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Under the Taliban, the news media in Afghanistan are among the least free in the world, but a new generation of journalists is still keen to learn the skills of the trade. Even women, who are barred from attending university in Afghanistan, are finding ways to study. VOA’s Afghan service has the story, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.

Israel launched massive new airstrikes against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 490 people and injuring more than 1,600 others, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Washington, the latest strikes are escalating fears that conflict will spread across the region.

Pentagon — The U.S. military is expected to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine this week valued at up to $375 million, the largest aid sent to Kyiv since May. According to several U.S. officials, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity to discuss the package ahead of the announcement, the aid for Kyiv is expected to be announced as soon as Wednesday. One official told VOA the package is likely to include air-to-ground munitions for F-16 fighter jets, which would allow Ukrainian pilots to operate away from the front lines and Russia’s air defenses.  The package also includes ammunition for HIMARS, patrol boats and armored vehicles, along with 155mm rounds, 105 mm rounds and TOW missiles, the official added. The package, which is still being finalized and could change, according to the U.S. officials, is being sent under the presidential drawdown authority that allows the Pentagon to send Ukraine aid directly from its American military stockpiles.  The Pentagon has more than $5 billion left of the $61 billion in funding for Ukraine that was signed into law by President Joe Biden in April and could expire at the end of this month. The Pentagon says it is working with Congress to roll the remaining funding over to the next U.S. fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. The officials tell VOA they are working on contingency plans should Congress not approve the extension before the end of the fiscal year. The package is expected to be announced as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet with President Biden and Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris this Friday at the White House. Officials say Zelenskyy will lay out his plan to end the war with Russia and push for restrictions on U.S.-provided missiles to be lifted. U.S. policy does not allow Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons to fire on targets deep within Russian territory. The White House has expressed concerns that these strikes could draw the United States into direct conflict with Russia. Earlier this month, Zelenskyy told military allies meeting in Germany that his country needs the long-range capability to strike deep inside Russian territory "so that Russia is motivated to seek peace." The U.S. says that Russia has moved most of its aircraft and weapons out of range of Ukraine’s weapons, but Ukrainian officials are still interested in targeting supply lines and command centers closer to its border. Air Force General James Hecker, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, warned reporters last week that Russia’s military is now bigger and stronger than it was before invading Ukraine in February 2022. Despite Russian improvements on the battlefield, Ukraine has continued to put chinks in Russia’s armor, shooting down more than 100 Russian aircraft, which is dozens more aircraft than Russia has been able to down on the Ukrainian side, according to Hecker. “So what we see is the aircraft are kind of staying on their own side of the line, if you will, and when that happens, you have a war like we're seeing today, with massive attrition, cities just being demolished, a lot of civilian casualties,” he said. The U.S. and Denmark have been training a small number of Ukrainian pilots on the F-16, but qualified Ukrainian pilots and open training slots have been limited.

