Category: United States

United States news. The U.S. national government is a presidential constitutional republic and liberal democracy with three separate branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. It has a bicameral national legislature composed of the House of Representatives, a lower house based on population; and the Senate, an upper house based on equal representation for each state

More Pandas Will Be Coming to the US, China’s President Signals

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Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled that China will send new pandas to the United States, calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”

“We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” Xi said Wednesday during a dinner speech with business leaders.

The gesture came at the end of a day in which Xi and President Joe Biden held their first face to face meeting in a year and pledged to try to reduce tensions. Xi did not share additional details on when or where pandas might be provided but appeared to suggest the next pair of pandas are most likely to come to California, probably San Diego.

The bears have long been the symbol of the U.S.-China friendship since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington in 1972, ahead of the normalization of bilateral relations. Later, Beijing loaned the pandas to other U.S. zoos, with proceeds going back to panda conservation programs.

The National Zoo’s three giant pandas, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji, eight days ago began their long trip to China. After their departure, only four pandas are left in the United States, in the Atlanta Zoo.

“I was told that many American people, especially children, were really reluctant to say goodbye to the pandas, and went to the zoo to see them off,” Xi said in his speech. He added that he learned the San Diego Zoo and people in California “very much look forward to welcoming pandas back.”

Xi is in California to attend a summit of Indo-Pacific leaders and for his meeting with Biden. He made no mention of the pandas during his public remarks earlier in the day as he met with Biden.

When bilateral relations began to sour in the past few years, members of the Chinese public started to demand the return of giant pandas. Unproven allegations that U.S. zoos mistreated the pandas, known as China’s “national treasure,” flooded China’s social media.

But relations showed signs of stabilization as Xi traveled to San Francisco to meet with Biden. The two men met for about four hours Wednesday at the picturesque Filoli Historic House & Garden, where they agreed to cooperate on anti-narcotics, resume high-level military communications and expand people-to-people exchanges.

The National Zoo’s exchange agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association had been set to expire in early December and negotiations to renew or extend the deal did not produce results.

The San Diego Zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the last bear at the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went home earlier this year.
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Terror of Israel-Hamas War Resonates With US Families

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As casualties mount from fighting between Israel and Hamas, the U.S. relatives of those affected by the violence are grieving the loss of friends and loved ones. In New York, Aron Ranen talks with people who have family ties to the conflict.
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Analysts: China Prioritizes De-escalation With US Through Xi-Biden Meeting

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Following the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco on Wednesday, analysts say Beijing is hoping to de-escalate tension with the U.S. by easing its stance and projecting a less confrontational tone.

“In the official readout, Xi states China has no plan to surpass or supplant America and he also notes that China doesn’t export its ideology, showing a markedly narrower scope of geopolitical ambition,” Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist at the Australian National University (ANU), told VOA in a written response.  

He said the messages are in stark contrast to Xi’s previous proclamation that “the East is rising and the West is falling.”

In the official readout released on Thursday, Xi highlighted the importance for Beijing and Washington to avoid confrontation, saying that “turning their back on each other” is not an option for the two superpowers.

“Major-country competition can’t solve the problems facing China and the United States or the world,” he said. “The world is big enough to accommodate both countries and one country’s success is an opportunity for the other.”

Apart from emphasizing the need to avoid conflict, Xi said China has no plan to “surpass or unseat the United States” and that it doesn’t export its ideology.

He laid out five principles for Beijing and Washington to manage bilateral relations, calling on both sides to develop a “right perception,” jointly manage disagreements, advance mutually beneficial cooperation, shoulder responsibilities as major countries, and promote people-to-people ties.

“It is important that they appreciate each other’s principles and red lines and have more communications, more dialogues, more consultations and calmly handle their differences as well as accidents,” Xi said.

Some experts say the points highlighted in the readout and other efforts from Beijing before the meeting all suggest the Chinese government’s desire to frame the meeting between Biden and Xi as a success. “I think the overall response [from Beijing] was firm but positive,” Amanda Hsiao, senior China analyst at International Crisis Group, told VOA by phone.

In her view, the Chinese government wants to project the image that it remains in control of the bilateral relationship but it’s also opening up to the U.S. “[Beijing wants to show] that it is extending a gesture out to the U.S. to improve relations but it’s doing so from a position of strength,” she said.

While some analysts view Beijing’s messages from the readout as largely conciliatory and positive, others say it still reflects China’s reservation about Washington’s possible attempt to influence its governance system.

“The mention of not changing each other’s systems suggests China’s suspicion that the United States is out to alter its communist party-dominated system,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at National Singapore University, told VOA in a written response.

Xi emphasizes ‘common interests’

Apart from emphasizing the importance of preventing competition from escalating into conflict, Xi also highlighted the need for China and the U.S. to expand cooperation in a wide range of areas, including economy, trade, agriculture, climate change, and artificial intelligence.  

“The common interests between China and the United States have increased, not decreased,” he said, according to the readout.

Despite his emphasis on broadening the scope of bilateral cooperation, Xi also urged the U.S. to end export controls and the practice of investment screening, referring to a government executive order that restricts U.S. investments into Chinese companies or Chinese-owned companies engaged in three advanced technology areas.   

“Stifling China’s technological progress is nothing but a move to contain China’s high-quality development and deprive the Chinese people of their right to development,” Xi said, adding that China’s development and growth “won’t be stopped by external forces.”

Sung from ANU said these messages show that Washington’s controls risking may be generating enough pressure on China to force Beijing to “pivot back to a more conciliatory posture.”  

“China’s economic woes seem to be catching up with its foreign policy rhetoric,” he told VOA.

As part of the effort to encourage foreign investment in China, Xi told a group of U.S. business leaders that China would be a “friend and partner” of the U.S. while reiterating that Beijing “never bet on the United States to lose.”  

“The world needs China and the U.S. to work together for a better future,” he told an audience of business leaders, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. “China is ready to be a partner and friend of the U.S.”

Given the economic slowdown that China has experienced since the start of 2023, Chong in Singapore said Xi would like to encourage foreign investment and technological exchanges, as it “could help foster growth” in the Chinese economy.

Attempt to reduce tension over Taiwan

Despite the ongoing tension between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, Xi still briefly addressed the topic during his meeting with Biden. According to the readout, he urged the U.S. to “take real actions” to honor its commitment of “not supporting Taiwan independence, stop arming Taiwan and support China’s reunification.”  

“China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable,” he said.

Compared to previous statements on Taiwan, Hsiao from the International Crisis Group said Xi’s remarks on Wednesday were relatively brief. “In the past, you would see a long elaboration of China’s position on Taiwan, but this tone is different,” she told VOA.

In her view, the latest statement from Beijing is more specific about what China is asking of the U.S. when it comes to Taiwan. “I think what we have seen from this readout, as well as from the U.S. side, indicate that the two sides are seeking to de-escalate around Taiwan, particularly because there are elections coming up, which could create unknowns in the relationship and could potentially see tensions flare up,” Hsiao said.

While the messages from China seem more positive and conciliatory, Hsiao said the essence of U.S.-China relations hasn’t changed.  

“It remains a competitive relationship and even if China continues to say that it believes it’s not a competitive relationship, it will continue to see Washington as a key rival in reality,” she told VOA.

She thinks the biggest achievement of the Biden-Xi meeting is to create some protection against some key events that will take place in the next year, including presidential elections in Taiwan and the U.S.  

“It’s important that this meeting occurred so we have that buffer going into the year where things might get commensurate,” Hsiao said.
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US Warrantless Surveillance Law Up for Renewal Amid Calls for Reform

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A controversial section of federal law that gives U.S. intelligence agencies the ability to conduct warrantless surveillance of the communications of non-U.S. persons abroad will expire at the end of the year, creating pressure on Congress to renew it, even as privacy activists demand that it be reformed.  

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows electronic surveillance of non-U.S. persons overseas and outside the United States for purposes of national security. It also contains a provision allowing for surveillance of foreign intelligence targets within the U.S., subject to the approval of a special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court.    

Because the surveillance of foreign nationals can often pick up the communications of American citizens who are not its direct target, many civil liberties organizations believe FISA operations violate legal protections on individual privacy. Adding to that concern is the fact that the information collected as part of FISA surveillance can be queried by domestic law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, without a warrant. Critics say this practice amounts to “backdoor searches.”  

Investigations in recent years have found numerous instances in which law enforcement agencies have abused the FISA process to obtain access to information about U.S. nationals. That includes operations that gathered information about former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign team and others that targeted the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement.  

Rights groups object  

Jeramie D. Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s (EPIC) Project on Surveillance Oversight, told VOA that his group believes the law should only be renewed if major safeguards are added.  

“EPIC and our coalition partners have been very clear that Section 702 should not be reauthorized without significant reforms, including a warrant requirement for searches of U.S. persons’ information,” he wrote in an email exchange.  

