Google loses final EU court appeal against $2.7 billion fine in antitrust shopping case  

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London — Google lost its final legal challenge on Tuesday against a European Union penalty for giving its own shopping recommendations an illegal advantage over rivals in search results, ending a long-running antitrust case that came with a whopping fine. 

The European Union’s Court of Justice upheld a lower court’s decision, rejecting the company’s appeal against the $2.7 billion penalty from the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer. 

“By today’s judgment, the Court of Justice dismisses the appeal and thus upholds the judgment of the General Court,” the court said in a press release summarizing its decision. 

The commission’s punished the Silicon Valley giant in 2017 for unfairly directing visitors to its own Google Shopping service to the detriment of competitors. It was one of three multibillion-dollar fines that the commission imposed on Google in the previous decade as Brussels started ramping up its crackdown on the tech industry. 

“We are disappointed with the decision of the Court, which relates to a very specific set of facts,” Google said in a brief statement. 

The company said it made changes in 2017 to comply with the commission’s decision requiring it to treat competitors equally. It started holding auctions for shopping search listings that it would bid for alongside other comparison shopping services. 

“Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services,” Google said. 

At the same time, the company appealed the decision to the courts. But the EU General Court, the tribunal’s lower section, rejected its challenge in 2021 and the Court of Justice’s adviser later recommended rejecting the appeal. 

European consumer group BEUC hailed the court’s decision, saying it shows how the bloc’s competition law “remains highly relevant” in digital markets. 

“Google harmed millions of European consumers by ensuring that rival comparison shopping services were virtually invisible,” director general Agustín Reyna said. “Google’s illegal practices prevented consumers from accessing potentially cheaper prices and useful product information from rival comparison shopping services on all sorts of products, from clothes to washing machines.” 
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Francis will be only the second pope to visit Singapore, one of the wealthiest nations

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SINGAPORE — When Pope Francis arrives Wednesday in Asia’s financial powerhouse Singapore for the last leg of a four-nation tour, he is expected to bring his message of unity and hope to one of the world’s richest nations.

The 11-day trip, which earlier took him to Indonesia,Papua New Guinea and East Timor, is the longest for the 87-year-old pontiff since becoming head of the Catholic Church in 2013. Francis will be the second pope to visit Singapore, after a five-hour stopover by the late John Paul II in 1986.

Here’s what to know about Pope Francis’ three-day stay in Singapore:

Why is Francis visiting Singapore?

Singapore was originally part of Francis’ travel plans to the region in 2020 but it was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The island city-state at the tip of the Malay peninsula has a small population of just under 6 million people and lacks natural resources, but it is a heavyweight in regional and international affairs. Astute leadership, its strategic location and reputation as one of the most open and least corrupt economies had transformed Singapore into a bustling financial giant and maritime and aviation hubs in just 59 years after independence.

Singapore is a strategic U.S. partner but also maintains close ties with China. Ethnic Chinese account for about three-quarters of its residents followed by minority Muslims and Indians.

According to a 2020 Singapore population census, Buddhists make up about 31%. About a fifth of the population claimed no religious belief, while Christians account for almost 19% and Muslims about 15%.

Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, reflecting its multicultural identity and heritage.

“Singapore and the Holy See share a common interest in promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding. Pope Francis’ state visit is also the first papal visit to Singapore in almost 40 years,” Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said.

In a city ranked as one of the most expensive to live in, Singapore’s Cardinal William Goh said that key themes frequently emphasized by Francis such as human dignity, inclusiveness, interreligious dialogue, family values, the need to manage artificial intelligence responsibly and care for the environment were of particular relevance.

“As such, Pope Francis’ visit is highly anticipated and warmly welcomed not only by the Catholic faithful, but also by the wider society.” Goh said in a written response to The Associated Press. “After the apostolic visit is done, I pray that Singapore will be filled with hope — a profound, divine hope.”

What’s on the pope’s itinerary?

After flying in from Dili, East Timor, on Wednesday, Pope Francis will hold a private meeting with members of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

On Thursday, he will receive an official welcome at Parliament House and meet Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and President Tharman Shanmugaratnam. He will also meet government officials, civil society and the diplomatic corps at the National University of Singapore.

The highlight will be a public Mass at the 55,000-seat National Stadium in the evening. Those attending include Catholics from neighboring Malaysia and Brunei. Francis will make a tour around the stadium pitch to greet the faithful in his Popemobile before delivering his homily.

On the last day, Francis will visit elderly residents at the St. Theresa’s Home. He will also hold an interreligious meeting with youths at the Catholic Junior College.

How influential is the church in Singapore?

The church marked 200 years in Singapore in 2021. The Archdiocese of Singapore was formed in 1972, seven years after Singapore’s independence. Diplomatic relations with the Holy See were established in 1981.

In Singapore’s early years, Cardinal Goh said the church’s work in education and health care were important contributors to national development.

“Many of the country’s top leaders in both the public and private spheres were formed in Catholic schools; and many basic health care needs were provided by Church-run health care institutions,” he wrote on the Vatican News website.

The church supports 395,000 Catholics in Singapore with its 29 parish churches, three devotional churches, 53 schools, 47 humanitarian organizations and two health care institutions. Goh said the church holds frequent dialogue with the government, which views it as an important contributor and shaper of Singapore’s social fabric.

Goh, Singapore’s first cardinal installed by Francis in 2022, is a member of two Presidential Councils that advise the government on matters relating to racial and religious harmony and minority rights.

“As the final stop on this apostolic journey, Singapore stands as a testament to peaceful coexistence in a modern, multicultural, and multi-religious society,” Goh wrote in his reply to the AP. “This reflects the spirit of unity and diversity that Pope Francis has emphasized throughout his pontification.”
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Australia plans age limit to ban children from social media

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SYDNEY — Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, the prime minister said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and “onto the footy fields.”

Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, Anthony Albanese said, describing the impact of the sites on young people as a “scourge.”

The minimum age for children to log into sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has not been decided but is expected to be between 14 and 16 years, Albanese said.

The prime minister said his own preference would be a block on users aged below 16.

Age verification trials are being held over the coming months, the center-left leader said, though analysts said they doubted it was technically possible to enforce an online age limit.

“I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts,” Albanese said.

“We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm,” he told national broadcaster ABC.

“This is a scourge. We know that there is mental health consequences for what many of the young people have had to deal with,” he said.

Australia’s conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton said he would support an age limit.

“Every day of delay leaves young kids vulnerable to the harms of social media and the time for relying on tech companies to enforce age limits,” he said.

‘Easy to circumvent’

But it is not clear that the technology exists to reliably enforce such bans, said the University of Melbourne’s associate professor in computing and information technology, Toby Murray.

“We already know that present age verification methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent, or risk user privacy,” he said. 

