Former President Barack Obama used a rare public appearance on Wednesday to question Republicans’ latest effort to repeal his signature healthcare law, saying it would inflict “real human suffering” on Americans. In his speech at a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation event in New York City, Obama also laid out an optimistic vision of the…
read moreSpecial counsel Robert Mueller’s team of investigators is seeking information from the White House related to Michael Flynn’s stint as national security adviser and about the response to a meeting with a Russian lawyer that was attended by President Donald Trump’s oldest son, The Associated Press has learned. Mueller’s office has requested a large…
read moreThe U.S. Senate is set next week to again debate overhauling the country’s health care policies, a last-ditch effort by Republicans to dismantle the signature law championed by former Democratic President Barack Obama. A spokeswoman for Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that senators would consider their party’s latest legislative proposal to overturn the…
read moreAfter a troubled youth himself, Phillip Cohen made it a practice to hire people at his woodworking business who have also struggled with addiction and mental health issues. But when an employee died from a drug overdose, he adopted a zero-tolerance policy. “I think I have saved lives,” says the owner of Cohen Architectural Woodworking…
read moreHillary Clinton’s What Happened had a big debut. Clinton’s book about her stunning loss in 2016 to Donald Trump sold more than 300,000 copies in the combined formats of hardcover, e-book and audio, Simon & Schuster told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The book’s hardcover sales of 168,000 was the highest opening for any nonfiction…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he has made a decision on whether to pull the United States out of the 2015 international pact curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons development. Trump declined to say what his decision is, but the U.S. rift with Iran took center stage at the United Nations General Assembly, a day after…
read moreChina has announced a crackdown on violations of patents and trade secrets in an effort to mollify foreign companies ahead of a visit to Beijing by U.S. President Donald Trump. The crackdown might give Beijing diplomatic ammunition to respond to mounting U.S. and European trade complaints. But it fails to address what foreign companies say…
read moreSpecial counsel Robert Mueller’s office has questioned Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as it probes the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday. It is not clear exactly when the conversation took place, or how long it lasted, but Rosenstein is relevant to Mueller’s…
read moreEgypt’s economy has started to improve but has yet to recover from the country’s 2011 uprising and the years of unrest that followed, an international credit rating agency said. Moody’s hailed recent economic and fiscal reforms in its annual report released Tuesday, saying they point to “improved government effectiveness and policy predictability.” Weak finances, however,…
read moreA human rights organization says millions of workers in India’s brick kiln industry are trapped in a perpetual cycle of imposed debt and low wages, which forces them to bring their children to work alongside them in the hot, dusty kilns. An estimated 23 million workers are employed in at least 100,000 brick kilns operating…
read moreThe chairman of the Senate intelligence committee says Facebook should testify as part of its probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, and that the social media giant “seems to have been less than forthcoming” with Congress. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said Tuesday that committee members agreed the panel should hold a public hearing…
read morePresident Donald Trump singled out North Korea, Iran and Venezuela for special criticism in his first address to the United Nations General Assembly. VOA White House correspondent Peter Heinlein reports there were murmurs in the Assembly hall when the president warned Pyongyang that its current course could lead to its destruction. …
read moreU.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped up the Trump administration’s critique of so-called sanctuary cities on Tuesday, saying local and state policies to limit cooperation with immigration enforcement are a criminal’s “best friend.” Sessions’ remarks, at a gathering of law enforcement authorities in Portland, Oregon, came days after repudiation of his stance against the sanctuary…
read morePresident Donald Trump warned North Korea over its nuclear weapons development in his debut address to the U.N. General Assembly, but he failed to offer a concrete strategy on how to denuclearize the communist state, experts say. Speaking before world leaders gathered at U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday, the president of the United…
read moreThree Democratic members of Congress have been arrested on disorderly conduct charges at a protest outside Trump Tower. U.S. Reps. Raul Grijalva, of Arizona; Luis Gutierrez, of Illinois; and Adriano Espaillat, of New York, were among a small group of demonstrators who sat down in the street on New York’s Fifth Avenue on Tuesday…
read moreNew York’s Preet Bharara, who says he knows nothing more about why President Donald Trump fired him as U.S. attorney than on the day it happened, is about to step back into the spotlight with a podcast on justice issues. The podcast, “Stay Tuned with Preet,” debuts Wednesday with Leon Panetta as the first guest.…
read moreWith the United States poised to announce in the coming weeks how many refugees it will agree to accept in the new fiscal year, U.S. President Donald Trump told the United Nations on Tuesday that the U.S. will focus on keeping displaced people in their “home region” with an eye on eventual repatriation. “We seek…
read moreThe deficit in the broadest measure of U.S. trade rose to the highest level in more than eight years this spring, reflecting in part a drop in fines and penalties paid by foreign companies. The deficit in the current account increased to $123.1 billion, up 8.5 percent from an imbalance of $113.5 billion in the…
read moreToys ‘R’ Us, an iconic United States toy store, has filed for bankruptcy after struggling to compete with online retailers and racking up about $5 billion worth of debt. In a statement Monday, the company said it is voluntarily seeking relief through the U.S. bankruptcy process, but that its international holdings would not be affected.…
read moreAs many as three dozen domestic and international flights at New Zealand’s Auckland Airport have been canceled Tuesday as it struggles to deal with a weeklong fuel shortage. New Zealand’s main airport has lost 70 percent of its jet fuel supplies since a digger ruptured the main pipeline that carries fuel to the facility, forcing…
read moreA multi-million-dollar banking flap being investigated in Vietnam this month casts light on a tough corruption problem that nips at the Southeast Asian country’s explosive economic growth. The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security last week began investigating three companies under state-owned gas and oil giant PetroVietnam on suspicion of trying to divert $5.2 million from…
read moreDuring his first official meeting at the United Nations, U.S. President Donald Trump said the organization is not reaching its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement. Addressing leaders of more than 120 member nations on Monday, Trump praised U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his efforts to modernize the world body. Guterres said the old…
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