Month: December 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. presidential candidate Nikki Haley faced a firestorm of criticism Thursday after failing to mention slavery as a cause of the American Civil War when asked what led to the conflict at a campaign event.

Less than three weeks before voting begins in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, it was the first major stumble for a candidate whose campaign has seen her propelled from an unlikely outsider to front-runner Donald Trump’s biggest threat.

The former U.N. ambassador told a town hall crowd Wednesday in Berlin, New Hampshire, that the cause of the bloody 1861-65 war was “basically how the government was going to run” and “freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.”

She added that “it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are.”

Apparently caught off guard, she turned the question back at the questioner, who responded that he was not the one running for president and that it was “astonishing” that slavery had not come up in her answer.

Scholars agree that slavery was the main driver of the Civil War, and Haley’s obfuscation prompted swift rebuttals.

“It was about slavery,” President Joe Biden said, responding on social media to video footage of the town hall.

Haley, 51, attempted to clear up her comments in a local radio interview Thursday in New Hampshire, affirming that “of course the Civil War was about slavery, that’s the easy part.”

She accused the town hall questioner — who refused to identify himself to reporters — of being a “Democratic plant” sent to damage her campaign and boost Trump, who is considered by many to be a weaker prospect against Biden in the general election.

Trump commands a lead of more than 20 points in polling for New Hampshire’s January 23 primary, but Haley has been gaining ground — overtaking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the former president’s biggest threat.

DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo called Haley’s clarification “embarrassing.”

“If she can’t handle a question as basic as the cause of the Civil War, what does she think is going to happen to her in a general election. The Democrats would eat her lunch,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The Florida governor, who is a distant second behind Trump in nationwide primary polling, has sparked controversy in his own state over the teaching of race, a delicate issue that divides Americans.

Trump himself has been berated on both sides of the political divide and accused of echoing Adolf Hitler for remarks about undocumented migrants “poisoning the blood” of the nation.

Haley, who has a history of stirring controversy on America’s Confederate past, raised eyebrows over her views on the Civil War during her successful run for South Carolina governor in 2010.

Characterizing the conflict as a fight between “tradition” and “change,” she told a private meeting of Confederate heritage groups there were “passions on different sides.”

She was praised in 2015 when she signed legislation removing the Confederate flag from the State House after a white supremacist killed nine people at a church in Charleston.

But she had vowed to leave the flag up during her election campaign, arguing that “every state has different conditions, and every state has certain things that they hold as part of their heritage.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said her latest remarks were “not stunning” to any Black residents of South Carolina during her term in office.

“Some may have forgotten but I haven’t. Time to take off the rose-colored Nikki Haley glasses folks,” he said.
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Yuma, Arizona — As the world pivots from planet-warming fossil fuels to renewable energy, a new pollution problem is rearing its head: What to do with old or worn-out solar panels? 

Thousands of photovoltaic slabs are being installed across the United States every day, particularly in the sunny west and south of the country, as states like California race to toward greener energy production. 

But with an expected lifespan of around 30 years, the first wave of solar installations is now coming to the end of its usefulness, sparking a rush to recycle things that might otherwise end up in the landfill. 

“What is about to happen is a tsunami of solar panels coming back into the supply chain,” said Adam Saghei, chief executive of Arizona-based We Recycle Solar. 

“One of the challenges with any industry is, there hasn’t been that much planning for a circular economy,” he said. “(Solar) is a sustainable form of energy; there needs to be a plan for the retirement of those assets.” 

Saghei’s plan involves, among other things, reusing panels. 

Up to 5% of panels either have a minor production defect or get damaged during transport or installation. 

These still-working panels can be refurbished and diverted to other markets, often abroad, Saghei said. 

But for the panels that no longer function, either because they’re decrepit, or because they were damaged beyond use during installation, or smashed by hailstones, there’s treasure to be found. 

“We’re doing what’s called urban mining,” Saghei said, referring to a process that took his engineers three years to perfect. 

