Політика

«З-під завалів дістали дівчинку-підлітка та чоловіка»
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Звернення спровокувала ініціатива польським політиків, яка пропонує прирівняти ідеологію ОУН, фракції Бандери (ОУН-б) та УПА до фашизму й комунізму
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says the leaders of Ukraine and Russia should be “prepared to make a deal” to end the brutal conflict that has consumed Ukraine since 2022. He also slammed President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory with U.S.-provided weapons – hinting that when he takes office, he may reverse that move. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington. Iuliia Iarmolenko, Kim Lewis and Kateryna Lisunova contributed.
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У соціальних мережах зʼявилося відео, на якому військовослужбовці ТЦК разом з поліцейськими намагалися силою відчинити двері авто
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HANOI, VIETNAM — U.S. weapons manufacturers could work with Vietnamese counterparts to help build Vietnam’s armed forces, the U.S. ambassador to the southeast Asian country said on Thursday.

“Our goal is to ensure that Vietnam has what it needs to defend its interests at sea, in the air, on the ground and in cyberspace,” U.S. Ambassador Marc Knapper said at an international arms expo in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.

The expo, held at the Gia Lam airport, brought together 250 exhibitors, including geopolitical rivals such as the United States, China, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Iran.

U.S. exhibitors included Boeing and Textron Aviation. China was present with Norinco and Gaodu International Trade. Iran’s defense ministry pavilion wasn’t far from booths set up by Israeli companies Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. Several Russian firms also attended, along with Ukraine’s Motor Sich.

Vietnam has been trying to increase its domestic arms manufacturing while reducing its reliance on Russia for weapon imports.

In 2022, Russia made up around 60% of all of Vietnam’s military purchases, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. But Vietnam’s longstanding efforts to diversify its imports have been accelerated by the war in Ukraine. It has also been trying to boost its own capacity to make arms and displayed military equipment it made at the expo.

A key driver for Vietnam is the escalating tensions in the South China Sea, a key trade and security route. It is a flashpoint in Asia and a fault line in the U.S.-China regional rivalry. Vietnam has been critical of China’s increasingly hostile actions in the disputed waters. Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries have overlapping claims in the busy sea passage.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hailed the event as a “message of peace, cooperation and development.” He was later given a tour of a military plane made by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin.
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Слідчий суддя Вищого антикорупційного суду подовжив запобіжний захід на клопотання детектива НАБУ
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Військове командування відсторонило фігуранта від виконання службових обов’язків, додає Офіс генпрокурора
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Islamabad — Pakistan sharply criticized the United States Thursday for imposing new sanctions against the nuclear-armed country’s long-range ballistic missile program, labeling the move as “double standards and discriminatory practices.”

U.S. State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller announced the measures on Wednesday, saying they were imposed under an executive order that “targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.”

Miller said the sanctions cover Pakistan’s state-owned National Defense Complex and three entities collaborating with it in the development of long-range ballistic missiles, including the Shaheen services of missiles.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry rejected the move as “unfortunate and biased.” The ministry statement said Islamabad’s defense capabilities are aimed at safeguarding Pakistan’s sovereignty and preserving peace in South Asia. 

“The latest installment of sanctions defies the objective of peace and security by aiming to accentuate military asymmetries,” the ministry said, apparently referring to Pakistan’s rivalry with nuclear-armed neighbor India.

“Such policies have dangerous implications for the strategic stability of our region and beyond,” the ministry warned, without elaborating.

The designation of National Defense Complex and other firms freezes all U.S. property they own and bars U.S. citizens from engaging in business transactions with them.

“Pakistan’s strategic program is a sacred trust bestowed by 240 million people upon its leadership. The sanctity of this trust, held in the highest esteem across the entire political spectrum, cannot be compromised,” the foreign ministry stated Thursday in response to the U.S. announcement.

