The U.S. National Weather Service said Saturday the life-threatening cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills that a good portion of the country is currently experiencing could create “a potentially life-threatening hazard for travelers that become stranded, individuals that work outside, livestock and domestic pets.”

The weather service said, “If you must travel or be out in the elements, prepare for extreme cold by dressing in layers, covering as much exposed areas of skin as possible and pack winter safety kits in your vehicles. In some areas, being outdoors could lead to frostbite in minutes.”

“Blizzard Warnings, Winter Storm Warnings, Winter Weather Advisories and High Winds Warnings blanket much of the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes region, Ohio Valley and parts of the Northeast,” according to the NWS.

The service said there will also be “extremely dangerous travel with whiteout conditions where blizzard conditions occur, expect periodic whiteouts with near-zero visibility and considerable blowing and drifting of snow. Traveling in these conditions will be extremely dangerous, to at times impossible.”

The NWS said the Arctic blast that a large part of the country has experienced is spreading to the Eastern states Saturday.

Temperatures will be well below average from east of the Rockies to the Appalachians, the weather service warned. 
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U.S. military officials have assured anxious children the arctic blast and snowstorm that wreaked havoc on U.S. airline traffic this week will not prevent Santa Claus from making his annual Christmas Eve flight.

“We have to deal with a polar vortex once in a while, but Santa lives year-round in one at the North Pole, so he’s used to this weather,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Ben Wiseman, a spokesperson for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which tracks the yuletide flight.

For 67 years, NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canadian military command based at Peterson Air Force base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has provided images and updates on the legendary figure’s worldwide journey along with its main task of monitoring air defenses and issuing aerospace and maritime warnings.

The Santa tracker tradition originated from a 1955 misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper of the telephone number of a department store for children to call and speak with Santa. The listed number went to what was then known as the Continental Air Defense Command.

An understanding officer took the youngsters’ calls and assured them that Santa, also known as Father Christmas or Saint Nick, was airborne and on schedule to deliver presents to good girls and boys, flying aboard his reindeer-powered sleigh.

Santa does not file a formal flight plan, so the military is never quite sure exactly when he will take off, nor his exact route, NORAD’s Wiseman said, although the Santa tracker goes live at 4 a.m. EST (0900 GMT) on Friday on the NORAD website.

Once the jolly old elf’s lead reindeer, Rudolph, switches on his shiny red nose, military personnel can zero in on his location using infrared sensors, Wiseman said.

U.S. and Canadian fighter jet pilots provide a courtesy escort for him over North America, and Santa slows down to wave to them, he added.
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When President Joe Biden took office in early 2021, he was hoping to restore confidence in American democracy following the false allegations of a “stolen” 2020 presidential vote and then the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Nearly two years later, VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine takes a look at the administration’s record on strengthening democracy at home and abroad.
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Early on a December morning, thousands of German police officers launched a series of raids across the country, arresting 25 people linked to a plot by a far-right group to overthrow Germany’s government.

Additional arrests were made in Austria and Italy — all of them connected to the Reichsbuerger movement (Citizens of the Reich), described by German authorities as a conspiracy-driven group inspired in part by the QAnon movement in the United States.

The arrests, which included a descendant of German royalty, a former lawmaker and a German special forces soldier, sparked calls for the German government to review security measures and investigate the possible infiltration of Germany’s military by extremist elements.

They also highlighted the shifting and increasingly complex landscape facing Western countries in 2022 and, counterterrorism officials say, for years to come.

“There’s a really hard persistent problem,” U.S. Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Joshua Geltzer told the Center for a New America Security, following the raids in Germany.

“There is a transnational dimension to especially the racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist category,” Geltzer added, noting U.S. officials are seeing members of far-right extremist groups travel for training and as well as some money flowing back and forth among different groups. 

But most of the activity, according to Geltzer and other officials, involves the sharing of propaganda aimed at recruiting new adherents to the cause.

Those followers include people like American Peyton Gendron, the white 19-year-old gunman who recently pleaded guilty to murder, hate crime and terrorism charges for a May 14, 2022, shooting spree in which he targeted and killed 10 Black shoppers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. 

In the United States, the growth of such extremist thinking and the threat of individuals taking action “has increased dramatically,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told a conference outside of Washington this past October, further warning of an “increasing level of anti-government sentiment.”

A month later, Mayorkas’ Department of Homeland Security reissued a National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin warning the U.S. is mired in “a heightened threat environment.”

“Lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances continue to pose a persistent and lethal threat to the homeland,” the department warned in the bulletin. 

U.S. officials and experts say making the threat more difficult to contain is that while there is a growing strain of anti-government and anti-authority thinking, the driving force is an ideological fluidity that shows few signs of dissipating. 

“I think we are likely to see a continued diversification of the threat,” Colin Clarke, director of research at the global intelligence firm The Soufan Group, told VOA.

“Homegrown violent extremism, jihadist-inspired attacks, and the persistence of the far-right are all likely to remain threats in 2023,” he told VOA via email. “But these could be joined by an upsurge in attacks by other ‘types’ of terrorism, including neo-Luddite/technophobes (attacking infrastructure and 5G networks), so-called ‘Incels,’ a subset of violent misogynists, and conspiracy-driven terrorism, with overlaps to QAnon and other factions heavily influenced by disinformation.”

To cope with the rise in domestic extremism, this past year the U.S. Justice Department set up a new division to deal exclusively with the growing caseload. 

Just a month after the Justice Department announcement, a key DHS official warned the threat environment had become more acute.

“We are seeing … increased specificity as it relates to calls for violence,” said John Cohen, the senior official performing the duties of the DHS undersecretary of intelligence and analysis.

Cohen further warned that the domestic rhetoric also had a foreign connection.

Foreign intelligence services and foreign terrorist organizations were also “promoting socio-political content … for the purposes of sowing discord,” he said, noting, “These narratives have, in fact, led to attacks in this country.” 

 
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China has sanctioned two U.S. citizens in retaliation for action taken by Washington over human rights abuses in Tibet, the government said Friday, amid an ongoing standoff between the sides over Beijing’s treatment of religious and ethnic minorities.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Todd Stein and Miles Yu Maochun, along with their close family members, would be banned from entering China. Any assets they had in China would be frozen and they would be barred from contact with people or organizations within China.

The notice said the measures were in response to the U.S. sanctioning two Chinese citizens “under the excuse of the ‘Tibet human rights’ issue.”

