Month: February 2021

The U.S. House of Representatives votes Friday on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package that aims to provide relief to businesses, governments and millions of Americans whose lives have been upended by the coronavirus crisis.
 
Lawmakers are expected to vote largely along party lines in the Democratic-controlled House. Passage would give Biden his first major legislative victory since entering office on January 20.
 
Debate over the package will likely be vigorous. Most Republicans oppose the cost of the measure that would cover the costs of vaccines and other medical supplies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed more than 508,000 lives in the United States and pushed millions out of work.
 
The package would also provide an additional $1,400 direct payments to individuals and emergency financial aid to households, small businesses, and local and state governments.  
 
Emergency unemployment benefits and tax breaks to lower wage earners and families with children would be funded in the relief bill, and business sectors hurt by the pandemic’s economic fallout, such as the restaurant and airline industries, would also receive financial relief.
 
A federal minimum hourly wage increase from $7.25 to $15 proposed by Democrats is unlikely to be in the final version of the bill. The parliamentarian in the Senate — the chamber’s advisor on the interpretation of its rules and procedures, which also votes on the package — said Thursday the proposal must be dropped from the bill, as required by chamber rules.
 
The decision by Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough forces Democrats to seek other pathways for the minimum wage proposal to pass in the face of stiff Republican opposition.
 
Democrats have a 221-211 advantage in the House, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes nearly all Democrats will vote to approve the relief bill, paving the way for a vote in the evenly divided 100-member Senate, where Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has the tie-breaking vote.
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As Ethiopia prepares for parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in June, the contest to win the hearts and minds of voters is already under way on social media, which democracy activist Befeqadu Hailu is closely watching.“Social media has offered us a means to organize, networking, and expressing ourselves safely, easily and cheaply,” he explained to VOA during a Skype interview from his office in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. “But on the other hand, the political organizations and political groups are using social media in an organized manner so they can disseminate any information in the interest of their political advantage, so that is manipulating their followers.”Ethiopian elections come as unrest flares in its northern Tigray region, where ethnic and political tensions are exploited online. Facebook is the dominant social media platform in the country, although less than 20% of the overall population has internet access.“People disseminate whatever they hear on social media through mouth-to-mouth communication,” Hailu explained.In October 2019, a disputed Facebook post by a well-known Ethiopian media figure went viral, prompting outrage that led to violence and the deaths of almost 80 people in the Oromia region. The killing of a popular singer in Addis Ababa in 2020 also triggered a wave of posts on the social media site, followed by violence in the capital and beyond.As national elections approach and social media use expands, Hailu said his country is ripe for online disinformation campaigns that could lead to further bloodshed.“They disseminate ethnic biases, hatred and prejudices so they might instigate conflict in ethnic clashes and political clashes. So, this is of concern to us,” Hailu said.“We work with partners to flag activity that could potentially thwart participation, exacerbate tensions or contribute to unwarranted perceptions that the voting process or the outcome are illegitimate,” said Michael Baldassaro, senior adviser with the Carter Center’s digital threats monitoring team, a relatively new program in the organization’s global democracy and peace initiatives.Baldassaro, who spoke to VOA via Skype, said with internet access increasing in many emerging democracies, use of social media is changing the ways candidates and voters interact.Tigray region EthiopiaIt is also changing how the global nonprofit Carter Center, founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, assesses elections.“We typically do this work in environments that are characterized by deep political polarization where citizens distrust government institutions or election authorities to varying degrees, and their primary sources of media are either unprofessional or hyper-partisan, or both,” Baldassaro explained.“We find in these environments that people turn to social media, where they find themselves in echo chambers, and encounter bias-confirming content — a good portion of which is false and misleading or demonizes those with different perspectives or beliefs.”The Carter Center, together with partners in countries where they are monitoring elections, not only flag dangerous online activity, but press tech companies to act.“If that information is indeed false, we might relate that to Facebook and the human rights policy team or to our counterparts in the country office to take action,” said Baldassaro. “Maybe at that point, they might take action to either downrank or deplatform that content all together. We want to be able to mitigate potential harms in real time.”Hailu’s Center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy (CARD) is one of several organizations in Ethiopia monitoring and acting on potential harmful online activity.“We try to identify those profiles who are repeatedly disseminating false information and demand or advocate for the social media platforms to remove that content as soon as possible,” he said.In a 2020 report, the United Nations outlined the dangers in Ethiopia of unmoderated content on Facebook. The tech giant said it is increasing content moderation staff in Africa, but Hailu said there are many challenges monitoring and moderating enormous amounts of content in different languages from different locations, including from diaspora communities outside the continent.“It requires the efforts of multiple organizations and multiple stakeholders,” he told VOA.With Carter Center support, CARD has expanded its mission beyond Amharic-only language content in Ethiopia.“We are also now observing at least three local languages,” Hailu said.But Hailu admits it is still an enormous task monitoring users and content that increases daily, reaching audiences in dozens of different languages or dialects throughout Ethiopia.
