washington — A key U.S. lawmaker warned Thursday that Russia is on the verge of ushering in the end of the Space Age with its new, nuclear anti-satellite weaponry.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, told an audience in Washington that allowing Russia to gain such an advantage would be catastrophic. He called on President Joe Biden to mount an aggressive response.

“This crisis is the Cuban missile crisis in space,” Turner said, comparing the moment to the 1962 confrontation between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, which took both sides to the brink of nuclear conflict.

But in this case, Turner said, Russia could unilaterally impose high costs on the U.S. simply by detonating a nuclear anti-satellite weapon in orbit.

“This threat would mean that our economic, international security and social systems come to a grinding halt,” he said. “This would be a catastrophic and devastating attack upon Western economic and democratic systems.”

Turner, who accused Biden of “sleepwalking into an irreversible day zero,” called on the White House to immediately declassify all of its intelligence on the Russian program to make the world aware of the full extent of the threat.

The White House on Thursday rejected Turner’s accusations.

“He’s just wrong. He’s just flat-out wrong,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

“We have absolutely taken this very seriously,” Kirby said. “We’ve been working this particular problem set from every possible angle, including through intense diplomacy with countries around the world and, obviously, through direct conversations with Russia.”

Russia has repeatedly denied the U.S. accusations, including last month when Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov dismissed concerns as “fake news.”

“The Americans can say whatever they want, but our policy does not change,” Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency, adding that Moscow, “always consistently opposed the deployment of strike weapons in low-Earth orbit.”

Turner first raised concerns about the prospect of a Russian anti-satellite weapons program in February, when he issued a statement warning of “a serious national security threat” and issued his initial call for the White House to declassify the relevant intelligence.

Biden responded by confirming that Russia was developing a space-based, anti-satellite weapons system but added there was no indication that Russia had decided to move ahead with the program and that there was no nuclear threat to anyone on Earth.

Concerns spiked last month when the U.S. accused Russia of using a May 16 space launch to deploy what the U.S. Defense Department described as an anti-satellite weapon “capable of attacking other satellites in low-Earth orbit.”

“Russia deployed this new counterspace weapon into the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite,” Major General Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said at the time. “So, you know, obviously that’s something that we’ll continue to monitor.”
…

…

Voters in this U.S. presidential election are vulnerable to bad actors using artificial intelligence to create disinformation that benefits rival politicians or promotes the interests of foreign governments. VOA’s Ivanna Pidborska looks at the use of AI in Election 2024 in this report narrated by Carolyn Presutti. Camera and edit: Kostiantyn Golubchik, Dmytro Melnyk
…

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Louisiana has become the first U.S. state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom, the latest move from a Republican-dominated legislature pushing a conservative agenda under a new governor. 

The legislation that Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed into law on Wednesday requires a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. 

Opponents questioned the law’s constitutionality and vowed to challenge it in court. Proponents said the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the language of the law, the Ten Commandments are “foundational documents of our state and national government.” 

The posters, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025. 

Under the law, state funds will not be used to implement the mandate. The posters would be paid for through donations. 

The law also “authorizes” but does not require the display of other items in K-12 public schools, including: The Mayflower Compact, which was signed by religious pilgrims aboard the Mayflower in 1620 and is often referred to as America’s “First Constitution”; the Declaration of Independence; and the Northwest Ordinance, which established a government in the Northwest Territory — in the present day Midwest — and created a pathway for admitting new states to the Union. 

Opponents vow to challenge law

Not long after the governor signed the bill into law at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Lafayette on Wednesday, civil rights groups and organizations that want to keep religion out of government promised to file a lawsuit challenging it. 

The law prevents students from getting an equal education and will keep children who have different beliefs from feeling safe at school, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation said in a joint statement Wednesday afternoon. 

“Even among those who may believe in some version of the Ten Commandments, the particular text that they adhere to can differ by religious denomination or tradition. The government should not be taking sides in this theological debate,” the groups said. 

The controversial law, in a state ensconced in the Bible Belt, comes during a new era of conservative leadership in Louisiana under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards in January. Republicans hold a supermajority in the legislature, and Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda. 

Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has succeeded in making the bills law. 

Similar law ruled unconstitutional

Legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are not new. 

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  

The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose. 
…

Two years ago this month, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. Now, abortion looms as a major issue in this year’s elections. VOA’s senior Washington correspondent Carolyn Presutti looks at how the issue is charging the presidential campaign.
…

…

…

WASHINGTON — A cease-fire in Gaza can bring the conflicts along the Israel-Lebanon border to an end, senior U.S. officials said amid worries of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah fighters based in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the United States is continuing to review one shipment of bombs for Israel over concerns about their use in the densely populated area of Rafah.

Diplomatic solution

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that officials are seeking a diplomatic way to end the battles along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon so civilians can safely return to their homes.

“Hezbollah has tied the actions that it’s committing against Israel to Gaza,” Blinken told reporters during a press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “If we get that cease-fire [in Gaza], I think that will make it more likely that we can find a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in the north.”

In Beirut, U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein urged a de-escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hochstein said earlier on Tuesday that a cease-fire in Gaza “could also bring the conflict across the Blue Line to an end.” He was referring to the demarcation line dividing Lebanon from Israel.

Last week, Iran-backed Hezbollah escalated hostilities on Lebanon’s southern border by launching rockets and weaponized drones at nine Israeli military sites. This was the largest attack by Hezbollah since October, when the group began exchanging fire with Israel in parallel with the Gaza war.

U.S. weapons shipments to Israel

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Blinken has “assured” him that the Biden administration is “working day and night to remove these bottlenecks” on U.S. supplies of weapons and ammunition to Israel.

The U.S. paused military shipments to Israel in May, including 1,800 907-kilogram (2,000-pound) bombs and 1,700 226-kilogram (500-pound) bombs, because of concerns over Israel’s plan to expand a military operation in Rafah, a densely populated city in southern Gaza, which the United States does not support.

Blinken told reporters the U.S. is still pausing a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel.

At the State Department, Blinken said the U.S. continues to “review one shipment that President Biden has talked about with regard to 2,000-pound bombs” due to concerns about their use in Rafah.

“But everything else is moving as it normally would move” to make sure Israel “has what it needs to defend itself against this multiplicity of challenges,” noted Blinken.

Meanwhile, Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer are in Washington this week for discussions following the visit of U.S. special envoy Hochstein to Israel and Beirut.

Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday that a temporary pier built to deliver aid into the Gaza Strip is expected to be operational again this week. The U.S. military had disconnected the floating pier last week and moved it to the port of Ashdod in Israel because of bad weather.

VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this story.
…

Washington    — The U.S. Embassy in Finland this month presented journalist Jessikka Aro with the Ambassador Hickey Woman of Courage Award. 

The honor — tailored specifically for Aro — comes five years after the U.S. State Department rescinded its courage award because of critical comments the Finnish journalist made about then-President Donald Trump.  

The embassy presented its award in recognition of Aro’s commitment to exposing and combating Russian disinformation campaigns at great personal cost. For a decade, she has been at the forefront of investigating Russian information warfare and pro-Kremlin troll farms. 

“I still can’t believe that I actually got [the award],” Aro told VOA from Finland’s capital, Helsinki. “I felt utterly supported. I felt utterly appreciated. I felt really honored.” 

In 2019, U.S. officials informed Aro that she would receive that year’s International Women of Courage Award. A few weeks later, she was told there had been a mistake and she would not receive the prestigious honor. Back then, Aro reported for Finland’s public service broadcaster YLE. 

At the time, officials publicly denied that Aro’s social media posts about Trump were the reason. But a 2020 report by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General found that officials revoked the award over Aro’s comments.  

The report cited a post on Twitter, now X, in which Aro wrote that “Trump constantly labels journalists as ‘enemy’ and ‘fake news.’” She then cited an article about a Trump supporter who threatened to shoot reporters for The Boston Globe for being what Trump described as “enemies of the people” and “fake news.” 

