Author: PolitCens

A shooting at a Georgia high school on Wednesday was a stark reminder that firearms kill more Americans per capita than in any other large, high-income country, according to health experts. Vice President Kamala Harris wants stricter gun regulation. Her opponent, former President Donald Trump, pledges to roll back gun restrictions. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains.
…

LONDON — Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein won’t face charges of indecent assault in Britain, prosecutors announced on Thursday.

The Crown Prosecution Service, which in 2022 authorized two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein, said it decided to discontinue proceedings because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”

“We have explained our decision to all parties,” the CPS said in a statement. ”We would always encourage any potential victims of sexual assault to come forward and report to police, and we will prosecute wherever our legal test is met.”

Weinstein became the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement in 2017 when women began to go public with accounts of his behavior. After the revelations emerged, British police said they were investigating multiple allegations of sexual assault that reportedly took place between the 1980s and 2015.

In June 2022, the Crown Prosecution Service said it had authorized London’s Metropolitan Police Service to file two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein in relation to an alleged incident that occurred in London in 1996. The victim was in her 50s at the time of the announcement.

Unlike many other countries, Britain does not have a statute of limitations for rape or sexual assault.

Weinstein, who has denied that he raped or sexually assaulted anyone, remains in custody in New York while awaiting retrial in Manhattan, prosecutors said in August.

After the retrial, he is due to start serving a 16-year sentence in California for a separate rape conviction in Los Angeles, authorities said. Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 while already serving a 23-year sentence in New York.

His 2020 conviction in Manhattan was thrown out earlier this year when the state’s top court ruled that the judge in the original trial unfairly allowed testimony against Weinstein based on allegations that weren’t part of the case.

Weinstein, the co-founder of the Miramax entertainment company and The Weinstein Company film studio, was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, having produced films such as “Pulp Fiction” and “The Crying Game.”
…

Washington — A judge will hear arguments Thursday about the potential next steps in the federal election subversion prosecution of Donald Trump in the first hearing since the Supreme Court narrowed the case by ruling that former presidents are entitled to broad immunity from criminal charges.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers submitted dueling proposals late Friday before the status conference. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is presiding over the case that charges Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump is not expected to be present, and it was not immediately clear whether Chutkan will make any rulings Thursday.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team filed a new indictment last week to strip out certain allegations against Trump, the Republican nominee for president, and comply with the Supreme Court ruling. His team said it could be ready at any time to file a legal brief laying out its position on how to apply the justices’ immunity opinion to the case. 

Defense lawyers said they intend to file multiple motions to dismiss the case, including one that piggybacks off a Florida judge’s ruling that said Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.

Neither side envisions a trial happening before the November election, especially given the amount of work ahead. Chutkan is tasked with determining which of the acts alleged in the indictment can remain part of the case in light of the Supreme Court opinion.

The justices in July ruled that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for the exercise of their core constitutional duties and are presumptively immune from prosecution for all other official acts. 

Smith’s team responded to the ruling with a revised indictment last week that removed references to Trump’s efforts to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to remain in power, an area of conduct for which the Supreme Court said Trump is immune. 

The case is one of two federal prosecutions against Trump. The other, charging him with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, was dismissed in July by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. She said Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unlawful.

Smith’s team has appealed that ruling. Trump’s lawyers say they intend to ask Chutkan to dismiss the election case on the same grounds. 
…

WASHINGTON — The White House is signaling an openness to blocking the acquisition of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel, as a government review of the proposed takeover by the Japanese company is wrapping up. 

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that President Joe Biden plans to stop the deal from going forward. A White House official, insisting on anonymity to discuss the matter, did not deny the report and said Biden still needs to receive the official recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). That review could end as soon as this month. 

Biden had voiced his objections to the merger, backing his supporters in the United Steelworkers union who oppose the deal. The objection carries weight as U.S. Steel is headquartered in the swing state of Pennsylvania and is a symbol of Pittsburgh’s industrial might in an election year when Republicans and Democrats alike are promising more domestic manufacturing jobs. 

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, came out against the deal this week. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has said he would block the merger if he were still in the White House. 

Stock in U.S. Steel fell roughly 17% on the news that Biden would stop the merger. 

The CFIUS review process generally pertains to business issues with national security implications. U.S. Steel spokesperson Amanda Malkowski said in an email that the company had not received any update on the process and that the company sees “no national security issues associated with this transaction, as Japan is one of our most staunch allies.” 

“We fully expect to pursue all possible options under the law to ensure this transaction, which is best future for Pennsylvania, American steelmaking, and all of our stakeholders, closes,” Malkowski said. 

A spokesman representing Nippon Steel said the company had not received any updates from the federal government on the review process. 

