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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday kept on hold in roughly half the country new regulations about sex discrimination in education, rejecting a Biden administration request.

The court voted 5-4, with conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch joining the three liberal justices in dissent.

At issue were protections for pregnant students and students who are parents, and the procedures schools must use in responding to sexual misconduct complaints.

The most noteworthy of the new regulations, involving protections for transgender students, were not part of the administration’s plea to the high court. They remain blocked in 25 states and hundreds of individual colleges and schools across the country because of lower court-orders.

The cases will continue in those courts.

The rules took effect elsewhere in U.S. schools and colleges on August 1.

The rights of transgender people — and especially young trans people — have become a major political battleground in recent years as trans visibility has increased. Most Republican-controlled states have banned gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, and several have adopted policies limiting which school bathrooms trans people can use and barring trans girls from some sports competitions.

In April, President Joe Biden’s administration sought to settle some of the contention with a regulation to safeguard the rights of LGBTQ+ students under Title IX, the 1972 law against sex discrimination in schools that receive federal money. The rule was two years in the making and drew 240,000 responses — a record for the Education Department.

The rule declares that it’s unlawful discrimination to treat transgender students differently from their classmates, including by restricting bathroom access. It does not explicitly address sports participation, a particularly contentious topic.

Title IX enforcement remains highly unsettled. In a series of rulings, federal courts have declared that the rule cannot be enforced in most of the Republican states that sued while the litigation continues.

In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court majority wrote that it was declining to question the lower-court rulings that concluded that “the new definition of sex discrimination is intertwined with and affects many other provisions of the new rule.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent that the lower-court orders are too broad in that they “bar the government from enforcing the entire rule — including provisions that bear no apparent relationship to respondents’ alleged injuries.”
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NEWARK, New jersey — New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy tapped his former chief of staff Friday to temporarily replace convicted U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and said he would appoint whoever wins the post in November as soon as election results were certified.

Democratic Representative Andy Kim and Republican hotelier Curtis Bashaw are competing in the race. Murphy said that he spoke to both about his plans.

“I expressed to them that this approach will allow the democratically chosen winner of this year’s election to embark on the smallest possible transition into office,” Murphy said at a news conference.

Former chief of staff George Helmy promised during Friday’s announcement to resign after the election.

Helmy’s appointment underscored Murphy’s decision to not appoint Kim, who is in a strong position in the November election. Kim and first lady Tammy Murphy were locked in a primary struggle for the Senate seat earlier this year before Tammy Murphy dropped out, citing the prospects for a negative, divisive campaign.

The stakes in the Senate election are high, with Democrats holding on to a narrow majority. Republicans have not won a Senate election in Democratic-leaning New Jersey in over five decades.

Helmy’s appointment won’t take effect until after Menendez’s resignation on August 20. The governor said he picked Helmy because he understands the role after serving as an aide to New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker and former New Jersey U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg.

Murphy also praised Helmy’s work as his top aide, and the two embraced briefly after Helmy spoke.

Helmy, 44, served as Murphy’s chief of staff from 2019 until 2023 and currently serves as an executive at one of the state’s largest health care providers, RWJBarnabas Health. He previously served as Booker’s state director in the Senate. The son of Egyptian parents who immigrated to New Jersey, Helmy attended public schools in New Jersey and then Rutgers University.

“New Jersey deserves its full voice and representation in the whole of the United States Senate,” he said.

Menendez, 70, used his influence to meddle in three different state and federal criminal investigations to protect the businessmen, prosecutors said. They said he helped one bribe-paying friend get a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund and another keep a contract to provide religious certification for meat bound for Egypt.

He was also convicted of taking actions that benefited Egypt’s government in exchange for bribes, including providing details on personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators regarding lifting a hold on military aid to Egypt. FBI agents found stacks of gold bars and $480,000 hidden in Menendez’s house.

Menendez denied all the allegations.

“I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country,” he said after his conviction.

Menendez said in a letter to Murphy last month that he was planning to appeal the conviction but would step down on August 20, just over a month after the jury’s verdict.
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washington — John Lansing, who served as chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, died Wednesday at his lakeside home in Wisconsin at the age of 67. His cause of death was not immediately announced.

Lansing became the chief of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, known as USAGM, in 2015. The USAGM is the parent organization that oversees outlets including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.

In a written statement, USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett called Lansing “a relentless advocate for press freedom, journalist safety, and connecting people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”

While CEO of USAGM, Lansing created a committee made up of the heads of each of the agency’s networks “so we could regularly talk through the state of the world together,” Bennett said.

“John did a lot to modernize this agency,” said Bennett. “From adopting a digital-first content strategy, to enhancing internet freedom initiatives, to renaming the agency USAGM from BBG — his vision was transformative.” 

While leading USAGM, Lansing stood up for press freedom.

