Month: October 2023

An international military forum beginning on Sunday in Beijing is expected to provide an opportunity for direct military-to-military contact between the United States and China, the latest sign of an easing of tensions between the two superpowers. 

A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to VOA that the United States will be represented at the 10th Xiangshan Forum by Xanthi Carras, the Defense Department’s principal director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia.   

A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense announced this week that Russia, Britain and Saudi Arabia also will be among the more than 90 countries, regions and international organizations attending the three-day forum. More than 30 of the delegations will be led by a defense minister or military chief of staff.   

Signs of thaw

The fact that the United States was invited suggests an easing of Beijing’s freeze in high-level military-to-military communications that was imposed after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August last year. 

Other recent contacts have included talks in early August between Ely Ratner, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, and Yang Tao, director of the department of North American and Oceanian affairs at China’s Foreign Ministry.

Defense officials of the two countries also held a hybrid in-person and virtual meeting in late September to discuss the contents of a recent Pentagon strategy document, including a range of cyber-related topics. 

“In terms of hopefully, kind of kick-starting some of the military-to-military engagements, yes, I’m hopeful that we’ll have an opportunity to do that in the coming months,” said Michael Chase, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, at a public event this week. 

The signs of a military-to-military thaw accompany other indications of a desire on the part of both countries to ease tensions and avoid misunderstandings over incidents like Thursday’s near-miss between a Chinese fighter jet and an American bomber over the South China Sea.   

“China and the United States need to have dialogue,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday. “Not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive, so that with dialogue we can increase mutual understanding, reduce misunderstanding and misjudgment.” 

‘A small step’

Some U.S. analysts cautiously welcomed the apparent breakthrough on military contacts.   

“I think the fact that the Department of Defense was willing to send a delegation, and indeed that the Chinese invited that delegation, is a small step forward in military-to-military relations. But it is only a small step,” said Dennis Wilder, senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University. 

Wilder told VOA there are many levels of exchange between the U.S. and Chinese militaries “that are quite crucial for keeping stability in East Asia that have not been restored and need to be restored.” 

But Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, told VOA that the American delegation at the forum will likely be treated with suspicion and used for propaganda.   

“The Chinese Communist Party propaganda apparatus will try to convey this as a symbol of American acceptance of Chinese positions,” he said.   

The prospects for a significant change in military-to-military communications are complicated by the vacancy at the top of China’s defense establishment following the official removal this week of Defense Minister Li Shangfu. 

The United States “has to wait for the key person to be in the key position to be able to decide who to talk to and how to progress … in repairing these ties that have been cut since August 2022,” said Lionel Fatton, assistant professor of international relations and outreach coordinator to the U.N. and NGOs at Webster University Geneva. 
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Authorities scoured the woods and hundreds of acres of family-owned property, sent dive teams with sonar to the bottom of a river and scrutinized a possible suicide note Friday in the second day of their intensive search for an Army reservist accused of fatally shooting 18 people and wounding 13 in Maine. 

Authorities lifted their shelter-in-place order Friday evening, nearly 48 hours after the shootings. 

The names and pictures of the 16 males and two females who died were released as State Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck asked for a moment of silence at a news conference. Their ages ranged from 14 to 76. 

Law enforcement officials said they had not seen the suspected gunman since his vehicle was left at a boat ramp Wednesday shortly after the shootings. Sauschuck didn’t say if they had any indication the suspect was alive or dead, only that investigators were leaving all options open. 

Authorities said Robert Card, 40, who has firearms training, opened fire at a bar and a bowling alley Wednesday in Lewiston, Maine’s second-largest city. 

The city held an online vigil Friday night with local clergy members, prayer and music. Residents expressed their shock and pain in chat postings, describing themselves as angry, grieving, tired and heartbroken. Those watching at home were urged to light candles. 

Police and other law enforcement officers were spotted in several areas around the region Friday. Divers searched the water near a boat launch in Lisbon and a farming business in the same town. At points throughout the day, police vehicles were seen speeding through several towns, lights flashing and sirens blaring. 

A gun was found in Card’s car, which was discovered at the boat ramp, and federal agents were testing it to determine if it was used in the shootings, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.  

Authorities have said publicly that the shooter used at least one rifle. They have not released any other details, including how the suspect obtained the firearm. 

The Cards have lived in Bowdoin for generations, neighbors said, and various members of the family own hundreds of acres in the area. The family owned the local sawmill and years ago donated the land for a local church. 

“This is his stomping ground,” Richard Goddard, who lives on the road where a search took place on Thursday, said of the suspect. “He knows every ledge to hide behind, every thicket.” 

The victims of the shootings included Bob Violette, 76, a retiree who was coaching a youth bowling league and was described as devoted, approachable and kind. Auburn City Councilor Leroy Walker told news outlets that his son, Joe, a manager at the bar and grill, died after he tried to stop the gunman.  

