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За словами прем’єра, це кошти на купівлю дітям теплого одягу, взуття та інших речей, які потрібні взимку
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BEIJING — China’s military said on Tuesday it deployed naval and air forces to monitor and warn a U.S. Navy patrol aircraft that flew through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, denouncing the United States for trying to “mislead” the international community.

Around once a month, U.S. military ships or aircraft pass through or above the waterway that separates democratically governed Taiwan from China – missions that always anger Beijing.

China claims sovereignty over the island of Taiwan and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the strait is an international waterway.

The U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet said a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft had flown through the strait “in international airspace,” adding that the flight demonstrated the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

“By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations,” it said in a statement.

China’s military criticized the flight as “public hype,” adding that it monitored the U.S. aircraft throughout its transit and “effectively” responded to the situation.

“The relevant remarks by the U.S. distort legal principles, confuse public opinion and mislead international perceptions,” the military’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement.

“We urge the U.S. side to stop distorting and hyping up and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability.”

Taiwan’s defense ministry said the P-8A flew in a northerly direction through the strait and that the Taiwanese military monitored it, adding the “situation was as normal.”

In April, China’s military said it sent fighter jets to monitor and warn a U.S. Navy Poseidon in the Taiwan Strait, a mission that took place just hours after a call between the Chinese and U.S. defense chiefs.
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November 27th marks the birthday of iconic American guitarist and songwriter Jimi Hendrix. In his hometown of Seattle, the Museum of Pop Culture, inspired by his groundbreaking music, celebrated his enduring legacy with family members, former colleagues, and fans. Natasha Mozgovaya has the story.
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Міністерство оборони зазначає, що наразі призупинено використання партій боєприпасів у Силах оборони, а також їхню видачу в бойові підрозділи
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WASHINGTON — A former U.S. telecom company employee who provided information about Chinese dissidents and Falun Gong members to China was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday, the Justice Department said.

Ping Li, 59, of Wesley Chapel, Florida, admitted in a plea agreement to acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government, the department said in a statement.

Li, who emigrated to the United States from China, provided corporate information to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and personal details about an individual affiliated with the Falun Gong spiritual movement who lived in Florida.

The Falun Gong movement is banned in China.

The U.S. Justice Department said Li worked for a major U.S. telecom company and an international information technology company. The companies were not identified in court documents, but according to press reports, they were Verizon and InfoSys, respectively.

“From at least as early as 2012, [Li] served as a cooperative contact working at the direction of officers of the MSS to obtain information of interest to the [Chinese] government,” the Justice Department said. “Li obtained a wide variety of information at the request of the MSS, including information concerning Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy advocates, members of the Falun Gong religious movement, and U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations.”

A 71-year-old Chinese man was sentenced to 20 months in prison in California last week for taking part in a plot targeting the Falun Gong in the United States.

John Chen, of Los Angeles, was also convicted of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government.

China calls the Falun Gong movement, founded in 1992, an evil cult, outlawing it in 1999 after 10,000 members peacefully demonstrated outside a government building in Beijing.
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For nearly 100 years, Americans have enjoyed watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The spectacle is an annual tradition that aims to make millions of consumers feel connected to the department store. VOA’s Dora Mekouar looks at the parade preparation.
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«На Покровському напрямку зберігається висока інтенсивність бойових дій. Кількість боєзіткнень зросла до 51», заявляє командування
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«Нові групи шахедів залітають з Курської та Бєлгородської областей, РФ, на Сумщину»
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A new bipartisan bill introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate seeks to address the criminal activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran on U.S. territory. The draft bill proposes enhancing criminal penalties for individuals who engage in unlawful actions on behalf of the Iranian government or other adversaries of the United States.

See the full story here.
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New York — U.S. stocks rose Monday, with those benefiting the most from lower interest rates and a stronger economy leading the way. 

The S&P 500 climbed 0.3% to pull closer to its all-time high set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 440 points, or 1%, to its own record set on Friday, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%. 

Treasury yields also eased in the bond market amid what some analysts called a “Bessent bounce” after President-elect Donald Trump said he wants Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager, to be his treasury secretary. 

Bessent has argued for reducing the U.S. government’s deficit, which is how much more it spends than it takes in through taxes and other revenue. Such an approach could soothe worries on Wall Street that Trump’s policies may lead to a much bigger deficit, which in turn would put upward pressure on Treasury yields. 

