Author: PolitCens

washington — The United States and some of its allies have launched a global campaign to undercut efforts by RT and other Russian state-backed media outlets, accusing them of operating on behalf of the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies.

The State Department on Friday announced sanctions against two people and three entities, including RT’s Moscow-based parent company, saying new intelligence leaves no doubt that they are no longer engaged in providing anything that resembles news and information.

RT’s parent company and its subsidiaries “are no longer merely fire hoses of Russian government propaganda and disinformation,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at the State Department.

“They are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracy, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus,” he said, adding the Russian operations also seek to “meddle in the sovereign affairs of countries around the world.”

Blinken and other U.S. officials declined to share details about the new intelligence, saying only that some of it comes from RT employees, and that it shows how the Russian-controlled television network is playing a key role in running cyber operations and even acquiring lethal weapons for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

RT quickly ridiculed the U.S. accusations both on social media and in a response to VOA.

“RT: Lives rent free in the State Department head,” the outlet posted on X. “We’re running out of popcorn, but we’ll be here live, laughing hard…”

In response to a query from VOA, RT pointed to comments by editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan on her Telegram channel.

“American intelligence services have uncovered that we are helping the front lines,” Simonyan wrote, according to a translation from Russian. “We’ve been doing this openly, you idiots. Should I send you a list of what we’ve bought and sent? We regularly publish this, just so you know.”

The Russian Embassy in Washington has not yet responded to a request from VOA for comment.

U.S. officials, though, said comments like the ones from RT’s Simonyan only give more weight to the allegations.

“They’ve admitted it,” said James Rubin, the special envoy for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center. “They have said they’re operating under direct instruction of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. That’s what they say they’re doing.”

And the U.S. says the intelligence shows those Kremlin-assigned responsibilities go far beyond what could be considered normal broadcast operations, including oversight of a crowdsourcing campaign to provide Russian troops in Ukraine with sniper rifles, body armor, drones, night vision equipment and other weaponry.

“That’s not what a TV station normally does. That’s what … that’s what a military entity does,” Rubin said. RT is “a fully fledged member of the intelligence apparatus and operation of the Russian government on the war in Ukraine.”

The U.S. intelligence also points to Kremlin-directed RT operations in Argentina, Germany and the South Caucasus – some linked to a Russian military intelligence cyber team that has been embedded within the company.

U.S. officials also said evidence shows RT is “almost certainly” coordinating with traditional Russian intelligence services to meddle in next month’s presidential elections in Moldova.

“RT is going to be used to try to manipulate an election and, if they don’t win the election, manipulate a crowd to try to generate violence for the possibility of overthrowing [the government],” Rubin said.

U.S. officials also called out RT for covert influence operations in Latin America and Africa that have had serious consequences.

“One of the reasons why so much of the world has not been as fully supportive of Ukraine as you would think they would be — given that Russia has invaded Ukraine and violated rule number one of the international system — is because of the broad scope and reach of RT,” Rubin said.

The State Department said Friday that it had instructed its diplomats to share evidence about RT’s efforts with countries around the world.

“We urge every ally, every partner, to start by treating RT’s activities as they do other intelligence activities by Russia within their borders,” Blinken said.

Friday’s sanctions came a little more than a week after the U.S. took action against what it described as two Russian plots, one of them involving RT, aimed at undermining the U.S. presidential elections in November.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the takedown of 32 fake websites designed by Russia to mimic legitimate news sites, to bombard U.S. voters with propaganda aimed at building support for Russia in its war against Ukraine and bolstering support for Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump.

The U.S. also unsealed indictments against two RT employees, accusing them of funneling nearly $10 million to a U.S. company in Tennessee to promote and distribute English-language material favorable to the Russian government.
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Taipei, Taiwan — The United States and China are taking steps to resume top-level military-to-military communication, which analysts say is aimed at avoiding miscommunication and preventing tensions in the Indo-Pacific region from spiraling out of control.

The head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Sam Paparo, and the head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, General Wu Yanan, held a video call Tuesday.

The Chinese defense ministry said the two commanders had an “in-depth exchange of views on issues of common concern” while Paparo urged the Chinese military “to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond.”

On Thursday, the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that Wu is expected to attend a defense conference held by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii next week, citing anonymous U.S. defense officials.

Meanwhile, Michael Chase, the U.S. assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, is holding defense policy coordination talks with Chinese defense officials while attending the annual Xiangshan Security Dialogue held in Beijing.

The U.S. delegation led by Chase will “engage with regional allies and partners on the sidelines of the Xiangshan Forum to underscore the United States’ shared vision for the region ‘underpinned by a set of enduring beliefs,’” said the U.S. Department of Defense in a readout released Thursday.

