Author: PolitCens

On Wednesday the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it would implement new export controls on certain biotechnology equipment, citing national security concerns relating to artificial intelligence and data science.

The Commerce Department warned that China could use the biotech equipment’s technology to bolster its military capabilities and help design new weapons using artificial intelligence.

The department said the technology has many applications, including its ability to be used for “human performance enhancement, brain-machine interfaces, biologically inspired synthetic materials and possibly biological weapons.”

The sanctions effectively restrict shipments of the technology to countries without a U.S. license, such as China.

The controls apply to parameter flow cytometers and certain mass spectrometry equipment, which according to the Commerce Department, can “generate high-quality, high-content biological data, including that which is suitable for use to facilitate the development of AI and biological design tools.”

Last week, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Beijing “firmly opposes any country’s development, possession or use of biological weapons.”

This latest move by the United States follows recent policy decisions that reflect Washington’s broad aim to limit Beijing’s access to U.S. technology and data.

Washington announced on Monday that it would tighten Beijing’s access to AI chip and technology exports by implementing new regulations that cap the number of chips that can be exported to certain countries, including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

This month, the ban on popular Chinese-owned social media TikTok is planned to go into effect due to U.S. concerns over its potential to share sensitive data with China’s government.
…

Russia’s nearly three-year invasion of Ukraine has become a “war of attrition” and a “stalemate” that must be ended, Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of state, told senators at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. 

Rubio broke from the passive stance of the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden, which has said it was up to Kyiv to decide under what terms it would be open to peace talks with Moscow. In the meantime, the U.S., along with its European allies, has continued to send billions of dollars of armaments to Ukraine to continue the fight. 

Rubio instead said the first step in ending the war should be a ceasefire that halts ground fighting, which has for more than a year mostly occurred in eastern Ukraine. However, ongoing fighting is also raging in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine captured in August, even as Moscow has attempted to retake it with the help of North Korean troops. 

Both countries also target each other daily with aerial strikes, drones and missiles, with thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed in the Russian attacks, along with vast numbers of both countries’ troops. 

“This war has to end,” he said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

Rubio called the destruction in Ukraine “extraordinary,” saying it will “take a generation to rebuild.” 

But even as he argued for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting that started with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Rubio said it was unlikely that there would be much change in the current battle lines. Russia currently holds about a fifth of the internationally recognized Ukrainian land mass. 

“The truth of the matter is that in this conflict, there is no way Russia takes all of Ukraine,” Rubio said. “It’s also unrealistic to believe that somehow, a nation the size of Ukraine, no matter how incompetent and no matter how much damage the Russian Federation has suffered as a result of this invasion, there’s no way Ukraine is also going to push these people all the way back to where they were on the eve of the invasion.” 

Democrats, and some Republicans on the committee, continued to voice their support for more military aid to Ukraine, saying it was important to give Kyiv leverage in any eventual peace talks with Moscow. 

But Rubio said that one of Ukraine’s key problems was not a shortage of ammunition or money but its inability to train and recruit enough troops. 

“The problem that Ukraine is facing is not that they’re running out of money, [it] is that they’re running out of Ukrainians,” he said. 

Trump has voiced skepticism of continued U.S. military support for Kyiv and repeatedly vowed that he would end the war before he assumed the presidency on Jan. 20. 

In recent days, his aides have said the new timeline is ending the war in the first 100 days of his administration, which would be by the end of April. 

On the battlefront, officials in western Ukraine said Wednesday that a Russian missile attack hit critical infrastructure facilities in the Lviv region, part of a series of attacks that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said included more than 40 missiles and 70 drones. 

Zelenskyy said Russia’s targets included “gas and energy facilities that sustain normal life for our people,” but that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 30 of the missiles.  

“Thanks to our air defense forces and all involved units, we’ve managed to maintain the functionality of our energy system,” Zelenskyy said. “However, we must continue strengthening the capabilities of Ukraine’s air shield. Promises made by partners at the NATO summit in Washington and within the Ramstein format still remain partially unfulfilled.”  

Ukraine’s military issued air alerts for regions across the country Wednesday, while the national power grid operator instituted power cuts in six regions.   

Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram that Russian forces attacked overnight with drones and missiles, with fragments from destroyed drones damaging two houses.   

In Dnipropetrovsk, Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram that Russian attacks included artillery, drones and missiles that damaged an industrial site.   

Kirovohrad Governor Andriy Raikovich reported on Telegram what he described as a massive Russian drone attack that damaged several residential buildings.     

Officials in the Rivne region also said Russian missiles targeted the area overnight.   

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed two Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod area and another drone over the Tambov region.   

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian attacks injured one person, while Tambov Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov reported damage to a house.   

Some information for this story came from Reuters.
…

Hundreds of thousands in Southern California faced new threats of fire-spreading high winds on Wednesday as firefighters continued to fight wildfires that have killed at least 25 people and left nearly 30 missing.

A day after firefighters got a reprieve with lighter winds than expected, gusts were hitting up to 56 kilometers per hour on the Pacific coast and 88 kilometers per hour in the mountains before dawn, National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall said.

“This is really just the last push of these winds here today,” Hall said. “Hopefully, if we get through today, we’re going to have some better conditions for late week, especially into Friday and Saturday.”

