U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with key negotiators Thursday to discuss a Mideast cease-fire during a stop in the negotiating hub of Qatar. The parties have spent months trying to broker an end to hostilities in Gaza and Lebanon and bring home about 100 hostages believed to still be held in Gaza. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell has the story.
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The Biden administration continues to push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and de-escalation between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. In Europe, the administration has revealed intelligence that North Korean troops are being trained in Russia to help its war efforts.

VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara spoke with White House national security communications adviser John Kirby on the latest developments in the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: [U.S.] Secretary [of State] Antony Blinken today warned Israel against a protracted campaign in Lebanon. He warned Israel to avoid civilian casualties, not to endanger U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army. The only way Israel can do that is by operating a targeted campaign. Is it operating a targeted campaign?

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby: We would like to see no civilian casualties and no damage to civilian infrastructure to the maximum extent possible. We have told the Israelis that we don’t support near daily strikes in densely populated areas, and that’s part of the message that [Blinken] delivered when he was there. We believe that there’s still a diplomatic path to be found here to bring this conflict with Hezbollah and Lebanon to a close. That was one of the reasons that Secretary Blinken traveled there.

VOA: Do you support Israeli demands for an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force to include north of the Litani River?

Kirby: I’m not going to get into any specific proposals one way or the other. I don’t think we’re at that point right now. … What we support is de-escalation. What we support is minimization of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure. We also continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself.

VOA: What about Israel’s efforts to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon? How far can you accept the cost of that?

Kirby: Look, they have done an extraordinary amount of work towards already dismantling Hezbollah’s capability, including the killing of [Hassan Nasrallah], their leader. Hezbollah is not Hamas. They are in many ways superior in terms of military capability and resources. So, it’s a different kind of a fight. It’s a different kind of enemy that they face.

And I would remind that even just in the last 24 hours, more than 100 rockets and drones [were] launched by Hezbollah towards Israeli citizens who are just trying to live their lives on that side of the Blue Line, as well. So, it remains a viable threat to the Israeli people, and we’re going to continue to talk to the Israelis about how they go after that threat, because how they do that matters significantly.

VOA: Ten days ago, the administration set a 30-day deadline for Israel to improve Palestinian access to aid. Can you update us on the progress?

Kirby: There has been some progress, and as you heard Secretary Blinken say during his travels, more needs to be done. But there has been an increase of trucks flowing into North Gaza; specifically, the Erez Crossing is back open. We want to see more.

VOA: Israel announced that Mossad chief David Barnea will meet with CIA Director Bill Burns and the Qatari prime minister in Doha. Is there anything about that meeting that you can tell us?

Kirby: Without talking to the CIA director’s travel or meetings, I won’t do that. But you saw the prime minister already announced that there’s another meeting in Doha of negotiators, and we’re grateful to see this progress continue. We’re grateful to see yet another meeting here, and we’re hopeful that now, with Mr. Sinwar gone, Hamas might be more willing to sit down and negotiate in good faith and come up with a solution that gets a cease-fire of at least some duration, and gets those hostages home with their families where they belong, as well as to your earlier question, gives us a pause in the fighting that can help us all work towards a more dramatic increase in humanitarian assistance.

I’m not suggesting that more can’t be done now. Even while Gaza remains an active combat zone, more can be done, more should be done. But if you can end the fighting, then you can definitely make it easier to get humanitarian assistance.

VOA: Does the administration see [Yahya Sinwar’s brother] Mohamed Sinwar as somebody with influence on the negotiations?

Kirby: I think it’s unclear right now where the leadership of Hamas goes, and I would just say that we’re watching this very, very closely, as you might imagine, monitoring it.

Regardless of how Hamas tries to fill the vacuum left by Sinwar, they have an opportunity before them right now to help end this war, to get those hostages home and to do the right thing.

VOA: Let’s move on to North Korea and Russia. [Russian President] Vladimir Putin appears to have implicitly acknowledged what you laid out yesterday, that North Korean troops are in Russia to help their war efforts. How do you see this?

Kirby: We see it the same way as we laid out yesterday. We know that there are at least several thousand North Korean soldiers in three military training bases in eastern Russia. Now, exactly what they’re being trained to do, we don’t know. Whether and how they’ll be deployed in this war against Ukraine, we don’t know that either. But it is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that, I would remind you, Russia themselves signed up to. The procurement of arms and ammunition from North Korea is a violation of U.N. Security Council existing resolutions that Russia signed up to. We’re going to watch this very, very closely.

VOA: What is the geopolitical implication for Kim Jong Un now that he’s willing to send his troops to die for Putin? Are you concerned that in return, Russia could help North Korea improve the reach of their ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] to hit American cities, for example?

Kirby: That’s what we’re watching closely to see. We don’t know exactly what Mr. Kim thinks he’s getting out of this arrangement. And it’s worrisome. As you heard the secretary of defense say the other day, this potential move here by the North Koreans to put soldiers on the ground, literally skin in the game when it comes to fighting Ukraine, is not only going to have implications in Ukraine and on that battlefield, but it’s going to have implications in the Indo-Pacific.

What we don’t know right now is exactly what that looks like. What does Kim think he’s getting out of this? It is possible that there could be some provision by Russia to enhance and improve North Korean military capabilities? Again, that would just further destabilize a very tense region.

VOA: You said these North Korean soldiers are legitimate military targets. But would you consider taking direct military action against them as the head of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Mike Turner, suggested?

Kirby: The United States is not directly involved in combat operations in or around Ukraine. The president has been clear about that. We are providing Ukraine with the kinds of tools, capabilities and weapons that they need to defend themselves. And when we say they’re legitimate military targets, these North Korean soldiers, we mean they would become legitimate military targets of the Ukrainian Armed Forces should they be involved in operations against Ukraine.

VOA: China has said that they have no information on these North Korean troops. Do you believe them?

Kirby: I’ll let the Chinese speak to what they see or they don’t see. What I said yesterday stands today. We’re going to certainly be communicating with our PRC [People’s Republic of China] counterparts about this.

VOA: Last month you also confirmed that Iran transferred shipments of domestic missiles to Russia. Now we have these North Korean troops fighting for Russia. What is your assessment of this trilateral cooperation?

Kirby: Number one, it certainly shows Mr. Putin’s increasing desperation, and quite frankly, his weakness, that he has to reach out to the likes of Kim Jong Un and the supreme leader in Tehran for assistance to fight Ukraine. Clearly, he’s under a lot of military pressure. We know he’s losing 1,200 soldiers a day. He suffered more than 530,000 casualties in the time he’s been fighting in Ukraine. So, he’s clearly under pressure, and he’s not … being honest with the Russian people about what he’s doing and what he’s losing and how bloody and lethal this war has been on his own armed forces.

Number two, I think it certainly speaks to worrisome defense relationships between these countries that are now growing and deepening. They’re worrying not just because of what might be the effects in Ukraine, they’re worrying because of what might be the effects in other parts of the world. You and I were just talking about what Kim Jong Un might be getting out of this. Let’s talk about Iran, because Iran, certainly we know, is interested in advanced aviation capabilities, for instance, from Russia. Now, again, I don’t know that we’ve seen it all consummated yet, but Iran being able to benefit from Russian military technology is also not good for the Middle East region.
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A $50 billion loan to Ukraine from the G7 major industrialized nations is moving forward after months of negotiations, with countries announcing their contributions to the package this week. 