Analysts warned that an age limit may not in any case help troubled children.

It “threatens to create serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in the digital world,” said Daniel Angus, who leads the digital media research centre at Queensland University of Technology.

“There is logic in establishing boundaries that limit young people’s access,” said Samantha Schulz, senior sociologist of education at the University of Adelaide.

“However, young people are not the problem and regulating youth misses the more urgent task of regulating irresponsible social media platforms. Social media is an unavoidable part of young people’s lives.”

The prime minister said parents expected a response to online bullying and harmful material present on social media.

“These social media companies think they’re above everyone,” he told a radio interviewer.

“Well, they have a social responsibility and at the moment, they’re not exercising it. And we’re determined to make sure that they do,” he said.

Australia has been at the forefront of global efforts to regulate social media platforms, with its online safety watchdog bumping heads notably with Elon Musk’s X over the content it carries.

 
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Top US, Chinese military brass hold first call to stabilize ties

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BEIJING — The United States and China held theater-level commander talks for the first time on Tuesday, Chinese authorities said, amid efforts to stabilize military ties and avoid misunderstandings, especially in regional hot spots such as the South China Sea.

Washington seeks to open new channels of regular military communication with Beijing since ties sank to a historic low after the United States downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon last year.

Admiral Sam Paparo, head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, held a video telephone call with his counterpart Wu Yanan of the Southern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s areas of responsibility include the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, two hot spots for regional tension that are also flashpoints in U.S.-China bilateral ties.

Both sides had an “in depth exchange of views on issues of common concern,” the Chinese defense ministry said in a readout.

Paparo urged the PLA “to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive, and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond,” the Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that described the exchange as “constructive and respectful.”

He also stressed the importance of continued talks to clarify intent and reduce the risk of misperception or miscalculation.

The call followed a meeting in Beijing last month between U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s leading military adviser, at which the talks were agreed.

U.S. and Chinese troops were also taking part in large-scale military exercises led by the Brazilian Armed Forces this week in the Brazilian city of Formosa in the state of Goiás.

American and Chinese troops had not trained side by side since 2016, when Beijing participated in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, or Rimpac, led by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

Most two-way military engagements between the U.S. and China were suspended for almost two years after Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in August 2022.

“I certainly worry about an unintended conflict between our military forces, an accident, an accidental collision,” Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, told the magazine Foreign Policy in an online interview.

Later this week, the United States plans to send a senior Pentagon official to a major security forum in China.
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Typhoon Yagi leaves 40 missing, 63 dead in Vietnam

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HANOI, VIETNAM — Emergency workers raced to evacuate thousands of people from severe floods Tuesday after Typhoon Yagi swept through northern Vietnam, killing 63 people and leaving 40 missing.

Yagi struck Saturday with winds in excess of 149 kilometers per hour, making it the most powerful typhoon to hit northern Vietnam in 30 years according to meteorologists.

The storm downed bridges, tore roofs off buildings, damaged factories and triggered widespread flooding and landslides.

The north of the country, densely populated and a major manufacturing hub for global tech firms including Samsung, is now battling historic flooding, meteorologists said.

Authorities have issued flood and landslide warnings for 429 communes across 17 northern provinces. 

One-story homes in parts of Thai Nguyen and Yen Bai cities were almost completely submerged in the early hours of Tuesday, with residents waiting on the roofs for help.

Rescue forces were trying to reach residential areas to retrieve older people and children. On social media, relatives of those stuck in floodwater posted desperate pleas for help and supplies.

In Hanoi, communities along the swollen and fast-moving Red River, which flows through the capital, were also partially under water, with people forced to evacuate in boats.

Downtown Hoan Kiem District was forced to relocate 460 people on Tuesday.

Crops including bananas, guavas and corn, which are usually sold in nearby markets, were all flooded.

‘Lost everything’

Phan Thi Tuyet, 50, who lives close to the river, said she had never experienced such high water.

“I have lost everything, all gone,” she told AFP, clutching her two dogs. 

“I had to come to higher ground to save our lives. We can not bring with us any of the furniture. Everything is under water now.”

As well as the dead and missing, flooding and landslides have also injured at least 752 people, officials at the ministry of agriculture said Tuesday.

Authorities stopped heavy vehicles crossing a major bridge over the Red River in central Hanoi Tuesday and suspended a train line across Long Bien bridge as the water level rose.

The action followed the dramatic collapse of a bridge higher up the river in northern Phu Tho province Monday.

Pictures showed half of the 375-meter Phong Chau bridge gone.

Five people who were crossing the bridge at the time have been rescued, but eight others were still missing Tuesday, authorities said.

Forecasters warned central Hanoi would be affected by flooding later Tuesday.

Hanoi authorities said more than 25,000 trees in the city had been uprooted in the storm. Huge trunks blocked key roads in the city centre, creating large traffic jams.

At least 24 people were killed as Yagi tore through southern China and the Philippines before hitting Vietnam.

Typhoons in the region are forming closer to the coast, intensifying more rapidly, and staying over land longer due to climate change, according to a study published in July.
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7th fatality since July 31 occurs at Grand Canyon National Park

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GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Arizona — There has been another fatality at Grand Canyon National Park, authorities announced Monday.

Park officials said Patrick Horton, 59, of Salida, Colorado, was on the 10th day of a noncommercial river trip along the Colorado River and was discovered dead by members of his party Saturday morning.

Officials said the National Park Service was investigating Horton’s death in coordination with the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Horton was believed to have been the seventh person to die at the canyon since July 31 and the 15th this year.

Park officials reported 11 fatalities in 2023 and say there are usually about 10 to 15 deaths per year. 
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North Korea’s Kim vows to put his nuclear force ready for combat with US

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to redouble efforts to make his nuclear force fully ready for combat with the United States and its allies, state media reported Tuesday, after the country disclosed a new platform likely designed to fire more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the mainland U.S.

Kim has repeatedly made similar pledges, but his latest threat comes as outside experts believe Kim will perform provocative weapons tests ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. In recent days, North Korea has also resumed launches of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea.

In a speech marking the 76th founding anniversary for his government on Monday, Kim said North Korea faces “a grave threat” because of what he called “the reckless expansion” of a U.S.-led regional military bloc that is now developing into a nuclear-based one. Kim said such a development is pushing North Korea to boost its military capability, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

Kim said North Korea will “redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state including the nuclear force fully ready for combat,” KCNA said.

North Korea has been protesting the July signing of a new U.S.-South Korean defense guideline meant to integrate U.S. nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons to cope with growing North Korean nuclear threats. North Korea said the guideline revealed its adversaries’ plots to invade the country. U.S. and South Korean officials have repeatedly said they don’t intend to attack the country.

Since 2022, North Korea has significantly accelerated its weapons testing activities in a bid to perfect its capabilities to launch strikes on the U.S. and South Korea. The U.S. and South Korea have responded by expanding military drills that North Korea calls invasion rehearsals.

