Category: Новини

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Thursday announced it has finalized rules targeting carbon, air and water pollution from power plants that

it says could cut over 1 billion metric tons from carbon emissions by 2047 even as demand for electricity grows.

The Environmental Protection Agency tightened a proposal to slash carbon emissions from existing coal and new gas plants, and updated and finalized long-standing rules to reduce mercury and toxic air pollutants and clean up wastewater and coal ash discharge.

“EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

Regan had said in 2022 he intended to take on several regulations together to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, and help states, utilities and plant operators make better investment and plant retirement decisions.

The new rules come as electric utilities brace for a spike in demand from data centers powering technology like generative AI, as well as from the growth of electric vehicles.

The United States is projected this year to add more electric generation capacity than it has done in two decades, with 96% being clean energy, White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters.

Among the changes the EPA made to the carbon rule is dropping hydrogen as a “best system of emission reduction” for gas plants to achieve new standards.

Now it is just carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) that could be used for the longest-running existing coal units and new gas turbines that run more than 40% of the time. The EPA initially proposed that the standards apply to plants that run more than 50% of the time.

The agency also said coal plants that plan to run past 2039 will be required to install CCS technology starting in 2032 in the final rule. It had initially proposed requiring CCS for plants that will be running past 2040.

The Edison Electric Institute, an investor-owned utility trade group, said it appreciated EPA’s approach of bundling the different pollution rules to ease compliance, but was disappointed the agency didn’t heed its concerns around CCS viability.

“CCS is not yet ready for full-scale, economy-wide deployment, nor is there sufficient time to permit, finance, and build the CCS infrastructure needed for compliance by 2032,” EEI President Dan Brouillette said.

Regan told reporters the agency was confident in the technology, which has been bolstered by Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives, and support from “multiple power companies.”

The agency also said it has launched a process to get feedback on how to reduce carbon emissions from existing gas plants. The EPA removed coverage of existing gas plants from the initial proposal last month and gave no new timeline for developing a rule to cover the current fleet.

The EPA also reduced mercury emissions limits for lignite coal plants by 70% and emissions limits associated with toxic metals by 67%, the first update of that rule since 2012, while also finalizing measures that would eliminate 660 million pounds of pollution per year being discharged into U.S. waterways and protect communities from coal ash contamination.

Environmental groups praised the rules for helping to drive down power sector emissions alongside the IRA, putting the administration closer to its goal of net-zero emissions in the sector by 2035.

“The age of unbridled climate pollution from power plants is over,” said Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, top Republican on the Senate environment committee, said she plans to introduce a resolution aiming to overturn the rules.

“President Biden has inexplicably doubled down on his plans to shut down the backbone of America’s electric grid through unachievable regulatory mandates,” she said.
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U.S. university campuses are seeing pro-Palestinian protests daily. Students are demonstrating against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and demanding that humanitarian aid be allowed to flow into the territory. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the necessity for “direct” and “sustained engagement” between the United States and China during his first official meeting in Shanghai, a city home to more than 1,000 U.S. companies.

Thursday morning, Blinken held talks with Chen Jining, Chinese Communist Party Secretary for Shanghai. Chen is the highest-ranking local official and is a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.

Blinken said he would lay out “our differences, which are real” but seek to “work through them” as well as to “build cooperation where we can.”

Welcoming the Secretary to Shanghai at the city’s Grand Halls, Chen said through a translator that since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the relationship between the two nations has not always been smooth, there’s always been “twists and turns,” “but overall, it has progressed with historical development and progressed forward.”

Blinken was last in Shanghai in 2015 when he was deputy secretary of state.

“In a constructive and candid exchange, the secretary raised concerns about PRC trade policies and non-market economic practices and stressed that the United States seeks a healthy economic competition with the PRC and a level playing field for U.S. workers and firms operating in China,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.  He was referring to People’s Republic of China.

During a discussion with American and Chinese students from New York University Shanghai, Blinken underscored the importance of expanding exchanges between students, scholars, and business.

“We need to make sure that we are talking to each other, hearing each other, understanding each other,” he said.

According to the State Department, the NYU Shanghai student body currently consists of nearly 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students, half of whom are from China. Students from the United States and some 70 other countries represent the other half.  There are approximately 500 U.S. students.

Later Thursday, Blinken met with business leaders at the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, advocating for the resolution of a range of trade issues facing the world’s two largest economies.

