CES 2023 opens this week in Las Vegas. After an unusually low turnout last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain issues, organizers say the consumer electronics show is back in full swing. VOA’s Julie Taboh shows us some of what to expect.
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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday pledged to deepen his country’s alliance with the United States under Japan’s new defense policy that breaks from its exclusively self-defense-only stance in the face of growing regional tensions.

Kishida, speaking in a news conference after visiting Ise Shrine in central Japan, said he will visit Washington for talks with President Joe Biden to underscore the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance and highlight closer cooperation between the countries under Japan’s new security and defense strategies adopted last month.

The U.S. visit is part of Kishida’s upcoming trip to most of the Group of Seven countries beginning Monday. Japan will host this year’s G-7 summit in Hiroshima. Kishida said his meeting with Biden will be “very important” and “more significant than showing my face as G-7 president.”

“We will show to the rest of the world an even stronger Japan-U.S. alliance, which is a lynchpin of Japanese security and diplomacy,” Kishida said. “We will also show our further cooperation toward achieving a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific.’”

Japan, under the new security and defense plans, is purchasing hundreds of U.S.-developed Tomahawks and other long-range cruise missiles to preempt possible attacks and also building up defenses in southwestern Japan amid growing worries of a Taiwan emergency. Japanese media said the U.S. and Japan are expected to discuss how they would cooperate in the event of a conflict over Taiwan.

Earlier Wednesday, the White House announced that Biden will host Kishida for economic and security consultations on Jan. 13.

Biden and Kishida are expected to discuss North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, amid concerns over the potential for another nuclear test by the reclusive nation, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, stability across the Taiwan Strait, climate change and economic issues, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

The two leaders last met in Bali, Indonesia, during November’s Group of 20 summit.

Kishida will also visit France, Italy, Britain and Canada to meet their leaders during his Jan. 9-15 trip, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

Kishida on Wednesday also vowed to tackle Japan’s dire problem of declining births, while pushing his “new capitalism” policy that he said will generate a “virtuous cycle of growth and distribution of wealth” to achieve a steady increase in salaries that have stalled for decades.

The number of babies born in Japan last year is expected to fall to a new record below 800,000 as part of a steady decline that is seen as eroding national strength.

“We cannot wait any longer,” Kishida said. “From an economic perspective, we also need to allay the concerns of those saying they cannot invest in Japan because it’s shrinking from declining births.”

Kishida said the government will do more to expand support for childcare and reduce gender gaps in salaries and working environments to lower barriers for women.

Japan is the world’s third-biggest economy but living costs are high and wage increases have been slow. The conservative government has lagged in making society more inclusive for children, women and minorities.

So far, the government’s efforts to encourage people to have more babies has had limited impact despite introducing subsidy payments for pregnancy, childbirth and child care.
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Members of the U.S. House of Representatives meet again Wednesday with the task of selecting the next speaker of the House, a day after Republican Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the job was met with rare opposition in a series of votes that saw him thwarted by his party’s most conservative members.

Tuesday’s session marked the first time in 100 years that neither a Republican nor Democrat won the House speakership on the first round of voting to become the leader of the 435-member chamber.

McCarthy failed to win the speakership in three rounds of voting, with 20 Republicans opposing him in the latest round. With a fourth round of voting on tap, it was unclear whether enough of McCarthy’s opponents would abandon their opposition to him, or whether new candidates might emerge.

Republicans will hold a narrow 222-212 majority in the House, with one current vacancy, requiring McCarthy, a California lawmaker for 16 years, to win at least 218 votes to claim the speakership. Under a provision in the U.S. Constitution, he also would become second in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency.

But 19 Republicans, many of them in recent weeks expressing the view that McCarthy was not conservative enough to lead House Republicans, voted for other Republican lawmakers in the first round of voting, including Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona and Jim Jordan of Ohio, two vocal opponents of Democratic President Joe Biden.

In the third round of voting, 20 dissident Republicans voted for Jordan, even though he nominated McCarthy as his choice to lead the majority Republican caucus in the new two-year House session.

Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, with all 212 Democrats voting for him, led the voting for the speakership although he has no chance of winning because no Republicans plan to vote for him. On the latest ballot, 202 Republicans voted for McCarthy, 16 short of the 218 he needed.

The 57-year-old McCarthy, a staunch conservative himself, has sought for years to lead the House. Over the past several weeks, he has met repeatedly with his Republican foes to secure their support for his speakership bid.

McCarthy offered to change the House’s governing rules in several ways, including to permit snap votes to declare the speakership vacant and select someone else if they did not like his policy stances or how the party caucus was conducting its promised investigations of Biden and his administration.

Whoever the Republicans eventually elect, McCarthy or someone else, will replace outgoing Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who remains a House member and cast her votes for Jeffries.

Democrats, who have been locked in a 50-50 split with Republicans in the Senate the past two years, gained an edge in the nationwide congressional elections nearly two months ago and will hold a 50-49 majority in the upper chamber, even after onetime Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced she is now an independent but would not change her voting philosophy. She usually has voted with the Democratic lawmakers and Biden.

Choosing a House speaker occurs even before representatives are sworn into office for their two-year terms. Lawmakers called out the name of their choice for House speaker from the floor of the chamber, and the same scenario will play out in the fourth round of voting, and possibly beyond that.
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U.S. President Joe Biden will hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on January 13 to discuss North Korea, Ukraine, China’s tensions with Taiwan and a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” the White House said Tuesday. 

The two leaders will discuss “a range of regional and global issues including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine, and maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the White House said. 

The meeting between Washington and its key Asian partner in standing up to China’s increasing might comes as North Korea’s missile tests and calls for a larger nuclear arsenal worry U.S. allies in the region. 

Kishida plans to discuss Tokyo’s new security policy, which saw the unveiling in December of Japan’s biggest military buildup since World War II, Japan’s Yomiuri daily newspaper reported last week, citing multiple unidentified Japanese government sources. 

The White House said Biden will reiterate his full support for Japan’s recently released National Security Strategy. 

“The leaders will celebrate the unprecedented strength of the U.S.-Japan Alliance and will set the course for their partnership in the year ahead,” said the statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

On a visit to Japan in May, Biden applauded Kishida’s determination to strengthen Japanese defense capabilities. 

