about Beijing’s behavior.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Blinken are set to visit with key allies in the region, including Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, starting next week, hoping to further cement security arrangements aimed at curtailing China’s influence.

Austin’s visit to Papua New Guinea, building on a recently signed defense cooperation agreement, will be the first-ever by a sitting U.S. defense secretary, underscoring the importance of such alliances.

Other allies are also pushing for more U.S. help, citing growing pressure from China.

“We don’t look at them as friendly,” Palau President Surangel W. Whipps Jr. said earlier this week of repeated Chinese incursions into his country’s territorial waters.

“It looks like they have other intentions,” he said, in response to a question from VOA. “I think it’s time for some [U.S.] destroyers to show up and say, ‘What are you doing in our waters?’”

VOA congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson, White House correspondent Anita Powell and State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching contributed to this report. 
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The labor movement in the United States is having an unusually active moment, with as many as four high-profile strikes possible and a level of coordination among separate unions that experts say has been lacking in recent years. 

 

In May, the Writers Guild of America, which represents film and television screenwriters, went on strike, followed last week by the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The combination of the two has brought production of film and television programs in the U.S. to a near-complete halt. 

 

While labor action in Hollywood has garnered plenty of headlines, its day-to-day impact on average Americans has been limited. That will not be the case if two other major unions, both in contract negotiations right now, wind up on the picket lines. 

 

The United Auto Workers union (UAW) is negotiating with automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — the so-called Big Three — to try to avert a strike that could result in hundreds of thousands of autoworkers walking off the job. At the same time, the Teamsters union is in discussions with shipping giant United Parcel Service over its contract with delivery drivers. A strike by either or both would be deeply felt across the U.S. 

 

Changing atmosphere 

The labor movement in the United States has been in a period of protracted decline for several decades. In the mid-20th century, fully one-third of U.S. workers belonged to unions, and it was not uncommon in any given year to see thousands of strikes, with workers in the millions across multiple industries walking off the job for some period of time. 

 

In 1974, at the peak of labor job actions, the federal government counted 6,074 individual strikes across the country, according to data gathered by Judith Stepan-Norris and Jasmine Kerrissey for their recent book, Union Booms and Busts: The Ongoing Fight Over the U.S. Labor Movement. 

 

That began to decline in the 1980s, as legal protections for employers became stronger and the courts became less friendly to labor. Strikes increasingly ended with little or no benefits for the workers involved, while many lost a major source of income for the duration of their work stoppages. Union membership fell, and by 2014, the U.S. saw only 68 strikes in total. Today, union members make up only about 6% of working Americans.

Possible turnaround 

Stepan-Norris, an emerita professor of sociology at the University of California-Irvine, told VOA there are multiple factors that appear to be animating the movement in 2023. She said the coronavirus pandemic and a trend of people leaving the workforce, called by many the “Great Resignation,” changed the dynamic significantly.  

 

“That gave workers more power. You had more of a strong labor market with low unemployment,” Stepan-Norris said.  

 

In addition, she said, they have had the example of some recent successful strikes. Last year, for example, academic workers led a massive strike against the University of California system, which resulted in major concessions in workers’ favor.  

 

“Other workers are looking around and seeing that these strikes are starting to show some progress for people, and so other workers are getting a taste that they can do it, too,” she said. “Not to say that any of these new strikes are directly related to that — it’s just sort of the atmosphere [of success] that surrounds them.” 

 

Horizontal solidarity 

Susan Schurman, who teaches labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University, told VOA that in recent labor actions, she has seen a dynamic at play that has not been present recently: cross-union cooperation. 

 

“The last time the Writers Guild went on strike, SAG-AFTRA didn’t even show up,” Schurman said. “This time, I went to a couple of rallies in New York and the stage actors — Actors Equity —  were there. The stagehands [the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees] were there. The Teamsters were there. The Communication Workers [of America] were there. The building trades were there.  

 

“We call this ‘horizontal labor solidarity’ across unions,” Schurman said. “This is when labor really makes gains. It’s important that you have what we call ‘vertical solidarity,’ within your own union. You have to have that in order to engage in a strike. But it’s not enough. You have to have the support of other unions.” 

 

Horizontal solidarity was commonplace in the mid-20th century, she said, but has not been a notable factor in labor job actions in several decades.  

 

“We have not seen that, like we’re seeing this summer, in a very long time,” she said.

Autoworkers dispute 

The UAW has a long history of striking in order to achieve better contracts for its members, and the current contracts with GM, Ford and Stellantis are all scheduled to expire in September. 

 

Shawn Fain, the leader of the UAW, announced last week that his 160,000 members are prepared to put down their tools and that blame for any work stoppage will lie with the companies’ management. 

 

“If the Big Three don’t give us our fair share, then they’re choosing to strike themselves, and we’re not afraid to take action,” he told reporters last week. 

 

In a sign of how acrimonious the discussions have become, Fain broke with tradition and refused to meet company executives for a public handshake as negotiations got under way, as other UAW leaders have done in the past.  

 

The automakers themselves have said they want to reach a deal but point out that they are trying to remake their companies for a world in which electric vehicles are expected to replace many of the gasoline-powered cars and trucks they currently produce. They warn that the transition will lead to inevitable disruption for their workforce. 

 

Teamsters and UPS 

The Teamsters union represents 340,000 UPS workers poised to strike on August 1. The contract negotiations, which broke down in early July and restarted just this week, are focused on compensation for workers. 

 

One key point is that as the job market has tightened over the past year, the company has been forced to raise the starting salaries it offers in order to attract more workers. However, it did not also raise the wages of many of its more experienced workers. This means that some UPS employees with years of seniority are earning wages equivalent to those of new hires. 

 

A strike by UPS workers could be damaging economically, with the think tank Anderson Economic Group estimating that a 10-day stoppage would cost upward of $7 billion when workers’ lost pay, the company’s lost profits and damage to UPS customers are combined. 

 

In a statement that accompanied the announcement that it would return to the bargaining table, the delivery company emphasized the need for a prompt resolution to the problem. 

 

“We are prepared to increase our industry-leading pay and benefits, but need to work quickly to finalize a fair deal that provides certainty for our customers, our employees and businesses across the country,” it said.
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