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  • Pentagon’s AI initiatives accelerate hard decisions on lethal autonomous weapons.

    Pentagon’s AI initiatives accelerate hard decisions on lethal autonomous weapons.

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    NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Artificial intelligence employed by the U.S. military has piloted pint-sized surveillance drones in special operations forces’ missions and helped Ukraine in its war against Russia. It tracks soldiers’ fitness, predicts when Air Force planes need maintenance and helps keep tabs on rivals in space.

    Now, the Pentagon is intent on fielding multiple thousands of relatively inexpensive, expendable AI-enabled autonomous vehicles by 2026 to keep pace with China. The ambitious initiative — dubbed Replicator — seeks to “galvanize progress in the too-slow shift of U.S. military innovation to leverage platforms that are small, smart, cheap, and many,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in August.

    While its funding is uncertain and details vague, Replicator is expected to accelerate hard decisions on what AI tech is mature and trustworthy enough to deploy – including on weaponized systems.

    There is little dispute among scientists, industry experts and Pentagon officials that the U.S. will within the next few years have fully autonomous lethal weapons. And though officials insist humans will always be in control, experts say advances in data-processing speed and machine-to-machine communications will inevitably relegate people to supervisory roles.

    That’s especially true if, as expected, lethal weapons are deployed en masse in drone swarms. Many countries are working on them — and neither China, Russia, Iran, India or Pakistan have signed a U.S.-initiated pledge to use military AI responsibly.

    It’s unclear if the Pentagon is currently formally assessing any fully autonomous lethal weapons system for deployment, as required by a 2012 directive. A Pentagon spokeswoman would not say.

    Replicator highlights immense technological and personnel challenges for Pentagon procurement and development as the AI revolution promises to transform how wars are fought.

    “The Department of Defense is struggling to adopt the AI developments from the last machine-learning breakthrough,” said Gregory Allen, a former top Pentagon AI official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

    The Pentagon’s portfolio boasts more than 800 AI-related unclassified projects, much still in testing. Typically, machine-learning and neural networks are helping humans gain insights and create efficiencies.

    “The AI that we’ve got in the Department of Defense right now is heavily leveraged and augments people,” said Missy Cummings, director of George Mason University’s robotics center and a former Navy fighter pilot.” “There’s no AI running around on its own. People are using it to try to understand the fog of war better.”

    One domain where AI-assisted tools are tracking potential threats is space, the latest frontier in military competition.

    China envisions using AI, including on satellites, to “make decisions on who is and isn’t an adversary,” U.S. Space Force chief technology and innovation officer Lisa Costa, told an online conference this month.

    The U.S. aims to keep pace.

    An operational prototype called Machina used by Space Force keeps tabs autonomously on more than 40,000 objects in space, orchestrating thousands of data collections nightly with a global telescope network.

    Machina’s algorithms marshal telescope sensors. Computer vision and large language models tell them what objects to track. And AI choreographs drawing instantly on astrodynamics and physics datasets, Col. Wallace ‘Rhet’ Turnbull of Space Systems Command told a conference in August.

    Another AI project at Space Force analyzes radar data to detect imminent adversary missile launches, he said.

    Elsewhere, AI’s predictive powers help the Air Force keep its fleet aloft, anticipating the maintenance needs of more than 2,600 aircraft including B-1 bombers and Blackhawk helicopters.

    Machine-learning models identify possible failures dozens of hours before they happen, said Tom Siebel, CEO of Silicon Valley-based C3 AI, which has the contract. C3’s tech also models the trajectories of missiles for the the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and identifies insider threats in the federal workforce for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.

    Among health-related efforts is a pilot project tracking the fitness of the Army’s entire Third Infantry Division — more than 13,000 soldiers. Predictive modeling and AI help reduce injuries and increase performance, said Maj. Matt Visser.

    In Ukraine, AI provided by the Pentagon and its NATO allies helps thwart Russian aggression.

    NATO allies share intelligence from data gathered by satellites, drones and humans, some aggregated with software from U.S. contractor Palantir. Some data comes from Maven, the Pentagon’s pathfinding AI project now mostly managed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, say officials including retired Air Force Gen. Jack Shanahan, the inaugural Pentagon AI director,

    Maven began in 2017 as an effort to process video from drones in the Middle East – spurred by U.S. Special Operations forces fighting ISIS and al-Qaeda — and now aggregates and analyzes a wide array of sensor- and human-derived data.

    AI has also helped the U.S.-created Security Assistance Group-Ukraine help organize logistics for military assistance from a coalition of 40 countries, Pentagon officials say.

    To survive on the battlefield these days, military units must be small, mostly invisible and move quickly because exponentially growing networks of sensors let anyone “see anywhere on the globe at any moment,” then-Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley observed in a June speech. “And what you can see, you can shoot.”

    To more quickly connect combatants, the Pentagon has prioritized the development of intertwined battle networks — called Joint All-Domain Command and Control — to automate the processing of optical, infrared, radar and other data across the armed services. But the challenge is huge and fraught with bureaucracy.

    Christian Brose, a former Senate Armed Services Committee staff director now at the defense tech firm Anduril, is among military reform advocates who nevertheless believe they “may be winning here to a certain extent.”

    “The argument may be less about whether this is the right thing to do, and increasingly more about how do we actually do it — and on the rapid timelines required,” he said. Brose’s 2020 book, “The Kill Chain,” argues for urgent retooling to match China in the race to develop smarter and cheaper networked weapons systems.

    To that end, the U.S. military is hard at work on “human-machine teaming.” Dozens of uncrewed air and sea vehicles currently keep tabs on Iranian activity. U.S. Marines and Special Forces also use Anduril’s autonomous Ghost mini-copter, sensor towers and counter-drone tech to protect American forces.

    Industry advances in computer vision have been essential. Shield AI lets drones operate without GPS, communications or even remote pilots. It’s the key to its Nova, a quadcopter, which U.S. special operations units have used in conflict areas to scout buildings.

    On the horizon: The Air Force’s “loyal wingman” program intends to pair piloted aircraft with autonomous ones. An F-16 pilot might, for instance, send out drones to scout, draw enemy fire or attack targets. Air Force leaders are aiming for a debut later this decade.

    The “loyal wingman” timeline doesn’t quite mesh with Replicator’s, which many consider overly ambitious. The Pentagon’s vagueness on Replicator, meantime, may partly intend to keep rivals guessing, though planners may also still be feeling their way on feature and mission goals, said Paul Scharre, a military AI expert and author of “Four Battlegrounds.”

    Anduril and Shield AI, each backed by hundreds of millions in venture capital funding, are among companies vying for contracts.

    Nathan Michael, chief technology officer at Shield AI, estimates they will have an autonomous swarm of at least three uncrewed aircraft ready in a year using its V-BAT aerial drone. The U.S. military currently uses the V-BAT — without an AI mind — on Navy ships, on counter-drug missions and in support of Marine Expeditionary Units, the company says.

    It will take some time before larger swarms can be reliably fielded, Michael said. “Everything is crawl, walk, run — unless you’re setting yourself up for failure.”

    The only weapons systems that Shanahan, the inaugural Pentagon AI chief, currently trusts to operate autonomously are wholly defensive, like Phalanx anti-missile systems on ships. He worries less about autonomous weapons making decisions on their own than about systems that don’t work as advertised or kill noncombatants or friendly forces.

    The department’s current chief digital and AI officer Craig Martell is determined not to let that happen.

    “Regardless of the autonomy of the system, there will always be a responsible agent that understands the limitations of the system, has trained well with the system, has justified confidence of when and where it’s deployable — and will always take the responsibility,” said Martell, who previously headed machine-learning at LinkedIn and Lyft. “That will never not be the case.”

    As to when AI will be reliable enough for lethal autonomy, Martell said it makes no sense to generalize. For example, Martell trusts his car’s adaptive cruise control but not the tech that’s supposed to keep it from changing lanes. “As the responsible agent, I would not deploy that except in very constrained situations,” he said. “Now extrapolate that to the military.”

    Martell’s office is evaluating potential generative AI use cases – it has a special task force for that – but focuses more on testing and evaluating AI in development.

    One urgent challenge, says Jane Pinelis, chief AI engineer at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab and former chief of AI assurance in Martell’s office, is recruiting and retaining the talent needed to test AI tech. The Pentagon can’t compete on salaries. Computer science PhDs with AI-related skills can earn more than the military’s top-ranking generals and admirals.

    Testing and evaluation standards are also immature, a recent National Academy of Sciences report on Air Force AI highlighted.

    Might that mean the U.S. one day fielding under duress autonomous weapons that don’t fully pass muster?

    “We are still operating under the assumption that we have time to do this as rigorously and as diligently as possible,” said Pinelis. “I think if we’re less than ready and it’s time to take action, somebody is going to be forced to make a decision.”

