washington — The U.S. Justice Department announced September 4 that two Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, had been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the Southern District of New York.

“The Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.”

That same day, the Justice Department announced the seizure of 32 internet domains used in the Russian government-directed “Doppelganger” foreign malign influence campaign, which it said violated U.S. money-laundering and criminal trademark laws.

Experts who study disinformation say disrupting the paid-influencer campaign is an important step in efforts to counter the Kremlin’s broader disinformation strategy of spreading propaganda that undermines support for Ukraine and stokes American political divisions.

Disrupting the Doppelganger campaign

“Persistent efforts to impersonate authoritative news websites and promote their content at scale in a coordinated manner can have a tangible impact, casting propaganda narratives far and wide consistently,” wrote Roman Osadchuk and Eto Buziashvili, researchers at the Disinformation Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

According to an FBI affidavit, Russia’s “Doppelganger” campaign created domains impersonating legitimate media sites, produced fake social media profiles and deployed “influencers” worldwide.

According to the Atlantic Council researchers, the primary method used by those involved in “Doppelganger” is to post, on X and other social media platforms, links to fake news sites in replies to posts by politicians, celebrities, influencers and others with large audiences.

Osadchuk told VOA that while the FBI’s measures are unlikely to stop Russian influence activities, they will make them more costly, noting those involved in the Russian influence campaign will be forced “to rewrite scripts, change the operation’s infrastructure, etc.”

At the same time, according to Osadchuk, the U.S. government’s moves against those involved in the influence campaign, which were widely covered in the U.S. and international media, will educate a broader audience.

“Researchers of the Russian disinformation have known about the Doppelganger campaign for some time,” he said. “Now, Americans and people in other countries have learned about it and maybe will become more aware that not all information they consume is coming from legitimate sources and hopefully will be more attentive to the domain names and other signs that might indicate that the page they are reading is not The Washington Post or Fox News but a fake created by Kremlin-linked entities.”

Influencers will be more aware

In a statement it released after indicting the two RT employees, the Justice Department said that “over at least the past year, RT and its employees, including Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, deployed nearly $10 million to covertly finance and direct a Tennessee-based online content creation company [U.S. Company-1],” and that “U.S. Company-1″ had “published English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.”

While the Justice Department did not specifically identify “U.S. Company-1,” it is thought to refer to Tenet Media, a Tennessee company co-founded by entrepreneur Lauren Chen, who recruited six popular U.S. influencers with a large following.

YouTube subsequently took down Tenet Media’s channel on the platform, along with four other channels that YouTube said were operated by Chen.

Bret Schafer, a disinformation researcher at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a political advocacy group set up under the auspices of the German Marshall Fund, a Washington think tank, told VOA that by financing the U.S. content creation company, Russia was able to create an information channel with a large audience, and to use it for such messages as blaming the U.S. and Ukraine for the March terrorist attack at a Moscow concert hall.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Shutting down that Russian information channel sent a powerful message to influencers and content creators to do “due diligence about people funding their work and to try to figure out who’s behind these companies and their motives,” Schafer added.

Ben Dubow, a disinformation researcher affiliated with the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based research group, believes that influencers contracted by Tenet Media are unlikely to lose their existing followers, but that they might have difficulty attracting new ones.

“Hopefully, people who might otherwise explore those influencers will recognize their names and understand them as untrustworthy now,” he told VOA.

The Justice Department’s indictment quotes RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonian, as saying in an interview on Russian television that RT built “an enormous network, an entire empire of covert projects,” to influence Western audiences.

The FBI affidavit also revealed that one of the sanctioned Russian companies had a list of 2,800 people active on social media in the U.S. and 80 other countries, including “television and radio hosts, politicians, bloggers, journalists, businessmen, professors, think-tank analysts, veterans, professors and comedians,” whom the company refers to as “influencers.”

Concrete steps and good timing

Several experts commended the U.S. government for taking concrete steps.

“They are sanctioning individuals and disrupting the supply chain of influence available to these threat actors,” noted Olga Belogolova, director of the Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“Punitive measures absolutely have to be part of the package,” said Jakub Kalenský, a senior analyst at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki. “Otherwise, the aggressors have a free hand to continue their aggression unopposed. And in order to identify those who deserve to be punished, a proper investigation from the authorities is necessary.”

Experts also said that the Justice Department’s actions were taken early enough to prevent influence in the November U.S. elections and to signal to Russia and other foreign actors that the U.S. government is monitoring their actions and will respond aggressively.

“Of course, that was what the Obama administration was concerned about in 2016 and led to them not being as transparent as they probably should have been with the American public about what they knew about Russian interference,” Schafer said.

In announcing their actions against the Russian disinformation campaign, U.S. government representatives did not mention which political party or candidate they thought that the Russians were trying to assist.

“I know that the U.S. government, including agencies and the Foreign Malign Influence Center at ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence], have been doing a lot of thinking over the last few years about how to strategically communicate these actions without unintentionally amplifying the very campaigns they are trying to thwart or politicizing the topic. And I think they’ve actually done a good job of striking that balance, at least from what I’ve seen thus far,” Belogolova said.

