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washington — The United States and some of its allies have launched a global campaign to undercut efforts by RT and other Russian state-backed media outlets, accusing them of operating on behalf of the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies. The State Department on Friday announced sanctions against two people and three entities, including RT’s Moscow-based parent company, saying new intelligence leaves no doubt that they are no longer engaged in providing anything that resembles news and information. RT’s parent company and its subsidiaries “are no longer merely fire hoses of Russian government propaganda and disinformation,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at the State Department. “They are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracy, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia's intelligence apparatus,” he said, adding the Russian operations also seek to “meddle in the sovereign affairs of countries around the world.” Blinken and other U.S. officials declined to share details about the new intelligence, saying only that some of it comes from RT employees, and that it shows how the Russian-controlled television network is playing a key role in running cyber operations and even acquiring lethal weapons for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. RT quickly ridiculed the U.S. accusations both on social media and in a response to VOA. “RT: *Lives rent free in the State Department head*,” the outlet posted on X. “We’re running out of popcorn, but we’ll be here live, laughing hard...” In response to a query from VOA, RT pointed to comments by editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan on her Telegram channel. "American intelligence services have uncovered that we are helping the front lines,” Simonyan wrote, according to a translation from Russian. “We’ve been doing this openly, you idiots. Should I send you a list of what we've bought and sent? We regularly publish this, just so you know." The Russian Embassy in Washington has not yet responded to a request from VOA for comment. U.S. officials, though, said comments like the ones from RT’s Simonyan only give more weight to the allegations. “They've admitted it,” said James Rubin, the special envoy for the State Department's Global Engagement Center. “They have said they're operating under direct instruction of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. That's what they say they're doing.” And the U.S. says the intelligence shows those Kremlin-assigned responsibilities go far beyond what could be considered normal broadcast operations, including oversight of a crowdsourcing campaign to provide Russian troops in Ukraine with sniper rifles, body armor, drones, night vision equipment and other weaponry. “That's not what a TV station normally does. That's what ... that's what a military entity does,” Rubin said. RT is “a fully fledged member of the intelligence apparatus and operation of the Russian government on the war in Ukraine.” The U.S. intelligence also points to Kremlin-directed RT operations in Argentina, Germany and the South Caucasus – some linked to a Russian military intelligence cyber team that has been embedded within the company. U.S. officials also said evidence shows RT is “almost certainly” coordinating with traditional Russian intelligence services to meddle in next month’s presidential elections in Moldova. “RT is going to be used to try to manipulate an election and, if they don't win the election, manipulate a crowd to try to generate violence for the possibility of overthrowing [the government],” Rubin said. U.S. officials also called out RT for covert influence operations in Latin America and Africa that have had serious consequences. “One of the reasons why so much of the world has not been as fully supportive of Ukraine as you would think they would be — given that Russia has invaded Ukraine and violated rule number one of the international system — is because of the broad scope and reach of RT,” Rubin said. The State Department said Friday that it had instructed its diplomats to share evidence about RT’s efforts with countries around the world. “We urge every ally, every partner, to start by treating RT’s activities as they do other intelligence activities by Russia within their borders,” Blinken said. Friday’s sanctions came a little more than a week after the U.S. acted against what it described as two Russian plots, one of them involving RT, aimed at undermining the U.S. presidential elections in November. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the takedown of 32 fake websites designed by Russia to mimic legitimate news sites, to bombard U.S. voters with propaganda aimed at building support for Russia in its war against Ukraine and bolstering support for Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump. The U.S. also unsealed indictments against two RT employees, accusing them of funneling nearly $10 million to a U.S. company in Tennessee to promote and distribute English-language material favorable to the Russian government. What impact all these actions will have on Russia and RT, however, remains to be seen. “I don't think there's any evidence that deterrence is working in this space,” said Margaret Talev, who directs the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship in Washington. “These efforts are getting much more sophisticated,” she told VOA, adding that Russian influence operations have become adept at seeding the social media environment and letting audiences do the work. “One of the biggest drivers of the spread of misinformation and disinformation is sharing by people who aren't trying to do anything wrong,” Talev said. “They're either amused by something or horrified by something that comes into their feed, and they hit 'share.' And now someone spread it to you, and you're spreading it to someone else.”