Kia Hamadanchy, a senior policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that his organization has been challenging Section 702 since the day FISA was signed into law, and that its opposition continues.    

“We have serious, serious concerns with how the problem is being operated,” he told VOA. “Over the last 15 years, we’ve seen a whole host of abuses. … So, our current position is that Section 702 should not be reauthorized absent fundamental reform.”    

Law enforcement cites need  

In an appearance before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray delivered prepared testimony in which he outlined a broad range of security threats facing the country, and said that allowing Section 702 to expire, or restricting its use, would make the country less safe.  

“Loss of this vital provision, or its reauthorization in a narrowed form, would raise profound risks,” Wray said. “For the FBI in particular, either outcome could mean substantially impairing, or in some cases entirely eliminating, our ability to find and disrupt many of the most serious security threats.”  

At the same hearing, Christine Abizaid, director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), described Section 702 as essential to protecting the country against terrorist attacks.  

“One of the most important questions for NCTC to determine is whether international terrorists could gain access to and pose a threat to the Homeland,” Abizaid said in her prepared testimony. “Section 702 is essential for our ability to do that, and without it, the United States and the world will be less safe.”  

Different tracks in Congress  

There appear to be at least two competing Section 702 reauthorization proposals making their way through Congress.  

Last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the Senate announced the introduction of the Government Surveillance Reform Act, which would reauthorize Section 702 with significant restrictions.  

Among other things, the bill would require domestic law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before searching FISA data for information about American citizens. It has been endorsed by a large number of civil liberties organizations. 

“Americans know that it is possible to confront our country’s adversaries ferociously without throwing our constitutional rights in the trash can,” said Senator Ron Wyden, one of the co-sponsors, when the bill was introduced. “But for too long, surveillance laws have not kept up with changing times.” 

Narrower reform    

On Tuesday, the news organization Politico obtained a set of talking points outlining the shape of a competing Section 702 reauthorization proposal being considered by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The restrictions it would place on law enforcement use of Section 702 are fewer. For example, domestic law enforcement agencies would only need to obtain a warrant to search FISA data for “evidence of a crime.”  

Rights groups criticized the intelligence committee’s version of reform for not going far enough.  

“Limiting a warrant requirement to ‘evidence of a crime’ searches does little to address the well-documented abuses of the 702 authority,” said Scott of EPIC. “Furthermore, any serious proposal for reform needs to go beyond 702 to close similar loopholes that allow the government to obtain Americans’ information without a warrant. To not do so is to not take Americans’ privacy and civil liberties seriously.” 
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Progress in Childhood Cancer has Stalled for Blacks and Hispanics, US Report Says

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Advances in childhood cancer are a success story in modern medicine. But in the past decade, those strides have stalled for Black and Hispanic youth, opening a gap in death rates, according to a new report published Thursday.

Childhood cancers are rare and treatments have improved drastically in recent decades, saving lives.

Death rates were about the same for Black, Hispanic and white children in 2001, and all went lower during the next decade. But over the next 10 years, only the rate for white children dipped a little lower.

“You can have the most sophisticated scientific advances, but if we can’t deliver them into every community in the same way, then we have not met our goal as a nation,” said Dr. Sharon Castellino, a pediatric cancer specialist at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, who had no role in the new report.

She said the complexity of new cancers treatments such as gene therapy, which can cure some children with leukemia, can burden families and be an impediment to getting care.

“You need at least one parent to quit their job and be there 24/7, and then figure out the situation for the rest of their children,” Castellino said. “It’s not that families don’t want to do that. It’s difficult.”

More social workers are needed to help families file paperwork to get job-protected leave and make sure the child’s health insurance is current and doesn’t lapse.

The overall cancer death rate for children and teenagers in the U.S. declined 24% over the two decades, from 2.75 to 2.10 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

The 2021 rate per 10,000 was 2.38 for Black youth, 2.36 for Hispanics and 1.99 for whites.

Nearly incurable 50 years ago, childhood cancer now is survivable for most patients, especially those with leukemia. The leading cause of cancer deaths in kids is now brain cancer, replacing leukemia.

Each year in the U.S. about 15,000 children and teens are diagnosed with cancer. More than 85% live for at least five years.

The improved survival stems from research collaboration among more than 200 hospitals, said Dr. Paula Aristizabal of the University of California, San Diego. At Rady Children’s Hospital, she is trying to include more Hispanic children, who are underrepresented in research.

“Equity means that we provide support that is tailored to each family,” Aristizabal said.

The National Cancer Institute is working to gather data from every childhood cancer patient with the goal of linking each child to state-of-the-art care. The effort could improve equity, said Dr. Emily Tonorezos, who leads the institute’s work on cancer survivorship.

The CDC’s report is “upsetting and discouraging,” she said. “It gives us a roadmap for where we need to go next.”
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10 Classmates Beat Las Vegas Teen, 17, to Death, Police Say

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A 17-year-old high school student in Las Vegas was beaten to death in an alleyway around the corner from campus by 10 of his classmates between the ages of 13 and 17, a prearranged fight that authorities said broke out over a pair of headphones and a vape pen.

But police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson said that detectives think the victim wasn’t originally supposed to be involved in the brawl, which the students agreed would take place after classes were done for the day at Rancho High School in eastern Las Vegas.

Jonathan Lewis Jr. walked to the alleyway with his friend, whose headphones and vape pen had been stolen, Johansson said.

The deadly beating on Nov. 1 was captured on cellphone video and widely shared on social media. Johansson described the footage as “very void of humanity.”

In the video, he said, the victim is seen taking off his shirt to prepare for the fight, and then the 10 students “immediately swarm him, pull him to the ground and begin kicking, punching and stomping on him.” 

Eight of the students were arrested Tuesday by Las Vegas police and the FBI on suspicion of murder. They were not immediately identified because they are under 18. 

Las Vegas police said they haven’t yet been able to identify the two remaining students, who will also face murder charges. The police department released images of the teenagers, asking for help from the public to identify them. 

 

On Wednesday afternoon, as classes ended for the day and students were leaving campus, a small memorial with flowers and eight candles sat against a fence in the alleyway where Lewis was killed. 

Rancho High School principal Darlin Delgado said in a letter this week to parents that support and resources were available for students and staff members as the beating “has and will continue to impact our school community.”

Scott Coffee, a deputy public defender with 28 years of experience in Las Vegas, said it is unusual to have so many co-defendants of such young ages charged with murder in a single case. Coffee said he had not seen court documents and does not represent any of the defendants.

“When kids are involved in this kind of activity, they take the risk by being involved,” Coffee said. “But the flip side is this: Does it look like anybody intended to kill anyone?”

A family court judge on Wednesday ordered four of the students who are 16 or older to be transferred to the adult court system, the Review-Journal reported. Hearings will be held at later dates to determine if the students under 16 will be charged as adults.

Police and prosecutors will have to measure the level of culpability for each of the 10 defendants as the case moves through the court system, Coffee noted. 

“Was there somebody in charge of this group? Was somebody younger just going along with the older folks?” he said, adding that although the students face similar charges at the time of their arrests, “it doesn’t mean the resolutions are necessarily going to be similar.”

After the brawl, a person in the area found the teenager badly beaten and unconscious in the alleyway and carried him back to campus, where school staff called 911, police said.

Lewis was hospitalized with severe head trauma and other injuries until his death a week later. The coroner’s office in Las Vegas ruled the beating a homicide.

The victim’s father, Jonathan Lewis Sr., didn’t respond Wednesday to requests for an interview. But on a fundraising page he created to help with funeral and medical expenses, he wrote that his son was attacked while standing up for his friend.

“Our son is a kind, loving, gentle young man who has the heart of a champion and the brightest loving energy that attracts people to him with love,” the page reads. 
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150 Protest in Front of DC Democrat Headquarters, Calling for Gaza Cease-Fire

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Police in the nation’s capital responded Wednesday night to a protest outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

U.S. Capitol Police said about 150 people were “illegally and violently protesting” near the DNC headquarters building in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington. Members of Congress were evacuated from the building as the protest erupted.

Video posted on social media showed protesters shoving police officers and trying to grab hold of metal barricades as the officers moved in to make arrests. The videos also show officers shoving protesters. Many of the protesters were wearing black shirts that read “Cease Fire Now.”

Protesters included members of If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace, who have organized other demonstrations in Washington.

If Not Now posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “police are being extremely violent.”

“We are linking arms, threatening no one, and begging our politicians to support an end to the killing and the suffering in Gaza. Begging, peacefully, for a cease-fire,” the group posted.

The clashes Wednesday evening are the latest example of roiling tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas.

President Joe Biden has been under increasing pressure from the Democratic Party’s left flank over his support for Israel’s military operation, including interruptions from protesters at his speeches. He has resisted calls for a cease-fire, instead saying there should be pauses in the fighting to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance and the potential extraction of hostages.

Last week, a large number of House Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in voting to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, over her criticism of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians.

