U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested voting by mail could lead to a fraudulent November 3rd presidential election and asked whether the vote should be delayed. Trump’s tweet sparked a debate on election security on Capitol Hill, where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was testifying. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington. …
Leave a commentHerman Cain, a maverick conservative Republican businessman who briefly led the race for the U.S. party’s 2012 presidential nomination, died Thursday from the coronavirus. He was 74.Cain had been hospitalized for a month in the southern city of Atlanta and initially appeared to regain strength but faltered again in recent days.Cain attended President Donald Trump’s political rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20 that led to numerous coronavirus infections. But Cain, who was seen not wearing a mask during the rally, said he had traveled extensively elsewhere about the same time. It is not known where he contracted the virusmore
Leave a commentThe U.S. House of Representatives begins a new mandated face mask policy Thursday, following an order from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was facing increasing pressure to address safety concerns in one of the nation’s most high-profile office complexes. Pelosi issued the order late Wednesday after U.S. FILE – Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert studies notes during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, July 28, 2020.Gohmert said in an interview with CNN last month he did not wear a mask because he was being tested regularly for the coronavirus. “I don’t have the coronavirus, turns out as of yesterday I’ve never had it,”more
Leave a commentU.S. President Donald Trump says he does not want to wait “weeks, months or even years” for the results of this November’s election because of problems he predicts will occur with mailed-in ballots.”I don’t want a delay,” Trump told reporters Thursday afternoon at the White House. “But I also don’t want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing, and the election doesn’t mean anything. … Smart people know it. Stupid people may not know it.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can “Trump has attemptedmore
Leave a commentThe former chief executive of specialty finance lender Hercules Capital Inc was sentenced on Wednesday to six months in prison for paying $450,000 to help his daughters gain an unfair edge in the college admissions process.Federal prosecutors in Boston say Manuel Henriquez and his wife, Elizabeth Henriquez, sought to rig their two daughters’ college entrance exam results and secure the older one’s admission to Georgetown University in Washington as a fake tennis recruit.Lawyers for Henriquez, who co-founded Palo Alto, California-based Hercules Capital, sought leniency during a hearing held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. He apologized for crimes that hadmore
Leave a commentFour young activists who belonged to a disbanded pro-independence group have been arrested on secessionist charges in Hong Kong’s first crackdown on political figures after the enactment July 1 of a sweeping national security law.Senior Superintendent Li Kwai-wah, with Hong Kong police’s newly formed National Security Department, told reporters late Wednesday that four students between the ages of 16 and 21 had been arrested under the new national security law for “organizing and inciting secession” by their advocacy of independence.He declined to name them and their group, but the group Studentlocalism announced on social media that its former convenor, Tonymore
Leave a commentNigerian Benjamin Akande came to the United States to attend college in Plainview, Texas and is now the President of Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. VOA’s Sarmat Misikov has the story of his journey. …
Leave a commentFor students heading to Colby College in Maine this fall, coronavirus testing is expected to be a routine part of campus life. All students will be required to provide a nasal swab every other day for two weeks, and then twice a week after that. All told, the college says it will provide 85,000 tests, nearly as many as the entire state of Maine has since the pandemic started.Colby, a private school of 2,000 students, joins a growing number of colleges announcing aggressive testing plans to catch and isolate COVID-19 cases before they spread. Harvard University says all students livingmore
Leave a commentWhile a majority of voters in the United States identify as either Republican or Democrat — the two major political parties — a growing number of voters see themselves as independent or unaffiliated with any party. “Personally, I’ve never really felt either major party represents my interest,” Ellen Moorhouse, who identifies as an independent voter, told VOA. Moorhouse, 30, is deputy communications director at RepresentUs, a political and government reform advocacy group which aims to reduce corruption and gridlock. Thirty-five percent of Americans under the age of 30 say they are independent or unaffiliated, according tomore
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