The oldest mosque in Michigan is celebrating its 85th year. Located in the city of Dearborn, the American Moslem Society Mosque, one of the oldest in the United States, provides its young generation with religious and recreational activities. VOA’s Rivan Dwiastono reports. Videographer: Alam Burhanan, Virginia Gunawan
…

Four people have been killed and multiple people injured during a shooting Saturday night in Dadeville, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said the shooting happened at about 10:30 p.m. There was no initial confirmation about what led to the shooting. It was not immediately known if a suspect was in custody.

Pastor Ben Hayes, who serves as the chaplain for the Dadeville Police Department and for the local high school football team, said most of the victims are teenagers because the shooting occurred at a birthday party for a 16-year-old. He said the shooting has rocked the small town where serious crime is rare.

“One of the young men that was killed was one of our star athletes and just a great guy. So I knew many of these students. Dadeville is a small town and this is going to affect everybody in this area,” Hayes said.

WRBL-TV reported that the shooting happened at a dance studio. The station showed images of crime scene tape around the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio and neighboring buildings and a heavy police presence.

“This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians. Violent crime has NO place in our state, and we are staying closely updated by law enforcement as details emerge,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement posted on social media.

Dadeville, which has a population of about 3,200 people, is in east Alabama, about 57 miles (92 kilometers) northeast of Montgomery, Alabama.

 
…

Starting Monday in a courtroom in Delaware, Fox News executives and stars will have to answer for their role in spreading doubt about the 2020 presidential election and creating the gaping wound that remains in America’s democracy.

Jurors hearing the $1.6 billion lawsuit filed against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems must answer a specific question: Did Fox defame the voting machine company by airing bogus stories alleging that the election was rigged against then-President Donald Trump, even as many at the network privately doubted the false claims being pushed by Trump and his allies?

Yet the broader context looms large. The trial will test press freedom and the reputation of conservatives’ favorite news source. It will also illuminate the flow of misinformation that helped spark the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and continues to fuel Trump’s hopes to regain power in 2024.

Fox News stars Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and founder Rupert Murdoch are among the people expected to testify over the next few weeks.

Barring a last-minute settlement, opening statements are scheduled for Monday. 

“This is Christmas Eve for defamation scholars,” said RonNell Andersen Jones, a University of Utah law professor.

If the trial were a sporting event, Fox News would be taking the field on a losing streak, with key players injured and having just alienated the referee. Pretrial court rulings and embarrassing revelations about its biggest names have Fox on its heels.

Court papers released over the past two months show Fox executives, producers and personalities privately disbelieved Trump’s claims of a fraudulent election. But Dominion says Fox News was afraid of alienating its audience with the truth, particularly after many viewers were angered by the network’s decision to declare Democrat Joe Biden the winner in Arizona on election night in November 2020.

Some rulings by the presiding judge, Eric Davis, have eased Dominion’s path. In a summary judgment, Davis said it was “CRYSTAL clear” that fraud allegations against the company were false. That means trial time won’t have to be spent disproving them at a time when millions of Republicans continue to doubt the 2020 results. 

Davis said it also is clear that Dominion’s reputation was damaged, but it will be up a jury to decide whether Fox acted with “actual malice” — the legal standard — and, if so, what that’s worth financially.

Fox witnesses will likely testify that they thought the allegations against Dominion were newsworthy, but Davis made it clear that’s not a defense against defamation — and he will make sure the jury knows that.

New York law protects news outlets from defamation for expressions of opinion. But Davis methodically went through 20 different times on Fox when allegations against Dominion were discussed, ruling that all of them were fully or partly considered statements of fact, and fair game for a potential libel finding.

“A lawsuit is a little bit like hitting a home run,” said Cary Coglianese, law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “You have to go through all of the bases to get there.” The judge’s rulings “basically give Dominion a spot at third base, and all they have to do is come home to win it.”

Both Fox and Dominion are incorporated in Delaware, though Fox News is headquartered in New York and Dominion is based in Denver.

Fox angered Davis this past week when the judge said the network’s lawyers delayed producing evidence and were not forthcoming in revealing Murdoch’s role at Fox News.

It’s not clear whether that will affect the trial. But it’s generally not wise to have a judge wonder at the outset of a trial whether your side is telling the truth, particularly when truth is the central point of the case, Jones said.

The suit essentially comes down to whether Dominion can prove Fox acted with actual malice by putting something on the air knowing that it knew was false or acting with a “reckless disregard” for whether it was true.

Dominion can point to many examples where Fox figures didn’t believe the charges being made by Trump allies such as Sidney Powell and Rudolph Giuliani. But Fox says many of those disbelievers were not in a position to decide when to air those allegations.

“We think it’s essential for them to connect those dots,” Fox lawyer Erin Murphy said.

The jury will determine whether a powerful figure like Murdoch — who testified in a deposition that he didn’t believe the election-fraud charges — had the influence to keep the accusations off the air.

“Credibility is always important in any trial in any case. But it’s going to be really important in this case,” said Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and the Law at the University of Minnesota.

Kirtley is concerned that the suit may eventually advance to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could use it as a pretext to weaken the actual malice standard that was set in a 1964 decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. That, she feels, would be disastrous for journalists.

Dominion’s lawsuit is being closely watched by another voting-technology company with a separate but similar case against Fox News. Florida-based Smartmatic has looked to some rulings and evidence in the Dominion case to try to enhance its own $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit in New York. The Smartmatic case isn’t yet ready for trial but has survived Fox News’ effort to get it tossed out.

Many experts are surprised Fox and Dominion have not reached an out-of-court settlement, though they can at any time. There’s presumably a wide financial gulf. In court papers, Fox contends the $1.6 billion damages claim is a wild overestimate.

Dominion’s motivation may also be to inflict maximum embarrassment on Fox with the peek into the network’s internal communications following the election. Text messages from January 2021 revealed Carlson telling a friend that he passionately hated Trump and couldn’t wait to move on.

Dominion may also seek an apology.

How Fox viewers are reacting is an open question. Fox has placed a near-total ban on discussing the lawsuit on its TV network or website.

“The real potential danger is if Fox viewers get the sense that they’ve been lied to. There’s a real downside there,” said Charlie Sykes, founder of the Bulwark website and an MSNBC contributor.

There’s little indication that the case has changed Fox’s editorial direction or cut into its viewership. Fox has embraced Trump once again in recent weeks following the former president’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, and Carlson presented an alternate history of Capitol riot, based on tapes given to him by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Just because Fox hasn’t discussed the Dominion lawsuit on the air doesn’t mean its fans are unaware of it, said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative watchdog Media Research Center.

“There’s a certain amount of tribal reaction to this,” Graham said. “When all of the other networks are thrilling to revealing text messages and emails, they see this as the latest attempt by the liberal media to undermine Fox News. There’s going to be a rally-around-Rupert effect.”

The trial is expected to last into late May. 
…

So much has been invested in clean energy that there can be no rolling back of moves to end carbon emissions, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Sunday.

Kerry noted that if countries deliver on promises to phase out polluting fossil fuels, the world can limit average global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), better than the worst case scenarios.

“We’re in a very different place than where we were a year ago, let alone two and three years ago,” Kerry said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“But we’re not doing everything we said we’d do,” he said, after attending a meeting of energy and environment ministers of the Group of Seven wealthy nations. “A lot of countries need to step up including ours to reduce emissions faster, deploy renewables faster, bring new technologies online faster all of that has to happen.”

Kerry said the G-7 talks in northeastern Japan’s Sapporo were “really constructive” in yielding a show of unity for phasing out use of unabated fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases.

A meeting Thursday of President Joe Biden’s Major Economies Forum, which includes leaders of 20 nations that account for more than three-quarters of global carbon emissions, offers another opportunity for committing resources to the goal of reaching zero emissions by 2050, Kerry said.

