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washington — U.S. House Republicans issued criminal referrals Wednesday against President Joe Biden’s son and brother, accusing them of making false statements to Congress as part of the Republicans’ yearlong impeachment inquiry. 

The Republican leaders of the House Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees sent a letter to the Justice Department recommending the prosecution of Hunter Biden and James Biden and accusing them of making a “conscious effort” to undermine the House’s investigation. 

Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, said in a statement that the referrals are “nothing more than a desperate attempt by Republicans to twist Hunter’s testimony so they can distract from their failed impeachment inquiry and interfere with his trial.” 

James Biden ‘s lawyer, Paul Fishman, echoed that sentiment, calling it a “baseless partisan action,” and reiterated that his client has “always maintained that Joe Biden never had any involvement in his business dealings.” 

Accused of lying to gun dealer

The referrals to Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel David Weiss add to the legal challenges facing Hunter Biden, who is now on trial in a federal court in Delaware for three felony charges stemming from the purchase of a gun in October 2018. The 54-year-old has been accused by prosecutors of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. 

On Capitol Hill, the Republicans pursued their wide-ranging investigation into Hunter Biden, separate from that federal case, are trying to tie the Democratic president to his son’s business dealings. Both Hunter and James Biden sat for hourslong interviews with lawmakers even as they failed to uncover evidence directly implicating Joe Biden in any wrongdoing. 

Representative Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said testimony from IRS whistleblowers shows that Hunter Biden lied to Congress at least three times in his February 28 deposition. 

“I think the Justice Department needs to look at that and act accordingly. When you lie to Congress, that is a serious violation of the law. It’s a felony,” said Smith. “The president’s son should not be treated any differently than any other American.” 

The Justice Department, which will ultimately decide whether to take up the criminal referrals, declined to comment. 

Inquiry becomes political liability

The focus on the Biden family resulting from Hunter Biden’s federal trial and the impeachment inquiry has proved to be a political and personal liability for the president. The proceedings are unfolding as the 2024 White House election looms, and allies of Joe Biden worry about the toll it will take on him. He is deeply concerned about the health and sustained sobriety of his only living son. 

Since former President Donald Trump’s conviction on charges in New York, Republican leaders have assailed the Justice Department for what they claim is a “two-tiered” system of justice that targets conservatives. They play down the department’s current prosecution of Hunter Biden and the fact that other prominent Democrats have faced federal investigation during Joe Biden’s presidency. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that if Garland “wishes to demonstrate he is not running a two-tiered system of justice and targeting the president’s political opponents, he will open criminal investigations into James and Hunter Biden,” under the false statements and perjury statutes. 

The false statements in question, according to the House committee chairmen, include references Hunter Biden made about what position he held at a corporate entity that received millions of dollars from foreign clients. The president’s son also “relayed an entirely fictitious account” about text messages between him and his Chinese business partner in which Hunter Biden allegedly invoked his father’s presence with him as part of a negotiation tactic, according to the Republican investigation. 

There is also a focus on statements James Biden made about whether the president, while a private citizen, met with a former Biden family business partner. 

House Democrats said Republicans are resorting to criminal referrals because their impeachment push has effectively flamed out despite 17 months of investigating the Biden family. 

“This agonizingly protracted and completely fruitless investigation has proven only that President Biden was not part of, did not profit from, and took no official actions to benefit his family members’ business ventures,” Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a statement Wednesday. 
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Washington — U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday congratulated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his election victory, and Washington said it looked forward to further cooperation with New Delhi to ensure a free Indo-Pacific region.

“The friendship between our nations is only growing as we unlock a shared future of unlimited potential,” Biden said in a posting on social media platform X.

Modi, whose National Democratic Alliance retained power with a surprisingly slim majority in voting results announced on Tuesday, said he had received a call from Biden.

“[I] Conveyed that India-U.S. comprehensive global partnership is poised to witness many new landmarks in the years to come. Our partnership will continue to be a force for global good for the benefit of humanity,” Modi said on X.

