The 21-year-old suspect in the fatal shooting of 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, pleaded not guilty Thursday during a brief initial hearing.

Police have said Patrick Crusius of Dallas confessed to the Aug. 3 mass shooting and that he targeted Mexicans.
 
Early Thursday afternoon, around 80 members of the public and 30 members of the press underwent security screening before filing into the courtroom on the top floor of the El Paso County Courthouse.

Among the crowd was a delegation from the Mexican Consulate. Eight Mexican citizens were killed in the attack and most of the victims had Hispanic last names. One person killed was a German citizen who lived in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

A bailiff asked the court to be quiet and warned against outbursts.

Some two-dozen people survived the attack with injuries, and two of them remain in the hospital, hospital officials said.

Local prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty. Federal authorities are weighing capital murder and hate crime charges. The Department of Justice has called the shooting an act of domestic terrorism.

There were 2,000 witnesses at the scene of the massacre, so almost everybody in the city of about 700,000 knew somebody affected by the shooting.

The first judge assigned to the case recused herself because she knew one of the people killed in the attack. The lead prosecutor said his sister also was in the Walmart during the attack and that the gunman walked right by her.

Crusius fled the scene of the shooting in his car but turned himself in less than an hour later, according to police. His arrest warrant says he declared “I’m the shooter.” Police have said he published a racist screed a few minutes before the shooting, saying he wanted to kill Latinos to balkanize the U.S. along racial lines.
 
Crusius is being held without bond in an El Paso jail. He has been on suicide watch since shortly after his arrest and is separated from other prisoners.

Anticipating a large crowd, state District Court Judge Sam Medrano will hold the hearing in the county’s largest courtroom, which seats 100. He said Wednesday that members of the public should arrive an hour ahead of the 2 p.m. hearing for a security screening. Security will be heightened, according to a spokeswoman at the sheriff’s department, which operates both the court and the jail.
 

Chinese basketball fans filled an arena Thursday in Shanghai for a National Basketball Association exhibition game despite the ongoing public backlash over a tweet from the Houston Rockets general manager in support of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.

Video posted on social media by a Los Angeles Times reporter show Chinese fans, many wearing NBA jerseys, cheering and taking pictures as the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets made their way onto the court.  

The scene as the Lakers take the court 15 minutes before this game.

The U.S. military has conducted an aerial survey of Greenland to assess the vast arctic island’s mineral potential as part of agreement between the two governments, a top U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday.

The memorandum of understanding for cooperating on developing the mineral sector there was inked in June before a diplomatic flap between the United States and Denmark, to which Greenland is linked as an autonomous territory.

U.S. President Donald Trump called off a visit to Denmark scheduled for early September after the country’s prime minister rebuffed his idea of purchasing Greenland.

Frank Fannon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for energy resources, told reporters at a gathering at London’s Chatham House that the process was “quite costly and technology intensive” and so Greenland had sought U.S. assistance.

“We had the navy there to shoot a hyperspectral survey, to basically use overflight technology to better understand the resource endowment.”

“That creates data room where the U.S. Geological Survey would be brought in to help interpret the data and share with the Greenlanders what the potential resource endowment might be.”

According to a press release by Greenland’s government, the aerial mapping would be jointly funded and involves surveying around 3,000 square kilometers in the territory’s southwestern Gardar province.

The data gathered would measure the reflection of sunlight, including infrared light invisible to the naked eye, to better understand the geology of the terrain and its mineral content.

Fannon added that the United States planned to help Greenland, armed with the data, to develop a regulatory structure to exploit mineral finds and market future tenders.

Asked if relations with Greenland or Denmark had deteriorated since Trump’s offer to buy the territory, Fannon responded: “I’ve only seen the strongest relationship with Greenland as well as with Denmark … It’s a very positive relationship.”

Greenland is gaining attention as global superpowers including China, Russia and the United States look toward the Arctic region for mineral resources and strategic waterways.

A defense treaty between NATO allies Denmark and the United States dating back to 1951 gives the U.S. military rights over the Thule Air Base in northern Greenland.

