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Tag: United States government

  • China, US officials to attend Southeast Asia defense meeting

    China, US officials to attend Southeast Asia defense meeting

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    BEIJING — The defense chiefs of rival powers China and the U.S. will both attend next week’s expanded meeting of Southeast Asian security ministers in Cambodia, though it’s unclear whether they would meet face to face.

    China’s Defense Ministry said Gen. Wei Fenghe will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus from Sunday to Thursday.

    The Department of Defense said Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III will also attend following stops in Canada and Indonesia.

    Both officials plan to meet with participants on the margins of the main gathering of ministers from the 10-nation organization known as ASEAN.

    Their two countries are chief rivals for influence in the region, where China is seeking to smooth over disputes surrounding its determination to assert its claim to the South China Sea, including through the construction of artifical islands equipped with airstrips and other infrastructure.

    The two countries are also at odds over Russia, which China has refused to condemn or sanction over its invasion of Ukraine, and the status of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory and threatens to attack.

    China’s Defense Ministry said Wei would address the assembly and meet with heads of other delegations to discuss “bilateral cooperation and issues of regional and international concern.”

    It said he would also hold talks with civilian and military leaders of close Chinese ally Cambodia, with whom it is working on expanding a port facility that could give it a presence on the Gulf of Thailand.

    China and four ASEAN members share overlapping claims to territory in the South China Sea, home to vital shipping lanes, along with plentiful fish stocks and undersea mineral resources. China and ASEAN have made little headway on finalizing a code of conduct to avoid conflicts in the area.

    While China’s capacities are growing rapidly, the U.S. remains the region’s dominant military power and, while it doesn’t officially take a stand on sovereignty issues, it has refused to acknowledge China’s blanket claims. The U.S. Navy regularly sails past Chinese-held islands in what it calls freedom of navigation operations, prompting a furious response from Beijing.

    The U.S. also has a security alliance with the Philippines and strong relations with other ASEAN members, with the exception of Myanmar, where the military has launched a brutal crackdown since taking power last year.

    The U.S. Defense Department said that Austin would hold an “informal multilateral engagement” with his ASEAN counterparts and meet with officials from Cambodia and partner nations “to bring greater stability, transparency, and openness to the Indo-Pacific region.”

    At a previous defense forum attended by both U.S. and Chinese ministers in June in Singapore, Austin delivered a speech saying China’s “steady increase in provocative and destabilizing military activity near Taiwan” threatens to undermine the region’s security and prosperity.

    Wei said at the same conference that the U.S. is trying to turn Southeast Asian countries against Beijing and is seeking to advance its own interests “under the guise of multilateralism.”

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  • Chicago coder sentenced to 7 1/2 years for terrorism charge

    Chicago coder sentenced to 7 1/2 years for terrorism charge

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    CHICAGO — A former Chicago college student was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in federal prison for attempting to help the Islamic State group.

    Thomas Osadzinski, 23, designed, used, and taught a computer program to disseminate violent propaganda online, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He was convicted last year of attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

    The sentence handed down Thursday was less than the 15 years prosecutors had sought.

    The former DePaul computer science student has been in custody since being arrested in Chicago in 2019 during an FBI sting.

    Defense attorneys painted Osadzinski, who was born and raised in the Chicago suburb Northbrook, as a naive student who “got sucked in” to radical ideologies, the Chicago Tribune reported.

    His attorney, Joshua Herman, told AP: “This sentence will allow Tommy to have a life, which is all he and his family asked for.” Herman added that the defense plans to appeal based on First Amendment issues.

    Before Osadzinski was sentenced, he apologized to his parents in the courtroom and told the judge, “I completely reject ISIS.”

    U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who ordered that the prison term be followed by 10 years of court-supervised release, said there was a wide gulf between poor judgment and Osadzinski’s conduct, which included pledging fealty to a “hideous group” such as the Islamic State and “promoting and encouraging” its violent message around the globe.

    “I think you understand now how serious this is,” Gettleman told Osadzinski. “You have shown remorse. Is it genuine? I hope so.”

    The FBI said in a criminal complaint that Osadzinski boasted that he would use a gun and explosives to elude authorities if need be.

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  • NKorea fires suspected long-range missile designed to hit US

    NKorea fires suspected long-range missile designed to hit US

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    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a suspected long-range missile designed to strike the mainland U.S. on Friday, its neighbors said, a day after the North resumed its testing activities in an apparent protest over U.S. moves to solidify its alliances with South Korea and Japan.

    The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it detected a ballistic missile launch off the North’s eastern coast on Friday morning. It later said the missile launched is likely an intercontinental ballistic missile.

    The Japanese Defense Ministry also said in a statement that North Korea fired an ICBM-class ballistic missile from its western coastal area that flew toward its eastern waters across the country. It said the missile, launched at around 10:14 a.m. (0114GMT) was still in flight and may land inside of the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone.

    If confirmed, it would be North Korea’s first ICBM launch in about two weeks. Outside experts said that an ICBM launched by North Korea on Nov. 3 failed to fly its intended flight.

    The Nov. 3 test was believed to have involved a new type of developmental ICBM. North Korea has two other types of ICBM — Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 and their test-launches in 2017 proved they could potentially reach parts of the U.S. homeland.

    South Korea’s presidential office said it convened an emergency security meeting to discuss the North Korean launch.

    “North Korea has been repeatedly firing missiles this year at an unprecedented frequency and is significantly escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula,” Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamad told reporters.

    The launch is the latest in a slew of missile tests by North Korea in recent weeks. But the country had halted weapons launches for about a week before it fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday.

    Before Thursday’s launch, the North’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.

    Choe was referring to U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Cambodia. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence. Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.