That mining recovers silver, copper, aluminum, glass and silicone, all commodities that have a value on the open market. 

While the uses for the metals might be obvious, what to do with silicone and glass is less so, but nonetheless intriguing. 

“You can use it for sand traps on golf courses, you can refine it for sandblast mix, you can also use it for the stones or the glass mix that you get for outdoor fireplaces,” Saghei said. 

With the capacity to process up to 7,500 panels every day at the plant in Yuma, a surprisingly small amount goes to waste. 

“Depending on the make and model of the panels … we’re able to get up to 99 percent recovery rate,” he said. 

Logistics challenges

For Meng Tao, who specializes in sustainable energy infrastructure at Arizona State University, developing an efficient lifecycle for solar panels is a pressing issue. 

With the United States among the countries committed to weaning itself off of fossil fuels, solar panel installation looks set to increase and peak two decades from now. 

“Once it matures, then the annual installation and the decommissioning will be about the same,” he told AFP.  

“But for the next 20 years … at least for the next 10 years … we’ll just have more installations than retirements,” he said. 

The problem with recycling, he said, is not just that the value of recovered materials from panels can be relatively low, but also the logistics. 

With panels distributed to thousands of sometimes far-flung rooftops, it can cost a lot of money just to get them to a recycling center. 

And unlike some jurisdictions, the United States imposes the cost of removal and recycling on the end user, making it more attractive for households just to dump their old units at the local landfill. 

“There has to be some policy support” to plug the gap between what consumers will pay and the total lifecycle cost of the panels, Tao said. 

Growing market

For Saghei, as for any business leader, profitability is important. 

“You don’t see too many getting into the business because recycling has a cost. It’s not free. It’s labor intensive. It’s energy intensive,” he said. 

But he does see a way forward. 

Recovering materials from old solar panels that can be put back into new solar panels is — he is convinced — a winning proposition. 

“These are markets that are growing,” he said. 

“Right through this process we are able, once the industry scales to even larger figures, to put those raw commodities back into the supply chain,” he said. “What’s exciting is we’re at the forefront.” 
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The U.S. has a strong First Amendment foundation, but its limits were tested in 2023. The year saw raids, searches and subpoenas — often directed at local media — that some advocates have flagged as troublesome. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story, for Liam Scott. VOA footage by Saqib Ul Islam and Afshean Hessam.
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DENVER — Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert announced Wednesday she is switching congressional districts, avoiding a likely rematch against a Democrat who has far outraised her and following an embarrassing moment of groping and vaping that shook even loyal supporters.

In a Facebook video Wednesday evening, Boebert announced she would enter the crowded Republican primary in retiring Rep. Ken Buck’s seat in the eastern side of the state, leaving the more competitive 3rd District seat she barely won last year — and which she was in peril of losing next year as some in her party have soured on her controversial style.

Boebert implied in the video that her departure from the district would help Republicans retain the seat, saying, “I will not allow dark money that is directed at destroying me personally to steal this seat. It’s not fair to the 3rd District and the conservatives there who have fought so hard for our victories.”

“The Aspen donors, George Soros and Hollywood actors that are trying to buy this seat, well they can go pound sand,” she said.

Boebert called it “a fresh start,” acknowledging the rough year following a divorce with her husband and video of her misbehaving with a date at a performance of the musical Beetlejuice in Denver. The scandal in September rocked some of her faithful supporters, who saw it as a transgression of conservative, Christian values and for which Boebert apologized at events throughout her district.

She already faced a primary challenge in her district, as well as a general election face-off with Democrat Adam Frisch, a former Aspen city council member who came within a few hundred votes of beating her in 2022. A rematch was expected, with Frisch raising at least $7.7 million to Boebert’s $2.4 million.

