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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
Senators Reach Deal on Border Policy Bill That Faces Uphill Road to Passage
WASHINGTON — Senate negotiators on Friday reached a deal on a proposal to overhaul the asylum system at the U.S. border with Mexico, clearing the way for Democratic and Republican Senate leaders to begin the difficult task of convincing Congress to pass a national security package that will include tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine and immigration enforcement, as well as funding for Israel and other American allies.
Sen. Chris Murphy, the lead Democratic negotiator, posted on social media Friday that a deal had been reached and that text of the bill would be released over the weekend. Senators are still working on finishing the rest of the package, which was initiated by a request from President Joe Biden for $110 billion for wartime aid for allies, domestic defense manufacturing, humanitarian assistance for conflicts around the world, and managing the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Senators are preparing for a key test vote on the package next week, but it already faces a steep climb through Congress. Republicans in both chambers have balked at compromises on border security policy. Senate Republicans had initially demanded that the package include border policy changes, but Donald Trump, the GOP’s likely presidential nominee, has become a vocal opponent of the legislation.
“Republicans said the border is a priority and we should craft a bipartisan bill to help control the border. We did that. We have a deal,” Murphy said on the social media platform X. He added: “It’s decision time.”
The core group of negotiators has been laboring for months to craft a package that can win support from a bipartisan coalition of moderates in Congress. As they prepared to allow the details of the bill to be scrutinized, it remained to be seen whether they could cobble together the requisite votes from both sides of the aisle.
“The criticisms are based on rumors and misconceptions,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent who was central to crafting the bill, said on Thursday.
Senate Democrats, increasingly wary of the political vulnerabilities facing Biden and their party on immigration, have become more comfortable with the contours of the package, though progressive and Hispanic members of the House are still expected to oppose the border policy changes in droves if it passes the Senate.
The wartime aid for Israel could also divide Democrats. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, said Friday he would push to strip funding for offensive weaponry for Israel from the package while maintaining funds for defensive systems.
On the right, many conservatives oppose both continued funding for Ukraine, as well as compromises on border enforcement. House Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly declared he won’t compromise on hardline border enforcement measures, but he has said he will not pass final judgment until he is able to read the bill.
As GOP lawmakers view the political repercussions of enacting immigration laws in the midst of an election year, many Trump allies have argued that Congress does not even need to act because presidents already have enough authority on the border. And in a sign they will try to stop the bill from advancing to a final vote, some have lobbied leaders to give them weeks to make further changes through committee hearings.
“I think we’ve pretty much been held hostage by the Republican leadership. The Republican leadership pushed this on us,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican of Alabama, said Thursday on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. “And now if we don’t pass something, we’re going to look bad in the eyes of the American people. But I’m just telling people right now we do not need a border policy. We already have one intact.”
The legislation largely focuses on a challenge that both Republican and Democratic administrations have grappled with: How to tamp down the growing number of people who come to the border seeking asylum, which offers protection from persecution for race, religion, political affiliation or membership in a discriminated group.
Asylum is a key part of international law and the U.S.’s ability to advance human rights, but the system has become overwhelmed in recent years, creating years-long waits for asylum cases to be heard, even though many migrants fail to prove their asylum case in the end.
The bill seeks to address that, according to Sinema, by making it tougher for people to enter the asylum system, dramatically speeding up the process, and denying them the ability to apply for asylum if illegal border crossings grow to become unmanageable for authorities.
Most migrants who seek asylum would receive an initial interview, known as a credible fear screening, within days of arriving at the border. They would then either be expelled from the country or given a work permit during a months-long wait to have their case heard by an immigration judge.
Immigration advocates are concerned the proposal would deprive asylum-seekers of the ability to make full cases, especially when they have just made arduous and often traumatic journeys to get to the U.S.
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US Begins Retaliation for Deadly Drone Attack on Its Soldiers
Washington — The United States has begun carrying out airstrikes in the Middle East in retaliation for the fatal drone attack on an American base in Jordan last Sunday.
“U.S. Central Command [CENTCOM] forces conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps [IRGC] Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. U.S. military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States,” CENTCOM said in a statement Friday.
U.S. President Joe Biden issued a statement shortly after.
“This afternoon, at my direction, U.S. military forces struck targets at facilities in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militia use to attack U.S. forces,” Biden in the statement on Friday evening. “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing. The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also issued a statement.
“This is the start of our response. The president has directed additional actions to hold the IRGC and affiliated militias accountable for their attacks on U.S. and Coalition Forces. These will unfold at times and places of our choosing,” he said in a statement.
