VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Sunday announced he will appoint 21 new cardinals of the global Catholic Church, in an unexpected push to influence the powerful group of churchmen that will one day choose his successor.

The ceremony to install the new appointees, known as a consistory, will be held on December 8, the 87-year-old pope announced during his weekly noon-time prayer with pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square.

It will be the tenth consistory called by the pope since his election 11 years ago as the first pontiff from Latin America.

Although popes may choose to appoint cardinals at any time, Francis’s decision to make new appointments now comes as something of a surprise.

As of the pope’s announcement there were 122 cardinals under 80 and able to vote in a future conclave. Church law technically limits the number of such cardinals to 120, but recent popes have frequently gone above that number.

Two of the cardinals currently able to vote in a conclave will age out by the end of the year. A further 13 will cross the threshold through the end of 2025.

All cardinals, regardless of their age, are allowed to take part in pre-conclave meetings, known as General Congregations, giving them a say in the type of person they think the younger cardinals should choose.

Cardinals rank second only to the pope in the Church hierarchy and serve as his closest advisers. Due to their historical power and influence, they are still called the princes of the Church, although Francis has told them not to live like royalty and to be close to the poor.
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KYIV, Ukraine — One person has died after Russian forces attacked Ukraine overnight with 87 Shahed drones and four different types of missiles, officials said Sunday.

A 49-year-old man was killed in the Kharkiv region after his car was hit by a drone, said regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. A gas pipeline was also damaged and a warehouse set alight in the city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials reported.

Ukraine’s air force said in a statement that air defenses had destroyed 56 of the 87 drones and two missiles over 14 Ukrainian regions, including the capital, Kyiv.

Another 25 drones disappeared from radar “presumably as a result of anti-aircraft missile defense,” it said.

The barrage comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he will present his “victory plan” at the October 12 meeting of the Ramstein group of nations that supplies arms to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy presented his plan to U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington last week. Its contents have not been made public but it is known that the plan includes Ukrainian membership in NATO and the provision of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.

In a statement Sunday, the Ukrainian leader paid tribute to the country’s troops, which he also described as “preparing [for] the next Ramstein.”

“They demonstrate what Ukrainians are capable of when they have enough weapons and sufficient range,” he said in a statement on social media. “We will keep convincing our partners that our drones alone are not enough. More decisive steps are needed — and the end of this war will be closer.”
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NEW YORK — For years, the Grammy Awards have been criticized over a lack of diversity — artists of color and women left out of top prizes; rap and contemporary R&B stars ignored — a reflection of the Recording Academy’s electorate. An evolving voting body, 66% of whom have joined in the last five years, is working to remedy that.

At last year’s awards, women dominated the major categories; every televised competitive Grammy went to at least one woman. It stems from a commitment the Recording Academy made five years ago: In 2019, the Academy announced it would add 2,500 women to its voting body by 2025. Under the Grammys’ new membership model, the Recording Academy has surpassed that figure ahead of the deadline: More than 3,000 female voting members have been added, it announced Thursday.

“It’s definitely something that we’re all very proud of,” Harvey Mason jr., academy president and CEO, told The Associated Press. “It tells me that we were severely underrepresented in that area.”

Reform at the Record Academy dates back to the creation of a task force focused on inclusion and diversity after a previous CEO, Neil Portnow, made comments belittling women at the height of the #MeToo movement.

Since 2019, approximately 8,700 new members have been added to the voting body. In total, there are now more than 16,000 members and more than 13,000 of them are voting members, up from about 14,000 in 2023 (11,000 of which were voting members). In that time, the academy has increased its number of members who identify as people of color by 63%.

“It’s not an all-new voting body,” Mason assures. “We’re very specific and intentional in who we asked to be a part of our academy by listening and learning from different genres and different groups that felt like they were being overlooked, or they weren’t being heard.”

Mason says that in the last five years, the Recording Academy has “requalified 100% of our members, which is a huge step.” There are voters who have let their membership lapse — and those who no longer qualify to be a voting member have been removed.

There have been renewal review processes in the past, but under the current model, becoming a voting member requires proof of a primary career in music, two recommendations from industry peers and 12 credits in a single creative profession, at least five of which must be from the last five years.

Comparisons might be made to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which announced in 2016 that it would restrict Oscars voting privileges to active members — ineligible parties included those who haven’t worked in three decades since joining the Academy, unless they themselves are nominated — as a response to #OscarsSoWhite criticisms of its lack of diversity. As a result, some members protested that the new measures unjustly scapegoated older academy members. The film academy has also grown its membership, adding more women and people from underrepresented racial and ethnic communities.

The Recording Academy sought to increase its voting body by reaching out to different, underrepresented communities, says Mason. “Let’s take the time to understand why those people aren’t engaging with us, figure out how we can fix that,” he said. “And once we fixed it, then let’s invite them or ask them if they would like to be a part of our organization. So, it was a multi-step process.”

Since 2019, the Recording Academy has also seen growth in voters across different racial backgrounds: 100% growth in AAPI voters, 90% growth in Black voters and 43% growth in Latino voters.

Still, Mason sees room to grow. Of the current voting membership, 66% are men, 49% are white and 66% are over the age of 40.

“Going forward, we’re going to continue the work. We’re going to continue to grow,” he says.

That might not look like a public commitment to a specific figure, but Mason promises “that our goals will be to be the most relevant, the most reflective, the most accurately representative of the music community that is humanly possible.” 
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budapest, hungary — Thousands of protesters gathered outside the headquarters of Hungary’s public media corporation Saturday to demonstrate against what they say is an entrenched propaganda network operated by the nationalist government at taxpayer expense. 