Japan’s $320 billion defense plan includes the purchase of missiles capable of striking China and readying the country for sustained conflict, amid concerns that Russia’s Ukraine invasion could embolden China to move against self-ruled Taiwan, a neighbor of Japan.  

Japan hosts the Group of 7 nations this year, including a leaders’ summit in May in Hiroshima that Biden plans to attend. The group, which also includes the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, has been a focus of Biden’s efforts to revitalize U.S. alliances to counter threats from China to Russia and beyond. 

Japan also took up a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council on January 1 and holds the rotating monthly presidency of the 15-member body for January.  

Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi told a Reuters NEXT conference last month that Japan will use G-7 and U.N. leadership roles to pressure Russia to halt its war in Ukraine. 

Christopher Johnstone, head of the Japan program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said Kishida’s visit would reinforce Japan’s stature as America’s most critical ally in the Indo-Pacific.  

He said Kishida would seek Biden’s endorsement of his national security and defense strategies, and in particular support for its acquisition of counterstrike capabilities. 

“Japan’s defense strategy calls for the introduction of U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles in the near term but does not specify a timeline. Kishida will look for the president’s support to move quickly,” he said. 

“They will also focus heavily on ‘economic security’ issues related to China, including cooperation on export controls for sensitive technologies like semiconductors.” 
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The U.S. House of Representatives failed to choose the next Speaker of the House Tuesday, as a group of conservative U.S. lawmakers continued to vote against fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy’s bid to lead the 118th session of Congress. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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A New York man was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison for conspiring to steal General Electric Co.’s trade secrets to benefit China, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Xiaoqing Zheng, 59, of Niskayuna, New York, was convicted of conspiracy to commit economic espionage following a four-week jury trial that ended in March last year, according to the Justice Department. U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino also sentenced Zheng to pay a $7,500 fine and serve one year of post-imprisonment supervised release.

U.S. officials have said the Chinese government poses the biggest long-term threat to U.S. economic and national security, and is carrying out unprecedented efforts to steal critical technology from U.S. businesses and researchers. China denies the allegations.

Zheng was employed at GE Power in Schenectady, New York, as an engineer specializing in turbine sealing technology. He worked at GE from 2008 until the summer of 2018, the Justice Department said.

The trial evidence showed Zheng and others in China conspired to steal GE’s trade secrets surrounding its ground-based and aviation-based turbine technologies to benefit China, including China-based companies and universities that research and manufacture parts for turbines, the Justice Department added.

“This is a case of textbook economic espionage. Zheng exploited his position of trust, betrayed his employer and conspired with the government of China to steal innovative American technology,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s national security division.

The United States had accused the former GE engineer and another Chinese businessman named Zhaoxi Zhang in 2019 of stealing secrets and spying on GE to aid China. Zheng had pleaded not guilty at the time.

A U.S. federal court in Cincinnati sentenced a Chinese national in November to 20 years in prison after he was convicted of plotting to steal trade secrets from several U.S. aviation and aerospace companies.
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Since he began volunteering two months ago for weekend shifts at a clinic in one of this border city’s largest shelters, Dr. Brian Elmore has treated about 100 migrants for respiratory viruses and a handful of more serious emergencies.

But it’s a problem he hasn’t yet managed to address that worries him the most – the worsening trauma that so many migrants carry after long journeys north that often involve witnessing murders and suffering from kidnappings and sexual assault.

“Most of our patients have symptoms of PTSD — I want to initiate a screening for every patient,” said Elmore, an emergency medicine doctor, at Clinica Hope. It was opened this fall by the Catholic nonprofit Hope Border Institute with help from Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, which borders Juarez.

Doctors, social workers, shelter directors, clergy and law enforcement say growing numbers of migrants suffer violence that amounts to torture and are arriving at the U.S.-Mexican border in desperate need of trauma-informed medical and mental health treatment.

But resources for this specialized care are so scarce, and the network of shelters so overwhelmed by new arrivals and migrants who’ve been stuck for months by U.S. asylum policies, that only the most severe cases can be handled.

“Like a pregnant 13-year-old who fled gang rapes, and so needs help with childcare and middle school,” said Zury Reyes Borrero, a case manager in Arizona with the Center for Victims of Torture, who visited that girl when she gave birth. “We get people at their most vulnerable. Some don’t even realize they’re in the U.S.”

In the past six months, Reyes Borrero and a colleague have helped about 100 migrants at Catholic Community Services’ Casa Alitas, a shelter in Tucson, Arizona, that in December was receiving about 700 people daily released by U.S. authorities and coming from countries as distinct as Congo and Mexico.

Each visit can take hours, as the case workers try to build a rapport with migrants, Reyes Borrero said.

“This is not a community that we talk babbling brook with. … They might not have any memory that’s safe,” said Sarah Howell, who runs a clinical practice and a nonprofit treating migrant survivors of torture in Houston.

When she visits patients in their new Texas communities, they routinely introduce relatives or neighbors who also need help with severe trauma but lack the stability and safety necessary for healing.

“The estimated level of need is at least five times higher than we support,” said Leonce Byimana, director of U.S. clinical services for the Center for Victims of Torture, which operates clinics in Arizona, Georgia and Minnesota.

Most migrants are traumatized by what they left behind, as well as what they encountered en route, Byimana said. They need “first-aid mental health” as well as long-term care that’s even harder to arrange once they disperse from border-area shelters to communities across the country, he added.

Left untreated, such trauma can escalate to where it necessitates psychiatric care instead of therapy and self-help, said Dylan Corbett, Hope Border Institute’s executive director.

Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, the U.S. branch of the global Catholic refugee agency, is planning to ramp up mental health resources in the coming weeks in El Paso, which has seen a surge in crossings, said its director, Joan Rosenhauer.

All along the border, the most staggering trend has been the increase in pregnant women and girls, some younger than 15, who are victims of assault and domestic violence.

Volunteers and advocates are encountering so many of these survivors that they had to focus scarce legal, medical and shelter resources on helping them, leaving hundreds of other victims of political violence and organized crime to fend for themselves.

Service providers and migrants say the most dangerous spot along journeys filled with peril at every step is “la selva” – the Darien Gap jungle separating Colombia from Panama, crossed by increasing numbers of Venezuelans, Cubans and Haitians who first moved to South America and are now seeking safer lives in the United States.

Natural perils like deadly snakes and rivers only add to the risks of an area rife with bandits preying on migrants. Loreta Salgado was months into her flight from Cuba when she crossed the Darien.