The accompanying U.S. State Department fact sheet said the Islamabad-based National Defense Complex has worked to acquire items “intended to be used as launch support equipment for ballistic missiles and missile testing equipment” to advance the country’s missile development program.

The other companies hit with U.S. sanctions are Affiliates International, Akhtar and Sons Private Ltd., and Rockside Enterprise, all located in Karachi, according to the fact sheet.

“The United States will continue to act against proliferation and associated procurement activities of concern,” Miller said.

Pakistan’s Shaheen surface-to-surface rocket is capable of carrying nuclear warheads to a range of approximately 2,750 kilometers, with experts saying the range enables the solid-fueled, multistage missile to reach targets anywhere in India and parts of the Middle East.

New Delhi and Islamabad conducted their first nuclear weapons tests in May 1998, raising fears another war between the arch-rivals could escalate into a nuclear exchange in South Asia. Both nations have fought three wars, resulting in strained relations and persistent military tensions.

India and Pakistan oppose and refuse to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, an international agreement aimed at curbing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“These country-specific U.S. sanctions against a close and longstanding strategic partner like Pakistan are unfortunate, divorced from historical realities, and indicate weaker U.S. commitment towards regional peace, security and strategic stability,” Syed Muhammad Ali, a security expert based in Islamabad, told VOA.
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Усі дані були отримані з відкритих джерел, включаючи заяви російських офіційних осіб, дописи родичів загиблих, публікації в кримських і російських ЗМІ
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WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department’s efforts to curb China’s and Russia’s access to American-made advanced computer chips have been “inadequate” and will need more funding to stymie their ability to manufacture advanced weapons, according to a report published Wednesday by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The Biden administration imposed export controls to limit the ability of China and Russia to access U.S.-made chips after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.

The agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security, according to the report, does not have the resources to enforce export controls and has been too reliant on U.S. chip makers voluntarily complying with the rules.

But the push for bolstering Commerce’s export control enforcement comes as the incoming Trump administration says it is looking to dramatically reduce the size and scope of federal government. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” to dismantle parts of the federal government.

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

BIS’s budget, about $191 million, has remained essentially flat since 2010 when adjusted for inflation.

“While BIS’ budget has been stagnant for a decade, the bureau works diligently around the clock to meet its mission and safeguard U.S. national security,” Commerce Department spokesperson Charlie Andrews said in a statement in response to the report.

Andrews added that with “necessary resources from Congress” the agency would be “better equipped to address the challenges that come with our evolving national security environment.”

In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, chair of the subcommittee, pointed to news reports of the Russian military continuing to acquire components from Texas Instruments through front companies in Hong Kong to illustrate how the export controls are failing as an effective tool.

Blumenthal in a statement called on “Commerce to take immediate action and crack down on the companies allowing U.S.-made semiconductors to power Russian weapons and Chinese ambition.”

Texas Instruments said it opposes the use of its chips in Russian military equipment and the illicit diversion of its products to Russia.

“It is our policy to comply with export control laws, and any shipments of TI chips into Russia are illicit and unauthorized,” the company said in a statement. “If we find evidence indicating product diversion, we investigate and take action.”

It’s not just Texas Instruments that’s the issue. The subcommittee in September published a report that found aggregated exports from four major U.S. advanced chip manufacturers nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022 to Armenia and Georgia.

Both of those countries are home to front companies known to assist Russia in acquiring advanced chips made in the U.S. despite export controls.

China, meanwhile, has created “vast, barely disguised smuggling networks which enable it to continue to harness U.S. technology,” the subcommittee report asserts.

Washington has been gradually expanding the number of companies affected by such export controls in China, as President Joe Biden’s administration has encouraged an expansion of investments in and manufacturing of chips in the U.S.

But Chinese companies have found ways to evade export controls in part because of a lack of China subject matter experts and Chinese speakers assigned to Commerce’s export control enforcement.

The agency’s current budget limits the number of international end-use checks, or physical verification overseas of distributors or companies receiving American-made chips that are the supposed end users of products. Currently, Commerce has only 11 export control officers spread around the globe to conduct such checks, the report said.

