Category: World

SEOUL, South Korea –

 North Korea said Thursday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised successful tests of two types of missiles — one designed to carry a “super-large conventional warhead” and the other likely for a nuclear warhead, as he ordered officials to bolster up his country’s military capabilities to repel United States-led threats.

The tests appear to be the same as the multiple missile launches that neighboring countries said North Korea performed Wednesday, extending its run of weapons displays as confrontations with the U.S. and South Korea escalate.

The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim oversaw the launch of the country’s newly built Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 ballistic missile tipped with a dummy “4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead.” It said the test-firing was meant to verify an ability to accurately hit a 320 kilometre (200 mile) -range target, suggesting it’s a weapon aimed at striking sites in South Korea.

KCNA said Kim also guided the launch of an improved “strategic” cruise missile, a word implying the weapon was developed to carry a nuclear warhead.

After the tests, Kim stressed the need to continue to “bolster up the nuclear force” and acquire “overwhelming offensive capability in the field of conventional weapons, too,” according to KCNA. It cited the Kim as saying that North Korea can thwart its enemies’ intentions to invade only when it has strong military power.

KCNA released photos of a missile hitting a ground target. South Korea’s military said later Thursday it assessed that both ballistic and cruise missiles fired by North Korea the previous day landed in the North’s mountainous northeastern region.

North Korea typically test-launches missiles off its east coast, and it’s highly unusual for the country to fire missiles at land targets likely because of concerns about potential damages on the ground if the weapons land in unintended areas.

Jung Chang Wook, head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul, said North Korea likely aims to show it’s confident about the the accuracy of its new ballistic missile. Jung said the missile’s high-powered warhead is meant to attack ground targets, but North Korea hasn’t acquired weapons that can penetrate deep into the earth and destroy underground structures.

The Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 missile’s first known test occurred in early July. North Korea said the July test was successful as well, but South Korea’s military disputed the claim saying one of the two missiles fired by North Korea travelled abnormally during the initial stage of its flight before falling at an uninhabited area near Pyongyang, the capital. North Korea hasn’t released photos on the July launches.

North Korea has been pushing to introduce a variety of sophisticated weapons systems designed to attack both South Korea and the mainland U.S. to deal with what it calls its rivals’ intensifying security threats. Many foreign experts say North Korea would ultimately want to use its enlarged arsenal as leverage to win greater concessions in future dealings with the U.S.

Worries about North Korea deepened last week as it disclosed photos of a secretive facility to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. KCNA said that Kim, during a visit to the facility, called for stronger efforts to “exponentially” produce more nuclear weapons.

It was unclear whether the facility is at North Korea’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex. But it was the North’s first unveiling of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at the country’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting American scholars led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker in 2010.

In an analytical piece jointly written with another expert, Robert Carlin, that was posted Wednesday on North Korea-focused website 38 North, Hecker said the centrifuge hall shown in the recent North Korean photos was not the same one that he saw in November 2010.

Hecker and Carlin said they believe the new centrifuges provide “only a modest increased capacity,” though North Korea could increase enrichment capacity just by building more centrifuge plants.

In another joint analysis also posted Friday on 38 North, other experts said that the centrifuges shown in the photos are not the ones observed by Hecker but a more advanced design. They said the images send “a strong message that the country has ample capacity and continued will to expand its nuclear program.”

KAMITUGA, Congo –

 Slumped on the ground over a mound of dirt, Divine Wisoba pulled weeds from her daughter’s grave. The one-month-old died from mpox in eastern Congo in August, but Wisoba, 21, was too traumatized to attend the funeral.

In her first visit to the cemetery, she wept into her shirt for the child she lost and worried about the rest of her family. “When she was born, it was as if God had answered our prayers — we wanted a girl,” Wisoba said of little Maombi Katengey. “But our biggest joy was transformed into devastation.”

