VOA Mandarin’s Hai Lun, Mo Yu and Ning Lu and VOA Spanish’s Victor Hugo Castillo traveled to Mexican and Texas border cities to talk to Chinese migrants who had come from South America. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee tells the story. Cameras: Hai Lun, Ning Lu, Victor Hugo Castillo, Oscar Cavadia.
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The midwestern city of Chicago is struggling to accommodate a wave of migrants, many from Central and South America, transported to the city after entering the U.S. at America’s southern border. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports on how the city and aid agencies are mobilizing to tend to asylum-seekers’ critical needs.
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In the space of 24 hours this week, a pair of U.S. House committees held hearings exploring the impact of China’s aggressive use of economic power against the U.S. and its allies, and considered measures the U.S. might take to counter Beijing’s efforts.

More than half a dozen witnesses told lawmakers about the ways China uses its economic might to coerce smaller countries into providing favorable trade arrangements and to force businesses that want to operate in China to surrender intellectual property, which is then provided to Chinese-owned competitors.

Other witnesses testified that China’s economic policies are part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s broader ambition to turn China into a globally dominant economic player that will ultimately outweigh the United States on the world stage.

One of the witnesses, Robert Lighthizer, who served as U.S. Trade Representative under former President Donald Trump, captured the tone of both hearings when he said, “It is not an exaggeration to say that the Chinese Communist Party has been waging an economic war against the United States for decades.”

VOA asked the Chinese Embassy to reply to the allegations detailed in the hearings but did not receive a response.

However, last week, when Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin was asked about G-7 countries’ complaints about Chinese economic coercion, he turned the accusation back on the U.S, saying, “If any country should be criticized for economic coercion, it should be the United States. The U.S. has been overstretching the concept of national security, abusing export control and taking discriminatory and unfair measures against foreign companies. This seriously violates the principles of market economy and fair competition.”

A ‘naive bet’

In a hearing on Wednesday night, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) convened a hearing titled, “Leveling the Playing Field: How to Counter the CCP’s Economic Aggression.”

Rep. Mike Gallagher, the Republican who chairs the panel, began the hearing with a video that documented efforts by past U.S. administrations, both Republican and Democratic, to welcome the People’s Republic of China (PRC) into the global economic community, including granting it privileged trade status in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“For the last 25 years, both parties largely made the same naive bet on China, that robust economic engagement would lead the Chinese Communist Party to political liberalization,” he said. “But Beijing saw our quintessentially American optimism as an opportunity to exploit and our treaties and international commitments as rules ‘for thee but not for me.’”

“Well, now the error of wishful thinking is over,” he said. “The CCP’s economic warfare uses any and all available leverage to coerce us and our allies and it’s time that we defend ourselves and the free world.”

Fundamental questions

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, was equally adamant about the need to challenge China on the global stage.

“This is the fundamental question: Who will be the economic and innovation leader for the remainder of the 21st century? Will it be America, or the CCP?” Krishnamoorthi said.

Stepping in to counter China’s various forms of economic influence in the world must be “pressing priorities” for the U.S., he said. “The moment to act is not in 10 years or five years or next year. It’s now.”

In addition to Lighthizer, the committee heard from Roger Robinson, former chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. In his testimony, Robinson claimed that U.S. investors are, in some cases unknowingly, subsidizing Chinese companies by participating in investment funds that contain Chinese corporate debt.

Robinson argued that because Chinese firms are not subject to the same disclosure requirements as firms in the U.S. and other developed countries, they should not be allowed continued access to U.S. capital markets.

A third witness, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, called for immediate action to bolster investment and innovation in key emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, to keep the U.S. ahead of China in some areas and to catch up in others.

“It’s never too late to stop digging our own grave,” he said.

Rejecting economic coercion

On Thursday morning, in a hearing before the Indo-Pacific Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Young Kim opened the hearing with a statement that was highly critical of China’s behavior towards its neighbors. For example, she accused Beijing of causing the recent crash in Sri Lanka’s economy by pressuring its leaders to take on excessive debt through its “Belt and Road” infrastructure-building initiative.

She called on members to “recognize the immense economic pressure that the PRC puts on our allies, partners and friends around the world.”

“The CCP uses debt-trap diplomacy through the Belt and Road Initiative to achieve its political goals abroad,” said the Republican lawmaker. “So much so that it is willing to crash economies and generate instability as it did in Sri Lanka.”

Last month, after Sri Lanka and its creditors launched debt restructuring talks without the participation of China, the country’s largest creditor, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wenbin was asked if the absence of his country reflected frustration about Beijing’s approach to third-world countries indebted to China. He said, “China calls on commercial and multilateral creditors to jointly participate in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring under the principle of fair burden-sharing. We have been in close communication with Sri Lanka and supported Chinese financial institutions in actively discussing debt treatment arrangements with Sri Lanka.”

Legislation proposed

Rep. Ami Bera, the ranking Democrat on the sub-committee, pushed back against Beijing’s claims that the U.S. is trying to isolate China economically, saying, “Truth is, we’d like to maintain the status quo, which has lifted all the countries in that region through a rules based order, but we have to respond to Chinese aggression and Chinese economic coercion.”

Bera called on Congress to pass a measure that would direct the Biden administration to form “an interagency task force to respond to the PRC government’s acts of economic coercion and required the evaluation of the impacts on U.S. business and economic performance.”

The same bill, he said, would give the president “new tools to provide rapid economic support to partners and allies facing economic coercion from the PRC and hold the PRC accountable for its actions.”

Intellectual property theft

Thursday’s panel heard from Alon Raphael, CEO of FemtoMetrix, a company that makes a set of software tools used in the manufacture of advanced semiconductors. Raphael told the panel that in 2020, three of his company’s former employees, all Chinese nationals, “covertly absconded with thousands of files and years’ worth of proprietary information” that they used to set up a competing company called Weichong Semiconductor in mainland China.

Weichong has filed for patents in China using FemtoMetrix technology, Raphael said, and has pitched its services to his company’s existing customers, sometimes using slide decks that still contain the FemtoMetrix logo.

“Weichong is not an outlier, but an exemplar for the theft of American intellectual property,” Raphael said.

FemtoMetric has sued Weichong, Raphael said, but has little hope that a result will come quickly, or that a judgment in his company’s favor would be enforced by Chinese authorities.