The Maine Educational Center for the Deaf said the shootings killed at least four members of its community, many of whom were ardent advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing. 

The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the country’s lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022. Governor Janet Mills said Friday that many Maine residents will know someone who died. 

“It is often said that our state is ‘one big small town’ because Maine is such a close-knit community. As a result, many of us know the victims personally, including me,” she said in a statement. “Tonight, I ask Maine people to join me in reading their stories, learning who they were, celebrating them as beloved people and mourning them as irreplaceable.” 

While the shelter-in-place order was lifted, authorities did ban hunting in Lewiston and three nearby towns on Saturday, which is “Maine Resident Only Day” and serves as the kickoff to the busiest stretch of the state’s popular deer hunting season. 

The shootings were the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. 
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The United States and China stopped just short of announcing an anticipated meeting between their leaders in November on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, two senior U.S. officials said. State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching reports.
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Ukrainian pro-Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tsaryov was shot twice and seriously wounded late Thursday in Russian-annexed Crimea where he lives, his family and Russian officials said Friday.

Russia’s top investigative body said it had opened a criminal inquiry into the attempt on his life, the latest incident in a series of attacks since the start of the war on several prominent pro-Moscow figures.

Tsaryov was found unconscious and bleeding. A Russian-installed official in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, said he is in intensive care. The former Ukrainian lawmaker was lined up to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv if Russia succeeded in occupying Kyiv, Reuters reported, citing sources in Moscow.

The shooting of Tsaryov was a special operation conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, a source in the Ukrainian intelligence agency said Friday.

Tsaryov, a wealthy hotel businessman in Crimea, was previously a member of the Ukrainian parliament and then speaker of the parliament of “Novorossiya” — an entity formed after Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine broke away in 2014 and began fighting Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine, the United States and several other Western countries have imposed sanctions on him. He is listed as a “traitor to the motherland” by Myrotvorets, “Peacemaker” in Ukrainian, a vast unofficial database of people considered to be enemies of the country. The website lists personal information about Tsaryov, including an email address, a passport number and an address in Yalta.

Several pro-war Russian figures in the Myrotvorets database have been assassinated since the start of the war, including journalist Darya Dugina, war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and former submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky.

Dugina and Tatarsky died in bombings, while Rzhitsky was shot while out on an early morning run.

No comment was immediately available from Ukrainian intelligence.

War commitment

Ukrainians remain deeply committed to keeping up their country’s defensive fight against Russia, despite some weariness with their country’s 20-month struggle against Russia’s invasion.

According to a recent Gallup survey, Ukrainians remain steadfast in their desire to win the war that Russia started in February 2022, but less so than a year ago.

Three in five (60%) Ukrainians interviewed in July and August said they want Ukraine to keep fighting until it wins, twice as many as those who want Ukraine to negotiate to end the war as soon as possible (31%). Ukrainians’ commitment is slightly muted from what it was in September 2022, when 70% of Ukrainians said they wanted their country to keep fighting, but the majority still staunchly support the war, the survey shows.

The fighting is expected to drag on into the winter as both sides remain deadlocked in fierce battles.

War-weary mothers, wives and children gathered on the streets of Ukrainian cities Friday, demanding an 18-month limit on mandatory military service.

Chanting “Demobilize the soldiers,” about 100 wives, mothers, children and relatives of Ukrainian soldiers attended a demonstration in the capital, Kyiv.

“I live in constant fear for his life,” Valeriia Koliada, 35, said of her husband, who volunteered for the military.

“It’s nerve-wracking for me. He is tired as well,” she said. “We are a young family. I also want to have a child and sleep calm at night.”

Protesters gathered in at least six other Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine ordered a general mobilization of the male population between the ages of 25 and 60 when Russia launched its invasion on February 24, 2022. The vast majority joined as volunteers.

In Russia meanwhile, forces are experiencing morale problems as another winter campaign looms, the White House said.

“We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told a press conference on Thursday.

“We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire,” Kirby said, calling the practice “barbaric.”

“Russia’s mobilized forces remain undertrained, underequipped and unprepared for combat, as was the case during their failed winter offensive last year,” Kirby said, adding that Russia appears to be employing “human wave” tactics.

“No proper equipment, no leadership, no resourcing, no support. It is unsurprising that Russian forces are suffering from poor morale,” Kirby said.

Russia’s Washington Embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Some of the recent casualties of Russian soldiers near the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka were on the orders of their own leaders, the White House said.

Ukrainian and Russian troops have been fighting for Avdiivka, a frontline town in the Donetsk region, since mid-October. The town had essentially been reduced to rubble because of Russian bombing, the Ukrainian military said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Russian forces have lost at least a brigade worth of troops trying to advance on Ukraine’s eastern town.