In a brief video, Blinken said late Wednesday he is in China “to make progress on issues that matter most to the American people, including curbing fentanyl trafficking,” against the backdrop of Shanghai’s skyline. He added that officials from the U.S. and China will also discuss other areas where the two countries have “significant disagreements.”

While Washington and Beijing are divided over a range of thorny issues, Blinken began his visit to China this week focusing first on the importance of direct engagement. It is something, he says, is essential for addressing key issues affecting people from both countries and the world. 

Analysts told VOA Blinken’s visit will surface a range of contentious issues but also maintain “the tactical thaw” that gained momentum following U.S. President Joe Biden’s face-to-face talks with PRC President Xi Jinping last November.

“The relationship continues to grow more competitive militarily, technologically, and diplomatically, but the increase is occurring in a more predictable, controlled manner than it was a year earlier due to both countries’ continued investment in high-level diplomacy,” Ali Wyne, a senior research and advocacy adviser for International Crisis Group, told VOA Mandarin in an email.

Intensive diplomacy between Washington and Beijing has yielded little progress in curtailing China’s supply of precursor chemicals used to manufacture illicit fentanyl that affects the United States.  Strains are escalating due to China’s support for Russia in its war on Ukraine, prompting the U.S. to warn further actions against China.

“I’m very pessimistic about this visit. Xi Jinping is committed to helping his close friend Putin and will not be very responsive to America’s requests,” Dennis Wilder, senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University, told VOA Mandarin.

A day before Blinken departed for Shanghai, he unveiled the State Department’s annual report on human rights practices, which said that the PRC government continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.  Blinken told reporters that he would raise the issue of human rights with the Beijing government.

Blinken is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing Friday afternoon.

The State Department said Blinken will hold a press conference in Beijing before returning to Washington.   
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austin, texas — Police tangled with student demonstrators in the U.S. states of Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.

At the University of Texas at Austin, hundreds of local and state police — including some on horseback and holding batons — clashed with protesters, pushing them off the campus lawn and at one point sending some tumbling into the street. At least 20 demonstrators were taken into custody at the request of university officials and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

A photographer covering the demonstration for Fox 7 Austin was arrested after being caught in a push-and-pull between law enforcement and students, the station confirmed. A longtime Texas journalist was knocked down in the mayhem and could be seen bleeding before police helped him to emergency medical staff who bandaged his head.

At the University of Southern California, police got into a back-and-forth tugging match with protesters over tents, removing several before falling back. At the northern end of California, students were barricaded inside a building for a third day at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. The school shut down campus through the weekend and made classes virtual.

Harvard University in Massachusetts had sought to stay ahead of protests this week by limiting access to Harvard Yard and requiring permission for tents and tables. That didn’t stop protesters from setting up a camp with 14 tents Wednesday following a rally against the university’s suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies enabling its monthslong conflict. Dozens have been arrested on charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.

Columbia University averted another confrontation between students and police earlier in the day. The situation there remained tense, with campus officials saying it would continue talks with protesters for another 48 hours.

On a visit to campus, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign “if she cannot bring order to this chaos.”

“If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard,” he said.

Shafik had set a midnight Tuesday deadline to reach an agreement on clearing an encampment, but the school extended negotiations, saying it was making “important progress.”

On Wednesday evening, a Columbia spokesperson said rumors that the university had threatened to bring in the National Guard were unfounded. “Our focus is to restore order, and if we can get there through dialogue, we will,” said Ben Chang, Columbia’s vice president for communications.

Columbia graduate student Omer Lubaton Granot, who put up pictures of Israeli hostages near the encampment, said he wanted to remind people that there were more than 100 hostages still being held by Hamas.

“I see all the people behind me advocating for human rights,” he said. “I don’t think they have one word to say about the fact that people their age, that were kidnapped from their homes or from a music festival in Israel, are held by a terror organization.”

Harvard law student Tala Alfoqaha, who is Palestinian, said she and other protesters want more transparency from the university.

“My hope is that the Harvard administration listens to what its students have been asking for all year, which is divestment, disclosure and dropping any sort of charges against students,” she said.

Columbia encampment inspires others

Police first tried to clear the encampment at Columbia last week, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. The move backfired, acting as an inspiration for other students across the country to set up similar encampments and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.

On Wednesday about 60 tents remained at the Columbia encampment, which appeared calm. Security remained tight around campus, with identification required and police setting up metal barricades.

Columbia said it had agreed with protest representatives that only students would remain at the encampment and they would make it welcoming, banning discriminatory or harassing language.

