ЦЕНЗОРА.NET

NEW YORK — A Kenyan man who plotted a 9/11-style attack on a U.S. building was training as a commercial pilot in the Philippines when his plans were interrupted, a federal prosecutor told a New York jury Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jon Bodansky told a federal jury in Manhattan that Cholo Abdi Abdullah plotted an attack for four years that he hoped to carry out on behalf of the terrorist organization al-Shabab.

He said Abdullah was almost finished with his two-year pilot training when he was arrested in July 2019 in the Philippines on local charges. He was transferred in December 2020 to U.S. law enforcement authorities, who charged him with terrorism-related crimes.

Abdullah underwent training in explosives and how to operate in secret and avoid detection before moving to the Philippines in 2017 to begin intensive training for a commercial pilot’s license, the prosecutor said.

Abdullah posed as an aspiring commercial pilot even though his true intention was to locate a building in the United States where he could carry out a suicide attack from the cockpit by slamming his plane into a building, Bodansky told the jury.

He said Abdullah was “planning for four years a 9/11-style attack” only to have it thwarted with his arrest.

The defendant, operating from a Nairobi hotel, used the internet to research how to breach a cockpit door and looked up a 2019 terrorist attack that killed some 21 people, Bodansky said. Among those killed in that attack was an American businessman who survived the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Prosecutors have said Abdullah also researched information “about the tallest building in a major U.S. city” before he was caught.

Abdullah, who is representing himself and once pleaded not guilty, declined to give an opening statement and did not actively participate in questioning witnesses Tuesday.

In court papers filed before the trial, prosecutors told the judge that they understood “through standby counsel that the defendant maintains his position that he ‘wants to merely sit passively during the trial, not oppose the prosecution and whatever the outcome, he would accept the outcome because he does not believe that this is a legitimate system.'”

The State Department in 2008 designated al-Shabab, which means “the youth” in Arabic, as a foreign terrorist organization. The militant group is an al-Qaida affiliate that has fought to establish an Islamic state in Somalia based on Shariah law.

If convicted, Abdullah faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison. His trial is expected to last three weeks.
…

LOS ANGELES — Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites as Young Frankenstein and Tootsie, has died. She was 79. 

Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” publicist Heidi Schaeffer said. Garr battled other health problems in recent years and underwent an operation in January 2007 to repair an aneurysm. 

Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.” 

The actor, who was sometimes credited as Terri, Terry or Terry Ann during her long career, seemed destined for show business from her childhood. 

Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comedian; her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dance lessons at 6 and by 14 was dancing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies. 

She was 16 when she joined the road company of West Side Story in Los Angeles, and as early as 1963 she began appearing in bit parts in films. 

She recalled in a 1988 interview how she won the West Side Story role. After being dropped from her first audition, she returned a day later in different clothes and was accepted. 

From there, the blonde, statuesque Garr found steady work dancing in movies, and she appeared in the chorus of nine Presley films, including Viva Las Vegas, Roustabout and Clambake. 

She also appeared on numerous television shows, including Star Trek, Dr. Kildare and Batman, and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show Shindig, the rock concert performance T.A.M.I. and a cast member of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. 

Her big film break came as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in 1974’s Francis Ford Coppola thriller The Conversation. That led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who said he would hire her for the role of Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant in 1974’s Young Frankenstein — if she could speak with a German accent. 

“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once recalled. 

The film established her as a talented comedy performer, with New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael proclaiming her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on the screen.” 

Her big smile and off-center appeal helped land her roles in Oh God! opposite George Burns and John Denver, Mr. Mom (as Michael Keaton’s wife) and Tootsie in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange. 

Although best known for comedy, Garr showed in such films as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion and The Escape Artist that she could handle drama equally well. 

She had a flair for spontaneous humor, often playing David Letterman’s foil during guest appearances on NBC’s Late Night With David Letterman early in its run. 

Her appearances became so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing, that for a time rumors cropped up that they were romantically involved. Years later, Letterman credited those early appearances with helping make the show a hit. 

It was also during those years that Garr began to feel something in her right leg. It began in 1983 and eventually spread to her right arm. By 1999 the symptoms had become so severe that she consulted a doctor. The diagnosis: multiple sclerosis. 

For three years Garr didn’t reveal her illness. 

“I was afraid that I wouldn’t get work,” she explained in a 2003 interview. “People hear MS and think, ‘Oh, my God, the person has two days to live.'” 

