Washington — Attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden may have put a dent in global trade. But U.S. officials argue a combination of airstrikes and naval convoys are allowing thousands of ships to still make the journey unscathed.

Over the past three months, an estimated 4,677 cargo ships have transited the Red Sea, the U.S. Defense Department told VOA.

Of those, 423 vessels passed through under the protection of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a U.S.-led coalition of some 20 countries that includes Britain, Bahrain, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.

“This is something we’ll continue to keep at,” said Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder, speaking to reporters Thursday.

“The Red Sea is a vital waterway — 15% of global commerce transits through there,” Ryder said, calling the Houthi attacks “illegal and reckless.”

In addition to Operation Prosperity Guardian, which is using five warships and other naval assets to protect commercial ships, Pentagon officials say there are another four to eight vessels in the region under a separate U.S.-led coalition involved in launching several waves of preemptive strikes against Houthi assets and launch sites.

U.S. officials note they are also in contact with the European Union, which launched its own operation, Aspides, last month with Greece, Germany and Italy sending warships to the region, where they will meet up with a French warship already in the Red Sea.

Despite the U.S. and EU efforts, though, Houthi attacks have continued unabated.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Daniel Shapiro on Tuesday told U.S. lawmakers there have been “at least 48 attacks against commercial shipping and naval vessels in and around the Red Sea” since November 19.

Approximately 15 commercial ships, including four American ships, have suffered at least some damage due to the Houthi attacks.

And other defense officials told VOA the Houthis have threatened at least another 14 commercial and naval vessels.

“Our military operations will continue and advance,” Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said during a televised address Thursday, asserting, “we have surprises that our enemies will not expect at all.”

The effects of the Houthi attacks on international shipping are still being measured.

More than a dozen major shipping companies have suspended transits of the Red Sea.

The Kiel Trade Indicator, issued by a German research institution, said last month that 80% fewer containers are passing through the Red Sea and Egypt’s Suez Canal than normally would be expected.

Global shipping giant Maersk told customers Tuesday “to prepare for disruptions to persist in the global network.”

Some information from Reuters was used in this report.
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White House — U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House Friday, amid challenges in maintaining support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.

The meeting, their second in-person encounter in seven months, will focus primarily on Italy’s G7 presidency where Meloni is set to lead on an agenda aligned with Biden’s: defending the international system and multilateralism. For both leaders, support for Ukraine has been the core of that effort.

Despite initial concerns from Biden and Western allies when Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy Party came into power in October 2022, the prime minister has proved her country’s commitment to supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s war efforts.

Last week Meloni visited Kyiv and chaired the first G7 leaders’ videoconference under the Italian presidency, from the Ukrainian capital. She has signed a deal to provide Kyiv with military and technical assistance through the end of the year.

Meloni was also instrumental in persuading Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a fellow far-right leader, to drop his opposition to a $54 billion European Union package for Ukraine during an emergency summit in early February.

However, Biden and Meloni both face domestic headwinds on Ukraine. Biden is dealing with recalcitrant Republicans in the House of Representatives who have stalled the passage of a Senate-approved foreign aid package containing $60 billion for Ukraine, along with $35 billion for Israel and Taiwan.

In Italy, where military aid to Kyiv is unpopular with voters, there are contrasting views within Meloni’s coalition on the war in Ukraine and on Rome’s relationship with Moscow, with some members pushing for a diplomatic settlement to the conflict sooner rather than later.

Biden and Meloni are aware that the longer the war in Ukraine lasts, the more difficult it will be to resist pressure from domestic groups and voters who want the war to be over. However, both are also aware that a Russian victory in Ukraine likely means the end of the European security system as we know it, said Dario Cristiani, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

“Italy will work — in the G7 context — to promote greater cohesion in boosting military and financial support, while also trying to find ways to reinforce defense production in Europe and the transatlantic space, to support Ukraine in their vital fight against Russian imperial war of aggression,” he told VOA.

The two leaders will also discuss negotiations for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Rome, along with some other U.S. allies, abstained on a December United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.

However, in January, Italian lawmakers joined their European Union colleagues in adopting a nonbinding, symbolic resolution calling for a permanent cease-fire, on the condition that the Palestinian militant group be dismantled and that all hostages it holds be released.

Biden and Meloni find alignment on other issues, including maintaining stability in the Indo-Pacific and coordinating on the challenges and opportunities posed by China. In December, Meloni’s government ended Italy’s participation in Beijing’s Belt and Road trade and investment initiative that had been a concern for Washington.

The two governments are also focused on finding a framework on artificial intelligence and on international migration. Meloni, who a few years ago called for a naval blockade to prevent “an invasion” of migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe, has changed her approach to the issue. She hosted a January summit in Rome to bolster international investment in Africa and she has focused on strategic partnership with the continent to curb migration as a key theme of her G7 presidency.

Biden and Meloni are scheduled to meet again in June in Fasano, Italy, where the prime minister will host G7 leaders for their annual summit.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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Exploring the relationship between humanity and nature, the Reach to Forest international festival brings artists together to plant ideas among viewers about the environment and conservation. From the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story. Camera: Phillip Datcher
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US President Joe Biden and his main challenger, Donald Trump, went to opposite ends of the 1,931-kilometer border separating Texas from Mexico on Thursday. Both went to draw attention to the surge of migrants seeking to enter the US, but their messages were radically different and show how Democrats and Republicans view this key election issue. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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WASHINGTON — A federal judge held veteran investigative reporter Catherine Herridge in civil contempt on Thursday for refusing to divulge her source for a series of Fox News stories about a Chinese American scientist who was investigated by the FBI but never charged.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington imposed a fine of $800 per day until Herridge complies, but the fine will not go into effect immediately to give her time to appeal.

