The U.S. Senate has confirmed Jon Huntsman as the new U.S. ambassador to Russia, filling a void at a critical tie in U.S.-Russian relations. Huntsman is a former governor of the U.S. state of Utah who previously served as ambassador to Singapore and China. The confirmation was unanimous and swift, with Democrats and Republicans joining in a rare consensus to support President Donald Trump’s choice for the top U.S. diplomat in Moscow. The Washington Post quoted Democratic Senator Benjamin Cardin as saying Trump could not have made a better choice than Huntsman. The new U.S. ambassador will arrive in Moscow as tensions remain high between the U.S. and Russia on issues that include allegations of Russian meddling in U.S. elections and interference in eastern Ukraine. Trump has rejected allegations by political opponents that his campaign colluded with the Russians. Huntsman testified this month before the Senate Foreign Relations committee and …

Backing employers over employees. Backing the state of Ohio over groups involved in voter registration. Backing a narrow reading of a sexual discrimination law over a broad one.   Those are just some of the legal about-faces President Donald Trump’s administration is making at the Supreme Court and in lower courts.   The Trump administration has found itself in court defending a variety of new policies: the president’s travel ban, the phasing out of a program protecting young immigrants, and the revisiting of a policy that had allowed transgender individuals to serve openly in the military.  But it’s also dealing with lawsuits that were in progress before the president took office, and asserting positions different from those of the Obama administration. The Office of the Solicitor General, the Justice Department office that represents the federal government at the Supreme Court and determines what position it will take in federal appeals …

The new U.S. strategy for the war in Afghanistan unveiled last month by President Donald Trump is already showing results insisted senior military officials who met with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Afghanistan this week. General John Nicholson, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, told reporters traveling with Mattis that Trump’s conditions-based approach to the conflict has improved troop morale, stunted Taliban gains, and stunned insurgents. “We’re seeing an effect amongst the Taliban leadership,” Nicholson said. “For years they thought we were leaving; now with the renewed commitment at Warsaw, (and) with the new U.S. policy, they realize we’re not leaving, so this has put them in disarray.” ​Stalemate for now But speaking on background, U.S. officials were more restrained in their assessment about the 16-year-old battle. “We still put the conflict within the bounds of a stalemate, where neither side has the capability right now to have a …

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis returned to the U.S. Thursday, after stops in India, Afghanistan and Qatar intended to solidify relations with U.S. partners in the region. Mattis said in a statement about his stop in Qatar: “In the midst of its own challenges, Qatar and the U.S. maintain excellent military to military relations.” Mattis arrived at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, Thursday, days after Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani renewed a call for “unconditional dialogue” to end a crisis involving his country and four Arab states, during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut ties with Qatar in June over its close ties to Iran and its alleged support for extremists. Qatar has denied supporting extremism, saying the crisis is politically motivated. U.S. President Donald Trump …

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson embarked on his second trip to China Thursday, seeking Beijing’s cooperation on a “maximum pressure” campaign against North Korea’s nuclear provocations, amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. State Department Correspondent Nike Ching has more. …

A long-running effort to build one of the world’s largest telescopes on a mountain sacred to Native Hawaiians is moving forward after a key approval Thursday, reopening divisions over a project that promises revolutionary views into the heavens but has drawn impassioned protests over the impact to a spiritual place. Hawaii’s land board granted a construction permit for the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope atop the state’s tallest mountain, called Mauna Kea, but opponents likely would appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. Protesters willing to be arrested were successful in blocking construction in the past. “For the Hawaiian people, I have a message: This is our time to rise as a people,” said Kahookahi Kanuha, a protest leader. “This is our time to take back all of the things that we know are ours. All the things that were illegally taken from us.” No construction soon Telescope officials …

Nearly 300 species of fish, mussels and other sea critters hitchhiked across the Pacific Ocean on debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami, washing ashore alive in the United States, researchers reported Thursday.   It is the largest and longest marine migration ever documented, outside experts and the researchers said. The scientists and colleagues combed the beaches of Washington, Oregon, California, British Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii and tracked the species to their Japanese origins. Their arrival could be a problem if the critters take root, pushing out native species, the study authors said in Thursday’s journal Science.   “It’s a bit of what we call ecological roulette,” said lead author James Carlton, a marine sciences professor at Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It will be years before scientists know if the 289 Japanese species thrive in their new home and crowd out natives. The researchers roughly estimated that a million creatures …

Two days of cracking, thundering falling rock at Yosemite National Park have left one man dead, two people injured, and even experienced climbers stunned by the spectacle.    A massive new hunk of granite broke off Thursday at the park’s mountaineering mecca of El Capitan, injuring an elderly man and sending huge plumes of white dust.   “There was so much smoke and debris,” said climber Ryan Sheridan, who had just reached the top of El Capitan when the rock let loose below him. “It filled the entire valley with smoke.”   The slide came a day after a giant slab of granite plunged from the same formation, killing a British man on a hiking and climbing visit and injuring his wife.   “It was in the same location of the previous rock fall,” Sheridan told The Associated Press by cellphone from the mountain. “A larger rock fall let loose, …

An overwhelming majority of American voters believe undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children should be allowed to remain in the country and become citizens, according to a new Qunnipiac University poll. Eighty-two percent of voters, including nearly 70 percent of Republicans, believe the so-called “Dreamer” immigrants should be able to stay and apply for citizenship. Only 6 percent felt they should be permitted to remain but not become citizens. Ten percent of the respondents said dreamers should be forced to leave the U.S. By a 72-to-19-percent margin, voters agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to work with Democratic lawmakers on legislation to protect Dreamers. But voters were opposed 57-to-37 percent on including funds in the bill to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. On the question of whether to build a wall on the border, 57-percent opposed it compared to 37-percent who favored it. …

