Month: September 2022

The U.S. on Friday sanctioned more than 1,000 people and firms connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including its Central Bank governor and families of Security Council members, after President Vladimir Putin signed treaties absorbing occupied regions of Ukraine into Russia, in defiance of international law.

The Treasury Department named hundreds of members of Russia’s legislature, leaders of the country’s financial and military infrastructure and suppliers for sanctions designations. The Commerce Department added 57 companies to its list of export control violators, and the State Department added more than 900 people to its visa restriction list.

President Joe Biden said of Putin’s steps: “Make no mistake: These actions have no legitimacy.” He said the new financial penalties will impose costs on people and companies inside and outside of Russia “that provide political or economic support to illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory.”

“I look forward to signing legislation from Congress that will provide an additional $12 billion to support Ukraine,” he said.

The U.S. and European Union are stepping up the intensity of sanctions after Russia announced it was mobilizing up to 300,000 more troops to join the invasion of Ukraine and Putin ratified the results of Kremlin-orchestrated annexation “referendums” that Kyiv and the West call sham elections.

Putin warned that Russia would never give up the absorbed regions — the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — and would protect them as part of its sovereign territory.

In Washington, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “We will not stand by as Putin fraudulently attempts to annex parts of Ukraine.”

“The Treasury Department and U.S. government are taking sweeping action today to further weaken Russia’s already degraded military industrial complex and undermine its ability to wage its illegal war.”
…

The past and future of film mingle like a pair of moviegoers huddled in debate outside a movie theater at the New York Film Festival, which on Friday launches its 60th edition with the premiere of Noah Baumbach’s Don DeLillo adaptation “White Noise.” 

In those six decades, the Lincoln Center festival has been arguably the premier American nexus of cinema, bringing together a teeming portrait of a movie year with films from around the globe, anticipated fall titles and restored classics. It’s a festival that’s traditionally more stocked with questions than answers. 

“One question we ask ourselves is: What is a New York Film Festival main-slate film? It shouldn’t be something expected,” says Dennis Lim, artistic director of the festival. “It shouldn’t be something that automatically seems like it should belong in the pantheon.”

Canon — and stretching its definitions — has always been top of mind at the New York Film Festival, where films by Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurosawa, Agnès Varda, Pedro Almodovar and Jane Campion have played over the years. The first edition of the festival, in 1963, featured Luis Buñuel, Yasujirō Ozu, Robert Bresson, Roman Polanski and Jean-Luc Godard. NYFF, which gives no awards and offers no industry marketplace, is strictly defined as a showcase of what programmers consider the best. 

“We honor those 60 years of the festival by continuing to be true to its mission, why it was created, what it was intended to serve and the relationship, first and foremost, that it has had with the city of New York,” says Eugene Hernandez, executive director. “It’s a bridge between artists and audiences and has been for 60 years now.”

In the last two years, Lim and Hernandez have sought to reconnect the festival with New York, expanding its footprint around the city. But the pandemic made that difficult. 

The 2020 festival was held virtually and in drive-ins around the city. Last year’s festival brought audiences back, although with considerable COVID-19 precautions. “It’s been a three-year journey to get to this moment,” says Hernandez, who departs after this festival to lead the Sundance Film Festival. 

The 60th NYFF, which will hold screenings in all five boroughs during its run through Oct. 16, this year emphasizes those New York connections with a series of galas for hometown filmmakers. Those include the opening night with Baumbach; a centerpiece for Laura Poitras’ Nan Goldin documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”; closing night with Elegance Bratton’s semi-autobiographical “The Inspection”; and an anniversary celebration featuring James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” based on his childhood in Queens. Another high-profile New York story, “She Said,” a drama about The New York Times investigative journalists who helped expose Harvey Weinstein, is also one of the festival’s top world premieres. 

In many ways, little has changed in 60 years. (Godard will be back again this year, with the late iconoclast ‘s “Image Book” playing for free on a loop.) Except, perhaps, that it’s gotten larger, with more sidebars and a busier main slate. 

“The festival for much of its life had only 20, 25 films in its main slate. I think if you tried  to do that now, you’re not really going to really get a full picture of contemporary cinema,” says Lim. “The landscape is so immense.”