Tlaib, who has family in the West Bank, came under heavy criticism after she failed to immediately condemn Hamas after the attack. She since has called out the terrorist group while also calling for a cease-fire.

The Metropolitan Police Department said its officers also responded to the disturbance. Officials sent an alert to congressional staffers telling them no one would be permitted to enter or exit any House office buildings.

Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat, said he was evacuated from the building by police after protesters began “pepper-spraying police officers and attempting to break into the building.”
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Bangladesh Politician Faces Discipline Over Threat Against US Envoy

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Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for steps to be taken against an official in her party who threatened to physically assault Peter Haas, the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh.

The official justified his words by claiming that Haas was working in the interest of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, ahead of elections scheduled for early January.

While it was not disclosed exactly what action has been ordered, Bangladesh’s junior foreign affairs minister, Shahriar Alam, confirmed in front of local reporters in Dhaka on Friday that the prime minister has directed action against the official.

In a video clip that went viral on social media last week, Mujibul Haque Chowdhury, chairman of a unit of Hasina’s Awami League in a Chittagong subdivision, was seen hurling threats and insults at the American ambassador at a political meeting on November 6.

“Peter Haas said he wants to see a free and fair election here. I say, ‘Peter Haas, you are as knowledgeable as a newborn, while we are the actual grown-ups,’” Chowdhury said in the video. “You have no idea what we are capable of. You will know just how dangerous we are once we bash you up.”

Chowdhury added: “To the BNP members, you are a god, a savior. But we are not scared of you. You cannot harm us in any way.”

As the video spread on social media, Hasina directed her party colleagues to discipline Choudhury at an AL Central Committee meeting Thursday.

Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of her party, acknowledged afterward that Chowdhury’s comments about the ambassador were abusive.

“Peter Haas, as an ambassador, is a respectable person. Mujibul Haque Chowdhury’s comment, as it surfaced in the media, is rude and indecent. We will take disciplinary action against him for his misconduct,” Quader said in a press briefing.

US seeking free and fair election

The 2014 general elections in Bangladesh were boycotted by the BNP. The next general elections, in 2018, were marred by allegations of massive vote stuffing by the AL.

Since 2022, the United States and other countries have been urging the Hasina government to hold the next general election, set for January 7, in a free and fair manner.

In September, the U.S. government announced that it had started “taking steps to impose visa restrictions” on Bangladeshi individuals who are found complicit in “undermining the democratic electoral process” in Bangladesh.

During a visit to the U.S. in September, Hasina said at a New York press conference that every time her party has come to power, it was through a fair democratic process. “We indeed want the next general elections to be free and fair,” she said.

However, the BNP, the largest opposition party in Bangladesh, insists that the general election will not be free and fair if it is held under the Hasina government, and has said it will not participate unless a nonpartisan caretaker government is installed for the election period.

In recent weeks, Haas has met several Bangladeshi government officials, ruling party leaders and the election commissioners. He reportedly conveyed a message from the U.S. government that it seriously wants the next general election in Bangladesh to be free and fair.

Over the past weeks, several leaders of the AL and its various wings and allies have expressed irritation, directly and indirectly alleging that Haas is working in support of the BNP.

“How will Peter Hass help you [the BNP]? Will he impose visa restrictions, sanctions? We have already had talks with his superiors in the U.S. Everything has been settled, and we are going to hold the elections following our plan,” Quader, the party general secretary, said last month.

“We will not allow you to carry out violent activities and disrupt elections by using Peter Haas,” Quader said.

Calls for ambassador to be replaced

Last week, Hasanul Haq Inu, a former minister and political ally of the AL, called for the removal of Haas from Bangladesh.

U.S. President “Joe Biden’s representative Peter Haas, who is the ‘newly appointed adviser of BNP,’ is acting in support of the BNP by supporting the killing of a policeman,” Inu said in a speech. He was referring to the death of a policeman during an outbreak of violence at a BNP rally in Dhaka on October 28.

“Peter Haas is the supporter of the BNP, the killer of the policeman. He does not deserve to continue as the ambassador of the friendly nation of America,” Inu said.

“I call on the Bangladesh government to declare Peter Haas persona non grata, for indulging in undiplomatic activities, interfering in Bangladesh’s internal politics and supporting the dastardly killing of a policeman. The government should tell its U.S. counterpart to replace him with a new ambassador immediately.”

Haas has denied any U.S. interest in who wins the election. “I want to make one thing very clear,” he said in September. “That the U.S. does not support any political party. What we do want is a free and fair election in accordance with international standards so that people of Bangladesh can freely choose their own government.”

Attack on ambassador “deeply disturbing”

Ali Riaz, professor of political science at Illinois State University, said that while any individual has the right to criticize the policies of any government, a “personal attack on the envoy of that country is deeply disturbing.”

“The ruling party leaders and activists are angry with the U.S. because they see the current U.S. policy towards Bangladesh as an obstacle to holding an election according to their plan. Their anger is both spontaneous and orchestrated,” Riaz told VOA.

“Those who are beneficiaries of the present system are spontaneously angry in fear of losing these benefits,” he said. “Others are motivated by [suspicions] that the U.S. has a regime change agenda. They think that the U.S. is out to get its leaders and trying to depose the Hasina government.”

Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman of the Capital Punishment Justice Project, who has been documenting human rights abuses in Bangladesh for over a decade, said that Haas has “become a target of the regime” for being the most prominent foreign diplomat “supporting people’s aspirations for democratization and human rights” in Bangladesh.

He noted that former U.S. Ambassador Marcia Bernicat escaped an attack in Dhaka a few months ahead of the 2018 general elections. Police subsequently identified many of the assailants as leaders and activists of the AL and its student wing, Chhatra League.

On Friday, the U.S. State Department told VOA it has raised Chowdhury’s remarks at the highest levels of the Bangladesh government in Dhaka as well as with the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington.

“The safety and security of our diplomatic personnel and facilities are of the utmost importance. While we don’t comment on specific information regarding our security posture, the Diplomatic Security Service has a robust security program at each post tailored to each mission’s specific needs,” a State Department spokesperson wrote in an exchange of emails.

“Given the charged political atmosphere in Bangladesh, we expect that the government of Bangladesh will take all appropriate measures to maintain the safety and security of all U.S. missions and personnel in the country, per its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic relations.” 
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Nickel Miners, Environmentalists Learn to Live Together in Michigan

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It began as a familiar old story.

In the early 2000s, multinational mining giant Rio Tinto came to the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to dig a nickel mine.

Environmentalists feared pollution. The company promised jobs.

The usual battle lines were drawn. The usual legal fights ensued.

But this time, something different happened.

The mining company invited a respected local environmental group to be an independent watchdog, conducting pollution testing that goes above and beyond what regulators require.

More than a decade has passed, and no major pollution problems have arisen. Community opposition has softened.

“I was fiercely opposed to the mine, and I changed,” said Maura Davenport, board chair of the Superior Watershed Partnership, the environmental group doing the testing.

The agreement between the mining company and the environmentalists is working at a time when demand for nickel and other metals used in green technologies is on the rise, but the mining activity that supplies those metals faces fierce local resistance around the world.

Historic mines, polluting history

The shift to cleaner energy needs copper to wire electrical grids, rare earth elements for wind turbine magnets, lithium for electric vehicle batteries, nickel to make those batteries run longer, and more. Meeting the goals of the 2015 U.N. Paris climate agreement would mean a fourfold increase in demand for metals overall by 2040 and a 19-fold increase in nickel, according to the International Energy Agency.

That means more mines. But mines rarely open anywhere in the world without controversy. Two nearby copper-nickel mine proposals hit major roadblocks this year over environmental concerns.

For the third year running, mining companies listed environmental, social and governance issues as the leading risk facing their businesses in a survey by consulting firm EY.

Mining is not new to the Upper Peninsula, the northern tip of the state of Michigan that is mostly surrounded by the Great Lakes. The region was the nation’s leading copper and iron producer until the late 1800s. An open-pit iron mine still operates about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the college town of Marquette.

Most of the historic copper mines closed in the 1930s. But the waste they left behind is still polluting today.

Residue left over from pulverizing copper ore, known as stamp sands, continues to drift into Lake Superior, leaching toxic levels of copper into the water.

“The whole history of mining is so bad, and we feared … for our precious land,” Davenport said.

The ore Rio Tinto sought is in a form known as nickel sulfide. When those rocks are exposed to air and water, they produce sulfuric acid. Acid mine drainage pollutes thousands of kilometers of water bodies across the United States. At its worst, it can render a stream nearly lifeless.

When Rio Tinto proposed building the Eagle Mine about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Marquette, “it divided our community,” Davenport said.

“The Marquette community was against the mine,” she said, but the “iron ore miners, they were all about it.”

Mining dilemma

It’s the same story the world over, according to Simon Nish, who worked for Rio Tinto at the time.