“We saw many dead, we saw people who were robbed, people who were raped. We saw that,” she repeated, her voice cracking, in a migrant shelter in El Paso a few days before Christmas.

Asked about “la selva,” some women just suck in their breath — and only later reveal having saved their daughters by speeding them along and getting raped themselves, or enduring strained relationships with their partners who were made to watch the assault, Howell said.

“I don’t think it’s the first rape that most women I’ve talked to have experienced. But it’s the most violent and the most shameful, because it was in front of other people,” Howell added.

In many cases, forensic evaluations at border clinics that document mental and physical abuse are also crucial to migrants’ asylum cases, because often no other evidence is available for court proceedings, Byimana said. Asylum is granted to those who cannot return to their countries for fear of persecution on specific grounds, including sometimes very high, systemic levels of violence against women.

But it takes years for asylum cases to be decided in U.S. immigration court, with a current backlog of more than 1.5 million people, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. And that’s with pandemic-era restrictions still in place that allow authorities to turn away or expel most asylum-seekers.

A long wait for resolution, coming on top of a long journey across multiple countries, can intensify the trauma that migrants experience, advocates say.

“There’s a different tension and fear in faces than I’ve seen before,” said Howell, who’s been researching trauma and forced migration for 15 years. “They don’t know how to stop running.”
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The United States plans to hold table-top drills and expand other areas of defense cooperation with South Korea, but is not considering joint nuclear exercises with Seoul, according to a senior U.S. administration official.

The U.S. announcement came after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in an interview Monday the United States and South Korea were in talks meant to give Seoul a bigger role in the operation of U.S. nuclear forces.

Yoon told the conservative Chosun Ilbo newspaper the discussions centered on joint planning and exercises with U.S. nuclear forces — a process he envisioned would have the same effect as “nuclear sharing.”

Asked late Monday whether he was discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea, U.S. President Joe Biden replied, “No.” Biden, who was returning from a trip to the eastern U.S. state of Kentucky, did not elaborate.

In a statement emailed late Tuesday to VOA, a senior U.S. official attempted to clarify the situation by saying that the United States and South Korea are “working together to strengthen extended deterrence, including eventually through table-top exercises that will explore our joint response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by the DPRK.”

North Korea — also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — last year launched a record number of ballistic missiles and on Sunday vowed to “exponentially increase” production of its nuclear warheads.

North Korea’s recent actions and statements have caused “increasing concern,” the U.S. official added.

Both the U.S. and South Korean presidential offices later denied any contradiction between the Biden and Yoon comments, noting that since South Korea is not a nuclear weapons state it cannot technically participate in “joint nuclear exercises.”

Though the situation may have arisen partly because of semantics, many analysts suggest it reflects behind-the-scenes tensions between the two allies over how best to involve South Korea in countering the North Korean threat.

Yoon, a conservative, has in the past pushed for Washington and Seoul to enter a NATO-style arrangement in which South Koreans would be trained to use U.S. nuclear weapons in a conflict. For now, it seems South Korea may have to be happy with more cooperation in other areas.

Following a November meeting between Biden and Yoon in Cambodia, both leaders tasked their teams to come up with a plan “for an effective coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement emailed to VOA.

“As the President said, we are not discussing joint nuclear exercises,” the NSC official added.

In a statement to reporters, South Korean presidential spokesperson Kim Eun-hye defended Yoon’s remarks. “South Korea and the United States are discussing information sharing, joint planning, and subsequent joint implementation plans in relation to U.S. nuclear assets, to respond to North Korea’s nuclear threat,” she said.

The United States has not stationed nuclear weapons in South Korea since the early 1990s, when it pulled tactical nukes from the peninsula as part of a disarmament deal with the Soviet Union. Instead, South Korea is protected by the U.S. “nuclear umbrella,” under which Washington vows to use all its capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend its ally.

In the interview Monday, Yoon suggested such ideas were outdated. “What we call ‘extended deterrence’ means that the United States will take care of everything, so South Korea should not worry about it,” Yoon said. “But now, it is difficult to convince our people with just this idea.”

As a presidential candidate in 2021, Yoon said he would ask the United States to either redeploy tactical nuclear weapons or agree to nuclear-sharing. The U.S. State Department quickly shot down the proposal.

Many analysts are skeptical the United States would enter a nuclear-sharing arrangement with South Korea, noting it would go against Washington’s stated global nonproliferation goals as well as its support for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

“South Korean concerns and wishes are understandable, but the U.S. won’t be able to jointly discuss nuclear plans to the degree that Seoul wants. That’s still a bridge way too far,” said Duyeon Kim, a Seoul-based Korea specialist at the Center for a New American Security.

If South Korea participates in table-top exercises, it could learn more about how the U.S. weighs its options in various crisis scenarios, according to Kim.

“Since joint nuclear planning won’t happen and Seoul wants a voice, South Korean leaders like the president could instead unilaterally tell the U.S. president which North Korean targets they’d like him/her to consider in their nuclear plans without expecting a response back,” Kim said.

“It’s conceivable that South Korean fighter jets could someday practice escorting U.S. bombers as one way of doing ‘nuclear sharing’ done by NATO, but it’s hard to imagine the U.S. doing more than that,” she added.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, also doubts the United States would be open to including South Korea in nuclear planning.

“Ultimately, the decision concerning whether or not nuclear weapons ought to be introduced into a specific crisis contingency will depend on the president of the United States,” Panda told VOA.

The matter has grown more urgent as North Korea becomes more belligerent and expands its nuclear arsenal.

North Korea is already believed to have enough fissile material to build around 50 nuclear bombs and has a growing number of both short- and long-range weapons that could be capable of delivering them. If Pyongyang can destroy a major U.S. city, some South Koreans fear, Washington may be reluctant to respond to a North Korean attack on the South.

Many South Koreans were also rattled by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who regularly questioned the value of the U.S.-South Korea alliance and even threatened to pull U.S. troops from Korea.

As a result, a growing number of prominent South Koreans have called for the country to acquire its own nuclear deterrent.

According to a poll published Monday by the Seoul-based Hankook Research organization, 67% of South Koreans support the country acquiring nuclear weapons, including 70% of conservatives and 54% of liberals.

Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.
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Damar Hamlin, a player for the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills, was in critical condition Tuesday after being involved in a tackle during a game and going into cardiac arrest.    

