Vatican: Francis stable, out of ‘imminent danger’ of death

The Vatican issued an update Saturday on the health of Pope Francis, who remains in Rome’s Gemelli hospital under the care of doctors, saying that while his prognosis remains “complex,” the pope is no longer in “imminent danger” of death.
On Friday, the Vatican’s Holy See Press Office announced that since Francis’ condition is now considered stable, barring any major developments, updates on his health will be less frequent. The 88-year-old pontiff has spent four weeks in the hospital and is receiving treatment for double pneumonia.
Medical bulletins from the pope’s doctors, which had been almost a daily occurrence since his admission to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14, will be issued only when there is new information, the press office said Friday. The office emphasized that Francis’ recovery is progressing, but that it will require time to make sure the improvements continue.
This also means the Holy See’s daily morning update about how the pope spent the night will no longer be issued, which leaves only the evening news briefing for journalists.
The Vatican said that this is a “a positive sign” for the Catholic faithful, meaning that no news is essentially good news.
Francis is continuing his prescribed medical treatments, which included motor physiotherapy Friday. He alternates between noninvasive mechanical ventilation at night and high-flow oxygenation with nasal cannulas during the day, according to the Vatican.
Francis had part of a lung removed as a young man after a pulmonary infection and has in recent years battled recurring bouts of bronchitis.
On Thursday, the press office said Francis celebrated the 12th anniversary of his papal election surrounded by health care staff.
Part of the pope’s hospital stay comes during the Christian season of Lent. It is the annual 40-day period of prayer, fasting and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. Lent began on March 5.

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Starmer: ‘Sooner or later’ Russia must yield to peace

Britain’s leader encouraged his global counterparts to continue pushing for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine at the start of a virtual meeting Saturday intended to end the fighting between the two countries.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a virtual meeting of mostly European leaders that “sooner or later” Russia would have to engage in talks on reaching a ceasefire in the three-year conflict.
He addressed the group, described as a “coalition of the willing,” of mostly European leaders as well as those from Australia, New Zealand and Canada but not the United States.
“Sooner or later, he’s going to have to come to the table,” Starmer said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump urged Moscow to accept a ceasefire deal agreed to by U.S. and Ukrainian delegations in Saudi Arabia, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said “the ball is in Russia’s court.”
Putin has said he agrees with a ceasefire in theory, but Russia still has certain conditions and questions that must be addressed before accepting any agreement.
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that Putin is stalling and has demanded so many preconditions “that nothing will work out at all.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. has expanded sanctions on Russian oil and gas as well as its financial sectors.
Saturday’s discussion among world leaders could address future military and financial support for Ukraine and Zelenskyy’s security concerns if a peace deal is reached. Zelenskyy attended Saturday’s online video session.

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NASA, SpaceX launch crew to space station to retrieve stuck astronauts

The replacement crew for the International Space Station was launched late Friday, paving the way for the return home of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two NASA astronauts stuck on the space station for nine months.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:03 p.m. from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying Crew-10 members: NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov. The crew is part of a routine six-month rotation.
Crew-10 and the Dragon spacecraft are expected to reach the space station around 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
Returning to Earth alongside Wilmore and Williams will be NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Their return is scheduled for Wednesday, to allow for an overlap of the two crews to brief the new team.
Wilmore and Williams arrived aboard the International Space Station in June 2024 and expected to stay in space for about 10 days. But their return was delayed after mechanical issues with their spacecraft, which, after weeks of troubleshooting was subsequently sent back to Earth without them. Their return was continually pushed back due to other technical delays.

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Starbucks hit with $50 million fine for spilled drink injury

A California jury Friday imposed a $50 million fine on Starbucks in the case of a delivery driver burned by a scalding cup of hot tea at a company location in Los Angeles.
Michael Garcia was picking up three drinks in 2020 but one, he claimed, was “negligently” unsecured and spilled in his lap. He claimed that he consequently “suffered severe burns, disfigurement, and debilitating nerve damage to his genitals” and he was taken to an emergency room by paramedics.
“Michael Garcia’s life has been forever changed,” his attorney, Nick Rowley, said.
“No amount of money can undo the permanent catastrophic harm he has suffered, but this jury verdict is a critical step in holding Starbucks accountable for flagrant disregard for customer safety and failure to accept responsibility,” he added.
Starbucks said it planned to appeal the verdict.
“We sympathize with Mr. Garcia, but we disagree with the jury’s decision that we were at fault for this incident and believe the damages awarded to be excessive,” company spokesperson Jaci Anderson said in a statement.
“We have always been committed to the highest safety standards in our stores, including the handling of hot drinks,” she added.

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Trump vows accountability for those who pursued him in court cases

U.S. President Donald Trump promised to seek accountability for those who pursued legal cases against him when he was out of office, speaking Friday at the Justice Department.
“Our predecessors turned this Department of Justice into the Department of Injustice. But I stand before you today to declare that those days are over, and they are never going to come back. They’re never coming back,” Trump said.
During his years out of office, the department twice indicted Trump on charges that he illegally stored classified documents at his Florida estate and that he worked to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Both cases were dismissed after Trump won election in November, with the department citing a long-standing policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
“Now, as the chief law enforcement officer in our country, I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred. The American people have given us a mandate, a mandate like few people thought possible,” Trump said.
Trump has fired prosecutors who investigated him during the Biden administration and scrutinized thousands of FBI agents who investigated some supporters of the president who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Representative Jamie Raskin, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called Trump’s speech a “staggering violation of [the] traditional boundary between independent criminal law enforcement and presidential political power.”
Speaking outside Justice shortly after Trump spoke, Raskin said, “No other president in American history has stood at the Department of Justice to proclaim an agenda of criminal prosecution and retaliation against his political foes.”
Trump has long been critical of both the department and the FBI. He has installed political allies into top leadership positions at both of those agencies. FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi attended Friday’s talk.
In introducing Trump, Bondi said, “We all work for the greatest president in the history of our country. … He will never stop fighting for us, and we will never stop fighting for him and for our country.”
During his speech, Trump promised “historic reforms” at the agencies and said, “Under the Trump administration, the DOJ and the FBI will once again become the premier crime fighting agencies on the face of the Earth.”
His speech had echos of his campaign rallies, with music blaring from speakers before Trump entered the department’s Great Hall and his address hitting on some of the main themes from his campaign, including border security and fighting violent crime.
On crime, Trump said that homicides, property crime and robberies rose during the Biden administration.
“I have no higher mission as president of the United States than to end this killing and stop this law breaking and to making America safe again. And that’s what you’re all about in this room. We want to protect Americans, and we protect everybody that’s in our country,” he said.

