Author: PolitCens

Washington — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to serve his four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol insurrection, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington granted prosecutors’ request to make Bannon begin serving his prison term after a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court last month upheld his contempt of Congress conviction. But Nichols also made clear in his ruling that Bannon could seek a stay of his order, which could delay his surrender date.

Outside the courthouse, Bannon told reporters: “I’ve got great lawyers, and we’re going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to.”

Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, a Republican, had initially allowed Bannon to remain free while he fought his conviction. But the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said all of Bannon’s challenges lack merit.

Bannon was convicted in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and the other for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Bannon’s lawyer at trial argued that the charges were politically motivated and that the former adviser didn’t ignore the subpoena but was still engaged in good-faith negotiations with the congressional committee when he was charged.

The defense has said Bannon had been acting on the advice of his attorney at the time, who told him that the subpoena was invalid because the committee would not allow a Trump lawyer in the room and that Bannon could not determine what documents or testimony he could provide because Trump has asserted executive privilege.

Defense lawyer David Schoen told the judge the defense had planned to ask the full U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, if necessary, to review the matter. Schoen said it would be unfair to send Bannon to prison now because he would have already completed his sentence before those rulings could be handed down.

“That might serve a political agenda; but it would be a grave injustice,” Schoen wrote in court papers.

A second Trump aide, trade advisor Peter Navarro, was also convicted of contempt of Congress and reported to prison in March to serve his four-month sentence.

Navarro had maintained that he couldn’t cooperate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. But courts have rejected that argument, finding Navarro couldn’t prove Trump had actually invoked it.

The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report asserted that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurrection two years ago.
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UTAH BEACH, France — As the sun sets on the D-Day generation, it will rise again Thursday over the Normandy beaches where the waves long ago washed away the blood and boot-steps of its soldiers, but where their exploits that helped end Adolf Hitler’s tyranny are being remembered by the next generations, seeing war again in Europe, in Ukraine.

Ever-dwindling numbers of World War II veterans who have pilgrimaged back to France, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that has dashed hopes that lives and cities wouldn’t again be laid to waste in Europe, are making the always poignant anniversaries of the June 6, 1944, Allied landings even more so 80 years on.

As now-centenarian veterans revisit old memories and fallen comrades buried in Normandy graves, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presence at D-Day commemorations with world leaders — including U.S. President Joe Biden — who are supporting his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion will inevitably fuse together World War II’s awful past with the fraught present on Thursday.

The break of dawn almost eight decades exactly after Allied troops waded ashore under hails of gunfire on five code-named beaches — Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword — will kick off a day of remembrance by Allied nations now standing together again behind Ukraine — and with World War II ally Russia not invited by host France. It cited Russia’s “war of aggression against Ukraine that has intensified in recent weeks” for the snub.

With the dead and wounded on both sides in Ukraine estimated in the hundreds of thousands, commemorations for the more than 4,400 Allied dead on D-Day and many tens of thousands more, including French civilians, killed in the ensuing Battle of Normandy are tinged with concerns that World War II lessons are being lost.

“There are things worth fighting for,” said World War II veteran Walter Stitt, who fought in tanks and turns 100 in July, as he visited Omaha Beach this week. “Although I wish there was another way to do it than to try to kill each other.”

“We’ll learn one of these days, but I won’t be around for that,” he said.

Conscious of the inevitability that major D-Day anniversaries will soon take place without World War II veterans, huge throngs of aficionados in uniforms and riding vehicles of the time, and tourists soaking up the spectacle, have flooded Normandy for the 80th anniversary.

The fair-like atmosphere fueled by World War II-era jeeps and trucks tearing down hedge-rowed lanes so deadly for Allied troops who fought dug-in German defenders, and of reenactors playing at war on sands where D-Day soldiers fell, leave open the question of what meaning anniversaries will have once the veterans are gone.