“The invaders made several attempts to surround Avdiivka, but each time our soldiers stopped them and threw them back, causing painful losses. In these cases, the enemy lost at least a brigade,” Zelenskyy told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call, the president’s office said in a statement.

Ukraine aid

Meanwhile, the United States said Thursday it will be providing Ukraine with $150 million in additional military assistance. The package will include artillery and small-arms ammunition, as well as anti-tank weapons.

To date, Washington has provided Kyiv with $43.9 billion in security aid since Russia invaded, meaning the United States is Ukraine’s biggest security donor. However, future U.S. aid for Ukraine may be in jeopardy due to rising Republican opposition.

President Joe Biden met with new House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries at the White House on Thursday to discuss his request for nearly $106 billion lumping together funding for Israel and Ukraine, as well as for bolstering security at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Johnson, a staunch conservative allied with Donald Trump, said Congress is “not going to abandon” Ukraine. He said House Republicans would first bring a separate bill to provide $14.5 billion in aid to Israel, adding that they need more information about the Biden administration’s Ukraine strategy.

“We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there,” Johnson said on Fox News’ “Hannity,” referring to the Russian president. But he added, “We must stand with our important ally in the Middle East, and that’s Israel.”

Germany has stepped up efforts to supply air defense systems to Ukraine ahead of the impending winter to help protect critical infrastructure there from Russian attacks. The defense ministry in Berlin said Friday it delivered a third IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Kyiv.

Some information in this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
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Ugandan economists and officials expressed confidence in the country’s economy and urged investors to ignore a U.S. government advisory about risks they may face if they conduct business there.

The advisory, in the U.S. 2023 Investment Climate Statements, warned of the financial and reputational risks posed by endemic corruption in Uganda.

The statement also noted Uganda’s enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in May, a move condemned by LGBTQ+ advocates worldwide.

Morrison Rwakakamba, chairperson of the Uganda Investment Authority, a government arm mandated with promoting investment in the country, told VOA that organizations such as the Oxford University Center of African Economies have ranked Uganda as one of the least risky economies on the continent.

The African Development Bank’s 2023 report also ranked Uganda among the top investment destinations in East Africa.

According to the African Development Bank, Uganda’s gross domestic product is projected to grow 6.5% in 2023 and 6.7% in 2024, assuming any global growth slowdown will be short lived.

Rwakakamba said current investors are rational and know they will continue to make money in Uganda.

“Investors follow money. Investors don’t follow geopolitics,” he said. “They don’t follow cultural wars that seem to be what is embedded in that advisory. … We even also continue to encourage our American investors that there is money to be made in Africa. There’s money to be made in Uganda because of the market, because of the return on investment. We are not worried about these advisories.”

The Uganda Investment Authority said the country has seen exponential growth in direct foreign investment over the past four years from investors in United Arab Emirates, China, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands, among others.

However, Corti Paul Lakuma, a senior research fellow and head of the macroeconomics department at the Economic Policy Research Centre in Kampala, said the advisory is a disadvantage for Uganda because the country still wants to attract investors.

Despite investments from China, India and Europe, Lakuma said, Uganda cannot disregard the fact that the United States is still the biggest social and public investor in the sectors of health and education.

“Those other countries, yes, they are good and dependable, but their kind of investments are different from the investments America makes,” Lakuma said. “America makes investments with long-term repayment period and return period. Not many countries are willing to take that risk.”

Rwakakamba argued that even though there is corruption in Uganda, the East African country has set up online mechanisms that enable direct contact between potential investors and Ugandan officials, in an effort to cut out middlemen who demand bribes.

Regarding the Anti-Homosexuality Act, Uganda has experienced a political backlash for what has been described as the harshest law against the LGBTQ+ community in the world.

Lakuma said Uganda may need to reconsider the law.

“The world is becoming very sensitive [to] issues of diversity, inclusivity,” he said. “I think it demanded for some sensitivity from our lawmakers. We don’t live in a vacuum, even though we want to keep our cultures and morals. But also, you must observe what is the changing world order.”

In August, the World Bank said the Anti-Homosexuality Act contradicted its values. The bank said it would halt new loans to Uganda until it could test measures to prevent discrimination in the Ugandan projects it finances.
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The U.S. Treasury Department announced a second round of sanctions Friday on the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Hamas-linked officials in response to its October 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, including women and children.

The Treasury Department said in a statement the new sanctions, imposed through its Office of Foreign Asset Control, target Hamas financial networks, additional assets in Hamas’s investment portfolio and individuals who have facilitated the evasion of previous, existing sanctions.

The sanctions include members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corp and a Gaza-based organization that funneled illicit funds from Iran to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The new sanctions follow an initial round of sanctions, imposed October 18, which designated Hamas operatives and financial facilitators, as well as its May 2022 sanctions designating officials and companies involved in managing Hamas’s secret international investment portfolio.