washington — The Biden administration’s approval this week of a $1.3 billion military aid package for Egypt despite its failure to hit human rights benchmarks has been criticized by rights experts.   The bill’s approval Wednesday overrode human rights benchmarks required to release a certain portion of the aid. A group of senators had earlier urged the administration in a letter to withhold the aid, citing the Egyptian government’s “targeting of political opponents and journalists.” Egypt, a longtime ally of the U.S., was far from reaching those benchmarks, Yeganeh Rezaian of the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, told VOA. “No one can say Egypt is making human rights progress,” Rezaian said. The senators’ letter cited Egypt’s failure to investigate “allegations of human rights abuses,” including enforced disappearances and torture in prison, especially for journalists and political dissidents. This was the first time during Biden’s presidency that Egypt received the full amount of U.S. foreign military financing allocated to Cairo. In previous years, a portion of aid had been withheld because of human rights concerns, according to CPJ. This year, the human rights requirements were waived in the interest of advancing cease-fire negotiations in Gaza, territory that borders Egypt, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Reuters. “Egypt plays an important role in accessing Gaza for peace talks in Israel,” Rezaian told VOA. “But that’s why the security of journalists and freedom of information in the country is very important for everyone, inside and outside.” CPJ researchers believe the world’s increased focus on the Israel-Hamas war has drawn attention away from other allegations of human rights violations in the same region. In Egypt, CPJ has documented the arrests of four journalists who were subjected to enforced disappearances since March. Their cases highlight the “shameful record” of media persecution in Egypt, according to a joint statement published Monday by the CPJ and 34 other international rights groups.   The statement called for the release of Ashraf Omar, Khaled Mamdouh, Ramadan Gouida and Yasser Abu Al-Ela. Authorities took all four journalists to undisclosed locations before their appearances in Egypt’s court. At least two have been subjected to physical torture during their imprisonment, according to CPJ. “By releasing these folks, the government can show they believe in press freedom and democracy,” Rezaian told VOA. Among those detained is Omar, a cartoonist for independent news website Al-Manassa. Omar was subjected to electric shocks and other forms of physical torture, his wife told an Egyptian news website. Omar had published multiple “critical cartoons” about the policies of his government, Sophie Brondel of Cartooning for Peace told VOA. She added that authorities have questioned him about his cartoons during detainment. Cartooning for Peace was one of the 34 co-signers of CPJ’s statement. “We can see in many authoritarian regimes that cartoonists are often among the first targets,” Brondel told VOA. “With their drawings, they have the capacity to also reach out to a broader public.” Freemuse, another artistic freedom organization that signed the document, has been monitoring Egypt’s media landscape for years. The organization noted an increase in how the government has “hammered down on freedom of expression,” Sverre Pedersen, Freemuse’s executive director, told VOA. “Without free expression and free art, it’s not possible to have democracy,” Pedersen said. Egypt has consistently been a top-10 jailer of journalists worldwide, according to CPJ data. The watchdog contends that torture and enforced disappearance of media workers are common practices under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. In the decade since el-Sissi came to power, media repression in Egypt has intensified. The country has become “one of the world’s most oppressive countries towards journalists,” with dozens of arrests and the blocking of over 500 news websites, according to Reporters Without Borders. The Egyptian Embassy in Washington did not respond to VOA's email requesting comment. “Our statement is the first step in terms of raising awareness,” said Rezaian of CPJ. “We want the statement to be amplified as much as possible and are hoping to move towards international pressure.”

