Суспільство

Donald Trump may not be moving into the White House until January, but he is laying the groundwork and making domestic policy plans for the next four years. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti has our story. VOA footage by Henry Hernandez.
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«Через складні погодні умови – сильні опади з налипанням мокрого снігу – на ранок були знеструмлені 43 населені пункти у Полтавській області»
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Seoul, South Korea — Following U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory, world leaders have scrambled to secure calls and send delegations to strengthen ties with his team.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is taking a different approach: golf practice.

South Korean presidential officials confirmed to VOA that Yoon recently took up golf for the first time in eight years, specifically to prepare for diplomacy with Trump, who is known for bonding with world leaders over the sport.

It’s part of a broader response to the return of Trump, whose unpredictable “America First” approach poses unique economic and security challenges to South Korea.

The task may be especially difficult for Yoon, a conservative who leaned hard into a values-based alliance with the United States under President Joe Biden, pressing North Korea on human rights and projecting military strength.

Now, Yoon must contend with Trump, a famously transactional leader who has advocated for friendlier ties with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and dismissed U.S.-South Korea military drills as costly “war games.”

Trump has also consistently questioned the value of the seven-decade alliance, even hinting at a U.S. troop withdrawal if South Korea does not pay more.

Economic concerns add to South Korea’s unease, as officials worry Trump’s talk of imposing tariffs, and a renewed U.S.-China trade war could destabilize its export-driven economy.

Trump’s win has prompted soul-searching in South Korea, with many left-leaning commentators lamenting what they see as an over-reliance on an increasingly unreliable ally.

“Trump’s reelection heralds a tectonic shift in the U.S.-led international order, which South Korea has been largely dependent on for the past 70 years,” read a recent opinion piece in the prominent Hankyoreh newspaper.

It warned that the Yoon administration, after having “placed all its eggs in the South Korea-U.S. alliance basket,” will now “witness the devastating consequences of such blind belief.”

Many conservative South Korean commentators also expressed concerns about the future of alliance, even while noting that Trump presents unique opportunities.

An editorial in the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper, said if Trump demands an excessive increase in defense cost-sharing, South Korea “could negotiate for independent nuclear armament in return.”

Cost-sharing woes

Defense burden-sharing could become the first major alliance test once Trump returns – just as it was throughout his first term.

Just one day before Trump’s reelection, the United States and South Korea finalized a new agreement for Seoul to pay $1.19 billion in 2026 to support U.S. troops – an 8.3% increase from the previous year.

The six-year deal was widely seen as an attempt to “Trump-proof” the alliance. However, some analysts worry it may have the opposite effect, possibly prompting Trump to overturn the agreement unilaterally or impose new financial demands.

For example, Trump could require that South Korea cover costs for joint military exercises or the visits of “strategic assets,” such as bombers and aircraft carriers, said Park Won-gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University.

Such exercises and deployments were recently expanded – a key reassurance for South Korea, which relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection against nuclear-armed North Korea.

If Trump demanded payment for these activities, Park said, it would “inevitably weaken the overall framework of extended deterrence.”

Abandonment concerns

Trump has long been a critic of U.S.-South Korea military exercises, even scaling them back unexpectedly after his first summit with Kim in 2018. Many in South Korea now worry he could pursue renewed diplomacy with Pyongyang that sidelines Seoul’s security interests.

During his first term, Trump reserved his strongest criticism for North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile launches, which threaten the U.S. mainland, while downplaying short-range tests that pose a more immediate risk to South Korea.

Analysts also fear that Trump and Kim could resume talks that highlight their warm relations and project diplomatic progress, without advancing denuclearization in any meaningful way.

“In that case, North Korea will be recognized as a de facto nuclear state, which is a development that South Korea will find difficult to accept,” wrote Lee Sang-hyun, a senior research fellow at Seoul’s Sejong Institute, in an analysis of Trump’s reelection.

Louder nuclear calls

These concerns have emboldened voices within South Korea calling for an independent nuclear arsenal – a proposal that has moved into the mainstream under Yoon’s administration.

The latest high-profile figure to embrace the idea is Park Jin, who served as Yoon’s foreign minister until earlier this year. In an interview this week with a South Korean news outlet, Park stated that South Korea must “seriously consider all possible security options, including potentially acquiring nuclear capabilities,” if Trump resumes threats to withdraw U.S. troops.

South Korea’s nuclear armament also has gained traction in U.S. policy circles, particularly with a growing number of former Trump officials. Trump himself even proposed the idea during his first presidential campaign, though not as president.

