STATE DEPARTMENT — The United States has a treaty obligation to protect the Panama Canal if it comes under attack, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday, amid confusion and what Panama has described as “lies” regarding whether U.S. Navy ships can transit the Panama Canal for free.

“I find it absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict. Those are our expectations. … They were clearly understood in those conversations,” Rubio said during a press conference in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. He held talks with Panamanian President Jose Rauu Mulino in Panama City on Sunday.

Rubio was referring to a treaty signed by the U.S. and Panama in 1977.

The top U.S. diplomat told reporters that while he respects Panama’s democratically elected government and acknowledges that it has “a process of laws and procedures that it needs to follow,” the treaty obligation “would have to be enforced by the armed forces the United States, particularly the U.S. Navy.”

The U.S. intends to pursue an amicable resolution, Rubio said.

Mulino posted on X that he planned to speak with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon.

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said, via a social media post on X, that U.S. government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without incurring fees, saving the U.S. government millions of dollars annually.

But the Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous agency overseen by the Panamanian government, disputed the U.S. claim, saying that it has made no adjustments to these fees. It also expressed its willingness to engage in dialogue with relevant U.S. officials.

During his weekly press conference on Thursday, the Panamanian president denied his country had reached a deal allowing U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal for free, saying he completely rejected the State Department’s statement.

Belt and Road Initiative

Meanwhile, Mulino told reporters that the Panamanian Embassy in Beijing had provided China with the required 90-day notice of its decision to exit the Belt and Road Initiative, also known as BRI.

He denied that the decision was made at Washington’s request, saying that he was taking time to assess Panama’s relationship with China and decide what would best serve his country’s interests.

“I don’t know what the incentive was for the person who signed that agreement with China,” Mulino said in Spanish, adding that he did not think the BRI had brought major benefits to his country.

Panama joined China’s BRI under former President Juan Carlos Varela. The agreement was signed in 2018, following Panama’s decision in 2017 to establish its diplomatic relations with China and sever ties with Taiwan.

Rubio has welcomed Panama’s decision not to renew its participation in China’s BRI.

China describes the BRI, which was launched in 2013 under President Xi Jinping, as a vast infrastructure initiative designed to connect multiple continents through land and maritime routes.

The United States has warned that the project is driven by China’s mission to manipulate and undermine the global rules-based trading system for its own benefit.

In Beijing, Chinese officials dismissed what they called the U.S.’s “irresponsible remarks on the Panama Canal issue” and accused Washington of intentionally distorting, attacking and mischaracterizing relevant cooperation.

“China firmly opposes it and made stern demarches to the U.S. side,” said Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry.

While in Santo Domingo, Rubio met with Dominican President Luis Abinader and Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez.

The Dominican Republic is the final stop on Rubio’s five-nation tour across Central America and the Caribbean, which focuses on curbing illegal immigration, combating drug trafficking and countering China’s growing influence in the Western Hemisphere.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France Presse and Reuters.
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white house — The White House on Thursday said it was monitoring a complaint by China to the World Trade Organization that accuses the United States of making “unfounded and false allegations” about China’s role in the fentanyl trade to justify tariffs on Chinese products.

The complaint was made Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods by 10%. The White House said the new duties on Chinese goods were aimed at halting the flow of fentanyl opioids and their precursor chemicals.

China said it was imposing retaliatory tariffs on some American goods beginning February 10, including 15% duties on coal and natural gas imports and 10% on petroleum, agricultural equipment, high-emission vehicles and pickup trucks. The country also immediately implemented restrictions on the export of certain critical minerals and launched an antitrust investigation into American tech giant Google.

In the WTO filing, China said the U.S. tariff measures were “discriminatory and protectionist” and violated international trade rules. Beijing has requested a consultation with Washington.

China’s request will kick-start a process within the WTO’s Appellate Body, which has the final say on dispute settlements. A White House official told VOA the administration was monitoring Beijing’s file but did not provide further details.

Analysts say Beijing’s move is largely performative and unlikely to yield much relief. The Appellate Body has been largely paralyzed following the first Trump administration’s 2019 move to block appointments of appellate judges over what it viewed as judicial overreach. The Biden administration continued the policy.

China recognizes the WTO is not going to put a lot of pressure on the United States because Washington is fully capable of blocking any legal process there, said Jeffrey Schott, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“So instead, I think the Chinese reaction has been moderate in indicating that they will act tit for tat against U.S. trade,” he told VOA.

Schott added that there’s “a desire to keep things cool” and moderate the damage, just as what happened during the first Trump administration when a trade deal was agreed upon after initial retaliatory trade actions.

On the U.S. side, the 10% tariffs against China are much lower than the up to 60% that Trump promised during his presidential campaign, he said. 

Trump-Xi call

Trump imposed import duties on Beijing after delaying his actions to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada following conversations Monday with their leaders. Tariff critics are hoping that a conversation between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could lead to similar results.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the call “is being scheduled and will happen very soon.”

However, Trump has dismissed the negative impact of China’s tariffs and said he was “in no rush” to speak with Xi.

“We’ll speak to him at the appropriate time,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.

Unlike Trump’s deal with Mexico and Canada, an agreement with Beijing is unlikely to come quickly, considering strong bipartisan support for placing tariffs on China because of concern about the influx of illegal drugs and other national security concerns, said Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

“Even if they come up with some kind of agreement to settle this particular tariff or to remove the countertariffs, there will probably be more tariffs on China later in this administration,” she told VOA.

The U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday announced that it was suspending acceptance of inbound packages from China and Hong Kong, closing a loophole that Chinese garment and other consumer goods companies have used in the past. These companies, including Shein and Temu as well as Amazon vendors, bypassed existing U.S. tariffs by shipping to American customers directly from China.

On Wednesday, USPS reversed its decision, saying it would work with Customs and Border Protection on a way to collect the new tariffs. 

