A White House meeting Friday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, aimed at securing a deal that would give the U.S. rights to rare earth minerals in Ukraine, turned into an intense and heated exchange between the two leaders. The White House later confirmed that the mineral deal was not signed. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Month: February 2025
Russia and China’s relationship may not be as strong as it seems, report says
WASHINGTON — On the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed Beijing’s “no limits” partnership with Moscow in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Chinese state media.
“China-Russia relations have strong internal driving force and unique strategic value,” Xi said, according to the official readout from state media. He also called Russia a “true friend” and a “good neighbor.”
The sentiment is not new. Moscow and Beijing have long touted the strength and long-term nature of their relationship.
But according to a new report from Filter Labs, a U.S.-based political research and analysis company, Russia and China’s relationship may be weaker than they want the rest of the world to believe.
“Their partnership is vulnerable,” Filter Labs founder Jonathan Teubner told VOA. “This ‘no limits’ partnership is much more complicated.”
‘Infused with doubt’
While the governments and state-run media from both countries work to project the image of a strong partnership, their relationship may be underpinned by more tension, mistrust and competing interests than previously thought, according to an extensive analysis of news media and social media posts by Filter Labs.
“The axis is infused with doubt, ripe for disruption,” the report said.
Teubner added, “The monolith theory of the China-Russia relationship isn’t necessarily the way it has to be.”
But not all experts agree that the Russia-China relationship is fragile.
“The China-Russia relationship continues to deepen and widen, and occasional disagreements are dwarfed by the scale and momentum of their strategic cooperation,” Robert Blackwill and Richard Fontaine wrote in a 2024 Council on Foreign Relations report.
From the Chinese perspective, according to the Filter Labs report, there are doubts over the true resilience of Russia’s economy, whether Russia’s military is as strong as it says it is, and what Russia’s true intentions are in the long term.
Meanwhile, says Filter Labs, Russian doubts pertain to quality concerns about Chinese goods, how militarily committed China actually is to Russia, and whether Chinese investment in Russia is really that substantial.
Chinese state media is generally positive about the state of the Russian economy and often criticizes Western sanctions.
However, Chinese netizens are increasingly worried about the impact that secondary sanctions could have on China.
The United States has threatened to use secondary sanctions against Chinese businesses viewed as engaging with Russia, pushing some Chinese netizens to weigh the value of China’s relationship with Russia against its ability to trade with the United States.
Once those sanctions are enforced on China, Teubner predicts, it will lead to changes in the Russia-China relationship.
“The sanctions on Russia actually have a pretty important countering Chinese effect, too,” said Teubner, who thinks the sanctions are the biggest source of friction between Beijing and Moscow.
Quality concerns
Meanwhile, the most common doubt among Russians about China pertains to quality concerns about Chinese goods, according to the report. In Russia, Chinese goods have a reputation for being affordable but of poor quality.
“We see more persistent complaints about Chinese goods,” Teubner said.
“That’s paired with Russian anxiety over pairing itself so deeply to China,” Teubner added. “That comes through very strongly in Russian anxieties toward being subordinated to the Chinese economy.”
One consequence of Russia’s war in Ukraine has been that it has pushed Russia and China closer together, prompting some governments to default to treating the autocratic duo as a bloc, according to Teubner.
“It will increasingly be that way unless we do something to keep them apart,” Teubner said.
The report recommends that the United States and its allies and partners take advantage of the fault lines to drive a wedge between Russia and China.
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Chad’s groundbreaking asylum law gives Sudanese refugees opportunity to work
With nearly 1 million Sudanese refugees having fled to Chad, escaping what the United States has called a genocide in Darfur, the country has taken an unusual step — allowing them to work. Due to a groundbreaking asylum law, refugees are finding ways to rebuild their lives, while Chadian business owners offer what little employment they can. Henry Wilkins reports from Adre, Chad.
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Trump to sign order designating English as official US language
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday designating English as the official language of the United States, according to the White House.
The order will allow government agencies and organizations that receive federal funding to choose whether to continue to offer documents and services in languages other than English, according to a fact sheet about the impending order.
It was not immediately clear when on Friday that Trump planned to sign the order.
The executive order will rescind a mandate from former President Bill Clinton that required the government and organizations that received federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
Designating English as the national language “promotes unity, establishes efficiency in government operations and creates a pathway for civic engagement,” according to the White House.
More than 30 states have already passed laws designating English as their official language, according to U.S. English, a group that advocates for making English the official language in the United States.
For decades, lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation to designate English as the official language of the U.S., but those efforts have not succeeded.
Within hours of Trump’s inauguration last month, the new administration took down the Spanish language version of the official White House website.
Hispanic advocacy groups and others expressed confusion and frustration at the change. The White House said at the time it was committed to bringing the Spanish language version of the website back online. As of Friday, it was still not restored.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message about whether that would happen.
Trump shut down the Spanish version of the website during his first term. It was restored when President Joe Biden was inaugurated.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the order Friday.
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NATO exercises in Romania test Europe’s defense readiness
NATO’s newest rapid-response force is testing its strength in Romania, just kilometers from the Ukrainian border. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze has more on the drills and NATO’s evolving defense strategy. Camera: Daniil Batushchak
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Southern Africa pushes for better energy access
GABORONE, BOTSWANA — Southern Africa energy experts and political leaders pledged to improve access to energy at a summit in Botswana this week. The commitments come as most countries in the region still rely on coal, a major contributor to global warming.
