Biden camp hits out at viral videos that have been seized on as evidence of president’s frailty.
United States President Joe Biden’s administration has accused his opponents of spreading disinformation about his physical and mental fitness after a series of viral videos reignited concerns about the Democratic standard-bearer’s age.
In a news conference on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the clips purporting to show Biden’s decline had been deceptively edited or misrepresented.
“It tells you everything that we need to know about how desperate Republicans are here,” Jean-Pierre told reporters, labelling the clips “cheapfake” videos.
Republican social media accounts and conservative media outlets have shared videos purporting to show Biden, 81, freezing up or wandering off on his own in recent days.
In one clip, Biden is shown appearing to wander away from other world leaders during a skydiving demonstration at the G7 summit in Italy.
However, versions of the clip circulated by right-wing social media accounts and the New York Post were cropped to obscure a parachutist that Biden was walking towards when appearing to wander off.
Another widely circulated clip shows Biden standing motionless while surrounded by people who are dancing to music at a Juneteenth celebration held last week at the White House.
“The president stood there listening to the music, and he didn’t dance… Excuse me, I didn’t know that not dancing was a health issue,” Jean-Pierre said.
“That is a weird thing to actually flag. If you look at the people around him… there were some folks who were not dancing either.”
In the most recent clip to go viral, Biden pauses in front of the crowd at a fundraising gala for about seven seconds before being led offstage by former President Barack Obama.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a post on X on Monday that Biden’s critics were pretending that “taking in an applauding crowd for a few seconds is somehow wrong” to distract from the president’s achievements.
Former US President Donald Trump, who is running against Biden on the Republican ticket in November, has repeatedly attacked the president over his age and fitness, although, at 78, he is just three years younger.
Either Biden or Trump would be the oldest person to ever hold the office of the presidency by the end of his term.
While some videos of Biden appearing frail or confused have been deceptively edited, opinion polls have shown that voters view his age as a concern and are less worried about Trump’s health.
In a New York Times/Siena poll released in March, 73 percent of registered voters said that Biden was too old to be an effective president, compared with 42 percent who said the same about Trump.
The United States surgeon general has called on Congress to require social media platforms to carry warning labels on their effects on young people’s lives, similar to those now mandatory on cigarette boxes.
In a Monday opinion piece in The New York Times, Dr Vivek Murthy said that social media is a contributing factor in the mental health crisis among young people.
“It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe,” Murthy said. “Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior.”
Murthy, who acts as the top government spokesperson on public health and is known as the nation’s doctor, said that the use of just a warning label would not make social media safe for young people, but would be a part of the steps needed.
Social media use is prevalent among young people, with up to 95 percent of those aged 13 to 17 saying that they use a social media platform, and more than a third saying that they use social media “almost constantly,” according to 2022 data from the Pew Research Center.
“Social media today is like tobacco decades ago: It’s a product whose business model depends on addicting kids. And as with cigarettes, a surgeon general’s warning label is a critical step toward mitigating the threat to children,” Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, an organisation dedicated to ending marketing to children, said in a statement.
Getting the labels on social media platforms would take congressional action – and it is not clear how quickly that might happen, even with apparent bipartisan unity around child safety online. Lawmakers have held multiple congressional hearings on child online safety and legislation is in the works. Still, the last federal law aimed at protecting children online was enacted in 1998, six years before Facebook’s founding.
“I am hoping that would be combined with a lot of other work that Congress has been trying to do to improve the safety and design and privacy of social media products,” said Dr Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioural paediatrician at the University of Michigan and leader at the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Those two things would have to go hand in hand, because there’s so much that Congress can do to follow the steps of the United Kingdom and the European Union in passing laws that take into account what kids need when they’re interacting with digital products.”
Industry pushback
Even with Congressional approval, warning labels would likely be challenged in the courts by tech companies.
“Putting a warning label on online speech isn’t just scientifically unsound, it’s at odds with the constitutional right to free speech,” said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the tech industry policy group Chamber of Progress. “It’s surprising to see the US surgeon general attacking social media when teens themselves say it provides an important outlet for social connection.”