Her daughter is one of more than 6,000 people officials suspect have contracted the disease in South Kivu province, the epicenter of the world’s latest mpox outbreak, in what the World Health Organization has labeled a global health emergency. A new strain of the virus is spreading, largely through skin-to-skin contact, including but not limited to sex. A lack of funds, vaccines and information is making it difficult to stem the spread, according to alarmed disease experts.

Mpox — which causes mostly mild symptoms like fever and body aches, but can trigger serious cases with prominent blisters on the face, hands, chest and genitals — had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Africa, until a 2022 outbreak reached more than 70 countries. Globally, gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases in that outbreak. But officials note mpox has long disproportionately affected children in Africa, and they say cases are now rising sharply among kids, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, with many types of close contact responsible for the spread.

Health officials have zeroed in on Kamituga, a remote yet bustling gold mining town of some 300,000 people that attracts miners, sex workers and traders who are constantly on the move. Cases from other parts of eastern Congo can be traced back here, officials say, with the first originating in the nightclub scene.

The town of Kamituga, in South Kivu province in eastern Congo, considered the epicentre of the world’s latest outbreak of mpox, is seen on Sept. 5, 2024.

Since this outbreak began, one year ago, nearly 1,000 people in Kamituga have been infected. Eight have died, half of them children.

Challenges on the ground

Last month, the World Health Organization said mpox outbreaks might be stopped in the next six months, with governments’ leadership and cooperation.

But in Kamituga, people say they face a starkly different reality.

There’s a daily average of five new cases at the general hospital, which is regularly near capacity. Overall in South Kivu, weekly new suspected cases have skyrocketed from about 12 in January to 600 in August, according to province health officials.

Even that’s likely an underestimate, they say, because of a lack of access to rural areas, the inability of many residents to seek care, and Kamituga’s transient nature.

Locals say they simply don’t have enough information about mpox.

Before her daughter got sick, Wisoba said, she was infected herself but didn’t know it.

Painful lesions emerged around her genitals, making walking difficult. She thought she had a common sexually transmitted infection and sought medicine at a pharmacy. Days later, she went to the hospital with her newborn and was diagnosed with mpox. She recovered, but her daughter developed lesions on her foot.

Nearly a week later, Maombi died at the same hospital that treated her mother.

Wisoba said she didn’t know about mpox until she got it. She wants the government to invest more in teaching people protective measures.

Local officials can’t reach areas more than a few miles outside Kamituga to track suspected cases or inform residents. They broadcast radio messages but say that doesn’t reach far enough.

Kasindi Mwenyelwata goes door to door describing how to detect mpox — looking for fevers, aches or lesions. But the 42-year-old community leader said a lack of money means he doesn’t have the right materials, such as posters showing images of patients, which he finds more powerful than words.

ALIMA, one of the few aid groups working on mpox in Kamituga, lacks funds to set up programs or clinics that would reach some 150,000 people, with its budget set to run out at year’s end, according to program coordinator Dr. Dally Muamba.

If support keeps waning and mpox spreads, he said, “there will be an impact on the economy, people will stop coming to the area as the epidemic takes its toll. … And as the disease grows, will resources follow?”

Gold miners at work on Sept. 5, 2024, in Kamituga in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province, which is the epicentre of the world’s latest outbreak of the disease.

The vaccine vacuum

Health experts agree: What’s needed most are vaccines — even if they go only to adults, under emergency approval in Congo.

None has arrived in Kamituga, though it’s a priority city in South Kivu, officials said. It’s unclear when or how they will. The main road into town is unpaved — barely passable by car during the ongoing rainy season.

Once they make it here, it’s unclear whether supply will meet demand for those who are at greatest risk and first in line: health staff, sex workers, miners and motorcycle taxi drivers.

Congo’s government has budgeted more than US$190 million for its initial mpox response, which includes the purchase of three million vaccine doses, according to a draft national mpox plan, widely circulating among health experts and aid groups this month and seen by The Associated Press. But so far, just 250,000 doses have arrived in Congo and the government’s given only US$10 million, according to the finance ministry.

Most people with mild cases recover in less than two weeks. But lesions can get infected, and children or immunocompromised people are more prone to severe cases.