The loan package is aimed at providing Ukraine with an economic lifeline from $280 billion worth of Russian assets frozen since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. According to the plan, the loan will be repaid with interest accumulating on the frozen Russian assets rather than confiscating the frozen assets themselves.

This “creative” solution is intended to provide Ukraine with the economic assistance it urgently needs “without burdening American taxpayers,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement, adding that “these loans will support the people of Ukraine as they defend and rebuild their country. And our efforts make it clear: Tyrants will be responsible for the damages they cause.”

“This will really support us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement thanking allies for the decision.

The United States will contribute $20 billion to the loan, while Canada and Britain announced contributions of $3.7 billion and $2.94 billion, respectively. The European Parliament on Tuesday approved a European Union decision to provide up to $38 billion as part of the loan.

While the details of the loan are still being worked out, donors announced the funding will cover Ukraine’s economic and defense needs. U.S. deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh told reporters if the U.S. Congress approves the loan contribution, the Biden administration plans to allocate half of the $20 billion to support Ukraine’s economy and the other half for defense support.

The United Kingdom’s $2.94 billion is to be used solely for Ukraine’s military, British Defense Minister John Healey announced this week.

“With this decision, Ukraine is confident that it will have money to fully fund the critically important expenditures next year, including wages to teachers, doctors, pensions,” Roman Kachur, alternate executive director for Ukraine at the World Bank, told VOA.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the loan is crucial if Ukraine is to meet its financing needs.

“We have talked with [the] Ukrainian government about the ways to close the financing gap, which has opened up because the war takes longer than everybody expected and therefore more budget financing will be needed,” Alfred Kammer, director of the IMF’s European Department, told VOA.

The fund, which has a four-year program for Ukraine, expects the multiyear financing through the loan will help the country cover a financing gap that now exceeds $150 billion, Kammer added.

Washington economist Anders Aslund called the loan plan “excellent,” posting on X: “Finally, Ukraine is about to get relevant financial support.”

The G7 decision has been criticized for falling short of an outright seizure of the frozen Russian assets.

“I don’t think we should be celebrating this as Ukraine is not going to get the underlying $330bn,” economist Timothy Ash of BlueBay Asset Management said in an email to VOA. Ash blamed “the vested interests in Europe” for blocking a decision to seize the assets. 

The plan to divide funding from the loan between economic and military support worries some observers in Ukraine.

“Previously, the discussion was that the funding will go to fund economic stability. Now, we are under the impression that the funding will also be used for defense support,” Oleksandra Betliy, chief researcher at the Institute of Economic Research in Kyiv, told VOA. “This is fine for the next year, where the budget deficit is $38 billion, but the issue is with the 2026 budget.”

She added that Ukraine’s funding needs will remain high for years to come.

“Even if 2026 will be victorious, we will further need to fund the military for it to be strong, and social payments will be even higher than today,”  she said.

To ensure transparency and accountability, funding from the loan will be distributed via an intermediary fund set up by the World Bank, which according to Singh is “subject to robust accountability and transparency measures.”

Kachur agreed, saying the World Bank’s control over the funding will eliminate any perception of misuse. In addition, according to Ukrainian officials, the money will not be repurposed once it is in the World Bank’s fund.

“Even if there is a change in the political will, this funding will still remain available to Ukraine and will be transferred only to Ukraine,” Kachur said.

The details of the loan package have not yet been finalized. G7 finance ministers plan to discuss the loan on the margins of this week’s annual IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington. 
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kazan, russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin told BRICS leaders on Thursday that the Middle East was on the brink of a full-scale war after a sharp rise in tension between Israel and Iran, though the Kremlin chief also faced calls to end the war in Ukraine.

The BRICS summit, attended by more than 20 leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, has shown the depth of Russia’s relations beyond the Western world.

Much discussion at the summit in the Russian city of Kazan was dedicated to the war in Ukraine and the violence in the Middle East, though there were no sign that anything specific would be done to end either conflict.

“The degree of confrontation between Israel and Iran has sharply increased. All this resembles a chain reaction and puts the entire Middle East on the brink of a full-scale war,” Putin, sitting beside Chinese President Xi Jinping, said.

Xi, speaking after Putin, said that China wanted a political settlement in Ukraine, and suggested joint efforts by Beijing and Brasilia offered the best chance of peace.

“We need to work for an early de-escalation of the situation and pave the way for a political settlement,” Xi said.

On the Middle East, Xi said that there should be a comprehensive cease-fire in Gaza, a halt to the spread of war in Lebanon, and a return to the two-state solution under which states for both Israel and Palestine would be established.

Flames of war

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian criticized international organizations, particularly the United Nations, for failing to end the conflict.

“The flames of war continue to rage in the Gaza Strip and cities of Lebanon, and international institutions, particularly the U.N. Security Council as a driver of international peace and security, lack the necessary effectiveness to extinguish the fire of this crisis,” Pezeshkian told the BRICS.

Putin said that unless Palestinians got their state, they would feel the burden of “historical injustice” and the region would remain in “an atmosphere of permanent crisis with inevitable relapses of large-scale violence.”

In their summit declaration, BRICS leaders called for the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable Palestinian state within the borders of 1967. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attended the summit.

At one of the BRICS+ meetings on Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar sat in for Modi who also missed one of the group photographs. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he could not travel to Russia due to a head injury.

China, which together with India buys about 90% of Russia’s oil, supported more Global South countries joining the BRICS grouping in various formats, Xi said.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was criticized by Kyiv for attending the meeting in Russia, said peace was needed in Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Ukraine.

“We need peace in Ukraine,” Guterres told the BRICS+ meeting that was chaired by Putin. “A just peace in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and U.N. General Assembly resolutions.”
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The U.S. Interior Department on Thursday gave final approval to ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada, the first domestic source of the battery metal to be permitted by President Joe Biden’s administration and one that will become a key supplier to Ford and other electric vehicle manufacturers. 

Shares of the Australia-based critical minerals miner jumped more than 20% in New York trading on Thursday afternoon before easing down. 

The approval ends a more-than six-year review process during which regulators, ioneer and conservationists tussled over the fate of a rare flower found at the mine site, a tension that exposed the sometimes competing priorities between climate change mitigation efforts and biodiversity protection. 

The permit, which had been expected by the end of the year, comes amid a flurry of recent moves by Biden officials to support critical minerals production and offset China’s market dominance.  

It also unlocks a $700 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as a $490 million equity investment from Sibanye Stillwater to fund the project. 

“This is a science-based decision,” Laura Daniel-Davis, the Interior Department’s acting deputy secretary, told Reuters. “We’re trying to send a signal that there’s no topic with greater importance than addressing climate change.” 

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is controlled by the Interior Department, on Thursday issued the Rhyolite Ridge project’s record of decision — essentially the mine’s permit — and said the project will “include significant protections for the local ecosystem” and help create hundreds of jobs in the rural region.  

The project, roughly 362 kilometers north of Las Vegas, Nevada, contains enough lithium to power roughly 370,000 electric vehicles each year. Construction is slated to begin next year, with production commencing by 2028, a timeline that would make Rhyolite Ridge one of the largest U.S. lithium producers alongside Albemarle and Lithium Americas. 

The U.S. Geological Survey has labeled lithium a critical mineral vital for the U.S. economy and national security.  

“We’re proud to be the first U.S. lithium mine permitted by the Biden administration,” James Calaway, ioneer’s chairman, told Reuters. 

The project will extract lithium as well as boron, a chemical used to make ceramics and soaps, from a clay-like deposit. The lithium will be processed on site into two main derivatives used to make batteries, and the company said it plans to recycle half of all the water used at the site, higher than the industry average. 