The National Weather Service issued a high-level “particularly dangerous situation” warning through 3 p.m. local time Wednesday and extended a red-flag warning through Thursday for some areas north of the city.

“Please stay on guard for a fast-moving fire,” forecasters said.

On Tuesday, weaker-than-expected winds had allowed firefighters to make some progress in containing the two largest blazes, the Palisades and Eaton fires, but they were far from fully controlled. Authorities said that the Palisades blaze was 19% contained and the Eaton fire 45%.

But no more homes or major structures were reported burning in the two blazes, although officials said embers could still be lingering unseen and that it could take weeks to fully extinguish them.

The wildfires, which ignited on January 7, have displaced more than 100,000 people and left thousands more on edge, wondering whether they could be forced to evacuate their homes and flee for safety on a moment’s notice. More than 82,000 people in Los Angeles County are under evacuation orders, with another 90,400 under evacuation warnings, county Sheriff Robert Luna told reporters.

Diminishing winds will likely make it easier for firefighters to gain control of the blazes, though meteorologists have warned the dangerous Santa Ana windstorms may return early next week. Weather forecasts show little to no chance of rain.

Utility companies have shut off power to more than 77,000 households to prevent their power lines from sparking new blazes.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told reporters she took an aerial tour of the affected areas on Monday.

“The massive, massive destruction is unimaginable until you actually see it,” Bass said.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden gives his farewell address from the Oval Office Wednesday evening, five days before he ends his term and President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. 

In a letter released Wednesday morning, Biden reflected on how his administration began in the shadows of COVID-19 and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters intent on overturning the result of the 2020 election that Biden won. 

“Four years ago, we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities,” he said in the letter. “But we came together as Americans, and we braved through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.” 

The president’s farewell address comes a day after Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted Trump on charges of illegally trying to cling to power after the 2020 election, released his final report. Smith’s report said that the evidence would have been sufficient to convict the president-elect in a trial, had his 2024 election victory not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue.   

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and attacked the special counsel’s work as politically motivated. 

Biden’s speech follows remarks he made Monday at the U.S. State Department defending his foreign policy record and will be his fifth and final formal address from the Oval Office. In his previous Oval Office address six months ago, Biden explained his decision to step aside and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, to run against Trump in the 2024 election. 

Biden reflected on the “battle for the soul of America” framework that he campaigned on in 2020 when he won against Trump.   

“I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake,” Biden wrote, arguing that is still the case and that America is an idea based on the belief that “we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  

“We’ve never fully lived up to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either,” he said. “And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.” 

Biden’s legacy 

Biden is leaving office with a 39% approval rating, according to Gallup. He has been using the final weeks of his administration to cement his legacy.  

Thomas Schwartz, presidential historian from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said that Biden’s legacy will be affected by how Trump governs in the next four years. 

“If Trump ends up being a disaster … either ushering economic chaos, or if there’s more world chaos from conflicts, Biden will be remembered more favorably,” he told VOA. “If Trump really proves to be as dangerous to democratic norms as Biden and the Democrats suggested, then I think he may be seen as very prophetic.” 

Conversely, by inheriting a strong economy and a winding down of U.S. foreign entanglements, Trump has the potential to become a president in the caliber of Ronald Reagan, Schwartz said. In which case Biden will be noted by historians for his legislative achievements but “won’t be remembered as fondly.” 

The White House also released an extensive fact sheet detailing the Biden-Harris administration’s achievements domestically and abroad.  

The sheet highlighted “historic” economic progress that added 16.6 million jobs, grew the GDP by 12.6% and raised median household wealth by 37%. It underscored investments in infrastructure, clean energy, and semiconductors through Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act.  

The White House argued that through targeted relief and fair taxation, the Biden administration rebuilt a “stronger, fairer economy,” creating opportunity from the bottom up. 

On the foreign policy front, the administration insists it is leaving the incoming Trump administration with a “very strong hand to play.” 

“We’re leaving an America with more friends and stronger alliances, whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure,” the president said in his foreign policy address Monday, “an America that once again is leading, uniting countries, setting the agenda, bringing others together behind our plans and visions.” 

The president again defended his decision to withdraw the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021. Republicans and some Democrats have criticized the manner with which Biden ended America’s longest war as chaotic, costing the lives of 13 service members and dozens of Afghan civilians in a terrorist attack in Kabul. 

Biden said in the letter it has been “the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years.” 

“Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States,” he added. “I have given my heart and my soul to our nation. And I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people.” 

Asked about his post-presidency role, Biden last week said, “I’m not going to be out of sight or out of mind.”
…

Michael Carpenter, director for Europe at the National Security Council, spoke with VOA, defending the Biden administration’s policies on Ukraine, stating they were undeterred by Russia’s nuclear threats, and attributing Ukraine’s lack of success in regaining lost territories to manpower shortages. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. (Camera: Anne-Marie Fendrick)
…

Washington — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is promising to implement President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First” vision as secretary of state, vowing in his confirmation hearing Wednesday that the incoming administration will forge a new path by placing American interests “above all else.” 

“Placing our core national interests above all else is not isolationism,” Rubio will tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to an opening statement obtained by The Associated Press. “It is the commonsense realization that a foreign policy centered on our national interest is not some outdated relic.” 

