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Stockholm, Sweden — As China and Russia look to deepen cooperation in the Arctic, analysts cite concern about increasing geopolitical competition in the region, forcing countries to think more about how to respond to potential threats.   

Following a meeting between Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Moscow on August 21, China released an expansive communique outlining ways the two countries are boosting cooperation.  

On the Arctic, Beijing and Moscow pledged to strengthen cooperation in areas including shipping development, navigation safety, polar ship technology and construction.  

“Both countries will encourage their enterprises to actively engage in Arctic shipping routes cooperation based on market principles and pay special attention to the protection of the Arctic ecosystem,” according to the communique.   

Analysts say the latest announcement is part of Beijing and Moscow’s efforts to deepen collaboration in areas such as shipping, energy exploration and Arctic security.  

“China has invested in Russia’s energy projects in the Arctic, cooperated with Russia in shipping and infrastructure development, and conducted military exercises in the strategically important region,” said Patrik Andersson, an analyst at the Swedish National China Center.  

In July, the U.S. Canada North American Aerospace Defense Command revealed that it had tracked two Russian and two Chinese long-range strategic bombers that appeared in the skies off coastal Alaska. 

Since 2023, Beijing and Moscow have worked jointly to develop the Northern Sea Route across Russia’s Arctic coastline, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has said is “absolutely fundamental.” The two also signed a memorandum of understanding aiming to deepen maritime security cooperation between their coast guards.

Despite attempts to deepen cooperation in the Arctic, Andersson said there are still several friction points between Beijing and Moscow.  

“Russia has historically been wary of inviting China into the Arctic because Moscow views the region as its backyard,” he told VOA in an interview in Stockholm.  

“As the bilateral power balance increasingly shifts in China’s favor since the start of the Ukraine War, Russia is becoming more economically and politically dependent on China, which may force Moscow to consider strengthening cooperation with Beijing in some areas where it was previously reluctant to do so,” Andersson said.  

And while the recent joint aerial patrol near Alaska has attracted a lot of attention, Andersson said the scope of their bilateral military cooperation in the Arctic remains unclear.  

“It’s difficult to determine how much these exercises mean that they are really ready to establish a closer military cooperation in the region or whether they are mainly about posturing and deterring the U.S. and its allies in the Arctic,” he told VOA.  

Growing Arctic awareness  

Even so, analysts say some Nordic countries are becoming more aware of the potential threat China may bring to the region through its cooperation with Moscow.  

“[While] officials in Finland are currently observing the developments in the Arctic, there’s definitely a growing awareness about the potential threats or challenges that come with the growing Chinese presence in the region,” said Minna Alander, an expert on Arctic security at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.  

She said Russia remains the main driver of the militarization of the Arctic but China could pose challenges to Finland and other Arctic states because of more opaque strategies.  

“There’s always this suspicion that most of the research that China is conducting at its research station in Norway’s Svalbard is not purely for ‘the advancement of human civilization,’” she told VOA by phone.  

Regional experts note that Nordic countries have yet to come up with a set of strategies to cope with the potential challenges.  

“I think we are realizing the complexity of hybrid threats that could be posed by China and Russia [in the Arctic] but we haven’t developed a toolbox to cope with those challenges,” Patrik Oksanen, a senior fellow at the Stockholm Free World Forum, told VOA by phone.  

He said economic ties with China complicate Sweden’s attempt to produce a strategic plan to cope with the new challenges.  

“There is an unwillingness to do something that could be interpreted as escalating the situation with China, but we will need to address the potential threats that China and Russia pose in the Arctic in a very short time,” Oksanen said.  

Ice pact 

Alander in Finland said she expects countries like Finland and Sweden, which became NATO members in 2023, to increase cooperation in the Arctic with other NATO allies. 

“Finland has an interest in developing relations with [other NATO members] in sectors such as security, economy, and trade, and Finland has gone all in on this transatlantic link,” she told VOA.  

In July, the U.S., Canada, and Finland announced a trilateral initiative, called the “Ice Pact,” to collaborate on the production of polar icebreakers.  

The Canadian government said the initiative recognizes the “joint priority of upholding safety and security in the Arctic, including the continued protection of long-standing international rules and norms.”   

In addition to increasing cooperation with NATO allies, Joar Forssell, a Swedish MP from the Liberal Party, told VOA that lawmakers from Nordic countries also are looking to deepen coordination on issues related to the Arctic.  

As NATO countries, along with Russia and China, look to increase cooperation with partners in the Arctic, Alander said the trend likely will lead to greater geopolitical tension in a region that’s long been free from global power struggle.  

