The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday and found six additional documents containing classified markings and also took possession of some of his notes, the president’s lawyer said Saturday. 

The documents taken by the FBI spanned Biden’s time in the Senate and the vice presidency, while the notes dated to his time as vice president, said Bob Bauer, the president’s personal lawyer. He added that the search of the entire premises lasted nearly 13 hours. The level of classification, and whether the documents removed by the FBI remained classified, was not immediately clear as the United States Justice Department reviews the records. 

The extraordinary search came more than a week after Biden’s attorneys found six classified documents in the president’s home library from his time as vice president, and nearly three months after lawyers found a “small number” of classified records at his former offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington. It came a day after Biden maintained that “there’s no there there” on the document discoveries, which have become a political headache as he prepares to launch a reelection bid and undercut his efforts to portray an image of propriety to the American public after the tumultuous presidency of his predecessor, Donald Trump. 

“We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place,” Biden told reporters Thursday in California. “We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department.” 

Biden added that he was “fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.” 

The president and first lady Jill Biden were not at the home when it was searched. They were spending the weekend at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. 

It remains to be seen whether additional searches by federal officials of other locations might be conducted. Biden’s personal attorneys previously conducted a search of the Rehoboth Beach residence and said they did not find any official documents or classified records. 

The Biden investigation has also complicated the Justice Department’s probe into Trump’s retention of classified documents and official records after he left office. The Justice Department says Trump took hundreds of records marked classified with him upon leaving the White House in early 2021 and resisted months of requests to return them to the government, and that it had to obtain a search warrant to retrieve them. 

Bauer said the FBI requested that the White House not comment on the search before it was conducted, and that Biden’s personal and White House attorneys were present. The FBI, he added, “had full access to the president’s home, including personally handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists, schedules, and reminders going back decades.” 

The Justice Department, he added, “took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the president’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as vice president.” 

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed former Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate any potential wrongdoing surrounding the Biden documents. Hur is set to take over from the Trump-appointed Illinois U.S. Attorney John Lausch in overseeing the probe. 

“Since the beginning, the president has been committed to handling this responsibly because he takes this seriously,” White House lawyer Richard Sauber said Saturday. “The president’s lawyers and White House Counsel’s Office will continue to cooperate with DOJ and the special counsel to help ensure this process is conducted swiftly and efficiently.” 

The Biden document discoveries and the investigation into Trump, which is in the hands of special counsel Jack Smith, are significantly different. Biden has made a point of cooperating with the DOJ probe at every turn — and Friday’s search was voluntary — though questions about his transparency with the public remain. 

For a crime to have been committed, a person would have to “knowingly remove” the documents without authority and intend to keep them at an “unauthorized location.” Biden has said he was “surprised” that classified documents were uncovered at the Penn Biden Center. 

Generally, classified documents are to be declassified after a maximum of 25 years. But some records are of such value they remain classified for far longer, though specific exceptions must be granted. Biden served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009. 
…

Ron Klain, President Joe Biden’s White House chief of staff, plans to leave his post in the coming weeks, sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday, a major changing of the guard.

Klain has informed Biden of his plans, the sources said, confirming a New York Times story that said the long-serving aide would likely depart after the president’s State of the Union address on February 7.

Klain, 61, has a long history at the White House, having served as chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore and to Biden when he was vice president under President Barack Obama.

His departure is coming as Biden prepares to declare whether he will seek a second four-year term in 2024, an announcement anticipated after the State of the Union address.

The Times cited a lengthy list of possible successors to Klain: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh; former Delaware Governor Jack Markell; Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn, counselor to the president Steve Richetti, former pandemic coordinator Jeff Zients and domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, along with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The news broke as Biden spent the weekend at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home.

The chief of staff position is one of the most important at the White House, the senior political appointee responsible for driving the president’s policy agenda and ensuring appropriate staff members are hired.

The job can have a high burnout rate as the long days pile up. Klain’s tenure has been fairly lengthy comparatively speaking. Biden’s predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, burned through four chiefs of staff in four years including his first, Reince Priebus, who lasted 192 days.
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As damaging as it was for more than 32 trillion gallons of rain and snow to fall on California since Christmas, a worst-case global warming scenario could juice up similar future downpours by one-third by the middle of this century, a new study says.

The strongest of California’s storms from atmospheric rivers, long and wide plumes of moisture that form over an ocean and flow through the sky over land, would probably get an overall 34% increase in total precipitation, or another 11 trillion gallons more than just fell. That’s because the rain and snow is likely to be 22% more concentrated at its peak in places that get really doused, and to fall over a considerably larger area if fossil fuel emissions grow uncontrolled, according to a new study in Thursday’s journal Nature Climate Change.

The entire western United States would likely see a 31% increase in precipitation from these worst of the worst storms in a souped-up warming world because of more intense and widely spread rainfall, the study said.

Scientists say the worst-case scenario, which is about 4.4 degrees Celsius (7.9 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times, looks a bit more unlikely since efforts are being undertaken to rein in emissions. If countries do as they promise, temperatures are on track to warm about 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Climate Action Tracker.

The National Weather Service calculated that California averaged 11.47 inches of precipitation statewide from Dec. 26 to Jan. 17 — including 18.33 inches in Oakland and 47.74 inches in one spot 235 miles north of San Francisco — because of a series of nine devastating atmospheric rivers that caused power outages, flooding, levee breaks, washouts and landslides. At least 20 people died.

“It could be even worse,” said study author Ruby Leung, a climate scientist at the U.S. Pacific Northwest National Lab. “We need to start planning how would we be able to deal with this.”

Leung used regional scale computer simulations to predict what the worst of the western winter storms will be like between 2040 and 2070 in a scenario where carbon emissions have run amok. She looked at total precipitation, how concentrated peak raining and snowing would be and the area that gets hit. All three factors grow for the West in general. California is predicted to get the highest increase in peak precipitation, while the Southwest is likely to see more rain because of a big jump in area of rainfall. The Pacific Northwest would see the least juicing of the three areas.

Overall precipitation is a bit lessened from adding all the factors, because just as the peak rainfall grows the rainfall on the edges of the storms is predicted to weaken, according to the study.

There are two types of storms that Leung said she worries about: Flash floods from intense rain concentrated over a small area and slower, larger floods that occur from rain and snow piling up over a large area. Both are bad, but the flash floods cause more damage and hurt people more, she said.

And those flash floods are likely to get worse from what Leung’s paper calls a “sharpening” effect that happens in an ever warmer world. That means more rainfall concentrated in the central areas of storms, falling at higher rates per hour, while at the outer edges rainfall is a bit weaker.

This happens because of the physics of rain storms, Leung said.

Not only can the atmosphere hold 4% more moisture per degree Fahrenheit (7% per degree Celsius), but it’s what happens in the storm that changes and makes the precipitation come down even more, Leung said. You’ve got air rising inside the storm with more water vapor condensing to produce rain and snow; it then releases heat “that kind of causes the storm to become more vigorous and stronger,” she said.