“The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us,” Rubio says. 

It’s a remarkable opening salvo from Rubio, who was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants, and who, if confirmed, would become the first Latino ever to serve as the nation’s top diplomat. 

The confirmation hearing begins a new chapter in the political career of the 53-year-old Florida Republican, whose relationship with Trump has evolved over the last decade. Once rivals trading schoolyard insults as they campaigned for president in 2016, the two men became close allies as Trump campaigned for another White House term last year. 

Rubio first came to Washington as part of the “tea party” wave in 2010 and once advocated for allowing a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. But like other Republicans, Rubio’s views on immigration have shifted toward the hardline stance of Trump, who has pledged to aggressively pursue deportations once he takes office on Monday. 

Unlike many of Trump’s Cabinet selections, Rubio is expected to easily win confirmation, notching support not only from Republicans but also Democrats who endorse him as a “responsible” pick to represent the U.S. abroad. Many expect he will be among the first of Trump’s Cabinet picks approved. 

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, who served alongside Rubio on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he has high hopes that the Florida Republican will reject the isolationist approach of other Trump allies. 

“I think Marco is a hawk, but he’s also an internationalist, and I think the challenge for him will be to maintain the long bipartisan tradition of America being indispensable in world affairs,” the Hawaii lawmaker told AP. “And there are people in the Trump world who want us to run away from being the leaders of the free world. And I’m hoping that Marco’s instincts towards American strength will win the day.” 

Rubio’s approach to foreign affairs is grounded in his years of service on the Foreign Relations committee and the Senate Intelligence panel. In his speeches and writings, he’s delivered increasingly stern warnings about growing military and economic threats to the United States, particularly from China, which he says has benefited from a “global world order” that he characterizes as obsolete. 

China, Rubio will tell the committee, has “lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, at our expense.” 

If confirmed, Rubio will become the leader of U.S. foreign policy — though his role will surely remain secondary to Trump, who relishes the global stage and frequently uses the bully pulpit against America’s allies. 

Even before taking office, Trump has stirred angst in foreign capitals by threatening to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland and suggesting he will pressure Canada to become the nation’s 51st state. 

By winning another term, Trump has won an “unmistakable mandate from the voters,” Rubio will say. 

“They want a strong America. Engaged in the world. But guided by a clear objective, to promote peace abroad, and security and prosperity here at home.” 

A Biden administration decision to rescind Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism with just days left in office is likely to irk Rubio, who has long supported tough sanctions on the communist-run island. 

Rubio’s office did not respond to multiple queries Tuesday about the senator’s reaction to the move, which many believe will almost certainly be reversed by the Trump administration. 

Secretaries of state have played a key role in formulating the foreign policy of the country since its founding, starting with the first one, Thomas Jefferson, who served in the top Cabinet position under President George Washington. 

Since then, Jefferson, as well as his 19th century successors James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren and James Buchanan, have all gone on to be elected president. 

More recent secretaries of state have been less successful in their political ambitions, including John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election to President George W. Bush before becoming the top diplomat, and Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump. 

The most successful secretaries of state have been known for their closeness to the presidents whom they serve, notably James Baker under George H.W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice under George W. Bush and, to some extent, Clinton under Barack Obama. 

Like Clinton, Rubio was once a political rival to the president-elect who nominated them. However, the Clinton-Obama relationship during the 2008 Democratic primaries was not nearly as hostile as that between Trump and Rubio in the 2016 GOP primaries, which was marked by name-calling and personal insults. 

Trump had an acrimonious relationship with his first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. Trump fired him from the position via a social media post less than two years into his term. 
…

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, faced resistance from Democrats in the Senate Armed Service Committee on Tuesday. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details.
…

Two moon landers built by private U.S. and Japanese companies are on their way to the moon after lifting off early Wednesday on a shared ride aboard a SpaceX rocket.

The launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is the latest in a public-private program that put a spacecraft from Intuitive Machines on the moon last year.

Wednesday’s launch included a lander from Japanese space exploration company ispace that is carrying a rover with the capability of collecting lunar dirt and testing potential food and water sources on the moon.

The spacecraft is also carrying a small red “Moonhouse” built by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg.

The ispace mission is expected to reach its destination on the moon’s far north in four to five months.

The company is making its second attempt at a lunar landing, after a 2023 mission failed in the final stages. 

Also aboard the rocket heading toward the moon is a lander from U.S. company Firefly Aerospace that is set to carry out 10 experiments for NASA.

The planned experiments include gathering dirt and measuring subsurface temperatures.

The spacecraft is expected to arrive in about 45 days.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
…

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden signed on Tuesday an executive order to boost development of artificial intelligence infrastructure in America. A day earlier, his administration announced sweeping measures to block access to the most advanced semiconductors by China and other adversaries.

But the U.S. left India, its strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific, off a list of 18 countries that are allowed unrestricted access to advanced AI chips. Analysts say while a growing technological relationship between the two countries would likely make India eligible in the future to access advanced U.S. AI chips, New Delhi’s existing ties with Moscow and the perception of a less robust technology regulatory framework led to its exclusion from the top list.

