Новини

U.S. President Donald Trump this week repeated his assertion that American control of Greenland is vital for “international security.” As Henry Ridgwell reports, Denmark, which owns the island, has admitted failing to invest in its security, amid growing threats from Russia and China.
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Експосадовець перебуватиме в СІЗО до 14 березня
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У міністерстві зазначають, що незначне перевищення епідпорогу зберігається лише в Тернопільській області
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WASHINGTON — Top Republican lawmakers are calling for U.S. security agencies to quickly change course under President Donald Trump to better confront threats from terror groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida.

The House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday issued an update threat assessment, highlighting the New Year’s Day truck ramming attack in New Orleans, which killed 14 people, as well as the June 2024 arrest of eight Tajik nationals with suspected Islamic State ties.

“Make no mistake — all of the lights are still blinking red,” said committee chair Republican Representative Mark Green in a statement.

“The New Orleans terrorist attack was a stark reminder that the terror threat to America is alive and persistent,” said Green. “Foreign terrorist organizations and jihadist networks abroad remain committed to recruiting and radicalizing individuals on U.S. soil.”

Green’s comments harken back to a 2023 warning from then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, made in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel, which officials said seemed to inspire terror groups around the world.

“I’ve never seen a time where all the threats, or so many of the threats, are all elevated, all at exactly the same time,” Wray said at the time.

Last year, Wray warned the FBI was increasingly concerned about a coordinated terror attack on the U.S. like the March 2024 Islamic State terror attacks on a Moscow concert hall.

The Department of Homeland Security’s 2025 annual threat assessment, issued this past October, warned, “The terrorism threat environment in the United States over the next year will remain high.”

And it attributed the biggest danger to individuals who are not necessarily affiliated with established terror groups.

“The threat will continue to be characterized primarily by lone offenders or small cells motivated to violence by a combination of racial, religious, gender, or anti-government grievances; conspiracy theories; and personalized factors,” it said.

Green on Wednesday blamed the increased threat on the administration of former President Joe Biden, saying terror groups have been “emboldened by the national security blunders of the past four years.”

The committee’s “Terror Threat Snapshot” cited more than 50 terrorism cases in 30 U.S. states since April 2021 and 187 terrorism arrests, attacks and plots in Western Europe since the start of 2023.

Democrats expressed some disappointment, arguing the comments have not been backed up by the committee’s actions to date.

“It’s a bit confusing,” according to one staffer, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity in order to respond to the chair’s comments. “Why haven’t they had substantive hearings on foreign terrorism and homegrown violent extremism?”

Meanwhile, a new report Wednesday by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies cautioned that while there is reason to be concerned about the exploits and ambitions of groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida, the threat inside the United States does not appear to be growing.

“Longer-term trends suggest that jihadist terrorism in the United States is not resurgent,” according to the report.

“Groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida have filled more of an inspirational role rather than directly orchestrating attacks on the United States,” it said. “The average lethality of jihadist terrorist attacks has also fallen since the peak of the [Islamic State] caliphate.”

The CSIS report found there were a yearly average of 38 recorded attacks or plots in the U.S. from 2020 to 2023, but only 21 recorded plots or attacks during the first 11 months of 2024.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department has threatened local and state authorities with prosecution if they fail to cooperate with President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, which include a pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. 

Citing a constitutional clause concerning division of power, acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove said in a memorandum that “federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands.” 

“The Department of Justice shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution,” Bove added in the memo issued late Tuesday and published by U.S. media on Wednesday. 

Trump announced new restrictions on immigration and asylum in the United States hours after taking office on Monday, including a plan to send troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and end birthright citizenship. 

The Republican president vowed during his White House campaign to carry out the largest mass deportation of migrants in U.S. history. 

Bove said a newly created Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group would identify “state and local laws, policies, and activities that are inconsistent with Executive Branch immigration initiatives and, where appropriate, to take legal action to challenge such laws.” 

A number of Democratic-controlled “sanctuary cities” in the United States restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities. 

“Laws and actions that threaten to impede Executive Branch immigration initiatives, including by prohibiting disclosures of information to federal authorities engaged in immigration enforcement activities, threaten public safety and national security,” Bove said. 

Bove, who served as one of Trump’s personal lawyers before being named to the Justice Department, also directed the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces to participate “in the execution of President Trump’s immigration-related initiatives.” 