“There used to be a slogan ‘High north, low tension’ [to describe the state in the Arctic] but unfortunately, it might be more like ‘high north, high tension’ in the future,” she told VOA. 
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In the summer of 1993, 46 Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian and American kids gathered at a camp in the state of Maine. The camp was the brainchild of journalist and author John Wallach, who wanted to provide children of war the chance to build a more secure future. Jeff Swicord reports. Videographer: Karina Chaudhury
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NEA SILATA, Greece — Six weeks before harvest, there’s no water left in the ground for farmer Dimitris Papadakis’ olive grove in northern Greece, so he has started a new morning routine.

Joined by his teenage son, he uses a truck to bring water from nearby areas. Using a small generator, he connects the vehicle to irrigation pipes to save what’s left of his thirsty crop.

“Our boreholes have almost dried up … We now depend on tankers to irrigate our fields,” says Papadakis, who heads an agricultural cooperative in a village in Halkidiki, a three-fingered peninsula in northern Greece which is popular with tourists.

This summer, southern Europe has been hammered by successive heat waves, following on from below-average rainfall for up to three years. Drought spots on the map of the region have expanded. In Greece, the effects include water shortages, dried-up lakes, and even the death of wild horses.

The groundwater beneath Papadakis’ 270 olive trees is dwindling and becoming brackish, with the drought expected to cut his expected yield in half.

The water crisis has been exacerbated by a booming tourist season.

In Kassandra, the westernmost finger of the peninsula, the year-round population of 17,000 swells to 650,000 in the summer, placing unsustainable pressure on water resources.

“We’ve seen a 30-40% reduction in water supply following three consecutive winters with almost no rainfall,” says local mayor Anastasia Halkia.

Haroula Psaropoulou owns a home in the area, in the seaside village of Nea Potidea. She says it’s hard to cope with frequent household water cuts that may last up to five days during the searing heat.

“I recycle water from the bathroom sink and from washing, and I use it for the plants,” the 60-year-old Psaropoulou says. “I’ve also carried water from the sea for the toilet.”

According to the European Union’s Emergency Management Service, acute drought conditions currently exist around the Black Sea, stretching westward into northern Greece.

Along the Evros River, which divides Greece and Turkey, severe drought means the delta now has higher levels of seawater. The extra salt is killing the wild horses that depend on the river for drinking water.

“If the horses go without water for a week, they die,” says Nikos Mousounakis, who is leading an initiative to create freshwater drinking points for the horses. “Some of them are still in bad shape, but we hope that with continued help, they’ll recover.”

Until recently, Lake Picrolimni in northern Greece was a popular destination for mud baths, but this summer it’s a shallow basin of cracked earth, dry enough to hold the weight of a car.

“It hasn’t rained for two years now, so the lake has totally dried up,” says local municipal chairman Costas Partsis. “It used to have a lot of water. People came and bathed in the muddy water. The clay has therapeutic properties for many ailments. No one came this year.”

Nearby, Lake Doirani straddles Greece’s northern border with North Macedonia. The shoreline has receded by 300 meters in recent years. Local officials are pleading for public works to restore the river’s water supply, echoing calls from experts who argue that major changes in water management are needed to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change.

“We’re experiencing a prolonged period of drought lasting about three years now, due to lower rainfall and snowfall, a result of the climate crisis and poor water management,” says Konstantinos S. Voudouris, a professor of hydrogeology at the University of Thessaloniki. “The solution lies in three key words: conservation, storage, and reuse.”

Voudouris argues that outdated water networks are losing too much water and that infrastructure improvements must focus on collecting and storing rainwater during the wet season, as well as reusing treated wastewater for agriculture.

“These drought phenomena will return with greater intensity in the future,” Voudouris said. “We need to take action and plan ahead to minimize their impact… and we must adapt to this new reality.”
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Washington — Jobs in the U.S. clean energy industry in 2023 grew at more than double the rate of the country’s overall jobs, and unionization in clean energy surpassed for the first time the rate in the wider energy industry, the Energy Department said on Wednesday.

Employment in clean energy businesses – including wind, solar, nuclear and battery storage — rose by 142,000 jobs, or 4.2% last year, up from a rise of 3.9% in 2022, the U.S. Energy and Employment Report said. The rate was above the overall U.S. job growth rate of 2% in 2023.

Unionization rates in clean energy hit 12.4%, more than the 11% in the overall energy business, it said. That was driven by growth in construction and utility industries and after legislation passed in 2022 including the bipartisan CHIPS Act and President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the department said.

Construction jobs in clean energy, driven by the legislation and private-sector investments, “is expected to continue for decades to build out the clean energy infrastructure that we need,” Betony Jones, the Energy Department’s head of energy jobs, told reporters in a call. While unionized members “might move from project to project, there is continuity of that work in order for workers to make a career in that industry,” she said.

