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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday sued a New York doctor for allegedly providing a Texas woman with abortion pills by telemedicine.

The lawsuit by the Republican attorney general, which appeared to be the first of its kind, could offer a test of conservative states’ power to stop abortion pills from reaching their residents.

New York is among the Democratic-led states that have passed so-called shield laws aiming to protect doctors who provide abortion pills to patients in other states. The law says New York will not cooperate with another state’s effort to prosecute, sue or otherwise penalize a doctor for providing the pills, as long as the doctor complies with New York law.

“As other states move to attack those who provide or obtain abortion care, New York is proud to be a safe haven for abortion access,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “We will always protect our providers from unjust attempts to punish them for doing their job and we will never cower in the face of intimidation or threats.”

In the lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Collin County, Paxton said that New Paltz, New York, Dr. Margaret Carpenter prescribed and provided mifepristone and misoprostol, the two drugs used in medication abortion, to a Texas woman via telemedicine.

Medication abortion accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions. It has drawn increasing attention since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision allowing states to ban abortion, which more than 20 have done.

The woman went to the hospital after experiencing bleeding as a complication of taking the drugs, which were subsequently discovered by her partner, according to the lawsuit.

Paxton claimed that Carpenter violated Texas’s abortion law and its occupational licensing law by practicing medicine in the state despite not being licensed there. He is seeking an injunction barring her from further violations of Texas’s abortion ban and at least $100,000 in civil penalties for each past violation.

Carpenter is a member of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, which supports nationwide access to abortion through telemedicine, and helped start Hey Jane, an online telehealth clinic offering abortion pills, according to the coalition’s website. She could not immediately be reached for comment. 
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Patricia Hubbard Fox, the sister of the 72-year-old U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard sentenced to jail in Russia for almost seven years on charges of “being a mercenary” for his alleged participation in fighting in Ukraine, says in an exclusive VOA Russian interview that she is still unsuccessfully trying to find out the location of his prison in Russia. She refuted the charges against her brother, saying that he would not be able to fight alongside the Ukrainian army and that he was an English language teacher in a small Ukrainian town.

Click her for the full story in Russian.
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team told VOA Persian on Friday that all options remain on the table when it comes to addressing Iran’s nuclear program.

“The Trump administration is committed to reestablishing peace and stability in the Middle East,” Brian Hughes, spokesperson for Trump’s transition team, said in an email, responding to an inquiry made by VOA Persian regarding a Friday Wall Street Journal report suggesting that the Trump administration is considering military options to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“President Trump will keep all options on the table as it relates to the Iran Regime, including Maximum Pressure,” Hughes said.

Click here for the full story in Persian.
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«Окрім того, окупанти сьогодні активно атакують на Лиманському та Курахівському напрямках»
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden met virtually with G7 leaders Friday to secure support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion, less than six weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, a skeptic of aid to Ukraine, is set to take office.  

The talks followed Washington’s $20 billion disbursement earlier this week to a new World Bank fund that will provide economic support for Ukraine. The money is part of a new $50 billion loan for Kyiv from the Group of Seven democracies that will be paid back with interest income earned from Russian sovereign assets immobilized in G7 countries. 

Earlier this week Biden approved a new security assistance package for Ukraine that will provide Kyiv with additional air defense, artillery, drones, and armored vehicles — the 72nd such drawdown package announced by Washington since Russia’s invasion.   

“As the president made clear, we’re going to continue to provide additional packages right up until the end of this administration,” White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said during a news briefing Thursday.  

On Jan. 20, Biden will hand over power to Trump, who has been critical of using American taxpayers’ money to help Kyiv. Without providing details, Trump often boasts he can swiftly end the war — a statement that many in Europe fear would mean forcing Ukraine to capitulate. 

“We are likely to see the G7 redouble support for Ukraine in part because of concerns that President Trump may reduce support,” said William Courtney, adjunct senior fellow at the RAND Corp, to VOA in an interview. 

Additional sanctions on Russia appear to be in the works, Courtney told VOA. 

Syria aftermath 

G7 leaders also focused on fast-moving events related to the momentous transition of power in Syria following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. 

On Thursday , the leaders said in a statement they “stand ready to support a transition process that leads to credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance” in Syria.  

Support for the new government is conditional upon “respect for the rule of law, universal human rights, including women’s rights, the protection of all Syrians, including religious and ethnic minorities, transparency and accountability,” the leaders’ statement said. 

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that toppled Assad, is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has a $10 million bounty on his head. The U.S. and other G7 countries have signaled that HTS’ delisting from their terror list would be dependent upon how inclusive the new government would be. 