The FBI and other agencies should “review their files for identifying information and/or biometric data relating to non-citizens located illegally in the United States” and turn it over to the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate removals, he said.
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28-річний чоловік був заарештований у безпосередній близькості від місця події
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«Під ударом опинились надзвичайники, які проводили аварійно-рятувальні роботи. Одного з них госпіталізували до лікарні з травмами»
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Forecasters issue new round of warnings about fire conditions in southern California 

TEASER: Chance of rain in the coming days could calm fires, but bring threat of mudslides 

PUBLISHED: 01/22/2025 at  6:01 am 

BYLINE:  VOA News 

WRITER: Fern Robinson, Chris Hannas 

ASSIGNING EDITOR:   

DATELINE:   

SCRIPT EDITORS: wpm 

PLATFORMS: WEB X TV __ RADIO __           

EDITOR NOTES: new lede & grafs 2-4, edits graf 7, trims))  

Firefighters and residents in southern California braced Wednesday for the possibility of more wildfire activity fueled by dry and strong winds, while the prospect of some rain in the forecast brought the potential for some relief from the fire threat but also the dangers of mudslides in fire-ravaged areas. 

The National Weather Service said dangerous fire conditions would persist in the Los Angeles area through Thursday or Friday. 

Forecasters said there was a 60% to 80% chance of rain in the region starting Saturday, with rainfall totals in most areas not exceeding 8 millimeters. 

A chance of thunderstorms bringing locally heavier rainfall has raised fears of mudslides with debris flowing down hilly areas that have been scorched by two weeks of wildfires. 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said an executive order she signed Tuesday is designed to curb the flow of toxic debris from the region’s fires and protect the area’s beaches and oceans.     

“This is to prevent additional damage to areas already ravaged by fire and also to protect our watershed, beaches and ocean from toxic runoff,” the mayor said. City workers will remove toxic materials and set up barriers to direct the flow of debris into the sewer system. 

The fires have killed at least 27 people and destroyed thousands of buildings. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. 

 
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Washington — President Trump’s executive order suspending the U.S. refugee program would affect the resettlement of thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war in Afghanistan, an advocacy group said.

AfghanEvac, a California-based coalition of organizations helping U.S. Afghan allies to resettle in the U.S., said Monday that the pause in all refugee resettlements would affect Afghan allies who are awaiting relocation to the U.S.

“Thousands of Afghan allies who have completed almost all required steps in the refugee process would be immediately impacted by a refugee resettlement pause, and thousands more who are currently undergoing processing would remain in limbo,” AfghanEvac said, in a statement on its X account.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that called the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program detrimental to U.S. interests and suspending it beginning on January 27.

“This order suspends the USRAP until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligned with the interest of the United States,” stated the executive order.

It called on the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the secretary of state, to report to the president within 90 days if the program “would be in the interests of the United States.”

The order added that every 90 days, a report would be submitted to the president until he “determine[s] that resumption of the USRAP is in the interests of the United States.”

According to Shawn VanDiver, president of AghanEvac, more than 180,000 Afghans were relocated in the U.S. from August 2021, after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, to December 2024.

Thousands of Afghans are still waiting to be relocated to the United States.

AfghanEvac said that the order would not only have an impact on at-risk Afghans living in hiding but also on the family members of the active-duty U.S. troops.

Earlier, Reuters reported that the flights of 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S. were canceled.

But the president of AfghanEvac, Shawn VanDiver, said in a post on X that no flights were canceled.

“To be clear: flights have not yet been canceled for anyone,” VanDiver said.

Omar Samad, a former Afghan diplomat living in the U.S., told VOA that the ban is part of a larger package and it will impact Afghans who are waiting to be relocated to the U.S.

“It is going to be reviewed by the U.S. agencies, and it is possible that they that the U.S. make an exception for Afghans,” Samad added.

VanDiver said that the coalition of organizations helping Afghans are working to “secure exemptions for Afghan allies.”

 
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Зеленський нагадав про «епізоди історії, які доводять: коли ми боремось, то неодмінно ми здобуваємо своє, але коли ми сваримось, тоді своє втрачаємо»
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73% респондентів вважають ситуацію в Україні загрозою світовому миру, а 61% вважає її загрозою безпеці Чехії
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Millions of U.S. TikTok users are looking to newly sworn-in President Donald Trump, who has given the app’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, 75 days to strike a deal with a U.S. buyer.
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The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for most of California’s Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Tuesday for the area’s “extremely low relative humidity and periods of gusty offshore winds.”

The weather service said its “Particularly Dangerous Situation Red Flag warning has ended, but dangerous fire weather conditions persist through Thursday or Friday.” Northeast winds will remain “gusty” in the hills and mountains, the service said in a statement. Low humidities are set to continue. 