Employment in the utility scale and rooftop solar industries grew 5.3% adding more than 18,000 jobs, it said. The solar installation industry in California, the country’s most populous state, says it has lost more than 17,000 jobs due to high interest rates and the state’s lowering of net meter rates that allow customers to be credited for excess power their rooftop panels generate.

New jobs in fossil fuels were mixed. The natural gas workforce grew by more than 77,000 or 13.3%, while jobs in petroleum fell more than 44,000 or 6%. Coal jobs fell nearly 8,500 or 5.3% as power generation continued to switch from coal to gas, wind and solar. White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters that the report showed the administration’s commitment to pursue both energy and climate security.

Energy remained a mostly male workforce with an average of 73% in 2023 compared with the national workforce average that was 53% male, the same numbers as in the previous year. Women accounted for about half the energy jobs added in 2022, but only 17% of the jobs added in 2023, the report said.

 
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BERLIN — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss a new partnership between the countries, on his first bilateral trip since taking office last month.

The British leader, who will also travel on to Paris, has pledged to rebuild trust with European allies damaged by Brexit, and is set to hold talks with Scholz about launching a new bilateral accord with Germany.

Labour had said it would seek a security and defense treaty with Germany if it won the July 4 general election, which it did by a landslide — propelling Starmer to the premiership.

The new deal, set to be similar to Britain’s 2010 “Lancaster House” treaty with France, will take several months to negotiate and be finalized early next year, according to Starmer’s Downing Street office.

A “key pillar of the UK’s wider reset with Europe,” it will build on a bilateral defense agreement currently being negotiated and expected to be finalized later this year.

It is aimed at boosting business and trade, deepening defense and security cooperation, and increasing “joint action on illegal migration,” Downing Street said.

Starmer’s host Scholz has been under pressure to crack down on illegal migration after a suspected Islamist knife attack in the western city of Solingen on Friday.

The stabbing, which left three people dead and eight injured, was allegedly carried out by a 26-year-old Syrian man who evaded attempts by German authorities to deport him.

Ukraine aid issue

Starmer’s premiership meanwhile has faced an early challenge after a deadly knife attack in Southport last month sparked anti-immigration riots, which officials say were stoked by far-right elements and false information.

On his trip to Berlin, Starmer will note that strengthening ties with Germany and France is “crucial” for tackling illegal migration and “boosting economic growth across the continent and crucially in the UK.”

The talks between Starmer and Scholz will also likely focus on military support for Ukraine, with both countries under pressure over their aid for Kyiv to help it fight off Russia’s invasion.

Kyiv’s western allies have reacted cautiously to Ukraine’s recent incursion into Kursk, worried that their weapons could be used on Russian soil, possibly sparking a strong reaction from Moscow.

Britain allows Kyiv to deploy a squadron of 14 British-made Challenger 2 tanks as it sees fit, but has put limits on the use of its long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

Germany, meanwhile, has repeatedly refused to send Kyiv its long-range Taurus missiles, over fears of escalating the conflict.

Germany has been the second-largest contributor of aid to Ukraine after the United States, but plans to halve the budget for that aid next year.

Where Germany spent around $9 billion on aid for Ukraine in 2024, the latest draft earmarks around 4 billion euros.

UK-Germany security pact

“Clearly, we always encourage allies to continue the crucial support of Ukraine,” a spokesperson for Starmer said ahead of the visit.

At a European Political Community (EPC) summit in England two weeks after his election win, Starmer told European leaders the UK would be a “friend and partner” to them.

Starmer has ruled out rejoining the European single market, customs union or freedom of movement, to avoid reopening what remains a thorny issue among British politicians and the public alike.

But he does want to negotiate a new security pact with the bloc and a veterinary agreement to ease border checks on agricultural foods, as well as an improved trading deal.

Starmer’s visit was a chance to build a “meaningful relationship” with the German leader and support the UK premier’s “wider agendas on migration, trade and defense,” Sophia Gaston, head of foreign policy at the Policy Exchange think tank, told AFP.

The Berlin trip was “the culmination of an early flurry of activity” by Starmer’s new government, said Gaston.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy chose Germany for his first trip abroad just two days after Labour’s election victory, calling for a “reset” in relations with European allies.
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Washington — The White House welcomed on Tuesday the rescue of an Israeli hostage abducted October 7 by Hamas and said a Gaza cease-fire deal is being finalized.

But even if an agreement is reached, a truce is unlikely to extend beyond the six weeks of phase one of the three-phase deal. The next U.S. administration will still inherit the role of managing tensions in the region.

Since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris has aimed to strike a balance between reaffirming U.S. support for Israel and advocating for Palestinian humanitarian needs — in essence, signaling a continuation of President Joe Biden’s policies on the Israel-Hamas war and, more broadly, the Middle East.

