Former President Donald Trump was charged Thursday with illegally retaining a classified document detailing an operational U.S. military plan of attack on Iran, and with two counts of attempting to “alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal evidence” during the investigation into the classified documents he took to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly acknowledged his seventh grandchild, a 4-year-old girl fathered by his son Hunter with an Arkansas woman, Lunden Roberts, in 2018.

“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” Biden said in a statement. It was his first acknowledgement of the child.

“This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,” he said. “Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”

Hunter Biden’s paternity was established by DNA testing after Roberts sued for child support, and the two parties recently resolved outstanding child support issues. The president’s son wrote about his encounter with Roberts in his 2021 memoir, saying it came while he was deep in addiction to alcohol and drugs, including crack cocaine.

“I had no recollection of our encounter,” he wrote. “That’s how little connection I had with anyone. I was a mess, but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for.”

The president, who has made a commitment to family central to his public persona, has faced increasing criticism from political rivals and pundits for failing to acknowledge the granddaughter. According to a person familiar with the matter, he was taking the cue from his son while the legal proceedings played out. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.

Biden’s statement was first reported by People magazine.
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A declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released Thursday says that support from China is “critical” to Russia’s ability to continue waging its war against Ukraine.

The report, which was requested by Congress, assesses how a range of actors, including the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, state-owned Chinese companies and other Chinese entities, are supporting Russia’s economy and its military, nearly 18 months after the Kremlin’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

“Beijing is pursuing a variety of economic support mechanisms for Russia that mitigate both the impact of Western sanctions and export controls,” the report finds.

“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has increased its importation of Russian energy exports, including oil and gas supplies rerouted from Europe. Beijing has also significantly increased the use of its currency, the yuan, and its financial infrastructure in commercial interactions with Russia, allowing Russian entities to conduct financial transactions unfettered of Western interdiction.”

The report also finds that China has been directly supporting the Russian war effort by selling technology and “dual use” equipment — meaning items that may have both civilian and military uses — to Moscow.

Enabling a ‘brutal invasion’

The report was released by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Representative Jim Himes, the most senior Democrat on the committee, said, “This unclassified assessment, mandated by last year’s Intelligence Authorization Act, details the extent of China’s support for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s ongoing invasion.

“Russia’s war against Ukraine has been enabled in no small part by China’s willingness to support them, in direct and indirect ways. I hope this report makes clear to Beijing that the United States, and the world, will know if they take further actions to enable Putin’s brutal invasion.”

Representative Mike Turner, the committee’s Republican chairman, had not issued a statement about the report as of Friday afternoon.

China responds

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning commented on the report in her daily news briefing Friday, saying there was nothing out of the ordinary involved in her country’s trade with Russia, while decrying Western sanctions on Moscow.

“China is engaged in normal economic and trade cooperation with Russia and other countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit,” Mao said. “We oppose unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction that have no basis in international law or mandate from the Security Council. China-Russia cooperation does not target any third party and shall be free from disruption or coercion by any third party.”

China and Russia have significantly deepened their relationship in recent years. In the days prior to the launch of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin announced that their countries’ partnership had “no limits.”

Oil and gas

In the wake of the invasion, a united front of nations led by the United States applied an extraordinary web of sanctions, severing the flow of goods and services between Russia and most major Western markets.

The report finds that since the invasion, trade with China has replaced much of that lost commerce. In 2022, bilateral trade between Russia and China hit a record high, with Russian imports from China rising by 14% and exports to China jumping by 43%.

Much of Russia’s exports to China came in the form of oil and gas products that Moscow previously sold to the West. China’s purchase of the petroleum products has been a valuable source of income for the Kremlin, and steep discounts on Russian fuel have been a boon to China.

China is providing supertankers to move Russian oil to market as well as the insurance coverage that shipping companies demand, after sanctions cut Russia off from the global maritime insurance market.

Semiconductor trade

One of the West’s major efforts against Russia has involved cutting the country off from a reliable supply of semiconductors needed for many modern devices, including military vehicles and weapons systems.

The report notes the appearance of a web of newly formed businesses in Hong Kong, which it characterizes as “shell companies” that are being used to purchase semiconductors on the open market and then resell them to Russia in violation of U.S. export control rules.

China is supplying both dual use goods and some explicitly military material to Russia, the report says.

“[C]ustoms records show PRC state-owned defense companies shipping navigation equipment, jamming technology and fighter-jet parts to sanctioned Russian government-owned defense companies,” the report reads. “Russia has continued to acquire chips through circuitous routes, with a large portion flowing through small traders in Hong Kong and mainland PRC, according to foreign press.”

After Russian banks were largely cut off from systems that allow cross-border payments, many began to rely on Chinese banks to facilitate trade between the two countries and between Russian companies and firms in third countries that are not participating in Western sanctions.

Russia has also been accepting payments and purchasing goods using China’s currency, the yuan. By August 2022, six months after the beginning of the invasion, Russia’s use of the yuan in offshore payments had increased by a factor of 10.

Open source

Ian Johnson, a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA that even though much of the material in the report was drawn from sources that were already public, its assembly in one place makes the scope of Beijing’s support for Moscow clearer.

“I don’t think it’s new, but it reinforces and systematically explains what many people have felt: that China is trying to help Russia as much as possible without getting in big trouble regarding sanctions,” Johnson said.

“They’re trying to push the envelope as much as possible, and anything they can do — by sopping up extra energy that Russia hasn’t been able to unload, letting them use the yuan — makes it a little bit easier for Russia,” he said. “All these things are also in China’s interest. It’s not entirely altruistic. They have many reasons for wanting to keep Russia afloat.”
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Seven leading tech companies recently agreed to abide by a request from President Joe Biden to develop their artificial intelligence technologies in a safe and transparent way. But are their promises realistic? VOA’s Julie Taboh reports.
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This week President Joe Biden announced additional measures to protect communities from extreme heat that has hit parts of the United States. In Los Angeles, authorities are coping as best they can and trying some innovative ways to beat the heat. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian
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Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian doctors have been seeing more abdominal cavity wounds in military and civilian patients. Some U.S. doctors are stepping in to help their Ukrainian colleagues treat these wartime injuries. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Camera and edit: Pavel Suhodolskiy
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NEW YORK — More than 100,000 people in the U.S. have become allergic to red meat since 2010 because of a weird syndrome triggered by tick bites, according to a government report released Thursday. But health officials believe many more have the problem and don’t know it.

