A federal judge in New York on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump from implementing a plan to deny green cards to many immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps and other government benefits. 
 
U.S. District Judge George Daniels’ ruling came just four days before the Trump administration was set to start enforcing new rules that would disqualify immigrants from getting legal U.S. residency if they were likely to become a burden on public welfare programs. 
 
In his ruling, Daniels said Trump was redefining immigration rules that had stood since the late 1800s with a new framework that had “no logic.” 
 
Allowing the policy to go into effect now, he said, would have a significant impact on “law-abiding residents who have come to this country to seek a better life.” 
 
“Overnight, the rule will expose individuals to economic insecurity, health instability, denial of their path to citizenship and potential deportation,” Daniels wrote. “It is a rule that will punish individuals for their receipt of benefits provided by our government, and discourages them from lawfully receiving available assistance intended to aid them in becoming contributing members of society.” 

Ruling in California
 
Almost simultaneously, a federal judge in California also blocked the policy from taking effect, but that order was more geographically limited to states involved in the case: California, Oregon, Maine and Pennsylvania, plus the District of Columbia. 
 
The U.S. Justice Department, which was defending the administration’s policy in court, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. 
 
The lawsuit in New York is one of several legal challenges nationwide to one of Trump’s most aggressive steps to cut legal immigration. Immigration advocates say the rule changes are discriminatory because they would deny legal residency and visas to immigrants who don’t have money. The Trump administration has said the rules would ensure that immigrants who are granted residency are self-sufficient.  

Federal law already requires immigrants seeking to become permanent U.S. residents to prove they will not be a burden on the country — a “public charge,” in legal terms —but the new rules detail a broader range of programs that could disqualify applicants. 
 
The policy is central to Trump’s longtime goal to slash legal immigration and gear it more for people with employment skills instead of toward family members. Those ideas were part of his pitch for an overhaul of immigration laws during his first year in office, but negotiations faltered in Congress. 
 
On average, 544,000 people apply for green cards every year, with about 382,000 falling into categories that would be subject to the new review, according to the government. Guidelines in use since 1999 refer to a “public charge” as someone primarily dependent on cash assistance, income maintenance or government support. 

‘More likely than not’
 
Under the new rules, the Department of Homeland Security has redefined a public charge as someone who is “more likely than not” to receive public benefits for more than 12 months within a 36-month period. If someone uses two benefits, that is counted as two months. 

And the definition has been broadened to include Medicaid, housing assistance and food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. 
 
Factors like immigrants’ age, employment status and English-language ability would also be looked at to determine whether they could become public burdens in the future. 
 
Critics say the rule changes are discriminatory and would have the effect of barring immigrants with lower incomes in favor of those with wealth. The government has said the rule changes would ensure that those gaining legal residency status are self-sufficient. 

Rate of using benefits
 
Immigrants make up a small portion of those getting public benefits, because their legal status often makes them ineligible. An Associated Press analysis of census data shows that non-citizen immigrants with low incomes have a lower rate of using Medicaid, food aid, cash assistance and Supplemental Security Income than their native-born counterparts. 
 
For Medicaid, non-citizen immigrants are only 6.5% of participants, while more than 87% are native-born. For food assistance, immigrants are 8.8% of recipients, with over 85% of participants being native-born. 
 
Earlier this month, Trump issued a presidential proclamation saying immigrants would be barred from entering the country unless they were to be covered by health insurance within 30 days of entering or had enough financial resources to pay for any medical costs. The measure will be effective Nov. 3. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the measure could prohibit the entry of about 375,000 people a year, mainly family members who account for a majority of people getting green cards from abroad. 

VOA Connect Episode 91 – We learn that the transition to cleaner energy isn’t always about climate change, as coal miners in the American West are finding out. Yet those working in and running unprofitable mines are having to rethink their future, too, adapting their skills to survive.  Also on the show this week, looking back on Andy Warhol and how his artwork still resonates today.

VOA’s Dorian Jones in Istanbul contributed to this report.

WHITE HOUSE — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is loading “very powerful” sanctions to impose on Turkey for its attacks on Syrian territory, but it is not yet pulling the trigger.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Friday the president is signing an executive order to dissuade Turkey from any further offensive military action in northeast Syria.