The committee made several recommendations in its report, including Congress allocating more money for hiring additional personnel to enforce export controls, imposing larger fines on companies that violate controls and requiring periodic reviews of advanced chip companies’ export control plans by outside entities.
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NEW YORK — U.S. life expectancy jumped last year, and preliminary data suggests there may be another — much smaller — improvement this year.

Death rates fell last year for almost all leading causes, notably COVID-19, heart disease and drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday. That translated to adding nearly a year the estimated lifespan of Americans.

Experts note it’s part of a bounce-back from the COVID-19 pandemic. But life expectancy has not yet climbed back to prepandemic levels, and the rebound appears to be losing steam.

“What you’re seeing is continued improvement, but slowing improvement,” said Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, a University Minnesota researcher who studies death trends. “We are sort of converging back to some kind of normal that is worse than it was before the pandemic.”

Last year, nearly 3.1 million U.S. residents died, about 189,000 fewer than the year before. Death rates declined across all racial and ethnic groups, and in both men and women.

Provisional data for the first 10 months of 2024 suggests the country is on track to see even fewer deaths this year, perhaps about 13,000 fewer. But that difference is likely to narrow as more death certificates come in, said the CDC’s Robert Anderson.

That means that life expectancy for 2024 likely will rise — “but probably not by a lot,” said Anderson, who oversees death tracking at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time. It’s a fundamental measure of a population’s health.

For decades, U.S. life expectancy rose at least a little bit almost every year, thanks to medical advances and public health measures. It peaked in 2014, at nearly 79 years, and then was relatively flat for several years. Then it plunged during the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping to just under 76 1/2 years in 2021.

It rebounded to 77 1/2 years in 2022 and, according to the new report, to nearly 78 1/2 last year.

Life expectancy for U.S. women continues to be well above that of men — a little over 81 for women, compared with a little under 76 for men.

In the last five years, more than 1.2 million U.S. deaths have been attributed to COVID-19. But most of them occurred in 2020 and 2021, before vaccination- and infection-induced immunity became widespread.

The coronavirus was once the nation’s third leading cause of death. Last year it was the underlying cause in nearly 50,000 deaths, making it the nation’s No. 10 killer.

Data for 2024 is still coming in, but about 30,000 coronavirus deaths have been reported so far. At that rate, suicide may surpass COVID-19 this year, Anderson said.

Heart disease remains the nation’s leading cause of death. Some underappreciated good news is the heart disease death rate dropped by about 3% in 2023. That’s a much smaller drop than the 73% decline in the COVID-19 death rate, but heart disease affects more people so even small changes can be more impactful, Anderson said.

There’s also good news about overdose deaths, which fell to 105,000 in 2023 among U.S. residents, according to a second report released by CDC on Thursday.

The causes of the overdose decline are still being studied but there is reason to be hopeful such deaths will drop more in the future, experts say. Some pointed to survey results this week that showed teens drug use isn’t rising.

“The earlier you start taking a drug, the greater the risk that you could continue using it and the greater the risk that you will become addicted to it — and have untoward consequences,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the survey study. “If you can reduce the pipeline (of new drug users) … you can prevent overdoses.”
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Також уламки збитого дрона впали на одну з ділянок залізниці. Її перекрили для вилучення уламків з колії, наразі рух відновлено
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Last week, the PRESS Act, which aims to protect journalists from unnecessary government surveillance and being forced to reveal sources, failed to pass the U.S. Senate last week after being unanimously passed in the House. VOA Mandarin takes a look into the act, why it is being blocked and a case that highlights its importance.

Click here to see the full story in Mandarin.  
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Thousands of Amazon.com workers will walk off the job on Thursday at 6 a.m. EST, in the crucial final days before Christmas, after union officials said the retailer failed to come to the bargaining table.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said unionized workers at facilities in New York City; Skokie, Illinois; Atlanta, San Francisco and southern California will join the picket line to seek contracts guaranteeing better wages and work conditions.

