Roger 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…
read moreHouse Democrats are putting forward a new proposal to end the government shutdown, aiming to lure President Donald Trump away from his demand for a border wall by offering billions of new dollars for other border security measures. The offer is a possible path toward a compromise even though it does not have money for…
read moreThe chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee is starting an investigation into the handling of security clearances by President Donald Trump’s White House and 2016 presidential transition. Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland says the investigation is in response to what he calls “grave breaches of national security” involving former national security adviser…
read moreJeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, has launched NASA experiments into space on a brief test flight. The New Shepard rocket blasted off Wednesday from West Texas, hoisting a capsule containing the experiments. The eight experiments were exposed to a few minutes of weightlessness, before the capsule parachuted down. The rocket also landed successfully, completing…
read moreThe European Union on Wednesday warned countries running lucrative schemes granting passports and visas to rich foreigners to toughen checks on applicants amid concern they could be flouting security, money laundering and tax laws. EU countries have welcomed in more than 6,000 new citizens and close to 100,000 new residents through golden passport and visa…
read moreThe hottest job of the future might be app developer. All you have to do is look at what you’re holding in the palm of your hand to figure out why. “All of us use our cellphones probably more than we should be every day, and that is what is driving the demand for app…
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