Hamlin initially got back to his feet, but then fell back to the ground. Medical personnel administered CPR on the field before sending Hamlin in an ambulance to a local hospital.  

“His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment,” the Bills said in a statement early Tuesday. “He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”   

Players from Bills and the opposing Cincinnati Bengals were visibly shaken after the incident and gathered together in prayer.  

The league later announced the game had been postponed.  

Several players were later seen at the hospital, as well as a number of fans from both teams who gathered outside, including some holding candles.   

In a show of support for Hamlin, donations poured into an online fundraiser he had organized earlier to purchase toys for kids in need. By early Tuesday, there were more than $3 million in donations. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.  
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At least 500 migrants arrived in small boats along the Florida Keys over the last several days in what the local sheriff’s office described on Monday as a “crisis.”

Economic turmoil, food shortages and soaring inflation in Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean is spurring the most recent wave of migration. Over the weekend, 300 migrants arrived at the sparsely populated Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Key West. The park was closed so that law enforcement and medical personnel could evaluate the group before moving them to Key West, the park tweeted.

Separately, 160 migrants arrived on boats in other parts of the Florida Keys over the New Year’s Day weekend, officials said. On Monday, 30 people in two new groups of migrants were found in the Middle Keys.

In a news release, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay criticized the federal response to the uptick in migrant arrivals, saying they were stretching local resources. U.S. Border Patrol told the sheriff’s office that the federal response to some of the migrants arriving may have to wait a day, the news release said.

“Refugee arrivals require a lot of resources from the Sheriff’s Office as we help our federal law enforcement partners ensure the migrants are in good health and safe,” said Ramsay, whose office’s jurisdiction encompasses the Florida Keys. “This shows a lack of a working plan by the federal government to deal with a mass migration issue that was foreseeable.”

Officials at Dry Tortugas National Park said they expected it to be closed for several days because of the space and resources needed to attend to the migrants. The national park is at the southern tip of the continental U.S. — and attracts scuba divers and snorkelers for its coral reefs, nesting sea turtles, tropical fish and shipwrecks.

“Like elsewhere in the Florida Keys, the park has recently seen an increase in people arriving by boat from Cuba and landing on the islands of Dry Tortugas National Park,” the National Park Service said in a news release.

In addition to landing at the national park over the weekend, 160 other migrants arrived in the Middle and Upper Keys. At least 88 of the migrants are from Cuba, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a tweet.

U.S. Border Patrol and Coast Guard crews patrolling South Florida and the Keys have been experiencing the largest escalation of migrations by boat in nearly a decade, with hundreds of interceptions in recent months, mostly of people from Cuba and Haiti.
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The 118th session of the U.S. Congress opens Tuesday with all attention focused on whether Congressman Kevin McCarthy of California can secure enough votes from his fellow Republicans to become the speaker of the House of Representatives and second in line to the U.S. presidency.

The 57-year-old McCarthy, who for years has sought to lead the 435-member House, is now tantalizingly close to winning the speakership yet not quite assured of securing the 218-vote majority he needs.

Republicans won a narrow 222-213 majority in nationwide House congressional elections in November and will take control of the chamber from Democrats and outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Democrats, who have been locked in a 50-50 split with Republicans in the Senate the past two years, gained a 51-49 edge in the elections nearly two months ago and will maintain a majority even though Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema later switched from Democrat to independent.

McCarthy, a staunch conservative, won 188 votes in a House Republican caucus in November, and since then has secured more support in his effort to reach the 218-vote majority for the speakership.

But a hard-right group of House Republicans — five or more — oppose McCarthy’s bid for the speakership, saying that he has not been devoted enough to the conservative cause.

The dissidents have vowed to vote against McCarthy, which would leave him short of the needed majority because all Democrats almost assuredly will vote for their newly selected party leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Over the past several weeks, McCarthy has held numerous conversations with the band of Republicans opposing him to try to secure their support.

He has offered them a variety of changes to the way the House operates or appointment to committees where key legislation is considered. One change will give the small number of dissident Republicans the right to a House vote to declare the House speakership vacant if they disagree with the way McCarthy is handling party policy on legislation or expected investigations of U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration.

But so far, with less than a day before Congress convenes at noon Tuesday, McCarthy’s quest for the speakership hangs in the balance, even though no one has gained any substantial support as an alternative.

No vote for the House speakership has gone beyond a single ballot in a century, but it could Tuesday.

Choosing a House speaker occurs even before representatives are sworn into office for their two-year terms. Lawmakers will call out the name of their choice for House speaker from the floor of the chamber.

Should McCarthy come up short of the required 218 votes — or fewer if some lawmakers vote themselves as “present” in the chamber, lowering the number McCarthy would need for a majority — one or more new votes would occur. The clerk of the House would continue to laboriously call the roll of all 435 members until McCarthy, or someone else, reaches a majority to become speaker.
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Flower-covered floats, marching bands and equestrian units celebrated the New Year on a chilly but dry Monday as the 134th Rose Parade slipped through a gap in California’s siege of drenching storms.

Pasadena’s annual floral spectacle offered the optimistic theme of “Turning the Corner” for 2023, and former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords of Arizona, who survived a 2011 shooting, served as grand marshal.

“The New Year is a time for renewal, an opportunity for a fresh start,” Tournament of Roses President Amy Wainscott told the television audience.

The parade, which by tradition is held on January 2 when New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday, kicked off with the Los Angeles band Fitz and the Tantrums! performing “Let Yourself Free” and a crowd-pleasing flyby of two U.S. Air Force B-1B jets.

Rain has rarely fallen on the parade, but this year it came close. Downpours pounded Southern California over the weekend, and rain was expected to return by Monday evening, possibly affecting the Rose Bowl college football game between Utah and Penn State.

But in the meantime, thousands of spectators and the parade participants avoided a soaking.

Giffords rolled down the 8.8-kilometer route in a flower-decked antique convertible, accompanied by her husband, Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Kelly.

Marching bands came from across the U.S. and around the world.

The Riverside County, California, sheriff’s mounted unit was led by a riderless horse in honor of Deputy Isaiah Cordero, 32, who was slain during a traffic stop on December 29.

The floats offered simple beauty — birds, bees, bears, bugs and giraffes covered in flowers or other natural materials — as well as messages such as Cal Poly universities’ entry called the “Road to Reclamation” depicting animated snails and mushrooms living on a fallen tree branch.