The Teamsters union has said it represents about 10,000 workers at 10 of the company’s U.S. facilities, representing about 1% of Amazon’s hourly workforce.

The strike could disrupt Amazon’s operations as it races to fulfill orders during its busiest season of the year. In the New York City area, however, the company has multiple warehouses, as well as smaller delivery depots for fast same-day delivery.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The union had given Amazon a deadline of Sunday to begin negotiations, and workers voted recently to authorize a possible strike.

Teamsters local unions are also putting up primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon Fulfillment Centers nationwide, the union said in a statement on Wednesday.  
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Викликів щодо постраждалих не надходило
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NEW YORK — A Manhattan resident has pleaded guilty to helping establish a secret police station in New York City on behalf of the Chinese government.

Chen Jinping, 60, entered the guilty plea on a single count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday.

Matthew Olsen, an assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department, said Chen admitted in court to his role in “audaciously establishing an undeclared police station” in Manhattan and attempting to conceal the effort when approached by the FBI.

“This illegal police station was not opened in the interest of public safety, but to further the nefarious and repressive aims of the PRC in direct violation of American sovereignty,” he said in statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

Prosecutors say Chen and his co-defendant, Lu Jianwang, opened and operated a local branch of China’s Ministry of Public Security in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood starting in early 2022.

The office, which occupied an entire floor of the building, performed basic services, such as helping Chinese citizens renew their Chinese driver’s licenses, but also identified pro-democracy activists living in the U.S., according to federal authorities.

The clandestine Chinese police operation was shuttered in fall 2022 amid an FBI investigation. But in an apparent effort to obstruct the federal probe, Chen and Lu deleted from their phones the communications with a Chinese government official they reported to, prosecutors said.

China is believed to be operating such secretive police outposts in North America, Europe and other places where there are Chinese communities. The country, however, has denied that they are police stations, saying that they exist mainly to provide citizen services such as renewing driver’s licenses.

The arrest of Chen and Lu in April 2023 was part of a series of Justice Department prosecutions aimed at cracking down on “transnational repression,” in which foreign governments such as China work to identify, intimidate and silence dissidents in the U.S.

Lawyers for Chen and Lu didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday. Chen faces up to five years in prison at his sentencing on May 30.

Lu, who is due back in court in February, had a longstanding relationship with Chinese law enforcement officials, according to prosecutors.

Over the years, they say, the Bronx resident, who was also known as Harry Lu, helped harass and threaten a Chinese fugitive living in the U.S. and also worked to locate a pro-democracy activist in California on behalf of China’s government.
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STATE DEPARTMENT — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a “substantive” face-to-face meeting Wednesday morning with Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has been selected by President-elect Donald Trump as his nominee for the next U.S. secretary of state. The meeting comes as Trump’s team prepares for the transition process.  

“It was a good, constructive and substantive conversation,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters during a briefing. 

“We continue to stand ready to help support a seamless transition on January 20,” he added.  

In August 2020, China sanctioned Rubio, a longtime critic of the government in Beijing, along with others, citing what it described as “egregious behavior” related to “Hong Kong-related issues.” Rubio told VOA earlier in December that he is confident in his ability “to find some solution” to engage with Beijing if confirmed.  

When asked if he would maintain his previous stance on foreign policy issues, Rubio said, “The president sets foreign policy, and our job at the State [Department] will be to execute it.” 

Here is a look at Rubio’s past legislative actions and public statements on key China-related issues: 

Securing US technologies 

Rubio has warned that “Communist China is the most powerful adversary the United States has faced in living memory,” in a September report titled “The World China Made.” 

The report asserts that the Chinese Communist Party controls the world’s largest industrial base through “market-distorting subsidies” and “rampant theft.” Rubio urged a “whole-of-society effort” by U.S. lawmakers, CEOs, and investors to “rebuild our country, overcome the China challenge, and keep the torch of freedom lit for generations to come.” 