The U.S military said it struck “command and control operations, centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aired vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and coalition forces.”
Syrian state media in Damascus reported that “U.S. aggression” at several sites in desert areas and along the Syria-Iraq border had resulted in casualties.
President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, among other U.S. government officials, had made clear in recent days there would be a multi-tiered military response after the first American deaths under fire in what some describe as an escalating proxy war with Iranian-supported militias in the region.
Sunday’s attack on a base in Jordan killed three U.S. soldiers and injured more than 40 others. There have been more than 165 attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East since mid-October.
“I won’t get into the specific actions we’re going to take and what the response looks like. The first thing that you see will not be the last thing that you see,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had told VOA on Wednesday.
“I think anytime you lose men and women overseas in an operation, it does put additional pressure on any administration, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans to take a very firm response,” Jeremi Suri, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin told VOA.
“The huge issue that the administration is dealing with is having a strong deterrence policy without having escalation throughout the region and threading that needle is difficult. I would say the choices that they made so far have been good ones,” said Suri.
The latest conflict in the Middle East was sparked nearly four months ago by Hamas terrorists and other militant groups crossing from Gaza into Israel and slaughtering 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, in their homes, at a music festival and elsewhere.
Return of slain US soldiers
The first indication of Friday’s retaliatory bombings came minutes after a dignified transfer of the remains of the three U.S. Army reservists concluded at Dover Air Force Base in the state of Delaware.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden watched for 15 minutes as a carry team of seven soldiers wearing white gloves in a formation of two lines marched slowly toward a C5 Galaxy military transport plane to individually retrieve the transfer cases that were draped with American flags.
They carried each case about 100 meters toward a vehicle, slowly passing a somber looking president who had his right hand on his chest. The other civilians, including the first lady and Austin, also had their hands on hearts, as did attending lawmakers and grieving family members.
The president’s attendance at the event came amid a ray of optimism that Hamas and Israel were moving slowly toward a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a freeing by Israel of Palestinian prisoners and a truce.
Israel-Hamas war
Israel has relentlessly bombarded Gaza in response to the October 7 terror attacks. The response has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians and wounded 66,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Officials with the United Nations say the war has created a humanitarian catastrophe with about a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people starving.
The Israeli Defense Forces said Friday it attacked a Hezbollah military complex and trucks that were storing weapons in southern Lebanon.
Fighter jets attacked the complex near the village of Lida and the truck hit was near the village of Shuba, according to the IDF. This operation followed rocket launches into northern Israel from Hezbollah earlier in the day.
The Houthi movement said it fired ballistic missiles on Friday at the Red Sea port city of Eilat in Israel. The IDF said its Arrow aerial defense system had intercepted a surface-to-surface missile over the Red Sea.
VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
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In Rare Intervention, US Urges Britain to ‘Reassess’ Cuts to Armed Forces
London — Britain’s readiness and ability to fight a major conflict is under the spotlight after senior military officials at home and abroad questioned cuts to the country’s armed forces at a time of heightened global threats.
In a rare intervention, a senior United States official urged its ally Britain to reassess the size of its armed forces. The remarks, by U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, echo concerns of senior military commanders in Britain.
“I think it is important for the United Kingdom to reassess where they are today given the threats that exist today,” Del Toro told an audience at London’s Royal United Services Institute January 25, adding that Britain had to make a “decision around whether the army needs to be strengthened.”
He also spoke of his “tremendous respect” for the UK’s armed forces and praised the joint efforts between Britain and the U.S. in Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational force targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen to safeguard commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Britain’s government defended its spending on the armed forces. A spokesperson for the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement following Del Toro’s remarks: “The UK is the second biggest defense spender in NATO and the largest in Europe. The Navy, Army and Royal Air Force are all playing an active global role, operating across every ocean and continent. Our military strength is also why we are the U.S.’s partner of choice in taking action to defend against the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.”
Meanwhile, some 20,000 British troops are set to take part in Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024 — NATO’s biggest drills since the Cold War. British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps highlighted Britain’s contribution in a speech last month.
“It will see our military joining forces with counterparts from 30 NATO countries — plus Sweden — providing reassurance against the Putin menace. Our carrier strike group will be out in full force, with our magnificent flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth leading the way, and flying from her decks will be the fifth generation F-35 Lightning jets,” Shapps said.
Behind that veneer, however, critics argue Britain’s armed forces are underfunded, underequipped and facing a recruitment crisis.
General Patrick Sanders, the outgoing head of the British army, warned recently that more needs to be done to equip and modernize the country’s armed forces in the face of the threat from Russia. Britain has about 73,000 soldiers — half the size it was 30 years ago. Sanders said Britain may need to train a “civilian army” in the event of a major war.