Ford and a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic have agreed to buy lithium from the mine. 
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CHISINAU, Moldova — Moldova’s pro-European president said on Thursday that mass bribery had affected a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union. However, Maia Sandu vowed to press on with a Nov. 3 runoff vote to win a second term, instead of ordering a new election.

Sandu issued her pledge, saying it was up to the people to determine Moldova’s future, after police said pro-Russian fugitive businessman Ilan Shor had channeled $39 million to voters in September and October.

Moldovan authorities have said the campaign for last Sunday’s dual poll was overshadowed by a massive Russia-linked election-meddling scheme aimed at defeating the pro-Europe side.

“Without the buying of votes, the outcome today would have been different. We would have had a convincing victory in the presidential election and the referendum!” Sandu wrote on social media.

She said she had rejected suggestions of ordering a rerun of the ex-Soviet republic’s election as “no one has the right to deny our citizens a mass, sincere and free expression of their will.”

“Let’s go forward to the second round. We count strictly on our people as has always been the case when the fate of the country was on the line,” she said. It was up to the judiciary to “wake up” and tackle the issue of bribery, she added.

Sandu came in first in the presidential election but failed to secure 50% of votes and now faces a runoff against former prosecutor-general Alexandr Stoianoglo, who is backed by a traditionally pro-Russian party.

Sandu has singled out Russia as one of the biggest threats facing Moldova and made EU integration the cornerstone of her administration.

In the referendum, a surprisingly slim majority compared with opinion polls, 50.46% of voters, supported EU accession.  

The police have accused Shor of an attempt to bribe 130,000 voters. He denies wrongdoing, and the Kremlin has denied interfering. It questioned the vote count, in which votes from Moldovans abroad pushed the “yes” vote over 50%.

Moldova’s police chief, Viorel Cernauteanu, told a briefing on Thursday that Shor used Russia’s Promsvyazbank to transfer $24 million in October, in addition to $15 million channeled in September, to pay off voters.  

During the campaign, Shor openly offered to pay Moldovans to persuade others to vote “no” in the referendum and to support a specific candidate, who he did not name publicly. He launched a bot on the Telegram messaging platform for this means.  

Cernauteanu said the police had blocked 97 chatbots before the vote explaining to people how to use the Promsvyazbank banking app and get the money.  

On Monday, Sandu called the campaign “an unfair fight” and claimed victory in the referendum designed to enshrine Moldova’s EU path in the constitution. She said there was “clear evidence” that criminal groups backed by “foreign forces hostile to our national interests” had aimed to buy off 300,000 votes.

Moscow has denounced the vote as not free. On Wednesday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the United States and European Union had meddled in the campaign.
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Polls show that Americans’ trust in news reporting is at an all-time low. And while the decline has many causes, it reflects both the changing media landscape and the values of media consumers.

Nearly 250 years since the principle was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, a majority of Americans still agree that a free press is crucial to a democratic society, according to polling by the Pew Research Center. But how they feel about the existing press is a different matter.

The same polls show that only one-third of Americans believes the country’s media report the news objectively. And a September Gallup poll reveals that Americans’ overall trust in mass media has declined to an all-time low of 32%.

Much of the narrative around declining faith in media has been shaped by political partisanship. The last time that America saw such low levels of media confidence was in 2016, when Donald Trump amplified longstanding conservative complaints about liberal media bias by attacking critical coverage of his presidential campaign as “fake news.”

Accordingly, self-identified Republicans report less trust in media, reaching a low of 11% compared with 58% for Democrats.

However, partisan trends don’t capture the whole picture. While partisan divergence in media confidence significantly widened during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush, overall trust in media institutions has been declining for supporters of both parties as well as independents since Gallup first began tracking it in the 1970s.

The rise of partisan cable news networks in the 1990s and digital news, along with social media in the 2000s, has reflected and exacerbated this trend. And dissatisfaction with perceived bias in coverage of conflicts such as the Iraq War or Israel’s invasion of Gaza has also reduced trust in traditional news sources among left-leaning Americans, often driving them toward unreliable alternative sources.

As Americans lose trust in traditional media, they also engage less with it. While over half of adults in the U.S. now report getting their news from social media, audiences and advertising revenue have shrunk when it comes to newspapers and TV news.

In fact, part of the story behind declining trust in media is Americans across the political spectrum becoming less interested in news overall. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are experiencing news fatigue while 38% report that they follow the news closely, compared with 51% in 2016.

Do Americans want independent journalism?

The simultaneous loss of trust and interest in news media has raised questions beyond simple accusations of partisan bias. While criticism of the media often focuses on whether the core principles of independent journalism are being upheld, the principles themselves may not be popular.

A recent study by the Media Insight Project found that common journalistic values such as amplifying marginalized voices, holding power to account or increasing public transparency do not enjoy majority support.

In fact, such values may not be as integral to journalism as is commonly believed. As Columbia University journalism professor Michael Schudson writes, the modern idea of journalism as an independent investigative force and a check on government power has been a fairly recent development.

And amid today’s rapid social, political and technological changes, the role that people expect journalism to play in society may once again be shifting.
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Paris — A Lebanon donors’ conference in Paris on Thursday has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the war-battered country — but ending the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah that has devastated the country seems unlikely anytime soon.

The pledges rolled in at the Paris conference. Early on, both Germany and France earmarked around $100 million apiece for Lebanon. The funds will support humanitarian aid in the country, where fighting sparked by Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on Israel has killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.  

Conference host, French President Emmanuel Macron, said families need shelter, children need nourishment and schooling, the wounded need care. Solutions must be found quickly, he said, especially to avoid further population displacements, which could create new divisions in the country. 

Acting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati wanted more.

“What we as Lebanese expect from the international community is the following: solidarity and cease-fire,” he said. “Lebanon calls on the international community to come together and support efforts that will end the ongoing aggressions and enforce an immediate cease-fire.” 

But experts doubt there will be a swift ending to the conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not attend the Paris conference. He was in the Middle East, although Washington sent a lower-level delegation. Israel and Iran were not invited.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu earlier warned that Lebanon could descend into civil war. 

But analyst Antoine Basbous told Europe 1 radio that the more likely scenario was Lebanon descending into chaos.

Former colonial power France hopes parties in Lebanon will move on electing a new president, after a two-year power gap. 

The Paris meeting additionally aimed to find ways to support the Lebanese army and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, which includes a large number of European troops. Both the army and the peacekeeping mission say they have come under attack by Israel. 
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Strasbourg, France — The EU parliament awarded the bloc’s top rights Sakharov prize on Thursday to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

They won the prestigious award for their fight for democracy under President Nicolas Maduro’s iron-fisted rule.

Machado, 57, played a key role in Venezuela’s presidential election in July. Although the authorities proclaimed Maduro the winner, the opposition believes its candidate Gonzalez Urrutia won.

Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, went into exile in Spain in September.

European Parliament chief Roberta Metsola said the two figures represented “all Venezuelans inside and outside the country fighting to restore freedom and democracy”, as she announced the award in the parliament in Strasbourg, France.

“Edmundo and Maria have continued to fight for the fair, free and peaceful transition of power and have fearlessly upheld those values that millions of Venezuelans and this parliament hold so dear: justice, democracy and the rule of law,” Metsola added.

“This parliament stands with the people of Venezuela and with Maria and Edmundo in their struggle for the democratic future of their country,” Metsola said.

“We are confident that Venezuela and democracy, will ultimately prevail,” she added.

