Category: Світ

The U.S. House of Representatives took the first steps Thursday toward fulfilling two key Trump campaign promises: strengthening penalties on undocumented immigrants who return to the U.S. after being deported and cutting federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities – those that choose not to work with immigration agents. VOA’s congressional reporter Katherine Gypson looks at …

U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated a former member of the U.S. Senate from Texas to become the next ambassador to NATO. Kay Bailey Hutchison, 73, served in the Senate for 20 years beginning in 1993, when she won a special election to fill a vacant seat. Since stepping down in 2013, she has practiced …

President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated an anesthesiologist to become the next U.S. surgeon general. Dr. Jerome Adams is the current health commissioner of Indiana, appointed by Vice President Mike Pence when he was the governor of that state. If confirmed, Adams would replace Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams, the acting surgeon general, who took over …

The State Department has approved arms sales to Taiwan worth a total of $1.4 billion, the first such deal with the self-governing island since President Donald Trump took office, officials said Thursday. The sale will anger China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory. It comes at a delicate time for relations between Washington …

South Korean President Moon Jae-in Wednesday defended his country’s free trade agreement with the United States, which U.S. President Donald Trump denounced in the past as a “job killing deal.” Moon addressed a pro-free trade audience of business leaders and lawmakers at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the first day of his presidential visit …

The majority of hate crimes experienced by U.S. residents over a 12-year period were not reported to police, according to a new federal report released Thursday that stoked advocates’ concerns about ongoing tensions between law enforcement and black and Latino communities. More than half of the 250,000 hate crimes that took place each year between …

The GOP-led House Armed Services Committee narrowly defeated a bid by Democrats late Wednesday to compel the Air Force to detail how much has been spent on trips that President Donald Trump has made to his Florida estate and other properties he owns. Republicans denounced the measure as “gotcha politics” and an attempt to litigate …

Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is speaking at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston this week.   The museum says the U.N.’s eighth secretary-general will discuss global issues and his diplomatic career at a forum moderated Wednesday by David Gergen, a CNN senior political analyst and co-director of the Center …

Old and new residents of Houston — the nation’s most diverse city — describe what makes them proud to be Texans. …

Bumper-to-bumper on the Katy Freeway: the terrain is flat, and the air could soak a sponge. Heavy traffic covers 26 lanes. Hot, hazy Houston, where roaches fly along Texas’ Gulf Coastal Plain — who would choose to transplant and call the city home? The answer is some of the world’s best doctors, scientists, engineers, chefs, …

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis travels this week to Brussels, where he will consult with NATO allies on troop contributions and other support in Afghanistan before announcing his own decision on increasing the number of U.S. forces in that war-torn country. But as VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports, the new strategy is likely to …

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has denounced the U.S. Supreme Court’s partial reinstatement of a travel ban affecting six predominately Muslim countries and said the decision could energize terrorist groups. “It is regrettable that the citizens of the countries on the list have never participated in any act of terrorism against the U.S. and …

Yale University has sued the state of Connecticut over rules it says limit the number of gender-neutral bathrooms it can designate on campus, the latest skirmish in the broader U.S. fight about gender identity. The Ivy League school said in the lawsuit it wants to designate all single-occupant restrooms at its law school as gender …

The Supreme Court’s criteria for who can be barred from entering the United States under President Donald Trump’s travel ban may confuse the U.S. officials overseas charged with implementing it and trigger a new round of lawsuits, experts said. People with a “bona fide relationship with a person or entity” in the United States are …

The nation’s largest wildfire has forced more than 1,500 people from their homes and cabins in a southern Utah mountain area home to a ski town and popular fishing lake.   Firefighters battled high winds Monday as they fought a fire that has grown to 67 square miles (174 square kilometers) and burned 13 homes …

U.S. President Donald Trump Monday said a four-month probe into allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia has turned up nothing, and he deserves an apology. In a barrage of Twitter messages on Monday, Trump also accused former President Barack Obama of failing to act in response to intelligence reports that Russia was meddling …

Tens of thousands of people waving rainbow flags lined streets for gay pride parades Sunday in coast-to-coast events that took both celebratory and political tones, the latter a reaction to what some see as new threats to gay rights in the Trump era. In San Francisco, revelers wearing rainbow tutus and boas held signs that …

Several U.S. state and local government websites were hacked Sunday to display a message supporting the Islamic State group. “You will be held accountable Trump, you and all your people for every drop of blood flowing in Muslim countries,” the message said.  It ended with, “I love the Islamic state.” The most extensive effects were …

Conservative activists held a pair of rallies in Washington on Sunday to decry the handful of celebrities who have joked about violence against President Donald Trump and to protest efforts to stop contentious speakers at colleges. Both rallies attracted only a few dozen supporters, with nearly as many counterprotesters at one of the events on …

Artifacts connected to some of the nation’s most notorious gangsters sold for more than $100,000 at auction Saturday.   A diamond pocket watch that belonged to Al Capone and was produced in Chicago in the 1920s, along with a handwritten musical composition he wrote in Alcatraz in the 1930s, were among the items that sold …

Homelessness is increasing in Los Angeles, and the signs are visible. From tents under freeways and shopping carts at street corners, to people begging for money outside fast-food restaurants, the number of homeless people in Los Angeles county has risen by 23 percent, to nearly 58,000. It is a life Destiny Prescott knows all too …

The bearers of two potentially clashing slogans, “Made in India” and “America First,” will finally meet Monday at the White House.   “It’s going to be a robust discussion,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said of what will be the first face-to-face talks between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump.  “We’re …

First Lady Melania Trump has hired a new chief usher to oversee the White House residence staff, bringing in a high-level employee from the Trump Organization’s Washington hotel to fill the slot. Timothy Harleth served as the director of rooms at the Trump hotel, and at the White House he will oversee about 90 staff …

So where, you may ask, is President Donald Trump most comfortable these days? Well in his previous life as a real estate mogul, you might have guessed he was most at home safely ensconced in Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, maybe tucking into one of those with well-done steaks with ketchup on the side. But …

The Trump administration has authorized the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India, the manufacturer said Friday, as the two nations’ leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting.   India initiated its request to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance last year. The deal is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. …

U.S. officials say a wildfire in southern Utah has doubled in size, one of several blazes burning in the Western United States. An effort to put out the Western fires has been difficult for firefighters because of the extreme heat in the region. The hot, dry conditions have also raised concerns about the upcoming July …