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Bogota, Colombia — Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized on Wednesday the purchase of Israel-made Pegasus spyware by the country's police to "intercept communications" of political leaders and activists under his predecessor's government. The malware, which can seize control of a phone's microphone or camera and access documents, hit global headlines when a leak in 2021 showed how governments used it to spy on critics. Petro's comments in a televised broadcast confirmed for the first time that the Colombian police intelligence service "bought in cash... software from an Israeli company to spy on mobile phones" between June and September 2021. The police paid Israeli firm NSO Group $11 million for Pegasus and used the spyware to "intercept communications" of political leaders and activists, without the expense appearing anywhere in the public accounts, the president added. "Where did the money come from? Why wasn't it included in the official national budget?" he asked.  The acquisition of Pegasus had previously been reported by Israeli and Colombian media but was never officially acknowledged. Petro, Colombia's first-ever leftist president, succeeded his conservative predecessor, Ivan Duque, two years ago. Duque's term was marked by massive anti-government demonstrations met with a police crackdown and an increase in violence by armed groups operating in the country.

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Kinshasa, Congo — The first delivery of almost 100,000 doses of mpox vaccines will arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, the African Union's health watchdog said. The vast central Africa country of around 100 million people is at the epicenter of the mpox outbreak, with cases and deaths rising. "We are very pleased with the arrival of this first batch of vaccines in the DRC," Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told AFP, adding that more than 99,000 doses were expected. More than 17,500 cases and 629 deaths have been reported in the country since the start of the year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The vaccine doses will be transported onboard an airplane leaving the Danish capital Copenhagen on Wednesday evening and are due to arrive at Kinshasa's international airport on Thursday at 1100 GMT.  'Health war' The Congolese National Institute of Public Health, which is in charge of managing the country's mpox response, indicated that it was still waiting for details on the origin of the vaccines contained in the first delivery. "Kinshasa is still waiting for documents from the Africa CDC that will provide information on these doses," the institute's director Dieudonne Mwamba Kazadi told AFP. "We are in a health war against mpox. To face this disease, we need you," Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said on X on Tuesday. In Africa, mpox is now present in at least 13 countries, including Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic, according to figures from the Africa CDC dated August 27. On Wednesday, Guinea said it had recorded its first confirmed case of the disease, convening an emergency meeting in response. A health official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that the case was discovered in a sub-prefecture close to the Liberian border. Outside the continent, the virus has also been detected in Sweden, Pakistan and the Philippines. The WHO said last week that the first vaccine doses would arrive in the DRC in the following days, with other deliveries to follow. The WHO said at the end of August that around 230,000 MVA-BN vaccine doses produced by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic were "imminently available to be dispatched to affected regions." Other countries have also promised to send vaccine doses to African nations. Spain has promised 500,000 doses, with France and Germany each pledging 100,000. The WHO declared an international emergency over mpox on August 14, concerned by the surge in cases of the new Clade 1b strain in the DRC that spread to nearby countries. Both the Clade 1b and Clade 1a strains are present in the DRC. The WHO's Africa bureau said at the end of last month that 10,000 vaccine doses would be delivered to Nigeria -- Bavarian Nordic vaccines donated by the United States. This was the first African country to receive doses outside of clinical trials. Formerly called monkeypox, the virus was discovered in 1958 in Denmark, in monkeys kept for research. It was first discovered in humans in 1970 in what is now the DRC. Mpox is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact. The disease causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Pope Francis and the grand imam of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque vowed Thursday to fight religiously inspired violence and protect the environment, issuing a joint call for interfaith friendship and common cause at the heart of Francis’ visit to Indonesia. In an encounter rich with symbolic meaning and personal touches, Francis traveled to Jakarta’s iconic Istiqlal Mosque for an interreligious gathering with representatives of the six religions that are officially recognized in Indonesia: Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Catholicism and Protestantism. There, he and the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, stood at the ground-level entrance to the “Tunnel of Friendship,” an underpass which connects the mosque compound with the neighboring Catholic cathedral, Our Lady of the Assumption. Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, has held out the tunnel as a tangible sign of its commitment to religious freedom, which is enshrined in the constitution but has been challenged by repeated instances of discrimination and violence against religious minorities. From January 2021 to July 2024, there were at least 123 cases of intolerance, including rejection, closure or destruction of places of worship and physical attacks, Amnesty International noted on the eve of Francis' visit. Approaching the elevator to the tunnel, Francis said it was a potent sign of how different religious traditions “have a role to play in helping everyone pass through the tunnels of life with our eyes turned towards the light.” He encouraged all Indonesians of every religious tradition to “walk in search of God and contribute to building open societies, founded on reciprocal respect and mutual love, capable of protecting against rigidity, fundamentalism and extremism, which are always dangerous and never justifiable.” Francis traveled to Indonesia, at the start of an 11-day, four-nation trip to Asia and Oceania, to encourage Indonesia to combat religiously inspired violence and pledge the Catholic Church’s commitment to greater fraternity. The meeting at the mosque showed the personal side of that policy, with Francis and Umar — the 87-year-old pope and the more youthful 65-year-old imam — showing a clear affinity for one another. As Francis was leaving in his wheelchair, Umar bent down and kissed Francis on the head. Francis then grasped Umar's hand, kissed it and held it to his cheek. The event began with a similarly moving moment, as a visually impaired Indonesian teenage girl, Kayla Nur Syahwa, chanted verses from the Quran about tolerance among believers of different faiths. Francis has made improving Catholic-Muslim ties a hallmark of his papacy and has prioritized travel to majority Muslim nations to further the agenda. During a 2019 visit to the Gulf, Francis and the imam of Al-Azhar, the 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni learning, launched a “Human Fraternity” movement calling for greater Christian-Muslim efforts to promote peace around the world. More recently, Francis traveled to Najaf, Iraq, in 2021 to visit the top Shiite cleric, who delivered a message of peaceful coexistence. The new initiative launched Thursday, called “The Istiqlal Declaration,” now becomes another pillar of Francis’ interfaith push. It was signed by Francis and Umar at a formal ceremony in the tent on the Istiqlal mosque compound. The other religious representatives at the encounter didn’t co-sign it but were listed by organizers as having “accompanied” it. The document said religion should never be abused to justify violence, but should instead be used to resolve conflicts and protect and promote human dignity. It also called for “decisive action” to protect the environment and its resources, blaming man-made actions for the current climate crisis. “The human exploitation of creation, our common home, has contributed to climate change, leading to various destructive consequences such as natural disasters, global warming and unpredictable weather patterns,” it read. “This ongoing environmental crisis has become an obstacle to the harmonious coexistence of peoples.” Fighting climate change has been an important priority for the Argentine Jesuit pope, who has issued encyclicals insisting on the moral dimension of caring for God’s creation. The climate issue is of existential importance to Indonesia, a tropical archipelago stretching across the equator and home to the world’s third-largest rainforest and a variety of endangered wildlife and plants. Umar, the grand imam, recalled in his remarks to the gathering that the Istiqlal mosque was designed by a Christian architect and is used for a variety of social and educational programs that benefit everyone, not just Muslims. Calling the mosque "a big house for humanity,” he said the tunnel was a melting pot for people of different faiths. “We hope and have the principle that humanity is one, so anyone can enter and benefit,” he said. The interfaith gathering was the highlight of Francis’ visit to Indonesia, which concludes later Thursday with a giant Mass in Jakarta’s stadium expected to draw some 60,000 people. Catholics represent about 3% of Indonesia’s population of 275 million, but the country is home to the world’s largest Catholic seminary and has long been a top source of priests and nuns for the Catholic Church. Francis is seeking to encourage their faith by becoming the third pope to visit Indonesia, after Paul VI in 1970 and John Paul II in 1989. On Friday, Francis heads to Papua New Guinea for the second leg of his trip, one of the longest and farthest in papal history, which will also take him to East Timor and Singapore before it ends Sept. 13.