Many analysts believe North Korea has some last remaining technological barriers to overcome to acquire long-range nuclear missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland, though it likely already possesses missiles that can hit key targets in South Korea and Japan.

South Korean officials and experts say North Korea could conduct nuclear tests or ICBM test-launches before the U.S. election to increase its leverage in future diplomacy with the U.S. Observers say North Korea likely thinks a greater nuclear capability would help it win U.S. concessions like sanctions relief.

North Korea as of Tuesday morning did not appear to have staged any major military demonstration to mark this year’s anniversary. But the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Sunday published a photo of Kim inspecting what appeared to be a 12-axle missile launch vehicle, which would be the largest the country has shown so far, during a visit to a munitions plant. This sparked speculation that the North could be developing a new ICBM that is bigger than its current Hwasong-17 ICBM, which is launched on an 11-axle vehicle.

When asked about the photo on Monday, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder refused to provide a specific assessment of North Korea’s missile capabilities and reiterated that Washington was working closely with Seoul, Tokyo and other partners to preserve regional security and deter potential attacks.

“It’s not unusual for North Korea to use media reports and imagery to try to telegraph, you know, to the world,” he said.

North Korea flew hundreds of huge balloons carrying rubbish toward South Korea for five straight days through Sunday, extending a Cold War-style psychological warfare campaign that has further stoked animosities on the Korean Peninsula. The balloons largely contained waste papers and vinyl, and there has been no repots of major damage.

North Korea began its balloon campaign in late May, calling it a response to South Korean civilians flying propaganda leaflets across the border via their own balloons. South Korea later restarted its anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along the rivals’ tense land border.

Observers say North Korea is extremely sensitive to South Korean leafleting activities and loudspeaker broadcasts as they could hamper its efforts to ban foreign news to its 26 million people.
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Poland thanks military dogs for their service, giving them army ranks

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NOWY DWOR MAZOWIECKI, Poland — The new privates received their ranks amid military pomp in a town near Warsaw where a Napoleonic fortress attests to a long military history. The group was made up of a German shepherd, a Dutch shepherd and two Belgian Malinois.

The dogs — Einar, Eliot, Enzo and Emi — were bestowed with their ranks Friday as part of a new Polish program aimed at honoring the service of dogs used to detect explosives, a job valued for its role in protecting human life.

General Wiesław Kukuła, chief of the general staff of the Polish army, decided last year that dogs serving in the army would qualify for six military ranks ranging from private through corporal to sergeant.

The change has been welcomed by their loyal human handlers. 

“The rank is meant to honor the hard work of the dog in service,” said Lance Corporal Daniel Kęsicki, who recently completed a five-month training course with Eliot, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois. “To me it’s a symbolic recognition that the dog is serving the homeland.”

The dogs honored Friday belong to the 2nd Mazovian Engineer Regiment, which in 2007 became the first unit of Poland’s armed forces to introduce dogs into service, according to spokesperson Captain Dominik Płaza. He said none have died in action. 

During the ceremony, each dog’s handler was handed a badge with the animal’s rank, which was attached to the dog’s harness. The ceremony occurred during the commemoration of the regiment’s 80th anniversary. The dogs were given their ranks for having completed basic training and having served for more than a year.

The ranks are a largely symbolic recognition “so that we, too, are aware that such a dog is a member of the armed forces,” Płaza said.

“It is not just a tool for detecting explosives, but it is a living being,” he said. 

The unit was recently deployed to Paris for the Summer Olympic Games and the Paralympics, where the regiment’s soldiers and four of its 16 dogs reinforced French security efforts in scanning facilities for explosives. Everything passed off peacefully. 

Polish army dogs have carried out service elsewhere in international missions, including Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the NATO nation’s support for U.S.-led efforts.

Poland, a close ally and neighbor of Ukraine, earlier this summer also announced that it was sending 12 trained dogs to support the Ukrainian military in clearing mines. 

The soldiers who work with the dogs volunteer for the assignment, and it becomes a commitment that lasts for the rest of the dog’s life.

Soldiers who were with their dogs Friday explained that they select their dogs, train with them, live with them, and care for them even after their four-legged charges retire.

Kęsicki described Eliot as an obedient companion who has become integrated into his family life.

“The dog can already do a lot after the beginning course alone, and we still have a few more years of service ahead of us,” he said.

Płaza, the spokesperson, laughed when asked if a dog could ever outrank his handler — or if a soldier might have to salute a dog. 

“Soldiers do not salute dogs,” Płaza said. “The handler will always be of a higher rank than his dog. It is simply impossible for a service dog to have a higher rank than his handler.”

Though the master-dog hierarchy is preserved, great love and appreciation are clearly shown to creatures in Poland, where pets are everywhere and some even lay their beloved companions to rest in special pet cemeteries. The Polish government has in recent years also ensured retirement benefits to dogs and horses working in the police, border guard and fire departments.

On Friday, as the sun beat down on a hot square in the middle of town, Kukuła interrupted the ceremony and ordered the overheated dogs removed — even as human soldiers continued to stand there in their uniforms and boots. 

Staff Sergeant Michał Młynarczyk served in Afghanistan with a dog named Elvis starting in 2011. Together they checked vehicles arriving at the base of an international force for explosives. Elvis died in 2018.

Now Młynarczyk is paired with Kobalt, a German shepherd who received his private rank in April. 

Private Kobalt goes home with him at night and plays with his children. While he loves the entire family, he never loses sight of who is the master. 

“All of the work the dog does is done for me,” Młynarczyk said. “It’s a bond, it’s a friendship.”
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Experts applaud steps US steps to disrupt Russian disinformation 

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washington — The U.S. Justice Department announced September 4 that two Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, had been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the Southern District of New York.

“The Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.”

That same day, the Justice Department announced the seizure of 32 internet domains used in the Russian government-directed “Doppelganger” foreign malign influence campaign, which it said violated U.S. money-laundering and criminal trademark laws.

Experts who study disinformation say disrupting the paid-influencer campaign is an important step in efforts to counter the Kremlin’s broader disinformation strategy of spreading propaganda that undermines support for Ukraine and stokes American political divisions.

Disrupting the Doppelganger campaign

“Persistent efforts to impersonate authoritative news websites and promote their content at scale in a coordinated manner can have a tangible impact, casting propaganda narratives far and wide consistently,” wrote Roman Osadchuk and Eto Buziashvili, researchers at the Disinformation Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

According to an FBI affidavit, Russia’s “Doppelganger” campaign created domains impersonating legitimate media sites, produced fake social media profiles and deployed “influencers” worldwide.

According to the Atlantic Council researchers, the primary method used by those involved in “Doppelganger” is to post, on X and other social media platforms, links to fake news sites in replies to posts by politicians, celebrities, influencers and others with large audiences.

