Політика

Від початку доби на фронті відбулося 128 бойових зіткнень, повідомляє командування
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In early December, China tightened export controls on dual-use goods to the United States. A recent report warns that this ban could disrupt the production of over 20,000 components used by the U.S. military, particularly in naval systems and nuclear missile technology. 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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WASHINGTON — NASA’s pioneering Parker Solar Probe made history Tuesday, flying closer to the sun than any other spacecraft, with its heat shield exposed to scorching temperatures topping 930 degrees Celsius (1,700 degrees Fahrenheit). 

Launched in August 2018, the spaceship is on a seven-year mission to deepen scientific understanding of our star and help forecast space-weather events that can affect life on Earth. 

Tuesday’s historic flyby should have occurred at precisely 11:53 Greenwich Mean Time, although mission scientists will have to wait until Friday for confirmation as they lose contact with the craft for several days due to its proximity to the sun. 

“Right now, Parker Solar Probe is flying closer to a star than anything has ever been before,” at 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) away, NASA official Nicky Fox said in a video on social media Tuesday morning.  

“It is just a total ‘yay, we did it,’ moment.” 

If the distance between Earth and the sun is the equivalent to the length of an American football field, 109.7 meters, the spacecraft should have been about four meters from the end zone at the moment of closest approach — known as perihelion. 

“This is one example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe,” Parker Solar Probe program scientist Arik Posner said in a statement on Monday. 

“We can’t wait to receive that first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving the science data in the coming weeks.” 

So effective is the heat shield that the probe’s internal instruments remain near room temperature — around 29 C (85 F) — as it explores the sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona. 

Parker will also be moving at a blistering pace of around 690,000 kilometers per hour (430,000 miles per hourph), fast enough to fly from the U.S. capital, Washington, to Japan’s Tokyo in under a minute. 

“Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.  

“We’re excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the sun.” 

By venturing into these extreme conditions, Parker has been helping scientists tackle some of the sun’s biggest mysteries: how solar wind originates, why the corona is hotter than the surface below, and how coronal mass ejections — massive clouds of plasma that hurl through space are formed. 

The Christmas Eve flyby is the first of three record-setting close passes, with the next two — on March 22 and June 19, 2025 — both expected to bring the probe back to a similarly close distance from the Sun. 
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As he prepares to take office in less than a month, President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to reassert U.S. control over the Panama Canal, and he renewed calls to buy Greenland from Denmark. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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«Кількість новоприбулих оцінюють у приблизно мільйон. І це в той час, коли тисячі громадян України були змушені залишити домівки»
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Singer and actress Sofia Carson closes 2024 with her first action film role and a duet of the holiday classic “White Christmas” with Andrea Bocelli. Carson reflected on her bicultural roots and humanitarian work to VOA’s Veronica Villafane.
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«Розпочато кримінальне провадження за фактом вчинення воєнного злочину, що спричинив загибель людини», повідомляє Офіс генпрокурора
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Yaounde — Online media journalists in Chad are voicing dissatisfaction and frustration over officials’ refusal to lift a ban on the broadcasting of audiovisual content. The High Media and Audiovisual Authority, or HAMA, accuses journalists of reposting videos without the content producers’ permission but journalists say they are being silenced from reporting on critical election issues.

Journalists reporting for online media platforms say they are surprised that Chad’s High Media and Audiovisual Authority, or HAMA, has refused to respect a December 20 Supreme Court decision ordering an immediate end to a ban on broadcasting online media content.

Bello Bakary Mana, the president of the Association of Online Media of Chad, Mana took part in a protest Tuesday in N’djamena against what he calls a deliberate attempt by HAMA to silence Chad’s online media.

Mana said several hundred online reporters assisted by local radio, print and TV journalists are in N’djamena to let the world know that the media is being silenced in Chad. “They will continue protesting until HAMA stops threatening journalists and lifts what he calls its illegal December 4 ban on the broadcast of online audiovisual content,” he said.

Bello, who spoke to VOA from N’djamena via a messaging app, also said only police can compel HAMA to respect the lifting of a ban on the broadcasting of online audiovisual content, but that police are controlled by the government, which ordered the ban.

HAMA says it prohibited online newspapers from broadcasting audiovisual content because many of the newspapers refused to obey an order earlier this year to stop reposting videos from foreign sources, including international media outlets, without the author or media outlets’ permission, as required by law.

Journalists say the decision, taken before elections on December 29 to mark an end to Chad’s three-year transitional period, is an indication the government, through HAMA, wants to silence online media that the government has described as highly critical.

HAMA has always complained that online media regularly publish unverifiable information about President Mahamat Idriss Deby.

Deby became Chad’s transitional president in April 2021 after his father, Idriss Deby Itno, was killed in a gun battle with rebels following 30 years in power.

Deby was declared the winner of Chad’s contested May 6 presidential polls amid opposition and civil society allegations the victory was stolen.

Government officials in Chad complained after the presidential elections that online media were reporting on and posting videos of opposition and civil society members saying that Deby wants to continue his late father’s rule, according to local media.

Journalists in Chad say by banning online audiovisual content, HAMA wants to silence online media that have been reporting that Deby’s Patriotic Salvation Movement, or MPS, wants to use the polls to consolidate its grip on power at all costs.

Abderrahmane Barka, the president of HAMA, created by Chad’s government to regulate the media in the central African state, says Chad’s High Media and Audiovisual Authority that he leads noticed that before elections, rich politicians hire media organizations to broadcast campaign messages, and that poses a disadvantage to politicians who don’t have a lot of money. He says HAMA is reinforcing the law, which requires the media to give equal access without pay to all political parties taking part in elections.