In recent years, Jolani has distanced himself from extremist ideology. Since the rebels’ victory, he has sought to assure his non-sectarian stance to Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities, which include Christians, Kurds, Druze and the Alawite community, a sect from which the Assad family originates. 

Trump has also signaled that he wants the U.S. to stay out of the Syrian conflict. “This is not our fight,” Trump said on social media in response to Assad’s ouster. “Let it play out. Do not get involved!” 

It’s unclear whether a new U.S. administration would be able to maintain a hands-off approach that Trump said he wants. There are approximately 900 American troops stationed in Syria, and Washington has close ties with all of Syria’s neighbors including allies Turkey and Israel. Both are already making military maneuvers to secure their interests. 

Two days after the Syrian rebels took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, Israel launched airstrikes across the country, further weakening what remains of the Assad regime’s military, once a stalwart-ally of Israel’s archnemesis, Iran. Since then, Israeli troops have advanced deeper into the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syrian territory.  

The United Nations said Israel’s actions violate the country’s 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Syria. The U.S. said it is in line with Israel’s right to self-defense, to avoid weapons falling into extremists’ hands amid a vacuum in power.  

Meanwhile, Syrian Kurds near the northern border with Turkey have been displaced amid clashes between U.S.-backed Kurdish forces and Ankara-backed rebels. The U.S. brokered a ceasefire deal between the groups on Wednesday but it is unclear whether the fragile truce will hold. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan are currently in the region for talks, hoping to ensure a smooth transition in Damascus and making a last-ditch diplomatic push to achieve a deal to end fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
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The U.S. mid-Atlantic state of Maryland may seem like an odd place for hula dancing. Yet every weekend, dancers gather in downtown Silver Spring to practice the ancient form of storytelling, despite the thousands of miles between them and Hawaii, the tropical island state where hula was born. VOA’s Keith Lane has the story.
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He may be better known to the world as the father of Tesla and Space X, but in a few months, Elon Musk is expected to take aim at U.S. government spending. VOA’s senior Washington correspondent Carolyn Presutti explains what skills Musk brings to the advisory committee known as DOGE.
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Драпатий обіцяє максимальну прозорість та нульову толерантність до корупції у Сухопутних військах
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LOS ANGELES — The former head of a notorious Syrian prison was charged Thursday in the United States with torturing opponents of the now-collapsed government of Bashar al-Assad, the Justice Department said.

Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 72, who has been in the U.S. since 2020, allegedly ran Damascus Central Prison — known colloquially as Adra Prison — from approximately 2005 to 2008, where detainees were subjected to horrific abuse in the “Punishment Wing.”

The charges come days after Assad fled the country as his government crumbled, and as millions of Syrians begin a reckoning with decades of repression.

Alsheikh personally inflicted severe physical and mental pain on detainees, as well as ordering his staff to carry out such acts, U.S. prosecutors said.

Under Alsheikh, prisoners were beaten while hung from the ceiling or subjected to a device known as the “Flying Carpet,” which folded their bodies in half at the waist, causing excruciating pain and sometimes resulting in fractured spines.

“We are one step closer to holding him accountable for those heinous crimes. The United States will never be a safe haven for those who commit human rights abuses abroad,” said Eddy Wang, special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles field office.

Alsheikh faces three counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture. He was arrested in July at the Los Angeles airport on separate immigration fraud charges.

If convicted, he could be jailed for up to 20 years for each of the torture charges.

The Justice Department said Alsheikh held a variety of positions in the Syrian police and the Syrian state security apparatus.

He was also associated with the Syrian Ba’ath Party that ruled the country and had been appointed governor of the province of Deir Ez-Zour by Assad in 2011.

He moved to the United States in 2020 and applied for citizenship in 2023.

A simmering civil war in Syria erupted late last month with a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies.

After racing through several major cities, the rebels quickly swept Damascus, sending Assad fleeing to Russia and bringing a sudden end to five decades of repressive rule by his clan.

Syrians have since flocked to prisons searching for missing loved ones.

Tens of thousands of people died of torture or as a result of the conditions of their detention in prisons under Assad’s rule since the civil war erupted in 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 
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ANKARA, TURKEY — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began talks with Turkey’s top diplomat Friday after reassurances that Ankara would never allow any let-up in the fight against rebels in Syria following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

Blinken began meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at 9:40 a.m., a U.S. official said.

He flew into the Turkish capital late Thursday and met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for more than an hour at the VIP lounge inside Ankara airport, a U.S. official said.

During their talks, Erdogan said Turkey would never ease up in the fight against rebels from the Islamist State group in Syria, despite its efforts to target a U.S.-backed Kurdish group seen as key to containing the extremists.

