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Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other leading technology executives have signed a White House accord that commits their companies to internal controls, independent audits and board-level scrutiny as they develop increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems.

President Donald Trump described the voluntary agreement as “morally binding” and said the companies would largely police themselves.

The agreement is titled the White House Accord on Superintelligence Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibility. It sets common expectations for companies building advanced AI models.

The safeguards include internal risk reviews, outside evaluators and independent reviews by company boards. The accord does not create legally enforceable standards or a government regulator.

Pichai, an Indian-born technology executive, said the industry had been asked to take greater responsibility for addressing potential risks.

“I think this movement is historic and consequential, and I think there are extraordinary benefits to this technology,” Pichai said.

“We have to make sure we are addressing the risks, and the president has asked us as an industry to step up,” he added.

Pichai said the companies were adopting processes similar to financial controls used by major corporations.

Trump said the accord amounted to a form of protection against the misuse of advanced AI.

“I think it’s morally binding,” Trump said. “It’s all self-regulating.”

He said the administration was also considering a committee of about 10 people to monitor the industry. No final membership, authority or enforcement structure was announced.

“I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police,” Trump said.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the companies wanted to assure the public that their products would operate as intended.

He said the accord called for “robust internal controls” and systems to detect problems. It also required internal risk reviews, external auditors and independent scrutiny by boards of directors.

“The idea isn’t that this is the only thing that we will ever do,” Zuckerberg said. “It is that this is a start and an accord that the whole industry could come to.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang rejected the suggestion that safety requirements must slow technological progress.

“There’s no conflict between innovation, technology, and safety,” Huang said.

“We’re going to advance this technology that is so consequential to humanity, is so consequential to the future prosperity of our nation. We’re going to do it responsibly and safely,” he added.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei struck a more cautious note. He said AI offered major benefits, including advances in medicine, but also carried serious dangers.

“I think the technology has very real risks, and you know, the mechanism how we address those risks is still under discussion,” Amodei said.

Trump maintained that companies had strong commercial incentives to prevent failures because their reputations and businesses were at risk. He said the Justice Department, FBI and CIA would pursue criminals who misused the technology.

The accord comes as governments worldwide debate whether voluntary company commitments are sufficient for systems capable of influencing employment, security, elections and access to information. The European Union has adopted binding, risk-based AI rules, while the United States has relied more heavily on executive action, agency guidance and company commitments.

–IANS

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Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) US Vice President JD Vance dismissed fears that artificial intelligence could turn into a “Skynet”-like force capable of taking control of nuclear weapons and unleashing killer robots, but warned that powerful frontier models already pose significant cybersecurity risks.

Vance said some public discussion surrounding artificial intelligence, now being called “super intelligence” by the Trump administration, had become excessively pessimistic and detached from the more immediate risks posed by the technology.

Speaking after a White House meeting with technology industry leaders, Vance said President Donald Trump wanted the administration to respond to Americans’ concerns without allowing fear to drive policy.

“You have a lot of doomerism about AI or super intelligence as we’re now calling it,” Vance said.

He said popular perceptions of AI were sometimes shaped by science-fiction scenarios.

“I think a lot of Americans, when they think of AI or SI, they think, ‘Oh my God, this is Skynet,’ right?” Vance said.

“They think the terminators are gonna come and take over everything and, you know, take over our nuclear weapons and have the robots running around killing people. And that’s just not gonna happen.”

“That’s actually not gonna happen,” he added.

Vance, however, drew a distinction between such scenarios and risks arising from how AI products are designed and deployed.

“What could happen is you have people who are building AI tools, not actually being careful about what they’re doing, about the responsibility they have to build products that actually work, that don’t hurt people, et cetera, et cetera,” he said.

Vance said developers should take responsibility for the products they create instead of asking the government to impose regulations on them.

He said the administration wanted an AI debate centred on ensuring that systems worked safely while holding companies accountable.

Vance later identified cyber capabilities as one of the most evident dangers already associated with advanced AI models.