Exclusion not a surprise

The Commerce Department’s policy framework divides the world into three categories. The first tier includes the U.S. and 18 countries with unrestricted access, followed by a list of more than 100 countries that will be subjected to new caps on advanced semiconductors with individual exemptions. The third tier includes adversaries such as China and Russia that face maximum restrictions.

India falls in the second category, along with U.S. allies like Israel and close friends such as Singapore.

Bhaskar Chakravorti, the dean of global business at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, said that India’s relationship with Russia “puts it outside a super safe category.”

India has had close ties with Russia since the Soviet Union supported its desire for independence from Britain. It maintained those ties during the Cold War, when the U.S. sided with India’s rival Pakistan.

Scott Jones, a non-resident fellow at Washington’s Stimson Center think tank, highlighted recent reports that accused a few Indian companies of aiding Russia’s war on Ukraine, but stressed that while being excluded is a disappointment, it’s “not a setback for India.”

He also pointed to the perception that “India’s ability to control and manage technology is perhaps not as robust as evidenced in some of the 18 countries.”

While India may be off the unrestricted list for now, analysts say its growing technological cooperation with the U.S. may shield it from some curbs.

Richard Rossow, senior adviser and chair on India and Emerging Asia Economies at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the presence of caveats in the new framework would ensure India’s later participation.

“The fact that they have announced that there will be a pathway for some countries to get exemptions that are above what they’re going to consider the standard cap, India, I imagine, would be on the short list of countries,” he told VOA.

In early January, national security adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to India and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior officials. During the trip, both sides reiterated their commitment to forge a “strategic technology partnership” and strengthen cooperation under the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), a bilateral mechanism focused on technology partnership.

On semiconductors, the U.S. is facilitating investments in India’s semiconductor manufacturing and intensifying R&D collaboration.

During his trip, Sullivan highlighted the investment of $2.7 billion in India by U.S. chipmaker Micron to create semiconductor packaging facilities, which he hoped would contribute to establishing “India as a new hub in the global chip ecosystem.”

The Indian government too is investing billions of dollars through its dedicated program called the India Semiconductor Mission and Production Linked Incentive scheme.

Rossow argued that the Indian government would not have been “terribly surprised” that “they were not included” in the list.

Jones of the Stimson Center agreed.

“Jake Sullivan was in New Delhi last week, and I would be very surprised if he did not inform his Indian counterparts of what was going to happen,” he said.

Ensuring America’s leadership in AI

The Biden administration has focused on the centrality of artificial intelligence to America’s security and economic strength. According to a White House factsheet, the latest steps are part of its effort to prevent offshoring this critical technology and ensure that “the world’s AI runs on American rails.”

Since October 2022, the U.S. government has enacted a series of export controls, blocking access of advanced semiconductors to China to prevent its use for military applications. While initially the measures adversely affected the Chinese semiconductor industry, Beijing has continued to advance its capabilities and is attempting to narrow the technology gap.

According to Chakravorti of the Fletcher School, there are numerous implementation challenges of this expansive global strategy.

“From lobbying from the U.S. chipmakers that will start as soon as Trump takes office to potential leaks in the carefully calibrated list of countries. Will there be a secondary market? How does this affect where future data centers are built?” he asked.

Jones of the Stimson Center argued that the policy is more a “symbolic gesture than a practical consideration” but has a stern message for the rest of the world.

“The U.S. is clearly saying, if you want to participate in the U.S.-sponsored AI ecosystem, you have to pick now. You pick China or you pick us. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t play one off against the other. You have to choose,” he concluded.
…

Elon Musk was sued on Tuesday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused the world’s richest person of waiting too long to disclose in 2022 he had amassed a large stake in Twitter, the social media company he later bought.

In a complaint filed in Washington, the SEC said Musk violated federal securities law by waiting 11 days too long to disclose his initial purchase of 5% of Twitter’s common shares.

An SEC rule requires investors to disclose within 10 calendar days, or by March 24, 2022, in Musk’s case, when they cross a 5% ownership threshold.

The SEC said that at the expense of unsuspecting investors, Musk bought more than $500 million of Twitter shares at artificially low prices before finally revealing his purchases on April 4, 2022, by which time he owned a 9.2% stake.

Twitter’s share price rose more than 27% following that disclosure, the SEC said.

Tuesday’s lawsuit seeks to force Musk to pay a civil fine and disgorge profits he didn’t deserve.

Musk eventually purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, and renamed it X.

Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk, in an email called the SEC lawsuit the culmination of the regulator’s “multi-year campaign of harassment” against his client.

“Today’s action is an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring an actual case,” he said. “Mr. Musk has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is.”

Spiro added that the lawsuit addresses a mere “alleged administrative failure to file a single form — an offense that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty.”

Musk, an adviser to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, is worth $417 billion according to Forbes magazine, through businesses such as the electric car maker Tesla and rocket company.

He is worth nearly twice as much as Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest person at $232 billion, Forbes said.

The SEC sued Musk six days before Trump’s January 20 presidential inauguration.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler is stepping down that day, and Paul Atkins, who Trump nominated to succeed him, is expected to review many of Gensler’s rules and enforcement actions.

Musk has also been sued in Manhattan federal court by former Twitter shareholders over the late disclosure.

In that case, Musk has said it was implausible to believe he wanted to defraud other shareholders, and that “all indications” were that his delay was a mistake.