Ihor Solovey, who heads the Ukrainian government’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security, welcomed the U.S. government’s actions but told VOA that more steps are needed to thwart Russian activities on social media.

“X, TikTok or even more so the Russian Telegram – they are unlikely to want to spend on the fight against bots, troll farms or planned disinformation,” he said, adding that only pressure by a state, or even a coalition of states, will be able to force these social media platforms to block intruders and malicious content.

Andrei Dziarkach of VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.
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London — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived late Monday in London at the start of a week of diplomacy with the new U.K. government expected to touch on Ukraine and the Middle East. 

Blinken’s visit comes ahead of a trip to Washington on Friday by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his second meeting at the White House since his Labour Party won July elections, sweeping out the Conservatives after 14 years. 

Blinken — the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit London since Labour’s triumph — is expected to meet Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy during his talks Tuesday. 

The top U.S. diplomat will discuss Asia, the Middle East and “our collective efforts to support Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement announcing Blinken’s trip. 

The United States and Britain cooperate in lockstep on most global issues, and Starmer has made clear that he will maintain the U.K. role as one of the most assertive defenders of Ukraine as it pushes back against the Russian invasion. 

Former human rights lawyer Starmer, however, has taken a harder line on Israel since taking office, with his government announcing a suspension of some arms shipments, citing the risk that they could be used to violate humanitarian law. 

The Labour government has also dropped its Conservative predecessor’s plans to challenge the right of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The United States is not a member of the ICC and has opposed the bid to target Netanyahu, arguing that Israel has its own systems for accountability. 

But the United States, Israel’s primary weapons supplier, did not criticize the U.K. arms decision, saying that Britain had its own process to make assessments. 
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nicosia, cyprus — Cyprus and the United States have signed a defense cooperation framework agreement that outlines ways the two countries can enhance their response to regional humanitarian crises and security concerns, including those arising from climate change.

Cyprus Defense Minister Vassilis Palmas and U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander hailed the agreement Monday as another milestone in burgeoning Cypriot-U.S. ties in recent years that saw the lifting in 2022 of a decades-old U.S. arms embargo imposed on the east Mediterranean island nation.

“The Republic of Cyprus is a strong partner to the United States, in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, and plays a pivotal role at the nexus of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East,” Wallander said after talks with Palmas.

The U.S. official praised Cyprus for acting as a haven for American civilians evacuated from Sudan and Israel last year and for its key role in setting up a maritime corridor to Gaza through which more than 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid has been shipped to the Palestinian territory.

“It is evident that Cyprus is aligned with the West,” Wallander said.

Palmas said Cyprus would continue building toward “closer, stronger and beneficial bilateral defense cooperation with the United States.”

According to a joint statement, the agreement also foresees working together on dealing with “malicious actions” and bolstering ways for the Cypriot military to operate more smoothly with U.S. forces.

 
…

…

FRANKFURT, Germany — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agree that Russia should be included in a future peace conference aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine. He called for stepped up efforts to solve the conflict.

A previous peace conference June 15-16 in Switzerland ended with 78 countries expressing support for Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” but otherwise left the path forward unclear. Russia did not participate.

“I believe that now is the moment when we must discuss how we get out of this war situation faster than the current impression is,” Scholz said in an interview with Germany’s ZDF public television aired Sunday.

“There will certainly be a further peace conference, and the president and I agree that it must be one with Russia present,” Scholz said.

Scholz is facing more political discontent at home over his government’s support including money and weapons for Ukraine after populist parties that oppose arming Ukraine did well in state elections Sept. 1 at the expense of parties in his three-party governing coalition. Some members of his Social Democratic Party have also called for more emphasis on diplomacy toward Russia.

Zelenskyy has presented a 10-point peace formula that calls for the expulsion of all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory and accountability for war crimes.
…

Moscow — Russia said on Sunday its forces had taken full control of a town in eastern Ukraine as Moscow’s forces advance on the strategically important city of Pokrovsk and seek to pierce the Ukrainian defensive front lines.

Russian forces, which control about a fifth of Ukraine since invading in February 2022, are advancing in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to take the whole of the Donbas, which is about half the size of the U.S. state of Ohio.

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had taken the town of Novohrodivka, which lies 12 kilometers from Pokrovsk, an important rail and road hub for Ukrainian forces in the area. The town had a population of 14,000 before the war.

Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, published maps showing Russian forces attacking beyond Novohrodivka in at least two places less than 7 kilometers from Pokrovsk.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian military, in a report issued on Sunday evening, gave details of fighting throughout the Pokrovsk sector, including Novohrodivka.

It said 29 attempted Russian advances had been repelled, with seven skirmishes continuing. “Our troops are taking measures to maintain designated positions,” it said.

But an interview with a Ukrainian officer broadcast last week by U.S.-funded Radio Liberty said Ukrainian forces had abandoned Novohrodivka on grounds that the positions there were not favorable for defending it.