Instead, if Boebert wins the primary to succeed Buck she will run in the state’s most conservative district, which former President Donald Trump won by about 20 percentage points in 2020, in contrast to his margin of about 8 percentage points in her district. While it’s not required that a representative live in the congressional district they represent, only the state the district is in, Boebert said she would be moving — a shift from Colorado’s western Rocky Mountain peaks and high desert mesas to its eastern expanse of prairie grass and ranching enclaves.

In 2022, Frisch’s campaign found support in the conservative district from unaffiliated voters and Republicans who’d defected over Boebert’s brash, Trumpian style. In this election, Frisch’s campaign had revived the slogan “stop the circus” and framed Frisch as the “pro-normal” alternative to Boebert’s more partisan politics.

In a statement after Boebert’s announcement, Frisch said he’s prepared for whoever will be the Republican candidate.

“From Day 1 of this race, I have been squarely focused on defending rural Colorado’s way of life, and offering common sense solutions to the problems facing the families of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.” he said. “My focus will remain the same.”

The Republican primary candidate who has raised the second most behind Boebert in the 3rd District, Jeff Hurd, is a more traditional Republican candidate. Hurd has already garnered support from prominent Republicans in the district, first reported by VailDaily.

Boebert rocked the political world by notching a surprise primary win against the incumbent Republican congressman in the 3rd District in 2020 when she ran a gun-themed restaurant in the town of Rifle, Colorado. She then tried to enter the U.S. Capitol carrying a pistol and began to feud with prominent liberal Democrats like Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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MEXICO CITY — A top U.S. delegation is meeting with Mexico’s president Wednesday in what many see as an attempt to have Mexico do more to limit a surge of migrants reaching the U.S. southwestern border. 

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he’s willing to help, but he wants to see progress in U.S. relations with Cuba and Venezuela, two of the top sources of migrants, along with more development aid for the region. 

“We have always talked about addressing the causes [of migration]. The ideal thing is to help poor countries,” Lopez Obrador said before the meeting. 

Both sides in the talks face pressure to reach an agreement after past steps like limiting direct travel into Mexico or deporting some migrants failed to stop the influx. This month, as many as 10,000 migrants were arrested daily at the southwest U.S. border. 

The U.S. has struggled to process thousands of migrants at the border, and house them once they reach northern cities. Mexican industries were stung last week when the U.S. briefly closed two vital Texas railway crossings, arguing that border patrol agents had to be reassigned to deal with the surge. Another non-rail border crossing remained closed in Lukeville, Arizona, and operations were partially suspended in San Diego and Nogales, Arizona. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken left open the possibility that those crossings could be reopened if Mexico provides more help. 

“Secretary Blinken will discuss unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere and identify ways Mexico and the United States will address border security challenges, including actions to enable the reopening of key ports of entry across our shared border,” his office said. 

Mexico says it detected 680,000 migrants moving through the country in the first 11 months of 2023. 

Mexico has assigned over 32,000 military troops and National Guard officers — about 11% of its total forces — to enforce immigration laws, and the National Guard now detains far more migrants than criminals. 

But the shortcomings of that approach were on display Tuesday, when National Guard officers made no attempt to stop a caravan of about 6,000 migrants, many from Central America and Venezuela, from walking through Mexico’s main inland immigration inspection point in southern Chiapas state near the Guatemala border. 

In the past, Mexico has let such caravans go through, trusting that they would tire themselves out walking along the highway. 

By Wednesday, Lazara Padron Molina, 46, from Cuba was sick and exhausted. The caravan set out December 24 from the city of Tapachula and had walked about 45 miles (75 kilometers) through the heat to Escuintla in southern Chiapas state. 

“The route is too long to continue walking. Why don’t they just give us documents so that we could get a bus or a taxi?” Padron Molina said. “Look at my feet,” she said, showing blisters. “I can’t go on anymore.” 

But wearing the migrants out — by obliging Venezuelans and others to hike through the jungle-clad Darien Gap, or corralling migrants off passenger buses in Mexico — no longer appears to work. 