Musk has long feuded with the SEC, including after it sued him in 2018 over his Twitter posts about possibly taking Tesla private and having secured funding to do so.

He settled that lawsuit by paying a $20 million civil fine, agreeing to have Tesla lawyers review some Twitter posts in advance, and giving up his role as Tesla’s chairman.

The SEC also sought sanctions from Musk after he missed court-ordered testimony last September for the Twitter probe so he could attend the launch of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission at Florida’s Cape Canaveral.

A federal judge in San Francisco rejected that request, because Musk later testified and agreed to pay the SEC’s travel costs.
…

BATON ROUGE — Before plowing a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans, killing 14 people, the man who carried out the Islamic State group-inspired attack had researched how to access a balcony on the city’s famed Bourbon Street and looked up information about a similar recent attack at a Christmas market in Germany, the FBI said. 

Nearly two weeks after Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s rampage, the FBI continues to uncover new information detailing the extensive planning by the 42-year-old Army veteran who scouted out the area multiple times in the months leading up to the attack. Authorities also have been piecing together a timeline of his radicalization. 

In the early hours of New Year’s Day, Jabbar could be seen on video surveillance placing two containers with explosive devices, which would remain undetonated, in the French Quarter. Shortly after, about 3:15 a.m., Jabbar sped a white pickup truck around a police car blockading the entrance of Bourbon Street, where partygoers continued to wander around the street lined with bars. He drove through revelers before crashing and being killed by police in a shootout. Fifty-seven people were injured, authorities said. 

Just hours before the deadly onslaught, Jabbar had searched online for information about an attack at a busy outdoor Christmas Market in east Germany that occurred just 10 days earlier and where a car was also used as a mass weapon, the FBI said on Tuesday. The attack in Europe left five people dead and more than 200 injured after a car slammed into a crowd. Police arrested a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who has renounced Islam and supports the far-right AfD party. 

In other online searches, Jabbar had looked up how to access a balcony on Bourbon Street, information about Mardi Gras, and several recent shootings in the city, the FBI said. 

But Jabbar’s research ahead of the attack was not limited to online: He also made a one-day visit to New Orleans from Houston on Nov. 10, during which he looked for an apartment, the FBI said. While Jabbar applied to rent the apartment, he later told the landlord that he changed his mind. 

That was not his only visit to New Orleans, though. The FBI had previously reported that Jabbar had traveled to the city for a planning trip on Oct. 31, when he used glasses from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to record video as he rode through the French Quarter on a bicycle. 

In a series of online videos, posted hours before he struck, Jabbar proclaimed support for the Islamic State militant group. The Bourbon Street attack was the deadliest Islamic State-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years. On Tuesday, the FBI continued to draft out a timeline of Jabbar’s radicalization, saying that he began isolating himself from society and became a more devout Muslim in 2022. By the spring of 2024, he began following extremist views. 

While investigations into the attack are ongoing and additional information continues to trickle out about Jabbar’s planning of the deadly rampage, city officials face questions about safety concerns. 

State and local authorities have launched probes into possible security deficiencies that left New Orleans vulnerable. The work is especially urgent since Carnival season, a monthslong celebration that attracts tens of thousands of visitors to the French Quarter, began last week. The city is also set to host the Super Bowl on Feb. 9.
…

The White House says it has finalized rules that crack down on Chinese and Russian automobile technology effectively banning all personal smart cars from the two countries from entering the U.S. market.

In a White House fact sheet detailing the decision, the Biden administration Tuesday said that while connected vehicles offer advantages, the involvement of foreign adversaries such as China and Russia in their supply chains presents serious risks granting “malign actors unfettered access to these connected systems and the data they collect.”

“The Department of Commerce has issued a final rule that will prohibit the sale and import of connected vehicle hardware and software systems, as well as completed connected vehicles, from the PRC and Russia,” the fact sheet said.

PRC is the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

Connected vehicles are smart cars that are designed to be convenient for consumers and provide safety for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians through the use of many connected parts such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, and satellite connectivity.

“Cars today aren’t just steel on wheels; they’re computers,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo when speaking on the rule.

“This is a targeted approach to ensure we keep PRC- and Russian-manufactured technologies off American roads,” said Raimondo.

The new rule is the “culmination of a year-long examination” of potential risks posed by connected vehicles and will “help the United States defend against the PRC’s cyber espionage and intrusion operations, which continue to pose a significant threat to U.S. critical infrastructure and public safety.”

The crackdown on cars follows Washington’s announcement earlier this month that the U.S. consider new rules aimed at addressing risks posed by drones that utilize technology from China and Russia.

The U.S. has repeatedly emphasized the need to balance technological progress with the protection of national security interests.
…

GENEVA — U.S. President Donald Trump will take part virtually in the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos just days after his inauguration, the forum president said Tuesday. 

Borge Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister who heads the Geneva-based organization, noted that Trump had twice attended the elite gathering of business, government and other leaders in person during his first term. 

“On Thursday afternoon, he will join us digitally, online, live in a dialogue with our participants,” Brende told reporters Tuesday as he presented the five-day program that will start Monday — the day of Trump’s inauguration. 

“We think that will be a very special moment,” he added, notably to help learn the administration’s “policy priorities.” 

