Reaction to the indictment of Donald Trump, the first of a former U.S. president, was predictable in the hothouse of divisive American politics. His fellow Republicans assailed the prosecutor for what they claimed was a purely partisan attack, while Democrats contended that no one should be allowed to stand above the law.

Even Republicans eyeing a 2024 run against Trump for the party’s presidential nomination came to his defense after a New York grand jury indicted Trump on charges linked to his $130,000 hush money payment in 2016 to an adult film actress to silence her about an alleged affair she claimed to have had with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has long denied the claim by the porn star, Stormy Daniels.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not announced a 2024 presidential bid but nationally polls second behind Trump for the nomination, on Twitter accused New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, of deploying the legal system “to advance a political agenda” that he said “turns the rule of law on its head.”

DeSantis said he would not work with New York officials to extradite Trump from Florida to face the charges, although it may not be an issue in any event. Trump’s lawyer has said the former president would fly to New York to turn himself in.

Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations who has announced her 2024 run for the presidency, said of the indictment, “This is more about revenge than it is justice.”

Mike Pompeo, a secretary of state during Trump’s administration and another possible presidential contender, accused the prosecutor of “playing politics.”

South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, yet another possible candidate, said in a statement, “This pro-criminal New York DA has failed to uphold the law for violent criminals, yet weaponized the law against political enemies. This is a travesty, and it should not be happening in the greatest country on Earth.”

Longtime Democratic foes of Trump took a different tack, saying no one should be able to escape prosecution if wrongdoing was alleged but should have their day in court to answer the charges.

Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote on Twitter, “The Grand Jury has acted upon the facts and the law. No one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence.”

“Hopefully, the former President will peacefully respect the system, which grants him that right,” she added.

The Democratic Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said in a statement: “Mr. Trump is subject to the same laws as every American. He will be able to avail himself of the legal system and a jury, not politics, to determine his fate according to the facts and the law. There should be no outside political influence, intimidation or interference in the case. I encourage both Mr. Trump’s critics and supporters to let the process proceed peacefully and according to the law.”
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The indictment of former President Donald Trump in New York stems from the payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final days of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The payment of $130,000 was made by then-Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen as part of a scheme to “catch and kill” damaging stories about the real estate mogul’s marital infidelities.

Cohen has said he made the secret payment at Trump’s direction and was later reimbursed by the Trump Organization, Trump’s real estate company, for “legal” services.

Cohen pleaded guilty in connection with the case in 2018, but federal prosecutors did not charge Trump, leaving it to the Manhattan district attorney to pursue the case under state law.

In court documents in 2018, federal prosecutors laid out how Cohen, working at the behest of Trump, sought to prevent the candidate’s female accusers from going public with their allegations during the 2016 campaign.

‘Catch and kill’

Along with Cohen, a key player in the effort was David Pecker, chairman of American Media Inc. (AMI), the company that at the time published the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer.

A longtime Trump friend, Pecker had offered “to help deal with negative stories about [Trump’s] relationships with women” by identifying stories that could be bought and then suppressed. The practice is known in the publishing industry as “catch and kill.”

In August 2016, AMI agreed to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. The story was shelved.

Two months later, a representative for Daniels informed AMI that the porn star was going public with her account of a sexual encounter with Trump and was willing to sell her story.

Having failed to secure a deal with Daniels, Pecker put her agent in touch with Cohen, who negotiated a $130,000 agreement to “purchase [her] silence,” prosecutors wrote in August 2018.

Paying hush money is not illegal. But federal prosecutors charged that classifying the payment as a “legal retainer” fee violated federal campaign finance laws.

Trump has acknowledged that Cohen was reimbursed for the $130,000 paid to Daniels to stop what he termed her “false and extortionist accusations.”

But he’s denied the payment was a “campaign contribution.”

While the precise charges against the former president remain sealed, legal experts say they likely center on the falsification of business records.

Under New York law, falsifying business records is normally a misdemeanor. But when it is done with the intent to commit or hide another crime, it rises to the level of a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

It is not clear what additional criminal offenses, if any, Trump has been charged with.
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A New York grand jury investigating hush payments made on Donald Trump’s behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign refocused attention on the Manhattan district attorney steering the case. Alvin Bragg’s decision to convene the grand jury early this year led to the first criminal charge against a former U.S. president.

Here’s what you need to know about Bragg:

Who is the Manhattan district attorney?

Alvin Bragg became Manhattan’s first Black district attorney in 2022, following his election in November 2021

As district attorney, what is Bragg’s job?

The office prosecutes nearly all criminal cases in Manhattan, staffed by about 500 lawyers. The district attorney also is a key political figure, overseeing cases that often involve defendants with immense wealth, fame and influence.

Manhattan district attorney is one of the most high-profile prosecution jobs in the world, dramatized on TV shows like “Law & Order” and “Blue Bloods.” Robert M. Morgenthau, who held the job for 35 years, was the model for the fictional character Adam Schiff on “Law & Order,” one of the series’ original leads played by actor Steven Hill.

The office has a budget of about $150 million and has used a separate $800 million forfeiture fund bankrolled by Wall Street settlements for grants to criminal justice and community organizations and big initiatives, such as testing backlogged rape kits.

Are district attorneys elected?

Bragg is one of five elected district attorneys in New York City — one for each of the city’s five boroughs. Bragg won a tough Democratic primary and then the general election to become Manhattan’s district attorney. He took over for retiring District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

Bragg is just the fourth elected district attorney in Manhattan in the last eight decades. Frank Hogan served for 31 years. Morgenthau was in office for 34 years, until he was 90. Vance retired at the end of 2021 after 12 years.

What is Bragg’s legal background?

Bragg’s career includes time as a federal prosecutor, an assistant attorney general for the state of New York and a civil rights attorney who represented Eric Garner’s mother as she pressured New York City officials for more accountability against the officers and commanders involved in her son’s 2014 death by a police chokehold.

Bragg’s campaign included promises to change the culture of the office and allied him with other progressive prosecutors aiming to eliminate cash bail. Shortly after taking office, he released a public memo promising the district attorney would no longer prosecute some low-level misdemeanor crimes.

Bragg, who grew up in Harlem, graduated from Harvard Law School.

How did Bragg’s involvement with the Trump indictment develop? 

Bragg inherited a yearslong grand jury investigation into hush money paid on Trump’s behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign.

After taking office, Bragg slowed down his office’s move toward an indictment against Trump and said he had concerns about the strength of the case. That sparked a public protest by two prosecutors who were leading the investigation and resigned.

But Bragg convened a new grand jury early this year after successfully convicting Trump’s family company for tax fraud. He called that result a “strong demarcation line” for proceeding with other parts of the probe.