The Biden administration has been working to restore communication between Chinese and American militaries since the U.S. president’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in California last November.

It also follows the first meeting between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Youxia, last month.

During that meeting, Zhang said maintaining military security is “in line with the common interests of both sides” and Sullivan highlighted the two nations’ shared responsibility to “prevent competition from veering into conflict or confrontation.”

Some analysts see a potential for further communication and engagement between the two militaries.

“I won’t rule out the possibilities that Beijing and Washington may look to establish a hotline between the two militaries, and whether that mechanism could be extended to the theater command level remains to be seen,” Lin Ying-Yu, a military expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone.

While the resumption of top-level communication allows Beijing and Washington to avoid miscalculations, other experts say it is unclear whether China and the U.S. can establish a more sustainable mechanism to cope with potential crises.

“While having contact and knowing your interlocutors are positive things during non-crisis times, the real test is whether these contacts can hold back any unintended escalation when incidents happen,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.

Chong said since theater commanders from the U.S. and China oversee implementing rather than formulating policies, it is unclear whether the latest development can become established protocols.

“If there’s a persistence of [maintaining military-to-military communication], then it would suggest that it has become a policy,” he told VOA by phone.

Tensions remain high over contentious issues

Tensions remain high between China and the U.S. over a range of issues, including the repeated collision between Chinese and Philippine vessels near disputed reefs in the South China Sea and Beijing’s increased maneuvers in waters and airspace near Taiwan and Japan.

During the Xiangshan Forum, Lieutenant General He Lei, the former vice president of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, characterized the Philippines’ attempt to safeguard its territorial claims in the South China Sea as “a unilateral change of the status quo” while accusing the U.S. of undermining security across the Taiwan Strait by selling weapons to Taiwan.

“The Chinese people and the People’s Liberation Army will never allow any external forces to interfere in China’s internal affairs or invade China’s territory,” he told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN in an interview.

Some analysts say there are limits to what military-to-military communications can do to ease tensions over what are essentially political disagreements.

“The military tension is only a manifestation of their political differences over Taiwan and the South China Sea, so if their disagreements are not resolved, the military tension is very unlikely to see a permanent resolution,” Yun Sun, China program director at the Stimson Center in Washington, told VOA by phone.

With less than two months until the U.S. presidential election, Chong in Singapore said Beijing and Washington’s recent efforts may be an attempt to lay the foundation for bilateral military-to-military communication to be continued after the November election.

“On the Democrat side, if some of the current team stays [after November], perhaps we would see this momentum continue,” he told VOA.

“On the Republican side, things are a bit messier, because you have those who prefer the isolationist approach, those who advocate a containment approach in Asia, and people who talk about competing against China to win,” Chong added.

Sun said if Donald Trump wins the election in November, Beijing will expect instability in bilateral relations and be prepared for the military relationship to be affected.
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new york — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a powerful leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, pleaded not guilty Friday to U.S. narcotics trafficking charges in a case accusing him of engaging in murder plots, ordering torture and channeling tons of drugs into the United States.

Participating in a court hearing through a Spanish-language interpreter, Zambada gave yes-or-no answers to a magistrate’s standard questions about whether he understood various documents and procedures. Asked how he was feeling, he said, “Fine, fine.”

His lawyers entered the not guilty plea on his behalf.

Outside court, Zambada attorney Frank Perez said his client wasn’t contemplating making a deal with the government, and the attorney expects the case to go to trial.

“It’s a complex case,” he said.

Sought by American law enforcement for more than two decades, Zambada has been in U.S. custody since July 25, when he landed in a private plane at an airport outside El Paso, Texas, in the company of another fugitive cartel leader, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, according to federal authorities.

Zambada later said in a letter that he was kidnapped in Mexico and brought to the U.S. by Guzman Lopez, a son of imprisoned Sinaloa co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Zambada’s lawyer did not elaborate on those claims Friday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cho ordered Zambada detained until trial. His lawyers did not ask for bail, and U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn asked the judge to detain him.

“He was one of the most, if not the most, powerful narcotics kingpins in the world,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro said. “He co-founded the Sinaloa cartel and sat atop the narcotics trafficking world for decades.”

Zambada sat quietly as he listened to the interpreter. Leaving court after the brief hearing, he appeared to accept some help getting out of a chair, then walked out slowly but unaided.

The 76-year-old had used a wheelchair at a court appearance in Texas last month. But Perez said after court Friday that Zambada was healthy and “in good spirits.”

Sketch artists were in the small courtroom, but other journalists could observe only through closed-circuit video because of a shortage of seats.

In court and in a letter earlier to the judge, prosecutors said Zambada presided over a vast and violent operation, with an arsenal of military-grade weapons, a private security force that was almost like an army, and a corps of “sicarios,” or hitmen, who carried out assassinations, kidnappings and torture.

