RIYADMEDIA

pentagon — The United States carried out a cyberattack earlier this month against two Iranian military ships as part of its multipronged response to the killing of three U.S. soldiers by Iran-backed proxies, VOA has confirmed. 

A U.S. official, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity because of operational sensitivities, said the MV Behshad was one of the targeted ships The Iranian military ship was collecting intelligence on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. A source with knowledge of the cyberattack said an Iranian frigate was also targeted.

The U.S. official said the cyberattack on the MV Behshad was to inhibit its ability to share targeting information with the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen who have been firing missiles into international shipping lanes.

Earlier this month, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned of potential “unseen” retaliatory efforts “to send a very clear message that when American forces are attacked, when Americans are killed, we will respond, and we will respond forcefully.”

Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder declined to comment to VOA about the attack, which an official said occurred more than a week ago.

NBC News first reported the attack on the Iranian spy ship on Thursday but did not report the cyberattack on the Iranian frigate.

U.S. officials do not typically disclose covert operations, including cyberattacks.

In addition to the cyberattacks, the U.S. this month struck Iranian-backed proxies in seven locations across Syria and Iraq on February 2.

A day later, U.S. and allied forces struck dozens of Houthi targets at 13 locations in militant-controlled areas of Yemen.

A U.S. drone strike on February 7 in Baghdad killed a Kataib Hezbollah commander who the U.S. said was “responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region.”

There has not been an attack on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria or Jordan since February 4, according to the Pentagon.

U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan were attacked by Iran-backed militants more than 160 times since mid-October, shortly after Hamas’ assault on Israel. Most of the attacks caused few to no injuries or damages, but an attack in late January at the Tower 22 base in Jordan killed three American service members and wounded dozens of others.

Iranian-backed Houthi militants, however, have continued with their series of attacks targeting international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. 

The Houthis say the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. According to a U.S. defense official, the Houthis have attacked or threatened commercial vessels 48 times since mid-November.

The U.S. has carried out self-defense strikes against Houthi drones and missiles that have been fired into international shipping lanes or that were poised to conduct attacks. The U.S. and its partners also carried out attacks in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen last month, which they said took out key weapons used in the Houthis’ targeting of international ships.
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BERLIN/VILNIUS, Lithuania — Hundreds of protesters, many of them Russian emigres, gathered in cities across Europe and beyond on Friday to express their outrage over the death of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny.

Often gathering outside Russian embassies, they chanted slogans critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom they blamed for the activist’s death, holding up signs calling him a “killer” and demanding accountability.

Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, Navalny fell unconscious and died on Friday after a walk at the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a three-decade sentence, prison authorities said.

In Berlin, a crowd of 500 to 600 people, according to police estimates, gathered on the city’s Unter den Linden boulevard, chanting in a mixture of Russian, German and English.

Some chanted “Putin to the Hague,” referring to the international criminal court investigating possible war crimes committed in Ukraine. Police used barriers to close off the road between the Russian embassy and the crowd.

“Alexey Navalny is the leader of the Russian opposition and we always kept hope in his name,” said a Russian man draped in a blue and white anti-war flag, giving his name only as Ilia.

In Lithuania, formerly run from Moscow but now a member of NATO and the European Union and home to a sizable community of emigres, protesters placed flowers and candles by a portrait of Navalny.

“He was always with us, so it is all surreal,” said Lyusya Shtein, 26, a Pussy Riot activist who has lived in Vilnius since leaving Russia in 2022. “None of us yet understand what happened.”

In Russia itself, prosecutors warned Russians against participating in any mass protest in Moscow. Police watched as some Russians came to lay roses and carnations at a monument to victims of Soviet repression in the shadow of the former KGB headquarters.

Rights group OVD-Info, which reports on freedom of assembly in Russia, said that more than 100 people had been detained at rallies in memory of Navalny. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Groups also gathered in Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Sofia, Geneva and The Hague, among others.

More than 100 protesters stood outside Russia’s London embassy, holding placards that called Putin a war criminal, while in Lisbon hundreds held a silent vigil. Pavel Elizarov, a 28-year-old Russian living in Portugal, said Navalny had been “a symbol of freedom and hope.”