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Blantyre, Malawi — Malawi is recording new cases of cholera two months after it declared the end of the country's worst cholera outbreak, which began in March 2022 and killed nearly 2,000 people. New cases have been reported in Chitipa district in northern Malawi and Machinga district in the south. Records from Chitipa District Health Office, released Friday, show the district has recorded 22 cases of cholera, with one death, since the onset of the new outbreak last week. That includes nine new cases registered Friday, with eight people hospitalized. Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease that can kill within hours if left untreated. Machinga district hospital in southern Malawi registered its first cholera case in the new outbreak this week. “It has been three days now since we registered that case,” said Wongani Nyirenda, the hospital’s spokesperson. “However, we are doing everything to make sure that people are using safe water. We have given them some chlorine and a water guard to treat their water.” He said health surveillance assistants are also on the ground educating people about good hygiene practices. The resurgence of cholera cases comes two months after Malawi declared the end of the country's worst cholera outbreak, which began in March 2022 and killed nearly 2,000 people. Government authorities told VOA in July that they had stopped the outbreak by increasing access to safe water and administering an oral cholera vaccination campaign that began in December 2022. George Jobe, executive director of the Malawi Health Equity Network, is concerned about the resurgence. “It is worrisome,” he said. “Our hope and expectation was that we would have a breather. A longer breather, especially considering that in 2022 we had a big suffering from cholera which took us over a year. So, we wouldn’t want to go back to such a bad experience.” Jobe believes the resurgence means Malawi is still struggling to address the challenges of making safe water available. He said water contaminated by sewage is the main cause of cholera. “We have issues to do with behavioral change where hygiene issues should be borne in mind, like washing hands with soap, having pit latrines and good waste management,” he said. The co-chairperson for the presidential task force on COVID-19 and cholera in Malawi, Dr. Wilfred Chalamira Nkhoma, did not respond to calls and texts from VOA seeking comment on the new outbreak. However, Ministry of Health officials told local media this week that Malawians should not panic, saying the government is putting measures in place to control the spread of the disease.

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.

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California — Donald Trump refused on Friday to weigh in on recent racist and conspiratorial comments from right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer, who traveled with him earlier this week to the debate and several 9/11 memorial events. "Laura's been a supporter of mine," Trump told reporters at a press conference near Los Angeles, where he was pressed on concerns from Republican allies about his ongoing association with Loomer. "I don't control Laura," Trump said. "I can't tell Laura what to do. She's a supporter." Trump said Loomer has "strong opinions" but said he was unaware of her recent comments, including a post on X in which she played on racist stereotypes by writing that "the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center" of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, wins in November. Harris is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants. Loomer's appearances on the campaign trail with Trump have alarmed many of the former president's allies who worry he is hurting his chances of winning in November, particularly as Harris has driven up Democratic enthusiasm and repeatedly put Trump on the defensive in Tuesday's debate. Harris was campaigning Friday across Pennsylvania. Loomer's comments have drawn rebuke from Trump allies, including Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Georgia congresswoman, herself known for spreading conspiracies, called the post about curry "appalling and extremely racist" and said it did not represent Trump's movement. Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, called Loomer "a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans. A DNC plant couldn't do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump's chances of winning reelection. Enough." Trump's comments came at a news conference at his Los Angeles-area golf club after days of criticism of his performance at this week's debate. Trump, in remarks, unleashed against Harris a litany of attacks that his aides had suggested he would focus on during the debate, including accusing her of having been soft on crime in her previous positions. Before she served as vice president, Harris represented California in the Senate and also served as the state's attorney general and the district attorney of San Francisco. "She destroyed San Francisco, and she destroyed the state," Trump charged. He also assailed the ABC anchors who moderated the debate. He'll travel later Friday to northern California for a fundraiser, followed by a rally in Las Vegas, the largest city in swing state Nevada. Harris headed to Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre on Friday, campaigning in counties where Trump won in 2016 and 2020, as she tries to capitalize on her momentum after Tuesday night's debate. It's her second day of back-to-back rallies after holding two events in North Carolina, another swing state, on Thursday. Her campaign is aiming to hit every market in every battleground state over four days, with stops by Harris, her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and other surrogates in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia. While speaking in Charlotte, Harris took a victory lap for her debate performance in which she needled Trump and kept him on the defensive. Recounting one moment while campaigning in North Carolina, she mocked Trump for saying he had "concepts of a plan" for replacing the Affordable Care Act. "Concepts. Concepts. No actual plan. Concepts," she said as the crowd roared with laughter. Her campaign said she raised $47 million from 600,000 donors in the 24 hours after her debate with Trump. Harris said the candidates "owe it to voters to have another debate." But Trump said he won't agree to face off with her again. Trump's morning press event was the second Friday in a row that the Republican has scheduled a news conference, although at his last appearance in New York, the former president didn't take any questions. Instead, he railed for nearly an hour against women who have accused him of sexual misconduct over the years, resurrecting the allegations in great detail before his debate with Harris. Harris has not held a news conference since becoming a presidential candidate, and the Democrat has sat for just one in-depth interview. Her campaign has said she will start doing more interviews with local media outlets in battleground states.

