Churches should have the First Amendment right to endorse political candidates and still keep their tax-free status, say House Republicans, who quietly tucked a provision into a sweeping spending bill that would deny the IRS money to enforce the 63-year-old law prohibiting such outright politicking from the pulpit. Republicans repeatedly have failed to scrap the…
read moreThe U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to cut $600 million from the organization’s nearly $8 billion annual peacekeeping budget. The move comes amid pressure from the Trump administration, which contributes more than a quarter of the department’s annual budget. But U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who took office Jan. 1, has also called for major U.N.…
read morePresident Donald Trump is forming a National Space Council to be led by Vice President Mike Pence. The president signed an executive order Friday to revive a council last in place in 1993. Trump says the announcement sends a clear signal to the world about the United States’ leadership in space. He says…
read moreClimate change will have an impact, not just on the temperature, but on the economy, according to a new analysis. A group of researchers has just released a study focused on the future economic effects of climate change in the U.S. Using six different economic variables, the team is predicting, with county by county accuracy,…
read moreOfficials from 10 states are calling on the administration of President Donald Trump to end an Obama-era program that granted temporary immunity to undocumented young people who were brought to the United States as children. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the officials urged the administration to end the 2012 Deferred Action…
read moreA New York jury ruled Thursday in federal court that a skyscraper with apparent ties to the Iranian government can be seized by the U.S. government, in what prosecutors are calling the single largest terrorism-related civil forfeiture case in American history. The jury found that the Alavi Foundation, which owns about 60 percent of the…
read moreIn a major boost to Thailand’s transportation infrastructure, the military government is set to sign a more than $5 billion agreement with China for a high-speed rail network. The first stage of the rail, the 252 kilometers from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, is a key step in a line that, once complete, will stretch more…
read moreIndia is set to rollout a momentous tax reform at midnight Friday that will transform the country of 1.3 billion people into a single market. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) will replace an entanglement of more than a dozen confusing levies with a single tax and bring down barriers between states. But the transition…
read moreOne hundred fifty years ago, an event occurred that became a part of American history still studied by academics today: Countless Chinese railroad workers for the Central Pacific Railroad stopped going to work. “It’s significant because this was the first major strike that any Chinese group ever did. There were earlier strikes, but this was…
read moreThe U.S. House of Representatives took the first steps toward fulfilling two of President Donald Trump’s signature campaign promises Thursday, passing bills strengthening penalties on undocumented immigrants who return to the U.S. after having been deported and cutting federal funds to sanctuary cities. By a 257-167 vote, the House passed “Kate’s Law,” a bill named…
read moreU.S. economic growth in the first quarter of 2017 was better than expected but not by much. The Commerce Department says U.S. GDP, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the country, grew 1.4 percent from January to March, 0.2 percent faster than the previous estimate. But many analysts believe U.S. growth will…
read moreDespite diplomatic activity in Washington this week, the blockade of Qatar by its Persian Gulf neighbors continues. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with top officials from Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, calling for negotiations to end the crisis. But Saudi Arabia says its demands on Qatar are non-negotiable, and Qatar says it will…
read moreBipartisan leaders on the House Intelligence Committee are threatening a subpoena if the White House doesn’t clarify whether any recordings, memoranda or other documents exist of President Donald Trump’s meetings with fired FBI Director James Comey. The panel had previously set a June 23 deadline for the White House to respond to its request. The…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s commission investigating alleged voter fraud in the 2016 elections has asked states for a list of the names, party affiliations, addresses and voting histories of all voters, if state law allows it to be public. A Wednesday letter from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity gives secretaries of state about two…
read moreIt looked like a hostage swap, only the currency was livestock and the mission was to end decades of deadly clashes. More than 50 sheep, goats and cows stood in the scorching heat of a desolate no-man’s land in arid northern Kenya, as Maasai and Samburu herders negotiated their handover. Lipan Kitonga cast a critical…
read moreFrance is known worldwide for its wine, food and culture, but under its new president, the French are aiming to be the new global hub for tech startups. President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to build a version of Silicon Valley in France. His administration has launched pro-business initiatives that are loosening government restrictions…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump has nominated a former member of the U.S. Senate from Texas to become the next ambassador to NATO. Kay Bailey Hutchison, 73, served in the Senate for 20 years beginning in 1993, when she won a special election to fill a vacant seat. Since stepping down in 2013, she has practiced…
read morePoor and southern U.S. counties will get hit hardest by global warming, according to a first-of-its-kind detailed projection of potential climate change effects at the local level. The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, calculates probable economic harms and benefits for the more than 3,100 counties in the United States under different possible scenarios…
read morePresident Donald Trump on Thursday promoted a “golden era” of the U.S. energy business by seeking to assert power abroad through a boost in natural gas, coal and petroleum exports. In what he called a policy of “energy dominance,” Trump re-branded efforts to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to markets in Eastern Europe and Asia…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday evening hosts South Korean President Moon Jae-in for cocktails and dinner, a prelude to talks the next day on the “very urgent threat posed by North Korea,” according to a senior White House official. It’ll be the first time the two leaders meet. Moon, a liberal, took office early…
read moreMany Americans in rural parts of the United States voted to elect Donald Trump as president in 2016, despite his stance against trade agreements. In the wake of the President Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, or TPP, and now curbing trade with Cuba, VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports on how farmers…
read moreNguyen Kim Lan used to make a decent living shuttling customers around town on his Honda motorbike. But his clientele has dwindled as young and tech-savvy Vietnamese increasingly use ride-hailing apps like Uber and Grab to summon cheaper, safer motorbike taxis. The expansion of the ride-hailing services across Southeast Asia is shaking up traditional…
read more