Near the Russian embassy in Paris, where around 100 protesters gathered, Natalia Morozov said Navalny had also been a symbol of hope for her.

“It’s hard for me to express my emotions, because I’m really shaken,” said Morozov. “Now we no longer have hope for the beautiful Russia of the future.”

Navalny’s death, if confirmed, leaves the scattered groups that oppose Putin without a figurehead, and no obvious candidate to marshal any discontent over his demise into mass protests.

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, was in Munich on Friday, where a vigil also took place. She told the Munich Security Conference she could not be sure her husband was dead because “Putin and his government … lie incessantly” but said that if confirmed she wanted them to know “they will bear responsibility.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, at a vigil outside the Russian consulate in New York City, Violetta Soboleva said she had volunteered for Navalny’s presidential campaign in 2017.

“I really believed that he’s the one and he can lead Russia to a better future,” said Soboleva, a Russian studying for her doctorate in New York. “And now we’ve lost this future forever.”
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state department — The United States has reinstated sanctions on Yemen’s Houthi rebels effective Friday, following their continued attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, endangering maritime security. 

The Houthis were first designated as a terror group three years ago and subsequently delisted due to humanitarian concerns. The relisting follows repeated demands from the U.S. and other countries for the Houthis to stop firing on commercial shipping. 

Those demands have been ignored, and attacks have continued despite a series of airstrikes by the U.S. and Britain aimed at taking out radar systems and launch sites used in the attacks. 

Earlier on Friday, a missile was launched from Yemen, hitting the port side of the India-bound Panamanian-flagged M/T Pollux, which was transporting crude oil. The extent of the damage is presently unclear, but the M/T Pollux is continuing its journey south under its own power. 

Houthi leaders have declared that the group will persist in its attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians, as long as Israel continues what the group termed its crimes against them. 

A spokesperson from the U.S. State Department noted that on January 17, Washington announced its intention to relist the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, or SDGT, after 30 days, giving the Iran-backed rebels “the opportunity to scale down their attacks” and “to minimize de-risking across the industry.” 

The spokesperson also accused Iran of aiding the Houthis in destabilizing the region. 

“Iran has been deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea. This is consistent with Iran’s long-term materiel support and encouragement of the Houthis’ destabilizing actions in the region. Houthi forces have employed various Iranian-origin missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles against military and civilian targets throughout the region,” the spokesperson said. 

U.S. officials said they have made concerted efforts to mitigate the impact of this designation on the Yemeni people. Washington has actively engaged the shipping industry, financial institutions, banks and humanitarian aid organizations to ensure comprehensive understanding of the broad exemptions associated with this designation. 

In the waning hours of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in January 2021, the Houthis were designated as both an SDGT and a foreign terrorist organization, or FTO.  

In February 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delisted the Houthis as both a foreign terrorist organization and as specially designated global terrorists.  

This action was taken as the Biden administration aimed to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the long-running civil war between the internationally recognized government of Yemen, based in the southern port city of Aden, and the Houthis, whose capital is Sanaa.  

Additionally, the delisting aimed to make it easier to deliver food and humanitarian aid to the people of Yemen. 

The two designations carry distinct penalties. Being named as a specially designated global terrorist empowers the U.S. Treasury Department to disrupt terrorists’ access to funds within the United States and across the international financial system.  

On the other hand, designation as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department prohibits anyone from providing the group with “material support,” including fighting for the group, or providing financial assistance or training. 

Members of foreign terrorist organizations who are not U.S. citizens are typically banned from entering the United States, except where there is a rare and high-level decision otherwise. The Houthis have not been relisted as an FTO at this time. 

U.S. defense officials said the Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial vessels and naval vessels since mid-November, impacting citizens, cargo and vessels from more than 50 countries.  
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new york — Donald Trump must pay $354.9 million in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to dupe lenders, a New York judge ruled on Friday, handing the former U.S. president another legal setback in a civil case that imperils his real estate empire.

Justice Arthur Engoron also banned Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years.

Engoron canceled his ruling from September ordering the dissolution of companies that control pillars of Trump’s real estate empire, saying on Friday that this was no longer necessary because he is appointing an independent monitor and compliance director to oversee Trump’s businesses.

