President Donald Trump says he is “very close” to picking a person for the most important economic post in the United States, the head of the Federal Reserve. Current Chair Janet Yellen’s term expires early next year and she is one of at least five candidates for the job. Besides Yellen, the candidates include Fed…
read moreMore than four decades after selling 1,000 Volvos to North Korea, Sweden is still trying to get paid for the cars. The vehicles were part of a $131 million trade package delivered to North Korea in 1974, during a period of openness. But Pyongyang never paid anything on the deal, leaving a debt that has…
read moreThe State Department on Thursday recognized Intersex Awareness Day and said the United States stands in solidarity with intersex persons around the world. The statement comes as the department faces a discrimination lawsuit on the issue. “We recognize that intersex persons face violence, discrimination, harassment, and persecution on account of their sex characteristics,” State Department…
read moreWhen kids go back to school, they usually talk about what they did during their summer vacation. The 15 and 16-year-olds who joined Summer RISE in Montgomery County, Maryland, have some unique stories about work in fire departments, non-profits, private businesses and many other workplaces. Faiza Elmasry tells us about one of the high schoolers…
read moreThe U.S. House of Representatives Thursday approved a $4 trillion fiscal 2018 budget blueprint, a major step forward toward the introduction of a Republican tax cut bill. The measure narrowly passed (216-212) despite last-minute resistance from the ranks of Republicans. House passage makes enactment of an eventual tax bill more likely in the Senate, although…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump declared a nationwide public health emergency Thursday to address an escalating opioid crisis that killed more than 175 people each day last year. Senior administration officials told reporters Thursday morning the declaration will give states more flexibility to use federal funds, although it will not come with specific funds. The declaration…
read moreFormer Vice President Joe Biden hasn’t decided to run for president in 2020. But he’s decided that he’s “not going to decide not to run.” Got it? The 74-year-old Democrat offered the somewhat confusing take on his political future in a series of new interviews ahead of the release of his memoir. But one thing…
read moreTwitter is reporting a loss of $21.1 million in its third quarter, but turned in a better-than-expected profit when one-time charges and benefits are removed. Shares of Twitter Inc. soared almost 9 percent before the opening bell Thursday. The San Francisco company had a loss of 3 cents, but a gain of 10…
read moreThe Trump administration has settled lawsuits with tea party groups that received extra, often burdensome scrutiny when applying for tax-exempt status, ending another chapter in a political scandal that dogged the Obama administration and remains a source of outrage for Republicans. The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing to the groups as part of the proposed…
read moreWhen Jo Ann Davidson ran for the Reynoldsburg, Ohio, city council, she picked up a book that explained everything a candidate needed to know about running for office. It had just three pages tailored for females. “There really was nothing out there at the time,” said Davidson, “to help a woman candidate.” Davidson lost that…
read moreElon Musk was fed up. The seats on Tesla Inc’s new Model X SUV were a mess. An outside contractor was having trouble executing the complicated design, spurring frustration and finger-pointing between Tesla and its supplier. How would Tesla ever pull off mass production of the upcoming Model 3, the car intended to catapult the…
read moreIvanka Trump teamed up Wednesday with Republican legislators to try to ensure the tax overhaul package under construction on Capitol Hill includes an expansion of the child tax credit. The White House adviser and presidential daughter, appearing at a Capitol Hill news conference with GOP lawmakers, framed the tax credit as crucial for working families.…
read moreNational Security Adviser General H.R. McMaster is a longtime Army officer who gained national attention for a book that criticized the military’s leadership and strategy in the Vietnam War. In 2005, he was recognized for leading one of the first successful counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq, and later became an adviser to General David Petraeus. In…
read moreAfter a jaw-dropping day that saw President Donald Trump take fire from two of his own party’s leading figures, he is fighting back in true Trump style, belittling critics and declaring another win in the campaign to remake the Republican Party in his own image. Trump launched another blast of comments and tweets Wednesday at…
read moreA bipartisan measure to stabilize the U.S. health insurance markets would save the government money, but do little to cut the cost of premiums for consumers or substantially change the number of people who have insurance to help pay their medical bills, a new independent study concluded Wednesday. With Republican efforts stalled in Congress to…
read moreAmericans could see a lot more drones flying around their communities as the result of a Trump administration test program to increase government and commercial use of the unmanned aircraft. President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead Wednesday, signing a directive intended to increase the number and complexity of drone flights. The presidential memo would allow…
read moreOnly about 1 in 5 politicians in the US is female, even though women make up just over half of the US population. With many saying 2018 could be “The Year of the Woman” in American politics, new tools have become available for women running for office. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti shows us some high-tech and…
read moreUS Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona is the latest Republican lawmaker to stand up against the Trump administration. Like Tennessee Senator Bob Corker last month, Flake said Tuesday he will not seek re-election in 2018, citing disagreement with the direction his party is taking. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …
read moreHillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund a political research firm that produced a dossier of allegations about President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. That’s according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke Tuesday evening to The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential…
read moreThe White House and the Senate majority leader on Tuesday tried to cement over widening cracks in their governing Republican Party. The most prominent new fissure came on the Senate floor when Jeff Flake of Arizona slammed the president’s behavior and announced he would not run for re-election next year. Flake, a first-term senator, who…
read moreRepublican Sen. Jeff Flake said Tuesday he would not seek re-election next year, delivering a forceful condemnation of the “flagrant disregard of truth and decency” and bemoaning political complicity in a Senate speech clearly directed at President Donald Trump. Speaking to a rapt audience of other senators, the first-term Arizona lawmaker spelled out his frustration…
read moreAn unprecedented Chinese financial and construction effort is rapidly developing Pakistan’s strategically located Arabian Sea port of Gwadar into one of the world’s largest transit and transshipment cargo facilities. The deep water port lies at the convergence of three of the most commercially important regions of the world, the oil-rich Middle East, Central Asia, and…
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