Month: March 2021

As cases of the coronavirus continue to rise in the United States, officials are racing to open up vaccine eligibility in the hope of staving off another wave of the pandemic.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, expressed concern Friday about rising case numbers, noting the seven-day average daily case count was up 7% over the past week.“We have seen cases and hospital admission move from historic decline to stagnation to increases, and we know from prior surges that if we don’t control things now there is a real potential for the epidemic curve to soar again,” she said at a White House briefing.Walensky noted that about 1,000 Americans a day are dying of COVID-19 and said, “Please take this moment very seriously.”As of Friday evening, the U.S. led the world in the number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, with 30.2 million, and the number of deaths, with more than 548,000, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Globally, more than 126 million people have contracted COVID-19 and almost 2.8 million have died.Inflection pointNew U.S. cases peaked at nearly 260,000 a day in early January, and that month saw an average of more than 3,100 people dying every day. Case numbers and deaths began to fall later in January and continued to drop in February.New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham talks with National Guard members after receiving her Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination event held in the gym at Desert Sage Academy in Santa Fe, N.M., March 26, 2021.Currently, case numbers are starting to rise, with the average daily case count at 57,000. The increase comes at a time when optimism of a return to normal is growing in the United States with more and more Americans being vaccinated. CDC data on Friday showed that 27% of the U.S. population had received at least one vaccine dose and nearly 15% had been fully vaccinated.Health officials have indicated that the U.S. could be at an inflection point for the pandemic: a time when the country either turns the corner in its battle with the virus or faces a setback.Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said at a White House briefing earlier this week: “I’m often asked: Are we turning the corner?“My response is really more like: We are at the corner. Whether or not we’re going to be turning that corner still remains to be seen.”On March 4, Fauci told CNN that states shouldn’t ease restrictions to prevent COVID-19 until new coronavirus cases fell below 10,000 daily.U.S. officials have been warning about the danger of more contagious variants of the virus, like the one first identified in Britain, which is now causing new surges of the pandemic in a number of European countries.FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks at a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, March 18, 2021.Last week, Fauci said that variant likely accounted for 20% to 30% of coronavirus infections in the United States, adding that the numbers were likely growing. If the variant were to become the dominant strain in the United States, health officials say, reinfections would become more likely among those who have already had COVID-19. Such reinfections, along with the higher transmission rate of the variant, could lead to a wave of new cases.Race to vaccinateTo try to stave off the spread of the new variants, the Biden administration and U.S. state officials are trying to speed up the pace of vaccinations across the country.The governors of South Carolina and Kansas announced Friday that their states would open up vaccine eligibility next week to anyone older than 16.They will join at least a dozen states that have allowed those 16 and older to schedule vaccination appointments. At least 34 states have announced plans to make everyone 16 and older eligible for the vaccine by mid-April, according to a review by The Washington Post.FILE – Michelle Melton, who is 35 weeks pregnant, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pa., Feb. 11, 2021.Of the three vaccines approved for emergency use in the United States, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized for those 16 and older while the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are approved for those 18 and older. No vaccine has been approved for anyone younger than 16.President Joe Biden has set a deadline of May 1 for all states to open up vaccinations to all adults. Jeff Zients, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, said 46 states have confirmed that they will be able to meet the deadline.He acknowledged, however, that some states were opening up their eligibility for adults more quickly than planned because they had not been able to fill appointments for the most vulnerable populations, including the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.”If there are states that are lagging behind, we’re working with those states to ensure they continue to prioritize the most vulnerable populations,” he said during a briefing Friday.Data from the CDC on Friday showed that more than 71% of people 65 and older had received at least one vaccination shot.3 more vaccination centersThe White House announced Friday that three more cities — Boston, Massachusetts; Norfolk, Virginia; and Newark, New Jersey — were getting new federally run mass vaccination centers as part of the president’s new goal of vaccinating 200 million Americans by the end of April. Biden had previously set a goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans during his first 100 days in office, a goal he surpassed last week.Zients said that while the pace of vaccinations was encouraging, there is still concern about the increasing case numbers of the coronavirus across the country.“It is clear there is a case for optimism, but there is not a case for relaxation,” he said. “This is not the time to let down our guard.”   