washington — Russia, Iran and China are not giving up on the use of artificial intelligence to sway American voters ahead of November’s presidential election even though U.S. intelligence agencies assess the use of AI has so far failed to revolutionize the election influence efforts. The new appraisal released late Monday from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence comes just more than 40 days before U.S. voters head to the polls. It follows what officials describe as a “steady state” of influence operations by Moscow, Tehran and Beijing aimed at impacting the race between former Republican President Donald Trump and current Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as other statewide and local elections. "Foreign actors are using AI to more quickly and convincingly tailor synthetic content,” said a U.S. intelligence official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss the latest findings. “AI is an enabler,” the official added. “A malign influence accelerant, not yet a revolutionary influence tool.” It is not the first time U.S. officials have expressed caution about how AI could impact the November election. A top official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the U.S. agency charged with overseeing election security, told VOA earlier this month that to this point the malicious use of AI has not been able to live up to some of the hype. “Generative AI is not going to fundamentally introduce new threats to this election cycle,” said CISA senior adviser Cait Conley. “What we're seeing is consistent with what we expected to see.” That does not mean, however, that U.S. adversaries are not trying. The new U.S. intelligence assessment indicates Russia, Iran and China have used AI to generate text, images, audio and video and distribute them across all major social media platforms. Russia, Iran and China have yet to respond to requests for comment. All three have previously rejected U.S. allegations regarding election influence campaigns. While U.S. intelligence officials would not say how many U.S. voters have been exposed to such malign AI products, there is reason to think that some of the efforts are, at least for the moment, falling short. “The quality is not as believable as you might expect,” said the U.S. intelligence official. One reason, the official said, is because Russia, Iran and China have struggled to overcome restrictions built into some of the more advanced AI tools while simultaneously encountering difficulties developing their own AI models. There are also indications that all three U.S. adversaries have to this point failed to find ways to more effectively use AI to find and target receptive audiences. “To do scaled AI operations is not cheap,” according to Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent and counterterror consultant who heads up the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC). “Some of the infrastructure and the resources of it [AI], the models, the data it needs to be trained [on] – very challenging at the moment,” Watts told a cybersecurity summit in Washington earlier this month. “You can make more of everything misinformation, disinformation, but it doesn't mean they'll be very good.” In some cases, U.S. adversaries see traditional tactics, which do not rely on AI, as equally effective. For instance, U.S. intelligence officials on Monday said a video claiming that Vice President Harris injured a girl in a 2011 hit-and-run accident was staged by Russian influence actors, confirming an assessment last week by Microsoft. The officials also said altered videos showing Harris speaking slowly, also the result of Russian influence actors, could have been done without relying on AI. For now, experts and intelligence officials agree that when it comes to AI, Russia, Iran and China have settled on quantity over quality. Microsoft has tracked hundreds of instances of AI use by Russia, Iran and China over the past 14 months. And while U.S. intelligence officials would not say how much AI-generated material has been disseminated, they agree Russian-linked actors, especially, have been leading the way. “These items include AI-generated content of and about prominent U.S. figures … consistent with Russia's broader efforts to boost the former president's candidacy and denigrate the vice president and the Democratic Party,” the U.S. intelligence official said, calling Russia one of the most sophisticated actors in knowing how to target American voters. Those efforts included an AI-boosted effort to spread disinformation with a series of fake web domains masquerading as legitimate U.S. news sites, interrupted earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Justice. Iran, which has sought to hurt the re-election bid by former President Trump, has also copied the Russian playbook, according to the new U.S. assessment, seeking to sow discord among U.S. voters. Tehran has also been experimenting, using AI to help spread its influence campaign not just in English, but also in Spanish, especially when seeking to generate anger among voters over immigration. “One of the benefits of generative AI models is to overcome various language barriers,” the U.S. intelligence official said. “So Iran can use the tools to help do that,” the official added, calling immigration “obviously an issue where Iran perceives they could stoke discord.” Beijing, in some ways, has opted for a more sophisticated use of AI, according to the U.S. assessment, using it to generate fake news anchors in addition to fake social media accounts. But independent analysts have questioned the reach of China’s efforts under its ongoing operation known as “Spamouflage.” A recent report by the social media analytics firm Graphika found that, with few exceptions, the Chinese accounts “failed to garner significant traction in authentic online communities discussing the election.” U.S. intelligence officials have also said the majority of the Chinese efforts have been aimed not at Trump or Harris, but at state and local candidates perceived as hostile to Beijing. U.S. intelligence officials on Monday refused to say how many other countries are using AI in an effort to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Earlier this month, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Washington was “seeing more actors in this space acting more aggressively in a more polarized environment and doing more with technologies, in particular AI.”