The Postal Service “will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts,” it said. “The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery.”

It is unclear how the fee will be collected in such direct transactions between Chinese sellers and American buyers.

Trump’s trade actions on China, Canada and Mexico, as well as his threat to impose duties on all foreign shipments into the country, including from European allies, have caused confusion and uncertainty across global trade. 

Businesses usually respond to trade uncertainty by holding off on investments or passing on increased costs to customers. But the damage goes beyond small and large businesses domestically and abroad, Ziemba said.

“If one of the U.S. goals is relying less on China and Chinese supply chains for critical minerals, for energy, for other things like that, then the uncertainty about whether there’s going to be tariffs and investment restrictions on its allies fly in the face of that goal,” she said. 
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WASHINGTON — A bipartisan duo in the U.S. House is proposing legislation to ban the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from federal devices, similar to the policy already in place for the popular social media platform TikTok.

Lawmakers Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, and Darin LaHood, a Republican from Illinois, on Thursday introduced the “No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act,” which would ban federal employees from using the Chinese AI app on government-owned electronics. They cited the Chinese government’s ability to use the app for surveillance and misinformation as reasons to keep it away from federal networks.

“The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “We simply can’t risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security.”

The proposal comes after the Chinese software company in January published an AI model that performed at a competitive level with models developed by American firms like OpenAI, Meta, Alphabet and others. DeepSeek purported to develop the model at a fraction of the cost of its American counterparts. The announcement raised alarm bells and prompted debates among policymakers and leading Silicon Valley financiers and technologists.

The churn over AI is coming at a moment of heightened competition between the U.S. and China in a range of areas, including technological innovation. The U.S. has levied tariffs on Chinese goods, restricted Chinese tech firms like Huawei from being used in government systems, and banned the export of state of the art microchips thought to be needed to develop the highest end AI models.

Last year, Congress and then-President Joe Biden approved a divestment of the popular social media platform TikTok from its Chinese parent company or face a ban across the U.S.; that policy is now on hold. President Donald Trump, who originally proposed a ban of the app in his first term, signed an executive order last month extending a window for a long-term solution before the legally required ban takes effect.

In 2023, Biden banned TikTok from federal-issued devices.

“The technology race with the Chinese Communist Party is not one the United States can afford to lose,” LaHood said in a statement. “This commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation will ban the app from federal workers’ phones while closing backdoor operations the company seeks to exploit for access. It is critical that Congress safeguard Americans’ data and continue to ensure American leadership in AI.”

The bill would single out DeepSeek and any AI application developed by its parent company, the hedge fund High-Flyer, as subject to the ban. The legislation includes exceptions for national security and research purposes that would allow federal employers to study DeepSeek.

Some lawmakers wish to go further. A bill proposed last week by Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, would bar the import or export of any AI technology from China writ large, citing national security concerns.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that his relationship with religion had “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year, as he advocated at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol for Americans to “bring God back into our lives.”

Trump joined a Washington tradition of more than 70 years that brings together a bipartisan group of lawmakers for fellowship. He was also to speak at a separate prayer breakfast at a Washington hotel sponsored by a private group.

“I really believe you can’t be happy without religion, without that belief,” Trump said. “Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.”

Trump reflected on having a bullet coming close to killing him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, telling lawmakers and attendees, “It changed something in me, I feel.”

He continued: “I feel even stronger. I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.”

He drew laughs when he expressed gratitude that the episode “didn’t affect my hair.” The president, who’s a nondenominational Christian, called religious liberty “part of the bedrock of American life” and called for protecting it with “absolute devotion.”

Trump and his administration have already clashed with religious leaders, including him disagreeing with the Reverend Mariann Budde’s sermon the day after his inauguration, when she called for mercy for members of the LGBTQ+ community and migrants who are in the country illegally.

Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, has sparred with top U.S. leaders of his own church over immigration issues. And many clergy members across the country are worried about the removal of churches from the sensitive-areas list, allowing federal officials to conduct immigration actions at places of worship.

The Republican president made waves at the final prayer breakfast during his first term. That year the gathering came the day after the Senate acquitted him in his first impeachment trial.

Trump in his remarks then threw not-so-subtle barbs at Democratic then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who publicly said she prayed for Trump, and Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who had cited his faith in his decision to vote to convict Trump. “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.”

Trump said then in his winding speech, in which he also held up two newspapers with banner headlines about his acquittal. “Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to attend the prayer breakfast, in February 1953, and every president since has spoken at the gathering.

Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas are the honorary co-chairs of this year’s prayer breakfast.

In 2023, the National Prayer Breakfast split into two dueling events, the one on Capitol Hill largely attended by lawmakers and government officials and a larger private event for thousands at a hotel ballroom.

The split occurred when lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the private religious group that for decades had overseen the bigger event, due to questions about its organization and how it was funded. In 2023 and 2024, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, spoke at the Capitol Hill event, and his remarks were livestreamed to the other gathering.
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CIUDAD JUÁREZ, MEXICO — A line of Mexican National Guard and Army trucks rumbled along the border separating Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, among the first of 10,000 troops Mexico has sent to its northern frontier following tariff threats by President Donald Trump. 

Masked and armed National Guard members picked through brush running along the border barrier on the outskirts of Ciudad Juárez, pulling out makeshift ladders and ropes tucked away in the trenches, and pulling them onto trucks. Patrols were also seen on other parts of the border near Tijuana. 

It comes after a turbulent week along the border after Trump announced he would delay imposing crippling tariffs on Mexico for at least a month. In exchange, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum promised she would send the country’s National Guard to reinforce the border and crack down on fentanyl smuggling. 

Trump has declared an emergency on the border despite migration levels and fentanyl overdoses significantly dipping over the past year. The U.S. said it would, in turn, do more to stop American guns from being trafficked into Mexico to fuel cartel violence, which has rippled to other parts of the country as criminal groups fight to control the lucrative migrant smuggling industry. 