A second report estimated that as many as 450,000 Americans have developed the allergy. That would make it the 10th most common food allergy in the U.S., said Dr. Scott Commins, a University of North Carolina researcher who co-authored both papers published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials said they are not aware of any confirmed deaths, but people with the allergy have described it as bewildering and terrifying.

“I never connected it with any food because it was hours after eating,” said one patient, Bernadine Heller-Greenman.

The reaction, called alpha-gal syndrome, occurs when an infected person eats beef, pork, venison or other meat from mammals — or ingests milk, gelatin or other mammal products.

It’s not caused by a germ but by a sugar, alpha-gal, that is in meat from mammals — and in tick saliva. When the sugar enters the body through the skin, it triggers an immune response and can lead to a severe allergic reaction.

Scientists had seen reactions in patients taking a cancer drug that was made in mouse cells containing the alpha-gal sugar. But in 2011 researchers first reported that it could spread through tick bites, too.

They tied it to the lone star tick, which despite its Texas-themed name is most common in the eastern and southern U.S. (About 4% of all U.S. cases have been in the eastern end of New York’s Long Island.)

One of the studies released Thursday examined 2017-22 test results from the main U.S. commercial lab looking for alpha-gal antibodies. They noted the number of people testing positive rose from about 13,000 in 2017 to 19,000 in 2022.

Experts say cases may be up for a variety of reasons, including lone star ticks’ expanding range, more people coming into contact with the ticks or more doctors learning about it and ordering tests for it.

But many doctors are not. The second study was a survey last year of 1,500 U.S. primary care doctors and health professionals. The survey found nearly half had never heard of alpha-gal syndrome, and only 5% said they felt very confident they could diagnose it. Researchers used that information to estimate the number of people with the allergy — 450,000.

People with the syndrome can experience symptoms including hives, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe stomach pain, difficulty breathing, dizziness and swelling of the lips, throat, tongue or eye lids. Unlike some other food allergies, which occur soon after eating, these reactions hit hours later.

Some patients have only stomach symptoms, and the American Gastroenterological Association says people with unexplained diarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain should be tested for the syndrome.

Doctors counsel people with the allergy to change their diet, carry epinephrine and avoid tick bites.

The allergy can fade away in some people — Commins has seen that happen in about 15% to 20% of his patients. But a key is avoiding being re-bitten.

“The tick bites are central to this. They perpetuate the allergy,” he said.

One of his patients is Heller-Greenman, a 78-year-old New York art historian who spends summers on Martha’s Vineyard. She has grown accustomed to getting bitten by ticks on the island and said she has had Lyme disease four times.

About five years ago, she started experiencing terrible, itchy hives on her back, torso and thighs in the middle of the night. Her doctors concluded it was an allergic reaction but couldn’t pinpoint the trigger.

She was never a big meat eater, but one day in January 2020 she had a hamburger and then a big, fatty steak the following evening. Six hours after dinner, she woke up nauseated, then suffered terrible spells of vomiting, diarrhea and dizziness. She passed out three times.

She was diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome shortly after that and was told to avoid ticks and to stop eating red meat and dairy products. There have been no allergic reactions since.

“I have one grandchild that watches me like a hawk,” she said, making sure she reads packaged food labels and avoids foods that could trigger a reaction.

“I feel very lucky, really, that this has worked out for me,” she said. “Not all doctors are knowledgeable about this.”
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A 20-year-old, U.S.-funded AIDS relief program that is credited with saving tens of millions of lives around the world may not be reauthorized if conservative and anti-abortion activists are successful in a campaign against it.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was launched in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush, and since then it has channeled more than $110 billion in support for the fight against the AIDS epidemic in more than 50 countries around the world.

It has been particularly successful in Western and sub-Saharan Africa, where it helps provide antiretroviral medication to the more than 25 million people who are living with the disease.

The program received $6.9 billion in fiscal 2023. Through its history, the program has typically been reauthorized for five years at a time, in order to provide some certainty about the flow of relief dollars. It was last authorized in 2018. Advocates of the program are calling for a “clean” reauthorization that does not alter the program or introduce uncertainty about the flow of funds.

However, that reauthorization is now in doubt, as conservative lawmakers and activists have expressed concern that the program works with various organizations around the world that, in addition to combating AIDS, provide reproductive health services, including abortion.

‘Radical’ ideology

In a joint letter to key members of Congress this spring, dozens of anti-abortion groups urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for the program unless new rules are put in place that restrict the way it can spend federal funds.

“The American people do not support using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion at home or abroad,” the groups wrote. “For that reason, there exists long-standing precedent not to fund abortion, directly or indirectly, through U.S. foreign assistance. We are concerned that grants from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are used by nongovernmental organizations that promote abortions and push a radical gender ideology abroad.”

Failure to reauthorize the program would not necessarily kill it, because Congress could still appropriate money for it each year. But it would chip away at the administrative foundation of PEPFAR, leaving it less able to adapt to changing conditions in countries participating in the program, including changes in local laws that affect the provision of specific kinds of aid, and changes in the prevalence of the virus.

Pressuring lawmakers

Several influential conservative organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council and Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, have said that they oppose a clean reauthorization of the program. They said they would add any vote that renewed the program without changes to their legislative scorecards.

Those scorecards, which track lawmakers’ adherence to the wishes of conservative activist organizations, are influential because a low score can leave a member of Congress open to a reelection challenge from a more conservative rival.

Autumn Christensen, vice president of public policy for SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement emailed to VOA that her organization believes the Biden administration has “bowed to the pressures of the international abortion lobby and integrated broader sexual and reproductive services (which includes abortion) into their strategic plans.”

Christensen praised legislation proposed by Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, that would reauthorize PEPFAR for a single year and explicitly deny any funding to organizations that “promote or perform” abortions.