“Turkey will never allow any weakness to arise in the fight against ISIS,” Erdogan told him, according to an overnight statement from his office.

Turkey, he said, would take “preventive measures against all terrorist organizations, primarily the PKK/PYD/YPG and ISIS (IS) terrorist organizations, operating in Syria and posing a threat to Turkey, primarily for its own national security.”

The YPG is a Kurdish force that makes up the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed group that spearheaded the offensive that defeated IS’s self-declared caliphate in Syria in 2019.

Ankara views the YPG and its political wing, the PYD, as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has led a decadeslong insurgency against the Turkish state, effectively blacklisting the SDF as a terror outfit.

‘Critical’ role against IS

U.S. backing for the SDF has put it sharply at odds with Ankara.

As the Islamist-led rebels marched on Damascus, the SNA, a Turkish proxy force, began its own offensive against the SDF, raising concerns about the two NATO allies’ competing interests in Syria.

Turkey sees armed Kurdish forces so close to its southern border as a threat.

And while Washington has acknowledged its security concerns, Blinken said Thursday that the SDF was “critical” to preventing an IS resurgence.

“At a time when we want to see this transition … to a better way forward for Syria, part of that also has to be ensuring that ISIS doesn’t rear its ugly head again,” he said.

“Critical to making sure that doesn’t happen are the so-called SDF — the Syrian Democratic Forces,” he added. 
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LOS ANGELES — The United States and its NATO allies are paying increased attention to military cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic, where the two countries have conducted joint naval exercises, coast guard patrols and strategic bomber air training.

That cooperation includes more closely coordinated military drills, said Iris Ferguson,  U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and Global Resilience. She spoke during an online December 5 discussion hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The increasing levels of collaboration between Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the unprecedented style of collaboration, especially in the military domain, give us again pause,” said Ferguson.

In October, the coast guards of China and Russia conducted their first joint Arctic maritime patrol.

In July, four Russian and Chinese strategic bombers flew over the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea, marking the first time their military aircraft launched from the same airbase in northern Russia and the first time Chinese bombers flew within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone.

China and Russia also held joint naval exercises in the Bering Strait in 2022 and 2023.

China has no Arctic territory of its own but is interested in growing opportunities for mineral exploration and a shipping route to Europe as climate change causes the Arctic ice cap to recede.

“It is an interesting development showing that a level of cooperation that a few years ago we didn’t think will get to that level,” said Stephanie Pezard, associate research department director at the RAND Corporation, headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

As recently as a few years ago, she told VOA Mandarin earlier this week, “Russia was really trying to beat China in industrial development in the Arctic.”

The U.S. Department of Defense published a “2024 Arctic Strategy” in July that identifies Chinese and Russian collaboration as a major geopolitical challenge driving the need for a new strategic approach to the Arctic.

Chang Ching, a senior researcher from the Society for Strategic Studies based in Taipei, said China’s presence in the Arctic creates pressure on the U.S. and other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“In the past, Russia was the only traditional adversary in the Arctic, but now there is an additional challenge,” Chang told VOA Mandarin this week.

No immediate threat

Other NATO members are responding to the increased military activities of Russia and China in the Arctic.

Canada released a new Arctic Foreign Policy report December 6 to address its growing military cooperation with other like-minded nations in the region.

The report recommends that Canada strengthen diplomatic and technological cooperation with NATO countries in the Arctic and like-minded nations such as Japan and South Korea. It also emphasizes enhancing Canada’s military presence in the Arctic.  Canada’s Arctic territory makes up about 40% of the country and more than 70% of its coastline.

Canada, Finland, and the U.S. in November agreed to jointly build icebreakers, ships to cut through frozen waters, a decision driven at least in part by a desire to counter Russia’s influence in the region. 

Despite their stepped-up joint military activities in the Arctic, analysts say China and Russia do not pose an immediate threat to the U.S. and its partners in the region.

“I think it’s really important to not overstate what the PRC is getting from Russia as well,” Ferguson said. “We know what it takes to operate with allies. We know the years of investment and trust building and interoperability required to make an alliance, and you know their flying in [a] circle together is not the same.”

Why is China in the Arctic?

China is a new player in the Arctic.

Beijing’s “Arctic Policy White Paper,” published in 2018, stated that China’s polar strategy focuses on issues such as climate change, environmental protection, scientific research, navigation routes, resource exploration and development, security and international governance.

“China will not and has no intention of using Arctic issues to promote its geopolitical interests,” said the Chinese Embassy to VOA Mandarin in an emailed response Wednesday to the comments made at the online CSIS discussion.