On the University of Minnesota campus, a few dozen students rallied a day after nine protesters were arrested when police took down an encampment in front of the library. U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, whose daughter was among the demonstrators arrested at Columbia last week, attended a protest later in the day.

A group of more than 80 professors and assistant professors signed a letter Wednesday calling on the university’s president and other administrators to drop any charges and to allow future encampments without what they described as police retaliation.

They wrote that they were “horrified that the administration would permit such a clear violation of our students’ rights to freely speak out against genocide and ongoing occupation of Palestine.”

Netanyahu encourages police response

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on U.S. college campuses in a video statement released Wednesday, saying the response of several university presidents has been “shameful” and calling on state, local and federal officials to intervene.

Students at some protests were hiding their identities and declined to identify themselves to reporters, saying they feared retribution. At an encampment of about 40 tents at the heart of the University of Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor, almost every student wore a mask, which was handed to them when they entered.

The upwelling of demonstrations has left universities struggling to balance campus safety with free speech rights. Many long tolerated the protests, but are now doling out more heavy-handed discipline, citing safety concerns.

At New York University this week, police said 133 protesters were taken into custody and all had been released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges. More than 40 protesters were arrested Monday at an encampment at Yale University.
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NEW YORK — Officials at Columbia University were continuing talks Wednesday with student demonstrators from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment as the protest reaches a full week. 

At 9:41 p.m. Tuesday, university President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik sent an email to the Columbia community setting a midnight deadline for an agreement to be reached about dismantling the encampment and dispersing the protesters. 

“I very much hope these discussions are successful,” she wrote. “If they are not, we will have to consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn and restoring calm to campus so that students can complete the term and graduate.”

As midnight passed, Columbia University Apartheid Divest posted a statement on X saying, “We refuse to concede to cowardly threats and blatant intimidation by university administration. We will continue to peacefully protest.” 

The statement also said the university had threatened to call the National Guard. But after visiting the university earlier in the week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday she had no plans to deploy the National Guard. 

As midnight approached on Tuesday, a student organizer announced that the deadline had been extended to 8 a.m. Wednesday. 

At 4:09 a.m., the Office of the President sent an email saying the discussion deadline would be extended for 48 hours, given the constructive dialogue, and the university would report back on progress. 

The email announced that leaders of the student encampment had agreed to remove a significant number of tents, get non-Columbia affiliates to leave the encampment and comply with New York Fire Department requirements. They also agreed to ensure that the encampment is “welcome to all” and to prohibit “discriminatory or harassing language.”

This development comes nearly a week after more than 100 students were arrested at the school on April 18, after Shafik authorized police to clear away protesters. Some of the students received suspension notices from the school. 

Columbia’s action prompted an onslaught of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at other universities and responses from faculty and politicians.

Students at other campuses, such as Yale, Stanford and New York University, have also rallied around the Palestinian cause, calling for their universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel and for a cease-fire in Gaza. Many also have put up tent encampments on their campuses. About 150 students and faculty were arrested at New York University Monday night. 

Columbia also announced Tuesday morning that classes on the Morningside main campus, where the protests are taking place, will be offered in a hybrid format for the remainder of the spring semester. The last day of classes is April 29.
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U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation Wednesday providing $95 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of tense negotiations in Congress. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports on what’s next.
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Washington — Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbors are holding out hope that America, based on its pledges at September’s C5+1 summit, will expand its role in this neighborhood. The wish list includes delivering more humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, facilitating the expansion of trade, and combating the threats of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan. 

Officials speaking with VOA suggest that more aid could be channeled into Afghanistan via Uzbekistan. Additionally, Washington could offer more military assistance to Central Asian states and tangibly support their regional connectivity initiatives. 

While no country has formally announced diplomatic recognition of the Taliban government, Central Asian nations have been engaging with the Taliban based on mutual interests, such as security, trade, and water sharing. Uzbekistan, which has extensive political and economic ties with Kabul, has been urging the West and the larger international community not to isolate Afghanistan. 

Nearly three years since the withdrawal of American forces, U.S. officials insist that they have not abandoned Afghanistan, pointing to ongoing efforts and consultations with Central Asian counterparts. However, they admit Washington’s priorities have shifted to other issues, such as Russia’s war on Ukraine. 

“It will take the U.S. a decade or two to recover from the fact that we lost the war,” said David Sedney, a veteran diplomat and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia. “It took us 20 years before we were able to engage in Vietnam in a productive way,” he told VOA. 

