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washington — The U.S. Justice Department announced September 4 that two Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, had been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the Southern District of New York. “The Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.” That same day, the Justice Department announced the seizure of 32 internet domains used in the Russian government-directed “Doppelganger” foreign malign influence campaign, which it said violated U.S. money-laundering and criminal trademark laws. Experts who study disinformation say disrupting the paid-influencer campaign is an important step in efforts to counter the Kremlin’s broader disinformation strategy of spreading propaganda that undermines support for Ukraine and stokes American political divisions. Disrupting the Doppelganger campaign "Persistent efforts to impersonate authoritative news websites and promote their content at scale in a coordinated manner can have a tangible impact, casting propaganda narratives far and wide consistently," wrote Roman Osadchuk and Eto Buziashvili, researchers at the Disinformation Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. According to an FBI affidavit, Russia’s "Doppelganger” campaign created domains impersonating legitimate media sites, produced fake social media profiles and deployed "influencers" worldwide. According to the Atlantic Council researchers, the primary method used by those involved in "Doppelganger" is to post, on X and other social media platforms, links to fake news sites in replies to posts by politicians, celebrities, influencers and others with large audiences. Osadchuk told VOA that while the FBI's measures are unlikely to stop Russian influence activities, they will make them more costly, noting those involved in the Russian influence campaign will be forced "to rewrite scripts, change the operation's infrastructure, etc." At the same time, according to Osadchuk, the U.S. government’s moves against those involved in the influence campaign, which were widely covered in the U.S. and international media, will educate a broader audience. "Researchers of the Russian disinformation have known about the Doppelganger campaign for some time,” he said. “Now, Americans and people in other countries have learned about it and maybe will become more aware that not all information they consume is coming from legitimate sources and hopefully will be more attentive to the domain names and other signs that might indicate that the page they are reading is not The Washington Post or Fox News but a fake created by Kremlin-linked entities." Influencers will be more aware In a statement it released after indicting the two RT employees, the Justice Department said that “over at least the past year, RT and its employees, including Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, deployed nearly $10 million to covertly finance and direct a Tennessee-based online content creation company [U.S. Company-1],” and that “U.S. Company-1" had “published English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.” While the Justice Department did not specifically identify “U.S. Company-1," it is thought to refer to Tenet Media, a Tennessee company co-founded by entrepreneur Lauren Chen, who recruited six popular U.S. influencers with a large following. YouTube subsequently took down Tenet Media’s channel on the platform, along with four other channels that YouTube said were operated by Chen. Bret Schafer, a disinformation researcher at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a political advocacy group set up under the auspices of the German Marshall Fund, a Washington think tank, told VOA that by financing the U.S. content creation company, Russia was able to create an information channel with a large audience, and to use it for such messages as blaming the U.S. and Ukraine for the March terrorist attack at a Moscow concert hall. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. Shutting down that Russian information channel sent a powerful message to influencers and content creators to do "due diligence about people funding their work and to try to figure out who's behind these companies and their motives," Schafer added. Ben Dubow, a disinformation researcher affiliated with the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based research group, believes that influencers contracted by Tenet Media are unlikely to lose their existing followers, but that they might have difficulty attracting new ones. "Hopefully, people who might otherwise explore those influencers will recognize their names and understand them as untrustworthy now," he told VOA. The Justice Department’s indictment quotes RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonian, as saying in an interview on Russian television that RT built "an enormous network, an entire empire of covert projects," to influence Western audiences. The FBI affidavit also revealed that one of the sanctioned Russian companies had a list of 2,800 people active on social media in the U.S. and 80 other countries, including “television and radio hosts, politicians, bloggers, journalists, businessmen, professors, think-tank analysts, veterans, professors and comedians,” whom the company refers to as "influencers." Concrete steps and good timing Several experts commended the U.S. government for taking concrete steps. "They are sanctioning individuals and disrupting the supply chain of influence available to these threat actors," noted Olga Belogolova, director of the Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "Punitive measures absolutely have to be part of the package,” said Jakub Kalenský, a senior analyst at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki. “Otherwise, the aggressors have a free hand to continue their aggression unopposed. And in order to identify those who deserve to be punished, a proper investigation from the authorities is necessary." Experts also said that the Justice Department's actions were taken early enough to prevent influence in the November U.S. elections and to signal to Russia and other foreign actors that the U.S. government is monitoring their actions and will respond aggressively. "Of course, that was what the Obama administration was concerned about in 2016 and led to them not being as transparent as they probably should have been with the American public about what they knew about Russian interference," Schafer said. In announcing their actions against the Russian disinformation campaign, U.S. government representatives did not mention which political party or candidate they thought that the Russians were trying to assist. "I know that the U.S. government, including agencies and the Foreign Malign Influence Center at ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence], have been doing a lot of thinking over the last few years about how to strategically communicate these actions without unintentionally amplifying the very campaigns they are trying to thwart or politicizing the topic. And I think they've actually done a good job of striking that balance, at least from what I've seen thus far," Belogolova said. Ihor Solovey, who heads the Ukrainian government’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security, welcomed the U.S. government's actions but told VOA that more steps are needed to thwart Russian activities on social media. “X, TikTok or even more so the Russian Telegram - they are unlikely to want to spend on the fight against bots, troll farms or planned disinformation," he said, adding that only pressure by a state, or even a coalition of states, will be able to force these social media platforms to block intruders and malicious content. Andrei Dziarkach of VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.