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Powering a large, industrialized country can be a dirty business.The United States still relies primarily on fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal to produce nearly 400,000 gigawatt hours of electricity annually for commercial, industrial and residential consumers.President Joe Biden wants the United States, by the year 2035, to have carbon-free electricity or what is termed “net zero,” meaning an overall balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced and so-called carbon offsets, such as planting of trees.“There’s no way that it is feasible without technologies that aren’t currently in the marketplace today,” Mike Sommers, president and chief executive officer of the American Petroleum Institute, replied to a VOA question on a conference call with reporters.API’s 600 members produce, process and distribute most of the energy in the United States.API supports the 2015 Paris Climate Accord to cut greenhouse gases from which President Donald Trump withdrew the United States and which Biden rejoined this year.The organization has unveiled A high-voltage power transmission line is seen in front of the La Cygne Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant in Kansas, in March 2021. (Steve Herman/VOA)To replace its 1,600 megawatt-capacity with renewables would require roughly 800,000 solar panels or 320 of the largest onshore wind turbines — plus an impossible assumption the sun never sets and the wind never stops.Pairing batteries with wind and solar is understood to be a solution to the problem, but the technology and economics have yet to be proven.Another challenge is the U.S. electricity grid itself. It was built to have a consistent flow of power running through it all the time. However, wind and solar being variable resources means the grid still needs a reliable baseload, such as those supplied by coal- or gas-fired turbines that can be quickly throttled up and down, to balance usage demands that vary by time of day and seasons.Solar is now cost-competitive and, in some cases, cheaper than fossil fuels, according to Jan Mazurek, who directs the Carbon Dioxide Removal Fund at the ClimateWorks Foundation.“But the challenge is knowing when to bring the solar online and knowing when to bring a firmer resource online after the sun sets. And that is a universal challenge whether it’s in Southeast Asia or it’s in the United States,” she said.Overall, Mazurek is optimistic.“We can get zero emitting electricity generation up to 67% by 2031 compared to 39% under business as usual … and that’s just using the existing zero-emitting baseload with wind and solar layered on top, so I don’t think that it’s an insurmountable challenge,” Mazurek told VOA.What about electricity?Meanwhile, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, an independent adviser to the federal government, proposes funding experiments to shoot particles into the atmosphere to increase the amount of reflected sunlight, as well as seeding clouds with particles that would allow more heat to escape from the Earth.From others there is a call for more down-to-earth solutions.“The key to carbon reduction in our economy lies in electrification,” Kirtley said. “Electric cars, electric trains, and converting industrial processes like steelmaking to electricity are all feasible and would enable the use of carbon free sources of energy, such as nuclear power.”For the U.S. economy to convert to carbon-free generation, according to Kirtley, an effective carbon tax would be needed and “we need to reform our regulation of nuclear power plant construction to shorten the time it takes to put one up.”Some environmentalists and politicians remain reluctant to endorse nuclear power, pointing to previous disasters at Three Mile Island in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, Chernobyl in Ukraine and Fukushima in Japan.“Over the past few years, clean energy advocates and environmentalists have significantly shifted in support of nuclear energy as it becomes clearer that when we lose nuclear power, we often see it replaced by fossil fuels — working against any progress that is made even as we add more wind, solar and new nuclear in the decades to come,” said John Kotek, vice president of policy development and public affairs at the Nuclear Energy Institute.“That’s why we have seen bipartisan bills passed in states like Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut to preserve existing nuclear plants,” Kotek told VOA in a statement.“It’s undeniable that we need public policy to drive much of this change to get us to zero and below zero by 2050,” Mazurek said. “It’s a critical moment, but at the same time I’m very much encouraged by private sector action.”Government, regulators and industry also will need to figure out how to manage a much more complex grid that, even without renewables in the mix, is always a delicate balancing act.That was evident during last year’s rolling blackouts in California and this February’s electricity generation failure during a winter storm in Texas, the two most populated U.S. states.“There is no entity which takes responsibility for making sure there’s enough generation,” said Bose who also warns not enough attention is being paid to resiliency of the distribution system, which is no longer passive and one-way. Compounding that is the increase in the number and strength of damaging storms, which many blame on climate change.“Policies and regulations seem to not always jive very well with the technologies that are coming up,” Bose, of Washington State University, said.
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North Korea said Saturday that U.S. President Joe Biden had revealed “his deep-seated hostility” toward Pyongyang and had encroached on its right to self-defense by criticizing its latest missile test, the official KCNA news agency said.North Korea on Friday claimed it had launched a new type of tactical short-range ballistic missile. Biden said that the test had violated U.N. Security Council resolutions but that he remained open to diplomacy with Pyongyang.Ri Pyong Chol, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, said the missile test was self-defensive against threats posed by South Korea and the United States with their joint military exercises and advanced weapons.”We express our deep apprehension over the U.S. chief executive faulting the regular test fire, exercise of our state’s right to self-defense, as the violation of U.N. ‘resolutions’ and openly revealing his deep-seated hostility,” Ri said in a statement carried by KCNA.”Such remarks from the U.S. president are an undisguised encroachment on our state’s right to self-defense and provocation to it.”Ri warned that Washington might face “something that is not good” if it continued to make “thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences.” 
