The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday proposed revisions to its guidelines to make it easier for gay and bisexual men to donate blood, eliminating a three-month abstinence period before donations.

The restrictions were implemented years ago to prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

In a release posted to the agency’s website, the FDA said under the draft proposals, all donors — regardless of sexual orientation — would be given a questionnaire regarding new partners, sexual history, and certain types of sexual activities.

Any prospective donors who do not report having new or multiple sexual partners and have not engaged in certain practices, such as anal sex, in the previous three months, may be eligible to donate, provided all other eligibility criteria are met.

The proposed new guidelines would allow gay and bisexual men in monogamous, long-term relationships to more easily give blood.

The FDA said the draft proposals were developed after reviewing available information, including data from Britain and Canada, countries with similar HIV epidemiology that have implemented the “gender-inclusive, individual risk-based approach for assessing donor eligibility.”

In the statement, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said, “Maintaining a safe and adequate supply of blood and blood products in the U.S. is paramount for the FDA,” and these proposals will allow the agency to do so.

Under the plan, the donor deferral time periods would stay in place for other HIV risk factors, including for those who have exchanged sex for money or drugs, or have a history of non-prescription injection drug use. 

Any individual who has ever had a positive test for HIV or who has taken any medication to treat HIV infection would continue to be deferred permanently.

The proposed guideline changes released Friday will be open for public comment for 60 days. The agency will then review and consider all comments before finalizing the changes.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press.  
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Asian Americans in California, already on edge over a wave of hate crimes against their communities, are taking small comfort from the fact that the suspected perpetrators of the past week’s two mass shootings were Asian Americans themselves.

“Simply because this person happens to be Asian American from Monterey Park, doesn’t mean he wasn’t also targeting community members,” said community advocate Manjusha Kulkarni in reference to the man accused of fatally gunning down 11 people at a dance hall on Saturday night.

“He knew that there was a large Lunar New Year celebration, and he came armed,” continued Kulkarni, executive director of the Los Angeles-based AAPI Equity Alliance, in an interview with VOA.

Monterey Park Councilman Henry Lo agreed that his community will take time to get over the shock of that mass killing and another two days later near San Francisco.

“We will need everyone’s support as we begin the long road to recovery from this awful trauma,” he told VOA’s Mandarin Service.

The first shooting happened at a dance hall in Monterey Park, a largely Asian American suburb east of Los Angeles. All 11 victims were Asian Americans. The suspect shot and killed himself.

The second shooting was hundreds of miles north in Half Moon Bay, an idyllic small coastal town with nurseries and restaurants.

Seven people, five Chinese citizens and two Latinos, were killed at two Northern California mushroom farms. Police have identified the suspect as a worker at one of the nurseries.

The two tragic events took place during the Lunar New Year season, which is normally a time of rebirth, says state assemblyman Phil Ting, whose district includes part of San Francisco.

It’s a time “looking towards prosperity and good fortune,” he said. “To have these incidents that are impacting Asian American farmworkers here and then 11 Asian Americans down in Los Angeles is really just the worst kind of news we can ever have.”

About one in six Californians are Asian Americans. In recent years, many of them feel like they’re under threat, said California Governor Gavin Newsom at a recent press conference in Half Moon Bay.

“I’m also mindful that we saw hate crimes go up 177% against Asians last year,” he said. “We have to do more.”

The most recent shootings are different from the anti-Asian crimes committed by non-Asians. The two suspects in the mass shootings are themselves Asian Americans.

While the suspects’ motives are still under investigation, some believe mental health could be a factor. Asian American advocates highlight the fact that life in the U.S. for an immigrant can be challenging.

“The social and linguistic isolation they may have, the lack of mental health and community support that they need,” said Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University. “The easy availability of assault weapons. These trends demonstrate that Asian Americans face a lot of issues as minorities.”

James Zarsadiaz, an associate professor of history at University of San Francisco, grew up in East Los Angeles.

Filipino and Chinese, Zarsadiaz says he wants to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit.

“It’s hard to really feel fully present and enjoy the festivity when you know that tragedy has hurt and has impacted the community,” he said. “And even though it’s one place, it does impact pretty much all of Asia America because, again, these are very familiar and intimate spaces and during a very personal and family-oriented time.”

Organizers of the San Francisco Lunar New Year parade, scheduled for February 4, said this week they would meet with city leaders and police to implement additional safety measures. The parade attracts thousands of spectators.

Calla Yu with the Mandarin Service contributed to this story. Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The second consecutive quarter of economic growth that the government reported Thursday underscored that the nation isn’t in a recession despite high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s fastest pace of interest rate hikes in four decades.

Yet the U.S. economy is hardly in the clear. The solid growth in the October-December quarter will do little to alter the widespread view of economists that a recession is very likely sometime this year.

For now, the economy expanded at a 2.9% annual rate in the fourth quarter, though some of the underlying figures weren’t as healthy. Consumer spending, for example, grew at a slower pace than in the previous quarter, and business investment was weak. Last quarter’s growth was fueled by factors that won’t likely last. These include companies’ restocking of inventories and a drop in imports, which meant that more spending went to U.S.-made goods.

Increased borrowing rates and still-high inflation are expected to steadily weaken consumer and business spending. Businesses will likely pare expenses in response, which could lead to layoffs and higher unemployment. And a likely recession in the United Kingdom and slower growth in China will erode the revenue and profits of American corporations. Such trends are expected to cause a U.S. recession sometime in the coming months.

Still, there are reasons to expect that a recession, if it does come, will prove to be a comparatively mild one. Many employers, having struggled to hire after huge layoffs during the pandemic, may decide to retain most of their workforces even in a shrinking economy.

Six months of economic decline is a long-held informal definition of a recession. Yet nothing is simple in a post-pandemic economy in which growth was negative in the first half of last year but the job market remained robust, with ultra-low unemployment and healthy levels of hiring. The economy’s direction has confounded the Fed’s policymakers and many private economists ever since growth screeched to a halt in March 2020, when COVID-19 struck and 22 million Americans were suddenly thrown out of work.

Inflation, the economy’s biggest threat last year, is now showing signs of steadily declining. Used and new cars are becoming less expensive. Price increases for furniture, clothes and other physical goods are slowing.

Last year, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate seven times, from zero to a range of 4.25% to 4.5%. The Fed’s policymakers have projected that they will keep raising their key rate until it tops 5%, which would be the highest level in 15 years. As borrowing costs swell, fewer Americans can afford a mortgage or an auto loan. Higher rates, combined with inflated prices, could deprive the economy of its main engine — healthy consumer spending.