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China was responding to what it considered a violation of the “basic norms of international relations” and that Stein and Yu “behaved egregiously on Tibet and other China-related issues.”

“We would like to stress once again that Tibetan affairs are purely an internal affair of China, and the U.S. has no right to interfere in it, and that gross interference in China’s internal affairs will be met with strong countermeasures from China,” Mao told reporters at a daily briefing.

“We urge the U.S. to withdraw the so-called sanctions and stop interfering in Tibetan affairs and China’s internal affairs,” the spokesperson said.

In an emailed comment to The Associated Press, Stein said the sanction order against him “doesn’t matter” in the larger context.

“What matters is the thousands of prisoners of conscience jailed by Chinese authorities. Let’s not divert attention from their human rights abuses,” Stein said.

Yu could not immediately be reached for comment.

U.S. sanctions

On December 9, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Wu Yingjie, the top official in Tibet from 2016 to 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, the region’s police chief since 2018.

“Our actions further aim to disrupt and deter the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) arbitrary detention and physical abuse of members of religious minority groups in the Tibetan Autonomous Region,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in announcing the sanctions.

An accompanying Treasury Department notice said Wu had been responsible for “stability policies” in Tibet whose implementation involved “serious human rights abuse, including extrajudicial killings, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests, and mass detentions.”

It said that during Zhang’s tenure, police have been engaged in serious human rights abuses, including “torture, physical abuse, and killings of prisoners, which included those arrested on religious and political grounds.”

No specific accusations

The Chinese announcement gave no specific accusations against Stein and Yu.

Stein has been deputy staff director at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China since 2021 and previously served as senior adviser to Sarah Sewall, the undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights, including serving as her lead staffer on Tibetan issues. Previously, he was director of government relations at the monitoring group International Campaign for Tibet.

The Chinese-born Yu is a senior academic who taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and is a noted critic of the regime of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. He served as key China adviser under former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

China in recent years has passed legislation mandating tit-for-tat sanctions against foreign individuals from the U.S., the EU and other countries over perceived slights against its national interests. Washington and others have compiled a long list of Chinese officials barred from visiting or engaging in transactions with their financial institutions ranging from the leader of the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong to local officials accused of human rights abuses.

Communist forces invaded Tibet in 1950, and China has ruled the Himalayan region with an iron fist ever since, imposing ever stricter surveillance and travel restrictions since the last uprising against Beijing’s rule in 2008.

China has also been accused of detaining hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in re-education camps as part of a campaign to wipe out their native language and culture, including through forced adoptions and sterilizations. China denies such charges, saying it has only been fighting terrorism, separatism and religious extremism.
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The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and high levels of opioid overdose deaths drove life expectancy in the United States down for the second consecutive year in 2021, with a child born in that year expected to live 76.4 years, the lowest figure since 1996, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By comparison, Americans born in 2019, the year before the pandemic took hold, could expect to live 78.8 years.

In 2019, the U.S. experienced 715.2 deaths per 100,000 people. In 2021, that rate had climbed by 23%, to 897.7.

While most countries in the world experienced a decrease in life expectancy during the pandemic, it was particularly pronounced in the U.S. And while many advanced economies, including France, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden saw their life expectancy rates recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, death rates in the U.S. continued to climb.

Heart disease, cancer and COVID-19 remained the top three causes of death in 2021, unchanged from the preceding year. In 2021, the U.S. also recorded 106,699 deaths attributed to drug overdoses, or more than 30 per 100,000 people.

Since 2001, when the rate was below 10 per 100,000, the rate has increased every year.

Overdose deaths have an outsized effect on average life expectancy because victims are disproportionately young.

Differences by gender, race

Women in the U.S. have a higher life expectancy than men, on average. In 2021, a girl born in the U.S. could expect to live 79.3 years, while a boy could expect to live 73.5 years.

An American who turned 65 in 2021 could expect to live another 18.4 years on average, while women could expect to live 19.7 years longer — for men the number remained unchanged from 2020 — at 17 years.

Dividing the population by sex, race and Hispanic origin highlights stark disparities in death rates. Among men, American Indian and Alaska Native men had the highest rate of deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, at 1,717.5

The next-highest death rate was for Black men, at 1,380.2. White men experienced 1,055.3 deaths per 100,000, Hispanic men experienced 915.6, and Asian men just 578.1.

Among females, death rates were highest for American Indian and Alaska Native women, at 1236.6 per 100,000, followed by Black women, at 921.9. White women experienced 750.6 deaths per 100,000, followed by Hispanic women at 599.8. Asian women had the lowest death rate of any subgroup, with 391.1 per 100,000.

International comparison

Compared to other wealthy industrialized nations, particularly in Europe, U.S. life expectancy is not only lower, but also is getting worse.

A study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior in October charted the stark differences between the U.S. and many European nations. While almost all countries in Europe experienced a sharp decline in life expectancy in 2020, the first full year of the pandemic, many had returned to 2019 levels by the following year.

Among them, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium and France all saw life expectancy rebound to near pre-pandemic levels in 2021. Other countries, including the U.K., Portugal, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia and Iceland had all recovered some, but not all the lost life expectancy.

Alone among wealthy European countries in posting two back-to-back declines was Germany, though its combined fall in life expectancy, less than one year in total, was far smaller than in the U.S.

Other European countries, mostly former Soviet states, also saw consecutive yearly declines, including Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland, though none of those saw a decline as sharp as in the U.S.

The only European countries with a steeper drop in life expectancy than the U.S. from 2019 to 2021 were Bulgaria and Slovakia.

The differences in life expectancy between the U.S. and other wealthy countries is even more stark when compared with industrialized countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Data collected by the World Bank shows that a child born in wealthy countries in that region, including Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand had a life expectancy of 82 years or more in 2020.

Public health failure

Life expectancy declines in the U.S., particularly regarding deaths related to COVID-19, is especially frustrating to experts, who note the widespread availability of vaccines and the fact that medical professionals have far more knowledge about how to fight the disease than they did at the beginning of the pandemic.

“It is absolutely a public health failure and a political failure,” Noreen Goldman, the Hughes-Rogers professor of Demography and Public Affairs at the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs, told VOA.

“It’s certainly due, in part, to a lack of public health infrastructure, a lack of any kind of national coordination of our strategies during the pandemic, high politicization of vaccination and higher [vaccine] refusal rates in the U.S. than most other high-income countries,” she said.

