Next year, a daily oral birth control pill will be available in the United States without a prescription for the first time. Reproductive health advocates say the move will improve the well-being of women in the country, but some groups have raised concerns. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains.
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A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a rule that allows immigration authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through. But the judge delayed his ruling from taking effect immediately to give the administration time to appeal.

The order from U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of the Northern District of California takes away a key enforcement tool set in place by the Biden administration as coronavirus-based restrictions on asylum expired in May. The use of a rule known as Title 42 allowed the U.S. to expel millions of people starting in early 2020 on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. 

The new rule imposed severe limitations on migrants seeking asylum. It included room for exceptions and did not apply to children traveling alone. Tigar’s order will not take effect for two weeks. 

Immigrant rights groups that sued argued it was a violation of U.S. law that protects the right to asylum regardless of how a person enters the country. The groups said it forced migrants to seek protection in countries that don’t have the same robust asylum system and human rights protections as the United States and leaves them in a dangerous limbo. They also argued that the CBP One app the government wants migrants to use doesn’t have enough appointments and isn’t available in enough languages. 

The Biden administration said the asylum rule was a key part of its strategy to strike a balance between strict border enforcement and ensuring several avenues for migrants to pursue valid asylum claims. The rule was a response to political and economic instability fueling an exodus of migrants from countries including Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela. 

Critics have argued that the rule is essentially a newer version of two efforts by President Donald Trump to limit asylum at the southern border. The Supreme Court eventually allowed the Trump administration to limit asylum for people who don’t apply for protection in a country they travel through before coming to the U.S. to go into effect. But another Trump effort to bar people from applying for asylum except at an official border entry point was caught up in litigation and never took effect. 

In announcing the new rule, the Biden administration emphasized the complex dynamics at play when it comes to immigration that at one time consisted largely of adults from Mexico seeking to come to the U.S. They could easily be returned home. Now migrants come from across the Western Hemisphere and beyond.
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WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday raised its 2023 global growth estimates slightly given resilient economic activity in the first quarter, but warned that persistent challenges were dampening the medium-term outlook.

The IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook said inflation was coming down and acute stress in the banking sector had receded, but the balance of risks facing the global economy remained tilted to the downside and credit was tight.

The global lender said it now projected global real GDP growth of 3.0% in 2023, up 0.2 percentage point from its April forecast, but it left its outlook for 2024 unchanged, also at 3.0%.

The 2023-2024 growth forecast remains weak by historical standards, well below the annual average of 3.8% seen in 2000-2019, largely due to weaker manufacturing in advanced economies, and it could stay at that level for years.

“We’re on track, but we’re not out of the woods,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told Reuters in an interview, noting that the upgrade was driven largely by first-quarter results. “What we are seeing when we look five years out is actually close to 3.0%, maybe a little bit above 3.0%. This is a significant slowdown compared to what we had pre-COVID.”

This was also related to the aging of the global population, especially in countries such as China, Germany and Japan, he said. New technologies could boost productivity in coming years, but that in turn could be disruptive to labor markets.

Debt distress could spread

The outlook is “broadly stable” in emerging market and developing economies for 2023-2024, with growth of 4.0% expected in 2023 and 4.1% in 2024, the IMF said. But it noted that credit availability is tight and that there was a risk that debt distress could spread to a wider group of economies.

The world is in a better place now, the IMF said, noting the World Health Organization’s decision to end the global health emergency surrounding COVID-19, and with shipping costs and delivery times now back to pre-pandemic levels.

“But forces that hindered growth in 2022 persist,” the IMF said, citing still-high inflation that was eroding household buying power, higher interest rates that have raised the cost of borrowing and tighter access to credit as a result of the banking strains that emerged in March.

“International trade and indicators of demand and production in manufacturing all point to further weakness,” the IMF said, noting that excess savings built up during the pandemic are declining in advanced economies, especially in the United States, implying “a slimmer buffer to protect against shocks.”

While immediate concerns about the health of the banking sector — which were more acute in April — had subsided, financial sector turbulence could resume as markets adjust to further tightening by central banks, it said.

The impact of higher interest rates was especially evident in poorer countries, driving debt costs higher and limiting room for priority investments. As a result, output losses compared with pre-pandemic forecasts remain large, especially for the world’s poorest nations, the IMF said.

The IMF forecast that global headline inflation would fall to 6.8% in 2023 from 8.7% in 2022, dropping to 5.2% in 2024, but core inflation would decline more gradually, reaching 6.0% in 2023 from 6.5% in 2022 and easing to 4.7% in 2024.

Gourinchas told Reuters it could take until the end of 2024 or early 2025 until inflation came down to central bankers’ targets and the current cycle of monetary tightening would end.

The IMF warned that inflation could rise if the war in Ukraine intensified, citing concern about Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain initiative, or if more extreme temperature increases caused by the El Nino weather pattern pushed up commodity prices. That in turn could trigger further rate hikes.

The IMF said world trade growth is declining and will reach just 2.0% in 2023 before rising to 3.7% in 2024, but both growth rates are well below the 5.2% clocked in 2022.

The IMF raised its outlook for the United States, the world’s largest economy, forecasting growth of 1.8% in 2023 versus 1.6% in April as labor markets remained strong.

It left its forecast for growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy, unchanged at 5.2% in 2023 and 4.5% in 2024. But it warned that China’s recovery was underperforming, and a deeper contraction in the real estate sector remained a risk.

The fund cut its outlook for Germany, now forecast to contract 0.3% in 2023 versus a 0.1% contraction in April, but sharply upgraded its forecast for the U.K., now expected to grow 0.4% versus a 0.3% contraction forecast in April.

Euro zone countries are expected to grow 0.9% in 2023 and 1.5% in 2024, both up 0.1 percentage point from April.

Japan’s growth was also revised upward by 0.1 percentage point to 1.4% in 2023, but the IMF left its outlook for 2024 unchanged at 1.0%.

Inflation remains a focus

The rise in central bank policy rates to fight inflation continues to weigh on economic activity, the IMF said, adding that the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England were expected to raise rates by more than assumed in April, before cutting rates next year.

It said central banks should remain focused on fighting inflation, strengthening financial supervision and risk monitoring. If further strains appeared, countries should provide liquidity quickly, it said.

The fund also advised countries to build fiscal buffers to gird for further shocks and ensure support for the most vulnerable. 

“We have to be very vigilant on the health of the financial sector … because we could have something that basically seizes up very quickly,” Gourinchas said. “There is always a risk that if financial conditions tighten, that can have a disproportionate effect on emerging market and developing economies.”

The IMF said unfavorable inflation data could trigger a sudden rise in market expectations regarding interest rates, which could further tighten financial conditions, putting stress on banks and nonbank institutions — especially those exposed to commercial real estate.