“Despite some very dark moments, we have not been silenced,” he said on World Press Freedom Day in 2019. “We will continue to report the truth. We will continue to find new ways to get independent reporting and programming to global audiences who rely on it.”

Under Lansing’s leadership, USAGM networks increased their global weekly audience by more than 100 million. He also expanded the agency’s use of platforms ranging from encrypted live broadcasting to shortwave radio in order to push content into countries that jam or ban American programming.

While Lansing led USAGM, the agency in 2017 launched Current Time TV, a Russian-language TV and digital network led by RFE/RL in partnership with VOA.

Left ‘indelible positive impact’ at NPR

Lansing stepped down from his role at USAGM in 2019. After leaving USAGM, he joined National Public Radio, where he served as chief executive until stepping down early this year.

In a statement, Lansing’s successor at NPR, CEO Katherine Maher, lauded how he understood the importance of NPR’s role in supporting American democracy.

“John had a tremendous impact on NPR’s workplace culture and led the organization through some of its most difficult times,” Maher said in the statement. “His commitment to improving NPR’s audience and staff diversity has left an indelible positive impact.”

Maher said Lansing “inspired those around him with his integrity and compassion, and his loss will be felt deeply by our staff and across the public radio system.”

Lansing led NPR throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which began just months into his start at the news outlet. During his tenure at NPR, the outlet won more than 90 awards for its reporting, including its first Pulitzer in 2021.

Career included leading Scripps

Lansing started in journalism when he was 17 years old at a local television station in Kentucky. Later in his career, he served for nine years as president of the Scripps Networks, which oversees stations such as the Food Network and the Travel Channel.

He also served as CEO of Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, a marketing association comprised of 90 of the top U.S. and Canadian cable companies and television programmers.

Lansing is survived by his wife Jean, and their four children, Alex, Jackson, Nicholas and Jennifer.
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ISTANBUL — Firefighters were tackling blazes across Turkey on Friday as dry, hot and windy weather conditions led to a series of fires, including one that threatened World War I memorials and graves at the Gallipoli battle site.

At the peninsula where an Allied landing was beaten back by Ottoman troops in a yearlong campaign in 1915, the flames reached Canterbury Cemetery, where soldiers from New Zealand are interred.

Images of the site in northwest Turkey showed soot-blackened gravestones in a scorched garden looking out over the Aegean Sea.

The fire was brought under control by Friday. Officials said it was started by a spark from electricity lines that spread through forested areas.

Elsewhere, however, the continuous work of emergency crews stretched over days and nights.

On the west coast, a fire threatened houses on the outskirts of Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, where a blaze broke out in woods Thursday night. Residents fled their homes as ash fell around them.

“The fire in the Dogancay region unfortunately reached residential areas due to the wind. We want our citizens living in the region to evacuate their homes as soon as possible,” District Mayor Irfan Onal posted on social media.

In Manisa Province, a fire was burning for the third day in Gordes, a rural wooded district in Turkey’s northwest. Nearly 80 homes were evacuated and most buildings in the village of Karayakup suffered severe fire damage, the Demiroren News Agency reported.

Meanwhile, in nearby Bolu, firefighters were working for a second day to put out a blaze.

Turkey has mobilized dozens of aircraft, hundreds of vehicles and thousands of personnel to fight the fires. Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli warned of a heightened risk of wildfires over the weekend due to low humidity, high winds and high temperatures.

“Our intervention capability and capacity is limited to a certain point,” he told journalists. “It is not possible to emerge victorious from this struggle without the support of our citizens. Therefore, I request high-level sensitivity especially in these three days.”

The General Directorate of Forestry warned people not to light fires outside for the next 10 days due to the current weather conditions across western Turkey, warning of a 70% greater risk of wildfires.

Earlier this week, firefighters in neighboring Greece fought a fire that burned an area almost twice the size of Manhattan. The fire north of Athens gutted scores of homes before it was contained Tuesday. One person was killed.

In June, a fire spread through settlements in southeast Turkey, killing 11 people and leaving dozens of others requiring medical treatment.
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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday designated a national monument at the site of the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois, a seminal moment in the United States’ long and difficult history with racial violence targeting Black people. 

Biden was joined in the Oval Office by lawmakers as well as civil rights and community leaders as he signed the proclamation establishing the monument on 1.57 acres of federal land. The monument is intended to be a solemn reminder of the two-day riot sparked by mobs of white residents tearing through Illinois’ capital city under the pretext of meting out judgment against two Black men — one jailed on a sexual assault charge involving a white woman, and the other jailed in the separate murder of a white man. 

The Democratic president’s effort to establish the monument comes as he looks to burnish his legacy in his final months in office. Biden is also looking to help Vice President Kamala Harris contrast herself with former President Donald Trump, who is aiming to cut into Democrats’ historic edge with Black voters. 

