Author: PolitCens

The Biden and Trump administrations have accused China of unfair trade practices and flooding international markets with artificially cheap goods. Analysts say both presidential candidates are using tariffs to counter China and encourage U.S. manufacturing jobs. Elizabeth Lee explains how this trade war could impact consumers.
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Washington — More than 50 Burmese Americans gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, protesting China’s alleged interference in Myanmar’s internal affairs.

The protest on Saturday, part of a global campaign, called on China to withdraw its support for Myanmar’s military junta and respect the will of the people, who have been fighting for democracy since the February 2021 coup.

The protest — with demonstrators waving banners that read “Reject Junta’s Sham Elections” and “Solidarity With the People of Myanmar” — was sparked by a statement released earlier Saturday by the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar, saying that China was not interfering in the country’s affairs and would continue to promote peace and stability.

“We reject the Chinese Embassy’s statement that they’re not interfering in Myanmar’s internal matters,” said Yin Aye, a protest leader who has been organizing demonstrations in the Washington area since the 2021 coup. “If they would stop supporting sham elections and truly pressure the military to stop causing so much pain to our people, we might believe them.”

Yin Aye referred to China’s close ties with Myanmar’s military junta and its alleged interference in the operations of ethnic resistance forces in northern Shan State, actions that have drawn widespread criticism from Burmese and pro-democracy groups.

On August 29, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, an armed ethnic group fighting against the junta in northeastern Myanmar, said it had received a letter from Chinese authorities in the border town of Ruili warning the group to halt its offensive in northern Shan State, where key Belt and Road Initiative projects are located, or face consequences.

Hla Kyaw Zaw, a veteran observer of China-Myanmar relations, said China’s recent actions, particularly its warning to the TNLA, have sparked outrage among the Myanmar public, who view it as a direct threat to ethnic resistance forces fighting for democracy.

“The language used in the letter was undiplomatic and threatening,” Hla Kyaw Zaw told VOA’s Burmese Service.

A spokesperson for the TNLA told VOA that Chinese authorities had warned the group in the letter to stop fighting, maintain stability along the China-Myanmar border and protect Chinese citizens. The letter warned that failure to comply would result in China “teaching them a lesson” and holding the group responsible for any consequences.

When asked about the letter at a regular press briefing in late August, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jian did not confirm or deny Beijing had sent the letter.

“China is closely following the situation in Myanmar and the developments of the conflict in northern Myanmar and has been working to promote peacetalks and ceasefire,” spokesperson Liu Jian said. “As Myanmar’s biggest neighboring country, China has all along sincerely hoped that Myanmar will achieve stability and development and has worked actively to this end.”

Since then, members of the Myanmar diaspora have intensified protests outside Chinese embassies worldwide, accusing China of supporting Myanmar’s military coup.

Protests worldwide

Saturday’s protest in Washington was part of a series of coordinated demonstrations by Burmese diaspora communities worldwide.

In July, activists in Washington, New York, San Francisco, London and Tokyo protested outside Chinese embassies and consulates.

In the July protest in Washington, protesters attempted to hand deliver an open letter to Chinese authorities, urging Beijing to halt its support for Myanmar’s military junta. However, the letter went unanswered.

“When we handed the letter to the Chinese embassy here in D.C., they refused to accept it. They didn’t even acknowledge our demands,” said Yin Aye.

Activists were instructed to send the letter by post, but previous attempts to mail similar letters to the Chinese Embassy were returned undelivered.

Despite the lack of formal response, Myanmar activists say the Chinese Embassy in Washington has been monitoring their protest activities in recent weeks.

“Now, we see them videotaping our protests,” Yin Aye said.

Voice of America reached out to the Chinese embassies in Washington and Yangon for comment about the protests but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

War crimes allegations

The Myanmar diaspora argues that China’s support for Myanmar’s military is not only undermining the will of the people but also enabling war crimes, including aerial bombardments and the targeting of internally displaced persons.

Minmin Berwald, an activist of Myanmar descent, was compelled to participate in the protest on Saturday.

“I want to ask China to immediately stop supporting this military regime and interfering in Burma’s internal affairs,” Berwald said. “It’s not just homes being set on fire. Internally displaced people who have fled war are being bombarded.”