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BEIJING — Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday pledged more than $50 billion in financing for Africa over the next three years, promising to deepen cooperation in infrastructure and trade with the continent as he addressed Beijing's biggest summit since the pandemic. More than 50 African leaders and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres are attending this week's China-Africa forum, according to state media. African leaders already secured a plethora of deals this week for greater cooperation in infrastructure, agriculture, mining, trade and energy. Addressing the leaders at the forum's opening ceremony in Beijing's ornate Great Hall of the People on Thursday morning, Xi hailed ties with the continent as their "best period in history." "China is ready to deepen cooperation with African countries in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, trade and investment," he said. "Over the next three years, the Chinese government is willing to provide financial support amounting to $50.7 billion," Xi said. Over half of that will be in credit, he said, with $11 billion "in various types of assistance" as well as $10 billion through encouraging Chinese firms to invest. He also promised to help "create at least one million jobs for Africa." Also addressing the meeting, UN chief Guterres told African leaders that growing ties between China and the continent could "drive the renewable energy revolution." "China's remarkable record of development -- including on eradicating poverty -- provides a wealth of experience and expertise," he said. Deals and pledges China, the world's number two economy, is Africa's largest trading partner and has sought to tap the continent's vast troves of natural resources including copper, gold, lithium and rare earth minerals. It has also furnished African countries with billions in loans that have helped build much-needed infrastructure but sometimes stoked controversy by saddling governments with huge debts. Analysts say that Beijing's largesse towards Africa is being recalibrated in the face of economic trouble at home and that geopolitical concerns over a growing tussle with the United States may increasingly be driving policy. But bilateral meetings held on the sidelines of the summit delivered a slew of pledges on greater cooperation in projects from railway to solar panels to avocados. Following meetings on Wednesday, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema said he had overseen a deal between the country's state-owned power company ZESCO and Beijing's PowerChina to expand the use of rooftop solar panels in his country. Nigeria -- one of Beijing's biggest debtors on the continent -- and China inked a joint statement agreeing to "deepen cooperation" in infrastructure, including "transportation, ports and free trade zones." Expanding transport links Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, in turn, obtained a commitment from Xi to push for new progress on a long-stalled railway connecting his country to neighboring Zambia. That project -- which Zambian media has said Beijing has pledged $1 billion towards -- is aimed at expanding transport links in the resource-rich eastern part of the continent. Zimbabwe also won promises from Beijing for deeper cooperation in "agriculture, mining, environmentally friendly traditional and new energy (and) transportation infrastructure," according to a joint statement by the two countries. The southern African nation and Beijing also agreed to sign a deal that would allow the export of fresh Zimbabwean avocados to China, the joint statement said. And Kenyan leader William Ruto said Xi had promised to open up China's markets to agricultural products from his country. The two sides agreed to work together on the expansion of the country's Standard Gauge Railway -- built with finance from Exim Bank of China -- which connects the capital, Nairobi, with the port city of Mombasa. And Ruto also secured a pledge for greater cooperation with China on the Rironi-Mau Summit-Malaba motorway, which Kenyan media has said is expected to cost $1.2 billion. Ruto last year asked China for a $1 billion loan and the restructuring of existing debt to complete other stalled construction projects. The country now owes China more than $8 billion.