Rubio has been a vocal critic of U.S.-China research collaborations, warning that taxpayer funds have unknowingly supported Chinese military-linked experiments in areas like stealth technology, semiconductors, and cybersecurity — potentially giving Beijing a strategic edge.  

In July, he introduced a bill to fortify U.S. research, with key provisions including the creation of a “TRUST” database to track high-risk Chinese research entities, stricter grant application transparency, and penalties for undisclosed foreign funding. The bill also enhances visa screening for individuals linked to adversarial foreign research and mandates stronger oversight of U.S.-China research partnerships. 

Rubio has advocated for the bipartisan 2021 Secure Equipment Act, a law that prohibits the U.S. government from issuing new equipment licenses to Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE that the United States and other Western countries have deemed a national security risk. 

Revoking China’s ‘most favored nation’ status 

Rubio is among the Republican lawmakers who proposed a bill to revoke China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations, or PNTR, with the United States. 

Commonly known as “most favored nation” status, PNTR means that Chinese goods being imported into the United States are granted the most advantageous terms that the country offers when it applies tariffs and other restrictions. 

Introduced in September 2024, the Neither Permanent Nor Normal Trade Relations Act marks a shift toward a more protectionist U.S. trade strategy. The bill aims to impose higher tariffs on Chinese imports, strengthen supply chain resilience, and reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese goods. 

One of the key provisions includes the establishment of a trust fund using tariff revenue to compensate U.S. industries harmed by China’s retaliatory trade actions, with priority support for agriculture, semiconductor, and aerospace sectors. 

Rubio outlined his position as early as a 2022 speech at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, calling the belief that free trade and globalization would change China “the single biggest geopolitical blunder of the last quarter century.”   

“For over two decades, China methodically undermined our economic strength by stealing our critical technology, our manufacturing capacity, and our jobs,” he argued. 

Monitoring China’s human rights record   

Rubio also chaired the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, CECC, from 2017 to 2019 and continues to serve as a commissioner.  

The CECC was established in 2000 in response to concerns that granting PNTR to China would eliminate Congress’s ability to annually review and debate China’s human rights record. The commission monitors China’s compliance with international human rights standards and maintains a list of victims of human rights abuses. 

Rubio has criticized China’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, introduced bills to ban imports linked to forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and expanded sanctions on Uyghur human rights abusers.  

The Florida senator has also supported U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and efforts to enhance its global standing. 

He has met with Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activists and has been a staunch advocate for their movement. He introduced the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which was signed into law in 2019.

Rubio also headed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, signed into law in 2020, which imposed sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. With the law’s sanctions set to expire in 2025, Rubio introduced the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Reauthorization Act of 2024 in June, sponsored by CECC co-chair Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, to extend key provisions for another five years, ensuring continued U.S. support for the human rights of Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in China. 

On April 10, 2024, Rubio and Merkley introduced a resolution reaffirming the U.S. commitment to Taiwan’s vibrant democracy and recognizing the 45th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act – a landmark U.S. public law that has guided U.S.-Taiwan relations since 1979. The TRA, as it is called, outlines U.S. policy to provide Taiwan with defensive arms and commits Washington to provide Taipei with the capacity to resist coercion or force that could threaten its security or economic system.  

Rubio has been a vocal critic of China’s increasing economic, military, and political coercion against Taiwan. He has introduced bills aimed at bolstering deterrence in the Taiwan Strait and led legislation to facilitate visits between U.S. and Taiwanese officials, such as the Taiwan Travel Act, which President Trump signed into law in 2018.  

The law is considered a substantial upgrade to U.S.-Taiwan relations, as it removed previous restrictions on travel for officials. 

The Communist Party-led People’s Republic of China has never governed Taiwan but claims sovereignty over the self-ruled democracy. China has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
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