The agency said the secret Hamas portfolio is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, with companies operated under the guise of legitimate businesses in Sudan, Algeria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. Their representatives have attempted to conceal Hamas’s control over their assets.

The department release said Friday’s sanctions also are meant to underscore the critical role Iran plays in providing financial, logistical and operational support to Hamas.

In the statement, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the latest sanctions demonstrate the U.S. “commitment to dismantling Hamas’s funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system.”

In a separate statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States will continue to work with its partners to deny Hamas access to the international financial system “as part of our broader effort to prevent and deter its terrorist activity.”

Some information in this report was provided by Reuters.
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Ukrainian students at Yale University are raising money for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and helping to educate fellow students about the war in their homeland. Iryna Solomko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Pavlo Terekhov
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President Joe Biden is pushing for federal legislation that would expand U.S. consumers’ right to fix their own electronics — a move that the White House predicts will save the average American family $400 a year and reduce the nation’s massive output of electronic waste.  

The legislation Biden seeks has far-ranging implications that will touch supply lines, consumers and workers around the world, advocates say.

Earlier this week, Apple threw its support behind Biden’s push. At a White House event on the issue, a senior official from the California-based company called for “strong national right-to-repair legislation” and pledged to honor, nationwide, a new California law on the matter.

Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, this week laid out the White House’s view, which is that by not providing access to parts, diagrams and tools, companies are imposing “unfair anti-competitive restrictions.” 

“For everything from smartphones to wheelchairs to cars to farm equipment, too often manufacturers make it difficult to access spare parts, manuals and tools necessary to make fixes,” she said this week.

“Consumers are compelled to go back to the dealer and pay the dealer’s price or to discard and replace the device entirely. This not only costs consumers money, but it prevents independent repair shops from competing for the business and creates unnecessary waste by shortening the life span of devices.”

Years of effort

American advocacy groups have been pushing states to enact right-to-repair protections for at least a decade, said Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition.  

And while her group welcomes Biden’s support for federal legislation and Apple’s support, “it doesn’t mean quite as much as it appears,” she said.

“Apple got behind this bill so that they didn’t have a stronger bill that would have been more uncomfortable for them and would have made more significant progress with right-to-repair. So they got behind this to avoid worse, in their view,” she said.

“So, it will help. I think the impact that it’s going to have obviously will be worldwide, because these manufacturers operate around the world.”

It might seem, advocates say, that this is a no-brainer for consumers.

“Who doesn’t want the right to repair?” asked the nonprofit Public Interest Research Groups. “Companies worth over $10 trillion.”

But opponents argue that such legislation could infringe on copyrights and lead to higher consumer prices, lower-quality products and depressed innovation.

“Unnecessary government intervention in a thriving market should be avoided,” the Competitive Enterprise Institute wrote in a policy paper on the issue earlier this year.

But Gordon-Byrne argued that without such legislation, profit-seeking companies would have no interest in making sure their customers can access parts and information to fix their own stuff.

“Left to their own devices, the manufacturers will simply stop selling parts, tools. diagrams. They’ll just stop,” she said. “Basically, they can just do less and make it impossible for you to repair your product.

“So, we have to have more of an active approach towards requiring the provision of repair materials. Because if they stop, they stop, and then nobody can fix anything.”

It’s not clear when any legislation could be debated by Congress, which only this week installed a House speaker after several chaotic, leaderless weeks. 
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An Iranian court on Thursday ordered the U.S. government to pay $420 million in compensation to victims of an abortive 1980 operation to free hostages held at the U.S. Embassy, the judiciary said.

Shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the Western-backed shah, Iranian students stormed the embassy in Tehran and took more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days.

The students called for the extradition of the deposed shah, who was receiving medical care in the United States.

In April 1980, Washington attempted to free the hostages in the top-secret Operation Eagle Claw, which ended in disaster after running into sandstorms and mechanical problems.

As the rescue force withdrew, two U.S. aircraft collided, killing eight servicemen.

In its Thursday report, the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency said that during the operation, U.S. forces had attacked a bus carrying Iranian passengers. It did not elaborate.

“Following the complaint filed by families of the victims of U.S. Operation Eagle Claw, a court ordered the U.S. government to pay $420 million,” Mizan said, without specifying the number of the victims.

Iranian media have reported that a local commander of the Revolutionary Guards was accidentally shot and killed by Iranian forces while standing guard over U.S. military equipment abandoned during the operation.

Five months after the hostage crisis, Washington severed diplomatic relations and imposed an embargo on Tehran.

The hostages were released in January 1981.

In August, a Tehran court ordered the U.S. government to pay $330 million in damages for “planning a coup” in 1980 against the fledgling Islamic republic.

The suits filed against Washington in Iranian courts followed a series of multibillion-dollar compensation awards against Tehran by U.S. courts.

In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that Iranian assets frozen in the United States should be paid to victims of attacks that Washington blamed on Tehran, including the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and a 1996 blast in Saudi Arabia.