But significant barriers remain. Such a move would likely provoke a strong reaction from North Korea and China, potentially endangering South Korea’s security during any “breakout” period. Additionally, South Korea could face severe economic sanctions if it decided to go nuclear.

Golf diplomacy

Together, these challenges present a major diplomatic test for Yoon, who hopes that spending time on the golf course with Trump will offer a chance to address them one on one.

Such an approach would emulate that of Japan’s late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who formed a close bond with Trump and tried to smooth bilateral frictions, in part by playing golf.

It’s a strategy that makes sense, according to Park, the Seoul-based professor, who stressed the importance of personal relationships and proactive engagement when dealing with Trump.

“For Trump, it’s all about who he listens to,” Park said. “He tends to repeat what those close to him feed him, so we need to leverage close relationships to convey our stance.”
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У  місті 13 листопада було оголошено днем жалоби за загиблими внаслідок ракетного удару РФ
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Зокрема, через атаки Росії поранень зазнали двоє жителів Куп’янська
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Найбільш активними залишаються Покровський та Курахівський напрямки. На Покровському ЗСУ відбили 40 атак
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washington — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday he is nominating Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a senior member of both the foreign relations and intelligence committees and former political rival, to be secretary of state. 

“He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said in a statement. 

Rubio, 53, is known as a China hawk, an outspoken critic of Cuba’s Communist government and a strong backer of Israel. In the past, he has advocated for a more assertive U.S. foreign policy with respect to America’s geopolitical foes, although recently his views have aligned more closely with those of Trump’s “America First” approach to foreign policy. 

In April, Rubio was one of 15 Republican senators to vote against a big military aid package to help Ukraine resist Russia and support other U.S. partners, including Israel. Trump has been critical of Democratic President Joe Biden’s continuing military assistance for Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion. 

Rubio has said in recent interviews that Kyiv needs to seek a negotiated settlement with Russia rather than focus on regaining all of the territory that Moscow has taken in the last decade. 

On the Gaza war, Rubio — like Trump — has been staunchly behind Israel, calling Hamas a terrorist organization that must be eliminated and saying America’s role is to resupply Israel with the military materials needed to finish the job. 

Rubio is a top Senate China hawk, and Beijing imposed sanctions on him in 2020 over his stance on Hong Kong’s democracy protests. This could create difficulties for any attempts to maintain the Biden administration’s effort to keep up diplomatic engagement with Beijing to avoid an unintended conflict. 

Among other things, Rubio shepherded an act through Congress that gave Washington a new tool to bar Chinese imports over China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims and has also pushed a bill that would decertify Hong Kong’s U.S. economic and trade offices. 

Rubio had also become a strong Trump backer, after harshly criticizing him when he ran against the former real estate developer for president in 2016. 

The three-term Republican senator should easily win confirmation in the Senate, where Trump’s Republicans will hold at least a 52-48 majority starting in January. 

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the intelligence committee, quickly issued a statement praising the choice of Rubio, the panel’s vice chairman. 

“I have worked with Marco Rubio for more than a decade on the Intelligence Committee, particularly closely in the last couple of years in his role as Vice Chairman, and while we don’t always agree, he is smart, talented, and will be a strong voice for American interests around the globe,” Warner said in a statement. 

Rubio, the son of immigrants from Cuba, will be the first Latino to serve as America’s top diplomat. 
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WASHINGTON — Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump.

A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in slow-counting California earlier Wednesday, gave the GOP the 218 House victories that make up the majority. Republicans earlier gained control of the Senate from Democrats.

With hard-fought yet thin majorities, Republican leaders are envisioning a mandate to upend the federal government and swiftly implement Trump’s vision for the country.

The incoming president has promised to carry out the country’s largest-ever deportation operation, extend tax breaks, punish his political enemies, seize control of the federal government’s most powerful tools and reshape the U.S. economy. The GOP election victories ensure that Congress will be onboard for that agenda, and Democrats will be almost powerless to check it.

When Trump was elected president in 2016, Republicans also swept Congress, but he still encountered Republican leaders resistant to his policy ideas, as well as a Supreme Court with a liberal majority. Not this time.

When he returns to the White House, Trump will be working with a Republican Party that has been completely transformed by his “Make America Great Again” movement and a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices, including three that he appointed.

Trump rallied House Republicans at a Capitol Hill hotel Wednesday morning, marking his first return to Washington since the election.

“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s good, we got to figure something else,'” Trump said to the room full of lawmakers who laughed in response.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who with Trump’s endorsement won the Republican Conference’s nomination to stay on as speaker next year, has talked of taking a “blowtorch” to the federal government and its programs, eyeing ways to overhaul even popular programs championed by Democrats in recent years. The Louisiana Republican, an ardent conservative, has pulled the House Republican Conference closer to Trump during the campaign season as they prepare an “ambitious” 100-day agenda.

“Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate,” Johnson said earlier this week. “The American people want us to implement and deliver that ‘America First’ agenda.”

Trump’s allies in the House are already signaling they will seek retribution for the legal troubles Trump faced while out of office. The incoming president on Wednesday said he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, a fierce loyalist, for attorney general.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan, the chair of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, has said Republican lawmakers are “not taking anything off the table” in their plans to investigate special counsel Jack Smith, even as Smith is winding down two federal investigations into Trump for plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Still, with a few races still uncalled the Republicans may hold the majority by just a few seats as the new Congress begins. Trump’s decision to pull from the House for posts in his administration — Reps. Gaetz, Mike Waltz and Elise Stefanik so far — could complicate Johnson’s ability to maintain a majority in the early days of the new Congress.

Gaetz submitted his resignation Wednesday, effective immediately. Johnson said he hoped the seat could be filled by the time the new Congress convenes January 3. Replacements for members of the House require special elections, and the congressional districts held by the three departing members have been held by Republicans for years.

With the thin majority, a highly functioning House is also far from guaranteed. The past two years of Republican House control were defined by infighting as hardline conservative factions sought to gain influence and power by openly defying their party leadership. While Johnson — at times with Trump’s help — largely tamed open rebellions against his leadership, the right wing of the party is ascendant and ambitious on the heels of Trump’s election victory.

The Republican majority also depends on a small group of lawmakers who won tough elections by running as moderates. It remains to be seen whether they will stay onboard for some of the most extreme proposals championed by Trump and his allies.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, is trying to keep Democrats relevant to any legislation that passes Congress, an effort that will depend on Democratic leaders unifying over 200 members, even as the party undergoes a postmortem of its election losses.

In the Senate, GOP leaders, fresh off winning a convincing majority, are already working with Trump to confirm his Cabinet picks. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota won an internal election Wednesday to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longest serving party leader in Senate history.

Thune in the past has been critical of Trump but praised the incoming president during his leadership election bid.

“This Republican team is united. We are on one team,” Thune said. “We are excited to reclaim the majority and to get to work with our colleagues in the House to enact President Trump’s agenda.”

The GOP’s Senate majority of 53 seats also ensures that Republicans will have breathing room when it comes to confirming Cabinet posts, or Supreme Court justices if there is a vacancy. Not all those confirmations are guaranteed. Republicans were incredulous Wednesday when the news hit Capitol Hill that Trump would nominate Gaetz as his attorney general. Even close Trump allies in the Senate distanced themselves from supporting Gaetz, who had been facing a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.

Still, Trump on Sunday demanded that any Republican leader must allow him to make administration appointments without a vote while the Senate is in recess. Such a move would be a notable shift in power away from the Senate, yet all the leadership contenders quickly agreed to the idea. Democrats could potentially fight such a maneuver.

Meanwhile, Trump’s social media supporters, including Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, clamored against picking a traditional Republican to lead the Senate chamber. Thune worked as a top lieutenant to McConnell, who once called the former president a “despicable human being” in his private notes.

However, McConnell made it clear that on Capitol Hill the days of Republican resistance to Trump are over. 
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«На момент підписання протоколу в цих населених пунктах мешкало 174 дитини, наразі всі діти евакуйовані»
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washington — Former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, one of the country’s best-known conservative lawyers who served two Republican presidents and successfully argued on behalf of same-sex marriage, died Wednesday. He was 84.

The law firm Gibson Dunn, where Olson had practiced since 1965, announced his death on its website. No cause of death was given.

Olson was at the center of some of the biggest cases of recent decades, including a win on behalf of George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida presidential election recount dispute that went before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Even in a town full of lawyers, Ted’s career as a litigator was particularly prolific,” said Mitch McConnell, the longtime Senate Republican leader. “More importantly, I count myself among so many in Washington who knew Ted as a good and decent man.”

Bush made Olson his solicitor general, a post the lawyer held from 2001 to 2004. Olson had previously served in the Justice Department as an assistant attorney general during President Ronald Reagan’s first term in the early 1980s.

During his career, Olson argued 65 cases before the Supreme Court, according to Gibson Dunn.

“They weren’t just little cases,” said Theodore Boutrous, a partner at the law firm who worked with Olson for 37 years. “Many of them were big, blockbuster cases that helped shape our society.”

