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WASHINGTON — A cease-fire in Gaza can bring the conflicts along the Israel-Lebanon border to an end, senior U.S. officials said amid worries of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah fighters based in southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, the United States is continuing to review one shipment of bombs for Israel over concerns about their use in the densely populated area of Rafah. Diplomatic solution U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that officials are seeking a diplomatic way to end the battles along Israel's northern border with Lebanon so civilians can safely return to their homes. "Hezbollah has tied the actions that it's committing against Israel to Gaza," Blinken told reporters during a press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. "If we get that cease-fire [in Gaza], I think that will make it more likely that we can find a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in the north." In Beirut, U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein urged a de-escalation between Israel and Hezbollah. Hochstein said earlier on Tuesday that a cease-fire in Gaza "could also bring the conflict across the Blue Line to an end." He was referring to the demarcation line dividing Lebanon from Israel. Last week, Iran-backed Hezbollah escalated hostilities on Lebanon's southern border by launching rockets and weaponized drones at nine Israeli military sites. This was the largest attack by Hezbollah since October, when the group began exchanging fire with Israel in parallel with the Gaza war. U.S. weapons shipments to Israel On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Blinken has "assured" him that the Biden administration is "working day and night to remove these bottlenecks" on U.S. supplies of weapons and ammunition to Israel. The U.S. paused military shipments to Israel in May, including 1,800 907-kilogram (2,000-pound) bombs and 1,700 226-kilogram (500-pound) bombs, because of concerns over Israel's plan to expand a military operation in Rafah, a densely populated city in southern Gaza, which the United States does not support. Blinken told reporters the U.S. is still pausing a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel. At the State Department, Blinken said the U.S. continues to “review one shipment that President Biden has talked about with regard to 2,000-pound bombs” due to concerns about their use in Rafah. "But everything else is moving as it normally would move" to make sure Israel "has what it needs to defend itself against this multiplicity of challenges," noted Blinken. Meanwhile, Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer are in Washington this week for discussions following the visit of U.S. special envoy Hochstein to Israel and Beirut. Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday that a temporary pier built to deliver aid into the Gaza Strip is expected to be operational again this week. The U.S. military had disconnected the floating pier last week and moved it to the port of Ashdod in Israel because of bad weather. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this story.

On June 18, the Biden administration announced two major new policies which may help provide streamlined paths to legal status for certain long-time undocumented immigrants. The first policy will allow undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens who have been in the country to apply for “parole in place,” a protection against deportation which will also allow […]

The post Biden Announces Immigration Protections for Up to 550,000 Spouses and Children of US Citizens appeared first on Immigration Impact.

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washington — The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that it projects this year's federal budget deficit to be $400 billion higher, a 27% increase compared with its original estimate released in February.  The major drivers of the change are higher costs from the supplemental spending package signed in April that provides military aid to Ukraine and Israel; higher than estimated costs of reducing student loan borrower balances; increased Medicaid spending; and higher spending on FDIC insurance because the agency has not yet recovered payments it made after the banking crises of 2023 and 2024.  The report also projects that the nation's publicly held debt is set to increase from 99% of gross domestic product at the end of 2024 to 122% of GDP — the highest level ever recorded — by the end of 2034. "Then it continues to rise," the report states.  Social security costs growing Deficits are a problem for lawmakers in the years to come because of the burden of servicing the total debt load, an aging population that pushes up the total cost of Social Security and Medicare, and rising health care expenses.  The report cuts into President Joe Biden's claim that he has lowered deficits, as borrowing increased in 2023 and is slated to climb again this year.  The White House budget proposal released in March claims to reduce the deficit by roughly $3 trillion over the next 10 years and would raise tax revenues by a total of $4.9 trillion in the same period.  White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said after the report's release that "the president is going to work to do everything he can when it comes to lowering the deficit," adding that former president Trump "didn't sign a single law to reduce the deficit."  White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates blamed tax cuts passed into law during the Trump administration for the deficit, which he says "continue to come at the expense of the American people by driving up deficits."  Former President Donald Trump, as a candidate for president in 2024, recently told a group of CEOs that he would further cut the corporate tax rate he lowered while in office, among other things. The Committee for a Responsible Federal budget estimates that the 10-year cost of the legislation and executive actions President Trump signed into law was about $8.4 trillion, with interest.  'Definition of unsustainable' Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said the CBO projections show that the outlook for America's critical national debt challenge is worsening.  "The harmful effects of higher interest rates fueling higher interest costs on a huge existing debt load are continuing and leading to additional borrowing. It's the definition of unsustainable," Peterson said.  "The leaders we elect this fall will face a series of highly consequential fiscal deadlines next year, including the reinstatement of the debt limit, the expiration of the 2017 tax cuts and key decisions on health care subsidies, discretionary spending caps and more." 