After climbing above 4.44% immediately after Trump’s election, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell back to 4.26% Monday, down from 4.41% late Friday. That’s a notable move, and lower yields make it cheaper for all kinds of companies and households to borrow money. They also give a boost to prices for stocks and other investments. 

That helped stocks of smaller companies lead the way, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks jumped 1.5%. It finished just shy of its all-time high, which was set three years ago. Smaller companies can feel bigger boosts from lower borrowing costs because of the need for many to borrow to grow. 

The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks the market’s expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with overnight interest rates, also eased sharply. 

The Fed began cutting its main interest rate just a couple months ago from a two-decade high, hoping to keep the job market humming after bringing inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. But immediately after Trump’s victory, traders had reduced bets for how many cuts the Fed may deliver next year. They were worried Trump’s preference for lower tax rates and higher spending on the border would balloon the national debt. 

A report coming on Wednesday could influence how much the Fed may cut rates. Economists expect it to show that an underlying inflation trend the Fed prefers to use accelerated to 2.8% last month from 2.7% in September. Higher inflation would make the Fed more reluctant to cut rates as deeply or as quickly as it would otherwise. 

Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle expects that to slow by the end of next year to 2.4%, but he said inflation would be even lower if not for expected tariff increases on imports from China and autos favored by Trump. 

In the stock market, Bath & Body Works jumped 16.5% after delivering stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The seller of personal care products and home fragrances also raised its financial forecasts for the full year, even though it still sees a “volatile retail environment” and a shorter holiday shopping season this year. 

Much focus has been on how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain, given high prices across the economy and still-high interest rates. Last week, two major retailers sent mixed messages. Target tumbled after giving a dour forecast for the holiday shopping season. It followed Walmart, which gave a much more encouraging outlook. 

Another big retailer, Macy’s, said Monday that its sales for the latest quarter were in line with its expectations, but that it would delay the release of its full financial results. It found a single employee had intentionally hidden up to $154 million in delivery expenses, and it needs more time to complete its investigation. 

Macy’s stock fell 2.2%. 

Among the market’s leaders were several companies related to the housing industry. Monday’s drop in Treasury yields could translate into easier mortgage rates, which could spur activity for housing. Builders FirstSource, a supplier of building materials, rose 5.9%. Homebuilders, D.R. Horton, PulteGroup and Lennar all rose at least 5.6%. 

All told, the S&P 500 rose 18.03 points to 5,987.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 440.06 to 44,736.57, and the Nasdaq composite gained 51.18 to 19,054.84. 

In stock markets abroad, indexes moved modestly across much of Europe after finishing mixed in Asia. 

In the crypto market, bitcoin was trading below $95,000 after threatening to hit $100,000 late last week for the first time.
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Ще двоє жінок звернулися по допомогу, заявила обласна прокуратура
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BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — Anger and frustration from developing nations vulnerable to climate impacts are likely to linger following the conclusion of the climate change summit in Azerbaijan, COP29, as nations adopted a $300 billion global finance target to help poorer nations cope with climate change, a deal that many recipient nations slammed as severely insufficient.

Global North countries, often historic emitters responsible for global warming, agreed on Sunday to pledge $300 billion a year until 2035 for their developing counterparts to stave off the direst effects of climate change — less than a quarter of the acknowledged $1.3 trillion needed annually to reduce emissions and build resilience in vulnerable countries.

The $300 billion figure, also, is an increase by $200 billion each year, compared to the agreement in place since 2009, which is expiring.

Spirited disappointment and rage from Global South countries was expressed at the closing plenary, with some national representatives calling adoption of the new funding package “insulting.”

“We are extremely disappointed,” said Indian negotiator Chandni Raina, who called the figure “abysmal.”

Her Cuban counterpart, Pedro Luis Pedroso, described the deal as “environmental colonialism,” pointing out that, when factoring in today’s inflation, the pledged funding is lower than the $100 billion agreed to in 2009. Bolivia’s negotiator called the deal “insulting” to developing nations.

Some Western representatives were more upbeat.

“COP29 will be remembered as a new era of climate finance,” top EU climate negotiator Wopke Hoekstra said, calling the target amount “ambitious” and “achievable.”

Some experts told VOA that the structure and composition of the $300 billion deal was more important than the actual monetary figure. The final deal allows for both public and private sources of funds to be tapped to bolster climate preparation efforts in the developing world.

Negotiators for developing countries expressed concern that private sources of funding could come in the form of more loans, which could lead to challenging debt accumulation by poorer nations, rather than funding in the preferred form of grants.