Goldman said there are other complicating factors, not the least of which is the lack of universal health care, which is present in all other wealthy nations. Other factors play a role as well, including the high prevalence of other medical conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, which are associated with poorer COVID-19 outcomes.
…

Virtual reality, an immersive technology embraced by gamers, has moved into medicine, where it is used for stress relief, physical therapy, pain management and other applications. Mike O’Sullivan has more.

 
…

 Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages and canceled holiday gatherings Friday from a winter storm that forecasters said was nearly unprecedented in its scope, exposing about 60% of the U.S. population to some sort of winter weather advisory or warning.

More than 200 million people were under an advisory or warning on Friday, the National Weather Service said. The weather service’s map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” forecasters said.

Power outages have left about 1.4 million homes and businesses in the dark, according to the website PowerOutage, which tracks utility reports. Utilities in Nashville, Memphis and throughout the Tennessee Valley said they were implementing rolling blackouts Friday to conserve power as the region battles an extreme cold front.

And more than 4,600 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, causing more mayhem as travelers try to make it home for the holidays.

“We’ve just got to stay positive. Anger is not going to help us at all,” said Wendell Davis, who plays basketball with a team in France and was waiting at O’Hare in Chicago on Friday after a series of flight cancellations. After his flight to Cincinnati, Ohio, was canceled Friday afternoon, Davis was considering renting a car and driving to Columbus, Ohio, beccause train service was suspended. But first, he was trying to locate his luggage.

Border-to-border ‘bomb cyclone’

The huge storm stretched from border to border. In Canada, WestJet canceled all flights Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, beginning at 9 a.m. And in Mexico, migrants endured unusually cold temperatures near the U.S. border as they awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from seeking asylum.

Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.

Even though fleets of snowplows and salt trucks have been deployed, driving was hazardous and sometimes deadly. The Kansas Highway Patrol said three people were killed in separate vehicle collisions in northern Kansas this week. The collisions occurred Wednesday evening as bitter cold and snow was moving through the region. The drivers involved in the collisions lost control of their vehicles on icy roads.

In Kansas City, Missouri, a driver died Thursday after skidding into a creek. Meanwhile, state police in Michigan reported multiple crashes Friday, including a pileup involving nine semitrailers.

Activists also were rushing to get the homeless out of the cold. Nearly 170 adults and children were keeping warm early Friday in Detroit, Michigan, at a shelter and a warming center designed to hold 100 people.

“This is a lot of extra people” but you can’t turn anyone away, said Faith Fowler, the executive director of Cass Community Social Services, which runs both facilities.

In Chicago, Illinois, Andy Robledo planned to spend the day organizing efforts to check on unhoused people through his nonprofit, Feeding People Through Plants. Robledo and volunteers build tents modeled on ice-fishing tents, including a plywood subfloor.

“It’s not a house, it’s not an apartment, it’s not a hotel room,” Robledo said. “But it’s a huge step up from what they had before.”

In Portland, Oregon, officials opened five emergency shelters. Fallen trees and power lines have closed roads across the Portland metro area. And nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers) of Interstate 84, a major highway through the Columbia River Gorge, were closed Friday morning.

All bus service was suspended in the greater Seattle, Washington, area Friday morning. And DoorDash suspended delivery service because of hazardous conditions in parts of several states, including Minnesota and Iowa.

In far northern Indiana, lake-effect snow rolling off Lake Michigan could boost storm totals to well over a foot in some areas by Sunday, said Mark Steinwedel, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Syracuse, Indiana.

“It’s really going to add up,” he said, predicting “pretty awful travel.”

Coldest Christmas in decades

The weather service is forecasting the coldest Christmas in more than two decades in Philadelphia, where school officials shifted classes online Friday.

In South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem late Thursday activated the state’s National Guard to haul firewood from the Black Hills Forest Service to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe as some members were stranded in their homes with dwindling fuel.

Other tribes also were struggling, including the Oglala Sioux Tribe in the western part of the state, which was using snowmobiles to reach members who live at the end of miles-long dirt roads.

But with the vehicles breaking down in the 10-foot drifts, officials were considering using horses to deliver essentials to some homes as they sought help from federal officials.

“It’s been one heck of a fight so far,” said tribal President Frank Star Comes Out.

In Maine, gusts approaching 70 mph (113 kph) were reported along the coast Friday morning. Atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the tallest peak in the Northeast, the wind topped 150 mph (2410 kph). The governor closed state offices, ferry service to Casco Bay islands was suspended and flooding was leading to some water rescues.

In Boston, Massachusetts, rain combined with a high tide sent waves over the seawall at Long Wharf in Boston and flooded some downtown streets.

With temperatures dipping to 7 degrees (-13.9 Celsius) early Friday in northern Mississippi, Kyle Young abandoned the shorts that he normally wears to his job at a Starkville store that sells Mississippi State University clothing and decor.

“It’s freezing here,” said Young, who dressed in layers as he did a brisk business with last-minute Christmas shoppers. “I can usually tough it out.”

In Jackson, Mississippi, the mayor had expressed concerns that the city’s beleaguered water system — which has led to numerous water shortages in recent years — remained vulnerable to subfreezing temperatures. But while there have been some water main breaks, the main water plants “held up to the temperature drops overnight,” city spokeswoman Melissa Faith Payne said.

It was so bad in Vermont that Amtrak canceled service for the day, and nonessential state offices were closing early.

“I’m hearing from crews who are seeing grown trees ripped out by the roots,” Mari McClure, president of Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, said at a news conference.
…

Dazzling Christmas light displays are back outside ahead of the December holiday, and in the United States, more people are visiting big public displays following a pandemic hiatus. VOA’s Saqib Ul Islam visited one of the largest and most technologically advanced displays in the country for a closer look.
…

Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages and canceled holiday gatherings Friday from a winter storm that forecasters said was nearly unprecedented in its scope, exposing about 60% of the U.S. population to some sort of winter weather advisory or warning.

More than 200 million people were under an advisory or warning on Friday, the National Weather Service said. The weather service’s map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” forecasters said.

More than 3,400 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, causing more mayhem as travelers try to make it home for the holidays. Some airports, including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, closed runways.

More than 458,000 homes and businesses were without power Friday morning.

The huge storm stretched from border to border. In Canada, WestJet canceled all flights Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, beginning at 9 a.m. And in Mexico, migrants waited near the U.S. border in unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from seeking asylum.

“This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” President Joe Biden warned Thursday after a briefing from federal officials. “This is serious stuff.”

Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.

Among those with canceled flights was Ashley Sherrod, who planned to fly from Nashville, Tennessee, to Flint, Michigan, on Thursday afternoon.

“My family is calling, they want me home for Christmas, but they want me to be safe, too,” said Sherrod, whose bag — including the Grinch pajamas she was planning to wear to a family party — was packed and ready by the door.

Activists also were rushing to get the homeless out of the cold. In Chicago, Andy Robledo planned to spend the day organizing efforts to check on unhoused people who have received tents, propane heaters and other supplies through his nonprofit, Feeding People Through Plants.

Robledo and volunteers build the tents modeled on ice-fishing tents, including a plywood subfloor, and offer them to people living on the streets in Chicago.

“It’s not a house, it’s not an apartment, it’s not a hotel room. But it’s a huge step up from what they had before,” Robledo said.

In Portland, Oregon, officials opened four emergency shelters. It was so cold in the city that Taylor Bailey lost all sensation in her hands as she cycled to her job at at iconic bike rental, repair and touring store Cycle Portland in the frigid temperatures.

“It’s the wind, really, that’s so cold. The wind is absolutely bitter,” she said Thursday, adding that even her gloves didn’t help.

The weather service is predicting the coldest Christmas in more than two decades in Philadelphia, where school officials shifted classes online Friday. Some surrounding districts canceled classes altogether.

In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem late Thursday activated the state’s National Guard to haul firewood from the Black Hills Forest Service to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe as some members were stranded in their homes with dwindling fuel.

Scot Eisenbraun, who runs a farm and ranch near Wall in western South Dakota, said he’s lost several cattle in recent days. The cold is life-threatening if you are caught outside, he said, so people travel in groups of two vehicles in case one gets stranded.

“Dress really warm and don’t get stuck outside really long,” he said.

Most of western and parts of northern Michigan were under blizzard warnings, according to the weather service. On the other side of the state, the zoo and an art museum in Detroit were closing. And to the north of the city, a rescue team used a Hovercraft to reach an injured swan Thursday that became frozen to ice on a lake.

Buffalo, New York, Mayor Byron Brown urged people to stay home as meteorologists warned that the city could see 2 to 4 feet (0.6 to 1.2 meters) of snow through the weekend.

While New England was being spared the numbing cold and snow, heavy rain and wind gusting to more than 60 mph (96 kph) knocked out power to thousands. About 150,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont had no electricity as of Friday morning, according to the region’s major utilities. There were another 100,000 outages in Connecticut.

Hundreds of utility and tree crews were deployed, but the high winds hampered them. The limit for using bucket trucks is typically 25 mph (40 kph) to 35 mph (56 kph), a utility official said.

In Maine, gusts approaching 70 mph (113 kph) were reported along the coast Friday morning. Atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the tallest peak in the Northeast, the wind topped 130 mph (210 kph).

It was so bad in Vermont that Amtrak canceled service for the day, and nonessential state offices were closing early.

“I’m hearing from crews who are seeing grown trees ripped out by the roots,” Mari McClure, president of Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, said at a news conference.
…

The committee formed by the House of Representatives to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday released its final report, an 845-page set of documents supporting the committee’s claim that the attack was directly caused by former President Donald Trump and represented the final act in a “multipart conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 Presidential election.”

The product of more than 17 months of investigation, the report is the distillation of evidence gathered from thousands of witness interviews, documents and subpoenaed electronic communications. According to the committee, “That evidence has led to an overriding and straight-forward conclusion: The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”

Trump himself has consistently denounced the committee and its work, and has continued to insist, falsely, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Expansive report

In addition to examining the attack itself, the report describes Trump’s pressure on U.S. officials, states, legislators and then-Vice President Mike Pence to manipulate the system or violate the law.

The release of the report follows a final hearing by the committee, held on Monday, in which members accused the former president of committing multiple crimes and referred him to the Department of Justice for prosecution. The charges include insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make a false statement.

The referral carries no legal weight, but the voluminous records produced by the committee will supplement evidence gathered by the Justice Department in its own investigation and could influence the final decision on whether to prosecute the former president.

Major findings

The report issued Thursday builds a case that former President Trump was at the center of a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, using multiple strategies, all of which ultimately failed.

It documents efforts to pressure state and local officials to challenge or throw out election results that showed a Biden victory, even after dozens of lawsuits challenging the results were dismissed in court challenges.

After other attempts were thwarted, Trump latched on to a theory proposed by attorney John Eastman, which claimed that Pence had the authority to refuse to count the votes of specific states when Congress convened on January 6, a strategy meant to buy time to persuade state legislatures to take action to overturn state-level results. Pence ultimately refused to go along with the plan, and evidence uncovered by the committee indicates that even as he proposed it, Eastman was aware that the scheme was illegal.

Effort to corrupt DOJ

The committee report also lays out in detail what it describes as an effort by the former president to “corrupt the Department of Justice.”

In the aftermath of the election, former Attorney General William Barr informed Trump that all of the investigations into election irregularities undertaken by the Department of Justice had failed to find evidence of fraud sufficiently large to overturn the results of the balloting. In the face of Trump’s continued claims of fraud, Barr announced his resignation in December 2020.

The report documents that, in the weeks that followed, Trump took a number of steps to try to persuade senior officials in the department to issue statements expressing doubt about the results of the election.

Trump found an ally in DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark, an official in the department’s Civil Division, who drafted a document for the department to send to election officials in Georgia, falsely claiming that the department had “significant concerns” about possible fraud that might have affected the election outcome there and in other states. The document, which was never transmitted, also urged the state legislature to consider overturning the election result in that state.

The report chronicles a dramatic showdown in the Oval Office, in which Trump proposed installing Clark as acting attorney general. The most senior officials in the department all told the president that if he took that step, they would immediately resign.

Trump knew claims were false

A crucial finding in the report, and one that was hammered home in public hearings, was that Trump knew that he had lost a fair election, having been told so unequivocally by a number of his top advisers.

The point is important, because demonstrating that the former president was not acting in good faith when he claimed that the election had been stolen and sought to have state officials produce alternative results is a key component of the fraud charges.

Trump pushed back against that claim in particular on his social media network, Truth Social, writing, “This is a total LIE. I never thought, for even a moment, that the Presidential Election of 2020 was not Rigged & Stolen, and my conviction became even stronger as time went by.”

