WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attention-grabbing overseas debut may have irritated some key Republicans and alienated allies in Europe, where his statements on Ukraine and NATO went down like a lead balloon. But his forceful comments gained him a nod from one key listener: U.S. President Donald Trump. And Hegseth — who on Saturday…
read moreNEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department asked a court Friday to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, with a top official from Washington intervening after federal prosecutors in Manhattan rebuffed his demands to drop the case and some quit in protest. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, the department’s second-in-command, and…
read moreTAIPEI, TAIWAN — There is no need for one country to control the semiconductor industry, which is complex and needs a division of labor, Taiwan’s top technology official said on Saturday after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the island’s chip dominance. Trump repeated claims on Thursday that Taiwan had taken the industry and he wanted it…
read moreUkraine would have a “very, very difficult” time surviving without U.S. military support to fend off Russia’s invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a interview broadcast the night before he is scheduled to address the Munich Security Conference. “Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, you know in all the difficult…
read moreAfter days of heavy rain, the strongest storm of the year brought dangerous debris flows and rock- and mudslides across Southern California on Friday, including in several areas that last month were ablaze with devastating fires. Some areas in the region received as much as 12 centimeters of rain this week, the National Weather Service…
read morePANAMA CITY, PANAMA — Panama has received the first U.S. flight carrying deportees from other nations as the Trump administration takes Panama up on its offer to act as a stopover for expelled migrants, the Central American nation’s president said Thursday. “Yesterday a flight from the United States Air Force arrived with 119 people from diverse…
read moreUkraine’s vast reserves of critical minerals give it the potential to be a strategic supplier for the West. President Donald Trump is considering a deal that would continue U.S. support for Ukraine in the war against Russia in exchange for access to its minerals. That proposed agreement is set for discussion at the Munich Security…
read moreAmid nationwide immigration raids, a community organization in Chicago is helping undocumented migrants who say they are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being detained. Veronica Villafane narrates this report by Enrique Garcia Fuentes. …
read moreU.S. health officials have banned Red Dye No. 3 from American foods, decades after the synthetic coloring was banned in Europe. As VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports, studies have linked the bright red color additive to cancer in male laboratory rats. …
read moreThe tragic deaths of Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov in a plane crash late last month in Washington have shone a spotlight on the role of Russian- or Soviet-born coaches in the world of competitive figure skating. Their influence has shaped a generation of American skaters, raising the question: Why have these coaches been so…
read moreTAIPEI — Taiwan President Lai Ching-te pledged on Friday to talk with the United States about President Donald Trump’s concerns over the chip industry and to increase U.S. investment and buy more from the country, while also spending more on defense. Trump spoke critically about Taiwan on Thursday, saying he aimed to restore U.S. manufacturing of…
read moreUS President Donald Trump on Thursday made a range of energy and defense agreements with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his first visit to the White House in Trump’s second term. But the gains were offset by Trump’s threat to impose reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, something India sought to avoid. VOA’s Anita Powell…
read moreThe Trump administration is moving quickly with its mass deportation plans by sending some migrants to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and rapidly deporting others. VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros brings us this story. …
read moreTechnology company Google recently broke with its long-standing policy against developing AI weapons. VOA’s Matt Dibble has more from Silicon Valley. …
read moreBALTIMORE — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming health care for transgender people under age 19. The judge’s ruling came after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children who allege their health care has been compromised…
read moreNEW YORK — The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan resigned Thursday after refusing a Justice Department order to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Two senior Justice Department officials also quit after the department leadership in Washington moved to seize control of the case. Danielle Sassoon, a Republican serving as interim U.S.…
read moreWASHINGTON — The U.S. military is now housing about 68 detainees at its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of an effort to assist the Department of Homeland Security with mass deportations. The commander of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, shared the updated figure with lawmakers Wednesday, but…
read moreAt this week’s Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, world leaders and technologists gathered to discuss the rapidly evolving field of generative artificial intelligence. Many are eager to join the global AI race, while others are proceeding with caution. Tina Trinh reports. …
read moreWASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country. Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over…
read moreLONDON — Work to give 21st-century London yet another skyscraper has uncovered traces — in fact chunks — of the city’s origins almost 2,000 years ago. Archaeologists exploring the site of a planned 32-story office tower announced Thursday that they have unearthed the remains of a Roman basilica that once stood at the heart of the…
read moreSeoul — As a high school junior in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, Daneel Kutsenko never gave much thought to China. Last month, though, as the U.S. government prepared to ban TikTok – citing national security concerns about its Chinese ownership – Kutsenko downloaded RedNote, another Chinese video-sharing app, which he felt gave him a new…
read moreHundreds of world leaders and delegates are set to attend the Munich Security Conference this weekend — with conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and simmering tensions in the Indo-Pacific, on the agenda. As Henry Ridgwell reports, all eyes will be on the approach of the U.S. delegation under the new administration of President…
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