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US to expel South Africa ambassador as relations deteriorate

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday that South Africa’s ambassador to Washington had been declared persona non grata, signaling worsening relations between the two countries.
In a post on X, Rubio said South Africa’s ambassador to the U.S., Ebrahim Rasool, was “no longer welcome in our great country.”
“Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS [President of the United States].”
There has been no immediate response from South Africa’s embassy in Washington.
Rubio’s move came amid tense relations between the U.S. and South Africa. President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order suspending aid to South Africa over a controversial land expropriation act that Trump said would lead to the takeover of white-owned farms. Trump also said that South African farmers were welcome to settle in the United States.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a post on X, defended his government’s measure.
“We are guided by the Constitution, which places a responsibility on the state to take measures to redress the effects of past racial discrimination,” he said.
“We have expressed concern about the mischaracterisation of the situation in South Africa and certain of our laws and our foreign policy positions,” Ramaphosa said after Trump signed the executive order in early February.

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Russian foreign minister exaggerates Russia-China relations, ignores nuances

Relations between Russia and China are indeed closer than at any point since the 1950s, but they are shaped more by pragmatism, economic necessity and shared opposition to Western influence than by deep trust or historical affinity.

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US government shutdown likely averted; Democrats fracture

The U.S. Senate is set to pass a stopgap spending bill Friday that would avert a partial government shutdown, although many Democrats are expressing anger over plans by their party’s leadership to support the measure.
The measure cleared its first Senate hurdle early Friday evening, 62-38.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the bill earlier this week to meet a March 14 deadline to keep the government running.
Senate Democrats have fractured over whether to support the short-term continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government for the next six months, reduce total government spending by about $7 billion from last year’s levels and shift money to the military and away from non-defense spending.
Much of the party’s anger Friday was directed at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who announced Thursday night that while he disliked the bill, a shutdown was a “far worse option.”
Speaking on the Senate floor Friday morning, Schumer said not passing the Republican funding bill would give more power to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort led by Elon Musk, including which agencies would be shut down.
“A shutdown would allow DOGE to shift into overdrive,” he said.
Dozens of House Democrats, who opposed the funding measure in the lower chamber, sent a letter to Schumer on Friday, expressing their “strong opposition” to his plan to vote for the bill.
Former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Senate Democrats to go against their leader.
In a Friday statement, she wrote, “America has experienced a Trump shutdown before — but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse.”
Trump has called on Congress to pass the funding bill and on Friday praised Schumer for supporting it. “Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing — Took ‘guts’ and courage!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Appropriations bills require a 60-vote threshold for passage in the Senate, which means Republicans need to secure at least eight Democratic votes.
Schumer previously called for the Senate to pass an earlier version of the CR that Democrats were involved in negotiating.
“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort. But Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input, any input, from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said on the Senate floor late Wednesday.
The House passed the short-term spending measure Tuesday by a vote of 217-213. One Democrat voted for the bill and one Republican against it. The chamber went out of session for the rest of the week starting Tuesday afternoon, putting pressure on senators to pass its version of the CR.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson quelled dissent from within his Republican Party to pass the spending measure. He told reporters Tuesday the seven-month continuing resolution was an important step toward implementing Trump’s agenda of rooting out government waste and abuse through DOGE.
“It allows us to move forward with changing the size and scope of the federal government. There is a seismic shift going on in Washington right now. This is a different moment than we have ever been in. The DOGE work is finding massive amounts of fraud, waste and abuse,” Johnson said. “We have a White House that is actually dedicated to getting us back onto a fiscally responsible track.”
Independent watchdogs and analysts, however, say DOGE is using overly broad claims of fraud to generate support for large-scale cuts to federal programs and offices.
Representative Thomas Massie was the lone Republican holdout, despite Trump’s post Monday night on Truth Social calling for Massie to lose his seat if he voted against the spending measure.
The continuing resolution buys lawmakers time to reach a compromise on Senate and House versions of government spending for the next fiscal year, which begins in October, a key tool for implementing Trump’s domestic policy agenda.
At question is how and when to enact a proposed extension of the 2017 tax cuts and how to pay down the U.S. deficit without cutting key safety net programs that help American voters.

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US envoy says Hamas misrepresented release of hostage

