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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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

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

Google shares were down 1.3% on the news.

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

While Google remains the market leader by a long shot, its share of the U.S. digital ad revenue has been eroding, falling to 28.8% last year from 36.7% in 2016, according to Insider Intelligence. Google’s advertising business is responsible for some 80% of its revenue.
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The United States has reported conducting a new airstrike against al-Shabab in Somalia on January 23, killing two militants. 

In a statement, the U.S. military’s Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, said it conducted a “collective self-defense” strike against al-Shabab following a request from the Somalian government.

The strike was in support of Somali National Army engagements against al-Shabab, AFRICOM said. 

The strike occurred in a remote area near Harardhere, approximately 396 kilometers northeast of Mogadishu where Somali forces were conducting operations.

“Given the remote location of the operation, the initial assessment is that no civilians were injured or killed,” the statement said. 

Harardhere is a coastal town and former pirate hub captured by Somali government forces on January 16. Somali Defense Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur and Galmudug state leader Ahmed Abdi Karie, nicknamed Qoorqoor, posted pictures of themselves, accompanying Somali forces conducting military operations in the Harardhere area. 

It’s the second U.S. strike against al-Shabab in recent days. On January 20, the U.S. conducted another “collective self-defense” strike against al-Shabab near the town of Galcad in Galmudug, killing 30 militants. 

AFRICOM said Friday’s strike followed an al-Shabab attack on Somali government forces based in Galcad. That attack led to the death of at least seven government soldiers including one of the commanders of the Somali Danab, or lightning, elite forces trained by the United States.

“The U.S. is one of several countries providing support to the federal government of Somalia in its ongoing campaign to disrupt, degrade and defeat terrorist groups,” AFRICOM said.  “Rooting out extremism ultimately requires intervention beyond traditional military means, leveraging U.S. and partner efforts to support effective governance, promote stabilization and economic development, and resolve ongoing conflicts.” 

Despite the operations, al-Shabab has been conducting raids and complex attacks against Somali military camps and government installations in the capital, Mogadishu.

The militants fired mortars at the Mogadishu city center Tuesday. The group claimed that it fired nine rounds of mortars in the vicinity of the presidential palace. Residents reported hearing explosions. There are reports that one person suffered a minor injury as a result of the indirect fire.

This past Sunday, the militants stormed a compound housing the mayor’s office and other local government facilities in the capital, killing five civilians. Security forces ended the raid, fatally shooting all six attackers.  
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Police in the U.S. state of California said seven people were killed Monday in two related shootings at agricultural facilities. 

The shootings happened in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. Authorities said at a news conference that four people were found dead and a fifth person had gunshot wounds at one site, while another three people were found dead at the second site several kilometers away. 

San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus identified the suspected shooter as 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, and said he worked at one of the shooting locations. 

Authorities said the suspect was arrested after apparently driving to a police station parking lot to turn himself in. A weapon was found in the vehicle. 

Corpus said the suspect was cooperating with investigators, but that a motive was not yet clear. 

“We’re still trying to understand exactly what happened and why, but it’s just incredibly, incredibly tragic,” said state Sen. Josh Becker, who represents the area and called it “a very close-knit” agricultural community. 

Monday’s shooting followed a mass shooting Saturday in the southern California city of Monterey Park that killed 11 people and wounded nine others. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted that he was at a hospital meeting with those hurt in the Saturday shooting when he heard about the Monday attacks. 

“Tragedy upon tragedy,” he wrote. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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The death count has risen to 11 in Saturday’s shooting near the small city of Monterey Park near Los Angeles. Nine others were injured in the attack at a dance club that was popular with older Chinese Americans as Chinese New Year celebrations got underway. The suspected gunman, who was also Asian, died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Mike O’Sullivan spoke with residents about the tragedy that has shaken the quiet community.
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Human rights activists are welcoming the United States’ appointment of an envoy for North Korean human rights, a position that had been vacant for six years. 

The White House late Monday announced it would appoint Julie Turner, a veteran State Department foreign affairs officer, who has long focused on North Korea human rights issues.  

Turner, who must be confirmed by the Senate, is currently the director of the East Asia and Pacific office of the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.  

She has worked in the office for 16 years, during which she has “primarily focused on initiatives related to promoting human rights in North Korea,” according to a White House press release. 

Under a law initially passed by Congress in 2004, the U.S. president must appoint a special envoy for North Korean human rights. However, no one has served in the position since 2017, when U.S. President Barack Obama’s special envoy stepped down.  

Former President Donald Trump, who prioritized his personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, never appointed a North Korean human rights envoy. Trump’s first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, at one point proposed eliminating the position. 

It’s unclear why it took President Joe Biden two years to name an appointee, especially since Biden has said he will prioritize human rights issues. Nonetheless, activists praised the move, calling Turner an ideal fit.  

Turner is “terrific, with full awareness and understanding about the North Korean human rights situation,” according to Lee Shin-hwa, South Korea’s human rights envoy for North Korea.  