On Tuesday, the first of those forces arrived in border cities, climbing out of government planes. Guard members in the Wednesday patrol confirmed that they were part of the new force. 

“There will be permanent surveillance on the border,” José Luis Santos Iza, one of the National Guard leaders heading off the deployment in the city, told media upon the arrival of the first set of soldiers. “This operation is primarily to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, mainly fentanyl.” 

At least 1,650 troops were expected to be sent to Ciudad Juárez, according to government figures, making it one of the biggest receivers of border reinforcements in the country, second only to Tijuana, where 1,949 are slated to be sent. 

During U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trip through Latin America — where migration was at the top of the agenda — the top American diplomat thanked the Mexican government for the forces, according to a statement by the Mexican government. 

The negotiation by Sheinbaum was viewed by observers as a bit of shrewd political maneuvering by the newly elected Mexican leader. Many had previously cast doubt that she’d be able to navigate Trump’s presidency as effectively as her predecessor and ally, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. 

 
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of State said on Wednesday American government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees.

“The government of Panama has agreed to no longer charge fees for U.S. government vessels to transit the Panama Canal,” the department said in a post on X.

It said the agreement will save the U.S. government millions of dollars each year.

The Panama Canal Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino on Sunday during a trip to Central America.

Panama has become a focal point of the Trump administration as President Donald Trump has accused the Central American country of charging excessive rates to use its passage.

“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” Trump said last month.

Mulino has dismissed Trump’s threat that the U.S. retake control of the canal, which it largely built. The U.S. administered territory surrounding the passage for decades.

But the U.S. and Panama signed a pair of accords in 1977 that paved the way for the canal’s return to full Panamanian control. The United States handed it over in 1999 after a period of joint administration.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s idea for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip has shocked Israelis and Palestinians. While some Israelis welcome the idea, Palestinians categorically reject it. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.
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New Delhi — A U.S. deportation flight carrying Indian nationals accused of entering the U.S. illegally landed in the northern state of Punjab Wednesday – the first such flight to India since the Trump administration launched a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

The military aircraft, which landed amid tight security, brought 104 deportees, according to media reports. Authorities did not confirm the number, but said the deportees will be received in a friendly manner.

New Delhi, which does not want to make illegal immigration a contentious issue with Washington, has said that it is open to the return of undocumented Indians in the United States if their nationality is verified.

President Donald Trump said last week that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that the country would “do what’s right” in taking back illegal immigrants. His comment came following a phone conversation with Modi.

In New Delhi, foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a media briefing on Friday that India and the United States are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration and “cooperation between India and the U.S. is strong and effective in this domain. This will be evident in times to come.”

Trade and migration are expected to be key issues during a meeting that could take place next week between Trump and Modi.

“India does not want to focus on the issue of illegal migrants being deported. We know it is big business in India, sending migrants illegally. Instead, the government’s interest is in ensuring that legal migration channels to the U.S. for Indian nationals are not restricted by the Trump administration,” according to Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

Those legal routes are H-1B visas for skilled workers and visas for students.

“Both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration, while also creating more avenues for legal migration from India to the U.S.,” Jaiswal has said.

The number of Indian migrants attempting to enter the U.S. unlawfully has grown in recent years, with India now accounting for the largest number of illegal immigrants to the United States from Asian countries, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Their overall numbers, however, are still small; Indians account for only about 3 percent of illegal crossings.

The United States has identified some 18,000 undocumented Indian migrants to be sent back home, according to a Bloomberg report last week.

Deportation flights to India are not new — between October 2023 and September 2024, more than 1,000 Indian nationals were repatriated, but Wednesday’s flight was the first time that they were sent back via military aircraft.

The deportation flight was routed to Amritsar city in Punjab, which is among the three states where much of the illegal migration from India to the U.S. originates. The others are Haryana in the north and the western state of Gujarat.

Hours before the flight landed, Punjab’s minister for NRI (Non-Resident Indians) Affairs, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, urged people in the state to avoid illegal migration and instead focus on acquiring skills and education to access global opportunities through legal channels.
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Retired Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr, a decorated World War II pilot who broke racial barriers as a Tuskegee Airmen and earned honors for his combat heroism, has died. He was 100.

Stewart was one of the last surviving combat pilots of the famed 332nd Fighter Group also known as the Tuskegee Airmen. They were the nation’s first Black military pilots.

The Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum confirmed his death. The organization said he died peacefully at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on Sunday.

Stewart earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for downing three German aircraft during a dogfight on April 1, 1945. He was also part of a team of four Tuskegee Airmen who won the U.S. Air Force Top Gun flying competition in 1949, although their accomplishment would not be recognized until decades later.

“Harry Stewart was a kind man of profound character and accomplishment with a distinguished career of service he continued long after fighting for our country in World War II,” Brian Smith, president and CEO of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum, said.

Born on July 4, 1924, in Virginia, his family moved to New York when he was young. Stewart had dreamed of flying since he was a child when he would watch planes at LaGuardia airport, according to a book about his life titled “Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airmen’s Firsthand Account of World War II.” In the wake of Pearl Harbor, an 18-year-old Stewart joined what was then considered an experiment to train Black military pilots. The unit sometimes was also known as the Tuskegee Airmen for where they trained in Alabama or the Red Tails because of the red tips of their P-51 Mustangs.

“I did not recognize at the time the gravity of what we are facing. I just felt as though it was a duty of mine at the time. I just stood up to my duty,” Stewart said of World War II in a 2024 interview with CNN about the war.

Having grown up in a multicultural neighborhood, the segregation and prejudice of the Jim Crow-era South came as a shock to Stewart, but he was determined to finish and earn his wings according to the book about his life. After finishing training, the pilots were assigned to escort U.S. bombers in Europe. The Tuskegee Airmen are credited with losing significantly fewer escorted bombers than other fighter groups.

