Політика

President-elect Donald Trump did not rule out using military or economic coercion to gain control of the Panama Canal and Greenland during a wide-ranging news conference in Florida on Tuesday. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports his remarks came hours after his son made a surprise trip to Greenland.
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CARACAS, VENEZUELA — Two U.S. citizens have been arrested in Venezuela, part of a group of seven whom President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday branded as “mercenaries” in the latest roundup ahead of the embattled leader’s expected inauguration to a new term later this week.

Maduro said the detained U.S. citizens were “very high level” but did not provide further details or evidence of the arrests.

“Just today we’ve captured seven foreign mercenaries, including two important mercenaries from the United States,” said Maduro, who is set to take office for a third term on Friday following last July’s contested election that the opposition says it won in a landslide.

Maduro said the group of detainees includes two Colombians who he said were captured in unspecified parts of Venezuela, as well as three others who came from the war in Ukraine.

Neither the U.S. Department of State nor Colombia’s Foreign Ministry responded immediately to requests for comment.

Venezuelan rights groups have warned of a revolving door of prisoners, with fresh detentions coming in even as older prisoners are released, including arrests of foreign nationals.

In late 2023, Venezuela’s government released dozens of prisoners including 10 Americans after months of negotiations between Caracas and Washington, while the U.S. released a close ally of Maduro, Colombian businessman Alex Saab.

In remarks delivered from the Miraflores presidential palace, Maduro on Tuesday claimed that his government’s security forces have captured what he called 125 foreign mercenaries from 25 different countries who he said had entered the South American nation “to practice terrorism against the Venezuelan people.”

The remarks come as opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez is touring the region in a bid to grow his international support. Gonzalez has been declared president-elect by several governments, including the United States.

On Monday, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden said Gonzalez was the “true winner” of the July 28 vote.

While the government-aligned electoral authority and Venezuela’s top court have decreed that Maduro won the election, the government has not released ballot-box level results to back up the claim.

The opposition, however, has published thousands of scanned copies of voting machine receipts its observers gathered days after the vote, accounting for over 80% of votes cast and showing a lopsided Gonzalez victory.
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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday held an omnibus press conference at his Florida estate, where he explained his stances on key foreign policy issues as he prepares to take office in two weeks.  

He forcefully called for the release of hostages seized in Israel more than a year ago by the militant group Hamas, saying six times that “all hell will break loose” otherwise.    

Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist organization, dug in on its top demand in ongoing negotiations that Israel ends its assault and withdraw from Gaza. At a news conference in Algiers, Hamas official Osama Hamdan blamed Israel for stymieing a deal.  

When asked to respond to Trump’s comments, Hamdan replied, “I think the U.S. president must make more disciplined and diplomatic statements.” 

The Palestinian group’s stunning terror attack on civilians in Israel sparked a brutal conflict that has since inflamed the region and killed tens of thousands of civilians.    

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, had moments before joined the president-elect at the podium to brief reporters on his recent high-level talks in the region, saying his team is “on the verge” of a deal and that he would travel back in coming days.    

“I don’t want to hurt your negotiation,” Trump told Witkoff, “but if they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone.”    

On Ukraine, he expressed interest in meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and repeated his vow to get the conflict in Ukraine “straightened out.” Trump has not explained how he would do this.    

When asked about a key demand in Ukraine’s peace plan — that it be allowed to join NATO — Trump said, “My view is that it was always understood” that Ukraine would not be admitted to the security alliance.    

He repeated his tariff threats against Canada and Mexico, his line that Canada should be a U.S. state, and he floated a name change, saying: “We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.”    

Thessalia Merivaki, an associate teaching professor at Georgetown University, said Trump often uses bluster as a strategy.    

“So, Trump has a record of just floating controversial ideas and positions to attract attention and generate interest and media coverage,” she said.    

Foreign policy  

Trump has not said how the U.S. will acquire control of Greenland, the large North American island that is an autonomous territory of Denmark. On Tuesday, he repeated his stance that “we need them for economic security.”  

When asked directly if he would commit to not use military or economic coercion to back his increasingly voluble desire for control of Greenland and also the Panama Canal, Trump replied, “I can’t assure you on either of those two.”    

Trump has accused Panama of violating the treaty under which the U.S. ceded control of the famous canal more than four decades ago under former President Jimmy Carter.  

“Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very big mistake,” Trump said. “Giving that away was a horrible thing, and I believe that’s why Jimmy Carter lost the election.”    

