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The Israeli Cabinet approved the Gaza ceasefire for hostage release early Saturday, paving the way for the deal to be implemented beginning Sunday, a day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara looks at how his incoming administration might enforce the multiphase deal, and the president-elect’s role in securing it. …
Ukrainian officials say at least four people were killed early Saturday in a nighttime Russian attack in the capital, Kyiv. Timur Tkachenko, head of the Ukrainian capital’s military administration said on Telegram that the deaths occurred in the city’s Shevchenkivsky district. He said the Holosiivsky district on the west bank of the Dnipro River that runs through the city and the Desnyansky district on the opposite bank were hit with falling debris. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air defenses were in operation around the city. On Friday, a Russian missile attack killed at least four people and injured at 14 others in the southern-central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address. “Such strikes, such losses, simply would not have happened if we had received all the necessary air defense systems that we have been talking about with our partners for such a long time and that are available in the world,” he said. Earlier Friday, Zelenskyy, who was born in Kryvyi Rih, condemned the attack on Telegram. “Each such terrorist attack is another reminder of who we are dealing with. Russia will not stop on its own — it can only be stopped by joint pressure,” he said. The attack also damaged an educational facility and two five-story buildings, officials said. VOA was unable to independently verify the reports. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack late Friday ignited a fire at an industrial site in Russia’s Kaluga region, about 170 kilometers from the shared border. “As a result of a drone attack in Lyudinovo, a fire broke out on the territory of an industrial enterprise,” regional Governor Vladislav Shapsha posted on Telegram. Agence France-Presse reported that unverified videos on unofficial Russia social media showed what they said was the attack targeting an oil depot. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has previously said he would be able to stop the war in Ukraine in one day, but he has not specified how he would do so. Trump aides recently said the new plan is to end the war within the first 100 days of the administration. Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse. …
During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan enjoyed a close relationship with the U.S. leader, benefiting from policies such as the withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria. With Trump returning to the White House, Erdogan hopes to revive ties to secure the final U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria and lift the ban on F-35 fighter jet sales. Click here to see the full story in Kurdish. …
LOS ANGELES — Days after losing her home in the same fire that destroyed her Los Angeles elementary school, third-grader Gabriela Chevez-Munoz resumed classes this week at another campus temporarily hosting children from her school. She arrived wearing a T-shirt that read “Pali” — the nickname for her Pacific Palisades neighborhood — as signs and balloons of dolphins, her school’s mascot, welcomed hundreds of displaced students. “It feels kind of like the first day of school,” Gabriela said. She said she had been scared by the fires but that she was excited to reunite with her best friend and give her hamburger-themed friendship bracelets. Gabriela is among thousands of students whose schooling was turned upside down by wildfires that ravaged the city, destroying several schools and leaving many others in off-limits evacuation zones. Educators across the city are scrambling to find new locations for their students, develop ways to keep up learning, and return a sense of normalcy as the city grieves at least 27 deaths and thousands of destroyed homes from blazes that scorched 63 square miles (163 square kilometers) of land. Gabriela and 400 other students from her school, Palisades Charter Elementary School, started classes temporarily Wednesday at Brentwood Science Magnet, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away. Her school and another decimated Palisades elementary campus may take more than two years to rebuild, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said. ‘There’s a lot of grief’ Students from seven other LAUSD campuses in evacuation zones are also temporarily relocating to other schools. As Layla Glassman dropped her daughter off at Brentwood, she said her priority after her family’s home burned down was making sure her three children feel safe and secure. “We have a roof over our heads. We have them back in school. So, you know, I am happy,” she said, her voice cracking. “But of course, there’s a lot of grief.” Many schools have held off on resuming instruction, saying their focus for now has been healing and trying to restore a sense of community. Some are organizing get-togethers and field trips to keep kids engaged in activities and with each other as they look for new space. The Pasadena Unified School District kept all schools closed this week for its 14,000 students. It offered self-directed online activities but said the work was optional. Between 1,200 and 2,000 students in Pasadena Unified School District are known … “Fires scorched campuses across Los Angeles. Now many schools seek places to hold classes” →
