Canada struck back at U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs on Friday, vowing to impose punitive measures on C$16.6 billion ($12.63 billion) of American goods and unveiling a C$2 billion aid package for affected industries and workers. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told a news conference the tariffs would come into effect on July 1. …
U.S consumers increased their spending just 0.2 percent in May, a disappointing result after two months of much stronger gains. The weaker reading could raise questions about the extent of economic growth overall in the current April-June quarter. The Commerce Department says the tiny rise in spending last month followed much stronger increases of 0.6 percent in March and 0.5 percent in April. It was the poorest showing since spending had fallen 0.1 percent in February. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, and economists are counting on solid gains to propel economic growth after a slow start to the year. In a more hopeful sign, incomes grew a solid 0.4 percent in May, supported by strong growth in wages and salaries. …
European leaders have agreed to extend their sanctions against Russia for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. The EU leaders said in statement Friday the sanctions have been extended for six months. The decision was made at the leaders’ summit in Brussels after they had a “very short discussion” on Ukraine, an anonymous source told AFP, the French news agency. The United States, meanwhile, is also holding to sanctions against Russia for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. The U.S. intelligence community also concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Trump win the White House and special counsel Robert Mueller has already indicted Russian individuals and entities in a scheme to influence the vote. Meanwhile, as the date and venue for President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin were announced, the U.S. leader continued to dismiss allegations that Moscow interfered with …
U.S. police are combing through the life of a gunman who possibly had a vendetta against an Annapolis, Maryland, newspaper when he opened fire killing five people and injuring two others at the office of the paper. Michael Brown reports for VOA. …
The United States on Thursday declared Myanmar as among the world’s worst offenders in human trafficking, placing it alongside Iran, North Korea and Syria — countries the U.S. has long disparaged. The U.S. State Department’s 2018 “Trafficking in Persons Report” downgraded Myanmar (also known as Burma) to the report’s lowest classification amid global criticism over human rights abuses by that country’s military against the minority Rohingya Muslims. “Burma’s armed forces and others in the Rakhine State dislocated hundreds of thousands of Rohingya and members of other ethnic groups, many of whom were exploited through the region as a result,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Thursday. “Some in the Burmese military also recruited child soldiers and subjected adults and children from ethnic minority groups to forced labor,” he added. Annual report The annual report evaluates 187 countries and assigns each one of four categories based on the country’s efforts to …
The U.S. State Department says Myanmar has joined the ranks of China, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and others as the worst offenders in the world for human trafficking and forced labor. But the State Department also recognized 10 heroes who have dedicated their lives to ending the scourge of modern slavery. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine has more from Washington. …
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met with his Japanese counterpart Friday in Tokyo to ease Japan’s concerns about America’s commitment to the region amid the ongoing denuclearization negotiations with North Korea. “We’re in the midst of very unprecedented negotiations right now with North Korea, but in this dynamic time, the longstanding alliance between Japan and the U.S. stands firm,” Mattis said Friday, while standing next to Japan’s defense minister Itsunori Onodera. “There is absolute reassurance between the two of us that we stand firm.” Onodera, meanwhile, said Friday the United States has agreed to continue joint military exercises with Japan. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the suspension of joint exercises after he held a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, calling the exercises “ expensive” and “provocative.” North Korea had long called for the drills to stop, indicating fears they were aimed at planning an …
After a sharp sell-off, China’s yuan and stock markets attempted a modest recovery Friday, yet investors were grappling with some of their worst losses in years as a bitter Sino-U.S. trade row threatened to ruffle the world’s second-biggest economy. The yuan was set for its biggest monthly fall on record. Chinese stocks, on a downward spiral since late January, were also poised for their largest monthly slide since January 2016. The downturn highlighted the anxiety among investors as Washington and Beijing showed no signs of backing down from their tariff dispute. The worry is that an extended selloff in stocks and the yuan could spark a bout of capital outflows, putting further strain on the economy and complicating policy making as authorities put up defenses against the trade battle with the United States. Down 3 percent in month The yuan has shed more than 3 percent of its value against …
The suicide rate in the U.S. is rising. A new government report shows nearly 45,000 Americans killed themselves in 2016, more than twice the number of homicides. In fact, the suicide rate, particularly among young people ages 15 to 34, has been rising at an alarming rate for almost three decades, well before the recent high profile suicides of designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. Reporter Daria Dieguts takes a look at a trend that has many health professionals worried. …
