A Ukrainian composer has been commissioned to write an opera about mothers from that country going into Russia to rescue their forcibly detained children.

The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater said Monday that 42-year-old Maxim Kolomiiets will compose the work to a libretto by George Brant, whose “Grounded,” with composer Jeanine Tesori, premieres at the Washington National Opera on October 28 and travels to the Met in autumn 2024. Met general manager Peter Gelb hopes the company can present the new work by 2027 or ’28.

The story is fictional but based on events in Ukraine and The Hague. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on March 17 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.

“It will be a story of motherhood and childhood, about this strange, very difficult situation where mothers rescue their children and met with many difficulties,” Kolomiiets said in a telephone interview. “For people, for listeners, it will be a good understanding.”

He was living in Kyiv when the war started last year, then three months later moved to Leipzig, Germany, where he had a project and decided to stay.

Gelb said discussions began last fall with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska when she visited New York and Kolomiiets was picked from among 72 applications after vetting by Met dramaturge Paul Cremo, Gelb and the Met’s artistic staff.

A story framework has been created. A piano-vocal score and libretto will be written in the next year or two and a workshop prepared.

“I felt it was important to have an English-language librettist working with the composer so that story would have the broadest possible audience,” Gelb said.

Gelb has been an advocate of support for Ukraine, banning Russian star soprano Anna Netrebko from the opera house and assisting Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra tours led by his wife, Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson.

Works in the joint commissioning program can appear at either house.

“It’s my hope it will end up as a full-blown opera and hopefully on our stage,” Gelb said.
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A “cybersecurity issue” led to the shutdown of some casino and hotel computer systems at MGM Resorts International properties across the U.S., a company official reported Monday. 

The incident began Sunday and the extent of its effect on reservation systems and casino floors in Las Vegas and states including Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York and Ohio was not immediately known, company spokesman Brian Ahern said. 

“MGM Resorts recently identified a cybersecurity issue affecting some of the company’s systems,” the company said in a statement that pointed to an investigation involving external cybersecurity experts and notifications to law enforcement agencies. 

The nature of the issue was not described, but the statement said efforts to protect data included “shutting down certain systems.” It said the investigation was continuing. 

A post on the company website said the site was down. It listed telephone numbers to reach the reservation system and properties. 

A post on the company’s BetMGM website in Nevada acknowledged that some customers were unable to log on. 

The company has tens of thousands of hotel rooms in Las Vegas at properties including the MGM Grand, Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, Aria, New York-New York, Park MGM, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and Delano. 

It also operates properties in China and Macau. 
…

Public sentiment toward U.S. military bases on the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa appears to be changing, amid growing tensions with China and the shock of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The United States has around 30,000 active troops in Okinawa deployed in numerous bases across the main island, including some in the middle of built-up residential areas. 

Washington has maintained a large military presence since the end of World War II, when U.S. forces captured the islands after three months of brutal fighting that killed a quarter of Okinawa’s population.  

Okinawa makes up just 1% of Japanese land mass but hosts 70% of all U.S. military bases in the country. They have long been a source of tension with local residents, explained Yoko Shima, editor of Okinawa’s Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper, which has campaigned for the closure of the military installations.

“People now in their 60s and 70s have memories of the Battle of Okinawa [in World War II] passed down to them from their parents and were involved in campaigns against the bases in the past. So, they feel strongly about the issue,” Shima told VOA.

Aircraft noise, road accidents and a perceived safety risk of the Osprey aircraft deployed in Okinawa have stirred local opposition to the bases. 

The rape of a 12-year-old girl in 1995 by three U.S. Marines prompted large protests calling for the bases to be closed. 

Changing attitudes

Polls show around 70% of residents believe Okinawa bears an unfair burden. There are frequent calls for the Japanese mainland to host more U.S. bases. 

However, sentiment appears to be slowly changing. Younger people tend to have a less negative view of the U.S. presence, Shima said.

“Although there is no overwhelming support for the U.S. military bases, young people feel that there is nothing we can do about the U.S. military bases, since they already exist, and that they are also necessary for the defense of Japan,” Shima said.

Taiwan tensions

Okinawa’s painful history is felt strongly among its people. Its geography puts it on the front line of rising geopolitical tensions.

Taiwan lies just a few hundred kilometers west of Okinawa. On a clear day, it is possible to see the Taiwanese coastline from Yonaguni, the most westerly of the Okinawan islands. 

China has ramped up military exercises around Taiwan over the past year, which Beijing sees as part of its territory. The drills have raised fears that China could launch an invasion, and Okinawans fear their islands could be drawn into any wider conflict, Shima said.

“There is a high possibility that Okinawa will become a target, because there are currently U.S. military bases here. So, it shouldn’t become a target. In other words, we should pursue the ideal of reducing the burden of military bases [in Okinawa], while promoting diplomatic efforts to bring the countries of East Asia closer together,” she said.

The United States and Japan agreed to relocate the Futenma air base, one of the most controversial installations north of the capital, to a remote area of coastline at Henoko on the east coast of Okinawa. A new runway is currently under construction in Henoko Bay.

However, the move has been repeatedly delayed amid legal challenges. Critics say the relocation will fail to relieve the burden on Okinawa and will destroy the fragile ecosystem of the coral reefs in the area.

Local support

Japan and Okinawa must be ready to deal with a more assertive China, and that means embracing the U.S. military presence, leaders in Okinawa say.

“The threat to security from China is becoming more concrete,” said Aiko Shimajiri, an Okinawan lawmaker in the Japanese Parliament. 

In December, China sailed its Liaoning aircraft carrier through the Miyako Strait, just south of Okinawa’s main island, cutting through the archipelago that stretches toward Taiwan. 

Shimajiri said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has reminded many Okinawans that invasion and large-scale warfare are still a possibility.

“I think there are many people in Okinawa who feel that since no one knows what may happen, it is necessary to prepare for that eventuality,” she told VOA.

Divided opinion

Okinawan residents who spoke to VOA gave differing views on the U.S. bases.

“If the peace of Japan is protected, I think that they are a good thing,” said Taro Kishimoto, a student in the Okinawan capital, Naha. “I don’t think my life will change much with or without the U.S. military bases, so I’m not too worried about it.” 

Ayako Yagi, who is in her sixties, wants the bases to close.

“After all, my grandparents experienced the Second World War. So, I would be happier without them,” she said.

Katsufumi Nishime, a retired former member of Japan’s self-defense forces, said the U.S. military is needed in Okinawa. 

“The self-defense forces cannot protect Japan, unless the U.S. military comes to support us. The Taiwan issue is a problem. When I see the news about the Ukraine war, I think that having the power of the U.S. military is absolutely necessary,” he said.
…

The U.S. National Hurricane Center reports that Hurricane Lee remains a major hurricane, and, while still far from land, is creating dangerous conditions in the northern Caribbean and will do the same for the U.S. east coast in the coming week.

