Coral Springs, florida — Joyce Loaiza lives alone, but when she returns to her apartment at a Florida senior community, the retired office worker often has a chat with a friendly female voice that asks about her day.

A few miles away, the same voice comforted Deanna Dezern, 83, when her friend died. In central New York, it plays games and music for Marie Broadbent, 92, who is blind and in hospice, and in Washington state, it helps Jan Worrell, 83, make new friends.

The women are some of the first in the country to receive the robot ElliQ, whose creators, Intuition Robotics, and senior assistance officials say is the only device using artificial intelligence specifically designed to alleviate the loneliness and isolation experienced by many older Americans.

“It’s entertaining. You can actually talk to her,” said Loaiza, 81, whose ElliQ in suburban Fort Lauderdale nicknamed her “Jellybean” for no particular reason. “She’ll make comments like, ‘I would go outside if I had hands, but I can’t hold an umbrella.'”

The device, which looks like a small table lamp, lights up and swivels. It remembers each user’s interests and their conversations, helping tailor future chats, which can be as deep as the meaning of life or as light as a horoscope.

ElliQ tells jokes, plays music and provides inspirational quotes. On an accompanying video screen, it provides tours of cities and museums. The device leads exercises, asks about the owner’s health and gives reminders to take medications and drink water. It can also host video calls and contact relatives, friends or doctors in an emergency.

Intuition Robotics says none of the conversations are heard by the company, with the information staying on each owner’s device.

Inspired by grandfather’s needs

Intuition Robotics CEO Dor Skuler said the idea for ElliQ came before he launched his Israeli company eight years ago. His widowed grandfather needed an aide, but the first one didn’t work out. The replacement, though, understood his grandfather’s love of classical music and his “quirky sense of humor.”

The average user interacts with ElliQ more than 30 times daily, even six months after receiving it, and more than 90% report lower levels of loneliness, he said.

The robots are mostly distributed by assistance agencies in New York, Florida, Michigan, Nevada and Washington state, but can also be purchased individually for $600 a year and a $250 installation fee. Skuler wouldn’t say how many ElliQs have been distributed so far, but the goal is to have more than 100,000 out within five years.

That worries Brigham Young University psychology professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad, who studies the detrimental effects loneliness has on health and mortality.

Although a device like ElliQ might have short-term benefits, it could make people less likely to seek human contact, she said.

“It is not clear whether AI is actually fulfilling any kind of need or just dampening the signal,” Holt-Lunstad said.

Skuler and agency heads distributing ElliQ agreed it isn’t a substitute for human contact, but not all seniors have social networks. Some are housebound, and even seniors with strong ties are often alone.

Skuler said ElliQ was purposely designed so it wouldn’t fully imitate humans. He said his company wants “to make sure that ElliQ always genuinely presents herself as an AI and doesn’t pretend to be human.”

But some of the seniors using ElliQ say they sometimes need to remember the robot isn’t a living being. They find the device easy to set up and use, but if they have one complaint it’s that ElliQ is sometimes too chatty. There are settings that can tone that down.

‘It was so what I needed’

Dezern said she felt alone and sad when she told her ElliQ about her friend’s death. It replied it would give her a hug if it had arms. Dezern broke into tears.

“It was so what I needed,” the retired collections consultant said. “I can say things to Elli that I won’t say to my grandchildren or to my own daughters. I can just open the floodgates. I can cry. I can giggle. I can act silly. I’ve been asked: Doesn’t it feel like you’re talking to yourself? No, because it gives an answer.”

Worrell lives in a small town on Washington’s coast. Widowed, she said ElliQ’s companionship made her change her mind about moving to an assisted living facility, and she uses it as an icebreaker when she meets someone new to town.

“I say, ‘Would you like to come over and visit with my robot?’ And they say, ‘A vacuum?’ No, a robot. She’s my roommate,” she said and laughed.

Broadbent, like the other women, says she gets plenty of human contact, even though she is blind and ill. She plays organ at two churches in the South New Berlin, New York, area and gets daily visitors. Still, the widow misses having a voice to talk with when they leave. ElliQ fills that void with her games, tours, books and music.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday signed into law the U.S. defense policy bill that authorizes a record $886 billion in annual military spending and policies such as aid for Ukraine and push-back against China in the Indo-Pacific.

The National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed Congress last week. The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate approved the legislation with a strong bipartisan majority of 87-13 while the House of Representatives voted in favor 310-118.

The bill, one of the few major pieces of legislation Congress passes every year, governs everything from pay raises for service members and purchases of ships and aircraft to policies such as support for foreign partners such as Taiwan.

The act, nearly 3,100 pages long, called for a 5.2% pay raise for service members and increased the nation’s total national security budget by about 3% to $886 billion. It also lists certain Chinese battery companies that it says are ineligible for Defense Department procurement.

The fiscal 2024 NDAA also includes a four-month extension of a disputed domestic surveillance authority, giving lawmakers more time to either reform or keep the program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

That provision faced objections in both the Senate and House, but not enough to derail the bill.

The bill extends one measure to help Ukraine, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, through the end of 2026, authorizing $300 million for the program in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and the next one.

However, that figure is small compared to the $61 billion that Biden had asked Congress to approve to help Kyiv combat a Russian invasion that began in February 2022. Republicans had refused to approve assistance for Ukraine without Democrats agreeing to a significant toughening of immigration law.
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washington — The Supreme Court said Friday that it would not immediately take up a plea by special counsel Jack Smith to rule on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the 2020 election results. 