When water vapor condenses it comes down as rain and snow along the edges of the storm, but heating sort of squeezes that falling precipitation in toward the middle, Leung said.

“The concepts and impacts of how precipitation features are likely to change are well quantified and well explained,” said David Gochis, an expert in how water affects the weather at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, who wasn’t part of the study.

When she used computer simulations, Leung chose the most severe worst-case scenario for how the world’s carbon emissions will grow. It’s a scenario that used to be called business as usual, but the world is no longer on that track. After years of climate negotiations and the growth of renewable fuels the globe is heading to less warming than the worst case, according to climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the tech company Stripe and Berkeley Earth.

“We are providing more of a worst-case scenario, but understanding that if we do take action to reduce emissions in the future, we could end up better,” Leung said. “If we control the emissions and lower the global warming in the future, we can limit the impacts of climate change on the society, particularly flooding and extreme precipitation that we are talking about in this study.”
…

During seventh grade at Phoenix Indian School, Pershlie Ami signed up to go on what the school called an “outing” — promoted as opportunities for Native American students to earn spending money off campus.

They were opportunities — for cheap labor.

Ami said most people have no idea that the school staff would send students out to work, often doing menial tasks, for strangers whose backgrounds weren’t checked.

“A family came and picked me up and took me to their home. The task that they wanted me to do was pick up dog poop in their house,” Ami said during a listening session Friday in the Gila River Indian Community just south of Phoenix overseen by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

The session is part of a yearlong “Road to Healing” tour for victims and survivors of abuse at government-backed boarding schools. It is the fourth stop for the nation’s first and only Native American Cabinet secretary after previous stops in South Dakota, Oklahoma and Michigan.

Ami, who’s Hopi, is now 67 and living in nearby Laveen. She still remembers vehemently refusing to clean the house — and the fallout.

“I got severely punished for not doing what that family had asked me to do. I was never allowed to go out on another outing,” she said. “Then I started to wonder what happened to some of these kids that went out on these outings, that nobody ever followed up on them.”

Ami was one of several people who spoke during Haaland’s visit to Arizona before a large audience that included Gov. Katie Hobbs and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego.

Several testimonies addressed issues in addition to abuse, such as losing one’s culture and language. The session took place in the multipurpose room of Gila Crossing Community School, where artwork and banners reflected the heritage of the local tribe.

“This is one step among many that we will take to strengthen and rebuild the bonds with the Native communities that federal Indian boarding school policies set out to break,” Haaland said before the session.

Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws and policies to establish and support the schools. The stated goal was to “civilize” Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, which was often carried out through abusive practices.

In Arizona alone, there were 47 federal Indian boarding schools — and that number does not even include the religious and private institutions that received federal funding to run schools.

“My ancestors and many of yours endured the horrors of the Indian boarding school assimilation policies carried out by the same department I now lead,” Haaland said.

“This is the first time in history that a United States Cabinet secretary comes to the table with a shared trauma. That is not lost on me.”

Haaland has prioritized publicly examining the trauma caused by these schools. In May, the Interior Department released a first-of-its-kind report pointing out 408 schools the federal government supported that stripped Native Americans of their cultures and identities. At least 500 children are known to have died at some of the schools. But when more research is done, that statistic is likely to rise.

A majority of the speakers were descendants of boarding school survivors. They shared how their parents had a hard time learning how to be good parents because they were separated from their own — some at a very young age. Ami, whose father also went to a boarding school, remembered how he would refer to himself as “just a dumb Indian.”

“I think he did eventually get rid of that image of being ‘a dumb Indian,’” Ami said. “But he never stopped using that phrase in reference to himself.”

The vulnerability of victims has spurred tears at all these sessions. However, Deborah Parker, chief executive of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and a member of the Tulalip Tribes, said there’s a feeling of hope, too.

“There’s a sense of encouragement. Yes, we can finally tell our stories and maybe we can begin to heal,” Parker said. “Those tears help cleanse emotions that we’ve been keeping inside of us for sometimes generations.”

Congress is planning to reintroduce legislation to establish a boarding school “truth and healing commission,” according to Parker. It would be similar to one established in Canada in 2008. If passed, it would have a broader scope than the Interior Department’s investigation into federally run boarding schools and subpoena power.

Meanwhile, a second report is pending in the school investigation launched by Haaland, who is a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. It will focus on burial sites, the schools’ impact on Indigenous communities and try to account for federal funds spent on the troubled program.
…

The White House on Friday announced it will designate the Wagner Group, the Russian private military company supporting Moscow’s war on Ukraine, as a Transnational Criminal Organization, hitting it with sanctions and limiting its ability to do business around the world.

Declaring Wagner a TCO freezes its assets in the U.S. and prohibits Americans from providing funds, goods or services to the group.

“It will give us more flexibility,” John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said in a Friday interview with VOA.

“We were already sanctioning Russia writ large across the board, and some of those sanctions and export controls we know also tangentially had an effect on private military contractors like Wagner, but this is really targeted towards Wagner specifically,” he said of the sanctions that will be put in effect by the U.S. Treasury Department next week.

Kirby said the U.S. is urging other countries to target the group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In recent years the group has significantly increased its footprint not only in Ukraine, but also in Syria, Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Mozambique and Mali and has been accused of human rights violations in countries where it operates.

The Biden administration also released newly declassified photos of what it says are Russian rail cars delivering infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea in November for use by Wagner forces. The administration submitted the imagery to the U.N. Security Council panel charged with enforcing North Korea sanctions to push for action on what it says is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions on arms transfers.

“The North Koreans had just been baldly lying about their support to Russia,” Kirby said, adding the U.S. wants to “lay out demonstrable evidence” of Pyongyang’s support.

40,000 Russian convict fighters

Last month the White House confirmed that Wagner deploys about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, 40,000 of them recruited from Russian jails.

Olga Romanova, executive director of the civil rights movement Russia Behind Bars, told VOA that prisoners who agree to sign the contract with Wagner are paid about $3,000 a month.

“By the end of 2022, the desire to go serve in Wagner group in Ukraine has diminished significantly among the Russian convicts,” she told VOA, citing extrajudicial executions, unfulfilled promises and extremely high casualties.

Experts who study the group say up to 80% of Russian convicts used by Wagner die in Ukrainian battlefields. Out of thousands of Wagner-recruited convicts, only 106 were pardoned and allowed to go home after the fulfillment of their six-month contracts, Romanova said.

Prisoners are deployed without training, organizational capability, or command and control, Kirby said.

“They’re just throwing them into this meat grinder in the Bakhmut and Soledar areas, and they’re paying a heavy price for it,” he said, referencing two Ukrainian towns that are the focus of recent intense fighting.

Kirby spoke of mounting tensions between Prigozhin and the Kremlin, accusing the Wagner founder of making himself “seem more relevant and more viable than even the Russian military” while “trying to fill his own coffers.”

The Wagner group posted a picture of Prigozhin and his fighters in Soledar, which the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have captured last week without mention of Wagner’s role.

