Ayaz Gul  — President-elect Donald Trump says that future financial assistance to Afghanistan will be contingent upon the return of U.S. military equipment by the Taliban leaders currently in power. 

 

Trump’s remarks at a Sunday rally in Washington on the eve of his January 20 inauguration have heightened uncertainty regarding his administration’s stance on the crisis-hit South Asian nation. 

 

“They [Biden administration] gave billions of billions of dollars to the Taliban. They gave our military equipment, a big chunk of it, to the enemy,” Trump said. He referred to the tumultuous and hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, ordered by President Joe Biden. 

 

“If we’re going to pay billions of dollars a year, tell them we’re not going to give them the money unless they give back our military equipment. … So, we will give them a couple of bucks; we want the military equipment back,” Trump stated without elaborating. 

 

A report issued by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2022 revealed that approximately $7 billion worth of military equipment was left behind in Afghanistan following the completion of the military withdrawal. The equipment in question, which included aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, communications equipment, and other materials, was subsequently seized by the Taliban.  

 

The de facto Afghan rulers have since repeatedly displayed the U.S. military gear in their so-called victory day celebrations over the past three years. 

 

The foreign troop exit stemmed from the February 2020 Doha Agreement that the first Trump administration negotiated with the then-insurgent Taliban. Biden completed and defended the military withdrawal, saying the choice he had was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban. 

 

Following the withdrawal, the Biden administration largely isolated the Taliban and imposed new sanctions on the group. Washington, however, has continued to be the largest donor to Afghanistan, a country that the United Nations says is suffering through one of the severest humanitarian crises in the world. U.S. officials have also engaged in diplomatic efforts with the Taliban to negotiate the release of certain U.S. detainees and assisted in relocating Afghan allies who had helped American forces. 

US gives cash for humanitarian aid 

The billions of dollars that Trump repeatedly has referred to are likely the cash shipments being channeled through the U.N. and non-governmental organizations to support humanitarian programs in Afghanistan. Washington remains the primary donor and has spent approximately $3 billion in humanitarian aid since the U.S. withdrawal.  

 

Thomas Ruttig from the independent Afghanistan Analysts Network warned of challenges for the Taliban under the Trump administration. He noted that some members of Congress and incoming administration officials took part in the 20-year U.S. mission in Afghanistan and have been highly critical of the Taliban. 

Despite this, he stated that countering regional terrorism is a significant concern in Washington, and it could potentially encourage the Trump administration to seek cooperation with the Taliban to combat terrorist organizations, including the Afghanistan-based affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist organization known as IS-Khorasan.  

 

Ruttig said that Tim Burchett, Republican vice chair of the U.S. Congress’s Foreign Affairs Committee, recently introduced a bill, the “No Tax Dollars for Terrorists Act,” to ensure that U.S. tax money does not end up in the hands of the Taliban.  

 

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan denies that cash shipments for humanitarian programs are financing the Taliban. The mission says the current setup – in which cash is physically brought to Afghanistan and placed in designated U.N. accounts in a private bank – is in place because of a ban on international banking transfers and ongoing liquidity issues.

“All these funds are then distributed directly to the United Nations entities, as well as to a small number of approved and vetted humanitarian partners in Afghanistan,” according to the mission. 

 

Taliban leaders have rejected Trump’s assertions that their government received U.S. financial aid, stating that they do not expect or seek any assistance from Washington. “Instead, it (U.S.) has confiscated and frozen billions of dollars that rightfully belong to the people of Afghanistan,” said a Taliban statement in response to Trump’s remarks earlier this month. 

 

Ruttig warns that punitive measures and sanctions to pressure the Taliban into submission might also provoke them to stop cooperation with international stakeholders. 

 

“Today, the US-Taliban Doha Agreement is still considered valid and obliges the Taliban to restrict ISKP and other groups from using their shelter in Afghanistan to commit terrorist acts in the West. This could be jeopardized by new quasi-sanctions on them,” he said in written comments.  

Taliban hopes for better relations 

Masuda Sultan, an Afghan American advocate for women’s rights, is doubtful the new Trump administration will substantially change its stance on the Taliban. Instead, she expects the U.S. will cut aid contributions to U.N.-funded programs like the World Food Program that have supported the country’s most vulnerable. 