The protest was organized by Hungary’s most prominent opposition figure, Peter Magyar, and his upstart TISZA party, which has emerged in recent months as the most serious political challenge for Prime Minister Viktor Orban since he took power nearly 15 years ago. 

Magyar, whose party received nearly 30% of the vote in European Union elections this summer and is polling within a few points of the governing Fidesz party, has been outspoken about what he sees as the damage Orban’s “propaganda factory” has done to Hungary’s democracy. 

“What is happening here in Hungary in 2024, and calling itself ‘public service’ media, is a global scandal,” Magyar told the crowd in Budapest on Saturday. “Enough of the nastiness, enough of the lies, enough of the propaganda. Our patience has run out. The time for confrontation has come.” 

Observers say press freedom under threat

Both Hungarian and international observers have long warned that press freedom in the Central European country was under threat, and that Orban’s party has used media buyouts by government-connected business tycoons to build a pro-government media empire. 

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders estimates that such buyouts have given Orban’s party control of some 80% of Hungary’s media market resources. In 2021, the group put Orban on its list of media “predators,” the first EU leader to earn the distinction. 

On Saturday, Balazs Tompe, a protester who traveled several hours to attend the demonstration, called the state media headquarters a “factory of lies.” 

“The propaganda goes out at such a level and is so unbalanced that it’s blood boiling, and I think we need to raise our voices,” he said. “It’s nonsense that only government propaganda comes out in the media that is financed by the taxpayers.” 

‘Public only hears from one side’

A retired teacher from southern Hungary, Agnes Gera, said dissenting voices were censored from the public media, limiting Hungarians’ access to information about political alternatives. 

“It’s very burdensome and unfortunate that the system works this way where the public only hears from one side and don’t even know about the other side,” she said. 

Magyar demanded the resignation of the public media director, and echoed complaints from many opposition politicians that they are not provided the opportunity to appear on public television to communicate with voters. 

He called his supporters to another demonstration on October 23, a national holiday commemorating Hungary’s failed revolution against Soviet domination in 1956.  
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paris — Several people, including a child, died while trying to cross the English Channel from France to England, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Saturday. 

Attempts to cross the channel in small, overloaded boats are frequent despite strong currents in what is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. 

“Smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands and our government will step up the fight against these mafias that organize these deadly crossings,” Retailleau said on social media platform X. 

Fourteen people were on the boat. One was flown by helicopter to a hospital after a search and rescue operation was conducted Saturday morning, local maritime authorities said. 

The incident was the latest in a series this year, including one last month in which 12 migrants died when their boat capsized in the channel. 
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran has emerged as a twofold concern for the United States as it nears the end of the presidential campaign. 

Prosecutors allege Tehran tried to hack figures associated with the election, stealing information from former President Donald Trump’s campaign. And U.S. officials have accused it of plotting to kill Trump and other ex-officials. 

For Iran, assassination plots and hacking aren’t new strategies. 

Iran saw the value and the danger of hacking in the early 2000s, when the Stuxnet virus, believed to have been deployed by Israel and the U.S., tried to damage Iran’s nuclear program. Since then, hackers attributed to state-linked operations have targeted the Trump campaign, Iranian expatriates and government officials at home. 

Its history of assassinations goes back further. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran killed or abducted perceived enemies living abroad. 

A history of hacks 

For many, Iran’s behavior can be traced to the emergence of the Stuxnet computer virus. Released in the 2000s, Stuxnet wormed its way into control units for uranium-enriching centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, causing them to speed up, ultimately destroying themselves. 

Iranian scientists initially believed mechanical errors caused the damage. Ultimately though, Iran removed the affected equipment and sought its own way of striking enemies online. 

“Iran had an excellent teacher in the emerging art of cyberwarfare,” noted a 2020 report from the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Saudi Arabia. 

That was acknowledged by the National Security Agency in a document leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2015 to The Intercept, which examined a cyberattack that destroyed hard drives at Saudi Arabia’s state oil company. Iran has been suspected of carrying out that attack, called Shamoon, in 2012 and again in 2017. 

There also were domestic considerations. In 2009, the disputed reelection of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked the Green Movement protests. Twitter, one source of news from the demonstrations, found its website defaced by the self-described “Iranian Cyber Army.” There’s been suspicion that the Revolutionary Guard, a major power base within Iran’s theocracy, oversaw the “Cyber Army” and other hackers. 

Meanwhile, Iran itself has been hacked repeatedly. They include the mass shutdown of gas stations across Iran, as well as surveillance cameras at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison and even state television broadcasts. 

Low costs, high rewards 

Iranian hacking attacks, given their low cost and high reward, likely will continue as Iran faces a tense international environment surrounding Israel’s conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran’s enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels, and the prospect of Trump becoming president again. 

The growth of 3G and 4G mobile internet services in Iran also made it easier for the public — and potential hackers — to access the internet. Iran has more than 50 major universities with computer science or information technology programs. At least three of Iran’s top schools are thought to be affiliated with Iran’s Defense Ministry and the Guard, providing potential hackers for security forces. 

Iranian hacking attempts on U.S. targets have included banks and even a small dam near New York City — attacks American prosecutors linked to the Guard. 

Hacking attempts rely on phishing

While Russia is seen as the biggest foreign threat to U.S. elections, officials have been concerned about Iran. Its hacking attempts in the presidential campaign have relied on phishing — sending many misleading emails in hopes that some recipients will inadvertently provide access to sensitive information. 

Amin Sabeti, a digital security expert who focuses on Iran, said the tactic works. 