“Companies like Weiching have become accustomed to exploiting the court system’s slow pace and high cost,” he said. “Alternative means of addressing such international theft are needed.”
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Since the COVID-era immigration policy known as Title 42 ended last week, the U.S. says it has sent thousands of people who have crossed into the U.S. irregularly back to Mexico or back home. But many immigrants who want to follow the rules say it is very difficult to apply for asylum. VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports. Camera: Celia Mendoza and Jesus Rosales
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The U.S. State Department on Thursday called on Iran not to carry out the possibly imminent execution of three men that Tehran arrested during anti-government protests that spread throughout the country last year following the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman who morality police detained for improperly wearing a hijab.

The State Department told reporters that the execution of Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi would be an affront to human rights.

On Wednesday, Amnesty International said the Iranian Supreme Court had upheld their death sentences after state media broadcast their forced “confessions” to a charge of “enmity against God.”

The three men were arrested in the city of Esfahan last November as they protested the death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the country’s morality police last September and died while in police custody.

Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement, “The shocking manner in which the trial and sentencing of these protesters was fast-tracked through Iran’s judicial system amid the use of torture-tainted ‘confessions,’ serious procedural flaws and a lack of evidence is another example of the Iranian authorities’ brazen disregard for the rights to life and fair trial.”

Amnesty International said the families of the three men were allowed to see them Wednesday but were also told it would be their last visitation with them.

Hundreds of protesters, and some Iranian security agents, have been killed in the months of demonstrations. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden has canceled a historic visit to Papua New Guinea, where he was to meet with Pacific Island leaders, choosing instead to focus on crucial debt-ceiling negotiations in Washington. Biden’s meeting with the leaders of India, Australia and Japan in Sydney has also been scrapped. VOA’s Jessica Stone looks at what this means for U.S. engagement in the region at a time when China is increasingly exerting its influence.
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Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit claiming that the German lender should have seen evidence of sex trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein when he was a client, according to lawyers for women who say they were abused by the late financier.

A woman only identified as Jane Doe sued the bank in federal district court in New York and sought class-action status to represent other victims of Epstein. The lawsuit asserted that the bank knowingly benefited from Epstein’s sex trafficking and “chose profit over following the law” to earn millions of dollars from the businessman.

One of the law firms representing women in the case, Edwards Pottinger, said it believed it is the largest sex trafficking settlement with a bank in U.S. history.

“The settlement will allow dozens of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein to finally attempt to restore their faith in our system knowing that all individuals and entities who facilitated Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation will finally be held accountable,” the firm said in statement.

Deutsche Bank would not comment on the settlement Thursday but noted a 2020 statement from the bank acknowledging its mistake in taking on Epstein as a client, said Frank Hartmann, the German lender’s global head of media relations.

“The Bank has invested more than 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) to bolster controls, processes and training, and hired more people to fight financial crime,” Hartmann said in a written statement.

The Boies Schiller Flexner law firm, which also represents plaintiffs, called the settlement an important step for victims’ rights.

“The scope and scale of Epstein’s abuse, and the many years it continued in plain sight, could not have happened without the collaboration and support of many powerful individuals and institutions,” David Boies, the firm’s chairman, said in a statement.

Deutsche Bank had previously joined JPMorgan Chase, which is also facing a lawsuit over its ties to Epstein, in fighting the allegations. Epstein killed himself in prison while facing federal criminal charges of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

The German lender said late last year that it provided “routine banking services” to Epstein from 2013 to 2018 and that the lawsuit “does not come close to adequately alleging that Deutsche Bank … was part of Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking ring.”

The lawsuits — which also target the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein had an estate — are drawing in some high-profile figures.

A U.S. judge decided last month that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon must face up to two days of questioning by lawyers handling the lawsuits.

The Virgin Islands government also is trying to subpoena billionaire Elon Musk as part of its own litigation against JPMorgan, accusing the banking giant of enabling Epstein’s recruiters to pay victims and helping conceal his decades of sex abuse.

JPMorgan has denied the allegations and in turn has sued former executive Jes Staley, saying he hid Epstein’s abuse and trafficking to keep the financier as a client. A lawyer for Staley had no comment on the lawsuit when it was filed in March.
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Analysts say U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to postpone a trip to Australia is a major blow to Canberra. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will still make the trip to Australia next week, even though the Quad leaders’ summit at the Sydney Opera House has been canceled.

The White House says U.S. President Joe Biden has postponed his planned trip to Australia because of domestic debt ceiling negotiations.

Biden will, however, travel to Japan for a meeting of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations, which Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will also attend, along with Japan’s Fumio Kishida and India’s Narendra Modi.

Albanese told reporters Wednesday that the leaders of the Quad security dialogue, including the United States, Australia, Japan and India, will meet for talks on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

“President Biden, though, indicated that he was very much looking forward to coming down at a future date when it can be arranged and I will visit the United States for a state visit later this year. All four leaders; President Biden, Prime Minister Kishida, Prime Minister Modi and myself will be at the G-7 head in Hiroshima,” he said.

The Quad summit in Sydney was to have been the first to be held in Australia.

It has now been postponed indefinitely. Analysts say the cancellation harms the grouping’s ambitions to be an influential alternative to China. They also insist it damages the reputation of the United States as a reliable ally at a time when strategic competition with China in the Indo-Pacific region is intensifying.

Ian Hall is a professor of International Relations at the Griffith Asia Institute at Griffith University. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. cancellation of the summit will harm the Quad’s reputation.

“The Quad’s work is going on. Officials are beavering away on Quad business all the time. But these kinds of focal points, these sorts of summits are important. They are good for, kind of, articulating what the Quad is all about, what the Quad is going to do, what its intentions are. In that sense, not having this summit I think is problematic, or at least postponing this summit is problematic,” he said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains committed to traveling to Australia next week for his first trip since 2014, but his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida is reportedly unlikely to travel.

Biden has also abandoned plans for a historic visit to Papua New Guinea, where he would have signed a security accord with Prime Minister James Marape.

Beijing has been critical of the Quad grouping, describing it as an “exclusive clique.”

However, despite Australia’s enthusiasm for the four-nation alliance, there are signs its recent trade and diplomatic tensions with China are continuing to ease.