united nations — Leaders at the United Nations urged implementation of a newly adopted blueprint for addressing a wide range of global challenges on Monday, the second and final day of the Summit of the Future. “We cannot afford to wait any longer,” said Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. “We must push for true and real reform – reform that listens to the voices of developing countries and addresses their concerns.” She emphasized that the summit’s Pact of the Future must not become “a set of empty promises without tangible results on the ground.” “Success of humanity lies in our collective strength, not in the battlefield,” said Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi. “And for global peace and development, reforms in global institutions are essential. Reform is the key to relevance.” The pact includes frameworks for promoting peace and security, sustainable development, digital cooperation, human rights and gender equality. Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, made his U.N. debut at the summit, pledging that his administration is seeking to reduce inequality and empower women and youth. The country saw a wave of protests in 2022 and 2023 after the death of a young woman who died in police custody after being detained for not properly covering her head. In New York, protesters gathered outside Pezeshkian’s hotel ahead of his speech. A large protest is planned on Tuesday before his address to the General Assembly’s annual debate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used his turn at the podium to highlight Russia’s obstruction during the negotiations on the Pact for the Future. “Ukraine supports efforts to keep all nations united, safe, and strictly adhere to the U.N. Charter,” he said. “And you all can see who stands against it, but also actively works to undermine global unity.” In the final week of negotiations, Russia raised at least 15 different objections to elements of the text. As the assembly gathered to adopt the document on Sunday morning, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, backed by a handful of countries, tried to get an amendment added to the pact, but it was overwhelmingly rejected by other nations. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to address the summit late Monday. On Tuesday, the assembly’s annual debate kicks off. U.S. President Joe Biden will make his farewell U.N. address. The presidents of Brazil, South Africa, Iran and Nigeria will be among the speakers. Afghan women On the margins of the General Assembly meeting, Afghan women advocated for their rights at an event focused on the inclusion of women in the future of Afghanistan. Last month, the Afghan Taliban enacted a “morality law” that further erodes the rights of women and girls. Its restrictions include a prohibition on Afghan women using their voices in public and orders them to completely cover their bodies and faces outdoors. Women are also forbidden from interacting with non-Muslims, using public transport alone, and looking at men who are not their husband or blood relative. “To all male leaders, what if it were the reverse? How would you feel to be banned from existing in society?” asked Asila Wardak, the former director general of Human Rights and Women’s International Affairs in Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry. Acclaimed American actor Meryl Streep participated in the panel. She noted that historically Afghanistan was ahead of even some Western nations in giving its women the right to vote, and it had many female civil servants, judges, lawyers, doctors and teachers. “Today in Kabul a female cat has more freedoms than a woman,” she said. “A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face. She may chase a squirrel into the park. A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today, because public parks are closed to women and girls by the Taliban.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded that the Taliban immediately remove all the discriminatory restrictions against women and girls and reopen schools and universities to them. Currently, Afghan girls are only allowed to attend school until grade 6. “We will never allow gender-based discrimination to become normalized anywhere in the world,” Guterres said.

MEXICO CITY — A tropical storm over the eastern Pacific Ocean intensified into a hurricane and was ripping toward Mexico's southern coast on Monday.  Originally forecast as a tropical storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said that John had "rapidly strengthened" into a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 155 kph (100 mph). The storm was located 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Punta Maldonado. It was moving north at 9 kph (6 mph).  John was barreling forward as a category 2 hurricane, but was forecast to continue strengthening, possibly into a major category 4 hurricane before making landfall Tuesday. John's forecast path continued shifting so the point of landfall remained uncertain.  The center said it could result in dangerous winds and storm surges, as well as "life-threatening" flash floods in the Pacific coast near Oaxaca, a hub of resort towns.  Things were tense in Oaxaca's coastal cities on Monday shortly after the announcement as residents and businesses were bracing themselves.  Laura Velázquez, the federal coordinator of civil protection, told residents of Pacific coastal cities they should evacuate their homes and head to shelters in order to "protect their and their family's lives."  "It's very important that all citizens in the coastal zone ... take preventive measures," Velázquez said.  Meanwhile, hotels in the tourist hub of Puerto Escondido were awaiting instructions from authorities to begin evacuating tourists to transfer them to safer areas.  Ana Aldai, a 33-year-old employee of a restaurant located on the shores of Playa Escondida, said that businesses in the area began closing after authorities ordered the suspension of all work on the area's main beaches.  Videos on social media from Puerto Escondido showed flip-flop-clad tourists walking through heavy rain and fishermen pulling their boats out of the water. Strong rains in previous days have already left some roads in the region in a precarious position.  Aldai said she was "a little bit distressed" because notice from authorities came quickly.  "There was no opportunity to make the necessary purchases. That also distresses us," she said.  Mexican authorities were meeting Monday afternoon to plan their response to the hurricane.  Through Thursday, John is expected to produce 15 to 30 centimeters (6 to 12 inches) of rain across coastal areas of Chiapas state with more in isolated areas. In areas along and near the Oaxaca coast to southeast Guerrero, between 25 and 50 centimeters (10 and 20 inches) of rain with isolated higher totals can be expected through Thursday.  The hurricane is bleak news for the region, which last year was walloped by a similar rapidly intensifying hurricane.  Hurricane Otis devastated the resort city of Acapulco, where residents had little warning of the strength of what was about to hit them. One of the most rapidly intensifying hurricanes ever seen, scientists at the time said it was a product of changing climate conditions.  Otis blew out power in the city for days, left bodies scattered on the coast and desperate family members searching for lost loved ones. Much of the city was left in a state of lawlessness, with thousands scavenging in stores and scrambling for food and water.