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  • Pentagon steps on AI accelerator as age of lethal autonomy looms

    Pentagon steps on AI accelerator as age of lethal autonomy looms

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    NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Artificial intelligence employed by the U.S. military has piloted pint-sized surveillance drones in special operations forces’ missions and helped Ukraine in its war against Russia. It tracks soldiers’ fitness, predicts when Air Force planes need maintenance and helps keep tabs on rivals in space.

    Now, the Pentagon is intent on fielding multiple thousands of relatively inexpensive, expendable AI-enabled autonomous vehicles by 2026 to keep pace with China. The ambitious initiative — dubbed Replicator — seeks to “galvanize progress in the too-slow shift of U.S. military innovation to leverage platforms that are small, smart, cheap, and many,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in August.

    While its funding is uncertain and details vague, Replicator is expected to accelerate hard decisions on what AI tech is mature and trustworthy enough to deploy – including on weaponized systems.

    There is little dispute among scientists, industry experts and Pentagon officials that the U.S. will within the next few years have fully autonomous lethal weapons. And though officials insist humans will always be in control, experts say advances in data-processing speed and machine-to-machine communications will inevitably relegate people to supervisory roles.

    That’s especially true if, as expected, lethal weapons are deployed en masse in drone swarms. Many countries are working on them — and neither China, Russia, Iran, India or Pakistan have signed a U.S.-initiated pledge to use military AI responsibly.

    It’s unclear if the Pentagon is currently formally assessing any fully autonomous lethal weapons system for deployment, as required by a 2012 directive. A Pentagon spokeswoman would not say.

    Replicator highlights immense technological and personnel challenges for Pentagon procurement and development as the AI revolution promises to transform how wars are fought.

    “The Department of Defense is struggling to adopt the AI developments from the last machine-learning breakthrough,” said Gregory Allen, a former top Pentagon AI official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

    The Pentagon’s portfolio boasts more than 800 AI-related unclassified projects, much still in testing. Typically, machine-learning and neural networks are helping humans gain insights and create efficiencies.

    “The AI that we’ve got in the Department of Defense right now is heavily leveraged and augments people,” said Missy Cummings, director of George Mason University’s robotics center and a former Navy fighter pilot.” “There’s no AI running around on its own. People are using it to try to understand the fog of war better.”

    One domain where AI-assisted tools are tracking potential threats is space, the latest frontier in military competition.

    China envisions using AI, including on satellites, to “make decisions on who is and isn’t an adversary,” U.S. Space Force chief technology and innovation officer Lisa Costa, told an online conference this month.

    The U.S. aims to keep pace.

    An operational prototype called Machina used by Space Force keeps tabs autonomously on more than 40,000 objects in space, orchestrating thousands of data collections nightly with a global telescope network.

    Machina’s algorithms marshal telescope sensors. Computer vision and large language models tell them what objects to track. And AI choreographs drawing instantly on astrodynamics and physics datasets, Col. Wallace ‘Rhet’ Turnbull of Space Systems Command told a conference in August.

    Another AI project at Space Force analyzes radar data to detect imminent adversary missile launches, he said.

    Elsewhere, AI’s predictive powers help the Air Force keep its fleet aloft, anticipating the maintenance needs of more than 2,600 aircraft including B-1 bombers and Blackhawk helicopters.

    Machine-learning models identify possible failures dozens of hours before they happen, said Tom Siebel, CEO of Silicon Valley-based C3 AI, which has the contract. C3’s tech also models the trajectories of missiles for the the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and identifies insider threats in the federal workforce for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.

    Among health-related efforts is a pilot project tracking the fitness of the Army’s entire Third Infantry Division — more than 13,000 soldiers. Predictive modeling and AI help reduce injuries and increase performance, said Maj. Matt Visser.

    In Ukraine, AI provided by the Pentagon and its NATO allies helps thwart Russian aggression.

    NATO allies share intelligence from data gathered by satellites, drones and humans, some aggregated with software from U.S. contractor Palantir. Some data comes from Maven, the Pentagon’s pathfinding AI project now mostly managed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, say officials including retired Air Force Gen. Jack Shanahan, the inaugural Pentagon AI director,

    Maven began in 2017 as an effort to process video from drones in the Middle East – spurred by U.S. Special Operations forces fighting ISIS and al-Qaeda — and now aggregates and analyzes a wide array of sensor- and human-derived data.

    AI has also helped the U.S.-created Security Assistance Group-Ukraine help organize logistics for military assistance from a coalition of 40 countries, Pentagon officials say.

    To survive on the battlefield these days, military units must be small, mostly invisible and move quickly because exponentially growing networks of sensors let anyone “see anywhere on the globe at any moment,” then-Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley observed in a June speech. “And what you can see, you can shoot.”

    To more quickly connect combatants, the Pentagon has prioritized the development of intertwined battle networks — called Joint All-Domain Command and Control — to automate the processing of optical, infrared, radar and other data across the armed services. But the challenge is huge and fraught with bureaucracy.

    Christian Brose, a former Senate Armed Services Committee staff director now at the defense tech firm Anduril, is among military reform advocates who nevertheless believe they “may be winning here to a certain extent.”

    “The argument may be less about whether this is the right thing to do, and increasingly more about how do we actually do it — and on the rapid timelines required,” he said. Brose’s 2020 book, “The Kill Chain,” argues for urgent retooling to match China in the race to develop smarter and cheaper networked weapons systems.

    To that end, the U.S. military is hard at work on “human-machine teaming.” Dozens of uncrewed air and sea vehicles currently keep tabs on Iranian activity. U.S. Marines and Special Forces also use Anduril’s autonomous Ghost mini-copter, sensor towers and counter-drone tech to protect American forces.

    Industry advances in computer vision have been essential. Shield AI lets drones operate without GPS, communications or even remote pilots. It’s the key to its Nova, a quadcopter, which U.S. special operations units have used in conflict areas to scout buildings.

    On the horizon: The Air Force’s “loyal wingman” program intends to pair piloted aircraft with autonomous ones. An F-16 pilot might, for instance, send out drones to scout, draw enemy fire or attack targets. Air Force leaders are aiming for a debut later this decade.

    The “loyal wingman” timeline doesn’t quite mesh with Replicator’s, which many consider overly ambitious. The Pentagon’s vagueness on Replicator, meantime, may partly intend to keep rivals guessing, though planners may also still be feeling their way on feature and mission goals, said Paul Scharre, a military AI expert and author of “Four Battlegrounds.”

    Anduril and Shield AI, each backed by hundreds of millions in venture capital funding, are among companies vying for contracts.

    Nathan Michael, chief technology officer at Shield AI, estimates they will have an autonomous swarm of at least three uncrewed aircraft ready in a year using its V-BAT aerial drone. The U.S. military currently uses the V-BAT — without an AI mind — on Navy ships, on counter-drug missions and in support of Marine Expeditionary Units, the company says.

    It will take some time before larger swarms can be reliably fielded, Michael said. “Everything is crawl, walk, run — unless you’re setting yourself up for failure.”

    The only weapons systems that Shanahan, the inaugural Pentagon AI chief, currently trusts to operate autonomously are wholly defensive, like Phalanx anti-missile systems on ships. He worries less about autonomous weapons making decisions on their own than about systems that don’t work as advertised or kill noncombatants or friendly forces.

    The department’s current chief digital and AI officer Craig Martell is determined not to let that happen.

    “Regardless of the autonomy of the system, there will always be a responsible agent that understands the limitations of the system, has trained well with the system, has justified confidence of when and where it’s deployable — and will always take the responsibility,” said Martell, who previously headed machine-learning at LinkedIn and Lyft. “That will never not be the case.”

    As to when AI will be reliable enough for lethal autonomy, Martell said it makes no sense to generalize. For example, Martell trusts his car’s adaptive cruise control but not the tech that’s supposed to keep it from changing lanes. “As the responsible agent, I would not deploy that except in very constrained situations,” he said. “Now extrapolate that to the military.”

    Martell’s office is evaluating potential generative AI use cases – it has a special task force for that – but focuses more on testing and evaluating AI in development.

    One urgent challenge, says Jane Pinelis, chief AI engineer at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab and former chief of AI assurance in Martell’s office, is recruiting and retaining the talent needed to test AI tech. The Pentagon can’t compete on salaries. Computer science PhDs with AI-related skills can earn more than the military’s top-ranking generals and admirals.

    Testing and evaluation standards are also immature, a recent National Academy of Sciences report on Air Force AI highlighted.

    Might that mean the U.S. one day fielding under duress autonomous weapons that don’t fully pass muster?

    “We are still operating under the assumption that we have time to do this as rigorously and as diligently as possible,” said Pinelis. “I think if we’re less than ready and it’s time to take action, somebody is going to be forced to make a decision.”

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  • North Korea says it put a military spy satellite into orbit on third try

    North Korea says it put a military spy satellite into orbit on third try

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    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said it placed a spy satellite into orbit with its third launch attempt this year, demonstrating the nation’s determination to build a space-based surveillance system during protracted tensions with the United States.

