Nation & world news – at a glance – for Saturday, September 23, 2023

New Jersey senator accused of brazen bribery plot, taking cash and gold

Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the Democratic chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was charged Friday with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including bars of gold bullion, to wield his power abroad and at home. The three-count federal indictment depicts a brazen plan hatched during furtive dinners, in text messages and on encrypted calls — much of it aimed at increasing U.S. assistance to Egypt and aiding businessmen in New Jersey. Menendez’s wife, Nadine, is accused of acting as a go-between, passing messages to an American Egyptian businessman, Wael Hana, who maintained close connections with Egyptian military and intelligence officials, the indictment said.

Prosecutor dismisses last criminal charge in inmate’s death

No one will be held criminally responsible for the death nearly four years ago of a man who exclaimed, “I can’t breathe,” as officers tried to remove his handcuffs at a North Carolina jail. Last week, the Forsyth County district attorney, dropped an involuntary manslaughter charge against the remaining defendant in the case, Michelle Heughins, a nurse indicted in the death of John Neville, 56. Neville died Dec. 4, 2019, at a hospital three days after he was booked into jail. During his first night in custody, Neville experienced a medical emergency. According to an autopsy report, officers at the jail restrained Neville on his stomach for 12 minutes after he fell from a bed.

Dallas mayor switches to GOP and attacks Democratic leaders

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced Friday that he had switched his party affiliation to become a Republican, saying that leaders in the Democratic Party had focused on “virtue signaling” and had not done enough to help residents of the nation’s cities. The decision was surprising for its timing: Johnson was reelected to a second term last year after running unopposed, and cannot run for a third. But the move appeared in line with how he had increasingly been positioning himself politically: At his second inauguration, Johnson was joined by Texas’ two Republican U.S. senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn.

First batch of Biden emails undercuts GOP claims

When House Republicans pressing to impeach President Joe Biden discovered that the government had redacted emails in which he had used aliases to communicate while he was vice president, they demanded to see the full copies, alleging a cover-up of explosive evidence of wrongdoing. Even Democrats were alarmed about the content of the correspondence, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the Oversight Committee, claimed in media interviews, saying they might link Biden to son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine. In fact, the first 14 pages of unredacted material yielded little for Democrats to panic about. The redactions were for personal information, according to people familiar with the emails.

Biden creates federal office of gun violence prevention

President Joe Biden on Friday announced a new office dedicated to gun violence prevention, his latest effort to combat a growing national crisis through executive action instead of the more sweeping reforms that would require congressional approval. The office will be led by Vice President Kamala Harris, who pursued gun safety measures when she was California’s top prosecutor. Its focus will be on helping the administration coordinate gun policy and pressing congressional leaders to act on the issue. “We all want our kids to have the freedom to learn how to read and write instead of duck and cover, for God’s sake,” Biden said in the Rose Garden.

Genetically modified pig’s heart is transplanted into a second patient

Surgeons in Baltimore have transplanted the heart of a genetically altered pig into a man with terminal heart disease who had no other hope, the University of Maryland Medical Center announced Friday. It is the second such procedure performed by the surgeons. The first patient, David Bennett, 57, died two months after his transplant, but the pig heart functioned well and there were no signs of acute organ rejection, a major risk in such procedures. The second patient, Lawrence Faucette, 58, a Navy veteran and married father of two in Frederick, Maryland, underwent the transplant surgery Wednesday and is “recovering well and communicating with his loved ones,” the center said.

Another step for Ukraine: armored vehicles breach some Russian defenses

For weeks, Ukrainian forces have been probing Russian defenses in the southeast, looking for an opening to push armored vehicles behind the main Russian line. But artillery fire and Russian counterattacks had been too intense to allow Ukrainian armor to pass. This week, though, Ukrainian armored vehicles advanced past Russia’s main anti-tank defenses at one front-line location, according to reconnaissance video and commanders, showing slight progress in Ukraine’s halting counteroffensive. A drone reconnaissance unit commander said the vehicles had advanced near Verbove, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region. But the vehicles are confined to slender routes through minefields and have little room to maneuver, he added.

French far-right leader may face trial on embezzlement charges

After a seven-year investigation, the Paris prosecutor’s office requested Friday that far-right leader Marine Le Pen and more than 20 members of her National Rally party stand trial for embezzlement of funds from the European Parliament from 2004-16. The case has centered on whether party members who were representatives in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, along with assistants, used money allocated to cover expenses for party costs that had nothing to do with parliamentary functions. If convicted, Le Pen faces a possible 10-year prison sentence, a fine of 1 million euros ($1.1 million) and 10 years of ineligibility for public office, the prosecutor’s office said.

Biden officials focus on African crises at United Nations gathering

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with African leaders seeking to restore Niger’s democratically elected government to power, capping a week at the United Nations in which the Biden administration worked to deliver on promises of support. In a sign of the instability threatening Africa’s potential for economic growth and independence, several leaders spoke about a scourge of coups that has spread across the continent — eight in the past three years — as President Joe Biden has tried to promote democracy. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu told the annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly that the military overthrows reflect widespread failures to improve African lives.

Pope defends migrants’ plight in Marseille before meeting with Macron

Pope Francis lamented Friday that the Mediterranean Sea had become a “huge cemetery” for migrants attempting to reach Europe, on the first day of his visit in the port city of Marseille, France, where he is expected to meet with President Emmanuel Macron. Francis, who is attending the closing session of a weeklong gathering of bishops, youth activists and representatives of other religions, said the world needed to react “with deeds, not words.” He also castigated the “fanaticism of indifference” toward migrants — a recurring theme of his papacy. “They are names and surnames, they are faces and stories, they are broken lives and shattered dreams,” Francis said.

Kashmir’s chief cleric, detained in crackdown, is free after 4 years

Kashmir’s chief cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is also a top separatist leader and vocal critic of the Indian government, was released from house arrest after four years and allowed to lead prayers Friday, a move that may signal New Delhi’s efforts to bring some normalcy to the region. In 2019, India revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status and turned it into two federally controlled enclaves. At the time, the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi detained thousands of Kashmiri Muslims, among them Farooq, and moved tens of thousands of troops into the region. Even pro-India leaders were jailed.

India’s moon lander misses wake-up call after successful mission

As the sun rose Friday over the lunar plateau where India’s Vikram lander and Pragyan rover sit, the robotic explorers remained silent. The Indian Space Research Organization, India’s equivalent of NASA, said mission controllers on the ground had sent a wake-up message to Vikram. The lander did not reply. Efforts will continue, but this could well be the conclusion of Chandrayaan-3, India’s first successful space mission to the surface of another world. But the mission had some success: After landing in August, the rovers drove around the moon’s surface studying their surroundings, measuring underground temperatures, identifying elements in the lunar soil and listening for moonquakes.

By wire sources