philadelphia — It is the birthplace of U.S. independence, the "City of Brotherly Love," and the hometown of beloved fictional boxer "Rocky" Balboa.  Now Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will be center stage again when Kamala Harris and Donald Trump meet in a highly anticipated televised debate that could weigh heavily on the November election.  The two, who have never met in person, will square off at 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT) for a 90-minute debate hosted by ABC News.  Police are bracing for protests, with pro-Palestinian groups angry with Harris' continued support of Israel planning to demonstrate. Barricades have been erected around the National Constitution Center, the site of the debate, barring access to the historic area that includes the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where the U.S. Constitution was signed.  Meanwhile, several of the city's bars and universities are planning watch parties. Top Democrats will gather at a hotel for a watch party that Harris is expected to attend after the debate ends. Trump's plans after the debate are not yet public.  Some Philadelphia residents said they hoped to learn more about Harris.  "I wasn't, like, super impressed with her in 2020 when she had the presidential debates and for the primary," said Dan Bessler, a Philadelphia resident and sales worker. "But she is a prosecutor. ... I think she'll be able to hold her own better than Biden was able to at his age."  President Joe Biden's faltering debate performance against Trump in June essentially ended his political career, sparking powerful Democrats to convince him he should step aside ahead and allow Harris, his vice president, to run instead.  Since then, Harris has broken fundraising records and sparked new enthusiasm in the party, but opinion polls suggest a tight race looms with Trump.  With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is the biggest prize of the basket of battleground states expected to decide the election. Most pundits predict whoever wins Pennsylvania will win the White House.  Democrats historically win Pennsylvania by running up huge margins in Philadelphia, to offset losses throughout much of the rest of the state.  In 2020, the city saw its highest turnout since 1984 — 68% — but it paled beside the statewide figure of 76.5%. 

NEW YORK — He had some help: Morgan Wallen tops the 2024 Country Music Association Awards nominations with seven. For a third year in a row, Wallen is up for both the top prize — entertainer of the year — and the male vocalist categories. Rounding out the entertainer of the year categories are Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson. Post Malone's massive radio hit, “I Had Some Help,” which features Wallen, is the main reason why the country singer leads the pack this year. It is up for single, song, musical event and music video of the year. His last nomination is a second one in the musical event category, for his collaboration with Eric Church, “Man Made a Bar.” Single of the year is awarded to the artist, producer and mix engineers; song of the year is given to the songwriters. Ahead of the nominations announcement, some fans speculated that Beyoncé, whose landmark country-and-then-some reclamation Cowboy Carter was released during the eligibility window, could receive a nomination at the 2024 CMAs. She did not. Earlier this year, the album hit No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart, making her the first Black woman to top the chart since its 1964 inception. The album was five years in the making, a direct result of what Beyoncé has called “an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” most likely a reference to a 2016 CMAs performance that resulted in racist backlash. The CMA Awards are nominated and voted on by members of the Country Music Association, which includes music executives, artists, publicists, songwriters and other industry professionals. Wallen is followed by both Cody Johnson, who is also nominated in the male vocalist category for the third year in a row, and 7-time male vocalist of the year winner, Stapleton. Stapleton and Johnson have five nominations each. But Stapleton could take home seven trophies, should he sweep his categories. Stapleton is both an artist and producer on “White Horse,” up for single of the year, and Higher, up for album of the year. At the CMAs, production credits are not counted as separate nominations, although they are factored into trophy counts. First-time nominee Post Malone and Wilson, last year's entertainer of the year winner, are tied with four nominations. All of Malone's nominations are for “I Had Some Help.” Louis Bell, Charlie Handsome and Hoskins are tied with three nominations for their work as producers and co-writers on “I Had Some Help.” Jelly Roll, Combs, Kacey Musgraves and Megan Moroney also boast three nods each. The latter three could take home four trophies: Combs is both artist and producer on Fathers & Sons, up for album of the year. The same is true for Musgraves' album Deeper Well. And Moroney is both artist and director of her nominated music video, “I'm Not Pretty.” The CMA Awards will air on November 20 on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern. It can be streamed the next day on Hulu.