“I am so pleased to get the news and look forward to closely cooperating with this highly capable lady,” Lee told VOA.  

Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director for the Washington D.C.-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said Turner is “a truly great scholar and champion of North Korean human rights.”  

Once confirmed, Scarlatoiu said he hopes the new envoy will adopt a “human rights up front approach” to North Korea.  

North Korea is a totalitarian state that tightly restricts nearly every aspect of its citizens’ civil and political liberties, including freedom of expression, assembly, association, religion and movement. It consistently ranks at or near the bottom of global human rights rankings.  

Activists say the situation has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been used as a pretext to sever the country’s already fragile links to the outside world.  

“It’s the darkest period in the history of human rights in North Korea, believe it or not,” Scarlatoiu said.  

During Turner’s time at the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, the office has been involved with several projects that aim to promote the free flow of information into and out of North Korea and raise awareness of North Korea’s rights violations. 

North Korea has not reacted to Turner’s nomination. It often becomes enraged when other countries or international bodies mention its rights violations. 

However, at various points, North Korea has interacted with the U.S. human rights envoy — including in 2011, when Ambassador Robert King led a mission to assess North Korea’s food situation. 

It’s unclear whether any similar humanitarian initiatives can succeed now. In recent years, North Korea has ignored U.S. offers of pandemic assistance, shunning virtually all contact with U.S. officials. 

While placing human rights at the forefront of engagement with North Korea is not easy, Turner is “precisely the sort of savvy and strategic representative to get difficult things like this done,” said Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.  

“Turner has excelled on promoting and protecting human rights across her portfolio,” Robertson said, “And she is precisely the kind of dogged advocate that rights issues in the DPRK require for any sort of change to occur.” 

Activist groups have long complained that human rights were not discussed during the Trump-Kim talks, which instead focused on eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons and improving Pyongyang’s relations with Washington and Seoul. 

The talks broke down in 2019. North Korea has since resumed major weapons tests and says it will not resume talks until the United States drops what it calls its “hostile policy.” Specifically, North Korea objects to U.S.-led sanctions that have battered its economy and the heavy U.S. military presence in the region. 
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing switching to an annual COVID-19 vaccination campaign for the country, similar to the flu shot.

In documents posted online Monday, the agency said the new strategy would provide a simplified approach to the coronavirus vaccine. The proposed plan is set to be discussed at a meeting this week of FDA scientists and the agency’s panel of external vaccine advisers.

The FDA said most Americans would need only one annual vaccination to help protect them against the coronavirus, while others — including the elderly, the very young and those with weakened immune systems — might need a two-dose inoculation for additional protection.

Under the current vaccination system, a person must get two doses of the original COVID-19 vaccine, which targets the coronavirus that emerged in 2020. Following that, booster shots have been recommended at periodic intervals, with the latest boosters targeting both the original virus and the omicron variant.

The proposed FDA changes would do away with the system of primary vaccinations and boosters and would instead recommend for most Americans a single vaccine dose that is developed annually.

As with the flu shot, vaccine makers and independent experts would aim to develop a shot that targets the virus strains most likely to dominate in the winter season. The targeted strains could be changed every year.

The FDA is also considering making the shots interchangeable, so people would not have to keep track of which vaccine brand they receive.

The agency is hoping the changes will make it easier for Americans to continue with their COVID inoculations amid a waning interest from the public to receive repeated booster shots.

While more than 80% of the U.S. population has had at least one vaccine dose, only 16% of eligible Americans have received the latest booster shot, according to The Associated Press.

The proposed FDA changes also come as experts have been publicly debating how effective the latest booster shots have been at increasing protection against COVID-19, especially in healthy adults.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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A U.S. man who posed for photographs with his feet on the desk of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot has been convicted of all eight charges.  

A jury in Washington Monday convicted Richard Barnett on charges including civil disorder, interfering with police officers and obstructing an official government proceeding.

Photographs of Barnett, who is from the southern state of Arkansas, were among some of the memorable images of the day when Congress convened to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 3, 2020, presidential election.  

While in Pelosi’s office, Barnett took an envelope the speaker had addressed to another member of Congress and left a note for the congresswoman that included a profanity.

Barnett was convicted of theft for taking the envelope, as well as concealing a dangerous weapon — a stun gun he carried in a collapsible walking stick.  

The defendant took the stand in his own defense during his two-week trial in U.S. District Court in Washington.  

After the verdict, Barnett told reporters outside the courtroom that his conviction was an “injustice” and said he would appeal. He cited the judge’s decision to reject his request to move the trial from Washington to Arkansas.  

“This is not a jury of my peers,” he said.  

Lawyers for Barnett argued that their client did not know that Congress was certifying Biden’s victory on the day of the riot and said Barnett was pushed into the Capitol by the mass of people.  

Prosecutors accused Barnett of repeatedly lying on the witness stand and said he had a history of attending political demonstrations with weapons.

