President Donald Trump has condemned the wave of deadly attacks in Afghanistan over the last week, saying Washington. does not want to negotiate with the Taliban, who are killing many innocent women and children. His comments come as a new report indicates that increased U.S. military operations in the war-ravaged country has failed to improve the Afghan government’s ability to protect its own people. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department. …

The controversy over information gathered from GPS-enabled fitness devices and published online – in some cases highlighting possible activity at U.S. military bases in places like Syria and Afghanistan – could be just the start of an ever-growing problem in a world where more people and devices are connected to the internet. Already, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has ordered a review of security protocols following concerns that a so-called Heatmap published by the fitness app company Strava showed locations and movement patterns of troops serving overseas. “We take matters like these very seriously and are reviewing the situation to determine if any additional training or guidance is required,” the Pentagon said in a statement Monday. “Recent data releases emphasize the need for situational awareness when members of the military share personal information,” the statement continued, further noting that annual training for all military personnel, “recommends limiting public profiles on …

The United States is expressing its “highest level of concern” after a Russian military jet came dangerously close to a U.S. plane in international airspace over the Black Sea Monday. The encounter came during a Russian military exercise. “While the U.S. aircraft was operating under international law, the Russian side was flagrantly violating existing agreements and international law,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement late Monday. “This is but the latest example of Russian military activities disregarding international norms and agreements.” According to U.S. Naval Forces Europe, a Russian SU-27 came within one-and-a-half meters of crossing directly in front of the flight path of an American EP-3. There has been no response so far from Russia. The State Department calls on Russia to stop what it calls unsafe actions that increase the risk of miscalculation and midair collisions.  …

A new report paints a bleak picture of U.S. efforts to secure Afghanistan, more than 16 years after the United States invaded the South Asian nation following the September 11 terrorist attacks. U.S. involvement in Afghanistan now amounts to the longest conflict in American history, but the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction or SIGAR says the recent onslaught in U.S. military attacks has failed to increase the Afghan government’s control over its population. It said that in October alone, the U.S., with 11,000 troops in Afghanistan, dropped 653 munitions on enemy combatants, a record since 2012 and three times that in October 2016. With heightened warfare, the report said that U.S. casualties are increasing, too, with 11 service personnel killed in the first 11 months last year, twice the number killed in action in the same periods in 2015 and 2016. SIGAR, in its quarterly report Tuesday to Congress …

The newest generation of the Kennedy political dynasty will be introduced to a national audience Tuesday night as he delivers the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union.   Rep. Joe Kennedy III, a 37-year-old Massachusetts congressman and grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, says Democrats should focus on the economic worries of working-class voters who bolted the party in the 2016 elections.   To drive home the message, Kennedy will deliver his speech at a vocational high school in Fall River, Massachusetts, a gritty former textile hub 55 miles (89 kilometers) south of Boston.   “From health care to economic justice to civil rights, the Democratic agenda stands in powerful contrast to President Trump’s broken promises to American families,” Kennedy said in a statement, adding that his speech will be “guided by a simple belief that equality and economic dignity should be afforded to every American.”   …

The U.S. State Department said on Monday a 2017 U.S. law was deterring billions of dollars in Russian defense sales, but it did not announce any sanctions under the measure designed to punish Russia for allegedly seeking to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. “Today, we have informed Congress that this legislation and its implementation are deterring Russian defense sales,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “Since the enactment of the … legislation, we estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions.” With the statement, President Donald Trump’s administration signaled it was not imposing new sanctions under a bill he reluctantly signed into law in August, just six months into his presidency. Members of Congress, including Democrats and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, have been clamoring for his administration to use sanctions to punish Moscow for past election interference and …

U.S. Democratic senators have blocked a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, ensuring that the procedure stays legal through the later terms of a woman’s pregnancy. Republican leaders in the Senate knew the bill had little chance to pass, but wanted to pressure Democrats to take a stance on abortion, particularly vulnerable Democrats facing re-election and from states that voted for President Donald Trump. The bill fell short by a 51 to 46 vote. It needed 60 votes to end a filibuster and proceed to a vote. The vote largely fell along party lines, with only two Republicans voting against it — Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska. Three Democrats voted for the measure. All three — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania — are from states that voted for Trump in the 2016 election. More than half of the Senate’s Democrats …

The Secret Service is warning financial institutions about a type of cyberattack known as jackpotting. Secret Service officials say the crime involves installing malicious software or hardware at ATMs that force the machines to release large quantities of cash on demand. They say criminals have been able to find vulnerabilities in financial institutions that operate ATMs, typically stand-alone machines located in pharmacies, big-box retailers and drive-thrus. The Secret Service says the criminals range from individual actors to international organized crime syndicates. The Secret Service says authorities have recently obtained credible information about planned jackpotting attacks in the U.S. and have alerted law enforcement and financial institutions. …

President Donald Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address Tuesday night, but he won’t be the only one trying to send a message. Here’s a look at some of the ways lawmakers are using the speech to make a point: #MeToo Many female Democratic lawmakers plan to follow the lead of celebrities at this year’s Golden Globe Awards by wearing black to the State of the Union. Allegations of sexual harassment have had a big impact on Capitol Hill in recent months, forcing resignations and retirements on both sides of the political aisle as well as ongoing Ethics Committee investigations. “Wearing black to #SOTU isn’t about Trump,” tweeted Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla. “It’s about showing solidarity with a movement- from hotels to farm fields, to Congress, we’re standing with workers to end sexual harassment in all workplaces.” Some lawmakers are also bringing attention to the issue through …