U.S. Steel on Wednesday hosted a rally in support of the acquisition. It said in a statement that without the Nippon Steel deal the company would “largely pivot away from its blast furnace facilities, putting thousands of good-paying union jobs at risk, negatively impacting numerous communities across the locations where its facilities exist, and depriving the American steel industry of an opportunity to better compete on the global stage.” 
…

washington — China’s consul general in New York left his post as scheduled after completing his posting last month, the State Department said on Wednesday, hours after New York’s governor said she asked for his expulsion in the aftermath of the arrest of a former aide who was accused of secretly acting as a Chinese agent.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that Consul General Huang Ping “was not expelled.”

“Our understanding is that the consul general reached the end of a regular scheduled rotation in August, and so rotated out of the position, but was not expelled,” Miller said.

“But of course, when it comes to the status of particular employees of a foreign mission, I would refer you to the foreign country to speak to it. But there was no expulsion action.”

China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Huang Ping’s status.

Governor asked for envoy’s expulsion

Earlier on Wednesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul told an event that she spoke by phone at the request of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to a high-ranking State Department official “and I had conveyed my desire to have the consul general from the People’s Republic of China in the New York mission expelled.”

“And I’ve been informed that the consul general is no longer in the New York mission,” she said.

Miller said Hochul had spoken on Wednesday to Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.

Asked by an audience member if she had been interviewed by investigators, including the FBI, Hochul said: “They asked me one question.”

“I’m not able to talk about it but it had something to do with identifying whether or not something was my signature and that was it,” she said.

Former aide charged

Linda Sun, 41, a former aide to Hochul, was charged on Tuesday with secretly acting as an agent of the Chinese government in exchange for millions of dollars in compensation and gifts, including meals of gourmet duck.

Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, 40, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo in Brooklyn, after being arrested on Tuesday morning.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said that while working in state government, Sun blocked representatives of the Taiwanese government from meeting with officials and sought to arrange for a high-level New York state official to visit China. In exchange, Chinese government representatives allegedly arranged for millions of dollars in transactions for Hu, who had business activities in China.

Prosecutors said Sun and Hu used the money to buy a 2024 Ferrari Roma sports car, as well as property on New York’s Long Island and in Honolulu worth about $6 million.

Hochul was not accused of any wrongdoing. Her office fired Sun in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct and reported Sun’s actions immediately to authorities. Her office also has assisted law enforcement throughout the process, a spokesperson for the governor said.

According to the website of China’s consulate in New York, Huang Ping had been the consul general since November 2018. Prior to that, Huang, 61, served as a Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe and did stints as an official at the embassy in Washington and China’s consulate in Chicago.
…

…

pentagon — Venezuela has detained a U.S. Navy sailor who was visiting the country while on personal travel, U.S. officials have confirmed to VOA.

The reason for the detention is unknown.

A defense official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity because of international sensitivities said the sailor was detained “on or about August 30, 2024, by Venezuelan law enforcement authorities while on personal travel to Venezuela.”

“The U.S. Navy is looking into this and working closely with the State Department,” the defense official added.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. was tracking the detention closely and was seeking additional information.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby added that the U.S. was “obviously in touch” with Venezuelan authorities.

The tension in the U.S.-Venezuela relationship has been further stretched since Venezuela held elections earlier this year.

The Biden administration has questioned the results that kept Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in power, stating last month that “Maduro and his representatives have tampered with the results of that election, falsely claimed victory and carried out widespread repression to maintain power.”

Earlier this week, the U.S. seized Maduro’s plane over alleged sanctions violations.

Guita Mirsaeedi and Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
…

Pentagon — The United States is planning to send Michael Chase, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, to China’s top annual security forum this month, two U.S. defense officials have confirmed to VOA.

One of the officials, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity ahead of the forum, called Chase’s upcoming attendance “consistent participation from the U.S.” 

Chase is more senior than the U.S. representative at last year’s Xiangshan Forum, but his rank is on par with historical norms for Pentagon representatives who attend the annual meeting. The Pentagon did not send a representative from 2020-2022 due to the pandemic.

“This engagement is meant to be more of the same” to keep the lines of military communication open and ensure that China has a clear understanding of the United States’ position on global security issues, the defense official told VOA. 

The forum comes on the heels of a face-to-face meeting in Singapore between U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, in late May.

Austin spoke with Dong for the first time in April, marking the first dialogue between the two countries’ defense chiefs in nearly 17 months. The top U.S. military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown, spoke with his Chinese military counterpart in December.

“Of course talks can make a difference. Having those mil-to-mil communications, those senior channels open, actually allows for the avoidance of a miscalculation,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters earlier this year.

Chinese state media reports say that more than 90 countries and international organizations plan to send delegations to Beijing for the September 12-14 forum.

Reuters was first to report the decision.

