NASA Head Seeks New Funding for Annual Moon Landings ‘Over a Dozen Years’

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The U.S. space agency NASA aspires to land humans on the moon every year for 12 consecutive years, Administrator Bill Nelson testified to a congressional committee Wednesday in support of a request to boost the agency’s fiscal 2022 budget.Nelson acknowledged to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology that the agency’s budget for fiscal 2021 included $850 million toward the development of a lunar lander as part of an ambitious, roughly $3 billion Human Landing System program.“But there needs to be a landing each year for a dozen years, so there are many more awards to come if youmore

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US Senators Reach Agreement on Infrastructure Framework

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A bipartisan group of U.S. senators said on Wednesday it had reached agreement on a framework for a $1.2 trillion infrastructure investment proposal that it planned to present to the White House on Thursday. A Democratic negotiator, Joe Manchin, said White House officials had signed off on the deal. The group of 21 senators, or “G-21,” has been working on an eight-year bipartisan framework to rebuild roads, bridges and other traditional infrastructure sought by Democratic President Joe Biden. A team of White House officials met during the afternoon with nine Democrats, one independent and 11 Republicans in the Senate, and was due tomore

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Congress Member Describes Continuing Mental Trauma From January 6 Riots

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Images of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol are seared into many Americans’ minds and remain especially vivid for members of Congress who witnessed the riot. One congressman has been especially forthcoming about the mental trauma he has been experiencing months after the riot. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti spoke with the lawmaker and filed this report. Camera: Saqib Ul Islam   Produced by: Adam Greenbaum     …

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Biden Takes on Gun Violence Warning of Summer Spike 

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U.S. President Joe Biden vowed Wednesday to reduce gun violence as he warned the nation about a dangerous summer spike in killings.“We’re taking on the bad actors doing bad and dangerous things in our communities and to our country,” he said in a U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, accompanied by U.S. President Joe Biden, delivers remarks on steps to curtail U.S. gun violence, in Washington, June 23, 2021.Local partnersSpeaking just prior to the president, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said prosecutors across the country would work with local partners “to establish an immediate plan to address the spike in violent crimemore

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US Capitol Rioter Pleads Guilty, Agrees to Cooperate With Investigators

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A man involved in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol has pleaded guilty to two charges as part of a plea deal to cooperate with investigators probing the riot. Graydon Young, a member of a right-wing group called the Oath Keepers, was accused along with 15 other members of conspiring to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election. The Florida man pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, the latter of which could carry a sentence of up to 20 years. But he will likely serve less time, given his agreement to cooperate with investigators. Hemore

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Michigan Republicans Reject Trump Vote Fraud Claims

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A Republican Party-led investigation in Michigan has concluded that, despite claims by former president Donald Trump and his allies, there was no widespread 2020 election fraud in the Midwestern political battleground state that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.The Republican-controlled state Senate Oversight Committee said in a report released Wednesday that the state’s citizens should be confident that the ballot count in the state, which Biden won by about 155,000 votes, represented “true results.”Trump, who won the state in 2016 enroute to a four-year term in the White House, and some of his supporters had pushed debunked conspiracy theories thatmore

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Eric Adams Leads New York City Mayor Race

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Former police officer Eric Adams was leading all candidates in Tuesday’s preliminary election to select the Democratic Party’s nominee for New York City mayor.   With nearly 85% of all voting precincts reporting, Adams, the president of the city’s historic neighborhood of Brooklyn, emerged in first place out of 13 candidates with nearly 32% of those who voted in person or during the early voting period. Maya Wiley, a former civil rights attorney and top aide to outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, was in second place with 22% of the vote, followed by former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia with over 19%.   Tuesday’smore

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Eric Adams Takes Lead in New York City’s Democratic Mayoral Nominating Election