The United States and India have deepened ties in recent years given shared concerns about China’s growing power, even though New Delhi has maintained its long-standing relationship with Russia despite the war in Ukraine, and human rights issues.

In a statement issued shortly after Biden’s congratulatory message, the U.S. State Department said Washington looked forward “to continuing to further our partnership with the Indian government to promote prosperity and innovation, address the climate crisis, and ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday called the U.S.-Indian relationship “a great partnership,” although the U.S. had concerns about human rights, which it would continue to raise openly with New Delhi.

Ties have been tested by the discovery of assassination plots against Sikh nationalists in Canada and the United States. In November, U.S. authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the United States and Canada.

Last month, the U.S. ambassador to India said Washington was satisfied so far with India’s moves to ensure accountability in the alleged plots, but many steps were still needed and there must be consequences for what was a “red line for America.”

Political analysts say Washington has been restrained in public criticism of Modi because it hopes India will act as a counterweight to an expansionist China.
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Turkey is supplying weapons to Ukraine as Kyiv works to resolve its ammunition shortage. A Turkish weapons manufacturer is teaming with the U.S. to open a munitions factory, while another Turkish firm is set to open a drone factory in Ukraine. From Istanbul, Dorian Jones reports.
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U.S. lawmakers are divided on President Joe Biden’s executive order imposing new limits on asylum seekers at U.S. borders. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the debate over border security remains a tough issue ahead of general elections in November.
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Brussels — McDonald’s MCD.N does not have the right to use the term “Big Mac” for poultry products in Europe after not using it for them for five consecutive years, the region’s second top court said on Wednesday, a partial win for Irish rival Supermac’s in a long-running trademark dispute.

The Luxembourg-based General Court’s ruling centered on Supermac’s attempt in 2017 to revoke McDonald’s use of the name Big Mac, which the U.S. company had registered in 1996 for meat and poultry products and services rendered at restaurants.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) dismissed Supermac’s application for revocation and confirmed McDonald’s use of the term for meat and chicken sandwiches, prompting the Irish company to challenge the decision.

Supermac’s, which opened its first restaurants in Galway in 1978 and had sought to expand in the United Kingdom and Europe, sells beef and chicken burgers as well as fried chicken nuggets and sandwiches.

The General Court rejected McDonald’s arguments and partially annulled and altered EUIPO’s decision.

“McDonald’s loses the EU trade mark Big Mac in respect of poultry products,” judges ruled.

“McDonald’s has not proved genuine use within a continuous period of five years in the European Union in connection with certain goods and services.”

The U.S. fast-food chain said in an email it can still continue to use the Big Mac trademark, which it uses chiefly for a beef sandwich.

Supermac’s founder Pat McDonagh told Ireland’s Newstalk Radio that the decision was “a big win for anyone with the surname Mac.”

“It does mean we can expand elsewhere with Supermac’s across the EU, so that is a big win for us today,” he told the radio station.

Trademark owners should pay attention to the ruling, said Pinsent Masons IP lawyer Matthew Harris.

“This is a huge wakeup call and owners of well-known trademarks cannot simply rest on the premise ‘it is obvious the public know the brand and we have been using it’,” he said.

“The case highlights that even global renowned brands are held to the same scrutiny when having to evidence genuine use of a trademark in a given territory.”

The ruling can be appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europe’s highest.

The case is T-58/23 Supermac’s v EUIPO – McDonald’s International Property (BIG MAC). 
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GENEVA — Every year, many of the hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa seeking asylum or jobs in Europe are “at great risk of harm and death” because few protection services are available to help them on their perilous journey, according to a report issued by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Tuesday.

“The absence of critical services is placing refugees and migrants at great risk of harm and death and is also triggering dangerous secondary onward movements,” Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR special envoy for the central Mediterranean situation told journalists at a briefing Tuesday in Geneva.

“Some refugees and migrants underestimate the risks, while many fall victim to the narratives of smugglers and traffickers,” he said.

