Developments in Washington, D.C., on Thursday include President Donald Trump continuing the heated rhetoric with North Korea over its nuclear program, answering reporters’ questions in a wide-ranging question-and-answer period where he touched on the expulsion of U.S. diplomats from Russia, nuclear weapons, and the FBI raid on former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s home. Trump Stiffens…
read moreArctic fjords that hid Soviet nuclear-powered submarines during the Cold War are now being used as a weapon in the sanctions war with Europe – to rear fish that Russia can no longer import. Three years ago, Russia banned food imports from the West in response to a series of Western sanctions that aimed to…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering the United States to slash its diplomatic staff in Russia, remarks likely to rekindle criticism of Trump’s kid-gloves handling of Putin. Breaking nearly two weeks of silence on Putin’s July 30 order cutting U.S. embassy and consulate staff by nearly two thirds,…
read moreA U.S. district judge in Austin has rejected an effort by Texas to have a law that would punish so-called sanctuary cities be declared constitutional ahead of the measure’s effective date next month. The Republican-backed law is the first of its kind since Republican Donald Trump became president in January, promising a crackdown on illegal…
read moreVenezuelan homemaker Carmen Rondon lives in the country with the world’s largest oil reserves, but has spent weeks cooking with firewood due to a chronic shortage of home cooking gas – leaving her hoarse from breathing smoke. Finding domestic gas cylinders has become increasingly difficult, a problem that oil industry analysts attribute to slumping oil…
read moreTalks between African and U.S. officials to review the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) free-trade deal ended Thursday with no decision and a feeling on all sides that it has achieved little since it was set up. President Donald Trump’s top trade negotiator, Robert E. Lighthizer, and other U.S. officials have been in the…
read moreDuring the first six months of the Trump presidency, the Environmental Protection Agency has lagged behind three previous administrations in environmental enforcement, collecting 60 percent less in civil penalties from polluters, a report released on Thursday said. During President Donald Trump’s first six months in office, the Justice Department collected $12 million in civil penalties…
read moreCroatia revoked on Thursday its decision to raise import fees on some farm products by 220 percent, avoiding a trade war with its Balkan neighbors who had threatened to hit back with counter-measures. European Union-member Croatia last month raised its fees for phytosanitary controls — agricultural checks for pests and viruses on fruits and vegetables…
read moreEgypt’s official statistics agency says the country’s inflation rate has jumped to 33 percent in July – up from 29.8 percent in June. The announcement comes as Egyptians struggle in the face of steep price hikes as part of the government’s economic reform plan. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics made the…
read moreEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday distanced herself from her comment earlier this year about the nation’s historically black colleges and universities being pioneers of school choice, saying that in the past “there were no choices” for African-Americans in higher education. “When I talked about it being a pioneer in choice it was because…
read moreChina urged the U.S. government Thursday to act “prudently” to avoid damaging economic relations between the two countries, in a strongly worded response to Washington’s preliminary decision to place anti-dumping duties on Chinese aluminum foil. In a statement posted on the Ministry of Commerce’s Wechat account, the government said the United States had ignored cooperation…
read moreMore than 20 million people are working as modern slaves, and a technology developer is hoping artificial intelligence can help clean up the world’s supply chains and root out worker abuse. Developer Padmini Ranganathan said mobile phones, media reports and surveillance cameras can all be mined for real-time data, which can in turn be fed…
read moreDevelopments in Washington, D.C., in recent days include North Korea threatening to take military action against U.S. territory Guam by mid-August, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis saying North Korea risks annihilation if it starts a war, and the FBI saying it raided former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s home last month as part of the…
read moreChina and Malaysia broke ground on Wednesday on a $13 billion rail project linking peninsular Malaysia’s east and west, the largest such project in the country and a major part of Beijing’s Belt and Road infrastructure push. The planned 688-km (430-mile) East Coast Rail Link will connect the South China Sea, large parts of which…
read moreThe extreme volatility of Venezuela’s exchange rate has the crisis-hit country’s shop owners hurriedly marking up their merchandise and consumers balking at the higher price tags. Just last week, the bolivar currency fell around 70 percent on the black market, according to DolarToday, the opaque U.S.-based website that dictates the black market rate. Although the…
read morePresident Donald Trump scolded his own party’s Senate leader on Wednesday for the crash of the Republican drive to repeal and rewrite the Obama health care law, using Twitter to demand of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, “Why not done?” Trump fired back at the Kentucky Republican for telling a home-state audience this week that the…
read moreU.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday that North Korea risks annihilation if it starts a war, and he told Pyongyang it must end its pursuit of nuclear weaponry. Mattis said North Korea “should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.” The…
read moreThe exchange of threats and harsh rhetoric between North Korea and Donald Trump has rattled many investors. Stock prices fell in Asia, Europe and the United States, while demand rose for safe-haven investments like gold. Key stock indexes in Hong Kong, Germany, and France were down by one percent or more. U.S. stocks were down…
read moreFive transgender members of the U.S. military, including Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, sued President Donald Trump on Wednesday, challenging his ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces. Trump said on Twitter on July 26 that the U.S. government “will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity” in the…
read moreU.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided the home of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief in the pre-dawn hours late last month, intensifying their probe of Russian interference in last year’s presidential election. The raid on the home of Paul Manafort, a long-time Republican political operative who has had deep financial ties to Russia…
read moreA U.S. proposal for Mexico and Canada to vastly raise the value of online purchases that can be imported duty-free from stores like Amazon.com and eBay is emerging as a flashpoint in an upcoming renegotiation of the NAFTA trade deal. Vulnerable industries like footwear, textiles and bricks and mortar retail in Mexico and Canada are…
read moreThe U.S. Marine Corps for the first time is eyeing a plan to let women attend what has been male-only combat training in Southern California, as officials work to quash recurring problems with sexism and other bad behavior among Marines, according to Marine Corps officials. If approved by senior Marine leaders, the change could happen…
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