 

At the same time, Taliban leaders appear publicly optimistic about a favorable shift in U.S. policy under the Trump presidency, attributing this to their Doha pact with his previous Trump administration. Kabul promptly welcomed Trump’s election victory just one day after he was declared the winner of the United States presidential vote. 

 

The Taliban foreign ministry issued a formal statement expressing its hope that “the incoming U.S. administration will adopt a pragmatic approach to ensure tangible advancement in bilateral relations, allowing both nations to open a new chapter of relations grounded in mutual engagement.” 

 

Earlier this month, Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai commended Trump as a “decisive” and “courageous” leader. Stanikzai suggested that Trump reconsider Biden’s policy and adopt a new approach. 

 

“We want to build good relations with the international community and the Western countries,” Stanikzai said in televised remarks in local language. “An enemy doesn’t remain an enemy forever, and a friend doesn’t remain a friend forever either,” he added.
…

your ad here

Voters prioritized the economy in the 2024 election, sending Donald Trump back to the White House. But what economic legacy is Joe Biden passing on to the new administration? 

“It’s the economy, stupid.” Coined by political strategist James Carville, these famous words have become synonymous with U.S. election success since 1992. 

Despite the growing influence of issues like immigration, climate change and foreign policy, many voters still prioritize economic factors when casting their ballots. 

President-elect Donald Trump claimed he made “the greatest economy in U.S. history” during his first term and vows to do so again in 2025. But a lot depends on what a president inherits from his predecessors. 

Low unemployment rates and a soaring stock market built under former President Barack Obama’s administration following the 2008 financial crisis gave Trump a strong foundation the first time around. 

So, what economic legacy will Trump inherit from Biden? 

Simply put, high employment rates, strong GDP growth and low inflation often characterize a healthy economy. 

The country was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic when Biden was sworn in, but the last four years have proven resilient. 

Biden’s administration created almost 16 million new jobs in America — a key sign of positive economic growth. 

That good news was overshadowed for many Americans by inflation, which reached a 40-year high in 2022, with prices increasing by 9.1%. That impacted people’s purchasing power and made everyday items feel expensive. 

 

Annual inflation has now eased to around 3% but is still higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, and prices for many items remain significantly higher than at the end of Trump’s first term.

While real wages have since increased in America, workers may still feel the strain of stubbornly high grocery prices.

This was a global issue linked to supply chain challenges and Russia’s war with Ukraine, and ordinary people paid the price. But massive deficit spending under Biden to head off the threat of a major recession also contributed.

Biden has preferred to emphasize the promising picture of the jobs market he’s passing on, noting that the United States recorded its lowest unemployment rate in more than half a century during his term. 

About 2.7 million jobs were lost during Trump’s first term, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, he’ll face pressure to turn that legacy around. But Trump has already suggested mass layoffs across federal departments during his second term, which could increase unemployment rates if implemented. 

Another broad signal of a healthy economy is the increased value of goods and services, or GDP, which shows whether an economy is growing. 

The United States has long had the largest GDP in the world, surpassing nations such as India and China. 

GDP rose 7.6% during Trump’s first administration and increased by 11.8% under Biden, suggesting a strong post-pandemic recovery. 

Generally speaking, Biden’s economic legacy is one of high employment, recovering GDP and declining inflation.

But no president ever inherits a clean slate. The federal debt stands at $36.1 trillion, and public opinion about the economy is, at best, lukewarm. 

Some financial experts predict inflation may continue declining in 2025, but a broader context of geopolitical tensions, trade wars and climate change may also shape America’s financial future. 

Trump’s task will be to sustain economic momentum while navigating the complexities of a rapidly evolving world. 

 
…

your ad here

Boston — Tens of millions of residents along the East Coast are bracing for several centimeters of snow Sunday followed by dangerously cold temperatures that will take hold in much of the country from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine.

Winter storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service have already gone into effect for parts of the Mid-Atlantic through Monday morning, with the forecast projecting up to 15 centimeters of snow. Warnings will begin in New England on Sunday afternoon, with parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Connecticut seeing as much as 25 centimeters of snow.

Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, projected that as many as 70 million residents will be under some kind of winter storm hazards warning in the coming days including in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. Large cities like Philadelphia, New York and Boston could see several centimeters of snow this evening with the highest totals being outside of major cities.

“There will certainly be some more hazardous road conditions anywhere from D.C. up the whole I-95 corridor and then inland from there later today and tonight,” Chenard said. “Then it gets quite cold behind that. By Monday morning, any roads that haven’t been treated or cleared will still likely be some hazardous travel conditions.”