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US President Joe Biden commemorated on Thursday the 50 millionth shot of the COVID-19 vaccine since his swearing-in, just days after the nation passed 500,000 coronavirus deaths. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.Producer: Barry Unger
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More than 50 years ago, North Korea captured the USS Pueblo and subjected the spy ship’s crew to “barbarity” for almost a year, treatment that “required medical and/or psychiatric intervention” for the men upon their release in December 1968.Today, crew members and their families face the challenge of finding North Korea’s assets so they can realize their shares of $2.3 billion judgment against Pyongyang handed down by a U.S. district court.In a memorandum opinion issued Feb. 16 but filed and made public Wednesday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stated that “North Korea was liable” for “its incorporated theories of assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, solatium, and wrongful death.”Memorandum opinion on USS Pueblo:The court awarded compensatory and punitive damages to 171 plaintiffs, including living crew members, the estates of deceased crew members, and living family members and the estates of deceased family members.The court granted a baseline award of $3.35 million for each crew member, which would amount to $10,000 for each of the 335 days that the crew members were held in captivity by the North Koreans. Further awards are based on calculations that allow for variations within the groups.But the decision included the finding that, “As a result of the barbarity inflicted by the North Koreans, almost all [crew members] required medical and/or psychiatric intervention. The majority have suffered, and continue to suffer, from post-traumatic stress disorder, impaired memory, intrusive flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, anxiety, anger, depression, guilt, and withdrawal from others. Many have undergone invasive surgical procedures to ameliorate the physical damage resulting from the relentless torture they underwent as prisoners. Several have attempted to numb their pain through alcohol and drugs, and most have seen their domestic and/or professional lives deteriorate. A few have contemplated suicide.”“Justice is served insofar as the courts are concerned,” Mark Bravin, the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs of the USS Pueblo case, told VOA’s Korean Service. FILE – Grainy, black-and-white photos of the captain and captured crew hang in the USS Pueblo in Pyongyang, North Korea, Jan. 24, 2018.VOA contacted the North Korean mission in New York for a response but left a voicemail message after being unable to talk with anyone.More than 100 crew members and their families filed a lawsuit against North Korea in February 2018 under the FILE – Released crewmen of the USS Pueblo are escorted by MPs upon their arrival at the U.S. Army 121st Evacuation Hospital at Ascom City, 10 miles west of Seoul, Dec. 23, 1968.Bravin said the distribution from the fund is subject to some conditions to prevent individual claimants from “monopolizing” the fund.“They don’t get more money after their $20 million is received until everybody else has gotten their money,” Bravin said. “Once somebody gets 30% of their money, [the distributions] are paused so that others can [get theirs].”Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who helped draft the FILE – Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who has been detained in North Korea since early January, is taken to North Korea’s top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 16, 2016.The U.S. Marshals Service auctioned the Wise Honest in 2019 and, as is customary, did not release how much was realized.The Pueblo was seized by the North Korean navy in January 1968 while the U.S. ship was operating in international waters off the coast of North Korea. The Pueblo was engaged in an intelligence-gathering mission to intercept communications between Pyongyang and Moscow.After 11 months of suffering repeated beatings and torture, surviving crew members were released at the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea. The spy ship is moored along a river in Pyongang as part of North Korea’s Victorious War Museum.Aside from the damages awarded to the crew and their family members, Bravin said the return of the Pueblo would give them peace of mind.“One additional thing that could happen that would give peace of mind to the crew is if the United States and North Korea could find a way to get the Pueblo returned to the United States,” Bravin said. “It’s been an issue of concern for the crew forever.”Christy Lee contributed to this report, which originated on VOA Korea. 