Last year, Murthy warned that there wasn’t enough evidence to show that social media is safe for children and teens. He said at the time that policymakers needed to address the harms of social media the same way they regulate things like car seats, baby formula, medication and other products children use.
To comply with federal regulation, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up to their platforms but children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents’ consent.
Other measures social platforms have taken to address concerns about children’s mental health can also be easily circumvented. For instance, TikTok introduced a default 60-minute time limit for users under 18. But once the limit is reached, minors can simply enter a passcode to keep watching.
Murthy believes the impact of social media on young people should be a more pressing concern.
“Why is it that we have failed to respond to the harms of social media when they are no less urgent or widespread than those posed by unsafe cars, planes or food? These harms are not a failure of willpower and parenting; they are the consequence of unleashing powerful technology without adequate safety measures, transparency or accountability,” he wrote.
In January the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as parents worry that they’re not doing enough to protect young people. The executives touted existing safety tools on their platforms and the work they’ve done with nonprofits and law enforcement to protect minors.
Murthy said on Monday that Congress needs to implement legislation that will protect young people from online harassment, abuse and exploitation and from exposure to extreme violence and sexual content.
“The measures should prevent platforms from collecting sensitive data from children and should restrict the use of features like push notifications, autoplay and infinite scroll, which prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use,” Murthy wrote.
Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal supported Murthy’s message Monday.
“We are pleased that the Surgeon General — America’s top doctor — continues to bring attention to the harmful impact that social media has on our children,” the senators said in a prepared statement.
When USA opened the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 with a seven-wicket win over Canada on June 1, the result was met with a metaphorical warm applause.
Five days later, their thrilling super-over win against Pakistan made cricket fans and experts sit up and take note. It was a moment that turned Group A – and the tournament – on its head.
When cricket’s powerhouse India scraped past them in New York the following week, USA were still alive in the tournament and favourites to qualify for the Super Eights – a feat they later achieved thanks to a washed-out match against Ireland.
As with most underdog stories, USA’s progression was received by rousing cheers around the world.
In some ways, it is fitting that the USA squad is representative of a multicultural country defined by the tales of immigrants chasing the fabled American dream.
Some of the players were born in the United States.
Others, born overseas, tasted domestic success in their countries of birth and even dreamt of playing international cricket until they seemingly failed and all but gave up.
This group of cricketers draws its experience from playing in India, Pakistan, the Caribbean, South Africa and New Zealand.
An Australian coach, who linked up with them two weeks ahead of the tournament, has led them on this unprecedented run where, against the most formidable odds, they have made it past the first round in their first major international tournament.
But that’s not how the story began.
It began with a combination of timing, luck and shrewdness.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING!!! 🇺🇸🔥🙌
For the first time ever, #TeamUSA have qualified for the Super 8 stage of the @ICC@T20WorldCup! 🤩✨
Shortly after USA Cricket (USAC) was granted one-day international (ODI) status by the ICC in 2019, the waiting period for players to qualify for associate countries dropped from five years to three.
USAC immediately went on a recruitment drive to attract talent from across the globe.
Several players heeded the call, while others were scouted from domestic competitions within the country.
Former New Zealand star Corey Anderson, who has a wealth of T20 franchise experience, became eligible to represent USA in 2023.
It was also the year that Harmeet Singh joined the team USA bandwagon. The Mumbai-raised all-rounder shone for India in two ICC Under-19 World Cups and played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) until he was dragged into a damaging fixing scandal, only to be cleared of any wrongdoing. It was enough to stagnate his career but – unwilling to give up – Harmeet moved to the US during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shayan Jahangir was a promising young batter growing up in Karachi who, at one point, represented Pakistan at the under-19 level. He plied his trade in the US domestic leagues during the cricket off-season period in Pakistan before moving permanently to Houston in 2018.
Former South African domestic cricket star Shadley van Schalkwyk made Seattle his home after being unable to break into the Proteas’ side despite taking almost 500 wickets and scoring more than 4,000 runs across formats in the domestic system.
Aaron Jones, USA’s hero with the bat in the tournament thus far, was born in Queens to Bajan parents and represented Barbados until a few years ago.