There will be an award ceremony in Strasbourg in December. The winner receives a $54,000 prize.

Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia were named for the award by the center-right European People’s Party, the largest political grouping in the EU parliament.

The two other finalists were jailed Azerbaijani activist Gubad Ibadoghlu — backed by the Greens — and Israeli and Palestinian organizations working together for peace, proposed by the Socialists and Democrats group.

Metsola paid tribute to the finalists, saying they “all are bravely standing up for human rights and for freedom of thought in the face of unimaginable challenges”.

She said that the health of Ibadoghlu — under house arrest — was “currently deteriorating significantly” and called on “Azerbaijani authorities to drop all charges against Doctor Ibadoghlu and lift his travel ban”.

Far-right lawmakers had nominated US tech billionaire Elon Musk as a champion of “free speech”, but their eyebrow-raising choice was not accepted.

Named after Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, previous recipients of the award include South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

For Machado, it is her second prize in as many months as she won the top European rights prize awarded by the Council of Europe, which is not an EU institution.
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NEW DELHI — While U.S. officials express the view that the BRICS grouping meeting in the Russian city of Kazan is not evolving into a geopolitical rival, analysts say BRICS members are working on issues that could further decouple them from Western influences.

Among the topics discussed between members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are ways to establish an alternative payment system that would not be dependent on the U.S. dollar, a BRICS digital currency and an alternative to Western financial institutions like the International Monetary fund. 

China, Russia and Iran – countries that face severe trade restrictions imposed by the United States – have been particularly keen about advancing BRICS’ stated goals and circumventing what they regard as illegal sanctions.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated at the BRICS meeting that he was equally interested. “We welcome efforts to increase financial integration among BRICS countries. Trade in local currencies and smooth cross-border payments will strengthen our economic cooperation,” Modi said.

Russian State Duma Speaker Vyachaslav Volodin, writing ahead of the two-day meeting on the cloud-based messaging app Telegram, said the BRICS’ priorities reflect the divide between the West and the South. “The time of the hegemony of Washington and Brussels is passing. Countries choose the path of equal dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation in the interests of people, and not to please the US and its minions,” he said.

U.S. officials say they are not concerned.

“We’re not looking at BRICS evolving into some kind of geopolitical rival. That’s not how we look at it … to the U.S. or anyone else,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday at a press briefing.

Meanwhile, India’s Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met Wednesday on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting, signaling a thaw in relations between the two sometimes-adversarial nations that some analysts suggest could have geopolitical implications.

Two days before the BRICS meeting, Indian and Chinese officials agreed to resolve the vexing issue of their militaries patrolling along the India-China border. The goal is to ensure that both sides pull back troops from advanced positions in disputed areas and return to the situation that existed before the last border conflict in 2020.

“We welcome the consensus reached on the issues that have arisen in the last 4 years along the border. It should be our priority to ensure there is peace and stability along our border,” Modi told Xi during the initial minutes of the meeting, which was telecast live. Xi responded saying that the rapprochement was “in the fundamental interests of both countries.”

Analysts are trying to gauge what prompted India to seek rapprochement with Beijing when it is closely tied to U.S.-led arrangements meant to counter China’s influence. 

India plays a key role in the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy and the Washington-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) involving Japan, India, Australia and the United States. China views the QUAD, which regularly holds exercises among the militaries of the four member countries, as a group bent on hurting its interests. 

“Being a part of the QUAD is not helping India, which needs support in countering China’s military challenge in the Himalayan Mountain region. Besides, the U.S. is developing a relationship with Pakistan, which is against India’s interest,” P. Stobdan, former Indian diplomat and author, told VOA. 

The Chinese media quoted Lin Minwang, a professor at the Institute of Strategic Studies and International Security in Fudan University, as saying that India is seeking reconciliation with China because the United States has not supported its efforts to develop its manufacturing sector. 

“India’s policy that aims at decoupling from China has failed to attract meaningful support from the US-led West to help ‘Made in India’ and the country’s modernization and industrialization,” Lin said. “This proves that India can’t profit from being hostile to or decoupling from China, and it is even making it difficult for India to realize its own development,” he added. 

Some experts believe the United States would not be surprised at the turn of events.  

“The U.S. knew all along that India and China would connect at some point. There are strong political and economic reasons for them to engage with each other,” said Manoranjan Mohanty, a China expert based in New Delhi.
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SEATTLE — Boeing factory workers voted to reject a contract offer and continue a more than five-week strike on Wednesday, in a blow to new CEO Kelly Ortberg’s plan to shore up the finances of the struggling planemaker.

The vote was 64% in opposition to the deal, which offered a 35% rise in wages over four years, in a major setback for Ortberg who took the top job in August on a pledge to work more closely with factory workers than his predecessors.

The rejection of Boeing’s offer, which comes after 95% of workers voted against a first contract last month, reflects years of resentment from workers who felt cheated by the company in talks a decade ago and deepens a financial crisis.

After the vote, union leaders said they were ready to immediately resume negotiations with Boeing on the first major negotiation since 2014, when the company used the threat of moving production of the new version of the 777 out of the region to push through a deal that ended traditional pensions.

The union has been seeking a 40% pay rise and the return of the defined-benefit pension.

Boeing factory workers were also venting frustration after a decade when their wages have lagged inflation and critics have complained that the planemaker spent tens of billions of dollars on share buybacks and paid out record executive bonuses.

“This membership has gone through a lot … there are some deep wounds,” the union’s lead contract negotiator Jon Holden told reporters after the vote.

“I want to get back to the table. Boeing needs to come to the table as well. Hopefully, we can have some fruitful discussions with the company, and Mr. Ortberg, to try and resolve this.”

Boeing declined comment on the vote.

Some 33,000 machinists downed tools in Boeing’s West Coast factories on Sept. 13, halting production of the best-selling 737 MAX as well as 767 and 777 wide-body programs.

Time is running out for Boeing, historically the largest U.S. exporter, and its biggest union to reach a deal before the busy political period surrounding the presidential election on Nov. 5.

With Boeing and IAM at a stalemate earlier this month, acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su had helped get the latest offer presented for a vote after attending in-person talks with both parties in Seattle last week.

Holden said after the union vote that he would reach out to the White House to see if the union could get more assistance negotiating with Boeing.

“After the first contract offer was rejected, the honeymoon was over on the labor reset. This further validates that,” said Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant.

“It’s bad news for everybody – Boeing, labor, suppliers, customers, even the national economy.”

Boeing is the largest customer for a U.S. aerospace supply chain already facing critical financial pressure.

Fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems warned that if the strike continued beyond the end of November, there would be layoffs and more drastic furloughs.

The company, which is in the process of being taken over by Boeing, has already announced a 21-day furlough for 700 workers.

‘Defining moment’

Boeing has announced plans to cut 17,000 jobs and is closing in on a plan to raise up to $15 billion from investors to help preserve its investment grade credit rating, while some airlines have had to trim schedules due to aircraft delivery delays.

Ortberg warned on Wednesday there was no quick fix for the ailing planemaker.

In a quarterly earnings call, Boeing forecast it would burn cash through 2025. Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said after the vote that the decision to prolong the strike could worsen the expected drain on cash.

The specter of a quality crisis from a January mid-air panel blowout hangs over Boeing.

Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, said this was now the “defining moment” of Ortberg’s short tenure and he needed to get a deal across the line soon.

“There’s a feeling that he hasn’t handled this as well as he might have,” Aboulafia said. “They’ve (Boeing) got to get this done, and they’re in a position of weakness.”

