Month: September 2023

The Eagle Pass area in Texas continues to experience an influx of migrants — the majority from Venezuela, the largest displacement in the Western Hemisphere and the second-largest globally, trailing only behind the Syrian refugee crisis, according to the U.N. refugee agency. U.S. border authorities said they are managing the situation, but the noticeable rise in migrant arrivals in Eagle Pass has strained local resources and overwhelmed already crowded facilities.
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North Korea has decided to expel American soldier Travis King who it said has admitted to illegal intrusion into the country and was “disillusioned about unequal U.S. society,” state media KCNA said on Wednesday.

KCNA released the final results of an investigation into King’s border crossing in July, after saying in its interim findings that he wanted refuge in North Korea or elsewhere because of maltreatment and racial discrimination within the army.

“King confessed that he illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. army and was disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society,” KCNA said.

DPRK is the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Authorities have decided to expel King under the country’s law, KCNA said, but did not specify how, when or to where he would be expelled.

The U.S. State Department and the White House could not be immediately reached for comment.

King, an army private, made a sudden dash into North Korea from the South on July 18 while on a civilian tour of the Joint Security Area on the heavily fortified border between the neighbors.

There have been several attempts by U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea to desert or defect to North Korea, but King’s expulsion came relatively quickly compared to others who have spent years before being released from the reclusive country.
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he U.S. presidential election is a little over a year away and Republican candidates are vying to be their party’s nominee in hopes of replacing President Joe Biden. Later today, seven of those candidates will spar in the second Republican debate in California. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti is there.
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Seven Republicans battling to be their party’s nominee in next year’s U.S. presidential election are set to face off Wednesday in their second debate.

The event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California will not feature the current front-runner in the Republican race, former President Donald Trump.

The field will be largely the same as in the first Republican debate held last month in Wisconsin, which Trump also skipped.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are all taking part.

The only change will be the absence of former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who failed to meet the criteria set by the Republican National Committee.

The requirements included having at least 3% support in two national opinion polls, or 3% in one national poll and two state polls from states holding their nomination contest early in the process – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Candidates also needed at least 50,000 unique financial donors and to sign a pledge saying they will support the person who emerges as the Republican nominee.

Republicans will formally choose their candidate at a convention in July ahead of the November 2024 presidential election.

Instead of taking part in the debate, Trump is scheduled to speak Wednesday at a non-unionized auto parts supplier in Michigan.

His visit there follows President Joe Biden’s trip to Michigan this week where he walked a picket line with striking auto workers.  The United Auto Workers union is asking for higher wages, shorter work weeks and pledges from automakers that jobs making electric cars will be unionized.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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The Writers Guild of America (WGA) said its members could return to work on Wednesday while a ratification vote takes place on a new three-year contract with Hollywood studios. 

Union leaders “voted unanimously to lift the restraining order and end the strike as of 12:01 a.m. PT/3:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday, September 27th,” the WGA said in a statement on Tuesday. 

WGA members will have until October 9 to cast their votes on the contract, the union said. 

Film and television writers walked off the job in May in a fight for higher pay, protections that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence, and other issues. 

The writers appeared to have won concessions across the board, with raises over the three years of the contract, increased health and pension contributions, and AI safeguards. 

Under the tentative agreement, AI cannot be used to undermine a writer’s credit. Writers can choose to use AI when drafting scripts, but a company cannot require the use of the software. The studios also have to disclose to a writer if any materials they furnish were generated by AI. 
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The Eagle Pass area in Texas continues to experience an influx of migrants — the majority from Venezuela, the largest displacement in the Western Hemisphere and the second-largest globally, trailing only behind the Syrian refugee crisis, per the U.N. refugee agency.  

U.S. border authorities told VOA they have seen this before and are managing the situation. 

“We have a plan, we are executing that plan,” 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. 

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

Last week, between 500 and 800 migrants, most from Venezuela, were waiting to be processed by Border Patrol officials under the Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras International Bridge, one of two bridges in Eagle Pass. The bridge remains closed for vehicles but open for pedestrians.  

On Saturday, CBP released a statement saying they will “maximize consequences against those without a legal basis to remain in the United States.” 

“CBP took immediate action in response to an increase in encounters in the Eagle Pass area, surging all available resources and swiftly and safely vetting and processing migrants,” according to the statement.  

After the increased number of unauthorized crossings, Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr. signed an emergency declaration Sept. 20. 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 last week’s emergency declaration. 

