The first time Huỳnh Thị Chút set foot in the United States, she came to see Gary Wittig, the man she met in Danang during the height of the Vietnam War. The daughter that Chút had with Wittig, Nguyễn Thị Kim Nga, flew from her Nebraska home of 17 years to meet her father’s family in a suburb of Atlanta, in the southeastern U.S. state of Georgia. With a newfound cousin, Nga met her mother at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson international airport. After a drive to the suburbs, Chút reunited with Wittig, now frail and on oxygen, 48 years after they parted. The reunion was “completely amazing,” said Christine Kimmey, Wittig’s niece who joined Nga at the airport. “She (Chut) placed her hands on him and started massaging his lung, massaging his arms. They just sat there and smiled,” said Kimmey, who added she couldn’t describe the excitement and joy of the …

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis suggested the United States will move away from arming Syrian Kurdish fighters, as part of a wider shift from a military-led to a diplomatic-led approach in Syria. Mattis’ comments help clarify the status of the U.S. relationship with Kurdish YPG fighters, who have been a crucial U.S. partner in the Syrian war. Turkey last week said President Donald Trump vowed to stop arming the YPG, during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Ankara, which sees the YPG as a terrorist group, has opposed the U.S. arming the Kurdish fighters. However a White House statement issued after the call was more circumspect. It said Trump “also informed President Erdogan of pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria, now that the battle of Raqqa is complete and we are progressing into a stabilization phase to ensure …

U.S. defense chief Jim Mattis has met with Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, ahead of a counter-extremism conference focused on West Africa on Sunday. During the meeting, Secretary Mattis offered condolences for the recent terrorist attack on a mosque in Bir al-Abed, Egypt, and recognized Egypt as a strategic defense partner with the United States. Mattis noted Egypt’s importance to the stability of the Middle East as well as Egypt’s ongoing fight against terrorism and efforts to protect Egypt’s borders. A report on the meeting said the two leaders discussed a range of Middle East security issues and talked about a mutual desire to cooperate on terrorism and regional challenges. Earlier, on the flight to Cairo, Mattis told reporters that counterterrorism cooperation with Egypt is growing. He said the U.S. remains committed to strong ties with Cairo, despite freezing some military aid to Egypt over rights concerns earlier …

President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, retired General Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of lying to the FBI in connection with the ongoing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Flynn has become the first former Trump White House official to face charges and admit guilt in connection with the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has details from Washington. …

The U.S. city of San Diego has opened the first of three large tents that together will house 700 homeless people in an effort to contain an outbreak of hepatitis A that is being spread among the homeless population. About 20 people made the tent their temporary home Friday. The first tent erected will house 350 single men and women. The other two tents, which will open later this month, will be for families and veterans. Bob McElroy of the Alpha Project, the nonprofit group that is operating the tent that opened Friday, said he expects the tent to be filled to capacity by the middle of next week. City officials are using the tents as a way to get people off the streets where they have been living in such poor conditions that it has led to one of the worst outbreaks of hepatitis A in years. The disease, …

The U.S. Justice Department has filed an amended arrest warrant for Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, the undocumented Mexican immigrant found not guilty Thursday of murdering a San Francisco woman, in a case highlighted by President Donald Trump in his crackdown on illegal immigrants. U.S. prosecutors on Friday announced Garcia Zarate’s conviction on a lesser charge, felon in possession of a firearm, meaning he had violated the terms of his supervised release from prison after nearly four years in custody. Garcia Zarate’s arrest warrant says he violated his release agreement by possessing the gun that killed Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier two years ago. A San Francisco Superior Court jury on Thursday acquitted Garcia Zarate of first-degree murder and manslaughter charges, but convicted him of weapons possession. Garcia Zarate had been deported five times and was set to be sent back to Mexico a sixth time when the shooting …

President Donald Trump’s administration announced Friday that it won’t require mining companies to prove they have the financial wherewithal to clean up their pollution, despite an industry legacy of abandoned mines that have fouled waterways across the U.S.   The move came after mining groups and Western-state Republicans pushed back against a proposal under former President Barack Obama to make companies set aside money for future cleanup costs.   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said modern mining practices and state and federal rules already in place adequately address the risks from mines that are still operating. Requiring more from mining companies was unnecessary, Pruitt said, and “would impose an undue burden on this important sector of the American economy and rural America, where most of these jobs are based.”   The U.S. mining industry has a long history of abandoning contaminated sites and leaving taxpayers to foot the …