“I think the most obvious negative use case of the Frontier models up to this point is the cyber capability,” he said.

“We have seen some of these models, by the way, they’ve been trained this way, but they have remarkable ability to enable hackers to hack into systems.”

Vance said the response should include giving technology companies stronger tools to protect their systems.

“The best weapon against cyber offense is good cyber defense,” he said.

The Vice President argued that companies vulnerable to AI-enabled attacks were well placed to develop defensive technologies capable of patching software and protecting computer systems.

Vance also stressed competition among technology companies as part of the administration’s approach to managing AI risks.

He said robust competition and existing product liability rules could provide important safeguards without immediately imposing an extensive new regulatory system.

“Let’s actually try what has worked in the past,” Vance said. “And if it doesn’t work in the future, then build it out from there.”

“Let’s not just throw a massive new regulatory regime against a problem that could make it worse,” he said.

Vance said regulations could play a legitimate role in improving safety and did not necessarily have to impede technological innovation. But he argued they had to be carefully constructed.

“Regulations can actually make us safer and they can be consistent with innovation, but only if they’re careful and only if they’re deliberate,” he said.

–IANS

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United Nations, Sep 30 (IANS) General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman intends to lead the process of Security Council reform which is bogged down for about two decades, according to his Spokesperson Melissa Summers.

“He will follow the intergovernmental negotiation (IGN) process (for reform), which is mandated and ongoing”, she said on Tuesday.

“He intends to lead the Assembly clearly in this process, and follow the wishes and desires of the groups and the member states”, she said.

Asked by a reporter if Rahman intended to take any steps to speed up the process, she said, “He emphasises the need for action in all of his priorities” and added she would have no further comment.

The momentum of the demand for reform of the Council, mired in the post-World War II geopolitical architecture of 1945, has grown with Africa’s demands for permanent seats taking centre stage at the recent high-level meeting of the General Assembly.

Summers said, “He spoke very candidly about Africa’s need for representation. He is very clear on this”.

At the start of the high-level meeting last week, Rahman said the Council must be “more representative, transparent and reflective of the geopolitical realities of our time”.

“Ensuring fair representation for underrepresented regions must remain a priority and nowhere is this more important, right now, than in Africa”, he said.

“After eight decades,” he said, “the largest region by number of Member States and a key focus of UN Peacekeeping, remains underrepresented on the Security Council. Africa needs to be at the table, not on the menu”.

Nations from across the world picked up on that theme, with a majority of countries at the meeting last week calling for reforms and backing Africa’s claim.

India, which is demanding a permanent seat at the Council, has also repeatedly backed permanent seats for Africa.

At the Africa Day celebrations in August, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, “India is a strong votary of Africa’s rightful place in a reformed United Nations Security Council”.

“We similarly seek your support to ensure India’s permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council”, he added.

–IANS

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Rabat, Sep 30 (IANS) Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, national coordinator of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), as the country’s new prime minister, the royal palace said.

El Mansouri becomes Morocco’s first female head of government.

The PAM won 97 of 395 seats in the House of Representatives, parliament’s lower house, in the parliamentary elections held on Sept. 23, finishing first, reports Xinhua news agency.

Under the constitution, the king appoints the prime minister from the party with the most seats, which then forms a government.

Morocco’s Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) won the most seats in Wednesday’s parliamentary election, according to preliminary results released by the Interior Ministry.

The PAM secured 97 seats in the 395-member House of Representatives, followed by the National Rally of Independents with 66 seats and the Istiqlal Party with 65 seats, Moroccan Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit said.

The Justice and Development Party won 54 seats, ranking fourth, according to the results.

Of the 395-seat House of Representatives, 305 are contested through local electoral constituencies, while the remaining 90 are allocated exclusively to women through regional lists.

According to the Interior Ministry, a total of 7,288 candidates were registered nationwide, representing 28 political groups in the election.

Women accounted for 2,658 of the candidates registered for the election, representing 36.47 per cent of the total, it added.

