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WASHINGTON — Tupperware Brands and some of its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, the food container firm said in a statement.

The company, known for its trademark food storage containers, has been hit by dwindling sales in recent years.

Last year the New York Stock Exchange-listed firm warned of “substantial doubt” about its ability to keep operating in light of its poor financial position.

“Over the last several years, the company’s financial position has been severely impacted by the challenging macroeconomic environment,” president and CEO Laurie Ann Goldman said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy filing.

“As a result, we explored numerous strategic options and determined this is the best path forward,” added Goldman.

The company said it would seek court approval for a sale process for the business to protect its brand and “further advance Tupperware’s transformation into a digital-first, technology-led company.”

The Orlando, Florida-based firm said it would also seek approval to continue operating during bankruptcy proceedings and would continue to pay its employees and suppliers.

“We plan to continue serving our valued customers with the high-quality products they love and trust throughout this process,” Goldman said.

The firm’s shares were trading at $0.5099 Monday, well down from $2.55 in December last year.

Tupperware said it had implemented a strategic plan to modernize its operations and drive efficiencies to ignite growth following the appointment of a new management team last year.

“The company has made significant progress and intends to continue this important transformation work.”

In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Tupperware listed assets of between $500 million and $1 billion and liabilities of between $1 billion and $10 billion.

The filing also said it had between 50,000 and 100,000 creditors.

Tupperware, whose name became synonymous with its airtight plastic containers, in recent years lost popularity with consumers and an initiative to gain distribution through big-box chain store Target failed to reverse its fortunes.

The company’s roots date to 1946, when chemist Earl Tupper “had a spark of inspiration while creating molds at a plastics factory shortly after the Great Depression,” according to Tupperware’s website.

“If he could design an airtight seal for plastic storage containers, like those on a paint can, he could help war-weary families save money on costly food waste.”

Over time, Tupper’s hermetically sealed plastic containers also became associated with “Tupperware Parties,” where friends would gather with food and drink as a company representative demonstrated the items.
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WASHINGTON/TOKYO — The U.S. national security panel reviewing Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel let the companies refile their application for approval of the deal, a person familiar with the matter said, delaying a decision on the politically sensitive merger until after the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The move offers a ray of hope for the companies, whose proposed tie-up appeared set to be blocked when the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) alleged on Aug. 31 the transaction posed a risk to national security by threatening the steel supply chain for critical U.S. industries.

CFIUS needs more time to understand the deal’s impact on national security and engage with the parties, the person said on Tuesday. Refiling sets a new 90-day clock to review the proposed tie-up and make a decision.

The review was expected to take close to the full 90 days, another person familiar with the matter said.

Nippon Steel declined to comment. CFIUS and U.S. Steel did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

“Extending the timeline takes pressure off the parties and, importantly, pushes the decision past the election in November,” said Nick Klein, a CFIUS lawyer with DLA Piper.

The deal has become a political hot potato. This month, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said at a rally in Pennsylvania, the swing state where U.S. Steel is headquartered, that she wants U.S. Steel to remain “American owned and operated,” echoing a view held by President Joe Biden.

The White House reiterated that position on Tuesday.

Harris’ Republican rival Donald Trump has pledged to block the deal if elected. Both candidates have sought to woo union votes.

Postponing the decision to after the U.S. elections will “dial down” the political temperature but does not guarantee approval, said David Boling, a former U.S. trade official who is now an analyst at Eurasia Group.

“Regardless of the CFIUS review, Nippon Steel still must reach an agreement with the United Steelworkers,” Boling said. “Without that, it’s very hard to see this deal happening.”

The United Steelworkers Union, which vehemently opposes the deal, said on Tuesday “nothing has changed regarding the risks that Nippon’s acquisition would pose to national security or the critical supply chain concerns that have already been identified.”

The deal is being closely watched in Japan, a close U.S. ally and its biggest foreign investor.

“Further strengthening economic relations, including expanding mutual investment between Japan and the U.S., are essential for both countries,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshi Moriya told reporters on Wednesday.

Nippon Steel shares were up 1.1% in afternoon trading in Tokyo. U.S. Steel shares closed down 0.4% on Tuesday.

CFIUS is concerned Nippon Steel’s merger could hurt the supply of steel needed for critical transportation, construction and agriculture projects, it said in its August letter to the companies, exclusively obtained by Reuters.

It also cited a global glut of cheap Chinese steel, and said that under Nippon, a Japanese company, U.S. Steel would be less likely to seek tariffs on foreign steel importers. It added that decisions by Nippon could “lead to a reduction in domestic steel production capacity.”

In a 100-page response letter to CFIUS, also exclusively obtained by Reuters, Nippon Steel said it will invest billions of dollars in U.S. Steel facilities that otherwise would have been idled, “indisputably” allowing it to “maintain and potentially increase domestic steelmaking capacity in the United States.”

The company also reaffirmed a promise not to transfer any U.S. Steel production capacity or jobs outside the U.S. and would not interfere in any of U.S. Steel’s decisions on trade matters, including decisions to pursue trade measures under U.S. law against unfair trade practices.

The deal, Nippon added, would “create a stronger global competitor to China grounded in the close relationship between the United States and Japan.”

Robust CFIUS reviews take 90 days but it is common for companies to withdraw their filings and resubmit them to give them more time to address the panel’s concerns.

According to CFIUS’s 2023 annual report, 18% of companies seeking deal approval refiled their applications last year. Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel filed for the review in March, and CFIUS allowed them to refile in June, starting a second 90-day clock that runs out on Sept. 23, Reuters reported on Friday.

In December, CFIUS could approve the deal, possibly with measures to address national security concerns, recommend that the president block it, or extend the timetable again.
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PENTAGON — Russia’s military is bigger and stronger than it was prior to invading Ukraine in February 2022, the commander of United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa cautioned Tuesday.

