North Korea said it fired four strategic cruise missiles Thursday, continuing its rapid pace of launches, as it blasted the United States and its allies for escalating military tensions.

The four Hwasal-2 cruise missiles flew 2,000 kilometers in about two hours and 50 minutes before hitting a “preset target” in the sea off North Korea’s east coast, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

“The drill clearly demonstrated once again the war posture of the DPRK nuclear combat force bolstering up in every way its deadly nuclear counterattack capability against the hostile forces,” KCNA added, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Although South Korea and Japan typically issue alerts when North Korea launches missiles, they did not do so Thursday, raising the question of whether they detected the cruise missile exercise.

Later Friday, South Korea’s military disputed North Korea’s claim about the cruise missiles, without specifying what portion it believed was inaccurate.

“There is a difference between what South Korea-U.S. reconnaissance surveillance assets identified and what North Korea announced,” read a statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“We are closely analyzing related matters in cooperation with the United States,” the statement added.

Cruise missiles typically fly at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles and are therefore harder for other countries to track and potentially intercept.

North Korea claims its cruise missiles are nuclear-capable. However, it is not clear whether it has built warheads small enough to be carried on such missiles.

Thursday’s cruise missile launch comes days after North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile — its ninth ICBM launch since the beginning of last year.

Even as it bolsters its defenses, North Korea has expressed outrage at the United States and its regional allies for expanding their own military activity.

In a statement Friday in KCNA, a North Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry official said the only way to prevent a “vicious cycle of escalating military tension” is for the United States to halt its military drills and deployment of advanced weaponry to the peninsula.

“The U.S. should bear in mind that if it persists in its hostile and provocative practices against the DPRK despite the latter’s repeated protest and warning, it can be regarded as a declaration of war against the DPRK,” said Kwon Jong Gun, the director general of the ministry’s U.S. Affairs Department.

On Thursday, the United States and South Korea announced they held a tabletop exercise at the Pentagon that focused on the possibility of North Korea using a nuclear weapon.

The drill was followed by a visit to a U.S. Navy base in the southeastern U.S. state of Georgia where key U.S. nuclear submarines are based, according to a joint statement.

The discussion-based exercise, known as a TTX, was meant to assure South Korean leaders of the U.S. defense commitment amid North Korea’s rapid nuclear weapons buildup.

“Given the DPRK’s recent aggressive nuclear policy and advancements in nuclear capabilities, the TTX scenario focused on the possibility of the DPRK’s use of nuclear weapons,” the joint statement said.

The U.S. side reaffirmed that “any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its Allies and partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of that regime.”

Washington also vowed to “continue to field flexible nuclear forces suited to deterring regional nuclear conflict, including the capability to forward deploy strategic bombers, dual-capable fighter aircraft and nuclear weapons to the region.”

The United States and South Korea are discussing the possible deployment of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to South Korea next month, the Yonhap news agency reported Friday.

If agreed, the carrier would make a port call in South Korea and participate in the allies’ upcoming Freedom Shield joint military drill, Yonhap reported.

On Wednesday, U.S., South Korean, and Japanese warships participated in a ballistic missile defense drill, a relatively rare display of trilateral defense cooperation that has become more frequent as North Korea becomes more aggressive.

In a statement last week, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, vowed that her country will use the Pacific Ocean as a “firing range” if the U.S. and its allies continue their hostile actions.
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There are fears of a new global nuclear arms race after Russia’s president announced this week that he would suspend the country’s participation in the New START treaty, which limits the number of warheads deployed by Russia and the United States. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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Not all branches of the U.S. military are equally worried about keeping pace with China’s military expansion.

While U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro warned earlier this week that he needed more ships to meet the threat posed by China’s rapidly expanding naval forces, top Army officials believe U.S. ground forces still hold a critical edge over their Chinese counterparts.

“The human dimension of the United States Army, I think, is a comparative advantage,” U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth cautioned during a breakfast in Washington on Thursday with the Defense Writers Group. “The quality of how our soldiers are trained, the kind of leaders that they have, the kind of combat experience that the force has.”

Army Chief of Staff General James McConville added that the quality of leadership, especially that rising from the ranks of the Army’s enlisted soldiers, cannot be understated.

“One of the biggest lessons from Ukraine and Russia is the value of these non-commissioned officers that we have in our organization,” McConville said. “Everyone would like to have the folks we have.”

Despite that confidence, both McConville and Wormuth acknowledged the threat posed by China’s military modernization and expansion is not being taken lightly.

“One should never underestimate the PLA [People’s Liberation Army],” Wormuth said. “We’re just as focused as the Navy and the Air Force and the other services on China as the pacing challenge … how that expresses itself for the Army, I think, is a little bit different.”

Wormuth said the Army’s investments in long-range weapons systems, integrated air and missile defense systems, and even helicopters are all “very much geared towards looking at China as the pacing challenge.”

Still, the sheer size of China’s military cannot be dismissed.

The Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military, issued late last year, notes PLA ground forces boast about 975,000 active-duty personnel who have been put through increasingly “realistic training scenarios,” both with the Chinese Navy, and in 2021, with Russian forces on Chinese soil.

“The PLA is aggressively developing capabilities to provide options for the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to dissuade, deter, or, if ordered, defeat third-party intervention in the Indo-Pacific region,” the report said.

In contrast, the U.S Army has about 485,000 soldiers and missed last year’s recruiting goal by about 15,000 people.

