White House — The Biden administration is looking at options to support Ukraine amid House Republicans’ continued obstruction of a Senate-approved $95 billion foreign aid package that includes $61 billion to support Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

In a Wednesday interview with VOA, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said President Joe Biden plans to use Thursday’s State of the Union address to emphasize the importance of continued support for Ukraine and highlight his administration’s success in “restoring American leadership.”

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: How will the president use this opportunity to convince lawmakers and House Speaker Mike Johnson of the urgent need for military support for Ukraine?

John Kirby, White House National Security Communications Adviser: I don’t want to get ahead of the president’s speech. Of course, he’s very much looking forward to the opportunity to talk to the American people, to the Congress, and actually, quite frankly, the world about all the incredible things that he has accomplished in these three and a half years as the president of the United States. From the economy to education, to health care, to employment, as well as on the world stage, and really restoring American leadership on the world stage.

Here’s what American leadership buys you. It buys you convening power. It buys you enormous capability. And it certainly buys you an effort to influence and affect the decision-making and the actions of other leaders around the world, particularly adversaries, in ways that are more in keeping with our national security interests. And supporting Ukraine is certainly first and foremost. That’s about helping Ukrainian soldiers succeed in these fights against Russian aggression, but it’s also a benefit to our national security because the landscape on the European continent has changed. And if we just walk away and let [Russian President Vladimir] Putin have Ukraine, which is what he still wants, then he’s right up against the doorstop of NATO.

VOA: Ukraine is rationing munitions and losing territory in part because of the lack of American support. Do you still see a path forward with the supplemental package or should Ukrainians be preparing themselves for the reality where there is no American assistance?

Kirby: We’re going to keep working with Congress to see if we can get that supplemental passed. It’s that important. We are also working with allies and partners about contributions that they might be able to make, not that they aren’t already making them — they are. But [we’re] seeing what more could maybe be done. And of course, we’re looking inside our own system, inside our own government, and across the administration to see if there’s anything else that we might be able to do to support Ukraine. But we’ve got nothing. None of those efforts are going to be able to replace the volume, the scale that the supplemental would provide us.

VOA: But there might be a Plan B?

Kirby: We have never not looked at what other opportunities we might have before us. But whatever they are, they’re not going to be as good as the supplemental. There’s no replacing the supplemental. As I’ve said many times, it’s not like there’s some magical source out there that can do what the supplemental can do. But are we looking at options? We absolutely are. We have to, given the situation on the ground — particularly in the east.

VOA: But do you still believe the supplemental may pass?

Kirby: It’s difficult to say with any certainty. That’s really going to be up to Speaker Johnson. We know — and Speaker Johnson knows — that if you put that to the floor, it’ll pass. There’s plenty of bipartisan support for that; both sides of the aisle in the House. No question about that. The question is really: Will he put it to the floor? And only he can answer that question.

VOA: Six countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Germany, Denmark and France, recently signed bilateral security agreements with Kyiv that are meant to give Ukraine security reassurance before Ukraine joins NATO. Should we expect such an agreement between the United States and Ukraine soon?

Kirby: We have long been working with the Ukrainians, obviously making sure that they have what they need in this war, talking to them about what they’re going to need whenever the war ends, because whenever and however the war ends, they’re still going to have a long border with Russia that they’re going to need to safeguard. So, yes, the United States is talking to our Ukrainian counterparts about what more we can do over the long term to help make sure that they can defend their own national security interests and [those of] the Ukrainian people. I don’t have anything to announce or speak to right now, but these are conversations we’re having with the Ukrainians.

VOA: More on the State of the Union: How will the president address the worsening situation in Gaza and U.S. strategic competition with China?

Kirby: Again, I’m not going to get ahead of the president’s speech, but I would point you to the things that he has said before. On Israel: How important it is to make sure Israel can defend itself against the still viable threat by Hamas, making sure that more humanitarian assistance gets in [to Gaza, and] making sure we get the hostages out. Trying to get this new hostage deal in place so that we can get a six-week temporary cease-fire to reduce the suffering on the ground and again try to find ways to help alleviate suffering of the Palestinian people.

And on China, as you know, the president wrapped up not too long ago a meeting with President Xi [Jinping] in San Francisco. Good, constructive dialogue. We’re not going to agree with China on everything, but the president believes strongly that this is the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world, and it’s incumbent upon both of us as two major powers — and both of them as two major leaders — to handle that relationship in a responsible way.

