President Donald Trump is a unifying force for Democrats, bringing together disparate factions in opposition to nearly every presidential move. But solidarity – at least for now – doesn’t necessarily add up to a strategy that can help Democrats win more elections after a precipitous slide from power in Congress and around the country.…
read moreSeveral minutes after a passenger recorded a video watched around the world that showed security officers dragging another passenger off an overbooked United Express flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, a smaller snippet of video showed an even more troubling scene. There stood the passenger who had been dragged on his back to the front…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s relentless push for more manufacturing jobs has forced the auto industry into a delicate dance of contradictions in order to keep him happy, tell the truth, and avoid alienating customers in both red and blue states. Toyota did the waltz with Monday’s announcement that it would spend $1.33 billion to retool its…
read moreWith its colonial mansions, landscaped gardens and ornate fountains, the town of Petropolis, a traditional haunt of Brazil’s last monarch Dom Pedro II, retains a grandeur that has not faded since he was forced into exile in 1889. But beneath the opulent surface of the former summer imperial capital, resentment simmers against a special…
read moreWhen they are not tending to international affairs, diplomats based in Havana can be found these days stewing in interminable queues at gas stations and concocting ways to increase the octane in fuel as Cuba’s premium gasoline shortage takes its toll. Cuba sent around an internal memo last week advising that it would restrict sales…
read moreU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is heading to Moscow for meetings Wednesday with Russian leaders amid a spike in tensions over Syria. Tillerson has accused Moscow of either being complicit or incompetent in failing to prevent the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from using chemical weapons against civilians. VOA’s Daniel Schearf reports from…
read moreTwo new U.S. public opinion polls show Americans support President Donald Trump’s missile attacks on Syria for its use of chemical weapons, but have little appetite for further military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A CBS News poll showed that by a 57-to-36 percent margin, those surveyed favored Trump’s assault last…
read moreIn the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s surprise strikes on Syria, his allies and adversaries have searched for some broader meaning in his decision. Is Trump now a humanitarian interventionist, willing to wield American military power when foreign governments threaten their own citizens? Is he a commander in chief who once warned against intervention in…
read moreSomething new is happening in a health care debate dominated for seven years by the twists and turns of Barack Obama’s signature law. The focus has shifted to ideas from President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers in Congress, and most people don’t like what they see. With Republicans in command, their health care proposals as…
read moreOne-off surgical strikes like the kind carried out by the U.S. against the Syrian regime on Thursday have had a spotty record of effectiveness, raising questions over the latest assault’s ability to alter the course of the six-year-old Syrian conflict, according to military experts. The strikes against a Syrian military airfield, which came in response…
read moreThe airlines are getting better at sticking to their schedules and are losing fewer bags. Their customers seem to be complaining less often. Those are the findings of an annual report on airline quality being released Monday by researchers at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The researchers use information compiled by the…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump is continuing to shuffle the ranks of his top national security advisers. Trump aides confirmed Sunday that deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland, who worked for three previous Republican presidents, is expected to leave Trump’s staff soon, likely to be named as the U.S. ambassador to Singapore. The 65-year-old McFarland came…
read moreThe U.S. military carried out air strikes against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday. President Donald Trump has made it clear the strikes were a retaliation for Assad’s suspected use of chemical weapons April 4, which left about 100 dead, including women and children. But why were the use of chemical weapons…
read moreThe U.S. Navy is sending a strike group toward the Korean Peninsula to bolster the U.S. presence there and send a message to North Korea, which this week conducted a ballistic missile test despite U.N. Security Council resolutions banning such launches. The Carl Vinson Strike Group was making a port call in Singapore and was…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s White House has been sharply divided by the rivalry between his powerful son-in-law with unfettered access to the president and the ideologue behind Trump’s populist rise. Senior adviser Jared Kushner and chief strategist Steve Bannon, arguably the two most influential voices in the West Wing, have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks over…
read moreOfficials of former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration are responding to criticism of Obama for not retaliating against Syria for a previous chemical weapons attack. The officials maintain Obama proposed strikes in 2013 against Syria similar to those ordered Friday by Republican President Donald Trump but were thwarted by a Republican-controlled Congress that refused to…
read moreBefore the U.S. attack on a Syrian air base, President Donald Trump accused his predecessor of doing nothing when Syria’s government used chemical weapons against its population in 2013. Trump is right that President Barack Obama issued what amounted to an empty threat of military action. The circumstances, though, were more complicated than Trump described.…
read moreIndia and Bangladesh signaled deepening ties Saturday as New Delhi committed a $4.5-billion line of credit to Dhaka for development projects, and the two countries signed their first-ever pact on defense cooperation. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an additional $500 million in credit for Bangladesh to buy military equipment from India during the visit…
read moreIndia and Bangladesh signaled deepening ties Saturday as New Delhi committed a $4.5 billion line of credit to Dhaka for development projects, and the two countries signed their first-ever pact on defense cooperation. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an additional $500 million in credit for Bangladesh to buy military equipment from India during the…
read moreThe U.S. attorney general is not pleased that the police department of the Atlantic coast city of Baltimore, Maryland, has decided to adhere to an agreement negotiated with the Obama administration. While Jeff Sessions said the consent decree will make Baltimore “a less-safe city,” Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh disagreed, saying “I believe that it makes…
read moreMarch was a disappointing month for job seekers, with the U.S. Labor Department reporting that the private sector added only 98,000 jobs last month. But one industry is looking beyond the job numbers and toward distant shores as President Donald Trump meets for the first time with Chinese President Xi Jinping to talk about trade.…
read moreAs U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met Friday at Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, human rights activist said they hoped the leaders would discuss human rights. Hu Jia and Wang Qiaoling, wife of detained human rights lawyer Li Heping, told VOA they were concerned about two specific human rights cases in…
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