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said a Hamas statement issued Friday announcing it had agreed to release an American-Israeli soldier was, in reality, a condition of a “bridge” ceasefire proposal offered by U.S. officials earlier this week.
Early Friday, the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas issued a statement saying it had agreed to release Edan Alexander, believed to be the last living American hostage held in Gaza, as well as the bodies of four other hostages after receiving a proposal from mediators to resume negotiations on the second phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal.
The statement said the proposal had been offered by unnamed mediators as part of the work in Qatar to restart ceasefire negotiations. The United States, Egypt and host Qatar have been mediating the ceasefire talks.
Hamas expressed its “complete readiness to begin negotiations and reach a comprehensive agreement on the issues of the second phase.”
Later Friday, in a joint statement issued along with the National Security Council, Witkoff’s office explained he and National Security Council Senior Middle East Director Eric Trager had presented the bridge proposal to extend the current ceasefire beyond Ramadan and Passover and allow time to negotiate a framework for a permanent ceasefire.
In the statement, Witkoff said that under the proposal, Hamas would release additional living hostages in exchange for prisoners, and that the extension of the phase-one ceasefire would allow more time for humanitarian aid to resume into Gaza.
He said the U.S. had its Qatari and Egyptian mediating partners convey to Hamas “in no uncertain terms” that the new proposal would have to be implemented soon and Edan Alexander would have to be released immediately.
“Unfortunately, Hamas has chosen to respond by publicly claiming flexibility,” Witkoff said in the statement, “while privately making demands that are entirely impractical without a permanent ceasefire.”
In a statement released on the X social media platform, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that while Israel had accepted “the Witkoff framework,” Hamas “continues to wage psychological warfare against hostage families.”
The statement went on to say that the prime minister would convene his ministerial team Saturday evening for a detailed briefing from the negotiating team and “decide on steps to free the hostages and achieve all our war objectives.”
Hamas is believed to be holding 24 living hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered its war with Israel. The group also is holding the bodies of 34 others who were either killed in the initial attack or in captivity, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in 2014.
In comments to FOX Business news Friday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she was wary of taking Hamas statements at face value but emphasized that U.S. President Donald Trump was working “diligently” to bring hostages home.
Witkoff told reporters at the White House early in March that gaining the release of Alexander was a “top priority.”
A ceasefire has been in place since January. During the first phase of the three-phase ceasefire, Hamas exchanged 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Israel has been pressing Hamas to accept an extension of the first phase, which ended March 2. Hamas had said it wanted to move to the second phase of the agreement, which would involve the release of more hostages and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

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G7 urges Russia to accept ceasefire or face further sanctions

CHARLEVOIX, QUEBEC, CANADA — Top diplomats from the Group of Seven leading democracies urged Russia on Friday to accept a U.S.-proposed ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war or face the possibility of additional sanctions.
“We called for Russia to reciprocate by agreeing to a ceasefire on equal terms and implementing it fully,” the diplomats said in a joint statement from the site of their talks talks in Canada. “We discussed imposing further costs on Russia in case such a ceasefire is not agreed, including through further sanctions, caps on oil prices, as well as additional support for Ukraine, and other means.”
The statement said the G7 countries affirmed their “unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity and right to exist, and its freedom, sovereignty and independence.”
The statement comes as the Kremlin said that much remains to be done on a Ukraine ceasefire deal, signaling its reluctance to fully endorse the U.S. proposal.
The White House said U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that U.S. officials would convene this weekend after Witkoff returns to Washington to closely examine Russia’s position and determine the next steps.
“Suffice to say, I think there is reason to be cautiously optimistic. But by the same token, we continue to recognize a difficult and complex situation,” Rubio told reporters following his meetings with counterparts.
On Friday, Canadian Foreign Minister Malie Joly said, “All G7 foreign ministers agree with the U.S. proposal of a ceasefire that is supported by Ukrainians,” and the focus now is on Russia’s response.
She added, “The ball is now in Russia’s court when it comes to Ukraine.”
British foreign minister David Lammy echoed this sentiment during interviews with the media, saying, “there is unity that now is the time for a ceasefire with no conditions. Ukraine has set their position out. It is now for Russia to accept it.”
Lammy also noted that a “coalition of the willing” is forming to provide Ukraine with the necessary “security architecture” and monitoring mechanisms to support the ceasefire.
The G7 joint statement comes as the Kremlin said that much remains to be done on a Ukraine ceasefire deal, signaling its reluctance to fully endorse the U.S. proposal.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin still awaits answers after raising several questions about the ceasefire’s implementation.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Putin’s response as “deliberately” setting conditions that complicate and “drag out the process.”
“An unconditional 30-day interim ceasefire is the first crucial step that could bring us significantly closer to a just and lasting peace,” Zelenskyy wrote Wednesday in a post on the social media platform X.
The G7 talks in Charlevoix, Quebec, brought together ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
Position on China
Beyond Ukraine, G7 foreign ministers also discussed China’s role in global security, stability for the Indian and Pacific Ocean regions, and maritime security behind closed doors.
On Friday, G7 foreign ministers held a session focused on strategic challenges posed by China, North Korea, Iran and Russia. Many foreign policy analysts and military officials refer to these four nations as the “Axis of Upheaval,” describing their growing anti-Western collaboration.
The G7 joint statement said the group remains “concerned with China’s military build-up and the continued, rapid increase in China’s nuclear weapons arsenal.” They called on China “to engage in strategic risk reduction discussions and promote stability through transparency.”
The foreign ministers also reaffirmed their serious concerns over the situations in the East and South China Seas, strongly opposing any unilateral attempts to alter the status quo, particularly through force or coercion.
G7 members also emphasized the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, reiterating their opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion.
On Friday, Secretary of State Rubio told VOA during a press gaggle that he believes leaders from the U.S. and China will meet at some point.
“Whether they agree on things or not, they should communicate for the safety and well-being of the world,” Rubio said after wrapping up meetings with G7 foreign ministers.
A potential ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war could affect the U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific, as officials and analysts suggest that ending the conflict would allow Washington to redirect resources toward addressing challenges in the region.
“I don’t think an endless, ongoing conflict in Europe or in Ukraine is good for the Indo-Pacific region. It diverts a lot of the world’s attention, time and resources away from areas where we continue to see growing threats,” Rubio told VOA earlier this week during a briefing aboard a military plane.
“In many ways, we could be spending even more time focused on the Indo-Pacific if somehow we could bring peace to the European continent,” the top U.S. diplomat noted.