Throughout his presidency, Trump regularly referred to the media as the “enemy” of the American people. The Trump presidential campaign did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.

In 2020, the Washington-based International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) awarded Aro its own Courage in Journalism Award. The organization also advocated for an investigation into why the State Department backtracked on its award. 

The new award from the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki comes at a meaningful time for Aro. This year marks a decade since she began facing severe online harassment — including death threats — over her coverage of Russian information warfare. The harassment, which mainly comes from Russian and Finnish actors, is ongoing, she said.  

“My work is being attacked, myself smeared. Some of my sources are smeared,” said Aro, who is now the communications director for the Finnish trade union Tehy. “They are spreading these seeds of mistrust against my person and my work.”  

Trolls also attacked her after the State Department rescinded its award, sparking “a massive wave” of harassment, she said.  

Such attacks are consistent with the broader trend of disproportionate online harassment against female journalists, according to Elisa Lees Munoz, executive director of the IWMF. Online attacks against female journalists are often sexualized and can include rape threats and insults about the reporter’s appearance, Munoz said.  

“It leads to symptoms that are very similar to PTSD, and that even though these attacks are happening virtually, they have very serious, real-life impacts,” she said.  

In a 2022 survey by the International Center for Journalists and UNESCO, nearly three-quarters of respondents identifying as women said they had experienced online violence. 

When Aro first began to face online harassment in 2014, “it actually fueled my will to investigate Russian trolls,” she said. “Even nowadays, on a daily basis, I think of it as proof that I’m doing a great job.” 

Aro admits the harassment has also taken a toll. But she says she’ll never let it get in the way of her work. 

“Investigating Russian information hybrid warfare is a true calling for me,” she said.  

Although it’s five years late, Aro says she feels vindicated. The investigative journalist is currently working on her third book about Russian information warfare, which she expects to be published in 2026. 
…

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the United States. In Los Angeles, celebrations include a festival and parade that are among the world’s largest LGBTQ+ events. VOA’s Genia Dulot talked to an immigrant couple about their lives in the United States and their struggle for acceptance back home.
…

The White House — President Joe Biden hosted NATO’s chief at the White House on Monday, less than a month before the newly enlarged security alliance convenes in Washington to tackle how allies will continue to support Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion.

The aim at the July summit, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, is to “ensure predictable support to Ukraine for the long haul.”

But how to make that a solid and durable reality – amid the political baggage and diverse laws and systems of governance of all 32 NATO members – is likely to be a complex feat. Ukraine badly wants the one thing it most certainly won’t get at this three-day convening: to join.

Among the arguments against Ukraine’s NATO membership are that its fragile and developing institutions need more time to mature, and the fact that the nation is being currently invaded. The alliance’s most important tenet – Article 5 – says that an armed attack against one member is an attack on all. This has been invoked only once before, when members rushed to the U.S.’s defense after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Earlier Monday, VOA asked Stoltenberg how soon Ukraine would get its wish.

“It is difficult, of course, to invite Ukraine when there is a war going on,” he said. “On the other hand, it’s also hard to say that there is no way to do that as long as there is a conflict with Russia, because that (gives) Russia incentive to continue the conflict.

“So what we say is that we are going to move Ukraine closer by helping them to meet all NATO standards to be more and more interoperable with NATO by removing the requirements for Membership Action Plan, and also by deepening political cooperation in the NATO Ukraine Council, and then we will make a decision when the time is right,” Stoltenberg added.

And when pressed for when that time might be, he replied: “I don’t expect any dates. At the end of the day, this has to be negotiated among NATO allies and we are working on that language now. So that will be agreed when we meet in Washington in a few week’s time,” he said. “I expect that we will find an agreement on some language which sends a clear message about Ukraine’s membership perspectives and that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance.”

Biden, in welcoming Stoltenberg, hailed the 75th anniversary and touted what he cast as a victory: a “record number” of members, he said, are meeting NATO’s commitment to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense.

“I think the lessons we’ve learned then, and about standing together to defend and deter aggression, have been consequential,” he said, seated beside Stoltenberg in the Oval Office. “And we’ve made NATO under your leadership larger, stronger and more united than it has ever been.”