But at the 80th, they’re the VIPs of commemorations across the Normandy coast where the largest-ever land, sea and air armada punctured Hitler’s defenses in Western Europe and helped precipitate his downfall 11 months later.

Those who traveled to Normandy include women who were among the millions who built bombers, tanks and other weaponry and played other vital World War II roles that were long overshadowed by the combat exploits of men.

“We weren’t doing it for honors and awards. We were doing it to save our country. And we ended up helping save the world,” said 98-year-old Anna Mae Krier, who worked as a riveter building B-17 and B-29 bombers.

Feted wherever they go in wheelchairs and walking with canes, veterans are using their voices to repeat their message they hope will live eternal: Never forget.

“To know the amount of people who were killed here, just amazing,” 98-year-old Allan Chatwin, who served with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, said as he visited Omaha, the deadliest of the Allied beaches on D-Day.

He quickly added: “I don’t know that amazing is the word.”
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White House  — President Joe Biden’s top aides are in the Middle East to push for a three-phase Gaza cease-fire plan that the U.S. leader announced last week as the latest offer from the Israeli war cabinet. The deal would see an initial six-week pause of fighting and secure the release of some hostages held by Hamas and some Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.

CIA director Bill Burns arrived in Doha Tuesday, and Brett McGurk, Biden’s top Middle East adviser, is in Cairo Wednesday, administration officials confirmed to VOA. The pair is expected to convey Biden’s message that Hamas should sign the deal, via key mediators Qatar and Egypt.

Earlier in the week, Biden spoke with the Emir of Qatar Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, reiterating that the plan “offers a concrete roadmap for ending the crisis in Gaza.”

The deal is structured toward a permanent cease-fire in exchange for the release of all hostages and the reconstruction of Gaza. But neither party appears close to agreement.

Despite the Israeli war cabinet signing off on the proposal, shortly after Biden’s announcement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed there will be no permanent cease-fire without “the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.”

In response, Hamas official Osama Hamdan declared Tuesday it could not agree without a clear Israeli position on a permanent cease-fire and complete withdrawal from Gaza.

“You’re going to hear a lot of things in the media, a lot of statements from a lot of different voices and a lot of different people,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. He spoke aboard Air Force One Tuesday evening enroute to France where Biden is scheduled to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day on Thursday.

Hamdan’s declaration aside, Sullivan said the administration would only consider the group’s formal response as conveyed to the Qataris, who transmitted the proposal from Israeli negotiators to Hamas.

“We have not gotten that yet,” Sullivan said, noting that the U.S. is in “hourly contact” with Qatar.

What happens next?

The plan’s three-phase outline appears fundamentally similar to a proposal that Hamas said it had accepted in early May. But given the world’s condemnation of Israel’s actions on Rafah paired with a ruling by the top U.N. court ordering the government to halt its military offensive there, the group may seek to leverage its advantage on the negotiation table.

“There is no guarantee that Hamas won’t come back with additional conditions,” said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. negotiator on Middle East peace talks who is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

Once Hamas provides its formal response, Netanyahu must present it to his entire coalition, Miller told VOA. “And that’s where things get to be very complicated.”

With far-right ministers of the coalition threatening to leave the government if Netanyahu agrees to a cease-fire, and his war cabinet members saying they would quit if he does not agree, the prime minister faces the risk of a collapsed coalition no matter what he decides. That could trigger early elections, potentially sending Netanyahu into the opposition and making him more vulnerable to a conviction in his corruption trial.

Biden’s announcement of the cease-fire plan has brought those pressures on Netanyahu to a head.

“I think Netanyahu is trying to buy his time and stretch this out and hope maybe that Hamas will actually be the one to say no more definitively,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine at the International Crisis Group.

The prime minister could also find alternative opposition parties to enter a temporary government, she told VOA. “It could be that Netanyahu has something up his sleeve to be able to go with the deal and still remain in power for a while.”

In an interview this week with Time magazine, Biden said “there is every reason” for people to conclude that Netanyahu is prolonging the conflict for his own political self-preservation.