“I got to really enjoy the idea of the panorama, I would say, of the scene I would see before me with the hundreds of bombers and the hundreds of fighter planes up there and all of them pulling the condensation trails, and it was just the ballet in the sky and a feeling of belonging to something that was really big,” Stewart said in a 2020 interview with WAMC.

Stewart would sometimes say in a self-effacing way that he was too busy enjoying flying to realize he was making history, according to his book.

Stewart had hoped to become a commercial airline pilot after he left the military, but was rejected because of his race. He went on to earn a mechanical engineering degree at New York University. He relocated to Detroit and retired as vice president of a natural gas pipeline company.

Stewart told Michigan Public Radio in 2019 that he was moved to tears on a recent commercial flight when he saw who was piloting the aircraft.

“When I entered the plane, I looked into the cockpit there and there were two African American pilots. One was the co-pilot, and one was the pilot. But not only that, the thing that started bringing the tears to my eyes is that they were both female,” Stewart said.

The Air Force last month briefly removed training courses with videos of its storied Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs in an effort to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The materials were quickly restored following a bipartisan backlash.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants the United States to take ownership of Gaza, moving beyond his earlier statements of forcing Palestinians in the war-torn enclave to relocate to neighboring Jordan and Egypt.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” he said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Tuesday evening.

In recent days hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the southern parts of Gaza have marched north toward their homes after Israel allowed people to return as part of the ceasefire for a hostage release deal with Hamas.

Trump said he wants to develop the area into what he calls “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

“Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent, in a really magnificent area,” he said.

Netanyahu said one of his war goals is to ensure that Hamas never poses a threat to Israel again. But Trump, Netanyahu said, is “taking it to a much higher level.”

“I think it’s something that could change history, and it’s worthwhile really pursuing this avenue,” he added.

Trump did not share details on how he plans to exert control over the area ravaged by 15 months of war, but he did not rule out sending U.S. troops.

“If it’s necessary, we’ll do that. We’re going to take over that piece, and we’re going to develop it,” he said.

Trump’s comments mark a remarkable shift from his criticism of America’s involvement in Middle East conflicts. He sees a “long-term ownership position,” for the U.S. that would bring “great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East.”

“This was not a decision made lightly,” he said.

However, any discussion of relocation will certainly be met with resistance from Palestinians. Hundreds of thousands were driven from their homes in what is now called Israel: in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and during Israel’s 1967 seizure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority and Arab League countries including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia earlier this month rejected Trump’s plans to relocate Palestinians. They warned that such plans “threaten the region’s stability, risk expanding the conflict, and undermine prospects for peace and coexistence among its peoples.”

It’s unclear how occupying Gaza would fit into Trump’s own stated goal of expanding the Abraham Accords to include Riyadh. He brokered the deal that normalized ties between Israel and Arab countries in 2020.

Saudi Arabia has publicly said it would only agree to recognize Israel, if the Gaza war ends and Palestinians have a path to statehood.

Earlier Tuesday when asked whether the Saudis are demanding a Palestinian state, Trump said, “No they’re not.”

Trump’s statement on Gaza is his latest signaling of expansionist ambitions, following his statements to acquire Greenland from Denmark, taking over the Panama Canal, and absorbing Canada.

Ceasefire renegotiation

Speaking to reporters at the White House earlier Tuesday, U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said the administration has begun negotiations toward Phase 2 of the three-phase ceasefire-for-hostage-release deal, which includes the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza, a permanent halt in fighting and Israel’s withdrawal from the territory. 

Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, has released 18 hostages so far, while Israel has freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. 

Witkoff suggested that the administration is considering renegotiating parts of the agreement that took effect on Jan. 19, the day before Trump was inaugurated.

“Part of the problem is that it wasn’t such a wonderful agreement that was first signed. That was not dictated by the Trump administration. We had nothing to do with it,” he said. “Now we’re working within that rubric, and we’re figuring things out.”

He doubled down on Trump’s suggestion to remove Gazans, saying that the five-year reconstruction plan for Gaza as outlined in phase three is “physically impossible.”

Trump’s insistence on relocating Gazans could signal a desire to renegotiate the ceasefire deal, particularly the second phase, said Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. 

“The goal might be to force Hamas into choosing between relinquishing control of Gaza or leaving the Strip if it wants an Israeli withdrawal or reconstruction, or risk the entirety of the population facing forcible removal, though how that would be carried out is unknown,” he told VOA.

Also Tuesday, Trump ended support for the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees and withdrew the U.S. from what he calls the antisemitic UN Human Rights Council.

Iran nuclear

Shortly before his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump directed his aides to restore his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran to prevent it from getting a nuclear weapon and to drive down its oil exports to zero.

“I’m unhappy to do it, but I really have not so much choice, because we have to be strong and firm, and I hope that it’s not going to have to be used in any great measure at all,” he said. “It’s very simple. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”  

As of September 2024, U.S. intelligence concluded in a report that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. However, Iran has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce one, if it so chooses,” the report said.

In November, the Justice Department under the Biden administration announced that an Iranian plot to kill Trump before the presidential election had been thwarted. Trump said he has directed his aides to “obliterate” Tehran if the Iranian regime moves to assassinate him.

“If they did that they would be obliterated,” Trump said. “I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.” 

Pressure on Netanyahu

Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu comes as the Israeli leader faces pressure from his right-wing coalition to end the ceasefire.

Both Trump and Netanyahu share the goal of ending Hamas’ rule in Gaza and return the remaining Israeli hostages, said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Department of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University. However, the two men place different priorities on different aspects of the goal.