More than 500 participants from 16 Southern African Development Community, or SADC, member states, as well as other African countries, participated in the energy gathering.
Moses Ntlamelle, a senior SADC programs officer, said pursuing a more inclusive transition to cleaner energy was one of the resolutions that regional representatives adopted at the summit.
“The region is recommended to expedite just energy transition and explore the development of a regional renewable energy market,” he said. “This is to ensure that nobody is left behind. … Inasmuch as we are going for cleaner energy, we must ensure that this energy transition is just to everybody.”
Botswanan President Duma Boko spoke about the need to end energy poverty.
“Countries across the SADC region face challenges related to energy poverty,” Boko said. “This constrains our economies, leaving millions of people, especially in rural areas, without access to critical services like health, education, communication, among others. A clarion call for an energy-secure region is, therefore, urgent in order to drive industrialization and integration of our economies.”
Most Southern Africa countries rely on coal for energy. Boko called on the region to cut its dependence on fossil fuels and speed up the transition to green energy.
“We should incentivize renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects and initiatives, enforce environmental protections and establish clear roadmaps for a just and equitable energy transition, which is relevant to the realities of our countries and region,” he said. “As a region, let us set tangible targets not only to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels but also to increase the use of renewables.”
Yunus Alokore, a technical expert at the intergovernmental organization East Africa Center for Renewable Energy and Efficiency, told VOA that if Africa wants to accelerate its transition to sustainable energy, several key elements are needed.
“There has to be policies in place and regulatory framework,” Alokore said. “What this does is that it creates transparent, long-term, consistent target, which is something that investors and development partners need.”
Alokore said access to finance is also key.
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As Yoon remakes South Korea’s right, lonely conservative pushes back
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Conservative South Korean lawmaker Kim Sang-wook has received so many threats since December that his children no longer tell classmates who their father is.
Already sidelined in the ruling party, many colleagues want Kim expelled altogether. In his home district of Ulsan, he finds himself shunned by former friends and allies.
Welcome to the life of a conservative politician who has chosen to break ranks with the People Power Party, or PPP, which has swung sharply to the right as it rallies around impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Once a low-profile figure, the 45-year-old first-term lawmaker has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Yoon, whose short-lived martial law declaration in early December triggered South Korea’s worst political crisis in decades.
At times, Kim has quite literally stood alone. Ahead of Yoon’s impeachment, he staged a one-man protest on the top steps of the National Assembly, holding a giant placard imploring fellow conservatives to abandon the president. Hours later, the impeachment motion passed with the support of just 11 other conservatives, out of a total of 108.
If fully implemented, Yoon’s decree would have outlawed all political activity and required journalists to report to martial law command – measures not seen since South Korea emerged from a military dictatorship in the 1980s.
That hasn’t prevented the overwhelming majority of the PPP from defending Yoon — a trend Kim blames on “extreme partisan logic” that has come to define both sides of the country’s politics.
“It’s like everything is justified by the belief that ‘we’ are right and ‘they’ are wrong,” Kim told VOA in an interview at his National Assembly office. “Is that conservatism? I don’t think so.”
Kim’s defiance highlights a broader reckoning within the PPP. As the Constitutional Court decides Yoon’s fate, the party must decide whether to uphold his populist legacy or choose a different path.
Fighting back
Few would deny that Yoon’s more combative approach has galvanized the conservative base, as indicated by the size and intensity of street protests.
Throughout the frigid Seoul winter, large crowds, including many young people, have rallied in Yoon’s defense. His arrest for alleged insurrection, which carries a possible death penalty, only added to their outrage.
That anger deepened when the opposition, using its legislative supermajority, ousted acting President Han Duck-soo less than two weeks after impeaching Yoon, reinforcing conservative concerns about political overreach.
The result was a scene unthinkable just months ago — Koreans packing streets in support of a leader who, however briefly, had just attempted to restore military rule.
“The whole situation just naturally evolved in a way that Yoon Suk Yeol became the symbol of this movement of freedom and liberal democracy, vis-a-vis communism, socialism, and tyranny,” said Lee Jung-hoon, a conservative legal scholar and dean at Seoul’s Yonsei University.
Lee served in the administration of the country’s last conservative president, Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office in 2017 and jailed on corruption-related charges.
In Lee’s view, Park was too passive in challenging her impeachment, which may have contributed to her downfall. By contrast, former prosecutor Yoon has vowed to “fight to the end,” further energizing his supporters, Lee said.
Yoon has defended his martial law decree as a tough but necessary response to an opposition he says crippled his administration with budget cuts and repeated impeachments of senior leaders.
At his final impeachment hearing this week, Yoon argued the decree was never meant to be enforced as written — insisting that if he had intended to follow through, he would have deployed more troops and used greater force.
Yoon has also defended martial law as necessary to investigate what he claims is election fraud.
Those comments helped bring once-fringe allegations into the conservative mainstream, where many now openly question the integrity of South Korea’s electoral system.
Some have gone further, attacking the credibility of judges they see as left-leaning, with a small group of conservative protesters even ransacking a court that had issued an arrest warrant for Yoon.
Underlying fears
Some of the hardening behind Yoon stems from deep distrust of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung. Lee is seen as the likely successor if Yoon is removed from office.
Conservatives view Lee as too soft on China and likely to pursue what they see as futile engagement with North Korea. Others fear he is seeking the presidency to shield himself from legal battles, as he faces five separate trials on corruption and other charges.
