Moscow — The Kremlin on Sunday hailed dialogue between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — two “extraordinary” presidents — as “promising,” and vowed it would “never” give up territory seized in eastern Ukraine. Trump broke with Western policy earlier this month by phoning Putin to discuss how to end the conflict in Ukraine —…
read moreMANILA, PHILIPPINES — A village in the densely populated Philippine capital region launched a battle against dengue Wednesday by offering a token bounty to residents for captured mosquitos — dead or alive. The unusual strategy adopted by the Addition Hills village in Mandaluyong City reflects growing concern after the nearby city of Quezon declared an outbreak…
read moreWASHINGTON — New FBI Director Kash Patel is expected to be named the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a Justice Department official said Saturday. Patel could be sworn in next week, the official said, putting Patel in charge of two of the Justice Department’s largest agencies in an unusual arrangement…
read moreISLAMABAD — Pakistan has warned that thousands of Afghan nationals awaiting relocation and resettlement in the United States will be deported to Afghanistan if their cases are rejected or not processed on time. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar issued the warning during a television interview aired Saturday, noting that the U.S. has promised to relocate the Afghan…
read moreOXON HILL, MARYLAND — President Donald Trump said Saturday that “nobody has ever seen anything” like his administration’s sweeping effort to fire thousands of federal employees and shrink the size of government. Addressing an adoring crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington, Trump said, “We’re going to forge a new and lasting political…
read moreWASHINGTON — As the Trump administration begins to engage with Central Asia, Uzbekistan has expressed eagerness to expand its strategic partnership, highlighting what it calls its “enhanced” political dialogue on bilateral and regional issues and security cooperation, including its “solid connection” with the Mississippi National Guard. The U.S. recently got back its seven Black Hawk…
read moreCAIRO — A cholera outbreak in a southern Sudanese city killed nearly 60 people and sickened about 1,300 others over the last three days, health authorities said Saturday. The outbreak in the southern city of Kosti was blamed mainly on contaminated drinking water after the city’s water plant stopped due to an attack by a notorious…
read moreJABALIA, GAZA STRIP — A third mass polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday, AFP journalists reported, with the aim of delivering the first dose to nearly 600,000 children across the Palestinian territory. Scores of children under the age of 10 received the dose at a mosque in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, where a blistering…
read moreWASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday urged billionaire Elon Musk to be more aggressive in his efforts to shrink the federal government despite the uproar over layoffs and deep spending cuts. “Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive,” Trump posted all in uppercase letters on…
read morePreparations are underway for a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Saturday, marking a dramatic shift away from Western isolation of Moscow over its war in Ukraine. Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global…
read moreWASHINGTON — This week, thousands of conservative politicians, activists and influencers convened outside Washington for the Conservative Political Action Conference, the premier annual gathering of the American right. The four-day event, hosted by the American Conservative Union since 1974, features U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, among other high-profile speakers from around the…
read moreA total of 177 Venezuelan migrants were deported by the United States from the Guantanamo naval base, where they were detained, in another sign of cooperation between these historically feuding countries. Click here for the full story in Spanish. …
read moreWASHINGTON — The Associated Press filed a lawsuit against three White House officials on Friday after the news agency was barred from some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s events. The AP, in the suit filed in a federal court in Washington, said the denial of access violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees…
read moreLOS ANGELES — Six weeks after the most destructive wildfire in city history, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ousted the city’s fire chief Friday amid a public rift over preparations for a potential fire and finger-pointing between the chief and City Hall over responsibility for the devastation. Bass said in a statement that she is removing…
read moreThe measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 90 cases across seven counties, the state health department posted online Friday, and 16 people are hospitalized. In neighboring eastern New Mexico, the measles case count is up to nine, though state public health officials said Thursday there’s still no evidence this outbreak is connected…
read moreWASHINGTON — Moves by U.S. President Donald Trump to potentially gut programs aimed at supporting election security are not sitting well with key state election officials, who are now asking the Trump administration to reconsider. The National Association of Secretaries of State sent a letter Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warning that changes to…
read morePARIS — Ice loss from the world’s glaciers has accelerated over the past decade, scientists said on Wednesday, warning that melting may be faster than previously expected in the coming years and drive sea levels higher. The world’s glaciers, which are important climate regulators and hold freshwater resources for billions, are rapidly melting as the world…
read moreA tearful executive at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service told staffers on Thursday that about 6,000 employees would be fired, a person familiar with the matter said, in a move that would eliminate roughly 6% of the agency’s workforce in the midst of the busy tax-filing season. The cuts are part of President Donald Trump’s…
read moreSAN JOSE, COSTA RICA — A group of families and children hailing from Uzbekistan, China, Afghanistan, Russia and more countries climbed down the stairs of an airplane in Costa Rica’s capital Thursday, the first flight of deportees from other nations Costa Rica agreed to hold in detention facilities for the Trump administration while it organized the…
read moreVice President JD Vance sketched his conservative view of foreign affairs Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, accompanied by foreign politicians who say they support President Donald Trump’s agenda. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington. Camera: Anthony LaBruto …
read moreWASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday began a debate on a Republican bill to advance President Donald Trump’s priorities on immigration, energy and defense, even after he urged lawmakers to scrap the effort in favor of a House of Representatives bill that would also include trillions of dollars in tax cuts. Trump this week came…
read moreWASHINGTON — PRC is out. China is in. That is among the significant modifications to the U.S. State Department’s online fact sheet on China, which drops the country’s official name, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in favor of just China. Former President Joe Biden’s administration routinely referenced the Beijing government with the PRC abbreviation. Since…
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