WASHINGTON — A jury awarded $148 million in damages on Friday to two former Georgia election workers who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.

The damages verdict follows emotional testimony from Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who tearfully described becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Republicans as they tried to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.

There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when the jury foreperson read aloud the $75 million award in punitive damages for the women. Moss and Freeman were each awarded another roughly $36 million in other damages.

Giuliani didn’t appear to show any emotion as the verdict was read in Washington’s federal courthouse after about 10 hours of deliberations. Moss and Freeman hugged their attorneys after the jury left the courtroom and didn’t look at Giuliani as he left with his lawyer.

Giuliani had already been found liable in the case and previously conceded in court documents that he falsely accused the women of ballot fraud. Even so, the former New York City mayor continued to repeat his baseless allegations about the women in comments to reporters outside the Washington courthouse this week.

Giuliani’s lawyer acknowledged that his client was wrong but insisted that Giuliani was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced. The defense sought to largely pin the blame on a right-wing website that published the surveillance video of the two women counting ballots.

The judgment adds to growing financial and legal peril for Giuliani, who was among the loudest proponents of Trump’s false claims of election fraud that are now a key part of the criminal cases against the former president.

Giuliani had already been showing signs of financial strain as he defends himself against costly lawsuits and investigations stemming from his representation of Trump. His lawyer suggested that the defamation case could financially ruin the former mayor, saying, “It would be the end of Mr. Giuliani.”

Giuliani is still facing his biggest test yet: fighting criminal charges in the Georgia case accusing Trump and 18 others of working to subvert the results of the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden, in that state. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and characterized the case as politically motivated.

Jurors in the defamation case heard recordings of Giuliani falsely accusing the election workers of sneaking in ballots in suitcases, counting ballots multiple times and tampering with voting machines. Trump also repeated the conspiracy theories through his social media accounts.

Lawyers for Moss and Freeman, who are Black, also played for jurors audio recordings of the graphic and racist threats the women received.

The women’s lawyers asked for at least $24 million for each woman in defamation damages alone. They also sought compensation for their emotional harm and punitive damages.

On the witness stand, Moss and Freeman described fearing for their lives as hateful messages poured in. Moss told jurors she tried to change her appearance, seldom leaves her home and suffers from panic attacks. Her mother described strangers banging on her door and recounted fleeing her home after people came with bullhorns and the FBI told her she wasn’t safe.

“It’s so scary, anytime I go somewhere, if I have to use my name,” Freeman said, gasping through her tears to get her words out. “I miss my old neighborhood because I was me, I could introduce myself. Now I don’t have a name, really.”

Defense attorney Joseph Sibley told jurors they should compensate the women for what they are owed, but he urged them to “remember this is a great man.”

An attorney for Moss and Freeman, in his closing argument, highlighted how Giuliani has not stopped repeating the false conspiracy theory asserting the workers interfered in the November 2020 presidential election. Attorney Michael Gottlieb played a video of Giuliani outside the courthouse on Monday, in which Giuliani falsely claimed the women were “engaged in changing votes.”

“Mr. Giuliani has shown over and over again he will not take our client’s names out of his mouth,” Gottlieb said. “Facts will not stop him. He says he isn’t sorry, and he’s telegraphing he will do this again. Believe him.”

The judge overseeing the election workers’ lawsuit had already ordered Giuliani and his business entities to pay tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees. In holding Giuliani liable, the judge ruled that the former mayor gave “only lip service” to complying with his legal obligations while trying to portray himself as the victim in the case.
…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Faith and education leaders are denouncing plans for an After School Satan Club at a Tennessee elementary school but said they would follow the law and allow the organization hosting the club to meet.

Around 40 members of the faith community in Memphis stood united with leaders at Memphis-Shelby County Schools on Wednesday to criticize the planned club and to question The Satanic Temple’s intentions in offering it, according to the Commercial Appeal newspaper. The faith community and educators also wanted to make it clear that students would need signed permission slips to attend and to express support for religious organizations that have partnered with the district, the newspaper reported.

“You see the faith-based community standing here,” said board chair and local pastor Althea Greene, who wore a clerical collar. “We’re going to stand up and we’re going to be vocal. Satan has no room in this district.”

The Satanic Temple plans to host the club at Chimneyrock Elementary School in Cordova. It will begin meeting January 10 in the school’s library and run through the spring semester, according to an announcement Tuesday posted on social media.