“It’s scalable, it’s cheap and you don’t need a skill set because you just put, I don’t know, five crazy people who are hard line in an office in Tehran, then send tens of thousands of emails. If they get 10 of them, it’s enough,” he said. 

For Iran, hacks targeting the U.S. offer the prospect of causing chaos, undermining Trump’s campaign and obtaining secret information. 

“I’ve lost count of how many attempts have been made on my emails and social media since it’s been going on for over a decade,” said Holly Dagres, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who once had her email briefly hacked by Iran. “The Iranians aren’t targeting me because I have useful information swimming in my inbox or direct messages. Rather, they hope to use my name and think tank affiliation to target others and eventually make it up the chain to high-ranking U.S. government officials who would have useful information and intelligence related to Iran.” 

Iran’s killings, abductions abroad 

Iran has vowed to exact revenge against Trump and others in his former administration over the 2020 drone strike that killed the prominent Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. 

In July, authorities said they learned of an Iranian threat against Trump and boosted security. Iran has not been linked to the assassination attempts against Trump in Florida and Pennsylvania. A Pakistani man who spent time in Iran was recently charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly plotting to carry out assassinations in the U.S., including potentially of Trump. 

Officials take Iran’s threat seriously given its history of targeting adversaries. 

Even before creating a network of allied militias in the Mideast, Iran is suspected of targeting opponents abroad, beginning with members of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s former government. The attention shifted to perceived opponents of the theocracy, both in the country with the mass executions of 1988 and abroad. 

Outside of Iran, the so-called “chain murders” targeted activists, journalists and other critics. One prominent incident linked to Iran was a shooting at a restaurant in Germany that killed three Iranian-Kurdish figures and a translator. In 1997, a German court implicated Iran’s top leaders in the shooting, sparking most European Union nations to withdraw their ambassadors. 

Iran’s targeted killings slowed after that, but didn’t stop. U.S. prosecutors link Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to a 2011 plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.  
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kyiv, ukraine — Ukrainian forces said they shot down a Russian fighter plane Saturday while Russia claimed it made gains in Ukraine’s east.

The Russian bomber was shot down near the city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk province, head of the Kostiantynivka Military Administration Serhiy Horbunov was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne. Photos showed charred remains of an aircraft after it landed on a house that caught fire.

Also in the partially occupied Donetsk province, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Saturday that it had taken control of the village of Zhelanne Druhe.

If confirmed, the capture would come three days after Ukrainian forces said they were withdrawing from the front-line town of Vuhledar, some 33 kilometers (21 miles) from Zhelanne Druhe, following a hard-fought two-year defense.

Although unlikely to change the course of the war, the loss of Vuhledar is indicative of Kyiv’s worsening position, in part the result of Washington’s refusal to grant Ukraine permission to strike targets deep inside Russian territory and preventing Kyiv from degrading Moscow’s capabilities.

Zelenskyy to present victory plan to allies

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he will present his “victory plan” at the Oct. 12 meeting of the Ramstein group of nations that supplies arms to Ukraine.

“We will present the victory plan — clear, concrete steps towards a just end to the war. The determination of our partners and the strengthening of Ukraine are what can stop Russian aggression,” he wrote on X, adding that the 25th Ramstein meeting would be the first to take place at the leaders’ level.

Zelenskyy presented his plan to U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington last week. Its contents have not been made public but it is known that the plan includes Ukraine’s membership in NATO and the provision of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.

Russia shells southern Ukraine

Meanwhile, two people died in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched three guided missiles and 13 attack drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday. It said the missiles were intercepted, three drones were shot down over the Odesa region and 10 others were lost.

Nine people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a passenger bus in the city of Horlivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, the city’s Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that air defenses shot down 10 Ukrainian drones overnight in three border regions, including seven over the Belgorod region, two over the Kursk region, and one over the Voronezh region.
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washington — Transgender rights, the regulation of “ghost guns” and the death penalty highlight the Supreme Court’s election-season term that begins Monday, with the prospect of the court’s intervention in voting disputes lurking in the background.

The justices are returning to the bench at a time of waning public confidence in the court and calls to limit their terms to 18 years that have wide support, including the backing of Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s White House nominee.

Whether by design or happenstance, the justices are hearing fewer high-profile cases than they did in recent terms that included far-reaching decisions by the 6-3 conservative majority on presidential immunity, abortion, guns and affirmative action.

The lighter schedule would allow them to easily add election cases, if those make their way to the high court in the run-up to the Nov. 5 election between Republican Donald Trump and Harris, or its immediate aftermath.

“I think there are legal issues that arise out of the political process. And so, the Supreme Court has to be prepared to respond if that should be necessary,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told CBS News last month in an interview to her promote new memoir Lovely One.

The court’s involvement in election disputes might depend on the closeness of the outcome and whether the justices’ intervention would tip the outcome, David Cole, the outgoing legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said at a recent Washington event.

“I don’t think the court wants to get involved, but it may have to,” Cole said.

The court turned away multiple challenges from Trump and his allies to the results of the 2020 election that he lost to Biden. It’s been nearly a quarter-century since the Supreme Court effectively decided the 2000 presidential election, in which Republican George W. Bush edged Democrat Al Gore.

When the justices gather Monday morning on a date set by federal law, they will shake hands with each other as they always do. Just after 10 o’clock, they will emerge from behind freshly cleaned heavy red drapery and take their seats on the curved mahogany bench, Chief Justice John Roberts in the center chair and his eight colleagues seated in order of seniority.

There are likely to be smiles and shared private jokes. But the friendliness of that moment will not sweep away tensions that have barely been concealed.

During the summer, two justices, Elena Kagan and Jackson, voiced support for toughening the new ethics code that so far lacks a means of enforcement.

