Bonn-based Haribo, which invented the gummy bear nearly a century ago, said Friday it would open a U.S. factory in Wisconsin in 2020. Haribo, founded in 1920, has been in the U.S. since 1982 with a sales operation, and is already the top seller of gummy bears in the country, but says it wants to grow further. Company head Hans Guido Riegel said “Haribo of America is the fastest growing confectionary company in the U.S.A., therefore the step of starting our own production there from 2020 is important for us.” The $242 million factory near Kenosha is expected to create 400 jobs. Haribo employs 7,000 people worldwide and produces 100 million gummy bears daily at 16 factories in ten countries. …

U.S. college applications from foreign students for the next school year are down, with the number of undergraduate applications from countries in the Middle East dropping 39 percent. In 2016, 1.2 million international students attended American colleges and universities. That is an increase of 6.5 percent from the year before and the highest number ever. But it appears the steady growth in the number of international students may not last.  A new report by the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers says four out of 10 U.S. colleges reported fewer international applications.  Michael Reilly, the association’s executive director, said there may be fewer applicants because some people see America “becoming less welcoming of international students.” Reilly said colleges are telling students “their studies or travels will not be disrupted by future policy changes.” Applications down from India Wim Wiewel, president of Portland State University in Oregon, said his school saw a 37 percent reduction in applications from India for …

The U.S. congressional committee tasked with investigating allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign has asked the heads of the FBI and National Security Agency to testify again about the matter, the head of the committee said Friday. Republican Rep. Devin Nunes told reporters the follow-up testimony from FBI director James Comey and NSA chief Michael Rogers will take place Tuesday in a closed session. In order to make time for the new closed hearing, Nunes said a previously scheduled hearing with several senior Obama administration officials, including the former CIA director, would need to be canceled.   Top Democrat protests Adam Schiff, the leading Democrat on the panel, immediately accused Nunes of trying to “choke off public info” with the move. “We don’t welcome cutting off public access to information,” Schiff told reporters in a briefing held directly after Nunes’s. Nunes insisted the cancellation of the public …

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday he believes financial markets could improve “significantly” once they fully reflect the potential for U.S. economic growth from President Donald Trump’s economic policies. Mnuchin said at an event sponsored by news website Axios that optimism about U.S. growth from policies such as regulatory reform and tax reform is “definitely not all baked in” to market valuations. U.S. stock prices and the dollar have strengthened significantly since Trump was elected in November, largely in anticipation of corporate profits rising as regulatory burdens ease and tax rates fall. Some of those gains were retraced this week as Republicans in Congress faced stiff opposition from conservatives in passing a bill to replace the Obamacare health law. “I think there is some good news that’s baked in, but yet, I think there is further room for significant growth in the economy that would be reflected in …

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan briefed President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday on the status of the health replacement bill, only hours before the measure was scheduled to come to a vote in the House of Representatives. This comes amid conjecture the Republicans may not have the necessary votes to pass the bill. A day after threatening to leave the nation’s health care law intact if congress fails to overhaul it, the president launched an eleventh hour campaign to secure support for the bill, the American Health Care Act. A panel that sets rules for House floor debate sent the replacement measure to the full House of Representatives Friday for debate before a vote later in the day. Friday morning, Trump targeted fellow Republicans who remained opposed to the measure that would replace what is commonly known as Obamacare, a key promise during his presidential campaign. On …

South Dakota’s Crow Creek Indian Reservation is home to the descendants of the Dakota people, who thrived in Minnesota before they were forced onto the reservation in the 1860s. Crow Creek sits in the center of the state along the Missouri River, and its more than 1,000 square kilometers stretch across three of the poorest counties in the United States. There’s only one grocery store on the reservation, says Lisa Hope-Heth, but she refuses to shop there. “A lot of the prices are too high. Some of the meat is not always fresh. And the bread – you know how in some larger stores when bread doesn’t sell and it gets stale, they take it off the shelf? I sometimes think that we get that bread.” She once worked as a meat cutter, so she knows old hamburger when she sees it. She also recognizes when meat that has been …

The Trump administration has given a federal permit to the Keystone XL pipeline project after former President Barack Obama rejected it just two years ago. On Friday morning, the U.S. State Department announced the issuance of the permit to TransCanada to build the pipeline, saying that it would “serve the national interest” to do so. The decision marks an about-face from the Obama administration, which came to the opposite conclusion. President Donald Trump, during a press briefing Friday, said the pipeline is safer than other methods used to transport oil, and he called its completion “long overdue.” “It’s going to be an incredible pipeline,” Trump said. “The greatest technology known to man — or woman.” He praised himself and said other presidents wouldn’t have signed the permit. “Today we begin to make things right and do things right,” he said. Russ Girling, president of TransCanada, called the permit a “significant …