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A former U.S. military translator pleaded guilty Friday of divulging classified information to a Lebanese national with suspected ties to the Lebanese Hezbollah.Mariam Taha Thompson, 63, who worked as a contract linguist for the U.S. military from 2006 to 2020, pleaded guilty to one count of delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government.She faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for June 23.Thompson, who was born in Lebanon and became a U.S. citizen in 1993, was arrested in February 2020 at a U.S. special operations base in Irbil, Iraq.Prosecutors say she used her top secret clearance to pass the names of U.S. intelligence assets to the Lebanese national in whom she had a romantic interest and and whom she believed would share the information with Hezbollah. Hezbollah was designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.According to court documents, the unnamed Lebanese national, described as “wealthy and well-connected,” claimed to have received a ring from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and had a nephew who worked in the Lebanese Ministry of Interior.Names sought in attack on SoleimaniAfter a U.S. airstrike killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in December 2019, the Lebanese national, her unindicted co-conspirator, asked Thompson to provide Hezbollah with information about the human assets who had helped the U.S. target Soleimani, according to prosecutors.Over a six-week period leading up her arrest in February 2020, Thompson provided the Lebanese national with the identities of at least 10 clandestine human assets; at least 20 U.S. targets; and multiple tactics, techniques and procedures, according to the Justice Department.“Thompson jeopardized the lives of members of the U.S. military as well as other individuals supporting the United States in a combat zone when she passed classified information to a person she knew was connected to Lebanese Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization which intended to use the information to hurt this country,” Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers said in a statement. 
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Boulder, Colorado’s chief of police said Friday investigators still have not determined the motive for the shooting deaths of 10 people, including a police officer responding to the crime, at a grocery store earlier this week.At a news briefing, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold told reporters her office along with 25 other law enforcement agencies were working around the clock to determine why the 21-year-old suspect chose Boulder, some 30 miles from his home in Arvada, Colorado, and why this grocery store.She said those questions will haunt everyone in the community until they know the answers.  Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, who also spoke at the news conference, said determining the motive will be the focus of all their efforts.  Herold said the suspect, identified earlier as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, legally purchased an AR-556 pistol at a gun store in his hometown. He also carried a handgun which was, they believe, not used in the attack.   She said Alissa was shot and wounded in the leg during the incident by one of the responding police officers. That officer has been put on administrative leave, which is department policy.Doughtery said the suspect was charged with attempted murder, along with the 10 murder charges because of his exchange of gunfire with officers at the scenes. The district attorney said there may be additional charges.  Alissa made an initial appearance in court Thursday.  His lawyers as asked for two to three-month delay before his next court appearance for a mental evaluation and investigators to collect evidence.  The suspect was moved to a jail outside of Boulder for security reasons. He is being held without bail. 
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A bipartisan group of former U.S. government officials has issued a statement condemning the spike in crimes against Asian-Americans, saying the increase comes as Asians face “wrongful blame for the virus.”
“We, the undersigned Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) descent, who served as senior officials in both Republican and Democratic administrations and congressional offices, strongly denounce the alarming increase in violence, rhetoric, and bigotry against the AAPI community,” the group’s statement read.  
Citing statistics provided by the nonprofit group Stop AAPI Hate, the signatories say 2020 witnessed a 150% increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans.
The group says the crimes include bullying, racial epithets, and verbal abuse and harassment and physical violence, some of which has led to death.  
“For centuries, [Asian American and Pacific Islanders] have contributed much to the vibrancy and success of this country. Yet we are sometimes still seen as “the foreigner” or “less American” and treated as the “other,” the statement read.
Among those signing the statement are former secretary of transportation Elaine Chao, a Republican, and former commerce secretary and Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, a Democrat.
 
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Dominion Voting Systems on Friday filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, arguing the cable news giant falsely claimed in an effort to boost faltering ratings that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election.  
It’s the first defamation suit filed against a media outlet by the voting company, which was a target of misleading, false and bizarre claims spread by President Donald Trump and his allies in the aftermath of Trump’s election loss to Joe Biden. Those claims helped spur on rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in a violent siege that left five people dead, including a police officer. The siege led to Trump’s historic second impeachment.
Dominion argues that Fox News, which amplified inaccurate assertions that Dominion altered votes, “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Associated Press.  
Some Fox News on-air reporting segments have debunked some of the claims targeting Dominion. An email sent to Fox News Friday morning, seeking comment on the lawsuit, was not immediately returned.  
There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, a fact that a range of election officials across the country — and even Trump’s attorney general, William Barr — have confirmed. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies were dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which has three Trump-nominated justices.
Still, some Fox News employees elevated false charges that Dominion had changed votes through algorithms in its voting machines that had been created in Venezuela to rig elections for the late dictator Hugo Chavez. On-air personalities brought on Trump allies Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, who spread the claims, and then amplified those claims on Fox News’ massive social media platforms.  
