London — Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday played down allegations made by Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump’s team of “blatant foreign interference” by his Labour Party in the U.S. election, saying it was normal for its volunteers to campaign.   

Starmer also insisted that he maintained “a good relationship” with Trump, having met him for talks last month.   

The former president’s legal team filed a complaint to the U.S. Federal Election Commission alleging the “British Labour Party made, and the [Kamala] Harris campaign accepted, illegal foreign national contributions.”   

The filing cited media reports that Labour officials, including the prime minister’s new chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, traveled to the United States to advise the Harris campaign.   

Trump’s team also submitted a now-deleted LinkedIn post by Labour director of operations Sofia Patel calling for volunteers to travel to North Carolina, saying “we will sort out your housing.”   

Foreign nationals are allowed to volunteer in U.S. elections but may not be compensated.   

Starmer told media traveling with him to a Commonwealth meeting on the Pacific island of Samoa that his party had done nothing wrong, and that the volunteers had paid for themselves.   

“The Labour party has volunteers, who have gone over pretty much every election,” he said.   

“They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers, they’re staying, I think, with other volunteers over there.”   

“That’s what they’ve done in previous elections, that’s what they’re doing in this election and that’s really straightforward.”   

He also denied suggestions that it could damage relations with Britain’s most important ally should Republican party candidate Trump beat Democrat Harris and secure a return to the White House.   

Starmer said he had “established a good relationship” with the former president, having met him last month for a two-hour dinner at the former real estate tycoon’s Trump Tower residence in New York.   

Adding to the dispute, Trump surrogate Elon Musk wrote on his X site on Tuesday that “this is war” after leaked documents from campaign group Center for Countering Digital Hate appeared to show that one of its objectives was to “kill Musk’s Twitter,” X’s former name.   

The campaign group and think-tank is led by a former Labour adviser and McSweeney is a former director. 
…

The European Union’s next foreign policy chief has told lawmakers that strengthening security must be a priority, warning that Europe must be prepared as Russia and “partly China” exploit the continent’s open societies.

“European security is deeply personal to me as a native of a country that has long told others that Russia’s imperialistic dream never died,” Kaja Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister, said in written replies to members of the European Parliament published late on Tuesday.

“My short-term priority must be to address the pressing global concerns: Russia’s war against Ukraine and strengthening the EU’s security and defense,” she wrote.

Kallas, nominated by European leaders in June to serve as the bloc’s new high representative for foreign affairs, is set to succeed incumbent Josep Borrell.

The European Parliament will hold hearings in November for members of the next European Commission.

In 21 pages of answers to questions posed by the lawmakers ahead of the hearings, the Estonian politician outlined her vision for Europe’s foreign policy at a time when the bloc faces an increasingly complex geopolitical environment.

The EU must stay at “the forefront of humanitarian efforts” in the Middle East,” Kallas said, and work “with all actors to support the pursuit of a just and comprehensive peace” while also pointing to challenges such as China’s support for Russia.

“Actors such as Russia, Iran, North Korea, and partly China, aim at weaponizing interdependencies and exploiting the openness of our societies against us,” she added. “For this, we must be prepared.”
…

Los Angeles — LeBron and Bronny James made NBA history on Tuesday, becoming the first father-and-son duo to play alongside each other in a regular season fixture as the Los Angeles Lakers opened their campaign against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The duo, who played together briefly in a pre-season game earlier this month, took to the court together late in the second quarter at the Crypto.com Arena with the Lakers leading 51-35.

An enormous roar went up from the home crowd as the James duo were brought onto the court by coach J.J. Redick after the Lakers had surged into a double-digit lead.

In a perfectly scripted moment that was pure Hollywood, the James’ double-act was watched at courtside by Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr, who made baseball history playing for the Seattle Mariners as father and son in 1990-1991.

“We made history; now we get to watch history,” said Griffey Jr., who joined his father to pose for photos with LeBron and Bronny James shortly before Tuesday’s tip-off.

Lakers officials had been coy before Tuesday’s season-opener about where and when LeBron James and Bronny would play their first regular season fixture together.

However, NBA superstar LeBron James, who turns 40 in December, admitted in pre-game remarks that he could scarcely contain his excitement at the prospect of realizing his long-cherished dream of sharing a court with his son.

“Just to run out the tunnel knowing that he’ll be in uniform, run out the tunnel with him, see him warm up, and be out there with the rest of my teammates,” James told reporters during a morning shoot-around on Tuesday.

“This is my 22nd time running out on opening night so I don’t know how many times I’ll have an opportunity, how many times I’ve got left to run out. I won’t take it for granted.”

Anticipation about the James double-act has dominated the Lakers’ preparations for the new season since Bronny James was selected by the franchise with the 55th pick in the draft in June.

‘It’s been a treat’

Bronny James, 20, is expected to spend most of his rookie season in the developmental G-League rather than the Lakers senior squad.

LeBron James however said Tuesday that he had relished being able to accompany his son on his first steps into professional basketball.

“It’s been a treat and just in preseason, the practices, just every day,” James said. “The plane rides, the bus rides of being with him and showing him the ropes, along with his teammates and coaches. Just what this professional life is all about and how to prepare every day … super-duper cool.”

Bronny James’ ascent to the ranks of the NBA has been made all the more remarkable given that just over a year ago he suffered a cardiac arrest during a workout with his University of Southern California college team-mates.

James Sr. said his son’s swift recovery from that life-threatening episode had convinced him that he would one day play in the NBA.

“To see him play in a college Division I game the same year he had heart surgery … I knew that at that moment that there really was going to be nothing to stop him from anything that he wants to do,” James said.

Bronny said at the Lakers recent media day he was fueled by the words of critics who have suggested he owes his place on the Lakers roster entirely to his superstar father.

“I’m just taking all that stuff, that criticism and backlash that people have given me and turning it into something that can fuel me,” he said.
…

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it destroyed 14 Ukrainian aerial drones in areas along the Ukraine-Russia border as well as four uncrewed Ukrainian boats in the Black Sea.

The ministry said Russian air defenses destroyed 10 drones over Russia-occupied Crimea, and another four over the Rostov region.

Russian forces carried out a second consecutive night of heavy drone attacks targeting the Sumy region in southern Ukraine.