“Communities are faced with this dilemma,” Nish said. “We want jobs, we want economic benefit. We don’t want long-term environmental consequences. We don’t really trust the regulator. We don’t trust the company. We don’t trust the activists. … In the absence of trusted information, we’re probably going to say no.”

Nish came from Australia, where a legal reckoning had taken place in the 1990s over the land rights of the country’s indigenous peoples. Early in his career, he worked as a mediator for the National Native Title Tribunal, which brokered agreements between Aboriginal peoples and resource companies who wanted to use their land.

It was a formative experience.

“On the resource company side, you can crash through and get a short-term deal, but that’s actually not benefiting anybody,” he said. “If you want to get a long-term outcome, you’ve actually really got to understand the interests of both sides.”

“Absolutely skeptical”

When Nish arrived in Michigan in 2011, Rio Tinto’s Eagle Mine was under construction but faced multiple lawsuits from community opponents.

In order to quell the controversy, Nish knew that Rio Tinto needed a partner that the community could trust. So he approached the Superior Watershed Partnership with an unusual offer. The group was already running programs testing local waterways for pollution. Would they be willing to discuss running a program to monitor the mine?

“We were surprised. We were skeptical. Absolutely skeptical,” Davenport said. But they agreed to discuss it.

SWP insisted on full, unfettered access to monitor “anything, any time, anywhere,” Nish said.

SWP’s position toward Rio Tinto was “very, very clear,” he recalled: “‘We’ve spent a long time building our reputation, our credibility here. We aren’t going to burn it for you guys.'”

Over the course of several months — “remarkably fast,” as these things go, Nish said — the environmental group and the mining company managed to work out an agreement.

SWP would monitor the rivers, streams and groundwater for pollution from the mine and the ore-processing mill 30 kilometers (19 miles) south. It would test food and medicinal plants important for the local Native American tribe. And it would post the results of these and other tests online for the public to see.

And Rio Tinto would pay for the work. A respected local community foundation would handle the funds. Rio Tinto’s funding would be at arm’s length from SWP.

“We didn’t want to be on their payroll,” said Richard Anderson, who chaired the SWP board at the time. “That could not be part of the structure.”

Not over yet

The agreement launching the Community Environmental Monitoring Program was signed in 2012. More than a decade later, no major pollution problems have turned up.

But other local environmentalists are cautious.

“I do think [Eagle Mine is] really trying to do a good job environmentally,” said Rochelle Dale, head of the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, another local environmental group that has opposed the mine.

“On the other hand, a lot of the sulfide mines in the past haven’t really had a problem until after closure.

“It’s something that our grandchildren are going to inherit,” she said.

As demand for metals heats up, opposition to new mines is not cooling off. Experts say mining companies are wising up to the need for community buy-in. Eagle Mine’s Community Environmental Monitoring Program points to one option, but also its limitations.

So far, so good. But the story’s not over yet.
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BURMA Act Debate Pushed into Early 2024

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The debate over U.S. aid to Myanmar will remain unresolved until at least early next year, as U.S. lawmakers once again this week delayed passage of a final budget for 2024.  

U.S. lawmakers are expected to pass a short-term continuing resolution that will fund the government at current levels through early next year that includes the BURMA Act, passed as part of the 2023 National Defense Authorization or NDAA.  

But the 2024 version of the budget will require the Senate and the House to reconcile differing visions of how to proceed with aid to Myanmar, also known as Burma.  

The version of the 2024 budget produced by the Democratic-majority U.S. Senate would appropriate more money to funding humanitarian assistance and democracy promotion programs in Myanmar.  

But activists have expressed concern about the delay and the version of the budget passed by the Republican-majority House of Representatives that would defund some programs.  

“We are urging that Congress appropriate sufficient money to implement the BURMA Act while continuing essential assistance in the face of ongoing political and humanitarian crisis in Burma,” the Campaign for a New Myanmar said in a statement.  

In its annual 2024 fiscal year markup of the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs budget, released in July of this year, U.S. House lawmakers recommended $50 million to implement the current BURMA Act while also recommending a reduction of $1.4 billion for the U.S. Agency for International Development or USAID’s development assistance.

In July 2023, Myanmar’s National Unity Government, a shadow administration run from hiding and exile vying to oust the junta, and a trio of allied ethnic minority rebel armies, told VOA they had asked the U.S. Congress for $525 million in aid, including $200 million in nonlethal humanitarian aid. That number would be four times the $136 million previously appropriated by Congress.  

Current Myanmar Funding

The Burma Unification through Rigorous Military Accountability or BURMA Act was a response to the February 1, 2021, coup in which Myanmar’s democratically elected government was deposed by the military.  

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – a leading voice in the U.S. Congress supporting democracy in Myanmar – marked the second anniversary of the coup on the Senate floor by praising the BURMA Act.  

“It made sanctions on senior junta officials mandatory,” McConnell said in February 2023, “Finally, the NDAA also notably authorized funding for programs to strengthen federalism in and among ethnic states in Burma, and for technical support and non-lethal assistance to Burma’s ethnic armed organizations and People’s Defense Forces to strengthen communication, command and control, and coordination of international relief and other operations between these entities.”

According to the Stimson Center, a non-partisan think tank, “it remains unclear if any new programs were created since December 2022. At this point, the U.S. continues to promote humanitarian aid as its unchanged policy towards Myanmar.”  

The United States has provided “nearly $2.1 billion since the military’s genocide and crimes against humanity towards the Rohingya that led 740,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh in 2017,” Michael Schiffer, assistant administrator of the Bureau for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development, told House lawmakers in September 2023.

Late last month, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that starting in December, it will prohibit Americans from providing financial services to or for Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. The Treasury Department also sanctioned three new entities and five individuals connected to Myanmar’s military regime.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the author of the BURMA Act, praised the move in a statement. 

“These sanctions will disrupt the junta’s access to the U.S. financial system and curtail its ability to commit further human rights violations. The United States and our partners must utilize all diplomatic and economic tools at our disposal to compel the junta to cease its atrocities, release unjustly detained individuals, facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access, and chart a pathway back toward democracy,” Meeks said. 

Zsombor Peter contributed to this report.
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Will Abortion Access Drive Turnout, Sway Votes in 2024?

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Democratic Party candidates who favor the right to an abortion recently secured big electoral wins in several conservative states. But to what extent could the issue of reproductive rights influence how Americans vote in the 2024 presidential election? VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias consulted with the experts.
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Lawmakers Urge Biden to Bring Up Issue of Detained Americans With Xi

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U.S. lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to prioritize the release of U.S. citizens deemed wrongfully detained by China when he meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday in San Francisco. 

The U.S. State Department says Texas businessman Mark Swidan, Chinese American businessman Kai Li from Long Island, New York, and California pastor David Lin are wrongfully detained by China.

Republican Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has repeatedly spoken out for Mark Swidan. McCaul urged Biden to put the release of Americans wrongfully detained by China high on the agenda for his meeting with Xi.

McCaul said in a statement sent to VOA Mandarin, “The Biden administration must stop making any concessions based on false promises and hold the [Chinese Communist Party] accountable for its gross human rights violations.”

In a letter to the White House on Nov. 8, Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, along with 12 Republican members of the committee, asked that Biden raise 10 issues with Xi, one of which is to release all American citizens the U.S. government has determined to be wrongfully detained in China.

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also wrote to Biden, according to Reuters. 

“With the holiday season approaching, and the opportunity to start the New Year on a more positive note in bilateral U.S.-China relationships, I implore you to secure commitments from President Xi to release these Americans immediately,” Cardin wrote.

According to Reuters, a State Department spokesperson has noted that it continually raises wrongfully detained U.S. nationals during engagements with senior Chinese officials.

China says such cases are handled according to law.

Swidan, a Texas businessman, was arrested on drug-related charges in Guangdong Province in 2012 on his first trip to China.

In 2013, the Jiangmen Intermediate People’s Court in southern Guangdong convicted him of manufacturing and trafficking drugs.

In 2019, it handed down a death sentence with a two-year suspension. Under Chinese law, this means the sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, depending on the convict’s behavior.

This year, his appeal was denied, and the original sentence was upheld. 

The U.S. Embassy in China said in a statement, “We are disappointed by this decision and will continue to press for his immediate release and return to the United States.”

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations Human Rights Council also characterized Swidan’s detention as illegal and called on Chinese authorities to immediately release him and provide compensation.

“It is 11 years this month since Mark was detained,” Swidan’s mother, Katherine Flint Swidan, 73, told VOA Mandarin. She said Biden must bring up those wrongfully detained in China when he meets Xi because “they are pawns.”

She told VOA Mandarin that the Chinese government has denied visitation requests from the U.S. consulate since September, and Beijing was transferring her son to Dongguan Prison, near the border with Hong Kong. 

She last heard her son’s voice during a call in 2018 and since then has communicated by letter.

In one, Swidan described dislocated knees, fluid accumulation in his legs and constant bleeding in his mouth.