Capitol assault

The investigative committee, formally the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, was originally conceived of as a bipartisan effort with support from leaders of both the Republican and Democratic caucuses in the House.

It was formed to gather facts and conclusions about the events of that day, when a thousands-strong crowd of Trump supporters attended a rally near the White House, at which Trump told them to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” The mob descended on the Capitol, where lawmakers had gathered to certify now-President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

The crowd quickly became violent, and despite the presence of more than 1,000 law enforcement officers, was able to force entry into the building and force members of Congress and Pence to flee. Members of the crowd were angry at the vice president for his refusal to illegally declare Trump the victor, and many were chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”

The report establishes that, during the hourslong attack, President Trump was aware of what was taking place, and nevertheless sent out a tweet attacking Pence, further inflaming the crowd. Witnesses produced by the committee said that Trump declined requests by aides and members of his family to ask the rioters to leave.

Trump was eventually persuaded to ask the mob to disperse, which he did in a video address that described the rioters as “very special.” Order was eventually restored late in the day, with the help of National Guard troops, and Congress formally certified Biden’s victory.

Born in controversy

In the immediate aftermath of the assault, condemnation of the attack was bipartisan, and a proposal to fully investigate its causes received strong support from leaders on both sides. However, in the weeks that followed the assault, Republican lawmakers, taking cues from Trump, tried to minimize the seriousness of the event.

When the committee was formed in the early summer of 2021, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy nominated five Republicans, including Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks. Because Jordan, a close Trump ally, was likely to be a target of the investigation, and because Banks had publicly stated his unwillingness to cooperate with an investigation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected their appointments and requested that McCarthy name replacements. Instead, the Republican leader withdrew all five nominees and declined to offer new ones.

Pelosi replied by designating two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both of whom had continued to denounce the attack and Trump’s role in inciting it.

Beginning in the summer of 2022, the committee held a series of nine public hearings in which it laid out a comprehensive timeline of the assault itself and of the efforts to overturn the election that preceded it.

House Republican report

A competing report issued by the five House Republicans who were originally nominated to serve on the Jan. 6 committee was released Wednesday.

The report focused primarily on the security failures that led the Capitol Police and Washington Metropolitan Police Department to be underprepared for the violence at the Capitol. The report lays much of the blame for the results of the riot on Pelosi, claiming that she decided not to bring on additional security, including the National Guard, in advance of the riot.

The Republican report does not address the root causes of the riot, the actions of former President Trump on Jan. 6 and before, or the broader effort to overturn the results of the election.
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US lawmakers investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol released the final report of their findings Thursday. After a year and a half of investigation and more than a thousand witnesses, investigators alleged former President Donald Trump played a key role in encouraging the attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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The ho ho hos of Christmas are not as plentiful this year in the United States as the country faces a shortage of Santa Claus performers. Aron Ranen has the story from New York City. Producer: Igor Tsikhanenka. Camera: Aron Ranen.
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The population of the United States expanded by 1.2 million people this year — with growth largely driven by international migration — and the nation now has 333.2 million residents, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Net international migration — the number of people moving into the U.S. minus the number of people leaving — was more than 1 million from 2021 to 2022. That represented a growth rate of 168% over the previous year’s 376,029 international migrants, with every state gaining residents from abroad, according to the vintage 2022 population estimates.

Natural growth — the number of births minus the number of deaths — added another 245,080 people to the total in what was the first year-over-year increase in total births since 2007.

Rebound rate

This year’s U.S. annual growth rate of 0.4% was a rebound of sorts from the 0.1% growth rate during the worst of the pandemic from 2020 to 2021, which was the lowest since the nation’s founding.

Regionally, the Northeast lost almost 219,000 people in a trend largely driven by domestic residents moving out of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, as well as deaths outpacing births in Pennsylvania. The Midwest also lost almost 49,000 residents, driven in part by people moving out of Illinois and deaths outpacing births in Ohio.

South gains more than 1 million

The South gained 1.3 million residents, the largest of any region, driven by population gains in Texas and Florida that approached a half-million residents each. Texas, the second-most populous state in the U.S., surpassed the 30 million-resident mark, joining California as the only other state in this category.

But California lost more than 113,000 residents, and had a population of just more than 39 million in 2022, in what was the biggest annual decline behind New York’s more than 180,000-resident loss. The population decline was driven by more than 343,000 domestic residents moving out of California, and it helped drag down the West region’s population gain to only 153,000 residents.

Without international migration and a sizable natural increase of births outpacing deaths, the Western region would have lost population because of domestic residents also moving out of Oregon and Washington.

Puerto Rico lost 40,000 residents, or 1.3% of its population, because of people moving away and deaths outpacing births; its population now stands at 3.2 million residents.
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The Senate appeared back on track Thursday to pass a $1.7 trillion bill to finance federal agencies through September and provide roughly $45 billion in military and economic assistance to Ukraine after lawmakers reached agreement on a final series of votes.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the Senate had an agreement to consider some 15 amendments before voting on final passage of the package. Most of the amendments will be subject to a 60-vote threshold to pass, generally dooming them to failure in the evenly divided 100-member Senate.

“It’s taken a while, but it is worth it,” Schumer said in announcing the series of votes, which were needed to lock in an expedited vote on final passage and get the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk before a partial government shutdown would begin at midnight Friday. The House will take up the bill after the Senate completes its work.

The massive bill includes about $772.5 billion for non-defense, discretionary programs and $858 billion for defense and would finance agencies through September. Lawmakers were racing to get the bill approved before a shutdown could occur, and many were anxious to complete the task before a deep freeze and wintry conditions leave them stranded in Washington for the holidays.

Many also want to lock in government funding before a new GOP-controlled House next year could make it harder to find compromise on spending.

Senators heard from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the importance of U.S. aid to his country for its war with Russia on Wednesday night, but when lawmakers left the chamber that night, prospects for a quick vote looked glum.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons remarked “this bill is hanging by a thread.”

Lawmakers were in disagreement over which amendments were to be voted upon to lock in a final vote with Republicans looking to ensure that they had a chance to vote on a proposed amendment from Republican Senator Mike Lee seeking to extend coronavirus pandemic-era restrictions on asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, also referred to as Title 42. His amendment would have prohibited federal dollars from being used to end the restrictions.

Passage of the Lee amendment would most certainly have doomed the bill in the House, forcing lawmakers to regroup and pass another stopgap spending measure at current funding levels to avert a shutdown.