The Sumy regional military administration said Wednesday that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 19 Russian drones, a night after Ukraine downed 25 drones in the same area.

Officials in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions also reported drones being shot down overnight.

North Korean involvement

Ukraine has “information that two units of military personnel from North Korea are being trained — potentially even two brigades of 6,000 people each” — for combat in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday. 

“This is a challenge,” the president said in his daily address. “But we know how to respond to this challenge. And it is important that our partners do not shy away from this challenge, as well.” 

“If North Korea can intervene in the war in Europe, then the pressure on this regime is definitely not strong enough,” Zelenskyy said. “And if Russia is still able to expand and prolong this war, it means that everyone in the world who is still not helping to force Russia into peace is actually helping Putin to wage war.” 

“We expect a firm, concrete response from the world,” he added. “Hopefully, not only in words.” 

Also Tuesday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement that Russia is playing with lives beyond Ukraine. 

“Russia’s indiscriminate strikes on ports in the Black Sea underscore that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is willing to gamble on global food security in his attempts to force Ukraine into submission. … In doing so, he is harming millions of vulnerable people across Africa, Asia and the Middle East to try and gain the upper hand in his barbaric war.”  

Starmer said Russia’s conduct in the conflict has shown “no respect for human life or the consequences of their invasion across the world.”

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
…

Rudy Giuliani must turn over sports memorabilia and other prized possessions to two Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against him, including his New York City apartment, more than two dozen luxury watches and a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, a judge ruled Tuesday.

But U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan also said Giuliani does not have to give the election workers three New York Yankees World Series rings or his Florida condominium — for now — noting those assets are tied up in other litigation.

The property Giuliani must relinquish is expected to fetch several million dollars for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss. They won the $148 million judgment over Giuliani’s false ballot fraud claims against them related to the 2020 presidential election. They said Giuliani pushed Donald Trump’s lies about the election being stolen, which led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.

Under Tuesday’s order, Giuliani must relinquish within seven days his Manhattan apartment, estimated at more than $5 million, as well as his interest in about $2 million that he says Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign owes him for his services.

Also on the list of assets that must be given to Freeman and Moss are a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL 500 previously owned by Bacall; a shirt and picture signed, respectively, by Yankees legends Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson; a signed Yankee Stadium picture; a diamond ring; costume jewelry and 26 watches including a Rolex, five Shinolas, two Bulovas and a Tiffany & Co.

In court documents filed earlier this year, Giuliani estimated the Mercedes was worth about $25,000, and the watches, World Series rings and costume jewelry at about $30,000. He said the value of his sports memorabilia was unknown.

One of those watches was given to Giuliani by his grandfather and he asked that he be allowed to keep it because of its sentimental value. But Liman rejected the request, saying Giuliani could have had it exempted if he had proven it was worth less than $1,000 — but he did not do so.

“The Court also does not doubt that certain of the items may have sentimental value to Defendant,” the judge added. “But that does not entitle Defendant to continued enjoyment of the assets to the detriment of the Plaintiffs to whom he owes approximately $150 million. It is, after all, the underlying policy of these New York statutes that ‘no man should be permitted to live at the same time in luxury and in debt.'”

Liman wrote that Freeman and Moss would be allowed to sell off the property and “ensure that the liquidation of the transferred assets is accomplished quickly.”

Giuliani had asked the judge to bar Freeman and Moss from selling any of his assets until after his appeal of the judgment is completed. Liman also rejected that request, saying Giuliani could have asked the federal court in Washington, D.C., where Freeman and Moss won their case, to stay any asset sales pending his appeal, but he did not.

Giuliani’s lawyers, Kenneth Caruso and David Labkowski, said in a statement Tuesday night, “Stay tuned. When the judgment is reversed in the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., these Plaintiffs will be required to return all this property to Mr. Giuliani. We repeat, stay tuned.”

To date, Giuliani has not paid Freeman and Moss anything.

“We are proud that our clients will finally begin to receive some of the compensation to which they are entitled for Giuliani’s actions,” Aaron Nathan, a lawyer for Freeman and Moss, said in a statement. “This outcome should send a powerful message that there is a price to pay for those who choose to intentionally spread disinformation.”

As for the World Series rings, Giuliani’s son, Andrew, filed court documents earlier this month saying he actually is the rightful owner. He said his father gave him four rings — one for each of the Yankees’ championships in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 — as gifts in 2018. Rudy Giuliani received the rings during his tenure as mayor of New York City. The younger Giuliani’s claim is pending in federal court in Manhattan.

Freeman and Moss also asked Liman to order Rudy Giuliani to turn over his condo in Palm Beach, Florida, estimated to be worth more than $3 million. But that property is tied up in other litigation, with Giuliani claiming it should be exempt because it is his primary residence. Freeman and Moss have a lien on the Florida property.

Liman said he would take up the Florida condo at a hearing Oct. 28, and he barred Giuliani from selling the property or taking any action that would diminish its value.

After the $148 million verdict, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy, which froze attempts by Freeman and Moss to collect the award. But a judge in July threw out the case citing repeated “uncooperative conduct,” including a failure to comply with court orders and disclose sources of income.
…

One person died and dozens fell ill from E. coli infections linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers in 10 states, led by Colorado, where 26 people were sickened, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said on Tuesday.

The E. coli outbreak, linked to one of McDonald’s most popular menu items, has sickened 49 people and sent 10 to the hospital, officials say.

The strain involved, E. coli O157:H7, can cause serious illness and was the source of a 1993 outbreak that killed four children who ate undercooked hamburgers at Jack in the Box restaurants.

Shares of the world’s largest fast-food chain were down about 6% in extended trading. A livestock trader said the outbreak also could pressure U.S. cattle futures on Wednesday by threatening demand for beef.

Everyone interviewed as part of an investigation into the outbreak has reported eating at McDonald’s before their illness started, and most mentioned eating a Quarter Pounder hamburger, according to the CDC.

The specific ingredient linked to the illness has not been identified but investigators are focused on fresh, slivered onions and fresh beef patties, the CDC said.

Most of the illnesses were reported in Colorado and Nebraska.

“The initial findings from the investigation indicate that a subset of illnesses may be linked to slivered onions used in the Quarter Pounder and sourced by a single supplier that serves three distribution centers,” McDonald’s North America Chief Supply Chain Officer Cesar Piña said in a statement.

