A pair of $250,000 autonomous buses began driving around an empty San Francisco Bay Area parking lot on Monday, preparing to move onto a local public road in California’s first pilot program for a self-driving vehicle without steering wheel or human operator. California and other states are weighing the opportunities of becoming a hub of testing a technology that is seen as the future of transportation and the risks from giving up active control of a large, potentially dangerous vehicle. In most tests of self-driving cars there is still a person seated at the steering wheel, ready to take over, although Alphabet Inc’s Waymo tested a car with no steering wheel or pedals in Austin, Texas, as early as 2015. The bus project in San Ramon, at the Bishop Ranch office park complex, involves two 12-passenger shuttle buses from French private company EasyMile. The project is backed by a combination …

President Donald Trump has offered to maintain federal funding for Planned Parenthood if the group stops providing abortions. Its president spurned the proposal and noted that federal money already is not allowed to be used for abortion. Trump confirmed Monday there had been discussions after The New York Times inquired about what it described as an informal proposal. In a statement to the newspaper, Trump said polling shows most Americans oppose public funding for abortion. “As I said throughout the campaign, I am pro-life and I am deeply committed to investing in women’s health and plan to significantly increase federal funding in support of nonabortion services such as cancer screenings,” he said. Trump added: “There is an opportunity for organizations to continue the important work they do in support of women’s health, while not providing abortion services.” Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards said in response: “We will …

A new U.S. executive order, temporarily halting the issuance of new visas for travelers from six countries, is to go into effect March 16, replacing an earlier controversial order in which visitors from the same countries and a seventh one — Iraq — were barred from entry to the U.S. VOA White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman reports. …

Rights groups say the new executive order U.S. President Donald Trump signed on Monday is no improvement over the original one issued in January and say they will move to block it. The new version removes the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees and drops Iraq from the list of seven majority-Muslim countries affected by the previous order. But it reinstates a temporary blanket ban on all refugees. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports that reactions to the new order are mixed. …

In cities across the United States, local communities are hosting dinners for refugees. It is a part of an initiative called “Refugees Welcome.” The goal is to break barriers by breaking bread together. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee attended a dinner in Los Angeles where Syrian refugees shared their experience of settling in the U.S. …

The Oklahoma City bombing 22 years ago was an act of domestic terror by Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh and his accomplice, Terry Nichols. The bombing destroyed one third of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 680 others. In his documentary, “Oklahoma City,” filmmaker Barak Goodman revisits the bombing as the first major domestic terrorist attack in the US on April 19, 1995. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more. …

Slovenia’s president said Monday his invitation to host a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin still stands despite the talk of the Kremlin’s meddling in the American elections. Borut Pahor told The Associated Press that a “tradition” of first meetings between U.S. and Russian presidents in the small Alpine state shouldn’t be discarded — and Slovenia is also the U.S. first lady’s native land. In June 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush and Putin had their first face-to-face meeting in Slovenia to explore the possibility of compromise on U.S. missile defense plans that Moscow opposed. “Slovenia has officially expressed readiness … it is ready to be the host of this meeting,” said Pahor, whose country is a member of the EU but has traditional ties with Russia. “They would be welcome in fine atmosphere.” Melania Trump — born Melanija Knavs — left Slovenia in her …

Violence is the biggest challenge facing women around the world as progress in gender equality is erratic and at times a baffling contradiction, said the top official at U.N. Women ahead of International Women’s Day. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of U.N. Women, said despite decades of pushing for equal rights, no one nation could call itself gender equal with countries making advances in some areas yet backsliding in others. Mlambo-Ngcuka described the global gender pay gap of 24 percent as “the biggest robber” of women. U.N. Women is launching a global coalition to tackle pay inequality during the meeting of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women next week. But Mlambo-Ngcuka said the biggest difficulty facing women is violence. One in three women suffer physical or sexual violence during their lifetime, and half of female murder victims are killed by partners or family members, according to U.N. Women. Some …

Q: Who is subject to the suspension of entry under the Executive Order (EO)? Foreign nationals from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, who are outside the U.S. who do not have a valid visa on the effective date of this order are not eligible to enter the U.S. while the temporary suspension remains in effect. Q: Will in-transit travelers within the scope of the EO be denied entry into the U.S.? Those individuals who are traveling on valid visas and arrive at a U.S. port of entry will still be permitted to seek entry into the U.S.. Q: I am a foreign national from one of the six affected countries currently overseas and in possession of a valid visa, but I have no prior travel to the U.S.. Can I travel to the U.S.? Foreign nationals from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen who have valid visas …