But then, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona, offered an amendment to boost border security funding and extend Title 42 restrictions. That gave some Democrats an opportunity to vote for her proposal rather than Lee’s. The measure gained only 10 yes votes while 87 voted against it.

Republicans called the amendment a “ruse” that didn’t do enough and was designed to provide political cover from some of its supports on the hot-button immigration issue.

Soon afterward, Lee’s amendment also went down to defeat, 50-47, which put the Senate on a glidepath to a final vote in the early afternoon.

The spending bill is supported by Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, though for different reasons.

McConnell is citing the bill’s 10% boost in defense spending, which he says will give America’s armed forces the funding and certainty needed to ensure the country’s security.

McConnell is facing pushback from many Republicans who don’t support the spending bill and resent being forced to vote on such a massive package with so little time before a potential shutdown and the Christmas holiday. But it’s expected that enough Republicans agree with him that the bill will reach the 60-vote threshold needed to pass.

Schumer is touting the bill as a win on the domestic front as well as for national defense.

“Kids, parents, veterans, nurses, workers: These are just a few of the beneficiaries of our bipartisan funding package, so there is every reason in the world for the Senate to finish its work as soon as possible,” Schumer said.
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The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) warned Thursday that a major and unusual storm system affecting nearly two-thirds of the United States is forecast to produce of “a multitude” of winter weather hazards over the next three days, including heavy snow, strong winds and dangerously cold temperatures.

In its latest advisory, the NWS said the powerful winter storm could produce widespread disruption and “potentially crippling impacts” across the central and eastern United States.

By Friday, about 75% of the country is projected to have freezing temperatures with wind chills below zero as far south as the southeastern U.S. state of Georgia.

The weather service reports temperatures behind the weather front have plummeted by as much as 18 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) in just a few hours. Current winds of 30 to 50 kilometers per hour could rise as high as 100 kilometers per hour, creating wind chills as cold as minus 45 Celsius.

The forecasters said temperatures that low can cause frostbite to exposed skin in less than five minutes and hypothermia and death with prolonged exposure.

From the White House Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden warned of the dangerous storm, saying, “This is really very serious weather alert here. … And it’s of real consequence.” Biden encouraged everyone to heed any local warnings.

The storm comes amid one of the busiest travel times of the year, just days before the Christmas holiday.

Early Thursday, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest travel hubs, reported more than 400 hundred flights had already been canceled.
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The United States is exploring additional measures to be imposed on Afghanistan’s Taliban to further isolate them for their “appallingly bad” decision to suspend girls’ education, according to a senior American diplomat.

Karen Decker, the head of the U.S. diplomatic mission to the South Asian country, issued the warning Wednesday evening, a day after the Islamist rulers suspended female students’ access to all Afghan public and private universities until further notice.

“My leadership in Washington is taking a look at a range of actions to signal how the Taliban are following the wrong path,” Decker told journalists in a video conversation from her office in Doha, Qatar.

The tiny gulf state of Qatar is where Washington and other Western capitals have based their Afghan diplomatic missions since August 2021, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan as U.S.-led international troops withdrew after nearly 20 years of war.

“We will be looking at what specific consequences can be levied against the Taliban to register that it cannot be business as usual with us going forward, that the Taliban cannot expect us to treat them as a responsible partner,” Decker stressed without elaborating.

“The Taliban claiming they want to be economically self-sufficient and stand on their own two feet, well nobody is going to do business with them. I am pretty sure,” the U.S. diplomat stressed.

Decker noted that the female university education ban had even deterred Washington from looking into easing current sanctions on the Taliban or removing foreign travel bans on their leaders in line with a 2020 deal the two sides had signed in Doha.

The international community has not yet granted legitimacy to the men-only Taliban administration in Kabul, the Afghan capital, over human rights concerns, especially the treatment of women.

The return of the Taliban to power has plunged the economy into turmoil and worsened an already bad humanitarian crisis in the conflict-torn country where U.N. agencies say millions face acute food shortages.

Decker said while considering punitive actions against the Taliban for their “ill judged” decision on suspending girls’ education, the U.S. administration would make sure Afghans are not isolated.

“We will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to people in Afghanistan who need it,” she stressed.

Responding to criticism of the U.S. for pursuing engagements with the Taliban and not supporting armed resistance against the Islamist leaders in Kabul, Decker said neither Afghans, nor regional nations support more violence in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have increasingly excluded women from public life despite repeated pledges they would respect fundamental rights of all Afghans. They have ordered women to cover their faces in public and to not visit health facilities or go on long road trips unless accompanied by male relatives.

Women have been barred from public places like parks, gyms and baths. Most female government staffers have been told to stay home or have been rendered jobless. Teenage girls beyond grade six have been banned from attending secondary schools.

The ruling Islamist group has in recent weeks revived public floggings and executions of convicts, stemming from a directive their reclusive supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, issued last month to the Taliban judiciary to begin applying Sharia Islamic law to criminal justice.

Since then, scores of people, including women, have been flogged in crowded sports stadiums across several Afghan provinces for crimes such as adultery, gay sex and theft. This month, in a western province, the Taliban staged their first public execution of a convicted murderer since assuming power last year.

When the Islamist Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, female education and most employment for women was banned, and routinely staged public floggings as well as executions.
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On his way to Washington to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden, his first international trip since Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as reported by Euronews, stopped in Poland, a country that has become a key player in the war.

That visit and the support it represents carries huge meaning for Poland and other nations in the region ravaged by more powerful neighbors during two world wars.

Polish historian Lukasz Adamski of the Mieroszewski Center in Warsaw told VOA that from the point of view of Central European countries, Biden’s invitation to the Ukrainian president to visit the White House and have a one-on-one meeting highlight that this war is not only a war over Ukraine’s independence, but also over whether international law, including the United Nations Charter, should be the primary regulator of international relations.

“The fight to prevent the destruction of the achievements of civilized nations of the last 100 years and a return to an era in which one state can invade another, bite off parts of their territory or even conquer them completely. For the countries of Central Europe – victims of the imperial policies of Russia, Germany, and Austria – this is very important. For they see the validity of international law as the primary guarantee of their security,” Adamski said. 

Zelenskyy was greeted as a hero at the White House and the U.S. Capitol.

In Western Europe, this visit is also seen as symbolic, a message to the world that the U.S. will continue to support Ukraine intensely in its fight for survival.