The report highlights the horrors faced by refugees and migrants who risk their lives moving on dangerous routes stretching from the East and Horn of Africa and West Africa towards North Africa’s Atlantic coast, and across the Central Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

The UNHCR reports refugees and migrants from about 20 different African countries “die while crossing the desert or near borders.” As well as Sub-Saharan Africans, it says an increasing number of people from countries in Asia and the Middle East, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, and Syria are arriving in North Africa.

The report says most of the refugees and migrants “suffer serious human rights violations en route” including ‘’sexual and gender-based violence, kidnappings for ransom, torture, and physical abuse.”

“Protection services along the routes that can help mitigate the risks these people face — such as immediate humanitarian assistance, shelter for people who have been exposed to violence, and access to justice — are often not available,” Cochetel said.

“In many countries, the services that were there in 2022-2023 are no longer there. This is the case, in particular, in Morocco, in Mauritania, in Sudan because of the conflict, in the northern part of Niger, in the southern part of Algeria. So, basically these are in key hubs, key crossing routes that are used by migrants and refugees,” he said.

Aside from the conflict in Sudan, several other crises emerged in 2023 that forced people to flee their homes.

“Regrettably, more emergencies cannot be ruled out in 2024,” authors of the report warn. “Neither can the human need of people to flee or abandon their homes to find safety and or better… basic life conditions for themselves and their families.”

Cochetel observed that the lack of sustained funding threatens the limited services that currently are available, including search and rescue missions.

“In the past, la gendarmerie nationale [the national military police] in Agadez, Niger, would pick up people who had been stranded or abandoned by smugglers and traffickers in the desert. But such rescue missions,” he said, “no longer occur along that route.”

“The only country on the African continent where I know that this concept is implemented is in Djibouti,” Cochetel said.

He said Djiboutian authorities are patrolling the land side of their coast “to see people that have been abandoned by smugglers in the desertic areas or people who have returned with the same smugglers from Yemen and who are dropped in the middle of nowhere,” adding that such search and rescue projects needed to be developed in partnership with local authorities in Nigeria, southern Morocco, Mauritania, and other desert regions.

“We would need that to save more lives and bring back to safety people stranded or abandoned there,” Cochetel said.

Since the publication of the previous report in July 2022, the UNHCR says an estimated 3,045 individuals have been reported dead or missing along the combined Central and Western Mediterranean and Northwest Africa Maritime routes.

“However, the real figures could be significantly higher, as many incidents likely go undetected and remain unrecorded,” it said.

While the report is meant to make governments aware of the shortcomings in support services, UNHCR’s Cochetel said it also is intended to provide useful information on the availability of services for refugees and migrants who are “lost, stranded, and abused along the routes.”

For example, he said the report contains GPS coordinates and WhatsApp numbers that refugees and migrants can use to locate essential, possibly life-saving protective services.
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US President Joe Biden is in France to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landing and to underscore the need for a strong transatlantic alliance in the face of Russian aggression. He’ll also take part in a formal state visit hosted by France’s president, and will meet face-to-face with Ukraine’s president, who has been invited to (somber ceremonies marking this decisive battle that led to the end of the World War II. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Paris. Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report
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The White House; Paris — U.S. President Joe Biden landed Wednesday in France to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy invasion — and plans to use the occasion to underscore the need for a strong transatlantic alliance in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Biden will meet Ukraine’s president, and with surviving American veterans of the 1944 beach invasion, said national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Biden will use the events, Sullivan said, to “talk about, against the backdrop of war in Europe today, the sacrifices that those heroes and those veterans made 80 years ago and how it’s our obligation to continue their mission to fight for freedom.”

Sullivan, who spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Paris, said Biden will also deliver a speech on Friday at Normandy that will cover “the existential fight between dictatorship and freedom” — all while overlooking a 30-meter tall cliff that Army Rangers had to scale under enemy gunfire to win the battle that eventually led to France’s liberation and the demise of Nazi Germany.

“And he’ll talk about the dangers of isolationism and how, if we bow to dictators, fail to stand up to them, they keep going and ultimately America and the world pays a greater price,” he said.

Biden will also attend a state visit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, in addition to face-to-face talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been invited to the somber ceremonies marking this decisive battle that led to the end of World War II.