In general, the grand jury process is seen as extremely favorable to prosecutors.

Proceedings are closed to the public and there is no judge. Prosecutors call and question witnesses, and grand jurors — people drawn from the community — can ask questions. Grand jurors can either agree there is enough evidence to issue an indictment, find there is not enough evidence or tell the prosecutor to file lesser charges.
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Authorities in Montenegro say the United States and South Korea have asked the Balkan nation to extradite South Korean Terraform Lab founder Do Kwon, who is suspected in those countries of cryptocurrency fraud amounting to more than $40 billion.

“Two Koreans wanted by South Korea, Do Kwon and the company’s chief financial officer, Han Chang-joon, were detained when they attempted to cross the state border with passports that are reasonably suspected of being forged,” said Montenegrin Justice Minister Marko Kovač at a news conference Wednesday, stating that the United States also requested the extradition of Do Kwon from Montenegro.

Through diplomatic channels

Kovač said that “a meeting was held with the diplomatic representatives of the Republic of Korea at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro, after which a petition for the extradition of these two persons was handed over by the Republic of Korea, while the extradition of Do Kwon was also requested by the U.S.”

“The U.S. requested the extradition of Do Kwon through diplomatic channels, in the same way that a temporary arrest was requested,” said Kovač, adding that both countries also requested the equipment found with the detained.

After their detention at the Podgorica airport, the District Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation of the criminal offense of falsification of documents, after which they were detained for 72 hours, and ordered to spend 30 days in custody.

Montenegro to decide extradition hearing date

“The High Court in Podgorica will decide when these persons will have a hearing in the extradition proceedings,” Kovač said.

He added that in the event of multiple requests for extradition from several different countries, the seriousness of the crime, the locality where the crime was committed, the order of receiving the requests for extradition as well as other circumstances will be considered.

Kovač said that if the suspects are convicted of falsifying identification documents, it is expected that only after they have served their prison sentence will they be extradited.

According to Montenegro’s criminal code, falsifying personal documents is punishable by up to five years in prison.

This story originated in the VOA Serbian service.
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The first Western tanks began arriving in Ukraine this week, prompting speculation that Ukraine may soon launch a counteroffensive against invading Russian forces and whether the more advanced weapons will turn the tide of the war in Kyiv’s favor.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov posted a video on Twitter this week showing him on board a British Challenger 2 main battle tank, or MBT at an unidentified location in Ukraine.

“It was a pleasure to take the first Ukrainian Challenger 2 MBT for a spin,” Reznikov wrote in his March 28 Twitter post. “Such tanks, supplied by the United Kingdom, have recently arrived in our country. These fantastic machines will soon begin their combat missions.”

A total of 14 Challenger 2 tanks are being sent to Ukraine. British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said Wednesday he could not speculate on any upcoming Ukrainian offensive.

“But I think it is no secret Ukraine is keen to start the process of rolling back Russian forces in the conflict. Obviously, the Russian forces are making almost no progress whatsoever,” Wallace told reporters.

German Leopards

Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed Monday that Germany had already delivered 18 of its advanced Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, among the most highly regarded MBTs in the world. Canada and Norway have also dispatched several of their Leopard 2 tanks. Poland, Spain, Finland and the Netherlands have also pledged to send Leopard tanks, although the total numbers have not been confirmed

European commanders say it could tip the balance in favor of the Ukrainian forces.

“Now, [the Ukrainian forces] are in a kind of defensive position against more than 300,000 Russian combatants. Maybe not the best trained or best equipped combatants, but they are facing this kind of tsunami of soldiers, so they are holding the front line,” Vice Admiral Herve Blejean, commander of the European Union training mission for Ukrainian forces, told the Reuters news agency earlier in March.

“When they will be able to involve better tanks like the Leopard, they will be able to breach through and to look at counterattacking. At the present time, they are fighting for Bakhmut. They are doing a fine job, but the balance of forces is not in their favor,” Blejean added.

Counteroffensive

It’s unlikely Ukraine has enough Western tanks to launch a major counteroffensive imminently, said Patrick Bury, a military analyst at Britain’s University of Bath.

“How many are there now? Maybe between 30 or 40, given the numbers that were pledged. At the moment, it’s probably not enough, would be my hunch. But it’s still fairly significant,” Bury told VOA in an interview March 30.

“A battalion or two can form a spearhead. If they’re all used together, you wouldn’t want to be an infantry solider in a foxhole facing 40 of these tanks if they’re used correctly,” Bury said.

In an interview with the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces need more Western weapons before launching any counteroffensive.

“We are waiting for ammunition to arrive from our partners,” Zelenskyy said. “We can’t start yet. We can’t send our brave soldiers to the front line without tanks, artillery and long-range rockets.”

Coordination

Bury said it’s crucial that the new weapons are deployed in a coordinated way.

“The question is, can Ukraine protect, use and concentrate the Western weapons to such an effect that they can break through better-prepared Russian lines? It’s not just about tanks. It’s about the armored infantry fighting vehicles. They accompany the tanks. It’s also about the artillery pieces — the rounds that they need for their own guns, and the new artillery pieces that are coming in, as well.

“So, it’s how you put the whole package together to achieve the combined arms breakthrough if that’s what you’re going to do,” Bury said.

Spring thaw

Ground conditions are changing rapidly along the front line. The spring thaw will turn frozen fields into quagmires.

“It just makes movements and maneuver more difficult. And therefore, that favors a sort of stagnation or a lack of offensive action in the open— big maneuvers around cities. The urban fights, of course, can go on,” Bury said.

Western nations have pledged dozens more tanks and other heavy weapons in the coming months. The United States is sending 31 Abrams MBTs, though these aren’t expected to arrive in Ukraine until the end of the year.

Slovakia this week sent Ukraine four Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, with nine more to follow. Poland also plans to send several MiG-29s. Ukrainian demands for U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets remain unanswered.

Morale

British intelligence reported Thursday that Moscow is poised to launch another recruitment drive to sign up an additional 400,000 troops.

With both sides preparing for a long war, any breakthroughs on the battlefield will likely be limited, Bury said.

“How prepared are [the Russians] going to be? They’re going to be much more prepared than they were in Kharkiv last year, when the Ukrainians had a massive breakthrough,” he said.

“One thing to look for, though, is morale and cohesion, because you still have to have the will to fight if you’re going to get bombarded in your lines. And that is something where there is a question mark over the Russians. There definitely isn’t that question mark over the Ukrainians. And that could prove decisive,” Bury said.
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The Vatican on Thursday formally repudiated the colonial-era “doctrine of discovery”, used centuries ago to justify European conquests of Africa and the Americas, saying “it is not part of Catholic Church teaching.”