Beijing has asserted its desire to control access to the South China Sea and bring democratically ruled Taiwan under its control, by force if necessary. President Joe Biden has said U.S. troops would defend the island from attack.

China’s defense ministry has said the Taiwan issue is the “core of China’s core interests.”

Tensions have risen sharply between China and U.S. ally the Philippines in the South China Sea, with China’s coast guard using water cannons to threaten Filipino fishing ships. China has also used collision and ramming tactics, undersea barriers and a military-grade laser to stop Philippine resupply and patrol missions.

Last year, Austin and his Philippine counterpart established the U.S.-Philippines Bilateral Defense Guidelines, which reaffirmed that an armed attack in the Pacific – including anywhere in the South China Sea – on either of their public vessels, aircraft, or armed forces, would invoke mutual defense commitments outlined in the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.
…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Boeing will attempt to return its problem-plagued capsule from the International Space Station later this week — with empty seats.

NASA said Wednesday that everything is on track for the Starliner capsule to undock from the space station Friday evening. The fully automated capsule will aim for a touchdown in New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range six hours later.

NASA’s two stuck astronauts, who flew up on Starliner, will remain behind at the orbiting lab. They’ll ride home with SpaceX in February, eight months after launching on what should have been a weeklong test flight. Thruster trouble and helium leaks kept delaying their return until NASA decided that it was too risky for them to accompany Starliner back as originally planned.

“It’s been a journey to get here, and we’re excited to have Starliner return,” said NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.

NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will close the hatches between Starliner and the space station on Thursday. They are now considered full-time station crew members along with the seven others on board, helping with experiments and maintenance, and ramping up their exercise to keep their bones and muscles strong during their prolonged exposure to weightlessness.

To make room for them on SpaceX’s next taxi flight, the Dragon capsule will launch with two astronauts instead of the usual four. Two were cut late last week from the six-month expedition, which is due to blast off in late September. Boeing must vacate the parking place for SpaceX’s arrival.

Boeing encountered serious flaws with Starliner long before its June 5 liftoff on the long-delayed astronaut demo.

Starliner’s first test flight went so poorly in 2019 — the capsule never reached the space station because of software errors — that the mission was repeated three years later. More problems surfaced, resulting in even more delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

The capsule had suffered multiple thruster failures and propulsion-system helium leaks by the time it pulled up at the space station after launch. Boeing conducted extensive thruster tests in space and on the ground, and contended the capsule could safely bring the astronauts back. But NASA disagreed, setting the complex ride swap in motion.

Starliner will make a faster, simpler getaway than planned, using springs to push away from the space station and then short thruster firings to gradually increase the distance. The original plan called for an hour of dallying near the station, mostly for picture-taking; that was cut to 20 or so minutes to reduce the stress on the capsule’s thrusters and keep the station safe.

Additional test firings of Starliner’s 28 thrusters are planned before the all-important descent from orbit. Engineers want to learn as much as they can since the thrusters won’t return to Earth; the section containing them will be ditched before the capsule reenters.

The stuck astronauts — retired Navy captains — have lived on the space station before and settled in just fine, according to NASA officials. Even though their mission focus has changed, “they’re just as dedicated for the success of human spaceflight going forward,” flight director Anthony Vareha said.

Their blue Boeing spacesuits will return with the capsule, along with some old station equipment.

NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry its astronauts to and from the space station after its shuttles retired. SpaceX accomplished the feat in 2020 and has since launched nine crews for NASA and four for private customers.
…

Islamabad — An American diplomat has condemned the Taliban’s new morality law in Afghanistan, warning that it “aims to complete the erasure of women from public life.” 

Rina Amiri, the United States special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights, posted on social media late Tuesday that she raised concerns about the law during her recent meetings with counterparts in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. 

“My message was clear:  Our support for the Afghan people remains steadfast, but patience with the Taliban is running out,” Amiri wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The way to legitimacy domestically & internationally is respecting the rights of the Afghan people.” 

The U.S. warning comes days after the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, enacted the contentious decree that orders Afghan women not to speak aloud in public and cover their bodies and faces entirely when outdoors.  

The 114-page, 35-article law also outlines various actions and specific conduct that the Taliban government, called the Islamic Emirate, considers mandatory or prohibited for Afghan men and women in line with its strict interpretation of Islam.  

The legal document empowers the Ministry for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, which the Taliban revived after coming back to power in August 2021, to enforce it strictly.  

Enforcers are empowered to discipline offenders, and penalties may include anything from a verbal warning to fines to imprisonment. The law requires them to prevent “evils” such as adultery, extramarital sex, lesbianism, taking pictures of living objects and befriending non-Muslims. 

Official Taliban media quoted Akhundzada this week as ordering authorities to “rigorously enforce” the new vice and virtue decree across Afghanistan “to bring the people closer to the Islamic system.” 

