From their fight for the right to vote to the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, American women have struggled and achieved a lot. That history is on display at the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. As Samina Ahsan reports the museum pays tribute to the achievements of American women. …

President Donald Trump returned to the life he is accustomed to in Washington Sunday, assailing news media reports on the White House turmoil linked to investigation of his aides and their ties to Russia. On his first morning back from a 9-day trip to the Middle East and Europe, Trump declared on Twitter that his “trip was a great success for America. Hard work but big results!” Then, he quickly turned to long-standing grievances against the media. “It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media,” Trump said. “Whenever you see the words ‘sources say’ in the fake news media, and they don’t mention names, it is very possible that those sources don’t exist, but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!” Trump and White House aides face months of investigations …

On the final Monday of May, Americans set aside the day to honor those who died on the battlefield. …

White House press spokesman Sean Spicer declared Saturday night Donald Trump’s first overseas trip as U.S. president had been a success in a tweet posted as the American leader was flying back to Washington “after very productive 9 days.” Just hours earlier President Trump told American troops stationed in Sicily he had strengthened bonds with allies. That isn’t how Europe leaders and most of the continent’s media see it. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spelled out publicly her fears that the traditional western alliance is now under threat both from the Trump presidency and Brexit. Speaking at a rally in Germany, she said: “The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days.” While acknowledging that Germany and Europe should strive to maintain good relations with the U.S. and Britain, Merkel also said, “We need to know we must …

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton by the parents of two Americans killed in the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, ruling the former secretary of state didn’t defame them when disputing allegations that she had lied.   The lawsuit also alleged the former Democratic presidential candidate’s use of a private email server caused the death of their sons, Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, because it exposed terrorists to sensitive information. They claimed Clinton lied when she allegedly told them it was a YouTube video that prompted the consulate attack.   “The untimely death of plaintiffs’ sons is tragic, and the Court does not mean to minimize the unspeakable loss that plaintiffs have suffered in any way,’’ U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington wrote in a 29-page opinion released Friday. But Berman said legal standards required the case to be dismissed.   Berman ruled …

When Meridian Energy Group set out to develop “the cleanest refinery on the planet,” it chose a spot in western North Dakota’s oil patch near highways, railroads and a picturesque national park named for a former president revered for his conservation advocacy. Now the longtime former leader of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the state’s top tourist attraction drawing a record 760,000 visitors last year, is among those urging officials to deny a permit for the 700-acre refinery because of pollution concerns. “To put an oil refinery within view of the park would be a betrayal of the conservation values of the park’s namesake,” said retired longtime Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor, an outspoken opponent of the project. “An oil refinery has no business at the doorstep of a national park. We wouldn’t allow an oil refinery to be built within view of Yellowstone or Yosemite, and it should be no different …

A man fatally stabbed two passengers aboard a Portland, Oregon, commuter train after they tried to stop him from harassing two young women who appeared to be Muslim, police said Saturday. Police identified the assailant, who was arrested soon after the Friday afternoon attack, as Jeremy Joseph Christian of Portland, a 35-year-old convicted felon. A senior researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center, in a blog post, said Christian’s Facebook page showed he held “some racist and other extremist beliefs.” FBI joins investigation The attack unfolded hours before the start of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, when most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims observe a daily religious fast. “It’s too early to say whether last night’s violence was an act of domestic terrorism or a federal hate crime,” Loren Cannon, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Oregon told a news conference Saturday, adding the bureau …

U.S. President Donald Trump has told “confidants,” including the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, that he plans to leave a landmark international agreement on climate change, the Axios news website reported Saturday, citing three sources with direct knowledge. On Saturday, Trump said in a Twitter post he would decide whether to support the Paris climate deal next week. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A source who has been in contact with people involved in the decision told Reuters that a couple of meetings were planned with chief executives of energy companies and big corporations and others about the climate agreement ahead of Trump’s expected announcement later in the week. It was unclear whether those meetings would still take place. “I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!” Trump tweeted on the final day of a Group …