Also, China’s ambassador to Canberra, Xiao Qian, said Thursday that Beijing will resume imports of Australian timber.
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U.S. President Joe Biden arrived Thursday in Japan for a summit of leaders from the Group of Seven nations that is expected to focus on countering China’s economic practices and supporting Ukraine in its battle against a Russian invasion.

Biden greeted a group of about 400 U.S. and Japanese troops at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni shortly after landing.

He was scheduled to meet later with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Hiroshima, the site of the G-7 talks.

The G-7 summit will also include leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Kishida also invited a group of nonmembers to take part in the summit as part of an effort to engage with the Global South. Those nations include Australia, Brazil, Comoros, Cook Islands, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Ukraine and Vietnam.

Leaders are expected to discuss China’s use of trade and investment restrictions, as well as boycotts and sanctions. Possible actions by the G-7 include export controls and restrictions on investments from those nations in China. 
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More than two weeks after Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old mentally ill and homeless Black man was choked to death on the New York City subway by a former Marine, reaction to the killing has broken down along familiar political fault lines.

Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old man who placed Neely in a chokehold and was captured on video holding him for several minutes, is being widely hailed as a hero by Republican politicians in the United States, and a fund set up for his legal defense has collected more than $2.5 million and continues growing.

Many Democrats, by contrast, have argued that choking Neely to death was a criminal act that should be punished. In the eyes of many, it evoked the death of George Floyd, the Black Minneapolis man whose 2020 choking death at the hands of a white police officer was also captured on video, and energized the Black Lives Matter movement.

Penny was released in the immediate aftermath of the subway killing. Ten days later, the Manhattan district attorney charged him with second-degree manslaughter, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Known facts

Neely’s killing first came to the public’s notice via a cellphone recording made by a fellow passenger in the minutes before his death. When the video begins, Penny and Neely are already on the floor of the subway car, with Penny’s left arm around Neely’s throat. Two other men are attempting to restrain Neely’s arms and legs.

Penny holds him in the chokehold for several minutes as the movement of Neely’s arms and legs become feebler. At one point, another passenger warns Penny that he appears to be killing Neely. Several minutes into the video, when Penny releases Neely, the latter remains on the ground, unmoving.

Witnesses told police that in the moments before Penny placed Neely in the chokehold, Neely had been behaving erratically. He was reportedly screaming at other passengers, telling them he was hungry and thirsty and that he was ready to die.

Prosecutors said that in advance of Penny placing him in a chokehold, “Several witnesses observed Mr. Neely making threats and scaring passengers.”

However, there has been no claim that Neely actually harmed or attempted to harm anyone.

Republican reaction

In the days after Neely’s death, public reaction rapidly fractured along political lines, with conservatives praising Penny as a hero, and liberals condemning him as a vigilante.

One of Penny’s most vocal supporters has been Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is widely expected to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. DeSantis last week used his Twitter account to support Penny and attack Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, claiming the latter is funded by billionaire George Soros, long a detested target of the conservative movement who contributes to liberal causes and Democratic campaigns.

“We must defeat the Soros-Funded DAs, stop the Left’s pro-criminal agenda, and take back the streets for law abiding citizens. We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. Let’s show this Marine … America’s got his back,” DeSantis wrote.

Nikki Haley, a declared candidate for the GOP nomination, said on Fox News Tuesday night that New York Governor Kathy Hocul should intervene in the case and pardon Penny.

“If she pardons him, that sets a right on a lot of things — it’ll put criminals on notice,” said Haley, a former governor of South Carolina who served as ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump. “And it’ll let people like Penny who really were very brave in that instance, it will let them know that we’ve got their back.”

Democratic reaction

“Black men seem to always be choked to death,” said Representative Jamaal Bowman, after the killing. “Jordan Neely did not have to die. It’s as simple as that. Yet we have another Black man publicly executed.”

Representative Maxine Waters, a long-serving California House Democrat, wrote in an essay published by the HuffPost, “Instead of being offered compassion, [Neely] was violently murdered by a vigilante who pinned him down and … choked him to death. Others aided and abetted the murder by helping to hold him down. His offense: Being hungry and homeless.”

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in an interview with the online publication The Cut, called Neely’s death a failure of government support.

“Jordan Neely was killed by public policy. He was killed by the demonizing of the poor by many of our leaders,” she said. “He was killed by the same reluctance for people to see him as human that leaders are exhibiting right now, even in his death.”

Fits existing narratives

Regina Bateson, an associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at Canada’s University of Ottawa, told VOA that the reaction to Neely’s killing has broken down along partisan lines because it very clearly plays into existing frames of reference.

“This incident lines up with the core interests of two very different, but very widespread social movements that are going on in the United States at the same time,” said Bateson, who has studied the political aspects of vigilantism.

“This incident lines up squarely with both the law-and-order framing that’s been adopted by the right, and the concern about racial justice, excessive use of force and civil rights that’s been adopted more on the left,” she said.

However, Bateson said it is important to understand that examples of vigilantism are often used misleadingly to suggest that the behavior being punished is more widespread than it actually is.

Neely is being portrayed by many on the right as having presented an immediate danger to other passengers on the subway, despite there being no evidence that he actually harmed or was going to harm anyone.

“Some people’s reaction to this might be to think, ‘Oh, New York is a very dangerous place. Violence is rampant in public transportation there. The state isn’t providing enough policing,'” she said.

“I think that really misses the subjectivity of vigilantism and the fact that people are responding to things that they see as an offense, but are not necessarily responding to the objective reality of the situation,” Bateson said.
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The U.S. State Department on Wednesday said two top members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee could view a redacted version of a classified cable about the chaotic August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan sought by the committee’s Republican chairperson. 

The chairperson, Representative Michael McCaul, scheduled a committee meeting next week to consider a contempt of Congress charge against Secretary of State Antony Blinken over his refusal to release the cable, sent by U.S. diplomats via the department’s “dissent channel.” The channel allows State Department officials to air concerns to supervisors. 

The State Department will let McCaul and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Gregory Meeks, view a redacted version to protect the identity of those using the dissent channel, deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters. 

In an interview on CNN, McCaul said the State Department’s offer to make the cables available was “a really significant step forward.” He said if the department agreed to allow the entire committee to see the cables, “then I think we’ve resolved a litigation fight in the courts.” 

In a letter to McCaul, the department said it would make the material available as soon as possible.  