In its latest report Monday, the hurricane center said Lee is about 545 kilometers north of the U.S. Virgin Islands and 1045 km south-southeast of Bermuda. Its maximum sustained winds are 195 km per hour, making it a Category 3 hurricane.

The storm reached Category 5 status with hours of its formation in the very warm waters of the south Atlantic last week.

The hurricane center expects Lee to strengthen over the next day or so, followed by gradual weakening. It reports that as the storm weakens, its tropical wind field will likely expand, affecting a wider area.

Forecasters say Lee will create dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents to the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, and Bermuda through much of the week.

The forecasters say Lee could also bring wind, rainfall, and high surf impacts to Bermuda.

They say it is too soon to know what impact, if any, Lee might have along the U.S. east coast and Atlantic Canada.
…

The United States on Monday marks the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

President Joe Biden is due to deliver an address to members of the military, first responders and their families at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska.

Biden’s Alaska stop comes as he travels home from an overseas trip that included the G20 summit in India and meeting with leaders in Vietnam.

While Monday will be the rare September 11 anniversary without a president appearing at observances at crash sites in New York, Pennsylvania or the Pentagon, it is not without precedent.

President George W. Bush in 2005 held an observance on the White House lawn, while President Barack Obama in 2015 participated in a moment of silence at the White House before attending an event honoring the work of the military at nearby Fort Meade.

Vice President Kamala Harris is due to attend a ceremony Monday at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York.  Al-Qaida terrorists hijacked two commercial jets and crashed them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, causing both buildings to collapse.

Her husband, Doug Emhoff, is scheduled to visit Shanksville, Pennsylvania to lay a wreath at a memorial where another hijacked plane crashed into a field after passengers fought their attackers.

First lady Jill Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley are all due to participate in a wreath laying ceremony at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial.  Terrorists crashed a hijacked plane into the building, which serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Defense Department.

September 11 is a federally recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance in the United States, aiming to transform a day of tragedy into a day of doing good to honor the memories of victims and those who responded to the terror attacks.
…

The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island began to erupt on Sunday afternoon, with flows currently confined to the surrounding crater floor, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Sunday.

Webcam images show fissures at the base of the volcano’s crater that are generating lava flows on the surface of the crater floor.

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the eruption “does not pose a lava threat to communities” though volcanic particles and gases may create breathing problems for people exposed.

The eruption was preceded by a period of strong seismicity and “rapid uplift” of the summit, according to USGS.

The agency elevated Kilauea’s aviation color code from orange to red as it evaluates the eruption and its volcano alert from watch to warning.

Located in a closed area of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. In 2019, a string of earthquakes and major eruption at Kilauea led to the destruction of hundreds of homes and businesses.

The volcano erupted in January and June of this year.
…

Novak Djokovic emerged from an exhilarating and exhausting U.S. Open final with a 24th Grand Slam title on Sunday night, using every ounce of his energy and some serve-and-volley guile to get past Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in a match that was more closely contested than the straight-set score indicated.

Djokovic, a 36-year-old from Serbia, moved one major singles title in front of Serena Williams to become the first player to win 24 in the Open era, which began in 1968. Margaret Court also collected a total of 24, but 13 of those came before professionals were admitted to the Slam events.

“It obviously means the world to me,” said Djokovic, who will return to No. 1 in the rankings on Monday.

There were moments, particularly in the 1-hour, 44-minute second set that was as much about tenacity as talent, when Djokovic appeared to be faltering. After some of the most grueling points — and there were many — he would lean over with hands on knees or use his racket for support or pause to stretch his legs. After one, he dropped to his back on the court and stayed down for a bit as the crowd roared.

He allowed Medvedev to come within a single point of taking that set while returning at 6-5. Djokovic rushed the net behind his serve, and while Medvedev had an opening for a backhand passing shot he did not come through.

That was a key adjustment: When Djokovic was looking more bedraggled, he turned to serve-and-volleying, not his usual sort of tactic, to great success. He won 20 of 22 points he played that way, and 37 of 44 overall on the points when he went to the net.

This triumph against Medvedev, the opponent who beat him in the 2021 final at Flushing Meadows to stop a bid for the first men’s calendar-year Grand Slam in more than a half-century, made Djokovic the oldest male champion at the U.S. Open in the Open era.

“First of all, Novak, I want to ask: What are you still doing here? Come on,” Medvedev joked during the trophy presentation.

Djokovic’s fourth championship in New York, where he was unable to compete a year ago because he isn’t vaccinated against COVID-19, goes alongside his 10 trophies from the Australian Open, seven from Wimbledon and three from the French Open, extending his lead on the men’s Slam list. Rafael Nadal, who has been sidelined since January with a hip problem that required surgery, is next with 22; Roger Federer, who announced his retirement a year ago, finished with 20.

When it was over, Medvedev tapped Djokovic on the chest as they chatted at the net. Djokovic flung his racket away, put his arms up and then knelt on the court, with his head bowed. And then the celebration was on. First, he found his daughter for a hug. His son and wife came next, along with his team.

Soon, Djokovic was donning a shirt with “24” and “Mamba Forever” written on it as a tribute to the late NBA star Kobe Bryant, who wore that jersey number. And on top of that went a white jacket with the same significant number stamped on the chest.

As good as ever, Djokovic went 27-1 in the sport’s most prestigious events this season: The lone blemish was a loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the final at Wimbledon in July. Djokovic will rise to No. 1 in the rankings on Monday, overtaking Alcaraz, who was the defending champion at Flushing Meadows but was eliminated by No. 3 Medvedev.

At the start Sunday, with the Arthur Ashe Stadium retractable roof shut because of rain in the forecast, Djokovic was comfortable as can be. No sign of the occasion weighing on him, no trace of the tension he acknowledged briefly arose late in his semifinal against unseeded American Ben Shelton.

His exemplary movement good as ever, every stroke just so, Djokovic came out as his best self. He grabbed 12 of the first 16 points — three via aces perfectly placed, and with pace, and four via exchanges that lasted 10 strokes or more — along the way to leads of 3-0 and 4-1.

Medvedev, in contrast, seemed tight, jittery, the looping swings of his white racket breaking down repeatedly, whether on a trio of double-faults in the opening set or during the lengthier points, other than on one 37-shot back-and-forth that ended when Djokovic blinked, stumbling as he flubbed a backhand.

Beyond that, though, Djokovic was as reliable as a metronome, anticipating nearly everything headed his way and scurrying this way and that to retrieve and respond, as is his wont.

And the fans sure were appropriately appreciative, which has not always been the case over Djokovic’s career. On this afternoon-into-evening, support came from thousands, not only the folks invoking his two-syllable nickname while chanting, “Let’s go, No-le, let’s go!” or those in his guest box, including Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey, one of many A-listers on hand.