The Vatican acknowledged in a statement from its culture and human development departments that papal documents from the 15th century were used by colonial powers to give legitimacy to their actions, which included slavery.

The departments specifically mentioned the papal bulls Dum Diversas (Until Different) from 1452, Romanus Pontifex (The Roman Pontiff) from 1455, and Inter Caetera (Among Other Things) from 1493.

“Historical research clearly demonstrates that the papal documents in question, written in a specific historical period and linked to political questions, have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith,” the departments said.

They said they “were manipulated for political purposes by competing colonial powers in order to justify immoral acts against indigenous peoples that were carried out, at times, without opposition from ecclesiastical authorities.”

The Vatican departments admitted that the bulls, which gave political cover to Spanish and Portuguese conquests in Africa and the Americas, “did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples.”

“It is only just to recognize these errors, acknowledge the terrible effects of the assimilation policies and the pain experienced by indigenous peoples, and ask for pardon,” they said.

The Roman Catholic Church has long faced accusations of being complicit with colonial abuses committed by Western invaders and their descendants claiming to be spreading the Christian faith.

Argentine-born Pope Francis, the first pontiff from the Americas, has made several outreach gestures towards indigenous people. Last year, he travelled to Canada’s Arctic region to apologize for the oppression of the Inuit people.

In 2007, Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, published a book that condemned rich countries for having mercilessly “plundered and sacked” Africa and other poor regions, and for exporting to them the “cynicism of a world without God.”
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The International Court of Justice is due to rule Thursday in a dispute between Iran and the United States about nearly $2 billion in frozen assets.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the assets seized by U.S. courts should be turned over to victims of a 1983 bombing at a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and other attacks linked to Iran.

Iran has denied any involvement in the attacks and says the United States illegally froze the assets, which include $1.75 billion in bonds belonging to Iran’s central bank.

The 1983 attack killed 241 U.S. service members.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Russia’s FSB security service said on Thursday that a reporter with the U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, had been detained in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage, the Interfax news agency reported.

In a statement quoted by Interfax, the FSB said it had “stopped the illegal activities of U.S. citizen Gershkovich Evan, born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, accredited at the Russian Foreign Ministry, who is suspected of spying in the interests of the American government.”

No comment was immediately available from the newspaper.

The statement said Gershkovich had been tasked “by the American side” with gathering information on “the activities of one of the enterprises of the military-defense complex.” It provided no evidence. 
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Experts on nuclear security policy and weapons proliferation were contacted by suspected North Korean hackers posing as Voice of America journalists, according to a threat intelligence group, which says this is part of a recent pattern of impersonating reporters from major news organizations.

The online spies were attempting to gather intelligence about the stance of international officials toward the Pyongyang government of Kim Jong Un, according to a report issued by Mandiant, an American cybersecurity firm and subsidiary of Google.

It is the latest known attempt in recent months by the cyber-espionage group known as APT43, also referred to as “Kimsuky” or “Thallium,” posing as journalists and targeting government organizations in the United States and South Korea, as well as academics and think tank analysts.

At least seven journalists from five news organizations were impersonated by someone with APT43, Mandiant Senior Analyst Gary Freas told VOA on Wednesday.

“We have seen success in gathering sensitive information related to Korean Peninsula affairs,” such as targeted individuals answering questions about Western sentiment about North Korean activity, including nuclear proliferation and missile launches, Freas said.

In one email from Oct. 14, 2022, obtained by Mandiant, the sender, impersonating a VOA reporter, posed several questions related to North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons testing programs, including: “Would Japan increase the defense budget and a more proactive defense policy?”

The recipient was asked to “send me your answers within 5 days.”

VOA “is aware that malevolent actors have attempted to impersonate our journalists in attempts to obtain information from third parties, including on nuclear proliferation issues,” said Nigel Gibbs, a VOA spokesperson. “It is something we are mindful of, and we take extra care to verify our identity and educate sources about potential impersonators.”

Mandiant said that in recent months it had been in contact with USAGM about the suspected North Korean operation impersonating VOA reporters.

“Trust between our journalists and their sources is imperative,” USAGM Public Affairs Director Laurie Moy said. “USAGM goes to great lengths to protect the security and integrity of our network journalists’ communications tools. We employ a number of reputation management services, including identifying impersonations and fake social media accounts and ensuring that public-facing images are verified and associated with agency resources.”

Moy continued: “We also provide robust IT system security to support safety concerns for our journalists. USAGM provides encrypted equipment, ensures multifactor authentication for systems access, and routinely monitors for vulnerabilities and external threats.”

Fake emails, claiming to be from reporters of VOA’s Korean Service, have been frequently sent to academics, officials and others requesting comment. In some cases, recipients of those emails have contacted VOA’s Seoul bureau and were informed the queries were not authentic.

“Our team has been a target of various aggressive phishing attempts, including impersonation, over the past few years,” said Dong Hyuk Lee, VOA’s Korean Service chief. “A dozen reporters on my team, including me, were targeted. As far as I can remember, we notified the agency’s IT office or (USAGM) security, if needed, about every case.”

Earlier this month, Mandiant also revealed that the same hacking group distributed an attachment to an email that appeared to be from a recruiter for The New York Times.

There has been similar activity linked to Pyongyang in recent years, including a phishing scam targeting journalists in South Korea in which the sender posed as a scriptwriter for the Korean Broadcasting System seeking information about North Korea.

“State-sponsored hackers regularly target or pose as journalists,” Joseph Bodnar, a research analyst for the Alliance for Securing Democracy, told VOA. “Reporters have information and access that most people don’t have. Masquerading as a journalist can be an easy way for hackers to gain and exploit a target’s trust.”

Proofpoint, a cybersecurity firm, issued a report last year detailing efforts by state-sponsored hackers in North Korea, as well as China, Iran and Turkey, to spy on or impersonate mostly U.S.-based journalists.

“These hackers can be sloppy, sending messages with incorrect grammar or misspelled words,” Bodnar said. “Google searches could reveal that the reporter they’re posing as doesn’t exist or uses a different email address. There are basic cybersecurity practices that can help people defend against this threat.”

At the State Department on Wednesday, principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said that while he couldn’t address the specific events involving the impersonation of New York Times and VOA personnel, “of course the DPRK is known for taking a number of destabilizing and malign steps. This is something we are being vigilant about.”

DPRK refers to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

North Korea “often leverages nation-state malicious cyber actors to generate revenue for the regime while evading sanctions,” the U.S. Cyber National Mission Force’s Major Katrina Cheesman told VOA. “The DPRK cyber actors do this through a range of illicit means, such as cryptocurrency theft, money-laundering, ransomware and fraudulent activities of DPRK IT workers abroad.”