“That is a major priority for us this year,” Wormuth said of growing the number of recruits, saying she and her team “are pulling out all of the stops” to increase recruiting numbers.

But the Pentagon’s China report warns that China is also growing key capabilities, even doubling its nuclear arsenal, to about 400 warheads, over the past two years.

And the report echoed concerns that Beijing wants to at least have the ability to take Taiwan by force by 2027.

Unlike their Army counterparts, U.S. naval officials have expressed concern about losing the numbers game to China.

“Capacity does matter,” Del Toro warned Tuesday, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington.

The Chinese navy “have approximately 340 ships and are moving towards a fleet of 440 ships by 2030,” he said. “We do need more ships in the future, more modern ships in the future, in particular, that can meet that threat.”

Still, like his Army counterparts, Del Toro said China is still not ready to compete when it comes to the quality of equipment and personnel.

“Our shipbuilders are better shipbuilders. That’s why we have a more modern, more capable, more lethal navy than they do,” he said.

“They script their people to fight. We actually train our people to think,” Del Toro added. “That gives us an inherent advantage.”
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There are fears of a new global nuclear arms race after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this week he will suspend the country’s participation in the New START treaty, which limits the number of warheads deployed by Russia and the United States.

The deal, officially known as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, was signed in Prague in 2010 by then U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. It is the last remaining nuclear agreement between the U.S. and Russia.

Putin announced Tuesday that he was suspending Russia’s participation, saying the treaty was “absurd” at a time when NATO was helping Ukraine fight Russian forces. He said he had ordered Russia’s ground-based nuclear weapons to combat readiness.

In a televised speech Thursday, on the eve of the anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine, Putin pledged further investment in Russia’s nuclear forces.

“We will pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad [on land, sea and air],” Putin said. “We will continue mass production of air-based hypersonic Kinzhal systems and will start mass supplies of sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles.”

Immediate impact unlikely, says scholar

Moscow’s suspension of the nuclear treaty, however, is unlikely to have an immediate impact, said political scientist Ian Hurd of Northwestern University.

“The New START Treaty is designed to put a limit on the number of nuclear warheads that each side can have. It was going to expire anyway, so having the end of the treaty come is not going to change very much in the substance of military relations between the two,” Hurd told The Associated Press. “But it might be symbolic that the Russian side is going to use nuclear weapons to escalate the political disagreements that it’s got in the world today.”

Russia and the U.S. together hold more than 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons. The New START treaty limits the two countries to 1,550 warheads apiece and allows each to inspect the other’s nuclear sites up to 18 times a year.

The inspections were put on hold three years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic and have not resumed, which Washington blames on Moscow.

“The only glimmer of hope here is that Russia has not withdrawn from the treaty, it has suspended its participation,” said Jane Kinninmont, Policy & Impact director at the European Leadership Network.

“And actually, when this treaty was extended when Joe Biden came into office, it was Russia that had been trying to push the U.S. to continue the treaty,” she said. “It is in both countries’ interests because it put limits on the nuclear arms race. And ultimately, the U.S. can outspend Russia if it wants to; it’s a much bigger economy. More likely, Russia wants to use this as a bargaining chip to say to the Biden administration, ‘Your support for Ukraine has costs.'”

A ‘grave error,’ says Biden

President Joe Biden called Russia’s suspension of New START a “grave error.” A spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general called for Moscow to return to the deal.

Despite warming ties between Beijing and Moscow, China also called for Russia and the U.S. to abide by the nuclear agreement.

“The treaty is important for maintaining global strategic stability, enhancing international and regional peace and achieving the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons,” Wang Wenbin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters Wednesday. “We hope the two sides will properly resolve their differences through constructive dialogue and consultation to ensure the smooth implementation of the treaty.”

There are fears not only of an arms race between Russia and the United States, but also among other nuclear powers, including China.

“I think quite possibly China’s leaders see Putin suspending the new START agreement as … a window of opportunity to accelerate even further its nuclear capabilities,” said Alexander Neill, an analyst with Hawaii’s Pacific Forum.

“Given the predicaments in Ukraine and increasing rhetoric about Taiwan, I think China may feel that this is a window to increase its nuclear capabilities, its nuclear arsenal, and also to align itself more with Russia in terms of nuclear alignment and policies going forward,” Neill told Reuters.

Kinninmont of the European Leadership Network agrees.

“The United States’ biggest concern in all of this is really what happens to China’s nuclear program in the future,” she told VOA. “And although Russia and China are friends, they’re also a bit uneasy about each other. Russia wouldn’t want itself to be eclipsed by China with larger nuclear arsenals.

“But how can anyone make the case to China that they need to limit their program if the U.S. and Russia have no limits on theirs?” Kinninmont asked.
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Harvey Weinstein, the onetime Hollywood titan who came to epitomize a culture of pervasive sexual misconduct by powerful men that ignited the #MeToo movement, was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in prison for the 2013 rape of an actress in Los Angeles.  

Weinstein was sentenced in a Los Angeles courtroom, where a jury in December found him guilty of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object.  

The charges stemmed from an assault on a former model and actress, identified in court as Jane Doe 1, at a Los Angeles hotel in February 2013.  

Weinstein, the powerful co-founder of Miramax Films, a U.S. movie production and distribution house, will serve the sentence after completing his 23-year sentence for a sexual misconduct conviction in New York.  