Some areas will experience a lull in the winds Tuesday night into Wednesday, but extremely dry conditions will continue and winds will strengthen again late Wednesday, according to the weather service. The Red Flag Warning covers most of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties through 8 p.m. Thursday.

Earlier Tuesday, the weather service said there was an extreme risk of fire weather over parts of Southern California. The service said winds of 32 to 64 kilometers per hour, combined with “stronger winds in the terrain, low relative humidity, and dry fuels, have contributed to the dangerous conditions.”

Strong winds sparked some scattered fires Tuesday in Los Angeles, but alert firefighters quickly brought the fires under control.

At least 27 people have died in a series of wildfires across the Los Angeles area during the past two weeks as Santa Ana winds mixed with dry conditions on the ground to quickly spread blazes.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger has called for an outside investigation into the evacuation notification process for residents of western Altadena, near the Eaton Fire, one of several that erupted across Los Angeles. A report in the Los Angeles Times says evacuation orders for western Altadena were delayed for hours.

“From what I have been told, it was a night of pure chaos for both fire and first responders,” Barger told The Times. The county supervisor said she has “deep concerns” about what happened. Residents told the Times that by the time they received evacuation orders, many of the homes in the area already were on fire. 

Seventeen people are reported to have died in the Eaton fire.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said an executive order she signed Tuesday is designed to curb the flow of toxic debris from the region’s fires and protect the area’s beaches and oceans.   

“This is to prevent additional damage to areas already ravaged by fire and also to protect our watershed, beaches and ocean from toxic runoff,” the mayor said. City workers will remove toxic materials and set up barriers to direct the flow of debris into the sewer system. 

Meteorologists say rain forecast for the region will begin late Friday and last until early Saturday. National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Lewis said “In terms of ending the fire season, it’s probably not going to be enough for that. But it’ll certainly help a little bit.”
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Representative Elise Stefanik, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, faced questions at her Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday. The high-ranking House Republican told lawmakers she would advance Trump’s “America First” agenda at the international body. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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Twenty-two Democratic-led U.S. states sued Tuesday to try to block President Donald Trump from ending birthright U.S. citizenship for the children of undocumented migrants living in the country. 

The suit by the states, joined by the city governments in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, are among the first filed by those opposing Trump’s executive orders, which he signed in the immediate hours after his inauguration Monday. 

The U.S. Constitution guarantees citizenship to those born in the country, and court rulings have made only small exceptions, such as rejecting citizenship for the offspring of foreign diplomats born in the U.S. Presidents cannot unilaterally change the Constitution, which instead must be accomplished through large majorities of lawmakers in Congress or wide state legislative action. 

But Trump, as part of his crackdown on 11 million or more undocumented migrants living in the U.S., signed one executive order directing U.S. agencies to stop handing citizenship documents to the offspring of undocumented migrants. 

The Republican president’s order directed federal officials, starting Feb. 19, to not recognize U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to mothers who are in the country illegally or are in the U.S. only temporarily, such as visa holders, and whose fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents. 

Trump’s nascent administration is moving quickly to deport such migrants back to their home countries, even if they have lived in the U.S. for years, paid taxes and assimilated into American life. Trump’s immigration agents are first targeting undocumented migrants who have been convicted of crimes. 

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement, “State attorneys general have been preparing for illegal actions like [Trump’s no-citizenship edict], and today’s immediate lawsuit sends a clear message to the Trump administration that we will stand up for our residents and their basic constitutional rights.” 

The White House did not immediately comment on the suits, three of which were filed in Boston, Massachusetts, and Concord, New Hampshire. Four states filed a separate lawsuit in Washington. 

Democratic-led states and advocacy groups have immediately challenged two other Trump executive orders, one creating the Department of Government Efficiency — a nongovernmental advisory panel overseen by billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk — and another weakening job protections for government civil servants to make it easier for the Trump administration to fire them and replace them with Trump loyalists. 

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said that if Trump’s no-citizenship order is allowed to stand, it would mean more than 150,000 children born annually in the United States would be denied the right to citizenship. 

“President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights,” she said in a statement. 

One of the plaintiffs challenging the order is a woman living in Massachusetts identified only as “O. Doe.” She is in the country through temporary protected status and is due to give birth in March. 

The temporary protected status immigration designation is available to people whose home countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary events and currently covers more than 1 million people from 17 nations. 

U.S. birthright citizenship was enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the aftermath of the Civil War in the early 1860s and ratified in 1868. It says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” 

Platkin, the New Jersey attorney general, said Tuesday that presidents might have broad authority, but they are not kings. 