Steven Taylor, who hails from Florida, has been a key member of team USA since 2019 but once represented Jamaica.
Despite the players’ vastly diverse backgrounds, their head coach Stuart Law – who was appointed in April and took charge in May – emphasises that this is very much a US team.
“These kids came here from other parts of the world for a better life,” Law told Al Jazeera shortly after USA sealed their trip to the Caribbean, where all Super Eights and knockout matches will be played.
“Whether they came here for their children’s education, or their own, not many came purely to play cricket.”
Aaron Jones hit the winning runs in USA’s win over Canada at Grand Prairie Stadium on June 1 [Julio Cortez/AP]
How to ‘Americanfy’ cricket
Law insists that while the players may have been lucky that their arrival in the US coincided with cricket’s emergence in the country, they are united in their cause to play as team USA.
“We have got to try and ‘Americanfy’ this whole cricket thing here in the States,” he adds.
“We need to play aggressive, attractive-looking cricket to make sure that people sit back and go: You know what, these kids are up for a fight.”
The 55-year-old coach, who has been at the helm of several international teams, says team USA’s motto of “fearless but intelligent cricket” suits most of the players.
“They are trying to get better all the time, trying to play the way [they] will be successful in not only winning, but also putting the game of cricket under a spotlight.
The players, with their individual experiences in other countries, have a lack of awe while playing World Cup matches, which was wonderfully demonstrated by their nerve-jangling victory over 2009 champions Pakistan.
Law recounts one of several stories about his players: “Shayan came up to me before the World Cup and said, ‘Coach, we can beat Pakistan!’ I think that belief filtered through to each one of us and we showed it. The belief was there to go and execute under immense pressure, in front of a full house and screaming fans in Dallas.”
The former Australian international cricketer says he has been taken aback by the squad’s ability to be “cool and calm” under pressure.
“They just stand up and fight against teams that we have no right to actually be on the same park as – as some people think – yet we find a way to get the job done.”
Law believes that Anderson, a veteran of three World Cups for New Zealand, has played a vital role in keeping players calm on the pitch.
He describes Monank Patel – who captained the side for the first two matches before sustaining a shoulder injury – as a deep thinker. And Jones – who led the side against India – has impressed Law with his cool-headedness and forthrightness. Both leaders are fiercely competitive.
USA fans thronged the Nassau County Stadium in New York for their team’s match against India [Timothy A Clary/AFP]
Saurabh Netravalkar: From ‘rocket scientist’ to cult hero
The biggest cult hero, by far, is Saurabh Netravalkar – the Mumbai-born left-arm quick who successfully defended 18 runs in the super over against Pakistan. Netravalkar’s heroics, combined with his day job as a principal engineer for tech company Oracle, spawned an online frenzy and made him an overnight hero.
Netravalkar played alongside Harmeet at the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2010, and was India’s leading wicket-taker in a tournament featuring the Australian trio of Mitchell Marsh, Josh Hazelwood and Adam Zampa, as well as England’s Ben Stokes.
However, by 2015, Netravalkar had relinquished the hope of establishing himself at the senior level and packed up his bags to study computer science in New York.
Law calls Netravalkar a “rocket scientist” compared with the rest of the squad.
“He’s very structured and disciplined, works out his plans in the nets and then asks questions.
“For a guy who doesn’t bowl as fast as some others, he’s got fantastic skills which get batsmen in a lot of trouble. His execution in that super over [against Pakistan] was outstanding.”
The USA coach reveals how the 32-year-old came up to him after the game and said: “Coach, thank you so much for trusting me.”
“I said, ‘Mate, I knew you could do it. You show that in the nets all the time, you show it in the middle. It was a no-brainer.’”
While the USA players are all aged between 29 and 36, they are still young in international cricket – men who have waited a long time for a lucky break or received a second chance. And Law believes more USA cult heroes will surface during the Super Eight stage.
“Ali Khan is another one – he’s got pace, fire and passion,” Law reveals.
“Keep an eye on Harmeet Singh. He’s a warrior on the field. He’s skilful with the bat and with ball.”
The widely experienced coach says the band of brothers assembled under the USA flag are going to put up a stiff fight in the rest of the tournament.