The rejection from workers on Wednesday was the second in a formal vote after the offer of a 25% pay rise over four years was rejected last month, leading to the strike.

Many comments on social media and from workers outside voting stations had cast doubt on a deal.

“We’re ready to go back on strike until we get a better deal,” Irina Briones, 25, said after the vote.

“They took a bunch of numbers and moved them around to make them look like they’re giving us more than they were,” said Josh Hajek, 42, who has worked six years at Boeing on wing assembly.

Voting figures showed the two sides getting closer to a deal but still a solid majority in favor of prolonging the strike.

Before the vote, Terrin Spotwood, a 20-year-old machinist in 737 wing assembly, said he planned to approve the contract because the offer was “good, but not great.” He said several coworkers planned the same because they “can’t really afford to say no to this contract. They have to go back to work.”

Even so, many workers are still angry about the last deal signed a decade ago.

“We’re going to get what we want this time. We have better legs to stand on this time than Boeing,” said Donovan Evans, 30, who works in the 767 jet factory outside Seattle.
…

WASHINGTON — There is new evidence China, Iran and Russia are aggressively expanding their efforts to influence American voters to potentially sway the result of the upcoming U.S. elections.

Two threat intelligence reports Wednesday, one from software giant Microsoft and the other from the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, detail growing activity by cyber actors linked to each country — all aiming to impact U.S. public perceptions with less than two weeks before voters go to the polls.

The biggest change, according to Microsoft, comes from Chinese-linked actors known to researchers as Spamouflage or Taizi Flood.

“Chinese influence operations have recently taken a new turn, shifting focus to several down-ballot candidates and members of Congress,” Microsoft said, noting that starting in September, China has targeted at least four prominent Republican lawmakers, all of whom are known critics of the government in Beijing.

Most recently, the Chinese-linked accounts targeted Texas Republican Michael McCaul, accusing the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee of “abusing power for personal gain.” 

Late last month, other Spamouflage began going after Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, Microsoft said. And earlier this month, the same effort began promoting Blackburn’s opponent in the November 5 election.

Other targets include Alabama Republican Representative Barry Moore, who was subjected to content criticizing his support for Israel, and the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Marco Rubio, who was accused of corruption.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the allegations in the Microsoft report.

“The presidential elections are the United States’ domestic affairs,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told VOA Wednesday, echoing previous Chinese denials. 

“Such allegations are full of malicious speculations against China, which China firmly opposes,” he added.

U.S. lawmakers, however, said they were not surprised by the uptick in malign activity.

“The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] cannot stand anyone who supports and gives a voice to those they oppress; their response is to sanction and attack,” McCaul said in a statement to VOA. 

“I consider it a badge of honor when the CCP — a leading abuser of human rights, censor of free speech, and oppressor of its own people — takes issue with my work,” he said. 

Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for the Chinese influence efforts to “be taken very seriously.”

“China is becoming increasingly more aggressive,” Rubio said in a statement to VOA. “China’s goal is to shape American opinion on critical issues and target specific candidates, especially those they view as anti-China.”

Growing threats

The reports from Microsoft and Recorded Future warn Beijing is not alone.

Specifically, the reports caution the Russian-linked cyber actors, known to researchers as Storm-1679 or Operation Overload, have increased their pace of operations over the past month and a half and are showing signs that more influence operations are on the way.

“Operation Overload is very likely to ramp up its activities,” said the Recorded Future report.

Recorded Future said many of the Russian efforts, of late, have sought to provoke anger toward the LGBTQ+ community “using disinformation to perpetuate discriminatory beliefs around transgender individuals, perceived behavioral issues, gender transition and reassignment surgeries, and pharmaceutical treatments.”

Other influence operations, the report said, are making use of AI-generated voiceovers to emulate the style of U.S. broadcast journalists.

Microsoft said the Russian cyber actors also have found ways to reach additional U.S. voters by shifting much of the content from the Telegram social media platform to X.

“Storm-1679 videos posted to X received higher levels of engagement,” Microsoft said.

Microsoft researchers also warned there are signs Iran is also ramping up its election interference efforts.

The Microsoft report says that in one instance, less than two weeks ago, “an online persona operated by Iran began falsely posing as an American and called on Americans to boycott the elections due to both candidates’ support for Israel’s military operations.”

Russia and Iran, like China, have repeatedly denied any involvement in efforts to meddle with the U.S. election.

But the new findings from Microsoft and Recorded Future align with assessments from U.S. intelligence officials.

“Foreign actors — particularly Russia, Iran and China — remain intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans’ confidence in the U.S. democratic system consistent with what they perceive to be in their interests,” according to a declassified assessment issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

U.S. intelligence officials have previously said Russia has been working to boost the chances of former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump, while Iran has been working to hurt Trump’s reelection bid and instead buoy the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

And while there is little evidence to suggest China has sought to affect the U.S. presidential race, intelligence officials have said Beijing has been focusing its efforts on congressional and state and local candidates perceived to be promoting policies detrimental to Beijing’s interests.
…

APIA, SAMOA — The leaders of the Commonwealth group of nations will meet at a welcome banquet in Samoa in the South Pacific on Thursday, with climate change and reparations for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade on the agenda of summit discussions.

Leaders and officials from 56 countries with roots in Britain’s empire, as well as Britain’s King Charles, are in the small island nation and attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which began Monday. The countries’ foreign ministers also began a day of discussions on Thursday.

More than half of the Commonwealth’s members are small states, many of which are low-lying island nations at risk from rising sea levels due to climate change.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said ocean temperatures are rising in the Pacific Islands at three times the rate worldwide, and its population is “uniquely exposed” to the impact of rising sea levels.

“Climate change is an existential threat. It is the number one national security threat. It is the number one economic threat to the peoples of the Pacific and to many members of the Commonwealth,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong told a news conference after a meeting with counterparts.

A number of African countries, including Zambia, warned the meeting about the escalating impacts of climate change, including the effects on food security, she added.

On Thursday, Charles will be shown the impact of rising sea levels that are forcing people to move inland, a Samoan chief said.

Island leaders are expected to issue a declaration on ocean protection at the summit, with climate change being a central topic of discussion.

Reparations push

Also on the agenda is a push for Britain to pay reparations for transatlantic slavery, a long-standing issue that has recently been gaining momentum worldwide, particularly those part of the Caribbean Community and more recently the African Union.

British Prime Minister Kier Starmer said on Monday the UK will not bring the issue of reparations for historical transatlantic slavery to the table at the summit, but is open to engage with leaders who want to discuss it.

CARICOM has set up a commission to seek reparations from former colonial powers such as the UK, France and Portugal.

Those opposed to paying reparations say countries shouldn’t be held responsible for historical wrongs, while those in favor say the legacy of slavery has resulted in persistent and vast racial inequalities today.

A CARICOM source familiar with the matter told Reuters CHOGM presents an “important opportunity” for dialogue on reparations and the region will be tabling the issue there.

“It is a priority for many of the Commonwealth’s member countries and whenever those affected by atrocities ask to talk, there should always be a willingness to sit down and listen,” said Kingsley Abbott, director of the University of London’s Institute of Commonwealth Studies, who is attending the summit.

From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported by European ships and merchants and sold into slavery. Those who survived the brutal voyage ended up toiling on plantations under inhumane conditions in the Americas, mostly in Brazil and the Caribbean, while others profited from their labor.
…

WASHINGTON — Gathered Wednesday at a summit in the Russian city of Kazan, the members of BRICS adopted a joint declaration calling for the creation of an independent payment system based on their national currencies, a move in response to what they regard as illegal sanctions that are damaging the global economy.