Every NYFF brings a mingling of master auteurs and younger filmmakers, but the dichotomy between the two is especially rich this year. Aside from seasoned veterans like Claire Denis (“Stars at Noon”) and Park Chan-wook (“Decision to Leave”), the festival will welcome back longtime regulars Frederick Wiseman (“A Couple”), Martin Scorsese (“Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” a documentary about New York Dolls singer-songwriter David Johansen) and Paul Schrader (“Master Gardner”). Jerzy Skolimowski (“EO”), the 84-year-old Polish filmmaker, and 94-year-old James Ivory (“A Cooler Climate”) will each bookend their inclusion at the third New York Film Festival, more than half a century ago. 

A film like “EO,” which trails a donkey between brutal interactions with humans, is directly engaged with cinema history, paying homage to Robert Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar.” But it also beats a ragged path of its own, something Schrader, the “Taxi Driver” writer and maker recently of “First Reformed” and “The Card Counter,” has been doing, himself, with torturous rigor for decades. These are filmmakers for whom cinema is an unending crusade, full of pain and transcendence. 

Other filmmakers are earlier on their journeys. Several standouts at the festival are debuts. Bratton’s first narrative feature, “The Inspection,” is deeply personal for the 43-year-old director and photographer. Led by a striking performance by Jeremy Pope, it dramatizes Bratton’s own experience as a gay man in boot camp. The treatment he receives there is brutal, with echoes of Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.” But in some ways, it’s an improvement from his harsh reality back home. 

The Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells also channels personal experience in her brilliantly composed, acutely devastating first feature, “Aftersun,” starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio as a father-daughter pair on vacation in Turkey. To a remarkable degree, the film is attuned to every fleeting gesture between the two, and the currents that may be driving them apart. 

Intimacy might seem less relevant to “Till,” the Emmett Till drama making its world premiere. Films about such indelible moments in American history often take a wide lens to capture the full societal scope. But Chinonye Chukwu, in her follow-up to her 2019 breakthrough film “Clemency,” keeps her film centered, often profoundly so, on Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, played spectacularly by Danielle Deadwyler. “Till,” like many of the films at the festival, is a reminder of just how powerful one person’s testimony can be.
…

Australia has asked the American FBI to help catch computer hackers responsible for one of Australia’s biggest data breaches. Personal details, including home addresses, driver license and passport numbers, of more than 10 million customers of the Singapore-owned telecom giant Optus were stolen.

A massive amount of personal information about Optus customers in Australia was stolen and an extortion threat made to the company. But then there was an apparent twist. An apology was issued on an online forum by an account that investigators believe belonged to the alleged hacker, who had been unnerved by the attention the case had generated.

“Too many eyes,” it read. “We will not sale (sic) data to anyone. Sorry to 10.2m Australians whose data was leaked. Ransom not paid but we don’t care anymore.”

The Australian government has blamed Optus, one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the country, for the breach. Australia’s cybersecurity minister, Clare O’Neil, said the company had made it easy for hackers to get in.

“What is of concern for us is how what is quite a basic hack was undertaken on Optus,” she said. “We should not have a telecommunications provider in this country which has effectively left the window open for data of this nature to be stolen.”

But Optus Chief Executive Officer Kelly Bayer Rosmarin denied the company’s cyber defenses were inadequate. She said the data was encrypted and there were multiple layers of protection. But for many Optus customers, there is deep anxiety that their personal information has been compromised.

The FBI has joined the hunt for the Optus data thieves.

Frank Montoya Jr, a former FBI special agent, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that a foreign government could be involved.

“We try to determine if it is a nation state or if it is a criminal enterprise,” he said. “Now, that can be a challenge, too, because sometimes the nation state is the criminal enterprise, and I think of North Korea, for instance, and how they go after these databases for various reasons. But sometimes it is just about selling it on the dark web so they can get access to hard currency.”

Australian cyber security experts have warned that unless companies do more to protect their customers’ personal information, a data breach like the Optus theft could happen again.
…

Comedian Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, said he was going to leave the program after hosting it for seven years, indicating he wanted to dedicate more time to stand-up comedy.

The 38-year-old comedian — who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to the United States in 2011 — had big shoes to fill when he took over in 2015 after the exit of longtime host Jon Stewart.