Foreign terrorist organization

Kirby would not confirm whether the U.S. is aiming next to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In December a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced the Holding Accountable Russian Mercenaries (HARM) Act, bipartisan legislation that would require the Secretary of State to designate Wagner as an FTO. A similar measure has been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

In November, the European Parliament adopted a resolution urging the European Council to place Wagner on the EU terrorist list.

Designating the group as a terrorist organization would not only freeze its assets, ban recruitment, financing and travel of its members said Méryl Demuynck, research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.

“It would send a very strong message and has a symbolic function, not only to Russia,” she told VOA. “But also to countries that are already resorting to the group or considering resorting to it.”
…

From New York to Los Angeles, hate crimes continued to rise in major American cities last year, with preliminary police data showing that at least six metropolitan areas recorded levels not seen since the 1990s.

That’s according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino.

The unpublished report, based on data from 20 police departments, was exclusively shared with Voice of America and comes months before the FBI is due to release its annual hate crime report for 2022.

Brian Levin, director of the research center, said while national hate crime trends generally mirror those of big cities, his data show a more modest uptick of 1.2% for the 20 cities surveyed.

“If current data hold, the FBI report is likely to be up when compared to the incomplete report for 2021,” Levin said.

Last month, the FBI released its annual hate crimes statistics, which showed there were 7,262 hate crime incidents in 2021; however, the report excluded data for New York City, Chicago and most of California.

Of the 20 cities surveyed by the research center, six posted multidecade highs in hate crimes.

Up 18% in New York City

In New York City, the nation’s largest city with about 9 million residents, police investigated 619 hate crimes, up 18% for the year and the most since 1992.

In Los Angeles, the second most populous U.S. city, police recorded a total of 643 hate crime victims in 2022, up 13% from 2021 and the highest number since 2001. In contrast to most other police agencies, the Los Angeles Police Department counts hate crimes by the number of victims rather than incidents.

Other major cities that saw multidecade highs in reported hate crimes include Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Austin, Texas.

Levin said improved hate crime reporting was partly responsible for last year’s spike in reported incidents.

“There was a real scramble by not only law enforcement but by many NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and advocacy groups to get victims’ experiences reported,” he said.

Many definitions of hate

The FBI defines a hate crime as a criminal offense “motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias(es) against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity.”

The bureau has been collecting and publishing annual hate crime statistics submitted by police departments since 1991.

In the decades since, most hate crimes have been motivated by racial bias, with African Americans the top target. That remained the case last year in most cities studied by the research center. Among the most horrific anti-Black hate crimes last year: An 18-year-old white supremacist gunman shot and killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in May.

Elsewhere, a wave of antisemitic attacks remained unabated. In New York City, home to the largest Jewish population in the U.S., nearly half of all reported hate crimes involved Jewish victims, with the total number of antisemitic criminal incidents jumping 31% to a record high of 271.

“It’s very shocking but perhaps not surprising for those who deal with this every day,” said Scott Richman, the New York and New Jersey director for the Anti-Defamation League, commonly known as the ADL. “I can tell you that we literally respond … to antisemitic incidents every single day in this region.”

The ADL tracks both hate crimes and hate incidents, which do not rise to the level of a crime.

“There are many things that happen that are antisemitic and very troubling that don’t rise to the level of a crime that we deal with,” said Richman.

Decline in anti-Asian hate crimes

Anti-Asian hate crime, which rose sharply during the pandemic because of the perceived association of the COVID-19 virus with China, was the only category to see a decline in most cities. In New York, anti-Asian hate crime fell from 133 to 86 incidents; in Los Angeles, from 42 to 32.

Despite the decline, Levin said, anti-Asian hate crimes remain at “disturbingly elevated levels when compared to pre-pandemic [levels].”
…

The latest round of military assistance packages for Ukraine, including billions of dollars’ worth of Western-made armored vehicles and air- defense systems, is not stopping the United States from also trying to get the Ukrainian military Russian-made equipment.

U.S. military officials overseeing operations and defense relations in Central America, South America and the Caribbean see an opportunity to persuade some of those countries to give up their Russian-made weapons and systems and send them to Kyiv.

“We are working with the countries that have the Russian equipment to either donate it or switch it out for United States equipment,” General Laura Richardson, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, told a virtual audience Thursday during an appearance at the Atlantic Council in Washington.

Richardson said discussions with six countries, in particular, “are in the works,” but did not elaborate.

U.S. Southern Command also declined to provide additional details.

“As a matter of protocol, we are not going to discuss details about the defense resources of sovereign nations or speculate about any support to Ukraine they have not already announced,” SOUTHCOM spokesperson Jose Ruiz told VOA by email Friday.

“Insofar as offering our defense partners opportunities to purchase or receive U.S. defense equipment, we offer what we consider to be a better alternative,” he added. “U.S. defense equipment is superior in both its proven reliability and the level of sustainment support it receives during its operational life.”

Familiar to Ukrainians

Other top U.S. officials have hinted at the importance of providing Russian-made equipment that is already familiar to Ukrainian troops, cautioning that it may not be possible to fully train Kyiv’s forces on the new Western systems in time to counter possible Russian offensives in the coming months.

“That’ll be a very, very heavy lift,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday after a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

“The Ukrainians have the personnel, but they have to be trained,” he said. “And if you look at the weather and terrain, et cetera, you can see that you have a relatively short window of time to accomplish both those key tasks.

“I think it can be done, but I think that it will be a challenge. There’s no question about it,” Milley added.

In contrast, Russian-made weapon systems currently being used in Central and South America could be used by the Ukrainian military almost immediately. And some countries have significant stockpiles.

“The best examples of that are Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina,” said Ryan Brobst, a research analyst at the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD).

“Specifically, they have a lot of Russian- or Soviet-made helicopters,” he told VOA.

According to data collected by the Swedish-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, at least seven Central and South American countries have bought weapons from Russia since 2000, with Brazil and Peru taking delivery of Russian military equipment as recently as 2016.

Additional data, collected by the International Institute for Strategic Studies as of 2021 and analyzed by Brobst and his colleagues at FDD, indicate six of those countries have systems identical or similar to those traditionally used by Ukraine’s military.

Helicopters, rocket systems

For example, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru all have variations of the Russian Mi-17 transport helicopter requested by Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its invasion last February.

Ecuador and Peru have a total of about 40 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, though some may not be serviceable.

Peru and Uruguay have a variety of Russian-made armored vehicles, including BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles and MT-LB amphibious armored vehicles.

Just as important, Peru and Uruguay have other capabilities that could meet immediate Ukrainian needs, including tanks, air-defense systems and even fighter jets.

Uruguay has 15 Tiran-5 tanks, an Israeli-modified version of the Russian T-55.

Meanwhile, Peru has the Russian-made S-125 surface-to-air missile system, 35 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and 80 towed anti-aircraft guns.

Peru also reportedly has nine serviceable MiG-29 fighter jets and another four Su-25 ground attack aircraft in storage, though some analysts estimate the number of serviceable attack aircraft is higher.