McDonald’s has proactively removed the slivered onions and beef patties used for the Quarter Pounder hamburgers from stores in the affected states while the investigation continues, the company informed the CDC.

U.S. food safety attorney Bill Marler, who represented a victim in the Jack in the Box outbreak, said more cases of illness could surface. Onions have been linked to prior E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks, he said.

According to Marler, a founder of Marler Clark in Seattle, beef contamination is less common due to food safety measures. “You’d have to have multiple restaurants under-cooking the meat,” he said.

McDonald’s is temporarily removing the Quarter Pounder from restaurants in the impacted areas, including Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, it said in a statement, adding it was working with suppliers to replenish supply in the coming week.

Symptoms for E. coli include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting. Most people who suffer an infection will start feeling sick three to four days after eating or drinking something that contains the bacteria, Colorado’s public health department said. However, illnesses can start anywhere from one to 10 days after exposure, the department added.

In 2015, burrito chain Chipotle saw its sales battered and reputation hit due to E.coli outbreaks in several states. That outbreak was linked to a different strain of E. coli that typically causes less severe illness than E. coli O157:H7.

In addition to Colorado, the CDC said small clusters of a few people fell ill after eating a Quarter Pounder in Nebraska, Utah and Wyoming. Kansas, Missouri, Oregon, Iowa, Wisconsin and Montana had one illness apiece.
…

Ukraine’s prosecutor general announced his resignation Tuesday amid charges that his office provided exemptions to the military draft for government officials.  

“Many shameful facts of abuse have been established within the system of the prosecutor’s offices of Ukraine,” Andriy Kostin said in a statement.  

Kostin’s resignation followed a meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held with senior officials concerning the issuance of disability certificates. The certificates allowed officials throughout the government to avoid military service at a time when the country is struggling to recruit soldiers for its fight against Russia. 

“The prosecutor general must take political responsibility for the situation in the prosecution bodies of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a statement after the meeting.  

“The problem is not only that officials use their connections to obtain disability status,” the president said in his daily address. “The problem is also that people with real disabilities, in particular those disabled in combat, are often unable to get proper status and fair payments.” 

Zelenskyy said a full audit has been conducted on “the pensions and other accruals” that government officials were able to acquire with the faulty disability exemptions.  

Sixty-four officials within the Medical and Social Expert Commission have been notified that they are being investigated for illegally issuing disability certificates, according to the SBU, Ukraine’s domestic security service. Nine have been tried and found guilty.  

The president has ordered an overhaul of the disability assessment system. 

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.  
…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv Tuesday, pushing to increase humanitarian access to Palestinians and to end Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon. Washington is calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and the enforcement of a U.N. resolution that ended the last major war between Israel and Hezbollah. But as White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports, both appear elusive.
…

WASHINGTON — As the United States presidential election enters its final phase, more and more voters are expressing support for their favored candidate by wearing election merchandise.

What they may not realize is that the “Make America Great Again” Trump hat or “Childless Cat Lady for Harris” T-shirt they’re wearing quite possibly was made in China.

With the help of e-commerce platforms, Chinese traders are flooding the market for U.S. election merchandise with cheap goods. Anecdotal evidence suggests U.S. makers of these products are struggling to compete.

“I think the amount of stuff on Amazon and Etsy that’s coming from China and other countries in cargo ships and unloaded on American shores is drastically impacting American manufacturers’, like myself, ability to compete and grow our own business. I think it’s dramatic,” said Ben Waxman, founder and co-owner of American Roots, an American apparel company.

Waxman wouldn’t share production or profit figures with VOA Mandarin Service because of privacy concerns, but he did say his U.S.-made campaign T-shirts, for example, sell for about $15 each, while those on Chinese online retailer Temu can sell for as little as $3.

“It’s more expensive when you pay higher wages, living wages, and abide by environmental standards,” Waxman said, referring to long-standing criticisms of China’s manufacturing practices.

His unionized company has been producing campaign merchandise for presidential candidates since 2016, mainly T-shirts and sweatshirts, with all raw materials and production sourced within the U.S.

Flooding the market

VOA Mandarin Service was unable to find total sales figures for made-in-America election merchandise versus made-in-China ones. But the massive number of Chinese-made election products for sale on e-commerce platforms, including Amazon and eBay, show they are flooding the market.

On Temu alone, tens of thousands of election-themed items have been sold at a fraction of the price of the official campaigns’ versions.

Among them, a “Make America Great Again” hat costs less than $4, while the official Trump campaign store website, which boasts “All Products Made in the USA,” sells them for 10 times that price at $40 each.

Likewise, Temu’s “Kamala Harris 2024” hats can sell for less than $3 each, while the official Kamala Harris campaign store website sells “Kamala” hats for $47 each.

The Harris campaign also vowed to only sell products made in the U.S. on its official websites.

VOA asked both campaigns for comment but didn’t receive a response by the time of publication.

The stark contrast in prices highlights the challenges the U.S. faces in reducing its dependence on Chinese products and closing a trade loophole, known as the de minimis loophole, that allows Chinese companies to ship goods worth less than $800 to the U.S. without paying import duties.

Kim Glas, president and CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations, a labor union-aligned organization, said abuse of the de minimis loophole is rampant, adding that her group “lost 21 manufacturing operations over the last 18 months.”

Glas said some of NCTO’s member manufacturers found sales of campaign products are slower this year than in any previous U.S. election cycle.

VOA Mandarin reached out to Amazon and eBay for comments on the volume of presidential campaign merchandise imported from China on their websites and their regulations of the Chinese vendors but didn’t receive a response by the time of publication.

Temu didn’t comment on election product sales in the U.S., but the company’s spokesperson replied in an email to VOA Mandarin, “Temu’s growth isn’t dependent on the de minimis policy. The primary drivers behind our rapid expansion and market acceptance are the supply-chain efficiencies and operational proficiencies we’ve cultivated over the years.”

The spokesperson added, “We are open to and supportive of any policy adjustments made by legislators that align with consumer interests.”

U.S. textile industry representatives note the irony of the two U.S. presidential candidates talking tough on trade with China while their own followers are buying China-made products to show their support for them.