So many migrants have been hopping freight trains through Mexico that one of the country’s two major railroad companies suspended trains in September because of safety concerns. Police raids to pull migrants off railway cars — the kind of action Mexico took a decade ago — might be one thing the American delegation would like to see. 

A few blocks from Mexico City’s main plaza — where Blinken will meet with Lopez Obrador at the National Palace — migrants stayed at an improvised shelter at a church, gathering strength before continuing north. 

David Pena, his two daughters and his pregnant wife, Maryeris Zerpa, hoped to reach the United States before the child is born in about a month. 

“The goal is to cross over so the baby will be born there,” Pena said. But with no asylum appointment, he had no idea how the family will enter. 

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall also are attending the meeting. 

The U.S. has shown that one country’s problems on the border quickly become both countries’ problems. The Texas railway closures put a chokehold on freight moving from Mexico to the U.S., as well as grain needed to feed Mexican livestock moving south. 

Lopez Obrador confirmed last week that U.S. officials want Mexico to do more to block migrants at its southern border with Guatemala, or make it more difficult to move across Mexico by train or in trucks or buses, a policy known as “contention.” 

But the president said that in exchange he wanted the United States to send more development aid to migrants’ home countries, and to reduce or eliminate sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela. 

“We are going to help, as we always do,” Lopez Obrador said. “Mexico is helping reach agreements with other countries, in this case Venezuela.” He said Mexico has proposed to President Joe Biden that a U.S.-Cuba bilateral dialogue be opened. 

In May, Mexico agreed to take in migrants from countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who had been turned away by the U.S. for not following rules that provided new legal pathways to asylum and other forms of migration. 
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Every December 31, New Yorkers and tourists alike flock to the Big Apple’s Times Square for the New Year’s Eve celebration. Elena Wolf had a look at how the city prepares for the big event in this story narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Max Avloshenko and Elena Matusovsky.
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LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s Supreme Court is keeping former President Donald Trump on the state’s primary election ballot.

The court said Wednesday it will not hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling from groups seeking to keep Trump from appearing on the ballot.

The state’s high court said in an order that the application by parties to appeal a Dec. 14 Michigan appeals court judgment was considered, but denied “because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court.”

The ruling followed a Dec. 19 decision by a divided Colorado Supreme Court which found Trump ineligible to be president because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. That ruling was the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.

The Michigan and Colorado cases are among dozens hoping to keep Trump’s name off state ballots. They all point to the so-called insurrection clause that prevents anyone from holding office who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution.

Trump pressed two election officials in Michigan’s Wayne County not to certify 2020 vote totals, according to a recording of a post-election phone call disclosed in a Dec. 22 report by The Detroit News. The former president ‘s 2024 campaign has neither confirmed nor denied the recording’s legitimacy.

Attorneys for Free Speech for People, a liberal nonprofit group also involved in efforts to keep Trump’s name off the primary ballot in Minnesota, had asked Michigan’s Supreme Court to render its decision by Christmas Day.

The group argued that time was “of the essence” due to “the pressing need to finalize and print the ballots for the presidential primary election.”

Earlier this month, Michigan’s high court refused to immediately hear an appeal, saying the case should remain before the appeals court.

Free Speech for People had sued to force Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to bar Trump from Michigan’s ballot. But a Michigan Court of Claims judge rejected their arguments, saying in November that it was the proper role of Congress to decide the question.
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The COVID-19 pandemic affected students around the world, disrupting their studies and weakening their social skills. But the pandemic did generate some positive outcomes, say college counselors and international students who are back to in-person learning in the United States. VOA’s Laurel Bowman explores. Camera: Adam Greenbaum and Saqib Ul Islam.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — On Dec. 28, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act. “Nothing,” he said, “is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed.” 

The powerful new law charged the federal government with saving every endangered plant and animal in America and enjoyed nearly unanimous bipartisan support.

