Two days before U.S. government funding expires, lawmakers appeared no closer to resolving a potential sticking point on a spending bill to avert a shutdown: the plight of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to America as children. Many Democrats remained firm in linking an extension of federal funds to congressional action…
read moreU.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday called on the nation’s immigration courts to decide cases more efficiently, amid a burgeoning backlog that is hampering the Trump administration’s efforts to deport more illegal immigrants. Sessions’ memo to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the agency under the Department of Justice that conducts immigration court proceedings,…
read moreLuxury goods companies may ban sales of their products on online platforms like Amazon to preserve their aura of exclusivity, the European Union’s top court said Wednesday. The European Court of Justice ruled in favor of the German branch of luxury cosmetics group Coty, whose brands include Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs, which sought to…
read moreThe Chief Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in one of their biggest cases of the year Tuesday, a five-year-old controversy over whether a baker should have been obligated by law to provide a wedding cake to a same-sex couple. The case centers on the boundaries of free speech and free exercise…
read moreRepublican leaders in Washington are coming to grips with the possibility — perhaps even probability — that Alabama’s Roy Moore will win his special election next Tuesday and join them in the capital. Looking past allegations of sexual misconduct with Alabama teenagers, President Donald Trump formally endorsed Moore, and the Republican National Committee quickly followed…
read moreThe U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to sharply reduce the annual $300 million in U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it take steps to stop making what lawmakers described as payments that reward violent crime. The House backed by voice vote the Taylor Force Act, named after a 29-year-old American military veteran…
read moreFormer President Barack Obama on Tuesday told a summit of mayors driven to act after President Donald Trump rejected the Paris climate accord that cities and states are the “new face of American leadership” on climate change. Obama, who did not mention Trump by name, made a quick appearance at the conference hosted by his…
read moreA war on food waste in France, where supermarkets are banned from throwing away unsold food and restaurants must provide doggy bags when asked, has helped it secure the top spot in a ranking of countries by their food sustainability. Japan, Germany, Spain and Sweden rounded out the top five in an index published the…
read moreVenezuela’s plan to create an oil-backed cryptocurrency faces the same credibility problems that dog the ruling Socialist Party in financial markets and is unlikely to fare any better than the struggling OPEC member itself, investors and technical experts say. President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday floated a plan to create the “petro” that would be backed…
read morePresident Donald Trump plans to announce Wednesday that the United States is recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv. The decision is likely to cause an uproar throughout the Arab world. But the White House says Trump is merely recognizing what it calls a historic…
read moreThe White House on Tuesday strongly denied that the special prosecutor looking into alleged Russian interference in last year’s election has asked a German bank for records relating to accounts held by Donald Trump and his family members. “We’ve confirmed this with the bank and other sources” that it is not true, White House Press…
read moreUzbekistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement Tuesday to extend a railroad connecting the two countries in a move that may eventually give Uzbekistan a direct link to seaports. Landlocked Uzbekistan’s access to marine shipping is very limited. In 2011, the Uzbek state railway company, Ozbekiston Temir Yollari, built a short link between Hairatan, a town on…
read moreThe European Union named and shamed 17 states that it accuses of being tax havens Tuesday, and put another 47 countries on notice that they risk being blacklisted, too, unless they start tackling tax evasion. The blacklist was agreed on after 10 months of investigations and diplomatic wrangling, but transparency activists say it doesn’t go…
read morePresident Donald Trump will not announce a decision on Monday on whether he will again delay moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a White House spokesman said, despite Monday’s deadline for doing so. An announcement on the decision will be made “in coming days,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters aboard Air…
read moreThey have raised their right hands, and sworn an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution. They have college degrees, and have enlisted in the U.S. Army. They have also fallen out of their immigration status, exposing them to deportation. “I did everything I could to stay with valid status,” A.M., an Army reservist,…
read morePakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday insisted his country is “committed” to the war against terrorism. The comment came during a meeting in Islamabad with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Outwardly, there were no signs of tension between the two men. However, it’s a different story behind the scenes, reports VOA’s Bill Gallo,…
read moreThe government of Brazil’s President Michel Temer is far from assembling the coalition needed to pass a landmark pension reform, but potential supporters of the measure are now more organized, a key legislator said on Monday. “We’re still enormously far (from having the needed votes), but we have a party leader committed, a party president…
read moreHouse Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Monday slammed a Republican bill that would make it easier for gun owners to legally carry concealed weapons across state lines ahead of a House vote later this week. It would be the first action by Congress on guns since mass shootings in Nevada and Texas killed more than…
read moreThe high-profile attendance of the leaders of Apple and Google at a Chinese conference promoting Beijing’s vision of a censored internet highlights the dilemma for Western tech companies trying to expand in an increasingly lucrative but restricted market. The event in Wuzhen, a historic canal town outside Shanghai, marked the first time chiefs of…
read morePresident Donald Trump has expressed sympathy for his former National security adviser Michael Flynn, saying Flynn had been treated unfairly by investigators looking into Russia’s influence on the 2016 presidential election. WATCH: Trump on Mike Flynn Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation last January about his contacts with…
read morePresident Donald Trump endorsed Republican Roy Moore on Monday in next week’s U.S. Senate election in Alabama, rebuffing calls by other prominent Republicans that Moore drop out of the race because of accusations that he sexually abused teenage girls four decades ago when he was in his 30s. In a pre-dawn Twitter comment, Trump said,…
read moreIndian tycoon Vijay Mallya insisted Monday that he was innocent of money-laundering accusations after an evacuation of the court building during a London hearing put him the in the center of a media scrum. The Westminster Magistrates Court session was interrupted briefly by a fire alarm, forcing Mallya outside amid the waiting media. Television…
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