WASHINGTON — Former Democratic congresswoman turned President Donald Trump supporter Tulsi Gabbard is one step closer to leading the U.S. intelligence community following a party-line vote in the Senate Intelligence Committee. All nine Republicans on the committee voted late Tuesday to send Gabbard’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence for a vote before…
read moreMAYVILLE, NEW YORK — In 2022, Salman Rushdie was about to deliver a lecture before a live audience in western New York when a man ran toward him and plunged a knife into the author’s hand as he raised it in self-defense. “After that there are many blows, to my neck, to my chest, to my…
read moreWashington — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the controversial environmental lawyer turned public health critic, cleared his first hurdle on Tuesday to become the nation’s top health official when the senate finance committee voted to advance his nomination for a floor vote. Republicans voted together to advance his nomination, while Democrats all opposed. His nomination now will…
read moreISLAMABAD — The Taliban have warned that the military weapons left behind by the United States in Afghanistan now belong to them as “spoils of war” and will be utilized to defend against any attempts to reclaim them. The statement marks the first official response from the internationally unrecognized government in Kabul to President Donald…
read morePARIS — France hosts top tech players next week at an artificial intelligence summit meant as a “wake-up call” for Europe as it struggles with AI challenges from the United States and China. Players from across the sector and representatives from 80 nations will gather in the French capital on February 10 and 11 in the…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump is set to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks Tuesday at the White House with Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip at the top of the agenda. The talks come at a key phase in the ceasefire. Israel and Hamas have less than four weeks to…
read moreNew U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods went into effect Tuesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump backed off plans to impose tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods. The new 10% duty that Trump announced Saturday is a first step in pressuring China, the president said Monday. China has said it would take countermeasures in…
read moreSTATE DEPARTMENT — The United States and El Salvador have reached what U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called “the most unprecedented and extraordinary” deal to further curb illegal immigration. After about three hours of meetings with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at his residence in Lake Coatepeque, San Salvador, Rubio said that Bukele has offered to…
read moreThe Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five U.S. universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday. It’s part of President Donald Trump’s promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than the Biden administration, which settled a…
read moreWASHINGTON — Dozens of employees at the U.S. Education Department were put on paid administrative leave in response to President Donald Trump’s order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government, according to a labor union that represents hundreds of workers in the agency. It’s unclear how many workers were put on leave or…
read moreUganda began a vaccine trial Monday against the Sudan strain of Ebola that has killed one person in the outbreak declared last week. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday in a post on the X social media platform that the trial was “initiated with record speed, only three days since the outbreak…
read moreU.S. stock markets fell sharply in early trading Monday but pared their losses after President Donald Trump paused a planned 25% tariff on Mexican imports. The three major U.S. stock indices — the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 blue chip stocks, the broader S&P 500 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ — all dropped nearly 2%…
read moreWashington — U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ordering the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments to create a sovereign wealth fund and said it may purchase TikTok. “We’re going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months. We’re going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for…
read moreThe recent outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in the U.S. and the potential for it to mutate has raised concerns among the scientific community that it could result in human-to-human transmission and a new pandemic. Farmers are also concerned about the potential impacts on their livelihood. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. …
read moreState Department — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said cooperation with Panama has sent “a clear message” the U.S. will act to curb illegal immigration, as he observed a U.S.-funded deportation flight departing from Albrook International Airport in Panama on Monday morning. The flight returned dozens of undocumented Colombians to their home country. According to…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump said he spoke Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a day before the start of new tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China. Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he and Trudeau would talk again at mid-afternoon, while pushing his argument that the new tariff was aimed…
read moreLondon — World Health Organization member states will discuss cutting part of its budget by $400 million in light of President Trump’s move to withdraw the United States, its biggest government funder, from the agency, a document released on Monday showed. Opening the agency’s annual executive board meeting, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also defended…
read moreBRUSSELS — European Union leaders gather on Monday to discuss how to bolster the continent’s defenses against Russia and how to handle U.S. President Donald Trump after his decision to impose tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China. At a royal palace-turned-conference center in Brussels, the leaders of the EU’s 27 nations will also lunch…
read moreIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet Monday with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff during a visit to Washington focused on Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas and other regional issues. Netanyahu’s office said he and Witkoff would discuss Israel’s ceasefire positions. The talks come as negotiations are expected to open this week on…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump said he planned to speak Monday with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, days after announcing tariffs on goods from those countries and China that have were met with pledges of retaliatory tariffs and other actions. The new tariffs affect the top three U.S. trading partners, but Trump said the move…
read moreWashington — FBI employees were ordered Sunday to answer a detailed list of questions about any work they may have done on criminal cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, stoking fear among staff about a fresh round of firings at the law enforcement agency.…
read moreLos Angeles — Former President Jimmy Carter has won a posthumous Grammy award. Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, died in December at age 100. Prior to his passing, Carter was nominated in the audio book, narration, and storytelling recording category at the 2025…
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