The law was enacted amid extensive restrictions on Afghan women’s education and employment opportunities. 

Since regaining power three years ago, the Taliban have prohibited girls ages 12 and older from continuing their education beyond the sixth grade and restricted women from seeking employment, except in certain sectors such as health.  

Afghan females are not allowed to visit parks and other public places, and a male guardian must accompany them on road trips or air travel. 

The United Nations promptly responded to the new law last month, condemning it as a “distressing vision” for the impoverished country’s future and urging de facto authorities to reverse it. 

The Taliban government, which is officially not recognized by any country, has dismissed U.N.-led foreign criticism as offensive.  

 Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesperson, asserted that “non-Muslims should first educate themselves about Islamic laws and respect Islamic values” before expressing concerns or rejecting the law. “We find it blasphemous to our Islamic Sharia when objections are raised without understanding it,” he said. 
…

Peace continues to elude Gaza as the conflict there speeds toward the one-year mark, with public rage over the recent killing of hostages, fears over the spread of polio — and amid all this, ongoing, delicate negotiations helmed by Washington. Anita Powell files from the White House.
…

new york — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, thwarting the former president’s latest bid to overturn his felony conviction and delay his sentencing.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Trump’s lawyers permission to file paperwork asking the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to take control of the case. He said they had failed to satisfy the burden of proof required for a federal court to seize the case from the state court where Trump was convicted in May.

The ruling leaves Trump’s case in state court, where he is scheduled to be sentenced September 18.

Trump’s lawyers had sought to move the case to federal court so they could then seek to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling granting ex-presidents immunity from prosecution for official acts.

Hellerstein, who denied Trump’s request last year to move the case to federal court, said nothing about the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling affected his “previous conclusion that the hush money payments” at issue in Trump’s case “were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.”

Hellerstein sidestepped a defense argument that Trump had been the victim of “bias, conflicts of interest, and appearances of impropriety” at the hands of the judge who presided over the trial in state court, Juan M. Merchan.

“This Court does not have jurisdiction to hear Mr. Trump’s arguments concerning the propriety of the New York trial,” Hellerstein wrote in a four-page decision.

Instead, Hellerstein noted, Trump can pursue a state appeal or, after exhausting that path, seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It would be highly improper for this Court to evaluate the issues of bias, unfairness or error in the state trial,” Hellerstein wrote. “Those are issues for the state appellate courts.”

Hellerstein’s ruling came hours after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking his permission to pursue federal court intervention. Trump’s lawyers had initially asked the federal court to step in last week, but their papers were rejected because they hadn’t first obtained Hellerstein’s permission to file them, as required.

Messages seeking comment were left with Trump’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case.

Earlier in the day Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors raised objections to Trump ‘s effort to delay post-trial decisions in the case while he sought to have the federal court step in.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office argued in a letter to the judge presiding over the case in state court that he had no legal obligation to hold off on post-trial decisions and wait for Hellerstein to rule.

Prosecutors urged the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, not to delay his rulings on two key defense requests: Trump’s call to delay sentencing until after the November election, and his bid to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.

Merchan has said he will rule September 16 on Trump’s motion to overturn the verdict. His decision on delaying sentencing has been expected in the coming days.

Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential run. Trump has denied her claim and said he did nothing wrong.

Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation or a fine.
…

washington — Top U.S. election security officials are asking American voters to tune out the noise and reject what they describe as unfounded claims that the coming presidential election will be rigged. 

Instead, in the first of a series of election security briefings planned in the run-up to November’s election, they say U.S. voters should have confidence that when they go to the polls their votes will be counted accurately. 

“Throughout the next few months, you are going to hear a lot of different things from different sources. The most important thing is to recognize the signal through the noise, the facts from the fiction,” said Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is responsible for election security. 

“Our elections process, election infrastructure has never been more secure, and the election stakeholder community has never been stronger,” Easterly said, briefing reporters Tuesday. “It’s why I have confidence in the integrity of our elections and why the American people should, as well.” 

Easterly’s effort to reassure voters comes a little over a month after the U.S. intelligence community issued its own warning that U.S. adversaries, led by Russia, Iran and China, are seeking to meddle with the November election. 

But those efforts highlighted in the intelligence community warning are spearheaded by influence operations or disinformation campaigns designed to sow doubt about the U.S. election process and to help or hinder certain candidates. 

In contrast, efforts by U.S. adversaries to attack or hack systems used to carry out the election, and tally votes, have so far been nonexistent. 

“We have not seen any intent to interfere in the elections process,” Cait Conley, CISA senior adviser, told reporters.  

And while some of that could be explained by what officials describe as a steady stream of investments in election security infrastructure — including the hiring of more field offices and election security advisers — CISA officials are not taking the lack of malicious activity for granted. 

