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white house — International and domestic pressure is mounting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to establish a strategic endgame for the Israel-Hamas war that would tie Israeli military gains to a political solution for the Palestinian enclave.

In his harshest public rebuke yet to Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant gave televised remarks Wednesday, urging the prime minister to make “tough decisions” on postwar Gaza at whatever political cost. Gallant warned Israelis that inaction will erode war gains and put the nation’s long-term security at stake.

Gallant criticized Netanyahu for his lack of postwar plans to replace Hamas rule.

“Since October, I have been raising this issue consistently in the Cabinet and have received no response,” he said.

Gallant’s comments echoed earlier remarks by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who told reporters Monday that Israel had yet to “connect their military operations” to a political plan on who will govern the Palestinian territory once fighting ends.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the message Wednesday, saying Israel needs a “clear and concrete plan” for the future of Gaza to avoid a power vacuum that could become filled by chaos.

Gallant ruled out any form of Israeli governance of postwar Gaza, saying that the territory should be led by “Palestinian entities” with international support, a position that has been long supported by the Biden administration.

The administration would not confirm it coordinated Gallant’s statements with those of its top officials.

“I’m not going to speak to timing. I’m not going to give an analysis on it,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in response to VOA’s question during her briefing on Thursday.

“We’ve made our point,” she added, underscoring ongoing conversations with the Israeli government.

A senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters said the administration shares Gallant’s concern that Israel has not developed any plans for holding and governing territory that the Israel Defense Forces have cleared, thereby allowing Hamas to regenerate in those areas.

“Our objective is to see Hamas defeated,” the official said in a statement sent to VOA.

Netanyahu focuses on destroying Hamas

Netanyahu maintains that postwar planning is impossible without first destroying Hamas.

While his government and Washington agree that Hamas cannot continue to run Gaza, they differ on who should be in charge after the war that began with the militant group’s October 7 cross-border attack on Israel.

“We do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation,” Blinken reiterated Wednesday.

Gallant’s statement reflects comments by other current and former Israeli officials and frustration of a war-weary Israeli public, said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine at the International Crisis Group.

“It’s not surprising. It’s not new,” she told VOA. “But I think it’s reaching an inflection point for certain people in the government, because the hostage deal and cease-fire is at an impasse because decisions are not being made about how much longer this war is going to go.”

Netanyahu told reporters Thursday he is planning to summon his defense minister for “a conversation” following Gallant’s public criticism.

Chances of cease-fire faint

Meanwhile, prospects for a cease-fire deal appear dim since talks in Cairo broke down earlier this month.

“Any efforts or agreement must secure a permanent cease-fire, a comprehensive pullout from all of the Gaza Strip, a real prisoner swap deal, the return of the displaced, reconstruction and lifting the blockade,” Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday.

Israel has so far refused to provide any commitment to end its military campaign in Gaza. So fundamentally, the strategic endgames of the warring parties are “almost as far as possible from each other,” said Nimrod Goren, senior fellow for Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute.

The mediators — the United States, Egypt and Qatar — don’t see any way forward at the moment, Goren told VOA, even as reaching a cease-fire deal “becomes more urgent, not only because of Gaza, but because of Lebanon.”

Cross-border bombardments between Israel and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed group, have escalated since Israel’s campaign in Gaza, displacing tens of thousands of people along Israel’s border with Lebanon.

While a comprehensive and permanent truce may be out of reach at this point, there is yet hope to accomplish the first phase of the cease-fire deal that is currently structured under three phases, Goren said.

Put simply, that means a six-week pause in fighting, a swap of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails, and an increase in humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza.

However, a longer-term cease-fire has not appeared viable since negotiations began.

“There’s just been mutually exclusive demands,” Zonszein said. “Hamas wants an end to the war and full withdrawal of [Israeli] troops, and Israel’s not willing to do that.”

Israel also wants Hamas completely dismantled and its leaders killed, while Haniyeh declared Wednesday that he would reject any proposal that excludes the group’s role in postwar Gaza.

US still seeks 2-state solution

As bleak as immediate prospects may appear, the Biden administration is keeping its eye on the long-term political horizon: the two-state solution — the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Sullivan is traveling to Saudi Arabia this weekend to further talks on securing a major agreement that would see Riyadh establishing diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv, a key element to achieving the two-state solution.

Normalization with the leading Sunni kingdom would likely lead to diplomatic recognition of Israel from other Arab countries and Muslim-majority countries in other parts of the world.