Doctors can ensure lesions are clean and give pain medication or antibiotics for secondary infections such as sepsis.

But those who recover can get the virus again.

A new variant, a lack of understanding

Experts say a lack of resources and knowledge about the new strain makes it difficult to advise people on protecting themselves. An internal report circulated among aid groups and agencies and seen by AP labeled confidence in the available information about mpox in eastern Congo and neighboring countries low.

While the variant is known to be more easily transmissible through sex, it’s unclear how long the virus remains in the system. Doctors tell recovered patients to abstain from sex for three months, but acknowledge the number is largely arbitrary.

“Studies haven’t clarified if you’re still contagious or not … if you can or can’t have sex with your wife,” said Dr. Steven Bilembo, of Kamituga’s general hospital.

Doctors say they’re seeing cases they simply don’t understand, such as pregnant women losing babies. Of 32 pregnant women infected since January, nearly half lost the baby through miscarriage or stillbirth, hospital statistics show.

Atumisi Anaclet treats a sex worker with mpox on Sept. 4, 2024, in a hospital in Kamituga, in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province, which is the epicentre of the world’s latest outbreak of the disease.

Alice Neema was among them. From the hospital’s isolation ward, she told AP she’d noticed lesions around her genitals and a fever — but didn’t have enough money to travel the 30 miles (50 kilometres) on motorbike for help in time. She miscarried after her diagnosis.

As information trickles in, locals say fear spreads alongside the new strain.

Diego Nyago said he’d brought his two-year-old son, Emile, in for circumcision when he developed a fever and lesions.

It was mpox — and today, Nyago is grateful health care workers noticed his symptoms.

“I didn’t believe that children could catch this disease,” he said as doctors gently poured water over the boy to bring his temperature down. “Some children die quickly, because their families aren’t informed.

“Those who die are the ones who stay at home.”

A mission specialist for the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year told the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday that the firm was staffed by competent people who wanted to “make dreams come true.”

Renata Rojas was the latest person to testify who was connected to Titan owner OceanGate. An investigatory panel has listened to two days of testimony that raised questions about the company’s operations before the doomed mission. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among five people who died when the submersible imploded en route to the site of the Titanic wreck in June 2023.

Rojas’ testimony began with a different tone than some of the earlier witnesses, who described the company as troubled from the top down and focused more on profit than science or safety.

“I was learning a lot and working with amazing people,” Rojas said. “Some of those people are very hard working individuals that were just trying to make dream come true.”

Earlier this month, the Coast Guard opened a public hearing that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The public hearing began on Sept. 16 and some of the testimony has focused on problems the company had prior to the fatal 2023 dive.

During the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”

Also expected to testify on Thursday is former OceanGate scientific director Steven Ross. The hearing is expected to run through Friday with more witnesses still to come and resume next week.

Lochridge and other witnesses have painted a picture of a company led by people who were impatient to get the unconventionally designed craft into the water. The deadly accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual recreation presented earlier in the hearing.

When the submersible was reported missing, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Four days later, wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 metres) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and U.S. NTSB investigations since they began. The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

WASHINGTON – Both major presidential candidates are making appearances Thursday meant to fire up their core supporters, with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris participating in a livestream with Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump attending an event with prominent Jewish donors before addressing a gathering of the Israeli-American Council.

Winfrey, who has endorsed Harris and spoke at the Democratic convention in August, is set to host a two-hour “Unite for America” nighttime streaming session in Michigan with Harris that organizers say aims to highlight dozens of grassroots groups backing the vice president.

Trump will be in Washington to address a “Fighting Anti-Semitism in America” evening event with Miriam Adelson, a co-owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and widow of billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who founded the Las Vegas Sands casino and was one of the Republican Party’s largest donors.

Trump will also speak before the Israeli-American Council, a nonprofit long backed by Sheldon Adelson as well as Haim Saban, a major donor to U.S. President Joe Biden and Democratic causes. The council is holding its national convention in the weeks before the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Republican presidential nominee former U.S. president Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in Uniondale, N.Y.

