Amid stalled progress on gun control legislation in the U.S. Congress, President Joe Biden announced the creation of a new federal office for gun violence prevention. Vice President Kamala Harris will lead it. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.
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The United States on Friday unveiled $65 million more in help for Haiti’s police and urged the U.N. Security Council to formally back the deployment of a multinational security mission to help the Caribbean country fight crippling gang violence.

Speaking at a meeting in New York to address the security situation in Haiti, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the mission, led by Kenya, could deploy “within months.”

“We really have no time to lose,” Blinken said.

Haiti last year asked for help to combat violent gangs that have largely overrun the capital Port-au-Prince. The council could vote as soon as next week, diplomats said, on a U.S.-drafted resolution supporting a multinational police deployment.

While not providing any troops, Blinken said the Biden administration will work with the U.S. Congress to provide $100 million to back the multinational mission with logistical and financial assistance. This could include intelligence support, airlift, communications and medical support, he said.

The $65 million announced Friday will aim to bolster the Haitian police capacity to dismantle the gangs, Blinken said. The U.S. was also imposing new visa bans on former and current Haitian officials whom Blinken said were enabling the violence.

Washington supports Kenya’s vision for a three-part security mission that includes helping Haitian police, ensuring security for static installations and thoroughfares and strengthening law enforcement in the long term, Blinken said.

Kenyan President William Ruto told the General Assembly on Thursday: “We must not leave Haiti behind.”

Countries have been wary of supporting the unelected administration of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has said fair elections cannot be held with the current insecurity. Haiti has been without any elected representatives since January.

“My interim government is determined to hold elections as soon as practically possible,” Henry told the General Assembly on Friday, adding that security in Haiti had deteriorated to a “critical point” as “criminals feel that they are all powerful.”

“I am asking for help to allow Haitians to stay in their homes,” he said, again requesting “help to bolster the national police of Haiti so that it can truly respond to the challenges it faces” and for Security Council authorization for that help.

Haiti’s most powerful gang leader this week called for the armed overthrow of Henry, urging Haitians to take to the streets against the unelected government.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the council last month that a “robust use of force” by a multinational police deployment and the use of military assets were needed to restore law and order in Haiti and disarm gangs.

A multinational police deployment would not be a U.N. mission.
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Senior U.S. officials are upbeat about the prospects for improved relations with Central Asia’s five republics following a first-of-its-kind summit between the region’s leaders and President Joe Biden in New York this week. 

“I think we’ve heard an openness from all our Central Asian colleagues and really a desire for more engagement with the United States,” said Nicholas Berliner, special assistant to the U.S. president and senior director for Russia and Central Asia at the National Security Council.   

Biden “cares about the region,” Berliner said in an interview with VOA after the summit. “And I think if there were any doubts about the level of interest on the part of the United States in Central Asia, hopefully today’s summit has put those to rest.”

The so-called C5+1, a diplomatic platform launched in 2015, had met only at the foreign minister level before this week’s session on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. But U.S. officials floated the prospect of more heads-of-state meetings in future. 

“I have heard Central Asian leaders say this ought to be a tradition,” said Donald Lu, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, who told VOA that the summit could become an annual event.

At the closed-door meeting, Biden sought to balance calls for democracy and respect for human rights with the lure of closer economic and security cooperation, according to Berliner. 

“President Biden’s message to his counterparts was that the United States is ready to partner with you to address security issues, economic, climate and transportation issues, and to address human dimension issues,” he said.   

While Washington understands that the region is unlikely to abandon its close ties to its two powerful neighbors – Russia and China – the American officials said they are eager to offer those countries an alternative vision. 

“We felt this was the right time to do this, and it’s an important signal. It shows the importance and the value that the United States places on our relations with Central Asia,” Berliner said.

Rights issues loom 

Although U.S. officials were enthusiastic about the summit, human rights advocates were more measured. 

“We hope President Biden was fully aware of the harsh reality in Uzbekistan and the rest of the region as he sat down with these authoritarian leaders,” said Jahongir Muhammad, a former Uzbek politician and veteran journalist, who led a demonstration outside the United Nations with dozens of Central Asian immigrants.  

Protesters noted the cases of imprisoned bloggers and missing activists, though VOA witnessed some debate among them about whether Uzbekistan is now freer and more open than under its previous authoritarian ruler, Islam Karimov, who died in 2016.     

Human Rights Watch urged Biden to place human rights at the center of the summit, highlighting politically motivated prosecutions, suppression of free speech, and impunity for torture. 

“While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered renewed focus on this strategically important, resource-rich region, Biden should not allow this to eclipse urgent human rights concerns,” HRW’s statement on Monday said.

