Paul Manafort, who for a short time was U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman last year, turned himself in to authorities Monday, as part of the criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. A federal grand jury on Friday approved charges in the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Manafort long…
read moreWashington braced Monday for the potential unsealing of the first criminal charges linked to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as President Donald Trump reiterated his stance that the underlying investigations are a “witch hunt.” A federal grand jury on Friday approved charges in the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s plan for overhauling the U.S. tax system faced growing opposition from interest groups on Sunday, as Republicans prepare to unveil sweeping legislation that could eliminate some of the most popular tax breaks to help pay for lower taxes. Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives will not reveal their bill until…
read moreWashington is abuzz over news reports a grand jury has approved the first charges stemming from the special counsel’s probe of Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. election. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, the exact charges and who stands accused of wrongdoing could be revealed at any moment. …
read moreThe governor of Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory that was devastated by a hurricane a month ago, called Sunday for the immediate cancellation of a contract to restore electrical power to the Caribbean island as questions grow about the small company that was awarded the work. Governor Ricardo Rossello said the board of the island’s…
read morePuerto Rico’s electric power company says it is canceling the $300 million contract with a Montana energy company hired to restore power to the storm-ravaged island. Earlier on Sunday Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello had called for the contract to be pulled. PREPA chief Ricardo Ramos calls the controversy surrounding the contract with Whitefish Energy…
read moreWashington is bracing for the first criminal charges linked to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, even as President Donald Trump continued to claim Sunday the investigations are a “Witch Hunt for evil politics.” A federal grand jury on Friday approved charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to…
read moreXavier Gabriel can take some credit if the tiny Catalan mountain town of Sort is one of the most famous in Spain. He runs a lottery shop called La Bruja de Oro, or The Golden Witch, in a town whose name, aptly, means “Luck” in Catalan. Its fortune in having sold many prize-winning tickets has…
read moreThe Education Department is considering only partially forgiving federal loans for students defrauded by for-profit colleges, The Associated Press has learned, abandoning the Obama administration’s policy of fully erasing that debt. Under President Barack Obama, tens of thousands of students deceived by now-defunct for-profit schools had more than $550 million in such loans canceled completely.…
read moreAt the 2015 Paris summit, world leaders pledged to take steps to avoid catastrophic climate change. This November in Bonn, Germany, U.N. negotiators will be back, working out the details of how to cut emissions of planet-warming gases. It is the first conference since President Donald Trump said the United States would withdraw from the…
read moreArtisans in Mali are hoping that Bogolan, a traditional cotton fabric, will continue to fascinate Western fashion designers and provide jobs at home. VOA’s Teffera Girma Teffera and Bagassi Koura visited a small neighborhood in central Bamako where artisans are hard at work. Salem Solomon narrates. …
read moreIt was one of Donald Trump’s very first actions as president: pulling the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a free-trade deal he said was hurting the American worker. The TPP was one of the centerpieces of former President Barack Obama’s so-called Asia “pivot,” an economic, political and military realignment toward a…
read moreFor much of President Barack Obama’s presidency, U.S. officials touted the so-called “Asia Pivot,” an economic, political and military realignment toward a region seen as key to America’s future. Nine months into the Trump administration, U.S. officials are taking a different approach to Asia. And, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports, some are concerned the White…
read moreStores watching Amazon take a larger share of clothing sales are trying to solve one of the most vexing issues for online shoppers: finding items that fit properly. The retailers are unleashing tools that use artificial intelligence to replicate the help a salesperson at a store might offer, calculate a shopper’s most likely body shape,…
read moreSen. Dick Durbin of Illinois discusses the Rohingya refugee crisis, Myanmar and his efforts along with those of fellow senators to allow third parties into Rahkine state, hold those responsible for the atrocities and repatriate the Rohingya. …
read moreA U.S. federal grand jury has approved the first charges in an investigation of Russian influence on U.S. elections, according to several major news outlets. The grand jury’s action, resulting from the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, was first reported by CNN on Friday evening. It quoted sources as saying anyone who was…
read moreThings are weird, as usual, in Key West. A pair of Vikings push a stroller full of stuffed chimps down Duval Street. A man with a ponytail swallows a steel sword. People dressed only in body paint and glitter wander and jiggle from bar to bar. Fantasy Fest, one of Key West’s major tourist draws…
read moreU.S. border agents are searching nearly four times as many international travelers’ smartphones and other electronic devices as they did two years ago, expanding the use of a little-known search-and-seizure authority that has sparked fresh legal challenges from digital rights advocates and defendants in several criminal cases. The content searches of electronic devices, conducted without…
read moreThe Trump administration announced a shift Wednesday in foreign aid funding for persecuted minorities. Vice President Pence told a global assembly of Christians the U.S. would instruct the State Department to stop funding United Nations programs for persecuted minorities, instead providing funding through USAID and other faith-based NGOs. VOA’s Katherine Gypson reports from Washington on…
read morePublic anger is rising in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico as details emerge about a no-bid contract awarded to a little-known U.S. company to restore the island’s power grid, which was destroyed by Hurricane Maria. Among the details of the contract attracting attention are pay rates about five times higher than what is normal…
read morePresident Donald Trump said late Friday that he will be releasing all files pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, with some redactions. Trump originally ordered Thursday that hundreds of the files would remain secret, at least temporarily, in the interest of national security. Trump said temporarily “withholding from public disclosure” the remaining…
read moreA conservative website with strong ties to the Republican establishment triggered the investigation into Donald Trump’s past that ultimately produced the dossier that alleged a compromised relationship between the president and the Kremlin. The Washington Free Beacon on Friday confirmed it originally retained the political research firm Fusion GPS to scour then-candidate Trump’s background…
read more