Category: Світ

Two former top U.S. intelligence officials harshly criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for not standing up to Russia for meddling in the presidential election, one of them wondering aloud whether the president’s real aim is to make “Russia great again.”   Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan didn’t …

The Republican push to craft a health care bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, hit another stumbling block Friday. The Senate parliamentarian is reported to have decided Republicans would need 60 votes to keep anti-abortion provisions in the bill. Republicans have a 52-48 Senate majority. It is highly unlikely that …

An al-Qaida suspect, accused of supporting terrorists, made his initial appearance in a U.S. federal court in Philadelphia Friday, following his extradition from Spain. Ali Charaf Damache was indicted in 2011 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on charges that he aided terrorism, including a plan to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who depicted the …

The U.S. Constitution grants the president broad authority to pardon those accused or convicted of federal crimes; but, does it allow the president to pardon himself? Nobody really knows for sure. The question has become relevant following reports Donald Trump and his legal team have been discussing the limits of the president’s pardoning power, including …

As Vice President Mike Pence prepares to visit Montenegro for talks with Western Balkan leaders, a senior State Department official says U.S. engagement in the region remains strong. The comments by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Hoyt Brian Yee, come amid concerns that deep cuts in the proposed State Department budget …

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has resigned. Sources quoted in media reports say his decision to step down is linked to the appointment of new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. They say President Trump’s spokesman offered his resignation shortly after Scaramucci, a New York financier, was named. Spicer’s press briefings had drawn large …

U.S. allies in Eastern Europe and Ukraine are worried that Russia’s planned war games in September could be a “Trojan horse” aimed at leaving behind military equipment brought into Belarus, the U.S. Army’s top general in Europe said Thursday. Russia has sought to reassure NATO that the military exercises will respect international limits on size, …

There has been an outpouring of bipartisan support from current and former lawmakers for Republican Senator John McCain, a singular figure in American politics, after it was revealed he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma. The Arizona Republican is widely regarded as an American hero for his service as a …

Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Thursday seeking to increase sanctions on Hezbollah, accusing the powerful Shiite Muslim political group of violence in Syria and amassing rockets along Israel’s border. The bill, an amendment to existing sanctions on the group, seeks to further restrict its ability to fundraise and recruit, increase pressure on …

Six months into his presidency, Donald Trump has a mixed record on his pledges to reverse much of his predecessor’s foreign policy legacy. He has withdrawn from the Paris climate accord, dropped the Trans Pacific Partnership trade pact and vocally supported better relations with Russia. But as VOA White House correspondent Peter Heinlein reports, many …

President Donald Trump has decided to halt the CIA’s years-long covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the regime of the nation’s president Bashar al-Assad. Russia had long pushed the United States to end the program. The phasing out of the secret program was reported by The Washington Post Wednesday. Officials told …

Travelers flying to the U.S. from nearly 300 international airports, including those in Mexico and Canada, are now subject to stepped-up security measures that include stricter screening for electronic devices larger than cellphones. The regulations could include asking passengers to present larger electronic devices for inspection and prove that they can be powered on. The …

When President Donald Trump left his chair at this month’s G20 summit while Africa was discussed and had daughter Ivanka sit in for him, critics blasted it as a breach of diplomatic protocol. But it also drew attention to the growing concern that when it comes to the continent of 1.2 billion people, the U.S. …

The United States has imposed new sanctions on 18 Iranian individuals and groups it accuses of backing Tehran’s ballistic missile program. The State Department announced its sanctions Tuesday against two groups linked to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, saying they were involved in ballistic missile research and development. It further said that Iranian activities in the …

Russia says it reserves the right to retaliate in an ongoing dispute with the U.S. over the seizure of two Russian compounds last December by the Obama administration.  Before leaving office, then President Barack Obama also expelled 35 Russian diplomats, accusing them of spying, and saying the actions were to punish Moscow for interfering in …

Venezuela’s foreign minister said Tuesday the country will move forward with plans to elect members of a constitutional assembly and review relations with the United States, despite sanction threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. “The constitutional assembly is happening,” Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said on state television. He also said Venezuela is “conducting a deep …

Cake and conversation, it seems, can go only so far to mend longstanding economic rifts between the United States and China. Three months after President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, shared chocolate cake at an amiable summit in Florida, tensions between the world’s two biggest economies are flaring again. Just as officials …

North Korea does not have the ability to strike the United States with “any degree of accuracy” and while its missiles have the range, they lack the necessary guidance capability, Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva said on Tuesday. “I … am not sanguine that the test on the …

Turkish security and intelligence organizations are dealing deadly blows to Islamic State cells and networks in the country, a high-level Turkish official told VOA, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Since the New Year’s attack by IS in Istanbul which took 39 lives, Turkey has been dealing heavy blows to this extremist organization,” the official said. …

A U.S. federal appeals court on Monday upheld nondisclosure rules that allow the FBI to secretly issue surveillance orders for customer data to communications firms, a ruling that dealt a blow to privacy advocates. A unanimous three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco sided with a lower court ruling …

Two Iranian nationals have been charged in the United States in an alleged scheme to steal and resell software to Iran, including a program to design bullets and warheads. According  to an indictment unsealed Monday, Mohammed Saeed Ajily, 35, recruited Mohammed Reza Rezakhah, 39, to break into companies’ computers to steal their software for resale …

Filmmaker Ken Burns views the Vietnam War as a virus that infected Americans with an array of chronic illnesses — alienation, a lack of civil discourse, mistrust of government and each other. And he hopes his new documentary can be part of a cure. “What if the film was just an attempt at some sort …

As flames raged through a Honolulu high-rise building, killing three people and injuring a dozen others, some residents didn’t even realize a blaze had broken out until they opened their doors or saw firefighters racing to battle the inferno. Several Marco Polo high-rise residents told The Associated Press the sirens are located in the hallways …

Nine people have drowned and a teenaged boy is missing after a flash flood swept over a popular swimming spot in a river in the western U.S. state of Arizona, authorities said Sunday. The flood swept through a canyon on the Verde River inside Tonto National Forest, about 145 kilometers northeast of Phoenix, late Saturday. …

After months of delay, the Trump administration is finalizing plans to revamp the nation’s military command for defensive and offensive cyber operations in hopes of intensifying America’s ability to wage cyberwar against the Islamic State group and other foes, according to U.S. officials. Under the plans, U.S. Cyber Command would eventually be split off from …

French President Emmanuel Macron says his glamorous Paris charm offensive on Donald Trump might have changed the U.S. president’s mind about climate change.   Macron defended his outreach to Trump, saying in an interview Sunday in the Journal du dimanche newspaper “our countries are friends, so we should be too.”   After a tense, white-knuckle …