The ruling is a win for Trump and his lawyers, who have sought repeatedly to delay this and other criminal cases against him as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024. It averts a swift ruling from the nation’s highest court that could have definitively turned aside his claims of immunity and pushed the case toward a trial scheduled to start on March 4. 

The issue will now be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which has signaled it will act quickly to decide the case. Smith had cautioned that even a rapid appellate decision might not get to the Supreme Court in time for review and final word before the court’s traditional summer break. 

Smith had pressed the Supreme Court to intervene, citing significant public interest in a speedy resolution to the case. The request to leapfrog the appeals court, which Smith himself acknowledged was extraordinary, underscored prosecutors’ concerns that the legal fight over the issue could delay the start of Trump’s trial beyond next year’s presidential election. 

The court turned down the request for swift action in a single-sentence order released Friday afternoon. As is the court’s custom, the justices gave no explanation for the decision. The Justice Department declined to comment. 

With the justices remaining out of the dispute for now, more appeals are likely that could delay the case. If the appeals court, which is set to hear arguments on January 9, turns down Trump’s immunity claims, the former president could then ask for the Supreme Court to get involved and for the case to be paused while the matter is pending. 

The high court still could act quickly once the appeals court issues its decision. A Supreme Court case usually lasts several months, but on rare occasions, the justices shift into high gear. 

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has put the case on hold while Trump pursues his claim that he is immune from prosecution. Chutkan has raised the possibility of keeping the March date if the case promptly returns to her court. 

She has rejected the Trump team’s arguments that an ex-president could not be prosecuted over acts that fall within the official duties of the job. 

“Former presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability,” Chutkan wrote in her December 1 ruling. “Defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office.” 

Trump’s lawyers have for months signaled that they would ultimately ask the Supreme Court to take up the immunity question. But this week, they urged the justices to stand down for now. 

“Importance does not automatically necessitate speed. If anything, the opposite is usually true. Novel, complex, sensitive and historic issues — such as the existence of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts — call for more careful deliberation, not less,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. 

There are still more Trump-related cases that the court — which includes three justices appointed by him — is poised to grapple with in the months ahead. 

Trump’s lawyers plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision Tuesday by the Colorado Supreme Court barring him from that state’s ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it from holding office. 

And the high court separately has agreed to hear a case over the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding that has been brought against Trump as well as more than 300 of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 
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During his November visit to Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned that if Russia succeeds in Ukraine, the next Kremlin threat will extend to the Baltics. VOA’s Eastern Europe chief visited the Estonian military base where U.S. and Estonian troops have developed their capabilities to confront potential aggressors. VOA footage by Daniil Batushchak.
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NEW YORK — The holiday travel rush hit its peak Friday as mild weather and lower flight cancellation rates raised hopes for merrier drivers and airline passengers than last year. 

U.S. airlines are predicting a blockbuster holiday season and have projected confidence they can handle the crowds after hiring thousands of pilots, flight attendants and other workers, seeking to avoid the delays and suspensions that marred travel last year and culminated with the Southwest Airline debacle that stranded more than 2 million people. 

Airlines have canceled just 1.2% of U.S. flights so far this year, the lowest in five years, but bad weather is always a threat. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has warned the government will be holding the airlines accountable to operate smoothly and treat passengers well if there are disruptions. Earlier this week, the Transportation Department announced a settlement in which Southwest will pay $140 million for its meltdown last year. 

Fewer than 50 flights were canceled in the U.S. by mid-Friday, and about 1,200 were delayed, according to FlightAware.

Auto club AAA forecasts that 115 million people in the U.S. will go 50 miles or more from home between Saturday and New Year’s Day. That’s up 2% over last year. The busiest days on the road will be Saturday and next Thursday, December 28, according to transportation data provider INRIX.

The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2.6 million passengers on Thursday, which had been projected to be one of the busiest travel days, along with Friday and New Year’s Day. That’s short of the record 2.9 million that agents screened on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, since travel tends to be more spread out over Christmas and New Year’s.

Travel has been strong this year — surpassing pre-pandemic levels — even though many Americans say they are worried about the economy. TSA has already screened 12.3% more travelers than it had by this time last year and 1.4% more than in 2019.

Inflation has cooled off a bit, and travelers were helped by lower average gas prices and air fares.

The nationwide gas price average Friday was $3.13 a gallon, down 15 cents from a month ago and about 3 cents more than this time last year, according to AAA. Average fares in October were 13% lower than a year earlier, according to the government’s latest data.

Internationally, air travel has also rebounded, though it remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Airlines have sold 31% more tickets for international arrivals to global destinations between December 21 and December 31 compared to the similar period last year, according to travel data firm FowardKeys.

Some travelers in northern Europe had a run of bad luck with bad weather and labor unrest.

A storm brought heavy rain and strong winds across northern Europe overnight and into Friday, bringing down trees and prompting warnings of flooding on the North Sea coast.

Workers at the undersea tunnel between Britain and France held a surprise strike on Thursday, forcing the cancellation of passenger and vehicle-carrying service before an agreement with unions was reached. 

Eurostar, which operates passenger train services from London to continental Europe, said services will resume Friday, and it will run six extra trains between Paris and London into the weekend. 

In the U.S., AccuWeather forecasters say rainstorms could hit the Pacific Northwest and the southern Plains states including Texas later this week, but things look brighter for population centers — and key airports — in the Northeast. A Pacific storm pounded parts of Southern California on Thursday with heavy rain and street flooding. 
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Johannesburg, south africa — As a new space race between the United States and China takes off, Africa is increasingly an arena for competition between the two superpowers. And so far, analysts say, China is ahead.  