Morocco has a bicameral parliament consisting of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. The 2026 election determines the members of Morocco’s House of Representatives across the country’s 12 regions.

The election of the House of Councillors is scheduled for 2027.

The major parties are the National Rally of Independents, the Authenticity and Modernity Party, and the Istiqlal Party, which formed the outgoing government.

They competed alongside the Justice and Development Party, which led coalition governments following the 2011 and 2016 general elections, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, the Popular Movement, and the Party of Progress and Socialism.

–IANS

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Geneva, Sep 30 (IANS) The Baloch National Movement (BNM) held a photo exhibition outside the United Nations Office in Geneva, drawing attention to enforced disappearances, collective punishment, and other human rights abuses by Pakistani authorities in Balochistan.

The exhibition displayed photographs depicting the plight of forcibly disappeared Baloch persons and the suffering of their families.

According to BNM, the event aimed to highlight the dire situation in Balochistan at the international level and bring evidence of enforced disappearances to the attention of international institutions.

The group described enforced disappearance in Balochistan as not merely a claim or a statistic, but a painful reality affecting thousands of families.

It further said that the “photographs displayed at the exhibition represent families who have been waiting for years for the return of their loved ones and for answers about their whereabouts.”

Highlighting the worsening human rights crisis in Balochistan, the BNM said that despite protests by the families of forcibly disappeared, the long march by Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, and prolonged hunger strikes in Balochistan, no effective action has been taken internationally on the issue.

The group said its global campaign is “an effort to bring this question, in the form of documentation and photographic evidence, to an international platform such as the United Nations.”

Referring to Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leader Mahrang Baloch, the BNM said that she first raised her voice against the enforced disappearance of her father when she was a young girl and has since emerged as a prominent voice for Baloch rights. The group said that she has faced multiple cases for her struggle for Baloch rights and was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2026 by a Pakistani court in what it described as a“false case.”

The BNM also cited the cases of its chairperson Naseem Baloch’s father, Muhammad Bakhsh Sajidi, his uncle, Naeem Sajidi, and his maternal uncle, Rafiq Baloch, who were allegedly forcibly disappeared by the Pakistan Army during raids on their homes in the Hub region of Balochistan on February 2, 2026. Since then, their whereabouts remain unknown, while the issue was also raised in an Early Day Motion in the British Parliament.

Through the exhibition in Geneva, the BNM presented “photographs of victims of enforced disappearances to international institutions and the international community” and called for the deteriorating human rights situation in Balochistan to be taken seriously at the global level.

–IANS

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Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) The US Navy has awarded Boeing a contract worth more than $20 billion to develop its sixth-generation F/A-XX strike fighter, a carrier-based aircraft designed to eventually replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler beginning in the 2030s.

The Department of War announced the award on Tuesday, describing the F/A-XX as part of the Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, programme.

The contract covers the full-scale development phase and includes multiple test aircraft for ground, airworthiness, systems and weapons integration testing.

“The F/A-XX is a critical pillar in our commitment to maintaining peace through strength. F/A-XX will dominate contested airspace, extend operational reach, and deliver a decisive combat advantage for the warfighter,” said Michael P. Duffey, Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment.

“The F/A-XX platform represents a crucial, non-negotiable investment in America’s national security and long-term air combat capabilities. We are joining forces with Boeing to field these capabilities rapidly, ensuring our warfighters possess the lethal and highly networked systems required to deter aggression, project undisputed power, and secure absolute air superiority.”

The new aircraft will give the Navy advanced carrier-based power projection and extend the reach of US aircraft carriers, according to the department.

A significant feature of the programme will be the fighter’s ability to work with both crewed and uncrewed aircraft.

The F/A-XX will be interoperable with manned and unmanned platforms, including Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA. The department said the fighter would also increase the capability of every CCA with which it operates.

“This achievement marks a new era for the US Navy,” said acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao.