BRICS member countries, which account for about 35% of the global economy, issued the Kazan Declaration, which calls for the “elimination” of “unilateral economic sanctions and secondary sanctions that are contrary to international law.”

The BRICS membership includes the initial five — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — and expanded when several countries joined this year, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates.

Expressing concerns over “unilateral coercive” sanctions that have “disruptive effects” on the world economy, the BRICS members agreed to examine the “establishment of an independent cross-border settlement and depository infrastructure, BRICS Clear.”

In supporting “inclusive cross-border payment instruments,” they encouraged the “use of local currencies in financial transactions between BRICS countries and their trading partners.”

Edward Fishman, senior research scholar at Columbia University and author of the forthcoming book “Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare,” said, “The BRICS have finally found a unifying mission: circumventing American financial dominance.”

“For BRICS members under U.S. sanctions, namely Russia and Iran, this mission is already a top national priority,” he said. “Others such as China see it as a handy way to insulate themselves from potential sanctions in the future.”

Fishman said the United States should take BRICS initiatives “seriously and move to further solidify the dollar’s advantages” as they “could well bear fruit over the next decade,” although “it’s unlikely that any of these initiatives will make a dent in the dollar’s global role in the near future.”

Circumventing US dollar

In his speech at the summit Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said “the reform of the international financial architecture” is “pressing,” and he called for “the connectivity” of financial infrastructure among BRICS members and the expansion of the New Development Bank, or NDB. 

Headquartered in Shanghai, the NDB was established by the initial five BRICS members in 2015. It serves as an alternative financial institution to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. 

Tom Keatinge, the founding director of the Center for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute, said China would be inclined to join the new financial system that Russia is advocating.

He said Beijing’s reasons are twofold: “to influence its design to ensure it can benefit” and “to add to its desire to provide counterbalance to the historically unipolar financial system dominated by the United States.”

Keatinge added, however, that the new infrastructure would not be able to easily replicate “the stability, liquidity and convertibility of the U.S. dollar” that a number of other existing bilateral and multilateral payment systems experience.

VOA asked the Chinese Embassy in Washington whether and why Beijing is interested in joining and using the proposed BRICS financial system but did not get a reply.

Citing unnamed experts, China’s state-run Global Times on October 17 said an alternative payment system “may help reduce excessive reliance on the U.S. dollar.”

Sanctions evasion

BRICS’ efforts to increase the use of local currencies are seen as a bid to challenge the global financial system dominated by the U.S. dollar, which accounts for 90% of all currency trading and more than half of international payments. 

At the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “The dollar is being used as a weapon.” He also said the increased use of BRICS national currencies for transactions will “minimize geopolitical risks.”

During a meeting with Putin at the summit on Tuesday, NDB President Dilma Rousseff said the bank was committed to financing the countries of the Global South in their national currencies.

Russian state development corporation and investment company VER.RF signed agreements with China and South Africa to extend credit lines in national currencies, Russian news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.

BRICS Clear, the international payment and deposit platform to ensure increased circulation of national currencies, was proposed by Russia ahead of the summit.

The Russian Financial Ministry, central bank and consulting firm Yakov and Partners earlier in October issued a document proposing BRICS Clear as a platform that would utilize national depository systems “independent of third-party influence.”

Also ahead of the summit, a new cross-border payment system called BRICS Pay was introduced at the BRICS Business Forum held in Moscow on October 17 and 18.

A statement released Tuesday by the American Action Forum, citing an analysis by Jacob Jensen, a data analyst at the think tank, said there are concerns that BRICS Pay would allow participating countries to “circumvent USD as a payment intermediary by replacing it with blockchain technology and an alternative to the SWIFT financial payment system.”

Several Russian banks were banned from the SWIFT messaging system that facilitates global financial transfers shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskovsaid on Wednesday that the BRICS is not trying to create a system as an alternative to SWIFT, according to Russian TASS. 

Despite BRICS’ efforts, no country using an alternative system like BRICS Pay will be immune from sanctions, as such a payment system can be subject to sanctions, said David Asher, a Hudson Institute senior fellow who advised the U.S. government over several years on sanctions evasion schemes.

Ultimately, Asher said, national and digital currencies will end up being swapped into U.S. dollars at the Clearing House Automated Transfer System based in Hong Kong, which he believes should be sanctioned.
…

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department has sent a letter to Elon Musk’s super PAC warning that the billionaire Tesla CEO’s $1 million giveaways may violate federal law, several media organizations reported on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the matter.

A letter from the department’s public integrity section, which investigates potential election-related law violations, went to the PAC.

The Justice Department and Musk’s America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

South African-born Musk, who has thrown his support behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump ahead of the November 5 election, announced on Saturday while speaking before a crowd in Pennsylvania that he was giving away $1 million each day until Election Day to someone who signs his online petition supporting the U.S. Constitution.

He handed $1 million checks to two separate people over the weekend — one to a man in Harrisburg on Saturday and another to a woman in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest person, so far has supplied at least $75 million to America PAC, according to federal disclosures, making the group a crucial part of Trump’s bid to regain the White House.
…

The president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has announced the establishment of the Red Family Fund to honor humanitarian aid workers who have died in the line of duty.

Kate Forbes told the organization’s general assembly in Geneva that aid workers find themselves working under “increasingly difficult” conditions that include not only an escalation in conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere but also a decrease in observance of international law.

“Global conflicts have escalated, endangering civilians and our volunteers, making it even more difficult to deliver humanitarian aid,” Forbes said.

So far this year, 30 of the group’s 16 million humanitarian aid workers worldwide have died in the line of duty, she said.

“The surge in violence against humanitarian workers underscores a decline in the adherence to international humanitarian law and poses a direct threat to our mission,” the IFRC president said. She described each loss as a deep wound but said the deaths would not weaken the organization’s “resolve to directly address these crises.”

Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told the gathering that humanitarian workers find themselves doing their jobs across the globe amid a world shaped by “armed conflicts and political turmoil.”

The Red Family Fund, according to the IFRC’s website, honors volunteers and staff from the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies “who die in the line of duty and provides a mechanism for one-time financial assistance to the families they leave behind.”

“This is a tangible step that demonstrates our commitment to honor those who care for others,” Forbes said. 

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

islamabad — The latest U.S.-imposed restrictions on entities supporting Pakistan’s defense programs may hinder Islamabad’s future efforts to acquire sensitive defense technologies and its collaboration with China but are unlikely to affect Pakistan’s weapons development for now, experts say.

Sixteen Pakistani firms were among 26 international companies added this week to a U.S, “entities list,” making them ineligible to acquire U.S. items and technology without government authorization.

Companies or individuals can be placed on the list if they are “involved or pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States,” according to a U.S. Commerce Department statement.

Nine of the 16 Pakistani companies added to the blacklist this week were accused of being front companies for a previously sanctioned company, Advanced Engineering Research Organization, deemed responsible for the country’s cruise missile and strategic drone programs.

The remaining seven entities were added for contributions to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, the Commerce Department statement said. Other companies added to the list this week were accused of procuring U.S.-made items with military applications for China, Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Defense analysts told VOA that addition to the list is unlikely to slow Pakistan’s missile program, which has continued despite multiple rounds of U.S. curbs on entities supporting it.