Harris summed up her position in her acceptance speech as the Democratic presidential nominee at the party’s convention in Chicago.

“President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” she said.

Democrats are enthusiastic about Harris, even though she has not yet laid out her own policies. And unlike Biden, a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, most of Harris’ exposure to foreign policy was during her tenure as vice president.

Not having “foreign policy baggage” might benefit Harris in the eyes of Democratic voters, said Natasha Hall, senior fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Hall pointed out that in October 2002, Biden was one of 77 senators who gave President George W. Bush the authority to use force in Iraq, a decision that eventually became a liability for Biden, much as his staunch support for Israel has become the most divisive issue in his own party.

Adviser’s influence

Those looking to see whether Harris’ Mideast policy will diverge from Biden’s can look to her national security adviser, Phillip Gordon, who is expected to remain in the role if she is elected. He would be the principal adviser to the president on all national security issues, including foreign policy.

“Phil Gordon is the type of adviser that colors in the lines,” Hall told VOA. “He’s the kind of person that I think very much is sort of old-fashioned American foreign policy.”

Gordon was against ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power in 2003. He chronicled American efforts to overthrow leaders in the Middle East in his 2020 book, “Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East.”

“The U.S. policy debate about the Middle East suffers from the fallacy that there is an external American solution to every problem, even when decades of painful experience suggest that this is not the case,” he wrote. “And regime change is the worst ‘solution.'”

Such an outlook would make a Harris administration “very, very cautious to deal assertively with Iran,” said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Political Studies Department at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.

From an Israeli perspective, however, Harris’ direct involvement in the administration’s recent decision to deploy more military assets to the Middle East to deter Iran is good news, Rynhold told VOA.

“If that is the policy that she goes on to adopt, then that crosses the minimal threshold of what Israel needs on Iran,” he said. “It may not be what Israel desires, which is a more forceful approach, but it is not a passive one.”

Current Harris aides have told VOA that Harris she intends to stay on the path that Biden has laid out: working beyond a cease-fire toward a two-state solution without sacrificing Israel’s security.

Harris’ former national security adviser while she was in the Senate, Halie Soifer, agreed.

“The vice president and the president have supported U.S. military assistance to Israel, not just for the existing agreement that we have with Israel,” said Soifer, who is now the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “But also an increase this year because of their security needs,” she told VOA

Generational and personal background

Biden’s generation, with a more visceral sense of the Holocaust, views Israel as a tiny democracy surrounded by hostile Arab powers. People of Harris’ generation and younger see Israel for what it is today: a thriving democracy and the region’s top military power. While Biden and Harris may share the same goal for Israel’s security, there’s not the same emotional resonance, Rynhold said.

Younger Americans “don’t remember a time when Jews and Israel were extremely vulnerable,” he said. “So they don’t have a same sense of that continuing vulnerability that President Biden really has.”

And for the president, Israel is integral to the story of America’s role in the world.

“America is there to prevent the Holocaust. America is there to support democracies, and Israel is central to his way of understanding that role,” Rynhold said.

If elected, Harris would become the first person to hold the highest office in the land whose parents are both immigrants. Barack Obama’s father was born in Kenya, and Donald Trump’s mother was born in the U.K. Harris’ father came from Jamaica and her mother, from India.

Unlike Biden, who often underscores that he is a Zionist, a loaded term often viewed with scorn in many parts of the world, Harris may be more sensitive to views from the Global South.

In a 2018 speech to an Indian American group, Harris spoke fondly of childhood visits to the home of her maternal grandfather, P.V. Gopalan, describing him as someone who had fought for “freedom and for justice and for independence.”

“She is aware of how the rest of the world may feel about the Middle East, about neocolonialism, neoimperialism,” Hall said. “I really hope that she has the opportunity to bring those experiences to bear if she becomes the president.”

But it’s hard to tell what a Harris doctrine would eventually look like.

“What she says now is directed to winning an election and keeping the Democratic Party together,” Rynhold said.

And since the party is evenly split between those sympathetic to Israel and those sympathetic to the Palestinians, she must express platitudes, he said.

“And that’s what she has done.”
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In the wake of Russia’s massive air attacks across Ukraine Monday, Ukrainians are moving quickly to get power and transportation back online. Ukraine’s military says Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the attacks, with more strikes on Tuesday. As Lesia Bakalets reports, cities are dealing with power outages, water supply interruptions and train delays. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets
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White House officials welcomed the rescue of an Israeli hostage held by Hamas Tuesday and said they are finalizing a Gaza cease-fire deal. But even if an agreement is reached, a future U.S. administration will still inherit the problem of managing tensions in the Middle East. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara looks at potential U.S. policy under Vice President Kamala Harris should she win the November presidential election.
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WASHINGTON — The United States is urging certain foreign nations not to fuel Sudan’s civil war by arming fighting factions, as the country faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Meanwhile, Washington has also called on Sudan’s warring sides to enforce a code of conduct to reduce abuses, noting that the army is considering the proposal after its rival paramilitary forces have agreed to it.

