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U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday vowed that the United States would maintain its leadership position in the development of advanced artificial intelligence and warned leaders of other countries not to adopt regulatory standards that might “kill” the new technology “just as it’s taking off.”  “The United States of America is the leader in AI, and our administration plans to keep it that way,” Vance told an audience of world leaders at an AI summit in Paris. He said the administration of President Donald Trump “will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the U.S. with American-designed and manufactured chips.”  Vance said that the U.S. is open to collaboration with its allies. “But,” he said, “to create that kind of trust, we need international regulatory regimes that foster the creation of AI technology rather than strangles it, and we need our European friends in particular to look to this new frontier with optimism rather than trepidation.”  Regulations criticized  The vice president criticized the European Union’s regulatory structure, in particular the privacy-focused General Data Protection Regulation and the misinformation-focused Digital Services Act, and he said the Trump administration will not accept foreign governments “tightening the screws on U.S. tech companies with international footprints.”  Vance also appeared to criticize the effort in Europe to replace power generated by burning fossil fuels with more sustainable sources, saying that countries are “chasing reliable power out of their nations” at a time when AI systems demand ever-greater access to electricity.  “The AI future is not going to be won by handwringing about safety,” Vance said. “It will be won by building — from reliable power plants to the manufacturing facilities that can produce the chips of the future.”  While dozens of countries in attendance at the summit signed a joint declaration on “building trustworthy data governance frameworks to encourage development of innovative and privacy-protective AI,” the U.S. and U.K. did not.  More calls for reduced regulation  Although not as dismissive of regulations and safety concerns as Vice President Vance, other leaders at the summit appeared to agree that the regulatory burden on companies in the AI field should be lightened.  French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit’s host, said that while safety concerns are important, Europe also needs to make it easier for AI firms there to move quickly and innovate at the same pace as other countries.  “At the national and … “Vance stakes forceful claim to US leadership in AI” →

The latest offerings for electric vehicles take center stage at the 2025 Chicago Auto Show as some federal tax incentives could end. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more. …

Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained in Russia since August 2021 for bringing medically prescribed marijuana into the country, was freed by Moscow on Tuesday and headed back to the United States, the White House announced. The 63-year-old history teacher, who had been serving a 14-year sentence, was expected to be reunited with his family in the eastern state of Pennsylvania by the end of the day. He left Russian airspace aboard the personal aircraft of Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign affairs envoy who helped negotiate his release. Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said the U.S. and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel but gave no details about what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. In such deals in recent years, the U.S. has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in exchange. Instead, Waltz cast the deal for Fogel’s release in broader geopolitical terms, saying it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” an invasion Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands killed or wounded on both sides. Trump had vowed to broker an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine before taking office Jan. 20, but his aides more recently have said he hopes to do it within the first 100 days of his new administration, roughly by the end of April. “Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States,” Waltz said. The recent release of six Americans held in Venezuela and Fogel’s freeing are the only publicly known instances. Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14-year sentence in June 2022, with the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden late last year classifying him as wrongfully detained. Witkoff is a billionaire New York real estate executive and close friend of Trump’s. He previously had helped negotiate the six-week Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza initiated by Biden in the last months of his presidency. Witkoff also had been secretly negotiating the deal for Fogel’s release. Online flight trackers spotted his presence in Moscow when he … “Russia frees American serving 14-year marijuana sentence” →

Washington — Human rights experts in Washington are divided over whether the U.S. withdrawal from a United Nations body on human rights will hurt North Korea’s already poor human rights situation. Last Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order pulling the U.S. out of the U.N. Human Rights Council, or UNHRC, reintroducing the stance he held during his previous term. The executive order said that the UNHRC has “protected human rights abusers by allowing them to use the organization to shield themselves from scrutiny,” adding that the council deserves “renewed scrutiny.” The decision was announced ahead of Trump’s recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited Washington for the first time since Trump’s second inauguration. Since his first term, President Trump has been disapproving of the activities of the U.N. human rights body. In June 2018, the Trump administration criticized the UNHRC for its “bias against Israel,” stressing the council that year passed resolutions against Israel more than those passed against North Korea, Iran and Syria combined. Negative impact Robert King, who served as the U.S. special envoy for North Korea’s human rights under the Obama administration, said that the U.S. decision to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council could negatively undermine international efforts to improve human rights conditions in the North. “It will have a negative impact. The U.N. Human Rights Council has been a very effective body in terms of calling attention to North Korea’s serious human rights abuses,” King told VOA Korean on the phone last week. “And the fact that the United States will not be an active participant is again a very unfortunate situation.” Roberta Cohen, former deputy assistant secretary of state for human rights, said leaving the UNHRC is “a short-sighted decision.” Cohen, who also served as senior adviser to the U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly, said it is important that the U.S. be seated at the council with a vote and be active in mobilizing support for any new initiatives. “If the reforms are needed and they are, the U.S. should be involved heavily,” Cohen told VOA Korean by phone last week. “Walking away cedes the floor to your opponents.” Cohen highlighted that the council was where the Commission of Inquiry on the Human Rights in North Korea, or COI, was conceived. The COI is widely considered to be the first … “US withdrawal from UN human rights body draws mixed reactions” →