“We can’t let these things fade,” Biden said before signing the proclamation. He added, “I know this may not seem significant to most Americans, but it’s of great significance. … It can happen again if we don’t take care of and fight for our democracy.” 

The issue of racial violence continues to reverberate throughout the country. The monument designation was announced less than six weeks after the shooting death of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, by a white sheriff’s deputy in her Springfield home after she called 911 for help. 

Biden said he saw the establishment of the Springfield monument as an opportunity to recognize a significant moment of the Black community’s resilience. The event helped spur the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Still, Biden, who has repeatedly criticized Trump for sowing racial discord and failing to speak out against white supremacy, expressed concern in his Oval Office remarks that the country is at a moment where he continues “worrying about people wanting to erase history.” 

The 1908 riot was a chilling episode that started just blocks from where Abraham Lincoln had once lived. 

After authorities secretly moved the prisoners from the jail and sent them to another lockup about 60 miles away, the mob took out their anger on the city’s Black population. 

Two Black men, Scott Burton and William Donnegan, were lynched, dozens of Black-owned and Jewish-owned businesses were looted and vandalized, and several Black-owned homes were damaged or destroyed. At least eight white people were also killed in the violence, and more than 100 were injured, mostly by members of the state’s militia or one another, according to news articles from that period. 

The National Guard was called in to restore order. White rioters were charged but later acquitted for their roles in the lynching and destruction. 

Fed-up civil rights leaders met in New York and chose the centennial of Lincoln’s birthday, Feb. 12, 1909, to form the NAACP, whose original board included scholar W.E.B. Du Bois. 

The National Park Service in 2018 completed a reconnaissance survey of sites associated with the Springfield riot and a special resource study in 2023 that found the sites met the criteria for inclusion in the National Park System. 

“Good things can come out of bad things as long as you don’t forget what happened,” said Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who was on hand for the signing. 

Over the course of his presidency, Biden has signed into law legislation codifying lynching as a federal hate crime, established Juneteenth as a federal holiday, and signed a proclamation establishing a national monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi honoring Emmett Till, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. 

The 14-year-old Emmett was tortured and killed in 1955 after he had been accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. His mother, Till-Mobley, insisted on an open casket at the funeral to show the world how her son had been brutalized. Jet magazine’s decision to publish photos of his mutilated body helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement. 
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Washington — As the trial into the murder of a Las Vegas investigative journalist got underway this week, defense attorney Robert Draskovich argued in court that “killing a journalist does not kill a story.”

The statement came on the opening day of the trial against Robert Telles. The 47-year-old former Clark County public administrator is accused of murder with a deadly weapon against a victim aged 60 or older.

The victim is Jeff German, a 69-year-old reporter at The Las Vegas Review-Journal, who was found stabbed to death outside his suburban Las Vegas, Nevada, home on September 3, 2022.

Telles has pleaded not guilty.

German had reported on alleged mismanagement in Telles’ office. When Telles later lost a reelection bid in 2022, he posted a letter online in which he attacked the Review-Journal for its coverage.

In court on Wednesday, prosecutors outlined what they have previously said is “overwhelming” evidence against Telles, including that the former public administrator had downloaded images of German’s house onto his work computer and had done research on German’s car. Prosecutors have also previously said that DNA matching that of Telles was found beneath German’s fingernails and on his hands.

“In the end, this case isn’t about politics. It’s not about alleged inappropriate relationships. It’s not about who’s a good boss or who’s a good supervisor or favoritism at work,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Pamela Weckerly said. “It’s just about murder.”

As part of the defense’s argument, Telles’ attorney said that his client did not have a motive to kill German because “killing a journalist does not kill a story.”

Multiple press freedom experts told VOA that line of reasoning stood out to them as shocking — including because it’s factually incorrect, they said.

“That’s absurd. It’s a little preposterous,” Kirstin McCudden, vice president of editorial for Freedom of the Press Foundation, told VOA. “Killing a journalist kills stories. It kills stories every day, all over the world, and it certainly has a chilling effect on any journalist who wants to hold powerful people to account.”

Other press freedom experts agreed.

“It makes no sense. Very often the death of a journalist is the death of a story. No one knows what additional reporting Jeff German could have done if he were still alive,” Clayton Weimers, the head of the U.S. bureau of Reporters Without Borders, told VOA in an email.

In the first week of the trial, three of German’s neighbors testified, including the man who first found German’s body. Other witnesses included detectives, a medical examiner and former associates of the defendant.

Based on surveillance footage, former Metropolitan Police Department homicide detective Cliff Mogg testified that he believed Telles’ vehicle, a maroon Yukon Denali, “was the one used in the commission of Jeffrey German’s murder.”

After German’s killing, police publicized images of the suspect walking on a sidewalk near the reporter’s home and the Denali car driving away.

Real estate agent Zackary Schilling, who helped sell homes through the public administrator’s office and first met Telles in 2020, testified that he recognized the suspect’s walk, his shoes and the vehicle.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Hamner asked, “Who was the person you were thinking of?”