When he got to set point in the first on a miscue by Medvedev, Djokovic showed his first real bit of emotion, raising a fist and turning to the corner where his entourage had jumped to their feet. When another Medvedev miss ended the set, Djokovic simply exhaled and strode to the sideline.

He relies on analytics and what a foe’s tendencies are. He leans on instinct and a masterful ability to read opposing serves and groundstrokes. On Sunday, his blue shoes carried him right where he needed to be, more often than not, and his flexibility — turning, bending, contorting, stretching, sliding, defending with his back to the net, even — allowed him to keep the ball in play, when required, and create flip-the-switch offense, too, if desired.

Medvedev plays a similar type of tennis, and their mirror images would elongate points for 25 shots, 35 shots, more.

Was Djokovic perfect? No. But, wow, he came close in sections, and he was absolutely good enough throughout to win, as he so often is.
…

Last month, Canada imposed sanctions on Russia’s nuclear sector. Targets included subsidiaries of Russia’s Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation. The U.S. imposed similar sanctions in April. Yet the West continues to have ties with Rosatom, which dominates the nuclear fuel supply chain. Oleksii Kovalenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Kostiantyn Golubchyk.
…

U.S. President Joe Biden has held his highest-level direct talks in months with the Chinese. The talks came during the recent summit of 20 of the world’s largest economies in New Delhi, India. During a historic visit to Vietnam after that, Biden also said a comprehensive strategic partnership between the U.S. and Vietnam is not about containing China. VOA’s State Department bureau chief Nike Ching has more.
…

Like many horrors before it, bad reviews didn’t scare off moviegoers from buying tickets for ” The Nun II.” The sequel to the 2018 hit, released in 3,728 theaters by Warner Bros., topped the box office in its first weekend in North American theaters earning an estimated $32.6 million, the studio said Sunday.

AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote in his one-star review that it’s “a movie that seems destined to pound a nail into this franchise’s undead coffin” and audiences gave it a C+ CinemaScore. But it hardly matters: Horror is perhaps the most reliably critic-proof genre, at least when it comes to opening weekend.

The Michael Graves-directed sequel starring Taissa Farmiga and Storm Reid fell far short of the debut for the first film ($53.8 million), but it’s still a solid launch. “The Nun” movies are part of the so-called Conjuring universe, which now has nine films, and $2.1 billion in box office, to its name. The sequel also played well internationally, picking up $52.7 million from 69 markets (Mexico being the strongest with $8.9 million) and boosting its global debut to $85.3 million.

“To have a horror universe is really powerful in terms of the revenue generating potential,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “It’s a great bet that Warners made on the horror moviegoing experience never waning.”

And there are many more scary movies on the calendar through the fall including “A Death in Venice,” which opens next week, “Saw X” on Sept. 29 and “The Exorcist: Believer” on Oct. 6.

“The Nun II” bumped Denzel Washington’s ” Equalizer 3 ” to second place in its second weekend. The Columbia Pictures release added $12.1 million, bringing its domestic grosses to $61.9 million and its worldwide earnings to $107.7 million.

Third place went to another new movie: The third installment of Nia Vardalos’s “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” which arrives 21 years after the first film became a massive sleeper hit earning some $369 million against a $5 million production budget. Released by Focus Features in 3,650 theaters, the third film earned an estimated $10 million, overwhelmingly driven by female audiences (71%) who were 25 or older (83%).

Vardalos wrote, directed and stars in “Greek Wedding 3,” which brings back John Corbett and takes the gang to Greece. AP’s Jocelyn Noveck wrote in her review that the movie, which has gotten mostly poor marks, is “like a thrice-warmed piece of baklava.”

The Indian revenge thriller, “Jawan,” starring Shah Rukh Khan, opened in fourth place with $6.2 million from only 813 locations. It was released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Khan, a Bollywood superstar, also led another box office sensation this year, “Pathaan,” which has made $130 million worldwide.

“Barbie,” which comes to VOD on Tuesday, dropped to No. 5 after 8 triumphant weeks with $5.9 million from 3,281 locations. The Warner Bros. film has now made $620.5 million domestically.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Nun II,” $32.6 million.

2. “The Equalizer 3,” $12.1 million.

3. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3,” $10 million.

4. “Jawan,” $6.2 million.

5. “Barbie,” $5.9 million.

6. “Blue Beetle,” $3.8 million.

7. “Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story,” $3.4 million.

8. “Oppenheimer,” $3 million.

9. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” $2.6 million.
   …

U.S. President Joe Biden said Sunday he still intends to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping after a 10-month gap in communication, while saying that he had met with Xi’s deputy in New Delhi earlier in the day.

“My team, my staff, still meets with President Xi’s cabinet,” he said at a news conference in Hanoi in response to a question from VOA. “In fact, I met with his No. 2 person … in India today.”

“It’s not like there’s a crisis if I don’t personally speak” with Xi, who skipped the G-20 meeting of world leaders in India. “It would be better if I did. I hope to get to see him again soon.”

On the meeting with Premier Li Qiang, he added: “It wasn’t confrontational at all,” adding they talked about stability and making sure the developing world “had access to change.”

But Biden noted Xi “has his hands full right now. He has overwhelming unemployment with youths” and said a major sector of the Chinese economy, real estate, is faltering.

“I don’t want to contain” Chinese economic growth, Biden said. “I want to see China succeed economically, but I want to see them succeed by the rules” of international norms.

The U.S. leader said the Chinese economy, second in the world behind the United States, has struggled because of a lack of international growth, but didn’t see it as leading to armed conflict over Taiwan, the self-governed territory that China claims as part of Beijing’s domain.

“I don’t think this is going to cause China to invade Taiwan,” Biden said. “As a matter of fact, the opposite, probably doesn’t have the same capacity that it had before.”

Several Biden Cabinet members have traveled recently to Beijing to meet with their counterparts. But the two countries have lately had a contentious relationship over trade, naval patrols near Taiwan and a spy balloon that China sent over the United States earlier this year.

Biden ordered the balloon shot down over the Atlantic Ocean as it reached the U.S. eastern seaboard but not before it lingered over sensitive U.S. military installations as it crossed the entirety of the United States. In addition, China hacked the emails of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo before her recent trip to Beijing.
…

A new lawsuit to bar former President Donald Trump from appearing on the 2024 Colorado primary ballot has revived a legal and political debate over an obscure provision of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, a progressive watchdog, filed the lawsuit on behalf of six Colorado voters on Wednesday. It claims that Trump is ineligible to run for the White House again because he supported an “insurrection” against the Constitution on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the Congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

The lawsuit cites Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 to prevent former Confederate officials and soldiers from regaining power after the 1861-65 American Civil War.

The provision, known as the “disqualification clause” and “insurrection clause,” says that no one who has taken an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution or “given aid or comfort” to its enemies can hold any federal or state office unless given a waiver by Congress.

“Because Trump took these actions after he swore an oath to support the Constitution, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits him from being president and from qualifying for the Colorado ballot for president in 2024,” the CREW lawsuit says.