Popular Ukrainian war blog DeepState said Russian forces had captured the village of Nevelske, to the southeast.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify battlefield reports from either side due to restrictions on reporting in the war.

President Vladimir Putin said last week that a Ukrainian incursion into the Russian region of Kursk had failed to slow Russia’s own advance in eastern Ukraine and had weakened Kyiv’s defenses along the front line in a boost to Moscow.

Ukraine’s top military commander said on Thursday that Kyiv’s incursion into the Kursk region was working. Russian forces, he said, had made no progress in their advance on Pokrovsk for the previous six days.

He said that one of the objectives of the Kursk incursion was to divert Russian forces from other areas, primarily Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. Russia had diverted large numbers to Kursk but was also strengthening the Pokrovsk front, he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the Kursk operation was also to prevent Russian forces from crossing the border in the opposite direction.

Russia currently controls about 80% of the Donbas. Given the speed of recent Russian advances in the east, some Russian war bloggers have raised concern about the army overreaching itself.

Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine more than two and a half years ago in what he calls a special military operation. Ukraine and its Western backers have vowed to defeat Russian forces and expel all Russian troops.
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Seoul, South Korea — Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin sent greetings to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the occasion of North Korea’s founding anniversary, state media KCNA said on Monday.

“I am sure that the comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and the DPRK will be strengthened in a planned way thanks to our joint efforts,” Putin said, according to KCNA.

DPRK is short for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

Xi called for deeper strategic communication and cooperation with North Korea in his message, KCNA said.

Last year, Kim marked the country’s founding day on Sept. 9 with a parade of paramilitary groups and diplomatic exchanges in which he vowed to deepen ties with China and Russia.
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Athens — Greece plans to impose a 20-euro ($22) levy on cruise ship visitors to the islands of Santorini and Mykonos during the peak summer season, in a bid to avert overtourism, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Sunday. 

Greece relies heavily on tourism, the main driver of the country’s economy which is still recovering from a decadelong crisis that wiped out a fourth of its output. 

But some of its most popular destinations, including Santorini, an idyllic island of quaint villages and pristine beaches with 20,000 permanent residents, risk being ruined by mass tourism. 

Speaking at a news conference a day after outlining his main economic policies for 2025, Mitsotakis clarified that excessive tourism was only a problem in a few destinations. 

“Greece does not have a structural overtourism problem… Some of its destinations have a significant issue during certain weeks or months of the year, which we need to deal with,” he said. 

“Cruise shipping has burdened Santorini and Mykonos, and this is why we are proceeding with interventions,” he added, announcing the levy. 

Greek tourism revenues stood at about 20 billion euros ($22 billion) in 2023 on the back of nearly 31 million tourist arrivals. 

In Santorini, protesters have called for curbs on tourism, as in other popular holiday destinations in Europe, including Venice and Barcelona. 

Part of the revenues from the cruise shipping tax will be returned to local communities to be invested in infrastructure, Mitsotakis said. 

The government also plans to regulate the number of cruise ships that arrive simultaneously at certain destinations, while rules to protect the environment and tackle water shortages must also be imposed on islands, he said. 

Greece also wants to increase a tax on short-term rentals and ban new licenses for such rentals in central Athens to increase the housing stock for permanent residents, Mitsotakis said Saturday. 

The government will provide more details on some of the measures Monday.
…

Saint-Denis, France — This time, it really is au revoir.

A summer sporting bonanza which started under pouring rain on July 26 with a remarkable opening ceremony on the Seine River was ending Sunday with the Paralympics closing at a rain-soaked Stade de France.

It lowers the curtain on successful back-to-back events that captivated fans and raised the bar high for others to follow. Good luck Los Angeles in 2028.

As the stadium was lit up in the blue, white and red colors of the French national flag, a trumpet player played the national anthem “La Marseillaise” and Paralympic flagbearers then made their way into the stadium carrying national flags to the sound of “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis.

Later Sunday, famed French electronic music composer Jean-Michel Jarre was to close out the ceremony which was again led by artistic director Thomas Jolly.

His intention this time was to turn the stadium into a giant open-air dance party. More than 20 DJs, including Etienne de Crecy, Martin Solveig and Kavinsky, were to perform in a tribute to French electro music to the theme “Journey of the Wave.”

Or the wave goodbye from the 64,000 fans, and the city itself, to the more than 4,000 Paralympic athletes.

Summer vibes kept going

After the successful Olympics showcased the vibrancy of fans from around the world and the beauty of the city’s iconic venues, there were doubts that the energy would keep going into the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympics.

Those doubts were dispelled, with athletes enjoying strong support. Not all venues were sold out, but this was also because the summer holiday period was ending and children were returning to school.

A surge of enthusiasm saw 2.4 million tickets of the 2.8 million tickets sold — second only to the 2.7 million sold at the 2012 London Games — and this was some feat considering that by late June only 1 million had been sold.

Large swathes of Parisians vacated — some say fled — the city amid concerns over traffic chaos, political upheaval, social tensions and growing fears over security.