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Former police officer Eric Adams was leading all candidates in Tuesday’s preliminary election to select the Democratic Party’s nominee for New York City mayor.   With nearly 85% of all voting precincts reporting, Adams, the president of the city’s historic neighborhood of Brooklyn, emerged in first place out of 13 candidates with nearly 32% of those who voted in person or during the early voting period. Maya Wiley, a former civil rights attorney and top aide to outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, was in second place with 22% of the vote, followed by former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia with over 19%.   Tuesday’smore

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Senate Republicans Block US Voting Rights Bill

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Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked the advancement of a major voting rights bill Tuesday.The Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, set a procedural vote for the For the People Act, but with 60 votes required to advance the bill for debate and Republicans opposing the measure in the evenly split 100-member chamber, the bill stalled.Lindsey Graham, a prominent South Carolina Republican, called the measure “an insane idea” in a statement released shortly after he voted no. “Simply put, this is the biggest power-grab in modern American history. S.1 has nothing to do with making voting easier — it has everythingmore

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Biden Supports Work to Address Problems around Big Tech, White House Says

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U.S. President Joe Biden believes steps are needed to safeguard privacy, bolster innovation and deal with other problems created by big technology platforms, the White House said Tuesday, signaling his support for legislation concerning Big Tech.Biden is encouraged by bipartisan work under way in Congress to tackle these issues, the official said, a day before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee votes on a package of antitrust bills, some of which target the market power of large tech firms.”These platforms have transformed our daily lives, and showcase our country’s ingenuity and potential, but also create real problems for users, small businessesmore

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Senate Republicans Poised to Block US Voting Rights Bill

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Republicans in the U.S. Senate are expected to block the advancement of a major voting rights bill Tuesday.   The Senate top’s Democrat, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, set a procedural vote for the so-called For the People Act, but with 60 votes required to advance the bill for debate and Republicans opposing the measure in the evenly split 100-member chamber, the bill as it stands is set to stall.   There are ongoing efforts to put forth a revised version, led by Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat. His proposed changes include adding a national voter ID requirement andmore

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Senate Republicans Set to Block US Voting Rights Bill

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Republicans in the U.S. Senate are expected to block the advancement of a major voting rights bill Tuesday.   The Senate top’s Democrat, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, set a procedural vote for the so-called For the People Act, but with 60 votes required to advance the bill for debate and Republicans opposing the measure in the evenly split 100-member chamber, the bill as it stands is set to stall.   There are ongoing efforts to put forth a revised version, led by Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat. His proposed changes include adding a national voter ID requirement andmore

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New Yorkers to Cast Votes in Mayoral Primary

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This Tuesday, local voters will cast their ballots in a primary election on the path to selecting the next mayor of New York. Some experts call the country’s biggest city and its financial capital a bellwether, despite the city’s overwhelmingly liberal lean.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

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11 US Mayors Say They are Committed to Paying Reparations for Slavery

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Eleven U.S. mayors said Friday they are committed to paying reparations for slavery but gave few details on how they would accomplish the task.The group, led by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, announced a coalition to pursue reparations, Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE).“Our coalition stands on the belief that cities can — and should — act as laboratories for bold ideas that can be transformative for racial and economic justice on a larger scale,” the group said on its website.It said the 11 cities would create local commissions comprised of representatives from Black-ledmore

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US Supreme Court Again Rejects a Health Care Law Challenge

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The U.S. Supreme Court for the third time rejected a challenge to the country’s chief health insurance law that provides millions of Americans with coverage to help pay their medical costs.The court, in a 7-2 decision, dismissed on Thursday a bid by 18 Republican-led states and the administration of former President Donald Trump to upend the 2010 Affordable Care Act.It was the signature legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama, Trump’s immediate predecessor, and is popularly known in the U.S. as Obamacare.The country’s highest court also rejected challenges to the law in 2012 and 2015, with all three decisions keepingmore

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Biden to Approve Creation of Juneteenth Holiday

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U.S. President Joe Biden is set to sign into a law Thursday the creation of a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.Juneteenth National Independence Day will be observed each year on June 19.WATCH LIVE at 3:30pm EST The holiday marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers informed a group of enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, of their freedom, 2½ years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.Many U.S. states already have Juneteenth as a holiday.It joins 10 other federal holidays and is the first added since Martin Luther King Jr. Daymore