“That is something that could change at any moment,” Conley said. “When we look at this threat landscape for this election cycle, it truly is arguably the most complex yet.” 

CISA said other efforts to safeguard the upcoming presidential election include a variety of election security exercises, accuracy testing for voting machines, and enhanced security measures to protect election-related computer networks. 

They also emphasize that none of the systems that record votes are connected to the internet and that 97% of U.S. voters will cast ballots in jurisdictions that have paper ballots as back-ups. 

None of that, however, will stop countries such as Russia, Iran and China from trying to convince voters that things are going wrong. 

Easterly said one of the biggest concerns is that U.S adversaries will portray minor hiccups as major scandals. 

“It’s almost inevitable that somewhere across the country someone will forget to bring the keys to unlock the polling location,” she said. “Someone will unplug a printer to plug in a crockpot. A storm may cause a polling site to lose electricity.” 

Cybercriminals might even find a way to temporarily disable what officials describe as election-adjacent systems, including websites for state and local agencies that record and tally votes. 

“We can absolutely expect that our foreign adversaries will remain a persistent threat to attempting to undermine American confidence in our democracy and our institutions and to sow partisan discord,” she said. “It is up to all of us not to let our foreign adversaries be successful.” 

Easterly and Conley said the best way to avoid unnecessary panic is for American voters to rely on state and local election officials for information. 

But if Americans rely on word-of-mouth social media accounts, it could cause trouble. 

“It’s a hard problem for social media companies,” a senior U.S. intelligence official said at a recent briefing, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues. 

“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] definitely uses influence actors on social media to try to at least stir discord in the United States,” the official said. “So, I would expect that platform to be [used].” 

And there is growing evidence that China may be ramping up its efforts. 

Graphika, a social media analytics firm, issued a report Tuesday warning that a Chinese-linked disinformation operation known as “Spamoflage” has grown increasingly aggressive. 

Graphika said it has identified more than a dozen accounts on platforms including X, formerly known as Twitter, and on TikTok “claiming to be U.S. citizens and/or U.S.-focused peace, human rights, and information integrity advocates frustrated by American politics and the West.” 

“These accounts have seeded and amplified content denigrating Democratic and Republican candidates, sowing doubt in the legitimacy of the U.S. electoral process, and spreading divisive narratives about sensitive social issues,” the Graphika report said, though it added that few of the accounts had managed to gain much traction. 

Graphika’s conclusions seem to be consistent with earlier assessments by Meta, the social media company behind Facebook and Instagram, when it first identified the effort last year. 

“Despite the very large number of accounts and platforms it used, Spamouflage consistently struggled to reach beyond its own [fake] echo chamber,” Meta said at the time. “Only a few instances have been reported when Spamouflage content on Twitter and YouTube was amplified by real-world influencers.” 
…

Washington — Turkey placed 10 people in pretrial detention Tuesday in connection with an assault of two U.S. Marines in Turkey’s western port city of Izmir.

Several members of a Turkish nationalist group, Turkey Youth Union, or TGB, on Monday attacked two U.S. Marines from the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, which docked in the city’s port on Sunday, according to the Izmir Governorate.

Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday that the two Marines were not injured and are “safe.” He said they were aided by other Marines in the area during the incident and were subsequently taken to a local hospital for evaluation as a precaution before returning to the Wasp.

“This is clearly a troubling incident. We are grateful for the support of the Turkish authorities who are looking into this,” Ryder said.

He added that no Marines have been detained by authorities, and that those involved in the incident are cooperating with investigators.

Turkish authorities arrested 15 people on Monday over the incident, and a Turkish court released five of them under judicial control on Tuesday. The remaining 10 were ordered held in pretrial detention until they hear charges against them.

According to a video shared by the TGB on social media, TGB members were seen as they put a sack over a U.S. Marine’s head.

“No one will be able to respond to the cries for help from U.S. soldiers. Your hands are stained with the blood of our brave soldiers and thousands of Palestinians. You will leave our lands!” the TGB wrote on X, tagging the X accounts of the U.S. Embassy in Turkey and the U.S. Department of Defense.

“[U.S. soldiers] put a sack over the head of our soldiers in Sulaymaniyah,” a TGB member said in the video, referring to an incident in which U.S. troops arrested at least 11 Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq in 2003.

Turkish media reported that the heads of the arrested Turkish soldiers were covered in sacks, and the arrests stirred a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the United States. The incident is widely known as the “Hood event” in Turkey.

The video also showed several TGB members chanting, “Yankee, go home,” a historical anti-American slogan associated with 1960s leftist protests in Turkey.

Reports confirmed

In a statement on Monday, the Izmir Governorate announced that two women and 13 men, who are members of the TGB, physically attacked two U.S. military personnel in civilian clothes.

“Five U.S. soldiers in civilian clothes joined the incident after seeing it from a distance, and our security forces quickly intervened,” the governorate said.