Eagle Pass is about 233 kilometers southwest of San Antonio,one of the major cities where, according to migrant advocates in the area, migrants can hope to work and blend in.  

According to local news outlets, Salinas estimated that about 3,000 migrants crossed the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass last week. On Friday alone, between 800 and 1,000 migrants were apprehended, Salinas said. CBP has not confirmed these numbers to VOA.  

But the agency released its August enforcement numbers on Friday, showing total encounters along the Southwest border in August were 232,972. About 11% of those had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months. In July, that number was 183,494.  

The U.N. reports that a staggering 7 million Venezuelans have left their country due to political instability, and they travel through countries including Peru and Columbia to get to the United States. 

“More than 7.7 million people have left Venezuela in search of protection and a better life. The majority — more than 6.5 million people — have been hosted in Latin American and Caribbean countries,” the U.N. said.  
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The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon on Tuesday, accusing the e-commerce giant of operating an illegal monopoly, thereby overcharging for goods and locking merchants into predatory agreements.  

The lawsuit says that Amazon crossed the line by punishing sellers with anti-discounting measures if they sold their products for less on other platforms. The FTC also said sellers have had no option but to pay for the company’s logistics service if they want their products to show up in Amazon Prime, the subscription service that boasts expedited shipping and video streaming.  

Merchants have felt forced into purchasing more services from Amazon than necessary, including advertising packages, the suit alleges. 

Compelling merchants to enroll in logistics and advertising programs, “Amazon now takes one of every $2 that a seller makes,” Lina Khan, the FTC chair, said Tuesday in a news briefing.  

Amazon has denied the accusations. 

“Today’s suit makes clear the FTC’s focus has radically departed from its mission of protecting consumers and competition,” Amazon’s general counsel, David Zapolsky, said in a statement. 

“The practices the FTC is challenging have helped to spur competition and innovation across the retail industry, and have produced greater selection, lower prices, and faster delivery speeds for Amazon customers and greater opportunity for the many businesses that sell in Amazon’s store,” he said.

Zapolsky went on to say the suit is wrong on the facts and the law. 

Amazon tries to get Khan recused

When Khan was in law school in 2017, she wrote a paper for the Yale Law Journal on Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce. The Associated Press reports that in 2021, Amazon sought to have Khan recused from agency investigations of the company because of her earlier criticism. 

The sprawling lawsuit represents one of the most significant legal challenges Amazon has come up against in its 30-year history. According to CBS News, Khan dodged questions over whether the FTC will try to force the site’s breakup.  

“At this stage, the focus is more on liability,” she said.  

Most sellers independent

More than 60% of sales in Amazon’s store come from independent sellers — most of which are small and medium-sized businesses, according to the retail giant’s official data. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, the company is worth $1.3 trillion. 
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The elevation of the U.S.-Vietnam relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership shows an increasing level of shared interests between the two countries. But the enhanced ties do not mean Hanoi is drifting away from Beijing, its traditional partner, analysts say.

The two countries upgraded their bilateral ties when U.S. President Joe Biden met with Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong in Hanoi in early September. Between July 25, 2013, and September 10, 2023, the countries had characterized their relationship as a comprehensive partnership, a lower level of diplomatic engagement. 

“The two leaders underscored the need to continue deepening political and diplomatic relations, and will promote regular exchanges of delegations and engagements at all levels to strengthen mutual understanding and build and enhance political trust,” the White House said in a statement about Biden and Trong’s meeting September 10 in Hanoi.   

The diplomatic upgrade reflects a shared perception by Washington and Hanoi that both will benefit from enhanced cooperation as Beijing becomes increasingly aggressive in the region, according to analysts and independent news outlets.

The New York Times described China as an “important subtext” for the upgrade, as Biden “works to establish a network of partnerships in the region to counter aggressive action” by China. 

Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told The Guardian newspaper: “The influence of China cannot be overlooked. Vietnam is among the few nations in Asia prepared to challenge China’s regional ambitions, all while maintaining open lines of communication with Beijing.” 

The comprehensive strategic partnership is Hanoi’s highest level of diplomatic engagement with foreign countries.  

The upgrade places Washington on par with Beijing in its diplomatic ties with Hanoi, which established a comprehensive strategic partnership with China in 2008. Vietnam, a communist country, also has comprehensive strategic partnerships with Russia, India and South Korea.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called on the United States to “abandon hegemony and Cold War thinking” in her response to the Vietnam-U.S. upgrade, as reported by Reuters. 

