The U.S. House Intelligence Committee is set to hear impeachment inquiry testimony Wednesday from a key actor in President Donald Trump’s alleged effort to pressure Ukraine for incriminating information on his political rivals as Democrats continue to build their case for impeaching the U.S. leader.U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland will become the…
read moreAfter a month of preparations and goodbyes, Bei Bei, the Washington National Zoo’s most eligible giant panda bachelor, was on his way to China on Tuesday, where scientists hope he will help increase the population of his species.The departure of 4-year-old Bei Bei to his parents’ homeland had been pre-arranged and was announced last month…
read moreIn recent days the Italian city of Venice has suffered the worst flooding in 53 years – prompting a fierce debate among Italian politicians over whether man-made climate change is to blame. The same argument is taking place in Australia as wildfires fueled by soaring temperatures encroach on the city of Sydney. Henry Ridgwell reports…
read moreDemocratic presidential candidate Deval Patrick is centering his fledgling campaign on a defense of corporations and capitalism that puts him directly at odds with some of the party’s most progressive figures. “There is a role in the economy for private equity. You bet your life,” Patrick said Monday night in an interview with…
read moreIn 1990, a bikini-clad Madonna wrapped in a U.S. flag urged MTV viewers to vote in Senate elections as the youth television network partnered with a “Rock the Vote” campaign that mixed pop culture and politics.Thirty years on, with Millennials and Gen Z poised to outnumber the Baby Boomer generation for the first time in…
read moreDARPA, the main research and development arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, is funding researchers to develop wearable devices that would have military applications such as using the mind to control unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, commonly known as drones. Instead of using brain implants to achieve this, DARPA is looking for non-invasive to minutely…
read moreGoogle’s head of philanthropy says the company is having “a lot of conversations” internally amid worries about the tech giant’s bottomless appetite for consumer data and how it uses its algorithms.Vice President Jacqueline Fuller wouldn’t comment on specific data privacy controversies dogging Google lately, but says she shares other concerns many have about Big Tech.…
read moreLouisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has stunned Republicans again, narrowly winning a second term Saturday as the Deep South’s only Democratic governor and handing Donald Trump another gubernatorial loss this year.In the heart of Trump country, the moderate Edwards cobbled together enough cross-party support with his focus on bipartisan, state-specific issues to defeat Republican businessman…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump made an unexpected visit to a military hospital Saturday afternoon for what the White House said was an early start to his annual health checkup.“Anticipating a very busy 2020, the president is taking advantage of a free weekend here in Washington, D.C., to begin portions of his routine annual physical exam at…
read moreA senior White House budget official arrived on Capitol Hill Saturday to testify behind closed doors before congressional investigators who are conducting an impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Donald Trump.Mark Sandy, a longtime career official with the Office of Management and Budget, is the first agency employee to be deposed in the inquiry after three…
read moreA new report by leading health and safety agencies finds millions of sanitation workers in developing countries are forced to work under horrific conditions that put their health and lives at risk.Sanitation workers everywhere occupy the lowest rung of society and are stigmatized and marginalized because they do the dirty work that other people do…
read moreIt’s looking like an anti-robocall bill will be sent to President Donald Trump this year, helping tackle an infuriating problem in the U.S.House and Senate leaders said Friday they’ve reached an agreement in principle on merging their two bills against robocalls.The House bill had gone further than the Senate one. Details about what’s in the…
read moreAs House Democrats bring witnesses to testify in the public impeachment inquiry, President Donald Trump continues to attack the witnesses and opposition Democrats. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara takes a look at the president’s communications strategy and at his supporters and opponents in Congress. …
read moreThe National Rifle Association’s embattled top executive earned about $2 million last year at a time when the gun rights lobby is beating back challenges from regulators, longtime members and gun control groups, according to tax filings cited in media reports.The tax filings come as the NRA faces investigations in New York and Washington that…
read moreNew rules from the Trump administration Friday would require insurers and hospitals to disclose upfront the actual prices for common tests and procedures to promote competition and push down costs.But the sweeping changes face stiff pushback from the health care industry. A coalition of major hospital groups quickly announced that hospitals will sue to block…
read moreU.S. regulators on Friday approved a new medicine that can prevent some extremely painful sickle cell disease flare-ups.The Food and Drug Administration approved Novartis AG’s Adakveo for patients 16 and older. The monthly infusion, which halves occurrences of sickle cell pain episodes, will carry a list price of roughly $85,000 to $113,000 per year, depending…
read moreTwitter’s new ban on political ads will cover appeals for votes, solicitations for campaign contributions and any political content. But the company quickly acknowledged Friday that it expects to make mistakes as individuals and groups look for loopholes. Twitter is defining political content to include any ad that references a candidate, political party, government official, ballot…
read moreNew Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is on the ballot in New Hampshire, where he hopes his patience will pay off. The Democratic presidential hopeful signed up for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary on Friday, the final day of the filing period. Though he lags behind in polls, Booker says he’s not one to switch…
read moreRoger Stone, a longtime friend and ally of President Donald Trump, was found guilty Friday of witness tampering and lying to Congress about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid. Stone was convicted of all seven counts in a federal indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with…
read moreThe World Health Organization warns disease outbreaks are flourishing in Yemen and many people are dying from a lack of health care and serious shortages in supplies and personnel.Yemen’s economy is in tatters and its health care system in a state of near total collapse after more than five years of conflict. The WHO says…
read moreThere was a collective sigh of relief for more than 350,000 HIV-positive patients in Botswana, after the southern African country’s Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the government in a legal tussle over the supply of life-prolonging anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.In January, Botswana’s government was taken to court by a major ARV supplier that cited…
read moreU.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday he was certain that the awarding of a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft instead of Amazon was done fairly. The Pentagon awarded the contract to Microsoft in late October, and Amazon said there was “unmistakable bias” on the government’s part and it intended to challenge the decision…
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