COVID-19, climate change and cooperation in high-tech industries were the focus of a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House Friday. While the leaders also discussed North Korea, prospects for a breakthrough on denuclearization appear dim. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …
Leave a commentThe White House put forward a $1.7 trillion infrastructure counteroffer Friday to Senate Republicans, dropping from President Joe Biden’s sweeping $2.3 trillion proposal “in the spirit of finding common ground.”White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki disclosed the new offer as talks were still underway between key Cabinet secretaries and GOP senators at a crucial stage toward a deal. Skepticism had been rising on all sides amid complaints about the lack of significant movement off the opening bids. Republicans had offered a $568 billion plan.”This proposal exhibits a willingness to come down in size,” she said at the press briefing.According tomore
Leave a commentA bill that President Joe Biden signed into law Thursday gives local and federal officials new tools and resources to combat hate crimes, while putting the spotlight on a surge in anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The impetus for the new law, known as the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, was a dramatic increase in attacks on Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic in Wuhan, China, more than a year ago. Dramatic surge Anti-Asian hate crimes in major U.S. cities and counties spiked by about 150% last year over the year before and 194% during the first quarter of 2021more
Leave a commentHailing it as a rare contemporary example of bipartisan cooperation in Washington, President Joe Biden on Thursday signed legislation intended to fight anti-Asian hate crimes, which have escalated in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic.Hate and racism are “the ugly poison that has long haunted and plagued our nation,” the president said before signing the bill in the White House East Room.The law establishes a new Justice Department position to expedite the review of COVID-19-related hate crimes and provide support for local law enforcement agencies to respond to such violence. It also is intended to improve hate crime datamore
Leave a commentPresident Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, released last month, includes $12 billion for community colleges to address technological needs, help protect the health and safety of students and faculty, and narrow funding inequities.It also calls for two years of free tuition at community colleges, one of many parts of First lady Jill Biden, third from left, speaks during a visit with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, left, to Sauk Valley Community College, in Dixon, Ill., April 19, 2021.Brown said the current infrastructure proposal would benefit community colleges that have aging buildings.“Many of them have been built in the ’60s ormore
Leave a commentIn the wake of George Floyd’s death last May beneath the knee of then-police officer Derek Chauvin, Black Lives Matter protesters demanded that the Justice Department investigate the Minneapolis police department for civil rights violations. FILE – People hold up signs, including one with an image of George Floyd, outside the courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 20, 2021, after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty in the death of Floyd.Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department investigated two dozen police agencies for evidence of misconduct and gross violations of Black Americans’ rights, eventually entering into court-approved agreementsmore
Leave a commentThe United States says it is ready to work with Russia to advance areas where the two nations have “intersecting interests,” while continuing to defend U.S. interests and respond if Moscow acts aggressively against Washington and its allies.”There are many areas where our interests intersect and overlap, and we believe that we can work together and indeed build on those interests — whether it is dealing with COVID-19 and the pandemic, climate change, the nuclear programs” in Iran and North Korea, or the peace process in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov metmore
Leave a commentAs the Israeli-Palestinian conflict showed no sign of abating, Democrats in the U.S. Congress called for a cease-fire while Republican lawmakers condemned the actions of Hamas, saying there was no moral equivalence between the two sides. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Producer: Katherine Gypson. …
Leave a commentPresident Joe Biden toured an electric vehicle plant in Michigan on Tuesday, where he made the case for his $174 billion electric vehicle plan, framing it in the context of competition against China. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …
Leave a commentOn a day many motorists in the southeastern United States could not find gasoline, President Joe Biden promoted the transition to electrical vehicles while warning that China is ahead in the race to build the next-generation automobiles. “They think they’re going to win, but I got news for them. They will not win this race. We can’t let them. We have to move fast,” said the president during a visit to a Michigan plant where electric pickup trucks are made. Ford on Wednesday will formally unveil its F-150 Lightning, an all-electric version of its best-selling pickup truck, which the presidentmore
Leave a commentFor many years, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government before Kamala Harris was elected vice president last November. A continual target of Republican criticism, Pelosi has cemented her place in history leading an often-divided Democratic caucus under four U.S. presidents. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more. Produced by: Katherine Gypson …
Leave a commentRancor within the Republican Party peaked last week between members who remain loyal to former President Donald Trump and those who want the party to repudiate him and his continued false claims of election fraud. First, there was the dramatic expulsion of Congresswoman Liz Cheney from her leadership post in the House of Representatives after she voted to impeach Trump and denounced his claims the 2020 election had been “stolen” by the Democrats. Then came the announcement that more than 100 disgruntled conservatives are exploring the possibility of launching a new political party rededicated to founding ideals. To non-U.S. observers, the creation of a new political party from the shards of one riven by internal discord may seemmore
