RIYADMEDIA

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Gaborone, Botswana — Botswana and an American biotech firm, Ginkgo Bioworks, have partnered to conduct pathogen surveillance at the country’s entry points. Health officials say the proactive move is meant to safeguard public health as the world faces emerging disease threats.

Botswana introduced mpox screening last month for travelers at its entry points.

In a statement Wednesday, Ministry of Health spokesperson Christopher Nyanga said a pathogen-monitoring program is critical to detecting similar emerging health threats.

Dr. Mbatshi Mazwiduma, a public health expert, said the pathogen-surveillance program will complement existing strategies to prevent disease threats.

“The initiative by the Ministry of Health is a very welcome development in the sense that it is at least demonstrating that they are both embracing traditional methods of surveillance and disease detection plus at the same time, they are looking at other innovative ways of disease detection,” he said.

Through the collaboration, Boston-based Gingko Bioworks will work with the Ministry of Health to collect and monitor travelers’ samples. Nasal swabs will be used to collect the samples.

Nyanga said testing will be done on a voluntary, anonymous basis.

“Although participation in this initiative is entirely voluntary, travelers are encouraged to participate because this early detection of pathogens is meant to safeguard the health of all citizens, visitors and residents of this country,” he said. “The samples collected will be kept anonymous. The data collected from the samples will be vital in strengthening the country’s robust health system and response to public health threats and emergencies.”

But Mazwiduma said voluntary participation in the pathogen-monitoring program could hinder effective disease detection.

“Perhaps if non-invasive, non-intrusive, the technique should be compulsory because it ensures that the number of people who comply to sample acquisition is increased and, therefore, you can actually rapidly achieve suitable sample sizes for you to be able to ensure that you do not miss any patients, but also more importantly that it allows you to improve your validation of these particular technologies,” Mazwiduma said.

Botswana and Gingko Bioworks previously collaborated in a 2022 pathogen-monitoring program to detect new and emerging COVID-19 variants.

During the same year, Botswana was credited with the discovery of COVID-19 variant omicron.
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WARSAW, Poland — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with senior Polish government officials on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia and deepening U.S. defense cooperation with Warsaw.

Washington’s top diplomat travels to NATO ally Poland following a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, where he heard Ukrainian officials’ appeals to be allowed to fire Western-supplied missiles deep into Russian territory.

Blinken is scheduled to meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, President Andrzej Duda and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, according to their offices.

More than 2-1/2 years since Russia’s invasion began, Ukrainian forces are being pressured on the battlefield by a better armed and bigger foe, as they try to fend off Russian gains in the east where Moscow is focusing its attacks.

In a bid to regain some of the initiative and divert Russian forces, Kyiv last month sent troops into Russia’s Kursk region, but progress has stalled.

The security of Poland’s eastern flank will also feature in the discussions with Blinken, said Mieszko Pawlak, head of the international policy bureau at Duda’s office.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made defense a top priority for eastern members of the NATO alliance, and Poland has sought to strengthen the borders it shares with Belarus and Russia.

Relations between Poland and Russia have deteriorated sharply since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into neighboring Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Warsaw has ramped up defense spending in response and expects record defense spending in 2025 of $47.95 billion.

Deepening energy cooperation is also expected to be a topic of discussion while Blinken is in Warsaw, the State Department said on Tuesday. Pawlak said cooperation on civilian nuclear energy including building the first Polish nuclear power plant would be on the agenda.
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UNITED NATIONS — The United States supports creating two permanent United Nations Security Council seats for African states and one seat to be rotated among small island developing states, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield will announce on Thursday.

The move comes as the U.S. seeks to repair ties with Africa, where many are unhappy about Washington’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, and deepen relations with Pacific Islands nations important to countering Chinese influence in the region.

Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters she hopes the announcement will “move this agenda forward in a way that we can achieve Security Council reform at some point in the future,” describing it as part of U.S. President Joe Biden’s legacy.

The push for two permanent African seats and a rotating seat for small island developing states is in addition to Washington’s long-held support for India, Japan and Germany to also get permanent seats on the council.