On Friday, Harris has campaign stops planned in swing states Wisconsin and Georgia as she calls attention to the case of a young mother who died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill. Harris contends that outcome shows the consequences of Trump’s actions.

Amber Thurman’s death, first reported Monday by ProPublica, came two weeks after Georgia’s strict abortion ban was enacted in 2022 after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nationwide abortion rights. Trump nominated three of the justices who made that decision.

Trump has a Saturday rally set in battleground North Carolina.

Thursday’s campaign stops follow the Federal Reserve cutting its benchmark interest rate by an unusually large half-point. That marked a dramatic shift after more than two years of high rates that helped tame inflation but also made borrowing painfully expensive for American consumers.

With the presidential election less than seven weeks away, the move has the potential to scramble the economic landscape just as Americans prepare to vote. Campaigning in New York on Wednesday, Trump said, “I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much, assuming they’re not just playing politics.”

Asked about potential political influence of a rate cut so close to Election Day, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration has been “very clear about this and very respectful of the independence of the Federal Reserve.”

“Unlike other administrations, we’ve been, I think, pretty steadfast about that, and have been continuous in making that clear,” she added, without naming Trump and his past public criticism of the Fed or his suggestions during the campaign that presidents should have more authority over the central bank.

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife, La’Quetta, the city’s superintendent of schools, have been indicted on child endangerment and other charges for allegedly beating their teenage daughter on numerous occasions, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said the indictment was made Tuesday by a grand jury that accused the couple of child endangerment. Marty Small also was charged with assault and making terroristic threats.

Prosecutors said both parents hit and emotionally abused the girl, who was 15 to 16 years old, on multiple occasions in December and January.

“All people have heard is one side of the story,” Small told The Associated Press. “We look forward to telling our side.”

He said his daughter remains at home with her parents.

“This indictment has absolutely nothing to do with Marty Small’s tenure as mayor of Atlantic City,” said his lawyer, Ed Jacobs. “There’s no charge of corruption or any official misconduct. Marty and La’Quetta Small don’t need the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office meddling into a private family matter.”

“Marty and La’Quetta are a good mom and dad raising a teenage child,” he said. “They are totally innocent and will be totally exonerated.”

Prosecutors said that on Jan. 13, 2024, Marty Small Sr. hit his daughter multiple times in the head with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness.

Ten days earlier, they said, Small engaged in an argument with his daughter, grabbing her head and throwing her to the ground, and threatening to throw her down a flight of stairs. He threatened to “smack the weave out” of her head during the incident, according to prosecutors.

The 50-year-old Democratic mayor also is accused of punching his daughter repeatedly in the legs, causing bruising.

La’Quetta Small, 47, is accused of punching her daughter multiple times on the chest, leaving bruising. In another alleged incident, she is accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and striking her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks.

In yet another incident, La’Quetta Small is accused of punching her daughter in the mouth during an argument.

The indictment of the Smalls came less than a week after the principal of Atlantic City High School was indicted in a case stemming from the same incidents.

Constance Days-Chapman was indicted on official misconduct, child endangerment and other charges for allegedly failing to report the alleged abuse of the Smalls’ daughter to state child welfare authorities as required by law and school district policy.

Days-Chapman is a close friend of the Smalls; La’Quetta Smalls is her boss.

According to the indictment, in December the girl, who was 15 at the time, told Days-Chapman she was suffering continuous headaches from being beaten by her parents in their home.

But instead of telling authorities, Days-Chapman instead told the Smalls.

Her lawyer says she is innocent.

RELATED IMAGES1 / 1

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio –

 In the quiet corners of Springfield, Ohio — out of sight of the drumbeat of politicians and journalists, troopers and newly installed security cameras — the people who live here are taking a breath, praying and attempting to carry on.