Hahm Sung-deuk, a professor of political science at Kyonggi University outside Seoul, said many conservatives are also eager to prevent a repeat of Park’s impeachment, which fractured the party and paved the way for a left-leaning president to take power.
“Conservatives have a painful memory. They feel that if they let this situation get out of hand, they might not regain power for not just five years, but maybe 10, 15, or even 20 years,” Hahm told VOA.
That anxiety may help explain the fierce backlash against lawmakers like Kim, the renegade conservative who has been accused of betraying conservative values after breaking with Yoon.
But Hahm insists the party’s divide isn’t about ideology but is about loyalty.
“This is not a policy debate,” he said. “It’s centered around whether … you support or oppose Yoon Suk Yeol.”
If Yoon is impeached, some fear that protests will once again turn violent. But in Yoon’s absence, party moderates may likely prevail, said Hahm, who is well-connected among elite conservatives.
“Deep down, both the far-right and moderates know that Yoon Suk Yeol made mistakes,” said Hahm, who believes the party will eventually unite around a steadier candidate to block Lee from taking power.
Uncertain future
As he withstands attacks from fellow conservatives, Kim is less confident about the party’s future. Once a rising figure in local conservative politics, he now acknowledges he may not win reelection.
But even if his stance costs him his political career, Kim says he will keep making decisions based on his principles, convinced this is what conservatism should be about.
“I have no regrets,” he said of voting to impeach Yoon. “I believe this was the best decision I have made in my entire life.”
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Perspectives, challenges of Ukraine’s next election
WASHINGTON — The issue of Ukraine’s next presidential election has emerged as a possible element in the peace deal between Russia and Ukraine that the United States is negotiating.
Ukrainian leaders and elections experts argue, however, that holding elections anytime soon would endanger lives and Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected in April 2019, and the next presidential election was scheduled for March or April 2024. However, martial law has been in effect since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, and Ukrainian law prohibits presidential elections when martial law is in effect.
U.S. President Donald Trump has lambasted Zelenskyy for not holding a presidential election.
In a Feb. 19 post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said of Zelenskyy, “He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
Some members of the U.S. Congress and conservative commentators echoed Trump’s demand that Ukraine hold elections to prove its democratic credentials.
“Zelenskyy should hold elections. They are basically under martial law. That’s not good when you claim to be defending democracy. They need to practice it,” Republican Senator Josh Hawley told VOA.
Republican Representative Victoria Spartz told VOA that Ukraine should hold “transparent elections, and that not doing so allows Russia to say, ‘You have an illegitimate president signing these contracts and deals.’”
Russia has questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine’s president and government since 2014, well before Zelenskyy was elected to office.
During his televised question-and-answer event on Dec. 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested he couldn’t negotiate with Zelenskyy until his legitimacy is confirmed through elections.
“If someone goes to the elections, gains legitimacy there, we will talk with anyone, including Zelenskyy,” he said.
Zelenskyy said during a Feb. 23 press conference that he would step down as president if it meant “peace for Ukraine” but pushed back on the calls for holding elections.
“How can we call an election in which half of the country’s population won’t be able to vote?” he said. “How can we vote when today, [Ukraine was] attacked with 267 drones?”
His major political rivals, former President Petro Poroshenko, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, have also rejected the call for holding elections. According to a February poll, 63% of Ukrainians also reject it.
Many challenges
Ukrainian election experts say there are many challenges to holding free and fair elections under wartime conditions.
It would violate international principles of electoral law, according to Yevhenii Radchenko, a former deputy chair of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine.
“Elections must be universal, equal and free. During active hostilities, it is unrealistic to guarantee the safety of any of the participants, and due to massive Russian strikes, a significant part of the electoral infrastructure has been destroyed,” she said.
Radchenko, who joined Ukraine’s armed forces, texted VOA from the trenches at the Donetsk front.
On Feb. 27, OPORA, a leading Ukrainian nongovernmental organization involved in public oversight and advocacy in the field of elections, issued a statement signed by several other Ukrainian NGOs titled, “Statement of Ukrainian Non-Governmental Organizations on the Impossibility of Holding Democratic Elections without the Sustainable Peace.”
‘Armed forces or elections’
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian parliament, as required by the country’s constitution, introduced martial law, which prohibits elections.
OPORA chairperson Olga Aivazovska said the purpose of martial law is to preserve the state and mobilize society for defense.
“We have to choose either the armed forces or elections,” she told VOA.
Aivazovska noted that Ukraine held elections between 2014 and 2022, when the conflict with Russia was ongoing in eastern Ukraine, but before Russia launched air raids on Ukrainian territory.
“Even if a ceasefire is established, there are no guarantees that Russia would not violate it as it did many times between 2014 and 2022,” she said. “It can carry out a massive shelling of the Ukrainian territory on election day. It can organize terrorist attacks at the polling stations, killing voters, election workers and observers, or at the minimum, disrupt the process.”
Aivazovska said it would be easy to contest an election as illegitimate if only 5% to 10% of the population votes.
“If Ukraine begins the election process without a guarantee of its completion, it means that we are simply giving this tool away to Russia for abuse and manipulation,” she said.
Radchenko said that about 14 million citizens — out of a population of 41 million — would not be able to vote, given that the war has dislocated millions of Ukrainians, and nearly a million Ukrainian men and women are serving in the armed forces.