“We demand that the United States, when dealing with relations with Asian countries, must respect the common aspiration of regional countries for stability, cooperation, and development, abide by the basic norms of international relations,” Mao said on September 11.

Balancing act

Analysts say the new partnership is a remarkable improvement in U.S.-Vietnam ties, but it should not be seen as Hanoi’s attempt to distance itself from Beijing to align with Washington.

Nguyen Hong Hai, a senior lecturer of politics, social change and international relations at Hanoi’s Vin University, said the elevation of ties means Hanoi will engage in a balancing act between Washington and Beijing.

“No matter how close Vietnam leans toward the U.S., the relations between Vietnam and China will not fundamentally change unless China changes it themselves,” Hai said in an email to VOA Vietnamese on September 17.

He added that Hanoi will do its best to balance ties with Washington and Beijing to avoid being injured by their strategic rivalry, drawing from its painful experience of siding with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. 

“The best way for Vietnam to navigate this strategic rivalry is not becoming dependent on any powers, both politically and economically,” he said.

Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asia expert and professor at the National War College in Washington where he focuses on Southeast Asian politics and security issues, agreed. 

He said the elevation of U.S.-Vietnam ties does not reflect a fundamental change in relations or orientation in Hanoi’s foreign and security policies.

The two countries have drawn closer mainly on the economic front, Abuza said. 

VOA Vietnamese reached out to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask what the highest-level ties with the U.S. means for its security but did not receive a response. 

Vietnamese Ambassador to the U.S. Nguyen Quoc Dung told Tuoi Tre daily newspaper that Vietnam wants to build good ties with all powers rather than picking sides.

The elevation of ties with the U.S. serves Vietnam’s highest strategic interest of peace, stability and development, Dung was quoted as saying by Tuoi Tre.

Washington rejected the notion that Beijing was a key factor in upgrading ties with Hanoi.

“There’s intrinsic value in the U.S. relationship with Vietnam,” Marc Knapper, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, told VOA Vietnamese. 

Speaking last week during Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s visit to the U.S. for the United Nations General Assembly, the ambassador told VOA Vietnamese the two countries are aligned on goals such as net zero emissions for Vietnam. 

Biden and Trong did not cite China directly during their meeting, nor did their joint statement name China.

Growing concern

The leaders’ statement, however, expressed “unwavering support for the peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with international law,” in what appeared to be a reference to China’s aggressive behavior in the resource-rich South China Sea. 

Knapper said the U.S. wants to ensure that no country can change the status quo in the South China Sea unilaterally, and that no country is being pressured or bullied into making unwanted decisions.

“We want to ensure Vietnam’s Coast Guard has the means to defend its interests at sea,” he said.

Analysts say the new partnership between the U.S. and Vietnam is unlikely to change Beijing’s behavior in the South China Sea.

“China has the military and economic strength to do what it wants, and it knows that Vietnam will not ally with the U.S. against it,” said Bill Hayton, associate fellow with the Asia-Pacific program at Chatham House in London.

In August, China published a new national map reasserting sovereignty over nearly the entire waters, drawing strong protests from its neighbors, including Vietnam.
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JPMorgan Chase agreed Tuesday to pay $75 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to settle claims that the bank enabled the sex trafficking acts committed by financier Jeffrey Epstein.

JPMorgan said that $55 million of the settlement will go toward local charities and assistance for victims. Another $20 million will go toward legal fees.

The Virgin Islands, where Epstein had an estate, sued JPMorgan last year, saying its investigation has revealed that the financial services giant enabled Epstein’s recruiters to pay victims and was “indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise.”

In effect, the Virgin Islands had argued that JPMorgan had been complicit in Epstein’s behavior and did not raise any red flags to law enforcement or bank regulators about Epstein being a “high risk” customer and making repeated large cash withdrawals.

The bank also said it reached a confidential legal settlement with James “Jes” Staley, the former top JPMorgan executive who managed the Epstein account before leaving the bank. JPMorgan sued Staley earlier this year, alleging that he covered up or minimized Epstein’s wrongdoing in order to maintain the lucrative account.

JPMorgan had already agreed to pay $290 million in June in a class-action lawsuit that involved victims of Epstein’s trafficking crimes.

Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019.
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the drawing of a new Alabama congressional map with greater representation for Black voters to proceed, rejecting the state’s plea to retain Republican-drawn lines that were struck down by a lower court.

In refusing to intervene, the justices, without any noted dissent, allowed a court-appointed special master’s work to continue. On Monday, he submitted three proposals that would create a second congressional district where Black voters comprise a majority of the voting age population or close to it.