She said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, told her in August after visiting Swidan that he was in poor health and had suicidal tendencies.

Katherine Swidan lives in a small apartment in Luling, Texas, about 76 kilometers south of Austin. She needs a walker and relies on Social Security benefits to make ends meet.

She worries she may never see her son again and that he may never leave China safely.

 

Katherine Swidan said she spoke to Burns over the weekend, according to Reuters. She described the conversation as “disappointing” because the ambassador would not say whether Biden would raise her son’s name with Xi.

The U.S. Embassy in China has not provided updated information to VOA’s inquiries.

Kai Li’s son, Harrison Li, sent a letter to Biden last week, saying, “I’m following up now on my letters to you dated April 8, 2022, and June 15, 2022, to urge you to earn my father’s release in advance of your anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco later this month.”

Harrison Li told VOA Mandarin, “The detainee issue is the type of small but important thorn in the bilateral relationship that can and should actually be resolved through dialogue. Our government has an obligation to take advantage of the current apparent warming in U.S.-China relations to move progress forward on these longstanding detainee cases.”

Chinese authorities arrested Kai Li at the Shanghai airport in 2016. Two years later, he was convicted of espionage charges, which he denies, and sentenced to 10 years in Shanghai’s Qingpu Prison, where many foreigners are incarcerated.

A former fellow prisoner, released from the institution housing Kai Li, told VOA Mandarin in September that Kai Li was sometimes called on by prison staff to help them communicate with foreign prisoners who spoke English.

The former prisoner asked not to be identified because he is afraid of retaliation by Chinese authorities.

He said Kai Li translated when prisoners were taken to the hospital and also managed the prison library. He added that Kai Li also often spoke of his son Harrison and was proud of Harrison for constantly speaking up about his case.

David Lin, a pastor from Orange County, California, was arrested in 2006, then convicted and sentenced to life on what the U.S. government says were bogus charges of contract fraud. A year ago, before the Biden-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, Chinese authorities reduced Lin’s sentence to 24 years, meaning he will be 75 when freed in 2030.   

According to ChinaAid, Lin was detained in 2006 for helping a house church to build a church building, something that is illegal in China.

“Subsequently, authorities restricted him from leaving the country. He was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of ‘contract fraud.'”

Lin was sentenced to life in prison on the charge later that year.

Peter Humphrey, a British journalist turned consultant, was detained with his wife in 2013. They were found guilty of illegally obtaining information on Chinese citizens. Humphrey was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

His wife was sentenced to two years. Both were released early in June 2015 for health reasons.

He now helps foreigners imprisoned by the Chinese government and campaigns for their release.

He believes there are more than three Americans wrongfully incarcerated by China.

Humphrey told VOA Mandarin, “The ordeals of the many Americans held in Xi’s jails should be high on the agenda for Biden’s meeting with Xi if Biden cares at all about wrongfully incarcerated American citizens. That means all American prisoners and not just a tiny select handful.”

“Not a single one of them has had a fair and transparent trial in front of an impartial judge because the Chinese legal and judicial system does not provide any such thing,” he said.

He suggested Biden hand over a list of all American citizens incarcerated in China, demand a mass prison transfer swap agreement to bring them home to an American facility, and then review their cases, none of which “would survive the scrutiny of an American court.”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

 
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Advocates March in Washington to Demand Work Permits for Migrants

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Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday in Washington to urge the Biden administration to extend labor protections to undocumented immigrants in the United States.

The Here to Work Day of Action march, organized by a coalition of dozens of migrant advocacy groups, called on U.S. President Joe Biden to allow immigrants living in the U.S. for years to apply for work permits. 

Lydia Walther-Rodríguez, one of the march organizers, told VOA that more than 3,000 people attended the event. They visited members of Congress to ask them for support and to press Biden to give work permits to the estimated 11 million people who are here undocumented. 

Walther-Rodríguez, who is a member of CASA, an immigration advocacy group, said allowing people to work and giving them temporary protection would also prevent family separation. 

“We are talking about security, but a security that gives the migrant movement the peace of mind to continue on a path to citizenship,” she said. 

Since February 2023, the Here to Work Coalition has brought together more than 300 businesses, Republican and Democratic governors, and members of Congress to urge the Biden administration to expand work permits for immigrants who have been paying taxes in the U.S. for years. 

According to immigrant advocates, the president can take this action by expanding humanitarian parole, Temporary Protected Status, and Deferred Enforced Departure. All three policies allow individuals who meet specific requirements to stay in the country and work temporarily.  

U.S. Congressman Jesus “Chuy” García, a Democrat from Illinois, addressed the protesters and supported their appeals, saying Biden must deliver for immigrants and that “We must all be heard.”

In a written statement after the march, Garcia added: “Whether you arrived days ago or decades ago, immigrants deserve dignity. Many of my constituents have worked and paid taxes for years, but still live without the protection and stability that comes from a work permit.” 

US labor shortage

In an October report, Stephanie Ferguson, director of Global Employment Policy and Special Initiatives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote that the country is facing “unprecedented challenges” trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs. 

“Right now, the latest data shows that we have 9.6 million job openings in the U.S., but only 6.4 million unemployed workers. We have a lot of jobs, but not enough workers to fill them. If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have around 3 million open jobs,” Ferguson wrote.

According to data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are 68 workers for every 100 open jobs.

Decades in the U.S.

Catalina Bueno, a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years, traveled from Chicago to Washington. She hopes a work permit and Temporary Protected Status could help her immigration status.  

“We’ve made our lives here, and I think it is fair that they take us into account, which is fair to us because we have a life here … My whole life is here and returning to Mexico is difficult for me … We must all be heard, and the president, more than anything, must be fair to everyone,” she said.

Temporary protection 

The Biden administration recently announced an extension and redesignation of the program that gives temporary protection from deportation for nationals of Sudan and Ukraine. Nationals of El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua also have had their protection extended. 

Advocates also called for new TPS designations. Immigrant rights groups have ongoing campaigns for Mauritania and Democratic Republic of Congo.

TPS allows migrants whose home countries are considered unsafe to live and work in the United States for a period of time if they meet certain requirements established by the U.S. government.  

Other forms of relief include deferred action, deferred enforced departure, or parole. Each has distinguished requirements while offering temporary relief from deportation and work authorization.

Some Republican lawmakers have pushed for legislation that would make U.S. immigration law more restrictive. 

Senate Republicans released a proposal on Nov. 6 that could prohibit or limit Biden officials’ use of temporary protection for migrants coming to the U.S.-Mexico border and those already in the United States.

The one-page plan narrows the scope of the parole statute to clarify that it is to be used rarely and limits granting parole to one year, with up to one one-year extension or less. 

Renata Castro, an immigration lawyer based in Florida, told VOA that Congress needs to act and that immigration is about economic growth.

“We need an innovative economy and the only way we will be able to do that is if we have meaningful immigration reform that deals with the needs and the problems of the United States of today, not of 30 or 40 years ago,” Castro said. 

The immigration attorney said other countries are taking note of the immigration challenges in the United States, and they are working hard to attract the best and the brightest.

“I, as a practicing immigration attorney, think that United States employers, particularly small businesses in the service industries, construction and hospitality, are really struggling because they cannot find individuals who are ready, willing and available to work. … Meaningful immigration reform could solve all of that,” she added.

Humanitarian parole or temporary status or protection, such as TPS or DED, is not a pathway to permanent residency. 
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US House Approves Plan to Avert Partial Government Shutdown

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The U.S. House of Representatives voted 336-95 on Tuesday to approve a plan to avert a partial government shutdown on Saturday but at the same time push off contentious debates over spending priorities until early 2024.

Current funding for all government agencies expires at midnight on Friday, forcing Congress and the White House to reach a short-term deal to keep the government running.

The House approved a proposal by new Speaker Mike Johnson, leader of the narrow Republican majority in the chamber, that extends funding for some government agencies through mid-January and others until early February. 

By those two dates, Congress will have to debate and decide on spending levels throughout the government through next September, or again approve another short-term deal.

In passing his plan, Johnson received more votes from Democrats — 209 — than Republicans — 127. Opposing it were 93 Republicans and two Democrats.

The Senate is likely to also approve the proposal and send it to President Joe Biden for his signature.

Johnson has drawn the ire of a right-wing faction of his Republican colleagues because his budget plan does not include the spending cuts or policy changes they seek. Several of the archconservatives made clear they would vote against Johnson’s plan, forcing him to look for opposition Democratic votes to assure its passage.

It was just such a scenario in late September when then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy angered the right-wing bloc by winning Democratic votes to push through the seven-week spending plan that expires Friday at midnight. Days after that political fight, eight right-wing Republicans joined the unanimous Democratic caucus in ousting McCarthy from his speakership, a first in U.S. history.

There is no sign that Johnson faces a similar fate, since he is a stalwart conservative himself, and his like-minded colleagues appear, for the moment, to be giving him leeway in reaching a deal to keep the government open. 

