US President Joe Biden traveled to New York City on Thursday to highlight a new push by his administration to combat gun violence and crime, including a crackdown on untraceable firearms, so-called ghost guns. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …
Leave a commentA U.S. senator was resting in the hospital Wednesday after suffering a stroke from which he is expected to recover fully, although it poses problems for the Democrats’ agenda until his return. Ben Ray Lujan, 49, underwent brain surgery to relieve swelling late last week and remains hospitalized, according to his office, which added that he was expected back at work in four to six weeks “barring any complications.” As he recovers, Democrats effectively lose their advantage in the Senate, which is split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris wielding the tie-breaking vote. Unlike in the House, senators must votemore
Leave a commentU.S. lawmakers are nearing a deal on sanctions aimed at deterring Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine. Several lawmakers who recently returned from a trip to Kyiv told VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson there is broad bipartisan unity on confronting Russia. Camera: Russian Service Produced by: Katherine Gypson …
Leave a commentA man who allegedly threatened the University of California, Los Angeles, and detailed potential violence against the prominent university over hundreds of pages has been taken into custody in Colorado following a standoff Tuesday. The man — identified as Matthew Christopher Harris, 31 — was taken into custody Tuesday morning and is being held in Colorado on state charges after a standoff with police in Boulder. Federal charges may be pursued. It wasn’t immediately known if Harris had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. Authorities were searching his Boulder apartment. “Upon reviewing parts of the manifesto, we identifiedmore
Leave a commentFormer U.S. President Donald Trump left office more than a year ago, but his conduct in the waning weeks of his presidency as he tirelessly sought to remain in power and his reported role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, remain a focal point of the American political scene and multiple investigations. Trump, with a wide base of Republican voter support, is teasing another run for the presidency in 2024 after losing in 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden, now the 46th U.S. president. Both men are in their 70s, but an electoral rematch in two yearsmore
Leave a commentSeveral historically Black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs, received a second round of bomb threats Tuesday following similar threats on Monday. Among those receiving threats Tuesday were Howard University and the University of the District of Columbia in Washington; Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, Florida; Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky; Fort Valley State in Fort Valley, Georgia; Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana; Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia; and Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. The threats again resulted in canceled classes and shelter-in-place orders. There have been no explosions and no word of any bombs found. Themore
Leave a commentAt least a half-dozen historically Black universities in five states and the District of Columbia were responding to bomb threats Monday, with many of them locking down their campuses for a time. In warnings to students, school officials say some of the threats were directed at academic buildings. The FBI “is aware of bomb threats received by some Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” the agency said in a statement provided by Jenna Sellitto, an FBI spokesperson in Atlanta. “The FBI takes all potential threats seriously, and we regularly work with our law enforcement partners to determine their credibility.” In Georgia,more
Leave a comment“In rural Minnesota we still have a work ethic, and I’ll call them Christian values, and that’s not reflected in our local newspaper,” said Al Saunders, a farmer and friend of Wolter’s who graduated from Benson High School a couple years after Anfinson. “I just can’t stomach it anymore,” said Saunders, whose family settled on part of his sprawling farm more than a century ago, and who speaks almost lovingly about the rich brown soil. Anfinson’s editorials on farm subsidies and politics leave him fuming. “Trash gets thrown at you so many times and eventually you just give up.” Hemore
Leave a commentThe president-elect was warned – there was a conspiracy to prevent the counting of the electoral ballots and disrupt his inauguration. There was even talk of seizing Washington by military force in a deeply divided nation. It was not Joe Biden receiving the alarming reports after his 2020 election, but Abraham Lincoln following the vote of 1860. “There was also an assassination plot against the president-elect to prevent him from arriving in Washington at all,” according to Lincoln historian Howard Holzer. Members of a white supremacist secret society and a Baltimore militia, both committed to preserving slavery, had discussed seizingmore
Leave a commentAs he struggled to survive the 2020 Democratic primary, Joe Biden made a striking pledge before voting began in heavily African American, must-win South Carolina: His first Supreme Court appointment would be a Black woman. On Thursday, with his poll numbers reaching new lows and his party panicking about the midterm elections, Biden turned again to the Democratic Party’s most steadfast voters and reiterated his vow to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer with the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. The striking promise is a reflection of Black women’s critical role in the Democratic Party and themore
Leave a commentThe House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection subpoenaed more than a dozen individuals Friday who it says falsely tried to declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election in seven swing states. The panel is demanding information and testimony from 14 people who it says allegedly met and submitted false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the winner of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to a letter from Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee’s Democratic chairman. President Joe Biden won all seven states. “We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information aboutmore
Leave a commentA bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, collapsed early Friday morning, just hours ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to the U.S. city to underscore the need to improve the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …
Leave a commentWith President Joe Biden’s broader domestic agenda stymied in the Senate, Democratic leaders in Congress have begun looking for legislative victories elsewhere, with a new focus on improving the U.S. ability to compete with China. Democrats in the House of Representatives are attempting to come to agreement on legislation that would provide large financial subsidies to the semiconductor industry as well as generous research and development grants to support supply chain resilience, buoy domestic manufacturing operations and underwrite new scientific research. The effort in the House follows a push in the Senate last year, which resulted in bipartisan passage ofmore