Leave a commentA Florida politician who emerged as a central figure in the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz pleaded guilty Monday to six federal charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of a plea deal.Joel Greenberg, a longtime associate of Gaetz’s, appeared in federal court in Orlando. He pleaded guilty to six of the nearly three dozen charges he faced, including sex trafficking of a minor, and he admitted he had paid at least one underage girl to have sex with him and other men.Gaetz was not mentioned in the plea agreement or during the courtmore
Leave a commentTwo members of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee announced an agreement Friday to form a panel to conduct a bipartisan investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. The deal was announced in a statement by committee Democratic Chairman Bennie Thompson and its top Republican, John Katko. The legislators said they would introduce a bill for House consideration as early as next week. The measure will call for an investigative commission similar to the one that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., they said. The proposed 10-member commission would consist of five membersmore
Leave a commentU.S. House Republicans approved Representative Elise Stefanik on Friday for a top leadership spot, sending a powerful message about the direction of the party by elevating the New York congresswoman noted for her support of former president Donald Trump. The 36-year-old Stefanik takes over the position of House Republican Party conference chair from Representative Liz Cheney, who was removed Wednesday after calling Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election “a big lie.” Thank you to my colleagues for electing me to serve as House Republican Conference Chair and to my constituents across FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California speaks during his weekly press briefing onmore
Leave a commentData missing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website is back and updated after a four-year absence under the Trump administration.The EPA’s new Climate Change Indicators website shows that the last decade was the hottest on record; heat waves have increased in frequency from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s; and sea levels rose as much as 8 inches in coastal areas.”With this long overdue update, we now have additional data and a new set of indicators that show climate change has become even more evident, stronger, and extreme — as has themore
Leave a commentData missing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website is back and updated after a four-year absence under the Trump administration.The EPA’s new Climate Change Indicators website shows that the last decade was the hottest on record; heat waves have increased in frequency from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s; and sea levels rose as much as 8 inches in coastal areas.”With this long overdue update, we now have additional data and a new set of indicators that show climate change has become even more evident, stronger, and extreme — as has themore
Leave a commentA top immigration official on Thursday pledged a comprehensive response to the influx of unaccompanied minors at the U.S.-Mexico border. In testimony on Capitol Hill, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told concerned lawmakers a migrant crisis early in the Biden presidency has been contained. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Producer: Katherine Gypson. …
Leave a commentHungary has announced plans to open a branch of a Chinese University in Budapest. Critics fear the development — the first of its kind in Europe — will be used by Beijing to spread Chinese Communist Party propaganda and could pose a threat to national security. The so-called “Student City” will be built on the site of a former wholesale market outside the nation’s capital, with its centerpiece a branch of the prestigious Shanghai-based Fudan University. Hungary said it will raise the standard of higher education, offer courses to 6,000 students from Hungary, China and further afield, while bringing Chinese investment andmore
Leave a commentThe U.S. military has completed about 10% of its pullout from Afghanistan. But defense officials left members of Congress with more questions than answers Wednesday, as the U.S. inches closer and closer to President Joe Biden’s Sept. 11 withdrawal deadline. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the latest. …
Leave a commentRepublicans sought to shift the narrative on the violent Jan. 6 insurrection during a congressional hearing Wednesday, with some painting the Trump supporters who stormed the building as patriots who have been unfairly harassed, as Democrats clashed with the former Pentagon chief while drilling into the government’s unprepared response. The colliding lines of questioning, and a failure to settle on a universally agreed-upon set of facts, underscored the challenges Congress faces as it investigates what law enforcement officials have described as a deadly act of domestic terrorism carried out by Trump loyalists bent on overturning the election. Themore
Leave a commentPresident Joe Biden held his first White House meeting with Republican leaders from Congress on Wednesday in search of common ground on his proposals to spend trillions of dollars on U.S. infrastructure, education and childcare. Biden, a Democrat and former longtime U.S. senator from Delaware, has sought to reduce partisan tension in Washington and pledged to work with both parties to advance his policy goals, which face stiff opposition from Republicans. “The bottom line here is we’re going to see whether we can reach some consensus” on a compromise over infrastructure, Biden said at the start of talks with Mitchmore
Leave a commentU.S. House Republicans are expected to pick Representative Elise Stefanik for a top leadership spot Friday, sending a powerful message about the direction of the party by elevating the New York congresswoman noted for her support of former President Donald Trump.Stefanik, 36, would take over the position of House GOP Conference chair from Representative Liz Cheney, who was removed Wednesday after calling Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election “a big lie.”Stefanik’s bid for the third most powerful position in the House Republican caucus caps a shift from a largely unknown lawmaker with a moderate voting record representingmore
Leave a commentRepublicans in the U.S. House of Representatives ousted Congresswoman Liz Cheney Wednesday from her party leadership post over her criticism of former president Donald Trump for his claims that voter fraud cost him re-election last November. The caucus, in a voice vote, removed the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney from her position as chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in House Republican leadership, responsible for communicating the party’s message to the general public. Republicans are in a slight minority in the House compared to the majority Democrats, but one key Republican, Congressman Jimmore
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