Allegations against Weinstein helped fuel the #MeToo movement, which has encouraged women to speak out about sexual harassment and abuse by powerful men in media, politics and other endeavors. The movement, which went viral on social media in 2017, seeks to break a culture of silence that has long allowed such conduct to go unchallenged. 

Weinstein, who produced “Pulp Fiction,” “Shakespeare in Love” and other successful independent films, has said all of his sexual encounters have been consensual, and he pleaded not guilty in the Los Angeles case. 

Prosecutors called for a penalty of 24 years because of the prior conviction, rather than a sentence of 18 years that California law would otherwise prescribe, absent additional “aggravating” factors. 

Weinstein’s team opposed the district attorney’s recommendation for a consecutive sentence, given Weinstein’s “advanced age and deteriorating health,” defense lawyer Mark Werksman told Reuters in an email.  

The jury acquitted Weinstein of charges relating to a second alleged victim and failed to reach a unanimous verdict on charges arising from two other accusers.  

One of them, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, now the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, had disclosed she was the alleged rape victim referred to in court records as Jane Doe 4. 

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench declared a mistrial on the deadlocked charges. 

Defense attorneys argued that the women willingly had sex with Weinstein because they believed he would advance their careers, part of what they said was a widespread “casting couch” culture in the film industry. In two of the cases, they said the alleged sexual contact was fabricated. 

Weinstein was convicted of sexual misconduct in New York in February 2020. He was extradited from New York to Los Angeles prison in July 2021. Weinstein is appealing the New York conviction and prison sentence.
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A federal judge on Thursday handed singer R. Kelly a 20-year prison sentence for his convictions of child pornography and the enticement of minors for sex but said he will serve nearly all of the sentence simultaneously with a 30-year sentence imposed last year on racketeering charges. 

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber also ordered that Kelly serve one year in prison following his New York sentence. 

The central question going into the sentencing in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago was whether Leinenweber would order that the 56-year-old serve the sentence simultaneously with or only after he completes the New York term for 2021 racketeering and sex trafficking convictions. The latter would have been tantamount to a life sentence. 

Prosecutors had acknowledged that a lengthy term served only after the New York sentence could have erased any chance of Kelly ever getting out of prison alive. It’s what they asked for, arguing his crimes against children and lack of remorse justified it. 

With Thursday’s sentence, though, Kelly will serve no more than 31 years. That means he will be eligible for release at around age 80, providing him some hope of one day leaving prison alive. 

Leinenweber said at the outset of the hearing that he did not accept the government’s contention that Kelly used fear to woo underage girls for sex. 

“The [government’s] whole theory of grooming, was sort of the opposite of fear of bodily harm,” the judge told the court. “It was the fear of lost love, lost affections [from Kelly]. … It just doesn’t seem to me that it rises to the fear of bodily harm.” 

Prosecutors say Kelly’s crimes against children and his lack of remorse justify the stiffer sentence. 

A calm Kelly spoke briefly at the start of the hearing, when the judge asked him if he had reviewed key presentencing documents for any inaccuracies. 

“Your honor, I have gone over it with my attorney,” Kelly said. “I’m just relying on my attorney for that.” 

Two of Kelly’s accusers asked the judge to punish him harshly. 

In a statement read aloud in court, a woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” said she had lost her early aspirations to become a singer herself and her hopes for fulfilling relationships. 

“I have lost my dreams to Robert Kelly,” the statement said. “I will never get back what I lost to Robert Kelly. … I have been permanently scarred by Robert.” 

The woman was a key witness for prosecutors during Kelly’s trial; four of his convictions are tied to her. 

“When your virginity is taken by a pedophile at 14 … your life is never your own,” Jane’s statement read. 

Another accuser, who used the pseudonym “Nia,” attended the hearing and addressed Kelly directly in court. Speaking forcefully as her voice quivered, Nia said Kelly would repeatedly pick at her supposed faults while he abused her. 

“Now you are here … because there is something wrong with you,” she said. “No longer will you be able to harm children.” 

Jurors in Chicago convicted Kelly last year on six of 13 counts: three counts of producing child porn and three of enticement of minors for sex. 

Kelly rose from poverty in Chicago to become one of the world’s biggest R&B stars. Known for his smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and for sex-infused songs such as “Bump n’ Grind,” he sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s. 

In presentencing filings, prosecutors described Kelly as “a serial sexual predator” who used his fame and wealth to reel in, sexually abuse and then discard star-struck fans. 

U.S. Assistant Attorney Jeannice Appenteng on Thursday urged the judge to set a longer sentence and keep Kelly in prison “for the rest of his life.” 

Kelly’s abuse of children was all the worse, she said, because he “memorialized” his abuse by filming victims, including Jane. She told the court Kelly “used Jane as a sex prop, a thing” for producing pornographic videos. 

In prehearing filings, Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, accused prosecutors of offering an “embellished narrative” in an attempt to get the judge to join what she called the government’s “bloodthirsty campaign to make Kelly a symbol of the #MeToo movement.” 

Bonjean said Kelly has suffered enough, including financially. She said his worth once approached $1 billion, but that he “is now destitute.” 

In court Thursday, Bonjean said Kelly will be lucky to survive his 30-year New York sentence alone. To give him a consecutive 25-year sentence on top of that “is overkill, it is symbolic,” she said. “Why? Because it is R. Kelly.” 

She also argued that Kelly’s silence should not be viewed as a lack of remorse. 