Between the morning bomb sweeps of Springfield’s schools and the near daily afternoon media briefings, a hush comes over the city of 58,000 that residents say is uncanny, haunting even. It’s fear. It’s confusion — dismay at being transformed overnight into a target for the nation’s vitriol.

Pastor Andy Mobley, who runs the Family Needs Inc. food pantry on the city’s south side, said people are hunkered down out of the public eye. He said they’re hoping the attention sparked by former President Donald Trump spreading unsubstantiated rumors about the city’s legal Haitian immigrants eating house pets during last week’s presidential debate will blow over.

Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Ohio’s junior Sen. JD Vance, have used the cat-eating rumors to draw attention to the city’s 15,000 Haitian immigrants, whose arrival to fill manufacturing, distribution and warehouse jobs has put a severe strain on local resources.

Since the Republican candidates’ initial comments, more than two dozen bomb threats — mostly from foreign actors seeking to sow discord — have prompted the state to send in additional state troopers and install surveillance cameras around the city in order to reopen schools and government buildings.

Neighborhood kids gather to sell Kool-Aid and chips, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio.

“We’ve got good people here. Republican, Democrat. They’re good people,” Mobley said Tuesday, as the pantry tended to a steady stream of clients seeking clothing and food.

Resident Josh Valle said the situation is unsettling.

“We definitely need answers,” said the 35-year-old tool and die repairman, who has lived in Springfield for decades. “It’s affecting my kids and my community and my neighbors. With the bomb threats and the influx, it’s something new every day. And this used to be a really chill town, you know, it used to be just a small town Ohio.”

The area around Springfield City Hall, where Valle spoke, sat largely silent Tuesday afternoon, until a news conference with state and local officials prompted a brief swarm of activity. Local families are avoiding schools in the wake of earlier bomb threats, even though dozens of troopers have fanned out across the Springfield City School District to stand guard. Some 200 of 500 students were absent Tuesday from a single elementary school, officials said.

Still, there are signs of hope.

“Home Sweet Springfield” tea towels adorn the window of Champion City Guide & Supply on a downtown block that bustles with activity over the lunch hour. One line of mugs and clothing items reads: “Speak a Good Word for Springfield — or say nothing.”

Across town, a small group of kids whose parents kept them home on Tuesday horsed around together at a makeshift lemonade stand they set up to make a few bucks. They delighted in the revving motor of a passing muscle car and, when sales were slow, swigged back the merchandise.

David Graham, who visits communities in crisis as The Praying Cowboy, positioned himself in Springfield this week to show support. “Agenda: Pray, worship, witness, smile, honor, esteem,” he wrote in a Facebook post from the city, accompanied by his hands holding an open Bible with a newly installed surveillance platform in the background. He added lines with black electrical tape to a small heart placard he posted nearby, to represent Springfield hearts being broken.

He wasn’t the only one trying to help. A bipartisan group of area mayors met with Springfield Mayor Rob Rue on Monday to figure out how they can help — including with resources to address the traffic, health care, social services and housing needs prompted by the increase in the Haitian population and their language barrier.

Andrew Ginther, the Democratic mayor of Ohio’s capital, Columbus, and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said in a statement: “Mayors across America will continue to stand by Springfield and all cities working to responsibly address an increased number of migrants, which we can do without losing sight of our shared humanity.”

A mural depicting Hattie Moseley, a Springfield Civil Rights activist who was instrumental in battling the segregation of Fulton Elementary School, is painted on the WesBanco building on East Main Street in Springfield, Ohio, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio.

Years ago, Family Needs Inc. was designated one of former U.S. president George H.W. Bush’s “thousand points of light,” honouring its dedication to volunteerism. The organization has helped Haitians arriving in Springfield for years now, Mobley said — providing them translation services and co-signing their rental agreements.

He recalled working with Haitian immigrants as far back as 2016, the year Trump took office — though census figures show the population remained at only about 400 until a few years ago.

“In 2016, we started signing contracts. Through the pandemic, we were doing things for the Haitian community,” he said. “Has that all been forgotten? They have been here, and we’ve been dealing with this, and we’ve been asking for help through two different administrations. And no administration has helped us, until now this thing has become public.”