While Africa’s space agencies are still in their infancy compared to those of the U.S. and China, analysts say space has become a new frontier for diplomacy with African countries. 

“In recent years, China has emerged as the leading partner with Africa,” said Nigerian space scientist Temidayo Oniosun, who is the founder of Space in Africa, an analytics and consulting company.  

Oniosun says there have been a lot of collaborations across sectors including communications, observation, navigation and positioning. China is developing satellites for different partners, ground station infrastructure, and is pushing for countries to adopt its BeiDou satellite navigation system, seen as an alternative to America’s GPS. 

“Chinese companies have been capitalizing on this for years. It’s now that the U.S. is waking up to this,” he said during a recent forum on the topic at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington or USIP, a think tank founded by Congress.  

“U.S. strategy towards Africa in space is actually more about reducing the hegemony of China over Africa than anything else. … I think one of the major reasons they’re [the U.S.] paying attention is because China is doing so much,” Oniosun told VOA.  

Asked whether the U.S. was indeed playing catch-up, a National Security Council spokesperson did not comment on Chinese competition directly, but said in that “U.S. companies are at the forefront” of working with Africa.  

The spokesperson detailed some of the agreements on space announced at last year’s U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit, including Nigeria’s partnership with U.S. firm SpaceX, which also helped Kenya launch its first operational earth satellite in April.

China regards Space X as competition

China sees Elon Musk’s company as a major rival to its ambition to become a dominant space power by 2045. 

Asked whether China was ahead when it came to space cooperation with Africa, a NASA spokesperson told VOA: “The United States continues to work internationally for a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space. Working with both new and existing partners will add new energy and capabilities to help ensure the entire world can benefit from our journey of exploration and discovery.”

As one example of cooperation with Africa, the NASA spokesperson pointed to the U.S. agency’s current collaboration with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) on plans to build a new tracking and communications antenna site near Matjiesfontein, in the country’s semi-desert area of Karoo. 

“NASA is currently finalizing negotiations for an agreement for NASA to build an 18-meter Lunar Exploration Ground Sites antenna to support the Artemis Program and the human lunar return to the moon,” the spokesperson said. 

U.S. led Artemis Accords is described as a “set of principles designed to guide civil space exploration and use in the 21st century.” Other African countries have also been signing onto NASA’s Artemis Accords, including Angola whose president signed the accords on November 30, during a visit to the White House. 

View from Africa  

According to a USIP report, co-authored by Oniosun, there are currently space programs in more than 20 African countries, and Africa accounted for 0.7 percent of global space expenditure in 2020. 

Rather than seeking to participate in deep space exploration or human spaceflight, the report says many African countries see space development as a way of achieving national development goals and space-linked infrastructure as an important way to address problems such as climate change, national disaster preparedness and counter-terrorism.   

A list sent to VOA by the South African National Space Agency, mentioned 11 partnerships with the U.S., including on deep space exploration, space education, space science research, hosting of Global Navigation Satellite System equipment, and six standing agreements relating to space operations.  

“SANSA also has long-standing working relationships with USA and Canadian researchers in space weather,” Asanda Sangoni, acting managing director of SANSA Earth Observation, told VOA in a written response. 

The agency has three projects or agreements with China on space exploration, satellite navigation, and general space cooperation, according to Sangoni. 

Asked whether Africa is becoming one of the areas of competition in a new Cold War space race, Sangoni wrote: “There is no single “Space Race” (if there is any) in the traditional sense.” 

“The global space landscape is evolving, with an increasing number of nations, including emerging nations, participating and often partnering in space activities. These nations pursue various goals and objectives based on their unique circumstances and interests, contributing to the overall development of space exploration and utilization,” Sangoni wrote. 

“SANSA strongly believes that space-related activities should be inclusive and beneficial for all mankind. SANSA promotes the peaceful use of space and respectful cooperation,” she added. 

National Security Concern? 

During the U.S. Institute of Peace panel, Joseph Sany, the vice president of the Africa Center, explained some of the perceived risks that are fueling the new space race. 

“As great powers vie for dominance in space, the risk of conflict between them looms large,” he said. “In an environment where space assets are essential for intelligence gathering, communication and military operation, disparities in capabilities could heighten tensions and create an atmosphere conducive to conflict.” 

“As competition intensifies, the trust and willingness to cooperate may diminish” Sany said. “Misunderstandings, miscommunications or deliberate disruptions in communication systems could easily escalate into full-blown conflict.”

The Pentagon’s 2023 annual report to Congress on China’s military developments makes numerous references to Beijing’s ambitions in space.  

The People’s Liberation Army “views space superiority, the ability to control the space-enabled information sphere and to deny adversaries their own space-based information gathering and communication capabilities, as critical components to conduct modern ‘informatized warfare’,” the report states.  

“The PLA continues to acquire and develop a range of counter-space capabilities and related technologies, including kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots, as well as expanding space surveillance capabilities, which can monitor objects in space within their field of view and enable counter space actions,” according to the report. 