In the ruling, Engoron wrote that Trump and the other defendants in the case “are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”

“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron wrote. “Instead, they adopt a ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ posture that the evidence belies.”

The lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and his family businesses of overstating his net worth by as much $3.6 billion a year over a decade to fool bankers into giving him better loan terms.

Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement that the ruling was a “manifest injustice” and “culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch hunt” against him.

“This is not just about Donald Trump — if this decision stands, it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business,” Habba said, adding that she plans to appeal.

Trump and his adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, were defendants in the case. Don Jr. and Eric Trump were each ordered by the judge to pay $4 million.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the case a political vendetta by James, an elected Democrat.

The civil fraud case could deal a major blow to Trump’s real estate empire as the businessman turned politician leads the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

During defiant and meandering trial testimony in November, Trump conceded that some of his property values were inaccurate but insisted banks were obligated to do their own due diligence.

Engoron criticized Trump for his behavior during his trial testimony and wrote that the testimony hurt his cause.

“Donald Trump rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial,” the judge wrote. “His refusal to answer the questions directly, or in some cases, at all, severely compromised his credibility.”

Trump could be required to deposit his portion of the full judgment plus interest during an appeal, which is standard practice in similar cases.

Trump could also post a smaller amount with collateral and interest by securing a type of loan called an appeal bond. But he may have trouble finding a willing lender after Engoron found he lied to banks about his wealth.

It is unclear how much access to cash Trump has, and estimates of his fortune vary, with Forbes pegging his net worth at $2.6 billion. Trump testified in an April deposition that he had roughly $400 million in cash.

Friday’s ruling came after a contentious three-month trial in Manhattan. The case was decided by the judge without a jury.

Trump used his occasional court appearances as impromptu campaign stops, delivering incendiary remarks to reporters and insisting his enemies are using the courts to prevent him from retaking the White House.

Trump is leading by a wide margin in the race for the Republican nomination despite a host of other legal troubles.

He is under indictment in four criminal cases, including one in New York related to hush money payments he made to a porn actress ahead of the 2016 election. The judge overseeing that case on Thursday set a March 25 trial date over the objections of Trump’s lawyers, who sought to delay it due to Trump’s crowded legal and political schedule.

Trump has also been charged in Florida for his handling of classified documents upon leaving office and in Washington and in Georgia for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in all four cases.
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The United States is blaming Moscow for the death of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny in a remote Russian prison. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.]
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new york — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed shock Friday on the reported death of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and called for a credible investigation into his death.  

“The secretary-general expresses his condolences to Mr. Navalny’s family and calls for a full, credible and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Navalny’s reported death in custody,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.  

Navalny, 47, died Friday in the high-security Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism, Russia’s prison agency said. Navalny’s family was working Friday to confirm the veracity of the report.    

He was a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, an anti-corruption campaigner, and had run for public office. His death comes less than a month before elections that are likely to give Putin another six years in power.  

The U.N. human rights office said it is “appalled” at the reports of Navalny’s death and called on Moscow to end the persecution of politicians, human rights defenders, journalists and others sentenced to jail for the legitimate exercise of their rights.    

“Last August, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk highlighted that the latest 19-year sentence raised questions about judicial harassment and instrumentalization of the court system for political purposes in Russia and called for Navalny’s release,” spokesperson Liz Throssell said in a statement.  

She said that if a person dies in state custody, “the presumption is that the state is responsible.” Throssell echoed the U.N. chief and urged “an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body.” 

Alice Edwards, who is the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, said on the social media platform X that she was devastated by the news. Edwards said she and several other special rapporteurs had tried to intervene on Navalny’s behalf with the Kremlin. 

She also demanded a full investigation and an independent autopsy to determine the cause of his death.  
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WASHINGTON — West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said Friday that he is not running for president, according to his spokesperson Jon Kott. For months Manchin, a centrist Democrat, had been flirting with a campaign that threatened to complicate the 2024 presidential race. 

Manchin announced his decision in a speech at West Virginia University billed as “The Future of American Politics.” 

He often bucked his party’s leadership and while considering a run for the presidency had said he thought it would be clear by March if there was a path for a third-party candidate this year. 

Manchin is not running for reelection in 2024. His Senate seat in a heavily Republican state is expected to be a prime pickup opportunity for the GOP.