The Louisiana Office of Tourism’s “Feed Your Soul” float depicting a paddlewheel riverboat was the stage for a mid-parade performance by Lainey Wilson.

Donate Life’s bright orange and red Chinese street dragon blowing smoke out of its nostrils was awarded the sweepstakes trophy for most beautiful entry by the Tournament of Roses judges.

“American Idol” finalist Grace Kinstler performed aboard a float promoting tourism to her home state of Illinois, and country music star Tanya Tucker sang her current single, “Ready as I’ll Never Be,” in the parade’s finale.
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Katie Hobbs took the oath of office Monday to become Arizona’s 24th governor and the first Democrat to hold the office since 2009.

Hobbs was sworn in during a private ceremony at the state Capitol as she formally took over from Republican Doug Ducey. A public inauguration for the governor and others taking statewide offices is scheduled for Thursday.

Hobbs was surrounded by her parents, husband and two children as she took the oath of office in the lobby of the governor’s office on the ninth floor of the executive tower on the Capitol grounds, according to a livestream of the event, which was not open to the public or media. Her mother’s joyous tears distracted the incoming governor, who paused to joke, “stop it, Mom!”

Afterward, she posed for photos with her family and signed a certificate.

Hobbs is the outgoing secretary of state and was previously a state legislator who rose to be the top Democrat in the Senate. As governor, she’ll have to work with a House and Senate narrowly controlled by Republicans. The new Legislature convenes for the first time next week.

Hobbs assumes control of a state with a strong economy and a solid financial position, with a large budget surplus forecast for the next fiscal year.

But there are headwinds on the horizon. Phoenix has some of the nation’s highest inflation levels and housing costs have soared as rapid population growth has outpaced home construction, belying the state’s reputation for affordability. And the water supply is constrained by drought.

Hobbs narrowly defeated Republican Kari Lake, a former television anchor who was backed by former President Donald Trump. She excited conservatives with her staunch backing of Trump, including his claims about the 2020 election, and her strong criticism of mask mandates and business closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But she struggled to connect with Arizona’s general electorate, which has repeatedly eschewed Republicans closely aligned with Trump going back to the 2018 midterms.

Hobbs is the fifth woman to be Arizona governor. The last Democratic governor was Janet Napolitano, who resigned in January 2009 to be U.S. Homeland Security secretary under President Barack Obama. She was replaced by Republican Governor Jan Brewer.

The Arizona Constitution says state officers take their position on the first Monday in January. While Hobbs took office on schedule, the public ceremony was delayed because Monday is the observed New Year holiday.

Also formally taking office Monday were Democrats Adrian Fontes as secretary of state and Kris Mayes as attorney general, both of whom defeated Trump-backed Republicans who refused to concede and unsuccessfully challenged their losses in court. Mayes’s 280-vote victory was among the closest statewide races in Arizona history.

Kimberly Yee was sworn in for her second term as state treasurer and Tom Horne as superintendent of public instruction, a role he filled for two terms beginning in 2003. Paul Marsh was sworn in as mine inspector. Yee, Horne and Marsh are Republicans.

For Hobbs, the oath of office was administered by Roopali Desai, a recently confirmed judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who previously represented Democrats in election cases and Hobbs as secretary of state.

Chief Justice Robert Brutinel swore in the other state officers. 

 
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Surveys by the Pew Research Center show U.S. President Joe Biden is widely trusted and viewed as a strong leader in most countries polled, while confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin has plummeted since his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine last year. VOA’s Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
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In January, 83-year-old liberal Justice Stephen Breyer announced he was stepping down from the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of the term.

The announcement paved the way for President Joe Biden to deliver on a long-touted campaign promise to put the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Harvard-educated federal judge who once clerked for Breyer, was confirmed by the Senate in April. At 52, she could help shape the court for decades to come.

But Jackson’s trailblazing elevation to the Supreme Court did not change its ideological balance. Through three appointments by former President Donald Trump, the nine-member high court remains dominated by six Republican-appointed justices who often vote as a bloc on hot-button issues such as abortion and gun rights.

From ending the constitutional right to abortion in June to weighing an end to affirmative action in college admissions in October, 2022 has been a consequential — and controversial — year for the court. The year straddled the end of one term and the beginning of another.

Although the court sometimes returns to a period of relative quiet following a term of big cases, this has not been the case this year.

In a string of 6-3 decisions during the term that ended in June, the court ended the constitutional right to abortion, limited the government’s ability to fight climate change and expanded gun rights.

Abortion

In a case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, justices overturned nearly half a century of Supreme Court precedent.

For many conservatives, the decision came down to whether the right to abortion constitutes an “unenumerated right,” meaning a right that is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution but has nonetheless been recognized by the Supreme Court.

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said unenumerated rights are those that are “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition,” and that the right to abortion is not among them.

The Dobbs ruling represented the culmination of a decadeslong conservative campaign against the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe decision.

“I would resist the characterization of the decisions as ideologically based as opposed to jurisprudentially based,” said Joel Alicea, an assistant professor of law at the Catholic University of America and a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

“I think that at the end of the last term and going into this term, we are seeing a significant shift in the direction the court is taking in its approach to constitutional adjudication. And that shift is more toward history and tradition and text-based approaches to constitutional adjudication and away from judge-empowering balancing tests in a lot of different areas of law,” Alicea said.

But liberal constitutional scholars say the conservative wing’s approach to jurisprudence makes its rulings in Dobbs and other high-profile cases no less radical.

“What they’re saying is they’re justifying their radical departures by suggesting that they’re based in something other than precedent, stare decisis, and a long-standing understanding of what our Constitution has meant,” said Caroline Fredrickson, a visiting professor at Georgetown Law Center and a senior fellow at the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice. “I think especially once you start adding the word ‘tradition,’ it becomes extremely malleable.”

In Dobbs, Fredrickson noted, Alito cites 13th-century English cleric Henry de Bracton on “whether women in the United States of America in the 21st century should have the right to control their bodies.”

“That’s radical, and I don’t know where a 13th-century theologian sits in terms of our constitutional understandings, but it’s not part of the original understanding,” Fredrickson said.

The abortion decision has sparked concerns that the high court could undo other protections such as the right to same-sex marriage.

Upcoming rulings

While no one expects the Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 ruling on same-sex marriage anytime soon, observers expect the justices to strike down other precedents.