At the same time, Sullivan is set to urge Israel to refrain from an all-out ground invasion of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. Washington believes a wider operation in Rafah would threaten a normalization deal with the Saudis.

“Israel’s long-term security depends on being integrated into the region and enjoying normal relations with the Arab states, including Saudi Arabia,” Sullivan said Monday.

He said he will be meeting with Israeli officials “in a matter of days” and signaled that the U.S. expects Israel will not move into Rafah until then.

Last week, the IDF launched what it calls a “targeted operation” in eastern Rafah, even as the Biden administration announced it is pausing the shipment of 3,500 massive-sized bombs for fear that Israel might use it in the densely populated city.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is creating a new process aimed at cutting the time it takes to decide the fates of newly arrived migrants in immigration courts from years to roughly six months at a time when immigration is increasingly a concern among voters. 

Under the initiative announced Thursday, single adult migrants who have just entered the country and are going to five specific cities would have their cases overseen by a select group of judges with the aim of having them decided within 180 days. 

That would mark a vastly quicker turnaround time than most cases in the country’s overburdened immigration system, which can average four years from beginning to end. And by deciding the cases faster, authorities can more quickly remove people who don’t qualify to stay. 

But it’s unclear how many migrants would go through this new docket, raising questions about how effective it will be. The details were laid out by senior administration officials during a call with reporters Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with guidelines set by the administration. 

The new docket will be in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. The officials said those cities were chosen because judges there had some availability to hear the cases and because they were big destination cities for migrants. 

Right now, when migrants arrive, particularly families, they are almost always released legally into the country, where they wait out their asylum court dates in a process that takes years.  

Detractors say this essentially serves as an impetus for migrants to come because they know they’ll be able to stay in America and often work while they’re here. The longer they’re in the United States and have established families or community ties, the more opposition there is to eventually send them back to their home country. 

The goal of quickly processing migrants who have just arrived is that by swiftly sending new arrivals back who don’t qualify to stay, it sends a message to other people thinking of migrating north that they can’t count on living in America for years while their case plays out in court. 

A record 3 million cases right now are clogging the nation’s immigration court. There are roughly 600 judges. The plan announced Thursday would not include money for more judges. 

A bipartisan border agreement endorsed by President Joe Biden earlier this year offered funding for 100 new immigration judges and aides. But Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, urged fellow Republicans to kill the deal, and it quickly died. 

The administration has tried for years to move more new arrivals to the front of the line for asylum decisions, hoping to deport those whose claims are denied within months instead of years. The Obama and Trump administrations also tried to accelerate the process, going back to 2014. In 2022, the Biden administration introduced a plan to have asylum officers, not immigration judges, decide a limited number of family claims in nine cities. 
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Громадяни, які мають право на виїзд за кордон, мають мати при собі документи про звільнення від мобілізації або зняття з військового обліку
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«Для виконання ворожого завдання коригувальниця обходила місто та його околиці, де намагалась виявити місця найбільшого зосередження особового складу»
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Russian forces are expanding their attacks on Ukrainian border settlements close to the northeastern city of Kharkiv, opening up a new front in the war. With U.S. and European weapons finally due to arrive on the front lines in the coming weeks following delays, can Ukraine hold back Moscow’s invading troops? Henry Ridgwell has more
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the funding mechanism for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is constitutional, fending off a conservative attack on the agency.

The vote in the nation’s high court was 7-2, with four conservative justices siding with the three liberals and two conservatives dissenting.

The CFPB was created by Congress in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis and serves as a watchdog over a variety of consumer issues ranging from mortgages to credit cards to student loans.

The plaintiffs in the case — payday lending groups — had argued that the funding structure for the agency was unconstitutional.

The CFPB receives its funding, currently around $600 million a year, from the U.S. Federal Reserve instead of through annual appropriations from Congress.

The case ended up in the Supreme Court after conservative judges on a lower court ruled the funding mechanism violated the appropriations clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the power of the purse to Congress.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the majority opinion, disagreed.

“Under the Appropriations Clause, an appropriation is simply a law that authorizes expenditures from a specified source of public money for designated purposes,” Thomas said. “The statute that provides the bureau’s funding meets these requirements. We therefore conclude that the bureau’s funding mechanism does not violate the Appropriations Clause.”

President Joe Biden welcomed the court’s ruling, calling it an “unmistakable win for American consumers” and an agency that has “worked to protect consumers from abusive practices by lenders, servicers and special interests.”