“I was thinking of Mr. Telles,” Schilling said. When asked about the suspect’s shoes, Schilling said, “They’re the cheap Nikes he always wore.”

Schilling also testified that he knew about the stories German had written about Telles and that he saw images published in the media of the suspect’s vehicle.

“It just came down my spine,” Schilling said. “I was like holy crap. I didn’t want to believe it, but the facts are the facts. That was Rob Telles’ car.”

The case is the first in U.S. history in which an elected official is accused of murdering an American journalist.

“Understanding that this is believed to be a crime about the work that he was doing is incredibly chilling and scary for journalists,” said McCudden, who is based in New York.

Journalist killings are rare in the United States. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, in New York, 17 journalists and media workers have been killed in the U.S. since the watchdog started keeping records in 1992. Of those, the CPJ has said it believes 15 cases — including German’s — were in relation to the journalist’s work.

And while impunity is high globally — journalist murders go unpunished in nearly 80% of cases around the world, according to the CPJ — pending a verdict in the German case, no journalist murder in the United States that has gone entirely unpunished since the group started keeping track.

Accountability in these cases is especially important because it sends the message that targeting journalists is unacceptable, according to Katherine Jacobsen, the U.S. and Canada program coordinator at the CPJ. Attacks against journalists can also have a chilling effect on other reporters, she said.

“Because of that public face that many journalists have, killing them does have a ripple effect throughout the community,” she told VOA.
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BEIJING — BMW was recalling more than 1.3 million vehicles in China that might have Takata airbag inflators following a similar recall in the United States last month, officials said Friday.

The recall covers nearly 600,000 vehicles made in China between 2005 and 2017 and more than 750,000 imported vehicles made between 2003 and 2018, the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation said.

It includes a wide range of models, from series 1 to series 6 cars and the X1, X3, X4, X5 and X6 SUVs.

A small number of vehicles in the recall may have Takata inflators if the owner changed the steering wheel, the Chinese regulatory body said. The inflator can explode when the airbag deploys, sending fragments into the car and injuring the occupants, it said.

Takata airbag inflators have been blamed for the deaths of at least 35 people since 2009 in the United States, Malaysia and Australia.

U.S. regulators said last month that BMW would recall more than 390,000 vehicles because the original steering wheel may have been replaced with a sport or M-sport steering wheel equipped with a Takata inflator.

Ford and Mazda warned the owners of more than 475,000 vehicles in the U.S. earlier this week not to drive them because they have Takata airbag inflators. The vehicles were built between 2003 and 2015.

Stellantis, following a fatal explosion in the U.S. last year, urged the owners of some 2003 Dodge Ram pickups to stop driving them if their air bag inflators had not been replaced.

The Chinese regulator said that BMW owners can visit a dealer to have their steering wheel checked or upload a photo of their steering wheel and their vehicle identification number to get an answer in two weeks. BMW will replace the driver’s side airbag free of charge in affected vehicles.
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ANKARA, TURKEY — A fistfight broke out in Turkey’s parliament on Friday when an opposition deputy was attacked after calling for his colleague Can Atalay, jailed on charges of organizing antigovernment protests but since elected a member of parliament, to be admitted to the assembly.

Video footage showed MPs for the ruling AKP party rushing in to punch Ahmet Sik at the lectern and dozens more joining a melee, some trying to hold others back. Blood spattered the white steps of the speaker’s podium.

Atalay was sentenced to 18 years in 2022 after being accused of trying to overthrow the government by allegedly organizing the nationwide Gezi Park protests in 2013 with philanthropist Osman Kavala, also now jailed, and six others. All deny the charges.

Despite his imprisonment, Atalay was elected to parliament in May last year to represent the Workers’ Party of Turkey, or TIP. Parliament stripped him of his seat, but on August 1 the Constitutional Court declared his exclusion null and void.

“We’re not surprised that you call Can Atalay a terrorist, just as you do everyone who does not side with you,” Sik told AKP lawmakers in a speech. “But the biggest terrorists are the ones sitting in these seats.”

The deputy parliament speaker declared a 45-minute recess after the fistfight.

The TIP also called for Atalay’s release from prison.

Brawls are not unheard-of in Turkish parliament. In June, AKP lawmakers scuffled with pro-Kurdish DEM Party MPs over the detention and replacement of a DEM Party mayor in southeast Turkey for alleged militant links.
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NEW YORK — As students return to colleges across the United States, administrators are bracing for a resurgence in activism against the war in Gaza, and some schools are adopting rules to limit the kind of protests that swept campuses last spring. 

While the summer break provided a respite in student demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war, it also gave both student protesters and higher education officials a chance to regroup and strategize for the fall semester. 