WASHINGTON — The U.S., U.K. and Australia on Tuesday sanctioned a Russian web-hosting services provider and two Russian men who administer the service in support of Russian ransomware syndicate LockBit.   The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and its U.K. and Australian counterparts sanctioned Zservers, a Russia-based bulletproof hosting services provider — which is a web-hosting service that ignores or evades law enforcement requests — and two Russian nationals serving as Zservers operators.   Treasury alleges that Zservers provided LockBit access to specialized servers designed to resist law enforcement actions. LockBit ransomware attacks have extracted more than $120 million from thousands of victims around the world.   LockBit has operated since 2019, and is the most deployed ransomware variant across the world and continues to be prolific, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.   The Treasury Department’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley T. Smith, said Tuesday’s action “underscores our collective resolve to disrupt all aspects of this criminal ecosystem, wherever located, to protect our national security.”  LockBit has been linked to attacks on airplane manufacturer Boeing, the November 2023 attack against the Industrial Commercial Bank of China, the U.K.’s Royal Mail, Britain’s National Health Service, and international law firm Allen and Overy.   Ransomware is the costliest and most disruptive form of cybercrime, crippling local governments, court systems, hospitals and schools as well as businesses. It is difficult to combat as most gangs are based in former Soviet states and out of reach of Western justice.   Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman, said Tuesday’s sanctions “underscore the United States’ commitment, along with our international partners, to combating cybercrime and degrading the networks that enable cyber criminals to target our citizens.”  …

MAYVILLE, N.Y. — Salman Rushdie described in graphic detail Tuesday the frenzied moments in 2022 when a masked man rushed at him on a stage in western New York and repeatedly slashed him with a knife, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.  The 77-year-old author addressed jurors on the second day of testimony at the trial of Hadi Matar, 27, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault in the attack. It was the first time since the attack that Rushdie found himself in the same room with the man accused of trying the kill him.  “I only saw him at the last minute,” Rushdie said. “I was aware of someone wearing black clothes, or dark clothes and a black face mask. I was very struck by his eyes, which were dark and seemed very ferocious.”  Rushdie said he first thought his knife-wielding attacker was striking him with a fist.  “But I saw a large quantity of blood pouring onto my clothes,” he said. “He was hitting me repeatedly. Hitting and slashing.”  Rushdie said he was struck more times in his chest and torso and stabbed in his chest as he struggled to get away.  “I was very badly injured. I couldn’t stand up any more. I fell down,” he said.  While lying on the stage, he recalled “a sense of great pain and shock, and aware of the fact that there was an enormous quantity of blood that I was lying in.”  “It occurred to me that I was dying. That was my predominant thought,” he said .  His wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, cried from her seat in the courtroom’s second row.  Rushdie was blinded in one eye in the attack and spent months recovering, a process he detailed in a memoir released last year. A speaker who was to appear with Rushdie also was wounded.  Jurors heard opening statements Monday, followed by testimony from staffers at the Chautauqua Institution, the nonprofit art and education center where the attack happened about 120 kilometers south of Buffalo.  Matar has been in custody since he was subdued by spectators after the attack.  The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.  Jurors are unlikely to hear about a fatwa issued by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for Rushdie’s death, according to District Attorney Jason Schmidt. Rushdie, the author of “Midnight’s Children” and “Victory City,” spent years in … “Salman Rushdie testifies about his shock and pain as stranger repeatedly stabbed him on stage “ →