washington — Donald Trump has signaled support for a potentially historic federal policy shift to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, putting his position in line with that of his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. The commonality reflects a major shift toward broad public support for legalization in recent years and marks the first time that both major-party presidential candidates support broad cannabis reform, according to the U.S. Cannabis Council. The Republican presidential nominee posted on his social media platform late Sunday that he would “continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug," and also said he would be voting “yes” on a proposal to allow the sale of marijuana to adults for any reason in Florida. Coming shortly before the two will meet for a pivotal debate, Trump’s post sets up the possibility that he could criticize Harris for her past cannabis prosecutions when she was district attorney in San Francisco. Because drug prosecutions disproportionately affect nonwhite defendants in the U.S., the line of attack could also fit with Trump’s efforts to increase his support among nonwhite men. Harris backs decriminalization and has called it “absurd” that the Drug Enforcement Administration now has marijuana in the Schedule I category alongside heroin and LSD. Earlier in her career, she oversaw the enforcement of cannabis laws and opposed legalized recreational use for adults in California while running for attorney general in 2010. Harris has absorbed attacks on her prosecutorial record on the debate stage before, most notably from Democrat-turned-Trump supporter Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and announced in 2022 that she was leaving the party. Trump said during his 2016 run that pot policy should be left up the states. During his term in the White House, though, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the marijuana trade in states where the drug is legal. The DEA process to change the drug’s federal classification is already underway, kickstarted by President Joe Biden’s call for a review. But the DEA hasn’t made a final decision on the shift, which would not legalize recreational marijuana outright. It may not decide until the next presidential administration, putting a spotlight on the candidates’ positions. Federal drug policy has lagged behind that of many states in recent years, with 38 having already legalized medical marijuana and 24 legalizing recreational use. About 70% of adults supported legalization in a Gallup poll taken last year, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm and more than double the roughly 3 in 10 who backed it in 2000. Support was even higher among young voters, a key demographic in seven main battleground states. “We believe cannabis reform is a winning issue,” said David Culver, senior vice president of public affairs at the U.S. Cannabis Council, in a statement Monday. The federal policy shift wouldn’t legalize marijuana outright for recreational use. Instead, it would move marijuana out of Schedule I to the Schedule III category, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids. The proposed shift is facing opposition from advocates who say there isn’t enough data and from attorneys general in more than a dozen states, according to the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. Trump chimed in on the ballot question on the same day that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican who previously challenged him for the 2024 presidential nomination, spoke at City Church Tallahassee, where he ardently opposed two ballot initiatives this November: one to enshrine abortion rights and the other to legalize recreational marijuana. For months DeSantis has publicly opposed the marijuana amendment, saying it would reduce the quality of life in Florida cities by leaving a marijuana stench in the air. The Florida Republican Party has also formally denounced the amendment, saying in a May resolution that it would “benefit powerful marijuana special interests, while putting children at risk and endangering Florida family-friendly business and tourism climates.”

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.

CUPERTINO, California — Apple on Monday charged into the artificial intelligence craze with a new iPhone lineup that marks the company's latest attempt to latch onto a technology trend and transform it into a cultural phenomenon.  The four different iPhone 16 models will all come equipped with special chips needed to power a suite of AI tools that Apple hopes will make its marquee product even more indispensable and reverse a recent sales slump.  Apple's AI features are designed to turn its often-blundering virtual assistant Siri into a smarter and more versatile sidekick, automate a wide range of tedious tasks, and pull off other crowd-pleasing tricks such as creating customized emojis within seconds.  After receiving a standing ovation for Monday's event, Apple CEO Tim Cook promised the AI package would unleash "innovations that will make a true difference in people's lives."  But the breakthroughs won't begin as soon as the new iPhones — ranging in price from $800 to $1,200 — hit the stores on September 20.  Most of Apple's AI functions will roll out as part of a free software update to iOS 18, the operating system that will power the iPhone 16 rolling out from October through December. U.S. English will be the featured language at launch, but an update enabling other languages will come out next year, according to Apple.  It's all part of a new approach that Apple previewed at a developers conference three months ago to create more anticipation for a next generation of iPhones amid a rare sales slump for the well-known devices.  Since Apple's June conference, competitors such as Samsung and Google have made greater strides in AI — a technology widely expected to trigger the most dramatic changes in computing since the first iPhone came out 17 years ago.  Just as Apple elevated fledgling smartphones into a must-have technology in 21st-century society, the Cupertino, California, company is betting it can do something similar with its tardy arrival to artificial intelligence.  'Apple Intelligence'  To set itself apart from the early leaders in AI, the technology being baked into the iPhone 16 is being promoted as "Apple Intelligence." Despite the unique branding, Apple's new approach mimics many of the features already available in the Samsung Galaxy S24 released in January and the Google Pixel 9 that came out last month.  "Apple could have waited another year for further development, but initial take up of AI- powered devices from the likes of Samsung has been encouraging, and Apple is keen to capitalize on this market," said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.  As it treads into new territory, Apple is trying to preserve its longtime commitment to privacy by tailoring its AI so that most of its technological tricks can be processed on the device itself instead of relying on giant banks of computers located in remote data centers. When a task needs to connect to a data center, Apple promises it will be done in a tightly controlled way that ensures that no personal data is stored remotely.  While corralling the personal information shared through Apple's AI tools inherently reduces the chances that the data will be exploited or misused against a user's wishes, it doesn't guarantee iron-clad security. A device could still be stolen, for instance, or hacked through digital chicanery.  For users seeking to access even more AI tools than being offered by the iPhone, Apple is teaming up with OpenAI to give users the option of farming out more complicated tasks to the popular ChatGPT chatbot.  Although Apple is releasing a free version of its operating system to propel its on-device AI features, the chip needed to run the technology is only available on the iPhone 16 lineup and the high-end iPhone 15 models that came out a year ago.  That means most consumers who are interested in taking advantage of Apple's approach to AI will have to buy one of the iPhone 16 models – a twist that investors are counting on will fuel a surge in demand heading into the holiday season.  The anticipated sales boom is the main reason Apple's stock price has climbed by more than 10%, including a slight uptick Monday after the shares initially slipped following the showcase for the latest iPhones.  Besides its latest iPhones, Apple also introduced a new version of its smartwatch that will include a feature to help detect sleep apnea as well the next generation of its wireless headphones, the AirPods Pro, that will be able to function as a hearing aid with an upcoming software update.

