Trump Cements Republican Party Control With House Leadership Battle

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U.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

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US House Republicans Oust Liz Cheney From Key Party Leadership Post

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Republicans 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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House Republicans Oust Cheney from Top Party Leadership Post

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Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives removed Representative Liz Cheney from her party leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in last November’s presidential election.The caucus voted Wednesday to oust the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney from her post as chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in A sign bearing the name of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., outside of her office on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 11, 2021.In a speech on the House floor on Tuesday night, Cheney described Trump’s continuing efforts to delegitimize the election results as “ a threat America hasmore

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US House Republicans Expected to Oust Liz Cheney from Top Party Leadership Post

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Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are poised to remove Representative Liz Cheney from her party leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in last November’s presidential election. The caucus is expected to vote Wednesday to oust the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney from her post as chair of the Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 17, 2019.  She first drew fire within the party when she voted for Trump’s impeachment for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when hundreds of his supporters stormed the buildingmore

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For Some Universities, Fall Semester Uncertain as Coronavirus Persists Globally 

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The U.S. government’s pumping of $35 billion into emergency aid for college students has not been enough for some universities, say education experts.They cite drastically lower enrollments even as things appear to be shifting back to normal after more than a year of the coronavirus pandemic.“Enrollments are down quite significantly, both at the public institutions and the community colleges, nationwide,” said Todd Sedmak, manager of corporate communications at National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), a nonprofit organization that crunches education data.“This decrease in enrollment has led to less money coming to universities from tuition and fees,” he said.Declines in enrollment occurred becausemore

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New York to Require Vaccinations of University Students

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Students at the State University of New York and the City University of New York must get vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend classes this fall, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday. The requirement, affecting more than 435,000 full-time students, comes as Cuomo and other officials offer a slew of incentives aimed at encouraging people to get inoculated, as they see vaccine demand declining. “So today, no excuses,” Cuomo said at a briefing. “SUNY and CUNY boards will require vaccinations for all in-person students coming back to school in the fall.” Cuomo, who has ultimate authority over New York City’s subways, also announced thatmore

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Top House Republican Says He Backs Ousting Cheney From No. 3 Job

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Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy on Sunday publicly endorsed Rep. Elise Stefanik for the post of No. 3 leader, cementing party support of the Donald Trump loyalist over Rep. Liz Cheney, an outspoken critic of the former president for promoting discredited claims that the 2020 election was stolen. House Republicans could vote as early as Wednesday to remove Cheney, the highest-ranking woman in the Republican leadership and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and replace her with Stefanik, whose ascension has received Trump’s backing. Asked in an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” whether he supported Stefanik, R-N.Y., for the job of Republican Conference chair,more

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No, Biden is Not After Americans’ Burgers

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Some Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators continue to falsely claim that President Joe Biden’s climate plan will force Americans to eat far less red meat. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara looks at how burgers have become the latest battlefield in the country’s culture war. …

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With Ambassador Picks, Biden Faces Donor vs. Diversity Test

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President Joe Biden is facing a fresh challenge to his oft-repeated  commitment to diversity in his administration: assembling a diplomatic corps that gives a nod to key political allies and donors while staying true to a campaign pledge to appoint ambassadors who look like America. More than three months into his administration, Biden has put forward just 11 ambassador nominations and has more than 80 such slots to fill around the globe. Administration officials this week signaled that Biden is ready to ramp up ambassador nominations as the president prepares for foreign travel and turns greater attention to global effortsmore

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Twitter Suspends Accounts Skirting Trump Ban

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Twitter confirmed Thursday that it pulled the plug on several accounts trying to skirt its ban on former President Donald Trump by promoting his blog posts. The ex-president launched a page on his website earlier this week promising comment “straight from the desk of Donald J Trump.” The page was made public just before Facebook’s independent oversight board on Wednesday upheld the platform’s ban on Trump. Twitter accounts with names playing on Trump themes and seeking to amplify the Trump website posts were taken offline, according to the platform. “As stated in our ban evasion policy, we’ll take enforcement action on accounts whose apparentmore