BOULDER, Colorado — A mentally ill man who killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 was convicted Monday of murder and faces life in prison.  Defense attorneys did not dispute that Ahmad Alissa, who has schizophrenia, fatally shot 10 people including a police officer in the city of Boulder. But he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with the defense arguing he couldn't tell right from wrong at the time of the attack.  In addition to 10 counts of first-degree murder, the jury found Alissa guilty of 38 charges of attempted murder, one count of assault, and six counts of possessing illegal, large-capacity magazines.  First-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence in Colorado. Sentencing in the case was set for later Monday, during which the victims and family were expected to address the court.  Alissa did not visibly react as the judge began reciting the guilty verdicts against him. He sat at a table with his attorneys and appeared to trade notes with members of the defense team, speaking quietly at times with one of his attorneys.  Judge Ingrid Bakke had warned against any outbursts. There were some tears and restrained crying on the victims' side of the courtroom as the murder convictions were read.  The courtroom was packed largely with victims' families and police officers, including those who were shot at by Alissa. Several members of Alissa's family sat just behind him.  Alissa started shooting immediately after getting out of his car in a grocery store parking lot in March 2021. He killed most of the victims in just more than a minute and surrendered after an officer shot him in the leg.  Prosecutors had to prove Alissa was sane. They argued he didn't fire randomly and showed an ability to make decisions by pursuing people who were running and trying to hide from him. He twice passed by a 91-year-old man who continued to shop, unaware of the shooting.  He came armed with steel-piercing bullets and illegal magazines that can hold 30 rounds of ammunition, which prosecutors said showed he took deliberate steps to make the attack as deadly as possible.  Several members of Alissa's family, who immigrated to the United States from Syria, testified that he had become withdrawn and spoke less a few years before the shooting. He later began acting paranoid and showed signs of hearing voices, they said, and his condition worsened after he got COVID-19 in late 2020.  Alissa was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the attack and experts said the behaviors described by relatives are consistent with the onset of the disease. 

wyoming, iowa — Taking a late-summer country drive in the Midwest means venturing into the corn zone, snaking between 12-foot-tall green, leafy walls that seem to block out nearly everything other than the sun and an occasional water tower. The skyscraper-like corn is a part of rural America as much as cavernous red barns and placid cows. But soon, that towering corn might become a miniature of its former self, replaced by stalks only half as tall as the green giants that have dominated fields for so long. "As you drive across the Midwest, maybe in the next seven, eight, 10 years, you're going to see a lot of this out there," said Cameron Sorgenfrey, an eastern Iowa farmer who has been growing newly developed short corn for several years, sometimes prompting puzzled looks from neighboring farmers. "I think this is going to change agriculture in the Midwest." The short corn developed by Bayer Crop Science is being tested on about 30,000 acres (12,141 hectares) in the Midwest with the promise of offering farmers a variety that can withstand powerful windstorms that could become more frequent due to climate change. The corn's smaller stature and sturdier base enable it to withstand winds of up to 50 mph — researchers hover over fields with a helicopter to see how the plants handle the wind. The smaller plants also let farmers plant at greater density, so they can grow more corn on the same amount of land, increasing their profits. That is especially helpful as farmers have endured several years of low prices that are forecast to continue. The smaller stalks could also lead to less water use at a time of growing drought concerns. U.S. farmers grow corn on about 90 million acres (36 million hectares) each year, usually making it the nation's largest crop, so it's hard to overstate the importance of a potential large-scale shift to smaller-stature corn, said Dior Kelley, an assistant professor at Iowa State University who is researching different paths for growing shorter corn. Last year, U.S. farmers grew more than 400 tons (363 metric tons) of corn, most of which was used for animal feed, the fuel additive ethanol or exported to other countries. "It is huge. It's a big, fundamental shift," Kelley said. Researchers have long focused on developing plants that could grow the most corn but recently there has been equal emphasis on other traits, such as making the plant more drought-tolerant or able to withstand high temperatures. Although there already were efforts to grow shorter corn, the demand for innovations by private companies such as Bayer and academic scientists soared after an intense windstorm — called a derecho — plowed through the Midwest in August 2020. The storm killed four people and caused $11 billion in damage, with the greatest destruction in a wide strip of eastern Iowa, where winds exceeded 100 mph. In cities such as Cedar Rapids, the wind toppled thousands of trees but the damage to a corn crop only weeks from harvest was especially stunning. "It looked like someone had come through with a machete and cut all of our corn down," Kelley said. Or as Sorgenfrey, the Iowa farmer who endured the derecho put it, "Most of my corn looked like it had been steamrolled." Although Kelley is excited about the potential of short corn, she said farmers need to be aware that cobs that grow closer to the soil could be more vulnerable to diseases or mold. Short plants also could be susceptible to a problem called lodging, when the corn tilts over after something like a heavy rain and then grows along the ground, Kelley said. Brian Leake, a Bayer spokesman, said the company has been developing short corn for more than 20 years. Other companies such as Stine Seed and Corteva also have been working for a decade or longer to offer short-corn varieties. While the big goal has been developing corn that can withstand high winds, researchers also note that a shorter stalk makes it easier for farmers to get into fields with equipment for tasks such as spreading fungicide or seeding the ground with a future cover crop. Bayer expects to ramp up its production in 2027, and Leake said he hopes that by later in this decade, farmers will grow short corn everywhere. "We see the opportunity of this being the new normal across both the U.S. and other parts of the world," he said.

