President Sauli Niinisto on Tuesday denied that Finland was buying new fighter jets from American planemaker Boeing, following remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump. Finland is looking to replace its aging fleet of 62 F/A-18 Hornet jets with multirole fighter aircraft in a procurement estimated at 7-10 billion euros by 2025. “One of the things…
read moreIn Cambodia, the issue of land rights is a constant source of tension. The country’s biggest dam to date is set to go online in just weeks, adding 400 megawatts of power to the country’s critically overstretched grid. But the social and environmental costs of the project are huge, especially for minority villagers facing displacement.…
read morePeru expects a “very ambitious” free trade deal with Australia that covers goods, services and investments to be implemented as early as next year, Peru’s deputy trade minister said on Monday. The two countries resumed free trade talks in Australia on Monday following a first round of negotiations in July in which “a lot of…
read morePresident Donald Trump is unlikely to win congressional support for funds he wants for a proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall before an Oct. 1 deadline, meaning he may have to choose between backing down on a key campaign promise or shutting down the government. The second option was a politically dangerous one before Hurricane Harvey tore…
read moreMexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto will travel to China next week to discuss trade and investment, as Mexico looks for ways to decrease its dependence on NAFTA, especially trade with neighboring United States. He will hold a bilateral meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping and participate in a summit of the BRICS nations, a grouping…
read moreHundreds of ministers marched Monday in Washington on the anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, calling for an end to racism after recent violence in the country. The eldest son of King, Martin Luther King III, joined the rally along with the Reverend Al Sharpton and ministers…
read moreThe price of a pack of cigarettes has skyrocketed in New York City, while the number of places they are available for sale is set to fall. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday signed a sweeping series of anti-smoking bills, part of a comprehensive effort to help reduce the number of smokers in…
read moreDonald Trump on Friday issued the first clemency of his presidency, pardoning controversial former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The 85-year-old Arpaio, an early Trump supporter, had been convicted of criminal contempt after defying a judge’s order to stop racially profiling Latinos. In Arpaio’s defense, a White House statement cited his age and “life’s work of…
read moreSpeculation is rife in Washington that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may soon leave the administration, following comments he and an aide made to reporters over the past two days. Tillerson lunched Monday with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Later in the day, Pence was meeting with the U.S. ambassador to the…
read moreKenya has become the latest African country to ban the use of polythene plastic bags, imposing stiff fines and even jail time for anyone found using, importing or manufacturing the bags. In one of the biggest garbage dumping sites in Nairobi, it was business as usual Monday. Loads of plastic bags full of garbage were…
read moreFall armyworm has spread to Cameroon. The pest has attacked crops in at least 24 African countries. In Cameroon, the Ministry of Agriculture says it is particularly concerned about the impact of the fall armyworm infestation in the north and the east of the country. Minister-delegate Ananga Messina says fall armyworm has infested six of…
read moreTwo civil rights organizations filed lawsuits Monday against President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender service in the military. The two cases argue the ban, set into motion by President Trump in July, violates U.S. constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process under the Fifth Amendment. “President Trump cast aside the rigorous, evidence-based policy of…
read moreMassive flooding caused by Tropical Storm Harvey along Texas’ refinery-rich coast could have long-standing and far-reaching consequences for the state’s oil and gas industry and the larger U.S. economy. The storm’s remnants left much of Houston underwater on Sunday, and the National Weather Service says it’s not over yet: Some parts of Houston and its…
read moreExpedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been named Uber’s top executive, taking the difficult job of mending the dysfunctional ride-hailing giant and turning it from money-losing behemoth to a profitable company. Uber’s fractured eight-member board voted to hire Khosrowshahi late Sunday, capping three days of meetings and the withdrawal of once-top candidate Jeffery Immelt, former…
read moreA hurricane in the heart of the U.S. energy industry is expected to upend years of U.S. excess oil capacity and low prices, with the impact expected to reverberate globally and affect energy markets for weeks. Harvey hit the Texas shore as a fierce Category 4 hurricane, causing massive flooding that knocked out 11.2 percent…
read moreAfter months of delays, President Donald Trump is expected to decide soon on the fate of so called “dreamers” who were brought into the country illegally as children as he faces a looming court deadline and is digging in on appeals to his base. Advocates on both sides of the issue are bracing for the…
read moreFormer Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio has said he is grateful to President Donald Trump for a criminal pardon, but that act of clemency is drawing criticism from some within the president’s own party. VOA’s Marcus Harton has more. …
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump renewed his threat to scrap NAFTA and ripped on trading partners Canada and Mexico in a tweet early on Sunday, days before the three countries were scheduled to hold a second round of negotiations on rewriting the 23-year-old agreement. “We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process…
read moreU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says President Donald Trump, who has faced criticism over his response to a recent white nationalist rally in Virginia, “speaks for himself” on his values. Tillerson appeared on Fox News Sunday, and was asked by anchor Chris Wallace about a United Nations committee criticizing the Trump administration for its…
read morePakistan postponed a visit by a U.S. acting assistant secretary of state, officials said, as small protests broke out against President Donald Trump’s accusations that Islamabad was prolonging the war in Afghanistan. The visit of Alice Wells, acting assistant Secretary of State for South and Asian Affairs, scheduled for Monday, would have been the first…
read moreHouse speaker Paul Ryan says he disagrees with President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, less than a month after he was convicted of criminal contempt in a case involving his department’s racial profiling policy. “Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States.…
read morePresident Donald Trump should not have pardoned a former Arizona sheriff who was convicted of criminal contempt in a case of racial profiling, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said on Saturday. Trump announced on Friday he was pardoning Joe Arpaio, an anti-immigration hardliner found guilty last month for flouting a…
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