Johnson said his “laddered” funding expiration dates in early 2024 are intended to avoid a Washington tradition: passage of a massive spending measure just before the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, appropriations bills that are so lengthy that few lawmakers have had time to read and digest them as Congress rushes to adjourn for its end-of-year recess. 

In the latest dispute, the hard-right Republican faction in the House has demanded spending cuts that more moderate Republican lawmakers and the virtually unanimous caucus of House Democrats, along with the Democratic-controlled Senate and Biden, have rejected.

Instead, Johnson’s plan would keep spending levels at the same level as in the fiscal year that ended September 30. Johnson also rejected attempts to include divisive cultural issues favored by some hard-right conservatives but also did not include billions of dollars in new financial assistance Biden sought for Ukraine and Israel as they fight their respective wars against Russia and Hamas militants.

Congress is expected to consider more funding for Ukraine and Israel in separate legislation in the coming weeks.

Without broad new funding for government agencies by midnight Friday, governmental operations that are deemed nonessential would be halted, such as camping at national parks, advice to taxpayers and some scientific research.

In recent days, credit rating agencies have downgraded the government’s credit rating because of the continuing budget uncertainty, a move that could lead to higher borrowing costs for the United States, where the national debt is now approaching $34 trillion. 
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Biden Believes Hamas Hostages Will Be Released but Gives No Timetable

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Latest developments:

U.S. President Joe Biden says he believes Hamas hostages will be released but gives no timetable. The U.S. leader says hospitals in Gaza “must be protected” amid Israeli military advances.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members operate a command-and-control node from Al Shifa and use tunnels underneath to support their military operations and hold hostages.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Tuesday that he is “deeply disturbed by the horrible situation and dramatic loss of life in several hospitals in Gaza."
WHO’s director-general says Gaza’s largest hospital is not functioning anymore.
Palestinian health officials say 32 patients at Al Shifa Hospital have died, including three infants, as fuel supplies run out.
Israel says 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, overwhelmingly women and children, in Gaza, according authorities in Gaza.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he believes hostages being held by Hamas militants in Gaza are going to be released, but he gave no timetable.

“I have been talking to people involved every single day,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “I believe it is going happen, but I don’t want to get into details.”

He sent a message to the estimated 240 hostages being held by U.S.-designated terror group Hamas: “Hang in there. We are coming.”

U.S. officials have said in recent days they have been working with Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials to secure release of the hostages, only four of whom Hamas has freed since capturing them during its shock October 7 attack on the Jewish state.

The United States says that among the hostages are nine Americans and a foreign national with U.S. employment rights.

Meanwhile, Biden said hospitals in Gaza “must be protected” as Israeli forces continue to target health care facilities in the Palestinian enclave over claims Hamas is using them as cover to hide its command centers and weaponry.

The president was responding to reports of the worsening crisis at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza City’s main medical center, which has been surrounded and under siege by Israeli forces for several days.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members operate a command-and-control node from Al Shifa and use tunnels underneath to support their military operations and hold hostages. He said the militants have stored weapons there and are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.

“Now to be clear, we’re not supporting striking a hospital from the air, and we do not want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve not to be caught in a crossfire,” said Kirby on Tuesday, adding Hamas actions “do not lessen Israel’s responsibilities to protect civilians in Gaza.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Tuesday that he is “deeply disturbed by the horrible situation and dramatic loss of life in several hospitals in Gaza.”

“In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire,” his spokesman said.

Doctors Without Borders said bullets were fired Tuesday into one of three of its premises near the Al Shifa facility, where more than 100 of its staff and family members have been staying. The group, which includes 65 children, said it ran out of food late Monday and has been asking the Israeli army and Hamas for safe passage away from the fighting.

Services at Al Shifa have been shut down due to a lack of fuel, food and water. Thousands of desperate patients fled the hospital over the weekend, leaving just 650 patients along with thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking shelter from the fighting.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday that 32 patients at Al Shifa, including three infants, have died since the siege began due to the lack of electricity.

Doctors running low on supplies are reported to be performing surgery without anesthesia on war-wounded patients, including children. One medic shared a photo showing nine premature babies sharing a crib.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it will transfer incubators, which are used to keep premature newborn infants warm, from Israel to Al Shifa Hospital.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the medical center “is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” and the situation at Gaza’s largest hospital is “dire and perilous.”

Al Quds, another Gaza hospital, shut down Sunday because it ran out of fuel.

Israel says Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, is shielding itself among civilians at Al Shifa Hospital and has a command center in and beneath the medical compound.

Israel has not provided photos or videos to back up its claims about Hamas militants at Al-Shifa, although it has shared footage of militants operating in residential neighborhoods and positioning rockets and weapons near schools and mosques.

Both Hamas and the hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations.

“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action relative to the hospitals,” Biden told reporters during an event in the Oval Office.

Palestinian authorities in Gaza say more than 11,000 people — about 40% of them children — have been killed since Israel launched a major air and ground offensive in response to the attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead. About 240 people were kidnapped and are currently being held hostage by Hamas.

The United Nations humanitarian office said Tuesday that more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began.

The Israeli military on Tuesday confirmed the death of a 19-year-old soldier who was captured in the October 7 attacks.

The military wing of Hamas issued a video Monday of a woman who identified herself as Noa Marciano. She said she had been held in Gaza for four days and urged Israel to end the bombing campaign. The video then showed still images of the woman’s lifeless, bloodstained body lying on a sheet. Hamas said she had been killed by Israeli airstrikes last Thursday.

Israel’s military confirmed the video was that of Marciano, who was attached to a unit deployed at the Israel-Gaza border.

The army said Marciano died at the hands of a terrorist organization but did not comment on the circumstances of her death.

The Israeli military said it has seized several government facilities in Gaza City, including the territory’s legislature building, the Hamas police headquarters and a compound housing Hamas’ military intelligence headquarters.

“In every location, the enemy forces were eliminated, the location was demolished,” an Israeli commander said.

But as its military incursion advances, Israel has rejected growing and intense international pressure to impose a cease-fire to allow for the delivery of critically needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. But it has agreed to four-hour daily humanitarian pauses to allow the opening of two corridors to let Palestinians evacuate northern Gaza. National Security Council spokesman Kirby said Tuesday that in the last 24 hours around 115 more trucks carrying humanitarian aid were able to enter Gaza, bringing the total to 1100.

United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer and White House Bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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US Firm on Taliban Sanctions as Experts Call for Easing, Normalization

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The U.S. State Department says it has no intention of easing sanctions or normalizing relations with de facto Taliban authorities in Afghanistan until the Islamist regime improves the grim human rights situation in the country. 

“The United States’ firm position is that there will be no significant steps toward normalization unless and until the fundamental rights of all Afghans are upheld,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA. 

The Department’s remarks follow the release of a new United Nations assessment that suggests cautious normalization and increased international engagement with Afghanistan’s de facto authorities. 

The assessment, submitted to the U.N. Security Council last week, recommends an expansion of international assistance, allowing for more regular development aid, infrastructure projects, and technical dialogue and cooperation. It also emphasizes the need for increased engagement to occur “in a more coherent, coordinated, and structured manner.”

Despite the Taliban’s assumption of control over Afghan diplomatic missions in various regional countries, including China and Russia, and its continuation of bilateral relations with several governments, the group has not been allowed to take up Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations. Many Taliban leaders, including Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, face travel restrictions due to U.N. sanctions.

Apart from political sanctions, economic sanctions imposed on Taliban entities by the United States, the European Union and other nations have severely impacted the Afghan economy, exacerbating extreme poverty in the landlocked country. 

Experts argue that the isolation of Afghanistan has dire consequences for its people, many of whom depend on humanitarian assistance.

“The main reason why the world should seek a viable pathway towards normalizing the status of Afghanistan is that the Afghan people themselves suffer the consequences of isolation,” Graeme Smith, a senior consultant at the International Crisis Group, told VOA. “Airlines, banks, traders, investors and all kinds of ordinary Afghans would flourish if the country remains at peace and rejoins the international community.” 

US-Taliban agreement

When negotiating a safe military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States pledged to delist the Taliban by August 2020 from its sanctions and the Rewards for Justice programs. 

Under the U.S.-Taliban agreement, widely known as the Doha agreement, the U.S. also committed to diplomatic efforts aimed at removing the Taliban from the U.N. sanctions regime within six months after the start of intra-Afghan talks.

The talks started in September 2020 after some delay but were disrupted by the unexpected collapse of the former Afghan government in August 2021.

“The Doha agreement has not been fully implemented, including lifting sanctions if the Taliban met certain specified conditions,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador who negotiated and signed the agreement with the Taliban, told VOA. 

“The stalling of those aspects of the agreement and the resultant continuation of sanctions is causing Afghanistan to face many challenges. It also affects the international community, including the United States.” 

The United States and the Taliban blame each other for the incomplete implementation of the Doha agreement. 