Fed officials have made clear that they’re willing to tip the economy into a recession if necessary to defeat high inflation, and most economists believe them. Many analysts envision a recession beginning as early as the April-June quarter this year.

So what is the likelihood of a recession? Here are some questions and answers:

Why do many economists foresee a recession?

They expect the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes and high inflation to overwhelm consumers and businesses, forcing them to slow their spending and investment. Businesses will likely also have to cut jobs, causing spending to fall further.

Consumers have so far proved remarkably resilient in the face of higher rates and rising prices. Still, there are signs that their sturdiness is starting to crack.

Retail sales have dropped for two months in a row. The Fed’s so-called beige book, a collection of anecdotal reports from businesses around the country, shows that retailers are increasingly seeing consumers resist higher prices.

Credit card debt is also rising — evidence that Americans are having to borrow more to maintain their spending levels, a trend that probably isn’t sustainable.

More than half the economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics say the likelihood of a recession this year is above 50%.

What are some signs that a recession may have begun?

The clearest signal would be a steady rise in job losses and a surge in unemployment. Claudia Sahm, an economist and former Fed staff member, has noted that since World War II, an increase in the unemployment rate of a half-percentage point over several months has always signaled a recession has begun.

Many economists monitor the number of people who seek unemployment benefits each week, a gauge that indicates whether layoffs are worsening. Weekly applications for jobless aid actually dropped last week to a historically low 190,000. Employers continue to add many jobs, causing the unemployment rate to fall in December to 3.5%, a half-century low, from 3.7%.

Any other signals to watch for?

Economists monitor changes in the interest payments, or yields, on different bonds for a recession signal known as an “inverted yield curve.” This occurs when the yield on the 10-year Treasury falls below the yield on a short-term Treasury, such as the three-month T-bill. That is unusual. Normally, longer-term bonds pay investors a richer yield in exchange for tying up their money for a longer period.

Inverted yield curves generally mean that investors foresee a recession that will compel the Fed to slash rates. Inverted curves often predate recessions. Still, it can take 18 to 24 months for a downturn to arrive after the yield curve inverts.

Ever since July, the yield on the two-year Treasury note has exceeded the 10-year yield, suggesting that markets expect a recession soon. And the three-month yield has also risen far above the 10-year, an inversion that has an even better track record at predicting recessions.

Who decides when a recession has started?

Recessions are officially declared by the obscure-sounding National Bureau of Economic Research, a group of economists whose Business Cycle Dating Committee defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.”

The committee considers trends in hiring. It also assesses many other data points, including gauges of income, employment, inflation-adjusted spending, retail sales and factory output. It puts heavy weight on a measure of inflation-adjusted income that excludes government support payments like Social Security.

Yet the NBER typically doesn’t declare a recession until well after one has begun, sometimes for up to a year.

Does high inflation typically lead to a recession?

Not always. Inflation reached 4.7% in 2006, at that point the highest in 15 years, without causing a downturn. (The 2008-2009 recession that followed was caused by the bursting of the housing bubble).

But when it gets as high as it did last year — it reached a 40-year peak of 9.1% in June — a downturn becomes increasingly likely.

That’s for two reasons: First, the Fed will sharply raise borrowing costs when inflation gets that high. Higher rates then drag down the economy as consumers are less able to afford homes, cars and other major purchases.

High inflation also distorts the economy on its own. Consumer spending, adjusted for inflation, weakens. And businesses grow uncertain about the future economic outlook. Many of them pull back on their expansion plans and stop hiring. This can lead to higher unemployment as some people choose to leave jobs and aren’t replaced.
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South Korean concerns about the U.S. nuclear umbrella are expected to be a major focus of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s upcoming trip to Seoul.

Austin, who arrives in the South Korean capital on Monday, is expected to meet President Yoon Suk Yeol, according to South Korean media.

Earlier this month, Yoon made headlines when he said South Korea could demand the redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons, or even develop its own nuclear arms, if its security situation with North Korea worsens.

Yoon later walked back those comments. However, the situation underscores growing South Korean worries over North Korea’s quickly expanding nuclear arsenal, as well as questions about the long-term defense commitment of its ally, the United States.

Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told a briefing Thursday that Austin’s trip will highlight “our commitment to the region,” saying the U.S. commitment to South Korea remains “rock solid.”

Austin’s visit will be closely watched to see whether he addresses Yoon’s comments about nuclear weapons.

“He might make some rhetorical gesture indicating gently in public, and certainly much more strongly behind the scenes, that it would be undesirable for South Korea to have its own nuclear deterrent,” said Mason Richey, an associate professor at South Korea’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

“But I think he would do so in a way that would not be intended to publicly irritate South Korea or to call into question South Korea’s sovereignty or autonomy,” Richey said.

Instead, Austin may highlight U.S.-South Korean efforts to expand defense cooperation, he added.

In recent months, Washington and Seoul have increased joint military drills and agreed to the more frequent deployment of U.S. strategic assets, such as nuclear-capable bombers and aircraft carriers, to the region around the Korean Peninsula.

But Yoon, a conservative who embraces a more aggressive approach to North Korea, thinks more should be done to keep up with North Korean nuclear advancements.

As a presidential candidate, he briefly embraced the possibility of the United States returning tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea.

The United States removed its nuclear weapons from South Korea in the early 1990s. Instead, South Korea is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella, under which Washington vows to use all its capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend its ally.

Yoon last month suggested such ideas are outdated and that South Korea needs a bigger role in its own defense. As an alternative, Yoon said he envisioned new levels of nuclear cooperation that would have the same effect as nuclear sharing.

North Korea advancements

South Korea’s concerns are driven in large part by North Korea’s rapid expansion of its nuclear weapons program.

In 2022, North Korea launched more than 90 missiles, including short-range weapons designed to evade South Korea’s missile defense systems and long-range weapons that could hit the U.S. mainland.

In a year-end speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to “exponentially” increase production of nuclear warheads and to develop yet another new intercontinental ballistic missile.

U.S. and South Korean officials have also warned for months that North Korea has finished preparations for another nuclear test.

The developments have rattled many in Seoul, who fear the United States may not come to the defense of South Korea if North Korea has the ability to destroy U.S. cities.