His bloody tenure included ordering the murder, just months ago, of his own nephew, the prosecutors said.

“A United States jail cell is the only thing that will prevent the defendant from committing further crimes,” Navarro said.

Zambada also pleaded not guilty to the charges at an earlier court appearance in Texas. His next court appearance is scheduled for October 31.

According to authorities, Zambada and “El Chapo” Guzman built the Sinaloa cartel from a regional syndicate into a huge manufacturer and smuggler of cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs to the U.S. Zambada has been seen as the group’s strategist and dealmaker and a less flamboyant figure than Guzman.

Zambada had never been behind bars until his U.S. arrest in July.

His apprehension has touched off fighting in Mexico between rival factions in the Sinaloa cartel. Gunfights have killed several people.

Schools and businesses in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, have closed amid the fighting. The battles are believed to be between factions loyal to Zambada and those led by other sons of “El Chapo” Guzman, who was convicted of drug and conspiracy charges and sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. in 2019.

It remains unclear why Guzman Lopez surrendered to U.S. authorities and brought Zambada with him. Guzman Lopez is awaiting trial on a separate drug trafficking indictment in Chicago, where he has pleaded not guilty.
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“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” has just been renewed for its 25th season. It is the longest-running prime-time drama on U.S. television. The show’s lead character, Captain Olivia Benson, played by Mariska Hargitay, has become such a fixture in American life she was recently honored by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. VOA’s Maxim Adams reports. Videographer: Aleksandr Bergan
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With the start of the new school year, some students are choosing to study abroad to experience a new culture. Some American students are studying in China, but that number is far fewer than that of Chinese students attending American universities. Katherine Michaelson looks at why this imbalance could be problematic. Camera: : Elizabeth Lee 
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SEATTLE — Aircraft assembly workers walked off the job early Friday at Boeing factories near Seattle after union members voted overwhelmingly to go on strike and reject a tentative contract that would have increased wages by 25% over four years.

The strike started at 12:01 a.m. PDT, less than three hours after the local branch of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers announced 94.6% of voting workers rejected the proposed contract and 96% approved the work stoppage, easily surpassing a two-thirds requirement.

The labor action involves 33,000 Boeing machinists, most of them in Washington state, and is expected to shut down production of the company’s best-selling airline planes. The strike will not affect commercial flights but represents another setback for the aerospace giant, whose reputation and finances have been battered by manufacturing problems and multiple federal investigations this year.

The striking machinists assemble the 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling airliner, along with the 777, or “triple-seven” jet, and the 767 cargo plane at factories in Renton and Everett, Washington. The walkout likely will not stop production of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina.

The machinists make $75,608 per year on average, not counting overtime, and that would rise to $106,350 at the end of the four-year contract, according to Boeing.

However, the deal fell short of the union’s initial demand for pay raises of 40% over three years. The union also wanted to restore traditional pensions that were axed a decade ago but settled for an increase in Boeing contributions to employee’s 401(k) retirement accounts.

Outside the Renton factory, people stood with signs reading, “Historic contract my ass” and “Have you seen the damn housing prices?” Car horns honked and a boom box played songs such as Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It and Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do.

Boeing responded to the strike announcement by saying it was “ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement.”

“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to the members. We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union,” the company said in a statement.

Very little has gone right for Boeing this year, from a panel blowing out and leaving a gaping hole in one of its passenger jets in January to NASA leaving two astronauts in space rather sending them home on a problem-plagued Boeing spacecraft.

As long as the strike lasts, it will deprive the company of much-needed cash it gets from delivering new planes to airlines. That will be another challenge for new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who six weeks ago was given the job of turning around a company that has lost more than $25 billion in the last six years and fallen behind European rival Airbus.

Ortberg made a last-ditch effort to salvage a deal that had unanimous backing from the union’s negotiators. He told machinists Wednesday that “no one wins” in a walkout and a strike would put Boeing’s recovery in jeopardy and raise more doubt about the company in the eyes of its airline customers.

“For Boeing, it is no secret that our business is in a difficult period, in part due to our own mistakes in the past,” he said. “Working together, I know that we can get back on track, but a strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together.”

The head of the union local, IAM District 751 President Jon Holden, said Ortberg faced a difficult position because machinists were bitter about stagnant wages and concessions they have made since 2008 on pensions and health care to prevent the company from moving jobs elsewhere.

“This is about respect, this is about the past, and this is about fighting for our future,” Holden said in announcing the strike.

The vote also was a rebuke to Holden and union negotiators, who recommended workers approve the contract offer. Holden, who had predicted workers would vote to strike, said the union would survey members to decide which issues they want to stress when negotiations resume.
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American and Chinese diplomats and military officials are talking ahead of the U.S. presidential elections as tensions simmer in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching reports. Contributor: Jeff Seldin. Narrator: Elizabeth Cherneff.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul’s office recently released detailed findings of an investigation into the chaotic August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has been criticized for poor planning.