“Contagion effects are possible, and a flight to safety, with an attendant appreciation of reserve currencies, would trigger negative ripple effects for global trade and growth,” the IMF said.

Fragmentation of the global economy given the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical tensions remained another key risk, especially for developing economies, Gourinchas said. This could lead to more restrictions on trade, especially in strategic goods such as critical minerals, cross-border movements of capital, technology and workers, and international payments. 
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A Russian fighter jet flew within a few meters of a U.S. drone over Syria and fired flares at it, striking the American aircraft and damaging it, the U.S. military said Tuesday, the latest in a string of aggressive intercepts by Russia in the region.

A senior Air Force commander said the move on Sunday was an attempt by the Russians to knock the MQ-9 Reaper drone out of the sky and came just a week after a Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. surveillance aircraft carrying a crew in the region, jeopardizing the lives of the four Americans on board.

“One of the Russian flares struck the U.S. MQ-9, severely damaging its propeller,” Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the head of U.S. Air Forces Central, said in a statement describing the latest close call. “We call upon the Russian forces in Syria to put an immediate end to this reckless, unprovoked, and unprofessional behavior.”

Grynkewich said one of the crew members operating the drone remotely kept it in the air and flew it back to its home base.

The Sunday incident is the latest in a series of encounters between Russian fighter jets and U.S. aircraft flying over Syria. In all but the one instance a week ago, the U.S. aircraft were MQ-9 drones without crew members. On that Sunday, however, the Russian Su-35 jet few close to a U.S. MC-12 surveillance aircraft with a crew, forcing it to go through the turbulent wake.

U.S. officials at the time called it a significant escalation in the ongoing string of encounters between U.S. and Russian aircraft that could have resulted in an accident or loss of life. They said the Russian move hampered the crew members’ ability to safely operate their plane.

In recent weeks, U.S. officials said, Russian fighter jets have repeatedly harassed U.S. MQ-9 drones, which are conducting anti-Islamic State group missions, largely in western Syria.

On multiple occasions in the past three weeks, the officials said, Russian fighter jets flew dangerously close to the U.S. Reapers, setting off flares and forcing the drones to take evasive maneuvers.

U.S. and Russian military officers communicate frequently over a deconfliction phone line during the encounters, protesting the other side’s actions.

There are about 900 U.S. forces in Syria, and others move in and out to conduct missions targeting Islamic State group militants.
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President Joe Biden is set to designate a new national monument on Tuesday memorializing the brutal 1950s lynching of Emmett Till, with the White House framing the symbolic act as part of a fight against resurgent racism.   

The monument, sited in several locations, will remember the 14-year-old Black boy tortured and murdered by white men in 1955 after he allegedly whistled at a white shopkeeper’s wife in Mississippi. 

His mother Mamie Till-Mobley, also honored in the memorial, became an activist, and is widely viewed as having helped to spark the U.S. civil rights movement. 

“The new monument will protect places that tell the story of Emmett Till’s too-short life and racially-motivated murder, the unjust acquittal of his murderers, and the activism of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who courageously brought the world’s attention to the brutal injustices and racism of the time, catalyzing the civil rights movement,” the White House said.   

The memorial signing by Biden — on the 82nd anniversary of Till’s birth — will designate three historic sites in Illinois and Mississippi. 

One of them will be the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, where Till’s mother insisted at her son’s funeral that the casket remain open, allowing a huge crowd to see the boy’s disfigured body. 

Another will be the Tallahatchie, Mississippi courthouse where an all-white jury found the men accused of murdering Till not guilty. They would later admit to the crime. 

The third location will be the spot on the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi where Till’s battered body was eventually discovered. Signs commemorating the brutal event there and in other locations around Tallahatchie County have repeatedly been defaced and vandalized over the years. 

Biden’s high-profile treatment for a painful piece of 20th century U.S. history is playing out against a backdrop of accusations that a leading Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential race is openly stirring racist sentiment. 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has led a charge to minimize the history of past racism in his state’s school curriculum, making this part of a broader campaign against what he describes as the “virus” of “woke” left-wing values. 

Responding to an outcry over what has been described as an attempt to rewrite history, DeSantis last week doubled down, saying that slavery even had benefits. 

“They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,” DeSantis said Friday. 

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described DeSantis’s comment as “inaccurate” and “insulting.” 

“It’s hurtful and prevents an honest account, an honest account of our nation’s history,” she said. 

Jean-Pierre, who is Black, said the Emmett Till monument was part of “the broader story of American Black oppression, their survival.” 

“It’s an important moment. You’re going to hear directly from the president tomorrow,” she said.
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Amid the ongoing culture wars over LGBTQ rights, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, is rediscovering the history of a deadly arson attack that took place 50 years ago.

The attack was largely forgotten in part because it happened at a local gay bar, but memorial events taking place in the Southern city, as well as virtual events open to the public like this one hosted between the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana and the American LGBTQ+ Museum, are introducing a new generation to the tragedy and its victims.

Ricky Everett was one of the survivors of the June 24, 1973, fire.

“I’d carried a lot of pain for a very long time,” he told VOA. “I saw so many people, my friends, burn alive that night. And for decades we weren’t able to talk about it.”

Before the events of that Sunday in 1973, Everett attended services at Metropolitan Community Church, which was one of the first pro-LGBTQ Christian fellowships. He and other congregants then headed to the UpStairs Lounge on Iberville Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter for a beer.

“It was just a really nice, clean, friendly place,” he recalled. “People from all walks of life were there. Professionals like doctors and lawyers all the way down to people having a little tougher time. Black people, white people. Gay people, lesbians, and straight people and heterosexual couples, too.”

“Everyone just got along,” he added. “People came to the UpStairs Lounge to laugh together, dance together, sing together. It was special.”

That evening was a lively one at the second-floor bar thanks to a weekend beer special. At 7:56 p.m., bartender Buddy Rasmussen heard a buzzer that usually meant a taxi was waiting downstairs. Rasmussen sent a regular patron to check, and when the door opened, flames shot up the stairwell into the crowded bar.

“I was at a table with my friends when all of a sudden I saw a bright glow shoot straight across the room,” Everett told VOA. “It was chaos, but I just froze.”

Rasmussen jumped over the bar and yanked Everett by the arm. He yelled for people to follow him through a back exit to the roof where they could cross to the next building.

When Everett saw that one of his friends was not with them, however, he says he ran back in.

“There were dozens of people who didn’t come out with us, but when I entered the bar again, there was no movement. No sound,” Everett said. “Just flames swirling everywhere.”

“I should have been one of the people who died there that night,” he said. “But God saved me. Proof He loved gay people, too.”

‘Bigotry, nonsense and homophobia’

Thirty-two people would perish that night in what was the largest attack on the gay community before the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

“When I began researching the fire, I thought I was looking into an anti-gay hate crime,” Robert W. Fieseler, author of “Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation,” told VOA ahead of Tuesday’s virtual panel discussion, which he is attending.