United Nations — The representatives of Sudan and the United Arab Emirates clashed Tuesday at the U.N. Security Council over Khartoum’s accusations that Abu Dhabi is providing arms and other support to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, fueling a brutal war in Sudan.   "The UAE must stay away from Sudan!" Sudan's ambassador, Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, told the council. "That is the first requirement that will allow for stability in Sudan. It must stop its support."  Mohamed accused the UAE of assisting RSF forces through militias in Chad, southern Libya and central Africa, adding that Sudan has submitted copies of a half dozen UAE passports found on the battlefield in Khartoum to the council to back up their claims of Emirati interference. He also said, without providing evidence, that wounded RSF fighters are being airlifted to Dubai for medical treatment.  Emirati Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab, who was seated beside his Sudanese counterpart at the 15-nation council's horseshoe-shaped table, during the meeting on the situation in Sudan, called the allegations "ludicrous."  "We see this as a shameful abuse by one of the warring parties of Sudan of this Council — using this platform to spread false allegations against the UAE to distract from the grave violations that are happening on the ground," the Emirati ambassador said.  The UAE has repeatedly denied sending arms to the RSF, but Tuesday was the first time their envoy had responded in person to the accusations at a council meeting.  A report by a U.N. panel of experts earlier this year said there was substance to media reports that cargo planes originating in the UAE capital had landed in eastern Chad with arms, ammunition and medical equipment destined for the paramilitary group.  Sudan's envoy asked the council to act.  "I ask your esteemed council to speak bravely and to take the last required step, which is to openly mention and condemn the UAE so that it would stop this war," Ambassador Mohamed said.  The United States has expressed concern about regional and international interference in Sudan.  "We must also continue calling on external actors to stop fueling and prolonging this conflict, and enabling these atrocities, by sending weapons to Sudan," Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at Tuesday's meeting.  On Friday, she told reporters on a conference call to announce an additional $315 million in humanitarian support for Sudan, that there is no military solution to the conflict. She criticized countries that are supporting the rival generals with arms and ammunition and said she had spoken with the UAE about Sudan's allegations. She also noted that Russia and Iran are providing support to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).  "We have been very, very clear with those actors, that they should cease their support for this war," she said Friday of all external actors. "It is only exacerbating and prolonging the conflict, and it is making the situation more dire for the people of Sudan."  Battle for El Fasher  Meanwhile, the situation on the ground in the North Darfur capital of El Fasher remains dire. The RSF has surrounded the city, burning and looting communities in its vicinity. They have advanced on the city, where an SAF infantry division is outnumbered and surrounded.  "The Sudanese Armed Forces will defend El Fasher to the last soldier," Ambassador Mohamed told reporters after the meeting.  The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says El Fasher is presently the epicenter of Sudan's humanitarian nightmare.  "Amid unrelenting violence and suffering, the lives of 800,000 people — of women, children, men, the elderly and people with disabilities — these lives hang in the balance," Edem Wosornu, OCHA's director of Operations and Advocacy, told the council.  Without immediate decisive action, she said, the international community risks bearing witness to a repeat of the well-documented atrocities perpetrated in West Darfur's capital, El Geneina, when the city fell to RSF troops last year.  Human rights groups say thousands of people, mostly ethnic Masalit and members of other non-Arab communities, were massacred by the RSF, even after the city fell to the paramilitary.  Today's RSF has elements of the Arab Janjaweed fighters who carried out the genocide against African Zaghawa, Masalit, Fur and other non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur in the early 2000s.  On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution demanding the RSF halt its siege and de-escalate the fight for El Fasher and that both sides allow aid in. The resolution has so far been ignored.  RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has been locked in an armed power struggle with SAF General Abdel-Fattah Burhan for the past 14 months. The fighting has spread from Sudan's capital, Khartoum, to other parts of the country, leaving millions displaced and in dire need of food, shelter and medical care.

