A federal district court judge in Washington has ruled that a group of nearly 200 members of Congress has legal standing to proceed with its lawsuit against President Donald Trump. The lawmakers are accusing Trump of violating the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal officials cannot earn profits or receive gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan made the ruling Friday. Trump has businesses around the world, including a hotel in Washington where foreign dignitaries often stay on official visits to the White House. The president maintains ownership of his businesses, but has ceded day-to-day control to his sons. Critics say that is not a sufficient safeguard. Elizabeth Wydra, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a Washington-based liberal legal organization representing the lawmakers, said “By recognizing that members of Congress have standing to sue, the court proved to all in America …

U.S. prosecutors on Friday said they would seek the death penalty for Sayfullo Saipov, the man accused of killing eight people by driving a truck into a New York City bike path last October. Saipov, a 30-year-old Uzbek national, was arrested immediately after police said he plowed a truck down a bike lane in lower Manhattan. The militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest assault on New York City since Sept. 11, 2001. In a filing in Manhattan federal court, the prosecutors said Saipov’s killing of multiple people, the “heinous, cruel and depraved manner” in which he carried out the attack and his professed support of Islamic State were all factors weighing in favor of a death sentence. While New York state law does not have a death penalty, Saipov has been charged under federal law. Saipov’s attorneys had previously offered a plea deal …

A federal judge Friday cleared the way for a lawsuit to go to trial. It accuses Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants, a closely watched case that could influence the use of race in college admissions decisions. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston rejected dueling motions by Harvard and a nonprofit group suing the Ivy League university to rule in their favor ahead of a nonjury trial set to begin Oct. 15. The ruling came after the U.S. Justice Department, which has been investigating Harvard for potential civil rights violations over its affirmative action policy, threw its support behind the 2014 lawsuit by Students for Fair Admissions Inc. Burroughs said that rather than presenting her with undisputed facts and evidence that would allow her to rule without overseeing a trial, Harvard and SFFA had filed motions that were “essentially mirror images of one another.” “There are disputed material …

The United States announced Friday that it would effectively close its consulate in the Iraqi city of Basra and relocate diplomatic personnel assigned there following increasing threats from Iran and Iran-backed militia, including rocket fire. The decision added to mounting tension between the United States and Iran, which is the target of increasing U.S. economic sanctions. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as he explained the move, renewed a warning that the United States would hold Iran directly responsible for any attacks on Americans and U.S. diplomatic facilities. It followed recent rocket attacks that Pompeo said were directed at the consulate in Basra. U.S. officials said the rockets, however, had not impacted the consulate, which is located on the Basra airport compound. “I have made clear that Iran should understand that the United States will respond promptly and appropriately to any such attacks,” Pompeo said in a statement. Pompeo did not explicitly say whether a U.S. response was imminent, however, and other U.S. officials did not …

Journalists are being jailed in unprecedented numbers across the globe, with 262 detained for their work at the end of 2017, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. “The jailing of journalists is a brutal form of censorship that is having a profound impact on the flow of information around the world,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon told a press freedom event Friday at the United Nations. At the end of 2017, the worst offenders were Turkey, with 73 journalists jailed; China with 41; and Egypt with 20. CPJ says that slightly more than half of all imprisoned journalists were jailed for reporting on human rights violations. Simon said the United Nations has not been a strong enough voice on the issue because it has a culture of rarely naming and shaming its member states. The event, organized on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly annual meeting, highlighted the …

A proposed regional security alliance bringing together the United States, Gulf allies, Egypt and Jordan, is at risk if a Gulf dispute is not resolved, Qatar’s foreign minister said Friday. Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut off travel and trade ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of backing their archrival, Iran, and supporting terrorism. Qatar denies the charges and says the boycott impinges on its sovereignty. The United States has tried, without success, to mediate in the dispute. It is an ally of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, and Qatar is home to a major U.S. air base. The Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA) is meant to serve as a bulwark against Iran and extremism, Washington says. But it is unclear how it can get off the ground given the dispute. “Regarding the alliance and the creation of the alliance, by ignoring the GCC rift, we …

The United States will pursue “a strategy of isolation,” including sanctions, with its allies if President Bashar al-Assad holds up a political process aimed at ending Syria’s seven-year war, a top U.S. diplomat for Syria told Reuters on Friday. Jim Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative for Syria, said Washington would work with countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to impose tough international sanctions if Assad’s government failed to cooperate on rewriting the Syrian constitution as a prelude to elections. “If the regime does that, we believe that then we can go after it the way we went after Iran before 2015 — with really tough international sanctions,” Jeffrey said, referring to secondary sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear program. He added: “Even if the U.N. Security Council won’t pass them we will just do it through the European Union, we will do it through our Asian allies, and …