American presidents have regularly made the journey for this critical anniversary, and Biden is no exception.

“The president is very much looking forward to going to Normandy over the course of the next two days of this week to commemorate the service and the sacrifice, the bravery of the soldiers, Allied and American alike, who fought in D-Day in that invasion, conducted Operation Overlord and really spelled through that operation, the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany, and the beginning of something even more impactful, and that’s this rules-based international order that we all still continue to enjoy today,” John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, told VOA at the White House.

Here, analysts say, history offers lessons.

“The D-Day landings were the Western Allies’ military statement that authoritarian regimes could not change boundaries by force,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ”That countries could not just be invaded, and that authoritarian regimes of the type that Nazi Germany constituted — particularly with its terrible oppression of subjugated peoples, particularly the Jews — were not acceptable and not just not acceptable, but would be destroyed.”

Analysts say Biden’s Ukraine goals will be overshadowed by his increasingly unpopular support of another conflict.

“Even though obviously Ukraine is the top priority for the Europeans, they are seeing how the Biden administration’s policy on Gaza is undermining European security in two different ways,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute.

“First of all, it is really destroying Western credibility in the broader international community and in the Global South — any talk about the rules-based international order at this point, will get laughed at, given what the Biden administration has done.”

This trip to France, a close ally, comes at the start of six weeks of high-level U.S. involvement in high-stakes summits — including a peace summit on Ukraine, a summit of leaders of the Group of Seven, or G7, leading industrialized countries, and a summit of NATO members.

VOA asked Sullivan what this set of diplomatic events could mean for peace in Europe, and beyond.

“I think we need to send a clear message to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that he cannot outlast us, and that he cannot divide us,” he replied. “And we have been very good at holding the line on those two messages, and this is going to be a great opportunity over the coming weeks to not just put a period at the end of that sentence, but an exclamation point.”

Patsy Widakuswara contributed from the White House.
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The Palestinian militant group Hamas on Tuesday said it could not agree to a peace deal without a clear Israeli position on a permanent cease-fire and complete withdrawal from Gaza. The decision followed Israeli leaders’ pledge to continue military operations until Hamas is destroyed, despite a cease-fire proposal announced by President Joe Biden days earlier. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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JUBLJANA, Slovenia — Slovenia became the latest European Union country to recognize an independent Palestinian state after its parliament approved the move with a majority vote on Tuesday, dismissing a call for a referendum on the issue by the largest opposition party.

The government last week decided to recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state following in the steps of Spain, Ireland and Norway as part of a wider effort to coordinate pressure on Israel to end the conflict in Gaza.

“Today’s recognition of Palestine as a sovereign and independent state sends hope to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and in Gaza,” Prime Minister Robert Golob said on X.

The vote was scheduled for Tuesday, and a parliamentary group for foreign affairs on Monday endorsed the government decision with a majority vote.

The right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) of former Prime Minister Janez Jansa, however, then submitted a proposal on a consultative referendum on the recognition bid, which would have delayed the vote for at least a month.

The SDS, the largest opposition party, argued that it was not the right time to recognize an independent Palestinian state, and that the move would only award the “terrorist organization Hamas.”

After the ruling coalition, which holds a majority in Slovenia’s 90-member parliament, tried to find the way around the referendum demand and proceed with the vote, the SDS withdrew its proposal but submitted it again hours later.

The parliament committee for foreign affairs declared it inadequate and dismissed it at an extraordinary session.

The decision was approved with 52 votes and nobody against it after the opposition SDS party had left the session.

Previously, EU members Sweden, Cyprus, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria had already recognized a Palestinian state. Malta has said it could follow soon.

Israel has been fighting against Hamas, which rules Gaza, since the cross-border Oct. 7 attack by militants in which some 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Nearly 130 hostages are believed to remain captive in Gaza.

Gaza health authorities say more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war over the past seven months.
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washington — Federal health advisers voted Tuesday against a first-of-a-kind proposal to begin using the mind-altering drug MDMA as a treatment for PTSD, handing a potentially major setback to advocates who had hoped to win a landmark federal approval and bring the banned drugs into the medical mainstream. 

The panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration sided 10-1 against the overall benefits of MDMA when used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. They cited flawed study data, questionable research conduct and significant drug risks, including the potential for heart problems, injury and abuse. 

“It seems like there are so many problems with the data — each one alone might be OK, but when you pile them on top of each other … there’s just a lot of questions I would have about how effective the treatment is,” said Dr. Melissa Decker Barone, a psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

The FDA is not required to follow the group’s advice and is expected to make its final decision by August, but the negative opinion could strengthen FDA’s rationale for rejecting the treatment. 

The vote followed hours of pointed questions and criticisms about the research submitted on MDMA — sometimes called ecstasy or molly. Panelists pointed to flawed studies that could have skewed the results, missing follow-up data on patient outcomes, and a lack of diversity among participants. The vast majority of patients studied were white, with only five Black patients receiving MDMA, raising questions about the generalizability of the results. 

“The fact that this study has so many white participants is problematic because I don’t want something to roll out that only helps this one group,” said Elizabeth Joniak-Grant, the group’s patient representative. 

The FDA advisers also drew attention to allegations of misconduct in the trials that have recently surfaced in news stories and a report by the nonprofit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, which evaluates experimental drug treatments. The incidents include a 2018 report of apparent sexual misconduct by a therapist interacting with a patient. 

Lykos Therapeutics, the company behind the study, said it previously reported the incident to the FDA and regulators in Canada, where the therapist is based. Lykos is essentially a corporate spinoff of the nation’s leading psychedelic advocacy group, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, which funded the studies. The group was founded in 1986 to promote the benefits of MDMA and other mind-altering substances. 

MDMA is the first in a series of psychedelics — including LSD and psilocybin — that are expected to come before the FDA in the next few years. The panel’s negative ruling could further derail financial investments in the fledgling industry, which has mainly been funded by a small number of wealthy backers. 

MDMA’s main effect is triggering feelings of intimacy, connection and euphoria. When used to enhance talk therapy, the drug appears to help patients process their trauma and let go of disturbing thoughts and memories. 

But the panel struggled with the reliability of those results, given the difficulties of objectively testing psychedelic drugs. 

Because MDMA causes intense, psychological experiences, almost all patients in two key studies of the drug were able to guess whether they had received the MDMA or a dummy pill. That’s the opposite of the approach generally required for high-quality drug research, in which bias is minimized by “blinding” patients and researchers to whether they received the drug under investigation. 

“I’m not convinced at all that this drug is effective based on the data I saw,” said Dr. Rajesh Narendran, a University of Pittsburgh psychiatrist who chaired the panel. 

Panelists also noted the difficulty of knowing how much of patients’ improvement came from MDMA versus simply undergoing the extensive therapy, which totaled more than 80 hours for many patients. Results were further marred by other complicating factors, including a large number of patients who had previously used MDMA or other psychedelics drugs recreationally. 
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washington — U.S. President Joe Biden announced an executive order on Tuesday that will temporarily restrict asylum eligibility at the U.S.-Mexico border whenever the number of migrants crossing unlawfully or without authorization reaches a daily average of 2,500. 

Biden’s executive order says those who cross into the country illegally won’t be eligible for asylum unless there are extraordinary reasons why they should be allowed to stay in the United States. 

“These actions alone aren’t going to fix our immigration system, but they can help us a good deal in better managing what is a difficult challenge,” Biden said in his remarks at the White House.  

According to U.S. officials, the temporary asylum restrictions will come into effect when the average daily border encounters exceed 2,500, and they will be suspended when that number falls below 1,500. 

These restrictions take effect immediately. Data first reported by CBS News shows U.S. Border Patrol officials recorded 3,000 migrant apprehensions on May 20, and an average of 3,700 per day during the first 21 days of May.   

Who is affected? 

Anyone, regardless of nationality, crossing unlawfully along the southern border.  