It turns out it was far more nuanced. While the case remains open, the man generally believed to be the prime suspect, Roger Nunez, was bisexual with a history of mental illness and was involved in a confrontation at the UpStairs Lounge earlier that night. Nunez committed suicide a year later.

“This wasn’t a hate crime,” Fieseler said, “but the response by the police, the media, and the city certainly was clouded by bigotry, nonsense and homophobia.”

New Orleans institutions suppressed news of the attack, particularly that its target was a gay bar. Some of the victims’ families were ashamed to claim their bodies. Local talk show hosts and police officers openly mocked the victims’ sexuality. Even the LGBTQ community was mostly quiet, not wanting to draw more negative attention.

World War II veteran Ferris LeBlanc died in the fire, and Fieseler believes what happened to his remains is just one poignant example of the authorities’ mishandling of their response to the attack.

“This man was an American hero, and he deserved to be buried with the same honors others who served had,” Fieseler said. “Instead, in its haste to brush the tragedy under the rug, the city didn’t make adequate efforts to find his family. They left his remains in a potter’s field — it looks like a cow pasture. His family is still trying to find him.”

Years later, an apology

In recent years, however, more New Orleanians have rediscovered the arson and its victims. Attitudes have also changed. The New Orleans City Council issued an apology last year for its actions at the time of the fire.

Choreographer Monica Ordonez says a friend introduced her to the UpStairs Lounge fire, “and not only had I never heard about it, but nobody else I knew had either.”

“How could so few people know about this? It’s one of the most important events for the gay community in the 20th century,” she added. “I wanted people to know — about the fire, but also about the beautiful souls we lost that day.”

Ordonez is artistic director of the Melange Dance Company. On the 50th anniversary of the fire, the dance company staged New Orleans Museum of Art performances of “The UpStairs Lounge,” depicting the events of that night.

Additionally, the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana worked with several organizations this year to host a series of memorial events for the anniversary, attracting more than 1,000 attendees.

Among them was Reverend Paul Breton of California, who was first called to New Orleans in the days after the fire to help the survivors and victims’ families cope with their loss. Those efforts were in large part left unfinished then, but Breton believes the 50th anniversary events and the discussions it has raised help.

“We recalled each of the 32 victims who died,” Breton said of the memorial service. “Their names deserve to be remembered, and it brought back so many memories from 50 years ago.”

Everett, too, is finally feeling relief.

“Remembering and talking about it — that’s healing,” he said. “It’s like counseling. And I hope the other survivors are able to start finding healing through memory, as well.”
…

The Justice Department on Monday sued Texas Govenor Greg Abbott over a newly installed floating barrier on the Rio Grande that is the Republican’s latest tactic to try stopping migrants from crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge in Austin to force Texas to remove a roughly 1,000-foot (305-meter) line of bright orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys that the Biden administration says raises humanitarian and environmental concerns. The suit claims that Texas unlawfully installed the barrier without permission between the border cities of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Mexico.

The buoys are the latest escalation of Texas’ border security operation that also includes razor-wire fencing, arresting migrants on trespassing charges and sending busloads of asylum-seekers to Democratic-led cities in other states. Critics have long called into question the effectiveness of the two-year operation, known as Operation Lone Star, and a state trooper’s account this month of measures injuring migrants has put the mission under intensifying new scrutiny.

In anticipation of the lawsuit, Abbott sent President Joe Biden a letter earlier Monday that defended Texas’ right to install the barrier. He accused Biden of putting migrants at risk by not doing more to deter them from making the journey to the U.S.

“Texas will see you in court, Mr. President,” Abbott wrote.

The Biden administration has said illegal border crossings have declined significantly since new immigration restrictions took effect in May. In June, the first full month since the new polices took effect, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said migrant encounters were down 30% from the month prior and were at the lowest levels since Biden’s first full month in office.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Abbott’s policies, as a whole, have made it difficult for U.S. Border Patrol agents to access the Rio Grande.

“Those are unlawful actions that are not helpful and is undermining what the president has put forward and is trying to do,” she said.

In a letter last week, the Justice Department gave Texas until Monday to commit to removing the barrier or face a lawsuit. The letter said the buoy wall “poses a risk to navigation, as well as public safety, in the Rio Grande River, and it presents humanitarian concerns.”

The state deployed the buoys without notifying the International Boundary and Water Commission or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mexico’s secretary of state asked the federal government to intervene, saying the barrier violates international treaties.

The lawsuit is not the first time the Biden administration has sued Texas overs it actions on the border.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021 accused the state of usurping and even interfering with the federal government’s responsibility to enforce immigration laws after Abbott empowered state troopers to stop vehicles carrying migrants on the basis that they could increase the spread of COVID-19.
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For decades, the Danny Woo Community Garden in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District has provided a sense of home for elderly Asian immigrants. The largest event at the garden is the Annual Pig Roast – a tradition since 1975. Natasha Mozgovaya has more.
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Comic books have often been about tackling social issues and protecting the underdog. That may be why they are attracting a wide variety of unique voices, from comic creators to cosplayers. Genia Dulot reports from Comic-Con 2023 in San Diego, California.
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Jonas King from Brooklyn, New York is among a new group of designers who focus on revitalizing pre-owned garments and textiles. As Nina Vishneva reports, King takes someone’s trash and turns it into custom pieces. Anna Rice narrates the story. (Camera: Vladimir Badikov)
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North Korea is one of the most closed-off countries, especially to foreign media. But for Jean Lee, the first American news bureau chief in Pyongyang, years of reporting from inside the country have helped her and her audiences better understand the nation. For VOA, Liam Scott has more from Washington in this story narrated by Steve Karesh. VOA footage by Cristina Caicedo Smit and Phillip Datcher.
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The deputy commander of the U.N. Command said Monday it has started conversations with North Korea over an American soldier who ran into the North last week across the Koreas’ heavily armed border. 

General Andrew Harrison said the process has started through communications line set under the armistice agreement that stopped the fighting of the 1950-53 Korean War. He said the well-being of Private Travis King remains the command’s primary concern, but refused to provide more details, citing the sensitivity of the discussions. 

North Korea has remained publicly silent about King, who crossed the border last Tuesday while he was supposed to be heading to Fort Bliss, Texas. 

U.S. officials have expressed concern about his well-being and said North Korea was ignoring their requests for information about him. 

Analysts say North Korea could wait weeks or even months to provide meaningful information about King to maximize leverage and add urgency to U.S. efforts to secure his release.  

Some say North Korea may try to wrest concessions from Washington, such as tying his release to the United States cutting back its military activities with South Korea. 
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A nuclear-propelled U.S. submarine has arrived in South Korea in the second deployment of a major U.S. naval asset to the Korean Peninsula this month, South Korea’s military said Monday, adding to the allies’ show of force to counter North Korean nuclear threats. 