Trump added that he liked Carter “as a man.” He is expected to attend Carter’s national funeral Thursday in Washington. President Joe Biden will deliver the eulogy.  

First day and beyond  

Trump also said he would be “making major pardons” on his first day in office, when asked about his previous vow to issue clemency to some of the more than 1,500 people charged with crimes in connection to the riot on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.    

He also repeated past commitments to loosen what he called the “quagmire” of U.S. environmental regulations and smooth the path for billionaire investors.  

He described his re-election victory as a “landslide” for winning the Electoral College and the popular vote, although official results show he did not win the majority of the ballots, as third-party candidates shaved off votes. He promised to have future election results counted earlier on election night.  

He repeated his vow to “drill, baby, drill” on his first day in office by reversing Biden’s recent orders seeking to protect against offshore drilling.    

He accused Biden of botching foreign policy, saying, “Now, I’m going into a world that’s burning.”

Trump will assume office on January 20.  

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this story from Washington. Some information for this story came from Reuters.
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Washington — A U.S. judge temporarily blocked Special Counsel Jack Smith from releasing a report on his investigations into President-elect Donald Trump for his mishandling of classified documents and attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, a court order showed on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who presided over the now-dismissed case accusing Trump of illegally holding onto classified documents, directed the Justice Department not to release the report until a federal appeals court rules on a request from Trump’s two former co-defendants in the case.

Lawyers for the co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who were charged with obstructing the documents investigation, moved late Monday to block release of the report.

Nauta and De Oliveira argued the report would improperly interfere in their case, which remains ongoing.

Smith led both the classified documents case against Trump and a second prosecution accusing Trump of attempting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. Both cases have since been dropped.

Trump, who dismissed the federal probe and the two other criminal investigations he faced as a politically motivated attempt to block him from returning to power, said he welcomed the news.

“It was a fake case against a political opponent,” Trump told reporters at his Florida resort on Tuesday. “If they’re not allowed to issue the report, that’s the way it should be … that’s great news.”

A spokesperson for Smith’s office declined to comment on the order.

Justice Department regulations require Smith, who plans to wrap up his probe before Trump returns to office on Jan. 20, to submit a final report to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland has previously pledged to make public all reports from special counsels during his tenure.

Prosecutors said in a court filing earlier on Tuesday that Garland, who appointed Smith, had not yet decided how to handle the portion of the report that relates to the classified documents case.  

Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the case against Trump and his two co-defendants in July 2024 after ruling that Smith was improperly appointed. Prosecutors are appealing the ruling as it pertains to Nauta and De Oliveira.
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Крім того, дітям з окупованих районів України пропонують продовжувати навчання в Росії, повідомляє Центр національного спротиву
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NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump tried again Tuesday to delay this week’s sentencing in his hush money case, asking a New York appeals court to intervene as he fights to avoid the finality of his conviction before he returns to the White House. 

Trump turned to the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court a day after the trial judge, Judge Juan M. Merchan, rebuffed his bid to indefinitely postpone sentencing and ordered it to go ahead as scheduled on Friday. 

Trump is seeking an emergency order that would spare him from being sentenced while he appeals Merchan’s decision last week to uphold the historic verdict. Oral arguments were expected before a single judge later Tuesday, with a decision likely soon thereafter. 

A quick decision is necessary “to prevent ongoing violations” of Trump’s constitutional rights “and a threatened disruption” of the presidential transition process, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche wrote in a filing with the Appellate Division. 

Trump, less than two weeks from his inauguration, is poised to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes. If his sentencing doesn’t happen before his second term starts Jan. 20, presidential immunity could put it on hold until he leaves office. 

Merchan has signaled that he is not likely to punish Trump for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and will accommodate the transition by allowing him to appear at sentencing by video, rather than in person at a Manhattan courthouse. 

Still, the Republican and his lawyers contend that his sentencing should not go forward because the conviction and indictment should be dismissed. They have previously suggested taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Merchan last Friday denied Trump’s request to throw out his conviction and dismiss the case because of his impending return to the White House, ruling that Trump’s current status as president-elect does not afford him the same immunity from criminal proceedings as a sitting president. 

Merchan wrote that the interests of justice would only be served by “bringing finality to this matter” through sentencing. He said giving Trump what’s known as an unconditional discharge — closing the case without jail time, a fine or probation — “appears to be the most viable solution.” 