    Choe didn’t say what steps North Korea could take but said that “the U.S. will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret.”

    The North has argued a U.S. military presence in the region as proof of its hostility toward the country. It has said its recent series of weapons launches were response to what it called provocative military drills between the United States and South Korea.

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  • Starbucks workers strike at more than 100 US stores

    Starbucks workers strike at more than 100 US stores

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    Starbucks workers at more than 100 U.S. stores are on strike Thursday in their largest labor action since a campaign to unionize the company’s stores began late last year.

    The walkouts coincide with Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when the company gives free reusable cups to customers who order a holiday drink. Workers say it’s often one of the busiest days of the year. Starbucks declined to say how many red cups it plans to distribute.

    Workers say they’re seeking better pay, more consistent schedules and higher staffing levels in busy stores. Stores in 25 states planned to take part in the labor action, according to Starbucks Workers United, the group organizing the effort. Strikers are handing out their own red cups with union logos.

    Starbucks, which opposes the unionization effort, said it is aware of the walkouts and respects its employees’ right to lawfully protest. The Seattle company noted that the protests are happening at a small number of its 9,000 company-run U.S. locations.

    “We remain committed to all partners and will continue to work together, side-by-side, to make Starbucks a company that works for everyone,” the company said Thursday in a statement.

    Some workers planned to picket all day while others will do shorter walkouts. The union said the goal is to shut stores down during the strikes, and noted that the company usually has difficulty staffing during Red Cup Day because it’s so busy.

    Willow Montana, a shift manager at a Starbucks store in Brighton, Massachusetts, planned to strike because Starbucks hasn’t begun bargaining with the store despite a successful union vote in April.

    “If the company won’t bargain in good faith, why should we come to work where we are understaffed, underpaid and overworked?” Montana said.

    Others, including Michelle Eisen, a union organizer at one of the first stores to organize in Buffalo, New York, said workers are angry that Starbucks promised higher pay and benefits to non-union stores. Starbucks says it is following the law and can’t give union stores pay hikes without bargaining.

    At least 257 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late last year, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Fifty-seven stores have held votes where workers opted not to unionize.

    Starbucks and the union have begun contract talks at 53 stores, with 13 additional sessions scheduled, Starbucks Workers United said. No agreements have been reached so far.

    The process has been contentious. Earlier this week, a regional director with the NLRB filed a request for an injunction against Starbucks in federal court, saying the company violated labor law when it fired a union organizer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The regional director asked the court to direct Starbucks to reinstate the employee and stop interfering in the unionization campaign nationwide.

    It was the fourth time the NLRB has asked a federal court to intervene. In August, a federal judge ruled that Starbucks had to reinstate seven union organizers who were fired in Memphis, Tennessee. A similar case in Buffalo has yet to be decided, while a federal judge ruled against the NLRB in a case in Phoenix.

    Meanwhile, Starbucks has asked the NLRB to temporarily suspend all union elections at its U.S. stores, citing allegations from a board employee that regional officials improperly coordinated with union organizers. A decision in that case is pending.

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  • Starbucks workers plan strikes at more than 100 US stores

    Starbucks workers plan strikes at more than 100 US stores

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    Starbucks workers at more than 100 U.S. stores say they’re going on strike Thursday in what would be the largest labor action since a campaign to unionize the company’s stores began late last year.

    The walkouts are scheduled to coincide with Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when the company gives free reusable cups to customers who order a holiday drink. Workers say it’s often one of the busiest days of the year. Starbucks declined to say how many red cups it plans to distribute.

    Workers say they’re seeking better pay, more consistent schedules and higher staffing levels in busy stores. Starbucks opposes the unionization effort, saying the company functions best when it works directly with employees. The Seattle coffee giant has more than 9,000 company-owned stores in the U.S.

    Stores in 25 states planned to take part in the labor action, according to Starbucks Workers United, the group organizing the effort. Some workers planned to picket all day while others planned shorter walkouts. The union said the goal is to shut the stores down during the walkouts.

    Willow Montana, a shift manager at a Starbucks store in Brighton, Massachusetts, planned to strike because Starbucks hasn’t begun bargaining with the store despite a successful union vote in April.

    “If the company won’t bargain in good faith, why should we come to work where we are understaffed, underpaid and overworked?” Montana said.

    Others, including Michelle Eisen, a union organizer at one of the first stores to organize in Buffalo, New York, said workers are angry that Starbucks promised higher pay and benefits to non-union stores. Starbucks says it is following the law and can’t give union stores pay hikes without bargaining.

    At least 257 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late last year, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Fifty-seven stores have held votes where workers opted not to unionize.

    Starbucks and the union have begun contract talks at 53 stores, with 13 additional sessions scheduled, Starbucks Workers United said. No agreements have been reached so far.

    The process has been contentious. Earlier this week, a regional director with the NLRB filed a request for an injunction against Starbucks in federal court, saying the company violated labor law when it fired a union organizer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The regional director asked the court to direct Starbucks to reinstate the employee and stop interfering in the unionization campaign nationwide.

    It was the fourth time the NLRB has asked a federal court to intervene. In August, a federal judge ruled that Starbucks had to reinstate seven union organizers who were fired in Memphis, Tennessee. A similar case in Buffalo has yet to be decided, while a federal judge ruled against the NLRB in a case in Phoenix.

    Meanwhile, Starbucks has asked the NLRB to temporarily suspend all union elections at its U.S. stores, citing allegations from a board employee that regional officials improperly coordinated with union organizers. A decision in that case is pending.

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  • Seoul: North Korea fires ballistic missile toward sea

    Seoul: North Korea fires ballistic missile toward sea

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    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile Thursday toward its eastern waters, South Korea’s military said, hours after the North threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.