Seventy years ago this month, a major record company, Columbia Records, introduced the first LP, or long-playing record. The new format revolutionized music sound recording and was quickly adopted as the new standard by the recording industry. To celebrate the milestone anniversary, Sony has pressed a very limited quantity of that original LP — 500 records — to give away to their customers. The anniversary comes at a time when vinyl has been enjoying a revival. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. …
Sharks are the stars of a splashy new exhibit at the New York Aquarium. The new exhibit is a major step in the beachfront facility’s recovery from the devastating impact of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. Faith Lapidus reports. …
U.S. and Russian leaders have agreed to meet July 16 to discuss long-standing disagreements on global issues such as conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. elections and NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe. The summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin comes on the heels of the NATO summit in Brussels, but the two leaders have chosen neutral territory to meet. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more. …
A U.S. delegation traveled to Kenya on Thursday to attend the inaugural economic summit of the American Chamber of Commerce, Kenya. About 500 delegates, including Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Gilbert Kaplan, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for international trade, other high-ranking government officials from both nations and representatives from nearly 30 major U.S. corporations, gathered at the summit, which was aimed at creating partnerships between the two nations’ public and private sectors in order to foster economic growth. The Kenyan agenda was centered on advancing Kenyatta’s “Big Four” priorities — universal health care, manufacturing, food security and affordable housing — that he set out after his re-election to a second term last year. American companies in attendance were looking for opportunities to expand and to increase trade and investment in Africa. Kaplan told VOA that increasing business and economic development in Africa would benefit many Americans, which aligns with the promises of …
Hailing “great economic success” during the first 18 months of his administration, U.S. President Donald Trump is calling for more companies to be like Taiwan’s electronics component manufacturer Foxconn and invest in the United States. At a groundbreaking event for the foreign company’s latest and largest investment in the upper Midwestern state of Wisconsin, Trump described the planned $10 billion manufacturing facility “as the eighth wonder of the world.” That may be a generous exaggeration, but the plant is one of the largest foreign direct investment projects ever in the United States. “We are demanding from foreign countries, friend and foe, fair and reciprocal trade,” Trump said, as he defended his confrontational trade policies and hailed further direct investment in the United States by manufacturers from other countries. Trump hailed Foxconn’s decision to increase its investment in Wisconsin, while criticizing a plan by an iconic American company in the same …
A self-styled prophet who led a doomsday cult and secretly married young girls because of his beliefs in polygamy and has already been sentenced to 26 years in prison has been given a 15-year term following another guilty plea. Samuel Shaffer, 35, was sentenced Wednesday in Manti, Utah, after pleading guilty to one felony count of child sodomy, the Deseret News reported . Other charges including bigamy, lewdness involving a child and an additional sodomy count were dropped in exchange for the guilty plea. He had previously pleaded guilty to separate child rape and abuse charges in another Utah court, and was sentenced last month to at least 26 years in prison. The new sentence will be served concurrently and won’t extend his prison term but will be reviewed when determining his parole, prosecutors said. Prosecutors say Shaffer led a group called the Knights of the Crystal Blade based on …
Importers of Iranian oil are facing pressure from the United States to find another energy source or be hit with sanctions. The Trump administration is threatening other countries, including close allies such as South Korea, with the sanctions if they don’t cut off Iranian imports by early November, essentially erecting a global blockade around the world’s sixth-biggest petroleum producer. South Korea accounted for 14 percent of Iran’s oil exports last year, according to the U.S. Energy Department. China is the largest importer of Iranian oil with 24 percent, followed by India with 18 percent. Turkey stood at 9 percent, and Italy at 7 percent. A State Department official told reporters this week that the “vast majority” of countries will comply with the U.S. request. A group from the State Department and the National Security Council is delivering the president’s message in Europe. The official added that the group had not …
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives supportive of President Donald Trump launched an all-out attack Thursday on two of his key law enforcement officials handling the continuing criminal investigation of Trump campaign links to Russia in 2016. In a House Judiciary Committee hearing, the lawmakers accused Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein of hiding thousands of pages of documents on the origins of the two-year investigation into Russian interference in the election that was aimed at helping Trump win the White House over Democrat Hillary Clinton. They also attacked Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray for what he acknowledged was the bias against Trump of a handful of FBI agents working on the investigation and an earlier probe of Clinton’s handling of classified material on a private email server while she was secretary of state. The hearing came as the Republican majority in the full House, ignoring the opposition …