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HARARE, ZIMBABWE — A Zimbabwean opposition leader and nearly 100 youths who spent two nights in jail for allegedly holding an unsanctioned meeting appeared in court in Harare on Tuesday, where they complained of police assaults.  After their arrest Sunday, members of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change, or Triple C, arrived in court in apparent pain — some limping, and one with a broken leg — under heavy police guard.   That did not stop one man from shouting to waiting reporters.  “Are you hearing me?” he said. “The women were asked to kneel down and crawl to a waiting police truck by this government. Button sticks, claps hit us. One of the ladies had her room invaded. Why? She just had a bra on. Please record that. These people are cruel.”   Police officers accompanying the opposition members refused to comment.  Tinashe Chinopfukutwa, a lawyer representing Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told reporters that his clients had been abused upon arrest.  “The charges which have been preferred against them are of participating in a gathering with [the] intent to promote public violence, bigotry and breaches of peace,” Chinopfukutwa said. “They have also preferred an alternative charge of disorderly conduct in [a] public place. They were assaulted by the police at the time of their arrest. Some of them were forced into jumping into a dirty swimming pool, while putting on their clothes. They were then forced to crawl to a police vehicle which was parked several meters away. We are going to lay those complaints before the court.”   Chinopfukutwa said the police initially arrested about 100 opposition activists, together with their leader, Jameson Timba, but some were released for unspecified reasons.  Agency Gumbo, a lawyer and a member of parliament with Triple C, said party members had been arrested at Timba’s home Sunday while commemorating International Day of the African Child.    He said the arrests were meant to quell opposition’s activities, which started during the era of the late President Robert Mugabe’s nearly 40 years in power.  “What this entails is that the regime is hell-bent on stopping voices of dissent, the regime is hell-bent on stopping the opposition,” Gumbo said. “It’s as if the opposition is now a banned organization. It’s as if the Triple C and the entire opposition forces are banned in this country.”  VOA repeatedly contacted Zimbabwe’s information minister, Jenfan Muswere, for comment but did not receive a response.   However, on Monday he said that no one in the country was above the law, and anyone who commits an offense would meet the wrath of the law.  Meanwhile, the 79 still detained were placed in custody until Wednesday, when they are expected to challenge their arrests. They are arguing that they were detained for more than the 48 hours allowed by the constitution before they were brought to court on Tuesday.

Kyiv was willing to negotiate peace but could not accept the terms giving Moscow a veto over allies defending Ukraine if Russia invaded again.

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The White House prepares for the upcoming NATO summit in Washington. The United Nations says the percentage of people in the world who have fled their homes to protect their lives has doubled in the past decade. Ukraine strikes an oil depot inside Russia, as Russian forces continue their bombardment of Dnipro, Kharkiv and Kherson. Vladimir Putin visits North Korea and the US Congress advances a bipartisan bill supporting Tibetan rights. Plus, Azerbaijani oil exports have continued to pass through a Turkish port, causing a problem for the country’s leadership.