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Africa faces diabetes crisis, study finds

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Researchers warn that type 2 diabetes could affect millions more people in the coming decades after a study published this month revealed the disease is rising far faster among people in sub-Saharan Africa than previously thought.
Take 51-year-old security guard Sibusiso Sithole, for example. Being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes came as a shock, he said, because he walked six miles to and from work every day and never thought his weight was a problem.
Then his wife noticed changes in his health.
Since his diagnosis 13 years ago, Sithole has been on a rigorous treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure.
“I have to take six … medications every day,” he said.
Diabetes is a condition in which the body struggles to turn food into energy due to insufficient insulin. Without insulin, sugar stays in the blood instead of entering cells, leading to high blood-sugar levels. Long-term complications include heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and amputations.
The International Diabetes Federation estimated in 2021 that 24 million adults in sub-Saharan Africa were living with the condition. Researchers had projected that by 2045, about 6% of sub-Saharan Africans — over 50 million — would have diabetes.
The new study, published this month in the medical journal The Lancet, suggested the actual percentage could be nearly double that.
By tracking more than 10,000 participants in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Burkina Faso over seven years, researchers found that poor eating habits, lack of health care access, obesity and physical inactivity are key drivers of diabetes in Africa.
Dr. Raylton Chikwati, a study co-author from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, said another risk factor is living in or moving to the outskirts of cities, or “peri-urban areas.”
“Access to health care, you know, in the rural areas is a bit less than in the urban areas,” Chikwati said, adding that increased use of processed foods in the peri-urban areas was a problem.
Palwende Boua, a research associate at the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro in Burkina Faso, said long-term studies are rare in Africa but essential to understanding diseases.
“Being able to have a repeated measure and following up [with] the same people … is providing much more information and much valuable information,” Boua said, “rather than having to see people once and trying to understand a phenomenon.”
Boua is preparing a policy brief for Burkina Faso’s government to assist in the fight against diabetes.
For Sithole, managing his diabetes has been a long journey. But with treatment and lifestyle changes, he has regained control over his health.
“What I can tell people is that they must go and check — check the way they eat — because that time I was having too much weight in my body,” he said. “I was wearing size 40 that time. Now I’m wearing size 34.”
Experts stressed that Africans should get their blood-sugar level tested and seek treatment when diabetes is diagnosed.

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Chinese officials look to limit social media and screen time in China

Washington — While some youth in China admit to spending an excessive amount of time on the internet, many are skeptical about new government proposals aimed at regulating the time young Chinese spend online and on social media sites.
In conversations at China’s annual political meetings that wrapped up in Beijing this week, retired international basketball star Yao Ming, called for some limits on internet access for young people in China. Yao was advocating for a plan that would mandate children turn off all electronics for one full day every academic semester and get outside and exercise.
Officials also called for tighter controls of online gaming and cited concerns about harmful online content, warning that excessive internet use is hurting the physical health and academic performance of Chinese minors under the age of 18.
China already has some of the world’s tightest internet controls, with tens of thousands of websites, foreign social media sites and content blocked. It also has a massive online population.
On social media in China some commenters praised the efforts, but many expressed frustrations with what they viewed to be an inherent contradiction within the policies. Some noted that children are already in school most of the day and rely on internet resources to complete assignments.
“Schools should assign less homework that requires phone check-ins and online research,” wrote one user from northern Hebei Province.
“Minors get home around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. at night, so when do they even have time to use social media?” wrote another user from Beijing.
A college student in Beijing, who spoke with VOA on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said she agreed with officials’ concerns, but added that policies like the one suggested by Yao are likely to have a limited impact.
“Chinese teenagers and young people are absolutely addicted to the internet. You can find people walking on the streets looking at their phones everywhere and all the time. We use the internet to do almost everything,” the student told VOA.
“I don’t really think proposals to limit internet accessibility for young people would be effective. The addiction is always hard to get rid of, so how can a ‘limit day’ alleviate the excessive internet use?” the student said, using the word “addiction” to describe the excessive use of the internet.
According to the “2024 China Game Industry Minor Protection Report” released by the Game Working Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, as of December 2023, the number of internet users in China under the age of 18 reached 196 million, with the percentage of minors who are on the internet and can access it reaching 97.3%.
Will Wang, a Chinese student attending college in the United States, said when he returns home in Beijing during school break his impression is that the internet is used heavily in everyday life, and that teenagers are very active on social media platforms.
“There’s definitely a significant increase in screen and internet usage across all ages in China…many Chinese teenagers are deeply engaged with TikTok, RedNote, Bilibili, and many internet platforms,” Wang said in a written response to VOA.
Amid the busy academic and personal lives of young Chinese, the internet provides them with a rare space for privacy, which Wang said is fueling high levels of internet use.
“Most Chinese teenagers don’t have a lot of private space for themselves at home or at school so [the] internet is the only option, especially with their busy schedules––nearly every kid has to attend some sort of classes or studying-related activities outside of school,” Wang said. “For teenagers, if anything, [the] internet makes them more connected with their friends and the world.”
Xu Quan, a media commentator based in Hong Kong, said online spaces can have a positive effect on children, who are often overwhelmed with parental and educational expectations.
“Contrary to what some might think, the internet helps them deal with stress to a certain extent. If you were to remove the internet from their lives, that would actually be harmful to their physical and mental well-being,” Xu told VOA.
The recent proposals to limit internet use build on previous regulations regarding youth internet use. In October 2020, China revised the “Law on the Protection of Minors,” adding an “internet protection” chapter requiring that social media, gaming and live streaming platforms implement tools to limit their excessive use. The law targeted gaming addictions in particular.
A 2021 notice required strict limits on gaming time allotments for children under 18. The regulation banned gaming between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., and limited minors to no more than one hour of gaming per day on weekdays or two hours per day on weekends.
During Chinese New Year this year, Tencent Games issued a “limited play order” for minors. During the 32-day break from academics, teenagers were only permitted to play the company’s games for a total of 15 hours.
However, all of these regulations can be circumvented through using or creating accounts belonging to adults, who are not subject to the restrictions.
Despite previous momentum, A Qiang, who used to work in the Chinese media industry, thinks proposals from the recently concluded political meetings in Beijing are just talk and won’t lead to any concrete policy change.
The real way forward, he argues, is by lessening burdens impacting the quality of minors’ lives offline such as intense academic pressure.
The problem is not that they have too much freedom online but have too little freedom offline, he said.