The lawsuit raises several questions, including whether Trump’s actions in the lead-up to Jan. 6 constituted a rebellion or insurrection, whether Section 3 applies to the presidency, and whether state election officials have the power to enforce it without an act of Congress.

CREW is not the only group seeking Trump’s disqualification. Two other liberal groups — Free Speech for People, and Mia Familia Vota Education Fund — recently asked top election officials in more than 10 states to bar Trump and have vowed to take legal action.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed this week that “almost all legal scholars” agree that the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to the 2024 presidential election.  He called the effort “election interference” and “just another ‘trick’ being used by the Radical Left Communists, Marxists, and Fascists, to again steal an election.”

But it’s not just those on the left making the case. In recent weeks, a growing number of conservative legal scholars have joined the calls for Trump’s removal from the ballot.

Among them are J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former federal appellate judge, and Steven Calabresi, a co-founder of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization. They contend that Trump’s actions constitute an insurrection against the Constitution, and that disqualifies him from holding office again.

Here is what you need to know about the Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and the push to kick Trump off the 2024 presidential ballot:

What is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and what does it say?

The 14th Amendment is one of three amendments to the U.S. Constitution that were enacted after the Civil War to extend civil and legal rights to formerly enslaved Black people.

The amendment is best known for its Section 1, which grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” and guarantees citizens the “equal protection of the laws.”

The amendment’s less-well-known Section 3 states that no one who took an “oath … to support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution or gave “aid or comfort to [its] enemies” can serve as a senator, representative or presidential elector or hold any office — civil or military — unless approved by a supermajority vote of Congress.

How has the provision been used in the past?

In the years after the U.S. Civil War, a period known as the Reconstruction Era, the provision was used to prevent former Confederate officials from holding office.

But the measure remained largely dormant for more than 150 years until the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol.

Following that attack, liberal groups sought to use Section 3 to challenge the eligibility of several Congressional candidates who had opposed the 2020 election results. The effort failed to gain traction. The only successful application of Section 3 occurred last September, when a New Mexico judge removed from office a county commissioner who had been convicted in connection with Jan. 6.

Does the provision apply to the president?

Section 3 does not explicitly mention whether the president is subject to disqualification under the provision, leading some experts to argue that the presidency is exempt.

But that is a misreading of the text and history of the provision, said Gerard Magliocca, an Indiana University law professor who has written extensively about Section 3.

“This issue was raised in Congress when the proposal was under consideration,” Magliocca told VOA. “Someone said, does this apply to the presidency or the vice presidency? And the answer given was yes, it does.”

What is more, Magliocca said, the phrase “officer of the United States,” as used in Section 3, refers to the president, making him subject to the disqualification provision.

“Andrew Johnson, who was president at the time, repeatedly referred to himself as the chief executive officer of the United States in asserting his authority to pursue Reconstruction in the aftermath of the Civil War in 1865,” Magliocca said.

What are the legal arguments for and against applying Section 3 to Trump?

Though initially designed to punish rebellious Southerners, most legal scholars agree that Section 3 may apply to any act of rebellion or insurrection. The debate now is whether Jan. 6 qualifies as such an act.

Proponents of Trump’s disqualification say that it does and that the case against the former president is straightforward: Trump swore to uphold the Constitution as president but then broke that vow when he instigated the Jan. 6 “insurrection,” making him unfit for office under Section 3.

The provision doesn’t require a criminal conviction, said U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat and a staunch Trump critic.

“It just requires that you engage in these [insurrection] acts,” Schiff said recently on MSNBC. “It’s a disqualification from holding office again. And it fits Donald Trump to a T.”

Opponents disagree that Jan. 6 rises to the level of an insurrection. They note Section 3 was added in response to a real rebellion.

“But it is notable that Trump has not been charged even with incitement, let alone rebellion or insurrection,” said Jonathan Turley, a conservative law professor at The George Washington University, Wednesday on Fox News.

Derek Muller, a law professor and election law expert at University of Notre Dame, said the dispute in part hinges on what acts count as insurrection.

“If you’re making a comparison to the Civil War, what happened on January 6th was certainly not at that level, but are there lesser acts that could fit this?” Muller said.

Another question concerns the role of Congress in disqualifying individuals. Some scholars have argued that Section 3 is not “self-executing,” meaning it needs an act of Congress to be implemented.  But others say no such action is needed.

“I don’t have strong thoughts on those questions, but I think they’re the things that people are wondering about, whether or not it applies in the context of what happened today,” Muller said.

The courts will decide

The legal challenges to Trump’s candidacy are just beginning to make their way through the courts and eventually may end up before the Supreme Court.

Secretaries of state from Democratic-leaning states such as Colorado and Michigan say they’ll await court guidance before taking action. But the courts may not weigh in soon.

“I think a lot of state courts will be very reluctant to hear these claims early,” Muller said.

This is not the first time a major presidential candidate has faced legal challenges over his eligibility.

Barack Obama in 2008 and Ted Cruz in 2016 faced lawsuits over questions regarding whether they were “natural born citizens,” a requirement for presidency.

Obama was born in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and American mother. Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father and American mother.

But the lawsuits didn’t reach the “merits” stage to address the key question — was the candidate a natural born citizen? — as they ground through procedural hurdles.

A similar fate may await the legal challenges to Trump’s candidacy, Muller said.

“Many of these cases will continue the same way, hitting all those barriers before they get to the heart of the question: Did you participate in an insurrection or rebellion?” Muller said. 
…

Most of West Maui will officially reopen to travelers Oct. 8 under a new wildfire emergency proclamation signed on Friday by Hawaii Gov. Josh Green.

Nonessential travel to much of the island’s western coastline has been strongly discouraged since devastating wildfires killed at least 115 people in the historic town of Lahaina last month.

State tourism officials initially urged travelers to stay away from Maui so residents and agencies could focus on emergency response efforts and supporting those displaced by the fires. In mid-August, officials began encouraging tourists to return to other parts of Maui, avoiding the burn zone and spending money to help the region recover.

On Thursday, Green told a meeting of the state Council on Revenues that he expected authorities to reopen most of West Maui to travelers in October, with the exception of the fire-damaged neighborhoods. The area, which includes beach resorts in Kaanapali, north of historic Lahaina, has 11,000 hotel rooms. That’s half Maui’s total.

In the emergency proclamation signed Friday, the governor said the previous guidance that strongly discouraged nonessential travel to West Maui will be discontinued Oct. 8.

Tourism is a major economic driver in Hawaii, and the wildfire disaster prompted state officials to lower their 2023 economic growth prediction for the entire state to 1.1%, down from 1.8%.