But locals who stayed or French fans coming in from other towns and cities gave their athletes huge support over both Games.

French success on and off the track

In the Olympics, France tallied 16 golds among its 64 medals to finish fifth overall in the medal count, and it won 75 medals overall in the Paralympics.

The Games themselves were a success for French President Emmanuel Macron. Transport ran well, there were very few organizational glitches and security issues were appeased, with police even engaging in friendly banter or posing for photos with fans — a rarity in France.

For how long the feel-good factor stays remains to be seen.

An early indication came on Saturday, when thousands took to the streets to protest the president’s appointment of a conservative new prime minister.

There were some boos for Macron when he was introduced at the start of the ceremony.

Plus ça change, as the French saying goes.
…

Paris — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Sunday urged President Emmanuel Macron to hold a referendum on key issues such as immigration, suggesting that giving the French a direct vote might help break the political deadlock.

Last week Macron appointed the center-right Michel Barnier, a 73-year-old former foreign minister who acted as the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, as prime minister, seeking to move forward after June-July snap elections that resulted in a hung parliament.

But analysts say the country is set for a period of instability, with Barnier’s hold on power seen as fragile and dependent on support from Le Pen’s eurosceptic, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party, which is the largest party in the new National Assembly.

A left-wing coalition, which emerged as France’s largest political bloc after the elections, although short of an overall majority, is also piling pressure on Barnier.

More than 100,000 left-wing demonstrators rallied across France on Saturday to protest against his nomination and denounce Macron’s “power grab.”

Le Pen, who leads RN lawmakers in parliament, has said her party would not be part of the new cabinet.

‘Power to decide directly’

On Sunday, she urged Macron to conduct a referendum on key issues such as immigration, health care and security to give the people a direct vote.

The RN “will unreservedly support any approach aimed at giving people the power to decide directly”, Le Pen said, speaking in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, the far-right’s traditional stronghold.

“Emmanuel Macron himself, in the chaos he has created, has levers to keep our democracy live,” she added.

To prevent the RN from having an absolute majority and forming a government, around 200 candidates stood down ahead of the final round of the snap legislative polls in July, sparking the far-right’s outrage.

Le Pen also indicated she would watch Barnier’s every move.

“If, in the coming weeks, the French are once again forgotten or mistreated, we will not hesitate to censure the government,” she added.

Speaking to reporters, Le Pen, 56, also said she expected France to hold new legislative elections “within a year.”

“This is good because I think that France needs a clear majority,” she said.

The left-wing coalition has also vowed to topple Barnier with a no-confidence motion.

The alliance wanted Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist, to become prime minister, but Macron quashed that idea, arguing that she would not survive a confidence vote in the hung parliament.

Competent and likeable

According to a poll released on Sunday, the French are largely satisfied with the appointment of Barnier as prime minister, but believe he will not last long in his new post.

Fifty two percent of people polled said they were satisfied with the appointment of Barnier, according to the Ifop poll for the Journal du Dimanche.

By comparison, 53% of respondents approved the nomination of Barnier’s predecessor, Gabriel Attal, when he was appointed prime minister in early January, becoming France’s youngest-ever premier at 34.

According to the poll, a majority of respondents see Barnier, the oldest prime minister in the history of modern France, as competent (62%), open to dialogue (61%) and likeable (60%).

However, 74% of respondents polled believe he would not last long in the post.

Ifop polled 950 adults online on September 5-6. The margin of error was up to 3.1 points.
…

Paris — Tens of thousands of pupils in France are going through a slightly different return to school this autumn, deprived of their mobile phones.

At 180 “colleges,” the middle schools French children attend between the ages of 11 and 15, a scheme is being trialed to ban the use of mobile phones during the entire school day.

The trial of the “pause numerique” (“digital pause”), which encompasses more than 50,000 pupils, is being implemented ahead of a possible plan to enforce it nationwide from 2025.

Right now, pupils in French middle schools must turn off their phones. The experiment takes things further, requiring children to hand in their phones on arrival.

It is part of a move by President Emmanuel Macron for children to spend less time in front of screens, which the government fears is arresting their development.

The use of “a mobile phone or any other electronic communications terminal equipment” has been banned in nurseries, elementary schools and middle schools in France since 2018.

In high schools, which French children attend between the ages of 15 and 18, internal regulations may prohibit the use of a cell phone by pupils in “all or part of the premises.”

Bruno Bobkiewicz, general secretary of SNPDEN-Unsa, France’s top union of school principals, said the 2018 law had been enforced “pretty well overall.”

“The use of mobile phones in middle schools is very low today”, he said, adding that in case of a problem “we have the means to act.”  

Improving ‘school climate’

The experiment comes after Macron said in January he wanted to “regulate the use of screens among young children.”

According to a report submitted to Macron, children under 11 should not be allowed to use phones, while access to social networks should be limited for pupils under 15.

With an increasing amount of research showing the risks of excessive screen time for children, the concern has become a Europe-wide issue.  

Sweden’s Public Health Agency said this week children under the age of two should be kept away from digital media and television completely and it should be limited for more senior ages.