HRW also called out what it described as a lack of justice in Kazakhstan, civil society repression in Kyrgyzstan, a rights crackdown in Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan’s reclusive dictatorship.  

In Uzbekistan, despite President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s call at the General Assembly to respect human rights, the rights group believes Tashkent is “no longer pursuing a political reform agenda.” 

HRW cited Mirziyoyev’s recent reelection without any competition and this year’s constitutional amendments allowing him to remain in power for up to 14 more years. 

HRW also pointed to restrictions on media, prosecutions of bloggers and a “heavy-handed response” to protests that took place in the autonomous region of Karakalpakstan in July 2022, when at least 21 people died. 

Lu said Biden has sought to avoid lecturing other world leaders, including Central Asian leaders, acknowledging that Americans “have seen tremendous challenges in our country with respect to our democracy.” 

He said Biden focused at the C5+1 on how “we can work together” on issues like democracy and human rights. “And what I heard was a very receptive group of five leaders who themselves are looking at reforms in their home countries.”  

“There’s a genuinely positive response when we say we want to be a constructive partner,” Lu said. “If we just lecture other countries, very seldom does that produce a positive response.” 

That response was reflected in the joint statement emerging out of the summit, in which the six leaders reaffirmed their “commitment to working together to promote the rule of law and democratic governance.” They also pledged to protect human rights, including those of women, children and persons with disabilities. 

US commitment questioned 

During a tour of Central Asia this summer, VOA learned that many in the region see America’s engagement as short-term and limited by the whims of the authoritarian governments. U.S. media and civil society initiatives often find themselves under threat because of their push for justice and transparency.    

Lu admitted that Washington faces challenges in the region, yet he remains optimistic. 

“We are a reliable partner. … We’ve offered advice often to new emerging democracies. We’ve offered our assistance to help with economic growth. … That doesn’t always mean that we have gotten along with every government.”  

Like Berliner, Lu expressed confidence in the continuity of the U.S. democratic system as the Biden administration pledges closer cooperation with the region.   

“We want Central Asia to have good relations with its neighbors and the big partners around the world — with Russia, China, the United States,” he said.

“If I were Central Asian, I would say take the best from all of the partners. Cultivate good relations with all of us. And we have something to offer as Americans, but I think the Chinese have something to offer. The Russians have something to offer. Central Asia should pick and choose the best from all of us.”  

Lu confirmed that each of the five Central Asian leaders invited Biden to visit his country. “He spent a lot of time in Afghanistan, he’s visited Pakistan, but he hasn’t visited any of the Central Asian republics, and he’s really eager to do so.”
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More than 150 failed products from around the world are on display at a new museum in Washington, D.C. But despite their premature demise, many paved the way for better, more successful innovations. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. Videographer and video editor: Adam Greenbaum
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U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife were indicted Friday on charges that they took bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car for a range of corrupt acts, including having the Democrat use his influence over foreign affairs to benefit the authoritarian government of Egypt.

A search of the couple’s home turned up $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash at their home, said prosecutors, who announced the charges against the 69-year-old Democrat nearly six years after an earlier criminal case against him ended with a deadlocked jury.

The latest indictment is unrelated to the earlier charges that alleged Menendez accepted lavish gifts to pressure government officials on behalf of a Florida doctor.

The Senate Historical Office says Menendez appears to be the first sitting senator in U.S. history to have been indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations. Menendez faces reelection next year in a bid to extend his three-decade career in Washington, and as Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.

A lawyer for Menendez’s wife hasn’t responded to a message seeking comment. Messages were left for Menendez’s Senate spokesperson and his political consultant.

The first time Menendez was indicted, he had been accused of using his political influence to help a Florida eye doctor who had lavished him with gifts and campaign contributions.

The new charges follow a yearslong investigation that examined, among other things, the dealings of a New Jersey businessman — a friend of Menendez’s wife — who secured sole authorization from the Egyptian government to certify that meat imported into that country meets Islamic dietary requirements. Investigators also asked questions about the Menendez family’s interactions with a New Jersey developer.

Menendez faces re-election next year in a bid to extend his three-decade career in Washington, and as Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.

Menendez’s political career had looked as though it might be over in 2015, when a federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted him on multiple charges over favors he did for a friend, Dr. Salomon Melgen.

Menendez was accused of pressuring government officials to resolve a Medicare billing dispute in Melgen’s favor, securing visas for the doctor’s girlfriends and helping protect a contract the doctor had to provide port-screening equipment to the Dominican Republic.