“It will not make a difference to Pakistan,” said Pakistani defense analyst Salman Javed, who acknowledged that the country relies on the United States for other defense technology needs. “I believe Pakistan’s missile program is in an advanced stage, and U.S. restrictions will have no impact on it.”

Former Pakistani army General Talat Masood said Pakistan has looked more to China than the United States for “the expertise and technology” needed to advance its drone program. But he said the new curbs might affect Pakistan’s future collaboration with China in the field of drones and their sale to other countries.

Pakistan has not officially responded to the latest restrictions but objected last month when Washington blacklisted four companies, three Chinese and one Pakistani, for “knowingly” transferring prohibited equipment to Pakistan. Islamabad said the sanctions were imposed “without any evidence whatsoever.”

Syed Irfan Ashraf, an assistant professor at the University of Peshawar in Pakistan, said the United States has long prevented arms technology sales in black markets to protect its interests. “However, the timing and scrutiny of entities supporting Pakistan right now is crucial” because of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In September, the U.S. State Department acted against five entities and one individual — all but one Chinese — that were involved in the proliferation of ballistic missiles and controlled missile equipment and technology to Pakistan.

Salman Ali, a Pakistani scholar at the School of Politics at the Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, said the recent wave of U.S. sanctions represents a distinct shift from the usual regulatory measures observed since Pakistan’s de facto nuclearization and are aimed more at pressuring China.

“Over the past six rounds of U.S. curbs, it’s clear that the focus has been on the technical exchanges between China and Pakistan. These sanctions are not only intended to curb the rapid advancement of missile and drone programs but are also seen as a strategy to pressure China,” Ali told VOA.

Pakistan and Iran are both members of the China-led regional alliance Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which opposed the unilateral sanctions in its recently concluded summit October 16 in Islamabad.

This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service. Iftikhar Hussain reported from Washington.
…

The United States said there is evidence that North Korean troops are in Russia, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv had learned that two North Korean military units were training in Russia for potential combat in Ukraine. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb reports.
…

Washington — Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff is warning that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office, Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did some good things.” 

The comments from John Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, came in interviews published Tuesday in The New York Times and The Atlantic. They build on past warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks. 

Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “suckers” and “losers.” His new warnings emerged as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.” 

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'” Kelly recalled to the Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but that Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again. 

In his interview with the Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who oversaw the unification of Germany. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.” 

Trump’s campaign denied the accounts Tuesday, with campaign spokesman Steven Cheung saying that Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.” 

Polls show the race is tight in swing states, and both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the sliver of undecided voters. Harris’ campaign has spent considerable time reaching out to independent voters, using the support of longtime Republicans such as former Rep. Liz Cheney and comments like Kelly’s to urge past Trump voters to reject his candidacy in November. 

Harris’ campaign held a call with reporters Tuesday to elevate the voices of retired military officials who highlighted how many of the officials who worked with Trump now oppose his campaign. 

“People that know him best are most opposed to him, his presidency,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson. 

Anderson said he wished Kelly would fully back Harris over Trump, something he has yet to do. But retired Army reserve Col. Kevin Carroll, a former senior counselor to Kelly, said Wednesday that the former top Trump official would “rather chew broken glass than vote for Donald Trump.” 

Before serving as Trump’s chief of staff, Kelly worked as the former president’s secretary of homeland security, where he oversaw Trump’s attempts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Kelly was also at the forefront of the Trump administration’s crackdown in immigration policy that led to the separation of thousands of immigrant parents and their children along the southern border. Those actions made him a villain to many on the left, including Harris. 

Kelly is not the first former top Trump administration official to cast the former president as a threat. 

Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward in his recent book “War” that Trump was “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who worked as secretary of defense under Trump, reportedly later told Woodward that he agreed with Milley’s assessment. 

Throughout Trump’s political rise, the businessman-turned-politician benefited from the support of military veterans. 

AP VoteCast found that about 6 in 10 military veterans said they voted for Trump in 2020, as did just over half of those with a veteran in the household. Among voters in this year’s South Carolina Republican primary, AP VoteCast found that close to two-thirds of military veterans and people in veteran households voted for Trump over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s toughest opponent in the 2024 Republican primary.
…

San Diego — Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico fell 7% in September to a more than four-year low, authorities said Tuesday. It was likely the last monthly gauge during a presidential campaign in which Republican nominee Donald Trump has made immigration a signature issue. 

The Border Patrol made 53,858 arrests, down from 58,009 in August and the lowest tally since August 2020, when arrests totaled 47,283, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

Mexicans accounted for nearly half of the arrests, becoming a greater part of the mix. In December, when arrests reached an all-time high of 250,000, Mexicans made up fewer than 1 in 4. Arrests for other major nationalities seen at the border, including Guatemalans, Hondurans, Colombians and Ecuadoreans, have plunged this year. 

San Diego was again the busiest corridor for illegal crossings in September, followed by El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. 

For the government’s fiscal year that ended on September 30, the Border Patrol made 1.53 million arrests after topping 2 million in each of the previous two years for the first time. 

The White House touted the numbers as proof that severe asylum restrictions introduced in June were having the intended effect, and blamed congressional Republicans for opposing a border security bill that failed in February. Vice President Kamala Harris has used that line of attack against Trump to try to blunt criticism that the Biden administration has been weak on immigration enforcement. 

“The Biden Harris administration has taken effective action, and Republican officials continue to do nothing,” said White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández. 

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a frequent administration critic and advocate for immigration restrictions, attributed recent declines to more enforcement by Mexican officials within their own borders, saying the White House “essentially outsourced U.S. border security to Mexico in advance of the 2024 election — policies that can be reversed at any time that the government of Mexico chooses.” 

Arrests fell sharply after Mexico increased enforcement in December, and took a steeper dive after the U.S. asylum restrictions took effect in June. U.S. officials have not been shy about highlighting Mexico’s role. 

Mexican authorities are encountering more migrants this year while deportations remain relatively low, creating a bottleneck. Panamanian authorities reported an increase in migrants walking through the notorious Darien Gap during September, though numbers are still well below last year. 

Troy Miller, acting CBP commissioner, said last week that the administration is working with Mexico and other countries to jointly address migration. 

“We continue to be concerned about any bottlenecks, we continue to look at those, we continue to address them with our partners,” Miller said at a news conference in San Diego. 

The Biden administration has promoted new and expanded legal pathways to enter the country in an effort to discourage illegal crossings. In September, CBP allowed more than 44,600 people to enter with appointments on an online system called CBP One, bringing the total to 852,000 since it was introduced in January 2023. 

Another Biden policy allows up to 30,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela with financial sponsors to enter monthly through airports. More than 531,000 people from those four countries have entered that way up through September. 
…

Washington — Ukraine will receive $50 billion in loans, backed by frozen Russian assets, from Group of Seven allies, the White House said Wednesday. Distribution of the money will begin by year’s end, according to American officials who said the United States is providing $20 billion of the total.

Leaders of the wealthy democracies agreed earlier this year to engineer the mammoth loan to help Ukraine in its fight for survival after Russia’s invasion. Interest earned on profits from Russia’s frozen central bank assets would be used as collateral.

“To be clear, nothing like this has ever been done before,” said Daleep Singh, the deputy national security adviser on international economics.

“Never before has a multilateral coalition frozen the assets of an aggressor country and then harnessed the value of those assets to fund the defense of the aggrieved party all while respecting the rule of law and maintaining solidarity.”

At a ceremony Wednesday in Washington, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Ukraine’s finance minister, Sergii Marchenko, planned to put in writing assurances that the U.S. loan will be paid for by the windfall proceeds of the immobilized Russian sovereign assets, not by American taxpayer dollars.