One of Britain’s biggest mobile network operators, EE, has warned parents they should not give smartphones to children under the age of 11.

The French education ministry hopes that the cellphone-free environment would improve “school climate” and reduce instances of violence including online harassment and dissemination of violent images.

The ministry also wants to improve student performance because the use of telephones harms “the ability to concentrate” and “the acquisition of knowledge.”

The experiment also aims to “raise pupils’ awareness of the rational use of digital tools.”

Jerome Fournier, national secretary of the SE-UNSA teachers’ union, said the experiment will seek “to respond to the difficulties of schools for which the current rule is not sufficient,” even if “in the vast majority of schools it works.”

‘Complicated to implement’

According to the education ministry, “it is up to each establishment to determine practical arrangements,” with the possibility of setting up a locker system.

Pupils will have to hand in their phones on arrival, putting them in boxes or lockers. They will collect them at the end of classes. The ban also extends to extracurricular activities and school trips.

But the enforcement of the measure across all schools in France from January 2025 could be expensive.

According to local authorities, the measure could cost “nearly 130 million euros” for the 6,980 middle schools in France.

If a phone goes missing from a locker, this would also cause an added financial problem.

Education Minister Nicole Belloubet said on Tuesday that the ban would be “put in place gradually.”

“The financial costs seem quite modest to me,” she added.

Many are sceptical.

For the leading middle and high school teachers’ union Snes-FSU, the ban raises too many questions.

“How will things work on arrival?” wondered the head of the union, Sophie Venetitay. “How will things work during the day,” she said, adding that some students have two mobile phones.  

The SE-UNSA teachers’ union also expressed reservations.

“We’re going to need staff to manage arrivals, drops-off and departures, and the collection of mobile phones,” said Fournier. 

“Sometimes pupils just have time to put their things away when classes end, and run to the bus so as not to miss it,” he added.

Bobkiewicz of SNPDEN-Unsa, France’s top union of school principals, agreed.

He said he did not want to rummage through pupils’ bags to look for their phones.

“It’s going to be complicated to implement.” 
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VENICE, ITALY — Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language movie “The Room Next Door,” which tackles the hefty themes of euthanasia and climate change, won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

Starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, the film received an 18-minute standing ovation when it premiered at Venice earlier in the week — one of the longest in recent memory.

Almodovar is a darling of the festival circuit and was awarded a lifetime achievement award at Venice in 2019 for his bold, irreverent and often funny Spanish-language features.

He also won an Oscar in the best foreign language category for his 1999 film “All About My Mother.”

Now aged 74, he has decided to try his hand at English, focusing his lens on questions of life, death and friendship. Speaking after collecting his prize, he said euthanasia should not be blocked by politics or religion.

“I believe that saying goodbye to this world cleanly and with dignity is a fundamental right of every human being,” he said, speaking in Spanish.

He also thanked his two female stars for their performances.

“This award really belongs to them, it’s a film about two women and the two women are Julianne and Tilda,” he said.

While “The Room Next Door” had been widely tipped to win, the runner-up Silver Lion award was a surprise, going to Italian director Maura Delpero for her slow-paced drama set in the Italian Alps during World War Two — “Vermiglio.”

Australia’s Nicole Kidman won the best actress award for her risqué role in the erotic “Babygirl,” where she plays a hard-nosed CEO, who jeopardizes both her career and her family by having a toxic affair with a young, manipulative intern.

Kidman was in Venice on Saturday, but did not attend the awards ceremony after learning that her mother had died unexpectedly.

France’s Vincent Lindon was named best actor for “The Quiet Son,” a topical, French-language drama about a family torn apart by extreme-right radicalism.

Road to Oscars

The best director award went to American Brady Corbet for his 3-1/2 hour-long movie “The Brutalist,” which was shot on 70mm celluloid and recounts the epic tale of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor played by Adrien Brody, who seeks to rebuild his life in the United States.

“We have the power to support each other and tell the Goliath corporations that try and push us around: ‘No, it’s three-and-a-half hours long and it’s on 70mm,” he told the auditorium Saturday.

The festival marks the start of the awards season and regularly throws up big favorites for the Oscars, with eight of the past 12 best director awards at the Oscars going to films that debuted at Venice.

The prize for best screenplay went to Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega for “I’m Still Here,” a film about Brazil’s military dictatorship, while the special jury award went to the abortion drama “April,” by Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili.

Among the movies that left Venice’s Lido island empty-handed were Todd Phillips’s “Joker: Folie à Deux,” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, the sequel to his original “The Joker” which claimed the top prize here in 2019.

Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer,” with Daniel Craig playing a gay drug addict, and Pablo Larrain’s Maria Callas biopic “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie as the celebrated Greek soprano, also won plaudits from the critics but did not get any awards.

The Venice jury this year was headed by French actress Isabelle Huppert.
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paris — A Paris court in May detained and charged a couple on accusations that they were involved in Iranian plots to kill Jews in Germany and France, police sources told Agence France-Presse.