Dominion said in the lawsuit that it tried repeatedly to set the record straight but was ignored by Fox News.  
The company argues that Fox News, a network that features several pro-Trump personalities, pushed the false claims to explain away the former president’s loss. The cable giant lost viewers after the election and was seen by some Trump supporters as not being supportive enough of the Republican.  
Attorneys for Dominion said Fox News’ behavior differs greatly from that of other media outlets that reported on the claims.
“This was a conscious, knowing business decision to endorse and repeat and broadcast these lies in order to keep its viewership,” said attorney Justin Nelson, of Susman Godfrey LLC.
Though Dominion serves 28 states, until the 2020 election it had been largely unknown outside the election community. It is now widely targeted in conservative circles, seen by millions of people as one of the main villains in a fictional tale in which Democrats nationwide conspired to steal votes from Trump, the lawsuit said.
Dominion’s employees, from its software engineers to its founder, have been harassed. Some received death threats. And the company has suffered “enormous and irreparable economic harm,” lawyers said.  
Dominion has also sued Giuliani, Powell and the CEO of Minnesota-based MyPillow over the claims. A rival technology company, Smartmatic USA, also sued Fox News over election claims. Unlike Dominion, Smartmatic’s participation in the 2020 election was restricted to Los Angeles County.
Dominion lawyers said they have not yet filed lawsuits against specific media personalities at Fox News, but the door remains open. Some at Fox News knew the claims were false but their comments were drowned out, lawyers said.  
“The buck stops with Fox on this,” attorney Stephen Shackelford said. “Fox chose to put this on all of its many platforms. They rebroadcast, republished it on social media and other places.”
The suit was filed in Delaware, where both companies are incorporated, though Fox News is headquartered in New York and Dominion is based in Denver.
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U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney was named the recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on Friday for splitting with his party and becoming the only Republican to vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial.
The award was created by the family of the late president to honor public figures who risk their careers by embracing unpopular positions for the greater good, and is named after Kennedy’s 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Profiles in Courage.”
“Senator Romney’s commitment to our Constitution makes him a worthy successor to the senators who inspired my father to write ‘Profiles in Courage,’ ” Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, said in a statement from the JFK Library Foundation. “He reminds us that our Democracy depends on the courage, conscience and character of our elected officials.”
Romney, 74, said he is inspired by the memory of his late father, George Romney, an automotive executive and governor of Michigan.
“When I think of courage, I think of my Dad,” said the Utah Republican, who is also the former governor of Massachusetts. “He did what was right regardless of consequence. I aspire to his example, though I have failed from time to time. We must subordinate our political fortunes to the causes of freedom, equal opportunity and truth, particularly as they are under assault here and abroad.”
Trump’s first trial in 2020 focused on the former president’s relationship with Ukraine. Romney became the first senator in U.S. history to vote for the conviction of a president who belonged to his own party, and he was subject to intense criticism and even threats from Trump’s supporters.
But he did not back down, the foundation said.
When Trump and many Republicans questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, Romney defended the integrity of the results and opposed efforts to overturn them.
After the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection by Trump’s supporters at the U.S. Capitol, Romney called on his fellow Republican senators to stand up for the truth about the election. At Trump’s second impeachment trial, Romney was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict the former president of inciting the attack.
Kennedy’s book recounts the stories of eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking principled stands for unpopular positions. The award was created by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in 1989.
Romney will be presented with the award, a sterling silver lantern symbolizing a beacon of hope, at a virtual ceremony in May.
Previous winners have included Presidents Barack Obama, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush; U.S. Sen. John McCain; and Liberian peace activist and Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee. The recipients are selected by a bipartisan 15-member panel of national leaders.