A second district with a Democratic-leaning Black majority could send another Democrat to Congress at a time when Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives. Federal lawsuits over state and congressional districts also are pending in Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.

Alabama lost its Supreme Court case in June in which its congressional map with just one majority Black district out of seven seats was found to dilute the voting power of the state’s Black residents, who make up more than a quarter of Alabama’s population.

A three-judge court also blocked the use of districts drawn by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature in response to the high court ruling. The judges said Alabama lawmakers deliberately defied their directive to create a second district where Black voters could influence or determine the outcome.

Stark racial divisions characterize voting in Alabama. Black voters overwhelmingly favor Democratic candidates, and white Alabamians prefer Republicans.

The state had wanted to use the newly drawn districts while it appeals the lower-court ruling to the Supreme Court.

Though Alabama lost its case in June by a 5-4 vote, the state leaned heavily on its hope of persuading one member of that slim majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, to essentially switch his vote.

The state’s court filing repeatedly cited a separate opinion Kavanaugh wrote in June that suggested he could be open to the state’s arguments in the right case. Kavanaugh, borrowing from Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissenting opinion, wrote that even if race-based redistricting was allowed under the Voting Rights Act for a period of time, that “the authority to conduct race-based redistricting cannot extend indefinitely into the future.”
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday praised what he called the “strong relationship” between U.S. and Kenyan forces as he met with troops from the two countries at Camp Simba in Manda Bay, Kenya.

“You are a model of interoperability,” Austin said.  “You’re working side-by-side every day, taking care of each other, supporting each other and you’re working on some very important issues of security.”

The United States and Kenya signed a five-year defense agreement Monday aimed at strengthening counterterrorism efforts in East Africa and supporting Kenya’s efforts to take the lead in a security mission to Haiti.  

Austin said the United States is “grateful to Kenya for its leadership in tackling security challenges in the region and around the world” and thanked the country for its willingness to take the lead of a multinational security force to combat gang violence in Haiti.  

He said the Biden administration would work with Congress to secure the $100 million in funding that it pledged for the Haiti mission last week on the sidelines of the U.N General Assembly. 

“The United States stands ready to support that important mission by providing robust financial and logistical assistance,” he said.  

Austin urged other nations to follow Kenya’s example and provide more personnel, equipment, support, training, and funding for the planned multi-national security mission to Haiti.  

Kenya has pledged to send 1,000 security officers to Haiti to counter gang violence that has surged since the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. The security mission, which has yet to be approved by the U.N. Security Council, was requested by Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry last October.
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In what could be a preview of their strategies for the 2024 presidential election, both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will visit Michigan in the coming days, in connection with the ongoing strike by the United Auto Workers union.

Biden will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to meet with UAW workers who are picketing facilities owned by the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Trump is expected to be in the state the following day for a rally that his campaign has said will be attended by current and former labor union members, though not necessarily members of the UAW.

Both men have complicated relationships with the labor movement. Although Biden has been a longtime supporter of unions in general and has appointed a union-friendly majority to the National Labor Relations Board, some of his actions as president have angered union members. Trump’s administration was distinctly less friendly to labor, but the former president still received significant support from union members in both of his previous presidential runs.

With the UAW strike now in its second week, the president and the man most likely to be his opponent in next year’s election are focused on signaling solidarity with working-class Americans, whose political loyalties have been malleable in recent years. 

Union attitudes shifted

Although union members were long considered a Democratic monolith when it comes to U.S. politics, the modern-day truth is more complicated.

When Trump won the presidency in 2016, he did so with 43% of votes from households that included at least one labor union member, according to the Roper Center for Public Opinion Polling. Against the vocally pro-union Biden in 2020, that percentage fell to 40%, but still represented a significant slice of the union vote.

“There has been a trend of union workers becoming identified more often as Republican over the last 10 to 15 years,” said Kevin Reuning, an assistant professor of political science at Miami University of Ohio. “There is a lot more diversity among union members than people think.”

Reuning told VOA that even though Trump had scant history of backing unions when he first ran for election, his willingness to tear up trade agreements that union members blame for shifting manufacturing jobs overseas probably played a big role in attracting a significant share of the union vote. 

For example, Trump has been able to appeal to many union voters by blasting deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton.

“Trump doesn’t have the baggage that Democrats — at least some Democrats — have of NAFTA. It’s important to remember that a majority of Democrats voted against NAFTA back in the ’90s. But it was signed by a Democratic president, and it kind of hangs over their heads still,” Reuning said.