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He chose that location in part to honor President Abraham Lincoln as “a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today.” Now, millions of people honor King in the same way. On the third Monday of January — close to King’s Jan. 15 birthday — federal, state and local governments, institutions and various industries recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For some, the holiday is just that — time off from work or school. But, King’s family and others carrying on his legacy of equality, justice and non-violent protest want Americans to remember that this holiday is really about helping others. While it is now a time-honored tradition, the establishment of the holiday had a prolonged, difficult path to acceptance. How the idea for MLK day began The idea to establish a national holiday for the civil rights icon arose as the nation was plunged into grief. U.S. Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, one of the longest-serving members of Congress known for his liberal stance on civil rights, proposed legislation to recognize King four days after his assassination outside a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Supporters knew it would not be easy. King, who was 39 years old at the time, was a polarizing figure to half the country even before his death, said Lerone Martin, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Polls conducted by the Washington Post and the New York Times indicated most Americans did not trust King or thought he was too radical because of his speeches on poverty, housing and against the Vietnam War. “People say that King is moving too fast after 1965 and basically ‘Hey, you got the Voting Rights bill done. That’s enough,’” Martin said. The Congressional Black Caucus, founded by Conyers, tried to bring the legislation up for a vote for the next 15 years. Among the Republican rebuttals — public holidays don’t apply to private citizens, King was a communist or King was a womanizer. In the meantime, his widow, Coretta Scott King, kept lobbying for it. Musician Stevie Wonder even released a song, “Happy Birthday,” to rally support. So, what changed? By the 1980s, the social and cultural climate in the U.S. had shifted … “The long struggle to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day” →
RANST, Belgium — Belgium’s once pastoral pastime of pigeon racing has come to this: Drones swoop over lofts where valuable birds are housed to look for security weaknesses, laser sensors set off alarms at night and cameras linked live to mobile apps keep potential thieves at bay — 24/7. That’s what happens when the fast-flying fowl — which in a bygone era were, at best, the toast of local bars — have turned into valuable commodities. The most expensive bird to come out of the top pigeon-racing nation in the world fetched 1.6 million euros ($1.65 million) a few years ago. No wonder the sport is grappling with an unprecedented wave of unsolved pigeon pilfering that has hit several of the best birds in the business. This winter season is “extreme,” Pascal Bodengien, the head of the Belgian Pigeon Racing Federation, told The Associated Press. “Not a week goes by without a theft somewhere.” In one loft, an estimated 100,000 euros ($102,900) worth of pigeons were stolen last week. Overall, no arrests have been made. Prices per bird, said Bodengien, “can vary from 1,000 to 100,000 euros … and that is what they are after.” Exact statistics on losses are often not available because the reporting and police investigations are not centralized. The emotional loss often weighs heaviest of all. The sport involves daily care, over decades, and the rustling of feathers combined with the tranquil cooing often gives breeders a haven of peace in their otherwise bustling lives along with a measure of pride if their birds are winners. Frans Bungeneers is a breeder of champions. He started at age 8 and is still going strong in his 60s. His life got one of its biggest jolts in November 2016 when thieves broke into his garden shed and took away just about all his top pigeons in a heist of some 60 overall. “It was such an incredible blow for me. I can tell you honestly, I cried like a little boy because my life’s work was completely destroyed,” Bungeneers said outside his loft where he had to restart his breeding and racing almost from scratch. “I was — I was broken,” he said. “If you have those successes and those birds are then taken away. You know that it takes years.” He never got his birds back, even though the thieves were caught in Romania and convicted in Belgium. … “Belgium’s pastoral pastime of pigeon racing faces high anxiety over crime wave” →
A former CIA analyst pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Virginia to charges that he leaked classified information about Israeli plans to strike Iran. Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia, was arrested last year in Cambodia and later taken to Guam. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each of the two charges: retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense. Rahman had worked for the intelligence agency since 2016 and had a top-secret security clearance. Prosecutors said Rahman illegally downloaded and printed classified documents at work and then took the documents home, where he altered the items to cover up the source of the information before distributing it. The secret information was eventually published on the Telegram social media platform. A Justice Department statement said that beginning in the spring of 2024 and lasting until November, Rahman shared the “top-secret information” he learned at his job with “multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it.” “Government employees who are granted security clearances and given access to our nation’s classified information must promise to protect