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washington — During his recent trip to Mongolia, Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted a plan to build a pipeline from his country to China. The pipeline, which could weaken U.S. energy leverage over Beijing, would have to pass through Mongolia. In a joint press conference held after talks in Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday, Putin said cooperation in the gas sector looks promising. The two sides have completed drawing up documents to design the Soyuz Vostok gas pipeline extension in Mongolia and it is "at the stage of state expert appraisal and assessment," Putin said. New export market The Soyuz Vostok gas pipeline extension is part of the Power of Siberia 2 (PS-2) pipeline. The PS-2 pipeline would transport about 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas annually to China when completed. It is seen as an effort by Moscow to divert gas that had been exported to Europe to Asia after the Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic Sea was damaged by explosions last year. Russia uses the Power of Siberia 1 pipeline to deliver gas to China, exporting 22.7 bcm in 2023. It aims to raise the supplies to 38 bcm annually by 2025. "China is really Russia's option to find a customer for a sizable portion of the pipeline gas it previously sent to Europe," said Erica Downs, a senior research scholar focusing on Chinese energy markets at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. "Putin will continue to champion the project and look for ways to characterize any discussion of the project with Mongolian officials as progress," she continued. Beijing and Moscow have been in talks for years over PS-2, but a final agreement has not been reached. Mongolia also has not made a final approval for the pipeline to pass through its land. "The pipeline, if built, would reduce U.S. LNG [liquefied natural gas] exports to China," further weakening U.S. energy leverage over China that is already declining, said Joseph Webster, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center. Beijing seeks to reduce foreign energy dependence by "replacing imports with indigenously produced energy" including solar, wind, and nuclear energy, Webster said. A report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service on Aug. 28 said, "PS-2 could strengthen China's bargaining position" with the U.S. if it receives additional Russian natural gas. The U.S. has been the sixth largest exporter of LNG to China between 2016 and 2023, the report noted. The report said PS-2 could also help Russia avoid sanctions imposed by the West because "PS-2 would involve pipeline trade of natural gas" and "no existing sanctions would impact this trade." Renewed push Putin made an extra effort to promote the pipeline deal at the press conference with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh. He said Russia and Mongolia are "not only talking about the transit of Russian gas across Mongolia" but "the potential delivery of gas to Mongolian consumers." Ahead of the talks, Putin said Mongolia initially "preferred to limit themselves to being just a transit country" for the pipeline but is now considering a deal to obtain "cheap pipeline gas to support the development of their economy and infrastructure." Putin made the comments in a written interview with Mongolia's Onoodor newspaper, according to the Kremlin on Monday. Putin's renewed push to boost PS2 came after Mongolia in August excluded the pipeline project in its national development plan through 2028. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment at the Heritage Foundation, said Putin made the remarks "to project strength" and because he "needs a market for his oil." "He wants to see what the West says," and also "to see whether Mongolia changes its mind," but the pipeline deal is still incomplete "until we get confirmation from Mongolia," she said. Khurelsukh did not confirm in his statements in the bilateral talks with Putin whether he agreed to allow the pipeline deal to proceed. In a series of documents signed on Tuesday, Russia and Mongolia made agreements on the supplies of oil, petroleum products, and aviation fuel but did not mention any agreements on the pipeline deal. China-Russia competition Mongolia is heavily dependent on Russian energy, importing 95% of its petroleum products and more than 20% of electricity. A spokesperson for the Mongolian government told Politico on Tuesday that is why it did not arrest Putin when he was in the country. The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin's arrest for crimes committed in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As a member country of the ICC, Mongolia was obligated to arrest him. "Mongolia probably does not have to make a final decision about Power of Siberia 2 anytime soon because China is in no hurry to move forward with the project," Downs said. "The fact that Mongolia did not include Power of Siberia 2 in its next four-year spending plan indicates that it does not expect the project to move off the drawing board before 2028," she said. Russia also has been in talks with China about the project in recent months. In May, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Beijing and Moscow are expected to sign a contract on the PS-2 gas pipeline "in the near future." But the pipeline deal between the two remained stalled over pricing demands by Beijing, the Financial Times reported in June. On Wednesday, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui apparently told the Russian News Agency Tass on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok that Beijing and Moscow would eventually launch PS-2 despite difficulties surrounding the project. "China always drives a hard bargain on the pricing of gas imports and wants to control as much as possible of the transportation network involved in its imports and exports," said Thomas Duesterberg, senior fellow at Hudson Institute. "Russia and China compete over influence in Mongolia, and the Russo-Mongolian deal is subject to close scrutiny because of these factors, and that likely explains the failure at this time to reach a deal," he added. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng will visit Mongolia from Sept. 4 to 8 after attending the Eastern Economic Forum held in Vladivostok, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday. It is uncertain, however, whether Beijing and Ulaanbaatar will discuss the PS-2 pipeline project.

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The Biden administration has announced criminal charges, the seizure of internet domains and sanctions related to Russian disinformation efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election. Four people were killed in a shooting at a Georgia high school on Wednesday, just weeks after classes began. And an auction with tape recordings for Bob Dylan's first album and Madonna’s earliest guitar and drums, handwritten letters, and audio tapes of her first recorded song.