Observers in the region were pleased to hear Biden point to the need to “maintain NATO unity” when it came to arms supplies. “This strongly suggests that it is not the U.S., but other influential NATO states, that are not convinced of the need to support Ukraine even more intensively,” Adamski said.

In Ukraine, a country withstanding Russian aggression for over 300 days, Zelenskyy’s Washington visit symbolizes the unbreakable relationship between two countries honed by the war. It was very important for Ukrainians and Zelenskyy to convey the appreciation of the Ukrainian people for the unwavering support the U.S. showed to Ukraine during these difficult times, said Mykola Davydiuk, Ukrainian a political analyst and director at Think Tank Politics.

Zelenskyy’s words to Congress that U.S. aid to Ukraine is an investment in democracy and “not charity,” represent a view shared in Ukraine.

“We as Ukraine have to show that American investment in Ukrainian democracy and Ukrainian resistance against Russian autocracy really give good results. This visit shows that people of both countries share the same values and are ready to continue their friendship,” said Davydiuk.

Pavlo Klimkin, a Ukrainian diplomat served as minister of foreign affairs from 2014 until 2019, a time when Washington expressed support for Kyiv, but was hesitant to provide lethal aid to Ukraine. 

He sees Biden’s invitation of Zelenskyy to the White House as a measure of the personal commitment of Biden to Ukraine’s victory. 

“For President Biden, the containment of Russia and possible victory over the Russian regime has become personal, and it can become his biggest political legacy.”

He called the delivery of Patriot missiles a sign that the “ice has melted” between the country’s militaries. However, the former Ukrainian official said that Ukraine is getting enough today to defend itself but not yet enough to win, and this will be the biggest work ahead.
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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried left the Bahamas on Wednesday on a U.S.-bound flight to face fraud charges as federal prosecutors announced that two of his former associates had pleaded guilty to charges and were now cooperating with the government. 

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a video posted on Twitter late Wednesday night that Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, had pleaded guilty to defrauding investors in the crypto trading platform. 

The revelation that two of Bankman-Fried’s closest former associates had decided to cooperate with the government significantly ramped up pressure on the former billionaire. Williams said that Bankman-Fried is now in FBI custody and on his way to the U.S and urged others involved in the alleged fraud to come forward. 

“If you participated in misconduct at FTX or Alameda, now is the time to get ahead of it,” William said. “We are moving quickly and our patience is not eternal.”  

“I also said that last week’s announcement would not be our last, and let me be clear once again, neither is today’s,” he added. 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a separate statement on Wednesday evening said it had also charged Ellison and Wang for their roles in a multiyear scheme to defraud equity investors of FTX.  The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission also said it had filed fraud charges against Ellison and Wang. 

An attorney for Ellison did not respond immediately to request for comment. 

“Gary has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes seriously his obligations as a cooperating witness,” Ilan Graff, a lawyer for Wang, said in a statement. 

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan last week charged Bankman-Fried with stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer assets to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, in what U.S. Attorney Williams called “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” 

The 30-year-old cryptocurrency mogul has acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX, but has said he does not believe he has criminal liability. 

A spokesman for Bankman-Fried’s legal team declined to comment. 

Bankman-Fried rode a crypto boom to become a billionaire several times over and an influential U.S. political donor, before FTX’s crash wiped out his wealth and tarnished his reputation. The collapse was driven by a wave of customer withdrawals amid concerns over commingling of funds with Alameda. 

The announcement from Williams and the SEC came just hours after Bankman-Fried took off from The Bahamas after he consented at a courthouse to be extradited to the United States. 

Bankman-Fried is likely to appear before a U.S. federal court in Manhattan on Thursday. At his court appearance, known as an arraignment, he is expected to be asked to enter a plea. 

The U.S. judge would determine whether to grant him bail, and if so, on what conditions. 

He is expected to be arraigned on the eight counts he faces, including wire fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations. 

Bankman-Fried was arrested on a U.S. extradition request last week in The Bahamas, where he lives and where FTX is based. He initially said he would contest extradition, but Reuters and other outlets reported over the weekend that he would reverse that decision. 

He agreed to extradition in part out of a “desire to make the relevant customers whole,” according to an affidavit read in court on Wednesday and dated December 20. 

Dressed in a suit, Bankman-Fried stepped up to the witness box in court, where he spoke clearly and steadily as he was sworn in. 

“Yes, I do wish to waive my right to such formal extradition proceedings,” he told Judge Shaka Serville. Bankman-Fried’s defense lawyer, Jerone Roberts, said his client was “anxious to leave.” 

The judge said he was satisfied that and that Bankman-Fried had not been “forced, coerced or threatened” into making the extradition decision. 

The $32 billion exchange declared bankruptcy on November 11, and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO the same day. 
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrapped up his visit to Washington Wednesday with an impassioned speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress, saying Ukraine’s struggle “will define in what world our children and grandchildren will live.”    

“Against all odds, and doom and gloom scenarios,” he said, “Ukraine did not fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.”    

Zelenskyy, who spoke in English for the address, thanked the United States for its military equipment and its financial support.    

“Your money is not charity,” he assured Congress. “It is an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”  

Zelenskyy said that while Russia has an advantage in artillery, ammunition, missiles and planes, “our defense forces stand.” 

“Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender,” Zelenskyy said. 

He ended by presenting Congress with a battle flag given to him by the Ukrainian defenders of Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine where his forces have been engaged for months in heavy fighting. In return, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave him a U.S. flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.  

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed Zelenskyy to the White House, his first known visit outside Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion of the country in February.          

The American people “have stood proudly” with Ukrainians, Biden said.       

“Democrats and Republicans together with our allies in Europe and Japan and other places, to make sure you have the financial, humanitarian and security assistance that is needed,” he added, noting that it has been 300 days since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his “brutal assault on Ukraine’s right to exist as a nation.”        

Zelenskyy extended to Biden his appreciation for the bipartisan support “from my heart, the hearts of Ukrainians, all Ukrainians.”       

“Thanks, from our just ordinary people to your ordinary people, Americans,” he said.        

Zelenskyy also gave Biden a Cross for Military Merit medal that belonged to a Ukrainian soldier, a captain of a High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) battery provided by the U.S. The soldier had asked Zelenskyy to give it to the “very brave president.” Accepting the medal, Biden said it was “undeserved, but much appreciated.”  

The two later held a joint press conference in which Biden reassured Zelenskyy of U.S. support.     