Tbilisi, Georgia — On top of a steep hill overlooking Tbilisi, tucked behind the city’s ancient fortress, sits a sprawling, futuristic $50 million mansion that locals call “the glass palace.” A shark tank, private zoo and helipad lie within the heavily guarded compound. Its owner, Bidzina Ivanishvili, reportedly calls it his “James Bond” house. Ivanishvili is Georgia’s richest citizen by far. The 68-year-old multibillionaire founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party was rarely seen in public for much of the last decade — but he is now pulling the strings of Georgian politics, according to Eka Gigauri, head of the anti-corruption group Transparency International in Georgia. “Ivanishvili is the real ruler of this country,” Gigauri said. “He owns one-third of Georgian GDP, and he made his fortune in Russia in the late '90s. He still has the interests in Russia through his offshore companies — and not only him but his family members as well. ... “Is it possible to expect, or is it realistic to expect, from such an individual that he will do everything for Georgia to become the EU and NATO member? I don't think so,” Gigauri told VOA. Ivanishvili, for his part, has rarely spoken in public since a brief term as prime minister in 2012-13 apart from a speech in late April in which he defended a controversial “foreign agent” law as needed to prevent foreign intelligence agencies from undermining the government through the financing of nongovernmental organizations. West vs Russia Analysts say Georgia is torn between a future aligned with the West or with Russia. Protests erupted in March this year after the government introduced the “foreign agent” law, which requires any organization receiving more than 20% of its funding from foreign sources to register as a foreign agent. It closely resembles similar legislation in Russia which has forced many nongovernmental and media organizations to close or move abroad. The protests against the legislation in Georgia have evolved into anti-government demonstrations, as the country prepares for crucial elections in October. Ghia Nodia, a political analyst at Georgia’s Ilia State University, said, “With this so-called Russian law or foreign agent law, [Georgian Dream] effectively turned its back on Europe, even though they don't admit to it openly.” EU aspirations The Georgian government insists it still wants to join the European Union by 2030, although the bloc has warned that the foreign agent law could derail that process. The EU granted official candidate status to Georgia last year, hoping to set it on the path to democratic reform and Western integration. But the West misread Georgia’s billionaire puppet master, Nodia said. “The Georgian state has been captured by a specific person — Bidzina Ivanishvili — who is very secretive, whose agenda was not clear for people,” Nodia said. “Some people, including in the West, had illusions that he was maybe a little bit of a strange guy, but ultimately he is also committed to values and norms of Western democracy. “But they were proved wrong and skeptics were proved right, unfortunately. And it appears that he never had any real kind of commitment to democratic norms,” Nodia told VOA.   Protests The streets of Tbilisi have become a canvas for anti-government graffiti. Alongside EU, U.S., Georgian and NATO colors, protesters have daubed the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag — a show of solidarity as Kyiv tries to resist Russian occupation and domination. One slogan reads “Georgia is Ukraine; Ukraine is Georgia.” Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine forced Ivanishvili and his Georgian Dream party into the limelight, said Nodia. The invasion “somehow put him on the spot that he had to take sides more clearly. He didn't want to. But eventually he moved more in the Russian direction, even though Georgian Dream tries to hide it, not to say it openly. Ivanishvili made a strategic decision that Russia is winning this war, so we should stay with the winner, or prospective winner, as he saw it,” Nodia said. Stoking fear At a government-organized rally in April aimed at countering the opposition demonstrations, Ivanishvili said a Western “global party of war” was meddling in Georgia, citing a host of conspiracy theories about the role of nongovernmental organizations in the country. His party accuses the West of trying to persuade Georgia to open a new conflict against Russia, without providing any evidence. The propaganda is part a well-rehearsed autocratic playbook, said Aka Zarkua of the Governance Monitoring Center in Tbilisi, a nongovernmental organization that tracks government spending and communications. “The main propaganda line right now is that if we [Georgian Dream] are out of power, war with Russia is inevitable. So that is one of the biggest things. And as a country which experienced Russian aggression three or four times in the last 30 years, and a population traumatized by this experience, it is working,” Zarkua said. “They are trying to portray the West and Western countries — especially the United States and European Union — as some kind of enemy of Georgian traditional interests and family values,” Zarkua said. The government denies stoking public fear. Fridon Injia, an MP with the European Socialists party who voted for the foreign agent law, told VOA the government is seeking to carve its own independent future. “The main goal of the Georgian government now is to maintain peace, because we have seen what the war has done to other countries. So, it’s our main goal to maintain peace and for the Georgian government to avoid any kind of provocation that could spark a military conflict,” Injia said.   Western mistakes Since regaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia has received financial and political support from the West. In addition to its EU aspirations, Georgia is a close partner of NATO, and the alliance decided in 2008 that the country would become a future member, although no timeline has been agreed upon. So why has Georgia strayed from its path to Western integration? “If we're talking about Western mistakes, the biggest mistake was the overall assumption about the threat of Russia and tyranny — that it was a headache, but not a fundamental threat,” said Giga Bokeria, chairperson of the European Georgia party and the secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia from November 2010 to November 2013. “Even after the 2008 invasion in Georgia, even after the 2014 invasion in Ukraine, there was no shift in understanding that this is a fundamental battle, and that resetting the relationship [with Russia] was only empowering the heirs of the evil empire of the Soviet Union,” Bokeria said. “So, it’s a lack of focus, lack of attention, and overall, a misunderstanding that what’s going on in Georgia is part of this bigger confrontation with Russia. But now I think … that after this full-scale invasion in Ukraine we now see an overall turn to a sober understanding of the challenge,” Bokeria told VOA. Backlash The Geogian  government was taken by surprise at the strength of the backlash to the foreign agent law, which has politicized younger generations, said analyst Ghia Nodia. “Some people say that now we are actually more optimistic than we were in February or March before this law was introduced. Because this law and protest woke up the Georgian people. We are kind of facing a precipice,” he said. While there is optimism that the October election could bring a change of geopolitical direction in Georgia, it’s clear that the government — and its billionaire master Ivanishvili — won’t relinquish power without a fight.

