The Smithsonian Craft Show is wrapping up this weekend, highlighting works from artists across the United States. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more. …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is using the Middle East leg of his first trip abroad as America’s top diplomat to call for concerted international action to punish Iran for its missile programs. He’s also urging Saudi Arabia and its neighbors to resolve a long-festering dispute with Qatar that U.S. officials say Iran is exploiting to boost its influence in the region, including in Yemen and Syria. Pompeo was meeting Sunday with Saudi King Salman, whose country along with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates is embroiled in a row with Qatar that has hobbled Gulf Arab unity and frustrated the U.S. as it seeks to blunt growing Iranian assertiveness. The ex-CIA chief arrived in Riyadh a day earlier, shortly after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fired missiles at Saudi Arabia’s southern city of Jizan, killing one person and underscoring what U.S. officials said is a growing threat emanating …

Pakistani prison authorities have moved the jailed doctor believed to have helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden, his attorney said Saturday, speculating it could be a prelude to his release. The continued imprisonment of Dr. Shakil Afridi has long been a source of tension between Pakistan and the United States, which cut military aid over accusations Pakistan continues to shelter Taliban militants fighting U.S. and Afghan soldiers across the border in Afghanistan. A jail official in the northwestern city of Peshawar told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Afridi had been transferred to Adiala prison in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, but said the reasons were unclear and could simply be security-related. Afridi’s lawyer, Qamar Nadeem, confirmed the transfer of his client but said he was not sure where he was now. Judicial officials could not be reached Saturday, nor could embassy officials for the United States, which …

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to shut down the country’s nuclear test site in May and open the process to experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States, Seoul’s presidential office said Sunday. Kim made the comments during his summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday at a border truce village, where he also expressed optimism about his anticipated meeting with Donald Trump, saying the U.S. president will learn he’s “not a person” to fire missiles toward the United States, Moon’s spokesman Yoon Young-chan said. Moon and Kim during the summit promised to work toward the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, but made no references to verification or timetables. Seoul had also shuttled between Pyongyang and Washington to set up a potential meeting between Kim and Trump, which is expected next month or early June. Relations with Japan Kim also said he …

President Donald Trump took aim at familiar political targets and added a few fresh ones during a campaign-style rally Saturday night in an Upper Midwest state that gave him a surprising victory in the 2016 election. Trump has been urging voters to support Republicans for Congress as a way of advancing his agenda. In his rally in Washington Township, he repeatedly pointed to Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan as one of the Democrats who needed to be voted out. After saying Stabenow was standing in the way of protecting U.S. borders and had voted against tax cuts, Trump said: “And you people just keep putting her back again and again and again. It’s your fault.” ​‘I know things about Tester’ Earlier Saturday, Trump tweeted criticism of Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana over his role in the failed nomination of White House doctor Ronny Jackson to run the Department of …

Arizona teachers’ walkout over pay and education funding appears headed into a second week as major school districts say schools will remain closed Monday. The unprecedented statewide job action began Thursday and continued Friday, resulting in closures of schools that educate the vast majority of the state’s 1.1 million public school students. Recent teacher protests in Arizona and Colorado have followed similar job actions in West Virginia, Kentucky and Oklahoma.  Arizona districts whose websites on Saturday displayed notices saying schools will be closed included several in Phoenix and its suburbs and others in cities across the state, including Tucson, Flagstaff and Sierra Vista. Republican Governor Doug Ducey and GOP legislative leaders said Friday that they had reached a budget agreement to boost teacher pay by 20 percent by 2020. “This plan benefits our children’s education across the state, and we are working through the weekend to introduce a budget early …

Law enforcement authorities in the United States, European Union and Canada this week began a joint cybercampaign against Islamic State online communication channels that will “severely disrupt” the group’s propaganda machine, the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol said. The multinational action, led by Belgian federal prosecutors, was launched  Wednesday and Thursday and targeted IS media outlets, including Amaq news, al-Bayan radio, Halumu and Nashir news. IS’s Amaq news agency is believed to be a major propaganda outlet for the terror group. The group relies on the outlet to spread propaganda in several languages, including English and French. Amaq has broadcast claims of responsibility for deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, Berlin and Barcelona. “With this groundbreaking operation we have punched a big hole in the capability of IS to spread propaganda online and radicalize young people in Europe,” Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, said in a statement released Friday. “I applaud the determined …