Menendez has always maintained his innocence. His lawyers said campaign contributions and gifts from Melgen — which included trips on his private jet to a resort in the Dominican Republic and a vacation in Paris — were tokens of their longtime friendship, not bribes.

Prosecutors dropped the case after a jury deadlocked in November 2017 on charges including bribery, fraud and conspiracy, and a judge dismissed some counts.

The Senate Ethics Committee later rebuked Menendez, finding that he had improperly accepted gifts, failed to disclose them and then used his influence to advance Melgen’s personal interests.

But months later, New Jersey voters returned Menendez to the Senate. He defeated a well-financed challenger in a midterm election that broke a Republican lock on power in Washington.

Melgen was convicted of health care fraud in 2017 but former President Donald Trump commuted his prison sentence.

Menendez is widely expected to run for reelection next year.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Menendez has held public office continuously since 1986, when he was elected mayor of Union City, New Jersey. He was a state legislator and spent 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2006, Gov. Jon Corzine appointed Menendez to the Senate seat he vacated when he became governor.

At least two other senators — Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas; Richard Kenney, D-Delaware — were indicted on multiple occasions while still in office, but each senator’s indictments covered overlapping allegations, according to the Senate Historical Office.

Neither Kenney nor Hutchinson were ultimately convicted, and both went on to serve their full terms. In total, 13 senators have been indicted throughout history, of which six have been convicted, according to the Senate Historical Office. Two of those convictions were overturned.

Menendez first publicly disclosed that he was the subject of a new federal investigation last October. Prosecutors declined at the time to comment, but some details of their investigation emerged in news reports and court records.

In 2019, federal agents seized electronic devices and records from the offices of IS EG Halal, a New Jersey company that had been named by the Egyptian government as the sole company to certify that imported meat met religious requirements.

The designation surprised U.S. agriculture officials. Previously, several other companies had been doing that certification, but they were dismissed by Egyptian agriculture officials in favor of IS EG Halal, which had no previous experience in the field.

The switch happened the same year that Menendez became engaged to Nadine Arslanian, an acquaintance of the new halal certification company’s owner, Wael Hana, of Edgewater, New Jersey.

Records show Arslanian, 56, was battling foreclosure on her Bergen County property in 2018. When she and Menendez got engaged, a period of financial turnaround began for Arslanian, a former marketer for a medical company.

Within weeks of their engagement, she incorporated a business, Strategic International Business Consultants LLC, according to state records. Her foreclosure case was dismissed soon after. The following year, her assets included gold bars valued between $100,000 to $250,000, according to a Senate disclosure form amended by Menendez in March of 2022.

Between April and June of 2022, the couple cashed out at least part of their precious metal holdings, forms show, selling between $200,000 and $400,000 worth of gold bars, while keeping at least $250,000 worth of them.

An attorney for Arslanian, David Schertler, did not respond to a request for comment about his client’s international business work or how she acquired the gold bars.

After news reports last May that federal prosecutors were examining whether Menendez or his wife had received unreported gifts from the business, Hana’s spokesperson denied that any U.S. official had assisted the company.

“Nor is there any evidence that the contract was awarded based upon bribery or corruption in Egypt or any other purportedly suspicious activity — and nothing like that has ever even been alleged,” a spokesperson for Hana, Steven Goldberg, said in a recent email to the Associated Press.

“Any allegations about cars, apartments, cash, and jewelry being provided by anyone associated with IS EG Halal to Senator Menendez or his wife at all, let alone in exchange for any kind of favorable treatment, are totally without basis. Events that occurred years ago are being taken out of context.”

Federal prosecutors last year interviewed a lawyer close to Hana. The attorney, Antranig “Andy” Aslanian, told The AP he was asked about Hana and Nadine Arslanian, who he described as a longtime friend.

“They’re trying to establish that Menendez helped Hana in Egypt,” Aslanian said. He described such suspicions as “bull,” adding that he once accompanied Hana to Egypt and found him to be well-connected with officials.

“He walks into every government office, they all knew him,” he said. “Hana did not need Menendez at all. He’d be more of a hindrance than a help.”

U.S. investigators also issued at least one subpoena last spring seeking correspondence from Menendez, his wife, or an Edgewater developer, Fred Daibes, whose company owns the building where IS EG Halal has offices. The subpoena, which was sent to state Sen. Nicholas Sacco, referenced a state bill that would have limited development in certain areas along the Hudson River, including where Daibes owns property.
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The U.S. has committed to providing an additional $116 million in aid to people impacted by humanitarian crises in Myanmar, Bangladesh and the surrounding region.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday that the package aims to provide critical resources to nearly one million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, many of whom fled genocide in Myanmar, and to more than a million of their Bangladeshi hosts.