Cooper wrote that he “recognizes the paramount importance of a free press in our society” and the critical role of confidential sources in investigative journalism. But the judge said the court “also has its own role to play in upholding the law and safeguarding judicial authority.”

“Herridge and many of her colleagues in the journalism community may disagree with that decision and prefer that a different balance be struck, but she is not permitted to flout a federal court’s order with impunity,” wrote Cooper, who was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama.

A lawyer for Herridge, Patrick Philbin, declined to comment. Representatives for CBS and Fox News did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The source is being sought by Yanpin Chen, who has sued the government over the leak of details about the federal probe into statements she made on immigration forms related to work on a Chinese astronaut program.

Herridge, who was recently laid off by CBS News, published an investigative series for Fox News in 2017 that examined Chen’s ties to the Chinese military and raised questions about whether the scientist was using a professional school she founded in Virginia to help the Chinese government get information about American servicemembers.

The stories relied on what her lawyers contend were items leaked from the probe, including snippets of an FBI document summarizing an interview conducted during the investigation, personal photographs, and information taken from her immigration and naturalization forms and from an internal FBI PowerPoint presentation.

Chen sued the FBI and Justice Department in 2018, saying her personal information was selectively leaked to “smear her reputation and damage her livelihood.”

The judge had ordered Herridge in August to answer questions about her source or sources in a deposition with Chen’s lawyers. The judge ruled that Chen’s need to know for the sake of her lawsuit overcomes Herridge’s right to shield her source, despite the “vital importance of a free press and the critical role” that confidential sources play in journalists’ work.

Herridge was interviewed under oath in September by a lawyer for Chen, but declined dozens of times to answer questions about her sources, saying at one point, “My understanding is that the courts have ruled that in order to seek further judicial review in this case, I must now decline the order, and respectfully I am invoking my First Amendment rights in declining to answer the question.”

Philbin, who served as deputy White House counsel during the Trump administration, has said that forcing Herridge to turn over her sources “would destroy her credibility and cripple her ability to play a role in bringing important information to light for the public.”

Philbin also told the judge that disclosing the identity of Herridge’s sources raises national security concerns, writing in court papers that there is a “serious risk” that Chen “was involved in making information about U.S. military members available” to the Chinese.

Legal fights over whether journalists should have to divulge sources are rare, though they’ve arisen several times in the last couple decades in Privacy Act cases like the one filed by Chen. Some lawsuits have ended with a hefty Justice Department settlement in place of a journalist being forced to reveal a source, an outcome that remains possible in Herridge’s case.

In 2008, for instance, the Justice Department agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle a lawsuit by Army scientist Steven Hatfill, who was falsely identified as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks. That settlement resulted in a contempt order being vacated against a journalist who was being asked to name her sources. 
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MIAMI — A former career U.S. diplomat told a federal judge Thursday he will plead guilty to charges of working for decades as a secret agent for communist Cuba, an unexpectedly swift resolution to a case prosecutors called one of the most brazen betrayals in the history of the U.S. foreign service.

Manuel Rocha’s stunning fall from grace could culminate in a lengthy prison term after the 73-year-old said he would admit to federal counts of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government.

Prosecutors and Rocha’s attorney indicated the plea deal includes an agreed-upon sentence, but they did not disclose details at a hearing Thursday. He is due back in court April 12, when he is scheduled to formalize his guilty plea and be sentenced.

“I am in agreement,” said Rocha, shackled at the hands and ankles, when asked by U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom if he wished to change his plea to guilty. Prosecutors, in exchange, agreed to drop 13 counts including wire fraud and making false statements.

The brief hearing shed no new light on the question that has proved elusive since Rocha’s arrest in December: What exactly did he do to help Cuba while working at the State Department for two decades? That included stints as ambassador to Bolivia and top posts in Argentina, Mexico, the White House and the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

“Ambassador Rocha,” as he preferred to be called, was well known among Miami’s elite for his aristocratic, almost regal, bearing befitting his Ivy League background. His post-government career included time as a special adviser to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command and more recently as a tough-talking Donald Trump supporter and Cuba hardliner, a persona friends and prosecutors say Rocha adopted to hide his true allegiances.

Peter Lapp, who oversaw FBI counterintelligence against Cuba between 1998 and 2005, said the fast resolution of the case benefits not only the elderly Rocha but also the government, which stands to learn a lot about Cuba’s penetration of U.S. foreign policy circles.

Typically in counterintelligence cases, the defendant is charged with espionage. But Rocha was accused of the lesser crimes of acting as a foreign agent, which carry maximum terms of between five and 10 years in prison, making it easier for prosecutors and Rocha to reach an agreement.

“It’s a win-win for both sides,” said Lapp, who led the investigation into Ana Montes, the highest-level U.S. official ever convicted of spying for Cuba. “He gets a significant payoff and the chance to see his family again, and the U.S. will be able to conduct a full damage assessment that it wouldn’t be able to do without his cooperation.” 

But the abrupt deal drew criticism in the Cuban exile community, with some legal observers worrying it amounted to a slap on the wrist.