After Trump canceled his planned meeting with his Danish counterpart in August, Greenland’s foreign minister Ane Lone Bagger told Reuters: “We are open for business, but we’re not for sale.”
 

Two associates of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani have been arrested on federal charges of campaign finance violations.

Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen and Igor Fruman, a Belarus-born U.S. citizen, were detained late Wednesday in Virginia, a law enforcement official said.   
 
The two men, who face charges of illegally funding U.S. political campaigns, are expected to make their first court appearance in Alexandria, Virginia, Thursday, the official said.

Parnas and Fruman allegedly helped Giuliani investigate corruption allegations against former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Two other defendants, Andrey Kukushkin, another Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen and David Correia, were also indicted in connection with the same conspiracy. Kukushkin has been arrested and will appear in federal court in San Francisco later Thursday.

Correia has not been arrested yet.

 

Humanitarian concerns are growing as Turkey’s military incursion into northeastern Syria widens and desperate civilians flee on tractors, trucks and motorcycles, becoming the region’s newest refugees. International and local aid agencies fear that hundreds of thousands of people could be at risk, as Turkey launches airstrikes and pursues a ground offensive to clear once-U.S.-backed Kurdish forces from the border area.

Chaotic scenes are being repeated of frightened Kurdish, Syriac Christian and Yazidi civilians escaping on foot, carrying plastic bags with their worldly goods, while others are herded onto trucks or motorcycles, enveloped in plumes of dust from the latest Turkish bombardment of their land. Roads are gridlocked with hundreds of fleeing families saying they don’t know where to go for safety.

The International Rescue Committee says that “as the Turkish offensive in Syria begins, the IRC is deeply concerned about the lives and livelihoods of the two million civilians in northeast Syria who have already survived ISIS brutality and multiple displacements,” in a statement issued Thursday, using an alternate reference for Islamic State.

Catholic priest Father Emanuel Youkhana, who runs the Christian Aid Program northern Iraq to help displaced Iraqis resulting from Islamic State attacks, told VOA from the Dohuk region that he expects a “wave of refugees” from nearby northeastern Syria to flood into Iraq.
 
“The most stable, peaceful region of all Syria for years has been this area of northeast area. Unfortunately, and painfully to say, we are expecting the worst,” said Youkhana. “Definitely, the borders will be opened from the Iraqi side to innocent civilians. We do expect mass waves of refugees. “
 
Youkhana and other humanitarian responders say they are suspicious and critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call for a so-called safe zone along the Turkish-Syrian border, where he plans to displace Kurds, Christians and Yazidis and move in two million Sunni Muslims from other parts of Syria.  
 
“Erdogan this time is targeting all the people, except the terrorists,” said Youkhana. “Actually, it is a demographic change policy.”
 
Meanwhile, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government in Irbil says it does not have the capacity to accommodate all the people who are expected to be displaced as a result of the Turkish offensive.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that had been backed by the U.S. until this week, has called on the international community for assistance, saying the border areas of northeastern Syria “are on the edge of a possible humanitarian catastrophe.”

Possible changes to Vietnam’s Labor Code, due to be debated in coming weeks by the country’s legislature, are expected to strengthen worker rights in key ways.

This month the Quoc Hoi, or National Assembly, the country’s parliament, will gather for the second session of the year, and one item on the agenda will be a proposed revision of the code. The revision would include granting workers the right to form their own unions. The revision also includes changes to protect workers, such as rules to prevent companies from abusing temporary contracts to avoid employer obligations, as well as changes that would weaken protections, such as requiring people to continue working longer before they retire.

While the package is almost certain to pass, members of the parliament are expected to have substantive debate on the pros and cons before voting. 

One of the most dramatic changes would be to labor organizing. Vietnam already has one union overseen by the state to cover the whole country. The new law would mean that more unions can be formed.   

“I am pleased to see the major steps Vietnam has taken to meet the challenges of rapidly changing labor markets as well as to fulfill its international commitments,” Chang-Hee Lee, the Hanoi-based Vietnam International Labor Organization country director in Hanoi, said in a press release.

