Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

By immigrants, for immigrants: ‘Documented’ covers immigration through a personal lens

In New York City, a media outlet run by immigrants for immigrants uses messaging apps to engage with communities on elections, crime and local issues. Liam Scott and Cristina Caicedo Smit have the story, narrated by Caicedo Smit. Tina Trinh contributed.

Naturalized citizens to play a bigger role in 2024 election

Naturalized immigrants will make up 10% of Americans eligible to vote in 2024. What impact might they have on the election?

US border arrests remained lower in October amid Biden asylum restrictions

U.S. border authorities apprehended about 54,000 migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in October, according to preliminary figures obtained by Reuters. They show a marginal rise from September but continue the broader downward trend since June when new restrictions were imposed under President Joe Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, has called for even tougher border restrictions in the face of criticism by Republican candidate Donald Trump over illegal immigration. Reuters reports.

Migrant families separated under Trump still feel fallout, fear his return

With the United States on the verge of an election that could put former President Donald Trump back in office, Billy wants people to know that what happened to him and several thousand other children still reverberates. Some families have not been reunited, and many of those together in the U.S. have temporary status and fear a victorious Trump carrying out promised mass deportations. The Associated Press reports.

Immigration around the world

VOA60 World – At least 10 dead after Israeli airstrike on a street in Gaza’s Nuseirat Refugee Camp

An Israeli strike on a street in central Gaza’s Nuseirat Refugee Camp killed at least 10 people, including children, and injured 20 others, according to Palestinian health officials and Associated Press journalists.

Myanmar opposition: Dialogue impossible, China must rethink junta support

Malaysia, hosting about 200,000 Myanmar refugees, has a direct stake in resolving the crisis. Produced by Nyein Chan Aye. 

Canada-India tensions could escalate cyberthreats, hinder immigration

Canada’s deepening dispute with India over its alleged campaign of violence against Sikhs in Canada could intensify Indian-based cyber espionage and hold back immigration, but analysts and experts see no immediate impact on trade. Concern about a widening rift between the two countries comes after a senior Canadian official told a parliamentary national security committee Tuesday that Indian Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was the mastermind behind the alleged plots. Reported by Reuters.

Sudan displacement crisis worsens as fighting, hunger, sexual violence escalates

The International Organization for Migration warned Tuesday that Sudan’s displacement crisis is worsening as increasing numbers of people flee fighting, hunger and sexual violence, thereby threatening “regional instability.” “The scale of this displacement and the corresponding humanitarian needs grows every day,” Amy Pope, IOM director general, told journalists in Geneva on a video link from Port Sudan. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

Uganda struggles to feed 1.7 million refugees as international support dwindles

Uganda is home to more than 1.7 million refugees, the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Despite being renowned for welcoming those fleeing neighboring violence, Ugandan officials and humanitarians say dwindling international support coupled with high numbers of refugees have put much pressure on host communities. Reported by The Associated Press.

Russian army deserters hope French asylum decision will encourage others to flee

Thousands of Russians, including soldiers, have sought asylum in the West since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — though only a small fraction of their applications have been approved. This month, however, France allowed several Russian army deserters to enter the country to seek refugee status. Henry Ridgwell reports.

News Brief

— An investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark resulted in the sentencing of a New Jersey woman for harboring two undocumented women from India and for failing to pay taxes on their wages.
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MOSCOW — Kyiv called on Moscow on Sunday to provide a list of Ukrainian prisoners of war ready for a swap after Russia accused Ukraine of sabotaging the exchange process. 

In requesting the list of Ukrainians from his Russian counterpart, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets wrote on his Telegram messaging channel: “We are always ready to exchange prisoners of war!”  

Kyiv and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in 2022. The last swap took place in mid-October with each side bringing home 95 prisoners.  

On Saturday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukraine was essentially sabotaging the process and has refused to take back its own citizens.  

Zakharova said Russia’s defense ministry had offered to hand over 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war, but that Ukraine had taken only 279.  

Lubinets, in turn, said that Ukraine was always ready to accept its citizens and accused Russia of slowing the exchange process.  

Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova said on Saturday that Ukraine has politicized the issue.  

“We consider it necessary to return to a constructive dialog and speed up the exchange of prisoners,” Moskalkova wrote on Telegram.  
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The good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It’ll be dark by late afternoon for the next few months in the United States.

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time Sunday, which means you should set your clock back an hour before you go to bed. Standard time will last until March 9, when we will again “spring forward” with the return of daylight saving time. 

“Fall back” should be easier. But it still may take a while to adjust your sleep habits, not to mention the downsides of leaving work in the dark or trying to exercise while there’s still enough light. Some people with seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression usually linked to the shorter days and less sunlight of fall and winter, may struggle, too. 

Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology. 

Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — don’t change and stay on standard time. 

Here’s what to know about the twice-yearly ritual. 

How the body reacts to light 

The brain has a master clock that is set by exposure to sunlight and darkness. This circadian rhythm is a roughly 24-hour cycle that determines when we become sleepy and when we’re more alert. The patterns change with age, one reason that early-to-rise youngsters evolve into hard-to-wake teens. 

Morning light resets the rhythm. By evening, levels of a hormone called melatonin begin to surge, triggering drowsiness. Too much light in the evening — that extra hour from daylight saving time — delays that surge and the cycle gets out of sync. 

How do time changes affect sleep? 

Even an hour change on the clock can throw off sleep schedules — because even though the clocks change, work and school start times stay the same. 

That’s a problem because so many people are already sleep deprived. About 1 in 3 U.S. adults sleep less than the recommended seven-plus hours nightly, and more than half of U.S. teens don’t get the recommended eight-plus hours on weeknights. 

How to prepare for the time change 

Some people try to prepare for a time change jolt by changing their bedtimes little by little in the days before the change. There are ways to ease the adjustment, including getting more sunshine to help reset your circadian rhythm for healthful sleep. 
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washington — Mariana Katzarova, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Russia, reported Tuesday on the human rights situation in Russia at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, describing torture as Moscow’s main tool of repression. In an interview with VOA, Katzarova detailed how the Russian government has turned brutality into the new norm and how Russians are persecuted for their anti-war views.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: You came to Washington with a new report about torture in Russia. The torture system is not something new. Did it get worse during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine?

U.N. Special Rapporteur on Russia Mariana Katzarova: The main message of this report was about the state-sanctioned system of torture being a tool used in a widespread and systematic manner by the authorities for oppression and control of Russian society.

Yes, it did get worse. First of all, because it’s a tool in the war against Ukraine. For example, we don’t even know how many. Still, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been detained in the occupied territories of Ukraine by the Russian forces and then deported to Russia proper in Russian prisons. They’re kept incommunicado. They have been tortured, including with electric shocks, with sexual violence, rape against them. Many of them haven’t even been charged with any criminal offenses; they’re just kept there kidnapped. I’ve seen pictures of some of them who have been tried in Rostov-on-Don in military courts. I mean, they look like [they’re] coming from concentration camps.

Also, after the terrorist attack in March in Moscow, it was kind of, you know, a new page was turned where the authorities almost legitimized torture, normalized it, almost encouraged it to be happening because they allowed it on the national television to show torture of the suspects, Tajik migrants. As it happened, the suspects in the Crocus [City Hall] attack, terrorist attack, [were subjected to beatings and torture] including the electric shock to the genitals of one of the suspects or [the] cutting of the ear. There was another transmission on television. These people were [nearly] dead and were brought in front of a judge, and the judge completely pretended that nothing was happening.

VOA: Are you expecting any reaction from Russian officials regarding that report?

