Month: October 2023

U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked with drones or rockets at least 24 times in recent days, including at least three attacks on Monday, according to U.S. defense officials.

At least five of these attacks were launched after U.S. forces struck two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups during the early morning hours of Friday. None of the attacks carried out since the U.S. retaliatory strikes on Friday have caused casualties or damage, according to defense officials.

The latest attack on Monday used multiple rockets to target al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq, a defense official told VOA on condition of anonymity due to security sensitivities.

Other multi-rocket attacks were launched against forces at Green Village and Mission Support Site Euphrates in Syria.

On Sunday, a one-way attack drone was used against U.S. forces at a base near al-Shaddadi in northeastern Syria, and on Thursday another one-way attack drone targeted U.S. and coalition forces at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, according to U.S. officials.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder and other officials have blamed Iranian-backed proxies for the near daily attacks on U.S. forces.

“We know that these are Iranian-backed militia groups that are supported by Iran and, of course, we hold Iran responsible for these groups,” Ryder said last week.

‘Iran’s objective’

Asked by VOA on Monday whether the recent attacks are a sign that U.S. deterrence is not working, a senior defense official replied, “Iran’s objective for a long time has been to force a withdrawal of the U.S. military from the region. What I would observe is that we’re still there.”

One American F-15 and two American F-16 fighter jets used precision munitions against a weapons storage facility and an ammunition facility near Abu Kamal early Friday local time, according to defense officials. The Pentagon assesses the strikes successfully hit their targets, and it is still looking into casualty numbers.

“These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement on October 26.

“The United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests,” he added.

Officials have raised concerns about the prospect of “more significant escalation” in the region from Iranian proxy groups.

“Spillover into Syria is not just a risk; it has already begun,” Geir Pedersen, U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, told the U.N. Security Council on Monday via videoconference.

The attacks since October 17 on U.S. and coalition forces have resulted in 17 minor injuries to Americans in Syria and four minor injuries to American personnel in Iraq, with U.S. officials continuing to monitor any potential traumatic brain injuries.

One U.S. contractor at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq suffered a cardiac episode while sheltering in place during a false alarm for an air attack and later died.

At least 19 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria occurred between October 17 and October 26, according to the Pentagon.

 

US increasing protection in region

Approximately 900 troops have either deployed or are in process of deploying from the United States to the Middle East to increase force protection. These units include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery from Fort Bliss, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, and Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty.

These moves come after Austin had placed more than 2,000 military personnel on heightened alert with a prepare-to-deploy order earlier this month.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report from the United Nations.

The White House welcomed on Monday the limited flow of humanitarian aid and the restoration of telecommunications in Gaza as Israel continues its ground offensive on the enclave in response to the Hamas militant group’s stunning Oct. 7 attack.

It also repeated its warning to regional actors to stay out of the fight.

“Our message to any actor seeking to exploit this conflict is: don’t do it,” said John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council. “And as you all know, we have strengthened our force posture in the region. We’re continually watching to make sure that any actor who might be tempted to jump in here knows that we will take very seriously our national security interests in the region, not to mention our obligation to protect our troops in our facilities that are going after ISIS in places like Iraq and Syria.”

But this conflict is also exploding in the court of public opinion. Hundreds of people stormed an airport in Russia’s Dagestan region over the weekend, shouting antisemitic slurs over the arrival of a flight from Tel Aviv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the events on foreign interference, saying they “were inspired, including through social networks, not least from the territory of Ukraine by the agents of Western intelligence services.”

Kirby dismissed that.

“It’s classic Russian rhetoric, when something goes bad in your country: blame somebody else, blame it on outside influences. The West had nothing to do with this. This is just hate, bigotry and intimidation. Pure and simple,” he said.

“And a good leader, a decent leader will call it out for what it is the way President [Joe] Biden has called it out here in this country, instead of blaming the West for something and pushing it off to somebody else,” Kirby said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dug in on his disagreement with the U.S.’ classification of Hamas as a terror group and shifted blame elsewhere.

“The West has the biggest responsibility for the massacre in Gaza,” Erdogan said.

Iranian officials have piled on as well, with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian taking to the rostrum at the United Nations last week to outline their view. Iranians have also protested on the streets.

“It has been three weeks that we have been witness to the war crimes and genocide of the occupying Israeli regime in Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine,” Amirabdollahian said during an emergency United Nations assembly earlier this month.

“The United States and several European countries have sided with the occupying regime of Israel without observing the U.N. charter and international law,” he said.

Kirby said the White House believes there is a fine line between disagreement and discord, adding the administration is vigilant over outbreaks of antisemitism.

“We believe in the right of peaceful protest, even if it’s, you know, espousing ideas we don’t agree with,” he said. “But we don’t – nobody wants – to see peaceful protests turn violent or turn dangerous the way that this mob activity did in Dagestan yesterday. So it’s of concern and it’s something that we’ll continue to talk about with our allies and partners.”