There are also a large number of Russian-made man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) that could be available.

“Countries like Brazil and Ecuador operate hundreds of Russian Igla portable surface-to-air missiles, with Brazil in particular having received modern Igla-S systems since 2010,” Henry Ziemer, a program coordinator and research assistant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA by email.

“MANPADS, especially older Igla-1 models which, while less effective, are easier to part with and fairly plentiful within the hemisphere,” he said. “Ukrainian forces … are well-trained by now on both the Igla and U.S. Stinger systems, and their compactness and mobility makes these systems vital for sustaining combined-arms offensives.”

Reluctance

Some of these countries, though, have previously balked at sending weapons to Ukraine, notably Mexico, with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last June calling the notion “immoral.”

Other countries, though, could be persuaded.

“The United States would probably have to offer the correct incentives for these countries to transfer their weapons, be it cash, some sort of security arrangements or promises to backfill with weapons,” the FDD’s Brobst told VOA.

That none of the countries has agreed so far to give up their Russian-made weapons and weapon systems illustrates the difficult task facing U.S. officials. And it may not get easier, given that U.S. defense companies are already under pressure to increase production to meet looming U.S. shortages.

Still, Russia’s hold on some of these Central and South American nations could be loosening.

“Typically, Russia’s advantage in the arms export markets was that they’re significantly cheaper, faster delivery timelines and they don’t care how countries use them,” Brobst said. “However, given the fact that Russia has lost a huge amount of equipment in Ukraine and needs to resupply their own forces, it’s going to be very hard for them to offer arms for exports.

“This is an opportunity for the United States to peel away these countries from reliance on Russian weapon systems.”
…

The first North Korean national ever to be extradited to the United States has been sentenced for money laundering.

Businessman Mun Chol Myong was sentenced Friday in federal district court in Washington to time served of 45 months in prison.

A resident of Malaysia, Mun was extradited to the U.S. in early 2021 following his arrest by Malaysian authorities in 2019 and an unsuccessful battle to block his extradition.

The 55-year-old businessman was accused by U.S. prosecutors of taking part in a scheme to provide luxury goods for North Korean customers in violation of U.S. sanctions. The indictment against Mun said that he and his co-conspirators used a network of front companies and falsified records to hide more than $1.2 million in illicit transactions.

The indictment further alleged that Mun was affiliated with North Korea’s main spy agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau. The service remains under U.S. and U.N. sanctions.

Mun faced five charges, including one count of money laundering conspiracy and four counts of money laundering.

After initially pleading not guilty, Mun last year entered into an “Alford plea,” under which he pleaded guilty and avoided trial but did not formally admit to the facts in the case.

Mun’s extradition prompted North Korea to sever diplomatic ties with Malaysia. But U.S. law enforcement officials praised Malaysia for the rare move.

“Thanks to the FBI’s partnership with foreign authorities, we’re proud to bring Mun Chol Myong to the United States to face justice, and we hope he will be the first of many,” FBI Assistant Director Alan Kohler Jr. said at the time of Mun’s extradition.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has begun a 10-day trip to Africa to discuss economic growth strategies and to reaffirm America’s commitment to strengthening ties with the continent. She began her trip with a visit to a U.S.-funded business incubator for youth and women in Dakar, Senegal.

As the first female U.S. treasury secretary, Yellen got a warm round of applause from the businesswomen at Friday’s meeting.

In a speech following the visit, Yellen emphasized America’s intention to expand trade and investment in Africa.

“The United States is all in on Africa, and all in with Africa,” she said. “And our engagement is not transactional. It’s not for show. And it’s not for the short term.”

Yellen’s trip comes on the heels of last month’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, where President Joe Biden committed $55 billion in economic, health and security aid to the continent over the next three years.

Several members of the Biden administration, such as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Special Climate Envoy John Kerry, have already traveled to Africa. President Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris also have plans to visit.

U.S. engagement with Africa took a backseat during the Trump administration. Meanwhile, Beijing was investing billions in African infrastructure projects and becoming Africa’s largest trading partner, while Russian-backed paramilitary forces fanned out across the continent.

Yellen’s visit sends a clear message that the U.S. is ready to compete.

Africa is home to some of the world’s largest mineral reserves, which will be critical for the Biden administration’s plans to promote clean energy.

Sarah Danzman, an international studies professor at Indiana University Bloomington, summed up the purpose of Yellen’s Africa visit.

“The U.S. wants to emphasize that U.S. investment is a better and more reliable way to deliver widely shared growth and prosperity across the continent,” she said, “precisely because it is transparent, aligned with values of democracy and human rights, and also tied to governance reforms to reduce corruption.”

That’s a stark contrast to the Chinese model of investment, which has prioritized quick construction and resource extraction over good governance requirements, she added.

While in Senegal, Yellen will also tour the former slave trading post of Gorée Island and meet with Senegalese President and head of the African Union Macky Sall, as well as ministers of finance and economy.

Yellen plans to discuss infrastructure projects, pandemic preparedness, democracy strengthening and anti-corruption partnerships. She’ll also highlight the steps the U.S. has taken to counter the spillover effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine by means of food security assistance.

“Russia’s war and weaponization of food has exacerbated food insecurity and caused untold suffering,” Yellen said. “And with global economic headwinds caused by the actions of a single man, President Putin is creating an unnecessary drag on Africa’s economy.”

Yellen also acknowledged Africa’s susceptibility to the climate crisis, noting that 17 of the world’s top 20 climate-vulnerable countries are African.

She announced U.S. plans to expand partnerships with Africa on conservation, climate adaptation and access to clean energy, and noted Biden’s intentions to provide over $1 billion to support African-led climate resilience efforts.

Yellen acknowledged America’s contribution to the construction of West Africa’s largest wind farm, located just outside Dakar.

On Saturday she’ll attend the groundbreaking of a U.S.-financed rural electrification project that’s being led by an American engineering firm.

After Senegal, Yellen will continue her trip with stops in Zambia and South Africa.
…

With few options available for ensuring abortion access, Vice President Kamala Harris will demonstrate that Democrats aren’t giving up on the issue as she marks the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Sunday. It’s a bitter historical milestone for the White House after the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back the national right to abortion. 

Administration officials said she’ll speak in Florida, where Democrats have been on guard for new efforts to restrict abortion from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate. The speech is a continuation of Harris’ focus on reproductive rights in recent months, including meetings with activists, healthcare providers and state lawmakers from around the country. 

It’s also intended to be a signal that abortion remains a focus for the administration after the midterm elections. Democrats performed better than expected, but prospects for codifying Roe v. Wade into law haven’t improved, and the administration has bumped up against the limits of its legal ability to keep abortion available. 

“The vice president will make very clear: The fight to secure women’s fundamental right to reproductive health care is far from over,” said a statement from Kirsten Allen, a Harris spokesperson. “She will lay out the consequences of extremist attacks on reproductive freedom in states across our country and underscore the need for Congress to codify Roe.” 