A flyer about the club says the Satanic Temple is a nontheistic religion that views Satan “as a literary figure who represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit.”

It says it does not attempt to convert children to any religious ideology but offers activities that “emphasize a scientific, rationalistic, non-superstitious worldview.”

Memphis-Shelby County Schools said in a statement that the district would rent out the space to the nonprofit organization per its policy.

Since the announcement, interim Superintendent Toni Williams said some have demanded that the district ban all faith-based organizations from schools, but that won’t happen.

“As a superintendent, I am duty bound to uphold our board policy, state laws, and the Constitution,” she said during the event. “But let’s not be fooled. Let’s not be fooled by what we’ve seen in the past 24 hours, which is an agenda, initiated to make sure that we cancel all faith-based organizations that partner with our district.”
…

WASHINGTON — The United States has struck hundreds of deals worth $14.2 billion with African nations over the past year as Washington tries to counter growing influence on the continent by China.

The 547 new trade and investment agreements represent a 67% increase from 2022 in the number and value of closed deals, according to British Robinson, coordinator for the Prosper Africa trade and business initiative, a program that connects U.S. and African businesses.

Robinson said the presidential and national security initiative is aimed at strengthening strategic and economic partnerships by mobilizing two-way trade and investment flow, and young people are key to realizing that goal.

“The U.S. business and investment community is increasingly recognizing Africa’s extraordinary market potential and dynamism. The continent is home to the world’s youngest population, an asset that creates significant opportunities for viable business deals that create jobs and foster shared prosperity,” Robinson said during a December 12 virtual media briefing.

Judd Devermont, U.S. National Security Council senior director for African Affairs, said it has been a record-setting year for U.S.-Africa relations, with the United States following through on its commitment to invest some $55 billion over three years.

“As we wind down 2023, we have already delivered on more than 40% of this commitment. In fact, by the end of year two, we anticipate surpassing 70% of our goal, if not more,” Devermont said. “With these resources, we’ve expanded our trade and investment; we have advanced major food and health security partnerships; charted a course for digital transformation; forged new security and good governance cooperation; and catalyzed landmark diaspora-driven engagement.”

The briefing was held to mark the one-year anniversary of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, where Biden pledged to go “all in” on the continent.

The announcement comes as Washington works to deepen its engagement with Africa, where China has been expanding its influence with infrastructure, investment, loans, among other initiatives.

Devermont, President Joe Biden’s top Africa adviser, said Africa is not only important economically but politically, adding the U.S. has been pushing for more African voices on the world stage for some time.

“President Biden last year called for the African Union to become a permanent member of the G20, and in September we proudly welcomed this development,” Devermont said. “We’re now advocating for a third seat for the —for Sub-Saharan Africa on the IMF board, and of course we reiterate our call for permanent representation for Africa at the UN Security Council.”

The U.S. has had to alter its investment and trade strategies in countries affected by conflict. U.S. Department of State Bureau of African Affairs Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan Pratt said that, in Sudan, U.S. policy has been to put sanctions in place. “Sanctions haven’t just been on individuals; they’ve also been on companies and different asset classes. And so that’s one strategy that we’ve used in conflict countries and locations,” he said.

Pratt said in Niger, one of several countries hit by military coups and violence, the United States is prioritizing peace through negotiations.

“We’ve been very supporting of the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) sanctions that have been put in place. And then to support that effort we have leveraged our own assistance and investments, which we’ve announced very clearly, if the country and the leadership there turns back to a democratic path, we’re willing to explore progressively lifting that freeze in assistance and potential investments,” Pratt said, adding that the U.S. also uses “a combination of sanctions plus leveraging our engagement and assistance.”

Devermont agreed saying that trade investment has been an important part of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit.

“One of the most important initiatives that has come out of the continent in the last couple years has been the Africa free – Continental Free Trade Area. And we signed an MOU with the AfCFTA at this summit because the goals of the AfCFTA to unite 1.3 billion people in a single market and to trade a nominal GDP that’s larger than India’s is a huge boon.  And in that process, harmonizing regulations, reducing trade and non-trade barriers, that will benefit all countries whether they are experiencing a crisis or not.”

Devermont said the U.S. is also looking at the underlying drivers of conflict, and is investing in new approaches, including elevating its focus on elections and anti-corruption measures.

This story originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service. 
…

seattle — The U.S. government said Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to help recover depleted populations of salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and that it will help figure out how to offset the hydropower, transportation and other benefits provided by four controversial dams on the Snake River, should Congress ever agree to breach them.

