Washington is trying to keep a Mideast war from snowballing after a dramatic weekend in Lebanon, but regional powers are expressing concerns as Israel’s leadership seems determined to continue. From the White House, President Joe Biden has called for a cease-fire, but VOA’s Anita Powell asks: Will anyone listen?
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Biden plans survey of devastation in North Carolina as Helene’s death toll tops 130
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — President Joe Biden was set to survey the devastation in the mountains of Western North Carolina on Wednesday, where exhausted emergency workers continued to work around-the-clock to clear roads, restore power and cellphone service, and reach people left stranded by Hurricane Helene. The storm killed at least 133 people and hundreds more were still unaccounted for on Monday night, four days after Helene initially made landfall.
Meanwhile, election officials across the South were making emergency preparations to ensure displaced residents would be able to vote in the upcoming presidential election.
Officials in the hard-hit tourism hub of Asheville said their water system suffered “catastrophic” damage that could take weeks to fully repair. Government officials, aid groups and volunteers were working to deliver supplies by air, truck and even mule to the town and surrounding mountain communities. At least 40 people died in the county that includes Asheville.
The North Carolina death toll included one horrific story after another of people who were trapped by floodwaters in their homes and vehicles or were killed by falling trees. A courthouse security officer died after being submerged inside his truck. A couple and a 6-year-old boy waiting to be rescued on a rooftop drowned when part of their home collapsed.
Rescuers did manage to save dozens, including an infant and two others stuck on the top of a car in Atlanta. More than 50 hospital patients and staff in Tennessee were plucked by helicopter from the hospital rooftop in a daring rescue operation.
How some of the worst-hit areas are coping
The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. Rainfall estimates in some areas topped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) since Wednesday, and several main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides. That includes a 6.4-kilometer section of Interstate 40 that was heavily damaged.
Joey Hopkins, North Carolina’s secretary of transportation, asked people on Monday to stay off the roads.
“The damage is severe, and we’re continuing to tell folks if you don’t have a reason to be in North Carolina, do not travel on the roads of western North Carolina,” Hopkins said at a news conference. “We do not want you here if you don’t live here and you’re not helping with the storm.”
At an Ingles grocery store in Asheville, Elizabeth Teall-Fleming was standing in line with dozens of others waiting to get inside and hoping to find some non-perishable food, since they have no power. She planned to heat up some canned food over a camping stove for her family.
“I’m just glad that they’re open and that they’re able to let us in,” she said.
Teall-Fleming said she was surprised by the ferocity of the storm.
“Just seeing the little bit of news that we’ve been able to see has been shocking and really sad.”
In one neighborhood, residents were collecting creek water in buckets to flush their toilets.
Others waited in a line for more than a block at Mountain Valley Water to fill up milk jugs and whatever other containers they could find with drinking water.
Derek Farmer, who brought three gallon-sized apple juice containers, said he had been prepared for the storm but now was nervous after three days without water. “I just didn’t know how bad it was going to be,” Farmer said.
Helene roared ashore in northern Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved north. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where deaths were also reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia. Officials warned that rebuilding would be lengthy and difficult.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday that shelters were housing more than 1,000 people.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper took an aerial tour of the Asheville area and later met with workers distributing meals.
“This has been an unprecedented storm that has hit western North Carolina,” he said afterward. “It’s requiring an unprecedented response.”
Worries about the presidential election
Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said during an emergency board meeting on Monday that they are looking at options for voters in the hardest-hit counties. She planned to provide more information at a Tuesday news conference, including how someone could declare “natural disaster” as their reason for not being able to provide a photo ID.
Election employees across Georgia returned to work even as some offices faced power outages, limited internet and infrastructure damage.
In Lowndes County, staff at the local board of elections were working off of two computers instead of the usual eight, said election supervisor Deb Cox. The office is also without wifi.
“We’re fully up and running as of this morning,” said Cox. “It’s just slower than normal because we have less resources.”
In Columbia County, poll worker training will still begin this week, said Nancy Gay, the county’s elections director, but she may have to change the location because of the power outage.
“Our poll workers are being affected,” Gay said. “They don’t have power. They don’t have gas. You’ve got to allow the workers time to process everything and try and get a plan in place before I can really expect them to come and show up for training.”
Mark Ard at the Florida Secretary of State’s office said the Division of Elections is recommending that local elections supervisors reach out to U.S. Post Office officials to discuss a mitigation plan for ballot mailing, delivery, and return.
Why western North Carolina was hit so hard
Western North Carolina suffered relatively more devastation because that’s where the remnants of Helene encountered the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing even more rain to fall.
Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding. Plus, the ground already was saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“By the time Helene came into the Carolinas, we already had that rain on top of more rain,” Patterson said.
Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones, sometimes within hours.
Destruction from Florida to Virginia
Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, several feet of water swamped the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, forcing workers to move two manatees and sea turtles. All of the animals were safe but much of the aquarium’s vital equipment was damaged or destroyed, said James Powell, the aquarium’s executive director.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the storm “literally spared no one.” Most people in and around Augusta, a city of about 200,000 near the South Carolina border, were still without power Monday.
With at least 30 killed in South Carolina, Helene was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.
Tropical Storm Kirk forms and could become a powerful hurricane
Tropical Storm Kirk formed Monday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and is expected to become a “large and powerful hurricane” by Tuesday night or Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was located about 1,285 kilometers west of the Cabo Verde Islands with maximum sustained winds of 95 kph. There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, and the storm system was not a threat to land.
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Exclusive: AFRICOM Chief says Islamic State doubles size in north Somalia
PENTAGON — Islamic State in Somalia has approximately doubled in size over the past year, the chief of U.S. Africa Command told VOA.
“I am concerned about the northern part of Somalia and ISIS growing in numbers,” AFRICOM commander Gen. Michael Langley said in an exclusive interview, using an acronym for the terror group.
Langley declined to provide the United States’ estimate of how many Islamic State fighters are in Somalia, other than to say that the group’s had grown about “twofold” in the past year. Previous estimates have put the number of Islamic State fighters in north Somalia at about 200 fighters.
The AFRICOM commander also warned about the possibility of Islamic State increasing its foreign fighter presence in Somalia.
Somali Brigadier General Abdi Hassan Hussein, the former intelligence and police commander of Puntland, where Islamic State is located in the north, told VOA earlier this year that the number of Islamic State foreign fighters there alone is estimated in the hundreds. This figure has yet to be confirmed by local authorities.