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday that airstrikes on Syria, conducted by the U.S., Britain, and France on April 14, were a violation of international law and indicated that the Western powers were trying to destroy the peace process. Lavrov, speaking after meeting in Moscow with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts, said such “attempts to … destabilize the situation” encourage the extremists in Syria to go on with their armed struggle. Lavrov and his counterparts said they agreed that Syria’s territorial integrity should be preserved, while accusing the United States of plans to “reformat” the Middle East and divide Syria into parts. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javid Zarif said there was no military solution to the Syrian crisis. He also said that Iran condemned the use of chemical weapons and hoped that the investigation of an alleged Syrian attack on its own people would uncover the truth. He also said anyone …

U.S. President Donald Trump called for the resignation Saturday of Democratic Senator Jon Tester for raising concerns about Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, Ronny Jackson, who withdrew his name from consideration on Thursday. Jackson, who is the White House physician and a Navy Rear Admiral, dropped his bid Thursday to head the country’s second-largest federal agency as lawmakers probed allegations of professional misconduct and excessive drinking. In a pair of tweets, Trump wrote the allegations “are proving false” and that Tester, who represents the western state of Montana, should step down.     Trump blamed Tester for the demise of Jackson’s nomination after Tester said Wednesday that 20 current and former members of the military familiar with Jackson’s office had told lawmakers that he drank on the job. They also said Jackson oversaw a toxic work environment and handed out drug prescriptions with little consideration of …

President Donald Trump was betting on a big crowd and a friendly reception at a Saturday evening rally in Michigan – one of the states in the Upper Midwest that Hillary Clinton counted on in 2016 but saw slip away. In fact, Trump was the first Republican presidential nominee to capture Michigan since George H.W. Bush in 1988. “Look forward to being in the Great State of Michigan tonight,” Trump said in a tweet hours before the event in Washington Township, Michigan, which is about 40 miles north of Detroit. He also tweeted: “Major business expansion and jobs pouring into your State. Auto companies expanding at record pace. Big crowd tonight, will be live on T.V.” Also scheduled to air on cable television Saturday night was a Washington tradition that Trump says he’s happy to skip: The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Trump said in a fundraising pitch from campaign …

Can the Europeans save the Iran nuclear deal? It’s an accord U.S. President Donald Trump has excoriated repeatedly and threatened to scrap.   Europeans were heartened midweek by indications from the U.S. leader that he’s willing to consider French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to augment an accord he considers “insane” by negotiating a side deal with Iran to address Trump’s concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile development and its expanding military presence across the Middle East. Nonetheless, the nuclear deal signed in 2015 by the Obama administration hangs in the balance, despite the back-slapping, hand-pumping “bromance” between Macron and Trump in Washington. The two leaders continued to forge a personal entente cordiale, but as Macron highlighted in a speech to Congress, the pair is far apart on Iran and Syria, climate change and trade. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has dismissed talk of a re-negotiation, saying midweek he had warned Macron several …

Republican Don Blankenship doesn’t care if his party and his president don’t think he can beat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin this fall. This former coal mining executive, an ex-convict released from prison less than a year ago, is willing to risk his personal fortune and the GOP’s golden opportunity in West Virginia for the chance to prove them all wrong. “I’ll get elected on my own merits,” Blankenship says. There aren’t a lot of things that can sink Republicans’ hopes in the ruby red state that Donald Trump won by 42 percentage points in 2016, but Blankenship could well be one. His candidacy is sending shudders down the spines of Republicans who are furiously working to ensure he is not their choice to take on Manchin in November. While Blankenship’s bid is a long shot, he’s testing whether a party led by an anti-establishment outsider can rein in its anti-establishment …

U.S. President Donald Trump expressed optimism about a planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following conversations Saturday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trump tweeted he had a “very good talk” with Moon and updated Abe on plans for his anticipated summit with Kim.   Key U.S. leaders are expressing growing optimism that decades of hostility on the Korean Peninsula are closer than ever to coming to an end. Trump said at a White House news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Friday “I don’t think he’s playing” when asked about the historic summit between North and South Korea.   Trump added a meeting would be scheduled “very shortly” but didn’t specify a timeline, saying up to three possible sites are being considered for the much-anticipated summit in late May or early June. Earlier Friday, Kim became the first North Korean …

