Democratic presidential candidates promised major changes to U.S. immigration law, contrasting their ideas to the hardline policies of President Donald Trump during a forum with Latino political activists in Milwaukee. The White House hopefuls gathered Thursday as Trump’s detention policies have sparked fierce Democratic pushback and intense public debate. They uniformly panned Trump’s approach…
read moreOpposition lawmakers in Italy demanded Thursday to have Interior Minister Matteo Salvini appear in Parliament about allegations that a covert Russian oil sale scheme was devised to fund his pro-Moscow League party. Democratic Party lawmakers pressed for a parliamentary inquiry following another media report with allegations that a former Salvini associate proposed an under-the-table arrangement…
read moreFrance adopted a pioneering tax on internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook on Thursday, despite U.S. threats of new tariffs on French imports. The final vote in favor of the tax in the French Senate came hours after the Trump administration announced an investigation into the tax under the provision used last year to…
read moreThe Trump administration imposed sanctions Thursday on Venezuela’s military intelligence agency, which is accused of torturing to death a navy captain in its custody. The latest move by the U.S. Treasury Department to pressure President Nicolas Maduro from power followed another round of negotiations in Barbados between Maduro’s government and opposition leaders aimed at…
read moreElizabeth Warren released a far-reaching immigration agenda on Thursday that envisions a significant leftward shift in U.S. policy, including the remodeling of immigration enforcement agencies “from top to bottom” and new limits on the detention of migrants who enter the country. Warren’s immigration proposal, released ahead of her appearance alongside three Democratic presidential rivals at…
read moreUpdated: July 11, 2019, 2:18 p.m. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Thursday authorized subpoenas of a dozen current and former Trump administration and campaign officials as part of its investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the separation of families at the border with Mexico. Democrats who control the panel…
read moreVOA’s Katherine Gypson contributed to this report. WASHINGTON — U.S. officials reportedly plan to start immigration raids on Sunday and are expected to target at least 2,000 undocumented people for whom deportation orders have been issued, some as a result of their failure to appear in court for immigration proceedings. Though not confirmed by U.S.…
read moreSouth Korea’s foreign minister told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Japan’s export curbs against South Korea are “undesirable” for trilateral cooperation, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Japan tightened curbs last week on exports of three materials crucial for smartphone displays and chips, saying trust with South Korea had been broken over a…
read moreThe Trump administration outlined “active threats” to U.S. elections as it briefed Congress Wednesday on steps the government has taken to improve election security in the wake of Russian interference in 2016. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and other officials “made it clear there are active threats and they’re doing…
read moreThe Justice Department is trying to prevent two former members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team from testifying behind closed doors in Congress next week, when Mueller will testify before lawmakers, according to people familiar with the matter. The department is opposing testimony by Aaron Zebley and James Quarles before the Democratic-led Judiciary and Intelligence committees in the House of Representatives,…
read moreRelentless global warming threatens the potential success of a sweeping set of goals established by the United Nations to tackle inequality, conflict and other ills, officials said on Tuesday. Climate change imperils food supplies, water and places where people live, endangering the U.N. plan to address these world problems by 2030, according to a report…
read moreIn the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, nine “water plazas” have been created that soak up excess rainfall while offering people a green space to meet and children to play. The city is also planting gardens and putting solar panels on a growing area of its nearly 20 square kilometers (8 square miles) of flat…
read moreThe organizers of the beleaguered Woodstock 50 festival said on Tuesday they still hoped to get a permit for the event due to take place next month despite being turned down at a second site. Authorities in the town of Vernon in upstate New York turned down the organizers’ application to stage the three-day event,…
read moreIvanka Trump is applauding the recent passage of legislation in Ivory Coast related to changes she pushed during her April trip to Africa. The country is in the process of updating its family code to make it more equitable to women — a move President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter and senior adviser praised as “a…
read moreU.S. prosecutors have canceled plans to call President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn as witness in a trial involving Flynn’s former business partner – an abrupt change that raises questions about Flynn’s cooperation with the government and its impact on his sentencing. In court filings unsealed on Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Alexandria,…
read moreFormer U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, earned more than $15 million in the two years after Biden left government in early 2017, according to tax records released by his campaign on Tuesday. The majority of their income came from speaking engagements and payments for two books written by Biden, a top…
read moreThe widely-publicized case of Baiq Nuril Maknun, the 41-year-old school bookkeeper sentenced to six months in prison for recording sexually-suggestive phone calls she received from the principal at her school, has gained traction after the Indonesian government indicated a willingness to grant her amnesty – which would eliminate any traces of wrongdoing from her part.…
read moreSri Lanka’s government announced Tuesday it will reduce ground handling charges for airlines and slash aviation fuel prices and embarkation fees to help the country’s vital tourism industry recover after Easter suicide bombings killed more than 250 people. Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said the decision will lead to an increase in flights to Sri Lanka…
read moreGreece’s new Cabinet was sworn in Tuesday, two days after conservative party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis won early elections on pledges to make the country more business-friendly, cut taxes and negotiate an easing of draconian budget conditions agreed as part of the country’s rescue program. The new Cabinet relies heavily on experienced politicians who have served…
read moreSteve Herman contributed to this report. WHITE HOUSE / CAPITOL HILL – When U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a speech on “America’s environmental leadership” from the East Room of the White House on Monday, his daughter Ivanka Trump was seated at the front row, where she watched with a beaming smile on her face. …
read moreDemocrats in the U.S. Congress on Monday said they were using a court case to demand documents from President Donald Trump’s businesses in hopes of proving that they violated anti-corruption provisions of the U.S. Constitution. A group of more than 200 Democratic Party lawmakers said in a statement that as part of lawsuit in federal…
read moreLawmakers must pass legislation easing “abhorrent conditions” facing children held at the southern border, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday as she tried taking the offensive on an issue that badly split Democrats and has raised questions about their unity on other issues. Pelosi, D-Calif., tried rallying Democrats against a common foe — Republicans…
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