Whether played on a field or ice, hockey is an intense and physically demanding sport. In Boston, players in power wheelchairs have taken up the challenge. VOA’s Tina Trinh went to a match.
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OceanGate, the U.S.-based company that managed the tourist submersible that imploded during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, has suspended all exploration and commercial operations, its website showed on Thursday.  

The company did not elaborate beyond a red banner at the top of its website: “OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations.” 

OceanGate had planned two expeditions to the century-old Titanic ruins, located in a remote corner of the North Atlantic, for June 2024, its website showed.  

U.S. and Canadian authorities are investigating the cause of the June undersea implosion, which killed all five people aboard and raised questions about the unregulated nature of such expeditions. 

The U.S. Coast Guard last week recovered presumed human remains and debris from the submersible, known as the Titan, after searching the ocean floor. Examination of the debris is expected to shed more light on the cause of the implosion.  

The Titan lost contact with its support vessel during its descent on June 18. Its remains were found four days later, littering the seabed about 488 meters from the bow of the Titanic wreck. 
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Jailed American journalist Evan Gershkovich on Friday marks his 100th day in detention in Russia on espionage accusations. 

The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested March 29 while on assignment in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg. Russian authorities have accused the Moscow-based reporter of spying. 

Gershkovich, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny the espionage charges. 

Media watchdogs say his arrest marked a new low in Russia’s declining press freedom environment under President Vladimir Putin. 

“Evan’s detention marked a new escalation in Putin’s war on the free press, expanding his crackdown beyond Russia’s domestic media which has already been totally hollowed out,” Clayton Weimers, executive director of the U.S. office of Reporters Without Borders, told VOA.

“One hundred days in jail is 100 days too long to punish a journalist for simply doing journalism,” he said. 

The first American reporter to be charged with espionage in Russia since the end of the Cold War, Gershkovich faces 20 years in a penal colony if convicted. 

“It is vital to keep Evan’s story front and center, particularly as we reflect on this difficult milestone,” The Wall Street Journal said in a statement.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Moscow and Washington have discussed a possible prisoner swap, in an apparent reference to the American journalist and Vladimir Dunaev, a Russian citizen in U.S. custody on cybercrime charges. 

“We have said that there have been certain contacts on the subject, but we don’t want them to be discussed in public,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, without naming any specific detainee. “They must be carried out and continue in complete silence.” 

Peskov added that “the lawful right to consular contacts must be ensured on both sides.” 

In response to a question Wednesday about a potential prisoner swap, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “Sadly, we do not have any news to share.”

“What I can say is Evan, along with Paul Whelan, who are both wrongfully detained, as you know, should be home. They should be home with their families. I just don’t have anything to share at this time,” she added.

Whelan, a former U.S. marine, is also detained in Russia on espionage charges that the U.S. views as baseless. 

Russia’s Washington embassy did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Gershkovich’s detention has taken a toll on his friends and colleagues in the community of journalists who cover Russia.

“Knowing that it’s been 100 days that Evan has been in Lefortovo prison, an FSB-run prison that is very isolating, known for being really psychologically challenging for its inmates — it’s just really hard to know that Evan has been in those circumstances for so long already,” Financial Times reporter Polina Ivanova told VOA.

Ivanova has known Gershkovich since 2017, when they both started reporting jobs in Moscow — Gershkovich at the Moscow Times and Ivanova at Reuters.

“It’s a very tight-knit community, so we’ve always been good friends,” said Ivanova, now based in Berlin and still covering Russia and Ukraine.

Since Gershkovich’s arrest in March, the journalist has been granted only two consular visits.

The latest visit took place Monday, when U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy was allowed to visit Gershkovich for the first time since April. 

“Ambassador Tracy reports that Mr. Gershkovich is in good health and remains strong, despite his circumstances,” a State Department spokesperson said about the latest visit. “We expect Russian authorities to provide continued consular access.” 

In a statement about Gershkovich’s 100-day marker, the press freedom group the Committee to Protect journalists said it was concerned about the lack of due process and the denial of consular access to the journalist.

“One hundred days is obviously just incredibly difficult to get your head around — to imagine yourself in such a small space for so long with so little contact with the outside world,” Ivanova said. 

Gershkovich’s original pre-trial detention was set to expire on May 29, but a Russian court lengthened that period to August 30. 
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In its latest session, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld preferences for Native American foster children to be adopted by Native American parents. The Indian Child Welfare Act was challenged by non-Native foster parents who say it is discriminatory. For VOA, Levi Stallings has our story from the Southwest state of Arizona. (Camera: Levi Stallings)
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived Thursday in Beijing to meet with Chinese officials as part of an effort to address strained relations between the two countries.

“I am glad to be in Beijing to meet with Chinese officials and business leaders,” Yellen said on Twitter. “We seek a healthy economic competition that benefits American workers and firms and to collaborate on global challenges.”

“We will take action to protect our national security when needed,” she added, “and this trip presents an opportunity to communicate and avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding.”

Yellen said U.S. President Joe Biden “charged his administration with deepening communication between our two countries on a range of issues, and I look forward to doing so during my visit.”

Treasury Department officials said ahead of the trip that Yellen would be discussing stabilizing the global economy, as well as challenging China’s support of Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yellen was not expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Her visit, which is scheduled to last through Sunday, follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing last month.

Yellen met earlier this week with China’s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, where the Treasury Department said Yellen “raised issues of concern while also conveying the importance of the two largest economies working together on global challenges, including on macroeconomic and financial issues.”

Chinese state media said Xie expressed hope that the two countries will eliminate interference and strengthen dialogue.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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The U.S. military said a group of three Russian fighter jets harassed three U.S. drones that were taking part in a mission Wednesday against Islamic State group targets in Syria.

Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, commander of the U.S. 9th Air Force in the Middle East, said the Russian jets dropped flares attached to parachutes in front of the U.S. drones, which forced the drones to take evasive action.

Grynkewich also said one of the Russian pilots maneuvered in front of a drone and engaged the jet’s afterburners, which affected the drone operator’s ability to safely operate the aircraft.

“We urge Russian forces in Syria to cease this reckless behavior and adhere to the standards of behavior expected of a professional air force so we can resume our focus on the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Grynkewich said in a statement.

The U.S. military did not specify where in Syria the incident took place.

There are about 900 U.S. forces deployed to Syria to advise and assist Kurdish-led forces in the fight to defeat the Islamic State group.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday disclosed some of the previously blacked-out portions of a warrant application it submitted last year to gain authorization to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida property for classified documents.

Key portions of the document had already been made public, but media organizations including The Associated Press had pressed for further unsealing in light of a 38-count indictment last month charging Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, with concealing classified records at Mar-a-Lago from investigators. A magistrate judge, Bruce Reinhart, declined to order the Justice Department to unseal the search warrant affidavit in its entirety but did require prosecutors to publicly file a less-redacted affidavit.

The newly revealed paragraphs lay out important evidence that prosecutors had gathered well before the search took place, recounting how surveillance footage from inside the property showed dozens of boxes being relocated by a Trump aide in the days before FBI and Justice Department investigators visited the home to collect records.

During that June 3, 2022, visit, law enforcement officials were handed an envelope of 38 classified documents and told that all records sought by a subpoena were being turned over and that a “diligent search” of the home had been done. But investigators had reason to believe that was not true based on the relocation of boxes that they had observed on video, and that additional records remained at the house.

The movement of boxes by Nauta was detailed in last month’s indictment, but its inclusion in the search warrant affidavit helps explain why the Justice Department felt it had probable cause to search Trump’s home on Aug. 8, 2022, and why investigators were concerned that documents were being intentionally withheld from them.

The affidavit recounts how someone identified only as “Witness 5” was seen on multiple days carrying either cardboard or bankers’ boxes in and out of the anteroom at the house. The affidavit does not mention Nauta by name, but the dates of the actions — as well as of an FBI interview “during which the location of boxes was a significant subject of questioning” — line up with the dates cited in the indictment.

Nauta is set to be arraigned in federal court in Miami on Thursday. Trump has already pleaded not guilty to more than three dozen felony counts, many alleging willful retention of national defense information. 
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The U.S. Defense Department will not order a sweeping overhaul of its security procedures following a review of the leak of hundreds of classified documents earlier this year on a social media platform popular with gamers.

Results of the 45-day review, released Wednesday, instead call for a series of measures aimed at tightening existing security measures and improving communication so that officials in charge of secure facilities are taking all the necessary precautions.

“This review found that the overwhelming majority of DoD personnel with access to CNSI [Classified National Security Information] are trustworthy, and that all DoD Components demonstrate a broad commitment to security,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote in a memo, dated June 30.

But Austin added that the review “identified areas where we can and must improve accountability.”

Pentagon officials announced the review in April after the arrest of 21-year-old Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira.

Teixeira has been charged with six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information for removing intelligence documents from a secured work environment and posting them, as well as photos of other documents, for a small group on Discord.

Teixeira pleaded not guilty during a court hearing last month and remains in custody pending trial.

The Pentagon has already sought to reduce the number of employees with access to sensitive information and officials said the new recommendations seek to build on that. 

“There was no single point of failure,” a senior defense official said Wednesday, speaking to reporters about the review’s findings on the condition of anonymity.

“What we see here is we have a growing ecosystem of classified facilities and a body of personnel who are cleared,” the official said. “Within that we have opportunities to clarify policy … they are not the clearest documents always.” 

The official said that includes making sure Defense Department personnel understand when and how to report violations of security protocols.

The official also said efforts are underway to make sure employees are continually vetted and that managers have the information they need to revoke security clearances if something in an employee’s history necessitates a change.

Other changes called for in the review are aimed at improving physical security, including a mandate to install detection systems that would identify when a smart phone or other prohibited electronic device is brought into a secure facility.

According to a 2017 report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, approximately 4 million people have U.S. security clearances, with 1.3 million cleared to access top secret information.

Following the disclosure of the Discord leak in April, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines called the incident, “deeply depressing … very frustrating.”

But she also urged officials not to overreact.

“What I think we all try to do is learn the right lessons and then not over-torque as a consequence,” Haines said at the time. “What I mean by that is to try to promote better practices, while at the same time not undermining our capacity to do appropriate sharing and to engage in our mission.”
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A white powder discovered in a lobby area of the White House’s West Wing that prompted a brief evacuation Sunday evening tested positive for cocaine in a laboratory analysis, three people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Officials who found the powder in a small plastic envelope in the heavily trafficked part of the White House initially suspected illegal drugs, but they ran tests to ensure that the powder was not a more dangerous substance.

Investigators have not yet identified who brought the cocaine into the White House, according to the three people, who were not authorized to publicly discuss the inquiry and spoke on condition of anonymity.

President Joe Biden was at Camp David with members of his family for the holiday weekend when the powder was discovered, and the complex was briefly evacuated as a precaution. It’s routine for emergency teams to quickly test a suspicious substance on the scene to determine whether it’s hazardous and also to follow up with more sensitive lab tests later.

The U.S. Secret Service, which is responsible for securing the White House, was taking the lead on the investigation, consulting visitor logs and security footage.

The lobby is where many official visitors and staffers enter. It is also open to staff-led tours of the West Wing, which are scheduled for nonworking hours on the weekends and evenings.

The Secret Service said in a statement Tuesday the White House was closed as a precaution as emergency crews investigated, and that the District of Columbia Fire Department was called in to evaluate and determine that the substance was not hazardous.