President Joe Biden’s administration stopped short of calling for the removal of the dams to save the fish, but Northwest tribes and conservationists who have long sought that called the agreement a road map for dismantling them. Filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon, it pauses long-running litigation over federal operation of the dams and represents the most significant step yet toward breaching them.

“Today’s historic agreement marks a new direction for the Pacific Northwest,” senior White House adviser John Podesta said in a written statement. “Today, the Biden-Harris administration and state and tribal governments are agreeing to work together to protect salmon and other native fish, honor our obligations to tribal nations, and recognize the important services the Columbia River system provides to the economy of the Pacific Northwest.”

The Columbia River Basin, an area roughly the size of Texas, was once the world’s greatest salmon-producing river system, with at least 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead.

Today, four are extinct and seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Another iconic but endangered Northwest species, a population of killer whales, also depends on the salmon.

Dams blamed for decline

Dams are a main culprit behind the salmon’s decline, and federal fisheries scientists have concluded that breaching the dams in eastern Washington on the Snake River, the largest tributary of the Columbia, would be the best hope for recovering them, providing the fish with access to hundreds of miles of pristine habitat and spawning grounds in Idaho.

Conservation groups sued the federal government more than two decades ago in an effort to save the fish. They have argued that the continued operation of the dams violates the Endangered Species Act as well as treaties dating to the mid-19th century ensuring the tribes’ right to harvest fish.

Republicans in Congress who oppose the breaching of the dams released a leaked copy of the draft agreement late last month.

“I have serious concerns about what this agreement means for the future of our region,” Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington, said in an emailed statement Thursday. “It jeopardizes the energy, irrigation and navigation benefits that support our entire way of life, and it makes commitments on behalf of Congress without engaging us.”

Details of agreement

Under the agreement, the U.S. government will build enough new clean energy projects in the Pacific Northwest to replace the hydropower generated by the dams — the Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Lower Granite.

The agreement includes a compromise regarding dam operations — providing for additional water to be spilled in the spring, fall and winter to help some salmon runs such as spring and summer Chinook, while reducing the spill required in late summer, when energy demand is high and production is especially profitable. That could harm fall Chinook, said the environmental law firm Earthjustice, which is representing environmental, fishing and renewable energy groups in the litigation.

The federal Bonneville Power Administration, which operates the dams, will spend $300 million over 10 years to restore native fish and their habitats throughout the Columbia River Basin, though it said the agreement would result in rate increases of only 0.7%. Two-thirds of that money will go toward hatchery improvements and operations, and the rest will go to what the agreement refers to as the “six sovereigns” — Oregon, Washington and the four tribes involved: the Yakama Nation, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs.

Combined with other fish-restoration funding, the federal government will be spending more than $1 billion over the next decade, the White House said.

The U.S. also will conduct or pay for studies of how the transportation, irrigation and recreation provided by the dams could be replaced. The dams made the town of Lewiston, Idaho, the most inland seaport on the West Coast, and many farmers in the region rely on barges to ship their crops, though rail is also available.

The agreement “lays out a pathway to breaching,” said Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe. “When these things are replaced, and the Pacific Northwest is transforming into a stronger, more resilient, better place, then there’s a responsibility … to make the decisions that are necessary to make sure these treaty promises are kept.”

Utility and business groups Northwest RiverPartners, the Public Power Council and the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association have opposed the agreement.

“This settlement undermines the future of achieving clean energy goals and will raise the rates of electricity customers across the region while exacerbating the greatest threat to salmon that NOAA scientists have identified — the warming, acidifying ocean,” Northwest RiverPartners said in a news release Thursday.

There has been growing recognition that the harm some dams cause to fish outweighs their usefulness, but only a few lawmakers in the region have embraced the idea. Dams on the Elwha River in Washington state and the Klamath River along the Oregon-California border have been or are being removed.

In 2021, Republican Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho proposed removing the earthen berms on either side of the four Lower Snake River dams to let the river flow freely, and to spend $33 billion to replace the benefits of the dams.

Last year, Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Washington U.S. Senator Patty Murray, both Democrats, released a report saying carbon-free electricity produced by the dams must be replaced before they are breached. Inslee declined to endorse breaching the dams during a conference call with reporters on Thursday, but he said figuring out how to replace their benefits would enable Congress to make a better decision.