The USS Annapolis arrived at a port on Jeju Island about a week after the USS Kentucky docked at the mainland port of Busan. 

The Kentucky was the first U.S. nuclear-armed submarine to come to South Korea since the 1980s. North Korea reacted to its arrival by test-firing ballistic and cruise missiles in apparent demonstrations that it could make nuclear strikes against South Korea and deployed U.S. naval vessels. 

In between those launches, North Korea’s defense minister issued a veiled threat insisting the Kentucky’s docking in South Korea could be grounds for the North to use a nuclear weapon against it. North Korea has used similar rhetoric before, but the statement underscored how much relations are strained now. 

The Annapolis, whose main mission is destroying enemy ships and submarines, is powered by a nuclear reactor but is armed with conventional weapons. The Annapolis mainly docked at Jeju to load supplies, but Jang Do Young, a spokesperson of South Korea’s navy, said the U.S. and South Korean militaries were discussing whether to arrange training involving the vessel. 

Meanwhile, North Korea remained publicly silent on an American soldier, Private Travis King, who crossed the border last Tuesday. U.S. officials have expressed concern about his well-being and said North Korea has been ignoring their requests to provide basic information about King, including where he’s being detained and what his condition is. 

Analysts say North Korea wait weeks or even months to provide meaningful information about King to maximize leverage and add urgency to U.S. efforts to secure his release. Some say North Korea may try to wrest concessions from Washington, such as tying his release to the United States cutting back its military activities with South Korea. 

The United States and South Korea have been expanding their combined military exercises and increasing regional deployments of U.S. strategic assets bombers, aircraft carriers and submarines in a show of force against North Korea, which has test-fired around 100 missiles since the start of 2022. 
…

“Barbenheimer” didn’t just work – it spun box office gold. The social media-fueled fusion of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” brought moviegoers back to the theaters in record numbers this weekend, vastly outperforming projections and giving a glimmer of hope to the lagging exhibition business, amid the sobering backdrop of strikes.

Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” claimed the top spot with a massive $155 million in ticket sales from North American theaters from 4,243 locations, surpassing “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (as well as every Marvel movie this year) as the biggest opening of the year and breaking the first weekend record for a film directed by a woman. Universal’s “Oppenheimer” also soared past expectations, taking in $80.5 million from 3,610 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, marking Nolan’s biggest non-Batman debut and one of the best-ever starts for an R-rated biographical drama.

It’s also the first time that one movie opened to more than $100 million and another movie opened to more than $80 million in the same weekend. When all is settled, it will likely turn out to be the fourth biggest box office weekend of all time with over $300 million industrywide. And all this in a marketplace that increasingly curved toward intellectual property-driven winner takes all.

The “Barbenheimer” phenomenon may have started out as good-natured competition between two aesthetic opposites, but, as many hoped, both movies benefited in the end. Internationally, “Barbie” earned $182 million from 69 territories, fueling a $337 million global weekend. “Oppenheimer” did $93.7 million from 78 territories, ranking above “Barbie” in India, for a $174.2 million global total.

The only real casualty was “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I,” which despite strong reviews and a healthy opening weekend fell 64% in weekend two. Overshadowed by the “Barbenheimer” glow as well as the blow of losing its IMAX screens to “Oppenheimer,” the Tom Cruise vehicle added $19.5 million, bringing its domestic total to $118.8 million.

“Barbenheimer” is not merely counterprogramming either. But while a certain section of enthusiastic moviegoers overlapped, in aggregate the audiences were distinct.

Women drove the historic “Barbie” opening, making up 65% of the audience, according to PostTrak, and 40% of ticket buyers were under the age of 25 for the PG-13 rated movie.

“It’s just a joyous time in the world. This is history in so many ways,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.’ president of domestic distribution. “I think this marketing campaign is one for the ages that people will be talking about forever.”

“Oppenheimer” audiences meanwhile were 62% male and 63% over the age of 25, with a somewhat surprising 32% that were between the ages of 18 and 24.

Both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” scored well with critics with 90% and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively, and audiences who gave both films an A CinemaScore. And social media has been awash with reactions and “takes” all weekend – good, bad, problematic and everywhere in between – the kind of organic, event cinema, watercooler debate that no marketing budget can buy.

“The ‘Barbenheimer’ thing was a real boost for both movies,” Goldstein said. “It is a crowning achievement for all of us.”

“Oppenheimer” had the vast majority (80%) of premium large format screens at its disposal. Some 25 theaters in North America boasted IMAX 70mm screenings (Nolan’s preferred format), most of which were completely sold out all weekend — accounting for 2% of the total gross. Theaters even scrambled to add more to accommodate the demand including 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. screenings, which also sold out.

“Nolan’s films are truly cinematic events,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution.

IMAX showings alone made up 26% of the domestic gross (or $21.1 million) from only 411 screens and 20% of the global gross, and “Oppenheimer” will have at least a three-week run on those high-demand screens.

“This is a phenomenon beyond compare,” said Rich Gelfond, the CEO of IMAX, in a statement. “Around the world, we’ve seen sellouts at 4:00 a.m. shows and people travelling hours across borders to see ‘Oppenheimer’ in IMAX 70mm.”

This is the comeback weekend Hollywood has been dreaming of since the pandemic. There have been big openings and successes – “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” among them, but the fact that two movies are succeeding at the same time is notable.

“It was a truly historic weekend and continues the positive box office momentum of 2023,” said Michael O’Leary, President & CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners. “People recognized that something special was happening and they wanted to be a part of it.”

And yet in the background looms disaster as Hollywood studios continue to squabble with striking actors and writers over a fair contract.

“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were the last films on the 2023 calendar to get a massive, global press tour. Both went right up to the 11th hour, squeezing in every last moment with their movie stars. “Oppenheimer” even pushed up its London premiere by an hour, knowing that Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Cillian Murphy would have to leave to symbolically join the picket lines by the time the movie began.

Without movie stars to promote their films, studios have started pushing some falls releases, including the high-profile Zendaya tennis drama “Challengers.”

But for now, it’s simply a positive story that could even continue for weeks to come.

“There could be a sequel next weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “The FOMO factor will rachet up because of this monumental box office event centered around the movie theater experience.”

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

1. “Barbie,” $155 million.

2. “Oppenheimer,” $80.5 million.

3. “Sound of Freedom,” $20.1 million.

4. “Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part I,” $19.5 million.

5. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” $6.7 million.

6. “Insidious: The Red Door,” $6.5 million.

7. “Elemental,” $5.8 million.

8. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” $2.8 million.

9. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” 1.1 million.

10. “No Hard Feelings,” $1.1 million.
    …

U.S. golfer Brian Harman won the British Open on Sunday, easily fending off four other golfers by six shots to capture his first major championship.