The U.S. Embassy in Turkey confirmed reports of the attack on Monday. “We thank Turkish authorities for their rapid response and ongoing investigation,” the embassy said on X.

In a statement to VOA, a White House National Security Council spokesperson also said, “We are troubled by this assault on U.S. service members and are appreciative that Turkish police are taking this matter seriously and holding those responsible accountable.”

On Sunday, Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, reported that the Wasp was in Turkey “for a regularly scheduled port visit” that “provides an opportunity to further enhance strategic partnership between the U.S. and Turkiye.”

According to the DVIDS, the schedule of the U.S. personnel included “tours organized by the ship’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation team, such as a visit to the Ephesus historical site, snorkeling and scuba diving, and a guided tour of Izmir’s cultural sites.”

U.S. Sixth Fleet spokesperson and Navy Commander Timothy Gorman told VOA the two assaulted Marines were from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Middle East tensions

The U.S. sent the Wasp to the eastern Mediterranean for deterrence reasons in June amid the increased tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. The USS Bataan and the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford were previously deployed to the region after the October 7 attack.

Omer Celik, the spokesperson for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, criticized the deployments.

“Every warship, every aircraft carrier sent there by other countries will provide an opportunity that will benefit those who say violence should continue and violence should spread even more to the region,” Celik said.

The Wasp participated in bilateral at-sea training with two Turkish navy ships in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea from August 13 to 17. U.S. Marines shared information about the joint training, but Turkey’s National Defense Ministry did not publicly announce it.

Later in August, Turkish media reported that the Wasp docked in Cyprus as part of the increased U.S. presence in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party criticized the government for not disclosing the joint training.

VOA Turkish Service’s Ogulcan Bakiler from Izmir and Begum Donmez Ersoz from Istanbul contributed to this story. VOA’s Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb also contributed.
…

SEOUL, South Korea — An Apple TV+ documentary series, “K-pop Idols,” premiering Friday, offers an intimate look at how the K-pop industry is embracing diversity while grappling with challenges in a field that demands perfection.

The six-part series features Korean American star Jessi and up-and-coming K-pop bands like Cravity and Blackswan, documenting the highs and lows of their careers.

K-pop is known for its blend of vocals with precise choreography.

Blackswan members Fatou and Nvee told The Associated Press they practice up to 10 hours daily, including choreography and vocal sessions before the “comeback” season which refers to a string of events to promote their latest songs.

The grueling practice starts early.

Once under contract, K-pop trainees enter a system that includes classes in manners, language, dance, and choreography. As of 2022, there were 752 K-pop trainees under entertainment labels, according to a Korea Creative Content Agency report.

Despite recent pushback against the perennial “dark side of K-pop” narrative, the documentary shows that some industry problems persist.

Former Blackswan member Youngheun said members had a curfew and were not allowed to drink or date. “We even had to report when we were getting our nails done and going to the convenience store in front of our house,” she shared in the documentary.

Rigid control extends to diet.

Blackswan member Gabi is seen eating a meal of egg, chicken breast and what resembles sweet potato sticks during her trainee period. “I am dieting because Mr. Yoon [the label’s head] told me I need to lose weight,” Gabi said.

The pressure applies to boy bands, too.

Cravity member Wonjin shared that he was given two weeks to lose weight to join the label. “I would eat like one egg a day […] I lost about 7kg,” he said in the documentary.

Bradley Cramp, one of executive producers of the documentary, noted that such restrictions exist in other competitive industries as well.

“I honestly don’t know one idol or elite sports athlete or entertainer that doesn’t deal with the issue of diet and self-image and mental health to some degree or another,” he told The Associated Press.

The documentary also touches on K-pop’s new challenge: embracing diversity.

Following BTS’ international success, K-pop labels have been actively recruiting foreign talents, which sometimes brings unfamiliar challenges.

In the documentary, Yoon Deung Ryong, the founder of Blackswan’s label DR Music, struggles to settle internal conflicts among members, which later escalated to online clashes between fans.

“If the company says, ‘don’t fight,’ they won’t fight,” he said, referring to traditional K-pop groups. He added that he can’t control a “multinational group” the same way because of language and cultural differences. There are currently no Korean members in Blackswan after member changes.

With K-pop’s global expansion, fundamental questions remain about the essence of K-pop.

“In a K-pop group, if there are no Korean members, I feel like it’s just a K-pop cover group, isn’t it?” Blackswan’s former Korean member Youngheun said in the documentary.

However, Cravity’s Hyeongjun disagrees. “If foreigners come to Korea and sing in other languages, I am not sure if I can call that K-pop, but since they [Blackswan members] are active in Korea and use Korean, they are K-pop.”