A U.S. official told VOA in June that Abdulqadir Mumin, the leader of Islamic State in Somalia, had been targeted in an American airstrike in May. Mumin appears to have survived the strike.
Asked whether Mumin was now the global leader of IS, Langley said the U.S. must take those reports as “credible.”
“ISIS professes that. Sometimes you’ve got to take that seriously,” he said.
Al-Shabab
The increase in Islamic State fighters in northern Somalia comes as the al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab has exploited diplomatic disagreements between Somalia and Ethiopia to raise its recruitment numbers.
Landlocked Ethiopia and Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland region signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year to use its Red Sea port of Berbera, a deal that Somalia has rejected. Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre on Friday accused Ethiopia, before the U.N. General Assembly, of actions that “flagrantly violate” Somalia’s territorial integrity.
“The have used that (dispute) to their advantage,” Langley told VOA.
Al-Shabab has been back at high numbers of between 12,000 to 13,000 fighters due to strong financing and heavy recruitment efforts, senior defense officials told VOA in June.
The political rift has bled into counter-terror cooperation between Addis Ababa and Mogadishu, with Langley telling VOA that Somali operations with Ethiopia have been “limited.”
“Time will tell if they can settle their differences and coalesce into a force that’s very effective, because when they do work together, they’re very, very effective at clearing out al-Shabab.’’
Al-Shabab has continued attacks on civilians, including in the Mogadishu area. The terror group claimed responsibility for a gun attack and suicide bombing that killed at least 32 people in August on a popular beach in the Somalia’s capital. The group is also suspected to have carried out two deadly bombings on Saturday, one in Middle Shabelle region and another about one kilometer from the president’s office.
Al-Shabab has suffered defeats from the South West State of Somalia down to the Juba River Valley and has sought to reset and counter-attack in those areas.
However, in central Somalia, al-Shabab has reversed gains made by Somali forces over the last two years as government forces failed to hold the terrain they had retaken, according to senior U.S. defense officials.
“We need a credible holding force, because sometimes shadow governments of al-Shabaab try to re-insert themselves back in that region and try to influence some of the local leaders,” Langley said.
He said the time following the clearing and liberating of a region is a “very fragile period” where Somalia and partners like the U.S. Agency for International Development can initiate local services that will increase the population’s faith in the federal government.
“If they can’t sustain that because they’re moving to the next region or next district, it ebbs,” he said, adding that U.S. training was currently focused on helping Somali forces hold liberated terrain.
The Somali government has pointed to the El Dheer and Harardhere areas as evidence that some liberated terrain in central Somalia remains under government control.
ATMIS transition
Later this year, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia will leave the country after nearly two years of helping Somalia fight al-Shabab terrorists and will be replaced in 2025 by a new African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia. Which forces will be comprised in the mission is still being worked out by the African Union and the United Nations.
Langley ruled out any U.S. role in the transition, saying American forces would maintain only their advise-and-assist mission.
“Our piece of enabling is not our boots on the ground. We’re there to advise and assist, and assist in their training, but the fight is theirs,” he told VOA.
Houthis
In addition to Islamic State and al-Shabab, Somalia also must worry about Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, just north of Somalia across the Gulf of Aden, whom Langley says have “aspirations” to collaborate with al-Shabab.
“We’re concerned, and we’re closely watching that, because this can turn into a bad neighborhood real quick,” he said.
Should the Houthis and al-Shabab put pressure on the Gulf of Aden from opposite sides, Langley worries that squeezing this strategic choke point could further hinder the free flow of commerce and affect the global economy. And analysts fear that Houthis could insert more sophisticated weapons into the fight for Somalia.
Houthi militants have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October, seizing one, sinking two and killing at least four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.
The Houthi militant campaign began after Israel launched a retaliatory attack against Hamas in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 terror attack, and the Houthis claim they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians during the war.
Harun Maruf and Mohamed Olad Hassan contributed to this report.
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Shanghai knife attack kills three, wounds 15 others, Xinhua reports
BEIJING — Three people were killed and 15 others injured in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai on Monday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, extending a series of stabbing incidents across China this year.
The victims were immediately rushed to hospital for treatment, according to Xinhua on Tuesday, but three died.
The assailant, a 37-year-old man surnamed Lin, was detained by the police who received a report of the incident at 9:47 p.m. local time (1447 GMT), Xinhua said.
An investigation is underway.
Public stabbing incidents have risen over the years in China, with authorities often putting the blame on mental illness. Children at schools are a common target.
In September, a 10-year-old Japanese student was fatally stabbed by an attacker meters from his school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
That incident along with a June knife attack on two Japanese nationals in Suzhou, a major city in eastern China, have stoked security concerns among members of the Japanese community in China.
Stabbing incidents are rare in Shanghai but not unprecedented.
In 2022, a man went on a stabbing spree at a major hospital in the Chinese financial hub, injuring 15 people.
The man, whom authorities said was “resentful of society” after an investment fell through, was sentenced to death a year later.
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Cambodian reporter who investigated online scam centers has been arrested
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodian freelance reporter Mech Dara, noted for investigative reporting in a country with limited press freedom, was arrested Monday, a leading local human rights organization and a journalists association said.
Known especially for investigating online scam centers, Mech Dara’s arrest followed posts he made about a rock quarry — that local officials denounced Monday as an attempt to foment dissent.
Mech Dara managed to send an SMS message to the rights group Licadho saying he was being arrested by military police before his phone was seized, said Am Sam Ath, a Licadho spokesperson.
The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm the arrest, news of which circulated Monday night after government offices were closed. However, CamboJA News, a project run by the independent Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association, published details of the incident, citing unnamed members of Mech Dara’s family.
CamboJA on its Facebook page also reported that military police spokesperson Eng Hy confirmed the arrest, saying it had been carried out with a warrant, but did not give the cause or say where Mech Dara had been taken.
A family member whom CamboJA did not name said Mech Dara’s car was stopped at a toll booth at the entrance to the expressway to Phnom Penh when police arrived in a military vehicle and five other cars. The relative said the authorities cited an arrest warrant, but did not show the document.
The relative said Mech Dara’s phone was seized and that his family members were asked to stay in their car and remain silent.
The police action may have been related to two images Mech Dara posted on his Facebook page of a quarry operation and of the revered mountain Ba Phnom, which has a Buddhist pagoda, in the southeastern province of Prey Veng. His post may have implied that the sacred mountain is being destroyed, which appears not to be the case.