    South Korea’s military detected the launch from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan area at 10:48 a.m., the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said South Korea has boosted its surveillance of North Korea while maintaining a military readiness and a close coordination with the United States.

    It was North Korea’s first ballistic missile firing in eight days and the latest in its barrage of tests in recent months. North Korea previously said some of the tests were simulations of nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets. Many experts say North Korea would eventually want to enhance its nuclear capability to wrest bigger concessions from its rivals.

    Earlier Thursday, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui warned that a recent U.S.-South Korea-Japan summit accord on the North would leave tensions on the Korean Peninsula “more unpredictable.”

    Choe’s statement was North Korea’s first official response to U.S. President Joe Biden’s trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a regional gathering Sunday in Cambodia. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence, while Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.

    “The keener the U.S. is on the ‘bolstered offer of extended deterrence’ to its allies and the more they intensify provocative and bluffing military activities on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, the fiercer (North Korea’s) military counteraction will be, in direct proportion to it,” Choe said. “It will pose a more serious, realistic and inevitable threat to the U.S. and its vassal forces.”

    Choe didn’t say what steps North Korea could take but said that “the U.S. will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret.”

    South Korea’s Defense Ministry responded later Thursday that the purpose of the trilateral summit was to coordinate a joint response to curb and deter advancing nuclear and missile threats by North Korea. Spokesperson Moon Hong Sik told reporters that security cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo was contributing to solidifying a U.S. extended deterrence to its allies.

    North Korea has steadfastly maintained its recent weapons testing activities are legitimate military counteractions to U.S.-South Korean military drills, which it views as a practice to launch attacks on the North. Washington and Seoul have said their exercises are defensive in nature.

    In recent months, South Korean and U.S. troops have expanded their regular exercises and resumed trilateral training with Japan in response to North Korea’s push to enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals. Those drills involved a U.S. aircraft carrier and U.S. B-1B supersonic bombers for the first time since 2017. In the past several years, annual military training between Seoul and Washington had been scaled back or canceled to support now-dormant diplomacy with North Korea and guard against the COVID-19 pandemic.

    In her Thursday statement, Choe said “the U.S. and its followers staged large-scale war drills for aggression one after another, but they failed to contain North Korea’s overwhelming counteraction.”

    There have been concerns that North Korea might conduct its first nuclear test in five years as its next major step toward bolstering its military capability against the United States and its allies.

    U.S. and South Korean officials say North Korea has finished preparations to conduct a nuclear test explosion in its remote testing facility in the northeast. Some experts say the test, if made, would be meant to develop nuclear warheads to be placed on short-range missiles capable of hitting key targets in South Korea, such as U.S. military bases. They say North Korea would ultimately aim to use its boosted arsenal as a leverage to pressure the United States into making concessions in future negotiations and recognize it as a nuclear state.

    Thursday’s launch came a day after members the Group of 20 leading economies ended their summit in Indonesia. The summit was largely overshadowed with other issues like Russia’s war on Ukraine. But Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol used their bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping to raise the issue of North Korea. The two had a trilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and discussed North Korea before coming to Indonesia for the G-20 summit.

    In their respective bilateral talks with Xi, Biden noted all members of the international community have an interest in encouraging North Korea to act responsibly, while Yoon called for China to play a more active, constructive role in addressing the North Korean nuclear threats.

    China, the North’s last major ally and biggest source of aid, is suspected of avoiding fully enforcing United Nations sanctions on North Korea and shipping clandestine assistance to the North to help its impoverished neighbor stay afloat and continue to serve as a bulwark against U.S. influences on the Korean Peninsula.

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  • US, others hold joint naval drills amid China concerns

    US, others hold joint naval drills amid China concerns

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    BEIJING — U.S., Japanese, Australian and Canadian warships are currently staging extensive joint drills in Japanese and international waters, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday.

    Without mentioning China directly, the 7th Fleet said the two-week biennial “Keen Sword” exercises include scenarios designed to “challenge the critical capabilities required to support the defense of Japan and stability of the Indo-Pacific region.”

    Growing Chinese assertiveness is seen by the U.S. and its allies as the key military challenge in the region.

    The drills also come as heads of the Group of 20 leading economies were meeting in Indonesia, among other high-profile regional forums.

    The G-20 gathering allowed the first face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping since Biden took office, leading to hopes of a start of a reduction of tensions that have lately spiked over trade, technology and Taiwan.

    The drills include extensive anti-submarine warfare drills, and the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold fired its 5-inch gun on Sunday as part of live-firing exercises, the 7th fleet said in a statement. Three Japanese destroyers, two Canadian frigates and one Australian destroyer also took part, it said.

    Participation by the Australian and Canadian navies this year helped “enhance readiness and interoperability to support the security interests of allies and partners in the region,” it said.

    “Regional security is a team effort now more than ever,” Cmdr. Marcus Seeger, commanding officer of the Benfold, said in the statement. “We share a sense of collective resolve. The first wave of crisis response will share the same allies present in this year’s Keen Sword.”

    China has the world’s largest navy by number of ships, which it has been using to assert its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, a crucial route for global trade.

    China has eschewed formal alliances but has taken part in some multinational drills on a very limited level. It has established its first overseas base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti and is believed to be working with Cambodia on establishing another such facility facing the Gulf of Thailand. Both countries have denied the allegation.

    China has also signed a security agreement with Solomon Islands, raising concerns that Chinese forces will gain a foothold in the South Pacific.

    Mutual exchanges between China and the U.S. have been especially tricky for reasons including deep mutual suspicion and Washington’s support for Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary.

    China reacts strongly when the U.S. sails naval ships close to Chinese-held islands in the South China Sea, many of which Beijing has equipped with landing strips and other military facilities.

