President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned. The work appears to contradict assertions by the Trump administration…
read moreLawmakers questioning Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch at his Senate confirmation are asking about something called “Chevron deference.” For the record, it is not about letting someone ahead of you in line at the gas station. But it is a legal concept Gorsuch has addressed as a judge on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of…
read moreU.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch faces at least one more day of direct questioning by a Senate panel Wednesday before members vote on whether to recommend his nomination to the full Senate. Gorsuch told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a confirmation hearing Tuesday that no Trump administration official ever pressured him to promise how…
read moreOil prices dipped on Wednesday as rising crude stocks in the United States underscored an ongoing global fuel supply overhang despite an OPEC-led effort to cut output. Prices for front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil, were at $50.79 per barrel at 0451 GMT, down 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last…
read moreAn altered Facebook headline on a newspaper story involving a statue of Robert E. Lee has blown up into a major sore point in the Virginia GOP primary for governor — another instance of politicians or their allies changing headlines to suit their own purposes on that platform. Virginia’s governor’s race is being watched nationally…
read moreBrazil’s government plans to announce spending freezes of 30 billion to 35 billion reais ($9.7 billion to $11.3 billion) this week to help meet part of its 2017 budget deficit target, the Senate leader said on Tuesday. The rest of the shortfall will have to come from raised taxes and higher revenues from such sources…
read moreAmid continuing economic turmoil, Venezuela skipped heating oil contributions to a Massachusetts-based nonprofit for a second consecutive winter, signaling that the popular program that began with fanfare after Hurricane Katrina may be kaput. The decision by Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp. to bow out of the program founded by Joseph P. Kennedy II, which has helped…
read moreNamibia’s president said Tuesday that the government is considering radical land expropriation to spur the transfer of property to the country’s black majority. Speaking at Namibia’s 27th independence celebrations, President Hage Geingob said the government should evoke part of the Constitution allowing for land expropriation with fair compensation since the redistribution process has been slow.…
read moreApple is cutting prices on two iPad models and introducing red iPhones, but the company held back on updating its higher-end iPad Pro tablets. A much-speculated 10.5-inch iPad Pro didn’t materialize, nor did new versions of existing sizes in the Pro lineup, which is aimed at businesses and creative professionals. The new devices are mostly…
read moreU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has come under fire for a decision not to attend next month’s NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, and for an announcement that he will travel to Russia later in April. At Tuesday’s State Department briefing, acting spokesman Mark Toner fielded a number of questions from reporters about the…
read moreU.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says his department will not detain undocumented immigrants at “sensitive locations” such as churches. His comments last week came as congregations across the United States have mounted a grassroots movement to oppose the Trump administration’s immigration policies and to offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants threatened with immediate deportation. VOA’s…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump has signed into law a bill to increase the budget of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), maintain the agency’s earth science program, and add human exploration of Mars as a goal. The new law increases NASA’s budget for 2018 by $19.5 billion. Trump said the law will reinforce NASA’s…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States, federal appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch, said during Senate confirmation hearings Tuesday he would continue to fully embrace the concept of judicial independence if he is appointed to the nation’s highest court. “I have offered no promises on how I would rule in any…
read morePresident meets with Republican lawmakers ahead of key Thursday vote that would overturn Obama’s signature legislative achievement …
read moreThe University of Southern California each year hosts the African Economic and Development Summit, bringing delegations of African business leaders, government officials and others to network with their counterparts in the U.S. But this year, the African summit has no Africans. All were denied visas. Michelle Quinn reports from Los Angeles. …
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump welcomed Iraq’s prime minister and a large Iraqi delegation to the White House on Monday, for talks aimed at further coordinating efforts to defeat Islamic State extremists in northern Iraq. As the meeting opened, Trump praised Iraqi government efforts to face down the extremist group, and then told Prime Minister Haider…
read moreThe Trump administration has released its first weekly report documenting the failure of some local law enforcement agencies to help federal immigration authorities apprehend undocumented immigrants. The report was mandated in President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” to expose sanctuary jurisdictions, meaning those who choose not…
read moreThe World Bank reports Africa will receive the bulk of the $75 billion the International Development Association, or IDA, will spend to finance life-saving and life-changing operations over the next three years mainly in 30 of the world’s poorest, most fragile countries. The IDA is a part of the World Bank which supports anti-poverty programs…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, federal appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch, made clear his conservative leanings by speaking out against judicial activism Monday during the first day of confirmation hearings before a sharply divided Senate panel. “It’s for this body, the people’s representatives [in Congress] to make new laws,” Gorsuch said. “If judges were just…
read moreAuthorities say a man who drove to a security checkpoint near the White House in a stolen car was arrested after stating “there’s a bomb in the trunk.” A police report says 29-year-old Sean Patrick Keoughan of Roanoke, Virginia, got out of the car at the checkpoint Saturday and was clasping something in his hand…
read moreThey sat on either end of the congressmen’s couch, one a Jewish healthcare executive whose parents fled Germany in 1936, the other the Kashmiri Muslim chairman of a well-known American furniture chain. The men, Stanley Bergman and Farooq Kathwari, came to draw attention to an outbreak of hate crimes. But Bergman and Kathwari hoped their…
read moreThere was bad news for the United Nations last week, as President Donald Trump announced he is seeking a 28 percent budget cut for diplomacy and foreign aid, which includes an unspecified reduction in funding to the United Nations and its agencies. VOA’s U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer reports that the potential cuts come as the…
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