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ROME — An Italian anti-fascist activist was released from house arrest in Hungary on Friday after being elected as a new member of the European Parliament for the Italian Green and Left Alliance, the party's leaders said.  Police in Budapest removed Ilaria Salis' electronic bracelet in the Hungarian capital and her father said he will take her back to Italy by Monday, when she celebrates her 40th birthday, according to Italian news agency ANSA.  Salis was elected to the European Parliament during her time under house arrest in Hungary, where she is on trial and faces charges for allegedly assaulting far-right demonstrators. European Parliament lawmakers enjoy substantial legal immunity from prosecution, even if the allegations relate to crimes committed prior to their election.  More than 170,000 voters in Italy wrote Salis' name onto the ballot in a bid to bring her home from Hungary, where she has been detained for more than a year.  "Finally! We are happy with the news coming from Budapest, MEP Ilaria Salis can now return to Italy and will be able to perform her new function to which hundreds of thousands of voters have pointed her," AVS lawmakers Angelo Bonelli and Nicola Fratoianni said in a statement.  Salis became a hot-button political issue in Italy after images emerged of her handcuffed and shackled in a Hungarian courtroom where she faced trial.  The Italian activist was charged in Hungary with attempted murder after being part of a group of anti-fascists accused of assaulting individuals they believed were linked to the far-right Day of Honor last year.  The event, held annually on February 11, sees far-right activists mark the failed attempt by Nazi and allied Hungarian soldiers to break out of Budapest during the Red Army's siege in 1945.  The alleged victims of the attack reportedly didn't complain to police.  Before the European Parliament election earlier this month, Salis' father repeatedly voiced concerns over his daughter's trial, saying she faced up to 24 years in jail. The Hungarian prosecutor had asked for a prison term of 11 years. 

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Leaders from nearly 90 countries will gather in Switzerland this weekend to discuss ending Russia's war in Ukraine. The Swiss and Ukrainian governments organized the summit at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. VOA's Myroslava Gongadze reports. Camera: Daniil Batushchak.

Pentagon — About 600 U.S. military personnel remain in Niger, as American troops continue to withdraw from the country before a mid-September deadline, according to a senior U.S. defense official. "We are on track to be done before the 15th of September," the senior U.S. defense official told reporters Friday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues. However, the official cautioned that the rainy season could potentially slow withdrawal efforts. Last month, U.S. and Nigerien leaders agreed to a phased withdrawal of American forces from Niger after being in the country for more than a decade. At that time, there were about 900 U.S. military personnel in Niger, including active duty, civilians and contractors, according to two U.S. officials, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity ahead of the withdrawal agreement. The withdrawal agreement between the U.S. and Niger confirmed protections and immunities for U.S. personnel and approved diplomatic clearances for withdrawal flights "to ensure smooth entries and exits." American forces were deployed in Niger to help local militaries combat Islamist terrorists in the Sahel. The United States has used two military bases in the country — Air Base 101 in Niamey and Air Base 201 in Agadez — to monitor various terror groups. Most U.S. forces in Niger are currently based in the latter, which cost the U.S. $110 million to build, and began drone operations in 2019. Niger's natural resources have increased its importance to global powers, and its location had provided the U.S. with the ability to conduct counterterror operations throughout much of West Africa. Countries in the region, including Niger, Mali, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, have seen an expansive rise in extremist movements. According to the Global Terrorism Index, an annual report covering terrorist incidents worldwide, more than half of the deaths caused by terrorism last year were in the Sahel. Niger's neighbor, Burkina Faso, suffered the most, with 1,907 fatalities from terrorism in 2023. Unless the U.S. can find another base to use in West Africa, counterterror drones will likely have to spend most of their fuel supply flying thousands of kilometers from U.S. bases in Italy or Djibouti, severely limiting their time over the targets and their ability to gather intelligence. "That's a significant policy matter that the U.S. is grappling with right now," the senior U.S. defense official told reporters Friday. Coup forced withdrawal  Tensions between the U.S. and Niger began in 2023 when Niger's military junta removed the democratically elected president from power. After months of delay, the Biden administration formally declared in October 2023 that the military takeover in Niger was a coup, a determination that prevented Niger from receiving a significant amount of U.S. military and foreign assistance. In March, after tense meetings between U.S. representatives and Niger's governing military council, the junta called the U.S. military presence illegal and announced it was ending an agreement that allowed American forces to be based in the country. During that meeting, the U.S. and Niger fundamentally disagreed about Niger's desire to supply Iran with uranium and work more closely with Russian military forces.