One factor motivating the move to allow more labor unions is Vietnam’s trade agreement with the European Union. The pact requires the Southeast Asian nation to increase worker protections, including through more union representation.  The agreement was signed in June but its effective date will not be known until it receives legislative approval.

Human Rights Watch, however, said that the agreement does not go far enough and that the EU should press Vietnam not just on labor rights but also on human rights more broadly. 

“The EU should remind Vietnam that it expects meaningful human rights improvements in order for their bilateral political and economic relations to move forward,” Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, based in Bangkok, said in a statement.

He added, “Human rights should be an integral part of [all] discussions and negotiations between the EU, its member states and Vietnam.”

Vietnam has some labor rights protections that are stronger than those in developed countries such as the United States. These include guaranteed paid maternity leave and limits on when a company can terminate or punish a worker. 

Some of these limits would be removed in the revision to the Labor Code. The code would allow a company to punish a worker for reasons that are not included in the company’s internal labor regulations, in contrast to the current law that requires the reasons to be included in the regulations. The revision would also force people to work longer before they can collect their retirement benefits. For women the retirement age would rise to 60  from 55, and for men to 62 from 60. 

Other parts of the Labor Code revision would be helpful for workers. For example companies now often hire workers on short-term contracts rather than indefinite-term contracts. The legal revision would make it harder to abuse such short term contracts, by allowing them only in the case of foreign or elderly workers.

Journalists organizations are increasingly concerned that journalists covering the increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong are being targeted by police action and sometimes protesters.

Months of massive pro-democracy demonstrations in this semiautonomous city under Chinese authority have grown increasingly tense, as police have used water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds, and some protesters armed with rocks and even homemade gasoline bombs have attacked police.

Voice of America Mandarin reporter Yihua Lee has been among the thousands of journalists in Hong Kong that have found themselves in dangerous situations, as clashes erupted between masked protesters and police, and in areas where police have fired tear gas into crowds.

“I do feel the unfriendly feeling from the police, when we are covering the protests on really the front lines. Maybe they feel we are blocking their way, or maybe they are feeling that we are not really neutral,” said Lee.

Police targeting

Journalists often find themselves in the middle of clashes while reporting on conflicts.  However during these pro-democracy demonstrations, both the Hong Kong Journalist Association and the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club have accused the police of purposefully targeting reporters.

“Since June, journalists have been the target of police brutality and hostile treatment, physical and verbal abuses and attacks,” said Chris Yeung, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

Video evidence, said Eric Wishart the vice president of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club, shows police at times “deliberately” using tear gas, pepper spray, water cannons and physical force to “obstruct journalists trying to cover the arrests and other police action.”

“They just don’t want journalists sticking their noses in when they’re arresting people. The way they arrest people can be pretty brutal, and they don’t want cameras poked in,” said Wishart.

Hong Kong police have denied they are targeting journalists but said there is room for improvement in the coordination between police and the media.

Journalists injured

Despite wearing yellow vests to identify themselves as journalists, an increasing number of reporters in Hong Kong have been injured or attacked during the protests.

In September, an Indonesian journalist was hit in the eye by a rubber bullet, after demonstrators in the area threw plastic bottles at the police.  She was among a group of journalists standing on a pedestrian bridge when police fired directly at them. The injured journalist has been permanently blinded in one eye.  

In a recent scuffle between protesters and police, a journalist was hit by a fiery gasoline bomb thrown by a protester. The reporter was not injured and it is reported that the protester was trying to hit police with the gasoline bomb.

Recently a journalist had his gas mask forcefully removed by police after tear gas was fired in the area. This came days after the Hong Kong government enacted a law banning protesters from wearing masks, but exempted journalists covering the demonstrations.

In August, anti-government protesters also attacked a journalist from the Global Times, a mainland Chinese news organization, in the Hong Kong International Airport, and there have been other reports of Cantonese speaking Hong Kong protesters assaulting and intimidating Mandarin speaking reporters they identify as pro-Beijing.