On Monday, the Prey Veng provincial administration issued a statement rejecting his post and accused him of “wanting to cause social disorder or confusion,” which can be prosecuted as a criminal offense. The province also called on the Information Ministry to take legal action against him.
Mech Dara previously worked as a journalist for the Cambodia Daily and the Phnom Penh Post, two once-vibrant English-language newspapers forced to shut down under government pressure, and the Voice of Democracy radio and website, which was closed by the government last year.
Mech Dara is best known for his reports in the past few years about human trafficking connected to online scam operations. The activity involves tricking people into signing up for what they believe are legitimate jobs in Cambodia, only to then keep them in virtual slavery in compounds often housing casinos as well, where they go online to target people around the world.
In a scam known as “pig butchering,” scam operators slowly build up a relationship of trust with their targets, often involving romance, before convincing them to hand over large amounts of money for fake investments.
The practice has been going on for several years, based mostly in Cambodia and Myanmar, and recently has drawn heightened law enforcement attention in the United States, where people have been cheated out of millions of dollars.
The U.S. State Department honored Mech Dara as a 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report Hero for his work exposing the problem.
The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders in its latest report ranked Cambodia 151st out of 180 in its international press freedom index.
“The main broadcasters and the few remaining newspapers generally toe the government line. Many subjects are impossible to cover, such as political opposition, corruption and deforestation,” said the group. “Despite the growing number of online media outlets, few provide balanced reporting. Only a few independent Cambodian media, broadcasting from abroad, provide quality news coverage.”
your ad hereThailand’s latest reform party voices optimism, but questions remain
Bangkok — Thailand’s newest pro-democracy party says it is determined to continue the fight for human rights and democracy despite facing a number of legal and political obstacles.
The People’s Party was formed in August after the dissolution of the reformist Move Forward Party and is already looking ahead to the 2027 general elections.
But some observers and analysts are concerned whether the opposition party will survive and whether its controversial promises will ever be fulfilled.
“In the next the three years it’s a matter of how we can beat the battle for the majority seats in parliament. I have to accept it’s not an easy task to do, but I truly believe it’s possible to achieve,” Natthaphong Reungpanyawut, leader of the People’s Party, told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand on Sept. 26.
“Our main priorities and policies will be still the same … to protect human rights and to bring full democracy to Thailand. We want to bring power back to the people, and no one can stop that. For the next election, I believe we have to get at least 20 million votes to get the majority seats in parliament,” he added.
The party’s predecessors – the Future Forward Party and the Move Forward Party – received 8 million and 14 million votes, respectively, in the past two national elections.
Thitinan Pondsudhirak, a renowned political scientist in Thailand, says the new party’s ambitious goal isn’t that far-fetched, given the trajectory of recent elections.
“They have good prospects at the polls,” he told VOA. “They’re being deliberately ambitious, but at the same time, it’s not unrealistic, given the jump [from] the popular votes from Future Forward to Move Forward.
“The brick wall that they’re against is not the polling booth. The brick wall is against the royalist establishment,” he said.
The People’s Party has maintained it will continue with one of the Move Forward Party’s main pledges, which is amending Thailand’s “lese majeste” law, which prohibits criticism of the Thai royals.
This is despite Thailand’s Constitutional Court dissolving the Move Forward Party on August 7 after ruling the group’s pledges threatened to overthrow the monarchy. The party’s leaders were also banned from politics for 10 years.
Prior to that, Move Forward had won the most votes in the 2023 general election, before the Thai Senate blocked the party from forming a government, also because of its campaign pledges.
The Future Forward Party was also dissolved in 2020 by Thailand’s Constitutional Court, which ruled the party accepted a donation from its leader, violating election law. The party said it had received the money as a loan, not a donation.
Natthaphong says one of his party’s policy aims is to limit the powers of the judiciary.
“The article-by-article constitution amendment, to limit the power of the Constitutional Court, to not overrule the government that is elected by the people, that is a very practical thing we can do as an opposition party over the next three years,” he said.
But two months into its existence, the future of the People’s Party is already in doubt after Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission said it was investigating 44 lawmakers who formerly belonged to the Move Forward Party. Twenty-five of those lawmakers are current MPs for the People’s Party.
The probe alleges the lawmakers broke ethics rules for supporting a bill that was to amend the lese majeste law.
Sirikanya Tansakun, deputy leader of the People’s Party, is one of the lawmakers being investigated. She told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand on Sept. 26 that the case doesn’t make sense.
“We are the members of the House of Representatives, and our duty is to pass the laws,” she said. “As we endorsed the law to amendment of Article 112 of the Criminal Code, I don’t think it’s considered a violation of ethics at all, but in this country, anything is possible and totally unpredictable and they don’t think in rational, logical sense.”
Some analysts believe the People’s Party is fighting an almost impossible cause for continuing to achieve these controversial policies.
“The future of the People’s Party is, I think, very murky,” Tita Sanglee, an independent analyst, told VOA. “There are definitely many voters willing to give it a chance, including many conservatives, who’ve become disillusioned by the whole Thaksin-joining-forces-with conservative-parties saga and are desperate for a ‘fresh’ option.”
On the other hand, she added, the party will almost definitely face legal challenges. And even if they stop trying to amend the constitution, many of their proposals remain sensitive.
“Even if The People’s Party wins by a landslide and takes office in the next election, I doubt it can achieve half of what it promises,” Sanglee said.
The party wants to implement more than 300 policy goals, including ending military conscription, promoting labor protections and making it legal to criticize the royal family.
The party labels this as the three “D’s” – demonopolization, demilitarization and decentralization – which began under Move Forward’s leadership.
Pravit Rojanaphruk, a veteran journalist for Khaosod English in Thailand, says both voters and conservatives may not see the People’s Party as anything different to their predecessors, and that may work against the group.
“[The Move Forward Party] have failed to form a government despite having won most seats in 2023 and some voters may doubt if they are really capable of forming a government after the next general election, since all major parties have basically vowed to not join a coalition with them due to their stance on the lese majeste law and the monarchy,” he said.
“The not so obvious obstacle is how they can shake off the image of being branded as the new main threat to national security by conservative people and how to keep their members motivated if they fail to form the government again in 2027,” he added.
But Sirikanya remained confident that change will happen.
“Every time that the system tries to beat us, they have used up their own political capital from those funny rulings or verdicts,” he said. “If we keep fighting this fight, and people back us more and more, someday, maybe in my next generation or the next one, if we keep fighting, we will win.”