After making his diplomatic debut in Brussels at the NATO foreign ministers meeting, new U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Saturday in Saudi Arabia on the first stop of a swing through the Middle East. Pompeo’s senior policy adviser, Brian Hook, who is accompanying Pompeo, called on European allies and other countries to impose sanctions on Iran to weaken its missile program. “We are urging nations around the world to sanction any individuals and entities associated with Iran’s missile program, and it has also been a big part of discussions with Europeans,” Hook told reporters in Riyadh. The three-day trip, during which the secretary is expected to brief U.S. allies on administration policy toward Iran, will also include stops in Israel and Jordan. Friday, Pompeo said no decision had been made on whether President Donald Trump would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, adding that negotiations were ongoing. At his first …

Texas’ voter ID law that was twice blocked because of findings of discrimination can stay in effect for the 2018 elections, a U.S. appeals court ruled Friday. It was the second major ruling over voting rights in the U.S. this week after an Arkansas judge on Thursday blocked that state’s voter ID measure as unconstitutional. But in a 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, the Texas law that critics have slammed as one of the toughest voter ID measures in the nation was seen as a suitable replacement for the original 2011 law that a federal judge had likened to a “poll tax” on minority voters. ​ID or affidavit The biggest change to the Texas law, which accepts handgun licenses as sufficient identification to vote, but not college student IDs, is that voters without any acceptable photo ID can still cast a ballot …

Thousands of years of sediment carried by the Mississippi River created 25,000 square kilometers of land, marsh and wetlands along Louisiana’s coast. But engineering projects stopped the flow of sediment and rising seas thanks to climate change have made the Mississippi Delta the fastest-disappearing land on earth. Louisiana State University researchers created the river system in miniature to try to stop the erosion and rebuild the delta. Faith Lapidus narrates this report from Deborah Block. …

A new approach for detecting food poisoning is being used to investigate the recent outbreak of E.coli bacteria in romaine lettuce grown in the U.S. state of Arizona. The tainted produce has sickened at least 84 people in 19 states. The new method, used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, relies on genetic sequencing. And as Faiza Elmasry tells us, it has the potential to revolutionize the detection of food poisoning outbreaks. VOA’s Faith Lapidus narrates. …

The Arts and Crafts movement began in Britain and flourished in Europe at the turn of the 19th century. It stood for traditional crafts and against mass-produced goods that were popular in the United States at the time. But Americans too joined the movement and established the Roycroft Campus, which continues to represent and support true American arts and crafts. Olga Loginova of VOA’s Russian Service visited the campus in New York state. …

Filmfest DC is celebrating its 32nd year in the nation’s capital, by showcasing 80 films from 45 different countries to a politically savvy international audience. But the festival provides more than just entertainment. Over the years, the festival has become a cultural and economic force for a city known around the world for its bipartisan politics. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more. …

A historic summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in ended with a joint commitment toward denuclearization and peace in the Korean Peninsula. While the inter-Korean talks set the stage for the upcoming summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, experts tell VOA’s Korean service the United States would be wise to proceed with caution. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni reports. …

Stepped up police enforcement is planned this weekend in Detroit to quell a social media-publicized citywide paintball war that — so far — has resulted in six arrests and left an unmarked patrol car splattered. Chief James Craig referred Friday to the running battle along city streets as “Paint Up, Guns Down,” and said organizers are pitching it as an alternative to gun and other violence. “If you want to work with us and stop the violence, there are a number of things we can do together, but having paintball wars across the city is not the way to do it,” said Craig said during a news conference. On Wednesday night, Davon Williams, 22, was arrested when nearly a dozen paintballs struck Capt. Darrell Patterson’s vehicle. The paintballs rained on the unmarked car after Patterson turned on its emergency lights when he saw about 50 people with paintball guns shooting …

Investigators hunting down the so-called Golden State Killer used information from genetic websites last year that led to the wrong man, court records obtained Friday by The Associated Press showed. An Oregon police officer working at the request of California investigators persuaded a judge to order a 73-year-old man in a nursing home to provide a DNA sample. It’s not clear if officers collected the sample and ran further tests, but it was not the man arrested this week outside Sacramento in one of the state’s most notorious string of serial rapes and killings. The Oregon City man was unable to answer questions Friday about the case. The case of mistaken identity was discovered as authorities hailed a novel use of DNA technology that led this week to the arrest of former police officer Joseph DeAngelo at his house outside Sacramento on murder charges. Critics of the investigative approach, however, …