New York — Steve Bannon pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a fraud charge related to duping donors who gave money to a private effort to build a wall along the U.S. southern border — a case the conservative strategist has decried as a “political persecution.” Bannon, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, reached a plea agreement that spares him from jail time in the “We Build the Wall” scheme as long as he stays out of trouble.  Asked how he was feeling as he left the courtroom, Bannon said, “Like a million bucks.” The deal comes just days after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Justice Department to investigate what the president called the ” weaponization of prosecutorial power.” The case had been scheduled to go to trial March 4.   Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office charged Bannon in state court after a Trump pardon in 2021 wiped away federal charges on the same allegations. In November, Judge April Newbauer ruled prosecutors could show jurors certain evidence, including an email they say shows Bannon was concerned the fundraising effort was “a scam.”   Bannon had been planning an aggressive defense strategy and recently hired a new team of attack dog lawyers who sought to portray the case to jurors as a selective and malicious prosecution.   In January, Bannon’s lawyers filed papers asking Newbauer to throw out the case, calling it an “unconstitutional selective enforcement of the law.” The judge had been expected to rule on that on Tuesday before Bannon’s plea deal made the request moot.   Bannon, 71, pleaded not guilty in September 2022 to a state court indictment charging him with money laundering, fraud and conspiracy. He was accused of falsely promising donors that all money given to the We Build the Wall campaign would go toward building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, prosecutors alleged the money was used to enrich Bannon and others involved in the project.   The campaign, launched in 2018 after Trump fired Bannon as his chief strategist, quickly raised over $20 million and privately built a few miles of fencing along the border. It soon ran into trouble with the International Boundary and Water Commission, came under federal investigation and drew criticism from Trump, the Republican whose policy the charity was founded to support.   Bragg, a Democrat, took up the case after Trump cut Bannon’s federal prosecution … “Trump ally Steve Bannon pleads guilty and avoids jail time in border wall fraud case” →

A wintry mess was bearing down on mid-Atlantic states Tuesday with forecasts of significant snow and ice accumulations prompting warnings of potential power outages. The National Weather Service said travel would become treacherous Tuesday through early Wednesday in much of Virginia and West Virginia. Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Monday declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, allowing state agencies to assist local governments. Schools and government offices throughout Virginia were set to be closed Tuesday. The heaviest snow, up to 25.4 centimeters, was forecast in portions of northern and central Virginia and eastern West Virginia. Ice accumulations could range from a glaze in Kentucky and West Virginia to 1.3 centimeters in the Roanoke Valley of southwest Virginia, the weather service said. Power outages and tree damage were likely in places with heavy ice buildups. “Did you think winter was over? Think again!” the weather service’s office in Blacksburg, Virginia, said in a post on the social media platform X. Appalachian Power, which serves 1 million customers in West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, said it has requested 700 additional workers from neighboring utilities to assist with problems by Tuesday morning. In northern Virginia, the National Park Service closed a portion of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, a narrow highway that winds its way through woods along the Potomac River. The parkway connects multiple small national park sites and has historically been a trouble spot during winter storms for abandoned cars that created a slalom course for snowplows and other vehicles. Winter storm warnings extended from Kentucky to southern New Jersey, and a flood watch was posted for a wide swath of Kentucky, Tennessee, southwest Virginia and northern Georgia. The snow-and-ice mix was expected to become all rain as temperatures climb by Wednesday afternoon. A separate storm system is set to bring heavy snow from Kansas and Missouri to the Great Lakes on Wednesday, the weather service said. Dangerous cold was forecast Tuesday from an Arctic air mass stretching from Portland, Oregon, to the Great Lakes. The temperature was expected to bottom out Tuesday morning at minus 36 degrees Celsius in Butte, Montana, where over the past two winters at least five people died due to cold exposure, said Brayton Erickson, executive director of the Butte Rescue Mission. Advocates for the homeless in the city of about 35,000 planned to be out on the streets distributing sleeping bags, … “Virginia governor declares storm emergency as snow and ice bear down on mid-Atlantic states” →

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — One person was killed and others were injured when a private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil collided with another jet Monday afternoon at the Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, authorities said. Neil’s jet was landing at the airport when it veered off the runway and collided with another parked plane, Neil’s representative Worrick Robinson, IV, said in a statement. There were two pilots and two passengers on Neil’s plane, but he was not among them. “Mr. Neil’s thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved, and he is grateful for the critical aid of all first responders assisting today,” Robinson said. The arriving jet veered off the runway and collided with the Gulfstream 200 jet that was parked, according to Kelli Kuester, aviation planning and outreach coordinator at the Scottsdale Airport. It appeared that the primary landing gear of the arriving jet failed, resulting in the collision, she said. Kuester said four people were on the arriving jet, which had come from Austin, Texas, and one person was in the parked plane. Two people injured in the collision were taken to trauma centers and one was in stable condition at a hospital, Scottsdale Fire Department Capt. Dave Folio said. He said they were working to recover the body of the person killed in the collision. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody involved in this,” Folio said. The runway has been closed and will remain closed “for the foreseeable future,” Kuester said. Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky said in a statement that she is closely monitoring the situation and is in touch with the airport, police and federal agencies. “On behalf of the city of Scottsdale, we offer our deepest condolences to those involved in the accident and for those who have been taken to our trauma center for treatment,” she said. “We will keep all affected by this tragedy in our prayers.” The airport is a popular hub for jets coming in and out of the Phoenix area, especially during big sports weekends like the Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament, which attracts huge crowds just a few miles away. The Scottsdale collision comes after three major U.S. aviation disasters in the past two weeks.  A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the … “Private jets collide at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, killing 1 person, authorities say” →