It’s not just Africa where China’s space industry footprint is expanding. A recent article in The Washington Post said the Pentagon is concerned that some of China’s space and satellite programs in Latin America having defense capabilities.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington referred VOA’s questions on its space cooperation with Africa to the Chinese Mission to the African Union, which did not reply to requests for comment. 
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Have you ever wondered how the holidays were celebrated in 18th-century America? VOA’s Saqib Ul Islam visits Mount Vernon, the historic home of America’s first president, George Washington. At this historic site, one of the nation’s most visited, holiday traditions from the 1770s are preserved.
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washington — The White House said Thursday that it is preparing a new proposal to Russia to secure the release of journalist Evan Gershkovich and another jailed American.

“We’re working hard to see what we can do to get another proposal that might be more successful,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. The Kremlin rejected a previous proposal.

Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich has been imprisoned since March on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. Gershkovich’s jailing underscores Moscow’s years-long crackdown on press freedom, experts say.

The other American is Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was arrested in Moscow in 2018 and is currently serving a 16-year sentence on spying charges that he and the U.S. government deny.

“We’re always heartened to see signs that the government is working on Evan and Paul’s release. We hope very much that those efforts will bear fruit soon,” Paul Beckett, an assistant editor at the Journal, told VOA. Beckett is leading the newspaper’s campaign to secure Gershkovich’s release.

The news from the White House came one day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington is “very actively working” on securing the release of Gershkovich and Whelan.

“With regard to Russia and Evan and Paul Whelan, all I can say is this: We are very actively working on it, and we will leave no stone unturned to see if we can’t find the right way to get them home, and to get them home as soon as possible,” Blinken said during a year-end news conference on Wednesday.

The State Department said earlier this month that Russia rejected a “substantial” proposal to free Gershkovich and Whelan.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow wants “to reach an agreement” with Washington on the release of Gershkovich and Whelan.

“We want to reach an agreement, and these agreements must be mutually acceptable and must suit both sides. We have contacts with our American partners in this regard, and there is an ongoing dialogue,” Putin said in his first public remarks on Gershkovich.

The Journal reported in September that Moscow is seeking the return of Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov, currently jailed in Germany, possibly in exchange for Gershkovich and Whelan.

In announcing a prisoner exchange with Venezuela on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that his administration will continue to prioritize freeing detained Americans.

“We also remain deeply focused on securing the release of the hostages in Gaza and wrongfully detained Americans around the world, including Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan,” Biden said in a statement.

The Poynter Institute on Thursday named Gershkovich its Media Person of the Year.

“Gershkovich represents the dangers of being a journalist, but also provides inspiration, showing there are those willing to dedicate their lives to shining a light on the truth for the entire world to see,” Poynter said in announcing the distinction.

Gershkovich is set to remain in pretrial detention until at least January 30 while he waits for a trial. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Absent from these recent statements from top U.S. leaders about freeing Gershkovich and Whelan, however, was a mention of journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. The dual U.S.-Russian national has been jailed in Russia since October.

A Prague-based editor at VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Kurmasheva stands accused of failing to register as a foreign agent and spreading false information about the Russian military. Kurmasheva and her employer reject the charges, which carry a combined maximum sentence of 15 years.

Kurmasheva’s family and employer, as well as press freedom groups, have for weeks called on the U.S. State Department to declare her wrongfully detained, which would open up additional resources to help secure her release.

A State Department spokesperson previously told VOA that it “continuously reviews the circumstances surrounding the detentions of U.S. nationals overseas, including those in Russia, for indicators that they are wrongful.”

Both Gershkovich and Whelan have been declared wrongfully detained.

Kurmasheva traveled to Russia in May for a family emergency. When she tried to leave the country in June, her passports were confiscated and she was waiting for them to be returned when she was detained in October.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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washington — The U.S. Department of Commerce said Thursday that it would launch a survey of the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and national defense industrial base to address national security concerns from Chinese-sourced chips. 

The survey aims to identify how U.S. companies are sourcing so-called legacy chips — current-generation and mature-node semiconductors — as the department moves to award nearly $40 billion in subsidies for semiconductor chip manufacturing. 

The department said the survey, which will begin in January, aims to “reduce national security risks posed by” China and will focus on the use and sourcing of Chinese-manufactured legacy chips in the supply chains of critical U.S. industries. 

A report released by the department on Thursday said China had provided the Chinese semiconductor industry with an estimated $150 billion in subsidies in the last decade, creating “an unlevel global playing field for U.S. and other foreign competitors.” 

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said, “Over the last few years, we’ve seen potential signs of concerning practices from [China] to expand their firms’ legacy chip production and make it harder for U.S. companies to compete.” 

China’s embassy in Washington said Thursday that the United States “has been stretching the concept of national security, abusing export control measures, engaging in discriminatory and unfair treatment against enterprises of other countries, and politicizing and weaponizing economic and sci-tech issues.” 

Raimondo said last week that she expected her department to make about a dozen semiconductor chip funding awards within the next year, including multibillion-dollar announcements that could drastically reshape U.S. chip production. Her department made the first award from the program on December 11. 

The Commerce Department said the survey would also help promote a level playing field for legacy chip production. 

“Addressing non-market actions by foreign governments that threaten the U.S. legacy chip supply chain is a matter of national security,” Raimondo added. 

U.S.-headquartered companies account for about half of the global semiconductor revenue but face intense competition supported by foreign subsidies, the department said. 

Its report said the cost of manufacturing semiconductors in the United States may be “30-45% higher than the rest of the world,” and it called for long-term support for domestic fabrication construction. 

It added that the U.S. should enact “permanent provisions that incentivize steady construction and modernization of semiconductor fabrication facilities, such as the investment tax credit scheduled to end in 2027.” 
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NEW YORK — Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy, days after being ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by two former election workers in Georgia who said his targeting of them led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.