President Joe Biden will mark the anniversary with a proclamation, according to administration officials. 

No additional executive actions or policy proposals are expected over the weekend. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday that “the administration has taken actions with our limited authorities,” reiterating the president’s call for national legislation. 

“Women must be empowered to make decisions about their own lives and health care, and those decisions should not be politicized or second guessed by politicians,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group, told reporters on Wednesday that her organization will be focusing on state legislation and asking, “What is the most ambitious we can be?” 

Dannenfelser recently met with DeSantis and said she was “extremely satisfied” with the conversation, although she said DeSantis didn’t know what his next steps on abortion would be. Florida currently bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra plans to visit Minnesota this week as that state’s legislature works on a new law to solidify abortion rights. 

Becerra expects to appear with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, stop at a Planned Parenthood facility and meet with organizers who want to use a mobile van to provide abortions to people who cross into the state from Wisconsin, which has strict abortion limits. 

Becerra then plans to visit a Wisconsin clinic that’s no longer allowed to provide abortions and hold an event with Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Gwen Moore, both Democrats, to talk with medical students. 

On Wednesday, Becerra recalled visiting a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis, Missouri, on the day that Roe v. Wade was overturned. He said he was shocked to see how quickly women were turned away for scheduled abortion appointments. Then he stopped at a clinic over the border in neighboring Illinois, which was still accepting patients. 

“It’s now a fact in America that you can drive 16 miles across state lines and lose the rights to health care you need,” Becerra said. 

It’s likely that the battle over reproductive rights will focus more on state legislatures than Washington, where the two parties appear deadlocked on the issue. 

Democrats have 51 seats in the Senate, which means they can block any Republican attempts to ban abortion nationwide, but there’s not enough support to sidestep filibuster rules to restore a national right to abortion. 

In addition, the administration has limited tools to take executive action, although it’s worked to make abortion pills more widely available. 
…

The annual March for Life descends on the National Mall in Washington Friday. 

This is the first time the annual anti-abortion event is being held following the Supreme Court’s overturning last year of Roe v. Wade, a case that recognized a constitutional right to abortion.

“This year will be a somber reminder of the millions of lives lost to abortion in the past 50 years, but also a celebration of how far we have come and where we as a movement need to focus our effort as we enter this new era in our quest to protect life,” Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said in a statement. 

Since U.S. women have lost their constitutional right to abortion, states have been making their own laws about the procedure, resulting in a hodgepodge assortment of laws.  Some states have enacted near total bans on abortion.  

Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. 
…

British actor Julian Sands, best known for his appearance in the film A Room with a View, has been missing for several days after hiking in a Southern California mountain range.

Search and rescue teams have looked for him, but their efforts have been called off because a series of storms has created adverse trail conditions and avalanche risks.

The Associated Press reports that drones and helicopters are being employed in the search for the actor when weather conditions allow.

Sands has also appeared in Warlock, 1990’s Arachnophobia, 1991’s Naked Lunch, 1993’s Boxing Helena, and 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas.
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While the president promises assistance for people affected by California storms, critics urge stronger climate action
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U.S. President Joe Biden repeated his warnings about climate change on Thursday during a visit to California as he toured the damage caused by recent storms.

The president promised more federal help and touted his plan to mitigate the effects of extreme weather, which Biden said are caused by climate change.

“We have to invest in stronger infrastructure to lessen the impact of these disasters because they become cumulative, in a sense,” he said. “We’ve already allocated funding from the infrastructure law that I signed a year ago.”

His top emergency official delivered a sobering assessment of the situation as Biden flew across the nation to witness the damage firsthand with California Governor Gavin Newsom.

“California has really experienced some unprecedented storms — nine atmospheric rivers that have gone through since right before the new year,” said Deanne Criswell, who heads the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “When I talk to people on the ground, what they told me is that, you know, these storms are coming with hurricane-strength winds, and they’re also making incredible storm surge-like conditions with the surf. And so, they felt like it was being hit by hurricane after hurricane.”

Biden said he’s made strides toward managing the effects of climate change through the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, which sends nearly $400 billion in federal funding to clean energy — a move aimed at meeting the U.S. commitment under the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

And he’s promoted U.S. innovation in clean energy through electric vehicles and more.

‘We’re not prepared’

Sherri Goodman, who served as the first deputy undersecretary of defense for environmental security during the Clinton administration, told Voice of America that the U.S. government has long seen climate change as a threat.

“We have to understand it in terms of these compound and cascading risks, because one risk — wildfire-fueled storms — then has an impact on the next set of climate events, these extreme events, these atmospheric events. They all interact,” she said via Zoom. “So, that is very important. And we’re not prepared, unfortunately, as societies around the world.”

The burden, Goodman said, should be shared by the government and the private sector — a message also being heard by global power players at the World Economic Forum. Biden sent his top climate envoy to this week’s meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Goodman said change will take time.

“We can’t just go cold turkey on fossil fuels,” she said. “We’re going to be using oil and gas for some time still.”

Critics push for declaration of emergency

But Biden’s critics say leaders should be more aggressive, especially when it comes to confronting polluting industries.

“We cannot fix this problem without strong government action,” said Kassie Siegel, who leads the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. She spoke to VOA via Zoom. “And that needs to start by confronting the fossil fuel companies that are at the heart of the problem and have sought to distract, deny and delay for so long.”

Siegel and other environmental campaigners are urging Biden to declare a climate emergency.

“How many more lives must be lost?” asked Caroline Henderson, Greenpeace USA senior climate campaigner. “How many more decimated homes must President Biden and Governor Newsom visit? … Last year, President Biden said that he would deal with the climate emergency, but we have seen very little action. It’s time for him to make good on those words by declaring a climate emergency.”

Some of Biden’s political opponents, even fellow Democrats like Senator Joe Manchin, have blunted more sweeping legislation, arguing that those industries create valuable jobs.
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An investigative report released Thursday failed to identify who was behind the May 2022 leak of a draft version of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights, and it criticized the security measures of the nation’s top judicial body.

The report detailed an eight-month investigation conducted by Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley at the direction of Chief Justice John Roberts. The leak – with the news outlet Politico publishing the draft ruling on May 2 – prompted an internal crisis at the court and ignited a political firestorm, with abortion rights supporters staging rallies outside the courthouse and at various locations around the United States. 

It was an unprecedented violation of the nine-member court’s tradition of confidentiality in the behind-the-scenes process of making rulings after hearing oral arguments in cases.  

The report did not identify a specific source of the leak, noting that none of the 97 court employees interviewed by investigators confessed to the disclosure. 

Risky court environment seen

It was critical of some of the court’s internal security protocols, and it made clear that investigators would continue to pursue any new leads. If a court employee was responsible, the report said, that person “brazenly violated a system that was built fundamentally on trust with limited safeguards to regulate and constrain access to very sensitive information.” 