He quickly established himself with his own brand, suited for an era where online influence was often greater than that of content on cable.

His reign on The Daily Show required him to delicately cover some crucial moments in American history, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2021 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.

“I spent two years in my apartment (during COVID-19), not on the road. Stand-up was done, and when I got back out there again, I realized that there’s another part of my life that I want to carry on exploring,” Noah told his studio audience late on Thursday. The Daily Show posted a clip of Noah’s remarks on social media.

“We have laughed together; we have cried together. But after seven years, I feel like it’s time,” Noah said. He ended his remarks by thanking his viewers as his studio audience stood up to applaud him.

Noah, who roasted U.S. politicians and the media at the White House Correspondents Association dinner in April, did not mention his exact departure date in his remarks Thursday. It is not known who would succeed him.

The key to addressing current affairs through a comedic lens lies in a comedian’s intention, Noah said in a 2016 interview with Reuters, adding that he learns from his mistakes.

“I don’t think I would ever have been ready, but that’s when you must do it, you will not be ready,” the comedian told Reuters in the context of having succeeded his legendary predecessor.
…

Ian, which had been downgraded to a tropical storm, is now a hurricane again, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Thursday.

Ian is “taking aim,” the center said, “at the Carolinas and Georgia with life-threatening flooding, storm surge and strong winds.”

Ian is predicted to approach the coast of South Carolina on Friday, with its center moving farther inland across the Carolinas on Friday night and Saturday.

Ian could slightly strengthen before making landfall Friday, forecasters said, but could “rapidly weaken over the southeastern United States late Friday into Saturday.”

Ian has left a path of destruction in Florida, and U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday pledged the federal government will do whatever has to be done to help Florida rebuild.

Speaking from the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, Biden said he had spoken with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and approved his requests for an expedited major disaster designation.

He said that means the federal government will cover the costs of removing all debris and rebuilding public buildings. The federal government will also provide funds to help cover the costs of rebuilding homes and recovering property for those who do not have enough insurance.

Biden said Ian could prove to be the deadliest storm ever to hit Florida by the time its effects are finally determined.

At a news conference earlier in the day, DeSantis said the extent of deaths and injuries was unclear, as rescue workers were only starting to respond to calls after not being able to go out during the treacherous conditions. Rescue crews were working by land, sea and air to reach stranded residents.

DeSantis said more than 2 million people were without power, and the amount of water rising in Florida is “basically a 500-year flooding event.”

“We’ve never seen a flood event like this. We’ve never seen a storm surge of this magnitude. And it hit an area where there’s a lot of people,” DeSantis said.

Ian came ashore Wednesday near Cayo Costa as a strong Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of nearly 250 kph, along with a powerful storm surge and heavy rains that combined to flood coastal areas.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office said it carried out at least 30 rescue missions Wednesday and cautioned residents that Thursday was likely to be “frustrating and heartbreaking for many” as people began to assess damage from the storm. The county was one of several that instituted overnight curfews.

Hurricane Ian earlier hit western Cuba, killing two people and leaving the entire island without power after its aging electrical grid, which has been struggling to remain operational amid a dire economic crisis, collapsed late Tuesday.

Ian left behind a trail of destruction across Pinar del Rio province, Cuba’s main tobacco-growing region, ripping the roofs off homes and buildings and making streets impassable because of downed trees and power lines, and flooding.

Authorities evacuated as many as 40,000 people from low-lying areas of Pinar del Rio.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

The United States imposed new sanctions Thursday against several companies that facilitate trade in Iranian oil and petrochemical products.

The U.S. Treasury Department issued a statement and warned it would take more measures to apply its economic restrictions against the Islamic Republic.

“The United States is committed to severely restricting Iran’s illicit oil and petrochemical sales,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted “an international network of companies involved in the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in petrochemical and petroleum products” to destinations in South and East Asia, the statement said.

Treasury’s actions target “Iranian brokers and several front companies in the UAE, Hong Kong and India that have facilitated financial transfers and shipping of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products,” the statement said.

The U.S. State Department also designated two entities based in the People’s Republic of China, Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co. Ltd. and WS Shipping Co. Ltd., for their involvement in Iran’s petrochemical trade, according to the statement.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.