VOA: The president warned of a “dangerous” situation if there is no cease-fire by Ramadan. What did he mean by that? Is he warning of more bloodshed and potential regional spillover?

Kirby: He’s referring to the fact that Ramadan is obviously the holiest time of the year for Muslims and it’s also a sensitive time, particularly in the Middle East, where actions take on an even larger meaning and can have an outsized impact. And so, we all want this temporary cease-fire in place as soon as possible. We obviously would have preferred to have it in place already. It’s not, we’re still working at that. But we recognize that as you get closer to Ramadan, whatever actions get taken is done in the context of this holiest of time for Muslims around the world.

VOA: Both the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, and the widow of a deceased Russian opposition leader Yulia Navalnaya declined the invitation to attend Biden’s State of the Union address. What message was the administration trying to convey by inviting them both?

Kirby: We certainly respect their desires in terms of not attending, but obviously Ukraine is such a key partner here. And they have been fighting bravely now for a little bit over two years. And, certainly, this was an opportunity to recognize America’s commitment to Ukraine, and to the fighting, the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people.

Again, we all mourned the passing of Alexey Navalny, and we all recognize his courage, his bravery, and we all of course continue to hold the Kremlin accountable for what happened to him. The president had a chance to meet with his wife and his sister to express his personal condolences and the condolences of the entire American people
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Every year, the United States president addresses a joint gathering of the House of Representatives and Senate to provide his or her view on the condition of the country and suggest the direction the nation should take. The State of the Union speech has become a major fixture in U.S. governance.
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Washington — Moscow has a range of military technologies that it could offer Pyongyang in exchange for munitions to sustain its war in Ukraine, with advanced missile technologies high on the list, analysts say.

North Korea has been providing munitions to Russia since its leader, Kim Jong Un, visited Russia last September and met with President Vladimir Putin.

Since September, Pyongyang has shipped about 6,700 containers of munitions to Russia, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonshik said at a press briefing on February 26. He said the containers could carry more than 3 million 152 mm artillery shells or 500,000 122 mm rounds.

Those munitions are making a difference on the battlefield. The Security Service of Ukraine said last month that North Korean ballistic missiles have been killing and injuring civilians since December.

Shin said that North Korea has cranked up its hundreds of munitions factories to operate “at full capacity,” and that in return, Moscow is providing Pyongyang with raw materials and parts to manufacture weapons, in addition to food.

He also said Moscow is expected to transfer more military technology, which could embolden North Korea to escalate threats in the region.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency said in November that Russia was the most likely source of technology that Pyongyang needed to launch its Malligyong-1 satellite into orbit the same month.

But the question remains as to what kind of weapons technology is Russia willing to send to North Korea that would increase the threat it poses to South Korea and the United States?

Analysts say Russia could provide technologies that would refine Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

Michael O’Hanlon, director of research and foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, told VOA on Friday via email that Moscow most likely would provide missile technology to North Korea, “but nuclear weapons design information can’t be ruled out.”

What would concern South Korea the most would be short-range ballistic missile technology, including guidance systems, according to Bruce Bechtol, a former intelligence officer at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency who is now a political science professor at Angelo University in Texas.

“The North Koreans may be looking for technology that will help those missiles evade ballistic missile defenses as they’re attacking the South,” Bechtol said Monday during a phone interview with VOA. “The Russians do have that technology, and this is something that we must pay attention to.”

Moscow’s transfer of guidance and reentry capabilities of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, would be the “most dangerous to the American homeland, according to David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy.

“Advanced technology and capabilities to support an ICBM program” probably is “what North Korea wants the most,” Maxwell told VOA during a telephone interview on Monday.

Analysts say Russia could also provide technologies that could enhance the development of satellite cameras, submarines, advanced fighter jets, air defense capabilities and tanks.

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, told VOA in a telephone interview this week that Russia has technology that would allow North Korea to pack greater explosive power into a small warhead, but “may be reluctant to give North Korea sophisticated miniaturization technology.”

Bennett said North Korea may have a nuclear warhead with 10 kilotons yield, but it probably does not have advanced miniaturization technology that could pack 350 kilotons of explosive power into a warhead like that of a U.S. Minuteman III ICBM.

Analysts say regardless of what weapons technology Russia transfers, it would be difficult to detect.

Bennett pointed out that Russian scientists seemed to have flown from Moscow to Pyongyang on a Russia military plane in September, two months before North Korea launched a spy satellite.

It could be difficult to discern if Russians spotted in Pyongyang are military experts now that North Korea has opened up its border to Russian tourists, said Bechtol.