“The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” the Secret Service said.
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DUBAI — The U.S. Navy said it intervened to prevent Iran from seizing two commercial tankers in the Gulf on Wednesday in the latest in a series of seizures or attacks on ships in the area since 2019. 

Chevron said one incident involved the Richmond Voyager, a very large crude carrier managed by the U.S. oil company, and that crew onboard were safe.  

An Iranian navy vessel fired shots during the second seizure attempt, Navy Fifth Fleet spokesperson Timothy Hawkins said. 

Both incidents took place in the Gulf in waters between Iran and Oman.  

Hawkins did not say how the U.S. Navy prevented their seizure. Details regarding the second vessel involved in the incident were not immediately clear.  

Since 2019, there have been a series of attacks on shipping in the strategic Gulf waters at times of tension between the United States and Iran. 

Iran seized two oil tankers in a week just over a month ago, the U.S. Navy said.  

About a fifth of the world’s supply of crude oil and oil products passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point between Iran and Oman, according to data from analytics firm Vortexa. 

Refinitiv ship tracking data shows the Richmond Voyager previously docked in Ras Tannoura in eastern Saudi Arabia before Wednesday’s incident in the Gulf. 

A Chevon spokesperson said “there is no loss of life, injury, or loss of containment” aboard the Richmond Voyager.

“The vessel is operating normally. The safety of our crew is our top priority,” the spokesperson said in a statement.  
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Americans are divided by the Supreme Court overturning decades of precedent supporting affirmative action in college admissions, a policy that advantaged otherwise disadvantaged students from racial or ethnic minority groups. 

“Unfortunately, race still matters in our society and affirmative action is essential in guaranteeing that everyone — not just the advantaged — benefit from an education that can serve as a pathway to upward mobility,” Coalition for a Diverse Harvard board member Michael Williams told VOA.

Harvard University, along with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, were sued by Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit organization against racial classifications in college admissions. By ruling in their favor, the Supreme Court is disadvantaging all Americans, Williams said. 

“Many of our college applicants have been systematically and purposefully excluded from aspects of our society and discriminated against based on race, and an equitable college admissions process must recognize these disadvantages,” Williams said. “But this affects everyone because studies show that diverse institutions are better institutions. Affirmative action helps prepare all our students for the diversity they’ll find in the workplace.” 

Other Americans welcomed the high court’s ruling against race-conscious admissions. 

“America is supposed to be a meritocracy, and race shouldn’t play any part in college or job decisions,” said Angelica Garcia, a teacher in Saginaw, Michigan. 

“Assuming every Black and brown person has lived this underclass or inferior experience and needs help is racist,” she continued. “As a person of color, I worked hard for what I’ve gotten and I’ve overcome a lot, and I hate that some people think I’ve only been accepted into college or my job because of my race.” 

Born from civil rights movement

Race-conscious admissions in American universities were born from the civil rights movement of the 1960s and laws supporting affirmative action in the U.S. labor market. Colleges that adopted these policies were challenged in the Supreme Court, where justices ruled that while quota systems were an unconstitutional violation of equal protections, race could still be considered by universities as one factor among others. 

“Affirmative action was implemented to address the longstanding exclusion and segregation of Black and brown students in higher education and to recognize the persistent inequalities that students of color face on both individual and systemic levels,” Edgar Saldivar, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, told VOA. 

The impact of eliminating that is clear to Connie Chung Joe, chief executive officer of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. 

“Without race-conscious admissions, racial segregation will rise at our nation’s colleges and universities,” she predicted. “This will disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, and Asian communities. Entire generations of talented students of color will be denied the future they deserve.” 

Policy has harmed, say opponents

Opponents of race-conscious admissions say it’s the policy itself that has done harm by overlooking those excluded from preferential treatments. 

“Maybe affirmative action was something necessary many years ago, but in the present day, it was time for it to be revisited,” said Jillian Dani, a former teacher from Merritt Island, Florida. “I understand the desire to give minorities more opportunities, but in today’s world, minorities have the same opportunities as the rest of us.” 

“All-women colleges exist, and all-Black colleges exist,” Dani told VOA. “But there aren’t any all-white male colleges even though poor white people are a real thing. They’re missing out on opportunities, too, and affirmative action wasn’t helping them.” 

Twenty-year-old San Diego entrepreneur Willow Hannington believes the decision to strike down affirmative action is a positive one for the country. 

“It’s a significant stride towards fostering a truly fair and equal society,” she told VOA. “This nation has achieved significant progress, and, in my opinion, race should no longer play a decisive role in any aspect of our lives.” 

Schools commit to diversity 

In a recent poll by ABC News/Ipsos, a majority of Americans favor this more “race neutral” or “color-blind” approach. Following the ruling, many colleges and universities issued statements reaffirming their commitment to diversity. 

“Eliminating the use of standardized test scores in admissions, increasing guaranteed financial support, broadening recruitment efforts to underserved communities, and developing robust middle and high school pipelines that benefit all students are just some of the things that can be done,” Saldivar told VOA. 

Craig Mindrum from Chicago has a strategy to add. With experience on a graduate school admissions committee, he said students should continue talking about how their lived experiences and race has shaped their character, drive and talents.

“No legislation or court decision is going to stop me from making some recommendations while considering minority or disadvantaged status,” he said. “Admissions counselors are people, not legislative robots, and across the country they’re going to be making the final decision on who is accepted into their college.” 
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China’s Defense Ministry accused the United States of turning Taiwan into a powder keg Wednesday with its latest sales of military equipment to the self-governing island democracy worth a total of $440.2 million.