Trump, according to Mnuchin, is concerned about the potential targeting by Turkish forces of civilians, civilian infrastructure, and ethnic or religious minorities.

“Also, the president wants to make very clear that Turkey not allow even a single ISIS fighter to escape,” Mnuchin told reporters at the White House.

The Treasury Department is working with the State and Defense Departments to monitor the situation and then recommend to the president at what point the sanctions might need to be instituted, according to Mnuchin, but he did not specify what particular actions would trigger them.

“We are putting financial institutions on notice that they should be careful and there could be sanctions,” said Mnuchin.

Asked by VOA what gives him confidence that this announcement will deter Turkey, Mnuchin cryptically replied there have been specific, confidential discussions that have been going on at different levels.

“These are very powerful sanctions. We hope we don’t have to use them. But we can shut down the Turkish economy if we need to,” added Mnuchin.

Support for sanctions

Prominent members of the U.S. Congress in recent days have advocated for sanctions amid a bipartisan uproar over what was viewed as a green light by Trump to allow Turkey to target the Kurds by moving some U.S. special forces out of the way along the border with Syria.

The Kurdish forces, which Turkey regards as terrorists, have been steadfast allies of the United States inside Syria in helping to destroy the Islamic State caliphate.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been holding thousands of ISIS fighters, and there are fears that in the fresh clashes between the Kurds and the Turks, those detained could escape.

The sanctions pressure from Washington is “a lesson Ankara should learn how few political friends it has in Washington,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.

Analysts point out Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has only focused his attention on Trump, ignoring other political players in Washington.

Proposed legislation from Senators Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, “are very serious,” according to Yesilada.

“They will sanction any Turkish company that sells fuel oil, electricity to the military, and banks that vacillate these transactions. These are broad and pretty meaty sanctions,” he added.

The proposed measures also bring back onto the agenda sanctions linked to Ankara’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system, under Congress’ Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Erdogan and several other prominent political figures also would be individually targeted under the sanctions legislation.

“There is a significant concern in international markets about the risk of sanctions to Turkey,” said an analyst for an international bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

2018 sanctions

In August 2018, Trump hit Turkey with minor sanctions over the jailing of American pastor Andrew Brunson on terrorism charges. The surprise move saw the Turkish currency collapse, falling around 30%, plunging the economy into recession. It is still recovering.

Analysts warn Turkey’s currency is widely seen as being vulnerable to new sanctions. Turkey’s corporate sector owes more than $100 billion in foreign currency-dominated debt.

“The Turkish economy is still dead in the water, confidence is still rock bottom,” Yesilada said. “The threat of U.S. sanctions is hanging over the head of the Turkish economy like a sword of Damocles and the threat to the Turkish lira.”

Threat from Europe

Additionally, Ankara is facing a sanctions threat from Europe. “Obviously it’s [sanctions are] on the table,” said France’s European Union affairs minister, Amelie de Montchalin, on Thursday.

A rapidly escalating war of words is developing between Ankara and the wider European Union over Turkey’s military operation in Syria.

Erodgan, on Thursday, threatened to send millions of refugees to the EU if it did not end its criticism.

“Turkey must understand that our main concern is that their actions may lead to another humanitarian catastrophe,” EU Council president Donald Tusk said Friday.

“And we will never accept that refugees are weaponized and used to blackmail us. President Erdogan’s threats of yesterday are totally out of place.”
 

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, will visit Iran Sunday to meet President Hassan Rouhani before heading to Saudi Arabia as part of his mediation efforts to help defuse tensions between the two countries.

Khan’s peacemaking mission comes days after he announced in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly that U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had both asked him to mediate with Tehran.

“Pakistan maintains close relations with Saudi Arabia and it is our strategic partner. Iran is our neighbor and friend. Pakistan wishes to prevent further deterioration in differences between the two brotherly Islamic countries,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Friday.

“Very soon I will be accompanying the prime minister and we will travel to Iran, we will also visit Saudi Arabia. Our effort will be to help remove the misunderstandings and reduce the tensions to preserve regional peace,” Qureshi told reporters while speaking in his native eastern city of Multan.