    The North’s claim Wednesday could not immediately independently be confirmed. Observers doubt whether the satellite is advanced enough to perform military reconnaissance. But the launch still invited strong condemnation from the United States and its partners because the U.N. bans North Korea from conducting satellite launches, calling them covers for tests of missile technology.

    The North’s space agency said that its new “Chollima-1” carrier rocket accurately placed the Malligyong-1 satellite into orbit on Tuesday night, about 12 minutes after liftoff from the country’s main launch center.

    The National Aerospace Technology Administration called the launch a legitimate right of North Korea to bolster its self-defense capabilities. It said the spy satellite would help improve the North’s war preparedness in the face of “the enemies’ dangerous military moves.”

    The agency said leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch at the scene and congratulated scientists and others involved. It said North Korea will launch several more spy satellites to better monitor South Korea and other areas.

    U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Washington strongly condemned North Korea for the launch, saying it “raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond.” She said the launch involved technologies that are directly related to North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile program.

    South Korea said the launch would push it to suspend a 2018 inter-Korean tension-reduction agreement and resume frontline aerial surveillance of North Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the launch “a serious threat that affects the safety of the people” and said Japan lodged a protest with North Korea condemning the launch in strongest terms.

    According to South Korean and Japanese assessments, the rocket carrying the satellite flew from the Korean Peninsula’s west coast and over the Japanese island of Okinawa toward the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese government briefly issued a J-Alert missile warning for Okinawa, urging residents to take shelter.

    A spy satellite is among the key military assets coveted by Kim, who wants to modernize his weapons systems to cope with what he calls escalating U.S.-led threats. North Korea’s attempted launches earlier this year ended in failure due to technical issues.

    North Korea had vowed a third launch would take place in October. South Korean officials have said the delay until now occurred likely because North Korea was receiving Russian technological assistance for its spy satellite launch program.

    North Korea and Russia, both U.S. adversaries that are increasingly isolated globally, have been pushing hard to expand their relationships in recent months. In September, Kim traveled to Russia’s Far East to meet President Vladimir Putin and visit key military sites, touching off intense speculation of a weapons deal.

    The alleged deal involves North Korea supplying conventional arms to refill Russia’s ammunition stock drained in its war with Ukraine. In return, foreign governments and experts say that North Korea seeks Russian help in enhancing its nuclear and other military programs.

    During Kim’s Russia visit, Putin told state media that his country would help North Korea build satellites, saying Kim “shows keen interest in rocket technology.”

    Russia and North Korea dismissed the allegation of their arms transfer deal as groundless. Such a deal would violate U.N. bans on any weapons trading involving North Korea.

    Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said Tuesday’s launch raises more questions than answers, such as whether the North Korean satellite actually performs reconnaissance functions and whether Russia provided technical and even material assistance.

    “What is already clear is that this is not a one-off event but part of a North Korean strategy of prioritizing military capabilities over economic development, threatening rather than reconciling with South Korea, and further aligning with Russia and China instead of pursuing diplomacy with the United States,” Easley said.

    Since last year, North Korea conducted about 100 ballistic missile tests in a bid to establish a reliable arsenal of nuclear weapons targeting the U.S. and its allies. Many foreign experts say North Korea has some last remaining technologies to master to acquire functioning nuclear missiles.

    But the experts say that possessing a rocket that can place a satellite into orbit would mean North Korea can build a missile capable of carrying a warhead with a similar size of the satellite.

    In written responses to questions from The Associated Press last week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the North’s successful launch of a reconnaissance satellite “would signify that North Korea’s ICBM capabilities have been taken to a higher level.”

    Yoon, currently on a state visit to the U.K., convened an emergency security council meeting during which officials decided to push for suspension of the 2018 deal. South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik ordered the military to brace for a possibility that North Korea might use the deal’s suspension as a pretext to launch provocations.

    Japan’s coast guard said earlier Tuesday that North Korea had told Tokyo that it would launch a satellite sometime between Wednesday and Nov. 30. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, criticized North Korea for conducting the launch before its window started.

    North Korea is under 11 rounds of U.N. sanctions over its past nuclear and missile tests. But it’s unlikely for the North to be hit with fresh sanctions over Tuesday’s launch. Russia and China have already stymied any U.N. Security Council response over the North’s recent series of launch activities.

    In June, Kim’s sister and senior ruling party official, Kim Yo Jong, called the Security Council “a political appendage” of the United States. She slammed the council for allegedly being “discriminative and rude,” saying it only takes issue with the North’s satellite launches while thousands of satellites launched by other countries are already operating.

    The North’s two previous satellite launches in May and August involved the same rocket and satellite used in Tuesday’s launch.

    In the first attempt, the North Korean rocket carrying the satellite crashed into the ocean soon after liftoff. North Korean authorities said the rocket lost thrust after the separation of its first and second stages. After the second attempt, North Korea said there was an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight.

    South Korea retrieved debris from the first launch and called the satellite too crude to perform military reconnaissance.

    Some civilian experts said North Korea’s Malligyong-1 satellite is likely capable of only detecting big targets like warships or planes. But by operating several such satellites, North Korea could still observe South Korea at all times, they said.

    Kim is eager to introduce other sophisticated weapons such as more mobile ICBMs, nuclear-powered submarines and multi-warhead missiles. Observers say Kim would ultimately want to use an enlarged weapons arsenal to wrest greater U.S. concessions like sanctions relief when diplomacy resumes.

    In response, the U.S. and South Korea have been expanding their regular military exercises and increasing the temporary deployments of powerful U.S. military assets in South Korea. On Tuesday, the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group arrived at a South Korean port in a fresh demonstration of strength against North Korea.

    ___

    Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

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  • Key GOP lawmaker calls for renewal of surveillance tool as he proposes changes to protect privacy

    Key GOP lawmaker calls for renewal of surveillance tool as he proposes changes to protect privacy

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    WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee called Thursday for the renewal of a key U.S. government surveillance tool as he proposed a series of changes aimed at safeguarding privacy.

    The proposals by Rep. Mike Turner are part of a late scramble inside Congress and the White House to guarantee the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows spy agencies to collect emails and other communications. They emerged from a congressional working group and are expected to form the basis of a legislative package that Turner hopes can be passed before Section 702 expires at the end of the year.

    “We believe that before the end of the year, we will have a significant package of reforms that will be unprecedented, and at the same time, we will have the renewal of 702,” Turner told reporters.

    The section of law at issue permits U.S. officials to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners who are outside the country and suspected of posing a national security threat. The government also captures the communications of American citizens and others in the U.S. when they’re in contact with those targeted foreigners.

    The program has come under scrutiny in the last year following revelations that FBI analysts improperly searched the database of intelligence, including for information about people tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and the racial justice protests of 2020.

    The changes described by Turner are meant to heighten the penalties for such abuses, including by allowing Congress to trigger a mandatory inspector general review into alleged violations, and to tighten restrictions on queries, especially ones that are politically sensitive. He also called for allowing only a limited group of FBI supervisors and attorneys to authorize queries of people inside the U.S.

    Much of the debate so far has centered on whether U.S. officials should be required to obtain a warrant before accessing intelligence on people inside the U.S.

    A bill introduced last week by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and other lawmakers included a warrant requirement. The White House, however, has said such a proposal would cross a “red line,” and FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday that a mandate for a court order would be legally unnecessary and would snarl vital investigations at a time of rising terrorism threats.

    “At a time when the FBI director is claiming that we have the largest threat to national security … it would be incredibly dangerous and detrimental for us to either allow 702 to expire or to saddle it in a way that it’s unusable,” Turner said.

    Turner said his proposal would require a warrant only when the database query seeks evidence of a specific crime — but not for searches related to national security.

    Additional legislative proposals are expected. Asked Thursday about the status of negotiations with Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Turner said Jordan had indicated that he planned to submit a different proposal.

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  • Blaze at a coal mine company building in northern China kills 25 and injures dozens

    Blaze at a coal mine company building in northern China kills 25 and injures dozens

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    A fire in a coal company building in a northern Chinese city has killed 26 people and injured dozens of others

    ByThe Associated Press

    November 16, 2023, 12:15 AM

    BEIJING — A fire erupted in a coal company building in a northern Chinese city on Thursday, killing 26 people and injuring dozens of others, state media said.

    Rescue personnel evacuated 70 people and took 63 others to a hospital, according to state media.

    The dead were almost all workers, according to local media outlet Fengmian News.

    The fire was under control and rescue work was continuing on Thursday afternoon, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

    The building belongs to Yongju Coal Company and is in Lvliang city in northern Shanxi province, a major coal-producing region, CCTV said.

    The fire appeared to have started in the shower area of a building with offices and dormitories, local news outlet Hongxing News said.

    Coal mine accidents have been relatively common in China, though the government has been working on improving safety.

    Shanxi is China’s top coal-producing province and is at the center of government efforts to reduce the economy’s reliance on coal.

    ___

    AP researcher Wanqing Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.