She said that while she advised Kelly not to speak because he continues to appeal his convictions and could face other legal action, “He would like to, he would like to very much.” 
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Federal wildlife officials on Wednesday announced a proposal to classify one of two dwindling California spotted owl populations as endangered after a lawsuit by conservation groups required the government to reassess a Trump administration decision not to protect the brown and white birds.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that California spotted owls that have their habitats in coastal and Southern California be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

That population “does not have a strong ability to withstand normal variations in environmental conditions, persist through catastrophic events, or adapt to new environmental conditions throughout its range,” which led the agency to propose listing it as endangered, wildlife officials said.

The other California spotted owl population, which lives in Sierra Nevada forests in California and western Nevada, would be classified as threatened, the agency said.

The habitat of the medium-sized brown owl with white spots on its head and chest and a barred tail is under serious threat from current logging practices and climate change, including increased drought, disease and more extreme wildfires.

Most California spotted owls live on land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.

How much the population has declined since conservation groups started their effort to protect it more than 20 years ago is unclear.

The only available demographic data on spotted owls living in coastal and Southern California was collected in San Bernardino National Forest and shows a decline of 9%, the federal wildlife service said.

The Sierra Nevada population shows declines ranging from 50% to 31% percent in some areas, the agency said.

The federal agency’s decision follows an agreement reached in November between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several conservation groups that sued the federal agency in 2020 over its decision not to protect the California spotted owl population.

Justin Augustine, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sued, applauded the agency’s decision and said he was happy to see the California spotted owls could finally get the safeguards they need.

Augustine said he planned to use the 60-day public comment period to push for more protections for the California spotted population in the Sierra Nevada.

“One of the things I’ll be addressing is the issue of how to make sure that (Sierra Nevada) spotted owls are actually protected under their threatened status rather than potentially allowing some logging to occur that would be harmful,” he said.

The California spotted owl is one of three spotted owl subspecies and the last to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, Augustine said.

The other two subspecies are the northern spotted owl and the Mexican spotted owl.

The northern spotted owl habitat is in Oregon, Washington state and Northern California. The tiny owl was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, sparking an intense battle over logging in the region. In 2020, the Trump Administration refused to upgrade it to endangered status despite losing nearly 4% of its population annually.

The Mexican spotted owl was first listed as threatened in the U.S. in 1993. It is found in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, parts of West Texas and Mexico.

The species is in danger of extinction due to lose of habitat to logging, development, mining and wildfires.
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Overdose deaths from the drug fentanyl have communities across the United States scrambling to respond. In Washington state, librarians are becoming unlikely first responders in this latest wave of the US opioid crisis. Natasha Mozgovaya has our story
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U.S. first lady Jill Biden is due to speak Thursday at a state luncheon with Namibia’s President Hage Geingob and first lady Monica Geingos at the Namibian presidential residence, the second day of her visit to the country.

Biden is also due to go Thursday to a U.S.-funded project in the capital, Windhoek, that focuses on empowering women and children and ensuring access to economic opportunities and health resources.

After arriving in the country on Wednesday, Biden said Namibia was chosen because of its vibrancy.

“We wanted to come because you know this is a young democracy, and we want to support democracies around the world,” Biden said. “We met each other in December, and we’re just continuing the relationship. Monica and I think it’s safe to say that we became good friends instantly.” 

Geingos said there was a lot in Namibia she would like to show Biden, who is making the first visit to the country by an incumbent first lady. 

“It is a very vibrant democracy. We’ve got a very large youth population, who drives that democracy, very energetic and fully enabled by our constitutional values but also by the personal values of our leadership,” Geingos said.

Jill Biden is the first White House official to visit the country after President Joe Biden last year pledged to send administration officials to the continent. She follows Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who visited earlier this year. 

Like Biden, Thomas-Greenfield focused part of her visit around a food security crisis in East Africa — something Biden plans to highlight when she visits Kenya later this week. But these high-profile visits are also happening against the background of increased visits by top-level Russian and Chinese officials to the continent.  

While the nation is a multiparty democracy, the same party — Geingob’s South West Africa People’s Organization — has led since the nation won independence more than three decades ago. And that liberation struggle pulled in other countries for support. Earlier Wednesday, Biden laid a wreath at Heroes’ Acre, a memorial to those who fought for the nation’s independence. 

That memorial, with its brutalist sculpture and wide expanses of stone, bears an uncanny similarity to the Heroes’ Acre in Zimbabwe’s capital, maybe because both memorials were built by the same North Korean company. That same firm built the imposing, modernist gray cement State House where Biden was so warmly, colorfully received by the first couple. 

Jill Biden heads Friday to Kenya, where she will use her popularity and platform to draw attention to women’s empowerment, children’s issues and the hunger crisis that is again ravaging the Horn of Africa.
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Senior officials from the United States and Taiwan have concluded discussions on a range of “security and diplomatic” issues, including the situation across the Taiwan Strait, tensions between the U.S. and China amid Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, high-level visits between Washington and Taipei, and Taiwan’s outreach to European nations that also face threats from Russia, a diplomatic source told VOA on Wednesday.

The substantial U.S.-Taiwan high-level meetings followed consultations between the two hosted by American Institute in Taiwan on Jan. 6.

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is responsible for implementing U.S. policy toward Taiwan under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act since the U.S. has no official relations with Taiwan. Washington switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing to counter then-Soviet Union in 1979.

White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner, and other American officials met for several hours Tuesday with a delegation led by Taiwan’s national security adviser Wellington Koo and Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

‘A robust, unofficial relationship’

U.S. officials said there is no change in Washington’s long-standing policy, while not confirming nor denying Tuesday’s talks.