The foreign minister noted Pakistan can ill-afford another conflict in the region because it is already dealing with security and economic challenges stemming from the war in neighboring Afghanistan, which entered its 19th year this month.

Washington had blamed Tehran for last month’s attack on the world’s biggest crude oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia, fueling tensions in the Middle East.

Historically strained U.S.-Iran relations have deteriorated over the past year since Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting the Shi’ite Muslim nation to gradually reduce its commitments under the deal to limit controversial uranium enrichment operations.

Tehran denies involvement in the September 14 strikes that were claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen, which are fighting a Saudi-led military coalition.

Pakistan has traditionally relied on financial assistance and import of oil on deferred payments from Saudi Arabia. Pakistani military troops are also stationed on Saudi soil to train local forces.

But with its large Shi’ite minority and a nearly 900-kilometer border with Iran, Pakistan has stayed neutral in Middle East tensions. Islamabad declined a Saudi call a few years back to join the Riyadh-led military alliance fighting the Houthi insurgents.

Asif Durrani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Iran, says Pakistan’s natural stance has in fact provided the opportunity for the country to play the role of a mediator.

“Had Pakistan been siding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or Iran, such a role would have been out of the question. Therefore it is important for Pakistan to maintain a neutral stance, primarily aimed at bringing the two antagonists on the negotiating table,” Durrani said.

Adam Weinstein, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, says Pakistan could offer Riyadh and Tehran a face-saving channel of communication and path towards de-escalation.

“Pakistan’s relationship with Riyadh is far deeper than with Tehran. However, Pakistan has demonstrated that Saudi aid doesn’t buy unquestioning submission to Riyadh’s directives and Islamabad’s position on the sidelines of the Yemen conflict is just one example of this,” said Weinstein who served in Afghanistan and works in international trade and law regulations.

A man arrested on suspicion of stalking a female pop idol used the reflections of her pupils in photos she shared on social media and Google Street View to find where she lived.
 
Tokyo police declined comment on the specifics of the investigation but confirmed Friday that 26-year-old Hibiki Sato was arrested Sept. 17 on suspicion of indecent behavior in connection with stalking and causing injuries to the 20-year-old woman.
 
The police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as is often policy at Japanese bureaucracies, said the case was related to the reports about a stalker and pupil images.
 
Police described Sato as an “avid fan.” 
 
Public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media reported this week that details in the woman’s selfies were used to identify the train station she frequented. They said Sato looked at other images she shared, such as her apartment, to figure out where she lived.
 
Police say he hurt her and committed indecent acts, such as groping her after accosting her from behind and knocking her down.
 
Japan has many young female performance groups.

Selfie warning

Tokyo Shimbun, a metropolitan daily which reported on the stalking case, warned readers that even casual selfies may show surrounding buildings that will allow people to identify the location of the photos.

It also said people shouldn’t make the V-sign with their hand, which Japanese often do in photos, because fingerprints could be stolen.    
 
Cyberstalking has been a problem for years, with criminals and perpetrators of domestic violence using hacking, clandestine activation of microphones and cameras, and other methods to track their victims.
 
It’s unclear how prevalent the use of high-resolution photos to locate potential victims might be.   
 

Former South African president Jacob Zuma will face trial on corruption charges after a court on Friday dismissed his application to halt the case for good.

The ruling means further scrutiny of a 1999 arms deal in which Zuma is accused of receiving bribes from French arms manufacturer Thales.

The charges were raised more than a decade ago but withdrawn, then reinstated after the National Prosecuting Authority announced there were sufficient grounds to bring Zuma to trial.

He was president from 2009 to 2018, when he was forced to resign by the ruling African National Congress party amid separate allegations of corruption linked to the controversial Gupta family. The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against three Gupta family members.

Zuma’s legal team has argued that his court case has been prejudiced by long delays and that there has been political interference in his prosecution.

Zuma has denied wrongdoing and can appeal Friday’s ruling. He made no public statements, slipping out quietly instead of addressing a crowd of supporters as in past court appearances.

His successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, has vowed to crack down on the widespread graft that has eroded support for the ANC, which has ruled the country since the end of the harsh system of white minority rule known as apartheid in 1994.

The scandals around Zuma also severely hurt investor confidence in South Africa’s economy, the most developed in sub-Saharan Africa.