“If someone is supporting a candidate because of that candidate’s economic policy and their position toward improving our economy and improving our environment and improving our labor conditions, and doing so by increasing the amount of domestic manufacturing, and then they’re supporting a candidate by buying a product that’s made in a country that stands for the opposite of that, they’re actually doing themselves and the candidate and the economy a disservice,” said Mitch Cahn, president of Unionwear, a New York-based apparel company that has supplied more than 300,000 baseball caps to Harris’ campaign.

‘Anybody can make the product’

Cahn notes that anyone can produce campaign products because the campaigns don’t control their intellectual property. They think “it’s more valuable for them to have a person wear the campaign’s name on their head than it is to make money from selling the merchandise.”

“When anybody can make the product and sell it, a lot of the products are going to end up being made in China because there’s just not a lot of manufacturers here,” he told VOA Mandarin.

The Associated Press reported on October 18 that thousands of Donald Trump’s “God Bless America” Bibles were printed in China. The AP also noted that most Bibles, not just the Trump-backed one, are made in China.

Critics note Trump’s promotion of Made in the USA products could be undermined by the revelation.

“In past [election] years, this would’ve been a scandal,” says Marc Zdanow, a political consultant and CEO of Engage Voters U.S. “I think Trump voters just don’t care. … I guess the question is whether or not this rises to the top for those voters who are still undecided. This issue is certainly one that could be enough to push this group away from Trump.”

Chris Tang, a business administration and global management professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, told VOA Mandarin the impact of merchandise made in China on the U.S. economy is not simply about one-sided manufacturing job losses. Consumers also get these products at low prices.

“While there are job losses in manufacturing, it creates opportunities for small businesses to import small quantities quickly using [online Chinese sellers like] Alibaba to find suppliers to produce election merchandise quickly and sell them online quickly.”

Tang said the U.S. should develop a manufacturing sector that focuses on high-value products, not cheap ones such as U.S. election merchandise.
…

The war in Ukraine is reshaping the strategic landscape of Europe. While Western and Eastern European nations within the NATO alliance recognize the Russian threat, each day, NATO nations bordering Belarus and Russia feel the immediacy of the threat.

In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze, Lieutenant General Charles Costanza, commander of the U.S. Army’s V Corps (also known as the Fifth Corps) in Poland, discusses how NATO adapts to Russia’s evolving tactics while defending its members’ borders.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: Can you explain the different threat assessments from Eastern and Western European partners of NATO regarding Russia?

Charles Costanza, commanding general of the U.S. Army’s V Corps: Clearly, in the eastern flank of Europe, the threat is real. They’re on the border with Belarus and Russia, and so, they see that threat every day differently. You see recent open-source reporting on the Russian UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones] coming over Romanian territory and Lithuanian territory. Those incursions have increased. You see the sabotage operations going on throughout eastern flank countries and Eastern European countries. So, Russia is increasing that, short of … challenges and interference [that would trigger the NATO mutual defense clause].

VOA: Do you think Russia is doing it deliberately?

Costanza: Of course, they are. They weaponize immigration — I say “weaponize” deliberately. This weaponized immigration is happening in Poland, it’s all been driven from Russia to interfere in Eastern Europe. Moldova is a near-term example with their elections. Russia is actively interfering in those elections to try and shape them in a pro-Russian way. So, all that is going on right now. So, that’s part of this threat assessment piece that isn’t necessarily impacting the Western European countries as much as Eastern Europe.

VOA: How threatening is Russia’s military?

Costanza: I think there’s a view that Russia is going to take three to 10 years to reconstitute, and I think that we need to look at that a little differently. Russian armed forces, ground forces right now, are actually bigger than they were before the war with Ukraine started 2½ years ago, despite the losses of open-source reporting [of] 600,000 casualties that they’ve incurred during the course of the war.

They may not be as well trained, but they’re bigger. Their industrial base is on a wartime footing. Their mobilization base is on a wartime footing. They know they’re fighting a Western-trained, West-equipped country with Ukraine. They’re learning how to defeat those capabilities and those systems over the last 2½ years. So, they’re modernizing their force based on the lessons that they’re learning, and I think that’s something we should be concerned about. They’re modernizing their equipment. They’re changing the way that they fight based on learning how to fight against Western-trained forces in Ukraine. And I think that should be a concern for all of us. It clearly is to our Eastern European allies.

VOA: How are you preparing to defend and deter?

Costanza: First of all, to maintain a high stance on readiness from a U.S. forces standpoint but also the NATO standpoint. At the Fifth Corps, one of the key things we do as partners with our multinational corps and multinational divisions across the eastern flank of Europe [is] just to help build their war-fighting capability as they field new capabilities. HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket System], for example. Apaches [helicopters] — with Poland just purchasing 96 Apaches from the United States. So, we help them to employ those things, those capabilities. But how you employ them at the corps level, and how you employ them at the division level, we can help, and we do.

VOA: General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the former commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and now ambassador to the United Kingdom, recently gave a speech at Chatham House in London in which he talked about the technological advancements of this war, and how this is a different war than NATO was prepared to fight. How would you assess NATO’s capabilities today?

Costanza: I think you’re exactly right. And those are some of the comments that were made by our NATO partners in this event. I think that the United States is kind of setting the standard on that with a new program that our chief of staff of the Army [General Randy George] has talked about, which is transformation in contact. So, for the U.S. forces that are rotating over here to Europe, we’re modernizing them with equipment that’s available right now. So, instead of going through our normal four-year acquisition process to get new equipment, we’re taking things that are available based on what we’re watching happen in Ukraine. … So maybe that can be a model for our partners and allies.

VOA: We talked about NATO capabilities. Now I want to go back to Russian capabilities. How advanced do you think they are right now?

Costanza: I think the biggest concern is what I said before: They know they’re fighting Western-trained and -equipped forces. And so, as they modernize based on the lessons that they’re learning — not just their equipment, but how they fight — they’re really sharpening their ability to fight us in the future. And I think that’s something we need to be concerned about.

So, those things I just talked about that we’re trying to rapidly introduce into our brigade to execute the transformation, contact — the UAS [Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or drones], the border, ammunition, the counter UAS, the EW [electronic warfare] capability. And how do you synchronize all of that capability so that you can really, rapidly strike and kill targets? They’ve learned how to do that. And so, we need to be able to do that and do it better than they do.