He appeared to walk back the statement Tuesday when asked whether Netanyahu is playing politics with the war.

“I don’t think so. He’s trying to work out the serious problem that he has,” Biden said.

Biden under pressure

With polls suggesting Biden losing support from progressives and young voters over his support for Israel, securing a cease-fire ahead of the November election would appeal to swaths of Biden’s constituents.

“The Democrats would like to avoid the ugly optics of ‘Genocide Joe’ demonstrations at their August convention,” said Laura Blumenfeld, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. Biden is set to be formally nominated as the party’s presidential nominee during the convention.

Meanwhile, Arab and Muslim Americans are having “difficult discussions” over whether to support Biden or his Republican opponent, said Muslim Public Affairs Council founder Salam Al-Marayati.

“On the one hand, no Republican has supported a cease-fire,” Al-Marayati told VOA. “On the other hand, the president himself has enabled genocide, has financed the genocide, has been a part, complicitly, of this genocide.”

Biden and his aides have rejected the characterization that Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide.

From a domestic political point of view, Blumenfeld noted that Biden’s timing of the announcement on the cease-fire was “spot on.”

“It is one of multiple gestures meant to highlight his leadership,” she told VOA, noting a series of international engagements Biden is embarking on as the White House sought to highlight his global leadership.

Biden announced an executive order Tuesday on the migrant crisis along the U.S. southern border with Mexico. He is set to deliver a speech defending democracy on the beach of Normandy, France, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. He’ll meet leaders of the world’s leading economies at the G7 summit in Italy later this month and host a NATO summit in July.

“We are mobilizing common action to solve the great challenges of our time,” Sullivan said in response to VOA’s question. “In these next six weeks, the president will try to put all that on display.”

Biden has invested much on his cease-fire strategy. But neither of the warring parties are in a hurry to end their conflict, Miller said.

“The Biden administration is clearly under the most pressure and the most urgency to see something happen,” he said, not just for domestic political aims but also the goal of advancing a historic agreement to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia that could only happen with peace in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and reiterated that Hamas should agree “without further delay,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

The U.S. is also keen to keep in check Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah near the northern Israeli border with Lebanon, which has been fought in parallel to the Gaza war.

On this front, Biden is again dependent on Netanyahu. The prime minister said Wednesday Israel is prepared for “very strong action” against Hezbollah, saying he would restore security “one way or another.”

VOA’s Virginia Gunawan and Anita Powell contributed to this report.
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Atlanta — An appeals court has halted the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and others while it reviews the lower court judge’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case.

The Georgia Court of Appeals’ order on Wednesday prevents Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee from moving forward with pretrial motions as he had planned while the appeal is pending. While it was already unlikely that the case would go to trial before the November general election, when Trump is expected to be the Republican nominee for president, this makes that even more certain.

The appeals court on Monday docketed the appeals filed by Trump and eight others and said that “if oral argument is requested and granted” it is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4. The court will then have until mid-March to rule, and the losing side will be able to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment on the appeals court ruling.

A Fulton County grand jury in August indicted Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a sprawling scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Four defendants have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors, but Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty. It is one of four criminal cases against Trump.

Trump and eight other defendants had tried to get Willis and her office removed from the case, arguing that a romantic relationship she had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a conflict of interest. McAfee in March found that no conflict of interest existed that should force Willis off the case, but he granted a request from Trump and the other defendants to seek an appeal of his ruling from the state Court of Appeals.

McAfee wrote that “an odor of mendacity remains.” He said “reasonable questions” over whether Willis and Wade had testified truthfully about the timing of their relationship “further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it.” He said Willis could remain on the case only if Wade left, and the special prosecutor submitted his resignation hours later.

The allegations that Willis had improperly benefited from her romance with Wade resulted in a tumultuous couple of months in the case as intimate details of Willis and Wade’s personal lives were aired in court in mid-February.
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Washington — China’s military appears to be intensifying its efforts to recruit current and former Western fighter pilots, employing new and more intricate tactics to snare Western expertise. 