    Attempts to implement agreements on avoiding unexpected incidents at sea and in the air have had limited success, and the U.S. disinvited China from a major biennial exercise known as Rim of the Pacific because of the militarization of its South China Sea islands.

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  • Arizona death-row prisoner makes last-minute claim to court

    Arizona death-row prisoner makes last-minute claim to court

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    PHOENIX — An Arizona prisoner scheduled to be executed Wednesday in the 1980 killings of two people asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his claim that authorities had until recently withheld that a survivor had failed to identify him in a photo lineup.

    Lawyers for Murray Hooper, who was convicted of killing William “Pat” Redmond and his mother-in-law, Helen Phelps, say the existence of the photo lineup wasn’t disclosed until this month.

    A prosecutor told the state’s clemency board that Redmond’s wife, Marilyn, who survived being shot in the head, had been unable to identify Hooper as the attacker when she was shown a photo lineup. However, authorities now insist no such lineup was shown to Marilyn Redmond and that the claim is based on a mistake a prosecutor made in a letter to the board.

    Marilyn Redmond eventually identified Hooper in an in-person lineup.

    Hooper’s arguments have already been rejected twice this week by state courts, with the Arizona Supreme Court concluding Monday that the claim focusing on a photo lineup “has no evidentiary support and no basis in fact.”

    Hooper’s attorneys keep pressing the matter. “The prosecutor’s belated admission flatly contradicts the state’s pretrial and trial assertions that no such (photo) lineup had ever been admninistered,” Hooper’s lawyers told the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Hooper also is asking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to postpone his execution as he appeals a ruling that rejected his bid to allow fingerprint and DNA testing on evidence from the killings.

    His lawyers said Hooper is innocent, that no physical evidence ties him to the killings and that testing could lead to identifying those responsible. They say Hooper was convicted before computerized fingerprint systems and DNA testing were available in criminal cases.

    Authorities say Hooper and two other men forced their way into the Redmond home on Dec. 31, 1980. The three victims were bound, gagged, robbed and shot in the head. Marilyn Redmond testified against Hooper at his trial.

    Two other men, William Bracy and Edward McCall, were convicted in the killings but died before their death sentences could be carried out.

    Authorities say Robert Cruz, who was alleged to have had ties to organized crime, hired Hooper, Bracy and McCall to kill Pat Redmond, who co-owned a printing business. They said Cruz wanted to take over the business and was unhappy that Redmond had rejected his offers to enter several printing contracts with Las Vegas hotels, according to court records. In 1995, Cruz was acquitted of murder charges in both deaths.

    Hooper’s lawyers say Marilyn Redmond’s description of the assailants changed several times before she identified their client, who said he was not in Arizona at the time. They also raised questions about the benefits received by witnesses who testified against Hooper, including favorable treatment in other criminal cases.

    Hooper would be the state’s third prisoner put to death this year after Arizona resumed carrying out executions in May, following a nearly eight-year hiatus attributed to both the difficulty of obtaining lethal injection drugs and criticism that a 2014 execution was botched.

    Arizona has 111 people on death row, 22 of whom have exhausted their appeals, according to the state attorney general’s office.

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  • Israel Defense Minister: US probes Shireen Abu Akleh killing

    Israel Defense Minister: US probes Shireen Abu Akleh killing

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    JERUSALEM — Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Monday the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to investigate the fatal shooting of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, condemning the probe as a “grave mistake” and vowing not to cooperate.

    A Justice Department spokesman had no comment and there were no details about when an investigation might begin and what it would entail, nor what the ramifications of it might be. But an FBI probe into Israeli actions would be a rare, if not unprecedented, step.

    An American investigation would follow months of pressure from Abu Akleh’s family and U.S. lawmakers disappointed with the inconclusive findings of a previous State Department assessment and Israeli military investigation into the death of the prominent correspondent last May. Abu Akleh’s supporters accuse Israel of intentionally killing the 51-year-old, and have urged Washington to open a full investigation.

    But a probe risks straining the strong partnership between the U.S. and Israel at a time when Israel is bracing for the formation of its most right-wing government in history and as progressive Democrats in the U.S. have called for a more skeptical stance toward one of Washington’s closest allies. It would directly challenge Israel’s claims that it properly holds its soldiers to account for their actions in the Palestinian territories.

    Gantz lambasted what he described as a decision to open a U.S. Justice Department probe into Abu Akleh’s killing, saying on Twitter that Israel has made it clear to the U.S. that it “won’t cooperate with any external investigation.”

    “We will not allow interference in Israel’s internal affairs,” he added. Gantz, who is set to leave his post following elections earlier this month that vaulted Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to power, served as defense minister when Abu Akleh was killed.

    A Palestinian from Jerusalem who covered Israeli operations in the occupied West Bank for a quarter century, Abu Akleh was a household name among many Arabs in the Middle East. Her death sparked outrage across the world, throwing a spotlight on Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.

    Palestinian officials, Abu Akleh’s family and Al Jazeera accuse Israel of intentionally targeting the veteran reporter. She was wearing a helmet and a protective vest marked with the word “press” when she was shot while covering an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp.

    In September, Israel acknowledged for the first time that Israeli fire probably killed Abu Akleh. But the military stopped short of accepting responsibility for her death, vigorously denying allegations that a soldier targeted her and refusing to criminally investigate those involved.

    An earlier assessment from the State Department also determined that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was likely fired from an Israeli military position but was too damaged to say with certainty.

    A series of independent investigations by the United Nations and international media outlets, including by The Associated Press, found that Israeli troops most likely fired the fatal bullet.