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  • Ex-lover of Spain’s former king loses $153 million harassment lawsuit in London court

    Ex-lover of Spain’s former king loses $153 million harassment lawsuit in London court

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    LONDON — Former Spanish King Juan Carlos I won his London court battle Friday with an ex-lover who had sought 126 million pounds ($153 million) in damages for allegedly being harassed and spied on by him after their breakup.

    Danish socialite and businessperson Corinna Larsen, also known as Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, said the former monarch caused her “great mental pain” by orchestrating threats and ordering unlawful covert and overt surveillance of her. Larsen was Juan Carlos’ mistress from 2004 to 2009, the court said.

    Juan Carlos, 85, who abdicated in 2014, denied wrongdoing and disputed the allegations, arguing that an English court didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the case because he doesn’t live in Britain. He has a home in Spain but currently lives in Abu Dhabi.

    High Court Justice Rowena Collins Rice threw out the lawsuit after agreeing with the king. She added that Larsen, who owns homes in England, had not adequately shown the harassment occurred here, which could have provided an exception to the jurisdiction rule.

    Collins Rice didn’t even consider Larsen’s claims against the king.

    “The only question for me has been whether the claimant can compel the defendant to give his side of the story to the High Court,” Collins Rice said. “My conclusion, as things stand, is that she cannot.”

    Larsen said in a statement that she was disappointed with the outcome and was considering her options.

    “It is disheartening to see that victims of harassment often struggle to find justice in our legal system,” she said. “Juan Carlos has deployed his full armory to grind me down and the reach of his power is immense.”

    Messages sent by The Associated Press seeking comment from the king’s lawyers were not immediately returned.

    The ruling comes 10 months after a U.K. appeals court panel tossed out part of the lawsuit on the grounds that some of the alleged harassment took place before Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 and therefore he had immunity as a former head of state.

    Friday’s ruling dealt a blow to the remaining elements of the lawsuit.

    Juan Carlos was once one of Spain’s most respected public figures for his role in the country’s return to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. But scandals involving Spain’s royal family began to mount in the later years of his reign, leading him to step down in favor of his son, King Felipe VI.

    ___

    Ciarán Giles in Madrid contributed.

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  • US diplomat says intelligence from ‘Five Eyes’ nations helped Canada to link India to Sikh’s killing

    US diplomat says intelligence from ‘Five Eyes’ nations helped Canada to link India to Sikh’s killing

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    The U.S. ambassador to Canada has said that information shared from members of an intelligence-sharing alliance was part of what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used to make public allegations of the Indian government’s possible involvement in the assass…

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 23, 2023, 2:44 PM

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada wasn’t looking to escalate tensions, but asked India on Tuesday, Sept. 19, to take the killing of a Sikh activist seriously after India called accusations that the Indian government may have been involved absurd.(Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

    The Associated Press

    TORONTO — Information shared by members of an intelligence-sharing alliance was part of what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used to make public allegations of the Indian government’s possible involvement in the assassination of a Sikh Canadian, the U.S. ambassador to Canada said.

    “There was shared intelligence among ‘Five Eyes’ partners that helped lead Canada to (make) the statements that the prime minister made,” U.S. Ambassador David Cohen told Canadian CTV News network.

    CTV News released some of Cohen’s comments late Friday, and the network said that it would air the full interview with the U.S. envoy on Sunday. No further details were released about the shared intelligence.

    On Thursday, a Canadian official told The Associated Press that the allegation of India’s involvement in the killing is based on surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada, including intelligence provided by a major ally — without saying which one.

    The “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance is made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

    The relationship between Canada and India reached its lowest point in recent history when Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh separatist, in June in a Vancouver suburb. Both countries have expelled some top diplomats.

    India, which has called the allegations “absurd,” also has stopped issuing visas to Canadian citizens and told Canada to reduce its diplomatic staff.

    Canada has yet to provide public evidence to back Trudeau’s allegations.

    Nijjar, a plumber who was born in India and became a Canadian citizen in 2007, had been wanted by India for years before he was gunned down in June outside the temple he led in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver.

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  • Surveillance video prompts Connecticut elections officials to investigate Bridgeport primary

    Surveillance video prompts Connecticut elections officials to investigate Bridgeport primary

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    Surveillance videos of a woman making multiple early morning trips to stuff papers into an absentee ballot drop box prompted Connecticut election officials Wednesday to open an investigation into possible fraud in the mayoral primary in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city.

    The videos, taken by city-owned security cameras, were made public this week by Bridgeport’s former chief administrative officer John Gomes, days after his defeat in the Democratic primary by incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim.

    The original recordings have not been released by the city, but excerpts posted by the Gomes campaign purport to show a woman visiting a drop box outside Bridgeport’s City Hall Annex three times between 5:42 a.m. and 6:38 a.m. on Sept. 5 and stuffing documents inside. The video also shows the same woman inside City Hall Annex handing papers to a man, who then deposits them in the absentee ballot box just before 7:20 a.m.

    Under Connecticut law, people using a collection box to vote by absentee ballot must drop off their completed ballots themselves, or designate certain family members, police, local election officials or a caregiver to do it for them.

    The State Elections Enforcement Commission voted Wednesday to launch an investigation after receiving multiple referrals and complaints on the matter from the Bridgeport police and others.

    “Since even before last Tuesday’s primary in Bridgeport, there has been a significant amount of attention drawn to allegations of impropriety surrounding the ballots, particularly the use or misuse of absentee ballots in the primary. These allegations have the effect of undermining the public’s trust in free and fair elections, and we take it very seriously,” said Stephen Penny, the commission’s chair.

    The commission said it would subpoena the city of Bridgeport for all relevant documents concerning the ballots, including absentee ballot applicant lists and ballot envelopes.

    Gomes would not say how his campaign obtained the city video other than it was given to them “because Bridgeport is tired to see the continuation of the violation of our civil rights.” The Associated Press could not immediately independently verify the authenticity of the video released by his campaign.

    Gomes filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to have the Sept. 12 primary redone, or him declared the winner.

    In a statement released Monday, Ganim he did “not condone, in any way, actions taken by anyone including any campaign, city, or elected officials, which undermines the integrity of either the electoral process or city property.”

    For decades, Bridgeport, a heavily Democratic working-class city of 148,000, about 62 miles (100 km) east of New York City, has been under state and federal scrutiny for alleged irregularities involving absentee ballots. New primaries have been called over the years in state legislative and local city council races because of absentee ballot problems.

    Ganim, 63, was first elected mayor in 1991 and served 12 years before quitting when he was caught accepting bribes and kickbacks. Convicted of racketeering, extortion and other crimes, he spent seven years in prison, but then won his old job back in an election in 2016. He won reelection again four years ago.

    As recently as June, state election officials who investigated allegations of absentee ballot fraud in the 2019 mayoral primary referred three people with ties to Ganim’s reelection campaign to state prosecutors, saying they had found “evidence of possible criminal violations.”

    It is unclear whether prosecutors took any action.

    Gemeem Davis, vice president and co-director of Bridgeport Generation Now, a social action organization, said she has heard for years from residents who have been promised help with things like buying groceries, getting a new mattress or a renter’s property tax rebate, as well as having their sidewalks fixed, so long as they fill out an absentee ballot a certain way.

    “These people pretend to be their friend,” Davis said. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with candidates trying to persuade voters to vote for them. But you can’t lie to voters, and you can’t engage in criminal activity.”

    She said the video looks like evidence of wrongdoing.

    “With the surveillance video clearly showing that there was like quite literally a bag full of absentees being stuffed into the drop box, to me, it feels like we’ve reached the pinnacle now,” Davis said.

    Gomes, who is still eligible to run in the general election as an independent candidate, said in his lawsuit that he learned about the existence of the surveillance video three days after the primary.

    The lawsuit said the video “appears to show a person who is not an election official and who should not possess absentee ballots except her own depositing what appears to be multiple absentee ballots” in the drop box.

    “Another video shows another person exiting from the same building and also depositing what appears to be absentee ballots into that drop box,” the lawsuit reads.

    The Bridgeport Police said in a statement that in addition to investigating possible criminal wrongdoing involving the ballots, it was investigating whether any possible breach of the city’s security video management system occurred.

    State Republicans have pounced on scandal.

    “Where there is smoke there is fire and, given that three of Mayor Ganim’s campaign workers from his last election have been referred to the Chief State’s Attorney for criminal prosecution for absentee ballot fraud, I’d say the smoke is actually a full-blown raging inferno,” Republican State Party Chair Ben Proto said.

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  • UN rights experts report a rise of efforts in Venezuela to squelch democracy ahead of 2024 election

    UN rights experts report a rise of efforts in Venezuela to squelch democracy ahead of 2024 election

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    GENEVA — A U.N.-backed panel investigating human rights violations in Venezuela said Wednesday the South American country’s government has intensified efforts to curtail democratic freedoms with threats, surveillance and harassment as President Nicolás Maduro faces a re-election contest next year.

    The international fact-finding mission authorized by the U.N. Human Rights Council said the government shifted tactics since the COVID-19 pandemic, which marked the end of mass opposition protests and subsequent extensive arrests and torture of demonstrators.