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US port strike by 45,000 dockworkers is all but certain to begin at midnight
New York — The union representing U.S. dockworkers has signaled that 45,000 of its members will walk off the job at midnight, kicking off a strike likely to shut down ports across the East and Gulf coasts.
The coming work stoppage threatens to significantly snarl the nation’s supply chain, potentially leading to higher prices and delays in goods reaching households and businesses if it drags on for weeks. That’s because the strike by members of the International Longshoremen’s Association could cause 36 ports — which handle roughly half of the goods shipped into and out of the U.S. — to shutter operations.
ILA confirmed over the weekend that its members would hit the picket lines at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. In a Monday update, the union blamed the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports, for continuing to “to block the path” toward an agreement before the contract deadline.
“The Ocean Carriers represented by USMX want to enjoy rich billion-dollar profits that they are making in 2024, while they offer ILA Longshore Workers an unacceptable wage package that we reject,” ILA said in a prepared statement. “ILA longshore workers deserve to be compensated for the important work they do keeping American commerce moving and growing.”
ILA also accused the shippers of “gouging their customers” with sizeable price increases for containers over recent weeks. The union said that this will result in increased costs for American consumers.
The Associated Press reached out to a USMX spokesperson for comment.
If drawn out, the strike would force businesses to pay shippers for delays and cause some goods to arrive late for peak holiday shopping season — potentially impacting delivery of anything from toys or artificial Christmas trees, to cars, coffee and fruit.
A strike could have an almost immediate impact on supplies of perishable imports like bananas, for example. The ports that could be affected by the strike handle 3.8 million metric tons of bananas each year, or 75% of the nation’s supply, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Americans could also face higher prices as retailers feel the supply squeeze.
“If the strikes go ahead, they will cause enormous delays across the supply chain, a ripple effect which will no doubt roll into 2025 and cause chaos across the industry,” noted Jay Dhokia, founder of supply chain management and logistics firm Pro3PL.
Dhokia added that East Coast ports aren’t the only ones at risk for disruption, as concern leading up to the strike has already diverted many shipments out West, adding to route congestion and more pressure on demand. Impacts will also be felt internationally — particularly in places like the United Kingdom, he said, where the U.S. is its largest trading partner.
ILA members are demanding higher wages and a total ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container-moving trucks used in the loading or unloading of freight.
The coming strike by the ILA workers — set to impact ports from Maine to Texas — will be the first by the union since 1977. West Coast dockworkers belong to a different union and aren’t involved in the strike.
If a strike were deemed a danger to U.S. economic health, President Joe Biden could, under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period. That would suspend the strike.
All eyes are on what, if any, action the administration might take — particularly just weeks ahead of a tight presidential election. But Biden has signaled that he will not exercise this power.
During an exchange with reporters on Sunday, Biden said “no” when asked if he planned to intervene in the potential work stoppage.
“Because it’s collective bargaining, I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley,” he said.
At a briefing Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that the administration had never invoked Taft-Hartley “to break a strike and are not considering doing so now.” She added that top officials were still urging both parties to return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith.
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Arkansas sues YouTube over claims it’s fueling mental health crisis
little rock, arkansas — Arkansas sued YouTube and parent company Alphabet on Monday, saying the video-sharing platform is made deliberately addictive and fueling a mental health crisis among youth in the state.
Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed the lawsuit in state court, accusing them of violating the state’s deceptive trade practices and public nuisance laws. The lawsuit claims the site is addictive and has resulted in the state spending millions on expanded mental health and other services for young people.
“YouTube amplifies harmful material, doses users with dopamine hits, and drives youth engagement and advertising revenue,” the lawsuit said. “As a result, youth mental health problems have advanced in lockstep with the growth of social media, and in particular, YouTube.”
Alphabet’s Google, which owns the video service and is also named as a defendant in the case, denied the lawsuit’s claims.
“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work. In collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we built services and policies to provide young people with age-appropriate experiences, and parents with robust controls,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement. “The allegations in this complaint are simply not true.”
YouTube requires users under 17 to get their parent’s permission before using the site, while accounts for users younger than 13 must be linked to a parental account. But it is possible to watch YouTube without an account, and kids can easily lie about their age.
The lawsuit is the latest in an ongoing push by state and federal lawmakers to highlight the impact that social media sites have on younger users. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in June called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms about their effects on young people’s lives, like those now mandatory on cigarette boxes.
Arkansas last year filed similar lawsuits against TikTok and Facebook parent company Meta, claiming the social media companies were misleading consumers about the safety of children on their platforms and protections of users’ private data. Those lawsuits are still pending in state court.
Arkansas also enacted a law requiring parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts, though that measure has been blocked by a federal judge.
Along with TikTok, YouTube is one of the most popular sites for children and teens. Both sites have been questioned in the past for hosting, and in some cases promoting, videos that encourage gun violence, eating disorders and self-harm.
YouTube in June changed its policies about firearm videos, prohibiting any videos demonstrating how to remove firearm safety devices. Under the new policies, videos showing homemade guns, automatic weapons and certain firearm accessories like silencers will be restricted to users 18 and older.
Arkansas’ lawsuit claims that YouTube’s algorithms steer youth to harmful adult content, and that it facilitates the spread of child sexual abuse material.
The lawsuit doesn’t seek specific damages, but asks that YouTube be ordered to fund prevention, education and treatment for “excessive and problematic use of social media.”
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Flooding deaths in Nepal reach 193 as recovery work ramps up
Kathmandu, Nepal — The number of people killed in Nepal by flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall over the weekend reached 193 while recovery and rescue work increased Monday.
Many of the deaths were in the capital, Kathmandu, which got heavy rainfall, and much of the southern part of the city was flooded. Police said in a statement that 31 people were still reported missing and 96 people were injured across the Himalayan nation.
A landslide killed three dozen people on a blocked highway about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from Kathmandu. The landslide buried at least three buses and other vehicles where people were sleeping because the highway was blocked.
Kathmandu had remained cut off all weekend as the three highways out of the city were blocked by landslides. Workers were able to temporarily open the key Prithvi highway, removing rocks, mud and trees that had been washed from the mountains.
The home minister announced temporary shelters would be built for people who lost their homes and monetary help would be available for the families of those killed and to the people who were injured by the flooding and landslides.
Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli was returning home Monday from attending the U.N. General Assembly meeting and has called an emergency meeting, his office said.
Improved weather has allowed rescue and recovery work to be stepped up.
Residents in the southern part of Kathmandu, which was inundated Saturday, were cleaning up houses as water levels began to recede. At least 34 people were killed in Kathmandu, which was the hardest hit by flooding.
