Utility crews in Northern California worked to restore power to tens of thousands of homes Friday following two days of fierce winds and torrential rain, even as the region braced for another onslaught of stormy weather heading into the weekend.

The next bout of heavy showers and gusty winds was expected to sweep the northwestern corner of California late Friday and spread southward into the San Francisco Bay Area and central coast through Saturday and Sunday, the National Weather Service said. Southern Oregon was also forecast to take a hit.

The coming storm – another “atmospheric river” of dense moisture flowing in from the Pacific – is likely to dump more rain on a region already saturated from repeated downpours since late December, renewing risks of flash flooding and mudslides, the NWS said.

Hillsides and canyons stripped bare of vegetation by past wildfires are especially vulnerable to rock- and mudslides, according to forecasters.

In addition to heavy rains, up to 60 centimeters of snow was expected to fall over the weekend in higher elevations of the Sierras, where accumulations of 46 centimeters or more were measured earlier this week.

On Friday much of the northern two-thirds of California, the most populous state in the United States, was under flood watches, gale-force wind advisories and winter-storm warnings as forecasters urged residents to prepare for the deluge and stay off roads in flood-prone areas.

The ominous forecast comes on the heels of a massive Pacific storm that unleashed hurricane-force wind gusts, pounding surf, soaking rains and heavy snow across California for two days. The northern portion of the state was hardest hit.

As of Friday morning, some 60,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity in several Northern California counties because of the weather, according to data from Poweroutages.us.

Howling winds uprooted trees already weakened by prolonged drought and poorly anchored in rain-soaked soil, taking down power lines and blocking roadways across the region. Road travel was also disrupted by flash floods and rock slides.

High surf

High surf and runoff from heavy rains combined to flood several blocks in the seaside city of Santa Cruz, and heavy waves tore up wooden piers in the adjacent town of Capitola and nearby Seacliff State Beach.

Farther north, pounding waves broke through the rear doors of the historic Point Cabrillo lighthouse in Mendocino County, flooding its ground-floor museum, the Mendocino Voice newspaper reported.

The two-day storm, which ended Thursday night, was powered by an immense atmospheric stream of moisture from the tropical Pacific and a sprawling, hurricane-scale, low-pressure system known as a bomb cyclone.

It marked the third and strongest atmospheric river to strike California since early last week. Research predicts that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of such rainstorms, punctuating extensive periods of extreme drought.

At least six people have died in the severe weather since New Year’s weekend, including a toddler killed by a fallen redwood tree crushing a mobile home in Northern California.

The rapid succession of storms left downtown San Francisco drenched in 26 centimeters of rain from Dec. 26 through Wednesday, the wettest 10-day stretch recorded there in more than 150 years, since 1871, according to the NWS.

The highest all-time rainfall total ever documented over 10 days in the city’s downtown was 36.5 centimeters, an 1862 record the NWS said would likely stand through the downpours to come.

The storms have brought welcome replenishments to Sierra Nevada snowpack, a critical source of California’s water supply, but experts say much more snow will need to fall through the winter to markedly improve the state’s grave drought situation.

For better or worse, the weather service predicted that yet another, “likely stronger,” atmospheric river storm was “on the horizon for Monday,” part of a larger pattern that forecasters believe is likely to persist at least through the middle of January.
…

The Biden administration is proposing tougher standards for a deadly air pollutant, saying that reducing soot from tailpipes, smokestacks and wildfires could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year. 

A proposal released Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency would set maximum levels of 9 to 10 micrograms of fine particle pollution per cubic meter of air, down from 12 micrograms set a decade ago under the Obama administration. The standard for particle pollution, more commonly known as soot, was left unchanged by former President Donald Trump, who overrode a scientific recommendation for a lower standard in his final days in office. 

Environmental and public health groups that have been pushing for a stronger standard were disappointed, saying the EPA proposal does not go far enough to limit emissions of what is broadly called “fine particulate matter,” the tiny bits of soot we breathe in unseen from tailpipes, wildfires, factory and power plant smokestacks, and other sources. 

In a development that could lead to an even lower standard, the EPA said Friday that it also would take comments on a range of ideas submitted by a scientific advisory committee, including a proposal that would lower the maximum standard for soot to 8 micrograms. A microgram is one-millionth of a gram. 

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the proposal to strengthen the national ambient air quality standards for fine particle pollution would help prevent serious health problems, including asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. Those populations include children, older adults and those with heart and lung conditions, as well as low-income and minority communities throughout the United States. 

“This administration is committed to working to ensure that all people, regardless of the color of their skin, the community they live in or the money in their pocket, have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and the opportunity to lead a healthy life,” Regan said at a news conference. “At EPA, we are working every single day to create cleaner and healthier communities for all and have been doing so for over 50 years.” 

‘A disappointment’

Harold Wimmer, the president of the American Lung Association, called the EPA’s proposal disappointing, saying it was “inadequate to protect public health from this deadly pollutant.” 

“Current science shows that stronger limits are urgently needed … to protect vulnerable populations,” Wimmer said, calling for the EPA to lower the standard to 8 micrograms or lower. 

Seth Johnson, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice, called the EPA plan “a disappointment and missed opportunity overall.” While it would strengthen some public health protections, “EPA is not living up to the ambitions of this administration to follow the science, protect public health and advance environmental justice,” Johnson said. He urged the EPA “to hear communities, not industrial polluters, and strengthen this rule. Overburdened communities have the right to breathe clean air.” 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups called for the current standards to be maintained. 

“The United States has some of the best air quality in the world, thanks to steady reductions in contributors to particulate matter emissions over the last decade,” said Chad Whiteman, vice president of environment and regulatory affairs at the chamber’s Global Energy Institute. 

The proposed rule could “stifle manufacturing and industrial investment and exacerbate permitting challenges that continue to hamper the economy,” Whiteman said. 

‘Regulatory burden’

Mike Ireland, president of the Portland Cement Association, which represents U.S. cement manufacturers, added that the EPA’s proposed action “is yet another regulatory burden that will hamper the cement industry’s ability to manufacture sustainable construction materials to meet the nation’s infrastructure needs.” 

EPA scientists have estimated exposure at current limits causes the early deaths of thousands of Americans annually from heart disease and lung cancer as well as causing other health problems. 

Dr. Doris Browne, president of the National Medical Association, the oldest and largest national organization representing African American physicians, hailed the plan as “the bold action needed to protect public health across the country.” 

Appearing with Regan at a news conference, Browne said the proposal is likely to have lasting benefits across the country “but especially for those communities of color and low-income communities that experience the increase in particulate matter pollution.” Smog, soot and other pollution near factories, power plants and other hazards has a “devastating impact on public health,” she said. 