“I don’t think this agreement makes anything inevitable, but it does make it much more likely that we’ll have the information we need to make the decision,” he said.

In October, Biden directed federal agencies to use all available resources to restore abundant salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin, but that memo too stopped short of calling for the removal of the dams.

“The energy needs of the Pacific Northwest should not rest on the backs of salmon,” said Donella Miller, fisheries science manager with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “What’s good for the salmon is good for the environment, and what’s good for the environment is good for the people.”
…

washington — The maiden liftoff of a new American rocket called Vulcan Centaur has been delayed from December 24 to January 8, the company that developed it said Thursday.

The postponement stems from last-minute technical snags, but United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said on X, formerly Twitter, that a recent dress rehearsal on the launch pad went well.

The rocket will carry a private lunar lander, developed by the startup Astrobotic, which could become the first such private craft to touch down on the moon and the first American robot to land on the surface since the Apollo program ended in 1972.

“This is sort of, in a way, the first giant step in the campaign for the U.S., and for all of our friends, to go back to the moon, eventually with people,” Bruno told AFP in an interview last week.

“It’s a pretty big deal to have a payload at all, let alone one that goes to the surface of the moon,” he added.

“We wanted to do something really important, and we have a lot of confidence, obviously, in the design of our rocket,” Bruno said.

Liftoff for this mission called Cert-1 will take place at the U.S. Space Force launch base at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In dress rehearsals in recent days, some “routine” issues emerged in the ground system so a Christmas Eve flight is now out, and the new window opens January 8, Bruno wrote on X.

Besides the lunar lander, this rocket will carry the cremated remains of several people associated with the original “Star Trek” series, including creator Gene Roddenberry and cast member Nichelle Nichols, who played the character Uhura. Roddenberry’s ashes have been launched into orbit previously.

A sample of Bruno’s own DNA will also be taken into space. “Who wouldn’t want to go to space with five ‘Star Trek’ people?” he mused in the interview with AFP.

Vulcan Centaur is meant to replace ULA’s Atlas V and Delta IV rockets and is designed to carry a payload of up to 27.2 metric tons into low orbit, comparable to what the SpaceX Falcon 9 can do.
…

…

Washington — U.S. lawmakers passed the massive annual defense spending bill Thursday, approving the $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a vote of 310-118 to be signed into law by President Joe Biden. The bill setting policy and spending priorities for the Department of Defense for 2024 is $28 billion larger than last year’s spending bill, an increase of around three percent.

“The NDAA is one of the most consequential bills Congress considers,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “Passage of this bill each year sends an important signal to the men and women defending our freedom that Congress can function and will prioritize their needs. Above all else, enacting the NDAA has never been more vital than today. America and our allies face unprecedented and rapidly evolving threats from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and terrorist organizations throughout the world.”  

The bill authorizes a 5.2 percent pay raise for US service members, extends the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative through 2027 and provides funding for security cooperation among the US, United Kingdom and Australia. 

The U.S. Senate passed the NDAA late Wednesday by a vote of 87-13.  

“We’ll strengthen our resources in the Indo-Pacific, to deter aggression by the Chinese government, and give resources for the military in Taiwan. We’ll give DOD more resources to deploy and develop AI, protect against foreign cyber threats, increase the transparency of Unidentified Areal Phenomena,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday night after passage. 

Earlier Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also praised the NDAA on the Senate floor, saying the legislation, “recognizes the need to strengthen America’s position in strategic competition with China through targeted improvements to critical capabilities – from long-range fires and anti-ship weapons to modernizing our nuclear triad. It’ll authorize further investments in the defense industrial base and expand efficiency and accountability of the lethal assistance degrading Russia’s military in Ukraine. It’ll turbo-charge cooperation with Israel on future missile defense technologies and ensure our closest ally in the Middle East can access the U.S. capabilities it needs, when it needs them.” 

Earlier this year, the Republican-majority U.S. House passed a more conservative version of the NDAA that would have eliminated many progressive policies providing access to abortion and transgender care. Those amendments were not in the final version of the legislation that passed Thursday.  

A joint Senate-House Conference committee worked out the compromise legislation that was passed by both chambers this week.  

Rogers described the bill passed Thursday as a good compromise, saying on the House floor Thursday, “It goes a long way toward ending woke policies being forced on our service members by left wing bureaucrats. It includes provisions that ban critical race theory and require promotions based on merit. It includes several provisions that require accountability from the administration like in its Special Inspector General for Ukraine, Ukraine aid and the deadline for the DOD to finally pass an audit.”  

Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday the NDAA “solidifies our alliances with our European allies, with our allies in Asia and with Israel and our allies in the Middle East to meet the threats that we face. You cannot oppose this bill and claim that you support the national security of this country.”  

Forty-five Democrats and seventy-three Republicans voted against the NDAA Thursday, with many conservative Republicans objecting to the extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The controversial intelligence program allows the US government to collect the communications of foreign nationals without a warrant. Conservatives allege the program has been misused to violate the privacy of Americans.    

“What’s being stated is it is impossible to oppose the National Defense Authorization Act because we put a pay raise in it or because we put something in there that is seemingly so important that we have to ignore the critical destruction of our civil liberties by adding FISA extension – without doing the reforms necessary to protect the American people,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy said Thursday.  

Smith acknowledged that FISA authorizations are in need of reform.  

“There’s no question about that. Nobody I know of, however, says that it should completely go away. If we don’t do it on this bill, it completely goes away on January 1, which is a huge national security threat to this country – universally agree.”  

U.S. lawmakers are still negotiating the White House’s $106 billion national security supplemental request that includes $60 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine as well as nearly $14 billion to assist Israel in the conflict with Hamas.

 
…

…

MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Thursday upheld a ruling to hold in detention until January 30 U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia earlier this year on espionage charges.

The 32-year-old Wall Street Journal correspondent in Moscow, his employer and the U.S. government have all rejected the spying allegations.

“Evan Gershkovich will remain in custody until January 30, 2024,” the Moscow city court said in a statement on social media, turning down an appeal lodged late last month.

A video released by the court showed Gershkovich, who previously worked for Agence France-Presse, standing in a cage for defendants during Thursday’s hearing, smiling and wearing a dark-colored sweater.

Gershkovich was arrested during a reporting trip at the end of March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, becoming the first Western reporter to be held on spying charges in Russia since the Soviet era.

He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Russia this month also brought fresh charges against U.S.-Russian dual citizen Alsu Kurmasheva, arrested in the central city of Kazan in October and charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent.”

Her employer, Radio Free Europe/Liberty (RFE/RL), this week denounced the fresh charges filed against her after reports she has also been accused of violating rules against Ukraine war criticism.
…

…

…

State Department — The United States and Taiwan are exploring ways to expand Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations system and other international forums, as well as addressing a range of global challenges, including public health, aviation safety and climate change.

The most recent routine consultation between the U.S. and Taiwan took place Wednesday, days after the Chinese delegation at COP28 opposed calls to include Taiwan in the United Nations climate talks in Dubai.

All participants in the latest U.S.-Taiwan talks “recognized the importance of working closely with likeminded partners who share our concerns regarding attempts to exclude Taiwan from the international community,” according to the U.S. State Department in a statement.

Taiwan Relations Act

Senior American officials have said Washington’s “One China” policy is “distinct” from Beijing’s “One China” principle. The U.S. policy is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. China has objected to the Taiwan Relations Act and deemed it as invalid.

The Taiwan Relations Act has stated that “nothing in this Act may be construed as a basis for supporting the exclusion or expulsion of Taiwan from continued membership in any international financial institution or any other international organization.”

The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but claims sovereignty over the island, which became home to the Chinese Nationalist government after its defeat in 1949. During the U.N. climate talks held in the United Arab Emirates, Chinese officials lodged a protest after calls to include Taiwan’s participation in the climate summit by other countries.

“China has noted that during the meeting a handful of countries ignore the fact that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and make noises about the participation by the Taiwan authorities in the COP,” a member of the Chinese delegation said via a translator in the plenary hall in Dubai.

Wednesday, officials from the State Department and Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs discussed near-term opportunities to support Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) and other global public health bodies, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as well as Taiwan’s meaningful participation in other multilateral organizations.

World Health Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization

The Beijing government has been blocking Taiwan’s representation at WHA meetings after the self-ruled democracy elected Tsai Ing-wen, a China skeptic, as president in 2016.

China has also blocked Taiwan’s participation in ICAO assemblies since 2013.

Since the U.S. switched its diplomatic recognition from the government of Taipei to Beijing in 1979, Washington has insisted that the two sides should resolve their political disputes peacefully.

Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said “fundamental differences” over Taiwan persist in Washington’s relationship with Beijing.