Republicans used a burst of eleventh-hour horse-trading Friday to edge a $1.4 trillion tax bill to passage in the Senate. The bill, passed mostly along party lines, is a giant step toward giving President Donald Trump one of his top priorities by Christmas. “We have the votes,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declared after leaders swayed holdout senators by agreeing to fatten tax breaks for millions of businesses and let people deduct local property taxes. Party leaders received Senate approval later Friday on a measure that focuses the bulk of its tax reductions on businesses and higher-earning individuals, gives more modest breaks to others and would be the boldest rewrite of the nation’s tax system since 1986. Debate stretched into Saturday morning as lawmakers waited for Republicans to unveil the final version of their measure. ​Corker balks at debt increase Republicans touted the package as one that would benefit people of all …

The U.S. state of Hawaii has tested a nuclear attack warning siren for the first time since the end of the Cold War in an effort to prepare people for a possible missile attack by North Korea.  The sirens sounded for a minute on Friday, helping emergency officials to ensure the equipment worked properly and to inform residents and tourists about the warning system.  Hawaii Governor David Ige said this week that the test will ensure the public knows what to do in case of an imminent attack. He said people will have less than 20 minutes to take shelter after hearing the warning sirens.  The state is adding the signal to its monthly “Attention Alert” test, which warns people of an incoming tsunami or hurricane. Officials say the new siren uses a different wavering tone to distinguish it from other sirens. The tests will continue to take place on …

As U.S. lawmakers grapple with allegations of sexual harassment in their ranks, some senior American diplomats are speaking out about their struggles over the years. Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, who was U.S. ambassador to Malta from 2012-2016, told her story about serving at the State Department and the White House. “There was one occasion in the department when a boss touched me and I told him if he did it again, I’d knock the s— out of him. He did not repeat it, but he did try to get me to curtail from the position,” Abercrombie-Winstanley told the Foreign Service Journal, a publication by the American Foreign Service Association. The former U.S. envoy recalled another incident in which she said she was harassed by a senior lawmaker while serving on the White House National Security Council.   “Initially, I parried the advance from a senior member of Congress, but when he continued …

The U.S. military is shifting its stance in Syria, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday, as the program to arm the Kurdish opposition comes to a close and is replaced by increased support to local police and security forces. Mattis said the Pentagon is “changing the composition of our forces” in Syria to reflect the collapse of the Islamic State group there and a renewed emphasis on finding a diplomatic path to peace. Speaking to reporters on his plane at the start of a five-day trip to the Middle East, Mattis said the shift in American forces will support the diplomatic process. His comments came on the heels of the announcement last week that the U.S. would stop actively providing arms to Syrian Kurds, known as the YPG. Officials have acknowledged that the U.S. will likely begin taking back large military vehicles and heavy weapons from the Kurds, now that …

The military has identified 100 sailors and Marines killed when the USS Oklahoma capsized during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 76 years ago, officials said Friday. The milestone comes two years after the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency dug up nearly 400 sets of remains from a Hawaii cemetery. Officials exhumed the bodies after determining that advances in forensic science and genealogical help from families could make identifications possible. The buried Marines and sailors have been classified as missing since World War II. The agency has said it expects to identify about 80 percent of the battleship’s missing crew members by 2020. The most recent identification came last week, the agency said in a news release. The family hasn’t been notified yet, however, so his name hasn’t been released. Many of those identified have been buried in their hometowns. Others were reinterred at the National Memorial Cemetery in the Pacific, …

TC Bell knows what life is like without health insurance after growing up with a mother who cobbled together care from a public health clinic, emergency room visits and off-the-books visits to a doctor they knew. That memory makes Bell, of Denver, grateful for the coverage his two daughters have now under the Children’s Health Insurance Program — and concerned about its uncertain future in Congress. “There’s an incredible security that I have with CHIP,” said Bell, 30, who has gone back to community college to reboot his life after working a series of low-paying jobs. “If my daughters get sick or seriously injured, we can take them to their doctor, rather than when I was growing and had to go through the emergency room. We always kept our fingers crossed back then.”  Political stalemate CHIP provides low-cost coverage to children in families that earn too much to qualify for …

From cellphones and cars, to televisions and refrigerators, more devices are being connected to the Internet. This network of connected devices is call the “Internet of Things” (IoT). Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States, is planning to use the prevalence of these IoT devices as a testing ground for becoming a city of the future. “By putting computers in parking meters, you already have computers in your car, and you have computers in the street lights. The ability to connect them to the Internet of Things allows a better way for your car to know where parking spots are available, allows better for it to communicate when street lights should turn green to maximize traffic flow,” said Ted Ross, chief information officer for the city of Los Angeles. WATCH: Los Angeles About to Embark on a Smart City Experiment What is I3?  Los Angeles is a …