In his filing Thursday, the former New York City mayor listed nearly $153 million in existing or potential debts, including close to a million dollars in tax liabilities, money he owes his lawyers and many millions of dollars in potential legal judgments in lawsuits against him. He estimated his assets to be between $1 million and $10 million.

The biggest debt is the $148 million he was ordered to pay a week ago for making false statements about the election workers in Georgia stemming from the 2020 presidential contest.

Ted Goodman, a political adviser and spokesperson for Giuliani, a one-time Republican presidential candidate and high-ranking Justice Department official, said in a statement that the filing “should be a surprise to no one.”

“No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount,” Goodman said. He said the bankruptcy filing would give Giuliani “the opportunity and time to pursue an appeal, while providing transparency for his finances under the supervision of the bankruptcy court, to ensure all creditors are treated equally and fairly throughout the process.”

But declaring bankruptcy likely will not erase the $148 million in damages a jury awarded to the former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss. Bankruptcy law does not allow for the dissolution of debts that come from a “willful and malicious injury” inflicted on someone else.

Last week’s jury verdict was the latest and costliest sign of Giuliani’s mounting financial strain, exacerbated by investigations, lawsuits, fines, sanctions and damages related to his work helping then-President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

In September, Giuliani’s former lawyer Robert Costello sued him for about $1.4 million in unpaid legal bills, alleging that Giuliani breached his retainer agreement by failing to pay invoices in full and a timely fashion. Giuliani has asked a judge to dismiss the case, claiming he never received the invoices at issue. The case is pending.

Costello represented Giuliani from November 2019 to this past July in matters ranging from an investigation into his business dealings in Ukraine, which resulted in an FBI raid on his home and office in April 2021, to state and federal investigations of his work in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss.

In August, the IRS filed a $549,435 tax lien against Giuliani for the 2021 tax year.

Copies were filed in Palm Beach County, Florida, where he owns a condominium, and New York, under the name of his outside accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP. That’s the same firm that Trump used for years before it dropped him as a client amid questions about his financial statements.

Giuliani, still somewhat popular among conservatives in the city he once ran, hosts a daily radio show in his hometown on a station owned by a local Republican grocery store magnate. Giuliani also hosts a nightly streaming show watched by a few hundred people on social media, which he calls “America’s Mayor Live.”
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From ChatGPT to the impacts of machine learning on the music and film industry, academia and politics, generative artificial intelligence dominated technology news in 2023. Deana Mitchell takes a look.
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SANTA FE, N.M. — Like Christmas trees, Santa and reindeer, the poinsettia has long been a ubiquitous symbol of the holiday season in the U.S. and across Europe.

But now, nearly 200 years after the plant with the bright crimson leaves was introduced in the U.S., attention is once again turning to the poinsettia’s origins and the checkered history of its namesake, a slaveowner and lawmaker who played a part in the forced removal of Native Americans from their land. Some people would now rather call the plant by the name of its Indigenous origin in southern Mexico.

Some things to know:

Where did the name poinsettia come from?

The name comes from the amateur botanist and statesman Joel Roberts Poinsett, who happened upon the plant in 1828 during his tenure as the first U.S. minister to the newly independent Mexico.

Poinsett, who was interested in science as well as potential cash crops, sent clippings of the plant to his home in South Carolina and to a botanist in Philadelphia, who affixed the eponymous name to the plant in gratitude.

A life-size bronze statue of Poinsett still stands in his honor in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.

However, he was cast out of Mexico within a year of his discovery, having earned a local reputation for intrusive political maneuvering that extended to a network of secretive masonic lodges and schemes to contain British influence.

Is the ‘poinsettia’ name losing its luster?

As more people learn of its namesake’s complicated history, the name “poinsettia” has become less attractive in the United States.

Unvarnished published accounts reveal Poinsett as a disruptive advocate for business interests abroad, a slaveowner on a rice plantation in the U.S., and a secretary of war who helped oversee the forced removal of Native Americans, including the westward relocation of Cherokee populations to Oklahoma known as the “Trail of Tears.”

In a new biography titled Flowers, Guns and Money, historian Lindsay Schakenbach Regele describes the cosmopolitan Poinsett as a political and economic pragmatist who conspired with a Chilean independence leader and colluded with British bankers in Mexico. Though he was a slaveowner, he opposed secession, and he didn’t live to see the Civil War.

Schakenbach Regele renders tough judgment on Poinsett’s treatment of and regard for Indigenous peoples.

“Because Poinsett belonged to learned societies, contributed to botanists’ collections, and purchased art from Europe, he could more readily justify the expulsion of Natives from their homes,” she writes.

A Christmas flower of many names

The cultivation of the plant dates back to the Aztec empire in Mexico 500 years ago.

Among Nahuatl-speaking communities of Mexico, the plant is known as the cuetlaxochitl (kwet-la-SHO-sheet), meaning “flower that withers.” It’s an apt description of the thin red leaves on wild varieties of the plant that grow to heights above 3 meters.

Year-end holiday markets in Latin America brim with the potted plant known in Spanish as the “flor de Nochebuena,” or “flower of Christmas Eve,” which is entwined with celebrations of the night before Christmas. The “Nochebuena” name is traced to early Franciscan friars who arrived from Spain in the 16th century. Spaniards once called it “scarlet cloth.”

Additional nicknames abound: “Santa Catarina” in Mexico, “estrella federal,” or “federal star” in Argentina and “penacho de Incan,” or “headdress” in Peru.