The West Virginia senator has had talks with No Labels, a centrist group that has been looking into fielding a possible centrist ticket. 

Democrats feared a Manchin presidential bid would likely peel off moderate voters as its looking more likely that November’s election will present a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. 
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Families of a number of American veterans killed or wounded in Ukraine met with US Congress members in late January to appeal to lawmakers to continue providing assistance to Ukraine. Katerina Lisunova and Irina Shynkarenko have the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera and edit: Oleksii Osyka 
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BERLIN/MUNICH — Leading politicians, military officers and diplomats from around the world gather in Munich on Friday for a security conference that will be dominated by the wars in Israel and Ukraine as well as fears over the U.S. commitment to defending its allies.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are among the top officials attending the Munich Security Conference (MSC), an annual global gathering focused on defense and diplomacy.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh are also expected to attend the conference, which begins on Friday and runs until Sunday at the luxury Bayerischer Hof hotel in the southern German city.

The conference takes place as the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in which more than 28,000 Palestinians and about 1,430 Israelis have been killed, enters its fifth month with no end in sight.

It also takes place shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its third year.

Both wars have ignited fears that will likely be addressed at Munich about possible regional spillover.

“The world has become more dangerous,” Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of the NATO Western defense alliance told Reuters on Wednesday.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said officials from European countries that help to fund the occupied Palestinian territories and key Arab and Gulf states would meet on the sidelines of the Munich event to start discussing the future for Israel and the Palestinian people after a potential ceasefire.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also expected to join.

“There are lots of things we need to start talking about now,” Cameron said in remarks to Britain’s House of Lords.

“Whether it’s about this question of how you offer a political horizon to people in the Palestinian territories, or indeed, how we deal with Israel’s very real security concerns.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he would set foot on German soil for the first time to give a keynote speech at the conference, after refraining from doing so as he grew up in a family of Holocaust survivors.

“I will do everything for Israel’s security, securing our future and returning the hostages,” he said.

Ukraine aid bill faces hurdles

Zelenskyy is expected to plead for more support for Ukraine as the U.S. House of Representatives stalls a multibillion-dollar military aid package for the country.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” said one senior State Department official, saying the delay was already being felt on the battlefield. “Our support is absolutely essential in achieving the objectives Ukraine has.”

European and U.S. officials are increasingly warning of the risk Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack other countries if his military operation in Ukraine is successful.

“It is clear Putin will not stop at Ukraine,” a second U.S. State Department official said.

No Russian officials were invited to the MSC, for the second year in a row, as they did not seem interested in meaningful dialogue, organizers said.

Trump casts shadow

The event comes as the U.S. commitment to defending its allies more broadly is in doubt as the prospect of a reelection of former President Donald Trump looms.

Such worries have re-ignited a push in Europe for more strategic autonomy. Until recently the idea was championed by only a handful of countries, in particular France, but is gaining traction and will likely be addressed at the security gathering.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, suggested last Saturday he would not defend NATO allies who failed to spend enough on defense, prompting consternation in Europe.

Harris is scheduled on Friday to deliver what aides have billed as a major speech on “the importance of fulfilling the U.S. role of global leadership” before meeting with U.S. lawmakers, Zelenskyy and Scholz.

Harris is also likely to be closely watched for her ability to lead after a Department of Justice special counsel report last week described U.S. President Joe Biden, 81, as an elderly man with a “poor memory.” Trump is 77.

Other big international issues will also feature at the conference, such as conflicts in the Horn of Africa increasing food insecurity and displacing millions, and relations between the West and China.
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washington — The space-based weapon U.S. intelligence believes Russia may be developing is more likely a nuclear-powered device to blind, jam or fry the electronics inside satellites than an explosive nuclear warhead to shoot them down, analysts said on Thursday.

The intelligence came to light on Wednesday after Representative Mike Turner, Republican chair of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee, issued an unusual statement warning of a “serious national security threat.”

A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that Washington had new intelligence related to Russian nuclear capabilities and attempts to develop a space-based weapon, but added that the new Russian capabilities did not pose an urgent threat to the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed this view on Thursday, saying “this is not an active capability.”