“Although there’s a lot of rhetoric from British defense ministers and senior officials that numbers aren’t everything, numbers are pretty important,” said Brigadier (Retired) Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
“For example, a tank or a frigate or an F-35 can’t be in two places at once. It’s also fair to say that the British armed forces have a broad range of capabilities, which I think the U.S. welcomes, but many of those are themselves very small. For example, the British army can only produce a single division. The French army can produce two, the German army can produce three,” Barry told VOA.
The British army, navy and air force have all missed recruitment targets, according to government figures, with navy recruitment down by 22 percent in the 12 months to March 2023, compared with the previous year.
Two British naval frigates, the HMS Westminster and the HMS Argyll, are set to be decommissioned this year owing to a lack of crew able to operate them, reducing the total to nine, according to a report by London’s The Daily Telegraph.
The government did not comment on the newspaper report but highlighted that it has ordered eight new frigates — although these won’t be in service until at least the end of the decade.
Meanwhile, there are shortages of equipment across the armed forces, according to Barry, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“All three armed forces don’t have sufficient stockpiles of ammunition and spare parts to conduct a sustained battle for the length of time that NATO envisages, and that NATO requires them to do,” Barry said.
“What we’ve seen over the last couple of years is the relative hollowing out of Europe’s armed forces, very publicly displayed with the well-reported difficulties of supplying enough equipment — weapons and ammunition — for Ukraine,” he said.
The British government has pledged to spend 2.5 percent of GDP on defense by 2030 and said it was committed to spending more “when conditions allow.”
Barry said the British military was still effective.
“One key ingredient is actually that they are willing to fight. And I think it’s fair to say the British armed forces still retain an ethos of combat in their DNA. And the British public, politicians and the media all see the use of force against the country’s enemies, in extremis [in highly difficult circumstances], as what the armed forces are for. That’s not true in all European or Western countries,” he told VOA.
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US Issues New Iran-Related Sanctions for Cyber, Arms Activity
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury said Friday it had imposed sanctions on four Iran- and Hong-Kong based companies for providing materials and technology to Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs, and on a Hong Kong-based firm for selling Iranian commodities.
The Treasury also said it had imposed sanctions on six officials of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s Cyber Electronic Command for malicious cyber activities against critical infrastructure in the United States and elsewhere.
As a result of the sanctions, all property of the designated entities and individuals that are in the United States or fall under U.S. control are blocked. As a general rule, U.S. individuals or companies are barred from transactions involving the property of those designated.
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UK Court Throws Out Trump’s ‘Steele Dossier’ Lawsuit
London — London’s High Court on Thursday threw out Donald Trump’s lawsuit against a British private investigations firm over the “Steele dossier” which alleged ties between Trump’s election campaign and Russia.
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, had brought a data protection lawsuit against Orbis Business Intelligence about claims in a dossier written by its co-founder, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
Judge Karen Steyn ruled that the former U.S. president’s case could not continue, saying in a written ruling that “there are no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed.”
Trump said in a witness statement made public in October that he brought the case to prove claims in the so-called Steele dossier, published by the BuzzFeed website in 2017, that he engaged in “perverted sexual acts” in Russia, were false.
Many of the allegations were never substantiated and lawyers for Trump, 77, said that the report was “egregiously inaccurate” and contained “numerous false, phony or made-up allegations.”
Steyn noted that Trump said the allegations were untrue, adding: “I have not considered, or made any determination, as to the accuracy or inaccuracy of the (allegations).”
Orbis argued that Trump brought the claim simply to address his “longstanding grievances” against the company and Steele.
Steyn said in her ruling that she did not need to decide that because Trump had “no reasonable grounds for bringing a claim for compensation or damages.”
The London lawsuit is one of many legal cases involving Trump, who faces four separate criminal prosecutions in the United States.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement: “President Trump will continue to fight for the truth and against falsehoods such as ones promulgated by Steele and his cohorts.”
Orbis did not respond to a request for comment.
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US Company Says Hostage Situation at Factory in Turkey Resolved
ISTANBUL — Two gunmen took seven hostages at a factory owned by U.S. company Procter & Gamble in northwest Turkey on Thursday, according to media reports, apparently in protest of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Turkish media published an image of one of the purported suspects inside the factory, a man wearing what appeared to be a rudimentary explosives belt and holding a handgun.
Hours later, a P&G spokesperson said the situation at its plant in Gebze in the province of Kocaeli had been resolved and all personnel were safe and the assailant apprehended by law enforcement. The statement from the spokesperson referred to one assailant.