The stakes remain high. At Columbia University, President Minouche Shafik resigned Wednesday after coming under heavy scrutiny for her handling of the demonstrations at the campus in New York City, where the wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments began last spring. 

Some of the new rules imposed by universities include banning encampments, limiting the duration of demonstrations, allowing protests only in designated spaces and restricting campus access to those with university identification. Critics say some of the measures will curtail free speech. 

The American Association of University Professors issued a statement Wednesday condemning “overly restrictive policies” that could discourage free expression. Many of the new policies require protesters to register well in advance and strictly limit the locations where gatherings can be held, as well as setting new limits on the use of amplified sound and signage.

“Our colleges and universities should encourage, not suppress, open and vigorous dialogue and debate even on the most deeply held beliefs,” said the statement, adding that many policies were imposed without faculty input. 

The University of Pennsylvania has outlined new “temporary guidelines” for student protests that include bans on encampments, overnight demonstrations, and the use of bullhorns and speakers until after 5 p.m. on class days. Penn also requires that posters and banners be removed within two weeks of going up. The university says it remains committed to freedom of speech and lawful assembly. 

At Indiana University, protests after 11 p.m. are forbidden under a new “expressive activities policy” that took effect August 1. The policy says “camping” and erecting any type of shelter are prohibited on campus, and signs cannot be displayed on university property without prior approval. 

The University of South Florida now requires approval for tents, canopies, banners, signs and amplifiers. The school’s “speech, expression and assembly” rules stipulate that no “activity,” including protests or demonstrations, is allowed after 5 p.m. on weekdays or during weekends and not allowed at all during the last two weeks of a semester. 

A draft document obtained over the summer by the student newspaper at Harvard University showed the college was considering prohibitions on overnight camping, chalk messages and unapproved signs. 

“I think right now we are seeing a resurgence of repression on campuses that we haven’t seen since the late 1960s,” said Risa Lieberwitz, a Cornell University professor of labor and employment law who serves as general counsel for the AAUP. 

Universities say they encourage free speech as long as it doesn’t interfere with learning, and they insist they are simply updating existing rules for demonstrations to protect campus safety. 

Tensions have run high on college campuses since the October 7 Hamas terror attack in southern Israel killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. 

Many student protesters in the U.S. vow to continue their activism, which has been fueled by Gaza’s rising death toll, which surpassed 40,000 on Thursday, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. 

About 50 Columbia students still face discipline over last spring’s demonstrations after a mediation process that began earlier in the summer stalled, according to Mahmoud Khalil, a lead negotiator working on behalf of Columbia student protesters. He blamed the impasse on Columbia administrators. 

“The university loves to appear that they’re in dialogue with the students. But these are all fake steps meant to assure the donor community and their political class,” said Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. 

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. 

The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan was roiled earlier this year by student demonstrations, culminating in scenes of police officers with zip ties and riot shields storming a building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters. 

Similar protests swept college campuses nationwide, with many leading to violent clashes with police and more than 3,000 arrests. Many of the students who were arrested during police crackdowns have had their charges dismissed, but some are still waiting to learn what prosecutors decide. Many have faced fallout in their academic careers, including suspensions, withheld diplomas and other forms of discipline. 

Shafik was among the university leaders who were called for questioning before Congress. She was heavily criticized by Republicans who accused her of not doing enough to combat concerns about antisemitism on the Columbia campus. 

She announced her resignation in an emailed letter to the university community just weeks before the start of classes on September 3. The university on Monday began restricting campus access to people with Columbia IDs and registered guests, saying it wanted to curb “potential disruptions” as the new semester draws near. 

“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in the community,” Shafik wrote in her letter. “Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.” 

Pro-Palestinian protesters first set up tent encampments on Columbia’s campus during Shafik’s congressional testimony in mid-April, when she denounced antisemitism but faced criticism for how she responded to faculty and students accused of bias. 

The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, only for the students to return and inspire a wave of similar protests at campuses across the country as students called for schools to cut financial ties with Israel and companies supporting the war. 

The campus was mostly quiet this summer, but a conservative news outlet in June published images of what it said were text messages exchanged by administrators while attending a May 31 panel discussion titled “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present and Future.” 

The officials were removed from their posts, with Shafik saying in a July 8 letter to the school community that the messages were unprofessional and “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.” 

Other prominent Ivy League leaders have stepped down in recent months, largely because of their response to the volatile protests on campus. 

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned in December after less than two years on the job. She faced pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy. 

And in January, Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned amid plagiarism accusations and similar criticism over her testimony before Congress. 

 
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine shot down all five Russia-launched drones during an overnight attack, the country’s air force said Friday.

Russian forces also used three ballistic Iskander-M missiles during the attack, according to the air force’s statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia used three Shahed-type drones and two drones of an unidentified type for the attack, it said.

Reuters previously reported that Russia turned to using cheaply made drones in some of its attacks on Ukraine to try to identify air defenses and act as decoys.