Possible steps

A growing number of Washington-based analysts agree that the United States should shore up its defense commitment to South Korea.

In a report last week, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the allies should consider “tabletop planning exercises for the possible redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons to South Korea.”

While the CSIS report said the United States should not under current circumstances deploy tactical nuclear weapons, it suggested other steps, including the creation of a “framework for joint nuclear planning,” similar to a U.S. arrangement with NATO.

The report mentioned the possibility of “the continuous presence in the region of either U.S. submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles or strategic bombers. It also said South Korea could acquire dual-capable aircraft, which can conduct nuclear or conventional missions.

It is not clear whether U.S. and South Korean officials are discussing any of those proposals.

But Sydney Seiler, the national intelligence officer for North Korea at the U.S. National Intelligence Council, on Thursday praised the CSIS report as “excellent,” saying it laid out a “very persuasive case … on how to maintain deterrence in this environment.”

“It was compelling,” Seiler said during an online forum hosted by CSIS. “And we go back to [the fact that] deterrence has worked for seven decades,” he said. “Why would deterrence not work going forward?” 
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U.S. President Joe Biden called for calm Thursday, a day before the police department of Memphis, Tennessee, was scheduled to release the bodycam footage of a brutal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old African American motorist, by five police officers.

“Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable,” Biden said in a statement. “Tyre’s death is a painful reminder that we must do more to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all,” he said.

Memphis and other U.S. cities are reported to be preparing for possible protests.

Nichols died three days after his encounter with the officers earlier this month.

The officers, all of them Black, have been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.  All of the officers have been fired.

“While each of the five individuals played a different role in the incident in question, the actions of all of them resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols. And they are all responsible,” David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations told a news conference Thursday.

Rausch, who has seen the video, said he found the officers’ behavior “absolutely appalling.”

The police officers say they stopped Nichols for reckless driving.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
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The Biden administration on Thursday granted a two-year stay of deportation for Hong Kongers in the U.S. who left amid what the administration calls a “significant erosion of human rights and fundamental freedoms” as Beijing tightens its control over the special administrative region.

“The United States is committed to a foreign policy that unites our democratic values with our foreign policy goals, which is centered on the defense of democracy and the promotion of human rights around the world,” read the memorandum signed by President Joe Biden.

“Offering safe haven for Hong Kong residents who have been deprived of their guaranteed freedoms in Hong Kong furthers United States interests in the region. The United States will continue to stand firm in our support of the people in Hong Kong.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimated that more than 3,800 people were eligible for the program when it was introduced in mid-2021. The original order was set to expire in February.

Human Rights Watch says the National Security Law imposed on Hong Kong in mid-2020 has had “devastating consequences for human rights.”

The White House noted in its Thursday memorandum that over 10,000 people have been arrested on other charges related to anti-government protests, and the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council says there are at least 1,300 political prisoners currently in Hong Kong.

‘Another cycle’

Anna Kwok, HKDC’s executive director, welcomed the extension and the broadening of the program to include newer arrivals.

But, she said, for many in the program, “another cycle begins afresh.”

“The two-year lifeline is essential, but it remains true that we can only plan our lives so far ahead at once,” she said. “Without longer-term solutions that offer humanitarian pathways, a U.S.-based movement for the cause of freedom and democracy in Hong Kong against Beijing’s transnational repression isn’t sustainable.”

In addition, Kwok told VOA, the group hopes Secretary of State Antony Blinken will raise the issue of political prisoners when he travels next month to China.

“Secretary Blinken should not shy away from taking a consistent stance for the Biden administration,” she said. “Given the [more than] 1,300 American companies in Hong Kong, an independent judiciary system is a rightful demand from the U.S. to an ‘international financial center.’”

Human rights campaigners also welcomed the news, and echoed the concerns about the short timeline. Maya Wang, acting China director for Human Rights Watch, told VOA, “The extension is a welcome relief, but they shouldn’t have to endure this roller coaster of an extension every two years, which leaves them with uncertainty, their lives in limbo.”

“Human Rights Watch has called on the Biden administration to respect the right to seek asylum for all people and families, and create a new and orderly process for responding to migrants’ various rights-based rationales for seeking to enter the country,” Wang said. “That includes people seeking asylum from persecution, adapting to the effects of climate change, returning to places in the U.S. where noncitizens may have resided for many years, or reuniting with family members.”

Chinese authorities strongly reject Washington’s contention that the former British colony, which saw unprecedented pro-democracy protests in 2019, is backsliding. Britain returned the 1,000-square-kilometer area, which includes two large islands and a peninsula, to China in 1997.

“In the 25 years since Hong Kong’s return to the motherland, the Chinese Central Government has stayed committed to fully, accurately and resolutely implementing the policies of ‘one country, two systems’ and ‘Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy,’ and strongly protected lawful rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents,” read a statement issued Thursday by the Commissioner’s Office of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong.

“It has been globally recognized that the practice of ‘one country, two systems’ in Hong Kong is a great success,” the office said. “At present, Hong Kong is in a new period moving from chaos to stability and prosperity.”

The extension now lasts through January 2025.
…

Former U.S. President Donald Trump will be allowed to use Facebook and Instagram again soon. Meta, the platforms’ parent company, said Wednesday that it would lift bans imposed two years ago after Trump used both services to publish false claims about the 2020 election and to help rally the crowd that assaulted the U.S Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The company said that its decision to ban Trump was made out of concern that he represented a “serious risk to public safety.” However, Meta said, it has since concluded that that risk “has sufficiently receded” to allow his return, and that his accounts would be restored “in the coming weeks.”

Because of Trump’s prominent role in U.S. politics, it is important that the public hears what he has to say, Meta said. But because of his history with both services, his conduct on the platforms will be monitored.

“In light of his violations, he now also faces heightened penalties for repeat offenses — penalties which will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol,” Meta said in a statement. “In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation.”

Trump reacts

Having been banned from almost all major social media platforms until recently, Trump has been posting his statements on Truth Social, a platform that he helped found and his company owns.

In response to Meta’s announcement, Trump posted on Truth Social, using his usual idiosyncratic punctuation and capitalization.

“FACEBOOK, which has lost Billions of Dollars in value since ‘deplatforming’ your favorite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account,” he wrote. “Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution! THANK YOU TO TRUTH SOCIAL FOR DOING SUCH AN INCREDIBLE JOB. YOUR GROWTH IS OUTSTANDING, AND FUTURE UNLIMITED!!!”