    Now, the report said, authorities are increasingly repressing specific members of civil society, including politicians, labor leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and other real or perceived opponents. The targets have been subjected to detention, surveillance, threats, defamatory campaigns and arbitrary criminal proceedings on hate speech or terrorism charges, the report said.

    “By criminalizing participation in legitimate activities, the government is silencing and creating a chilling effect on anyone who might consider participating in any activity that could be perceived as critical of government,” Patricia Tappatá Valdez, a member of the fact-finding mission, told reporters Wednesday.

    The three-member mission said at least five arbitrary executions, 14 short-term enforced disappearances and 58 arbitrary detentions took place from January 2020 through August 2023. It also documented 28 cases of torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees, of which 19 involved sexual and gender-based violence, during the same period.

    The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. It has also failed to respond directly to the mission, which has not received permission to enter the country.

    The mission does not have judicial powers, but the evidence it has gathered could be used by the International Criminal Court or by any country that might apply “universal jurisdiction,” such as Argentina, to prosecute alleged crimes against humanity. The mission has previously decried “crimes against humanity” in Maduro’s Venezuela.

    The report came just over a month before a primary election organized by factions of the Venezuelan opposition to choose a candidate to face Maduro in the 2024 election. The experts noted that the government barred three potential candidates — Henrique Capriles, Maria Corina Machado and Freddy Superlano — from taking part.

    Venezuela’s government frequently sidelines adversaries by banning them from public office, and not just in presidential contests. Such a ban was used retroactively in 2021 to remove Superlano, then a gubernatorial candidate, when he was ahead of a sibling of the late President Hugo Chávez but had not yet been declared the winner.

    Machado is a conservative, free-market firebrand seen as radical even among the right-leaning opposition for her unwillingness to negotiate with the Maduro government, but she has nonetheless become the leading candidate. Her ban, issued by the Comptroller General alleging fraud and tax violations, was dated just three days after she entered the primary race.

    Tappatá Valdez said the lack of independence of government institutions and the concerted efforts of some them, including the Comptroller General, the Ombudsman Office and the National Electoral Council, “contribute to curtailing the civic and democratic space.”

    Venezuela plunged into a political, economic and humanitarian crisis last decade, pushing at least 7.3 million people to migrate and making food and other necessities unaffordable for those who remain.

    Maduro was re-elected in 2018 after judges banned his main opponents from competing. But most opposition parties refused to recognize the election results. Instead, they challenged Maduro’s rule by creating an interim government led by Juan Guaidó, who was backed by the United States and dozens of nations that stopped recognizing Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.

    The U.S. government also imposed heavy sanctions on Maduro’s government that cut its access to U.S. banks and crippled the nation’s oil exports, hoping that would spark regime change. But Maduro’s government dug in and resisted the sanctions with support from Russia, Turkey and Iran.

    Guaidó’s claim to Venezuela’s presidency fizzled out, and he moved to the U.S. in April, citing increasing safety threats to himself and his family.

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  • Mar-a-Lago worker struck cooperation deal with prosecutors in Trump documents case, ex-lawyer says

    Mar-a-Lago worker struck cooperation deal with prosecutors in Trump documents case, ex-lawyer says

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    An information technology director at Mar-a-Lago struck a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors last summer in their investigation of Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents at the former president’s Florida property

    ByERIC TUCKER Associated Press

    September 6, 2023, 5:14 PM

    FILE – An aerial view of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is seen Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

    The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — An information technology director at Mar-a-Lago struck a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors last summer in their investigation of Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents at the former president’s Florida property, according to the worker’s ex-lawyer.

    Stanley Woodward, a former attorney for the IT manager, made the revelation in a court filing responding to Justice Department arguments that he had a potential conflict-of-interest because of his representation of another key figure in the Mar-a-Lago probe, Trump valet Walt Nauta.

    A cooperation agreement generally requires an individual to assist a criminal investigation in exchange for not being prosecuted. In this case, the worker testified before a federal grand jury that in July returned an updated indictment against Trump, Nauta and another Mar-a-Lago employee, Carlos De Oliveira, accusing the men of conspiring to delete surveillance footage from the property. All three have pleaded not guilty.

    The indictment alleges that De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s property manager, told the IT director — identified in court papers as Trump Employee 4 — that “the boss” wanted surveillance footage deleted. The Justice Department does not allege that the footage was actually deleted, and in fact, security video alleged to show Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage room forms a critical accusation in the indictment.

    Special counsel Jack Smith’s team said in a court filing last month that the IT director had retracted “prior false testimony” after being advised last summer of a potential conflict because of Woodward’s representation of Nauta. He then switched lawyers and provided new and incriminating information in the run-up to the new, or superseding, indictment in July, prosecutors have said.

    Woodward, in a court filing this week, rejected that version of events, saying he had welcomed the opportunity for his client to have a new lawyer from the federal defender’s office and that the client had been offered a cooperation agreement immediately after saying that he wanted to switch attorneys.

    He also said that his client had explicitly said that he had not been coached to testify in any way that was false.

    _____

    Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

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  • Top US and Chinese commerce officials express support for better trade conditions

    Top US and Chinese commerce officials express support for better trade conditions

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    BEIJING — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and her Chinese counterpart expressed support for improving trade conditions as Raimondo on Monday began a visit to Beijing aimed at improving chilly relations.

    Raimondo joined American officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in July who have visited China in the past three months. They expressed optimism about improving communication but have announced no progress on technology, security, human rights and other disputes that have plunged relations to their lowest level in decades.

    For its part, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government wants to revive foreign investor interest in China as it tries to reverse a deepening economic slump.

    Beijing is ready to work together to “foster a more favorable policy environment for stronger cooperation” and “bolster bilateral trade and investment,” Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told Raimondo. Wang gave no details of possible initiatives.

    Raimondo said the two sides are working on establishing “new information exchanges” for “more consistent engagement.”

    “It is profoundly important that we have a stable economic relationship,” she said. “I believe that we can make progress if we are direct, open and practical.”

    Beijing broke off dialogue with Washington on military, climate and other issues in August 2022 in retaliation for a visit to Taiwan by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the House of Representatives. The mainland’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-ruled island democracy as part of its territory and objects to foreign governments having contact with it.

    The state press has given positive coverage to the American visits to Beijing, but China has given no indication it might change trade, strategic, market access and other policies that irk Washington and its Asian neighbors.

    Raimondo told reporters before leaving Washington she was looking for “actionable, concrete steps” to move forward in commercial relations but gave no details. She said she was realistic that the ”challenges are significant.”

    The visits take place under an agreement made by Xi and President Joe Biden during a meeting last November in Indonesia.

    In June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Xi for 30 minutes during a visit that was postponed from February after a Chinese surveillance balloon entered U.S. airspace. The Chinese leader called on Washington to change policies on Taiwan and other issues and rebuffed a request to resume military-to-military cooperation.

    Last week, on the day Raimondo’s visit to Beijing was announced, Washington removed 27 Chinese companies from a blacklist that limits access to U.S. technology.

    The decision ”may have helped grease the wheels for Raimondo’s trip,” said Anna Ashton and Kylie Milliken of Eurasia Group in a report.

    It suggests Washington “is making modest but measurable progress with Beijing in re-establishing limited government-to-government communication,” Ashton and Milliken wrote. ”Raimondo’s visit could produce additional progress.”

    A key Chinese complaint is limits on access to processor chips and other U.S. technology that threaten to hamper the Communist Party’s ambition to develop artificial intelligence and other industries, which the U.S. has imposed on security grounds. The restrictions crippled the smartphone business of Huawei Technologies Ltd., China’s first global tech brand. Washington also has persuaded the Netherlands and Japan to join it in blocking Chinese access to tools for manufacturing advanced chips.

    “In matters of national security, there is no room to compromise,” but most U.S.-Chinese trade “does not involve national security concerns,” Raimondo told Wang. “I’m committed to promoting trade and investment in those areas that are in our mutual best interest.”

    Raimondo defended the Biden administration’s “de-risking” strategy of trying to increase domestic U.S. production of semiconductors and other high-tech goods and to create additional sources of supply to reduce chances of disruption. Beijing has criticized that as an attempt to isolate China and hamper its development.

    “It is not intended to hinder China’s economic progress. We believe a strong Chinese economy is a good thing,” Raimondo told Wang. “We seek healthy competition with China. A growing Chinese economy that plays by the rules is in both of our interests.”

    Wang visited Washington in May. The U.S. government invited Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Washington, but plans for that have not been announced.

    Raimondo also was due to meet China’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang, and other officials.

    The Biden administration also has taken steps that are likely to rankle Beijing.

    In June, Biden added 59 Chinese companies including military contractors and semiconductor manufacturers to a list of entities Americans are prohibited from investing in.

    Last week, Washington approved a $500 million arms sale to Taiwan including infrared tracking systems for advanced F-16 fighter jets.