The EPA proposal would require states, counties and tribal governments to meet a stricter air quality standard for fine particulate matter up to 2.5 microns in diameter — far smaller than the diameter of a human hair. A micron, also called a micrometer, is equal to one-millionth of a meter. 

The standard would not force polluters to shut down, but the EPA and state regulators could use it as the basis for other rules that target pollution from specific sources such as diesel-fueled trucks, refineries and power plants. 

A 2022 report by the American Lung Association found that 63 million Americans live in counties that experience unhealthy daily spikes in soot pollution and 21 million live in counties that exceed annual limits for soot pollution. Most of those counties were in 11 Western states, the report said. People of color were 61% more likely than white people to live in a county with unhealthy air quality, the report said. 

Fresno, California, displaced Fairbanks, Alaska, as the metropolitan area with the worst short-term particle pollution, the report found, while Bakersfield, California, continued in the most-polluted slot for year-round particle pollution for the third year in a row. 

As of December 31, five metropolitan areas were not in compliance with current standards, the EPA said. Four of those areas are in California, including the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles. Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which includes Pittsburgh, also is out of compliance. 

The EPA will accept comments on the proposed rule through mid-March and will hold a virtual public hearing over several days. A final rule is expected this summer.
…

The United States on Friday issued new sanctions targeting suppliers of Iranian drones that Washington said have been used to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia.

Russia has been attacking vital Ukraine infrastructure since October with barrages of missile and drones, causing sweeping power blackouts as cold weather sets in.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on six executives and board members of Iran’s Qods Aviation Industries (QAI), also known as Light Airplanes Design and Manufacturing Industries.

The Treasury described QAI, which has been under U.S. sanctions since 2013, as a key Iranian defense manufacturer responsible for designing and producing drones.

“We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to deny [Russian President Vladimir] Putin the weapons that he is using to wage his barbaric and unprovoked war on Ukraine,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York and Russia’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Iran has previously acknowledged sending drones to Russia but said they were sent before Russia’s February invasion.

Moscow has denied its forces used Iranian drones in Ukraine.

Friday’s sanctions reflect U.S. concerns about Iranian-Russian military cooperation and Russia’s use of Iranian drones to hit Ukraine, a threat that could become more potent if Tehran were to provide missiles to Moscow to shore up Russian supplies.

Among those designated was Seyed Hojatollah Ghoreish, QAI’s board chairman and senior official in Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, who “has led Iran’s military research and development efforts and was responsible for negotiating Iran’s agreement with Russia for the supply of Iranian [drones] for Russia’s war in Ukraine,” the Treasury said.

The Treasury also imposed sanctions on Ghassem Damavandian, QAI’s managing director and board member, saying he had likely facilitated QAI’s supply of drones to Iranian military services and the training of Russian personnel on use of QAI-made drones.

Four others who have served as QAI board members were also placed under sanctions: Hamidreza Sharifi-Tehrani, Reza Khaki, Majid Reza Niyazi-Angili and Vali Arlanizadeh.

The sanctions also targeted the director of Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, which the Treasury said was the key organization responsible for overseeing Iran’s ballistic missile programs.

The move freezes any U.S. assets of those designated and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those engaged in certain transactions with them also risked being hit by sanctions.

The United States has previously imposed sanctions on companies and people it accused of producing or transferring Iranian drones that Russia has used to attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
…

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday the U.S. added 223,000 jobs in December while the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5 percent.

In its monthly report, the bureau said notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care, construction, and social assistance. The report said the unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 3.5 percent to 3.7 percent since March.

The report shows modest gains in wages during December, rising by just 0.3 percent, Over the past 12 months, wages rose by an average of 4.6 percent. The slowing of wage growth is good news because the U.S. Federal Reserve uses it as a barometer for inflation and has been raising interest rates to slow both job and wage growth.

A slowing of the economy could mean fewer and smaller interest rate increases in the coming months.

U.S. stock markets reacted positively to the news. Dow futures were up more than 100 points following the jobs release.

In the report, the bureau also announced that total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised down by 21,000, from 284,000 to 263,000 new jobs and the change for November was revised down by 7,000, from 263,000 to 256,000 new jobs.

With those revisions, combined employment gains in October and November were

28,000 lower than previously reported.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

Police in Miami and witnesses at the scene say as many as 10 people were wounded in a shooting outside a Miami restaurant late Thursday.

Police responding to the incident said it occurred around 8 p.m. local time near a restaurant called The Licking in the Miami Gardens section of the city. One witness reported as many as 12 shots were fired.

Media reports citing witnesses said as many as 10 people were killed, but police would only confirm multiple injuries and said there were no fatalities. They did not have information on the condition of the victims.

Local Miami rap music performer Ced Mogul told reporters at the scene at least 12 shots were fired during the filming of a music video for another rapper, French Montana. Video from several Twitter users showed police giving aid to two men whom the posters identified as Rob49 and French Montana’s bodyguard.

The Miami Herald reports several victims were taken to Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital, where loved ones had arrived.

The Herald reports that as of early Friday, no arrests had been made in connection with the shooting. A law enforcement source told a local Miami television station that detectives will be going through videos posted to social media as well as surveillance video from nearby businesses to try and identify the assailants.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press.
…

World food prices fell for a ninth month in a row in December, though they hit their highest level on record for the full year in 2022, UN data showed Friday.

Food prices soared to a monthly record high in March after Russia invaded agricultural powerhouse Ukraine, a major supplier of wheat and cooking oil to the world.

A Russian naval blockade that prevented Ukrainian grain exports was lifted following a deal in July brokered by Turkey and the United Nations.

The Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday its price index, which tracks the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, fell to 132.4 points in December, a 1.9 percent drop from November.

It was also one percent lower than in December 2021.

But the index was 14.3 percent higher overall in 2022 compared to the previous year as it reached an all-time high of 143.7 points.

“Calmer food commodity prices are welcome after two very volatile years,” FAO chief economist Maximo Torero said in a statement.

“It is important to remain vigilant and keep a strong focus on mitigating global food insecurity given that world food prices remain at elevated levels,” he said.

Torero said many staples are near record highs, with prices of rice rising and “still many risks associated with future supplies”.
…

Jordynn Cromartie entered her senior year of high school facing a daunting choice, one countless other Black gymnasts have faced for decades.

The teenager from Houston wanted to attend a historically Black college or university. And she wanted to compete in the sport she’s dedicated most of her life to.

One problem. She knew she couldn’t do both, something Cromartie brought up over Thanksgiving dinner while talking to her uncle, Frank Simmons, a member of the Board of Trustees at Fisk University, a private HBCU of around 1,000 students in Nashville, Tennessee.

