WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Jordan and Turkey Wednesday to rally regional countries around an aligned vision for Syria’s future following the ousting of longtime authoritarian ruler Bashar al-Assad. Blinken will travel to Aqaba, Jordan, and Ankara, Turkey, and meet leaders to discuss developments in Syria, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and…
read moreBiden approves national security memo on China, Iran, North Korea and Russia ahead of Trump’s return
Washington — President Joe Biden has approved a new national security memorandum ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House that could serve as a road map for the incoming administration as it looks to counter growing cooperation among China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, the White House said Wednesday. Biden administration officials began developing…
read morePORTLAND, Maine — The U.S. East Coast was beginning a whiplash-inducing stretch of weather on Wednesday that was rainy, windy and potentially dangerous, due in part to an atmospheric river and developing bomb cyclone. Places like western Maine could see freezing rain, downpours, unseasonably high temperatures and damaging winds — all in the span of a…
read moreCAIRO — Sudan has become the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded” after 20 months of devastating war between rival generals, the International Rescue Committee said in a report released Wednesday. “The country accounts for 10% of all people in humanitarian need, despite being home to less than 1% of global population,” the New York-based organization said…
read moreWASHINGTON — The Biden administration says it is in touch with all rebel groups in Syria following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and wants the process of forming a new government to be led by Syrians. White House national security communications adviser John Kirby spoke with VOA Turkish’s White House correspondent Begum Donmez Ersoz and…
read moreWASHINGTON — A shield law known as the PRESS Act that would give journalists greater federal protections failed to pass the Senate on Tuesday evening after it was blocked by Senator Tom Cotton. Shield laws protect journalists from being forced by the government to disclose information such as the identities of sources. The PRESS Act…
read moreNew York — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped Federal Trade Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to lead the federal consumer protection and antitrust agency. Ferguson has said the agency should tackle perceived censorship of conservative viewpoints online. If social media platforms collaborate to suppress such views or advertisers coordinate to pull business from platforms such as…
read morewashington — The United States is moving to grant federal protections to the monarch butterfly — a once-common species recognizable by its striking black and orange patterns that has faced a dramatic population decline in recent decades. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said Tuesday it has initiated a public comment period to consider listing the…
read moreWASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has created a new national monument on the grounds of a former Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania, which served as the blueprint for hundreds of similar institutions across the United States. “I want everyone to know,” Biden said. “I don’t want people forgetting, 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now.” Indian…
read moreProsecutors are urging a judge not to throw out President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money criminal conviction but suggesting a willingness to end the case in a way that would preserve the verdict while avoiding punishment or a protracted legal fight. In court papers made public on Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office proposed an array…
read moreNAIROBI, KENYA — The United Nations, Microsoft and Kenya’s Ministry of Information last week launched a digital and artificial intelligence center in Nairobi to train African public servants and accelerate the development and use of online services. Officials said the program — the Timbuktoo GreenTech Hub and Africa Centre for Competence for AI and Digital Skilling…
read moreWASHINGTON — The United States slapped sanctions on a Chinese cybersecurity company and one of its employees Tuesday, accusing it of compromising more than 80,000 firewalls in a 2020 attack. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that it had sanctioned Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company and an employee named Guan Tianfeng over the April…
read moreU.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to enforce mass deportations has raised alarm bells for immigrants in Florida. VOA Spanish’s José Pernalete says activists and field workers warn that crops could be affected if personnel shortages arise. See the full story here. …
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden on Monday presided over his final White House Tribal Nations Summit by reaching into the nation’s dark past and establishing a national monument to honor the suffering of thousands of Native children and their families in federal boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell…
read moreWASHINGTON — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s uncertain political future from his martial law backlash could imperil the next Trump administration’s trilateral coordination with the country and Japan in countering China, analysts say. Yoon faces an investigation for treason after declaring martial law and rescinding it hours later last week. Although he survived an impeachment…
read morePHOENIX — A polygamist religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual “wives” including 10 underage girls was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Monday for coercing girls as young as 9 years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults, and for scheming to kidnap them from protective custody. Samuel…
read morePresident Joe Biden is making last-ditch efforts to appoint more federal judges before he leaves the White House. But where does he stand on appointments compared to President-elect Donald Trump? …
read morewashington — U.S. diplomats and military officials have intensified their outreach to groups vying to chart a new course for Syria, as well as to Syria’s neighbors, in an effort to ensure the fall of the regime of former President Bashar Assad does not give way to a more unstable and dangerous future. A number of…
read moreThe Biden administration is shoring up its CHIPS Act funding agreements before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Trump has previously disparaged the CHIPS Act and called for higher tariffs instead of subsidies to incentivize companies to build semiconductor factories. What would be the future of TSMC under the Trump administration? See the…
read moreNEW YORK — Police have arrested a 26-year-old man with a weapon consistent with the gun used to kill the head of the largest U.S. health insurer, New York’s police commissioner said Monday. The man was taken into custody after police got a tip that he had been spotted at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, said NYPD…
read moreNew York — A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism. A Manhattan jury cleared Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely’s 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was…
read moreTikTok asked a federal appeals court on Monday to bar the Biden administration from enforcing a law that could lead to a ban on the popular platform until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge to the statue. The legal filing was made after a panel of three judges on the same court sided with the…
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