Press freedom

The Hong Kong Journalists Association has condemned all attacks against reporters, and called for both the Hong Kong government and the pro-democracy protesters to protect the right of an independent press to report on all sides of this volatile conflict.

“In this case it’s even more important because it’s so controversial, so divided in the society, that only truth can help solve the problem. And without reporters you can’t really get the whole truth,” said Yeung.

The Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club is also providing safety training for journalists in hostile environments, which Hong Kong has now become.

Hong Kong “has always been a safe place for journalists,” said Wishart, and the vast majority of journalists here are “not prepared” for conflict reporting. “They’re really learning on the job now.”

National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin and VOA’s Kurdish and Turkish Services contributed to this report.

The United Nations Security Council is set to meet Thursday to discuss the military operation in northeastern Syria that Turkey says is a “measured and responsible” anti-terror operation, while the mainly Kurdish fighters in the region appeal for help to “save our people from genocide.”

Turkey launched its long-planned operation Wednesday aimed at taking out the Kurdish forces it sees as terrorists, but which most of the West views as key partners in the fight against Islamic State militants.

Turkish forces began with airstrikes and later sent in ground troops, with the country’s defense ministry claiming it “hit 181 targets.”

Mustefa Bali, spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the group’s fighters had repelled a ground attack by Turkish forces in the Tal Abyad region.

“No advance as of now,” Bali wrote on Twitter.

Ahead of the U.N. Security Council meeting, Reuters quoted a letter sent to the council by Turkey’s U.N. Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioglu saying the operation “will only target terrorists and their hideouts, shelters, emplacements, weapons vehicles and equipment.”

The Turkish Defense Ministry said the offensive is being undertaken in line with Security Council resolutions and international law provisions allowing Turkey a “right of self defense.”

In a Washington Post op-ed published late Wednesday, Hemin Kobane, the SDF’s liason with the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, accused the United States of casting aside the Kurds and “leaving them to their fates at the hands of their mortal enemies.”

Kobane cited the years of cooperation between U.S. and SDF forces in taking back territory from Islamic State, calling U.S. forces “our friends and brothers” against a common enemy.

“We hoped that the stability and freedom of the area under our control would offer a strategic stronghold for the future of the entire region.  Our fellowship was a light of hope for the citizens of all of Syria.  Unfortunately, yet once more, our foes in the region are conspiring to destroy our people.”

A Syrian Democratic Forces tweet Thursday thanked a number of governments for “acting with honor” toward the people of northeastern Syria, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Britain, France and Germany.  The United States was not included. 

We are grateful to Arab governments for acting with honor towards people of NE

President Donald Trump predicts his impeachment battle with House Democrats will wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The president spoke to reporters Wednesday, a day after the White House says it is refusing to participate in the Democratic-led inquiry into whether he should be impeached.

Trump did not say exactly what House leaders must do if they want his cooperation. But he said he would cooperate “if they give us our rights” and Republicans “get a fair shake.”

On Twitter, he called the impeachment probe a “Total Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats.”

Great support from GOP in fighting the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats!

VOA’s Victoria Macchi contributed to this report.

The Trump administration is touting a drop in enforcement actions along the U.S.-Mexico border for a fourth straight month as proof it is successfully reducing illegal immigration into the United States.

“This administration’s strategies have brought about results — dramatic results,” Acting Customs and Border Protection [CBP] Commissioner

Meanwhile, the administration has forged agreements designating El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras as asylum destinations, while stipulating that non-Mexicans must seek asylum in a third country they transited en route to the U.S. border before filing a claim in the United States.

Morgan said the policies were needed to curtail “numbers [of border arrivals] that no immigration system in the world is designed to handle, including ours.”

Immigrant rights advocates, however, see a humanitarian disaster in the making.

“The new asylum rule is sufficient to stop almost everyone,” said Helena Olea, an international human rights lawyer and adviser to Alianza Americas, a network of Latin American and Caribbean immigrant organizations in the United States. 

Of concern, she said, are the “extremely weak asylum procedures” in Central American countries, “because no one is seeking protection in countries from which everyone is fleeing.”