    Palestinian Foreign Ministry officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday about the U.S probe. A spokeswoman for outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid declined to comment, and former Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is expected to return to lead the country in the coming weeks, also had no immediate comment.

    Abu Akleh’s brother, Tony Abu Akleh, told Al Jazeera the family was optimistic about reports of a U.S. investigation, saying it’s “very important to hold those responsible accountable and prevent similar crimes.”

    “We hope this will be a turning point in the investigation into Shireen’s death,” he said.

    The Council on American-Islamic Relations welcomed the reported probe, expressing hope “our nation will finally hold Israel accountable for its violence targeting American citizens, journalists and other civilians.”

    It is not unusual for the FBI or other U.S. investigators to mount probes into non-natural deaths or injuries of American citizens abroad, particularly if they are government employees. However, such separate investigations are not the rule and it is exceedingly rare for them to occur in a U.S.-allied country like Israel that is recognized in Washington as having a credible and independent judicial system.

    Human rights groups have long accused the Israeli military of failing to properly investigate wrongdoing by its own troops and seldom holding forces accountable. Israel contends its investigations are independent and professional.

    Abu Akleh was shot while reporting on an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, long a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel’s escalating nightly arrest operations, launched following a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the spring that killed 19 people, have been concentrated in Jenin and nearby areas.

    More than 130 Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank have been killed this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006. Israel says most of those killed have been militants, but local youth protesting the raids as well as people not involved in the fighting have also been killed. Increasing Israeli incursions have prompted a series of Palestinian shooting attacks that have killed at least four Israelis in recent weeks.

    Reports of a U.S. probe come after long-serving Netanyahu secured a return to power in Israel’s national elections. He is in the midst of talks with his ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist allies to form a coalition and is expected to cobble together Israel’s most right-wing government in history.

    The government, which is expected to see extremist lawmakers appointed to key ministries, has prompted concern among Israel’s allies, including the U.S.

    ———

    Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.

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  • Fed Vice Chair Brainard is ‘reassured’ by inflation report

    Fed Vice Chair Brainard is ‘reassured’ by inflation report

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    WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said Monday that she was encouraged by last week’s U.S. inflation report, which pointed to slower price increases, and said the Fed would likely soon reduce the size of its interest rate hikes.

    “The inflation data was reassuring, preliminarily,” Brainard said. “It will probably be appropriate, soon, to move to a slower pace of rate increases.”

    Brainard’s comments, during a discussion at Bloomberg, were more positive toward the inflation report than were those of several of her Fed colleagues last week. Some central bank officials have sought to temper the stock market‘s ebullient response to the better-than-expected inflation report, which suggested that the rampant price spikes of the past 18 months were moderating.

    The Fed is considering raising rates in smaller increments after having increased its key short-term rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, by a substantial three-quarters of a point at four straight policy meetings. Yet the central bank doesn’t necessarily want the stock market to jump in response. A major sustained stock rally tends to cause consumers and businesses to spend more and can undercut the Fed’s efforts to cool economic growth and inflation.

    On Sunday, Christopher Waller, a member of the Fed’s influential Board of Governors, suggested that “everybody should just take a deep breath” after last week’s inflation report, because it “was just one data point.”

    “We’re going to need to see a continued run of this kind of behavior and inflation slowly starting to come down,” Waller said, “before we really start thinking about taking our foot off the brakes.”

    On Monday, Brainard pointed approvingly to a decline in goods inflation: The costs of used cars, clothes and furniture all fell from September to October. Those price declines reflected the unsnarling of previously clogged global supply chains, which had caused inflation spikes last year and earlier this year.

    The central bank can now take a more deliberative approach, Brainard said, after having raised its key short-term rate to a range of 3.75% to 4%, a level she said will restrict economic growth over time.

    The Fed’s vice chair noted that it can take time for rate increases to affect the overall U.S. economy. In the past, Brainard has made that point in explaining that raising rates in smaller increments would give the Fed time to judge how its earlier rate increases were working.

    As the Fed’s policies start to restrict growth, Brainard said, the policymakers will start considering the risk that they could go too far and raise rates higher than needed, thereby causing a recession.

    “As we get into restrictive territory, or further into restrictive territory, risks become more two sided.” she said. That is, the dual risks would be that inflation could stay too high or that the Fed would slow the economy too sharply.

    Thursday’s data showed that consumer prices rose 7.7% in October compared with a year ago — still a painfully high level, but down from a peak of 9.1% in June. And a separate gauge that measures “core prices,” which exclude volatile food and energy, rose just 0.3% from September to October, half the pace of the previous two months.

    In her remarks Monday, Brainard underscored that the Fed would continue to raise rates in the coming months.

    “What’s really important to emphasize,” Brainard said Monday, “is we’ve done a lot, but we have additional work to do both on raising rates and sustaining restraint to bring inflation down to 2% over time.” That was a reference to the Fed’s annual 2% inflation target.

    Speaking at a news conference earlier this month, Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the Fed may scale back its rate hikes to a half-point as soon as its meeting in mid-December. Historically speaking, that would still amount to a sizable increase. In the past, the Fed has most commonly raised or cut rates by just a quarter-point.

    The stock market soared after Thursday’s inflation report on hopes that cooling inflation would allow the Federal Reserve to slow its interest rate increases. T he Dow Jones surged 1,200 points, its best day in two years. Stocks added further gains on Friday.

    In the wake of the market’s celebratory response to the inflation data, several Fed policymakers sought last week to cool the enthusiasm.

    “One month of data does not a victory make, and I think it’s really important to be thoughtful, that this is just one piece of positive information,” said Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve.

    Lorie Logan, president of the Dallas Fed, added Thursday that the inflation figures “were a welcome relief” but made clear that further Fed rate hikes are coming, though possibly at a slower pace.