China’s contradictory stance

China has maintained a complex position toward Myanmar since the February 2021 coup, balancing its own interests with regional stability, Hla Kyaw Zaw said. She noted that China has sent high officials to Myanmar, called for peace in the country and sponsored mediating talks between the junta and the armed ethnic groups.

After the coup, however, China’s official Xinhua news agency described the military’s takeover and replacement of elected ministers as a “major cabinet reshuffle,” avoiding the use of the term “coup.”

Beijing called for all parties in Myanmar to “resolve their differences” and refrained from condemning the military. In 2022, China also abstained from voting on U.N. Security Council Resolution 2669, which called for an end to violence in Myanmar. However, critics argue that China’s actions on the ground suggest deeper involvement.

A veteran China-Myanmar affairs expert in Yangon, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said China’s statements often appear contradictory. “It’s clear that China wants to control the situation to its advantage,” the expert said, referring to China’s public calls for peace while its actions suggest otherwise.

China, for its part, has denied interfering in Myanmar’s internal affairs on multiple occasions. In its statement Saturday, the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar reiterated its position of noninterference and called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The embassy also condemned what it called “unjustified accusations” from individuals and media.

The fight continues

Protesters also called for China to take a more active role in cutting off support to Myanmar’s junta, including halting the supply of jet fuel used in airstrikes against civilians. Amnesty International has documented multiple cases of the Myanmar military using airpower to target civilian areas, and activists argue that China’s continued engagement with the junta implicates them in these atrocities.

For now, the protesters have vowed to keep returning to the Chinese Embassy in Washington. “We will continue to protest, continue to speak out,” said Yin Aye.
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Washington — Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. Congress has appropriated $174 billion, including U.S. weapons and materiel, to respond to the crisis and help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s aggression.

U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch calls the oversight of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine his office’s “job one,” with more than 200 people assigned to that task.

In an interview with Voice of America’s Ukrainian Service, Storch discussed the challenges in obtaining the information necessary for such oversight in a country that is fighting a war, suffers from endemic corruption and has no large-scale U.S. military presence.

According to the most recent quarterly Special Inspector General report to the U.S. Congress on Operation Atlantic Resolve (the name of the U.S. military response to Russian operations in Ukraine), issued in mid-August, there were 57 open investigations as of June 30, 2024. They involved “grant and procurement fraud, corruption, theft, program irregularities, and diversion and counter-proliferation of technology of weapons systems components.”

In January, Ukraine’s SBU security service reported that it had uncovered a $40 million corruption scheme, implicating defense ministry officials and arms supplier managers, that involved the embezzlement of funds for purchase of 100,000 mortar shells.

That case did not involve U.S.-provided materiel. However, in September 2023, Oleksii Reznikov was removed as Ukraine’s defense minister “over various corruption cases despite enjoying a solid reputation in representing Ukraine in its discussions with Western allies,” Reuters reported.

Storch told VOA that the Pentagon is working with Ukraine’s military to ensure that it provides timely and accurate information, and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government to fight corruption. He said that in the days immediately following Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s armed forces were delinquent in providing information, but that the situation has improved, in part thanks to oversight.

While corruption remains endemic in Ukraine, Storch said that Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions are maturing and that the oversight community is working to ensure that such progress continues. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: You are overseeing numerous Pentagon programs. How robust is oversight of the delivery of weapons to Ukraine?

Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense Robert Storch: We are leading a robust, comprehensive oversight effort that really covers all aspects of U.S. assistance to Ukraine. I have responsibility over the security assistance that’s provided, and we partner very closely, hand-in-glove, with our great colleagues from the State Department Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Inspector General to make sure we’re covering all aspects of humanitarian or other assistance that’s being provided to Ukraine.

VOA: How large is your team that is overseeing the Ukrainian program?

Storch: We have a lot of things pulling at us and lots going on in the world with the Department of Defense. But Ukraine is very much job one. I always say it’s really a matter of the highest priority for my office and for my colleagues’ offices as well.

So, in the case of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, we have over 200 people who are engaged in one aspect or another of oversight over U.S. security assistance to Ukraine. That includes about 30 people who were forward deployed in the region. We have several offices in Germany. We have folks in Poland. And we have both investigators and programmatic oversight personnel at the [U.S.] Embassy in Kyiv. If you take all of our partners from State and AID in oversight entities, it is between 300 and 400 people who are engaged in oversight in this whole-of-government effort.

VOA: When you talk to Ukrainian officials, do they appreciate the importance of reporting?