Developing nations have long demanded permanent seats on the Security Council, the most powerful body in the United Nations. But years of talks on reform have proved fruitless and it is unclear whether U.S. support could fuel action.

Ahead of making the announcement at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Thursday, Thomas-Greenfield clarified to Reuters that Washington does not support expanding veto power beyond the five countries that hold it.

The Security Council is charged with maintaining international peace and security and has the power to impose sanctions and arms embargos and authorize the use of force.

When the U.N. was founded in 1945, the Security Council had 11 members. This increased in 1965 to 15 members, made up of 10 elected states serving two-year terms and five permanent veto-wielding nations: Russia, China, France, the U.S. and Britain.

Legitimacy problem

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres backs Security Council reform.

“You have a Security Council that corresponds exactly to the situation after the Second World War … that has a problem of legitimacy, and that has a problem of effectiveness, and it needs to be reformed,” Guterres told Reuters on Wednesday.

Any change to the Security Council membership is done by amending the founding U.N. Charter. This needs the approval and ratification by two-thirds of the General Assembly, including the Security Council’s current five veto powers.

The 193-member U.N. General Assembly has annually discussed reform of the Security Council for more than a decade. But momentum has grown in recent years as geopolitical rivalries have deadlocked the council on several issues, particularly after permanent veto-wielding member Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Much of the conversation around Security Council reform has been just that: a conversation,” Thomas-Greenfield will say on Thursday, according to prepared remarks reviewed by Reuters of her announcement that Washington supports moving to negotiations on a draft text to amend the U.N. Charter to expand the council.

Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters she could not say how long it might take to get the General Assembly to vote on such a resolution.

Each year the General Assembly elects five new members from different geographical groups for two-year terms on the Security Council. Africa currently has three seats rotated among states.

“The problem is, these non-permanent seats don’t enable African countries to deliver the full benefit of their knowledge and voices to the work of the council … to consistently lead on the challenges that affect all of us – and disproportionately affect Africans,” Thomas-Greenfield will say.

She will also say that small island developing states deserve a rotating elected seat because they offer “critical insights on a range of international peace and security issues: including, notably, the impact of climate change.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris joined President Joe Biden in commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the worst terror attack on American soil. Whoever takes the presidency in January, whether Harris or her rival, former President Donald Trump, also at the ceremonies, will continue to face a range of threats. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from ground zero in New York, from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and from the Pentagon.
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washington — The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program remains in limbo with another court hearing set for October 10.

Judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on the case, initiated in 2018 by Texas and other Republican-led states seeking to end DACA. The program offers temporary protection from deportation and work permits to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who are often referred to as “Dreamers.”

The case centers on whether DACA exceeds presidential authority, immigration advocates from the coalition “Home is Here” said during a recent conversation with reporters.

“Our response to that is that presidential authority in the area of immigration, and particularly the discretion exercised by the executive branch, is very broad and certainly encompasses the type of program that DACA is, which is now a regulation,” Nina Perales, vice president of litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said during the call.

A central issue in the case is whether Texas and other states have the standing to sue.

Texas and other Republican-led states have argued that DACA has harmed them financially because they are spending resources on education, health care and other services on undocumented immigrants who were allowed to remain in the country illegally.

But Perales, who will be one of the attorneys arguing the case in October, said that “Texas cannot show any injury as a result of DACA” because recipients contribute to their communities and states by paying taxes and more.

A final decision could take a while, said Perales, who noted the 5th Circuit could take “as long as 18 months” to rule.

And the case could end in several ways: The 5th Circuit might dismiss the case, send it back to the lower court or rule against DACA, which could then be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“One possible scenario is that the 5th Circuit decides [U.S. District] Judge [Andrew] Hanen didn’t evaluate the evidence properly and sends the case back to [him],” she said.

If that happens, Perales said, DACA recipients might benefit from the current case’s legal state, which allows recipients to continue renewing their DACA benefits while awaiting the courts’ final resolution. The Biden administration continues to accept new applications but does not process them.