The Kimsuky APT group has most likely been operating since 2012, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. It is primarily focused on carrying out financially motivated cybercrime to support the North Korean government, according to intelligence analysts.

During the coronavirus pandemic, attention shifted to pharmaceutical and other health-related companies. Other related activities APT43 is alleged to be involved with include registering web domains meant to look like legitimate websites, including one for Cornell University, an Ivy League school. The group has also used malicious apps to steal usernames and passwords and to generate cryptocurrency.

“APT43 is exceptionally good at convincing its targets,” Freas, the Mandiant analyst, said. “We’ve seen APT43 create email addresses that look similar to news reporters, or analysts at think tanks, and simultaneously spin up fake domains that also look similar to the real news outlet they are spoofing. They’ll add these to their email signatures so even if the victim grows suspicious and visits APT43’s hosted domain, it has the look and feel of a real news site.”
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Wednesday approved the non-prescription use of a drug that rapidly reverses the effects of overdoses of opioids, including fentanyl. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya has our story from Seattle, Washington.
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The scope of blame for Silicon Valley Bank’s failure stretches across bank executives, Federal Reserve supervisors and other regulators, the banking system’s top cop on Wednesday told U.S. lawmakers demanding answers for the lender’s swift collapse. 

“I think that any time you have a bank failure like this, bank management clearly failed, supervisors failed and our regulatory system failed,” Michael Barr, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision, told Congress. “So we’re looking at all of that.” 

The failures of SVB, and days later, Signature Bank, set off a broader loss of investor confidence in the banking sector that pummeled stocks and stoked fears of a full-blown financial crisis.

Depositors tried to pull more than $42 billion in a single day at SVB in early March, surprising regulators and kicking off deposit flight across other regional banks. 

“That’s just an extraordinary scale and speed of a run that I had not ever seen,” Barr said. “I think all of us were caught incredibly off-guard by the massive bank run that occurred when it did.”  

Representatives from both political parties pressed Barr, Martin Gruenberg, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, and Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance Nellie Liang on why regulators did not act more forcefully, given Fed supervisors had been raising issues with the bank for months.  

“There is still much we need to understand of what you knew when and how you responded,” said Republican Patrick McHenry, chair of the committee. “The bottom line for you as the panel, there’s bipartisan frustration with many of your answers. There’s a question of accountability and appearance of lack of accountability.”  

Barr on Tuesday criticized SVB for going months without a chief risk officer and for how it modeled interest rate risk, but lawmakers said the response wasn’t aggressive enough, with Democrat Juan Vargas saying, “it seems like they blew you guys off and you didn’t do anything.”  

Reports due May 1 

Both the Fed and FDIC are expected to produce reports on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank by May 1. The Fed’s report will concentrate on supervision and regulation while the FDIC report will center around deposit insurance.  

Several lawmakers asked Barr to make available the Fed’s confidential communications on supervision.  

Barr told the House Financial Services Committee that he first became aware of stress at Silicon Valley Bank on the afternoon of March 9, but that the bank reported to supervisors that morning that deposits were stable.  

Gruenberg of the FDIC told lawmakers he also became aware of SVB’s stress that Thursday evening.  

All three testifying said that regulators had sufficient tools to deal with the crisis once it happened, but Barr said the Fed could have done better on supervision. 

SVB and Signature became the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history. Investors fled to safe havens like bonds while depositors moved funds to bigger institutions and money market funds. 

Markets have calmed since Swiss regulators engineered the sale of troubled Swiss giant Credit Suisse to rival UBS, and after SVB’s assets were sold to First Citizens BancShares FCNCA.O. However, investors remain wary of more troubles lurking in the financial system. 

Some Democrats have also argued a 2018 bank deregulation law is to blame. That law, mostly backed by Republicans but also some moderate Democrats, relaxed the strictest oversight for firms holding between $100 billion and $250 billion in assets, which included SVB and Signature. 

The White House is readying plans for legislation that would reinstate those regulations on midsize banks, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.  
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved selling the leading version of naloxone without a prescription, setting the overdose-reversing drug on course to become the first opioid treatment drug to be sold over the counter.

It’s a move that some advocates have long sought as a way to improve access to a life-saving drug, though the exact impact will not be clear immediately.

Here’s a look at the issues involved.

What is Narcan?

The approved nasal spray from Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Emergent BioSolutions is the best-known form of naloxone.

It can reverse overdoses of opioids, including street drugs such as heroin and fentanyl and prescription versions including oxycodone.

Making naloxone available more widely is seen as a key strategy to control the nationwide overdose crisis, which has been linked to more than 100,000 U.S. deaths a year. The majority of those deaths are tied to opioids, primarily potent synthetic versions such as fentanyl, which can take multiple doses of naloxone to reverse.

The drug has been distributed to police and other first responders nationwide.

Advocates believe it’s important to get naloxone to the people most likely to be around overdoses, including drug users and their relatives.

The decision “represents a decisive, practical and humane approach to help people and flatten the curve of overdose deaths,” said Chuck Ingoglia of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing in a statement.

What does the FDA approval mean?

Narcan will become available over the counter by late summer, the company said.

Other brands of naloxone and injectable forms will not yet be available over the counter, but they could be soon.

Several manufacturers of generic naloxone, which is made similarly to Narcan, will now be required to file applications to switch their drugs to over the counter as part of an FDA requirement.

The nonprofit Harm Reduction Therapeutics Inc., which has funding from OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, already has an application before the FDA to distribute its version of spray naloxone without a prescription.

How is naloxone distributed now?

Even before the FDA’s action, pharmacies could sell naloxone without a prescription because officials in every state have allowed it.

But not every pharmacy carries it. And buyers have to pay for the medication — either with an insurance co-pay or for the full retail price. The cost varies, but two doses of Narcan often go for around $50.

The drug is also distributed by community organizations that serve people who use drugs, though it’s not easily accessible to everyone who needs it.

Emergent has not announced its price, and it’s not clear yet whether insurers will continue to cover it as a prescription drug if it’s available over the counter.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf in a statement encouraged Emergent to make the drug available “at an affordable price.”

Does making naloxone over the counter improve access?

It clears the way for Narcan to be made available in places without pharmacies — convenience stores, supermarkets and online retailers, for instance.

Jose Benitez, the lead executive officer at Prevention Point Philadelphia, an organization that tries to reduce risk for drug users through services including handing out free naloxone, said it could greatly help people who don’t seek services — or who live in places where they are not available.

Now, he said, some people are concerned about getting naloxone at pharmacies because their insurers will know they are getting it.