Speaking with Saba Shah Khan of VOA’s Urdu Service, McCaul, a Republican from Texas, denied that the latest probe is a “political exercise” that coincides with a tight presidential race. He said its purpose is to ensure that “an evacuation will never happen like this again.”

On Tuesday, the committee’s ranking Democrat, Representative Gregory Meeks from New York, issued a statement criticizing the report as a collection of “cherry-picked witness testimony” that excludes “anything unhelpful to a predetermined, partisan narrative about the Afghanistan withdrawal.”

“The Majority did not involve the Minority in this report, nor have they even provided a draft copy to us,” he wrote.

In the following interview, McCaul accuses White House officials of “stonewalling” the investigation and mentions his September 3 decision to subpoena Secretary of State Antony Blinken for testimony even though findings of the full report were released Monday.

“We’re still not finished with the investigation,” McCaul told VOA on Tuesday.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller last week issued a statement to The Hill stating that Blinken was unable to testify on the dates requested and offered “reasonable alternatives” to comply with McCaul’s request.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: Why is the Foreign Affairs Committee report on U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan being released now? With less than two months left to Election Day, some would say the report is politically driven.

U.S. Representative Michael McCaul: It’s been three years since the … chaotic evacuation. The first year, the majority — at that time, the Democrats — did nothing to investigate. So, I’ve had two years to put this very comprehensive, complete, historic account of what happened together. In the meantime, we served many subpoenas. We’ve had to threaten contempt proceedings. And I would have liked to have had this done a year ago. The administration has been, you know, stonewalling us and slowing down the delivery of the report. In fact, we’re still not finished with the investigation.

VOA: In light of the report, what do you think the Biden administration could have done differently to avoid the chaos and mayhem that unfolded during the withdrawal?

McCaul: That’s one of the key takeaways here. The military is on the ground doing their job. That’s to pull out by July [as dictated by a predetermined date of withdrawal negotiated by the prior administration]. The intelligence community sees what’s happening. They report this information. It gets a little bit manipulated when it gets to the higher level. And then it is amplified that everything’s fine in Afghanistan, when, in fact, on the ground, the conditions are getting very bad.

The State Department is required by law to come out with an evacuation plan called the NEO [Noncombatant Evacuation Operations]. They kept resisting this because they thought evacuation means failure. So, they wait until the very day that the Taliban is overrunning Kabul before they finally initiate an evacuation plan. That is why it was so chaotic. That is why the 13 servicemen and women were left behind — with Taliban, by the way — to work with them to help Afghans get out.

VOA: The report says that [President Joe] Biden kept Zalmay Khalilzad on as special representative [for Afghanistan reconciliation from September 2018 to October 2021], making it clear Biden embraced the [February 2020] Doha Accord. Sir, was that a good decision?

McCaul: The complaint I had — and Zal and I, you know, I’ve known him for a long time, and I have respect for him — but he did not include the Afghan government in the Doha talks. So, it was just between Zal Khalilzad and the Taliban. That sent a terrible message to the Afghan government. They felt like they were sidelined. … The Doha Agreement had conditions. Most important is the Taliban cannot hit U.S. forces. They were continuing to do that. But according to President Biden’s press guy [former State Department spokesperson Ned Price], Doha was “immaterial” as to the evacuation. He was going to go to zero — that means zero troops, zero contractors, zero air power — one way or the other. That was going to happen. He made that decision on day one.

VOA: The [Doha] negotiations and the decision to leave Afghanistan was made during the Trump administration. Chairman, do you think….

McCaul: … that isn’t accurate, because the Taliban were in violation of the Doha conditions. Twenty-five hundred troops were left on the ground — General [Kenneth] McKenzie and [Mark] Milly said that was sufficient to stabilize, along with 6,500 NATO and air power and contractors. That they could stabilize both Bagram and HKIA [Hamid Karzai International Airport] when it went to zero. That’s when it changed.

VOA: The date of withdrawal was decided by the Trump administration…

McCaul: … if conditions were met, which they weren’t …

VOA: … do you think that it is fair to hold the Biden administration solely responsible for the failure?

McCaul: And we don’t. We actually fault Zal Khalilzad. We list a lot of top D.O.D. [Department of Defense] and State Department officials that Congress, in a resolution, will condemn for their actions. Zal Khalilzad, he’s a dear friend, but by not letting the Afghan government participate — to me, that was a major error. And a lot of this, by not executing a plan of action to get out and evacuate, according to the top generals and the intelligence community, was the fatal flaw, leaving behind Americans, Afghan allies, and most importantly, the women.