“The department has engaged extensively with the committee to respond to your requests. We have provided numerous briefings, thousands of pages of documents, and public testimony from the department’s senior leaders,” the letter said, adding that it was important to protect the dissent channel. 

“The accommodations that the department has provided to date are extraordinary and, as stated in our prior correspondence, already create a serious risk of chilling both future use of, and future candor in, dissent channel cables,” the letter said. 

McCaul has launched an investigation into the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Republicans — and some Democrats — say there has never been a full accounting of the chaotic operation, in which 13 U.S. service members were killed at Kabul’s airport. 

McCaul has for months been seeking a “dissent channel” cable sent in July 2021 that a Wall Street Journal article in August 2021 said warned top officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
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Montana Governor Greg Gianforte on Wednesday signed legislation to ban Chinese-owned TikTok from operating in the state, making it the first U.S. state to ban the popular short video app.

Montana will make it unlawful for Google’s and Apple’s app stores to offer the TikTok app within its borders. The ban takes effect January 1, 2024.

TikTok has over 150 million American users, but a growing number of U.S. lawmakers and state officials are calling for a nationwide ban on the app over concerns about potential Chinese government influence on the platform.

In March, a congressional committee grilled TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew about whether the Chinese government could access user data or influence what Americans see on the app.

Gianforte, a Republican, said the bill will further “our shared priority to protect Montanans from Chinese Communist Party surveillance.”

TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, said in a statement the bill “infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok,” adding that they “will defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.”

The company has previously denied that it ever shared data with the Chinese government and has said it would not do so if asked.

Montana, which has a population of just over 1 million people, said TikTok could face fines for each violation and additional fines of $10,000 per day if it violated the ban. Apple and Google could also face fines of $10,000 per violation per day if they violate the ban.

The ban will likely face numerous legal challenges on the ground that it violates the First Amendment free speech rights of users. An attempt by then-President Donald Trump to ban new downloads of TikTok and WeChat through a Commerce Department order in 2020 was blocked by multiple courts and never took effect.

TikTok’s free speech allies include several Democratic members of Congress, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and First Amendment groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Gianforte also prohibited the use of all social media applications that collect and provide personal information or data to foreign adversaries on government-issued devices.

TikTok is working on an initiative called Project Texas, which creates a standalone entity to store American user data in the U.S. on servers operated by U.S. tech company Oracle.
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Author, journalist and former Russian service chief of Voice of America’s sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Masha Gessen resigned Tuesday as vice president of the board of PEN America over the free expression group’s cancellation of an event with Russian panelists.

As part of PEN America’s annual World Voices festival this past weekend, Gessen was set to moderate a panel with two Russian dissident writers.

A separate panel featured Ukrainian writers Artem Chapeye and Artem Chekh, who are also active members of the Ukrainian military.

Because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Chapeye and Chekh objected to the presence of any Russian panelists. PEN believed that condition applied only to the Ukraine event.

PEN then canceled the Russian panel after learning that Chapeye and Chekh didn’t want Russians at the festival at all. In a statement Tuesday, PEN said a “misunderstanding” led to the Russians being uninvited. 

“Once the Ukrainians arrived in New York and learned that the Russian dissident writers were part of the festival, they informed us that they would be unable to participate, explaining that had both events proceeded, the soldiers could face an emergency situation involving significant political, legal and compliance repercussions and risks,” PEN said.

The two Russians on the canceled panel — Ilia Veniavkin and Anna Nemzer — left Russia shortly after the invasion of Ukraine.

“Faced with the consequences of our mistake and without good options, we made the decision that the event with the Ukrainians should go forward,” PEN said. “PEN America regrets the situation that ensued from the error.”

Gessen, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said PEN’s decision to cancel the panel was a betrayal of the organization’s values.

“I felt like I was being asked to tell these people that because they’re Russians they can’t sit at the big table; they have to sit at the little table off to the side,” the award-winning writer told The Atlantic Monthly, which first reported their resignation Tuesday. “Which felt distasteful.” 

“I can’t look my Russian colleagues in the eye,” Gessen added.

Gessen, who immigrated from the former Soviet Union as a teenager in 1981 and holds both Russian and American citizenship, is a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now a staff writer at The New Yorker, they previously worked as director of the Russian-language service of VOA’s sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

PEN said that it was “saddened” by Gessen’s decision to resign. “We are deeply grateful for their innumerable contributions and service,” PEN said.

Gessen told The Associated Press that PEN should not have tolerated guests being blocked from speaking “because someone else doesn’t want them to.”

“It’s up to people whose country hasn’t been invaded, whose relatives haven’t been disappeared, whose houses are not being bombed, to say there are certain things we don’t do — we don’t silence people,” Gessen told The Atlantic. “We’re a freedom-of-expression organization. I’m not blaming the Ukrainians for this.”

Gessen said they would remain a PEN member.
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Nigerian and American authorities are investigating after armed men on Tuesday attacked a U.S. convoy in southeast Anambra state, killing two consulate staff and two policemen. Nigerian police say the attackers also abducted two police officers and a driver. 

Anambra state police command spokesperson Tochukwu Ikenga said Wednesday that security forces are searching for the perpetrators and the three people they abducted.

In a separate statement late Tuesday, Ikenga said local police were unaware of the movement of the U.S. convoy until after the attack and that the area was known for separatist violence.

Police said the attackers opened fire on the motorcade, killed the officers and U.S consulate workers and then burned their corpses along with the vehicles. 

Analyst Kabiru Adamu of Beacon Security Consulting said there’s no question the attackers sought out the U.S. convoy for attack. 

“These vehicles had diplomatic numbers (license plates), they were protected by security escort,” he said. “So, it was very clear that whoever targeted them, it was a specific targeting.”

Nigerian police and White House national security official John Kirby said there were no U.S. citizens in the convoy.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities suspect separatist agitators in the region.

Security forces have blamed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for increasing violence in the southeast.

But security expert Chidi Omeje said the attack is a sign of a general decline in security, not just Biafran separatist activity. 

“It just goes to show that the security challenge in the southeast is still very much an issue,” he said. “I do not want to believe that every crime committed in the southeast now is by IPOB, because there are criminals who take advantage of this situation and commit these kinds of crimes. The embassy should’ve known that the southeast region for now is actually challenged by insecurities.”

The IPOB is seeking to break away from Nigeria’s southeastern region to form an independent state called Biafra.