“I don’t have any meetings to speak to particularly, but what I can say is that we have, as you know, a robust, unofficial relationship with Taiwan, and we continue to engage with Taiwan under the auspices of AIT and TECRO, and in line with our long-standing policy,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Wednesday.

TECRO refers to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Taiwan’s office in the United States.

“Regarding our very important but unofficial relationship with Taiwan, I will just underscore that there’s been no change to America’s one China policy based on the Taiwan Relations Act, the three joint communicates and the six assurances to Taiwan,” Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink told reporters during a Wednesday briefing. He was asked if a potential visit to the U.S. by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen came up during Tuesday’s meeting.

Kritenbrink was among the U.S. officials who took part in Tuesday’s meetings. He told VOA the U.S. thinks it is in the interest of the international community and individual partners to have “a practical and functional relationship with Taiwan.”

“To prevent miscalculation and escalation in the Taiwan Strait, we are working to maintain open lines of communication with the PLA,” Ratner told VOA on Wednesday in the same phone briefing. He was referring to the Chinese military People’s Liberation Army.

The Pentagon’s Ratner added the U.S. is disappointed about China’s unwillingness to engage with senior U.S. military leaders for deconfliction talks.

“We have had working-level communications between the Defense Department and PRC [People’s Republic of China] counterparts both in Washington and in Beijing, but we have not had leader level communications despite U.S. requests,” said Ratner.

Concern about China-Russia relationship

Tuesday’s U.S.-Taiwan talks came amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China over a Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by the U.S. military, and because of China’s increasing support for Russia as its invasion of Ukraine nears one-year mark.

“The U.S. is very concerned of deepening ties between PRC [People’s Republic of China] and Russia, and a planned state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow in the spring,” said the diplomatic source.

Last Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met face to face with top PRC diplomat Wang Yi in a meeting on the margins of Munich Security Conference. American officials said Wang “lashed out” during the “candid, direct, and sometimes confrontational” meeting that lasted about one hour.
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The man who shot dead Grammy-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle on a Los Angeles street in 2019 was jailed for at least 60 years Wednesday.

Eric Holder had not denied killing Hussle — a fast-rising star whose death sent shockwaves through the music world — but his lawyers argued it was an impulsive crime that took place in the “heat of passion.”

But a jury last year found Holder had acted with premeditation as he fired at Hussle at least 10 times following a dispute between the two men over claims the assailant was “snitching” to the police.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke sentenced Holder to a minimum of 25 years for the killing, with an additional 25 years because a gun was used in the crime.

Holder was given another 10 years for shooting and wounding two other men who were nearby.

The violent killing of Hussle, a former gang member, in front of a clothing store he owned triggered widespread grief in his native Los Angeles and among his superstar peers, who hailed his musical talents and community activism.

Raised in the city’s Crenshaw district, Hussle, who was 33 when he died, had transformed the block he used to hustle on into a retail, job-creating hub for his Marathon Clothing company.

But he remained linked to the gang-ridden world he grew up in.

Holder, a 32-year-old gang member, and Hussle were both members of the same “Rollin 60s” Crips faction.

During the trial, prosecutor John McKinney said Hussle had told Holder there were rumors Holder had been “snitching,” before Holder left the parking lot where the two were talking.

When he returned a short time later, Holder “pulls out not one but two guns and starts shooting” in an “explosion of violence.”

The killing was captured on video.

In his closing argument, McKinney called the killing “cold-blooded” and “calculated,” saying Holder had “quite a bit of time for premeditation and deliberation.”

But Holder’s attorney told jurors the killing was “an act of impulse and rashness” which should have been charged as manslaughter.

Aaron Jansen said his client, who he said suffered from mental illness, had already received death threats and that “his life in prison is going to be hell for as long as it lasts.”

The judge said he would recommend Holder be housed in a facility that can address his mental health needs.

‘He saw hope’

The month after his 2019 killing, thousands of people gathered for a service in Hussle’s honor, with Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg among those paying tribute, and former President Barack Obama penning a letter that was read during the service.

“While most folks look at the Crenshaw neighborhood where he grew up and see only gangs, bullets and despair, Nipsey saw potential,” wrote Obama.

“He saw hope. He saw a community that, even through its flaws, taught him to always keep going.”

Hussle — real name Ermias Asghedom — was posthumously honored with two Grammy Awards in 2020 for best rap performance for Racks in the Middle and best rap/sung performance for Higher.

In August, on what would have been his 37th birthday, he was granted a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
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Both houses of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday endorsed President Vladimir Putin’s suspension of Moscow’s participation in the 2010 New START nuclear arms treaty with the United States, casting it as a rebuke to the U.S.-led Western alliance arming Ukraine in its bid to fend off Russia’s year-long invasion. 

Putin announced suspension of Russia’s involvement in the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the U.S. during his state-of-the-nation speech on Tuesday. The pact, set to expire in 2026, limits each country to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads.  

Putin said Russia can’t accept U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites under the pact while Washington and its NATO allies have called for Russia’s defeat in Ukraine. But the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country would respect the caps on nuclear weapons set under the treaty. 

U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking in Warsaw where he was meeting with the leaders of the eastern flank of NATO countries closest to Russia, called Putin’s suspension of the nuclear pact a “big mistake.”  