The U.S. is also seeing such protests – many supportive of Palestinians and critical of Israel – bubbling up at major U.S. universities in recent weeks.

Spelman College, a historically Black institution in Georgia, recently held a rally that drew hundreds of attendees in support of Palestinians. Attendees carried signs with messages like “Free Palestine” and “End all U.S. aid to Israel.”

Dr. Helene Gayle pointed to her institution’s main mission when VOA asked how the school tries to frame debates like these.

“What I really hope and believe is that we are teaching young people to be critical thinkers, teaching young people to go beyond sometimes the simple messages that they’re hearing sometimes misinformation that they may be getting – and really understand in a critical, analytic way what the what the issues are so that they can take positions that are well informed,” Gayle told VOA at the White House on Monday.

”You know, on Spelman’s campus, we are having opportunities to do teach-ins and learn about the situation between Israel and Palestine and thinking about how do we look at this in as balanced a way as we possibly can,” she said. “So that’s what I really hope, is that we’re continuing to teach a generation of young people who can be critical thinkers who can look at information and think about it in balanced ways so that they can be true spokespersons, but with a base of knowledge and information that informs their opinions.”

The White House welcomed the limited flow of humanitarian aid and the restoration of telecommunications in Gaza as Israel continued its ground offensive on Gaza in response to militant group Hamas’ October 7 attack. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.

China’s declining aid to the South Pacific is increasingly targeted toward its political allies in the region as appetite there for Chinese credit declines and competition grows with the U.S. for influence, an independent Australian think tank reported Tuesday.

Chinese overall economic influence among the 14 aid-dependent island nations in the region is losing ground because of better loan deals being offered by U.S. allies, especially Australia, the Sydney-based Lowy Institute said in its annual analysis of aid to the region.

Focus on the strategic competition in the South Pacific has heightened since China struck a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year that raised the prospect of a Chinese naval foothold in the region.

China has increased aid to the Solomons and neighboring Kiribati since they switched diplomatic allegiances to Beijing from self-ruled Taiwan in 2019, the report said.

The United States has sought to counter Chinese influence in the region with additional diplomatic and economic engagement. President Joe Biden recently hosted Pacific Island leaders at the White House.

China’s overall aid to the island states in 2021 – the latest year for which the international policy think tank has comprehensive data – was $241 million. The year continued a downward trend in Chinese grants and loans to some of the world’s most aid-dependent countries since China’s $384 million peak in 2016, the institute reported.

The latest report revises previous Chinese annual contributions based on additional data but maintains the downward trend.

“It reflects a strategic shift to reduce risk, cement political ties and enhance capital returns,” the report said.

China’s $3.9 billion aid to the Pacific since 2008 was primarily directed to countries with official diplomatic ties to Beijing. These include Cook Islands, Fiji, Micronesia, Niue, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.

“Because China only provides ODF [official development finance] to a subset of Pacific countries, it can play an outsized role in these countries that belies its moderate role share of total regional financing,” the report said.

China was only the third-biggest aid contributor to Pacific after Australia, which provides 40%, then the Asian Development Bank, the report said. China’s contribution since 2008 has been 9%.

The decline in Chinese aid has been driven mainly by a lack of Pacific government interest in Chinese loans that have left Pacific countries including Tonga heavily in debt. The United States has warned that Chinese finance is a debt trap for poor countries that threatens their sovereignty.

“What is very clear is that the interest from Pacific governments in Chinese loans, specifically infrastructure loans, has declined,” Lowry researcher Riley Duke said. “It’s just being outcompeted.”

China held a third share of the infrastructure investment in the Pacific market two decades ago, but that proportion had since halved, the report said.

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With almost daily incursions by Israeli forces into Palestinian areas to arrest people suspected of being linked to Hamas, violence has escalated in the West Bank in recent weeks. Since October 7, Israeli forces and Jewish settlers have killed more than 120 Palestinians. Many of the deceased were members of armed groups, but nearly 30% of the victims were children, the U.N. says. VOA’s Yan Boechat traveled to the West Bank and has this report.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday grappled with a pair of cases from California and Michigan involving public officials blocking critics on social media, with the justices struggling to define when such conduct runs into constitutional limits on the government’s ability to restrict speech.

Lower courts reached different conclusions in the two cases, reflecting the legal uncertainty over whether such social media activity is bound by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech. Blocking users is a function often employed on social media to stifle critics.

The justices, hearing about three hours of arguments, focused on spelling out the circumstances for deciding whether public officials were acting in their personal capacity when blocking critics or engaged in a “state action.” The First Amendment constrains government actors but not private individuals.