“We are not going to go down without a fight.”
Saurabh Nethralvakar (right) dismissed India’s top batters Virat Kohli (left) and Rohit Sharma in their Group A match [Adam Hunger/AP]
A senior United States diplomat has met Israeli leaders and will later visit Lebanon as part of a push by Washington to defuse tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
US envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Israel on Monday and held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Gallant’s office said the minister “provided a situation assessment of developments on Israel’s northern border, emphasizing the daily attacks conducted by Hezbollah against Israel’s northern communities and detailing the [Israeli military’s] efforts to thwart Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure”.
“Minister Gallant and Mr Hochstein discussed the security situation at length and its impact on the region,” it added.
Hochstein’s visit comes amid growing fears of an all-out war between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah that could potentially lead to an even wider regional conflict.
Hezbollah had stepped up attacks against Israel in the past week after the killing of one of its top commanders in an Israeli air raid on southern Lebanon.
But the Iran-aligned group, which has been targeting Israeli military positions nearly daily since the war in Gaza broke out, has not announced a new attack against Israel since Saturday evening.
It is not clear whether the lull, which coincided with the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, is linked to Hochstein’s visit to the region.
On Monday, the Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah member in a drone strike, describing him as a “central operative” in the group’s rockets division.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Hochstein is holding indirect talks with Hezbollah, which is designated as a “terrorist” organisation by Washington, through Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of the group.
The sides are discussing a “preliminary agreement” to end the hostilities, according to the newspaper.
Later on Monday, the administration of President Joe Biden stressed that it does not want to see escalation at the Lebanon-Israel border and suggested that the US is advancing a proposal to avert a large-scale conflict.
“There is a diplomatic framework that we believe is reachable that would resolve this conflict without a full-on war,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Hochstein’s official title is special presidential coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security. But after he helped broker a deal in 2022 to resolve a maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel over oilfields in the Mediterranean Sea, he became a de facto US envoy for the two countries.
He has visited the region frequently in past months.
The US has said it wants a diplomatic resolution to the crisis at the Lebanon-Israel border. Hezbollah has said it will not halt its attacks until the war on Gaza ends.
The Lebanese organisation started attacking military bases in northern Israel the day after the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7 in what it says is a “support front” to back Palestinian armed groups.
Israel responded by bombing villages across southern Lebanon and targeting Hezbollah positions. Despite the frequent violence, the confrontations have largely been limited to the border area.
Israeli officials have promised to push Hezbollah back from their country’s northern borders. “We want this to be resolved either diplomatically or militarily,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said on Monday.
“The current state of affairs is not a sustainable reality – 5,000 rockets raining down on our north, making the north uninhabitable.”
The violence has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border, piling pressure on Netanyahu’s government, which is struggling to deter Hezbollah and achieve its war aims in Gaza.
Netanyahu dissolved his war cabinet on Monday, eight days after his political rival Benny Gantz quit the emergency government that was formed to oversee the war in Gaza.
Some Israeli officials have been calling for a more forceful response to Hezbollah’s attacks.
For its part, the US has been pushing for a truce in Gaza that it said would pave the way to restoring calm between Hezbollah and Israel.
“Our assessment of the situation continues to be that the best way to get a diplomatic resolution in the north – which we think all sides ultimately prefer – is to reach a ceasefire in Gaza,” Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said.
Last week, Gallant rejected a French proposal for Israel, France and the US to form a working group to help avoid war at the Lebanese border.
“As we fight a just war, defending our people, France has adopted hostile policies against Israel,” Gallant said in a statement. “In doing so, France ignores the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli children, women and men. Israel will not be a party to the trilateral framework proposed by France.”
Cherokee, North Carolina – In a converted bingo hall deep in the Appalachian Mountains, Myrtle Driver led the charge to defy the state of North Carolina.
The spry 80-year-old, a venerated member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, handed a cashier a string of purple wampum beads, a traditional Indigenous currency. In return, she received packets of marijuana pre-rolls and edibles.
With that, Driver made the first purchase at the Great Smoky Cannabis Company superstore, the only seed-to-sale Indigenous weed operation in a part of the United States where marijuana is illegal.