“Russia is getting larger, and they’re getting better than they were before. … They are actually larger than they were when [the invasion] kicked off,” Air Force General James Hecker told reporters at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

The improvements come despite heavy casualties inflicted by Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has estimated that since 2022, more than 350,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded.

“The rates of casualties that they’re experiencing are staggering,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday in response to a question from VOA.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered that the Russian army grow by 180,000 active-duty troops for a total of 1.5 million soldiers, making Russia’s military the second largest in the world, behind China’s.

“Russia is going to be something that we’re going to have to deal with for a long time, no matter how this thing ends,” Hecker said.

However, William Pomeranz, a senior scholar at the Kennan Institute, told VOA that “this move suggests that Vladimir Putin is losing the war.”

“This is an open signal from Vladimir Putin that his army and his military is in trouble and doesn’t have the resources to maintain troops in the field,” Pomeranz said.

Despite Russian improvements on the battlefield, Ukraine has continued to put chinks in Russia’s armor, shooting down more than 100 Russian aircraft since Moscow began its full-scale invasion, which amounts to dozens more aircraft than Russia has been able to down on the Ukrainian side, according to General Hecker.

“So what we see is the aircraft are kind of staying on their own side of the line, if you will, and when that happens, you have a war like we’re seeing today, with massive attrition, cities just being demolished, a lot of civilian casualties,” he said.

To gain even the slightest advantages in a war where no clear side dominates the skies, Ukraine has turned to low-cost solutions that also appeal to the U.S. military.

“We have to get on the right side of the cost curve with this. Taking down $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 one-way UAVs [drones] with $1 million missiles, we just can’t afford to do that in the long-term,” the general told reporters. 

General Chance Saltzman, the chief of the U.S. Space Force, announced Tuesday that a Space Force pilot program that uses commercial satellite imagery and related analytics to create more situational awareness for military leaders has proven very cost-effective when compared with traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection via U.S. MQ-9 drones, which are expensive and limited in number.

AFRICOM was able to use the $40 million Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking Program to maintain situational awareness during the full withdrawal of U.S. forces from two air bases in Niger in July and August. The drawback, however, was that instead of real-time situational awareness, the data took one to four hours to get to the security team.

“Not as good as real time, right? With MQ-9 that you would have, but it’s better than nothing, right?” Hecker said.

Hecker also said the U.S. was looking into more cost-effective ways to sense incoming threats around bases, including methods like Ukraine’s Sky Fortress system that uses thousands of inexpensive sensors to identify aerial threats. He says the technology has been demonstrated in Romania and other countries.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers welcomed Vladimir Kara-Murza to Capitol Hill Tuesday, celebrating the release of the Russian activist from a Kremlin prison last month. 

Kara-Murza was part of the biggest prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia since the end of the Cold War. 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin said Tuesday that Kara-Murza “was at the forefront of the human rights struggle and an inspiration for so many people around the world.” 

In a letter written upon Kara-Murza’s release, Cardin said, “Your return home is both a personal victory and a testament to the unwavering strength of the human spirit.” 

Democratic Representative Bill Keating described Kara-Murza as one of the people Russian President Vladimir Putin most despises because of his ability to speak directly to the Russian people. Kara-Murza has twice survived suspected poisoning attempts. 

Kara-Murza, a deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party, was arrested in Russia in April 2022 and later faced charges of treason and spreading disinformation about the Russian military. Russian prosecutors suggested he face the maximum 25-year sentence in a prison colony. 

Kara-Murza was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in October 2022 and the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2024. 

“Surreal doesn’t come close to describing what I feel — just a few weeks ago sitting in a maximum-security prison in Siberia and now seeing so many friends in the halls of the U.S. Congress,” Kara-Murza told a gathering of lawmakers, journalists and activists on Capitol Hill. 

Kara-Murza thanked the public for keeping their attention focused on his situation.

“The only way we will be able to achieve long-term peace, stability, security and democracy on the European continent will be with a peaceful, free and democratic Russia,” he said.

The Biden administration secured the release of 16 detainees in return for the release of eight detainees and two minors on Aug. 1.

James O’Brien, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, thanked Kara-Murza for his work on the Global Magnitsky Act, bipartisan legislation that authorizes the U.S. government to sanction government officials throughout the world who are human rights offenders.

“Vladimir, you gave us one of the main tools that we use to focus our advocacy for your freedom in the Global Magnitsky Act, and your work on that, I’m sure you didn’t do it as a tool for yourself, but your work on that has helped us enormously as we work to free prisoners in the Western Hemisphere, in other countries across the world,” O’Brien said.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons said Putin is still holding untold numbers of political prisoners in Russia.

“We must realize [Putin] does that, like all authoritarians, because he’s afraid, afraid of his own people, afraid of accountability, afraid of the Ukrainians who just on the border of Russia are fighting with determination,” Coons said.
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new york — Get ready for a partial lunar eclipse and supermoon, all rolled into one. 

The spectacle will be visible in clear skies across North America and South America Tuesday night and in Africa and Europe Wednesday morning. 

A partial lunar eclipse happens when the Earth passes between the sun and moon, casting a shadow that darkens a sliver of the moon and appears to take a bite out of it. 

Since the moon will inch closer to Earth than usual, it’ll appear a bit larger in the sky. The supermoon is one of three remaining this year. 

“A little bit of the sun’s light is being blocked so the moon will be slightly dimmer,” said Valerie Rapson, an astronomer at the State University of New York at Oneonta. 