Return of the Arctic blast

But the snow is just the start of a chaotic week of weather.

Much of the eastern half of the United States will be enduring some of the coldest temperatures this winter, if not for several years.

An area from the Rockies into the Northern Plains will see colder than normal temperatures starting Sunday into the coming week, with temperatures dropping to minus 34 degrees C to minus 48 C on Sunday and Monday. Wind chills of minus 40 C were already being clocked in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota. Sub-zero wind chills are forecast to reach as far south as Oklahoma and the Tennessee Valley.

The cold weather forecast for Monday for Washington, D.C., prompted President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural ceremony to be moved inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

“It’s going to be a cold day in Washington, D.C. on Monday. That’s for sure,” Chenard said, noting temperatures will be in the 20s with wind gust upwards of 48 kph.

As happened earlier this month, this latest cold snap comes from a disruption in the polar vortex, the ring of cold air usually trapped about the North Pole.

The cold air will moderate as it moves southward and eastward, but the central and eastern U.S. will still be cold with highs in the teens and 20s on Monday into Tuesday, Chenard said. The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast also will have highs in the teens and 20s, lows in the single digits and below minus 18 C and wind chills below zero.

Unusual wintry mix

The colder temperatures will reach down into the South early this week, where as many as 30 million people starting Monday could see a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. The unusual conditions are expected to stretch from Texas into northern Florida and the Carolinas. Impacts are expected to start in Texas on Monday night and spread across the Gulf Coast and Southeast on Tuesday into Wednesday.

A combination of frigid air with a low pressure system over the Gulf is behind the storm, which could bring heavy snow just south of the Interstate 20 corridor across northern Louisiana and into Mississippi and a mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain near the Interstate 10 corridor from Houston to Mobile, Alabama.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry on Saturday issued a state of emergency in advance of the wintry weather. He encouraged Louisianans to be prepared and to monitor the weather forecast.
…

your ad here

When Donald Trump returns to the White House on Monday, his family circle will look a little different than it did when he first arrived eight years ago.

His youngest son, Barron, was in fifth grade back then. He’s now a college freshman who towers over his 1.8-meter-plus dad. Granddaughter Kai, who was 9 in 2017, is now an aspiring social media influencer and impressive golfer. Grandson Joseph, who posed in Trump’s lap with a Lego model of the White House last time, is 11 now.

After working in his first administration, the most prominent relatives in Trump’s political sphere, daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared, are now in Florida.

Family members can provide presidents with a ready source of moral and sounding-board support, companionship and even relief from the world’s problems.

The president-elect has five children — three of whom are married — from his marriages to Ivana Trump, Marla Maples and current wife Melania Trump. He has 10 grandchildren, with an 11th on the way.

A look at Trump’s family circle, then and now:

Melania Trump, Trump’s wife

THEN: She spent the opening months of Trump’s term at the family’s Manhattan penthouse so that 11-year-old Barron wouldn’t have to switch schools in the middle of the year. After moving to the White House, she traveled around the United States and to other countries, alone and with Trump, partly to promote her “Be Best” children’s initiative while fiercely guarding her privacy.

NOW: She avoided active campaigning during Trump’s 2024 run, limiting her public appearances to key moments, such as the campaign’s launch, the Republican National Convention and election night. She released a self-titled memoir late last year and will be the subject of a documentary distributed by Amazon Prime Video that is expected to be released this year. While some doubt that Trump’s 54-year-old wife will spend much time at the White House, she said on Fox News’ Fox & Friends that she has already packed and picked out the furniture she wants to take to the executive mansion.

Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s eldest son

THEN: Trump’s eldest son, now 46, campaigned for his father in 2016 and 2020.

NOW: Trump Jr.’s influence has grown to the point that he lobbied his father to choose close friend JD Vance for vice president. He also pushed for former Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president-elect’s picks for director of national intelligence and health and human services, respectively. Trump Jr. helps run the family real estate business and is an honorary chairman of Trump’s transition. He has a podcast and has said his role is to prevent “bad actors” from getting into the administration. He recently flew on his father’s airplane to Greenland; the president-elect has expressed a desire to take control of the mineral-rich Danish territory.