“Putting it out on the shelves is going to allow people just to pick it up, not have stigma attached to it,” he said.

But it remains to be seen how many stores will carry it and what the prices will be. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, which now covers prescription naloxone for people on the government insurance programs, says that coverage of over-the-counter naloxone would depend on the insurance program. CMS has not given any official guidance.

Maya Doe-Simkins, a co-director of Remedy Alliance/For The People, which launched last year to provide low-cost — and sometimes free — naloxone to community organizations, said her group will continue to distribute injectable naloxone.

How will people learn to use Narcan?

Emergent had to conduct a study examining whether untrained people could follow directions for using Narcan.

Last month, an FDA expert panel voted to make the drug available over the counter, despite the numerous errors in using the device reported in the company study. The FDA suggested Emergent make several changes to how the directions will be displayed on the packaging and said the device could be safely used “without the supervision” of a health care worker.

Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University addiction expert, said one benefit of currently having pharmacists involved in dispensing the drug is that they can show buyers how to use it. One key thing people need to remember: Always call an ambulance for the person who has received the naloxone.

He also said there are fears that if the drug isn’t profitable as an over-the-counter option, the drugmaker could stop producing it. 
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The U.N. General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution Wednesday that will ask the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on the obligations of states under international law to protect the rights of present and future generations from the impact of climate change.

“This resolution and the advisory opinion it seeks will have a powerful and positive impact on how we address climate change and ultimately protect the present and future generations,” said Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, whose government spearheaded the drafting and negotiations of the resolution, with a core group of 18 countries representing most corners of the world. 

“Together we will send a loud and clear message, not only around the world but far into the future: On this very day, the peoples of the United Nations, acting through their governments, decided to leave aside differences and work together to tackle the defining challenge of our times: climate change,” Kalsakau said.

More than 130 countries joined in co-sponsoring the resolution, which was adopted by consensus. While most of the world’s top emitters of greenhouse gases, including China and the United States, were noticeably absent from the co-sponsors, they did not prevent the adoption by consensus. 

The United States, which noted the Biden administration’s ambitious climate action to meet commitments consistent with keeping global warming to within the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal, said it has “serious concerns” that an ICJ opinion could hurt rather than help collective efforts to reach climate targets.

“We believe that launching a judicial process, especially given the broad scope of the questions, will likely accentuate disagreements and not be conducive to advancing our ongoing diplomatic and other processes,” U.S. delegate Nicholas Hill told the assembly. “In light of this, the United States disagrees that this initiative is the best approach for achieving our shared goals and takes this opportunity to reaffirm our view that diplomatic efforts are the best means by which to address the climate crisis.”

Japan and Germany are among the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, and they joined as co-sponsors. Germany was also among the 18 countries that shepherded the initiative.

“Germany hopes that this initiative will contribute to further strengthen international cooperation, which is key for achieving the Paris Agreement’s objectives,” Ambassador Antje Leendertse said of the 2015 climate accord. 

The Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu’s very existence is threatened by rising sea levels. It is currently recovering from the devastation earlier this month of two Category 4 tropical cyclones in less than five days.

Kalsakau was clear that the effort is not intended to be a contentious one, nor is it a lawsuit. The authors also do not expect the Hague-based court to create new obligations on states, only to uphold existing ones. While the ICJ is the United Nation’s principal judicial organ, its decisions are not binding but carry considerable weight and can become part of what’s known as customary law.

“We believe the clarity it will bring can greatly benefit our efforts to address the climate crisis and could further bolster global and multilateral cooperation and state conduct in addressing climate change,” the prime minister said. 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the action, warning time is running out for nations to act boldly to fight global warming.

“This is the critical decade for climate action,” he told the assembly. “It must happen on our watch.”

The resolution began in 2019 as the brainchild of students from Vanuatu, which is among several small island states that are suffering the effects of the climate crisis but has contributed little to causing it.

“I don’t want to show a picture to my child one day of my island. I want my child to be able to experience the same environment, the same culture I grew up in,” Cynthia Houniuhi, president of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, told reporters in a briefing ahead of the vote.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the resolution, saying it is a powerful demonstration of effective multilateral diplomacy led by a state from the Global South on behalf of people at risk.

“The overwhelming support for Vanuatu’s resolution is a major step toward gaining clarity on the legal obligations of states most responsible for climate change,” said HRW’s Environment and Human Rights director Richard Pearshouse. “It’s also important to focus — through the lens of human rights — on the obligations to protect those communities suffering most acutely.” 
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The New York grand jury probing former President Donald Trump’s alleged role in a hush-money payment to a porn star will not reconvene on the matter until after the April Easter holiday, a law enforcement source said.

Christians mark Easter on April 9.
…

Vadym Horodnyi comes from a family of Ukrainian soldiers. His father died defending their hometown, Chernihiv, but Vadym remained determined to join the military. The 14-year-old ultimately got a chance to study in the United States and is now a cadet at the Marine Military Academy in Texas. Nina Vishneva has his story in this report narrated by Anna Rice.
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to announce Wednesday $1 billion in public and private financing for programs focused on economic empowerment of women as she wraps up a visit to Ghana. 

The funding will support expanding access to digital services, job training and support for entrepreneurs, her office said. 

Harris is holding a roundtable of women entrepreneurs Wednesday in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, before departing for Tanzania, the next leg of her weeklong Africa tour. 

Tuesday, Harris pledged a new era of partnership between the U.S. and Africa, emphasizing women’s empowerment, developing the digital economy and supporting democracy to 8,000 young Ghanaians who gathered under the punishing midday sun to hear her speak in Accra.    

Harris, the first Black female U.S. vice president, took the stage under the arch of Black Star gate, a sweeping seaside monument to Ghana’s 1957 independence from British colonial rule.    

“We are all in because there are longstanding ties between our people,” Harris said. “We have an intertwined history, some of which is painful and some of which is prideful and all of which we must acknowledge, teach and never forget.” 

After visiting Tanzania, Harris closes her trip with a stop in Zambia. 
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The U.S. Justice Department is going on a hiring spree for immigration judges in hopes of easing an intractable case backlog. 

In its budget proposal for the fiscal year 2024 that starts October 1, the department is seeking $1.46 billion for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a subagency within the department tasked with adjudicating immigration claims.  

The request represents an increase of nearly 70% in funding and will enable the agency to hire 965 new judicial staff, including 150 new immigration judges, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in written testimony before a Senate appropriations subcommittee. 

“Then we’d be placing them in areas of the highest number of cases,” Garland said. 

In recent years, the agency has deployed newly hired immigration judges to Southwestern states to deal with an influx of migrants. 