This March, the International Court of Justice ruled that Washington’s freezing of funds belonging to several Iranian individuals and companies was “manifestly unreasonable.”

But it ruled it had no jurisdiction to unblock nearly $2 billion in Iranian central bank assets frozen by the United States.

Tehran, which denies all responsibility for the attacks blamed on it by Washington, has said that U.S. court judgments have awarded victims a total of $56 billion in damages.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s declaration on Wednesday that his relationship with U.S. President Joe Biden was “second to none” must have been a welcome respite for the American president, who is grappling with overlapping crises and mounting anger in the Muslim world.

Biden, who campaigned on a promise to end his nation’s “forever wars,” now must deal with a war in Gaza, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising Sino-U.S. tensions over Taiwan. His handling of the Israel-Hamas war has incited condemnation in many parts of the globe and sparked furor from Arab and Muslim communities in the U.S.

“There’s a feeling of betrayal in the American Muslim community where American Muslims see the president as being too one-sided in this conflict,” said Robert McCaw, who leads the Government Affairs Department at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim advocacy network in the U.S.

The administration’s request for supplemental funding to help foreign allies fight their wars is also meeting resistance from some Republican lawmakers, including the newly elected speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.

Johnson, a staunch fiscal conservative, forcefully supported Kyiv in the initial days of the war but more recently opposed additional aid to Ukraine. As speaker he has said funding will have to come with conditions.

However, Johnson, an evangelical Christian, is deeply sympathetic to Israel, calling up a resolution supporting the country in his first action as speaker on Wednesday.

Nine members of Congress, mostly from the progressive wing of Biden’s Democratic Party, voted against the resolution, largely because it did not mourn the loss of Palestinian lives or mention aspirations for a two-state solution.

“I voted against this resolution because it is a deeply incomplete and biased account of what is happening in Israel and Palestine, and what has been happening for decades,” said Rashida Tlaib, who represents a House district in Michigan, a state with one of the largest Muslim and Arab American populations in the country.

Progressive groups have been pushing Biden to do more to see that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza, including through a cease-fire.

Support for Israel

Various polls show more Americans sympathize with Israelis than with the Palestinians, though younger Americans are more divided.

Politically, Biden’s support for Israel will help him secure their votes, including a key constituency of his Democratic Party, American Jews, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

“With American Jews – a very important group in terms of votes and also contributions to the Democratic Party – there’s been almost universal praise for President Biden and the way he’s handled this,” Sabato told VOA. “Sometimes Jewish Americans will move even 40% to a Republican. I don’t think that’s going to happen next year.”

An October 25 Morning Consult poll showed that voters increasingly favor Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza, with an increase of 9 percentage points since the days immediately following Hamas’ attack on Israel.

However, the impact of the war in Gaza on Biden’s re-election bid in 2024 will depend on whether the conflict can be contained.

“If we get involved directly in these forever wars, yes, Biden will suffer,” Sabato said, underlining other key factors in the president’s approval rating – whether Palestinian deaths can be minimized and humanitarian aid delivered.

The president has repeatedly warned Iran not to widen the war, as cross-border attacks between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah intensify in neighboring Lebanon. U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have also been attacked with drones or rockets at least 17 times in recent days, including on Thursday, according to U.S. officials, who blamed other Iranian-backed militia groups in the region.

Sabato added that as long as Biden keeps American troops out of the line of fire, his support for foreign wars won’t be a major factor in voters’ support. In general, unless soldiers are deployed, foreign policy is not a key driver in how Americans vote.

Economic sentiment, however, plays a pivotal role in how Americans make their electoral choices, and the news is not great for Biden on that front. Despite 4.9% GDP growth in the third quarter and inflation that’s slowly falling from its recent high rates, Americans continue to lament the cost of goods, a key driver of the president’s low approval ratings.

The U.S. is also facing a massive $1.7 trillion federal deficit.

VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson and Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Political leaders in the Mississippi River area are looking to form a multistate compact to manage threats from climate change, water pollution and drought-affected regions elsewhere.

“Twenty million people drink from the Mississippi River and its tributaries every day, including me and my family,” said Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative.

With the world’s fourth-largest basin, the Mississippi River supports more than 400 species of wildlife, has led to more than 350,000 jobs and generates more than $21 billion in annual tourism, fishing and recreation spending, according to the nonprofit group American Rivers.

“Whether you’re looking at it from a clean water standpoint, an ecological standpoint, a shipping of goods standpoint, or even from national security, there’s not a more important waterway in our country,” Wellenkamp told VOA. “We need to come together to protect and manage this critical resource.”

That’s what community and political leaders hope to do with a Mississippi River Compact to help unify lawmakers and residents along more than 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) of America’s most important river.

The compact’s framework would join 10 states in the collective management of river resources in consultation with stakeholders, including environmental groups, businesses and riverfront communities, to promote transparency and a shared sense of responsibility for the river’s well-being.