Trump Jr. has five children — or “smurfs,” as he sometimes refers to them — with his former wife, Vanessa Trump. They are Kai Madison, 17; Donald John III, 15; Tristan Milos, 13; Spencer Frederick, 12; and Chloe Sophia Trump, 10.

Ivanka Trump, Trump’s eldest daughter

THEN: Ivanka, 43, campaigned for her father in 2016 and moved her family from New York City to Washington to work in his White House as a senior adviser. She was on the campaign trail in 2020, too, but she and her family moved to Florida and retreated from the spotlight after his loss.

NOW: As Trump geared up for the 2024 run, Ivanka announced that she loved and supported him but was getting out of politics to focus on her husband and their three kids. She did, however, join her father and other family members on election night and when he rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange in early December after Time magazine named him Person of the Year.

Ivanka and her husband have three children: Arabella Rose, 13; Joseph Frederick, 11; and Theodore James Kushner, 8.

Eric Trump, Trump’s second son

THEN: The 40-year-old helped run the family business and participated in his father’s campaigns.

NOW: Eric is also an honorary chair of the transition and a close adviser to his father. But he continues to focus more on running the family business. In September, he and his brother started a crypto platform called World Liberty Financial, and their father helped launch it in an interview on the X social media platform.

Eric and his wife, Lara, have two children: Eric Luke, 7, and Carolina Dorothy Trump, 5.

Tiffany Trump, Trump’s youngest daughter

THEN: Trump’s daughter with second wife Marla Maples was 23 and a recent University of Pennsylvania graduate who kept a low profile when Trump was first elected.

NOW: She was more present in the 2024 campaign but still largely avoids the spotlight. Tiffany, 31, and her husband, Michael Boulos, are expecting their first child this year. Boulos is a businessman who traveled with Trump in the final stretch of the campaign. His father is Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman who helped Trump with the influential Arab American community in the swing state of Michigan. Trump has named Massad Boulos to be a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.

Barron Trump, Trump’s youngest son

THEN: At the start of Trump’s first term, Barron and his mother stayed at the family’s Trump Tower penthouse in Manhattan so he could finish his school year. When they got to Washington, his soccer net appeared in what’s known as the first lady’s garden.

NOW: Barron, 18, is a freshman New York University business student. His parents and Trump campaign officials credit him for recommending podcasts popular with young men that the president-elect appeared on during the campaign. Barron will have a bedroom in the White House, Melania Trump said on Fox & Friends.

“I’m very proud of him, about his knowledge, even about politics and giving an advice to his father,” his mother said on the program. “He brought in so many young people. He knows his generation.”

Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law

THEN: Trump’s daughter-in-law, 42, campaigned for him during all his runs. After Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, she considered running for a U.S. Senate seat from her home state of North Carolina but ultimately decided against it. She became a Fox News commentator.

NOW: As Trump revved up his 2024 campaign, he installed his daughter-in-law as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, where she was a TV-ready advocate overseeing fundraising, voter outreach and the party’s “election integrity” initiative. She stepped down from the RNC after the election and removed her name from consideration as a possible successor to Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s choice for secretary of state.

Lara Trump is passionate about fitness and has her own line of activewear.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law

THEN: Kushner, 44, was also a key figure in Trump’s 2016 campaign. He joined his wife in the White House as a senior adviser, a role that included working on U.S. policy toward Israel and the broader Middle East.

NOW: Kushner has stepped out of the political spotlight — but his father could soon step in. Trump announced after the election that he intends to nominate Charles Kushner, a real estate developer, to be U.S. ambassador to France. The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after he pleaded guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions.

Kai Trump, one of Trump’s granddaughters

THEN: Kai was in elementary school when her grandfather became president.

NOW: Donald Trump Jr.’s 17-year-old granddaughter is an aspiring social media influencer. Her behind-the-scenes video from election night garnered 3.7 million views on YouTube. Other posts related to her grandfather have been watched millions more times on TikTok. Kai delivered her first public speech at the Republican convention and is an avid golfer who sometimes plays with her grandfather.

Arabella Kushner, one of Trump’s granddaughters

THEN: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s daughter was 6 when her grandfather showed China’s Xi Jinping a video of her, in a traditional Chinese dress, belting out Chinese-language songs.

“It’s very good, right? She’s very smart,” Trump said. Xi responded that Arabella was her grandfather’s “little angel” and a “messenger of China-U.S. relations.”