Police and soldiers were assisting with rescue efforts, while heavy equipment was used to clear the landslides from the roads. The government announced it was closing schools and colleges across Nepal for the next three days.
The monsoon season began in June and usually ends by mid-September.
Meanwhile, in northern Bangladesh, about 60,000 people were affected by flooding in low-lying areas because of rains and rising water from upstream India.
People have taken shelter on roads and flood protection embankments in Lalmonirhat and Kurigram districts, the English-language Daily Star reported.
The River Teesta that crosses the border was overflowing at some points and the Dharala and Dudhkumar rivers in the Rangpur region were rising but remained below danger levels, the Dhaka-based Flood Forecasting and Warning Center said Monday.
Waters could start receding in a day or two, it said.
Bangladesh is a low-lying delta nation crisscrossed by about 230 rivers, including more than 50 that cross borders.
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Analysts: Escalating conflict tests China’s Middle East approach
Taipei, Taiwan — As Israel continues to launch airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, China is stepping up its efforts to play the role of peacemaker in the Middle East, issuing statements of condemnation, but Beijing’s actions are also exposing the limits of its ability to de-escalate tensions, analysts say.
“Beijing wants to create an impression that it is pushing for greater peace and stability in the Middle East, but I’m not sure what all the statements amount to,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.
After Hezbollah confirmed Saturday that its long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike that took place in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, China’s Foreign Ministry reiterated Beijing’s concern over the escalating conflict and urged all sides, especially Israel, to take steps to “cool down the situation.”
“China opposes the infringement on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security, opposes and condemns any action against innocent civilians, and opposes any move that fuels antagonism and escalates regional tensions,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement released Sunday.
The ministry statement added that said since the escalating tension between Israel and Hezbollah is “a spillover of the Gaza conflict,” the priority now is to “implement relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, end the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible, and earnestly safeguard peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Sunday’s statement follows Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s meeting with his Lebanese counterpart last Monday on the sidelines of U.N. meetings in New York. During his meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, Wang also stressed Beijing’s support for Lebanon’s efforts to safeguard its sovereignty and security and called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
In recent months, China has sought to play a bigger role in the Middle East as its trade and diplomatic ties with the region expand.
Earlier in July, Beijing brokered meetings that led to reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions. In March 2023, Beijing helped broker a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran to reestablish diplomatic ties between the long-time rivals.
Chong said that while brokering the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia and reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions were low-hanging fruits for China, it remains unclear what Beijing may do to tackle more complicated regional issues, such as escalating tension between Israel and Hezbollah.
“It depends on what Beijing is willing to do [regarding the current conflict], and I suppose they could try to lean on Tehran, which they supposedly have good relations with,” he told VOA by phone, adding that it is unclear how far they can get with Iran on issues related to the Middle East.
Leveraging conflict against US
As part of the attempt to present itself as a peacemaker in the Middle East, some observers say China is focusing on depicting Israel and the United States as aggressors in the ongoing conflict while portraying themselves as siding with “the victims.”
“They are painting this narrative that Israel and the U.S. are on the side of injustice and hegemony, and China is on the side of fairness and justice,” Tuvia Gering, a non-resident fellow at Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, told VOA by phone.
In comments to Chinese state media, some Chinese analysts have argued that it is the U.S. “that allows, tolerates, or even instigates the escalation” of the crisis in the Middle East.
The United States has been pushing for a cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah to avoid further escalation of the conflict and a wider war in the region.
Chong said the ongoing conflict in the Middle East may help to amplify Beijing’s preferred narrative that Washington and its allies are creators of instability, particularly among some developing countries.
“The current situation in the Middle East certainly opens up opportunities for those narratives to perhaps take hold, especially in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia,” he told VOA.
However, he adds, while China may gain some leverage through this tactic, it needs to put forward something more concrete, such as a tangible peace plan to “capitalize on the sentiment.”
While China seeks to leverage the crisis in the Middle East against the U.S., Chong said the continued escalation of the conflict could also mean more economic pressure for Beijing, as well.
China is the world’s largest importer of oil and after Russia, the Middle East is a key source of energy imports for Beijing to keep its economy running.
“If there is a wider conflict within the Middle East, at a minimum, it may affect energy prices and supplies, which could add to some of China’s ongoing economic woes,” he told VOA.
However, since its primary trading partners in the Middle East are wealthier countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council and Iran, accounting for more than $300 billion in 2023 in exports and imports, some experts say the impact of the ongoing conflict on China’s economic interests is likely to be limited.
“I would imagine the current situation is very worrying for China and many other countries, but so long as the conflict is primarily limited to Israel dealing with different proxies and militias in its immediate surroundings, I don’t necessarily think that it would translate into a direct threat of Chinese interests,” Mohammed Alsudairi, a lecturer in politics and international relations at the Australian National University, told VOA in a phone interview.
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Lake Victoria countries working to fight crime, improve community relations
Nairobi — Officials from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are meeting for the fourth time in less than two years to find ways to more effectively fight transnational crimes around the Lake Victoria area.
Some of the crimes are nature-related, such as illegal fishing, tree cutting and charcoal production. In other cases, criminals take advantage of porous borders to sell drugs and conduct human trafficking. In 2021, the police organization Interpol rescued 121 people trafficked in and around Lake Victoria.
Speaking to reporters at the port city of Mombasa, Kenya’s interior ministry principal secretary, Raymond Omollo, said the parties were looking to close gaps in policing and surveillance, while also improving social and economic relations of communities living in the lake region.
“So we are looking at how to coordinate better, how to build capacities, how to have a common understanding with the communities around the lake and also who benefits from the use of the lake on how to manage those resources better while at the same [time] trying to minimize, eradicate a crime that we know is common in the lake,” Omollo said.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched the Lake Victoria project in December 2022.
The world’s second-largest freshwater lake covers 60,000 square kilometers and is a source of livelihood for at least 40 million people in East Africa.
Uganda’s assistant commissioner for migration, Marcellino Bwesigye, told conference attendees that keeping Lake Victoria safe is important for his country.
“Lake Victoria is Uganda’s ocean. So, we are looking forward to working together, especially to learn about the good practices that you have from the coast,” Bwesigye said.
Authorities have documented illegal fishing in the lake, driven by rising demand for Nile perch, as well as charcoal harvesting and timber smuggling.
Sharon Dimanche, IOM Kenya’s chief of mission, said authorities need to partner with communities to fight organized crime in the region.