“The Sixth-Generation fighter is a generational leap in air superiority and will provide the world’s best aviators with unparalleled capabilities to fight, win, and come home safe. We are excited to partner with Boeing, and for our warfighters to continue to dominate the skies and defeat our nation’s enemies.”

Following the contract award, Boeing will develop and deliver the platform to augment the Navy’s existing carrier air fleet before eventually replacing its legacy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers beginning in the 2030s.

The F/A-XX will also operate alongside the F-35C, giving the Navy a mix of fifth- and sixth-generation combat aircraft aboard its carriers.

The award puts Boeing at the centre of one of the US military’s major efforts to develop a new generation of combat aircraft. The programme is intended to combine longer operational reach with advanced networking and the ability to operate alongside autonomous aircraft.

–IANS

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Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) A senior US lawmaker has warned that neither the United States nor China would emerge a winner if humans lose control of advanced artificial intelligence, as he pressed Chinese AI companies and the US intelligence community for safeguards against potentially catastrophic biological, nuclear and economic consequences.

Congressman Ro Khanna, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, sought answers from DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI on their plans for artificial general intelligence and superintelligence.

“Neither the US nor China wins if humans lose control of this technology or misaligned AI triggers a global economic, biological, or nuclear crisis,” Khanna wrote to executives of the Chinese companies.

He sent letters to DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu and Moonshot AI CEO Yang Zhilin.

Khanna also wrote separately to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, seeking two formal assessments from the US intelligence community about the threat from increasingly powerful AI.

His intervention follows a September 23 congressional hearing that examined the possibility of a binding, enforceable and verifiable US-China agreement to deal with catastrophic AI risks.

Khanna is seeking information from the three Chinese companies about five areas, including recursive self-improvement, artificial general intelligence and superintelligence, emergency “kill switches”, model testing and international verification.

He wants the companies to explain whether they are developing, or intend to develop, AI systems capable of recursively improving themselves and what safeguards would prevent humans from losing control of such systems.

The companies were also asked for their plans and timelines for developing artificial general intelligence or superintelligence.

Khanna wants to know whether they are developing mechanisms capable of disabling highly advanced AI systems if humans lose control.

He also sought information about how models are tested before release, including whether tests take place in air-gapped environments and whether systems are screened for capabilities that could pose threats to humanity, including the development of dangerous biological capabilities.

The congressman asked whether Chinese AI laboratories would participate in US-China technical working groups to develop technologies for verifying compliance with a future international AI agreement and whether they would permit independent inspections.

“Simply put, it is clear we cannot gamble the future of humanity on whether AI companies – including Chinese companies like yours – will responsibly self-regulate,” Khanna wrote.

Khanna had previously asked DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI to join American AI laboratories in a commitment to “pace the frontier” by slowing development of increasingly advanced systems until safeguards could catch up.

The Chinese companies did not respond by the September 22 deadline.

Khanna sharply criticised them in his latest letters, citing what he described as their involvement in human rights abuses, censorship, support for China’s military and intelligence services, and illicit distillation of US models.

“With every refusal by your companies to participate in this effort to seek a verifiable global slowdown of AI development to benefit all of humanity, you only strengthen the case for a binding and enforceable AI treaty between our governments,” he wrote.

Khanna is simultaneously seeking an assessment from the US intelligence community of America’s ability to respond if control of an advanced AI system were lost.

He also wants an intelligence assessment of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s and the Chinese Communist Party’s understanding of catastrophic AI risks, including misalignment and the possible use of advanced systems to facilitate biological, chemical or nuclear harm.

Khanna urged US intelligence agencies to develop capabilities to monitor Chinese frontier AI laboratories. He has also proposed joint US-China technical working groups involving leading scientists to develop verification technologies for an eventual international agreement.

“History will look back at this moment, the choices made by humanity as we potentially approach the Rubicon of superintelligence or AGI, and either celebrate our foresight or condemn our inaction,” Khanna wrote.

AI has also become part of the wider US-China technology rivalry, which includes restrictions on advanced semiconductors and scrutiny in Washington of Chinese access to American technology and computing capabilities.