NOW: Arabella is 13 and enjoys singing, playing the piano, horseback riding and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, according to a social media post from her mother.
…

your ad here

WHITE HOUSE — Israel’s Cabinet approved a deal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release, with 24 ministers voting in favor and eight ministers rejecting the agreement. The deal is scheduled to be implemented beginning Sunday.

The deal to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas was achieved after more than a year of negotiations, with mediation from the United States, Qatar and Egypt. President Joe Biden first endorsed the deal in May. The warring parties agreed to it on Wednesday, and it was subsequently approved by the Israeli Cabinet early Saturday in Israel.

Starting midday on Monday when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, it will be up to his administration to see that the deal is enforced.

The agreement has three phases, each of which will last six weeks. The terms of phases two and three are still being negotiated, but under phase one the cessation of hostilities is expected to continue if six weeks pass before the next phase is finalized.

Phase one includes withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas and more aid for Gaza, as well as the release of some Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons and some hostages held by Hamas, including Americans. The U.S. and other Western countries have designated Hamas as a terrorist group.

The release of American hostages is a “fundamental component” of Trump’s interest in ending the war swiftly, according to Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, nonresident senior fellow with the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs.

Whether Trump will sustain pressure for the deal to proceed to phase two, when all of the hostages are set to be released, and to phase three, when reconstruction of Gaza will begin, remains to be seen, Alkhatib told VOA.

Alkhatib expressed concern that after the first phase Trump will be “so disinterested” in Gaza that the agreement will amount to “little more than a freezing of the conflict.” This would be disastrous for Palestinians in Gaza and the goal of Palestinian statehood, he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Friday that he had received “unequivocal guarantees” from both Biden and Trump that if negotiations on phase two fail, Israel “will return to intense fighting with the backing of the United States.”

Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the current war. Israel says Hamas is still holding 101 hostages, including 35 the military says are dead.

Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Two-state solution

The Biden administration’s goal has been Palestinian statehood under the two-state solution. This could pave the way to bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords — the 2020 deal brokered under the first Trump administration that normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Biden had sought to expand the accords to include Saudi Arabia, which maintains it will not consider normalizing relations until Israel commits to a “credible path” to a Palestinian state. Washington and Riyadh had been exploring the expansion through a package that would include, among other offers, American security guarantees for the Saudis. Those efforts stalled after the Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught.

Now Trump appears to be aiming to use the momentum of the Gaza ceasefire to add Saudi Arabia into the accords.

“We will continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords,” Trump posted on social media Wednesday following the announcement that a ceasefire deal has been reached.

Saudi Arabia has never formally recognized Israel since its creation in 1948. As a de facto leader of the Arab and Islamic world, Riyadh’s recognition would represent a breakthrough for the Jewish state.

Trump’s main objective now is to ensure that whatever happens in Gaza does not prevent him from securing that deal, while Israel’s goal is to ensure whatever happens in Gaza doesn’t prevent cooperation with the U.S. over Iran, said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the department of political studies at Bar Ilan University.

“So, I’m not sure that it makes sense to think beyond the first phase at this point,” Rynhold told VOA.

Trump and Israel will “work out their positions on Gaza precisely against the shadow of those two things,” he added.

Trump’s role in securing the deal

In the same social media post Wednesday, Trump took credit for his role in securing the ceasefire.

“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies,” Trump wrote.

For months the Biden administration has progressively included Trump’s team in peace talks, beginning with an Oval Office meeting a week after Trump won the election. At that Nov. 13 meeting, Biden proposed that they work together to push the deal through.

“We’ve sent a signal to the incoming team that we’re prepared to work with them on this issue,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that day.

Shortly after, Sullivan and Biden’s top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, began coordinating with their successors on the Trump team, Mike Waltz and Steve Witkoff, said a senior administration official who spoke with reporters on background Wednesday.

The Biden official said that in the final days leading up to the ceasefire, Witkoff worked in tandem with McGurk in an “almost unprecedented,” cross-administration partnership that was “highly constructive, very fruitful.” But he declined to elaborate on Witkoff’s and Trump’s role in securing the deal, other than saying that the presidential transition provided a “natural” deadline for a diplomatic breakthrough.

Pressure on Israel

Critics have accused Biden of failing to use U.S. military support as leverage over Netanyahu to reach a deal or moderate Israel’s campaign that has taken tens of thousands of Palestinian lives.

