Політика

На Лиманському напрямку відбулося 12 сутичок протягом дня, триває одна з них
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«Ці елементи нафтоперекачувальної інфраструктури задіяні у забезпеченні окупаційної армії РФ»
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«Загинув 53-річний чоловік, а 56-річний отримав поранення», повідомив Філашкін
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday urged billionaire Elon Musk to be more aggressive in his efforts to shrink the federal government despite the uproar over layoffs and deep spending cuts.

“Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive,” Trump posted all in uppercase letters on his Truth Social platform. “Remember, we have a country to save, but ultimately, to make greater than ever before. MAGA!”

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — an entity created by Trump — has swept across federal government agencies, firing tens of thousands of federal government workers, from scientists to park rangers, mostly those on probation.
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«На Покровському напрямку з початку доби окупанти здійснили 23 спроби потіснити наших захисників із займаних позицій»
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Preparations are underway for a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Saturday, marking a dramatic shift away from Western isolation of Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just the war in Ukraine.

“The question is about starting to move toward normalizing relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said.

But he said that efforts to organize such a meeting are at an early stage, and that making it happen will require “the most intensive preparatory work.”

Ryabkov said that U.S. and Russian envoys could meet “within the next two weeks” to pave the way for further talks between senior officials.

Russian and U.S. representatives on Tuesday agreed to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, according to the two countries’ top diplomats, at a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia that marked an extraordinary about-face in U.S. foreign policy under Trump.

After the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the AP that the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.

He stressed, however, that the talks — which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other senior Russian and U.S. officials — marked the beginning of a conversation, and that more work needs to be done. Lavrov, for his part, hailed the meeting as “very useful.”

No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which came as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more-numerous Russian troops, three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbor.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didn’t take part, and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for last Wednesday. European allies also have expressed concerns they are being sidelined.
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WASHINGTON — This week, thousands of conservative politicians, activists and influencers convened outside Washington for the Conservative Political Action Conference, the premier annual gathering of the American right.

The four-day event, hosted by the American Conservative Union since 1974, features U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, among other high-profile speakers from around the world.

Dubbed the “Woodstock for conservatives,” CPAC was once the go-to event for conservative Republicans and presidential hopefuls, with its presidential straw poll serving as a barometer of grassroots support. However, Trump’s political rise in recent years has transformed it into a platform for populism.

Driven by the rise of populist movements globally, the conference has ventured overseas in the past decade. It launched its first international conference in Japan in 2017, expanded to Australia, Brazil and South Korea in 2019, then added Hungary, Mexico and Israel in 2022. Argentina joined the fold last year following the election of populist President Javier Milei.

The international conferences, CPAC says, serve to “unite conservatives from all over the world, strengthen the movement, and challenge globalism.” They are also used for public outreach, recruitment and mobilization, according to a recent paper on CPAC by Grant A. Silverman, a research assistant at George Washington University in Washington.

CPAC’s growing international outreach mirrors a recent surge in far-right populism worldwide. Last year’s foreign speakers included Presidents Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and Javier Milei of Argentina, as well as Prime Minister Victor Orbán of Hungary.

Here’s a look at some of the foreign speakers for this year’s CPAC and what they’re saying:

Javier Milei, Argentine president

Milei, wielding a chain saw, electrified the CPAC crowd Thursday when he shared the stage with billionaire Elon Musk and presented Musk, Trump’s cost-cutting czar, with his signature campaign prop.

“This is the chain saw of bureaucracy,” Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, shouted, waving the tool.

As head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk, who made his first CPAC appearance, is spearheading the Trump administration’s massive governmentwide cost-cutting efforts.

This marks Milei’s third CPAC appearance. The self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” campaigned in 2023 on shrinking Argentina’s government, often brandishing a chain saw at rallies.

At last year’s Washington conference, he vowed to eliminate unnecessary government agencies, declaring, “We will not surrender until we make Argentina great again!”

Speaking at CPAC Argentina in December, Milei declared that the “new winds of freedom are sweeping through the world” and called on allies to fight against “lefties.”