Barnett will be sentenced in May and remain on home detention in Arkansas until then.  

Some information in this report came from the Associated Press.
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A former senior FBI agent who once investigated Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has been arrested for receiving secret payments from the Russian billionaire in return for investigating a rival, the Justice Department announced Monday. 

Charles F. McGonigal, who headed counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York field office, and Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet diplomat and an associate of Deripaska, were arrested Saturday on sanctions violations and money laundering charges.

According to court documents, McGonigal and Shestakov in 2021 investigated an unnamed rival Russian oligarch in return for concealed payments from Deripaska, violating U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska in 2018. 

In an earlier scheme in 2019, McGonigal and Shestakov allegedly unsuccessfully tried to have the sanctions against Deripaska lifted, according to court documents.

Before retiring from the FBI in 2018, McGonigal, a veteran special agent, led and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska, according to the Justice Department. 

Shestakov was a Soviet and Russian diplomat before becoming a U.S. citizen and a Russian interpreter for U.S. courts and government offices, according to the Justice Department.

According to court documents, the duo tried to conceal Deripaska’s involvement in the investigation of his rival by using shell companies, not naming the businessman in communications and forging signatures.

In September, Deripaska, an aluminum magnate with suspected ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and three associates were indicted on charges of evading U.S. sanctions and obstruction of justice. 

Deripaska remains at large. 
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield will travel to Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya this week to advance joint priorities following December’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. 

Her tour, from January 25 to 29, will focus on regional security issues, food insecurity, humanitarian issues, and supporting African efforts to mitigate climate change, a senior administration official told reporters on Monday.  

Thomas-Greenfield’s trip is happening in tandem with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s ongoing mission to Senegal, Zambia and South Africa that will continue through January 28. Yellen is seeking to deepen U.S.-Africa economic ties, including by expanding trade and investment flows.   

President Joe Biden announced over $15 billion in two-way trade and investment commitments, deals and partnerships at the three-day December summit that drew delegations from 49 African nations to Washington.   

Russia’s war  

Africa has deeply felt the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as fuel, food and fertilizer prices rose in its aftermath. This year, U.N. agencies have warned that the impact of the fertilizer crunch could reduce the size of harvests on the continent.   

The U.N. and Turkish-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative has seen more than 18 million metric tons of Ukrainian wheat and other food stuffs exported to international markets since it was signed in mid-July.  

The Joint Coordination Center that oversees the deal says nearly 44% of the wheat exported has been shipped to low and lower middle-income countries. The U.N. is also working with Russia to remove remaining impediments to exporting its food and fertilizer products.  

But the U.S. blames Russia for impeding the export of Ukrainian grain, saying it is not at the level it should be. 

“Russia has deliberately slowed down inspections of these ships and essentially throttled the operation of this corridor,” the senior administration official said of the ships sailing in the Black Sea. “That is having an impact obviously not just on Ukraine but for the entire world.” 

As of Sunday, the Joint Coordination Center said 35 ships are awaiting inspection. Five of them are waiting to enter Ukrainian ports and 30 are loaded with cargo waiting to leave for their destinations. 

International support has been strong for Ukraine at the U.N. General Assembly, but African nations have repeatedly abstained on resolutions that might upset Russia.  

Thomas-Greenfield, who previously served as a U.S. ambassador to Liberia and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, is making her third trip to the continent since becoming U.N. ambassador in February 2021. 

During her trip, she will be visiting two current Security Council members — Ghana and Mozambique — offering the opportunity to address the issue of reforming the U.N. Security Council. 

For decades, countries have said the 15-nation body needs to be expanded to reflect current realities, not those of a post-World War II world. 

In September, Biden said the United States supports increasing the number of permanent seats on the council, including one for Africa. There are currently five seats — Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. 
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On the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, a gunman opened fire at a dance hall in a predominantly Asian community of Monterey Park, California. At least 10 people died during and 10 were injured. Officials said a 72-year-old man suspected of carrying out the shooting was found dead the next day with self-inflicted gun wound. The motive for the attack is unclear. Genia Dulot reports.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Zambia on the second leg of her African tour, a stop aimed at promoting American investment and ties while she’s in a capital city that is visibly dominated by Chinese dollars. 

Visitors to Lusaka arriving at the renovated Kenneth Kaunda International Airport see a facility expanded in 2015 with Chinese financing. A ride into the city passes billboards and newly built firms bearing Chinese signage, more evidence of Beijing’s influence and increasing competition with the U.S. 

But the growth that the country has experienced has come with a heavier debt burden. Zambia became Africa’s first pandemic-era sovereign to default when it failed to make a $42.5 million bond payment in November 2020. Negotiations over how to deal with the debt load have been ongoing. 

How Zambia’s debt is renegotiated with the Chinese will provide a test case for how lenient China will be with other overextended nations that face debt distress.  

