Category: Новини

Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his resignation Tuesday, the day after the United States pledged another $100 million to a United Nations-backed multinational security force intended to assist Haitian police in combating gangs, along with $33 million in humanitarian aid. VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching reports.
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Critical funds to counter China in the Pacific are finally approved for three U.S. allies: Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Over the weekend, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law $7 billion over 20 years in funding for the Compacts of Free Association as part of a partial government funding bill. VOA’s Jessica Stone reports. Camera: Jessica Stone, Greg Harong
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to approve legislation Wednesday that would force the popular TikTok video app to either separate from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance or sell the U.S. version of the software.

The bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act “gives TikTok six months to eliminate foreign adversary control — which would include ByteDance divesting its current ownership — to remain available in the United States,” said Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the committee.

“All TikTok would have to do is separate from CCP-controlled ByteDance. However, if TikTok chose not to rid itself of this CCP control, the application would no longer be offered in U.S. app stores. But TikTok would have no one but itself to blame,” the lawmakers said in a prepared statement.

Here’s what we know about the legislation and what happens next in the U.S. Senate.

Why is TikTok under scrutiny?

“The concern is that TikTok could transfer personal information to its parent company ByteDance, who in turn could transfer it to the Chinese government,” Caitlin Chin-Rothmann, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA.

Chin-Rothmann said concerns by some members of Congress about the Chinese Communist Party potentially controlling TikTok’s algorithm for propaganda purposes have not yet been proven.

“That’s not to say that, in the future, there’s not a risk that the Chinese government could exert pressure,” she said.

What does TikTok say about the legislation?

TikTok on Monday called the legislation a “ban” and has repeatedly denied the allegations against it. In a statement last week on X, formerly Twitter, the company said the “legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States.”

How do lawmakers view the legislation?

The bill has strong support from House Democrats and Republicans, despite congressional offices receiving floods of phone calls from Americans concerned about losing access to the social media app.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters last week, “It’s an important bipartisan measure to take on China, our largest geopolitical foe, which is actively undermining our economy and security.”

What about the Senate?

The bill could face a much harder road to passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said it will face consideration in the appropriate committees.

“I will listen to their views on the bill and determine the best path,” Schumer said in a statement.

Some Senate Democrats, including Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, have expressed doubts about the legality of singling out a social media app in legislation. He has introduced alternative legislation more broadly targeting apps that collect personal data.

But Warner told CBS News on Sunday that the TikTok app is a serious national security concern.

“If you don’t think the Chinese Communist Party can twist that algorithm to make it the news that they see reflective of their views, then I don’t think you appreciate the nature of the threat,” Warner said.

How do the leading 2024 presidential candidates feel about the bill?

The White House said it welcomes the legislation, even though the Biden campaign joined TikTok recently as an effort to reach out to younger voters.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the bill ensures “ownership isn’t in the hands of those who may do us harm.”

Former President Donald Trump — who initially called for a ban of the app in 2020 — has now changed course, arguing that Facebook will be empowered if TikTok is no longer available.

“There’s a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you’re going to make Facebook bigger,” the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee told U.S. cable network CNBC in a phone interview this week.

What happens once the bill passes the House?

Apart from constitutional concerns over preventing U.S. citizens from exercising their right to free speech, the bill could also be difficult to legally enforce and face challenges in U.S. courts.

“Chinese export control laws could potentially prevent the sale of TikTok’s algorithm,” Chin-Rothmann said. “A divestiture would be very logistically difficult, in general. TikTok is one of the largest companies in the world. So, any buyer would have to be very large, as well. They would have to have a strategic interest in purchasing TikTok, and then the merger would have to not raise antitrust concerns in the United States.”
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Washington — The U.S. prosecutor who sparked a political firestorm last month with a report saying President Joe Biden had a “poor memory” appeared before a congressional committee on Tuesday to defend his assessment.

Special Counsel Robert Hur arrived to speak to the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, which has been one of the panels conducting an impeachment inquiry into Biden, 81.

“My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur said in his prepared opening statement. “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the President unfairly. I explained to the Attorney General my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.”

A transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden reviewed by Reuters, conducted last October as Biden grappled with the fallout from Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on Israel, showed that the president brought up the issue of his memory first.

“I’m a young man, so it’s not a problem,” Biden, 81, said jokingly to Hur when the prosecutor said he’d be asking questions about events that happened years earlier, the transcript showed.

Hur appears in Congress the week after Biden made a fiery State of the Union speech that signaled an aggressive start to the Democratic president’s reelection campaign, a rematch with Republican predecessor Donald Trump.

Hur’s employment at the Justice Department ended on Monday, the department said.