The movement triggered a civil war in the late 1960s in which an estimated one million Biafrans died, mostly from famine.

In recent years, the region has seen increased attacks, including many raids on offices of the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in a bid to disrupt elections.

Adamu said the latest attack less than two weeks before the start of a new presidential administration could have implications. 

“The fact that it’s in a transition period, the attackers would’ve known the consequences of attacking a diplomatic convoy in a transition period would be far reaching, and so whether the objective is to affect the transition or not the result is the same,” he said. “There were warnings by different security agencies of plans to truncate the transition process.”

On Monday, the U.S. State Department announced a visa ban on Nigerian citizens who undermined the electoral process.

The department did not immediately name anyone affected by the ban.
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Top administration officials testified Tuesday on Capitol Hill about how the president’s new budget request will shape U.S. competition with China. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details.
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President Joe Biden canceled his trips to Papua New Guinea and Australia next week to continue debt ceiling talks with congressional leaders that he held Tuesday at the White House.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the president would to return to Washington on Sunday, following the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, “in order to be back for meetings with congressional leaders to ensure that Congress takes action by the deadline to avert default.”

When asked what kind of message the change in the president’s plan would convey to allies and partners he was scheduled to meet, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters during a briefing earlier Tuesday that leaders would “understand that the president also has to focus on making sure that we don’t default.”

Biden will depart for Hiroshima on Wednesday. From Japan, Biden was scheduled to continue to Sydney for the Quad Summit with a brief stop in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, to meet with Pacific Island Forum leaders. The meetings had been billed as opportunities to deepen cooperation on regional challenges and advance U.S. strategic interests in countering China’s influence.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday the Quad meeting in Sydney would be postponed, but that since all the Quad leaders would be in Japan for the G-7 talks, they would try to get together on the sidelines of those meetings. 

It would not be the first time an American president skipped a summit over budget disputes at home. Barack Obama canceled a trip to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Indonesia and the East Asia summit in Brunei in 2013 because of a government shutdown over a budget disagreement, and Bill Clinton pulled out of the APEC Japan meeting in 1995, also during a debt ceiling dispute.

‘A mini-G-20’

Hiroshima is the venue for this year’s May 19-21 summit of the G-7, a grouping of the world’s leading industrial nations, including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Leaders will try to find alignment in countering Beijing’s use of trade and investment restrictions, boycotts and sanctions — practices the West views as Chinese “economic coercion.” They will do so through export controls and restrictions on investment from their own nations to China, while seeking to slow China’s technological advance and reduce its dominance of the global supply chain.

More than a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, the meeting will also focus on supporting Kyiv’s defense and ratcheting up economic pressure on Russia through broader export bans. G-7 members, mainly those in Europe, still export around $4.7 billion a month to Russia, about 43% of what they did before the invasion — mostly pharmaceuticals, machinery, food and chemicals.

As part of his outreach to the Global South, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, this year’s G-7 host, has invited Australia, Brazil, Comoros, Cook Islands, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Ukraine and Vietnam.

“A little bit like the G-7 trying to create a mini-G-20 without China and Russia,” said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, in a briefing to reporters Friday.

Looming over the meeting is the concern that financial instability from the threat of a U.S. default and the recent collapse of three American banks will spill over into the rest of the world. That would particularly hurt countries in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia that are struggling with post-pandemic debt accumulated through infrastructure and other loans mainly from China.

There have been calls to reduce those debts to more manageable levels, said Shihoko Goto, deputy director of the Asia program at the Wilson Center. However, she told VOA, “Without having China there, there isn’t really going to be much momentum.”

Symbolism of setting

Nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation are also at the top of this year’s agenda, with Kishida’s symbolic choice of hosting the summit in his hometown of Hiroshima, a city destroyed by an atomic weapon in 1945.

Notably lacking in this G-7 is the push to provide funding for global infrastructure projects as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which was a focus in the last two G-7 summits.

Biden’s trip to Papua New Guinea would have been the first for a U.S. president, following Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to the 2018 Asia Pacific Economic Forum in Port Moresby.

“There is no question but that this is a disappointment to the leaders of the Pacific Islands and the Quad, particularly Australia and PNG,” said Daniel Russel, vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “It will be seen in the region as a self-inflicted wound caused by political polarization in Washington that does not reflect well on America’s reliability as a partner.”

He was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister James Marape and other leaders of the Pacific Island Forum, a grouping of 18 countries and territories spanning more than 30 million square kilometers of ocean. The meeting was intended to establish stronger strategic ties and deter those nations from making security deals with China amid rising tensions over Taiwan.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has visited the region three times, setting up infrastructure projects and signing a 2022 security pact with the Solomon Islands.

“The U.S. needs to make up ground in the region,” said Charles Edel, the inaugural Australia Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, during a briefing earlier this week. “Years of strategic neglect from Washington produced a strategic vacuum that China was eager to step into.”
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English soccer star Jimmy Fryatt was known for his ability to head the ball, and the proof of his prowess may be in the damage it did to his brain.

Still physically fit in his late 70s, Fryatt played tennis but couldn’t keep score or remember which side of the net he was supposed to be on. He lived in Las Vegas for almost 50 years but started to get lost while riding his bicycle in the neighborhood.

“I had to put a tracker on him,” his wife, Valerie, said this week. “I’d call him and say: ‘Stop. I’m coming to get you.'”

A North American Soccer League champion who played 18 years in Britain, Fryatt is one of four former professional soccer players newly diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The Concussion Legacy Foundation announced Tuesday that English pro and Oregon State coach Jimmy Conway, Scottish and Seattle NASL midfielder Jimmy Gabriel, and NCAA champion Franny Pantuosco also were found to have the degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions in athletes, combat veterans and others who have sustained repeated head trauma.

They are the first diagnoses among those who played in the NASL, a precursor to MLS as the top U.S. pro soccer league that attracted attention with high-profile signings — including Pelé — before folding in 1985.

Valerie Fryatt said her husband had several diagnosed concussions, but CTE researchers believe the disease can also be caused by repeated sub-concussive blows to the head.

In soccer, that means heading the ball.

“Jimmy was a prolific header of the ball. He was very skilled at that,” Valerie Fryatt said. “A lot of players from that era said he was the best header of the ball they’d ever seen.”