According to ACLED, an international data mapping group, Myanmar in 2022 was by far the worst country in terms of state-sponsored political violence against civilians, with 1,639 reported instances. The aid will help those displaced and endangered by Myanmar’s junta, which seized power in 2021.

Over the past two years, Myanmar’s regime has been cracking down on dissidents and ousting democratic politicians and diplomats left over from the previous government. 

Myanmar’s U.N. ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, who had been appointed before the 2021 coup, says he intends to remain in his role for another year. The junta has accused him of betraying national interests and claims he no longer represents the country.

The dispute spotlights widespread political upheaval in Myanmar as the General Assembly convenes this week in New York City, with Tun in attendance on behalf of the dismantled democracy.

Accounting for the latest funding, the U.S., since 2017, has provided $2.2 billion in humanitarian support to Myanmar, Bangladesh and other nations in the region. 
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A storm churning in waters off the eastern U.S. has increased to tropical storm strength and is forecast to reach the North Carolina coast Friday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm was off the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina late Thursday with top sustained winds of 65 kph. A storm surge watch was in effect, with surges between 91 centimeters and 1.5 meters forecast for parts of North Carolina, the center reported.

As of Thursday night, the storm was located about 570 kilometers southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, and about 635 kilometers south Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and moving north at 6 kph, the center said.

Though the system had reached tropical storm strength, it was yet to be given a name and the center was still referring to it as Potential Tropical Cyclone 16 on Thursday night. The hurricane center defines a potential tropical cyclone as a disturbance posing a threat of tropical storm or hurricane conditions to land within 48 hours.

Meteorologist Maria Torres, a public affairs officer with the Miami-based center, said people along the Atlantic coast need to watch the storm’s progress, gather supplies and make preparations for its arrival.

“This will bring some tropical storm force winds and storm surge along with the high winds to the East Coast through the weekend, mainly from the Southeast to the Mid-Atlantic states,” she told The Associated Press.

The tropical storm warning was in effect from Cape Fear, North Carolina, to Fenwick Island, Delaware. It also includes the Chesapeake Bay south of North Beach, Tidal Potomac south of Cobb Island and Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. Storm surge warnings were in effect for areas throughout the region, the hurricane center said.

Virginia emergency management officials warned of heavy rain, high winds and flooding in the next few days.

The Virginia Department of Emergency Management said on social media Thursday that officials are coordinating with local weather service offices to watch the system developing off the coast. Officials called on residents to prepare for the storm and impacts on the region throughout the weekend.

North Carolina Emergency Management warned large swells from distant Hurricane Nigel also would reach the state’s coast on Thursday, boosting the rip current risk. The combination of those swells and the low-pressure system could mean additional ocean overwash, beach erosion and coastal flooding.

The hurricane center said storm surge between 0.6 and 1.2 meters was expected.

A storm surge warning was in effect from Duck, North Carolina, to Chincoteague, Virginia.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Nigel was headed toward cooler North Atlantic waters as a Category 1 storm. The hurricane center said Nigel was expected to become “extratropical” and was centered about 1,125 kilometers northwest of the Azores.

Nigel’s maximum sustained winds reported in the center’s most recent update late Thursday were 120 kph. There were no coastal watches or warnings associated with Nigel.
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Soon after one of Maui’s Japanese Buddhist temples, the Lahaina Hongwanji Mission, burned in the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, its resident minister was desperate to go back and see what remained.

Six weeks later, he’s more hesitant.

“Now I feel like I have to have mental preparation to go there,” the Rev. Ai Hironaka said. “I’m kind of afraid.”

Hironaka and other Lahaina residents are grappling with a range of emotions as Maui authorities plan next week to begin allowing some on supervised visits back into the areas devastated by the Aug. 8 fire, which killed at least 97 people and demolished thousands of buildings.

Lana Vierra is bracing to see the ruins of the home where she raised five children, a house that started with three bedrooms in 1991 and was expanded to six to accommodate her extended family as the cost of living in Hawaii soared.

She’s been telling her family to be ready when it’s their turn, so that they can all visit together.

“We’re preparing our minds for that,” she said. “I don’t know know if our hearts are prepared for that.”

Authorities have divided the burned area into 17 zones and dozens of sub-zones. Residents or property owners of the first to be cleared for reentry — known as Zone 1C, along Kaniau Road in the north part of Lahaina — will be allowed to return Monday and Tuesday on supervised visits.

Government agencies including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Maui County’s highways division are involved in clearing the zones for reentry by, among other things, removing any hazardous materials, checking buildings for structural safety and ensuring safe road access.