The leak to The New York Times of the contents of a memo Roberts wrote last winter that outlined his approach to the court’s presidential immunity decision “was nothing short of shocking,” Supreme Court lawyer Lisa Blatt said last week at a Washington preview of the coming term.

Two years ago, Politico obtained the draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case.

“Something does feel broken,” Blatt said. Describing her experience arguing before the court, she said, some justices “just seem visibly frustrated.”

Important cases dot the court’s calendar, beginning Tuesday. The court will take up a challenge to a Biden administration attempt to regulate hard-to-trace “ghost guns” that had been turning up at crime scenes in increasing numbers. The Supreme Court jumped into the case after the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated the regulation.

Last term, conservatives voted 6-3 to strike down a gun regulation that had banned bump stocks, an accessory that allows some weapons to fire at a rate comparable to machine guns. Bump stocks were used in the nation’s deadliest modern mass shooting in Las Vegas.

A day after the guns case, the justices will take up the latest twist in Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip’s long quest for freedom. His case is the rare instance in which prosecutors are conceding mistakes in the trial that led to Glossip’s conviction and death sentence.

The highest-profile case on the agenda so far is a fight over transgender rights that is focused on state bans on gender-affirming care. It probably will be argued in December.

Republican-led states have enacted a variety of restrictions on health care for transgender people, school sports participation, bathroom usage and drag shows. The administration and Democratic-led states have extended protections for transgender people. The Supreme Court has separately prohibited the administration from enforcing a new federal regulation that seeks to protect transgender students.

The case before the high court involves a law in Tennessee that restricts puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors. About half the states have enacted similar restrictions.

Also on tap for the late fall is an appeal from the adult entertainment industry to overturn a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify the age of their users.

Only about half the court’s calendar for the term has been filled, and several big cases could be added. Among those is a push by Republican-led states and conservative legal outlets to further restrict federal agencies.

The immediate target is the method the Federal Communications Commission has used to fund telephone service for rural and low-income people and broadband services for schools and libraries.

The case, which the administration has appealed to the Supreme Court, could give the justices the opportunity to revive a legal doctrine known as nondelegation that has not been used to strike down legislation in nearly 90 years. Several conservative justices have expressed support for the idea of limiting the authority Congress can delegate to federal agencies.
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In the United States, nearly 24 million immigrants are eligible to vote in November’s presidential election, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. census data. VOA’s Jeff Swicord spoke with two naturalized citizens about the choices they are making in this vote.
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beijing — The European Commission’s decision to press ahead with tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles threatens to undermine decades of cooperation between China and the EU, and endangers climate-change goals, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

On Friday, the EU said it would push forward with hefty tariffs on China-made EVs, even after the bloc’s largest economy Germany rejected them. The dispute is its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade.

State-run Xinhua said the move revealed a “deep-seated protectionist impulse.”

“Instead of fostering co-operation, these tariffs risk sparking a trade conflict that could harm not only China-EU relations but also Europe’s own ambition for a green transition,” it said.

“The path forward is clear: Protectionist tariffs must be abandoned in favor of continued negotiations.”

European imports of Chinese-made EVs have soared in recent years, raising concerns among some domestic EV producers that they could suffer significant losses from a wave of cheap Chinese electric vehicles.

The proposed duties on EVs built in China of up to 45% would cost carmakers billions of extra dollars to bring cars into the bloc and are set to be imposed from next month for five years.

The Commission, which oversees the bloc’s trade policy, has said the tariffs would counter what it sees as unfair Chinese subsidies after a yearlong anti-subsidy investigation. It said on Friday, however, that it would continue talks with Beijing.

A possible compromise could be to set minimum sales prices.

China’s Commerce Ministry has expressed strong opposition to the planned tariffs, calling them “unfair, non-compliant and unreasonable.” It has launched a challenge to them at the World Trade Organization.

In what has been seen as retaliatory moves, Beijing this year launched probes into imports of EU brandy, dairy and pork products.

The U.S. imposes a 100% duty on imported Chinese EVs.
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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday visited areas hit hard by Hurricane Helene, where more than a million people remain without power and the death toll is climbing. Biden offered as many as 1,000 active-duty soldiers to support the response effort. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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washington — U.S. engagement with a string of Pacific Island nations must continue, regardless of which party wins the White House, the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation said in a newly published report.

The islands, situated between Hawaii and Australia, are the latest front of competition between Washington and Beijing.

In the 45-page report, Andrew Harding, a research assistant in the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, argues that it’s time to make the case to taxpayers and Washington policymakers that investing in the Pacific Islands is money well-spent because it “counters Chinese ambitions” and denies Beijing a foothold “that can threaten U.S. national security interests and complicate possible future military operations in Asia.”

That argument appears convincing to some China hawks in the Republican Party.

Alexander Velez-Green, former national security adviser to Republican Senator Josh Hawley, called the report “a compelling vision,” telling VOA in a statement, “The Pacific Islands are key terrain in America’s efforts to balance power against China.”

Likewise, former Asia adviser in the Trump administration Alexander Gray said the Heritage report would benefit “whoever is president in January 2025.”

“I expect a Trump 2.0 would only expand on this important work,” Gray wrote in response to VOA’s emailed questions.

The Heritage Foundation now employs many former Trump administration officials. Last year it released Project 2025, a controversial series of proposals to staff and shape policy for a second Trump White House. Former President Donald Trump has sought to distance himself from the effort, even as his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, claims it defines his policies.

John Hennessey-Niland, who served as U.S. ambassador to Palau from 2020 to 2022, argues that Harding’s message may convince policymakers in Washington but addresses only one of the region’s problems.