The Earth, moon and sun line up to produce a solar or lunar eclipse anywhere from four to seven times a year, according to NASA. This lunar eclipse is the second and final of the year after a slight darkening in March. 

In April, a total solar eclipse plunged select cities into darkness across North America. 

No special eye protection is needed to view a lunar eclipse. Viewers can stare at the moon with the naked eye or opt for binoculars and telescopes to get a closer look. 

To spot the moon’s subtle shrinkage over time, hang outside for a few hours or take multiple peeks over the course of the evening, said KaChun Yu, curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. 

“From one minute to the next, you might not see much happening,” said Yu. 

For a more striking lunar sight, skywatchers can set their calendars for March 13. The moon will be totally eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow and will be painted red by stray bits of sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere. 
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The Biden and Trump administrations have accused China of unfair trade practices and flooding international markets with artificially cheap goods. Analysts say both presidential candidates are using tariffs to counter China and encourage U.S. manufacturing jobs. Elizabeth Lee explains how this trade war could impact consumers.
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Human rights groups have urged Britain not to copy Italy’s approach in trying to reduce the number of migrants arriving on its shores. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer traveled to Rome this week to learn more about its success in tackling migration, as a surge of people arrive on small boats across the English Channel. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Moscow — Iran’s president committed his country to deeper ties with Russia to counter Western sanctions on Tuesday, state media reported, amid U.S. worries that Tehran is supplying Moscow missiles to hit Ukraine.

Russia’s top security official Sergei Shoigu arrived in the Iranian capital days after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. More than two and a half years into its conflict with Ukraine, Moscow has been seeking to develop ties with the two nations, both hostile to the United States.

“My government will seriously follow ongoing cooperation and measures to upgrade the level of relations between the two countries,” the state IRNA news agency quoted Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian as telling Shoigu, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council.

“Relations between Tehran and Moscow will develop in a permanent, continuous and lasting way. Deepening and strengthening relations and cooperation between Iran and Russia will reduce the impact of sanctions.”

The United States views Moscow’s growing relationships with Pyongyang and Tehran with concern and says both are supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in the conflict in Ukraine.

Iran has denied sending ballistic missiles to Russia. Moscow has said only that Iran is Russia’s partner in all possible areas.

Shoigu’s trips are taking place at a crucial moment in the war, as Kyiv presses the United States and its allies to let it use Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike targets such as airfields deep inside Russian territory.

President Vladimir Putin said last week that Western countries would be fighting Russia directly if they gave the green light, and that Moscow would respond.

The Nour news agency, affiliated to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Shoigu met his Iranian opposite number, Ali Akbar Ahmadian. There was no immediate information on the outcome of the meeting.

Russia has repeatedly said it is close to signing a major agreement with Iran to seal a strategic partnership between the two countries.

Shoigu was Russian defense minister until May, when he was appointed secretary of the Security Council that brings together President Vladimir Putin’s military and intelligence chiefs and other senior officials.

Apart from meeting North Korea’s Kim last week, he also held talks in St. Petersburg with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
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Washington — More than 50 Burmese Americans gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, protesting China’s alleged interference in Myanmar’s internal affairs.

The protest on Saturday, part of a global campaign, called on China to withdraw its support for Myanmar’s military junta and respect the will of the people, who have been fighting for democracy since the February 2021 coup.

The protest — with demonstrators waving banners that read “Reject Junta’s Sham Elections” and “Solidarity With the People of Myanmar” — was sparked by a statement released earlier Saturday by the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar, saying that China was not interfering in the country’s affairs and would continue to promote peace and stability.

“We reject the Chinese Embassy’s statement that they’re not interfering in Myanmar’s internal matters,” said Yin Aye, a protest leader who has been organizing demonstrations in the Washington area since the 2021 coup. “If they would stop supporting sham elections and truly pressure the military to stop causing so much pain to our people, we might believe them.”

Yin Aye referred to China’s close ties with Myanmar’s military junta and its alleged interference in the operations of ethnic resistance forces in northern Shan State, actions that have drawn widespread criticism from Burmese and pro-democracy groups.

On August 29, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, an armed ethnic group fighting against the junta in northeastern Myanmar, said it had received a letter from Chinese authorities in the border town of Ruili warning the group to halt its offensive in northern Shan State, where key Belt and Road Initiative projects are located, or face consequences.

Hla Kyaw Zaw, a veteran observer of China-Myanmar relations, said China’s recent actions, particularly its warning to the TNLA, have sparked outrage among the Myanmar public, who view it as a direct threat to ethnic resistance forces fighting for democracy.

“The language used in the letter was undiplomatic and threatening,” Hla Kyaw Zaw told VOA’s Burmese Service.

A spokesperson for the TNLA told VOA that Chinese authorities had warned the group in the letter to stop fighting, maintain stability along the China-Myanmar border and protect Chinese citizens. The letter warned that failure to comply would result in China “teaching them a lesson” and holding the group responsible for any consequences.

When asked about the letter at a regular press briefing in late August, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jian did not confirm or deny Beijing had sent the letter.

“China is closely following the situation in Myanmar and the developments of the conflict in northern Myanmar and has been working to promote peacetalks and ceasefire,” spokesperson Liu Jian said. “As Myanmar’s biggest neighboring country, China has all along sincerely hoped that Myanmar will achieve stability and development and has worked actively to this end.”

Since then, members of the Myanmar diaspora have intensified protests outside Chinese embassies worldwide, accusing China of supporting Myanmar’s military coup.

Protests worldwide

Saturday’s protest in Washington was part of a series of coordinated demonstrations by Burmese diaspora communities worldwide.

In July, activists in Washington, New York, San Francisco, London and Tokyo protested outside Chinese embassies and consulates.