STOCKHOLM — An exiled Iranian opposition group said Monday that its offices in Stockholm were firebombed overnight, with police saying they had opened an investigation into arson.  According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the political wing of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK), the building had been hit "with several Molotov cocktails" in what the group dubbed a "terrorist attack."  "Several windows of the building were shattered, and the outer wall caught fire," the NCRI said in a statement.  It said residents put out the fire and "no one was injured."  Police said in a statement they had opened an investigation into arson, but police spokeswoman Anna Westberg told AFP she could not comment on details about how the fire was started.  "We are still gathering information, and a technical examination will be done during the day," Westberg said, adding that no arrests had been made.  In its statement, the NCRI accused agents of Iran's intelligence service of carrying out the attack.  The MEK backed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the 1979 revolution that ousted the shah but swiftly went into opposition and was blamed for a series of deadly attacks that rocked Iran in the early 1980s.  The MEK has been exiled from Iran since then. It is far from having universal support among the Iranian diaspora but is backed by several high-profile former U.S. and European officials. 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Smoke from intense wildfires in the Amazon rainforest and other parts of Brazil was choking major cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on Monday, and wafting into neighboring countries.  Karla Longo, a researcher at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), said that satellite images showed that 60% of Latin America's largest country had been affected by smoke.  "If we consider the areas affected in neighboring countries and in the Atlantic Ocean, the area affected on Sunday was around 10 million km2 [3.8 million square miles]," she added.  Authorities in Argentina and Uruguay reported smoke from Brazil's fires impacting parts of their countries on Monday.  Sao Paulo, the biggest city in Latin America, on Monday topped the ranking of the world's most polluted major cities, according to the air quality monitoring company IQAir.  The rate of fine particles in the air — a measure of air quality — reached 69 micrograms per cubic meter, almost 14 times higher than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization.  Residents of seaside city Rio de Janeiro were grappling with fine particle rates at five times the recommended limit.  Authorities blame human action for most of the recent fires in the country, which are often linked to agricultural activity.  The situation has been aggravated by the country's worst drought in seven decades, which experts attribute to climate change.  Satellite images from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed a thick cloud of gray smoke along the Andes Mountain range toward the south of the continent on Monday.  This is due to the "wind that channels the smoke towards the south,” meteorologist Estael Sias told AFP.  According to data from INPE, the number of fires in the Amazon since the beginning of the year has almost doubled compared to the same period in 2023.  Other regions of Brazil have been battling terrible wildfires in recent days.  The vast Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, known for its numerous dramatic waterfalls some 250 kilometers (155 miles) outside the capital Brasilia, has lost some 10,000 hectares of vegetation to flames in recent days.  Sias said the situation is not expected to improve "without regular rainfall,” which is not likely “before October or November.”