New York police say a 28-year-old white man from Baltimore, from the southern U.S. state of Maryland, traveled to New York City last week to engage in a killing spree on African American men. James Jackson allegedly chose to kill in New York because he thought he would received the maximum amount of media coverage there. However, he stopped after killing just one man — 66-year-old Timothy Caughman. Jackson killed Caughman with a sword Monday and went to a police station Wednesday to confess. He was charged with murder as a hate crime Thursday and is being held without bail. “The defendant was motivated purely by hatred,” said prosecutor Joan Illuzzi. “His intent was to kill as many black men here in New York as he could.” She said the charges could be upgraded to an act of terrorism. The New York Times quoted an anonymous law enforcement official as …

Marine Private First Class Maria Daume’s life story reads as if she came straight from the pages of a superhero comic: born in a Siberian prison, orphaned at age two, adopted by Americans and raised in New York.  And on Thursday – in the middle of Women’s History Month – the 19-year-old broke new ground as a female Marine. VOA’s Carla Babb spoke with Daume in her first interview since completing special training at the Marine School of Infantry in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. …

London police said Friday they have made two more arrests in connection with the attack near Parliament. Counter-terrorism commander Mark Rowley characterized the arrests as “significant,” though he did not provide any details. He said nine people are currently in custody and one person has been released. Police officials identified the attacker who killed four people near Parliament as Khalid Masood, a Briton who converted to Islam and had a lengthy criminal record for weapons possession and other charges. Rowley said Masood’s birth name was Adrian Russell Ajao and appealed to the public for any information about him. “We remain keen to hear from anyone who knew Khalid Masood well, understands who his associates were and can provide us with information about places he has recently visited,’’ Rowley said. “There might be people out there who did have concerns about Masood but did not feel comfortable for whatever reason in …

The Department of Veterans Affairs is warning of a rapidly growing backlog for veterans who seek to appeal decisions involving disability benefits, saying it will need much more staff even as money remains in question due to a tightening Trump administration budget. The red flag is included in a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday. The VA says the wait time of as much as five years for veterans seeking resolution of their claims would continue to grow without a “hiring surge” in the next budget year beginning in October. Without the staff, the VA said, the backlog could exceed 1 million within a decade, and “veterans may have to wait an average of 8.5 years” to have their appeals resolved. 4.1 million veterans receive funds The department provides $63.7 billion in disability compensation payments each year to about 4.1 million veterans with conditions incurred during their military service. Setting …

The Obama administration’s top civil rights lawyer announced Thursday she will lead a coalition of civil and human rights organizations at a time when they see the Justice Department softening its focus on a number of their priorities. Vanita Gupta, who was head of the Obama Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said she will become the new president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights amid an “unprecedented assault on civil rights.” Sessions a dramatic shift Attorney General Jeff Sessions has indicated the department will shift dramatically from many of the policies Gupta implemented. Sessions has said the department will pursue fewer wide-ranging federal investigations of police departments. Those inquiries were a staple of the Obama administration efforts to overhaul troubled agencies after racially charged encounters.  Sessions’ Justice Department also abandoned a challenge to a key aspect of Texas’ voter ID law. And it reversed a …

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday warned Western nations against destabilizing the political situation in Macedonia. His comments to a Moscow news conference came less than two days after the European Union’s enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, visited Skopje in another bid to help break a political deadlock that has left the country’s parties unable to form a government since an election in December. The crisis has sparked inter-ethnic tension, as three ethnic Albanian parties push for Albanian to be designated a second official language as a condition to joining any coalition government. That has led to daily protests for three weeks. “The current situation in Macedonia — I’d even call it a crisis, in many respects provoked artificially — is leading to the situation when attempts are made to split the society,” Lavrov said, adding the West should realize “the danger of such attempts.” He also said he found …

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced a review last week of tough Obama-era vehicle emissions and fuel-efficiency standards, he proclaimed that the “assault on the American auto industry is over.” But rules set by the Environmental Protection Agency may take a backseat to consumers demanding vehicles that guzzle less gas and automakers having to meet tougher standards if they want to export cars overseas, according to auto industry analysts. In the end, U.S. carmakers may just gain a few more years to meet the more stringent targets that former President Barack Obama’s administration negotiated with the companies in 2012, analysts said. If Europe and China continue to toughen their emissions standards, “the U.S. might become an outlier,” American Axle President Mike Simonte told Reuters on Thursday. Trump’s move was widely seen leading to a rollback or loosening of more stringent targets, which would slash vehicle exhaust emissions while effectively doubling …