Debt will be a topic of conversation Monday when Yellen meets with Zambia’s president and finance minister to push for the Chinese to continue negotiations. She will also tour pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities benefiting from American investment to showcase what she sees as a model of success. 

“Many African countries are now plagued by piling, unsustainable debt. And that’s undeniably a problem. And much of it is related to Chinese investments in Africa,” Yellen said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press in Senegal, the first leg of her African trip.   

Still, Yellen insists her trip is not about competition with China.   

“We want to deepen our engagement,” she said, “We see a rapidly growing young population that needs opportunities and economic growth.”   

“We have many government programs and international programs that are oriented to help efforts to build infrastructure,” she said. “And when we do that, we want to make sure that we don’t create the same problems that Chinese investment has sometimes created here.”   

Yellen said the U.S. wants to invest in companies with contracts that “have transparency, that we have projects that really bring broad-based benefits to the African people and don’t leave a legacy of unsustainable debt.” 

Experts say a prolonged debt crisis could permanently prevent countries like Zambia from recovering, lead to an entire nation sliding deep into poverty and joblessness, and exclude it from credit to rebuild in the future.   

To showcase the U.S. effort, the first stop of Yellen’s Zambia visit was to be a tour of Mylan Laboratories, a subsidiary of American pharmaceutical manufacturer Viatris. The lab opened in 2010 with a $10 million investment and manufactures drugs that treat malaria and HIV in the country and region.   

She also planned a stop at the Zambia National Public Health Institute, considered a model of its kind. 
…

It was a joyful kickoff to the first Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park since before the pandemic, with large crowds filling the streets in the majority Chinese American city near Los Angeles for live entertainment, carnival rides and plenty of food.

But the celebrations were marred by tragedy Saturday night after a gunman entered a ballroom dance hall and opened fire, killing 10 people, wounding 10 more and sending panicked revelers into the streets.

The shooting that left five men and five women dead brought a jarring end to the planned two-day party to ring in the Year of the Rabbit, which featured dragon dancers parading through downtown streets decorated with red lanterns.

Sunday’s festivities were canceled, though some Lunar New Year celebrations went on in neighboring cities also home to large Asian American populations.

“We haven’t had a celebration like this in three years, so this was momentous. People came out in droves,” said Mayor Pro Tem Jose Sanchez, who was there with his 6-year-old daughter. He estimated 100,000 people attended Saturday, and the festival is typically one of the largest Lunar New Year celebrations in the state.

The massacre sent shock waves through Asian American communities around the nation, prompting police from San Francisco to New York to step up patrols at Lunar New Year celebrations in their own cities.

No motivation for the crime has been given and authorities said the suspect was a 72-year-old Asian man. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Sunday the man killed himself as police officers closed in on the van he used to flee.

But Asian American advocacy groups said it was another blow after years of high-profile anti-Asian violence around the country.

“Regardless of what the intent was, the impact on our community has been really profound,” said Connie Chung Joe, CEO of the nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. The nonprofit had a booth set up at the festival and she had planned to attend Sunday.

“Having this tragedy on one of our most important holidays … it feels very personal to our community,” she said. “There is still that feeling of being targeted, and being fearful, when we hear about a shooting like this.”

The San Gabriel Valley is home to a diverse array of Asian-American communities, including people of Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipino descent.

Yingying Guan, 29, saw a mass of police cars Saturday night in Monterey Park and heard helicopters overhead. She didn’t learn it was in response to a shooting until she awoke to news of the shooting Sunday morning.

Guan doesn’t know anyone involved but said she is devastated for her community.

“It’s supposed to be families gathering together to enjoy and to just have some time to get together,” she said. “So many innocent victims.”

Investigators said the gunman shot up the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, killing 10 people, Luna said. Then 20 to 30 minutes later, he entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra, before people there wrestled the weapon away from him and he fled, Luna said.

“When something like this happens – and I never thought it would happen in our community – it’s very hard to process,” said Sanchez, who teaches in the city’s schools. “There’s so much grief.”

Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people on the eastern edge of Los Angeles where nearly 70% of residents are Asian, mostly of Chinese descent. The area became a destination for Asian immigrants during the 1970s and ’80s after a real estate entrepreneur named Fredric Hsieh bought land and advertised its rolling hills and warm climate in Chinese-language newspapers.

The city’s Lunar New Year celebration has become one of California’s largest. Sanchez, who is Mexican American, said it’s a Chinese tradition that everyone enjoys and reflects the diversity of greater Los Angeles.

Its festivities were canceled, but several other events throughout the region, including a parade in the city of Westminster, went on as planned, but with extra security.

The dance studio where the shooting occurred is located a few blocks from city hall on Monterey Park’s main thoroughfare of Garvey Avenue, which is dotted with strip malls of small businesses whose signs are in both English and Chinese. Cantonese and Mandarin are both widely spoken, Chinese holidays are celebrated, and Chinese films are screened regularly in the city.