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Washington    — The U.S. Embassy in Finland this month presented journalist Jessikka Aro with the Ambassador Hickey Woman of Courage Award.  The honor — tailored specifically for Aro — comes five years after the U.S. State Department rescinded its courage award because of critical comments the Finnish journalist made about then-President Donald Trump.   The embassy presented its award in recognition of Aro’s commitment to exposing and combating Russian disinformation campaigns at great personal cost. For a decade, she has been at the forefront of investigating Russian information warfare and pro-Kremlin troll farms.  “I still can’t believe that I actually got [the award],” Aro told VOA from Finland’s capital, Helsinki. “I felt utterly supported. I felt utterly appreciated. I felt really honored.”  In 2019, U.S. officials informed Aro that she would receive that year’s International Women of Courage Award. A few weeks later, she was told there had been a mistake and she would not receive the prestigious honor. Back then, Aro reported for Finland’s public service broadcaster YLE.  At the time, officials publicly denied that Aro’s social media posts about Trump were the reason. But a 2020 report by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General found that officials revoked the award over Aro’s comments.   The report cited a post on Twitter, now X, in which Aro wrote that “Trump constantly labels journalists as ‘enemy’ and ‘fake news.’” She then cited an article about a Trump supporter who threatened to shoot reporters for The Boston Globe for being what Trump described as “enemies of the people” and “fake news.”  Throughout his presidency, Trump regularly referred to the media as the “enemy” of the American people. The Trump presidential campaign did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment. In 2020, the Washington-based International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) awarded Aro its own Courage in Journalism Award. The organization also advocated for an investigation into why the State Department backtracked on its award.  The new award from the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki comes at a meaningful time for Aro. This year marks a decade since she began facing severe online harassment — including death threats — over her coverage of Russian information warfare. The harassment, which mainly comes from Russian and Finnish actors, is ongoing, she said.   “My work is being attacked, myself smeared. Some of my sources are smeared,” said Aro, who is now the communications director for the Finnish trade union Tehy. “They are spreading these seeds of mistrust against my person and my work.”   Trolls also attacked her after the State Department rescinded its award, sparking “a massive wave” of harassment, she said.   Such attacks are consistent with the broader trend of disproportionate online harassment against female journalists, according to Elisa Lees Munoz, executive director of the IWMF. Online attacks against female journalists are often sexualized and can include rape threats and insults about the reporter’s appearance, Munoz said.   “It leads to symptoms that are very similar to PTSD, and that even though these attacks are happening virtually, they have very serious, real-life impacts,” she said.   In a 2022 survey by the International Center for Journalists and UNESCO, nearly three-quarters of respondents identifying as women said they had experienced online violence.  When Aro first began to face online harassment in 2014, “it actually fueled my will to investigate Russian trolls,” she said. “Even nowadays, on a daily basis, I think of it as proof that I’m doing a great job.”  Aro admits the harassment has also taken a toll. But she says she’ll never let it get in the way of her work.  “Investigating Russian information hybrid warfare is a true calling for me,” she said.   Although it’s five years late, Aro says she feels vindicated. The investigative journalist is currently working on her third book about Russian information warfare, which she expects to be published in 2026. 