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  • Prosecutors say witness in Trump’s classified documents case retracted false testimony

    Prosecutors say witness in Trump’s classified documents case retracted false testimony

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    WASHINGTON — A witness in the criminal case against Donald Trump over the hoarding of classified documents retracted “prior false testimony” after switching lawyers last month and provided new information that implicated the former president, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

    The statements from the witness, a Trump staffer identified in court papers as the director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago, was presented to prosecutors weeks before special counsel Jack Smith secured an updated indictment accusing Trump and two others in a plot to delete surveillance video at the Florida property.

    Prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday that the witness told a grand jury in Washington in March that he could not recall any conversations about the security footage

    But in July, after being warned by prosecutors that he was a target of the investigation and after being advised that his lawyer might have a conflict of interest because of his representation of others in the probe, the witness received a new attorney from the federal defender’s office and provided the Justice Department with information that helped form the basis of the revised indictment against Trump, his valet Walt Nauta and a third defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, the court filing says.

    Prosecutors described the witness interaction in a filing that seeks a hearing in Florida about potential conflicts of interest involving the defense lawyer, Stanley Woodward, who also represents Nauta. Woodward declined to comment Tuesday to The Associated Press.

    “The target letter to Trump Employee 4 crystallized a conflict of interest arising from Mr. Woodward’s concurrent representation of Trump Employee 4 and Nauta,” prosecutors wrote.

    They added: “Advising Trump Employee 4 to correct his sworn testimony would result in testimony incriminating Mr. Woodward’s other client, Nauta; but permitting Trump Employee 4’s false testimony to stand uncorrected would leave Trump Employee 4 exposed to criminal charges for perjury.”

    In the filing, the Justice Department also sought to explain its use of grand juries in both Washington and Florida, where charges were ultimately filed. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Florida judge presiding over the case, had earlier asked about the legal propriety of using grand juries in both districts.

    Prosecutors said they continued using the Washington grand jury even after charges were filed in Florida for the express purpose of investigating potential false statements by witnesses in Washington. The Washington grand jury completed its term last week, they said.

    A trial has been set for May 20, 2024, in the classified documents case. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

    Trump is facing another prosecution by Smith, over efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, as well as a criminal case in Georgia over attempts to subvert that state’s vote and another in New York in connection with hush money payments to a porn actor.

    _____

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  • Prosecutors say witness in Trump’s classified documents case retracted false testimony

    Prosecutors say witness in Trump’s classified documents case retracted false testimony

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    WASHINGTON — A witness in the criminal case against Donald Trump over the hoarding of classified documents retracted “prior false testimony” after switching lawyers last month and provided new information that implicated the former president, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

    The statements from the witness, a Trump staffer identified in court papers as the director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago, was presented to prosecutors weeks before special counsel Jack Smith secured an updated indictment accusing Trump and two others in a plot to delete surveillance video at the Florida property.

    Prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday that the witness told a grand jury in Washington in March that he could not recall any conversations about the security footage

    But in July, after being warned by prosecutors that he was a target of the investigation and after being advised that his lawyer might have a conflict of interest because of his representation of others in the probe, the witness received a new attorney from the federal defender’s office and provided the Justice Department with information that helped form the basis of the revised indictment against Trump, his valet Walt Nauta and a third defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, the court filing says.

    Prosecutors described the witness interaction in a filing that seeks a hearing in Florida about potential conflicts of interest involving the defense lawyer, Stanley Woodward, who also represents Nauta. Woodward declined to comment Tuesday to The Associated Press.

    “The target letter to Trump Employee 4 crystallized a conflict of interest arising from Mr. Woodward’s concurrent representation of Trump Employee 4 and Nauta,” prosecutors wrote.

    They added: “Advising Trump Employee 4 to correct his sworn testimony would result in testimony incriminating Mr. Woodward’s other client, Nauta; but permitting Trump Employee 4’s false testimony to stand uncorrected would leave Trump Employee 4 exposed to criminal charges for perjury.”

    In the filing, the Justice Department also sought to explain its use of grand juries in both Washington and Florida, where charges were ultimately filed. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Florida judge presiding over the case, had earlier asked about the legal propriety of using grand juries in both districts.

    Prosecutors said they continued using the Washington grand jury even after charges were filed in Florida for the express purpose of investigating potential false statements by witnesses in Washington. The Washington grand jury completed its term last week, they said.

    A trial has been set for May 20, 2024, in the classified documents case. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

    Trump is facing another prosecution by Smith, over efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, as well as a criminal case in Georgia over attempts to subvert that state’s vote and another in New York in connection with hush money payments to a porn actor.

    _____

    Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

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  • US announces $345 million military aid package for Taiwan

    US announces $345 million military aid package for Taiwan

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    WASHINGTON — The U.S. on Friday announced $345 million in military aid for Taiwan, in what is the Biden administration’s first major package drawing on America’s own stockpiles to help Taiwan counter China.

    The White House’s announcement said the package would include defense, education and training for the Taiwanese. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters ahead of the announcement.

    U.S. lawmakers have been pressuring the Pentagon and White House to speed weapons to Taiwan. The goals are to help it counter China and to deter China from considering attacking, by providing Taipei enough weaponry that it would make the price of invasion too high.

    While Chinese diplomats protested the move, Taiwan’s trade office in Washington said the U.S. decision to pull arms and other materiel from its stores provided “an important tool to support Taiwan’s self-defense.” In a statement, it pledged to work with the United States to maintain “peace, stability and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.”

    The package is in addition to nearly $19 billion in military sales of F-16s and other major weapons systems that the U.S. has approved for Taiwan. Delivery of those weapons has been hampered by supply chain issues that started during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been exacerbated by the global defense industrial base pressures created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The difference is that this aid is part of a presidential authority approved by Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales. This gets weapons delivered faster than providing funding for new weapons.

    The Pentagon has used a similar authority to get billions of dollars worth of munitions to Ukraine.

    Taiwan split from China in 1949 amid civil war. Chinese President Xi Jinping maintains China’s right to take over the now self-ruled island, by force if necessary. China has accused the U.S. of turning Taiwan into a “powder keg” through the billions of dollars in weapons sales it has pledged.

    The U.S. maintains a “One China” policy under which it does not recognize Taiwan’s formal independence and has no formal diplomatic relations with the island in deference to Beijing. However, U.S. law requires a credible defense for Taiwan and for the U.S. to treat all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern.”

    Getting stockpiles of weapons to Taiwan now, before an attack begins, is one of the lessons the U.S. has learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pentagon deputy defense secretary Kathleen Hicks told The Associated Press earlier this year.

    Ukraine “was more of a cold-start approach than the planned approach we have been working on for Taiwan, and we will apply those lessons,” Hicks said. Efforts to resupply Taiwan after a conflict erupted would be complicated because it is an island, she said.

    China regularly sends warships and planes across the center line in the Taiwan Strait that provides a buffer between the sides, as well as into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, in an effort to intimidate the island’s 23 million people and wear down its military capabilities.

    Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, said in a statement Friday that Beijing was “firmly opposed” to U.S. military ties with Taiwan. The U.S. should “stop selling arms to Taiwan” and “stop creating new factors that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” Liu said.

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  • Russian fighter jet flies dangerously close to US warplane over Syria

    Russian fighter jet flies dangerously close to US warplane over Syria

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    WASHINGTON — A Russian fighter jet flew very close to a U.S. surveillance aircraft over Syria, forcing it to go through the turbulent wake and putting the lives of the four American crew members in danger, U.S. officials said Monday.

    The officials said the incident, which happened just before noon EDT on Sunday, was a significant escalation in what has been a string of encounters between U.S. and Russian aircraft in Syria in recent weeks. The intercept by the Russian Su-35 impeded the U.S. crew’s ability to safely operate their MC-12 aircraft, the officials said, calling it a new level of unsafe behavior that could result in an accident or loss of life.

    In recent weeks, Russian fighter jets have repeatedly harassed U.S. unmanned MQ-9 drones, but the latest incident raised alarms because it endangered American lives.

    The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a military operation, would not say how close the Russian jet got to the U.S. warplane. The MC-12, which is a twin-engine turboprop aircraft routinely used by special operations forces, was doing surveillance in support of operations against the Islamic State groups in Syria, the officials said.

    On multiple occasions in the past two weeks, Russian fighter jets flew dangerously close to MQ-9 Reapers, setting off flares and forcing the drones to take evasive maneuvers. U.S. and Russian military officers communicate frequently over a deconfliction phone line during the encounters, protesting the other side’s actions.

    The U.S. is considering a number of military options to address the increasing Russian aggression in the skies over Syria, which complicated efforts to strike an Islamic State group leader earlier this month, according to a senior defense official. The U.S. was eventually able to launch a strike and kill the militant.

    The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, declined to detail the options under consideration, but said the U.S. will not cede any territory and will continue to fly in the western part of the country on anti-Islamic State missions.