“The fact that no one was harmed is our greatest relief. We are grateful to the authorities and first responders who managed the situation with courage and professionalism,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier, private news agency DHA said the suspects entered the main building of the facility at around 3 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) and took seven members of the staff hostage.
It claimed the suspects’ actions were to highlight the loss of life in the Palestinian enclave. Some 27,000 have been killed in Israel’s military operation since October 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
Ismet Zihni said his wife Suheyla was among the hostages. Speaking from near the factory, he told DHA that he had called her. “She answered ‘We’ve been taken hostage, we’re fine’ and she hung up,” he said.
Police sealed off surrounding roads at the factory and were said to be trying to negotiate with the hostage-takers.
P&G’s head office in Cincinnati confirmed the incident. A spokesperson said: “The safety of P&G people and our partners is our top priority. Earlier today, we evacuated our Gebze facility and are working with local authorities to resolve an urgent security situation.”
P&G Turkey employs 700 people at three sites in Istanbul and Kocaeli, according to the company’s website. It produces cleaning and hygiene brands such as Ariel washing powder and Oral B toothpaste.
Public feeling against Israel and its main ally the U.S. has risen in Turkey since the conflict began, with regular protests in support of the Palestinian people in major cities and calls for an immediate cease-fire.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been particularly outspoken, referring to Israeli “war crimes” and comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara issued a warning in November about demonstrations “critical of U.S. foreign policy” and calls for boycotts of U.S. businesses. The advice followed protests and attacks on outlets such as McDonald’s and Starbucks over the conflict in Gaza.
The photograph of the suspect carried in the Turkish media shows him with a black-and-white Arabic headscarf covering his face. He is standing next to a graffitied wall showing the Turkish and Palestinian flags with the slogan “The gates will open. Either musalla or death for Gaza.” A musalla is an open prayer area for Muslims, usually used for funeral rites.
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Western Analysts Warn of Russia’s, China’s Influence in Western Balkans
washington — With Russia and China increasingly aligned, Western policymakers and analysts are sounding the alarm over their influence in the Western Balkans. With so much focus on the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, they warn that the Western Balkans should not be ignored.
U.S. Representative Pete Sessions told VOA on Wednesday that Russia has been a part “of destabilizing the Balkans for a number of years,” and that it has demonstrated it uses misinformation and military force to fulfill its objectives.
“Destabilizing the Balkans is something that each of the countries there see,” he said. “And they see these not only happening, but they see whether it’s a deliberate attempt to undermine these nations.”
Sessions said the United States needs to stand behind these nations and “work within established parameters, the EU, NATO and other organizations. … The United States needs to be front and center to say, ‘We support this, and we will stick together.’ That is what these nations need. The United States of America standing strong with them individually and as a group.”
‘Part of Putin’s strategy’
Edward P. Joseph, a Balkans analyst at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, agrees.
“The Balkans are part of Putin’s strategy. He wants to divide Europe from the United States, and he wants to divide Europe within itself. And the Balkans are a prime avenue for him to do that,” he told VOA on Wednesday.
Sessions and Joseph participated this week in an annual security forum in Congress focused on this issue and held around the time of the National Prayer Breakfast. They were joined by politicians and lawmakers from Europe and the Western Balkans, a region of six countries including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia.
Analysts say Moscow uses political interference and disinformation that it deploys through its historically close ties with Serbia and other friendly actors in the region.
“Russia is active with its operations in the Balkans at very low cost,” Joseph said. He cited as an example Serbia hosting the Russian media outlets Russia Today and Sputnik.
“These are platforms that are giving pro-Russian narratives around the region,” he said. “And that’s only one of the ways that Serbia affects, in a negative way, advancing Russian agenda.”
Focus on integration
During the security forum, Naz Durakoglu, assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, said the U.S. is very concerned about the influence of China and Russia in the region and works in a variety of ways to strengthen democracy in those countries. These include foreign aid, a focus on the fight against corruption and promotion of reforms “to help integrate Western Balkan countries into the EU and with each other.”
Albania is a NATO member and works closely with the United States. Its former defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, is one of the organizers of the security forum.
“The way that forces such as Russia and China act is, first they try to ignite new conflicts,” he told VOA. “The second is to create a kind of status quo regarding certain situations and unresolved problems to prevent membership in the European Union and NATO and expand their geoeconomic and geopolitical influence.”
China Belt and Road
Durakoglu said that while Russia exerts its influence through gas and disinformation, China furthers its interests mostly through economic and infrastructure investments.