The governors of Kyiv and Kirovohrad regions reported no damage or casualties following the attack.

Air defense worked in the capital Kyiv overnight with no damage reported by the city’s authorities.

On Thursday, the military turned on the air alerts four times to notify the city’s residents about possible attacks.

The air alert has come on over 1,200 times in Kyiv since the start of the full-scale invasion, authorities said on Friday.
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SYDNEY — Joint production of hypersonic missiles by Australia and the United States could reduce strain on the U.S. defense industrial base and boost deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region, U.S. Republican lawmaker Michael McCaul said in Sydney on Friday.

In an interview, the chair of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee said the Australian manufacture of the cutting-edge weapons provided an example of how streamlined licensing of sensitive U.S. defense technology, and license exemptions on 70% of defense exports to Australia from September 1, would help the U.S. compete with China in developing advanced weapons.

Hypersonic missiles, which travel in the upper atmosphere more than five times faster than sound, were tested by China in 2021, prompting a technology race with the United States. Their recent use by Russia in the Ukraine war, sparked concern among members of NATO.

A Chinese hypersonic weapon “could hit Australia in a matter of minutes and Australia cannot stop that right now. So we need to catch up to that,” McCaul said.

“I was at a hypersonic company just yesterday and we want to move towards co-production,” he added.

“It is already starting and that is the exciting thing and it will help relieve the stress that we see on the defense industrial base,” he added.

Australia is testing a Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) with the United States, which it will consider as its first such weapon for fighter jets, the defense and foreign ministers of the two countries said after talks last week.

McCaul said his visit focused on the AUKUS partnership with the United States and Britain to transfer nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, as well as develop other advanced defense technologies.

The AUKUS alliance was an example of a U.S. ally spending more on its own defense, he said, when asked if a reelected Donald Trump would continue to back a growing U.S. defense posture in Australia, and the sale of U.S. nuclear submarines next decade.

AUKUS talks had started under the Republican Trump presidency, he added.

“I think there will be strong support for it,” he said.

Rotations of U.S. nuclear submarines through Australia under AUKUS are a deterrent factor in the region, where the Philippines is under pressure from China in the South China Sea, he said, after visiting the Philippines.

“Chairman Xi, I think, fears this alliance more than anything else because he knows what it means – it means that nuclear submarines will be rotating, but also these innovative technologies that we have,” he added, in a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In Beijing this week, the Chinese foreign ministry said AUKUS “harms efforts” to keep the region peaceful and secure and exacerbates the arms race.
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More than two and a half years into Russia’s war in Ukraine, Germany is considering slashing military assistance to Kyiv by 50%. Berlin is the European Union’s largest donor of military aid to Ukraine and second only to the United States, but domestic politics are casting doubt on that role. Marcus Harton narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in Berlin.
Camera: Ricardo Marquina 
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Ernesto strengthened into a Category 2 storm Thursday night as it barreled toward Bermuda after leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico without power or water. Sweltering heat enveloped the U.S. territory, raising concerns about people’s health.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Bermuda, with Ernesto expected to pass near or over the island Saturday.

The storm was centered about 660 kilometers south-southwest of Bermuda late Thursday. Its maximum sustained winds had risen to 155 kph, and the storm was moving north-northeast at 22 kph over open waters.

“I cannot stress enough how important it is for every resident to use this time to prepare. We have seen in the past the devastating effects of complacency,” said National Security Minister Michael Weeks.

Ernesto was forecast to possibly reach Category 3 strength Friday and then weaken as it approaches Bermuda, where it was forecast to drop 15 to 30 centimeters of rain, with up to 38 centimeters in isolated areas.

“All of the guidance show this system as a large hurricane near Bermuda,” said the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Ernesto was then expected to pass near or east of Atlantic Canada on Monday.

Meanwhile, the spinning storm on Thursday was generating southern winds in Puerto Rico, which have a heating effect as opposed to the typical cooling trade winds that blow from the east.

“We know a lot of people don’t have power,” said Ernesto Morales with the National Weather Service as he warned of extreme heat and urged people to stay hydrated.

More than 290,000 of 1.4 million customers remained in the dark Thursday evening, more than a day after Ernesto swiped past Puerto Rico late Tuesday as a tropical storm before strengthening into a hurricane. A maximum of 735,000 clients had been without power Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands also were without water as many questioned the widespread power outage given that Ernesto was only a tropical storm when it spun past the island.

“I haven’t slept at all,” said Ramón Mercedes Paredes, a 41-year-old construction worker who planned to sleep outdoors on Thursday night to beat the heat. “I haven’t even been able to take a shower.”

At a small park in the Santurce neighborhood of the San Juan capital, Alexander Reyna, a 32-year-old construction worker, sipped on a bright red sports drink that friends provided as roosters crowed nearby above the slap of dominoes.