U.S. sanctions on Iran have accelerated in recent months, as administration officials try to bring Tehran back to negotiations for a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

“So long as Iran refuses a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the United States will continue to enforce its sanctions on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products,” Nelson said.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

The Justice Department on Thursday unsealed an indictment charging Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and three associates with violating U.S. sanctions.

The indictment grew out of Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement group formed in the wake of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion to enforce the sweeping economic sanctions, export restrictions and other measures the United States and its Western allies imposed on Moscow.

“In the wake of Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, I promised the American people that the Justice Department would work to hold accountable those who break our laws and threaten our national security. Today’s charges demonstrate we are keeping that promise,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Along with Deripaska, 52, the indictment charged two other Russian nationals — Natalia Mikhaylovna Bardakova, 45, and Ekaterina Olegovna Voronina, 33 — as well as Olga Shriki, 42, a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Bardakova and Shriki face charges of flouting sanctions imposed on Deripaska and one of Deripaska’s companies, Basic Element Limited.

Shriki, who was arrested Thursday morning, is also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly deleting electronic records related to her role in Deripaska’s alleged sanctions evasion scheme after receiving a grand jury subpoena to produce the records.

Voronina is accused of making false statements to agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security when she sought to enter the United States to give birth to Deripaska’s child, according to the Justice Department.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned  Deripaska and several other Russian oligarchs and entities in 2018 in response to Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other malign global activities.

As part of the sanctions, the Russian oligarchs’ assets were frozen, and U.S. nationals were barred from doing business with them.

In the wake of the Treasury Department’s action, however, Deripaska conspired with others “to evade and to violate those sanctions in various ways and over the course of several years,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Through a company known as Gracetown Inc., the Russian billionaire allegedly used the U.S. financial system to maintain three luxury properties in the United States, the indictment alleges.

According to the document, Deripaska allegedly hired Shriki and Bardakova to use U.S. banks to conduct hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of services on his behalf.

In 2019, Shriki allegedly helped Deripaska sell a California music studio he had owned through a series of shell companies, according to the indictment.

Deripaska then allegedly tried to transfer the more than $3 million in proceeds from the sale through a California shell company to an account in Russia, the indictment alleges.

In a statement, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the indictment “reflects the FBI’s commitment to use all of the tools at our disposal to aggressively pursue those who attempt to evade the United States’ economic countermeasures against the Russian government.”

“We will continue to aggressively prosecute those who violate measures imposed to protect the national security and foreign policy of the United States, especially in this time of Russia’s unprovoked aggression toward Ukraine,” Wray said.   
…

For weeks, reformulated bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters have been available across the United States that aim to protect against newer omicron variants that have sickened millions of people in recent months.  

Initial reports, however, suggest Americans are not rushing to get the new vaccines.  

While health officials view this as a challenge, some say a drop-off in demand shouldn’t be surprising. 

“Back in late 2020 and early 2021 when the vaccine first became available, many Americans were afraid for their life of this virus,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  

“We were all susceptible to serious illness then. Today, most Americans feel safer, and we’ve got tens of thousands of people screaming in stadiums together at football games. The situation feels different, so it makes sense there’s less urgency to get vaccinated,” Offit told VOA. 

Still, the Food and Drug Administration is encouraging people ages 12 and older to get the bivalent booster. In deciding to authorize them, the FDA pointed to data from earlier iterations of COVID-19 vaccines as evidence the bivalent vaccine is safe and will provide additional protection from the most severe symptoms of both the original and more recent coronavirus strains. 

In a recent press release, FDA commissioner Robert Califf said, “The COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters, continue to save countless lives and prevent the most serious outcomes [hospitalization and death] of COVID-19. 

“As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone eligible to consider receiving a booster dose with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants.” 

Supply exceeding demand 

The United Kingdom was the first country to make the bivalent vaccine booster available, doing so in mid-August. After the United States and Canada, the European Union could be next. Earlier this month, the European Medicines Agency (EMC) recommended approving revamped boosters to all 27 EU member states – something that could happen within days.  

As of last week, more than 25 million doses of the updated vaccine had been delivered to tens of thousands of sites across the United States, from pharmacies to medical facilities to local government venues operating vaccination sites.    