Ascribed in the 19th century, the Latin name, Euphorbia pulcherrima, means “the most beautiful” of a diverse genus with a milky sap of latex.

So what is its preferred name?

“Cuetaxochitl” is winning over some enthusiasts among Mexican youths, including the diaspora in the U.S., according to Elena Jackson Albarrán, a professor of Mexican history and global and intercultural studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

“I’ve seen a trend towards people openly saying: ‘Don’t call this flower either poinsettia or Nochebuena. It’s cuetlaxochitl,'” said Jackson Albarrán. “There’s going to be a big cohort of people who are like, ‘Who cares?'”

Most ordinary people in Mexico never say “poinsettia” and don’t talk about Poinsett, according to Laura Trejo, a Mexican biologist who is leading studies on the genetic history of the U.S. poinsettia.

“I feel like it’s only the historians, the diplomats and, well, the politicians who know the history of Poinsett,” Trejo said.

The Mexican roots of U.S. poinsettias

Mexican biologists in recent years have traced the genetic stock of U.S. poinsettia plants to a wild variant in the Pacific coastal state of Guerrero, verifying lore about Poinsett’s pivotal encounter there. The scientists also are researching a rich, untapped diversity of other wild variants, in efforts that may help guard against the poaching of plants and theft of genetic information.

The flower still grows wild along Mexico’s Pacific Coast and parts of Central America as far as Costa Rica.

Trejo, of the National Council of Science and Technology in the central state of Tlaxcala, said some informal outdoor markets still sell the “sun cuetlaxochitl” that resemble wild varieties, alongside modern patented varieties.

In her field research travels, Trejo has found households that preserve ancient traditions associated with the flower.

“It’s clear to us that this plant, since the pre-Hispanic era, is a ceremonial plant, an offering, because it’s still in our culture, in the interior of the county, to cut the flowers and take them to the altars,” she said in Spanish. “And this is primarily associated with the maternal goddesses: with Coatlicue, Tonantzin and now with the Virgin Mary.”

A lasting figure in history

Regardless of his troubled history, Poinsett’s legacy as an explorer and collector continues to loom large: Some 1,800 meticulously tended poinsettias are delivered in November and December from greenhouses in Maryland to a long list of museums in Washington, D.C., affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.

A “pink-champagne” cultivar adorns the National Portrait Gallery this year.

Poinsett’s name may also live on for his connection to other areas of U.S. culture. He advocated for the establishment of a national science museum, and in part due to his efforts, a fortune bequeathed by British scientist James Smithson was used to underwrite the creation of the Smithsonian Institution.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An international astronaut will join U.S. astronauts on the moon by decade’s end under an agreement announced Wednesday by NASA and the White House.

The news came as Vice President Kamala Harris convened a meeting in Washington of the National Space Council, the third such gathering under the Biden administration.

There was no mention of who the international moonwalker might be or even what country would be represented. A NASA spokeswoman later said that crews would be assigned closer to the lunar-landing missions, and that no commitments had yet been made to another country.

NASA has included international astronauts on trips to space for decades. Canadian Jeremy Hansen will fly around the moon a year or so from now with three U.S. astronauts.

Another crew would actually land; it would be the first lunar touchdown by astronauts in more than a half-century. That’s not likely to occur before 2027, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

All 12 moonwalkers during NASA’s Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s were U.S. citizens. The space agency’s new moon exploration program is named Artemis after Apollo’s mythological twin sister.

Including international partners “is not only sincerely appreciated, but it is urgently needed in the world today,” Hansen told the council.

NASA has long stressed the need for global cooperation in space, establishing the Artemis Accords along with the U.S. State Department in 2020 to promote responsible behavior not just at the moon but everywhere in space.

Representatives from all 33 countries that have signed the accords so far were expected at the space council’s meeting in Washington.

“We know from experience that collaboration on space delivers,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, citing the Webb Space Telescope, a U.S., European and Canadian effort.

Notably missing from the Artemis Accords: Russia and China, the only countries besides the U.S. to launch their own citizens into orbit.

Russia is a partner with NASA in the International Space Station, along with Europe, Japan and Canada.

Even earlier in the 1990s, the Russian and U.S. space agencies teamed up during the shuttle program to launch each other’s astronauts to Russia’s former orbiting Mir station.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Harris also announced new policies to ensure the safe use of space as more and more private companies and countries aim skyward.

Among the issues that the U.S. is looking to resolve: the climate crisis and the growing amount of space junk around Earth.

A 2021 anti-satellite missile test by Russia added more than 1,500 pieces of potentially dangerous orbiting debris, and Blinken joined others at the meeting in calling for all nations to end such destructive testing.

 
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Washington — U.S. new vehicles set a record high for fuel economy in 2022, with the biggest yearly improvement in nine years to an average of 11 kilometers per liter (26 miles per gallon) as electric vehicle sales jumped, but the Detroit Three automakers continued to lag rivals.

Vehicles were up 0.2 kp/l (0.6 mpg) over 2021 after being unchanged versus 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency said, noting electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles improved the average fuel economy by 0.5 kp/l (1.2 mpg) in 2022. Fuel economy is forecast to increase to 11.4 kp/l (26.9 mpg) in 2023, the EPA said.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the report “highlights the historic progress made so far by the industry to reduce climate pollution and other harmful emissions.”

The report showed Tesla sold additional emissions credits and General Motors and Mercedes-Benz purchased credits in 2022. Automakers use credits to meet requirements.