Global South countries argued for a new target for green finance and have consistently called for such climate finance to come in the form of public grants. The tense and fraught negotiations of the past week dragged on for two extra days and included at least one episode of negotiators from small island nations and some of the poorest nations in the world walking out of a meeting room with wealthy nations in protest. They asserted that their voices and perspectives were not heard.

”This COP has been a disaster for the developing world,” said Mohammed Adow, director of Kenya-based climate and energy research group Power Shift Africa. ”It’s a betrayal of both people and planet, by wealthy countries, who claim to take climate change seriously.”

The adopted finance package also stated that a further roadmap is set to be discussed at the next conference – likely COP30, set for Belem, Brazil in late 2025 — on how to reach the trillion-dollar figure.

Independent South African climate consultant Gillian Hamilton called the $300 billion core funding target “insufficient,” particularly for building resilience against climate impacts — also known as climate adaptation.

“Developed nations should have shown more leadership and transparency,” Hamilton told VOA. “The biggest emitters need to rapidly decrease their emissions so that adaptation costs for developing countries don’t increase exponentially.”

Campaigners staged multiple environmental protests each day here during the past week-plus of meetings.

Though negotiators for developing nations repeatedly asked for climate finance in the form of grants instead of loans, in the final deal, developed countries stopped short of guaranteeing that could be done.

Adaptation finance

The deal adopted Sunday acknowledges that funding sources for adaptation finance should be public and transparent.

With 2024 going down as the hottest year in history, the world has experienced a slew of climate disasters, ranging from devastating floods in Nepal and Spain, to Hurricane Helene in the Americas, droughts in the Mediterranean and typhoons in the western Pacific region.

Despite the disasters and renewed calls to finance climate-resilient infrastructure across the Global South to guard against rising sea levels and wildfires, funding has been falling short for years, according to a November report from the U.N. Environment Program.

The so-called adaptation projects include developing more advanced disaster warning systems, reforestation, and building catchment mechanisms to ensure water security in regions most affected by climate change.

At COP29, Germany pledged $62 billion, to the adaptation fund; France highlighted its 2023 pledge of $2.9 billion, in adaptation; the U.S. said it pays $3 billion into it each year. A total of 14 Global North countries including Spain, Sweden, South Korea and Switzerland promised to provide $300 million this year, according to a separate negotiation text in the conference.

Despite pledges in recent years, countries didn’t completely deliver on promises. This year, for example, more than $122 million of pledged financial support to poor nations for adapting to climate risk is still up in the air, even though this assistance has been a stated priority at recent COP meetings.

What to expect in Belem?

Countries will be tasked at the Brazil meeting next November with ironing out the details of a global carbon trade system governed by a centralized U.N. regulatory body. They also will try to find a path for wealthy, developed countries to reach the target of $1.3 trillion to support efforts in the Global South to address the consequences of climate disasters. A major component will be reviewing national climate plans, which are due to be submitted in February. Britain, Brazil and the UAE are among the nations that this past week aimed to get ahead of the February deadline and shared some of the goals in their national climate preparation plans.

Harjeet Singh, global engagement director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, said it is likely that ‘most’ nations will not meet the February deadline to submit their updated plans to address climate change.

The future participation of Argentina is unclear, after hardline President Javier Milei — who has called climate change a hoax — reportedly told his government delegates here to pack their bags and leave the negotiations on the third day of the summit.

Singh was asked by VOA whether wealthy nations would deliver on their promises to lead the effort toward $300 billion in climate finance support, and he responded that the key lies in their ‘willingness, as the money has always been there.’
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На півдні збили п’ять розвідувальниї безпілотників, повідомляє командування
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will soon have a new administrator. Former lawmaker Lee Zeldin has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump for that role. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at Zeldin’s credentials and how the agency’s priorities are expected to change, particularly when it comes to climate change regulations.
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ROME — Foreign ministers from the world’s leading industrialized nations are meeting Monday, with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East entering decisive phases and a certain pressure to advance diplomatic efforts ahead of the new U.S. administration taking over.

Hopes for brokering a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon are foremost on the agenda of the Group of Seven meeting outside Rome that is gathering ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

On the first day of the two-day gathering Monday, the G7 will be joined by ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as the Secretary General of the Arab League.

“With partners will be discussed ways to support efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, initiatives to support the population and the promotion of a credible political horizon for stability in the region,” the Italian foreign ministry said.

