The White House COVID-19 response team on Wednesday reminded Americans of the continued need to slow the omicron variant’s spread despite its decreased severity and announced new efforts to help keep schools open. As the omicron variant sweeps across the U.S., Dr. Rochelle Walensky emphasized that wearing masks, getting vaccinated and undergoing COVID-19 testing when…
read moreAs of Wednesday, there were 300 days until the next federal election in the U.S., when voters will cast ballots for all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the members of the Senate, with enormous consequences for the second half of President Joe Biden’s four-year term in office. While…
read moreFormer Sen. Harry Reid will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol as colleagues and friends pay tribute to a hardscrabble Democrat who rose from poverty in a dusty Nevada mining town to the most powerful position in the U.S. Senate. Reid will be honored Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda during a ceremony closed to the…
read morePresident Joe Biden is pushing legislation to prevent states from imposing laws that limit access to the vote, arguing that voting rights are a bedrock American value and need to be better protected. His Republican opponents want states to support more rigorous voter identification and ballot security measures to prevent voter fraud. VOA’s Anita Powell…
read moreThe House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection is demanding records and testimony from a former White House aide they say helped draft former President Donald Trump’s January 6 speech, along with two others it says were in communication with people close to Trump. Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, issued subpoenas…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were in the southern state of Georgia on Tuesday to promote voting rights legislation that would greatly expand federal influence over elections. The two bills are a top priority for many Democrats but have stalled in the Senate because of Republican opposition. “Today, we come to…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are headed Tuesday to the southern state of Georgia to promote voting rights legislation that would greatly expand federal purview over elections but has stalled in the Senate. A White House official said Biden would use an address to advocate for the right to vote in…
read moreWith the fate of Ukraine and potentially broader post-Cold War European stability at stake, the United States and Russia are holding critical strategic talks that could shape the future of not only their relationship but the relationship between the U.S. and its NATO allies. Prospects are bleak. Though the immediacy of the threat of a…
read moreThe life of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who rose from childhood poverty and deprivation in Nevada to become one of the nation’s most powerful elected officials, will be celebrated by two American presidents and other Democratic leaders on Saturday, a testament to his impact on some of the most consequential legislation of the…
read moreThe one-year anniversary of the first attack on the U.S. Capitol in two centuries passed in silence Thursday as differences between congressional Democrats and Republicans about the deadly riot were on stark display. Over the past year, the events of January 6 have furthered the divide between Democrats who see the day as an attempted…
read moreOn the first anniversary of the deadly January 6 Capitol riot, U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a forceful speech in defense of American democracy. He laid blame for the insurrection squarely on former President Donald Trump and Republicans who continue to spread the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen. White House Bureau Chief…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden used the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot to speak bluntly about the impact of the shocking event — and to lay responsibility at the feet of former President Donald Trump, the White House said Wednesday. Invoking famous battles from the American Revolutionary War, Civil War and World War…
read moreThirty years ago, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote in his essay “The End of History?” that the U.S. liberal democracy epitomized the endpoint of humanity’s sociocultural evolution, the superior and final form of government. But one year after the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of…
read moreMore than 725 people have been arrested since last year’s January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that was aimed at overturning Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. One year later, some of the rioters who have been sentenced for a variety of crimes are speaking out about that day and their actions. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti…
read moreA year after the January 6 Capitol riot, former President Donald Trump continues to insist that the 2020 vote was rigged. In recent months, the former president has pushed Republicans in state legislatures to change election laws. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington. …
read moreFor just a moment, immediately following the January 6 assault on the United States Capitol last year, it was possible to imagine that the events of that day would shock the country back to political normalcy. In the hours after the mob of insurrectionists, spurred on by false assertions from former President Donald Trump…
read morePresident Joe Biden has gotten the same troubling questions from worried world leaders, ones that he never thought he would hear. “Is America going to be all right?” they ask. “What about democracy in America?” While Biden has tried to offer America’s allies assurances, he has only occasionally emphasized the gravity of the threat to…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden is set to speak Thursday about the historical significance of last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. The address, on the one-year anniversary of the assault, will feature Biden speaking from the Capitol’s Statuary Hall along with Vice President Kamala Harris. “The president is…
read moreThe House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection on Tuesday requested an interview with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in the media, as the committee continues to widen its scope. In a letter to Hannity, Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel,…
read moreOne a year after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, hundreds of people are still awaiting trial for their alleged role in the riot, while 155 others have pleaded guilty. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the pending cases are…
read moreFormer President Donald Trump has canceled the press conference he planned to hold in Florida on Thursday, the anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters. Trump said in a statement Tuesday evening that he would instead discuss his grievances at a rally he had planned for Arizona later this month. …
read moreDays before the anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the Senate will vote soon on easing filibuster rules in an effort to advance stalled voting legislation that Democrats say is needed to protect America’s democracy. In a letter Monday to colleagues, Schumer, a Democrat from New York,…
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