His report said he would not seek charges against Biden for retaining classified documents after leaving office as vice president in 2017, but drew anger from the White House for its depiction of Biden.

“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” the report said.

Biden, the oldest person to hold the office of the U.S. president in history, lashed out against the characterization in public remarks, saying his memory was fine, and Vice President Kamala Harris called the report politically motivated.

Trump, 77, is facing multiple criminal prosecutions, including one over his own mishandling of classified documents and is set to face off with Biden in November’s presidential election.  

Trump and allies have accused the Justice Department of having a double standard, but prosecutors said Trump actively obstructed their search for the documents and did not cooperate with the investigation into them. Hur said Biden was generally cooperative with the probe.

Hur was appointed as a U.S. attorney by Trump and made special counsel by Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland after Biden’s documents surfaced.

House Republicans have requested underlying documents related to the probe, but have said the Justice Department has not complied.

House Republicans allege that Biden and his family improperly profited from policy decisions Biden participated in as vice president in 2009-17, though they have so far not released any evidence showing that Biden benefited financially. The White House has denied wrongdoing.

House Republicans have invited Biden’s son Hunter Biden to a public hearing on March 20, but it is not clear whether the younger Biden will participate.
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In its annual global threats assessment report Monday, the U.S. intelligence community told lawmakers that the war in Ukraine is at a turning point whose outcome will depend on American assistance. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from the Senate, where lawmakers called on the House to take up the $95 billion foreign aid bill.
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WASHINGTON — The frozen military conflict between Ukraine and Russia is starting to thaw and will likely tilt in Moscow’s favor if the United States fails to quickly come through with additional military aid, according to top U.S. intelligence officials, in a grim assessment delivered to U.S. lawmakers.

Monday’s warning comes nearly a month after the U.S. Senate voted in favor of a stand-alone foreign aid bill that would send $60 billion in aid to Ukraine as it tries to hold on to territorial gains more than two years after Russian forces invaded.

But the lawmakers in the House of Representatives have refused to bring the bill up for a vote, leaving other Western nations scrambling to provide Ukraine with enough weapons and ammunition to hold off a renewed Russian offensive.

The $60 billion “is absolutely critical to Ukraine’s defense right now,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“Ukraine’s retreat from Avdiivka and their struggle to stave off further territorial losses in the past few weeks have exposed the erosion of Ukraine’s military capabilities with the declining availability of external military aid,” she said. “Without that assistance, it is hard to imagine how Ukraine will be able to maintain the extremely hard-fought advances it has made against the Russians.”

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency told lawmakers the war is at a crossroads, and that what happens next likely hinges on the provision of U.S. aid.

“The Ukrainians are not running out of courage and tenacity. They’re running out of ammunition,” said the CIA’s William Burns. “And we’re running out of time to help them.”

Both Haines and Burns reiterated previous assessments: that up until now, Ukraine’s military has inflicted serious damage on Russia’s forces.

U.S. officials believe at least 315,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded, and that two-thirds of Russia’s prewar tank inventory has been destroyed. The Russian military, which had been undergoing a modernization program, has been set back years.

Russia’s invasion has also served to galvanize the West, with Sweden and Finland joining the NATO military alliance.

But Haines and Burns told lawmakers that none of those strategic defeats have managed to change the calculus of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Putin continues to judge that time is on his side,” Haines said, cautioning that the Russian leader is as entrenched as ever.

“He continues to see NATO enlargement and Western support for Ukraine as reinforcing his long-held belief that the United States and Europe seek to restrict Russian power and undermine him,” she said, telling lawmakers that Putin’s response has been to push ahead with efforts to grow the Russian military, pouring more money into ammunition production and into the purchase of military supplies from Iran and North Korea.

U.S. intelligence officials also see signs Putin is continuing to move forward with plans to modernize and fortify Russia’s nuclear weapons arsenal, already thought to be the largest and most diverse in the world.

And there are signs that Russia is willing to take chances to gain an advantage.

“We remain concerned that Moscow will put at risk long-standing global norms against the use of asymmetric or strategically destabilizing weapons, including in space and in the cyber domain,” Haines said.

Some lawmakers echoed the concerns, urging colleagues to pass the legislation to get Ukraine the military supplies it needs.

“My fear is the decision thus far by the House of Representatives not to even take up legislation that would support Ukraine in the fight against Putin aggression has been one of the most short-sighted decisions on a national security issue that I can possibly imagine,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, a Democrat.

“The impact and long-term consequences of us abandoning Ukraine … it’s a 50-year mistake that would haunt this country,” added independent Senator Angus King.

And U.S. intelligence officials warned of a cascading global impact if the additional aid for Ukraine fails to materialize.