    In her remarks Monday, Brainard pointed to other signs that inflation pressures are cooling. She noted that two gauges of worker pay have shown that wage growth is declining.

    “That does suggest … lessening wage pressures,” she said.

    Though Powell has said that rapid wage growth is not a principal driver of inflation, pay raises can perpetuate price hikes, particularly in services such as restaurants, hotels and airlines, as companies pass on to customers the cost of higher labor through price increases.

    Brainard also said the collapse of the FTX cryto exchange and its effects on other parts of the crypto universe, such as lender BlockFi, show that cypto is “highly concentrated, highly interconnected” and there “need to be strong regulatory guardrails.”

    “It is really concerning to see that retail investors are getting hurt by these losses,” she said.

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  • Dallas air show victims named; NTSB investigation underway

    Dallas air show victims named; NTSB investigation underway

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    DALLAS — Officials have released the names of the six people killed in a deadly collision between two vintage military aircraft at a Dallas air show.

    The Commemorative Air Force, which put on the show, on Monday identified the victims as: Terry Barker, Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5” Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard “Len” Root, and Curt Rowe.

    They died Saturday when a World War II-era bomber and a fighter plane collided and crashed in a ball of flames, horrifying spectators who had gathered for the air show, which opened on Veterans’ Day.

    Several videos posted on social media show the fighter plane flying into the bomber.

    Armin Mizani, the mayor of Keller, Texas, said Barker was a retired pilot who lived in Keller, a town of 50,000, where many of the residents know each other.

    “It’s definitely a big loss in our community,” he said. “We’re grieving.”

    Barker was an Army veteran who flew helicopters during his military service. He later worked for American Airlines for 36 years before retiring in 2020, Mizani said.

    Rowe, a member of the Ohio Wing Civil Air Patrol, was a crew chief on the B-17, his brother-in-law Andy Keller told The Associated Press on Sunday. Rowe, of Hilliard, Ohio, did air shows several times a year because he fell in love with WWII aircraft, Keller said.

    The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the collision, including why both aircraft were flying at the same altitude and in the same air space, NTSB member Michael Graham said at a Sunday news conference.

    The crash came three years after the crash of a bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of air shows involving older warplanes. The company that owned the planes flying in the Wings Over Dallas show has had other crashes in its more than 60-year history.

    Investigators will examine the wreckage from both aircraft, conduct interviews of crews present at the air show and obtain pilot training and aircraft maintenance records.

    “We’ll look at everything that we can and we’ll let the evidence basically lead us to the appropriate conclusions. At this point, we will not speculate” on the cause, Graham said.

    A preliminary report from the NTSB is expected in four to six weeks, while a final report will take up to 18 months to complete.

    The B-17, a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II, is an immense four-engine bomber that was used in daylight raids against Germany. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.

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  • CIA director Burns to meet Russian counterpart in Turkey

    CIA director Burns to meet Russian counterpart in Turkey

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    WASHINGTON — CIA Director Bill Burns will meet in Ankara, Turkey, on Monday with his Russian intelligence counterpart to underscore the consequences if Russia were to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, according to a White House National Security Council official.

    The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Burns and Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR spy agency, would not discuss settlement of the war in Ukraine. Burns is also expected to raise the cases of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, two Americans detained in Russia whom the Biden administration has been pressing to release in a prisoner exchange.

    The official said that Ukrainian officials were briefed ahead of Burns’ travel to Turkey.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday he could neither confirm nor deny reports of U.S.-Russia talks in Turkey.

    Two Turkish officials said they had no knowledge about a meeting between U.S. and Russian delegations. A Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

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  • Federal Aviation Administration says two aircraft have collided at air show in Dallas; condition of pilots unknown

    Federal Aviation Administration says two aircraft have collided at air show in Dallas; condition of pilots unknown

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    Federal Aviation Administration says two aircraft have collided at air show in Dallas; condition of pilots unknown

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  • Crypto exchange giant FTX collapses, files for bankruptcy

    Crypto exchange giant FTX collapses, files for bankruptcy

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    NEW YORK — It took less than a week for FTX to go from the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world to bankruptcy court.

    The embattled cryptocurrency exchange, short billions of dollars, sought bankruptcy protection after the exchange experienced the crypto equivalent of a bank run. FTX, the hedge fund Alameda Research, and dozens of other affiliated companies filed a bankruptcy petition in Delaware on Friday morning. FTX US, which originally was not expected to be included in any financial rescue, was also part of the company’s bankruptcy filing.

    CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned, the company said. Bankman-Fried was recently estimated to be worth $23 billion and has been a prominent political donor to Democrats. His net worth has all but evaporated, according to Forbes and Bloomberg, which closely track the net worth of the world’s richest people.

    “I was shocked to see things unravel the way they did earlier in the week,” Bankman-Fried wrote in a series of posts on Twitter.

    FTX’s unraveling is causing ripple effects. Already companies that backed FTX are writing down their investments. Politicians and regulators are ramping up calls for stricter oversight of the crypto industry. And this latest crisis has put pressure on the prices of bitcoin and other digital currencies. The total market value of all digital currencies dropped by about $150 billion in the last week, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

    FTX’s failure goes beyond finance. The company had major sports sponsorships as well, including Formula One racing and a sponsorship deal with Major League Baseball. Miami-Dade County decided Friday to terminate its relationship with FTX, meaning the venue where the Miami Heat play will no longer be known as FTX Arena. Mercedes said it would remove FTX from its race cars starting this weekend.

    FTX and Bankman-Fried, as well as his brother, were also early investors in Semafor, the high-profile news startup run by former BuzzFeed editor-in-chief and New York Times columnist Ben Smith.