Cramp said social media has impacted K-pop’s ecosystem in various ways, including creating a “symbiotic relationship” between K-pop stars and fans, and forcing stars to live their lives “under a microscope.”

“There’s a desire to be real. But on the other hand, you have to obviously keep certain things kind of out of the public spotlight,” he told the AP. “You want to be famous, but yet at the same time, you still want your privacy and you want to be able to go and have dinner with your friends and have a good time and not be filmed doing it.”

“K-Pop Idols” is now available on Apple TV+.
…

Mexico City — “That’s it, dude! Done!” exclaimed Eliezer López as he jumped up and down, throwing his arms to the sky and drawing a sign of the cross across his chest. His joy was so contagious, his friends started to emerge from nearby tents to celebrate with him.

López, a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant in Mexico City, had reason to rejoice: After several frustrating attempts, he was able to secure an appointment to seek asylum in the U.S.

He is one of thousands of migrants whose U.S.-bound journey has landed them in the Mexican capital, the southernmost point until recently from which migrants can register to request an appointment to seek asylum through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s mobile app known as CBP One.

Since June, when the Biden administration announced significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum, the app became one of the only ways to request asylum at the Southwest border.

This U.S. asylum policy and its geographic limits are a driving force behind the emergence of migrant encampments throughout the Mexican capital where thousands of migrants wait weeks — even months — in limbo, living in crowded, makeshift camps with poor sanitation and grim living conditions.

From point of transit to temporary destination

Historically, Mexico City has not been a stop for northbound migrants. They try to cross the country quickly to reach the northern border. But the delays in securing an appointment, coupled with the danger that plagues cartel-controlled northern Mexico border cities and the increased crackdown by Mexican authorities on migrants have combined to turn Mexico City from a point of transit to a temporary destination for thousands.

Some migrant camps have been dismantled by immigration authorities or abandoned over time. Others, like the one where López has lived for the past few months, remain.

Like López, many migrants have opted to wait for their appointment in the somewhat safer capital, but Mexico City presents its own challenges.

Shelter capacity is limited, and unlike large U.S. cities like Chicago and New York, which rushed last winter to find housing for arriving migrants, in Mexico City they are mainly left to their own devices.

Andrew Bahena, coordinator of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, or CHIRLA, said that up until late 2023 many migrants were contained in southern Mexican cities like Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala. Many tried to disguise their location to defeat CBP One’s geographic limits, but when U.S. authorities took notice, more migrants began aiming for Mexico City to make their appointments from there, he said.

As a result, there has been an increase in the migrant population living in the Mexico City camps.

“We talk about this as border externalization and it’s something the United States and Mexico have been jointly implementing for years,” said Bahena. “The CBP One app is probably one of the best examples of that today.

“These folks are asylum seekers, they’re not homeless people living in Mexico,” he added.

A maze of tents and tarps

When López first arrived in Mexico City at the end of April, he thought about renting a room only to realize it was not an option.

He earned $23 a day working three times a week at a market. Rent was $157 per person to share a room with strangers, an arrangement that has become commonplace in Mexican cities with migrant populations.

“The camp is like a refuge,” said López. Migrants can share space with people they know, avoid the curfews and strict rules of shelters and potentially stay longer if necessary.

The camps are a maze of tents and tarps. Some call their space “ranchito,” or small ranch, assembled from wood, cardboard, plastic sheets, blankets and whatever they can find to protect them from the chilly mountain air and intense summer rains that pound the city.

At another camp in La Merced neighborhood, hundreds of blue, yellow and red tents fill a plaza in front of a church. It’s one of the capital’s largest camps and just a 20-minute walk from the city center.

“This is a place where up to 2,000 migrants have been living in the last year,” said Bahena. “About 40% are children.”

Migrants in La Merced have organized themselves, building an impromptu pump that moves water from the public system and distributes it on a fixed schedule, with every tent receiving four buckets of water every day.

“At the beginning there were a lot of problems, lots of trash and people in Mexico didn’t like that,” said Héctor Javier Magallanes, a Venezuelan migrant, who has been waiting nine months for a CBP One appointment. “We made sure to fix those problems little by little.”

As more migrants kept arriving at the camp, he set up a task force of 15 people to oversee security and infrastructure.

Despite efforts to keep the camp clean and organized, residents haven’t been able to avoid outbreaks of illnesses, exacerbated by drastic weather changes.

Keilin Mendoza, a 27-year-old Honduran migrant, said her kids constantly get colds, especially her 1-year-old daughter.

“She’s the one that worries me the most, because she takes the longest to recover,” she said. Mendoza has tried accessing free medical attention from humanitarian organizations at the camp, but resources are limited.

Israel Resendiz, coordinator of Doctors Without Borders’ mobile team, said the uncertainty of life in the camps weighs heavily on migrants’ mental health.