In the two months since the term started in October, the justices have heard oral arguments on affirmative action, congressional redistricting, the intersection between gay rights and free speech, and a constitutional interpretation known as the independent legislature theory.

The affirmative action dispute before the court involves lawsuits brought against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina by a group called Students for Fair Admission.

The lawsuit against Harvard claims the university’s admissions policy discriminates against Asian American applicants, while the UNC complaint makes a similar claim on behalf of white students.

The Supreme Court has previously ruled that colleges and universities can use race as a factor in their admissions decision-making as part of an effort to build a diverse student body. But during oral arguments in late October, the court’s six conservative justices questioned the court’s precedents on affirmative action, suggesting they’re inclined to vote down the practice.

Another case that is likely to lead to a conservative outcome pits a Colorado web designer against the state.

Lorie Smith, a devout Christian, says she wants to build wedding websites but only for opposite-sex couples and wants an exemption from Colorado’s anti-discrimination law that mandates equal treatment for all people in public accommodations.

Allowing her an exemption, Colorado argued, could lead to other forms of discrimination.

But the court’s conservative wing appeared unconvinced, suggesting that forcing the web designer to build websites for gay couples would violate her First Amendment right to free speech.

Not all conservative causes are likely to receive the court’s imprimatur. One case is centered on the so-called independent legislature theory.

The theory holds that the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures nearly unfettered power to regulate federal elections without any oversight from state courts.

During oral arguments earlier this month, however, a majority of the justices appeared unwilling to embrace the theory, despite some support from several conservatives on the bench.

Reshaping the law

The high court’s conservative rulings have led some critics on the left to disparage it as the “radical Trump court.”

But when it comes to the litigious former president, the court has exhibited a degree of independence.

In October, it rejected a request by Trump that an independent auditor be allowed to review classified documents seized by the FBI from his Mar-A-Lago estate. And in November, the court rejected an attempt by Trump to prevent Congress from obtaining his tax records as part of an investigation.

“I think any suggestion that they are beholden in some way to the former president is clearly wrong and without any foundation,” Alicea said.

Fredrickson said the court’s rejection of Trump’s requests suggests they are “more independent than they are” perceived to be.

“I think they are, however, embarked on this project to radically reshape our law, and it really is irrelevant whether they support Trump or not,” Fredrickson said.
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President Joe Biden has approved a disaster declaration made by the Havasupai Tribe in northern Arizona, freeing up funds for flood damage as it prepares to reopen for tourists after nearly three years.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed Sunday that federal emergency aid will be given to supplement the tribe’s own recovery efforts from severe flooding last October.

The funds will be for the tribe and certain nonprofits to share costs for emergency work and repairs from flood damage.

It comes as the Havasupai Indian Reservation, which lies deep in a gorge off the Grand Canyon, is preparing to open its majestic blue-green waterfalls for visitors for the first time since March 2020. The tribe had closed to protect its members from the pandemic. Tribal officials decided to extend the closure through the 2022 tourism season.

In an update about tourism posted on their website last week, the tribe described how flooding had destroyed several bridges and left downed trees on trails needed for tourists and transporting goods and services into Supai Village.

The tribe, however, also said they are eager to welcome back tourists in February to see “flourishing flora and fauna and new waterfall flows.”
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Anita Pointer, one of four sibling singers who earned pop success and critical acclaim as The Pointer Sisters, died Saturday at the age of 74, her publicist announced.

The Grammy winner died while she was with family members, publicist Roger Neal said in a statement. A cause of death was not immediately revealed.

“While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita, we are comforted in knowing she is now with her daughter Jada and her sisters June & Bonnie and at peace. She was the one that kept all of us close and together for so long,” her sister Ruth, brothers Aaron and Fritz and granddaughter Roxie McKain Pointer said in the statement.

Anita Pointer’s only daughter, Jada Pointer, died in 2003.

Anita, Ruth, Bonnie and June Pointer, born the daughters of a minister, grew up singing in their father’s church in Oakland, California.

The group’s 1973 self-titled debut album included the breakout hit, “Yes We Can Can.” Known for hit songs including “I’m So Excited,” “Slow Hand,” “Neutron Dance” and “Jump (For My Love),” the singers gained a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994.

The 1983 album “Break Out” went triple platinum and garnered two American Music Awards. The group won three Grammy Awards and had 13 U.S. top 20 hit songs between 1973 and 1985, Neal said.

The Pointer Sisters also was the first African American group to perform on the Grand Ole Opry program and the first contemporary act to perform at the San Francisco Opera House, Neal said.

Bonnie Pointer left the group in 1977, signing a solo deal with Motown Records but enjoying only modest success. “We were devastated,” Anita Pointer said of the departure in 1990. “We did a show the night she left, but after that, we just stopped. We thought it wasn’t going to work without Bonnie.”

The group, in various lineups including younger family members, continued recording through 1993.

June Pointer died of cancer at the age of 52 in 2006.

Anita Pointer announced Bonnie Pointer’s death resulting from cardiac arrest at the age of 69 in 2020. “The Pointer Sisters would never have happened had it not been for Bonnie,” she said in a statement. 
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Avatar: The Way of Water” is the box office king for a third straight week and shows no sign of slowing down.

James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to the first “Avatar” film brought in an estimated $63 million over the holiday weekend, roughly the same as the previous week, and now has made more than $400 million domestically and more than $1.3 billion globally. “The Way of Water” is already the 15th highest global release ever, just behind the first “Black Panther.”

Numbers released Sunday by Comscore showed “Avatar” far ahead of the runner-up, Universal’s “Shrek” spinoff “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” which made an estimated $16 million, and Disney’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which brought in around $4.8 million.

The Sony biopic “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” made $4.2 million in its second week of release. “Babylon,” the epic of early Hollywood starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, continued to fare badly despite its five Golden Globe nominations. The Paramount release earned just $2.7 million in its second week, a 24% drop, and averaged just $815 per location. By comparison, the new “Avatar,” a 20th Century Studios film, averaged more than $15,000.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Avatar: The Way of Water,” $63 million.

2. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” $16 million.

3. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” $4.8 million.

4. “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” $4.2 million.

5. “Babylon,” $2.7 million.

6. “Violent Night,” $2.1 million.

7. “The Whale,” $1.3 million.

8. “The Fabelmans,” $1.1 million.

9. “The Menu,” $1.1 million.