“Any sentence that allows him to see the light of day again would not be justice,” said Carlos Trujillo, a Miami attorney who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States during the Trump administration. “He’s a spy for a foreign adversary who put American lives at risk.”

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. 
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washington — Beijing is unlikely to help Washington disrupt military cooperation between North Korea and Russia because China sees that move as undermining itself while bolstering U.S. goals in Europe and Asia, analysts said.

“Given U.S. policy in Asia and Washington’s ongoing effort to contain Chinese power in the region, Beijing has no reason to assist the U.S., even indirectly, on one of its most top foreign policy priorities – a Russian defeat in Ukraine,” said Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities.

“For China, North Korea is not a problem to be solved but rather a card to play in its competition with Washington,” continued DePetris in an email to VOA on Tuesday.

The U.S. has turned to China to help rein in North Korea’s threatening missile activities that have now extended beyond East Asia into Europe, where Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on for the third year.

North Korean missiles have killed and injured civilians in the Ukrainian cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Donetsk and Kharkiv since December, the Security Service of Ukraine said on February 22.

The following day, the State Department announced that its senior official for North Korea, Jung Pak, held talks with China’s special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, Liu Xiaoming.

The two discussed North Korea’s “increasing destabilizing and escalatory behavior and its deepening military cooperation with Russia” on February 21 via videoconferencing, said the U.S. statement.

The U.S. said North Korea has sent more than 10,000 containers of weapons to Russia since September as it announced a sanctions package targeting Moscow on February 23.

The Pak-Xiaoming talks followed Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s discussion of North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February 16.

In response to last week’s talks, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Wednesday via email that “China has no intention to interfere with the cooperation between two sovereign countries” of North Korea and Russia. He called the two nations “China’s friendly neighbors.”

Pengyu continued, “We hope the U.S. will play a positive and constructive role in maintaining peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula.”

North Korea seemingly has been accelerating arms transfers to replenish weapons that Russia needs to fight Ukraine since its leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September. Kim, in return, was seeking Russia’s technology to enhance his weapons.

Susan Thornton, a senior fellow at Yale University’s Paul Tsai China Center who served as acting assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs during the Trump administration, said Beijing might be willing to persuade Moscow to break its ties with Pyongyang once the war in Ukraine is over.

But even then, “China will not be eager to help” if its “relations with the U.S. are still deteriorating,” she said via email on Tuesday.

China views North Korea, which straddles its border, as a buffer zone countering the U.S. and its military bases with 28,500 troops in South Korea. Beijing prefers that Pyongyang maintain stability to continue serving that role.

China has been providing economic aid to sustain heavily sanctioned and isolated North Korea since the 1990s.

Although Beijing is “very uncomfortable” losing leverage over Pyongyang as Moscow now provides alternative sources of food and fuel, that apparent loss is offset by benefits Beijing gains from Moscow’s reliance on China’s economy, said Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center’s Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy Project.

Russia has faced heavy sanctions since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“China has been an economic life raft for Russia, boosting its energy ties, filling Russian markets with its autos and consumer goods,” said Manning. Beijing will not change its stance on Pyongyang-Moscow ties as it generally continues “to coordinate much of its foreign policy with Russia where it opposes U.S. policy,” he said via email on Wednesday.

However, Michael Swaine, senior research fellow at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said, “Working strenuously with Moscow and Pyongyang to oppose the U.S. poses certain risks for Beijing.”

Swaine said via email on Wednesday that “Right now, it wants to maintain workable relations with Washington, not worsen them. Beijing faces serious domestic problems that demand a relatively stable external environment.”
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 Lajas Blancas, Panama / Washington — With only a backpack, a portable tent and a small shoulder bag, Cong, a 47-year-old Chinese migrant, was one of more than a dozen migrants to step out of a narrow wooden boat on the stony shore of the Chucunaque River in Lajas Blancas, Panama.

The stop was one of dozens he had made over the past month, and it was where he met with VOA’s Mandarin Service on his journey toward the United States — a journey that began in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan. Cong declined to provide his full name, citing security concerns.

As he walked across the shore under the hot sun, wearing a long-sleeved black T-shirt, black sports shorts and white Croc-like slippers, he limped slightly from a swollen ankle caused by a slip while crossing a river earlier in his journey.

Immigrants from China are the fastest-growing group of people making the long journey to the U.S. border. Navigating Panama’s treacherous Darien Gap, and risking death and disease, is a key part of that journey.

Like many others, Cong says he got a lot of information from online sources about how to make the trek, including Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. After half a year of planning, he decided, “I must go.”

“When I came out, I decided it’s going to be worth it, even if I die on the way,” he said.

When VOA asked the former crepe store owner why he traveled thousands of miles to a country he had never visited before, he replied, “Freedom.”

“I want freedom,” he said.

Cong said there is no freedom in China, which made him depressed. He said his Douyin account had been banned several times for using sensitive keywords and criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Cong said his definition of freedom is that he doesn’t have to do what he doesn’t want to do, and that he can criticize the president.

China’s sluggish economy was another big reason why he decided to leave the country. Its stock market is at a five-year low, and the country has seen a decline in exports and imports. Last June, Cong had to close his crepe store for lack of customers.

“No one has money. There is no easy business,” he said. “Without foreign trade, it’s all domestic money changing hands. How can that create wealth?”

Cong is not alone in making the decision to make the trek to the U.S. border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that more than 37,000 Chinese migrants were detained at the U.S-Mexico border in 2023, nearly 10 times more than the previous year.