“In the face of years of attacks from extreme Republicans and special interests, the Court made clear that the CFPB’s funding authority is constitutional and that its strong record of consumer protection will not be undone,” Biden said in a statement.

The CFPB case was one of three the court heard during its current term that challenge the regulatory authority of federal agencies when it comes to banking, business, industry or the environment.

One of the other cases stems from a requirement that herring fishermen in New England provide space onboard their vessels for observers from the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS.

Several fishing companies complained that they are being effectively forced to pay for the federal observers who are monitoring their operations.

A split appellate court ruled that the NMFS program was authorized under a 1984 Supreme Court ruling known as the “Chevron Doctrine” that says courts should defer to government agencies’ interpretation of ambiguous federal laws.

The other case on the docket would curtail the power of the Securities and Exchange Commission to adjudicate violations of federal securities laws.

The Supreme Court will issue its rulings in those cases by the end of June.

The conservative-majority court has previously ruled that the government’s key environmental agency cannot issue broad limits on greenhouse gases, sharply curtailing powers of the Biden administration to battle climate change.
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Протягом дня командування зафіксувало 79 бойових зіткнень. Зокрема, триває протистояння Сил оборони російському наступу на Харківщині
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28-річний лікар-інтерн Бугаївської лікарні у важкому стані, решта, включаючи голову Вовчанської МВА – у середньому
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Washington — President Joe Biden has asserted executive privilege over audio of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur that’s at the center a Republican effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, the Justice Department told lawmakers on Thursday.

It comes as the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Judiciary Committee are each expected to hold a hearing to recommend that the full House refer Garland to the Justice Department for the contempt charges over the department’s refusal to hand over the audio.

Garland advised Biden in a letter on Thursday that the audio falls within the scope of executive privilege. Garland told the Democratic president that the “committee’s needs are plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that the production of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future.”

Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte urged lawmakers not to proceed with the contempt effort to avoid “unnecessary and unwarranted conflict.”

“It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege cannot be held in contempt of Congress,” Uriarte wrote.

White House Counsel Ed Siskel wrote in a separate, scathing letter to Congress on Thursday that lawmakers’ effort to obtain the recording was absent any legitimate purpose and lays bare their likely goal — “to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes.”

The White House memo is a tacit admission that there are moments from the interview it fears portray Biden in a negative light in an election year — and that could be exacerbated by the release, or selective release, of the audio.

The transcript of the Hur interview showed Biden struggling to recall some dates and occasionally confusing some details — something longtime aides says he’s done for years in both public and private — but otherwise showing deep recall in other areas. Biden and his aides are particularly sensitive to questions about his age. At 81, he’s the oldest ever president, and he’s seeking another four year term.

Hur found some evidence that Biden had willfully retained classified information and disclosed it to a ghostwriter but concluded that it was insufficient for criminal charges.
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TAIPAI, TAIWAN — Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC said Thursday there was no damage to its facilities after an incident at its Arizona factory construction site where

a waste disposal truck driver was transported to a hospital.

Firefighters responded to a reported explosion Wednesday afternoon at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plant in Phoenix, the Arizona Republic reported, citing the local fire department.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker whose clients include Apple and Nvidia, said in a statement none of its employees or onsite construction workers had reported any related injuries.

“This is an active investigation with no additional details that can be shared at this time,” it added.

TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares pared earlier gains after the news and were last up around 0.8% on Thursday morning. TSMC last month agreed to expand its planned investment by $25 billion to $65 billion and to add a third Arizona plant by 2030.

The company will produce the world’s most advanced 2 nanometer technology at its second Arizona facility expected to begin production in 2028.
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General public gets to visit White House grounds in spring and fall
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Pentagon — After nearly a two-week delay, U.S. and Nigerien officials are holding high-level follow-on meetings to coordinate the withdrawal of American troops from the country.

Christopher Maier, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, and Lieutenant General Dagvin Anderson, joint staff director for joint force development, are meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Niamey with members of Niger’s new government, known as the National Council for Safeguarding the Homeland, or CNSP, two U.S. officials told VOA.

The CNSP posted on the social platform X Wednesday that Maier and Anderson met Wednesday with Lieutenant General Salifou Mody, one of the military coup members who was named minister of national defense. 

The CNSP noted that the meeting comes two months after Niger denounced its military basing agreements with the United States and aims to “ensure that this withdrawal takes place in the best possible conditions, guaranteeing order, security and compliance with set deadlines.”