According to Aivazovska, it is also unclear how people in areas occupied by Russia, “where people are subjected to torture, kidnapping and other crimes,” will be able to cast their vote freely, even after lifting martial law.
Most of the 7 million Ukrainian citizens who fled the war abroad will also not be able to vote, unless their host countries heavily invest in organizing the process.
“In 2004, the record number of Ukrainians living abroad voted at the polling stations in Ukrainian embassies and consulates — 103,000 citizens worldwide. There are simply no resources available to organize voting for 7 million people,” Aivazovska said.
Let Ukraine decide
Most of the members of the U.S. Congress interviewed by VOA said Ukraine should be free to decide when to hold its elections.
Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick said the United States and other democracies will encourage Ukraine to hold elections when it can do it safely and fairly, but not when “Ukrainians are still under invasion by an evil communist dictatorship.”
Democratic Representative Eugene Vindman, who was born in Kyiv in 1975, told VOA, “When 20% of the territory is occupied, when millions of Ukrainians are out of the country, it’s hard to imagine democratic elections representing the majority of the people being held.”
Vindman expressed confidence that Ukrainian society will hold elections as soon as it achieves a stable peace.
Republican Senator Kevin Cramer said the example of the United States holding elections during World War II is inapplicable because the U.S. didn’t have to fight on its territory.
Vindman noted that European countries also suspended elections for the duration of that war.
Democratic Representative Seth Magaziner suggested that a strong statement from Trump supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion would make it easier for Ukrainians to “develop a timeline for elections.”
Republican Representative Don Bacon pointed out that Russia is in no position to demand elections from Ukraine. “They haven’t had free elections in 25 years. Putin’s murdered all his rivals. They’ve been thrown off the buildings. They’ve been poisoned. They’ve been killed in GULAGs,” he told VOA in an email.
Katya Andrusz, spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, told VOA that at the request of Ukrainian authorities, her office has begun work to ensure that when all the prerequisites are in place, Ukraine can hold elections “in line with international standards and the commitments Ukraine has made as an OSCE country for holding democratic elections.”
“ODIHR is working with Ukraine in many areas, and we very much appreciate and respect the country’s democratic strength amidst all the ongoing challenges,” she said.
VOA’s Kateryna Lisunova contributed to this report.
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Moscow airport resumes flights after brief suspension, officials say
Moscow’s Sheremetevo Airport resumed flight arrivals and departures early on Friday after a temporary suspension of operations, Russia’s aviation authority said.
“Restrictions on the arrival and departure of aircraft were lifted at Sheremetevo Airport at 03:45 Moscow time (0045 GMT),” the aviation authority said on its Telegram app. The authority said the restrictions were introduced to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights.
During the period of restrictions, one aircraft flying to Sheremetevo landed at the alternate airfield in Pulkovo, the authority said on Telegram.
TASS news agency earlier reported that the airport had briefly suspended operations at 2:41 Moscow time.
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VOA Mandarin: Why is so much ‘academic misconduct’ found at Chinese hospitals?
The Nature news team recently published an analysis of the retraction rates of academic articles by institutions around the world over the past decade. The analysis found that from 2014 to 2024, Jining First People’s Hospital ranked first in the world in the global retraction rate ranking, with a total retraction rate of more than 5%, which is 50 times the global average. Among the top 10 institutions, another six are from China.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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VOA Spanish: Migrant shelters in Ciudad Juarez register low influx
U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration policy has raised expectations of mass deportations to Mexico. However, the shelters in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, that were prepared to receive hundreds of migrants are practically empty.
Click here for the full story in Spanish.
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At UN talks, nations agree to invest in plan to protect nature
ROME — Nations cheered a last gasp deal reached Thursday to map out funding to protect nature, breaking a deadlock at United Nations talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions.
Rich and developing countries worked out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous meeting in Cali, Colombia, last year.
Delegates stood and clapped in an emotionally charged final meeting that saw key decisions adopted in the final minutes of the last day of rebooted negotiations at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome.
COP16 President Susana Muhamad of Colombia hailed the fact that countries worked together for a breakthrough, enabling progress “in this very fragmented and conflicted world,” she said.
“This is something very beautiful because it’s around protecting life that we have come together, and there cannot be anything higher than that,” she said.
The decision comes more than two years after a landmark deal to halt the destruction of nature this decade and protect the ecosystems and wildlife that humans rely on for food, climate regulation, and economic prosperity.
One million species are threatened with extinction, while unsustainable farming and consumption destroy forests, deplete soils and spread plastic pollution to even the most remote areas of the planet.
The agreement on Thursday is seen as crucial to giving impetus to the 2022 deal, which saw countries agree to protect 30% of the world’s land and seas.
Talks were also seen as a bellwether for international cooperation.
The meeting comes as countries face a range of challenges, from trade disputes and debt worries to the slashing of overseas aid.
Washington, which has not signed up to the U.N.’s Convention on Biological Diversity, sent no representatives to the meeting.
“Our efforts show that multilateralism can present hope at a time of geopolitical uncertainty,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change.
Ousseynou Kasse of Senegal, speaking on behalf of the Africa Group, also threw support behind global cooperation.
“We believe that this is the way that can save the world, and we must continue down this path,” he said.
Countries must be “accountable to our children, to the generations to come,” he added.
The failure to finalize an agreement in Cali was the first in a string of disappointing outcomes at environmental summits last year.
