Month: March 2023

The U.N. General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution Wednesday that will ask the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on the obligations of states under international law to protect the rights of present and future generations from the impact of climate change.

“This resolution and the advisory opinion it seeks will have a powerful and positive impact on how we address climate change and ultimately protect the present and future generations,” said Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, whose government spearheaded the drafting and negotiations of the resolution, with a core group of 18 countries representing most corners of the world. 

“Together we will send a loud and clear message, not only around the world but far into the future: On this very day, the peoples of the United Nations, acting through their governments, decided to leave aside differences and work together to tackle the defining challenge of our times: climate change,” Kalsakau said.

More than 130 countries joined in co-sponsoring the resolution, which was adopted by consensus. While most of the world’s top emitters of greenhouse gases, including China and the United States, were noticeably absent from the co-sponsors, they did not prevent the adoption by consensus. 

The United States, which noted the Biden administration’s ambitious climate action to meet commitments consistent with keeping global warming to within the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal, said it has “serious concerns” that an ICJ opinion could hurt rather than help collective efforts to reach climate targets.

“We believe that launching a judicial process, especially given the broad scope of the questions, will likely accentuate disagreements and not be conducive to advancing our ongoing diplomatic and other processes,” U.S. delegate Nicholas Hill told the assembly. “In light of this, the United States disagrees that this initiative is the best approach for achieving our shared goals and takes this opportunity to reaffirm our view that diplomatic efforts are the best means by which to address the climate crisis.”

Japan and Germany are among the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, and they joined as co-sponsors. Germany was also among the 18 countries that shepherded the initiative.

“Germany hopes that this initiative will contribute to further strengthen international cooperation, which is key for achieving the Paris Agreement’s objectives,” Ambassador Antje Leendertse said of the 2015 climate accord. 

The Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu’s very existence is threatened by rising sea levels. It is currently recovering from the devastation earlier this month of two Category 4 tropical cyclones in less than five days.

Kalsakau was clear that the effort is not intended to be a contentious one, nor is it a lawsuit. The authors also do not expect the Hague-based court to create new obligations on states, only to uphold existing ones. While the ICJ is the United Nation’s principal judicial organ, its decisions are not binding but carry considerable weight and can become part of what’s known as customary law.

“We believe the clarity it will bring can greatly benefit our efforts to address the climate crisis and could further bolster global and multilateral cooperation and state conduct in addressing climate change,” the prime minister said. 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the action, warning time is running out for nations to act boldly to fight global warming.

“This is the critical decade for climate action,” he told the assembly. “It must happen on our watch.”

The resolution began in 2019 as the brainchild of students from Vanuatu, which is among several small island states that are suffering the effects of the climate crisis but has contributed little to causing it.

“I don’t want to show a picture to my child one day of my island. I want my child to be able to experience the same environment, the same culture I grew up in,” Cynthia Houniuhi, president of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, told reporters in a briefing ahead of the vote.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the resolution, saying it is a powerful demonstration of effective multilateral diplomacy led by a state from the Global South on behalf of people at risk.

“The overwhelming support for Vanuatu’s resolution is a major step toward gaining clarity on the legal obligations of states most responsible for climate change,” said HRW’s Environment and Human Rights director Richard Pearshouse. “It’s also important to focus — through the lens of human rights — on the obligations to protect those communities suffering most acutely.” 
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The New York grand jury probing former President Donald Trump’s alleged role in a hush-money payment to a porn star will not reconvene on the matter until after the April Easter holiday, a law enforcement source said.

Christians mark Easter on April 9.
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Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to Zambia is raising excitement in the country and some nostalgia. Harris has a personal connection to Zambia, where she spent time with her Indian grandfather, who sparked her interest in public service. Kathy Short reports for VOA from Lusaka, Zambia. (Camera: Richard Kille)
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If Vice President Kamala Harris has a favorite number on her trip to Africa, it’s undoubtedly 19. That’s the median age in Africa, and she repeats the fact at every opportunity.

For Harris, it’s not a piece of trivia but the driving force behind the stepped-up U.S. outreach to African countries. Washington is racing to build partnerships on the oldest inhabited continent with the youngest population, a test that could reshape the economy in Africa and, by extension, the rest of the world.

In the near future, “1 in 4 people on this Earth will be on this continent,” Harris said during a conversation with reporters. “Just on that alone — the demographics of it all alone — if you put aside the present and the past, if we are to be forward-looking in terms of national policies and priorities, we have to look at this continent.”