In the July protest in Washington, protesters attempted to hand deliver an open letter to Chinese authorities, urging Beijing to halt its support for Myanmar’s military junta. However, the letter went unanswered.

“When we handed the letter to the Chinese embassy here in D.C., they refused to accept it. They didn’t even acknowledge our demands,” said Yin Aye.

Activists were instructed to send the letter by post, but previous attempts to mail similar letters to the Chinese Embassy were returned undelivered.

Despite the lack of formal response, Myanmar activists say the Chinese Embassy in Washington has been monitoring their protest activities in recent weeks.

“Now, we see them videotaping our protests,” Yin Aye said.

Voice of America reached out to the Chinese embassies in Washington and Yangon for comment about the protests but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

War crimes allegations

The Myanmar diaspora argues that China’s support for Myanmar’s military is not only undermining the will of the people but also enabling war crimes, including aerial bombardments and the targeting of internally displaced persons.

Minmin Berwald, an activist of Myanmar descent, was compelled to participate in the protest on Saturday.

“I want to ask China to immediately stop supporting this military regime and interfering in Burma’s internal affairs,” Berwald said. “It’s not just homes being set on fire. Internally displaced people who have fled war are being bombarded.”

China’s contradictory stance

China has maintained a complex position toward Myanmar since the February 2021 coup, balancing its own interests with regional stability, Hla Kyaw Zaw said. She noted that China has sent high officials to Myanmar, called for peace in the country and sponsored mediating talks between the junta and the armed ethnic groups.

After the coup, however, China’s official Xinhua news agency described the military’s takeover and replacement of elected ministers as a “major cabinet reshuffle,” avoiding the use of the term “coup.”

Beijing called for all parties in Myanmar to “resolve their differences” and refrained from condemning the military. In 2022, China also abstained from voting on U.N. Security Council Resolution 2669, which called for an end to violence in Myanmar. However, critics argue that China’s actions on the ground suggest deeper involvement.

A veteran China-Myanmar affairs expert in Yangon, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said China’s statements often appear contradictory. “It’s clear that China wants to control the situation to its advantage,” the expert said, referring to China’s public calls for peace while its actions suggest otherwise.

China, for its part, has denied interfering in Myanmar’s internal affairs on multiple occasions. In its statement Saturday, the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar reiterated its position of noninterference and called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The embassy also condemned what it called “unjustified accusations” from individuals and media.

The fight continues

Protesters also called for China to take a more active role in cutting off support to Myanmar’s junta, including halting the supply of jet fuel used in airstrikes against civilians. Amnesty International has documented multiple cases of the Myanmar military using airpower to target civilian areas, and activists argue that China’s continued engagement with the junta implicates them in these atrocities.

For now, the protesters have vowed to keep returning to the Chinese Embassy in Washington. “We will continue to protest, continue to speak out,” said Yin Aye.
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Washington — Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. Congress has appropriated $174 billion, including U.S. weapons and materiel, to respond to the crisis and help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s aggression.

U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch calls the oversight of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine his office’s “job one,” with more than 200 people assigned to that task.

In an interview with Voice of America’s Ukrainian Service, Storch discussed the challenges in obtaining the information necessary for such oversight in a country that is fighting a war, suffers from endemic corruption and has no large-scale U.S. military presence.

According to the most recent quarterly Special Inspector General report to the U.S. Congress on Operation Atlantic Resolve (the name of the U.S. military response to Russian operations in Ukraine), issued in mid-August, there were 57 open investigations as of June 30, 2024. They involved “grant and procurement fraud, corruption, theft, program irregularities, and diversion and counter-proliferation of technology of weapons systems components.”

In January, Ukraine’s SBU security service reported that it had uncovered a $40 million corruption scheme, implicating defense ministry officials and arms supplier managers, that involved the embezzlement of funds for purchase of 100,000 mortar shells.

That case did not involve U.S.-provided materiel. However, in September 2023, Oleksii Reznikov was removed as Ukraine’s defense minister “over various corruption cases despite enjoying a solid reputation in representing Ukraine in its discussions with Western allies,” Reuters reported.

Storch told VOA that the Pentagon is working with Ukraine’s military to ensure that it provides timely and accurate information, and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government to fight corruption. He said that in the days immediately following Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s armed forces were delinquent in providing information, but that the situation has improved, in part thanks to oversight.

While corruption remains endemic in Ukraine, Storch said that Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions are maturing and that the oversight community is working to ensure that such progress continues. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: You are overseeing numerous Pentagon programs. How robust is oversight of the delivery of weapons to Ukraine?

Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense Robert Storch: We are leading a robust, comprehensive oversight effort that really covers all aspects of U.S. assistance to Ukraine. I have responsibility over the security assistance that’s provided, and we partner very closely, hand-in-glove, with our great colleagues from the State Department Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Inspector General to make sure we’re covering all aspects of humanitarian or other assistance that’s being provided to Ukraine.

VOA: How large is your team that is overseeing the Ukrainian program?

Storch: We have a lot of things pulling at us and lots going on in the world with the Department of Defense. But Ukraine is very much job one. I always say it’s really a matter of the highest priority for my office and for my colleagues’ offices as well.

So, in the case of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, we have over 200 people who are engaged in one aspect or another of oversight over U.S. security assistance to Ukraine. That includes about 30 people who were forward deployed in the region. We have several offices in Germany. We have folks in Poland. And we have both investigators and programmatic oversight personnel at the [U.S.] Embassy in Kyiv. If you take all of our partners from State and AID in oversight entities, it is between 300 and 400 people who are engaged in oversight in this whole-of-government effort.

VOA: When you talk to Ukrainian officials, do they appreciate the importance of reporting?

