US Visa Called Too Expensive for Afghan Students

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For Breshna Salaam, the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last year meant a return to the same extreme poverty she and her mother had experienced under the Taliban’s first time in control of the country.   In 1996, the Taliban fired Salaam’s mother from a public service job, denying the widow and her daughter their only source of income. In August 2021, with her mother retired, the Taliban fired Salaam from a job at the Ministry of Agriculture.   Deprived of work and education in her own country, she applied for graduate programs abroad and was offered a scholarshipmore

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Jackson to be Sworn in as Breyer Retires From Supreme Court

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Nearly three months after she won confirmation to the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson is officially becoming a justice. Jackson, 51, will be sworn as the court’s 116th justice Thursday, just as the man she is replacing, Justice Stephen Breyer, retires. The judicial pas de deux is set to take place at noon, the moment Breyer said in a letter to President Joe Biden on Wednesday that his retirement will take effect after nearly 28 years on the nation’s highest court. The court is expected to issue its final opinions earlier Thursday in a momentous and rancorous term that includedmore

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January 6 Panel Subpoenas Former White House Counsel

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The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection issued a subpoena Wednesday to former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who is said to have stridently warned against former President Donald Trump’s efforts to try to overturn his election loss. It’s the first public step the committee has taken since receiving the public testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, the onetime junior aide who accused Trump of knowing his supporters were armed on Jan. 6 and demanding that he be taken to the U.S. Capitol that day. Cipollone, who was Trump’s top White House lawyer, is said to have raised concerns about themore

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First Post-Roe Primaries Put Abortion at Center of Key Races

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The midterm primary season entered a new, more volatile phase on Tuesday as voters participate in the first elections since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision revoking a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion jolted the nation’s politics. In Colorado’s Republican U.S. Senate primary, voters are choosing between businessman Joe O’Dea and state Rep. Ron Hanks. O’Dea backs a ban on late-term abortions but is otherwise the rare Republican who supports most abortion rights. Hanks backs a ban on the procedure in all cases. Meanwhile, in the Republican race for governor in Illinois, Darren Bailey, a farmer and state senator endorsedmore

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Former White House Aide: Trump Angry, Volatile as 2020 Defeat Became Obvious

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Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday that then-President Donald Trump became increasingly angry and volatile about his 2020 reelection loss, testifying that he agreed with rioters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 last year when they called for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to block the election outcome. Hutchinson said that as some of the thousands of Trump supporters at the Capitol chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” Trump told her boss, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, “Mike deserves it.” She quoted Meadows as saying that Trump “doesn’t think (the anti-Pencemore

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Former White House Aide to Testify About 2021 US Capitol Riot

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The congressional panel investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol last year is set to hear testimony Tuesday from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was privy to key White House conversations as Trump sought to upend his 2020 election loss. Watch the hearing live: Hutchinson’s testimony is shrouded in secrecy and was hastily scheduled Monday, with the House of Representatives panel declining to identify her publicly and saying only that a surprise hearing would be held “to present recently obtained evidence.” Multiple U.S. news outlets identified her asmore

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Native News Roundup, June 19-25

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Here is a summary of Native American-related news around the U.S. this week: Mohegan chief announced as new US treasurer For the first time in U.S. history, a Native American’s signature will appear on all U.S. currency: U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the new U.S. treasurer: Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba, the lifetime chief of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut. As treasurer, Malerba will oversee the U.S. Mint, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and the storage of about $270 billion worth of gold at Fort Knox. “With this announcement, we are making an even deeper commitment to Indian Country,”more

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US Senate Approves Bipartisan Gun Violence Bill

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The Senate easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill Thursday that seemed unthinkable a month ago, setting up final approval of what will be Congress’ most far-reaching response in decades to the nation’s run of brutal mass shootings. After years of futile Democratic efforts to curb firearms, 15 Republicans joined with them as both sides decided inaction was untenable after last month’s rampages in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. It took weeks of closed-door talks but senators emerged with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement to curb bloodshed that has come to regularly shock — yet no longermore

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Jan. 6 Investigators: Trump Pressured Department of Justice to Overturn 2020 Election

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In the fifth public hearing this month examining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, congressional investigators detailed how former President Donald Trump pressured the nation’s highest law enforcement officials to declare the 2020 election results invalid. As VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, those fraudulent election claims were also pushed by Republican members of Congress who later sought pardons. Producer: Katherine Gypson …

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US Health Officials Ban Juul E-Cigarettes Tied to Teen Vaping Surge

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Federal health officials on Thursday ordered Juul to pull its electronic cigarettes from the U.S. market, the latest blow to the embattled company widely blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping.  The action is part of a sweeping effort by the Food and Drug Administration to bring scientific scrutiny to the multibillion-dollar vaping industry after years of regulatory delays.  The FDA said Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its tobacco- and menthol-flavored cartridges. Those already on the market must be removed. Consumers aren’t restricted from having or using Juul’s products, the agency said.  To stay onmore