washington — China is among the foreign governments that retaliate against people for engaging with the United Nations, according to a report released this week by the U.N. Secretary-General. The report highlights how hard Beijing tries to silence its critics, according to Sophie Richardson, an expert on human rights in China. “These [U.N.] mechanisms are some of the only ones available to people inside China, at least on paper, to provide any modicum of redress or justice for the human rights abuses either they’ve endured or the communities they work with have endured,” Richardson told VOA. “That’s why you see the Chinese government go to extraordinary lengths to silence people who are simply trying to take reports to some of these human rights experts or bodies,” Richardson said. A former China director at Human Rights Watch, Richardson is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University. The annual report chronicles government retaliation against people for engaging with the U.N. In addition to China, other countries named in the report include Colombia, India, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Russia. “In my perfect world, governments that get referenced in these reprisals reports shouldn’t be members of the Human Rights Council,” said Richardson, who is based in Washington. China is a current member of the council in Geneva. China’s Washington embassy, as well as its U.N. offices in New York and Geneva, did not reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment for this story. One of the incidents included in the report’s China section is harassment against two members of the international legal team supporting Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy publisher. Lai is on trial in Hong Kong on national security charges that are widely viewed as politically motivated. The 76-year-old is in prison following convictions in other cases that supporters also view as sham cases. Members of Lai’s legal team have faced death and rape threats, as well as attempts by unknown sources to hack their email and bank accounts, according to the report. Sebastien Lai thanked the U.N. for shedding light on his father’s case. “These intimidation tactics will not succeed. I will not rest until my father is freed,” he said in a statement. Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, a barrister leading Jimmy’s international legal team, also condemned the attacks. The reprisals “are personally unpleasant and distressing,” Gallagher said in a statement. “But they are also an attack on the legal profession and on the international human rights system.” The reprisals make it harder for Jimmy Lai to use U.N. mechanisms to achieve justice in his case, Gallagher said. Hong Kong’s government has tried to argue that the legal team interfered in Hong Kong’s judicial process by bringing his case to U.N. human rights mechanisms, according to the report. “It’s just so nakedly in tension with its obligations under international law,” Richardson said. On Thursday, Lai’s international legal team submitted an urgent appeal to the U.N. special rapporteur on torture. The appeal raised several concerns, including that the elderly publisher has been in solitary confinement since late 2020 and that the British national has been denied access to independent medical care, according to a statement from his legal team. Lai’s trial began in December 2023. It was initially expected to last around 80 days but is now expected to resume in November. Press freedom groups have called the trial a sham, and the U.S. and British governments have called for his immediate release. Hong Kong officials, however, have said he will receive a fair trial. Other incidents cited in the U.N. report include the case of Cao Shunli, a Beijing-based human rights defender who was arrested following an attempt to engage in a universal periodic review of China’s human rights record at the Human Rights Council. Cao died in custody in 2014. Another case is that of the Beijing-based activists Li Wenzu and Wang Quanzhang, who are married. The couple have faced significant retaliation, including police surveillance and evictions, and their son is unable to enroll in school due to pressure from state authorities, the report said. “If one reads these cases, you get a sense of what risks — what unbelievable risks — people are taking to do this kind of work,” Richardson said. The report doesn’t mention specific incidents involving Uyghurs or Tibetans, but Richardson says their absence underscores how difficult it is for some groups to access U.N. mechanisms in the first place, as well as how some people may be too scared to report such incidents to the U.N. The Chinese government has engaged in severe human rights abuses against both ethnic groups, according to myriad reports. Multiple governments and international human rights organizations have accused Beijing of committing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs, which the Chinese government rejects.

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California / WASHINGTON — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promised mass deportations of Haitian immigrants in an Ohio city on Friday, shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden called for attacks on that community to stop.  "We will do large deportations in Springfield, Ohio," Trump said at a news conference at his Los Angeles-area golf resort.   While Trump, 78, continued his attacks on immigrants, he did not revisit false and derogatory remarks he made during his debate on Tuesday night with his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.  Those comments, including that the Haitian community was eating household pets, drew a sharp rebuke earlier Friday from Biden.  At a White House event celebrating Black excellence, Biden referred to his White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, as a proud Haitian American.  "A community that's under attack in our country right now. It's simply wrong. There's no place in America. This has to stop — what he's doing. It has to stop," Biden said.  Haitian community leaders across the United States said the Republican candidate's remarks could put lives at risk and further inflame tensions in Springfield, where thousands of recent Haitian arrivals have boosted the local economy but also have strained the social safety net.  Trump's comments that "they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats" during the debate were the latest in a long list of lies about immigrants that have defined his political career. It followed a similar false claim spread by his running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio, on social media about Springfield's new residents.  City officials say they have received no credible reports of anyone eating household animals. Karen Graves, a city spokesperson, said she was not aware of recent hate crimes targeting Haitian residents but that some had been victims of "crimes of opportunity," such as property theft.