Katzarova: I, of course, as a special rapporteur of the U.N. system, I hope that the Russian Federation will pay attention because governments around the world are in charge of protecting the rights of their citizens. If the Russian authorities are not interested in the protection of the human rights of their own people, this is shocking. I mean, that’s why I’m hoping that they’re not going to turn a blind eye, particularly when we’re talking about torture, which is entirely outlawed by international law under all circumstances.

VOA: You said you would like to have some constructive dialogue with the Russian officials. Is that possible?

Katzarova: All special rapporteurs of the U.N. are independent experts the governments appoint, members of the U.N., to advise and present the truth about the human rights situation in these countries. Of course, in normal circumstances, I should have had a constructive dialogue with the Russian authorities.

So far, it’s been one way. It’s a monologue. I’m presenting my report. They’re reading it, but they’re not answering. All I can say is that I am planning to send them my new letters. I do it every year after my mandate is voted on by the governments of the Human Rights Council.

They’re not allowing me to visit Russia to meet with all the Russian people, victims of human rights violations, lawyers, the government authorities, the ombudsperson for human rights. This is what we should be doing as special rapporteurs.

VOA: What kind of role can the U.N. play in helping the victims?

Katzarova: First of all, this report is shedding light on the continuing almost full, complete impunity for torturing ill-treatment. Various people of various targeted groups, starting with [the ones] I just mentioned, the Ukrainian detained civilians and POWs, but also from the Russian society. These are the LGBT persons who are pronounced as extremist organizations by the Supreme Court of Russia.

These are the mobilized conscientious objectors and the mobilized men who refuse to fight and who are tortured as well, subjected to torture, to … convince them to continue fighting or join the war against Ukraine.

And, of course, now another targeted group where the political prisoners, they’re being subjected to torture as conditions of detention. They’re also a target for the authorities, of course, to begin with. Alexey Navalny spent something like 394 and 96 days in SHIZO, which is a special punishment cell.

Also, anti-war activists have been subjected in administrative detention to something called Carrousel. They’re kept for two weeks, then another two weeks until criminal cases are fabricated against them. And we know of deaths in custody of such activists under torture.

VOA: If some Russian officials, let’s say, Sergey Lavrov, would listen to us right now, what would you say?

Katzarova: I would say, “Dear Mr. Lavrov, Your Excellency, please respect your own laws and most importantly, the international law and the rules of the United Nations. All the conventions that you have signed and ratified. And please respect the human rights of the Russian people. They’re your people, and they deserve better than languishing in prisons. They deserve better than being herded, and then sent to fight in the war, which is not their war. So, please respect human rights and show the United Nations that you deserve to be a member of the Security Council and a beacon, a country to show the way for other countries that need to follow in your steps because you’re one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

And please stop the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people and the Russian people suffered enough because of this aggressive war.

What else can we do apart from shed light? Speak up, not be afraid, and wait for our messages and the truth to be heard. As we say in Bulgaria and other countries, the darkest time is before sunrise.
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North Carolina is one of seven so-called swing states that could determine the next U.S. president. Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and their surrogates have spent a lot of time campaigning in this southern state. Black Americans make up 22% of the population, and those voters could decide who gets North Carolina’s 16 Electoral College votes. Rafael Saakov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Aleksandr Bergan
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ATHENS, GREECE — Greek anti-terror investigators have arrested a man in connection with a deadly explosion in Athens, police said Saturday, warning of “a new generation of terrorists” at work.

Thursday’s blast in an apartment in the capital, which killed a man and seriously injured a woman, is suspected to have been caused by the accidental detonation of a homemade bomb.

Police sources told AFP they had identified the dead man from his dismembered remains as a 36-year-old from the port city of Piraeus who had been previously arrested in Germany.

His fingerprints were in the international database of Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, the sources said.

Investigators have also opened a case for alleged participation in a terrorist organization and committing terrorist acts against the injured woman, 33, who was hospitalized under police supervision, and a 30-year-old woman who remains at large.

In their statement, police said Saturday that the arrested man was detained after turning himself in Friday.

He is believed to have a connection with one of the two women wanted in the case but has denied having anything to do with the explosion, police said.

Police said that a search of the apartment produced two handguns, wigs and face masks among other materials.

Greek police sources told AFP that investigations were ongoing and that the deceased and those charged were probably members of “a new generation of terrorists.”

The country has a decades-old history of far-left extremism involving small urban groups.

The shadow November 17 group, named after an anti-junta student uprising, was behind the 1975 killing of the CIA’s Athens station Chief Richard Welch and claimed responsibility for assassinating 23 people in scores of attacks on U.S., British, Turkish and Greek targets between the 1970s and 1990s.

In the past decade, scores of arson and bomb attacks in Greece have hit financial, diplomatic and political targets, with police blaming radical anarchists.
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MOSCOW — A court in Russia’s far east said on Friday it had convicted Robert Shonov, a former U.S. consular employee, of illegally and covertly cooperating with the U.S. government to harm Russia’s national security and had jailed him for nearly five years.

Russia’s FSB security service detained Shonov, a Russian national, in Vladivostok in May 2023 and accused him of taking money to covertly supply U.S. diplomats with information that was potentially harmful to Russia.

The United States on Saturday condemned the conviction, calling it “an egregious injustice.”

“The allegations against Mr. Shonov are entirely fictitious and without merit,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

A court in the Primorsky region in Russia’s far east confirmed in a statement on Friday that it had found Shonov guilty and had sentenced him to four years and 10 months in a penal colony.

Video of the verdict being read, released by the court, showed Shonov listening inside a courtroom cage as the judge sentenced him.

The FSB published a video in August 2023 showing a purported confession by Shonov in which he said two senior U.S. diplomats based in Moscow whom Russia later expelled had asked him to collect information about Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, its annexation of “new territories,” its military mobilization and the 2024 Russian presidential election.

In the video, Shonov said he was told to gather “negative” information on these topics, to look for signs of popular protest, and to reflect these in his reports.

It was not clear whether he was speaking under duress.

Shonov was employed by the U.S. Consulate General in Vladivostok for more than 25 years until Russia in 2021 ordered the dismissal of the U.S. mission’s local staff.
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Taiwan is expected to receive several weapons that have been battle tested in Ukraine from the United States over the next few years. Analysts say those weapons can help bolster Taiwan’s defense and strike capabilities amid growing military pressure from China.

In the latest round of arms sales to Taiwan, worth about $2 billion, the United States plans to deliver three medium-range National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, also known as NASAMS. The weapons include advanced AMRAAM Extended Range surface-to-air missiles.

The proposed sales will help improve Taiwan’s security and “assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region,” the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement released October 26.

NASAMS has been battle-tested in Ukraine and is viewed by experts as a significant elevation of Taiwan’s air defense capabilities. Australia and Indonesia are the other countries in the Indo-Pacific region that have received the system from the U.S.

Experts say that NASAMS has a high interoperation capability, and that the medium-range air defense system provides needed coverage in Taiwan’s existing air defense capabilities.

“Currently, Taiwan relies on Stinger missiles for short-range air defense while using the Patriot missile system or Taiwan’s indigenous Tien Kung for long-range air defense, so NASAMS can help fill the gap of Taiwan’s medium-range air defense,” said Su Tzu-yun, a military expert at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

He told VOA by phone that when NASAMS is incorporated into Taiwan’s air defense system, it can improve the island’s capabilities to deal with the increasingly frequent patrols the Chinese military is conducting around Taiwan.

“As Chinese naval vessels and military aircraft increase the frequency of their combat-readiness patrols near Taiwan, the risk of abrupt missile attacks launched by Chinese vessels is also increasing, so acquiring NASAMS can further enhance Taiwan’s capabilities to deal with these potential threats,” Su said.

In addition to the surface-to-air missile system, Taiwan’s National Defense Ministry said the island is expected to receive 29 sets of the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, from the United States between the end of 2024 and 2026.