The U.S. State Department approved of the sale of 30 mm ammunition and related equipment, along with spare parts for Taiwan’s vehicles, small arms, combat weapon systems, and logistical support items. Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Tan Kefei responded that “the U.S. ignores China’s core concerns, crudely interferes in China’s internal affairs, and deliberately escalates tensions across the Taiwan Strait.”

China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be conquered by force if necessary and Tan said “stern representations” had been lodged with the U.S.

“This is tantamount to accelerating the transformation of Taiwan into a ‘powder keg’ and pushing the Taiwanese people into the abyss of disaster,” he said in a statement carried on the ministry’s website.

Using force to seek independence is wishful thinking and is doomed to failure, he said, using standard Chinese terminology, adding that the People’s Liberation Army was always ready and would maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

The U.S. maintains a “One China” policy under which it does not recognize Taiwan’s formal independence and has no formal diplomatic relations with the island in deference to Beijing. Nonetheless, U.S. law requires a credible defense for Taiwan and for the U.S. to treat all threats to the island as matters of ”grave concern.”

China regularly sends warships and planes across the center line in the Taiwan Strait that provides a buffer between the sides, as well as into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, in an effort to intimidate the island’s 23 million people and wear down its military capabilities.

During a transit stop in the U.S. by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in April, during which she met with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, China staged three days of large-scale drills around the island, simulating a blockade. China opposes any exchanges at the official level between Taiwan and other governments.

On Wednesday, 26 PLA aircraft and 4 Chinese navy ships were detected around Taiwan, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said. Aircraft, navy vessels and land-based missile systems were monitoring the situation, it said.

Few Taiwanese seem fazed by such displays, with the vast majority favoring maintaining the island’s current status of de-facto independence. The island split from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.

In its announcement of the sale, the State Department said it “serves U.S. national, economic, and security interests by supporting the recipient’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability.”

“The proposed sale will help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region,” it said. The ammunition and associated equipment will maintain the effectiveness of Taiwan’s CM34 Armored Vehicles while “further enhancing interoperability with the United States.”

In addition to purchasing military hardware from the U.S. — with an estimated $19 billion of F-16 fighter jets and other items on backorder — Taiwan has been revitalizing its domestic defense industries, overhauling training and extending compulsory national service for all men from four months to one year.

While China’s vast military dominates Taiwan’s in almost every category, part of the island’s strategy is to hold off Chinese forces long enough for outside help to arrive.
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Seeking a valid U.S. passport for that 2023 trip? Buckle up, wishful traveler, for a very different journey before you step anywhere near an airport. 

A much-feared backup of U.S passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide travel rebounds toward record pre-pandemic levels — with too few humans to handle the load. The result, say aspiring travelers in the U.S. and around the world, is a maddening pre-travel purgatory defined, at best, by costly uncertainty. 

With family dreams and big money on the line, passport seekers describe a slow-motion agony of waiting, worrying, holding the line, refreshing the screen, complaining to Congress, paying extra fees, and following incorrect directions. Some applicants are buying additional plane tickets to snag in-process passports where they sit — in other cities — in time to make the flights they booked in the first place. 

So grim is the outlook that U.S. officials aren’t even denying the problem or predicting when it will ease. They’re blaming the epic wait times on lingering pandemic-related staffing shortages and a pause of online processing this year. That’s left the passport agency flooded with a record-busting 500,000 applications a week. The deluge is on-track to top last year’s 22 million passports issued, the State Department says. 

It was early March when Dallas-area florist Ginger Collier applied for four passports ahead of a family vacation at the end of June. The clerk, she said, estimated wait times at eight to 11 weeks. They’d have their passports a month before they needed them. “Plenty of time,” Collier recalled thinking. 

Then the State Department upped the wait time for a regular passport to as much as 13 weeks. “We’ll still be OK,” she thought. 

At two weeks to travel, this was Collier’s assessment: “I can’t sleep.” Failure to obtain the family’s passports would mean losing $4,000, she said, as well as the chance to meet one of her sons in Italy after a study abroad semester. “My nerves are shot because I may not be able to get to him,” she said. She calls the toll-free number every day, holds for as much as 90 minutes to be told — at best — that she might be able to get a required appointment at passport offices in other states. 

“I can’t afford four more plane tickets anywhere in the United States to get a passport when I applied in plenty of time,” she said. 

Bottom ‘dropped out’

By March, concerned travelers began asking for answers and then demanding help, including from their representatives in the House and Senate, who widely reported at hearings this year that they were receiving more complaints from constituents on passport delays than any other issue. 

The U.S. secretary of state had an answer, of a sort. 

“With COVID, the bottom basically dropped out of the system,” Antony Blinken told a House subcommittee on March 23. When demand for travel all but disappeared during the pandemic, he said, the government let contractors go and reassigned staff that had been dedicated to handling passports. 

Around the same time, the government also halted an online renewal system “to make sure that we can fine tune it and improve it,” Blinken said. He said the department is hiring agents as quickly as possible, opening more appointments and trying to address the crisis in other ways. 

Passport applicants lit up social media groups, toll-free numbers and lawmakers’ phone lines with questions, appeals for advice and cries for help. 

Long waits overseas

At U.S. consulates overseas, the quest for U.S. visas and passports isn’t much brighter. 

On a day in June, people in New Delhi could expect to wait 451 days for a visa interview, according to the website. Those in Sao Paulo could plan on waiting more than 600 days. Aspiring travelers in Mexico City were waiting about 750 days; in Bogota, Colombia, it was 801 days. 

In Israel, the need is especially acute. More than 200,000 people with citizenship in both countries live in Israel. On July 2, Batsheva Gutterman started looking for appointments immediately after she had a baby in December, with an eye toward attending her sister’s wedding in July, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her quest for three passports stretched from January to June, days before travel. And it only resolved after Gutterman paid a small fee to join a WhatsApp group that alerted her to new appointments, which stay available for only a few seconds. 