10. “Strange World,” $538,000.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with incoming Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang over the phone Sunday, Blinken said on Twitter, after China last week appointed its ambassador to the United States to be its new foreign minister.

Blinken said he discussed the U.S.-China relationship and maintaining open lines of communication in his phone call with Qin.

China on Friday appointed Qin, its ambassador to the United States and a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, to be its new foreign minister, as Beijing and Washington seek to stabilize rocky relations.

Qin, 56, replaces Wang Yi, who had been foreign minister for the past decade. Wang, 69, was promoted to the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in October and is expected to play a bigger role in Chinese foreign policy.

Though Qin sounded optimistic about U.S.-China relations during his relatively brief, 17-month stint as ambassador in Washington – his predecessor had held the post for eight years – his tenure nonetheless coincided with deteriorating ties between the two superpowers.

Wang’s stint as foreign minister saw a sharp rise in tensions between Beijing and Washington on a wide range of issues ranging from trade to Taiwan.
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A man with a machete attacked three police officers amid New Year’s festivities Saturday night in New York City.

The 19-year-old man struck two of the officers and attempted to strike the third. One of the officers managed to shoot the attacker in the shoulder during the incident near Times Square.

All three officers were hospitalized and are reported to be in stable condition. The New York Times reported that one of the officers who had just graduated Friday from the police academy suffered a skull fracture and a large laceration.  The other officer also has a laceration.
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A powerful storm brought drenching rain or heavy snowfall to much of California on Saturday, snarling traffic and closing highways as the state prepared to usher in a new year.

In the high Sierra Nevada, as much as 2 feet (0.6 meters) of snow could accumulate into early Sunday. The National Weather Service in Sacramento warned about hazardous driving conditions and posted photos on Twitter showing traffic on snow-covered mountain passes, where vehicles were required to have chains or four-wheel drive.

The so-called atmospheric river storm was pulling in a long and wide plume of moisture from the Pacific Ocean. Flooding and rock slides closed portions of roads across Northern California.

A Sacramento Municipal Utility District online map showed more than 153,000 customers were affected by power outages on Saturday. “SMUD crews are responding to outages across the region during this powerful winter storm,” the utility said in a Twitter message, adding that it was preparing additional resources while working to restore power.

“Too many road closures to count at this point,” the weather agency in Sacramento said in an afternoon tweet. Sacramento County urged residents in the unincorporated community of Wilton to evacuate, warning that flooded roadways could “cut off access to leave the area.”

Rainfall in downtown San Francisco on Saturday topped 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) at midafternoon, making it the second-wettest day on record, behind a November 1994 deluge. With rain continuing to fall, it could threaten the nearly three-decade old record.

The California Highway Patrol said a section of U.S. 101 — one of the state’s main traffic arteries — was closed indefinitely south of San Francisco because of flooding. Videos on Twitter showed mud-colored water streaming along San Francisco streets, and a staircase in Oakland turned into a veritable waterfall by heavy rains.

Weather service meteorologist Courtney Carpenter said the storm could drop over an inch of rain in the Sacramento area before moving south. One ski resort south of Lake Tahoe closed chair lifts because of flooding and operational problems, and posted a photo on Twitter showing one lift tower and its empty chairs surrounded by water.

“We’re seeing a lot of flooding,” Carpenter said.

The Sacramento agency released a map of 24-hour precipitation through Saturday morning, showing a wide range of totals in the region, from less than an inch (2.54 centimeters) in some areas to more than 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) in the Sierra foothills.

The Mammoth Mountain Ski Area reported numerous lift closings, citing high winds, low visibility and ice.

The Stockton Police Department posted photos of a flooded railroad underpass and a car that appeared stalled in more than a foot (30 centimeters) of water.

The rain was welcomed in drought-parched California, but much more precipitation is needed to make a significant difference. The past three years have been California’s driest on record.

A winter storm warning was in effect into Sunday for the upper elevations of the Sierra from south of Yosemite National Park to north of Lake Tahoe, where as much as 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow is possible atop the mountains, the National Weather Service said in Reno, Nevada.

A flood watch was in effect across much of Northern California through New Year’s Eve. Officials warned that rivers and streams could overflow and urged residents to get sandbags ready.

Some rainfall totals in the San Francisco Bay Area topped 4 inches (10 centimeters).

The state transportation agency reported numerous road closures, including Highway 70 east of Chico, which was partially closed by a slide, and the northbound side of Highway 49, east of Sacramento, which was closed because of flooding. In El Dorado County, east of Sacramento, a stretch of Highway 50 was closed because of flooding.

Humboldt County, where a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck on Dec. 20, also saw roadways begin to flood, according to the National Weather Service’s Eureka office. A bridge that was temporarily closed last week due to earthquake damage may be closed again if the Eel River, which it crosses, gets too high, officials said.

It was the first of several storms expected to roll across California over the next week. The current system is expected to be warmer and wetter, while next week’s storms will be colder, said Hannah Chandler-Cooley, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

The Sacramento region could receive a total of 4 to 5 inches (10 to 13 centimeters) of rain over the span of the week, Chandler-Cooley said.

“Strong winds could cause tree damage and lead to power outages and high waves on Lake Tahoe may capsize small vessels,” the weather service in Reno said.

Avalanche warnings were issued in the backcountry around Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes south of Yosemite.

On the Sierra’s eastern front, flood watches and warnings were issued into the weekend north and south of Reno, Nevada, where minor to moderate flooding was forecast along some rivers and streams.

In Southern California, moderate-to-heavy rain was falling Saturday. The region will begin drying out on New Year’s Day, with no rainfall expected during Monday’s Rose Parade in Pasadena.

Another round of heavy showers was forecast for Tuesday or Wednesday, the National Weather Service in Oxnard said.
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A U.S. military plane involved in a confrontation with Chinese aircraft in disputed southern waters last week had violated international law and put the safety of Chinese pilots at risk, a defense ministry spokesperson said.

The U.S. military said Thursday that a Chinese Navy J-11 fighter jet had come within 3 meters of a U.S. air force RC-135 aircraft on Dec. 21, forcing it to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision.

But Tian Junli, spokesperson for China’s Southern Theater Command, said in a statement late Saturday that the United States had misled the public about the incident near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

He said the U.S. plane violated international law, disregarded repeated warnings by China and made dangerous approaches that threatened the safety of China’s aircraft.

“The United States deliberately misleads public opinion … in an attempt to confuse the international audience,” Tian said.