“If the border communities are not informed, if they really don’t know what … we need to focus on, then it becomes a bit challenging to combat any of these transnational organized crimes because they are there and they know what is happening and they know some strange faces that are coming in their communities. So it’s important that we link them up, they have a good relationship with law enforcement agencies,” Dimanche said.
The meeting in Mombasa ends Wednesday.
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Multinational police force for Haiti renewed for another year
united nations — The U.N. Security Council on Monday approved a one-year renewal for a multinational police force to help Haiti’s embattled national police subdue gangs in the violence-plagued Caribbean nation, and it will now consider turning the mission into a full-fledged U.N. peacekeeping operation.
“In adopting this resolution today, the Council has helped Haiti continue re-establishing security and creating the conditions necessary to holding free and fair elections,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “So, let us work together to build on the progress of the Haiti MSS [Multinational Security Support] mission. Let us embrace a new approach that sustains it. Let us protect the fragile but inspiring opportunity to build a better future for the Haitian people.”
The United States and Ecuador drafted the resolution to extend the mission through October 2, 2025. In the interim, Haiti’s transitional government has requested that the 15-nation Security Council begin discussions for transforming the non-U.N. force into a U.N. peacekeeping operation.
“The transformation of the MSS into a peacekeeping operation under the mandate of the United Nations appears not just to be necessary, but a matter of urgency,” Haitian Ambassador Antonio Rodrigue told the council.
He said making it one would guarantee more stable and predictable financing and expand the force’s capacities. Currently the mission has faced a continued shortfall in funds, equipment and logistics capabilities.
“We firmly believe that this is an approach which is crucial to maintain the gains of the MSS to enhance national security and to establish necessary conditions for the conduct of free and fair elections in the near future,” Rodrigue said.
He said despite some progress in the three months since the first contingent of about 400 Kenyan police deployed to Haiti, the country still faces significant and complicated challenges.
“Gang violence continues to rend the social fabric and human rights violations are multiplying, plunging thousands of families into distress,” the Haitian envoy said. “Insecurity is omnipresent, paralyzing the economy, undermining in the institutions and fueling fear among the population.”
Kenya is leading the mission and its president, William Ruto, visited Haiti about a week and a half ago to meet with officials and Kenyan and Haitian police forces. Ruto said at the U.N. General Assembly last week that he plans to deploy another Kenyan contingent to Haiti by January.
So far only about 500 police have been deployed, the majority from Kenya and the rest from Jamaica and Belize. Diplomats say they expect other countries will also be deploying.
Kenya’s U.N. envoy pointed to some initial progress in the capital, Port-au-Prince, including their securing important infrastructure, such as the airport and National Hospital, and several major road intersections.
But he noted the mission needs to quickly reach its fully mandated level of 2,500 personnel and the political transition needs to move ahead.
“I must also emphasize that while the MSS mission is a crucial and innovative intervention, it is only a part of the solution,” Ambassador Erastus Ekitela Lokaale said. “Haiti’s stability will only be accomplished through a multi-pronged approach that addresses the root causes of its challenges.”
Haiti has been rocked by instability since 2021, when President Jovenel Moise was assassinated. Prime Minister Ariel Henry then led the country until he announced his resignation in March. A transitional government is now in place with the goal of organizing free and fair elections. Haiti has not held elections since 2016.
The country is facing a massive humanitarian crisis as a result of the violence. On Monday, international food monitors said more than half the country’s population – 5.4 million people – are struggling to feed themselves. At least 6,000 displaced persons in shelters in the capital are facing catastrophic levels of hunger, while 2 million people are one step behind them.
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China’s Xi calls for Taiwan reunification on eve of National Day
Washington — As China prepared to mark its National Day holiday, it used the occasion to once again call for “reunification” with Taiwan and to flex its military might.
On the eve of National Day Monday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated his view that reunification was inevitable and essential for fulfilling goals of national rejuvenation. Just one day earlier, China carried out multiple missile firings that put Taiwan’s military on alert.
“It is an irreversible trend, a matter of justice, and it is in accordance with the popular will. No one can stop the march of history,” Xi said in his remarks.
Since its establishment on Oct. 1 in 1949, the People’s Republic of China or PRC has never ruled Taiwan, but it views the democratically governed island as its own territory and has vowed to bring the island under its control, by force if necessary.
On Tuesday, China will mark 75 years since the Communist Party defeated Kuomintang Nationalist forces, ending a bloody civil war. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan, which after decades of one-party rule by the Kuomintang eventually became a thriving democracy.
According to public opinion polls in Taiwan there is very little support for unification with China, regardless of whether it is as soon as possible or in the future.
“Taiwan is sacred territory for China. People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have blood ties, and these family ties will always be stronger than others,” Xi said.
Xi’s call comes just one day after Taiwan’s Defense Ministry detected multiple waves of missile firings within China’s interior. Earlier last week, Beijing also test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into international waters, a drill the likes of which China has not conducted since the 1980s.
On Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden approved $567 million in military support for Taiwan, the largest aid package America has granted the island. The funding will aid Taiwanese “military education and training” and allow for the speedy delivery of military articles, according to a statement from the White House.
Some material for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Man accused of Trump assassination plot in Florida pleads not guilty
west palm beach, florida — Ryan Routh, the 58-year-old man accused of plotting to kill Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course, pleaded not guilty on Monday to several federal charges.
His lawyer Kristy Militello entered the not guilty plea during a brief arraignment in a West Palm Beach federal courthouse and requested a jury trial.
Wearing a beige prison uniform and shackles on his wrists and ankles, Routh answered “yes, your honor,” when the magistrate judge asked him if he was aware of the charges against him.
Routh was arrested on September 15 after a Secret Service agent saw the barrel of a rifle poking out from brush on the perimeter of the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing a round.
The agent opened fire and Routh, who fled in a vehicle, was arrested shortly later.
He has been charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and firearms offenses.
A federal judge ruled last week that Routh, identified as a Hawaii resident, should remain in custody.
FBI analysis of Routh’s phone showed he had been in Florida since August 18, and his devices were located multiple times between that date and September 15 near Trump’s golf course and his Mar-a-Lago residence, according to prosecutors.
Before being spotted by the Secret Service agent, Routh spent nearly 12 hours in the vicinity of the Trump International Golf Club, according to his phone location data.
Court documents said Routh allegedly dropped off a box at an unidentified person’s home several months before the attempted assassination containing various letters.
One letter, addressed to “The World,” allegedly said: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you.”