VOA: Russia is gaining support from China and North Korea right now. Are we ready to face this threat?

Costanza: The lessons that I was talking about, the reasons we should be concerned about Russia — they’re sharing those lessons with China, with Iran, and vice versa, the capabilities that Iran and China are providing. And now you see the North Koreans, as well. North Korea is now providing, I think it’s an initial batch [of] open-source reporting, of 4,000 North Korean soldiers. I think that could potentially just be a starting point for what they provide in terms of manpower to Russia. And I think that’s a problem near-term here in Eastern Europe, because as we talked about before we started, the challenge for Ukrainians is people. It’s the amount of people that they have to put into this fight. And Russia doesn’t care how many losses it takes. I mean, 600,000 [casualties], and they’re still throwing more manpower at it and don’t even blink. Ukrainians can’t afford to take those losses. I think that’s going to be the limiting factor for that as we move forward, watch this war continue into this third period.

VOA: There are different assessments of threats between, let’s say, the political part of the NATO alliance and the military part of the alliance. How are you finding that common ground?

Costanza: Yeah, I think it’s just constant dialogue, right? And so, I know we do that at different levels. So, the combatant commander, the U.S. combat commander, has those discussions at the national levels with our NATO partners and allies. We all live in Eastern Europe, including myself — in Poland. We all see that threat the same way. It can be near term.

VOA: What do you mean by the near term?

Costanza: I think, one year, two years, three years.

VOA: And you’re trying to be ready for that?

Costanza: U.S. forces are ready, and I can tell you, our NATO partners and allies are ready. And we’re just continuing to build capabilities.
…

WASHINGTON — Efforts by U.S. adversaries to divide Americans and sow growing distrust in the upcoming presidential election have already begun to intensify, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials, who warn some countries appear to be leaning toward additional measures to spark election-related violence.

The latest declassified assessment, issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, comes just two weeks before voters head to the polls November 5 to choose a new president and vote on a series of statewide and local races and initiatives.

“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 the assessment.

But it warns U.S. intelligence agencies are “increasingly confident” that Russia is starting to engage in plans “aimed at inciting violence.”

It further assesses Iran also “may try to incite violence.”

Post-poll closing concerns

Of particular concern is what appears to be a growing focus on the hours, days and weeks after the polls close, when state and local election officials begin to tally and certify the results.

U.S. adversaries “probably will be quick to create false narratives or amplify content they think will create confusion about the election, such as posting claims of election irregularities,” said a U.S. intelligence official, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss the assessment in additional detail.

The official said Russia, Iran and China “may perceive a window of vulnerability to push disinformation or foment or amplify protests and threats” starting with the moment polling centers close and extending to January 6, when the presidential results are certified by a joint session of Congress.

“Foreign driven or amplified violent protests, violence or physical threats to election workers or state and local officials could challenge state and local officials’ ability to conduct elements of the certification and Electoral College process,” the official said. “Particularly if they prevent necessary physical access to facilities or venues.”

U.S. intelligence officials have previously warned that Russia and Iran have been especially active, running a variety of influence operations targeting U.S. voters, with a high likelihood that these efforts would extend beyond the November 5 election.

Russia, they said, 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.

China, according to U.S. intelligence officials, has so far stayed out of the presidential race, focusing its efforts on congressional and state and local candidates perceived to be promoting policies detrimental to Beijing’s interests, including those voicing support for Taiwan.

Officials said Tuesday that new intelligence streams have raised concerns that Moscow, especially, will try to foment violence once the polls close.

“We expect Russia will be more aggressive in this period if the vice president [Kamala Harris] wins the election,” the intelligence official said. “Russia would prefer the former president to win, and they would seek to more aggressively undermine the presidency of the then-president-elect.”

Russia, China and Iran have all rejected previous U.S. accusations of election meddling.

Russia and Iran have yet to respond to requests from VOA for comment, but China on Tuesday again rejected the latest U.S. intelligence findings.

“The presidential elections are the United States’ own affairs,” Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA in an email. “China has no intention and will not interfere.”

U.S. intelligence officials, though, point to what they describe as growing examples of malign intent, especially by Russia and Iran.

Influence operations

In one example, the officials said Russian-linked actors were responsible for a post on the X social media platform earlier this month that contained false allegations against Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.

“There are several indicators of manipulation that are consistent with the influence, efforts and tactics of Russian influence actors this cycle,” the U.S. intelligence official said.

In another case, U.S. officials said a Russian intelligence unit sought to recruit what they assess to likely be an unwitting American to organize protests.

They also point to actions taken last month by multiple U.S. agencies to counter several Russian influence efforts, including the use of fake websites and the creation of a shell company to funnel $10 million to a U.S. media company to push pro-Russian propaganda.

Also last month, the U.S. placed bounties and lodged criminal charges against three Iranian hackers, all accused of seeking to undermine the Trump reelection campaign.

And there are fears that even these types of ongoing influence operations, which often seek to exploit divisive political issues, could lead to problems.

“Even if these disinformation campaigns are not specifically calling for violence, the tactics used to undermine confidence in the democratic institutions can lead to violence, even if not deliberately called for,” said a senior official with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, who, like the U.S. intelligence official, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

‘Expect disruptions’

And while U.S. officials express confidence that safeguards are in place to prevent U.S. adversaries from attacking or hacking systems used to record and tally votes, there is concern that they will target other U.S. infrastructure to try to induce panic or violence.

“That is a real possibility,” said the CISA official, adding the U.S. public should “expect disruptions.”

“We’re going to see a voting location lose power,” the official said. “We’re going to see potentially some type of impact on a transportation system. We’re going to see a potential ransomware attack against a local election office.”

CISA officials say they have been working with state and local election officials to make sure they are prepared to handle sudden disruptions. And state officials say they are prepared.

“All states consider their election infrastructure and IT [information technology] systems a potential target for threats,” said Steve Simon, Minnesota’s secretary of state and the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, during a call with reporters Monday.

“Chief elections officials throughout the United States have worked really tirelessly and consistently to mitigate risks to our election systems and processes,” said Simon.
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The United Nations says the war in Ukraine has displaced more than 6 million people and forced many of them to register as refugees across Europe. More than 60,000 of them — mostly women and children — are living in Hungary. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports from Budapest on a new bilingual school for refugee children from Ukraine. VOA footage and video editing by Daniil Batushchak.
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WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the public disclosure of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, the bureau said on Tuesday. 

