USA

President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out the largest deportations in US history raises questions about its feasibility and its legality. VOA’s immigration correspondent Aline Barros reports on how the U.S. military may be involved in those plans. …

WASHINGTON — Following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, the Biden administration said it would fully support a transparent and inclusive transition process toward a nonsectarian government accountable to the Syrian people. “The transition process and new government must also uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to all in need, prevent Syria from being …

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Wednesday flatly dismissed claims by a U.S. lawmaker that Iran might be launching drones over New Jersey from a “mothership” off the East Coast.  “There is no truth to that,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh. “There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States and there’s no so-called ‘mothership’ launching drones towards the United States.”  Republican Congressman Jeff …

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — A CIA analyst charged with leaking top-secret details ahead of a planned Israeli attack on Iran earlier this year will remain jailed pending trial, a judge ordered Wednesday.  The ruling by U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles overruled a magistrate who said last week that Asif Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia, could be free on restrictions while he awaited trial on charges of …

ALTOONA, PENNSYLVANIA — The gun found on the suspect in the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO matched shell casings found at the site of the shooting, New York City’s police commissioner said Wednesday. Suspect Luigi Mangione’s fingerprints also matched a water bottle and a protein bar wrapper that police found near the scene and say the gunman purchased at a nearby coffee shop while awaiting his …

GREEN LAKE, WISCONSIN — A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning and left his wife and three children and was believed to have been in Eastern Europe willingly returned to the U.S. after roughly four months and is in custody, a sheriff said Wednesday. Ryan Borgwardt “came back on his own” because of his family, Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said during a brief …

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Jordan and Turkey Wednesday to rally regional countries around an aligned vision for Syria’s future following the ousting of longtime authoritarian ruler Bashar al-Assad. Blinken will travel to Aqaba, Jordan, and Ankara, Turkey, and meet leaders to discuss developments in Syria, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and across the region, said the U.S. State Department. A spokesperson …

Washington — President Joe Biden has approved a new national security memorandum ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House that could serve as a road map for the incoming administration as it looks to counter growing cooperation among China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, the White House said Wednesday.  Biden administration officials began developing the guidance this summer. It was shaped to be a …

PORTLAND, Maine — The U.S. East Coast was beginning a whiplash-inducing stretch of weather on Wednesday that was rainy, windy and potentially dangerous, due in part to an atmospheric river and developing bomb cyclone. Places like western Maine could see freezing rain, downpours, unseasonably high temperatures and damaging winds — all in the span of a day, said Derek Schroeter, a forecaster with the National Weather …

CAIRO — Sudan has become the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded” after 20 months of devastating war between rival generals, the International Rescue Committee said in a report released Wednesday. “The country accounts for 10% of all people in humanitarian need, despite being home to less than 1% of global population,” the New York-based organization said in their 2025 Emergency Watchlist. Since April 2023, a war …

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration says it is in touch with all rebel groups in Syria following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and wants the process of forming a new government to be led by Syrians. White House national security communications adviser John Kirby spoke with VOA Turkish’s White House correspondent Begum Donmez Ersoz and said whatever governance comes out of the process, Washington wants …

WASHINGTON — A shield law known as the PRESS Act that would give journalists greater federal protections failed to pass the Senate on Tuesday evening after it was blocked by Senator Tom Cotton.   Shield laws protect journalists from being forced by the government to disclose information such as the identities of sources. The PRESS Act would also limit the seizure of journalists’ data without their …

New York — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped Federal Trade Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to lead the federal consumer protection and antitrust agency. Ferguson has said the agency should tackle perceived censorship of conservative viewpoints online. If social media platforms collaborate to suppress such views or advertisers coordinate to pull business from platforms such as Elon Musk’s X, they should be charged with violating U.S. …

washington — The United States is moving to grant federal protections to the monarch butterfly — a once-common species recognizable by its striking black and orange patterns that has faced a dramatic population decline in recent decades. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said Tuesday it has initiated a public comment period to consider listing the insect under the Endangered Species Act. But the looming presidency …

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has created a new national monument on the grounds of a former Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania, which served as the blueprint for hundreds of similar institutions across the United States. “I want everyone to know,” Biden said. “I don’t want people forgetting, 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now.” Indian children from 140 tribes were taken from their families, tribes …

Prosecutors are urging a judge not to throw out President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money criminal conviction but suggesting a willingness to end the case in a way that would preserve the verdict while avoiding punishment or a protracted legal fight. In court papers made public on Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books, …

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to enforce mass deportations has raised alarm bells for immigrants in Florida. VOA Spanish’s José Pernalete says activists and field workers warn that crops could be affected if personnel shortages arise.  See the full story here.  …

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday presided over his final White House Tribal Nations Summit by reaching into the nation’s dark past and establishing a national monument to honor the suffering of thousands of Native children and their families in federal boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington. …

WASHINGTON — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s uncertain political future from his martial law backlash could imperil the next Trump administration’s trilateral coordination with the country and Japan in countering China, analysts say. Yoon faces an investigation for treason after declaring martial law and rescinding it hours later last week. Although he survived an impeachment vote on Saturday, the main opposition Democratic Party said the …

PHOENIX — A polygamist religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual “wives” including 10 underage girls was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Monday for coercing girls as young as 9 years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults, and for scheming to kidnap them from protective custody. Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the sect …

Since winning the election, President-elect Donald Trump has begun a complex transition process involving a carefully selected team to ensure an orderly handover. Members of this group are tasked with assisting in making key appointments, identifying candidates for top Cabinet and federal agency positions and defining public policy priorities. See the full story here. …

NEW YORK — Police have arrested a 26-year-old man with a weapon consistent with the gun used to kill the head of the largest U.S. health insurer, New York’s police commissioner said Monday.  The man was taken into custody after police got a tip that he had been spotted at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.  “They also recovered clothing, including a mask …

New York — A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism.  A Manhattan jury cleared Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely’s 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week because the jury deadlocked on that count.  …

TikTok asked a federal appeals court on Monday to bar the Biden administration from enforcing a law that could lead to a ban on the popular platform until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge to the statue.  The legal filing was made after a panel of three judges on the same court sided with the government last week and ruled that the law, which requires …