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has declined a request to host an event to mark Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, two U.S. officials said, apparently breaking with a bipartisan tradition in place with few exceptions for nearly 20 years. Since 1999, Republican and Democratic secretaries of state have nearly always hosted either an iftar dinner to break the day’s fast during Ramadan or a reception marking the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of the month, at the State Department. Tillerson turned down a request from the State Department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs to host an Eid al-Fitr reception as part of Ramadan celebrations, said two U.S. officials who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. According to an April 6 memo seen by Reuters, the office — which typically initiates such events — recommended that Tillerson hold an Eid al-Fitr reception. Ramadan …

The mother of the CEO of the ride-hailing company Uber died in a boat accident Friday evening in Fresno County, the company said. Bonnie Kalanick, 71, died after the boat she and her husband, Donald, 78, were riding hit a rock in Pine Flat Lake in the eastern part of the county, authorities said. They are the parents of Travis Kalanick, 40, who founded Uber in 2009. The company has since grown to become an international operation with a market value of nearly $70 billion. The couple have been longtime boaters. In a memo to Uber staff, Liane Hornsey, the chief human resources officer, called the incident an “unthinkable tragedy.” She wrote that “everyone in the Uber family knows how incredibly close Travis is to his parents.” About 5 p.m. Friday, officers were called to the scene of the accident and found a man and woman on a shore of …

Jim Bunning, a baseball star who later served nearly a quarter-century in the U.S. Congress, has died at age 85 in his home state of Kentucky. Bunning, who died Friday, had suffered a stroke in October 2016. He served six two-year terms as a congressman beginning in 1987, and was elected twice to the U.S. Senate. Bunning pitched for 17 years, originally for the Detroit Tigers then for three other teams, and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. The only Hall of Famer ever elected to Congress, he was a staunch conservative whose outspoken style aroused some controversy during his later years in the Senate, Bunning chose not to run for re-election in 2010. Known in baseball for his consistency — rarely missing a turn in his team’s pitching rotation, shrugging off fatigue or minor injuries — Bunning had the second-highest total of strikeouts, 2,855, …

Based on confirmed sightings of Ramadan’s new moon crescent, millions of Muslims around the world are fasting on the first day of the holy month. According to Islam, the sighting of the new moon marks the beginning of the Muslim lunar month of Ramadan. Thirty-three countries, mainly those in which the majority of residents are Sunni Muslims, officially started Ramadan on Saturday. Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Shi’ite Muslims in Iraq declared Sunday to be their first day of Ramadan. During Ramadan, which is the holiest and the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, Muslims abstain from food, drink, sex and immoral acts from sunrise to sunset. It is one of the most important Muslim practices — the Five Pillars of Islam — and just the second below the shahada, which is the sincere recitation of the Muslim profession of faith. In Ramadan, fasting and carrying out the other Islamic …

Sergio Bendixen, a pioneer in public opinion polling of Latinos who also was the first Hispanic to run a U.S. presidential campaign, has died. His business partner, Fernand Amandi, tweeted Saturday that Bendixen was 68. The Miami Herald reported that no cause was immediately given for his death in Miami on Friday. As a researcher and strategist, Bendixen had clients that included the World Bank, the United Nations and several foundations. He pioneered multilingual surveys for Hispanics and other ethnic groups. In 1984, Bendixen became the campaign manager for then-Democratic presidential candidate Alan Cranston, the U.S. senator from California. Four years later, he ran Bruce Babbit’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Amandi tweeted that Bendixen had changed the world for the better. …

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the message in U.S. President Donald Trump’s “blunt” speech urging alliance members to boost defense spending echoed that of previous administrations. Stoltenberg spoke to RFE/RL in an interview on Friday, a day after Trump met with the other leaders of the 28-member military alliance at its new headquarters in Brussels. Trump used a large part of his speech before unveiling a 9/11 memorial to admonish allies he said are not shouldering their share of the financial burden. It is “not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States” that only five NATO countries currently meet a target of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense, he said. WATCH: NATO Chief not shocked by Trump’s ‘blunt and direct’ speech Trump “has a blunt and direct style,” Stoltenberg told RFE/RL. “This plain speaking is something we have seen before and he …