In his filing Tuesday, Blanche argued that Merchan’s interpretation of presidential immunity was wrong and that it should extend to a president-elect during “the complex, sensitive process of presidential transition.” 

“It is unconstitutional to conduct a criminal sentencing of the president-elect during a presidential transition, and doing so threatens to disrupt that transition and undermine the incoming president’s ability to effectively wield the executive power of the United States,” Blanche wrote. 

Trump’s lawyers are also challenging the judge’s prior decision rejecting Trump’s argument that the case should be thrown out because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last July that gave presidents broad immunity from prosecution. 

Manhattan prosecutors have pushed for sentencing to proceed as scheduled, “given the strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings.” 

Trump was convicted last May on charges involving an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign to keep her from publicizing claims she’d had sex with him years earlier. He says that her story is false and that he did nothing wrong. 

The case centered on how Trump accounted for reimbursing his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who had made the payment to Daniels. The conviction carried the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison. 

Trump’s sentencing initially was set for last July 11, then postponed twice at the defense’s request. After Trump’s Nov. 5 election, Merchan delayed the sentencing again so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.
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«Для здійснення атаки по місту Скітський віддав наказ задіяти декілька стратегічних бомбардувальників-ракетоносців Ту-95»
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Meta is ending its fact-checking program in the U.S. and replacing it with a “Community Notes” system similar to that on Elon Musk-owned X, the Facebook parent said on Tuesday.  

The Community Notes model will allow users on Meta’s social media sites Facebook, Instagram and Threads to call out posts that are potentially misleading and need more context, rather than placing the responsibility on independent fact checking organizations and experts.  

“Experts, like everyone else, have their own biases and perspectives. This showed up in the choices some made about what to fact check and how … A program intended to inform too often became a tool to censor,” Meta said.  

Meta added that its efforts over the years to manage content across its platforms have expanded “to the point where we are making too many mistakes, frustrating our users and too often getting in the way of the free expression we set out to enable.” 

The company said it would begin phasing in Community Notes in the United States over the next couple of months and would improve the model over the course of the year. 

It will also stop demoting fact-checked content and use a label notifying users there is additional information related to the post, instead of the company’s current method of displaying full-screen warnings that users have to click through before even viewing the post.  
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Los Angeles — President Joe Biden is establishing two new national monuments in California that will honor Native American tribes, the White House confirmed Tuesday, as Biden seeks to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 through his “America the Beautiful” initiative.

Proclamations set to be signed Tuesday will create the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park and the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California. The declarations bar drilling and mining and other development on the 624,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) Chuckwalla site and roughly 225,000 acres (800 square kilometers) near the Oregon border in Northern California.

The new monuments will protect clean water for communities, honor areas of cultural significance to tribal nations and Indigenous peoples, and enhance access to nature, the White House said.

Biden, who has two weeks left in office, is set to visit Los Angeles and the Eastern Coachella Valley on Tuesday after meeting Monday with the families of the victims in the New Year’s attack in New Orleans.

Biden announced Monday he will ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, including in California and other West Coast states. The plan is intended to block possible efforts by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.

The flurry of activity has been in line with the Democratic president’s “America the Beautiful” initiative launched in 2021, aimed at honoring tribal heritage, meeting federal goals to conserve 30% of public lands and waters by 2030 and addressing climate change.

The Pit River Tribe has worked to get the federal government to designate the Sáttítla National Monument. The area is a spiritual center for the Pit River and Modoc Tribes and encompasses mountain woodlands and meadows that are home to rare flowers and wildlife.

A number of Native American tribes and environmental groups began pushing Biden to designate the Chuckwalla National Monument, named after the large desert lizard, in early 2023. The monument would protect public lands south of Joshua Tree National Park, spanning the Coachella Valley region in the west to near the Colorado River.

Advocates say the monument will protect a tribal cultural landscape, ensure access to nature for local residents and preserve military history sites.

“The designation of the Chuckwalla and Sáttítla National Monuments in California marks an historic step toward protecting lands of profound cultural, ecological and historical significance for all Americans,” said Carrie Besnette Hauser, president and CEO of the nonprofit Trust for Public Land.

The new monuments “honor the enduring stewardship of Tribal Nations and the tireless efforts of local communities and conservation advocates who fought to safeguard these irreplaceable landscapes for future generations,” Hauser said.

National monuments like Chuckwalla and Sáttítla play a key role in addressing historical injustices and ensuring a more inclusive telling of America’s history, she said.