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.

WASHINGTON — The White House is signaling an openness to blocking the acquisition of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel, as a government review of the proposed takeover by the Japanese company is wrapping up.  The Washington Post reported Wednesday that President Joe Biden plans to stop the deal from going forward. A White House official, insisting on anonymity to discuss the matter, did not deny the report and said Biden still needs to receive the official recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). That review could end as soon as this month.  Biden had voiced his objections to the merger, backing his supporters in the United Steelworkers union who oppose the deal. The objection carries weight as U.S. Steel is headquartered in the swing state of Pennsylvania and is a symbol of Pittsburgh's industrial might in an election year when Republicans and Democrats alike are promising more domestic manufacturing jobs.  Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, came out against the deal this week. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has said he would block the merger if he were still in the White House.  Stock in U.S. Steel fell roughly 17% on the news that Biden would stop the merger.  The CFIUS review process generally pertains to business issues with national security implications. U.S. Steel spokesperson Amanda Malkowski said in an email that the company had not received any update on the process and that the company sees "no national security issues associated with this transaction, as Japan is one of our most staunch allies."  "We fully expect to pursue all possible options under the law to ensure this transaction, which is best future for Pennsylvania, American steelmaking, and all of our stakeholders, closes," Malkowski said.  A spokesman representing Nippon Steel said the company had not received any updates from the federal government on the review process.  U.S. Steel on Wednesday hosted a rally in support of the acquisition. It said in a statement that without the Nippon Steel deal the company would "largely pivot away from its blast furnace facilities, putting thousands of good-paying union jobs at risk, negatively impacting numerous communities across the locations where its facilities exist, and depriving the American steel industry of an opportunity to better compete on the global stage." 

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washington — China's consul general in New York left his post as scheduled after completing his posting last month, the State Department said on Wednesday, hours after New York's governor said she asked for his expulsion in the aftermath of the arrest of a former aide who was accused of secretly acting as a Chinese agent. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that Consul General Huang Ping "was not expelled." "Our understanding is that the consul general reached the end of a regular scheduled rotation in August, and so rotated out of the position, but was not expelled," Miller said. "But of course, when it comes to the status of particular employees of a foreign mission, I would refer you to the foreign country to speak to it. But there was no expulsion action." China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Huang Ping's status. Governor asked for envoy's expulsion Earlier on Wednesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul told an event that she spoke by phone at the request of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to a high-ranking State Department official "and I had conveyed my desire to have the consul general from the People's Republic of China in the New York mission expelled." "And I've been informed that the consul general is no longer in the New York mission," she said. Miller said Hochul had spoken on Wednesday to Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. Asked by an audience member if she had been interviewed by investigators, including the FBI, Hochul said: "They asked me one question." "I'm not able to talk about it but it had something to do with identifying whether or not something was my signature and that was it," she said. Former aide charged Linda Sun, 41, a former aide to Hochul, was charged on Tuesday with secretly acting as an agent of the Chinese government in exchange for millions of dollars in compensation and gifts, including meals of gourmet duck. Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, 40, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo in Brooklyn, after being arrested on Tuesday morning. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said that while working in state government, Sun blocked representatives of the Taiwanese government from meeting with officials and sought to arrange for a high-level New York state official to visit China. In exchange, Chinese government representatives allegedly arranged for millions of dollars in transactions for Hu, who had business activities in China. Prosecutors said Sun and Hu used the money to buy a 2024 Ferrari Roma sports car, as well as property on New York's Long Island and in Honolulu worth about $6 million. Hochul was not accused of any wrongdoing. Her office fired Sun in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct and reported Sun's actions immediately to authorities. Her office also has assisted law enforcement throughout the process, a spokesperson for the governor said. According to the website of China's consulate in New York, Huang Ping had been the consul general since November 2018. Prior to that, Huang, 61, served as a Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe and did stints as an official at the embassy in Washington and China's consulate in Chicago.

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