“We’re going to give Ukraine what it needs to be able to defend itself, to be able to succeed, and to succeed on the battlefield,” Biden said, adding “We are staying with Ukraine as long as Ukraine is there.”    

Asked why not just give all the weapons capabilities that Ukraine is asking for, Biden said the United States is giving Ukraine what it needs to be able to defend itself and succeed in the battlefield.     

“The idea that we would give Ukraine material that is fundamentally different than what is already going there would have a prospect of breaking up NATO and breaking up the European Union and the rest of the world,” he said.       

Biden said he has spent “several hundred hours” with European allies to urge them to continue to support Ukraine.       

“They understand it fully, but they’re not looking to go to war with Russia. They’re not looking for a Third World War,” he said.    

Zelenskyy was asked if there is a way to end the war, a “just peace.”  

“For me as a president,” Zelenskyy said, “just peace is no compromise as to the sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity of my country. The payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression.”    

The trip comes as U.S. lawmakers are debating $45 billion more in emergency aid to Ukraine, which would bring the total American wartime assistance to more than $100 billion.     

Patriot missile defense        

As Zelenskyy touched down on U.S. soil, the U.S. Department of Defense announced $1.85 billion in additional security assistance for Ukraine, which includes a Patriot air defense battery and munitions, additional ammunition for HIMARS, missiles, artillery and other munitions.    

“This $1 billion drawdown will provide Ukraine with expanded air defense and precision-strike capabilities, as well as additional munitions and critical equipment that Ukraine is using so effectively to defend itself on the battlefield,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.         

Blinken said the United States is also announcing an additional $850 million of security assistance, bringing the total to an unprecedented $21.9 billion since the beginning of the administration.        

Zelenskyy has repeatedly urged the U.S. and others to provide air defense systems that could help Ukraine deal with missile and drone attacks by Russian forces that have hit cities across the country and battered its infrastructure.         

The senior administration official said Ukrainian forces will be trained on how to use the Patriot system in a third country, adding that the process “will take some time.”         

“Ukrainian soldiers are the fastest I’ve ever seen at learning new technology. They’ll do it somewhere in Germany, or Poland, I’m imagining,” said retired commanding general, U.S. Army Europe, Ben Hodges in an interview with VOA Ukrainian.       

The Patriot, designed to protect a limited area is “the best in the world for its purpose,” Hodges said, “to knock down cruise missiles, and advanced aircrafts” but is “not a silver bullet.”        

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 

Iuliia Iarmolenko contributed to this report.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed U.S. lawmakers and met with President Joe Biden on Wednesday in a dramatic visit to the United States to rally his top international partner to sustain its military and economic assistance in Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion.  White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Uncertainty over the migrant crisis on the U.S. southern border continues to grow, as Texas Governor Greg Abbott deploys the National Guard along a key stretch of the Rio Grande. Cesar Contreras reports from El Paso, Texas. Camera: Cesar Contreras.
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As farmers in the United States are coping with rising input costs, some are turning to environmentally beneficial methods to curb expenses and make money while sequestering a driver of climate change. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Glasgow, Illinois.
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Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso says significant developments came out of this year’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington.

In an interview with VOA this week, Sassou Nguesso said that during this summit, the goals were more defined, including helping the African Union gain a greater voice at the United Nations.

“For example, President [Joe] Biden declared that Africa [African Union] is certainly going to be a member of the G-20. I believe this is a clear orientation that we appreciate. Mr. Biden also declared that in the next few years, America is going to get involved with Africa [the African Union] finding its right place at the Security Council of the United Nations as a permanent member,” he said in French.

The G-20 comprises the world’s major industrial and emerging economies. South Africa is currently its only African member. 

Biden also said his administration would spend $55 billion to help African countries over the next three years and that he hoped to deepen Africa-U.S. cooperation.

“Our nations have worked closely together for a long time to improve the lives of countless people in all our countries in meaningful ways, on both sides of the Atlantic. And with this summit and with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, our eyes are fixed squarely on the future,” Biden said at the summit.

“That’s also an important development,” Sassou Nguesso said, “especially when the debate allowed us to highlight Africa’s priorities. [African Union chair] Macky Sall and all the other leaders emphasized Africa’s priorities, whether it’s related to basic infrastructure, developing the agriculture sector, digital, education, health, the energy question.” 

The White House said $165 million of the funds would be used to strengthen democracy and good governance. Yet some criticized Biden for inviting leaders who have been in power for a long time. U.S. officials said all leaders in good standing with the African Union and the United States received an invitation.

“Democracy and good governance are a process,” Sassou Nguesso said. “I always give this particular example: The French Revolution triumphed in 1789 with all the problems related to freedom, human rights and democracy. Imagine that in France after all the struggles that had happened during that time, women only had the right to vote after the Second World War. … The process had developed and until today in certain countries in Europe, there are [election] challenges. Even here, in the U.S., we were surprised to see what happened at the Capitol [on January 6, 2021].”

“There is considerable progress in Africa,” he continued. “Now, as for the leaders who have stayed in power for a long time, what if that was the will of the people? Elections are meant to ask people to share their opinions. What if the people vote in favor of stability?”

Coups, conflict

Some African countries have also recently seen a recurrence of coups and, in the case of Libya, ongoing conflict. Sassou Nguesso said that without peace, security and stability, development cannot be achieved. And what happens in one country has the potential to affect an entire region, he noted.

“As long as we don’t resolve the Libya issue, we won’t see the light at the end of the tunnel in the Sahel region. So, the terrorism and violent extremism in Africa, the problem related to peace in general is an important one. As the chairperson of the AU’s High-Level Committee on Libya, we are in the process of organizing a reconciliation forum there,” he told VOA.

Libya has had little peace since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted Moammar Gadhafi.

The Congolese leader shared his hopes that the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which was extended in 2015 for another 10 years, would be renewed.

According to U.S. officials, AGOA has been a focus of U.S. economic policy and commercial engagement with Africa since it took effect in 2000. It provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market for nearly 2,000 products.

Leading trade officials in sub-Saharan Africa and the Biden-Harris administration held a ministerial during the summit where they discussed the need to strengthen implementation and modernize AGOA to translate opportunity into concrete benefits for the African people.

Sassou Nguesso has been in and out of power for more than three decades. Asked if he’s going to be a candidate at the next elections, he said that people who govern while thinking of the next elections are abandoning their essential tasks. He told VOA he was not one of those people and was concentrating on trying to execute the programs for which he was elected. 
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