Russian tourists visited North Korea in February for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic.

A North Korean IT delegation returned home on Friday after attending the Eurasia IT forum in Moscow, and a delegation on the North Korea-Russia joint committee on fisheries returned home on February 29 from Russia, according to KCNA, the state news agency of North Korea.

Additionally, Kim received a Russian-made vehicle from Putin on February 18, according to KCNA. Russian state media Tass on February 19 did not confirm the make or model, saying only that Kim examined an Aurus luxury car during his visit.
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PRAGUE — The Czech Parliament’s upper house, the Senate followed the lower house on Wednesday to approve changes in the gun law that tighten requirements for owning a weapon following the worst mass killing in the nation’s history. 

The legislation now must be signed by President Petr Pavel before becoming law, which is expected. 

On December 22, a lone shooter killed 14 people and wounded dozens before killing himself at a Charles University building in downtown Prague. The assailant was a 24-year-old student who had a proclivity for firearms and a license to own eight guns, including two long guns. 

Authorities said he had no criminal record and therefore did not attract the attention of the authorities. 

The lower house gave the green light to the new law on January 26. 

Under the new law, gun owners would have to undergo a medical check every five years, not every 10 years, as they do now. 

Businesses would be required to report suspicious purchases of guns and ammunition to the police, while doctors would gain access to databases to find out if their patients are gun owners. 

Parliamentary debate on the legislation had already begun before that shooting. Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said it was hard to speculate whether the new rules would have prevented it if they had been in effect before it took place. 

In the 81-seat Senate, lawmakers approved the legislation in a 66-1 vote. 

Once approved by the president, the law would make it possible for the authorities to seize a weapon from a private owner on a preventive basis. 

In the country of 10.9 million people, 314,000 had a gun license at the end of 2022 and owned almost a million weapons of various types
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WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday issued sanctions targeting two companies and two vessels that the Treasury Department said had facilitated commodities shipments on behalf of a network of an Iranian-backed Houthi financial facilitator.

The action targets two Hong Kong- and Marshall Islands-based ship owners and two vessels for their role in shipping commodities on behalf of Sa’id al-Jamal, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The revenue from the commodity sales supports the Houthis and their attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the department said.

Wednesday’s action represented the latest bid by the U.S. to pressure the Iran-backed Houthi militant group over attacks in shipping. Last month, Washington imposed sanctions on oil tankers as well as two companies it accused of working with al-Jamal.

 
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The fall of Avdiivka last month, a stronghold Ukrainians have been defending for almost 10 years, is bringing the war closer to thousands of civilians in that part of the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine. Many are fleeing west, but some are choosing to stay behind and face the battles rather than become refugees. Yan Boechat has their story from Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. (Camera: Yan Boechat)
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LONDON — Europeans scrolling their phones and computers this week will get new choices for default browsers and search engines, where to download iPhone apps and how their personal online data is used.

They’re part of changes required under the Digital Markets Act, a set of European Union regulations that six tech companies classed as “gatekeepers” — Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok owner ByteDance — will have to start following by midnight Wednesday.

The DMA is the latest in a series of regulations that Europe has passed as a global leader in reining in the dominance of large tech companies. Tech giants have responded by changing some of their long-held ways of doing business — such as Apple allowing people to install smartphone apps outside of its App Store.

The new rules have broad but vague goals of making digital markets “fairer” and “more contestable.” They are kicking in as efforts around the world to crack down on the tech industry are picking up pace.

Here’s a look at how the Digital Markets Act will work:

What companies have to follow the rules?

Some 22 services, from operating systems to messenger apps and social media platforms, will be in the DMA’s crosshairs.

They include Google services like Maps, YouTube, the Chrome browser and Android operating system, plus Amazon’s Marketplace and Apple’s Safari Browser and iOS.

Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are included as well as Microsoft’s Windows and LinkedIn.

The companies face the threat of hefty fines worth up to 20% of their annual global revenue for repeated violations — which could amount to billions of dollars — or even a breakup of their businesses for “systematic infringements.”

What effect will the rules have globally?

The Digital Markets Act is a fresh milestone for the 27-nation European Union in its longstanding role as a worldwide trendsetter in clamping down on the tech industry.

The bloc has previously hit Google with whopping fines in antitrust cases, rolled out tough rules to clean up social media and is bringing in world-first artificial intelligence regulations.

Now, places like Japan, Britain, Mexico, South Korea, Australia, Brazil and India are drawing up their own versions of DMA-like rules aimed at preventing tech companies from dominating digital markets.