Storch: Without exception, they acknowledge the importance of making sure that we get the information we need to be able to do our oversight to make sure there’s accountability, and frankly to be able to tell the decision-makers here in Washington that that’s going on. …

I go up to the Hill [Capitol Hill, location of the U.S. Congress] not infrequently. And you know, I’m not a policymaker. It’s up to the administration and the Congress to set what the policies are. But one of the things I get asked all the time is, ‘Are we getting the information we need to carry out our work?’ and we have been getting that, and we’re going to work to make sure we continue to.

VOA: The Pentagon transfers materiel to the Ukrainian armed forces. Do they understand the importance of oversight, and do they provide timely self-reporting?

Storch: We work really closely to make sure that’s the case. That’s one of the big lines of effort with regard to our oversight. We’ve done a number of reports looking at the monitoring and the reporting. There are obligations that the Ukrainian armed forces have for reporting on the status of the equipment, and U.S. personnel keep track and there’s a database. When things are lost or destroyed, they have to be reported in a certain way. … [T]hat’s one area where I like to think that our oversight has really made a difference. When we first started on that, the level of delinquency in that reporting was really pretty high, and some of that was because, when the war started, the U.S. personnel had to leave the country.

There was equipment being provided and really no one doing that sort of accountability and inventory. So, a lot of it has been playing catch-up. And … there are challenges with a wartime setting and a lot of this equipment is being used on the front lines and [in] really difficult and sad situations. And so being able to maintain accountability is difficult, but we do a lot of work on that.

VOA: In one of your reports, you mentioned endemic corruption in Ukraine. You worked in Ukraine in 2007 to 2009 to help the country overcome corruption. Can you compare the situation in Ukraine now to what you saw back then?

Storch: I actually had the opportunity to work and live in Ukraine back in 2007 to 2009, when I was with the Department of Justice working with the Ukrainians to help them develop measures to address official corruption. And I had the opportunity to go back on a number of occasions and provide assistance in the drafting of the anti-corruption legislation, and that created the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Office of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, so I have had a lot of experience out there and have seen the way these institutions have matured. The Ukrainians made it happen …

But Ukraine has had long-standing issues with corruption, obviously, and people are working to address it. One of the things we talk about in our quarterly reporting … is that they’re continuing to make efforts to address it, and we continue as the United States both to provide assistance in that, and then, in the oversight community, to do oversight over that to make sure that progress is being made.

VOA: Your report mentions that there are 57 investigations ongoing into allegations ranging from irregularities in procurement to corruption, diversion and theft. Have any of those allegations been substantiated?

Storch: At this point, based on our completed work, we haven’t substantiated those allegations, but obviously the investigations continue, right?

VOA: About half of the allegations involve the proliferation of weapons. How high is the risk of diversion?

Storch: Sure, there’s a significant risk there, but we always want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to address it, and that’s why I mention the programmatic oversight.

We have a website [with] links to the hotlines that my office and our counterparts operate. I really encourage folks to take advantage of that to report that information. So, people can look into it.

VOA: There is reporting that the Pentagon overestimated the value of some of the U.S. equipment destined for Ukraine. Do you think this accounting error will persist or is it being corrected?

Storch: We’re doing everything we can to help the [Defense] Department to address it. We became concerned about that pretty early on and consulted with the department about it and, without getting too complex, basically the department was using a methodology to value the materiel that was being provided that resulted in an overvaluation of it. If you were donating your car, you probably wouldn’t be able to donate the cost of buying a new car like that, right? It’s a little more complicated than that, but basically it resulted in an overvaluation. Initially the Department looking into it found about $6.2 billion that they thought was overstated. We came in and did additional oversight, which is reflected in our reporting, and found about $1.9 billion additionally.

So, the answer to your question is we made recommendations to help the Department address the issues, and we’re going to keep working to make sure those recommendations are carried out and the problems addressed.
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London — Meta said it’s banning Russia state media organization from its social media platforms, alleging that the outlets used deceptive tactics to amplify Moscow’s propaganda. The announcement drew a rebuke from the Kremlin on Tuesday. 

The company, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said late Monday that it will roll out the ban over the next few days in an escalation of its efforts to counter Russia’s covert influence operations. 

“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets: Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” Meta said in a prepared statement. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov lashed out, saying that “such selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable,” and that “Meta with these actions are discrediting themselves.” 

“We have an extremely negative attitude towards this. And this, of course, complicates the prospects for normalizing our relations with Meta,” Peskov told reporters during his daily conference call. 

RT was formerly known as Russia Today. Rossiya Segodnya is the parent company behind state news agency RIA Novosti and news brands like Sputnik. 

“It’s cute how there’s a competition in the West — who can try to spank RT the hardest, in order to make themselves look better,” RT said in a release. 

Rossiya Segodnya did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. 

Meta’s actions comes days after the United States announced new sanctions on RT, accusing the Kremlin news outlet of being a key part of Russia’s war machine and its efforts to undermine its democratic adversaries. 

U.S. officials alleged last week that RT was working hand-in-hand with the Russian military and running fundraising campaigns to pay for sniper rifles, body armor and other equipment for soldiers fighting in Ukraine. They also said RT websites masqueraded as legitimate news sites but were used to spread disinformation and propaganda in Europe, Africa, South America and elsewhere. 

Earlier this month, the Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and charged two RT employees of covertly providing millions of dollars in funding to a Tennessee-based content creation company to publish English-language social media videos pushing pro-Kremlin messages. 

Moscow has rejected the allegations. 

Meta had already taken steps to limit Moscow’s online reach. Since 2020 it has been labeling posts and content from state media. Two years later, it blocked state media from running ads and putting their content lower in people’s feeds, and the company, along with other other social media sites like YouTube and TikTok, blocked RT’s channels for European users. Also in 2022 Meta also took down a sprawling Russia-based disinformation network spreading Kremlin talking points about the invasion of Ukraine. 