Harman, the 26th-ranked player in the world, grabbed the lead in the year’s last major championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, after Friday’s second round in the four-day tournament and never relinquished it.

British golf fans cheered for other players in hopes they could catch the 36-year-old, left-handed player and shouted some taunts at him that Harman said were “unrepeatable.”

But with other players unable to cut into his lead in a steady rain, Harman finally won cheers Sunday as he sank a 12-meter putt for a birdie on the par-4-14th hole and a shorter putt for another birdie on the par-5 15th.

He finished the 72-hole tournament at 271, 13 under par and 6 shots ahead of South Korea’s Tom Kim, Austria’s Sepp Straka, Australia’s Jason Day and Spain’s Jon Rahm.

It was Harman’s first victory on the professional golf circuit since 2017. He collected $3 million for the win, and the tournament’s ornate Claret Jug.
…

Elon Musk said Sunday that he plans to change the logo of Twitter to an “X” from the bird, marking what would be the latest big change since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year. 

In a series of posts on his Twitter account starting just after 12 a.m. ET, Twitter’s owner said that he’s looking to make the change worldwide as soon as Monday. 

“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk wrote on his account. 

Earlier this month, Musk put new curfews on his digital town square, a move that came under sharp criticism that it could drive away advertisers and undermine its cultural influence as a trendsetter. 

In May, Musk hired longtime NBC Universal executive Linda Yaccarino as Twitter’s CEO in a move to win back advertisers. 

Luring advertisers is essential for Musk and Twitter after many fled in the early months after his takeover of the social media platform, fearing damage to their brands in the ensuing chaos. Musk said in late April that advertisers had returned, but provided no specifics. 

 
…

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Some Florida Keys coral reefs are losing their color weeks earlier than normal this summer because of record-high water temperatures, meaning they are under stress and their health is potentially endangered, federal scientists said.

The corals should be vibrant and colorful this time of year, but are swiftly going white, said Katey Lesneski, research and monitoring coordinator for Mission: Iconic Reefs, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched to protect Florida coral reefs.

“The corals are pale, it looks like the color’s draining out,” said Lesneski, who has spent several days on the reefs over the last two weeks. “And some individuals are stark white. And we still have more to come.

Scientists with NOAA this week raised their coral bleaching warning system to Alert Level 2 for the Keys, their highest heat stress level out of five. That level is reached when the average water surface temperature is about 1 degree Celsius) above the normal maximum for eight straight weeks.

Surface temperatures around the Keys have been averaging about 33 Celsius, well above the normal mid-July average of 29.5 Celsius, said Jacqueline De La Cour, operations manager for NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program. Previous Alert Level 2s were reached in August, she said.

Coral reefs are made up of tiny organisms that link together. The reefs get their color from the algae that live inside them and are the corals’ food. When temperatures get too high, the coral expels the algae, making the reefs appear white or bleached. That doesn’t mean they are dead, but the corals can starve and are more susceptible to disease.

Andrew Bruckner, research coordinator at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, said some coral reefs began showing the first signs of bleaching two weeks ago. Then in the last few days, some reefs lost all their color. That had never been recorded before Aug. 1. The peak for bleaching typically happens in late August or September.

“We are at least a month ahead of time, if not two months,” Bruckner said. “We’re not yet at the point where we are seeing any mortality … from bleaching. It is still a minor number that are completely white, certain species, but it is much sooner than we expected.”

Still, forecasting what will happen the rest of the summer is hard, De La Cour and Bruckner said. While water temperatures could continue to spike — which could be devastating — a tropical storm or hurricane could churn the water and cool it down. Dusty air from the Sahara Desert moving across the Atlantic and settling over Florida could dampen the sun’s rays, lowering temperatures.

Because of climate change and other factors, the Keys waters have lost 80% to 90% of their coral over the last 50 years, Bruckner said. That affects not only marine life that depends on the reefs for survival, but also people — coral reefs are a natural buffer against storm surge from hurricanes and other storms. There is also an economic impact because tourism from fishing, scuba diving and snorkeling is heavily dependent on coral reefs.

“People get in the water, let’s fish, let’s dive — that’s why protecting Florida’s coral reef is so critical,” De La Cour said.

Both scientists said it is not “all doom and gloom.” A 20-year, large-scale effort is under way to rebuild Florida’s coral back to about 90% of where it was 50 years ago. Bruckner said scientists are breeding corals that can better withstand the heat and are using simple things like shade covers and underwater fans to cool the water to help them survive.

“We are looking for answers and we are trying to do something, rather than just looking away,” Bruckner said.

Breeding corals can encourage heat resistance in future generations of the animals, said Jason Spadaro, coral reef restoration program manager for Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida. That could be vital to saving them, he said.

Spadaro and others who have visited the corals said they have noticed the coral bleaching is worse in the lower Keys than in the more northern parts of the area. The Keys have experienced bad bleaching years in the past, but this year it is “really aggressive and it’s really persistent,” he said.

“It’s going to be a rough year for the reef. It hammers home the need to continue this important work,” he said.

The early bleaching is happening during a year when water temperatures are spiking earlier than normal, said Ross Cunning, a research biologist at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The Keys are experiencing water temperatures above 32 degrees Celsius, which would normally not occur until August or September, he said.

The hot water could lead to a “disastrous bleaching event” if it does not wane, Cunning said.

“We’re seeing temperatures now that are even higher than what we normally see at peak, which is what makes this particularly scary,” Cunning said.

De La Cour said she has no doubt that the warming waters are caused by human-made global warming and that needs to be fixed for coral to survive.

“If we do not reduce the greenhouse gas emissions we are emitting and don’t reduce the greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere, we are creating a world where coral reefs cannot exist, no matter what we do,” she said.
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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, and his mother, a White House official said Saturday.

Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to create the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi, according to the official. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the White House had not formally announced the president’s plans.

Tuesday is the anniversary of Emmett Till’s birth in 1941.

The monument will protect places that are central to the story of Till’s life and death at age 14, the acquittal of his white killers and his mother’s activism. Till’s mother’s insistence on an open casket to show the world how her son had been brutalized and Jet’s magazine’s decision to publish photos of his mutilated body helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement.

Biden’s decision also comes at a fraught time in the United States over matters concerning race. Conservative leaders are pushing back against the teaching of slavery and Black history in public schools, as well as the incorporation of diversity, equity and inclusion programs from college classrooms to corporate boardrooms.

On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized a revised Black history curriculum in Florida that includes teaching that enslaved people benefited from the skills they learned at the hands of the people who denied them freedom. The Florida Board of Education approved the curriculum to satisfy legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate who has accused public schools of liberal indoctrination.

“How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?” Harris asked in a speech delivered from Jacksonville, Florida.

DeSantis said he had no role in devising his state’s new education standards but defended the components on how enslaved people benefited.