The number of visitors arriving on Maui sank about 70% after the Aug. 8 fire, down to 2,000 a day, and only half of the available hotel rooms there are occupied, said Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association president Mufi Hannemann. Airlines have begun offering steep discounts on flights to Hawaii, and some resorts have slashed room rates by 20% or are offering a fifth night free.
…

How hot is it in Phoenix? In what has been the hottest summer ever measured, the sizzling city in the Sonoran Desert broke yet another record Saturday when temperatures topped 43.3 Celsius.

It was the 54th day this year that the official reading at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport made the mark, eclipsing the previous record of 53 days set in 2020.

Matt Salerno, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the hot streak could reach 55 days.

“We do have one more day,” he said.

An extreme heat warning remained in effect, with temperatures forecast at 43.9 C on Sunday and 41.1 C on Monday.

Salerno said Phoenix experienced the hottest three months since record-keeping began in 1895, including the hottest July and the second-hottest August.

The daily average temperature of 36.1 C in June, July and August passed the previous record of 35.9 C set three years ago.

The average daily temperature was 39.3 C in July, Salerno said, and the daily average in August was 37.1 C.

In July, Phoenix also set a record with a 31-day streak of highs at or above 43.3 C. The previous record of 18 straight days was set in 1974.

The sweltering summer of 2023 has seen a historic heat wave stretching from Texas across New Mexico and Arizona and into California’s desert.

Worldwide, last month was the hottest August ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization. It was also the second hottest month measured, behind only July 2023. Scientists blame human-caused climate change with an extra push from a natural El Nino, which is a temporary warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather around the globe.

As of Saturday, Phoenix has tallied 104 days this year with temperatures over 37.7 C, Salerno said. That’s in line with the average of 111 days of 37.7 C  or higher every year between 1991 and 2020.

Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and the most populous county in Arizona, also appears headed toward an annual record for heat-associated deaths.

County public health officials have confirmed 194 heat-associated deaths this year as of Sept. 2. An additional 351 cases are under investigation.

Maricopa County confirmed 425 heat-related deaths in 2022.
…

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque drew an immediate court challenge from a gun-rights group Saturday, as legal scholars and advocates said they expected.

The National Association for Gun Rights and Foster Haines, a member who lives in Albuquerque, filed documents in U.S. District Court in New Mexico suing Lujan Grisham and seeking an immediate block to the implementation of her order.

The challenge was expected, but even so, the governor’s action Friday was an attempt to “move the debate,” said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount’s Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, after Lujan Grisham announced she was temporarily suspending the right to carry firearms in her state’s largest city and surrounding Bernalillo County.

The governor, a Democrat, said the 30-day suspension, enacted as an emergency public health measure, would apply in most public places, from city sidewalks to parks.

She said state police would be responsible for enforcing what amount to civil violations and carry a fine of up to $5,000.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, who once served as a Democratic Party leader and was appointed by Lujan Grisham, on Saturday joined Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Police Chief Harold Medina saying they wouldn’t enforce the order.

“As an officer of the court, I cannot and will not enforce something that is clearly unconstitutional,” said Bregman, the top prosecutor in the Albuquerque area. “This office will continue to focus on criminals of any age that use guns in the commission of a crime.”

Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said he was uneasy about how gun owners might respond.

“I am wary of placing my deputies in positions that could lead to civil liability conflicts,” Allen said, “as well as the potential risks posed by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from their constitutional right to self-defense.”

Medina noted that Albuquerque police had arrested more than 200 suspects in killings in the last two years. Police spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said enforcing the order also could put Albuquerque police in a difficult position with a U.S. Department of Justice police reform settlement.

Lujan Grisham said she was compelled to act after recent shootings including the death this week of an 11-year-old boy outside a minor league baseball stadium and gunfire last month that killed a 5-year-old girl who was asleep in a motor home. The governor also cited the shooting death in August of a 13-year-old girl in Taos County.

“No person, other than a law enforcement officer or licensed security officer, shall possess a firearm … either openly or concealed,” the governor’s order states.

Levinson told The Associated Press in a phone call Friday that Lujan Grisham would draw a court fight, saying the governor was “bumping up against the Second Amendment, no doubt about it.”

“And we have a very conservative Supreme Court that is poised to expand Second Amendment rights,” Levinson added.

Dudley Brown, founder and president of the Colorado-based gun-rights group, called the governor’s action unconstitutional.

“She needs to be held accountable for stripping the God-given rights of millions away with the stroke of a pen,” he said in a statement announcing the lawsuit and request for a restraining order. A court hearing was not immediately set.

The top Republican in the New Mexico Senate, Greg Baca of Belen, also denounced Lujan Grisham’s order as an infringement on the gun rights of law-abiding citizens. Dan Lewis, who serves on the nonpartisan Albuquerque City Council, called the order an unconstitutional edict.

Lujan Grisham said gun owners still would be able to transport guns to private locations such as a gun range or gun store if the firearm is in a container or has a trigger lock or mechanism making it impossible to discharge.

The governor’s order calls for monthly inspections of firearms dealers statewide to ensure compliance with gun laws and for the state Department of Health to compile a report on gunshot victims at hospitals that includes age, race, gender and ethnicity, along with the brand and caliber of firearm involved.

Levinson said she was not aware of any other governor taking a step as restrictive as Lujan Grisham. But she pointed to a proposal by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, to amend the U.S. Constitution to harden federal gun laws.

“I don’t think it will be a political loss for (Lujan Grisham) to be overturned,” Levinson said. “She can say she did everything she could but was stopped by the courts.”

Jacob Charles, a law professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law who studies the Second Amendment, noted that the Supreme Court, in the June 2022 Bruen case, expanded the right of law-abiding Americans to carry guns in public for self-defense.

He said that ruling takes away the ability to take into account arguments about a compelling government interest, like the gun violence that Lujan Grisham said prompted her order. Now, judges must solely rely on whether any similar historical examples exist.

“They can’t assess whether or not this is going to reduce gun violence. They can’t assess whether or not there are other alternatives that government could have done,” Charles said. He later added, “What it means is that contemporary costs and benefits aren’t part of the analysis.” 
…

Sept. 11, 2001, seems like yesterday for the small group that gathered Friday at the Pentagon Courtyard to mark the 22nd annual memorial for those who perished in the attack.

Those in attendance knew the 184 people who were killed at the Pentagon more than two decades ago.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaida terrorists launched the worst attack on American soil since Japan’s assault on Pearl Harbor in 1941. They hijacked four commercial airplanes and effectively turned the jetliners into explosive precision missiles for their suicide mission. The first plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Sixteen minutes later, a second plane hit the South Tower. New Yorkers abandoned their cars in rush-hour traffic and watched as the towers collapsed.

Yet another plane smashed into the Pentagon, headquarters of the Department of Defense in Arlington, Virginia. The final hijacked plane was destined for the Capitol but went down in western Pennsylvania after passengers tried unsuccessfully to wrest control of the cockpit. Nearly 3,000 people from 93 countries died that day.