For Netanyahu, the priority is to ensure Hamas has no political future, Rynhold told VOA, while for Trump it’s to maintain the ceasefire “so that he can move to an Israeli-Saudi Arabian normalization agreement.” 

U.S. administrations under Presidents George W. Bush to Joe Biden have stated their support for Palestinian statehood under the two-state solution. In 2020 during his first term, Trump announced his Middle East peace plan that would deny Palestinians having their own state.

Trump was non-committal when asked Tuesday whether he supports the two-state solution. His plan on Gaza “doesn’t mean anything about a two-state or one-state or any other state,” he said.

The war in Gaza began with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 people hostage. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 47,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children. Israel’s military says the death toll includes 17,000 Hamas militants.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to establish a nationwide “Iron Dome” missile defense system has sparked debate over its feasibility, funding, and strategic implications. Unlike Israel’s Iron Dome, which intercepts short-range rockets, Trump’s plan aims to defend against intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and hypersonic weapons.  

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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In Los Angeles, residents of fire-devastated areas are filing lawsuits against the city’s electricity supplier. Some residents have videos they say show that sparking power lines caused one of the most destructive fires. Angelina Bagdasaryan visited the area and spoke with residents. Anna Rice narrates her story. Videographer: Vazgen Varzhabetian
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NEW YORK — Dick Button was more than the most accomplished men’s figure skater in history. He was one of his sport’s greatest innovators and promoters.

Button, winner of two Olympic gold medals and five consecutive world championships, died Thursday, said his son, Edward, who did not provide a cause. He was 95.

As an entrepreneur and broadcaster, Button promoted skating and its athletes, transforming a niche sport into the showpiece of every Winter Olympics.

“Dick was one of the most important figures in our sport,” Scott Hamilton said. “There wasn’t a skater after Dick who wasn’t helped by him in some way.”

Button’s impact began after World War II. He was the first U.S. men’s champion — and his country’s youngest at age 16 — when that competition returned in 1946. Two years later, he took the title at the St. Moritz Olympics, competing outdoors. He performed the first double axel in any competition and became the first American to win the men’s event.

“By the way, that jump had a cheat on it,” Button told the U.S. Olympic Committee website. “But listen, I did it and that was what counted.”

That began his dominance of international skating, and U.S. amateur sports. He was the first figure skater to win the prestigious Sullivan Award in 1949 — no other figure skater won it until Michelle Kwan in 2001.

In 1952, while a Harvard student, he won a second gold at the Oslo Games, making more history with the first triple jump (a loop) in competition. Soon after, he won a fifth world title, then gave up his eligibility as an amateur. All Olympic sports were subject to an amateur/professional division at the time.

“I had achieved everything I could have dreamed of doing as a skater,” said Button, who earned a law degree from Harvard in 1956. “I was able to enjoy the Ice Capades (show) and keep my hand in skating, and that was very important to me.”

With the Emmy Award-winning Button as the TV analyst, viewers got to learn not only the basics but the nuances of a sport foreign to many as he frankly broke down the performances. He became as much a fixture on ABC’s Wide World of Sports as Jim McKay and the hapless ski jumper tumbling down the slope.

“Dick Button is the custodian of the history of figure skating and its quintessential voice,” 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano said in Button’s autobiography. “He made the words ‘lutz’ and ‘salchow’ part of our everyday vocabulary.”

After a 1961 plane crash killed the entire U.S. figure skating team on the way to the world championships, which then were canceled, Button persuaded ABC Sports executive Roone Arledge to televise the 1962 event on Wide World. That’s when he joined the network as a commentator.

Button’s death coincided with another tragedy in the skating world, Wednesday night’s crash of an American Airlines flight that collided with an Army helicopter and plummeted into the Potomac River outside Washington, D.C., killing everyone on board. Two teenage figure skaters, their mothers, and two former world champions who were coaching at the Skating Club of Boston were among the 14 people killed from the skating community.

Button skated for the Boston club and remained close to it for the rest of his life. The trophy room at the club is named in his honor.

He also provided opportunities for skaters to make money after their competitive careers. He ran professional events he created for TV for years, attracting many top names in the sport — Hamilton, Torvill and Dean, Kristi Yamaguchi, Kurt Browning and Katarina Witt.

Button’s Candid Productions, formed 1959, also produced such made-for-TV programs as Battle of the Network Stars. He also dabbled in acting, but the rink was his realm.

“Dick Button created an open and honest space in figure skating broadcasting where no topic or moment was off-limits,” said Johnny Weir, the three-time U.S. champion and current NBC Sports figure skating analyst. “He told it like it was, even when his opinion wasn’t a popular one. His zingers were always in my mind when I would perform for him, and I wanted to make him as happy and proud as I would my coaches.

“I think that is something very special about commentating figure skating. As an athlete, we rarely have an opportunity to speak, and we rely on the TV voices to tell our story for us. Nobody could do it like Mr. Button.” 
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Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine even as the Trump administration works to bring both sides to the negotiating table. While Ukraine is ready for peace talks, analysts see little evidence that Moscow is prepared to end the war. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from former Moscow correspondent Ricardo Marquina.
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WASHINGTON — Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, insisted to deeply skeptical Democrats on Thursday that he did not have an “enemies list” and that the bureau under his leadership would not seek retribution against the president’s adversaries or launch investigations for political purposes. 

“I have no interest nor desire and will not, if confirmed, go backwards,” Patel told a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. “There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken by the FBI.” 

The reassurances were aimed at blunting a persistent line of attack from Democrats, who throughout Thursday’s hearing confronted Patel with a vast catalog of his incendiary statements. They said those statements raise alarming questions about his loyalty to the president, such as when he described some of the prosecuted Jan. 6 rioters as “political prisoners” and called for a purge of anti-Trump “conspirators” in the government and news media. 