Meta and Facebook “already blocked RT in Europe two years ago, now they’re censoring information flow to the rest of the world,” RT said in its statement. 

Moscow has fought back, designating Meta as an extremist group in March 2022, shortly after sending troops into Ukraine, and blocking Facebook and Instagram. Both platforms — as well as Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, which is also blocked — were popular with Russians before the invasion and the subsequent crackdown on independent media and other forms of critical speech. The social media platforms are now only accessible through virtual private networks. 
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NEW YORK — Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with three federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.  

Combs, 54, was arrested in Manhattan by federal agents on Monday night, following a year in which his career was derailed by several lawsuits accusing him of physical and sexual abuse. 

Marc Agnifilo, Combs’ lawyer, said he was disappointed with the decision to pursue an “unjust prosecution” of the rapper and producer. 

“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community,” Agnifilo said on Monday night. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal.” 

Agnifilo added that Combs voluntarily relocated to New York in anticipation of the charges. 

Combs, who has also been known as P. Diddy and Puff Daddy, was a major figure in hip-hop in the 1990s and 2000s. He founded the label Bad Boy records, and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers such as Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars. 

His reputation came under fire last November when former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer known as Cassie, accused him in a lawsuit of serial physical abuse, sexual slavery and rape during their decade-long relationship. She agreed to an undisclosed settlement one day after suing, even as Combs denied her allegations. 

His legal pressures mounted, and he has faced several civil lawsuits by women and men who accused him of sexual assault and other misconduct. His lawyers have been fighting those cases in court. Federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Florida six months ago. 

Singer Dawn Richard, formerly of Danity Kane, last week accused Combs in a lawsuit of sexual assault, battery, sex trafficking, gender discrimination and fraud. 

A Michigan judge this month ordered Combs to pay $100 million to Derrick Lee Smith, who said Combs drugged and sexually assaulted him at a party almost 30 years ago, after Combs failed to show up to defend himself in court. A lawyer for Combs said he would seek to dismiss that judgment. 

Combs has also rejected claims in a February sex trafficking lawsuit by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who Combs employed as a producer on his 2023 release “The Love Album: Off the Grid.” 

The indictment is not Combs’ first brush with the law. He was acquitted in March 2001 of bribery and weapons charges in a criminal trial stemming from a nightclub shooting that left three people wounded.
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LONDON — Less than two months ahead of the COP29 United Nations Climate Summit, the Azerbaijani leadership laid out its plans on Tuesday for what it hoped to achieve, as countries continue to wrestle with how to raise ambitions for a new financing target.

The main task for the November summit is for countries to agree on a new annual target for funding that wealthy countries will pay to help poorer nations cope with climate change. Many developing countries say they cannot upgrade their targets to cut emissions faster without first receiving more financial support to invest in doing this.

With countries remaining far from agreement on the financing goal, the COP29 presidency this week outlined more than a dozen side initiatives that could raise ambitions, but do not require party negotiation and building consensus which can hamper progress. These take the form of new funds, pledges, and declarations that national governments can adopt.

Notably, this includes a fund with voluntary contributions from fossil fuel producing countries and companies for the public and private sectors working on climate issues, as well as grants that can be doled out to assist with climate-fueled natural disasters in developing countries.

Such side agendas use “the convening power of COP and the hosts’ respective national capabilities to form coalitions and drive progress,” said Mukhtar Babayev, who holds the rotating COP presidency, in a letter to all parties and stakeholders.

Over 120 countries pledged at last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai, for example, to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.

The COP29 presidency also hopes to build support around a pledge to increase global energy storage capacity six times above 2022 levels, reaching 1,500 gigawatts by 2030. This would include a commitment to scale up investments in energy grids, adding or refurbishing more than 80 million km by 2040.

Babayev, who is Azerbaijan’s minister of ecology and natural resources, said the agenda would “help to enhance ambition by bringing stakeholders together around common principles and goals.”

“We hope to address some of the most pressing issues while also highlighting remaining priorities,” he said.

Another declaration would see countries and companies create a global market for clean hydrogen, addressing regulatory, technological, financing and standardization barriers.

COP29 leaders have also appealed for a “COP Truce” that would highlight the importance of peace and climate action.

Despite countries’ existing climate commitments, carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels hit a record high last year, and the world just registered its hottest summer on record as temperatures climb.
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PARIS — When French prosecutors took aim at Telegram boss Pavel Durov, they had a trump card to wield – a tough new law with no international equivalent that criminalizes tech titans whose platforms allow illegal products or activities.

The so-called LOPMI law, enacted in January 2023, has placed France at the forefront of a group of nations taking a sterner stance on crime-ridden websites. But the law is so recent that prosecutors have yet to secure a conviction.

With the law still untested in court, France’s pioneering push to prosecute figures like Durov could backfire if its judges balk at penalizing tech bosses for alleged criminality on their platforms.

A French judge placed Durov under formal investigation last month, charging him with various crimes, including the 2023 offence: “Complicity in the administration of an online platform to allow an illicit transaction, in an organized gang,” which carries a maximum 10-year sentence and a $556,300 fine.

Being under formal investigation does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to trial, but indicates judges think there’s enough evidence to proceed with the probe. Investigations can last years before being sent to trial or dropped.

Durov, out on bail, denies Telegram was an “anarchic paradise.” Telegram has said it “abides by EU laws,” and that it’s “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

In a radio interview last week, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau hailed the 2023 law as a powerful tool for battling organized crime groups who are increasingly operating online.

The law appears to be unique. Eight lawyers and academics told Reuters they were unaware of any other country with a similar statute.