Denver, Colorado — The shooter who killed five people and injured 19 others at a nightclub in Colorado Springs pleaded guilty to 50 federal hate crime charges on Tuesday. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 24, is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state charges in the 2022 shooting last year. Federal prosecutors have focused on proving that the attack at Club Q — a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ people in the mostly conservative city — was premeditated and fueled by bias. Aldrich entered the guilty pleas under a deal with prosecutors that allows the shooter to avoid the death penalty and instead be sentenced to more multiple life sentences for the hate crimes plus a total of 190 years on gun charges and other counts. Defense attorneys in the state case, who said their client is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, argued that Aldrich was drugged up on cocaine and medication at the time. In phone calls from jail with The Associated Press last year, Aldrich didn't answer directly when asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only, that's "completely off base," and did not reveal a motivation to the AP or in state court. U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, said she would hear victim testimony before deciding whether to accept the sentencing agreement. Less than a month before the shooting, Aldrich coordinated a spam email campaign against a former work supervisor who is gay, according to recent court filings by prosecutors. They also accuse Aldrich of disseminating someone else's manifesto, which included racist and antisemitic statements and falsely claimed being transgender is a mental illness. Aldrich spent over $9,000 on weapons-related purchases from at least 56 vendors between September 2020 and the attack on Nov. 19, 2022, according to new evidence cited by prosecutors. Investigators found a hand drawn map of Club Q with an entry and exit point marked was found inside Aldrich's apartment, evidence that was also presented in state court. There was also a black binder of training material entitled "How to handle an active shooter." Defense attorneys in the state case, who said their client is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, argued that Aldrich was drugged up on cocaine and medication at the time. In a series of phone calls from jail with The Associated Press last year, Aldrich didn't answer directly when asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only, that's "completely off base." Aldrich did not reveal a motivation to the AP or in state court and declined to speak during that sentencing. That Aldrich is nonbinary is a claim rejected by some of the victims as well as the district attorney who prosecuted Aldrich in state court, who called it an effort to avoid hate crime charges. They include Ashtin Gamblin, who worked the front door that night and remains in physical therapy after being shot nine times. A true member of the LGBTQ+ community would know about the discrimination and the mental health challenges they face and wouldn't attack its members in such a sanctuary, she said. "To come into the one safe place to do that, you're not part of the community. You just wanted the community gone," Gamblin said. She's among the survivors expected to speak during the hearing about how the attack still affects their lives. Aldrich visited the club at least eight times before the attack, including stopping by an hour and a half before the shooting, according to prosecutors. Just before midnight, Aldrich returned wearing a tactical vest with ballistic plates and carrying an AR-15 style rifle and started firing immediately. Aldrich killed the first person in the entryway, shot at bartenders and customers at the bar and then moved onto the dance floor, pausing to reload the rifle's magazine. The shooting was stopped by a Navy officer who grabbed the barrel of the suspect's rifle, burning his hand, and an Army veteran who helped subdue Aldrich until police arrived, authorities have said. There had been a chance to prevent such violence: Aldrich was arrested in June 2021, accused of threatening their grandparents and vowing to become "the next mass killer " while stockpiling weapons, body armor and bomb-making materials. But Aldrich's mother and grandparents refused to cooperate, and prosecutors failed to serve subpoenas to family members that could have kept the case alive, so the charges were eventually dismissed. A felony conviction in the case would have prevented Aldrich from legally buying more firearms. But District Attorney Michael Allen pointed out that most of the gun components used in the shooting were untraceable ghost gun parts that did not require Aldrich to pass a background check to acquire. Two guns seized from Aldrich in the 2021 case were still held by the sheriff's office at the time of the Club Q shooting, he said. Justifying the proposed sentence, prosecutors wrote: "The horrors that the victims and survivors experienced at the hands of the defendant cannot be overstated. The victims and survivors, who were celebrating Transgender Day of Remembrance, were attacked when they least suspected it by someone who had stood in their presence mere hours before." Aldrich, who will be returned to state prison after the hearing, is being sentenced federally under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded federal law in 2009 to include crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Gamblin wanted the death penalty as an acknowledgement of how many people's lives have been harmed. She said some friends don't want to go out to events anymore and others struggle to keep jobs that involve working with the public. "We want nothing more to go back to normal, but we know it's not going to happen," she said.