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday announced a 25% tariff on aluminum and steel tariffs that could hit Canada and Mexico, the top two exporters to the U.S., the hardest. Trump’s ongoing trade offensive also provoked chiding from the U.S.’ top competitor, China. VOA correspondent Anita Powell reports from the White House. …

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday declaring that it is “the policy of the United States to end the use of paper straws.” Former President Joe Biden’s administration, in an attempt to phase out federal purchases of single-use plastics, announced a plan in July 2024 to replace plastics with reusable, compostable and highly recyclable products. Trump’s order Monday stated that paper straws “are nonfunctional, use chemicals that may carry risks to human health, are more expensive to produce than plastic straws, and often force users to use multiple straws.” He also noted that paper straws are often individually wrapped in plastic, which undermines the environmental argument for their use. “It’s a ridiculous situation. We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump said Monday as he signed the order. The Biden policy aimed to get plastic straws and other single-use plastics out of federal food service operations, events and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035. Trump declared President Joe Biden’s policy “DEAD!” in a social media post over the weekend. In his Monday order, he instructed agency officials to stop buying paper straws and make sure paper straws are no longer provided within agency buildings. He also directed officials to create a national strategy to end the use of paper straws within 45 days. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.  …

The Justice Department on Monday directed federal prosecutors in New York to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, according to a memo from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove. Bove, a political appointee of President Donald Trump, intervened in the case, saying the indictment of Adams interfered with his 2025 mayoral reelection campaign. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which brought the charges, declined to comment. Prosecutors have not yet indicated to the judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Dale Ho in Manhattan, that they plan to drop the case, court records showed Monday evening. Adams was the subject of a five-count indictment charging him with accepting travel perks from Turkish officials and political donations from foreigners in exchange for taking actions to benefit Turkey. Adams pleaded not guilty. …

A consortium led by Elon Musk said Monday it has offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, another salvo in the billionaire’s fight to block the artificial intelligence startup from transitioning to a for-profit firm. Musk’s bid is likely to ratchet up longstanding tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the future of the startup at the heart of a boom in generative AI technology. Altman on Monday promptly posted on X: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit, but left before the company took off. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of tech and social media company X, is a close ally of President Donald Trump. He spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump, and leads the Department of Government Efficiency, a new arm of the White House tasked with radically shrinking the federal bureaucracy. Musk recently criticized a $500 billion OpenAI-led project announced by Trump at the White House. OpenAI is now trying to transition into a for-profit from a nonprofit entity, which it says is required to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models. Musk sued Altman and others in August last year, claiming they violated contract provisions by putting profit ahead of the public good in the push to advance AI. In November, he asked a U.S. district judge for a preliminary injunction blocking OpenAI from converting to a for-profit structure. Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman says the founders originally approached him to fund a nonprofit focused on developing AI to benefit humanity, but that it was now focused on making money. “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement Monday. “We will make sure that happens.” Musk and OpenAI backer Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “Musk’s bid puts another wrinkle into OpenAI’s quest to remove the nonprofit’s control over its for-profit entity,” said Rose Chan Loui, executive director of the UCLA Law Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits. “This bid sets a marker for the valuation of the nonprofit’s economic interests,” she said. “If OpenAI values the nonprofit’s interests at less than what Musk is offering, then they would … “Musk-led group makes $97.4 billion bid for control of OpenAI” →

So-called birth tourism is not only happening on the U.S. mainland. Pregnant Chinese mothers have been heading to a U.S. territory much closer to home to have their babies and obtain for them coveted U.S. citizenship. VOA Mandarin’s Yu Yao and Jiu Dao have the details from Saipan, capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. Elizabeth Lee narrates. …

A U.S. judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to fully comply with a previous order lifting its broad freeze on federal spending, after a group of 23 Democratic state attorneys general last week said that some funds remained frozen.  U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, ruled that all funding must be restored at least until he can hold a hearing on the states’ motion for a longer-term order.  The Trump administration had told states that it believed the order did not apply to certain environmental and infrastructure spending, and that some payments were delayed for “operational and administrative reasons.”  However, McConnell said his order had been “clear and unambiguous” in applying to all funding frozen in response to sweeping executive orders by President Donald Trump.  The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  The states originally sued the administration over a memorandum from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget announcing a wide-ranging freeze of federal spending. Soon after the lawsuit was filed, OMB rescinded that memo.  The states said last week that the still-frozen funds included $4.5 billion for a home electrification rebate program, at least some of $7 billion for rooftop solar panels, $5 billion supporting state, local and Native American tribal governments’ greenhouse gas reduction measures and $117.5 million for air-quality monitoring. …