“The United States and all the developed world has the responsibility to help the developing world through this crisis,” he said. “Those countries will really determine what happens. If they will reduce, if they will take the lead, if they will start deploying the new technologies, if they will stop using unabated fossil fuels, we’ll up the chance of winning this battle.”

Kerry held out hope for cooperation with China on climate despite friction over Taiwan, human rights, technology and other issues, saying he had a “very good conversation” with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, just days earlier.

“We agreed that we need to get back together personally, visit and try to see what we can find to work on together to accelerate the process. Is that doable? I hope so,” Kerry said.

The Biden administration has moved aggressively to entice companies to invest in electric vehicles and other cleaner energy technologies. While the U.S. still lags some other countries in use of EVs, the market is changing as consumer preferences evolve and manufacturers invest billions.

No one person can roll back what’s happening in the climate sector, Kerry said, “because private companies have made major bets on the future and they’re not going to reverse them.”

One area where much more needs to be done is in climate financing, Kerry said, even though developed countries were close to their $100 billion goal in annual support for developing nations. In 2020, $83 billion was committed.

The annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund last week in Washington were a start, “but they’re not enough. They didn’t produce enough of a change, in our judgement, to really unleash the kind of finance support that’s necessary.

“Our hope … is that over the course over the next weeks and months more will be put on the table, more will be agreed upon and we can move faster,” he said.

The hope is to reform the structure of finance to get such multilateral development banks to lend more and at better rates.

“Anyone is going to look pretty critically at what’s going to happen with their money,” Kerry said, noting that “there’s a lot of money and it’s looking for these deals right now.”

The Inflation Reduction Act is a major step toward incentivizing climate-friendly investments, “sending a signal to the market place that there’s money to be made by transitioning and moving in the direction of clean energy technologies,” he said.

In the U.S., money will not be invested in new coal-fired power plants, because “there’s no such thing as clean coal,” Kerry said. “The marketplace is not supporting that. Investors are not supporting that.”

Some countries, including Japan, have balked at setting a clear timeline for phasing out coal-fired plants, citing energy security. And for some countries, it’s a valid concern, Kerry said, though he added, “I think energy security is being exaggerated in some cases.”

The greater imperative is to do whatever is possible to draw down carbon emissions, given the millions of people who die each year due to unclean air, extreme heat and other dire consequences of climate change.

“If we’re going to be responsible, we have to turn around and figure out how we are going to more rapidly terminate the emissions. We have to cut the emissions that are warming the planet and heading us inexorably toward several tipping points beyond which there is no reverse,” Kerry said.
…

Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the United States. It’s simple and can be played in small spaces so popular with all age groups. But not everyone loves it. Maxim Moskalkov reports.
…

Cindy Powers was driven into bankruptcy by 19 life-saving abdominal operations. Medical debt started stacking up for Lindsey Vance after she crashed her skateboard and had to get nine stitches in her chin. And for Misty Castaneda, open heart surgery for a disease she’d had since birth saddled her with $200,000 in bills.

These are three of an estimated 100 million Americans who have amassed nearly $200 billion in collective medical debt — almost the size of Greece’s economy — according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Now lawmakers in at least a dozen states and the U.S. Congress have pushed legislation to curtail the financial burden that’s pushed many into untenable situations: forgoing needed care for fear of added debt, taking a second mortgage to pay for cancer treatment or slashing grocery budgets to keep up with payments.

Some of the bills would create medical debt relief programs or protect personal property from collections, while others would lower interest rates, keep medical debt from tanking credit scores or require greater transparency in the costs of care.

In Colorado, House lawmakers approved a measure Wednesday that would lower the maximum interest rate for medical debt to 3%, require greater transparency in costs of treatment and prohibit debt collection during an appeals process.

If it became law, Colorado would join Arizona in having one of the lowest medical debt interest rates in the country. North Carolina lawmakers have also started mulling a 5% interest ceiling.

But there are opponents. Colorado Republican state Sen. Janice Rich said she worried that the proposal could “constrain hospitals’ debt collecting ability and hurt their cash flow.”

For patients, medical debt has become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy, with an estimated $88 billion of that debt in collections nationwide, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Roughly 530,000 people reported falling into bankruptcy annually due partly to medical bills and time away from work, according to a 2019 study from the American Journal of Public Health.

Powers’ family ended up owing $250,000 for the 19 life-saving abdominal surgeries. They declared bankruptcy in 2009, then the bank foreclosed on their home.

“Only recently have we begun to pick up the pieces,” said James Powers, Cindy’s husband, during his February testimony in favor of Colorado’s bill.

In Pennsylvania and Arizona, lawmakers are considering medical debt relief programs that would use state funds to help eradicate debt for residents. A New Jersey proposal would use federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to achieve the same end.

Bills in Florida and Massachusetts would protect some personal property — such as a car that is needed for work — from medical debt collections and force providers to be more transparent about costs. Florida’s legislation received unanimous approval in House and Senate committees on its way to votes in both chambers.

In Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts and the U.S. Congress lawmakers are contemplating bills that would bar medical debt from being included on consumer reports, thereby protecting debtors’ credit scores.

Castaneda, who was born with a congenital heart defect, found herself $200,000 in debt when she was 23 and had to have surgery. The debt tanked her credit score and, she said, forced her to rely on her emotionally abusive husband’s credit.

For over a decade Castaneda wanted out of the relationship, but everything they owned was in her husband’s name, making it nearly impossible to break away. She finally divorced her husband in 2017.

“I’m trying to play catch-up for the last 20 years,” said Castaneda, 45, a hairstylist from Grand Junction on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Medical debt isn’t a strong indicator of people’s credit-worthiness, said Isabel Cruz, policy director at the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.

While buying a car beyond your means or overspending on vacation can partly be chalked up to poor decision making, medical debt often comes from short, acute-care treatments that are unexpected — leaving patients with hefty bills that exceed their budgets.

For both Colorado bills — to limit interest rates and remove medical debt from consumer reports — a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Jared Polis said the governor will “review these policies with a lens towards saving people money on health care.”

While neither bill garnered stiff political opposition, a spokesperson for the Colorado Hospital Association said the organization is working with sponsors to amend the interest rate bill “to align the legislation with the multitude of existing protections.”

The association did not provide further details.

To Vance, protecting her credit score early could have had a major impact. Vance’s medical debt began at age 19 from the skateboard crash, and then was compounded when she broke her arm soon after. Now 39, she has never been able to qualify for a credit card or car loan. Her in-laws cosigned for her Colorado apartment.

“My credit identity was medical debt,” she said, “and that set the tone for my life.”
…

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. 

Growing Number of Migrants from China Arriving at US-Mexico Border

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 4,366 migrants from China encountered Border Patrol officials after crossing the southern border without authorization from October 2022 to February 2023. That compares with the 421 migrants who were encountered during the same period in 2021 and 2022. VOA Mandarin Service’s Tracy Wen Liu and VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros have the story. 

UN Warns of Spike in Migrants Crossing the Darien Gap

Two United Nations agencies said Thursday that more than 100,000 migrants have made the treacherous journey through the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia this year trying to reach the United States. The U.N. refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration said in a joint statement that the spike in numbers is a “worrying increase.” VOA News reports.  

US, Panama and Colombia Aim to Stop Darien Gap Migration

The United States, Panama and Colombia announced Tuesday that they will launch a 60-day campaign aimed at halting illegal migration through the treacherous Darien Gap, where the flow of migrants has multiplied this year. Details on how the governments will try to curb the flow of migrants that reached nearly 90,000 in just the first three months of this year through the dense, lawless jungle were not provided in the joint statement. The Associated Press reports.