There are about 900 U.S. military personnel in Niger, including active duty, civilians and contractors, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity ahead of the conclusion of the talks. Most of the U.S. military personnel have stayed in the country past their deployment’s planned end dates, as details for their withdrawal are ironed out.

“We’re still in a bit of a holding pattern,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said last week.

Counterterrorism in ‘disarray’

The U.S. has had two military bases — Air Base 101 in Niamey and Air Base 201 in Agadez —to monitor terror groups in the region. Officials say most U.S. forces are based in the latter, which cost the U.S. $110 million to build, and began drone operations in 2019.

Niger’s natural resources have increased its importance to global powers, and Niger’s location had provided the U.S. with the ability to conduct counterterror operations throughout much of West Africa.

“We’re in a different position now, and we’re going to continue to consult with the Nigeriens in terms of the orderly withdrawal of U.S. forces. We’re going to continue to stay engaged with the partners in the region when it comes to terrorism and countering the terrorist threat,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday.

Countries in the region, including Niger, Mali, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, have seen an expansive rise in jihadist movements. 

According to the Global Terrorism Index, an annual report covering terrorist incidents worldwide, more than half of the deaths caused by terrorism last year were in the Sahel. 

Niger’s neighbor, Burkina Faso, suffered the worst, with 1,907 fatalities from terrorism in 2023. 

“These are some of the most dangerous areas in the world,” Bill Roggio, editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, told VOA. “These countries are in dire threat of being overrun by jihadist groups.”

Now, Niger’s coup has put the West’s ability to monitor terrorists like the Islamic State and al-Qaida in the Sahel in “complete disarray,” according to Roggio. 

The United States’ intelligence-gathering capacity was limited before, “but we’re approaching the point where intelligence-gathering is practically at zero,” he said.

A U.S. defense official told VOA that “basically every flight,” even intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drone flights, must be approved by the junta. 

“The beginning of April is when things started getting slower,” the official told VOA. The junta began delaying and canceling the types of U.S. military flights that had been quickly approved before then.

Carla Martinez Machain, a political science professor at the University of Buffalo, believes the Pentagon will try to negotiate with Chad for a more significant American troop presence, as the U.S. struggles to find allies in what she called the “coup belt” — a reference to the recent coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. 

However, most U.S. forces have temporarily left from Chad for Germany in recent weeks, a move the Pentagon called a “temporary step” as part of an ongoing review of its security cooperation with Chad, which would resume after the country’s May 6 presidential election. 

Only a small group of service members remain in Chad as part of a multinational task force, officials tell VOA.

“Niger was somewhat of a rarity in the sense that it had one of the few democratically elected governments in the region, and also a democratically elected government that was friendly to the U.S. and willing to host a U.S. military presence,” Martinez Machain told VOA. “And so, finding a replacement for that for a military base is going to be somewhat difficult.” 

Unless the U.S. can find another base to use in West Africa, counterterror drones will likely have to spend most of their fuel supply flying thousands of kilometers from U.S. bases in Italy or Djibouti, severely limiting their time over the targets and their ability to gather intelligence.

“The beauty of having drones based in Niger was that they were in the thick of the fight. They were in the middle of where jihadist groups are operating. So, once you launch the drones, they’re in the midst of it, and all of the flight time being used can be used to gather information,” Roggio said.

Resupply concerns

Amid the negotiations and flight cancellations, U.S. troops in Niger began raising concerns about their supply chain. Service members in Niamey told the office of Representative Matt Gaetz that blood for the blood bank, hygiene supplies, malaria pills and other medications were running low. 

A U.S. defense official acknowledged to VOA that “they were concerned about medication levels.” The official also said that troops in Niamey had gone through April without a resupply flight but had received food and water supplies through ground-based transportation.

A flight with medical supplies finally went from Agadez to Niamey last week, the defense official told VOA.

Coup forced withdrawal

Tensions between the U.S. and Niger began in 2023 when Niger’s military junta removed the democratically elected president from power. 

After months of delay, the Biden administration formally declared in October that the military takeover in Niger was a coup, a determination that prevented Niger from receiving a significant amount of U.S. military and foreign assistance.

In March, after tense meetings between U.S. representatives and the CNSP, the junta called the U.S. military presence “illegal” and announced it was ending an agreement that allowed American forces to be based in the country.

During that meeting, the U.S. and Niger fundamentally disagreed about Niger’s desire to supply Iran with uranium and work more closely with Russian military forces.