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Report: US bird population is declining

The U.S. bird population is declining at an alarming rate, according to a report published Thursday by an alliance of science and conservation groups.
Habitat loss and climate change are among the key contributing factors to the bird population losses, according to the 2025 U.S. State of the Birds report.
More than 100 of the species studied, have reached a “tipping point,” losing more than half their populations in the last 50 years. The report revealed that the avian population in all habitats is declining, including the duck population, previously considered a triumph of conservation. “The only bright spot is water birds such as herons and egrets that show some increases,” Michael Parr, president of the American Bird Conservancy, told Reuters.
The decline in the duck population fell by approximately 30% from 2017, but duck population numbers still remain higher, however, than their 1970 numbers, according to an Associated Press account on the report.
“Roughly one in three bird species (229 species) in the U.S. requires urgent conservation attention, and these species represent the major habitats and systems in the U.S. and include species that we’ve long considered to be common and abundant,” Amanda Rodewald, faculty director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Center for Avian Population Studies told Reuters.
Included among the birds with highest losses, Reuters reported, are the mottled duck, Allen’s hummingbird, yellow-billed loon, red-faced cormorant, greater sage-grouse, Florida scrub jay, Baird’s sparrow, saltmarsh sparrow, mountain plover, Hawaiian petrel, Bicknell’s thrush, Cassia crossbill, pink-footed shearwater, tricolored blackbird and golden-cheeked warbler. Some of the birds in this “red alert” group are already protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the news agency said.
“For each species that we’re in danger of losing, it’s like pulling an individual thread out of the complex tapestry of life,” Georgetown University biologist Peter Marra. who was not involved in the new report, told AP. While the outlook may seem dire, it is not without hope, said Marra, who noted the resurgence of the majestic bald eagle.

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Exclusive: Second Iranian ship suspected of carrying missile ingredient leaves China

WASHINGTON — A second Iranian ship that Western news reports have named as part of a scheme to import a missile propellant ingredient from China is heading to Iran with a major cargo load, an exclusive VOA analysis has found. Ship-tracking websites show the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Jairan departed China on Monday, a month later than the expected departure cited by one of the news reports.
The Jairan was named in January and February articles by The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and CNN as one of two Iranian cargo ships Tehran is using to import 1,000 metric tons of sodium perchlorate from China. The three news outlets cited unnamed Western intelligence sources as saying the purported shipment could be transformed into enough ammonium perchlorate — a key solid fuel propellant component — to produce 260 midrange Iranian missiles.
The other Iranian cargo ship named in the news reports, the Golbon, completed a 19-day journey from eastern China to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on Feb. 13. During the trip, it made a two-day stop at southern China’s Zhuhai Gaolan port and delivered an unknown cargo to Iran, according to ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.
Both the Golbon and the Jairan are sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department as vessels operated by the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, which itself is sanctioned for being what the State Department has called “the preferred shipping line for Iranian proliferators and procurement agents.”
As the Golbon sailed from China to Iran in late January and early February, the Jairan’s automatic identification system transponder — a device that transmits positional and other data as part of an internationally mandated tracking system — reported the vessel as being docked at eastern China’s Liuheng Island.
In a joint review of the Jairan’s AIS data on MarineTraffic and fellow ship-tracking website Seasearcher, VOA and Dubai-based intelligence analyst Martin Kelly of EOS Risk Group determined that the Jairan reported no significant draught change while docked at Liuheng Island through February and into early March. That meant the Iranian vessel was sitting at the almost same depth in the water as when it arrived in eastern China late last year, indicating it had not been loaded with any major cargo since then.
The Jairan remained at Liuheng Island until March 3, when it headed south toward Zhuhai Gaolan and docked at the port on March 8. Two days later, the Jairan departed, reporting its destination as Bandar Abbas with an expected arrival of March 26. The Iranian ship also reported a significant draught change upon leaving Zhuhai Gaolan, transmitting data showing it was sitting more than 2 meters deeper in the water and indicating it had taken on a major cargo at the port, Kelly told VOA.
As of Friday, local time, the Jairan was in the waters of Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago, heading southwest toward the Singapore Strait.
The U.S. State Department had no comment on the Jairan’s departure from China when contacted by VOA. Iran’s U.N. mission in New York did not respond to a similar VOA request for comment, emailed on Tuesday.
Last month, the State Department told VOA it was aware of the January news reports by The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal regarding Iran’s purported use of the Golbon and Jairan to import sodium perchlorate from China.
A spokesperson said the State Department does not comment on intelligence matters but “remains focused on preventing the proliferation of items, equipment, and technology that could benefit Iran’s missile or other weapons programs and continues to hold Iran accountable through sanctions.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to the news reports in a Jan. 23 press briefing, asserting that China abides by its own export controls and international obligations and rejects other countries’ imposition of what Beijing considers illegal unilateral sanctions.
In the past month, Chinese state media have made no reference to the Jairan, while China’s social media platforms also have had no observable discussion about the Iranian ship, according to a review by VOA’s Mandarin Service.
In its Jan. 22 report, The Financial Times cited “security officials in two Western countries” as saying the Jairan would depart China in early February, but it did not leave until March 10.
Gregory Brew, a senior Iran analyst at the Eurasia Group, a New York-based political risk consultancy, said Iran may have wanted to see if the Golbon could complete its voyage from China without being interdicted before sending the Jairan to follow it.
“Ships carrying highly sensitive materials related to Iran’s missile industry, which is under U.S. sanctions, are at risk of interception, and the Iranians likely are conscious of that,” Brew said.
Eight Republican U.S. senators led by Jim Risch and Pete Ricketts sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the purported Iran-China chemical scheme dated Feb. 4, urging him to work with global partners of the U.S. “to intercept and stop the shipments currently underway” if the press reports proved accurate.
There was no sign of the Golbon being intercepted on its recent China to Iran voyage.
Responding to VOA’s query about the letter, a U.S. State Department press officer said: “We do not comment on Congressional correspondence.” Ricketts’ office also did not respond to a VOA inquiry about whether Rubio has responded to the senators’ letter.
VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this report.