Yet, while more than 80% of the U.S. population has gotten a COVID-19 vaccine since they became publicly available in early 2021, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data last week estimating that just 4.4 million people — approximately 1.5% of the population — had received the bivalent vaccine.  

While appointments at vaccination sites were often booked weeks in advance in early 2021, demand for the new booster is low enough that many vaccine providers can accept walk-ins.  

Dani Streger, a teacher from Brevard County, Florida, said she got the original vaccine in 2021 but doesn’t see a need to get the bivalent shot.  

“I’ve already had COVID, and it wasn’t severe,” Streger told VOA. “People can do whatever they want, but I’m not a high-risk individual, and the bivalent booster seems unnecessary for me at this point.”  

While national data paint an overall picture of weak demand, health officials in some states insist plenty of people are eager to get the vaccine.  

“We’re still coming down from our sixth and longest-enduring [COVID] surge to date,” Louisiana Department of Health public information officer Mindy Faciane told VOA. “Many Louisianians recently had COVID-19, and there’s still high transmission across the state. Many of our residents had been anxiously awaiting an updated booster shot.” 

Who to target? 

Coronavirus transmission in the United States reached a summer peak of 227,000 cases reported in a single day in July. Documented transmission has significantly ebbed since then, although many cases go unreported. Significantly, deaths blamed on COVID-19 have hovered between 300 and 500 per day since April — down from daily averages that topped 3,000 at the peak of the pandemic. 

This has left many Americans and even some health experts in disagreement over the importance of the bivalent booster shot. 

Offit said he believes the CDC’s recommendation that anyone over age 12 receive the vaccine is unnecessary. 

“The best any coronavirus vaccine can do is stop individuals from experiencing severe, dangerous symptoms,” said Offit, who serves on the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee and voted against authorizing the bivalent vaccine. “But the already available regimen of vaccines and boosters already does that for most of us.” 

The exceptions, Offit explained, are the elderly, those with serious health problems and people who are immunocompromised. 

“Heading into the fall and winter, when diseases like coronavirus and the flu are at their worst, the focus should be on getting the bivalent vaccine to these at-risk groups who will really benefit,” he said.  

For those not in at-risk groups, Offit said getting additional boosters can be a personal choice. Additional data on the protection provided by the new booster likely won’t be released for weeks, but the limited early research suggests the updated vaccines provide only a modest level of additional protection for those who are already vaccinated and healthy. 

“If you’ve had several doses of the vaccine, and maybe you’ve had COVID and developed antibodies that way, then your resistance is already high,” Offit told VOA. “The amount another dose can help you is minimal … so I think these bivalent boosters become a personal choice.” 

Spectrum of opinions 

National, state and local health agencies agree that high-risk groups should be prioritized. But the vast majority are urging the public at large to get the bivalent shot. 

Jennifer Avegno, director of the New Orleans Health Department, remembers what it was like during the pandemic’s early days, when hospitals were overwhelmed and without enough beds to care for patients. 

“Nationally, around 400 individuals per day continue to die from COVID — a stark reminder that many are still at high risk,” she told VOA. “As we head into the winter, where respiratory disease generally increases, we cannot afford to strain our hospitals as we have in previous years. 

“We know that well-matched vaccines give significant protection against hospitalization, severe disease and death, and so to preserve health care capacity, reduce work disruptions and protect our most vulnerable, everyone is urged to get the booster and a flu vaccine as soon as they are eligible.” 

Across the country, Americans are deciding for themselves. 

In Uintah County, Utah, for example, high school teacher Jason Winder told VOA he won’t be getting the updated booster and believes pandemic fatigue has set in for many. 

“We’ve been talking about the coronavirus for more than two years, and I think people are tired of it,” he said. “Not that it’s not important, but I think that’s why so few people here are getting the bivalent booster so far.” 

Winder added, “For me, I got the initial vaccine and a booster because my job would have made me stay home and use my paid time off if I tested positive for COVID, even if I was asymptomatic. That rule is no longer in place, so I’m not worried about it anymore after all these doses of vaccine I’ve already had.” 

Other Americans remain eager to receive any new dose of vaccine to feel maximally protected. 

