South Korean President Moon Jae-in says he has encouraging news from Pyongyang about planned summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. U.S. lawmakers and experts are also weighing in on the flurry of diplomatic initiatives, as VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department. …
read moreIt may seem like just another week at the Trump White House. Word of a potentially historic breakthrough on North Korea is forced to compete with a scathing assessment of the president by his former FBI director and court appearances by his personal lawyer and an adult film actress who claims she had an affair…
read moreArizona teachers have voted to walk off the job to demand increased school funding, marking a key step toward a first-ever statewide strike that builds on a movement for higher pay in other Republican-dominant states. A grassroots group and the state’s largest teacher membership group said Thursday that teachers will walkout April 26. The vote…
read moreA planned national high school walkout for gun control on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting Friday won’t include student protests at the Colorado school that changed the way the nation viewed shootings. Just as it has done every year since the April 20, 1999, shooting killed 12 students and a teacher, Columbine High…
read moreU.S. news reports say Wells Fargo will be fined as much as $1 billion for illegally selling customers car insurance policies they did not want or need, and for charging unnecessary fees in connection with mortgages. This would be the largest fine ever imposed by federal bank regulators and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The fine…
read moreThe biggest danger from the U.S.-China trade dispute is the threat to global confidence and investment, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Thursday. The IMF chief said the tariffs threatened by the world’s two largest economies would have a modest direct impact on the global economy but could produce uncertainty that choked…
read moreRussian aluminum giant Rusal is stockpiling large quantities of aluminum at one of its plants in Siberia because U.S. sanctions imposed this month have prevented it from selling the metal to customers, five sources close to the company said. With the firm’s own storage space filling up with unsold aluminum, Rusal executives in Sayanogorsk, in…
read moreRussia demanded compensation from the U.S. for its worldwide tariffs on foreign aluminum and steel Thursday, becoming the third influential member of the World Trade Organization to do so. China, the European Union and India have also objected, arguing the tariffs are a “safeguard” measure to protect U.S. domestic products from imports, which require compensation…
read moreGlobal diamond giant De Beers is rolling out an app to help small-scale, artisanal diamond miners in Sierra Leone certify that gems they pry from the soil are legal, the Anglo American unit said on Thursday. The initiative is the latest attempt by the industry to clean up its image and expunge the scourge of…
read moreCalifornia reached an agreement with the federal government that the state’s National Guard troops will deploy to the border to focus on fighting transnational gangs as well as drug and gun smugglers, Gov. Jerry Brown said. The announcement comes after a week of uncertainty in which President Donald Trump bashed the governor’s insistence that troops…
read moreFrom the anticipated U.S.-North Korea summit to concerns of a trade war with China and others, the United States faces several foreign policy challenges with a White House national security team in transition. On this week’s edition of “Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren,” several experts, including retired Admiral Michael Mullen, former chairman of the…
read moreCIA Director Mike Pompeo’s secret trip to North Korea puts him back in the spotlight as a close, trusted emissary and confidante of President Donald Trump, and the man chosen to lead preparations for a planned summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine takes a look at…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump says the much anticipated U.S.-North Korean summit will only take place if it promises to be successful. He discussed denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a meeting Wednesday in Florida. Abe urged the United States to maintain a tough stance on North Korea and…
read moreMillions of residents in Puerto Rico are trying to adapt to what they are calling “the new normal,” as the second islandwide blackout in a week left more than 1.3 million customers without electricity and reliable communications Wednesday. Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, tweeted about the islandwide power outage just before 10 a.m.…
read moreA bitterly divided House panel Wednesday approved new work and job training requirements for food stamps as part of a five-year renewal of federal farm and nutrition policy. The GOP-run Agriculture Committee approved the measure strictly along party lines after a contentious, five-hour hearing in which Democrats blasted the legislation, charging it would toss up…
read moreSunPower Corp. on Wednesday said it would buy U.S. solar panel maker SolarWorld Americas, expanding its domestic manufacturing as it seeks to stem the impact of Trump administration tariffs on panel imports. The White House cheered the deal, saying it was proof that Trump’s trade policies were stimulating U.S. investment. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The news…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported aluminum and steel are disrupting business for hundreds of American companies that buy those metals, and many are pressing for relief. Nearly 2,200 companies are asking the Commerce Department to exempt them from the 25 percent steel tariff, and more than 200 other companies are asking to be spared…
read moreMore Senate Democrats have announced they oppose President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, making it all but certain he will not have the Foreign Relations Committee’s endorsement when the full Senate votes on confirmation, possibly next week. “His [Pompeo’s] clear record of favoring military action over diplomacy is worrying,”…
read moreFormer US First Lady Barbara Bush died April 17 at the age of 92. A family statement says she died in the evening with her family beside her. These photos are a few of the highlights of her life. …
read moreTop U.S. political figures are paying tribute to former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush as a woman who was devoted to her family, her country and the public good. President Donald Trump praised Bush, who died Tuesday at the age of 92, as “an advocate of the American family.” He said that “amongst her greatest…
read moreGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel backs the idea of a European Monetary Fund, provided national governments have sufficient oversight, sources close to her said before a visit by the French president. President Emmanuel Macron, who will meet Merkel in Berlin on Thursday, is pushing hard for bold euro zone reforms to defend the 19-member currency bloc…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that he did not fire former FBI chief James Comey last year because he was heading the agency’s probe of Russian links to his 2016 election campaign, a contention directly conflicting with what he said days after he had ousted him. “Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in…
read more