As part of that effort, Harris on Wednesday announced more than $1 billion in public and private money for women’s economic empowerment. The money is expected to come from a mix of nonprofit foundations, private companies and the U.S. government, and it’s intended to expand access to digital services, provide job training and support entrepreneurs.

Harris made the announcement during a meeting with six Ghanaian female entrepreneurs. It was her final event in Ghana before she left for Tanzania on a weeklong Africa tour that will also take her to Zambia.

She called the women at the table “a model for the potential of all people,” and said that “the well-being of women will be a reflection of the well-being of all of society.”

Harris is the highest-profile member of President Joe Biden’s administration to visit Africa this year. While in Ghana, she paid particular attention to economic development and young people.

She visited a skate park and recording studio, released a Spotify playlist of African musicians, spoken before thousands of young people, and invited celebrities, civil rights leaders and businesspeople to join her at a banquet in her honor.

It’s a carefully calibrated campaign to reframe how Americans view opportunities in Africa, something that senior officials from Harris’ office described as central to her goals for the trip. New investments could not only benefit U.S. businesses but also alleviate one of the most pressing challenges here.

“If we don’t find jobs — because that’s what it’s about — for this growing young population, it will be dangerous for the political stability on the continent,” said Rama Yade, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. “Because they will attack the institutions if they don’t have the means for living.”

Her vision, officials said, was a trip centered around youth, women and innovation, rather than the humanitarian assistance that often characterizes American perception of Africa.

It’s a vision that requires money, and the desire for investment was on full display during a state banquet Monday at Ghana’s presidential palace where Hollywood stars Spike Lee, Idris Elba and Rosario Dawson were among the attendees.

Although the atmosphere was festive, the message was all business. A large screen at the far end of the banquet tent showed a computer-generated animation of future development in Accra, a vision of a modern African metropolis.

“We’re encouraged by the fact that more American companies than ever are looking to invest in Ghana,” said President Nana Akufo-Addo. “And we will continue to create and maintain the conducive investment atmosphere that will not only guarantee the safety of their investments, but good returns on those investments as well.”

By diversifying the country’s economy beyond exporting natural resources, Akufo-Addo said, he envisioned “a Ghana beyond aid.”

Ghana is being squeezed by skyrocketing inflation and a bulging debt burden. Akufo-Addo noted the impact of “pernicious developments” such as the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We want to work together to change the African narrative, which has been characterized largely by a concentration on disease, hunger, poverty and illegal mass migration,” he said. “Together, we must help make Africa the place for investment, progress and prosperity.”

It’s a change that Harris is eager to help foster.

“While we face real challenges, I look around tonight and I am truly more optimistic than ever,” Harris said in her banquet toast. “And I know that by working together, the United States and Ghana, alongside the diaspora and the people of this beautiful continent, will share and share our future for the better.”

Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, joined the effort. He went to a girls basketball clinic and spoke with students at a town hall discussion with the cast of the local television series “You Only Live Once,” which addresses public health issues and other challenges facing Ghanaian youth.

Emhoff said the message was about “having confidence in yourself to know that you can do whatever you want to do in this world.”

But that hope for the future isn’t necessarily widespread.

Adwoa Brentuo, who graduated four years ago with a degree in information science, is one of many who fear their education was no help.

“I have now given up about getting a job because they are nonexistent,” she said. “I have also realized that writing applications have become a waste of time.”

Ghana’s minister of youth and sports, Mustapha Yussif, estimated that only 1 out of 10 college graduates gets a job.

“The rest will not be able to get any employment for a long time,” Yussif said.

It’s a problem across the continent. The African Development Bank estimates that there are on average about 11 million people entering the job market, while at the same time only about 3 million jobs are created.
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to announce Wednesday $1 billion in public and private financing for programs focused on economic empowerment of women as she wraps up a visit to Ghana. 

The funding will support expanding access to digital services, job training and support for entrepreneurs, her office said. 

Harris is holding a roundtable of women entrepreneurs Wednesday in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, before departing for Tanzania, the next leg of her weeklong Africa tour. 

Tuesday, Harris pledged a new era of partnership between the U.S. and Africa, emphasizing women’s empowerment, developing the digital economy and supporting democracy to 8,000 young Ghanaians who gathered under the punishing midday sun to hear her speak in Accra.    