As she walked downtown, one resident who declined to give her name said she’s not letting the situation get her down.

“It’s childish. It’s stupid. It took one stupid person to get on a debate and ruin the reputation of a community. I think you know exactly who I’m talking about,” she said.

“He should never have said that. There’s no truth to those allegations whatsoever. I was born and raised in this town, I’m staying here, and I have no problem with nobody.”

WASHINGTON — A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child tells her story in a new campaign ad for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris(opens in a new tab).

Hadley Duvall says in voiceover that she’s never slept a full night in her life — her stepfather first started abusing her when she was five years old, and impregnated her when she was 12. As she speaks, images of Duvall as a child flash on the screen. The soundtrack of the ad is a song by Billie Eilish, who endorsed the vice president on Tuesday.

“I just remember thinking I have to get out of my skin. I can’t be me right now. Like, this can’t be it,” Duvall says. “I didn’t know what to do. I was a child. I didn’t know what it meant to be pregnant, at all. But I had options.”

The ad is part of a continued push by the Harris campaign to highlight the growing consequences of the fall of Roe, including that some states have abortion restrictions with no exceptions for rape or incest. Women in some states are suffering increasingly perilous medical care and the first reported instance of a woman dying from delayed reproductive care surfaced this week. Harris lays the blame squarely on Republican nominee Donald Trump, who appointed three of the conservatives to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

Duvall blames Trump, too.

“Because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, girls and women all over the country have lost the right to choose, even for rape or incest,” she says in the ad. “Donald Trump did this. He took away our freedom.”

During the presidential debate on Sept. 10, Trump repeatedly took credit for appointing the three Supreme Court justices and leaned heavily on his catchall response to questions on abortion rights, saying the issue should be left up to the states. He said he would not sign a national abortion ban.

“I’m not signing a ban,” he said, adding that “there is no reason to sign the ban.”

But he also repeatedly declined to say whether he would veto such a ban if he were elected again — a question that has lingered as the Republican nominee has shifted his stances on the crucial election issue.

Duvall of Owensboro, Kentucky, first told her story publicly last fall in a campaign ad for the governor’s race in her home state supporting Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. Duvall’s stepfather was convicted of rape and is in prison; she miscarried.

Beshear won re-election, and Democrats have said Duvall’s ad was a strong motivator, particularly for rural, male voters who had previously voted for Trump.

Duvall is also touring the country to campaign for Harris along with other women who have been telling their personal stories since the fall of Roe, joining Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro last week.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced new sanctions against the Russian media channel RT, accusing it of being a “de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus”.

The top US diplomat told reporters on Friday that RT is part of a network of Russian-backed media outlets which have sought to covertly “undermine democracy in the United States”.

He added that the Russian government has “embedded within RT, a unit with cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence”.

RT live-streamed Mr Blinken’s remarks on X and declared it the “US’s latest conspiracy theory”.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said there should be a “new profession” in the US, of specialist in sanctions imposed on Russia.

Responding to US allegations that RT had sought to influence elections, RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan who was sanctioned by the US last week said they were excellent teachers, adding that many RT staff had studied in the US, and with US funding.

The State Department accused the state broadcaster, formerly Russia Today, of engaging in “information operations, covert influence, and military procurement” in countries in Europe, Africa, and North and South America.

Mr Blinken also accused RT of running online fundraisers to purchase body armour, sniper rifles, drones and other equipment for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

The network, he said, has also sought to influence Moldova’s politics in coordination with Russian intelligence ahead of presidential elections in October 2024.

The US had already indicted two RT employees for allegedly attempting to interfere in this year’s presidential election, but US officials said on Friday the state broadcaster played a bigger role in Russia’s efforts to undermine democracies.

The state-funded media organisation responded at the time by mocking the US government’s accusations, saying in a statement to the BBC that “2016 called and it wants its clichés back”.

“Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections.”