How we got here

Former President Barack Obama, frustrated with congressional inaction on the Dream Act, created DACA by executive order in 2012. Some DACA recipients arrived legally, but their families later overstayed their visas; others arrived by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization. They are now in their mid-20s to late 30s, and they come from around the world.

In 2018, Texas and other Republican-led states sued the federal government, arguing not only that they were being harmed financially but also that only Congress has the authority to grant immigration benefits.

In 2022, the Biden administration revised the program in hopes of satisfying one of the arguments made in federal courts by Republican-led states — that the program was not created properly. Biden officials issued the new version of DACA in late August. It went through a period of public comments as part of a formal rule-making process to increase its odds of surviving this legal battle.

In a February 2023 statement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, wrote in a statement on his website that “the Obama and Biden programs are practically indistinguishable in both the negative harms that they will have on this country and in the illegal means used to implement them. I am therefore calling for the new DACA rule to end in the same way that the Obama-era rule did: struck down as unlawful.”

But DACA has support. In October 2022, a coalition of dozens of influential corporations, including Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, sent a letter to Republicans and Democrats in Congress urging a bipartisan solution for the almost 600,000 immigrants who are enrolled in DACA.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, DACA has “improved recipients’ employment outcomes, increased the labor force participation rates of those who are eligible, decreased their unemployment rates, and boosted earnings for those with the lowest incomes.”

MPI’s analysis shows that DACA holders contribute “nearly $42 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product each year and add $3.4 billion to the federal balance sheet.”

Bruna Bouhid-Sollod, a former DACA recipient and current senior political director at United We Dream, highlighted the emotional impact of the uncertainty.

“The importance of making [the impact] really clear is really important. … DACA recipients and their families are dealing with an extreme amount of stress,” she said.

With renewal periods lasting just two years, many recipients are in constant limbo, unsure if their work permits and deportation protections will remain intact.

There is a lot at stake, according to immigration lawyers and advocates.

“Unless you’re living in it … you don’t think about the impact it has on the people that are waiting for their lives to be decided by this case,” Bouhid-Sollod said.
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Abuja, Nigeria — The two-day pan-African AI conference co-hosted by the United States concluded Wednesday in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub.

Hundreds of delegates including public officials, tech leaders, policy makers academics and entrepreneurs attended the conference to hold talks about the development and use of safe, secure and trustworthy AI systems in Africa.

The U.S. deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, spoke at the summit about the opportunity at hand.

“A global technology revolution is well under way — the race to develop and deploy new technologies, including artificial intelligence, is already shaping everything about our lives,” said Campbell. “We aim to foster collaborations between the United States and Africa AI researchers, policy makers and industry leaders, so that we can work together to drive innovation and address common challenges. This will enable us to share the benefits of AI globally.”

The conference is a significant step in Africa’s technological future.

Campbell said artificial intelligence can be used to address problems like global health, food security, education, energy and climate change, and asserted the conference has provided the ground for African voices in AI to shape emerging global AI systems.

“I cannot overstate Africa’s growing importance in the global technology landscape,” said Campbell. “By developing human capital and strengthening research and innovation ecosystems and building and AI ready institutional and regulatory environment, we can help AI work for Africa. The African Union’s landmark AI strategy sets the roadmap for African countries to harness AI’s potential to achieve developmental aspirations in education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, peace and security and good governance.”

In July, the African Union launched the continent’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, saying AI is pivotal in transforming Africa into a global technology hub, and it called on member states to adopt the strategy.

On Tuesday, Nigeria’s minister of communication, innovation and digital economy, Bosun Tijani, announced a $61,000 grant for Nigeria’s brightest AI startups.

“For us to truly harness artificial intelligence for our collective benefits, we must be deliberate and collaborative in our approach,” said Tijani. “We just ensure that our digital transformation journey is inclusive, equitable and human focused.”

Africa currently represents 2.5% of the global AI market, according to the Artificial Intelligence for Development Africa, or AI4D.

But analysts say with more talks about safe use, AI applications could boost Africa’s economy by $2.9 trillion by the year 2030 with Kenya, South Africa and Nigerian markets taking the lead.
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MOSCOW — A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American blasted off Wednesday for an express trip to the International Space Station. 