paris — After more than two months without a functioning government, France’s new cabinet got to work Monday. How long it will remain in office is unclear. French politics have been in limbo since inconclusive snap legislative elections in late June and early July. The elections saw a leftist coalition win the most votes and the far-right National Rally emerging as the largest party. Only now, after the Paris Olympics, has a new center-right government been named, which doesn’t include either of these two blocs. On national TV Sunday night, conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier outlined some broad priorities. He called for controlling and limiting immigration, saying the number of migrants arriving in France had become unbearable. His new interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, strongly advocates tighter migration controls. Barnier also called for what he described as a “national effort,” including taxes on the rich to cut the country’s budget deficit, which is well over the European Union limit. But he said he would not touch social changes like gay marriage and a recent move to enshrine abortion freedoms in the French constitution. Barnier’s new government is already feeling pressure. Thousands demonstrated in Paris even before his cabinet was named. Far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon warned Barnier’s government had no future — a warning picked up by the far right. The left has vowed a no-confidence motion, but analysts say it isn’t likely to succeed.

NEW YORK — First lady Jill Biden is unveiling a new set of actions to address health inequities faced by women in the United States, plans that include spending at least $500 million annually on women's health research.  Biden was making the announcement Monday while closing out the first day of this year's Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York.  The additional government spending will mainly come from the Department of Defense, which provides medical care to more than 230,000 active-duty military women and nearly 2 million military retirees, as well as their family members. The research will focus on why these women experience endocrine, hematological and other immunity-related disorders twice as often as men.  "Our nation is home to the best health research in the world, yet women's health is understudied and research is underfunded," Biden said at a separate event on Friday. "And we still know too little about how to effectively prevent, diagnose, and treat a range of health conditions in women, from heart disease to cancers."  The commitment was among the largest of the more than 100 expected at the two-day meeting of political, business and philanthropic leaders gathering to address some of the world's most pressing issues. Former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton have set this year's theme as "What's Working," a way to look for potential solutions and effective programs in tumultuous times.  "You don't look at a problem and say, 'That's impossible,’" Bill Clinton said in his opening remarks. "You don't just throw up your hands. You roll up your sleeves."  An example of that strategy came from the announcement that a wide-ranging group of 15 nonprofits, humanitarian aid organizations and other funders will join forces to address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan following more than a year of conflict.  The Coalition for Mutual Aid in Sudan — which includes The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Giving, Global Fund for Women, and The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee — will donate at least $2 million to mutual aid groups in the country by the end of the year. It also pledged to raise another $4.5 million for those groups within the next two years.  Patricia McIlreavy, president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, which has been representing the coalition, said that, while much more aid is needed, the collaboration and problem-solving of the group is an important step forward.  "It gets us started," McIlreavy told The Associated Press. "And it models the behavior you want to see from others. If you wait until it's the perfect opportunity, you've missed many of the opportunities that were good enough."  