“When a farmer in a state upriver uses harmful fertilizer, for example, it affects the ability for fishermen to catch healthy fish at the bottom of the river in the Gulf of Mexico,” Wellenkamp said.

Nitrogen and phosphorus in runoff from lawns, sewage treatment plants, farmland and other sources along the river trigger algae blooms that choke off oxygen in water, killing marine life. Where the river meets the Gulf, that has caused a “dead zone” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates is costing U.S seafood and tourism industries more than $82 million per year.

“The problems facing the Mississippi River are many,” said Matt Rota, senior policy director at Healthy Gulf in New Orleans, Louisiana. “Only looking at the environmental side of things, we need to address water diversion protections, the Gulf dead zone, pollution, catastrophic flooding and — as we’re seeing right now in Louisiana — persistent droughts that are allowing saltwater from the Gulf to make our water undrinkable.

“These issues can’t be addressed state by state,” Rota continued. “They require a ‘whole river’ perspective. It’s vague right now exactly what a compact would cover, but there’s certain potential. From shipping to flooding to agriculture to wastewater disposal to drinking water and more, if a compact could prioritize the sustainability of the river, maybe it could help attract funds to help solve these problems.”

A “thousand-mile journey”

Tackling these challenges as a group could prove difficult.

“Solving the collective problems that span the river will require political cooperation among a very diverse group of states that don’t always agree on river management priorities, particularly around water quality issues such as nutrient pollution,” said David Strifling, director of the Water Law and Policy Initiative at Marquette University.

“Still,” he said, the “resolution to pursue the development of a Mississippi River Compact is the first step in a journey of a thousand miles.”

Wellenkamp acknowledged that states along the river do not always agree on what is best, “but when the river experiences record-breaking floods, we are all under threat. And when we have record-breaking droughts, we all suffer. When harmful chemicals find their way into the river up north, it hurts those of us in the South. And when manufacturing operations along the river in the south are hurting, it harms their headquarters in cities along the river in the North.”

In pursuing a compact, Strifling believes it is promising that political leaders in the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative are rallying around issues that unify them, such as protections against diverting water to places outside the river basin.

Threat of “thirsty eyes”

The western region of the United States is experiencing a historic drought that U.S. Geological Survey data shows has resulted in a 20% drop in water flow along the important Colorado River over the last two decades.

“And conditions are only getting worse with climate change,” said Healthy Rivers senior policy advisor Kim Mitchell. “Forecasts show the Colorado River could lose another 25 to 30% of its flow by 2050. The region is desperate for solutions.”

Some western U.S. leaders are looking at water from the Mississippi and from its large tributary, the Missouri River, as part of the solution. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey last year agreed to spend $1 billion to investigate solutions that include pumping flood waters from the Mississippi River into the depleted Colorado.

“The idea of piping ‘excess’ Mississippi River water across the continental divide to supply water to the desert Southwest has persisted for decades no matter how unworkable it has been proven to be,” Trevor Russell, director of Friends of the Mississippi River’s Water Program, told VOA. “But not only would it just be a band aid for the problems being experienced out West, it would put the Mississippi River — America’s greatest river — at risk, too.”

That is where a Mississippi River compact could be especially beneficial.

“States with thirsty eyes have been wanting to put a straw in the Mississippi for years,” Wellenkamp said. “A Mississippi River Compact would finally put an end to that threat because no state along the river could give another state access to the river without the other states’ permission.”
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Hostilities in the Middle East are reverberating in the United States, where homeland security and law enforcement officials are tracking a steady increase in threats to Jewish, Arab and Muslim communities. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI issued an updated advisory late Wednesday, warning “the volume and frequency of threats … have increased” in just the past week.

“These threats have included hoax bomb threats targeting houses of worship and violent rhetoric online encouraging attacks against the Jewish, Arab American, and Muslim communities,” the advisory said. 

It also pointed to the October 14 stabbing attack in Illinois that killed a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and severely wounded his mother.

Law enforcement agencies across the country, including in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, increased police patrols and other security measures in the days following the October 7 terrorist attack by the Hamas militant group that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.

Additional measures were put in place ahead of calls by a former Hamas official for a day of rage in response to Israel’s air campaign against Hamas, which according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has killed more than 6,500 people.

The latest advisory from DHS and the FBI says the biggest threat continues to come from “violent extremists and lone offenders motivated by or reacting to ongoing events.”

“We have no specific information that foreign adversaries are plotting attacks against the homeland,” according to the advisory, though it adds, “some are seeking to take advantage of the conflict, calling for violence in furtherance of their respective goals.”

Officials, in particular, point to an October 13 call by al-Qaida for people to support Hamas by attacking American military bases, airports and embassies. It also notes a social media post from the Islamic State terror group on October 19 which urged followers to target the Jewish presence all over the world, “especially Jewish neighborhoods in America and Europe.”