Aaron Scheibelhut, a freelance sports broadcaster who also owns a filming company in Indianapolis, Indiana, said even though he noticed this dose didn’t seem to have been advertised as much, receiving the bivalent booster was still a priority for him.  

“Because I work for myself, I don’t get paid time off. I didn’t want to risk it,” he said. “Plus, I already got COVID once, and I didn’t want to go through that again.”  

With coronavirus case numbers expected to rise in the coming months, local health departments are doing their best to raise public awareness about the bivalent vaccine booster.  

In New Orleans, like many other locations, Avegno said there is a focus on at-risk groups. 

“We’re utilizing community health workers to communicate with those key groups and to get the word out, and we’re planning vaccine events with community partners close to higher concentrations of vulnerable individuals,” she said. “Much of our communication campaigns are focused on targeting those at-risk groups where we’ll see the biggest public health benefits.” 

 
…

In the U.S. state of Virginia, hundreds of students walked out of school this week to protest new guidelines from Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin that roll back transgender rights. As VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains, it’s part of a conservative wave creating controversy across America.
…

The United States and Pacific leaders have reached a nine-point Declaration on U.S.-Pacific Partnership as Washington hosts its first summit with leaders from Pacific Island nations.

The U.S. is set to announce more than $810 million in expanded programs to aid the Pacific islands as the historic summit enters its second day.  The U.S. has provided upwards of $1.5 billion to support the Pacific Islands over the past decade, according to a senior administration official.  

The U.S. also pledges to recognize the Cook Islands and Niue as sovereign states, following appropriate consultations. While both Cook Islands and Niue have full constitutional independence from New Zealand and act as independent countries, the U.S. considered them as self-governing territories and has not established formal diplomatic relations.

U.S. President Joe Biden will appoint a first-ever U.S. envoy to the regional Pacific Islands Forum. USAID will re-establish its mission in Suva, Fiji by September of 2023.

Washington’s plan to deepen diplomatic engagement with the Pacific comes as concerns grows about China’s expanding influence in the region.

Earlier, the Solomon Islands had indicated it would not sign a joint declaration during the high-profile gathering, just five months after it signed a security agreement with China.

“China has been seeking to establish military relationships with some of these [Pacific Islands] countries, in at least a couple of locations,” said Chris Johnstone, a senior adviser at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.   

Johnstone said there’s an indication the Beijing government has been pursuing actual military bases in some of these countries.  

Among the new initiatives listed in the U.S.-Pacific Partnership deal, the U.S. will invest $20 million to boost the Solomon Islands’ tourism and to reduce poverty in the island country.   

Under the new agreement, the U.S. will launch a new trade and investment dialogue with the Pacific Island nations, enhance maritime security, as well as provide up to $3.5 million over five years to improve the region’s internet connectivity and to support cyber security.

Earlier this month, the Marshall Islands suspended talks with American officials about renewing the two countries’ strategic partnership, protesting what it perceives as the U.S. failure to address the health and environmental impacts from U.S. nuclear testing in the region during the 1940s and 1950s.  

There is no specific mention of the nuclear legacy issues in the U.S.-Pacific declaration.

“While, from a U.S. perspective, ongoing negotiations on grant funding under the Compact of Free Association do not concern the nuclear issue, the Marshall Islands see the negotiations as an opportunity to press its case,” said Brian Harding, a senior expert on Southeast Asia for the U.S. Institute of Peace.

The Marshall Islands, Palau, and Micronesia are so-called Freely Associated States (FAS) that had signed treaties with the United States.  Current agreements expire in September 2023 for the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, and one year later for Palau.   

Under the soon-to-expire treaties known as Compacts of Free Association, the three Pacific Island nations receive grant aid and security guarantees from the U.S. government. FAS citizens can live and work in the U.S. without a visa.  

In exchange, the United States has the right to build military bases in these three island nations and can deny outsider access to those countries’ waters, airspace and land.  

The U.S. expects the negotiation for all three Compact agreements to be concluded by the end of this year. 

Anita Powell and Richard Green contributed to this report.
…

Conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, appeared on Thursday for a voluntary interview with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The committee has for months sought an interview with Thomas in an effort to know more about her role in trying to help former President Donald Trump overturn his election defeat. She texted with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and contacted lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin in the weeks after the election.

