U.S. Republican Senate and House negotiators finalized a final version Friday of their compromise $1.5 trillion tax bill, after trying to appease recalcitrant Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who demanded an expansion of the child tax credit that provides benefits for low-income families. Republican sources said the measure should be released later Friday. Republican lawmakers hammered…
read moreThe House Ethics Committee said Friday it had opened an investigation into Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen over allegations of sexual harassment. A former campaign aide said Kihuen, a freshman congressman, propositioned her for dates and sex despite her repeated rejections during his 2016 campaign. This week, a lobbyist told the Nevada Independent that he touched…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump has touted progress on slashing federal regulations, which he says cost America trillions with no benefit. Speaking Thursday from the White House, the president said his administration had exceeded its goal of removing two federal regulations for every new one, by removing 22 for every new one. Opponents have criticized some…
read moreThe chief U.S. negotiator for North Korea said on Friday the United States should engage in direct diplomacy with Pyongyang alongside sanctions imposed over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered on Tuesday to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, but the White House later said no…
read moreA survey conducted at the U.S. Interior Department found that 35 percent of its employees say they were harassed or discriminated against in the past 12 months. The anonymous survey of the department’s nearly 70,000 employees show 16 percent said they experienced gender-based harassment, 8 percent reported being victims of sexual harassment, and 9 percent…
read moreA draft statement former FBI Director James Comey prepared in anticipation of concluding the Hillary Clinton email case without criminal charges was heavily edited to change the “tone and substance” of the remarks, a Republican senator said Thursday. Some of the edits of the May 2016 draft, obtained by The Associated Press, appear to soften…
read moreHouse Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday dismissed speculation about his possible retirement reported earlier in the day. Asked at the end of his weekly press conference whether he was leaving Congress “soon,” Ryan chuckled and replied as he walked off the stage: “I’m not, no.” Politico and The Huffington Post published reports speculating that Ryan…
read moreWalt Disney Co on Thursday agreed to buy film, TV and international assets from Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc for $52.4 billion as Disney seeks greater scale to tackle growing competition from Netflix and Amazon.com. Under the terms of the all-stock deal, Disney acquires significant assets from Fox, including the studios that produce the…
read moreThe European Union’s leaders are due to say Friday that the Brexit talks with Britain can move on to the next phase to include the key topic of trade, according to a draft statement seen by The Associated Press. The progress comes after the sides reached a deal on the preliminary divorce issues, such…
read moreThe U.S. Mission to the United Nations says Ambassador Nikki Haley will use a news conference Thursday to “outline Iran’s ongoing destabilizing activities in the Middle East” and elsewhere in the world. Haley will be discussing a U.N. report on the implementation of the nuclear agreement Iran struck with the United States, Britain, China, France,…
read moreImmigration advocates are making a last ditch effort to get Congress to pass legislation to protect undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program was canceled by President Trump in September. As Esha Sarai reports, advocates have nine days to persuade Congress to pass…
read moreThere is a new word in the English language that all internet users should learn, because it may define the next stage in global financial transactions. It may not be translatable to many other languages so it may become an international term, much like “computer” or “internet,” used and understood around the world. The word…
read moreThe national political landscape appears to have shifted in the wake of Tuesday’s Senate election victory by Democrat Doug Jones in Republican Alabama. Jones defeated controversial Republican candidate Roy Moore, who had the backing of President Donald Trump. In the wake of Jones’ victory, Democrats are more confident about success in next year’s congressional midterm…
read moreThe Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate slightly Wednesday. The increase, one-quarter of 1 percent, pushed the benchmark rate to a range between 1.25 and 1.5 percent. While that is still fairly low, analysts say the decision suggests the U.S. economy is strong enough for businesses and consumers to cope with higher borrowing costs.…
read moreA Hollywood actor originally from West Africa recently announced that he is an undocumented immigrant and a recipient of DACA. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, enacted under the Obama administration, allows undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children to live and work legally, in what was meant to be a temporary…
read moreAfter a contentious election campaign, Democrat Doug Jones says he hopes Republican Roy Moore will “do the right thing” by conceding the special election for a U.S. Senate seat in the southern state of Alabama. Jones won Tuesday’s election 49.9 percent to 48.4 percent, and followed with a pledge of unity Wednesday, saying “it’s a…
read moreSevere natural gas shortages are hitting businesses and residents across China’s industrial heartland as an unprecedented government effort to clean up an environment devastated by decades of unbridled growth backfires. Factories are closing or operating at reduced capacity, business profits are shrinking as supply chains are disrupted, and people are shivering through subzero temperatures without…
read moreU.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told lawmakers Wednesday he has no reason to dismiss Robert Mueller, who is leading the special counsel investigation into whether Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Rosenstein testified before the House Judiciary Committee one day after the release of hundreds of text messages between…
read moreRevenge is sweet for the makers of France’s traditional “calisson” candies, who have won a months-long legal battle with a businessman who trademarked the product’s name in China. The lozenge-shaped sweets, made of a mixture of candied fruit and ground almonds topped with icing, are widely enjoyed in France’s southern Aix-en-Provence region. Their makers were…
read moreActor Bambadjan Bamba may be on the verge of stardom because of his role in the upcoming comic book superhero film Black Panther. But lately, he has been making headlines by revealing a secret he has kept for many years. “I’m a black immigrant … and I’m undocumented,” said Bamba who plays a military leader in Black…
read moreMinnesota Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith, a Democrat, was named Wednesday to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Al Franken in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations leveled by several women against him. “She genuinely likes people, and people like her,” Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton said in appointing the 59-year-old Smith, who formerly was…
read moreTanzanian president John Magufuli ordered the central bank on Wednesday to tighten controls on the movement of hard currency and take swift action against failing banks in a bid to tackle financial crimes and protect the local shilling currency. The move comes as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on Tanzania to speed up reforms…
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