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Putin says Ukrainians must ‘surrender or die’

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had trapped the remaining Ukrainian soldiers in its western Kursk region, where they have held on for more than seven months in one of the most important battles of the war.
Putin told reporters in Moscow that the situation in Kursk was “completely under our control, and the group that invaded our territory is in isolation,” according to Reuters.
Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Kursk last August to divert Russian forces away from the front lines and grab land to trade for its own occupied territory. Ukraine’s top commander denied this week that his men were being encircled.
Putin on Wednesday made a surprise visit to troops in Russia’s western Kursk region Wednesday, ordering soldiers to swiftly retake the region from Ukrainian forces.
“If a physical blockade occurs in the coming days, then no one will be able to leave at all, there will be only two ways — to surrender or die,” Putin said at the Thursday press conference, according to Reuters.
At the press conference, Putin also offered his qualified support for a U.S. ceasefire plan.
Putin’s comments came after Russian aerial attacks overnight killed at least two people in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, officials said Thursday.
Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram that his region came under attack by Russian drones and shelling, and that one other person was injured.
In the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said at least three people were hospitalized after a Russian attack hit the city of Dnipro.
Lysak said on Telegram the attack damaged multiple apartment buildings, including blowing out windows.
Officials in the Sumy region reported Thursday that Russian drones fell on a set of garages, setting about 20 of them on fire.
Ukraine’s military said Thursday it shot down 74 of the 117 drones that Russian forces launched overnight.
The intercepts took place over the Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zaporizhzhia regions, the military said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 77 Ukrainian drones, most of them in regions located along the Russia-Ukraine border.
Vladislav Shapsha, governor of the Kaluga region, said the attacks injured one person and damaged an industrial building, a communication tower and a power line.
The Russia military said it destroyed 30 of the drones over Bryansk, while officials in the region reported no damage or casualties.
Russian air defense also shot down drones over Kursk, Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod, the military said.
The daily aerial attacks continue amid a U.S. push to secure a cease-fire in the conflict. The U.S. has proposed a 30-day halt in fighting, which Ukraine has said it would accept.
U.S. officials are expected to discuss the plan with Russian officials in the coming days.
Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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VOA Mandarin: China revises PLA regulations prioritizing war readiness

Three revised regulations that dictate everything from the Chinese military’s broad mandate to soldiers’ day-to-day life are slated to take effect on April 1. The revisions have placed an emphasis on the PLA’s combat readiness and wartime conduct, the latter of which appears 49 times. Analysts say the revised regulations show the priority of the PLA’s future reform and its challenges.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.

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Shortage of Marines’ amphibious warships worrIes top US military officers

Officials tell VOA the shortage of amphibious warfare ships has reached a breaking point. While the ships make up just 10% of the fleet, they are the go-to alternative to aircraft carriers when commanders need something more precise or expedient. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb reports.

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Homeland Security, rights group to meet in court over migrants at Guantanamo Bay

PENTAGON — U.S. government lawyers are expected to face off with attorneys for civil and immigration rights groups over the use of a U.S. naval base in Cuba to hold migrants slated for deportation.
Arguments in the two lawsuits over operations at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, filed against the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem, are set for a U.S. District Court in Washington on Friday.
The suits allege that the U.S. government has overstepped its bounds by denying migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay access to legal representation and also by attempting to send migrants to the base’s facilities without the proper legal authority in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
DHS officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the upcoming hearing, but they have repeatedly denied the allegations while criticizing the groups bringing the lawsuits.
“The American Civil Liberties Union appears far more interested in promoting open borders and disrupting public safety missions than in protecting the civil liberties of Americans,” a DHS spokesperson told VOA in a statement earlier this month, declining to be named.
“They should consider changing their name,” the spokesperson added, further describing the legal challenges as “baseless.”
President Donald Trump first raised the idea of using the U.S. naval base in Cuba as part of his administration’s plans for mass deportations shortly after taking office in January.
Homeland Security’s Noem said the base, which features a secure prison to hold captured terrorists, would be used to house “the worst of the worst.”
Trump and other U.S. officials also suggested the base could be used to hold up to 30,000 migrants while they awaited deportation.
Those plans, however, never fully materialized.
The U.S. began sending what officials described as “high threat illegal aliens” to Guantanamo Bay’s detention center in early February, followed by other nonviolent migrants, who stayed at other facilities.
At times, the facilities held close to 200 detainees, many of whom were deported to Honduras, Venezuela or other countries.
But despite efforts to prepare the facilities for more migrants, capacity has been limited.
According to a U.S. defense official, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity, the prison as currently configured can hold only 130 detainees, while the base’s Migrant Operations Center and a temporary tent city can hold, at most, 550 people.
As VOA first reported, DHS officials decided to remove all 40 remaining migrants from the prison and other facilities at Guantanamo Bay this past Tuesday, flying them instead to the U.S. southern state of Louisiana.
Neither DHS nor its subagency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have responded to requests for comment on the decision to evacuate migrants from the naval base or on their status or whereabouts since being returned to the U.S. mainland.
The move — and lack of communication — has drawn criticism from immigrants’ rights groups, including some of those involved in the current litigation.
“The arbitrary and secret shuttling of people between Guantanamo and the U.S. demonstrates a complete disregard for human dignity, an affront to the rule of law, and a waste of public resources,” said the International Refugee Assistance Project’s Pedro Sepulveda.

“No one should be detained at Guantanamo,” Sepulveda added. “The Trump administration must stop these ill-conceived and cruel transfers and stop detaining immigrants at Guantanamo once and for all.”

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Ukraine peace, global security top G7 agenda as diplomats convene in Canada

CHARLEVOIX, QUEBEC — Top diplomats from the Group of Seven leading industrial nations gathered Thursday in Charlevoix, Quebec, as host country Canada outlined its top agenda, focusing on achieving a “just and lasting peace in Ukraine” and strengthening security and defense partnerships as the G7 marks 50 years.
During the opening remarks, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said, “Peace and stability is on the top of our agenda, and I look forward to discussing how we can continue to support Ukraine in the face of Russia’s illegal aggression.”
Joly also emphasized the importance of addressing maritime security challenges, citing threats such as “growing the use of growing shadow fleets, dark vessels” and “sabotage of critical undersea infrastructure.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he hopes a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine could take place within days if the Kremlin agrees. He also plans to urge G7 foreign ministers to focus on ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
The G7 talks in Quebec follow U.S.-Ukraine talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Ukraine said it is ready to accept a U.S. proposal for “an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire.”
“Ukraine is committed to moving quickly toward peace, and we are prepared to do our part in creating all of the conditions for a reliable, durable, and decent peace,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote Wednesday in a post on social media platform X.