“Russia is paying for this support,” Yellen said at a news conference Monday where she said the loan package was close to being finalized.

Singh said the Biden administration intends to divide the U.S. share of $20 billion between aiding Ukraine’s economy and military. It will require congressional action to send military aid, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that weapons and equipment being promised now can take weeks or months to get to Ukraine.

The additional $30 billion will come from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, among others.

The idea of using Russia’s frozen assets to help Ukraine faced resistance at first from European officials who cited legal and financial stability concerns.

The move gained momentum after more than a year of negotiations between finance officials and after President Joe Biden in April signed legislation that let the government seize the roughly $5 billion in Russian state assets in the U.S.

The G7 announced in June that most of the loan would be backed by profits being earned on roughly $260 billion in immobilized Russian assets. The vast majority of that money is held in EU nations. 

The U.S. and its allies immediately froze whatever Russian central bank assets they had access to when Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The timing of the loan’s disbursement has been called into question, coming about two weeks before the presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. The candidates have taken opposing views on the threat from Russia.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin dismissed suggestions that military aid to Ukraine approved by the Biden administration now could be negated by any new team in power.

“I think we’re pretty sure that these materials will continue to flow,” Austin said, adding that he is confident it all will be delivered “on the timeline that we’ve outlined.”

The World Bank’s latest damage assessment of Ukraine, released in February, estimates that costs for reconstruction and recovery of the nation stand at $486 billion over the next 10 years.
…

Ankara — A deadly attack was carried out at the Turkish Aerospace Industries’ headquarters near Ankara on Wednesday, the government said, as broadcasters showed footage of several armed assailants entering the building amid reports of gunfire and a loud explosion.

“A terrorist attack was carried out against the TUSAS facilities in Kahramankazan, Ankara. Unfortunately, we have martyrs and injured people,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media X, referring to the Aerospace Industries.

The cause and perpetrators of the blast and subsequent gunfire remained unclear. Some media reports claimed a suicide attack had occurred and that there were hostages inside the building. Officials have not confirmed this.

Witnesses told Reuters that employees inside the building were taken by authorities to shelters and no one was permitted to leave. They said bombings may have taken place at different exits as employees were leaving work for the day.

The state-owned Anadolu Agency said emergency services were dispatched to the site, while television images showed a damaged gate and an exchange of gunfire in a parking lot. The images showed the attackers carrying assault rifles and backpacks as they entered the building.

Anadolu also said prosecutors had launched an investigation into the attack.

TUSAS is one of Turkey’s most important defense and aviation companies. It produces KAAN, the country’s first national combat aircraft, among other projects, and has over 10,000 employees. 
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Athens — Wildfire-plagued Greece has suffered its worst year in terms of climate conditions in four decades in 2024, its prime minister told parliament on Wednesday.

The already sun-baked Mediterranean region has been designated by scientists as a climate change “hotspot”, with warming higher than the global average, according to United Nations reports. 

Greece has been perennially struck by scorching heatwaves and destructive wildfires every summer, with conditions worsening in recent years.

“We were expecting a very difficult year in terms of climate, it was objectively the most difficult in the past 40 years according to data by all scientists, including those from the national climate monitor,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament.

He pointed to “temperatures constantly higher than average”, “prolonged drought”, “strong winds”, adding that Greece needed to face the consequences of climate change.

The number of wildfires so far this year has reached 9,101, up from 7,163 last year, with 44,000 hectares (109,000 acres) burnt, the premier said during a parliamentary debate on the matter.  

Forest blazes began earlier than normal this year, with one igniting at the end of March in the country’s north.

Greece experienced its hottest summer ever, Athens’s climate monitor said in September, with premature heatwaves in June, and record-high summer temperatures.

June and July were the warmest months since records began in 1960, while August was the second hottest after August 2021, the observatory said on its meteo.gr website.

More than 20 people died in Greek forest fires last year, with a massive blaze in Dadia national park dubbed the most destructive ever recorded in the European Union.

Rising temperatures are leading to extended wildfire seasons and increasing the area burnt by the blazes, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 
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EVERETT, Wash. — Boeing reported a loss of more than $6 billion in the third quarter and immediately turned its attention to union workers who will vote Wednesday whether to accept a company contract offer or continue their crippling strike, which has dragged on for nearly six weeks.  

New CEO Kelly Ortberg laid out his plan to turn Boeing around after years of heavy losses and damage to its reputation.  

In remarks he planned to deliver later Wednesday to investors, Ortberg said Boeing needs “a fundamental culture change in the company.” To accomplish that, he said, company leaders need to spend more time on factory floors to know what is going on and “prevent the festering of issues and work better together to identify, fix, and understand root cause.”  

Ortberg repeated that he wants to “reset” management’s relationship with labor “so we don’t become so disconnected in the future.” He expressed hope that machinists will vote to approve the company’s latest contract offer and end their strike.  

“It will take time to return Boeing to its former legacy, but with the right focus and culture, we can be an iconic company and aerospace leader once again,” he said.  

The strike is an early test for Ortberg, a Boeing outsider who became CEO in August.  

Ortberg has already announced large-scale layoffs and a plan to raise enough cash to avoid a bankruptcy filing. He needs to convince federal regulators that Boeing is fixing its safety culture and is ready to boost production of the 737 Max — a crucial step to bring in much-needed cash.  

Boeing can’t produce any new 737s, however, until it ends the strike by 33,000 machinists that has shut down assembly plants in the Seattle area.  

Ortberg has “got a lot on his plate, but he probably is laser-focused on getting this negotiation completed. That’s the closest alligator to the boat,” said Tony Bancroft, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, a Boeing investor.  

Boeing hasn’t had a profitable year since 2018, and the situation is about to get worse before it gets better.  

Boeing said Wednesday that it lost $6.17 billion in the period ended Sept. 30, with an adjusted loss of $10.44 per share. Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research were calling for a loss of $10.34 per share.  

Revenue totaled $17.84 billion, matching Wall Street estimates.  

Shares were flat before the opening bell.  

Investors will be looking for Ortberg to project calm, determination and urgency as he presides over an earnings call for the first time since he ran Rockwell Collins, a maker of avionics and flight controls for airline and military planes, in the last decade.  

The biggest news of the day, however, is likely to come Wednesday evening, when the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers reveals whether striking workers are ready to go back to their jobs.  

They will vote at union halls in the Seattle area and elsewhere on a Boeing offer that includes pay raises of 35% over four years, $7,000 ratification bonuses, and the retention of performance bonuses that Boeing wanted to eliminate.  

Boeing has held firm in resisting a union demand to restore the traditional pension plan that was frozen a decade ago. However, older workers would get a slight increase in their monthly pension payouts.  

At a picket line outside Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington, some machinists encouraged colleagues to vote no.  

“The pension should have been the top priority. We all said that was our top priority, along with wage,” said Larry Best, a customer-quality coordinator with 38 years at Boeing. “Now is the prime opportunity in a prime time to get our pension back, and we all need to stay out and dig our heels in.”  

Best also thinks the pay increase should be 40% over three years to offset a long stretch of stagnant wages, now combined with high inflation.  

“You can see we got a great turnout today. I’m pretty sure that they don’t like the contract because that’s why I’m here,” said another picketer, Bartley Stokes Sr., who started working at Boeing in 1978. “We’re out here in force, and we’re going to show our solidarity and stick with our union brothers and sisters and vote this thing down because they can do better.”
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