“The consequence of that will not just be for Ukraine or for European security but across the Indo-Pacific,” said the CIA’s Burns. “If we’re seen to be walking away from Ukraine, not only is that going to feed doubts amongst our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, it’s going to stoke the ambitions of the Chinese leadership in contingencies ranging from Taiwan to the South China Sea.”

The intelligence officials said while China remains wary, for now, it has been emboldened by Russia.

In particular, the intelligence officials said Russia was forced to grant China some long-sought concessions in exchange for support for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Iran and North Korea have likewise benefited, they said, warning the impact remains to be seen.

The changing dynamics have “the potential to undermine, among other things, long-held nonproliferation norms,” Haines said.

But she added that while Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are growing closer, the prospects for a true alliance are, for now, remote.

“Parochial interests, a desire to avoid entanglements, and weariness of harm and instability from each other’s actions will likely limit their cooperation … absent direct conflict between one of these countries and the United States,” Haines said.

Israel – Gaza

The U.S. intelligence officials also addressed concerns about the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where Israeli forces continue to pursue fighters of the Hamas terror group despite warnings from the United Nations and aid groups about the devastating impact on civilians.

“We’re going to continue to work hard at this — I don’t think anybody can guarantee success,” the CIA’s Burns told lawmakers when asked about ongoing efforts to get a temporary cease-fire.

Burn recently traveled to the Middle East to meet with officials from Israel, Egypt and Qatar.

He said the deal currently under consideration would provide for the return of about 40 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, most of them wounded or ill women or older men, in exchange for a six-week-long cease-fire that would allow the U.S. and its allies to surge in desperately needed aid.

“I understand Israel’s need, and the president [Joe Biden] has emphasized this, to respond to the brutish attack that Israelis suffered on the 7th of October [by Hamas],” Burns told Republican Senator Tom Cotton.

“But I think we all also have to be mindful of the, you know, enormous toll that this has taken on innocent civilians in Gaza,” he added.

Gaza fallout

Haines further warned lawmakers that the crisis in Gaza has “galvanized violence by a range of actors,” and that it “is likely that the Gaza conflict will have a generational impact on terrorism.”

But Haines said for now, Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, appear reluctant to try to push too hard to manipulate the fighting for their benefit.

“We continue to assess that Hezbollah and Iran do not want to cause an escalation of the conflict that pulls us or them into a full-out war,” she said.

Still, Haines acknowledged other Iranian-linked groups, like the Houthis in Yemen, have become “aggressive actors,” launching dozens of attacks on international shipping.

Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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STATE DEPARTMENT — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Monday the United States would commit an additional $100 million to a United Nations-backed multinational security force intended to assist Haitian police in combating gangs, along with $33 million in humanitarian aid.

This would bring the total of U.S. contribution to the security force to $300 million.

In February, the United States pledged $200 million to support the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, or MSS, in Haiti. The U.S. said that the deployment of the mission will help the Haitian National Police create the security conditions necessary to conduct free and fair elections.

Monday, Blinken joined Caribbean leaders in Kingston, Jamaica, to discuss a proposal to “expedite a political transition” to resolve the unfolding crisis in Haiti, including possible deployment of the U.N.-backed multinational security forces.

The proposal, developed in partnership with the Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, and Haitian stakeholders, comes as Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry faces pressure to resign or agree to a transitional council.

According to a statement by U.S. officials, the transition would occur via “the creation of a broad-based, independent presidential college,” a reference to a proposed committee that would oversee Haiti ahead of elections.

In Kingston, Blinken said that the Haitian people are confronting “a political crisis, escalating violence, unrest,” an “untenable situation” that requires urgent action both politically and in terms of security.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told VOA that the United States aims to accelerate the deployment of the U.N.-backed mission U.N. Multinational Security Support, or MSS, mission in Haiti, because escalating gang violence is endangering its government.

“We continue to look to expedite that mission as soon as possible,” Miller said during a Monday briefing, adding the U.S. has been in conversation about the deployment with the government of Kenya and other countries.

“I can assure you that the United States will do its part to fund that important mission,” Miller said.

UN reaction

At the United Nations, all 15 U.N. Security Council members strongly condemned “the increasing violence, criminal activities, mass displacement of civilians and human rights abuses” in a Monday statement.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ chief of staff is representing the U.N. at the CARICOM meeting in Kingston.

“The MSS mission is a critical step toward creating an environment conducive to free and fair elections, as well as alleviating the humanitarian crisis,” said U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

The expedient MSS deployment is a top priority for U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, she said.

Canada has committed $91.2 million, and others, including Benin, France, Germany, Jamaica and Spain, have announced financial, personnel and logistical support.

