US Congress Considers Bills to Boost Competition with China

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With 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

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Reports: Liberal US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to Retire

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U.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

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US Bank Freezes Accounts of Afghanistan’s US Embassy

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Diplomats 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

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Biden Calls Fox News Reporter at White House a Stupid SOB

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President 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

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Judges Approve Special Grand Jury in Georgia Election Probe

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Judges 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

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Senate Panel Moves Forward With Bill Targeting Big Tech

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Legislation 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

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US Capitol Riot Probe Seeks Ivanka Trump’s Cooperation

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The 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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Biden Draws Lines With Russian Leader Over Ukraine Moves

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President Joe Biden ends his first year in office as tensions with Russia hit a fever pitch. He warned his Russian counterpart to choose a diplomatic resolution and to not invade neighboring Ukraine — a message his secretary of state also is pushing in Kyiv this week. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington. Producer: Kimberlyn Weeks …

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Republican Filibuster Blocks US Voting Bill

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Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights groups argued is vital for protecting democracy was blocked Wednesday by a Republican filibuster, a setback for President Joe Biden and his party after a raw, emotional debate. Democrats were poised to immediately pivot to voting on a Senate rules change as a way to overcome the filibuster and approve the bill with a simple majority. But the rules change was also headed toward defeat, as Biden has been unable to persuade two holdout senators in his own party, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, to change the Senatemore

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Biden Sums Up First Year; Ukraine Is Among Prime Topics 

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During his first press conference of the year, U.S. President Joe Biden spoke candidly at the White House on Wednesday about the possibility of a Russian invasion in Ukraine. “My guess is he will move in — he has to do something,” Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He warned that such an invasion would be met with the harshest measures. “He has never seen sanctions like the ones I promise will be imposed if he moves,” Biden said. “What I’m concerned about is this could get out of hand,” he said on the potential confrontation between Moscow andmore

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Trump’s Legal Troubles Expand in Jan. 6 Probe and in New York State

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Former President Donald Trump’s legal troubles intensified Wednesday, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he cannot use executive privilege to shield hundreds of pages of documents related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol from a congressional committee empaneled to investigate its causes. The ruling, which was released by the court early Wednesday evening, came less than a day after the New York attorney general moved to compel Trump and two of his children to testify and produce documents in a fraud investigation. The ruling by the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that deniedmore

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Biden: Federal Reserve Should ‘Recalibrate’ Policy as Prices Rise 

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U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said it was appropriate for the Federal Reserve to recalibrate the support it provides to the U.S. economy, in light of fast-rising prices and the strength of recovery.  “Given the strength of our economy and recent price increases, it’s appropriate, as … Fed Chairman [Jerome] Powell has indicated, to recalibrate the support that is now necessary,” Biden told a news conference.  “The critical job of making sure that the elevated prices don’t become entrenched rests with the Federal Reserve, which has a dual mandate: full employment and stable prices,” the president said.  At themore

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Biden Confirms Harris Would Be Running Mate in 2024 

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U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris would be his running mate in the 2024 presidential election if he stood for office again. “She’s going to be my running mate,” Biden said of Harris during a press conference held to mark the first year of his presidency. In mid-December, Harris said she and Biden had not yet discussed the 2024 election, amid speculation she might not be in the running for the White House if Biden chose not to stand again. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, when asked about the possibility ofmore

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Biden: ‘Not There Yet’ on Easing of Tariffs on Chinese Goods 

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President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that it was too soon to make commitments on lifting U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, but that his chief trade negotiator, Katherine Tai, was working on the issue.  “I’d like to be able to be in a position where I could say they’re meeting their commitments, or more of their commitments, and be able to lift some of them, but we’re not there yet,” Biden told a news conference at the White House.  He was referring to China’s commitments under a Phase 1 trade deal signed by his predecessor, Donald Trump.  China has fallen farmore

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Biden Will Try to Pass ‘Build Back Better’ Elements Piecemeal

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U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he would need to shed some key elements of his signature $1.8 trillion Build Back Better legislation to get support from U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.  Biden made a big push in December to win passage in Congress of the spending bill. It would provide billions of dollars to tackle climate change along with money for universal preschool, paid family leave and other social safety nets.  However, Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, pulled his support after citing concerns about the deficit and inflation.  “I think we can break the package up,more

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US Democrats’ Push for Voting Law Changes Likely to Fail

