A dozen immigrant workers at one of President Donald Trump’s golf clubs in New York who are in the U.S. illegally were fired this month, even though managers knew about their legal status for years, a lawyer for the workers said Saturday. As the president railed against immigrants coming into the country illegally during…
read moreA government-appointed commission laid out a plan Saturday for Germany to phase out coal use by 2038. The commission — made up of politicians, climate experts, union representatives and industry figures from coal regions — developed the plan under mounting pressure on Europe’s top economy to step up efforts to combat climate change. “This…
read moreThe world of work is going through a major transformation. Technological advances are creating new jobs and at the same time leaving many people behind as their skills are no longer needed. A new study by the International Labor Organization’s Global Commission on the Future of Work addresses the many uncertainties arising from this new…
read moreThe longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended Friday when President Donald Trump delayed his demand for funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, signing a three-week spending bill that will reopen shuttered agencies and get back pay to 800,000 federal workers. But as VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the short-term funding is…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump broke from his non-interventionist foreign policy this week, when he recognized Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guiado as the country’s interim president. The move increased tensions between Caracas and Washington, as President Nicolas Maduro kicked out American diplomats and the U.S. president said “all options are on the table.” White House correspondent…
read moreRoger Stone, the Republican political operative indicted Friday by the grand jury investigating Russian election interference, is a longtime friend and confidante of President Donald Trump who helped pave the way for the real estate mogul’s unforeseen ascent to the White House. A self-described “dirty trickster” with a taste for loud suits and colorful language,…
read morePotential Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said Friday that Donald Trump’s presidency “cannot be helped” and was “dangerous” for the country. The former New York City mayor also described the partial government shutdown, now at a record 35th day, as “a complete failure of presidential leadership.” The billionaire businessman said that for fellow New Yorker…
read moreJerome Corsi, a right-wing political commentator and conspiracy theorist, confirmed on Friday he is “Person 1” cited in the indictment of Roger Stone and said he no longer believed he would be charged as part of the U.S. special counsel’s Russia probe. Stone, a self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” and ally of U.S. President Donald Trump for…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump endorsed a three-week spending bill Friday, clearing the way for Congress to pass legislation ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. “After 36 days of spirited debate and dialogue, I see that Democrats and Republicans are willing to put partisanship aside, I think, and put the American people first,”…
read moreImpatient with the lack of World Trade Organization rules to cover the explosive growth of e-commerce, 76 countries and regions agreed on Friday to start negotiating this year on a set of open and predictable regulations. The WTO’s 164 members were unable to consolidate some 25 separate e-commerce proposals at the body’s biennial conference at…
read moreU.S. authorities expect to soon hand down a sentence in the case of Maria Butina, the 30-year-old Russian woman now held in a U.S. jail who has pleaded guilty of conspiring to influence American politics, accused of conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent. VOA’s Ricardo Marquina-Montanana traveled to the Siberian city of Barnaul to…
read moreChinese internet users lost access to Microsoft’s Bing search engine for two days, setting off grumbling about the ruling Communist Party’s increasingly tight online censorship. Microsoft Corp. said Friday that access had been restored. A brief statement gave no reason for the disruption or other details. Comments on social media had accused regulators of choking…
read moreThe Trump administration on Friday will start forcing some asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases proceed through U.S. courts, an official said, launching what could become one of the more significant changes to the immigration system in years. The changes will be introduced at San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing, according to…
read moreA Republican U.S. representative on Thursday introduced White House-drafted legislation that would give President Donald Trump more power to levy tariffs on imported goods in an effort to pressure other countries to lower their duties and other trade barriers. The measure offered by Representative Sean Duffy, which has been touted by Trump administration officials, has…
read moreA tiny fraction of Twitter users spread the vast majority of fake news in 2016, with conservatives and older people sharing misinformation more, a new study finds. Scientists examined more than 16,000 U.S. Twitter accounts and found that 16 of them — less than one-tenth of 1 percent — tweeted out nearly 80 percent of the…
read moreRobots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report. The report, published Thursday, says roughly 36 million Americans hold jobs with “high exposure” to automation — meaning at least 70 percent of their tasks…
read moreThe U.S. Senate is set to vote Thursday on competing partisan efforts to end a partial federal government shutdown, now in its second month, but neither proposal has an easy path through Congress to reach President Donald Trump’s desk. One of the afternoon votes is on a Republican measure incorporating Trump’s $5.7 billion dollar demand…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump says he will delay giving his State of the Union address until after he and Congress resolve a partial government shutdown. “I am not looking for an alternative venue for the SOTU Address because there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber,”…
read moreA prominent American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television who was held in the U.S. as a material witness was released from jail Wednesday evening. Marzieh Hashemi, 59, was released from jail in Washington after being detained for 10 days, according to Abed Ayoub, an attorney with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Hashemi, who works for the…
read moreAmazon’s long search for a new headquarters location — nicknamed HQ2 — came to an end in November 2018, as the company decided to open offices in New York City and Crystal City in Northern Virginia. And while the opening of HQ2 is still months away, Natasha Mozgovaya visited the original Amazon HQ in Seattle.…
read moreThe Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday that 43 flights into New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport were required to hold after drone sightings at a nearby airport Tuesday, while nine flights were diverted. The incident comes as major U.S. airports are assessing the threat of drones and have been holding meetings to address the…
read morePresident Donald Trump says he looks forward to delivering his State of the Union address in the House chamber on January 29, despite being strongly discouraged from doing so by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “There are no security concerns regarding the State of the Union Address. Therefore I will be honoring your invitation and fulfilling…
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