The U.S. Supreme Court stepped into Texas’ congressional redistricting debate this week, temporarily halting an order to correct two districts that lower courts found disenfranchised minority voting rights. The court’s stay is the latest in the years-long battle over racially motivated redistricting in Texas that could have a significant impact on Republican Party control of Congress. VOA congressional reporter Katherine Gypson traveled to one of the districts at the heart of the debate. …
Although 75 percent of our planet is covered with water, many countries around the world suffer from a low supply of fresh water. There is plenty of water in the ocean, but removing the salt is very expensive, and only coastal nations with an ample supply of power, such as the Arab Gulf States, can afford to rely on desalination. Now, as sources of fresh water dwindle, emerging new technologies could make the technology much more cost effective. VOA’s George Putic reports. …
Brandon Gosselin didn’t think he would work in the White House this early in his career, but this summer he found himself in the Oval Office. “I had the opportunity to serve the people, as an intern in one of the most recognizable places on Earth,” Gosselin told VOA Student Union. The 2017 graduate of Freed-Hardeman University, a private Christian college in Henderson, Tennessee, spent the summer months working in the Office of Presidential Correspondence. “It was a humbling experience to be interning at the White House. But it’s also a blessing to be walking the halls at one of the most historic places on all of Earth,” the Oklahoma native said. Staff members in the Office of Presidential Correspondence read, categorize and file letters, email and telephone messages from the public to President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. They draft replies, answer questions, provide copies of presidential …
A U.S. federal judge Thursday approved the extradition of former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli to face charges of corruption and spying on his political opponents. Judge Edwin Torres in Miami wrote that there are “reasonable grounds to suppose him guilty of all or some of the offenses charged … good faith to the demanding government requires his surrender.” Martinelli’s lawyers said they would appeal. It is up to the State Department to decide whether he will be sent back to Panama. Martinelli was president of the South American country from 2009 until 2014. He fled to Miami in January 2015, just days before the Panamanian Supreme Court opened a corruption investigation against him. U.S. authorities arrested him in June. Martinelli, a wealthy supermarket magnate, is suspected of embezzling millions of dollars from a public school lunch program for poor children and using that money to set up equipment to spy …
Activists are asking the Department of Homeland Security to extend Temporary Protected Status for over 1,000 Sudanese and South Sudanese nationals living in the United States. By September 3, DHS is expected to decide whether to extend, redesignate or terminate the program for the two countries. The current period ends November 2 for 49 South Sudanese and 1,039 Sudanese TPS beneficiaries. Patrice Lawrence of UndocuBlack Network, an advocacy group for undocumented black immigrants, wants an extension. ‘Stuck in this status’ “If the administration decides to not extend TPS for some of these people that have been here for decades, decades under this, there is no way for them to be able to get a green card or to get citizenship, so they are stuck in this status until something else happens,” Lawrence said. Because of an ongoing conflict between the two countries, South Sudan was first designated for TPS in …
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is raising speculation that Harriet Tubman’s future on the $20 bill could be in jeopardy. In a CNBC interview, Mnuchin on Thursday avoided a direct answer when asked whether he supported the decision made by the Obama administration to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Tubman, the 19th century African-American abolitionist who was a leader in the Underground Railroad. “People have been on the bills for a long period of time,” he said. “This is something we’ll consider. Right now, we have a lot more important issues to focus on.” During last year’s campaign, Donald Trump praised Jackson, the nation’s seventh president, for his “history of tremendous success” and said the decision to replace him with Tubman was “pure political correctness.” Trump suggested during the campaign that one possibility would be to put Tubman on another bill and leave Jackson …
Gasoline futures surged more than 13 percent Thursday, and crude oil settled nearly 3 percent higher, as almost a quarter of U.S. refining capacity remained offline and traders scrambled to reroute millions of barrels of fuel. U.S. gasoline futures have rallied more than 28 percent from the previous week to a two-year high above $2 a gallon, buoyed by fears of a fuel shortage days ahead of the U.S. Labor Day weekend’s traditional surge in driving. Gasoline settled up 25.52 cents, or 13.54 percent, at $2.1399. Hurricane Harvey, which brought record flooding to the U.S. oil heartland of Texas and killed at least 35 people, has paralyzed at least 4.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity, according to company reports and Reuters estimates. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said that roughly 13.5 percent of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico …
Three high-ranking military officials from the Obama administration on Thursday joined several transgender service members in urging a U.S. judge to halt President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military. The former secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force — including former Army Secretary Eric Fanning, the first openly gay head of any U.S. military service — submitted sworn statements to a Washington, D.C., federal court in support of a motion for an immediate injunction. The new filings came as part of a lawsuit challenging the ban, which Trump announced in a series of tweets this month. The move would reverse former President Barack Obama’s order that allowed transgender people to serve openly without fear of losing their jobs. “The ban marks transgender service members as unequal and dispensable, stigmatizing them in the eyes of their fellow service members and depriving them of the unique honor …