Families, mostly from Central America, but increasingly from outside the Americas, accounted for most of the spike in arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this year.

CBP has not released a detailed breakdown of data for September. It is unclear what proportion of those encountered by the agency last month were families, unaccompanied children, or adults traveling alone.

The drop in arrivals coincided with the hottest months at the U.S.-Mexico border. Immigration experts say the numbers could rise again as temperatures moderate.

Immigration advocates say factors compelling people to flee their home countries continue unabated.

“People may continue trying to cross,” Alianza Americas’ Olea said. “They may fail, but that doesn’t mean they won’t continue attempting to come to the U.S.”

California power company Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) cut power Wednesday to millions of Californians due to high winds that could down power lines sparking wildfires.

Utilities companies have warned for months that cutoffs were possible, but the power cut seems to have caught many by surprise.  

Twitter was buzzing with comments about the outage from consumers in the Northern California area. Many posted angry tweets about the power company’s website, serving Northern and Central California, being down and making updates on the cuts inaccessible.

While many East Coast residents have learned to cope with power outages from hurricanes, weather-related outages are a relatively new phenomenon in California.

Where are the outages?

PG&E began shutting off power Wednesday morning. Nearly 500,000 homes and businesses in Northern California were without power and by midday it expanded to parts of the Bay Area, including San Jose and Santa Cruz.

Farther south, where Santa Ana winds weren’t expected until early Thursday, Southern California Edison said it might cut power to more than 170,000 customers. It included more than 50,000 in northern Los Angeles County and nearly 20,449 in Ventura County.

San Diego Gas & Electric also said it could cut power to nearly 30,000.

The reason for power cuts

Power lines were to blame for setting off fires nearly a year ago in Northern California that killed 86 people and burned 62 hectares. The town of Paradise was so devastated by the January fire that, by mid-July, only 2,034 residents — of nearly 27,000 before the fire — were living in the city.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after the utility was found liable for igniting multiple fires. In September, PG&E reached an $11 billion settlement in those claims. A third group of claims is still working its way through state and federal courts.

To avoid more legal fights, PG&E and other utilities companies decided to cut power during high-wind episodes. Based on conditions, power cuts could last up to six days.

Gas-powered generators are flying off the shelves at stores, and electricians are busy installing backup power to businesses that knew blackouts could be coming.

Southern California Edison warned that generators need to be placed outdoors and rigged to individual appliances with a heavy-duty extension cord. Connecting generators directly to household circuits can create danger for the utility’s repair crews, they said.

Many schools and universities were closing due the power outages. People were filling their gas tanks in case gas stations lost power. There were also long lines reported at grocery stores ahead of the shutdowns.

Hospitals remained open, using backup generators. But some, like the San Ramon Regional Medical Center, were weighing whether to divert ambulances to other hospitals not affected by outages.

Solar power

Almost all home solar systems are tied into the local power company’s power grid, so the customer can feed solar back into the system and get paid for the electricity their solar panels produce.

But these systems are turned off when utility power is out. That is to keep electrical workers who are working on the grids safe because power flowing into the system could kill them.

This leaves many homes using solar power without electricity. But residents who have a home battery attached to their energy systems are in luck. The solar energy powers the home during the day, and any excess energy is used to charge the battery. The battery can then be used at night or when the grid goes down.

The same is true for electric cars. If the cars have a solar panel with a battery, they will likely have a range of between 160 to 400 kilometers between charges. So if they’re fully charged, they can often outlast power outages.

Climate change, years of drought, and the construction of houses and communities in wildland areas have all contributed to the spate of intense and deadly fires in California in recent years, experts say.

The price of electricity jumped an alarming 320% in Zimbabwe on Wednesday as the country continues to spiral into the worst economic crisis in more than a decade.

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) said it had approved the request by the national power company to increase the rate from 38 Zimbabwe cents per kilowatt hour to 162 Zimbabwe cents.

The price hike was the second in three months. In August, ZERA approved a price hike of 400%.

Authorities said the hike was needed for the power company to be able to afford to maintain its equipment and buy fuel for its generators.