Earlier Monday, Stoltenberg, the former Norwegian prime minister, said NATO allies have given “unprecedented” support to Ukraine. He estimates this will cost the alliance at least $45 billion per year going forward.

“At the (upcoming NATO) summit, I expect other leaders to agree for NATO to lead the coordination and provision of security assistance and training for Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said, speaking at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. “It is also why I proposed a long-term financial pledge with fresh funding every year. The more credible our long-term support, the quicker Moscow would realize it cannot wait us out and the sooner this war can end. It may seem like a paradox, but the path to peace is, therefore, more weapons for Ukraine.”

Analysts say these discussions set the stage for the major questions of the upcoming summit.

“The main issues, still, are what does the alliance say to Ukraine after pledges of support over the last few weeks? What is the nature of the NATO-Ukraine relationship going forward?” said Dan Hamilton, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “NATO is taking over from the United States the military assistance and coordination of military training for Ukraine. That’s a major step that’s happening right now.”

Last week, Ukraine’s president praised a 10-year security agreement with the U.S., saying he believes it lays a path to NATO membership.

“The issue of NATO is covered through the text of the agreement,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “It states that America supports Ukraine’s future membership in NATO and recognizes that our security agreement is a bridge to Ukraine’s membership in NATO.”
…

seattle — BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ordered Monday after finding that the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe’s reservation. 

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik initially ruled last year that the railway deliberately violated the terms of a 1991 easement with the Swinomish Tribe north of Seattle that allows trains to carry no more than 25 cars per day. The judge held a trial earlier this month to determine how much in profits BNSF made through trespassing from 2012 to 2021 and how much it should be required to disgorge. 

The company based in Fort Worth, Texas, said in an email it had no comment on the judgment. The tribe, which has about 1,400 members, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. 

The tribe sued in 2015 after BNSF dramatically increased, without the tribe’s consent, the number of cars it was running across the reservation so that it could ship crude oil from the Bakken Formation in and around North Dakota to a nearby refinery. The route crosses sensitive marine ecosystems along the coast, over water that connects with the Salish Sea, where the tribe has treaty-protected rights to fish. 

Bakken oil is easier to refine into the fuels sold at the gas pump and ignites more easily. After train cars carrying Bakken crude oil exploded in Alabama, North Dakota and Quebec, a federal agency warned in 2014 that the oil has a higher degree of volatility than other crudes in the U.S. 

Last year, two BNSF engines derailed on Swinomish land, leaking an estimated 3,100 gallons (11,700 liters) of diesel fuel near Padilla Bay. 

The 1991 easement limited rail traffic to one train of 25 cars per day in each direction. It required BNSF to tell the tribe about the “nature and identity of all cargo” transported across the reservation, and it said the tribe would not arbitrarily withhold permission to increase the number of trains or cars. 

The tribe learned through a 2011 Skagit County planning document that a nearby refinery would start receiving crude oil trains. It wasn’t until the following year that the tribe received information from BNSF addressing current track usage, court documents show. 

The tribe and BNSF discussed amending the agreement, but “at no point did the Tribe approve BNSF’s unilateral decision to transport unit trains across the Reservation, agree to increase the train or car limitations, or waive its contractual right of approval,” Lasnik said in his decision last year. 

“BNSF failed to update the Tribe regarding the nature of the cargo that was crossing the Reservation and unilaterally increased the number of trains and the number of cars without the Tribe’s written agreement, thereby violating the conditions placed on BNSF’s permission to enter the property,” Lasnik said. 

The four-day trial this month was designed to provide the court with details and expert testimony to guide the judge through complex calculations about how much in “ill-gotten” profit BNSF should have to disgorge. Lasnik put that figure at $362 million and added $32 million in post-tax profits such as investment income for a total of more than $394 million. 

In reality, the judge wrote, BNSF made far more than $32 million in post-tax profits, but adding all of that up would have added hundreds of millions more to what was already a large judgment against the railway.
…