Those included the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 2010 case that eliminated many limits on political giving, and a successful challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“He’s the greatest lawyer I’ve ever worked with or seen in action,” said Boutrous, who worked so closely with Olson that they were known at Gibson Dunn as “the two Teds.” “He was an entertaining and forceful advocate who could go toe to toe with the Supreme Court justices in a way few lawyers could. They respected him so much.”

One of Olson’s most prominent cases put him at odds with many fellow conservatives. After California adopted a ban on same-sex marriage in 2008, Olson joined forces with former adversary David Boies, who had represented Democrat Al Gore in the presidential election case, to represent California couples seeking the right to marry.

During closing arguments, Olson contended that tradition or fears of harm to heterosexual unions were legally insufficient grounds to discriminate against same-sex couples.

“It is the right of individuals, not an indulgence to be dispensed by the state,” Olson said. “The right to marry, to choose to marry, has never been tied to procreation.”

A federal judge in California ruled in 2010 that the state’s ban violated the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court let that decision stand in 2013.

“This is the most important thing I’ve ever done, as an attorney or a person,” Olson later said in a documentary film about the marriage case.

He told The Associated Press in 2014 that the marriage case was important because it “involves tens of thousands of people in California, but really millions of people throughout the United States and beyond that to the world.”

His decision to join the case added a prominent conservative voice to the rapidly shifting views on same-sex marriage across the country.

Boies remembered Olson as a giant in legal circles who “left the law, our country, and each of us better than he found us. Few people are a hero to those that know them well. Ted was a hero to those who knew him best.”

Olson’s personal life also intersected tragically with the nation’s history when his third wife, well-known conservative legal analyst Barbara Olson, died on September 11, 2001. She was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.

His other high-profile clients have included quarterback Tom Brady during the “Deflategate” scandal of 2016 and technology company Apple in a legal battle with the FBI over unlocking the phone of a shooter who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in 2015.

The range of his career and his stature on the national stage were unmatched, said Barbara Becker, managing partner of Gibson Dunn.

In a statement, she described Olson as “a titan of the legal profession and one of the most extraordinary and eloquent advocates of our time.”
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NEW YORK — Federal law enforcement agents raided the downtown New York home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Wednesday, seizing his phone and electronics, the company confirmed.

The early morning raid of Coplan’s SoHo apartment followed last week’s presidential election, in which bettors on Polymarket, an offshore, crypto-fueled election gambling website, had for weeks put Donald Trump’s odds drastically higher than those of Vice President Kamala Harris, in sharp divergence from opinion polls.

Coplan, Polymarket’s 26-year-old founder, was roused from his bed at 6 a.m. by FBI agents demanding he give them his electronic devices.

The DOJ is investigating Polymarket for allegedly allowing U.S.-based users to bet on the site, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday evening.

Polymarket declined to comment on those allegations, but a spokesperson said the FBI raid was “obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election.”

The company told Reuters that Coplan had not been arrested or taken into custody.

The FBI declined to comment. The Department of Justice and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on the raid.

In the run-up to the presidential election, the site gained widespread attention for the way it placed Trump’s odds high above those of Harris, when opinion polls had for months shown the race in a dead heat.

Polymarket, which does not allow trading in the U.S., also gained scrutiny after a mystery French trader, known as the Polymarket whale, made large bets on Trump winning the election.

The trader’s huge wagers came in tandem with a dramatic rise in Trump’s chances on the exchanges.

He walked away with more than $46 million in profit.

Last week, France’s gambling regulator said it was examining whether Polymarket complies with French laws.
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President-elect Donald Trump returned to the seat of American power Wednesday, visiting both Congress and the White House and laying out his vision as he readies for his second term. President Joe Biden hosted Trump in the Oval Office, where he promised a smooth transfer of power. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House. Kim Lewis contributed.
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NEW YORK — The decline in U.S. drug overdose deaths appears to have continued this year, giving experts hope the nation is seeing sustained improvement in the persistent epidemic. 

There were about 97,000 overdose deaths in the 12-month period that ended June 30, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. That’s down 14% from the estimated 113,000 for the previous 12-month period. 

“This is a pretty stunning and rapid reversal of drug overdose mortality numbers,” said Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends. 

Overdose death rates began steadily climbing in the 1990s because of opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids like heroin and — more recently — illicit fentanyl. Provisional data had indicated a slight decline for 2023, and the tally released Wednesday showed that the downward trend has kept going. 

Of course, there have been moments in the last several years when U.S. overdose deaths seemed to have plateaued or even started to go down, only to rise again, Marshall noted. 

“This seems to be substantial and sustained,” Marshall said. “I think there’s real reason for hope here.” 