    The Russian military activity, which has increased in frequency and aggression since March, stems from growing cooperation and coordination between Moscow, Tehran and the Syrian government to try to pressure the U.S. to leave Syria.

    There are about 900 U.S. forces in the country, and others move in and out to conduct missions targeting Islamic State group militants.

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  • Yellen’s visit to Beijing aims to heal rifts over a daunting array of China-US antagonisms

    Yellen’s visit to Beijing aims to heal rifts over a daunting array of China-US antagonisms

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    BEIJING — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is visiting Beijing as part of efforts to revive U.S.-Chinese relations that are at their lowest level in decades due to disputes over technology, security and other irritants.

    Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in November and agreed to improve relations between the world’s biggest economies and major trading partners. But neither government has shown willingness to make major policy changes.

    “We hope the United States takes concrete actions to create a favorable environment for the healthy development of economic and trade relations,” the Chinese finance ministry said in a statement Friday.

    It expressed hope for “the realization of mutual benefit and win-win results” but did not suggest possible Chinese concessions.

    Yellen’s visit follows one by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Xi last month in Beijing in an encounter that lasted just 30 minutes.

    Here’s a look at some areas of contention.

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    POLITICAL RELATIONS

    U.S.-Chinese relations are riven by disputes over technology, security, human rights, Beijing’s assertive policies abroad and its support for Russia during its war on Ukraine. Despite an agreement between Biden and Xi to improve relations during a meeting in Indonesia in November, ties worsened after a Chinese surveillance balloon drifted over the United States in February and was shot down. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Beijing in June in the highest-level U.S. visit in five years and had a meeting with Xi that lasted just 30 minutes.

    EXPORT CONTROLS

    The United States has blocked Chinese access to advanced processor chips and other technology on security grounds. Beijing has been slow to retaliate, possibly to avoid disrupting China’s fledgling developers of artificial intelligence and other technologies. But this week, Beijing announced controls on exports of two minerals used in semiconductors and solar panels — gallium and germanium. In May, China banned using products from the biggest U.S. maker of memory chips, Micron Technology Inc., in computers that handle sensitive information, saying they had unspecified security flaws but gave no explanation.

    RUSSIA AND UKRAINE

    Xi’s government said it had a “no limits” friendship with Moscow ahead of its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Beijing has provided political support for President Vladimir Putin’s government and has blocked efforts in the United Nations to criticize the Kremlin. China also has stepped up purchases of Russian oil and gas, helping to offset revenue losses due to Western sanctions. Washington has warned Beijing not to provide military support.

    TERRITORIAL DISPUTES

    The United States rejects China’s claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, where Beijing has built artificial islands and stationed naval forces. Chinese claims overlap with those of Vietnam, Malaysia and U.S. ally the Philippines. Washington and its allies have sent warships through the sea to assert their “freedom of naviation.” Beijing rejects that and says the United States is adding to tension over the region. China also claims the self-ruled island democracy of Taiwan as part of its territory. Xi’s government has stepped up efforts to intimidate Taiwan’s elected government by flying fighter jets near the island and firing missiles into the sea. American politicians including then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the U.S. House of Representatives have visited Taiwan in a show of support.

    DECOUPLING OR DERISKING?

    Businesspeople warn the world might decouple, or split into separate markets with incompatible industrial standards and products, as the United States and China tighten export controls and try to reduce reliance on each other. They say that would slow economic growth and innovation. Yellen has warned decoupling would be a disaster. Treasury officials said ahead of her trip she would deliver that message to Chinese officials. “There will be no winners in trade wars or ‘decoupling and broken chains,’” the Chinese finance ministry said. There are also deep financial ties: China stockpiles part of its trade surpluses and foreign currency reserves in Treasury debt, which helps to finance U.S. government budget deficits.

    ROOM FOR COOPERATION

    Treasury officials said Yellen planned to encourage Chinese officials to work with Washington on areas of common interest including climate change. China signed onto a deal last month to reduce debts owed by the Zambian government. Treasury officials pointed to that as an example of areas where cooperation produced results.

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  • US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visits China as part of efforts to soothe strained relations

    US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visits China as part of efforts to soothe strained relations

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    BEIJING — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to tell Chinese officials Washington wants healthy economic competition but will defend U.S. trade curbs imposed on security grounds and express concern about Beijing’s export controls on metals used in semiconductors and solar panels, a senior Treasury official said Thursday.

    Yellen was due to meet Friday with China‘s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang, as part of efforts to revive relations that are at their lowest level in decades due to disputes over security, technology and other irritants. Treasury officials have said she wouldn’t meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

    Washington doesn’t support decoupling, or disconnecting U.S. and Chinese industries and markets and Yellen will reiterate that message, the Treasury official said. Businesspeople have warned that might harm innovation and growth as both governments tighten controls on trade in technology and other goods deemed sensitive.

    Yellen planned to discuss “targeted action” by Washington on trade due to national security or human rights concerns, according to the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

    Her visit follows one by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Xi last month in the highest-level U.S. visit to Beijing in five years. The two agreed to stabilize relations but failed to agree on improving communications between their militaries.

    China’s government has been frustrated by U.S. curbs on Chinese access to advanced processor chips on security grounds. That threatens to delay or derail the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to develop telecoms, artificial intelligence and other technologies.

    Xi accused Washington in March of trying to hamper China’s development.

    Washington doesn’t use security-related restrictions for economic benefit and considers national security “non-negotiable,” the Treasury official said.

    The United States wants “healthy economic competition” with China but considers some of Beijing’s trade practices unfair, the official said. They said Yellen would detail those concerns in meetings with Chinese officials.

    The official cited this week’s announcement of Chinese export controls on gallium and germanium as an example of policies about which Washington wants more information. The announcement jolted South Korea and other countries whose industries use Chinese supplies of the metals.

    Washington wants to “promote resilient supply chains” and guard against excessive reliance on suppliers in critical areas but doesn’t consider that to be decoupling, the Treasury official said.

    Yellen said earlier the two governments “can and need to find a way to live together” in spite of their strained relations over geopolitics and economic development.

    Treasury officials told reporters earlier in Washington the secretary wanted to focus on stabilizing the global economy and challenging Chinese support of Russia during its invasion of Ukraine.

    The latest flareup came after President Joe Biden referred to Xi as dictator. The Chinese government protested, but Biden said his blunt statements are “just not something I’m going to change very much.”

    Ties became especially testy after a Chinese surveillance balloon flew over the United States in February and was shot down.

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  • Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is making a long-awaited trip to China this week

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is making a long-awaited trip to China this week

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    WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Beijing Thursday as part of an ongoing Biden administration effort to thaw U.S.-China relations, a senior Treasury official said Sunday.

    Yellen, who has called the notion of an economic decoupling from China “disastrous,” has frequently said in the past year that she would like to visit China. She says the two nations “can and need to find a way to live together” in spite of their strained relations over geopolitics and economic development. Yellen will meet this week with Chinese officials, U.S. companies doing business in China and with Chinese people and will stay through July 9, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the trip.

    The goal of her visit is to deepen and increase the frequency of communication between U.S. and China, the official said. While there are clear areas of common interest where Yellen can make progress, the official said, there are also significant disagreements that will not be resolved through a single trip.

    The most recent flareup came after President Joe Biden referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator ” during a campaign fundraiser earlier in June. The Chinese protested loudly, but Biden later said his blunt statements regarding China are “just not something I’m going to change very much.”

    The U.S. president’s statements have come after tensions over a Chinese surveillance balloon that the U.S. government shot down, U.S.-led restrictions on China’s access to advanced computer chips and ongoing tensions about the status and security of Taiwan. Yet in Biden’s dictator comments during a California fundraiser, the president told his audience “don’t worry” about China as the U.S. has taken steps to compete with its financial and technological ambitions.

    Yellen’s trip would follow Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s two-day stop in Beijing in June, the highest-level meetings in China in the past five years. Blinken met with Xi and the two agreed to stabilize deteriorated U.S.-China ties. However, better communications between their militaries could not be agreed upon. Treasury officials didn’t specify which officials she’d meet with, but said it would not be Xi.

    The treasury secretary’s visit will be more focused on stabilizing the global economy and challenging China’s support of Russia in its ongoing land invasion of Ukraine. China has developed an uncomfortable closeness with the Kremlin — claiming neutrality in the war, but holding joint military drills and frequent state visits with Russian officials.

    Still, U.S. officials hold out hope that U.S-China relations will not further deteriorate.

    Yellen met with her previous Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Liu He, in January in Switzerland and made a big speech at Johns Hopkins University in April calling for “ cooperation on the urgent global challenges of our day ” between the two countries for the sake of maintaining global stability, while supporting economic restrictions on China to advance U.S national security interests.

    New developments show glimmers of what could spark a renewed relationship.

    At a Paris summit on global finance last week, a deal was brokered that restructured Zambia’s debt with its creditors, which include China — Zambia’s biggest creditor holding $4.1 billion of a total $6.3 billion debt load. The deal may provide a roadmap for how China will handle restructuring deals with other nations in debt distress, and shows the Asian superpower is willing to cooperate in negotiations with other Group of 20 nations.