Harris, the first Black female U.S. vice president, took the stage under the arch of Black Star gate, a sweeping seaside monument to Ghana’s 1957 independence from British colonial rule.    

“We are all in because there are longstanding ties between our people,” Harris said. “We have an intertwined history, some of which is painful and some of which is prideful and all of which we must acknowledge, teach and never forget.” 

After visiting Tanzania, Harris closes her trip with a stop in Zambia. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised women in Afghanistan and Iran for standing up for freedoms as he spoke Tuesday at an event highlighting the role of women in democracy. 

Blinken praised women who have protested in Iran in response to the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini last year, saying they have courageously demonstrated “under great threat to themselves, to call for ‘woman, life, and freedom.’” 

And in Afghanistan, Blinken said women are fighting for a better future in their country despite efforts by the Taliban “to erase them from daily life.” 

“The United States stands in solidarity with these women and all who are working for women’s full, free, and equal participation around the world. Through our diplomacy, we’re committed to supporting them and advancing gender equality worldwide,” Blinken said. 

The top U.S. diplomat said women face these challenges not only in autocracies, but also in far too many places where they lack equal opportunities to study and work. 

“Women journalists, advocates, politicians, and others are subject to persistent online harassment and abuse. Women who are victims of violence often do not have equal access to justice. Women are subject to discrimination that often puts them at a disadvantage – whether through double standards they face in the workplace, in access to reproductive rights, or in nationality laws, which can result in barriers to accessing education, health care, and property for themselves and for their families,” Blinken said. 
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The U.S. Justice Department is going on a hiring spree for immigration judges in hopes of easing an intractable case backlog. 

In its budget proposal for the fiscal year 2024 that starts October 1, the department is seeking $1.46 billion for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a subagency within the department tasked with adjudicating immigration claims.  

The request represents an increase of nearly 70% in funding and will enable the agency to hire 965 new judicial staff, including 150 new immigration judges, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in written testimony before a Senate appropriations subcommittee. 

“Then we’d be placing them in areas of the highest number of cases,” Garland said. 

In recent years, the agency has deployed newly hired immigration judges to Southwestern states to deal with an influx of migrants. 

In fiscal year 2023, Florida, Texas, California and New York had the largest number of pending immigration cases.  

There are currently about 600 immigration judges in the country, more than double from just a few years ago, handling more than 2 million cases.   

In addition to hiring more judges for immigration courts, Garland said, the Justice Department plans to expand virtual hearings at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a backlog reduction initiative. 

The attorney general made the comments during testimony on the Justice Department’s budget request of nearly $40 billion for the next fiscal year. 

The department’s proposal for additional judges and judicial staff comes as the number of pending claims in immigration courts continues to grow. 

Last year, the number of immigration cases topped more than 2 million, up from about 344,000 a decade ago, according to data compiled by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.  

The backlog has expanded even as immigration judges are adjudicating cases at a record pace, according to TRAC. 

“It suggests that may not be the answer that we were hoping for,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, chairwoman of the appropriations subcommittee, said.  

The “ultimate way” to ease the backlog, Shaheen said, is through comprehensive immigration reform, a goal that has long eluded lawmakers.  
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President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Republicans’ ideas for cutting the budget could undermine U.S. manufacturing and help China dominate the world economy. 

Speaking at a semiconductor maker in North Carolina to highlight his own policies, Biden is trying to shape public sentiment as he faces off with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., about raising the federal government’s legal borrowing capacity. 

McCarthy sent a letter to Biden on Tuesday saying that talks should start about possible spending cuts in return for the debt limit increase.  

Biden has said Republicans need to put forth their own budget plan before negotiations start. Without an agreement, the federal government could default on its financial obligations. 

The president tried to ratchet up pressure on Tuesday by saying that the GOP demands on the budget would only empower China, the country’s key geopolitical rival.  

Being tough on China has been a core part of the identity of former President Donald Trump, who is seeking to return to the White House in 2024, and his Make America Great Again movement. The Democratic president said Republican objections to his policies would instead strengthen China. 

“It would mean ceding the future of innovation and technology to China,” Biden told the crowd. “I’ve got news for you and for MAGA Republicans in Congress: not on my watch. We’re not going to let them undo all the progress we made.” 