After going public, she became a spokeswoman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, making humorous speeches to gatherings in the U.S. and Canada. 

“You have to find your center and roll with the punches because that’s a hard thing to do: to have people pity you,” she said in 2005. “Just trying to explain to people that I’m OK is tiresome.” 

She also continued to act, appearing on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Greetings From Tucson, Life With Bonnie and other TV shows. She also had a brief recurring role on Friends in the 1990s as Lisa Kudrow’s mother. After several failed romances, Garr married contractor John O’Neill in 1993. They adopted a daughter, Molly, before divorcing in 1996. 
…

Washington — Resisting pressure from Beijing to publicly reject independence for Taiwan, the Biden administration underscores there is no change in its “one China” policy which takes no stand on the issue.

“We do not support Taiwan independence. We expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion,” a senior administration official told VOA Tuesday, underscoring long-standing U.S. policy on the thorny issue. “We oppose unilateral changes to the status quo by either side.”

The confirmation followed reports that during their last in-person meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked U.S. President Joe Biden to change the language the administration uses when discussing its position on Taiwan independence.

On the sidelines of the APEC meeting near San Francisco last November, Xi reportedly told Biden he wants the U.S. to use language stating it “opposes” instead of “does not support” independence for Taiwan, the current phrase used in U.S. official statements.

The administration has been “consistent on our long-standing one China policy,” the official said. Under the policy, the U.S. acknowledges but does not endorse Beijing’s view that it has sovereignty over Taiwan. It considers Taiwan’s status as unsettled.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

Beijing’s push for stronger language is not new. Ahead of the Biden-Xi meeting last year, VOA reported that Foreign Minister Wang Yi also made the request in his meetings with U.S. counterparts.

The Chinese have been asking for this shift, and in some instances falsely asserting that the U.S. position is to oppose Taiwanese independence, said Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

“I find it unlikely that the United States will take this advice without some substantial concession from China on its own position about Taiwan,” Cooper told VOA. “I doubt this will get any traction in Washington unless it is part of a longer-term conversation about de-escalating tensions across the Taiwan Strait.”

Biden and Xi likely to meet again in person next month in South America, where both are expected to attend an APEC meeting in Lima, Peru, and a G-20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It will likely be Biden’s last meeting with the Chinese leader before leaving office in January.

“It will probably be an opportunity for the two leaders to say goodbye and for their teams to wrap up a couple of loose ends, perhaps including an announcement or two on people-to-people issues,” said Cooper.

Beijing is no doubt gearing up for a change in U.S. administration ahead of the election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Both have vowed to be tough on China, with Trump saying he would impose “150% to 200%” tariffs on China if it sought to blockade Taiwan.

Flared tensions

Cross-strait tensions have flared many times in recent years. On Sunday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said Chinese warplanes and warships carried out another “combat patrol” near the island, following Beijing’s threat to respond with countermeasures to a $2 billion arms sale by the United States.

The administration announced it approved the package last week, which includes its first delivery of three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, advanced weapons that have been battle-tested in Ukraine.

Despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. is Taiwan’s strongest unofficial ally and Washington is legally bound by the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself.

China “strongly condemns” the sale. “We will take resolute countermeasures and take all measures necessary to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. 

VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this story.
…

Для учнів 4, 9 та 11 класів не відновлюватимуть Державну підсумкову атестацію (ДПА)
…

За даними слідства, лікар Одеської обласної клінічної лікарні залучив інших лікарів і посадовців МСЕК до сприяння в уникненні мобілізації
…

London — Adidas has reached an out-of-court settlement with rapper Ye to end all legal proceedings between them, the sportswear brand said on Tuesday, adding that no money changed hands in the agreement.

Adidas and Ye had been embroiled in multiple lawsuits for the past two years, since the German company ended a partnership with the rapper previously known as Kanye West over antisemitic comments he made.

“There isn’t any more open issues, and there is no… money going either way, and we both move on,” CEO Bjorn Gulden told reporters on a conference call, declining to give further details of the deal.

“There were tensions on many issues, and… when you put the claims on the right side and you put the claims on the left side, both parties said we don’t need to fight anymore and withdrew all the claims,” Gulden added.

 
…

DANBURY, Conn. — Longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon was released from prison early Tuesday, after serving a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

Bannon left the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, according to Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons. He planned to hold a news conference later in the day in Manhattan, his representatives said. He’s also expected to resume his podcast Tuesday.