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Chinese state TV called Thursday for a boycott of H&M as Beijing lashed out at foreign clothing and footwear brands following Western sanctions on Chinese officials accused of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.The ruling Communist Party criticized H&M for saying in March 2020 it would stop buying cotton from the northwestern Chinese region. The Swedish retailer joined other brands in expressing concern about reports of forced labor there.The party newspaper Global Times also criticized statements by Burberry, Adidas, Nike, New Balance and Zara about Xinjiang as early as two years ago.”For enterprises that touch the bottom line of our country, the response is very clear: don’t buy!” China Central Television said on its social media account. It said the ‘H’ and ‘M’ in the Swedish name stood for Chinese words meaning lie and falsehood.The attacks follow Monday’s decision by the 27-nation European Union, the United States, Britain and Canada to impose travel and financial sanctions on four Chinese officials blamed for abuses in Xinjiang.More than 1 million people in Xinjiang, most of them from predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, have been confined to work camps, according to foreign researchers and governments. Beijing denies mistreating them and says it is trying to promote economic development and stamp out radicalism.”The so-called existence of forced labor in the Xinjiang region is totally fictitious,” said a Commerce Ministry spokesman, Gao Feng. He called on foreign companies to “correct wrong practices” but did not say what they were expected to do.Celebrities including Wang Yibo, a popular singer and actor, announced they were breaking endorsement contracts with H&M and Nike.H&M products were missing from China’s most popular e-commerce platforms, Alibaba Group’s TMall and JD.com. News reports said they were removed due to public criticism over its Xinjiang statement. The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.Beijing often attacks foreign clothing, auto, travel and other brands for actions by their governments or to pressure companies to conform to its official positions on Taiwan, Tibet and other sensitive issues.Companies usually apologize and change websites or advertising to maintain access to China, one of the biggest global markets. But Xinjiang is an unusually thorny issue. Western brands face pressure at home to distance themselves from possible abuses.A man wearing a mask rides past a Uniqlo store in Beijing on March 25, 2021.A loss of sales in China, the only major economy where consumer spending has rebounded to above pre-pandemic levels, can be especially painful at a time when U.S. and European demand is weak.H&M Group “doesn’t represent any political standpoint” and “respects Chinese consumers,” the company said on its social media account.The company said it deals with 350 Chinese manufacturers to make products that “comply with the principles of sustainable development.” H&M said it “is committed to long-term investment and development in China.”Brian Ehrig, partner in the consumer practice of global strategy and management consulting firm Kearney, said it is likely that roughly 60% to 70% of H&M’s raw materials, like fabrics, come from China. He said that if H&M is cut off, it will be much harder for the company to get access to these materials and could mean higher prices and production delays.H&M had 520 stores and $1.4 billion in sales in China in 2019, the last year for which annual figures have been reported. China is its third-largest market after Germany and the United States.The criticism began when the ruling party’s Youth League on Wednesday called attention to last March’s H&M statement on its social media account. It gave no indication why it singled out the company or an explanation for citing a year-old statement.A delivery man walks past an Adidas store and an H&M store in Beijing on March 25, 2021.”Spreading lies to boycott Xinjiang while wanting to make money in China? Wishful thinking,” the Youth League said.The Global Times said Burberry, Adidas, Nike and New Balance also made “cutting remarks” about Xinjiang cotton. A separate Global Times report cited what it said was a statement by Zara that it had a “zero-tolerance approach towards forced labor.”H&M’s statement last year cited a decision by the Better Cotton Initiative, an industry group that promotes environmental and labor standards, to stop licensing Xinjiang cotton because it was “increasingly difficult” to trace how it was produced. In September, H&M announced it would stop working with a Chinese manufacturer that was accused of using forced labor in a unit unrelated to the Swedish brand.In January, Washington imposed a ban on imports of cotton from Xinjiang, a major supplier to clothing producers for Western markets.China’s official outrage has focused on Europe, possibly because relations with the EU had been amicable amid rancor with Washington over trade disputes and accusations of Chinese spying and technology theft.Official criticism of H&M reflected that tone of grievance at being hurt by a friend.”How can H&M eat Chinese rice and then smash China’s pot?” state television said in a commentary Wednesday.Comments on the internet cited clothing brands Uniqlo of Japan and The Gap of the United States as other possible offenders. It was unclear how many of those accounts were members of the public and how many were run by the ruling party’s vast propaganda apparatus.The pop star Wang’s announcement that he was quitting as a Nike “brand ambassador” didn’t mention Xinjiang. It said he “firmly resists any words and actions that pollute China.”Others including singer and actress Song Qian, a former member of Korean pop group f(x) who also is known as Victoria Song, and actor Huang Xuan, who announced they would end endorsement contracts with H&M. Actress Tang Songyun said she was breaking ties with Nike.Chinese athletic shoe brand ANTA announced it was pulling out of BCI, the industry cotton group.
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Unaccompanied minors continue to stream across the US-Mexico border, the only migrant group the Biden administration is allowing to remain in the US.  As VOA’s Aline Barros reports, the influx has overwhelmed an immigration system struggling to comply with strict requirements for housing and processing children.