Biden’s trip to Wolfspeed follows the Durham-based company announcing plans last September to build a $5 billion manufacturing facility in Chatham County that is expected to create 1,800 new jobs. The company is the world’s leading producer of silicon carbide chips. Biden had won passage last July of a $280 billion legislative package known as the CHIPS Act, which was intended to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry and scientific research. 

It’s nothing new for the Biden administration to highlight the CHIPS Act, the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, the $1 trillion infrastructure legislation and a roughly $375 billion climate bill — major legislation that the Democratic administration steered into law before Democrats lost control of the House. 

But now, just weeks after Biden unveiled his own budget — it includes $2.6 trillion in new spending — his administration is looking for chances to lean into its battle with Republicans over spending priorities and who has the better ideas to steward the U.S. economy in the years to come.  

Republicans have rejected Biden’s budget but have yet to unveil their own counteroffer to the Democrats’ blueprint, which is built around tax increases on the wealthy and a vision statement of sorts for Biden’s yet-to-be-declared campaign for reelection in 2024. 

His trip is part of a larger effort to draw attention to his policies, which have been overshadowed by high inflation. 

Besides Biden’s visit to Wolfspeed, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and other senior administration officials will fan out to 20 states over the next three weeks to highlight the impact of Biden’s economic agenda, according to the White House. 

Biden has said he intends to run for a second term but has yet to formally launch his reelection campaign. 

His effort to highlight legislative victories could also give him an opportunity to present voters with images of an administration focused on governing as Trump braces for a possible indictment over alleged hush money payments made during his 2016 campaign. 

Trump narrowly won North Carolina in 2020. Among the other states that Biden and administration officials will be visiting in the weeks ahead are Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin — crucial battlegrounds that Biden won in 2020 and states expected to be competitive again in 2024. 
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More than a year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Justice Department task force set up to enforce U.S. sanctions on Russia continues to seize and forfeit assets owned by Russian oligarchs.

To date, the effort has resulted in roughly $1 billion worth of assets that have been seized and are subject to forfeiture.

But in the longer term, said Task Force KleptoCapture director Andrew Adams, the “more impactful” cases would target third-party actors involved in helping Russia dodge sanctions: money laundering facilitators, professional sanctions evaders and export control evasion networks.

In an interview with VOA’s Ukrainian Service, Adams, who is also acting deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, discusses his team’s major accomplishments, as well as efforts to use proceeds of seized Russian assets for Ukrainian reconstruction, using newly granted congressional authority.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

VOA: In March of last year, Attorney General Merrick Garland launched KleptoCapture and appointed you as the director of this task force. Could you talk about your goals and achievements during this first year?

Andrew Adams, Task Force KleptoCapture director: The task force kicked off immediately after the full-scale invasion. By early March we had set up a group of attorneys, prosecutors, agents, analysts, specialists from around the U.S. government to focus on two key priorities. The first was a short-term rush for seizure and the beginning of forfeiture proceedings aimed at large expensive and movable assets, the yachts, the airplanes and the like.

At the same time, we knew that over the long term, the more impactful cases would ultimately be aimed at money laundering facilitators, professional sanctions evaders and export control, evasion networks.

VOA: In December when talking to VOA, you addressed the total approximate amount of foreign seized funds, both domestically and internationally. It was up to $40 billion. What portion of that is attributable to KleptoCapture?

Adams: So, to focus on what the Department of Justice brings to the table here, which is seizure and forfeiture pursuant to judicial warrants, pursuant to forfeiture actions in court, that number is roughly $1 billion worth of assets. There are warrants that are executed on airplanes. We’re talking about the yachts that have been seized. We’re talking about real property in the form of condos and luxury property around the United States, as well as bank accounts, securities holdings and the like.

Beyond that, you are getting into the realm of what our Treasury Department, our State Department, our Commerce Department and our foreign partners can do with their blocking powers, which can go significantly beyond what the Department of Justice can seize and forfeit.

VOA: In February, a New York judge ruled that U.S. prosecutors may forfeit $5.4 million belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, and these funds may be used to help rebuild Ukraine. But recently, a U.S.-based Russian lawyer filed a claim against these funds. Do you expect the transfer to go through despite the legal challenges?

Adams: The funds that are now authorized to be transferred are $5.4 million. The period for putting in a claim passed without incident. And now those are free and clear to be given to the Department of State following the period for an appeal to pass. We fully expect that it will occur. And at that point the Department of State, working with our friends in Ukraine, will determine the best place for those funds to go. It is an example, I think, of a real success story from the last year, although $5.4 million is a drop in the bucket of the amount of harm that this war has caused Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. It’s a symbol of what can be done through judicial processes that respect due process, that respect third-party rights, that are in full conformity with our Constitution, and with international law.

