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HANOI, VIETNAM — Emergency workers raced to evacuate thousands of people from severe floods Tuesday after Typhoon Yagi swept through northern Vietnam, killing 63 people and leaving 40 missing. Yagi struck Saturday with winds in excess of 149 kilometers per hour, making it the most powerful typhoon to hit northern Vietnam in 30 years according to meteorologists. The storm downed bridges, tore roofs off buildings, damaged factories and triggered widespread flooding and landslides. The north of the country, densely populated and a major manufacturing hub for global tech firms including Samsung, is now battling historic flooding, meteorologists said. Authorities have issued flood and landslide warnings for 429 communes across 17 northern provinces.  One-story homes in parts of Thai Nguyen and Yen Bai cities were almost completely submerged in the early hours of Tuesday, with residents waiting on the roofs for help. Rescue forces were trying to reach residential areas to retrieve older people and children. On social media, relatives of those stuck in floodwater posted desperate pleas for help and supplies. In Hanoi, communities along the swollen and fast-moving Red River, which flows through the capital, were also partially under water, with people forced to evacuate in boats. Downtown Hoan Kiem District was forced to relocate 460 people on Tuesday. Crops including bananas, guavas and corn, which are usually sold in nearby markets, were all flooded. 'Lost everything' Phan Thi Tuyet, 50, who lives close to the river, said she had never experienced such high water. "I have lost everything, all gone," she told AFP, clutching her two dogs.  "I had to come to higher ground to save our lives. We can not bring with us any of the furniture. Everything is under water now." As well as the dead and missing, flooding and landslides have also injured at least 752 people, officials at the ministry of agriculture said Tuesday. Authorities stopped heavy vehicles crossing a major bridge over the Red River in central Hanoi Tuesday and suspended a train line across Long Bien bridge as the water level rose. The action followed the dramatic collapse of a bridge higher up the river in northern Phu Tho province Monday. Pictures showed half of the 375-meter Phong Chau bridge gone. Five people who were crossing the bridge at the time have been rescued, but eight others were still missing Tuesday, authorities said. Forecasters warned central Hanoi would be affected by flooding later Tuesday. Hanoi authorities said more than 25,000 trees in the city had been uprooted in the storm. Huge trunks blocked key roads in the city centre, creating large traffic jams. At least 24 people were killed as Yagi tore through southern China and the Philippines before hitting Vietnam. Typhoons in the region are forming closer to the coast, intensifying more rapidly, and staying over land longer due to climate change, according to a study published in July.

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.

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.

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.

As the international community closely follows fallout from the disputed Venezuelan election, the United States is calling for transparency and weighing actions against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, which has issued arrest warrants against opposition leaders, including rival presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. Celia Mendoza reports from the State Department in Washington.

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.

It’s being reported that Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine. It’s presidential debate day in the United States, this time with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump squaring off on stage. We talk to Kamy Akhavan, former CEO of ProCon.org, the nation’s leading source of nonpartisan research on controversial issues who now leads the Center for the Political Future (CPF) at the University of Southern California. And James Earl Jones, the actor who voiced Darth Vader, has died. He was 93.