Lynette Ma, 28, woke up to text messages from worried friends asking if she was OK. She had planned to take her mother to the festival on Sunday, but instead they sat in a city park coming to terms with the tragedy.

“It was just the most terrible thing,” she said. “It’s just awful because you never expect it to happen somewhere so close to home.”

She said her family will go out to eat to mark the holiday, but it won’t be the same.

Sanchez said a public vigil for the victims will be held in the coming days.
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Women’s marches demanding abortion rights drew thousands of people across the country on Sunday, the 50th anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that established federal protections for the procedure.

Organizers focused on states after the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe in June unleashed abortion restrictions and near-total bans in more than a dozen states.

“We are going to where the fight is, and that is at the state level,” reads the website for the Women’s March. The group has dubbed this year’s rallies “Bigger than Roe.”

The main march was held in Wisconsin, where upcoming state Supreme Court elections could determine the court’s power balance and future abortion rights. But rallies were held in dozens of cities, including Florida’s state capital of Tallahassee, where Vice President Kamala Harris gave a fiery speech before a boisterous crowd.

“Can we truly be free if families cannot make intimate decisions about the course of their own lives?” Harris said. “And can we truly be free if so-called leaders claim to be … ‘on the vanguard of freedom’ while they dare to restrict the rights of the American people and attack the very foundations of freedom?”

In Madison, thousands of abortion rights supporters donned coats and gloves to march in below-freezing temperatures through downtown to the state Capitol.

“It’s just basic human rights at this point,” said Alaina Gato, a Wisconsin resident who joined her mother, Meg Wheeler, on the Capitol steps to protest.

They said they plan to vote in the April Supreme Court election. Wheeler also said she hoped to volunteer as a poll worker and canvass for Democrats, despite identifying as an independent voter.

“This is my daughter. I want to make sure she has the right to choose whether she wants to have a child,” Wheeler said.

Madison Abortion and Reproductive Rights Coalition for Healthcare hosted the rally with the support of more than 30 other pro-abortion rights groups, including advocates from neighboring Illinois. Buses of protestors streamed into the state capitol from Chicago and Milwaukee, armed with banners and signs calling for the Legislature to repeal the state’s ban.

Abortions are unavailable in Wisconsin due to legal uncertainties faced by abortion clinics over whether an 1849 law banning the procedure is in effect. The law, which prohibits abortion except to save the patient’s life, is being challenged in court.

Some also carried weapons. Lilith K., who declined to provide their last name, stood on the sidewalk alongside protestors, holding an assault rifle and wearing a tactical vest with a holstered handgun.

“With everything going on with women and other people losing their rights, and with the recent shootings at Club Q and other LGBTQ night clubs, it’s just a message that we’re not going to take this sitting down,” Lilith said.

The march also drew counter-protestors. Most held signs raising religious objections to abortion rights. “I don’t really want to get involved with politics. I’m more interested in what the law of God says,” John Goeke, a Wisconsin resident, said.

Freshly galvanized anti-abortion activists are increasingly setting their sights on Congress with the aim of pushing for a potential national abortion restriction down the line. Tens of thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., on Friday for the annual March for Life — the first to be held since Roe was overturned.

In the absence of Roe v. Wade’s federal protections, abortion rights have become a state-by-state patchwork. In some states, officials have grappled with laws banning abortion that dated from the 1800s.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, with the support of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, filed the challenge to the 1849 ban in June in Dane County, where Madison is located, arguing that it is too old to enforce. Both sides have been trading briefs since and it’s unclear when a ruling may come, but the case looks destined for the state Supreme Court.

Wisconsin’s conservative-controlled Supreme Court, which for decades has issued consequential rulings in favor of Republicans, is likely to hear the case. Races for the court are officially nonpartisan, but candidates for years have aligned with either conservatives or liberals as the contests have become expensive partisan battles.

Women’s rallies were expected to be held in nearly every state on Sunday.

The eldest daughter of Norma McCorvey, whose legal challenge under the pseudonym “Jane Roe” led to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, was set to attend the rally in Long Beach, California. Melissa Mills said it was her first Women’s March.

“It’s just unbelievable that we’re here again, doing the same thing my mom did,” Mills told The Associated Press. “We’ve lost 50 years of hard work.”

The Women’s March has become a regular event — although interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic — since millions rallied in the United States and around the world the day after the January 2017 inauguration of Donald Trump.

Trump made the appointment of conservative judges a mission of his presidency. The three conservative justices he appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — all voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
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A new poll indicates 64% of Americans view U.S. President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents as “inappropriate.” The results of the ABC/Ipsos poll were released as even more documents with classified markings were found at Biden’s residence in Delaware. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details. Video editor – Marcus Harton.
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Hundreds of mourners gathered at Graceland on Sunday morning to pay their respects to singer Lisa Marie Presley in a memorial service at the mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, she inherited from her father, rock legend Elvis Presley.

Presley died on Jan. 12 at the age of 54. Earlier that day, she had been rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital after reportedly suffering cardiac arrest at her home.