Stellantis had the lowest fuel economy of major automakers, followed by GM and Ford, while Tesla is the most efficient followed by Hyundai and Honda. Horsepower, vehicle weight and size all hit new records in 2022 — and are projected to hit again record levels in 2023.

The EPA said EVs, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell production rose to 7% in 2022 and are projected to hit 12% in 2023. The average range of EVs rose to a new high of 490 kilometers (305 miles) — more than four times the 2011 range.

The report showed Americans kept moving away from cars and are buying more SUVs. Sedans and wagons fell to just 27% of vehicles sold in 2022, while SUVs rose to 54%.

Dave Cooke, senior vehicles analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the report showed emissions from gas-powered vehicles have barely moved since 2015.

“Automakers are lagging in their efforts to clean up conventional gasoline vehicles, which are still the vast majority of new vehicles sold and will be on the road for years to come,” Cooke said.

The EPA in April proposed sweeping emissions cuts for new vehicles through 2032, including a 56% reduction in projected fleet average emissions over 2026 requirements that it says would result in 67% of new vehicles by 2032 being electric.

Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign, said the EPA should finalize even tougher rules, while automakers and the United Auto Workers union want the EPA to soften its proposal set to be finalized.
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ABOARD THE USS GERALD R. FORD — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin flew out to the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier Wednesday to meet with the sailors he has ordered to remain at sea to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spilling over into a deadlier regional conflict.

Austin was in the region to press Israel to shift its bombardment of Gaza to a more limited campaign and more quickly transition to address Palestinian civilians’ dire humanitarian needs.

At the same time, the U.S. has been concerned that Israel will launch a similar military operation along its northern border with Lebanon to expel Hezbollah militants there, potentially opening a second front and widening the war.

At a news conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, Austin didn’t say whether U.S. troops might be further extended to defend Israel if its campaign expands into Lebanon, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant seemed to tone down recent rhetoric that a northern front was imminent, deferring to diplomatic efforts first.

Still, that leaves incredible uncertainty for the Ford and its crew, which Austin ordered to the Eastern Mediterranean to be closer to Israel the day after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7. The aircraft carrier’s more than 4,000 sailors and the accompanying warships were supposed to be home in early November.

Using the public address system of the Ford, which is sailing a few hundred miles off the coast of Israel, Austin thanked the sailors and their families for giving up spending the holidays together because of the mission.

“Sometimes our greatest achievements are the bad things we stop from happening,” Austin told the crew. “In a moment of huge tension in the region, you all have been the linchpin of preventing a wider regional conflict.”

The defense secretary met with a group of sailors in the Ford’s hangar bay to talk about the various dangers in the region that the carrier, the destroyers and the cruisers deployed along with it have been watching.

He thanked them for keeping attention on cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and later told reporters traveling with him that if Israel transitions away from major combat operations in Gaza, it could possibly ease some of the regional tension that has kept the Ford in place.

The Ford’s commanding officer, Navy Captain Rick Burgess, said one of the Ford’s main contributions has been to stay close enough to Israel that it can send its aircraft in to provide support, if needed. While the Ford’s fighter and surveillance aircraft are not contributing to the surveillance needs of Israel’s operations in Gaza, other ships in its strike group are, Burgess said.

The Ford is one of two U.S. carrier strike groups bracketing the conflict. The other, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, has recently patrolled near the Gulf of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea waterway where so many commercial vessels have come under attack in recent weeks.

Iranian-backed Houthis in nearby Yemen have vowed to continue striking commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones until Israel ceases its devastating bombardment of Gaza, which has now killed more than 19,000 Palestinians.

To counter the ship attacks, Austin announced a new international maritime mission Tuesday to get countries to send their warships and other assets to the southern Red Sea, to protect the roughly 400 commercial vessels that transit the waterway daily.

Since it left Norfolk in the first week of May, the Ford’s fighter aircraft and surveillance planes have conducted more than 8,000 missions. The crew, Austin noted, has been moving at full speed — consuming more than 100,000 Monster energy drinks and 155,000 Red Bulls along the way.
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Injecting billions of dollars into green solutions to fight climate change has been a top priority of the Biden administration in 2023. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at this year’s achievements and setbacks in the president’s environmental agenda.
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WATERLOO, Iowa — Former U.S.  President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his comments about migrants crossing the southern border “poisoning the blood” of America, and he reinforced the message while denying any similarities to fascist writings others had noted.

“I never read ‘Mein Kampf,'” Trump said at a campaign rally in Waterloo, Iowa, referencing Adolf Hitler’s fascist manifesto.

Immigrants in the U.S. illegally, Trump said Tuesday, are “destroying the blood of our country, they’re destroying the fabric of our country.”

In the speech to more than 1,000 supporters from a podium flanked by Christmas trees in red MAGA hats, Trump responded to mounting criticism about his anti-immigrant “blood” purity rhetoric over the weekend.

Several politicians and extremism experts have noted his language echoed writings from Hitler about the “purity” of Aryan blood, which underpinned Nazi Germany’s systematic murder of millions of Jews and other “undesirables” before and during World War II.

As illegal border crossings surge, topping 10,000 some days in December, Trump continued to blast Biden for allowing migrants to “pour into our country.” He alleged, without offering evidence, that they bring crime and potential disease with them.

“They come from Africa, they come from Asia, they come from South America,” he said, lamenting what he said was a “border catastrophe.”