The Act was so sweeping that, in retrospect, it was bound to become controversial, especially since it allowed species to be listed as endangered without consideration for the economic consequences. In that way it pitted two American values against each other: the idea that Americans should preserve their incredible natural resources (the United States invented the national park, after all) and the notion that capitalism was king and private property inviolate.

Left to navigate this minefield was a group of young biologists in Washington — the first Office of Endangered Species.

The snail darter 

Ichthyologist Jim Williams, the office’s first “fish guy,” was hired in 1974. He describes his cohort as “a bunch of conservation-minded biologists that were all on a mission to save every last one of our chosen group of organisms come hell or high water, and, by the way, to hell with the bureaucrats and politicians.”

His unconventional attitude and methods soon became apparent with the listing of the snail darter, a little fish now so notorious it has become synonymous with government overreach. At the time, it was only known to exist in the Little Tennessee River — which the Tennessee Valley Authority was planning to dam.

“I started talking about listing it, and boy, oh boy, did the crap hit the fan,” Williams says. 

His boss told him the listing was so controversial it might spell the end of the Endangered Species Act. It didn’t. But the law would never again enjoy the support of its earliest days. Whether the government should try to save all species from extinction, or if not, where to draw the line, became a point of conflict that has never been fully resolved.

‘Save Ken Dodd and Rattlesnakes’ 

Herpetologist Ken Dodd was recruited to the office in 1976.

“There was not a whole lot of conservation theory at the time to draw on,” he says. “So we were really at the cutting edge of determining what is necessary for conservation.”

Like Williams, Dodd regularly butted heads with administrators. He also followed the science where it led without thought for whom it might inconvenience. But the thing that actually got him fired — in 1979 — was not a listing but a letter.

A man named Dominique D’Ermo owned a Washington restaurant that was serving rattlesnake meat he said came from Pennsylvania. That would have violated a law called the Lacey Act. “So I wrote to the restaurant and said, ‘Hey, Dominique, I think you need to get a better source,’” Dodd says. 

It turned out Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus was a patron. When he learned what Dodd had done, “He fired me.” 

Dodd hired an attorney. Meanwhile, according to Williams, “We all went down to a T-shirt shop, got shirts that said ‘Save Ken Dodd and Rattlesnakes’.”

The ensuing publicity made an impact. Soon, Dodd was back at work.

Gray wolf season

Mammologist Ron Nowak joined the office in 1973. The animals he was responsible for were often furry and charismatic, but he still had problems with his listings.

In the 1980s the gray wolf was coming back in Minnesota from “just a tiny remnant of a couple hundred animals to maybe several hundred or a thousand” thanks to the Endangered Species Act. Wildlife officials wanted to open a hunting season. That would require a regulation showing it would benefit the wolves and was the only way to control their population.

“They told me, ‘You have to write the regulation,’” Nowak says. “And I said, ‘It would be illegal.’”

Someone else wrote the regulation. Conservation groups sued, calling Nowak as a witness. The conservation groups won.

Nowak’s success may have made him overconfident, he said, because he then sought outside help that forced the agency to move on a stalled listing for the Louisiana black bear, the inspiration for the original teddy bear. By late 1987, his unit had been “dismembered” and he was reassigned. 

Today, Nowak has nothing but praise for his colleagues.

“They wanted to show a true reflection of that part of the natural world that was in danger of disappearing,” he says. “You could go there at night or on weekends, and they’d be there, not for any extra pay, but just because they believed in it. 

“And you could find them out in the field, sometimes, actually going to just try to look for these animals and plants. Really, I think it was a unique place — one that we may never see again.”

Climate change and the California condor

LaVerne Smith was hired in 1978 as a botanist, but her title and duties shifted over a long career. 

When Smith started, “The agency was just getting hiring people, getting staffed up, trying to figure out what to do with this amazing new piece of legislation,” she says.

One of the early decisions was whether to bring the last of the critically endangered California condor s into captivity for breeding. It was controversial, but it worked. 

“They’re out sailing around the Grand Canyon. And I think anyone who’s seen one — the day I saw one sail over the Grand Canyon, I was like, ‘Oh my God! That was all worth it.’”

