President Donald Trump is suggesting he will defer until after 2020 his push for a Republican health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.   Trump tweeted late Monday that Congress will vote on a GOP plan after the elections, “when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House.”   Republicans were cool after Trump surprised them last week with an unexpected pivot to the issue and claims the GOP will be the party of health care. Republicans lost control of the House partly because of the health care issue, and they don’t yet have a comprehensive plan to replace the law known as “Obamacare.”   In tweets, Trump claimed Republicans are developing a plan with cheaper premiums and deductibles that “will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America.”   …

When Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey introduced their Green New Deal resolution, Markey said it would be “the greatest blue-collar job creation program in a generation.” President Donald Trump, on the other hand, said it would “put millions of Americans out of work.” Battle lines have been drawn with the first major U.S. proposal to tackle climate change in nearly a decade: Does stopping global warming mean wrecking the economy? Or is failing to act worse?  In the coming months, Voice of America will explore the prospects for salvaging the environment without killing off jobs. We will meet winners and losers in the energy transition. Our first stop will be in Markey’s home state of Massachusetts, where an energy transition is well underway. We will visit a town where one of the state’s last coal-fired power plants closed, shedding coal jobs but gaining a cutting-edge solar farm. We …

The World Trade Organization has cut its forecast for trade growth this year by more than a percentage point, to 2.6 percent, due to an economic slowdown and amid a trade conflict between the United States and China. The downgrade — from 3.7 percent forecast issued in September — reflects how quickly the prospects for global business are fading as, among other things, the U.S. and China struggle to agree on how to lift tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars-worth of trade.   “With trade tensions running high, no one should be surprised by this outlook,” WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said Tuesday.   Beyond the trade war, the WTO has cited weaker economic growth in North America, Europe and Asia — largely as the effect of fiscal stimulus by the Trump administration wears off. It noted a “phase-out” of monetary stimulus in Europe and China’s efforts to shift its economy away from …

How many ways can you measure the first quarter of the year? For Democratic presidential candidates, it’s 300-plus events, 24 states and hundreds of voter questions. The Iowa caucus is still 10 months away, but the Democratic primary campaign is already an all-out sprint — passing eye-popping markers for campaign activity and voter engagement. Voters in Florida and Ohio may not see it, but weekends in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — not to mention a handful of select states — are a blitz of candidate rallies and local meet-and-greets.   For some candidates the frenetic pace is the message, a way of casting themselves as tireless and willing to take every last question. Elizabeth Warren and Beto O’Rourke are trying to make an ambitious schedule and accessibility part of their brands, but Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand have done their parts to keep up with several dozen events each, most …

Cantonese opera is an art form best known for elaborate make up, costumes and tales of long-dead heroes. But for four days this April, a Hong Kong theatre will take on a larger than life character from the modern day: U.S. President Donald Trump.  Hong Kong’s Sunbeam Theatre will stage a performance of Trump On Show, a three and a half hour comedic reimagining of the U.S. president’s life and that of his fictional twin brother who lives in China. The opera was written, directed and produced by Edward Li Kui-ming, a Feng shui master and film producer turned prolific playwright.  The upcoming production is a follow-up to Li’s successful and controversial Chairman Mao opera staged in 2016, which recounted three fictional romances of China’s most famous leader, Mao Zedong.  “After the success of Chairman Mao, it seems to me in recent years everybody in the whole world are indulged …

A U.S. House of Representatives committee is set to consider Tuesday whether to issue subpoenas to Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross seeking documents related to the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the country’s 2020 census. Ross said last year he made the decision based on a request from the Justice Department to better enforce the Voting Rights Act. But states and rights groups have challenged the move, arguing it would discourage immigrants from participating, and thus result in undercounting how many people live in certain parts of the country. The census is meant to include every person in the United States at the time, no matter their citizenship or immigration status. An accurate count is important, with the results used for a number of purposes such as determining how many congressional representatives are apportioned to each state, how hundreds of billions of …