Mr Blinken said in a press conference: “Our most powerful antidote to Russia’s lies is the truth. It’s shining a bright light on what the Kremlin is trying to do under the cover of darkness.”

Mr Blinken emphasised that the sanctions were not related to the content of the outlet’s reporting, and he affirmed the US’s support for independent journalism.

“Covert influence activities are not journalism,” he said.

The announcement is part of a suite of actions the US government has taken against Russian state media as the 2024 election approaches. The State Department has also designated RT as a foreign mission.

Details are emerging of an apparent raid by Israeli special forces on a “Hezbollah missile production facility” in Syria.

Israel’s government has said nothing about the operation which, according to US media reports, took place at the beginning of the week.

Syrian state media say 18 people were killed on Monday in the raid near the Syrian city of Masyaf – around 25 miles (40km) north of the Lebanese border – and several dozen were injured.

According to the New York Times, Israeli special forces descended from helicopters, placed explosives inside the Iranian-built facility and removed sensitive information.

American and other officials quoted in the paper paint a picture of a daring operation, designed to destroy the underground military facility.

Air strikes were apparently used to neutralise Syria’s defences and prevent reinforcements from reaching the site.

Separately, a report by the Axios news site – citing three sources said to be familiar with the operation – says the elite Shaldag unit of the Israeli Air Force carried out the raid.

Axios also reports that Israel informed the US before the operation was slated to take place, and was not met with any resistance from the White House.

The BBC has not yet been able to independently verify these reports.

Israel’s government has not commented, but the raid seems to have been designed to prevent Iran from supplying precision missiles to Hezbollah, its Lebanese ally and proxy.

Israel attacked the facility six years ago and has mounted dozens of air strikes against Syria since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago.

But, putting Israeli troops on the ground inside Syria is highly unusual.

This would be one of the most sophisticated operations of its kind in years.

Last Sunday, at least 18 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on a number of military sites in the vicinity of Masyaf, according to the Syrian health minister.

Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon and Syria.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) – a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground – Israeli air and artillery strikes have targeted Syrian territory on more than 60 occasions since the start of the year.

This has resulted in damage to or destruction of about 140 targets, including weapons depots, vehicles and Iran-backed militia headquarters, the SOHR said.

The strikes have killed at least 208 fighters – including 46 members of Syrian government forces, 43 members of Hezbollah and 24 Iranian Revolutionary Guards – as well as 22 civilians, the monitoring group added.

The situation is critical, a Ukrainian military officer in the east told the BBC near the front line south of Pokrovsk.

Russia’s military strategy now appears to be surrounding the city, which is a key transportation hub in the region.

The officer, who preferred to stay anonymous, said his military leadership want to hold their positions at all costs, often leading to the loss of troops and resources.

That approach, he says, was resulting in a number of “cauldrons”, large territories surrounded by the Russian forces.

One of them is south of Pokrovsk – between Nevelske, Hirnyk and Krasnohorivka.

“We are not planning to advance towards the city of Donetsk any time soon, so why are we holding positions near Nevelske when we’re losing Hirnyk?” said the officer.

Far better to retreat to Hirnyk, he believes, with a minimum loss of resources and hold those positions.

“When your enemy has more people and resources than you do, this strategy is reckless,” the Ukrainian officer added.

“Look at the Donetsk region, it looks like a squid. [To defend all the] tentacles, you need a far bigger number of positions, observation posts. You need to hold back far bigger assault groups because the Russians are trying to attack from all sides.”

So, instead of withdrawing and reduce the length of the line they need to defend, the officer says, brigades get wiped out fighting along the entire perimeter of the “cauldron” simply because the main criteria of success for generals is to hold positions.

Roman Pohorily, an analyst and co-founder of the Deep State map that monitors the latest frontline developments in Ukraine, says Ukrainian troops have now pulled back from the village of Nevelske to avoid an encirclement.

That means the threat of being trapped is less acute, but the military officer at the front says pulling back should have been done long before.

Lives and resources have been wasted on something that they couldn’t hold anyway, he argues.