“It’s not the same when a person waiting for their appointment […] can get a hotel, rent a room or have money for food,” Resendiz said. “The majority of people don’t have these resources.”

The secretary of inclusion and social welfare and the secretary of the interior in Mexico City didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press about the camps. Press representatives of Clara Brugada, the incoming mayor of Mexico City, said the issue must first be discussed at the federal level.

Meanwhile, tensions between camp residents and neighbors have increased, sometimes leading to mass evictions of the camps.

In late April, neighbors from the trendy and central Juárez neighborhood blocked some of the city’s busiest streets, chanting, “The street is not a shelter!”

Eduardo Ramírez, one of the protest organizers, said it’s the government’s job to “help these poor people that come from their countries in search of something better and have the bad luck of traveling through Mexico.”
…

Washington — A decision on whether to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug in the U.S. won’t come until after the November presidential election, a timeline that raises the chances it could be a potent political issue in the closely contested race.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration last week set a hearing date to take comment on the proposed historic change in federal drug policy for Dec. 2.

The hearing date means a final decision could well come in the next administration. While it’s possible it could precede the end of President Joe Biden’s term, issuing it before Inauguration Day “would be pretty expedited,” said cannabis lawyer Brian Vicente.

That could put a new spotlight on the presidential candidates’ positions on marijuana. Vice President Kamala Harris has backed decriminalizing the drug and said it’s “absurd” to have it in the DEA’s Schedule I category alongside heroin and LSD. The Democratic nominee’s position has shifted over the years; she once oversaw the enforcement of cannabis laws and opposed legalized recreational use for adults in California while running for attorney general in 2010.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, signaled support for a Florida legalization measure on Saturday, following earlier comments that he increasingly agrees that people shouldn’t be jailed for the drug now legal in multiple states, “whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

During his run for president in 2016, Trump said that he backed medical marijuana and that pot should be left up to the states. But during his first term, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal.

Trump’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a query about his position on rescheduling the drug.

The Justice Department proposed reclassifying it in May, saying the change would recognize marijuana’s medical uses and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. The proposal, which would not legalize marijuana for recreational use, came after a call for review from Biden, who has called the change “monumental.”

The DEA has said it doesn’t yet have a position on whether to go through with the change, stating in a memo that it would keep weighing the issue as the federal rulemaking process plays out.

The new classification would be the most significant shift in U.S. drug policy in 50 years and could be a potent political issue, especially with younger voters. But it faces opposition from groups such as Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Its president, Kevin Sabet, argues there isn’t enough data to move cannabis to the less-dangerous Schedule III category, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids. The DEA’s move to hold the hearing is “a huge win in our fight to have this decision guided by medical science, not politics,” he said in a statement, adding that 18 states’ attorneys general are backing his opposition.

The hearing sparked some consternation among pot industry players, though little surprise about the DEA decision to hold one.

“While the result ultimately may be better, I think we’re so used to seeing delays that it’s just a little disappointing,” said Stephen Abraham, chief financial officer at The Blinc Group, supplier of cartridges and other hardware used in pot vapes. “Every time you slow down or hold resources from the legal market, it’s to the benefit of the illicit market.”

The proposal, which was signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland rather than DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, followed a recommendation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Federal drug policy has lagged behind that of many states in recent years, with 38 having already legalized medical marijuana and 24 legalizing its recreational use.

Lawmakers from both major political parties have pushed for the change as marijuana has become increasingly decriminalized and accepted. A Gallup poll last year found 70% of adults support legalization, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm and more than double the roughly three in 10 who backed it in 2000.

The marijuana industry has also grown quickly, and state-licensed pot companies are keen on rescheduling partly because it could enable them to take federal business-expense tax deductions that aren’t available to enterprises involved in “trafficking” any Schedule I or II drug. For some of Vicente’s clients, the change would effectively reduce the tax rate from 75% to 25%.

Some legalization advocates also hope rescheduling could help persuade Congress to pass legislation aimed at opening banks’ doors to cannabis companies. Currently, the drug’s legal status means many federally regulated banks are reluctant to lend to such businesses, or sometimes even provide checking or other basic services.

Rescheduling could also make it easier to research marijuana, since it’s difficult to conduct authorized clinical studies on Schedule I substances. Some medical marijuana patient advocates fear that the discussion has already become deeply politicized and that the focus on rescheduling’s potential effect on the industry has shifted attention from the people who could benefit.

“It was our hope that we could finally take the next step and create the national medical cannabis program that we need,” said Steph Sherer, founder and president of Americans for Safe Access. The organization advocates for putting cannabis in a drug category all its own and for creating a medical cannabis office within DHS.

The immediate effect of rescheduling on the nation’s criminal justice system, though, would likely be more muted, since federal prosecutions for simple possession have been fairly rare in recent years.
…