Members of the tribe cheered and wiped away tears. Then, the store’s doors opened to the 800 customers lined up outside in the rain, each with a card certifying they were approved to buy medical marijuana.
They were Indigenous, Black and white. They were Republicans and Democrats. Some were even on crutches. One construction worker drove nine hours from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, just to show support.
All were seeking regulated legal weed, even if it was only legal on the tribe’s 57,000-acre territory, known as the Qualla Boundary.
By defying North Carolina authorities, the band says it is exercising its right to set its own rules, as it did before white men came to this land.
“We’re not asking permission from the state; we’re telling them,” explained Forrest Parker, the general manager of Qualla Enterprises LLC, the tribal-run cannabis outfit that oversees the business.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is one of 574 federally recognised tribes in the US, each with inherent sovereignty: In other words, they have the right to self-govern.
To the US government, that means tribal land falls under federal jurisdiction — but not state authority.
The cannabis superstore, however, has rankled some Republican legislators in North Carolina, who have been pushing the federal government to intercede on their behalf. That raises questions about the limits of tribal sovereignty — and whose authority should prevail on Indigenous land.
“It’s unique — a real sovereign flex,” John Oceguera, a cannabis lobbyist and former Nevada legislator from the Walker River Paiute tribe, said of the superstore as he watched from the sidelines as customers filed in.
If convicted, Nikhil Gupta faces up to 20 years in prison.
The Czech Republic has extradited an Indian man to the United States who is suspected of involvement in an unsuccessful plot to kill a Sikh separatist.
Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek announced on Monday that Nikhil Gupta was delivered into US custody last week. Washington has alleged the suspect was part of a plot directed by the Indian government.
Gupta is accused by US federal prosecutors of plotting with intelligence and security officials to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US and Canadian citizen who advocated for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India.
Czech authorities arrested the 52-year-old Gupta after he travelled to Prague from India in June last year. Last month, a Czech court rejected his petition to avoid being sent to the US, clearing the way for the Czech justice minister to extradite him.
Blazek noted on X that he gave the green light two weeks ago.
Na základě mého rozhodnutí z 3.6.2024 byl v pátek 14.6.2024 vydán k trestnímu stíhání do USA indický občan Nikhil Gupta, který je podezřelý ze spáchání trestného činu spiknutí za účelem spáchání nájemné vraždy s úmyslem způsobit smrt. Díky všem složkám, které se na realizaci…
Translation: On the basis of my decision on [June 3], the Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta, who is suspected of conspiracy to commit murder for hire with intent to cause death, was extradited to the US on Friday for criminal prosecution.
Gupta’s Czech attorney, Petr Slepicka, previously told The Associated Press that he was planning to file a constitutional complaint to the country’s highest legal authority to ask the minister not to allow the extradition. “It’s a political case,” he said.
In November, US prosecutors announced a plot to kill Pannun had been thwarted after a sting operation led by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Gupta was arrested in Prague under an extradition treaty between the US and the Czech Republic. He denied any involvement in the case.
If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
Shaky diplomatic ties
New Delhi has long complained about Sikh separatist groups outside India, viewing them as security threats. The groups have kept alive the movement for Khalistan, an independent Sikh state to be carved out of India.
But alleged plots targeting them have tested US and Canadian relations with India despite the country being viewed by the West as a counter to China’s rising global influence.
Canada said in September that its intelligence agencies were pursuing allegations linking India’s government to the killing of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June 2023. India has rejected the accusation as absurd.
India’s government has also sought to dissociate itself from the plot against Pannun, saying such a tatic was against government policy. It said it will formally investigate security concerns raised by Washington.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom connected the alleged assassination attempt on Pannun as part of a broader pattern of violence against religious minorities in India.
But last month, Washington said it was satisfied so far with India’s moves to ensure accountability in the alleged plots while adding that many steps still needed to be taken.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says Russia and the US possess ‘almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons’.
The world’s nine nuclear-armed states have raised their reliance on nuclear weapons, a watchdog has said.