Mexico City policy

Those advocating for a clean reauthorization of PEPFAR point out that it is already illegal under U.S. law for foreign aid funds to be spent on the delivery of abortion services.

A 1973 provision of the Foreign Assistance Act, known as the Helms Amendment, reads, “[N]o foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.”

That language has, for generations, blocked direct funding of abortion with U.S. aid. However, it has not blocked U.S. aid programs from providing funds to organizations that provide access to abortions using funds from other sources.

Opponents of a clean PEPFAR reauthorization are demanding that stronger anti-abortion protections, such as the “Mexico City policy,” be incorporated into the program.

First adopted in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan’s administration, the policy bars U.S. aid from being disbursed to any organization that provides access to abortion services, even with non-U.S. money.

Since its original introduction, the Mexico City policy has been rescinded by every Democratic presidential administration upon taking office and has been reinstated by every Republican.

Former President Donald Trump not only reinstated the policy early in his presidency, but he strengthened it. By 2019, it was U.S. policy to refuse to provide funds to groups that even spoke in favor of abortion rights or supported other organizations that did.

President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s reinstatement of the policy when he took office in 2021.

Known impacts

Matthew Kavanagh is the director of the Global Health Policy and Politics Initiative at Georgetown Law School’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He told VOA that the impact of the Mexico City policy is already well-known to public health researchers.

“PEPFAR is one of the most successful and impactful global health programs in the world’s history,” Kavanagh said. But when the Trump administration reinstated the Mexico City policy, “quite a few organizations actually dropped out from being PEPFAR recipients,” he said.

Kavanagh said that many of the organizations that are most experienced at providing the kind of interventions that made PEPFAR successful are local family planning organizations that offer a range of services and counseling, often including abortion.

“Local family planning organizations were no longer allowed to provide HIV prevention programming and to receive PEPFAR funding, and that was a huge loss for the program,” he said.

He also warned against plans to reauthorize the program for just one year, saying that doing so would create damaging uncertainty for organizations serving desperate people.

“Organizations around the world are depending on this for lifesaving programs,” Kavanagh said. “People are not put on HIV treatment for one year, and then taken off. People are on HIV treatment for their lives, and we need to ensure that these programs don’t have to worry that they’re going to be shut down at the end of the year.” 
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Nearly 200 million people in the United States, or 60% of the U.S. population, are under a heat advisory or flood warning or watch as high temperatures spread and new areas are told to expect severe storms.

The National Weather Service said a “dangerous” heat wave began to scorch the Northeast and mid-Atlantic on Thursday and will continue into the weekend. Severe thunderstorms and flash floods are possible for parts of the Northeast and South, New England and South Florida. Meanwhile, the string of record-breaking temperatures will persist for the Southwest and Midwest.

“It’s (hitting) all the big cities,” said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center. “That’s why the population (affected) is so high.”

Scientists have long warned that climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, will lead to more and prolonged bouts of extreme weather.

The prediction for continued excessive heat comes a day after the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service declared July 2023 the hottest month on record.

On Thursday, heat and humidity in major cities along the East Coast, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City, created a real feel above 37.8 degrees Celsius. Forecasters expect several records may break Friday with temperatures 5.5 to 8 degrees Celsius above average.

In New England, communities are bracing for the “dual threats,” as Oravec called them, of extreme heat and flash floods.

“You could have really bad heat for a good part of the day and then get a strong thunderstorm that produces heavy rains and then can produce flooding,” he said.

The Southwest and southern Plains continue to experience record-breaking heat. There, the oppressive temperatures have been blanketing the region for weeks. One meteorologist based in New Mexico called the prolonged period of temperatures above 37.8 C unprecedented.

“They probably aren’t going to have a lot of sympathy for the rest of the country,” Oravec said.

Due to the extreme heat, two of the nation’s largest power grids are under stress, which could affect Americans’ ability to cool off.

The country’s largest power grid, PJM Interconnection, declared a level one energy emergency alert for its 13-state grid on Wednesday, meaning the company is concerned about its ability to provide enough electricity.

“PJM currently has enough generation to meet forecast demand, but operators continue to monitor the grid conditions for any changes,” said Jeffrey Shields, a spokesperson for the company.

PJM isn’t the only electrical grid to issue such an alert. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which mostly covers states in the Midwest and Northern Plains, issued a similar alert Thursday.

The California Independent System Operator also issued an energy emergency alert for the evening Wednesday, in part due to excess heat in Southern California, but it expired the same day. Anne Gonzales, a CAISO spokesperson, said they expect to be able to meet demand the next few days.

And a spokesperson for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which covers most of Texas, said they expect their grid will operate per usual during this latest blast of extreme weather across the country.
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CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday he was confident of securing bipartisan political support in the United States for a deal to provide his country with submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.

The so-called AUKUS partnership — an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — is being discussed by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in meetings with Albanese and other Australian officials in Brisbane on Friday and Saturday.

Under the deal, Australia will buy three Virginia-class submarines from the United States and build five of a new AUKUS-class submarine in cooperation with Britain.

Australian media have focused on a letter signed by more than 20 Republican lawmakers to President Joe Biden that warned the deal would “unacceptably weaken the U.S. fleet” without a plan to boost U.S. submarine production.

Albanese said he remained “very confident” that the United States would deliver the three submarines.

Albanese said he had been reassured by discussions he had with Republicans and Democrats at a NATO summit in Lithuanian this month.

“What struck me was their unanimous support for AUKUS, their unanimous support for the relationship between the Australia and United States. It has never been stronger,” Albanese told reporters in Brisbane.

Austin and Blinken arrived in Brisbane late Thursday ahead of annual bilateral meetings with their Australian counterparts, Defense Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

Marles said the AUKUS program was “on track.”

“Congress can be a complicated place as legislation makes its way through it, but actually we’re encouraged by how quickly it is going through it and we are expecting that there will be lots of discussions on the way through,” Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“Fundamentally, we have reached an agreement with the Biden administration about how Australia acquires the nuclear-powered submarine capability and we’re proceeding along that path with pace,” he added.