“Our heart is broken, Lisa, and we all love you,” her mother, Priscilla Presley, said at the service on the front lawn of Graceland. “Lisa Marie Presley was an icon, a role model, a superhero to many people all over the world.”

Singers Alanis Morissette, Billy Corgan and Axl Rose performed.

Lisa Marie Presley is survived by her daughters, actress Riley Keough and 14-year-old twins Finley and Harper Lockwood.

Two days before her death, she had appeared with her mother, Priscilla Presley, at the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, where actor Austin Butler won the best actor award for portraying her father in the film “Elvis.” Butler paid tribute to both women in his acceptance speech.

Presley began her music career in the 2000s with two albums, “To Whom It May Concern” and “Now What,” that made the top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart.

She was married and divorced four times, including to pop star Michael Jackson and actor Nicholas Cage.

She was the only child of one of the greatest stars in American music, and was 9 years old when Elvis Presley died of heart failure at age 42 in 1977 at Graceland. The mansion is now a popular tourist attraction.

Elvis Presley and other members of his family are buried at Graceland’s Meditation Garden.

Lisa Marie Presley was buried there before the memorial service alongside the grave of her son, Benjamin Keough, who died in 2020 at age 27, a death ruled a suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner. In a recent essay, she had described herself as “destroyed” by her son’s death.

After the memorial service, mourners were due to form a procession past Lisa Marie Presley’s grave.
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Ten people were killed in a mass shooting in the city of Monterey Park, California, at a ballroom dance venue late on Saturday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said. 

The suspected gunman fled the scene, and police were still trying to find him, the department said early on Sunday morning. 

There was no information yet about a motive for the attack, the department added. 

Another 10 people were taken to local hospitals to be treated for injuries, and at least one was in critical condition. 

The shooting took place after 10 p.m. (0600 GMT on Sunday) around the location of a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration held in Monterey Park, U.S. media reported. Monterey Park is a city around 11 kilometers from downtown Los Angeles. 

Footage posted on social media showed injured people on stretchers being taken to ambulances by emergency staff. Around the scene of the shooting police guarded cordoned-off streets, the video showed. 

“Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones tonight in our neighboring city, Monterey Park, where a mass shooting just occurred,” Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia said in a tweet. 

Tens of thousands of people had attended the festival earlier in the day. 

The Los Angeles Times quoted the owner of a nearby restaurant as saying that people who sought shelter in his property told him there was a man with a machine gun in the area. 
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One of the world’s most prestigious and storied surfing contests is expected to be held Sunday in Hawaii for the first time in seven years.

And this year female surfers will be competing alongside the men for the first time in the 39-year history of The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.

The event — alternatively known simply as The Eddie — is a one-day contest held in Waimea Bay on Oahu’s North Shore only when the surf is consistently large enough during the winter big wave surfing season from mid-December through mid-March. The wind, the tides and the direction of the swell also have to be just right.

“Large enough” means 6 meters by Hawaii measurements. That’s equivalent to about 12 meters when measured by methods used in the rest of the U.S. Before this year, conditions have only aligned for it to be held nine times since the initial competition in 1984.

Organizer Clyde Aikau said at a news conference Friday that he was expecting waves to reach 7.6-9 meters by Hawaii measurements or 15-18 meters on the national scale.

“Yes, The Eddie will go on Sunday,” he said.

Other places around the world have big wave surfing events: Mavericks in California, Nazare in Portugal and Peahi on Hawaii’s Maui Island. But author Stuart Coleman says The Eddie is distinguished by how it honors Eddie Aikau, a legendary Native Hawaiian waterman, for his selflessness, courage and sacrifice.

“What makes this contest the most unique is that it’s in memory of a particular individual who really has transcended his time and place when he lived,” said Coleman, who wrote Eddie Would Go, a biography of Aikau.

Edward Ryon Makuahanai Aikau rose to prominence as the first lifeguard hired by Honolulu to work on Oahu’s North Shore and was revered for saving over 500 people during his career. He’s also famous for surfing towering waves that no one else would dare ride.

Aikau died in 1978 at the age of 31 during an expedition to sail a traditional Polynesian voyaging canoe from Honolulu to Tahiti. Just hours out of port, the giant double-hulled canoe known as the Hokulea took on water and overturned in stormy weather. Aikau volunteered to paddle several miles to nearby Lanai Island on his surfboard to get help for the rest of the crew but was never seen again.

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued the remaining crew a few hours later after being alerted by a commercial plane that spotted the canoe.

Coleman said The Eddie is about the best of big wave surfing and the best of Hawaiian culture.

“They always say at the opening ceremony, where they gather to launch the holding period, ’This is not just a contest. We’re not surfing against each other. We’re surfing in the spirit of Eddie,’” Coleman said.

This year organizers have invited 40 competitors and 18 alternates from around the world, including Kelly Slater, who has won a record 11 world surfing titles. John John Florence, who hails from the North Shore and who has won two back-to-back world titles, has also been asked to join.