Valbona Zeneli, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, has written extensively about the Chinese and Russian influence in the Western Balkans.
“The Western Balkans has seen a significant expansion of Chinese influence over the last decade, in line with Beijing’s geo-economic and diplomatic vision of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and in the broader strategic context of China-EU relations,” she wrote in recent research paper. She is also working on a book on the topic.
“The geo-strategic position of the Western Balkans is perfect as a bridgehead to EU markets and a key transit corridor for the Chinese BRI. Chinese interests in the region are strongly related to infrastructure projects and privatization opportunities, where demand for preferential lending is high and acquisition prices are low,” she said.
‘We hold the cards’
As Russia and China align their positions in opposition to the West, experts say they want to divert attention from the major world conflicts, such as Ukraine, Middle East and China’s increasingly hostile posture in South China Sea.
To Albania’s Mediu, it is clear that “there is a move by Russia but also by China, maybe also by Iran to create problems in the Balkan region, to have another point of conflict and to shift attention from Ukraine.”
In countering this influence, the U.S. is supporting allies in the region. The Pentagon has confirmed last month’s approval by the United States of the potential sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Kosovo for an estimated $75 million.
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security of the United States by improving the security of a European partner which is an important force for political and economic stability in Europe,” the Pentagon said.
It added that the sale “will improve Kosovo’s long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity to meet its national defense requirements.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic expressed “deep disappointment” at the decision. Russia also “strongly condemned” the plans.
The proposed sale comes during tensions between Kosovo and Serbia that the EU is seeking to resolve. In its continued rejection of its former province’s independence, Serbia has had the firm support of Russia and China.
With all the concern over Russia’s and China’s forays in the region, Joseph of Johns Hopkins University said the good news is the West holds the cards.
“This is not like Ukraine. Russia is too far to bring in land forces. The NATO members surround the Balkans. All the countries in the region except Serbia want to join NATO. And some are already members of NATO,” he said.
The European Union, he said, “is by far the main trading partner. So, we hold the cards. We have to use them correctly.”
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US Hurricane Center’s Forecasts to Expand to Include Inland Areas
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — The “cone of uncertainty” produced by the National Hurricane Center to forecast the location and ferocity of a tropical storm is getting an update this year to include predictions for inland areas, where wind and flooding are sometimes more treacherous than damage to the coasts.
The Miami-based hurricane center said Thursday on the X social media platform that the new, experimental forecast tool will be ready around August 15, just before the traditional peak of the hurricane season that begins June 1.
“This experimental graphic will help better convey wind hazard risk inland in addition to coastal wind hazards,” the center said in the post.
The traditional cone in use for years generally shows the forecast track of a hurricane or tropical storm but is focused on wind and storm surge along the coasts — and forecasters always warn not to focus on the center line alone. Heavy rains and strong winds can be deadly and cause significant damage inland, which happened in 2022 with Hurricane Ian, when 149 people died in Florida.
The goal of the expanded forecast cone is to make sure people who don’t live along a coast are aware of the dangers they could still face, said Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the hurricane center. The new cone features colors to show which places face threats in a much broader way than before. If someone lives in one of those areas, “you are under risk,” Rhome said.
There’s growing evidence that the impacts of climate change — such as rising sea levels — are making the most severe hurricanes even more intense and increasing the likelihood that a developing hurricane will rapidly intensify and lead to more flooding and more powerful storm surges battering coastlines, experts say.
After Ian blasted across the Fort Myers, Florida, area — where the most people died and the worst damage was caused — the storm kept dumping rain and toppling trees across a wide swath of the state of Florida. Floods were reported around Orlando and its theme parks, south to Kissimmee, east to Daytona Beach, and in central Florida’s cattle and citrus country.
Ian produced between 10 and 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain across much of central Florida, the hurricane center reported.
People near rivers were deeply and possibly unexpectedly affected. After Ian slogged through inland DeSoto County and the Peace River flooded the community, Fire Chief Chad Jorgensen urged residents to flee, saying the river was unpredictable and dangerous.
The first named storm of 2024 will be Alberto. The 2023 season saw 20 named storms, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including seven hurricanes. Only Hurricane Idalia struck the U.S., coming ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region of Florida’s Gulf Coast but also causing significant inland flooding.
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Gunmen Take Hostages at US Company’s Factory in Turkey in Apparent Protest of Gaza War
Gunmen Take Hostages at US Company’s Turkish Factory in Apparent Protest of Gaza War
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Biden Issues Order Sanctioning Violent West Bank Settlers
Washington — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order to sanction individuals who support settler violence in the West Bank — a move his administration says reflects a “holistic approach” to the Gaza conflict.