Authorities charged Abdelkrim S., 34, and his partner Sabrina B., 33, on May 4 with conspiring with a criminal terrorist organization and placed them in pretrial detention. 

The case, known as “Marco Polo” and revealed Thursday by French news website Mediapart, signals a revival in Iranian state-sponsored terrorism in Europe, according to a report by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) seen by AFP. 

“Since 2015, the Iranian (secret) services have resumed a targeted killing policy,” the French security agency wrote, adding that “the threat has worsened again in the context of the Israel-Hamas war.” 

The alleged objective for Iranian intelligence was to target civilians and sow fear in Europe among the country’s political opposition as well as among Jews and Israelis. 

Iran is accused of recruiting criminals, including drug lords, to conduct such operations. 

Abdelkrim S. was previously sentenced to 10 years in prison in a killing in Marseille and released on probation in July 2023. 

He is accused of being the main France-based operative for an Iran-sponsored terrorist cell that planned acts of violence in France and Germany. 

A former fellow inmate is believed to have connected the suspect with the cell’s coordinator, a major drug trafficker from the Lyon area who likely visited Iran in May, according to the DGSI. 

The group intended to attack a Paris-based former employee at an Israeli security firm and three of his colleagues residing in the Paris suburbs. 

Three Israeli-German citizens in Munich and Berlin were also among the targets. 

Investigators believe that Abdelkrim S., despite his probation, made multiple trips to Germany for scouting purposes, including travels to Berlin with his wife. 

He denied the accusations and said he simply had purchases to make. 

French authorities are also crediting the cell with plots to set fire to four Israeli-owned companies in the south of France between late December 2023 and early January 2024, said a police source. 

Abdelkrim S. rejected the claims, saying he had acted as a go-between on Telegram for the mastermind and other individuals involved in a planned insurance scam, the source added. 
…

BELGRADE, Serbia — A pride march Saturday in Serbia’s capital pressed for the demand that the populist government improve the rights of the LGBTQ+ community who often face harassment and discrimination in the conservative Balkan country. 

The march in central Belgrade was held under police protection because of possible attacks from right-wing extremists. Organizers said assailants had assaulted a young gay man in Belgrade two days ago and took away his rainbow flag.

Serbia is formally seeking entry into the European Union, but its democratic record is poor. Serbia’s LGBTQ+ community is demanding that authorities pass a law allowing same-sex partnerships and boosting other rights. 

“We can’t even walk freely without heavy (police) cordons securing the gathering,” said Ivana Ilic Sunderic, a resident of Belgrade. 

The event Saturday was held under the slogan ‘Pride are people.’ It also included a concert and a party after the march. 

Participants carried rainbow flags and banners as they danced to music played from a truck. The crowd passed the Serbian government headquarters and the National Assembly building. 

Dozens of Russians who fled the war in Ukraine and the regime of President Vladimir Putin could be seen at the march. Mikhail Afanasev said it was good to be there despite the Belgrade Pride being cordoned off by police. 

“I came from Russia where I am completely prohibited as person, as gay, (a) human being,” he said, referring to the pressure on gay people in Russia. “We want to love, we want to live in a free society, and to have those rights like all other people have.” 

No incidents were reported. Regional N1 television said that a small group of opponents sang nationalist and religious songs at one point along the route, carrying a banner that read “Parade-Humiliation” 

Western ambassadors in Serbia, opposition politicians and liberal ministers from the Serbian government joined the event. But the right-wing Belgrade mayor openly opposed the Pride gathering. 

Pride marches in Belgrade had been marked in the past by tensions and sometimes skirmishes and clashes between extremist groups and police. The populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic in 2022 first banned a pan-European pride event in Belgrade but later backed down and allowed the march to take place. 
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LONDON — The heads of the U.S. CIA and Britain’s spy service said in an op-ed on Saturday that “staying the course” in backing Ukraine’s fight against Russia was more important than ever and they vowed to further their cooperation there and on other challenges.

The op-ed in the Financial Times by CIA Director William Burns and Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, was the first ever jointly authored by heads of their agencies.

“The partnership lies at the beating heart of the special relationship between our countries,” they wrote, noting that their services marked 75 years of partnership two years ago.

The agencies “stand together in resisting an assertive Russia and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” they said.

“Staying the course (in Ukraine) is more vital than ever. Putin will not succeed in extinguishing Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence,” they said, adding their agencies would continue aiding Ukrainian intelligence.

Russian forces have been slowly advancing in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian troops have been occupying a large swath of Russia’s Kursk region and Kyiv has been pleading for more U.S. and Western air defenses.

The spy chiefs said their agencies would keep working to thwart a “reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe by Russian intelligence” and its “cynical use of technology” to spread disinformation “to drive wedges between us.”

Russia has denied pursuing sabotage and disinformation campaigns against the U.S. and other Western countries.

Burns and Moore noted that they had reorganized their agencies to adapt to the rise of China, which they called “the principle intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st Century.”