The future of President Donald Trump’s agenda hung in the balance Thursday as Republicans endured a tortured day of negotiations up and down Pennsylvania Avenue, fighting up to the last minute to negotiate passage of a long-promised health care bill. Just 61 days after Trump promised momentous political change as he was sworn in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, House Republicans couldn’t find agreement with each other on their signature campaign promise of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Trump put his skills as a deal-maker on the line, but failed to win over the conservative House Freedom Caucus and even alienated some moderates afraid for their political futures. His and Speaker Paul Ryan’s failure to secure enough votes backed the once-unified Republican Party into a politically tricky corner that could be hard to escape, even if the bill does pass. “This is …

U.S. officials say the Trump International Hotel in Washington does not violate conflict-of-interest laws by operating in a 19th-century federal building. Democrats had asked the General Services Administration, the agency that manages federal properties, to look into the hotel’s lease in the government-owned Old Post Office, blocks from the White House. Federal law prohibits an elected official from being both a landlord and a tenant. The GSA said Thursday that Trump turned over his real estate empire to his sons, ensuring he will not personally profit from the luxury hotel while he is president. But government ethics experts say the Trump name on a Washington hotel may attract high-profile guests and foreign officials who hope that staying and eating there may be an advantage in dealing with the White House. The Trump hotel has become a popular spot for protesters against his administration. …

Dozens of parents and neighbors on both sides of the U.S. debate about school-choice issues protested against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as she visited a public school near the nation’s capital Thursday. DeVos, who was one of the more controversial choices President Donald Trump made for his Cabinet, entered the school despite the protest and visited with a group of 7- and 8-year-olds.   Maryland Governor Larry Hogan accompanied DeVos at Carderock Springs Elementary School in Bethesda, just outside Washington. The education secretary read portions of a Dr. Seuss classic, Oh, the Places You’ll Go, to the children. DeVos’ visit last month to a public school in Washington, just a short distance from her offices at the Department of Education, also was met with protesters, who briefly barred her from entering the building. The billionaire philanthropist was considered an unconventional pick for education secretary. Although she has been involved in …

Marine Pfc. Maria Daume’s life story reads as if she came straight from the pages of a superhero comic. Born in a Siberian prison. Orphaned at age 2. Adopted by Americans at age 4 and raised in New York. And now, she’s just done what many naysayers believed a woman would never do: She’s the first female Marine to join the infantry through the traditional entry-level training process, a process made available to women just a half-year earlier. “I like to prove people wrong,” Daume told VOA in her first interview since completing her training at the Marine Corps School of Infantry at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina. “No matter what your belief is, you can’t argue that I didn’t do it, because I did.” WATCH: Maria Daume provides a first for the Marines Top of the pack Not only did she graduate from the School of Infantry on Thursday, she …

The White House says the House of Representatives will vote Friday morning on overhauling Obamacare, as Republicans strive to find more “yes” votes. A vote set for Thursday night was postponed when House leaders determined there were not enough votes to pass it. Every Democrat is expected to vote no, while dozens of moderate and conservative Republicans say they will vote against it or are leaning that way. Members of the House conservative bloc known as the Freedom Caucus said after meeting with President Donald Trump that they have reached no agreement on whether to support the Obamacare overhaul. Congressman Mark Meadows, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, confirmed that his group and the president have not reached an agreement on the issue. But the White House had a different interpretation of Trump’s talks with the congressional conservatives. It released a statement saying the two sides had taken “a positive step” …

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Thursday he will oppose the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Schumer, during a speech from the Senate floor on the final day of hearings for nominee Neil Gorsuch, said he “was unable to sufficiently convince me he’d be an independent check” on Trump. The senator accused Gorsuch of having a “deep-seated conservative ideology.” Republicans “will have to earn 60 votes for the confirmation,” otherwise, Schumer said, they will need to “change the nominee.” Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania joined Schumer in announcing his opposition to the Gorsuch nomination, citing “serious concerns about Judge Gorsuch’s rigid and restrictive judicial philosophy.” Republican leaders need to secure at least eight Democratic votes to pass the Gorsuch nomination, or they will need to trigger the so-called “nuclear option” to change the rules and allow the vote to pass with just a simple majority. In …