Camera: Celia Mendoza
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U.S. President Joe Biden took questions from reporters for one hour Thursday during his first formal news conference, an encounter partly intended to refute conservative critics who had predicted the oldest man ever elected U.S. president would not be up to the task.After brief opening remarks about his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, Biden responded to questions from 10 reporters, calling their names off a list on his lectern.On his 65th day in office, the president found that most of the questions had to do with immigration, specifically about the government’s treatment of child migrants at the border.On domestic issues, his remarks were generally ad-libbed, but on sensitive foreign policy matters, including those related to Afghanistan and China, he appeared to be reading from notes.Biden made a bit of news in response to a question about the next presidential election, more than three years in the future, saying he does intend to run for reelection in 2024. He said he has “no idea,” however, if the opposition Republican Party — facing internal tumult — will still exist by then.Replying to a question about the push by Republicans for voting restrictions, Biden said, “What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It is sick.”The president lamented the long-standing filibuster rule in the U.S. Senate as an obstacle and said it is being misused by senators “in a gigantic way.”Under the filibuster, 60 votes are needed to pass legislation in the Senate, which could make it difficult to pass some of Biden’s legislative agenda, including immigration reform, voting rights and possibly his infrastructure plan.There were also some swipes by Biden at his predecessor, Donald Trump.“I made it clear that no American president — at least one did — but no American president ever backed down from speaking out of what’s happening with the Uyghurs, what’s happening in Hong Kong,” Biden said when asked about China. “That’s who we are. The moment a president walks away from that, as the last one did, is the moment we began to lose our legitimacy around the world.”Asked about apparent short-range ballistic missile launches by North Korea early Thursday into Asian waters, Biden said the United States is “consulting with our allies and partners, and there will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond accordingly.”While Biden has restored daily briefings by his press secretary, and on many days has briefly answered one or two questions from White House correspondents in other formats, he was the first president in four decades to make it this far into his first term without holding a formal question-and-answer session with the news media. That had prompted criticism in recent weeks from across the political spectrum.The avoidance of the White House lectern sustained chatter Trump had amplified during the 2020 campaign, when the incumbent referred to his Democratic Party challenger as “sleepy Joe” and claimed the former vice president was “mentally shot.”“The dominant narrative from the right-wing industrial complex is that Biden is senile and being manipulated by shadowy leftists,” said Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Max Boot after Thursday’s press conference. “It’s a charge so crazy it doesn’t deserve refutation. But Biden’s crisp press conference shows he is fully in command of the issues.”Biden avoided straying off topic to recite anecdotes, something he does frequently, and he cracked a couple of jokes, including a reference to joining the Senate “120 years ago.”Biden’s performance, however, failed to quiet some of his detractors.Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham termed Biden’s news conference “hard to watch,” contending the president failed to grasp the immigration issues.“He does not have the situational awareness because he doesn’t understand the problem,” the senator said.President Biden’s news conference today makes our immigration problems worse.  He doesn’t have the situational awareness to fix the problem because he doesn’t understand the problem.  What he did today was entice people to come, not deter them from coming. pic.twitter.com/1trhXZTAIY— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 25, 2021Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary during the George W. Bush administration, criticized Biden on Twitter for turning to a “study guide” to answer foreign policy questions, calling it unprecedented.Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, considered a longtime conservative until the Trump era, commented that while Biden excelled, the reporters asking the questions embarrassed themselves.“Their failure to ask about the pandemic, the recession, anti-Asian violence, climate change or even infrastructure (Biden had to bring it up himself) was nothing short of irresponsible,” she wrote. “They pleaded for a news conference and then showed themselves to be unserious.”
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The University of Southern California has agreed to an $852 million settlement with more than 700 women who have accused the college’s longtime campus gynecologist of sexual abuse, the victims’ lawyers and USC announced Thursday.  It’s believed to be a record amount for such a lawsuit. When combined with an earlier settlement of a separate class-action suit, USC has agreed to pay out more than $1 billion for claims against Dr. George Tyndall, who worked at the school for nearly three decades. The lawyers say no confidentiality or nondisclosure agreements were attached. FILE – Dr. George Tyndall listens during his arraignment at Los Angeles Superior court in Los Angeles, July 1, 2019.Tyndall, 74, faces 35 criminal counts of alleged sexual misconduct between 2009 and 2016 at the university’s student health center. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond. Hundreds of women came forward to report their allegations to police, but some of the cases fell outside the 10-year statute of limitations, while others did not rise to the level of criminal charges or lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute. Still, he faces up to 64 years in prison if convicted. “I am deeply sorry for the pain experienced by these valued members of the USC community,” USC President Carol L. Folt said in a statement. “We appreciate the courage of all who came forward and hope this much needed resolution provides some relief to the women abused by George Tyndall.” Folt took office in 2019 as part of an overhaul of USC leadership amid the unfolding gynecologist and college entrance bribery scandals. Tyndall was deposed for the settlement and largely invoked his rights against self-incrimination in answers, the plaintiff’s lawyers said. While he signed the settlement, he did not contribute any money toward it and did not admit to any wrongdoing. “Dr. Tyndall continues to deny that he has engaged in any misconduct,” said Leonard Levine, Tyndall’s attorney. “He has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and remains confident that when the allegations are tested in court in a jury trial, he will be totally exonerated.” Previous settlementSeparately, USC earlier agreed to pay $215 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that applies to about 18,000 women who were patients of Tyndall’s. The individual payouts to those victims range from $2,500 to $250,000 and were given regardless of whether the women formally accused Tyndall of harassment or assault. The final payouts are expected to be issued this month. Allegations against Tyndall first surfaced in 2018 in an investigation by the Los Angeles Times, which revealed that the doctor had been the subject of complaints of sexual misconduct at USC dating back to the 1990s.  He wasn’t suspended until 2016, when a nurse reported him to a rape crisis center. He was able to quietly resign with a large payout the next year. Tyndall surrendered his medical license in September 2019, records show. Other schoolsIn 2018, Michigan State University agreed to pay $500 million to settle claims from more than 300 women and girls who said they were assaulted by sports doctor Larry Nassar. That settlement was considered the largest at the time, far surpassing the $100 million-plus paid by Penn State University to settle claims by at least 35 people who accused assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky of sexual abuse. 