    Bankman-Fried has other problems as well. On Thursday, a person familiar with the matter said the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission were looking into FTX to determine whether any criminal activity or securities offenses were committed. The person could not discuss details of the investigations publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

    The investigation is centered on the possibility that FTX may have used customers’ deposits to fund bets at Alameda Research. In traditional markets, brokers are expected to separate client funds from other company assets. Violations can be punished by regulators. Financial company MF Global effectively failed for a similar practice roughly a decade ago when it intermingled client assets with its own bets.

    In its bankruptcy filing, FTX listed more than 130 affiliated companies circled around the globe. The company valued its assets between $10 billion to $50 billion, with a similar estimate for its liabilities. The company appointed as its new CEO John Ray III, a long-time bankruptcy litigator who is best known for having to clean up the mess made after the collapse of Enron.

    FTX’s bankruptcy is certainly to be one of the most complicated bankruptcy cases in years. The company listed more than 100,000 creditors on its filing, and with all of its customers effectively being creditors because they deposited their funds with FTX, it will take months to sort out who is owed what, bankruptcy lawyers said. Cryptocurrencies have no protections under law, and politicians on both sides of the aisle issued statements opposing any Lehman Brothers-like bailout for crypto investors.

    “Unlike a case where there’s (securities insurance in the failure of a brokerage) or where the FDIC steps in with a bank failure, these customers are totally exposed,” said Daniel Besikof, a partner at Loeb & Loeb LLP who specializes in bankruptcy law.

    FTX had agreed earlier this week to sell itself to bigger rival Binance after experiencing the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run. Customers fled the exchange after becoming concerned about whether FTX had sufficient capital.

    The crypto world had hoped that Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, might be able to rescue FTX and its depositors. However, after Binance took a look at FTX’s books, it concluded that the smaller exchange’s problems were too big to solve and backed out of the deal.

    FTX is the latest in a series of cascading disasters that have shaken the crypto sector, now under intense pressure from collapsing prices and circling financial regulators. Its failure is already being felt throughout the crypto universe.

    On Thursday, the venture capital fund Sequoia Capital said Thursday it is writing down its total investment of nearly $215 million in FTX.

    The cryptocurrency lender BlockFi announced on Twitter late Thursday that it is “not able to do business as usual” and pausing client withdrawals as a result of FTX’s implosion.

    In a letter posted to its Twitter profile late Thursday, BlockFi — which was bailed out by Bankman-Fried’s FTX early last summer — said it was “shocked and dismayed by the news regarding FTX and Alameda.”

    The company ended by saying any future communications about its status “will be less frequent that what our clients and other stakeholders are used to.”

    Bitcoin tumbled immediately after the letter was posted and is trading below $17,000. The original cryptocurrency, bitcoin had been hovering around $20,000 for months before FTX’s problems became public this week, sending it down briefly to around $15,500.

    Shares of the publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and the online trading platform Robinhood each rose nearly 12%.

    ——

    Reporters Matt Ott and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed.

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  • Embattled crypto exchange FTX files for bankruptcy

    Embattled crypto exchange FTX files for bankruptcy

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    NEW YORK — It took less than a week for FTX to go from the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world to bankruptcy court.

    The embattled cryptocurrency exchange, short billions of dollars, is seeking bankruptcy protection after the exchange experienced the crypto equivalent of a bank run. FTX, its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research, and dozens of other companies filed a bankruptcy petition in Delaware on Friday morning.

    CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned, the company said. Bankman-Fried was recently estimated to be worth $23 billion and has been a prominent political donor to Democrats. His net worth has all but evaporated, according to Forbes and Bloomberg, which closely track the net worth of the world’s richest people.

    Bankman-Fried has other problems as well. On Thursday, a person familiar with the matter said the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission were looking into FTX to determine whether any criminal activity or securities offenses were committed. The person could not discuss details of the investigations publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

    The investigation is centered on the possibility that FTX may have used customers’ deposits to fund bets at Alameda Research. In traditional markets, brokers are expected to separate client funds from other company assets. Violations can be punished by regulators.

    FTX had agreed earlier this week to sell itself to bigger rival Binance after experiencing the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run. Customers fled the exchange after becoming concerned about whether FTX had sufficient capital.

    The crypto world had hoped that Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, might be able to rescue FTX and its depositors. However, after Binance had a chance to look at the books of FTX, it became clear that the smaller exchange’s problems were too big to solve and Binance backed out of the deal.

    FTX is the latest in a series of cascading disasters that have shaken the crypto sector, now under intense pressure from collapsing prices and circling financial regulators. Its failure is also sending tsunami-like waves throughout the crypto universe.

    Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi announced on Twitter late Thursday that it is “not able to do business as usual” and pausing client withdrawals as a result of FTX’s implosion.

    In a letter posted to its Twitter profile late Thursday, BlockFi — which was bailed out by Bankman-Fried’s FTX early last summer — said it was “shocked and dismayed by the news regarding FTX and Alameda.”

    The company ended by saying any future communications about its status “will be less frequent that what our clients and other stakeholders are used to.”

    Bitcoin tumbled immediately after the letter was posted, losing close to 5% before inching back above $17,000 overnight. The original cryptocurrency, bitcoin had been hovering around $20,000 for months before the FTX’s problems became public this week, sending it briefly to around $15,500.

    ——

    Reporters Matt Ott and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed.

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  • Average long-term US mortgage rate back above 7% this week

    Average long-term US mortgage rate back above 7% this week

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    WASHINGTON — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate returned to the 20-year highs of two weeks ago when rates breached 7% for the first time since 2002.

    Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average on the key 30-year rate rose to 7.08% from 6.95% last week. A year ago the average rate was 2.98%.