The United States and some of its closest intelligence partners issued a new warning Wednesday, cautioning the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is using private companies, including corporate headhunters, so that Western pilots are unaware of links to the Chinese military until it is too late. 

The end goal, according to the U.S. and its allies, is for China to better train its own fighter pilots while gaining insights into how Western air forces operate, something that could erode Western advantages or even give Chinese fighter jets a boost in case of a conflict. 

The bulletin issued by the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – known as Five Eyes – says the PLA is using private companies based in South Africa and China to target Western pilots for job offers with lucrative salaries. 

Other recruitment efforts include leveraging personal acquaintances, professional networking sites and online job platforms, according to the bulletin, which warns any links to the Chinese government or military are often hidden. 

“We’re issuing this joint bulletin today because this is a persistent threat that continues to evolve in response to Western countermeasures,” an official with the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) told VOA. 

“Like any illicit enterprise that seeks to conceal its activities, there have been efforts to incorporate entities [companies] in different locations under different names,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the rationale behind Wednesday’s bulletin.  

“There have also been variations in recruitment pitches and approaches,” the official added. “It’s critical that we keep our current and former service members informed about this threat, which is directly targeting them.” 

The Five Eyes bulletin said the Chinese recruitment efforts appear to be targeting current and former military pilots from Five Eyes countries as well as those from France, Germany and other Western nations. 

VOA has contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment.  

Concerns about Beijing’s pursuit of Western pilots and aviation expertise are not new. 

British defense officials were sounding alarms about Chinese efforts to recruit retired members of the British Royal Air Force through companies in South Africa as far back as October 2022.

Australian defense officials raised similar concerns a month later, warning that retired Australian military personnel had an “enduring obligation” to protect state secrets and “to reveal any of those secrets is a crime.”

Britain, Australia and the other Five Eyes members have also taken action to curtail Beijing’s efforts. 

The U.S. last year, for example, placed restrictions on 43 entities tied to Chinese efforts to recruit and hire Western fighter pilots. 

The targeted companies included a flight school in South Africa, a security and an aviation company founded by a former U.S. Navy SEAL with operations in the United Arab Emirates, Kenya and Laos.

While such work may have diminished Beijing’s efforts, the U.S. and its intelligence partners warn China has responded aggressively, rolling out new recruitment efforts aimed not only at hiring former Western fighter pilots but hiring engineers and flight operation center personnel who also could give the PLA insights into the operations and tactics of Western air forces. 

Wednesday’s bulletin advises current and former U.S. military personnel approached with suspicious recruitment pitches to contact their individual military services or the FBI. 

Military personnel from other countries are encouraged to contact the appropriate defense agencies. 

“PLA recruitment efforts continue to evolve,” U.S. NCSC Director Michael Casey said in a statement Wednesday.  

The new warning “seeks to highlight this persistent threat and deter any current or former Western service members from actions that put their military colleagues at risk and erode our national security,” he added.
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Wilmington, United States — Jurors at Hunter Biden’s trial heard testimony Wednesday from an FBI agent who investigated the U.S president’s son for allegedly buying a handgun while using crack cocaine.

On Tuesday the court heard that Hunter Biden — the first child of a sitting U.S. president to be prosecuted — was a heavy drug user and allegedly lied about this on the paperwork when purchasing the firearm.

He is also on trial in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware — his family’s political heartland — for illegal possession of the firearm, which he had for just 11 days in October 2018.

FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen testified how investigators retrieved evidence, including photographs apparently showing drugs, from a now infamous abandoned laptop that has been at the heart of Republican efforts to discredit the Biden family.

Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, could take the stand after Jensen according to the outline of the case given by the prosecution on Tuesday.

First Lady Jill Biden, was again in court Wednesday, as she has been for every day of the trial, while President Joe Biden has issued a statement saying he is “proud” of his son.