Scott Worden, who heads the Afghanistan and Central Asia programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, thinks that Central Asian governments overestimate Washington’s leverage. 

“There are a lot of issues in the world that have to be addressed simultaneously,” he noted in an interview with VOA. “They [the U.S.] are balancing the leverage that they have against issues that are manageable and maybe achievable versus ones like women’s rights, which I think the administration cares strongly about.” 

“It’s just a really tough situation,” Worden added. “In my view, you should not condition humanitarian assistance. Any economic sanctions wind up hurting the Afghans that we want to support. It’s a difficult balance, and so I don’t think there is any obvious additional tool or leverage that could be deployed that they’re withholding.” 

Some Western nations including the United States, however, have filtered humanitarian aid programs through partner organizations that circumvent Taliban officials and deliver aid directly to Afghan civilians.

According to USAID, the U.S. supplied nearly $81 million in Afghan humanitarian aid in fiscal year 2024, and has supplied total funding for Afghanistan of “more than $2 billion since August 2021 … including more than $1.5 billion in [USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance] funding and nearly $550 million in [the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration] funding.”

“Provided through international partners on the ground,” says USAID, this assistance helps “meet the needs of the most vulnerable through food and cash support, nutrition, health care, protection for women and children, and agricultural inputs to support Afghans in meeting their immediate food needs.” 

Like Sedney, Worden suggests being realistic. “There is ample opportunity for the U.S. and other international partners to talk to the Taliban when they want to.” 

“This is all part of a very difficult global conversation,” he said. 

But for Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, known for advocating closer ties with the region, Afghanistan is “utterly ignored right now.” 

Starr emphasizes that this country is critical for regional integration and stability, two goals the U.S. has long vowed to support. 

Sedney observes that “not many people want to talk about Afghanistan,” not just in Washington but in other Western capitals as well. 

Speaking last week at the American Foreign Policy Council, these experts stressed that America’s two decades of involvement in Afghanistan left it with an obligation to go beyond the status quo. 

Starr approves of the steps Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have taken with Afghanistan, particularly regarding commerce, energy supply and water resources. 

Other observers, however, warn about tensions between the Taliban and Tajikistan, which officially supports the National Resistance Front, an armed alliance of anti-Taliban forces that is loyal to the previous regime and carries out guerrilla attacks in Afghanistan. Dushanbe continues to host the previous government’s ambassador. 

Worden identifies several key interests and objectives for Washington, most of which align with those of the region. The first and most important objective is counterterrorism, ensuring that Afghan territory is never again used to launch attacks on the U.S. or its allies. 

Others include negotiations on American hostages; the evacuation of Afghans that the U.S. promised to help following its withdrawal; women’s rights and other human rights; humanitarian assistance; and economic development. 

Perhaps the most abstract interest, according to Worden, “is trying to maintain an international diplomatic consensus on the broad conditions and expectations that we have for the Taliban, which include in the endgame a more inclusive society that is not a threat to itself and for its neighbors as well as these U.S. interests.” 

“It’s remarkable that no country in the world has recognized the Taliban,” he said, adding, however, that he sees a divergence between Western-allied emphasis on human rights and women’s rights and the neighboring countries’ economic and security concerns. 

In Worden’s view, the U.S. is pursuing a policy of “quiet engagement” on humanitarian assistance and counterterrorism. At the same time, there is a firm position of non-recognition and not wanting to legitimize the Taliban. 

“Can this dualism sustain over time?” asked Worden, who also sees a cleavage developing, where countries in the region will over time increase engagement with those in power in Afghanistan to achieve their economic and security interests. “Not that they like the Taliban, but they feel like talking to them is better than not.” 

Regardless of who inhabits the White House next January, Worden doubts that U.S. attention toward Afghanistan will increase unless there is an “acute crisis.” 

Republicans tend to “prefer coercion to engagement when you’re talking about regimes that we don’t have much in common with,” he said. “So yes, there is the wild card of potentially making a great deal, but I think the odds of support for armed opposition would increase.” 

U.S.-based Afghan journalist Samy Mahdi, who runs Amu Television out of Virginia, points out that the Taliban enjoy close relations with America’s adversaries, such as Iran, Russia and China. He argues that U.S. assistance has brought about minimum results, and that the Taliban is as radical and dangerous as it was in the 1990s. 

Mahdi recommends a full review of U.S. policy. 