“The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period,” he said. 

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a U.S. citizen by birthright and the nation’s first Chinese American elected attorney general, said the lawsuit was personal for him. 

“The 14th Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says — if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Period. Full stop,” he said. “There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting serious harm right now on American families like my own.” 

Chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts along with other immigrant rights advocates have also filed suit to block Trump’s action. 

Their suit asked a court to rule that Trump’s order is unconstitutional. It cites the case of a woman identified as “Carmen,” who is pregnant but is not a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit says she has lived in the United States for more than 15 years and has a pending visa application that could lead to permanent resident status. She has no other immigration status, and the father of her expected child has no immigration status either, the suit says. 

“Stripping children of the ‘priceless treasure’ of citizenship is a grave injury,” the suit said. “It denies them the full membership in U.S. society to which they are entitled.” 

Some material in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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UNITED NATIONS — President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations told senators at her confirmation hearing Tuesday that she will promote his doctrine of “peace through strength” on the world stage if she is confirmed.

“It is imperative to ensure strong American leadership at the United Nations,” Elise Stefanik told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I share President Trump’s vision of a U.N. reformed by strong America First peace through strength and return to this founding mission of promoting peace and security around the world.”

Stefanik, 40, from a rural New York district, has been in Congress for a decade and has served on national security related committees. As chair of the Republican Conference since 2021, she is the fourth-ranking House Republican but will have to step down if she is approved.

She appeared to have bipartisan support, with Democratic legislators largely posing standard foreign policy questions and avoiding partisan attacks.

China’s influence

China’s growing influence within the United Nations was at the top of lawmakers’ concerns.

“China has used its malign influence to block attempts to discuss the Chinese government-sponsored genocide against the Uyghurs, and they have blocked our ally Taiwan from fully participating in the U.N.,” committee chair Jim Risch of Idaho said. He also criticized Beijing for pushing its nationals into U.N. system jobs to serve its national interests.

Stefanik agreed that Beijing has made “significant inroads” at the world body and said Washington needs to push back on it with a “long-term strategy.”

“Working closely with our allies and our partners, both at the most junior levels and at the more senior levels within the U.N., we need to make sure that we are running candidates – either American or allied nations – in the election process for key leadership posts within the U.N. system,” she said.

Stefanik said efforts should focus on technical organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) – both organizations that until recently had been under the leadership of international civil servants from China. And she warned that the United States must be vigilant in protecting its ethical standards related to the use of artificial intelligence.

The United States is the single largest financial contributor to the United Nations, and several senators questioned whether U.S. taxpayers are still getting their money’s worth from the organization. The nominee said she would seek to do an agency-by-agency audit of what U.S. funds are spent on and press for reforms including more transparency and accountability. She also had praise for agencies led by U.S. appointees, including the World Food Program and the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF.

“Stefanik’s remarks signaled that the U.S. is going to be tough on the U.N., but not walk away from the organization altogether,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group. “I actually think that quite a lot of her lines about the need to ensure the U.N. offers value for money will play well with other big donors to the organization, who are keen to control costs.”

One of Trump’s first executive orders on Monday was to notify the World Health Organization of his intention to withdraw the United States from the body – and with it the hundreds of millions of dollars it contributes to WHO’s budget. Stefanik said she supported the move.

“WHO failed on a global stage in the COVID pandemic for all the world to see,” she said.

Stefanik was most passionate about “our most precious ally” Israel and defending it from what she called “antisemitic rot” and bias at the United Nations.

“We need to be a voice of moral clarity on the U.N. Security Council and at the United Nations at large, for the world to hear the importance of standing with Israel, and I intend to do that,” she said.

Asked by Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen about her vision for “the day after” in Gaza, she said Trump is “uniquely positioned” to bring peace to the region, to eradicate Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, and protect Israel’s national security.

Van Hollen pressed further, asking if she supports the view of far-right Israeli legislators who say Israel has a biblical right to the entire West Bank. Stefanik replied “yes.”

Crisis Group’s Gowan said that last comment might fuel “nervousness” among U.N. members that Trump could endorse an Israeli effort to annex parts of the Palestinian territories. But overall, he thinks international diplomats will have found her testimony reassuring.

“Especially after the whiplash effect of Trump disowning the Paris [climate] deal and World Health Organization during his first afternoon in office,” he said.

No vote has been scheduled yet in the committee on her nomination. If Stefanik passes that hurdle, and she is widely expected to, then her nomination would go to the full Senate for a final vote.
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