Bannon, 70, reported to the prison July 1 after the Supreme Court rejected his bid to delay the prison sentence while he appeals his conviction.

A jury found Bannon guilty in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and a second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.

When he began serving his sentence in July, Bannon called himself a “political prisoner.”

“I am proud of going to prison,” he said at the time, adding that he was standing up Attorney General Merrick Garland and a “corrupt” Justice Department.

Trump, a Republican, is seeking to regain the presidency in next week’s election against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

A federal appeals court panel upheld Bannon’s convictions in May. Bannon is now asking the full appeals court to hear his case. His legal team had argued that the congressional subpoena was invalid because Trump had asserted executive privilege. Prosecutors, though, say Bannon had left the White House years before and Trump had never invoked executive privilege in front of the committee.

Bannon faces additional criminal charges in New York state court, alleging he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges. A trial in that case is scheduled to begin in December.
…

«Міжнародні суди та світова громадськість, безсилі проти цинізму агресора, нічого не зробили для припинення цього довготривалого військового злочину»
…

Відомо про сімох постраждалих внаслідок ворожих обстрілів Дніпровського району, повідомив голова міської адміністрації
…

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed sweeping tariffs if elected for a second term: a 20% universal tax and 60% tax on goods from China. He argues that the policy will help create jobs, shrink the national debt and boost government revenue for public services, such as child care. Most economists, however, agree that it is ultimately U.S. consumers who will pay more. Economists also warn of unintended ripple effects that could do more harm than good to the U.S. economy. This explainer video explores how increased tariffs might affect U.S. buyers, domestic and foreign producers, and the budget.
…

WASHINGTON/BEIJING/TAIPEI — Chinese President Xi Jinping asked U.S. President Joe Biden last year to change the language the United States uses when discussing its position on Taiwanese independence, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the private conversation.

During last November’s Biden-Xi meeting near San Francisco, Xi and his aides asked Biden and his team to tweak the language in U.S. official statements.

China wanted the U.S. to say “we oppose Taiwan independence,” rather than the current version, which is that the United States “does not support” independence for Taiwan, said the people, who requested anonymity to speak about private diplomatic exchanges they participated in or were briefed on.

Xi’s aides have repeatedly followed up and made the requests in the months since, according to two U.S. officials and another person familiar with the exchanges.

The U.S. has declined to make the change.

The White House responded to a request for comment with a statement that repeated the line that Washington does not support Taiwan independence. “The Biden-Harris administration has been consistent on our long-standing One China policy,” the statement read.

China’s foreign ministry said: “You should ask this question to the U.S. government. China’s position on the Taiwan issue is clear and consistent.”

Taiwan’s foreign ministry declined comment.

The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists.

The Republic of China remains Taiwan’s formal name and the government says it has no plans to change that given they are already a sovereign, independent state and Beijing has no right to claim Taiwan as its own.

Sensitive issue

For several years, Chinese diplomats have pushed the United States to make changes to how it refers to Taiwan’s status, which remains the most sensitive area in U.S.-China relations. The unusually direct and renewed push at the leader level has not been reported previously.

The United States severed official relations with the government in Taipei in 1979 but is bound by law to provide democratically governed Taiwan with the means to defend itself. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

It was not clear why Xi chose to raise the issue with Biden, but he has made opposition to Taiwan independence a focus of his time in office and China’s military has significantly ramped up its activities around the island in recent years.

The Biden administration regards the proposed language change as a non-starter.

Taiwan was briefed on the recent overtures at a high level by Washington, said one of the sources.

Leaders in Beijing “would love it if Joe Biden said very different things about Taiwan than he says, no doubt,” said one senior Biden administration official, adding that Biden would stick with the standard U.S. formulation for talking about Taiwan independence.

During his time in office, Biden has upset the Chinese government with comments that appeared to suggest the United States would defend the island if it were attacked, a deviation from a long-held U.S. position of “strategic ambiguity.”

Change would reverberate

A change by the U.S. to say that it opposes Taiwanese independence would reverberate through the trade-rich Asia Pacific and with U.S. partners, competitors and adversaries alike.

Officials from two governments in the region told Reuters they would interpret any such change in wording as a change in U.S. policy toward less support for Taipei’s defense and diplomatic aspirations at a time when Beijing has ramped up military pressure.