The case has been a distraction for Biden’s reelection campaign against Donald Trump. The president was in France on Wednesday to attend World War II D-Day commemorations and is in the midst of rolling out major initiatives on illegal migration into the United States and a proposed truce for Gaza.

The trial comes just days after Trump was convicted in a New York court on business fraud charges.

On Tuesday, the prosecutor in Wilmington played extracts from an audio version of Hunter Biden’s memoir “Beautiful Things,” recorded by Biden himself, in which he recalled his descent into addiction, when he would desperately seek out crack cocaine.

“I cooked [crack] and smoked. I cooked and smoked,” said the extract played to the court, taken from his audiobook.

But Hunter Biden’s lawyer said that he “was not using drugs when he bought that gun” and that it “was never loaded, never carried, never used” during the 11 days he owned it.

Biden, a Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist, has stated that he has been sober since 2019.

The legal woes have reopened painful emotional wounds for the Biden family, stemming from his time as a drug addict and well before.

His brother Beau died from cancer in 2015, and his sister Naomi died as an infant in a 1972 car crash that also killed their mother, Neilia, Joe Biden’s first wife. Hunter and Beau were the only survivors of the accident.

If found guilty, Hunter Biden could face 25 years in prison, although as a first-time offender, jail time is unlikely.

The president’s son has long been the target of hard-right Republicans trying to embarrass Joe Biden, and Trump allies have investigated him at length in Congress on allegations of corruption and influence-peddling. No charges have ever been brought.

Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China and Ukraine have also formed the basis for attempts by Republican lawmakers to initiate impeachment proceedings against his father. Those efforts too have gone nowhere.

The White House said last year that there would be no presidential pardon for Hunter Biden in case of a conviction.
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The White House; Paris — U.S. President Joe Biden landed Wednesday in France to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy invasion — and plans to use the occasion to underscore the need for a strong transatlantic alliance in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Biden will meet Ukraine’s president, and with surviving American veterans of the 1944 beach invasion, said national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Biden will use the events, Sullivan said, to “talk about, against the backdrop of war in Europe today, the sacrifices that those heroes and those veterans made 80 years ago and how it’s our obligation to continue their mission to fight for freedom.”

Sullivan, who spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Paris, said Biden will also deliver a speech on Friday at Normandy that will cover “the existential fight between dictatorship and freedom” — all while overlooking a 30-meter tall cliff that Army Rangers had to scale under enemy gunfire to win the battle that eventually led to France’s liberation and the demise of Nazi Germany.

“And he’ll talk about the dangers of isolationism and how, if we bow to dictators, fail to stand up to them, they keep going and ultimately America and the world pays a greater price,” he said.

Biden will also attend a state visit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, in addition to face-to-face talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been invited to the somber ceremonies marking this decisive battle that led to the end of World War II.

American presidents have regularly made the journey for this critical anniversary, and Biden is no exception.

“The president is very much looking forward to going to Normandy over the course of the next two days of this week to commemorate the service and the sacrifice, the bravery of the soldiers, Allied and American alike, who fought in D-Day in that invasion, conducted Operation Overlord and really spelled through that operation, the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany, and the beginning of something even more impactful, and that’s this rules-based international order that we all still continue to enjoy today,” John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, told VOA at the White House.

Here, analysts say, history offers lessons.

“The D-Day landings were the Western Allies’ military statement that authoritarian regimes could not change boundaries by force,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ”That countries could not just be invaded, and that authoritarian regimes of the type that Nazi Germany constituted — particularly with its terrible oppression of subjugated peoples, particularly the Jews — were not acceptable and not just not acceptable, but would be destroyed.”

Analysts say Biden’s Ukraine goals will be overshadowed by his increasingly unpopular support of another conflict.

“Even though obviously Ukraine is the top priority for the Europeans, they are seeing how the Biden administration’s policy on Gaza is undermining European security in two different ways,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute.