The rocket system has been credited with helping Ukraine destroy Russian weapons or equipment in the ongoing conflict. Apart from receiving HIMARS from Washington, at least 17 Taiwanese soldiers were trained to use the rocket system at a military base in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, this past August.

After a post on the military base’s official Facebook page showed Taiwanese soldiers participating in HIMARS training with counterparts from Romania and Estonia, which has since been removed, Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Friday that Taiwan had planned to send at least 30 soldiers to receive HIMARS training in the U.S. between February and October this year.

Since Ukraine has used HIMARS to strike Russian military bases and weaken the Russian military’s momentum, some Taiwanese experts say the systems potentially can be used to target Chinese military facilities in coastal areas.

“The Taiwanese military can use HIMARS to hit some Chinese military facilities along the southeastern coast or target invading troops in different parts of Taiwan,” said Chieh Chung, a research fellow at the Association of Strategic Foresight in Taiwan.

Overall, Chieh told VOA by phone, the acquisition of NASAMS and HIMARS can enhance Taiwan’s capabilities in conducting network-centric warfare and deter China from easily launching an attack against Taiwan.

Other analysts say the series of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan reflects Washington’s commitment to supporting Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, but China will interpret the latest developments as a provocation from Taiwan and the U.S.

“Beijing will interpret this as changing the status quo [across the Taiwan Strait] nevertheless,” Stephen Nagy, a regional security expert at the International Christian University in Japan, told VOA in a written response.

China views Taiwan as part of its territory and repeatedly has vowed to reunify with the island, by force, if necessary. In response to the latest U.S. arms sales to Taiwan last week, Beijing condemned it and urged Washington to stop what it called dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

China showcases its naval capability

The arms sales and training come as China’s two aircraft carriers, Liaoning and Shandong, conducted a dual formation exercise for the first time in the disputed South China Sea from late September to October.

Chinese military analyst Song Zhongping told the state-run China Daily newspaper that the exercise will allow the two Chinese aircraft carriers to “integrate and magnify the power” and “enable the fleet to better organize strikes and handle threats from air and sea.”

Chieh in Taiwan said China is showing the U.S. it could assert maritime claims in disputed waters in the Indo-Pacific region at a time when U.S. aircraft carriers are deployed to the Middle East.

“Since the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has forced the U.S. to deploy its aircraft carrier groups to the region, China is trying to remind Washington that it can impose control over certain parts of the Indo-Pacific region amid an American absence,” he said.

Nagy in Japan said that while China can demonstrate its capability to operate aerial and naval assets near areas of potential conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region — such as the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait — such a formation also exposes the Chinese aircraft carriers as obvious targets for more experienced fighting forces.

“Losing one or two of China’s few aircraft carriers would have a very serious reputational cost for the Chinese Communist Party, and the U.S. and its partners understand this, so they are preparing for their scenarios,” he said.
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Georgia appeared to be on track to elect former U.S. President Donald Trump earlier in the 2024 presidential campaign when President Joe Biden was still in the race. But Vice President Kamala Harris has put the state back into play for Democrats.
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VALENCIA, SPAIN — Rescuers resumed a grim search for bodies on Saturday as Spain scrambled to organize aid to stricken citizens following devastating floods that killed more than 200 people.

Hopes of finding survivors more than three days after torrents of mud-filled water submerged towns and wrecked infrastructure were slim in the European country’s deadliest such disaster in decades.

Almost all deaths have been recorded in the eastern Valencia region, where thousands of soldiers, police officers and civil guards were frantically clearing debris and mud in the search for bodies.

Officials have said that dozens of people remain unaccounted for, but establishing a precise figure is difficult with telephone and transport networks severely damaged.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Friday told Cadena Ser radio station that 207 people had died and that it was “reasonable” to believe more fatalities would emerge.

It is also hoped that the estimated number of missing people will fall once telephone and internet services are running again.

Restoring order and distributing aid to destroyed towns and villages — some of which have been cut off from food, water and power for days — is a priority.

Authorities have come under fire over the adequacy of warning systems before the floods, and some residents have also complained that the response to the disaster is too slow.

Susana Camarero, deputy head of the Valencia region, told journalists on Saturday that essential supplies had been delivered “from day one” to all accessible settlements.

But it was “logical” that affected residents were asking for more, she said.

Authorities in Valencia have restricted access to roads for two days to allow emergency services to carry out search, rescue and logistics operations more effectively.

‘Overwhelmed’ by solidarity

Thousands of people pushing shopping trolleys and carrying cleaning equipment took to the streets on Friday to help with the effort to clean up.

Camarero said some municipalities were “overwhelmed by the amount of solidarity and food” they had received.

The surge of solidarity continued Saturday as around 1,000 people set off from the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia toward nearby towns laid waste by the floods, an AFP journalist saw.

Authorities have urged them to stay at home to avoid congestion on the roads that would hamper the work of emergency services.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez chaired a meeting of a crisis committee made up of top cabinet members on Saturday and is due to address the country later.

The storm that sparked the floods on Tuesday formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean and is common for this time of year.

But scientists warn that climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Russia unleashed an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv that lasted into late morning and wounded at least one person, city officials said on Saturday.

Debris from downed drones struck six city districts, wounding a police officer, damaging residential buildings and starting fires, according to city military administrator Serhiy Popko.

Mayor Vitalii Klitschko had earlier reported that two people had been injured.

“Another night. Another air-raid alert. Another drone attack. The armed forces of the Russian Federation attacked Kyiv again according to their old and familiar tactics,” Popko wrote on social media.

He said all the drones aimed at Kyiv had been shot down, but warned that others currently located in airspace outside the city could turn toward the capital.

Reuters correspondents reported hearing explosions in and around the city during an air-raid alert that lasted more than five hours.

Russia has carried out regular airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities behind the front lines of the war which began when Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022.

Kyiv’s military said on Friday that Moscow’s forces had launched more than 2,000 drones at civilian and military targets across Ukraine in October alone.

Russia has denied aiming at civilians and said power facilities are legitimate targets when they are part of Ukrainian military infrastructure.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — During the six decades since United Record Pressing stamped out the Beatles’ first U.S. single, the country’s oldest vinyl record maker has survived 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, Napster, iPods and streaming services. Now, the Nashville-based company has rebounded so dramatically that some of its equipment and technology has been retrofitted to keep pace with an ever-growing demand for old-school vinyl.

The 75-year-old company has adjusted its business from filling jukeboxes to helping DJs spin and stocking shelves despite a pandemic. On shelves in its warehouse are master versions by Johnny Cash, Kanye West and The Black Crowes.

When Mark Michaels bought the company in 2007, vinyl was fading — its 38 employees mostly made singles for rap artists, often promos for clubs. Michaels wanted a hands-on chance to build a business and thought he could keep this one steady, but not grow it substantially. It also came with a rich history as the first record pressing plant in the South, including an apartment atop the factory that housed Black artists and music executives during segregation.

“You walked into this building and you just felt 50, 60 years of history and just the importance of what it stood for,” said Michaels, the company’s CEO and chair. “And yeah, you you get choked up, you get gooseflesh just experiencing that.”

Today, United Record Pressing runs a newer factory six times bigger than what Michaels bought, with about 125 employees who make up to 80,000 records a day.

A variety of factors have boosted vinyl in recent years, from independent artists insisting on vinyl albums to big box retailers getting on board again.

In 2023, U.S. revenues from vinyl records grew 10% to $1.4 billion, the 17th-straight year of growth, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Records accounted for 71% of revenues from non-digital music formats, and for the second time since 1987, vinyl outpaced CDs in total sold.