“They [Niger] saw this as kind of an imperialistic move, and this was seen negatively and was part of the reason why the U.S. was told to leave the country,” Martinez Machain said.

Russia has made significant military inroads across the African continent, Martinez Machain added, because human rights violators are able to obtain military training, assistance and defense systems “without the conditions that the U.S. would attach them.”

“Especially for nondemocratic countries, this can seem very appealing,” she said.
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white house — There are few things the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden agree on. One is the presidential candidacy of activist-lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both the Biden and Trump camps see Kennedy as a potential spoiler in this November’s election.

About half of registered voters have told pollsters that if given the chance, they would replace both Biden and Trump on this year’s ballot.

“If you picture what this country is going to look like in November if either President Trump or President Biden won, the division is going to continue,” Kennedy said at a California campaign event to introduce his running mate, 38-year-old attorney and philanthropist Nicole Shanahan. “The anger, the vitriol, the chaos, the polarization is going to worsen. The only way to end that is through my successful candidacy.”

Neither Kennedy nor Shanahan has ever held elective office.

Kennedy’s father was Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general and a senator, and a major contender in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primary until he was assassinated. His uncle was President John F. Kennedy, slain while in office in 1963.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not going to be the next president,” predicts Georgetown University Associate Professor Hans Noel, echoing the consensus of his fellow political scientists.

What worries the Biden and Trump campaigns is the possibility of Kennedy on the ballot in the half-dozen or so swing states where his mere thousands of votes could “change the outcome of that state. Then of course, that tips the direction of that state — if that state is large enough — and the ultimate election is fairly close, which is what we expect. Then, it could change the outcome of the race,” Noel tells VOA.

During a recent appearance on MSNBC, Kennedy declared “I’m going to be on the ballot in every state. I’ll be on the ballot in every state by July.”

Kennedy’s team declined VOA’s request to make the candidate or a surrogate available to respond to questions, saying “the campaign has decided to only grant interviews to U.S press with targeted U.S. audiences at this time.”

The Kennedy clan “is not happy at all that he’s running, and they’ve made a number of efforts to make that very clear,” notes Noel.

Biden, during a recent campaign appearance in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, was surrounded by Kennedy family members, including the independent candidate’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, who said “We want to make crystal clear our feeling that the best way forward for America is to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to four more years.”

Candidate Kennedy’s beliefs about vaccines, the origins of COVID-19, and the assassinations of his father and uncle have attracted some supporters, including those who said they previously voted for Trump or Biden.

In recent weeks, Kennedy attracted the most media attention not for his positions on any political issue but for a revelation from a 2012 deposition for a divorce. In it, he said cognitive issues that had harmed his earning potential could have been “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”

In a social media post after the brain worm wriggled into the headlines across the country, Kennedy quipped, “I offer to eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate.”

Political pundits are split on whether Kennedy poses more of a threat to Trump or Biden.

“Kennedy is much more popular among Republicans than he is among Democrats right now. But that’s probably mostly because he’s a Democrat or former Democrat who says bad things about other Democrats,” said Noel. “And, so, Republicans like to hear that, and they think that sounds interesting. But they’re not going to vote for that over Donald Trump.”

The Republican National Committee, attempting to dissuade conservatives who oppose abortion from considering Kennedy as an alternative to Trump, stated, “There is exactly zero daylight between the abortion extremism of RFK Jr. and Crooked Joe Biden.”

The Democratic National Committee filed a complaint against Kennedy in February with the Federal Election Commission alleging a political action committee was illegally coordinating with the independent candidate’s campaign to get him on additional state ballots.

Biden’s party also portrays Kennedy as a “spoiler for Donald Trump,” according to Matt Corridoni, a DNC spokesperson.

“RFK Jr.’s campaign isn’t building a plan or a strategy to get 270 electoral votes. They’re building one to help Trump return to the Oval Office,” he says.

The New York Times calls Kennedy the “X factor” in this year’s presidential election, noting that the latest public opinion survey, organized by the newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College, shows him polling stronger than any third-party candidate in decades. The poll has Kennedy being supported by about 10% of registered voters in the battleground states, drawing equally from both Biden and Trump.
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WASHINGTON — America’s foreign adversaries will again seek to influence the upcoming U.S. elections, top security officials warned members of the Senate on Wednesday, harnessing the latest innovations in artificial intelligence to spread online disinformation, mislead voters and undermine trust in democracy.