The space capsule atop a towering rocket set off at 1623 GMT from Russia’s manned space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and was scheduled to dock with the space station three hours later, in contrast to some missions that last for days. 

The mission commander is Alexei Ovchinin, with Russian compatriot Ivan Vagner and American Donald Pettit in the crew. 

The blast-off took place without obvious problems and the Soyuz entered orbit eight minutes after liftoff, a relief for Russian space authorities after an automated safety system halted a launch in March because of a voltage drop in the power system. 

On the space station, Pettit, Vagner and Ovchinin will join NASA’s Tracy Dyson, Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, and Russians Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko. 
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WASHINGTON — U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson canceled a vote scheduled for Wednesday on his stopgap funding bill, saying more work is needed to build support for a measure, less than three weeks before a government shutdown deadline. 

“No vote today, because we’re in the consensus-building business here in Congress, with small majorities, and that’s what you do,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. 

The vote had been set for later on Wednesday. 

Johnson added that Republicans will be working through the weekend to find a bill that would gain enough votes for passage, now that his measure, opposed by President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, has faltered. 

House Republicans have attached a controversial provision requiring people to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote, a measure meant to force Democrats to take stances on the politically charged issue of non-citizen voting, which is already illegal in federal elections. 

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who continues to falsely claim his 2020 loss was the result of fraud, has urged Republicans to pass the voting measure ahead of the November 5 election. 

The federal government’s fiscal year ends on September 30, when funding for many agencies expires. Without some sort of extension, federal programs not deemed essential would have to suspend many of their operations, forcing thousands of government workers to go on leave. 

Success for the funding bill was not guaranteed in the chamber that Republicans control by a narrow 220-211 margin. Several House Republicans have said they would vote against the measure, citing spending concerns, and many members of the caucus generally oppose stopgap spending measures. 

Two Republicans joined Democrats on Tuesday in voting against a procedural move to advance the bill. 

Democrats broadly see the citizenship registration requirement as meant to undermine confidence in administering elections. 

“We’re watching a movie we’ve seen over and over again,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday. “House Republicans are trying to pass a bill so partisan that it even splits their own caucus. This proposal isn’t even serious.” 

The White House on Monday said Biden would veto this funding package were it to pass, citing the “unrelated cynical” voting requirement. The administration also wants a temporary funding period shorter than six months, as well as more money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fix infrastructure damaged by natural disasters. 

Lawmakers face an even more critical self-imposed deadline on January 1, before which they must act to raise or extend the nation’s debt ceiling or risk defaulting on more than $35 trillion in federal government debt.
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Support for the far-right among young voters appears to be growing in several European countries – not least in Germany, where the AfD party is hoping to secure another victory in an upcoming state election. Henry Ridgwell has more from London. (Videographer: Henry Ridgwell)
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Washington — The post-pandemic spike in U.S. inflation eased further last month as year-over-year price increases reached a three-year low, clearing the way for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next week.

Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that consumer prices rose 2.5% in August from a year earlier. It was the fifth straight annual drop and the smallest such increase since February 2021. From July to August, prices rose just 0.2%.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices rose 3.2% in August from 12 months earlier, the same as in July. On a month-to-month basis, core prices rose 0.3% last month, a pickup from July’s 0.2% increase. Economists closely watch core prices, which typically provide a better read of future inflation trends.

For months, cooling inflation has provided gradual relief to America’s consumers, who were stung by the price surges that erupted three years ago, particularly for food, gas, rent and other necessities. Inflation peaked in mid-2022 at 9.1%, the highest rate in four decades.

Fed officials have signaled that they’re increasingly confident that inflation is falling back to their 2% target and are now shifting their focus to supporting the job market, which is steadily cooling. As a result, the policymakers are poised to begin cutting their key rate from its 23-year high in hopes of bolstering growth and hiring.

A modest quarter-point cut is widely expected next week. Over time, a series of rate cuts should reduce the cost of borrowing across the economy, including for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.