World Food Program director Cindy McCain said earlier this month that "Sudan's nearly a forgotten crisis" and that 25 million people there already face acute hunger. Last week, the top United Nations humanitarian official said fighting is escalating in the conflict that began in April 2023 when long-simmering tensions between Sudan's military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions. The U.N. says more than 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured.  "With ongoing impediments to a large-scale international aid response, Sudanese community groups have become the primary frontline responders and are currently the most effective means of reaching millions on the brink of starvation," Patricia McIlreavy, president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, said in a prepared statement on behalf of the coalition. "With so many lives on the line, the imperative to support local aid efforts in Sudan has never been more urgent."  The Center for Disaster Philanthropy says more than 12 million people have been forced from their homes in Sudan, creating what is now the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis. The danger from the conflict has prevented most international aid agencies from delivering supplies to those in need.  Greg Milne, the Clinton Global Initiative CEO who convened a panel in April to raise awareness and support for the Sudanese people, said the new coalition is an example of what bringing organizations from varied sectors can do.  "We know strong, diverse partnerships can help address often overlooked and even dire challenges, and develop unexpected and innovative solutions," he said.  Philanthropic leaders, including Bill Gates, World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres, Open Society Foundations President Binaifer Nowrojee, and Rockefeller Foundation President Raj Shah will share information about their work during CGI, as will Prince Harry, who will discuss the launch of The Archewell Foundation Parents' Network, which supports parents of children harmed online. In his Tuesday appearance, the Duke of Sussex will also address his work with the World Health Organization and others to reduce violence against children, an issue he and his wife Meghan outlined on a recent trip to Colombia.  Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani Sadriu, and Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics are set to address the conference, as are CEOs from Pfizer, Mastercard, IKEA, Pinterest, Sanofi and Chobani. 

Venezuela’s opposition, facing a post-election crackdown, has offered ample evidence Maduro lost the July 28 presidential poll.

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal jury in Texas on Monday cleared a group of former President Donald Trump supporters and found one driver liable in a civil trial over a so-called "Trump Train" that surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus on a busy highway days before the 2020 election.  The two-week trial in a federal courthouse in Austin centered on whether the actions of the "Trump Train" participants amounted to political intimidation. Among those aboard the bus was former Democratic lawmaker Wendy Davis, who testified she feared for her life while a convoy of Trump supporters boxed in the bus along Interstate 35.  The jury awarded $10,000 to the bus driver.  No criminal charges were filed against the six Trump supporters who were sued by Davis and two others aboard the bus. Civil rights advocates hoped a guilty verdict would send a clear message about what constitutes political violence and intimidation.  On Oct. 20, 2020, a Biden-Harris campaign bus was traveling from San Antonio to Austin for an event when a group of cars and trucks waving Trump flags surrounded the bus.  Video that Davis recorded from the bus shows pickup trucks with large Trump flags slowing down to box in the bus as it tried to move away from the group of Trump supporters. One of the defendants hit a campaign volunteer's car while the trucks occupied all lanes of traffic, forcing the bus and everyone around it to a 15 mph crawl.  It was the last day of early voting in Texas and the bus was scheduled to stop at San Marcos for an event at Texas State University.  The event was canceled after Davis and others on the bus — a campaign staffer and the driver — made repeated calls to 911 asking for a police escort through San Marcos and no help arrived.  Davis testified that she felt scared and anxious throughout the ordeal. "I feel like they were enjoying making us afraid," she testified. "It's traumatic for all of us to revisit that day." 

With pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai jailed in Hong Kong facing widely condemned charges, the journalist’s son and his international legal team are pushing the United States and other countries to help secure Lai’s immediate release. From Washington, Liam Scott has the story for VOA

Pentagon — The United States is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East following a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said on Monday. Ryder did not provide further details on the number of forces or what they would be doing. However, a senior U.S. official told VOA the number of troops would be in the dozens and their primary task would be preparing for a potential military-assisted departure of U.S. citizens, should a greater regional war break out. Another U.S. official stressed that the situation was not at a point yet where a military-assisted departure was needed. If an evacuation is needed, the U.S. military has Marines deployed nearby who could execute the mission, another official told VOA. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security issues. Ryder, in response to a VOA question on Monday, told reporters that the Pentagon was a “planning organization” that was ready for a “wide variety of contingencies,” should the U.S. military be called for assistance. “We have more capability in the region today than we did on April 14, when Iran conducted its drone and missile attack against Israel,” he said. The announcement comes after several strikes by Israeli forces against Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon have killed hundreds of people. The State Department is warning Americans to leave Lebanon as the risk of a regional war escalates.

NEW YORK — California and several environmental groups sued ExxonMobil on Monday and accused the oil giant of engaging in a decades-long campaign that helped fuel global plastic waste pollution.  Speaking at an event during Climate Week in New York City, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state sued Exxon after concluding a nearly two-year investigation that he said showed Exxon was deliberately misleading the public about the limitations of recycling.  "Today's lawsuit shows the fullest picture to date of ExxonMobil's decades-long deception, and we are asking the court to hold ExxonMobil fully accountable for its role in actively creating and exacerbating the plastics pollution crisis through its campaign of deception," Bonta said in a statement.  The investigation mirrors California's previous probes into the oil industry's alleged efforts to mislead the public about climate change, which the state is also suing over, and continues a long-standing adversarial relationship between the state and Big Oil.  Once a major crude supplier, California's oil production has been on a steady decline for almost four decades, with companies saying the regulatory environment there makes it a difficult place to invest.  Exxon rival Chevron Corp., meanwhile, a strong critic of California’s policies, said this year it plans to move its headquarters from the state where it was born to oil-friendly Texas.   A coalition of environmental groups including the Sierra Club appeared to join California's legal battle, filing a related lawsuit in the same state court in San Francisco, raising similar allegations against Exxon.  Bonta, a Democrat, said his office specifically had sought information on Exxon's promotion of its "advanced recycling" technology, which uses a process called pyrolysis to turn hard-to-recycle plastic into fuel.   He had said the technology's slow progress was a sign of Exxon's ongoing deception. He said he wants to secure an abatement fund and civil penalties for the harm inflicted by plastics pollution on California.  Exxon pushed back at the attorney general, arguing that solutions like advanced recycling work.  "Suing people makes headlines but doesn't solve the plastic waste problem. Advanced recycling is a real solution," said a spokesperson for ExxonMobil, adding that California has done "nothing to 'advance' recycling."  Notre Dame Law School Professor Bruce Huber, who specializes in environmental law, said California may face an "uphill battle" with its lawsuit.  "The state's primary claim relies on public nuisance, a notoriously murky area of law. It could be difficult for a court to grant California relief here without opening a Pandora's box of other, similar claims," he said.  Exxon is the world's largest producer of resins used for single-use plastics, according to a report published last year by the Minderoo Foundation, with consultancies Wood Mackenzie and the Carbon Trust.  Reuters has reported on the enormous obstacles facing advanced recycling that the plastics industry touts as an environmental savior.  California's lawsuit comes ahead of a final round of global plastic treaty negotiations set to take place in Busan, South Korea, at the end of the year.  In those talks, countries are split over whether the treaty should call for caps on plastic production, a position opposed by Exxon and the global petrochemical industry.  The United States last month said it supports a treaty designed around global plastic production cuts.  Environmental groups praised the lawsuit.   Christy Leavitt, Oceana's plastics campaign director, said California's lawsuit will "hold industry accountable and debunk the plastics recycling narrative that holds us back from real solutions."