While the restrictions are in effect, migrants who cross the southern border and are processed for expedited removal will be referred for a credible fear screening with an asylum officer only if they express a credible fear of returning to their country — meaning “a fear of persecution or torture” — or an intention to apply for asylum, explained a Department of Homeland Security official.

Immigration advocates call this a shout test.  

“If you’re able to shout and claim asylum, then you might be able to get through. But what we know is that people don’t always speak English. They don’t always know that is the way that they have to seek safety,” Amy Fischer, director of refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA, told VOA.  

Officials spoke on background, a method often used by U.S. authorities to share information with reporters without being identified. The DHS official also addressed a question about migrant removal. 

“[These measures] will apply both to individuals from our hemisphere as well as eastern hemispheric migrants. In terms of returns to Mexico, we will continue to return nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela per our previous arrangement,” a DHS official said.  

Exemptions 

Certain migrants are exempt from these restrictions, including unaccompanied children, victims of human trafficking, migrants facing medical emergencies, and those with valid visas or other lawful permission to enter the U.S.  

People who use lawful entry processes, like the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One mobile application or other designated pathways, won’t be affected by this guideline.  

Consequences 

Those who cross illegally when the restrictions are in place and do not establish a reasonable probability of persecution or torture in their country will be “promptly removed, and they will be subject to at least a five-year bar to reentry and potential criminal prosecution,” the DHS official said. 

Why now? 

During a call with reporters, officials from DHS and the Justice Department said these restrictions were necessary in the face of the summer, when migrant encounters typically increase.  

The tougher stance on border security is also a response to a heightened concern over immigration among American voters ahead of the November 5 elections.  

Criticism 

Some Republicans said Biden is issuing this order considering the upcoming presidential election. 

“With an election just months away, the president hopes that issuing an executive order will demonstrate that he cares about this crisis and is trying to fix it,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor. 

Immigration advocates strongly criticized the move, calling it “a total gutting” of asylum protections.  

Fischer, of Amnesty International, said this executive order is going to prevent more people from accessing asylum and make it more difficult for people to articulate their claim.  

“[It] does not sort out people that have false or ineffective asylum claims. What it does is, it sorts out the most vulnerable,” Fischer added. 

The ACLU says it will sue to stop the restrictions. 

“We intend to challenge this order in court. It was illegal when Trump did it, and it is no less illegal now,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in an email to reporters. 

Biden officials disagree, saying the United States will continue to adhere to its international obligations and commitments. 

“These steps will strengthen the asylum system, preventing it from being overwhelmed and backed up by those who do not have legitimate claims,”  the DHS official said. ” … But we are clear-eyed that today’s executive actions are no substitute for Congress taking up and passing the tough but fair bipartisan Senate bill, which would have significantly strengthened the consequences in place at the border.”
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PARIS — A multinational operation by Interpol and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation cracked down on attempts in Moldova to sabotage one of the international police agency’s key tools, the Red Notice system, officials said Tuesday. Four people were detained in the eastern European country.

The joint sting, which also involved cooperation with French and British authorities, uncovered an international criminal organization with ties to people in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus suspected of cybercrime, Moldova’s anticorruption chief said.

The suspected individuals “paid intermediaries and public figures in Moldova to inform wanted criminals of [their] Red Notice status,” Veronica Dragalin, the anticorruption chief, told reporters.

The notice flags people deemed fugitives to law enforcement worldwide and is one of Interpol’s most important tools. The investigation led to the detention of four people for 72 hours on suspicion of interfering with the notices, Dragalin said.

The scheme sought to have people subject to Red Notices “obtain asylum or refugee status” in Moldova and other countries “with the aim of blocking and deleting” the notices by bribing public officials, she said.

The sums of money involved, she said, amount to several million dollars.

Interpol said the operation by the international policing agency, headquartered in Lyon, France, followed the detection of attempts to “block and delete” the notices.

Moldova opened an investigation on April 2, after receiving information from France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, and subsequently requested the assistance of the FBI.

“We are committed to fighting high-level corruption in all of its forms, particularly those schemes that put in jeopardy criminal investigations worldwide,” Dragalin said.