“He and my aunt were like, ‘Oh you haven’t made a decision, you should come to Fisk,’” Cromartie said. “I’m like, ‘Well, they don’t have a gymnastics team.’ To go to a college that doesn’t have what I would be working for forever was crazy to me.”

Simmons, stunned, made a promise to his niece.

“Watch,” he told her. “I’ll make it happen.”

In the span of a few weeks, Simmons connected Derrin Moore — the founder of Atlanta-based Brown Girls Do Gymnastics, an organization that’d been trying to drum up support for an HBCU for years — with Fisk’s trustees. One trustee listened to Moore’s pitch and offered to make a $100,000 donation on the spot if Fisk adopted the sport.

And seemingly in a flash, all the roadblocks and misconceptions Moore had encountered while spending the better part of a decade trying to persuade an HBCU to take the leap on an increasingly diverse sport evaporated.

On Friday afternoon at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, barely 14 months after Fisk committed to building a program from the ground up, Cromartie — now a freshman at her uncle’s alma mater — and the rest of her teammates will make history when they become the first HBCU to participate in an NCAA women’s gymnastics meet. The Bulldogs will compete against Southern Utah, North Carolina and Washington as part of the inaugural Super 16, an event that also includes perennial NCAA powers like Oklahoma, UCLA and Michigan.

“I feel like it’s nice to show that Black girls can do it, too,” Cromartie said. “We have a team that’s 100% of people of color and you’ve never seen that before anywhere. … I feel like we have a point to prove.”

The face of high-level women’s gymnastics is changing. While athletes of color have excelled at the sport’s highest level for decades, participation among Black athletes has spiked over the last 10 years thanks in part to the popularity of Olympic champions Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles.

Black gymnasts account for around 10% of scholarships at the NCAA Division I level, an increase from 7% in 2012, when Douglas became the first Black woman win to Olympic gold. More than 10% of USA Gymnastics members self-identify as Black.

It’s a massive jump from when Corrinne Tarver became the first Black woman to win an NCAA all-around title at Georgia in 1989.

“When I first went to school, there were a scattering of (Black gymnasts),” said Tarver, now the head coach and athletic director at Fisk. “One on this team, one on that team … there wasn’t a lot of African-American gymnasts around back then compared to today.”

Still, it caught Umme Salim-Beasley off guard when she began exploring her college options in the early 1990s. Salim-Beasley grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and competed in the same gym as four-time Olympic medalist Dominique Dawes. Salim-Beasley wanted to go to an HBCU. When she approached an HBCU recruiter at a college fair and told the recruiter she was a gymnast, the response she received shocked her.

“They didn’t see it as a sport for women of color,” said Salim-Beasley, who ended up competing at West Virginia and is now the head coach at Rutgers. “And that was the perception, that gymnastics was not a sport that was welcoming or had enough interest from women of color.”

Which has made the response to Fisk’s inaugural class even more rewarding.

For years, Moore and Salim-Beasley — a member of the advisory council at Brown Girls Do Gymnastics — would struggle just to set up exploratory interviews with HBCU athletics officials. In the months since Fisk’s program launched, Moore and Salim-Beasley have talked to presidents at nine HBCUs.

“People are really interested,” Moore said. “They still have a lot of questions and still not pulling the trigger, but they are reaching out.”

All of which puts Fisk in an enviable if challenging spot. The program is a beta test of sorts as other HBCUs watch from afar to see how Fisk handles the massive logistical and economic hurdles that come with launching a program.

The Bulldogs don’t have an on-campus facility and are currently training at a club gym a few miles from campus, though they are fundraising in hopes of remedying that soon. They are competing this year as an independent while waiting to get their NCAA status sorted out.

And Tarver immediately threw the program into the deep end of the pool. Their inaugural schedule includes meets at Michigan, Georgia and Rutgers.

“It would have been really easy to just put in schools that were not as strong and then make our whole schedule like that and then just hope for the best,” Tarver said. “But I didn’t want to do that. I wanted them to realize that they belong on that stage.”

In that way, Tarver is following through on her recruiting pitch last spring, when she spent hours on Zoom asking young women of color to believe in something that had never existed before.

“Basically, I pitched them on the dream,” Tarver said. “I told them they’ll be a part of history. Their names will go down in history as the first HBCU ever.”

It proved to be a far easier sell than Tarver imagined.

Morgan Price initially committed to Arkansas so she could compete with her older sister, Frankie. Yet once Fisk announced it was going to take the ambitious step of competing in 2023, Price felt drawn to the opportunity.

“Since we are the first, it’s kind of special,” Price said. “We get to build it from the ground up.”

And yes, the perks of being the first don’t hurt. Several Bulldogs appeared on Jennifer Hudson’s talk show in the fall. An Emmy-winning documentarian is following them throughout the season. The splash on social media has been sizable.

So has the splash in real life. When Price returned to her club gym in Texas shortly after committing to Fisk, the energy she felt from younger gymnasts of color as they peppered her with questions was palpable.

“They were telling me, ‘I can’t wait until I can be recruited so I can be an HBCU gymnast as well,’” Price said.

That’s the big-picture plan. Moore is optimistic several HBCU schools will follow in Fisk’s footsteps soon.

They just won’t be the first. That honor will go to the women in the blue-and-gold leotards who will salute the judges for the first time Friday, as the team filled with athletes who “come from backgrounds where they were kind of told that they weren’t as good,” as Tarver put it, makes history.

Athletes who no longer have to choose between heritage and opportunity.

“Already being an HBCU, we’re the underdogs,” Cromartie said. “We haven’t had much time to practice. We don’t have the resources of other schools yet … but we are eager to prove we can keep up with everyone else. That we belong.”
…

Friday is the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, when an angry mob, supporters of former president Donald Trump, sought to block the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.

A bipartisan group of members of Congress will gather on the East Front Steps of the Capitol building Friday morning to honor the officers who lost their lives or were injured as a result of the attack.

U.S. President Joe Biden is marking the day at the White House with a ceremony where he will bestow the Presidential Citizens Medal to 12 individuals, who one White House official said, “made exemplary contributions to our democracy surrounding January 6, 2021.”

The Presidential Citizens Medal recognizes U.S. citizens “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”

Included among the group that will receive the award Friday are a mother and daughter who were threatened for doing their jobs as election workers in Fulton County, Georgia; Capitol and Washington, D.C., police officers, lawmakers, and a former federal civil servant.

One award will be given posthumously to Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer, who lost his life protecting the country’s elected officials. He died Jan. 7.  Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses paid their respects to Sicknick when he was laid in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.

Sicknick’s estate has filed a wrongful death suit against Trump, seeking $10 million in damages.