“We must stand together, establishing channels of cooperation throughout the world,” he told the crowd.

Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil

Brazil’s former right-wing president is a CPAC regular. After Bolsonaro lost a reelection bid in 2022, his supporters stormed federal government buildings in an alleged attempt to seize power. Banned from seeking office until 2030, Bolsonaro faces charges of plotting a coup.

His son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, organizes CPAC Brazil. At last year’s conference in Balneario Camboriu, the elder Bolsonaro joined Milei and other right-wing politicians from Latin America to hail conservatism’s global rise and expressed hope for Trump’s return to office.

For his part, Milei used the platform to denounce socialism, saying it restricts liberties and breeds corruption.

Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia

Robert Fico makes his CPAC debut this year. Though he leads a left-wing populist party, he has drawn controversy for his attacks on journalists, immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.

In October, he called journalists “bloody bastards” and threatened new media restrictions. An opponent of same-sex marriage, he has called adoption by gay couples a “perversion.”

During the Ukraine conflict, Fico has opposed European sanctions on Moscow and echoed Moscow’s messaging, drawing comparisons to Hungary’s pro-Kremlin prime minister.

In May, he survived an assassination attempt by a gunman opposed to his stance against military assistance to Ukraine.

Mateusz Morawiecki, former Polish prime minister

After speaking at CPAC Hungary last year, Morawiecki makes his first U.S. appearance this year. He served as prime minister from 2017 to 2023 and is now a leading figure in the opposition Law and Justice Party.

Despite his party’s strong support for Ukraine, Morawiecki maintains close ties with Hungary’s Orban and Spain’s Santiago Abascal, leader of the conservative Vox political party. Abascal is an invited speaker at CPAC.

Immigration is a unifying issue for Europe’s right-wing populists. At last year’s Hungary conference, Morawiecki called Orban his friend and credited his tough response to Europe’s 2015 migration crisis with preventing “chaos” in Europe.

Liz Truss, former British prime minister

The former Conservative Party leader and prime minister made her second CPAC appearance in a row Wednesday. Calling Britain a “failed state” ruled by a socialist government, she called for a Trump-style MAGA movement to save it.

“We want a Trump revolution in Britain,” she said to applause, praising Trump’s second presidency as “the golden age of America.”

Blaming Britain’s decline on unelected bureaucrats, she urged the dismantlement of the “deep state,” a favorite theme among conference attendees.

“We want Elon and his nerd army of muskrats examining the British deep state,” Truss said.

Truss served just 49 days as prime minister and lost her Parliament seat last year. 
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A total of 177 Venezuelan migrants were deported by the United States from the Guantanamo naval base, where they were detained, in another sign of cooperation between these historically feuding countries.

Click here for the full story in Spanish. 
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Congressman Riley Moore recently wrote an op-ed urging the administration to ban all student visas for Chinese nationals to prevent the CCP from using U.S. academic institutions as platforms for espionage. Experts told VOA Mandarin that due to the number of espionage cases Chinese students in the U.S. involved in, it might be more helpful to close the CCP-sponsored Chinese students and scholars’ associations on U.S. campuses.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.  
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Politicians, media personalities and conservative activists gathered outside Washington on Friday for the second day of a conference featuring a range of political allies of President Donald Trump.

Speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) heralded the Trump administration’s first month in office, with dozens of executive orders that have proposed sweeping changes to a wide range of government policies and positions on international issues.

Mike Waltz, the president’s national security adviser, told the CPAC audience Friday that the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Ukraine war are certain to include U.S. investments in Ukraine’s mineral assets as part of a plan to recoup some funding for Ukraine’s defense.

Earlier this week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected a proposal that would grant American companies 50% ownership of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, but Waltz on Friday said the Ukrainian leader “is going to sign” a revised U.S. offer.

Waltz also said the Trump administration plans to “unleash holy hell” on drug cartels. On Wednesday, the State Department designated several Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups.

