U.S. Senator John McCain has announced he cannot “in good conscience” vote for the Republican health care overhaul, meaning the GOP is unlikely to be able to repeal and replace Obamacare by September 30. McCain joins two other Republicans who have pledged to vote “no” — Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Senator Susan Collins…
read moreRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday dismissed the notion of renegotiating the agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons development, maintaining U.S. concerns about Iran are beyond the scope of the deal. “This program is already finalized and endorsed by the U.N. Security Council resolution. Opening up this plan for negotiations basically would be disregarding this…
read moreThe U.S. Department of Education has withdrawn 2011 guidance on how colleges should handle accusations of sexual assault, saying the policy “failed to ensure fundamental fairness.” A set of interim guidelines has been disclosed. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a release Friday that the interim guidelines “will treat all students fairly.” “Schools must continue…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump will campaign Friday at a rally in Alabama on behalf of Senator Luther Strange, an establishment-backed Republican candidate who has trailed opponent Roy Moore in a special runoff election. Strange, who was appointed to the Senate seat vacated when Jeff Sessions became attorney general, was endorsed last month by Trump. The…
read moreCheap solar panels imported from China and other countries have led to a boom in the U.S. solar industry, where rooftop and other installations have surged 10-fold since 2011. But two U.S. solar manufacturers say the flood of imports has led one to bankruptcy and forced the other to lay off three-quarters of its workforce.…
read moreThe top homeland security official in the United States has suggested to President Donald Trump new standards for visitors and immigrants applying to enter the country. With less than two full days before temporary restrictions on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries are set to expire Sunday, the president has not yet announced his decision on…
read moreFor an administration that came into office nine months ago with precious little foreign policy experience, President Donald Trump and his team have made a remarkable splash at this week’s United Nations General Assembly gathering. From U.N. headquarters in New York, VOA’s Peter Heinlein reports Trump’s inner circle of advisers has taken on increasingly prominent…
read morePresident Donald Trump has improved his poll ratings in recent weeks. His public approval rating has reached 40 percent in several surveys after hovering in the mid-30s following his controversial comments in the wake of violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. Has Trump turned a corner, or is he enjoying a temporary respite from the low…
read moreGerman carmaker Mercedes-Benz has announced plans to invest $1 billion to start making electric vehicles at its manufacturing plant in the southern U.S. state of Alabama. The luxury automaker said it will manufacture electric SUVs under Mercedes’ EQ subbrand at the plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in just more than three years. The expansion is expected…
read moreThe United States will present new proposals and begin to weigh into thornier issues of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the third round of negotiations starting in Ottawa Saturday, U.S. chief negotiator John Melle said Thursday. The stepped-up negotiations come with four more rounds of talks left after Ottawa and a self-imposed year-end…
read moreWhen officials from Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon toured six European countries in June, they were hoping to drum up investment in transport, energy and education. Instead, they were bombarded with questions about the country’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have long complained of persecution by the Buddhist majority in the oil-rich, ethnically divided,…
read moreThousands of small factories in China, making everything from steel to chemicals, are scrambling for access to the country’s clogged rail network as Beijing curbs the use of diesel trucks in an effort to tackle air pollution. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) last month gave tens of thousands of companies in 28 cities until…
read moreMore than a third of migrant fishermen in Thailand clearly were victims of trafficking over the past five years, and even more workers in the industry were possibly trafficked as well, according to a report published Thursday. Routinely underpaid and physically abused, three-quarters of migrants working on Thai fishing vessels have been in debt bondage,…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a friend who gets “high marks” for “running a very difficult part of the world.” Trump’s effusive praise for the Turkish leader came on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday despite tensions between the two countries over the conduct of…
read moreFacebook is slowly acknowledging the outsized — if unintended 0151— role it played in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Bowing to pressure from lawmakers and the public, the company said it will provide the contents of 3,000 ads bought by a Russian agency to congressional investigators, while also pledging to make political advertising on…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump heads to the southern state of Alabama Friday to campaign for an embattled Republican senator whose defeat could spell trouble for establishment Republican lawmakers seeking reelection next year and add new tensions to the party’s already fractious Senate caucus. “Looking forward to Friday night in the Great State of Alabama,” Trump…
read moreThe Standard & Poor’s rating agency cut China’s credit rating Thursday due to its rising debts, highlighting challenges faced by Communist leaders as they cope with slowing economic growth. The downgrade added to mounting warnings about the dangers of increasing Chinese debt, which has fueled fears of a banking crisis or a drag on economic…
read moreOn the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, business and political leaders around the world met to urge cooperation on such issues as trade, investment and international technology to help boost globalization. Without integration between nations, such issues as the environment, economic development and the well-being of societies suffer.…
read moreU.S. central bank officials will hold off on the third interest rate hike of the year. But the Federal Reserve says it will go ahead with plans to unload its massive portfolio of Treasuries and mortgage bonds. The decision to delay the rate hike and reduce (or normalize) the Fed’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet had…
read moreThe Securities and Exchange Commission says a cyber breach of a filing system it uses may have provided the basis for some illegal trading in 2016. In a statement posted Wednesday evening on the SEC’s website, Chairman Jay Clayton says a review of the agency’s cybersecurity risk profile determined that the previously detected incident was…
read morePresident Donald Trump is considering a further reduction in the number of refugees allowed into the United States as the administration works to re-shape American immigration policy, officials said Wednesday. Trump, who has already slashed refugee admissions once since taking office, is now weighing limiting even further the number of refugees allowed into the country…
read moreFor an administration that came to office nine months ago with precious little foreign policy experience, President Donald Trump and his team are making a remarkable splash at this week’s United Nations General Assembly gathering. From his headline-grabbing barbs pointed at North Korea, Iran and Venezuela, to his four-day marathon of meetings with world…
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