The Chuckwalla monument is intended to honor tribal sovereignty by including local tribes as co-stewards, following in the footsteps of a recent wave of monuments such as the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, which is overseen in conjunction with five tribal nations.

“The protection of the Chuckwalla National Monument brings the Quechan people an overwhelming sense of peace and joy,” the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe said in a statement. “Tribes being reunited as stewards of this landscape is only the beginning of much-needed healing and restoration, and we are eager to fully rebuild our relationship to this place.”

In May, the Biden administration expanded two national monuments in California — the San Gabriel Mountains in the south and Berryessa Snow Mountain in the north. In October, Biden designated the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary along the coast of central California, which will include input from the local Chumash tribes in how the area is preserved.

Last year, the Yurok Tribe in Northern California also became the first Native people to manage tribal land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding signed by the tribe, Redwood National and State Parks and the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League, which is conveying the land to the tribe.
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«Під удар ворожого БпЛА потрапила 48-річна жінка, яка перебувала на кладовищі»
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Проголосувати за кандидата можна протягом вівторка з 09:00 до 21:00 на сайті Міноборони
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Загалом ДБР розслідує 2 454 кримінальних проваджень щодо злочинів проти національної безпеки України
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President Ronald Reagan is often credited with defeating the Soviet Union, in part by helping Afghan rebels, but it was the administration of President Jimmy Carter that laid the groundwork.

Considered a foreign policy novice by many when he entered the White House, Carter made the early decision to provide covert aid to Afghan insurgents months before the Soviet invasion. The move offers a window into one of the defining issues of his presidency, showing a president unafraid to confront the Soviets while pursuing a policy of détente.

“I think people’s image of Carter as a deeply religious man, a deeply moral man, is very much influenced by the activities he’s done after he left office. [But] he definitely had a ruthless side to him, and he had a side that was very willing to use force, including nuclear weapons,” said David Gibbs, a history professor at the University of Arizona. 

The covert aid program initiated under Carter became the backbone of the Afghan insurgency, setting the stage for the Soviet Union’s eventual withdrawal in 1989.

In a bold move six months before the Soviets’ December 1979 invasion, Carter signed a secret directive known as a “presidential finding” that authorized the CIA to provide nonlethal aid to rebels fighting Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed communist government.

That finding stayed under wraps for nearly two decades, coming to light only when several Carter administration officials, including former CIA Director Robert Gates and national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, disclosed its existence in the 1990s, suggesting the Carter administration aimed to lure the Soviets into a Vietnam-style quagmire.

‘Afghan trap’

Brzezinski’s revelations were the most striking. In a 1998 interview with a French magazine, Carter’s Polish-born, ardently anti-communist adviser denied provoking the Soviets but claimed the administration had “knowingly increased the probability” of a Soviet invasion. Calling the program “an excellent idea,” he said it had the “effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap.”

Although Brzezinski later disputed the accuracy of the interview and never repeated the claim, the so-called “Afghan trap” thesis gained traction, with critics excoriating the Carter administration for instigating the Soviet invasion and causing decades of conflict in Afghanistan.

Among scholars who see the aid program as a deliberate provocation, Gibbs said he was initially loath to read too much into the Brzezinski interview before becoming convinced of its veracity.

As Gibbs described it to VOA, a military aide once told historian Jonathan Haslam that Brzezinski, upon learning of the Soviet invasion, “pumped his first in the air in triumph and said, ‘They’ve taken the bait!’”

“The implication was that the decision to supply aid to the mujahideen was bait,” Gibbs said. “That, to me, is a strong indication that what he said is true, because it was said twice over a period of time, and it’s from the horse’s mouth.”

The Afghan trap thesis has permeated the works of other prominent experts, although most now dismiss it as baseless, according to historian Conor Tobin of the University College Dublin, who has researched it.

The problem with the theory, Tobin argues, is that it views the Carter administration’s involvement in Afghanistan through a 21st century lens, “working backwards from the events of 9/11.”

“They rely almost exclusively on Gates’ memoirs, the controversial French interview and other circumstantial and limited anecdotal evidence without exploring the subject in detail, and without using any other sources to corroborate the statements made,” Tobin told VOA via email.

A close look at recently declassified Carter-era documents tells a different story, Tobin said.

“It reveals that there was no attempt to ensnare the Soviet Union in the Afghan trap, and U.S. policies were in fact marginal in leading to the Soviet military intervention,” he said.