The top U.S. diplomat on China said the United States will continue to implement the Taiwan Relations Act and help Taiwan with its defense needs, renewing the U.S. commitment to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

In recent months, China has been increasing its military activities near the strait.  The United States has voiced concerns about any Chinese interference through military coercion, as Taiwan prepares for a presidential election in January 2024.

“I think what we can do is to insist that the people in Taiwan have an opportunity to vote freely on January 13,” Burns told an audience during a seminar hosted by the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations.

In Beijing, Chinese officials said the election in Taiwan “is purely China’s internal affair.”

“Taiwan independence” means war and “Taiwan independence” is a dead end, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during a recent briefing.

In a recent interview with VOA, U.S. Senior Official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Matt Murray said, “We certainly want to make sure there are opportunities for engagement” between the U.S. and Taiwan in international economic forums, as Taiwan is one of the top trading partners and investors in the United States.

Morris Chang, founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, represented Taiwan during the APEC summit in San Francisco in mid-November, where he held talks with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

The two discussed the U.S.-Taiwan “relationship on the economy and technology,” Harris said in a social media post on X, formerly Twitter. Chang also had a pull-aside meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the APEC meetings, according to Murray.

The last U.S.-Taiwan working group meeting on international organizations took place in April.
…

The Republican-majority U.S. House of Representatives narrowly voted Wednesday to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Joe Biden, a step forward in the investigation into any involvement by the president in his son’s business dealings. As VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the White House denies any wrongdoing.
…

The Biden administration’s support of Israel in the war against Hamas has drawn sharp criticism both from Americans protesting Palestinian civilian deaths and from State Department staff calling for a cease-fire. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has been signaling to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he needs to change course or risk international standing. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
…

…

What should young people be taught about the Israeli-Palestinian crisis? It’s a question one California school district has struggled with, even before the war in Gaza. Genia Dulot has our story
…

Washington — The Biden administration has notified Congress that it intends to spend nearly $700 million to buy a former Dublin hotel, demolish it and construct new buildings to turn the site into the new U.S. Embassy in Ireland. The State Department also announced that it had broken ground on a new embassy complex in Saudi Arabia as part of a revamp of its diplomatic facilities in the Gulf.

The department informed lawmakers late Monday that it plans to buy the former Jury’s Hotel in Dublin’s upscale Ballsbridge neighborhood for $171 million. Associated costs, including the design and construction of the new chancery and furnishing it, will bring the total to $688.8 million, according to a notice sent to Congress.

The 4.2 acre (1.7 hectare) property is located just a block from the existing U.S. embassy in the Irish capital, which dates to the 1960s and the State Department said “is well beyond its useful life, is too small for our operational needs, and is not functional in its layout.”

The new compound will include the embassy, a residence for Marine guards, support facilities and parking, the notice said. It did not give an estimate for when the project would be completed but estimated that there would be 189 employees at the new embassy in 2028, at least 109 of whom would require office space.

The U.S. has been planning to relocate its embassy in Dublin for more than a decade and the Ballsbridge site had been the expected site after Irish authorities approved zoning and other changes for it last year.

On Tuesday, the department announced that it had broken ground on construction of a new U.S. embassy on a 27.5-acre (11.1-hectare) site in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that it acquired in early 2020. That cost, along with the construction of a new U.S. consulate in Jeddah and planning for a new consulate in Dhahran, was more than $1 billion. 
…

U.S. lawmakers called for a tougher stance against Iran Tuesday as the conflict between Israel and Hamas threatens to expand across the Middle East. Iranian proxies have launched more than 90 attacks against U.S. forces since October 17th, 10 days after the Hamas terror attack on Israel. Some Republican lawmakers are demanding that the Biden administration impose stricter sanctions on the Islamic Republic. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
…

Ukraine’s president, alongside President Joe Biden, pleaded with U.S. lawmakers Tuesday to approve $61 billion in aid for the country as it continues to fight off Russia’s invasion. Without those funds, they say, a cold, grim winter looms. White House Correspondent Anita Powell reports.
…

In a sign that the United States is getting increasingly concerned over the number of civilian casualties from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, President Joe Biden delivered a public rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even as he maintains staunch support for Israel. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
…

WASHINGTON — U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo vowed Monday to take the “strongest action possible” in response to a semiconductor chip-making breakthrough in China that a House Foreign Affairs Committee said “almost certainly required the use of U.S. origin technology and should be an export control violation.”

