The U.S. Secret Service on Saturday apprehended a person who had jumped over a bicycle rack outside the security perimeter of the White House. President Donald Trump was not in the executive mansion at the time. He was at his Florida estate, where he had arrived Friday night to spend the weekend. On Twitter, White House spokesman Sean Spicer applauded the Secret Service for its quick response. This latest apparent attempt to breach White House security came eight days after a California man climbed over the White House fence and roamed free on the grounds for about 17 minutes. Reports said Secret Service officers quickly tackled Saturday’s intruder and arrested him within two minutes. Alarm bells at the White House went off after the apparent security breach attempt, prompting dozens of long-gun-armed officers to run out on the lawn to prevent it. A motive for the suspect’s action was not …

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the meeting of finance ministers of the G20 countries was a success Saturday despite the ministers not reaching agreement on trade protectionism. “I will leave here confident that my colleagues and I are able to work in partnership to …foster and promote global growth and financial stability,” he said. Citing President Donald Trump’s commitment to American companies and workers, Mnuchin pushed back on and effectively omitted a ban on protectionism from the joint statement released at the end of the summit. Mnuchin did, however, say that the United States still believed in free trade. “We believe in free trade, we’re one of the largest markets in the world, we’re one of the largest trading partners in the world,” Mnuchin said. “Having said that, we want to re-examine certain agreements,” he continued, speaking specifically about NAFTA. Other world powers present played down any disagreement between …

President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak by phone Saturday afternoon with the president of Brazil, a nation in which many favored Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over Trump – due in large part to his opposition to free global trade. Nevertheless, Brazilian President Michel Temer sent a message to Trump shortly after his November election victory expressing confidence they could collaborate to strengthen relations between the countries. Temer has said increasing trade with the U.S. and securing more U.S. investment are keys to lifting Brazil out of what he calls a “very violent” recession, its worst on record. Trump is opposed to global trade deals, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the NAFTA pact with Mexico and Canada, and he has said he would seek to rework them to protect U.S. jobs. Trump’s election has raised concerns in many Latin American countries due to his views on immigration, and …

The lower house of the Russian parliament has ordered a probe into whether RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Voice of America, and CNN are in compliance with Russian laws. The move by the State Duma on March 17 comes just days after Democratic U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen introduced a bill that would empower the U.S. Justice Department to investigate possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act by RT, the state-backed Russian TV channel. The Russian initiative was introduced by Konstantin Zatulin, a member of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, which holds an overwhelming majority in the Duma. Approved by lawmakers on March 17, the move instructs the Duma’s committee on information policy to probe compliance with Russian laws by VOA, CNN, and RFE/RL’s Russian Service, known locally as Radio Svoboda. Zatulin specifically linked the probe to Shaheen’s bill, which cited an assessment by U.S. intelligence that RT was used as …

For some medical students, getting a yes or no Friday was more important than finding the right life partner. Friday was “Match Day,” the annual day when medical students find out which U.S. medical institution has accepted them for a residency program. It is a competition, of sorts: 32,000 training slots are available for 42,000 applicants, according to this year’s data. A residency, three to five years of practical experience and training in a student’s chosen medical specialty, is the next step after medical school, which in the United States generally means four years of postgraduate university studies. Of those 42,000 applicants vying for residencies, all but about 6,000 are foreign nationals. And that is where their aspirations could collide with President Donald Trump’s latest executive order regulating immigration to the United States. ‘Extensive upheaval’ The National Residency Match Program (NRMP), a nonprofit group that organizes the matches between students …

Mention New Orleans and most people will immediately associate it with jazz, a genre of music that originated among African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And that distinctly American music can be heard everywhere throughout the famed city – and in most other areas of the state of Louisiana. The ‘Big Easy’ National parks traveler Mikah Meyer recently visited New Orleans to soak up some of those sounds and learn about the city’s other cultural highlights. “There’s the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, which basically celebrates the contribution of the culture of New Orleans, to this music that is authentically and originally American…a relatively new genre that is distinctly American,” he said. “So it’s a bunch of little sites basically all scattered throughout the French Quarter in the older parts of the city that celebrate this heritage.” Wild wetlands Just south of the city is …

A U.S. House Intelligence Committee Monday will further investigate the extent of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election and President Donald Trump’s claim that President Barack Obama had his phones tapped during the campaign. During a public hearing, committee members will question FBI Director James Comey and Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, for the first time. The Department of Justice delivered documents to the House and Senate intelligence committees Friday regarding their request for information that could shed light on Trump’s claim that Obama tapped his phones at Trump Tower in New York. Neither the Justice Department nor House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes elaborated on the information in the documents. Pressure on Trump Trump is facing increased pressure in Congress to back down from the wiretapping claims he made on Twitter March 4. A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House and …

On Monday, the House Intelligence Committee will give FBI Director James Comey his first opportunity to publicly address President Donald Trump’s claims that former President Barack Obama secretly wiretapped his phones in New York’s Trump Tower. Comey will address his agency’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. VOA’s congressional reporter Katherine Gypson has more. …

Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she is ready to participate in the public discussion about the change in the country’s political climate since the November presidential election. “I’m like a lot of my friends right now, I have a hard time watching the news,” she said Friday at the Society of Irish Women’s 19th Annual Saint Patrick’s Day dinner in Scranton, Pennsylvania. However, Clinton added, “I do not believe that we can let political divides harden into personal divides. We can’t just ignore or turn a cold shoulder because we disagree politically. We have to listen to each other and learn from each other.” Clinton said, “I am ready to come out of the woods and to shine a light on what’s already happening around kitchen tables at dinners like this to help draw strength to enable everyone to keep going.” Clinton was spotted walking in the woods …

The Florida prosecutor who thrust herself into the forefront of the anti-death penalty movement is a political novice who was elected just seven months ago.   Aramis Ayala, a Democrat and former public defender and assistant state attorney, surprised many of her supporters when she announced this week that her office would no longer seek capital punishment in a state that has one of the largest death rows. In response, the state’s Republican governor promptly transferred a potential death penalty case to another Florida prosecutor.   “I understand this is a controversial issue, but what isn’t controversial is the evidence that led me to my decision,” said Ayala, the first black state attorney elected in Florida.   She said there is no evidence that shows the death penalty improves public safety for citizens or law enforcement, and it’s costly and drags on for years for the victims’ families. Activists cheered …

Kneeling on a patch of flat earth with a shovel in hand, Thea Nonce Jean tips cement where a floor is about to be laid. His house is the first to be built in a tiny Haitian community on the edge of Tijuana, Mexico, a city just south of the U.S. border. “There’s room for around 100 families on these plots — that means around 400 people. They can’t keep living in the shelters,” said Gustavo Banda, a local pastor who gave up the land for the construction of the settlement. Jean, a 32-year-old Haitian stranded thousands of miles from home after hopes of asylum in the United States faded last year, is one of hundreds from the poor Caribbean nation now seeking to make a life in Tijuana. “Our country has hit rock bottom,” said Jean, part of a steady stream of Haitians leaving the island since a devastating …

U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shook hands warmly at the end of a sometimes awkward “getting-to-know-you” session Friday at the White House that seemed to symbolize the difficulties ahead for the trans-Atlantic relationship. Trump and Merkel, considered the two most powerful leaders in the Western world, appeared to get off to a rocky start in their first face-to-face meeting. They notably did not shake hands as they sat for photographers in the Oval Office after their opening conversation.  At a news conference later, however, following their two hours of talks, both leaders made more conciliatory statements. “They were civil. It was workmanlike. They did not demonstrate any particular affinity, and one could sense there had been some significant differences of opinion in the meeting,” said Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. WATCH: Trump, Merkel Meet in Oval Office Trump did not bring …

President Donald Trump agreed to add fresh Medicaid curbs to the House Republican health care bill Friday, bolstering the measure with support from some conservative lawmakers but leaving its prospects wobbly. House leaders discussed other amendments calibrated to round up votes and scheduled a showdown vote Thursday.   “I just want to let the world know I am 100 percent in favor” of the measure, Trump said at the White House after meeting around a dozen House lawmakers and shaking hands on revisions. “We’re going to have a health care plan that’s going to be second to none.”   While the rapid-fire events seemed to build momentum for the pivotal GOP legislation, its fate remained clouded. One leading House conservative said the alterations were insufficient and claimed enough allies to sink the measure, and support among moderates remained uncertain.   “My whip count indicates that there are 40 no’s,” enough …

U.S. President Donald Trump has stuck by his claim that the Obama administration wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower with the help of British security, despite a complaint by British authorities that such an assertion is “ridiculous.” Trump spoke to reporters Friday at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Questioned by a reporter about the allegation, which Trump first made in a tweet on March 4, Trump answered by referencing a wiretapping scandal in which U.S. security officials were found to be listening in on Merkel’s private conversations. “As far as wiretapping, I guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said to Merkel. Merkel did not answer and a few reporters in the room laughed nervously. On Thursday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer cited a Fox News report to back up claims that the British spy agency, known as GCHQ, was …

As deaths from painkillers and heroin abuse spiked and street crimes increased, the mayor of Everett took major steps to tackle the opioid epidemic devastating this working-class city north of Seattle.   Mayor Ray Stephanson stepped up patrols, hired social workers to ride with officers and pushed for more permanent housing for chronically homeless people. The city says it has spent millions combating OxyContin and heroin abuse – and expects the tab to rise.   So Everett is suing Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid pain medication OxyContin, in an unusual case that alleges the drugmaker knowingly allowed pills to be funneled into the black market and the city of about 108,000. Everett alleges the drugmaker did nothing to stop it and must pay for damages caused to the community.   Everett’s lawsuit, now in federal court in Seattle, accuses Purdue Pharma of gross negligence and nuisance. The city seeks …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday it had awarded $100 million to upgrade Flint, Michigan’s drinking water infrastructure to address a crisis that exposed thousands of children to lead poisoning. The grant to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will enable the city to “accelerate and expand” its work to replace lead pipes and make other improvements, according to the EPA. Estimates of the upgrade’s cost range from $200 million to $400 million. Friday’s announcement made the disbursement official. Last year, Congress passed and former president Barack Obama signed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act to allocate $100 million to aid Flint. $31.5 million to be paid immediately The EPA’s state revolving funds, which Congress can allocate to help with cleanup efforts, were one of the few programs that the Trump administration did not slash in its proposed budget for the agency. “Flint’s water infrastructure as …