LONDON — The Princess of Wales said Friday she is “making good progress” in her cancer treatment and will attend King Charles III's ceremonial birthday parade on Saturday, Kate’s first public appearance since her diagnosis.  The 42-year-old wife of Prince William has not made any public appearances this year. She announced in March that she was undergoing chemotherapy for an unspecified form of cancer.  “I am making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days,” Kate said in a statement released Friday, adding that she faces “a few more months” of treatment.  “I’m looking forward to attending the King’s Birthday Parade this weekend with my family and hope to join a few public engagements over the summer, but equally knowing I am not out of the woods yet,” Kate said.  The announcement is a significant milestone, but it does not mark a return to full-time public duties for Kate. The palace issued a new photo of Kate, taken in Windsor earlier this week, showing her next to a tree, dressed casually in jeans and a blazer.  The palace said the king was “delighted” that Kate will attend Trooping the Colour, also known as the King’s Birthday Parade. It is an annual military parade that marks the monarch’s official birthday in June. Charles, who also is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, is due to oversee the ceremony, in which troops in full dress uniform parade past the king with their ceremonial flag, or “colour.”  Kate is expected to travel in a horse-drawn carriage from Buckingham Palace with the couple’s children — Prince George, 10; Princess Charlotte, 9; and Prince Louis, who is 6 — before watching the ceremony from a building beside the parade ground. She may also join other royals for a traditional Buckingham Palace balcony appearance.  Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the princess' statement was “wonderful news."  “I thought it was brave, I thought it was honest and I’m sure it will bring an enormous amount of comfort to so many other people who are grappling with similar health challenges,” Sunak said at a Group of Seven summit in Italy.  Kate’s announcement in March came after speculation proliferated on social media about her well-being and absence from public view. She has revealed few details about her illness, which was discovered after what she described as major abdominal surgery in January.  In a March video message, Kate said the diagnosis had come as “a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.”  On Friday, Kate thanked members of the public, saying she had been “blown away by all the kind messages of support and encouragement.”  “I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty. Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body, and allowing myself to take this much needed time to heal,” she said. “Thank you so much for your continued understanding, and to all of you who have so bravely shared your stories with me.”  Charles, 75, disclosed his cancer in February, and has recently eased back into public duties. He attended commemorations this week for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe on June 6, 1944.  Charles is likely to travel to Saturday’s event by carriage with Queen Camilla and is expected to watch the ceremony seated on a dais, rather than on horseback as he did last year. 

MINA, Saudi Arabia — In sweltering temperatures, Muslim pilgrims in the Saudi city of Mecca converged on a vast desert tent camp Friday, officially starting the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Earlier, they circled the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site. More than 1.5 million pilgrims from around the world have amassed in and around Mecca for the Hajj, and the number was growing as more pilgrims from inside Saudi Arabia join. Authorities expected the number to exceed 2 million this year. This year's Hajj comes against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians in Gaza were not able to travel to Mecca this year because of the closure of the Rafah crossing in May, when Israel expanded its ground offensive to the coastal strip's southern city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt. "We pray for the Muslims, for our country and people, for all the Muslim world, especially for the Palestinian people," Mohammed Rafeeq, an Indian pilgrim, said as he headed to the tent camp in Mina. Saudi authorities have apparently been concerned about potential protests or chants against the war during the Hajj pilgrimage. They said they won't tolerate politicizing the pilgrimage. "The kingdom resolutely confirms that it will not allow any attempt to turn the sacred sites [in Mecca] into an arena for mob chanting," Colonel Talal Al-Shalhoub, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said in a news conference Friday. "The security and safety of the guests of Rahman is a red line." Officials said 4,200 pilgrims from the occupied West Bank went to the Hajj. Saudi authorities said 1,000 more from the families of Palestinians killed or wounded in Gaza also arrived at the invitation of Saudi King Salman. The invitees were outside Gaza — mostly in Egypt — before the closure of the Rafah border crossing. This year's Hajj also saw Syrian pilgrims traveling to Mecca on direct flights from Damascus for the first time in more than a decade. The change is part of an ongoing thaw in relations between Saudi Arabia and conflict-stricken Syria. Syrians in rebel-held areas used to cross the border into neighboring Turkey to travel from there to the Hajj. "This is the natural thing: Pilgrims go to Hajj directly from their home countries," said Abdel-Aziz al-Ashqar, a Syrian coordinator of the group of pilgrims who left Damascus. The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are required to make it at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do so. It is a moving spiritual experience for pilgrims who believe it absolves sins and brings them closer to God. The rituals during the Hajj largely commemorate the Quran's accounts of Prophet Ibrahim, his son Prophet Ismail and Ismail's mother Hajar — or Abraham and Ismael as they are named in the Bible. Male pilgrims wear an ihram, two unstitched sheets of white cloth that resemble a shroud, while women dress in conservative, loose-fitting clothing with headscarves and forgo makeup and perfume. The pilgrims have been circling around the cube-shaped Kaaba in the seven-minaret Grand Mosque since arriving in Mecca over recent days. Saudi authorities have adopted