 
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The Democratic-controlled Senate cannot include President Joe Biden’s proposed $15 per hour minimum wage in a $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill the party aims to pass without Republican votes, the body’s parliamentarian ruled, a Bloomberg reporter said Thursday on Twitter.Bloomberg White House reporter Jennifer Epstein tweeted that the Senate parliamentarian had “ruled minimum-wage boost out of order.”Biden and many of his fellow Democrats want to more than double the minimum wage by 2025 to $15 per hour. They included the rise in his coronavirus relief bill to help tackle the heavy human and economic toll of the pandemic, which has killed more than 500,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work.Democrats are trying to advance the COVID-19 bill under a special budget reconciliation process that would allow them to pass it in the Senate using a simple majority, so they will not need Republican support.But there are rules that limit what can be included using that process, and it is the job of Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to determine what is allowed.A negative ruling, however, would not mean the idea of raising the minimum wage is dead. Proponents could seek to pass a separate bill without using the reconciliation process, but they presumably would need Republican support.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday directed U.S. military airstrikes in eastern Syria against facilities belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militia, in a calibrated response to recent rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq.The strikes appeared to be limited in scope, potentially lowering the risk of escalation.Biden’s decision to strike only in Syria and not in Iraq, at least for now, also gives the Iraqi government some breathing room as it carries out its own investigation of a Feb. 15 attack that wounded Americans.”At President (Joe) Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement.BREAKING: US launches airstrike against a target in #Syria “used by multiple #Iran|ian-backed militias” US official confirms to @VOANewsUS official says the strike was designed to prevent future attacks & in response to recent attacks on US, coalition forces— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 25, 2021″President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,” Kirby said.He added that the strikes destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS).A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the decision to carry out these strikes was meant to send a signal that while the United States wanted to punish the militias, it did not want the situation to spiral into a bigger conflict.It was not immediately clear what damage was caused and if there were any casualties from the U.S. strike.Retaliatory U.S. military strikes have occurred a number of times in the past few years.The rocket attacks on U.S. positions in Iraq were carried out as Washington and Tehran are looking for a way to return to the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump.It was not clear how, or whether, the strike might affect U.S. efforts to coax Iran back into a negotiation about both sides resuming compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.In the Feb. 15 attack, rockets hit the U.S. military base housed at Erbil International Airport in the Kurdish-run region killing one non-American contractor and injuring a number of American contractors and a U.S. service member. Another salvo struck a base hosting U.S. forces north of Baghdad days later hurting at least one contractor.On Monday, rockets hit Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions.Earlier this week, the Kata’ib Hezbollah, one of the main Iran-aligned Iraqi militia groups, denied any role in recent rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq.Some Western and Iraqi officials say the attacks, often claimed by little-known groups, are being carried out by militants with links to Kata’ib Hezbollah as a way for Iranian allies to harass U.S. forces without being held accountable.Since late 2019, the United States carried out high-profile strikes against the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia group in Iraq and Syria in response to sometimes deadly rocket attacks against U.S.-led forces.Under the Trump administration, the back-and-forth stoked tensions, culminating in the U.S. killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani and a retaliatory Iranian ballistic missile attack against U.S. forces in Iraq last year.
