Working to dismantle his predecessor’s environmental legacy, President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Friday that could lead to the expansion of drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. With one day before he reaches his 100th day in office, Trump will order his interior secretary to review an Obama-era plan that dictates…
read morePeople across the country will get to listen in real time to arguments over President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban before a federal appeals court. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday that C-SPAN will get to carry live audio of the May 8 arguments in Richmond, Virginia. The 4th Circuit doesn’t typically…
read morePresident Donald Trump “has no intention” of releasing his tax returns to the public, says Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, asserting Americans have “plenty of information” about the president’s financial matters. For decades, presidents have released their tax returns. But Trump has so far refused, saying that he would share the tax documents only after…
read moreLawmakers are nearing agreement on sweeping spending legislation to keep the lights on in government, after the White House backed off a threat to withhold payments that help lower-income Americans pay their medical bills. It was the latest concession by the White House, which had earlier dropped a demand for money for President Donald…
read moreLeading South Korean presidential contenders have criticized the rushed deployment of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system less than two weeks before their country’s election. Early Wednesday morning, a military convoy of 20 trucks and trailers transported components for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense battery to the designated deployment site on a…
read morePresident Donald Trump has signed an executive order to review the protected status of federal lands known as national monuments. Trump says the move returns the lands to the people. As Mike O’Sullivan reports, critics say it could open dozens of protected natural areas to potential development. …
read morePresident Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday directing his interior secretary to review the designation of dozens of national monuments on federal lands, as he singled out “a massive federal land grab” by the Obama administration. It was yet another executive action from a president trying to rack up accomplishments before his first…
read moreThe U.S. Senate has confirmed Rod Rosenstein, a 52-year-old career prosecutor, as the next deputy attorney general, effectively putting him in charge of the Russia hacking investigations. Rosenstein’s nomination was confirmed with a vote of 94-6 on Tuesday. The six Senators voting against Rosenstein were all Democrats. As the No. 2 Justice Department official, Rosenstein…
read moreIndia’s plans to invest in a strategic port in Sri Lanka as a counterbalance to China’s massive infrastructure investments in the Indian Ocean island country got a push Wednesday as Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visited New Delhi. China’s development of the key Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, which is a gateway to crucial…
read moreSome 200 taxis and buses have parked outside the government offices in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, demanding that Uber and other online taxi services be outlawed in the country. Transport in the already crowded city was disrupted Wednesday morning as the protest, scheduled to last until the evening, got underway. Drivers arrived early and…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday will order a review of national monuments created over the past 20 years with an aim toward rescinding or resizing some of them — part of a broader push to reopen areas to drilling, mining and other development. The move comes as Trump seeks to reverse a slew of…
read morePresident Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Tuesday said they did not fear a trade war with Canada after American punitive action on lumber and milk. “They have a tremendous surplus with the United States,” Trump said, adding “people don’t realize Canada’s been very rough on the United States. … They’ve outsmarted our…
read moreNine former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations have signed a letter to members of Congress urging them not to slash U.S. contributions to the U.N. budget. “The U.N. remains an indispensable instrument for advancing the global stability and prosperity on which U.S. interests and priorities depend,” the ambassadors wrote. “We therefore urge you to…
read moreA federal judge in San Francisco has blocked a directive from President Donald Trump to withhold funding from sanctuary jurisdictions — those that limit their cooperation with U.S. immigration agents. U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued a temporary ruling Tuesday that will remain in effect while the lawsuit over a provision in a Trump executive…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump is set to call for a sharp reduction in the nation’s corporate tax rate, the highest among the world’s industrialized countries. Trump is planning to unveil his tax plans Wednesday, with aides saying he will ask Congress to slash the current 35 percent rate down to 15 percent, a pledge he…
read morePresident Donald Trump will mark the end of his first 100 days in office with a flurry of executive orders, a tool he once derided. Trump’s frequent use of executive orders points to his struggles getting legislation through a Congress controlled by his own party, and few of the orders themselves appear to deliver the…
read moreCanadian officials say a new tariff imposed by the Trump administration will raise the cost of new homes in the United States by $1,000 each, and shut 150,000 Americans out of home ownership. Washington’s decision also puts “thousands” of U.S. homebuilding jobs at risk, according to Canada’s ministers of natural resources and foreign affairs. The…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump remains committed to building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but indicated Monday he is willing to wait until later this year for Congress to consider funding the project rather than insisting it be included in negotiations to avoid a government shut down this week. The current spending plan for U.S.…
read moreU.S. Senator Dan Sullivan on Monday called on both the American and Chinese governments to exercise “true reciprocity” in relations, including trade and diplomacy. The Republican senator from Alaska, in a speech concerning Chinese outbound investment, and in an interview with VOA afterward, said China has been aggressively buying companies in key sectors such…
read morePresident Donald Trump complained on Monday that the United States is shouldering an unfair burden of the cost of the United Nations, but said if the world body reforms how it operates, the investment would be worth it. Trump, who has frequently criticized the cost to the United States of supporting the NATO alliance, took…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump is to sign at least four executive orders this week, giving him the distinction of having signed more directives (28) in his first 100 days in office than any president since Franklin Roosevelt. A check by Politifact shows FDR signed 76 such orders in the same 100-day period in 1933. “Overall…
read moreGeneral Motors’ Venezuelan subsidiary has sent a message to almost 2,700 staff informing them that they are no longer employed by the company and had received severance pay in their bank accounts, according to two employees. A Venezuelan court last week ordered the seizure of the company’s Valencia plant, ruling in favor of two dealers…
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