He had no water or power and planned to spend all day at the park as he lamented the lack of breeze, a slight film of sweat already forming on his forehead: “I have to come here because I cannot stand to be at home.”

The situation worried many who lived through Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4 storm that hit Puerto Rico in September 2017 and was blamed for at least 2,975 deaths in its sweltering aftermath. It also razed the island’s power grid, which is still being rebuilt.

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory on Thursday warning of “dangerously hot and humid conditions.”

Faustino Peguero, 50, said he was concerned about his wife, who has fibromyalgia, heart failure and other health conditions and needs electricity. He has a small generator at home, but he is running out of gasoline and cannot afford to buy more because he hasn’t found work.

“It’s chaos,” he said.

Officials said they don’t know when power will be fully restored as concerns grow about the health of many in Puerto Rico who cannot afford generators or solar panels on the island of 3.2 million people with a more than 40% poverty rate.

Crews have flown more than 870 kilometers across Puerto Rico and identified 400 power line failures, with 150 of them already fixed, said Juan Saca, president of Luma Energy, a private company that operates the transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico. The remaining failures will take more time to fix because they involve fallen trees, he added.

“We haven’t seen anything catastrophic,” he said.

When pressed for an estimate of when power would be restored, Alejandro González, Luma’s operations director, declined to say.

“It would be irresponsible to provide an exact date,” he said.

At least 250,000 customers across Puerto Rico also were without water given the power outages, down from a maximum of 350,000. Among them was 65-year-old Gisela Pérez, who was starting to sweat as she cooked sweet plantains, pork, chicken and spaghetti at a street-side diner. After her shift, she planned to buy gallons of water, since she was especially concerned about her two small dogs: Mini and Lazy.

“They cannot go without it,” she said. “They come first.”
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white house — President Joe Biden said Thursday he supports new elections in Venezuela, giving a VOA reporter a two-word response — “I do” — when asked “do you support new elections in Venezuela?”

Brazil’s leader had proposed a rerun of the July 28 election, which the White House says opposition challenger Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won. Protests have bubbled up in the wake of President Nicolas Maduro’s victory claim, and the leader of the opposition is calling for massive protests this Saturday.  

But the administration told VOA hours later that Biden understood VOA’s question differently, leaving it unclear whether this represents a shift in Washington’s position on Venezuela’s political crisis.  

A National Security Council spokesperson reiterated the administration’s stance, telling VOA in an email that Biden “was speaking to the absurdity of Maduro and his representatives not coming clean about the July 28 elections.” 

“It is abundantly clear to the majority of the Venezuelan people, the United States, and a growing number of countries that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the most votes on July 28. The United States again calls for the will of the Venezuelan people to be respected and for discussions to begin on a transition back to democratic norms.” 

The spokesperson did not say definitively where Biden stands on whether the election should be repeated.  

Earlier Thursday, an NSC spokesperson told VOA that the Biden administration is “considering a range of options to incentivize and pressure Maduro to recognize the election results and will continue to do so.” 

White House seeks vote data

Separately, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters: “We want to see the actual vote tallies, the data, and we haven’t seen that yet. So, we still need to see that.” 

Kirby also added, “it is not true that there’s been amnesty offered to Mr. Maduro” as part of any deal to resolve the crisis.  

Shortly after the election, Maduro began cracking down on political opponents, prompting rights groups to sound the alarm.

Strained ties 

Washington has long had strained ties with Caracas, Venezuela, caused by ideological differences with the left-leaning country, doubts about the validity of previous elections, U.S. sanctions on officials over human rights abuses, and crippling American economic sanctions on the oil-rich nation. 

Venezuela’s situation has led to a northward exodus of millions of Venezuelans, leaving both American authorities and those migrants in a delicate position.

Celia Mendoza, Carolina Valladares and Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this story.
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Washington — The United States welcomed Thursday’s announcement by Sudan’s sovereign council to allow the use of the Adre border crossing with Chad for three months, while continuing efforts to bring both sides of Sudan’s warring military factions to the negotiating table.

The opening of the Adre border crossing is a long-awaited move by aid organizations aiming to deliver humanitarian assistance to famine-threatened areas of the Darfur region. The war-torn country faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

We “welcome the news as it relates to this border crossing with Chad,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told VOA during a briefing on Thursday. “We are continuing to call on the SAF [Sudanese Armed Forces] and RSF [Rapid Support Forces] to facilitate unrestricted humanitarian access through any and all available channels.”

The United States has invited leaders from both warring factions to Geneva, Switzerland, for talks aimed at negotiating a potential cease-fire to end the 16-month civil war.

The SAF had already rejected the talks several days earlier, while the RSF delegation, though in Switzerland, was absent from Wednesday’s open session.

“We’re still very focused on getting both sides in Sudan back to the table and to come to meaningful agreements about laying their arms down and doing the right thing for the people of Sudan,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.