A climate finance deal at COP29 in Azerbaijan in November was slammed by developing countries, while separate negotiations about desertification and plastic pollution stalled in December.
Countries have already agreed to a goal to deliver $200 billion a year in finance for nature by 2030, including $30 billion a year from wealthier countries to poorer ones.
The total for 2022 was about $15 billion, according to the OECD. The main debate in Cali and later Rome was over developing countries’ calls for the creation of a specific biodiversity fund, which has seen pushback from the EU and other wealthy nations, who have argued against multiple funds.
The agreement reached in Rome leaves it to the 2028 COP to decide whether to set up a specific new fund under the U.N. biodiversity process, or to name a potentially reformed existing fund to play that role.
One achievement in Cali was the creation of a new fund to share profits from digitally sequenced genetic data from plants and animals with the communities they come from.
The fund, officially launched on Tuesday, is designed for large firms to contribute a portion of their income from developing things like medicine and cosmetics using this data.
Delegates in Cali also approved the creation of a permanent body to represent the interests of Indigenous people.
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Migrant arrests at US-Mexico border near record low in February
WASHINGTON — The number of migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in February is on pace to be at or near a record monthly low, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson and two other sources told Reuters.
The U.S. Border Patrol is on pace to have arrested around 8,500 migrants at the border in February as the end of the month nears, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. Two other sources said the monthly total would be at or near a record low.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, took an array of actions to deter illegal immigration after returning to the White House on January 20, saying a crackdown was needed after high levels of migration under his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
Trump’s moves included implementing a sweeping ban on asylum at the border and surging military troops to assist border security.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Trump administration over the ban earlier this month, arguing it violated U.S. asylum law and international treaties.
The Trump administration also struck new agreements with Mexico and Central American countries to accept U.S. deportees from other nations and has sent some migrants to a camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
U.S. Border Patrol’s monthly enforcement statistics go back to 2000. The lowest monthly total on record is currently April 2017, when the agency arrested 11,127 at the start of Trump’s first term.
While the number of border arrests similarly dipped at the start of Trump’s 2017-21 presidency, they rebounded in the months and years that followed.
The February projection would be a steep drop from the 141,000 migrant arrests in February 2024 and down from 29,000 in January, according to U.S. government figures.
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North Korea’s Kim orders nuclear readiness after missile test, KCNA says
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a test-launch of strategic cruise missiles and ordered full readiness to use nuclear attack capability to ensure the most effective defense for the country, state media announced Friday.
The test was designed to warn “enemies, who are seriously violating the security environment of the (country) and fostering and escalating the confrontation environment” and to demonstrate “readiness of its various nuke operation means,” KCNA news agency said.
“What is guaranteed by powerful striking ability is the most perfect deterrence and defense capacity,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
The missile launch was conducted on Wednesday over the sea off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, it said.
South Korea’s military said on Friday it had detected signs of missile launch preparations on Wednesday and tracked several cruise missiles after they were launched around 8 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Tuesday) over the sea.
North Korea has pursued the development of strategic cruise missiles over several years, intended to deliver nuclear warheads.
That type of missile tends to bring less alarm and condemnation from the international community than ballistic missiles because they are not formally banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The Security Council has banned the North from ballistic missile and nuclear weapons development and imposed a number of sanctions for violations.
The report of the missile test came in the same week that Kim made back-to-back visits to military schools, driving home the message of loyalty and the importance of ideological and tactical training of young military officers.
Kim did not mention any country by name when he spoke of warning the enemies but has kept up harsh rhetoric against the United States and South Korea despite comments by U.S. President Donald Trump that he would be reaching out to him.
Trump and Kim held unprecedented summit meetings during the U.S. president’s first term.
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VOA Kurdish: Turkey’s Kurds react to PKK leader’s call to disarm group
Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, on Thursday called for the group’s disarmament and disbandment. VOA Kurdish spoke to locals in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s largest Kurdish-majority city. While many residents supported Ocalan’s message of peace, others wondered whether his call would be met by real steps by the Turkish government to address the Kurdish question.
Click here for the full story in Kurdish.
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Trump to hit Canada, Mexico, China with new tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would impose 25% tariffs on imported goods from Canada and Mexico next week as he originally planned, contending the two neighboring countries are still not doing enough to curb the flow of drugs into the United States.
In addition, Trump said on his Truth Social media platform that he also was hitting China with another 10% levy next Tuesday on its exports to the U.S., on top of the 10% tariff he imposed earlier this month. China quickly matched the first Trump tariff with one of its own on U.S. exports.
“Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels,” Trump said. “A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China.”
Trump first announced the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, two of the U.S.’s closest allies and trading partners, earlier this month.
But he delayed imposition of the tariffs until March 4 after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would send 10,000 troops to her country’s northern border to help the U.S. control drug trafficking. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would name a “fentanyl czar” to deal with the issue.
Sheinbaum, whose trade-dependent economy sends 80% of its exports to the U.S., said earlier this week, “We’re expecting to reach a deal with the United States,” but that if a deal is not reached, Mexico could impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-made products.
When Trump first announced the hefty U.S. tariff on Canadian imports, Trudeau said it was “entirely unjustified” and promised to impose a 25% tax starting March 12 on U.S. steel and aluminum products exported to Canada. Canada is the top exporter of both metals to the U.S.