China will begin preparatory work this year for an environmental monitoring station on Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, an official said, as two U.S. senators introduced a bill to impose sanctions on its activities in the disputed waterway. China seized the strategic shoal, which is also claimed by the Philippines, in 2012, and the United States has warned Beijing against carrying out the same land reclamation work there that it has done in other parts of the South China Sea. This week, Xiao Jie, the mayor of what Beijing calls Sansha City, an administrative base for disputed South China Sea islands and reefs it controls, said China planned preparatory work this year to build environmental monitoring stations on a number of islands, including Scarborough Shoal. Restoration, erosion prevention The monitoring stations, along with docks and other infrastructure, form part of island restoration and erosion prevention efforts planned for …

The Pentagon said it carried out an airstrike against al-Qaida in Syria, but denied hitting a mosque where a human rights group said more than 40 people were killed. Manned and unmanned aircraft targeted a building next to the mosque in the town of al-Jinah, near Aleppo, a Pentagon spokesman told reporters Friday. The spokesman, Navy Captain Jeff Davis, said the strike killed dozens of “core al-Qaida” senior members who were meeting inside the building Thursday. The Pentagon released a photo of the strike’s aftermath to support its claims. The photo showed what appears to be an intact, undamaged mosque next to a larger building that apparently suffered multiple weapons strikes. Debris was scattered on the street, but many cars parked between the mosque and the heavily damaged building were intact. “The area was extensively surveilled prior to the strike in order to minimize civilian casualties,” Davis said.  Air Force …

As Russia becomes a hot-button issue in American politics, a former Pentagon official is urging the new Trump administration to pay more attention to the conflict in Ukraine. Michael Carpenter, a senior Defense Department official under former President Barack Obama who dealt with Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs, described to VOA on Friday a six-point plan to support Kyiv in the face of separatist rebels backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Fundamentally, we think this supports our interest,” Carpenter said of U.S. support for Ukraine. His plan was also laid out in an article in the current issue of Foreign Policy magazine. Carpenter proposes U.S. support, funding and training for the Ukrainian military, further U.S. involvement in diplomatic discussions with European nations, and tightened sanctions against Russia. In addition, he says the U.S. should seek hard deadlines for implementing a European plan of action in the region covered by the …

A U.S. Secret Service agent’s laptop computer containing sensitive information was stolen from a car in New York City, media reports said Friday. The small computer was said to contain floor plans and evacuation protocols for Trump Tower, President Donald Trump’s personal and commercial headquarters in New York City. Reports said the laptop was inside a bag when it was stolen from an unoccupied vehicle. The Secret Service, the primary agency responsible for presidential security, confirmed the incident in a statement Friday that said, “Secret Service-issued laptops contain multiple layers of security, including full disk encryption, and are not permitted to contain classified information.” The New York Police Department recovered the bag a few blocks from where the break-in took place, but the laptop had been removed. …

One of the enduring legacies of the Barack Obama presidency will be the relationship built between the United States and young Africans. As part of Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), each year 1,000 young people from sub-Saharan Africa travel to the United States to spend six weeks at a U.S. college or university. The program will continue this summer. But building enduring relationships is a two-way street, and many in Africa want to see Americans coming to their continent as well. That’s what 26 Americans selected to participate in a Reciprocal Exchange program, a new component of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, are now planning to do. The U.S. Department of State partnered with IREX, a nonprofit organization focusing on international education and research, to help continue collaboration between 27 Mandela Washington Fellows and 26 American professionals. The program will take the U.S. citizens to 17 …

Foreign tourism to the United States, which supports millions of American jobs, is slowing, possibly because President Donald Trump sought controversial travel restrictions on some Muslim-majority nations. Online searches for flights to the United States are down in most major nations, not just those hit by restrictions. Jim Randle reports some travel experts say the push to restrict immigration is making some foreign tourists and students wary of visiting. …

The 2018 budget proposal unveiled Thursday has drawn reaction from home and abroad. President Donald Trump intends to boost military and law enforcement spending, while slashing foreign aid and U.S. contributions to international organizations. The administration also wants to cut spending on environmental protection, foreign affairs, arts, humanities and public broadcasting. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports on the plan …

The White House is criticizing two U.S. federal courts for blocking President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from six Muslim majority countries. Trump’s executive order had been scheduled to go into effect Thursday. Details from VOA White House Bureau Chief Correspondent Steve Herman. …