Leave a commentU.S. media reports say Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, for 27 years a staunch liberal voice on the country’s highest court, has decided to retire, handing President Joe Biden his first chance at filling an open seat after former President Donald Trump appointed three conservatives that tipped the court’s ideological balance sharply to the right. The 83-year-old Breyer, according to news accounts in Washington, plans to remain on the court through the end of the court’s current term in June, or until a replacement is named by Biden and confirmed by the politically divided Senate. Biden, unlike Trump when hemore
Leave a commentDiplomats of the former Afghan government who have held on to their jobs in the U.S. are grappling with a new problem: their official bank accounts have been suspended. Two senior Afghan diplomats, who did not want to be named because the issue is under discussion with U.S. officials, confirmed to VOA that the Citibank accounts of the embassy in Washington and two Afghan consulates in the U.S. have been suspended for more than a month. The Afghan mission in Washington does not receive funds from Kabul, because the Afghan capital now under the control of the Taliban, and itmore
Leave a commentPresident Joe Biden responded to a question about inflation by calling a Fox News reporter a vulgarity. The president was in the East Room of the White House on Monday for a meeting of his Competition Council, which is focused on changing regulations and enforcing laws to help consumers deal with high prices. Reporters in the room shouted questions after Biden’s remarks. Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Biden about inflation, which is at a nearly 40-year high and has hurt the president’s public approval. Doocy’s network has been relentlessly critical of Biden. Doocy called out, “Do you think inflation ismore
Leave a commentJudges have approved a request for a special grand jury by the Georgia prosecutor who’s investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others broke the law by trying to pressure Georgia officials to throw out Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last week sent a letter to county superior court Chief Judge Christopher Brasher asking him to impanel a special grand jury. Brasher issued an order Monday saying the request was considered and approved by a majority of the superior court judges. The special grand jury is to be seated May 2 for a periodmore
Leave a commentThe U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear two cases that could determine if race can be used as a factor for college admission. The cases, brought by the conservative group Students for Fair Admissions, targets Harvard, the country’s oldest private school, and the University of North Carolina, one of the nation’s oldest public schools. The group maintains Harvard discriminates by using a quota-like system that disproportionately rejects qualified Asian applicants thus violating their civil rights. “Harvard’s mistreatment of Asian-American applicants is appalling,” the plaintiffs wrote in their brief in the Harvard case. “That Harvard engages in racialmore
Leave a commentAfghan students studying at universities in the U.S. through scholarship programs face a more uncertain future since the Taliban took over and many say they cannot return to their home country because of concerns for their safety. More than 100 Afghan students came to the United States through the Fulbright program last academic year, some of them only days before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan and the U.S. embassy in Kabul was abruptly shut. Under the terms of the Fulbright scholarship program, recipients are required to return to their home countries at the end of their academicmore
Leave a commentA University of Arkansas professor pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about patents he had for inventions in mainland China. Simon Saw-Teong Ang pleaded guilty in federal court in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to one count from a 58-count federal indictment. Prosecutors say that 24 patents bearing Ang’s name were filed with the Beijing government but that he failed to report the patents to the university and denied having them when questioned by the FBI. The university requires disclosure of all faculty patents, which the university would own. The plea deal calls for a one-year prison sentence, but the crimemore
Leave a commentThe Biden administration on Friday announced policy changes to attract international students specializing in science, technology, engineering and math — part of the broader effort to make the U.S. economy more competitive. The State Department will let eligible visiting students in those fields, known as STEM, complete up to 36 months of academic training, according to senior administration officials. There will also be a new initiative to connect these students with U.S. businesses. The officials insisted on anonymity to discuss the changes before their official announcement. Homeland Security will add 22 new fields of study — including cloud computing, datamore
Leave a commentLegislation that would bar technology companies from favoring their own products in a way that undermines competitiveness moved forward Thursday after a Senate panel voted to move the bill to the Senate floor. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act received bipartisan support in a 16-6 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill targets Amazon; Alphabet, the parent company of Google; Apple; and Meta, which was formerly called Facebook. The companies had worked strenuously to sink the bill, arguing it could disrupt their services. Smaller tech companies that supported the bill argued it will benefit consumers through adding competition. more
Leave a commentThe Justice Department dropped charges Thursday against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor accused of concealing ties to the Chinese government, a further setback to a federal initiative that was set up to prevent economic espionage and theft by Beijing of trade secrets and academic research. The department revealed its decision in the case against Gang Chen in a filing in federal court in Boston, saying it could no longer meet its burden of proof. U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, said the move was “in the interests of justice” and was the result of newmore
Leave a commentThe congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday asked former President Donald Trump’s daughter to voluntarily cooperate with its probe. In a letter to Ivanka Trump, committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said the panel wants her to tell them what she knows about her father’s efforts to thwart congressional certification that he lost the November 2020 election. They also want to know what he was doing as his supporters rampaged through the Capitol while lawmakers were in the initial stages of certifying Democrat Joe Biden as the new president. It was not immediately knownmore
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