“We’re seeing copycats around the world already,” said Bill Echikson, senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based think tank. The DMA “will become the defacto standard” for digital regulation in the democratic world, he said.

Officials will be looking to Brussels for guidance, said Zach Meyers, assistant director at the Center for European Reform, a think tank in London.

“If it works, many Western countries will probably try to follow the DMA to avoid fragmentation and the risk of taking a different approach that fails,” he said.

How will downloading apps change?

In one of the biggest changes, Apple has said it will let European iPhone users download apps outside its App Store, which comes installed on its mobile devices.

The company has long resisted such a move, with a big chunk of its revenue coming from the 30% fee it charges for payments — such as for Disney+ subscriptions — made through iOS apps. Apple has warned that “sideloading” apps will come with added security risks.

Now, Apple is cutting those fees it collects from app developers in Europe that opt to stay within the company’s payment-processing system. But it’s adding a 50-euro cent fee for each iOS app installed through third-party app stores, which critics say will deter the many existing free apps — whose developers currently don’t pay any fee — from jumping ship.

“Why would they possibly opt into a world where they have to pay a 50-cent per-user fee?” said Avery Gardiner, Spotify’s global director of competition policy. “So those alternative app stores will never get traction, because they’ll be missing this huge chunk of apps that would need to be there in order for customers to find the store attractive.”

“That is utterly at odds with the very purpose of the DMA,” Gardiner added.

Brussels will be closely scrutinizing whether tech companies are complying.

EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said this week that after 10 years on the job, “I have seen quite a number of antitrust cases and quite a lot of creativity built into how to work around the rules that we have.”

How will people get more options online?

Consumers won’t be forced into default choices for key services.

Android users can pick which search engine to use by default, while iPhone users will get to choose which browser will be their go-to. Europeans will see choice screens on their devices. Microsoft, meanwhile, will stop forcing people to use its Edge browser.

The idea is to stop people from being nudged into using Apple’s Safari browser or Google’s Search app. But smaller players still worry that they might end up worse off than before.

Users might just stick with what they recognize because they don’t know anything about the other options, said Christian Kroll, CEO of Berlin-based search engine Ecosia.

Ecosia has been pushing for Apple and Google to include more information about rival services in the choice screens.

“If people don’t know what the alternatives are, it’s rather unlikely that many of them will select an alternative,” Kroll said. “I’m a big fan of the DMA. I am not sure yet if it will have the results that we’re hoping for.”

How will internet searches change?

Some Google search results will show up differently, because the DMA bans companies from giving preference to their own services.

So, for example, searches for hotels will now display an extra “carousel” of booking sites like Expedia. Meanwhile, the Google Flights button on the search result display will be removed and the site will be listed among the blue links on search result pages.

Users also will have options to stop being profiled for targeted advertising based on their online activity.

Google users are getting the choice to stop data from being shared across the company’s services to help better target them with ads.

Meta is allowing users to separate their Facebook and Instagram accounts so their personal information can’t be combined for ad targeting.

The DMA also requires messaging systems to be able to work with each other. Meta, which owns the only two chat apps that fall under the rules, is expected to come up with a proposal on how Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp users can exchange text messages, videos and images.
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Super Tuesday — the night that has been known to make or break candidates in the past — is over. More convention delegates are awarded on Super Tuesday than any other night of the campaign year. Fifteen states and a U.S. Territory conducted primaries and caucuses for the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti brings us the highlights and tells us what’s next.
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Brussels — The European Union moved a step closer Tuesday to banning products made from forced labor after negotiators reached an agreement on a law that supporters hope will help block imports from China involving the Uyghur Muslim minority.

The bloc’s draft text does not specifically mention China, but focuses on all products made from forced labor, including those made within the European Union.

Human rights groups say at least one million people, mostly members of Muslim minorities, have been incarcerated in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region and face widespread abuses, including forced sterilization of women and coerced labor.

Nearly 28 million people, including 3.3 million children, are in forced labor around the world, according to the International Labor Organization.

Under the new law, the European Commission must open investigations when there is suspicion of forced labor in a company’s supply chains outside the EU.

Meanwhile, the EU’s 27 member states will be expected to launch probes when the forced labor is suspected inside the bloc.

If the use of forced labor is proven, the relevant goods can be seized at the borders and withdrawn from the European market and online marketplaces.

Companies can be fined for any violations. Although the law does not set a minimum or maximum limit, officials said fines should be an amount that acts as a deterrent.