VOA: The report also says that the U.S. did not keep track of whether the Taliban were following the Doha Agreement. In your opinion, how could the U.S. have made Taliban comply?

McCaul: In my opinion, they were in violation at the time the president made the decision to go to zero. But according to his press spokesperson, that was immaterial to the withdrawal. It was going to happen one way or the other. What people don’t understand is it’s not just the military being pulled out, it’s the air cover, it’s the contractors. When everything is pulled out, the Afghan army was virtually defenseless.

VOA: It is also said in the report that Afghanistan is a hotbed of terrorist activities. Can U.S. leave Taliban to their doings? And what is the way forward?

McCaul: It’s very, very dangerous. I was the chairman of Homeland Security Committee. What we’re seeing now, and we saw it before, is the Haqqani [network and] Taliban protecting Zawahiri, [the] number two Al-Qaeda [figure], who was taken by drone strike not too long after the evacuation. We know that they were collaborating — ISIS-K and Taliban — because United States is a common enemy.

Most disturbingly is Bagram, the prisons in Bagram. They [the Taliban] released thousands of ISIS prisoners that have now gone to the Khorasan region — that’s Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan — [for] external operations. Just recently, the FBI indicated to us that eight of them have been detained in the United States coming across the southwest border. … So, when Americans think Afghanistan is some faraway, distant land, it is all interconnected and it does threaten the homeland.

VOA: What is the way forward? What do you think the U.S. strategy should be to handle this?

McCaul: Number one, we don’t want to see this happen again. This was not a political exercise for me. As a [former] federal prosecutor, I just wanted to get to the facts and the evidence, wherever that took me. I didn’t have conclusions in advance. … So, to answer your question, we want to propose a new way to do this legislatively, through Congress, so that an evacuation will never happen like this again. Saigon was bad. This is worse.

VOA: The report quotes a study that 118 girls were sold as child brides in Afghanistan, in a village. And, in the same village, 116 parents are waiting for a buyer. So, my question to you is that it seems like there is no hope for women and girls in Afghanistan. What is your suggestion? And what can the U.S do?

McCaul: I mean, can you imagine being 25 years old as a woman and never lived under Sharia law, and now you have to go backwards to the stone age? And that’s essentially what has happened there. I got four busloads of the American School of Music girls out through Abbey Gate, because I knew the Taliban — the way they feel about women and music — their days would be numbered. Now, it’s very difficult. Do you normalize the Taliban? Do you treat them as a foreign terrorist organization?

I think any aid or assistance we give to Afghanistan has to be conditioned on treatment of women and children. And they should be allowed to go to school, they should be allowed to go outside their homes, they should not be beaten. Just fundamental rights.

This story originated in VOA’s Urdu Service.
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MOGADISHU, SOMALIA/WASHINGTON — In an exclusive interview, U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Richard Riley shed light on the ongoing diplomatic efforts and security challenges facing the East African nation, including U.S. efforts to find a peaceful diplomatic solution to the ongoing dispute between Somalia and Ethiopia.

Somalia and Ethiopia have been in a dispute that was ignited at the beginning of this year when Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding, or MoU, with the breakaway region of Somaliland — a deal Somalia sees as an infringement on its sovereignty.

The agreement gives Ethiopia leasing rights to a large portion of the Red Sea coastline in Somaliland.

During the interview conducted at the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu, Riley, who was sworn in to his post in May, shared with VOA his insights on the U.S. commitment to finding peaceful resolutions and supporting the Somali government in combating terrorism.

Diplomatic resolution

“We are very much aware and working collaboratively to make sure there is a diplomatic resolution of this current situation,” he said. “It is an unfortunate situation, very disruptive, and started … with this MoU between Somaliland and Ethiopia. Of course, we do not recognize it, and we are trying to solve it through diplomatic channels.”

Turkey, a key Somali partner, has been trying to mediate the dispute between the neighboring countries, holding two rounds of talks in Ankara that ended without an agreement.

The Ethiopian and Somali foreign ministers who represented their countries at the meeting did not hold direct talks. Turkey’s foreign minister shuttled between them.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan described the talks at the time as “candid, cordial and forward-looking.”

Abdi Aynte, a former Somali minister of planning and international cooperation who was involved in the negotiations, said the only thing the two sides agreed upon was to reconvene on September 17.

“The core issue remains Ethiopia’s refusal to annul the MoU with Somaliland, which is Somalia’s position, and if Ethiopia continues to insist on its position of not withdrawing from the MoU, I think there is nothing to expect from any talks between the two countries,” Aynte said.

Another analyst who spoke with VOA earlier this year, Cameron Hudson, who is a researcher at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, questioned the United States’ commitment and ability to quell tensions in the volatile region.