it,” Robert Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said Friday in a statement. “Rahman blatantly violated that pledge and took multiple steps to hide his actions. The FBI will use all our resources to investigate and hold accountable those who illegally transmit classified information and endanger the national security interests of our country,” Wells said. The Justice Department said Rahman destroyed journal entries and written work products on his personal electronic devices “to conceal his personal opinions on U.S. policy and drafted entries to construct a false narrative regarding his activity.” He also destroyed several other electronic devices, including an internet router that the Justice Department said Rahman “used to transmit classified information and photographs of classified documents, and discarded the destroyed devices in public trash receptacles in an effort to thwart potential investigations into him and his unlawful conduct.” The Associated Press reported that Rahman was born in California but grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from Yale University after only three years. Rahman is scheduled to be sentenced May 15. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. …
WASHINGTON — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the government would reach its statutory borrowing limit on Tuesday and begin employing “extraordinary measures” to keep from breaching the cap and risking a potential catastrophic default. Yellen, in a letter on Friday to congressional leaders just three days before the Biden administration turns over U.S. government control to President-elect Donald Trump and his team, said the Treasury would begin using extraordinary measures on Jan. 21. “The period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty, including the challenges of forecasting the payments and receipts of the U.S. government months into the future,” Yellen said in the letter. Yellen said the Treasury would suspend investments in two government employee benefit funds through March 14, to claw back borrowing capacity under the $36.1 trillion debt ceiling. As of Thursday, the Treasury reported borrowings of $36.08 trillion. The move will suspend new investments that are not immediately required to pay benefits from the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund. Once the debt limit is increased or suspended, the funds are required to be made whole. Yellen said there was “considerable uncertainty” about how long the measures would last and urged Congress to raise or suspend the debt limit “to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.” Trump’s problem In late December, Yellen said that the debt cap would likely be reached between Jan. 14 and Jan. 23 after Congress opted against including an extension or permanent revocation of the limit in a last-minute budget deal near the end of the year. Trump himself had urged lawmakers to extend or repeal the debt ceiling and later blasted an earlier failure to do so in 2023 as “one of the dumbest political decisions made in years.” But many Republican lawmakers view the limit as an important leverage point in fiscal negotiations. The debt ceiling issue presents an early challenge to Yellen’s expected successor, Trump Treasury pick Scott Bessent. The hedge fund manager told a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday that the ceiling is a “nuanced convention” but if Trump wants to eliminate it, he would work with Congress and the White House to make that happen. The Treasury has a number of extraordinary balance sheet measures it can employ to avoid default, which budget analysts say could last … “US Treasury to launch measures Tuesday to avoid debt limit breach” →
WASHINGTON — Russia’s Justice Ministry on Friday added more journalists to its list of so-called foreign agents, including reporters for Voice of America, Current Time and the BBC. Six journalists were named to the registry, including Ksenia Turkova, who works for VOA’s Russian language service in Washington, and Iryna Romaliiska, who works for Current Time, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty program in partnership with VOA. Others designated by Russia include Anastasia Lotareva and Andrey Kozenko, who work for BBC Russian; Alexandra Prokopenko, a journalist and research fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin; and Anton Rubin, a journalist at exiled media outlet Ekho Moskvy, who is also the director of a nongovernmental organization that helps orphans. Authorities use law to target critics Russia’s foreign agent law came into effect in 2012. Since then, say watchdogs, it has been used by authorities to target groups and individuals who are critical of the Kremlin. Hundreds of media outlets, journalists and civil society groups have been listed by the Justice Ministry. Those named as foreign agents have to mark any online content, even personal social media posts, as having come from a foreign agent, and to share financial details. Failure to comply can lead to fines or even imprisonment. Both VOA and its sister network RFE/RL have been designated as so-called foreign agents. Turkova is the first VOA journalist to be named individually. In a statement, VOA director Mike Abramowitz said that VOA and its journalists, by law, provide “a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news around the world.” “We stand with our journalists who often face repercussions for providing this vital public service and we remain committed to ensuring that audiences can access the vital content that VOA provides,” he said. Turkova told VOA that she considers the designation by Russia a “meaningless label.” “For the authorities, it’s a synonym for ‘traitor,’ ‘enemy of the people,’ ” she said. “For those whom the Russian authorities are targeting, it’s, in general, an empty sound, a word that means absolutely nothing.” Previously, Turkova worked in Ukraine, where she reported on Russia’s occupation of Crimea, the war in Donbas and repressive actions by Moscow. Since moving to Washington, Turkova said, “I continued to write and speak about the topics that I consider very important. First of all, it’s the war in Ukraine. It’s repression in Russia and it’s the role of propaganda.” Current … “Russia adds VOA, Current Time, BBC journalists to register of ‘foreign agents’” →
