President Trump’s border wall proposal is not an abstract political debate for the voters of Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, who live on the Mexican border. Rep. Will Hurd, an African-American faces a tough 2018 midterm fight, defying his own party as he discourages Trump’s border wall and paves his own way through the immigration debate.…
read moreTexas’ voter ID law is shelved again after a judge who once compared the requirements to a “poll tax” on minorities also rejected a newly weakened version that was backed by the Trump administration. That was followed by a separate federal court on Thursday ordering Texas to partially redraw its Statehouse maps after finding racial…
read moreEnvironmentalists are condemning a decree by Brazilian President Michel Temer allowing mining in the heart of the Amazon. The measure strips protection from a national reserve between the northern states of Para and Amapa and clears the way for the private mining sector to explore the forest. The gold-rich area is larger than the Netherlands,…
read moreStonehenge is dry and has been for too long — seven years too long. You can taste the dust well before you cross the cattle grids that cut the only road into town. More than 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles) northwest of Sydney, Australia’s Stonehenge could not be more different from its famous namesake, the World…
read moreExperts at credit rating agencies are watching Washington’s political squabbling over budgets and spending closely, and they might make another cut in the U.S. credit rating if the Republican-controlled White House, Senate and House cannot reach an agreement. President Donald Trump has promised to build a massive wall along the southern U.S. border in a…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump has accused congressional leaders in his Republican party of creating a political “mess” for not attaching debt ceiling legislation to a recently-signed bill that aims to assist veterans. Trump directed his remarks at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan on Twitter. “I requested that Mitch M…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s promised U.S.-Mexico border wall will likely trigger a budget showdown when Congress returns in September, as Democrats and some Republicans debate whether it’s worth $1.6 billion. The wall is 2,700 kilometers (1,700 miles) from Capitol Hill in the varied terrain of Del Rio, Texas, yet law enforcement and residents alike say the…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s comments at a Phoenix rally that he will probably end up terminating the North American Free Trade Agreement brought cheers from the crowd but groans from the state’s top business group. Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Glenn Hamer posted a video calling any termination a “terrible mistake” within hours of…
read moreA federal judge Wednesday again threw out Texas’ voter identification requirements that she previously compared to a “poll tax” on minorities, dealing another court setback to state Republican leaders over voting rights. U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos rejected a weakened version of the law signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott earlier this year. The…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday emphasized their plans to cooperate on shared goals, following weeks of tensions between the two Republicans. The White House and McConnell issued statements after media reports that McConnell’s relationship with the Republican president had disintegrated amid repeated attacks by Trump on the Senate…
read morePresident Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was willing to shut down the government to get funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, complicating two must-pass measures Congress will take up in September: a spending package and raising the debt ceiling. Here is what you need to know about both, and the potential for a shutdown…
read moreNearly two-thirds of American voters believe President Donald Trump is doing more to divide the country than he is to unite it, according to a new poll released Wednesday. The Quinnipiac University Poll reported 62 percent of the voters it surveyed felt that Trump is increasing divisions in the country; 31 percent said they felt…
read moreOil is the main revenue source in Alaska. This year, the trans-Alaska pipeline celebrated 40 years of service. From Alaska, VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya looks at the history of North America’s largest oil field. …
read morePresident Donald Trump talked about shared American values, the media, the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, and America’s history, including the Confederacy. …
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump gave the strongest indication at a campaign-style rally in Arizona late Tuesday that he will pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an immigration hard-liner who was recently convicted of contempt of court for ignoring a judicial order to halt his immigration patrols. “The most sacred duty of government is to…
read moreCongressional Republicans, seeking to address the complaints of small businesses, are floating changes to their controversial proposal to eliminate business tax deductions for debt interest payments, business lobbyists said Tuesday. A top U.S. Republican on tax policy acknowledged that modifications are in the works but did not provide details. The debt interest proposal, long seen…
read moreThe U.S. Department of Justice is scaling back its request to obtain a broad swath of data in connection with an anti-Trump website, after critics accused the department of trampling the free speech rights of political dissidents. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia had previously issued a broader search warrant in July…
read moreDemocrats in a U.S. Congressional delegation visiting South Korea Tuesday strongly rebuked President Donald Trump’s recent threatening rhetoric about using military force against North Korea. “President Trump’s bluster is counter productive, is leading to escalation of tensions here on the Korean Peninsula,” Senator Edward Markey from Massachusetts, the senior Democrat on the U.S. Foreign Relations…
read moreFord Motor Co. and a Chinese automaker said Tuesday they are looking into setting up a joint venture to develop and manufacture electric cars in China. Ford’s potential venture with Anhui Zotye Automobile Co. adds to the global auto industry’s rising activity in electric vehicles for China, which passed the United States last year…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign-style rally Tuesday in Phoenix, Arizona, at time when he remains under fire for his controversial comments last week about a white nationalist rally that turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump blamed the violence not just on the rally organizers, but also the activists who opposed them. VOA National…
read moreFord Tuesday became the latest carmaker to launch a car scrappage scheme in Britain, joining the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, after months of procrastination from the government over whether to begin a national program. The U.S. automaker is offering customers a 2,000 pound ($2,580) discount off a range of Ford models when they trade…
read moreThe U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing and Northrop Grumman separate contracts to continue work on the replacement of the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system, the Pentagon said on Friday. Though the award for the new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) comes amid rising tensions with North Korea, the Air Force had asked the…
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