Riley said he is hopeful, though, that a solution may come from the third round of talks in Turkey.

“There are negotiations ongoing,” he said.

Concerns about potential conflict

Fears have been growing in Somalia that the boiling tensions could turn into an armed conflict between Ethiopian soldiers currently stationed in Somalia and Somalis.

Riley said such confrontation is “unacceptable.”

“No one can accept there would be any kind of conflict, much less war,” he said. “That is why everybody in the international community is working nonstop. We certainly are, from the United States and from Washington, to find the proper resolution of this conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia. This is absolutely needed. It is needed soon very quickly, and you have the full power and support, Somalia does, to make sure there is a proper diplomatic solution.”

Ethiopian troops became part of the African Union mission, known as ATMIS, in Somalia in January 2012. Under the mission, at least 3,000 Ethiopian soldiers officially operate as part of an AU peacekeeping mission fighting al-Shabab. An additional 5,000 to 7,000 Ethiopian soldiers are stationed in several regions under a bilateral agreement.

Last month, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2748, which allows ATMIS troops to stay in Somalia through December 2024.

Somalia says all Ethiopian troops should be out of the country by the end of 2024, especially after the expiration of ATMIS. Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said last month that Ethiopian forces would not be part of the upcoming African Union Support Mission in Somalia, or AUSSOM, unless Ethiopia withdraws from the controversial memorandum of understanding.

Commitment to Somalia’s security

Riley said the U.S. is Somalia’s largest donor and security partner, providing tens of billions of dollars over the years in personnel, equipment and funding. “The United States, for example, just forgave over $1 million of Somali sovereign debt,” he said.

He added that the U.S. will extend full support to any mission whose objective is to make Somalia a peaceful place.

“We absolutely have always strongly supported the current ATMIS force here. We are very grateful to the troop-contributing countries, who have provided very brave personnel for many years to assist the federal government to bring stability and security here,” Riley said. “We are looking forward to this transition so that it is a proper one, it is well organized, and it is efficient, and it does the job. That is the main issue to make sure that the mandate of the follow-on force under AUSSOM will be suited to the need.”

Two urgent issues

He said there are imperative challenges in Somalia that the U.S. wants to help the country handle.

“There are two immediate urgencies: to ensure that the Somali National Army and armed forces, including the police, receive all the resources they need to fight against horrific terrorist groups like al-Shabab and ISIS,” he said. “The other challenge is to ensure that the economy of Somalia continues to grow, with more investment and connectivity to international markets. Somalia needs both physical and economic security.”

This story originated in VOA’s Somali Service in collaboration with VOA’s Horn of Africa Service. Reporters Abdulkadir Abdulle and Abulkadir Zupeyr contributed to the report from Mogadishu.
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WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday he will not allow the Justice Department “to be used as a political weapon,” as he denounced “conspiracy theories” and “dangerous falsehoods” targeting federal law enforcement. 

Speaking to U.S. attorneys gathered in Washington and other Justice Department members, Garland forcefully defended the department’s integrity and impartiality against claims of politicization by Republicans. Garland said norms protecting the department from political interference matter “now more than ever.” 

“Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon. And our norms are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics,” Garland said to applause in the Great Hall at Justice Department headquarters. 

Garland’s comments come amid an onslaught of attacks from Republicans, who claim the Justice Department has been politically weaponized to go after former President Donald Trump. Trump was indicted in two separate criminal cases by special counsel Jack Smith, who Garland brought in from outside the department to run the investigations. 

Trump has vowed if returned to the White House in November to “completely overhaul” what he has described as the “corrupt Department of Injustice.” He has also threatened to jail those “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this election, writing in a recent post on X that they will face “long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.” 

Garland did not mention Trump or Republicans in his speech. But he condemned what he described as “outrageous” attacks he says put law enforcement in harm’s way. 

“These attacks have come in the form of conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out, and threats of actual violence,” Garland said. “Through your continued work, you have made clear that the Justice Department will not be intimidated by these attacks.” 

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has repeatedly used social media to go after Smith and other prosecutors as well as the judges handling his cases. Republicans have also falsely claimed that the New York criminal case, in which Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May, was orchestrated by Democratic President Joe Biden and the Justice Department. 

Garland came into office pledging to restore the department’s reputation for political independence after four tumultuous years under Trump. But he has faced an onslaught of criticism over his department’s handling of politically sensitive cases, including the prosecution of Biden’s son Hunter, who pleaded guilty last week to federal tax charges in a case brought by a different special counsel. 

Garland said that department employees have made clear through their work that they “do not bend to politics” and that they “will not break under pressure.” 

“We must treat like cases alike,” Garland said, adding. “There is not one rule for friends and another for foes, one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless, one rule for the rich and another for the poor, one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, or different rules depending on one’s race or ethnicity.