A report released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday said the states increased their spending on modernising their atomic arsenals by one-third last year. The watchdog pointed to the contribution of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to the deterioration of international security.
Wilfred Wan, director of SIPRI’s weapons of mass destruction programme, said nuclear weapons have not been seen “playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War”.
The report found that the effects of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are “visible in almost every aspect of the issues connected to armaments, disarmament and international security examined”.
The nine nuclear armed states – the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – modernised their nuclear arsenals and several “deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2023”, SIPRI found.
The estimated global inventory of 12,121 warheads in January 2024, marked a reduction of 391 compared with the previous year, a year, with about 9,585 in military stockpiles for possible use.
However, about 3,904 of these were deployed were deployed with missiles and aircraft, which is 60 more than in January 2023.
The vast majority of those deployed warheads belong to Russia and the US, although China is believed to have “some warheads on high operational alert” for the first time.
Separately, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said the combined total spending on nuclear arsenals grew by $10.7bn to $91.4bn in 2023.
The US was responsible for 80 percent of the rise in spending. Its budget of $51.5bn was higher than that of the other eight nuclear-armed countries combined.
The next biggest spender was China at $11.8bn, ICAN said. Russia was third at $8.3bn.
“While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably, we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,” said SIPRI Director Dan Smith.
“This trend seems likely to continue and probably accelerate in the coming years and is extremely concerning.”
The report added that Russia and the US possess “almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons”. The overall size of their stockpiles has remained “relatively stable in 2023”, it said, although it noted that Russia is estimated to have deployed about 36 more warheads with operational forces than in January 2023.
In its SIPRI Yearbook 2024, the institute said transparency about nuclear forces has declined in both countries due to Russia’s war on Ukraine and debates around nuclear-sharing arrangements.
Washington suspended its bilateral strategic stability dialogue with Russia, and last year, Moscow announced it was leaving the New START nuclear treaty.
SIPRI added that while there were claims that Russia deployed nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, there was “no conclusive visual evidence that the actual deployment of warheads has taken place”.
The institute stressed that all of its estimates were approximate, and it revises its world nuclear forces data each year based on new information and updates to earlier assessments.
Evan Gershkovich was detained in March 2023 for allegedly ‘spying’ on a Russian defence enterprise in Yekaterinburg.
Russia will hold a closed-door trial for detained US reporter Evan Gershkovich later this month, a court in the city of Yekaterinburg has announced.
The Sverdlovsk Regional Court said on Monday that the first hearing, scheduled for June 26, will occur “behind closed doors”. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has suggested that it would be open to a prisoner swap.
The court said that the reporter, who was working for The Wall Street Journal when he was arrested in the Siberian city last year, is accused of collecting “secret information” in March 2023 “on the instructions of the CIA”.
According to the charges, which carry a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison, the journalist was spying on the production and repair of military equipment at the defence enterprise JSC NPK Uralvagonzavod when he was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB).
‘Outrageous’
Following last week’s announcement that Gershkovich would stand trial for his “CIA work”, The Wall Street Journal said the reporter was facing “a false and baseless charge” based on “calculated and transparent lies”.
“Russia’s latest move toward a sham trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and still no less outrageous,” read a letter co-signed by publisher Almar Latour and editor-in-chief Emma Tucker.
“Evan has spent 441 days wrongfully detained in a Russian prison for simply doing his job. Evan is a journalist. The Russian regime’s smearing of Evan is repugnant, disgusting and based on calculated and transparent lies.”
Latour and Tucker said they expected the US government to increase efforts to secure his release.
Gershkovich has also appealed his detention several times, but his attempts have been fruitless.
The Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees and Wall Street Journal journalists rally in Washington, DC, on April 12, 2023 [Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP]
The arrest of the first American journalist to be detained on spy charges in Russia since the Cold War shocked Western news organisations, leaving almost no US reporters in Russia.
The White House has called the charges “ridiculous”, with President Joe Biden adding that the detention was “totally illegal”.
Russia said the reporter was caught “red-handed”.
Prisoner swap
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there has been contact with Washington about a potential prisoner swap for the reporter but insisted that those meetings should be held away from the media.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined on Monday to comment on why Gershkovich’s trial was to be closed, saying it was a court decision.