Trump has approximately 34 million followers on Facebook and more than 23 million followers on Instagram.

Controversial decision

“Like it or not, President Trump is one of the country’s leading political figures and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech,” Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

“The biggest social media companies are central actors when it comes to our collective ability to speak — and hear the speech of others — online,” Romero said. “They should err on the side of allowing a wide range of political speech, even when it offends.”

The Anti-Defamation League, an organization that combats hate speech and other forms of extremism, took a different view. Its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said in a statement that “former President Trump should not be given a platform to amplify his hateful and violent rhetoric on mainstream social media.”

“During his presidency Trump used social media platforms such as Facebook to spread hate and incite violence,” Greenblatt continued. “There is no reason to believe the former president will behave differently now that the platform has reversed his ban. This isn’t a matter of free speech; there are ample services that Trump can use to spread his message. This is a business decision to platform bigotry and divisiveness to drive clicks and engagement, plain and simple.”

Broad reassessment

Meta’s reinstatement of Trump comes amid a broad reassessment of how social media should be moderated in the U.S. and worldwide. In October, billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter and restored access to many previously banned accounts, including Trump’s. The former president, who has nearly 88 million followers on the platform, has not used it.

Experts said that the new ways major social media companies are handling controversial speech are part of a larger debate about how society should organize itself in an age of extreme interconnectedness.

“We’re now debating how we regulate the public square in the 21st century,” said Gene Policinski, senior fellow for the First Amendment at the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan educational foundation. “These are places where we now gather to talk about public issues.”

“We’re now at this inflection point where clearly social media has gone from a toy to a tool, to a ubiquitous need,” Policinski told VOA. “When it becomes that essential to the way our society functions, there may be an argument to offer some sort of safety net for the kinds of speech that people might find repugnant, but which does not pose an imminent threat of violence or some other criminal conduct.”

Court case pending

Later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the future of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The law has been interpreted as absolving social media companies from legal responsibility for third-party content published on their platforms while allowing them to bar content largely at will.

In the U.S., many conservatives believe that when the major social media firms do exercise the right to bar content, they do so in a way that disadvantages the political right. They would like the Supreme Court to curtail companies’ ability to stifle some speech.

Many on the left, by contrast, would like to see social media firms shoulder more legal responsibility for the material they host, claiming that abusive, hateful content frequently remains on the platforms even after it has been identified as such.

International concern

The debate extends beyond U.S. politics. Earlier this month, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement attributed to dozens of international human rights experts.

The statement, aimed at the leaders of the major social media platforms, urged them “to center human rights, racial justice, accountability, transparency, corporate social responsibility and ethics in their business model” and reminded them that “corporate accountability for racial justice and human rights is a core social responsibility.”

Rocky road

As social media platforms reassess policies, some bumps in the road seem inevitable.

To date, not all of the reinstatements have gone well. For example, Twitter restored the account of well-known Holocaust-denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes on Tuesday. Fuentes was recently in the news for accompanying Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, to a dinner with Trump at the former president’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.

Once his account was restored, Fuentes immediately began posting material that referred to antisemitic comments made by Ye. Then, in a livestreamed Twitter Spaces event, he made other antisemitic comments.

Fuentes’ account was suspended again, less than 24 hours after its reinstatement.
…

With the U.S. now joining Germany and Britain in promising to send battle tanks to Ukraine, what are the capabilities and differences among the three types of tanks that will join the fight? VOA’s Steve Redisch takes their measure.
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President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are hosting a Lunar New Year reception at the White House on Thursday, as Americans mourn over recent mass shootings in the state of California that included Asian American victims and perpetrators.

“Our hearts are with the people of California. They’ve been a rough, rough couple of days,” Biden said Tuesday. “You see what’s happened in California and what’s happened to the Asian American community. It’s been devastating.”

On Saturday in Monterey Park, a 72-year-old Asian American man is suspected of killing 11 people of Asian descent. Two days later in Half Moon Bay, a 66-year-old Asian American man allegedly killed seven people, including Chinese and Latino farm workers. Motives are still being sought.

On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Monterey Park to meet with victims’ families and call for action on gun control.

“We will always, as a compassionate nation, mourn for the loss and pray for those who survive and are recovering,” Harris said. “But we must also require that leaders in our nation, who have the ability and the power and the responsibility to do something, that they act.”

Outreach

The Lunar New Year event is part of White House outreach efforts to the Asian American community and is “an important symbol of access and inclusion during a time of shock and sadness,” said Janelle Wong, professor of American studies and government and politics at the University of Maryland in College Park.

“The Biden administration has also recognized Diwali and the start of Ramadan, and all of these receptions are shared beyond those who attend, through print and social media,” she told VOA.

Twenty-two million people in the U.S., or 7% of the population, identify as “Asian” alone or in combination with another racial or ethnic category, and trace their roots to more than 20 countries in East and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, according to the Pew Research Center.

They are also a key demographic for Biden. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing group of eligible voters. Over the past two decades they have become much more likely to vote for Democrats than for Republicans, supporting traditionally Democratic agendas, including stricter gun laws.

In his remarks, Biden highlighted his administration’s national agenda aimed at addressing the range of disparities that Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities face, through action plans prepared by 32 federal agencies.

Beginning this month, the administration is launching a series of summits to advance economic equity in the AAPI community, aiming to connect them with critical resources and opportunities.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday a series of sanctions targeting individuals associated with Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group, including its leader and associated front companies, for waging war in Ukraine, including battlefield activities and the targeting of civilians.

In a statement, Blinken said the sanctions will target five entities and one individual linked to the Wagner Group and its head, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, as well as several other individuals and entities, for their status as government officials and for being part of Russia’s military industrial complex.

Blinken’s statement said the State Department also is designating three individuals for their roles as heads of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, which has been reported to facilitate the recruitment of Russian prisoners into the Wagner Group, and subsequently sent to the front lines to fight in the conflict in Ukraine.

Additionally, the top U.S. diplomat said the U.S. Treasury Department is designating the Wagner Group a “significant transnational criminal organization” for actions taken in Africa.

The statement said the “group’s pattern of serious criminal behavior includes violent harassment of journalists, aid workers, and members of minority groups and harassment, obstruction, and intimidation of U.N. peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, as well as rape and killings in Mali.”