United Record Pressing underwent its own evolution. The initial pressing plant was formed in 1949 by Nashville label Bullet Records. In the 1950s, it changed to Southern Plastics Inc. and focused on 7-inch singles preferred by jukebox makers.

In the early 1960s, the company was pressing more than 1 million records per month. It signed a deal to produce singles for Motown Records and moved to a bigger facility that included the apartment that hosted The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and others — and which became known as the “Motown Suite.” In 1963, it pressed the Beatles’ first U.S. single, “Please Please Me.” Then in the 1970s, a restructuring turned the company into United Record Pressing.

During the 1980s, records dwindled to a niche market. DJs still needed records for their turntables. Rap and hip-hop artists used them for “scratching.” But CDs had overtaken them.

By the late 2000s, indie artists were insisting on releasing vinyl records. By 2015, records were broadly embraced again, but there were few manufacturers, and they were relying on presses from the 1960s and 1970s and a limited number of specialists who could operate them, Michaels said. Demand increased again during the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s art,” Michaels said of vinyl records. “Artists and fans, they want something tactile to hold on to and engage with. It’s easy to stream music, and streaming music is a wonderful way to discover new music. But you know, at the end of the day, it’s kind of sonic wallpaper.”

Today, the factory mixes old and new.

There’s plenty of wood paneling on the throwback audio equipment used to test master versions of records before they are used to press copies. And the factory floor has its share of retrofitted pressing equipment that looks and sounds like it’s been around since the last time vinyl ruled the market.

Technology is improving the process, too. Beyond the older presses are sleek, newly made machines that plop out records more quietly and efficiently. And there are huge sacks of colorful pebbles from discarded material that can be pressed again into new records.

The machines that stamp master copies use technology that had been in place to produce CDs and DVDs, now retooled for vinyl.

In a room farther back in the factory, the whizzing of machinery gives way to music.

That’s where Tyler Bryant might listen to 10 records in a shift as the company’s quality control lead. Talking over the rhythms of harmonica from a Cash album, Bryant said he discovers many artists and records that wouldn’t be on his list, ranging from Harry Styles to Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” to indie artists.

“A lot of variety, that’s what I appreciate,” Bryant said. “I don’t like being stuck to just one genre, you know?”

A few miles away, architects and a construction crew are at work to preserve the old 1962 plant and pave the way for its future. As for what that will look like, Michaels says stay tuned.

“My vision is not completely crystallized yet, but the mandate is, it’s some of the most important space in all of music,” Michaels said. “It needs to be celebrated. It needs to be something that people can engage with.”
…

BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA — South Carolina is preparing to put up its first individual statue for an African American on its Statehouse lawn, honoring a man who put on Confederate clothes in order to steal a slaveholder’s ship and sail his family and a dozen others to freedom during the Civil War.

But Robert Smalls isn’t just being honored for his audacious escape. He spent a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives, helped rewrite South Carolina’s constitution to allow Black men equality after the Civil War and then put up a valiant but doomed fight when racists returned to power and eliminated nearly all of the gains Smalls fought for.

U.S. Representative Jermaine Johnson can’t wait to bring his children to the Statehouse to finally see someone who is Black like them being honored.

“The man has done so many great things, it’s just a travesty he has not been honored until now. Heck, it’s also a travesty there isn’t some big Hollywood movie out there about his life,” said Johnson, a Democrat from a district just a few miles from the Statehouse.

The idea for a statue to Smalls has been percolating for years. But there was always quiet opposition preventing a bill from getting a hearing. That changed in 2024 as the proposal made it unanimously through the state House and Senate on the back of Republican Representative Brandon Cox of Goose Creek.

“South Carolina is a great state. We’ve got a lot of history, good and bad. This is our good history,” Cox said.

What will the Robert Smalls memorial look like?

The bill created a special committee that has until January 15 to come up with a design, a location on the Statehouse lawn and the money to pay for whatever memorial they choose.

But supporters face a challenging question: What best honors Smalls?

If it’s just one statue, is it best to honor the steel-nerved ship pilot who waited for all the white crew to leave, then mimicked hand signals and whistle toots to get through Confederate checkpoints, while hoping Confederate soldiers didn’t notice a Black man under the hat in the pale moonlight in May 1862?

Or would a more fitting tribute to Smalls be to recognize the statesman who served in the South Carolina House and Senate and the U.S. House after the Civil War? Smalls bought his master’s house in Beaufort in part with money made for turning the Confederate ship over to Union forces, then allowed the man’s penniless wife to live there when she was widowed.

Or is the elder Smalls who fought for education for all and to keep the gains African Americans made during the Civil War the man most worth publicly memorializing? Smalls would see a new constitution in 1895 wipe out African Americans’ right to vote. He was fired from his federal customs collector job in 1913 when then President Woodrow Wilson purged many Black men out of government jobs.

Or would it be best to combine them all in some way? That’s how Republican Representative Chip Campsen, an occasional ship pilot himself, sees honoring one of his favorite South Carolinians.

“The best way to sum up Robert Smalls’ life is it was a fight for freedom as a slave, as a pilot and as a statesman,” Campsen said.

Location, location, location

Then there is the matter of location. While South Carolina has a monument with multiple panels honoring the struggle of African Americans from their journey on slave ships through today, it doesn’t honor an individual Black man or woman among the two dozen monuments scattered around the Statehouse.

At least six different monuments honor people such as Dr. J. Marion Sims, who some consider the father of modern gynecology but who underpinned his research operating without anesthesia on enslaved women and girls. There are several honoring Confederates who fought to protect slavery in the state that started the Civil War and hangs a marble copy of the Articles of Secession in the lobby between its House and Senate chambers.

The dubious list includes “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, a governor and U.S. senator who bragged about how he led groups of whites who killed Black men trying to vote during the election of 1876 which led to the end of Reconstruction, the return of all-white rule and the collapse of everything for which Smalls had worked. None of that is on the plaque for Tillman’s statue.

Some supporters have suggested Smalls’ statue could stand nearby and be taller and more prominent than Tillman’s to give Smalls a triumph some 130 years in the making.

Once design and location are determined, organizers hope raising the money gets easier with a concept in mind.

“We have to get the narrative right,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said. “This is going to tell a story. I think it is important that we tell that the right way to honor him and to honor South Carolina. I think it’s really cool.”

Robert Smalls’ monumental life

Robert Smalls was born in 1839 in Beaufort and died in 1915 in his hometown a free, but somewhat forgotten man who lived a life unimaginable to a woman holding her son born into slavery. Supporters now have a chance to make sure he never fades into obscurity.

“Robert Smalls writes a new future for this county that in the moment no one can see is happening,” said Chris Barr, the Chief of Interpretation for the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park in Beaufort as he stood beside a bust of Smalls near his grave in his hometown.

Driving a Confederate boat to freedom is what captures the most attention in that remarkable life, Barr said.

“If you’re an enslaved person working on one of these boats around the Charleston Harbor like Robert Smalls, you’ve got the tools, you’ve got the talent, you’ve got the boat and you know how to drive it,” Barr said “And you can literally see freedom floating in the form of the United States Navy just a few miles offshore. All you need is an opportunity.”
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A 22-year-old Russian man considered a political prisoner by activists has died in a penal colony in Belarus, human rights group Viasna said Friday.

The rights group said it confirmed the death of Dmitry Shletgauer, who was recently transferred to a penal colony in Mogilev in eastern Belarus.

Viasna said Shletgauer had been at the penal colony for a short time before his death.

“Provisionally, this happened on October 11,” the rights group said. “He spent less than a month in the penal colony. The exact cause of death is unknown.”

Shletgauer received a 12-year sentence after being convicted of espionage and facilitating extremist activities.