It wasn’t a typical headache that bothered Felicia Luna, 41. It was painful pressure “like someone was squeezing my head really tight.” The pain was so bad that Luna says she couldn’t lie down with her head on the pillow. Her primary doctor and a specialist told her to stop worrying. Then she went to Stanford Medical Center. The head of neurosurgery, Dr. Gary Steinberg, scheduled her for brain surgery. Her aneurysm was in danger of rupturing. High-tech technique Because of the complexity of the upcoming surgery and Luna’s curiosity, Steinberg decided to use virtual reality to perfect the surgical route. To do this, contrast dye was injected during Luna’s CT scan and angiograms, two medical scans, to highlight the width and shape of the vessels. WATCH: Virtual Reality Allows Patients to Preview Their Own Surgery Stanford’s Malie Collins, who works with Steinberg, builds the reconstructions in 3-D and prepares the …

Another woman — the fourth — has spoken out against the longest-serving member of Congress, Democrat John Conyers, Thursday, accusing him of harassing her repeatedly over the decade during which she worked for him. Meanwhile, Conyers’ lawyer told reporters that the 88-year-old congressman has been admitted to the hospital. Esha Sarai reports. …

As the U.S. Supreme Court considers a case about privacy and technology, Los Angeles, California, is becoming a city that is ever more connected. From cell phones to televisions to refrigerators, more devices are being connected to the Internet. L.A. wants to use the prevalence of these “smart” devices to help the city run more efficiently, turning it into a city of the future. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details of the project and the security and privacy implications of a more connected city. …

The White House dismissed reports Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo as reported in the news media. The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other major U.S. news outlets quoted senior administration officials saying the plan to oust Tillerson could be set in motion as early as December or January. But as VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, it is not clear the president has made a final decision on the issue. …

A rancher’s son at the center of an armed standoff with government agents near his family ranch in Nevada in 2014 and a takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge in 2016 was released Thursday from federal custody in Las Vegas. Ammon Bundy, 42, was greeted by his wife and six children while friends cheered as he walked out of the federal courthouse. His first words after 22 months behind bars were about family and American freedoms and his reasons for opposing federal power. “It’s about people, and life, and trying to do the best we can to promote and benefit the enjoyment of life,” he said. “That’s all we’ve tried to do.” Surprise ruling Bundy’s brief comments to reporters quickly shifted to the surprising order on Wednesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro to release him, his father, Cliven Bundy, and a co-defendant from jail to house arrest with …

The State Department said it has ongoing conversations with the White House on issues concerning the safety of American diplomats abroad, hours after several media reported the department had warned that the president’s retweeting of several anti-Muslim videos could spark unrest in the Muslim world or put U.S. embassies at risk. The White House, however, said the videos “elevate the conversation to talk about a real issue and a real threat, and that’s extreme violence and extreme terrorism.” When asked if the State Department warned the White House that the retweets might have repercussions, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told VOA Thursday in a briefing, “When it comes to specific conversations, you know all too well that I can’t comment on our sort of private internal conversations, but it wouldn’t be unusual for us to have those kinds of conversations about any matter in the world.” “One of the things …

Senate Republicans delayed a final vote on an overhaul of the U.S. tax code late Thursday amid furious, behind-the-scenes efforts to fine-tune the legislation to satisfy a small group of fiscal hawks whose support is needed to pass one of President Donald Trump’s core campaign promises. “Senators will continue to debate the bill tonight,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said, adding that further votes pertaining to the tax bill would occur later Friday. Only hours earlier, Republicans appeared poised to pass a massive restructuring of federal taxes and deal a stinging defeat to Democrats. Several wavering Republicans had signaled support for the bill, including John McCain of Arizona. Late in the day, however, three Republicans, led by Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, clung to a demand that proposed tax cuts would be pared back if future U.S. economic performance did not meet projections. Republicans have a two-seat Senate …

President Donald Trump is considering recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a highly charged declaration that risks inflaming tensions across the Middle East, officials said Thursday. The announcement would be a way to offset a likely decision delaying his campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv. Trump’s announcement is expected next week and follows months of internal deliberations that grew particularly intense in recent days, according to officials familiar with the talks. They described the president as intent on fulfilling his pledge to move the embassy but also mindful that doing so could set back his aim of forging a long-elusive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, who claim part of Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual state. The officials, who weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the outlines of Trump’s plan emerged from …

The man, facing his sixth deportation, was found guilty of a gun charge in a case highlighted in the 2016 presidential campaign A jury on Thursday found a Mexican man not guilty of murder in the killing of a woman on a San Francisco pier that touched off a national immigration debate two years ago. Jose Ines Garcia Zarate had been deported five times and was wanted for a sixth deportation when Kate Steinle was fatally shot in the back while walking with her father on the pier. Garcia Zarate did not deny shooting Steinle but said it was an accident. Presidential campaign The shooting came in the middle of the presidential campaign in July 2015 and touched off a fierce debate over the country’s immigration policies. It spotlighted San Francisco’s “sanctuary city” policy, which limits local officials from cooperating with U.S. immigration authorities. Politics, however, did not come up …