The Vietnamese blogger known as Mẹ Nam, or Mother Mushroom, missed meeting Melania Trump when the first lady awarded the International Women of Courage Award to 13 women in Washington on Wednesday. Social activist Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh spent the day in a Khanh Hoa Province prison, where she has been held since she was detained on October 10 after posting about people dying in police custody. Mother Mushroom, who started blogging under that name in 2006, is a founding member of the Vietnamese Bloggers Network. It is one of the few independent blogging groups in a nation where the ruling Communist Party tightly controls the media and writers. She was charged under the Article 88 of the 1999 penal code for “spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” The government has not set a trial date, and Mother Mushroom faces a maximum prison term of 12 years. The …

The U.S. National Hockey League (NHL) has become the latest major sports league to attempt to tap into the lucrative Chinese market. The NHL announced it will hold two pre-season games in China, September 21 and 23 in Shanghai and Beijing, between the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks.   “This is an historic moment for the National Hockey League,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in Beijing. “We look forward to our first games in China and to a variety of initiatives that will inspire generations of Chinese players and fans to enjoy our sport. We recognize the importance of helping China build a strong national hockey program and are committed to supporting that priority in every way possible.” Beijing is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. China’s interest in ice hockey is small, but growing. Canadian-based Andong Song was drafted by the New York Islanders in 2015 as …

Residents of Rockville, Maryland, pride themselves on living in a diverse community, the mid-sized city’s most celebrated strength, they say. So proposing sanctuary status seemed like a realistic move, until a rape case brought the endeavor into question. City councilwoman Julie Palakovich Carr introduced the sanctuary ordinance in early March. It would add Rockville to the list of about 600 sanctuary cities and counties, jurisdictions that choose not to inform immigration officials when undocumented immigrants, charged with or convicted of minor crimes, are released from local custody, according to the National Immigration Law Center. The city held a hearing on the sanctuary jurisdiction topic at which at least 80 people testified, some in favor, others against. But two weeks after the measure’s introduction, two undocumented Rockville High School students were charged with the rape of a 14-year-old girl.   The unidentified girl told law enforcement that Henry E. Sanchez, 17, …

A federal judge in Hawaii who temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban hours before it was set to take effect issued a longer-lasting order Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson held a hearing Wednesday on Hawaii’s request to extend his temporary hold. Several hours later, he issued a 24-page order blocking the government from suspending new visas for travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and from halting the U.S. refugee program. Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin argued that even though the revised ban has more neutral language, the implied intent remains. He likened it to a neon sign flashing “Muslim Ban,” which the government hasn’t turned off. Chad Readler, a Department of Justice attorney defending Trump’s executive order, told the judge via telephone that Hawaii hasn’t shown how it is harmed by the provisions. Watson disagreed. Here’s a look at Watson’s ruling and what comes next: The previous ruling …

The State Department has fired six employees at the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan for allegedly using or possessing prohibited drugs, a particularly troubling infraction given the years-long U.S. effort to eradicate opium production in the country. A senior State Department official said those who were embassy employees were fired and others who were contractors were released from their contracts. The official declined to say what led to the investigation, but the Wall Street Journal reported it was launched after a person was wandering about in a state of confusion. A State Department official told VOA Thursday the fired workers “were found to have been using or in possession of prohibited substances.” Opium production in Afghanistan is a major source of income for the Taliban and other insurgents. Afghanistan is the source of more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin.  Despite global efforts to stem the flow of narcotics, the …

A compromise repealing North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” passed the state’s General Assembly on Thursday and now awaits the governor’s signature. Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who took office in January, has said he supports the bill and intends to sign it into law, despite receiving pushback from Democrats and rights activists who say the new bill is too similar to the original law. “I support the House Bill 2 repeal compromise that will be introduced tomorrow,” Cooper said in a statement Wednesday. “It’s not a perfect deal, but it repeals House Bill 2 and begins to repair our reputation.” House Bill 2, or HB2, is mostly known for banning individuals from using public bathrooms, such as in schools or government buildings, that do not correspond with their biological sex as listed on their birth certificates. According to a statement released by Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, the …

Russia pulled off an unprecedented and wildly-successful campaign to influence America’s political conversation during last year’s presidential campaign, according to experts who testified Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Russia hopes to win the second Cold War through the force of politics, as opposed to the politics of force,” said cyber security expert Clinton Watts of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Watts detailed Russia’s use of cyber attacks and an elaborate disinformation campaign to confuse U.S. voters and pit Americans against each other. The testimony confirmed what lawmakers of both parties have been saying for months. “Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a deliberate campaign carefully constructed to undermine our election,” said the committee’s top Democrat, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. WATCH: Warner on Russia’s actions during 2016 election campaign Putin’s dismissal Ahead of the open hearing, Putin blasted accusations of Russian electoral meddling as “provocations and lies.” Asked on a …