“Defendant Trump intentionally riled up the crowd and directed and encouraged a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol and attack those who opposed them,” according to the estate’s court filing.
…

Opponents of the largest lithium mine planned in the United States urged a federal judge in Nevada on Thursday to vacate the U.S. government’s approval of the project until it completes additional environmental reviews and complies with all state and federal laws.

U.S. District Judge Miranda Du said after a three-hour hearing in Reno that she hoped to make a decision “in the next couple months” on how to proceed in the nearly 2-year-old legal battle over the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the mine Lithium Nevada Corp. plans to open near the Nevada-Oregon line.

Lawyers for the company and the Bureau of Land Management insist the project complies with U.S. laws and regulations. But they said if Du determines it does not, she should stop short of vacating the agency’s approval and allow initial work at the site to begin as further reviews are initiated.

Lawyers for a Nevada rancher, conservation groups and Native American tribes suing to block the mine said that should not occur because any environmental damage would be irreversible.

Dozens rally in protest

Dozens of tribal members and other protesters rallied outside the downtown courthouse during the hearing, beating drums and waving signs at passing motorists.

Du has refused twice over the past year to grant temporary injunctions sought by tribal leaders who say the mine site is on sacred land where their ancestors were massacred by the U.S. cavalry in 1865.

But Thursday’s hearing marked the first on the actual merits of the case. It will set the legal landscape going forward after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling in Arizona that voided federal approval of a copper mine.

That potentially precedent-setting decision raises questions about the reach of the Mining Law of 1872 and could have a bearing on disposal of waste rock at the lithium mine in the high desert about 321 kilometers northeast of Reno.

Lithium Nevada and the Bureau of Land Management say the project atop an ancient volcano is critical to meeting growing demand for lithium to make electric vehicle batteries — a key part of President Joe Biden’s push to expedite a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Opponents say it will destroy dwindling habitat for sage grouse, Lahontan cutthroat trout, pronghorn antelope and golden eagles.

“Along with adjacent Oregon wild lands, it constitutes one of the last big blocks of the sagebrush sea free of development,” said Katie Fite of WildLands Defense, one of the plaintiffs suing to block the Thacker Pass project.

“We need a smart energy future that transitions our economy from fossil fuels to renewables without sacrificing rare species in the process,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of the Western Watersheds Project, which also petitioned in September for protection of a tiny, nearby snail under the Endangered Species Act.

The Bureau of Land Management fast-tracked the project’s approval during the final days of the Trump administration. The Biden administration continues to embrace the mine as part of the president’s clean energy agenda intended to combat climate change.

Corporation says mine could help meet demand

Demand for lithium is expected to triple by 2030 from 2020. Lithium Nevada says its project is the only one on the drawing board that can help meet the demand.

In addition to the cultural and environmental concerns about the potential impacts, the new 9th Circuit ruling halting the Arizona mine in July was a focus of Thursday’s hearing on the lawsuit filed in February 2021. She told lawyers on both sides she was interested in “the extent to which [that case] controls the outcome of this case.”

The San Francisco-based appellate court upheld the Arizona ruling that the Forest Service lacked authority to approve Rosemont Copper’s plans to dispose of waste rock on land adjacent to the mine it wanted to dig on a national forest southeast of Tucson, Arizona.

The service and the Bureau of Land Management have long interpreted the Mining Law of 1872 to convey the same mineral rights to such lands.

The 9th Circuit agreed with U.S. Judge James Soto, who determined the Forest Service approved Rosemont’s plans in 2019 without considering whether the company had any mining rights on the neighboring lands. He concluded the agency assumed under mining law that Rosemont had “valid mining claims on the 2,447 acres it proposed to occupy with its waste rock.”
…

U.S. President Joe Biden announced measures Thursday to prevent migrants from entering the United States without authorization from Mexico, while offering a new pathway to legal entry for up to 30,000 people a month under its “humanitarian parole” program now available to refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told VOA that online applications for humanitarian parole for Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans will start “immediately, whether it’s today or tomorrow, but immediately we’re going to begin making this program accessible.”

“It’s extraordinarily important that we provide a safe, humane, orderly way for individuals to arrive at the United States,” Mayorkas said in a White House interview.

The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity:

VOA: How is the Department of Homeland Security dealing with the arrival of hundreds of Cuban and Haitians by sea to Florida?

Mayorkas: What we have done historically, and we are continuing to do, is to deploy our United States Coast Guard, which interdicts individuals seeking that perilous journey and returns them to Cuba or to a different country, depending on the circumstances. Do not take to the seas. We have seen too much travesty.

VOA: Are you expecting an increase in people coming by sea from Haiti and Cuba after this announcement?

Mayorkas: We’re watching it very closely. That would be a grave mistake for people to do it. They will not succeed. We will exercise our legal authorities. People who take these irregular paths, these dangerous paths, not only risk their lives, but they risked their lives only to fail in their mission.

Because what we are doing is, we are providing lawful pathways, but we’re delivering consequences for people who don’t use those lawful pathways that we’ve made available to them. So, they will be expelled under Title 42 or returned under our Title 8 authorities.

VOA: Once Mexico accepts those 30,000 migrants that they agreed to accept every month, what happens if more people continue to come to the U.S. border? What will happen to them?

Mayorkas: Mexico’s decision is a decision that Mexico made independently, unilaterally. … What I said earlier today stands true: We’re going to respond to what we experience at our southern border. And so, we will accelerate or add additional measures that will respond to the situation, because we are very committed to providing humanitarian relief, but we are very committed to providing that relief in a safe and orderly way and delivering consequences for people who don’t use them.

VOA: Have you reached agreements with other countries to take migrants?

Mayorkas: We have worked throughout the region with other countries. This is a regional challenge. So many countries are experiencing increased migration; the displacement of people is unprecedented. We’re working with those other countries. Take a look at Colombia. Colombia has accepted 2.4 million Venezuelans. Costa Rica is accepting now an unprecedented number of Nicaraguans. A regional challenge requires a regional solution.

VOA: But you can’t send Venezuelans back to Venezuela, for example?

Mayorkas: We do not have a relationship with Venezuela. Venezuela does not accept the return of its citizens.  
…

The Shawnee Tribe is asking to take over ownership of a historical site in Kansas that might contain unmarked graves of Native American students.

The tribe released an architectural survey Tuesday that found the three buildings remaining at the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway, Kansas, need millions of dollars in repairs, The Kansas City Star reported.

The site, formerly known as the Shawnee Indian Manual Labor School, was one of hundreds of schools run by the government and religious groups in the 1800s and 1900s that removed Indigenous children from their families to assimilate them into white society and Christianity.

It is owned by the Kansas Historical Society. The city of Fairway manages daily operations.