An international panel of air safety regulators Friday harshly criticized the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) review of a safety system on Boeing Co’s 737 Max jet that was later tied to two crashes that killed 346 people.

The Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR) was commissioned by the FAA in April to look into the agency’s oversight and approval of the so-called MCAS anti-stall system before the fatal crashes.

“The JATR team found that the MCAS was not evaluated as a complete and integrated function in the certification documents that were submitted to the FAA,” the 69-page report said.

“The lack of a unified top-down development and evaluation of the system function and its safety analyses, combined with the extensive and fragmented documentation, made it difficult to assess whether compliance was fully demonstrated.”

Boeing’s top-selling airplane has been grounded worldwide since a March 10 crash in Ethiopia killed 157 people, five months after a Lion Air 737 MAX crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 people on board.

The JATR draft report, obtained by Reuters ahead of its release Friday, also said the FAA’s long-standing practice of delegating “a high level” of certification tasks to manufacturers like Boeing needs significant reforms to ensure adequate safety oversight.

“With adequate FAA engagement and oversight, the extent of delegation does not in itself compromise safety,” the report said. “However, in the B737 MAX program, the FAA had inadequate awareness of the MCAS function which, coupled with limited involvement, resulted in an inability of the FAA to provide an independent assessment of the adequacy of the Boeing proposed certification activities associated with MCAS.”

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement he would review the panel’s recommendations and take appropriate action following the “unvarnished and independent review of the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX.”

Boeing said it had no immediate comment.

China’s state press and internet were notably lacking in fresh attacks on the NBA Friday, in a possible sign that authorities were working to de-escalate a bitter political row.

The American basketball league suffered a ferocious backlash after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey voiced support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests on Twitter.

But after adoring fans cheered on the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets in a Shanghai exhibition game Thursday night, China’s censors and propaganda machine avoided further inflaming the issue.

In contrast to days leading up to the pre-season game, when state media editorials ripped into the NBA for interfering in Chinese affairs, the government-controlled press barely mentioned the issue Friday.

For the first time in several days, none of the top-trending items on dominant social media platform Weibo were centered around attacks on the league.

China’s internet is heavily censored, and the ruling Communist Party directs social media outlets to block or downplay content it does not like.

Beijing allows citizens to vent online when it serves party interests, with state press often leading the charge, but the party deeply fears social instability and abruptly puts the lid on hot topics that threaten to boil over.

Hu Xijin, top editor of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, said both sides now want to cool the feud down, according to the New York Times.

“I think this issue will gradually de-escalate — Global Times will not push to keep it hot,” Hu said in response to the paper’s request for comment.

“I also hope the American side won’t make any moves to escalate it.”

Fierce reaction

China reacts fiercely to any questioning of its sovereignty over semi-autonomous Hong Kong, which has endured months of protests demanding democratic freedoms.

Thursday’s game was not aired in China after local broadcasters boycotted it to protest Morey’s comments and the NBA’s support for his freedom of expression.

The fracas posed a particular dilemma for authorities after outraged social media users began lashing out at Chinese fans as “traitors,” threatening to split national opinion.

The NBA, which has a huge fanbase in China, has been caught between the Chinese anger and U.S. politicians, who accused the league of failing to more forcefully push back against Beijing in order to protect its business interests.

The league has clearly sought to avoid inflaming the issue, cancelling a series of scheduled publicity events in Shanghai without explanation.

Normally outspoken players like Lakers superstar LeBron James have brushed past reporters without comment while in China.

The Lakers and Nets travel to the southern city of Shenzhen Friday for their second of two promotional games, set for Saturday.
 

After seeking asylum in the United States at the Mexican border, Pablo Sanchez was placed in a detention center and is now facing what has become an increasingly common scenario under President Donald Trump: deportation to Cuba.

Since the end of the Obama administration, the number of Cubans deported from the U.S. has increased more than tenfold to more than 800 in the past year as the Trump administration enforces a new policy inked just days before it took over. It is also imposing its own sharp limits on who is eligible for asylum. That’s an unwelcome development for growing numbers of asylum-seeking Cubans who had long benefited from a generous U.S. approach and their government’s unwillingness to take its people back.