–IANS

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Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered the military services to stop appointing civilian faculty to tenured positions at the country’s military service academies, arguing that tenure can lead to academic stagnation and divert the institutions from their central mission of preparing officers for war.

The directive, issued Tuesday, requires the military departments to immediately end the practice of granting tenure to civilian faculty and develop new hiring plans that give the academies greater flexibility in selecting and retaining teachers.

“The primary purpose of our Military Service Academies (MSA) is to prepare the next generation of officers to lead the men and women of the greatest military on Earth,” Hegseth said in the memorandum.

“To ensure our educational institutions remain firmly focused on this warfighting mission, we must address the structural mechanisms that have allowed civilian academic norms to dilute our focus on lethality,” he said.

The move is part of a broader effort by the Department of War to reshape military education around what it describes as lethality, readiness and tactical dominance.

The department said Hegseth had directed the military departments to “immediately terminate the practice of appointing civilian faculty to tenured positions at the U.S. Military Service Academies”.

The secretary singled out tenure as one of the structural practices he believes has weakened the academies’ focus on their military mission.

“Tenure often leads to academic stagnation, faculty complacency, and institutional inability to adapt to emerging needs,” Hegseth said.

“Additionally, it contributes to curriculum that drifts from the mission of educating our warfighters to the research priorities of the tenured academics,” he added.

The directive does not call for an end to civilian faculty at the academies. Instead, it changes the terms under which future civilian academic appointments are to be made.

Hegseth ordered the secretaries of the military departments to cease appointing civilian employees to tenured positions and create new hiring plans focused on institutional flexibility and the contribution of faculty to the warfighting mission.

The Department of War said the new system would allow the academies to place greater emphasis on faculty contributions to military readiness and ensure that future officers are prepared to lead service members on the modern battlefield.

The one-page memorandum, titled “Refocusing the Military Service Academies on Warfighter Education”, was addressed to senior Pentagon leadership, defence agency chiefs and Department of War field activity directors.

–IANS

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Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) US President Donald Trump and leaders of some of the world’s most powerful technology companies have signed a White House accord committing themselves to safeguards, independent audits and board-level oversight as they develop and deploy advanced “super intelligence” systems.

The “White House Accord on Super Intelligence”, described as a “Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities”, was signed by Trump and leaders of leading technology giants. The signatures appear on the accord released by the White House on Tuesday.

The agreement calls on companies developing frontier technology to establish multiple layers of controls aimed at ensuring their systems operate safely and as intended.

“In order to build a positive future for the American people and the world, we believe every company is responsible for developing its own technology safely and in a way that builds trust with customers and the public,” the accord says.

Under the commitment, companies would implement robust internal controls to monitor the capabilities and alignment of their models during training and deployment.

The safeguards would cover areas including cybersecurity, biosecurity and chemical threats. Companies would also have controls designed to ensure their models do not hack or gain access to technical systems in unintended ways.

A second layer would require companies to empower an internal team to ensure that controls, monitoring and detection systems are operating as intended and that problems are remedied.

The companies also commit to bringing in an independent external auditor or evaluator to assess whether those safeguards are working.

A fourth layer would elevate oversight to the corporate boardroom. Each company would designate an independent committee of its board of directors to oversee the process, receive reports from internal and external auditors and evaluators, and ensure that identified problems are addressed.

“Together, these steps will give each company, its customers, and the public confidence that the technology is operating as intended,” the accord says.

The participating companies will also meet regularly to establish standards and best practices to improve the safety of their systems.

The accord leaves open the possibility that the voluntary safeguards could eventually become mandatory.

“Over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations,” the document says.

“Regardless of whether this is required of companies, we believe that implementing these controls and audits is critical to ensuring a safe future for everyone, and each of our companies are committed to doing this.”

The accord was signed by Trump along with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, xAI founder Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

The accord came on the same day Trump signed an executive order directing the executive branch to replace the terms “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in official government usage.