If a company removes forced labor from their supply chains, the banned products can return to the European market.

“The prevalence of forced labor products on our market is becoming ever more apparent, most notably with products made with Uyghur forced labor. This is unacceptable,” said EU lawmaker Maria Manuel Leitao Marques, who spearheaded the text through parliament.

“We can no longer turn a blind eye to what is happening in our supply chains,” she said.

The US Congress in 2021 banned all imports from Xinjiang, unless companies in the region can prove that their production does not include forced labor.

The EU law, first proposed in 2022, will become official after formal adoption by the EU’s 27 member states and parliament.

“We now urge member states to respect the deal… and finalize the new law as soon as possible,” socialist EU lawmaker Raphael Glucksmann said.

“The EU is on track to ban products made with forced labor from our market,” the EU’s most senior trade official, Valdis Dombrovskis, said on social media.

“This will now require careful and effective implementation,” he said.
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WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Tuesday to give China’s ByteDance about six months to divest popular short video app TikTok or face a U.S. ban, seeking to tackle national security concerns about its Chinese ownership.

The bill is the first significant legislative move in nearly a year toward banning or forcing ByteDance to divest the popular app, after Senate legislation to ban it stalled in Congress last year in the face of heavy lobbying by TikTok.

Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairperson of the House of Representatives’ select China committee and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat, are among more than a dozen lawmakers introducing the measure, which is expected to see an initial vote on Thursday.

“This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,” Gallagher said. “America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States.”

The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok, which is used by more than 170 million Americans, or make it unlawful for app stores run by Apple, Google, and others to offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to apps controlled by ByteDance.

The bill would not authorize any enforcement against individual users of an affected app, however.

“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it,” a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs,” the spokesperson said.

A White House National Security Council spokesperson called the bill “an important and welcome step” adding that the Biden administration would work with Congress “to further strengthen this legislation and put it on the strongest possible legal footing.”

The administration has worked with lawmakers from both parties to counter threats of tech services operating in the United States that pose risks to Americans’ sensitive data and broader national security, the official added.

TikTok says it has not, and would not, share U.S. user data with the Chinese government.

The American Civil Liberties Union called the bill unconstitutional, saying lawmakers were “once again attempting to trade our First Amendment rights for cheap political points during an election year.”

The bill, which would require companion legislation in the Senate, will be considered at an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Thursday for a vote.

The popularity of the app could make it tough to get legislation approved in an election year. Last month, Democratic President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign joined TikTok.

The bill would give the president new powers to designate apps of concern posing national security risks and subject them to the risk of bans or curbs unless ownership was divested.

It would cover apps with more than a million annual active users and under control of a foreign adversary entity, the bill says.

Concerns about Chinese-owned TikTok sparked efforts in Congress last year to tackle the risks from the short video sharing app or potentially ban it. Late in 2022, Congress barred federal employees from using it on government devices.

Last year the administration backed legislation sponsored by Senator Mark Warner and more than two dozen senators to give it new powers to ban TikTok and other foreign-based technologies if they pose national security threats.

That bill has never been voted on.

The new bill aims at bolstering the legal authority to address TikTok concerns. U.S. courts blocked an effort by previous President Donald Trump to ban TikTok in 2020.

Late in November, a U.S. judge blocked Montana’s first-of-its kind state ban on TikTok, saying it violated users’ free speech rights.
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paris — The European Union’s executive arm announced a proposal Tuesday that aims to supercharge the bloc’s defense industry’s ability to respond to the war in Ukraine, Russian aggression, and fears of waning transatlantic commitment on the part of the United States. The EU’s 27 member states still need to sign off on the proposals. 

The European Commission’s plan would boost joint European defense procurement and domestic production so more than one-third of the EU’s defense spending will benefit member states. Right now, for example, a sizable chunk of EU material supplied to Ukraine for its war against Russia was produced in the United States.  

Brussels also understands that years of post-Cold War security are over. Today, said European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Europe is in danger:  

“Peace is no more a given, unhappily the war is at our borders,” he said. “And the Russian war of aggression has brought a great sense of urgency to step up our industrial defense capacities.” 

The commission wants to earmark about $1.6 billion through 2027 to support its plan. It agrees that will in no way meet its ambitious goals. By one commission estimate, it would cost more than a $100 billion to match Washington’s defense industry.  

The initial investment, said European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager, would act as an incentive.  