Those returning will be provided water, shade, washing stations, portable toilets, medical and mental health care, and transportation assistance if needed, said Darryl Oliveira, Maui Emergency Management Agency interim administrator.

Authorities are also offering personal protective equipment, including respirator masks and coveralls. Officials have warned that ash could contain asbestos, lead, arsenic or other toxins. There are other hazards, too, Oliveira said, such as burned out cars along roads and chunks of metal or concrete in the ruins.

“We really want to help guide them, provide them the support, but also provide them the privacy, that space and quiet, so they can get the closure they’re looking for,” Oliveira said in a video message Thursday.

Some people might want to sift through the ashes for any belongings or mementos that survived, but officials are urging them not to, for fear of stirring up toxic dust that could endanger them or their neighbors downwind. Other residents said they didn’t immediately have plans to return to the properties because jobs or the hassle of obtaining a pass to reenter the burn zone would keep them away.

Melody Lukela-Singh plans to take a hazardous materials course before visiting the Front Street property where the house she lived in with about a dozen relatives once stood.

“I’m hoping to learn what we’re going to encounter as far as exposure to things we know nothing about,” she said. “The winds pick up and it’s going to be all in the air. It’s going be a while before all of that is gone.”

Hironaka reflected on how his feelings toward reentry have changed as the weeks have passed — and as the magnitude of losing the temple, along with his home on the temple grounds, has set in.

“After a week, I feel like I still have energy, like a car with full tank of gas,” Hironaka said. “After I use all the gasoline, I don’t know where to fill it up, what to fill it up. No gas. I feel like I’m pushing the empty-gas car only by myself. Pushing from the back.”

He, his wife, their four children and their French bulldog piled into his Honda Civic to escape the flames. As they drove off, he said, he imagined the temple as protecting their home.

In a phone interview, he said he initially intended not to cry until he could return to thank the temple and apologize to the Buddha statue that had been at its main altar. But he became emotional and sobbed as he spoke, saying, “The temple building, I was supposed to protect as resident minister.”

He has found solace, he said, in Buddhism’s teachings of wisdom and compassion, that Buddha has no judgment and allows him to feel whatever he feels in the moment.

Hironaka said he often sees a photo taken by The Maui News and distributed worldwide by The Associated Press that shows the temple burning alongside Waiola Church next door. He considered the temple, built in 1933, to be like a family member, he said.

“That’s the end-of-life picture to me,” he said.

Lahaina’s two other Japanese Buddhist temples also burned down.

Jarom Ayoso is eager to get back to the property where he and his wife rented a house for nearly 15 years. His son was able to get in the day after the fire and took video of the destruction.

“I want closure for my end,” he said. “The only way I going get that is if I go and see it.”

Ayoso wants to see what’s left of the vehicles he lovingly rebuilt, including his 1986 GMC Sierra pickup truck. There were also motors he built on the property, including one that cost more than $13,000. He was just about to install it, he said, and “poof — gone.”
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Ukraine’s president on Thursday wrapped up his US public relations blitz for military support and for his 10-point peace plan with meetings on Capitol Hill, at the Pentagon, and in the Oval Office with President Joe Biden. VOA’s Anita Powell looks at the diplomatic, performative aspect of the Ukraine conflict from the stage that is the White House.
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On this International Day of Peace, and on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the United States announced new initiatives to help consolidate the role women play in building peace and strengthening security around the world. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details.
Camera: Veronica Balderas Iglesias
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U.S. immigration authorities reported a significant uptick in unauthorized border crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday, particularly in areas like Eagle Pass, Texas, where the mayor has issued a state of emergency.

U.S. Border Patrol officers apprehended about 9,000 migrants along the entire border in a 24-hour period, according to media reports on Wednesday. VOA asked Border Patrol to confirm the number of apprehensions, but an official, who spoke on background, said they were waiting to release monthly migrant encounter numbers.

The noticeable rise in migrant arrivals in Eagle Pass strained local resources and overwhelmed already crowded facilities.

On Wednesday evening between 500 and 800 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, were waiting to be processed by Border Patrol officials under the Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras International Bridge, one of the two bridges in Eagle Pass.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told VOA on background — a method often used by U.S. officials to share information with reporters without being identified — that CBP suspended crossings at Eagle Pass to help with the influx of migrants over the last few days.

“But we anticipate reopening it once they [border officers] are done dealing with [migrants] today,” the official said by phone, adding that traffic was being diverted to another bridge in the same area.

“There are times that we have to close the ports. We just simply divert traffic to other ports of entry,” the spokesperson said.

After the increased number of unauthorized crossings, Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr. signed an emergency declaration. In recent years, the region has become accustomed to regulating migration as it became a heavily used point for newcomers to cross into the U.S.