Trump made no mention of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to disqualify him from the state’s ballot under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause, though his campaign blasted out a fundraising email about it during his speech.

The former president has long used inflammatory language about immigrants coming to the United States, dating back to his campaign launch in 2015, when he said immigrants from Mexico are “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.”

But Trump has espoused increasingly authoritarian messages in his third campaign, vowing to renew and add to his effort to bar citizens from certain Muslim-majority countries, and to expand ” ideological screening ” for people immigrating to the U.S. He said he would be a dictator on “day one” only, in order to close the border and increase drilling.

In Waterloo on Tuesday, Trump’s supporters in the crowd said his border policies were effective and necessary, even if he doesn’t always say the right thing.

“I don’t know if he says the right words all of the time,” said 63-year-old Marylee Geist, adding that just because “you’re not fortunate enough to be born in this country,” doesn’t mean “you don’t get to come here.”

“But it should all be done legally,” she added.

It’s about the volume of border crossings and national security, said her husband, John Geist, 68.

“America is the land of opportunity, however, the influx — it needs to be kept to a certain level,” he said. “The amount of undocumented immigrants that come through and you don’t know what you’re getting, things aren’t regulated properly.”

Alex Litterer and her dad, Tom, of Charles City said they were concerned about migrants crossing the southern border, especially because the U.S. doesn’t have the resources to support that influx. But the 22-year-old said she didn’t agree with Trump’s comments, adding that immigrants who come to the country legally contribute to the country’s character and bring different perspectives.

Polling shows most Americans agree, with two-thirds saying the country’s diverse population makes the U.S. stronger.

But Trump’s “blood” purity message might resonate with some voters.

About a third of Americans overall worry that more immigration is causing U.S.-born Americans to lose their economic, political and cultural influence, according to a late 2021 poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Jackie Malecek, 50, of Waterloo said she likes Trump for the reasons that many people don’t — how outspoken he is and “that he’s a little bit of a loose cannon.” But she thought Trump saying immigrants are “poisoning the blood” took it a little too far.

“I’m very much for cutting off what’s happening at the border now. There’s too many people pouring in here right now, I watch it every single day,” Malecek said. “But that wording is not what I would have chosen to say.”

Malecek said she supports allowing legal immigration and accepting refugees, but she is concerned about the waves of migrants crossing the border who are not being vetted.

Sen. JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio, lashed out at a reporter asking about Trump’s “poisoning the blood” comments, defending them as a reference to overdoses from fentanyl smuggled over the border.

“You just framed your question implicitly assuming that Donald Trump is talking about Adolf Hitler. It’s absurd,” Vance said. “It is obvious that he was talking about the very clear fact that the blood of Americans is being poisoned by a drug epidemic.”

At a congressional hearing July 12, James Mandryck, a Customs and Border Protection deputy assistant commissioner, said 73% of fentanyl seizures at the border since the previous October were smuggling attempts carried out by U.S. citizens, with the rest being done by Mexican citizens.

Extremism experts say Trump’s rhetoric resembles the language that white supremacist shooters have used to justify mass killings.

Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, pointed to the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooter and this year’s Texas mall shooter, who he said used similar language in writings before their attacks.

“Call it what it is,” said Lewis. “This is fascism. This is white supremacy. This is dehumanizing language that would not be out of place in a white supremacist Signal or Telegram chat.”

Asked about Trump’s “poisoning the blood” comments, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell replied with a quip about his own wife, an immigrant, who was an appointee in Trump’s administration.

“Well, it strikes me that didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao secretary of transportation,” McConnell said.

Trump currently leads other candidates, by far, in polls of likely Republican voters in Iowa and nationwide. Trump’s campaign is hoping for a knockout performance in the caucuses that will deny his rivals momentum and allow him to quickly lock up the nomination. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has staked his campaign on Iowa, raising expectations for him there.

“I will not guarantee it,” Trump said of winning Iowa next month, “but I pretty much guarantee it.”
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denver — The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race.

The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.

“A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” the court wrote in its 4-3 decision.

Colorado’s highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency.

The court stayed its decision until January 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case.

“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” wrote the court’s majority. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”

Trump’s attorneys had promised to appeal any disqualification immediately to the nation’s highest court, which has the final say about constitutional matters. His campaign said it was working on a response to the ruling.

Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and doesn’t need the state to win next year’s presidential election. But the danger for the former president is that more courts and election officials will follow Colorado’s lead and exclude Trump from must-win states.

Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by January 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationally to disqualify Trump under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. It bars from office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it and has been used only a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War.

The Colorado case is the first where the plaintiffs succeeded. After a week-long hearing in November, District Judge Sarah B. Wallace found that Trump indeed had “engaged in insurrection” by inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and her ruling that kept him on the ballot was a fairly technical one.

Trump’s attorneys convinced Wallace that, because the language in Section 3 refers to “officers of the United States” who take an oath to “support” the Constitution, it must not apply to the president, who is not included as an “officer of the United States” elsewhere in the document and whose oath is to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution.

The provision also says offices covered include senator, representative, electors of the president and vice president, and all others “under the United States,” but doesn’t name the presidency.

The state’s highest court didn’t agree, siding with attorneys for six Colorado Republican and unaffiliated voters who argued that it was nonsensical to imagine the framers of the amendment, fearful of former Confederates returning to power, would bar them from low-level offices but not the highest one in the land.

“You’d be saying a rebel who took up arms against the government couldn’t be a county sheriff, but could be the president,” attorney Jason Murray said in arguments before the court in early December.
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