“There is an unfathomable difference between a seeming facade being constructed around this nominee here today, and what he has actually done and said in real life when left to his own devices,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat. His colleague, Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, later added, “It is his own words. It is not some conspiracy. It is what Mr. Patel actually said himself.” 

Patel defended himself by insisting that Democrats were putting his comments and social media posts in a “grotesque context.” He said the suggestion that he had an “enemies list” — a 2023 book he authored includes a lengthy list of former government officials he says are part of the so-called deep state — was a “total mischaracterization.”

“The only thing that will matter if I’m confirmed as a director of the FBI is a de-weaponized, de-politicized system of law enforcement completely devoted to rigorous obedience to the Constitution and a singular standard of justice,” Patel said. 

Patel was picked in November to replace Christopher Wray, who led the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency for more than seven years but was forced out of the job Trump had appointed him to after being seen as insufficiently loyal to him. 

Patel is a former aide to the House Intelligence Committee and an ex-federal prosecutor who served in Trump’s first administration. He has alarmed critics with rhetoric — in dozens of podcasts and books he has authored — in which he has demonstrated fealty to Trump and assailed the decision-making of the agency he’s now been asked to lead. 

But Patel sought on multiple occasions to reassure Democrats that his FBI would be independent from the White House. He would not acknowledge that Trump had lost the 2020 election, conceding only that Joe Biden was sworn in as president. But he did not endorse Trump’s sweeping pardon of supporters, including violent rioters, charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. 

“I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” Patel said in response to a question from Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee. Durbin made his opposition to Patel clear at the outset. 

Durbin said the FBI is critical in keeping America safe from terrorism, violent crime and other threats, and the nation “needs an FBI director who understands the gravity of this mission and is ready on day one, not someone who is consumed by his own personal political grievances.” 

Patel pledged if confirmed to be transparent and said he would not involve the FBI in prosecutorial decisions, keeping those with Justice Department lawyers instead. 

“First, let good cops be cops,” Patel wrote in outlining his priorities. “Leadership means supporting agents in their mission to apprehend criminals and protect our citizens. If confirmed, I will focus on streamlining operations at headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation. Collaboration with local law enforcement is crucial to fulfilling the FBI’s mission.” 

Patel found common cause with Trump over their shared skepticism of government surveillance and the “deep state” — a pejorative catchall used by Trump to refer to government bureaucracy. 

He was part of a small group of supporters during Trump’s recent criminal trial in New York who accompanied him to the courthouse, where he told reporters that Trump was the victim of an “unconstitutional circus.” 

That close bond would depart from the modern-day precedent of FBI directors looking to keep presidents at arm’s length. 

Republican allies of Trump, who share the president’s belief that the FBI has become politicized, have rallied around Patel and pledged to support him, seeing him as someone who can shake up the bureau and provide needed change. 

Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the committee, sought to blunt attacks on Patel preemptively by focusing on the need to reform an FBI that he said had become weaponized. 

The FBI in recent years has become entangled in numerous politically explosive investigations, including not just the two federal inquiries into Trump that resulted in indictments but also probes of Biden and his son, Hunter. 

“It’s no surprise that public trust has declined in an institution that has been plagued by abuse, a lack of transparency, and the weaponization of law enforcement,” Grassley said. “Nevertheless, the FBI remains an important, even indispensable institution for law and order in our country.” 

He later added: “Mr. Patel, should you be confirmed, you will take charge of an FBI that is in crisis.”
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President Donald Trump is widely expected to impose tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada as early as February 1 as part of a plan he says will boost the U.S. economy. But with much about the specifics still unknown, economists, business owners and everyday consumers are still trying to understand how it could impact them. Johny Fernandez reports from New York City. (Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov)
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The Russian lawmaker attributed to Trump a quote from a deepfake video created by Ukrainian bloggers and shared on the Telegram messaging platform.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate kicked off Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearing Wednesday. Candidates for the President’s Cabinet must be confirmed by the Senate. But individuals considered for politically appointed positions are thoroughly vetted during presidential transitions by a president-elect’s legal team. What to know about this process. 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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According to Harvard University, about 200 copies of the original Declaration of Independence were produced in 1776. Only about two dozen remain. In New York, a new copy from the times of the Founding Fathers was discovered. On Jan. 24, it was put on auction. Elena Wolf has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Michael Eckels
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Washington — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pulling the security protections and clearance of retired Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and he has ordered the Pentagon’s inspector general to review Milley’s actions while serving as the nation’s top uniformed officer to determine if a demotion is warranted, two defense officials confirmed late Tuesday.

The inspector general review will include “an inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding Gen Milley’s conduct so that the Secretary may determine whether it is appropriate to reopen his military grade review determination,” said Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot.

“The Secretary informed General Milley today that he is revoking the authorization for his security detail and suspending his security clearance as well,” he said.

Milley served as chairman during President Donald Trump’s first term in office. While the relationship initially went well, it soured deeply and fast, as Milley tried to advise and contain the president on a host of issues.

Milley pushed back on the president’s interest in using force domestically to quell protestors after the death of George Floyd, and he was at the center of a controversy in 2021 when he made independent calls to his Chinese counterpart. Trump called the calls an act of treason, but at the time Milley said the calls were routine and part of the scope of his job.

Milley in his final days as chairman after Trump had left office was equally outspoken about his former boss. He said at his official retirement ceremony “ we don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.”

“We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it,” he said at the time.

Hegseth’s chief of staff Joe Kasper said that the decision to strip Milley of his clearance and detail was taken because “undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security, and restoring accountability is a priority for the Defense Department under President Trump’s leadership.”

The moves, which were first reported by Fox News, also may include taking down Milley’s Army chief of staff portrait. Milley’s chairman portrait was stripped from the wall just hours after Trump was sworn in. The portraits were both paid for by a donation from the Association of the United States Army, not taxpayer dollars, and were a gift to Milley honoring his service. 
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WASHINGTON — America’s children have continued to lose ground on reading skills in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and have made little improvement in math, according to the latest results of an exam known as the nation’s report card.