“The real funding for a stronger defense comes from member states, and that funding will increase over the years to come,”  said Vestager. “So what we can do here is to enable that funding to be spent in a better way, that we get more value for money, and that more, relatively speaking, is being spent in Europe as well.” 

EU countries are finally reversing decades of shrinking defense investments. Many who are also NATO members are expected to meet the alliance’s 2 percent GDP spending target this year.  

Experts said this wakeup call is late in coming. The EU, for example, is missing its March target to deliver 1 million shells it promised Ukraine. That’s now supposed to happen by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are struggling — and some European leaders fear Europe may be Russia’s next target.  

Additionally, billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine are stalled in the U.S. Congress. Concerns also are growing that Washington’s support for NATO and Kyiv could decrease if Donald Trump returns to office.

“We have to build up the defense industry, obviously,” said French security analyst Francois Heisbourg. “But things are going more quickly than the time to take to build up the defense industry.”  

EU member states still need to greenlight the commission’s proposals — and that’s expected to take time.
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The White House says it looks forward to working with the new Indonesian administration but stopped short of congratulating Prabowo Subianto on his apparent victory in Indonesia’s presidential election last month. Prabowo, for his part, has vowed to continue a policy that allows Jakarta to reap Chinese investments while maintaining security ties with Washington. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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white house — The White House said it looks forward to working with the incoming Indonesian administration but stopped short of congratulating Prabowo Subianto on his apparent victory in Indonesia’s presidential election last month.

“We congratulate the Indonesian people on a successful election. The president looks forward to early engagement with the new administration and strengthening our cooperation on what is already a strategic partnership,” said John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesperson, in response to VOA’s question during the White House briefing Tuesday.

Kirby said the administration is “closely following the ongoing vote count” that shows Prabowo commanding a significant lead. With almost 90% of the votes counted, Prabowo holds almost 59% of the more than 150 million votes in the February 14 election.

“We’ve had an excellent cooperation with him since the time he was defense minister, and if he is in fact finally elected, then we look forward to continuing that relationship,” Kirby said.

Official results are not due until later in March, but Prabowo has claimed victory, and several countries have extended their congratulations, including China, Australia, the United Kingdom and others.

Alleged human rights violation

Currently serving as Indonesia’s defense minister, Prabowo has a long track record of alleged human rights violations, including the abduction and torture of activists during the 1998 ouster of his then father-in-law, former President Suharto, who ruled Indonesia for 32 years.

Prabowo’s victory is widely attributed to the support of the popular outgoing president, Joko Widodo, who last week awarded Prabowo with an honorary four-star general rank. The president’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, is Prabowo’s running mate, fueling accusations of nepotism.

“Prabowo’s election creates not only a bad precedent in the effort to prosecute state crimes committed by the previous government,” said Gufron Mabruri, executive director of Indonesian human rights group Imparsial. “It will also weaken enforcement of human rights in the future.”

Until 2020, Prabowo was banned from entering the U.S. due to alleged human rights violations, but he has since visited as defense minister, invited by both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Asked about potential democratic backsliding in Indonesia, Kirby said the administration will “never back away from our concerns about the need for human rights, civil rights, and all the values of democratic institutions,” and that President Joe Biden “absolutely will not shy away” about expressing such concerns.

As the United States and China compete for regional influence, Prabowo aims to continue Indonesia’s nonaligned foreign policy that has allowed Jakarta to reap massive investments from Beijing while maintaining security ties with Washington.

In Washington, concerns about Indonesia veering too close to Beijing provide a geostrategic backdrop to U.S.-Indonesia ties, said Andreyka Natalegawa, associate fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“At the same time, these broader geopolitical factors are also just strengthened by the fact that the U.S.-Indonesia partnership is strong and solid,” Natalegawa told VOA. He added that given the continuities with the outgoing Indonesian government, Washington should be comfortable in working with the new incoming administration.

There have been sporadic protests in Jakarta alleging election interference, but official results are expected to declare Prabowo as the country’s next leader in the coming weeks.
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LONDON — Germany said Tuesday that human error was to blame for Russia obtaining the recording of a phone call among senior German military officials discussing the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine, denying its government communication systems had been compromised.

In the audio recording, published by the state-owned broadcaster Russia Today on Friday, four senior German officers — including the head of the air force — purportedly discussed supplying Taurus missiles to Kyiv.

Berlin has not disputed the veracity of the recording.

“Our communication systems are not and have not been compromised,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Tuesday at a news conference in Berlin.