He was arrested in the crackdown in Belarus that occurred after the disputed 2020 presidential election of Alexander Lukashenko that gave the strongman a sixth term.

In September, Shletgauer joined Viasna’s list of recognized political prisoners in Belarus.

Belarus, a close ally of Russia, is reported to have approximately 1,300 political prisoners, according to Viasna.

Radio Free Europe reports Shletgauer was born in Slavgorod, Russia, and acquired residency in Belarus in 2018.

Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse.
…

washington — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is sending additional bomber aircraft and Navy warships to the Middle East to bolster the U.S. presence in the region as an aircraft carrier and its warships are preparing to leave, U.S. officials said Friday. 

Austin ordered several B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft, tanker aircraft and Navy destroyers to deploy to the Middle East, according to four U.S. and military officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements. 

The military moves come as Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon rage, including a retaliatory strike on Iran a week ago that likely damaged a base that builds ballistic missiles and launches rockets as part of Tehran’s space program. 

The U.S. is pressing for cease-fires, while repeatedly saying it will defend Israel and continue to protect the American and allied presence in the region, including from Yemen-based Houthi attacks against ships in the Red Sea. 

The long-range nuclear-capable B-52 bomber has been repeatedly deployed to the Middle East in pointed warnings to Iran and it is the second time this month that strategic U.S. bombers will be used to bolster U.S. defenses in the region. 

In October, B-2 stealth bombers were used to strike underground Houthi targets in Yemen. 

Officials did not provide the number of aircraft and ships that will move into the region. The shifts are likely to result in an overall decrease in the total number of U.S. service members in the region, largely because an aircraft carrier contains as many as 5,000 sailors. 

But the addition of bomber aircraft beefs up U.S. combat strength. There have been as many as 43,000 U.S. forces in the region recently. 

According to a U.S. official, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and the three Navy destroyers in its strike group are scheduled to leave the Middle East by midmonth and return to their home port in San Diego. 

When it departs, there will be no aircraft carrier in the Middle East for a period of time, the official said. Officials declined to say how long that gap would last. 

Military commanders have long argued that the presence of an aircraft carrier strike group, with its array of fighter jets, surveillance aircraft and heavily armed warships, is a significant deterrent, including against Iran. 

To make up for that gap, Austin is ordering the deployment of other Navy destroyers to the region. Those destroyers, which are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, would come either from the Indo-Pacific region or Europe, the official said. 

Eventually, it is expected that the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its three warships will move to the Mediterranean Sea, but they won’t get there before the Lincoln departs. The Truman strike group has been in the North Sea, participating in a NATO military exercise. 

The Lincoln and two of its destroyers are now in the Gulf of Oman, and its third destroyer is with two other warships in the Red Sea. 

There are also two destroyers and the Marine amphibious ready group — which includes three ships — in the Mediterranean Sea. 
…

A New York prosecutor told jurors on Friday that the way veteran Daniel Penny defused an uncomfortable situation on the subway by using a chokehold “went way too far.”

Prosecutor Dafna Yoran said Penny, a white Marine veteran, continued to hold his arm around the neck of Jordan Neely, a homeless Black man who had been acting erratically, after Neely’s body went limp.

When the train stopped at a station, one rider told Penny, “If you don’t let him go now, you’re going to kill him,” Yoran told the jury in her opening statement Friday. Penny has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. He has pleaded not guilty, saying he was acting in self-defense.

“Deadly physical force is permitted only when it’s absolutely necessary and only for as long as it’s absolutely necessary,” Yoran said. Penny “went quite literally for the jugular,” she added.

The deadly encounter happened more than one year ago and received wide news coverage at the time, with some people casting Penny as a hero and others casting Neely as a victim of a vigilante.

Neely, whom Yoran said was homeless and suffering with mental illness, entered the subway train on May 1, 2023, threw his coat to the ground and told the riders he was hungry, thirsty and wanted to return to jail. His erratic behavior is something that New Yorkers can witness daily.

“His voice was loud and his words were threatening,” Yoran said, but Neely was also unarmed and did not physically threaten any of the riders.

Thirty seconds after Neely entered the train, the prosecutor said, Penny placed Neely in a chokehold. Yoran said Penny held Neely in the chokehold for about six minutes.

Video of the incident, Yoran said, would show “how unnecessary this deadly chokehold was.” There is cellphone video of the incident, recorded from the subway platform.

The prosecutor also said that Penny, who has first aid training, did not try to revive Neeley.

Penny later told police, “I put him out” and said that he was trying to “de-escalate” the scene on the subway.

According to The Associated Press, Neeley was a Michael Jackson impersonator who sometimes performed his act for subway riders. His mental illness and drug abuse, AP said, was likely triggered by his mother’s murder when he was a teenager.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

When the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on three companies belonging to Denis Postovoy on Wednesday, it was yet another move to break up what U.S. authorities say was an international scheme to violate sanctions.

A month earlier, on September 16, law enforcement officials arrested the 44-year-old Russian national in Sarasota, Florida.

He was charged with conspiring to violate sanctions on Russia, commit smuggling, commit money laundering and defraud the United States.

According to the indictment, Postovoy used an international network of companies to export dual-use microelectronic components from the United States to Russia –– potentially spare parts for military drones used in the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.

Postovoy is not the first Russian charged with violating U.S. export controls. But he is one of the few who allegedly did it from inside the United States.

Using court documents and open-source information, VOA pieced together Postovoy’s history, revealing a story involving international trade, criminal charges in two countries, a U.S. startup and Florida real estate.

Postovoy pleaded not guilty to all the charges. If convicted, he could face decades in prison.

Postovoy is in pretrial detention and could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not respond to a VOA request for comment. When VOA reached Postovoy’s wife by phone, she hung up. She did not respond to questions sent to her on the WhatsApp messenger app.

According to the latest court filings, Postovoy’s case was transferred to the U.S. District Court in Washington.

American charges

After Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the U.S. significantly expanded restrictions on the export of microelectronics to Russia.

The Department of Justice has accused Postovoy and several unnamed co-conspirators of using a network of companies under their control in Hong Kong, Switzerland and Russia to violate those sanctions.

It claims Postovoy misrepresented the buyers and destinations of the goods, routing them through Hong Kong, Switzerland, Turkey and Estonia.

“As alleged, he lied about the final destination for the technology he was shipping and used intermediary destinations to mask this illegal activity,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves stated in a press release. “Fortunately, our skilled law enforcement partners at HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and our dedicated attorneys unraveled the plot.”

The prosecution states that Postovoy’s clients included the Russian company Streloi Ekommerts and other unnamed firms. According to the indictment, the contract with Streloi was completed before the company was added to the U.S. sanctions list in December 2023.

An investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty found that Streloi actively helps Russia circumvent Western export restrictions.

Another recipient of the microelectronics, according to an invoice included in the case materials, was the Russian technology company Radius Avtomatika.

Neither company responded to emailed questions from VOA.

It is unclear whether the microelectronics Postovoy allegedly exported were ultimately used in drones, but one court document states that the people he contacted were members of Russia’s military-industrial complex.

Hong Kong story

Originally from Novosibirsk, Russia, Postovoy had lived in Hong Kong since at least 2010 with his wife — a Ukrainian citizen from Crimea — and their three children.

Shipping records indicate his companies were involved in exporting goods from Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, to Russia. Prosecutors allege that after the U.S. expanded its sanctions, some of this activity became illegal.

When the DOJ announced Postovoy’s arrest, it also listed the names of his companies that it said were involved in the alleged scheme. Aside from the Russian-registered firm Vektor Group, all the others were in Hong Kong: Jove HK Limited, JST Group Hong Kong and WowCube HK Limited.

All are now under U.S. sanctions, except for WowCube HK Limited.