Hugh Hefner, the publisher of Playboy Magazine has died at the age of 91. Famous for his smoking jacket, his magazine and his lifestyle Hefner singlehandedly changed the publishing industry, and maybe the world. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

Members of Congress are sharpening their criticism of Myanmar’s crackdown that has forced nearly a half-million Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. Republicans and Democrats want the Trump administration to consider sanctions against the perpetrators and to re-evaluate U.S. policy toward the Southeast Asian nation. Twenty-one senators say in a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson  there’s a risk of genocide against the Rohingya, who’ve fled en masse after Myanmar security forces responded to insurgent attacks. The senators say that response has been “extraordinarily disproportionate.” They say those responsible should be held accountable under international law and U.S. law that allows the president to punish rights violators in foreign countries. …

After President Donald Trump last week issued a new executive order giving the United States greater leverage over foreign banks that support the North Korean regime, the U.S. is now looking at implementing the tougher sanctions, officials said Thursday. Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state for Asian and Pacific affairs, told a congressional committee the administration is working with allied countries to try and “ferret out these illicit underground networks” used by North Korea to subvert previous sanctions. “We’re working with international partners,” she said. “And I think continuing a full court press with those international partners on implementation is going to be the key to really upping the pressure on the Kim [Jong Un] regime.” The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions Tuesday targeting eight North Korean banks, as well as 26 DPRK banking officials. The Treasury Department said the action aimed to prevent North Korea from using …

A Supreme Court with a reconstituted conservative majority is taking on a new case with the potential to financially cripple Democratic-leaning labor unions that represent government workers. The justices deadlocked 4-4 in a similar case last year.   The high court agreed Thursday to again consider a free-speech challenge from workers who object to paying money to unions they don’t support.   The court could decide to overturn a 40-year-old Supreme Court ruling that allows public sector unions to collect fees from non-members to cover the costs of negotiating contracts for all employees.   The latest appeal is from a state employee in Illinois. It was filed at the Supreme Court just two months after Justice Neil Gorsuch filled the high court seat that had been vacant since Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.   The stakes are high. Union membership in the U.S. declined to just 10.7 percent of the workforce …

Turkey says it would release American Pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been detained for nearly a year, if the United States extradited Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for last year’s failed coup attempt. “They say ‘give us the pastor’.  You have a preacher [Gulen] there. Give him to us, and we will try [Brunson] and give him back,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech. Brunson, who has lived in Turkey for 23 years, and his wife, Norine, were arrested for alleged immigration violations in October 2016.  She was released, while his charges have been upgraded to supporting Gulen’s network, which Turkey has labeled a terrorist organization. The couple ran a Christian church in the Aegean city of Izmir. Norine met with U.S. Secretary of State of Rex Tillerson during his visit last month to Ankara. Tillerson said then that Brunson had been “wrongfully imprisoned”. …

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at a conference on school choice at Harvard University. Some Harvard students plan to protest outside her speech Thursday. They say they’re protesting DeVos’ decision last week to revoke Obama-era rules that guided colleges on how to handle campus sexual assault cases. Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance is sponsoring the conference, titled “The Future of School Choice: Helping Students Succeed.” School choice refers to efforts that give students options other than their local public schools, such as charter or private schools. DeVos was a supporter of school choice efforts in Michigan before becoming President Donald Trump’s education chief. …

First, Hurricane Maria knocked out power and water to Puerto Rico. Then diesel fuel, gas and water became scarce. Now, it’s money.   The aftermath of the powerful storm has resulted in a near-total shutdown of the U.S. territory’s economy that could last for weeks and has many people running seriously low on cash and worrying that it will become even harder to survive on this storm-ravaged island.   There are long lines at the banks that are open with reduced hours or the scattered ATMs that are operational amid an island-wide power outage and near total loss of telecommunications. Many people are unable to work or run their businesses because diesel to run generators is in short supply or they can’t spend all day waiting for gas to fill their car.   Engineer Octavio Cortes predicts it will only get worse because so many of the problems are inter-connected …

U.S. Congressman Steve Scalise has returned to the House of Representatives for the first time since being shot on June 14, telling colleagues he is “a living example” that miracles happen. Months after recovering from near-fatal injuries, Scalise slowly walked into the House chamber Thursday with the aid of two forearm crutches and to an extended round of applause from fellow lawmakers.  Scalise addressed his colleagues on the House floor in his first public appearance since the shooting in Alexandria, Virginia just south of the nation’s capitol. WATCH: Scalise on how it feels to be back at work The Majority Whip praised U.S. Capitol police officers Crystal Griner and David Bailey, who were on Scalise’s security detail and sustained gunshot wounds, as “true angles” and thanked them for saving his life and the lives of “a lot of other people here in this chamber today.” “David, you are my hero,” …

The lights flickered off during the lunchtime rush and the principal had to use a cellphone light to make sure everyone got their food, but school is back in session at a Florida school that was a Red Cross shelter after Hurricane Irma.   Wednesday was the second of three staggered school opening dates in Monroe County since Irma ravaged the Florida Keys Sept. 10.   Principal Wendy McPherson tells the Miami Herald it felt “pretty darn good” to return to Marathon Middle and High School.   For many students, being back in school is the only access they have to air conditioning. The free breakfast and lunch may be the only hot meals they’re getting. During first period, students filled out surveys on their needs — clothing, hygiene products and school supplies.       …