“First of all, it is really destroying Western credibility in the broader international community and in the Global South — any talk about the rules-based international order at this point, will get laughed at, given what the Biden administration has done.”

This trip to France, a close ally, comes at the start of six weeks of high-level U.S. involvement in high-stakes summits — including a peace summit on Ukraine, a summit of leaders of the Group of Seven, or G7, leading industrialized countries, and a summit of NATO members.

VOA asked Sullivan what this set of diplomatic events could mean for peace in Europe, and beyond.

“I think we need to send a clear message to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that he cannot outlast us, and that he cannot divide us,” he replied. “And we have been very good at holding the line on those two messages, and this is going to be a great opportunity over the coming weeks to not just put a period at the end of that sentence, but an exclamation point.”

Patsy Widakuswara contributed from the White House.
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The Palestinian militant group Hamas on Tuesday said it could not agree to a peace deal without a clear Israeli position on a permanent cease-fire and complete withdrawal from Gaza. The decision followed Israeli leaders’ pledge to continue military operations until Hamas is destroyed, despite a cease-fire proposal announced by President Joe Biden days earlier. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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phoenix, arizona — The first heat wave of the season is bringing triple-digit temperatures earlier than usual to much of the southwestern United States, where forecasters warned residents Tuesday to brace for “dangerously hot conditions” with highs expected to top 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) in the days ahead in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. 

By Wednesday, most of an area stretching from southeastern California to central Arizona will see “easily their hottest” weather since last September and record daily highs will be in jeopardy throughout the region, the National Weather Service said. 

Excessive heat warnings have been issued from 10 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Friday for parts of southern Nevada and Arizona. The unseasonably hot weather is expected to make its way into parts of the Pacific Northwest by the end of the week. 

“We’re looking at high temperatures well in the 90s and 100s, temperatures well above average for the time of year — some spots as much as 10 to 20 degrees above average,” National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard said on Tuesday. 

Southeastern California, southern Nevada and much of Arizona will be affected most, he said. 

“As we go through the week, some of those higher temperatures are also going to spread north, potentially getting into portions of the Pacific Northwest as well,” Chenard said. 

“We do have several days where these temperatures will persist, and that usually adds to the impact. If there is just one day, it doesn’t tend to have as much of an impact,” he said. “But when you start getting two, three or four days, this heat and then even warm temperatures at night, you start to see the impact increase.” 

The unseasonably hot weather already has taken a toll in some areas. The U.S. Border Patrol reported on Monday that four migrants died last weekend from heat-related causes while attempting to cross the border in southeastern New Mexico, near El Paso, Texas. 

Border Patrol El Paso Sector Chief Anthony Good urged migrants not to try to cross the border in the extreme heat. 

“The desert environment is extremely unforgiving, especially during the summer months,” Good said. “We urge anyone considering crossing illegally to understand the severe risks involved.” 

Fire crews will be on high alert, especially in Arizona, where fire restrictions went into effect before Memorial Day in some areas and will be ordered by Thursday across most of the western and south-central parts of the state, authorities said. 

Fire forecasters at the Southwest Coordination Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said weather in the region doesn’t typically become so hot until mid- or late June. 

“It does seem like Mother Nature is turning up the heat on us a little sooner than usual,” Tiffany Davila, spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, said Monday evening. 

“We can’t back down from a fire just because it’s pushing 113 degrees outside. But we do keep a close eye on everybody in the field. Make sure they are keeping hydrated and taking more breaks than they normally would,” she told The Associated Press. 

Highs on Monday reached 110 F (43.3 C) at Death Valley National Park in California near the Nevada line. 

In Las Vegas, Nevada, where the high topped out at 103 F (39.4 C) on Monday, temperatures will soar to 10 to 15 degrees above normal during the second half of the week — peaking at 111 (43.8 C) on Thursday. 

A high of 120 F (48.8 C) is forecast for Thursday at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. 