She ultimately got three appointments on three consecutive days — bureaucracy embodied. 

“This makes me incredibly uneasy having a baby in Israel as an American citizen, knowing there is no way I can fly with that baby until we get lucky with an appointment,” she said. 

There appeared to be some progress. The wait for an appointment for a renewal on June 8 stood at 360 days. By July 2, the wait was 90 days, according to the website. 

Waiting in line and online

Back in the U.S., Marni Larsen of Holladay, Utah, stood in line in Los Angeles, California, on June 14, in hopes of snagging her son’s passport. That way, she hoped, the pair could meet the rest of their family, who had already left as scheduled for Europe for a long-planned vacation. 

She’d applied for her son’s passport two months earlier and spent weeks checking for updates online or through a frustrating call system. As the mid-June vacation loomed, Larsen reached out to Senator Mitt Romney ‘s office, where one of four people he says is assigned full-time to passport issues were able to track down the document in New Orleans. 

It was supposed to be shipped to Los Angeles, where she got an appointment to retrieve it. That meant Larsen had to buy new tickets for herself and her son to Los Angeles and reroute their trip from there to Rome. All on a bet that her son’s passport was indeed shipped as promised. 

“We are just waiting in this massive line of tons of people,” Larsen said. “It’s just been a nightmare.” 

They succeeded. And Ginger Collier? She found her happy ending. “I just got my passports!” she texted. A seven-hour visit at the passport office in Dallas, Texas, plus a return the next day, produced the passports with four days to spare. 

“What a ridiculous process,” Collier said. Nevertheless, the reunion with her son in Italy was sweet. She texted last week: “It was the best hug ever!” 
…

Revelers across the United States braved heat and heavy rain to take part in Fourth of July activities Tuesday — celebrating the nation’s founding with parades, fireworks and hot dog eating contests at a time of lingering political divisions and concerns about the country’s future.

In Boston, Massachusetts, people dodged raindrops to nab a coveted space on the grassy oval in front of the Hatch Shell along the Charles River ahead of the traditional Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. Hundreds of thousands of partygoers typically line both sides of the river for the fireworks spectacular that follows a concert.

At another long-standing celebration, fans of competitive eating crowded to watch Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest held in the Coney Island section of New York City.

Heavy downpours interrupted the contest, but after the pause, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut swallowed 62 franks and buns in 10 minutes.

“What a roller coaster, emotionally,” Chestnut said. The 39-year-old from Westfield, Indiana, first competed for the title in 2005 and hasn’t lost since 2015.

New York wasn’t the only state where weather factored into events.

The 10-kilometer Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race that typically draws thousands of runners in humid summer weather was cut short because of possible thunderstorms.

Farther north, a fireworks show in Yankton, South Dakota, was postponed until Wednesday night because lightning prevented crews from setting up the display. In Nebraska, the Omaha Symphony’s Independence Day Celebration that includes a concert and fireworks shows were also postponed until Wednesday night.

New Orleans residents welcomed rain and slightly cooler conditions after days of heat and humidity baked the city. The General Roy S. Kelley fireboat was returning to New Orleans Riverfront for a patriotic water show, sending streams of red, white, and blue water into the air.

The Colorado towns and suburbs of Estes Park, Golden and Highlands Ranch cancelled fireworks celebrations after thunderstorm alerts were issued. Severe weather warnings scuttled Independence Day travel plans at Denver International Airport, where at least 290 flights were delayed and 171 cancelled — among the most flights affected in the nation — according to Flight Aware.

President Joe Biden hosted a barbecue for military families at the White House, which was decked out with red, white and blue bunting and big U.S. flags draped over the columns facing the South Lawn. Biden told the crowd gathered how grateful he was for their service. And he talked about how important it was to work to unify the nation.

“Democracy is never guaranteed,” Biden said. “Every generation must fight to maintain it.”

Later, the Bidens watched fireworks from the White House balcony with thousands of guests on the lawn, as Louis Armstrong’s version of “America the Beautiful” played over loudspeakers.

Vice President Kamala Harris was in her home state of California, where she visited a Los Angeles fire station to pay tribute to first responders who she said risk their lives for their community.

“On this Independence Day, we came by to thank them, and to let them know we think of them all the time,” Harris said.

While the holiday put a spotlight on how Americans carry different views of patriotism, many people embraced the holiday with whimsy and a sense of community.

In Hannibal, Missouri, the hometown of Mark Twain, the Fourth of July weekend coincides with National Tom Sawyer Days. Fence-painting and frog-jumping contests were held.

Altoona, Iowa, dubbed its celebration “CORNival.” In addition to the nod to America’s birthday, the festival marks the 100th anniversary of the first acre of commercial hybrid seed corn, grown and harvested in Altoona in 1923. Twenty 6-foot-high fiberglass corn cob statutes decorated by local artists were being unveiled and will later be placed around the town of 21,000 residents.

In Joppatowne, Maryland, hundreds of people lined up at a Sheetz gas station to pump regular fuel at $1.776 per gallon, WBAL-TV reported. Sheetz set the price per gallon in commemoration of the year the Declaration of Independence was signed, according to a statement posted on the company’s website.

And in the east Tennessee city of Gatlinburg held its annual Independence Day midnight parade early Tuesday. George Hawkins, who created the parade, died Saturday, news outlets reported.

Running events were a feature of many celebrations.

In Lexington, Kentucky, about 2,000 people ran through the city’s downtown. Stephanie Thurman told WKYT-TV that the race had been on her bucket list. “I started these races here in 2019; I turned 50. That was one of the things on my bucket list, so I did that, and ever since then, I was bit by the bug,”

Hundreds participated in Alaska’s Mount Marathon, a grueling mountain race that features steep inclines, loose rock and shale that the top runners seemingly fly over on their way down. It’s an Independence Day tradition in coastal Seward, a town of about 2,500 people south of Anchorage.