“There is no crime in U.S. law directly analogous to that and none that I’m aware of in the Western world,” said Adam Hickey, a former U.S. deputy assistant attorney general who established the Justice Department’s (DOJ) national security cyber program.

Hickey, now at U.S. law firm Mayer Brown, said U.S. prosecutors could charge a tech boss as a “co-conspirator or an aider and abettor of the crimes committed by users” but only if there was evidence the “operator intends that its users engage in, and himself facilitates, criminal activities.”

He cited the 2015 conviction of Ross Ulbricht, whose Silk Road website hosted drug sales. U.S. prosecutors argued Ulbricht “deliberately operated Silk Road as an online criminal marketplace … outside the reach of law enforcement,” according to the DOJ. Ulbricht got a life sentence.

Timothy Howard, a former U.S. federal prosecutor who put Ulbricht behind bars, was “skeptical” Durov could be convicted in the United States without proof he knew about the crimes on Telegram, and actively facilitated them – especially given Telegram’s vast, mainly law-abiding user base.

“Coming from my experience of the U.S. legal system,” he said, the French law appears “an aggressive theory.”

Michel Séjean, a French professor of cyber law, said the toughened legislation in France came after authorities grew exasperated with companies like Telegram.

“It’s not a nuclear weapon,” he said. “It’s a weapon to prevent you from being impotent when faced with platforms that don’t cooperate.”

Tougher laws

The 2023 law traces its origins to a 2020 French interior ministry white paper, which called for major investment in technology to tackle growing cyber threats.

It was followed by a similar law in November 2023, which included a measure for the real-time geolocation of people suspected of serious crimes by remotely activating their devices. A proposal to turn on their devices’ cameras and mouthpieces so that investigators could watch or listen in was shot down by France’s Constitutional Council.

These new laws have given France some of the world’s toughest tools for tackling cybercrime, with the proof being the arrest of Durov on French soil, said Sadry Porlon, a French lawyer specialized in communication technology law.

Tom Holt, a cybercrime professor at Michigan State University, said LOPMI “is a potentially powerful and effective tool if used properly,” particularly in probes into child sexual abuse images, credit card trafficking and distributed denial of service attacks, which target businesses or governments.

Armed with fresh legislative powers, the ambitious J3 cybercrime unit at the Paris prosecutor’s office, which is overseeing the Durov probe, is now involved in some of France’s most high-profile cases.

In June, the J3 unit shut down Coco, an anonymized chat forum cited in over 23,000 legal proceedings since 2021 for crimes including prostitution, rape and homicide.

Coco played a central role in a current trial that has shocked France.

Dominique Pelicot, 71, is accused of recruiting dozens of men on Coco to rape his wife, whom he had knocked out with drugs. Pelicot, who is expected to testify this week, has admitted his guilt, while 50 other men are on trial for rape.

Coco’s owner, Isaac Steidel, is suspected of a similar crime as Durov: “Provision of an online platform to allow an illicit transaction by an organized gang.”

Steidel’s lawyer, Julien Zanatta, declined to comment.
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PHOENIX — A judge has rejected a bid by Mark Meadows, a former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, to move his charges in Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court, marking the second time he has failed in trying to get his charges out of state court.

In a decision Monday, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi said Meadows missed a deadline for asking for his charges to be moved to federal court, didn’t offer a good reason for doing so and failed to show that the allegations against him related to his official duties as chief of staff to the president.

Meadows faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what authorities allege was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor. He had unsuccessfully tried to move charges in the Georgia case last year. It’s unknown whether Meadows will appeal the decision. The Associated Press left phone and email messages for two of Meadows’ attorneys.

While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows, while chief of staff, worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat. Meadows has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona and Georgia.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.

The decision sends Meadows’ case back down to Maricopa County Superior Court.

In both Arizona and Georgia, Meadows argued his charges should be moved to federal court because his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump’s chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law.

Arizona prosecutors said Meadows’ electioneering efforts weren’t part of his official duties at the White House.

Meadows last year tried to get his Georgia charges moved but his request was rejected by a judge whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court. Meadows has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling.

The Arizona indictment says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Prosecutors say Meadows also had arranged meetings and calls with state officials to discuss the fake elector conspiracy.

Meadows and other defendants are seeking a dismissal of the Arizona case.

Meadows’ attorneys said nothing their client is alleged to have done in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people trying to get ideas in front of Trump — or “seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal efforts by the president’s campaign.”

In all, 18 Republicans were charged in late April in Arizona’s fake electors case. The defendants include 11 Republicans who had submitted a document falsely claiming Trump had won Arizona, another Trump aide and five lawyers connected to the former president.

In August, Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation.

The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the forgery, fraud and conspiracy charges in Arizona.

Trump wasn’t charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator.

The 11 people who were nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried the state.

A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.
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An apparent assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the weekend raised new questions Monday about political violence in the United States. Democratic and Republican leaders called for more resources for the U.S. Secret Service. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more
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geneva — Seven candidates are competing for one of the biggest and best jobs in world sports that traditionally becomes available only every 12 years.

The International Olympic Committee announced on Monday which of its members in a most exclusive and discreet club have entered the race to be its next president. The election by secret ballot is in March.

The winner will replace Thomas Bach, a German lawyer who steps down in June upon reaching the maximum 12 years in office.

The 10th IOC president could be its first female leader, or its first from Africa or Asia. Or even its first from Britain.

They will take over a financially stable organization that demands deft skills in the challenging arenas of sports and real-world politics.

Who are the candidates?

• Prince Feisal al Hussein, an IOC member since 2010, on its executive board since 2019. Founder of the Generations for Peace sports charity. His older brother is King Abdullah II of Jordan.