Osadchuk told VOA that while the FBI’s measures are unlikely to stop Russian influence activities, they will make them more costly, noting those involved in the Russian influence campaign will be forced “to rewrite scripts, change the operation’s infrastructure, etc.”

At the same time, according to Osadchuk, the U.S. government’s moves against those involved in the influence campaign, which were widely covered in the U.S. and international media, will educate a broader audience.

“Researchers of the Russian disinformation have known about the Doppelganger campaign for some time,” he said. “Now, Americans and people in other countries have learned about it and maybe will become more aware that not all information they consume is coming from legitimate sources and hopefully will be more attentive to the domain names and other signs that might indicate that the page they are reading is not The Washington Post or Fox News but a fake created by Kremlin-linked entities.”

Influencers will be more aware

In a statement it released after indicting the two RT employees, the Justice Department said that “over at least the past year, RT and its employees, including Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, deployed nearly $10 million to covertly finance and direct a Tennessee-based online content creation company [U.S. Company-1],” and that “U.S. Company-1″ had “published English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.”

While the Justice Department did not specifically identify “U.S. Company-1,” it is thought to refer to Tenet Media, a Tennessee company co-founded by entrepreneur Lauren Chen, who recruited six popular U.S. influencers with a large following.

YouTube subsequently took down Tenet Media’s channel on the platform, along with four other channels that YouTube said were operated by Chen.

Bret Schafer, a disinformation researcher at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a political advocacy group set up under the auspices of the German Marshall Fund, a Washington think tank, told VOA that by financing the U.S. content creation company, Russia was able to create an information channel with a large audience, and to use it for such messages as blaming the U.S. and Ukraine for the March terrorist attack at a Moscow concert hall.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Shutting down that Russian information channel sent a powerful message to influencers and content creators to do “due diligence about people funding their work and to try to figure out who’s behind these companies and their motives,” Schafer added.

Ben Dubow, a disinformation researcher affiliated with the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based research group, believes that influencers contracted by Tenet Media are unlikely to lose their existing followers, but that they might have difficulty attracting new ones.

“Hopefully, people who might otherwise explore those influencers will recognize their names and understand them as untrustworthy now,” he told VOA.

The Justice Department’s indictment quotes RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonian, as saying in an interview on Russian television that RT built “an enormous network, an entire empire of covert projects,” to influence Western audiences.

The FBI affidavit also revealed that one of the sanctioned Russian companies had a list of 2,800 people active on social media in the U.S. and 80 other countries, including “television and radio hosts, politicians, bloggers, journalists, businessmen, professors, think-tank analysts, veterans, professors and comedians,” whom the company refers to as “influencers.”

Concrete steps and good timing

Several experts commended the U.S. government for taking concrete steps.

“They are sanctioning individuals and disrupting the supply chain of influence available to these threat actors,” noted Olga Belogolova, director of the Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“Punitive measures absolutely have to be part of the package,” said Jakub Kalenský, a senior analyst at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki. “Otherwise, the aggressors have a free hand to continue their aggression unopposed. And in order to identify those who deserve to be punished, a proper investigation from the authorities is necessary.”

Experts also said that the Justice Department’s actions were taken early enough to prevent influence in the November U.S. elections and to signal to Russia and other foreign actors that the U.S. government is monitoring their actions and will respond aggressively.

“Of course, that was what the Obama administration was concerned about in 2016 and led to them not being as transparent as they probably should have been with the American public about what they knew about Russian interference,” Schafer said.

In announcing their actions against the Russian disinformation campaign, U.S. government representatives did not mention which political party or candidate they thought that the Russians were trying to assist.

“I know that the U.S. government, including agencies and the Foreign Malign Influence Center at ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence], have been doing a lot of thinking over the last few years about how to strategically communicate these actions without unintentionally amplifying the very campaigns they are trying to thwart or politicizing the topic. And I think they’ve actually done a good job of striking that balance, at least from what I’ve seen thus far,” Belogolova said.

Ihor Solovey, who heads the Ukrainian government’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security, welcomed the U.S. government’s actions but told VOA that more steps are needed to thwart Russian activities on social media.

“X, TikTok or even more so the Russian Telegram – they are unlikely to want to spend on the fight against bots, troll farms or planned disinformation,” he said, adding that only pressure by a state, or even a coalition of states, will be able to force these social media platforms to block intruders and malicious content.

Andrei Dziarkach of VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.
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Morgan Wallen leads the 2024 Country Music Association award nominations

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NEW YORK — He had some help: Morgan Wallen tops the 2024 Country Music Association Awards nominations with seven.

For a third year in a row, Wallen is up for both the top prize — entertainer of the year — and the male vocalist categories.

Rounding out the entertainer of the year categories are Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson.

Post Malone’s massive radio hit, “I Had Some Help,” which features Wallen, is the main reason why the country singer leads the pack this year. It is up for single, song, musical event and music video of the year. His last nomination is a second one in the musical event category, for his collaboration with Eric Church, “Man Made a Bar.”

Single of the year is awarded to the artist, producer and mix engineers; song of the year is given to the songwriters.

Ahead of the nominations announcement, some fans speculated that Beyoncé, whose landmark country-and-then-some reclamation Cowboy Carter was released during the eligibility window, could receive a nomination at the 2024 CMAs. She did not.

Earlier this year, the album hit No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart, making her the first Black woman to top the chart since its 1964 inception.

The album was five years in the making, a direct result of what Beyoncé has called “an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” most likely a reference to a 2016 CMAs performance that resulted in racist backlash.

The CMA Awards are nominated and voted on by members of the Country Music Association, which includes music executives, artists, publicists, songwriters and other industry professionals.

Wallen is followed by both Cody Johnson, who is also nominated in the male vocalist category for the third year in a row, and 7-time male vocalist of the year winner, Stapleton.

Stapleton and Johnson have five nominations each.

But Stapleton could take home seven trophies, should he sweep his categories.

Stapleton is both an artist and producer on “White Horse,” up for single of the year, and Higher, up for album of the year.

At the CMAs, production credits are not counted as separate nominations, although they are factored into trophy counts.

First-time nominee Post Malone and Wilson, last year’s entertainer of the year winner, are tied with four nominations. All of Malone’s nominations are for “I Had Some Help.”

Louis Bell, Charlie Handsome and Hoskins are tied with three nominations for their work as producers and co-writers on “I Had Some Help.”

Jelly Roll, Combs, Kacey Musgraves and Megan Moroney also boast three nods each. The latter three could take home four trophies: Combs is both artist and producer on Fathers & Sons, up for album of the year. The same is true for Musgraves’ album Deeper Well.

And Moroney is both artist and director of her nominated music video, “I’m Not Pretty.”