Smith later transferred to Alaska, where she led the listing for the polar bear, the first animal to be listed as endangered because of climate change.

“That is a whole new era of challenge for the agency,” she says. 

Smith calls it “terrifying” but tries to remain hopeful.

“People were very worried that we would never be able to do anything for the condor,” she says. “Certainly it still requires a lot of protection and a lot of help, but it’s still out there.”

The boss 

John Spinks, an early chief of the Office of Endangered Species, was aware that some of his staff would make end runs around the bureaucracy. 

At one point there was a particular listing that was being blocked by Interior Department attorneys. He wrote a memorandum about the problems that got leaked to the Washington Post and “caused all hell to break loose,” he says.

“Of course, we were as clean as the driven snow. There was nothing that would ever come back to us. That was many years ago, but I still think about that with great satisfaction.”

 
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Beijing — China’s foreign ministry said it had sanctioned Kharon, a U.S. firm founded by former Treasury Department officials that provides data to companies on alleged forced labor in the Xinjiang region to help them comply with U.S. laws.

The foreign ministry said on Tuesday it would take “countermeasures” against Kharon and its director of investigations for providing “so-called evidence for America’s illegal sanctions related to Xinjiang.”

In response, Los-Angeles based Kharon said it had no presence in China, so the action was “largely symbolic” and would not impact its operations or ability to service its clients.

“In service of our clients and all global businesses that seek to implement leading risk management programs, Kharon will continue to provide research and data analytics that is objective, independent, and based on reliable sources,” it said in a statement.

A former researcher of the U.S.-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies will also be subject to sanctions.

The affected individuals will be banned from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau, and the property of Kharon in China will be frozen, the ministry said.

Kharon said companies depend on its forced labor data to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).

The act was signed into U.S. law in 2021 to deny entry to goods from listed companies originating from the Chinese region of Xinjiang unless they can prove they were not produced with or tied to forced labor.

The United States this month curbed imports from three more Chinese firms including Sichuan Jingweida Technology Group, previously found by Kharon to have participated in labor transfers in 2017 in which thousands of workers were sent to work at various production facilities.

U.S. officials say they believe Chinese authorities have established labor camps for Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang. Beijing denies any abuses.

The Xinjiang-related sanctions are based on “lies” and “false narratives,” according to Beijing, which says the U.S. is bent on undermining Xinjiang’s stability and curbing China’s development.

 
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DENVER — Police said Tuesday they are investigating incidents directed at Colorado Supreme Court justices and providing extra patrols around their homes in Denver following the court’s decision to remove former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot.

The Denver Police Department declined in an email to provide details about its investigations, citing safety and privacy considerations and because they are ongoing.

The department “is currently investigating incidents directed at Colorado Supreme Court justices and will continue working with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to thoroughly investigate any reports of threats or harassment,” the email said.

Officers responded to the home of one justice on Thursday evening, but police said it appeared to be a hoax report. That case is also being investigated, police said.

The FBI said it is working with local law enforcement on the matter.

“We will vigorously pursue investigations of any threat or use of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions regardless of motivation,” a spokesperson for the Denver’s FBI office, Vikki Migoya, said in a statement.

In a 4-3 decision last week, Colorado’s highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection in his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but had said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause was intended to cover the presidency.

The state’s highest court didn’t agree, siding with attorneys for six Colorado Republican and unaffiliated voters who argued that it was nonsensical to imagine that the framers of the amendment, fearful of former confederates returning to power, would bar them from low-level offices but not the highest one in the land.

The court stayed its decision until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case. Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by Jan. 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.
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Since the start of Russia’s invasion, the Ukrainian health care system has been under tremendous duress – thousands of people filled the hospitals with battlefield-type injuries. A Ukrainian-born doctor in New York City has stepped up to help his medical peers in the country he once called home. VOA’s Johny Fernandez has the story.
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