Australia understood there was “pressure on the American industrial base” and would contribute to submarine production, Marles said. The AUKUS deal is forecast to cost Australia up to 368 billion Australian dollars ($246 billion) over 30 years.
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U.S. prosecutors broadened their criminal case against Donald Trump on Thursday, bringing new charges against the former president and accusing a second of his employees with helping to evade officials who were trying to recover sensitive national security documents he took from the White House.

Citing an incident in which Trump, a Republican, bragged about a “plan of attack” against another country in an interview at his New Jersey golf resort, Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with willfully retaining classified records, adding to the 37 criminal counts Trump already faces in the case.

According to the indictment, Trump explained the document was highly classified. Nobody else in the room had the authority to examine it, Smith wrote.

Smith also brought new criminal charges against Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. According to the charges, De Oliveira helped to hide sensitive government documents from officials who tried to recover them.

De Oliveira’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The charges were made public hours after Trump said his attorneys met with the Justice Department officials investigating his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, in a sign that another set of criminal charges could come soon.

“This is nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by Biden family and DOJ,” a Trump campaign statement said following the additional charges in the documents case.

Trump is the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges and has been indicted twice this year, once in New York over hush-money payments to a porn star and once over the classified documents.

The charges have not hurt Trump’s standing as the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination to challenge President Biden in the 2024 election.

On the contrary, Trump’s lead over his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has grown. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll earlier this month showed Trump leading DeSantis 47%-19% among Republicans, a wider lead than his 44%-29% lead before the first indictment in New York in March.

Trump pleaded not guilty in Miami last month to federal charges of unlawfully retaining the classified government documents after leaving office in 2021 and obstructing justice. Prosecutors accused him of risking some of the most sensitive U.S. national security secrets.

Another Trump aide, Walt Nauta, also pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges he helped the former president hide those documents.
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A Chinese man who allegedly cyberstalked and threatened a pro-democracy Chinese classmate appeared in Boston federal court for a pretrial hearing on Wednesday as part of the preparations for a trial scheduled to begin in January.

Xiaolei Wu, 25, was a student at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston at the time of the incidents, which occurred October 22-24. The FBI arrested him on December 14.  Wu, who is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, has pleaded not guilty and has been free on bail.

Wu appeared in court with his lawyer, Jessica Hedges, on Wednesday. He sat quietly in the front row of the courtroom rather than in the dock because this was a pretrial hearing. Discussion focused on planning for the trial scheduled for January 22 that may take four to five days. Between now and the trial, each side will call witnesses or experts and conduct multiple pretrial meetings.

Hedges told VOA Mandarin she had no comment on the day’s proceedings.

Five-year term, fine possible

After Wu’s arrest in December on a single count of stalking, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted him in January on one count of cyberstalking and one count of interstate transmissions of threatening communications.

If found guilty, Wu could face up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

According to Department of Justice charging documents, Wu is accused of sending messages via WeChat, email and Instagram to a classmate who had posted fliers on campus that read “Stand with Chinese People” and “We Want Freedom.”

He allegedly told the classmate, “Post more, I will chop your bastard hands off.”

Wu also allegedly told the classmate that he had informed the public security agency in China about his actions and that the agency would “greet” the classmate’s family there

In addition, charging documents alleged that Wu solicited others to find out where the classmate was living and publicly posted the classmate’s email address in the hopes that others would abuse the classmate online.

Berklee declined to share details about the incident with VOA Mandarin on Tuesday but said the school was taking the matter seriously and had taken appropriate steps.

The college president, Erica Muhl, resigned earlier this week after starting a leave of absence at the end of June. The school gave no reason for her departure. 

In May, Muhl met with Qin Gang, then China’s foreign minister, in Beijing. According to a Chinese government news release, Muhl said Berklee was willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China and serve as a bridge and bond between the United States and China.

On Wednesday, the Chinese government announced the removal of Qin as its foreign minister. The press release, along with other information about Qin’s diplomatic activities as foreign minister, was purged from the official website of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the end of last year, just a week before the FBI arrested Wu, Qin, the then-Chinese ambassador to the U.S., visited Berklee. A press release issued by the Chinese Embassy said that Qin “looks forward to Berklee College of Music playing a greater role … to bring more positive energy to Sino-US relations.”
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The United States imposed sanctions on several top Malian officials this week, saying they facilitated activities of the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary unit that recently staged a brief mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts say the sanctions are meant to send a message to the Malian government.

Mali’s military government Wednesday criticized the sanctions on high-ranking members of the army accused of facilitating Wagner Group activities in the country, as Mali continues its decade-long fight against Islamist militants.

A statement was read on state TV station ORTM by presenter Mah Camara, and later posted to the station’s Facebook page.

“These new measures, contrary to international law, which we strongly condemn, add to the long list of aggressive measures, acts of intimidation, blackmail and hostile campaigns against Mali,” the statement said in French.

The statement also accused the United States of having “actively contributed to the spread of terrorism and weapons in the Sahel.”

On Monday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the travel and financial sanctions against Mali’s minister of defense, Colonel Sadio Camara, as well as Colonel Alou Boi Diarra, Mali’s chief of staff of the air force, and Colonel Adama Bagayoko, the Malian Air Force deputy chief of staff.

The statement says the officers were sanctioned for “facilitating the deployment and expansion” of the Wagner Group’s activities in Mali.

Mali has been under military rule since a 2020 coup, and Wagner has been present in the country since 2021, assisting the junta.

The U.S. sanctioned the head of Wagner in Mali in May, after the United Nations released a report on a 2022 massacre in Moura, Mali, allegedly committed by the Malian army working with Wagner soldiers.

Daniel Eizenga, a researcher at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, spoke via a messaging application about the sanctions. He said the sanctions will add a layer of scrutiny for any U.S. person or anyone engaged with the U.S. financial system wishing to do business in Mali or with the Malian government, but that the sanctions are also largely symbolic.

“This is really about recognition,” Eizenga said. “The United States government is making a decision in these sanctions to say that we do not recognize these authorities as a legitimate government. In fact, we are sanctioning them, and refusing to do business with them, because they have acted in a way that is contrary to the interests of Malian citizens.”

The junta has widespread support in Bamako and in much of southern Mali but several outspoken critics of the government have been arrested. Additionally, reporting on the army’s alleged participation in massacres and extrajudicial killings in the center and north of the country has been censored.