The current forecast of 113 F (45 C) for Phoenix on Thursday would break the daily record high of 111 F (43.8 C) set in 2016. 

Last summer, Phoenix saw a record 31 straight days of at least 110 degrees F (43.3 C), stretching from the last day of June through the entire month of July. At least 400 of the 645 heat-related deaths that occurred last year were during that monthlong period. 
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washington — U.S. President Joe Biden announced an executive order on Tuesday that will temporarily restrict asylum eligibility at the U.S.-Mexico border whenever the number of migrants crossing unlawfully or without authorization reaches a daily average of 2,500. 

Biden’s executive order says those who cross into the country illegally won’t be eligible for asylum unless there are extraordinary reasons why they should be allowed to stay in the United States. 

“These actions alone aren’t going to fix our immigration system, but they can help us a good deal in better managing what is a difficult challenge,” Biden said in his remarks at the White House.  

According to U.S. officials, the temporary asylum restrictions will come into effect when the average daily border encounters exceed 2,500, and they will be suspended when that number falls below 1,500. 

These restrictions take effect immediately. Data first reported by CBS News shows U.S. Border Patrol officials recorded 3,000 migrant apprehensions on May 20, and an average of 3,700 per day during the first 21 days of May.   

Who is affected? 

Anyone, regardless of nationality, crossing unlawfully along the southern border.  

While the restrictions are in effect, migrants who cross the southern border and are processed for expedited removal will be referred for a credible fear screening with an asylum officer only if they express a credible fear of returning to their country — meaning “a fear of persecution or torture” — or an intention to apply for asylum, explained a Department of Homeland Security official.

Immigration advocates call this a shout test.  

“If you’re able to shout and claim asylum, then you might be able to get through. But what we know is that people don’t always speak English. They don’t always know that is the way that they have to seek safety,” Amy Fischer, director of refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA, told VOA.  

Officials spoke on background, a method often used by U.S. authorities to share information with reporters without being identified. The DHS official also addressed a question about migrant removal. 

“[These measures] will apply both to individuals from our hemisphere as well as eastern hemispheric migrants. In terms of returns to Mexico, we will continue to return nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela per our previous arrangement,” a DHS official said.  

Exemptions 

Certain migrants are exempt from these restrictions, including unaccompanied children, victims of human trafficking, migrants facing medical emergencies, and those with valid visas or other lawful permission to enter the U.S.  

People who use lawful entry processes, like the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One mobile application or other designated pathways, won’t be affected by this guideline.  

Consequences 

Those who cross illegally when the restrictions are in place and do not establish a reasonable probability of persecution or torture in their country will be “promptly removed, and they will be subject to at least a five-year bar to reentry and potential criminal prosecution,” the DHS official said. 

Why now? 

During a call with reporters, officials from DHS and the Justice Department said these restrictions were necessary in the face of the summer, when migrant encounters typically increase.  

The tougher stance on border security is also a response to a heightened concern over immigration among American voters ahead of the November 5 elections.  

Criticism 

Some Republicans said Biden is issuing this order considering the upcoming presidential election. 

“With an election just months away, the president hopes that issuing an executive order will demonstrate that he cares about this crisis and is trying to fix it,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor. 

Immigration advocates strongly criticized the move, calling it “a total gutting” of asylum protections.  

Fischer, of Amnesty International, said this executive order is going to prevent more people from accessing asylum and make it more difficult for people to articulate their claim.  

“[It] does not sort out people that have false or ineffective asylum claims. What it does is, it sorts out the most vulnerable,” Fischer added. 

The ACLU says it will sue to stop the restrictions. 

“We intend to challenge this order in court. It was illegal when Trump did it, and it is no less illegal now,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in an email to reporters. 

Biden officials disagree, saying the United States will continue to adhere to its international obligations and commitments. 