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Taipei, Taiwan — An expected visit to Hawaii by the head of China’s Southern Theater Command next week will come just days after a high-ranking Pentagon official attended a defense conference in Beijing. The visits, analysts said, are part of an effort to expand high-level exchanges between the U.S. and China and boost top-level military-to-military communication. It is unclear, though, how much the exchanges will do to help avoid miscommunication and keep tensions in the Indo-Pacific under control, they added. Earlier this week, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Sam Paparo, and the head of the PLA, or People's Liberation Army, Southern Theater Command, General Wu Yanan, held a video call for the first time in years. The Chinese defense ministry said the two commanders had an “in-depth exchange of views on issues of common concern” while Paparo urged the Chinese military “to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond.” Wu is expected to attend a defense conference held by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii next week, U.S. defense officials have confirmed to VOA. Meanwhile, Michael Chase, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, is holding defense policy coordination talks with Chinese defense officials while attending the annual Xiangshan Security Dialogue held in Beijing this week. A meeting that took place on the sidelines of the Xiangshan forum was designed to “underscore the United States' shared vision for the region,” according to a U.S. Department of Defense readout Thursday. The Biden administration has been working to restore communication between Chinese and American militaries since the U.S. president’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California last November. Chase’s visit to Beijing this week and Wu’s expected reciprocal visit next week follow a first meeting between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Youxia, last month. During that meeting, Zhang said maintaining military security is “in line with the common interests of both sides” and Sullivan highlighted the two nations’ shared responsibility to “prevent competition from veering into conflict or confrontation.” Some analysts see a potential for further communication and engagement between the two militaries. “I won’t rule out the possibilities that Beijing and Washington may look to establish a hotline between the two militaries, and whether that mechanism could be extended to the theater command level remains to be seen,” Lin Ying-Yu, a military expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone. While the resumption of top-level communication allows Beijing and Washington to avoid miscalculations, other experts say it is unclear whether China and the U.S. can establish a more sustainable mechanism to cope with potential crises. “While having contact and knowing your interlocutors are positive things during non-crisis times, the real test is whether these contacts can hold back any unintended escalation when incidents happen,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore. Chong said since theater commanders from the U.S. and China oversee implementing rather than formulating policies, it is unclear whether the latest development can become established protocols. “If there’s a persistence of [maintaining military-to-military communication], then it would suggest that it has become a policy,” he told VOA by phone. Tensions remain high over contentious issues Tensions remain high between China and the U.S. over a range of issues, including the repeated collision between Chinese and Philippine vessels near disputed reefs in the South China Sea and Beijing’s increased maneuvers in waters and airspace near Taiwan and Japan. During the Xiangshan forum, Lieutenant General He Lei, the former vice president of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, characterized the Philippines’ attempt to safeguard its territorial claims in the South China Sea as “a unilateral change of the status quo” while accusing the U.S. of undermining security across the Taiwan Strait by selling weapons to Taiwan. “The Chinese people and the People's Liberation Army will never allow any external forces to interfere in China's internal affairs or invade China's territory,” he told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN in an interview. Some analysts say there are limits to what military-to-military communications can do to ease tensions over what are essentially political disagreements. “The military tension is only a manifestation of their political differences over Taiwan and the South China Sea, so if their disagreements are not resolved, the military tension is very unlikely to see a permanent resolution,” Yun Sun, China program director at the Stimson Center in Washington, told VOA by phone. With less than two months until the U.S. presidential election, Chong in Singapore said Beijing and Washington’s recent efforts may be an attempt to lay the foundation for bilateral military-to-military communication to be continued after the November election. “On the Democrat side, if some of the current team stays [after November], perhaps we would see this momentum continue,” he told VOA. “On the Republican side, things are a bit messier, because you have those who prefer the isolationist approach, those who advocate a containment approach in Asia, and people who talk about competing against China to win,” Chong added. Sun said if Donald Trump wins the election in November, Beijing will expect instability in bilateral relations and be prepared for the military relationship to be affected.