 
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The commander of U.S. special operations forces says he fears the current government in Afghanistan could fall and that its security forces will be overrun by the Taliban should the United States decide to pull all of its troops from the country. U.S. Special Operations Command’s Gen. Richard Clarke told U.S. lawmakers Thursday that while the Afghan military has worked to improve its capabilities, it cannot sustain itself without the current level of American support. “While progress has been made … the capabilities that the U.S. provides for the Afghans to be able to combat the Taliban and other threats that reside in Afghanistan are critical to their success,” Clarke told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Special Operations Command Gen. Richard Clarke speaks at a hearing on Capitol Hill, March 25, 2021.The warning from Clarke, who said he traveled to Afghanistan recently to meet with the head of the Afghan military’s new joint special operations command, comes as the U.S. and NATO allies face a May 1 deadline to pull all troops out of the country – part of a deal last year between the Taliban and the administration of then-U.S. President Donald Trump. Current U.S. President Joe Biden and other top security and defense officials have been reviewing the deal but say no decision has been made on whether to comply and withdraw some 2,500 U.S. forces. He told reporters Thursday at his first press conference that it’s unlikely the U.S. will be out by the deadline. U.S. troop withdrawal Should the U.S. decide to pull out, some 7,000 NATO forces would also leave. Some leading U.S. lawmakers, though, have said they believe the Biden administration will try to find a way to at least extend the deadline for the troop withdrawal.  “There’s a general feeling that May 1 is too soon,” House Armed Service Committee Chair Adam Smith told a Foreign Policy virtual discussion Wednesday. FILE – A U.S. soldier keeps watch at an Afghan National Army base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 5, 2018.Smith said he was basing his comments on discussions in recent weeks with top Biden administration officials, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “You cannot pull out 10,000-plus troops in any sort of reasonable way in six weeks,” he said, calling it a matter of logistics.   “Running for the exits pell-mell by May 1 is dangerous,” he said. “I don’t want to leave a bunch of high-grade military equipment behind for whoever grabs either.” Increased violence Aside from logistics, U.S. and NATO officials have raised concerns about what they say is the Taliban’s failure to live up to the deal. They argue the Taliban have shown no indication they are cutting ties with terror groups like al-Qaida. And while Taliban forces have refrained from launching attacks on U.S. troops, the level of violence in Afghanistan has spiked. “It’s clear that the Taliban have not upheld what they said they would do and reduce the violence,” Clarke told U.S. lawmakers, saying he has seen them do the opposite. FILE – Members of the Taliban delegation arrive for an Afghan peace conference in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2021.”It is clear they took a deliberate approach and increased their violence since the peace accords were signed,” the U.S. commander said. Despite growing misgivings from U.S. officials about the approaching deadline for withdrawal, Taliban officials are insisting Washington honor the deal as is. “It is clearly stated in the agreement that America will withdraw all its troops (from Afghanistan) by May 1, and we again ask them to strictly adhere to the mutually agreed deadline,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA earlier this week. “In case Americans do not meet their obligations and abandon the agreement, the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) will be forced to defend their nation and consider all other options to force foreign troops out of the country,” Mujahid said, without elaborating. US to Consult with NATO Allies on Afghanistan Pullout PlansTaliban want Washington to stick to May 1 deadline to remove troops as outlined in 2020 US-Taliban agreementFears about the fate of Afghanistan should U.S. forces leave are not new. Earlier this month, a U.S. government watchdog warned that U.S. and international efforts to build a strong and stable Afghanistan “may turn out to be a bridge too far.” “It may not be an overstatement that if foreign assistance is withdrawn and peace negotiations fail, Taliban forces could be at the gates of Kabul in short order,” said John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).    Fixing Afghanistan Might Be ‘a Bridge Too Far,’ US Watchdog WarnsUnabating violence and the Afghan government’s inability to sustain itself and its security forces could doom peaceful conclusion to decades of war, US inspector general for Afghan reconstruction saysSopko also cautioned that it is not just the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces that could cripple the Afghan government. He said the departure of approximately 18,000 contractors and trainers, also required under the U.S.