Trump said the new terminology better reflected the capabilities of the technology.

“This isn’t — this is extreme intelligence. It’s superior intelligence. It’s, supreme also intelligence, but the word super is the best word of all and it’s the simplest,” Trump said at the White House event.

Trump also framed the development of the technology as a strategic competition, particularly with China.

“Whoever wins super intelligence wins,” he said. “You’re going to have a winner and a loser, and you’re probably not going to have a second place.”

The White House has increasingly put advanced computing at the centre of its technology and economic agenda. Earlier Trump administration actions focused on accelerating innovation, expanding infrastructure and strengthening the security of advanced systems. As recently as June, the administration’s executive orders still formally used the term “Artificial Intelligence”.

The latest actions mark a broader shift in that policy framework. Alongside the industry accord and the change in terminology, the administration launched America.gov, a new digital gateway for federal services that the White House says will use “Super Intelligence” to help Americans navigate government information and services.

–IANS

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Washington, Sep30 (IANS) US Vice President JD Vance warned against shielding artificial intelligence companies from liability for their products, arguing that developers of powerful frontier models must take responsibility for safety rather than turn to Washington for sweeping new regulations.

Vance warns AI Vance also cautioned against “cartel-like activity” among the biggest AI companies and said the administration wanted strong competition as the technology develops.

Following a White House meeting with technology industry leaders, Vance said President Donald Trump wanted companies to take AI risks seriously without automatically creating a large new regulatory structure.

“What I think would be a huge mistake is to give, for example, Section 230 protections to some of the new technology companies,” Vance said.

“That actually shields them from liability rather than making them more responsible,” he said.

Vance said it would also be a “huge mistake” to allow major developers to operate collectively in ways that weakened competition.

“We don’t want the four or five biggest model companies, and some of these guys, these companies, by the way, are run by very smart, earnest people, very good people, I have nothing against these companies, but I want those companies to compete against one another, not to join in a sort of unified cartel against the American consumer,” he said.

The Vice President said the administration was seeking a balance between innovation and safety as increasingly powerful AI — now being called “super intelligence” by the administration — becomes more widely deployed.

Vance rejected alarmist predictions that advanced AI would inevitably escape human control.

“I think a lot of Americans, when they think of AI or SI, they think, ‘Oh my God, this is Skynet,’ right? They think the terminators are gonna come and take over everything and, you know, take over our nuclear weapons and have the robots running around killing people. And that’s just not gonna happen,” he said.

But Vance acknowledged risks if companies fail to exercise sufficient care in developing their systems.

“If you’re building a terrible, terrible thing, then stop and build something good,” he said. “Don’t come to the government and regulate.”

He said existing product liability principles could provide an important foundation for dealing with AI-related harms.

Vance pointed to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice as existing agencies capable of responding when products violate consumer rights, fail to work as advertised or cause harm.

He expressed reservations about creating an AI equivalent of agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration or Federal Aviation Administration.

“Most bureaucrats just know way less about this, uh, than- than, uh, the people who are actually building these products,” he said.

Vance said regulations could improve safety while remaining compatible with innovation, but only if they were carefully designed.

“I don’t think anybody regulates well in the middle of a panic. COVID should have taught us that,” he said.

He also identified cyber capabilities as one of the clearest risks emerging from frontier models, saying some systems had a “remarkable ability” to help hackers penetrate computer systems.

“The best weapon against cyber offense is good cyber defense,” Vance said.

He argued that competition and antitrust enforcement could help prevent a small group of dominant companies from controlling the emerging industry while leaving room for smaller companies and new entrants.

“You have to make it possible for a young upstart to, to actually enter these industries, to compete in these industries,” he said.

–IANS

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Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) The US Senate has passed bipartisan legislation seeking sanctions against officials responsible for forced organ harvesting in China.

The Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act was led by Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The legislation would impose sanctions on officials responsible for forced organ harvesting in China and direct the US Secretary of State to report to Congress on the Chinese Communist Party’s organ harvesting policies and transplant system.