Despite the Taliban’s commitment not to shelter terrorists that threaten the U.S. and its allies, in July 2022 a U.S. drone strike killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the most wanted terrorist by the U.S. government, in Taliban-controlled Kabul. 

The State Department did not comment on a VOA question about the validity of the Doha agreement, particularly since the Taliban seized power outside a political settlement through intra-Afghan talks. 

Experts say the parties need a new agreement to address both the unfulfilled elements of the Doha agreement and other issues that have arisen over the last two years. 

“It is broadly agreed that the current international engagement has not been effective, and a new approach is needed,” said Khalilzad.

“Such a road map would deal with all the major issues of concern, including implementation of articles on terrorism and the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, given positive steps taken by the Taliban on the issue.”

While acknowledging the Taliban’s counterterrorism efforts against the Islamic State terrorist group, U.S. officials have kept decades-old terrorism-related sanctions on the Taliban regime.  

Senior U.S. intelligence officials have also said that al-Qaida has been reduced to its historic nadir in the region with limited capacity to launch imminent attacks against the United States.
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US, Britain Impose Sanctions on Hamas  

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The United States and Britain on Tuesday imposed a third round of sanctions targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, trying to curb Iranian funding of the group and one of its allies, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, following their shock attack last month on Israel.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement the two countries are trying “to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out its atrocities.”

“Hamas’s actions have caused immense suffering and shown that terrorism does not occur in isolation,” Yellen said. “Together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas’s financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sanctions are aimed at protecting the international financial system “from abuse by Hamas and its enablers.”

“Iran’s support, primarily through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, enables Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] terrorist activities, including through the transfer of funds and the provision of both weapons and operational training,” Blinken said. “Iran has trained PIJ fighters to produce and develop missiles in Gaza while also funding groups that provide financial support to PIJ-affiliated fighters.”

Israel says that Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people inside the Jewish state in the attack last month and captured about 240 hostages, only four of whom it has released. Israel has responded with air attacks that Hamas medical authorities say have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including thousands of women and children.

Hamas is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, Britain and others.

Mahmoud Khaled Zahhar, a senior member and co-founder of Hamas; PIJ’s representative to Iran and the Damascus-based deputy secretary-general of PIJ and leader of its militant wing were among those sanctioned by Washington and London.

Nabil Chouman & Co., a Lebanon-based money exchange group, was also targeted, along with its owner and founder. Treasury accused the company of serving as a conduit for transferring funds to Hamas and said it transferred tens of millions of dollars to the militants.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets held by the Hamas officials and bars Americans from conducting any business with them.
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Biden in ‘Strong Position’ in Meeting China’s Xi, White House Says

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Preventing Beijing’s election interference on Taiwan and reestablishing communication between American and Chinese militaries will be high on President Joe Biden’s agenda Wednesday during a highly anticipated meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in the San Francisco Bay area.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby spoke with VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara ahead of that meeting, and said Biden intends to place the rocky relationship on a “more responsible footing” but believes that he’s coming into this meeting from a strong position backed by a solid U.S. economy.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: On to the upcoming meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. A key subject for the president is to warn Beijing against interfering in Taiwan’s election. Taiwan says this has already happened through military pressure, through disinformation, manipulating opinion polls. Can Biden convince Xi on this issue, which is clearly very sensitive to the Chinese as well?

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: The president’s looking forward to this meeting with President Xi this week. It comes after many, many months of ups and downs in our relationship. He believes that as two leaders running two countries, that literally the bilateral relationship is one of the most consequential in the world, that we’ve got to get it onto a more responsible footing than it is or has been to date.

And he believes that he’s coming into this meeting from a strong position. The United States economy is stronger now than it’s been in many, many decades. And we have shored up and revitalized our alliances and partnerships throughout the Asia-Pacific and beyond. And he looks forward to hearing President Xi’s perspectives, as well, about how to manage this relationship going forward.

I won’t go into more detail in terms of the specifics that they will be going through and certainly not with respect to election interference in Taiwan. I would just say that we — it is not uncommon for PRC [People’s Republic of China] actors to behave irresponsibly when it comes to election interference in the region and beyond. And we believe that a real strength of democracy is free and fair elections that are unimpeded and uninterrupted and not impaired by foreign interference.

VOA: Another key thing that President Biden wants is reestablishment of military-to-military communications. This is something that Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken was not able to secure. What is the holdup that it needs the president to push for this?

KIRBY: Again, I’m not going to get ahead of the meeting that he’s going to have with President Xi. Clearly, one avenue of communication that has not been open has been the military-to-military lane, and that’s important because, my goodness, when you look at some of the intercepts that have happened in the Asia-Pacific region, that can get dangerous really, really fast. When you think about the miscalculations that can occur as China presses these, very aggressively presses these maritime claims of theirs that aren’t grounded in maritime law, that having an ability for the two militaries to communicate at various levels is a healthy thing to reduce miscalculation and misunderstanding, reduce the possibilities of conflict.

VOA: Ahead of the APEC summit in San Francisco, we are expecting some sort of announcement on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, but we are also hearing some protests from Democrats. [Ohio] Senator Sherrod Brown has said that the trade pillar of APEC is unacceptable because it threatens American jobs. Will the administration dilute this pillar based on those concerns?

KIRBY: We’re looking forward to a very productive APEC here. Twenty-one countries in the region will be attending, a region that represents 60% of global economic output. And one of the things that the president is going to be pushing for is more inclusive economic growth throughout the region. … In other words, workers’ rights and looking after, you know, the ethical growth of economic output and making sure that we’re doing this in a way that is as transparent and as viable as possible.

VOA: Can we speak a little bit about Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meeting with national security adviser Jake Sullivan? Does the Yermak visit influence in any way the messages President Biden is planning to discuss with APEC leaders and President Xi on Ukraine?

KIRBY: I would look at this meeting as a continuation of discussions that Mr. Sullivan has had with Mr. Yermak … since the beginning of this war, and they are constantly speaking to one another. This is another opportunity now for them to talk about how the United States is going to continue to support Ukraine, how we’re going to continue to talk to members of Congress about the importance of supporting Ukraine going forward and the supplemental request that the president submitted for security assistance in particular, and, again, get a sense from Mr. Yermak about what’s going on in this counteroffensive, what’s going on on the battlefront, what their needs are, and what their, and what they believe their prospects are going forward for these, as the winter months approach.
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VOA Exclusive: Biden, Xi to Meet at Filoli Estate for 4 Hours of Talks Wednesday 

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet at the historic Filoli estate south of San Francisco on Wednesday, holding about four hours of in-depth talks on a range of bilateral and global issues, according to people familiar with the planning.

The talks are taking place on the margins of a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, nations, the city is hosting.

Filoli Estate and choreography

The location of the talks is a VOA exclusive. Filoli boasts nearly 265 hectares of natural lands that feature a Georgian revival-style mansion, English Renaissance gardens, a 2.8-hectare orchard and a 1.6-kilometer trail.

Xi and Biden both arrive in the San Francisco area on Tuesday ahead of their meetings, which are expected to include a working lunch, a stroll on the estate, and a smaller meeting with national security advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken present. Other senior officials will hold separate sessions on particular issues.

Late Wednesday, President Xi is expected to attend two receptions with select U.S. business and cultural leaders. A U.S. Cabinet official is expected to introduce Xi before the Chinese leader delivers an address “to the American and Chinese people,” according to an invited participant, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We’re setting some time aside for the two leaders to sit down and have in-depth conversations on the full range of issues that the U.S. and China face across the globe and bilaterally,” a senior U.S. official told reporters recently when asked about the choreography of the Biden-Xi meeting.

Chinese officials had requested a venue separate from that of this week’s APEC summit, seeking discussions that extend beyond the duration of those held last year in Bali, Indonesia. Biden and Xi met for three hours last November on the margins of the summit of the 20 biggest economies, known as the G20.

 

Video report by Patsy Widakuswara

Artificial Intelligence

Another senior official mentioned that some of the outcomes the U.S. is seeking are “substantial” and “just different from” those in the past.

On Monday, the United States announced its participation, joining 45 governments, in the launching the implementation of the Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy. This initiative contains 10 concrete measures to guide the responsible military use of the full range of AI applications.

Biden and Xi are reportedly expected to agree to limit the use of AI in nuclear weapons, according to the South China Morning Post.

“When it comes to artificial intelligence, that we believe that artificial intelligence should not be in the loop or making the decisions about how and when a nuclear weapon is used,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told VOA in a press conference last week after a G7 meeting in Tokyo. The G7 is composed of the seven leading industrialized nations.

Blinken declined to say how this issue would be discussed when the two leaders meet later this week.

A State Department official has told VOA the United States will maintain human control for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions concerning nuclear weapons employment. But “the challenge now is to convince” China and other nations to join the U.S. “in committing to norms of responsible AI behavior.”