new york — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a powerful leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, pleaded not guilty Friday to U.S. narcotics trafficking charges in a case accusing him of engaging in murder plots, ordering torture and channeling tons of drugs into the United States. Participating in a court hearing through a Spanish-language interpreter, Zambada gave yes-or-no answers to a magistrate’s standard questions about whether he understood various documents and procedures. Asked how he was feeling, he said, “Fine, fine.” His lawyers entered the not guilty plea on his behalf. Outside court, Zambada attorney Frank Perez said his client wasn't contemplating making a deal with the government, and the attorney expects the case to go to trial. “It's a complex case,” he said. Sought by American law enforcement for more than two decades, Zambada has been in U.S. custody since July 25, when he landed in a private plane at an airport outside El Paso, Texas, in the company of another fugitive cartel leader, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, according to federal authorities. Zambada later said in a letter that he was kidnapped in Mexico and brought to the U.S. by Guzman Lopez, a son of imprisoned Sinaloa co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Zambada's lawyer did not elaborate on those claims Friday. U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cho ordered Zambada detained until trial. His lawyers did not ask for bail, and U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn asked the judge to detain him. “He was one of the most, if not the most, powerful narcotics kingpins in the world,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro said. “He co-founded the Sinaloa cartel and sat atop the narcotics trafficking world for decades.” Zambada sat quietly as he listened to the interpreter. Leaving court after the brief hearing, he appeared to accept some help getting out of a chair, then walked out slowly but unaided. The 76-year-old had used a wheelchair at a court appearance in Texas last month. But Perez said after court Friday that Zambada was healthy and “in good spirits.” Sketch artists were in the small courtroom, but other journalists could observe only through closed-circuit video because of a shortage of seats. In court and in a letter earlier to the judge, prosecutors said Zambada presided over a vast and violent operation, with an arsenal of military-grade weapons, a private security force that was almost like an army, and a corps of “sicarios,” or hitmen, who carried out assassinations, kidnappings and torture. His bloody tenure included ordering the murder, just months ago, of his own nephew, the prosecutors said. “A United States jail cell is the only thing that will prevent the defendant from committing further crimes,” Navarro said. Zambada also pleaded not guilty to the charges at an earlier court appearance in Texas. His next court appearance is scheduled for October 31. According to authorities, Zambada and “El Chapo” Guzman built the Sinaloa cartel from a regional syndicate into a huge manufacturer and smuggler of cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs to the U.S. Zambada has been seen as the group's strategist and dealmaker and a less flamboyant figure than Guzman. Zambada had never been behind bars until his U.S. arrest in July. His apprehension has touched off fighting in Mexico between rival factions in the Sinaloa cartel. Gunfights have killed several people. Schools and businesses in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, have closed amid the fighting. The battles are believed to be between factions loyal to Zambada and those led by other sons of “El Chapo” Guzman, who was convicted of drug and conspiracy charges and sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. in 2019. It remains unclear why Guzman Lopez surrendered to U.S. authorities and brought Zambada with him. Guzman Lopez is awaiting trial on a separate drug trafficking indictment in Chicago, where he has pleaded not guilty.

British Prime Minister Kier Starmer visits the White House where he and President Biden are expected to announce that they will allow Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons for long-range attacks into Russian territory. Israel is defending its strike on a U.N. school turned shelter in central Gaza and says that the six U.N. aid workers among the 18 killed were members of Hamas. North Korea shows off new centrifuges, raising questions about its nuclear capabilities and ambitions. A vaccine for Mpox passes a critical hurdle and a look at Chinese propaganda.

MORONI — Comoros President Azali Assoumani was slightly injured in a knife attack on Friday, the archipelago nation's government spokesperson said, adding that the attacker has been taken into custody. The incident occurred around 2 p.m. local time in Salimani Itsandra, a town just north of the capital, Moroni, a local source told Reuters. "President Azali Assoumani was slightly injured with a knife during the funeral of a great sheik of the country. His injuries are not serious, and he has returned home," government spokesperson Fatima Ahamada told Reuters. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. The source from the town of Salimani Itsandra added that the attacker is a former policeman in his 20s. In May, Assoumani was sworn in for a fourth term in office following a tense January election which his opponents claim was tainted by voter fraud.

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