security restrictions in and around Mecca, with checkpoints on roads leading to the city to prevent those who don't have Hajj permits from reaching the holy sites. More than 256,000 visitors were not allowed to reach the holy sites because they lacked Hajj permits, Colonel Talal Al-Shalhoub, an Interior Ministry spokesperson, said at a news conference Friday. On Friday, the pilgrims made their way to Mina to officially start the Hajj. They will then move for a daylong vigil Saturday on Mount Arafat, a desert hill where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have delivered his final speech. Healthy pilgrims make the trip on foot; others use a bus or train. After Saturday's worship in Arafat, pilgrims travel a few kilometers to a site known as Muzdalifa to collect pebbles to use in the symbolic stoning of pillars representing the devil back in Mina. Pilgrims then return to Mina for three days, coinciding with the festive Eid al-Adha holiday, when financially able Muslims around the world slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor. Afterward, they return to Mecca for a final circumambulation. Most of the Hajj rituals are held outdoors with little if any shade. When it falls in the summer, temperatures can soar to over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). The Health Ministry has cautioned that temperatures at the holy sites could reach 48 Celsius (118 Fahrenheit). Many pilgrims carried umbrellas, and in Mina, charities handed out cold water. Cooling stations sprayed pilgrims with water.

Geneva — United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk is calling on warring parties in northern Ethiopia to lay down their arms, warning that human rights violations and abuses amid hostilities continue to endanger reconciliation efforts.  “I urge the parties to the conflict to halt ongoing hostilities and to resolve differences through peaceful means,” Türk said in a statement issued Friday to coincide with the release of a U.N. report updating the human rights situation across Ethiopia between January 2023 and January 2024.  “It is essential that the authorities take all feasible steps to protect civilians, prevent further violations, and ensure there are full investigations to bring those responsible to justice,” he said.  The report finds the human rights situation in the northern Tigray region has improved significantly following a November 2022 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, while violent conflict has led to a serious deterioration of human rights in the regions of Amhara and Oromia.  “The situation in Amhara and Oromia regions remains worrying, with ongoing fighting between government forces against Amhara militia and Fano and the Oromia Liberation Army respectively,” Liz Throssell, U.N. human rights spokesperson, told journalists in Geneva.  The report cites a litany of human rights violations and abuses committed by government security forces and armed groups, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, followed by killings of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, and attacks on civilian property.  It also says at least 1,351 civilians were killed in Ethiopia last year in attacks reportedly carried out by government forces, Eritrean troops, anti-government militias, and some unknown actors.  The report documents 594 incidents of human rights violations and abuses affecting 8,253 victims, “a 56 percent increase compared with 2022.” It adds that, “State actors were reportedly responsible for some 70 percent of the violations, while non-state actors accounted for some 22 percent.”  Declining violations in Tigray  In Ethiopia’s most-northern region, Tigray, the report describes a general decrease in human rights violations and abuses. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, recorded 44 civilian deaths in 2023 compared to 303 in 2022 in the context of the Tigray conflict. This, the report says, shows “a positive trend, despite the concerns of the presence of the EDF [Ethiopian Defense Forces] and alleged violations attributed to them.”   Throssell, however, noted that it is “absolutely clear that [Tigray] still remains volatile.”  “There are still conflicts taking place in Tigray. So, we are not saying that things are perfect there. Far from it. But the update is trying to take an overall picture, a nuanced picture of what is happening there, and there is concern,” she said. “Obviously humanitarian concerns continue in Tigray and other parts of Ethiopia.”  The report criticizes Ethiopia’s August 2023 state of emergency declaration for the neighboring region of Amhara, which “has resulted in actions by security forces in violation of Ethiopia’s international human rights obligations.”  It also decries the continued presence of the Eritrean Defense Forces in parts of Tigray and the continued violations committed by those forces, which “represent a serious impediment to the peace process.”  Türk welcomed the June 3rd expiration of the state of emergency, which authorities had extended repeatedly.  “I urge the authorities to release immediately those detained under the former state of emergency. … Those who have not been charged should also be released immediately,” he said. “I also call on the authorities to lift the restrictions on movements and resume regular law enforcement operations to protect people.”  Transitional justice policy  Ethiopia’s Federal Council of Ministers, the country’s executive branch, which also includes the president and Council of State, approved its transitional justice policy in April and launched its implementation on May 9. The update acknowledges the Ethiopian government’s efforts to promote transitional justice and prevent violence against women and children, as well as its openness to engage in dialogue to resolve the fighting in the Amhara region.  However, authors of the OHCHR report say that “the human rights violations and abuses documented during the reporting period undermine the efforts by the government of Ethiopia to foster peace and accountability.”    They point out that “quick and effective political and accountability steps are needed to halt the violations and abuses which are further endangering reconciliation and peace in the country.”  They urge the government to make a “sustained commitment” to develop the transitional justice policy and national dialogue in an atmosphere “that allows people to freely participate.”  The Ethiopian government, which has received the report, has yet to respond. 