    “I am pleased that the international community has come together to support Zambia in its time of need,” Yellen said in a statement last week.

    However, there are plenty of other tensions impacting the superpowers’ relationship. The discovery of a Chinese surveillance balloon traversing over sensitive areas of the U.S. in February put a damper on her previous travel plans, and further strained relations.

    U.S. lawmakers earlier this year grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew about data security and the social media firm’s ties to China, with some pushing a ban on the app, popular among American youths.

    And last October, the Biden administration imposed export controls to limit China’s ability to access advanced chips, which it says can be used to make weapons, commit human rights abuses and improve the speed and accuracy of China’s military logistics.

    Yellen’s trip also comes as Biden considers issuing an executive order that would tighten rules on some overseas investments by U.S. companies in an effort to limit China’s ability to acquire technologies that could improve its military prowess.

    Still, trade entwines the U.S. and Chinese economies. And despite strong speeches about the need to rethink the relationship, Yellen said in her Johns Hopkins address that “a full separation of our economies would be disastrous for both countries. It would be destabilizing for the rest of the world. Rather, we know that the health of the Chinese and U.S. economies is closely linked.”

    China shipped more than $536 billion worth of goods to the U.S. last year. By contrast, the U.S. exported $154 billion in goods to China, according to the Census Bureau.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

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  • Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is making a long-awaited trip to China this week

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is making a long-awaited trip to China this week

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    WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Beijing Thursday as part of an ongoing Biden administration effort to thaw U.S.-China relations, a senior Treasury official said Sunday.

    Yellen, who has called the notion of an economic decoupling from China “disastrous,” has frequently said in the past year that she would like to visit China. She says the two nations “can and need to find a way to live together” in spite of their strained relations over geopolitics and economic development. Yellen will meet this week with Chinese officials, U.S. companies doing business in China and with Chinese people and will stay through July 9, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the trip.

    The goal of her visit is to deepen and increase the frequency of communication between U.S. and China, the official said. While there are clear areas of common interest where Yellen can make progress, the official said, there are also significant disagreements that will not be resolved through a single trip.

    The most recent flareup came after President Joe Biden referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator ” during a campaign fundraiser earlier in June. The Chinese protested loudly, but Biden later said his blunt statements regarding China are “just not something I’m going to change very much.”

    The U.S. president’s statements have come after tensions over a Chinese surveillance balloon that the U.S. government shot down, U.S.-led restrictions on China’s access to advanced computer chips and ongoing tensions about the status and security of Taiwan. Yet in Biden’s dictator comments during a California fundraiser, the president told his audience “don’t worry” about China as the U.S. has taken steps to compete with its financial and technological ambitions.

    Yellen’s trip would follow Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s two-day stop in Beijing in June, the highest-level meetings in China in the past five years. Blinken met with Xi and the two agreed to stabilize deteriorated U.S.-China ties. However, better communications between their militaries could not be agreed upon. Treasury officials didn’t specify which officials she’d meet with, but said it would not be Xi.

    The treasury secretary’s visit will be more focused on stabilizing the global economy and challenging China’s support of Russia in its ongoing land invasion of Ukraine. China has developed an uncomfortable closeness with the Kremlin — claiming neutrality in the war, but holding joint military drills and frequent state visits with Russian officials.

    Still, U.S. officials hold out hope that U.S-China relations will not further deteriorate.

    Yellen met with her previous Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Liu He, in January in Switzerland and made a big speech at Johns Hopkins University in April calling for “ cooperation on the urgent global challenges of our day ” between the two countries for the sake of maintaining global stability, while supporting economic restrictions on China to advance U.S national security interests.

    New developments show glimmers of what could spark a renewed relationship.

    At a Paris summit on global finance last week, a deal was brokered that restructured Zambia’s debt with its creditors, which include China — Zambia’s biggest creditor holding $4.1 billion of a total $6.3 billion debt load. The deal may provide a roadmap for how China will handle restructuring deals with other nations in debt distress, and shows the Asian superpower is willing to cooperate in negotiations with other Group of 20 nations.

    “I am pleased that the international community has come together to support Zambia in its time of need,” Yellen said in a statement last week.

    However, there are plenty of other tensions impacting the superpowers’ relationship. The discovery of a Chinese surveillance balloon traversing over sensitive areas of the U.S. in February put a damper on her previous travel plans, and further strained relations.

    U.S. lawmakers earlier this year grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew about data security and the social media firm’s ties to China, with some pushing a ban on the app, popular among American youths.

    And last October, the Biden administration imposed export controls to limit China’s ability to access advanced chips, which it says can be used to make weapons, commit human rights abuses and improve the speed and accuracy of China’s military logistics.

    Yellen’s trip also comes as Biden considers issuing an executive order that would tighten rules on some overseas investments by U.S. companies in an effort to limit China’s ability to acquire technologies that could improve its military prowess.

    Still, trade entwines the U.S. and Chinese economies. And despite strong speeches about the need to rethink the relationship, Yellen said in her Johns Hopkins address that “a full separation of our economies would be disastrous for both countries. It would be destabilizing for the rest of the world. Rather, we know that the health of the Chinese and U.S. economies is closely linked.”

    China shipped more than $536 billion worth of goods to the U.S. last year. By contrast, the U.S. exported $154 billion in goods to China, according to the Census Bureau.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

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  • Blinken opens second day of talks in Beijing on mission to ease soaring US-China tensions

    Blinken opens second day of talks in Beijing on mission to ease soaring US-China tensions

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    BEIJING — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a second and final day of critical meetings with senior Chinese officials Monday, as the two sides expressed willingness to talk but showed little inclination to bend on hardened positions that have sent tensions soaring.

    Blinken met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi for about three hours, according to a U.S. official, but it is still not confirmed if Blinken will meet President Xi Jinping before he departs in the late evening.

    Neither Blinken nor Wang made any comment to reporters as they greeted each other and sat for their discussion.

    In the first round of talks on Sunday, Blinken met for nearly six hours with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang after which both countries said they had agreed to continue high-level discussions. However, there was no sign that any of the most fractious issues between them were closer to resolution.

    Despite Blinken’s presence in China, he and other U.S. officials had played down the prospects for any significant breakthroughs on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies.

    Instead, Blinken and other officials have emphasized the importance of the U.S. and China establishing and maintaining better lines of communication.

    The two sides both said Qin had accepted an invitation from Blinken to visit Washington but Beijing made clear that “the China-U.S. relationship is at the lowest point since its establishment.” That sentiment is widely shared by U.S. officials.

    The State Department said Blinken had stressed “the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication across the full range of issues to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation.”

    The Chinese, meanwhile, restated their position that the current state of relations “does not serve the fundamental interests of the two peoples or meet the shared expectations of the international community,” according to the foreign ministry.

    Blinken is the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and his two-day trip comes after his initial plans to travel to China were postponed in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.

    Biden and Xi had made commitments to improve communications “precisely so that we can make sure we are communicating as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and miscommunications,” Blinken said before leaving for Beijing.

    His talks could pave the way for a meeting in the coming months between Biden and Xi. Biden said Saturday that he hoped to be able to meet with Xi in the coming months to take up the plethora of differences that divide them.

    That long list incudes disagreements ranging from trade to Taiwan, human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong to Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    In his meetings on Sunday, Blinken also pressed the Chinese to release detained American citizens and to take steps to curb the production and export of fentanyl precursors that are fueling the opioid crisis in the United States.

    Blinken “made clear that the United States will always stand up for the interests and values of the American people and work with its allies and partners to advance our vision for a world that is free, open, and upholds the international rules-based order,” the State Department said.

    The Chinese foreign ministry countered in its statement that “China hopes that the U.S. will adopt an objective and rational perception of China, work with China in the same direction, uphold the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and handle unexpected and sporadic events in a calm, professional and rational manner.”

    Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to reduce tensions Friday, saying in a meeting with Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates that the United States and China can cooperate to “benefit our two countries.”

    Since the cancellation of Blinken’s trip in February, there have been some high-level engagements. CIA chief William Burns traveled to China in May, while China’s commerce minister traveled to the U.S. And Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Wang Yi in Vienna in May.

    But those have been punctuated by bursts of angry rhetoric from both sides over the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions in the Indo-Pacific, China’s refusal to condemn Russia for its war against Ukraine, and U.S. allegations from Washington that Beijing is attempting to boost its worldwide surveillance capabilities, including in Cuba.

    And, earlier this month, China’s defense minister rebuffed a request from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, a sign of continuing discontent.

    Meanwhile, the national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks last week and agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation, in part to counter China’s growing influence and ambitions.

    This coincides with the Biden administration inking an agreement with Australia and Britain to provide the first with nuclear-powered submarines, with China moving rapidly to expand its diplomatic presence, especially in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific island nations, where it has opened or has plans to open at least five new embassies over the next year.

    The agreement is part of an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym AUKUS — for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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