Analysts tracking Russia’s space programs say the space threat is probably not a nuclear warhead but rather a high-powered device requiring nuclear energy to carry out an array of attacks against satellites.

These might include signal-jammers, weapons that can blind image sensors, or — a more dire possibility — electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that could fry all satellites’ electronics within a certain orbital region.

“That Russia is developing a system powered by a nuclear source … that has electronic warfare capabilities once in orbit is more likely than the theory that Russia is developing a weapon that carries a nuclear explosive warhead,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group.

A 2023 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report said Russia is developing an array of weapons designed to target individual satellites and may also be developing “higher-power systems that extend the threat to the structures of all satellites.”

The Kremlin on Thursday dismissed a warning by the United States about Moscow’s new nuclear capabilities in space, calling it a “malicious fabrication.” 

The nuclear threat

Non-nuclear anti-satellite weapons have existed for years.

Russia in 2021 followed the United States, China and India by testing a destructive anti-satellite missile on one of its old satellites, blasting it to thousands of pieces that remain in Earth’s orbit.

Exploding a nuclear weapon in space would be another matter entirely.

Brian Weeden, an analyst at the Secure World Foundation, said Russia would undermine its credibility if it detonated a nuclear weapon in space, a possibility with profound implications for both military and commercial satellites.

“The Russians have spent 40 years in the U.N. bashing America about wanting to weaponize space, and place weapons in space and pledging that they would never do it,” Weeden said.

“If they do [detonate a nuclear device in space], they’d lose everything. All the countries that are supporting them on Ukraine and getting around sanctions, boom,” he added.

James Acton, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, said for Russia to put a nuclear weapon in orbit would be a “blatant violation of the Outer Space Treaty.”

The 1967 treaty, to which the United States and Russia are parties, bars signatories from placing “in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction.”

Violating the treaty, Acton said, would further undercut efforts to revive U.S.-Russian arms control after Russia’s 2023 decision to suspend participation in the New START treaty, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads each can deploy.

Analysts said anti-satellite weapons could cripple military and commercial communications, undermining the armed forces’ ability to operate as well as global positioning systems (GPS) that everyone from Uber drivers to food delivery services use.

“The Russians think we’re blind if we don’t have access to our satellites and it’s probably true,” said a former U.S. intelligence official. “Our ability to rely on satellites is a major advantage in a potential confrontation but also a major vulnerability.” 
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The State Department  — The United States does not see signs of an “imminent” war by North Korea despite “incredibly dangerous” activities in recent months and its refusal to engage in diplomatic talks with the U.S., a top U.S. official told reporters Thursday.

Jung Pak, the State Department’s senior official in charge of North Korea affairs, said U.S. officials “are always watchful for any kind of activity” by Pyongyang and will continue to work with Japan and South Korea to bolster extended deterrence, aiming to shape North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s “calculus” regarding the initiation of direct military action.

“Fundamentally, I don’t think Kim’s posture has changed. We don’t see any signals of any direct action, military action,” Pak said.

“I don’t see an imminent or direct attack at this point,” she said.

Earlier this week, North Korea carried out its fifth cruise missile launch of the year, which came just days ahead of a joint U.S.-Japan missile defense training exercise scheduled for next week.

In Tokyo, a Japanese official issued a cautionary statement regarding North Korea’s escalating capabilities.

“By launching missiles from various platforms such as submarines and vehicle-mounted launch pads, we believe North Korea is making it difficult to identify and detect signs [of its activities] to strengthen its surprise attack capabilities,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a Thursday press conference.

Last month, Pyongyang said it test-fired a solid-fuel intermediate-range missile, equipped with a hypersonic warhead, into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

State Department official Pak said the U.S. estimated there were 69 ballistic missile tests by North Korea in 2022, and 30 ballistic missile tests last year.
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President Donald Trump revisited on Thursday his remarks that if elected, he would not defend NATO members who don’t meet defense spending targets — more evidence of how two American presidents and their constituents are divided over America’s role in the world. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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washington — An FBI informant has been charged with lying to his handler about ties between President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company.

Alexander Smirnov falsely told FBI agents in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016, prosecutors said Thursday.

Smirnov told the FBI that a Burisma executive had claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” prosecutors said.