The agencies, they said, also “have exploited our intelligence channels to push hard restraint and de-escalation” in the Middle East, and are working for a truce in Gaza that could end the “appalling loss of life of Palestinian civilians” and see Hamas release hostage it seized in its Oct. 7 assault on Israel.

Burns is the chief U.S. negotiator in talks to reach a deal.
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As Kyiv continues its offensive inside Russia and the Russian army nears a key hub in Ukraine’s Donbas region, leaders of more than 50 nations, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, met in Germany on Friday to help get Kyiv the support it seeks. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports.
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A Russian missile strike on the historic Ukrainian town of Lviv on September 4 killed at least seven people and damaged parts of the city’s historic downtown. On Thursday, rebuilding began, even as the city mourned the dead. Omelyan Oshchudlyak reports. Camera: Yuriy Dankevych.
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washington — Russia, Iran and China are ramping up efforts to impact the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and down-ballot races, targeting American voters with an expanding array of sophisticated influence operations.

The latest assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies, shared Friday, warns that Russia remains the preeminent threat, with Russian influence campaigns seeking to boost the chances of Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

Russian actors, led by networks created by the Kremlin-backed media outlet RT, “are supporting Moscow’s efforts to influence voter preferences in favor of the former president and diminish the prospects of the vice president,” a senior intelligence official told reporters, briefing on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

“RT has built and used networks of U.S. and other Western personalities to create and disseminate Russia-friendly narratives while trying to mask the content in authentic Americans’ free speech,” the official said.

And RT, the official added, is just part of a growing Kremlin-directed campaign that is looking to impact not just the race for the White House, but smaller elections across the United States, with an added emphasis on swing states.

“Russia’s influence apparatus is very large and it’s worth highlighting that they have other entities that are active,” the official said. “Russia is working up and down ballot races, as well as spreading divisive issues.”

Tracking the Russian influence efforts has become more difficult, with U.S. officials saying that there is a greater degree of sophistication and an increased emphasis on amplifying American voices with pro-Russian views rather than seeding social media with narratives crafted in the Kremlin.

“It’s not just about Russian bots and trolls and fake social media persona, although that’s part of it,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told VOA Friday.

“We’re not taking anything for granted,” he added. “There’s no question that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has every intent to try to sow discord here in the United States, to try to pump disinformation and Russian propaganda through to the American people, through what he believes were our credible sources, be they online or on television and we have to take that seriously.”

The intelligence officials declined to share additional specifics about Russia’s network of influence operations. But indictments Wednesday from the U.S. Justice Department have shed some light on the scope of the Kremlin’s recent operations.

In one case, the U.S. charged two employees of RT with using fake personas and shell companies to funnel almost $10 million to Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based company producing videos and podcasts for a stable of conservative political influencers.

The aim, prosecutors said, was to produce and disseminate content promoting what Moscow viewed as pro-Russian policies.

In a separate action, the U.S. seized 32 internet domains linked to an operation directed by a key aide to Putin. The aim, U.S. officials said, was to mimic legitimate U.S. news sites to spread Russian-created propaganda.

RT publicly ridiculed the allegations while some of the influencers working with Tenet posted statements on the X social media platform saying they were unaware of the company’s links to Moscow.

As for the latest U.S. intelligence allegations, the Russian Embassy in Washington has yet to respond to VOA’s request for comments, though it has described previous accusations as “Russophobic.”

Requests for comment to the Trump and Harris campaigns have also, so far, gone unanswered.

But earlier U.S. intelligence assertions of Russian support for Trump have raised the ire of the Trump campaign, which has pointed to public statements by Russia’s Putin supporting Trump’s opponents.

“When President Trump was in the Oval Office, Russia and all of America’s adversaries were deterred, because they feared how the United States would respond,” national press secretary for the Trump campaign, Karoline Leavitt, told VOA in an email this past July.

U.S. intelligence officials, however, said it would be a mistake to put any faith in Putin’s words, including public comments Thursday expressing support for Harris.

The U.S. intelligence community “does not take Putin’s public statements as representative of Russia’s covert intentions,” the senior official said. “There are many examples over the past several years where Putin’s public statements do not align with Russian actions. For example, his comments that he would not invade Ukraine.”

Experts say Iran, China trying to influence results

U.S. intelligence agencies Friday emphasized Russia is not alone in its effort to shape the outcome of the U.S. elections in November, warning both Tehran and Beijing are sharpening their influence campaigns with just about 60 days until America voters go to the polls.

“Iran is making a greater effort than in the past to influence this year’s elections, even as its tactics and approaches are similar to prior cycles,” the intelligence official said, describing a “multi-pronged approach to stoke internal divisions and undermine voter confidence in the U.S. democratic system.

U.S. intelligence agencies previously assessed that Iran has focused part of its efforts on denigrating the Trump campaign, seeing his election as likely to worsen tensions between Tehran and Washington.

U.S. officials last month also blamed Iran for a hack-and-leak operation targeting the Trump campaign, though they said that Iran-linked actors have also sought to infiltrate the Harris campaign.