In the San Diego sector alone — stretching 100 kilometers inland from the Pacific Ocean — U.S. Border Patrol officials told a local television station this week they have made more than 140,000 arrests since October 1. They included about 20,000 people from China, a 500% increase over the same period a year earlier.

After crossing the border, the migrants surrender to the Border Patrol and declare their intention to seek asylum in the United States. They are processed and are often released within 72 hours. According to the Department of Justice, 55% of Chinese migrants were granted asylum last year.

Giuseppe Loprete, head of mission in Panama for the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations body that provides information for migrants crossing the Darien Gap, told Al Jazeera in an interview that the Chinese migrants are particularly vulnerable due to the language barrier and a perception that they are wealthy.

Cong said he paid $700 to a tour guide he found on the Chinese social media platform WeChat for instructions to get to Acandí, Colombia. From there, he walked for three days in the rain forest. He paid another $25 for the boat ride on the Chucunaque River. But that is only a fraction of the expenses he has incurred on his journey of more than a month from Sichuan through Thailand, Turkey, Ecuador, Colombia and now Panama.

The number of individuals leaving China has surged since Xi took office in 2013. According to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, more than 700,000 Chinese sought asylum overseas between 2013 and 2021. That included more than 100,000 each year between 2019 and 2021, the last year for which UNHCR statistics are available.

The dramatic rise in Chinese migrants coming to the U.S. has raised national security concerns in America, with some questioning whether there are Chinese spies among them.

Republican Representative Mark Green, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, sounded an alarm about the wave of Chinese migrants entering the United States last June, claiming the majority are military-age men with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army.

Green and fellow Republicans Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Troy E. Nehls introduced the No Asylum for CCP Spies Act last year, which if passed, would prevent CCP members from seeking asylum in the U.S.

Border patrol agents encountered 5,717 single Chinese adults in January, more than twice as many as in any other January on record, CBP data shows. In December, that figure hit a record high of 7,581, while the total since January 2023 now stands at 64,979.

VOA Mandarin observed more Chinese men than women traveling alone.

With several thousand kilometers to go on his journey, Cong says few things are certain. He says he hopes to begin life in the U.S. by washing dishes in a restaurant after arriving at his final destination.

“Better to do all you can rather than floating along helplessly,” he said.

Calla Yu contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration launched a series of actions against China in recent days, sustaining pressure against the United States’ key strategic rival even as it focuses on more urgent fronts, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

In the span of one week, the administration announced an executive order to protect Americans’ personal data from foreign adversaries, including China; launched an investigation into potential security threats posed by connected vehicles that use Chinese technology; and placed sanctions on Chinese entities for supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The actions taken by President Joe Biden stand in contrast to the months of warming ties following a November summit in California between him and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping — a meeting aimed to improve a bilateral relationship that had reached its lowest point in decades due to rivalry and mistrust.

Since the summit, diplomatic engagement has increased from both sides, including the resumption of military-to-military talks that were frozen after former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2022 visit to Taiwan.

Restarting staff-level talks in early January was key to ensuring that the two sides avoided a major cross-strait incident during Taiwan’s election later in the month.

In January, Washington and Beijing also launched a working group designed to crack down on the flow of Chinese precursors used in the production of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs sold in the U.S., another sign of cooperation between the superpowers.

Ties improved to the point that Beijing marked the 45th anniversary of U.S.-China diplomatic relations in January with a lavish banquet, where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised that Chinese giant pandas, much loved by American zoo visitors, will return to U.S. by the end of the year.

So why the flurry of actions against China now?

National security issue

The White House sidestepped questions on the back-to-back timing of the measures.

Biden is “concerned about countries like China,” White House deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton said to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday.

“China is right now looking to flood the market here in the United States and around the world with vehicles equipped with advanced technology from countries of concern,” she said. “That’s a national security issue that we take very seriously.”

An administration official told reporters during a briefing that the U.S. Commerce Department probe launched Thursday to ensure that Chinese cars driving on American roads do not undermine U.S. national security, is “complementary and distinct” from the executive order to protect Americans’ personal data from China and other foreign adversaries. The latter order blocks bulk transfers of data such as geolocation, biometric, health and financial information to “countries of concern.”

By putting the two announcements next to each other, the administration is trying to communicate that they’re taking data security seriously, said Emily Benson, director of the Project on Trade and Technology at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The anticipated outcome there was to signal that the connected vehicle rules are actually a national security instrument,” Benson told VOA.

The U.S. plans to engage partners and allies following the investigation into the threat posed by Chinese vehicles. There’s a “growing sense of the security risks” and “really strong interest in the measures that we might take and the results of the investigation,” an administration official told VOA during a briefing Wednesday.

Biden himself warned of the dangers.

“Connected vehicles from China could collect sensitive data about our citizens and our infrastructure and send this data back to the People’s Republic of China,” the president said in a statement.

National security concerns aside, the administration is also anticipating an overcapacity of more affordable Chinese vehicles entering the American marketplace, especially as Chinese auto producers such as BYD set up manufacturing facilities in Mexico that would afford them more favorable tariff rates under USMCA, the free-trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

“That has created a lot of fear in Washington about the longevity of the U.S. automobile sector,” Benson said.

She added that the executive actions taken this week are “easier and more appropriate” than the effort to ban TikTok. The social media app is used by more than 100 million Americans despite allegations that its China-based parent company, ByteDance, could collect sensitive user data.