Washington views every presidential inauguration as different from the previous one, but Monday’s inauguration of Donald Trump will really stand out. VOA Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti explains. Cameras: Adam Greenbaum, Carolyn Presutti. …
After Donald Trump is sworn in as president, there will be a swirl of activity at the White House. Over about six hours, the belongings of outgoing President Joe Biden and family will be removed and the residence will be made into a home for the new chief executive. VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports. …
SpaceX says a fire might have caused its Starship to break during liftoff and send trails of flaming debris near the Caribbean. SpaceX’s Elon Musk said preliminary indications are that leaking fuel built up pressure in the cavity above the engine firewall. The resulting fire would have doomed the spacecraft. On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered SpaceX to investigate what went wrong. The FAA said there were no reports of injuries from Starship debris. The 400-foot Starship — the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket — launched from the southern tip of Texas on a test flight early Thursday evening. The booster made it back to the pad for a catch by giant mechanical arms, only the second time in Starship history. But the engines on the still-ascending spacecraft shut down one by one, and communication was lost 8-1/2 minutes into the flight. Dramatic video taken near the Turks and Caicos Islands showed spacecraft debris raining down from the sky in a stream of fireballs. Flights near the falling debris had to be diverted, the FAA said. SpaceX said Starship remained in its designated launch corridor over the Gulf of Mexico and then the Atlantic. Any surviving wreckage would have fallen along that path over water, the company said on its website. Starship had been shooting for a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, halfway around the world. Ten dummy satellites, mimicking SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, were on board so the company could practice releasing them. It was the seventh test flight of a Starship, but it featured a new and upgraded spacecraft. The FAA said it must approve SpaceX’s accident findings and any corrective actions. SpaceX said the booster and spacecraft for the eighth demo are already built and undergoing testing. Musk said on X the loss was “barely a bump in the road” in his plans to build a fleet of Starships to carry people to Mars. NASA already has booked two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade under its Artemis program, the successor to Apollo. “Spaceflight is not easy. It’s anything but routine,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson posted on X after the accident. “That’s why these tests are so important.” Earlier Thursday, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company also had mixed results with the debut of its massive New Glenn rocket. It achieved orbit on its first try, putting a test satellite thousands … “SpaceX says fire could have caused Starship to break, spew debris near Caribbean” →
A community clinic in the Los Angeles area devastated by the fires was destroyed, leaving hundreds of families, the vast majority of them immigrants, without medical care. Click here for the full story in Spanish. …
WASHINGTON — An Azerbaijani court on Friday denied petitions by two jailed journalists to be released from house arrest, their lawyers said. The journalists, Aynur Elgunesh and Natig Javadli, work for Meydan TV, an independent outlet based in Germany. They were among six journalists arrested in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, in early December. Azerbaijan is among the worst jailers of journalists in the world, with more than a dozen behind bars, according to a report released this week by the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. Azerbaijan is currently detaining at least 18 journalists for their work, according to CPJ. The group’s latest prison census, which acts as a snapshot of media workers in custody as of Dec. 1, listed 13 journalists in the Azerbaijani prison. One of those was released after the census was taken, but authorities then jailed six more journalists, including Elgunesh and Javadli. The arrests are a concern for local activists and reporters. “Independent and critical media in Azerbaijan is going through its most difficult period,” Azerbaijani activist Samir Kazimli told VOA. “If this policy of repression does not stop, if it continues, independent media in Azerbaijan may completely collapse.” The annual CPJ report found 361 journalists behind bars around the world. Azerbaijan ranked eighth worst in the census, behind countries such as China, Israel, Myanmar, Belarus and Russia. “Azerbaijan has been cracking down on independent media for well over a decade,” CPJ’s CEO, Jodie Ginsberg, told VOA. “It doesn’t often get the attention that it deserves.” Local journalists like Shamshad Agha are worried that Azerbaijani authorities are trying to stamp out independent media. Agha is editor of Argument.az, a news