The six other nations of the Group of Seven (G-7) agreed to affirm their commitment to the Paris climate agreement, while awaiting a decision by the Trump administration as to whether the U.S. will stay in the pact. “The United States is evaluating its policy with regard to the climate, so the six other G-7 countries will reaffirm their commitment [to the global Paris accord] while taking note” of the U.S. position, AFP quoted a French official as saying.   U.S. officials have said President Trump, who referred to man-made global warming as a “hoax” during his successful presidential campaign last year, would wait until after the summit before making a decision on the issue. Trump “is taking in what he learned from world leaders” Friday to make his decision on whether to honor Washington’s commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement signed two years ago, according …

Two people died Friday and another was hurt in a stabbing on a Portland light-rail train after a man yelled racial slurs at two young women who appeared to be Muslim, one of whom was wearing a hijab, police said.   Officers arrested a man Friday afternoon who ran from the train, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Police were still working Friday night to identify the man and the people who were attacked. Hate speech, vicious attack  Before the stabbing, the assailant on the train was ranting on many topics, using “hate speech or biased language,” and then turned his focus on the women, police Sgt. Pete Simpson said.    “In the midst of his ranting and raving, some people approached him and appeared to try to intervene with his behavior and some of the people that he was yelling at,” Simpson told The Oregonian. “They were attacked viciously.”   One person …

U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to talk about North Korea and counterterrorism at his first summit with leaders of the world’s industrialized democracies. But his counterparts had other ideas, especially regarding climate change. VOA White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman reports from the G-7 summit in Taormina, Italy. …

Zbigniew Brzezinski, who helped topple economic barriers between the Soviet Union, China and the West as President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, died Friday. He was 89.   His death was announced on social media Friday night by his daughter, MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski. She called him “the most inspiring, loving and devoted father any girl could ever have.” Earnest and ambitious, Brzezinski helped Carter bridge wide gaps between the rigid Egyptian and Israeli leaders, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, leading to the Camp David accords in September 1978. Three months later, U.S.-China relations were normalized, a top priority for Brzezinski. Expert in Communism   Born in Warsaw and educated in Canada and the United States, Brzezinski was an acknowledged expert in Communism when he attracted the attention of U.S. policymakers. In the 1960s he was an adviser to John F. Kennedy and served in the Johnson administration.   In …

Developments Friday concerning President Donald Trump include his discussions on North Korea, climate change and trade at the Group of Seven meeting in Italy, newspaper reports about his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a Senate committee seeking all Russia-related campaign documents from Trump’s presidential campaign; and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s commencement speech, in which she referenced Trump: Climate Change Among Most Contentious Issues at G-7 Summit — Climate change was among the most contentious agenda items Friday at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Sicily, but both American and British government officials are publicly denying any major discord. The leaders had a “very good discussion” about climate issues, British Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters, adding there was “no doubt around the table” — which included U.S. President Donald Trump — about how important the issue is. Report: Russian Ambassador Told Moscow Kushner Wanted a Private Channel to …

The Senate Intelligence Committee, investigating Russian meddling in U.S. 2016 election, has asked President Donald Trump’s political organization to hand over all documents going back the campaign’s launch in June 2015, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing two people briefed on the request. The letter from the Senate panel seeking all documents, emails and telephone records arrived at Trump’s campaign committee last week and was addressed to its treasurer, the Post said. This marked the first time the Trump campaign organization has been drawn into the bipartisan committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, it said. Dozens of former campaign staffers are expected to be contacted soon to ensure they are aware of the request, the Post said, citing the two people. The letter was signed by Republican Senator Richard Burr, the committee’s chairman, and Senator Mark Warner, its top Democrat, according to the Post, which said …

A federal judge Friday tossed out two life sentences for one of Virginia’s most notorious criminals, sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, and ordered Virginia courts to hold new sentencing hearings. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk said Malvo is entitled to new sentencing hearings after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional. Malvo was 17 when he was arrested in 2002 for a series of shootings that killed 10 people and wounded three over a three-week span in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, causing widespread fear throughout the region. His accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, was executed in 2009. Sentenced in Maryland Malvo also was sentenced to life in prison in Maryland for the murders that occurred there. But his lawyers have made an appeal on similar grounds in that state. A hearing is scheduled in June. Fairfax County Commonwealth’s …