“To the contrary, we have only one rule: we follow the facts and apply the law in a way that respects the Constitution and protects civil liberties.”
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Wrightwood, California — Firefighters battling three major wildfires in the mountains east of Los Angeles took advantage of cooler weather Wednesday as they slowly gained the upper hand, but not before dozens of homes were destroyed and thousands of people were forced to evacuate.

California is only now heading into the teeth of the wildfire season but already has seen nearly three times as much acreage burn than during all of 2023. The wildfires have threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures across Southern California since they accelerated during a triple-digit heat wave over the weekend.

No deaths have been reported, but at least a dozen people, mainly firefighters, have been treated for injuries, mostly heat-related, authorities said.

In the small community of Wrightwood, about 90 minutes outside Los Angeles, authorities implored residents to flee the exploding Bridge Fire, which has burned more than a dozen homes in the area.

Resident Erin Arias said she was racing up the mountain when she got the order to leave and did, grabbing her passport and dog. On Wednesday, she and her husband doused water on the roof of their still-standing home. Their cat was missing, she said.

“It’s absolutely scary,” Arias said, looking at the burned embers of her neighbor’s home. “We’re really lucky.”

UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said the fire moved extraordinarily fast across complex terrain, likely giving residents less time to evacuate than usual and surprising even seasoned fire officials.

The Bridge Fire “had to go up mountain sides, burn down slope, jump across valleys, burn across new ridges, and then make it down slope again at least two other times in effectively one burning period,” he said.

The full extent of the damage caused by the fires remained unclear. The three blazes are:

— The Airport Fire in Orange County, which has burned more than 91 square kilometers. The fire was 5% contained Wednesday night and was reportedly sparked by heavy equipment operating in the area. Orange County Fire Capt. Steve Concialdi said eight firefighters have been treated for injuries, mostly heat-related. One resident suffered smoke inhalation and another burns, he said. Several homes burned in El Cariso Village.

— The Line Fire in the San Bernardino National Forest, which was 18% contained Wednesday and had charred 148 square kilometers. The blaze has injured three firefighters. Authorities said it was caused by arson in Highland. A suspect was arrested Tuesday.

— The Bridge Fire east of Los Angeles, which grew tenfold in a day and has burned 202 square kilometers, torched at least 33 homes and six cabins and forced the evacuation of 10,000 people. The cause of the fire is not yet known. It remained zero percent contained Wednesday night.

Gov. Gavin Newsom sent National Guard troops in to help with evacuations, and the White House said President Joe Biden was monitoring the situation.

In El Cariso Village, a community of 250 people along Highway 74 in Riverside County, an Associated Press photographer saw at least 10 homes and several cars engulfed in flames.

Orange County Fire Authority Incident Commander Kevin Fetterman said the blaze has been difficult to tame because of the terrain and dry conditions and because some areas hadn’t burned in decades.

More than 5,500 homes in Riverside County were under evacuation orders, affecting more than 19,000 residents. Several recreational cabins and structures in the Cleveland National Forest have been damaged.

In San Bernardino County, some 65,600 homes and buildings were under threat by the Line Fire, and residents along the southern edge of Big Bear Lake were told to leave Tuesday.

The Line Fire blanketed the area with a thick cloud of dark smoke, which provided shade for firefighters trying to get ahead of winds expected later Wednesday, said Fabian Herrera, a spokesperson for those battling the Line Fire.

A man from the town of Norco suspected of starting the Line Fire on Sept. 5 was arrested and charged with arson, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said. Officials did not specify what was used to start the fire.

Investigators collected evidence from the man’s vehicle and home that suggests he could have been involved in starting other fires, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said Wednesday.

On the Nevada border with California near Reno, the Davis Fire forced thousands of people to evacuate over the weekend, destroyed one home and a dozen structures and charred nearly 23 square kilometers of timber and brush along the Sierra Nevada’s eastern front.

Rich Meyr and Evelyn Kelley were the first arrivals at an evacuation center set up Wednesday at a recreation center in south Reno. Both said they refused to evacuate previous fires but decided to play it safe this time.

“My son’s wedding is Saturday. I threw all the flowers and gowns in the RV and we left. It looks like a garden shop inside that RV,” Kelley said. “But who wants to burn alive?”

More than 600 firefighters kept the blaze from growing Wednesday despite high winds that grounded all aircraft that had dropped retardant on the flames over the past two days. The fire was about 30% contained Wednesday night.
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MORGAN CITY, La. — Francine weakened Thursday after striking Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, sent storm surge rushing into coastal communities and raised flood fears in New Orleans and beyond as drenching rains spread over the northern Gulf Coast.