Keala Kennelly of Kauai, a women’s big wave surf champion, is among the female invitees.

Mindy Pennybacker, a surf columnist for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and author of the upcoming book Surfing Sisterhood Hawaii: Wahine Reclaiming the Waves said there’s long been an assumption that Waimea was too dangerous for women and they couldn’t surf there.

She said they’ve had to fight to be included and have meanwhile shown that they could handle big waves in spots around the world.

“To see women — not only women surfing Waimea but women and men sharing the same event together, with mutual respect and equality — I’m just really thrilled at the thought,” Pennybacker said.

The contest is expected to attract tens of thousands of spectators to the two-lane highway winding through the North Shore and the small towns that dot the coastal community.

Kathleen Pahinui, the chairperson of the North Shore Neighborhood Board, said it will be good for businesses, restaurants and shops. She urged visitors to carpool and take the bus because the roads will be congested.

“I wish all the participants the best of luck,” she said.
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“I’ve always been able to understand how people feel and to see their perspective,” said Luisa Piette, who lives in Cool, California. “I feel their pain, whether it’s people going through a difficult divorce or an acquaintance who couldn’t pay their rent. I’ve been there to lend an ear and to empathize with them.”

Piette has a daughter and a granddaughter.

“I think women better understand what it feels like to put themselves in other people’s situations,” she told VOA.

Piette could be a textbook case on what studies on empathy have shown and what many people already suspect — women tend to be more empathetic than men.

A study released last month by researchers at the University of Cambridge surveyed tens of thousands of people worldwide. Like other studies, it indicated that women are much better than men at empathizing with others, regardless of any familial or cultural influences.

“Our findings provide some of the first evidence of the well-known phenomenon that women are, on average, more empathetic than men,” said David Greenberg, the study’s lead scientist.

Cognitive empathy

The scientists sought to measure cognitive empathy, which is when someone intellectually understands what another person may be thinking or feeling and then predicts how they will react.

For example, a friend tells you they are upset because they had an unpleasant disagreement with someone. If you have cognitive empathy, you will understand how your friend feels by putting yourself in their shoes.

The Cambridge study was the largest to date on the topic. Participants totaled about 306,000 men and women from 57 countries, including Egypt, India, Croatia and Saudi Arabia. On average, women showed much higher cognitive empathy in 36 countries and a similar amount to men in 21 others. In no country did men show greater empathy.

“This study clearly shows broadly consistent gender differences across countries, languages and age groups,” said Carrie Allison, director of research strategy at Cambridge University.

The authors of the report point out the results are just averages, with some men being better at empathizing than some women.

Sandra Murphy, a social scientist in Takoma Park, Maryland, said she doesn’t fit the stereotypical image.

“I’m more analytical, and my husband, who is a lawyer, is more empathetic,” she said.

Jack Murphy agreed.

“I tend to be more sensitive to people’s emotions and feelings,” he said.

Researchers found that empathetic capacities typically rise during adolescence and decrease during adulthood.

Olivia Mickelson, a high school student from Fairfax, Virginia, said, “I think my girlfriends are a lot more understanding and empathetic than my guy friends.”

Eyes test

To measure participants’ cognitive empathy, researchers used what they call the Eyes Test to measure a person’s ability to recognize someone else’s mental or emotional state.

Study participants examined photos of people’s various facial expressions and focused on what they thought a person may be thinking or feeling by looking at the area around their eyes. Participants were then given a limited list of words to describe what they saw.

“The results of the study prove what I’ve seen in my practice about women being more empathetic,” said therapist Cynthia Catchings, executive director of the Women’s Emotional Wellness Center in Alexandria, Virginia. “I think a lot of it has to be with upbringing, with women experiencing more socialization and many having close friends who are women.”

Sara Hodges, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of Oregon, agrees.

“The reason why people think their mother or best friend is empathetic is because they seem to know what they are thinking and feeling and would act with their interests at heart,” said Hodges, who is also director of the University of Oregon’s Social Cognition Lab where research includes empathy.

Hodges said the lab’s research, as well as other studies, appear to indicate gender differences in cognitive empathy may stem from social as well as biological factors.

“Women are better at decoding nonverbal, emotional communication,” she said.

At the same time, she thinks Eyes Test studies have their limitations in measuring empathy, a complex psychological phenomenon.

“They may not necessarily reflect that people are seeing empathy,” Hodges said, adding that empathy can be used for altruistic reasons or to influence others.

“Some people may be better at reading people’s facial expressions and are not necessarily doing that for compassionate reasons. They may be trying to get someone to do something they may not want to do,” she said.
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Taiwan has learned important lessons from Ukraine’s war that would help it deter any attack by China or defend itself if invaded, the self-ruled island’s top envoy to the U.S. said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press.

Among the lessons: Do more to prepare military reservists and civilians for the kind of all-of-society fight that Ukrainians are waging against Russia.