US to Test Faster Asylum Screenings for Migrants Crossing Border Illegally

The Biden administration this week was to begin testing faster asylum screenings for migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, the Department of Homeland Security said on April 8, part of preparations for the end of COVID-19 border restrictions in May. Reuters reports.

Head of Mexico’s Immigration Agency Under Criminal Investigation

The office of Mexico’s attorney general says it has launched a criminal investigation into the head of the country’s immigration agency in connection with last month’s deadly fire at an immigrant detention facility. A statement released late Tuesday night said National Immigration Institute chief Francisco Garduno failed to take steps to prevent the fire at the agency’s facility in the city of Ciudad Juarez that killed 40 migrants on March 27. VOA News reports. 

US, Cuba to Hold Fresh Round of Migration Talks This Week

The United States and Cuba will hold another round of migration talks Wednesday, officials said, as the Biden administration braces for the end of COVID-era border restrictions that have blocked Cubans in recent months from crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. Reuters reports. 

Biden Seeks Expanded Health Insurance Access for DACA Participants

The Biden administration is seeking to allow immigrants illegally brought to the United States as children greater access to health insurance through federal programs, the White House said on Thursday. The proposal would allow participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to access health insurance under Medicaid and Affordable Care Act exchanges, it said. Reuters reports.

VOA Day in Photos

Migrants are identified by Italian authorities as they disembark from a ship in the Sicilian port of Catania.

Immigration around the world

First Quarter Was Deadly for Migrants in Mediterranean, UN Says

The first three months of 2023 were the deadliest first quarter in six years for migrants crossing the central Mediterranean Sea in smugglers’ boats, the U.N. migration agency reported Wednesday, citing delays by nations in initiating rescues as a contributing factor. The Associated Press reports.

VOA60 Africa – Tunisia: Police destroy makeshift migrant camp outside U.N. human rights office

Asylum-seekers sift through the remains of a makeshift camp outside the U.N. human rights office in Tunis after police destroyed it Tuesday. Sub-Saharan migrants have been targeted since February, when President Kais Saied blamed them for the nation’s crimes.

VOA60 Africa – Mediterranean: Boat with 400 migrants in distress

German humanitarian organization Sea-Watch said its reconnaissance aircraft, Sea Bird 2, on Sunday filmed a boat in distress in the central Mediterranean with hundreds of people on board and the group has seen at least 19 boats in distress in recent days.

News Brief

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updates its policy on how to handle documents for “persons eligible for and recipients of victim-based immigration relief, specifically Violence Against Women Act self-petitioners as well as those who are seeking or currently hold T or U nonimmigrant status (protected persons).”
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As a new election season begins, the Republican Party is struggling to navigate the politics of abortion.

Allies for leading presidential candidates concede that their hardline anti-abortion policies may be popular with the conservatives who decide primary elections, but they could ultimately alienate the broader set of voters they need to win the presidency.

The conflict is unfolding across the United States this week, but nowhere more than in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law one of the nation’s toughest abortion bans on Thursday. If the courts ultimately allow the new measure to take effect, it will soon be illegal for Florida women to obtain an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, which is before most realize they’re pregnant.

Even before he signed the law, DeSantis’ team was eager to highlight his willingness to fight for, and enact, aggressive abortion restrictions. The Florida governor’s position stands in sharp contrast, they say, with some Republican White House hopefuls — most notably former President Donald Trump — who are downplaying their support for anti-abortion policies for fear they may ultimately alienate women or other swing voters in the 2024 general election.

“Unlike Trump, Governor DeSantis doesn’t back down from defending the lives of innocent unborn babies,” said Erin Perrine, a spokesperson for DeSantis’ super political action committee, when asked about Florida’s six-week ban.

‘An electoral disaster’

DeSantis’ latest policy victory in the nation’s third-most populous state offers a new window into the Republican Party’s sustained political challenges on the explosive social issue. In recent days alone, Republican leaders across Iowa, New Hampshire and Washington have struggled to answer nagging questions about their opposition to the controversial medical procedure as Republican-controlled state legislatures rush to enact a wave of new abortion restrictions.

Republicans have suffered painful losses in recent weeks and months across Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada and even deep-red Kansas in elections that focused, at least in part, on abortion. Last week in Wisconsin, an anti-abortion candidate for the state Supreme Court was trounced by 11 points in a state President Joe Biden carried by less than 1 point.

“Any conversation about banning abortion or limiting it nationwide is an electoral disaster for the Republicans,” said New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican who describes himself as “pro-choice” but also signed a law banning abortions in the state after 24 weeks.

Privately, at least, strategists involved with Republican presidential campaigns concede that the Republican Party is on the wrong side of the debate as it currently stands. While popular with Republican primary voters, public polling consistently shows that the broader collection of voters who decide general elections believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Anti-abortion activists have been particularly vocal in warning Republican presidential candidates that the party’s base will not tolerate any weakness on abortion given that Republican leaders have been vowing for decades to ban abortion rights if given the chance.

Praise for DeSantis

Before this week, Kristan Hawkins, the president of the anti-abortion group, Students for Life of America, was unwilling to describe DeSantis as a leader in the abortion fight.

“This is his opportunity to show himself as a leader on this issue. That’s what’s exciting about this moment,” Hawkins said of DeSantis’ six-week ban. “He has done a lot, but we really needed to see action at the legislative level. I think this ‘heartbeat law’ fully cements his pro-life street cred.”

Such pressure ensures that the issue will remain central to the 2024 campaign as Republican presidential prospects begin to fan out across America to court primary voters. At the very same time, an escalating court battle over access to an FDA-approved abortion pill is forcing Republican leaders to answer more questions.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, long a vocal abortion opponent, condemned the abortion pill during an interview this week with Newsmax while vowing to “champion the right to life.”

“We’re going to continue to champion the interests of women born and unborn and pushing back against the abortion pill,” Pence declared.

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley told Iowa voters this week that abortion is “a personal issue” that should be left to the states, although she left open the possibility of a federal ban without getting into specifics.

And in New Hampshire, just a day after launching a presidential exploratory committee, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott outlined his support for a federal law that would ban abortions nationwide after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

He tried repeatedly to refocus the conversation on Democrats’ “radical position” on the issue because they generally oppose any abortion restrictions whatsoever.

Sununu, the New Hampshire governor, said he counts Scott as a friend, but was surprised that he would openly discuss his support for a federal abortion ban in New Hampshire, a state long known for supporting abortion rights.

“Of all places to talk about a federal ban of abortion, New Hampshire ain’t it,” Sununu said. “He’s a good candidate and does a great job in the Senate. But know your audience here, man.”

Republican officials in Washington are still looking for answers as well.

Republican strategist Alice Stewart said Republicans must find a way to keep the focus on the failings of the Biden administration, the economy, crime and education in the 2024 campaign.

“Abortion poses a challenge for Republicans. There’s no denying it,” said Stewart, who initially cheered the Supreme Court’s Roe reversal. “Politically, it has become problematic.”
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A man in Chile is infected with a bird flu that has concerning mutations, but the threat to people from the virus remains low, U.S. health officials said Friday.

Past animal studies suggest these mutations could cause the virus to be more harmful or spread more easily, health officials said. But they also said there is no evidence that the mutations would make it easier for it to take root in a person’s upper lungs — a development that would raise concerns about it spreading among people.

The mutations do not change public health officials’ assessment of the overall risk to people from the H5N1 virus, which “continues to be low,” said Vivien Dugan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The mutations, which have appeared only in the one hospitalized patient, may have occurred after the man got sick, CDC officials said. There’s no evidence that the mutated virus spread to other people, mixed with other flu viruses, or developed the ability to fight off current medicines or evade vaccines, agency officials said.