U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a rallying cry against the House Freedom Caucus, a powerful group of staunchly conservative Republican lawmakers who are largely responsible for the collapse of efforts to overhaul the nation’s health care law. In a Twitter post on Thursday, Trump called on Republicans to defeat caucus members and Democrats. Trump’s tweet seemed to encourage challenges to caucus members in next year’s midterm primary elections. The Freedom Caucus has about 32 members, most of whom won elections in solidly Republican districts by comfortable margins. The Trump administration has been stymied by the independence of the Freedom Caucus. The president lobbied members intensely to support the Republican bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. But the efforts failed last Friday in the face of caucus opposition after Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan did not convince enough lawmakers to vote in their favor. …

There are more than 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States, where the educational experience traditionally revolves around living on campus and attending classes in person. However, now, with the help of technology, the way knowledge passes from teachers to their students is changing. In February 2016, the Babson Survey Research Group reported that 28 percent of all U.S. college students took at least one class over the internet. The research group, part of Babson College in Massachusetts, studies all levels of education across the country. Yet, having students take a few online classes during their college years is not the only change technology is driving. Many U.S. colleges and universities now offer full degree programs online. This opens up all kinds of possibilities for students around the world. New educational possibilities One such student, Leanne from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, is using an online degree program to meet her needs. The 30-year-old asked VOA not to …

More than 200,000 people have signed an online petition calling for U.S. first lady Melania Trump to leave New York City and move into the White House or pay the cost of protecting her in the Trump Tower. The Change.org petition was started after a senior White House aide indicated the president’s wife and son, Barron, will remain in New York until the school year ends. “The U.S. taxpayer is paying an exorbitant amount of money to protect the First Lady in Trump Tower, located in New York City,” the petition says. “As to help relieve the national debt, this expense yields no positive results for the nation and should be cut from being funded.” The New York Police Department estimated it costs between $127,000 and $146,000 per day to protect Melania Trump and her son.   Comments beneath the Change.org petition highlighted the signers’ dissatisfaction over the first family’s …

From the exploitation of workers in carnivals to forcing people into door-to-door sales, more under-reported forms of modern slavery are emerging in the United States which need to be tackled, according to a report released Wednesday. The anti-slavery group Polaris said it had analyzed data from 40,000 likely cases of human trafficking and labor exploitation based on calls to a national hotline since 2007 and divided these into 25 different types of modern slavery. While sexual exploitation in bars and forced labor in tobacco fields, nail salons and homes is well known, other forms of slavery are going under the radar with little action taken to tackle these crimes, said Polaris CEO Bradley Myles. Polaris, which runs the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline, said its study was based on the largest amount of data gathered on human trafficking in the United States. “We found cases of personal sexual servitude where …

At least 12 people were killed and three injured when a pickup and a church van collided head-on in southwestern Texas. The crash happened Wednesday afternoon about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of San Antonio, police said. Police said the van was carrying 14 senior members of the First Baptist Church of New Braunfels, and there was one person, the driver, in the truck. In a statement posted on the church website, church officials said the members were returning from a three-day retreat at the Alto Frio Baptist Encampment in Leakey, about nine miles (14 kilometers) north of the crash site. Officials did not immediately say whether the lone occupant of the pickup was among the dead or how many of the dead were among the 14 people aboard the church van. …

Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a prominent ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came to New York this week to school investors on his state bank’s plans to sell new dollar bonds. Instead, he was placed under arrest by U.S. authorities and accused of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by teaming with wealthy Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal transactions through U.S. banks to Iran’s government. “United States sanctions are not mere requests or suggestions; they are the law,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said in a statement in New York, where Atilla was arraigned Tuesday. He was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday. Gold, currency allegedly sent to Iran Atilla “protected and hid Zarrab’s ability to provide access to international financial networks,” U.S. authorities said in documents filed in the U.S. court. The …

Farmers around the world are using an unsustainable amount of well water to irrigate their crops, which could lead to an uptick in food prices as that water runs low, international researchers warned Wednesday. Farmers are increasing their use of groundwater to grow staple crops such as rice, wheat and cotton, the scientists said. But much of that water use is unsustainable, as water is being pumped out faster than it can be naturally replenished. “Groundwater depletion is increasing rapidly, especially in the last 10, 20 years, due to the increasing populations and also associated food production,” said Yoshihide Wada, deputy water program director at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, a science organization in Austria. The shortages are occurring in some big agricultural producers such as India, China and the United States, he said. But they could have an impact on a much wider area of the world …

The United States is examining its next steps in the campaign to defeat Islamic State militants and stabilize the refugee crisis with regional allies, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson embarks on trips to Turkey and NATO headquarters this week. The top U.S. diplomat will press NATO allies to demonstrate a clear path to increase defense spending, in his first meeting with counterparts from this security bloc. U.S.-led forces are increasing their campaign to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State militants. Stabilizing areas where militants have fled and allowing refugees to return home is high on the agenda for the U.S. and its anti-Islamic State coalition partners. In Turkey, Tillerson will try to build on progress from last week’s meeting of coalition partners in Washington. “While a more defined course of action in Syria is still coming together, I can say the United States will increase our …