“You certainly need both military actors to be part of” the conversation on a cessation of violence, Patel told reporters on Thursday.

Diplomats from the African Union, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations were at the U.S.-mediated talks, which opened on Wednesday.

“Day 2 of our diplomatic talks on Sudan is under way. We continue our relentless work with international partners to save lives and ensure we achieve tangible results that build upon the Jeddah Process and implement the Jeddah Declaration,” U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello wrote on X.

The Jeddah Declaration, reached in May 2023, calls for full aid access by land and air to all populations regardless of who controls the area.

More than a year of fighting between SAF and RSF troops has displaced nearly 10 million people across the greater Horn of Africa country and left 26 million facing crisis-level hunger.  

“The medical system in Sudan is at a breaking point. Hospitals designed to serve tens of thousands are overwhelmed with over half a million displaced people, while the international community’s pledged aid remains largely undelivered,” Adil Al-Mahi, humanitarian organization MedGlobal’s country director in Sudan, told VOA on Thursday.

He added that the last operational hospital in El Fasher may be forced to close due to intense shelling. El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is the battleground for intense conflict between the SAF and RSF.

“The Saudi Hospital, the last public hospital in North Darfur, is barely functioning after continued bombardments. With each attack, it becomes increasingly clear that there is no regard for the protection of health facilities or the civilians within them. The international community must urgently intervene to protect these vital lifelines before it’s too late,” Al-Mahi said.
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Azerbaijan and Armenia are in an arms race that threatens to undermine U.S.-backed peace talks between the two Caucasus countries. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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los angeles — A prosecutor says five people have been charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death from a ketamine overdose last year, including the actor’s assistant and two doctors.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada announced the charges Thursday, saying the doctors supplied Perry with a large amount of ketamine and even wondered in a text message how much the former “Friends” star would be willing to pay.

“These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong,” Estrada said.

Perry died in October due to a ketamine overdose and received several injections of the drug on the day he died from his live-in personal assistant. The assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, is the one who found Perry dead later that day.

The actor went to the two charged doctors in desperation after his regular doctors refused to give him ketamine in the amounts he wanted. DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in one instance the actor paid $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that cost one of the physicians about $12.

Two of the people, including one of the doctors charged, were arrested Thursday, Estrada said. Two of the defendants, including Iwamasa, have pleaded guilty to charges already, and a third person has agreed to plead guilty.

Multiple messages left seeking comment from lawyers or offices for all the defendants have not yet been returned.

Among those arrested Thursday are Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who is charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and also two charges related to allegations he falsified records after Perry’s death.

The other person arrested Thursday is Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors described as a drug dealer known as the “ketamine queen.”

Ketamine supplied by Sangha caused Perry’s death, authorities said.

Sangha and Plasencia could make their first court appearances later Thursday.

Records show Plascencia’s medical license has been in good standing with no records of complaints, though it is set to expire in October.

A San Diego physician, Dr. Mark Chavez, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Prosecutors allege Chavez funneled ketamine to Plasencia, securing some of the drug from a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription.

The prosecutor said the defendants exchanged messages soon after Perry’s death referencing ketamine as the cause of death. Estrada said they tried to cover up their involvement in supplying Perry ketamine, a powerful anesthetic that is sometimes used to treat chronic pain and depression.

Los Angeles police said in May that they were working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with a probe into why the 54-year-old had so much of the surgical anesthetic in his system.

Iwamasa found the actor face down in his hot tub on Oct. 28, and paramedics who were called immediately declared him dead.

The assistant received the ketamine from Eric Fleming, who has pleaded guilty to obtaining the drug from Sangha and delivering it to Iwamasa. In all, he delivered 50 vials of ketamine for Perry’s use, including 25 handed over four days before the actor’s death.

Perry’s autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery.

Ketamine has seen a huge surge in use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain. People close to Perry told coroner’s investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy.

But the medical examiner said Perry’s last treatment 1½ weeks earlier wouldn’t explain the levels of ketamine in his blood. The drug is typically metabolized in a matter of hours. At least two doctors were treating Perry, a psychiatrist and an anesthesiologist who served as his primary care physician, the medical examiner’s report said. No illicit drugs or paraphernalia were found at his house.

Ketamine was listed as the primary cause of death, which was ruled an accident with no foul play suspected, the report said. Drowning and other medical issues were contributing factors, the coroner said.

Drug-related celebrity deaths have in other cases led authorities to prosecute the people who supplied them.

After rapper Mac Miller died from an overdose of cocaine, alcohol and counterfeit oxycodone that contained fentanyl, two of the men who provided him the fentanyl were convicted of distributing the drug. One was sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison, the other to 10 years.

And after Michael Jackson died in 2009 from a lethal dose of propofol, a drug intended for use only during surgery and other medical procedures and not for the insomnia the singer sought it for, his doctor, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011. Murray has maintained his innocence.
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