VOA: And how many cases are close to adjudication?

Adams: The number of investigations that we have going at any given point is in the dozens. The way that we approach all of those is to think about the forfeiture possibilities. At this point, we have filed the Malofeyev action, which is essentially finished — it’s on appeal. There are roughly a half dozen different criminal cases that we filed in the late part of last year, as well as a civil forfeiture action against a set of real property, targeting about $75 million worth of property tied to Viktor Vekselberg.

VOA: Could you shed light on the role of international cooperation?

Adams: In terms of international cooperation, we operate in almost every case with significant international support. We’ve executed arrests in Estonia and Latvia, in Germany, in Italy, in Spain and elsewhere. We’ve made seizures in a number of countries around the world, including in some jurisdictions that are not traditionally viewed as the closest allies of the United States.

VOA: In December, Congress passed legislation giving the DOJ authority to direct the forfeited funds to the State Department for the purpose of providing aid to Ukraine. Could you talk about the importance of that decision?

Adams: It’s an incredibly important piece of legislation. As a legal matter it paves the way for us to make these transfers in a way that we can’t do very easily without this new authority. So, that was critically important – that the driving motivation for all of these cases at the end of the day is to give assistance to Ukraine. As a symbolic matter, it demonstrates both at home but also to our partners in Europe and elsewhere that there are means and mechanisms for providing exactly this kind of assistance to Ukraine through forfeiture.

VOA: The task force and broader international sanctions regime imposed a certain level of discomfort for some Kremlin-aligned oligarchs. Do you believe those sanctioned oligarchs’ voices matter to the Kremlin?

Adams: In addition to some public outcry even from people formerly close to the Kremlin, there are effects that go far beyond the specific oligarchs that come from the sanctions regimes and come from vigorous enforcement of the sanctions regimes. The effect that this has on financial institutions, on insurance companies, on aviation or maritime companies — in a way that has a material effect on the Russian war machine and the Kremlin’s ability to fund this war.
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A federal judge has ruled that former Vice President Mike Pence will have to testify before a grand jury in the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Two people familiar with the ruling spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because it remains under seal.

The two sources said, however, that Pence would not have to answer questions about his actions on January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump’s supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress to certify the vote.

Pence and his attorneys had cited constitutional grounds in challenging the subpoena. They argued that, because he was serving in his capacity as president of the Senate that day, he was protected from being forced to testify under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from questioning about official legislative acts.

Pence’s team is evaluating whether it will appeal.

The sealed ruling from U.S. District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg sets up the unprecedented scenario of a former vice president being compelled to give potentially damaging testimony against the president he once served. And it comes as Pence has been inching closer to announcing a run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, which would put him in direct competition with his former boss.

Pence was subpoenaed earlier this year to appear before the grand jury in Washington investigating election interference.

A Justice Department special counsel, Jack Smith, is investigating attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election to keep Trump in power. Multiple Trump aides have already appeared before the grand jury, as well as another panel examining Trump’s potential mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.

Pence has spoken extensively about Trump’s pressure campaign urging him to reject President Joe Biden’s victory in the days leading up to January 6, including in his book, “So Help Me God.” Pence, as vice president, had a ceremonial role overseeing the counting of the Electoral College vote, but did not have the power to impact the results.

Pence has said that Trump endangered his family and everyone else who was at the Capitol that day and said history will hold him accountable.
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Ford Motor Company’s plan to create batteries for the rapidly expanding electric vehicle (EV) market could encounter congressional speed bumps because of the carmaker’s plan to use technology created by a Chinese company with ties to the communist government.

Ford executive chairman William Clay Ford Jr. announced in February that the company would spend $3.5 billion to build a new battery plant in Michigan and employ U.S. workers to promote U.S. “independence” in the EV market.

“Right now, many [U.S.] automakers import most of their batteries from abroad,” Ford said at that time. “This is a slow process that makes us vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.”

He added that the U.S.-produced batteries would “charge faster” and be “more affordable” and “incredibly durable.”

But the news did not sit well with some lawmakers, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who opposed President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included tax credits to encourage domestic EV production.