In the statement Thursday, Blinken noted, “The United States is steadfast in our resolve against Russia’s aggression and other destabilizing behavior worldwide. [Thursday’s] designations will further impede the Kremlin’s ability to arm its war-machine that is engaged in a war of aggression against Ukraine, and which has caused unconscionable death and destruction.”
…

The U.S. economy cooled only slightly at the end of last year, advancing at an annualized 2.9% rate, the Department of Commerce reported Thursday, even as forecasters are suggesting a recession is possible later in 2023.

The growth in the October-to-December quarter dropped from a 3.2% advance in the third quarter, following a half year when the world’s biggest economy shrank.

For all of 2022, the economy grew by a solid, if unspectacular 2.1%, down from a robust 5.7% growth rate in 2021 when the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic was in full force.

Last year saw contrasting themes, including the fastest growth in consumer prices in four decades, pinching the wallets of Americans at all income levels.

Yet the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years was recorded, with hundreds of thousands of new jobs being added to payrolls every month. Separately, borrowing costs for businesses and consumer loans and home mortgages rose sharply as the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, increased its benchmark interest rate seven times, an effort aimed at slowing economic growth and curbing inflation.

By the end of the year and into January, there were signs the economy was slowing, with some forecasters predicting a recession — meaning two straight quarters of economic decline in the coming months.

With higher interest rates, home buying and retail sales have dropped, while manufacturing output fell in November and December. The hiring of temporary workers is weakening, and major companies, especially in technology and media, are laying off thousands of workers. 

While the inflation rate in consumer prices has dropped, it remains high by historical standards — now at a 6.5% annualized rate, well above the 2% rate sought by Federal Reserve policymakers. It is likely to stay high through much of 2023.

The Fed is also planning more interest rate increases, albeit not likely as big as the ones it imposed in 2022. It is another factor that could curtail U.S. economic growth.

The White House and the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives are facing contentious negotiations over increasing the limit on the national debt, now at $31.4 trillion. The U.S. could reach the spending limit by early June.

If an agreement is not reached, the ensuing turmoil would roil world financial markets and the U.S. government’s credit rating could be cut, as occurred in 2011, the last time Congress and the White House quarreled significantly over increasing the debt limit. 
…

President Joe Biden has announced the United States will send 31 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, just hours after Germany announced it is sending 14 Leopard 2 tanks, in a united effort to help Kyiv defend itself against invading Russian forces. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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South Korea, with a world-class arms industry, is facing mounting pressure to find a way to get needed arms and munitions to Ukraine without unduly angering Russia, which has hinted that it could resume military cooperation with North Korea.

Experts interviewed by VOA say the most likely solution under consideration in Seoul is for the nation’s commercial arms manufacturers to make private sales to the United States, allowing the U.S to ship more of its own armaments to Ukraine without depleting its stockpiles.

A spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs told VOA Korean Service on Wednesday that the administration in Seoul “has been providing humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine” but “there has not been a change” in its position that it “will not send lethal weapons to Ukraine.”

Depleted stockpiles

Since the Russian invasion, Washington’s military aid to Kyiv has depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles.

The Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a U.S.-led coalition of about 50 countries, has been sending Kyiv weaponry ranging from High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to howitzers. The U.S. and Germany announced Wednesday that they will send 31 M1 Abrams tanks and 14 Leopard 2 tanks, respectively. Additional tanks have been promised by other NATO countries.

Ukraine is using about 90,000 artillery rounds per month while the U.S. and European countries are producing only half that amount among them, according to The New York Times, citing U.S. and Western officials.

The U.S. has asked the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to route some of its equipment stockpiled in South Korea to Ukraine, USFK spokesperson Isaac Taylor told the VOA Korean Service on Jan. 19.

And Washington “has been in discussion about potential sales of ammunition” from South Korea’s “non-government industrial defense base,” said Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Martin Meiners to the VOA Korean Service on Jan. 18.

“The Republic of Korea has a world-class defense industry which regularly sells to allies and partners, including the United States,” Meiners added. South Korea’s official name is the Republic of Korea (ROK).

South Korea’s arms sales

Experts said arms sales from South Korea’s private defense companies to the U.S. could elevate South Korea’s standing as “a global pivotal state,” a stated foreign policy aspiration of President Yoon Suk Yeol since he took office in May.

Yoon said in August that South Korea’s goal is to become one of the top four global arms sellers. He reiterated the goal of boosting weapons sales in November.

South Korea was the world’s eighth-largest exporter of weapons in 2017-21 according to a 2022 report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) which said the United States, Russia, France, China and Germany are the top five sellers.

“President Yoon has called South Korea a global pivotal state,” David Maxwell, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. “… Providing support to Ukraine directly or indirectly is an example of that.”

Putin’s warning

Experts said that by allowing the private arms sales to proceed, South Korea could shore up its alliances with Western powers and help to demonstrate to authoritarian neighbors like China and North Korea that the kind of aggression launched by Russia in Ukraine will not succeed.

But the move will likely come at the cost of further deterioration in Seoul’s relations with Moscow, which are already fraying over South Korea’s support of the sanctions the U.S. imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

“South Korea has the same interest about peace, stability, territorial sovereignty, protecting [against] states that are invading through outright aggression,” said Terence Roehrig, a professor of national security and Korea expert at the U.S. Naval War College.

“It is about South Korea making the decision that it needs to stand with the West on those issues with some degree of hedging by being reluctant to send direct military assistance to Ukraine,” he added.

“You will not see South Korea directly contributing arms to Ukraine. It will only be about backfilling other states who might be doing that.” That, he said, is because of concerns that Russia could “play a role on North Korea” through potential technology transfers and weapons development.

In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned South Korea that sending ammunition to Ukraine would ruin their relations.

“We have learned that the Republic of Korea has made a decision to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. This will destroy our relations,” said Putin as reported by Russian state-owned Tass. “How would the Republic of Korea react if we resumed cooperation with North Korea in that sphere?”

Until it collapsed in 1991, the Soviet Union provided military support to North Korea. The Ukraine war has drawn Russia and North Korea closer together. On Friday, the U.S. released a photo of what it said was evidence of North Korea sending weapons to the Wagner Group, a Russian private military organization, via trains to Russia.

VOA Korea contacted the Russian embassy in Washington and Foreign Ministry in Moscow for comment, but they did not respond.

Andrew Yeo, the SK-Korea Foundation chair at Brookings Institution, said the proposed private weapons sales to the U.S. “would suggest greater support for the Ukrainian cause and further sour relations with Moscow, although Moscow has already placed Seoul on its list of hostile countries.”