“As a non-Arctic country, China is an active participant, builder and contributor to Arctic affairs, contributing its wisdom and strength to the change and development of the Arctic,” the embassy statement said.

However, Yang Zhen and Ren Yanyan, researchers at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, suggest that China-Russia naval cooperation in the Arctic is a way to counterbalance what they call the U.S.’s “maritime hegemony.”

Meanwhile, Beijing and Moscow have been developing Arctic shipping routes, especially for Russian oil and gas, as Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have largely halted the trade with Europe.   
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SAN FRANCISCO — A photojournalist who captured one of the most enduring images of World War II — the U.S. Marines raising the flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima — had a block in downtown San Francisco named for him Thursday.

Joe Rosenthal, who died in 2006 at age 94, was working for The Associated Press in 1945 when he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.

After the war, he went to work as a staff photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and for 35 years until his retirement in 1981, he captured moments of city life both extraordinary and routine.

Rosenthal photographed famous people for the paper, including a young Willie Mays getting his hat fitted as a San Francisco Giant in 1957, and regular people, including children making a joyous dash for freedom on the last day of school in 1965.

The 600 block of Sutter Street, near downtown’s Union Square, became Joe Rosenthal Way after a short ceremony Thursday morning. The Marines Memorial Club, which sits on the block, welcomed the street’s new name.

Aaron Peskin, who heads the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, welcomed the city’s political elite, military officials and members of Rosenthal’s family to toast the late photographer, who was born in Washington, D.C., to Russian Jewish immigrant parents.

The famous photo became the centerpiece of a war bonds poster that helped raise $26 billion in 1945. Tom Graves, chapter historian for the USMC Combat Correspondents Association, which pushed for the street naming, said the image helped win the war.

“But I’ve grown over the years to appreciate also his role as a San Francisco newspaper photographer who, as Supervisor Peskin says, went to work every day photographing the city where we all live, we all love,” he said.

Graves and others said they look forward to tourists and locals happening upon the street sign, seeing Rosenthal’s name for perhaps the first time, and then going online to learn about the photographer with the terrible eyesight but an eye for composition.

Rosenthal never considered himself a wartime hero, just a working photographer lucky enough to document the courage of soldiers.

When complimented on his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, Rosenthal said: “Sure, I took the photo. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.”
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«Наші три переможці демонструють розмаїття тем, які досліджують письменники»
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Водночас до 22 вересня за майже 10 місяців року було у місті зафіксовано 16 загиблих і 84 поранених
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WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers and diplomatic officials stressed the need for close cooperation among the United States, South Korea and Japan in response to the possible impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. 

The officials say that Yoon, who could be removed from office as soon as this weekend over a short-lived imposition of martial law that threw his country into turmoil, has played an important role in the informal U.S. alliance that Washington has forged in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Senator Jack Reed, who spoke to VOA Korean on Wednesday, said Yoon’s diplomacy has “strengthened South Korea vis-a-vis China and Russia and other emerging threats in the Pacific.”  

“The collaboration between South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Australia — that is probably going to do more to deter hostilities than anything else. So, that has to be maintained,” said Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

He emphasized that the presence of a significant number of U.S. forces in South Korea “keeps the North Koreans from doing something rash and very destructive to South Korea.” More than 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.

“That relationship — the United States and South Korea — I think, is made more formidable when Japan is also part of it, and the Philippines are also part of it,” Reed said. “And I think South Korean people have to recognize that we’re talking about their safety and security.” 

The embattled president has been criticized in his own country for pursuing a foreign policy that fostered closer relations with Japan, a country still reviled by many of his countrymen for its harsh colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.  

Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told VOA Korean that a strong relationship between South Korea and Japan is beneficial to the overall Indo-Pacific region, which faces the rise of China. 

“We know there’s been historic tensions for centuries between Japan and Korea,” Warner said. “I actually think that level of collaboration between America, South Korea and Japan is in the best interests of the region.”  

Andy Kim, who was sworn in this week as the first Korean American U.S. senator, told VOA Korean he hopes “people recognize the importance of ensuring that South Korea remains engaged in the region.”  

“I do think that the work that has been happening between the United States, South Korea and Japan is important, and I hope that whoever is the leader and whatever happens next in South Korea, that type of work continues,” said Kim, who expressed shock at Yoon’s declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.  

The South Korean president said his decision was aimed at “eradicating pro-North Korean forces and to protect the constitutional order of freedom.” Soon after his declaration, a majority of South Korean lawmakers voted to overturn the order. Yoon, who was legally obligated to comply with the vote, did so six hours after his original declaration. 