The tropical storm was forecast to be downgraded to a tropical depression as it churned northward over Mississippi, the National Hurricane Center said. Some 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) of rain were possible in parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, with up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) possible in some spots in parts of Alabama and Florida, forecasters said, warning of the potential threat of scattered flash flooding as farflung as Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Atlanta.

Francine slammed the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening with 100 mph (155 kph) winds in coastal Terrebonne Parish, battering a fragile coastal region that hasn’t fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021. It then moved at a fast clip toward New Orleans, pounding the city with torrential rains.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. TV news broadcasts from coastal communities showed waves from nearby lakes, rivers and Gulf waters thrashing sea walls. Water poured into city streets amid blinding downpours. Oak and cypress trees leaned in the high winds, and some utility poles swayed back and forth.

“It’s a little bit worse than what I expected to be honest with you,” said Alvin Cockerham, fire chief of Morgan City about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from where the storm’s center made landfall. “I pulled all my trucks back to the station. It’s too dangerous to be out there in this.”

Power outages in Louisiana topped 390,000 early Thursday in Louisiana, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us, with an additional 46,000 outages reported in Mississippi.

Sheltering at her mother’s home just outside Morgan City, Laura Leftwich said blasts of wind had swept away two large birdhouses outside. She had a generator powering an internet connection so she could video chat with friends, holding her computer to a window to show them water overflowing in the street.

If the storm had been any more intense, “I wouldn’t have the guts to look outside,” said Leftwich, 40. “It’s a little scary.”

The sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, strengthening to a Category 2 storm before landfall. It weakened late Wednesday to a tropical storm.

In addition to torrential rains, there was a lingering threat of spin-off tornadoes from the storm Thursday in Florida and Alabama.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the National Guard would fan out to parishes impacted by Francine. They have food, water, nearly 400 high-water vehicles, about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm, including for possible search-and-rescue operations.

Since the mid-19th century, some 57 hurricanes have tracked over or made landfall in Louisiana, according to The Weather Channel. Among them are some of the strongest, costliest and deadliest storms in U.S. history.

Morgan City, home to around 11,500 people, sits on the banks of the Atchafalaya River in south Louisiana and is surrounded by lakes and marsh. It’s described on the city’s website as “gateway to the Gulf of Mexico for the shrimping and oilfield industries.”

President Joe Biden granted an emergency declaration to help Louisiana secure expedited federal money and assistance. Landry and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves also declared states of emergency.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said it distributed more than 100,000 sandbags to the southern part of the state and the Department of Education reported a number of school district closures for Wednesday and Thursday.
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Gaborone, Botswana — Botswana and an American biotech firm, Ginkgo Bioworks, have partnered to conduct pathogen surveillance at the country’s entry points. Health officials say the proactive move is meant to safeguard public health as the world faces emerging disease threats.

Botswana introduced mpox screening last month for travelers at its entry points.

In a statement Wednesday, Ministry of Health spokesperson Christopher Nyanga said a pathogen-monitoring program is critical to detecting similar emerging health threats.

Dr. Mbatshi Mazwiduma, a public health expert, said the pathogen-surveillance program will complement existing strategies to prevent disease threats.

“The initiative by the Ministry of Health is a very welcome development in the sense that it is at least demonstrating that they are both embracing traditional methods of surveillance and disease detection plus at the same time, they are looking at other innovative ways of disease detection,” he said.

Through the collaboration, Boston-based Gingko Bioworks will work with the Ministry of Health to collect and monitor travelers’ samples. Nasal swabs will be used to collect the samples.

Nyanga said testing will be done on a voluntary, anonymous basis.

“Although participation in this initiative is entirely voluntary, travelers are encouraged to participate because this early detection of pathogens is meant to safeguard the health of all citizens, visitors and residents of this country,” he said. “The samples collected will be kept anonymous. The data collected from the samples will be vital in strengthening the country’s robust health system and response to public health threats and emergencies.”

But Mazwiduma said voluntary participation in the pathogen-monitoring program could hinder effective disease detection.

“Perhaps if non-invasive, non-intrusive, the technique should be compulsory because it ensures that the number of people who comply to sample acquisition is increased and, therefore, you can actually rapidly achieve suitable sample sizes for you to be able to ensure that you do not miss any patients, but also more importantly that it allows you to improve your validation of these particular technologies,” Mazwiduma said.

Botswana and Gingko Bioworks previously collaborated in a 2022 pathogen-monitoring program to detect new and emerging COVID-19 variants.

During the same year, Botswana was credited with the discovery of COVID-19 variant omicron.
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Vice President Kamala Harris joined President Joe Biden in commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the worst terror attack on American soil. Whoever takes the presidency in January, whether Harris or her rival, former President Donald Trump, also at the ceremonies, will continue to face a range of threats. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from ground zero in New York, from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and from the Pentagon.
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