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Washington — China aims to mark a new milestone in space exploration next week when its Chang'e-6 probe is expected to return to Earth from the far side of the moon with rock and soil samples. Scientists involved in the project say the probe is likely to bring back a "treasure trove" of material that will shed light on the differences between the front and back of Earth's satellite. James Head is an American planetary scientist and professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University.  He has 15 years of experience in cooperating with the Chinese scientific community and participated in the research for the Chang'e-6 lunar landing. He told VOA in a video interview that the samples brought back by Chang'e-6 from the far side of the moon will be "a treasure chest of fragments of materials, all of which are going to tell us something about why the moon is different on the near side and the far side. It's just amazing." "It's going to be an international treasure trove of information for space planetary scientists," he added. The strength of China's space science and technology, demonstrated by the Chang'e series of lunar exploration projects, has also attracted the participation of other countries. The European Space Agency, France, Italy, and Pakistan responded to the "Chang'e-6 Mission International Payload Cooperation Opportunity Announcement" released by the China National Space Administration in 2019. They were selected to carry out exploration on the lunar surface and lunar orbit. Head said, "Not every country has the ability to launch rockets to the moon. So, if you can use your capability, then that's a big deal for international relationships for the countries — essentially the way they're perceived in the world." The mission, which comes 55 years after the U.S. first sent humans to the moon, has attracted the attention and participation of European and American scientists.  However, it also comes at a time when geopolitical tensions are pulling Russia and China closer together to counter Western democracies.  Analysts worry that our lunar exploration and space research are quickly being divided into two camps as well. As China makes significant progress in its lunar program, it is also actively courting other countries to form a parallel alliance with the U.S.-led lunar exploration program. China and Russia have been planning to cooperate in building the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) since 2021. On June 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law approving the cooperation agreement signed by Russia and China last year on the joint construction of the ILRS. Countries currently participating in the ILRS initiative also include Venezuela, Pakistan, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Nicaragua and a university in the United Arab Emirates. Namrata Goswami, lecturer in space policy and international relations at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, told VOA, "They're (China is) actually changing the narrative to tell nations that want to collaborate with them, that their station is like a strategic high ground, and nations that actually collaborate with China will benefit from this particular focus, which is space resource utilization, and they have stated that officially now.” The Chinese government has said it adheres to the peaceful use of space, but Western analysts have questioned China's motives for developing the moon. Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA in an email, "China tends to have a more mercantilist view of the moon that aligns with its authoritarian form of government, which is in stark contrast to the open, transparent, and free market approach of the United States and its partners." China has even proposed establishing an Earth-Moon space economic zone and has drawn up a roadmap for it with an annual "total output value of more than US$10 trillion" by around 2050. Harrison said, "China's main partner for its lunar research base is Russia, and they have managed to attract a handful of other nations to join them, most of which have no significant space capabilities or financial resources to contribute." In contrast, NASA and the U.S. State Department jointly launched the Artemis Accords in 2020, reaching a multilateral arrangement with more than 30 countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, stipulating the principles of civil exploration and cooperation among the contracting parties in outer space. Neither China nor Russia have joined the agreement initiated by the U.S. Dmitry Rogozin, former head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, even said that the Artemis Accords were "illegal" and not in compliance with international law. "You do see a very clear strategic alignment structure forming, also very long-term clear ambitions as to what each coalition is hoping to do,” said Goswami. Experts say the lunar exploration race of China and Russia versus the U.S. is about more than just resource extraction. Harrison said, "This is really about setting precedent for how space commerce will be conducted and establishing norms of behavior for activities on the moon. A key component of this race is building international partnerships with shared values and a shared understanding of how the lunar economy should work for the benefit of all. In this respect, China has fallen behind the United States and the free world." For the European Space Agency, the Chang’e-6 may be their last lunar exploration experiment in cooperation with China, according to an interview posted on the website SpaceNews. “For the moment there are no decisions to continue the cooperation on the Chang’e-7 or -8,” Karl Bergquist, ESA’s international relations administrator, he told SpaceNews. China plans its next lunar probes in the Chang’e series around 2026 and from 2028. Bergquist also told SpaceNews the ESA will not be involved in the China-led ILRS. “ESA will not cooperate on ILRS as this is a Sino-Russian initiative and space cooperation with Russia is at present under embargo,” he said. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the European Union, together with the U.S., has imposed embargoes and sanctions on several Russian industries, including a technical embargo on the Russian space industry. The European Space Agency has also terminated its planned lunar exploration project with Russia. Meanwhile, China has stepped-up its space cooperation with Russia, including allowing Moscow Power Engineering Institute to open a branch at its newest spaceport on southern Hainan Island. Europe and China's space technology cooperation will continue at least until the Chang’e-6 probe lands back on Earth. The ESA is offering ground support for the return flight from its Maspalomas space station in Gran Canaria island in Spain. The probe is scheduled to land at a site in Inner Mongolia around June 25.