The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general is expanding an inquiry into Administrator Scott Pruitt’s frequent taxpayer-funded travel, the watchdog office said Friday. The review will now include all travel by Pruitt through Sept. 30 as the office examines whether Pruitt followed EPA travel policies and whether those policies are sufficient to prevent fraud, waste…
read moreThe U.S. ambassador to Somalia Stephen Schwartz has resigned, citing personal reasons, the embassy confirmed Friday. An emailed statement to VOA said the ambassador resigned September 29. It provided no further details. Schwartz was sworn in as the 13th United States ambassador to Somalia in June last year. As ambassador, he headed the U.S. mission…
read moreIn Orlando, Florida, where tourists come for the palm trees, shopping and theme parks, 18,000 women converged recently on the city’s giant convention center to talk about technology. Amid technical sessions on artificial intelligence and augmented reality, the main theme of the Grace Hopper Celebration, the largest gathering of women in technology worldwide, was simple:…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump was greeted by shouts of “We love you in Puerto Rico” as he took the stage Friday for a celebration at the White House of Hispanic Heritage Month. Julissa Arce Rivera, a Chicago native born to Puerto Rican parents, kicked off the celebration by singing several Spanish-language songs, before Trump took…
read moreFor every U.S. president, there comes a time to assume the role of the nation’s comforter-in-chief, a leader who seeks to bring the country together and lift spirits in the midst of a national tragedy. President Donald Trump found himself in that situation this week, consoling survivors of a mass shooting and traveling to Puerto…
read moreTropical Storm Nate is being blamed for more than 20 deaths across Central America even as it tracks toward a likely U.S. landfall this weekend as a hurricane. “The system is forecast to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico, and could affect portions of the northern Gulf Coast as a hurricane this weekend, with direct…
read morePresident Donald Trump on Thursday named Andrew Wheeler, a coal industry lobbyist and former congressional staffer, as his pick for deputy administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, prompting contrasting reactions from industry and environmental groups. The Sierra Club, an environmental group, called his nomination, which is subject to Senate confirmation, “absolutely horrifying,” while a…
read moreA new party led by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said on Friday it hopes to pursue policies to revive the economy that do not rely excessively on fiscal and monetary stimulus steps in a party platform unveiled ahead of a national election on Oct. 22. Koike’s Party of Hope said it would seek to boost…
read moreExperts met in Stockholm this week to assess progress on securing land rights for indigenous people and local communities and how businesses connect to them. More than half of land rights conflicts in the developing world are not resolved, pitting companies, governments and businesses against indigenous communities, according to research published at the conference. Here…
read moreMicrosoft said Thursday that it would team up with communities in six U.S. states to invest in technology and related jobs in rural and smaller metropolitan areas. Company President Brad Smith launched the TechSpark program Thursday in Fargo, a metropolitan area of more than 200,000 people that includes a Microsoft campus with about 1,500 employees.…
read moreOil and natural gas operators began evacuating staff and halting production at U.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms Thursday ahead of Tropical Storm Nate, the second storm in as many months to rattle the Gulf Coast energy corridor. Nate, which has killed at least 10 people in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and caused intense rainfall, is…
read moreMost Americans think refusing to stand for the national anthem is disrespectful to the country, the military and the American flag. But most also disapprove of President Donald Trump’s calling for National Football League players to be fired for refusing to stand. The NFL protests began last season with quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who knelt during…
read moreTransgender people are no longer protected by federal civil rights laws banning workplace discrimination, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday. In a memo to federal prosecutors, Sessions wrote that it is a matter of “law, not policy,” that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not extend to gender identity. The act outlaws discrimination based on…
read moreRepublican Congressman Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, known for his anti-abortion stance, will resign after it was revealed that he asked his lover to terminate a pregnancy. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday announced Murphy’s resignation, which takes effect October 21. Murphy’s decision came after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published text messages between Murphy and Shannon Edwards,…
read moreA group of bipartisan United States lawmakers wants to put strong new limitations on federal law enforcement agents’ ability to gather foreign intelligence within U.S. borders. The bill, which will be introduced Friday by members of the House Judiciary Committee, would require the FBI to obtain a warrant prior to reviewing emails and phone-call transcripts…
read moreU.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan says a firearm accessory used by the gunman who killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others in Las Vegas, Nevada, should be examined, possibly leading to Republican consideration of gun control legislation. “Clearly, that is something we need to look into,” the Wisconsin Republican said Thursday in an interview…
read moreThe House on Thursday passed a $4.1 trillion budget plan that promises deep cuts to social programs while paving the way for a GOP drive to rewrite the tax code later this year. The 2018 House GOP budget reprises a controversial plan to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program for future retirees as well as…
read morePresident Donald Trump insists that his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “never threatened to resign” said labeled a news report about tensions between the two men “Fake News.” Trump took to Twitter Thursday morning to criticize and NBC news report that Tillerson was “on the verge” of resigning earlier this year, after months of tensions…
read moreStudents who attended for-profit colleges were twice as likely or more to default on their loans than students who attended public schools, according to a federal study published Thursday. The report by the National Center of Education Statistics looks at students who began their undergraduate education in 2003 and defaulted on at least one loan…
read moreBillions of dollars in border security funding were at stake Wednesday as the House Homeland Security Committee debated the Trump administration proposals funding sections of a U.S.-Mexico border wall and hiring thousands of Border Patrol agents. House Democrats pushed back on those priorities as the looming deadline for the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA)…
read moreAt 52 years old, with two grown children, Newton Gunathileka thought he should be working less by this point. Instead he has never worked so hard — and earned so little. Gunathileka, from the Sri Lankan village of Periyakulam, in the North Western Puttalam District, is among hundreds of thousands of rural Sri Lankans who…
read moreGreece welcomed Wednesday a decision by senior archaeologists to conditionally permit a major tourism project in Athens, saying it cleared the way for the country to turn the site into one of Europe’s biggest coastal resorts. The 8-billion-euro ($9.4 billion) project to develop the disused Hellenikon airport site is a key term of Greece’s international…
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