NEW YORK — James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, The Lion King and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93. His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York's Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear. The pioneering Jones, who was one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor. He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of The Gin Game having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work. “The need to storytell has always been with us,” he told The Associated Press then. “I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn't get him." Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in Field of Dreams, the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit The Great White Hope, the writer Alex Haley in Roots: The Next Generation and a South African minister in Cry, the Beloved Country. He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader (“No, I am your father,” commonly misremembered as “Luke, I am your father”), as well as the benign dignity of King Mufasa in Disney's animated The Lion King and announcing “This is CNN” during station breaks. He won a 1977 Grammy for his performance on the Great American Documents audiobook. “If you were an actor or aspired to be an actor, if you pounded the payment in these streets ... one of the standards we always had was to be a James Earl Jones,” Samuel L. Jackson once said. Some of his other films include Dr. Strangelove, The Greatest (with Muhammad Ali), Conan the Barbarian, Three Fugitives and playing an admiral in three Tom Clancy blockbuster adaptations — The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. In a rare romantic comedy, Claudine, Jones had an onscreen love affair with Diahann Carroll. Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958’s Sunrise At Campobello and would win his two Tony Awards for The Great White Hope (1969) and Fences (1987). He also was nominated for On Golden Pond (2005) and Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (2012). He was celebrated for his command of Shakespeare and Athol Fugard alike. More recent Broadway appearances include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Driving Miss Daisy, The Iceman Cometh, and You Can’t Take It With You. As a rising stage and television actor, he appeared in As the World Turns in 1965, one of the first Black actors to have such a role on daytime TV. He performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival Theater in Othello, Macbeth and King Lear and in off-Broadway plays. Early years Jones was born by the light of an oil lamp in a shack in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on Jan. 17, 1931. His father, Robert Earl Jones, had deserted his wife before the baby's arrival to pursue life as a boxer and, later, an actor. When Jones was 6, his mother took him to her parents' farm near Manistee, Michigan. His grandparents adopted the boy and raised him. “A world ended for me, the safe world of childhood,” Jones wrote in his autobiography, Voices and Silences. “The move from Mississippi to Michigan was supposed to be a glorious event. For me it was a heartbreak, and not long after, I began to stutter.” Too embarrassed to speak, he remained virtually mute for years, communicating with teachers and fellow students with handwritten notes. A sympathetic high school teacher, Donald Crouch, learned that the boy wrote poetry, and demanded that Jones read one of his poems aloud in class. He did so faultlessly. Teacher and student worked together to restore the boy’s normal speech. “I could not get enough of speaking, debating, orating — acting,” he recalled in his book. At the University of Michigan, he failed a pre-med exam and switched to drama, also playing four seasons of basketball. He served in the Army from 1953 to 1955. In New York, he moved in with his father and enrolled with the American Theater Wing program for young actors. Father and son waxed floors to support themselves while looking for acting jobs. True stardom came suddenly in 1970 with The Great White Hope. Howard Sackler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play depicted the struggles of Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champion, amid the racism of early 20th-century America. In 1972, Jones repeated his role in the movie version and was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor. Jones’ two wives were also actors. He married Julienne Marie Hendricks in 1967. After their divorce, he married Cecilia Hart, best known for her role as Stacey Erickson in the CBS police drama Paris, in 1982. She died in 2016. They had a son, Flynn Earl, born in 1983. No artist 'has served America more' In 2022, the Cort Theater on Broadway was renamed after Jones, with a ceremony that included Norm Lewis singing "Go the Distance," Brian Stokes Mitchell singing "Make Them Hear You" and words from Mayor Eric Adams, Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson. “You can’t think of an artist that has served America more,” director Kenny Leon told the AP. “It’s like it seems like a small act, but it’s a huge action. It’s something we can look up and see that’s tangible.” Citing his stutter as one of the reasons he wasn’t a political activist, Jones nonetheless hoped his art could change minds. “I realized early on, from people like Athol Fugard, that you cannot change anybody’s mind, no matter what you do,” he told the AP. “As a preacher, as a scholar, you cannot change their mind. But you can change the way they feel.”

istanbul / washington — A requirement by Turkey’s media regulator for journalists on YouTube to have a broadcast license is being criticized as a way for authorities to more easily censor content. In a TV interview earlier this month, Ebubekir Sahin, the head of Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council, or RTUK, said that a 2019 regulation means that all broadcasts, including those on the internet, “are under our supervision.” The 2019 regulation authorized RTUK to request broadcast licenses from "media service providers," including media outlets and digital streaming platforms such as Netflix. But so far, the regulation has not been enforced for journalists who run their own YouTube channels. Sahin said in his interview, however, that the RTUK had met with YouTube’s Turkey office last month about the licensing requirement. Several journalists and media advocates view the move as censorship. “The initiative seems to aim to eradicate the original news and commentary on YouTube,” said Erol Onderoglu of Reporters Without Borders, or RSF. He added that the regulation could open the door to arbitrariness and censorship in Turkey. Blocked sites Access to the websites of VOA Turkish and German international public broadcaster Deutsche Welle have already been blocked in Turkey over not obtaining broadcast licenses from the regulator. To justify the decision, Sahin said that journalists who quit mainstream media and produce content on YouTube make unfair profit through commercials and their subscribers. “[A journalist] does not get along well with a TV channel and leaves. He goes and opens a [YouTube] channel where he broadcasts news from morning to night. He also gets huge commercials behind him. The accuracy of those commercials has not been checked, and they have not been approved by the Competition Board,” Sahin said. Sahin noted that several journalists who broadcast their own shows on YouTube have obtained licenses. But he did not disclose their names. The RTUK head said that the regulator would issue a broadcast license for 10 years and for an affordable price, but did not provide details. According to RTUK’s website, a broadcast license for TV or on-demand broadcasting on the internet costs approximately $18,970. VOA’s attempts to get comment from RTUK were unsuccessful. In response to an email request for comment, RTUK directed VOA to fill out a form providing personal information such as address and identity card number.  