For decades, Cubans fleeing the communist-governed island had for the most part enjoyed unique privileges. Even after the cold war ended, they were given a certain path to legal residence once they touched U.S. soil through the policy known as “wet foot, dry foot.”

No more wet foot, dry foot

But an agreement reached during the final days of the Obama administration ended that and required Cuba to take back citizens who receive deportation orders going forward and consider on a case-by-case basis the return of the thousands of other Cubans who had received such orders over the decades but remained in the U.S. because their country wouldn’t take them back.

Since Trump took office, more Cubans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border have encountered new limits, including a policy introduced last month that denies protection to asylum seekers who have passed through another country before reaching Mexico and have not sought asylum there.

Despite the new agreement, Cuba remains reluctant to take its people back, and is one of 10 countries that the U.S. government labels “recalcitrant.” That makes it difficult for the administration to enforce its aggressive measures against asylum — and leaves many Cubans in limbo.

Many, like Sanchez, are baffled by their predicament.

Sanchez is married to Barbara Rodriguez, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Miami, but was unable to apply for a visa in Cuba to join his wife in the U.S. because the Trump administration pulled most of its embassy staff out, outsourcing family-related visa petitions to consular services in Colombia or Guyana. Rodriguez claims Sanchez was facing increasing political persecution after having brushes with local authorities over such episodes as damaging a referendum ballot as a sign of protest.

The couple agreed he had to get out of Cuba, saying they had learned he was being investigated and could face jail time. Feeling they had no time to waste — and with no visa services available in Cuba — Sanchez traveled to Nicaragua and through Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S., at a port of entry where authorities detained him and later sent him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for long-term custody.

“This is plain cruel, despite arriving in this country and demonstrating that you are persecuted and that you have credible fear. After all, this gets thrown away,” said his wife, Rodriguez, who talks to Sanchez on the phone daily. “The worse thing is that now I feel all that is left for him is deportation.”

Cuban welcome mat?

It is unclear how the Cuban government treats people who are deported from the U.S., but rights advocates and lawyers say they could face retaliation for claiming asylum, especially those who claimed they were being persecuted. By contrast, deportees to Mexico and Central American countries typically get a warm welcome home.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla told The Associated Press the increase in deportations stems from the country “diligently fulfilling its commitments” outlined in the accord with the Obama administration, but at the same time he blasted the U.S. for cutting consular services in Havana.

“It is a shame to politicize the human bond between people and between nations,” he said.

A chartered U.S. government flight landed in Havana on Sept. 27 with 96 Cubans aboard, and another with 120 arrived Aug. 30. U.S. officials say Cuba’s acceptance of this limited number of deportees is a small step, but they believe the nation is still largely unwilling to work with the U.S. on repatriations. They note 39,243 Cubans living in the U.S. with deportation orders.

“Cuba is kind of a thorn in their side in this area,” said Julia Gelatt, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

Cuba remains on a U.S. government list of “recalcitrant” nations with nine other countries: China, Vietnam, Iran, Bhutan, Cambodia, Eritrea, Hong Kong, Laos and Pakistan.

Thousands seeking asylum

About 21,000 Cubans have presented themselves to officials at U.S.-Mexico crossings since last October, triple the number seen the previous 12 months, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics.

Thousands more Cubans have been stranded in northern Mexico cities on wait lists to request asylum and through a program that forces migrants to wait south of the border for their asylum cases to play out.

Of the Cubans who have been allowed into the U.S., many have been released from custody while they await court dates for their asylum cases, but hundreds have been turned over to ICE custody.

About 5,000 Cubans have received deportation orders since the new U.S.-Cuba agreement, and 1,300 of them have been deported, according to ICE data.

Luis Dayan Palmero left Cuba in April, traveling from Guyana to Brazil and Colombia, before passing through Central America and arriving in northern Mexico in August.

He crossed the Rio Grande and surrendered to Border Patrol agents, who sent him to Matamoros, Mexico. He now has a U.S. court appearing set this month.

“I plan to ask for asylum, and whatever happens is what God wants,” Palmero said.

The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was removed from her post after insisting that Rudy Giuliani’s requests to Ukrainian officials for investigations be relayed through official channels, according to a former diplomat who has spoken with her.

The ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, is scheduled to testify before congressional lawmakers Friday as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Democrats say they expect her to appear despite the White House’s position that no administration officials cooperate with the probe.

Yovanovitch was recalled from Kyiv in May as Giuliani — who is Trump’s personal attorney and has no official role in the U.S. government — pushed Ukrainian officials to investigate baseless corruption allegations against the Bidens.

In a July 25 call, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Yovanovitch was “bad news,” according to a partial transcript released by the White House.

Neither Giuliani nor Trump have specified their objections. But a former diplomat, recalling a recent conversation with Yovanovitch, said she was removed after insisting that a request for Ukrainian officials to join in an investigation be relayed according to long-established protocol.

The former diplomat said Yovanovitch refused to do “all this offline, personal, informal stuff” and made clear that the U.S. government had formal ways to request foreign governments’ help with investigations.

The former diplomat insisted on anonymity to disclose the private conversation.

The State Department traditionally relies on mutual legal assistance treaties, under which U.S. and foreign officials agree to exchange evidence and information in criminal investigations.

Friday hearing

Yovanovitch is scheduled to speak to the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform committees behind closed doors Friday as part of the impeachment investigation. Despite Trump’s assertion that his administration will not cooperate, three people familiar with the deposition said that Yovanovitch is expected to appear. The people requested anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

On Thursday, 10 Democratic senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding an explanation for Yovanovitch’s removal before the end of her three-year assignment.

“In particular, her early recall raises questions about whether you put the personal interests of the President above the Department’s career personnel or U.S. foreign policy,” they wrote.

Earlier this week, the White House sent Congress a letter outlining its opposition to the impeachment probe and refusing to cooperate with requests for information, including interviews with administration officials. The House committees have moved to subpoena officials instead.

Giuliani associates arrested

Even before the testimony, the attention on Yovanovitch was renewed Thursday after U.S. prosecutors arrested two Florida businessmen tied to Giuliani, charging them with campaign finance violations. An indictment filed in the case alleged that the men, who were raising campaign funds for a U.S. congressman, asked him for help in removing Yovanovitch, at least partly at the request of Ukrainian government officials.

Yovanovitch has led U.S. embassies in Kyrgyzstan and Armenia and is now a State Department fellow at Georgetown University. The director of the Georgetown program, Barbara Bodine, said the former envoy is declining all requests for interviews.

Former colleagues of Yovanovitch said Trump allies’ characterizations of her as politically motivated are off-base.

She is “a top-notch diplomat, careful, meticulous, whip smart,” and unlikely to have badmouthed Trump, either to Ukrainian officials or her colleagues, said John Herbst, a predecessor as ambassador in Ukraine who worked alongside Yovanovitch there in the early 2000s.

Yovanovitch has always known that the role of diplomat “wasn’t about her” but about “serving American national interests and supporting the people around her,” said Nancy McEldowney, a former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria who now directs a Foreign Service program at Georgetown.

U.S. diplomats are pushing back on Turkey’s incursion into northeastern Syria, labeling the military maneuver a “very big mistake” that could have significant consequences on the security situation in the region and beyond.

The criticism from Washington, echoed by European officials and members of the United Nation’s Security Council, came as Turkish artillery and war planes pounded Kurdish positions on the Syrian side of the border for a second straight day Thursday, forcing thousands of civilians to flee.

Turkey, in a letter to the United Nations, said its response would be “proportionate, measured and responsible.”

But top U.S. officials warned that even if Ankara can make good on such assurances, the consequences of its incursion into Syria are dire.

“This was a mistake for Turkey to do,” a senior U.S. State Department official told reporters late Thursday.

“The Turks have given us general guidelines of where they want to operate and what their military goals are,” the official said. “We think they’re all a bad idea.”

Urged Turkey to rethink operation

U.S. President Donald Trump, criticized for essentially giving Turkey a “green light” to proceed with the military operation by ordering U.S. special forces operating near the border to pull back, also pressed Ankara to rethink its decision.

….We have one of three choices: Send in thousands of troops and win Militarily, hit Turkey very hard Financially and with Sanctions, or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

A U.S.-based green economy group says some of the world’s most popular chocolate companies are not so sweet when it comes to human rights and sustainability.