South Korean lawmakers pushed Dec. 7 to impeach Yoon for the failed martial law declaration. The resolution accused Yoon of putting South Korea on the brink of war by operating a foreign policy “hostile to North Korea, China and Russia, but centered on Japan.” The opposition-led attempt failed because a boycott by Yoon’s ruling People’s Party left the legislature short of the necessary quorum.   

Yoon now faces another impeachment vote, which he vowed Thursday to “fight to the end.”  

Representative Marilyn Strickland, who recently secured a U.S. House seat for a third term, called for “good relationships” with allies, when asked about the controversy.  

“If I think about the safety and the freedom of the entire Indo-Pacific region, it is better to have good relationships with our allies than to be at odds with each other,” she said in a Zoom interview Tuesday with VOA Korean.  

‘Disturbing signals’ 

U.S. diplomatic and security experts said Yoon’s declaration of martial law was clearly wrong but questioned whether an impeachment resolution should be based on his approach to international relations. 

“If you look back at the impeachment resolution, one of the paragraphs in that impeachment resolution directly attacked President Yoon for the trilateral partnership that he had established with Japan and the United States. That was very disturbing,” said Evans Revere, the former principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He spoke to VOA Korean on Monday via Zoom.  

Kenneth Weinstein, the Japan chair at the Hudson Institute, shared a similar sentiment. 

“It’s disturbing in the sense that if the South Korean opposition is going to run on an anti-American, anti-Japanese agenda, it sends disturbing signals to North Korea about alliance unity. It sends disturbing signals to China about alliance unity,” Weinstein said. 

“And frankly, it sends disturbing signals to the incoming Trump administration about what kind of government South Korea is likely to have if President Yoon is impeached.” 

Harry Harris, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea during the first Trump administration, told VOA Korean on Tuesday via email that the cooperation among the U.S., South Korea and Japan should continue. 

“I’ve spoken for a while now how important President Yoon’s outreach to Japan is, especially his meetings in the U.S. and Japan with former Prime Minister [Fumio] Kishida,” he said. 

The U.S. State Department has sidestepped questions on the controversy.  

“We continue to call for the full and proper functioning of the ROK’s democratic institutions and processes, in accordance with the constitution,” said a spokesperson for the State Department in an email to VOA Korean on Saturday. ROK, or the Republic of Korea, is the official name of South Korea.  

“The United States is committed to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula,” the spokesperson said.  

VOA’s Joon Ho Ahn contributed to this report.
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The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the annual defense authorization bill, sending the mammoth measure to the Senate for consideration.  Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the legislation would help the U.S. better deter China.  

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he plans to have Kari Lake, a politician and former Arizona journalist, appointed head of the international government-funded broadcaster Voice of America.

Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that Lake would be appointed director of VOA. Lake is a close political ally of the president-elect and a former anchor for a Fox News television station in Phoenix, Arizona.

She worked in journalism for 27 years before leaving the profession in 2021 to run for Arizona governor.

During an unsuccessful run for Senate in 2024, Lake said Arizona should be a “standard bearer for America First policies.”

Trump also wrote Wednesday that he would soon announce his pick to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media, known as USAGM, which oversees VOA along with other U.S.-funded broadcasters. That position is presidentially nominated and requires Senate approval. Trump said his pick for CEO would appoint and work closely with Lake.

The chief executive of the publicly funded USAGM ensures that the broadcasters are meeting their missions to produce credible and accurate journalism to countries with limited free media.

VOA’s current director, Mike Abramowitz, sent an email to staff Thursday morning saying that he read the announcement about Lake Wednesday night and had not been given additional information beyond the social media post.

“I welcome a smooth transition of power for both USAGM and VOA. I intend to cooperate with the new administration and follow the process” for the appointment of the director of VOA, he wrote.

2020 law restructured agency management

The USAGM CEO has the power to hire or dismiss network heads, but under a bipartisan bill passed in December 2020, network head changes require a majority vote of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board.

The board consists of six presidentially appointed members who serve staggered terms, plus the secretary of state. Its function is to advise the CEO to ensure that he or she respects the editorial independence and integrity of the networks and grantees, and that the highest standards of journalism are upheld.

In a post on the social media platform X, Lake said she is honored to be considered for the VOA role. She said that VOA is a “vital international media outlet” that promotes “democracy and truth.”

“Under my leadership, the VOA will excel in its mission: chronicling America’s achievements worldwide.” VOA attempted to reach Lake for comment via the media section of her campaign website, but as of publication had not received a response.

VOA broadcasts to a weekly audience of 354 million people in 49 languages. Its current director, Abramowitz, is the former president of Freedom House and was a reporter and editor for The Washington Post for 24 years.
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