Gaining popularity News broadcasts via YouTube are gaining traction in Turkey, according to the June Reuters Institute’s Digital News report, with YouTube the most popular social media platform for accessing or sharing news.   “Over the last decade, a number of famous journalists have gained popularity by carving out a niche on platforms such as YouTube, with less oversight or interference from the government,” the report said. The report also pointed out a “long-standing media censorship climate in Turkey” which it said affects “freedom of discussion and debate in social media and video networks.” “If the authorities leave the watchdog role of journalists’ news and commentary-focused activities on YouTube to the censorship-oriented RTUK, this international online medium will be no different from any TV channel in Turkey that suffers from censorship,” Onderoglu told VOA. That censorship has prompted several journalists to look for alternative places to broadcast independent or opposition views. Unsal Unlu, who used to work for state-run TRT and privately owned stations NTV and HaberTurk, has been broadcasting on YouTube for nine years with the motto of “free journalism without patronage.” Unlu believes the regulator’s move to include YouTube broadcasts is aimed at furthering control over the media environment. “Sahin wants to imply an authority to control as he wishes. What is the reason? Because they cannot control social media,” Unlu told VOA. “Now they are trying to point the finger at YouTube broadcasters and create anxiety, perhaps even fear.” Problematic requirement Unlu, who has 163,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, said that he would not apply for a license. Ozlem Gurses, who hosted prime-time programs on several TV channels like ATV, HaberTurk, SkyTurk and Halk TV for nearly 30 years, opened her own YouTube channel four years ago. Gurses runs a channel with more than 530,000 followers on YouTube. She uses it to upload live daily broadcasts and commentary about the news. She told VOA the broadcast license requirement for journalists would be difficult. “It goes against the spirit of the times. They closed Instagram and lost votes. Because their own voters are there. The pious voters are reacting to these censorship and blocking efforts,” Gurses told VOA. “There is no regulation for this. The regulation referred to does not provide a definition for YouTube broadcasting. How will you determine the limits? Will it be the number of views, the number of subscribers, the income? Everything is uncertain,” Gurses said. Like Unlu, Gurses said she did not plan to apply for a license. This article originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.

beijing — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday urged visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to play a "constructive role" in improving strained ties between Bejing and the European Union.  Sanchez for his part said he hoped the EU could avoid a trade war with China, even as Brussels weighs imposing tariffs on China-manufactured electric vehicles. In their meeting, Xi also talked up deepening commercial ties between China and Spain in sectors such as artificial intelligence, digital economy, new energy and other high-tech fields. The Chinese leader said Beijing wanted to work with Brussels to further develop a China-EU relationship where the two maintain their independence and autonomy but also succeed together and bring benefit to the world, a Chinese readout said.  "It is hoped Spain will continue to play a constructive role in this regard," Xi added.  Sanchez responded: "Spain wants to work constructively so that relations between the two are closer, richer and more balanced."  Beijing in June said that frictions with the EU over its plans to impose tariffs of up to 36.3% on its electric vehicles (EVs) could trigger a trade conflict, days after China announced a retaliatory anti-dumping probe into European pork imports.  China in August then raised the stakes by opening an investigation into the bloc's dairy subsidies.  Prior to meeting Xi, Sanchez said at business events that Spain would work for a negotiated consensus to the EV dispute within the World Trade Organization and that a "trade war would benefit no one," a government source said.   Spain in 2023 exported $1.5 billion worth of the pork products that China will investigate, Chinese customs data showed, dwarfing the outbound shipments from the Netherlands and Denmark, which rank second and third.  Spain also sold just under $50 million worth of targeted dairy products to China last year.  But in a promising sign for Spain's pork producers, a separate source with direct access to Xi's meeting with Sanchez said the two leaders had "found harmony and understanding," when asked about possible curbs on Spain's outbound pork shipments.  "The meeting went extremely well," the source said, adding that both defended their positions while seeking agreements.  Fair trade  "We want to build bridges together to defend a trade order that's fair," Sanchez told China's second-ranking official, Premier Li Qiang, before meeting Xi.   Spain had a trade deficit of 17.27 billion euros ($19.07 billion) in the first half of this year, according to government statistics.   Sanchez will also want reassurance that China will not strike back at Brussels by raising its own tariffs on imported large-engined gasoline-powered vehicles, as state Chinese media have suggested it might.   Spain could also be impacted by the Chinese EV tariffs. Last week SEAT-CUPRA's CEO said that an electric vehicle made in China and designed in Spain by CUPRA, which is owned by Germany's Volkswagen, would be "wiped out" if the European Commission followed through with planned import tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles.   Sanchez on Tuesday is expected to meet representatives of SAIC Motor, one of the Chinese automakers most affected by the EU tariffs, and sign a Memorandum of Understanding with greentech company Envision, which is building an EV battery plant in Spain.  "In this increasingly geopolitical and economic context, as you have pointed out, we must work together to resolve differences through negotiation," Sanchez told Xi.  In an advisory vote in July, Spain, France and Italy supported the European Commission's proposal to adopt additional duties on Chinese-made EVs on top of the bloc's standard 10% tariff.   But Beijing has been urging the EU's member states to reject the curbs at a final vote on it in October.   The tariffs would be implemented in addition to the EU's standard 10% import tariff unless a qualified majority of 15 EU members representing 65% of the EU population vote against them.