Thomas’ appearance on Capitol Hill was confirmed by two people familiar with the committee’s work who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The testimony from Thomas was one of the remaining items for the panel as it eyes the completion of its work. The panel has already interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and shown some of that video testimony in its eight hearings over the summer.

Thomas’ attorney, Mark Paoletta, said last week that Thomas had agreed to meet with the panel and is “eager to answer the committee’s questions to clear up any misconceptions about her work relating to the 2020 election.”

The extent of her involvement in the Capitol attack is unclear. In the days after The Associated Press and other news organizations called the presidential election for Biden, Thomas emailed two lawmakers in Arizona to urge them to choose “a clean slate of Electors” and “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure.” The AP obtained the emails earlier this year under the state’s open records law.

She has said in interviews that she attended the initial pro-Trump rally the morning of Jan. 6 but left before Trump spoke and the crowds headed for the Capitol.

Thomas, a Trump supporter long active in conservative causes, has repeatedly maintained that her political activities posed no conflict of interest with the work of her husband.

“Like so many married couples, we share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America. But we have our own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too. Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work,” Thomas told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview published in March.

Justice Thomas was the lone dissenting voice when the Supreme Court ruled in January to allow a congressional committee access to presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts and handwritten notes relating to the events of Jan. 6.

Ginni Thomas has been openly critical of the committee’s work, including signing onto a letter to House Republicans calling for the expulsion of Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois from the Republican Party conference for joining the Jan. 6 congressional committee.
…

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris condemned North Korea’s “brutal dictatorship” and “destabilizing” weapons program during a Thursday visit to the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.

Harris’s DMZ stop came less than a day after North Korea fired two short-range missiles, adding to what has already been a record number of North Korean launches this year.

At the Panmunjom Truce Village that straddles North and South Korea, Harris condemned the missile tests, saying they are “clearly a provocation.”

“In the North, we see a brutal dictatorship, rampant human rights violations and an unlawful weapons program that threatens peace and stability,” she said.

Harris earlier Thursday met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who has pushed to improve ties with the United States.

“Our shared goal, the United States and the Republic of Korea, is a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Harris said, using South Korea’s official name.

Harris’ visit is meant to reiterate the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea. About 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950s Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

At the DMZ, Harris greeted U.S. service members, listened to a briefing by senior military officials, and peered into the North using large black binoculars — a staple of many DMZ visits by U.S. presidents and vice presidents.

The Panmunjom Truce Village, where the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953, appeared mostly abandoned on the North Korean side, with tall weeds piercing through the concrete sidewalks and steps. The lone activity was three North Korean officials — dressed in a white, full-body hazmat suit — who occasionally peered through a window.

Harris’ DMZ visit was the final stop on a four-day visit to Asia. On Tuesday, Harris led the U.S. delegation at the state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In Tokyo, Harris also touted the U.S. alliance relationship with Japan, where the U.S. has about 50,000 troops.

During the trip, U.S. officials repeatedly focused on the U.S. desire to have Japan and South Korea work more closely on common threats such as North Korea.

Seoul-Tokyo ties are regularly strained by disputes related to Japan’s occupation of Korea before World War II.

As Harris landed in Seoul, there were signs of greater cooperation among the three countries. South Korea’s military announced it would soon hold trilateral anti-submarine exercises with Japan and the United States. The exercises, Seoul said, would help counter the North Korean threat.

North Korea has launched 34 ballistic missiles this year, a record number. U.S. and South Korean officials also say the North has completed preparations to conduct its seventh nuclear test.
…

The Pentagon is providing an additional $1.1 billion in aid to Ukraine, bringing the total U.S. military assistance to nearly $17 billion since the Biden administration took office.

The latest package includes funding for 18 more High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, and their ammunition, weapons that U.S. defense officials say have proven highly effective in helping Ukraine defend its territory since Russia invaded the country in February. 

The U.S. has already provided Ukraine with 16 HIMARS, and a senior defense official  told reporters Wednesday that the Biden administration was starting the procurement process for the next 18 because they would take “years” to procure, build and deliver.

The latest package funds the procurement of weapons and equipment under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds contracts focused on Ukraine’s long-term defense and security needs.