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The acting U.S. Capitol Police chief was pressed to explain Thursday why the agency hadn’t been prepared to fend off a violent mob of insurrectionists, including white supremacists, who were trying to halt the certification of the presidential election last month, even though officials had compelling advance intelligence.Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman denied that law enforcement failed to take seriously warnings of violence before the Jan. 6 insurrection. Three days before the riot, Capitol Police distributed an internal document warning that armed extremists were poised for violence and could attack Congress because they saw it as the last chance to try to overturn the election results, Pittman said.But the assault was much bigger than they expected, she said.”There was no such intelligence. Although we knew the likelihood for violence by extremists, no credible threat indicated that tens of thousands would attack the U.S. Capitol, nor did the intelligence received from the FBI or any other law enforcement partner indicate such a threat.”FILE – In this Sept. 7, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, speaks during the New Hampshire state Democratic Party convention in Manchester, N.H.Later, under questioning by the House subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Tim Ryan, Pittman said that while there may have been thousands of people heading to the Capitol from a pro-Trump rally, about 800 people actually made their way into the building.Protocols were ‘not adhered to’Pittman conceded that the agency’s incident command protocols were “not adhered to,” and that there was a “multi-tiered failure.” Officers were left without proper communication or strong guidance from their supervisors as the insurrectionist mob stormed into the building.The panel’s top Republican, Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler, said the top Capitol Police officials “either failed to take seriously the intelligence received or the intelligence failed to reach the right people.”Pittman’s predecessor as chief testified earlier this week at a hearing that police expected an enraged but more typical protest crowd of Trump backers. But Pittman said intelligence collected before the riot prompted police to take extraordinary measures, including the special arming of officers, intercepting radio frequencies used by the invaders and deploying spies at the Ellipse rally where Trump was sending his supporters marching to the Capitol to “fight like hell.On Jan. 3, Capitol Police distributed an internal intelligence assessment warning that militia members, white supremacists and other extremist groups were likely to participate, that demonstrators would be armed and that it was possible they would come to the Capitol to try to disrupt the vote, according to Pittman.Not enough IntelligenceBut at the same time, she said police didn’t have enough intelligence to predict the violent insurrection that resulted in five deaths, including that of a Capitol Police officer. They prepared for trouble but not an invasion.”Although the Department’s January 3rd Special Assessment foretold of a significant likelihood for violence on Capitol grounds by extremists groups, it did not identify a specific credible threat indicating that thousands of American citizens would descend upon the U.S. Capitol attacking police officers with the goal of breaking into the U.S. Capitol Building to harm Members and prevent the certification of Electoral College votes,” Pittman said. FILE – Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund testifies before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs & Senate Rules and Administration joint hearing on Capitol Hill, Washington, Feb. 23, 2021.Steven Sund, the police force’s former chief who resigned after the riot, testified Tuesday that the intelligence assessment warned white supremacists, members of the far-right Proud Boys and leftist antifa were expected to be in the crowd and might become violent.”We had planned for the possibility of violence, the possibility of some people being armed, not the possibility of a coordinated military style attack involving thousands against the Capitol,” Sund said.FBI offered a warningThe FBI also forwarded a warning to local law enforcement officials about online postings that a “war” was coming. But Pittman said it still wasn’t enough to prepare for the mob that attacked the Capitol.Officers were vastly outnumbered as thousands of rioters descended on the building, some of them wielding planks of wood, stun guns, bear spray and metal pipes as they broke through windows and doors and stormed through the Capitol. Officers were hit with barricades, shoved to the ground, trapped between doors, beaten and bloodied as members of Congress were evacuated and congressional staffers cowered in offices.Pittman also said the department faced “internal challenges” as it responded to the riot. Officers didn’t properly lock down the Capitol complex, even after an order had been given over the radio to do so. She also said officers didn’t understand when they were allowed to use deadly force, and that less-than-lethal weapons that officers had were not as successful as they expected.While Pittman said in her testimony that that sergeants and lieutenants were supposed to pass on intelligence to the department’s rank and file, many officers have said they were given little or no information or training for what they would face.Officers left to improvise’Four officers told The Associated Press shortly after the riot that they heard nothing from Sund, Pittman, or other top commanders as the building was breached. Officers were left in many cases to improvise or try to save colleagues facing peril.Pittman also faces internal pressure from her rank and file, particularly after the Capitol Police union recently issued a vote of no confidence against her. She must also lead the department through the start of several investigations into how law enforcement failed to protect the building.Capitol Police are investigating the actions of 35 police officers on the day of the riot; six of those officers have been suspended with pay, a police spokesman said. 