NATO foreign ministers are gathering in Washington, D.C. this week to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. President Donald Trump has been critical of the alliance, blasting other members for under-investing on defense and relying too heavily on the United States. Observers will be watching closely to see how the alliance is weathering internal storms on this anniversary. Trump, who hosts NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for talks at the White House on Tuesday, made his views on NATO clear during the 2016 presidential campaign, shocking many on both sides of the Atlantic by calling the alliance “obsolete.” He cited what he said was a missing focus on terrorism, while repeatedly claiming the United States was shouldering too much of the cost. Most U.S. foreign policy experts say NATO is one of the most successful military alliances in history and is far from obsolete. “It has …

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he was willing to wait until after the 2020 presidential election to get Congress to vote on a new healthcare plan, giving Republicans time to develop a proposal to replace Obamacare. Congressional Republicans have been unable thus far to draft a proposal to replace Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act despite frequent vows to do so in recent years. Trump’s vow last week that the Republican Party will be “the party of healthcare” caught his fellow Republicans off guard after the Justice Department backed a lawsuit intended to wipe out Obamacare, which has helped millions of Americans get health insurance. In a series of tweets on Monday night, Trump said Republicans are developing “a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than Obamacare.” “In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than …

Washington welcomed China’s move on Monday to expand the range of all fentanyl-related substances it defines as controlled narcotics, after criticism from President Donald Trump for allowing the synthetic opioid to be shipped to the United States. The United States is battling an epidemic of opioid-related deaths, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said he hopes to include China’s commitments to curb the drug in any agreement to end the two countries’ bitter trade war. “This significant development will eliminate Chinese drug traffickers’ ability to alter fentanyl compounds to get around the law,” the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said in a statement. “We look forward to our continued collaboration with China to reduce the amount of this deadly poison coming into our country,” the DEA statement said. Earlier on Monday, China had announced the expanded control of fentanyl-related substances at a press conference, even as it blamed U.S. culture …

NATO foreign ministers are gathering in Washington, D.C. this week to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. President Donald Trump has been critical of the alliance, blasting other members for under-investing on defense and relying too heaving on the United States. Observers will be watching closely to see how the alliance is weathering internal storms on this anniversary. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department. …

A U.S. appeals court on Monday refused to halt President Donald Trump’s ban on “bump stocks” – rapid-fire gun attachments used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history – in the latest courtroom defeat for firearms rights advocates opposing the policy. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that denied a request by opponents of the policy for a preliminary injunction lifting the ban, which took effect last week. The U.S. Supreme Court twice last week, in cases from Michigan and Washington, D.C., rejected stay requests from gun rights advocates. The policy was embraced by Trump in the wake of an October 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas. It requires owners to turn in or destroy the attachments. People caught in possession of them could face up to 10 years …

A wall of rocks and sandbags on Monday protected scenic Clarksville, Missouri, from the surging Mississippi River as spring flooding swamped fields, threatened homes and temporarily shut down a bridge connecting Missouri and Illinois. Heavy rain over much of the Midwest on Saturday caused another spike in water levels along the river and its tributaries, especially in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. So far, Mississippi River flood damage is far less severe than March flooding along the Missouri River in Nebraska, southwest Iowa and northwest Missouri, where hundreds of homes were damaged. Still, several Mississippi River communities were battling to stay dry. Clarksville, a 440-resident community 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of St. Louis is known for its antique shops and artist galleries operating out of 19th century brick storefronts. The town sits square along the Mississippi, unprotected by a levee, and has been through many floods. As they’ve done so …

The U.S. Department of Defense has authorized up to $15 million in aid to areas of Mozambique devastated by Cyclone Idai, the U.S. Africa Command said Monday. USAID, the lead agency in charge of American aid to the crisis, had spent $6.2 million in relief as of March 31, officials told reporters Monday, adding that the current goal was to address the “immediate needs” of thousands of victims. Brig. Gen. Robert Huston, U.S. Africa Command deputy director of operations, emphasized that combined U.S. dollar amount is a small portion of aid coming to Mozambique from international agencies, non-profits, and governments of other countries. Huston specified Monday that the U.S. Defense Department provided fuel and transport of aid to a hub in Mozambique, from where international agencies including the World Food Program will distribute it across affected areas. Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi two weeks ago. Over 700 people …