Earlier this month, Rubio introduced legislation blocking tax credits for producing EV batteries using Chinese technology and called on the Biden administration to review Ford’s partnership with the company, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL).

“Nine billion to help people buy tax credits,” Rubio said. “By the way, with a Chinese battery in it. … I imagine we’ll spend a bunch more money to buy solar panels which are also made in China.”

In a Skype interview last week with VOA, China expert Jonathan Ward said “the White House has already called for a supply chain review that would cover essentially next generation batteries, critical minerals and rare earths, pharma and other biotechs.”

“We’re in the midst of this competition for supply chain security and industrial capacity where relying on our primary geopolitical adversary is really untenable in the long run,” he said.

Ward has authored two books outlining China’s economic, military and political goals. He said decades of outsourcing technology and manufacturing has left the United States with little choice but to work with Chinese companies like CATL to advance domestic EV development.

“Essentially 60% of the battery market is made up of Chinese corporations,” he said. “CATL, the battery maker in question here, is already 34% of global market share. The other companies are Japanese and South Korean, but they are smaller than the aggregate Chinese battery makers. So, we have this contest that we are going to have to deal with.”

Sarah Bauerle Danzman, an associate professor in international studies at Indiana University Bloomington, said since the U.S. currently “doesn’t have the capability” to produce EV batteries, “what is the theory of change that helps us get to that capacity?”

“Then the question becomes, are we becoming overly reliant or staying reliant on technology that ultimately the Chinese government controls rather than the U.S.?” she said.

From 2019 to 2020, Danzman was a policy adviser and case analyst with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) at the State Department’s Office of Investment Affairs. She led the unit that reviews foreign investment transactions for possible national security concerns.

Rubio wants CFIUS to review Ford and CATL’s licensing agreement.

“Rubio is really focused on this idea that we don’t want to be dependent on Chinese technology,” she explained to VOA last week via a Skype interview. “The U.S. government coming in and changing those structures is a big imposition on the private sector, so there really does need to be a strong argument for why it needs to do so.”

“I think a lot of companies are going to find themselves in situations like this where Chinese partnerships [are] coming back to haunt us here,” said Ward. “I think our companies that have been entangled in the China market all have to reassess what they are doing.”

In its response to Rubio’s proposed legislation, Ford said its own subsidiary will build and operate the new battery plant in Michigan, and that “no other entity will get U.S. tax dollars for this project.”

During February’s announcement, Ford CEO Jim Farley said the proposed BlueOval Battery Park Michigan meets goals outlined by the Biden administration.

“We’re growing production of batteries here at home, reflecting the central purpose of the Inflation Reduction Act — that’s why it was passed, for this project,” Farley said.

Ford’s plans for the new Michigan facility come as the auto manufacturer reported more than $2 billion in operating losses in EV-related business in 2022.
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to pledge a new era of partnership with Africa as she speaks Tuesday at the Black Star Gate in Ghana’s capital.

The address comes on the second full day of her weeklong trip to Africa.

Her schedule Tuesday also includes a visit to Cape Coast Castle, a place where enslaved Africans were once loaded on ships headed to the Americas.

Harris Monday pledged stressed that U.S. interests in African nations extend beyond competing with China.

She spoke Monday at Jubilee House, seat of Ghana’s presidency, alongside Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.

“To help address the threats of violent extremism and instability, today I am pleased to announce $100 million in support of Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo,” she said. “Last week, President Joe Biden announced a strategic plan for coastal West Africa as part of the United States Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability. Today, funding and the announcement that I’ve just made will help implement that plan and will address security, governance and development issues in the region.”

Harris also said Monday that the U.S. will commit more than $139 million in assistance, most of which will support conflict prevention in the Sahel region, where Islamist extremists have expanded their footprint.

Harris is the fifth top U.S. official to visit the continent this year, and she deflected criticism that the U.S. sees African nations through the lens of its own competition with China, which has built massive infrastructure projects and loaned billions of dollars to African nations in what many see as a fight for influence and access.

“The president and I had a conversation on this very topic, but the conversation was not about China as much as it is about the enduring and important direct relationship that the United States has with Ghana and with African nations,” she said. “I will tell you that we are very clear — and I will speak for myself and on behalf of the Biden-Harris administration — that the relationship between the United States and this continent and African leaders is an important one. There’s a historical basis for the relationship, not to mention as we look forward, as all governments should, and recognize the unachieved — as of yet — opportunities that exist going forward.”

Akufo-Addo agreed.