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Millions of pages of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax returns and business documents have been turned over to New York prosecutors after he lost a 17-month effort to keep investigators from obtaining them.The records, including the federal income tax returns Trump filed with the government’s Internal Revenue Service from 2011 to 2019, were handed over to New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. by Trump’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars, on Monday.The handoff came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the former president, who left office a month ago.Vance, other prosecutors, and investigators are now poring over the documents to determine whether Trump, the Trump Organization, the real estate company’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, or any of Trump’s three adult children — Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — engaged in financial fraud.What’s Next for Donald Trump in American Politics?Former president signals he will fight to maintain hold over Republican Party Trump, alone among U.S. presidents over the last four decades, refused to disclose his tax returns, saying he was under audit, although there is no prohibition preventing such a disclosure. The documents are likely to remain secret under normal grand jury secrecy rules unless they would be divulged as part of any criminal prosecution against Trump.Earlier this week, Trump assailed the U.S. Supreme Court’s approval of the release of the documents to Vance, and called the prosecutor’s investigation a politically motivated “fishing expedition.””This is something which has never happened to a president before. It is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location — New York City and state — completely controlled and dominated by a heavily reported enemy of mine, Gov. Andrew Cuomo,” Trump said.Vance, in response to the Supreme Court order, said, “The work continues.”Those familiar with the materials handed to the prosecutors have told news organizations that the documents include financial statements, records relating to the preparation and review of tax returns, and the tax returns themselves.The investigation centers on whether Trump and the Trump Organization provided false information to financial institutions or banks and local governments about the value of the properties they owned, either to obtain loans at favorable interest rates or cut their real estate taxes.Trump is also under a criminal investigation in Georgia, where a prosecutor in Atlanta is probing his efforts in December to get state election officials to “find” him enough votes to upend Democrat Joe Biden’s November election victory in the state.
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U.S. unemployment compensation claims dropped sharply last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, in what could signal improved economic conditions as the number of new coronavirus cases drops.    The government said 730,000 workers filed for benefits last week, down 111,000 from the revised figure of the previous week.    The U.S. economy is still facing headwinds as tens of thousands of people are still being infected daily by the coronavirus even though the number of new infections has dropped sharply in the last three weeks to below 100,000 a day from much higher figures in January.About 1.5 million Americans are now being vaccinated each day against the virus, with the inoculations expected to extend for months.Employers, however, are still confronted with orders from state and municipal officials to restrict business hours or limit the number of customers they can serve at any one time to try to prevent the spread of the virus.    US Treasury Chief: Would Take Years for US Economy to Recover Without Aid Deal Janet Yellen: ‘There’s tremendous suffering in the country’ For months now, the number of jobless benefit claims has remained above 700,000 a week, and above 800,000 and 900,00 in some weeks.    All the weekly totals in the last several months have been well below the 6.9 million record number of claims filed late last March as the pandemic took hold in the U.S. Still, all the weekly jobless benefit claim figures in the last 11 months have been above the highest pre-pandemic level in records going back to the 1960s. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell this week said the U.S. economic recovery is “far from complete” and said the central bank will continue to buy $120 billion worth of bonds each month to foster bank lending and consumer spending.Congress is also debating President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief measure, with passage possible in the next three weeks although many of the details remain unresolved.  The federal government has been making $300-a-week extra payments to the jobless on top of less generous state benefits, a stipend that will last till mid-March. Biden is trying to boost that stipend to $400 a week through September. Republicans want to keep the payments at $300 and end them sooner.    Biden has narrow majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, possibly easing approval of his relief plan, but only if Democrats vote as a bloc or the president, a Democrat, can convince some Republican lawmakers to support it.    803K File for Unemployment Benefits, Keeping US Claims Historically High Claims were lower than last week as coronavirus crisis continues to weaken American labor market The Democratic-controlled Congress has advanced procedural rules that would allow it to eventually approve the deal on a straight party-line vote if needed, without Republican support.In the U.S., nearly 10 million of the 22 million workers who lost jobs in the pandemic remain unemployed. The jobless rate dipped to 6.3% in January, with many economists saying the figure could remain elevated for months.    U.S. employers have called back millions of workers who were laid off during business shutdowns in 2020. But some hard-hit businesses have been slow to ramp up operations again or have closed permanently, leaving workers idled or searching for new employment.    The U.S. has now recorded 505,000 coronavirus deaths and 28.3 million infections, both figures higher than that being reported in any other country, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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U.S. Senate committees will hear testimony Thursday from three more of President Joe Biden’s nominees, including his picks to be the country’s trade representative, its top public health official and the assistant secretary of health.Katherine Tai, nominee for U.S. trade representative, is set to tell the Finance Committee that she would prioritize rebuilding international alliances and re-engaging with international institutions to address common challenges such as climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic effects.In her written testimony released ahead of the hearing, Tai says she would focus on enforcing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, saying the deal reached during former President Donald Trump’s administration marked “an important step in reforming our approach to trade.”Tai, who for several years was the head of China enforcement at the trade representative’s office, also highlights a need to keep China accountable.“I know firsthand how critically important it is that we have a strategic and coherent plan for holding China accountable to its promises and effectively competing with its model of state-directed economics,” Tai said.In the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, lawmakers will hear testimony from Dr. Vivek Murthy, Biden’s nominee for surgeon general who is seeking to return to the post he held during former President Barack Obama’s administration.In his written statement, obtained by ABC News, Murthy says his top priority will be ending the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 505,000 people in the United States.”I have seen first-hand the importance of providing clear, science-based guidance to Americans on how to protect themselves and others,” Murthy said.The same committee will consider the nomination of Dr. Rachel Levine to serve as assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services.Levine formerly served as health secretary in the state of Pennsylvania, where she was one of the few transgender people serving in elected or appointed positions in the United States.She would be the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate.The full Senate will also meet Thursday to vote on the nomination of former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to serve as energy secretary.The Senate Energy Committee gave its approval to Granholm in a 13-4 vote earlier this month.