• Sebastian Coe, IOC member since 2020. President of World Athletics since 2015. Olympic champion in men’s 1,500 meters in 1980 and 1984. Elected lawmaker in British Parliament from 1992 to 1997. Led the 2012 London Olympics organizing committee.

• Kirsty Coventry, IOC member since 2013, on executive board for a second time since 2023. Olympic champion in women’s 200-meter backstroke in 2004 and 2008. Appointed sports minister in Zimbabwe government since 2018. Chairs IOC panel overseeing the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

• Johan Eliasch, IOC member since August. President of International Ski and Snowboard Federation since 2021. Owner of Head sports equipment brand, CEO until 2021. Swedish-British citizen.

• David Lappartient, IOC member since 2022. President of International Cycling Union since 2017. President of France’s Olympic committee and leader of French Alps bid that will host 2030 Winter Games. Chair of IOC esports panel that steered the Esports Olympic Games to Saudi Arabia.

• Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., IOC member since 2001, vice president since 2022, and member of the executive board from 2012 to 2020. Founder of a Spain-based investment bank. Created Samaranch Foundation to promote the Olympics in China in honor of his father, who was IOC president from 1980 to 2001.

• Morinari Watanabe, IOC member since 2018. Japanese president of the International Gymnastics Federation since 2017.

When is the election and who votes?

The IOC election meeting is on March 18-21 at a resort hotel in Greece, near the site of Ancient Olympia.

Candidates and their compatriots cannot vote, leaving about 95 eligible to take part in March. Among them, members of European and Asian royal families, including the Emir of Qatar; diplomats and lawmakers, including a former president of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović; businesspeople, including Nita Ambani, whose husband is India’s richest man; leaders of sports bodies; current and former Olympic athletes.

What is the IOC president’s job?

It’s an executive role running a not-for-profit organization that employs hundreds of staff at a modern lakeside headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The IOC earns several billion dollars in revenue every four years from selling broadcasting and sponsor rights for the Summer Games and Winter Games.

Most of the money is distributed to the Olympic family: organizers of upcoming Games, including youth editions, governing bodies of Olympic sports, more than 200 national Olympic bodies, scholarships for potential Olympic athletes and special projects.

The job ideally calls for a deep knowledge of managing sports, understanding athletes’ needs and political skills.

How long can IOC presidents stay in the job?

A maximum of 12 years, with a first term of eight years and the chance for one re-election for a further four.

However, the IOC has an age limit of 70 and complex rules around membership status. It means some of the seven candidates could have to seek a special exemption while in office to complete a full eight-year mandate.

What are the challenges and big decisions ahead?

• Picking a host for the 2036 Summer Games, with India and Qatar as strong contenders.

• Renewing the United States broadcast deal that has typically underwritten Olympic finances. Bach moved quickly in 2014 to renew NBC’s deal through 2032. The next deal starts with the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

• Both decisions factor into wider questions in regard to drafting the global sports calendar. July-August has been the optimal Summer Games slot since 2004. But a 2036 Doha Olympics could not be held in those months, and where could Games be comfortably held after another decade of climate change?

• When and how can Russia be reintegrated fully into international sports with no end to its invasion of Ukraine in sight? Coe’s world track and field body currently excludes Russian athletes entirely.
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Germany began implementing checks on all its land borders Monday as the government tries to crack down on irregular migration. As Henry Ridgwell reports, many of Germany’s neighbors have criticized the plan, which they say undermines the core European Union principle of freedom of movement.
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DAKAR, Senegal — The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Niger is complete, an American official said Monday. 

A small number of military personnel assigned to guard the U.S. Embassy remain, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters. 

Earlier this year, Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement that allowed U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. A few months later, officials from both countries said in a joint statement that U.S. troops would complete their withdrawal by the middle of September. 

The U.S. handed over its last military bases in Niger to local authorities last month, but about two dozen American soldiers had remained in Niger, largely for administrative duties related to the withdrawal, Singh said. 

Niger’s ouster of American troops following a coup last year has broad ramifications for Washington because it’s forcing troops to abandon critical bases that were used for counterterrorism missions in the Sahel. groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate in the vast region south of the Sahara desert. 

One of those groups, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, known as JNIM, is active in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and is looking to expand into Benin and Togo. 

Niger had been seen as one of the last nations in the restive region that Western nations could partner with to beat back growing jihadi insurgencies. The U.S. and France had more than 2,500 military personnel in the region until recently, and together with other European countries had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance and training. 

In recent months Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, turning instead to Russia for security. In April, Russian military trainers arrived in Niger to reinforce the country’s air defenses.
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America’s adversaries are ramping up efforts to impact the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and down-ballot races. VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin reports on the expanding array of sophisticated influence operations taking aim at U.S. voters
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NEW YORK — A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges stemming from an alleged plot to assassinate an American politician in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards top commander Qassem Soleimani. 

Asif Merchant, 46, entered his plea to one count of attempting to commit terrorism across national boundaries and one count of murder for hire at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Levy in Brooklyn. 

The judge ordered that Merchant be detained pending trial. 

Federal prosecutors say Merchant spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot. 

Merchant told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the United States, prosecutors said. 

The defendant named Donald Trump as a potential target but had not conceived the scheme as a plan to assassinate the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Court papers do not name the alleged targets, and no attacks were made. As president, Trump had in 2020 approved the drone strike on Soleimani. 

There are no suggestions that Merchant was tied to an apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday, or a separate shooting of the Republican presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.  

Merchant was arrested in Texas on July 15. 

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in August that the “modus operandi” described in Merchant’s court papers ran contrary to Tehran’s policy of “legally prosecuting the murder of General Soleimani.”
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