Such genetic changes have been seen in past bird flu infections.

“Nevertheless, it’s important to continue to look carefully at every instance of human infection,” Dugan said. “We need to remain vigilant for changes that would make these viruses more dangerous to people.”

Threat first identified in 1997

This type of flu, called Type A H5N1, was first identified as a threat to people during a 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong, when visitors to live poultry markets caught it.

Sporadic outbreaks have followed, and more than 450 people have died in the past two decades from bird flu infections, according to the World Health Organization. Most infected people got it directly from birds.

As bird flu hits other species, however, scientists fear the virus could evolve to spread more easily among people. And it has been spreading widely to birds and animals in scores of countries.

Millions of chickens dead

In the U.S., it has recently been detected in wild birds in every state, as well as in commercial poultry operations and backyard flocks. Since the beginning of last year, tens of millions of chickens have died of the virus or been killed to stop outbreaks from spreading, one of the reasons cited for soaring U.S. egg prices.

The new lab analysis looked at the virus found in the lungs of a 53-year-old man living in Chile’s Antofagasta region. It may be that he became infected through contact with sick or dead birds or infected sea lions, according to a WHO summary of the case.

The man was healthy and had not traveled recently. On March 13, he started getting a cough, sore throat and hoarseness, the WHO said.

His symptoms worsened and eventually he was sent to an intensive care unit and treated with antiviral medicines and antibiotics. He is still hospitalized and being monitored, CDC officials said.

Genetic sequencing this week revealed the two concerning mutations. Chilean and American health officials have been working together on the investigation.

Andrew Pekosz, a flu researcher at Johns Hopkins University, said he hasn’t seen the preliminary analysis of the Chilean patient’s infection.

“When these viruses get into humans, there’s a likelihood that they start to adapt to grow better in us,” and this is a sign that is happening, he said.

There are three or four kinds of mutations that would need to be seen in a H5N1 virus “before that would really raise the alarm signal that something is happening of concern,” he added.
…

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni acknowledged “anomalies” in the handling of a Russian businessman who escaped from house arrest in Italy to avoid extradition to the United States and said Saturday she would speak with the justice minister to understand what happened.

During a visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Meloni termed the case of Artyom Uss “grave” and vowed to get to the bottom of it when she returned to Rome.

Uss, the 40-year-old son of a Russian regional governor, was detained in October 2022 at Milan Malpensa Airport on a U.S. warrant accusing him of violating sanctions. In November, a ruling from a Milan appeals court resulted in him being moved from jail to house arrest and outfitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet.

He escaped from Italy on March 22 — a day after a Milan court recognized as legitimate the U.S. extradition request — and surfaced in Russia earlier this month.

“For sure there are anomalies,” Meloni told reporters in Ethiopia. “The principal anomaly, I’m sorry to say, is the decision of the appeals court to offer him house arrest with a frankly debatable motivation, and to then maintain that decision even after there was an extradition request. Because obviously in that case, the flight risk becomes more obvious.”

Meloni welcomed the decision by Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio to undertake a disciplinary investigation, saying “we have to have clarity.” But she said Italy didn’t have detailed intelligence information from the U.S. Justice Department “about the nature of the person.”

Italian daily newspaper la Repubblica reported Saturday that U.S. authorities made clear that the Russian presented a “very high flight risk” in two notes to Nordio’s office — one from October 19, two days after Uss’ arrest, and the other sent after he was granted house arrest November 25.

The U.S. asked for Uss to remain jailed pending the outcome of extradition proceedings and cited six cases in the past three years in which suspects escaped from house arrest in Italy while extradition requests were pending, la Repubblica quoted the notes as saying.

The newspaper said Nordio assured the U.S. in a December 6 note that the electronic monitoring bracelet put on Uss and his required periodic check-ins with police were sufficient. The newspaper cited the Milan court’s reply to Nordio’s investigation as saying the justice minister had the authority at any time to impose tougher restrictive measures on someone in extradition proceedings.
…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Hanoi on his first visit to Vietnam since becoming the top U.S. diplomat and he met Saturday with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh as they discussed strengthening ties between the two nations. 

Blinken’s visit to Vietnam is part of the Biden administration’s campaign to counter China’s increasing influence in the region.   

He met with other top officials that included Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong as they talked about upgrading diplomatic and security connections. 

“For President [Joe] Biden, for Washington, this is one of the most dynamic and one of the most important relationships we’ve had,” Blinken said at a news conference after a full slate of engagements in Hanoi. 

“It has had a remarkable trajectory over the last couple of decades. Our conviction is that it can and will grow even stronger,” said Blinken. 

It is not clear when an upgrade of formal ties could happen, although Blinken expressed hope it could happen “in the weeks and months ahead.” 

Blinken noted to reporters that security is the top priority and he pointed out Washington is finalizing the shipment of a third naval cutter to support Vietnam’s coast guard. 

Washington and U.S. defense firms have emphasized they would like to bolster their military supplies to Vietnam, which currently is mostly limited to coast guard ships and training aircraft, as the country aims to diversify from its main supplier, Russia. 

Military deals with the U.S. face myriad challenges, though, because Washington’s lawmakers could block arms sales over human rights issues. Additionally, analysts point out that U.S. weapons are expensive, they risk triggering Chinese reactions, and they might be difficult to integrate with Vietnam’s legacy weapons. 

The U.S. is building a $1.2 billion embassy compound in Hanoi, a move intended to show a U.S. commitment to improving ties with the Southeast Asian trading partner.  

Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the Vietnam Studies Program of the ISEAS research organization in Singapore, said it is an extremely important trip by Blinken to Hanoi. “It will be a very strong boost for an upgrade to a higher bilateral relationship between Vietnam and Washington.” 

“I don’t think they will announce the strategic partnership when Blinken is in Hanoi,” Nguyen said. “But I think his visit might be a formation for potential Biden’s visit to Hanoi or the General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to Washington, and probably, that moment the bilateral relation might be upgraded.” 

Vietnam has a delicate balance to maintain, however, and does not want to antagonize its powerful neighbor, China, while building up a relationship with the U.S.  

Blinken’s visit to Vietnam comes just two weeks after the 50th anniversary of former U.S. President Richard Nixon’s administration’s withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Vietnam, marking the end of the Vietnam War.  

VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this report, and some information was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.  
…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Hanoi on Saturday, his first visit to Vietnam since becoming the top U.S. diplomat.

Blinken met Saturday with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

His visit to Vietnam is part of the Biden administration’s campaign to counter China’s increasing influence in the region.

The U.S. is building a $1.2 billion embassy compound in Hanoi, a move designed to demonstrate a U.S. commitment to improving ties with the Southeast Asian trading partner.

Vietnam, however, has a delicate balance to maintain. It does not want to antagonize its powerful neighbor, China, while strengthening its relationship with the U.S.

Blinken’s visit to Vietnam comes just two weeks after the 50th anniversary of former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon’s administration’s withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Vietnam, marking the end of the Vietnam War.

Some information in this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

“Remember, Joey, the best drop of blood in you is Irish,” President Joe Biden said, quoting his grandfather.

Such fierce ethnic pride from “the most Irish of all American presidents,” as the Taoiseach describes him, was guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser, and Biden knew it.

Biden displayed an endless supply of that pride during a three-day visit that culminated in a Friday night speech in Ballina, County Mayo, where his paternal ancestors once lived. The speech was the last item on his schedule before he returned to Washington.

“Being here feels like coming home,” he told the crowd of 27,000, diving into his family background stretching back before the Irish famine of the mid-1800s.

The Irish “always believe in a better tomorrow,” he said. “Our strength is something that overcomes everyday hardships.”