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council that is chaired by Putin, said Wednesday that the suspension of Russia’s participation in the pact signaled to the U.S. that Moscow is ready to use nuclear weapons to protect itself. 

“If the U.S. wants Russia’s defeat, we have the right to defend ourselves with any weapons, including nuclear,” Medvedev said on his messaging app channel. “Let the U.S. elites who have lost touch with reality think about what they got. If the U.S. wants Russia to be defeated, we are standing on the verge of a global conflict.” 

Leonid Slutsky, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house, the State Duma, emphasized that the suspension is “reversible and can be reviewed if our Western opponents come back to reason and realize their responsibility for destroying the global security system.” 

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said it would be up to Putin to decide whether Moscow could return to the pact. “The president will determine if and when the conditions for reviewing or clarifying [Tuesday’s] decision emerge,” he told reporters. 

The diplomat noted that Russia’s satellite surveillance capability will allow it to keep track of U.S. nuclear forces even without exchanges of data and inspections that were envisaged by the treaty. 
…

The Avtushenkos spent the past year living in war-torn Ukraine, but with a new baby on the way, the family left the country to start anew in Texas. Deana Mitchell has the story.  
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One year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, refugees fleeing the violence have settled around the world. For VOA, Deborah Bloom take us to meet a refugee mother and daughter in the U.S. Pacific Northwest state of Oregon.
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U.S. President Joe Biden meets Wednesday with leaders from NATO’s eastern flank to show support for their security. 

The so-called Bucharest Nine includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, and most are among the strongest supporters of military aid to Ukraine. 

Biden Tuesday used a speech in Poland’s capital, Warsaw, to defend NATO’s year-long effort to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion and vowed it would not stop.       

“One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv,” Biden told the over ten thousand Poles gathered outdoors at Poland’s Royal Castle complex. “Well, I’ve just come from a visit to Kyiv, and I can report Kyiv stands strong. It stands tall. And most important, it stands free.”       

Biden promised that support for Ukraine will not waver, and NATO will not be divided. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never,” he declared, saying the alliance is “more resolved than ever” in supplying munitions and humanitarian aid to non-NATO member Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia.      

Fresh off his dramatic visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Monday, Biden assailed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion he launched a year ago this Friday and said the Russian leader could just as easily end the warfare. “The West is not plotting to attack Russia as Putin said today,” Biden declared.     

“The democracies of the world have grown stronger” in their pushback against Russian aggression, Biden said, adding “The autocracies of the world have grown weaker.”    

Biden used part of his speech in front of an applauding crowd to reiterate what Vice President Kamala Harris announced just days earlier at the Munich Security Conference, that the U.S. has determined Moscow has committed “crimes against humanity” and “atrocities” against the Ukrainian people.       

“They’ve committed depravity, crimes against humanity without shame or compunction,” Biden said.       

Specifically, he accused Russia of “targeting civilians with death,” using rape as “a weapon of war,” stealing Ukrainian children by forcibly removing them from their homeland and launching airstrikes against train stations, maternity wards, hospitals, schools and orphanages.       

“No one, no one can turn away their eyes from the atrocities Russia is committing against the Ukrainian people. It’s abhorrent,” Biden said.       

Russia has denied targeting civilians.       

The administration pushed back against Moscow’s claim, made by Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev on his Telegram channel Monday, that “Biden, having previously received security guarantees, finally went to Kiev.”    

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told VOA in a briefing to reporters Tuesday that the U.S. did not receive such guarantees. Sullivan said the U.S. informed Moscow of the security accompanying Biden to ensure they know “what they would be seeing and what President Biden would be doing.”    

“Just to let them know he would be there in this time period and the means by which he was traveling and that he would be out on this timetable, the means by which he was traveling out,” he said. “We conveyed that information. They acknowledged receipt. End of story.”      

US-Poland ties    

Earlier Tuesday, Biden began his second trip to Poland in a year by meeting with President Andrzej Duda, thanking the Polish leader for his support for Ukraine and calling U.S.–Poland ties a “critical relationship.” He underscored Washington’s commitment to the principle of collective defense in Article 5 of the NATO charter and assured Duda that the alliance will respond if Russia expands its war beyond Ukraine and launches an attack on Poland.      

“And we reaffirmed our ironclad commitment to NATO’s collective security, including guaranteeing that the command headquarters for our forces in Europe are going to be in Poland, period,” he said.      

Biden said the two countries are launching “a new strategic partnership” with plans to build nuclear power plants and bolster Poland’s energy security.      

Poland has been an unwavering ally of Ukraine, its neighbor, providing billions of dollars in weapons and humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s government, welcoming Ukrainian refugees and providing a critical logistics hub for military assistance for Kyiv.          

On Monday Biden announced $460 million in new military aid for Ukraine and said his administration will soon announce another new wave of sanctions against individuals and companies “that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine.”           

 Geopolitical symbolism     

The speech in Warsaw delivered by the American president to mark the war anniversary carries significant geopolitical symbolism. During the Cold War, Poland was locked behind the Iron Curtain as a signee of the Warsaw Pact, a military treaty established in 1955 by the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries to counterbalance NATO, the Western military alliance. The Warsaw pact was dissolved on July 1,1991.            

The backdrop of Biden’s speech was Warsaw’s Royal Castle, whose construction began in the 1300s and has witnessed many notable events in Poland’s history, including the drafting of the first constitution of a European state in 1791. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the castle was destroyed by Nazi Germany during World War II and later rebuilt.   