Its appearance in the indictment provoked a rapid response from Cubios, another company previously associated with Postovoy. It produces the WOWCube gaming console, wich looks like a Rubik’s cube with multiple screens.

Just a day after Postovoy’s arrest was announced, Cubios publicly denied any connection to WowCube HK Limited.

“Neither Cubios nor any of its officers, directors, managers or employees … have any connection to the HK Entity whatsoever. We do not own, operate or are in any way affiliated with the HK Entity,” the company said in a statement on its website.

The startup also said that Postovoy “falsely listed himself as a VP of the Company” on LinkedIn.

In fact, Postovoy was previously Cubios’ vice president for production, according to archived versions of its website.

Ilya Osipov, CEO of Cubios, told VOA that a mutual friend introduced him to Postovoy.

“I was looking for someone who could help with production in China — they gave me Denis,” he wrote in a message to VOA.

According to Osipov, Postovoy became a business partner and made important contributions to prototypes and test batches of the WOWCube. Later the company decreased cooperation with him.

Although Postovoy did not have an official position, Cubios allowed him to call himself the vice president of production “for business purposes,” Osipov told VOA.

He claimed that Postovoy founded the Hong Kong firm without Cubios’ permission. It was planned to become a distributor of the consoles in Asia, but that never happened, Osipov said.

Coming to America

In 2022, Postovoy and his family moved to Sarasota, Florida, where Cubios’ headquarters is.

According to Osipov, Postovoy said the move was motivated by a desire to raise children in a Western country and concerns about increasingly strict Chinese control of Hong Kong.

American prosecutors see a different motivation.

In a response to U.S. federal investigators included in the case materials, Hong Kong police said Postovoy was charged on March 1, 2022, with money laundering — a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison and a fine of up to $643,000.

According to the email, Postovoy was scheduled to appear in court on March 4 but left Hong Kong the day before.

Hong Kong police did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

By June 2022, Postovoy’s wife purchased a house in southeastern Sarasota.

Sarasota County property records indicate the house was valued at around $980,000. A mortgage covered $680,000 of the cost.

In August 2023, Postovoy bought another house, in the new Rivo Lakes gated community in Sarasota. According to purchase documents, it cost $1.13 million. In September, he transferred it to a trust controlled by his wife.

On the same day, his wife transferred the house to another trust and later sold the property.

According to a U.S. magistrate judge, Postovoy’s decision to transfer the second house into a trust was likely an attempt to conceal his ownership.

He “did not list his home — which is valued at nearly a million dollars and held in the name of a trust controlled by his wife — on his financial affidavit submitted to this Court,” the judge wrote in a decision not to grant Postovoy bail.

This may not be the only attempted cover-up in the case: Russian company records indicate that, in December 2023, a man named Dmitry Smirnov replaced Postovoy as owner of his Vektor Group company.

VOA’s Cantonese Service contributed research to this story.
…

istanbul — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday sued the main opposition leader and Istanbul’s powerful mayor over allegedly slanderous remarks made at a protest rally a day earlier, the Anadolu news agency reported.

Filed on Friday, the two separate lawsuits targeted Ozgur Ozel, head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, also a top party official.

One accused Ozel of “publicly insulting the president” and “clearly committing a crime against the reputation and honor of the office of the presidency.”

The second suit alleged Imamoglu had made “unfounded accusations including slander, that violated Erdogan’s rights” and had “acted with the aim of humiliating the president in front of the public.”

Each lawsuit sought 1 million Turkish lira ($30,000) in damages from the accused.

The legal action centers on remarks the pair allegedly made Thursday at a demonstration in the Istanbul district of Esenyurt a day after police arrested its opposition mayor for alleged links to the banned Kurdish PKK militant group.

It was not immediately clear which remarks prompted the legal action, but Ozel, who took over as CHP leader just a year ago, quickly hit back.

Erdogan “pretends to have been insulted without any insult being made, and tries to make himself the victim … as if it was not he who insulted and victimized Esenyurt” by arresting its mayor, he told reporters. 

Imamoglu, who was elected as Istanbul mayor in 2019, is often portrayed as Erdogan’s biggest political rival and is widely expected to run in the 2028 presidential race. He is seen as one of Turkey’s most popular politicians.

Two years ago, Imamoglu was sued for defamation after describing Istanbul election officials as “idiots” during the 2019 Istanbul mayoral election.

A court found him guilty, sentenced him to nearly three years in jail and barred him from politics for the duration of the sentence, prompting an international outcry.

Imamoglu has appealed while continuing to serve as mayor.

At the time, Erdogan insisted the case had nothing to do with him.

The 70-year-old Turkish leader launched his own political career in the 1990s by being elected as mayor of Istanbul.
…

JOHANNESBURG — Whoever U.S. voters choose as their next president — former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris — the election has global implications, with the probability it will affect other economies, foreign conflicts and personal freedoms, analysts told VOA.

South African independent political analyst Asanda Ngoasheng said the winner could usher in policies that affect ordinary people in Africa.

“I hope that as Americans vote, they’re aware that whatever decision they make, it’s going to determine the future of not only America but the rest of the world,” she said.

“How we engage with issues of termination of pregnancy, how we engage with issues of LGBT rights, how we engage with issues of race and racism will be determined by this election, not just for America but for everyone else and everywhere else in the world,” Ngoasheng continued.

The abortion issue is a particularly divisive topic for U.S. Republicans and Democrats.

While the United States is the largest funder of global reproductive health programs, Trump slashed that funding during his presidency by extending a policy that barred U.S. aid from going to any organization that supported abortion.

Experts said they believe that a second Trump presidency would likely do that again and could negatively affect PEPFAR, the U.S.’s key HIV/AIDS program.

Trade is another key area in which analysts think Harris and Trump would differ, given Trump’s “America first” policy.

African governments hope that next year the U.S. will renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a Clinton-era policy that gives countries duty-free access to the U.S. market.

Ray Hartley, research director of South African Brenthurst Foundation think tank, does not have high hopes for a second Trump presidency.

“I think that a Trump presidency would reinforce America’s isolationist approach in international affairs, and that might not be good for trade,” he said.

Other analysts said they believe general U.S. policy toward Africa won’t differ radically regardless of who wins.

They said that while Africa was often neglected in terms of U.S. foreign policy, that has shifted in recent years amid renewed competition with Russia and China on the resource-rich continent.

Moscow has strengthened military ties with many African governments, while U.S. troops have been kicked out of Niger and Chad. Beijing, meanwhile, is Africa’s largest trade partner and has been building infrastructure throughout the continent.

Ebenezer Obadare, senior fellow for Africa studies at U.S. research organization  Council on Foreign Relations, said, “Insofar as the United States is intent on competing with those powers in Africa, keeping its old alliances and building new ones, I don’t think one administration is likely to differ much from another, strictly in terms of their Africa policy.”

As vice president, Harris traveled to the continent, where she pushed President Joe Biden’s line that the U.S. was “all in on Africa.” The Biden administration also started holding an annual U.S.-African leaders’ summit.

And, as it increases competition with China, the current administration has also undertaken funding the biggest U.S. infrastructure project in Africa in generations: the Lobito corridor, a railway connecting Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo that will be used to transport critical minerals.

Biden was forced to reschedule a promised visit to Africa and is now expected in Angola in December. The choice of country has been criticized by some for what they say is Angola’s shoddy human rights record.

Trump’s signature initiative involving the continent was creating Prosper Africa, a U.S. agency designed to assist American companies doing business in Africa.

However, he also offended many Africans during his first term, using a derogatory term to refer to countries on the continent and mispronouncing Namibia’s name. More recently he raised ire by comparing himself to South African icon Nelson Mandela.