While the federal government and dozens of individual states have barred TikTok from government devices, Congress has yet to enact legislation to ban Americans from using the application on their personal devices.

The app is highly popular, especially among young people, prompting Biden’s campaign to join the platform despite the administration’s previously firm stance on its potential national security concerns.

Balanced approach

As Biden gears up for his reelection campaign, his administration is keen to project the image that they are taking the threat of China seriously, said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center.

“Balancing has always been the theme of his policy,” Sun told VOA. “When there is positive engagement, there’s also the punitive gestures.”

Without such gestures, the administration would be vulnerable to criticism that it is ignoring the fact that Beijing remains a source of significant national security challenges for the United States, she said.

“The administration has to demonstrate that it is extremely clear-eyed about the limitation of engagement but also the desirability of the engagement,” she said. “Engagement does not mean there’s no problem.”

Washington also announced sanctions against Chinese firms last week as part of a measure marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The trade penalties targeted entities in Russia and in countries viewed by the administration as supporting Moscow’s war effort.

The actions against China followed a meeting between Wang and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference earlier in February.

In the meeting, Wang warned Blinken that turning de-risking “into ‘de-China,’ building ‘small courtyards and high walls,’ and engaging in ‘decoupling from China’ will eventually backfire on the United States.”
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washington — Civil liberties declined globally for the 18th consecutive year in 2023, with conflict and flawed elections the biggest factors, a new report has found.  

Political rights and civil liberties deteriorated for more than one-fifth of the population, the non-profit group Freedom House found. And only one-fifth of the 210 countries and territories the research group analyzed was found to be “free.” 

Released on Thursday, the Freedom in the World report assesses political rights and civil liberties, then ranks countries or territories as “free,” “partly free,” or “not free.”  

Researchers looked at issues including how effectively governments work, political pluralism, freedom of expression, religious freedom, and whether marginalized groups are given full rights.  

Much of the decline in 2023 is attributed to cases of election manipulation, according to report co-author Cathryn Grothe. The report found electoral issues in almost half of the countries designated as being in decline.  

“While the findings of the report are certainly grim, they are coming at an especially important moment in time,” said Grothe, noting 2024 will be a critical year with national elections scheduled in about 40 countries.  

Report finds manipulation, intimidation

Grothe told VOA her group’s research found widespread election manipulation and intimidation before, during and after elections.  

She noted that “billions of people around the world are going to be heading to the polls.”  

The report highlighted Cambodia, Guatemala, Poland, Turkey and Zimbabwe as places that experienced attempts to control, hinder or interfere with elections. 

And in Ecuador, Nigeria, and Taiwan, elections were disrupted by either violence or interference by foreign regimes.  

In Guatemala, however, attempts to block a peaceful transfer of power failed. Bernardo Arevalo assumed office in early 2024 after the country’s Supreme Court ruled that Congress must accept his inauguration, despite its previous refusal to acknowledge elected members.  

Group watches US races

The United States — which Freedom House ranks as free — is among the countries holding significant elections.  

Grothe said that Freedom House is paying attention to issues in the U.S., including congressional dysfunction such as delayed appropriations bills and internal disputes over the speakership of the House of Representatives.  

Freedom House is also watching closely for intimidation and threats of violence as tools of political influence in the U.S, especially during the last few months before the election.  

Reports of threats against elected officials and local election administrators have “proliferated “in recent years, Grothe said. 

“When a democracy such as the U.S., those with kind of large influence on the world stage grow weaker internally, it makes it a lot more difficult to counter this kind of global authoritarianism,” said Grothe. “It makes it very imperative that we at home in the United States need to address our own domestic shortcomings.” 

The Freedom House report includes several recommendations, including calls for governments and other actors in civil society to “immediately” and “publicly” condemn manipulation efforts, coups and refusals to honor electoral outcomes.

“Democracies need to commit to free and fair elections, both at home and need to stand up for the same abroad,” said Grothe. 

The biggest decline in freedom was registered in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory which sparked conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. 

The region saw an overall 40-point reduction. The decline follows a mass displacement of over 100,000 ethnic Armenians amid fighting in September 2023. 

The second-largest point reduction came in Niger, where military forces ousted the government in July 2023.  

Conflict resulted in major declines in other areas too. Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to affect basic rights for those in occupied parts of Ukraine and brings a rise in repression inside Russia. The report also notes the effect on civilians of the Israel-Hamas conflict and Myanmar military rule. 

Other countries saw improvements. Fiji gained seven points due to a “smooth” transfer of power after elections in 2022. And Nepal is recognized in the report for amendments to its Citizenship Act, which allowed 400,000 stateless people born in the country to receive citizenship.  

While the past year faced obstacles, Grothe said there are “beacons of hope” in the countries pushing back against those declines.  

“It’s important to remember that people in every sort of political environment, from the most-free countries to the most repressive, are continuing to fight to uphold their rights, their dignity and this offers some kind of level of hope even in these very kind of discouraging times.” 

She added that the report should serve as a reminder of the stakes for democracy and as a call to reverse the decline of global freedoms.  
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France is poised to become the first country to inscribe the freedom for women to have abortions in its constitution. Lawmakers from the Senate and lower house will meet at Versailles Palace on March 4 for a final vote on the measure. Lisa Bryant reports.
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A lunar landing more than 50 years in the making is a partial success. Plus, the U.S. says Russia may launch a nuclear weapon into orbit. The Kremlin calls it spin. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. security officials are bracing for an onslaught of fast-paced influence operations, from a wide range of adversaries, aimed at impacting the country’s coming presidential election.