Nonlethal aid

What is not up for debate, however, is that the aid program was launched in response to rising Soviet influence in Afghanistan. A communist coup in April 1978 toppled the government of President Mohammad Daoud. The new regime then initiated radical reforms, sparking public opposition and eventually a full-blown insurgency.

According to Tobin, the Carter administration initially took a “wait-and-see” approach. That policy ended with the kidnapping and murder of U.S. Ambassador Adolph Dubs the following February. Brzezinski then ordered a new plan for Afghanistan.

“Should we help any insurgents?” he asked an aide to investigate, according to Tobin. “With whom would we have to work?”

A popular revolt in the western Afghan city of Herat, however, “led to a shift in attitude in Washington and the consensus began to slide towards a more active role,” Tobin wrote in his analysis, “The Myth of the ‘Afghan Trap’.” 

CIA operatives sprang into action, developing a plan of action while reaching out to U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Several options were formulated, ranging from small-scale propaganda campaigns and nonlethal support to lethal arms supplies and military training via a third country.

After determining that military assistance may “provoke vigorous Soviet countermeasures,” the administration settled on nonlethal aid.

“The decision-making process demonstrated caution, rather than an effort to induce an invasion,” Tobin wrote.

On July 3, 1979, Carter authorized the CIA to provide up to $695,000 in aid to the insurgents. By mid-August, $575,000 of the funds had been allocated for cash, medical equipment and radio transmitters to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, who then delivered them to the mujahideen, according to Tobin’s account.

The aid program, says Tobin, was modest but significant in two key respects. It helped establish links with the mujahideen through Pakistani intelligence that would prove invaluable after the Soviet invasion. It also underscored American resolve to allies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, reassuring them at a time when concerns about diminishing U.S. influence in the region were mounting.

The aid program came against a backdrop of escalating Cold War tensions. The Iranian Revolution of February 1979 had robbed the U.S. of a key strategic ally in the region. Rather than seeking to provoke the Soviets, Brzezinski worried about a “creeping intervention” in Afghanistan, fearing ‘’Moscow would continue to expand its influence until a de factor invasion had taken place,’’ Tobin wrote. 

“The objectives in mid-1979 were essentially to do something, anything, to counter the Soviet advance in Afghanistan,” Tobin said.

Historian Scott Kaufman of Francis Marion University and author of a book on Carter’s foreign policy, said the late president also had to consider his bid for re-election the following year.

“He was already under attack for having ‘lost’ Nicaragua to communists and for being ‘soft’ on the Soviet Union,” Kaufman told VOA via email. “How would it look to voters if Carter, who wanted to get SALT II [Strategic Arms Limitations Talks] approved, made moves that encouraged what would be seen by them as further Soviet aggression.”

‘Carter Doctrine’

Kaufman took issue with the popular perception of Carter as a foreign policy novice. Though he lacked the foreign policy experience of a Richard Nixon or even Gerald Ford, Carter sat on the Trilateral Commission and had traveled overseas as governor of Georgia, Kaufman noted.

“That said, his support for the mujahideen reflected a foreign policy that since at least 1978 reflected a hardening insofar as U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union,” he said.

Carter’s tougher stance, Kaufman said, was driven by growing anti-Soviet sentiment in Congress, Brzezinski’s influence, and his personal disdain for Soviet repression and machinations.

“This does not mean that he had given up on seeking detente with the Soviets, as reflected by his desire to get SALT II ratified,” he said. “But his foreign policy vis-a-vis the U.S.S.R. [Soviet Union] demonstrated a preparedness to take a harder line.”

Nothing demonstrated Carter’s resolve more forcefully than the “Carter Doctrine,” his bold Persian Gulf policy adopted in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Unveiling the new policy during his 1980 State of the Union address, Carter warned that the U.S. was prepared to use “any means necessary” to prevent a Soviet takeover of the Persian Gulf region.

With the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Carter administration upped the ante. On December 28, 1979, the day after Soviet commandos assassinated Afghan President Hafizullah Amin in Kabul, Carter signed a new finding that authorized the supply of weapons and training for the mujahideen. The first batch of weapons arrived in Pakistan in less than two weeks.

Carter went on to lose the 1980 election to Reagan, whose administration largely continued Carter’s Afghan policy for several years before dramatically building up the covert aid program to the tune of several hundred million dollars a year. Instead of merely harassing the Soviets, the Reagan administration sought its defeat, according to Tobin.