The Pentagon was ultimately repaired, and a new World Trade Center rose. But the attack’s scars, both literal and figurative, remain. Chaplain John Goodloe of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington gave the invocation. “Our land needs healing, Oh God,” he prayed, stressing the importance of diversity and interfaith tolerance.

After remarks from Deputy Defense Director Sajeel Ahmed and Admiral Christopher Grady, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks delivered a keynote address.

“As someone who remembers vividly the course of my own steps right here at the Pentagon that day,” she said, “I can tell you: sharing these personal reflections remains hard.”

Hicks highlighted her colleagues’ heroism, echoing Ahmed’s remarks. All of the speakers shared a common message: resilience.

Hicks called on adults to continue an intergenerational dialogue. Young Americans, she said, must be taught to appreciate how the events of September 11 have changed the world around them, even if “[t]hey were too young [to remember] or hadn’t yet been born.”

“You are not alone,” she told an audience of surviving family members, first responders, and coworkers who were spared. “We have not forgotten about you or those we’ve lost. And we never will. Thank you.”

President Joe Biden plans to pay his respects at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, en route from India’s G20 summit and a diplomatic meeting in Hanoi.
…

Since China reopened its borders in January, thousands of Chinese have traveled to the United States. Some have asked for asylum. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, where recent migrants are adapting to life in a new country.
…

The IRS announced on Friday that it is launching an effort to aggressively pursue 1,600 millionaires and 75 large business partnerships that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in past due taxes.

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said that with a boost in federal funding and the help of artificial intelligence tools, the agency has new means of targeting wealthy people who have “cut corners” on their taxes.

“If you pay your taxes on time, it should be particularly frustrating when you see that wealthy filers are not,” Werfel told reporters in a call previewing the announcement. He said 1,600 millionaires who owe at least $250,000 each in back taxes and 75 large business partnerships that have assets of roughly $10 billion on average are targeted for the new “compliance efforts.”

Werfel said a massive hiring effort and AI research tools developed by IRS employees and contractors are playing a big role in identifying wealthy tax dodgers. The agency is trying to showcase positive results from its burst of new funding under President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration as Republicans in Congress look to claw back some of that money.

“New tools are helping us see patterns and trends that we could not see before, and as a result, we have higher confidence on where to look and find where large partnerships are shielding income,” he said.

In July, IRS leadership said it collected $38 million in delinquent taxes from more than 175 high-income taxpayers in the span of a few months. Now, the agency will scale up that effort, Werfel said.

“The IRS will have dozens of revenue officers focused on these high-end collection cases in fiscal year 2024,” he said.

A team of academic economists and IRS researchers in 2021 found that the top 1% of U.S. income earners fail to report more than 20% of their earnings to the IRS.

The newly announced tax collection effort will begin as soon as October. “We have more hiring to do,” Werfel said. “It’s going to be a very busy fall for us.”

Conservatives warn of more audits

Grover Norquist, who heads the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, said the IRS’s plan to pursue high-wealth individuals does not preclude the IRS from eventually pursuing middle-income Americans for audits down the road.

“This power and these resources allow them to go after anyone they want,” he said. “The next step is to go after anyone they wish to target for political purposes.”

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said the IRS’s new plan is a “big deal” that “represents a fresh approach to taking on sophisticated tax cheats.”

“This action goes to the heart of Democrats’ effort to ensure the wealthiest are paying their fair share,” he said in a statement.

David Williams, of the right-leaning nonprofit Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said that “every business and every person should pay their taxes — full stop.” However, “I just hope this isn’t used as a justification to hire thousands of new agents” who would audit Americans en masse, he said.

Inflation Reduction Act funds effort

The federal tax collector gained the enhanced ability to identify tax delinquents with resources provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law in August 2022. The agency was in line for an $80 billion infusion under the law, but that money is vulnerable to potential cutbacks by Congress.

House Republicans built a $1.4 billion reduction to the IRS into the debt ceiling and budget cuts package passed by Congress this summer. The White House said the debt deal also has a separate agreement to take $20 billion from the IRS over the next two years and divert that money to other nondefense programs.

With the threat of a government shutdown looming in a dispute over spending levels, there is the potential for additional cuts to the agency.
…

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday that global divisions are growing, risking catastrophic fragmentation and confrontation.

He told reporters at the G20 summit in New Delhi that the gathering’s theme – One Earth, One Family, One Future – resonates today not just as an ideal but as an indictment of the times.

“Because if we are indeed one global family – we today resemble a rather dysfunctional one,” he said. “Divisions are growing, tensions are flaring up and trust is eroding – which together raise the specter of fragmentation, and ultimately, confrontation.”

He said such divisions are very concerning in the best of times, but in the present, “it spells catastrophe.”

Guterres noted a list of challenges facing the international community, including accelerating climate change, a multiplicity of wars and conflicts, growing poverty and hunger, and the risks from new technologies. He emphasized that the outdated multilateral institutions of the post-World War II era need to evolve to meet 21st-century challenges.

“We need effective international institutions rooted in 21st-century realities and based on the U.N. Charter and international law,” he said. “That is why I have been advocating for bold steps to make those global institutions truly universal and representative of today’s realities, and more responsive to the needs of developing economies.”

Later this month, Guterres will convene summits on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to address climate action, sustainable development, and pandemic prevention and preparedness.

He hopes to get leaders, particularly from G20 nations, which are responsible for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions, to make bold commitments, including ending all licensing or funding of new fossil fuel projects and fulfilling financing pledges to help developing economies mitigate and adapt to climate change.

On the development front, the secretary-general is aiming for an ambitious stimulus of at least $500 billion a year toward the U.N.’s sustainable development goals. Many of the 17 goals that are focused on ending poverty are off-track to meet targets by 2030.

“All of this is within reach, but it will take all hands,” he said. “No nation, no region, no group – not even the G20 – can do it alone. We must act together as one family to save our one Earth and safeguard our one future.”
…

The White House Situation Room — a space of great mystique and even greater secrecy — just got a $50 million facelift. 

Actually, “room” is a misnomer. It’s a 5,500-square-foot (511-square-meter), highly secure complex of conference rooms and offices on the ground floor of the West Wing. 

These are rooms where history happens, where the president meets with national security officials to discuss secret operations and sensitive government matters, speaks with foreign leaders and works through major national security crises. 

Where President Barack Obama and his team watched the raid that took down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. Where President Donald Trump monitored the 2019 operation that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Where President Lyndon Johnson went over Vietnam War plans. 

The latest redo was no small update: The total gut renovation took a year to complete. 

The White House opened the classified space to a group of reporters this week for a rare visit to check out the new look. President Joe Biden got a tour on Tuesday and then received an intelligence briefing in the space, said Marc Gustafson, the Situation Room director. 

“He loved it, he thought the update was fantastic,” Gustafson said. 

“Folks, the newly renovated White House Situation Room is up and running,” Biden said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “My thanks to everyone who worked on this incredible facility.”