“The pandemic and resulting expansion of the ability to work from home, as well as gaps in the court’s security policies, created an environment where it was too easy to remove sensitive information from the building and the court’s [information technology] networks, increasing the risk of both deliberate and accidental disclosures of court-sensitive information,” the report said. 

The report recommended that regardless of whether the source is identified, the court should “create and implement better policies to govern the handling of court-sensitive information and determine the best IT systems for security and collaboration.” 

The leak investigation was conducted at a time of increased scrutiny of the court and concerns about an erosion of its legitimacy, with opinion polls showing dropping public confidence in the institution. Only 43% of Americans have a favorable view of the court, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted January 13-15, down from 50% last May. 

In examining the court’s computer devices, networks, printers and available call and text logs, investigators found no forensic evidence indicating who disclosed the draft opinion, the report said. 

“In time, continued investigation and analysis may produce additional leads that could identify the source of the disclosure,” the report stated. 

The draft opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, was only marginally different than the final decision issued on June 24. The ruling upheld a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and ended the recognition of a woman’s right to an abortion under the U.S. Constitution. 

Several Republican-governed states moved rapidly after the ruling to enact abortion bans.

‘An affront’

Roberts, the day after the publication of the leaked opinion, announced an investigation into what he called “a singular and egregious breach” of the Supreme Court’s trust “that is an affront to the court and the community of public servants who work here.” 

Roberts, in announcing the investigation, defended the court’s workforce as “intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law,” adding that court employees have a tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process. 

Protesters gathered outside the homes of some justices after the leak. A 26-year-old California man armed with a handgun who expressed his intention to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh was charged with attempted murder on June 8 after being arrested near Kavanaugh’s Maryland home. 

Justice Elena Kagan in September said the court’s legitimacy could be imperiled if Americans come to view its members as trying to impose personal preferences on society. In October, Alito warned against questioning the court’s integrity. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor on January 4 said she felt a “sense of despair” at the direction taken by the court during its previous term. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. 

Alito found himself in the middle of another leak controversy in November after The New York Times reported a former anti-abortion leader’s assertion that he was told in advance about how the court would rule in a major 2014 case involving insurance coverage for women’s birth control. 

The ruling, authored by Alito, exempted privately held companies from a Democratic-backed federal regulation that would have required any health insurance they provided employees to cover contraceptives if the business expressed a religious objection. 

Alito said that any allegation that he or his wife leaked the 2014 decision was “completely false.” The court’s legal counsel concluded “there is nothing to suggest” Alito violated ethical standards.
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The U.S. State Department has launched a new program to recruit thousands of Americans to help refugees adjust to life in the United States. The program, called “Welcome Corps,” aims to pair vetted refugees with vetted Americans as part of a push to modernize and expand the U.S. refugee resettlement program.

Under the plan, U.S. citizens or permanent residents apply for the program. If approved, groups of at least five people will work to raise $2,275 to sponsor one refugee for the first three months after their arrival. The program is aimed at refugees who intend to settle permanently in the United States.

The State Department calls the plan the biggest change to U.S. refugee admissions in more than four decades, when the U.S. started working with private organizations to sponsor refugees in the 1980s.

Seeking 10,000 Americans

The goal of the program in the first year is to mobilize 10,000 Americans to sponsor 5,000 refugees. The department said officials are looking to recruit members of faith and civic groups, veterans, diaspora communities, businesses, colleges and universities, and other community groups to the program.

The sponsors will be trained how to serve as guides, neighbors, and friends for the refugees. Refugees from any country are eligible.

The program will have two phases, said Julieta Valls Noyes, the Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration.

“The first phase, groups of five or more Americans or legal permanent residents can apply to form a private sponsor group,” she said. “When certified, they will be matched with a refugee who is already approved for resettlement in the United States.”

In the second phase, expected to begin in the latter half of 2023, Americans who are members of the Welcome Corps will be able to recommend refugees living overseas for resettlement in the U.S. and then assist them once they arrive. The State Department said it will release details of that program later this year.

Hope to restore US as haven

U.S. refugee admission policies have come under criticism from refugee organizations and human rights groups, under both the Trump administration, which slashed the number of refugees admitted, and under the Biden administration.

The administration hopes the program will lead to more refugee admissions. Last year, more than 25,000 refugees were admitted to the United States, only a fifth of President Joe Biden’s stated goal to admit 125,000 refugees per year.

Biden has vowed to restore the U.S. as a haven for those around the world facing violence and persecution, while expanding legal immigration for refugees and migrants with family members or others in the U.S. willing to sponsor them.
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President Joe Biden is set to tour damage and be briefed on recovery efforts after devastating storms hit California in recent weeks, killing at least 20 people and causing destruction across 41 of the state’s 58 counties.

The president, accompanied by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state and local officials, will visit Thursday the storm-damaged Capitola Pier in Santa Cruz County, where he will meet with business owners and affected residents.

Biden will also meet with first responders and deliver remarks on supporting the state’s recovery at nearby Seacliff State Park.

“Over 500 FEMA and other federal personnel have already deployed to California to support response and recovery operations and are working side by side with the state to ensure all needs are indeed met on the ground,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.

Biden has already approved a major disaster declaration for the state, freeing up additional federal resources for recovery efforts. Hours ahead of the visit, he raised the level of federal assistance available even higher.

From Dec. 26 to Jan. 17, the entire state of California averaged 11.47 inches of rain and snow, according to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center, with some reports of up to 15 feet of snow falling over the three-week period in the highest elevations of the Sierra Nevada.

California gets much of its rain and snow in the winter from a weather phenomenon known as “atmospheric rivers” — long, narrow bands of water vapor that form over the ocean and flow through the sky.

California has been hit by nine atmospheric rivers since late December. The storms have relented in recent days, although forecasters were calling for light rain toward the end of this week followed by a dry period.

 
…

Prosecutors announced that actor Alec Baldwin will be charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer who was killed on a New Mexico movie set.

Halyna Hutchins died shortly after being shot during rehearsals at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on Oct. 21, 2021. Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her and wounding the director, Joel Souza.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, who led the initial investigation into Hutchins’ death, described “a degree of neglect” on the film set. But he left decisions about potential criminal charges to prosecutors after delivering the results of a yearlong investigation in October. That report did not specify how live ammunition wound up on the film set.

Taking control of the investigation, Carmack-Altwies was granted an emergency $300,000 request for the state to pay for a special prosecutor, special investigator and other experts and personnel.

Baldwin — known for his roles in “30 Rock” and “The Hunt for Red October” and his impression of former President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” — has described the killing as a “tragic accident.”

He sought to clear his name by suing people involved in handling and supplying the loaded gun that was handed to him on the set. Baldwin, also a co-producer on “Rust,” said he was told the gun was safe.

In his lawsuit, Baldwin said that while working on camera angles with Hutchins during rehearsal for a scene, he pointed the gun in her direction and pulled back and released the hammer of the weapon, which discharged.

New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator determined the shooting was an accident following the completion of an autopsy and a review of law enforcement reports.

New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau has levied the maximum fine against Rust Movie Productions, based on a scathing narrative of safety failures, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires of blank ammunition on the set prior to the fatal shooting.