Brende said he didn’t know whether Elon Musk, the multibillionaire who is poised to co-lead Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, would attend, but said the forum expects “additional, high-level representation” from the administration once confirmation processes for Trump’s nominees get underway in the U.S. Senate as early as Monday. 

Forum organizers say a record of around 900 business leaders, including from important emerging markets, will take part in the annual meeting this year, which is expected to draw nearly 3,000 participants from over 130 countries. 

With climate change, war, global tensions, economic uncertainty and other issues in mind, Brende acknowledged that the 55th annual meeting of the forum will take place “against the most complicated geopolitical backdrop in generations.” 

“But still in that fragmented and partly polarized world, there are still areas where we can collaborate and … we have big opportunities and responsibilities to find those areas where there is a possibility to improve the state of the world,” he said. The theme of this year’s edition is “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age” — a nod to the growing importance of technology in the world. 

The WEF has long been derided as a gathering of world elites who plot the future at a cushy, snow-bound powwow in the Swiss Alps. Critics often argue the developing world gets less attention than global powers and big business in the West or Gulf states. 

Forum managing director Mirek Dusek insisted that the number of businesses from developing countries in the “Global South” was growing, and the attendance of their leaders was “on parity” with the participation of leaders in the developed world. 

Ursula Von Der Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive commission, plans to attend the opening day of meetings on Tuesday, after an introductory gala the night before. Other top envoys include President Javier Milei of Argentina, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, and Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang. 

The vast array of topics will include the future of Syria — its new foreign minister is expected to attend — after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last month; the fight against climate change; the threats and promise of artificial intelligence; global trade and economic growth; and wars in places like Ukraine, Sudan and beyond. 

“We are ready to roll up our sleeves to make the best out of a situation where we are faced with many, many challenges,” Brende said.
…

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, vowed Tuesday to foster a “warrior culture” at the Pentagon, portraying himself as a “change agent” during a testy Senate confirmation hearing that drew protesters but also veterans in support. 

Hegseth did not initially address the allegations of sexual assault, excessive drinking or his derisive views on women in combat and minorities, as senators determine whether the veteran and TV news show host is fit to lead the U.S. military. Instead, he focused on his combat experience in the Army National Guard. 

“It’s time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm. A change agent,” Hegseth said in his opening remarks. 

“This is not academic,” he declared, wearing an American flag pocket square on his suit coat. “This is my life.” 

Asked directly about the sexual assault allegation, Hegseth dismissed it as a “smear campaign” and unfair attack. But he did not specifically address any of the accusations, or tell the senators that he did not drink or womanize. 

Senators immediately began drilling down on the questions surrounding Hegseth, with the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee acknowledging the “unconventional” choice and the top Democrat warning of “extremely alarming” allegations against him. 

Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, the chairman, compared Hegseth to Trump himself, dismissed the various allegations against him as unfounded and said he will “bring energy and fresh ideas to shake up the bureaucracy.” 

But Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said flatly: “I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job.” 

Hegseth, 44, comes from a new generation of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and his military experience is widely viewed as an asset. But he also brings a jarring record of past actions and statements, including about women, minorities and “woke” generals. He has vowed not to drink alcohol if he is confirmed to lead the Pentagon. 

Trump backed his pick, saying Hegseth has “my Complete and Total support” in a morning post. 

The hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee is the start of a weeklong marathon as senators begin scrutinizing Trump’s choices for more than a dozen top administrative positions. 

Hegseth is among the most endangered of Trump’s Cabinet choices, but GOP allies are determined to turn him into a cause célèbre for Trump’s governing approach amid the nation’s culture wars. Outside groups, including those aligned with the Heritage Foundation, are running costly campaigns to prop up Hegseth’s bid. 

In the audience were cadres of men wearing clothing expressing support for veterans or service in the military, but also protesters who momentarily disrupted proceedings but were removed from the room. 

The Republican-led Senate is rushing to have some of Trump’s picks ready to be confirmed as soon as Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, despite potential opposition to some from both sides of the aisle. With a narrow GOP majority, they need almost all Republicans to support Trump’s pick if Democrats oppose. 

Hegseth faces perhaps the most difficult path to confirmation. He was forced to confront allegations of sexual assault, which he has denied, and his own comments that are far from the military mainstream. 

Pressed on his opposition to diversity initiatives in the military and women serving in combat roles, Hegseth agreed that the military “was a forerunner in courageous racial integration.” But he argued that modern diversity and inclusion policies “divide” current troops and don’t prioritize “meritocracy.” 

And Hegseth had to answer for his comments that women should “straight up” not be in combat roles in the military, a view he has softened following recent meetings with senators. 

In one fiery exchange, Senator Kristen Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, told Hegseth: “You will have to change how you see women to do this job.” 

Gillibrand said of Hegseth’s comments: “They are brutal, and they’re mean, and they disrespect men and women” who fight for this country. 

Hegseth was combative at times, and scoffed as Reed asked him to explain what a “jagoff” was. Only after further pressure from Reed did Hegseth say it was a military lawyer, a JAG officer, who “put their own priorities in front of the warfighters.” 

Many senators have not yet met with Hegseth and most do not have access to his FBI background check, as only committee leaders were briefed on its findings. Reed said the background check on Hegseth was “insufficient.” It did not probe or produce new information beyond what’s already in the public realm about him, according to a person familiar with the situation who insisted on anonymity to discuss it. 