He added that “Ukraine was ready for an air and sea ceasefire,” and “welcomed” the U.S. proposal to extend it to land.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia supports the U.S. ceasefire proposal in principle, but key details still need to be worked out.
“Ceasefire, they can’t be coming with conditions, because all these conditions just blur the picture. Either you want to end this war, or you don’t want to end this war, so we need to be very firm,” said European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas during an interview with CNN International.
“What we need to keep in mind is that Russia has invested, like over 9% of its GDP on the military, so they would want to use it,” Kallas said, adding the European nations “are massively increasing” their “defense investments.”
The G7 talks bring together ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. 
Rubio has underscored the need for monitors if a ceasefire is implemented. He told reporters on Wednesday that “one of the things we’ll have to determine is who do both sides trust to be on the ground to sort of monitor some of the small arms fire and exchanges that could happen.”
Beyond Ukraine, G7 foreign ministers also discussed China’s role in global security, Indo-Pacific stability, and maritime security behind closed doors.
Rubio is expected to have a pull-aside meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya on Thursday.

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Asteroid probe snaps rare images of Martian moon

PARIS — On the way to investigate the scene of a historic asteroid collision, a European spacecraft swung by Mars and captured rare images of the red planet’s mysterious small moon Deimos, the European Space Agency said Thursday.
Europe’s HERA mission is aiming to find out how much of an impact a NASA spacecraft made when it deliberately smashed into an asteroid in 2022 in the first test of our planetary defenses.
But HERA will not reach the asteroid — which is 11 million kilometers from Earth in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — until late 2026.
On the long voyage there, the spacecraft swung around Mars on Wednesday.
The spacecraft used the planet’s gravity to get a “kick” that also changed its direction and saved fuel, mission analyst Pablo Munoz told a press conference.
For an hour, HERA flew as close as 5,600 kilometers from the Martian surface, at a speed of 33,480 kilometers an hour.
It used the opportunity to test some of its scientific instruments, snapping around 600 pictures, including rare ones of Deimos.
The lumpy, 12.5-kilometer-wide moon is the smaller and less well-known of the two moons of Mars.
Exactly how Deimos and the bigger Phobos were formed remains a matter of debate.
Some scientists believe they were once asteroids that were captured in the gravity of Mars, while others think they could have been shot from a massive impact on the surface.
The new images add “another piece of the puzzle” to efforts to determine their origin, Marcel Popescu of the Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy said.
There are hopes that data from HERA’s “HyperScout” and thermal infrared imagers — which observe colors beyond the limits of the human eye — will shed light on this mystery by discovering more about the moon’s composition.
Those infrared imagers are why the red planet appears blue in some of the photos.
Next, HERA will turn its focus back to the asteroid Dimorphos.
When NASA’s DART mission smashed into Dimorphos in 2022, it shortened the 160-meter-wide asteroid’s orbit around its big brother Didymos by 33 minutes.
Although Dimorphos itself posed no threat to Earth, HERA intends to discover whether this technique could be an effective way for Earth to defend itself against possibly existence-threatening asteroids in the future.
Space agencies have working to ramp up Earth’s planetary defenses, monitoring for potential threats so they can be dealt with as soon as possible.
Earlier this year, a newly discovered asteroid capable of destroying a city was briefly given a more than 3% chance of hitting Earth in 2032.
However further observations sent the chances of a direct hit back down to nearly zero.
Richard Moissl, head of the ESA’s planetary defense office, said that asteroid, 2024 YR, followed a pattern that will become more common.
As we get better at scanning the skies, “we will discover asteroids at a higher rate,” he said.
The ESA is developing a second planetary defense mission to observe the 350-metre-wide asteroid Apophis, which will fly just 32,000 kilometers from Earth on April 13, 2029.
If approved by the ESA’s ministerial council, the Ramses mission will launch in 2028, reaching the asteroid two months before it approaches Earth.

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Children being brutalized in Sudan’s civil war, say UNICEF and MSF

UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. children’s program, UNICEF, said Thursday that 16 million children in Sudan are suffering horribly from the country’s civil war, with many facing daily threats of violence, starvation, disease and sexual assault.
“The fighting is happening right at their doorsteps, around their homes, their schools and hospitals, and across many of Sudan’s cities, towns, and villages,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director, told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
She said children under the age of five are particularly at risk, with more than 1.3 million living in five famine hotspots in the country, and another 3 million at risk of diseases including cholera, malaria and dengue due to the failing health system. At least 16.5 million young people are out of school.
Russell said there were 221 cases of rape against children reported in nine of Sudan’s 18 states last year. She said two-thirds were girls.
“In 16 of the recorded cases, the children were under the age of five. Four were babies under the age of one,” she said.
While she demanded an end to the hostilities, she said it would not erase the pain those children have endured.
“The trauma these children experience and the deep scars it leaves behind do not end with the signing of a ceasefire or a peace agreement,” she said. “They will need ongoing care and support to heal and rebuild their lives.”
The head of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) told the council that his teams in Sudan have also seen evidence of sexual violence, having treated 385 survivors last year.
“The vast majority — including some younger than five — had been raped, often by armed men,” said Secretary General Christopher Lockyear. “Nearly half were assaulted while working in the fields. Women and girls are not merely unprotected, they are being brutally targeted.”
The children are caught up in a power struggle between two rival generals that began in the capital, Khartoum, in April 2023, but has since spread to large parts of the country, including the Darfur region. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces, and the United Nations says both sides have committed grave human rights abuses.
The head of MSF told the council that he was in Sudan six weeks ago and witnessed a scene of “utter carnage” at one of their partner hospitals in Omdurman, near the capital.
“I witnessed the lives of men, women, and children being torn apart in front of me,” Lockyear said.
He told the 15-nation Security Council that their repeated calls on the parties to end the war have gone unanswered.
“While statements are made in this chamber, civilians remain unseen, unprotected, bombed, besieged, raped, displaced, deprived of food, of medical care, of dignity,” Lockyear said.
He later told reporters that the situation in Sudan “is so catastrophic for millions of people, it should be something that is on all of our consciences on a daily basis.”
The UNICEF director said the agency needs a billion dollars this year to provide critical support to 8.7 million children in Sudan, including nutrition, water and sanitation, protection, health, and education. She and Lockyear both urged the council to press the warring parties to remove obstacles to the delivery of aid.