Some cities were eschewing firework displays for shows in which drones fitted with lights are coded to create massive, moving shapes in the sky. Los Angeles, Tahoe City, California, Salt Lake City, and Boulder, along with a few other Colorado towns, have opted for the the aerial spectacles that can display an expansive American flag and the year 1776 in red, white and blue. Avoiding explosive fireworks limits the danger of fires in states already devastated by massive burns.

The air pollution agency for Southern California issued an alert for potential health problems caused by high levels of airborne particles from fireworks. The particulate advisory by the South Coast Air Quality Management District is in effect through Wednesday in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Chicago suburb of Highland Park, where a shooting at last year’s Fourth of July parade left seven people dead, also held a drone show to avoid the startling noise of fireworks.

Gun violence also marred some of the celebratory atmosphere, as shootings left five dead in Philadelphia and three dead in Texas.

Fireworks also led to at least one death in western Michigan. Nine other people were injured in that fireworks explosion on Monday, the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department said.
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In recent years, there have been more prominent TV shows and movies featuring Asians and Chinese Americans, with many of them targeting younger audiences.  

The increase in media showing Asian Americans is more than just a product of the streaming era. For summer camp director C.C. Hsu and her students, it is also a step toward more accurate representations of their identities.   

The summer camp hosted by the Washington DC Taiwanese School, located in Maryland about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) north of the U.S. capital, is made up of the children and grandchildren of immigrants from Taiwan.   

“Our community is generational,” Hsu said.   

Hsu, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child, aims to teach the students at the summer camp more about her culture. She said what she sees at the summer camp is reflected on screen in the new Disney+ show, “American Born Chinese.”   

The show is about a child of Asian immigrants who is introduced to a new student from China and their adventures as a result of their budding friendship.   

“When he [main character Jin Wang] says multiple times, ’Can you say that slower? My Chinese isn’t very good,’ this is something that is very, very familiar with the kids that are at the Taiwanese School,” Hsu said.   

Emmanuelle Roberts, Hsu’s daughter and a camp student, said she would like to see more Taiwanese American representation.   

“I don’t feel like Taiwanese and Taiwanese American people are portrayed enough in the media,” she said.

Her comments reflect a desire among many Taiwanese Americans for recognition of an identity distinct from Chinese Americans.   

“I usually just think of myself as either Asian American or Taiwanese American,” Freddy Meng, another camp student, said. “I don’t really identify with Chinese American that much.”   

More Asian faces on screen   

Among the many reasons why Hollywood is producing more Asian American stories, experts said, is because changes to the structure of the industry have opened more doors for Asian talent in front of and behind the camera.   

“In the last few years, the last decade or so, as Hollywood — as much of corporate America — has shifted into thinking about diversity as one of its core values, thinking about, ’How do we create a pipeline?'” said Brian Hu, who teaches television, film and new media at San Diego State University and is artistic director of the San Diego Asian Film Festival.   

“This is among the first times where the showrunner is Asian American or Chinese American, where the production team behind it and the whole cast and crew … is Asian American or … Chinese American, and part of that is because we’re seeing a new generation of talent… who are… kind of reaching that level in the industry where they have that sway,” said Jason Coe, assistant professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University Academy of Film.    

Hollywood has also grown more aware of the importance of Asian American representation as a component of its broader push toward diversity.   

“Asian Americans are part of the diversity equation … 20 years ago that wasn’t necessarily the case. It wasn’t necessarily self-evident that if you are doing diversity, that Asian faces is a part of that,” Hu said.  

The increase of anti-Asian hate incidents during the pandemic is another reason behind more shows about Asian Americans, said Yao Zhang, a Chinese Canadian YouTuber and human rights activist.   

“Some people, especially Chinese people, want to show the world that we are not all spies, right? We are not all agents, right?” Zhang said. “Like, we are a loyal American citizen or whatever or just to see a different part of us.”

Hollywood and China  

For years, Hollywood has been looking outside of the U.S. to China to reach one of the largest movie markets in the world. But films would first have to get past Beijing’s government censors.   

“This obsession of Hollywood entering China that obsession was especially high like 10 years ago where you do see a lot of coproductions happening,” Hu said.  

The Tom Cruise sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” was accused of making changes to appeal to China. In the original 1986 “Top Gun” movie, the Taiwanese and Japanese flags were on Cruise’s bomber jacket. In the trailer of the 2022 sequel, those flags do not appear. The film was accused of self-censoring to please Bejing because China considers Taiwan a part of its territory.   

“When the original teaser or trailer came out that it was digitally erased or a more politically neutral flag was inserted there so as not to offend the mainland audience, but as soon as they realized they would not be that audience, the Taiwan flag came back,” Hu said.  

Chinese company Tencent Holdings was supposed to be an investor, but the company decided to pull out of the film due to fears that the strong pro-U.S. military themes would anger Beijing, The Wall Street Journal reported. The film never received permission from Beijing to be shown in China.    

Last week, Politico reported the U.S. Defense Department updated its rules to filmmakers, saying if Hollywood wants help from the U.S. military, it cannot let China censor its films.   

Focus on Asian Americans   

Film analysts say production companies may do better by focusing on audiences closer to home.   

“If they see themselves as first for making a culturally American film that, of course, will have global appeal, but they know what they know, most which is that like American culture and American way of making movies that to have to, to cater culturally to somebody else is a big list, and I think they realized that let’s not be so obsessed with the Chinese market that we forget who we are,” said Hu, of San Diego State University.   

Some recent productions about Chinese American stories have received positive reviews.   

“I think that both ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ and ‘American Born Chinese’ are made with the Asian American and Chinese American audiences in mind, and I believe that the immigrant story is a very American story,” Coe said. 