“There may be an obsession in America about the Chinese activities on the continent, but there’s no such obsession here,” he said. “China is one of the many countries with whom Ghana is engaged in the world. Your country is one of them. Virtually all the countries of the world are friends of Ghana, and we have relations in varying degrees of intensity with all of them. Our relationship with America is a relationship that has been forged over several decades, right from the time of independence up till now.”

Harris also toured some of Accra’s vibrant arts scene, visiting a skateboard park and recording studio. Tagging along for the ride was actor Idris Elba, who spoke to journalists.

“I think this is a great, significant signal for the VP to come to Ghana, to come to Africa and be that interface and, you know, to show the rest of the world that actually it’s a fantastic place to sort of look at in terms of partnership and investment,” he said.

Harris travels on from Ghana to Tanzania, with another stop on her trip in Zambia.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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The U.S. government will restrict its use of commercial spyware tools that have been used to surveil human rights activists, journalists and dissidents around the world, under an executive order issued Monday by President Joe Biden. 

The order responds to growing U.S. and global concerns about programs that can capture text messages and other cellphone data. Some programs — so-called “zero-click” exploits — can infect a phone without the user clicking on a malicious link. 

Governments around the world — including the U.S. — are known to collect large amounts of data for intelligence and law enforcement purposes, including communications from their own citizens. The proliferation of commercial spyware has made powerful tools newly available to smaller countries, but also created what researchers and human-rights activists warn are opportunities for abuse and repression. 

The White House released the executive order in advance of its second summit for democracy this week. The order “demonstrates the United States’ leadership in, and commitment to, advancing technology for democracy, including by countering the misuse of commercial spyware and other surveillance technology,” the White House said in a statement. 

Biden’s order, billed as a prohibition on using commercial spyware “that poses risks to national security,” allows for some exceptions. 

The order will require the head of any U.S. agency using commercial programs to certify that the program doesn’t pose a significant counterintelligence or other security risk, a senior administration official said. 

Among the factors that will be used to determine the level of security risk is if a foreign actor has used the program to monitor U.S. citizens without legal authorization or surveil human rights activists and other dissidents. 

“It is intended to be a high bar but also includes remedial steps that can be taken … in which a company may argue that their tool has not been misused,” said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under White House ground rules. 

The White House will not publish a list of banned programs as part of the executive order, the official said. 

John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab who has long studied spyware, credited the Biden administration for trying to set new global standards for the industry. 

“Most spyware companies see selling to the U.S. as their eventual exit path,” Scott-Railton said. “The issue is the U.S. until now hasn’t really wielded its purchasing power to push the industry to do better.” 

Congress last year required U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate foreign use of spyware and gave the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the power to ban any agency from using commercial programs. 

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a committee hearing last year that commercial spyware posed a “very serious threat to our democracy and to democracies around the world.” He said Monday the new order should be followed by other democracies taking steps against spyware. 

“It’s a very powerful statement and a good tool, but alone it won’t do the trick,” he said. 

Perhaps the best-known example of spyware, the Pegasus software from Israel’s NSO Group, was used to target more than 1,000 people across 50 countries, according to security researchers and a July 2021 global media investigation, citing a list of more than 50,000 cellphone numbers. The U.S. has already placed export limits on NSO Group, restricting the company’s access to U.S. components and technology. 

Officials would not say if U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies currently use any commercial spyware. The FBI last year confirmed it had purchased NSO Group’s Pegasus tool “for product testing and evaluation only,” and not for operational purposes or to support any investigation. 

White House officials said Monday they believe 50 devices used by U.S. government employees, across 10 countries, had been compromised or targeted by commercial spyware. 

Despite NSO’s assertions that the program is supposed to be used to counter terrorism and crime, researchers found the numbers of more than 180 journalists, 600 politicians and government officials, and 85 human rights activists. 

Pegasus use was most commonly linked to Mexico and countries in the Middle East. Amnesty International has alleged Pegasus was installed on the phone of Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée just four days before the journalist was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. NSO has denied the allegation that its software was used in connection with Khashoggi’s murder. 

The family of Paul Rusesabagina, credited with saving more than 1,200 lives during the Rwandan genocide, a story depicted in the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” has also alleged it was targeted by spyware. Rusesabagina was lured back to Rwanda under false pretenses and jailed on terrorism charges before his release last week. Rwanda has denied using commercial spyware. 
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