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JERUSALEM — Israel's military conducted a missile strike early Tuesday that targeted a humanitarian area in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians there, authorities said. Details about the strike in the Mawasi coastal community just west of Khan Younis that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone remained unclear. The area is home to many Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war in which the Israeli military has devastated the wider Gaza Strip after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Footage circulating on social media showed deep craters at the site of the attack, the strewn ruins around it covered in shredded tents, a bicycle and other debris. Rescue workers used shovels to shift through the sand. Bystanders used their hands to dig, illuminated by mobile phone light. At least one crater at the site looked to be as deep as 10 meters (32 feet). The Israeli military described the strike as hitting "significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center," without immediately providing additional evidence. The Palestinian news agency WAFA said dozens had been killed and wounded, without providing precise casualty figures. It described five missiles striking the area, cratering the ground. The Israeli military said it used "precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional means" it did not immediately describe to limit civilian casualties. Gaza's Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack. They abducted another 250 and are still holding around 100 after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead. Meanwhile, the United Nations agency in charge of aid for displaced Palestinians said the Israeli military stopped a convoy for more than eight hours on Monday, despite it coordinating with the troops. The agency's head Philippe Lazzarini said the staffers who were held had been trying to work on a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza and Gaza City. "The convoy was stopped at gun point just after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint with threats to detain UN staff," he wrote on the social platform X. "Heavy damage was caused by bulldozers to the UN armoured vehicles." He said the staff and the convoy later returned to a U.N. base but it was unclear if a polio vaccination campaign would take place Tuesday in northern Gaza. "UN Staff must be allowed to undertake their duties in safety + be protected at all times in accordance with international humanitarian law, he wrote. "Gaza is no different." The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to redouble efforts to make his nuclear force fully ready for combat with the United States and its allies, state media reported Tuesday, after the country disclosed a new platform likely designed to fire more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the mainland U.S. Kim has repeatedly made similar pledges, but his latest threat comes as outside experts believe Kim will perform provocative weapons tests ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. In recent days, North Korea has also resumed launches of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea. In a speech marking the 76th founding anniversary for his government on Monday, Kim said North Korea faces "a grave threat" because of what he called "the reckless expansion" of a U.S.-led regional military bloc that is now developing into a nuclear-based one. Kim said such a development is pushing North Korea to boost its military capability, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Kim said North Korea will "redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state including the nuclear force fully ready for combat," KCNA said. North Korea has been protesting the July signing of a new U.S.-South Korean defense guideline meant to integrate U.S. nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons to cope with growing North Korean nuclear threats. North Korea said the guideline revealed its adversaries' plots to invade the country. U.S. and South Korean officials have repeatedly said they don't intend to attack the country. Since 2022, North Korea has significantly accelerated its weapons testing activities in a bid to perfect its capabilities to launch strikes on the U.S. and South Korea. The U.S. and South Korea have responded by expanding military drills that North Korea calls invasion rehearsals. Many analysts believe North Korea has some last remaining technological barriers to overcome to acquire long-range nuclear missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland, though it likely already possesses missiles that can hit key targets in South Korea and Japan. South Korean officials and experts say North Korea could conduct nuclear tests or ICBM test-launches before the U.S. election to increase its leverage in future diplomacy with the U.S. Observers say North Korea likely thinks a greater nuclear capability would help it win U.S. concessions like sanctions relief. North Korea as of Tuesday morning did not appear to have staged any major military demonstration to mark this year's anniversary. But the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Sunday published a photo of Kim inspecting what appeared to be a 12-axle missile launch vehicle, which would be the largest the country has shown so far, during a visit to a munitions plant. This sparked speculation that the North could be developing a new ICBM that is bigger than its current Hwasong-17 ICBM, which is launched on an 11-axle vehicle. When asked about the photo on Monday, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder refused to provide a specific assessment of North Korea's missile capabilities and reiterated that Washington was working closely with Seoul, Tokyo and other partners to preserve regional security and deter potential attacks. "It's not unusual for North Korea to use media reports and imagery to try to telegraph, you know, to the world," he said. North Korea flew hundreds of huge balloons carrying rubbish toward South Korea for five straight days through Sunday, extending a Cold War-style psychological warfare campaign that has further stoked animosities on the Korean Peninsula. The balloons largely contained waste papers and vinyl, and there has been no repots of major damage. North Korea began its balloon campaign in late May, calling it a response to South Korean civilians flying propaganda leaflets across the border via their own balloons. South Korea later restarted its anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along the rivals' tense land border. Observers say North Korea is extremely sensitive to South Korean leafleting activities and loudspeaker broadcasts as they could hamper its efforts to ban foreign news to its 26 million people.

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GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Arizona — There has been another fatality at Grand Canyon National Park, authorities announced Monday. Park officials said Patrick Horton, 59, of Salida, Colorado, was on the 10th day of a noncommercial river trip along the Colorado River and was discovered dead by members of his party Saturday morning. Officials said the National Park Service was investigating Horton’s death in coordination with the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office. Horton was believed to have been the seventh person to die at the canyon since July 31 and the 15th this year. Park officials reported 11 fatalities in 2023 and say there are usually about 10 to 15 deaths per year. 

