The United States praised Ukraine Tuesday for accepting a ceasefire offer and taking a step forward on the path to ending the war with Russia. Moscow is expected to weigh in next on the American proposal. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. …

WASHINGTON — The Education Department plans to lay off more than 1,300 of its employees as part of an effort to halve the organization’s staff — a prelude to President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the agency. Department officials announced the cuts Tuesday, raising questions about the agency’s ability to continue usual operations. The Trump administration…

Measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico are now up to more than 250 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes. Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that is airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines and has been…

U.S. federal investigators looking for the cause of the January collision between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington that killed 67 people on Tuesday recommended a ban on some helicopter flights to improve safety. A military helicopter collided with the American Airlines jet as it was approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport over…

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — krainian officials are expected to present a partial ceasefire plan with Russia during talks Tuesday with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia. The Ukrainian plan includes halting long-range missiles strikes and a truce covering the Black Sea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not expected to take part in Tuesday’s meetings, with Ukraine represented…

Theft of truck loads of green coffee beans is surging in the United States, the world’s largest importer of the commodity, as prices for the beans increased to all-time highs in the last year, according to transportation companies. The issue was discussed by market participants over the weekend in Houston, where the U.S. National Coffee…

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA — Each year, nearly 54,000 women in the U.S. state of Louisiana are released from prison, according to Operation Restoration, a New Orleans-based nonprofit organization with a mission to support women and girls impacted by incarceration as they attempt to restore their lives. For many women, restoring their lives proves too difficult. Some…

The Senate voted Monday to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer as U.S. labor secretary, a Cabinet position that puts her in charge of enforcing federally mandated worker rights and protections as the White House is trying to eliminate thousands of government employees. Chavez-DeRemer will oversee the Department of Labor, one of several executive departments named in lawsuits…

All three major U.S. stock indexes dropped sharply in Monday morning trading, with investors worried about the uncertainty of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on key trading partners and then his refusal to rule out the possibility of a U.S. recession in the coming months.   The key Dow Jones average of 30 blue chip…

WASHINGTON — Construction crews began removing the large painting of the words “Black Lives Matter” on a street one block from the White House on Monday as Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser struggles to fend off threats of encroachment from both President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress.  Bowser pointed to the change on the social platform…

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday in a case from Colorado to decide whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.   The conservative-led court is taking up the case amid actions by President Donald Trump targeting transgender people, including a ban on military service and an end to federal…

More than two years have passed since police stopped a man who was loitering outside the New York home of Iranian dissident and journalist Masih Alinejad. Inside his car, they found an assault rifle with an obliterated serial number, 66 rounds of ammunition and a ski mask. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran had…

Police in Washington are investigating the shooting of a man Sunday by U.S. Secret Service personnel near the White House. A Secret Service spokesperson said a day before the shooting, police had shared information about “a suicidal individual” who may have been traveling to Washington from the state of Indiana. Secret Service personnel spotted the…

A single-engine airplane carrying five people crashed and burst into flames Saturday in the parking lot of a retirement community near a small airport in suburban Pennsylvania, and everyone on board survived, officials and witnesses said. The fiery crash happened around 3 p.m. just south of Lancaster Airport in Manheim Township, police Chief Duane Fisher…

Panama City — After weeks of lawsuits and human rights criticism, Panama on Saturday released dozens of migrants who were held for weeks in a remote camp after being deported from the United States, telling them they have 30 days to leave the Central American nation. It thrust many like Hayatullah Omagh, a 29-year-old who fled…

Washington — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appointed new leadership at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sunday as the agency struggles to meet President Donald Trump’s stated goal of massive deportation operations aimed at undocumented immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Trump’s administration deported 37,660 people during his first month in office, U.S. Department of Homeland…

New York — Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian graduate student who played a prominent role in last spring’s anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, according to his attorney. Mahmoud Khalil was inside his university-owned residence Saturday night near Columbia’s Manhattan campus when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the building and took him into custody,…

New York — Fast-moving brush fires fanned by high winds burned through a large swath of land on New York’s Long Island on Saturday, spewing thick gray smoke into the sky and prompting the evacuation of a military base and the closure of a major highway.  Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and said…

Washington — U..S Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday condemned the “radical Islamist terrorists” behind “massacres” of minorities in Syria and demanded that the interim administration hold those responsible to account. “The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days,” Rubio said in a…

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration rescinded a waiver on Saturday that had allowed Iraq to pay Iran for electricity, as part of President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, a State Department spokesperson said. The decision to let Iraq’s waiver lapse upon its expiration “ensures we do not allow Iran any degree of economic or…