In fiscal year 2023, Florida, Texas, California and New York had the largest number of pending immigration cases.  

There are currently about 600 immigration judges in the country, more than double from just a few years ago, handling more than 2 million cases.   

In addition to hiring more judges for immigration courts, Garland said, the Justice Department plans to expand virtual hearings at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a backlog reduction initiative. 

The attorney general made the comments during testimony on the Justice Department’s budget request of nearly $40 billion for the next fiscal year. 

The department’s proposal for additional judges and judicial staff comes as the number of pending claims in immigration courts continues to grow. 

Last year, the number of immigration cases topped more than 2 million, up from about 344,000 a decade ago, according to data compiled by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.  

The backlog has expanded even as immigration judges are adjudicating cases at a record pace, according to TRAC. 

“It suggests that may not be the answer that we were hoping for,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, chairwoman of the appropriations subcommittee, said.  

The “ultimate way” to ease the backlog, Shaheen said, is through comprehensive immigration reform, a goal that has long eluded lawmakers.  
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised women in Afghanistan and Iran for standing up for freedoms as he spoke Tuesday at an event highlighting the role of women in democracy. 

Blinken praised women who have protested in Iran in response to the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini last year, saying they have courageously demonstrated “under great threat to themselves, to call for ‘woman, life, and freedom.’” 

And in Afghanistan, Blinken said women are fighting for a better future in their country despite efforts by the Taliban “to erase them from daily life.” 

“The United States stands in solidarity with these women and all who are working for women’s full, free, and equal participation around the world. Through our diplomacy, we’re committed to supporting them and advancing gender equality worldwide,” Blinken said. 

The top U.S. diplomat said women face these challenges not only in autocracies, but also in far too many places where they lack equal opportunities to study and work. 

“Women journalists, advocates, politicians, and others are subject to persistent online harassment and abuse. Women who are victims of violence often do not have equal access to justice. Women are subject to discrimination that often puts them at a disadvantage – whether through double standards they face in the workplace, in access to reproductive rights, or in nationality laws, which can result in barriers to accessing education, health care, and property for themselves and for their families,” Blinken said. 
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The top U.S. military officer is warning of a growing arms race in the western Pacific, as nations become increasingly concerned about China’s military buildup in the region following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“There’s a really an underreported arms race going on in the western Pacific right now. These countries are arming themselves up, and they very much, with very few exceptions, want the United States there,” Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. 

Australia this month unveiled a $200 billion plan for nuclear-powered submarines. Japan has also increased its offensive capabilities and doubled its defense investments, all while announcing new deployments of U.S. troops on Japan’s southern islands that will bring with them mobile anti-ship missiles meant to counter any first strike from Beijing.   

Meanwhile, Beijing has asserted its desire to control access to the South China Sea and bring Taiwan under its control, by force if necessary. Milley said China was “trying to become the regional hegemon,” disadvantaging other countries like the Philippines as part of that effort. 

“That’s why the secretary traveled to the Philippines. That’s why we’re looking at access basing and oversight. That’s why we’re looking at a re-posturing in the western Pacific. It is a design there to be forward deployed in order to deter armed conflict with a great power, great power being China in this case,” Milley said. 

In February, the Philippines designated four additional bases for U.S. forces to operate in. The announcement marked a sharp turn back toward the United States, after former Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte had distanced himself from Washington. 

“Two years ago, we were about to get kicked out of the Philippines,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. 

The U.S. has continued to expand its military partnerships with South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia and others in hopes of keeping international waterways open and building what officials, including Milley, have called a “strategic advantage over China.” 

But Republican lawmakers Tuesday sharply criticized the Pentagon’s proposed budget as inadequate, especially in the Pacific region. 

“For the third year in a row, President [Joe] Biden has sent to Congress a budget request that cuts military spending amid a more dangerous and complex threat environment,” said the committee’s ranking member, Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi. 

“This year’s budget is the last one that funds capabilities that are likely to be fielded before 2027. That’s the year by which [Chinese President] Xi Jinping says he wants the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take Taiwan. That makes our work here very urgent,” he warned. 

Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska questioned the budget cuts at a time that Milley and Austin agreed was the most dangerous since World War II.  

“This current budget shrinks the Army, shrinks the Navy, shrinks the Marine Corps. Doesn’t that embolden … Xi Jinping and Putin, not deter them?” asked Sullivan. 

Milley said the budget represents “essentially a one-war strategy” that focuses resources on the Navy and the Air Force, the two military branches the Pentagon says are most needed in a potential fight with China.  

He said the Navy would indeed decrease its hull numbers in the short term in order to shed some ships that are “costing way more money just to repair than worthwhile,” but would submit a shipbuilding plan with the number of ships increasing “in the not too distant future.” 

Iran 

Following the deadly attack at a coalition base in Syria by Iranian-backed forces last week, Austin told senators that Iran or its proxies have carried out 83 attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East since President Biden took office in 2021. 

The United States has retaliated by launching four major strikes against the attackers.  

The Iranian attack on Thursday killed a U.S. military contractor and wounded five soldiers and another contractor. The U.S. fired back with “precision” strikes against facilities of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the area, which the secretary confirmed had “people,” presumably militants, inside during the attack. 

But Iranian proxies were not deterred, launching another attack on U.S. forces hours later that injured a U.S. citizen. The U.S. has “not yet” responded to that attack, according to Austin. 

“What kind of signal do we think this sends to Iran when they can attack us 83 times since Joe Biden has become president, and we only respond to four? Maybe it’s because they know that until, that we will not retaliate until they kill an American, which emboldened them to keep launching these attacks which kill Americans,” Senator Tom Cotton said during the hearing. 

The United States has about 900 troops in eastern Syria to help Syrian Kurdish forces prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State terror group. 

Ukraine 

Austin repeated the U.S. vow to “support Ukraine’s defense for as long as it takes,” praising Ukraine’s fighters for having the upper hand against the Russians and “depleting their inventory of armored vehicles in a way that no one would have ever imagined.” 

But the top Pentagon leaders were blunt in their pushback against calls to provide F-16 fighter jets and MQ-9 drones to Ukrainian forces. 

Austin said F-16s are a capability that would take about 18 months to provide.

“That won’t help them in this current fight,” he said. 

Chairman Milley, when asked about whether Ukraine should receive MQ-9 drones, responded, “It’s not survivable. It’s big and slow. It’s going to get nailed by the Russian air defense systems.” 
…

The U.N. secretary-general urged the international community on Tuesday to create an international body that would assist families of the estimated 100,000 missing persons in Syria to find out the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.