“The reason that the phone call could still be recorded in the ranks of the air force is due to an individual application error. Not all participants adhered to the secure dialing procedure as prescribed. According to current knowledge, data was leaked from the participant in Singapore. He was connected via an unauthorized connection, i.e., virtually via an open connection,” Pistorius said.

The recording was published on the same day as the funeral of the late Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, who died in unexplained circumstances two weeks ago in an Arctic prison.

Russian intelligence

The recording has prompted questions about what other intelligence Russia was able to gather, said Marina Miron, a defense analyst at King’s College London’s Department of War Studies.

“What we don’t know is what else do they know. This is the one call that they decided to reveal. And probably Russia knows about all [weapons] deliveries, where they are taking place. And this is very, very serious, specifically in terms of trust when it comes to intelligence sharing between Germany and other partner nations. And I think this, of course, plays into Russia’s hands. Because the idea is not to fight with NATO kinetically — an open war — but to destabilize the alliance from within,” Miron told VOA.

Taurus missiles

Germany has repeatedly refused to supply Ukraine with its long-range Taurus missiles since Russia’s 2022 invasion, citing the risk of escalation with Moscow. However, the audio recording suggested that senior military figures are in favor of supplying the missiles to Kyiv.

“What it shows to me is that there is some sort of a disagreement between the higher command and what they foresee as viable, as opposed to what the political leadership wants. Which calls into question, ‘What is the relationship there?’” Miron said.

In the recording, the officers speculated on whether the Taurus missiles could hit the Kerch Bridge that connects Russian-controlled Crimea to the mainland.

British involvement

The recording also suggested that British military personnel are in Ukraine teaching Kyiv’s forces how to operate the long-range Storm Shadow missiles provided by London.

The British government has not commented.

Russia claimed the recording showed the involvement of the “collective West” in the conflict.

“They constantly insist that the West is not at war with Russia, the West only supplies weapons. Then it turns out that there are Western citizens there [in Ukraine]. They say yes, but they are mercenaries. They retired from military service. Doubtful in the vast majority of cases,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry added that the audio proved Germany had not been fully “de-Nazified” — language strongly criticized by Berlin.

Germany has disputed Russia’s interpretation of the conversation, describing it as part of Moscow’s disinformation campaign.

“It is quite clear that such claims that this speech would prove that Germany is preparing a war against Russia is absurdly infamous Russian propaganda,” government spokesperson Wolfgang Buchner told reporters on Monday.

Missile impact

Russia fears that if Ukraine obtains long-range missiles from its Western allies, its logistics and supply lines could be severely disrupted, said Miron.

“I do not think that [German Chancellor] Olaf Scholz will allow Taurus missiles to be deployed to Ukraine.

“So, I think with the release of this recording, the Russians want to make sure this doesn’t happen, because with external pressure, Scholz was able to allow the Leopard tanks to be sent to Ukraine. And they just wanted to avoid such possibilities, because that would create some issues for the Russians,” Miron said.
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Germany said Tuesday that human error is to blame for Russia obtaining a telephone recording of senior German military officials discussing supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine. Berlin denied its systems had been hacked. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, Western allies fear what other intelligence Russia may have obtained.
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phoenix, arizona — A leading South Sudanese academic and activist living in exile in the United States has been charged in Arizona along with a Utah man born in the African nation on charges of conspiring to buy and illegally export millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to overthrow the government back home. 

Peter Biar Ajak fled to the U.S. with the help of the American government four years ago, after he said South Sudan’s president ordered him abducted or killed. Emergency visas were issued at the time to Ajak, now 40, and his family after they spent weeks in hiding in Kenya. He was most recently living in Maryland. 

A federal criminal complaint unsealed Monday in Arizona charges Ajak and Abraham Chol Keech, 44, of Utah, with conspiring to purchase and illegally export through a third country to South Sudan a cache of weapons in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the Export Control Reform Act. The weapons that were considered included automatic rifles like AK-47s, grenade launchers, Stinger missile systems, hand grenades, sniper rifles, ammunition, and other export-controlled arms. 

Although the criminal complaint was made public by Justice officials, the case was still not available in the federal government’s online system by Tuesday afternoon so it was unknown if the men had attorneys who could speak to the charges against them. 

“As alleged, the defendants sought to unlawfully smuggle heavy weapons and ammunition from the United States into South Sudan — a country that is subject to a U.N. arms embargo due to the violence between armed groups, which has killed and displaced thousands,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in a statement. 

“Sanctions and export controls help ensure that American weapons are not used internationally to destabilize other sovereign nations,” said Gary Restaino, U.S. attorney for Arizona. 