Journalist-turned-politician Kari Lake, whom Trump said in December he would like to see lead Voice of America, spoke about what she sees as the president’s wins in his first month in office, and her views on legacy media.

“Watching what President Trump has accomplished and done in one month is so incredible,” Lake said, referring to actions by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency and the State Department to search for corruption and curtail spending, including by ending foreign aid funding.

A former TV journalist in Arizona for nearly 30 years, Lake spoke of how she quit journalism because of what she felt was disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re still surrounded by too many fake journalists out there,” Lake said, adding that she believes the “purpose of the mainstream media is no longer to inform us, it’s to manipulate us.”

She criticized Associated Press reporting on government officials and independent bodies who validated the results of the 2020 election, saying, “They still pretend the 2020 election was the most secure election in all of history.”

Lake also said that she is honored that Trump named her to lead VOA, and said she will focus the news agency on producing “accurate and honest reporting.”

“VOA has been telling America’s story to the world for 83 years this Monday. Sometimes the coverage has been incredible and sometimes it’s been pitiful,” Lake said. “We are fighting an information war, and there’s no better weapon than the truth, and I believe VOA could be that weapon.”

Among those who have called for the network to be cut is Musk.

“We won’t become Trump TV,” she said, “but it sure as hell will not be ‘TDS TV.’ You can find all the Trump Derangement Syndrome that you want over on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, ’60 Minutes,’ The Washington Post and The New York Times.”

Trump is expected to address the CPAC gathering on Saturday.
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Київська обласна військова адміністрація повідомила про роботу протиповітряної оборони по цілях у регіоні
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Унаслідок атаки горить складське приміщення
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The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 90 cases across seven counties, the state health department posted online Friday, and 16 people are hospitalized. 

In neighboring eastern New Mexico, the measles case count is up to nine, though state public health officials said Thursday there’s still no evidence this outbreak is connected to the one in Texas. 

The West Texas cases are concentrated in eight counties in West Texas.  

Texas state health department data shows that most of the cases are among people younger than 18. Twenty-six cases are in kids younger than 4 and 51 are in kids 5-17 years old. Ten adults have measles, and three cases are pending an age determination. The Ector County Health Department told the Odessa American its case was in a child too young to be vaccinated. 

State health officials have said this outbreak is Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years. Health department spokeswoman Lara Anton said last week that cases have been concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community — especially among families who attend small private religious schools or are homeschooled. 

In New Mexico, all of the cases are in Lea County, which borders Gaines County in Texas. The state health department has said people may have been exposed at a grocery store, an elementary school, a church, hospital and a pharmacy in Hobbs, New Mexico. 

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Most kids will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications like pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death. 

The vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is safe and highly effective in preventing measles infection and severe cases of the disease. 

The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old. The vaccine series is required for kids before entering kindergarten in public schools nationwide. 

Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963, the U.S. saw some 3 million to 4 million cases per year. Now, it’s usually fewer than 200 in a normal year. 

There is no link between the vaccine and autism, despite a now-discredited study and health disinformation. 

In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.” 

But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots. 

The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.  

Gaines County has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-aged children who opt out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% of K-12 children in the 2023-24 school year. Health officials say that number is likely higher because it doesn’t include many children who are homeschooled and whose data would not be reported. 

Health workers are hosting regular vaccination clinics and screening efforts in Texas, as well as working with schools to educate people about the importance of vaccination and offering shots. 

New Mexico health officials are also hosting several vaccination clinics in Hobbs next week. 
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LOS ANGELES — Six weeks after the most destructive wildfire in city history, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ousted the city’s fire chief Friday amid a public rift over preparations for a potential fire and finger-pointing between the chief and City Hall over responsibility for the devastation.

Bass said in a statement that she is removing Chief Kristin Crowley immediately.

“Bringing new leadership to the Fire Department is what our city needs,” Bass said in a statement.

“We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch,” Bass disclosed. She added that the chief refused a request to prepare an “after-action report” on the fires, which she called a necessary step in the investigation.

The Palisades Fire began during heavy winds Jan. 7, destroying or damaging nearly 8,000 homes, businesses and other structures and killing at least 12 people in the Los Angeles neighborhood.