Storch: Without exception, they acknowledge the importance of making sure that we get the information we need to be able to do our oversight to make sure there’s accountability, and frankly to be able to tell the decision-makers here in Washington that that’s going on. …

I go up to the Hill [Capitol Hill, location of the U.S. Congress] not infrequently. And you know, I’m not a policymaker. It’s up to the administration and the Congress to set what the policies are. But one of the things I get asked all the time is, ‘Are we getting the information we need to carry out our work?’ and we have been getting that, and we’re going to work to make sure we continue to.

VOA: The Pentagon transfers materiel to the Ukrainian armed forces. Do they understand the importance of oversight, and do they provide timely self-reporting?

Storch: We work really closely to make sure that’s the case. That’s one of the big lines of effort with regard to our oversight. We’ve done a number of reports looking at the monitoring and the reporting. There are obligations that the Ukrainian armed forces have for reporting on the status of the equipment, and U.S. personnel keep track and there’s a database. When things are lost or destroyed, they have to be reported in a certain way. … [T]hat’s one area where I like to think that our oversight has really made a difference. When we first started on that, the level of delinquency in that reporting was really pretty high, and some of that was because, when the war started, the U.S. personnel had to leave the country.

There was equipment being provided and really no one doing that sort of accountability and inventory. So, a lot of it has been playing catch-up. And … there are challenges with a wartime setting and a lot of this equipment is being used on the front lines and [in] really difficult and sad situations. And so being able to maintain accountability is difficult, but we do a lot of work on that.

VOA: In one of your reports, you mentioned endemic corruption in Ukraine. You worked in Ukraine in 2007 to 2009 to help the country overcome corruption. Can you compare the situation in Ukraine now to what you saw back then?

Storch: I actually had the opportunity to work and live in Ukraine back in 2007 to 2009, when I was with the Department of Justice working with the Ukrainians to help them develop measures to address official corruption. And I had the opportunity to go back on a number of occasions and provide assistance in the drafting of the anti-corruption legislation, and that created the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Office of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, so I have had a lot of experience out there and have seen the way these institutions have matured. The Ukrainians made it happen …

But Ukraine has had long-standing issues with corruption, obviously, and people are working to address it. One of the things we talk about in our quarterly reporting … is that they’re continuing to make efforts to address it, and we continue as the United States both to provide assistance in that, and then, in the oversight community, to do oversight over that to make sure that progress is being made.

VOA: Your report mentions that there are 57 investigations ongoing into allegations ranging from irregularities in procurement to corruption, diversion and theft. Have any of those allegations been substantiated?

Storch: At this point, based on our completed work, we haven’t substantiated those allegations, but obviously the investigations continue, right?

VOA: About half of the allegations involve the proliferation of weapons. How high is the risk of diversion?

Storch: Sure, there’s a significant risk there, but we always want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to address it, and that’s why I mention the programmatic oversight.

We have a website [with] links to the hotlines that my office and our counterparts operate. I really encourage folks to take advantage of that to report that information. So, people can look into it.

VOA: There is reporting that the Pentagon overestimated the value of some of the U.S. equipment destined for Ukraine. Do you think this accounting error will persist or is it being corrected?

Storch: We’re doing everything we can to help the [Defense] Department to address it. We became concerned about that pretty early on and consulted with the department about it and, without getting too complex, basically the department was using a methodology to value the materiel that was being provided that resulted in an overvaluation of it. If you were donating your car, you probably wouldn’t be able to donate the cost of buying a new car like that, right? It’s a little more complicated than that, but basically it resulted in an overvaluation. Initially the Department looking into it found about $6.2 billion that they thought was overstated. We came in and did additional oversight, which is reflected in our reporting, and found about $1.9 billion additionally.

So, the answer to your question is we made recommendations to help the Department address the issues, and we’re going to keep working to make sure those recommendations are carried out and the problems addressed.
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A small town in the Midwestern state of Ohio finds itself at the center of a controversy involving fake news about migrants eating residents’ pet cats and dogs. VOA’s Creole Service traveled to Springfield and has this report, narrated by Elizabeth Cherneff.
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London — Meta said it’s banning Russia state media organization from its social media platforms, alleging that the outlets used deceptive tactics to amplify Moscow’s propaganda. The announcement drew a rebuke from the Kremlin on Tuesday. 