The military government took France 24 and Radio France International off the air in Mali after they reported on another massacre, this one around the Diabaly area of central Mali, in 2022.

Authorities also asked the U.N. peacekeeping mission to Mali, MINUSMA, to leave the country following a report this past May from the U.N. human rights office on the Moura incident.

Kalilou Sidibe, political analyst and professor of political science and international relations in Bamako, told VOA that he considers the Malian government response “measured” compared to past actions toward France.

During a months-long diplomatic falling out with France, the Malian government expelled the French ambassador, asked French troops to leave the country, and accused France of spying.

Sidibe said that the U.S. remains one of Mali’s largest development partners, and he believes relations between the two countries, and popular views on the U.S. in Mali, are not likely to worsen significant because of the sanctions.

Malian public opinion is not going to change suddenly, he said, because these sanctions don’t target the population directly, they target certain leaders.

Malian leaders, including interim President Assimi Goita, went to St. Petersburg, Russia, this week for an African leaders’ summit.

Mali has received several shipments of weapons and equipment from Russia since the junta took over in 2020.
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An effort by New York City officials to reduce congestion and auto emissions has created tension with their neighbors in New Jersey. Nina Vishneva has more on New York’s proposed congestion pricing in this story narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Olga Terekhin and Vladimir Badikov .
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As part of the U.S. government’s Young African Leaders Initiative, or YALI, a cohort of 23 young leaders from 18 sub-Saharan African countries embarked on a visit to an agricultural farm in Maryland. VOA’s Lionel Gahima and Eric Manirakiza, who is no relation to the farm owner, met with some of them and have this story, narrated by Lionel Gahima. Video: Lionel Gahima
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SYDNEY – U.S. and Australian foreign affairs and defense officials will meet this week in Brisbane for annual talks. The Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations, or AUSMIN 2023, being held Saturday are expected to discuss the sale of submarines as part of the AUKUS alliance, the conflict in Ukraine, and security in the Pacific.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are due in Brisbane for talks with their Australian counterparts Saturday.

Blinken has been to New Zealand and Tonga this week as the U.S. intensifies diplomatic efforts to counter China’s ambitions in the Pacific region. Blinken told reporters Wednesday in Tonga that “as China’s engagement in the region has grown, there has been some, from our perspective, increasingly problematic behavior.”

Talks with Australian officials are expected to be wide-ranging. Analysts believe that even though Britain is not attending the Brisbane conference, the AUSMIN 2023 talks will likely focus on the AUKUS alliance, a security pact among the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Announced in 2021, the AUKUS alliance plans to allow Australia to build a new multibillion-dollar fleet of nuclear-powered submarines with assistance from Washington and London.

However, a poll last month by the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based research organization, found that only about a quarter of Australians support the submarine deal, which could cost Australia up to $244 billion.

Arthur Sinodinos, the former Australian ambassador to the United States, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. On Thursday that the AUSMIN dialogue will cover many issues, including security and climate change.

“They begin with a framing of the issues in the region,” he said. “So, there will be discussions around what is happening in U.S.-China relations, for example. There has been more outreach to the Philippines, for example, by the US in recent times. They will go on to talk about the progress with AUKUS reviewing the progress of legislation in the U.S. Congress on this and also one of the innovations from last year’s AUSMIN was the addition of talks on climate.”

The ministerial talks in Brisbane are also expected to cover the war in Ukraine. Australia is one of the biggest non-NATO contributors to Kyiv’s war effort.

Australia has had to juggle its international relations. Historically, it has close cultural and social ties to the United Kingdom. Australia was settled by the British in 1788 and is a former colony. Economically, Australia’s recent prosperity has relied heavily on China, its biggest trading partner.

But Australia’s formal military pact with the United States, which dates back to the early 1950s, is widely considered to be the cornerstone of its national security.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to announce a state visit to Washington soon, possibly in November.
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WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday raised the possibility of New Zealand and other nations taking part in the AUKUS defense pact, cooperation that could rile Wellington’s key trade partner China.

“The door’s very much open for New Zealand and other partners to engage as they see appropriate going forward,” Blinken said, as Wellington mulls cooperation on non-nuclear aspects of the joint Australia-U.K.-U.S. accord.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on Wednesday said New Zealand was “open to conversations” about a possible role in AUKUS, so long as it did not relate to the development of nuclear-powered submarines.

New Zealand has been nuclear-free since the mid-1980s.

Instead, officials appear to be eying cooperation on defense technologies such as cyber, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons, which fall under the AUKUS agreement’s so-called “pillar two.”

New Zealand and Australia are the main allies of the United States in the South Pacific.

But New Zealand has recently been accused of putting its trading relationship with China ahead of its friendships with fellow Five Eyes spy group members the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia.

Beijing has vehemently opposed AUKUS, describing the pact as destabilizing for the region.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said that “nothing has been agreed to” on AUKUS yet, and the country’s Cabinet would have to consider any proposals before any agreement is made.  
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to Papua New Guinea will focus, in part, on detailed discussion establishing a U.S. military presence in the country, according to experts.

Underpinning the establishment of a U.S. military presence in PNG is the Defense Cooperation Agreement the two countries signed in May.

The Defense Cooperation Agreement “will form the foundational framework for the two countries to enhance bilateral security cooperation” and “improve the capacity of the Papua New Guinea Defense Force,” said a statement released by the Pentagon on Tuesday.

“This is a major step for both the United States and Papua New Guinea,” said Zack Cooper, former special assistant to the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy during the George W. Bush administration and now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

“U.S. officials know that they need to have access to more facilities in the Indo-Pacific region, but most of that access has been limited to existing U.S. treaty allies and a limited set of long-standing partnerships. Papua New Guinea is the first major new access point for the United States in years,” Cooper told VOA Korean via email.

“Defense Secretary Austin’s trip is likely to focus on the details and implementation, as well as providing a visible indication of growing U.S.-PNG ties,” said Terence Roehrig, professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College.