More than 25 million people face acute hunger and more than 10 million have been displaced from their homes since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, the State Department said.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a significant proliferation of the number of external actors that are playing a role on both sides,” and they are not putting the interest of the Sudanese people “at the core of this,” said Tom Perriello, U.S. special envoy for Sudan.

“In addition to UAE [the United Arab Emirates] supporting the RSF,” Perriello told reporters on Tuesday, “we see foreign fighters coming in from across the Sahel. We’ve seen Iran, Russia, other negative actors on the SAF side.”

U.S.-brokered peace talks on Sudan that concluded last week in Geneva failed to end the country’s 16-month conflict. But one of the warring sides, the RSF, agreed to a code of conduct pledging to avoid violence against women, exploitation at checkpoints and the destruction of crops.

Perriello said that the U.S. has presented the proposal to the SAF leaders who were absent in the Switzerland negotiations.

“They have the code of conduct in front of them. We hope to get a response from them in the coming days,” Perriello said.

The United States has accused the SAF and RSF of war crimes, with the RSF specifically charged with ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity targeting the indigenous African-origin people of Darfur.

During the talks in Geneva, the U.S., along with representatives from the African Union, the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, focused on reopening three humanitarian corridors — the Western border crossing in Darfur at Adre, the northern Dabbah Road from Port Sudan and the southern access route through Sennar.

Later this week, the U.S. will have a first formal follow-up with the heads of delegations.

Humanitarian assistance deliveries have resumed via two of the three routes: across the border at Adre from Chad and along the Dabbah Road into famine-stricken areas of Sudan.

In a statement late Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the reopening of humanitarian corridors, saying lack of humanitarian aid access into Darfur over the past six months has exacerbated the historic levels of famine and acute hunger across Sudan, particularly within the Zamzam camp.
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New Delhi — Days after visiting Ukraine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he supports a quick end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Modi’s discussion with the Russian leader on Tuesday came a day after he had a phone conversation about the war with U.S. President Joe Biden.

In a post on X, Modi wrote that he had “exchanged perspectives on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and my insights from the recent visit to Ukraine” with Putin. He said that he reiterated “India’s firm commitment to support an early, abiding and peaceful resolution of the conflict.”

During his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, the Indian prime minister had urged talks between Russia and Ukraine and said that “we should move in that direction without losing any time.” He had offered to play an active role in efforts to achieve peace.

Modi’s visit to Kyiv came amid criticism from Western allies that New Delhi has not condemned Russia’s invasion.

The Indian foreign ministry said that during his phone talk with Putin, Modi underlined the importance of dialogue and diplomacy as well as “sincere and practical engagement between all stakeholders.”

Modi and Putin also reviewed progress on bilateral ties and discussed measures to further strengthen their partnership, the statement said.  

In his talk on Monday with Biden, Modi had also expressed India’s support for an early return of peace and stability.

“I think Modi’s conversations with the Russian and American leaders come amid an effort by India to convey that it is serious about using its leverage to resolve this conflict and to stake a claim for itself as an autonomous actor,” according to Harsh Pant, vice president for studies at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “It has been faulted for not doing that in the past, so it is reaching out to the countries most closely involved in the conflict.”

India has not proposed any peace plan to resolve the war. But with New Delhi being one of the few countries that enjoys good relations with both Russia and the West, it hopes to push talks between Moscow and Ukraine.

Following Modi’s visit, Zelenskyy told reporters that he had told Modi that he would support India hosting the second summit on peace as Kyiv hopes to find a host among the countries in the Global South. The first peace summit was held in Switzerland in June.

In Kyiv, India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyan Jaishankar, had said that India is willing to do whatever it can to help end the war “because we do think that the continuation of this conflict is terrible, obviously for Ukraine itself but for the world as well.”

The resolution of the conflict is important for India, as Russia’s continued isolation could push Moscow into a tighter embrace with New Delhi’s arch rival, China, say analysts.

“India does not want Russia and the West’s rupture to be permanent because that only means that the Moscow-Beijing dynamic becomes much more solid,” according to Pant. “India also wants a stable Europe which can then play a larger role in ensuring a stable Indo-Pacific. That is very important for India. A Europe which is involved with its own internal challenges rather than a global role is something India does not want.”

Modi visited Ukraine six weeks after his visit to Moscow elicited strong criticism from Zelenskyy and Western allies. The first-ever visit by an Indian prime minister to the country was billed as a “landmark” one.