In October, state officials announced that they planned to conduct a ground study to search for unmarked graves on the 4.86-hectare site. That process stalled after the Shawnee Tribe said it had not been consulted enough and raised questions about the proposed study.

Tribal leaders contend that state and Fairway officials have not properly maintained the site.

The Oklahoma-based tribe commissioned the study from Architectural Resources Group last year because leaders are “concerned about the future of this historic site,” Chief Ben Barnes said in a statement Tuesday.

“Over the last year, we have had numerous conversations with the city and state about the need to save this special place,” Barnes said. “When it became clear that there was no plan in place, we began conversations about the possibility of the Shawnee Tribe assuming responsibility for restoring and repairing this site.”

Officials with the Kansas Historical Society and the city of Fairway rejected the suggestion that the site be transferred to the tribe.

Patrick Zollner, acting executive director of the Historical Society, said the organization has already made several improvements, is planning more restoration work and remains committed to telling the history of the site.

In a statement released Tuesday, Fairway officials questioned whether the tribe had the resources to pay for needed renovations and repairs. They also questioned what the tribe would do with the land, and they said the city and state may not have any authority over how the land was used.

Tribal leaders estimate the repairs would cost up to $13 million. If given ownership, the tribe said it would repair the buildings in multiple phases while meeting historical preservation requirements.
…

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it was taking joint action with Turkey against a network it said played a key role in money management, transfer and distribution for the Islamic State group operating in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey has frozen the assets of members to the network, who also were added to the U.S. sanctions list, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Those sanctioned included an Iraqi national living illegally in Turkey, Brukan al-Khatuni, his two sons, and two businesses they used to transfer money on behalf оf the Islamic State between Turkey, Iraq and Syria, it said.
…

Australia is boosting its long-range strike capability with the purchase of a U.S. missile system, the same long-range military technology Ukraine is using in its war with Russia. 

Australia has signed an agreement to buy 20 High Mobility Artillery Rockets, also known as HIMARS, by 2026. 

Canberra also has a deal to acquire the Norwegian-made Naval Strike Missiles — anti-ship and land-attack missiles — for Australian warships next year. 

The HIMARS system is made in the United States by Lockheed Martin Corp. It has proved its deadly efficiency in the war in Ukraine. On New Year’s Day, Ukrainian forces used the missile system donated by the United States to kill dozens, possibly hundreds of Russian soldiers in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. 

Australian officials have said that HIMARS have a range of 300 kilometers. 

Canberra is also working with Lockheed Martin to make a new generation of missiles with a range of up to 500 kilometers. 

Australian Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Thursday that the technology will give the military firepower it has never had before. 

“We will have an Army ground-launched missile that can reach targets up to 300 kilometers away.” Conroy said.  

He added that, “We are part of a developmental program with the United States called the Precision Strike Missile that will allow [the] army to hit targets in excess of 499 kilometers. So, this will give the Australian army a strike capability they have never had before.” 

The Naval Strike Missiles are made by Norwegian company Kongsberg. 

They will replace Harpoon anti-ship missiles on the Royal Australian Navy’s Hobart-class destroyers and Anzac-class frigates from 2024. 

Australian officials have said both missile systems would help Australian forces “deter conflict and protect our interests.” 

In August 2022, the federal government announced a review of Australia’s defense capabilities. 

The assessment is being carried out by retired Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston and former Defense Minister Stephen Smith. 

They are expected to hand their report to the government next month. 
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Nate Thayer, the larger-than-life American freelance journalist who scored a massive scoop with his 1997 interview with Pol Pot, the genocidal leader of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, has died at 62, his family said Wednesday.   

Thayer was discovered dead by his brother Rob Thayer at his Falmouth, Massachusetts home Tuesday.   

“He had a lot of ailments, he was seriously ill for many months,” the brother told AFP.   

Nate Thayer spent years reporting on Cambodia politics and society, including the Khmer Rouge, the brutal communist regime that left more than one million people dead between 1975 and 1979.   

Beginning in 1989, he worked for The Associated Press, and then publications like the Phnom Penh Post and the Far Eastern Economic Review, building contacts in the dangerous jungle border region of Thailand and Cambodia.   

With his shaven head, chewing tobacco and handiness with guns, he gained a reputation as a gonzo journalist, setting out on crazy adventures, like traveling with a well-armed reporting team from Soldier of Fortune magazine into eastern Cambodia in search of a likely extinct forest ox called a kouprey.   

In the wild west frontier of Thailand and Cambodia, he braved firefights and was severely injured by a landmine in 1989 while riding with Cambodian guerillas.   

His work paid off in 1997 when he sent a cryptic message to Far Eastern Economic Review editor Nayan Chanda that he would interview “uncle,” or Pol Pot, whom no journalist had met for two decades.   

From Thailand Thayer slipped into Pol Pot’s Anlong Veng jungle redoubt, beating out a New York Times team that had arrived near the border thinking they would see the shadowy Cambodian.   

Days later, he broke the story in the Far Eastern Economic Review. Pol Pot, blamed for murdering over a million people, told him: “Am I a savage person? My conscience is clear.”   

Chanda attributed his journalistic success to a distinct “doggedness.”   

“He was very intense, very focused on the story he was working on, almost like a force of nature,” Chanda said.   

“He actually knew quite a few of the Khmer Rouge. … Nobody else spent as much time pursuing those guys, going to dangerous places, being with them in a firefight,” he added.   

A year later Thayer scooped others with Pol Pot’s death and an interview with the one-legged Khmer Rouge army commander and Pol Pot rival Ta Mok.   

But by then he was embroiled in a fight with ABC News’ Nightline program over its use of his video footage and reporting on the Khmer Rouge, which Thayer said violated their agreement.   

Thayer rejected a prestigious Peabody Award which cited him as a correspondent for Nightline, and the two sides later settled his suit.   

The son of a former U.S. ambassador to Singapore, Thayer spent most of his career focused on Asia, reporting from combat situations like the Myanmar border and investigating North Korea.   

He also traveled to Iraq to report on the 2003 U.S. invasion.   

He won a number of journalism awards, including the ICIJ Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting, and was proud of being a freelancer, calling for more respect and better pay for reporters not employed full-time.   

Slowed by the long-term ailments, some dating to his injuries from the mine explosion, in the past decade Thayer reported online on right-wing extremism from Washington and Massachusetts.   

With his health failing, he spent his final months posting poetic odes to his “best pal,” his dog Lamont. 
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Thousands of migrants have flocked to government offices in southern Mexico seeking asylum since the United States said it would keep restrictions used to quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would maintain a pandemic-era measure for expediting expulsions of undocumented migrants to Mexico until it had time to consider Republican arguments against its repeal, which U.S. President Joe Biden said could extend the curbs until at least June.  