Publicly, Biden officials have largely echoed Israel in faulting Hamas for the failure of the talks. But some Israeli security officials and many observers also blame Netanyahu for blocking progress, including by repeatedly introducing fresh demands in negotiations.

With Trump’s victory, Netanyahu’s calculations may have changed, said Laura Blumenfeld, senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.

“Trump injected a kind of fear factor into this process that was missing before,” she told VOA. “He can’t triangulate anymore the way he would play Biden off of the Republican Congress. There’s nowhere for Netanyahu to run, nowhere to hide, and so he took this deal he couldn’t refuse.”

Trump’s pressure may have also created space for Netanyahu to resist ultimatums from far-right allies who had threatened to leave his governing coalition if a ceasefire deal is made, which would mean an end to the prime minister’s term.

Eight Israeli far-right politicians, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, rejected the deal but it is still unclear whether they will leave the coalition.

“Netanyahu finally called their bluff,” Blumenfeld said. “Or maybe actually, Trump called Netanyahu’s bluff, because he was using these right-wing Cabinet members all along as an excuse not to make the concessions that he didn’t want to make.”

VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya contributed to this report.
…

your ad here

A former CIA analyst pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Virginia to charges that he leaked classified information about Israeli plans to strike Iran. 

Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia, was arrested last year in Cambodia and later taken to Guam. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each of the two charges: retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense.

Rahman had worked for the intelligence agency since 2016 and had a top-secret security clearance. 

Prosecutors said Rahman illegally downloaded and printed classified documents at work and then took the documents home, where he altered the items to cover up the source of the information before distributing it.

The secret information was eventually published on the Telegram social media platform.

A Justice Department statement said that beginning in the spring of 2024 and lasting until November, Rahman shared the “top-secret information” he learned at his job with “multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it.” 

“Government employees who are granted security clearances and given access to our nation’s classified information must promise to protect it,” Robert Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said Friday in a statement.  

“Rahman blatantly violated that pledge and took multiple steps to hide his actions. The FBI will use all our resources to investigate and hold accountable those who illegally transmit classified information and endanger the national security interests of our country,” Wells said.  

The Justice Department said Rahman destroyed journal entries and written work products on his personal electronic devices “to conceal his personal opinions on U.S. policy and drafted entries to construct a false narrative regarding his activity.”  He also destroyed several other electronic devices, including an internet router that the Justice Department said Rahman “used to transmit classified information and photographs of classified documents, and discarded the destroyed devices in public trash receptacles in an effort to thwart potential investigations into him and his unlawful conduct.”   

The Associated Press reported that Rahman was born in California but grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from Yale University after only three years.   

Rahman is scheduled to be sentenced May 15.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

your ad here

The first three years of the Biden administration saw an immigration surge at a level last seen in the 1850s. How did that historical wave of immigration differ from today’s, and what lessons does it hold?
…

your ad here

Sasha Selipanov, a well-known car designer, was born in the Soviet Union but at 17 moved to the U.S. In California, he mastered the skill of designing high-end cars, creating vehicles for Lamborghini and Bugatti among others. He showed VOA Russian the concept of his first hypercar, which he is building in Los Angeles.

Click here for the full story in Russian. 
…

your ad here

washington — Washington has slapped sanctions on Sudan’s army leader, citing his responsibility for war crimes in a conflict that has bled the oil-rich country dry over the last year — sparking a famine, killing tens of thousands of people and driving millions from their homes — just a week after the U.S. sanctioned his opponent for acts it described as genocide.

Thursday’s sanctions on Sudanese Armed Forces leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and a Hong-Kong-based weapons supplier block them from entering or transiting the United States and restrict their access to any U.S. assets.

This leaves both sides economically restrained in this brutal conflict that the State Department has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, but where Washington’s options are limited because of its strained diplomatic ties to the large African nation. This conflict also has drawn in outside players, with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates arming the rivals.

During his final press conference on Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the SAF of war crimes. In last week’s sanctions, the State Department accused the opposing Rapid Support Forces of genocide.

“The SAF has also committed war crimes, and it continues to target civilians,” Blinken said. “It’s obstructed the advancement of the peace process. It’s refused to participate on numerous occasions in ceasefire talks that we’ve sought to convene, and together with the RSF, it’s caused what is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis that people are suffering through every day. And we believe strongly, as we said, there’s no military solution to this conflict.”