“The criticism of the Carter administration as weak on defense, therefore, is unjustified, with Carter largely laying the groundwork for the renewed global containment of the 1980s,” Tobin said.

“So, despite enduring orthodox assessments of Carter as a foreign policy failure, he departed office in January 1981 leaving a clear foreign policy direction for the incoming Reagan administration that arguably contributed to the end of the Cold War a decade later — an outcome that was almost incomprehensible as the Carter administration took office in January 1977.”
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Annapolis, Maryland — The next round of bitter cold was set to envelop the southern U.S. on Tuesday, after the first significant winter storm of the year blasted a huge swath of the country with ice, snow and wind.

The immense storm system brought disruption even to areas of the country that usually escape winter’s wrath, downing trees in some Southern states, threatening a freeze in Florida and causing people in Dallas to dip deep into their wardrobes for hats and gloves.

By early Tuesday, wind chill temperatures could dip as low as minus 10.5 C from Texas across the Gulf Coast, according to the National Weather Service. A low-pressure system is then expected to form as soon as Wednesday near south Texas, bringing the potential of snow to parts of the state that include Dallas, as well as to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

The polar vortex that dipped south over the weekend kept much of the country east of the Rockies in its frigid grip Monday, making many roads treacherous, forcing school closures, and causing widespread power outages and flight cancellations.

Ice and snow blanketed major roads in Kansas, western Nebraska and parts of Indiana, where the National Guard was activated to help stranded motorists. The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for Kansas and Missouri, where blizzard conditions brought wind gusts of up to 72 kph. The warnings extended to New Jersey into early Tuesday.

A Kentucky truck stop was jammed with big rigs forced off an icy and snow-covered Interstate 75 on Monday just outside Cincinnati. A long-haul driver from Los Angeles carrying a load of rugs to Georgia, Michael Taylor said he saw numerous cars and trucks stuck in ditches and was dealing with icy windshield wipers before he pulled off the interstate.

“It was too dangerous. I didn’t want to kill myself or anyone else,” he said.

The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes plunges south into the U.S., Europe and Asia. Studies show that a fast-warming Arctic is partly to blame for the increasing frequency of the polar vortex extending its grip.

Temperatures plunge across the country

The eastern two-thirds of the U.S. dealt with bone-chilling cold and wind chills Monday, with temperatures in some areas far below normal.

A cold weather advisory will take effect early Tuesday across the Gulf Coast. In Texas’ capital of Austin and surrounding cities, wind chills could drop as low as minus 9.4 C.

The Northeast was expected to get several cold days.

Transportation has been tricky

Hundreds of car accidents were reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky, where a state trooper was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after his patrol car was hit.

Virginia State Police responded to at least 430 crashes Sunday and Monday, including one that was fatal. Police said other weather-related fatal accidents occurred Sunday near Charleston, West Virginia, and Monday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Kansas saw two deadly crashes over the weekend.

More than 2,300 flights were canceled and at least 9,100 more were delayed nationwide as of Monday night, according to tracking platform FlightAware. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport reported that about 58% of arrivals and 70% of departures had been canceled.

A record of more than 20 centimeters of snow fell Sunday at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, leading to dozens of flight cancellations that lingered into Monday. About 10 centimeters fell Monday across the Cincinnati area, where car and truck crashes shut at least two major routes leading into downtown.

More snow and ice are expected

In Indiana, snow covered stretches of Interstate 64, Interstate 69 and U.S. Route 41, leading authorities to plead with people to stay home.

“It’s snowing so hard, the snow plows go through and then within a half hour the roadways are completely covered again,” State Police Sgt. Todd Ringle said.

Tens of thousands are without power

Many were in the dark as temperatures plunged. More than 218,000 customers were without power Monday night across Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina, according to electric utility tracking website PowerOutage.us.

In Virginia’s capital city, a power outage caused a temporary malfunction in the water system, officials said Monday afternoon. Richmond officials asked those in the city of more than 200,000 people to refrain from drinking tap water or washing dishes without boiling the water first. The city also asked people to conserve their water, such as by taking shorter showers.

City officials said they were working nonstop to bring the system back online.
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The Biden administration on Monday removed obstacles to India’s quest for nuclear power, with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan visiting New Delhi and describing the India-U.S. collaboration as “crucial” for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell asks what lies ahead for the countries as Donald Trump returns to the U.S. presidency.
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UNITED NATIONS — The United States accused Russia at the United Nations on Monday of funding the two warring parties in Sudan, an apparent step up from Washington’s previous assertion that Moscow was playing both sides of the conflict to advance its political objectives.