The latest inflation figures could inject themselves into the presidential race in its final weeks. Former President Donald Trump has heaped blame on Vice President Kamala Harris for the jump in inflation, which erupted in early 2021 as global supply chains seized up, causing severe shortages of parts and labor. Harris has proposed subsidies for home buyers and builders in an effort to ease housing costs and backs a federal ban on price-gouging for groceries. Trump has said he would boost energy production to try to reduce overall inflation.

A key reason why inflation eased again in August was that gas prices tumbled by about 10 cents a gallon last month, according to the Energy Inflation Administration, to a national average of about $3.29.

Economists also expect the government’s measures of grocery prices and rents to rise more slowly. Though food prices are roughly 20% more expensive than before the pandemic, they have barely budged over the past year.

Another potential driver of slower inflation is that the cost of new apartment leases has started to cool as a stream of newly built apartments have been completed.

According to the real estate brokerage Redfin, the median rent for a new lease rose just 0.9% in August from a year earlier, to $1,645 a month. But the government’s measure includes all rents, including those for people who have been in their apartments for months or years. It takes time for the slowdown in new rents to show up in the government’s data. In July, rental costs rose 5.1% from a year ago, according to the government’s consumer price index.

Americans’ paychecks are also growing more slowly — an average of about 3.5% annually, still a solid pace — which reduces inflationary pressures. Two years ago, wage growth was topping 5%, a level that can force businesses to sharply raise prices to cover their higher labor costs.

In a high-profile speech last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that inflation was coming under control and suggested that the job market was unlikely to be a source of inflationary pressure.

Consumers have propelled the economy for the past three years. But they are increasingly turning to debt to maintain their spending and credit card, and auto delinquencies are rising, raising concerns that they may have to rein in their spending soon. Reduced consumer spending could lead more employers to freeze their hiring or even cut jobs.
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BATON ROUGE, La. — Hurricane Francine barreled early Wednesday toward Louisiana and is expected to make landfall in coming hours as forecasters raised threats of potentially deadly storm surge, widespread flooding and destructive winds on the northern U.S. Gulf coast.

Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters to jump from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday night. The National Hurricane Center said Francine might even reach Category 2 strength with winds of 155 to 175 kph before crashing into a fragile coastal region that still hasn’t fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes since 2020.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry warned at midday Tuesday — when Francine was still a tropical storm — that residents around south Louisiana and in the heavily populated state capital of Baton Rouge and nearby New Orleans — should “batten down all the hatches” and finish last preparations before a 24-hour window to do so closed.

Once Francine makes landfall, Landry said, residents should stay in place rather than venture out into waterlogged roads and risk blocking first responders or utility crews working to repair power lines.

The governor said the Louisiana National Guard is being deployed to parishes that could be impacted by Francine. They are equipped with food, water, nearly 400 high-water vehicles, about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm, including possible search-and-rescue operations.

Francine was centered Wednesday morning about 395 kilometers southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, and was moving northeast at 17 kph with maximum sustained winds of 90 150 kmh, the Miami-based hurricane center said. Some additional strengthening is expected Wednesday morning and then Francine is expected to weaken quickly after it moves inland.

A hurricane warning was in effect along the Louisiana coast from Cameron eastward to Grand Isle, about 80 kilometers south of New Orleans, according to the center. A storm surge warning stretched from the Mississippi-Alabama border to the Alabama-Florida border Such a warning means there’s a chance of life-threatening flooding.

In downtown New Orleans, cars and trucks were lined up for blocks on Tuesday to collect sandbags from the parking lot of a local YMCA. CEO Erika Mann said Tuesday that 1,000 bags of sand had already been distributed by volunteers later in the day to people hoping to protect homes from possible flooding.

One resident picking up sandbags was Wayne Grant, 33, who moved to New Orleans last year and was nervous for his first potential hurricane in the city. The low-lying rental apartment he shares with his partner had already flooded out in a storm the year before and he was not taking any chances this time around.

“It was like a kick in the face, we’ve been trying to stay up on the weather ever since,” Grant said. “We’re super invested in the place, even though it’s not ours.”

Francine is the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. There’s a danger of life-threatening storm surge as well as damaging hurricane-force winds, said Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center.