Sunday, the U.S. military airlifted nonessential embassy personnel from Haiti and deployed additional U.S. forces to reinforce embassy security. This operation is in response to escalating gang violence that has prompted hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and threatens to bring down the government.

The State Department said the security situation in Haiti is “unpredictable and dangerous,” and the U.S. Embassy’s ability to assist U.S. citizens is “severely limited.”

 

The State Department’s travel advisory for Haiti has remained at Level Four — do not travel to Haiti — since July 2023.

“U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince has been on Ordered Departure status since July 27, 2023. Adjustments during this time are not uncommon, nor do they represent a change in our overall posture,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

Concerns from critics

Some critics note that while both Democratic and Republican lawmakers support ensuring a more stable Haiti, some are concerned about the Biden administration’s policy toward the nation.

Ana Rosa Quintana-Lovett, a senior policy director for the Vandenberg Coalition think tank in Washington, said Haiti’s political future is not being driven by Haitians but rather by the international donor community.

She told VOA Monday that Haitian Prime Minister Henry’s “leadership is untenable” and that Henry fails to grasp that he does not have the support of the Haitian people.

“The United States needs to understand that whatever diplomatic messages they are publicly releasing, frankly, are falling on (Henry’s) deaf ears,” she added.

She also pointed out congressional concerns over proposed Kenyan-led multinational forces. “Kenyan forces don’t speak Creole, so how are they going to engage and work with the Haitian National Police? I mean, there are just so many loopholes in the approach,” she said.

Dire situation

Haiti declared a state of emergency on March 3, following attacks by gangs on the main prisons in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Prime Minister Henry was in Kenya at the time, finalizing a deal for a U.N.-supported peacekeeping mission aimed at addressing Haiti’s gang violence.

The gangs demanded Henry’s resignation. He is reportedly stranded in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

Amid escalating gang violence in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian government extended the state of emergency until April 3, and the nighttime curfew until Monday.

According to the International Organization for Migration’s office in Haiti, the violence perpetrated by armed gangs has forced over 360,000 people across Haiti to flee their homes.

UNICEF has warned that critical social services in Haiti are on the verge of collapse, and that the humanitarian response that millions of children and civilians rely on as a last resort has been severely impaired.

Political transition process

Henry was appointed, not elected, after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Henry had initially promised to step down by early February but later said security must be reestablished first to conduct free and fair elections.

On February 29, CARICOM said the Haitian prime minister had committed to organizing general elections by August 31, 2025. CARICOM stated its intention to send an assessment team by March 31 of this year to evaluate electoral needs, aiming to support the planning and establishment of relevant institutions.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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pentagon — The Pentagon has a funding shortfall of about $10 billion for U.S. military weapons needed to replace those already sent to Ukraine, a shortfall that requires additional money from Congress to fix, top Defense Department officials said Monday.

“We are probably looking at about $10 billion to replace everything, everything that we’ve given in terms of supplies to Ukraine,” one official told VOA.

“We don’t foresee a likely alternative outside of the supplemental funding [bill] or having that money added into an appropriations bill in order to achieve the replenishment that we need,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told reporters.

Pentagon officials expected to get the funding to replenish those stocks in a supplemental request from the Biden administration, which included billions of additional dollars in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. However, Congress has yet to pass a supplemental aid bill because of arguments on spending and U.S. border security.

The shortfall is tied to the way the Pentagon has accounted for the aid sent to Ukraine. Last June, the Pentagon said it overestimated the value of weapons sent to Ukraine by about $6.2 billion over the past two years.

When calculating its aid package estimates, the Department of Defense was counting the cost incurred to replace the weapons given to Ukraine, while it said it should have been totaling the cost of the systems actually sent, officials told VOA at the time.

The error provided the Pentagon the legal cover needed to send more aid to Ukraine, but the problem remained that more funds would be needed to replenish U.S. military stockpiles with newer, costlier weapons.

Failing to replenish U.S. stockpiles would negatively affect the military’s readiness, another defense official told VOA.

The department still has about $4 billion in authority to send aid to Ukraine, but Pentagon officials have told reporters that sending additional aid without the ability to replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles would be a risk the Defense Department is not willing to take at this time.

But Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a defense analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA there are key weapons the U.S. could send Kyiv without compromising military readiness, “because the Army no longer needs them.”

One weapon would be 155-millimeter cluster munitions, which Montgomery says the U.S. doesn’t use in combat planning.

“That would give 155-mm ammunition to the Ukrainians very quickly,” he said.

Another weapon that could be immediately sent without incurring a cost on U.S. military readiness would be M113 armored vehicles.

“We have thousands of them that we’re getting rid of. We could transfer these to Ukraine,” he told VOA.
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