The war erupted in April 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule, triggering the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.

In November Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that called on the warring parties to immediately cease hostilities and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid. The remaining 14 council members voted in favor of the text.

“Russia chose obstruction: standing alone as it voted to imperil civilians, while funding both sides of the conflict – yes, that’s what I said: both sides,” the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the council on Monday, without giving further details.

When asked to elaborate, a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the U.N. said Washington was aware of Russia’s “ongoing interest in Sudan’s gold trade” and condemns any material support for the warring parties – “whether it be through illicit gold trading or the provision of military equipment.”

“We believe Sudanese authorities’ gold mining cooperation with sanctioned Russian entities and individuals could prove inimical to Sudan’s long-term interests and the aspirations of the Sudanese people for an end to the war,” the U.S. mission to the U.N. spokesperson said.

In response, Russia’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said: “We regret that the U.S. tries to judge other world powers by its own yardstick.”

“It’s obvious that in the Pax Americana which our American colleagues try to preserve at any price, relations with other countries are built only on their exploitation and criminal schemes aimed at U.S. enrichment,” he said.

Reuters was unable to immediately contact Sudan’s warring parties for comment.

In December, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected what he called “fabrications spread by Western countries and their media” that Moscow was trying to play both sides to gain an advantage from the war.

At what she said would likely be her last council meeting, Thomas-Greenfield became visibly emotional while addressing her counterparts on Sudan, a crisis that has been a focus for her during her four years at the world body.

“For all the disappointment that I couldn’t do more, that we – all of us – didn’t do more – I still remain hopeful,” she said. “Hopeful that the representatives sitting around this table – the colleagues who have become friends – will continue this sacred mission, this ultimate responsibility.”

Thomas-Greenfield was appointed by President Joe Biden. Donald Trump will succeed Biden on Jan. 20.
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NEW YORK — A judge on Monday found Rudy Giuliani to be in civil contempt of court in a case brought by two Georgia election workers that the former New York City mayor falsely accused of trying to help steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan said Giuliani had not complied with requests from the election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Moss, for information that could help them determine which of his assets may be turned over to pay off the defamation judgment.

“The fact that he is a busy person who in the past relied on others is not an excuse for noncompliance,” Liman said.

The contempt citation in the district where Giuliani had been the top federal prosecutor marks a further fall from grace for Giuliani, once known as “America’s Mayor” for his response to the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit Freeman and Moss brought against Giuliani in 2021. They accused the former personal lawyer to Republican President-elect Donald Trump of destroying their reputations by lying that they tried to help steal the 2020 election.

Giuliani made repeated false claims that a surveillance video showed the pair concealing and counting suitcases filled with illegal ballots at a basketball arena in Atlanta that was used to process votes.

Giuliani has been disbarred for making false claims about the 2020 election, and pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona that he aided Trump’s failed attempt to overturn his loss.

In July 2023, Giuliani conceded he made defamatory statements about Freeman and Moss, and a judge that August ruled he was liable for defamation as a sanction against him for failing to turn over electronic records to the two election workers.

A Washington, D.C., jury later ordered he pay Freeman and Moss roughly $73 million in compensation and $75 million as punishment.

Liman said on Monday he had not yet determined the punishment Giuliani would face for contempt.

But the judge also ruled that Giuliani had not responded to questions from Moss and Freeman about a Palm Beach, Florida, condominium he owns.

Liman said he would presume Giuliani’s lack of response suggested the answers would be unfavorable to him at an upcoming Jan. 16 trial over whether he treated the condominium as his permanent residence. Freeman and Moss contend Giuliani did not live there full time, meaning it could be turned over.

Lawyers for Freeman and Moss have also urged Liman to hold Giuliani in contempt for ignoring his orders to give up his Manhattan apartment, the title to a 1980 Mercedes and sports memorabilia. That request is still pending.

Giuliani, 80, has claimed that his day-to-day life has been upended by the two election workers, making it difficult to obtain necessary paperwork, and that he has not “willfully disobeyed” any court orders.

Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, said on Monday that the time frame for Giuliani to respond to the election workers’ demands was tight but that he sought to comply.

“There’s been substantial compliance,” Cammarata said. “There is no defiance to the court.”
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