The renovated space has a modern-but-vintage vibe. Old floors, furniture, computers and other tech were stripped out and replaced with pristine mahogany paneling from Maryland, stonework from a Virginia quarry, LED lights that can change colors and flat-screen panels. See-through glass offices fade to opaque with the press of a button. The whole space has that new car smell. 

But there are still plenty of landline phones: No cellphones are allowed in the secure space for security reasons. (There are cubbies to stow phones near a door leading outside, where a baggie with some cocaine was found earlier this year.) 

Access is tightly controlled and generally restricted to the president’s national security and military advisers. Anyone listening in on classified briefings needs clearance. Even the contractors working on the renovation had to get temporary security clearances. Illuminated signs flash green for declassified and red for classified. 

The hush-hush complex was created in 1961 by the Kennedy administration after the Bay of Pigs invasion. President John F. Kennedy believed there should be a dedicated crisis management center where officials could coordinate intelligence faster and better. 

That was an upgrade, to be sure. But it wasn’t exactly comfortable: Nixon administration national security adviser and then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger described the space as “uncomfortable, unaesthetic and essentially oppressive.” 

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the White House did a significant Situation Room update, along with a broader upgrade to presidential communications on Air Force One and the presidential helicopter. Presidents used the complex for secure video conferences before such tech became more portable. The last renovation was in 2007. 

The complex is staffed around the clock by military and civilian personnel who monitor breaking developments worldwide. 

It has a reception area with a U.S. seal in stonework. Behind that is the main conference room, known as the “JFK room.” To the right are a smaller conference room and two soundproof “breakout rooms.” To the left is the “watch floor,” a 24-7 operations center. 

“It’s a marriage of the traditional and the modern,” Gustafson said of the new space. 

Workers dug five feet underground to make more room and install cutting-edge technology allowing White House officials to bring together intelligence from different agencies with the push of a few buttons. 

“Now we have all the capabilities,” Gustafson said. 

For those in the know, referring to the “sit room” is out. It’s the “whizzer,” stemming from the complex’s acronym: WHSR. (Washington does love a good acronym.) 

Gustafson said the goal is to never need a complete renovation again. The new space was designed so panels can be removed and updated and new technology swapped in, usually with less space needs. A room once taken up by computer servers has become a smaller conference room. 

The JFK room has a long wooden table with six leather chairs on each side and one at the head for the president. Leather armchairs line the walls. A giant, high-tech screen runs the length of the back wall. A 2-foot (0.6-meter) seal is positioned at the president’s end of the room, larger than the old seal. 

There aren’t many photos of the Situation Room, but one of the most famous is the image of Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Biden and others watching the bin Laden operation. 

That took place around the corner from the JFK room in a smaller conference room that no longer exists. It’s been cut out entirely from the space and sent off to Obama’s presidential library, Gustafson said. In its place are two smaller rooms. 

Another item preserved for history is an old phone booth that stood in the complex. It was sent to storage for Biden’s eventual presidential library. Gustafson didn’t know if anything had been sent to Trump. 

Gustafson said staff members have to be ready to prepare rooms for classified briefings on a moment’s notice, and Biden has been known to pop in to meetings unexpectedly, particularly as Russia was invading Ukraine. 

While the area was closed for renovation, White House officials used other secure spots on the campus. Gustafson said the renovated Situation Room is having a soft opening of sorts: About 60% of the staff are back in the space with more coming every day. 

Gustafson said visitors previously remarked that the room didn’t reflect Hollywood’s grand imagining of the space. 

He said they now declare: “This looks like the movies.” 
…

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Lee has reached dangerous category 5 strength in the Atlantic, with maximum sustained winds near 270 kilometers per hour and is likely to continue strengthening in the next 24 hours.

In its latest public advisory, the hurricane center said the storm was far out in the Atlantic – 1,015 kms east of the northern Leeward Caribbean Islands – which include the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and others. 

Forecasters say Lee’s track is expected to be well to the north of those islands in the next several days, but the storm is expected to maintain its intensity. They warn it will likely create dangerous beach conditions and life-threatening currents for the islands and beaches along the U.S. East Coast early next week.

The hurricane center said it is too early to know what level of impacts – if any – the storm could have on the eastern United States or Bermuda by late next week. The storm is expected to slow down considerably as it moves to the north and west. 

But the forecasters say dangerous surf and rip currents generated by the storm are expected along most of the U.S. East Coast beginning Sunday. 

Meteorologists observing the storm say its development was dramatic. On his account on the social media platform X, Joint Typhoon Warning Center Senior Scientist Levi Cowan called Lee’s strengthening Thursday to Category 5 “one of the most impressive rapid intensification episodes” he has seen in the Atlantic.

The hurricane center is also watching Tropical Storm Margot further east in the Atlantic, which is expected to strengthen as it moves to the west and north over the next several days.
…

A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed Texas’ floating barrier on a section of the Rio Grande to stay in place for now, a day after a judge called the buoys a threat to the safety of migrants and relations between the U.S. and Mexico.

The order by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts on hold a ruling that would have required Texas to move the wrecking-ball sized buoys on the river by next week.

The barrier is near the Texas border city of Eagle Pass, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has authorized a series of aggressive measures in the name of discouraging migrants from crossing into the U.S.

The stay granted by the New Orleans-based appeals court lets the barrier remain in the water while the legal challenge continues.

The lawsuit was brought by the Justice Department in a rare instance of President Joe Biden’s administration going to court to challenge Texas’ border policies.

On Wednesday, U.S District Judge David Ezra of Austin ordered Texas to move the roughly 305-meter barrier out of the middle of the Rio Grande and to the riverbank, calling it a “threat to human life” and an obstruction on the waterway. The Mexican government has also protested the barrier.

In seeking a swift order to allow the buoys to remain, Texas told the appeals court the buoys reroute migrants to ports of entry and that “no injury from them has been reported.” Last month, a body was found near the buoys, but Texas officials said preliminary information indicated the person drowned before coming near the barriers.

Texas installed the barrier by putting anchors in the riverbed. Eagle Pass is part of a Border Patrol sector that has seen the second-highest number of migrant crossings this fiscal year with about 270,000 encounters, though that is lower than at this time last year.

The Biden administration has said illegal border crossings declined after new immigration rules took effect in May as pandemic-related asylum restrictions expired.
…

Rescuers from across Europe rushed to a cave in Turkey on Thursday, launching an operation to save an American researcher who became trapped almost 1,000 meters below the cave’s entrance after suffering stomach bleeding.

Experienced caver Mark Dickey, 40, suddenly became ill during an expedition with a handful of others, including three other Americans, in the Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains, the European Association of Cave Rescuers said.

While rescuers, including a Hungarian doctor, have reached and treated Dickey, it could be days and possibly weeks before they are able to get him out of the cave, which is too narrow in places for a stretcher to pass through.

In a video message from inside the cave and made available Thursday by Turkey’s communications directorate, Dickey thanked the caving community and the Turkish government for their efforts.