Experts aren’t certain about the reasons for the decline, but they cite a combination of possible factors. 

One is COVID-19. In the worst days of the pandemic, addiction treatment was hard to get, and people were socially isolated — with no one around to help if they overdosed. 

“During the pandemic we saw such a meteoric rise in drug overdose deaths that it’s only natural we would see a decrease,” said Farida Ahmad of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. 

Still, overdose deaths are well above what they were at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The recent numbers could represent the fruition of years of efforts to increase the availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, and addiction treatments such as buprenorphine, said Erin Winstanley, a University of Pittsburgh professor who researches drug overdose trends. 

Marshall said such efforts likely are being aided by money from settlements of opioid-related lawsuits, brought by state, local and Native American governments against drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies. Settlement funds have been rolling out to small towns and big cities across the U.S., and some have started spending the money on naloxone and other measures. 

Some experts have wondered about changes in the drug supply. Xylazine, a sedative, has been increasingly detected in illegally manufactured fentanyl, and experts are sorting out exactly how it’s affecting overdoses. 

In the latest CDC data, overdose death reports are down in 45 states. Increases occurred in Alaska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. 

The most dramatic decreases were seen in North Carolina and Ohio, but CDC officials voiced a note of caution. Some jurisdictions have had lags in getting death records to federal statisticians — particularly North Carolina, where death investigations have slowed because of understaffing at the state medical examiner’s office. The CDC made estimates to try to account for incomplete death records, but the decline in some places may ultimately turn out not to be as dramatic as initial numbers suggest. 

Another limitation of the provisional data is that it doesn’t detail what’s happening in different groups of people. Recent research noted the overdose deaths in Black and Native Americans have been growing disproportionately larger. 

“We really need more data from the CDC to learn whether these declines are being experienced in all racial ethnic subgroups,” Marshall said.
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U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday chose Senator John Thune to serve as majority leader when they retake control of the chamber next year.

In a secret ballot, the South Dakota senator beat Senators John Cornyn and Rick Scott to assume the Republican leadership mantle that Mitch McConnell has held for the past 18 years.

The 63-year-old Thune was elected to the Senate in 2004 and currently holds the number two spot in Republican leadership, serving as minority whip. He is perceived as a more mainstream choice than Scott, a hardline conservative and close ally of President-elect Donald Trump.

Thune received 23 votes to Cornyn’s 15 and Scott’s 13. He will serve as Senate majority leader for at least the next two years. 

Republicans will hold at least 52 seats in the 100-person U.S. Senate. Votes in the Pennsylvania Senate race are still being counted. 

Trump has floated the idea of bypassing the normal hearing process for Cabinet appointees, a significant departure from the normal process.

Trump endorsed Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Wednesday, saying he should serve as leader in the 119th Congress. With vote counting still underway in some states, Republicans hold a slim majority over Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet November 16 on the sidelines of the 2024 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC summit in Lima, Peru, the White House announced Wednesday.

The meeting follows the leaders’ last in-person engagement a year ago on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California, and their 2022 meeting in Bali on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

Biden and Xi are expected to revisit areas of cooperation, particularly the resumption of military-to-military contacts, efforts to combat the global fentanyl crisis and nascent work to deal with the risks of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, a senior administration said in a briefing with reporters Wednesday.

The U.S. president will also express “deep concern” over Beijing’s support for Moscow’s war against Ukraine, and the deployment of North Korean troops to aid Russia, said the official, who requested anonymity to speak on the upcoming meeting. The official said Biden will also reiterate his “longstanding concern” over China’s “unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices” that hurt American workers.

The official added Biden will raise Chinese cyber-attack efforts on U.S. civilian critical infrastructure as well as Beijing’s increased military activities around Taiwan and the South China Sea while also underscoring the importance of respect for human rights.

The meeting is likely to be the last between Biden and Xi ahead of the incoming administration of Donald Trump in January. The president-elect has appointed ardent China critics in key foreign policy positions that could lead to a more confrontational U.S. posture toward Beijing. They include Republican Congressman Mike Waltz as Trump’s pick for national security adviser and Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

Whatever the next administration decides, they’re going to need to find ways to manage the “tough, complicated relationship” between the U.S. and China, the official said in response to a question from VOA.

“Russia, cross-strait issues, the South China Sea and cyber are areas the next administration is going to need to think about carefully, because those are areas of deep policy difference with China, and I don’t expect that will disappear,” the official said.

Xi is also likely anticipating what the Trump administration plans to do about global trade, particularly whether he will enact promises to impose steep tariffs on all Chinese goods.
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