The so-called “Quint” grouping of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the UAE has been working to finalize a “day after” plan for Gaza, and there is some urgency to make progress before the Trump administration takes over in January. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to pursue a policy that strongly favors Israel over the aspirations of the Palestinians.

Host Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani added another item to the G7 agenda last week after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief.

Italy is a founding member of the court and hosted the 1998 Rome conference that gave birth to it. But Italy’s right-wing government has been a strong supporter of Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, while also providing humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

The Italian government has taken a cautious line, reaffirming its support and respect for the court but expressing concern that the warrants were politically motivated.

“There can be no equivalence between the responsibilities of the state of Israel and the terrorist organization of Hamas,” Premier Giorgia Meloni said, echoing the statement from U.S. President Joe Biden.

Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Institute for International Affairs think tank, said Italy would be seeking to forge a united front on the ICC warrants, at least among the six G7 countries that are signatories of the court: everyone but the U.S.

But in an essay this weekend in La Stampa newspaper, Tocci warned it was a risky move, since the U.S. tends to dictate the G7 line and has blasted the ICC warrants against Netanyahu as “outrageous.”

“If Italy and the other (five G7) signatories of the ICC are unable to maintain the line on international law, they will not only erode it anyway, but will be acting against our interests,” Tocci wrote, recalling Italy’s recourse to international law in demanding protection for Italian U.N. peacekeepers who have come under fire in southern Lebanon.

The other major talking point of the G7 meeting is Ukraine, and tensions have only heightened since Russia attacked Ukraine last week with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is expected at the G7 in Fiuggi on Tuesday, and NATO and Ukraine are to hold emergency talks the same day in Brussels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strike was retaliation for Kyiv’s use of U.S. and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

The G7 has been at the forefront of providing military and economic support for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022 and G7 members are particularly concerned about how a Trump administration will change the U.S. approach.

Trump has criticized the billions of dollars that the Biden administration has poured into Ukraine and has said he could end the war in 24 hours, comments that appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia now occupies.

Italy is a strong supporter of Ukraine and has backed the U.S. decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with U.S.-made, longer-range missiles. But Italy has invoked the country’s constitutional repudiation of war in declining to provide Ukraine with offensive weaponry to strike inside Russia and limiting its aid to anti-air defense systems to protect Ukrainian civilians.

The G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, the second of the Italian presidency after ministers gathered in Capri in April, is being held in the medieval town of Fiuggi southeast of Rome, best known for its thermal spas.

On Monday, which coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, ministers will attend the inauguration of a red bench meant to symbolize Italy’s focus on fighting gender-based violence.

Over the weekend, tens of thousands of people marched in Rome to protest gender-based violence, which in Italy so far this year has claimed the lives of 99 women, according to a report last week by the Eures think tank.
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Denver, Colorado — It hasn’t been a typical fall for the northeastern United States. 

Fires have burned in parks and forests around New York City. Towns and cities in a stretch from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to south of Philadelphia had their driest three months on record, according to the Applied Climate Information System. Some reservoirs in the region are near historic lows. 

Major changes need to happen to avoid critical shortages of water in the future, even if that future isn’t immediate. As the climate warms, droughts will continue to intensify and communities should use this one as motivation to put in place long-term solutions, experts say. 

“This is the canary in the coal mine for the future,” said Tim Eustance, executive director of the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission. “People should stop watering their lawns yesterday.” 

Eustance wants New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to issue a drought emergency to increase people’s sense of urgency. 

Here are some ways to stretch water experts said could become necessary in the Northeast. 

Replenishing more water underground 

One important place water is stored is under our feet. Groundwater has dropped significantly over the years in parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York. 

Groundwater makes up about half of New Jersey’s drinking water. Sprawl and concrete can make it tough for rain to replenish the water underground. 

“New Jersey is ‘mall-landia.’ We have these giant parking lots that could be ways to reclaim water instead of having runoff,” Eustance said. 

In some other parts of the country, there is increasing use of permeable asphalt, concrete and pavers that allow water to percolate into the ground and back into the aquifer. It would be up to municipalities to require that, he said. 

A faster way to replenish the aquifer is by injecting highly treated wastewater into it, something Los Angeles has been doing for years. It is dramatically adding to the city’s available water. 

Virginia Beach, Virginia, is also pumping highly treated water back into its aquifer, and Anne Arundel County in Maryland is trying to pass legislation that would allow the same. 