Meanwhile, Biden administration officials told Reuters the measure known as Title 42 could soon be applied to more nationalities, including Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians, stirring fears of expulsions and encouraging migrants to seek asylum to safeguard freedom of movement inside Mexico, analysts and officials say. 

Cuban migrant German Ortiz, who is waiting to apply for asylum in the Mexican city of Tapachula near the Guatemalan border, wants to make his way quickly to the United States. 

“Once the new law is enforced, they’ll close the road to us,” said Ortiz, who arrived in Tapachula on December 31. “We don’t want to risk it, we must get to the border now.” 

Up to 5,000 in two days

Mexico currently accepts only certain nationalities expelled from the United States, but it is expected to take in more soon under Title 42 as Washington deals with a record 2.2 million migrants arrests at the U.S. southwest border in 2022.  

Title 42 was originally put in place to curb the spread of COVID, but U.S. health authorities have since said it is no longer needed for public health reasons. Immigrant advocates say the policy is inhumane and it exposes vulnerable migrants to serious risks, like kidnapping or assault, in Mexican border towns. 

Andres Ramirez, head of Mexico’s Commission for Refugee Assistance, estimated that up to 5,000 migrants turned up at the Tapachula offices of the commission — known as COMAR — on January 2 and 3, among the largest groups the agency has ever seen in such a short time. Many of the migrants included Haitians and Nicaraguans. 

Ramirez said many migrants seek asylum to obtain documents they believe are necessary to traverse Mexico so they can then go to the U.S.-Mexico border later. Mexico has sought to contain mass movement of migrants toward the U.S. border by breaking up caravans and setting up checkpoints throughout the country. 

Ramirez believed the mass of recent arrivals could be migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti seeking to reach the United States before rules change. 

“They’re trying to run,” he said. 

Migration on agenda

Police in Tapachula and the National Guard erected fences around COMAR offices to block large crowds of migrants, Reuters images show. 

“I’ve been sleeping here since January 1, waiting for them to help me, to give me shelter,” said Mauricio Hilario, a 27-year-old Salvadoran migrant camping outside the COMAR building with dozens of other people, including small children. 

Nearly 400,000 migrants were detained in Mexico through November, twice as many as in 2019, official data show. 

Migration is expected to feature prominently on the agenda when U.S. President Joe Biden meets his Mexican and Canadian counterparts for a leaders’ summit next week in Mexico City. 

Lorena Mena, director of Continente Movil, a think tank specializing in migration issues, said any expansion of Title 42 would likely increase risky migration because traffickers will encourage expelled migrants to keep crossing the border as they have not been officially deported. 

“The fact that people cross borders does not take away their rights, among them, to request asylum,” she added, saying many will try again. 

Some migrants, such as Raquel, a 44-year-old Venezuelan who was selling boiled eggs with salt to pay for a small, shared room in Tapachula, expressed hope the summit could yield a plan that will make it easier to reach the United States. 

“I’d like both countries to help us and give us a chance to get in … legally without having to risk crossing Mexico or turning ourselves in,” she said. 
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Amazon.com layoffs will now stretch to more than 18,000 jobs as part of a workforce reduction it previously disclosed, Chief Executive Andy Jassy said in a public staff note on Wednesday.

The layoff decisions, which Amazon will communicate starting January 18, will largely impact the company’s e-commerce and human-resources organizations, he said.

The cuts amount to 6% of Amazon’s roughly 300,000-person corporate workforce and represent a swift turn for a retailer that recently doubled its base pay ceiling to compete more aggressively for talent.

Jassy said in the note that annual planning “has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years.”

Amazon has more than 1.5 million workers including warehouse staff, making it America’s second-largest private employer after Walmart. It has braced for likely slower growth as soaring inflation encouraged businesses and consumers to cut back spending and its share price has halved in the past year.

Amazon began letting staff go in November from its devices division, with a source telling Reuters at the time it was targeting 10,000 job cuts.

In number, its layoffs now surpass the 11,000 job cuts at Facebook-parent Meta Platforms as well as reductions at other tech-industry peers.
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More than 50 people were convicted in the sprawling college admissions bribery scheme that embroiled elite universities across the country and landed a slew of prominent parents and athletic coaches behind bars.

The case dubbed Operation Varsity Blues by authorities revealed a scheme to get the children of rich parents into top-tier schools with fake athletic credentials and bogus entrance exam scores.

The ringleader of the scheme, corrupt admissions consultant Rick Singer, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison on Wednesday, nearly four years after the first arrests were made in March 2019.

Here’s a look at the Varsity Blues investigation and where the cases stand now:

How did authorities uncover the scheme?

Federal investigators stumbled across the scandal after an executive they were targeting in an unrelated securities fraud scheme told them that a Yale soccer coach had offered to help his daughter get into the school in exchange for bribes. Authorities set up a sting in a Boston hotel room in April 2018 and recorded the coach, Rudy Meredith, soliciting a bribe from the father.

Investigators heard Singer’s name for the first time when Meredith mentioned him during that meeting. Meredith began cooperating that same month with investigators, who recorded phone calls and an in-person meeting between himself and Singer that revealed the extent of the bribery scheme.

Authorities then convinced Singer to cooperate with them and to record incriminating phone calls and in-person meetings with those involved with his scheme. His cooperation helped prosecutors build the case against dozens of parents, coaches and others.

Who has been convicted?

Of the more than 50 people charged in the case, all but a handful ended up pleading guilty.

Among the most high-profile parents who admitted to charges were “Full House” actor Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, who paid $500,000 in bribes to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as crew team recruits, even though neither of them played the sport. They helped create fake athletic profiles for their daughters by sending Singer photos of the teens posing on rowing machines.

Others who pleaded guilty include “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman, who paid $15,000 to boost her older daughter’s SAT scores.

An heir to the Hot Pockets fortune also admitted to paying Singer $100,000 to have a proctor correct her two daughters’ ACT exam answers. The former chairman of a global law firm, the onetime chief executive of a media company, and a former owner of a California wine business were among others who pleaded guilty.

Only two parents accused of working with Singer ended up going to trial. Gamal Abdelaziz, a former casino executive, and John Wilson, a former Staples Inc. executive, were both convicted at trial last year.

Abdelaziz, of Las Vegas, was charged with paying $300,000 to get his daughter into the University of Southern California as a basketball recruit even though she didn’t even make it onto her high school’s varsity team.

Wilson, who heads a Massachusetts private equity firm, was accused of paying $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and an additional $1 million to buy his twin daughters’ ways into Harvard and Stanford. They have both appealed their convictions to the federal appeals court in Boston.

What have the punishments been?