Biden’s love of his Irish roots and, in turn, the affection shown in the rapturous applause of Irish lawmakers listening to his speech to parliament and in the cheering crowds lined up waiting for his motorcade in blustery weather, could also reach another audience — American voters.

“Ireland is one of the few countries where an American president can guarantee an uncritical welcome,” said Brendan O’Leary, the Lauder professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.

This visit, designed to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, is especially important. The 1998 peace deal helped end 30 years of bloody conflict over whether Northern Ireland should unify with Ireland or remain part of the United Kingdom.

By showing the U.S. is playing a constructive role in sustaining peace, Biden is sending an important message to Americans, in contrast to less successful foreign policy outcomes such as the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, O’Leary told VOA.

Biden’s Republican Party rivals had a different view. On Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News, former President Donald Trump slammed Biden’s tour of his ancestral homeland.

“The world is exploding around us. You could end up in a third world war and this guy is going to be in Ireland!” he said Tuesday night.

Foreign policy credits aside, O’Leary said Biden clearly represents his Irish American experience as typical of the American middle-class experience.

“I think that facilitates his ‘Ordinary Joe’ campaigning,” he added.

‘My plan is to run again’

Speaking to reporters before departing Ireland on Friday, Biden said he would announce his reelection bid “relatively soon.”

“I told you, my plan is to run again,” he said.

His campaign will again center on his middle-class agenda, a message deeply interwoven with his Irish roots and working-class family background.

The latest U.S. government census indicates that about 10% of Americans, 31 million people, claim Irish ancestry. In presidential elections of the past few decades, Irish Americans traditionally backed Democratic candidates until 2016, when Trump won about half of their support.

But more than ancestries, elections are determined by programs and values. In his 50 years in politics, Biden, who says he was raised “with a fierce pride in our Irish ancestry,” often highlights the egalitarianism and communal solidarity captured in his family’s creed — that everyone is your equal.

“I don’t know that a lot of other politicians would say something like that,” said Timothy Meagher, a former associate professor at Catholic University of America who studies ethnic history focusing on Irish Americans.

“There’s a kind of sense, from him, of an identification with working class people, with regular people,” Meagher told VOA. “That follows, I think, from that kind of Irish heritage, that we’re all in this together.”

Other values include the dignity of work, which Biden has linked to legislative calls for job-creating policies that enable workers to earn a living wage, form unions and receive paid family and medical leave.

His outlook on immigration is also imbued by his Irishness. On at least two occasions during his trip, he told the story of how his maternal ancestor, shoemaker Owen Finnegan, emigrated to New York in 1849, about the same time as former President Barack Obama’s maternal ancestor Joseph Kearney, also a shoemaker from a nearby county.

“Isn’t that amazing?” he said to reporters Thursday. “The idea that they both would seek a new life and think that their great-great-grandsons would end up being president of the United States is remarkable.”

It’s the story of how poor immigrants can live the American dream, said Eoin Drea, a senior researcher at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. “I think that’s how President Biden views his family’s transition into where they are now,” he told VOA.

Possibilities

Biden’s origin story shapes how he understands the country’s psyche, often repeating what he said he told Chinese leader Xi Jinping, that the United States can be defined in one word: possibilities.

His optimism could resonate with another group of voters — naturalized citizens and descendants of immigrants. In the 2020 presidential race, more than 23 million immigrants, comprising about 10% of the electorate, were eligible to vote, according to a Pew Survey based on census data.

The cynical view is that political expediency motivates Biden to lean into his image of a scrappy son of a working-class family from Scranton, Pennsylvania. But for the endless “Bidenisms” and quotes of his parents that always begins with “Joey…,” Meagher said Biden comes across as genuine.

“There is a sort of politics to it, but it’s one that he seems to fit into naturally,” he said.

Through his rhetoric and legislative proposals, Biden has woven a consistent theme in his first term — build the economy from the bottom up and middle out by creating jobs, including for people who don’t have college degrees.

Whether that will carry him to a second term remains to be seen. Especially if he again faces Trump, the leading Republican contender, according to a recent poll.

In 2020, Trump’s nativist “Make America Great Again” message secured him 66% of the votes from white men without a four-year college degree, compared with Biden’s 31%.
…

A trio of health care bills enshrining access in Colorado to abortion and gender-affirming procedures and medications became law Friday as the Democrat-led state tries to make itself a safe haven for its neighbors, whose Republican leaders are restricting care. 

The main goal of the legislation signed by Democratic Governor Jared Polis is to ensure people in surrounding states and beyond can go to Colorado to have an abortion, begin puberty blockers or receive gender-affirming surgery without fear of prosecution. Bordering states of Wyoming and Oklahoma have passed abortion bans and Utah has severely restricted transgender care for minors. 

Many states with abortion or transgender care bans are also criminalizing traveling to states for the purpose of accessing legal health care. 

The contradicting laws are setting the stage for interstate disputes comparable to the patchwork of same-sex marriage laws that existed until 2015, or the 19th-century legal conflict over whether fugitive enslaved people in free states remained the property of slaveholders when they escaped. 

The governor’s office was packed with lawmakers, advocates and health care providers, many of them women, for a ceremony with a celebratory feel that resembled a rally at times with loud applause and call-and-response chants. 

“We see you and in Colorado, we’ve got your back,” Democratic state Senator Julie Gonzalez said during the ceremony. 

With the new laws, Colorado joins Illinois as a progressive place offering reproductive rights to residents of conservative states. Illinois abortion clinics now serve people living in a 2,900-kilometer (1,800-mile) stretch of 11 Southern states that have largely banned abortion. 

Florida, temporarily a haven for abortion seekers in those states, outlawed abortions after six weeks. The bill, signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday in a closed-door ceremony, doesn’t go into effect right away. 

California and New York are considering similar bills, with the U.S. Supreme Court having knocked down Roe. v. Wade, putting abortion laws in the hands of state legislatures. 

Colorado’s southern neighbor, New Mexico, is also controlled by Democrats and passed a similar abortion protection bill earlier this year. It legally shields those who seek abortions or gender-affirming care, and those who provide the treatments, from interstate investigations. 

Ashley Blinkhorn, a graduate student and activist who testified in favor of the Colorado bills during legislative hearings, said they would help people across the country, including possibly her recently married friends in their 30s and her queer friends in her former homes of Texas and Florida. 

“It’s a real comfort to know that Colorado … will provide health care to them if they visit or if they move here,” she said. 

Visits to Colorado’s abortion clinics have increased by about a third since the Supreme Court ruling, and wait times for an appointment have increased from one or two days up to three weeks, according to state lawmakers. They also expect an increase in wait times for gender-affirming care. 

Colorado House Minority Leader Mike Lynch said he feared the legislation would make Colorado an abortion destination that will attract “the vulnerable, the indigent and frightened minors from all over the country” and said the package of laws does not protect choice. 

“They deny a new mother the choice to consider alternative options other than to end her pregnancy,” Lynch, a Republican from Wellington, said in a statement. 

Karen Middleton, president of Cobalt Advocates, a Denver-based organization that pushes for abortion access, said most of the women traveling to Colorado since the Supreme Court ruling have come from Texas and Wyoming. The organization spent $220,000 to help women get access to abortion in Colorado last year, most of them from other states, up from $6,000 in 2021, she said. 

Polis added the first layer of abortion protection a year ago, signing an executive order that bars state agencies from cooperating with out-of-state investigations regarding reproductive health care. One of the bills he signed Friday codifies that order into law. Like the New Mexico law, it blocks court summonses, subpoenas and search warrants from states that decide to prosecute someone for having an abortion. 

