WASHINGTON — Senate negotiators on Friday reached a deal on a proposal to overhaul the asylum system at the U.S. border with Mexico, clearing the way for Democratic and Republican Senate leaders to begin the difficult task of convincing Congress to pass a national security package that will include tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine and immigration enforcement, as well as funding for Israel and other American allies.

Sen. Chris Murphy, the lead Democratic negotiator, posted on social media Friday that a deal had been reached and that text of the bill would be released over the weekend. Senators are still working on finishing the rest of the package, which was initiated by a request from President Joe Biden for $110 billion for wartime aid for allies, domestic defense manufacturing, humanitarian assistance for conflicts around the world, and managing the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Senators are preparing for a key test vote on the package next week, but it already faces a steep climb through Congress. Republicans in both chambers have balked at compromises on border security policy. Senate Republicans had initially demanded that the package include border policy changes, but Donald Trump, the GOP’s likely presidential nominee, has become a vocal opponent of the legislation.

“Republicans said the border is a priority and we should craft a bipartisan bill to help control the border. We did that. We have a deal,” Murphy said on the social media platform X. He added: “It’s decision time.”

The core group of negotiators has been laboring for months to craft a package that can win support from a bipartisan coalition of moderates in Congress. As they prepared to allow the details of the bill to be scrutinized, it remained to be seen whether they could cobble together the requisite votes from both sides of the aisle.

“The criticisms are based on rumors and misconceptions,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent who was central to crafting the bill, said on Thursday.

Senate Democrats, increasingly wary of the political vulnerabilities facing Biden and their party on immigration, have become more comfortable with the contours of the package, though progressive and Hispanic members of the House are still expected to oppose the border policy changes in droves if it passes the Senate.

The wartime aid for Israel could also divide Democrats. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, said Friday he would push to strip funding for offensive weaponry for Israel from the package while maintaining funds for defensive systems.

On the right, many conservatives oppose both continued funding for Ukraine, as well as compromises on border enforcement. House Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly declared he won’t compromise on hardline border enforcement measures, but he has said he will not pass final judgment until he is able to read the bill.

As GOP lawmakers view the political repercussions of enacting immigration laws in the midst of an election year, many Trump allies have argued that Congress does not even need to act because presidents already have enough authority on the border. And in a sign they will try to stop the bill from advancing to a final vote, some have lobbied leaders to give them weeks to make further changes through committee hearings.

“I think we’ve pretty much been held hostage by the Republican leadership. The Republican leadership pushed this on us,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican of Alabama, said Thursday on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. “And now if we don’t pass something, we’re going to look bad in the eyes of the American people. But I’m just telling people right now we do not need a border policy. We already have one intact.”

The legislation largely focuses on a challenge that both Republican and Democratic administrations have grappled with: How to tamp down the growing number of people who come to the border seeking asylum, which offers protection from persecution for race, religion, political affiliation or membership in a discriminated group.

Asylum is a key part of international law and the U.S.’s ability to advance human rights, but the system has become overwhelmed in recent years, creating years-long waits for asylum cases to be heard, even though many migrants fail to prove their asylum case in the end.

The bill seeks to address that, according to Sinema, by making it tougher for people to enter the asylum system, dramatically speeding up the process, and denying them the ability to apply for asylum if illegal border crossings grow to become unmanageable for authorities.

Most migrants who seek asylum would receive an initial interview, known as a credible fear screening, within days of arriving at the border. They would then either be expelled from the country or given a work permit during a months-long wait to have their case heard by an immigration judge.

Immigration advocates are concerned the proposal would deprive asylum-seekers of the ability to make full cases, especially when they have just made arduous and often traumatic journeys to get to the U.S. 
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London — Britain’s readiness and ability to fight a major conflict is under the spotlight after senior military officials at home and abroad questioned cuts to the country’s armed forces at a time of heightened global threats.

In a rare intervention, a senior United States official urged its ally Britain to reassess the size of its armed forces. The remarks, by U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, echo concerns of senior military commanders in Britain.

“I think it is important for the United Kingdom to reassess where they are today given the threats that exist today,” Del Toro told an audience at London’s Royal United Services Institute January 25, adding that Britain had to make a “decision around whether the army needs to be strengthened.”

He also spoke of his “tremendous respect” for the UK’s armed forces and praised the joint efforts between Britain and the U.S. in Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational force targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen to safeguard commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Britain’s government defended its spending on the armed forces. A spokesperson for the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement following Del Toro’s remarks: “The UK is the second biggest defense spender in NATO and the largest in Europe. The Navy, Army and Royal Air Force are all playing an active global role, operating across every ocean and continent. Our military strength is also why we are the U.S.’s partner of choice in taking action to defend against the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.”