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Raimondo called Huawei Technology’s advanced processor in its Mate Pro 60 smartphone released in August “deeply concerning” and said the Commerce Department investigates such things vigorously.

The United States has banned chip sales to Huawei, which reportedly used chips from China chip giant Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., or SMIC, in the phone that are 7 nanometers, a technology China has not been known as able to produce.

Raimondo said the U.S. was also looking into the specifics of three new artificial intelligence accelerator chips that California-based Nvidia Corp. is developing for China. “We look at every spec of every new chip, obviously, to make sure it doesn’t violate the export controls,” she said.

Nvidia came under U.S. scrutiny for designing China-specific chips that were just under new Commerce Department requirements announced in October for tighter export controls on advanced AI chips for civilian use that could have military applications.

China’s Foreign Ministry responded to Raimondo’s comments Tuesday, saying the U.S. was “undermining the rights of Chinese companies” and contradicting the principles of a market economy.

‘Almost certainly required US origin technology’

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in a December 7 report criticized the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, or BIS, the regulatory body for regulating dual-use export controls.

The report said Chinese chip giant “SMIC is producing 7 nanometer chips — advanced technology for semiconductors that had been only capable of development by TSMC, Intel and Samsung.”

“Despite this breakthrough by SMIC, which almost certainly required the use of U.S. origin technology and should be an export control violation, BIS has not acted,” the 66-page report said. “We can no longer afford to avoid the truth: the unimpeded transfer of U.S. technology to China is one of the single-largest contributors to China’s emergence as one of the world’s premier scientific and technological powers.”

Excessive approvals alleged

Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said BIS had an excessive rate of approval for controlled technology transfers and lacked checks on end-use, raising serious questions about the current U.S. export control mechanism.

“U.S. export control officials should adopt a presumption that all [Chinese] entities will divert technology to military or surveillance uses,” said McCaul’s report, but “currently, the overwhelming approval rates for licenses or exceptions for dual-use technology transfers to China indicate that licensing officials at BIS are likely presuming that items will be used only for their intended purposes.”

According to BIS’s website, a key in determining whether an export license is needed from the Department of Commerce is knowing whether the item one intends to export has a specific Export Control Classification Number, or ECCN. All ECCNs are listed in the Commerce Control List, or CCL, which is divided into ten broad categories.

The committee’s report said that “in 2020, nearly 98% of CCL items export to China went without a license,” and “in 2021, BIS approved nearly 90% of applications for the export of CCL items to China.”

The report said that between 2016 and 2021, “the United States government’s two export control officers in China conducted on average only 55 end-user checks per year of the roughly 4,000 active licenses in China. Put another way, BIS likely verified less than 0.01% of all licenses, which represent less than 1% of all trade with China.”

China skilled in avoiding controls

But China is also skilled at avoiding U.S. export controls, analysts said.

William Yu, an economist at UCLA Anderson Forecast, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview that China can get banned chips through a third country. “For example, some countries in the Middle East set up a company in that country to buy these high-level chips from the United States. From there, one is transferred back to China,” Yu said.

Thomas Duesterberg, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview that the Commerce Department’s BIS has a hard job.

“If you forbid technology from going to one company in China, the Chinese are experts at creating another company or just moving the company to a new address and disguising its name to try to evade the controls. China is a big country and there’s a lot of technology that is at stake here,” he said.

“It’s true on the one hand that BIS has been successful in some areas, such as advanced semiconductors in conjunction with denial of Chinese ability to buy American technology companies,” said Duesterberg. “But it’s also true as the [House Foreign Affairs Committee] report emphasizes that a lot of activities that policymakers would like to restrict is not being done.”

Insufficient resources or political will?

Despite its huge responsibility to ensure that the United States stays ahead in the escalating U.S.-China science and technology competition, the Commerce Department’s BIS is small, employing just over 300 people.

At the annual Reagan National Defense Forum on December 2, Secretary Raimondo lamented that BIS “has the same budget today as it did a decade ago” despite the increasing challenges and workload, reported Breaking Defense, a New York-based online publication on global defense and politics.

U.S. Representatives Elise Stefanik, Mike Gallagher, who is chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and McCaul released a joint response to Raimondo’s call for additional funds for the BIS, saying resources alone would not resolve export control shortcomings.

Raimondo also warned chip companies that the U.S. would further tighten controls to prevent cutting edge AI technology from going to Beijing.