The company, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said late Monday that it will roll out the ban over the next few days in an escalation of its efforts to counter Russia’s covert influence operations. 

“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets: Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” Meta said in a prepared statement. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov lashed out, saying that “such selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable,” and that “Meta with these actions are discrediting themselves.” 

“We have an extremely negative attitude towards this. And this, of course, complicates the prospects for normalizing our relations with Meta,” Peskov told reporters during his daily conference call. 

RT was formerly known as Russia Today. Rossiya Segodnya is the parent company behind state news agency RIA Novosti and news brands like Sputnik. 

“It’s cute how there’s a competition in the West — who can try to spank RT the hardest, in order to make themselves look better,” RT said in a release. 

Rossiya Segodnya did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. 

Meta’s actions comes days after the United States announced new sanctions on RT, accusing the Kremlin news outlet of being a key part of Russia’s war machine and its efforts to undermine its democratic adversaries. 

U.S. officials alleged last week that RT was working hand-in-hand with the Russian military and running fundraising campaigns to pay for sniper rifles, body armor and other equipment for soldiers fighting in Ukraine. They also said RT websites masqueraded as legitimate news sites but were used to spread disinformation and propaganda in Europe, Africa, South America and elsewhere. 

Earlier this month, the Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and charged two RT employees of covertly providing millions of dollars in funding to a Tennessee-based content creation company to publish English-language social media videos pushing pro-Kremlin messages. 

Moscow has rejected the allegations. 

Meta had already taken steps to limit Moscow’s online reach. Since 2020 it has been labeling posts and content from state media. Two years later, it blocked state media from running ads and putting their content lower in people’s feeds, and the company, along with other other social media sites like YouTube and TikTok, blocked RT’s channels for European users. Also in 2022 Meta also took down a sprawling Russia-based disinformation network spreading Kremlin talking points about the invasion of Ukraine. 

Meta and Facebook “already blocked RT in Europe two years ago, now they’re censoring information flow to the rest of the world,” RT said in its statement. 

Moscow has fought back, designating Meta as an extremist group in March 2022, shortly after sending troops into Ukraine, and blocking Facebook and Instagram. Both platforms — as well as Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, which is also blocked — were popular with Russians before the invasion and the subsequent crackdown on independent media and other forms of critical speech. The social media platforms are now only accessible through virtual private networks. 
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NEW YORK — Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with three federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.  

Combs, 54, was arrested in Manhattan by federal agents on Monday night, following a year in which his career was derailed by several lawsuits accusing him of physical and sexual abuse. 

Marc Agnifilo, Combs’ lawyer, said he was disappointed with the decision to pursue an “unjust prosecution” of the rapper and producer. 

“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community,” Agnifilo said on Monday night. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal.” 

Agnifilo added that Combs voluntarily relocated to New York in anticipation of the charges. 

Combs, who has also been known as P. Diddy and Puff Daddy, was a major figure in hip-hop in the 1990s and 2000s. He founded the label Bad Boy records, and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers such as Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars. 

His reputation came under fire last November when former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer known as Cassie, accused him in a lawsuit of serial physical abuse, sexual slavery and rape during their decade-long relationship. She agreed to an undisclosed settlement one day after suing, even as Combs denied her allegations. 

His legal pressures mounted, and he has faced several civil lawsuits by women and men who accused him of sexual assault and other misconduct. His lawyers have been fighting those cases in court. Federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Florida six months ago. 

Singer Dawn Richard, formerly of Danity Kane, last week accused Combs in a lawsuit of sexual assault, battery, sex trafficking, gender discrimination and fraud. 

A Michigan judge this month ordered Combs to pay $100 million to Derrick Lee Smith, who said Combs drugged and sexually assaulted him at a party almost 30 years ago, after Combs failed to show up to defend himself in court. A lawyer for Combs said he would seek to dismiss that judgment. 

Combs has also rejected claims in a February sex trafficking lawsuit by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who Combs employed as a producer on his 2023 release “The Love Album: Off the Grid.” 

The indictment is not Combs’ first brush with the law. He was acquitted in March 2001 of bribery and weapons charges in a criminal trial stemming from a nightclub shooting that left three people wounded.
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PHOENIX — A judge has rejected a bid by Mark Meadows, a former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, to move his charges in Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court, marking the second time he has failed in trying to get his charges out of state court.