But the U.S. has greatly improved its ability to safeguard election security and identify and combat foreign disinformation campaigns since 2016, when Russia sought to influence the election, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The latest warning from security officials came as advances in AI make it easier and cheaper than ever to create lifelike images, video and audio that can fool even the most discerning voter. Other tools of disinformation include state media, online influencers, and networks of fake accounts that can quickly amplify false and misleading content.

Russia, China and Iran remain the main actors looking to interfere with the 2024 election, security officials said, but because of advances in technology, other nations or even domestic groups could try to mount their own sophisticated disinformation campaigns.

Russia remains “the most active foreign threat to our elections,” Haines said, using its state media and online influencers to try to erode trust in democratic institutions and U.S. support for Ukraine.

In recent months, Russia has seized on America’s debate over immigration, spreading posts that exaggerate the impact of migration in an apparent effort to stoke outrage among American voters.

China did not directly try to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, mostly because of concerns about blowback, Haines said.

China’s ties to TikTok were one of the things cited by members of Congress who recently voted to force TikTok’s Beijing-based owner to sell the platform.

“Needless to say, we will continue to monitor their activity,” Haines said of China.

Iran, meanwhile, has used social media platforms to issue threats and try to confuse voters, Haines said. She cited a 2020 episode in which U.S. officials accused Tehran of distributing false content and being behind a flurry of emails sent to Democratic voters in multiple battleground states that appeared to be aimed at intimidating them into voting for President Donald Trump.

Wednesday’s hearing on foreign threats to the election also covered the risk that an adversary could hack into state or local election systems, either to change the vote or to create the perception that the outcome can’t be trusted.

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the federal government has worked closely with state and local election officials to ensure the 2024 election is the most secure ever.

“Election infrastructure has never been more secure,” Easterly said.
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NEW YORK — A jury was chosen on Wednesday to determine whether U.S. Senator Robert Menendez broke the law in what federal prosecutors have called a yearslong bribery scheme to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar, as well as himself. 

Opening statements in the trial of New Jersey’s senior senator are expected to begin later in the day before U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan. The trial could last into early July. 

Twelve jurors and six alternates were chosen, including an investment banker, a commercial litigator, a retired economist, a doctor and multiple therapists. Jury selection took about 2½, and more than 130 prospective jurors were excused. 

Menendez, 70, faces 16 criminal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction. 

He is being tried alongside New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes. The senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, 57, is scheduled to be tried on July 8, with the delay resulting from what her lawyers called a serious medical condition. 

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty. The bribery trial is the senator’s second. His first ended in 2017 in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked. 

Prosecutors are expected to detail what they consider a complex and sordid array of corruption that lasted from 2018 to 2023. 

The Menendezes are accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Hana, Daibes and insurance broker Jose Uribe, in exchange for the senator’s providing political favors and aid to Egypt and Qatar.  

Prosecutors have said the senator promised to help Egypt obtain arms sales and other aid, helped Hana obtain a lucrative monopoly on certifying that meat exports to Egypt conformed to Islamic law, and tried to help Daibes secure millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund. 

Menendez, a Democrat, also was accused of trying to interfere in a federal criminal case against Daibes in New Jersey and in state criminal cases involving two of Uribe’s associates. 

Prosecutors have said FBI agents found more than $480,000 of cash in the Menendezes’ home, much stashed in clothing, closets and a safe. 

Bribes also included more than $100,000 in gold bars and a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible, according to prosecutors. 

Uribe pleaded guilty in March to bribery and fraud, and he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. 

While Nadine Menendez is not yet on trial, her husband’s lawyers have suggested his defense might include an effort to blame her for withholding information and making him believe his activities were lawful. 

Robert Menendez became a senator in 2006. Before being indicted, he would have been favored in his Democratic-leaning state to win a fourth full Senate term in November. 

But any reelection bid now would be a long shot, reflecting recent polls of voters that show overwhelming disapproval of Menendez’s job performance. 

Menendez has suggested that he would try if acquitted to run as an independent. Only 9% of voters polled in March by Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill said they would prefer him to another Democrat or a Republican. 

The senator has resisted calls to resign made from across the political spectrum but gave up leadership of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee after his indictment last September. 

Stein admonished jurors to ignore media coverage of the trial. “If something comes up,” the judge said, “switch off.” 
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Штаб також повідомляє про 28 бойових зіткнень на Куп’янському напрямку, зокрема, біля Стельмахівки, Синьківки,  Іванівки та Твердохлібового
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