“The emergency declaration grants us the ability to request financial resources to provide additional services caused by the influx of undocumented immigrants,” Salinas wrote in Wednesday’s emergency declaration.

In response to the surge in encounters, the CBP spokesperson said officials expect to see more fluctuations, knowing that smugglers will continue to use misinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals.

U.S. authorities could not provide a specific reason for the recent increase in crossings. However, they said it is usually a combination of misinformation spread by smugglers, economic hardships in migrants’ home countries and migrants running from authoritative regimes.

The CBP officer told VOA that often individuals pay a smuggler but end up traveling in groups and arrive all at once at a specific part of the border.

“The big thing that we want people to know is that, ‘Look, if you come to the border and you don’t use CBP One app, and you didn’t take advantage of those lawful pathways that the administration has set up, it’s going to be presumed that you’re ineligible for asylum,’” the official said.

The CBP official also said the border continues to be closed to irregular migration and that without a legal basis to stay in the country, migrants will be processed for removal and face consequences that include “a minimum five-year bar on re-entry, loss of eligibility to access lawful pathways, and prosecution for repeat offenders.”

In May, just before the expiration of the COVID-era restriction known as Title 42, border officials encountered more than 8,000 people a day along the entire border. After the end of Title 42, these numbers decreased significantly, with daily encounters averaging 3,500 illegal crossings.

Increase border enforcement

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced plans to increase enforcement across the U.S.-Mexico border, including additional military personnel — on top of the 2,500 state National Guard personnel — to support border officers on the ground.

The CBP official who spoke to VOA on background said military personnel do things that do not involve contact with migrants, such as watching surveillance cameras, and other collateral duties.

Immigration authorities have not released the August migrant encounter numbers at the U.S.-Mexico border, but the last available data showed about 183,000 migrants were apprehended in July. At the same time in 2022, that number was 200,162.

“So the [Border Patrol] agents and processing coordinators can fully concentrate on the situation they have to deal with … we have a plan and we’re executing that plan. We remain on the lookout for fluctuations,” the official said.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an urgent plea Thursday to U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill, telling them that without a new tranche of funding to combat Russian aggression, Ukraine will lose the war.

The White House requested $24 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine earlier this year. But there is growing Republican concern about providing U.S. aid to Ukraine, combined with broader difficulties passing either a short-term continuing resolution or a full 2024 budget funding the U.S. government past a September 30 deadline.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer summed up the meeting with Zelenskyy, telling the members, “If we don’t get the aid, we will lose the war.”

Later in a statement, Schumer emphasized the danger of not passing the supplemental funding request, saying, “It is very clear that if we were to have a government shutdown, or pass a CR without Ukrainian aid, the damage that would occur on Ukraine’s campaign would be devastating.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a major supporter of U.S. aid to Ukraine in the Senate, was tight-lipped afterwards, only telling reporters it was “a good meeting.”

On Wednesday, McConnell applauded the appointment of an inspector general for the oversight of Ukraine aid.

“Thanks in large part to the requirements Senate Republicans have attached to our aid since the beginning of Russia’s escalation, the United States has unprecedented visibility into how Ukraine is using American weapons,” McConnell said in a statement.

Zelenskyy also met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday ahead of a Pentagon announcement of a new security package of more air defense and artillery capabilities for Ukraine.

Pentagon press secretary, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, told reporters Thursday that “everything is on schedule” with the delivery of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine and that if there is a government shutdown, F-16 training in the U.S. for Ukrainian pilots would still take place.

From the beginning of hostilities in February 2022 to May 2023, the U.S. has provided more than $76.8 billion in assistance, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The share of Americans who say the U.S. is providing too much aid to Ukraine has steadily increased since the start of the war in February 2022, according to a June 2023 Pew Research Center survey.

Just 14% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters said the amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine was excessive but more than 44% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters said the amount of aid was too high. One-third of all Americans told Pew that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a threat to U.S. interests.

On the House side of the U.S. Capitol, where concerns are growing in the Republican majority about continuing U.S. aid to Ukraine, the reception for Zelenskyy was far more muted. Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with the Ukrainian president behind closed doors, but the speaker’s office did not release any photographs of the meeting.

“It was a very candid, open, forward-looking discussion,” Jeffries said in his weekly press conference Thursday.

Jeffries said the war between Ukraine and Russia is “a struggle on the global stage between democracy and autocracy, between freedom and tyranny, between truth and propaganda, between good and evil.”

More-conservative members of the Republican majority have objected to passing the Ukraine supplemental request along with funding for the U.S. government.