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Afghanistan’s Taliban have ordered their members not to harbor “foreign” fighters in their ranks in an attempt to dispel allegations the Islamist insurgency continues to maintain close ties with al-Qaida and other terror groups in breach of a February 2020 peace deal with the United States.The U.S.-Taliban pact, sealed in Qatar a year ago, requires all American and allied troops to leave Afghanistan by May 1, provided the Taliban are also honoring their commitments, including cutting ties with terrorist groups that threaten the United States and its allies.U.S. President Joe Biden’s new administration is reviewing the deal to decide whether to withdraw the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan by the May deadline to close what has been the longest war in U.S. history. NATO-led U.S. partners have fewer than 10,000 troops in the country.“All commanders and mujahideen (fighters) are directed that they are barred from bringing foreign nationals into their ranks or giving them shelter,” the Taliban’s so-called military commissions said in an order reportedly delivered to insurgent fighters.The Taliban statement, circulating on social media, warned that violators will face punitive action, including disbandment of their groups.Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, when contacted by VOA to confirm the authenticity of the one-page Pashto language directive, said he would respond after gathering information from his superiors.The U.S. review of the Feb. 29 deal was prompted by allegations the Taliban have not cut their relationship with al-Qaida in Afghanistan. The insurgents are also accused of dragging their feet in ongoing peace negotiations with the Afghan government, a crucial outcome of the U.S.-Taliban accord to bring an end to decades of hostilities in the turmoil-hit South Asian nation.Afghan leaders allege the Taliban have intensified attacks across the country against national security forces and civilians despite opening the intra-Afghan talks in Doha, the capital of Qatar.On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the review of the deal with the Taliban was still underway.“We’re mindful of looming deadlines here — and everybody shares the sense of alacrity when it comes to working our way through this review,” Kirby told reporters. He defended the review process, saying the agreement was reached before the Biden administration.“So perfectly understandable, given the stakes in Afghanistan, for us to want to come in and take a look at that and to look at the issues of compliance, and to try to make informed decisions about what the best way ahead is… We’re taking it very seriously,” stressed Kirby.A United Nations panel monitoring the Taliban said in its latest report published earlier this month that the insurgency had maintained a close association with al-Qaida despite having promised to end cooperation with terrorist groups.“Member states report little evidence of significant changes in relations between al-Qaida and the Taliban,” said the U.N. Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which completed its reports based in part on information shared by foreign governments’ intelligence services.The report noted that the overall number of members of al-Qaida and its affiliates in Afghanistan “is currently estimated at between 200 and 500 spread across” at least eleven provinces of the war-shattered country.The Taliban have rejected the U.N. findings and denies the presence of al-Qaida militants in insurgent-held Afghan areas.Skeptics say the latest Taliban directive to bar fighters from allowing foreign militants to join their ranks could be a last-minute attempt to assure the Biden administration can enact a U.S. troop withdrawal by May.“Taliban smartly taking some new steps ahead of a Washington deliberation & review process,” tweeted Omar Samad, a former Afghan diplomat. “All sides need to be earnestly & factually held responsible for their actions, decisions & worldview…Too much is at stake,” Samad tweeted.Taliban smartly taking some new steps ahead of a Washington deliberation & review process. All sides need to be earnestly & factually held responsible for their actions, decisions & worldview. Time to find an inclusive Afghan middle-ground after +4 decades. Too much is at stake. https://t.co/vSitj6Wlw3— Omar Samad (@OmSamad) February 24, 2021 