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US Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law Again

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The U.S. Supreme Court for the third time on Thursday upheld the legality of the country’s chief health insurance law that provides millions of Americans with coverage to help pay their medical costs. The court, in a 7-to-2 decision, rejected a bid by 18 Republican-led states and the administration of former President Donald Trump to upend the 2010 Affordable Care Act. It was the signature legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama, Trump’s immediate predecessor, and is popularly known in the U.S. as Obamacare. The country’s highest court had also rejected legal challenges in 2012 and 2015, with all three decisions keeping inmore

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US House Votes to End 2002 Iraq War Authorization

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The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday that would repeal the authorization of use of military force in Iraq that has been in effect since 2002.  Supporters of the measure say the repeal is necessary to restrict presidential war powers.The 268-161 House vote came one day after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced his support of the legislation, saying it would prevent acts of “military adventurism” like President Donald Trump’s authorization of a 2020 aerial attack on a Baghdad airport. Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in the attack.   “The Iraq War has been over for nearly a decade,” Schumer said. “The authorization passed in 2002 is no longer necessary in 2021.”   Schumer said he planned amore

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Survey: 1 in 3 US Election Workers Feels Unsafe 

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Long after a contentious U.S. presidential election that unleashed a torrent of partisan threats against poll workers and others, many American election officials continue to feel unsafe because of their jobs, according to a recent survey.The FILE – Then-President Donald Trump looks on at the end of his speech during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.Trump blamedMany officials blamed former President Donald Trump for inspiring the threats by falsely claiming the November election had been rigged against him in favor of his Democratic opponent,more

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Congress Approves Bill to Make Juneteenth a Federal Holiday

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The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the nation.The House voted 415-14 Wednesday to make Juneteenth, or June 19, the 12th federal holiday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.Juneteenth commemorates when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. Confederate soldiers surrendered in April 1865, but word didn’t reach the last enslaved Black people until June 19, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to Galveston, Texas. That was also about 2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in themore

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Biden Administration, US Lawmakers Grapple With Domestic Extremism Threat

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The United States faces a growing threat from domestic violent extremists, according to a strategy released this week by the Biden administration. The warning comes as U.S. lawmakers continue to investigate the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump seeking to derail the Electoral College vote count confirming Joe Biden’s presidential victory. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Producer: Katherine Gypson. …

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Lawyer: US Drops Lawsuit, Grand Jury Probe Over Bolton Book

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The Justice Department has abandoned its lawsuit against John Bolton, former President Donald Trump’s short-term national security adviser, over his book that officials argued disclosed classified information, according to court documents and Bolton’s representatives. Prosecutors also dropped a grand jury investigation over the book’s publication, Bolton’s lawyer said Wednesday. The Trump administration sued last year to block the release of Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened,” and to recover copies of the book that had already been distributed. The book, released in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, offered a behind-the-scenes and unflattering account of Trump’s foreign policy dealings.more

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Military Defends January 6 Response as House Steps Up Probes

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A top Army leader defended the Pentagon’s response to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, telling a House panel Tuesday that the National Guard was delayed for hours because they had to properly prepare for the deployment and that senior military leaders had determined beforehand that there was “no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.” Lieutenant General Walter Piatt, director of the Army staff, echoed comments from other senior military leaders about the perception of soldiers being used to secure the election process. He said the Pentagon wanted to be careful aboutmore

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Biden Picks Israel, Mexico, NATO Ambassadors

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President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced his nominees to be ambassadors to Israel, Mexico and NATO, as he moves to strengthen U.S. alliances in tough regions. Among a slate of names announced by the White House on Tuesday were Thomas Nides, a Morgan Stanley vice chairman who served as a deputy secretary of state under former President Barack Obama, to serve as the ambassador to Israel. The close U.S. ally is welcoming a new government after Israel’s parliament ended Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year run as prime minister on Sunday. Biden also picked Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator from Colorado and interior secretary, asmore

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