In March, Russia placed South Korea on a list of countries that commit “unfriendly actions,” according to Tass. According to the Tass report, countries on the list imposed or joined the sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

“Seoul is eager to preserve a workable relationship with Moscow, so in some way drawing down U.S. weapons in [its bases in South] Korea is more palatable than selling them directly,” said Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at Hudson Institute.

“But South Korea also has an abiding interest in ensuring that Russian aggression in Ukraine cannot prevail,” he added. “That would be a bad precedent for South Korea’s neighbors.”
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Lloyd Morrisett, the co-creator of the beloved children’s education TV series Sesame Street, which uses empathy and fuzzy monsters like Abby Cadabby, Elmo and Cookie Monster to charm and teach generations around the world, has died. He was 93.

Morrisett’s death was announced Monday by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit he helped establish under the name the Children’s Television Workshop. No cause of death was given.

In a statement, Sesame Workshop hailed Morrisett as a “wise, thoughtful, and above all kind leader” who was “constantly thinking about new ways” to educate.

Morrisett and Joan Ganz Cooney worked with Harvard University developmental psychologist Gerald Lesser to build the show’s unique approach to teaching that now reaches 120 million children. Legendary puppeteer Jim Henson supplied the critters.

“Without Lloyd Morrisett, there would be no Sesame Street. It was he who first came up with the notion of using television to teach preschoolers basic skills, such as letters and numbers,” Cooney said in a statement. “He was a trusted partner and loyal friend to me for over 50 years, and he will be sorely missed.”

Sesame Street is shown in more than 150 countries, has won 216 Emmys, 11 Grammys and in 2019 received the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime artistic achievement, the first time a television program got the award (Big Bird strolled down the aisle and basically sat in Tom Hanks’ lap).

Born in 1929 in Oklahoma City, Morrisett initially trained to be a teacher with a background in psychology. He became an experimental educator, looking for new ways to educate children from less advantaged backgrounds. Morrisett received his bachelor’s at Oberlin College, did graduate work in psychology at UCLA, and earned his doctorate in experimental psychology at Yale University. He was an Oberlin trustee for many years and was chair of the board from 1975-81.

The seed of Sesame Street was sown over a dinner party in 1966, where he met Cooney.

“I said, ‘Joan, do you think television could be used to teach young children?’ Her answer was, ‘I don’t know, but I’d like to talk about it,’” he recalled to The Guardian in 2004.

The first episode of Sesame Street, sponsored by the letters W, S and E and the numbers 2 and 3, aired in the fall of 1969. It was a turbulent time in America, rocked by the Vietnam War and raw from the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. the year before.

Children’s programming at the time was made up of shows like Captain Kangaroo, Romper Room and the often-violent cartoon skirmishes between Tom & Jerry. Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was mostly teaching social skills.

Sesame Street was designed by education professionals and child psychologists with one goal: to help low-income and minority students aged 2-5 overcome some of the deficiencies they had when entering school. Social scientists had long noted kids who were white and from higher-income families were often better prepared.

The show was set on an urban street with a multicultural cast. Diversity and inclusion were baked into the show. Monsters, humans and animals all lived together peacefully.

It became the first children’s program to feature someone with Down syndrome. It’s had puppets with HIV and in foster care, invited children in wheelchairs, dealt with topics like jailed parents, homelessness, women’s rights, military families and even girls singing about loving their hair.

It introduced the bilingual Rosita, the first Latina Muppet, in 1991. Julia, a 4-year-old Muppet with autism, came in 2017 and the show has since offered help for kids whose parents are dealing with addiction and recovery, and children suffering as a result of the Syrian civil war. To help kids after 9/11, Elmo was left traumatized by a fire at Hooper’s store but was soothingly told that firefighters were there to help.

The company said upon the news of his death that Lloyd left “an outsized and indelible legacy among generations of children the world over, with Sesame Street only the most visible tribute to a lifetime of good work and lasting impact.”

He is survived by his wife, Mary; daughters Julie and Sarah; and granddaughters Frances and Clara.
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Top Chinese, Russian and American officials are visiting Africa, the world’s fastest-growing continent, this month. Several U.S. officials are in Africa, walking a fine line between their desire for Africa’s support against Russian aggression and Chinese ambitions, and their promise to do work that benefits the continent. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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An asteroid the size of a delivery truck will whip past Earth on Thursday night, one of the closest such encounters ever recorded.

NASA said it will be a near miss with no chance of the asteroid hitting Earth.

NASA said Wednesday that the newly discovered asteroid will zoom 3,600 kilometers above the southern tip of South America. That’s 10 times closer than the bevy of communication satellites circling overhead.

The closest approach will occur at 7:27 p.m. EST (9:27 p.m. local.)

Even if the space rock came a lot closer, scientists said most of it would burn up in the atmosphere, with some of the bigger pieces possibly falling as meteorites.

NASA’s impact hazard assessment system, called Scout, quickly ruled out a strike, said its developer, Davide Farnocchia, an engineer at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“Despite the very few observations, it was nonetheless able to predict that the asteroid would make an extraordinarily close approach with Earth,” Farnocchia said in a statement. “In fact, this is one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded.”

2023 BU

Discovered Saturday, the asteroid known as 2023 BU is believed to be between 3.5 meters and 8.5 meters feet across. It was first spotted by the same amateur astronomer in Crimea, Gennadiy Borisov, who discovered an interstellar comet in 2019. Within a few days, dozens of observations were made by astronomers around the world, allowing them to refine the asteroid’s orbit.

Earth’s gravity will alter the path of the asteroid once it zips by. Instead of circling the sun every 359 days, the rock will move into an oval orbit lasting 425 days, according to NASA.
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An Afghan soldier seeking U.S. asylum who was detained for months after being arrested while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border has been freed from immigration detention and reunited with his brother, his attorney said Wednesday. 

Abdul Wasi Safi’s release from custody in Eden, Texas, came after a judge dropped an immigration charge against him at the request of federal prosecutors. 

Wasi Safi fled Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. forces in August 2021, fearing reprisals from the Taliban because he had provided U.S. forces with information on terrorists while working as an intelligence officer for the Afghan National Security Forces. In the summer of 2022, he began a treacherous journey from Brazil to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he was arrested in September near Eagle Pass, Texas. He had hoped to eventually be reunited with his brother, who lives in Houston. 