Paying people to conserve 

In some places in the western U.S., getting paid to save water has long been an option. Some cities and counties pay dollars for every square foot of lawn torn out and replaced with native landscaping. 

Those policies are not nearly as widespread in the Northeast, said Alan Roberson, CEO of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators. 

“The abundance has created a different perspective,” he said. This can make it hard to get people on board with conservation. 

Upgraded water meters can give customers details about their water use and help them see where they can save money when drought doesn’t feel as urgent, said Beth O’Connell, chief engineer for Anne Arundel County, Maryland. 

Reusing water could become more common 

The concept is simple: capture water from the sink, clothes washer, shower and toilet, treat it to a high standard and use it again for nonpotable purposes: It can be sent back through pipes to flush toilets, cool buildings, water yards or help raise water levels in a river or aquifer. 

“One of the crimes I think, in America, is we use drinking water to water our lawns and flush our toilet,” Eustance said. 

Zach Gallagher is CEO of Natural Systems Utilities, which designs, builds and operates water recycling systems. He also is the father of three kids and lives in New Jersey, so this drought hits close to home. 

“I feel like I’m doing something that is going to be meaningful and leave something beyond for my children, and their children,” he said. 

Reuse can be a tool for both drought and flood, he explained. When a building can reuse its own wastewater and discharge it directly into a body of water, it eases stress on a city’s fragile sewer system, which is a common vulnerability in old coastal cities. It also reduces demand on new water. 

Once open this summer, the company’s redesign of the old Domino Sugar Refinery on New York’s East River will be able to treat 400,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of wastewater a day, enough to cover a football field in nearly 15 inches (38 centimeters) of water. The cleaned water will be piped back into the new mixed-use buildings for flushing toilets, cooling and landscaping, with some of it discharged back into the river. 

Nonpotable reuse has a growing footprint in the eastern U.S., but scaling it to a regional level should be the next focus, O’Connell said. 

A new mindset 

Planning for a future that includes extended drought can be costly. It could also require a shift in mindset from one of abundance to conservation, said Del Shannon, dam engineer and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 

He has worked on water projects around the world and said many developing countries are focused on getting reliable water for crops and drinking. 

“We need to treat our water and guard it as gently as those countries are.”
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is “incredibly concerned” about the escalating use of different types of weaponry in Russia’s nearly three-year war on Ukraine, his designated choice for national security adviser said Sunday.

Michael Waltz, now a Florida congressman, told “Fox News Sunday” that the decision by the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to use anti-personnel land mines to try to halt Russia’s battlefield ground troop advances has turned the fight in eastern Ukraine into something akin to “World War I trench warfare.”

Waltz said the decision “needs to be within a broader framework to end this conflict.”

“It is just an absolute meat grinder of people and personnel on that front,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week the United States is sending the anti-personnel mines to Ukraine because of the changing nature of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the main battlefield.

He said Russian ground troops, rather than forces more protected in armored carriers, are leading Moscow’s advance, so Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow down that effort.”

Waltz said Trump, who takes office January 20, is concerned about the carnage but said that in the broad picture, the question that must be preeminent is, “How do we restore deterrence and how do we bring peace?”

“We need to, we need to bring this to a responsible end,” he added.

Trump has often claimed that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war even before he is inaugurated as the 47th U.S. president. Trump has never said how and refused to say during a campaign debate in September that he wants Ukraine to win.

Biden gave Ukraine authority to launch Washington-supplied missiles with a 300-kilometer range deep into Russia in response to North Korea’s dispatch of 10,000 troops to fight alongside Moscow’s forces. Within two days, Kyiv targeted weapons warehouses in Russia’s Bryansk region with the missiles.

Then, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a new experimental rocket, targeting Dnipro in Ukraine’s eastern region.

“This is a clear escalation,” Waltz said. “Where is this escalation going? How do we get both sides to the table” for peace negotiations?

Waltz, whose appointment does not require Senate confirmation, said he has been meeting with Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser. Waltz said that any U.S. adversary “is wrong” if it thinks it can “play one side off against the other” with the switch in power in Washington from Biden, a Democrat, and his long-time political foe, Trump, a Republican.

Waltz said he is “confident” Trump will restore peace “in pretty short order” in the multiple conflicts in the Middle East involving Israel fighting Iran-funded militants — Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But months of cease-fire talks on the conflict in Gaza are stalemated and talks to reach a halt in the Hezbollah-Israel fighting have yet to produce a deal.
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