“These steps will strengthen the asylum system, preventing it from being overwhelmed and backed up by those who do not have legitimate claims,”  the DHS official said. ” … But we are clear-eyed that today’s executive actions are no substitute for Congress taking up and passing the tough but fair bipartisan Senate bill, which would have significantly strengthened the consequences in place at the border.”
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Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed felony forgery charges Tuesday against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit paperwork falsely saying that former President Donald Trump had won the battleground state in 2020.

The charges were filed against attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, 62, and Jim Troupis, 70, and former Trump aide Mike Roman, 51, who allegedly delivered Wisconsin’s fake elector paperwork to a Pennsylvania congressman’s staffer in order to get them to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021.

All three are due in Dane County Circuit Court on Sept. 19, according to court records. They each face one felony count punishable by up to six years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

Troupis and Chesebro did not return voicemail messages left Tuesday. Roman did not have an attorney listed in court records.

Kaul, a Democrat, has faced pressure to bring action against the 10 fake electors, who have yet to be charged with any criminal wrongdoing. He has previously suggested that he was relying on federal investigators while also not ruling out a state probe.

Kaul didn’t rule out filing more charges, saying that the investigation is ongoing.

“Our approach has been focusing on following the facts where they lead,” he said at a news conference.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers offered a one-word response to news of the charges being filed: “Good.”

Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to certify the outcome.

The fake elector efforts are central to an August federal indictment filed against Trump alleging he tried to overturn results of the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors, investigating his conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, have also said the scheme originated in Wisconsin. Trump also faces charges in Georgia and has denied wrongdoing.

Michigan and Nevada have also criminally charged fake electors.

Chesebro and Roman were among the 18 people indicted along with Trump in August in a sprawling racketeering indictment in Georgia. They’re accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally overturn the 2020 election in that state.

Chesebro in October pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents after reaching a deal with Georgia prosecutors. Roman has pleaded not guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges related to a plan to have Republican electors meet and cast Electoral College votes for Trump even though Biden had won Georgia.

The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis, who was Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin, all settled a civil lawsuit that was brought against them last year.

Documents released as part of those settlements showed that the strategy in Wisconsin replicated moves in six other swing states.

The complaint goes into detail largely citing those documents, interviews and testimony given to Congress about how the fake elector scheme was hatched.

The complaint details how Chesebro emailed a memo on Nov. 18, 2020, to Troupis and others arguing that electors representing Trump should meet on Dec. 14, 2020, to preserve the Trump-Pence electoral slate in case a court or Legislature would determine them to be the winners.

Chesebro argued in a subsequent memo that the Trump electors could be counted by Congress if court challenges to his loss were still pending. Troupis sent both memos to the Trump White House, according to the complaint.

On Dec. 9, 2020, Chesebro emailed Troupis a memo with instructions for the Dec. 14, 2020, elector meetings. Two days later, Chesebro emailed Trump aide Roman details of the plan, the complaint said.

During or around the time of the Dec. 14, 2020, meeting, Chesebro sent a message to Troupis and Roman that said, “WI meeting of the ‘real’ electors is a go!!!,” the complaint said. Troupis responded with a “thumbs up” emoji, the complaint said.

The complaint also details how the fake elector slate was delivered to Chesebro from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021, by Alesha Guenther, a law student working part-time at the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Roman told Guenther to deliver the paperwork only to Chesebro.

“5 mins until I make the drop,” Guenther texted at one point, according to the complaint. “I feel like a drug dealer.”

Once Chesebro was given the documents, he emailed Roman to let him know he had them.

Roman then arranged for a congressional staff member to meet Chesebro and take the document. Chesebro sent Roman a message confirming that it had been done, the complaint said.

Trump lost Wisconsin to Biden, a Democrat, by fewer than 21,000 votes. Trump carried Wisconsin by a similar margin in 2016.

Government and outside investigations have uniformly found there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could have swung the 2020 election. But Trump has continued to spread falsehoods about the election, particularly in Wisconsin.
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