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US to Cancel $6 Billion in Student Loans for 200,000 Defrauded Borrowers

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The United States will cancel $6 billion in student loans for 200,000 borrowers who claimed they were defrauded by their colleges, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said. A settlement agreement between the borrowers and the U.S. Department of Education was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday and must be approved by a federal judge. Student debt cancellation has become a priority for many liberals and one that could shore up popularity with younger and more highly educated voters, who lean Democratic, before November’s midterm congressional elections. About 43 million Americansmore

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Witnesses Detail Trump Bid to Pressure Justice Department 

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The congressional panel investigating the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol heard testimony Thursday that former President Donald Trump pushed Justice Department officials to investigate voter fraud allegations even though he had been assured there were no widespread irregularities that would upend his reelection defeat. The panel focused its questions on the efforts of Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general specializing in environmental law, to be named attorney general in the last month of Trump’s presidency so he could pursue claims that Trump had been cheated out of a second four-year term. Such claims have been found to havemore

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New Witnesses to Detail How Trump Pushed Justice Department to Probe 2020 Election Fraud Claims

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The congressional panel investigating the causes of last year’s Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol is hearing testimony Thursday about how former President Donald Trump pushed Justice Department officials to investigate allegations of fraud in the 2020 election that he hoped would upend his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said the panel would examine Trump’s “attempt to corrupt the country’s top law enforcement body,” much as state officials in Arizona and Georgia testified Tuesday that Trump unsuccessfully sought to get them to appoint bogus electors to help him stay in office for anothermore

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Biden Seeks Gas Tax Relief Amid War-Amplified Price Hikes

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The war in Ukraine is causing disruptions around the world, from what President Joe Biden terms a “Putin price hike” for American petroleum consumers to an impending global food crisis. On Wednesday, Biden said he was taking steps to try to offset the effects, something he said he’ll be focusing on ahead of two key summits and a Mideast trip. Anita Powell reports from the White House. …

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House January 6th Committee to Hold Next Public Hearing

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The House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 , 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold its next hearing Tuesday. The committee has sought to make its case against former President Donald Trump, saying his baseless and repeated claims of a stolen election incited his followers to violence. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, …

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Trump Calls Hearings into January 6 Attack a ‘Theatrical Production’

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump Friday sharply criticized the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, in his first appearance since the committee began its public hearings. Speaking to a gathering of religious conservatives in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump said, “Let’s be clear, this is not a congressional investigation — this horrible situation that’s wasting everyone’s time.” “This is a theatrical production of partisan political fiction that’s getting these terrible, terrible ratings and they’re going crazy,” he added. The hearings have laid out how the attack on the Capitol occurred and Trump’s role in it bymore

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US County That Alleged Vote Machine Fraud Certifies Election Results

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A Republican-controlled county commission in New Mexico that refused to recognize election returns this month after citing unfounded conspiracy theories about voting machines bowed to legal pressure on Friday and certified the results.  Otero County commissioners voted 2-1 to certify the county’s June 7 primary election results, but only after the New Mexico Supreme Court ordered them to do so and after threats of legal action by the state’s Democratic attorney general.  The commissioner who still voted against certifying the results, Couy Griffin, did so hours after being sentenced for breaching the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021, riot. more

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Trump Directed $250 Million in Donations to Leadership PAC 

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump raised $250 million in donations in the weeks after the November 2020 presidential election for an organization ostensibly intended to fund court challenges in support of his false claims that the election was fraudulent. Instead, he directed that money to an unrelated political action committee, or PAC, according to congressional investigators. In its second hearing about its findings, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol made the case that the former president knew that he had lost the election but continued raising money from his supporters bymore

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False Theory Fueled Trump Pressure Campaign on Pence

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In the third day of congressional hearings on the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, U.S. lawmakers alleged former President Donald Trump waged a multiweek pressure campaign on his vice president, Mike Pence, to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more. …

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Lawmakers Ask Ginni Thomas, Wife of Supreme Court Justice, to Testify

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The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol has asked Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, for an interview, the panel’s chairman said Thursday afternoon.  Thomas, a conservative activist, communicated with people in President Donald Trump’s orbit ahead of the attack and on the day of the insurrection, when hundreds of Trump’s supporters violently stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.  “We have sent Ms. Thomas a letter, asking her to come and talk to the committee,” Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel,more

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January 6 Committee Postpones Wednesday Hearing

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The House of Representatives panel investigating last year’s January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol says it has postponed Wednesday’s planned hearing. No reason was given and the panel will still hold Thursday’s planned hearing. Monday’s hearing featured videotaped testimony by former U.S. Attorney General William Barr and numerous other White House and political aides to then-President Donald Trump who said they had repeatedly told him that his allegations of fraud in the 2020 election were baseless and that he had lost reelection. Barr said that many of Trump’s claims of election irregularities were “completely bogus and silly.” “I toldmore

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