In an opinion piece published earlier this week by news network Fox, Republican Representative Mike Waltz wrote that “while most Americans are sympathetic to Ukraine and understand that Russian President Vladimir Putin must be prevented from his goal of recreating the old Soviet Union, President Joe Biden has not been a good-faith partner. The Biden administration has neither explained the American objective in Ukraine nor his strategy to achieve it.”

Waltz went on to call for greater burden sharing of aid to Ukraine by European countries and said “the United States must invest its savings in its own security. It should match the dollar value of any aid it gives to Ukraine with securing our southern border.”

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the U.S. is in the top tier of countries providing aid to Ukraine, giving from 0.25% to 0.45% of its annual gross domestic product to aiding Ukraine, while Scandinavian countries such as Sweden provide slightly more at 0.75%.

But most Republicans recognize the need to include more aid.

“They need it and they’re going to get it,” Republican Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters after Zelenskyy’s meeting Thursday morning with lawmakers.

“The majority support this. I know there’s some dissension on both sides, but as I said, war of attrition is not going to win. That’s what Putin wants because he wants to break the will of the American people and the Europeans. We can’t afford a war of attrition. We need a plan for victory.”

McCaul went on to say that lawmakers pressed Zelenskyy on several issues, including “accountability, speed of weapons [delivery] and a plan for victory.”

Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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New York City is hosting world leaders at the United Nations this week. But it is also facing a crisis because border states such as Texas are sending hundreds of migrants to the city each day. Jorge Agobian has the story in this report narrated by Aline Barros.
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Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old media magnate who created Fox News, is stepping down as leader of both Fox’s parent company and his News Corp. media holdings.

Fox said Thursday that Murdoch would become chairman emeritus of both companies. His son, Lachlan, will become News Corp. chairman and continue as chief executive officer of Fox Corp.

Lachlan Murdoch said that “we are grateful that he will serve as chairman emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies.”

Besides Fox News, Murdoch started the Fox broadcast network, the first to successfully challenge the Big Three of ABC, CBS and NBC. He is owner of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

Murdoch is a force in the conservative world, where Fox News Channel has profoundly influenced television and the nation’s politics since its start in 1996.

Murdoch vowed in a letter to employees that he would remain engaged at Fox.

“In my new role, I can guarantee you that I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas, Murdoch wrote. “Our companies are communities, and I will be an active member of our community. I will be watching our broadcasts with a critical eye, reading our newspapers and websites and books with much interest.”

There was no immediate word on why Murdoch’s announcement came now. Ironically, it is the week author and Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff is publishing a book, “The End of Fox News,” speculating on what will happen to the network when the patriarch is gone.
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The United States on Wednesday announced a $255 million program it says will support emerging democracies.

As part of the effort, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is providing a loan of up to $100 million to Siddhartha Bank to facilitate loans to small and medium businesses in Nepal.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power announced the funding on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

USAID is providing $23 million for projects in Malawi, Zambia, Nepal and Ecuador, which the agency says will go toward stabilizing democracy, promoting job growth and mobilizing investment.

Another project in Tanzania is aimed at developing a digital portal to cut down on graft and corruption in public procurement.

The initiative also includes $110 million from companies and charitable organizations for projects such as developing battery storage systems in Malawi, electrification projects in Zambia, boosting food security in Malawi and enhancing cybersecurity in Moldova.

“Taken together, every safer birth, every more transparent government institution, helps give people greater confidence that their government works for them and can actually meet their needs,” Blinken said. “And all of that comes together in building support and building the power of democracies that are actually delivering concrete results.”

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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Infighting among Republicans in the House of Representatives over spending bills has brought the United States to within 10 days of a government shutdown, creating uncertainty among the hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors who would be affected.

Unless Congress is able to pass the 12 appropriations bills that fund the government — or can agree on a stopgap measure providing temporary funding — the authority of many federal agencies to spend money will expire at midnight on September 30.

At the heart of the dispute is the decision by some of the most right-wing members of the House to repudiate an agreement that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated earlier this year with President Joe Biden to avoid a default on the nation’s debt. A handful of House Republicans want to cut spending below the amount agreed to in that deal.

They are demanding significant cuts to domestic spending, as well as to the aid that the U.S. has been providing to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion. Because McCarthy’s party has control of the House by only a handful of votes, defections by even a few members of his party mean that he does not have the majority needed to pass the appropriations measures.

McCarthy in a bind

It would be possible for McCarthy to bring appropriations bills to the floor and pass them with support from House Democrats, but the hard-right element of his caucus would regard that as a betrayal, possibly leading them to call for a vote to strip McCarthy of the speakership.