FBI Director Christopher Wray issued the latest warning about attempts to meddle with American voters as they decide whom to support when they go to the polls come November, telling a meeting of security professional Thursday that technologies such as artificial intelligence are already altering the threat landscape.

“This election cycle, the U.S. will face more adversaries moving at a faster pace and enabled by new technology,” Wray said.

“Advances in generative AI [artificial intelligence], for instance, are lowering the barrier to entry, making it easier for both more and less sophisticated foreign adversaries to engage in malign influence while making foreign influence efforts by players both old and new, more realistic and more difficult to detect,” he said.

The warning echoes concerns raised earlier in the week by a top lawmaker and by the White House, both singling out Russia.

“I worry that we are less prepared for foreign intervention in our elections in 2024 than we were in 2020,” said Mark Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, during a cybersecurity conference on Tuesday.

On Sunday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” there is “plenty of reason to be concerned.”

“There is a history here in presidential elections by the Russian Federation, by its intelligence services,” Sullivan said.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Russia sought to interfere in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.

But Russia has not been alone.

A declassified intelligence assessment looking at the 2022 midterm elections concluded with high to moderate confidence that Russia was joined by China and Iran in seeking to sway the outcome.

“China tacitly approved efforts to try to influence a handful of midterm races involving members of both U.S. political parties,” the report said.

“Tehran relied primarily on its intelligence services and Iran-based online influencers to conduct its covert operations,” it said. “Iran’s influence activities reflected its intent to exploit perceived social divisions and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions during this election cycle.”

The United States has also alleged other adversaries, such as Cuba, Venezuela and Lebanese Hezbollah, have sought to influence elections, as have allies, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The warnings from Wray and others are encountering pushback from some lawmakers and conservative commentators who view such statements as an attempt to resurrect what they call the “Russia hoax” — saying the narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help former President Donald Trump win is without merit.

Warner, however, dismissed that view in response to a question from VOA on the sidelines of Tuesday’s security conference. “Anyone who doesn’t think the Russian intel services have and will continue to interfere in our elections … I wonder where they’re getting their information to start with,” he said.

Wray on Thursday suggested the list of countries and other foreign groups seeking to influence U.S. voters is set to expand. “AI is most useful for what I would call kind of mediocre bad guys and making them kind of like intermediate,” he said.

“The really sophisticated adversaries are using AI more just to increase the speed and scale of their efforts,” he said. “But we are coming towards a day very soon where what I would call the experts, the most sophisticated adversaries, are going to find ways to use AI to be even more elite.”

Some private cybersecurity firms also see the danger growing.

This past September, Microsoft warned that Beijing has developed a new artificial intelligence capability that can produce “eye-catching content” more likely to go viral compared to previous Chinese influence operations.

Others agree.

“Whether it’s robocalls, whether it’s fake videos — all those things really even back to 2022, weren’t as prevalent,” Trellix CEO Bryan Palma told VOA. “You weren’t going to get any high-quality type of deepfake video.

“I think you’re going to see more and more of that as we get closer to the election,” he said.
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Washington — U.S. lawmakers sharply criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday over the failure to inform the White House about his hospitalization earlier this year for complications from cancer treatment.

Both Democrats and Republicans expressed dismay over the secrecy, but the House Armed Services Committee hearing ultimately shed little light on why information had been withheld from other top officials.

“It’s totally unacceptable that it took three days to inform the president of the United States that the secretary of defense was in the hospital and not in control of the Pentagon,” Representative Mike Rogers, the committee’s Republican chairman, said during the hearing.

“Wars were raging in Ukraine and Israel, our ships were under fire in the Red Sea and our bases were bracing for attack in Syria and Iraq. But the commander-in-chief did not know that his secretary of defense was out of action,” Rogers said.

The committee’s ranking Democratic member, Representative Adam Smith, said “the lack of transparency” should not be repeated and that “we need clearer, more transparent information about what’s going on at the Pentagon.”

Austin insisted “there was never a break in command and control,” but said that “what we didn’t do well was a notification of senior leaders.”

The Pentagon chief repeated that he “never told anyone not to inform the president, White House or anyone else about my hospitalization,” admitting however that “we didn’t get this right.”

Austin, a 70-year-old career soldier, initially underwent minor surgery to treat the cancer on December 22, returning home the following day. 

But he was readmitted due to complications including nausea and severe pain on January 1.

The White House was not informed about Austin’s hospitalization until January 4, while Congress was not told until the following day, and President Joe Biden did not learn of the cancer diagnosis until January 9.

Various Republican lawmakers called for Austin — who apologized earlier this month for the secrecy surrounding his treatment — to be sacked, but Biden has stood by him.

The Pentagon conducted a 30-day review of the situation and released a summary on Monday that said privacy concerns contributed to the secrecy, but found no evidence of intentional wrongdoing or obfuscation
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WASHINGTON — An inflation gauge favored by the Federal Reserve increased in January, the latest sign that the slowdown in U.S. consumer price increases is occurring unevenly from month to month.

The government reported Thursday that prices rose 0.3% from December to January, up from 0.1% in the previous month. But in a more encouraging sign, prices were up just 2.4% from a year earlier, down from a 2.6% annual pace in December and the smallest such increase in nearly three years.