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A declassified version of a U.S. intelligence report expected to be released Thursday finds that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, four U.S. officials familiar with the matter said.The officials said the report, for which the CIA was the main contributor, assessed that the crown prince approved and likely ordered the murder of Khashoggi, whose Washington Post column had criticized the crown prince’s policies.President Joe Biden, a Democrat who succeeded the Republican Donald Trump five weeks ago, told reporters Wednesday he had read the report and expected to speak soon by phone with Saudi Arabian King Salman, 85, father of the crown prince, the country’s 35-year-old de facto ruler.The report’s release is part of Biden’s policy to realign ties with Riyadh after years of giving the Arab ally and major oil producer a pass on its human rights record and its intervention in Yemen’s civil war.Biden is working to restore the relationship with Riyadh to traditional lines after four years of cozier ties under Trump.White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday that Biden would only communicate with the Saudi king and said the declassified Khashoggi report was being readied for release soon.While Biden restricts his contacts to the king, others in the Biden administration are talking to Saudi officials at various levels.”We have been in touch with Saudi officials at numerous levels in the early weeks of this administration,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.The 59-year-old Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, and killed by a team of operatives linked to the crown prince. They then dismembered his body. His remains have never been found.Riyadh eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed in a “rogue” extradition operation gone wrong, but it denied any involvement by the crown prince. Five men given the death penalty for the murder had their sentences commuted to 20 years in jail after being forgiven by Khashoggi’s family.In 2019, United Nations human rights investigator Agnes Callamard accused Saudi Arabia of a “deliberate, premeditated execution” of Khashoggi and called for further investigation.“There is sufficient credible evidence regarding the responsibility of the crown prince demanding further investigation,” Callamard said after the six-month probe.A classified version of the report was shared with members of Congress in late 2018.But the Trump administration rejected demands by lawmakers and human rights groups to release a declassified version, seeking to preserve cooperation amid rising tensions with Riyadh’s regional rival, Iran, and promote U.S. arms sales to the kingdom.Biden’s new director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, committed at her confirmation hearing to complying with a provision in a 2019 defense bill that required the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to release within 30 days a declassified report on Khashoggi’s murder.Biden pledged during the 2020 presidential campaign to reassess U.S.-Saudi ties in part over Khashoggi’s murder. Since taking office, he has ended sales of offensive arms that Riyadh could use in Yemen and appointed a special envoy to boost diplomatic efforts to end that country’s grueling civil war.
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Katherine Tai, President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, will vow to U.S. senators that she will work to strengthen U.S. supply chains, enforce a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, and hold China to its trade promises.In written testimony prepared for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, Tai underscored the Biden administration’s determination to pursue new, longer-term trade policies to focus on “workers and wage earners,” support U.S. innovation and enhance U.S. competitiveness abroad.As the trade “czar” for the world’s largest economy, biggest importer of goods and second-largest exporter after China, Tai would wield immense clout.If confirmed, as expected, Tai faces a long list of challenges, including a push by allies who want Washington to rescind tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump on steel and aluminum, aircraft and wine.Tai, the top trade lawyer for the House Ways and Means Committee and a fluent Mandarin speaker, said it was critically important that the United States have a strategic, coherent plan to deal with China and help U.S. companies compete with its model of “state-directed economics.”Rebuilding alliancesIn her testimony, Tai said she would prioritize rebuilding U.S. alliances and re-engaging with international institutions, to better address common threats like climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and a global economic downturn, while investing to make the U.S. economy more resilient.”China is simultaneously a rival, a trade partner, and an outsized player whose cooperation we’ll also need to address certain global challenges,” she said in the prepared testimony, which was seen by Reuters.”We must remember how to walk, chew gum and play chess at the same time,” she said.Tai’s testimony has been eagerly awaited for months by industry, U.S. trading partners from Beijing to Brussels, labor groups and lawmakers — all in a long queue to lobby her as soon as she is confirmed.Tai said she would make it a priority to implement and enforce the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that she helped renegotiate in 2019 to include tougher labor and environmental standards. She said that the deal marked an “important step in reforming our approach to trade” and that its success was vital. 