US, China, and Taiwan

The road to Biden’s meeting with Xi is paved with differences between the two countries over Taiwan and a host of issues, including trade tensions, forced technology transfer, and human rights.

While the U.S. stated that its goal is to responsibly manage competition with China, the government in Beijing has refuted this, saying the relationship between the world’s two largest economies “should not be defined by competition.”

This week, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said during a briefing in Beijing that “major-country competition runs counter” to the current trend and “provides no answer to the problems in the U.S. or the challenges in the world.”

Without providing a name, Mao accused “external forces” and Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party of supporting a “separatist agenda” that is changing the status quo. She said Taiwan is “China’s internal affair.”

The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but claims sovereignty over the self-ruled democracy. The U.S. does not take an official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, nor does it support Taiwan independence.

In the weeks leading up to Taiwan’s presidential election scheduled for January 13, 2024, the U.S. has cautioned China against any interference, stating that such a move would raise extremely strong concerns. China considers Taiwan a wayward province and has never ruled out using force to take full control.

The United States has voiced deep concerns over “a ramping up of military activities around Taiwan” by the Chinese military ahead of the election that the U.S. terms “unprecedented,” “dangerous,” and “provocative.”

“We also believe that those actions undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific,” said a senior U.S. official.

“Chinese interference in Taiwan’s democratic election may not unfold as the Chinese government desires, and often, it will create very negative impressions among the Taiwanese people,” said Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s minister of foreign affairs.

He told VOA that high-level talks between Biden and Xi, as described by senior U.S. officials, aim to stabilize the fraught relationship between the two countries and enhance regional security in the Indo-Pacific, which would benefit Taiwan.

“We are not concerned,” said Wu, when asked if Taiwan worries that Washington and Beijing would make deals that hurt its interests and defense needs.
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Detroit-area Doctor Grieves Loss of 20 Relatives Killed During Israel’s War Against Hamas

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Each time Dr. Emad Shehada’s phone rings, the suburban Detroit pulmonologist worries that it could be more bad news about loved ones in Gaza.

He said that so far, 20 cousins and other relatives have been killed since the start of Israel’s campaign against Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel that set off the war.

More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

More than 1,200 people in Israel died, most of them in the Hamas attack, and about 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by Palestinian militants.

Among those Shehada grieves are his cousin, Mohammad Khrais, three of Khrais’ children and 19-year-old Mayar, who was pregnant.

“When you hear about these conflicts, your heart is broken for all these people that they die,” Shehada told WXYZ-TV for a story last week. “But when it hits somebody you know, it’s totally different.”

“It’s been horrible,” he added. “A hell of a month. I mean, it’s a nightmare that does not want to end.”

Shehada, whose medical practice is north of Detroit in Rochester Hills, was born in Kuwait and lived in Syria before moving to the United States about two decades ago. He studied at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Both his parents were born in a village outside Gaza. They now live in the United States. Shehada, 47, also has one sister in the U.S., but another remains in Gaza, he said.

The two communicate via text messages because listening to her tear-filled voice as the war rages is difficult, Shehada said.

“The house next to my sister was struck by a missile where I had 12 relatives living there,” he said. “That house was only 10 meters (32 feet) from my sister’s house.”

 
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US Buys 1.2 Million Barrels of Oil for Strategic Petroleum Reserve

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The U.S. has bought 1.2 million barrels of oil to help replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after selling the largest amount ever from the stockpile last year, the U.S. Energy Department said on Monday.

The department said it bought the oil at an average price of $77.57 a barrel from two companies after 18 bids were submitted.

The administration of President Joe Biden last year conducted the largest ever sale from the SPR of 180 million barrels, part of a strategy to stabilize soaring oil markets and combat high pump prices in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It has now bought back about 6 million barrels.

As oil prices have risen on production cutbacks by Saudi Arabia and Russia, it has been difficult for the administration to buy back oil for the reserve. Last month it raised the price at which it hopes to buy back oil to $79 or less a barrel, up from an earlier price range of about $68 to $72.

Last month the Energy Department said it hopes to buy 3 million barrels for December delivery and another 3 million for January at the higher price. It said it expects to issue additional oil purchase solicitations for the reserve on a monthly basis through at least May 2024.

“President (Joe) Biden and the Energy Department remain committed to refilling the SPR at fair prices, safeguarding this critical energy security asset while getting a good deal for American taxpayers,” a department spokesperson said.

The department has said oil in last year’s emergency sales sold for an average of $95 per barrel.
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Indonesia’s Widodo Appeals to Biden to Stop Atrocities in Gaza

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Indonesian President Joko Widodo, leader of the most populous Muslim country, met with President Joe Biden at the White House Monday, delivering an appeal from 57 countries of the Muslim world for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Army Sets Aside Convictions of 110 Black Soldiers Related to 1917 Houston Riot

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The Army has canceled the courts-martial convictions of 110 Black soldiers tried in connection with the World War I-era Houston riot and has recharacterized their military service as honorable.

“After a thorough review, the Board has found that these soldiers were wrongly treated because of their race and were not given fair trials,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in a statement on Monday. “By setting aside their convictions and granting honorable discharges, the Army is acknowledging past mistakes and setting the record straight.”  

The Houston riot took place on Aug. 23, 1917, following months of racial provocations against members of the 24th Infantry Regiment, whose soldiers were among those dubbed “buffalo soldiers.”  

Following the assault of two Black soldiers and amid rumors of additional threats, a group of armed soldiers marched into the city, where clashes erupted and left 19 people dead.

The Army convicted 110 soldiers following the riots on mutiny, assault and murder charges. More than 60 served life sentences, and 19 were hanged. 

According to the Army, the first set of executions occurred in secrecy and within a day of sentencing, leading the military service branch to “implement an immediate regulatory change which prohibited future executions without review by the War Department and the President.”

In 2020 and 2021, the Army was petitioned to review the cases. 

Upon review, the Army found “significant deficiencies” that led the Army Board for Correction of Military Records to deem the proceedings “fundamentally unfair,” according to the Army. 

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is able to assist any family members of those soldiers upon receipt of the corrected records, as relatives may be entitled to benefits. 
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Jill Biden to Lead New Initiative to Boost Federal Government Research into Women’s Health

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The Biden administration on Monday announced a White House initiative to improve how the federal government approaches and funds research into the health of women, who make up more than half of the U.S. population but remain understudied and underrepresented in health research. 

That underrepresentation can lead to big gaps in research and potentially serious consequences for the health of women across the country, Biden administration officials and others told reporters during a White House conference call to announce the new effort. 

The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research will be led by first lady Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council. 

President Joe Biden said he’s long been a believer in the “power of research” to help save lives and get high-quality health care to the people who need it. Surrounded by the first lady and other officials who will have a role in the government-wide effort, Biden signed paperwork Monday in the Oval Office to direct federal departments and agencies to begin their work. 

“To achieve scientific breakthroughs and strengthen our ability to prevent, detect and treat diseases, we have to be bold,” the president said in a written statement. He said the initiative will “drive innovation in women’s health and close research gaps.” 

Jill Biden said during the conference call that she met earlier this year with former California first lady and women’s health advocate Maria Shriver, who “raised the need for an effort inside and outside government to close the research gaps in women’s health that have persisted far too long.” 

“When I brought this issue to my husband, Joe, a few months ago, he listened. And then he took action,” the first lady said. “That is what he does.” 

Jill Biden has worked on women’s health issues since the early 1990s after several of her friends were diagnosed with breast cancer, and she created a program in Delaware to teach high school girls about breast health care. 

Shriver said she and other advocates of women’s health have spent decades asking for equity in research but that the Democratic president and first lady “understand that we cannot answer the question of how to treat women medically if we do not have the answers that only come from research.” 

Shriver said women make up two-thirds of those afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis and represent more than three-fourths of those who are diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. 

Women suffer from depression and anxiety at twice the levels of men, and women of color are two to three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women, she said. Millions of other women grapple daily with the side effects of menopause. 

“The bottom line is that we can’t treat or prevent them from becoming sick if we have not invested in funding the necessary research,” Shriver said on the call. “That changes today.” 

Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said the leaders of government departments and agencies important to women’s health research will participate, including those from the departments of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Defense and the National Institutes of Health, among others. 

Women’s health issues were raised by most of the women on the Senate health committee during its recent confirmation hearing on Dr. Monica Bertagnolli’s nomination to become permanent director of the National Institutes of Health, one of the world’s leading biomedical research agencies. Bertagnolli gave a broad answer in which she said far too little is known about women’s health through all stages of life. 

President Biden’s memorandum directs members to report back within 45 days with “concrete recommendations” to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of women’s health issues. It also asks them to set “priority areas of focus,” such as research ranging from heart attacks in women to menopause, where additional investments could be “transformative.” 

The president also wants collaboration with the scientific, private sector and philanthropic communities. 

Carolyn Mazure will chair the research effort. Mazure joined the first lady’s office from the Yale School of Medicine, where she created its Women’s Health Research Center. 
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