The new diagnoses come as soccer officials gather in Chicago for a Head Injury Summit, a conference cohosted by U.S. Soccer and the top American men’s and women’s pro leagues that promises “two days of presentations and panel discussions led by medical professionals, stakeholders and researchers.”

But CTE researchers and families of those affected by the disease say that the agenda, the guest list — and even the name — belie a desire to give only the appearance of confronting brain injuries, part of a trend among sports leagues to downplay the long-term effects of concussions and delay measures that could prevent them.

“In rugby and hockey and, of course, still in football, we’re so familiar with that,” said Dr. Ann McKee, director of the Boston University CTE Center — the brain bank that has led the research into the disease that can cause memory loss, violent mood swings, depression and other cognitive difficulties.

“I’m sorry, I have a jaded point of view about these summits,” she said. “I think they’re largely a PR stunt production to make people think that they’re taking the injury and the condition seriously.”

A U.S. Soccer spokesman listed as the media contact on a summit release did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Major League Soccer spokeswoman forwarded an agenda, which lists panels conducted by, among others, scientists, soccer officials and unnamed current and former players.

But no researchers from the Boston CTE Center were invited to speak at the summit, even though McKee and Robert Cantu are two of the most-published, most prolific — and most outspoken — in the field.

“What happens with these large sports groups is they often invite a roster filled with people who minimize the long-term effects,” McKee said. “And they come away saying: ‘Here, we have held a summit. We looked at the evidence. It’s not very strong, and the scientists are undecided.’ So it’s sort of fait accompli that they don’t have to do anything about it.”

Even the title was a problem for Concussion Legacy Foundation co-founder Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard football player-turned-professional wrestler-turned Ph.D. who has been a leader in educating professional and amateur athletes about the dangers of concussions.

“‘Head injury’ is what you say when you don’t take it seriously,” Nowinski said. “To call it ‘head injury’ when you’re actually talking about ‘brain injury’ is a tactic the NFL used to use.”

Boston University researchers have diagnosed more than 100 American football players with CTE; it also has been found in boxers, rugby players, professional wrestlers and members of the military. Cases among U.S. soccer players have been less common, but researchers expect the numbers to increase now that those who began playing the growing sport as children are reaching old age.

Last year, Scott Vermillion was announced as the first former MLS player to be diagnosed with CTE. His father, David Vermillion, said he would have made it his “first priority” to attend the summit if he had been invited.

Instead, he is going on a family vacation.

“They’re not going to have people there that have dealt with it first-hand,” Vermillion said. “Folks like that have all this knowledge, that can have input into trying to make things safer for the athletes, aren’t going to be there.”

CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously. Vermillion, Fryatt and Conway died in 2020. Gabriel and Pantuosco died in 2021.

McKee said the families of CTE victims are often the best source of information on how to recognize brain injuries, which can take years to develop and cause problematic behavior like alcohol abuse or violent mood swings.

“These are human beings. These are the people that played the game, that made the owners rich, that caused the fans that have all the enjoyment, who are really responsible for the popularity of soccer today,” McKee said. “And yet when they get into trouble, when they start to develop problematic behaviors, when their families start suffering, when they start suffering, no one pays any attention, including these summits.”
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U.S. law enforcement officials on Tuesday announced a series of criminal cases exposing the relentless efforts by Russia, China and Iran to steal sensitive U.S. technologies.  

The five cases, which spanned a wide range of protected U.S. technologies, were brought by a new “strike force” created earlier this year to deter foreign adversaries from obtaining advanced U.S. innovation.

“These charges demonstrate the Justice Department’s commitment to preventing sensitive technology from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries, including Russia, China, and Iran,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, who leads the Justice Department’s National Security Division, and co-heads the task force.

Some of the cases announced on Tuesday go back several years but Olsen said the “threat is as significant as ever.”

Two of the cases involve Russia.

In New York, prosecutors charged a Russian national with smuggling U.S. military and dual-use technologies, including advanced electronics and testing equipment, to Russia through the Netherlands and France.  Nikolaos “Nikos” Bogonikolos was arrested last week in France and prosecutors said they’ll seek his extradition.

In a second case, two other Russian nationals – Oleg Sergeyevich Patsulya and Vasilii Sergeyevich Besedin – were arrested in Arizona on May 11 in connection with illegally shipping civilian aircraft parts from the United States to Russian airlines.

Patsulya and Besedin, both residents of Florida, allegedly used their U.S.-based limited liability company to purchase and send the parts, according to court documents.

The three other cases center on China and Iran.

In New York, prosecutors charged a Chinese national for conspiring to provide materials to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Xiangjiang Qiao, an employee of a Chinese sanctioned company for its role in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, allegedly conspired to furnish isostatic graphite, a material used in the production of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, to Iran.

Liming Li, a California resident, was arrested on May 6 on charges of stealing “smart manufacturing” technologies from two companies he worked at and providing them to businesses in China.

Li allegedly offered to help Chinese companies build “their own capabilities,” a federal prosecutor said.

He was arrested at Ontario International Airport after arriving on a flight from Taiwan and has since been in federal custody, the Justice Department said.

The fifth case announced on Tuesday dates back to 2018 and accuses a former Apple  software engineer with stealing the company’s proprietary research on autonomous systems, including self-driving cars. The defendant took a flight to China on the day the FBI searched his house.

The charges and arrests stem from the work of the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, a joint effort between the departments of justice and transportation.

The initiative, announced in February, leverages the expertise of the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and 14 U.S. attorney’s offices.

Olsen said the cases brought by strike force “demonstrate the breadth and complexity of the threats we face, as well as what is at stake.”

“And they show our ability to accelerate investigations and surge our collective resources to defend against these threats,” Olsen said at a press conference.
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History reveals decades of strained diplomatic ties between the world’s two largest economies. VOA looks back at more than 50 years of on-again, off-again relations.
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Striking members of the Writers Guild of America have said they will not picket next month’s Tony Award telecast, clearing a thorny issue facing show organizers and opening the door for some sort of Broadway razzle-dazzle on TV.  

The union last week denied a request by Tony organizers to have a waiver for their June 11 glitzy live telecast. It reiterated that in a statement late Monday, saying the guild “will not negotiate an interim agreement or a waiver for the Tony Awards.” 