“The threat from China is large and growing,” she said in an interview to CNBC at the December 2 forum. “China wants access to our most sophisticated semiconductors, and we can’t afford to give them that access. We’re not just going to deny a single company in China, we’re going to deny the whole country access to our cutting-edge semiconductors.”
…

Washington — Newly declassified U.S. intelligence indicates Russia has suffered from some staggering losses as a result of its nearly two-year-old invasion of Ukraine, including major setbacks during its latest offensive.

The assessment, parts of which were shared with VOA, estimates more than 13,000 Russian forces have been killed or wounded since Moscow launched its October offensive along the Avdiivka-Novopavlivka axis in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. intelligence also believes Ukraine’s military has destroyed or immobilized more than 220 Russian combat vehicles, the equivalent of six battalions’ worth of vehicles.

“Russia’s attempt at an offensive has resulted in no strategic gains,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told VOA in a statement, describing the Russian losses as “severe.” 

“But Russia is determined to press forward,” she added. “Russia seems to believe that a military deadlock through the winter will drain Western support for Ukraine and ultimately give Russia the advantage despite Russian losses and persistent shortages of trained personnel, munitions, and equipment.”

The decision to declassify the latest intelligence Tuesday comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Washington, visiting with U.S. lawmakers and with U.S. President Joe Biden.

During a speech at the National Defense University in Washington on Monday, Zelenskyy pleaded with U.S. lawmakers “not to betray” Ukraine’s forces and provide more weapons and support, warning Moscow sees Ukraine as “just a stepping-stone.”

“We know what to do,” he said. “You can count on Ukraine, and we hope just as much to be able to count on you.”

The White House has been pushing U.S. lawmakers to approve more than $61 billion in supplemental funding for Kyiv before the end of the year.

But some lawmakers have balked, with some Republicans insisting any deal to provide more money to Ukraine must also include provisions to strengthen U.S. immigration policies and security along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

White House officials, however, point to the latest declassified intelligence to argue that funding for Ukraine simply cannot wait.

“This shows how Ukraine is having success stopping Russian forces, but Putin is continuing to order his troops forward,” a senior administration official told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence and the political negotiations.

“It’s critical we continue to support Ukraine and make sure they have what they need to defend themselves,” the official added.

Top U.S. military and intelligence officials have previously said Russia’s losses in Ukraine have set its military back by as much as five to ten years.

Still, the Pentagon warned Monday a failure to back Ukraine will send Russian President Vladimir Putin the wrong message.

“Despite his isolation, Putin still believes that he can outlast Ukraine, and that he can outlast America,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday, speaking with Zelenskyy at the National Defense University.  “If we do not stand up to the Kremlin’s aggression today, if we do not deter other would-be aggressors, we will only invite more aggression, more bloodshed, and more chaos.”

Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
…

…

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard President Claudine Gay will remain leader of the prestigious Ivy League school following her comments last week at a congressional hearing on antisemitism, the university’s highest governing body announced Tuesday. 

“Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” the Harvard Corporation said in a statement following its meeting Monday night. 

Only months into her leadership, Gay came under intense scrutiny following the hearing in which she and two of her peers struggled to answer questions about campus antisemitism. Their academic responses provoked a backlash from Republican opponents, along with alumni and donors who say the university leaders are failing to stand up for Jewish students on their campuses. 

Some lawmakers and donors to the university called for Gay to step down, following the resignation of Liz Magill as president of the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday. 

The Harvard Crimson student newspaper first reported Tuesday that Gay, who became Harvard’s first Black president in July, will remain in office with the support of the Harvard Corporation following the conclusion of the board’s meeting. It cited an unnamed source familiar with the decision. 

A petition signed by more than 600 faculty members asked the school’s governing body to keep Gay in charge. 

“So many people have suffered tremendous damage and pain because of Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack, and the university’s initial statement should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation,” the corporation’s statement said. “Calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values. President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the university’s fight against antisemitism.” 

In an interview with The Crimson last week, Gay said she got caught up in a heated exchange at the House committee hearing and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students. 

“What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged,” Gay said. 

Testimony from Gay and Magill drew intense national backlash, as have similar responses from the president of MIT, who also testified before the Republican-led House Education and Workforce Committee. 

The corporation also addressed allegations of plagiarism against Gay, saying that Harvard became aware of them in late October regarding three articles she had written. It initiated an independent review at Gay’s request. 

The corporation reviewed the results on Saturday, “which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation” and found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, it said.
…