‘Flawed’ action, Sudan says

Sudan’s government expressed its objection to the sanctions, calling them “flawed,” “unethical” and “dubious.”

“This decision lacks the basic principles of justice and objectivity, relying on implausible pretexts,” read its statement, which was posted on social media platform X. “It also reflects a blatant disregard for the Sudanese people, who stand firmly united behind General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan as a symbol of their sovereignty and armed forces, and as a courageous leader in the battle for dignity against the terrorist Janjaweed militias.”

Blinken did not address U.S. media reports citing anonymous U.S. officials that the SAF has used chemical weapons at least twice. VOA’s query to the National Security Council went unanswered Thursday.

When asked by reporters whether both sides were equally responsible, Blinken replied, “The actions we took on the RSF, as you know, found a determination of genocide. The actions that we’re looking at for the SAF go to war crimes. So there are gradations in these things, and we follow the law.”

And Blinken expressed regrets that this conflict has escalated. It has followed many of the same contours as the Darfur conflict at the turn of the century.

“It is, for me, yes, another real regret that when it comes to Sudan, we haven’t been able on our watch to get to that day of success,” he said.

He added, “We’ll keep working it for the next three days, and I hope the next administration will take that on as well.”

Hemedti sanctioned

Last week’s sanctions targeted RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, whom the White House named as the leader of a wave of renewed ethnic cleansing, rape and systematic atrocities.

Daglo, who is better known by his nickname, Hemedti, was a commander in the Janjaweed militia considered largely responsible for the brutal Darfur conflict, in which Sudanese Arab Janjaweed militias used scorched-earth tactics on the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa people of Western Sudan, killing at least 200,000. The scale and savagery of the violence prompted the International Criminal Court to issue its first-ever warrant for genocide to Sudan’s then-president, Omar al-Bashir.

Hemedti led the RSF as a paramilitary unit until the April 2023 clash with government forces that sparked the current conflict.

The violence has plunged nearly 640,000 people into the misery of famine, the State Department said. And the United Nations estimates that 30 million people — more than half of the nation’s population — need humanitarian assistance.

Daniel Volman, director of the African Security Research Project, told VOA it’s “unlikely” that the incoming Trump administration will impose further sanctions. He said the U.S. and its allies bear some responsibility for “the conflict escalating to genocidal heights.”

“I think that the United States, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, bears a major responsibility for failing to take effective action against the Bashir regime [which created the RSF and carried out the first genocide in Darfur] and for failing to take effective action to support the civil society groups fighting for a democratic government, which led to the current civil war,” he said by email. “The United States is not alone in bearing responsibility. Russia, Iran and other countries are also arming the rival forces and prolonging the conflict.”

Complicating factor

And, Volman said, the Biden administration’s decision to sanction some of Hemedti’s foreign backers by targeting companies based in the United Arab Emirates is also a complicating factor.

“The involvement of Egypt and the UAE in arming the rival forces and prolonging the civil war will complicate the Trump administration’s relations with these two key allies and may lead them to expand and escalate their military intervention in Sudan,” he said.

Andrew Payne, a lecturer in foreign policy and security at City, University of London, told VOA that for now, sanctions are the main tool that Washington has to constrain Khartoum.

“Sanctions are an easy tool that make it appear like an administration is doing something, regardless of whether that is an appropriate tool to use. It’s relatively cost-free to the United States. If the alternative is something that requires political will, then that will has to be there. … Sanctions are always the tool of cheapest resort, in a sense. So, it’s a way of seeming like you’re engaged, seeming like you’re active, without considering more tougher measures,” Payne said. 
…

your ad here

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he wants the United States to be the world leader in artificial intelligence and crypto currency. To that end, he has tapped a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor to be the AI and crypto czar. Michelle Quinn has the story.
…

your ad here

In his farewell address from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, US President Joe Biden warned of the dangers in the concentration of power and wealth. The speech capped his decades-long political career and a four-year term bookended by Donald Trump, who in days is set to be inaugurated for a second time. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
…

your ad here

Michael Carpenter, director for Europe at the National Security Council, spoke with VOA, defending the Biden administration’s policies on Ukraine, stating they were undeterred by Russia’s nuclear threats, and attributing Ukraine’s lack of success in regaining lost territories to manpower shortages. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. (Camera: Anne-Marie Fendrick)
…

your ad here