“All of that is rooted in whatever is factual,” he said in response.

The monument to Till and his mother will include three sites in the two states.

The Illinois site is Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, a historically Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Thousands of people gathered at the church to mourn Emmett Till in September 1955.

The Mississippi locations are Graball Landing, believed to be where Till’s mutilated body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Till’s killers were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury.

Till was visiting relatives in Mississippi when Carolyn Bryant Donham said the 14-year-old Till whistled and made sexual advances at her while she worked in a store in the small community of Money.

Till was later abducted and his body eventually pulled from the Tallahatchie River, where he had been tossed after he was shot and weighted down with a cotton gin fan.

Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were tried on murder charges about a month after Till was killed, but an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. Months later, they confessed to killing Till in a paid interview with Look magazine. Bryant was married to Donham in 1955. She died earlier this year.

The monument will be the fourth Biden has created since taking office in 2021, and just his latest tribute to the younger Till.

For Black History Month this year, Biden hosted a screening of the movie Till, a drama about his lynching.

In March 2022, Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law. Congress had first considered such legislation more than 120 years ago.

The Justice Department announced in December 2021 that it was closing its investigation into Till’s killing.
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The heaviest rain to hit the Atlantic Canadian province of Nova Scotia in more than 50 years triggered floods causing “unimaginable” damage, and four people are missing, including two children, officials said Saturday.

The storm, which started Friday, dumped more than 25 cm (10 inches) on some parts of the province in just 24 hours — an amount that usually lands in three months. The resulting floods washed away roads, weakened bridges and swamped buildings.

“We have a scary, significant situation,” said Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, adding that at least seven bridges would have to be replaced or rebuilt.

“The property damage to homes … is pretty unimaginable,” he told a news conference. Houston said the province would be seeking significant support from the federal government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Toronto he was very concerned about the floods and promised that Ottawa “will be there” for the province.

The flooding was the latest weather-related calamity to pound Canada this year. Wildfires have already burned a record number of hectares, sending clouds of smoke into the United States. Earlier this month, heavy rains also caused floods in several northeastern U.S. states.

Authorities have declared a state of emergency in Halifax, the largest city in Nova Scotia, and four other regions.

The regional municipality in Halifax reported “significant damage to roads and infrastructure” and urged people to stay at home and not use their cars.

Pictures posted on social media from Halifax showed abandoned cars almost covered with flood waters and rescue workers using boats to save people.

Houston, citing police, said two children were missing after the car they were in was submerged. In another incident, a man and a youth were missing after their car drove into deep water.

At one point, more than 80,000 people were without power.

Environment Canada is predicting torrential rain in the eastern part of the province, continuing into Sunday.

“People should not assume that everything is over. This is a very dynamic situation,” Halifax Mayor Mike Savage told the press conference, saying the city had been hit by “biblical proportions of rain.”

Canadian Broadcasting Corp meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said the Halifax rains were the heaviest since a hurricane hit the city in 1971.

Early on Saturday, authorities in northern Nova Scotia ordered residents to evacuate amid fears that a dam near the St. Croix River system could breach. They later canceled the evacuation order.
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Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. 

Canadian Immigration Work Initiative Reaches Cap in Two Days   

Canada’s recently launched immigration work permit program is no longer accepting new applications since receiving an overwhelming response and reaching its cap of 10,000 applicants in two days. Aiming to attract highly skilled technology professionals from the United States with H-1B work visas, Canada unveiled the initiative in late June. VOA’s Immigration reporter Aline Barros has the story. 

House-Approved Defense Bill Does Not Increase or Extend Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans   

The country’s annual defense spending measure was narrowly approved by the Republican-led House of Representatives on July 14, and although the bill is several steps from becoming law, the White House has announced its opposition to a range of national security provisions, including inaction on the special immigrant visas for Afghans. Immigration reporter Aline Barros has the story. 

Texas Trooper’s Accounts of Bloodied, Fainting Migrants on US-Mexico Border Unleash Criticism  

Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s escalating measures to stop migrants along the U.S. border with Mexico came under new criticism Tuesday after a state trooper said migrants were left bloodied from razor-wire barriers and that orders were given to deny people water in the sweltering heat. The Associated Press reports. 

Biden, Trump Asylum Rules Differ, Administration Tells Judge  

The Biden administration argued Wednesday that its new asylum rule is different from versions put forward under President Donald Trump in a court hearing before a judge who threw out Trump’s attempts to limit asylum on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Associated Press reports.  

Hundreds of Migrants in Southern Mexico Form Group to Head Toward US 

Nearly 1,000 migrants that recently crossed from Guatemala into Mexico formed a group on July 15 to head north together in hopes of reaching the border with the United States. The group, made up of largely Venezuelan migrants, walked along a highway in southern Mexico led by a Venezuelan flag with the phrase “Peace, Freedom. SOS.” The men, women, children and teenagers were followed by Mexican National Guard patrols. The Associated Press reports.  

How Are ‘Talent Visas’ Used to Lure International Students to the US? 

Foreign students educated in the United States are often bright, hardworking and eager to land a job. But the backlog for U.S. work visas has created an opportunity for other countries to snag talented workers. Jon Marcus of The Hechinger Report has more. 

Immigration around the world 

Spain’s Early Election Could Put Far Right in Power for First Time Since Franco  

Spain’s general election on Sunday could make the country the latest European Union member to swing to the populist right, a shift that would represent a major upheaval after five years under a left-wing government. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the early election after his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and its small far-left coalition partner, Unidas Podemos (“United We Can”), took a beating in local and regional elections. The Associated Press reports. 

UN: UK Migration Bill Contrary to International Law 

Britain’s Illegal Migration Bill, aimed at stopping thousands of migrants arriving in the country, is at odds with London’s obligations under international law, the United Nations said Tuesday. The bill, which has been passed by parliament and now awaits the formality of being signed into law by King Charles III, means migrants arriving by boat will be refused the right to apply for asylum in the U.K. Agence France-Presse reports.  

Israel to Allow Palestinian Americans Entry in Bid for US Visa-Free Access  

Israel said that beginning Thursday it will allow entry to all U.S. citizens, including Palestinian Americans living in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in a policy change it hopes will secure visa-free access for Israelis to the United States. Reuters reports. 

News in Brief 

—The  U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a statement welcoming steps taken by Israel toward meeting the Visa Waiver Program requirements. 
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Any hope of a speedy return of the American soldier who illegally crossed into North Korea earlier this week appears all but dashed by the silence from the hermit state on the whereabouts of Pvt. Travis King.

“We have channels of communication. We’ve used them,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday at the Aspen Security Forum, explaining that Washington has been trying to establish dialogue with North Korea since the early days of the administration.

“Here’s the response we got: One missile launch after another,” he said.