“The Pacific Islands are concerned about PRC interference and coercion, but it is not the only threat they face. Other concerns include climate and their own capacity to provide for their people,” Hennessey-Niland told VOA via a statement, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.

Kathryn Paik agrees. She served as director for the Pacific and Southeast Asia at the National Security Council under President Joe Biden and now works as a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“Making U.S. Pacific engagement ‘all about China’ neglects precisely what can enable the U.S.-Pacific relationship to grow deeper than anything China could ever hope to have — our history, our culture and our shared values,” she told VOA in response to emailed questions.

Harding said he is just saying the quiet part out loud.

“America’s primary driver is U.S.-China competition and the threats that it poses to America’s national interests and the security of its people,” he told VOA Tuesday in an interview.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has traveled to the Pacific Islands to meet one on one with the leaders of Fiji and Papua New Guinea. He also has hosted numerous other Pacific Islands heads of state in Beijing.

In contrast, the White House has only held joint meetings with Pacific Islands leaders, and Biden has not traveled to the nations.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

While analysts differ over the report’s rationale for deeper engagement in the Pacific, they say many of the 31 policy recommendations have bipartisan appeal, including appointing a special envoy for the Pacific Islands, creating more positions at key departments to oversee outreach and planning a presidential visit to a Pacific Islands state.

Greg Brown, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the appointment of a special envoy is vital to sustained U.S. engagement.

He said the real challenge is convincing the 535 members of the U.S. Congress to increase foreign assistance to the Pacific Islands when few American voters even know where they are, much less why they’re important to U.S. national security.

“Anything requiring funding from Congress will be a chore — not because the demands are large or fiscal-burden heavy, but because members and staffs need constant reminders why securing U.S. interests in this region are imperative,” Brown told VOA in an interview.

He added that the special envoy should be a “heavyweight appointment … with the ear of the president” and the “diplomatic skill to navigate and drive changes” across Washington.
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London — A surge in support for far-right parties in Europe is driving calls for a toughening of migration laws, while also raising questions over the future of military aid to Ukraine.

Austria’s Freedom Party, which was founded by former Nazis after World War II, is the latest European far-right party to score a shocking win, taking just under 29% of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary election, ahead of the second-place People’s Party with 26.3%.

‘Fortress Austria’

The Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl, campaigned on a platform of ending migration by creating what it called “Fortress Austria,” carrying out the “remigration of uninvited foreigners” and suspending the right to asylum. The party also opposes military aid for Ukraine and wants to end sanctions on Russia.

Kickl successfully appealed to voters’ frustrations over recent years, said Austrian pollster and political analyst, Peter Hajek.

“Elections are won in those four and a half years before, by taking a position which is clearly distinguishable and good from the point of view of the target audiences,” Hajek told The Associated Press. “And quite simply that’s what the Freedom Party managed to do with two big topics: on the one hand migration, and on the other — still — the coronavirus.”

Far-right success

Far-right, anti-immigration parties have won parliamentary elections in the Netherlands in 2023, Italy and Hungary in 2022, a state election in Germany in last month and the European parliamentary elections in France in June.

Hans Kundnani, an adjunct professor at New York University and the author of the book Eurowhiteness, said centrist parties in Europe are alarmed by the rise of the far right.

“Another election in Europe, another far right success. The response of the center-right in Europe to that has been to say we have to get even tougher on immigration. The center right has increasingly been mimicking far right parties, especially far right ideas on these questions around identity and immigration and Islam,” Kundnani told VOA.

EU summit

Immigration is likely to top the agenda at an EU summit on October 17, as European leaders from across the political spectrum have called for a toughening of asylum laws amid growing domestic political pressures.

“A shift in the EU towards thinking much more in terms of a ‘Fortress Europe’ — that’s building a wall essentially around the EU,” Kundnani said.

The hardening of attitudes marks a sharp turnaround from 2015 when more than 1 million irregular migrants entered the EU, many of them destined for Germany. In 2023, the number had fallen by 75%, to 280,000 people.

The 27-member bloc has agreed to a new pact on asylum and migration, due to come into force in 2026. It’s unlikely to calm Europe’s debate on immigration any time soon, according to Raphael Bossong, a migration expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

“This package that has been agreed upon is about 10 laws. Multiple investments are needed across 27 member states, and an implementation plan with 10 sectors of implementation,” he told VOA. “So it’s a lot of stuff. And to get that into place to really work as a system, as it’s intended, is — even in two years — highly ambitious.”

Ukraine

While strong opposition to immigration unites Europe’s far-right parties, they are divided over support for Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Austria’s Freedom Party, the Alternative for Germany party and Hungary’s Fidesz party under Viktor Orban all oppose military aid for Kyiv and want to end sanctions on Moscow.

Yet other European far-right parties, such as the ruling Brothers of Italy party under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Poland’s Law and Justice party — which was in power until last year — are strongly pro-Ukrainian.

The issue is clouding European politics, argues analyst Hans Kundnani of New York University.

“Precisely what divides these two groups of far-right parties to a large extent is the question of Russia and Ukraine,” Kundnani said. “If you’re on the far right but you’re pro-Ukrainian, then I think a lot of European centrists have no problem with that. And they’re willing to turn a blind eye to almost anything else that these far-right parties do, especially on questions like immigration.”

Much of European Union foreign policy, including aid for Ukraine, requires a unanimous vote from all 27 members, making it easy for individual governments to veto EU decisions. Hungary’s Viktor Orban has repeatedly blocked EU aid packages for Ukraine.