“The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community,” it said in a statement. 

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that it has not been determined whether the disclosure was a hack or a leak. President Joe Biden was watching the results of the investigation closely, he added. 

“We’re not exactly sure how these documents found their way into the public domain,” Kirby told reporters. 

“The president remains deeply concerned about any leakage of classified information into the public domain. That is not supposed to happen, and it’s unacceptable when it does,” he said. 

The documents appear to have been prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, describing U.S. interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning based on satellite imagery from Oct. 15-16. 

They began circulating last week on the Telegram messaging app. Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on Oct. 1, Tehran’s second direct attack on Israel in six months. Israel has intensified its offensive in Gaza and Lebanon, days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. 

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday said an investigation was under way.
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NEW YORK — Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries and two other men have been arrested on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Details of the criminal charges weren’t immediately available. They come after years of sexual misconduct allegations, made in civil lawsuits and the media, from young people who said Jeffries lured them with promises of modeling work and then pressed them into sex acts.

A message seeking comment was left for Brian Bieber, an attorney who has represented Jeffries. Information on attorneys for the other defendants wasn’t immediately available.

Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Breon Peace and FBI and police officials were set to hold a news conference later Monday.

Jeffries left New Albany, Ohio-based Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014.

One civil lawsuit filed in New York last year accused Abercrombie of allowing Jeffries to run a sex-trafficking organization during his 22-year tenure. It said that Jeffries had modeling scouts scouring the internet for victims, and that some prospective models became sex-trafficking victims.

Abercrombie last year said it had hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation after a report on similar allegations was aired by the BBC.

The BBC investigation included a dozen men who described being at events involving sex acts they said were staged by Jeffries and his partner, Matthew Smith, often at his home in New York and hotels in London, Paris and elsewhere.

When the civil lawsuit was filed in New York last year, Bieber declined to comment on the allegations.
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After becoming the first U.S. president to reach the age of 100, Jimmy Carter was able to fulfill a wish that he had expressed to his family. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Georgia. Some VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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MELBOURNE, Australia — King Charles III ends the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch in 13 years Tuesday as anti-monarchists hope the debate surrounding his journey is a step toward an Australian citizen becoming head of state.  

Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, watched dancers perform at a Sydney Indigenous community center. The couple used tongs to cook sausages at a community barbecue lunch at the central suburb of Parramatta and later shook the hands of well-wishers for the last time during their visit outside the Sydney Opera House. Their final engagement was an inspection of navy ships on Sydney Harbor in an event known as a fleet review.  

Charles’s trip to Australia was scaled down because he is undergoing cancer treatment. He arrives in Samoa on Wednesday.  

Indigenous activist Wayne Wharton, 60, was arrested outside the opera house early Tuesday afternoon before the royals greeted the crowd.   

“It will be alleged the man was acting in an abusive and threatening manner and had failed to comply with two previous move-on directions,” a police statement said. He was charged with failing to comply with a police direction and will appear in court on Nov. 5.  

Wharton said he intended to serve Charles with a summons to appear in court on war crimes and for genocide but never got close to the couple.  

The royal visit was “a slap in the face to every decent Aboriginal person and fair-minded person in Australia that’s tried to make a go of their lives,” Wharton told the AP after his arrest.  

On Monday, Indigenous independent senator Lidia Thorpe yelled at Charles during a reception that he was not her king and Australia was not his land.  

Wharton said he backed Thorpe “absolutely 100%.” He had protested with a small group of demonstrators outside a Sydney church service the couple attended on Sunday under a banner “Empire Built on Genocide.”  

Esther Anatolitis, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement, which campaigns for an Australian citizen to replace the British monarch as Australia’s head of state, said while thousands turned out to see the king and Camilla at their public engagements, the numbers were larger when his mother Queen Elizabeth II first visited Australia 70 years ago.  

An estimated 75% of Australia’s population saw the queen in person during the first visit by a reigning British monarch in 1954.  

“It’s understandable that Australians would be welcoming the king and queen, we also welcome them,” Anatolitis said. “But it doesn’t make any sense to continue to have a head of state appointed by birth right from another country.” 

Anatolitis acknowledged that getting a majority of Australians in a majority of states to vote to change the constitution would be difficult. Australians haven’t changed their constitution since 1977.  

Constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said an Australian republic is not something that Charles, 75, need worry about in his lifetime.  

She said the failure of a referendum last year to create an “utterly innocuous” Indigenous representative body to advise government demonstrated the difficulty.   

“It’s just that on the whole people aren’t prepared to change the constitution,” Twomey said.  

“So a republic, which would be a much more complex constitutional question than the one last year, would be far more vulnerable to a scare campaign and to opposition,” she said.  

“So unless you had absolutely unanimous support across the board and a strong reason for doing it, it would fail,” she added.  

Philip Benwell, national chair of the Australian Monarchist League, which wants to maintain Australia’s constitutional link to Britain, said he was standing near Thorpe at the Canberra reception when she started yelling at the king and demanding a treaty with Indigenous Australians.  

“I think she alienated a lot of sympathy. If anything, she’s helped to strengthen our support,” Benwell said.  

Thorpe has been criticized, including by some Indigenous leaders, for shouting at the king and failing to show respect.  

Thorpe was unrepentant. She rejected criticism that her aggressive approach toward the monarch was violent.  

“I think what was unacceptable is the violence in that room, of the King of England praising himself, dripping in stolen wealth, that’s what’s violent,” Thorpe told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “The violence is from the colonizer being in that room asserting his authority, being paid for by every taxpayer in this country.”  

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants Australia to become a republic but has ruled out a referendum during his first three-year term. A vote remains a possibility if his center-left Labor Party wins elections due by May next year.  

Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. That result is widely regarded as having been the consequence of disagreement about how a president would be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch.  

Sydney University royal historian Cindy McCreery suspects Australia is not yet ready to make the change.  

“There’s interest in becoming a republic, but I think what we may forget is that logistically speaking we’re not going to have a referendum on that issue any time soon,” McCreery said.  

“I, as a historian, think that it’s probably not realistic to expect a successful referendum on a republic until we’ve done more work on acknowledging our … complicated history,” she said.  