“The caving world is a really tight-knit group and it’s amazing to see how many people have responded on the surface,” said Dickey. ” … I do know that the quick response of the Turkish government to get the medical supplies that I need, in my opinion, saved my life. I was very close to the edge.”

Dickey, who is seen standing and moving around in the video, said that while he is alert and talking, he is not “healed on the inside” and will need a lot of help to get out of the cave. Doctors will decide whether he will need to leave the cave on a stretcher or if he can leave under his own power.

Dickey, who had been bleeding and losing fluid from his stomach, has stopped vomiting and has eaten for the first time in days, according to a New Jersey-based cave rescue group he’s affiliated with. It’s unclear what caused his medical issue.

The New Jersey Initial Response Team said the rescue will require many teams and constant medical care. The group says the cave is also quite cold — about 4-6 degrees Celsius.

Communication with Dickey takes about five to seven hours and is carried out by runners, who go from Dickey to the camp below the surface where a telephone line to speak with the surface has been set up.

Experts said it will be a challenge to successfully rescue Dickey.

Yusuf Ogrenecek of the Speleological Federation of Turkey said that one of the most difficult tasks of cave rescue operations is widening the narrow cave passages to allow stretcher lines to pass through at low depths.

Stretcher lines are labor intensive and require experienced cave rescuers working long hours, Ogrenecek said. He added that other difficult factors range from navigating through mud and water at low temperatures to the psychological toll of staying inside a cave for long periods of time.

Marton Kovacs of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service said that the cave is being prepared for Dickey’s safe extraction. Passages are being widened and the danger of falling rocks is also being addressed.

Turkish disaster relief agency AFAD and rescue team UMKE are working with Turkish and international cavers on the plan to hoist Dickey out of the cave system, the European Cave Rescue Association said.

The rescue effort currently involves more than 170 people, including doctors, paramedics who are tending to Dickey and experienced cavers, Ogrenecek said, adding that the rescue operation could take up to two to three weeks.

The operation includes rescue teams from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey.

Dickey was described by the association as “a highly trained caver and a cave rescuer himself” who is well known as a cave researcher, or speleologist, from his participation in many international expeditions. He is secretary of the association’s medical committee.

Dickey was on an expedition mapping the 1,276-meter-deep Morca cave system for the Anatolian Speleology Group Association (ASPEG) when he ran into trouble about 1,000 meters down, according to Ogrenecek. He initially became ill on Saturday, but it took until Sunday morning to notify others who were above ground.

Justin Hanley, a 28-year-old firefighter from near Dallas, Texas, said he met Dickey a few months ago when he took a cave rescue course Dickey taught in Hungary and Croatia. He described Dickey as upbeat and as someone who sees the good in everyone.

“Mark is the guy that should be on that rescue mission that’s leading and consulting and for him to be the one that needs to be rescued is kind of a tragedy in and of itself,” he said.

A team of rescuers from Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Team will be flying to Turkey on Thursday night. A total of around 50 rescuers will be at the entrance of the cave early Friday ready to participate in the operation directed by Turkish authorities.

The rescue teams hope that the extraction can begin on Saturday or Sunday. Kovacs said that lifting Dickey will likely take several days, and that several bivouac points are being prepared along the way so that Dickey and rescue teams can rest.

The cave has been divided into several sections, with each country’s rescue team being responsible for one section.

The Hungarian Cave Rescue Service, made up of volunteer rescuers, was the first to arrive at Dickey’s location and provided emergency blood transfusions to stabilize his condition. 
…

Two U.S. officials have told VOA that military drone flights from bases in Niger have been “limited” since the July coup, a restriction experts believe is likely hindering the international counterterrorism mission in West Africa.

The officials spoke to VOA this week on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive security issues.

The Pentagon has been hesitant to discuss the specifics of its security and counterterrorism operations other than saying that the U.S. military has suspended “security cooperation” with Niger in light of the political upheaval.

Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder has conceded to reporters that the situation in Niger “clearly” is “not normal” for the U.S. military, while adding that U.S. force posture in Niger remains unchanged, as the U.S. hopes for a diplomatic solution to the situation.

Niger is the U.S. military’s hub for counterterror intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance in West Africa. The region has been battling several militant groups in the region, including the Islamic State group and Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, based in Mali and active in West Africa.

Current and former U.S. officials have raised concerns that the limited intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance will hurt international efforts to help local security forces fight terrorist organizations.

The United States “is barely keeping a lid on this problem, and when you remove that, when you remove all of those enablers that help keep these jihadists from overrunning countries or overrunning regions, then you are giving them an advantage,” said Bill Roggio, a former soldier and editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, which publishes reporting and analysis of global counterterrorism efforts.

The U.S. military can fly drones out of Niger’s capital, Niamey, and it set up another air base hundreds of kilometers away, in Agadez, to extend the reach of its surveillance and reconnaissance missions in the volatile Lake Chad Basin area of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. The U.S. has flown intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance drone missions out of Agadez since 2019.

Limiting those missions has a “significant effect” on the military’s ability to conduct counterterror operations, according to retired Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former commander of U.S. military operations in the Middle East.

“It reduces your ability to find targets. It reduces your ability to go to the final stages when you’re going to be able to attack,” he told VOA.

The jihadist threat is twofold, not only can jihadists use these countries as a hub to try to attack the West and Western interests, they also wreak havoc on local populations.

At least 17 Nigerien soldiers were killed in an attack by armed groups near the Malian border last month, according to Niger’s Defense Ministry.

The Islamist threat has been growing in neighboring Mali, which has been run by military leaders since a 2020 coup, despite claims by Mali’s military that Russian Wagner Group mercenaries are turning the tide of their campaign.

Roggio told VOA he worries that the political discord in the region is setting up West Africa as the next place for a country to fall under jihadist control.

“If the U.S. is not able to fly counterterrorism missions from Niger, is Mali the next state to fall after Afghanistan?” Roggio asked.

Air space reopened, U.S. forces repositioning

Earlier this week, a spokesman for Niger’s military leaders said they had decided to reopen the country’s airspace to all commercial flights, ending a closure that had been in place since they took control of the government Aug. 6.

However, a U.S. military official told VOA that the change to commercial flight access had not “normalized” U.S. drone flight frequencies this week.

News of the U.S. military’s drone limitations comes as the Pentagon said it was repositioning some of its troops and military equipment within Niger from a base in Niamey to the Agadez base.

“There’s no perceived threat, in terms of any threat to U.S. troops, and no threat of violence on the ground. This is simply a precautionary measure,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said Thursday.

The Agadez base, known as Air Base 201, is controlled by Nigerien forces. As of 2019, the U.S. military had exclusive rights to about 20% of the compound.

There are about 1,100 U.S. military personnel in Niger, according to the Pentagon.

Singh said the repositioning of U.S. forces in Niger was “ongoing right now.” 
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