However analysts in New Delhi point out that Modi’s trip to Ukraine will have no bearing on India’s warm relationship with the Kremlin. Before he visited Kyiv, India’s foreign ministry had said that India has “substantive and independent ties with both Russia and Ukraine, and these partnerships stand on their own.”
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Before Russia invaded in February 2022, American football was becoming popular in Ukraine. Today, most of the players are on the front lines. A gentler version of the game — flag football — is gaining ground in the meantime among kids and youth. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Sergiy Rybchynski
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FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — It’s been a wild week of weather in many parts of the United States, from heat waves to snowstorms to flash floods.

Here’s a look at some of the weather events:

Midwest sizzles under heat wave

Millions of people in the Midwest have been enduring dangerous heat and humidity.

An emergency medicine physician treating Minnesota State Fair-goers for heat illnesses saw firefighters cut rings off two people’s swollen fingers Monday in hot weather that combined with humidity made it feel well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius).

Soaring late summer temperatures also prompted some Midwestern schools to let out early or cancel sports practices. The National Weather Service issued heat warnings or advisories across Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. Several cities including Chicago opened cooling centers.

Forecasters said Tuesday also will be scorching hot for areas of the Midwest before the heat wave shifts to the south and east.

West Coast mountains get early snowstorm

An unusually cold storm on the mountain peaks along the West Coast late last week brought a hint of winter in August. The system dropped out of the Gulf of Alaska, down through the Pacific Northwest and into California. Mount Rainier, southeast of Seattle, got a high-elevation dusting, as did central Oregon’s Mt. Bachelor resort.

Mount Shasta, the Cascade Range volcano that rises to 14,163 feet (4,317 meters) above far northern California, wore a white blanket after the storm clouds passed. The mountain’s Helen Lake, which sits at 10,400 feet (3,170 meters) received about half a foot of snow (15 centimeters), and there were greater amounts at higher elevations, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s Shasta Ranger Station.

Tropical storm dumps heavy rain on Hawaii

Three tropical cyclones swirled over the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, including Tropical Storm Hone, which brought heavy rain to Hawaii; Hurricane Gilma, which was weakening; and Tropical Storm Hector, which was churning westward, far off the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico.

The biggest impacts from Tropical Storm Hone (pronounced hoe-NEH) were rainfall and flash floods that resulted in road closures, downed power lines and damaged trees in some areas of the Big Island, said William Ahue, a forecaster at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. No injuries or major damage had been reported, authorities said.

Deadly Alaska landslide crashes into homes

A landslide that cut a path down a steep, thickly forested hillside crashed into several homes in Ketchikan, Alaska, in the latest such disaster to strike the mountainous region. Sunday’s slide killed one person and injured three others and prompted the mandatory evacuation of nearby homes in the city, a popular cruise ship stop along the famed Inside Passage in the southeastern Alaska panhandle.

The slide area remained unstable Monday, and authorities said that state and local geologists were arriving to assess the area for potential secondary slides. Last November, six people — including a family of five — were killed when a landslide destroyed two homes in Wrangell, north of Ketchikan.

Flash flood hits Grand Canyon National Park

The body of an Arizona woman who disappeared in Grand Canyon National Park after a flash flood was recovered Sunday, park rangers said. The body of Chenoa Nickerson, 33, was discovered by a group rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, the park said in a statement.

Nickerson was hiking along Havasu Creek about a half-mile (800 meters) from where it meets up with the Colorado River when the flash flood struck. Nickerson’s husband was among the more than 100 people safely evacuated.

The flood trapped several hikers in the area above and below Beaver Falls, one of a series of usually blue-green waterfalls that draw tourists from around the world to the Havasupai Tribe’s reservation. The area is prone to flooding that turns its iconic waterfalls chocolate brown.
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PARIS — Telegram boss Pavel Durov could be held in police custody until Wednesday after French prosecutors said they had granted extra time for questioning, while a senior ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged Washington was behind his arrest.

Durov, a Russian-born billionaire, was arrested in France over the weekend as part of an investigation into crimes related to images of child sex abuse, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform, French prosecutors said on Monday.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the public prosecutor said Durov’s detention had been extended by up to 48 hours late on Monday.

The messaging platform, which analysts have described as a virtual battlefield, has been heavily used by both sides of the war in Ukraine and war-related news and propaganda channels around the globe.

Without providing evidence, Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said the United States, through France, was attempting to exert control over Telegram.

“Telegram is one of the few, and at the same time the largest, Internet platform over which the United States has no influence,” Volodin said in a post.

“On the eve of the U.S. presidential election, it is important for (President Joe) Biden to take Telegram under control.”

The White House did not immediately comment on Durov’s arrest.

With nearly 1 billion users, Telegram, which presents itself as a haven for free speech and political dissidents, is particularly prominent in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union.