Additionally, officials have raised concerns about Iran, accusing Iranian-backed media of amplifying mis- and disinformation to English-speaking audiences with what the advisory describes as “verifiably doctored or mislabeled images and video footage, inaccurate translations, and misleading content … to stoke passions, accelerate the process of radicalization, and lead individuals to engage in targeted violence.”

Separately, an apparent memo from U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently warned that operatives with links to three U.S.-designated terrorist organizations — Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah — might try to enter the U.S. along its southern border.

The U.S. has designated all three groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Officials have declined to confirm the authenticity of the memo but told VOA, “CBP has seen no indication of Hamas-directed foreign fighters seeking to make entry into the United States.”
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The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in nearly two years in the third quarter as higher wages from a tight labor market helped to power consumer spending, again defying dire warnings of a recession that have lingered since 2022.

Gross domestic product increased at a 4.9% annualized rate last quarter, the fastest since the fourth quarter of 2021, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its advance estimate of third-quarter GDP growth. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP rising at a 4.3% rate.

Estimates ranged from as low as a 2.5% rate to as high as a 6.0% pace, a wide margin reflecting that some of the input data, including September durable goods orders, goods trade deficit, wholesale and retail inventory numbers were published at the same time as the GDP report.

The economy grew at a 2.1% pace in the April-June quarter and is expanding at a pace well above what Fed officials regard as the non-inflationary growth rate of around 1.8%.

While the robust growth pace notched last quarter is unlikely sustainable, it was testament to the economy’s resilience despite aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. Growth could slow in the fourth quarter because of the United Auto Workers strikes and the resumption student loan repayments by millions of Americans.

Most economists have revised their forecasts and now believe that the Fed can to engineer a “soft-landing” for the economy, pointing to strength in worker productivity and moderation in unit labor costs growth in the second quarter, which they expected carried through into the July-September period.  

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, was the main driver.

A strong labor market is providing underlying support to spending. Though wage growth has slowed, it is rising a bit faster than inflation, lifting households’ purchasing power.  

Labor market resilience was highlighted by a separate report from the Labor Department on Thursday, showing the number of people filing new claims for state unemployment benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 210,000 during the week ending Oct. 21 from 200,000 in the prior week.

The GDP data likely has no impact on near-term monetary policy amid a surge in U.S. Treasury yields and stock market selloff, which have tightened financial conditions.  

Financial markets expect the Fed to keep interest rates unchanged at its Oct. 31-Nov. 1 policy meeting, according to CME Group’s FedWatch. Since March, the U.S. central bank has raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by 525 basis points to the current 5.25% to 5.50% range. 
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With jailed American journalist Evan Gershkovich due to spend his birthday Thursday in prison, family and colleagues discuss their efforts to secure his release. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit spoke with the Wall Street Journal reporter’s sister about his case. (Camera: Cristina Caicedo Smit, Saqib Ul Islam; Produced by Cristina Caicedo Smit)
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In an emergency session of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) this week, the U.S. called on allies in the Middle East to increase efforts to cut off outside funding for Hamas, the organization that perpetrated a massive attack on Israeli civilians on October 7.

The Treasury Department called on the member countries of the TFTC to use their influence to do more to cut off the flow of funds to Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, home to some 2.3 million Palestinians who have been under relentless Israeli shelling for more than two weeks.

The U.S. has classified Hamas as a terrorist organization since 1997.

“From our perspective, not acting against Hamas and its terrorism is a disservice to the Palestinian people,” Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a prepared statement released Tuesday to the group.

“From a financial standpoint, we can clearly see that Hamas has exacerbated economic hardships for decades in the Gaza Strip by diverting humanitarian assistance to support its campaign of terror, and we must publicly condemn these actions.”

The TFTC is made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Meeting schedule accelerated

In his remarks, Nelson said, “We cannot tolerate a world in which Hamas and other terrorist organizations’ fundraisers live and operate with impunity, abusing the financial system, to sustain their terror. The United States will not tolerate that world.”

Founded in 2017, the TFTC is based in Riyadh, and brings together government officials from its member countries to discuss ways in which they can collaborate to reduce the flow of funds to terrorist organizations and to combat money laundering in general.

The meeting this week, originally scheduled for November, was brought forward as a result of the crisis in Israel and Gaza.

Just a week ago, the U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Hamas, including on a “secret investment portfolio” that it claimed brought in large sums of money for the group.

New priorities

Jessica Davis, a visiting senior fellow at the Soufan Center and an expert on countering terrorism finance, told VOA that international efforts to crack down on Hamas’ funding sources have waned in recent years as the perception grew that it was less of a terrorist threat than it had been in the past.

“That was obviously wrong,” Davis said. “The events of October 7 demonstrate that Hamas continues to be a problem. And that’s probably going to shift some countries’ prioritization and reinvigorate efforts to counter their financing.”