Analysts said that while Harris and Trump have generally ignored Africa over the course of their campaigns, whoever becomes America’s next president would do well to keep up engagement with the continent, which boasts the world’s youngest population.
…

WASHINGTON — In the run up to the presidential election, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has increased its outreach to Arab and Muslim Americans, particularly in battleground state Michigan. But it is her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, who has made surprising gains with this group that makes up a significant portion of voters angry over President Joe Biden’s policies on the Gaza war.

On Friday, Trump is expected to visit a halal cafe in Dearborn, Michigan, a city dubbed the Arab capital of America, in a state home to almost 400,000 Arab Americans. Many of them have expressed determination to punish Harris over the Biden administration’s support for Israel.

Trump’s visit is a continuation of his outreach to the Arab and Muslim community that have borne him important endorsements from leaders of two nearby Michigan cities that, while tiny, carry symbolic importance. Bill Bazzi, the first Muslim and Arab American mayor of Dearborn Heights, and Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, the only U.S. city with an all-Muslim city council, have endorsed the Republican candidate.

“My meeting with President Trump was positive, and we hope that he can change the current situation,” Ghalib told VOA. “He said he doesn’t want wars, and he will listen to our concerns.”

Three of the six members of the Hamtramck City Council followed Ghalib’s endorsement and the rest endorsed Harris — a split that reflects the community’s polarized views of the candidates.

“Harris has answered this question many times that she is going to work with Gaza. She’s going to be fair with people of Gaza,” council member Mohammed Alsomiri told VOA. “Trump, I don’t believe him, and I don’t trust him.”

The former president has been intensively courting the group. At a rally last week in the Detroit suburb of Novi, about a half-hour drive from Dearborn, he said Muslim and Arab voters “want a stop to the endless wars and a return to peace in the Middle East. That’s all they want.”

Trump was joined onstage by what his campaign described as “prominent leaders of Michigan’s Muslim community,” including Imam Belal Alzuhairi of the Great Mosque of Hamtramck.

“We, as Muslims, stand with President Trump because he promises peace, not war!” said Alzuhairi.

This despite Trump suggesting that he would give Israel’s military offensives against Hamas and Hezbollah more leeway, telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent call to, “Do what you have to do.” He often boasts he will end the wars in the Middle East “in 24 hours,” without explaining how.

As president, in 2017 Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims, banning individuals from six Muslim-majority countries from entering, a policy that activists say is “cruel, inhumane, and violated international law.”

The Trump campaign has not responded to VOA’s queries on outreach to the community.

Harris’ outreach

On the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, 25 Muslim leaders released an open letter telling Muslim voters that backing Harris “far outweighs the harms of the other options.”

The Harris campaign said it is “working hard” to engage the community. The vice president met twice with a small group of leaders in Michigan, in Detroit in August shortly after she became the Democratic nominee and in Flint in early October. She has had one other meeting since then, with Black imams and community leaders in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, another key swing state.

Afghan American Nasrina Bargzie and Egyptian American Brenda Abdelal, two lawyers spearheading Muslim and Arab outreach for the Harris campaign, have met with groups in Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Minnesota, Arizona and Nevada, the Harris campaign told VOA. Phil Gordon, Harris’ national security adviser, met virtually in early October with leaders across the country, the campaign said.

But many of these meetings have been with friendlier groups, suggesting that they were not aimed at changing hearts and minds. Gordon’s meeting excluded major Muslim and Arab organizations as well as pro-Palestinian activist groups and was more of a “check the box” engagement, according to James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, who participated in the eight-person meeting.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris’ vice presidential pick, has had one engagement with Arab and Muslim Americans, an October virtual meeting with Engage Action, the political arm of an 18-year-old Muslim American advocacy group, which already endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate in September.

Third-party candidates

While polls suggest that support among Arab American and Muslim Americans for Trump is unlikely to surpass Harris’, they also show that third-party candidates could pull a significant portion of votes away from her. In Michigan, Green Party candidate Jill Stein has been campaigning on a platform to “end the genocide.”

A poll released Friday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy organization, showed that 29.4% of American Muslims plan to vote for Harris, 29.1% for Stein, and 11.2% for Trump. Some 16.5% remain undecided.

The numbers suggest an improvement for Harris and Trump among the group. Before Biden’s withdrawal, CAIR’s poll showed Biden received 7.3% support and Trump 4.9%.

Compared to Biden, Harris has been more vocal in expressing sympathy for Palestinians and calling out Israel to “follow humanitarian law.” She has also addressed the suffering in Lebanon and announced $157 million in assistance from the administration.

At a Harris rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this week, Assad Turfe, an Arab American official from nearby Wayne County, said that Harris is a leader “who will give voice to our pain.”

But as in her various campaign events, in that rally Harris was heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters. “Hey guys, I hear you,” she said. “We all want this war to end as soon as possible.”

A candidate must secure a minimum of 270 out of 538 Electoral College votes to win. With 16 Electoral College votes, Michigan could tip the balance in what is expected to be a very close election. Biden won the state in 2020 with 154,000 votes more than Trump. In 2016, Trump won the state over Hillary Clinton by just under 11,000 votes.

The Gaza war has been a divisive issue among the community. At a Dearborn press conference announcing Arab American leaders’ endorsement for Harris last week, a group of anti-Harris Arab Americans confronted them, calling them traitors.

Ronald Stockton, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan-Dearborn who has studied the community for decades, said he has never seen such polarization. He fears the community may be torn apart for good, regardless of who wins.

“There will be permanent scars left behind,” Stockton told VOA, “like battlefield scars that remain decades after the war ends.”

VOA’s Iram Abbasi contributed to this report.
…

Moldova’s Constitutional Court on Thursday validated the results of last month’s referendum, formally recognizing the country’s decision to join the European Union.

The “yes” result, however, was an incredibly close one, much closer than polls had predicted, and the road toward EU membership for Moldova is not expected to be smooth either.

Supporters of the measure attribute the much closer than expected result to Russian meddling in the run-up to the vote held on October 20, together with the presidential election.

Both campaigns were marred by massive Russian disinformation and an alleged vote-buying scheme said to have cost the Kremlin tens of millions of dollars.  Some have described an atmosphere of bitterness and division with unprecedented mud-slinging and “hate speech,” including ethnic slurs and fascist tropes, leaving the country, some would say, dangerously divided.

The top two presidential candidates, incumbent pro-Europe President Maia Sandu and pro-Kremlin former prosecutor general Alexandr Stoianoglo, face a run-off vote on Sunday.

“I hope that the pro-European forces, that Maia Sandu will win elections, but I am worried that this victory will be achieved with a small margin,” Ludmila Barba, host of Moldovan program The European Vector, told VOA.  “That was the case with the referendum. And this state of affairs means that this antagonism in society will remain.”

Moldova is a parliamentary republic and those elections will take place next year. Right now, the government is controlled by Sandu’s PAS party, but some predict it could lose control next year.

Analysts expect Moldova will remain a battleground for hearts, minds and political allegiances for some time to come and Moscow is no doubt poised to further exploit divisions. It has been throwing its weight around Moldova since the collapse of the USSR but has been honing its meddling technique since last year’s local elections.

“It was like a bootcamp for them [the Kremlin] for interference and then they scaled it,” Orysia Lutsevych, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at London’s Chatham House, told VOA. “They’ve seen what worked and that was vote-buying, trying to put eggs in different baskets … but underneath it all, having influence, having them on the payroll of Russia.”

The most audacious part of the scheme was the participation of fugitive Russia-based oligarch Ilan Shor, who was convicted in 2017 of banking fraud in Moldova. He is accused of buying off a network of up to 300,000 Moldovans, paying them to vote against Europe in last month’s referendum.