“Becoming a republic doesn’t mean that we’ve somehow thrown off British colonialism. It hopefully has meant that we’re engaging with our own history in an honest and thoughtful way,” she added. 
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LONDON — Two passenger trains collided in Wales, killing a man and injuring 15 people, transport police said Tuesday.

The low-speed crash on Monday evening happened near the village of Llanbrynmair in central Wales.

“We can sadly confirm a man has died following this evening’s incident,” said British Transport Police superintendent Andrew Morgan.

Those taken to hospital were not believed to have suffered serious injuries.

Morgan said transport police were working “to understand the circumstances leading up to this collision.”
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MOSCOW — Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin down say it makes no difference to Moscow who wins the White House on November 5.

Yet anyone watching Kremlin-guided state media coverage of the U.S. election would conclude Donald Trump is strongly favored.

State TV’s main Channel One news program this month showed video of billionaire Elon Musk and TV host Tucker Carlson denigrating Democratic candidate Kamala Harris before zooming in on what it cast as a series of stumbling performances.

Harris’ tendency to burst into fits of laughter, something Putin himself spoke about sarcastically last month, has featured prominently in broadcasts and state TV has played compilations of her least eloquent statements during the campaign.

By contrast, the same Channel One report portrayed Trump and running mate JD Vance as sure-footed and imbued with common sense on everything from transgender politics to immigration, but facing sinister forces as evidenced by assassination plots.

The Kremlin says the choice of who becomes the next U.S. president is a matter exclusively for the American people to decide and that it will work with whoever is elected.

It has denied steering coverage, although some former state media employees have spoken publicly about weekly Kremlin meetings at which guidance on different issues is given.

The state media’s apparent preference for Trump may be no surprise.

Trump has been far less openly supportive of Ukraine in its war against Russia than incumbent President Joe Biden or Harris, raising fears in Kyiv that it could lose its most important ally if he wins.

Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin over the years and boasted of having a good working relationship, last week blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for helping start the war.

This month he declined to confirm reports he had spoken to Putin on several occasions since leaving office in 2021 saying only: “If I did, it’s a smart thing.”

Harris by contrast has called Putin “a murderous dictator,” vowed to continue backing Ukraine, and said that opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s death in prison was “a further sign of Putin’s brutality.” The Kremlin has denied any hand in Navalny’s demise.

State TV has often showcased guest speakers on its prime time geopolitical talk shows who express a preference for Trump, even if their reasons sometimes vary.

Andrei Sidorov, a senior academic at Moscow State University, told a major state TV talk show in October that Trump would be better for Russia because he would stir division that could trigger a long-held fantasy of anti-Western Russian hawks – the disintegration of the United States during infighting between its constituent states.

“I am for Trump. I was always for Trump – he’s a destroyer. If he’s elected … then civil war will really be on the agenda,” Sidorov said, forecasting a Democratic win would see the same “crap” as now, continuing.

“(But) Trump could really lead to our geopolitical adversary collapsing without any missiles being fired.”

A 2017 U.S. intelligence report said Putin had directed a sophisticated influence campaign to denigrate Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and support Trump in the 2016 race for the White House. The Kremlin denied meddling and Trump denied any collusion with Russia during that campaign.

Despite the two current candidates’ different approaches to Moscow, some Russian officials – who are navigating the worst period in U.S.-Russia relations since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis – have expressed wariness of both.

Harris, they say, would mean a continuation of what Moscow sees as Biden’s proxy war with Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

Trump, who raised hopes in Moscow of better ties before he took office in 2017, is remembered for imposing sanctions when in the White House despite warm words about Putin. In Moscow’s eyes, he appeared boxed in on Russia policy by the wider U.S. political establishment.

“I have no illusions. (When Trump was president) he had several conversations with President Vladimir Putin. He received me at the White House a couple of times. He was friendly,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recalled in September.

“But sanctions against the Russian Federation were imposed under President Trump on a regular basis. As a result, we concluded that we need to rely on ourselves. We will never in our history count on ‘a good guy’ getting into the White House.”

One senior Russian source said there were different views at top levels of the Kremlin about Trump, but confirmed some believed a Trump victory might not go well for Moscow.

“Look what happened last time he became president. Everyone said beforehand that U.S.-Russia relations would benefit, but they ended up even worse. Trump says a lot of things but doesn’t always do what he says,” said the source, who declined to be named given the matter’s sensitivity.

The same source questioned whether Trump’s purported reluctance to keep financing and arming Ukraine and his talk of being able to end the war swiftly would survive lobbying efforts from powerful U.S. factions who argue that Ukraine’s fate is existential for the West and that Kyiv must not lose.

A second senior source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Moscow was not expecting much from either candidate. Trump had been “pretty tough” on Moscow when in power, was worryingly impulsive and had tough views on Russia’s ally China, he said.

The source added that he did not expect to see big change in Moscow-Washington relations whoever was elected.

“Neither Trump nor Harris are going to change the relationship with Russia fundamentally. There is not going to be some great new friendship,” said the source.

“The West views Russia and China as bad and the West as good and it is hard to see any leader changing a belief that is now ingrained within the Washington elite.”
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FALL CITY, WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officials found five people killed in a shooting inside a home southeast of Seattle on Monday morning and took a teenager into custody, police said.

Several people called 911 around 5 a.m. to report a shooting in Fall City, Washington, King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Mike Mellis said at a media briefing Monday afternoon.

Arriving deputies immediately took one teen into custody while another teenager who had been hurt was taken to a Seattle hospital, Mellis said. Both teens live at the house, Mellis said.

Deputies entering the home found the bodies of five people, he said. Two were adults and three were described by Mellis as young teenagers. No names have been released yet.

“Once bodies were discovered, clearly we understand that this is a hugely significant crime scene,” he said.

Mellis said the shooting appears to involve members of a family, but added that they didn’t yet know how they were related. He also said there was no ongoing threat to the community.

“I have no reason to think that there will be any additional arrests,” he said.

The teen in custody was booked into King County’s juvenile detention facility, according to Mellis. The teen will appear in court for a first hearing on Tuesday or Wednesday, a spokesperson for the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in an email.

A neighbor told KING-TV that a couple and their five children lived in the home.

“I’m just in total shock, I keep bursting into tears,” Lynne Trowern, told the news outlet.