Economists say the tariffs Trump is imposing are likely to boost retail prices for consumers and the cost of materials for businesses. Mexico, Canada and China, in that order, are the three biggest national trading partners with the U.S., although collectively, the 27-nation European Union is larger than all three.
Trump, at the first Cabinet meeting of his new presidential term on Wednesday, said he would “very soon” announce a 25% tariff on EU exports to the U.S.
With Trump signaling the new tariff on goods sent to the U.S., the EU vowed to respond “firmly and immediately” to “unjustified” trade barriers and suggested it would impose its own tariffs on U.S. imports if Trump proceeded with his.
Trump, in his Truth Social announcement, said reciprocal tariffs on nations that levy taxes on U.S. exports were still set to take effect on April 2. He has also hinted at putting tariffs on automobile imports, lumber, pharmaceutical products and other goods.
Many economists have repeatedly warned that tariffs could lead to higher prices, boosting troublesome inflation in the U.S. Trump has acknowledged there could be short-term pain for Americans but he has contended that tariffs would ultimately be beneficial to the U.S. economy, the world’s largest.
Trump says the tariffs he is imposing would be an incentive for foreign companies to do more manufacturing in the United States to avoid the tariffs on overseas shipment of their products to the U.S.
More immediately, Trump is focused on the flow of drugs into the U.S.
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North Korea appears to have sent more troops to Russia, Seoul says
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday that North Korea appears to have sent additional troops to Russia after its soldiers deployed on the Russian-Ukraine fronts suffered heavy casualties.
The National Intelligence Service said in a brief statement it was trying to determine how many more troops North Korea has deployed to Russia.
The NIS also assessed that North Korean troops were redeployed at fronts in Russia’s Kursk region in the first week of February, following a reported temporary withdrawal from the area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an address on Feb. 7, confirmed a new Ukrainian offensive in Kursk and said North Korean troops were fighting alongside Russian forces there.
North Korea has been supplying a vast number of conventional weapons to Russia, and last fall it sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia, according to U.S., South Korean and Ukraine intelligence officials.
North Korean soldiers are highly disciplined and well trained, but observers say they’ve become easy targets for drone and artillery attacks on Russian-Ukraine battlefields because of their lack of combat experience and unfamiliarity with the terrain.
In January, the NIS said about 300 North Korean soldiers had died and 2,700 had been injured. Zelenskyy earlier put the number of killed or wounded North Koreans at 4,000, although U.S. estimates were lower at around 1,200.
Earlier Thursday, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, citing unidentified sources, reported that an additional 1,000 to 3,000 North Korean soldiers were deployed to Kursk between January and February.
South Korea, the United States and their partners worry that Russia could reward North Korea by transferring high-tech weapons technologies that can sharply enhance its nuclear weapons program. North Korea is expected to receive economic and other assistance from Russia, as well.
During talks in Saudi Arabia last week, Russia and the U.S. agreed to start working toward ending the war and improving their diplomatic and economic ties. Ukrainian officials weren’t present at the talks. That marked an extraordinary shift in U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump and a clear departure from U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine.
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X influencer misleads on DRC offer of rare minerals to US, EU
Tshisekedi’s government invited the U.S. and EU to purchase minerals directly from the DRC, bypassing Rwanda-backed M23 fighters. There was no request for U.S. troops to intervene in the conflict.
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Global splinters evident at G20 finance ministers meeting
JOHANNESBURG — The Group of 20 major economies has been instrumental in coordinating the response to crises like the COVID pandemic. But top officials from the U.S. and several other member states skipped the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in South Africa this week, raising questions about the group’s continued relevance in a splintered global environment.
The two-day meeting in Cape Town ended without a communique, with current G20 leader South Africa saying there was not sufficient consensus to issue one.
In his opening remarks at the event, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa referred to the fractured geopolitical climate and stressed the importance of international cooperation.
“At this time of global uncertainty and escalating tension, it is now more important than ever that the members of the G20 should work together,” Ramaphosa said. “The erosion of multilateralism presents a threat to global growth and stability.”
He said the G20 finance ministers meeting had to address major issues like climate change financing, ensuring debt sustainability for developing countries, and Africa’s need to process its own critical minerals for inclusive growth.
But it appeared the world’s largest economies were not able to find common ground on a number of issues. South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana noted this wasn’t the first time.
“The issue of the communique and the absence of it is not something new,” Godongwana said. “To my knowledge, I mean, since the Russia-Ukraine war, it has been difficult to find a joint communique. Now, new differences have emerged on a number of other topics.”
Climate adaptation funding was one of the areas where there was a “difference of opinion,” he said.
The finance ministers meeting was beset with similar problems faced by last week’s G20 foreign ministers meeting in Johannesburg, which laid bare the discord in current geopolitics.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent skipped the event amid a spat with host country South Africa, and after the U.S. criticized the themes around climate change and “solidarity, equality and sustainability.”
The finance chiefs of other large economies, including Japan, India and China also sat it out. However, all of them, including the U.S., sent representation at various levels.
Still, the absence of some top officials underscores global divisions sparked by Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the “America First” administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, said Professor Alex van den Heever of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
“I think that this has caused a sort of a general review of how people see global issues,” van den Heever said, “with people becoming a lot more insular and not really looking at sort of global social solidarity in any way, shape or form – largely looking to look after their own situation.”
However, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves, who was in Cape Town for the meeting, added to Ramaphosa’s call for unity, posting on social media platform X, “Productive and successful collaboration with our international partners is front of mind, now more than ever.”
