Developments over the weekend concerning President Donald Trump include his speech to Arab and Muslim leaders, which called for unity in fighting terrorism, his schedule for visiting Israel on Monday, his firing of FBI Director James Comey continues to draw fire in Washington, and some students at Notre Dame University walk out on a commencement…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump focused Sunday on a major address to Muslim leaders at a summit in Riyadh, but back home the day’s news shows were dominated by talk of his firing of FBI chief James Comey and investigations into the Trump campaign’s links to Russia. Two key Trump officials, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson…
read moreThe European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, said on Sunday he was confident an agreement between Athens and its creditors could be found at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Monday in Brussels. Athens needs funds to repay 7.5 billion euros ($8.4 billion) of debt maturing in July. “We are…
read moreIn the United States, the 2016 presidential election revealed deep societal divisions that threaten the nation’s future. Several nonprofit groups have targeted this problem. As VOA’s Greg Flakus reports from Washington, one of these new efforts involves people from different backgrounds and ideological positions working together on projects that benefit the needy. …
read moreWhen Donald Trump visited Montana last year ahead of the state’s Republican presidential primary, technology entrepreneur Greg Gianforte was running on the GOP ticket for governor and made it a point to avoid his party’s likely presidential nominee. Gianforte later reluctantly pledged support for Trump, but tried to distance himself from him during an unsuccessful…
read morePresident Donald Trump is proposing drastic cuts in many education programs but expansion of programs that favor charter schools, according to The Washington Post, which published a story earlier this week based on a leaked document. The document is similar, however, to a preliminary budget outline, referred to as “the skinny budget,” that the Trump…
read moreThe world’s largest private equity fund, backed by Japan’s Softbank Group and Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund, said Saturday that it had raised over $93 billion to invest in technology sectors such as artificial intelligence and robotics. “The next stage of the Information Revolution is under way, and building the businesses that will make…
read moreNAACP President Cornell William Brooks will not be returning as the leader of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization after his contract expires this summer, officials said Friday. Brooks has been the NAACP’s leader since 2014 but will not be kept on past June 30, the end of his current term. NAACP Board Chairman…
read moreAlabama’s GOP-dominated legislature redrew legislative maps Friday under court order to fix racial gerrymandering, punctuating a session rife with racial turmoil over issues such as the protection of Confederate monuments and an email that compared lawmakers to monkeys. The Senate approved new district maps Friday and sent them to the governor despite objections from black…
read moreAbout 3 million Americans will enter the job pool this year as graduation ceremonies get underway at various colleges and universities across the United States. With unemployment at a 10-year low, 2017 is shaping up to be a good year for new grads. But as Mil Arcega reports, success for many will depend on a…
read morePresident Donald Trump set off on an ambitious nine-day international trip Friday that takes him to the Middle East and Europe. Although he hoped to leave behind the political turmoil that began when he fired FBI Director James Comey, a new report raises more questions about Trump’s motives for firing the FBI director. More from…
read moreIn the age of social media, people are having trouble differentiating what is news and what is not. VOA’s Jane Bojadzievski looks at the trend. …
read moreThe Trump administration is exploring whether it can use an obscure ethics rule to undermine the special counsel investigation into ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russia, two people familiar with White House thinking said Friday. Trump has said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s hiring of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as…
read moreU.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said North Koreans probably learned a lot from their latest rocket launch, adding that attempts to resolve the North Korea missile crisis through military force would be “tragic.” Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on Friday, Mattis declined to say whether the missile North Korea launched earlier this week…
read moreThe Washington Post is quoting unidentified sources that report the FBI investigation into possible ties between President Donald Trump’s political organization and Russia has identified a current senior White House official as “a significant person of interest” in the case. The senior official now under scrutiny is said to be someone close to the president,…
read morePro-Syrian government forces hit by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in an established deconfliction zone inside Syria were directed by Iran, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Friday. Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon the strikes were conducted in “self-defense” and were “necessitated by offensive movement with offensive capability of what we believe were Iranian-directed forces.”…
read moreA new poll says public approval of U.S. President Donald Trump has dropped to its lowest level since he was inaugurated, with the drop in confidence centered among Republican voters. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Friday indicates only 38 percent of U.S. adults now approve of the president, while 56 percent said they disapprove of his…
read moreOn the eve of President Donald Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. State Department imposed terrorism sanctions jointly with the kingdom on two prominent extremist leaders, calling them “global terrorists.” Senior Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine, a Lebanese citizen in his 50s, and Muhammad al-Isawi, an Egyptian national and leader of Islamic State in the…
read moreAbout three million American university graduates will enter the job market this year. And with unemployment currently at a 10-year low, it’s a good time to be graduating, says Nicole Smith, chief economist at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). “We are at one of the lowest unemployment rates we’ve had since…
read moreA sizable majority of rural Americans backed Donald Trump’s presidential bid, drawn to his calls to slash environmental rules, strengthen law enforcement and replace the federal health care law. But last month, many of them struck a sour note after White House aides signaled that Trump would deliver on another signature vow by edging toward…
read moreAn OPEC panel reviewing scenarios for next week’s policy-setting meeting is looking at the option of deepening and extending an OPEC-led deal to reduce oil output, OPEC sources said Friday. OPEC’s national representatives — officials representing the 13 member countries, plus officials from OPEC’s Vienna secretariat — met Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the market.…
read moreA couple of things about the WannaCry cyberattack are certain. It was the biggest in history and it’s a scary preview of things to come. But one thing is a lot less clear: whether North Korea had anything to do with it. Despite bits and pieces of evidence that suggest a possible North Korea…
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