“I think what we’re proving is that there is money to be made here. People want these stories,” said Hsu, the summer camp director.   

Increased Asian American representation means roles less rooted in stereotypes, activist Zhang said. 

“On the TV shows or on the movies, we are just [a] certain type of people, like nerd, IT [information technology] specialist — all guys are IT specialists, all women are accountants, all nerds,” Zhang said.   

The Hollywood Diversity Report 2023, conducted with the help of the University of California Los Angles College of Social Sciences, found in theatrical films that Asians make up 2.3% of lead actors, 6.5% of overall acting roles, 5.6% of directors and 4.5% of writers in 2022.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Asians, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders make up 6.2% of the U.S. population. 

It is unknown whether more Asian Americans will find work in Hollywood in 2023. For people such as Hsu and her summer camp attendees, increased representation is important not just for seeing more faces who look like them, but also to ensure that their experiences are meaningfully portrayed onscreen. 
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A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday restricted some agencies and officials of the administration of President Joe Biden from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content, according to a court filing.

The injunction came in response to a lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, who alleged that U.S. government officials went too far in efforts to encourage social media companies to address posts they worried could contribute to vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or upend elections.

The ruling said government agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI could not talk to social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech” under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

A White House official said the Justice Department was reviewing the order and would evaluate its options.

The litigation was originally filed by former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. Schmitt, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in November, used Twitter to welcome the injunction and called it a win for free speech.

The order also mentioned officials by name, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in its restrictions.

Judge Terry Doughty, in an order filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, made some exceptions for communications between government officials and the companies, including to warn about risks to national security and about criminal activity.

The injunction was first reported by the Washington Post.

Tuesday’s order marks a win for Republicans who had sued the Biden administration, saying it was using the coronavirus health crisis and the threat of misinformation as an excuse to curb views that disagreed with the government. 

U.S. officials have said they were aiming to tamp down misinformation about COVID vaccines to curb preventable deaths.

Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, Twitter, and Alphabet’s YouTube did not respond to requests for comment. 
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The U.S. and Russia are discussing a possible new prisoner swap that could involve jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in a Moscow prison on espionage charges that he denies, and a Russian detained in the U.S. on cybercrime charges, the Kremlin said Tuesday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian and U.S. officials have discussed the prisoner exchange that could involve Gershkovich and Vladimir Dunaev, who was extradited from South Korea and is in detention in the U.S. Midwestern state of Ohio.  

On Monday, the U.S. granted consular access to Dunaev for the first time since his 2021 arrest, while Lynne Tracy, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, visited with Gershkovich for the second time since his late March arrest.

There was no indication that an immediate exchange was in the offing, with a Russian court ruling last week that Gershkovich can be kept in custody until August 30 and Russia often saying that any exchange could not be carried out until a verdict is rendered in his case. No trial date has been set.

Peskov said, “We have said that there have been certain contacts on the subject, but we don’t want them to be discussed in public. They must be carried out and continue in complete silence.”

He didn’t offer any further details, adding that “the lawful right to consular contacts must be ensured on both sides.”

The 31-year-old Gershkovich was arrested in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip. He, the Journal and the U.S. government have adamantly denied the espionage charge Russia lodged against him.

A White House official told the Journal on Tuesday, “While we unfortunately do not have a breakthrough to share, we continue to pursue every avenue to secure the release of Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan,” a former U.S. Marine held by Russia on spying charges since 2018.

Even as the U.S. has supplied billions of dollars of arms to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s 16-month invasion, Moscow and Washington have engaged in prisoner exchange talks and carried out two of them since Russia started the war.

Late last year, U.S. professional basketball star Brittney Griner was swapped for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, while earlier in 2022, Trevor Reed, an American who was convicted in Russia of assaulting two police officers, was exchanged for Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011 for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.
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Founded by a former refugee, Minnesota-based company Epimonía turns material from life jackets worn by refugees into fashion accessories and other items of clothing. VOA’s Kahli Abdu has the story.
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Parades, picnics and concerts will be held across the United States Tuesday as the nation celebrates the 247th signing of the Declaration of Independence, which signaled the American colonies break with Britain. Richard Green shows us two very different celebrations of the annual holiday.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with China’s Ambassador to the United States Xie Fang on Monday, ahead of her travel this week to China as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to address strained relations between the two countries. 

“The frank and productive discussion supported ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the U.S.-China bilateral relationship,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement. 

Managing relations, working on issues of mutual interest, and ensuring tensions do not turn into conflict have been the major themes of talks between senior officials in recent weeks, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing last month. 

In Yellen’s talks with Xie, the Treasury Department said, Yellen “raised issues of concern while also conveying the importance of the two largest economies working together on global challenges, including on macroeconomic and financial issues.” 

Yellen is due to visit China July 6-9 for talks with senior officials. 

A senior Treasury Department official told reporters Sunday that the United States wants a healthy economic relationship with China and that halting trade and investment “would be destabilizing for both our countries and the global economy.”  

Officials also said Yellen plans to discuss U.S. concerns about a new Chinese counter-espionage law.  

Yellen addressed U.S.-China relations during an April speech at Johns Hopkins University, saying it would be healthy to have a relationship that fosters growth an innovation in both countries.    

“A growing China that plays by international rules is good for the United States and the world,” Yellen said. “Both countries can benefit from healthy competition in the economic sphere. But healthy economic competition — where both sides benefit — is only sustainable if that competition is fair.”  

Yellen also said that for the sake of global stability, the United States and China should cooperate “on the urgent global challenges of our day.”  

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters .
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U.S. President Joe Biden is celebrating the country’s Independence Day holiday with a series of events Tuesday at the White House. 