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VIENNA — U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi hopes to hold talks with new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian by November on improving Iran's cooperation with his agency, he said Monday.  Several long-standing issues are dogging relations between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, including Tehran's barring of uranium-enrichment experts on the inspection team and its failure for years to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.  "He (Pezeshkian) agreed to meet with me at an appropriate juncture," Grossi said in a statement to a quarterly meeting of his agency's 35-nation Board of Governors, referring to an exchange after Pezeshkian's election in July.  "I encourage Iran to facilitate such a meeting in the not-too-distant future so that we can establish a constructive dialog that leads swiftly to real results," he said.  With nuclear diplomacy largely stalled between the Iranian presidential election and the U.S. one on November 5, Grossi said he wanted to make real progress soon.  Asked at a news conference if his reference to the "not-too-distant future" meant before or after the U.S. election, Grossi said: "No, hopefully before that."  IAEA board resolutions ordering Iran to cooperate urgently with the investigation into the uranium traces and calling on it to reverse its barring of inspectors have brought little change, and quarterly IAEA reports seen by Reuters on August 29 showed no progress.  Iran responded to the latest resolution in June by announcing an expansion of its enrichment capacity, installing more centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, at its Natanz and Fordow sites.  At its Fordow site dug into a mountain where it is enriching to up to 60% purity, close to the 90% of weapons grade, it installed two of the eight new cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-6 centrifuges within days of informing the IAEA of its plan. Two weeks later, it installed another two.  By the end of the quarter, the latest IAEA reports showed Iran had completed installation of all eight new cascades but still not brought them online. At its larger underground site at Natanz, which is enriching to up to 5% purity, it had brought 15 new cascades of other advanced models online.  "What we see is that there is some work, but nothing that indicates a rush to a fast implementation of a big increase in terms of enrichment production," Grossi said.  Iran has stepped up nuclear work since 2019, after then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned an agreement reached under his predecessor Barack Obama under which Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions.  Western diplomats say there are plans for talks on fresh restrictions should Democrat Kamala Harris win the election.

Beijing — China’s Defense Ministry on Monday announced joint naval and air drills with Russia starting this month, underscoring the closeness between their militaries as Russia presses its grinding invasion of Ukraine. The ministry said the “Northern United-2024” exercises would take place in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk farther north, but gave no details. It said the naval and air drills aimed to improve strategic cooperation between the two countries and “strengthen their ability to jointly deal with security threats.” The notice also said the two navies would cruise together in the Pacific, the fifth time they have done so, and together take part in Russia’s “Great Ocean-24” exercise. No details were given. China has refused to criticize Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, and blamed the U.S. and NATO for provoking President Vladimir Putin. While China has not directly provided Russia with arms, it has become a crucial economic lifeline as a top customer for Russian oil and gas as well as a supplier of electronics and other items with both civilian and military uses. Russia and China, along with other U.S. critics such as Iran, have aligned their foreign policies to challenge and potentially overturn the Western-led liberal democratic order. With joint exercises, Russia has sought Chinese help in achieving its long-cherished aim of becoming a Pacific power, while Moscow has backed China's territorial claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere. That has increasingly included the 180-kilometer (110-mile) wide Taiwan Strait that divides mainland China from the self-governing island democracy that Beijing considers its own territory and threatens to invade. Based on that claim, the Taiwan Strait is Chinese. Though it is not opposed to navigation by others through one of the world's most heavily trafficked sea ways, China is "firmly opposed to provocations by countries that jeopardize China’s sovereignty and security under the banner of freedom of navigation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing on Friday. Mao was responding to a report that a pair of German navy ships were to pass through the strait this month for the first time in more than two decades. The U.S. and virtually every other country, along with Taiwan, considers the strait international waters.

Washington — Leading terror groups like al-Qaida and Islamic State, once pushed to the brink after years of military pressure from the United States and its allies, have found ways to recover and once again represent a serious and lethal threat, according to a top U.S. counterterrorism official.  The rare public assessment from the acting director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center comes just days before the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terror attacks on the U.S. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, and emphasized the impact of more recent terror strikes and of technology in galvanizing the terror landscape.  "We are today in the midst of another transformative moment in the global terrorism threat landscape," said the NCTC’s Brett Holmgren, speaking to a counterterrorism symposium in New York.  “Groups like ISIS just a few years ago were at their nadir," he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State terror group, also known as IS or Daesh.   But now the U.S. sees “a much more distributed threat, in part because of some of the counterterrorism pressures that have been applied," Holmgren added.   "We see a real proliferation of the threat and really a shift towards, at least for al-Qaida, the center of gravity in parts of Africa,” he said. "You see, frankly, al-Qaida basically [was] kicked out of Afghanistan over the last few years, and they have a very small footprint left there. "You also see the Islamic State and others that have been pushed out of their safe havens in Syria, where they are now deliberately operating in much smaller cells to evade detection," he added.   As a result, the threat posed by al-Qaida and IS to the U.S. are not the same as they once were, according to Holmgren, echoing statements by other top U.S. intelligence officials that while the terror organizations and their affiliates have a desire to strike at the U.S., they are, for now, lacking the ability to do so.  “The capacity and the capability is not there,” Holmgren said, citing sustained counterterrorism pressure from the U.S. and its allies.  Instead, U.S. counterterrorism officials see al-Qaida and IS embracing the online environment to recruit and, in some cases, provide resources to individuals in the West to carry out attacks on their own.  Other nations, however, including some U.S. allies, are not as convinced that the threat from hotspots like Afghanistan and Syria have diminished.  A United Nations report this past July, based on intelligence from member states, argued that al-Qaida has thrived in Afghanistan, benefiting from the protection of the Taliban government while expanding its network of training camps and safe houses.  And U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia, said separately in July that the pace of IS attacks in Syria and Iraq is set to double compared to last year.  The political wing of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic forces has issued similar warnings in the past year.  But Holmgren and other U.S. intelligence officials argue the biggest danger, for now, is what al-Qaida, IS and other terror groups can organize online.  U.S. officials see signs that al-Qaida, IS and even Iranian-backed terror groups like Hezbollah have embraced AI, or artificial intelligence, using the technology to produce higher-quality and more targeted propaganda.  And while the use of AI may not be sophisticated, officials say there is evidence it has been effective, both in gaining followers and in using AI-generated voices and images, to help terrorist operatives evade detection.  Additionally, the new push by terror groups like al-Qaida and IS continues to be super-charged by last year’s October 7 Hamas terror attack carried out against Israel in which the group — designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., United Kingdom and European Union — killed about 1,200 people, with another 250 taken hostage.   More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed due to Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas. And a range of terror groups has seized on the conflict to call for attacks against the West.  The Hamas attack sparked a “tectonic shift in the threat environment,” said Rebecca Weiner, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism.  “The ripple effects that we have experienced since October 7, that we will experience over the years to come, they're not really ripples. They're waves,” she said, speaking at the symposium in New York. “I don't really expect things to get too much better, unfortunately, in the months ahead.”  The NCTC’s Holmgren called the October 7 attack a “unique flashpoint.”  “That is, in our view, the most consequential event when it comes to violent Islamic extremism in terms of radicalization and recruitment since 9/11,” he said. “It's really remarkable in how it's united these really disparate groups, from neo-Nazis to al-Qaida to Iranian-linked groups.”  There are also fears the AI-enhanced propaganda and recruitment drives have been especially efficient at targeting young adults and teenagers.  “We have a whole new generation of homegrown violent, violent extremists, especially younger individuals and juveniles, to worry about,” said the NYPD’s Weiner. “The younger people who are radicalizing, who [are] unable to incorporate all this information that they're receiving in a digital world and bring that into the 3D context in a way that's safe.

Islamabad, Pakistan — The United Nations rights chief expressed his “abhorrence” Monday at the recent promulgation of “so-called morality laws” in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan that silence women or order them to cover their faces and bodies in public. Volker Türk told a U.N. Human Rights Council session in Geneva that the new laws were implemented alongside bans on Afghan girls attending secondary school, prohibiting female students from accessing university education, and severely curtailing women's access to public life and employment opportunities. “I shudder to think what is next for the women and girls of Afghanistan. This repressive control over half the population in the country is unparalleled in today’s world,” the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner stated. Türk denounced the morality laws as outrageous and amounting “to systematic gender persecution.” He warned that the intensifying curbs on women are “propelling Afghanistan further down a path of isolation, pain, and hardship.” It would also jeopardize the country’s future by “massively stifling its development,” he added. Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of Afghan human rights, also spoke and informed Monday’s session in Geneva that the Taliban had lately barred him from visiting the country to conduct assessments in line with his mandate. He added that the morality law “marks a new phase in the ongoing repression of respect for human rights” since the Taliban regained control of the country three years ago. The 114-page, 35-article law enacted by the Taliban last month outlines various actions and specific conduct that the Taliban consider mandatory or prohibited for Afghan men and women in line with their strict interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia. The restrictions prohibit Afghan women from traveling without a male guardian, require them to be silent in public, enforce mandatory covering of females from head to toe, including their faces, and forbid eye contact between women and unrelated men. The law empowers the Taliban’s contentious Ministry for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice to enforce it strictly. Ministry enforcers are ordered to discipline offenders, and penalties may include anything from a verbal warning to fines to imprisonment for offenses such as adultery, extramarital sex, lesbianism, taking pictures of living objects, and befriending non-Muslims. Taliban leaders did not comment on Monday’s U.N. assertions, but they have rejected previous international criticism of the morality laws.  Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, recently stated that “non-Muslims should educate themselves about Islamic laws and respect Islamic values" before rejecting or raising objections to them. “We find it blasphemous to our Islamic Sharia when objections are raised without understanding it,” he said. No country has officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan, citing human rights concerns, particularly the harsh treatment of women. “Any normalization of engagement with the de facto authorities must be based on demonstrated, measurable, and independently verifiable improvements in human rights,” Bennett stressed in his speech Monday, urging the Islamist Taliban to reverse current policies. 

Husband, father, journalist, advocate: Pavel Butorin spent nine long months fighting to secure the release of his wife, U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, from a Russian prison. His journey shows the challenges American families confront when a loved one is taken hostage or wrongfully detained by a foreign government.