website covering democracy, corruption and human rights. “The lives of all independent journalists are in danger,” he told VOA. Agha said he has been banned from leaving the country since July 2024. Azerbaijan’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment. Many of the journalists jailed in Azerbaijan are accused of foreign currency smuggling, which media watchdogs have rejected as a sham charge. Many of those currently detained work for the independent outlets Abzas Media and Meydan TV. Farid Mehralizada, an economist and journalist with the Azerbaijani Service of VOA’s sister outlet, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, is among those currently imprisoned. Jailed since May, Mehralizada is facing charges of conspiring to smuggle foreign currency, as well as “illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion … “Journalists in Azerbaijan face trials, jailings, travel bans” →
As with all massive disasters, there are individual stories of loss and hope. We’re now hearing some of those stories even as wildfires continue to burn in and around Los Angeles. Khrystyna Shevchenko met with one family that chose to ignore evacuation orders to fight wildfires threatening their home. Khrystyna Shevchenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. …
WASHINGTON — Firefighters have contained more of the Palisades and Eaton fires in Southern California, the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Friday morning. For the time being, the strongest winds have calmed, but the National Weather Service said dangerous conditions are expected again next week. The strongest winds are expected Tuesday night. The Palisades fire, which has burned through nearly 10,000 hectares, is now 31% contained, according to the forestry department. That fire broke out more than a week ago on the western edge of Los Angeles. The second-biggest fire, the Eaton fire, is now 65% contained, according to the forestry department. It has burned through more than 5,600 hectares. Those two fires have killed at least 27 people and destroyed more than 12,300 structures. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday that 18 people remained missing after the fires. A smaller third fire, known as the Auto fire, is 85% contained and has burned through 24 hectares, according to the forestry department. With calmer winds, some residents have been allowed back into neighborhoods affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires. About 82,000 people remained under mandatory evacuation orders and 90,000 others were under evacuation warnings. Curfews were still in effect for the Palisades and Eaton fire zones from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. …
WARSAW, POLAND — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday condemned what he called “the poison of antisemitism rising around the world” after a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former German Nazi concentration camp. His visit came as many international delegations are expected to attend the Jan. 27 ceremony commemorating 80 years since the Soviet Red Army liberated the death camp built in occupied Poland. King Charles III will be among those attending the ceremony, Buckingham Palace said Monday, in his first visit to the former camp. “Time and again we condemn this hatred, and we boldly say, ‘never again,’” Starmer said in a statement following his visit. “But where is never again, when we see the poison of antisemitism rising around the world” in the aftermath of October 7th, he said. The Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas staged the deadliest attack in Israeli history. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has left 46,876 people dead, the majority civilians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the United Nations has described as reliable. Last week, the Polish government said it would grant free access to Israeli officials wanting to attend the commemoration, despite a warrant issued in November by the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had information from the Israeli Embassy that the country would be represented by its education minister. The International Criminal Court issued the warrant in November over the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, prompting outrage from Israel and its allies. Auschwitz has become a symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of 6 million European Jews, 1 million of whom died at the site between 1940 and 1945, along with more than 100,000 non-Jews. …
For nearly three years, a combat medic from California named Jennifer Mullee has been saving the lives of Ukrainian soldiers on the frontlines. Mullee decided to join the Ukrainian war effort following the death of a close friend. Anna Kosstutschenko has her story. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy …
The Army expects to meet its enlistment goals for 2025, marking a dramatic turnaround for a service that has struggled for several years to bring in enough young people and has undergone a major overhaul of its recruiting programs. In an interview with The Associated Press, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the Army is on pace to bring in 61,000 young people by the end of the fiscal year in September and will have more than 20,000 additional young people signed up in the delayed entry program for 2026. It’s the second straight year of meeting the goals. “What’s really remarkable is the first quarter contracts that we have signed are the highest rate in the last 10 years,” Wormuth said. “We are going like gangbusters, which is terrific.” Wormuth, who took over the Army four years ago as restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic were devastating