Coalition talks

Despite its shocking victory, Austria’s Freedom Party is still well short of a majority. Rival parties are refusing to join them in government and could form their own coalition. The tactic has been used by other more centrist parties in Europe to keep the far-right from power — with mixed results, said Kundnani.

“They form these incoherent coalitions in response to the rise of the far right,” he told VOA. “Those coalitions then aren’t really able to do very much or offer citizens very much, which further empowers the far right. So it just gets worse and worse.”
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LOS ANGELES — American actor John Amos, who starred as the family patriarch on the hit 1970’s sitcom Good Times and earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries Roots, has died. He was 84. 

Amos’ publicist, Belinda Foster, confirmed the news of his death Tuesday. No other details were immediately available. 

He played James Evans Sr. on Good Times, which featured one of television’s first Black two-parent families. Produced by Norman Lear and co-created by actor Mike Evans, who co-starred on All in the Family and The Jeffersons, it ran from 1974-79 on CBS. 

“That show was the closest depiction in reality to life as an African American family living in those circumstances as it could be,” Amos told Time magazine in 2021. 

His character, along with wife Florida, played by Esther Rolle, originated on another Lear show, Maude. James Evans often worked two manual labor jobs to support his family that included three children, with Jimmie Walker becoming a breakout star as oldest son J.J. 

Such was the show’s impact that Alicia Keys, Rick Ross, the Wu-Tang Clan are among the musicians who name-checked Amos or his character in their lyrics. 

Amos and Rolle were eager to portray a positive image of a Black family, struggling against the odds in a public housing project in Chicago. But they grew frustrated at seeing Walker’s character being made foolish and his role expanded. 

“The fact is that Esther’s criticism, and also that of John and others — some of it very pointed and personal — seriously damaged my appeal in the Black community,” Walker wrote in his 2012 memoir Dyn-O-Mite! Good Times, Bad Times, Our Times. 

After three seasons of critical acclaim and high ratings, Amos was fired. He had become critical of the show’s white writing staff creating storylines that he felt were inauthentic to the Black characters. 

“There were several examples where I said, ‘No, you don’t do these things. It’s anathema to Black society. I’ll be the expert on that, if you don’t mind,'” he told Time magazine. “And it got confrontational and heated enough that ultimately my being killed off the show was the best solution for everybody concerned, myself included.” 

Amos’ character was killed in a car accident. Walker lamented the situation. “If the decision had been up to me, I would have preferred that John stay and the show remain more of an ensemble,” he wrote in his memoir. “Nobody wanted me up front all the time, including me.” 

Amos and Lear later reconciled and they shared a hug at a Good Times live TV reunion special in 2019. 

Amos quickly bounced back, landing the role of an adult Kunta Kinte, the centerpiece of Roots, based on Alex Haley’s novel set during and after the era of slavery in the U.S. The miniseries was a critical and ratings blockbuster, and Amos earned one of its 37 Emmy nominations. 

“I knew that it was a life-changing role for me, as an actor and just from a humanistic standpoint,” he told Time magazine. “It was the culmination of all of the misconceptions and stereotypical roles that I had lived and seen being offered to me. It was like a reward for having suffered those indignities.” 

Early years

Born John Allen Amos Jr. on Dec. 27, 1939, in Newark, New Jersey, he was the son of an auto mechanic. He graduated from Colorado State University with a sociology degree and played on the school’s football team. 

Before pursuing acting, he moved to New York and was a social worker at the Vera Institute of Justice, working with defendants at the Brooklyn House of Detention. 

He had a brief professional football career, playing in various minor leagues. He signed a free-agent contract in 1967 with the Kansas City Chiefs, but coach Hank Stram encouraged Amos to pursue his interest in writing instead. He had jobs as an advertising and comedy writer before moving in front of the camera. 

Amos’ first major TV role was as Gordy Howard, the weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970-73. As the show’s only Black character, he played straight man to bombastic anchor Ted Baxter. 

Among Amos’ film credits were Let’s Do It Again with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier, Coming to America with Eddie Murphy and its 2021 sequel, Die Hard 2, Madea’s Witness Protection and Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler. He was in Ice Cube and Dr. Dre’s 1994 video “Natural Born Killaz.” 

He was a frequent guest star on The West Wing, and his other TV appearances included Hunter, The District, Men in Trees, All About the Andersons, Two and a Half Men, and The Ranch. 

In 2020, Amos was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. He served in the New Jersey National Guard.
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Berlin — A Chinese woman has been arrested in the German city of Leipzig on suspicion of foreign agent activities and passing on information regarding arms deliveries, the prosecutor general said in a statement on Tuesday. 

The suspect, named only as Yaqi X, is accused of passing on information obtained while working for a logistics company at Leipzig/Halle airport to a member of the Chinese secret service, who is being prosecuted separately, the statement said. 

The second Chinese national, named as Jian G, was working as an aide to Maximilian Krah, a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany, when he was arrested this year on suspicion of “especially severe” espionage on behalf of Beijing. 

The information passed along by Yaqi X in 2023 and 2024 included flight, cargo and passenger data as well as details on the transportation of military equipment and people with ties to a German arms company, the prosecutor general said.  

The Chinese Embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. 

Anxiety about alleged Chinese spying has risen across Western Europe recently. Beijing has denied the accusations, saying these stem from a “Cold War mindset” and are designed to poison the atmosphere for cooperation between China and Europe. 

Tensions have also been simmering between Berlin and Beijing over the past year after Chancellor Olaf Scholz unveiled a strategy to de-risk Germany’s economic relationship with China, calling Beijing a “partner, competitor and systemic rival.”  

 
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WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Hilltop Youth, a group of extremist settlers in the Israeli -occupied West Bank who attack Palestinians and their property.

