U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said President Donald Trump put the issue of Russian meddling in U.S. elections at the top of his agenda when the two leaders met in their first face-to-face talks on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Germany Friday. The meeting appeared to have gone better than expected, with…
read moreArgentina on Friday banned embattled Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht from bidding on public works projects in the country for 12 months due to investigations of bribes the company paid here and elsewhere. The announcement published in the government’s official bulletin also cites corruption and money laundering cases in Brazil and other countries that have…
read moreA pre-emptive military strike may be among the “pretty severe things” President Donald Trump says he is considering for North Korea, but it’s a step so fraught with risk that it ranks as among the unlikeliest options. Even a so-called surgical strike aimed at the North’s partially hidden nuclear and missile force is unlikely to…
read moreLondon is a hotspot of modern slavery, with workers in hotels, restaurants and on construction sites at particular risk of exploitation, said the head of the Metropolitan police’s anti-slavery unit. Modern slavery cases surged in the first half of this year to about 820 by the end of June, compared to about 1,013 in the…
read moreAs President Donald Trump wraps up his European trip Saturday, he will return to tackle a stalled domestic agenda in Washington that includes health care reform, a Republican effort that has bogged down in the Senate. While Trump’s European trip was a mix of pageantry, protests and a high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin,…
read moreNo more mini-skirts and large earrings for female civil servants in Uganda. Male staff are now required to wear a jacket and tie. The Ugandan government instituted a new dress code for public workers this week, and it continues to anger some people. Women activists in Uganda have criticized the new dress code as a…
read moreThe U.S. economy posted strong job growth in June, with a net gain of 222,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate rose slightly to hit 4.4 percent. Friday’s report from the Labor Department shows wages grew 2.5 percent in June from the same period a year earlier. That is just slightly above the rate of inflation,…
read moreThe French government on Friday pledged to remove some of the charges banks pay in France and make sure they are not overregulated compared to European peers as it launched an offensive to lure banking business displaced by Brexit. In a document due to be presented by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, the government said it…
read moreA jump in first-quarter trade between China and North Korea was “unexpected” and masks a declining trend, a state-run Chinese newspaper said Friday, after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced China’s trade with its isolated neighbor. Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40 percent in the first quarter, Trump said via Twitter Wednesday, casting…
read moreClashes broke out in Hamburg as U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in the German port city for the start of the G-20 summit of the world’s leading economies. After a successful visit to Poland, the U.S. leader faces a difficult scenario at the G-20 that includes meetings with leaders of China, Germany, and Russia and…
read moreAli Said fled his war-torn Somalia two decades ago after his right leg was blown off by a grenade. Last year, the father of seven was shot in his other leg by robbers while living in a Kenyan refugee camp. As Said rolled his wheelchair up to a desk in a San Diego office…
read moreA federal judge in Hawaii on Thursday left Trump administration rules in place for a travel ban on citizens from six majority-Muslim countries. U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson denied an emergency motion filed by Hawaii asking him to clarify what the U.S. Supreme Court meant by a “bona fide” relationship in its ruling last…
read morePresident Donald Trump described to Poles an America that does not exist — one where everyone is getting richer except himself. Despite his claims at an energy meeting with European leaders, in a Warsaw speech and at a news conference, the stock market is not lifting all boats, his stated commitment to NATO has not…
read moreIndia-based Infosys, an information technology outsourcing firm, announced Thursday it will hire 2,000 workers over the next four years for a technology hub in North Carolina, the second of four planned hubs in the U.S. Infosys executives were joined by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper at a news conference in which they said the…
read moreThe main points of market access in a trade deal between the South American Mercosur bloc and the European Union need to be concluded by December, Brazil’s chief negotiator said on Thursday. The EU and Mercosur have committed to a series of negotiations until the end of the year in what both parties say is…
read moreU.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday signed an order to hold more lease sales and to speed up approving permits to explore for oil and gas on federal land, a process he said got bogged down under former President Barack Obama. The order is the latest move by the administration of President Donald Trump…
read moreThe international community is watching in anticipation as Donald Trump, five months into his presidency, holds his first meeting with the man seen as his rival for the title of “most powerful leader” on the planet, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their formal bilateral discussion late Friday is overshadowing the two-day gathering in Hamburg, Germany, of…
read moreU.S. Vice President Mike Pence pledged to usher in a “new era” of American leadership in space during a tour of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Thursday. “Our nation will return to the Moon, and we will put American boots on the face of Mars,” Pence told the cheering crowd of about 800 NASA…
read moreMicrosoft is laying off thousands of employees in a shake-up aimed at selling more subscriptions to software applications that can be used on any internet-connected device. Most of the people losing their jobs work in sales and are located outside the U.S. The Redmond company confirmed that it began sending the layoff notices Thursday, but…
read moreAs Senate Republicans struggle to finalize a health care reform bill, most are not holding the types of freewheeling town hall encounters with constituents that could draw protests over their plan to dismantle major portions of former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. During the current weeklong congressional recess, the Senate’s 52 Republicans have…
read moreA bill focused on buttressing the nation’s insurance marketplaces will be needed if the full-fledged Republican effort to repeal much of President Barack Obama’s health care law fails, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday. It was one of his most explicit acknowledgments that his party’s top-priority drive to erase much of Obama’s landmark 2010…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump urged the leaders of central and eastern European nations Thursday to enter into agreements to purchase U.S. energy exports, instead of relying heavily on imports from Russia. “America stands ready to help Poland and other European nations diversify their energy supplies, so that you can never be held hostage to a…
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