But the guild gave some hope that some sort of Tony show might go on, saying organizers “are altering this year’s show to conform with specific requests from the WGA, and therefore the WGA will not be picketing the show.” What is being altered was not clear, but it may be to allow a non-scripted version of the Tonys to go on.  

The strike, which has already darkened late-night TV shows like “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert “and “Saturday Night Live” and delayed the making of scripted TV shows, was jeopardizing theater’s biggest night, one that many Broadway shows rely on to attract interest with millions of people watching. 

The union — representing 11,500 writers of film, television and other entertainment forms — has been on strike since May 2, primarily over royalties from streaming media. While the guild doesn’t represent Broadway writers, it does represent writers who work on the Tonys telecast. 

Tony organizers faced a stark choice after the request for a waiver was rejected: either postpone the ceremony until the strike ends or announce winners in a non-televised reception that would ask nominees to cross picket lines. The decision Monday means the possibility of a third way: A non-scripted show that leans heavily on performances.  

That is largely what happened during the 1988 awards, which were broadcast during a Writers Guild of America walkout. Host Angela Lansbury and presenters speaking impromptu and with performances from such shows as “A Chorus Line” and “Anything Goes.” 

Before the Writers Guild of America decision, a two-part Tony ceremony had been planned, with a pre-show of performances streaming live on Pluto, and the main awards ceremony broadcasting live on CBS and streaming live to premium-level Peacock members. 

The big first awards show during the current strike was the MTV Movie & TV Awards, which had no host and relied on recycled clips and a smattering of pre-recorded acceptance speeches.  

The strike has also disrupted the PEN America Gala. The Peabody Awards, which celebrate broadcasting and streaming media, on Monday canceled its June 11 awards show. 
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill that blocks public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity programs, addressing a concern of conservatives ahead of the Republican governor’s expected presidential candidacy. 

The law, which DeSantis proposed earlier this year, comes as Republicans across the country target programs on diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. 

The signing builds on the governor’s larger push to shape Florida’s education system through regulating how schools deal with subjects such as race and gender, with DeSantis arguing that he is challenging inappropriate liberal ideology in the classroom. 

DeSantis, who is expected to announce his presidential run in the coming weeks, has focused heavily on divisive cultural issues as he moves to win over the conservative voters who typically decide Republican primary elections. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion offices in higher education often spearhead services tailored to students of various races, genders, sexual orientations, cultures and abilities. Some college administrators also consider so-called DEI factors when admitting students, providing scholarships or deciding which faculty to hire and promote. 

The law blocks public universities from diverting state or federal funds toward programs or campus activities that advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion or promote political or social activism. 

“In reality what this concept of DEI has been is to attempt to impose orthodoxy on the university,” DeSantis said at a bill signing ceremony in Sarasota. “This has basically been used as a veneer to impose an ideological agenda, and that is wrong.” 

The measure also bars curriculums that teach “identity politics” or “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.” The provision is aimed at curtailing education about critical race theory, a way of thinking about U.S. history through the lens of racism. 

In a signal of DeSantis’ reach on education, he chose to sign the bill at New College of Florida, a small, traditionally progressive school that became nationally known this year after the governor appointed a group of conservatives to its board of trustees. Among the DeSantis appointees’ first moves was to eliminate the New College’s diversity, equity and inclusion office. 

The takeover has led to pushback among students at New College, long known for its progressive thought and creative course offerings that don’t use traditional grades. 

On Monday, a small group of protestors gathered outside the signing ceremony. DeSantis, as well as most of the speakers at the event, ridiculed them. 

“You know, I saw some of the protestors out there. I was a little disappointed. I was hoping for more,” DeSantis said with a smile as his supporters clapped. 

Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat, issued a statement after the signing that said the law continues DeSantis’ “overreach” into education. 

“Education ought to be about teaching kids how to think through issues, not what to think about issues,” Jones said. “The exposure to wide-ranging experiences and fresh perspectives encourages understanding and creativity. By restricting what students can learn, the state is actively suppressing students’ academic and intellectual freedom.” 
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A man with a metal baseball bat walked into the northern Virginia office of U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly on Monday, asked for him and struck two of his workers with the bat, including an intern during her first day on the job, police and the congressman said.

The attack marked the latest in a sharp uptick in violence aimed at lawmakers or those close to them.

Fairfax City Police said officers arrived within minutes and took the man into custody without incident and that the two staff members were being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

Connolly, who wasn’t in the office at the time, said he knew of no motive for the attack, calling it in a Twitter post “unconscionable and devastating.”

The Democratic congressman said in an interview that the suspect was known to police in Fairfax, adding, “He’s never made threats to us, so it was unprovoked, unexpected and inexplicable.”

“I have no reason to believe that his motivation was politically motivated, but it is possible that the sort of toxic political environment we all live in, you know, set him off. And I would just hope all of us would take a little more time to be careful about what we say and how we say it.”

Connolly said the intern was struck in the side, and his outreach director was hit on the head.

“Both of them are conscious and talking. They both are in shock. Their families were with them, too,” Connolly said.

The U.S. Capitol Police and Fairfax City Police identified the suspect as Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax. He was being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on charges of malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding.

It was not immediately clear if the man had an attorney who could speak for him.

“At this time, it is not clear what the suspect’s motivation may have been,” Capitol Police said in a news release announcing a joint investigation with the Fairfax City Police Department.

Special agents with the Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section have been sent to Fairfax.

Fairfax City Police spokesperson Sergeant Lisa Gardner said police received a call about the attack at Connolly’s district office in the Virginia suburb of the nation’s capital at about 10:50 a.m.

“You could absolutely tell that the people inside were scared. They were hiding. Someone swinging a bat around, I would be scared, as well,” Gardner said.

Police arrived in about five minutes and located the suspect in the office, quickly detaining him without further incident, Gardner said.

Police said in a news release that one police officer required treatment for a minor injury.

Last month, United States Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger testified about the heightened threat climate across the country.

“One of the biggest challenges we face today is dealing with the sheer increase in the number of threats against members of Congress — approximately 400% over the past six years,” Manger said. “Over the course of the last year, the world has continuously changed, becoming more violent and uncertain.”

Connolly, currently serving his eighth term in Congress, represents Virginia’s Fairfax County-based 11th District in the Washington suburbs. He told CNN that his office sustained damage, including broken windows.

Other elected officials from Virginia swiftly condemned the violence.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner retweeted Connolly’s statement, calling the attack an “extraordinarily disturbing development.”