In addition, the State Department placed diplomatic sanctions on two men — Israeli settler Eitan Yardeni, for his connection to violence targeting West Bank civilians, and Avichai Suissa, the leader of Hashomer Yosh, a sanctioned group that brings young volunteers to settler farms across the territory, including small farming outposts that rights groups say are the primary drivers of settler violence across the territory.

The sanctions, which expose people to asset freezes and travel and visa bans, come as violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has exploded since the start of the Israel-Hamas war following the deadly terrorist attacks of October 7.

Palestinians report verbal and physical harassment and restriction of movement, and they face intimidation by settlers circling their properties on motorbikes, cars or horses and spying via drones.

The Treasury Department said Hilltop Youth has carried out killings and mass arson, while rights groups and Palestinians say the group is behind “price tag” attacks — attacks on Palestinian villages in retaliation for perceived efforts to hamper settlement construction.

The group may prove difficult to effectively sanction, as it is loosely organized and decentralized. In addition, Israel’s finance minister has previously vowed to intervene on sanctioned settlers’ behalf.

In the past, sanctioned settlers said that the measures had little impact on their finances.

Hilltop Youth has already faced sanctions from the EU and U.K.

The Biden administration has been criticized for imposing relatively few sanctions on Israeli extremists. According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, 27 extremists and entities have been sanctioned by the U.S. under President Joe Biden ‘s February 2024 Executive Order related to maintaining West Bank stability.

Treasury Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith said that the U.S. “will continue to hold accountable the individuals, groups and organizations that facilitate these hateful and destabilizing acts.”

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “The actions of these individuals have contributed to creating an environment where violence and instability thrive. Their actions, collectively and individually, undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”
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A new exhibit in Washington sheds some light on a little-known layer of the sea and the strange creatures that live there. Artechouse art center and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution collaborated on the spectacle, called Twilight Zone: Hidden Wonders of the Ocean. Maxim Adams has the story.
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Brussels — The new head of NATO vowed on Tuesday to help shore up Western support for war-ravaged Ukraine and expressed confidence that he can work with whoever is elected president of the United States, the alliance’s most powerful member, in November.

“There can be no lasting security in Europe without a strong, independent Ukraine,” new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in his first speech on taking office, and he affirmed a commitment made by the organization’s leaders in 2008 that “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces are making advances in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s army has a shaky hold on part of the Kursk region in Russia, which has provided a temporary morale boost, but as casualties mount it remains outmanned and outgunned.

“The cost of supporting Ukraine is far, far lower than the cost we would face if we allow Putin to get his way,” Rutte told reporters, a few hours after his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg handed the reins to him, along with a Viking gavel with which to chair future meetings.

But Ukraine’s NATO membership remains a distant prospect. Several member countries, led by the U.S. and Germany, believe that Ukraine should not join while it’s fighting a war. Rutte declined to speculate about what must happen before it can stand among NATO’s ranks.

Rutte did single out China, and particularly Beijing’s support for Putin. “China has become a decisive enabler of Russia’s war in Ukraine. China cannot continue to fuel the largest conflict in Europe since the Second World War without this impacting its interests and reputation,” he said.

NATO’s new top civilian official also underlined the importance of keeping the trans-Atlantic bond between the United States, Canada and Europe strong, with U.S. elections just a month away.

Surveys suggest the election will be a close race. It could see the return of Donald Trump, whose bluster during his last term of office about low defense spending among European allies and Canada undermined the trust of NATO member countries.

It became an existential challenge, as smaller members feared that the U.S. under Trump would renege on NATO’s security pledge that all countries must come to the rescue of any ally in trouble, the foundation stone the alliance is built on.

But Rutte said: “I know both candidates very well.” He praised Trump for pushing NATO allies to spend more and for toughening their approach toward China. He also hailed the “fantastic record” of Vice President Kamala Harris and described her as “a highly respected leader.”

“I will be able to work with both. Whatever is the outcome of the election,” Rutte said. When pressed about Trump’s commitment to the other allies, he deflected, saying only that both candidates “understand that, in the end, the trans-Atlantic relationship is crucial, not just for Europe.”

Asked whether the Netherlands, which has only just reached NATO’s spending of 2% of gross domestic product on its defense budget, has set a good example to other allies, Rutte shook his head and said “No. We should have done this earlier.”

Earlier, Stoltenberg had welcomed Rutte to NATO headquarters in Brussels for the change of leadership.

The two men, who first sat together at NATO’s table 14 years ago as the leaders of Norway and the Netherlands, greeted each other warmly, before laying a wreath to fallen military personnel, surrounded by the flags of the 32 member countries.

“Mark has the perfect background to become a great secretary general,” a visibly emotional Stoltenberg said as he ended a decade in office.

“He has served as prime minister for 14 years and led four different coalition governments, so therefore he knows how to make compromises, create consensus, and these are skills which are very much valued here at NATO,” Stoltenberg said.

Rutte said that he “cannot wait to get to work.” Among his other priorities, he said, are to increase defense spending and strengthen partnerships that the alliance has established with other countries around the world, notably in Asia and the Middle East.

After hundreds of NATO staffers applauded the two men as they moved inside to the great hall where North Atlantic Council meetings are held at the level of ambassadors, ministers or leaders, Stoltenberg helped his successor to get started by presenting him with a Viking gavel to use when chairing meetings.

Stoltenberg, NATO’s 13th secretary-general, took over in 2014, the year that “little green men” from Russia infiltrated Ukraine. Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula, sparking a defense spending buildup at the world’s biggest security alliance that gathered pace over his term.