Warsaw is an appropriate place to reiterate U.S. commitment to European security, said Ian Lesser, vice president of the German Marshall Fund.        

“Poland is very much on the front line and will remain so whatever the course of the war in Ukraine. The country occupies a critical position in allied deterrence and defense and is the key logistical hub for assistance headed to Ukraine,” he told VOA. “The fact that the president’s speech takes place in the Cold War birthplace of the Warsaw Pact will not be lost on observers, not least Russians.”        

A few hours before Biden’s speech, President Vladimir Putin delivered remarks to Russia’s Federal Assembly in which he blamed Western countries for provoking conflict and announced that Moscow will stop participating in the new START (Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty), the last major remaining nuclear arms control agreement with the U.S.     

Putin also said Western economic sanctions against Russia had not “achieved anything and will not achieve anything.” 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Fresh off his surprise visit to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, President Joe Biden delivered a speech from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday, marking the 1-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion by highlighting how the United States has unified NATO and the West in support of Ukraine. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara brings this story from Warsaw.
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Peru’s attorney general’s office said Tuesday on Twitter that the U.S. State Department had agreed to extradite former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo on corruption charges. 

Peru has been trying to extradite Toledo, the Andean country’s president between 2001 and 2006, since 2018.  

Peruvian authorities allege that Toledo negotiated bribes of up to $20 million with Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht. Toledo has denied soliciting or receiving bribes. 
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Some conservative-led U.S. states are weighing measures to prevent female impersonators, known as drag queens, from performing at any venues visited by children. They say it’s about keeping kids safe, but critics say it’s part of a larger anti-LGBTQ agenda. Maxim Moskalkov has the story. Videographer: Aleksandr Bergan
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Federal environmental regulators on Tuesday took charge of the cleanup from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and chemical burn and ordered Norfolk Southern to foot the bill. 

The Environmental Protection Agency told Norfolk Southern to take all available measures to clean up contaminated air and water, and also said the company would be required to reimburse the federal government for a new program to provide cleaning services for impacted residents and businesses. 

The EPA warned Norfolk Southern that if failed to comply with its order, the agency would perform the work itself and seek triple damages from the company. 

“The Norfolk Southern train derailment has upended the lives of East Palestine families, and EPA’s order will ensure the company is held accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of this community,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement ahead of a planned news conference with the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

“Let me be clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess they created and for the trauma they’ve inflicted on this community,” he said. 

“In no way shape or form will Norfolk Southern get off the hook for the mess they created,” Regan said at the press conference. 

He added that he knows the order “cannot undo the nightmare that families in this town have been living with, but it will begin to deliver much needed comfort for the pain that Norfolk Southern has caused.” 

The agency said it would release more details on the cleanup service for residents and businesses this week. 

The EPA said its order marks the end of the “emergency” phase of the derailment and the beginning of long-term remediation phase in the East Palestine area. 

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday also acknowledged the community’s concern that it will be left to handle the aftermath on its own once the news cameras leave and public attention turns elsewhere, and he assured residents that won’t be the case. 

Separately, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a package of reforms Tuesday, calling on railroad operators to take immediate steps to improve safety, such as accelerating the planned upgrade of tank cars. 

Some 50 freight cars derailed on the outskirts of East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, prompting persistent environmental and health concerns. The derailment prompted an evacuation as fears grew about a potential explosion of smoldering wreckage. 

Officials seeking to avoid the danger of an uncontrolled blast chose to intentionally release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke again billowing high into the sky. That left people questioning the potential health impacts for residents in the area and beyond, even as authorities maintained they were doing their best to protect people.
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Jill Biden left Tuesday for her first visit to Africa as first lady, with plans to visit the Southwest African nation of Namibia and the East African nation of Kenya. There, she will focus on women’s empowerment, children’s issues and the food insecurity that has ravaged parts of the continent. VOA’s Anita Powell, who is traveling with the first lady, reports from Washington.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday he is suspending Moscow’s participation in the New START treaty, the last remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control pact.   

The treaty signed in 2010 limits each country to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads. It is due to expire in 2026. 

Speaking during a state-of-the-nation address to the Russian Duma, or parliament, Putin said he is not completely withdrawing from the treaty at this time. 

He also said Russia should be ready to resume nuclear weapons testing if the United States does so. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Russia’s announcement “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible.”

“We’ll be watching carefully to see what Russia actually does,” Blinken told reporters.  “We’ll, of course, make sure that in any event, we are postured appropriately for the security of our own country and that of our allies.”

He also said the United States remains ready to talk with Russia about strategic arms limitations at any time, even as the U.S.-led Western coalition continues to supply arms to Ukraine to fight against Russia’s nearly year-long invasion.

Blinken said it is in the security interests of both countries to control their nuclear arsenals.

“I think it matters that we continue to act responsibly in this area,” Blinken said. “It’s also something the rest of the world expects of us.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Putin to reconsider his decision and said, “More nuclear weapons and less arms control makes the world more dangerous.”

“Over the last years, Russia has violated and walked away from key arms control agreements,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels. “With today’s decision on New START, the whole arms control architecture has been dismantled.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Fresh off his dramatic visit to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, U.S. President Joe Biden was in Poland Tuesday to deliver a highly anticipated speech from Warsaw’s historic Royal Castle, marking the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion by highlighting how the United States has unified NATO and the West in support of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s effort to defend his country.

Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Advisor, said the speech would build on Biden’s remarks in the same location in March last year and would answer fundamental questions about NATO and U.S. support for Ukraine.

“One year later he believes that we have answered those questions about our unity and resolve, about our commitment to fundamental principles,” he told reporters in a briefing Tuesday.

The speech was also to highlight the contest between “aggressors who are trying to destroy fundamental principles and those democracies were pulling together to try to uphold it,” Sullivan said.

Before delivering remarks, Biden began his second trip to Poland in a year by meeting with President Andrzej Duda. The U.S. leader was set underscore Washington’s commitment to the principle of collective defense in Article 5 of the NATO charter and assure Duda that the alliance will respond if Russia expands its war beyond Ukraine and launches an attack on Poland.

Poland has been an unwavering ally of its neighbor, providing billions of dollars in weapons and humanitarian assistance to Zelenskyy’s government, welcoming Ukrainian refugees and providing a critical logistics hub for military assistance for Kyiv.

Later Tuesday, Biden was to deliver his arguments for support to Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” including an additional $460 million military aid package that he announced in Kyiv Monday, that brings the total U.S. military, economic and humanitarian support delivered to Ukraine since the Russian invasion to over $40 billion.

In a statement released by the White House Monday, Biden said his speech would focus on “how the United States will continue to rally the world to support the people of Ukraine and the core values of human rights and dignity in the UN Charter that unite us worldwide.”

He also noted his administration will soon announce another new wave of sanctions against individuals and companies “that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine.”  

Geopolitical symbolism

A speech in Warsaw delivered by an American president to mark the war anniversary carries significant geopolitical symbolism. Poland had been locked behind the Iron Curtain as a signee of the Warsaw Pact, a military treaty established in 1955 by the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries to counterbalance the Western military alliance. The pact was dissolved on July 1,1991.

The backdrop of Biden’s speech is Warsaw’s Royal Castle, whose construction began in the 1300s and has witnessed many notable events in Poland’s history, including the drafting of the first constitution of a European state in 1791. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the castle was destroyed by Nazi Germany during World War II and later rebuilt.

Warsaw is an appropriate place to reiterate U.S. commitment to European security, said Ian Lesser, vice president of the German Marshall Fund. 

“Poland is very much on the front line and will remain so whatever the course of the war in Ukraine.  The country occupies a critical position in allied deterrence and defense and is the key logistical hub for assistance headed to Ukraine,” he told VOA. “The fact that the president’s speech takes place in the Cold War birthplace of the Warsaw Pact will not be lost on observers, not least Russians.”

A few hours before Biden’s speech, President Vladimir Putin delivered remarks to Russia’s Federal Assembly in which he blamed Western countries for provoking conflict.  He also said Western economic sanctions against Russia had not “achieved anything and will not achieve anything.”

Before returning to Washington on Wednesday, Biden will meet with NATO leaders from the so-called Bucharest Nine (B-9), the countries on NATO’s easternmost flank, which include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. These countries feel the Russian threat most acutely and are pushing for a more robust military response to Moscow.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, days from its one-year anniversary, is the topic of two prominent speeches Tuesday as Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses his country’s parliament and U.S. President Joe Biden pledges enduring U.S. support for Ukraine.

Biden is due to speak from Warsaw, the capital of Ukraine’s neighbor Poland, a day after making an unannounced visit to Kyiv.

The White House said Biden would highlight the effort to rally world support to support the Ukrainian people and the U.S. commitment to stand behind Ukraine “as long as it takes.”

“One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said Monday as he spoke alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “The Americans stand with you and the world stands with you.”

Biden announced $500 million in new aid and said there would be new U.S. sanctions against Russia this week.

The trip to Ukraine was shrouded in secrecy, which included Biden’s flight from Washington, a stopover at a U.S. military base in Germany, another flight to Poland and then a 10-hour train trip to Kyiv.

In all, Biden was in Kyiv for about five hours, spending part of his time meeting with U.S. officials at the American Embassy.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said later that the U.S. had alerted Russia ahead of Biden’s departure from Washington about the planned Ukrainian visit, “for deconfliction purposes” to avoid the possibility of an unintended lethal encounter between the two nuclear powers.

Unlike some previous presidential visits to war zones in years past, the U.S. does not control the airspace over Ukraine, although U.S. warplanes monitored the Biden visit from the sky over Poland.

Sullivan described Biden’s visit to Kyiv as historic, saying it was “unprecedented in modern times, to have the president of the United States visit the capital of a country at war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure.”

Sullivan said that despite the need to surmount logistical issues, “President Biden felt that it was important to make this trip because of the critical juncture that we find ourselves as we approach the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”

Biden is also due to meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and leaders of the Bucharest Nine group of countries before departing for Washington on Wednesday. These are the countries on NATO’s easternmost flank. 

China aid

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gan in a speech Tuesday expressed deep concern about the possibility of the Ukraine conflict spiraling out of control.

“We urge certain countries to immediately stop fueling the fire,” Qin said.

The comments came a day after the United States and European Union warned Monday of unspecified consequences should China provide lethal aid for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters there would be “real consequences” in U.S.-China relations and that he had shared the U.S. concerns directly with top Chinese foreign policy official Wang Yi.

“I think China understands what’s at risk were it to proceed with providing that support to Russia,” Blinken said.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Brussels that he had also discussed the situation with Wang Yi and asked him not to provide arms to Russia.

Borrell said such Chinese aid “would be a red line in our relationship.”

Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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