In many ways, the Hegseth hearing was following the template set during Trump’s first term, when one of his choices for Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh, came under intense scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault but turned the tables on his critics and recouped to win confirmation to the high court. 

“He will be ripped. He will be demeaned. He will be talked about,” said Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama, at an event with former Navy SEALs, Army special forces and Marines supporting the nominee. “But we’re going to get him across the finish line.” 

Hegseth was largely unknown on Capitol Hill when Trump tapped him for the top Pentagon job. 

A co-host of Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends Weekend, he had been a contributor with the network since 2014 and apparently caught the eye of the president-elect, who is an avid consumer of television and the news channel, in particular. 

Hegseth attended Princeton University and served in the Army National Guard from 2002 to 2021, deploying to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2011 and earning two Bronze Stars. But he lacks senior military and national security experience. 

In 2017, a woman told police that Hegseth sexually assaulted her, according to a detailed investigative report recently made public. Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing and told police at the time that the encounter at a Republican women’s event in California was consensual. He later paid the woman a confidential settlement to head off a potential lawsuit. 

If confirmed, Hegseth would take over a military juggling an array of crises on the global stage and domestic challenges in military recruitment, retention and ongoing funding. 

Besides being a key national security adviser to the president, the defense secretary oversees a massive organization, with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of roughly $850 billion. 

The secretary is responsible for tens of thousands of U.S. troops deployed overseas and at sea, including in combat zones where they face attacks, such as in Syria and Iraq and in the waters around Yemen. The secretary makes all final recommendations to the president on what units are deployed, where they go and how long they stay. 

The secretary’s main job is to make sure the U.S. military is ready, trained and equipped to meet any call to duty. But the secretary also must ensure that American troops are safe and secure at home, with proper housing, health care, pay and support for programs dealing with suicide, sexual assault and financial scams. 

Pentagon chiefs also routinely travel across the world, meeting with international leaders on a vast range of security issues including U.S. military aid, counterterrorism support, troop presence and global coalition building. And they play a key role at NATO as a critical partner to allies across the region.
…

DES MOINES, Iowa — More than 150 recipients of the Nobel and World Food prizes released an open letter Tuesday calling for a dramatic increase in research and a commitment to new food distribution efforts with a goal of producing more crops and avoiding a global hunger crisis in coming decades.

The letter notes that an estimated 700 million people now are “food insecure and desperately poor” but that without a “moonshot” effort to grow more and different kinds of food, far more people will be in dire need of food because of climate change and population growth.

“As difficult and as uncomfortable as it might be to imagine, humanity is headed towards an even more food insecure, unstable world by mid-century than exists today, worsened by a vicious cycle of conflict and food insecurity,” states the letter, signed by 153 recipients of the two prizes. “Climate change is projected to decrease the productivity of most major staples when substantial increases are needed to feed a world which will add another 1.5 billion people to its population by 2050.”

Corn production in Africa is expected to decline and much of the world could see more soil degradation and water shortages, the letter says.

“We are not on track to meet future food needs. Not even close,” it adds.

The letter grew from a meeting of food accessibility experts last fall. Despite the potential gloom, it holds out hope for an optimistic vision of the future if people take needed actions. The letter says that a dramatic increase in research funding coupled with more effective ways to share information and distribute food could prevent a hunger crisis.

Brian Schmidt, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2011, said the need to dramatically increase food production in the coming decades is a huge challenge. He calls it a “destination with destiny,” but one that can be achieved with proper funding to enhance existing knowledge as well as global leadership.

“It is an imminently solvable problem. It is a problem that will affect billions of people in 25 years. It is a problem that to solve it, there are no losers, only winners,” Schmidt said in an interview. “All we have to do is do it.”

Schmidt said he hopes governments in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere can commit to solving the problem, but he thinks private groups like the Gates Foundation may need to take the lead in funding initial steps that will draw attention and prompt action by politicians.

The letter calls for “transformational efforts” such as enhancing photosynthesis in essential crops such as wheat and rice, developing crops that are not as reliant on chemical fertilizers and lengthening the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.

Cynthia Rosenzweig, a climate research scientist at NASA who won the World Food Prize in 2022, said in an interview that researchers are already making progress toward breakthroughs, but their work needs to be turbocharged with more funding and emphasis from world leaders.

“It’s not that we have to dream up new solutions,” Rosenzweig said. “The solutions are very much being tested but in order to actually take them from the lab out into the agriculture regions of the world, we really do need the moonshot approach.”

The term moonshot refers to an unprecedented effort, stemming from President John F. Kennedy’s call in 1962 for Americans to rocket to the Moon. Rosenzweig, noting she works for NASA, said meeting the food needs of a growing population will take the kind of commitment the U.S. made in achieving Kennedy’s goal of reaching the Moon.

“Look at how the scientists had to come together. The engineers had to be part of it. The funding had to come together as well as the general public,” she said. “That base of support has to be there as well.”
…

In a report to Congress released early Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith said his office had sufficient evidence to “obtain and sustain” a trial conviction of President-elect Donald Trump for efforts to overturn Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Smith said Trump “resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power” after it became clear that he had lost and that legal ways to challenge the results had failed.