“Everything we’re doing now is to prevent the pain and suffering of the tragedy of Ukraine from being repeated in our scenario in Taiwan,” said Bi-khim Hsiao, Taiwan’s representative in Washington.

“So ultimately, we seek to deter the use of military force. But in a worst-case scenario, we understand that we have to be better prepared,” Hsiao said.

Hsiao spoke at the quiet, more than 130-year-old hilltop mansion that Taiwan uses for official functions in Washington. She spoke on a range of Taiwan-U.S. military, diplomatic and trade relations issues shaped by intensifying rivalries with China.

No Taiwanese flag flew over the building, reflecting Taiwan’s in-between status as a U.S. ally that nonetheless lacks full U.S. diplomatic recognition. The U.S. withdrew that in 1979, on the same day it recognized Beijing as the sole government of China.

The interview came after a year of higher tensions with China, including the Chinese launching ballistic missiles over Taiwan and temporarily suspending most dialogue with the U.S. after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August.

Asked if new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy should make good on his earlier pledge to visit Taiwan as well, Hsaio said: “That will be his decision. But I think ultimately the people of Taiwan have welcomed visitors from around the world.”

Beijing’s leadership, she added, “has no right to decide or define how we engage with the world.”

Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949 during a civil war, is claimed by China. The decades-old threat of invasion by China of the self-governed island has sharpened since China cut off communications with the island’s government in 2016. That was after Taiwanese voters elected a government that Beijing suspected of wanting to take Taiwan from self-rule to full independence.

In Washington, Taiwan’s self-rule is one issue that has strong support from both parties.

U.S. administrations for decades have maintained a policy of leaving unsaid whether the U.S. military would come to Taiwan’s defense if China did invade. China’s military shows of force after Pelosi’s visit had some in Congress suggesting it was time for the U.S. to abandon that policy, known as “strategic ambiguity,” and to instead make clear Americans would fight alongside Taiwan.

Asked about those calls Friday, Hsiao only praised the existing policy.

“It has preserved the status quo for decades, or I should say it has preserved peace,” she said.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly volunteered in public comments that the U.S. would come to Taiwan’s defense, only to have aides walk that back with assurances that strategic ambiguity still prevails.

Meanwhile, after watching the Ukrainians’ successful hard-scrabble defense against invading Russian forces, Taiwan realizes it needs to load up on Javelins, Stingers, HIMARS and other small, mobile weapons systems, Hsiao said. The Taiwanese and Americans have reached agreement on some of those, she said.

Some security think tanks accuse the U.S. — and the defense industry — of focusing too much of the nation’s billions of dollars in arms deals with Taiwan on advanced, high-dollar aircraft and naval vessels. China’s mightier military could be expected to destroy those big targets at the outset of any attack on Taiwan, some security analysts say.

Taiwan is pushing to make sure that a shift to grittier, lower-tech weapon supplies for Taiwanese ground forces “happens as soon as possible,” Hsiao said. Even with the U.S. and other allies pouring billions of dollars’ worth of such weapons into Ukraine for the active fight there, straining global arms stocks, “we are assured by our friends in the United States that Taiwan is a very important priority,” she said.

At home, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen announced last month the government was extending compulsory military service for men from four months to a year, and Taiwan is increasing spending on defense. Hsiao would not directly address a report by Nikkei Asia on Friday that U.S. National Guard members had begun training in Taiwan, saying only that Taiwan was exploring ways to work with the U.S. Guard members to improve training.

Ukraine’s experience has had lessons for the U.S. and other allies as well, she said, including the importance of a united allied stand behind threatened democracies.

“It’s critical to send a consistent message to the authoritarian leaders that force is never an option … force will be met by a strong international response, including consequences,” Hsiao said.

Hsiao also spoke on the United States’ push under the Biden administration to boost U.S. production of computer chips. Supply chain disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic have underscored semiconductors’ crucial importance to the U.S. economy and military — and the extent of U.S. reliance on chip imports.

Greater U.S. production will push the nation into more direct trade competition with Taiwan, which is a global leader, especially for advanced semiconductors. Concern that China could interfere with semiconductor shipping through the Taiwan Strait has helped drive the United States’ new production effort.

Hsiao pointed out that Taiwan’s computer chip industry took decades to develop and expressed confidence it “will continue to be an indispensable and irreplaceable contributor to global supply chains in the decades to come.”

She noted Taiwan’s investment of $40 billion in a new semiconductor plant in Arizona, a project big enough that Biden visited the site last month, and expressed frustration at what she called a continuing U.S. financial penalty for Taiwanese companies doing business in the United States.

The United States’ diplomatic non-recognition of Taiwan as a country means that Taiwan – unlike China and other top U.S. trading partners – lacks a tax treaty with the U.S. and thus pays extra taxes.

Surmounting hurdles to fix that would make U.S.-Taiwan business investments “much more successful and sustainable in the long run,” she said.
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