Other weapons and equipment in the $1.1 billion package will take anywhere from two months to two years to deliver to Ukraine, according to the senior defense official. Those include systems to counter drones that Russia has been using against Ukrainian troops, 22 radars, about 150 Humvees, about 150 tactical vehicles for towing weapons, dozens of trucks and trailers, body armor, and equipment for communications, surveillance, and explosives disposal.

Maintenance and training are also funded in this package.

Russian forces have used Iranian-made drones to target Ukrainian forces, according to the Pentagon, prompting a need to counter these weapons.

The Pentagon has used its presidential drawdown authority to provide weapons more rapidly, and officials say another announcement for Defense Department aid is expected soon.

Also Wednesday, a senior military official] said the U.S. has seen “small numbers” of the first reservists from Russia’s latest mobilization move into Ukraine. Russia has announced plans to call up about 300,000 men to fight in Ukraine amid heavy battlefield losses.

Tens of thousands of Russian men have fled the country to border nations since the mobilization was announced. 
…

Nearly 2 million people were without power and crews were preparing to conduct rescue efforts early Thursday as Hurricane Ian moved across the U.S. state of Florida.

Forecasters warned of life-threatening, record flooding in the central part of the state with the storm expected to emerge off the northeastern Florida coast into the Atlantic Ocean sometime Thursday before making a second landfall in the southeastern United States.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it expects the storm to weaken throughout Thursday, but that it could still be near hurricane strength. Forecasters said central and northeastern Florida could get 30-50 centimeters of rain, with higher amounts in some isolated areas.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of about 150 kph late Wednesday.

It came ashore earlier Wednesday near Cayo Costa with maximum sustained winds of nearly 250 kph, along with a powerful storm surge and heavy rains that combined to flood coastal areas.

State emergency officials said crews, including those working by land, sea and air, were ready to launch rescue efforts as day broke Thursday.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office said it carried out at least 30 rescue missions Wednesday and cautioned residents that Thursday was likely to be “frustrating and heartbreaking for many” as people began to assess damage from the storm. The county was one of several that instituted overnight curfews.

“We’ll be there to help you clean up and rebuild, to help Florida get moving again,” President Joe Biden said Wednesday. “And we’ll be there every step of the way. That’s my absolute commitment to the people of the state of Florida.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters Wednesday the storm had done “a lot of damage.” He praised other states in the region and utility companies that sent crews to help restore power to affected areas.

More than 2 million residents on Florida’s west coast were told to evacuate their homes ahead of the storm. Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld are among tourist attractions that shut down their popular theme parks and resorts. The U.S. space agency, NASA, closed the visitors’ center at its Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s eastern coast, and rolled its massive Artemis 1 moon rocket and Orion space capsule from its launch pad back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, further delaying its much-anticipated test flight by several more weeks.

Biden has issued an emergency declaration for Florida, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster-relief efforts and provide more federal funding.

The hurricane earlier hit western Cuba, killing two people and leaving the entire island without power after its aging electrical grid, which has been struggling to remain operational amid a dire economic crisis, collapsed late Tuesday.

Ian left behind a trail of destruction across Pinar del Rio province, Cuba’s main tobacco-growing region, ripping the roofs off homes and buildings and making streets impassable because of downed trees and power lines, and flooding. Authorities evacuated as many as 40,000 people from low-lying areas of Pinar del Rio.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
…

Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the U.S., swamped southwest Florida, flooding streets and buildings, knocking out power to 2 million people and threatening catastrophic damage further inland. A coastal sheriff’s office reported that it was already getting a significant number of calls from people trapped in flooded homes. Some video showed debris-covered water sloshing toward the eaves of homes. The hurricane made landfall Wednesday afternoon near Cayo Costa, a protected barrier island just west of heavily populated Fort Myers. Though expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it marches inland, Ian’s hurricane force winds are likely to be felt well into central Florida.
…

Dogs are companions to many people without homes, but canines are often not allowed to stay with their owners in homeless shelters. Mike O’Sullivan reports on a Los Angeles nonprofit that instead encourages the bond between humans and their animals, letting them live together. VOA footage by Roy Kim, Mike O’Sullivan.
…