-Taliban deal, would be even more devastating. “The Afghan government relies heavily on these foreign contractors and trainers to function,” Sopko said. “No Afghan air frame can be sustained as combat effective for more than a few months in the absence of contractor support.” VOA’s Ayaz Gul in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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During his first formal news conference as U.S. president, Joe Biden on Thursday announced a new nationwide coronavirus vaccination goal: 200 million shots in arms during the first 100 days of his administration.”I know it’s ambitious – twice our original goal – but no other country has even come close,” said Biden at the start of the event in the White House East Room.In late January, just days after his inauguration, Biden said he wanted to ship out 150 million shots in his first 100 days, but his administration scaled back that projection.As of Wednesday, 130 million injections had been administered, White House officials said, with 85 million people having received one shot and 45 million people being fully vaccinated.Three entities, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, have promised enough vaccine doses to inoculate all 260 million adults in the United States by the end of next month, another goal previously announced by Biden.In June, Pfizer and Moderna are set to deliver another 100 million doses.Biden, on the 65th day of his presidency, also said the government was closing in on another pledge he had made – of having most kindergarten-through- eighth-grade classrooms reopened during the first 100 days of his administration.’We’re really close’The president cited an Education Department survey stating nearly half of such schools with in-person learning were open full time.“Not yet a majority, but we’re really close,” said Biden. “And I believe in the 35 days left to go we’ll meet that goal as well.”During Biden’s hourlong news conference, there were no queries directly related to the coronavirus pandemic from any of the 10 reporters who were selected to ask questions.Over the past year, COVID-19 has killed more than 542,000 people and infected at least 30 million in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.White House officials earlier Thursday announced plans to spend $10 billion of money already appropriated by Congress to expand access to coronavirus vaccines and overcome hesitancy about the vaccine in high-risk communities.So far, only the states of Alaska, Mississippi, Utah and West Virginia have made all their adults eligible for vaccination. Florida is to join them on April 5.It is expected to be some time before many children, who are at lower risk of serious illness from the coronavirus, will be inoculated in the United States.Pfizer on Wednesday began testing its vaccine on children under age 12. Astra Zeneca and Moderna have been testing their vaccines on those between six months and 12 years, while Johnson & Johnson says it expects to extend its trial to younger age groups after assessing the performance of its one-shot vaccine in older children.   
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The protests against racial injustice and police brutality that began in Portland, Oregon last May continue today. But the crowds are much smaller, and some city residents say the movement has morphed into “senseless vandalism.” VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya has this report from Portland
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U.S. President Joe Biden makes a guest appearance at the European Union’s monthly summit Thursday, which will also be dominated by tensions over COVID-19 vaccinations and the pandemic’s latest surge in parts of the 27-member bloc.Discussions with Biden might be one of the few upbeat moments during this EU summit, taking place by videoconference because of coronavirus lockdowns in several member states. Both sides want to repair transatlantic ties that frayed under former president Donald Trump.   
 
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made that clear in Brussels Wednesday after meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.  
 
“As President Biden has said, the United States will work closely with our allies and our European Union partners across the continent to address our shared challenges and to meet our shared goal of a Europe whole, free and in peace,” Blinken said.
 
The last U.S. leader to join an EU summit was former president Barack Obama in 2009.
 
EU leaders are also discussing ways to boost their vaccine supplies, amid a resurging pandemic in some places. They’re facing mounting criticism from European voters over the bloc’s slow vaccine rollout, which sees it lagging well behind the U.S. and a number of other countries.
 
The EU’s executive arm has proposed temporarily curbing vaccine exports to ensure its citizens have greater access—and equal treatment by other exporting nations, starting with ex-member Britain.
 
“Just since the introduction of the export authorization system, some 10 million doses have been exported from the EU to the UK and zero doses have been exported from the UK to the EU,” noted European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis. “So if we discuss reciprocity, solidarity and global responsibility, so it’s clear that we also need to look at those aspects of reciprocity and proportionality.”
 
Britain warns against the EU’s proposed curbs, which are also dividing member states. Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said countries need to work together in confronting the pandemic.  
 
“I will make it clear at our meeting this week that I do not support actions that would disrupt vital supply chains and undermine vaccine production when the situation remains so fragile,” Martin said.
 
Some EU countries also want changes to the bloc’s current method of distributing vaccines —another divisive issue that also promises to make this summit a difficult one.  
 
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