The Supreme Court has passed a case of a transgendered high school student on bathroom access back to a lower court without ruling. The case was sent back Monday to the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in state of Virginia, the same court that last year ruled in favor of the student. High school student Gavin Grimm had sued the Gloucester County School Board for the right to use the public school’s boys bathroom.  Grimm, who was born female, but identifies as male, argued the school’s denial of his request violates federal anti-discrimination law and the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee. Although Grimm won an appeals court order allowing him to use the boys’ bathroom, the Supreme Court put it on hold last August, before the school year began. The Supreme Court decision means Grimm will probably graduate with the issue unresolved and his ability to use the boys’ …

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a new executive order Monday, barring travelers from six countries to the United States for three months, and all refugees for four months, after federal appeals judges blocked a similar order from implementation last month. “This executive order is a vital measure for strengthening our national security,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at press conference announcing the new ban. “It is the president’s solemn duty to protect the American people.” The rollout of the new security measures amounts to an acknowledgement by the Trump administration that its original travel ban, issued January 27, was flawed. But it’s unclear whether the new order will satisfy critics, who still see the measure as a Muslim ban. WATCH: Sec of State Tillerson on new travel order In an attempt to ensure a smoother rollout of the travel ban and protect it from legal scrutiny, the new executive …

White House aides Monday defended President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that former President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap on telephones Trump used at his Trump Tower headquarters in New York. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president was unwilling to accept an assertion by James Comey, the director of the country’s top law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that Obama did not order an illegal wiretap on Trump. James Clapper, Obama’s national director of intelligence, has also disputed the new president’s contention. In interviews on news talk shows, Sanders and Trump aide Kellyanne Conway both said the new president firmly believes his claim posted Saturday on Twitter, saying, “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory.” Trump has offered no evidence to support the claim, but Sanders, Conway and, later, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said congressional committees need …

Everglades National Park, in southern Florida, includes more than half a million hectares of wetlands. National parks traveler Mikah Meyer immersed himself in the River of Grass with treks through mud-filled swamps and close encounters with some of the park’s avian and reptilian residents, and talked with VOA’s Julie Taboh about his adventure. …

Nigeria has advised its citizens against any non-urgent travel to the United States until Washington clarifies its immigration policy, after several incidents in which people with valid visas were denied entry, a presidential aide said on Monday. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, said no reasons were given for the cases over recent weeks in which Nigerians with valid multiple-entry U.S. visas had been denied entry and sent back to Nigeria. The West African country is not among a group of Muslim-majority countries from which President Donald Trump wants to suspend travel to the United States on security grounds. About  half of its 180 million inhabitants are Muslim, and half Christian. Trump is expected to sign a new executive order on Monday to implement the travel ban, after his first attempt in January was blocked in the courts. Dabiri-Erewa did not make any …

College students around the world have been a powerful force for change throughout history. In the United States, the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s were periods when every new generation of college students became involved in political action. They forced change on issues of war, poverty and environmental protection. Millennials is a term that describes the current generation of 18 to 35-year-olds. They have faced criticism for rejecting behavior and beliefs of previous generations. But passion for political involvement is one quality that has not been lost. In 2016, the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles reported on the opinions of over 141,000 first time college students. The study found one in 10 students expected to be involved in some kind of protest during their college career. However, not all student political involvement looks the same. Getting money out of politics Cassie Cleary is from Wakefield, …

An accused al-Qaida operative charged with engaging in attacks on U.S. forces that killed at least two American servicemen in Afghanistan is set to face trial on Monday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, also known by the nom de guerre Spin Ghul, or White Rose in the Pashto language, is accused of conspiring to kill Americans and providing support to a terrorist group, among other charges. An anonymous jury will hear the case, which is not uncommon in national security trials. Harun, 47, is not expected to be in court. Since his extradition from Italy in October 2012, the Saudi-born defendant has insisted he is a “warrior” who should face a military tribunal rather than criminal proceedings and has registered his dissent through increasingly aggressive courtroom behavior. Before one appearance last May, Harun scuffled with U.S. marshals, tore off his clothes, then disrupted …