Rust Movie Productions continues to challenge the basis of a $137,000 fine by regulators who say production managers on the set failed to follow standard industry protocols for firearms safety.

The armorer who oversaw firearms on the set, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, has been the subject of much of the scrutiny in the case, along with an independent ammunition supplier. An attorney for Gutierrez Reed has said she did not put a live round in the gun that killed Hutchins, and she believes she was the victim of sabotage. Authorities said they have found no evidence of that.

Investigators initially found 500 rounds of ammunition at the movie set on the outskirts of Santa Fe — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and what appeared to be live rounds. Industry experts have said live rounds should never be on set.

In April 2022, the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department released a trove of files, including lapel camera video of the mortally wounded Hutchins slipping in and out of consciousness as a medical helicopter arrived. Witness interrogations, email threads, text conversations, inventories of ammunition and hundreds of photographs rounded out that collection of evidence.

State workplace safety regulators said that immediate gun-safety concerns were addressed when “Rust” ceased filming, and that a return to filming in New Mexico would be accompanied by new safety inspections.

The family of Hutchins — widower Matthew Hutchins and son Andros — settled a lawsuit against producers under an agreement that aims to restart filming with Matthew Hutchin’s involvement as executive producer.

“Rust” was beset by disputes from the start in early October 2021. Seven crew members walked off the set just hours before the fatal shooting amid discord over working conditions.

Hutchins’ death has influenced negotiations over safety provisions in film crew union contracts with Hollywood producers and spurred other filmmakers to choose computer-generated imagery of gunfire rather than real weapons with blank ammunition to minimize risks.
…

By expressing an interest in acquiring nuclear weapons, South Korea is demonstrating an urgent determination to secure enhanced security assurances from the United States as the nuclear threat from North Korea grows, experts say.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said at a policy briefing on January 11 that Seoul could either build nuclear weapons or have them redeployed to the country to counter Pyongyang.

While South Korea has discussed over the years the redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons, this marked the first time a South Korean president had expressed an interest in the arms since the U.S. withdrew them from the Korean Peninsula in 1991.

Yoon’s remarks came after Pyongyang’s New Year’s Day call for an “exponential increase” in the country’s nuclear arsenal. North Korea launched more than 90 ballistic and cruise missiles last year, a record.

Seeking assurance

“One interpretation of Yoon’s recent remarks is that they suggest a desire for more than merely a U.S.-ROK ‘alliance’ in the way that they have existed up to now, from the perspective of the South Korean administration,” said Edward Howell, a lecturer on North Korea at Oxford University in England. South Korea’s official name is the Republic of Korea (ROK).

The remarks “epitomize a sense of frustration that he wants more than simply a ‘security guarantee’ from the United States,” Howell said.

South Korea is protected by the policy of extended deterrence, under which the U.S. promises to use a range of its military assets, including nuclear weapons, to provide a so-called “nuclear umbrella” to defend the country against threats, including ones from North Korea.

Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, told VOA Korean that Washington and Seoul have already been engaged in dialogue about security assurances against North Korean threats “as a matter of urgency.” These were discussed in a recent Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group meeting.

At the September 16 meeting in Washington, the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to use wide-ranging capabilities including nuclear weapons and to bolster information sharing, training, and “better use of tabletop exercises” to counter North Korean threats, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Defense. 

The tabletop exercises, launched in 2011 and held annually but only twice during the 2017-22 administration of Moon Jae-in, are aimed at responding to North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons. A table-top exercise is a discussion-based session “where team members meet in an informal, classroom setting to discuss their roles during an emergency and their responses to a particular emergency situation,” according to ready.gov.

In February, the U.S. and South Korea plan to hold tabletop exercises “on operating means of extended deterrence under the scenario of North Korea’s nuclear attacks,” followed by “more concrete and substantive” exercises in May, said South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup on January 11, according to a Reuters article. 

When asked at a press briefing on Tuesday whether the U.S. and South Korea plan to use U.S. nuclear assets in the extended deterrence drills next month, Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder said, “We will continue to focus on training and making sure that we can be interoperable when it comes to working together.” 

‘United States needs to do more’

Some experts think Washington should do more to provide nuclear security assurances to Seoul. Their suggestions range from discussing plans for employing and operating nuclear weapons to considering a nuclear-sharing option, which would allow Seoul to jointly operate U.S. nuclear weapons with Washington.

“Although I think it would be a bad idea for South Korea to acquire nuclear weapons, the United States needs to do more to make sure that Seoul is comfortable with America’s extended guarantees,” said Zack Cooper, former special assistant to the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy at the Defense Department during the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush who was interviewed by email.

Cooper continued to write, “That could take the form of more engagement on nuclear planning, but it will also require that the United States talk in detail with South Korea about why an independent nuclear capability (or even nuclear sharing arrangement) would be counterproductive.”

On the other hand, Daryl Press, director of the Institute for Global Security at Dartmouth College, thinks nuclear sharing or South Korea having its own nuclear weapons could add to its deterrence.

“Giving South Korean leaders meaningful control over their country’s own deterrent force, through Korean nuclear sharing or an independent ROK arsenal, would substantially reduce these credibility problems and strengthen deterrence,” Press said.

Mirroring the nuclear sharing option used by NATO, South Korea’s would entail joint planning and using U.S. nuclear weapons deployed to bases in the country.

It would also involve joint nuclear exercises because both South Korean and U.S. aircraft and pilots would bomb enemy target areas when necessary. The U.S. would transfer control of the nuclear weapons to South Korea if North Korea crossed an agreed-upon nuclear threshold, Press said.

An option to deploy nuclear weapons to South Korea would not involve joint drills. The weapons would be delivered by U.S. aircraft and pilots for South Korea to drop on an adversary, according to U.S. plans after both countries agree their use is necessary.

South Korea is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which bans countries from pursuing the development of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear value

Thomas Countryman, who recently served as acting undersecretary of arms control and international security under the Biden administration, said, “It would not be appropriate for the U.S. to give the ROK military experience in handling nuclear weapons.”

He continued, “But there’s no limitation on what the good allies can discuss” on nuclear weapons although “there are certain limits to what can be done physically” to utilize the weapons jointly.

Countryman also said that although others might disagree, redeploying U.S. nuclear weapons to South Korea would not contradict the NPT. But the redeployment would “not make a significant military difference” or add much deterrent value.

By initiating a nuclear program, however, Seoul would violate the NPT, damage its international reputation and ties with Washington, and hamper U.S. efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, Countryman said.

Scott Snyder, director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, “It is not clear if South Korean nuclear capabilities would reduce the actual threat or expand it.”

“The common aim here,” he continued, “is to take actions that reduce the risk of miscalculation.”
…

President Joe Biden is facing a Department of Justice investigation following last week’s revelation that documents with classified markings were found in his home and office. VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
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Germany will allow German-made tanks to be sent to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia if the United States agrees to send its own tanks, a German government source told Reuters.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has stressed the stipulation several times in recent days behind closed doors, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Western allies will meet at a U.S. air base in Germany on Friday to discuss offering more weapons for Ukraine.