The allegations became a flashpoint in Congress last summer as Republicans demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the allegations as they pursued investigations of Biden and his family. They acknowledged at the time that it was unclear if the allegations were true.

Prosecutors say that though Smirnov claimed to have had contact with Burisma executives near the end of the Obama administration, it actually took place after Obama and Biden had left office, when Biden would have had no ability to influence U.S. policy.

“In short, the Defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy,” the indictment said.

He repeated some of the false claims when he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023 and changed his story about others and “promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials,” prosecutors said.

Smirnov, 43, was indicted on charges of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. No attorney was immediately listed for him in court records. He was expected to make his first court appearance in Las Vegas, where he was arrested Wednesday after arriving from overseas, prosecutors said.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

The charges were filed by Justice Department special counsel David Wiess, who has separately charged Hunter Biden with firearm and tax violations.
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white house — The White House said Thursday that it would accept the results of Indonesia’s presidential election in which Prabowo Subianto, a former army general who for more than a decade was banned from entering the United States because of allegations linked to human rights abuses, has claimed victory.

“We’ll make our congratulations known at the appropriate time. I couldn’t give you a date certain or time certain for that because I understand that the results are still coming in,” John Kirby, national security communications adviser, said to VOA during a White House briefing. “We will respect the vote and the voice of the Indonesian people.” 

Preliminary counts from several survey institutions showed that Prabowo, who like most Indonesians goes by his first name, outperformed rivals Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, securing more than 50% of votes — the threshold to avoid a runoff election.

The official tally from the General Election Commission is set to be released next month. But Prabowo has claimed that he’s won, telling thousands of his supporters in the capital, Jakarta, that this was “the victory of all Indonesians.”

In 2020, the Trump administration dropped the de facto ban on Prabowo’s entry into the United States that was imposed over accusations of human rights abuses, including the abduction and torture of pro-democracy activists during the 1998 ouster of his then- father-in-law, President Suharto, and involvement with military crimes in East Timor.

Pressed by VOA on whether the Biden administration was comfortable with Prabowo’s track record, Kirby underscored that human rights have been “the very foundation” of Biden’s foreign policy.

“There’s not a conversation he has anywhere in the world with foreign leaders where he’s not raising issues and concerns about human rights and civil rights,” he said. “That’s not going to change.”

Prabowo has promised to continue the widely popular policies of outgoing President Joko Widodo. Jokowi, as he is often called, governed with an “economy-first” modernization agenda that has brought rapid gross domestic product growth, ushering Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, into the ranks of middle-income countries.

Jokowi defeated Prabowo in previous elections, but this year signaled support for his former rival through his eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, who ran with Prabowo as vice president.

Gibran was able to join Prabowo’s ticket only after the country’s constitutional court created an exception to a rule that candidates must be at least 40 years old. That fueled criticism that Jokowi was trying to create a political dynasty in the world’s third-largest democracy.

Those concerns will largely be overlooked by Washington, considering Indonesia’s pivotal role in the U.S. geopolitical contest for influence with China and international efforts to mitigate climate change. Indonesia is the biggest exporter of coal and claims the world’s biggest reserves of nickel, a key component of electric car batteries.

“If the results show a Prabowo victory next month, then I would expect the U.S. to treat Minister Prabowo the same way that it treated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he was elected in 2014, waiving any remaining restrictions on engagement with him,” Aaron Connelly, research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told VOA.

Biden welcomed Modi for a glitzy state visit at the White House last year. The president’s embrace of the autocratic-leaning Hindu nationalist, whose government has overseen a crackdown on press freedom and opposition leaders, has been criticized by lawmakers and activists who say the administration is prioritizing geopolitical expediency over human rights.

Just as with India, which Washington sees as a counterweight to China, the United States is keen to foster closer ties with Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world and an important voice of the Global South.

For months, Jakarta and Washington have been discussing a potential minerals partnership aimed at facilitating nickel trade. Indonesia’s nickel mining and refining industry has been largely dependent on investment from Chinese companies and besieged by environmental concerns, hence limiting its access to the U.S. market. 
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phnom penh, cambodia — The Swedish government will phase out bilateral development cooperation with Cambodia by the end of this year, raising concerns among civil society groups likely to see their budgets shrink.