While millions of ordinary users like the app for its easy use and range of functions, it is also widely used by far-right, anti-vax and conspiracist movements.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is known to be an avid user of the app, has said that the arrest was “in no way a political decision.”

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become the main source of unfiltered – and sometimes graphic and misleading – content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.
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BEIJING — China called U.S. sanctions on its entities over the Ukraine war “illegal and unilateral” and “not based on facts,” in comments on Tuesday ahead of White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s arrival in Beijing for days of high-level talks.

Last week the United States imposed sanctions on more than 400 entities and individuals for supporting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, including Chinese companies that U.S. officials say help Moscow skirt Western sanctions and build up its military.

Washington has repeatedly warned Beijing over its support for Russia’s defense industrial base and has already issued hundreds of sanctions aimed at curbing Moscow’s ability to exploit certain technologies for military purposes.

China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, who has done four rounds of shuttle diplomacy, opposed the sanctions at a briefing for diplomats in Beijing after the latest round of meetings with officials from Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa.

“A particular country uses the crisis … to shift blame in an attempt to fabricate the so-called China responsibility theory and threatens countries that have normal economic and trade ties with Russia with illegal and unilateral sanctions,” said Li.

Li did not name the United States, but China’s commerce ministry said on Sunday it strongly opposed the sanctions and the foreign ministry has expressed similar opposition to previous rounds of curbs.

Last week’s sanctions include measures against companies in China involved in shipping machine tools and microelectronics to Russia.

“These words and deeds are totally for their selfish interests and are not based on facts, the international community will never accept them,” added Li.

China has been striving to present itself as a party that is actively looking for a solution to the conflict, despite skipping a Swiss peace conference in June.

After past rounds of talks led by Li, Beijing put forward proposals on supporting the exchange of prisoners of war, opposing the use of nuclear and biological weapons and opposing armed attacks on civilian nuclear facilities.

In a 12-point paper more than a year ago China set out general principles for ending the war, but did not get into specifics.

China and Brazil jointly called this year for Russia-Ukraine peace talks. On Tuesday, Li expressed the hope that more countries would endorse China’s peace efforts.
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Paris — French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday ruled out naming a left-wing government to end the country’s political deadlock, saying it would be a threat to “institutional stability.”

While Macron said he would start new talks Tuesday to find a prime minister, left-wing parties reacted with fury to his announcement, calling for street protests and the impeachment of the president.

Macron has held protracted talks on a new government since elections in July gave a left-wing alliance the most seats in parliament but not enough to govern.

The president rejected left-wing claims to govern after negotiations Monday with far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen and other political leaders.

While some reports said Macron had wanted to name a prime minister on Tuesday, the president instead said he would embark on a new round of negotiations.

“My responsibility is that the country is not blocked nor weakened,” Macron said in a statement, calling on “all political leaders to rise to the occasion by demonstrating a spirit of responsibility.”

The July election left the 577-seat National Assembly divided between the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance with over 190 seats, followed by Macron’s centrist alliance at around 160 and Le Pen’s National Rally at 140.

‘Stability’ threatened

The NFP, particularly the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), has demanded the right and opportunity to form a government but centrist and right-wing parties have vowed to vote it down in any confidence vote.

A purely left-wing government “would be immediately censored by all the other groups represented in the National Assembly” and “the institutional stability of our country therefore requires us not to choose this option,” Macron said.

Macron said he would talk with party leaders and “personalities distinguished by experience in the service of the state and the Republic.”

Without naming the LFI, the president called on socialists, ecologists and communists in the leftist alliance to “cooperate with other political forces.”

A source close to Macron later confirmed that he would not hold further talks with the LFI or the National Rally, nor with Eric Ciotti, leader of the right-wing Republicans (LR), who had allied himself with Le Pen’s far-right party for the snap vote.

The LFI reacted with fury, with its national coordinator Manuel Bompard called Macron’s comments an “unacceptable anti-democratic coup.”

LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon called for a “firm and strong response” by the public and politicians including a “motion of impeachment” against the president.

Communist party leader Fabien Roussel called for a “grand popular mobilization” and rejected new talks. Green party leader Marine Tondelier said “the people must get rid of Macron for the good of democracy. He is chaos and instability.”

Macron has left Gabriel Attal as caretaker government leader for a post-war record time since the July election as he seeks a figure with enough broad support to survive a confidence vote.

The pressure is on however as the deadline to present a draft 2025 budget for the heavily indebted government is just over a month away.

Leftist parties had pushed for Macron to name 37-year-old economist and civil servant Lucie Castets as prime minister.

Melenchon even said there could be a left-wing government without ministers from his party, but this has still been opposed by Macron and center-right parties.

The president has repeatedly called LFI an “extreme” movement, branding the party as equally zealot as Le Pen’s.