The picture shows a Turkish ship with smoke, likely after a fire started in its engine room, not from a Hezbollah rocket.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Leaders at the G7 summit in Italy will meet with Pope Francis for a discussion about AI and will also look at economic competition from China, as well as Beijing's tacit support for Moscow’s war on Ukraine. Also, at the G7 President Biden and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine sign a security agreement that it designed to last no matter who the next president of the U.S. is. The IAEA has a warning about Iran’s uranium enrichment. Plus, Russia and North Korea.

New York — The United States announced Friday more than $315 million in additional humanitarian assistance to Sudan, where 14 months of war between rival generals has left nearly 25 million people in need of aid.  “This is the single largest humanitarian crisis on the planet,” USAID administrator Samantha Power told reporters on a conference call announcing the funding.  The United Nations warns that 5 million Sudanese are on the brink of famine.  Power expressed concern that the situation could be as bad as or worse than the 2011 drought-induced famine in Somalia that killed around 250,000 people, half of them children.  “The most worrying scenario would be that Sudan would become the deadliest famine since Ethiopia in the early 1980s,” she added.  Around 1 million Ethiopians perished over a two-year period in that historic famine. Millions more were displaced, and hundreds of thousands left Ethiopia.  Power said the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which are fighting each other, are actively blocking aid deliveries.  “It is obstruction, not insufficient stocks of food, that is the driving force behind the historic and deadly level of starvation in Sudan,” Power said. “That has to change immediately.”  Of the 25 million Sudanese in need of humanitarian aid and protection, the United Nations says 18 million are facing acute hunger, and that number will likely grow with the onset of the lean season this month.  The U.N. has been asking for months for both cross-border access from Chad and access across conflict front lines. It has also urged authorities to remove administrative barriers, including delays in travel authorizations for aid convoys.  Access impediments have made it almost impossible to move humanitarian supplies to parts of Darfur and Khartoum.  The situation in North Darfur’s capital city, El Fasher, is especially dire. The RSF has surrounded the city, burning and looting communities in its vicinity. They have advanced on the city, where an SAF infantry division is outnumbered and surrounded.  On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution demanding the RSF halt its siege and de-escalate the fight for El Fasher — where more than 800,000 civilians are sheltering — and allow aid in.  The World Food Program said Friday that a convoy carrying aid for about 160,000 people crossed into Darfur this week from Chad. It is only the third convoy to enter Sudan via the Tine border crossing from Chad in the past two months. The aid it is carrying is headed for people in Central, East and West Darfur.  Battle for El Fasher  Power said Washington is concerned about what will happen to the civilians in El Fasher, especially ethnically non-Arab communities, if the city falls to the RSF.  “Clearly the RSF is on the march,” she said. “And where the RSF has gone in the Darfur area historically, and this conflict, mass atrocities have followed.”  Arab Janjaweed fighters who carried out the genocide against African Zaghawa, Masalit, Fur and other non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur in the early 2000s, make up elements of today's RSF.  U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on the call that there is no military solution to this conflict, and she criticized countries that are supporting the rival generals with arms and ammunition.  “We have been very, very clear with those actors, that they should cease their support for this war,” she said. “It is only exacerbating and prolonging the conflict, and it is making the situation more dire for the people of Sudan.”  She said the U.S. has spoken with the United Arab Emirates, which was implicated for sending military support to the RSF in a U.N. expert report earlier this year. The UAE denies it, saying it sends only humanitarian aid.  “We have engaged with the UAE; we have engaged with others,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “We know that the Russians and the Iranians are also providing support for the SAF. Both sides are getting this outside support, and we are pressuring all sides to discontinue.”  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also expressed his concern about the fighting in El Fasher and across Sudan, saying a cease-fire is urgently needed to alleviate civilian suffering.