In 2023, the Swedish government provided about $17 million to civil society groups in Cambodia focusing on strengthening human rights, democracy and the rule of law, according to data from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs pointed to the war in Ukraine as forcing the country to refocus its foreign aid when it made the announcement in December, but the decision comes as Western donors have criticized Cambodia’s democratic backsliding over the past decade.

“The Swedish government wants Sweden’s development assistance to be used as effectively as possible, and that it is used where it does the most good. Limited resources and increasing needs abroad mean that the government must set difficult but necessary priorities for Sweden’s development assistance,” the ministry told VOA Khmer in an email in January.

“The Swedish government has therefore decided to phase out our bilateral development cooperation with Cambodia during 2024. The phasing-out of the bilateral development cooperation will be done in a responsible manner, and in dialogue with other donors and partners to minimize negative consequences,” it added.

Pen Bona, a spokesperson for the Cambodian government, played down Sweden’s decision and any potential impact on the Cambodian population.

“They [donors] see and evaluate that Cambodia doesn’t need the NGOs to continue working on [those issues] since the government has worked on that,” Pen Bona said in a phone interview on February 8.

“Some NGOs make bad reports about Cambodia to receive funding,” he added.

A group of 100 civil society associations — including communities, unions, youth networks and media organizations — wrote a letter to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, saying they were “seriously concerned” about the announcement.

The decision, the Cambodian civil society groups said, “will have an immediate and devastating impact on civil society organizations and other nongovernmental entities that have stringent labor and other legal obligations to their staff members and the Cambodians they serve,” read the letter, dated January 18, obtained by VOA Khmer.

The letter said the decision to phase out funding would affect more than 30 organizations and multilateral institutions that rely directly or indirectly on this support and would be “detrimental to tens of thousands of Cambodians who look to Sweden as a reliable partner in the promotion of human rights, democracy, gender equality, youth empowerment and rule of law.”

The groups called on the Swedish government to reconsider the decision or give the NGOs more time to find alternate funding sources. 

“Sweden’s decision to phase out SIDA funding for Cambodia will also leave a vacuum in the country that will be filled by geopolitical players like China and Russia whose interests may not align with those of Sweden, impacting Sweden’s efforts to strengthen Cambodia’s economic growth,” the groups said.

In a response letter, Diana Janse, state secretary to Johan Forssell, Sweden’s minister for international development cooperation and foreign trade, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents a paradigm shift with extensive political, economic and humanitarian consequences.

“In conjunction to this, the government has decided to reduce the number of countries that we have bilateral development cooperation with — Cambodia regretfully being one of them,” Janse wrote to the NGOs in a letter obtained last week by VOA Khmer.

“We have, as you point out, been a long-term supporter of human rights and democracy in Cambodia. We will therefore do our utmost to ensure a responsible phasing out,” she said.

Effects on women

Sdeung Phearong, executive director of the Banteay Srei Organization, which works on women’s empowerment, told VOA Khmer in a phone interview on February 8 that her organization had received funds from SIDA that account for about 15% to 30% of core funds. The backing has been channeled through an international NGO.

“The decision [to phase out] will impact the women victims who receive assistance from us,” she told VOA Khmer, adding that her organization had received funding from SIDA for more than 10 years.

“It is so immediate,” Sdeung Phearong said, calling on the Swedish government to reconsider or delay the decision until 2025 or 2026 so the NGOs in Cambodia have more time to seek replacement donors.

Pech Pisey, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, an NGO, said in a phone interview on February 7 that his group would also be affected by the decrease in Swedish funding. Besides the global security needs and challenges, Pech Pisey said, Sweden was facing the reality that “there is no positive change” in fundamental democracy and human rights in Cambodia.

The Swedish government closed its embassy in Phnom Penh and phased out bilateral cooperation with Cambodia in 2021.

“The democratic space in Cambodia has been severely restricted in recent years. This has made it difficult to pursue broad and close cooperation,” Peter Eriksson, then the Swedish minister for international development cooperation, said in November 2020.

The Swedish ministry said on January 25 in an email to VOA Khmer that it would continue to be a strong voice for human rights and democracy in Cambodia through its role in the European Union.
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Istanbul/Washington — Journalists in Turkey are welcoming a recent Constitutional Court ruling that revoked bans on online access to hundreds of news articles.