“I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster,” it said. “It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
It was the second assassination attempt on Trump this summer. The first took place on July 13 at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman opened fire on the former president, killing one person and wounding Trump in the ear.
The candidate was otherwise unharmed, and the gunman was killed at the scene.
The Routh case has been assigned at random to federal District Judge Aileen Cannon — a Trump appointee who dismissed criminal proceedings against the former president earlier this year over his retention of top-secret documents at his private residence.
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Diaspora media looks to fill the void amid Hong Kong press crackdown
The closure of media outlets and jailing of journalists has become a reality in Hong Kong as the government there cracks down on the press in the name of national security. Some Hong Kong journalists exiled to other countries are trying to push back against the threats to press freedom from overseas. VOA’s William Yang reports from Taipei. Camera: Katie Tam, Jonathan Spier
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US sends a few thousand more troops to Middle East to boost security
Washington — The U.S. is sending an additional “few thousand” troops to the Middle East to bolster security and to be prepared to defend Israel if necessary, the Pentagon said Monday.
The increased presence will come from multiple fighter jet squadrons, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters.
It follows recent strikes in Lebanon and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and Hezbollah.
The additional force includes squadrons of F-15E Strike Eagle, F-16, A-10 and F-22 fighter jets and the personnel needed to support them. The jets were supposed to rotate in and replace the squadrons already there. Instead, both the existing and new squadrons will remain in place to double the airpower on hand.
On Sunday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also announced that he was temporarily extending the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and its associated squadrons in the region.
The jets are not there to assist in an evacuation, Singh said, “they are there for the protection of U.S. forces.”
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Thai court approves Vietnam’s call for rights activist’s extradition
Bangkok — A Thai court Monday approved the extradition of a human rights activist to his native Vietnam, where rights groups say he faces a high risk of torture and cannot be guaranteed a fair hearing from his country’s courts.
Y Quynh Bdap says he fled to Thailand in 2018 to evade arrest for his human rights work on behalf of the Montagnards, a predominantly Christian group of ethnic minorities who live in Vietnam’s central highlands. Thai police arrested him in Bangkok in June at Vietnam’s request.
Vietnam wants Bdap back for his alleged role in fomenting a riot last year that left nine people dead, including four police officers, according to state media. Bdap says he had nothing to do with the riot. A Vietnamese court convicted him on related terrorism charges in absentia in January and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
Vietnam’s government has also labeled his group, Montagnards Stand for Justice, a terrorist organization.
Bdap’s lawyer, Nadthasiri Bergman, said the judge ignored Thailand’s anti-torture law, which forbids deporting people to countries where they may face torture, claiming it was up to the government — not the courts — to enforce.
The government has 90 days to decide whether to carry out the extradition request now that the court has approved it, unless Bdap and his lawyer appeal the verdict. Bergman said they would appeal, and that the 90 days would then begin only after the appeals process is over, should they lose again.
If Bdap is ultimately forced back to Vietnam, Bergman said her client would be at serious physical risk, adding that the threat had been corroborated by the United Nations’ refugee agency, the UNHCR.
Although Thailand does not legally recognize refugees, the UNHCR’s team in Thailand had granted Bdap one of its own refugee cards after assessing his claims.
“So long as he has [U.N.] refugee status, it means that he cannot go back to his home country, the country that he fled, because there is an existing and imminent threat to his life,” said Bergman.
A spokesperson for the Thai government could not be reached for comment.
Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch in Thailand, called Monday’s decision by the court “shocking and disappointing” for ignoring both the country’s international obligations and its own law against refoulement.
“Vietnamese authorities have a long record of mistreating political dissidents, especially those who are on the wanted list like Y Quynh Bdap. So, there are concerns that he will be mistreated in custody of Vietnamese authorities; that includes torture, that includes enforced disappearance,” he told VOA.
In May, Human Rights Watch published a detailed report alleging Thailand had made itself increasingly dangerous for foreign asylum-seekers over the past decade by engaging in an informal “swap mart” with its neighbors, forcibly returning each other’s dissidents regardless of whether they may be arrested, tortured or killed back home.
The passage of Thailand’s anti-torture law in 2022 raised hopes that the practice might wane.
Sunai, though, said Bdap’s case was the first major test of the law’s refoulement clause, and that Thailand had failed.
“Not only [does] the court decision today put the life of Y Quynh Bdap in danger; it also sets a very dangerous precedent,” he said. “Now, basically, repressive foreign governments can seek cooperation with Thai authorities to hunt down and extradite dissidents who live in exile in Thailand because Thailand cannot ensure their safety.”
He said countries backing Thailand’s current bid for a rotating seat on the U.N.’s Human Rights Council should use their support as leverage to urge the government not to follow through with Bdap’s extradition.
Several of the U.N.’s independent rights experts have also urged Thailand to reject Vietnam’s extradition request.
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Taliban asserts new gains against Afghan-based IS offshoot amid skepticism
Islamabad — The Taliban said Monday that their security forces had killed and captured several “key members” of a regional Islamic State affiliate for plotting recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, alleging that the suspects had crossed over from Pakistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, listed the claims and so-called successes against Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, locally known as Daesh, in a formal statement without providing evidence to support them.
The assertions came after the country’s three immediate neighbors and Russia jointly urged the de facto Kabul government this past Friday to take “visible and verifiable actions” against transnational terrorist groups, including IS-K, on Afghan soil.
Mujahid said the IS-K operatives in question had been involved in several recent attacks in Afghanistan. They included a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital earlier this month and a May gun attack in the central city of Bamiyan, he added.
Both attacks resulted in the deaths of at least ten people, including three Spanish tourists, with IS-K claiming credit for them at the time.
The Taliban spokesperson said that IS-K insurgents had established “new operational bases and training camps” in the Pakistani border provinces of Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after fleeing Afghan counterterrorism security operations.
“From these new bases, they continue to orchestrate attacks, both within Afghanistan and in other countries,” he claimed, noting that “some of the arrested individuals had recently returned to Afghanistan from the Daesh Khorasan training camp” in Balochistan.
Islamabad has not immediately responded to the Taliban’s allegations, which came two days after neighboring Pakistan, China, and Iran, along with Russia, at a meeting in New York this past Friday, urged the Taliban to eradicate bases of IS-K and other transnational terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
The ministerial meeting warned that these Afghan-based terrorist entities “continue to pose a serious threat to regional and global security.” According to a joint statement released after the huddle, the participants recognized the Taliban’s efforts in combating IS-K.