The CMA Awards will air on November 20 on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern. It can be streamed the next day on Hulu.
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China announces joint naval, air drills with Russia

Posted on by SeeEA

Beijing — China’s Defense Ministry on Monday announced joint naval and air drills with Russia starting this month, underscoring the closeness between their militaries as Russia presses its grinding invasion of Ukraine.

The ministry said the “Northern United-2024” exercises would take place in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk farther north, but gave no details.

It said the naval and air drills aimed to improve strategic cooperation between the two countries and “strengthen their ability to jointly deal with security threats.”

The notice also said the two navies would cruise together in the Pacific, the fifth time they have done so, and together take part in Russia’s “Great Ocean-24” exercise. No details were given.

China has refused to criticize Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, and blamed the U.S. and NATO for provoking President Vladimir Putin.

While China has not directly provided Russia with arms, it has become a crucial economic lifeline as a top customer for Russian oil and gas as well as a supplier of electronics and other items with both civilian and military uses.

Russia and China, along with other U.S. critics such as Iran, have aligned their foreign policies to challenge and potentially overturn the Western-led liberal democratic order. With joint exercises, Russia has sought Chinese help in achieving its long-cherished aim of becoming a Pacific power, while Moscow has backed China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere.

That has increasingly included the 180-kilometer (110-mile) wide Taiwan Strait that divides mainland China from the self-governing island democracy that Beijing considers its own territory and threatens to invade.

Based on that claim, the Taiwan Strait is Chinese. Though it is not opposed to navigation by others through one of the world’s most heavily trafficked sea ways, China is “firmly opposed to provocations by countries that jeopardize China’s sovereignty and security under the banner of freedom of navigation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing on Friday.

Mao was responding to a report that a pair of German navy ships were to pass through the strait this month for the first time in more than two decades. The U.S. and virtually every other country, along with Taiwan, considers the strait international waters.
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HRW calls for stronger Sudan arms embargo as UN weighs sanctions

Posted on by SeeAF

Nairobi, Kenya — The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to renew existing sanctions that prevent the transfer of military equipment to Sudan’s western Darfur region. The pending vote comes as Human Rights Watch calls on the council to expand an existing arms embargo, currently on the restive region, to the rest of the country.

The western Darfur region has been the epicenter of Sudan’s current civil war, which pits the Sudanese armed forces, or SAF, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, and other militias against each other. U.N. agencies and rights groups say the parties involved have committed war crimes and other human rights violations during the conflict, which has lasted nearly 18 months.

Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Human Rights Watch is urging the council to consider imposing an arms ban on the entire country to stop the ongoing rights violations and the suffering of the people. The Sudanese government opposes expansion of the embargo.

Human Rights Watch investigators found that some of the weapons being used in the conflict were acquired after the civil war broke out in April of last year.

Jean-Baptiste Gallopin is a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch’s crisis, conflict, and arms division.

“We based our research on an analysis of photos and videos posted on social media and primarily taken by the fighters themselves, showing them in possession and using equipment such as attack drones, drone jammers, anti-tank guided missiles, as well as truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers systems and mortar munitions,” said Gallopin.

The rights group’s report shows some of the mortars fired were manufactured in China last year. Companies in Iran, Russia, Serbia, and the United Arab Emirates have also produced some of the weapons used, according to the organization.

In 2004, a year after the start of another Darfur conflict between ethnic militias and government-backed militias known as the Janjaweed, the U.N. imposed the arms embargo on Darfur. The embargo originally applied to non-governmental entities and was later extended to all parties in the conflict, including the Sudanese government.

Ahmed Hashi is a Horn of Africa political and security commentator. He said the regional and international community is doing little to end the conflict, and said that in fact, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedi, is receiving strong foreign support.

“I think the United Arab Emirates and other proxy states are arming Mr. Hamedi. I think that the rebellion inside Sudan is foreign-led. I think that the people who caused the Janjaweed and caused international human rights, international crime are fighting in Sudan. I’m afraid that terrorism will rear its ugly head. It is the tragic human rights issue of the 21st century. And we are all, including me, ashamed as Africans that we have not done anything,” he said.

The UAE has denied arming the RSF. 

 

Gallopin said imposing an arms ban in one region would not solve the conflict. He said a ban is needed nationwide.

“We believe that the existing embargo is not sufficient, that there needs to be a wholesale embargo on the sale of armed and military equipment to the whole of Sudan, because we documented, we and others documented very serious abuses carried out by the warring parties since last year, including widespread war crimes, crimes against humanity. We know we published a report on Darfur showing that ethnic cleansing was committed. And so we think it’s urgent for the Security Council to broaden that arms embargo,” he said.

The group also is calling on the Security Council to condemn governments that are violating the existing arms embargo on Darfur and take urgent measures to sanction individuals and entities that are also doing so.
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Flooding in Morocco, Algeria kills more than a dozen people

Posted on by SeeAF

RABAT, Morocco — Torrential downpours hit North Africa’s normally arid mountains and deserts over the weekend, causing flooding that killed more than a dozen people in Morocco and Algeria and destroyed homes and critical infrastructure.

In Morocco, officials said the two days of storms surpassed historic averages, in some cases exceeding the annual average rainfall. The downpours affected some of the regions that experienced a deadly earthquake one year ago.

Meteorologists had predicted that a rare deluge could strike North Africa’s Sahara Desert, where many areas receive less than an inch of rain a year.

Officials in Morocco said 11 people were killed in rural areas where infrastructure has historically been lacking, and 24 homes collapsed. Nine people were missing. Drinking water and electrical infrastructure were damaged, along with major roads.

Rachid El Khalfi, Morocco’s Interior Ministry spokesperson, said Sunday in a statement that the government was working to restore communication and access to flooded regions in the “exceptional situation” and urged people to use caution.

In neighboring Algeria, which held a presidential election over the weekend, authorities said at least five died in the country’s desert provinces. Interior Minister Brahim Merad called the situation “catastrophic” on state-owned television.

Algeria’s state-run news service APS said the government had sent thousands of civil protection and military officers to help with emergency response efforts and rescue families stuck in their homes. The floods also damaged bridges and trains in the area.
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‘Bucha Witches’ are keeping skies over Kyiv drone-free

Posted on by SeeEU

They call themselves Bucha Witches – an all-female volunteer air defense unit near Kyiv targeting the Iranian Shahed drones that Russia fires at Ukraine. They operate 24/7 and are using unconventional but effective weapons to bring down the deadly aerial vehicles. Anna Kosstutschenko has their story. VOA footage and video editing by Pavel Suhodolskiy.
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Under Yoon, calls for South Korean nukes ‘normalized’

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Seoul, South Korea — Less than two years after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged his country would not seek nuclear weapons, his newly appointed defense minister is openly envisioning scenarios in which South Korea might reconsider that stance. 