There’s also the potential for 10 to 20 centimeters of rain with the possibility of 30 centimeters locally across much of Louisiana and Mississippi through Friday morning, Reinhart said.

The hurricane center said parts of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were at risk of “considerable” flash and urban flooding starting Wednesday, followed by a threat of possible flooding later in the week into the lower Mississippi Valley and lower Tennessee Valley as the soggy remnants of Francine sweep inland.

Francine is taking aim at a Louisiana coastline that has yet to fully recover since hurricanes Laura and Delta decimated Lake Charles in 2020, followed a year later by Hurricane Ida.

A little over three years after Ida trashed his home in the Dulac community of coastal Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish – and about a month after he finished rebuilding – Coy Verdin was preparing for another hurricane.

“We had to gut the whole house,” he recalled in a telephone interview, rattling off a memorized inventory of the work, including a new roof and new windows.

Verdin, 55, strongly considered moving farther inland, away from the home where he makes his living on nearby Bayou Grand Caillou. After rebuilding, he said he’s there to stay.

“As long as I can. It’s getting rough, though,” he said.

Francine’s storm surge on the Louisiana coast could reach as much as 3 meters from Cameron to Port Fourchon and into Vermilion Bay, forecasters said. They said landfall was likely somewhere between Sabine Pass — on the Texas-Louisiana line — and Morgan City, Louisiana, about 350 kilometers to the east.
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In the U.S. presidential election, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, clashed with his Democratic Party rival, Kamala Harris, Tuesday evening over issues such as abortion, immigration and foreign policy. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman has details from the candidates’ first debate in Philadelphia.
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WASHINGTON — Taylor Swift, one of the music industry’s biggest stars, endorsed Kamala Harris for president shortly after the debate ended on Tuesday night.

“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post.

She included a picture of herself holding a cat and signed the message “Childless Cat Lady,” a reference to comments made by JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate.

Swift has a dedicated following among young women, a key demographic in the November election.
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Przemysl, Poland — The top U.S. and British diplomats headed together into Ukraine on Wednesday to discuss further easing rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, whose alleged acquisition of Iranian missiles has raised new fears.

In a rare joint trip, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was taking the train to Kyiv with Foreign Secretary David Lammy, whose 2-month-old Labor government has vowed to keep up Britain’s role as a key defender of Ukraine.

The pair, who boarded the train early Wednesday at the Polish border town of Przemysl, are expected to meet in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has kept pressing the West for weapons with more firepower and fewer restrictions.

U.S. President Joe Biden, asked in Washington whether he would let Ukraine use longer-range weapons, said: “We’re working that out right now.”

Biden, while strongly supportive of Ukraine, has previously made clear he wants to avoid devolving into direct conflict between the United States and Russia, the world’s two leading nuclear powers.

Blinken, speaking Tuesday in London alongside Lammy, said the United States was committed to providing Ukraine “what they need when they need it to be most effective in dealing with the Russian aggression.”

But Blinken, who is on his fifth trip to Kyiv since the war, said it was also important to see if Ukrainian forces could maintain and operate particular weaponry.

Pressed later in an interview with Sky News on whether the United States would green-light long-range weapons, Blinken said, “We never rule out, but when we rule in, we want to make sure it’s done in such a way that it can advance what the Ukrainians are trying to achieve.”

The renewed talk about long-range weapons comes after the United States said that Iran has sent short-range missiles to Russia, which could strike Ukraine with them within weeks.

The Iranian shipments have raised fears that Moscow would be freed up to use its long-range missiles against comparatively unscathed areas in western Ukraine.

Western powers announced new sanctions against Iran’s clerical state over the sale, which defied repeated warnings.

The United States earlier this year gave its blessing for Ukraine to use Western weapons to hit Russian forces when in direct conflict across the border.

But Ukraine last month launched a surprise, daring offensive directly into Russian territory in Kursk, hoping to restore morale and divert Moscow as Russian troops trudge forward in the front lines of eastern Ukraine.

British media reports said Biden, who meets Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday, was set to end objections to letting Ukraine fire long-range Storm Shadow missiles into Russia.