His tenure was surpassed only by Dutch diplomat Joseph Luns, who spent 12 years in charge of NATO.

NATO secretaries-general run the HQ, drive the alliance’s working agenda and speak on behalf of the 32-nation organization with one unifying voice. Continuity is usually the key word when they take up office.
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Washington is trying to keep a Mideast war from snowballing after a dramatic weekend in Lebanon, but regional powers are expressing concerns as Israel’s leadership seems determined to continue. From the White House, President Joe Biden has called for a cease-fire, but VOA’s Anita Powell asks: Will anyone listen?
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. — President Joe Biden was set to survey the devastation in the mountains of Western North Carolina on Wednesday, where exhausted emergency workers continued to work around-the-clock to clear roads, restore power and cellphone service, and reach people left stranded by Hurricane Helene. The storm killed at least 133 people and hundreds more were still unaccounted for on Monday night, four days after Helene initially made landfall.

Meanwhile, election officials across the South were making emergency preparations to ensure displaced residents would be able to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

Officials in the hard-hit tourism hub of Asheville said their water system suffered “catastrophic” damage that could take weeks to fully repair. Government officials, aid groups and volunteers were working to deliver supplies by air, truck and even mule to the town and surrounding mountain communities. At least 40 people died in the county that includes Asheville.

The North Carolina death toll included one horrific story after another of people who were trapped by floodwaters in their homes and vehicles or were killed by falling trees. A courthouse security officer died after being submerged inside his truck. A couple and a 6-year-old boy waiting to be rescued on a rooftop drowned when part of their home collapsed.

Rescuers did manage to save dozens, including an infant and two others stuck on the top of a car in Atlanta. More than 50 hospital patients and staff in Tennessee were plucked by helicopter from the hospital rooftop in a daring rescue operation.

How some of the worst-hit areas are coping

The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. Rainfall estimates in some areas topped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) since Wednesday, and several main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides. That includes a 6.4-kilometer section of Interstate 40 that was heavily damaged.

Joey Hopkins, North Carolina’s secretary of transportation, asked people on Monday to stay off the roads.

“The damage is severe, and we’re continuing to tell folks if you don’t have a reason to be in North Carolina, do not travel on the roads of western North Carolina,” Hopkins said at a news conference. “We do not want you here if you don’t live here and you’re not helping with the storm.”

At an Ingles grocery store in Asheville, Elizabeth Teall-Fleming was standing in line with dozens of others waiting to get inside and hoping to find some non-perishable food, since they have no power. She planned to heat up some canned food over a camping stove for her family.

“I’m just glad that they’re open and that they’re able to let us in,” she said.

Teall-Fleming said she was surprised by the ferocity of the storm.

“Just seeing the little bit of news that we’ve been able to see has been shocking and really sad.”

In one neighborhood, residents were collecting creek water in buckets to flush their toilets.

Others waited in a line for more than a block at Mountain Valley Water to fill up milk jugs and whatever other containers they could find with drinking water.

Derek Farmer, who brought three gallon-sized apple juice containers, said he had been prepared for the storm but now was nervous after three days without water. “I just didn’t know how bad it was going to be,” Farmer said.

Helene roared ashore in northern Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved north. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where deaths were also reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia. Officials warned that rebuilding would be lengthy and difficult.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday that shelters were housing more than 1,000 people.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper took an aerial tour of the Asheville area and later met with workers distributing meals.

“This has been an unprecedented storm that has hit western North Carolina,” he said afterward. “It’s requiring an unprecedented response.”

Worries about the presidential election

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said during an emergency board meeting on Monday that they are looking at options for voters in the hardest-hit counties. She planned to provide more information at a Tuesday news conference, including how someone could declare “natural disaster” as their reason for not being able to provide a photo ID.

Election employees across Georgia returned to work even as some offices faced power outages, limited internet and infrastructure damage.

In Lowndes County, staff at the local board of elections were working off of two computers instead of the usual eight, said election supervisor Deb Cox. The office is also without wifi.

“We’re fully up and running as of this morning,” said Cox. “It’s just slower than normal because we have less resources.”

In Columbia County, poll worker training will still begin this week, said Nancy Gay, the county’s elections director, but she may have to change the location because of the power outage.

“Our poll workers are being affected,” Gay said. “They don’t have power. They don’t have gas. You’ve got to allow the workers time to process everything and try and get a plan in place before I can really expect them to come and show up for training.”

Mark Ard at the Florida Secretary of State’s office said the Division of Elections is recommending that local elections supervisors reach out to U.S. Post Office officials to discuss a mitigation plan for ballot mailing, delivery, and return.

Why western North Carolina was hit so hard

Western North Carolina suffered relatively more devastation because that’s where the remnants of Helene encountered the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing even more rain to fall.

Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding. Plus, the ground already was saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“By the time Helene came into the Carolinas, we already had that rain on top of more rain,” Patterson said.

Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones, sometimes within hours.

Destruction from Florida to Virginia

Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, several feet of water swamped the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, forcing workers to move two manatees and sea turtles. All of the animals were safe but much of the aquarium’s vital equipment was damaged or destroyed, said James Powell, the aquarium’s executive director.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the storm “literally spared no one.” Most people in and around Augusta, a city of about 200,000 near the South Carolina border, were still without power Monday.

With at least 30 killed in South Carolina, Helene was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.

Tropical Storm Kirk forms and could become a powerful hurricane

Tropical Storm Kirk formed Monday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and is expected to become a “large and powerful hurricane” by Tuesday night or Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was located about 1,285 kilometers west of the Cabo Verde Islands with maximum sustained winds of 95 kph. There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, and the storm system was not a threat to land.
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