Barka spoke on state TV on Tuesday. He said Chadian laws do not permit online newspapers to broadcast audiovisual content but did not comment on whether a Supreme Court decision to lift the ban will be respected.

Chad’s online journalists say the ban has affected about 60% of their audience who no longer have access to online media. They say they are surprised that HAMA also ordered them to stop broadcasting audiovisual content that they produce locally.

Before the ban and ahead of the December 29 elections, HAMA suspended all interactive online, radio and TV programs, arguing that the media do not have sufficient human resources to produce such programs during election periods — a claim the media deny.

Last week, Reporters Without Borders asked Chad to reverse its decision and lift the ban. The media rights group says the job of HAMA is regulating and not prohibiting the media from informing, educating and entertaining their audience.

RSF acknowledges that broadcasting content without the consent of the producers is wrong and has asked Chad to allow online reporters to broadcast local content they create.
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Найактивнішим залишається Покровський напрямок: «російські загарбники здійснили 45 спроб потіснити наших захисників із займаних позицій»
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За словами президента, більшість цих дітей примусово перемістили вглиб окупованої території – до Криму, а решту депортували в Росію.
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TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Tuesday he wanted to strengthen his country’s alliance with the United States, as he pushed for as early as possible a meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. 

Japan is neighbors with an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea that has been deepening military ties with Russia. 

“I think it’s important to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance even further… and share a common understanding of the situation in north-east Asia,” he said at a press conference, adding that no dates for a potential meeting were set yet. 

Ishiba, in office since October, has sought a meeting with Trump, but told reporters last month that the president-elect’s camp had said meetings with world leaders were restricted under the Logan Act before Trump’s January inauguration. 

Trump has met with Akie Abe, the widow of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 

Ishiba also said his cabinet plans to approve on Dec. 27 a draft state budget for the next fiscal year from April. 

He also pledged to work on measures to raise minimum wages and to eliminate public concerns for the future to boost private consumption.
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Студентський парламент відмовляється від співпраці з адміністрацією навчального закладу через висловлювання професора університету
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LOS ANGELES — One of the world’s most active volcanoes sprang into life again Monday, spewing columns of lava 80 meters above Hawaii, U.S. vulcanologists said.

Images showed enormous fissures in the caldera of Kilauea, on Hawaii’s Big Island, spraying jets of molten rock into the air.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the eruption began just after 2 a.m. local time (1200 GMT) in the southwestern section of the caldera.

“At 4:30 a.m., lava fountains were observed with heights up to 80 meters [262 feet],” the agency said.

“Molten material, including lava bombs, is being ejected from the winds on the caldera floor up onto the west caldera rim.”

The eruption was also sending matter much higher into the atmosphere.

“The plume of volcanic gas and fine volcanic particles is reaching elevations of 6,000-8,000 feet above sea level … and winds are transporting it to the southwest,” the observatory said.

The observatory said sulfur dioxide emanating from the fissure would react with other gases in the atmosphere.

So-called vog — volcanic smog — can affect people and animals, as well as crops.

Kilauea has been very active since 1983 and erupts relatively regularly, including most recently in September.

It is one of six active volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands, which include Mauna Loa, the largest volcano in the world, though Kilauea is far more active.
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tokyo — The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has told the White House it is unable to reach a consensus on national security risks involved in Nippon Steel’s bid for U.S. Steel, The Washington Post reported Monday. 

The decision now lies with President Joe Biden, who has 15 days to act. Both Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have said they oppose the $15 billion deal, which Nippon Steel announced last December. 

Nippon Steel said Tuesday that it did not receive any updates from CFIUS. U.S. Steel did not immediately reply to request for a comment. Both companies had previously planned to close the deal before the year’s end. 

CFIUS, a government interagency committee that reviews security implications of foreign investment in the United States, said Monday that allowing Nippon Steel to take over U.S. Steel could result in lower domestic steel production, representing “a national security risk,” according to the Post. 

Nippon Steel said it could eliminate that risk by appointing U.S. citizens to top management and board of director positions at U.S. Steel, but the committee was divided in its view of whether those remedies would be sufficient, the newspaper said. 

The U.S. Treasury Department, which leads CFIUS; the Commerce Department; and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Nippon Steel faces a $565 million penalty to U.S. Steel if the deal collapses, which would also be a major blow to the Japanese steelmaker’s overseas expansion. It said earlier that it could pursue legal action against the U.S. government if the deal fell apart. 

With U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel aimed to raise its global steel production capacity to 85 million metric tons per year from 65 million tons now, and the asset is core to its goal of lifting production capacity to more than 100 million tons in the long term. 

With Japan being the largest foreign investor in the U.S., Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last month sent a letter to Biden asking him to approve Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel. 
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to repeal President Joe Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence security, setting the stage for deregulation for AI companies by nominating pro-business, pro-startups Silicon Valley leaders.

The nomination of Jacob Helberg, an outspoken China critic, for a key State Department post indicates Trump’s intention to lead over China in AI, according to analysts.

“We’re likely to see quite a great focus on countering China when it comes to AI – beating China, when it comes to having the most advanced AI capabilities,” says Ruby Scanlon, a researcher on technology and national security at Center for a New America Security.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton was admitted Monday to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington after developing a fever. 

The 78-year-old was admitted in the “afternoon for testing and observation,” Angel Urena, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, said in a statement. 

“He remains in good spirits and deeply appreciates the excellent care he is receiving,” Urena said. 

Clinton, a Democrat who served two terms as president from January 1993 until January 2001, addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer and campaigned ahead of November’s election for the unsuccessful White House bid of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
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«Ми обговорили й тиск на Росію за війну, і особливо цінуємо санкції проти тіньового флоту, який забезпечує Путіну гроші на війну»
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