Before Singer’s sentence, the longest sentence in the case had gone to Gordon Ernst, the former Georgetown University tennis coach who once coached former President Barack Obama’s family. He was sentenced in July to 2 1/2 years in prison for pocketing more than $3 million in bribes in exchange for helping parents cheat their kids’ way into the school.

Jorge Salcedo, a former University of California, Los Angeles, men’s soccer coach, was sentenced to eight months behind bars for accepting $200,000 in bribes to designate applicants as athletic recruits. Michael Center, a former men’s tennis coach at the University of Texas at Austin, was sentenced to six months in prison for taking a $100,000 bribe

Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison while Giannulli got five months behind bars. Huffman was sentenced to 14 days. Some parents avoided prison time entirely. The toughest punishment among the parents went to Wilson, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison. A judge has allowed Wilson to remain free while he appeals his conviction.

Did anyone beat the charges?

Just before leaving office, President Donald Trump pardoned Robert Zangrillo, a prominent Miami developer and investor who was charged with paying $250,000 to get his daughter into USC as a transfer in 2018.

William Ferguson, a former Wake Forest University coach, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors that will make the case against him go away with the payment of a fine as long as he follows certain conditions.

A judge in September ordered a new trial for Jovan Vavic, the former USC water polo coach accused of taking more than $200,000 in bribes. Jurors found Vavic guilty, but the judge concluded that some evidence introduced by the government in Vavic’s fraud and bribery case was unreliable and that prosecutors erred in their argument to jurors about some of the alleged bribe money.

One parent linked to the case, Amin Khoury, was acquitted of charges that he paid off a Georgetown University tennis coach to get his daughter into the school. Khoury wasn’t accused of working with Singer, but authorities alleged he used a middleman he was friends with in college at Brown University to bribe Ernst.
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The mastermind behind the nationwide college admissions bribery scheme that ensnared celebrities, prominent businesspeople and other parents who used their wealth and privilege to buy their children’s way into top-tier schools was sentenced to 3½ years in prison Wednesday.

The punishment for Rick Singer, 62, is the longest sentence handed down in the sprawling scandal that embarrassed some of the nation’s most prestigious universities and put a spotlight on the secretive admissions system already seen as rigged in favor of the rich.

Prosecutors had sought six years behind bars, while noting Singer’s extensive cooperation that helped authorities unravel the entire scheme. Singer began secretly working with investigators in 2018 and recorded hundreds of phone calls and meetings that helped authorities build the case against dozens of parents, athletic coaches and others arrested in March 2019.

Those sent to prison for participating in the scheme include “Full House” actor Lori Loughlin, her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli, and “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman. Coaches from schools including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of California-Los Angeles admitted to accepting bribes.

“It was a scheme that was breathtaking in its scale and its audacity. It has literally become the stuff of books and made-for-TV movies,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Frank told the judge Wednesday.

The prosecutor called Singer’s cooperation in the case unparalleled but said it was also problematic, noting that Singer admitted to obstructing the investigation by tipping off several of his clients who were under government scrutiny.

Defense attorney Candice Fields said Singer took great personal risk by wearing a wire to record meetings and “did whatever was necessary” to assist the government in its investigation. Fields had requested three years of probation, or if the judge deemed prison time necessary, six months behind bars.

Singer apologized to his family, the schools he embarrassed in the public eye and others. He also promised to work every day of his life going forward to make a positive impact in people’s lives.

Singer pleaded guilty in 2019 — on the same day the massive case became public — to charges including racketeering conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Dozens of others ultimately pleaded guilty to charges, while two parents were convicted at trial.

Authorities in Boston began investigating the scheme after an executive under scrutiny for an unrelated securities fraud scheme told investigators that a Yale soccer coach had offered to help his daughter get into the school in exchange for cash. The Yale coach led authorities to Singer, whose cooperation unraveled the entire scheme.

Singer took in more than $25 million from his clients, paid bribes totaling more than $7 million, and used more than $15 million of his clients’ money for his own benefit, according to prosecutors.

Before Singer, the toughest punishment had gone to former Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst, who got 2½ years in prison for pocketing more than $3 million in bribes.

Punishments for the parents have ranged from probation to 15 months behind bars, although the parent who received that prison sentence remains free while he appeals his conviction.
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U.S. President Joe Biden will celebrate the “courage and patriotism” of people who fought back against the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol during a ceremony on Friday, the second anniversary of the attack, the White House said.

Friday’s event in the White House’s East Room will mark a rare moment for Biden to wade into the issues stoked by the deadly riot by supporters of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump. Their actions interrupted the certification of the Democrat’s 2020 victory.

“An important focus of his remarks will be on recognizing Americans who showed courage and patriotism, who put themselves in danger on behalf of others and on behalf of our democracy,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“On Jan. 6, there were continued, countless examples of Americans who showed up and showed those best values of who we are and so you’ll hear from him directly. … The president wants to lift up the Americans who stood up on one of the darkest days of our democracy,” she said.

Soon to enter his third year in office, Biden has said he intends to seek another four-year term but has not formally his candidacy.

Trump, who never conceded defeat in the 2020 election, has already announced that he is seeking his party’s nomination again in 2024.

The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives panel probing the attack last month asked federal prosecutors to charge Trump with four crimes, including obstruction and insurrection. It was the first time in history that Congress had referred a former president for criminal prosecution.  

Trump, who is facing two other federal probes, has dismissed the House investigation as partisan.

The former president gave a fiery speech to his supporters on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, and publicly chastised then Vice President Mike Pence for not going along with his scheme to reject ballots cast for Biden.  

Trump then waited hours before making a public statement as thousands of his supporters raged through the Capitol, assaulting police and threatening to hang Pence.  

Five people, including a police officer, died during or shortly after the incident and more than 140 police officers were injured. The Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage.
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CES 2023 opens this week in Las Vegas. After an unusually low turnout last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain issues, organizers say the consumer electronics show is back in full swing. VOA’s Julie Taboh shows us some of what to expect.
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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday pledged to deepen his country’s alliance with the United States under Japan’s new defense policy that breaks from its exclusively self-defense-only stance in the face of growing regional tensions.

Kishida, speaking in a news conference after visiting Ise Shrine in central Japan, said he will visit Washington for talks with President Joe Biden to underscore the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance and highlight closer cooperation between the countries under Japan’s new security and defense strategies adopted last month.

The U.S. visit is part of Kishida’s upcoming trip to most of the Group of Seven countries beginning Monday. Japan will host this year’s G-7 summit in Hiroshima. Kishida said his meeting with Biden will be “very important” and “more significant than showing my face as G-7 president.”

“We will show to the rest of the world an even stronger Japan-U.S. alliance, which is a lynchpin of Japanese security and diplomacy,” Kishida said. “We will also show our further cooperation toward achieving a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific.’”