“Intimidation and violence — especially against public servants — has no place in our society,” he said.

“The coward who did this should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” tweeted Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican.

Since the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, threats to lawmakers and their families have increased sharply. The U.S. Capitol Police investigated around 7,500 cases of potential threats against members of Congress in 2022. The year before, they investigated around 10,000 threats to members, more than twice the number from four years earlier.

In October, a man broke into the San Francisco home of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanding to speak with her before he smashed her husband, Paul, over the head with a hammer.

In July, a man accosted New York Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican who was running for governor of New York, as he spoke at a campaign event. The man told Zeldin, “You’re done.” Zeldin wrestled him to the ground and escaped with only a minor scrape.

“Violence does not belong in our political system, and my prayers are with Representative Gerry Connolly’s staff for a speedy recovery,” said Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican. “We’ve seen this against our judiciary. We’ve seen this against our legislative branch, and it has no place in our Commonwealth.”
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President Joe Biden said he will resume talks with congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday as a standoff over the debt limit pushes the country closer to its legal borrowing limit with no agreement in sight.

The meeting was initially supposed to be Friday but was abruptly postponed so staff-level talks could continue before Biden and the four congressional leaders huddled for a second time.

Biden, who was in Philadelphia on Monday to attend granddaughter Maisy’s graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, told reporters the meeting was on for Tuesday but did not elaborate on prospects for a deal.

Biden was returning to Washington later Monday and is scheduled to leave for the Group of Seven summit in Japan on Wednesday. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that so far, “we are still planning to leave as scheduled.”

Biden on Sunday did not detail much progress in the talks but said he remained hopeful that an agreement could be reached with Republicans to avoid what would be an unprecedented debt default, which could trigger a financial catastrophe.

“I remain optimistic because I’m a congenital optimist,” Biden told reporters while out for a bike ride in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. “But I really think there’s a desire on their part as well as ours to reach an agreement. I think we’ll be able to do it.”

Aides said talks had continued throughout the weekend. But at least publicly, there was little indication that either the White House or House Republicans had budged from their initial positions. Biden has called on lawmakers to lift the debt limit without preconditions, warning that the nation’s borrowing authority should not be used to impose deep spending cuts and other conservative policy demands.

“We’ve not reached the crunch point yet,” Biden told reporters Saturday before flying to his beach home. “There’s real discussion about some changes we all could make. We’re not there yet.”

Biden did signal over the weekend that he could be open to tougher work requirements for certain government aid programs, which Republicans are proposing as part of the ongoing discussion. He has said he will not accept anything that takes away people’s health care coverage.

“I voted for tougher aid programs that’s in the law now, but for Medicaid it’s a different story,” he said. “And so I’m waiting to hear what their exact proposal is.”

Administration officials said the talks among staff had so far been productive after Biden and the leaders — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell — ended their first meeting last Tuesday without a breakthrough.

The president described that Oval Office session as “productive,” even though McCarthy said later he “didn’t see any new movement” toward resolving the stalemate. White House and congressional aides have been in talks since Wednesday.

“The staff is very engaged. I would characterize the engagement as serious, as constructive,” Lael Brainard, head of the White House’s National Economic Council, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

McCarthy has insisted on using the threat of defaulting on the nation’s debts to wrangle spending changes, arguing that the federal government can’t continue to spend money at the pace it is now. The national debt now stands at $31.4 trillion.

An increase in the debt limit would not authorize new federal spending. It would only allow for borrowing to pay for what Congress has already approved.

The Treasury Department has said the government could exhaust the ability to pay its bills as early as June 1. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office gave a similar warning Friday, saying there was a “significant risk” of default sometime in the first two weeks of next month.

But federal estimates still remain in flux.

The CBO noted Friday that if the cash flow at the Treasury and the “extraordinary measures” that the department is now using can continue to pay for bills through June 15, the government can probably finance its operations through the end of July. That’s because the expected tax revenues that will come in mid-June and other measures will give the federal government enough cash for at least a few more weeks.

“Ultimately the stakes are, the United States has never defaulted on its debt,” Wally Adeyemo, the deputy treasury secretary, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “And we can’t.”

And Republican Representative Michael McCaul told ABC’s “This Week”: “I think defaulting is not the right path to go down. So I am an eternal optimist.”

He added, “This is always a game we play, every Congress, you know, in daring each other to jump off the cliff. It’s a dangerous game.”
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The Philadelphia Inquirer is experiencing the largest disruption to its operations in 27 years due to what the daily newspaper called a cyberattack that was first detected Saturday morning.

The attack has prompted Pennsylvania’s largest news organization to close its office through at least Tuesday, meaning Inquirer reporters will be unable to use their newsroom on Tuesday night to cover the city’s Democratic primary for the city’s 100th mayoral election.

This incident has caused the greatest publication disruption to the paper since a massive blizzard in January 1996, the paper reported.

The newspaper is working to restore print operations after the apparent cyberattack prevented it from printing its Sunday edition.

The Inquirer’s website was still operational on Sunday, but the paper reported that updates were slower than normal. Online publication has not been interrupted.

The attack was first detected when employees on Saturday morning found the newspaper’s content management system was not working.

The Inquirer “discovered anomalous activity on select computer systems and immediately took those systems off-line,” the paper’s publisher, Lisa Hughes, said in a statement on Saturday.

She said the outlet was “first alerted to the anomalous activity on Thursday, May 11, by Cynet, a vendor that manages our network security.”

This is far from the first time a news outlet has faced a cyberattack. Last December, The Guardian suffered a ransomware attack that forced the British daily newspaper to take certain IT systems offline for weeks.

Hughes said Sunday, “We are currently unable to provide an exact time line” for full restoration of the paper’s systems.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we work to fully restore systems and complete this investigation as soon as possible,” Hughes said in an email responding to questions from the paper’s newsroom.

Hughes said the operational disruption will not affect coverage of the upcoming election and that the company was looking into co-working arrangements for Tuesday.

The newspaper has hired the risk advisory firm Kroll to restore systems and investigate the incident.

The company has also contacted the FBI about the incident.

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Philadelphia office told the Inquirer it was aware of the incident and declined to comment as a matter of standard practice. She said that “when the FBI learns about potential cyberattacks, it’s customary that we offer our assistance in these matters.”
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