The first case involves two public school board trustees from Poway, California, who appealed a lower court’s ruling in favor of parents who sued them after being blocked from the personal accounts of the officials on X, called Twitter at the time, and Facebook. The second case involves a Michigan man’s appeal after a lower court rejected his lawsuit against a Port Huron city official who blocked him on Facebook.

Justice Samuel Alito cited a hypothetical town manager who puts a municipal seal on his own social media page and tells citizens to express their views. Alito told Hashim Mooppan, a lawyer for the school board officials, that his argument could let this town manager “block anybody who expresses criticism of what the town manager is doing, and thereby create the impression that everybody in town thinks the town manager is doing the right thing.”

Mooppan urged the justices to embrace the “duty or authority” legal test that looks at whether officials operated their pages to fulfill official duties or used governmental authority to maintain them. Under this test, Mooppan argued, the social media activity of his clients was not governmental.

Justice Elena Kagan cited former President Donald Trump as an example, noting he did “a lot of government” on his Twitter account, sometimes even announcing policies.

“It was an important part of how he wielded his authority — and to cut a citizen off from that is to cut a citizen off from part of the way that government works,” Kagan said.

The Supreme Court previously confronted the issue in 2021 in litigation over Trump’s effort to block critics on Twitter. It declined to decide the matter, deeming the case moot after Trump left office.

President Joe Biden’s administration sided with the officials in both cases argued on Tuesday. A ruling is expected by the end of June.

The California case involves Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff and T.J. Zane, elected Poway Unified School District trustees. They blocked Christopher and Kimberly Garnier, parents of three local students, after they made hundreds of critical posts on issues including race and school finances. A judge sided with the couple. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

In the Michigan case, Port Huron resident Kevin Lindke sued after City Manager James Freed blocked him from his public Facebook page following critical posts involving the COVID-19 pandemic. A judge ruled in favor of Freed. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

Some justices asked whether requiring public officials to include disclaimers on their personal pages making clear their social media activity is not governmental would help disentangle their private and public capacities.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she was struggling to understand “why the onus isn’t on the government official to be clear about the capacity in which they’re operating.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh told Victoria Ferres, an attorney for Freed, that considering everything an official post about their job to be state action would be too broad, but he wondered if a narrower category of postings such as announcing rules, directives or notices would suffice as official acts.

Ferres agreed: “If you have a duty to announce a rule and the only time that you ever do it is on the Facebook page, then there is going to be state action.”

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Hispanics are now the largest population group in Texas, surpassing non-Hispanic white residents who have outnumbered other racial groups in the state since at least 1850.

The switch likely happened in late 2021 but was not officially confirmed until the U.S. Census released official population numbers in June 2023. The numbers show that Hispanics have been the state’s largest population group at least since July 2022.

Texas officials were expecting the change.

“A significant proportion of that was being driven by more births than deaths,” says Texas state demographer Lloyd Potter. “The other part of this is that the Hispanic population is younger, meaning their age structure is younger. There are fewer people at the older ages, more people at the younger ages than the other race, ethnic groups.”

And the younger a group is, the more babies they’re likely to have. In addition, Hispanics make up a significant portion of people moving to the Lone Star State. One in five domestic migrants to Texas is of Hispanic descent, while almost half of international migrants are of Hispanic origin.

The most recent numbers show that the Hispanic population in Texas makes up 40.2% of the population, while non-Hispanic whites account for 39.8%, according to Potter, who doesn’t expect to see a seismic societal shift as a result.

“The Hispanic population has been in Texas before it was Texas … it’s certainly part of our culture,” he says. “It’s not anything that’s new to Texas. I think there probably is the question about what impact it may have on politics.”

Historically, Hispanics have reliably voted for Democrats. But that’s no longer true, according to Sharon Navarro, a professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

“What we’re now seeing is that Latinos are voting based on issues, issues that they find more important to them … that are the same as the larger population,” she says. “In other words, it’s still jobs. It’s still the economy. It’s still education. Still health care. …Latinos are willing to cross the line in terms of issues.”

For example, Navarro says, the oil and gas industries, which are among the state’s biggest employers, are important to the Hispanic population. Whichever party or candidate makes that a top issue could make serious inroads with Hispanic voters.

What could impact the state in the long term is not having a sufficiently educated workforce to fill future jobs. Recent figures show that 95% of white adults in Texas at least have a high school diploma. But only 70% of Hispanic adults graduated from high school.

“We’re adding higher-skilled, higher-paid jobs faster than we are the lower-skilled, lower-paid jobs,” Potter says. “So, to fill those jobs, we need to ensure the growing segments of our population have the educational attainment to fill those jobs. And that largely needs to be focused on the Spanish population.”

Navarro says any economic and political gains made by Hispanics are good for the state.

“With the demographics changing and the white population slowly aging, there’s going to have to be more investment — economic investment and political investment — in the Latino population,” she says. “Otherwise, there will be a sort-of race to the bottom without this kind of investment in moving forward.”