President Donald Trump’s top adviser for Russian and European affairs is leaving his job at the White House just as he’s scheduled to testify before the House impeachment investigators, a senior administration official said.   Tim Morrison owes his job at the National Security Council to Trump, but his testimony Thursday in the House impeachmentRead more

Ivanka Trump is getting ready to promote her women’s economic development program on an upcoming trip to Morocco. It will be her third overseas trip this year to promote the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative , which was launched in February to benefit women in developing countries. President Donald Trump’s daughter and senior adviserRead more

Democrats in the US House of Representatives will take a crucial step forward in their impeachment investigation of US President Donald Trump Thursday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a vote formalizing the inquiry, addressing Republicans’ arguments the process is illegitimate. As VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Capitol Hill, the vote also sets theRead more

Steps from Hong Kong’s main tourist strip, Ashfaqur Rahman’s tailor shop usually is a mainstay for tourists dropping in to peruse neatly stacked rolls of fabric and get measured for custom-made suits. Not anymore. Business has dried up since anti-government protests began in early June in the Asian financial center. On Thursday, the government saidRead more

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary forces have “committed summary executions and other grave abuses without accountability” — including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and attacks on health-care facilities. In its report, released on Thursday, HRW called on the Afghan government to immediately disband all pro-government paramilitary groups that operate outside the “ordinary militaryRead more

A federal watchdog is criticizing the way the Trump administration handles taxes on imported steel and aluminum, saying a lack of transparency creates the appearance of “improper influence.”    The Commerce Department’s inspector general is raising questions about a process that lets steel and aluminum importers request relief from tariffs imposed in March 2018.    Read more

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut interest rates for the third time this year, as expected, in a move to ensure the U.S. economy weathers a global trade war without slipping into a recession, but it  signaled that its rate-cut cycle might be at a pause.    In lowering its policy rate by a quarter of aRead more

British and Belgian police are continuing to investigate the people-smuggling networks that helped to transport the 39 migrants who were found dead in the back of a refrigerated truck near London last week. It’s believed they suffocated in the sealed container. Henry Ridgwell reports on the growing industry in human cargo that brings tens ofRead more

Less than a week after the Africa-Russia Summit, Facebook has suspended three networks of Russian accounts it says were engaging in foreign interference in Africa. Facebook said the accounts targeted Madagascar, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon. The accounts supported select political figures and derided pro-democracy activistsRead more

Three aid workers with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have been killed in South Sudan, during fighting between government forces and National Salvation Front (NAS) rebels. The aid organization said Wednesday it has suspended Ebola screening activities at various locations near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, because it is too dangerousRead more

Peru’s top court on Tuesday accepted a lawsuit to determine whether President Martin Vizcarra exceeded his powers by dissolving Congress last month amid a long-running standoff with lawmakers over anti-corruption reforms. The seven members of Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal unanimously voted to admit the suit, court president Ernesto Blume said, the latest development in a battleRead more

The exit of the “Games of Thrones” creators from the next “Star Wars” film left future stories in the science fiction saga up in the air Tuesday, although some fans welcomed their departure. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had been hired in 2018 to write and produce a trilogy of new movies in the blockbusterRead more

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death will mean nothing to 19-year-old rape victim Jamila unless the Islamic State militants who enslaved her are brought to justice. Jamila, who asked not to be identified by her last name, is one of thousands of women from the Yazidi minority religion who were kidnapped and raped byRead more

Hungary is set to reappoint its chief prosecutor to a new 9-year term and will remove its main judicial administrator, in moves that critics say highlight premier Viktor Orban’s mixed success in influencing the judiciary which remains one of the most independent bodies in Hungarian society. Despite constant clashes with Western partners over the ruleRead more

Guinea-Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz named a new prime minister on Tuesday but his sacked predecessor refused to step down, intensifying a bitter power struggle between Vaz and the ruling party weeks ahead of a presidential election. Vaz, who is running for again in the Nov. 24 poll, dissolved the government late on Monday sayingRead more