As for China, U.S. intelligence officials said it appears Beijing is still content to stay out of the U.S. presidential race, seeing little difference between Trump and Harris.

But there are indications China is accelerating its efforts to impact other political races.

U.S. intelligence “is aware of PRC [People’s Republic of China] attempts to influence U.S. down-ballot races by focusing on candidates it views as particularly threatening to core PRC security interests,” the official said.

“PRC online influence actors have also continued small scale efforts on social media to engage U.S. audiences on divisive political issues, including protests about the Israel-Gaza conflict and promote negative stories about both political parties,” the official added.

‘Malicious speculations against China’

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, Friday, rejected the U.S. intelligence assessment.

“China has no intention and will not interfere in the U.S. election, and we hope that the U.S. side will not make an issue of China in the election,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA in an email.

Liu added that accusations Beijing is using social media to sway U.S. public opinion “are full of malicious speculations against China, which China firmly opposes.”

While U.S. intelligence officials have identified Russia, Iran and China, as the most prominent purveyors of disinformation, they are not alone.

Officials have said countries like Cuba are also engaging in influence operations, though at a much smaller scale.

And other countries are edging closer to crossing that line.

“We are seeing a number of countries considering activities that, at a minimum, test the boundaries of election influence,” according to the U.S. assessment. “Such activities include lobbying political figures to try to curry favor with them in the event they are elected to office.”

Misha Komadovsky contributed to this report.
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Ukraine has a new foreign minister, one of the latest moves as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy embarks on the largest overhaul of his administration since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports on the appointment of nine new ministers in the Cabinet shakeup. Videographer: Daniil Batushchak
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Paris — France’s far-right National Rally (RN) is exerting outsize power over President Emmanuel Macron and his new Prime Minister Michel Barnier, rivals said on Friday, a day after the veteran politician got the job with tacit support from the RN.

Macron named former 73-year-old Barnier, a conservative and a former Brexit negotiator, as prime minister on Thursday, capping a two-months-long search following his ill-fated decision to call a legislative election that delivered an unruly hung parliament.

France’s next prime minister faces the daunting task of trying to drive reforms and the 2025 budget through a hung parliament, as France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its deficit.

The RN gave tentative support to Barnier’s nomination by saying it would not immediately try to vote it down, but made clear it could withdraw support at any point if its concerns on immigration, security and pocketbook issues were not met.

Marine Le Pen’s party had vetoed other possible prime ministers Macron had considered over the past weeks.

“Today, we have a prime minister who is completely dependent on the RN,” said Lucie Castets, the prime ministerial pick of the leftist alliance that came top in the July vote, but who was overlooked by Macron after it failed to secure an absolute majority.

“In so doing, the president has put himself in cohabitation with the RN,” she said, referring to the term used in France when the president governs with a prime minister from a rival party. The left is organizing protests across the country on Saturday.

After hoping to win the snap election following a strong showing in the first round, the RN came third when voters and other parties, especially to the left, rallied to keep it out of power in the run-off round.

But appointing Barnier after the RN signaled it would not block him is making the government’s dependent on the RN’s goodwill, said Sacha Houlie, an MP who used to belong to Macron’s camp.

“It’s now the far right that makes the kings or queens,” Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure said on France Inter radio.

Neither Barnier, who has started meetings with parties on the right and center to pull together a government, nor Macron have made any comment on this or responded to criticism from the opposition.

‘At Le Pen’s mercy’?

Similar criticism were also made by some abroad.

“Barnier must not become prime minister at Le Pen’s mercy,” said Anton Hofreiter, chair of the German parliament’s Committee on European Union Affairs and a member of the Greens.

“I don’t expect any progressive ideas from the new prime minister. I can only hope that Barnier will draw on his many years of European experience and strengthen common European policies.”

Much attention will now focus on who Barnier seeks to name to his cabinet. Some ministers from the outgoing government may continue but Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who did not seek re-election as an MP, was unlikely to be among them, two sources told Reuters, saying Le Maire wanted to move on.

“Barnier’s choice for the finance ministry will therefore be crucial to reassure Brussels and financial markets that France can emerge safely from a dangerously intertwined political and fiscal crisis over the next three months,” Eurasia analysts said.

Government sources said Macron would like Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu to stay on in the new Cabinet.

Meanwhile, RN lawmaker Laurent Jacobelli sought to play down the far right’s power over the new government.

“We are in the opposition, clearly … We are not giving anyone the green light,” he said on France 2. “We will not be the political force that leads France into the wall by systematically opposing everything and creating chaos.”

The RN, whose priority is the 2027 presidential election and consequently wants to be seen by voters as responsible, also seemed to consider it had no interest in prolonging the past weeks’ political uncertainty, Eurasia said.

That same line of thinking could also prompt them to hesitate before bringing Barnier’s government down.

Eurointelligence analysts, noting that Barnier, a moderate, career politician, considerably toughened his discourse on immigration during his failed 2021 bid to get his party’s ticket for the presidential election, said: “The left parties will have to digest their defeat, while the RN could extract more dividends.”
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