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US Support of Vaccine Patent Waiver is Only the First Step

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World leaders welcomed the Biden administration’s announced support for waiving patent restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines, the so-called TRIPS waiver, at the World Trade Organization. While this could be a breakthrough in the global fight against the pandemic, as White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports, it’s just the first step in a long and complicated process.  …

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Biden, in Louisiana, Tries to Bridge Troubled Waters

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Politicians usually prefer to pose and smile in front of public works projects of pride. U.S. President Joe Biden did the opposite on Thursday — holding photo opportunities with a poorly maintained bridge as the backdrop and then touring a decrepit water treatment plant, with cameras in tow.“We’re standing here in the shadow of the I-10 bridge, which I’ve gone over several times myself in the past. And it’s a perfect example how we’ve neglected as a nation to invest in the future of our economy and the future of our people,” said Biden in Lake Charles, Louisiana, after hemore

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Florida Governor Signs Voting Restriction Bill into Law

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a voter restriction bill, making it the latest election battleground state in the south to adopt Republican-backed restrictions since the November presidential election.   DeSantis and his fellow Republicans in the state legislature said the law was necessary to prevent voter fraud, despite the lack of voting irregularities last November.     The new law restricts when ballot drop boxes can be used during an early voting period, who can retrieve ballots, and the number of ballots that can be collected.   Voters requesting absentee ballots now face new identification requirements, andmore

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Indian Students in US Anxious About COVID-19 Back Home

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Indian students in the United States say they feel helpless amid the massive wave of coronavirus infections back home.”I have very old grandparents and we just had one of my grandparents’ siblings die of COVID, so there is a lot of tension in the air with that,” said George Mason University senior Shabrina Parikh. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. India’s second coronavirus wave has become a devastating crisis, with about 21 million cases and more than 230,000 deaths, according to the latest A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD, a coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India,more

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California Campus Journalists Create Newswire

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Student journalists across 23 campuses of California State University have played a crucial role in keeping other students informed during the COVID pandemic. VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports that the student newsrooms are now linked through an online newswire, permitting students to pool resources and share information across the expansive state.  …

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Professor Overcomes Loss to Craft COVID-19 Student Brochures

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When the coronavirus pandemic struck New York City, LaGuardia Community College professor Lucia Fuentes assigned students in her honors biology class to compile all the information they could find about COVID-19. The result? An online multilingual brochure based on research from peer-reviewed journals, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that has become a valuable resource for immigrants in the United States and their families abroad. “Science is complicated and we have to make it more accessible,” Fuentes said. “This is why… I thought it would be a good thing for the students, and thatmore

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Judge Orders Justice Dept. to Release Trump Obstruction Memo

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A federal judge has ordered the release of a legal memorandum the Trump-era Justice Department prepared for then-Attorney General William Barr before he announced his conclusion that President Donald Trump had not obstructed justice during the Russia investigation. The Justice Department had refused to give the March 24, 2019, memorandum to a government transparency group that requested it under the Freedom of Information Act, saying the document represented the private advice of lawyers and was produced before any formal decision had been made and was therefore exempt from disclosure under public records law. But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson,more

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US Lawmaker Liz Cheney Drawing Criticism for Attacks on Trump

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U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday there is growing concern among Republican lawmakers about the ability of Congresswoman Liz Cheney to lead the party’s caucus in the chamber while she continues to assail former President Donald Trump for inciting his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6. “I have heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out her job as conference chair, to carry out the message” supporting Republicans trying to win control of the House from Democrats in next year’s congressional elections, McCarthy told the Fox News Channel. FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy,more

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Biden to Quadruple Refugee Cap

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U.S. President Joe Biden, who initially decided to keep intact his predecessor’s historically low number of annual refugee admissions, Monday announced he is quadrupling this year’s total.  “I am revising the United States’ annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for this fiscal year,” the president said in a statement Monday afternoon. “This erases the historically low number set by the previous administration of 15,000, which did not reflect America’s values as a nation that welcomes and supports refugees. The new admissions cap will also reinforce efforts that are already under way to expand the United States’ capacity to admit refugees,more

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