Washington — The son of Iran’s last monarch, exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi, used a speech to Israeli American activists in Washington on Friday to urge them to act in support of his campaign to oust Iran’s Islamist rulers. In an interview with VOA shortly after his speech at the Israeli-American Council national summit, Pahlavi answered a question about what kind of action he wants to see from Israelis by citing the concepts of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic Republic and “maximum support” for the Iranian people. He said that support includes fomenting “civil disobedience movements” in Iran and said it is “important to fund” them. After VOA published its initial story on Friday, highlighting Pahlavi’s reference to funding civil disobedience movements in Iran in his answer to the question about what he is urging Israelis to do, some of his supporters in the Iranian diaspora used the social media X platform to express doubt about Pahlavi’s stated position. Those supporters said they did not believe Pahlavi was calling on Israelis to provide financial support to dissidents in Iran. Rather, they said they believed he was referring to diaspora Iranians as the people who should do the funding. In a statement sent to VOA on Saturday, an aide to Pahlavi said the U.S.-based crown prince’s comment about funding civil disobedience movements such as protests and labor strikes in Iran had been misinterpreted in the initial VOA story. “The crown prince has long been a strong advocate for the establishment of a labor strike fund, emphasizing its importance in empowering the Iranian people in their fight for freedom,” the aide said. “He believes that such a fund could be financed using Iran's blocked assets, asserting that this money rightfully belongs to the Iranian people, not the regime.” The Washington event at which Pahlavi spoke is an annual gathering of Israeli American activists, their Jewish American allies and other Israel supporters. Pahlavi drew cheers and standing ovations from the audience for urging Israelis to work with Iranians to oust the radical clerics who have ruled Iran since overthrowing his father in 1979. The speech was his most high-profile outreach to Israelis since traveling to Israel in April 2023, when he became the most prominent Iranian opposition figure to make a public visit to the Jewish state. The following transcript of Pahlavi’s interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. VOA: In your IAC speech, you urged the audience to take action. What kinds of actions do you expect to see from Israeli Americans, Israelis in general and the Israeli government when it comes to achieving regime change? Reza Pahlavi, exiled Iranian crown prince: There are two major components in this campaign. On one hand, it is important to put maximum pressure on the regime. Parallel to that is maximum support for the people of Iran. We are trying to foment civil disobedience movements within Iran, ranging from protests to labor strikes. It is important to fund them. Many diaspora Iranians would like to help. But U.S. sanctions make it almost impossible for them to, for instance, transfer money back home. Many aspects of the sanctions rules have to change to facilitate that. It requires a new U.S. policy. There also needs to be an appropriate media strategy to counter the regime's propaganda machinery. All aspects of the campaign should be coordinated with some key governments that can help. VOA: Iran and its main proxy Hezbollah are once again threatening revenge against Israel for alleged Israeli attacks on Hezbollah communications devices in Lebanon this week. What is your message to the Islamic Republic as it considers its next move? Pahlavi: There is no message to give to warmongers who stand against freedom, peace, human rights and even our national identity. Iranians, by the millions, have shown how much they despise this regime and want to tell the world that it does not represent us. Iranians are peace lovers. We want to have good relationships with our neighborhood — with Arabs, Israelis and the rest of the world. This is why I’m not going to waste my time telling the regime anything. At the end of the day, the solution is for the Iranian people themselves to put an end to this regime. But as I said in my speech, they have done all of this work alone so far. They need extra support to have a chance of success. VOA: In the audience, some Iranian Muslims waved Iran’s former Lion and Sun flag and chanted your name, reflecting the support you have in the diaspora for your friendship toward Israel. But there also are some in the diaspora who accuse you of supporting Israeli aggression toward Palestinians and others in the region. What is your message to Iranians who are skeptical of your view that they need to embrace Israel to achieve regime change? Pahlavi: I think a strategic partnership with a country like Israel brings a tremendous amount of opportunities for sharing technological knowhow. One of the reasons for my trip to Israel was to explore the possibilities of using their expertise in water management for agriculture. We are facing a drought and water crisis in Iran, so we need to have a cordial relationship with such governments. It is unfortunate that when we have such a conflict [like the Israel-Hamas war], there always are casualties. Of course, my heart goes out to many victims. The main problem is the regime itself. As long as it is there, it will not allow for normalization [of relations in the region], or for stability and peace. I’ve been insisting for years that as long as you don’t eliminate the source of the problem, which finances terrorism and forces governments to act and react, we will never be rid of it. The solution is for this regime to go. That is what the majority of the Iranian people are calling for. And what I’ve been calling for is solidarity. I think governments, including Israel, are very cognizant of, and know the difference between, the people of Iran and the regime that has nothing to do with the people’s aspirations. The regime is only there to represent its own self-interest at the expense of the Iranian people. This story was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.