Asked about the issue of tariffs, Godongwana said there had been, “general agreement against protectionism” at the G20 meeting.
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As US tariffs expand, Chinese firms’ workarounds come into focus
WASHINGTON — As U.S. President Donald Trump moves forward with an expanding net of tariffs, including an additional 10% for Chinese imports starting next week, industry insiders and experts say closing existing loopholes and workarounds that companies use to avoid trade taxes is also key.
One practice that so far has helped companies from China — and others — to avoid being hit with tariffs is transshipment, or the transfer of goods to a second country, where the “Made in China” label is switched for another.
Berwick Offray, a ribbon manufacturer in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania, has first-hand experience with the practice. Founded in 1945, the company prides itself on its pledge to keep its products “Made in the USA” and its position as one of the largest manufacturers of ribbons in the world.
Earlier this month, the company sued a U.S. importer, TriMar Ribbon, for allegedly buying ribbons produced in China that were shipped to the United States through India to illegally avoid being subject to tariffs.
Ribbons made in China are cheaper and sold at below market value prices in the United States.
“The current allegations allege that TriMar imported ribbons from China into the United States through transshipment in India, and did not declare the correct country of origin upon entry,” said a notice issued from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, when the agency agreed to investigate the case.
Daniel Pickard, an expert on international trade and an attorney at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, which represents Berwick Offray, said there have been numerous cases of transshipment, especially when it comes to products from China.
“We have assisted several clients in submitting allegations to CBP against importers of products that have been transshipped from China through third countries such as Thailand, India and Canada,” Pickard told VOA. “Our clients typically are the U.S. manufacturers of those products that are competing against the Chinese imports that are engaged in evasion of duties.”
According to CBP data, there are currently 221 investigations of Chinese-made products suspected of transshipment tariff evasion.
Tariffs and loopholes
In early February, the Trump administration rolled out 10% blanket tariffs on all Chinese goods. On March 4, Chinese imports will face an additional 10% tariff.
While Trump has worked to reduce potential workarounds, including his executive order on reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, U.S. lawmakers have introduced measures to close the loopholes that would allow Chinese products to evade the president’s increased fees.
Republican Senator Rick Scott introduced the Stopping Adversarial Tariff Evasion Act on Jan. 31, aiming to strengthen enforcement mechanisms to ensure foreign manufacturers comply with customs and duties.
The legislation builds on efforts from Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, who introduced a bill in December intended to hold China accountable for tariff evasion by establishing a task force and reporting mechanisms to deal with instances of financial crime.
Jayant Menon, a senior fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said the second Trump presidency will foster even more efforts to monitor tariff evasion and inspect products for compliance.
“While it is increasingly difficult to determine where a product is really made these days, given increasing globalization and widespread production under global supply chain, increased scrutiny can help with identifying bypass attempts,” Menon said.
“If bypass attempts are suspected, rightly or wrongly, then the country as a whole may be penalized with new tariffs,” he said.
Pickard said he expects more investigations will be launched by the new administration. He also looks forward to more efforts to counter discriminatory practices affecting U.S. companies.
“We anticipate CBP will increase its enforcement efforts as to the widespread customs fraud involving Chinese products,” he said.
Many stakeholders in the industry, Pickard said, are hoping to see these issues met with criminal prosecutions.
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UN rights chief warns of ‘mass deaths from famine’ in Sudan
GENEVA — The U.N. human rights chief warned of the risk of a further escalation of the war in Sudan on Thursday and said there was a growing risk of deaths from starvation on a wide scale.
Volker Türk’s warning came a day after the U.N. World Food Program has temporarily stopped distributing food aid in a famine-struck camp for displaced people in Sudan’s North Darfur amid escalating violence.
“Sudan is a powder keg, on the verge of a further explosion into chaos, and at increasing risk of atrocity crimes and mass deaths from famine,” he told the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “The danger of escalation has never been higher.”
War erupted in April 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule, triggering the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.
Already, famine conditions have been reported in at least five locations in Sudan, including displacement camps in Darfur, according to the United Nations.
Türk said that recent moves by the RSF towards establishing governing authority in areas it controls were likely to “further entrench divisions and the risk of continued hostilities.”
He also noted continued supplies of weapons to the warring parties from outside the country, including more advanced arms.
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Andrew Tate, accused of rape, trafficking in Romania, leaves for US
BUCHAREST, ROMANIA — Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are charged with human trafficking in Romania, left for the United States after authorities lifted travel restrictions imposed as part of the case, an official said Thursday.
The brothers — who are dual U.S.-British citizens and have millions of online followers — were arrested in late 2022 and indicted last year on charges they participated in a criminal ring that lured women to Romania, where they were sexually exploited.
Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. They deny the allegations. In December, a court ruled that the case couldn’t go to trial because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors.
The case, however, remained open, and there is also another ongoing investigation against them in Romania. Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors approved a request to change the travel restrictions on the Tates but didn’t say who made the request.
The brothers are still required to appear before judicial authorities when summoned. “The defendants have been warned that deliberately violating these obligations may result in judicial control being replaced with a stricter deprivation of liberty measure,” the statement said.
Andrew Tate, 38, a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist who has amassed more than 10 million followers on X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.
He and Tristan Tate, 36, are vocal supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump. The Tates’ departure came after Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu said this month that an official in the Trump administration expressed interest in the brothers’ case at the Munich Security Conference.