“The Chinese Communist Party continues to target Falun Gong practitioners through its brutal, state-sponsored organ harvesting industry,” Cruz said following Senate passage.

“These atrocities are an assault on religious liberty and fundamental human rights. I am proud to have worked with Senator Merkley to get this bipartisan bill through the Senate, and I urge my colleagues in the House to pass it and send it to the President’s desk,” he said.

The Senate action moves the legislation to its next stage in Congress. It would need approval from the House before it could be sent to the President.

Merkley cited reports of forced organ harvesting involving vulnerable groups in China.

“China’s campaign of repression and human rights abuses continues to have horrific consequences, including reports of forced organ harvesting from vulnerable groups across the PRC,” he said.

“We must stand up for the victims of these crimes, and our bipartisan effort holds the Chinese government accountable for its abuses,” Merkley added.

The measure has drawn support from senators from both parties.

Its co-sponsors include Republican Senators Todd Young, Ron Johnson, Mike Rounds, Roger Marshall, Dave McCormick and James Lankford, as well as Democratic Senators Adam Schiff, Ron Wyden, Catherine Cortez Masto and Raphael Warnock.

Cruz and Merkley introduced the bipartisan legislation in March 2026. Cruz had separately introduced the Falun Gong Protection Act in March 2025.

The legislation focuses in particular on allegations involving Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Falun Gong was founded by Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s and expanded rapidly during that decade.

Chinese authorities outlawed the movement in 1999 and launched a campaign against its activities.

According to the material released by Cruz’s office, Chinese authorities have carried out mass arrests and torture of Falun Gong practitioners and detained thousands in labour camps. It also says some practitioners have been subjected to forced organ harvesting.

The legislation seeks to use sanctions as a mechanism for holding individuals responsible for such practices accountable.

It also seeks greater information from the State Department about China’s transplant system and the Chinese Communist Party’s policies relating to organ harvesting.

The Senate’s passage comes as human rights remain a persistent source of friction in US-China relations. American lawmakers from both parties have pursued legislation and congressional scrutiny over issues including religious freedom, treatment of dissidents and China’s policies in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

–IANS

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Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) Two Chinese nationals have been charged with using US passports belonging to real American citizens to try to enter the United States from Mexico, in a case federal prosecutors said raises serious national security concerns.

Jin Fu Wei, 44, of Guangxi Province in China, and Xiaodan Lei, 47, of Henan Province, were charged with misuse of a passport, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The two had been in federal custody since their arrest last month and were expected to make their initial appearances in US District Court in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

“Thanks to the diligent work of customs officers, two Chinese nationals attempting to use U.S. passports belonging to real American citizens were detained and now face federal felony charges,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said.

“This case is not only a criminal matter. It also raises serious national security concerns when foreign citizens are able to enter the United States under false identities. We have a right to know exactly who is crossing our borders and what their intentions are,” he said.

According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, Wei and Lei travelled on August 26 aboard a commercial flight from Los Cabos International Airport in Mexico to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California.

When they arrived at the US port of entry, prosecutors allege that both presented US passports belonging to actual American citizens to Customs and Border Protection officers.

The attempt was detected after biometric checks.

Customs officers determined that biometric identifiers associated with the passports did not match Wei and Lei, according to the Justice Department.

Facial recognition scans of the two Chinese nationals did not match the scanned US passports they had presented.

Authorities also discovered another discrepancy.

Neither Wei nor Lei’s name appeared on the flight manifest, the official document identifying the passengers and crew aboard an aircraft.

Law enforcement officers then detained the two for further review of their admissibility into the United States.

Investigators also recovered documents from Wei that prosecutors say further indicated the American identity he presented was not his own.

Wei was carrying a Chinese credit card and a Chinese bank card bearing his own name rather than the name of the person whose US passport he allegedly used.

He also possessed an expired Texas driver’s licence belonging to the legitimate holder of the US passport, according to the Justice Department.

–IANS

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