In a decision Monday, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi said Meadows missed a deadline for asking for his charges to be moved to federal court, didn’t offer a good reason for doing so and failed to show that the allegations against him related to his official duties as chief of staff to the president.

Meadows faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what authorities allege was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor. He had unsuccessfully tried to move charges in the Georgia case last year. It’s unknown whether Meadows will appeal the decision. The Associated Press left phone and email messages for two of Meadows’ attorneys.

While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows, while chief of staff, worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat. Meadows has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona and Georgia.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.

The decision sends Meadows’ case back down to Maricopa County Superior Court.

In both Arizona and Georgia, Meadows argued his charges should be moved to federal court because his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump’s chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law.

Arizona prosecutors said Meadows’ electioneering efforts weren’t part of his official duties at the White House.

Meadows last year tried to get his Georgia charges moved but his request was rejected by a judge whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court. Meadows has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling.

The Arizona indictment says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Prosecutors say Meadows also had arranged meetings and calls with state officials to discuss the fake elector conspiracy.

Meadows and other defendants are seeking a dismissal of the Arizona case.

Meadows’ attorneys said nothing their client is alleged to have done in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people trying to get ideas in front of Trump — or “seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal efforts by the president’s campaign.”

In all, 18 Republicans were charged in late April in Arizona’s fake electors case. The defendants include 11 Republicans who had submitted a document falsely claiming Trump had won Arizona, another Trump aide and five lawyers connected to the former president.

In August, Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation.

The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the forgery, fraud and conspiracy charges in Arizona.

Trump wasn’t charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator.

The 11 people who were nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried the state.

A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.
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An apparent assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the weekend raised new questions Monday about political violence in the United States. Democratic and Republican leaders called for more resources for the U.S. Secret Service. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more
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DAKAR, Senegal — The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Niger is complete, an American official said Monday. 

A small number of military personnel assigned to guard the U.S. Embassy remain, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters. 

Earlier this year, Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement that allowed U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. A few months later, officials from both countries said in a joint statement that U.S. troops would complete their withdrawal by the middle of September. 

The U.S. handed over its last military bases in Niger to local authorities last month, but about two dozen American soldiers had remained in Niger, largely for administrative duties related to the withdrawal, Singh said. 

Niger’s ouster of American troops following a coup last year has broad ramifications for Washington because it’s forcing troops to abandon critical bases that were used for counterterrorism missions in the Sahel. groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate in the vast region south of the Sahara desert. 

One of those groups, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, known as JNIM, is active in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and is looking to expand into Benin and Togo. 

Niger had been seen as one of the last nations in the restive region that Western nations could partner with to beat back growing jihadi insurgencies. The U.S. and France had more than 2,500 military personnel in the region until recently, and together with other European countries had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance and training. 

In recent months Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, turning instead to Russia for security. In April, Russian military trainers arrived in Niger to reinforce the country’s air defenses.
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America’s adversaries are ramping up efforts to impact the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and down-ballot races. VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin reports on the expanding array of sophisticated influence operations taking aim at U.S. voters
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NEW YORK — A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges stemming from an alleged plot to assassinate an American politician in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards top commander Qassem Soleimani. 

Asif Merchant, 46, entered his plea to one count of attempting to commit terrorism across national boundaries and one count of murder for hire at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Levy in Brooklyn. 

The judge ordered that Merchant be detained pending trial. 

Federal prosecutors say Merchant spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot. 

Merchant told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the United States, prosecutors said. 

The defendant named Donald Trump as a potential target but had not conceived the scheme as a plan to assassinate the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Court papers do not name the alleged targets, and no attacks were made. As president, Trump had in 2020 approved the drone strike on Soleimani. 

There are no suggestions that Merchant was tied to an apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday, or a separate shooting of the Republican presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.  

Merchant was arrested in Texas on July 15. 

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in August that the “modus operandi” described in Merchant’s court papers ran contrary to Tehran’s policy of “legally prosecuting the murder of General Soleimani.”
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Donald Trump is safe after what officials say was the second, unsuccessful assassination attempt in two months. The FBI took the lead after Sunday’s shooting with the suspect in custody — and with Americans facing another dramatic event in what is already a high-stakes, high-drama election. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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LOS ANGELES — “Hacks” won the comedy series at Sunday’s Emmy Awards, topping “The Bear,” which took home several of the night’s honors.