Japan, under the new security and defense plans, is purchasing hundreds of U.S.-developed Tomahawks and other long-range cruise missiles to preempt possible attacks and also building up defenses in southwestern Japan amid growing worries of a Taiwan emergency. Japanese media said the U.S. and Japan are expected to discuss how they would cooperate in the event of a conflict over Taiwan.

Earlier Wednesday, the White House announced that Biden will host Kishida for economic and security consultations on Jan. 13.

Biden and Kishida are expected to discuss North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, amid concerns over the potential for another nuclear test by the reclusive nation, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, stability across the Taiwan Strait, climate change and economic issues, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

The two leaders last met in Bali, Indonesia, during November’s Group of 20 summit.

Kishida will also visit France, Italy, Britain and Canada to meet their leaders during his Jan. 9-15 trip, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

Kishida on Wednesday also vowed to tackle Japan’s dire problem of declining births, while pushing his “new capitalism” policy that he said will generate a “virtuous cycle of growth and distribution of wealth” to achieve a steady increase in salaries that have stalled for decades.

The number of babies born in Japan last year is expected to fall to a new record below 800,000 as part of a steady decline that is seen as eroding national strength.

“We cannot wait any longer,” Kishida said. “From an economic perspective, we also need to allay the concerns of those saying they cannot invest in Japan because it’s shrinking from declining births.”

Kishida said the government will do more to expand support for childcare and reduce gender gaps in salaries and working environments to lower barriers for women.

Japan is the world’s third-biggest economy but living costs are high and wage increases have been slow. The conservative government has lagged in making society more inclusive for children, women and minorities.

So far, the government’s efforts to encourage people to have more babies has had limited impact despite introducing subsidy payments for pregnancy, childbirth and child care.
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Members of the U.S. House of Representatives meet again Wednesday with the task of selecting the next speaker of the House, a day after Republican Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the job was met with rare opposition in a series of votes that saw him thwarted by his party’s most conservative members.

Tuesday’s session marked the first time in 100 years that neither a Republican nor Democrat won the House speakership on the first round of voting to become the leader of the 435-member chamber.

McCarthy failed to win the speakership in three rounds of voting, with 20 Republicans opposing him in the latest round. With a fourth round of voting on tap, it was unclear whether enough of McCarthy’s opponents would abandon their opposition to him, or whether new candidates might emerge.

Republicans will hold a narrow 222-212 majority in the House, with one current vacancy, requiring McCarthy, a California lawmaker for 16 years, to win at least 218 votes to claim the speakership. Under a provision in the U.S. Constitution, he also would become second in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency.

But 19 Republicans, many of them in recent weeks expressing the view that McCarthy was not conservative enough to lead House Republicans, voted for other Republican lawmakers in the first round of voting, including Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona and Jim Jordan of Ohio, two vocal opponents of Democratic President Joe Biden.

In the third round of voting, 20 dissident Republicans voted for Jordan, even though he nominated McCarthy as his choice to lead the majority Republican caucus in the new two-year House session.

Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, with all 212 Democrats voting for him, led the voting for the speakership although he has no chance of winning because no Republicans plan to vote for him. On the latest ballot, 202 Republicans voted for McCarthy, 16 short of the 218 he needed.

The 57-year-old McCarthy, a staunch conservative himself, has sought for years to lead the House. Over the past several weeks, he has met repeatedly with his Republican foes to secure their support for his speakership bid.

McCarthy offered to change the House’s governing rules in several ways, including to permit snap votes to declare the speakership vacant and select someone else if they did not like his policy stances or how the party caucus was conducting its promised investigations of Biden and his administration.

Whoever the Republicans eventually elect, McCarthy or someone else, will replace outgoing Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who remains a House member and cast her votes for Jeffries.

Democrats, who have been locked in a 50-50 split with Republicans in the Senate the past two years, gained an edge in the nationwide congressional elections nearly two months ago and will hold a 50-49 majority in the upper chamber, even after onetime Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced she is now an independent but would not change her voting philosophy. She usually has voted with the Democratic lawmakers and Biden.

Choosing a House speaker occurs even before representatives are sworn into office for their two-year terms. Lawmakers called out the name of their choice for House speaker from the floor of the chamber, and the same scenario will play out in the fourth round of voting, and possibly beyond that.
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U.S. President Joe Biden will hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on January 13 to discuss North Korea, Ukraine, China’s tensions with Taiwan and a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” the White House said Tuesday. 

The two leaders will discuss “a range of regional and global issues including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine, and maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the White House said. 

The meeting between Washington and its key Asian partner in standing up to China’s increasing might comes as North Korea’s missile tests and calls for a larger nuclear arsenal worry U.S. allies in the region. 

Kishida plans to discuss Tokyo’s new security policy, which saw the unveiling in December of Japan’s biggest military buildup since World War II, Japan’s Yomiuri daily newspaper reported last week, citing multiple unidentified Japanese government sources. 

The White House said Biden will reiterate his full support for Japan’s recently released National Security Strategy. 

“The leaders will celebrate the unprecedented strength of the U.S.-Japan Alliance and will set the course for their partnership in the year ahead,” said the statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

On a visit to Japan in May, Biden applauded Kishida’s determination to strengthen Japanese defense capabilities. 

Japan’s $320 billion defense plan includes the purchase of missiles capable of striking China and readying the country for sustained conflict, amid concerns that Russia’s Ukraine invasion could embolden China to move against self-ruled Taiwan, a neighbor of Japan.  

Japan hosts the Group of 7 nations this year, including a leaders’ summit in May in Hiroshima that Biden plans to attend. The group, which also includes the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, has been a focus of Biden’s efforts to revitalize U.S. alliances to counter threats from China to Russia and beyond. 

Japan also took up a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council on January 1 and holds the rotating monthly presidency of the 15-member body for January.  

Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi told a Reuters NEXT conference last month that Japan will use G-7 and U.N. leadership roles to pressure Russia to halt its war in Ukraine. 

Christopher Johnstone, head of the Japan program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said Kishida’s visit would reinforce Japan’s stature as America’s most critical ally in the Indo-Pacific.  

He said Kishida would seek Biden’s endorsement of his national security and defense strategies, and in particular support for its acquisition of counterstrike capabilities. 

“Japan’s defense strategy calls for the introduction of U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles in the near term but does not specify a timeline. Kishida will look for the president’s support to move quickly,” he said. 

“They will also focus heavily on ‘economic security’ issues related to China, including cooperation on export controls for sensitive technologies like semiconductors.” 
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The U.S. House of Representatives failed to choose the next Speaker of the House Tuesday, as a group of conservative U.S. lawmakers continued to vote against fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy’s bid to lead the 118th session of Congress. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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