President Donald Trump has asked former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Russia. It’s a job likely to come with heavy scrutiny amid questions about the Trump campaign’s possible ties with Russia. Huntsman would bring extensive diplomatic and bipartisan experience to the high-profile ambassador post. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff reports. …
read moreOrganizers of the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade reversed course Friday and said they would allow a group of gay veterans to march in this year’s parade. The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council announced on the parade’s Twitter account that it had signed an acceptance letter that would clear the way for OutVets to…
read moreHawaii has 5,000 or so Muslims – less than 1 percent of the state’s population – who are finding themselves thrust into an international spotlight after the state’s top lawyer launched a challenge to President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, saying it contradicts the islands’ welcoming culture that values diversity. Named as a plaintiff…
read morePresident Donald Trump is embracing government numbers he once maligned as “phony” as he tries to take credit for the latest U.S. jobs report. The new administration on Friday promoted Labor Department statistics that show U.S. employers added 235,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent. “Great news for…
read moreAs congressional investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election are ramping up, so is the political division, raising questions about whether lawmakers’ work will be viewed as credible. The House this week scheduled its first public hearing, which some swiftly dismissed as political theater. Even as lawmakers began to review classified information at the…
read moreU.S. employers are thought to have hired at a brisk pace in February, and the unemployment rate is expected to stay low, a result that would provide further evidence of a consistently solid job market. Economists have forecast a job gain of 186,000 and a decline of one-tenth of a percentage point in unemployment…
read moreFrom the beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump has vowed to follow through on the campaign pledges and the promises he made to the voters who put him in the White House. But growing differences among congressional Republicans now threaten to complicate Trump’s ability to bring real change to Washington, as we hear from VOA…
read moreDonald Trump’s surprising victory in last year’s U.S. presidential election signaled a turn to the right. Now Europe is facing three critical elections of its own: next week in the Netherlands; next month in France; and later this summer in Germany. Just as anti-establishment fervor in Europe proved to be a harbinger of the U.S.…
read moreThe controversy over President Donald Trump’s two executive orders to ban travelers from a handful of Muslim majority countries has prompted some people to reach out to others of a different faith. VOA’s Nadeem Yaqub has this story of a Muslim and a Jewish family in Chicago’s suburbs who are together trying to build a…
read moreWhile the Trump administration is exploring strategies to thwart North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, former U.S. officials who dealt with the communist state extensively offer mixed views on how to achieve that goal. Earlier this week, Pyongyang launched four ballistic missiles in an apparent protest against U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises, prompting Beijing to intervene. Chinese…
read moreNigerian Abdulhakim Mohammed has just graduated in architecture but, like many people ranging from unemployed locals to foreign investors and Africa’s richest man, he has decided the future lies in rice farming. The reason is that domestic rice prices have more than doubled in the last two years due to an import ban and a…
read moreIran’s supreme leader criticized the country’s slow pace of economic recovery on Thursday despite the lifting of sanctions and called on President Hassan Rouhani’s government to champion greater self-sufficiency, state TV reported. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s criticism comes ahead of Iran’s presidential election in May, when the pragmatist president is expected to seek re-election. “Of course…
read morePresident Donald Trump holds a net unfavorable rating among Americans, though his favorability rating is still higher than Congress, both major political parties, former rival Hillary Clinton, and the media, according to a new poll. The poll, conducted over the course of last week by USA Today, shows 45 percent of Americans have a favorable…
read moreIn a pre-dawn vote Thursday, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives secured a legislative victory as they attempt to scrap and replace former president Barack Obama’s health care plan amid mounting intra-party opposition. After 18 hours of debate, the House Ways and Means Committee abolished the tax penalty in the Affordable Care Act that…
read moreChina on Thursday defended its handling of 38 trademarks it recently approved provisionally for President Donald Trump, saying it followed the law in processing the applications at a pace that some experts view as unusually quick. Democrats in Congress were critical of Trump after The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the potentially valuable trademarks had…
read moreChina is seeking an international agreement to enhance state control over the internet in order to fight cyberattacks and cyberterrorism. Beijing wants to extend the existing idea of sovereignty over land and sea to cyberspace. Beijing has released its first white paper discussing how it will persuade different countries to join together in an international…
read moreThe “deep state.” It is a murky and ominous term often suggesting a conspiracy — usually involving intelligence agencies, the armed forces or even judges — to influence policy and undercut democratically elected administrations. It has been uttered in recent years to describe the situation in Turkey as well as the internal battles faced by…
read moreRepublicans on a pivotal House committee scored an initial triumph in their effort to scuttle former President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, using a predawn vote Thursday to abolish the tax penalty his statute imposes on people who don’t purchase insurance and reshaping how millions of Americans buy medical care. Yet the Ways and…
read moreOn Pingtung jail’s sunlit roof, prisoner No. 24 has a view of a brighter future. Ex-cop Chen, serving time for bribery, is learning how to install solar panels in a program that’s part of Taiwan’s shimmering vision of a future without nuclear power. The 48-year-old is working on a project that has seen the southern…
read moreMany women and some men participated in rallies in cities across the U.S. Wednesday in what’s been called “A Day Without a Woman.” Some businesses allowed their employees to participate in this “strike” to show support for women. The motivations behind why some people participated are different. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee explains. …
read morePresident Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law are renting a house from a foreign billionaire who is fighting the U.S. government over a proposed mine in Minnesota. The Wall Street Journal reports that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are renting a $5.5 million house in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood from Andrónico Luksic. One of the Chilean billionaire’s…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s administration is weighing a deployment of up to 1,000 American soldiers to Kuwait to serve as a reserve force in the fight against Islamic State as U.S.-backed fighters accelerate the offensive in Syria and Iraq, U.S. officials told Reuters. Proponents of the option, which has not been previously reported, said it would…
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