recruitment across the military, also flatly rejected suggestions that the Army is “woke.” Critics have used the term to describe what they call an over-emphasis on diversity and equity programs. Some Republicans have blamed “wokeness” for the recruiting struggles, a claim repeated by President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, during his confirmation hearing this week. Wormuth dismissed the claims. “Concerns about the Army being, quote, woke, have not been a significant issue in our recruiting crisis,” she said. “They weren’t at the beginning of the crisis. They weren’t in the middle of the crisis. They aren’t now. The data does not show that young Americans don’t want to join the Army because they think the army is woke — however they define that.” Hegseth has vowed to remove “woke” programs and officers from the military. And during his hearing Tuesday, he told senators that troops will rejoice as the Trump administration takes office and makes those changes. “We’ve already seen it in recruiting numbers,” he said. “There’s already been a surge since President Trump won the election.” In fact, according to Army data, recruiting numbers have been increasing steadily over the past year, with the highest total in August 2024 — before the November election. Army officials closely track recruiting numbers. Instead, a significant driver of the recruiting success was the Army’s decision to launch the Future Soldier Prep Course, at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in August 2022. That program gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or … “Army expects to meet recruiting goals, in dramatic turnaround, and denies ‘wokeness’ is a factor “ →
Washington — President Joe Biden announced Friday that he was commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, using his final days in office on a flurry of clemency actions meant to nullify prison terms he deemed too harsh. The recent round of clemency gives Biden the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued. The Democrat said he is seeking to undo “disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice.” “Today’s clemency action provides relief for individuals who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, as well as outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes,” Biden said in a statement. “This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars.” The White House did not immediately release the names of those receiving commutations. Still, Biden said more could yet be coming, promising to use the time before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated Monday to “continue to review additional commutations and pardons.” Friday’s action follows Biden’s commutations last month of the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the pardoning of 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. That was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. All of this comes as Biden continues to weigh whether to issue sweeping pardons for officials and allies who the White House fears could be unjustly targeted by Trump’s administration. Though presidential pardoning powers are absolute, such a preemptive move would be a novel and risky use of the president’s extraordinary constitutional power. Last month, Biden also commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. Trump has vowed to roll back that order after his term begins. Biden also recently pardoned his son Hunter, not just for his convictions on federal gun and tax violations but for any potential federal offense committed over an 11-year period, as the president feared Trump allies would seek to prosecute his son for other offenses. If history is any guide, meanwhile, Biden also is likely to … “Biden sets record by commuting sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug charges “ →
MOSCOW — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Moscow on Friday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the signing of a strategic partnership treaty involving closer defense cooperation that is likely to worry the West. Pezeshkian, on his first Kremlin visit since winning the presidency last July, will hold talks with Putin focusing on bilateral ties and international issues before signing the treaty. Ahead of the talks, the Kremlin hailed its ever closer ties with Tehran. “Iran is an important partner for us with which we are developing multifaceted co-operation,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Moscow has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile towards the U.S., such as North Korea, since the start of the Ukraine war, and already has strategic pacts with Pyongyang and close ally Belarus, as well as a strategic partnership agreement with China. The 20-year Russia-Iran agreement is not expected to include a mutual defense clause of the kind sealed with Minsk and Pyongyang, but is still likely to concern the West which sees both countries as malign influences on the world stage. Moscow and Tehran say their increasingly close ties are not directed against other countries. Russia has made extensive use of Iranian drones during the war in Ukraine and the United States accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine. Tehran denies supplying drones or missiles. The Kremlin has declined to confirm it has received Iranian missiles, but has acknowledged that its cooperation with Iran includes “the most sensitive areas.” Pezeshkian visit to Moscow also comes at a time when Iranian influence across the Middle East is in retreat after Islamist rebels seized power in Syria, expelling ally Bashar al-Assad, and after Iran-backed Hamas has been pounded by Israel in Gaza. Israel has also inflicted serious damage on the Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Russia too finds itself on the backfoot in Syria where it maintains two major military facilities crucial to its geopolitical and military influence in the Middle East and Africa but whose fate under Syria’s new rulers is now uncertain. Putin met Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October and at a cultural forum in Turkmenistan the same month. Pezeshkian, who is holding talks with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin before meeting Putin, is accompanied to Moscow by his oil minister, … “Iranian president in Moscow for treaty signing with Putin” →