The president and first lady Jill Biden are holding an event with the National Education Association, and then hosting military families for a barbecue. 

Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks in the evening to commemorate the holiday with a crowd of military and veteran families along with caregivers at the White House. 

The White House event also will provide a prime viewing location for Washington’s fireworks show on the National Mall. 

The U.S. Capitol grounds will be the site of an annual Independence Day concert that is televised to the nation.  Performers this year include Chicago, Babyface, the National Symphony Orchestra and the U.S. Army Band. 

Washington is also hosting its traditional Independence Day parade down Constitution Avenue on Tuesday. 
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Maternal deaths across the United States more than doubled over the course of two decades, and the tragedy unfolded unequally. 

Black mothers died at the nation’s highest rates, while the largest increases in deaths were found in American Indian and Native Alaskan mothers. Some states — and racial or ethnic groups within them – fared worse than others. 

The findings were laid out in a new study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers looked at maternal deaths between 1999 and 2019 — but not the pandemic spike — for every state and five racial and ethnic groups. 

“It’s a call to action to all of us to understand the root causes — to understand that some of it is about health care and access to health care, but a lot of it is about structural racism and the policies and procedures and things that we have in place that may keep people from being healthy,” said Dr. Allison Bryant, one of the study’s authors and a senior medical director for health equity at Mass General Brigham. 

Among wealthy nations, the U.S. has the highest rate of maternal mortality, which is defined as a death during pregnancy or up to a year afterward. Common causes include excessive bleeding, infection, heart disease, suicide and drug overdose. 

Bryant and her colleagues at Mass General Brigham and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington started with national vital statistics data on deaths and live births. They then used a modeling process to estimate maternal mortality out of every 100,000 live births. 

Overall, they found rampant, widening disparities. The study showed high rates of maternal mortality aren’t confined to the South but also extend to regions like the Midwest and states such as Wyoming and Montana, which had high rates for multiple racial and ethnic groups in 2019. 

Researchers also found dramatic jumps when they compared maternal mortality in the first decade of the study to the second and identified the five states with the largest increases between those decades. Those increases exceeded: 

— 162% for American Indian and Alaska Native mothers in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Rhode Island and Wisconsin; 

— 135% for white mothers in Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri and Tennessee; 

— 105% for Hispanic mothers in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Tennessee; 

— 93% for Black mothers in Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey and Texas; 

— 83% for Asian and Pacific Islander mothers in Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan and Missouri. 

“I hate to say it, but I was not surprised by the findings. We’ve certainly seen enough anecdotal evidence in a single state or a group of states to suggest that maternal mortality is rising,” said Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox, a health services and policy researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who wasn’t involved in the study. “It’s certainly alarming, and just more evidence we have got to figure out what’s going on and try to find ways to do something about this.” 

Maddox pointed to how, compared with other wealthy nations, the U.S. underinvests in things like social services, primary care and mental health. She also said Missouri hasn’t funded public health adequately, and during the years of the study hadn’t expanded Medicaid. They’ve since expanded Medicaid — and lawmakers passed a bill giving new mothers a full year of Medicaid health coverage. Last week, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed budget bills that included $4.4 million for a maternal mortality prevention plan. 

In neighboring Arkansas, Black women are twice as likely to have pregnancy-associated deaths as white women, according to a 2021 state report. 

Dr. William Greenfield, the medical director for family health at the Arkansas Department of Health, said the disparity is significant and has “persisted over time,” and that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why there was an increase in the state’s maternal mortality rate for Black mothers. 

Rates among Black women have long been the worst in the nation, and the problem affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. For example, U.S. Olympic champion sprinter Tori Bowie, 32, died from complications of childbirth in May. 

The pandemic likely exacerbated all of the demographic and geographic trends, Bryant said, and “that’s absolutely an area for future study.” According to preliminary federal data, maternal mortality fell in 2022 after rising to a six-decade high in 2021 — a spike experts attributed mainly to COVID-19. Officials said the final 2022 rate is on track to get close to the pre-pandemic level, which was still the highest in decades. 

Bryant said it’s crucial to understand more about these disparities to help focus on community-based solutions and understand what resources are needed to tackle the problem. 

Arkansas already is using telemedicine and is working on several other ways to increase access to care, said Greenfield, who is also a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock and was not involved in the study. 

The state also has a “perinatal quality collaborative,” a network to help health care providers understand best practices for things like reducing cesarean sections, managing complications with hypertensive disorders, and curbing injuries or severe complications related to childbirth. 

“Most of the deaths we reviewed and other places have reviewed … were preventable,” Greenfield said. 
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The U.S. ambassador to Russia visited jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Moscow on Monday, the newspaper reported. It was the second time the diplomat has seen him since his arrest three months ago on espionage charges that he denies. 

The newspaper did not provide details about Ambassador Lynne Tracy’s meeting with Gershkovich. She last saw him in April shortly after his March 29 arrest, when Russia accused him of trying to obtain military secrets while on a reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. 

A judge last month rejected an application for Gershkovich, 31, to be released from a Moscow prison while awaiting trial. Tracy has accused Russia of conducting “hostage diplomacy.” 

Over the years, Russia has agreed to high-profile prisoner exchanges with the United States, most recently last year when professional basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced on a drug charge, was traded for convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout. 

But Moscow has said no exchange could take place in the Gershkovich case until a verdict on his charges has been reached. But no date has been set for a trial. 

Any prisoner swap is complicated by geopolitical considerations and who each country considers of equal value to trade. In addition, relations between the two countries are at a low point because of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. extensive military support for Ukraine. 
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The nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy is running for president. Robert F. Kennedy Junior, whose father was slain during a White House bid in 1968, is considered a longshot for the Democratic nomination despite his family name and some favorable early polls. VOA’s Veronica Balderas reports.
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