“His visit will also likely seek to allay any concerns in Papua New Guinea that this will lead to a permanent U.S. base and somehow infringe on the country’s sovereignty, an important issue since the agreement has yet to be ratified in the PNG parliament,” he told VOA’s Korean Service via email.

The defense agreement will be released officially after the PNG parliament ratifies it as expected in August. It will allow the U.S. to station troops and vessels at six sites including Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island, according to Agence France-Presse, which obtained a copy of the agreement.

“These six sites are useful for both air and naval forces, which are both critical in the large expanses across the Pacific,” said Cooper. “For Papua New Guinea, I think this will open up new possibilities in terms of not only security cooperation but also economic assistance. This trip will help solidify those arrangements.”

Experts said Austin’s visit featuring discussions with PNG Prime Minister James Marape and his top defense officials is important as the region has become another theater of U.S.-China rivalry.

Dennis Wilder, who served as the National Security Council director for China from 2004-05, told VOA’s Korean Service via email that Austin’s trip “demonstrates that the region is a priority and that the United States will make considerable efforts to counter China’s attempts to bring the region into its sphere of influence” while the security pact “strengthens the U.S. footprint in the western Pacific.”

Roehrig said the U.S. ties with PNG are important “to keep pace with Beijing’s presence in the South Pacific” and to “ensure regional access.”

Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA’s Korean Service via email Tuesday that China is “not opposed to countries’ efforts to grow ties with Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island countries.”

“We always advocate,” he continued, that the international community to give “more attention and support” to island nations and that “the negotiation and signing of any cooperation document should help realize this goal.”

He added, however, that “we should be on alert particularly for geopolitical games under the pretext of cooperation” and that “any cooperation should not target at any third country.”

For China, the region is the so-called Air Silk Road, an important part of its Belt and Road Initiative that seeks to connect Asia and Central and South America through Pacific Island countries.

According to Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation research center, in addition to the first island-chain, which includes Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia, China has been seeking to exert its dominance over the second island-chain comprising countries in the South Pacific such as Palau, Solomon Islands and PNG.

“China has this notion of the first island chain that they totally want to control, and a second island chain, which the Solomons could be part of, where it would establish pretty significant control,” said Bennett in a telephone interview. “The U.S. doesn’t want China to get there.”

According to the Australian Institute of International Affairs, the first chain comprises the Kuril Islands, the main Japanese archipelago, Okinawa, the northern part of the Philippines archipelago, the Malay Peninsula and Taiwan. The second consists of the islands of Japan stretching to Guam and the islands of Micronesia.

China reached a security agreement with the Solomon Islands in April 2022. The security agreement allows China to send ships to the islands to “carry out logistical replacement” as well as military forces to “protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects.”

Cooper said: “China will probably step up efforts in Solomon Islands and other locations in response, so American leaders and their counterparts will want to watch closely to see what Beijing might do in the coming weeks and months.”
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Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell briefly left his own press conference Wednesday after stopping his remarks midsentence and staring off into space for several seconds. 

McConnell approached the podium for his weekly press conference and began speaking about the annual defense bill on the floor, which he said was proceeding with “good bipartisan cooperation.” But he then appeared to lose his train of thought, trailing off with a drawn-out “uh.” 

The Kentucky senator then stared vacantly for around 20 seconds before his colleagues in Republican leadership, who were standing behind him and could not see his face, took his elbows and asked if he wanted to go back to his office. 

He did not answer, but slowly walked back to his office with an aide and Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, a former orthopedic surgeon who is the No. 3 Republican in the Senate. After sitting down in his office for several minutes, McConnell later returned to the press conference and answered questions from the press. 

Asked about what happened, McConnell said he was “fine.” Asked if he is still able to do his job, he said, “Yeah.” 

A McConnell aide said he felt lightheaded and stepped away for a moment. The aide requested anonymity to speak about the senator’s health. 

McConnell, 81, was out of the Senate for almost six weeks earlier this year after falling and hitting his head. His office later said he suffered a concussion and fractured a rib. His speech has recently sounded more halting, prompting questions among some of his colleagues about his health. 

After the press conference, Barrasso told reporters he “wanted to make sure everything was fine” and walked McConnell down the hall to his office. 

Barrasso said he has been concerned since McConnell was injured earlier this year, “and I continue to be concerned.” 

But asked about his particular concerns, Barrasso said: “I said I was concerned when he fell and hit his head a number of months ago and was hospitalized. And I think he’s made a remarkable recovery, he’s doing a great job leading our conference and was able to answer every question the press asked him today.” 

McConnell was reelected easily to another term to lead the conference last year, despite a challenge from Florida Senator Rick Scott. But several Republicans, including No. 2 Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota and Barrasso, are seen as waiting in the wings to someday replace McConnell as leader. 

Texas Senator John Cornyn, who is also seen as a potential candidate to succeed McConnell, told reporters after the episode, “I support Senator McConnell as long as he wants to serve as leader.” 

The Republican leader is one of several senators who have been absent because of health issues this year. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, 90, was out of the Senate for more than two months after suffering from a bout of shingles. And Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, 53, took a weekslong leave to get treatment for clinical depression. 
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The U.S. Federal Reserve raised a key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, citing still-elevated inflation as a rationale for what is now the highest U.S. central bank policy rate since 2007.

The hike, the Fed’s 11th in its last 12 meetings, set the federal funds rate – the benchmark rate on overnight loans that banks charge each other – in the 5.25%-5.50% range. That level was last seen just prior to the 2007 housing market crash, and it has not been consistently exceeded on an effective basis for about 22 years.

“The [Federal Open Market] Committee will continue to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy,” the Fed said in language that was little changed from its June statement and left the central bank’s policy options open as it searches for a stopping point to the current tightening cycle.

As it stated in June, the Fed said it would watch incoming data and study the impact of its rate hikes on the economy “in determining the extent of additional policy firming that may be appropriate” to reach its 2% inflation target.

Though inflation data since the Fed’s June 13-14 meeting has been weaker than expected, policymakers have been reluctant to alter their hawkish stance until there is more progress in reducing price pressures.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said any future policy decisions would be made on a meeting-by-meeting basis, and that in the current environment officials could provide only limited guidance about what’s next for monetary policy.

But he didn’t rule out action if it was deemed necessary.