Colorado’s abortion law extends the protections to transgender patients dodging restrictions in their own states. Gender-affirming health care has been available for decades, but some states have recently barred minors from accessing it, even with parental consent. Hospitals in some of those states say gender-affirming surgeries are rarely recommended for minors anyway. Puberty blockers are more common. 

Conservative states are pushing back. Idaho passed a bill that outlaws providing a minor with abortion pills and helping them leave the state to terminate a pregnancy without their parents’ consent. 

The Colorado law comes as medication abortions are in limbo across the U.S. and mail-order prescriptions of a crucial abortion drug are virtually banned pending the outcome of a federal court case. 

Also on Friday, Polis signed a measure that outlaws “deceptive practices” by anti-abortion centers, which are known to market themselves as abortion clinics but don’t actually offer the procedure. Instead, they attempt to persuade patients to not terminate their pregnancies. The bill also prohibits sites from offering what’s called an abortion pill reversal — an unproven practice to reverse a medical abortion. 

A third bill signed Friday requires large employers to offer coverage for the total cost of an abortion, with an exception for those who object on religious grounds. It exempts public employees because Colorado’s constitution forbids the use of public funds for abortions.
…

Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who has been accused of leaking a trove of highly classified documents online, faces two criminal charges: unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. The first charge falls under the so-called Espionage Act, a statute that the Justice Department has relied on to prosecute leaks of classified information.

What is the Espionage Act?

The Espionage Act prohibits obtaining or disclosing information related to national defense if the material could be used against the United States or to the advantage of foreign nations.

Why was it created?

Congress first passed the act in 1917, two months after the United States entered World War I. President Woodrow Wilson pushed for the law to be enacted to stop the spread of national security information during wartime.

What were the sedition amendments?

In 1918, Congress approved a set of amendments to the Espionage Act that criminalized speech disloyal to the U.S. government, the Constitution, the military or the U.S. flag. Those amendments were repealed in 1921 on the grounds that they violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to free speech.

Is the law meant to fight spies?

The Espionage Act was initially used to combat spying; however, in modern iterations, the act has been used to prosecute the leaks of classified information. The law makes it illegal to disclose defense information that could harm the United States, and prosecutors have successfully used it in recent years to send leakers to prison.

What does the law say about classified information?

The Espionage Act was enacted decades before the executive branch established the current system of classifying national security secrets in 1951. In modern times, the law is often used to prosecute the disclosure of classified documents, but it can also be used in the case of a disclosure of any national defense documents that could harm the United States.

Who has been prosecuted under the Espionage Act?

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted under the act in 1951 for sharing atomic intelligence secrets with the Soviet Union, and both were later executed. CIA officer Aldrich Ames was sentenced to life in prison for revealing the identities of American informants to the Soviet Union in 1994, while Chelsea Manning spent seven years in prison for disclosing documents to WikiLeaks.

Who faces possible charges under the act?

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden faces charges under the Espionage Act for leaking classified documents but has yet to face trial because he fled to Russia, where he remains. In August, the U.S. Department of Justice said it was investigating former President Donald Trump for possible violations of the Espionage Act and other crimes after classified documents were found at his home. Trump has not been charged with a crime as part of that investigation.
…

U.S. authorities have charged Jack Teixeira, 21, with leaking a trove of highly classified documents online, including information about Russia’s war in Ukraine. Here is what we know about the suspect.

What was his job?

Teixeira served with the Air National Guard in the northeastern U.S. state of Massachusetts, where he worked as an information technology specialist. His unit — the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts National Guard — was responsible for providing intelligence support to many units of the military. Teixeira was a Cyber Transport Systems Journeyman for the unit, an IT specialist who worked on military communications networks, including their cabling and hubs.

Was he on active duty?

While the National Guard is primarily made up of reserve troops who can be called to assist with domestic emergencies, some members of the Guard can be classified as full time or active duty. Teixeira was under Title 10 authority of the Air National Guard, according to Reuters, a designation that means he was on active duty and was essentially a full-time member of the unit.

What about his family? 

Teixeira came from a military family. His stepfather spent more than three decades in the military, including in the same military unit as Teixeira, according to U.S. media reports. His mother has worked for nonprofit organizations that support veterans.

Where is he alleged to have posted classified information?

U.S. media have reported that Teixeira allegedly shared classified documents with a group of young men who chatted regularly on Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers. The Washington Post reported that Teixeira first wrote down the classified information to share with the group, but when some members were not taking the documents seriously, he began taking photos of the material and posting them.

What did the group talk about?

According to members of the chat group who spoke to reporters, the group called itself “Thug Shaker Central.” The chatroom was a space where members could discuss guns and ammunition as well as share internet memes and jokes. They said Teixeira, who went by the nickname “the O.G.” in the chats, was an observant Christian as well as a libertarian.

What was his motivation? 

Government investigators have yet to say what Teixeira’s motivation was for allegedly sharing the classified material. Members of the chat group who spoke to reporters described Teixeira’s motive as trying to impress the group, rather than a wish to undermine the government or for ideological reasons.

How did he get access to classified information?

A court affidavit released Friday said that Teixeira had possessed a top secret security clearance since 2021. The Associated Press cited a defense official who said Teixeira would have needed such a clearance to access the military communications networks that he worked on.

What charges is he facing? 

The guard member faces two criminal charges: unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. The first charge falls under the Espionage Act, a statute that the Justice Department has relied on to prosecute leaks of classified information.

What possible sentence is he facing? 

If convicted of the charges, Teixeria faces up to 15 years in prison.  His sentence would depend in part on how many counts he was convicted on and whether they were to be served consecutively or concurrently.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection has charged itself with damaging habitat for threatened and endangered birds that it was supposed to protect. 

The work was designed to create habitat for one species of bird but wound up destroying habitat for two others. 

The department acknowledged it sent a violation notice and threatened penalties against its own Division of Fish and Wildlife regarding unauthorized work in February and March at the Glassboro Wildlife Management Area in Clayton, Gloucester County. 

The violation notice includes the threat of penalties, but it was unclear how that might work when the DEP is both the accuser and the accused. Nor was it immediately clear whether any money might actually change hands. The department did not respond to questions about potential fines. 

The work involved the clearing of vegetation and disturbance of soils on nearly three acres of what the state calls “exceptional resource value freshwater wetlands.” Before the work was done, this land was considered suitable habitat for the barred owl, which is listed as a threatened species, and the red-shouldered hawk, an endangered species. 

The project also cleared and disturbed an additional 12 acres of land near wetlands known as transition areas, which also are protected. 

The DEP refused Friday to discuss how the work happened without authorization. 

On its website, the department wrote on February 1 that the work sought to create 21 acres of habitat for the American woodcock, a member of the sandpiper family that uses its long, narrow beak to forage for earthworms in damp soil. The project was designed to create “meadow habitat.” 

But in doing so, the state destroyed mature oak and pine forests in and near wetlands, and filled in some wetlands, four conservation groups said in a letter to the department in early March complaining about the work. The agency issued the violation notice on April 6. 

“The wetland soil and flora that were previously undisturbed have been destroyed, and the mature forest that was already habitat for numerous rare species of plants and birds was clear-cut logged,” the groups wrote. “All trees have been cut, and all stumps bulldozed.” 

Tom Gilbert, a leader of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, said, “This never should have happened. They must also take steps to improve their clearly inadequate internal review process and meaningfully engage the public.” 

Jaclyn Rhoads, assistant executive director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, commended the state for owning up to its mistake, but said the DEP should provide a list of current projects on its website for public review. 

“It is because of the public that we were able to stop further destruction of this landscape,” she said. 

Agency spokesman Larry Hajna said the Fish and Wildlife Division’s Bureau of Land Management must implement appropriate soil conservation measures within 10 days and submit a plan within 30 days to restore the site. That must include removal of wood chips placed there. 