Green America gives Godiva chocolate an F in efforts to reduce child labor and deforestation in cocoa production and supply chains.

Ferroro and Mondelez were both rated D while giant manufacturers Lindt and Hershey were given C. Mars and Nestle were rated C+.

Top-rated candymakers, including Endangered Species, Equal Exchange, and Tony’s Chocolonely all earned an A.

“Children should be able to enjoy candies that aren’t made by child laborers and these child laborers should be enjoying their childhoods rather than being forced to work in dangerous conditions,” Green America’s Charlotte Tate said.

“The aim of Green America’s scorecard is to help consumers feel confident about choosing chocolates that are ethically sourced with high-quality ingredients.”

Activists estimate that 1.6 million children of poor families work in Ghana and Ivory Coast harvesting cocoa beans for chocolate production. Most cocoa farming families earn about $2 a day.

The activists also say unsustainable cocoa farming has decimated rainforests.

Low-rated Godiva was the only company to respond to the report so far, saying it “ensures ethical sourcing through agreements with our suppliers to comply with our Godiva code of conduct which explicitly prohibits the use of forced child labor.”
 

The U.S. will hand over to Iraqi authorities nearly 50 Islamic State members who were transferred from Syria in recent days, two Iraqi intelligence officials said Thursday.

The officials said the IS members were expected to be handed over by Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

The move comes after Turkey began a military offensive into northern Syria against U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces who are holding more than 10,000 IS members. Those include some 2,000 foreigners, including about 800 Europeans.

It wasn’t immediately clear why the 50 IS fighters would be transferred to Iraq, but the group’s self-declared caliphate once sprawled across a large part of both Iraq and Syria. Since the IS was defeated earlier this year, Iraq has held IS captives in secure prisons and tried IS militants in court, including some French foreign nationals.  

Before the Turkish assault began, there were already fears that Kurdish-led forces could divert forces from guarding IS prisoners or might not be able to secure them at a time when IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made a point of calling on followers to free captured fighters. There are over two dozen detention facilities in northeastern Syria.

After the Turkish offensive began, concerns that some facilities may be struck in the fighting or abandoned by guards heightened fears the prisoners would not remain secured.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that some of the “most dangerous” IS members had been moved, but he provided no details. Trump said before the assault began that Turkey would be responsible for all IS fighters in the area, though it wasn’t clear how that would be implemented.

U.S. officials said Wednesday that two British militants believed to be part of an IS group that beheaded hostages and was known as “The Beatles” were moved out of a detention center in Syria and taken into U.S. custody.

It wasn’t clear whether they were among the 50 prisoners the Iraqi intelligence officials said were being transferred to Iraq. 

The two men, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey, along with other British jihadis, allegedly made up the IS cell nicknamed “The Beatles” by surviving captives because of their extraction, the official said.

Barr wants to bring the two men back to the U.S. to face prosecution, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

In 2014 and 2015, the militants held more than 20 Western hostages in Syria and tortured many of them. The group beheaded seven American, British and Japanese journalists and aid workers and a group of Syrian soldiers, boasting of the butchery in videos released to the world.

Among the journalists they killed was American James Foley, who was first, followed by fellow Americans Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and Japanese journalists Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. The beheadings, often carried out on camera, horrified the world soon after IS took over much of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

The two British men were captured in January last year in eastern Syria by the Kurdish forces amid the collapse of IS. Their detention set off a debate in the U.S. and Europe over how to prosecute their citizens who joined IS.

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called caliphate in 2014 in large parts of Syria and Iraq that the extremists controlled. IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in March the SDF captured the last sliver of land that was held by IS.

SDF has handed over hundreds of IS fighters to Iraqi authorities over the past two years, including Europeans while some were repatriated to their home countries.

Earlier this year, Iraq tried 12 French IS fighters whom the SDF handed over to Baghdad in January sentencing most of them to death.

France at the time said the Iraqi court has jurisdiction to rule in the cases, though a spokeswoman reiterated the French governments opposition to the death penalty.

Trump and other U.S. officials have repeatedly pressed other nations across Europe and the Middle East to take back the detainees from their countries. But international leaders have been largely reluctant and have been slow to take any back.

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.”