On Monday, a federal judge in Del Rio, Texas, dismissed the federal immigration charge after prosecutors had filed a motion asking her to do so “in the interest of justice.” 

Zachary Fertitta, one of his criminal defense attorneys, said Wednesday that Wasi Safi was receiving medical care at an undisclosed location but that he planned to speak at a news conference on Friday in Houston. 

Fertitta said Wasi Safi and his brother “are overjoyed to be reunited.” 

‘Not a danger’

Jennifer Cervantes, another of Wasi Safi’s immigration attorneys, said earlier Wednesday that she expected him to be transferred from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She said ICE would likely interview him but had no reason to keep him in custody. 

“He’s certainly not a danger to the United States. He’s done a lot of good service for the United States,” Cervantes said. 

U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, belongs to a bipartisan group of lawmakers that had been working to free Wasi Safi. She said in a statement Tuesday night that she expected him to arrive in her hometown by Friday. 

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Customs and Border Protection and ICE, has not responded to an email seeking comment Wednesday. 

Sami-ullah Safi, Wasi Safi’s brother, was employed by the U.S. military for several years as a translator. Sami Safi said he was pleased the criminal case had been dropped but that he remained frustrated about how his sibling was treated in light of his family’s support for the U.S in Afghanistan. 

“If we categorize my brother’s service, how many lives he has saved because of his service, and how many lives I have saved because of my service being a combat translator?” Sami Safi said. 

Wasi Safi’s case was first reported by The Texas Tribune.

‘Serious’ health problems 

On his journey from Brazil to the U.S., Wasi Safi suffered serious injuries from beatings, including damaged front teeth and hearing loss in his right ear. 

“We are now working on his health condition, which has turned serious after months of neglect,” Zachary Fertitta, one of his criminal defense attorneys, said in an email Wednesday. 

The lawyers, lawmakers and military organizations that have been working to free Wasi Safi said his case highlights how America’s chaotic military withdrawal continues to harm Afghan citizens who helped the U.S. but were left behind. 

Nearly 76,000 Afghans who worked with American soldiers since 2001 as translators, interpreters and partners arrived in the U.S. on military planes after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. But their immigration status remains unclear after Congress failed to pass a proposed law, the Afghan Adjustment Act, that would have solidified their legal residency status. 

Cervantes said Wasi Safi’s case is not unique and that other Afghans seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border have also faced difficulty getting their cases properly reviewed. She said she hoped her work “sheds some light on that and [helps] these guys get what I think is the right thing to do, what I think is fair for them.” 
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The United States is “actively seeking to reengage” China on counternarcotics, including stopping the flow of illicit synthetic drugs like fentanyl into the U.S., said the State Department ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing in early February.

U.S. officials admit engagement between the two countries on these issues “has been limited in recent months.”

“We don’t have any recent meetings to read out or to preview,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA on Tuesday, when asked if talks to combat fentanyl have been resumed after Beijing suspended collaboration with Washington on the issue in protest of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last August.

“Though its past action has helped counter illicit synthetic drug flows, we do hope to see additional action from the PRC (People’s Republic of China) – meaningful, concrete action – to curb the diversion of precursor chemicals and equipment used by criminals to manufacture fentanyl and other synthetic drugs,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told VOA this week.

In 2019, China added fentanyl-related substances to the list of controlled narcotic drugs.

While Beijing is no longer a major source of the synthetic opioid flowing to the United States, U.S. officials said Washington continues to see Chinese-origin precursor chemicals being used in illicit fentanyl production and other illicit synthetic drugs.

Bipartisan congressional majorities have approved legislation to prioritize U.S. efforts to combat international trafficking of covered synthetic drugs.

The FENTANYL Results Act was signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 at the end of last year.

Fentanyl is the leading killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49.

The FENTANYL Results Act would authorize programs through the State Department to build foreign law enforcement capacity to detect synthetic drugs and carry out an international exchange program for drug demand reduction experts, according to Democratic Representative David Trone and Republican Representative Michael McCaul, who co-authored the bill.

Trone said his nephew died of a fentanyl overdose alone in a hotel room.

A recent report by the U.S. Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) underlined growing threats of an animal sedative called xylazine (often known as “tranq”) mixed with illicit fentanyl. The risk of overdose multiplies when xylazine is combined with fentanyl.

“A kilogram of xylazine powder can be purchased online from Chinese suppliers with common prices ranging from $6-$20 U.S. dollars per kilogram. At this low price, its use as an adulterant may increase the profit for illicit drug traffickers,” the DEA said in a report late last year.

On Dec. 15, 2021, the State Department announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Chuen Fat Yip, a Chinese national charged in a five-count federal indictment, including manufacturing and distributing a controlled substance knowing it will be unlawfully imported into the United States.

“We have no updates on Chuen Fat Yip,” a spokesperson told VOA when asked if the Chinese government is cooperating on his case.

Yihua Lee from VOA Mandarin contributed to this report.
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The past three years have been brutal for the small businesses that make up Manhattan’s Chinatown. The pandemic forced the closure of several longtime restaurants and stores, but as Tina Trinh reports, two second-generation Asian Americans are harnessing the power of social media to bring foot traffic back.
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As the nation reels from a week of high-profile shootings, a new report on mass attacks calls for communities to intervene early when they see warning signs of violence, encourages businesses to consider workplace violence prevention plans and highlights the connection between domestic violence, misogyny and mass attacks.

The report, released Wednesday by the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center, analyzed 173 mass attacks carried out over a five-year period from January 2016 to December 2020 in public or semi-public places such as businesses, schools or churches.

It was released as the U.S. experienced a particularly deadly start to the new year that has left 39 people dead in six mass killings, including one this week in Monterey Park, California, that left 11 people dead at a dance hall as they welcomed in the Lunar New Year.

“It’s just happening way too often,” said Lina Alathari, the center’s director, during a news conference ahead of the report’s release. Alathari said that while the center had not specifically studied the shootings that took place this week, there are themes seen “over and over again” when analyzing mass attacks.

The report is the latest in a series undertaken by the center to look at the problem of mass attacks. While previous reports examined the specific years of 2017, 2018 and 2019, the new report noted that it analyzed multiple years of data and gives more “in-depth analysis of the thinking and behavior of mass attackers.”

The center defines a mass attack as one in which three or more people — not including the attacker — were harmed. Almost all the attacks were carried out by one person, 96% of attackers were men and the attackers ranged in age from 14 to 87.