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BARI, Italy — Pope Francis challenged leaders of the world’s wealthy democracies Friday to keep human dignity foremost in developing and using artificial intelligence, warning that such powerful technology risks turning human relations themselves into mere algorithms.  Francis brought his moral authority to bear on the Group of Seven, invited by host Italy to address a special session at their annual summit on the perils and promises of AI. In doing so, he became the first pope to attend the G7, offering an ethical take on an issue that is increasingly on the agenda of international summits, government policy and corporate boards alike.  Francis said politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric, so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans and not machines.  “We would condemn humanity to a future without hope if we took away people’s ability to make decisions about themselves and their lives, by dooming them to depend on the choices of machines,” he said. “We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: Human dignity itself depends on it.”  Francis is joining a chorus of countries and global bodies pushing for stronger guardrails on AI following the boom in generative artificial intelligence kickstarted by OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot.  The Argentine pope used his annual peace message this year to call for an international treaty to ensure AI is developed and used ethically. He argues that a technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness is too perilous to develop unchecked.  He didn't repeat that call explicitly in his speech Friday, but he made clear the onus is on politicians to lead on the issue. And he called on them to ultimately ban the use of lethal autonomous weapons, colloquially known as “killer robots.”  “No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being,” he said.  Directing himself to the leaders around the table, he concluded: “It is up to everyone to make good use of [AI] but the onus is on politics to create the conditions for such good use to be possible and fruitful.”  Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni invited Francis and announced his participation, knowing the potential impact of his star power and moral authority on the G7. Those seated at the table seemed duly awed, and the boisterous buzz in the room went absolutely quiet when Francis arrived.  “The pope is, well, a very special kind of a celebrity,” said John Kirton, a political scientist at the University of Toronto who directs the G7 Research Group think tank.  Kirton recalled the last summit that had this kind of star power, that then translated into action, was the 2005 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland. There, world leaders decided to wipe out the $40 billion of the debts owed by 18 of the world’s poorest countries to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.  That summit was preceded by a Live 8 concert in London that featured Sting, The Who and a reformed Pink Floyd and drew over a million people in a show of solidarity against hunger and poverty in Africa.  “Gleneagles actually hit a home run and for some it’s one of the most successful summits,” Kirton said.  No such popular pressure is being applied to G7 leaders in the Italian region of Puglia, but Francis knew he could wield his own moral authority to renew his demands for safeguards for AI and highlight the threats to peace and society it poses if human ethics are left to the side.  “To speak of technology is to speak of what it means to be human and thus of our singular status as beings who possess both freedom and responsibility,” he said. “This means speaking about ethics.”  Generative AI technology has dazzled the world with its capabilities to produce humanlike responses, but it’s also sparked fears about AI safety and led to a jumble of global efforts to rein it in.  Some worry about catastrophic but far off risks to humanity because of its potential for creating new bioweapons and supercharging disinformation. Others fret about its effect on everyday life, through algorithmic bias that results in discrimination or AI systems that eliminate jobs.  In his peace message, Francis echoed those concerns and raised others. He said AI must keep foremost concerns about guaranteeing fundamental human rights, promoting peace and guarding against disinformation, discrimination and distortion.  On the regulation front, Francis will in some ways be preaching to the converted as the G7 members have been at the forefront of the debate on AI oversight.  Japan, which held the G7’s rotating presidency last year, launched its Hiroshima AI process to draw up international guiding principles and a code of conduct for AI developers. Adding to those efforts, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last month unveiled a framework for global regulation of generative AI, which are systems that can quickly churn out new text, images, video, audio in response to prompts and commands.  The European Union was one of the first movers with its wide-ranging AI Act that’s set to take effect over the next two years and could act as a global model. The act targets any AI product or service offered in the bloc’s 27 nations, with restrictions based on the level of risk they pose.  In the United States, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on AI safeguards and called for legislation to strengthen it, while some states like California and Colorado have been trying to pass their own AI bills, with mixed results.  Antitrust enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic have been scrutinizing big AI companies including Microsoft, Amazon and OpenAI over whether their dominant positions stifle competition.  