Meanwhile, some 20,000 British troops are set to take part in Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024 — NATO’s biggest drills since the Cold War. British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps highlighted Britain’s contribution in a speech last month.

“It will see our military joining forces with counterparts from 30 NATO countries — plus Sweden — providing reassurance against the Putin menace. Our carrier strike group will be out in full force, with our magnificent flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth leading the way, and flying from her decks will be the fifth generation F-35 Lightning jets,” Shapps said.

Behind that veneer, however, critics argue Britain’s armed forces are underfunded, underequipped and facing a recruitment crisis.

General Patrick Sanders, the outgoing head of the British army, warned recently that more needs to be done to equip and modernize the country’s armed forces in the face of the threat from Russia. Britain has about 73,000 soldiers — half the size it was 30 years ago. Sanders said Britain may need to train a “civilian army” in the event of a major war.

“Although there’s a lot of rhetoric from British defense ministers and senior officials that numbers aren’t everything, numbers are pretty important,” said Brigadier (Retired) Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

“For example, a tank or a frigate or an F-35 can’t be in two places at once. It’s also fair to say that the British armed forces have a broad range of capabilities, which I think the U.S. welcomes, but many of those are themselves very small. For example, the British army can only produce a single division. The French army can produce two, the German army can produce three,” Barry told VOA.

The British army, navy and air force have all missed recruitment targets, according to government figures, with navy recruitment down by 22 percent in the 12 months to March 2023, compared with the previous year.

Two British naval frigates, the HMS Westminster and the HMS Argyll, are set to be decommissioned this year owing to a lack of crew able to operate them, reducing the total to nine, according to a report by London’s The Daily Telegraph.

The government did not comment on the newspaper report but highlighted that it has ordered eight new frigates — although these won’t be in service until at least the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, there are shortages of equipment across the armed forces, according to Barry, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“All three armed forces don’t have sufficient stockpiles of ammunition and spare parts to conduct a sustained battle for the length of time that NATO envisages, and that NATO requires them to do,” Barry said.

“What we’ve seen over the last couple of years is the relative hollowing out of Europe’s armed forces, very publicly displayed with the well-reported difficulties of supplying enough equipment — weapons and ammunition — for Ukraine,” he said.

The British government has pledged to spend 2.5 percent of GDP on defense by 2030 and said it was committed to spending more “when conditions allow.”

Barry said the British military was still effective.

“One key ingredient is actually that they are willing to fight. And I think it’s fair to say the British armed forces still retain an ethos of combat in their DNA. And the British public, politicians and the media all see the use of force against the country’s enemies, in extremis [in highly difficult circumstances], as what the armed forces are for. That’s not true in all European or Western countries,” he told VOA. 
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury said Friday it had imposed sanctions on four Iran- and Hong-Kong based companies for providing materials and technology to Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs, and on a Hong Kong-based firm for selling Iranian commodities.

The Treasury also said it had imposed sanctions on six officials of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s Cyber Electronic Command for malicious cyber activities against critical infrastructure in the United States and elsewhere.

As a result of the sanctions, all property of the designated entities and individuals that are in the United States or fall under U.S. control are blocked. As a general rule, U.S. individuals or companies are barred from transactions involving the property of those designated.
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London — London’s High Court on Thursday threw out Donald Trump’s lawsuit against a British private investigations firm over the “Steele dossier” which alleged ties between Trump’s election campaign and Russia.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, had brought a data protection lawsuit against Orbis Business Intelligence about claims in a dossier written by its co-founder, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.

Judge Karen Steyn ruled that the former U.S. president’s case could not continue, saying in a written ruling that “there are no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed.”

Trump said in a witness statement made public in October that he brought the case to prove claims in the so-called Steele dossier, published by the BuzzFeed website in 2017, that he engaged in “perverted sexual acts” in Russia, were false.

Many of the allegations were never substantiated and lawyers for Trump, 77, said that the report was “egregiously inaccurate” and contained “numerous false, phony or made-up allegations.”

Steyn noted that Trump said the allegations were untrue, adding: “I have not considered, or made any determination, as to the accuracy or inaccuracy of the (allegations).”

Orbis argued that Trump brought the claim simply to address his “longstanding grievances” against the company and Steele.

Steyn said in her ruling that she did not need to decide that because Trump had “no reasonable grounds for bringing a claim for compensation or damages.”

The London lawsuit is one of many legal cases involving Trump, who faces four separate criminal prosecutions in the United States.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement: “President Trump will continue to fight for the truth and against falsehoods such as ones promulgated by Steele and his cohorts.”

