Facebook is slowly acknowledging the outsized — if unintended 0151— role it played in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Bowing to pressure from lawmakers and the public, the company said it will provide the contents of 3,000 ads bought by a Russian agency to congressional investigators, while also pledging to make political advertising on…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump heads to the southern state of Alabama Friday to campaign for an embattled Republican senator whose defeat could spell trouble for establishment Republican lawmakers seeking reelection next year and add new tensions to the party’s already fractious Senate caucus. “Looking forward to Friday night in the Great State of Alabama,” Trump…
read moreThe Standard & Poor’s rating agency cut China’s credit rating Thursday due to its rising debts, highlighting challenges faced by Communist leaders as they cope with slowing economic growth. The downgrade added to mounting warnings about the dangers of increasing Chinese debt, which has fueled fears of a banking crisis or a drag on economic…
read moreOn the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, business and political leaders around the world met to urge cooperation on such issues as trade, investment and international technology to help boost globalization. Without integration between nations, such issues as the environment, economic development and the well-being of societies suffer.…
read moreU.S. central bank officials will hold off on the third interest rate hike of the year. But the Federal Reserve says it will go ahead with plans to unload its massive portfolio of Treasuries and mortgage bonds. The decision to delay the rate hike and reduce (or normalize) the Fed’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet had…
read moreThe Securities and Exchange Commission says a cyber breach of a filing system it uses may have provided the basis for some illegal trading in 2016. In a statement posted Wednesday evening on the SEC’s website, Chairman Jay Clayton says a review of the agency’s cybersecurity risk profile determined that the previously detected incident was…
read morePresident Donald Trump is considering a further reduction in the number of refugees allowed into the United States as the administration works to re-shape American immigration policy, officials said Wednesday. Trump, who has already slashed refugee admissions once since taking office, is now weighing limiting even further the number of refugees allowed into the country…
read moreFor an administration that came to office nine months ago with precious little foreign policy experience, President Donald Trump and his team are making a remarkable splash at this week’s United Nations General Assembly gathering. From his headline-grabbing barbs pointed at North Korea, Iran and Venezuela, to his four-day marathon of meetings with world…
read moreFormer President Barack Obama used a rare public appearance on Wednesday to question Republicans’ latest effort to repeal his signature healthcare law, saying it would inflict “real human suffering” on Americans. In his speech at a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation event in New York City, Obama also laid out an optimistic vision of the…
read moreSpecial counsel Robert Mueller’s team of investigators is seeking information from the White House related to Michael Flynn’s stint as national security adviser and about the response to a meeting with a Russian lawyer that was attended by President Donald Trump’s oldest son, The Associated Press has learned. Mueller’s office has requested a large…
read moreThe U.S. Senate is set next week to again debate overhauling the country’s health care policies, a last-ditch effort by Republicans to dismantle the signature law championed by former Democratic President Barack Obama. A spokeswoman for Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that senators would consider their party’s latest legislative proposal to overturn the…
read moreAfter a troubled youth himself, Phillip Cohen made it a practice to hire people at his woodworking business who have also struggled with addiction and mental health issues. But when an employee died from a drug overdose, he adopted a zero-tolerance policy. “I think I have saved lives,” says the owner of Cohen Architectural Woodworking…
read moreHillary Clinton’s What Happened had a big debut. Clinton’s book about her stunning loss in 2016 to Donald Trump sold more than 300,000 copies in the combined formats of hardcover, e-book and audio, Simon & Schuster told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The book’s hardcover sales of 168,000 was the highest opening for any nonfiction…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he has made a decision on whether to pull the United States out of the 2015 international pact curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons development. Trump declined to say what his decision is, but the U.S. rift with Iran took center stage at the United Nations General Assembly, a day after…
read moreChina has announced a crackdown on violations of patents and trade secrets in an effort to mollify foreign companies ahead of a visit to Beijing by U.S. President Donald Trump. The crackdown might give Beijing diplomatic ammunition to respond to mounting U.S. and European trade complaints. But it fails to address what foreign companies say…
read moreSpecial counsel Robert Mueller’s office has questioned Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as it probes the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday. It is not clear exactly when the conversation took place, or how long it lasted, but Rosenstein is relevant to Mueller’s…
read moreEgypt’s economy has started to improve but has yet to recover from the country’s 2011 uprising and the years of unrest that followed, an international credit rating agency said. Moody’s hailed recent economic and fiscal reforms in its annual report released Tuesday, saying they point to “improved government effectiveness and policy predictability.” Weak finances, however,…
read moreA human rights organization says millions of workers in India’s brick kiln industry are trapped in a perpetual cycle of imposed debt and low wages, which forces them to bring their children to work alongside them in the hot, dusty kilns. An estimated 23 million workers are employed in at least 100,000 brick kilns operating…
read moreThe chairman of the Senate intelligence committee says Facebook should testify as part of its probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, and that the social media giant “seems to have been less than forthcoming” with Congress. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said Tuesday that committee members agreed the panel should hold a public hearing…
read morePresident Donald Trump singled out North Korea, Iran and Venezuela for special criticism in his first address to the United Nations General Assembly. VOA White House correspondent Peter Heinlein reports there were murmurs in the Assembly hall when the president warned Pyongyang that its current course could lead to its destruction. …
read moreU.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped up the Trump administration’s critique of so-called sanctuary cities on Tuesday, saying local and state policies to limit cooperation with immigration enforcement are a criminal’s “best friend.” Sessions’ remarks, at a gathering of law enforcement authorities in Portland, Oregon, came days after repudiation of his stance against the sanctuary…
read morePresident Donald Trump warned North Korea over its nuclear weapons development in his debut address to the U.N. General Assembly, but he failed to offer a concrete strategy on how to denuclearize the communist state, experts say. Speaking before world leaders gathered at U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday, the president of the United…
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