NOWY DWOR MAZOWIECKI, Poland — The new privates received their ranks amid military pomp in a town near Warsaw where a Napoleonic fortress attests to a long military history. The group was made up of a German shepherd, a Dutch shepherd and two Belgian Malinois. The dogs — Einar, Eliot, Enzo and Emi — were bestowed with their ranks Friday as part of a new Polish program aimed at honoring the service of dogs used to detect explosives, a job valued for its role in protecting human life. General Wiesław Kukuła, chief of the general staff of the Polish army, decided last year that dogs serving in the army would qualify for six military ranks ranging from private through corporal to sergeant. The change has been welcomed by their loyal human handlers.  “The rank is meant to honor the hard work of the dog in service,” said Lance Corporal Daniel Kęsicki, who recently completed a five-month training course with Eliot, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois. “To me it’s a symbolic recognition that the dog is serving the homeland.” The dogs honored Friday belong to the 2nd Mazovian Engineer Regiment, which in 2007 became the first unit of Poland’s armed forces to introduce dogs into service, according to spokesperson Captain Dominik Płaza. He said none have died in action.  During the ceremony, each dog's handler was handed a badge with the animal's rank, which was attached to the dog's harness. The ceremony occurred during the commemoration of the regiment's 80th anniversary. The dogs were given their ranks for having completed basic training and having served for more than a year. The ranks are a largely symbolic recognition “so that we, too, are aware that such a dog is a member of the armed forces,” Płaza said. "It is not just a tool for detecting explosives, but it is a living being,” he said.  The unit was recently deployed to Paris for the Summer Olympic Games and the Paralympics, where the regiment's soldiers and four of its 16 dogs reinforced French security efforts in scanning facilities for explosives. Everything passed off peacefully.  Polish army dogs have carried out service elsewhere in international missions, including Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the NATO nation's support for U.S.-led efforts. Poland, a close ally and neighbor of Ukraine, earlier this summer also announced that it was sending 12 trained dogs to support the Ukrainian military in clearing mines.  The soldiers who work with the dogs volunteer for the assignment, and it becomes a commitment that lasts for the rest of the dog's life. Soldiers who were with their dogs Friday explained that they select their dogs, train with them, live with them, and care for them even after their four-legged charges retire. Kęsicki described Eliot as an obedient companion who has become integrated into his family life. “The dog can already do a lot after the beginning course alone, and we still have a few more years of service ahead of us,” he said. Płaza, the spokesperson, laughed when asked if a dog could ever outrank his handler — or if a soldier might have to salute a dog.  “Soldiers do not salute dogs,” Płaza said. "The handler will always be of a higher rank than his dog. It is simply impossible for a service dog to have a higher rank than his handler.” Though the master-dog hierarchy is preserved, great love and appreciation are clearly shown to creatures in Poland, where pets are everywhere and some even lay their beloved companions to rest in special pet cemeteries. The Polish government has in recent years also ensured retirement benefits to dogs and horses working in the police, border guard and fire departments. On Friday, as the sun beat down on a hot square in the middle of town, Kukuła interrupted the ceremony and ordered the overheated dogs removed — even as human soldiers continued to stand there in their uniforms and boots.  Staff Sergeant Michał Młynarczyk served in Afghanistan with a dog named Elvis starting in 2011. Together they checked vehicles arriving at the base of an international force for explosives. Elvis died in 2018. Now Młynarczyk is paired with Kobalt, a German shepherd who received his private rank in April.  Private Kobalt goes home with him at night and plays with his children. While he loves the entire family, he never loses sight of who is the master.  “All of the work the dog does is done for me,” Młynarczyk said. "It’s a bond, it’s a friendship.”

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia, host nation for this year's United Nations COP16 biodiversity conference, was the deadliest country for environmentalists and land rights defenders in 2023, with a record 79 killed according to U.K. advocacy group Global Witness. The number of murdered environmental activists was the highest Global Witness has ever recorded for a single country in any given year since it started monitoring such killings in 2012, it said in its annual report published on Monday. "The figure is really chilling," Laura Furones, senior adviser to Global Witness' land and environmental defenders campaign, said, adding that the report's findings were conservative and figures likely incomplete. Globally, 196 environmentalists and land activists were killed in 2023, Global Witness said, with Latin America overwhelmingly leading the way, accounting for 85% of the slayings. The findings on Colombia are a sharp contrast to promises from the government of President Gustavo Petro, who took office in 2022 and has pledged to end the country's 60-year conflict and pursue environmental justice for communities. Peace processes with various armed groups — which are sometimes implicated in environmentalists' killings — have faltered, and though deforestation fell to a 23-year low last year, the environment ministry has warned of an increase in 2024. Colombia was also the deadliest country for environmentalists in 2022, according to Global Witness, when at least 60 were killed. "The figure is very embarrassing for us in the country," said Astrid Torres, coordinator for Somos Defensores, a Colombian human rights group. Torres said the issue was not just the responsibility of the sitting government but also of state institutions, such as prosecutors and local authorities. A spokesperson for Colombia's government said it was working on a response. Last year a Reuters investigation found that murders of environmentalists in Colombia resulted in long-lasting negative effects on conservation and that some municipalities where activists were killed saw significant spikes in deforestation. At an event to launch the COP 16 agenda in Bogota in July, Colombia's vice president, Francia Marquez — a winner of the Goldman Environmental prize for activism in 2018 — said the conference would honor those killed. "It fills my heart with emotion to see this dream that was held for so many years by environmental leaders, many who are not with us today, who were sadly murdered in our country," she said. "This global event is a tribute to those voices.'

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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.