President Donald Trump was highlighting his economic policies Thursday by taking part in the ceremonial ground-breaking for a $10 billion Foxconn factory complex that may bring thousands of jobs to a state he barely carried in the 2016 presidential election. But Trump’s celebration comes amid less-rosy economic news, with Harley-Davidson’s announcement it’s moving some motorcycle production overseas to avoid European Union tariffs that are a product of Trump’s escalating trade dispute with long-standing U.S. allies. The president was irked by the Milwaukee-based company’s announcement this week and tweeted about it for three straight days, writing that any shift in production “will be the beginning of the end” for the iconic American manufacturer and even threatening retaliatory taxes. Trump’s presence in Wisconsin was the subject of protests both in Milwaukee, where he spent a rare weeknight away from the White House, and in Mount Pleasant, where final preparations were under way …
Alec Baldwin is calling for citizens to support and for Congress to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the 2016 election. The actor, known for portraying President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” appears as himself in a video billed as an op-ed piece launched by Trump Crimes Watch. In the video, Baldwin points out guilty pleas stemming from the yearlong probe. The campaign is coordinated by groups including We Stand United, Public Citizen, The Loyal Opposition and Stand Up America. Trump and his legal team have repeatedly attacked Mueller’s investigation as overly broad. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has said the president might pardon those ensnared in the Russia investigation once Mueller is finished, if he believes they were treated “unfairly.” …
Battle lines have been drawn in the U.S. Senate over a looming Supreme Court nomination fight, with Democrats all but powerless to prevent Republicans from confirming President Donald Trump’s eventual pick ahead of midterm elections in November. Majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, on Thursday rejected any delay in the Senate’s consideration of a nominee who, if confirmed, could cement a sharply conservative Supreme Court majority for decades. At stake is the seat held by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is retiring next month after years of serving as a swing vote on the ideologically divided court. “The Senate will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall,” McConnell said. “The president’s nominee should be considered fairly and not subjected to personal attacks.” Democrats noted that Republicans forced nearly a yearlong delay in filling the seat of former Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in early 2016, a presidential election …
The International Labor Organization (ILO) says urgent action is needed to avert a global crisis as the number of people, including children and elderly, needing care rises, The warning is part of a new ILO report on care work and care jobs unveiled Thursday in Geneva. The ILO cautions that the global care crisis will become a reality in coming years without a doubling of investment. Authors of the report say $5.5 trillion was spent in 2015 on education, health and social work. They say that amount must be increased to $18.4 trillion by 2030 to prevent the care system from falling apart. The report finds the majority of care globally is done by unpaid caregivers, mostly women and girls, and that it is a major barrier preventing women from getting paid jobs. It says this reality not only hampers their economic opportunities, but stifles development prospects. Lead author …
President Donald Trump urged voters Wednesday to fire “liberal Democrat” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in November, claiming that she promised to be an independent mind but instead has voted in lockstep with her party leadership and against his agenda. Trump called instead for the election of Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, one of his staunchest allies in Congress. “When Heidi ran for office, she promised to be an independent vote for the people of North Dakota,” Trump said to an arena packed with thousands of cheering supporters in Fargo. “Instead, she went to Washington and immediately joined Chuck … and Nancy,” a reference to Democratic congressional leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. But Heitkamp, one of the most vulnerable incumbents seeking re-election this year, is considered a moderate and one of the least reliably partisan Democratic votes in the Senate. She’s largely backed the oil-rich state’s corporate interests on …
Their membership has been declining for decades. They’ve been bedeviled by crippling new laws, and by a devastating U.S. Supreme Court decision just this week. From all appearances, it would seem that labor unions are an endangered species. But here’s the surprise: Organized labor is showing new signs of life. Last year, labor netted 262,000 new recruits. The movement notched several high-profile wins this spring, organizing 5,000 teaching assistants and graduate students at Harvard and winning an election in a small unit at Boeing in South Carolina, the state with the lowest union density in the nation. It’s not just that unions are gaining members – they’re also getting more aggressive. The union representing Las Vegas workers voted to strike at Strip casinos and won concessions at some this month, while 250,000 Teamsters authorized a strike at UPS earlier this month before reaching a tentative deal late last week. And, …
Jared Kushner’s family company is suing a New Jersey city, alleging it forced the delay of a major twin-tower project due to “political animus” toward President Donald Trump. The federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Kushner Cos. claims Jersey City and the city’s redevelopment agency “put politics over principle” when they broke a contract with developers over the planned One Journal Square project, according to a report in the Jersey Journal. Trump is a Republican. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, a defendant in the suit, is a Democrat. The Kushner Cos. previously threatened a lawsuit in April after the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency said developers were in default because they missed a deadline to begin construction on the project. Fulop dismissed the lawsuit, saying it amounts to “hearsay nonsense.” He said “it’s not like the Kushners have a great deal of credibility in anything they say” and that “they will …