The findings are yet another setback for U.S. schools and reflect the myriad challenges that have upended education, from pandemic school closures to a youth mental health crisis and high rates of chronic absenteeism. The national exam results also show growing inequality: While the highest-performing students have started to regain lost ground, lower-performing students are falling further behind.

Given every two years to a sample of America’s children, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered one of the best gauges of the academic progress of the U.S. school system. The most recent exam was administered in early 2024 in every state, testing fourth- and eighth-grade students on math and reading.

“The news is not good,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the assessment. “We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic.”

Among the few bright spots was an improvement in fourth grade math, where the average score ticked up 2 points on a scale of 500. It’s still 3 points lower than the 2019 pre-pandemic average, yet some states and districts made significant strides, including in Washington, D.C., where the average score increased 10 points.

For the most part, however, American schools have not yet begun to make progress.

The average math score for eighth grade students was unchanged from 2022, while reading scores fell 2 points at both grade levels. One-third of eighth grade students scored below “basic” in reading, more than ever in the history of the assessment.

Students are considered below basic if they are missing fundamental skills. For example, eighth grade students who scored below basic in reading were typically unable to make a simple inference about a character’s motivation after reading a short story, and some were unable to identify that the word “industrious” means “to be hard working.”

Especially alarming to officials was the divide between higher- and lower-performing students, which has grown wider than ever. Students with the highest scores outperformed their peers from two years ago, making up some ground lost during the pandemic. But the lowest performers are scoring even lower, falling further behind.

It was most pronounced in eighth grade math: While the top 10% of students saw their scores increased by 3 points, the lowest 10% decreased by 6 points.

“We are deeply concerned about our low-performing students,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policies for the exam. “For a decade, these students have been on the decline. They need our urgent attention and our best effort.”

The latest setbacks follow a historic backslide in 2022. In that year’s exam, student achievement fell across both subjects and grade levels, in some cases by unprecedented levels.

This round of testing again featured students whose lives were disrupted by the pandemic. When COVID hit in 2020, the fourth graders were in kindergarten, and the eighth graders were in fourth grade.

But Carr said poor results can no longer be blamed solely on the pandemic, warning that the nation’s education system faces “complex challenges.”

A survey done alongside the exam found in 2022 that fewer young students were reading for enjoyment, which is linked to lower reading scores. And new survey results found that students who are often absent from class — a persistent problem nationwide — are struggling the most.

“The data are clear,” Carr said. “Students who don’t come to school are not improving.”

The results provide fresh fuel for a national debate over the impact of pandemic school closures, though they’re unlikely to add clarity. Some studies have found that longer closures led to bigger academic setbacks. Those slower to reopen were often in urban and Democratic-led areas, while more rural and Republican-led areas were quicker.

The new results don’t show a “direct link” on the topic, Carr said, though she said students clearly do better when they’re in school.

Among the states that saw reading scores fall in 2024 are Florida and Arizona, which were among the first to return to the classroom during the pandemic. Meanwhile, some big school systems that had longer closures made strides in fourth grade math, including Los Angeles and New York City.

The success of big urban districts — 14 of which saw notable improvement in fourth-grade math when the nation as a whole saw only minor gains — can be credited to academic recovery efforts funded by federal pandemic relief, said Ray Hart, executive director of the Council of Great City Schools. Investing in efforts like intensive tutoring programs and curriculum updates is “really proving to make a difference,” he said.

Republicans in Congress were quick to cast blame on Democrats and former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the decline is “clearly a reflection of the education bureaucracy continuing to focus on woke policies rather than helping students learn and grow.”

“I’m thankful we have an administration that is looking to reverse course,” he said in a reference to President Donald Trump.

Compared with 2019 results, eighth grade reading scores are now down 8 points. Reading scores are down 5 points in both grades. And in fourth grade math, scores are down 3 points.

Yet officials say there’s reason to be optimistic. Carr highlighted improvement in Louisiana, where fourth grade reading is now back above pre-pandemic levels, and in Alabama, which accomplished that feat in fourth grade math.

Carr was especially laudatory of Louisiana, where a campaign to improve reading proficiency resulted in both higher- and lower-performing students exceeding 2019 scores.

“I would not say that hope is lost, and I would not say that we cannot turn this around,” Carr said. “It’s been demonstrated that we can.”
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Caroline Kennedy, a member of the famed U.S. political family, urged senators on Tuesday to reject her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the top U.S. health agency, calling him a “predator” and his healthcare views “dangerous.”

The daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known as RFK Jr., has discouraged vaccinations for his own profit. She added he does not have the medical, financial or government experience to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Republican President Donald Trump nominated him in November.

A spokesperson for RFK Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senators will question RFK Jr. on Wednesday starting at 10 a.m. about his views before they vote on whether to confirm his nomination.

The Washington Post first reported the letter.

RFK Jr. has long sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that have helped curb disease and prevent deaths for decades. He disputes the anti-vaccine characterization and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting inoculations.

“Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie and cheat his way through life today,” Caroline Kennedy said in a video on social media platform X, in which she read her letter addressed to senators.

U.S. doctors, nurses, researchers, scientists and caregivers “deserve a secretary committed to advancing cutting-edge medicine, to save lives, not to rejecting the advances we have already made,” said Caroline Kennedy, a former ambassador to Australia and Japan who served during the Democratic Biden and Obama administrations. “They deserve a stable, moral and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency.”

In written testimony for the Finance committee, RFK Jr. said he is not “anti-vaccine” or “anti-industry” and that he believes “vaccines have a critical role in healthcare,” pointing to his own children being vaccinated, according to the document seen by Reuters.

However, RFK Jr. has led the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense and in a 2023 interview with podcaster Lex Fridman said no vaccines are safe and effective.