By the end of April, the DEP intends to issue a notice of penalty assessment. 

Fish and Wildlife will propose additional environmentally beneficial measures, which will be subject to a public comment period, Hajna said. 
…

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday charged 28 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges alongside Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram and other top federal prosecutors. The charges were filed against cartel leaders, as well alleged chemical suppliers, lab managers, fentanyl traffickers, security leaders, financiers and weapons traffickers.

The indictments charge three of Guzman’s sons — Ovidio Guzman Lopez, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar — who are known as the Chapitos, or little Chapos, and who have earned a reputation as the more violent and aggressive faction of the cartel.

Only Guzman Lopez is in custody, in Mexico.

The indictments also charge Chinese and Guatemalan citizens accused of supplying precursor chemicals required to make fentanyl. Others charged in the cases include those accused of running drug labs and providing security and weapons for the drug trafficking operation, prosecutors said.

Most U.S. fentanyl from Sinaloa

Nearly 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2021. The Drug Enforcement Administration says most the fentanyl trafficked in the United States comes from the Sinaloa cartel.

The Sinaloa cartel’s notorious drug lord was convicted in 2019 of running an industrial-scale smuggling operation. At Guzman’s trial, prosecutors said evidence gathered since the late 1980s showed he and his murderous cartel made billions of dollars by smuggling tons of cocaine, heroin, meth and marijuana into the U.S. A defiant Guzman accused the federal judge in his case of making a mockery of the U.S. justice system and claimed he was denied a fair trial.

In outlining the charges Friday, Garland described the violence of the Sinaloa cartel and how its members have tortured perceived enemies, including Mexican law enforcement officials. In some cases, cartel members have also fed victims, some still alive, to tigers owned by Guzman’s sons, Garland said.

Eight of those charged in Friday’s case have been arrested and remain in the custody of law enforcement officials outside the U.S. The U.S. government is offering rewards for several others charged in the case.

‘Death and destruction are central’

Ovidio Guzman Lopez, one of Guzman’s sons, was arrested in January in the Sinaloa capital of Culiacan. Ovidio Guzman, nicknamed the Mouse, had not been one of El Chapo’s better-known sons until an aborted operation to capture him three years earlier. This time Mexico successfully got Guzman out of Culiacan. In 2019, authorities had him, but they released him after his gunmen began shooting up the city.

About 30 people among authorities and suspected gunmen died in the operation, which unleashed hours of shootouts shutting down the city’s airport. The U.S. government is awaiting the younger Guzman’s extradition.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his brother Joaquin Guzman Lopez allegedly helped move the Sinaloa cartel hard into methamphetamines, producing prodigious quantities in large labs. They were previously indicted in 2018 in Washington on drug trafficking charges.

The other two sons, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, are believed to have been running cartel operations together with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. They were previously also charged in the U.S. in Chicago and San Diego.

Zambada had been rumored to be in poor health and isolated in the mountains, leading the sons to try to assert a stronger role to keep the cartel together.

The DEA said it investigated the case in 10 countries: Australia, Austria, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Greece, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and the United States.

“Death and destruction are central to their whole operation,” Milgram said of the cartel.
…

The Biden administration and a drug manufacturer asked the Supreme Court on Friday to preserve access to an abortion drug free from restrictions imposed by lower court rulings, while a legal fight continues. 

The Justice Department and Danco Laboratories both warned of “regulatory chaos” and harm to women if the high court doesn’t block an appeals court ruling in a case from Texas that had the effect of tightening Food and Drug Administration rules under which the drug, mifepristone, can be prescribed and dispensed. 

The new limits would take effect Saturday unless the court acts before then. 

“This application concerns unprecedented lower court orders countermanding FDA’s scientific judgment and unleashing regulatory chaos by suspending the existing FDA-approved conditions of use for mifepristone,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, wrote Friday, less than two days after the appellate ruling. 

A lawyer for the anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations suing over mifepristone said the justices should reject the drugmaker’s and the administration’s pleas and allow the appeals court-ordered changes to take effect. 

The fight over mifepristone lands at the Supreme Court less than a year after conservative justices reversed Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright. 

The justices are being asked for a temporary order to keep in place Food and Drug Administration regulations governing mifepristone. Such an order would give them time to more fully consider each side’s arguments without the pressure of a deadline. 

The Biden administration and Danco, which is based in New York, also want a more lasting order that would keep the current rules in place as long as the legal fight over mifepristone continues. As a fallback, they asked the court to take up the issue, hear arguments and decide by early summer a legal challenge to mifepristone that anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations filed last year. 

The court rarely acts so quickly to grant full review of cases before at least one appeals court has thoroughly examined the legal issues involved. 

A ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Wednesday would prevent the pill, used in the most common abortion method, from being mailed or prescribed without an in-person visit to a doctor. It also would withdraw the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone for use beyond the seventh week of pregnancy. The FDA says it’s safe through 10 weeks. 

Still, the appeals court did not entirely withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone while the fight over it continues. The 5th Circuit narrowed an April 7 ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, whose far-reaching and virtually unprecedented order would have blocked FDA approval of the pill. He gave the administration a week to appeal. 

“To the government’s knowledge, this is the first time any court has abrogated FDA’s conditions on a drug’s approval based on a disagreement with the agency’s judgment about safety — much less done so after those conditions have been in effect for years,” Prelogar wrote. 

Erin Hawley, a lawyer for the challengers, said in a statement that the FDA has put politics ahead of health concerns in its actions on medication abortion. 

“The 5th Circuit rightly required the agency to prioritize women’s health by restoring critical safeguards, and we’ll urge the Supreme Court to keep that accountability in place,” said Hawley said, a senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that also argued to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

Mifepristone was approved by the FDA more than two decades ago and is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol. 

Adding to the uncertainty, a separate federal judge in Washington on Thursday clarified his own order from last week to make clear that the FDA is not to do anything that might block mifepristone’s availability in 17 Democrat-led states suing to keep it on the market. 

It’s unclear how the FDA can comply with court orders in both cases, a situation that Prelogar described Friday as untenable. 

The two judges who voted to tighten restrictions, Kurt Engelhardt and Andrew Oldham, are both appointees of former President Donald Trump. The third judge, Catharina Haynes, is an appointee of former President George W. Bush. She said she would have put the lower court ruling on hold entirely for now to allow oral arguments in the case. 

The appeals court judges in the majority in Wednesday’s decision noted that the Biden administration and mifepristone’s manufacturer “warn us of significant public consequences” that would result if mifepristone were withdrawn entirely from the market under the lower court ruling. 

But the judges suggested FDA changes making mifepristone easier to obtain since 2016 were less consequential than its initial approval of the drug in 2000. It would be difficult to argue the changes were “so critical to the public given that the nation operated — and mifepristone was administered to millions of women — without them for sixteen years” the judges wrote. 

Use of medication abortion jumped significantly after the 2016 rule expansion, according to data gathered by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. In 2017, medication abortion accounted for 39% of abortions but by 2020 had increased to become the most common method, accounting for 53% of all abortions. 

Experts have said the use of medication abortion has increased since the court overturned Roe. 

When the drug was initially approved, the FDA limited its use to up to seven weeks of pregnancy. It also required three in-person office visits: the first to administer mifepristone, the next to administer the second drug, misoprostol, and the third to address any complications. It also required a doctor’s supervision and a reporting system for any serious consequences of the drug. 

If the appeals court’s action stands, those would again be the terms under which mifepristone could be dispensed for now. At the core of the Texas lawsuit is the allegation that the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone was flawed because the agency did not adequately review safety risks. 