“They called on de facto authorities to take visible and verifiable actions in fulfilling the international obligations and commitments made by Afghanistan to fight terrorism, dismantle, and eliminate all terrorist groups equally and non-discriminatory and prevent the use of Afghan territory against its neighbors, the region, and beyond,” the statement stressed.
It identified the groups in question as IS-K, al-Qaida, Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement, ETIM, which opposes China, anti-Iran Jaish ul-Adl, and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, TTP, as well as the Baloch Liberation Army, BLA, both waging attacks on Pakistani security forces and civilians.
The United Nations, in a recent security assessment, also described TTP as “the largest terrorist group” in Afghanistan, with several thousand operatives, noting that IS-K activities in the country are also turning into a significant regional threat. It noted that the group had intensified cross-border attacks in Pakistan since the Taliban regained power three years ago and is being facilitated by the de facto Afghan rulers.
A new report issued Monday documented nearly 1,000 deaths of civilians and security forces in Pakistan during the first nine months of 2024. The Islamabad-based independent Center for Research and Security Studies stated that most of the fatalities resulted from attacks by TTP and BLA-led insurgents.
Pakistani authorities have consistently urged Kabul to extradite TTP leaders and militants to Islamabad for trial for instigating deadly violence in the country.
The Taliban has rejected Pakistani and U.N. allegations, saying they are not allowing any foreign groups, including TTP, to threaten other countries from Afghanistan.
The United States has designated TTP and BLA as global terrorist organizations.
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US hospital helps wounded Ukrainian soldiers regain eyesight
Since 2015, one of America’s oldest eye clinics, Wills Eye Hospital, has been helping
wounded Ukrainian soldiers with severe head or face injuries get their vision back. For one surgeon with Ukrainian roots, the work is personal. Iryna Solomko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Pavlo Terekhov.
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At 100, former President Jimmy Carter’s legacy reevaluated
Atlanta, Georgia — When he returned to Plains, Georgia, in 1981, President Jimmy Carter was defeated — rejected by voters in a landslide election to Republican Ronald Reagan. The pouring rain at Carter’s welcome home reception reflected his gloomy mood and that of the country.
“In office, he was a political failure. He lost overwhelming[ly] to Ronald Reagan. But he was a substantive and visionary success,” says author and historian Jonathan Alter, who recognizes what many know Carter for today — humanitarian work with his Carter Center, “waging peace, fighting disease and building hope” around the world that led to Jimmy Carter receiving the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
“He’s done terrific work supervising elections in more than 100 countries. But former presidents don’t have as much power as presidents, not nearly as much, and the list of his accomplishments as president that were ignored, minimized, or forgotten entirely was very long,” said Alter.
The Iran hostage crisis, rising inflation and oil embargoes of the 1970s doomed Carter’s White House tenure, casting a long shadow over his legacy. However, the onetime peanut farmer, Georgia governor, president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s 100th birthday milestone comes as authors and historians reevaluate his failures and accomplishments as a one-term U.S. president.
Alter’s biography, “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life,” is among several that conclude his four years in the White House were anything but a failure.
“Not just famously [the] Camp David accords and opening relations with China,” Alter told VOA in an interview in August at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, “but a long string of legislative accomplishments on the environment and many other issues that actually exceed the legislative accomplishments of both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.”
Carter signed the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act protecting more than 100 million acres — including land, national parks, refuges, monuments, forests and conservation areas — which Alter says is now considered one of the most important pieces of environmental legislation ever passed.
“The story I tell in my book is a surprising one,” says Alter. “It’s of somebody who worked hard in ways that actually bore fruit.”
“I think we’ll remember President Carter as a president who served in very enormously difficult times who had to deal with circumstances that were far beyond his control,” says Emory University’s first “Jimmy Carter Professor of History” Joseph Crespino. Carter routinely visited with Crespino and his students in Atlanta to discuss the good and bad decisions he made while president.
“Putting human rights front and center in American foreign policy — no president had done that in the way that Jimmy Carter had,” Crespino told VOA during a recent interview at his office on campus at Emory University. “It was important in shifting the balance of power in the Cold War, but it was also an important moment in the aftermath of the Vietnam War to reassert once again America’s moral responsibilities in the world.”
Crespino says some of Carter’s overlooked domestic accomplishments include reorganizing the federal government and deregulation of the airline, trucking and beer industries. “We oftentimes associate a kind of freeing up of the free enterprise economy with the conservative turn that came in with Ronald Reagan, when in fact Jimmy Carter before Reagan was already doing a lot of deregulatory work in his presidency in recognizing the kind of limits of government oversight of these private industries.”
Members of Carter’s Cabinet, including former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, are grateful his long life has allowed him to witness the longer lens of history reflect more positively on his legacy.
“There’s no place in the world I know where people don’t have some good things to say about him,” Young told VOA as he spoke with reporters September 17 at Carter’s 100th birthday concert at the Fox theater in Atlanta. “Whether he succeeded or not … he gave it as good a try and came as far as the world would let him go.”
A world that continues to benefit from the Carter Center’s work, including fighting diseases including Guinea worm, which is down to a few cases in Africa and could become only the second disease ever eradicated.
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12 Tunisians dead as boat capsizes off Djerba
Tunis — At least 12 Tunisians including three children were found dead after a migrant boat capsized off the coast of the southeastern island of Djerba on Monday, a judicial official said.
The boat went down at dawn and 29 people were rescued, Medenine court spokesman Fethi Baccouche told AFP, adding five men and four women were among the dead, and that the cause of the sinking remained unknown.
The Tunisian National Guard said it was alerted by four migrants who swam back ashore.
Tunisia and neighboring Libya have become key departure points for migrants seeking better lives in Europe, often risking dangerous Mediterranean crossings.
The exodus is fueled by Tunisia’s stagnant economy, with only 0.4% of growth in 2023 and unemployment soaring.
The North African country has also been shaken by political tensions, after President Kais Saied orchestrated a sweeping power grab in July 2021.
Each year, tens of thousands of people attempt to make the crossing, with Italy — whose Lampedusa island is only 150 kilometers (90 miles) away — often their first port of call.
Since January 1, at least 103 makeshift boats have capsized and 341 bodies have been recovered off Tunisia’s coast, the government says.
Last year, more than 1,300 people died or disappeared last year in shipwrecks off Tunisia, according to the FTDES rights group.
The International Organization for Migration has said more than 30,309 migrants have died in the Mediterranean in the past decade, including more than 3,000 last year.
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