Britain has repeatedly pushed the United States, by far Ukraine’s biggest military supplier, to be more forward on weapons.

One key ask of Ukraine is to loosen restrictions on U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, which can hit targets up to 300 kilometers away.

In a joint letter to Biden, leading members of Congress from the rival Republican Party asked him to act on ATACMS immediately.

“As long as it is conducting its brutal, full-scale war of aggression, Russia must not be given a sanctuary from which it can execute its war crimes against Ukraine with impunity,” said the letter signed by Representative Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Republicans, however, are deeply divided over Ukraine, and a victory in November by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump over Biden’s political heir Kamala Harris could dramatically shift US policy.

Trump aides have suggested that if he wins, he would leverage aid to force Kyiv into territorial concessions to Russia to end the war.
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The United States announced new sanctions on Iran Tuesday, over Tehran’s supplying of missiles to Russia for use in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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WASHINGTON — A controversial law on “foreign influence transparency” is heading toward full implementation in Georgia, even though the country aspires to join the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

September 2 was the deadline for Georgian nongovernmental organizations and media organizations receiving more than one-fifth of their funding from abroad to register as “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power.” Only 1.6% of the country’s organizations chose to do so. Many organizations expect they will be forced to register and fined for allegedly serving foreign interests.

Georgia’s so-called “foreign agent” law has been labeled a “Russian-style law” and heavily criticized by Georgia’s Western partners, who say it undermines the hope of most Georgians that their country will join European institutions. Georgia’s government, however, insists the law simply seeks to ensure “transparency.”

On October 26, Georgians will head to the polls to elect a new parliament, and the political opposition believes these elections will be a referendum on whether the country will continue to move toward integration with Europe. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien spoke with Voice of America’s Georgian Service about what the Biden administration will be most closely watching.

VOA: The Georgian government is moving ahead with implementation of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, which has triggered criticism and the imposition of travel restrictions against Georgian government officials by the U.S. and a pause in aid by both the U.S. and the EU. What message does the Biden administration have now for the Georgian leadership? Will the process of implementing the law affect whether the October parliamentary election will be seen as free and fair?

U.S.  Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien: We want the Georgian people to be able to register their votes in a free and fair election. For that to happen, we need to see the whole process work well, all these organizations [being] able to work effectively over the next several months without fear of oppression or violence.

This law, as we’ve said repeatedly, is flawed fundamentally. There are ways that European states protect their election systems. This law does not do that. Having a government agency essentially force a registration and have access to all the data in that organization is at odds with modern European practice. … It’s caused an enormous amount of damage to Georgia’s prospects for joining the EU and NATO.

The elections need to be free and fair. It’s good that the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe will be able to have a mission to observe some parts [of the election], but it also depends on the community groups. All of that is one big system, and this law tries to kick one leg out from a three-legged stool. It doesn’t work. And so, I’m worried that it means the elections will not be free and fair, and they certainly won’t be seen as free and fair. Without that, Georgia can’t make the next step forward.

VOA: The U.S. and Georgia have been strategic partners for over three decades. The Biden administration has taken several steps, including visa restrictions, pausing aid and postponing joint military drills. What might the next steps be? What are the options on the table?

O’Brien: We’ve already put in place restriction on travel to the U.S. that’s affected dozens of people. We’re not allowed to say who exactly. But it’s a very significant step.  We have suspended help, assistance to a range of the Georgian society. That’s a shame, but it’s necessary. And the EU’s said that the process of joining the EU is effectively suspended. We do not want to see a return to the kind of violence, harassment and oppression that we saw in the spring, where civil society groups, individuals were visited by often-thuggish groups with Russian accents, they were visited by members of the government. All of those things can’t happen.

VOA: Meanwhile, [ruling party] Georgian Dream leaders have promised to “ban opposition parties” following the elections. How does this sound coming from the leadership of a country aspiring to EU and NATO membership, and what concerns does it raise about the ruling party’s intentions?

O’Brien: It doesn’t sound like a democracy. One party doesn’t get to decide what other party gets to compete. It’s for the citizens to decide what parties take their seats in parliament, according to fair rules that are understood in advance. So, I think that was a very revealing comment. And it suggests that this is not a government capable of bringing Georgia toward Europe.