    The rate for a 15-year mortgage, popular with those refinancing their homes, climbed to 6.38% from 6.29% last week. It was 2.27% one year ago.

    Last week, the Federal Reserve raised its short-term lending rate by another 0.75 percentage points, three times its usual margin, for a fourth time this year as part of its inflation-fighting strategy. Its key rate now stands in a range of 3.75% to 4%.

    More increases are likely coming, though there is some hope that the Fed will dial them down as more evidence comes in that prices have peaked.

    The Labor Department reported Thursday that consumer inflation reached 7.7% in October from a year earlier, the smallest year-over-year rise since January. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, “core” inflation rose 6.3% in the past 12 months. The numbers were all lower than economists had expected.

    Thursday’s report raised the possibility that the Fed could decide to slow its rate hike, a prospect that sent stock prices jumping as soon as the data was released.

    Two weeks ago, the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate topped 7% for the first time in more than two decades, which combined with sky-high home prices, have crushed homebuyers’ purchasing power by adding hundreds of dollars to monthly mortgage payments.

    Sales of existing homes have declined for eight straight months as borrowing costs have become too big of an obstacle for many Americans already paying more for food, gas and other necessities. Additionally, many homeowners seeking to upgrade or change locations have held off listing their homes because they don’t want to jump into a higher rate on their next mortgage.

    The sagging housing market has prompted real estate companies to dial back their financial outlooks and shrink their workforces. Online real estate broker Redfin on Wednesday said it was cutting 862 employees and shutting down its instant-cash-offer subsidiary RedfinNow.

    Redfin also laid off 470 employees in June, blaming slowing home sales. Through attrition and layoffs, Redfin has slashed more than a quarter of its workforce on the assumption that the housing downturn will last “at least through 2023,” it said in a regulatory filing.

    Another online real estate broker, Compass, has laid off hundreds of workers this year.

    While mortgage rates don’t necessarily mirror the Fed’s rate increases, they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The yield is influenced by a variety of factors, including investors’ expectations for future inflation and global demand for U.S. Treasurys.

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  • Japan, US hold joint arms drills amid China, N Korea worry

    Japan, US hold joint arms drills amid China, N Korea worry

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    TOKYO — Japan and the United States began a major joint military exercise Thursday in southern Japan as the allies aim to step up readiness in the face of China’s increasing assertiveness and North Korea’s intensifying missile launches.

    The biennial “Keen Sword” drills kicked off at a Japanese air base in southern Japan and were also held at multiple other locations in and around Japan. They will run through Nov. 19.

    About 26,000 Japanese and 10,000 American troops, as well as 30 vessels and 370 aircraft from both sides, are to participate in the drills, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry. Australia, Britain and Canada will also join parts of the drills, it said.

    Joint field trainings that include amphibious landing exercises are planned on southwestern Japanese remote islands, including Tokunoshima, Amami and Tsutarajima, as Japan has been bolstering its defense capability in the region amid growing tensions over China.

    China has reinforced its claims to virtually the entire South China Sea by constructing artificial islands equipped with military installations and airfields. Beijing also claims a string of islands that are controlled by Japan in the East China Sea, and has stepped up military harassment of self-ruled Taiwan, which it says is part of China to be annexed by force if necessary.

    The joint exercise also comes on the heels of intensifying missile firings by North Korea, which has launched more than 30 of them this year, including one on Wednesday that fell in the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Last month, an intercontinental ballistic missile flew over northern Japan.

    Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, citing worsening security in the region, has pledged to substantially increase Japanese military capability and possibly allow pre-emptive strike capability to attack enemy missile launch sites from afar. The plans are expected to be included in a revised national security strategy and mid- to long-term defense guidelines later this year.

    A move to develop strike capability is a major shift for Japan’s self-defense-only principle, though the country has rapidly expanded its military’s role and capability in the past decade to work more closely with the United States and other partners in the region and Europe.

    Exercises like Keen Sword provide Japanese and U.S. forces “opportunities to train together across a variety of mission areas in realistic scenarios to enhance readiness, interoperability, and build credible deterrence,” U.S. Forces Japan said in a statement Thursday.

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  • Cuban, US officials meet in Havana on consular services

    Cuban, US officials meet in Havana on consular services

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    HAVANA — Cuban and State Department officials met in Havana on Wednesday to discuss the expansion of consular and visa services on the island.

    The meeting is the latest in a series of friendly exchanges between the two governments, which share a historically icy relationship.

    Cuba issued a brief statement confirming the meeting took place.

    The U.S. delegation included Rena Bitter, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, and Ur Mendoza Jaddou, director of U.S. citizenship and immigration Services.

    The U.S. Embassy closed in 2017 following a series of health incidents. While a full reopening has yet to be announced, U.S. officials have said visa processing would resume in January.

    The move comes amid the biggest flight of Cubans from the island in decades. Nearly 221,000 Cubans were encountered by migration enforcement on the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022. That was a 471% increase from the year before, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

    A State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that Washington’s delegation also discussed concerns about human rights in Cuba. The official said Bitter “urged the Cuban government to unconditionally release all political prisoners.”

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  • Cargo ship reaches space station despite jammed solar panel

    Cargo ship reaches space station despite jammed solar panel

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    This photo provided by NASA shows a Northrop Grumman cargo ship about to be captured by the International Space Station’s robot arm on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022. The capsule delivered more than 8,000 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station on Wednesday, despite a jammed solar panel. (NASA via AP)

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  • Jackson, in dissent, issues first Supreme Court opinion

    Jackson, in dissent, issues first Supreme Court opinion

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    FILE – Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stands as she and members of the Supreme Court pose for a new group portrait following her addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File )DCSA122

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