The U.S. will be asking members of the TFTC, as well as other countries in the region, to accelerate that shift. One request will be that countries take concerted action to prevent Hamas from simply moving fundraising operations from one country to another when sanctions begin to bite.

“There’s definitely plenty of avenues of Hamas financing that can be shut down, and it’s not just in the Middle East,” she said. “Historically, Hamas has operated broad networks, drawing support from charities and identity-based support networks.”

“A lot of these networks exist around the world,” Davis said. “Some of them are smaller, some of them are bigger. A lot of them are in the Middle East, but a lot of them are outside of the Middle East. And [those networks are] really the place where the international community can have some impact at this point in time.”

Shutting down those networks, she said, could have a meaningful impact on Hamas and its capacity to continue operations.

Aid to Gaza questioned

On Wednesday, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee issued a letter to the Biden administration calling on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide assurances that humanitarian aid delivered to the people of the Gaza Strip does not fall into the hands of Hamas, or other organizations considered terrorist groups by the U.S. government.

The letter, addressed to USAID Administrator Samantha Power, was signed by 24 Republican members of the committee, including Chairman James Comer.

“The scale and complexity of the barbaric Hamas atrocities that commenced on October 7th in Israel make it clear that significant financial resources were used for these attacks,” the letter noted. It pointed out that under the Trump administration, aid to Gaza had been sharply reduced because of the difficulty in ascertaining that it was not being used to benefit Hamas, a position that was subsequently reversed by the Biden administration.

In outlining the committee’s request for information from USAID, the letter stressed that the Hamas attacks had directly harmed U.S. citizens as well as Israelis.

“The most recent atrocities committed by Hamas have resulted in significant and rising numbers of deaths and injuries, including dozens of American casualties and hostages,” it said. “This episode underscores the critical importance of ensuring aid funds do not inadvertently increase financial support for terrorist activity.

“If U.S. taxpayer dollars are financing terrorist activity, the Biden Administration must cease such aid in order to protect Americans and our allies.”
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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Washington Thursday for meetings with senior U.S. officials on bilateral and regional security issues as the two countries aim to maintain open communication channels.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is hosting Wang at the State Department for a working dinner after meetings in the late afternoon. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan is holding talks with him at Blair House, near the White House, Friday.

“This meeting is consistent with commitments by both sides to maintain this strategic channel of communication as part of ongoing efforts to responsibly manage the relationship,” NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. 

Senior officials from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration have previewed a range of issues, including Israel’s war with Hamas, Russia’s war on Ukraine, the fentanyl crisis, and a recent vessel collision in the South China Sea. 

Meanwhile, congressional critics have urged China to release wrongfully detained American citizens and condemned Chinese military behavior in the South China Sea.

“During its meetings with Wang Yi, the Biden administration should not fall for false promises but demand deliverables such as releasing Americans taken hostage in China, stopping the export of fentanyl precursors, and halting its military expansionism in the Indo-Pacific,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and Indo-Pacific Subcommittee Chairwoman Young Kim said in a statement.

“China is having their own internal and external difficulties right now,” Biden said during a press conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “China’s economic growth is stagnant compared to what it was. China has engaged in activities [of] intimidation” when dealing with other countries, he added.

Biden also reiterated Washington’s support for the Philippines following a recent incident in which Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Philippine vessels near Second Thomas Shoal in the contested South China Sea.

“Just this past week, the PRC vessels acted dangerously and unlawfully as our Philippine friends conducted a routine resupply mission within their own exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea,” Biden said, using an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

“The United States’ defense commitment to the Philippines is ironclad,” he said, adding that the U.S. is “not looking for a conflict” with China.

China asserts sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea, a resource-rich waterway with competing territorial claims from several other countries. 

Middle East

Blinken has called on China to use its influence over Iran to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading but the U.S. expectation is said to be low amid key divisions with China. Washington said Tehran continues to support Hamas militants, who do not support a two-state solution.

“Hamas does not represent the vast majority of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip or anywhere else,” Biden said during the press conference. “Hamas is hiding behind Palestinian civilians.”

The United States, Israel, Egypt, the European Union, Japan and others have designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

China, like Russia, does not classify Hamas as a terrorist group but regards it as a legitimate representative of the Palestinians in Gaza.

Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the Beijing government hopes the U.S. will work with China to “properly manage differences and jointly bring the bilateral relations back to the track of sound and steady development.”

As Israel prepares a ground incursion into Gaza, Wang told Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that “all countries have the right to self-defense, but it is important to observe international humanitarian law and protect civilians,” during a phone call on October 23.

Sullivan held talks with Wang in Malta September 16 and 17 following their meetings in Vienna May 10 and 11. The White House said they discussed issues including Russia’s war in Ukraine and also noted the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. 
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