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U.S. Democrats’ yearlong effort to overhaul the country’s voting rules comes to a head Wednesday night in the Senate, but indications are their quest likely will fail. As debate began in the politically divided 100-member chamber, there was no sign that any Republicans would support the plan, which would allow for national oversight of elections to override new voting rules enacted by 19 Republican-controlled state legislatures.  There also was no indication that two key centrist Democrats — Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin — would drop their opposition to altering the Senate legislative rules so the election law legislation could bemore

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Bills Target Insider Trading by Members of US Congress

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An effort to bar members of Congress from buying and selling stock in public companies is gaining momentum in Washington after a series of revelations that dozens of lawmakers violated financial disclosure requirements, often in ways that suggested they were profiting from advance knowledge of issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.   Last week, Georgia Senator John Ossoff and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, both Democrats, introduced the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, a proposal that would require members of Congress and their immediate families to place any stock they own into a blind trust, making it impossible for them tomore

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US Senators to Discuss Russia-Ukraine Tensions

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A group of Republican U.S. senators is due to speak to reporters Wednesday in Washington about U.S. concerns of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.  The group includes Republicans from the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.  Three of those members — Senators Kevin Cramer, Roger Wicker and Rob Portman — were part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that met with Ukrainian officials this week to reinforce U.S. support for Ukraine and its defensive needs.  Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who was also on the trip, told reporters Monday after the lawmakers met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that themore

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Harris Still Struggling to Define Herself 1 Year Into Vice President’s Job

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President Joe Biden put the full weight of his presidency behind voting rights action last week, heading to Capitol Hill to push Democrats to change Senate rules to pass legislation.  Vice President Kamala Harris — whom Biden tapped to take the lead on passing voting rights legislation in June — wasn’t there.  Both White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Harris aides had no clear answer when asked why the vice president hadn’t joined Biden in the meeting.  It was yet another example of the difficulty Harris has faced throughout her first year in office, as she’s struggled to definemore

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Rudy Giuliani Among Trump Allies Subpoenaed By Jan. 6 Panel

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The House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection issued subpoenas Tuesday to Rudy Giuliani and other members of Donald Trump’s post-election legal team who filed multiple lawsuits claiming election fraud that were roundly rejected by the courts but gave rise to the lie that Trump did not really lose the 2020 presidential contest.  The committee is continuing to widen its scope into Trump’s orbit, this time demanding information and testimony from Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn. All four publicly defended the president and his baseless voter fraud claims in the months after the election.   “The four individuals we’vemore

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Biden Faces Tepid Approval at Start of Year 2, Pandemic Year 3

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U.S. President Joe Biden began his term under the long shadow of the January 6 Capitol riot, a grinding pandemic and an increasingly divided America. As he now rounds the one-year mark, he faces many of those same challenges – all as he tries to push through a sweeping and expensive legislative agenda. The difficulty of governing through the triple threat of a seemingly never-ending pandemic, increasing consumer prices and political polarization from Congress to city halls across America is neatly reflected in Biden’s approval ratings, which hover around 45%. Since he took office on January 20, his approval ratingsmore

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Big Voting Bill Faces Defeat as 2 Democrats Won’t Stop Filibuster

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Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital for protecting democracy appeared headed for defeat as the Senate opened debate Tuesday, a devastating setback enabled by President Joe Biden’s own party as two holdout senators refuse to support rule changes to overcome a Republican filibuster.  The Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, faced strong criticism from Black leaders and civil rights organizations for failing to take on what critics call the ” Jim Crow filibuster.” The debate carries echoes of an earlier era when the Senate filibuster was deployed in lengthymore

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Republicans Mull Trump’s Continuing Grip on Their Party 

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump recently addressed 15,000 ardent supporters in Arizona, making his first major public appearance since the one-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that sought to keep him in office despite having lost the 2020 presidential election.    In 93 minutes of remarks late Saturday, Trump repeated the false claim that the election had been stolen from him and predicted a Republican victory in the 2024 presidential contest, hinting at what political observers already assume: that he is planning a bid to return to the White House.    Trump is expected tomore

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US Civil Rights Leaders Push for Voting Rights Overhaul

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Descendants of slain U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and their supporters marched on Washington Monday to urge Senate Democrats to overcome Republican opposition and obstruction within their own ranks to push through a national overhaul of voting rights. They rallied on the national holiday honoring King on the 93rd anniversary of his birth. The march occurred just days after two centrist Senate Democrats, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, said they would oppose attempts to change legislative rules in the politically divided 100-member chamber to allow Democrats to set uniform national election rules over the objections of allmore

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