Alex Azar  has been sworn in as President Donald Trump’s second health secretary.   The former drug company executive and official in George W. Bush’s administration succeeds former Republican Georgia congressman Tom Price, who resigned last fall following an outcry over his use of costly private charter aircraft for official travel.   Azar’s nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services was approved by the Senate last week, largely along party lines.   Azar has said his priorities include curbing the cost of prescription drugs, making health insurance more affordable and available, and confronting the opioid addiction epidemic.   Trump says, “He’s going to get those prescription drug prices way down.”   Azar spent a decade at Indianapolis-based drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co.     …

“I’ve seen first lady Melania Trump a couple of times, and I’ve seen President Trump quite a few times,” says Staff Sergeant Tuan Nguyen. The Vietnamese-American is an airman at Joint Base Andrews, the base that serves U.S. leaders, including the president and members of his Cabinet. “At any moment you turn on the TV,” says Tech Sergeant Vanessa Schook, a flight attendant at Andrews, “and whatever is going on in the news, one of our crew members are either picking that passenger up or taking them there.”  Born in Colombia, South America, Shook moved to Florida as a child and says she became an American citizen after joining the military. While the issue of immigration might hit close to home, she puts politics aside. “We’re all here to support and defend the Constitution, and he is our commander in chief,” she says. It’s a sentiment heard across the base. …

Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s No. 2 official whom President Donald Trump publicly criticized for alleged political bias, has left the bureau several weeks ahead of his retirement in March, an FBI official said on Monday. McCabe, a 22-year FBI veteran and its deputy director for the past two years, was planning to retire in March when he became eligible for full retirement benefits.  But the official said McCabe decided to take early leave, starting Monday, and won’t be returning to the bureau.   The official who spoke on condition of anonymity did not provide further details. McCabe had become something of a lightning rod for Trump and Republican criticism of the Russia investigation, in part because his wife, Jill McCabe, received several hundred thousand dollars in donations for her failed bid for a state Senate seat from a political action committee controlled by a friend of former Democratic presidential candidate, …

Human rights supporters are concerned by the potential relationship between the American military and an Indonesian special forces unit that has been linked to human rights abuses in East Timor, Aceh, and Papua. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stated that he will explore reopening ties with the unit, called Kopassus, even though it is currently precluded under the so-called Leahy Laws, sponsored by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy (D), which state that the State Department and military are barred from assisting any foreign security forces that have violated human rights “with impunity.” “United States aid conveys legitimacy, and it assumes a common respect for justice and human rights,” said Sen. Leahy last week. “The question Secretary Mattis needs to answer is whether the Indonesian government has punished the Kopassus officers who ordered and covered up those horrific crimes, and whether members of Kopassus today are accountable to the rule of law.” “All superpowers …

J. Kevin White’s big idea came while on the job. In 2005, White was the director of humanitarian assistance for the Department of Defense for Africa and Eastern Europe. His first deployment was to Morocco, where he remembers watching military personnel distribute donated eyeglasses to the needy. It didn’t go well. People selected eyeglasses based on the frames that they liked, not the glasses they needed. The remainder of donated glasses, about 90 percent according to White, were simply discarded. White knew there had to be a better way. He started a non-profit, Global Vision 2020  to tackle the problem. It won a $1 million award during WeWork’s Creator Awards Global Finals in New York. Fostering innovation The co-working company awarded over $4 million to eight promising startups and non-profits at the inaugural event, where winners of preliminary regional competitions pitched their big ideas to judges for a shot at …

In different circumstances, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg might be on a valedictory tour in her final months on the Supreme Court. But in the era of Donald Trump, the 84-year-old Ginsburg is packing her schedule and sending signals she intends to keep her seat on the bench for years. The eldest Supreme Court justice has produced two of the court’s four signed opinions so far this term. Outside court, she’s the subject of a new documentary that includes video of her working out. And she’s hired law clerks to take her through June 2020, just four months before the next presidential election. Soaking in her late-in-life emergence as a liberal icon, she’s using the court’s monthlong break to embark on a speaking tour that is taking her from the Sundance Film Festival in Utah to law schools and synagogues on the East Coast. One talk will have her in Rhode …

The European Union says that if U.S. President Donald Trump initiates unfair trade measures against the 28-nation bloc, it would stand ready “to react swiftly and appropriately.”   In a weekend interview, Trump said he was annoyed with EU trade policy since he claims the U.S. cannot sufficiently export to the EU. He said his problems with the EU “may morph into something very big” from a trade standpoint.   EU spokesman Margaritis Schinas retorted Monday that “while trade has to be open and fair it also has to be rules-based.”   Schinas said: “The EU stands ready to react swiftly and appropriately in case our exports are affected by any restrictive trade measure from the United States.”     …

A “serial stowaway” has been arrested again at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport just three days after she was released from jail after flying from the Midwest U.S. city to London without a ticket. Marilyn Hartman, 66, was arrested early Sunday after police were called about a woman refusing to leave the airport.  They initially could not find her, but after search they found and identified Hartman in Terminal 3.  She was charged with criminal trespassing on state land and a violation of a bail bond. The latest arrest is one of a string of similar crimes that spans years. Hartman was released Thursday after being arrested last week for bypassing security and boarding a flight to London without a ticket or boarding pass. She was arrested in London and returned to Chicago. She was ordered by the judge to stay away from airports, which is what led to her being …

President Donald Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address Tuesday against the backdrop of the Russia investigation and intensive negotiations on immigration reform. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington. …