As Washington awaits response to outreach through United Nations channels and its intermediary, Sweden, investigations are underway at the U.S. Army and United Nations Command, or UNC, levels to determine how a soldier who was supposed to be on a flight to the United States to face disciplinary measures instead emerged at the border of the two Koreas.

Counterintelligence personnel are leading the army probe in coordination with the U.S. military in South Korea, the Pentagon said Thursday, noting that King’s status is AWOL (absent without leave), or away without permission, for now.

The UNC, the U.S.-led multinational force managing the Joint Security Area, or JSA, through which King bolted, is studying the events of July 18 to “determine what policies or procedures are required to minimize risk to visitors in the JSA,” UNC Public Affairs Director Colonel Isaac Taylor told VOA.

July 18

On a day that a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine made a rare port call to South Korea to coincide with the launch of the U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group, Pvt. King, 23, was in civilian garb taking in a DMZ tour that included a stop at the JSA.

The Joint Security Area is iconified by bright blue buildings that stand on the Military Demarcation Line, the official border that divides North and South Korea, in place for 70 years since an armistice put a pause to the Korean War.

The compound is a popular tourist destination, with bookings often sold out for months, offering the novelty of standing “inside North Korea” within one of the meeting buildings. A tour of the JSA requires submission of additional documents days in advance, including a passport.

King, who was expected at his base in Fort Bliss, Texas, where he faced pending administrative separation from the Army for misdemeanors committed during his South Korea deployment, instead bolted into the North Korean side of the border complex about 3:30 p.m. local time.

He was laughing as he ran, eyewitnesses who were part of the same tour group said. The army private was last seen moving to the back of a North Korean building, then being driven away inside a van by North Korean soldiers, according to a report that cited a Defense Department report on the illegal crossing.

His motive for such a puzzling and dangerous decision remains unknown, as are his whereabouts between checking in for his Dallas-bound flight at Incheon International Airport on Monday and his JSA tour that left from Seoul the following day.

King had served time in a civilian jail in South Korea on assault charges up until a week before his scheduled flight to Texas, and he was facing potential additional repercussions at his base in Fort Bliss.

In interviews with news outlets, his family expressed surprise, his mother recalling she’d heard from him a few days prior and couldn’t see him doing anything like that.

“I just want my son back. I just want my son back,” Claudine Gates told reporters outside her home. “Get my son home and pray, pray that he comes back.”

Rare bolt

King’s dash through the JSA is highly unusual, with few precedents.

While over the decades there have been U.S. soldiers who defected through the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ — the 160-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide buffer running across the Korean peninsula of which the Joint Security Area is a part — this is the first time any person successfully disappeared into North Korea from the South while on a JSA tour.

There was one such attempt in 2001 by a German doctor-turned-activist, Norbert Vollertsen, according to the assistant secretary of the Military Armistice Commission at the time, Stephen M. Tharp.

Vollertsen was caught by armed guards before skipping over the low concrete blocks that mark the border, the retired lieutenant colonel said. His stated purpose was to start an incident to bring North Korea’s human rights plight to the world’s attention.

King’s run also comes as firearms and guard posts were removed at the compound in 2018 amid a detente mood between the two Koreas during the previous administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

North Korean troops had been stationed outside at the JSA just like their South Korean counterparts, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed that. The North Korean government issued border lockdowns and stringent COVID-19 rules, so when North Koreans were spotted at the JSA during the pandemic, they were in Hazmat suits.

In November 2017, a North Korean soldier dodged a shower of live fire rounds by his compatriots, running for his life through the JSA in a bold defection attempt. By the time he got to the south side, he was wounded but alive.

Now, with COVID-19 restrictions and other fears at play, King could be looking at a more complicated processing reality, analysts say, such as weeks of quarantine before questioning by North Korean guards even begins.

Amid escalating tensions

While North Korea has yet to speak on King’s status, it did issue a warning this week against the presence of the USS Kentucky nuclear submarine parked in Busan, South Korea, presumably holding 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“The U.S. military side should realize that its nuclear assets have entered extremely dangerous waters,” North Korea’s defense minister, Kang Sun Nam, said late Thursday via state media KCNA, hours before the submarine would depart.

Kang said the deployment of such strategic assets could trigger North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons, as codified in its nuclear force policy, if “it is judged that the use of nuclear weapons against it is imminent.”

The nuclear weapon trigger warning is mostly being taken in stride in Seoul, with some analysts saying it shows a North Korea under duress. Pyongyang knows full well a first-use case will almost certainly mean a mutual wipe-out, they say.

Still, a war on the Korean peninsula is a scenario the U.S., Japan and South Korea must be ready for together, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said in an interview published Saturday.

“I think that the Korean situation is an area that the United States could — I’m not saying it will, but could — find itself in a state of war, you know, within a few days, with very little notice,” Milley said, according to the Nikkei news organization based in Japan.

For now, North Korea will have its hands full next week, in part, as it gears up for a second massive military parade of the year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice signing on July 27, which Pyongyang claims as its Victory Day.

Remembrances planned at the JSA on the South Korea side, however, have been canceled as the UNC conducts its investigation.
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Here are some Native American-related news stories that made headlines this week:

Treasury secretary addresses poor access to cash, credit in Indian Country

The U.S. Financial Literacy Commission met Thursday to discuss barriers to financial stability in Indian Country.

“One of those main barriers is financial literacy – the understanding of concepts like saving, investing and debt that leads to an overall sense of financial well-being,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Lynn Malerba, chief of the Mohegan Tribe, told the commission.  

She cited a lack of accessible banks. 

“Some banks are hesitant to both locate and lend on reservations due to a lack of knowledge in navigating sovereign immunity, tribal jurisdiction and the status of land held in trust,” she said. 

Malerba noted that Indian Country is growing, and so, too, is Native buying power. She called on the commission to help Native business owners and workers prosper.

Read more:

Indian boarding school in Oregon misused funds, including student monies  

A federal audit of finances at the Chemawa Indian Boarding School in Oregon shows that the school improperly used more than $590,000 in federal funds to purchase “inappropriate and potentially wasteful items.”  These include excavating equipment, a pole barn and a horse trailer.  

The Interior Department’s inspector general conducted an audit of the school’s accounting processes and the Bureau of Indian Education’s role in overseeing those finances.  

Bureau of Indian Affairs policy allows junior and senior high schools enrolling one hundred or more students to operate a school bank for so-called “student enterprise moneys,” which includes money raised by student clubs, donations and students’ own funds.

Federal law also allows those schools to lease land to businesses.

Auditors say Chemawa Indian Boarding School mismanaged all student enterprise funds, averaging $600,000 over a three-year period; improperly accounted for businesses leases; and “inappropriately managed” property.  

Furthermore, auditors say the Bureau of Indian Education did not live up to its supervisory responsibilities.