“Shogun” won the best drama series win, collecting a whopping 18 Emmys for its first season, just one of several historic wins.

Hiroyuki Sanada won best actor in a drama for “Shogun” on Sunday night at the Emmy Awards, and Anna Sawai won best actress as they became the first two Japanese actors to win Emmys.

Their wins gave the FX series momentum going into one of the night’s top awards, where “Shogun” won best drama series.

“The Bear” came back for seconds in a big way at the ceremony four times including best actor, best supporting actor and best supporting actress in a comedy, while British upstart “Baby Reindeer” won four of its own, including best limited series.

The star of FX’s “The Bear” Jeremy Allen White won best actor in a comedy for the second straight year, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach repeated as best supporting actor.

A surprise came when Liza Colón-Zayas won best supporting actor over major competition.

“How could I have thought it would be possible to be in the presence of Meryl Streep and Carol Burnett,” Colón-Zayas said as tears welled in her eyes as she accepted the award on the stage of the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

She is the first Latina to win in the category.

“To all the Latinas who are looking at me,” she said, “keep believing and vote.”

Netflix’s darkly quirky “Baby Reindeer” won best actor and best writing for the show’s creator and star Richard Gadd and best supporting actress for Jessica Gunning, who plays his tormentor.

Accepting the best limited series award, Gadd urged the makers of television to take chances.

“The only constant across any success in television is good storytelling,” he said. “Good storytelling that speaks to our times. So take risks, push boundaries. Explore the uncomfortable. Dare to fail in order to achieve.”

“Baby Reindeer” is based on a one man-stage show in which Gadd describes being sexually abused along with other emotional struggles.

Accepting that award, he said, “no matter how bad it gets, it always gets better.”

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Gadd has.

Jodie Foster won her first Emmy to go with her two Oscars when she took best actress in a limited series for “True Detective: Night Country.”

The creator of “The Bear” was also a repeat winner. Christopher Storer took his second straight Emmy for directing, an award handed out by reunited “Happy Days” co-stars Ron Howard and Henry Winkler.

White said backstage that he was watching in the wings as Colón-Zayas won and “that was just the greatest.”

He also shouted out two acting wins the show had already scored at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards, when Jamie Lee Curtis won best guest actress in a comedy for playing his mother, and Jon Bernthal won best guest actor for playing his big brother.

“The Bear” won six times including most of the top comedy categories at the strike-delayed Emmys in January.

While the third season of FX’s “The Bear” has already dropped, the trio won their second Emmys for its second, in which White’s chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto attempts to turn his family’s grungy Chicago sandwich shop into an elite restaurant. It could still win more Sunday night including best comedy series.

The father-son hosting duo of Eugene and Dan Levy in their monologue at the top of the show mocked the very dramatic “The Bear” being in the comedy category.

“In honor of ‘The Bear’ we will be making no jokes,” Eugene Levy said, to laughs.

Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for “Hacks.” She has won for all three seasons of “Hacks,” and has six Emmys overall.

She beat nominees including Ayo Edebiri, who as co-star of “The Bear” moved from supporting actress, which she won in January, to lead actress.

Coming into the show the big story was “Shogun,” which had already taken the most Emmys for a show in a single season with 14 at the Creative Arts ceremony.

The FX series about lordly politicking in feudal Japan can still win best drama series.

If “Shogun” faces competition for the best drama prize, it could come for the sixth and final season of “The Crown,” the only show among the nominees that has won before in a category recently dominated by the retired “Succession.”

Elizabeth Debicki took best supporting actress in a drama for playing Princess Diana at the end of her life in the sixth and final season of the show.

“Playing this part, based on this unparalleled, incredible human being, has been my great privilege,” Debicki said. “It’s been a gift.”

Billy Crudup won best actor in a drama for “The Morning Show.”

Streep wasn’t the only Oscar winner trumped by a little-known name. Robert Downey Jr., the reigning best supporting actor winner for “Oppenheimer,” was considered the favorite to win best supporting actor in a limited series for “The Sympathizer,” but that award went to Lamorne Morris for “Fargo.”

“Robert Downey Jr. I have a poster of you in my house!” Morris said from the stage as he accepted his first Emmy.

Several awards were presented by themed teams from TV history, including sitcom dads George Lopez, Damon Wayans and Jesse Tyler Ferguson and TV moms Meredith Baxter, Connie Britton, and Susan Kelechi Watson.
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