“They have been paid for their activity, from the equivalent of 50 euros a month and up.  It’s not big money, but when you take into account the complicated economic and social situation in Moldova, for people with a low income, these 50 euros are important,” Barba said.

President Sandu called out the scheme but was unable to stop it.

Moldovan runoff follows Georgia election

Moldova’s runoff comes on the heels of a hotly disputed victory for Georgia’s pro-Russian Georgian Dream party.

Georgia’s opposition-aligned president, Salome Zourabichvili, declared the results illegitimate, describing a “Russian Special Operation” to undermine the vote and she is fighting back, at this point, with uncertain effect.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE]) has noted voter intimidation, ballot stuffing and bribery in Georgia, but Moscow claims its hands are clean. Regardless of the ultimate outcome, the showing by the pro-Russian party is a dramatic turn for a country that had full-blown war with Russia in 2008.

“I would never have imagined Russia or a Russian agenda having such a strong comeback in Georgia. There was for a while so much open hatred toward Russia, that anything suspected to be related to Russia would immediately be rejected,” Lutsevych said.

“This is where Russians are smart in how they play the subversion game. They are not openly saying this is a Russian agenda.”

The recent passage in Georgia of a “Foreign Agent” law, an act clearly inspired by Moscow, got the EU to pause further discussion about bringing Georgia into the bloc.  And the conduct of last week’s elections was to be another “litmus test” for Brussels on Tbilisi’s readiness to join.

While there may be clever, forward-thinking manipulation on the part of Moscow, Barba says one cannot ignore the effect of the immediate raw rage coming from the Kremlin.

“This is the first election since the Russian aggression in Ukraine began. The situation is more complicated because Russia is furious that it didn’t manage to take Ukraine in three days and that makes it more aggressive,” she says.

“Since it was not able to clinch victory in Ukraine, it is going after smaller ones in Georgia and Moldova to prove or assert its status.”

For the people of Moldova, fear has become the main theme of the elections. Barba points out that the pro-Russian side has said that if Moldova stays close to Russia, “the country will be safe. That Ukraine has war because they went toward the EU.”

“That narrative is going around. And thepro-Europeans say if we end up with Russia, we will have war, we will be dragged in.  Both sides are trying to say that the other option could lead to war.”

According to Lutsevych, fear can ultimately drown out Sandu’s main message that Moldova can have a brighter future with Europe. And this is taking its toll on some young members of Sandu’s team.

“They don’t feel it’s a fair game. They don’t feel they can win against that. It’s so powerful. It’s hard to compete when someone like Russia fuels anger, fear, and you have to compete on a positive agenda.”

Still, getting into Europe is a fight in itself and Lutsevych praises Sandu for taking up that fight. And the nature of this election campaign, she concludes, has put Moldova more front and center on Europe’s agenda and perhaps put enhanced focus on what Russia is doing on the sidelines of the Ukraine war.
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US and EU officials are calling for an investigation into recent elections in Georgia that resulted in the Pro-Russian Georgian Dream party winning a fourth term as the country’s ruling party. But that didn’t stop Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban from congratulating the party during a visit to the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Ani Chkhikvadze has the story.
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WASHINGTON — America’s employers added 12,000 jobs in October, a total that economists say was held down by the effects of strikes and hurricanes that left many workers temporarily off payrolls. The report provided a somewhat blurry view of the job market at the end of a presidential race that has pivoted heavily on voters’ feelings about the economy.

Last month’s hiring gain was down significantly from the 223,000 jobs that were added in September. But economists have estimated that hurricanes Helene and Milton, combined with strikes at Boeing and elsewhere, had the effect of pushing down net job growth by tens of thousands of jobs in October.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate remained at 4.1% last month. The low jobless rate suggests that the labor market is still fundamentally healthy, if not as robust as it was early this year. Combined with an inflation rate that has tumbled from its 2022 peak to near prepandemic levels, the overall economy appears to be on solid footing on the eve of Election Day.

The government did not estimate how many jobs were likely removed temporarily from payrolls last month. But economists have said they think the storms and strikes caused up to 100,000 jobs to be dropped. Reflecting the impact of the strikes, factories shed 46,000 positions in October.

Health care companies added 52,000 jobs in October, and state and local governments tacked on 39,000.

The employment report for October also revised down the government’s estimate of the job gains in August and September by a combined 112,000, indicating that the labor market wasn’t quite as robust then as initially thought.

“The big one-off shocks that struck the economy in October make it impossible to know whether the job market was changing direction in the month,’’ Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank, wrote in a commentary. “But the downward revisions to job growth through September show it was cooling before these shocks struck.’’

Still, economists have noted that the United States has the strongest of the world’s most advanced economies, one that has proved surprisingly durable despite the pressure of high interest rates. This week, for example, the government estimated that the economy expanded at a healthy 2.8% annual rate last quarter, with consumer spending — the heart of the economy — helping drive growth.

Yet as voters choose between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, large numbers of Americans have said they are unhappy with the state of the economy. Despite the plummeting of inflation, many people are exasperated by high prices, which surged during the recovery from the pandemic recession and remain about 20% higher on average than they were before inflation began accelerating in early 2021.

With inflation having significantly cooled, the Fed is set to cut its benchmark interest rate next week for a second time and likely again in December. The Fed’s 11 rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 managed to help slow inflation without tipping the economy into a recession. A series of Fed rate cuts should lead, over time, to lower borrowing rates for consumers and businesses.

In the meantime, there have been signs of a slowdown in the job market. This week, the Labor Department reported that employers posted 7.4 million job openings in September. Although that is still more than employers posted on the eve of the 2020 pandemic, it amounted to the fewest openings since January 2021.

And 3.1 million Americans quit their jobs in September, the fewest in more than four years. A drop in quits tends to indicate that more workers are losing confidence in their ability to land a better job elsewhere.
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The United States is watching growing cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic closely and some of their recent military collaboration in the region sends “concerning signals”, the U.S. Arctic ambassador said.  

Russia and China have stepped up military cooperation in the Arctic while deepening overall ties in recent years that include China supplying Moscow with dual-use goods despite Western sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine. 

Russia and the United States are among eight countries with territory in the resource-rich Arctic. China calls itself a “near-Arctic” state and wants to create a “Polar Silk Road” in the Arctic, a new shipping route as the polar ice sheet recedes with rising temperatures.  

Michael Sfraga, the United States’ first ambassador-at-large for Arctic affairs, said the “frequency and the complexity” of recent military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing in the region sent “concerning signals”. 

“The fact that they are working together in the Arctic has our attention,” Sfraga, who was sworn in last month, told Reuters in a telephone interview from Alaska. “We are being both vigilant and diligent about this. We’re watching very closely this evolution of their activity.” 

“It raises our radar, literally and figuratively,” he added.

Sfraga cited a joint run by Russian and Chinese bomber planes off the coast of Alaska in July, and Chinese and Russian coast guard ships sailing together through the Bering Strait in October.  

He said these activities had been conducted in international waters, in line with international law, but the fact that the bombers flew off the coast of Alaska had raised concerns for U.S. security. 

“We do need to think about security, heighten our own alliances, our own mutual defences,” Sfraga said. “Alaska, the North American Arctic, is NATO’s western flank and so we need to think about the Arctic that way.” 

The activity was also a concern for U.S. allies as the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea give access to the North Pacific and South Pacific, he said. 

The Pentagon said in a report released in July that the growing alignment between Russia and China in the Arctic was “a concern”.  

China and Russia are trying to develop Arctic shipping routes as Moscow seeks to deliver more oil and gas to China amid Western sanctions. Beijing is seeking an alternative shipping route to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Malacca. 

The Arctic also holds fossil fuels and minerals beneath the land and the seabed that could become more accessible with global warming.  
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