MOSCOW — A Russian court on Friday upheld the jail term of Robert Shonov, a former U.S. Consulate worker sentenced to almost five years for “secret collaboration with a foreign state.” Shonov, a Russian citizen, worked for more than 25 years at the U.S. Consulate in the far eastern city of Vladivostok until 2021, when Moscow imposed restrictions on local staff working for foreign missions. He was arrested in 2023 on suspicion of passing secret information about Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine to the United States in exchange for money and sentenced to four years and 10 months prison in November 2024. “The judicial act was upheld,” a court in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk ruled, according to its website, rejecting an appeal Shonov had made against his sentencing. The United States strongly condemned the conviction last year, calling it an “egregious injustice” based on “meritless allegations.” In September 2023, Russia expelled two U.S. diplomats it accused of acting as liaison agents for Shonov. In recent years, several U.S. citizens have been arrested and sentenced to long jail terms in Russia. Others are being held pending trial. Washington, which supports Ukraine militarily and financially against Russia’s military offensive, accuses Moscow of arresting Americans on baseless charges to use as bargaining chips in prisoner exchanges. Even after a landmark prisoner swap in August, several U.S. nationals and dual nationals remain in detention in Russia. …
PETUSHKI, RUSSIA — Russia on Friday sentenced three lawyers who had defended Alexey Navalny to several years in prison for bringing messages from the late opposition leader from prison to the outside world. The sentences come as Russia — in the midst of a massive crackdown during its Ukraine offensive — seeks to punish Navalny’s associates since his unexplained death in an Arctic prison colony last February. Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin — who were arrested in October 2023 — were found guilty of participating in an “extremist organization,” a court in the Russian town of Petushki ruled. Kobzev, the most high-profile member of Navalny’s legal team, was given 5.5 years, while Liptser was handed five years and Sergunin 3.5 years. While serving his 19-year sentence, Navalny communicated with the world by transmitting messages through his lawyers which his team then published on social media. Authorities had moved him to a harsher prison regime that limited outside contact, before sending him to a remote colony above the Arctic Circle where he died. “We are on trial for passing Navalny’s thoughts to other people,” Kobzev said in court last week. The court said the men had “used their status as lawyers while visiting convict Navalny … to ensure the regular transfer of information between the members of the extremist community, including those wanted and hiding outside the Russian Federation, and Navalny.” ‘Outrageous’ It said this allowed Navalny to continue “planning the preparation and creating conditions for committing crimes with an extremist character.” Navalny had condemned the arrests of the lawyers as “outrageous” and part of a campaign to further isolate him in jail. The court proceedings, which opened in September in Petushki, a town about 115 kilometers east of Moscow, have been held behind closed doors. The verdicts come several days before four independent journalists accused of helping Navalny will be back in court, facing up to six years in prison. In his messages to the outside world, Navalny denounced the Kremlin’s Ukraine offensive as “criminal” and told supporters “not to give up.” The texts from prison were also full of tongue-in-cheek dispatches of daily life behind bars. In his speech last week, Kobzev compared Moscow’s current crackdown on dissent to Stalin-era mass repression. “Eight years have passed… and in the Petushki court, people are once again on trial for discrediting officials and the state agencies,” he said, in a … “Russia sentences Navalny lawyers to years behind bars” →
Sasha Selipanov, a well-known car designer, was born in the Soviet Union but at 17 moved to the U.S. In California, he mastered the skill of designing high-end cars, creating vehicles for Lamborghini and Bugatti among others. He showed VOA Russian the concept of his first hypercar, which he is building in Los Angeles. Click here for the full story in Russian. …
As the U.S. and Armenia signed a strategic partnership agreement in Washington this week, experts say the Kremlin is slowly losing one of its few remaining allies. While Moscow says that Armenia’s distancing itself from Russia will bear consequences, the Armenian government is trying to steadily chart a pro-Western path. Click here for the full story in Russian. …
Firefighters from all over the United States are currently in Los Angeles fighting deadly wildfires. Backup from Canada and Mexico arrived this week as well. VOA’s Fernando Mejía spent some time with a team of Mexican firefighters. Veronica Villafañe narrates this report. Camera: Fernando Mejía …