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The first in a series of congressional hearings on the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack has sparked a debate over whether intelligence breakdowns left the building vulnerable to what some officials and lawmakers have termed a “planned and coordinated” insurrection by supporters of former President Donald Trump.Former officials responsible for Capitol security appeared before two Senate panels on Tuesday to defend their actions in the lead-up to and during the bloody riot that left five dead and hundreds injured, saying they did everything they could to prepare for the attack and that the intelligence community failed to see it coming.But some experts say blaming the riot solely on faulty intelligence is misplaced.”It was very much of a collective failure, much like one could argue that September 11, 2001, was a collective failure in response or anticipation,” said Bruce Hoffman, a veteran terrorism expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.FILE – Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund testifies before the Senate’s Homeland Security and Rules committees on Capitol Hill, Washington, Feb. 23, 2021.Intelligence failure?The claim that the FBI and other agencies failed to predict the attack came from Robert J. Contee III, current chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, and Steven Sund, former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP), the 2,000-plus-strong force tasked with protecting the Capitol and surrounding government buildings.Sund told lawmakers that while Capitol Police had prepared for a large, potentially violent protest, it received no intelligence from the FBI or other agencies indicating that a planned takeover of the Capitol was in the works — one designed to prevent House and Senate lawmakers from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the November 3 presidential election.“Without the intelligence to properly prepare, the USCP was significantly outnumbered and left to defend the Capitol against an extremely violent mob,” Sund said.Based on its own intelligence assessments, the Capitol Police believed the January 6 event would be “similar” to two previous pro-Trump rallies in Washington in November and December, and police officials took what they considered to be appropriate actions.But Hoffman said there was plenty of open and clandestine social media chatter prior to January 6 to suggest it “would likely be very different from all previous protests as a last and final opportunity to contest and disrupt the 2020 presidential election.”A lack of good intelligence before January 6 was not an issue, Hoffman said. As The Washington Post reported, Hoffman noted, the Capitol Police’s own intelligence unit warned in a 12-page January 3 memo that “Congress itself” could be targeted by pro-Trump protesters as “the last opportunity to overturn the results of the presidential election.””I don’t know how much more explicit one can get,” Hoffman said in an interview.What did agencies know, and when?What the FBI and other intelligence agencies knew in advance of the January 6 attack and whether they took the right steps to warn other law enforcement agencies remain hotly debated.The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security collect intelligence on domestic threats and routinely share their assessments with other law enforcement agencies around the country.FILE – Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., talks to reporters as he walks to attend the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Jan. 28, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Democratic Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of a panel in charge of Capitol security, recalled calling FBI Director Christopher Wray on January 4 to express concern about potential violence, and having a number of conversations with other top FBI officials on January 5 and 6.“I felt like the FBI felt that they were in better shape in terms of intel and preparation than what came to be the case,” Warner said.But while FBI officials apparently knew of no looming attack on the Capitol by radical groups and ardent Trump supporters, the bureau, in the late hours of January 5, warned law enforcement agencies around the country about online calls for violence that would begin the next day in Washington.Prepared by the FBI’s Norfolk, Virginia, office, the “raw intelligence” report cited an online thread of extremists that stated, “Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in. … Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally or a protest. Go there ready for war.”In a statement issued late Tuesday, the FBI said, “The language was aspirational in nature with no specific and credible details.”Such “aspirational” threats are often vague in nature and cannot be traced to a specific individual or group, according to security experts.With the rise in recent years of far-right extremism, determining what threat is aspirational and what is more serious has become all the more challenging for law enforcement agencies, said Colin Clarke of the Soufan Group, a nonpartisan global security research consultancy.”We’re dealing with a much, much bigger — in aggregate — mass of people than we would have been even a year or two ago,” Clarke said.Top officials overlookedThe January 5 FBI memo was shared widely with law enforcement but failed to reach the top officials at the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department, raising questions about a breakdown in intelligence-sharing.Sund said the report was sent through a joint terrorism task force to a Capitol Police sergeant but was not pushed up the chain of command.FILE – Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., speaks at the start of a joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Rules committees on Capitol Hill, Washington, Feb. 23, 2021.Lawmakers questioned why such vital information was not flagged to top officials. Senator Amy Klobuchar, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, said the fact that the report did not reach top leaders “is very disturbing on both ends.””You can’t just push ‘send’ on an email” without following up on it and raising concerns at the highest levels, she said.In a statement, the FBI defended its handling of the intelligence. It said it shared the memo with its law enforcement partners within 40 minutes of receiving it. In addition, the report “was also posted on the Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP), which is available to law enforcement officers nationwide,” the bureau said.   
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