“We solemnly request the U.S. side to restrain the actions of frontline naval and air forces, strictly abide by related international laws and agreements, and prevent accidents in the sea and the air.”

China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its sovereign territory, but parts of it are contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
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A simple plan to get more people enjoying the outdoors on New Year’s Day has become a nationwide movement in the U.S.  after a hike at a Massachusetts park more than three decades ago.

Just 380 people participated in the initial First Day Hike in 1992 at the nearly 2,830-hectare Blue Hills Reservation just south of Boston. On Sunday, tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in First Day Hikes at hundreds of parks in all 50 states.

A vigorous walk is a great way to start the new year on the right foot — literally — and get outdoors, enjoy nature, spend time with family and friends and maybe start working on that New Year’s resolution to get in shape, park officials and participants said.

“It’s all about mind, body and soul,” said Rodney Franklin, director of parks for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The late Patrick Flynn, the former supervisor at Blue Hills, came up with the original plan.

“He wanted a way to bring people into the parks in the wintertime because so many people think of parks as just a summertime place,” said Priscilla Geigis, deputy commissioner for conservation and resource stewardship at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Steve Olanoff, 77, took part in that inaugural event at Blue Hills back in 1992 and is now a volunteer who helps shepherd hikers along the park’s trails each year.

“Back then, there was nothing to do on New Year’s Day,” he said. “Everyone just sat home and watched television. When I heard there was an opportunity to go for a hike I said, ‘Well, I’ll try that.’ It’s really amazing that so many people are doing this now.”

Over the years, more Massachusetts state parks joined in. Then, parks in other states came on board. In 2012, First Day Hikes went nationwide when the National Association of State Park Directors endorsed the idea.

“It just goes to show that one person can have an idea that can spread like that,” Geigis said.

Some states have added their own twists. At Ink Lake State Park in Burnet County, Texas, northwest of Austin, participants can go for a first day run, bike ride, or paddle in a canoe or kayak.

Snowshoes or cross-country skis may be required at some Oregon locations, said Jason Resch, marketing manager for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Elijah Bristow State Park near Eugene is even offering a first day horseback ride.

“Just bring your own horse,” Resch said.

Some hikes are guided by park rangers or volunteers who teach about the history, geography, flora and fauna of a particular park. That in turn promotes stewardship, and a commitment to protect parks and open spaces, Geigis said. Refreshments are offered at many sites.

And people of all ability levels are welcome.

“We want to appeal to as many people as possible,” Franklin said. “So, you’ll have some of our hikes that take place on paved, flat surfaces that are not very long, but if you want a brisk, longer hike, you can do that.”

Families with babies, seniors, and people with their dogs have participated in the First Day Hike at the Chester Blandford State Forest in Massachusetts, said Elizabeth Massa, president of the Western Mass Hilltown Hikers, who guides the 2.4-kilometer jaunt.

“If your New Year’s resolution is to get more exercise, lose weight, get healthier, then this is your opportunity,” she said.
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Landslides of rock and mud closed roadways Friday across California as heavy rains kicked off what will be a series of storms poised to usher in the new year with downpours and potential flooding across much of the state and several feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada.

The atmospheric river storm, a long and wide plume of moisture pulled in from the Pacific Ocean, began sweeping across the northern part of the state Friday and was expected to bring more rain through Saturday, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

A winter storm warning was in effect into Sunday for the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada mountains from south of Yosemite National Park to north of Lake Tahoe, where as much as 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow is possible atop the mountains, the National Weather Service said in Reno, Nevada.

A flood watch was in effect across much of Northern California through New Year’s Eve. Officials warned that rivers and streams could overflow and urged residents to get sandbags ready.

Landslides already had closed routes in the San Francisco Bay Area, between Fremont and Sunol, as well as in Mendocino County near the unincorporated community of Piercy and in the Mendocino National Forest, where crews cleared debris into Friday night.

Humboldt County, where a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Dec. 20, also saw roadways begin to flood, according to the National Weather Service’s Eureka office. A bridge that was temporarily closed last week due to earthquake damage may be closed again if the Eel River, which it crosses, gets too high, officials said.

More rain ahead

It was the first of several storms expected to roll across California over the next week. The current system is expected to be warmer and wetter, while next week’s storms will be colder, lowering snow levels in the mountains, said Hannah Chandler-Cooley, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

The Sacramento region could receive a total of 4 to 5 inches (10 to 13 centimeters) of rain over the span of the week, Chandler-Cooley said.

The California Highway Patrol reported some local roads in eastern Sacramento were under water and impassable Friday. By nightfall, nearly 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain had fallen over the past 24 hours in the Sierra foothills at Blue Canyon about 70 miles (112 kilometers) northeast of Sacramento, the weather service said.

Sacramento’s fire officials planned to broadcast evacuation announcements from a helicopter and a boat along the American River — a spot where many unhoused people live in encampments — to warn of flooding.

Warnings of deep snow, avalanches

A winter storm warning was in effect through 4 a.m. Sunday for much of the Sierra, including the highest elevations around Lake Tahoe where more than a foot of snow was expected near the shores at an elevation of about 6,200 feet (1,889 meters) and up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) above 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) with winds gusting up to 100 mph (160 kph) over ridgetops.

“Strong winds could cause tree damage and lead to power outages and high waves on Lake Tahoe may capsize small vessels,” the weather service in Reno said.

Avalanche warnings were issued in the backcountry around Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes south of Yosemite.

On the Sierra’s eastern front, flood watches and warnings continue into the weekend north and south of Reno, Nevada, where minor to moderate flooding was forecast along some rivers and streams into the weekend.

At Susanville, California — about 85 miles (137 kilometers) north of Reno — the Susan River was forecast to rise from about 5 feet (1.5 meters) Friday to a foot (30 centimeters) above the flood stage of 12 feet (3.6 meters) by Saturday morning, causing moderate flooding that could affect some homes, roads and bridges, the National Weather Service said.

In Southern California, moderate-to-heavy rain was forecast for Saturday. The region will begin drying out on New Year’s Day and the January 2 Rose Parade in Pasadena should avoid rainfall.

Heavy showers are forecast for Tuesday or Wednesday, the National Weather Service in Oxnard said.

The rain was welcomed in drought-parched California, but much more precipitation is needed to make a significant difference. The past three years have been California’s driest on record.
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