The year-over-year cooldown in inflation is sure to be welcomed by the White House as President Joe Biden seeks re-election. Still, even though average paychecks have outpaced inflation over the past year, many Americans remain frustrated that overall prices are still well above where they were before inflation erupted three years ago. That sentiment, evident in many public opinion polls, could pose a threat to Biden’s re-election bid.

Inflation, as measured by the Fed’s preferred gauge, fell steadily last year after having peaked at 7.1% in the summer of 2022. Supply chain snarls have eased, reducing costs of parts and raw materials, and a steady flow of job seekers has made it easier for employers to limit wage increases, one of the drivers of inflation. Still, inflation remains above the central bank’s 2% annual target.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, prices rose 0.4% from December to January, up from 0.1% in the previous month. And compared with a year earlier, such so-called “core” prices rose 2.8%, down from 2.9% in December. Economists consider core prices a better gauge of the likely path of future inflation.

Some of January’s inflation reflects the fact that companies often raise prices in the first two months of the year, leaving January and February price data high compared with the rest of the year. But the costs of hospital and doctors’ services are also rising to offset the sizable pay raises commanded by nurses and other in-demand health care workers.

That trend could help keep inflation elevated in the coming months. But by early spring, most analysts expect prices to settle back to the milder pace of increases that occurred in the second half of 2023, when inflation eased to a 2% annual rate.

January’s uptick in inflation helps explain the concern expressed by many Fed officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, about potentially cutting interest rates too soon this year. One influential official, Christopher Waller of the Fed’s Board of Governors, said this month that he would want to see two more months of inflation data after January’s to determine whether prices were cooling sustainably toward the Fed’s target level.

Beginning in March 2022, the Fed raised its benchmark rate 11 times to attack the worst bout of inflation in 40 years. Those rate hikes have helped cool inflation drastically. But they have also made borrowing much more expensive for consumers and businesses. In particular, high loan rates have throttled sales in the economy’s crucial homebuying sector. Conversely, rate cuts by the Fed, whenever they happen, would eventually lead to lower borrowing costs across the economy.

Thursday’s inflation data mirrors figures released earlier this month that showed that the government’s more widely followed consumer price index also rose faster in January than it had in previous months. The Fed prefers the measure reported Thursday, in part because it accounts for changes in how people shop when inflation jumps — when, for example, consumers shift away from pricey national brands in favor of cheaper store brands.

Several Fed officials have said they’re optimistic that inflation will continue to fall back toward the Fed’s target level, with some downplaying the recent pickup in prices as a one-time jump.

“The path will continue to be bumpy, and we should not overreact to individual data readings,” Susan Collins, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said Wednesday. “I remain what I call a ‘realistic optimist’ in thinking that the economy is on a path to 2% inflation on a sustained basis while maintaining a healthy labor market.”

Some other officials sound more uncertain. Jeffrey Schmid, the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said this week that “when it comes to too-high inflation, I believe we are not out of the woods yet.”

Outside the Fed, most economists envision a steady, if fitful, slowdown of inflation in the coming months. Economists at Goldman Sachs project that core inflation, as measured by the Fed’s preferred gauge, will drop rapidly to just 2.2% by May — low enough for the Fed to initiate rate cuts in June.
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BRUSSELS — The European Union took a major step in ending its standoff with member state Poland on Thursday by announcing it will begin releasing billions of euros to it that were frozen over the previous government’s policies that the bloc said amounted to widespread backsliding on fundamental democratic principles.

The move is an important reward for Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has sought relentlessly since taking office in December to overturn measures imposed by the previous conservative government. Beyond its political significance, it opens the way for up to 135 billion euros ($145 billion) in EU aid to go to Poland over the coming few years.

The decision cements a sea change in relations. Both sides had openly clashed after the stridently nationalist Law and Justice party came to power in 2015 and implemented reforms that critics said placed Poland’s judiciary under political control. The EU threatened to suspend Poland’s EU voting rights and also blocked its access to EU funds.

“Today is a landmark day for Poland,” said EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis. “Thanks to its efforts to restore the rule of law, we are now able to unlock access” to a slew of funds that help EU nations recover from the COVID-19 crisis and help their economies rise to the standards of wealthier member nations.

Under complicated EU bookkeeping rules, Poland could receive over the next weeks the first 600 million euros ($650 million) in real cash from a 75 billion euro ($80 billion) aid pot that had been blocked. More funds will be transferred once Poland sends in outstanding paperwork from projects. A 6.3 billion euro ($6.8 billion) disbursement from a 60 billion euro ($65 billion) program to boost the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic downturn should also be released soon.

Tusk’s election victory last October was essential in achieving the change. The Commission has now acknowledged that sufficient efforts to resolve the issues have been made for it to start releasing the funds. If there is no full follow-through by Poland, restrictive measures could be reimposed.

EU Vice President Vera Jourova showed confidence in Tusk’s policies, saying, “Today we turn a page on the rule of law issues with Poland as we recognize the important strides made by the government.”

Poland’s pro-European coalition of three center-left parties led by Tusk won parliamentary elections on Oct. 15 and took over in December, succeeding the Law and Justice party that had ruled for eight years and introduced changes to the justice system, reproductive rights and the media that put Poland increasingly on a collision course with the EU.