“We are taking a holistic approach to this entire crisis not just in Gaza, but the larger context — Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and the larger region,” a Biden administration official told reporters during a call on Thursday.
Biden, who is visiting the swing state of Michigan on Thursday, is likely to encounter a groundswell of opposition in a state with one of the nation’s largest Arab-American populations.
Members of that community are among a growing number of Americans who have expressed concerns about Biden’s steadfast support of Israel’s aggressive military operation in response to the Hamas militant group’s October 7 terror attack on Israeli civilians.
A New York Times/Siena College poll published in December, however, found that almost as many Americans believe that Israel should push on to total victory even in the face of mounting civilian casualties.
Biden has so far resisted pressure to call for a cease-fire, saying Israel has a right to defend itself.
The new order targets individuals whom the White House sees as encouraging violence in the West Bank. White House officials did not name the individuals during the briefing.
“President Biden has also spoken about his concern about the rise in violence that we have seen in the West Bank from extremist actors — in particular the rise in extremist settler violence, which reached record levels in 2023,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Thursday.
“This violence poses a grave threat to peace, security, and stability in the West Bank, Israel, and the Middle East region, and threatens the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.”
The White House official said that the acts identified by the order include “acts of intimidation and property destruction leading to the forced displacement of Palestinian communities.” One individual, the official said, “initiated and led a riot which involved setting vehicles and buildings on fire.”
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US Strikes Multiple Drones in Yemen, American Official Says
WASHINGTON — The United States struck up to 10 unmanned drones in Yemen that were preparing to launch, a U.S. official said late on Wednesday, amid escalating tensions from the war in Gaza spreading through the region.
A U.S. Navy ship also shot down three Iranian drones and a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile in the Gulf of Aden, the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement. There were no injuries or damage reported, it said.
The Iran-aligned Houthi militants, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have launched a wave of exploding drones and missiles at commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in recent weeks, calling it a response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza and a show of solidarity to Palestinians.
The Houthi campaign has disrupted international shipping.
The United States and Britain have launched strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen and returned the militia to a list of “terrorist groups.”
The Houthis, earlier on Wednesday, said their naval forces carried out an operation targeting an “American merchant ship” in the Gulf of Aden hours after firing missiles at U.S. Navy destroyer Gravely.
Houthi attacks on ships in and around the Red Sea have slowed trade between Asia and Europe, raised fears of supply bottlenecks and alarmed major powers concerned that the Gaza war may become a regional conflict.
U.S. President Joe Biden said earlier in January that strikes on Houthi targets would continue even as he acknowledged they may not be halting their attacks.
Israel’s assault on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip followed a surprise attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200. The Gaza health ministry says nearly 27,000 people have been killed in the fighting since.
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Kataib Hezbollah Should Take US Warning ‘Seriously,’ White House Says
The White House — National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby warned that Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group based in Iraq, should take “seriously” the Biden administration’s determination to respond to Sunday’s drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three American soldiers on a U.S. base in Jordan.
VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara spoke with Kirby following Kataib Hezbollah’s Tuesday announcement that it is suspending all military operations against American troops in the region. Kirby also discussed the war in Gaza and other challenges the U.S. is facing around the world.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
VOA: Do you attribute Kataib Hezbollah’s announcement to stop attacking U.S. troops in the region to the president firmly signaling that he is ready for a response?
JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: It’s hard to know exactly why Kataib Hezbollah put that statement out. They should take seriously the determination of the United States and President [Joe] Biden to do what we have to do to protect our troops, our facilities, our interests in the region. They should take that very seriously.
VOA: You’re not attributing the attack to them. You’re attributing it to their umbrella group, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq?
KIRBY: The Intelligence community’s comfortable with an assessment that it was the umbrella group, Islamic Resistance in Iraq, that was responsible for this attack. And as you know, there’s several groups that are participants under that moniker.
VOA: And combining that answer with your statement that the U.S. response will be multitiered over a period of time, can we assume that what the president intends to do is striking different Iran-backed proxies in the region over time?
KIRBY: I won’t get into the specific actions we’re going to take and what the response looks like. The first thing that you see will not be the last thing that you see.
VOA: You also said that striking these Iran-backed proxies won’t jeopardize any kind of hostage negotiations with Hamas, but don’t these groups have the same ideology?
KIRBY: What I said was, there’s no reason for what we’re doing to protect our troops and our facilities to impact the negotiations that we’re having to try to get another hostage deal in place, and we believe both are important to do. And we’re pressing forward with both.