“It is certainly possible that we would raise the funds rate again at the September meeting if the data warranted, and I would also say it’s possible that we would choose to hold steady at that meeting” if that was the right policy call, Powell said in a press conference after the release of the policy statement.

But Powell cautioned against expecting any near-term easing in rates. “We’ll be comfortable cutting rates when we’re comfortable cutting rates, and that won’t be this year,” Powell said.

Yields on both the two- and 10-year Treasury notes moved down modestly from levels right before the release of the Fed’s policy statement, while U.S. stocks ended mixed. Futures markets showed bets on the path of Fed rate increases over the remainder of the year were little changed, seeing small odds of a rise in September.

“The forward guidance remains unchanged as the committee leaves the door open to further rate hikes if inflation does not continue to trend lower,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide. “Our view is the Fed is likely done with rate hikes for this cycle since continued easing of inflation will passively lead to tighter policy as the Fed holds the nominal fed funds rate steady into 2024.”

‘Moderate’ growth

Key measures of inflation remain more than double the Fed’s target, and the economy by many measures, including a low 3.6% unemployment rate, continues to outperform expectations given the rapid increase in interest rates.

Job gains remain “robust,” the Fed said, while it described the economy as growing at a “moderate” pace, a slight upgrade from the “modest” pace seen as of the June meeting. The U.S. government on Thursday is expected to report the economy grew at a 1.8% annual pace in the second quarter, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Powell said he’s still holding out hope the economy can achieve a “soft landing,” a scenario in which inflation falls, unemployment remains relatively low and a recession is avoided.

“My base case is we’ll be able to achieve inflation moving back down to our target without the kind of really significant downturn that results in high levels of job losses,” he said, while noting that outlook is “a long way from assured.” He also noted that Fed staff economists are no longer predicting a recession as they have at recent meetings.

With about eight weeks until the next Fed meeting, a longer than usual interlude, continued moderation in the pace of price increases could make this the last rate hike in a process that began with a cautious quarter-percentage-point increase in March 2022 before accelerating into the most rapid monetary tightening since the 1980s.

In the most recent economic projections from Fed policymakers, 12 of 18 officials expected at least one more quarter-percentage-point increase would be needed by the end of this year.
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Cambodian officials say renovation work on a naval base in the coastal city of Sihanoukville is nearly complete, but U.S. officials have voiced suspicions the facility, being upgraded by China, will be used exclusively by China’s military.

Suspicions about China’s intentions for the Ream naval base were raised after satellite imagery showed that a major pier capable of anchoring aircraft carriers had been constructed on the site.

Chhum Socheat, a spokesman for the Cambodia National Defense Ministry, confirmed to VOA Khmer that the work will be completed soon but said, “I don’t know the inauguration day.”

He denied speculation that China will use the base to expand its influence in the region against its rival, the United States.

“I regret that there is untrue information. Cambodia is very small. They [some countries] have bad intentions on our country,” he said.

“Some countries don’t acknowledge the truth, and they still say untrue information,” he said.

Satellite imagery taken by BlackSky, a U.S. commercial imagery company that monitors the construction at Ream naval base, noted “the rapid pace of development of a large Chinese military naval station from August 2021 until July 2023.”

“There is a near-exact similarity between an angled deep-water pier located on the western shore of the Ream base and another military pier at the People’s Liberation Army Support Base in Djibouti.

“Both main piers are 363 meters long and large enough to support any ship in China’s naval arsenal, including the new 300-meter-long Type 003 Fujian aircraft carrier,” said Craig Singleton, China Program deputy director and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in a July 24 release on BlackSky’s website.

In August 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the issue with the Cambodian government about the naval base it is modernizing with Chinese funds, saying use of the site would pose a threat to Southeast Asia if used exclusively for China’s military. He made his remarks during a visit to Phnom Penh.

In discussing the naval base, Blinken told VOA Khmer that U.S. concern “is first and foremost in making sure that Cambodia has a truly independent foreign policy, and is not, does not feel pressured, of course, by anyone.”

“And when it comes to the Ream naval base, I think countries throughout the region would be very concerned if any one country had exclusive control or use of any portion of the base or was doing anything there that undermined the security of other countries in the region. So, I think it’s important to have transparency and to make sure that the base is open to all, and not the exclusive use of any one country,” the top U.S. diplomat said.

Political analyst Em Sovannara told VOA Khmer the Ream base is “a very sensitive issue” that requires the Cambodian government to be transparent to allay U.S. suspicions.

”If it is just a political statement via news outlets, it can’t solve or clear doubts from the U.S. Thus, there should be other mechanisms for strengthening diplomatic ties with the U.S., which is a way to solve the issue,” he said.

The United States has alleged that China will maintain a military presence at Ream, Beijing’s second such overseas outpost and its first in the strategically significant Indo-Pacific region. It also has an outpost in Djibouti, at the mouth of the Red Sea.

Tea Banh, Cambodia’s defense minister, said in June 2022 the Ream base would most likely not be open for full examination by any foreigners after completion.

He said that Cambodia would not allow any foreign military base on its soil and “has no intention to provoke any threats to any country, and Cambodia is never against other countries’ ‘military building efforts.’”

“Cambodia just wants to strengthen its protection capacities to curb against pressure and impacts of the current geopolitics competition,” he said, adding, “Cambodia has no policy to choose one country against one country.”

In October 2022, the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh told VOA Khmer the Cambodian government had “not been fully transparent about the intent, nature and scope of this project.”

Ream is on the Gulf of Thailand near the South China Sea, where China has claimed sovereignty and disregarded international law.

The Wall Street Journal in 2019 also reported that China had signed an agreement to have People’s Liberation Army officers stationed at the naval base. Satellite imagery has shown the demolition of buildings, some built by the United States, and the recent construction of two structures on the base’s northern half.

Some information for this article comes from Agence France-Presse.
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A towering construction crane caught fire high above the west side of Manhattan on Wednesday morning, then lost its long arm, which smashed against a nearby building, dangled and then plummeted to the street as people ran for their lives on the sidewalk below. 

Four people suffered minor injuries, but no one died, according to New York City Mayor Eric Adams. 