The breakthrough in the standoff came after Polish Justice Minister Adam Bodnar presented an “action plan” to European officials which outlined draft legislation. EU officials also stressed that some of the proposals in the Polish plan can’t become law without the approval of President Andrzej Duda, who is a staunch ally of the Law and Justice party. His term runs until 2025.

Despite such domestic political challenges, the EU decided there was enough positive legal thrust to start releasing the funds.

The money will be coming from the EU’s Next Generation fund meant to help the bloc’s members recover from the COVID-19 pandemic downturn and also from a cohesion fund that supports infrastructure development.
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OSLO, Norway — One person died and five were injured when a helicopter crash-landed in the ocean off western Norway, police said on Thursday, leading to a temporary halt in transport to and from the country’s offshore oil and gas platforms.

The Sikorsky S-92 aircraft operated by Bristow Norway was on a search and rescue training mission on Wednesday when the accident occurred, officials have said.

The six crew members were all hoisted from the sea by rescue workers, but one was later declared dead in hospital, police said in a statement.

One of the surviving crew members was in a critical condition on Thursday and one was severely injured while the remaining three suffered lighter injuries, the hospital treating them said in an update on social media platform X.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

“We have sent crash inspectors to Stavanger and Bergen to investigate the accident,” Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority head William Bertheussen told Reuters.

The two cities are the busiest hubs for Norway’s extensive oil and gas industry, which produces around 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Bristow Group said in a statement it was fully cooperating with authorities responding to the incident and that the company was collecting relevant information.

Lockheed Martin company Sikorsky, which manufactured the helicopter, said on Wednesday that safety was its top priority and that it stood ready to support the investigation.

Energy group Equinor said the helicopter was a search and rescue aircraft normally serving platforms at the company’s Oseberg oil and gas field in the North Sea.

“We have confidence both in the type of helicopter and in the operators,” Equinor CEO Anders Opedal told public broadcaster NRK.

Still, Equinor halted all regular helicopter flights to its oil and gas platforms in Norway out of consideration for those affected and to get an overview of the situation.

“The company aims to get the helicopters back to normal operation quickly and is now making the necessary preparations to achieve this safely,” the company said in a statement.
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washington — U.S. President Joe Biden’s is a “healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency,” his physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said in a statement released by the White House on Wednesday, following Biden’s annual physical examination. 

“The president feels well, and this year’s physical identified no new concerns. He continues to be fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” O’Connor said following Biden’s visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, earlier Wednesday.  

The checkup included consultations with optometry, dentistry, orthopedics, physical therapy, neurology, sleep medicine, cardiology, radiology and dermatology specialists, O’Connor said.  

It’s Biden’s third physical since taking office, amid concerns about his age as he seeks a second term.  

“They think I look too young,” Biden joked to reporters at the White House after his checkup. “There is nothing different than last year,” he said.

According to the summary, Biden is currently being treated for several conditions, including obstructive sleep apnea, gastroesophageal reflux, seasonal allergies, arthritis and sensory peripheral neuropathy of the feet. He also has atrial fibrillation with normal ventricular response, a type of asymptomatic irregularity of the heartbeat.  

His doctor pronounced his conditions as “stable and well-controlled,” with “three common prescription medications and three common over-the-counter medications.”  

The symptoms were similar to those described in Biden’s 2023 physical exam report that noted the president’s “stiff gait,” due to “a combination of significant spinal arthritis, mild post-fracture foot arthritis and a mild sensory peripheral neuropathy of the feet,” and “occasional symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux,” that made him have to clear his throat often.     

President didn’t undergo cognitive test 

Recent events have highlighted Biden’s potential age-related issues, including the president being described in a special counsel report as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”      

In pushing back on reporters’ questions about his age, Biden insisted that his “memory is fine” but shortly after mistakenly referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi as the president of Mexico. That and two other mistaken references to world leaders’ names in recent weeks fueled further attacks by his rivals.     

Responding to reporters’ questions during her briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden did not undergo a cognitive test as part of his physical because the president’s physician, “doesn’t believe that he needs one.” 

As president, Biden passes a cognitive test “every day,” Jean-Pierre underscored. 

A poll by the George Washington University shows 35% of respondents say Biden was in good enough physical health to serve effectively as president, and 38% said he has the mental soundness to serve effectively as president.  

This is lower that what respondents say about the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump, who is four years younger. For Trump, the numbers are 54% and 46%, respectively. 

“These figures indicate that this is a big problem for Biden,” Todd Belt, professor of politics at George Washington University, told VOA. “The campaign has changed course to attack Trump on his vulnerabilities on the mental soundness issue.” 

Biden did exactly that during an appearance on a late-night television show earlier this week, by referencing a video in which Trump appeared to forget his wife’s name.  

Americans concerned about Biden’s age

Trump was 70 when he took office in 2017, which made him the oldest American president to be inaugurated until Biden broke his record at 78 in 2021. The former president has also made blunders, including praising Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for his leadership of Turkey, and confusing his Republican rival, Nikki Haley, with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.   

A February ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted after the release of the special counsel report indicated concerns among 59% of Americans regarding the age and capability for a second term for both candidates, although more Americans are worried about Biden compared with Trump, said Clifford Young, president of Ipsos Public Affairs.   

“Age is an Achilles’ heel, is an anchor for Biden,” Young told VOA. “It was four years ago. Without a doubt, it will be this year.”   

Though not publicly announced in advance, the timing of Biden’s physical was anticipated, given the increasing focus on his age and health in the context of his reelection campaign ahead of the November election. 
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