VOA: Russian intelligence services are accusing the U.S. of plotting “regime change” in Georgia. Some Georgian Dream members also have accused U.S. organizations like the NDI or IRI [the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, both of which are American nongovernmental organizations funded by the U.S. government] of helping the opposition. What do you make of these accusations, and are you worried about possible Russian interference or malign influence in the Georgian elections?

O’Brien: Well, anyone who believes the Russian security services, I think, is fooling themselves. The American organizations are very transparent. It’s known who we work with, and we work to support the Georgian people so that they can organize themselves inside or outside government. That’s the full goal. We don’t pick winners and losers. We are for the Georgian people, most of whom, almost 90% of whom, want to move toward Europe, and it’s this government with its very bad legal drafting — like it’s just bad lawyering — that has caused this problem. And we would like them to fix it so that the Georgian people can organize themselves and could have a free and fair election.

If the government succeeds in … denying access to resources by all these groups, the only ones left standing will be Russian sources of information. So, whatever the case has been till now, what the government is doing [now] makes it much easier for Russia to dominate Georgia’s information space.

VOA: After so many high-level engagements with the Georgian authorities, and Prime Minister [Irakli] Kobakhidze speaking about the need for “resetting” the relationship, do you have any indication that they might be ready to change course?

O’Brien: No. And they’re in denial. They haven’t noticed we’ve suspended $95 million in assistance. The EU is suspending a proportionate amount: They are saying you don’t get to move toward Europe. And what Georgian Dream tries to tell its voters, and all Georgian citizens, is [that] everything is fine. It is not fine. Georgia wants to join the European Union. There are clear rules. The people responsible for those rules are saying you have made a mistake. You have written a bad law. They are on the verge of writing two new bad laws and those need to stop in order for the people of Georgia to get what they overwhelmingly want.

We’ve said again and again to the Georgian officials: The transparency you say you want is readily available. All the American organizations are transparent. The European organizations are transparent. There are ways to achieve that. But they’ve chosen to do it in a way that lets the [Georgian] Ministry of Justice control your local neighborhood organization. And that’s not democratic, and it’s not part of Europe. We want them to turn back so that the Georgian people can be part of Europe.
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State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy addressed Indo-Pacific security and highlighted the need to maintain the status quo on the Taiwan Strait during their U.S.-U.K. Strategic Dialogue, underscoring its global significance. 

“We also discussed joint efforts to ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and freedom of navigation and overflight of the South China Sea. For both of us, maintaining peace and stability, preserving the status quo is essential,” Blinken told reporters during a joint press conference with Lammy in London. 

“It’s essential not just to us; it’s, again, essential to countries all around the world,” Blinken added.    

U.S. officials have stressed the need to keep open high-level communication between Washington and Beijing to clear up misperceptions and prevent their competition from escalating into conflict. 

Earlier this week, the United States and China held theater-level commander talks for the first time in an effort to stabilize military relations. 

The video teleconference Monday, between Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and General Wu Yanan, commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command, was aimed at preventing misunderstandings, particularly in regional hotspots like the South China Sea.  

According to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Paparo emphasized the Chinese military’s responsibility to adhere to international laws and norms to ensure operational safety.  

“Paparo also urged the PLA to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive, and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond.” 

In Beijing, China’s Ministry of National Defense issued a press release Tuesday stating the two commanders exchanged views on matters of mutual concern, but did not provide further details about the discussion. 

Washington has been seeking to establish new channels for regular military communication with Beijing after relations hit a historic low when the U.S. downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon last year. 

The theater-level commander talks differ from the broader discussions between U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs, which cover all strategic issues impacting both nations, Ryan Haas, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told VOA. 

The theater-level talks provide a platform for more focused discussions on operational issues, crisis management, and deconfliction at an operator-to-operator level, added Haas, a former senior official on the White House National Security Council from 2013 to 2017. 

The virtual meeting between Paparo and Wu followed a meeting last month in Beijing, where U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top military adviser agreed to the talks.
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