Ivanka Trump is officially joining her father’s administration as an unpaid employee, after her plans to serve in a more informal capacity were questioned by ethics experts.   The first daughter announced Wednesday that she will serve as an unpaid employee in the White House, saying she had “heard the concerns some have with my advising the President in my personal capacity.” She added that she has been “working in good faith with the White House Counsel and my personal counsel to address the unprecedented nature of my role.”   The news about Ivanka Trump was first reported by The New York Times. A White House official said her title will be Assistant to the President.   In a statement, the White House said it was “pleased that Ivanka Trump has chosen to take this step in her unprecedented role as First Daughter and in support of the President.”   …

Geographic and physical challenges – including the Rio Grande and threatened wildlife – will make it difficult to build the “big, beautiful wall” that President Donald Trump has promised on the U.S.-Mexico border, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Wednesday.   Zinke told reporters in a conference call that building a wall “is complex in some areas,” including Big Bend National Park and the river, which twists through nearly half of the 2,000-mile border.   Hundreds of species live within 30 miles of the border, including threatened jaguars and Mexican gray wolves. The Trump administration is poised to relax protections for the jaguars, which live in northern Mexico and parts of the southwestern United States.   Throughout the campaign, Trump energized his crowds with his insistence that a wall will be constructed along the border and Mexico will pay for it. Zinke’s comments, and the administration’s budget proposal seeking billions in …

A long-time U.S. State Department employee has been arrested on charges of lying to investigators about numerous contacts and gifts she got from Chinese intelligence agents. The Justice Department says Candace Marie Claiborne pleaded not guilty before a federal judge. Claiborne has been a State Department Office Management Specialist since 1999. She had a top-secret security clearance and was posted to embassies and consulates in Baghdad, Khartoum, Shanghai and Beijing. Prosecutors allege Chinese officials showered Claiborne with tens of thousands of dollars in gifts when she was there, including cash, computers, meals, travel and an apartment. Prosecutors say in exchange for cash, a Chinese intelligence agent asked Claiborne to provide internal U.S. government analysis of a U.S.-Chinese economic conference. Clairborne is charged with failing to tell the FBI about her contacts with the Chinese agents — a requirement of her top-secret security clearance — and obstructing what the Justice Department …

President Donald Trump’s move to unravel Obama-era environmental regulations, launched with great fanfare Tuesday, is attracting scorn from both ends of the political spectrum.   Concerted pushback from Democratic lawmakers and activists on the left, along with nagging doubts from conservatives skeptical of Trump’s commitment to the cause, suggest that making good on one of his main campaign promises could turn into an exercise in futility.   “I am taking historic steps to lift restrictions on American energy, to reverse government intrusion and to cancel job-killing regulations,” the president said as he signed Executive Orders at the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency. The response was swift and furious. “This is a declaration of war,” replied Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA).  Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) called it “an abdication of American leadership in the battle against climate change.”   “Trump Risks the Planet” was the editorial opinion of The New York …

Rex Tillerson is making his first visit to key NATO ally Turkey as U.S. secretary of state. The forthcoming operation to remove Islamic State from its self-declared capital of Raqqa in Syria is, according to U.S. officials, expected to top the agenda of Tillerson’s visit to Ankara. He is scheduled to meet with Turkey’s political leadership including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Washington’s support of the Syrian Kurdish rebel group the PYD and its militia the YPG in the war against Islamic State has, and remains, a point of tension with Ankara, which accuses them of being linked to the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state. ‘Critical topics’ “There are certainly a number of critical topics starting with Syria,” says Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Institute in Europe. Ulgen says there is high exception in Ankara over the election of Donald Trump. “After Donald Trump took over …

The United States is examining next steps in the campaign to defeat Islamic State militants and to stabilize the refugee crisis with regional allies, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson embarks on trips to Turkey and NATO 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. VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching has the story. …

The Trump administration has used its first appearance at the annual AIPAC conference of pro-Israel activists in Washington to reinforce a tougher U.S. approach toward the Jewish state’s adversaries than the approach of its predecessor, Barack Obama. VOA’s Michael Lipin was at the conference and has a report. …

U.S. President Donald Trump told a group of senators on Tuesday that he expected lawmakers would be able to reach a deal on health care, without offering specifics on how they would do it or what had changed since a health care reform bill was pulled last week for insufficient support. “I have no doubt that that’s going to happen very quickly,” Trump said at a bipartisan reception held for senators and their spouses at the White House. “I think it’s going to happen because we’ve all been promising — Democrat, Republican — we’ve all been promising that to the American people,” he said. A Republican plan backed by Trump to overhaul the U.S. health care system was pulled on Friday after it failed to garner enough support to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Trump, a Republican, did not mention that failure at the reception nor did he offer …