Another wind-whipped fire started the same day in suburban Altadena, a community to the east, killing at least 17 people and destroying or damaging more than 10,000 homes and other buildings.

Bass has been facing criticism for being in Africa as part of a presidential delegation on the day the fires started, even though weather reports had warned of dangerous fire conditions in the days before she left.

In televised interviews this week, Bass acknowledged she made a mistake by leaving the city. But she inferred she wasn’t aware of the looming danger when she flew around the globe to attend the inauguration of Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama. She faulted Crowley for failing to alert her to the potentially explosive fire conditions.

Crowley has publicly criticized the city for budget cuts that she said made it harder for firefighters to do their jobs.

Crowley was named fire chief in 2022 by Bass’ predecessor at a time when the department was in turmoil over allegations of rampant harassment, hazing and discrimination. She worked for the city fire department for more than 25 years and held nearly every role, including fire marshal, engineer and battalion chief.
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Правоохоронці не називають імені підозрюваного, але обставини вказують на колишнього народного депутата та члена Тернопільської обласної ради Михайла Головка
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traded policy complaints with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Friday, with Bessent telling Beijing to do more to curb fentanyl trafficking and rebalance its economy, and He voicing concerns about President Donald Trump’s new tariffs, the two governments said.

The top economic officials from the world’s two largest economies agreed to keep up communications, the Treasury said in a readout of the introductory video call.

“Secretary Bessent expressed serious concerns about the PRC’s counternarcotics efforts, economic imbalances, and unfair policies, and stressed the Administration’s commitment to pursue trade and economic policies that protect the American economy, the American worker, and our national security,” the Treasury said, using the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

Earlier, Chinese state media reported that He expressed concerns to Bessent over U.S. tariffs and trade restrictions on China during the call.

The two sides had an “in-depth” exchange of views on important issues in China-U.S. economic relations, and both agreed to keep communicating on matters of mutual concern, according to a readout released by Chinese state media.

He, the lead China-U.S. trade negotiator on the Chinese side, and Bessent recognized the importance of bilateral economic and trade relations, the readout said.

More tariffs

China and the United States are seeking to manage their relationship as they stand on the precipice of a renewed trade war.

Trump imposed 10% tariffs on all Chinese goods in early February, citing China’s failure to stanch fentanyl trafficking.

Beijing retaliated by imposing targeted tariffs of up to 15% on some U.S. imports, including energy and farm equipment, and put several companies, including Google, on notice for possible sanctions.

Trump has also planned further reciprocal tariffs for all countries that tax U.S. imports, a move that is likely to further escalate global trade tensions. During his election campaign, Trump threatened 60% tariffs on all Chinese imports.

Trump said earlier this week he expected Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit the U.S., without giving a timeline for such a trip.

Bessent said on Thursday he would tell his Chinese counterpart that China needed to rebalance its economy and rely more on domestic consumption for growth and less on investment and exports.

“They are suppressing the consumer in favor of the business community,” Bessent told Bloomberg Television.

Similar arguments

The U.S. had a $295.4 billion goods trade deficit with China in 2024, down from a peak of $418.2 billion in 2018, the year Trump began imposing new tariffs on some $370 billion of Chinese imports.

But last year’s deficit rose $16.3 billion from 2023 as Chinese exporters rushed to beat a new round of Trump tariffs.

Bessent’s predecessor, former Treasury secretary Janet Yellen, met several times with He in recent years and lodged similar complaints about China’s state-led economic policies.

She argued during a trip to China last year that those policies were leading to excess production capacity that was threatening the viability of firms in the U.S. and other market economies, a warning that laid the groundwork for former President Joe Biden’s steep tariff hikes on electric vehicles, semiconductors and solar products.

He and other Chinese officials never accepted U.S. excess capacity assertions, arguing that China’s EV and other key industries are simply more competitive.
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За словами правозахисниці, кілька людей у Джанкої та Джанкойському районі отримали такі ж попередження
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