The comments by Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who took office on Friday, are the latest evidence that the once-taboo idea of nuclear armament has gone mainstream in Seoul, amid growing concerns about North Korea’s rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal and the long-term reliability of U.S. protection. 

As an academic and retired military officer, Kim has long argued that South Korea may need nuclear weapons in some form to counter North Korea. In recently unearthed footage from a 2020 seminar, Kim warned South Korea has “no survival or future” without such a deterrent.

During his confirmation process last week, Kim stood by those comments, saying “all options” should remain open if the U.S. nuclear umbrella proves insufficient.

It appears to be the first time a sitting South Korean defense minister has publicly entertained the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons, and marks a sharp departure from his predecessor, who repeatedly and firmly rejected the proposal under any condition.

Contacted by VOA, a South Korean defense ministry spokesperson maintained there has been “no change in the principle or position” that Seoul relies on U.S. extended deterrence and the U.S.-South Korea alliance to address the North Korean nuclear threat.

“However, if we cannot guarantee the survival and security of the state, all means and methods are open,” the spokesperson added, emphasizing the need to work closely with the United States.

A spokesperson for Yoon’s presidential office declined to comment for this story.

Most observers doubt South Korea will pursue nuclear weapons any time soon due to the massive economic and national security risks it would entail.

Not only would South Korea risk enraging China, but Seoul could upend its alliance with the United States and invite painful international sanctions, all while possibly encouraging others in the region to consider nuclear weapons of their own. 

Despite the risks, Yoon continues to drive the once unthinkable idea further into the mainstream, raising concerns that the proposal could become more acceptable — and eventually turn into reality.

Nuke calls now routine

Yoon himself suggested last January that South Korea could develop nuclear arms if the North Korean threat escalated – raising alarm in Washington, where non-proliferation has long been a priority.

Three months later, Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden signed what is known as the Washington Declaration, which bolstered U.S. defense assurances while reaffirming South Korea’s commitments under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Yoon’s appointment of Kim, however, appears to contradict the spirit of that agreement, said Lee Sang-sin, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. What stands out most, Lee said, is the lack of public reaction to Kim’s remarks.

Kim’s appointment has drawn little attention from South Korean media and been largely ignored by Western outlets — a possible indication that calls for South Korea’s nuclear armament have become routine.

“That’s what I have warned about,” said Lee. “[This conversation] has been normalized.” 

When contacted by VOA, the White House National Security Council declined to directly comment on Kim’s statements, instead emphasizing South Korea’s pledge under the non-proliferation treaty as outlined in the Washington Declaration.

“We will continue to work with our ROK allies to strengthen our alliance and ensure we are well-positioned to deter nuclear threats,” an NSC spokesman added.

Driving the conversation

Polls have long suggested a majority of South Koreans support acquiring nuclear weapons, although such views were once confined to the political fringes.

Under Yoon’s presidency, the debate has become so entrenched that even some state-backed research institutions are exploring the possibility of nuclear armament.

A June report by the state-run Institute for National Security Strategy recommended that Seoul consider government reviews and public debates on various options, including the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons, NATO-style nuclear sharing, and South Korea developing its own arsenal.

Such calls are not only coming from Seoul. A growing number of former Trump officials have expressed an openness to the idea, with some even highlighting the geopolitical advantages of South Korea getting its own weapons – an idea that Trump himself once teased. 

The possibility of Trump’s return, along with his “America First” stance, has fueled concerns in Seoul that U.S. protection may be less reliable long-term, further accelerating the nuclear debate.

Some in South Korea appear eager to capitalize on the trend. In an opinion piece this month, Choi Kang, president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, an influential conservative research group, argued South Korean nuclear weapons should be presented as beneficial to the U.S.-South Korea alliance. 

“If a South Korean nuclear arsenal aligned with U.S. security interests and came to be regarded as a ‘common asset’ of the alliance, then the United States might accept it or even support it,” Choi wrote. 

Reality check?

But many analysts caution that such statements downplay the risks of nuclear armament.

“There really needs to be greater questioning of whether more nukes and more countries with nukes truly increases any country’s security situation and a serious examination of what Seoul stands to lose by choosing that path,” said Jenny Town, a North Korea specialist with the Washington-based Stimson Center.

Others, like Mason Richey, who teaches international politics at Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, argue it is unlikely South Korea would pursue nuclear weapons barring profound U.S.-South Korea alliance problems and/or severe regional instability.

“That said, every elite policymaker who engages the South Korea nuclear debate makes it easier to continue down the slippery slope of thinking about nuclear weapons, studying how to develop them, assuring a latent capability, deciding to develop them, and then actually building them,” he added.  

White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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Mourners attend funeral for American activist witness says was shot dead by Israeli troops 

Posted on by SeeUS

NABLUS, West Bank — The Western-backed Palestinian Authority held a funeral procession Monday for a U.S.-Turkish dual national activist who a witness says was shot and killed by Israeli forces while demonstrating against settlements in the occupied West Bank. 

Dozens of mourners — including several leading PA officials — attended the procession. Security forces carried the body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi which was draped in a Palestinian flag while a traditional black-and-white checkered scarf covered her face. The 26-year-old’s body was then placed into the back of a Palestinian ambulance. 

Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oncu Keceli said Turkey was working on repatriating Eygi’s remains for burial in the Aegean coastal town of Didim as per her family’s wishes, but “because the land crossing from the Palestinian territories to Jordan was closed as of Sunday, the ministry was trying to have the body flown directly to Turkey.” 

U.S. officials did not respond to a request for comment. 

Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli peace activist who participated in Friday’s protest, said Israeli forces shot her on Friday in the city of Nablus while posing no threat, adding that the killing happened during a period of calm after clashes between soldiers and Palestinian protesters. Pollak said he then saw two Israeli soldiers mount the roof of a nearby home, train a gun in the group’s direction and fired, with one of the bullets striking Eygi in the head. 

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area of the protest. 

The West Bank has seen a surge of violence since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, and attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians. 

 
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Google faces new antitrust trial after ruling declaring search engine a monopoly

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — One month after a judge declared Google’s search engine an illegal monopoly, the tech giant faces another antitrust lawsuit that threatens to break up the company, this time over its advertising technology.

The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintains a monopoly over the technology that matches online publishers to advertisers. Dominance over the software on both the buy side and the sell side of the transaction enables Google to keep as much as 36 cents on the dollar when it brokers sales between publishers and advertisers, the government contends in court papers.

Google says the government’s case is based on an internet of yesteryear, when desktop computers ruled and internet users carefully typed precise World Wide Web addresses into URL fields. Advertisers now are more likely to turn to social media companies like TikTok or streaming TV services like Peacock to reach audiences.