China has over the past five years staged almost daily military activities around Taiwan. Earlier this month, Beijing held a day of war games using what Taiwan said was a record 153 military aircraft as part of drills simulating blockading ports and assaulting maritime and ground targets.

Any switch in language could also be seen signaling a shift in U.S. policy from supporting the resolution of Taiwan’s future through peaceful talks to one suggesting the United States stands against Taiwanese aspirations regardless of the circumstances at play.

Opinion polls in Taiwan show most people support maintaining the status quo, neither seeking to join with China nor establishing a new state.

In 2022, the State Department changed its website on Taiwan, removing wording both on not supporting Taiwan independence and on acknowledging Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China, which angered the Chinese. It later restored the language on not supporting independence for the island.

The two leaders are expected to speak again before Biden’s term in office ends in January, talks that may come by phone or on the sidelines of next month’s G20 summit in Brazil or APEC summit in Peru. APEC is one of few international forums where both Taiwan and China take part.

The Democratic president will hand over the tense Taiwan issue to his successor, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or Republican former President Donald Trump, following the Nov. 5 election.
…

state department — Top diplomatic and military officials from the United States and South Korea are set to convene in Washington this Thursday as the two allies closely monitor and express concerns about North Korea’s deployment of about 10,000 troops to Russia.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials and analysts say that China could be displeased by Russia’s growing influence over North Korea, and that if Beijing chose, it could restrict exports of materials that Pyongyang might use for munitions production.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will co-host South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul and Minister of Defense Kim Yong-hyun to coordinate on pressing security threats facing the alliance.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told VOA during Monday’s briefing that high on the agenda would be discussion of “North Korea’s expanding relationship with Russia,” which includes the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia;  various other provocative actions by North Korea in recent months; and the U.S. commitment to security in the Indo-Pacific region.

The consultation between Washington and Seoul will come two weeks after establishment of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a group formed by the United States, South Korea, Japan and other allies to better coordinate enforcement of sanctions against North Korea.

The group said that while “the path to dialogue” with North Korea remained open, it was committed to “safeguard the global nonproliferation regime and address the threat arising from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s [DPRK, North Korea’s official name] weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, which are in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

Some analysts suggest that by sending troops to support Russia’s war on Ukraine, North Korea may gain an opportunity to test the effectiveness of its ballistic missiles and munitions.

“We have communicated with the PRC about this matter to make clear that we are concerned about it, and that they ought to be concerned about this destabilizing action by two of its neighbors, Russia and North Korea,” Miller added. He was referring to People’s Republic of China.

Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that while China has been supportive of Russia’s war in Ukraine, North Korea’s involvement introduces an unsettling dynamic.

“For one,” Cha said, “China does not like Russia to have so much influence over North Korea.”

Cha added that Beijing could take specific actions, such as curbing exports of petroleum coke to North Korea, which can be used in munitions production.

“According to recent public reports, imports of this good [used for steel production] have dramatically increased while overall trade has only slowly started to return to normal,” he said.

Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Austin would also meet with his South Korean counterpart Wednesday, when he will host Kim at the Pentagon for the 56th U.S.-ROK Security Consultative Meeting. ROK refers to South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
…

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Monday defended the newspaper’s decision not to endorse a U.S. presidential candidate after a report that more than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions following the move.

The decision blocked an endorsement of Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris, the National Public Radio report said, and many people in messages on the newspaper’s website criticized Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com and rocket company Blue Origin.

Bezos, in an opinion piece late on Monday, said “most people believe the media is biased” and the Washington Post and other newspapers needed to boost their credibility.

No candidate was informed or consulted about the decision and that there was “no quid pro quo,” Bezos said, adding that there was no connection between the decision and a meeting between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Blue Origin’s CEO on the same day.

“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos wrote. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”

The subscription cancellations as of midday represented about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well, reported NPR, which said a series of columnists had resigned their positions in protest.

The Washington Post declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters.

In a post on Friday, William Lewis, The Washington Post’s publisher and CEO, said the newspaper would not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election, nor in any future presidential election.

“We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” Lewis wrote.

“The Washington Post’s decision not to make an endorsement in the presidential campaign is a terrible mistake,” wrote 20 columnists in an opinion piece on the Post’s website, adding that it “represents an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love.”
…

Ankara is watching the U.S. elections closely. Analysts say Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands to benefit from either a Donald Trump or Kamala Harris victory, but both scenarios come with risks for the Turkish leader and his aspirations. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
…