“This included attempts to induce state officials to ignore true vote counts; to manufacture fraudulent slates of presidential electors in seven states that he had lost; to force Justice Department officials and his own Vice President, Michael R. Pence, to act in contravention of their oaths and to instead advance Mr. Trump’s personal interests; and, on January 6 , 2021, to direct an angry mob to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election and then leverage rioters,” Smith said in his report.

Smith said Trump acted both in his private capacity as an election candidate, as well as with the help of multiple co-conspirators, and that Trump tried to use “the power and authority of the United States Government in furtherance of his scheme.”

The report further says that Trump’s false claims, such as votes being cast by large numbers of dead people or ineligible voters, or that voting machines had changed votes for Trump into votes for Biden, were “demonstrably and, in many cases, obviously false.”

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and attacked the special counsel’s work as politically motivated.

He responded to the report’s release early Tuesday with a post on his Truth Social platform calling Smith “a lamebrain prosecutor.”

“Deranged Jack Smith was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his ‘boss,’ Crooked Joe Biden, so he ends up writing yet another ‘Report’ based on information that the Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs ILLEGALLY DESTROYED AND DELETED, because it showed how totally innocent I was, and how completely guilty Nancy Pelosi, and others, were,” Trump said.

Trump is set to be inaugurated for a new term next week after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. During the 2024 campaign, Trump denied he lost the 2020 vote, including in a September debate with Harris. 

Tuesday’s report release came a day after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon cleared the Justice Department to make public the portion of Smith’s report that dealt with Trump’s efforts to cling to power.

Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, had earlier blocked the release of Smith’s full report, which also includes an unreleased section about accusations that Trump illegally retained classified documents after he left office.

Smith sought to prosecute Trump on both matters, while Trump denied wrongdoing.

Judge Cannon dismissed the classified documents case in July, ruling that Smith was illegally appointed.

The Supreme Court also ruled in July that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts, which blunted Smith’s efforts in the election interference case.

After Trump defeated Harris, the Justice Department dropped both cases against Trump, citing longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting U.S. leader.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters
…

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday turned back a push by the state of Utah to wrest control of vast areas of public land from the federal government, marking a small victory for land conservation advocates who worry that similar efforts may escalate in a Republican-controlled Washington.

The high court refused to let the GOP-controlled state file a lawsuit seeking to bring the land and its resources under state control. The decision came in a brief order in which the court did not explain its reasoning, as is typical. It marks the latest roadblock for states in a running feud with the U.S. government over who should control huge swaths of the West and the enormous oil and gas, timber, and other resources they contain.

Utah’s top state leaders said they have not ruled out taking their lawsuit to a lower court.

In the Western state known for its rugged mountains popular with skiers and red-rock vistas that draw throngs of tourists, federal agencies control almost 70% of the land. Utah argues that local control would be more responsive and allow the state access to revenue from taxes and development projects.

The complaint sought control of about half of federal land, which still amounts to an area nearly as large as South Carolina. The parcels are used for things like energy production, grazing, mining and recreation. Utah’s world-famous national parks and national monuments would have stayed in federal hands.

Monday’s decision by the high court comes as the newly Republican-controlled Congress adopted a rules package that includes language allowing lawmakers to more easily transfer or sell off public lands managed by federal agencies. The rules consider public lands to have no monetary value, meaning lawmakers will no longer need to account for lost revenue if they decide to give parcels to states or extractive industries.

While conservationists applauded the court’s rejection of what they called a land-grab lawsuit, many remained worried that the efforts will continue.

Public lands under state control could be vulnerable to privatization, degradation and oil drilling, said Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

“If successful, Utah’s lawsuit would result in the sale of millions of acres of public lands in red-rock country to the highest bidder, an end to America’s system of federal public lands and the dismantling of the American West as we know it,” Bloch said.

Utah’s Republican Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis criticized the court’s decision and promised legislative action. Curtis, who campaigned on being a climate-conscious Republican, said the people of Utah should be entrusted to manage the land they have lived on for generations.

“Building roads, moving cattle and cleaning up campgrounds all require navigating a behemothic bureaucracy that’s stacked up against the average Utahn,” Curtis said.

In a joint statement with Utah’s Republican legislative leaders and attorney general, Gov. Spencer Cox said he was disappointed in the court’s decision to turn away the lawsuit.

“Utah remains able and willing to challenge any BLM land management decisions that harm Utah,” state leaders said. “We are also heartened to know the incoming administration shares our commitments to the principle of ‘multiple use’ for these federal lands and is committed to working with us to improve land management.”

While lawsuits typically start in federal district courts and eventually work their way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, disputes involving states can start at the nation’s highest court if the justices agree to hear them.

Utah leaders noted that the high court did not comment on the merits of their arguments or prevent them from filing the lawsuit in a federal district court. Conservation groups say they’ll remain ready to challenge any future lawsuits.

“This lawsuit is an assault on the country’s long-standing and successful history of safeguarding valuable and vulnerable landscapes in trust for all Americans,” said Chris Hill, who leads the Conservation Lands Foundation. “And while the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear the case is a reprieve, we fully expect this small group of anti-public lands politicians to continue to waste taxpayer dollars and shop their bad ideas.”

The federal Bureau of Land Management declined to comment.
…