The minister insisted no pressure was applied to lift restrictions on the Tates after a Financial Times report on the meeting caused a stir in Romania. The Bucharest Court of Appeal’s decision that the Tate case could not proceed was a huge setback for DIICOT, but it didn’t mean the defendants could walk free, and the case hasn’t been closed.
Last August, DIICOT also launched a second case against the brothers, investigating allegations of human trafficking, the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements and money laundering. They have denied those charges as well.
The Tate brothers’ legal battles aren’t limited to Romania. Late last year, a U.K. court ruled that police can seize more than $3.3 million to cover years of unpaid taxes from the pair and freeze some of their accounts. Andrew Tate called it “outright theft” and said it was “a coordinated attack on anyone who dares to challenge the system.”
In March, the Tate brothers appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case after U.K. authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a case dating back to 2012-2015. The appeals court granted the U.K. request to extradite the Tates, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.
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On Moscow streets, Russians welcome thaw in relations with Washington
Anticipation is growing in Russia for a summit – yet to be scheduled – between U.S. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. On the streets of Moscow, many Russians welcome what they see as a thaw in relations with Washington, and what some hope is the beginning of the end of their country’s isolation from the West. Jonathan Spier narrates this report.
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Cybercrime laws risk ‘steady criminalization’ of journalists, analysts warn
washington — As more countries enact cybercrime legislation, analysts warn that efforts to combat legitimate concerns could also allow for easier targeting of critics.
Analysts have warned that amendments in Pakistan and Myanmar in recent months could add to already repressive environments.
Some point to Nigeria as a test case. Since passing its cybercrime law in 2015, watchdogs have documented 29 cases of journalists being charged, including four who were charged in a Lagos court in September.
“What we are seeing is a steady criminalization of journalists around the world, and it’s a huge threat to press freedom,” said Jonathan Rozen, a senior researcher at the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.
In Pakistan, the government in January amended the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act of 2016 (PECA). Authorities said the changes would curb cybercrime, online harassment and the spread of hateful content that could instigate violence.
Pakistan’s federal information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the law was needed “to regulate social media.”
“Countries across the world have some codes or standards under which social media operate, but there was none in our country,” he told reporters last month.
The amendment led to protests by journalists and civil society, who said the changes would make it easy for authorities to prosecute people whose opinions are not in line with those of the government.
Analysts pointed to broad terms, including definitions of “unlawful” content and “person,” with the latter now including state institutions and corporations.
Another amendment proposed the creation of a Digital Rights Protection Authority that can remove content from social media platforms.
Critics and media rights groups worry this could expose journalists and social media users to increased restrictions and legal action, restrict dissent and open doors for the powerful military establishment to target and harass civilians.
Before the reforms, watchdogs recorded more than 200 cases of journalists being investigated since PECA was passed.
Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the changes in Pakistan’s cybercrime law would make an “already repressive online atmosphere even worse and restrictive.”
Pakistan’s military has imposed a “much tougher crackdown” in the past year, said Kurlantzick.
“They have gone well out of their way to target individuals, civil rights activists, journalists, and use anti-freedom laws to target those people, and often put them in jail,” he said.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.
Similar concerns are shared in Myanmar, where the junta last July passed an expansive cybercrime law. The law targeted virtual private networks, or VPNs, that allow internet users to circumvent blocked websites and censorship.
The junta said the new law was needed to protect against cyberattacks and cybercrimes that could threaten the country’s stability.
Since seizing power in a coup in February 2021, Myanmar’s military has revoked broadcast licenses, blocked access to websites and jailed journalists. The country is the third worst jailer of journalists, with 35 detained, according to the latest CPJ data.
An expert with the Myanmar Internet Project, a digital rights group, told VOA at the time that the law was more focused on suppressing rights than protecting the public.
“All the provisions of the law are designed to suppress rather than protect the public,” the expert, who asked to be identified only as U Han, said. “We believe that the junta will use this bill as a weapon prepared for this purpose.”
Kurlantzick, however, believes the military would struggle to restrict the online space.
“Myanmar’s military has no power to restrict online dissent anymore, as 70% of the country is in control of the opposition groups,” he said. “The government, which can’t provide power, water or other services even in the biggest cities, doesn’t have the ability to crack down on the internet now.”
In Nigeria, the 2015 Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act has been used to file cases against journalists who investigate corruption. But the government has made some reforms based on civil society and press freedom group recommendations.
Two sections of the cybercrime law had been of particular concern because of the “very broad and vague wording” that allowed the arrest of journalists for sending what were deemed “annoying” or “defamatory” messages, said CPJ’s Rozen.
Changes made in 2024 narrowed the language.
“It constrained the opportunity for authorities to arrest journalists only if the messages were knowingly false, or if it was causing a breakdown of law or causing a threat to life,” said Rozen, who added that other areas remain “overly broad and could be abused.”
One section he cited allows for law enforcement to access information from service providers without a court order.
Nigeria’s police have used this to access data of journalists, said Rozen, noting that four journalists are currently facing prosecution under the cybercrime act.
Rozen agrees that “misinformation and disinformation are challenges for society, but what is being observed,” he said, “is a criminalization of journalists on accusations that they are sharing false information, and in many cases, this is used as a shorthand to smother or crush” dissenting voices.
With more reporting and publishing taking place online, the tools some governments use to suppress journalists are adapting to the modernization of the industry, Rozen said.
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