A man who answered the telephone Tuesday at the Embassy of South Sudan in Washington said the mission does not have a press officer and the ambassador was traveling and unavailable for comment. 

From 2022-23, Ajak was a postdoctoral fellow in the Belfer Center’s International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, focusing on state formation in South Sudan, according to the program’s website. He has also been a fellow at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies of the National Defense University and a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. 

Sudan gained independence from Sudan July 9, 2011, after a successful referendum. But widespread inter-ethnic violence and extreme human rights abuses by all sides continue to plague the country. 
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Washington — Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram were back up on Tuesday after a more than two-hour outage that was caused by a technical issue and impacted hundreds of thousands of users globally.

The disruptions started at around 10:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), with many users saying on rival social media platform X they had been booted out of Facebook and Instagram and were unable to log in.

“We are aware of the incident and at this time, we are not aware of any specific malicious cyber activity at this time,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said.

At the peak of the outage, there were more than 550,000 reports of disruptions for Facebook and about 92,000 for Instagram, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

“Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue … for everyone who was impacted,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on X.

Meta Platforms, shares of which were down 1.2% in afternoon trading, has about 3.19 billion daily active users across its family of apps, which also include WhatsApp and Threads.

Its status dashboard had earlier showed the application programming interface for WhatsApp Business was also facing issues.

Though the outage for WhatsApp and Threads was much smaller, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including users.

Several employees of Meta said on anonymous messaging app Blind that they were unable to log in to their internal work systems, which left them wondering if they were laid off, according to posts seen by Reuters.

The outage was among the top trending topics on X, formerly Twitter, with the platform’s owner Elon Musk taking a shot at Meta with a post that said: “If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working.”

X itself has faced several disruptions to its service after Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the social media platform in October 2022, with an outage in December causing issues for more than 77,000 users in countries from the U.S. to France.
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Budapest, Hungary — Hungary’s president on Tuesday signed the law on Sweden’s bid to join NATO, a final technical step before the Nordic country becomes the alliance’s 32rd member.

Hungary’s parliament ratified Sweden’s bid on February 26, ending more than a year of delays that frustrated other alliance members in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Tamas Sulyok, the president of the republic, today signed the decision taken by the National Assembly on February 26, 2024, regarding Sweden’s membership in NATO,” a statement on the presidential website read.

Sweden, which has been militarily neutral for two centuries, will then be invited to accede to the Washington Treaty and officially become NATO’s 32nd member. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago prompted Sweden and neighboring Finland to apply to join the trans-Atlantic bloc, ending their longstanding stance of non-alignment.

Every NATO member has to approve a new country’s membership.

Finland joined in April last year, but Sweden’s bid was stalled by both Hungary and Turkey, with Ankara approving Stockholm’s candidacy only in January.

Though repeatedly saying it supported Swedish membership in principle, Hungary kept prolonging the process, asking Stockholm to stop “vilifying” the Hungarian government.

After a meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson in Budapest, the Hungarian leader announced that the two had clarified “our mutual good intentions”.

Hungary also signed a deal to acquire four Swedish-made fighter jets, expanding its fleet of 14 Jas 39 Gripen fighters.
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LONDON — British officials said Tuesday that Kate, the Princess of Wales, will attend a Trooping the Color ceremony in June. It is her first confirmed major official duty since the royal underwent abdominal surgery. 

Kate, Prince William’s wife, has been out of the public eye since January, when palace officials announced that she was admitted to a private London hospital for planned surgery. At the time, they did not provide more details but said she would not return to public duties until after Easter. 

The ceremony is celebrated on June 8 and the weekend that follows. The events, annual highlights in the royal calendar, are pomp-filled birthday parades to honor the reigning monarch and usually draw huge crowds each June to watch the display. The tradition dates back more than 260 years. 

The Ministry of Defense said Kate, 42, will inspect soldiers on parade during the June 8 ceremony. Hundreds of foot guards, horse guards and members of military bands will participate in the spectacle at central London’s Horse Guards and along The Mall, the promenade outside Buckingham Palace. 

The royal family has been under intense media scrutiny in recent weeks because both Kate and King Chares III cannot carry out their usual public duties due to their health problems. Royal officials say Charles is undergoing treatment for an unspecified form of cancer, which was discovered during treatment for an enlarged prostate. 

Kate was discharged from the hospital on January 29 after two weeks for her undisclosed condition. Palace officials have said she wished her personal medical information to remain private. 
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