Britain kickstarted a global dialogue on reining in AI’s most extreme dangers with a summit last fall. At a follow-up meeting in Seoul, companies pledged to develop the technology safely. France is set to host another meeting in the series early next year. The United Nations has also weighed in with its first resolution on AI.  On the sidelines of his AI speech, Francis has a full day of bilateral meetings. He had meetings with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as invited leaders from Algeria, Brazil, India, Kenya, Turkey. He will also meet with G7 members, including Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a rapid-fire gun accessory that was used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The high court's conservative majority found that the Trump administration did not follow federal law when it changed course from previous administrations after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival with assault rifles equipped with bump stocks. The accessory allows a rate of fire comparable to machine guns. The gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds in the crowd in 11 minutes, sending thousands of people fleeing in terror as hundreds were wounded and dozens were killed in 2017. The 6-3 majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas said a semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock is not an illegal machine gun because it doesn’t make the weapon fire more than one shot with one pull of the trigger. “A bump stock does not alter the basic mechanics of bump firing, and the trigger still must be released and reengaged to fire each additional shot,” he wrote in an opinion that contained multiple drawings of guns’ firing mechanisms. He was joined by his fellow conservatives. Justice Samuel Alito wrote a short separate opinion to stress that Congress can change the law to equate bump stocks with machine guns. Changing the definition of a bump stock through regulation rather than legislation took pressure off Republicans in Congress to act or justify inaction in the face of the Las Vegas massacre during Trump's presidency. In a dissent joined by her liberal colleagues, Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed to the Las Vegas gunman. “In murdering so many people so quickly, he did not rely on a quick trigger finger. Instead, he relied on bump stocks,” she said, reading a summary of her dissent aloud in the courtroom. Sotomayor said that it’s “deeply regrettable” Congress has to act but that she hopes it does. Former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign team said it respects the court's decision in a statement that quickly pivoted to politics, touting his endorsement by the National Rifle Association. President Joe Biden did not have an immediate comment. The ruling came after a Texas gun shop owner challenged the ban, arguing the Justice Department wrongly classified the accessories as illegal machine guns. The Biden administration said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives made the right choice for the gun accessories, which can allow weapons to fire at a rate of hundreds of rounds a minute. It marked the latest gun case to come before the high court. A conservative supermajority handed down a landmark decision expanding gun rights in 2022 and is weighing another gun case challenging a federal law intended to keep guns away from people under domestic violence restraining orders. The arguments in the bump stock case, though, were more about whether the ATF had overstepped its authority than the Second Amendment. Justices from the court’s liberal wing suggested it was “common sense” that anything capable of unleashing a “torrent of bullets” was a machine gun under federal law. Conservative justices, though, raised questions about why Congress had not acted to ban bump stocks, as well as the effects of the ATF changing its mind a decade after declaring the accessories legal. The high court took up the case after a split among lower courts over bump stocks, which were invented in the early 2000s. Under Republican President George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama, the ATF decided that bump stocks didn’t transform semiautomatic weapons into machine guns. The agency reversed those decisions at Trump’s urging after the shooting in Las Vegas and another mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school that killed 17 people. Bump stocks are accessories that replace a rifle’s stock, the part that rests against the shoulder. They harness the gun’s recoil energy so that the trigger bumps against the shooter’s stationary finger, allowing the gun to fire at a rate comparable to a traditional machine gun. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have their own bans on bump stocks. The plaintiff, Texas gun shop owner and military veteran Michael Cargill, was represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a group funded by conservative donors such as the Koch network. His attorneys acknowledged that bump stocks allow for rapid fire but argued that they are different because the shooter has to put in more effort to keep the gun firing. Government lawyers countered that the effort required from the shooter is small and doesn’t make a legal difference. The Justice Department said the ATF changed its mind on bump stocks after doing a more in-depth examination spurred by the Las Vegas shooting and came to the right conclusion. There were about 520,000 bump stocks in circulation when the ban went into effect in 2019, requiring people to either surrender or destroy them, at a combined estimated loss of $100 million, the plaintiffs said in court documents.

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U.S. and NATO leaders in Brussels are at odds over the extent to which Ukrainians can use Western-provided weapons to hit military targets inside Russian territory. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has more.