Last week, the court published a ruling that lifted the bans, stating that the restrictions are unconstitutional and violate freedom of expression.

Lower courts had blocked the stories, citing Article 9 of Law No. 5651, which enables such bans or removal of content in cases of personal rights violations. Press freedom advocates and journalists have long said that the measure was used as a form of censorship against digital media.

In its recent ruling, the Constitutional Court examined 502 orders to block access to websites and articles from 2014 to 2023. Of those, 352 were appealed by the Freedom of Expression Association, the IFOD.

“We have been following this issue since 2014,” Yaman Akdeniz, IFOD’s co-founder and human rights lawyer, told VOA.

The banned news articles were from several independent digital media outlets, including BirGun, Diken, Gazete Duvar, Arti Gercek and sendika.org.

A list of banned stories compiled by IFOD included articles concerning President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his family, his Cabinet members and politicians from his ruling Justice and Development Party.

Cautious welcome

While welcoming the decision, Berkant Gultekin, BirGun’s digital broadcast coordinator, is taking a cautious stance.

“It is a good decision on paper, but we will see over time how it will affect the news production process in Turkey,” Gultekin said.

“Even if the Constitutional Court decides in favor of journalists, we cannot say, ‘We are free now,’ as the government decides which ruling the judiciary will implement,” Gultekin said, noting that the court’s rulings in other, unrelated cases are worrying.

Turkey has recently experienced a judicial crisis over the continued imprisonment of ex-parliament member Can Atalay. Atalay was elected to parliament in May 2023 from the Workers’ Party of Turkey, or TIP, while serving an 18-year prison sentence on charges of trying to overthrow the government.

In October and December, the Constitutional Court, in separate decisions, ruled for the release of Atalay. Elected parliamentarians in Turkey enjoy legislative immunity as stated in the constitution. Still, the top appeals court, the Court of Cassation, dismissed the rulings, and Atalay’s status as a lawmaker was stripped away by parliament last month.

Banu Tuna is the secretary-general of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey, or TGS, which was a plaintiff in the case that sought to repeal the bans on access to digital content.

“Of course, we are pleased with our result, but will this decision protect other outlets from being censored in the future?” Tuna asked.

While welcoming the Constitutional Court’s ruling in the access ban case, she said Atalay’s situation is an example of problems facing Turkey’s judicial system.

“We essentially fulfilled our duty, and the Constitutional Court confirmed we were right,” she said. Tuna added that from this point on, the issue is what the Constitutional Court decisions mean for other courts and to what extent such decisions are implemented.

Diken, an independent media outlet, filed at least 118 applications to the Constitutional Court asking it to revoke access bans.

“The ruling has recorded our right to inform and people’s right to be informed, which we have defended from the very beginning,” said Erdal Guven, the editor-in-chief of Diken. “Yet, it is difficult to say that everything is all right.”

Local courts in Turkey have banned access to several VOA Turkish Service stories.

The Access Providers Association, an organization that implements media bans in Turkey, informed VOA Turkish that an Ankara court lifted a 2021 access ban on a news story, citing the recent ruling.

The content, however, is still not accessible in Turkey since a ban on VOA Turkish’s domain name over a licensing issue has been in effect since August 2023.

In January 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 9 of Law No. 5651 constituted “a structural problem” that caused the violation of freedom of press and expression. According to the court, the measure’s scope and limits were not clear, and the bans were placed without any input from affected media outlets.

The court gave parliament a year to come up with a solution, but lawmakers have taken no action on the matter.

This past January, the Constitutional Court decided to annul the measure, saying it limits freedom of the press. However, the repeal does not take effect until October.

IFOD’s Yaman Akdeniz has criticized the Constitutional Court for taking this long to annul the measure and decide on the caseload that has been growing since 2014.

“Since the article will be in effect until October 10, criminal judgeships of peace will continue to make decisions before the March 31 elections. The danger of censorship continues,” Akdeniz said. March 31 is when local elections are due to be held.

BirGun’s Gultekin also points out that lower courts can still implement access bans very quickly.

“[The courts] can issue an order to block within a few hours. The number of blocked news has recently reached five or six a week; I do not know the exact number,” Gultekin said.

This article originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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