“As you can see from the debris on the street, this could have been much worse,” the Democrat said, noting that the street at that hour of the morning is often filled with pedestrians, cars and buses. 

The fire atop the 54-story building was reported around 7:25 a.m. Photos and videos posted on social media showed flames bursting from the car of a crane hundreds of feet above 10th Avenue at 41st Street. The crane’s arm, which was carrying a 16-ton load, snapped off after the fire had been burning for a period of time. 

The person operating the crane tried to put out the fire as it spread, but then had to flee to safety, according to Fire Department First Deputy Commissioner Joseph Pfeifer. 

Firefighters stationed on a roof deck of another building used hoses to battle the blaze. Surrounding streets were closed to traffic. 

The fire’s cause was being investigated. 

The location is near the Port Authority Bus Terminal and an entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, which carries auto traffic to and from New Jersey under the Hudson River. 
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Japan imposed export controls on advanced microchip technologies this week, mirroring recent moves by the United States and the Netherlands. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Tokyo, the controls are widely seen as targeting China
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Top U.S. military officials and diplomats are embarking this week on another concerted push against Chinese influence across the Indo-Pacific, hoping to expand security agreements with key Pacific Island nations. 

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea late Wednesday for a series of meetings with the country’s prime minister and top defense officials. 

The visit to Papua New Guinea, the first by a sitting U.S. secretary of defense, comes just months after the two countries signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement, meant to serve as a framework for enhancing the capabilities of Port Moresby’s defense forces and establishing a U.S. military presence – with rotational forces – on the island. 

From there, Austin is set to travel to Brisbane, Australia, for the 33rd annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN), where he will be joined by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their Australian counterparts.   

Blinken will arrive in Australia after a visit to the island nation of Tonga, where he dedicated a new U.S. embassy, and a stop in New Zealand. 

The visits by Austin and Blinken are being supplemented by other trips to the region by high-ranking U.S. officials, including a visit by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff to New Zealand and Samoa, and an upcoming trip by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia. 

“We see ourselves as delivering results with partners,” a senior U.S. defense official said Monday, ahead of Austin’s visit to Papua New Guinea. “The secretary’s hitting the road again to keep the momentum moving forward in the region.” 

Focus on defense agreement

For Austin, the key focus for his meetings in Port Moresby will be on the recently signed defense agreement, which still needs to be ratified by Papua New Guinea’s parliament.   

U.S. officials said they are optimistic the deal will be ratified “quite soon,” adding it is something “that both sides really wanted.” 

“The agreement will serve as a foundational framework for us to enhance our security cooperation, improve the capacity of the PNG [Papua New Guinea] defense forces, allow us to respond to humanitarian and regional crises, and also expand the scope of our [military] exercises,” said a second defense official, who like the first briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity. 

The official also expressed confidence that officials from both countries will make progress on a second deal — a so-called shiprider agreement — that allows Papua New Guinea personnel to sail on U.S. Coast Guard ships. 

“This is really important and really valuable for enhancing maritime domain awareness and combating things like illegal unregulated and unreported fishing,” the official said. 

Concern about China  

Yet for all the optimism, there is growing concern about pushback from China in response to U.S. efforts.   

During a visit to the U.S. last week, the president of Palau, a small Pacific Island nation, warned Beijing is actively trying to influence politicians in his country and others to prevent them from gravitating to Washington. 

“All the Chinese need to do is get a new president that favors what they want to do and they can change it,” Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. said during an event in Washington.  

And Whipps said Beijing’s strategy is meeting with some success, having managed to curry favor with some of his fellow politicians by offering economic incentives that Washington has yet to match.   

Pressed on China’s outreach campaign and offers of economic cooperation, some U.S. officials downplayed the concerns. 

“Our approach… is to demonstrate value and to demonstrate the ways in which we can contribute meaningfully to a long term, mutually beneficial security relationship,” said the second senior defense official. 

“In every one of our alliances and partnerships throughout the region, we are working to ensure they’re delivering for the partners and for the host countries,” the official said. “And I think that’s true in every instance.” 

As evidence, they point to agreements like the ones signed by Papua New Guinea and also to military exercises like Talisman Sabre, getting underway in Australia. 

With some 30,000 troops taking part, Talisman Sabre is the largest U.S.-Australian military exercise. This year, however, U.S. officials point to participation from a host of other countries from the region, including India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. Additionally, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga, are taking part for the first time. 

U.S. diplomatic officials, however, have been careful not to paint U.S. efforts, including the establishment of a new U.S. embassy in Tonga, as part of a counter-China campaign. 

“Our embassy is not being set up to counter China,” a State Department official told reporters last week, briefing on the condition of anonymity. 

“Strategic competition is an aspect, a reality in the region,” the official added. “But we are standing up an embassy to reflect our strong ties with Tonga and, frankly, our desire to be engaged in places like Tonga.” 

Still, despite efforts to downplay Washington’s moves in the Pacific, some analysts say the U.S. and allies like Australia are keenly aware of China’s efforts to lure countries into its sphere of influence, either with economic incentives or with security agreements, as it has done with the Solomon Islands. 

“Australia and the U.S. have never been more interested in the Pacific Islands than they are now,” said Lavina Lee, a Sydney-based adjunct fellow with the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies, during a media call previewing this week’s Australia-U.S. ministerial meeting in Brisbane.     

“Both Australia and the U.S. is keen to address the region’s concerns by also showing that they are a provider of public goods without strings attached, as opposed to China.” 

At the same time, the U.S. and Australia are working to strengthen their growing military cooperation, with U.S. officials speaking of a “profound strategic alignment” between the two allies. 

“There will be a strong focus on advancing defense industrial cooperation, production and information,” the second U.S. defense official said of Saturday’s ministerial meeting. 

U.S. officials said they expect the meeting to result in a “broadening [of] our force posture initiatives to new domains and locations” in Australia. 

They also expect talks to focus on Australia’s guided weapons and explosive ordnance enterprise aimed at bolstering Australia’s ability to produce precision guided munitions, which have been in demand in Ukraine and could further be in demand by Taiwan should China decide to retake the island by force. 
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