RFK Jr. has said he wants to work to end chronic disease, break any ties between employees at the U.S. drug regulator and industry and advise U.S. water systems to remove fluoride.

RFK Jr. has faced new scrutiny over his ties to Wisner Baum, a law firm specializing in pharmaceutical drug injury cases.

He has an arrangement to earn 10% of fees awarded in contingency cases he refers to the firm, according to a letter RFK Jr. wrote to an HHS ethics official released last week.

If confirmed, RFK Jr. would retain that financial interest in cases that do not directly impact the U.S. government, the letter said.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday launched LA Rises, a private sector initiative aimed at raising money to help residents of Southern California rebuild their lives in the wake of the recent, devastating fires.

Rebuilding will be expensive, with some estimates reaching as high as $40 billion.

The fires, which began three weeks ago, killed 28 people, burned through more than 4,000 square meters and destroyed more than 16,000 buildings, according to Cal Fire.

Newsom recruited basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Dodgers baseball team Chairman Mark Walter and Casey Wasserman, president and chairperson of LA28, to help recruit other philanthropists for the initiative.

“With Mark, Earvin and Casey’s proven leadership and deep commitment to Los Angeles, we’ll tap into the enormous creativity, experience, and resources of the private sector, alongside local, state, and federal efforts, to deliver a recovery that benefits all Angelenos,” the governor said in a statement Tuesday

“It’s time for those with means to come forward and make a positive impact to build back better,” Walter said.

The initiative already has a pledge of up to $100 million from Walter, his family’s foundation and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation.

“We can’t lose hope,” Newsom said while urging victims of the fires to seek support from the new philanthropic effort, known as LA Rises. “It is possible that we can come back more climate resilient, come back stronger.”

Three of the biggest fires that hit the region are almost fully contained, according to Cal Fire. The Eaton fire is 99% contained, followed by the Hughes fire at 98% containment. And the Palisades fire is 95% contained.
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — A little more than a week after Beijing and Manila reached an agreement aimed at easing tensions in the South China Sea, the Philippines has accused Chinese coast guard vessels of fresh incursions, harassment and “aggressive maneuvers.” 

Analysts say the pressure campaign, which has stepped up in recent days, is part of Beijing’s attempt to test the United States’ commitment to support the Philippines. 

“They want to see how far they can push the Philippines under the new administration in the U.S.,” Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA by phone. 

In a statement released on social media platform X last Saturday, the Philippine coast guard said two vessels from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries encountered “aggressive maneuvers” from three Chinese coast guard vessels while heading to Sandy Cay for a marine scientific survey last Friday. 

In one video released by Manila, a large Chinese coast guard vessel was seen moving within a few meters of one Philippine vessel. Another video showed a Chinese helicopter hovering above two inflatable boats carrying Philippine crew members.

Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the Philippine vessels were forced to suspend the scientific survey due to the “continuous harassment and the disregard for safety” shown by the Chinese coast guard.  

In response to Manila’s accusations, Beijing said Chinese coast guard vessels “thwarted” two Philippine vessels’ attempts to “land on” Sandy Cay, which China calls “Tiexian Reef.”  

“The vessels attempted to illegally land on the reef and conduct sand sampling. China Coast Guard [CCG] vessels lawfully obstructed the Philippine ships’ course and warned them away,” the Chinese coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a statement released last Friday. 

China views almost all of the South China Sea as its territory and is engaged in a series of disputes with several Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, that have overlapping claims over the strategic waterway.  

Apart from the incident near Sandy Cay, the Philippine coast guard said its vessels had successfully kept Chinese coast guard vessels from operating in waters near the coastline of the Philippines’ Zambales province since last Friday.  

“The Philippine Coast Guard [PCG] vessel has maintained the China Coast Guard vessel to keep a distance of 90-100 nautical miles away from the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone,” said Jay Tarriela from the Philippine coast guard in a post on social media platform X on Sunday.

Then on Monday, the Philippine coast guard said its vessels were hindered by Chinese coast guard vessels while trying to recover the body of a dead Philippine fisherman from a Philippine fishing boat.  

The series of incidents comes more than a week after senior Chinese and Philippine diplomats vowed to settle territorial disputes in the South China Sea through dialogues during a bilateral consultation. 

Although the agreement has allowed the Philippines to conduct resupply missions to its forces near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal since late last year, some experts say the latest incidents are part of a bigger effort by Beijing to drive a wedge between Manila and Washington.   

“Beijing isn’t happy with Manila’s assertive stance in the South China Sea and its close ties with the United States, so [these factors] serve as convenient justifications for Beijing to try to push Manila in the South China Sea,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.  

Despite the persistent Chinese aggression, Koh said some in Manila think the Philippines can maintain its current approach in the South China Sea since there is bipartisan support for a more assertive position against China in the U.S. and some Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, have reiterated Washington’s “ironclad” defense commitment to the Philippines during interactions with their Philippine counterparts last week. 

“Manila appears to be more cautiously optimistic that it can maintain the current policy, knowing that there is U.S. backing for that,” he told VOA by phone.  

To counter Beijing’s pressure campaign, Don McLain Gill, a lecturer in international studies at De La Salle University in the Philippines, said it’s important for the Philippines and its allies, including the United States, to maintain close collaboration in areas such as joint maritime exercises. 

Since China is expected to “continue pressing the Philippines into submission with its grey zone operations, which are now shifting from low intensity to high intensity, this must be addressed with more robust presence operations between the alliance and like-minded partners, along with continued support in the Philippines military modernization in line with the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defence Concept,” he told VOA in a written response.  

With the Trump administration’s announcement to suspend new funding for almost all U.S. foreign assistance for 90 days, however, Chong in Singapore said Beijing may think there is a window of opportunity to pressure countries like the Philippines. 
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