The House intelligence committee voted Friday to release transcripts of more than 50 interviews it conducted as part of its now-closed investigation into Russian election interference during the 2016 presidential campaign. Among those to be released are interviews with President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, his longtime spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, and his former bodyguard Keith Schiller. The committee also will release dozens of other transcripts of interviews with former Obama administration officials and numerous Trump associates, including Roger Stone, currently the subject of a grand jury investigation. The move to release the materials by the committee chairman, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California, a close Trump ally, will provide the public with 53 transcripts spanning thousands of pages of raw testimony as special counsel Robert Mueller continues his Russia investigation. But not all interviews conducted by the committee are being released, and there wasn’t …

President Donald Trump met Friday with President Sebastian Pinera of Chile at the White House for talks that focused on trade, security and the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Trump welcomed Pinera to the Oval Office days after he imposed financial sanctions on members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s inner circle and suggested Maduro could be ousted in a military coup as a way to restore the country’s democracy. Tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants are in Chile. “Venezuela is a mess and it’s got to be cleaned up and people have to be taken care of,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter. It was Pinera’s first visit to the White House since he returned to Chile’s presidency last spring. Chile has been watching Trump’s trade fight with China, which is Chile’s largest trading partner. Chile is the world’s largest exporter of copper and its central bank …

The Palestinian Authority filed a case Friday with the United Nations’ highest court asking its judges to order Washington to remove the recently relocated U.S. embassy from Jerusalem. The move announced by the Hague-based International Court of Justice comes against a backdrop of deeply strained ties between Washington and the Palestinians, in part because of the Trump administration’s decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. The Palestinian Authority broke off contact with the U.S. after the Jerusalem announcement. The court said that the Palestinians’ case asks its judges “to order the United States of America to withdraw the diplomatic mission from the Holy City of Jerusalem.” Cases at the court can take years to complete. Its decisions are final and legally binding, but are not always adhered to. No date was immediately set for hearings. Trump …

An aviation bill Congress is rushing to approve contains a little-noticed section that would give authorities the power to track, intercept and destroy drones they consider a security threat, without needing a judge’s approval. Supporters say law enforcement needs this power to protect Americans from terrorists who are learning how to use drones as deadly weapons. They point to the Islamic State terrorist group’s use of bomb-carrying drones on battlefields in Iraq, and warn that terrorists could go after civilian targets in the United States. Critics say the provision would give the government unchecked power to decide when drones are a threat. They say the government could use its newfound power to restrict drone-camera news coverage of protests or controversial government facilities, such as the new detention centers for young migrants. The provision is tucked in a huge bill that provides $1.7 billion in disaster relief and authorizes programs of …

The fact that Pope Francis has not responded to accusations of having covered up for former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is evidence the pope is guilty, according to a letter written by former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. Vigano renewed his charge that Francis knew five years ago that McCarrick had sexually harassed young men and did nothing. The letter, written in English and dated Sept. 29, was published Thursday night on American Conservative as soon as it was received by U.S. blogger Rod Dreher. The content of the letter echoes Vigano’s first letter, published a month ago, in which he accused three popes and other leading members of the Vatican hierarchy of covering up the serious sexual sins of McCarrick. Vigano called on Pope Francis to set the right example and resign. In the new letter, Vigano explains why he revealed facts that were covered by the …

Women demonstrated on Capitol Hill Thursday while the Senate Judiciary Committee listened to testimonies by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who accused him of a sexual assault 36 years ago. Many women came out in support of professor Christine Blasey Ford. But Kavanaugh has supporters among women, as well. The case reminds many of one in 1991, when attorney Anita Hill accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

As global leaders digest the fallout from a stormy United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, China has strongly denied accusations from U.S. President Donald Trump that Beijing is trying to interfere in the U.S. midterm elections in November. Meanwhile, the diplomatic tussle has intensified between the United States and other signatories over the future of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as the U.S. prepares to hit Tehran with fresh sanctions. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court went before a Senate committee Thursday, with dramatic testimony over almost nine hours from Kavanaugh and from a woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were high school students in Maryland in 1982. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which heard from Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, was expected to vote Friday on his nomination. If approved by the committee, the nomination would then go before the full Senate, where confirmation could hinge on a handful of key senators. ​Republicans Jeff Flake. A frequent Trump critic who will retire from the Senate in January, Flake was complimentary toward Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing earlier this month. On Thursday, Flake, who is a Judiciary Committee member and sat through the hearing, said he was still processing his position on the nominee.​ Susan Collins. A moderate …

President Donald Trump’s dual policy of exerting pressure while engaging in dialogues to denuclearize North Korea faces challenges, as momentum builds toward a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. At the U.N. General Assembly, Trump praised Kim while saying sanctions imposed on North Korea would remain in place. “I would like to thank Chairman Kim for his courage and for the steps he has taken, though much work remains to be done,” Trump said. “The sanctions will stay in place until denuclearization occurs.” After last week’s third inter-Korean summit, Kim said he would dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear facility if the U.S. took “corresponding measures.” On Monday, at the first meeting of the U.N. gathering, Trump said a second summit with Kim would take place “quite soon.” To prepare, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to visit Pyongyang next month at Kim’s invitation, which was delivered Wednesday by North Korean …