Mifepristone has been used by millions of women in the past 23 years. While less drastic than completely overturning the drug’s approval, the latest ruling still represents a stark challenge to the FDA’s authority overseeing how prescription drugs are used in the U.S. The panel overturned multiple decisions made by FDA regulators after years of scientific review. 

Common side effects with mifepristone include cramping, bleeding, nausea, headache and diarrhea. In rare cases, women can experience excess bleeding that requires surgery to stop. 

Still, in loosening restrictions on mifepristone, FDA regulators cited “exceedingly low rates of serious adverse events.” More than 5.6 million women in the U.S. had used the drug as of June 2022, according to the FDA. In that period, the agency received 4,200 reports of complications in women, or less than one-tenth of 1% of women who took the drug. 
…

U.S. authorities have arrested a 21-year-old American working on a U.S. military base in connection with the leak of classified intelligence documents, including secrets about the war in Ukraine. VOA’s Laurel Bowman has more.
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The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on Thursday approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a proposal supported by the Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares for an expected presidential run.

DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks.

A six-week ban would give DeSantis a key political victory among Republican primary voters as he prepares to launch a presidential candidacy built on his national brand as a conservative standard-bearer.

The policy would also have wider implications for abortion access throughout the South in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving decisions about abortion access to states. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, while Georgia forbids the procedure after cardiac activity can be detected, which is around six weeks.

“We have the opportunity to lead the national debate about the importance of protecting life and giving every child the opportunity to be born and find his or her purpose,” said Republican Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka.

Democrats and abortion-rights groups have criticized Florida’s proposal as extreme.

“This ban would prevent 4 million Florida women of reproductive age from accessing abortion care after six weeks — before many women even know they’re pregnant,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement issued after Thursday’s vote. “This ban would also impact the nearly 15 million women of reproductive age who live in abortion-banning states throughout the South, many of whom have previously relied on travel to Florida as an option to access care.”

The bill contains some exceptions, including to save the woman’s life. Abortions for pregnancies involving rape or incest would be allowed until 15 weeks of pregnancy, provided a woman has documentation such as a restraining order or police report. DeSantis has called the rape and incest provisions sensible.

Drugs used in medication-induced abortions — which make up the majority of those provided nationally — could be dispensed only in person or by a physician under the Florida bill. Separately, nationwide access to the abortion pill mifepristone is being challenged in court.

Florida’s six-week ban would take effect only if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge that is before the state Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservatives.

“I can’t think of any bill that’s going to provide more protections to more people who are more vulnerable than this piece of legislation,” said Republican Rep. Mike Beltran, who said the bill’s exceptions and six-week timeframe represented a compromise.

Abortion bans are popular among some religious conservatives who are part of the GOP voting base, but the issue has motivated many others to vote for Democrats. Republicans in recent weeks and months have suffered defeats in elections centered on abortion access in states such as Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“Have we learned nothing?” House Democratic Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said of recent elections in other states. “Do we not listen to our constituents and to the people of Florida and what they are asking for?”

DeSantis, who often places himself on the front lines of culture war issues, has said he backs the six-week ban but has appeared uncharacteristically tepid on the bill. He has often said, “We welcome pro-life legislation,” when asked about the policy.

DeSantis is expected to announce his presidential candidacy after the session ends in May, with his potential White House run in part buoyed by the conservative policies approved by the Republican supermajority in the Statehouse this year.

Democrats, without power at any level of state government, have mostly turned to stall tactics and protests to oppose the bill, which easily passed both chambers on largely party-line votes. The Senate approved it last week, and the House did so Thursday.

A Democratic senator and chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party were arrested and charged with trespassing during a protest in Tallahassee against the six-week ban. In a last ditch move to delay the bill’s passage in the House on Thursday, Democrats filed dozens of amendments to the proposal, all of which were rejected by Republicans.

“Women’s health and their personal right to choose is being stolen,” said Democratic Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson. “So I ask: Is Florida truly a free state?”
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week released proposals for the most aggressive vehicle emission standards in the country’s history, with the expectation that electric cars will account for two of every three cars being produced in the U.S. by 2032. Keith Kocinski reports.
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Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations will use talks in Japan next week to assess their strategy in the Middle East, diplomatic sources said Thursday, as strategic shifts bypass Western powers, leaving them scrambling for influence.

The U.S. and its main European allies were caught unprepared in March after China brokered a deal between regional foes Saudi Arabia and Iran to revive diplomatic relations after years of bitter rivalry that has fueled conflict across the Middle East.

The kingdom is also pressing ahead with efforts to thaw bilateral ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, joining several other Arab states in moving to formally end Syria’s regional isolation despite Western concerns.

“A reconfiguration is under way,” said a French diplomatic source who was officially briefing reporters but required anonymity as per standard policy.

Foreign ministers to meet soon

The ministers of the G-7 — France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, the U.S. and Japan — meet in Japan April 16-18.

“The region is going through serious upheaval, be it the Iranian nuclear crisis aspect, but also the recomposition of the geopolitical balances with the Iran-Saudi-China deal. We can see something is happening with Syria after the earthquake,” he said.

Certain Middle East allies, notably Saudi Arabia, have questioned U.S. security commitments to the region and have opted to remain neutral about Russia’s war against Ukraine, pushing them to diversify their relationships, including with China, instead of relying on the West.

“The G-7 must be able to preserve its security interests, which incidentally are also in the interest of regional security, but also global security,” the diplomat said.

‘Middle East fatigue’

Some European diplomats have bemoaned a “Middle East fatigue” in the West that has also forced regional players to reconsider their relationships, leaving the door open for others to fill the void.

“The Iran-Saudi-China deal is symptomatic of our problems. Nobody saw it coming, so we need to regroup collectively,” said a second G-7 diplomat.

A third Western diplomat said it was time for the G-7 to take stock of the new dynamics in the region, noting that Saudi Arabian-led efforts to orchestrate OPEC oil cuts, against Western wishes, had been another signal.

The foreign ministers, who are preparing a heads-of-state summit in Hiroshima in mid-May, will center their talks on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament with North Korea, Iran and Russia in mind.

The war in Ukraine and how to prevent Russia from circumventing sanctions, the Indo-Pacific and more broadly how to tackle challenges to the existing international rules-based order also would be on the agenda, the French diplomat said.

“The G-7 will only remain credible if it is able to handle the world’s problems,” he said.
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The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center on Thursday issued an El Nino watch for the next six months, a climate pattern that is likely to play a role in this year’s Atlantic hurricane season. 

In a statement, NOAA said the indications are favorable — a 62% chance — for an El Nino pattern to form sometime from May to July. The pattern is characterized by warmer ocean temperatures and higher than normal precipitation in the central to eastern Pacific Ocean. 

The El Nino pattern would follow nearly two continuous years of La Nina conditions in the Pacific. 

El Nino and La Nina are opposite extremes of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern that occur across the equatorial Pacific and can influence weather across the United States and around the world. NOAA monitors ENSO and issues monthly outlooks on the patterns. 

The agency’s El Nino watch comes as the first forecast for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season was issued by Colorado State University (CSU), led by meteorologist Philip Klotzbach. 

The CSU forecast calls for a slightly below normal hurricane season but cautions there is a great deal of uncertainly as the forecast depends heavily on the likelihood of El Nino forming and how strong it might be. The warmer than normal ocean temperatures associated with El Nino are conducive to an active hurricane season. 

The CSU forecast predicts 13 named storms to form during the 2023 season compared with the annual average of 14.4. Of those, CSU predicts six would become hurricanes, compared with the annual average of 7.2. 

The forecasters predict two of those will become major hurricanes — those with winds topping 179 kilometers per hour — compared with the average of three. 

The official Atlantic hurricane season of the U.S. National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA, runs from June 1 to November 30 each year. 

Some information for this report came from Reuters. 
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