The report noted that nearly two-thirds of attackers exhibited behaviors or communications “that were so concerning, they should have been met with an immediate response.” It said these concerns were often shared with law enforcement, employers, school staff or parents. But in one-fifth of the cases, the concerning behavior wasn’t relayed to anyone “in a position to respond, demonstrating a continued need to promote and facilitate bystander reporting.”

The report also called for greater attention toward domestic violence and misogyny, noting that nearly half of the attackers studied had a history of domestic violence, misogynistic behavior or both.

“Though not all who possess misogynistic views are violent, viewpoints that describe women as the enemy or call for violence against women remain a cause for concern,” the report said.

About half the attacks in the study involved a business location, and attackers often had a prior relationship with the business, as an employee, a customer or a former employer. The report also noted the role that grievances like workplace disputes or feuds with neighbors played in mass attacks. About half the attacks were motivated “in whole or in part by a perceived grievance,” according to the report.

“Workplaces should establish behavioral threat assessment programs as a component of their workplace violence prevention plans, and businesses should also establish proactive relationships with area law enforcement so that they may work collaboratively to respond to incidents involving a concern for violence, whether that concern arises from a current employee, a former employee, or a customer,” the report read.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Zambia, the second stop in a three-country swing, where she assured the country’s president and its finance minister that the timely restructuring of Zambia’s debt is a top priority. She spent most of Tuesday highlighting long-term measures to mitigate the sort of threats to food security exposed by Russia’s war in Ukraine. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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As Californians deal with two mass shootings just days apart, President Joe Biden is supporting gun control measures introduced by California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein to renew the 1994 assault-weapons ban. But as White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports, with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court leaning heavily conservative, the legal landscape for more gun control in the U.S. looks bleak.
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Several key U.S. lawmakers endorsed the next major step in American assistance to Ukraine on Tuesday, encouraging the White House to move forward with a plan to send M1 Abrams tanks to combat Russian aggression.

“Seldom in the history of modern warfare has so much depended on so few tanks,” Republican Lindsey Graham told reporters Tuesday after returning from a congressional trip to Ukraine. “Three hundred tanks given to the Ukrainians who have an ability to take any weapon system and maximize its benefit.”

Despite the difficulties of running M1 Abrams tanks on jet fuel, the Biden administration is reportedly weighing sending the tanks to Ukraine, hoping it would increase chances of Germany sending its own Leopard tanks.

Poland announced Monday it would seek German approval to send tanks from its stock of Leopards, and Great Britain announced last week it would send Challenger 2 tanks. Ukrainian officials said Challenger 2 tanks were “not sufficient to meet operational goals.”

Ukraine has consistently asked Western nations to supply tanks to defend itself against Russia. Last week at a meeting of NATO officials, Germany said it would consider supplying Leopard 2s – seen as the most advanced tanks – if the United States would supply M1 Abrams.

German news outlet Der Spiegel and others cited unconfirmed reports late Tuesday that the German government has decided to send the Leopard 2 tanks.

A U.S. official confirmed to VOA on Tuesday that the United States was preparing to announce it would provide Ukraine with U.S.-made M1 Abrams tanks. The official said those tanks would likely be procured through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and not from existing U.S. stocks.  

“If press reports are true, I am very pleased with the Biden Administration’s apparent decision to send Abrams tanks to help Ukraine evict Russia from Ukrainian soil,” Graham said in a statement.

“The Ukrainians can win if they have the tools that are necessary – beginning with tanks,” said Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who was also part of the delegation that met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine. “The Leopard 2 tanks are important because they are there. They’re in Europe, thousands of them within easy transport, training, fueling. They are essential. And just very bluntly, if it takes sending three, five, 10 Abrams tanks there, let’s do it.”

The Pentagon said earlier Tuesday that M1 Abrams are “complex weapons systems that are challenging to maintain.” Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters, “Our focus has been on providing Ukraine with capabilities it can employ right now on the battlefield.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned on the Senate floor Tuesday that the West’s failure to act could have devastating consequences.

“Germany has not only resisted calls to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine but has also prevented other European nations to transfer their own German-produced Leopards to Ukraine. Time is short, and while Berlin agonizes over its own decision whether to provide Leopards to Ukraine, it should proactively and explicitly make clear that other allies are free to do so,” McConnell said.

He added that the Biden administration’s “latest deliveries failed to include the longer-range missiles and more sophisticated munitions that Ukraine has been requesting for months. Mr. President, Ukraine’s brave resistance deserves our continued praise. But more importantly, it needs our concrete and consistent material support.”

Ukraine on Tuesday marked the 11-month anniversary of the Russian invasion. Since then, the United States has provided nearly $50 billion in humanitarian, economic and military aid. But U.S. assistance to Ukraine could face a roadblock in the House of Representatives, where Republicans holding the majority have expressed concern about oversight of the aid. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said last year the United States would not continue to write a “blank check” on aid while Americans face a difficult domestic economic situation.

But Graham pushed back against the perception the aid is not being properly managed.

“We’re very reassured that that our military assistance is going to where it should be going to and that accountability and transparency is there,” Graham said. “To my House colleagues, to those who believe we shouldn’t write a blank check, I agree. To those who have concerns about what’s going on in Ukraine – go. Don’t talk about it in Washington, get on a plane, get on a train, rest up, drink a lot of water, take your vitamins, and they will open up the books.”

VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Alphabet’s GOOGL.O Google on Tuesday over allegations that the company abused its dominance of the digital advertising business, according to a court document.

“Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” the government said in its antitrust complaint.

The Justice Department asked the court to compel Google to divest its Google Ad manager suite, including its ad exchange AdX.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit is the second federal antitrust complaint filed against Google, alleging violations of antitrust law in how the company acquires or maintains its dominance. The Justice Department lawsuit filed against Google in 2020 focuses on its monopoly in search and is scheduled to go to trial in September.

Eight states joined the department in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, including Google’s home state of California.

Google shares were down 1.3% on the news.

The lawsuit says “Google has thwarted meaningful competition and deterred innovation in the digital advertising industry, taken supra-competitive profits for itself, prevented the free market from functioning fairly to support the interests of the advertisers and publishers who make today’s powerful internet possible.”

While Google remains the market leader by a long shot, its share of the U.S. digital ad revenue has been eroding, falling to 28.8% last year from 36.7% in 2016, according to Insider Intelligence. Google’s advertising business is responsible for some 80% of its revenue.
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