In recent years, Google Networks, the division of the Mountain View, California-based tech giant that includes such services as AdSense and Google Ad Manager that are at the heart of the case, actually have seen declining revenue, from $31.7 billion in 2021 to $31.3 billion in 2023, according to the company’s annual reports.

The trial over the alleged ad tech monopoly begins Monday in Alexandria, Virginia. It initially was going to be a jury trial, but Google maneuvered to force a bench trial, writing a check to the federal government for more than $2 million to moot the only claim brought by the government that required a jury.

The case will now be decided by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who was appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton and is best known for high-profile terrorism trials including Sept. 11 defendant Zacarias Moussaoui. Brinkema, though, also has experience with highly technical civil trials, working in a courthouse that sees an outsize number of patent infringement cases.

The Virginia case comes on the heels of a major defeat for Google over its search engine. which generates the majority of the company’s $307 billion in annual revenue. A judge in the District of Columbia declared the search engine a monopoly, maintained in part by tens of billions of dollars Google pays each year to companies like Apple to lock in Google as the default search engine presented to consumers when they buy iPhones and other gadgets.

In that case, the judge has not yet imposed any remedies. The government hasn’t offered its proposed sanctions, though there could be close scrutiny over whether Google should be allowed to continue to make exclusivity deals that ensure its search engine is consumers’ default option.

Peter Cohan, a professor of management practice at Babson College, said the Virginia case could potentially be more harmful to Google because the obvious remedy would be requiring it to sell off parts of its ad tech business that generate billions of dollars in annual revenue.

“Divestitures are definitely a possible remedy for this second case,” Cohan said “It could be potentially more significant than initially meets the eye.”

In the Virginia trial, the government’s witnesses are expected to include executives from newspaper publishers including The New York Times Co. and Gannett, and online news sites that the government contends have faced particular harm from Google’s practices.

“Google extracted extraordinary fees at the expense of the website publishers who make the open internet vibrant and valuable,” government lawyers wrote in court papers. “As publishers generate less money from selling their advertising inventory, publishers are pushed to put more ads on their websites, to put more content behind costly paywalls, or to cease business altogether.”

Google disputes that it charges excessive fees compared to its competitors. The company also asserts the integration of its technology on the buy side, sell side and in the middle assures ads and web pages load quickly and enhance security. And it says customers have options to work with outside ad exchanges.

Google says the government’s case is improperly focused on display ads and banner ads that load on web pages accessed through a desktop computer and fails to take into account consumers’ migration to mobile apps and the boom in ads placed on social media sites over the last 15 years.

The government’s case “focuses on a limited type of advertising viewed on a narrow subset of websites when user attention migrated elsewhere years ago,” Google’s lawyers write in a pretrial filing. “The last year users spent more time accessing websites on the ‘open web,’ rather than on social media, videos, or apps, was 2012.”

The trial, which is expected to last several weeks, is taking place in a courthouse that rigidly adheres to traditional practices, including a resistance to technology in the courtroom. Cellphones are banned from the courthouse, to the chagrin of a tech press corps accustomed at the District of Columbia trial to tweeting out live updates as they happen.

Even the lawyers, and there are many on both sides, are limited in their technology. At a pretrial hearing Wednesday, Google’s lawyers made a plea to be allowed more than the two computers each side is permitted to have in the courtroom during trial. Brinkema rejected it.

“This is an old-fashioned courtroom,” she said.
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Flooding sweeps away bus, bridge collapses in Vietnam as storm deaths rise to 59  

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HANOI — A bridge collapsed and a bus was swept away by flooding Monday as more rain fell following a typhoon Vietnam that has caused at least 59 deaths in the Southeast Asian country and disrupted businesses and factories in the export-focused northern industrial hubs, state media reported.

Nine people died when Typhoon Yagi made landfall in Vietnam on Saturday before weakening to a tropical depression, and at least 50 others have died in the consequent floods and landslides, state media VN Express reported. The water levels of several rivers in northern Vietnam were dangerously high.

A passenger bus carrying 20 people was swept into a flooded stream by a landslide in mountainous Cao Bang province Monday morning. Rescuers were deployed but landslides blocked their path.

In Phu Tho province, rescue operations were continuing after a steel bridge over the engorged Red River collapsed Monday morning. Reports said 10 cars and trucks along with two motorbikes fell into the river. Three people were pulled out of the river and taken to the hospital, but 13 others were missing.

Pham Truong Son, 50, told VNExpress that he was driving on the bridge on his motorcycle when he heard a loud noise. Before he knew what was happening, he was falling into the river. “I felt like I was drowned to the bottom of the river,” Son told the newspaper, adding that he managed to swim and hold on to a drifting banana tree to stay afloat before he was rescued.

Dozens of businesses in Haiphong province hadn’t resumed production by Monday because of the extensive damage to their factories, reported state media Lao Dong newspaper. The report said that the roofs of several factories were blown apart while water had seeped into industrial units, damaging finished goods and expensive equipment. Some companies said they still didn’t have electricity on Monday and that it would take at least a month to be able to resume production.

Toppled electricity poles meant that Haiphong and Quang Ninh provinces were still without power on Monday. The two provinces are industrial hubs, housing many factories that export goods, including EV maker VinFast and Apple suppliers Pegatrong and USI. Authorities are still assessing the damage to industrial units but initial estimates show that nearly 100 enterprises were damaged by the typhoon, resulting in losses amounting to millions of dollars, reported the newspaper.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Haiphong city on Sunday and approved a package of $4.62 million to help the port city recover.

Typhoon Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit Vietnam in decades when it made landfall Saturday with winds up to 149 kph. It weakened Sunday, but the country’s meteorological agency warned the continuing downpours could cause floods and landslides.

On Sunday, a landslide killed six people including an infant and injured nine others in Sa Pa town, a popular trekking base known for its terraced rice fields and mountains. Overall, state media reported 21 deaths and at least 299 people injured from the weekend.

Skies were overcast in the capital, Hanoi, with occasional rain Monday morning as workers cleared the uprooted trees, fallen billboards and toppled electricity poles. Heavy rain continued in northwestern Vietnam and forecasters said it could exceed 40 centimeters in places.

Yagi also damaged agricultural land where rice is mostly grown.

Before hitting Vietnam, Yagi caused at least 20 deaths in the Philippines last week and four deaths in southern China.

Chinese authorities said infrastructure losses across the Hainan island province amounted to $102 million with 57,000 houses collapsed or damaged, power and water outages and roads damaged or impassable due to fallen trees. Yagi made a second landfall in Guangdong, a mainland province neighboring Hainan, on Friday night.

Storms like Typhoon Yagi are “getting stronger due to climate change, primarily because warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel the storms, leading to increased wind speeds and heavier rainfall,” said Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.
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Congress takes up a series of bills targeting China, from drones to drugs

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WASHINGTON — How to curb and counter China’s influence and power — through its biotech companies, drones and electric vehicles — will dominate the U.S. House’s first week back from summer break, with lawmakers taking up a series of measures targeting Beijing.