Russia conducts some of its most secret weapons production and research at the Uralvagonzavod enterprise based in Nizhny Tagil, on which Gershkovich is accused of conducting espionage.
The enterprise – part of Rostec, Russia’s vast defence corporation run by Putin-ally Sergei Chemezov which is under US sanctions – has publicly spoken about producing T-90M battle tanks and modernising T-72B3M tanks.
The Pakistan captain apologises for his team’s World Cup performance after they were knocked out at the group stage.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam has said the team’s batting let them down at the Twenty20 World Cup as he apologised to fans for failing to reach the Super Eight stage.
Pakistan fell to the tournament’s biggest upset when the USA, a tier-two member of the game, beat the 2009 champions via Super Over. The defeat by archrivals India then left Babar’s side with a mountain to climb to advance.
India and USA bagged the two Super Eight slots from Group A while Pakistan finished third after Sunday’s laboured three-wicket victory against Ireland.
“Thank you so much for supporting us, and sorry for that performance,” Babar said after the match in Florida.
“I know the fans and the team are saddened by this. It is not any one player’s fault. We all made a mistake.”
Babar had stepped down as captain of all three formats after Pakistan failed to make the knockout stage of the 50-over World Cup in India last year, but was reinstated as white-ball skipper ahead of the 20-overs showpiece in the US and the West Indies.
Amid subpar performances at the tournament, talk of rifts within the camp surfaced, while Pakistan Cricket Board’s chief promised “major surgery” on the team after their exit was confirmed last week.
Pakistan’s batting was a huge disappointment as they failed to make the most of the powerplay overs and could not get partnerships established.
“The pitches here helped the fast bowlers a little but I think overall our batting did not click,” said Babar.
“We lost two crucial matches even when we were in charge.”
All-rounder Imad Wasim has said the team needed a complete reset of their approach to white-ball cricket and Babar agreed.
“Every player has to think because cricket has become very fast. With modern cricket, you must have game awareness,” he said.
“You know that the strike rate here is [low] … I think it’s about game awareness and common sense.”
The United States is between 10 and 15 years behind China in rolling out next-generation reactors, research institute says.
The United States is falling far behind China in nuclear energy, with the world’s largest economy lagging behind the Asian giant by 10 to 15 years in rolling out next-generation reactors, a report has found.
China has 27 nuclear reactors under development, with the average reactor taking seven years to come online – far faster than for most other countries, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said in a report released on Sunday.
Between 2008 and 2023, China’s share of nuclear patents increased from 1.3 percent to 13.4 percent and the country now leads in the number of nuclear fusion patent applications, the Washington-based research institute said.
Beijing’s rapid rise in the field has been due to a “coherent national strategy” to develop nuclear power, including low-interest financing, feed-in tariffs, and streamlined regulatory approval, the institute said.
“China’s government has assigned considerable priority to domestic nuclear reactor construction as part of Beijing’s broader energy strategy,” the report said.
“Looking ahead, China appears likely to use this established domestic capacity as a foundation for competitive reactor exports, much as its ‘dual-circulation’ strategy has accomplished in other areas, such as electric vehicles and batteries.”
A common narrative that China is “a copier” and the US an “innovator” has encouraged a lackadaisical attitude towards industrial policy, according to the institute.
“First, this assumption is misguided because it is possible for innovators to lose leadership to copiers with lower cost structures, as we have seen in many US industries, including consumer electronics, semiconductors, solar panels, telecom equipment, machine tools, and, as noted here, quite possibly, nuclear power. Second, it’s not clear that China is a sluggish copier and always destined to be a follower,” the report said.
The US is still the top country for nuclear power generation, ahead of France and China, with its 94 reactors accounting for about one-third of global output.
But the country has built only two new reactors in the past decade, both of which arrived years late and billions of dollars over budget.
China in December unveiled the world’s first so-called fourth-generation nuclear plant at Shidao Bay in eastern Shandong province.
Chinese state media has touted the reactors as being safer and more efficient than previous generations due to their use of gas for cooling in favour of pressurised water.
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