Read the report and auditors’ recommendations here:

Biggest lithium mine in North America gets green light to proceed

A federal appeals court this week ruled that the U.S. Interior Department did not break any environmental laws when it approved the construction of a lithium mine near Nevada’s border with Oregon.

This means that Lithium Nevada can continue the construction of the Thacker Pass Lithium mine. 

Environmental groups sued to block it, arguing that the mine would irreversibly harm the environment. Co-plaintiffs include a Nevada cattle rancher who owns land above and below the site, tribes of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, the Burns Paiute Tribe, and the Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu (” People of the Red Mountain”), an organization of Paiute and Shoshone people from the Fort McDermitt and Duck Valley reservations.   

Lithium Nevada will initially mine more than 2,300 hectares (more than 5,000 acres), but environmental groups say that future mining could expand to 6,900 hectares (17,000 acres). 

Lithium is an essential component for building batteries for electric vehicles, which are vital to President Joe Biden’s “clean energy by 2050” agenda.

Read more:

Ute Tribe says public schools are not educating tribal children

The Ute Tribe of Northeastern Utah says the state school system has failed to educate Ute children effectively. An investigation by the Salt Lake Tribune backs the claim.

“In 2020, 58% of Ute seniors in Duchesne County School District graduated, for example — that’s lower than the percentage for students with disabilities,” the Tribune reported Monday.

Documentation shows the problems date back decades and are rooted in racism. A 1996 report noted that during the Great Depression of the 1930s, more than half of the region’s white people depended on emergency relief.

“Many [whites] blamed this on the fact that Indian land could not be taxed for the good of the county,” that report read.

In some cases, white schools turned Ute children away altogether.

Read more:
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TAIPEI – Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai, a front-runner in the island’s planned January presidential elections, announced this week that he plans to make transit stops in the U.S. next month on his way to Paraguay, sparking swift protest from China. Beijing objects to any action that could raise Taiwan’s international profile and has pledged to keep the transit stops from happening.

Analysts say that while it is unlikely that China will succeed, the transit stopovers are likely to test already tense ties between Beijing and Washington.

“Beijing will try to link the stopover to the high-level engagement between Taiwan and the U.S. over the last year and they will look for opportunities to frame this as the U.S. being provocative,” Brian Hart, a fellow with the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA.

Details have yet to be released of where Lai might stop in August and what he might do in the U.S. Taiwan’s Presidential Office has said Lai will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Paraguay’s newly elected president, Santiago Pena, on Aug. 14.

Deep distrust

The planned stopovers are not a first for Lai, but this time he is traveling while he is the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate in the January vote. Beijing is highly skeptical of him because he is a member of the DPP and also because of his stance on Taiwan’s sovereignty. A former doctor turned politician, Lai has previously described himself as a “pragmatic Taiwan independence worker.”

Despite Beijing’s claim that the island is a part of its territory, both Lai and Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen argue that the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name, is already an independent state.

Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations. Beijing took over its seat in 1971. Currently, only  13 countries, including Paraguay, have formal diplomatic relations with the island.

“Beijing distrusts Lai even more than they distrust Tsai Ing-wen,” said Bonnie Glaser, the managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She said Beijing believes U.S. support may embolden current or future leaders in Taiwan to pursue independence.

Like many other countries, the United States does not have formal ties with Taiwan, but it is the island’s biggest international backer.

‘Priority’ to stop visit

Speaking at the Aspen Security Conference on Wednesday, Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the U.S., said it was Beijing’s priority to stop Lai from visiting the U.S. and emphasized that the provocative moves by “Taiwan separatists” should be contained.

In addition, China’s foreign ministry said that Beijing opposes any official interaction between Taiwan and the U.S. and that the Taiwan issue is the insurmountable red line that cannot be crossed in U.S.-China relations.

“The Chinese are very alarmed about what could happen and they are warning that their red lines should be taken seriously,” Glaser said.

Despite warnings from Beijing, Taipei, and Washington both emphasized that Lai’s transit stops in the U.S. are planned based on the principle of “comfort and safety” and that China should not use the stopover to “start a fight.”

During a press conference Wednesday, Sandra Oudkirk, the director of Washington’s de facto embassy in Taiwan, said transits by Taiwanese officials in the U.S. have happened many times before and are part of the routine.

In January of last year, Lai transited through the U.S. during a trip to Honduras. During those stopovers, he conducted online meetings with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Tammy Duckworth, and met with members of the Taiwanese community. In April of this year, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen also made two stopovers in the U.S. as part of a trip to Central America.

Another military blockade drill?

China views Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory and has long voiced opposition to high-level interaction between officials from Taipei and those in other countries. That has not stopped a growing number of officials, legislators and leaders from visiting Taiwan, and officials from Taipei traveling to other countries.

In response, China has stepped up its military activities around the island. Over the past year, Beijing launched two multiday, blockade-style military exercises around Taiwan to protest high-profile meetings. One drill followed a meeting between President Tsai and former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when she visited Taiwan last August and another after she met with current U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California in April.

Glaser said that while Beijing’s response will likely be determined by the agenda during Lai’s stopovers in the U.S., the outside world should not rule out any possible scenarios.

“[Even though] I don’t think Lai will do any public events, if he did give a speech or said something that is viewed as provocative by the Chinese leadership, that would give them a reason to do something in the military realm,” she said.

Still, she said she thinks Beijing would have to be “very alarmed” by things that Lai did in order to execute a military response that matches what they did when Pelosi visited Taiwan.

Other analysts added that based on past experience, China has learned that high-profile demonstrations of displeasure toward the Taiwanese government through military maneuvers or military drills often backfire, especially during the island’s election season.

“Since this is a presidential campaign year, if Beijing follows this reasoning, they will likely resort to condemnation and perhaps some form of symbolic suspension of dialogue or economic sanctions on selected commodities,” Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australian National University’s Taiwan Studies Program, told VOA.

In his view, past experience may convince China that heightening military pressure on Taiwan will only backfire when Taiwanese voters are about cast their ballots to elect their next president.

Washington’s balancing act

Lai’s scheduled stopover in the U.S. comes at a tricky time for Washington. Over the past few weeks, it has tried to restart diplomatic engagement with China. Analysts think efforts to reduce tension between the world’s two largest economies may cause the U.S. to make its engagements with Taiwan less public in the coming months.

“Taiwan and the U.S. will maintain the same level of exchanges, but Washington’s public rhetoric about Taiwan may be milder,” said Charles Wu, a professor in international relations at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

Rather than reducing interaction with Taiwan, Wu said he thinks the U.S. will likely put “guardrails around interaction” to make sure it doesn’t affect progress made in restoring dialogue with China.  
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Sea lions and dolphins are being sickened by toxic algae off the coast of California, where hundreds of animals have washed ashore. Mike O’Sullivan visited the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California, where workers are rescuing and treating the ailing animals.
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