Supporters of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who came to power after long-time ruler Robert Mugabe was deposed in late 2017, had hoped he would be able to revive the economy quickly. But that has failed to materialize.

Mnangagwa has pleaded for more time and patience from his countrymen even as inflation continues to skyrocket.

The government stopped publishing inflation figures after they peaked at 176% in June.  The International Monetary Fund has estimated that inflation hit 300% in August.

 

Ukraine’s president appears to be playing to both sides of the American political divide, hedging his bets to ensure U.S. financial and military aid keeps flowing no matter who wins next year’s election.

First, a point for U.S. President Donald Trump’s team: Ukraine’s top prosecutor agreed to revisit past investigations into a gas company executive who recruited Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son to his board.

And now, a nod to the anti-Trump camp: Ukraine has appointed a man who exposed under-the-table payments to Trump’s onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort as a senior prosecutor.

So which team is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on? He’s not taking that bait — not at a time when he needs American support to fend off pro-Russia separatists but also prove himself an independent leader to his own people. Instead, he insists that he’s maintaining separation of powers and not interfering in prosecutors’ decisions.

Analysts say the Ukrainian leadership is trying to keep its options open, by showing that Zelenskiy is not Trump’s yes-man, and not his enemy either. Zelenskiy is central to the impeachment inquiry against Trump, who pressed the Ukrainian president in a July phone call to investigate Democratic political rivals.
 
The appointment of Viktor Trepak as deputy national prosecutor Tuesday was Ukraine’s latest chess move.

Anti-corruption campaigners — whose cause Zelenskiy championed when seeking the presidency — welcomed the news.

Viktor Trepak 
 
Trepak has never worked as prosecutor before, but he’s got the chops for the job. As first deputy chief of the SBU, a security agency that’s like Ukraine’s CIA and FBI combined, he pursued two senior prosecutors accused of corruption in what’s dubbed the “diamond prosecutors’ case” because of jewels found in one of the prosecutor’s homes.

But the case went nowhere, and a frustrated Trepak alleged political interference.

A month later, he handed to anti-corruption investigators a now-infamous “black ledger” of secret payments from former President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions to legions of prominent people — including Manafort.

The payments, which came years before Manafort became involved in Trump’s campaign, played a role in a U.S. case against Manafort, who’s now serving seven years in prison on charges related to his years as a political consultant in Ukraine. In a statement to The Associated Press in 2017, Manafort did not deny that his firm received the Ukrainian money but said “any wire transactions received by my company are legitimate payments for political consulting.”
 
Trepak hasn’t spoken publicly about Manafort himself but has vigorously defended his decision to hand over the “black ledger” to investigators as part of his career-long campaign against bribery and other dirty political dealings.

It’s exactly that hard-charging reputation that makes Trepak’s appointment useful to Zelenskiy, who has taken flak from domestic opponents for being obsequious in the call with Trump and wants to signal to his voters and international partners that he’s setting corruption-plagued Ukraine on a clean, independent path.

Daria Kaleniuk of anti-corruption group Antac described Trepak as “probably the only well-known officer with background from the security service of Ukraine who is regarded as a reformer.”

Trepak’s appointment “is a clear signal to the Americans, and especially to Trump, of (Zelenskiy’s) wish to distance himself and maintain independence,” said Vadym Karasyov, head of the Institute of Global Strategies. “Zelenskiy is softly showing that he doesn’t want to be Trump’s hand puppet or whipping boy and is capable of leading an independent game and policy.”

Joe Biden and son

Zelenskiy himself says he can’t be pressured to do Trump’s bidding. But his government isn’t entirely pushing Trump away, either.

In the July call with Zelenskiy, Trump sought help on two fronts. The first involves Trump’s claims that Ukraine allied with the Democrats in a plot to derail his 2016 presidential campaign. No evidence of such a plot has emerged, but Trump urged Zelenskiy to “get to the bottom of it” as he tries to prove the allegation ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections.