An emailed statement Monday evening from King County Councilmember Sarah Perry said the shooting involved a family of seven people.

Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall told KING-TV that she was “very sad, very disturbed” to learn about the shooting.
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SYDNEY — Britain’s King Charles was embraced by an Indigenous elder after a welcome smoking ceremony on Tuesday in the birthplace of Australia’s urban Aboriginal civil rights movement in Sydney, a day after being heckled by an Indigenous senator in Canberra.

Charles met with Indigenous elders at the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in inner-city Redfern, including “bush tucker” – or native food – chef Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo, who served kangaroo pies.

The king was embraced by elder Michael Welsh, and a woman introduced herself as a member of the Stolen Generation – a reference to Aboriginal children systematically removed from their families decades earlier. “Welcome to this country,” she said.

A day earlier, Charles was heckled at Parliament House in Canberra by independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe who shouted that she did not accept his sovereignty over Australia, and demanded a treaty for Indigenous people.

While the atmosphere at Redfern on Tuesday was respectful, some people who came to see the king expressed sympathy for Thorpe’s actions.

“We’ve got stories to tell and I think you witnessed that story yesterday,” Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council Chairperson Allan Murray said.

In a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday, Thorpe said she “wanted the world to know the plight of our people.”

Former Olympic athlete Nova Peris, who was the first Indigenous woman elected to federal parliament, wrote in a social media post she was “deeply disappointed” by Thorpe’s actions, which “do not reflect the manners, or approach to reconciliation, of Aboriginal Australians at large.”

Emotions around Indigenous rights and Australia’s colonial history are raw after a national referendum on whether to alter Australia’s constitution to recognize Aboriginal people was rejected last year.

Charles referred to Australia’s “long and sometimes difficult journey towards reconciliation” in a speech on Monday before he was heckled by Thorpe.

Under glorious spring skies, the king later visited a social housing project designed with the support of his King’s Trust Australia charity in the inner suburb of Glebe.

He toured the construction site with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who grew up on a public housing estate, and met Indigenous actor Wes Patten, one of three apprentice construction workers on the project.

Patten played the son of an Indigenous politician in TV political drama “Total Control,” depicting the imagined first Indigenous prime minister of Australia.

Claude Tighe, an Indigenous man in Glebe who saw the Lidia Thorpe protest on social media, said: “I want him to talk to real traditional owners. There’s a lot of us here.”

“She spoke for Aboriginal people,” he added, referring to Thorpe.

Charles and Queen Camilla are visiting Sydney and Canberra over six days before traveling to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa.

The public will have an opportunity to meet the royal couple at the Opera House later on Tuesday.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. government on Monday condemned the weekend killings by gunmen of two Mozambique opposition figures ahead of protests against a disputed election result, with Washington urging “a swift and thorough investigation into the murders.”

Why it’s important

The United States is the largest bilateral donor to Mozambique, providing over $560 million in assistance annually, according to the U.S. State Department website.

Washington joined the European Union and Mozambique’s former colonial ruler Portugal in the condemnation and the call for an investigation into the murders of opposition lawyer Elvino Dias and opposition party official Paulo Guambe on Saturday after multiple rounds were fired at a car in which they were travelling.

Key quotes

“The United States condemns the killings of lawyer Elvino Dias and Podemos parliamentary candidate Paulo Guambe in Mozambique,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

“We join the calls made by all four of Mozambique’s national political parties in urging a swift and thorough investigation.”

Context

Mozambique police on Monday fired teargas and bullets at protesters in the capital Maputo who had gathered at the scene where the two opposition party figures were shot dead on Saturday after a disputed election.

The full results of Mozambique’s Oct. 9 national election are expected this week, with early results showing that the ruling party Frelimo is set for another win. Opposition candidates say the poll was rigged.

Frelimo has ruled the southern African country since 1975 and has been accused of electoral fraud by opposition leaders, civil society and election observers. It denies the allegations.

The State Department urged Mozambique’s state institutions, political leaders, citizens and stakeholders to resolve electoral disputes peacefully and lawfully while rejecting violence and inflammatory rhetoric.
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Across the country, about 14 million voters are members of unions – workers’ organizations formed to protect their rights. But even though union members make up a small part of the American electorate, presidential candidates eagerly seek their endorsement. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Nevada, where unions have a powerful voice in this year’s presidential election.
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Many European Union countries are calling for the bloc to clamp down on migration amid a surge in support for right-wing political parties. But Spain is bucking the trend — and insists Europe’s aging population needs controlled migration to boost its economy. Henry Ridgwell reports. Camera: Alfonso Beato.
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washington — The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from Michael Cohen, who wanted to hold his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump, liable for a jailing he said was retaliation for writing a tell-all memoir.

The justices did not detail their reasoning in the brief, a routine order released just over two weeks before Election Day, when Trump is running for another term.

Cohen had asked the high court to revive a lawsuit tossed out by lower courts. Those judges found the law doesn’t generally allow people to seek damages over claims they were jailed for criticizing a president, and that the situation had been dealt with when Cohen was released from custody.

Cohen’s attorney, Jon-Michael Dougherty, said the ruling “signals a dangerous moment in American democracy” and raises questions about free-speech rights.

Trump attorney Alina Habba said the Supreme Court had correctly denied Cohen’s petition, and “he must finally abandon his frivolous and desperate claims.”

Cohen filed the lawsuit after his early release from prison was quickly reversed.

Cohen was serving time after pleading guilty in 2018 to charges connected in part to the payment of hush money to porn actor Stormy Daniels to avoid damage to Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.

Cohen said Trump had directed the hush money payment, a contention that later became a key part of the New York trial in which Trump was convicted this year. 

The former president has denied any wrongdoing.

Cohen got a three-year sentence after pleading guilty and had served more than a year when he was released in 2020 as authorities worked to contain the coronavirus outbreak in federal prisons.

But he was returned to prison weeks later after authorities contended he had failed to accept certain terms of his release. Cohen said he had asked if a condition forbidding him from speaking with the media and publishing his book could be removed.

He served 16 days in solitary confinement before he was again freed on the orders of a judge who said he’d been jailed in retaliation for his desire to publish a book critical of the president and to discuss it on social media.

Cohen sued Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr, along with various prison and probation officials.
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