UAW head partial to Biden

After Trump’s team made his intention to travel to Detroit public, UAW President Shawn Fain released a blistering statement indicating that the former president would not be welcomed by his organization.

“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” Fain said. “We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”

By contrast, the UAW head explicitly invited Biden to visit striking union members when he announced an expansion of the strike on Sept. 22.

“We invite and encourage everyone who supports our cause to join us on the picket line from our friends and families all the way up to the president of the United States,” Fain said.

Still, Biden’s position with unions in the U.S. may not be as strong as it once was. Some union members were upset last year when Biden signed legislation compelling railroad workers to accept a contract that their union had voted against, preventing a strike.

Among the members of the UAW, Biden’s push to speed the transition from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric vehicles is seen as a threat to jobs. Some of the skilled workers who are needed to build conventional automobiles might find themselves less in demand in a world where cars run on electric motors.

Historical precedent

While on paper Biden may be the more pro-union candidate, there is historical precedent for candidates of the Republican Party — historically more hostile to labor — being able to peel off union votes in certain circumstances.

In a recent article in Compact magazine, journalist and author Michael Lind observed, “[P]eople work in particular industries, and even an anti-union politician can appeal to some wage-earners by promising to preserve or create jobs in the sectors in which they toil. For this reason, in the late 19th century, most factory, mine, and railroad workers supported the protectionist, pro-industry Republican party of William McKinley, in spite of the hostility to unions shared by many Republican politicians and business elites.”

Even former President Ronald Reagan, whose decision to fire striking air traffic control workers in 1981 earned him the enmity of many in the labor movement, was still able to secure 46% of the vote of union households when he ran for reelection three years later.

Making accusations

On Monday, Trump used his social media network, Truth Social, to attack Biden and to claim that the president’s decision to go to Michigan was only an attempt to play catch-up with the Trump campaign.

“Crooked Joe Biden, who is killing the United Autoworkers with his WEAK stance on China and his ridiculous insistence on All Electric Cars, every one of which will be made in China, saw that I was going to Michigan this week (Wednesday!), so the Fascists in the White House just announced he would go there tomorrow,” Trump said.

The former president went on to attack his successor for his trade policies, his electric vehicle program, and to make evidence-free allegations of corruption, and he called on UAW members to demand that the union’s leadership endorse him in the upcoming presidential election.

Asked if Biden’s trip to Michigan was related to Trump’s announced visit, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday said, “Absolutely not. This is a decision to visit the picket line, and it was based off his own desire. This is what the president wanted to do, to stand with auto workers.”

Her comments echoed those of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

“President Biden is doing what he has always done, which is to stand with American workers,” he said. “He is proud of being the most pro-union, pro-worker president, not only compared to the Trump administration, with its anti-union policies, but really compared to any modern president.”

 
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Wednesday, Republican presidential candidates will spar in their second debate. The venue chosen for the debate brings back the views of a former president who still serves as a conservative model to the party. VOAs Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti brings us this debate preview.
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Ford is halting work on a major battery plant in the northern U.S. state of Michigan, the automaker said Monday, just seven months after launching the project with a Chinese partner.

The stoppage, which a Ford representative confirmed to AFP, comes as the company faces a major strike along with both of the other “Big Three” U.S. automakers, Stellantis and General Motors.

The Ford spokesperson insisted the decision about the $3.5 billion battery plant had not been related to the ongoing strike, but rather the site’s future economic viability.

“We’re pausing work and limiting spending on construction on the Marshall project until we’re confident about our ability to competitively operate the plant,” the spokesperson said.

“We haven’t made any final decision about the planned investment there,” he added.

In February, Ford announced the project in Marshall, Michigan, as a way to diversify its battery profile away from its current exclusive use of nickel cobalt manganese (NCM), which are costly to produce because of raw material scarcity.

Ford said it would work with the Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. to manufacture lithium iron phosphate batteries beginning in 2026 at the Marshall plant.

Several Republican officials had voiced opposition to the plant due to the partnership with a Chinese company.

The technology involves less-expensive raw materials and can tolerate more frequent and faster charging than NCM batteries, the company said at the time.

The auto giant said it is targeting annual global output of 600,000 electric vehicles by end-2023 and 2 million by the end of 2026.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, touted the announcement in February as “another win for Michigan,” citing the addition of 2,500 new manufacturing jobs.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday is set to visit Michigan to join a UAW picket line in support of striking workers at the Detroit Three automakers.
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