A statement from Interpol said the agency has taken steps to prevent further “misuse of its systems.”

“Our robust monitoring systems identified suspicious activity,” said Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock. “We took immediate action, including reporting the issue to law enforcement authorities in our host country, France.”

Stock highlighted the number of individuals subject to Red Notices — more than 70,000 people — but did not elaborate on the attempted sabotage.
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Recent violence between soldiers and migrants at the Polish-Belarusian border has prompted the Polish government to increase security and reintroduce a 200-meter buffer zone this week. Poland sees the latest migrant influx from Belarus as a hybrid warfare tactic. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze visited the region and has this report. VOA footage by Daniil Batushchak.
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Washington — There are new warnings about potential attacks aimed at disrupting the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Paris, including the potential for more terror plots like the one disrupted last week by French officials.

A report released Tuesday by the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future states that despite a high likelihood of cyberattacks, the greatest risk to the Paris Games will come from in-person threats instead of from cyberspace.

“We assess that physical security threats — including terrorism, violent extremism, civil unrest and disruptive protests — pose the greatest risk of harm and disruption,” the report from Recorded Future’s Insikt Group said.

“Terrorists and violent extremists — particularly IS [Islamic State] and al-Qaida supporters in France and neighboring European countries — will almost certainly continue to plot and incite violent attacks targeting the Paris Olympics,” the report added. “Though extensive security infrastructure in place for the event will make a successful mass-casualty attack very unlikely.”

The warning from Insikt Group comes as French authorities have already announced the disruption of at least two terror plots targeting the upcoming Games.

In late April, French anti-terrorism forces arrested a 16-year-old from the town of Marignier after he announced on social media that he planned to build an explosive belt and die as a suicide bomber at an Olympic venue.

And just last week, French security officials arrested an 18-year-old, charging him of planning an attack in the name of IS at the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium in Saint-Etienne.

Additionally, Insikt Group warns that IS has been pumping out propaganda, “urging its supporters to recreate the November 2015 series of terrorist attacks in Paris that included a suicide bombing at the Stade de France — the main venue for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.”

And while there is no convincing evidence yet of any large-scale plot against the upcoming Olympics, the terror group has been inciting supporters across Western Europe to carry out attacks by leveraging connections through the internet and social media.

U.S. officials further warn the IS group’s Afghan affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan or ISIS-K, has been building momentum from its deadly attacks on Kerman, Iran, in January and on a Moscow concert hall in March.

“We see the ISIS network sort of resettling after a period of disquiet,” National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid warned during a security forum last month in Doha.

“This ability of the global ISIS enterprise, even without territorial solidity, the ability to reach out virtually to a network of supporters, some of whom are going to conduct attacks, is quite concerning,” she said, calling ISIS-K’s ability to reestablish itself in Afghanistan “probably the most significant additive capability we’ve seen to the global ISIS network in the last three years.”

There are also concerns that other extremists could be motivated by the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, a U.S. designated terror group that has controlled Gaza since 2006.

Tuesday’s report by Insikt Group calls potential attacks targeting Israelis or Americans due to the war in Gaza “very unlikely but within the realm of possibility.”

Groups connected to Iran, including the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group or supporters of various Palestinian terror organizations “would likely view the Paris Olympics as an attractive venue,” the report said, though it emphasized it had not identified any intelligence suggesting such groups are preparing to act.

Cyber threats

In addition to the potential for various groups to attempt to carry out physical attacks on the Paris Games, Insikt Group warns that hackers, sometimes working for criminal enterprises and other times working for other countries, are likely to target the Olympics.

Cyber threats to the Olympics include disruptive cyberattacks by various hacktivist groups as well as ransomware attacks, cyber espionage and influence operations.

“Russia, China and Iran are likely to leverage Olympic-themed phishing lures or infrastructure to carry out espionage activities during the Paris Olympics,” according to the report.

“Networks based in Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan are also likely to work overtly and covertly to amplify narratives critical of France, NATO and Israel,” the report said.
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