Orbis did not respond to a request for comment. 
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washington — With Russia and China increasingly aligned, Western policymakers and analysts are sounding the alarm over their influence in the Western Balkans. With so much focus on the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, they warn that the Western Balkans should not be ignored. 

U.S. Representative Pete Sessions told VOA on Wednesday that Russia has been a part “of destabilizing the Balkans for a number of years,” and that it has demonstrated it uses misinformation and military force to fulfill its objectives. 

“Destabilizing the Balkans is something that each of the countries there see,” he said. “And they see these not only happening, but they see whether it’s a deliberate attempt to undermine these nations.”  

Sessions said the United States needs to stand behind these nations and “work within established parameters, the EU, NATO and other organizations. … The United States needs to be front and center to say, ‘We support this, and we will stick together.’ That is what these nations need. The United States of America standing strong with them individually and as a group.” 

‘Part of Putin’s strategy’ 

Edward P. Joseph, a Balkans analyst at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, agrees.  

“The Balkans are part of Putin’s strategy. He wants to divide Europe from the United States, and he wants to divide Europe within itself. And the Balkans are a prime avenue for him to do that,” he told VOA on Wednesday.  

Sessions and Joseph participated this week in an annual security forum in Congress focused on this issue and held around the time of the National Prayer Breakfast. They were joined by politicians and lawmakers from Europe and the Western Balkans, a region of six countries including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia.  

Analysts say Moscow uses political interference and disinformation that it deploys through its historically close ties with Serbia and other friendly actors in the region.  

“Russia is active with its operations in the Balkans at very low cost,” Joseph said. He cited as an example Serbia hosting the Russian media outlets Russia Today and Sputnik. 

“These are platforms that are giving pro-Russian narratives around the region,” he said. “And that’s only one of the ways that Serbia affects, in a negative way, advancing Russian agenda.”  

Focus on integration 

During the security forum, Naz Durakoglu, assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, said the U.S. is very concerned about the influence of China and Russia in the region and works in a variety of ways to strengthen democracy in those countries. These include foreign aid, a focus on the fight against corruption and promotion of reforms “to help integrate Western Balkan countries into the EU and with each other.” 

Albania is a NATO member and works closely with the United States. Its former defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, is one of the organizers of the security forum. 

“The way that forces such as Russia and China act is, first they try to ignite new conflicts,” he told VOA. “The second is to create a kind of status quo regarding certain situations and unresolved problems to prevent membership in the European Union and NATO and expand their geoeconomic and geopolitical influence.” 

China Belt and Road 

Durakoglu said that while Russia exerts its influence through gas and disinformation, China furthers its interests mostly through economic and infrastructure investments. 

Valbona Zeneli, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, has written extensively about the Chinese and Russian influence in the Western Balkans. 

“The Western Balkans has seen a significant expansion of Chinese influence over the last decade, in line with Beijing’s geo-economic and diplomatic vision of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and in the broader strategic context of China-EU relations,” she wrote in recent research paper. She is also working on a book on the topic.  

“The geo-strategic position of the Western Balkans is perfect as a bridgehead to EU markets and a key transit corridor for the Chinese BRI. Chinese interests in the region are strongly related to infrastructure projects and privatization opportunities, where demand for preferential lending is high and acquisition prices are low,” she said. 

‘We hold the cards’

As Russia and China align their positions in opposition to the West, experts say they want to divert attention from the major world conflicts, such as Ukraine, Middle East and China’s increasingly hostile posture in South China Sea.

To Albania’s Mediu, it is clear that “there is a move by Russia but also by China, maybe also by Iran to create problems in the Balkan region, to have another point of conflict and to shift attention from Ukraine.”  

In countering this influence, the U.S. is supporting allies in the region. The Pentagon has confirmed last month’s approval by the United States of the potential sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Kosovo for an estimated $75 million.  

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security of the United States by improving the security of a European partner which is an important force for political and economic stability in Europe,” the Pentagon said. 

It added that the sale “will improve Kosovo’s long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity to meet its national defense requirements.” 

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic expressed “deep disappointment” at the decision. Russia also “strongly condemned” the plans. 

The proposed sale comes during tensions between Kosovo and Serbia that the EU is seeking to resolve. In its continued rejection of its former province’s independence, Serbia has had the firm support of Russia and China. 

With all the concern over Russia’s and China’s forays in the region, Joseph of Johns Hopkins University said the good news is the West holds the cards.  

“This is not like Ukraine. Russia is too far to bring in land forces. The NATO members surround the Balkans. All the countries in the region except Serbia want to join NATO. And some are already members of NATO,” he said.

The European Union, he said, “is by far the main trading partner. So, we hold the cards. We have to use them correctly.”  
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Gunmen Take Hostages at US Company’s Turkish Factory in Apparent Protest of Gaza War
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