The Trump administration has cut funding to the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, calling the organization “irredeemably flawed.” The U.S. State Department ended decades of support to the organization Friday, saying “the administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency).” Chris Gunness, a UNRWA spokesman, said his organization rejects “in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA’s schools, health centers, and emergency assistance programs are ‘irredeemably flawed.’” He said the World Bank has described UNRWA’s activities as “global public good” and “recognized us for running one of the most effective school systems in the region, in which students regularly outperform their peers in public schools.” “We are extremely grateful for the widespread solidarity,” Gunness said, “that our unprecedented situation has generated and the generosity of many donors that has allowed us …

U.S. President Donald Trump notified Congress on Friday of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico after talks with Canada broke up earlier in the day with no immediate deal to revamp the tri-nation North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said U.S. officials would resume talks with their Canadian counterparts next Wednesday with the aim of getting a deal all three nations could sign. All three countries have stressed the importance of NAFTA, which governs billions of dollars in regional trade, and a bilateral deal announced by the United States and Mexico on Monday paved the way for Canada to rejoin the talks this week. But by Friday the mood had soured, partly on Trump’s off-the-record remarks made to Bloomberg News that any trade deal with Canada would be “totally on our terms.” He later confirmed the comments, which the Toronto Star first reported. “At least Canada knows where I stand,” he later said on Twitter. Ottawa has …

Before hunkering down in lectures about chemistry or economics, international students at U.S. colleges and universities are learning about health insurance and visa specifications. It’s international student orientation week at many colleges and universities, including Rice University, where many graduate students are just days into their new journeys in Houston, Texas. “Everyone is a little bit confused, a little disoriented. Lots of people are jetlagged,” Arina Zaytseva, a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies from Russia, told VOA at an afternoon pizza party in the engineering building, following a long morning of information sessions in lecture halls. Zaytseva was not particularly impressed with the pizza. Health insurance and bike laws “But there were many important helpful tips, so I’m glad I came here,” she added, noting that she found the orientation sessions on health insurance the most useful. Health insurance, which international students are required to have while in the U.S., …

Thousands of mourners have come to pay their respects to music legend Aretha Franklin, who will be laid to rest Friday in Detroit, Michigan. A star-studded roster of performers and speakers are scheduled to attend. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more. …

Notably absent from the final tribute ceremonies for U.S. Senator John McCain, who died last Saturday, is President Donald Trump. McCain and Trump disagreed on a number of issues, including U.S. relations with Russia. Some analysts view the feud as emblematic of the clash of values within the Republican Party. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …

Floating Chinese nuclear power plants stationed in the South China Sea would help Beijing fortify its claims in a decades-old maritime sovereignty dispute, but come with environmental risks, scholars say. China plans to power some of its claimed islets with nuclear energy, the U.S. Department of Defense recently told Congress in an annual report on Chinese military activities. Beijing had indicated last year it was planning to install “floating nuclear power stations” that would start operating before 2020, the report says. That development would bulk up China’s maritime claim after about a decade of land reclamation in parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea and the sending of military units to some of the artificial islands, analysts say. Rival maritime claimants Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam lack similar means to electrify their holdings. “You are literally facilitating increase of physical control of the South China Sea,” said Collin Koh, …

U.S. President Donald Trump, at political rally in the Midwestern state of Indiana, again directed his ire at the country’s top national law enforcement officials. “Our Justice Department and our FBI have to start doing their job, doing it right and doing it well,” Trump said Thursday evening. “People are angry.” “What’s happening is a disgrace,” declared the president. “I wanted to stay out, but at some point if it doesn’t straighten out properly … I will get involved and I’ll get in there if I have to,” Trump added. Sessions’ job Earlier in the day at the White House, the president referred to the special counsel’s probe into whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russians as an “illegal investigation.” Speaking to the Bloomberg news agency, Trump said the job of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has recused himself from oversight of the investigation, is safe until, at least, the …

Growth in China’s manufacturing sector unexpectedly picked up in August after sliding for two months, official data showed Friday, a sign that economic activity is still fairly resilient despite weak investment and an escalating trade battle with the United States. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) Friday rose to 51.3 in August from 51.2 in July, and remained above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction for the 25th straight month. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast the reading would dip to 51.0, which would have been the lowest reading in six months. Weighed down by rising financing costs and slowing investment, China’s economy was starting to cool even before the trade dispute with Washington escalated. Beijing is speeding up infrastructure spending and offering help to smaller companies to prevent a sharper slowdown, though policymakers are wary of adding to a mountain of debt that was fuelled by past …

A former chauffeur for President Donald Trump on Thursday dropped his lawsuit alleging he was not paid for thousands of hours of work. Noel Cintron’s attorney, Larry Hutcher, said the case has been submitted to arbitration for resolution. The Trump Organization had requested just such a result in papers filed in Manhattan federal court earlier this month. Cintron sued the Trump Organization in July, but not Trump. Still, he accused him of “callousness” and greed.  The Trump Organization said then that Cintron was always “paid generously and in accordance with the law.” A lawyer for the business did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. The lawsuit said Cintron was Trump’s driver for 20 years until the Secret Service took over in 2016. His lawyer said after the lawsuit was filed that Cintron waited to sue because he wasn’t aware of all his legal rights and because …