“The Syrian people deserve a measure of hope for the future,” Antonio Guterres told the General Assembly. “They deserve peace and security, and they deserve to know the truth about the fate of their loved ones.”

He said the international community has a moral obligation to help ease the plight of Syrians, who have suffered through 12 years of civil war and now the added devastation of the recent earthquake.

“People in every part of the country and across all divides have loved ones who are missing, including family members who were forcibly disappeared, abducted, tortured and arbitrarily detained,” he said, noting the majority are men.

The term “missing persons” includes Syrians and foreigners; those who have disappeared on their journeys as refugees; and people detained, abducted or kidnapped by all parties to the conflict, including pro-government forces, opposition armed groups and terrorists.

Hope, dignity, justice

The secretary-general said the new entity must be independent, impartial and transparent, and focus on the needs and rights of victims, survivors and their families. He called for cooperation from the Syrian government and all parties to the conflict.

“Let us heed their demands for truth,” Guterres said of the victims and their families. “Let us restore a measure of hope, dignity and justice to the Syrian people.”

Searching for missing relatives is very difficult. The U.N. said in a report that Syrian families do not have meaningful access to official facilities where people are detained or to intelligence and unofficial or secret detention sites, where most detention-related disappearances occur, especially enforced disappearances, as documented by the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria. They may be asked to pay bribes or are extorted.

Women are especially at risk. Often left as sole breadwinners, they are also often the ones doing the searching for male relatives, exposing them to danger and exploitation.

In December 2021, the General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on Guterres to conduct a study in conjunction with the U.N. Human Rights Office on how to improve efforts, including through existing ones, to clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing people in Syria, identify human remains and provide support to their families.

“The continuing absence of many tens of thousands of people, from small children to elderly men and women, cries out for strong action,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk told the meeting.

He said the new institution should not replicate services provided by existing organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Commission on Missing Persons, or several Syrian associations, and must work cooperatively with them. The new body should also be guided by the presumption that the missing person is alive and in urgent need of help.

Türk said funding and a timeline for creation of the international body would be determined in consultation with member states.

“In terms of structure, I suggest two main sections: one focused on search, and the second focused on victim support and participation,” he said. “Search work would include prioritizing cases and consolidating existing claims and data into a searchable database.”

The human rights chief said it is impossible to know with certainty how many people have been disappeared in Syria, underscoring that it could be “far more” than the 100,000 estimate.

Families ‘devastated’

“What is certain is that families on every side of this conflict have been devastated,” Türk said. “Families on every side of this conflict want to know what has happened to their loved ones. I stand here before you to amplify their voices.”

He stressed that a new body would not be an accountability mechanism but strictly humanitarian in nature.

More than 90 missing-persons groups from around the world have expressed support for a new international body to assist families of missing Syrians.

The reaction in the General Assembly was mixed. The European Union and several Western countries, including the United States and Canada, expressed strong support. Some countries with poor human rights records questioned the need for, as Russia’s delegate put it, “another pointless mechanism of a political nature.”

Syria’s envoy did not address the meeting. But in the Security Council last week, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh said Damascus has worked for the past decade to locate those who have gone missing at the hands of terrorists or were killed in airstrikes by international forces. But he mentioned nothing of the tens of thousands of Syrians whom activists say the regime has forcibly disappeared.

A General Assembly vote on creating the institution is expected in the coming weeks.
…

The United States on Tuesday imposed new sanctions against six people, including two cousins of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, for their role in the production or export of captagon, a dangerous amphetamine, a Treasury Department statement said. 

It said the trade in captagon was estimated to be a billion-dollar enterprise and that the sanctions highlighted the role of Lebanese drug traffickers and the Assad family dominance of captagon trafficking, which helped fund the Syrian government. 

“Syria has become a global leader in the production of highly addictive captagon, much of which is trafficked through Lebanon,” said Andrea Gacki, director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. 

“With our allies, we will hold accountable those who support Bashar al-Assad’s regime with illicit drug revenue and other financial means that enable the regime’s continued repression of the Syrian people,” she said.  

Assad’s government denies involvement in drugmaking and smuggling and says it is stepping up its campaign to curb the lucrative trade. 

Among those hit with sanctions were Samer Kamal al-Assad, a cousin of the Syrian president who the Treasury said oversees key captagon production facilities in Latakia, Syria; and Wassim Badi al-Assad, another cousin whom the Treasury accused of supporting the Syrian military and of having been a key figure in the regional drug trafficking network. 

Also sanctioned were Khalid Qaddour, who the Treasury said was a Syrian businessman and close associate of Bashar al-Assad’s brother, the head of the army’s Fourth Division. A former commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army was also sanctioned. 

The Treasury further targeted Lebanese affiliates, some with ties to Lebanon’s heavily armed Hezbollah group, a close ally of Assad in his more than decade-old conflict with opposition and rebel forces. 

Among them were Noah Zaitar and Hassan Daqqou. Zaitar faces dozens of arrest warrants in Lebanon but remains on the loose, according to a security source.  

Zaitar put out a written statement saying he was “not surprised” by the sanctions and that he considered them a “badge of honor.” He criticized U.S. authorities for their “lies and defamation” but did not directly deny the allegations.  

Hassan Daqqou was sentenced in 2021 to seven years in prison in Lebanon on charges of captagon trafficking, according to the same security source.  

Tuesday’s action froze any U.S. assets of those targeted and generally barred Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions. 

Regional officials say the Iranian-backed Hezbollah as well as Syrian armed groups linked to the Damascus government are behind the surging trade of captagon, smuggled either through Jordan to the south or Lebanon to the west.  

Hezbollah denies the accusations.  

There is a thriving market for captagon in the Persian Gulf, and U.N. and Western anti-narcotics officials say Syria, shattered by a decade of civil war, has become the region’s main production site for a multibillion-dollar drug trade that also exports to Europe. 
…

A federal judge has ruled that former Vice President Mike Pence will have to testify before a grand jury in the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Two people familiar with the ruling spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because it remains under seal.

The two sources said, however, that Pence would not have to answer questions about his actions on January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump’s supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress to certify the vote.

Pence and his attorneys had cited constitutional grounds in challenging the subpoena. They argued that, because he was serving in his capacity as president of the Senate that day, he was protected from being forced to testify under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from questioning about official legislative acts.

Pence’s team is evaluating whether it will appeal.

The sealed ruling from U.S. District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg sets up the unprecedented scenario of a former vice president being compelled to give potentially damaging testimony against the president he once served. And it comes as Pence has been inching closer to announcing a run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, which would put him in direct competition with his former boss.

Pence was subpoenaed earlier this year to appear before the grand jury in Washington investigating election interference.