Washington views Beijing as its biggest geopolitical rival, and the legislation is touted as ensuring the U.S. prevails in the competition. Many of the bills scheduled for a vote this week appear to have both Republican and Democratic support, reflecting strong consensus that congressional actions are needed to counter China.

The legislation “will take meaningful steps to counter the military, economic and ideological threat of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and a Michigan Republican. “There’s a bipartisan goal to win this competition.”

Advocacy groups worry about the impact, warning against rhetoric that hurts Asian Americans and could create “an atmosphere of guilt by association or fuel divisiveness,” said Christine Chen, executive director of Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington called the legislation “new McCarthyism” that hypes the tensions in an election year. If passed, the bills “will cause serious interference to China-U.S. relations and mutually beneficial cooperation, and will inevitably damage the U.S.’s own interests, image and credibility,” spokesman Liu Pengyu said in a statement.

Among the bills are efforts to reduce U.S. reliance on Chinese biotech companies, ban Chinese EVs and drones, restrict Chinese nationals from buying farmland, toughen export restrictions and revive a program to root out spying on U.S. intellectual property.

If approved, the measures would still need to clear the Senate. Here’s a look at the key legislation:

Targeting Beijing-linked biotech

A bill seeks to ban a group of five biotechnology companies with Chinese ties from working with anyone that receives federal money.

The companies include those that work to help doctors detect genetic causes for cancer or do research and manufacturing for American drugmakers, considered a key step in developing new medications.

America’s biotech companies have said the bill would disrupt their partnerships with Chinese contractors, resulting in delays in clinical trials for new drugs and higher costs.

Supporters say the legislation is necessary to protect U.S. health care data and reduce the country’s reliance on China for its medical supply chain.

“American patients cannot be in a position where we rely on China for genomic testing or basic medical supplies,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, an Ohio Republican who sponsored the bill. He called it “the first step” in protecting Americans’ genetic data.

BGI, one of the Chinese companies named in the bill, called it “a false flag targeting companies under the premise of national security.” The company, which offers genetic sequencing for research purposes in the U.S., said it follows the law and has no access to Americans’ personal data.

Banning Chinese drones

Another bill would dub drones made by the Chinese company DJI, which dominates the global drone market, “an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security” and cut its products from U.S. communications networks over data security concerns.

The bill would protect Americans’ data and critical infrastructure, said Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who introduced it. “Congress must use every tool at our disposal to stop” China’s “monopolistic control over the drone market,” she said.

DJI argues that users have to “opt in” to share data such as flight logs, photos and videos with the company. If users don’t do so, the company said it won’t have data to share with any government when compelled. It also has rejected allegations that it is a Chinese military company and has aided the persecution of members of ethnic Muslim minorities.

Adam Bry, co-founder and CEO of major U.S. drone maker Skydio, told a congressional committee in June about losing business to China, where “the Chinese government has tried to control the drone industry, pouring resources into national champions and taking aim at competitors in the U.S. and the West, tilting the playing field in China’s favor.”

Protecting intellectual property

A challenge is likely against an attempt to revive a Trump-era program described as a way to stop Chinese efforts to steal intellectual property and spy on industry and research.

The bill would direct the Justice Department to curb spying by Beijing on U.S. intellectual property and academic institutions and go after people engaged in theft of trade secrets, hacking and economic espionage.

The Trump-era program, called the China Initiative, ended in 2022 after multiple unsuccessful prosecutions of researchers and concerns that it had prompted racial and ethnic profiling. Critics also say it chilled cooperation between the U.S. and China in science and technology meant to benefit the greater good.

“Our colleagues in the Republican Party sought to reinstate this failed program because they wanted to look like they were solving problems. But in reality, they were only stoking fear and hatred,” several Democratic lawmakers said in a statement in March, when they fought off another effort to restart the program.

 

Restricting farm sales

Another bill, which says it will protect U.S. farmland from foreign adversaries, has raised concerns about discrimination.

It would add the agriculture secretary to the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviews the national security implications of foreign transactions. The bill also flags as “reportable” land sales involving citizens from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran.

“Food security is national security, and for too long, the federal government has allowed the Chinese Communist Party to put our security at risk by turning a blind eye to their steadily increasing purchases of American farmland,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state, who introduced the bill.

The National Agricultural Law Center estimates 24 states ban or limit foreigners without residency and foreign businesses or governments from owning private farmland. The interest emerged after a Chinese billionaire bought more than 130,000 acres near a U.S. Air Force base in Texas and another Chinese company sought to build a corn plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota.
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Pope arrives in East Timor to encourage recovery from bloody independence

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DILI, East Timor — Pope Francis arrived in East Timor on Monday to encourage its recovery from a bloody and traumatic past and celebrate its development after two decades of independence from Indonesian rule.

Francis arrived in Dili from Papua New Guinea to open the third leg of his trip through Southeast Asia and Oceania. He’ll meet with Timorese leaders and diplomats later Monday.

The overwhelmingly Catholic East Timor, one of the world’s poorest countries, eagerly awaited Francis’ arrival, which came on the heels of the 25th anniversary of the U.N.-backed referendum that paved the way for independence from Indonesia.

“Our great hope is that he may come to consolidate the fraternity, the national unity, peace and development for this new country,” said Estevão Tei Fernandes, a university professor.

It was a far different atmosphere than when the last pope visited. St. John Paul II came in 1989, when Timor was still an occupied part of Indonesia and fighting for its freedom. As many as 200,000 people were killed during the 24 years of Indonesian rule.

Francis will confront that legacy, and another one more close to home involving Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the Timorese bishop who, along with the Catholic Church as a whole, is regarded as a hero for his efforts to win independence.

Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese independence icon José Ramos-Horta, today the country’s president, for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to the conflict.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in its citation, praised Belo’s courage in refusing to be intimidated by Indonesian forces. The committee noted that while trying to get the United Nations to arrange a plebiscite for East Timor, he smuggled out two witnesses to a bloody 1991 massacre so they could testify to the U.N. human rights commission in Geneva.

In 2022, the Vatican acknowledged that it had secretly sanctioned Belo in 2020 for sexually abusing young boys. The sanctions included limitations on his movements and exercise of ministry and prohibited him from having voluntary contact with minors or contact with East Timor itself. The sanctions were reinforced in 2021.

Despite the sanctions, which were confirmed at the time by the Vatican spokesman and reaffirmed last week ahead of Francis’ trip, many people in East Timor have stood by Belo, either dismissing, denying or diminishing the victims’ claims. Some even hoped Belo, who lives in Portugal, would be on hand to welcome Francis.
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