The United States says it is concerned at the inability of both the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and an opposition coalition to implement a political transition agreement they reached in December after months of unrest. The State Department faulted both sides for failing to make the necessary compromises to carry out the agreed-upon steps, which include the appointment of a prime minister. “Failure to move ahead with the accord clearly thwarts the will of the Congolese people and jeopardizes the progress achieved thus far,” acting spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. President Joseph Kabila was due to leave office December 19 at the end of his second term, but elections to choose his successor were postponed and Kabila has remained in office. The agreement between the government and the opposition was supposed to set up a transitional authority led by a prime minister until new elections …

A Mexican man who has spent more than six weeks in immigration detention despite his participation in a program designed to protect those brought to the U.S. illegally as children can be released from custody pending his deportation proceedings, an immigration judge ruled Tuesday. Lawyers for Daniel Ramirez Medina, 24, told The Associated Press they expect him to be released as soon as Wednesday following the decision by Judge John Odell in Tacoma. Ramirez spent 40 minutes answering questions from prosecutors during a two-hour hearing Tuesday, and he repeatedly and credibly denied having any connections with gangs, attorney Mark Rosenbaum said. “He answered every question the government put to him,” Rosenbaum said. “He stayed true, and the government had no evidence whatsoever.” Rosenbaum added: “We’re thrilled he’s getting out of a facility he never should have been in in the first place. But he’s lost 45 days of his life. …

California and a dozen other states could be heading for a showdown with the federal government as the Trump administration reviews rules on fuel efficiency and vehicle emissions, rules President Donald Trump has said curtail growth in the auto industry. California has a waiver under federal law to set its own standards, and other states have the option to follow them. California has been a leader in promoting fuel-efficient cars and sport utility vehicles, and the state says it will keep its strict standards, despite a review of federal regulations ordered by Trump. Separately, the president signed an executive order Tuesday to reduce the federal role in regulating carbon emissions in the energy industry to promote “energy independence,” although scientists view carbon emission from fossil fuels as a major cause of global warming. Vehicle fuel standards were strengthened in the final days of the Obama presidency, as the administration hurriedly …

President Donald Trump is reversing the Obama administration’s policies on greenhouse gases. An executive order signed Tuesday takes aim at power plant emission rules and other policies the Trump administration says undermine economic growth. Environmental groups say the president is ignoring the serious threat of climate change and they are planning to push back. VOA’s Steve Baragona reports. …

President Donald Trump highlighted the high number of Chicago shootings during a meeting with representatives of the Fraternal Order of Police, a national police union with more than 330,000 members. During the election campaign, and at a meeting with police officials Tuesday at the White House, Trump praised the role of law enforcement in keeping Americans safe. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more. …

A U.S. congressional committee heard complaints Tuesday that USAID programs are at risk of getting “slashed” or “eliminated” under the proposed budget from the White House, during a time when the threat of famine in East Africa is the “highest it has been in decades.” At the hearing of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, panelists warned that U.S. budget cuts could undermine efforts to address the consequences of drought and a crisis-driven famine at a time when aid agencies are attempting to scale up efforts to prevent millions from dying. In prepared remarks submitted to the committee, panelist Faustine Wabwire, senior foreign assistance policy adviser for the Bread for the World Institute, said the proposed budget cuts risk “slashing or eliminating the very accounts that finance the U.S. government’s emergency response,” including Food for Peace, International Disaster Assistance (IDA), and the Migration and Refugee Assistance account. “We know that the …

A judge is holding a hearing on a plan to replace water lines at 18,000 homes in Flint, Michigan, where lead poisoned the water system.   The deal would settle a lawsuit in Detroit federal court. The agreement sets a 2020 deadline to replace lead or galvanized-steel lines serving Flint homes. Michigan and the federal government would pay for the job, which could cost nearly $100 million.   On Tuesday, federal Judge David Lawson will listen to lawyers representing Flint, the state and residents who sued.   Flint’s water was tainted with lead for at least 18 months, as the city tapped the Flint River but didn’t treat the water to reduce corrosion. As a result, lead leached from old pipes and fixtures. The quality has improved, although filters are recommended. …