VOA: Are you saying one goal wouldn’t complicate the other?
KIRBY: I’m saying there’s no reason for there to be an effect on the hostage negotiations that we’re in, by a response to this terrible attack which killed three American soldiers.
VOA: U.S. funding for UNRWA won’t start until there are fundamental changes in the agency. Those fundamental changes could take a while to implement. What is the U.S. prepared to do in the meantime? Stand by and allow war orphans to starve?
KIRBY: Of course not, and we are the world’s leading nation when it comes to getting humanitarian assistance [to] the people of Gaza. And UNRWA does essential work on the ground in Gaza. Make no mistake about it, they’re helping save thousands of lives. They are the prime distributor of aid and assistance inside Gaza, and we recognize that.
We want them to take this seriously. Unacceptable that any employee of UNRWA could be involved in the attacks on October 7, but we’re going to wait and see how the investigation goes. We’re going to wait and see what kind of accountability measures the U.N. and UNRWA, specifically, are willing to put in place. But we’re going to continue to do everything we can to get the security assistance into Gaza. And we certainly want the vast majority of UNRWA employees, who have no connection to Hamas, to be able to continue to do their job.
VOA: But you are admitting that stopping U.S. funding is impacting their work, no?
KIRBY: It’s only affecting the work that we were doing in Jordan. The suspension has nothing to do with Gaza. The money that we have left to spend — that we suspended — has been already pre-earmarked by UNRWA for use in Jordan, not for use in Gaza.
VOA: I’m going to move on to Ukraine funding. It appears that House Republicans are rejecting any kind of border compromise, because they don’t really want to give the president a win in an election year.
KIRBY: I certainly can’t talk about election politics or what may be behind the motivations here. It’s critical that we get this funding for Ukraine, for Israel, for the Indo-Pacific, and certainly for border security.
The president is negotiating in good faith on the Senate side. We believe those discussions are going well, and we hope to get a resolution here relatively soon. Now, what happens in the House is going to be up to Speaker [Mike] Johnson, and Speaker Johnson has not been consistent in what he says he wants to see at the border. So, I would point people to him. He has to speak for the inconsistencies in his messaging. But we are negotiating in good faith. We believe those negotiations are making progress, and that’s what we’re focused on.
VOA: Are you still sticking to that approach? Would you consider sending a new stand-alone bill just for Ukraine?
KIRBY: I don’t want to get ahead of where we are. I mean, we are in the midst of negotiations right now that are not over. So, I wouldn’t want to get into speculating about what hypotheticals might happen as a result.
VOA: Can you confirm reporting that Chinese President Xi Jinping promised President Biden that China will not meddle in U.S. elections?
KIRBY: We gave a full summary of that meeting. The president talked to you all after he met with President Xi. I don’t have any additional context to share. All I can tell you is that we take the soundness of our election system here in the United States very, very seriously. And we’ve been clear publicly, and we’ve been clear privately with interlocutors all around the world that we will do what we have to do to make sure that our elections are free and fair. And they have been, and they will continue to be.
VOA: But just today, Christopher Ray, the FBI director, gave testimony in Congress that Chinese hackers might be targeting U.S. infrastructure, targeting all sorts of things that may disrupt even the election. How do you square that?
KIRBY: I won’t speak to specific threats. All I can tell you is we take them seriously. We do everything we can to preserve critical infrastructure, and in the president’s mind, our election system is critical infrastructure.
VOA: A new report released by the U.N. sanctions monitoring team today says that al-Qaida has established eight new training camps and a new base to stockpile weaponry in Afghanistan. Are you aware, and are you countering?
KIRBY: I think we’re just aware of this report. We haven’t worked our way all the way through it. But I think it’s important to remember that al-Qaida is a vastly diminished organization in Afghanistan and elsewhere. In fact, the real threat from al-Qaida is the way it’s metastasized into other groups elsewhere in the region, like al-Shabab in Somalia.
VOA: Are you downplaying the threat?
KIRBY: Of course not. We’re not downplaying any terrorist threat anywhere in the world. Those three American soldiers that were killed were involved in helping our counter ISIS coalition, which is still active in Iraq and Syria. I don’t think the record bears out that we’ve been light on terrorist networks at all, killing [al-Qaida chief Ayman] al-Zawahiri and other leaders in ISIS in just recent weeks and months. What I’m saying is, this is a report we haven’t worked our way through right now, and the intelligence community, their assessment is that al-Qaida does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. soil.
VOA: Tomorrow, the president will participate in the dignified transfer of the three American soldiers who died in Jordan. How do you think that will impact Americans’ thinking about the conflict in the Middle East?