At the same time, Trump is also pushing Ukraine to investigate any potential wrongdoing by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Trump has said that the United States has an “absolute right” to ask foreign leaders to investigate corruption cases, though no one has produced evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the Bidens.

On this case, Ukraine seems to have thrown Trump a bone. Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka announced Friday that his office is reviewing investigations related to the owner of gas company Burisma. That’s the company that hired Hunter Biden in 2014, when his father was in charge of the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Ukraine.

The prosecutor insisted he did not feel any pressure over the Burisma case and said he wasn’t aware of any wrongdoing by either Biden. He said his office was “auditing” relevant cases that were closed, dismissed or put on hold by his predecessors, including several related to Burisma’s founder.

Political analysts in Kyiv saw the announcement not as a new attempt to dig up dirt on the Bidens but rather an effort to stay in the good graces of the White House.

Zelenskiy may explain his strategy himself Thursday: He’s holding a “media marathon,” amid growing questions about where his allegiances lie.
 

U.S. lawmakers of both political parties on Wednesday continued to savage President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from northeastern Syria, where U.S.-allied Kurds are under attack from Turkey.

“Pray for our Kurdish allies who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump administration,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted. “This move ensures the reemergence of ISIS,” an acronym for the Islamic State.

He also tweeted he would “lead effort in Congress to make (Turkish President) Erdogan pay a heavy price” for launching a military offensive against the Kurds.

“I urge President Trump to change course while there is still time,” added Graham, who is usually one of the president’s most loyal defenders.

‘Abandoning’ Kurdish allies

In a statement, Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons accused the Trump administration of “abandoning our Syrian Kurdish allies,” adding that the offensive “is a direct result of President Trump’s failure to stand up for our partners and interests in the region — a move that calls into question the credibility and reliability of the United States.”

For his part, Trump sought to distance himself from Turkey’s action.

“The United States does not endorse this attack and has made it clear to Turkey that this operation is a bad idea,” the president said in a statement.

Trump added that no U.S. soldiers are participating in the attack area and that “Turkey has committed to protecting civilians, protecting religious minorities, including Christians, and ensuring no humanitarian crisis takes place — and we will hold them to this commitment.”

Applauding the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria was Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who praised Trump for “stopping the endless wars” and predicted “we [the United States] will be stronger as a result.”

Paul’s praise stood in stark contrast to the condemnation of many other lawmakers.

The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, tweeted Trump “completely ignored the calls from Congress, from human rights advocates, from the realities on the ground, and from the Kurds themselves.”

Menendez projected that “only chaos & havoc will follow” and that “this is the second chance ISIS has been waiting for.”

Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine also took to Twitter, accusing Trump of leaving “our allies at risk of being slaughtered.”

By “putting our troops and diplomats in the region at risk,” Kaine said, Trump is “playing right into the hands of our adversaries.”

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen declared that “Turkey must pay a heavy price for attacking our Syrian Kurdish partners.”

Van Hollen predicted that Democratic or Republican senators “won’t support abandoning the one regional group most responsible for putting ISIS on its heels.”

Threatens fight against IS

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy warned on Twitter the attack “threatens to halt momentum against ISIS, directly assaults our SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) partners, and could give the likes of al-Qaeda and Iran new footholds in the region.”

McCarthy also called on Turkey to “stop immediately and continue to work with the US to secure the region.”

The International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian relief organization, expressed deep concern “about the lives and livelihoods of the two million people in northeast Syria who have already survived ISIS brutality and multiple displacements.”

The IRC also cautioned the offensive “could displace 300,000 people and disrupt life-saving humanitarian services, including the IRC’s.”

American minister Franklin Graham, an evangelist who appeals to Trump’s most fervent supporters, also weighed in. He tweeted: “The Turks have a dismal record on human rights & they can’t be trusted. Pray for the Kurds, Christians, & other minorities in the region.”
 

Federal prosecutors in Germany have assumed control of an investigation into the shooting deaths of two people in the city of Halle.

The country’s federal prosecutors handle cases involving possible terrorism and national security.

The shootings occurred Wednesday near a synagogue and a Turkish kabob restaurant, but police said the exact target of the attack was not clear.

