You may have heard the term “think tank,” which usually refers to a policy or research institute where scholars provide insight and advice on political, social or economic issues. Such institutions have been criticized in the past for their outsized influence on U.S. policy formulation. But there’s new research showing that, compared to previous administrations, the Trump White House is far less dependent on so-called think tanks. VOA Nadeem Yaqub reports. …

Thousands of fans gathered in Washington for the city’s comic convention, called Awesome Con. During the three-day event, they meet their favorite artists and actors, have their comic books autographed, and do a little shopping. Many also dress up in costume. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more. …

The Mormon church made history and injected a bit of diversity into a previously all-white top leadership panel Saturday by selecting the first Latin-American apostle and the first apostle of Asian ancestry. The selections of Ulisses Soares of Brazil and Gerrit W. Gong, a Chinese-American, were announced during a twice-annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The choices triggered excitement among a contingent of Mormons who for years have been hoping for the faith’s top leadership to be more representative of a religion that has more than half of the its 16 million members outside the United States. “It’s a sign that the church is for everyone,” said Guilherme De Castro, a 37-year-old Mormon from Brazil who was in attendance for the announcement. “It doesn’t matter where you are from or the way you look.” The selections come during a two-day conference …

Kentucky’s Republican governor has won an initial round in his court fight over whether he violated free-speech rights by blocking people from his Facebook and Twitter accounts. U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove denied plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent Gov. Matt Bevin from blocking anyone from his social media accounts. The case is part of an emerging national debate about whether elected officials infringe on First Amendment rights in doing so. Bevin is a frequent user of Twitter and Facebook. Culling his accounts In his ruling Friday, Van Tatenhove said the governor was not suppressing speech but “merely culling his Facebook and Twitter accounts to present a public image that he desires.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky sued Bevin on behalf of two Kentucky residents who were blocked by Bevin on social media. The ACLU says more than 600 people have been blocked from seeing …

Atlanta’s top officials holed up in their offices on Saturday as they worked to restore critical systems knocked out by a nine-day-old cyberattack that plunged the Southeastern U.S. metropolis into technological chaos and forced some city workers to revert to paper. On an Easter and Passover holiday weekend, city officials labored in preparation for the workweek to come. Police and other public servants have spent the past week trying to piece together their digital work lives, re-creating audit spreadsheets and conducting business on mobile phones in response to one of the most devastating “ransomware” virus attacks to hit an American city. Three city council staffers have been sharing a single clunky personal laptop brought in after cyber extortionists attacked Atlanta’s computer network with a virus that scrambled data and still prevents access to critical systems. “It’s extraordinarily frustrating,” said Councilman Howard Shook, whose office lost 16 years of digital records. One compromised city computer seen by Reuters showed multiple corrupted documents with “weapologize” …

South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual joint military exercises Sunday after they were delayed about a month for the Winter Olympics and to help create conditions for a resumption of talks between North and South Korea. The Foal Eagle field exercise, which usually involves combined ground, air, naval and special operations troops, will continue for a month. The computer-simulated Key Resolve is scheduled for two weeks starting in mid-April. A Pentagon spokesman said in March the two joint drills would involve about 23,700 U.S. troops and 300,000 South Korean forces. Military officials in Seoul have said the scale of the exercises would not go beyond those seen in previous years. The Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises are usually held every year around March, but they were postponed this year until after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and Paralympics, which started in February and ended last month. …

Students at a predominantly black university in Washington, D.C., continued their sit-in at the school’s administration building Saturday. The sit-in at Howard University began after news that six university employees had been fired for “gross misconduct and neglect of duties.” Students learned an investigation found financial aid funds for students in need had been misappropriated, and that the university had received results from the report in 2017. Howard University President Wayne Frederick confirmed the mishandling of funds Wednesday in a statement: “The investigation found that from 2007 to 2016, university grants were given to some university employees who also received tuition remission. The audit revealed that the combination of university grants and tuition remission exceeded the total cost of attendance. As a result, some individuals received inappropriate refunds.” “While this has been a very difficult and disappointing situation, I know our campus community deserves better and I am committed to …