KIRBY: I hope it underscores Americans’ gratitude for the service, and in many cases, the sacrifice that American men and women in uniform are demonstrating on their behalf, to keep them safe. And that’s certainly the case with these three brave individuals who aren’t going to make it back home alive to their families.
And I hope it’s also a reminder of how diligently President Biden is working to keep the conflict between Israel and Hamas from escalating and widening into a broader regional conflict. We don’t seek a war with Iran. We don’t want to see a broader conflict, and almost everything the president has done since the seventh of October has been designed to prevent that from happening.
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US Marks Anniversary of Myanmar Coup With New Sanctions
U.S. state department — The United States is imposing further sanctions on Myanmar’s military regime three years after the February 1, 2021, military coup, and designating four individuals and two entities associated with it.
The U.S. State Department said the latest action targets sources of revenue that support the regime’s military activities against civilians and those who provide material and support for arms production in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against the Shwe Byain Phyu Group of Companies, its owner Thein Win Zaw, and his wife and two adult children. Sanctions were also announced against Myanma Five Star Line, a shipping company.
The two entities are said to maintain a relationship with Myanma Economic Holdings Public Co. Ltd., or MEHL, which is controlled by the now-ruling Burmese military or Tatmadaw. The Tatmadaw has long relied on business activities to finance its own operations.
The Treasury said these two entities have facilitated the military regime’s acquisition of foreign currency and the importation of petroleum and other materials through their ties to MEHL.
Today’s sanctions freeze any U.S. assets of those targeted, and generally bar Americans from dealing with them.
“Today, we have ramped up our economic and political pressure on the military regime, including by restricting U.S. dollar transactions with state-owned enterprises that provide revenue enabling the military to do harm and kill its own civilians,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said during a briefing on Wednesday.
“We’re going to continue to support efforts by the opposition to the regime and to seek a resolution of the conflict that provides for genuine and inclusive multiparty democracy,” he said.
On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military forces ousted the democratically elected government, stripping civilian leaders of their power.
The coup triggered massive pro-democracy demonstrations that were initially crushed with a deadly crackdown by the military, but has since evolved into a conflict between the military and armed resistance forces allied with several rural ethnic rebel groups who have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy.
U.S. officials and lawmakers urge the Myanmar military to cease violence against its people, release unjustly detained individuals, permit unhindered humanitarian access, and respect the public’s will for a return to representative democracy.
Speaking in Congress, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the conflict has displaced roughly 2.5 million people. He called for the unconditional release of all political prisoners in Myanmar.
Almost 2,000 members of the National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s main pro-democracy party, along with numerous others from across Burmese society and various ethnic groups, are being unjustly detained as political prisoners, according to McConnell.
Despite international pressure to stop assaults in civilian areas, Myanmar’s regime has continued to use its military aircraft to conduct bombings.
On Wednesday, Amnesty International said new evidence suggests Myanmar’s junta is using new tactics to import aviation fuel after sanctions were imposed in response to air strikes that have unlawfully killed and injured civilians.
Shipping data suggests there is an attempt to evade sanctions within the aviation fuel supply chain. Direct sales of fuel have diminished. Instead, intermediaries seem to be assisting in the purchase of fuel for Myanmar, according to a report by the Amnesty International.
Last year — 2023 — was the worst for airstrikes in Myanmar since the coup three years ago, according to Amnesty International.
“The best way to stop the Myanmar military from carrying out lethal airstrikes is to stop all jet fuel imports into the country,” said Montse Ferrer, deputy regional director for research at Amnesty International.
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Turkish Assault on Syrian Kurdish Forces Fuels Talk of American Pullout
Turkish warplanes continue to pound U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria that are fighting Islamic State militants. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, Turkey’s assault is fueling speculation among observers that Washington could be preparing to pull out and cut back its support for Kurdish forces in Syria.
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Zelenskyy Proposes Change to Allow Dual Citizenship for Ukrainians
Over 6 million Ukrainians have fled fighting in their homeland since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Even as the war continues, Ukrainian officials are laying the groundwork to get those citizens back in Ukraine when the war ends. Mariia Ulianovska has the story. VOA footage by Kostiantyn Golubchik.
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Why Americans Are Leaving California and Moving to Florida and Carolinas?
According to the latest U.S. census, in 2022 over 8 million Americans moved within the country. Dozens of thousands have left California, while Florida has become the fastest growing state population-wise, with 22 million residents and counting. Angelina Bagdasaryan took a look at the stories behind the demographics. Anna Rice narrates her story. (Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian)
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