“More communication and transparency are needed on Afghanistan,” he said at the American Foreign Policy Council forum. “We don’t hear much from the U.S. administration about Afghanistan.”
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State Department  — While Washington and Beijing are divided over a range of thorny issues, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his second visit to China this week focusing first on the importance of direct engagement. It is something, he says, that is essential for addressing key issues affecting people from both countries and the world. 

People-to-people ties 

In a relaxed setting Wednesday, amid efforts to strengthen people-to-people ties, Blinken attended a playoff game between the Chinese Basketball Association’s Shanghai Sharks and Zhejiang Golden Bulls. 

Earlier, a crowd of people gathered to watch as the motorcade of the U.S. delegation left its hotel for a local eatery, the Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant. There were more onlookers who gathered when Blinken sat at a table in the restaurant’s gallery, which overlooks a courtyard. 

Blinken said on social media that his “intensive face-to-face diplomacy” with officials from the People’s Republic of China is part of an “ongoing, direct engagement” that is “vital for making progress on issues that matter most to the American people and the world.” 

In Beijing, Chinese officials said Blinken’s visit is part of the ongoing efforts of both nations to maintain dialogue, manage differences, promote cooperation, and enhance coordination in international affairs.

Potential sanctions on Chinese banks

The United States has warned China against its support for Russia in its war on Ukraine, as Chinese firms directly supply crucial components to Russia’s defense industry. This month, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven jointly called on China to cease transferring dual-use materials and weapons components aiding Russia’s military production.

A senior State Department official told VOA that the United States is “prepared to take steps” when necessary against Chinese firms that “severely undermine security in both Ukraine and Europe.” But he declined to give any details about those potential further U.S. sanctions.  

What is clear is that the United States is considering sanctioning Chinese banks that facilitate the transfer of those materials.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said Washington stands ready to impose sanctions on Chinese banks and companies and Beijing’s leadership if they assist Russia’s military in its invasion of Ukraine. 

Officials in China have dismissed Washington’s concerns. 

“We firmly oppose the U.S.’s hypocritical moves of fanning the flames while deflecting the blame on China. China’s right to normal trade and economic cooperation with Russia and all other countries should not be violated. We will firmly safeguard our lawful rights and interests,” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a briefing this week. 

Counternarcotics 

China-based companies remain the largest source of precursor chemicals used to manufacture illicit fentanyl that affects the United States. 

Immediately after U.S. President Joe Biden’s face-to-face talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Woodsides, California, in November, the Beijing government started to take action to curtail the flow of fentanyl precursors and equipment. 

For the first time in nearly three years, China submitted information related to 145 incidents to the International Narcotics Control Board’s global IONICS database, which supports global law enforcement coordination efforts to disrupt illicit synthetic drug supply chains, according to the State Department. 

While the initial Chinese actions were a positive step, Washington underscored the need for continued and sustained progress.

China can strengthen coordination with the U.S. and other international partners with law enforcement information sharing, regular contributions to international databases tracking synthetic drug threats, and monitoring emerging trends, said the U.S. State Department. 

Level 3: Reconsider travel to China 

Despite the increase of commercial flights between the United States and China, the U.S. government has advised Americans to reconsider travel to China due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions. 

The State Department also advised Americans to exercise increased caution when traveling to Hong Kong and Macao due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws.

A senior State Department official downplayed the possibility of immediately easing warnings by lowering the travel advisory from level 3 to level 2 for China.

“We’ll, of course, re-evaluate and, as appropriate, adjust. But really, this is a pretty rigorous process,” said the official during a recent briefing.

The senior official said Washington has raised concerns with Chinese counterparts regarding specific cases of detentions and exit bans, as well as the opaque and arbitrary application of certain national security laws.

To “ensure the safety and security of American citizens” traveling abroad is among the most important responsibilities of the U.S. government, said the official.

In Beijing, Chinese officials criticized the U.S. State Department’s travel warning, calling it “unwarranted” and the “stumbling block” in people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. They urged the U.S. to revise the advisory level “as soon as possible.”
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In a dramatic surge, U.S. border patrol authorities detained more than 24,000 Chinese citizens crossing the southern border in fiscal year 2023, a 12-fold increase from the previous year. Many come seeking asylum, and among those that do, a small group of China’s ethnic Hui Muslims stands out. Aron Ranen brings us the story from the Big Apple.
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When a person dies, it often falls to their children, loved ones, lawyers or even friends to sort through the things they’ve left behind. Sometimes, those things are unfinished projects or hobbies, that’s where the group Loose Ends comes in. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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