A Justice Department special counsel, Jack Smith, is investigating attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election to keep Trump in power. Multiple Trump aides have already appeared before the grand jury, as well as another panel examining Trump’s potential mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.

Pence has spoken extensively about Trump’s pressure campaign urging him to reject President Joe Biden’s victory in the days leading up to January 6, including in his book, “So Help Me God.” Pence, as vice president, had a ceremonial role overseeing the counting of the Electoral College vote, but did not have the power to impact the results.

Pence has said that Trump endangered his family and everyone else who was at the Capitol that day and said history will hold him accountable.
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Electricity generated from renewables surpassed coal in the United States for the first time in 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Monday.

Renewables also surpassed nuclear generation in 2022, after first doing so last year.

Growth in wind and solar significantly drove the increase in renewable energy and contributed 14% of the electricity produced domestically in 2022. Hydropower contributed 6%, and biomass and geothermal sources generated less than 1%.

“I’m happy to see we’ve crossed that threshold, but that is only a step in what has to be a very rapid and much cheaper journey,” said Stephen Porder, a professor of ecology and assistant provost for sustainability at Brown University.

California produced 26% of the national utility-scale solar electricity followed by Texas with 16% and North Carolina with 8%.

The most wind generation occurred in Texas, which accounted for 26% of the U.S. total followed by Iowa (10%) and Oklahoma (9%).

“This booming growth is driven largely by economics,” said Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy. “Over the past decade, the levelized cost of wind energy declined by 70%, while the levelized cost of solar power has declined by an even more impressive 90%.

“Renewable energy is now the most affordable source of new electricity in much of the country,” he added.

The Energy Information Administration projected that the wind share of the U.S. electricity generation mix will increase from 11% to 12% from 2022 to 2023 and that solar will grow from 4% to 5% during the period. The natural gas share is expected to remain at 39% from 2022 to 2023, and coal is projected to decline from 20% last year to 17% this year.

“Wind and solar are going to be the backbone of the growth in renewables, but whether or not they can provide 100% of the U.S. electricity without backup is something that engineers are debating,” said Porder, of Brown University.

Many decisions lie ahead, he said, as the proportion of renewables that supply the energy grid increases.

This presents challenges for engineers and policymakers, Porder said, because existing energy grids were built to deliver power from a consistent source. Renewables such as solar and wind generate power intermittently. So battery storage, long-distance transmission and other steps will be needed to help address these challenges, he said.

The EIA report found the country remains heavily reliant on the burning of climate-changing fossil fuels. Coal-fired generation was 20% of the electric sector in 2022, a decline from 23% in 2021. Natural gas was the largest source of electricity in the U.S. in 2022, generating 39% last year compared to 37% in 2021.

“When you look at the data, natural gas has been a major driver for lowering greenhouse gas emissions from electricity because it’s been largely replacing coal-fired power plants,” said Melissa Lott, director of research for the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

“Moving forward, you can’t have emissions continuing to go up, you need to bring them down quickly,” she added.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) influenced the amount of renewable energy projects that went online in 2022, Lott said, and it’s expected to have a “tremendous” impact on accelerating clean energy projects.
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris pledged a new era of partnership between the U.S. and Africa, touting women’s empowerment, developing the digital economy and supporting democracy to 8,000 young Ghanaians who gathered under the punishing midday sun to hear her speak in Accra.

Harris, the first Black female U.S. vice president, took the stage under the arch of Black Star gate, a sweeping seaside monument to Ghana’s 1957 independence from British colonial rule.

“We are all in because there are longstanding ties between our people,” Harris said. “We have an intertwined history, some of which is painful and some of which is prideful and all of which we must acknowledge, teach and never forget.”

Her schedule Tuesday includes a visit to Cape Coast Castle, a place where enslaved Africans were once crowded onto overloaded, unsanitary ships headed on the long, dangerous ocean journey to the Americas.

But Harris stressed that her three-nation visit is forward-looking, and on Monday pledged $139 million in U.S. assistance to West Africa, most of which will support conflict prevention in the Sahel region, where Islamist extremists have expanded their footprint.

“I am more optimistic than I have ever been about the future and the future of the continent of Africa and, by extension, the world, not only because of the work we undertake in government, not only because of the investments in the private sector,” Harris said. “I am optimistic about the future of the world because of you, the woman who will shatter every glass ceiling.”

A young woman who identified herself as a student told VOA after the speech, “I thought she was great.” But, she added: “I hoped she would talk about LGBTQ” issues.

On Monday, Harris said she had raised human rights issues in her bilateral discussions with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo. All three nations on her tour—which includes Tanzania and Zambia—have laws that criminalize homosexuality to some degree.

“Let me be clear about where we stand,” Harris said. ”First of all, for the American press who are here, you know that a great deal of work in my career has been to address human rights issues, equality issues across the board, including as it relates to the LGBT community.

“And I feel very strongly about the importance of supporting the freedom and supporting and fighting for equality among all people, and that all people should be treated equally,” she added. “I would also say that this is an issue that we consider and I consider to be a human rights issue, and that will not change.”

Beyond China competition

Speaking alongside Akufo-Addo on Monday at Jubilee House, the seat of Ghana’s presidency, Harris stressed that U.S. interests in African nations extend beyond competing with China.

“To help address the threats of violent extremism and instability, today I am pleased to announce $100 million in support of Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and Togo,” she said. “Last week, President Joe Biden announced a strategic plan for coastal West Africa as part of the United States Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability. Today, funding and the announcement that I’ve just made will help implement that plan and will address security, governance and development issues in the region.”

Harris is the fifth top U.S. official to visit the continent this year, and she deflected criticism that the U.S. sees African nations through the lens of its own competition with China, which has built massive infrastructure projects and loaned billions of dollars to African nations in what many see as a fight for influence and access.

“The president and I had a conversation on this very topic, but the conversation was not about China as much as it is about the enduring and important direct relationship that the United States has with Ghana and with African nations,” she said. “I will tell you that we are very clear—and I will speak for myself and on behalf of the Biden-Harris administration—that the relationship between the United States and this continent and African leaders is an important one. There’s a historical basis for the relationship, not to mention as we look forward, as all governments should, and recognize the unachieved—as of yet—opportunities that exist going forward.”

Akufo-Addo agreed.

“There may be an obsession in America about the Chinese activities on the continent, but there’s no such obsession here,” he said. “China is one of the many countries with whom Ghana is engaged in the world. Your country is one of them. Virtually all the countries of the world are friends of Ghana, and we have relations in varying degrees of intensity with all of them. Our relationship with America is a relationship that has been forged over several decades, right from the time of independence up till now.”

Harris travels on from Ghana to Tanzania, and then to Zambia.
…