Russia said Thursday that it was holding up release of a report by U.N. experts who said North Korea is violating U.N. sanctions by not stopping its nuclear and missile programs and by engineering “a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products.” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters after a closed Security Council meeting on the report that he was blocking its release “because we disagree on certain elements of the report.” He said Russia also asked for an investigation into regular leaks of reports on North Korea to the media. The Associated Press and other news organizations reported the panel’s latest findings in early August. Nebenzia didn’t disclose Russia’s concerns, but diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations were private, said a key objection was the panel’s mention of Russian ships being involved in illegal ship-to-ship transfers. Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Karen Pierce, the current Security …

A Los Angeles man upset about The Boston Globe’s coordinated editorial response to President Donald Trump’s attacks on the news media was arrested Thursday on charges he threatened to kill the newspaper’s journalists, who he called an “enemy of the people,” federal prosecutors said. Robert Chain’s threatening phone calls to the Globe’s newsroom started immediately after the Globe appealed to newspapers across the country to condemn what it called a “dirty war against the free press,” prosecutors said. He is charged with making 14 calls in all, between Aug. 10 and Aug. 22. On Aug. 16, the day scores of editorials were published , Chain, 68, of the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, told a Globe staffer that he was going to shoot employees in the head at 4 o’clock, according to court documents. That threat prompted a police response and increased security at the newspaper’s offices. ​‘Enemy of the …

Top NAFTA negotiators from Canada and the United States increased the pace of their negotiations Thursday to resolve final differences to meet a Friday deadline, with their Mexican counterpart on standby to rejoin the talks soon. Despite some contentious issues still on the table, the increasingly positive tone contrasted with U.S. President Donald Trump’s harsh criticism of Canada in recent weeks, raising hopes that the year-long talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement will conclude soon with a trilateral deal. “Canada’s going to make a deal at some point. It may be by Friday or it may be within a period of time,” U.S. President Donald Trump told Bloomberg Television. “I think we’re close to a deal.” Trilateral talks were already underway at the technical level and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo was expected to soon rejoin talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia …

The Justice Department on Thursday sided with Asian-American students suing Harvard University over the Ivy League school’s consideration of race in its admissions policy, the latest step in the Trump administration’s effort to encourage race-neutral admissions practices. The Justice Department said in a court filing Thursday that the school has failed to demonstrate that it does not discriminate on the basis of race and cited what it described as “substantial evidence that Harvard is engaging in outright racial balancing.” The department’s “statement of interest” was in a case filed in 2014 by Students For Fair Admission, which argues that one of the world’s most prestigious universities discriminates against academically strong Asian-American applicants. Harvard fired back, saying that it does not discriminate and will fight to defend its right to use race as a factor in admissions. The Supreme Court permits colleges and universities to consider race in admissions decisions, but …

In Minnesota, Hmong farmers have banded together to make a better living. Originally from China, the Hmong are an Asian ethnic group that migrated to Vietnam and Laos in the 18th century. But they have never had a country of their own. After the Vietnam War ended, many resettled in the U.S. and now, decades later, Hmong farmers are at the center of a local foods economy in Minnesota. VOA’s June Soh has more in this report narrated by Carol Pearson. …

The U.S. on Thursday extended the ban on Americans’ travel to North Korea for another year, saying it was too dangerous to go there. “The safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas is one of our highest priorities,” a State Department official said. “The travel warning for North Korea remains in place — the Department of State strongly warns U.S. citizens not to travel to North Korea.” The travel ban extension, in force until August 31 next year, comes as Washington’s efforts to negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula with Pyongyang have stalled. When President Donald Trump left the June summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the U.S. leader declared that North Korea was “no longer a nuclear threat,” believing that Kim had agreed to end the North’s nuclear weapons program. In recent days, however, Trump, irked by the slow pace of subsequent nuclear talks …

Hmong farmers in St. Paul, Minnesota have the best advocate for their business enterprises: themselves, working together. Originally from China, the Hmong are an Asian ethnic group that migrated to Vietnam and Laos in the 18th century. They have never had a country of their own. After the Vietnam War ended, many resettled in the U.S., giving the U.S. the largest Hmong population outside of Asia. The population in Minnesota is more than 60,000, second behind the state of California. The Hmong, who are long time farmers, did what they knew best when they got to Minnesota. And by the late 1980’s they spearheaded the revitalization of local farmers’ markets, making them some of the most vibrant in the city. But the Hmong also discovered that as immigrant farmers, they faced barriers in buying land, obtaining financing, accessing markets and building sustainable family businesses. They were struggling. To combat all …