As part of the deal that secured his election as speaker, McCarthy agreed to be subject to a rule under which a single member of the House can force a vote on a motion to strip him of the job.

Arriving at the Capitol on Wednesday, McCarthy signaled to reporters that he has not given up hope of reaching a deal to avoid a shutdown.

“It’s not September 30 — the game is not over,” he said.

What a shutdown means

The term “government shutdown” is somewhat misleading, because in the event of a funding gap, much of the federal government will continue to operate. Services deemed essential to public safety and the national defense will not lapse. Additionally, government activities funded by multiyear appropriations will be able to continue. This includes, for example, many of the infrastructure projects funded by legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act.

However, even though much of the government would continue to operate, federal workers would not be paid. That includes members of the military. A law passed after the most recent serious shutdown codified the practice of paying government employees back for their lost wages once a shutdown ends. However, experience has shown that forcing federal employees to work without receiving paychecks can be extremely disruptive to their personal economic well-being.

Members of Congress would remain on the job, as would their essential support staff, but many nonessential employees of Congress would be furloughed, along with many of the employees of government contractors that help keep Capitol Hill functioning. Unlike federal employees, the employees of contractors are not guaranteed to receive pay lost during a shutdown.

The federal court system would continue to operate for at least a while because it would be possible to draw on previously appropriated funds and ongoing fee income, and to reallocate money earmarked for things like nonessential travel.

Off-ramp possible

Government shutdowns have occurred multiple times since the 1980s, but most of them have been short, affecting one business day or less. Four have lasted longer than a single business day, the most recent being in 2018-19 when the government was partly shut down for 35 days. This shutdown was partial because several appropriations bills had been passed.

Congress has also walked to the brink of a shutdown many times, only to avoid it with a stopgap funding measure known as a continuing resolution or a last-minute spending deal.

Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, told VOA that even short and narrowly averted shutdowns have an appreciable impact on the functioning of the federal government because resources have to be reallocated to prepare for the possibility of ceasing operations.

“It’s not like flipping a switch,” Stier said. “Everybody knows, if they’re involved in a complicated operation, to close it down not only is difficult, but starting it back up is incredibly difficult and costly, too. So a one-day shutdown has real cost and consequences, even though federal employees will do everything they can to ensure that the harm is not felt by the public.”

‘Increasingly painful’

Stier said that while the public might not notice a brief shutdown, when government operations cease for a longer time, their absence becomes increasingly obvious.

Passport applications are not processed. Small Business Administration loans are not made. Children cannot be enrolled in the federal Head Start program. These and many other unavailable services begin to take a toll on individuals and the broader U.S. economy.

“It becomes an increasingly painful and costly proposition,” he said. “In the last instance, we saw 35 days of a shutdown. The estimate was that billions of dollars were lost in the economy, and I believe that the costs were probably underestimated.”

Federal workers stressed

The federal workers who would be most directly affected by a government shutdown are frustrated with Congress, said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Kelley told VOA that, as with the broader American public, many federal employees live paycheck to paycheck and would suffer if they were suddenly left unpaid.

“Our members are frustrated. They are nervous. They are wondering and worried about, ‘OK, how am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to make sure my family is fed?’” Kelley said.

“Federal workers go to work every single day and do their job. We need Congress to do their job,” Kelley said. “Because a government shutdown will impact not just federal employees, but our communities. We’re asking Congress to get this job done.”

Ukraine funding

Congress briefly considered a continuing resolution on Tuesday, before it was pulled from the floor out of concern that it lacked the votes to pass. The resolution did not include supplemental funding for Ukraine that the Biden administration has requested.

While a majority of members of Congress support continued U.S. aid for Ukraine, a small number of mostly Republican lawmakers are reluctant to send more money to Kyiv, making the supplemental funding a complicating factor in the discussion of the spending bill.

Several House Republicans who support continued aid for Ukraine told VOA on Wednesday that it would be necessary to consider Ukraine funding as a standalone matter, not as part of the discussion of how to fund the government.

“We need to figure out our bigger issue first with funding our own Defense Department and funding other agencies, and then we can talk about a supplemental,” said Republican Mike Gallagher.

“Putting Ukraine funds in a [continuing resolution], I don’t think that’s the right way to go. We’re not going to get it passed,” said Republican Rich McCormick. “I think it’s a separate issue that needs to be addressed by adults. We need to have a very complex conversation about the history of Ukraine, where the money has already gone, and the success [Ukraine has] already had, going against the third-largest army in the world.”

Kateryna Lisunova, VOA Ukrainian Service congressional correspondent,  contributed to this report.
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