Since Melenchon’s offer, center-right parties have focused attention on the NFP’s big-spending manifesto at a time when France is battling a record budget deficit and a debt mountain.

Attal reaffirmed the opposition to the LFI in a letter to deputies that called Melenchon’s offer an “attempted coup,” saying it would be “inevitable” that an NFP government would lose a vote of confidence.
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McALLEN, Texas — A federal judge in Texas on Monday paused a Biden administration policy that would give spouses of U.S. citizens legal status without having to first leave the country, dealing at least a temporary setback to one of the biggest presidential actions to ease a path to citizenship in years.

The administrative stay issued by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker comes just days after 16 states, led by Republican attorneys general, challenged the program that could benefit an estimated 500,000 immigrants in the country, plus about 50,000 of their children.

One of the states leading the challenge is Texas, which in the lawsuit claimed the state has had to pay tens of millions of dollars annually from health care to law enforcement because of immigrants living in the state without legal status.

President Joe Biden announced the program in June. The court order, which lasts for two weeks but could be extended, comes one week after the Department of Homeland Security began accepting applications.

“The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date,” Barker wrote.

Barker was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2019 as a judge in Tyler, Texas, which lies in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a favored venue for advocates pushing conservative arguments.

The judge laid out a timetable that could produce a decision shortly before the presidential election Nov. 5 or before a newly elected president takes office in January. Barker gave both sides until Oct. 10 to file briefs in the case.

The policy offers spouses of U.S. citizens without legal status, who meet certain criteria, a path to citizenship by applying for a green card and staying in the U.S. while undergoing the process. Traditionally, the process could include a yearslong wait outside of the U.S., causing what advocates equate to “family separation.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the order.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton cheered the order.

“This is just the first step. We are going to keep fighting for Texas, our country, and the rule of law,” Paxton posted on the social media platform X.

Several families were notified of the receipt of their applications, according to attorneys advocating for eligible families who filed a motion to intervene earlier Monday.

“Texas should not be able to decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens and their immigrant spouses without confronting their reality,” Karen Tumlin, the founder and director of Justice Action Center, said during the press conference before the order was issued.

The coalition of states accused the administration of bypassing Congress for “blatant political purposes.”

The program has been particularly contentious in an election year where immigration is one of the biggest issues, with many Republicans attacking the policy and contending it is essentially a form of amnesty for people who broke the law.

To be eligible for the program, immigrants must have lived continuously in the U.S. for at least 10 years, not pose a security threat or have a disqualifying criminal history and have been married to a citizen by June 17 — the day before the program was announced.

They must pay a $580 fee to apply and fill out a lengthy application, including an explanation of why they deserve humanitarian parole and a long list of supporting documents proving how long they have been in the country.

If approved, applicants have three years to seek permanent residency. During that period, they can get work authorization.

Before this program, it was complicated for people who were in the U.S. illegally to get a green card after marrying an American citizen. They can be required to return to their home country — often for years — and they always face the risk they may not be allowed back in.
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WASHINGTON — An Army private who fled to North Korea just over a year ago will plead guilty to desertion and four other charges and take responsibility for his conduct, his lawyer said Monday.

Travis King’s attorney, Franklin D. Rosenblatt, told The Associated Press that King intends to admit guilt to a total of five military offenses, including desertion and assaulting an officer. Nine other offenses, including possession of sexual images of a child, will be withdrawn and dismissed under the terms of the deal.

King will be given an opportunity at a Sept. 20 hearing at Fort Bliss, Texas, to discuss his actions and explain what he did.

“He wants to take responsibility for the things that he did,” Rosenblatt said.

In a separate statement, he added, “Travis is grateful to his friends and family who have supported him, and to all outside his circle who did not pre-judge his case based on the initial allegations.”

He declined to comment on a possible sentence that his client might face. Desertion is a serious charge and can result in imprisonment.

The AP reported last month that the two sides were in plea talks.

King bolted across the heavily fortified border from South Korea in July 2023, and became the first American detained in North Korea in nearly five years.

His run into North Korea came soon after he was released from a South Korean prison where he had served nearly two months on assault charges.

About a week after his release from the prison, military officers took him to the airport so he could return to Fort Bliss to face disciplinary action. He was escorted as far as customs, but instead of getting on the plane, he joined a civilian tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom. He then ran across the border, which is lined with guards and often crowded with tourists.

He was detained by North Korea, but after about two months, Pyongyang abruptly announced that it would expel him. On Sept. 28, he was flown to back to Texas, and has been in custody there.

The U.S. military in October filed a series of charges against King under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including desertion, as well as kicking and punching other officers, unlawfully possessing alcohol, making a false statement and possessing a video of a child engaged in sexual activity. Those allegations date back to July 10, the same day he was released from the prison.
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