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US lawmakers running out of time to fund government

U.S. lawmakers are running out of time to pass a short-term continuing resolution, or CR, that will fund the government past a March 14 deadline.
“Democrats need to decide if they’re going to support funding legislation that came over from the House, or if they’re going to shut down the government. So far, it’s looking like they plan to shut it down,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the Senate floor Thursday.
Appropriations bills require a 60-vote threshold for passage in the Senate, which means Republicans need to secure at least eight Democratic votes.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for the Senate to pass an earlier version of the CR that Democrats were involved in negotiating.
“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort. But Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input, any input, from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said on the Senate floor late Wednesday.
Democratic senators say they are concerned about easing the way for the Trump administration to continue large-scale changes to the federal government and social safety net programs.
“I don’t want a government shutdown,” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement Thursday. “And that’s why I’d like to vote on a bill to keep the government open for 30 days while we have a bipartisan negotiation. But I will not support this Republican House bill that simply gives Elon Musk more fuel and more tools to dismantle big parts of the federal government in order to rig it for people like himself and the very rich.”
“Voting against the CR will hurt the American people and kill the incredible momentum that President [Donald] Trump has built over the past 51 days,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier this week.
The Republican-majority House of Representatives passed a short-term spending measure Tuesday by a vote of 217-213. The House went out of session for the rest of the week starting Tuesday afternoon, putting pressure on senators to pass its version of the CR.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson quelled dissent from within his Republican party to pass the spending measure. He told reporters Tuesday the seven-month continuing resolution was an important step toward implementing Trump’s agenda of rooting out government waste and abuse through the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.
“It allows us to move forward with changing the size and scope of the federal government. There is a seismic shift going on in Washington right now. This is a different moment than we have ever been in. The DOGE work is finding massive amounts of fraud, waste and abuse,” Johnson said. “We have a White House that is actually dedicated to getting us back onto a fiscally responsible track.”
Independent watchdogs and analysts, however, say DOGE is using overly broad claims of fraud to generate support for large-scale cuts to federal programs and offices.
Representative Thomas Massie was the lone Republican holdout, despite Trump’s post Monday night on Truth Social calling for Massie to lose his seat if he voted against the spending measure.
The continuing resolution buys lawmakers time to reach a compromise on Senate and House versions of government spending, a key tool for implementing Trump’s domestic policy agenda.
At question is how and when to enact a proposed extension of the 2017 tax cuts and how to pay down the U.S. deficit without cutting key safety net programs that help American voters.
Senate leadership has proposed passing the tax cuts in a separate bill later this year.

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The story of Chinese Americans who call Texas home

The state of Texas has the third-largest Asian American population in the U.S. Chinese Americans in the Lone Star State have roots that trace back for generations, just like those of their counterparts on the nation’s East and West coasts. While the history of these Texans might not be as well known, their stories are just as intertwined with America’s. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has more on this story.

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Belgium makes arrests in corruption probe linked to EU

BRUSSELS — Belgian federal prosecutors announced Thursday the arrests of several people as part of a corruption probe linked to the European Parliament amid reports in local media that Chinese company Huawei bribed EU lawmakers.
The arrests came as an investigation by Le Soir newspaper and other media said lobbyists working for the Chinese telecoms giant are suspected of bribing current or former European Parliament members to promote the company’s commercial policy in Europe.
About 100 federal police officers carried out 21 searches in Brussels, the Flanders and Wallonia regions, and Portugal, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
The suspects would be questioned over “alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries,” prosecutors said. “The offenses were allegedly committed by a criminal organization.”
Huawei public relations representatives in London did not respond to an emailed request for comment and could not be reached by phone.
The European Parliament said only that the assembly “takes note of the information” and “always cooperates fully with the judicial authorities.”
Huawei, which makes cellphones and is the biggest maker of networking gear for phone and internet carriers, has been caught in tensions between the United States and China over technology and trade.
Some European nations have followed Washington’s lead and banned Huawei’s equipment from next-generation mobile networks over allegations that it poses a security risk that could help facilitate Chinese spying. The company has repeatedly denied this.
European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the EU’s executive branch had no comment regarding the investigation, but underlined security concerns the commission has about Huawei and Europe’s fifth-generation mobile phone networks.
“The security of our 5G networks is obviously crucial for our economy,” Regnier told reporters. “Huawei represents materially higher risks than other 5G suppliers.”
EU member states should swiftly “adopt decisions to restrict or to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks,” Regnier said. “A lack of swift action would expose the EU as a whole to a clear risk.”
The federal prosecutor’s office, which did not name Huawei, said it believes there was corruption “from 2021 to the present day” in various forms, “such as remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches.”
Prosecutors say payments might have been disguised as business expenses and in some cases may have been directed to third parties. They would also look to “detect any evidence of money laundering.”
Police seized several documents and objects during the searches. Staff at Huawei’s offices in Brussels declined to comment and turned the lights off inside to avoid photographs taken through the window.
According to Follow The Money, an investigative journalism platform, one of the main suspects in the probe is 41-year-old Valerio Ottati, a Belgian Italian lobbyist who joined Huawei in 2019.
Before becoming Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Ottati was an assistant to two Italian MEPs who were both members of a European Parliament group dealing with China policy, Follow the Money reported.
This is the second corruption case targeting the EU Parliament in less than three years. In December 2022, the legislature was shaken by a corruption scandal in which Qatari officials were accused of bribing EU officials to play down labor rights concerns ahead of the soccer World Cup.

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