U.S. Senator Bob Corker has called for “radical changes” in the White House, saying President Donald Trump “has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability, nor some of the competence, that he needs to demonstrate in order for him to be successful.” Corker was addressing the recent death at a protest rally in Charlottesville,…
read moreSheriff Joe Arpaio, convicted two weeks ago of criminal contempt for failing to heed a judge’s orders, has been branded by his supporters as “America’s toughest sheriff.” The 85-year-old Arizona law enforcement officer is the subject of speculation over whether President Donald Trump will pardon him next week when he holds a campaign rally in…
read moreThe events in Charlottesville, Virginia, Saturday stirred a long simmering debate about Confederate statues, with many people demanding their removal and many arguing history should not be erased. The Charlottesville protests centered around Emancipation Park, where there is a statue honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee. White supremacists say the reason they wanted to hold…
read morePresident Donald Trump finds himself in a political firestorm this week after his shifting stance on who is responsible for Saturday’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, stemming from a protest organized by white nationalist groups. Trump’s remarks Tuesday, blaming both sides for the violence, have drawn condemnation from Democrats and Republicans and come at a time…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon says there’s no military solution to the threat posed by North Korea and its nuclear ambitions, despite the president’s recent pledge to answer further aggression with “fire and fury.” In an interview with The American Prospect posted online Wednesday, Bannon tells the liberal publication that the U.S. is…
read moreAfter many false starts, plans to resurrect a railway in Pakistan’s teeming metropolis of Karachi are moving ahead with the help of Chinese cash. Not everyone is happy. The Chinese-funded $2 billion project to revive Karachi Circular Railways (KRC), nearly two decades since it was shut down, has been touted as a way to ease…
read moreViolent extremism, including threats from domestic militants, will top the agenda at a September 12 U.S. congressional hearing, following a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned deadly. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul announced the hearing in a letter to the panel’s top Democrat, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. The committee once a…
read moreBrazilian prosecutors plan to investigate last year’s controversial sale of the Argentine subsidiary of Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, a lawyer representing some Petrobras shareholders said on Wednesday. Petrobras, formally known as Petroleo Brasileiro SA , sold its 67.2 percent stake in Petrobras Argentina SA for $892 million to Pampa Energia SA, Argentina’s largest power…
read moreScorched by a 10-month drought that has killed crops and reduced residents to buying trucked-in water, Adigama’s young people are voting with their feet. At least 150 youth have left this agricultural village 170 kilometers northwest of Sri Lanka’s capital since the drought began, looking for jobs in the country’s cities, or overseas, village officials…
read moreAttorney General Jeff Sessions vowed Wednesday to continue fighting cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities until local governments follow Miami-Dade County’s example and reverse policies. Sessions aimed much of his frustration at Chicago, which last week sued President Donald Trump’s administration for denying federal grant money to cities that don’t share information…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump continues to face a barrage of criticism for his contention that both white supremacists and counterprotesters were to blame for the deadly violence that erupted last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. On Wednesday, the president announced that he had dissolved two business advisory committees made up of top American corporate executives, after…
read moreIreland’s finance minister rejected the European Commission’s demand that it retroactively collect 13 billion euros in taxes from Apple, saying this was not Dublin’s job in an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) newspaper. In the interview, extracts from which the FAZ published on Wednesday, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the tax rules from which…
read moreLeaders of a New York Episcopal diocese say they’ll remove two plaques honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a church property in Brooklyn. Bishop Lawrence Provenzano, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, told Newsday the two plaques outside St. John’s Episcopal Church are being removed Wednesday. The United Daughters of the Confederacy…
read morePresident Donald Trump is saying “we’ll see what happens” with top strategist Steve Bannon. The president refused to express confidence in Bannon during an impromptu news conference Tuesday. “He’s a good person. He actually gets very unfair press in that regard,” Trump said. “But we’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon.” Bannon…
read morePresident Donald Trump is renewing his attacks on e-commerce giant Amazon, and he says the company is “doing great damage to tax paying retailers.” Trump tweets that “towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt — many jobs being lost!” The president has often criticized the company and CEO Jeff Bezos, who also…
read moreThe impact of the latest round of U.N. sanctions leveled against North Korea could be greater than the projected $1 billion cut in its export revenue if fully implemented, a high-profile North Korean defector told VOA’s Korean Service, and this would deal a significant financial blow to a regime intent on advancing its nuclear and…
read moreThe United States, Mexico and Canada are opening negotiations Wednesday to reform the North American Free Trade Agreement, a 1994 trade deal that was a major target in U.S. President Donald Trump’s run for office. Trump has called NAFTA “the worst trade deal in history,” and one that has unfairly swollen the U.S. trade deficit…
read moreNegotiators from Canada, Mexico and the United States will kick off an ambitious first round of trade talks Wednesday as the countries try to fast-track a deal to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement by early next year. The key issues facing negotiators include: RULES OF ORIGIN: NAFTA says that in order for a…
read moreA Utah mayor overcame nearly $1 million in attacks from out-of-state groups to win a three-way Republican primary in a race to fill a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives vacated by Jason Chaffetz. Tuesday’s win puts Provo Mayor John Curtis on an easy path toward victory in the November special election. Republicans…
read moreFormer U.S. President Barack Obama tweeted a photo Saturday after deadly violence broke out in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia. It is now the most liked tweet ever on the social media platform. The photo shows Obama with his hand on a windowsill and his suit jacket slung over one shoulder, looking up at a…
read moreA U.S. court struck down two Republican-drawn U.S. congressional districts in Texas on Tuesday, saying they were discriminatory and ordering a remedy ahead of elections in 2018, court papers showed. In the case that has been contested in federal courts for about six years, a three-judge panel at U.S. District Court in San Antonio ruled…
read moreBrazilian lawmakers facing a dearth of financing for their re-election campaigns next year proposed on Tuesday creating a fund of 3.6 billion reais ($1.1 billion) in taxpayer money to help their parties foot the bills. The Supreme Court banned corporate donations to campaigns in 2015, drastically reducing political fund-raising. On top of that, a massive…
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