Attention is focused in particular on Germany, which has veto power over any decision to send its Leopard tanks, fielded by NATO-allied armies across Europe and widely seen as the most suitable for Ukraine.

Polish President Andrzej Duda told attendees at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday that he was afraid Russia was preparing a new offensive in Ukraine within months and it was therefore crucial to provide additional support to the Kyiv government with modern tanks and missiles.

Poland and Finland have said they will send Leopard tanks if Germany approves them.

Berlin says a decision will be the first item on the agenda of Boris Pistorius, Germany’s new defense minister.

Pistorius will host U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday.

The United States has committed roughly $24 billion to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian forces.

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said President Joe Biden’s administration is next expected to approve Stryker armored vehicles for Ukraine but is not poised to send its own tanks, including the M1 Abrams.

This week, London turned up the pressure on Berlin by becoming the first Western country to send Western tanks, pledging a squadron of its Challengers, but the Leopards are seen as the best choice to supply Ukraine with a large-scale tank force.

The Wall Street Journal, citing senior German officials, first reported Berlin’s condition on tanks earlier on Wednesday. The publications Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Bild  had similar reports.
…

The United States and Turkey on Wednesday looked to brush aside differences that have strained relations for years but were unable to report progress in resolving disagreements over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and NATO expansion that have soured ties between the allies.

At a meeting in Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu sought to bridge those gaps, but there was no immediate sign that they had, even though both men lauded the partnership between their countries.

They played up cooperation on Ukraine, with Blinken in particular praising Turkey’s leadership in securing a deal with Russia for the transport of Ukrainian grain. But in brief remarks before their meeting, neither specifically mentioned their differences over the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, which the Turks have so far blocked despite strong support from the U.S. and other allies.

Turkey is demanding that the Swedes do more to rein in Kurdish groups that Ankara sees as a threat to its security before approving the alliance’s expansion.

“We are close allies and partners,” Blinken said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t have differences, but when we have differences, precisely because we are allies and partners, we work through them in that spirit.”

Cavusoglu made no mention of Finland and Sweden in his comments but did make a point of stressing the importance Turkey places on winning U.S. approval to buy advanced F-16 fighters, something the Biden administration supports but that faces significant congressional opposition.

Cavusoglu called the F-16 deal a “significant topic” in U.S.-Turkey defense cooperation. “As we have said before, this is not only about Turkey but also for NATO and the United States as well. So, we expect approval in line with our joint strategic interest.”

Cavusoglu’s visit is a rare one to Washington by a top Turkish official as President Joe Biden’s administration has kept its distance from Turkey because of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian direction and policies curbing rights and freedoms.

Positioned at the crossroads between East and West, Turkey remains strategically important for Washington. And, as Blinken pointed out, Turkey was key to the agreement between Russia and Ukraine that allowed millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to be transported to world markets, averting a food crisis during the war.

NATO allies, however, frequently find themselves at odds over a number of issues, with the biggest disputes centering on Turkey’s purchase of Russian-made missiles and support for Kurdish militants in Syria.

Turkey’s acquisition of the S-400 air defense system from Russia in 2017 led to sanctions and Turkey being removed from the development program for the next-generation F-35 fighter plane. After losing out on the F-35, Ankara is trying to restock its F-16 fleet.

U.S. concern over Ankara’s cozy relationship with the Kremlin has been reinvigorated by the war in Ukraine. Despite Turkey’s ties with Moscow producing breakthroughs such as the grain deal and prisoner swaps, Washington is worried about sanctions-busting as Turkish-Russian trade levels have risen over the last year.

And Ankara’s feet-dragging over ratifying bids by Sweden and Finland to join NATO has added to friction between the allies.

Turkey’s recent attempts at rapprochement with Syria after a decade of bitter enmity have caused another break with the U.S.

Following a meeting of Syrian and Turkish defense ministers in Moscow last month, the U.S. State Department reiterated its opposition to countries normalizing relations with Damascus.

The U.S. military has also warned that a threatened Turkish operation against the Kurdish YPG in northern Syria could destabilize the region and revive the Islamic State group.
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Manhattan’s Chinatown, one of the oldest Asian enclaves in the United States, is experiencing a rebirth. A new generation of social media-savvy Asian Americans are revitalizing their family businesses and attracting new visitors to the distinctive neighborhood, which in the past two years has borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic along with anti-Asian discrimination. VOA’s Tina Trinh reports.
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The U.S. government says it will begin a targeted crackdown on nursing homes’ abuse of antipsychotic drugs and misdiagnoses of schizophrenia in patients.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is launching investigations this month into select nursing homes, aimed at verifying whether patients have been properly diagnosed with the psychiatric disorder.

Evidence has mounted over decades that some facilities wrongly diagnose residents with schizophrenia or administer antipsychotic drugs to sedate them, despite dangerous side effects that could include death, according to the agency.

“No nursing home resident should be improperly diagnosed with schizophrenia or given an inappropriate antipsychotic,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement Wednesday. “The steps we are taking today will help prevent these errors and give families peace of mind.”

Some facilities may be dodging increased scrutiny around gratuitous use of antipsychotic medications by coding residents as having schizophrenia, even when they do not show signs of the extremely rare disorder, a government report last year found. Less than 1% of the population is believed to have schizophrenia, which is marked by delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking.

In 2012, the federal government began tracking when nursing homes use antipsychotics on residents — doing so can impact the facility’s quality rating in a public database — but only for those who have not been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Antipsychotics for those nursing home residents has dropped to under 20% in recent years, according to federal data.

A November report from the HHS Office of the Inspector General, however, revealed that the number of residents reported as having schizophrenia without a corresponding diagnosis skyrocketed between 2015 and 2019, with 99 nursing homes in the country reporting that 20% or more of their residents have the disorder.

“The number of unsupported schizophrenia diagnoses increased and in 2019 was concentrated in relatively few nursing homes,” the report concluded.

Nursing homes have worked on other ways to treat residents, especially those with dementia, and trained staff to use alternative methods, said Katie Smith Sloan, the CEO of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit aging service providers.

“Much has been achieved since the program’s start in 2012, and nursing homes deserve a lot of the credit for the progress,” she said in a statement.

CMS will start targeted audits to ask nursing homes for documentation of the diagnoses in the coming days, focusing on nursing homes with existing residents who have been recorded as having schizophrenia.

The rating scores for nursing homes that have a pattern of inaccurately coding residents as having schizophrenia will be negatively impacted, CMS said in a statement released Wednesday, stopping short of threatening to levy fines against facilities.

The agency does not have plans to immediately intervene in the patients’ care directly or notify relatives of residents who have been wrongly coded or given antipsychotics, according to senior HHS officials who insisted on anonymity to brief The Associated Press on the matter on Tuesday.

CMS will monitor the facilities to make sure the issues are corrected, officials said.
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