The shooting took place as Jews around the world observed Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar.

Authorities said one of the two suspected assailants was arrested after fleeing in a car.  Authorities have not disclosed information about the detained suspect.

The railway station in Halle, an eastern German city of 240,000, was closed as a precaution.

Gunfire was also reported in the nearby town of Landsberg, but it was not clear if it was connected to the shootings in Halle.
 

The olive green cardigan that Kurt Cobain wore during Nirvana’s MTV “Unplugged” performance and one of the late rocker’s custom guitars are headed to auction.

Julien’s Auctions said Wednesday that the sweater and a custom Fender guitar built in 1993 that Cobain used during the band’s In Utero tour will be offered during a two-day auction of rock memorabilia this month.

The turquoise-bodied left-handed guitar was on display for several years at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cobain, one of the biggest stars of the grunge rock music scene of the early 1990s, was 27 when he killed himself on April 5, 1994.

Other pieces in the auction include handwritten lyrics by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen.

The auction will be held Oct. 25 and 26.

Blackhawk Mining says it’s closing three mines and two preparation plants in West Virginia amid weak global coal markets.  
 
The Kentucky-based coal company on Tuesday announced the idling of its facilities in Logan and Mingo counties.
 
The move will impact 342 employees. Blackhawk says workers will be encouraged to apply for open jobs elsewhere with the company. A Blackhawk news release blamed a weak coal market and drops in prices for its decision to close the facilities.
 
Blackhawk filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, saying the restructuring would enable it to shed more than 60% of its debt. Many major U.S. coal producers have filed for bankruptcy protection in recent years.
 

A U.S. Secret Service dog that prevented a potential attack on President Barack Obama in the White House in 2014 has been given the rare honor of an Order of Merit from a British charity, the first foreign animal to receive the award.

Hurricane, a Belgian Malinois, was a highly trained member of the Secret Service and had previously been part of a victorious U.S. Canine Olympic team.

In October 2014, when Obama and his family were home at the White House, an intruder scaled the fence and managed to fight off the first canine team deployed to intercept him. Hurricane and his handler, Special Operations Officer Marshall Mirarchi, were the backup team that night.

“The second he got target lock, I sent him,” Mirarchi said. “He weaved through our teammates and took the individual down. Your normal scenario is that’s it, and you go up and get them. This was obviously different.”

The intruder punched, kicked and swung Hurricane through the air.

“You’re not expecting someone to fight a dog back for that long with that much violence,” Mirarchi recalled. “The individual wasn’t responding to any pain for whatever reason. So, I had to sit back and kind of watch Hurricane go to war. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”

Hurricane’s jaws locked on the suspect’s arm, and he eventually forced the man to the ground where he was detained by armed officers. Hurricane was badly injured.

“To see him afterward after that happened, bring him back to the car and have him look at me, like, you can read his mind. It’s like ‘Dad, did I do a good job?’ He doesn’t know he’s protecting the White House. He doesn’t know the president and his family are inside. He’s doing that for me.”

Hurricane received the Order of Merit last week by British animal charity PDSA. Director General Jan McLoughlin said the award is the animal equivalent of royal recognition.

“It’s given for animals who show distinguished service for society, who go above and beyond that level of human and animal companionship — devotion to duty.”

British Airways gave Hurricane VIP treatment during the trip to London, with a limousine ride to the airport and a flat-bed seat next to Mirarchi.

The 10-year-old dog left active duty in 2016 with health problems caused by the attack. He now lives with Mirarchi in first class retirement. 

In Turkey, new controls regulating internet broadcasting have come into force. The government says all broadcasters need to abide by the same rules, but critics claim the new measures are an attempt to silence the last platform for independent journalism. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

As the political and economic crisis in Venezuela worsens, more teachers have been leaving the classroom and moving out of the country – frustrated over the low pay and lack of supplies in schools.  This is putting parents in a tough position, as VOA’s Adriana Nuñez Rabascall reports from Caracas. Cristina Caicedo Smit narrates her report.