USA

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv Tuesday, pushing to increase humanitarian access to Palestinians and to end Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon. Washington is calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and the enforcement of a U.N. resolution that ended the last major war between Israel and Hezbollah. But as White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara …

WASHINGTON — As the United States presidential election enters its final phase, more and more voters are expressing support for their favored candidate by wearing election merchandise. What they may not realize is that the “Make America Great Again” Trump hat or “Childless Cat Lady for Harris” T-shirt they’re wearing quite possibly was made in China. With the help of e-commerce platforms, Chinese traders are flooding …

The war in Ukraine is reshaping the strategic landscape of Europe. While Western and Eastern European nations within the NATO alliance recognize the Russian threat, each day, NATO nations bordering Belarus and Russia feel the immediacy of the threat. In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze, Lieutenant General Charles Costanza, commander of the U.S. Army’s V Corps (also known as …

WASHINGTON — Efforts by U.S. adversaries to divide Americans and sow growing distrust in the upcoming presidential election have already begun to intensify, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials, who warn some countries appear to be leaning toward additional measures to spark election-related violence. The latest declassified assessment, issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, comes just two weeks before voters head …

WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the public disclosure of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, the bureau said on Tuesday.  “The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community,” it said in a statement.  White House national security spokesman John …

NEW YORK — Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries and two other men have been arrested on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Details of the criminal charges weren’t immediately available. They come after years of sexual misconduct allegations, made in civil lawsuits and the media, from young people who said Jeffries lured them with promises of modeling …

Chicagp — U.S. soybean export premiums are at their highest in 14 months, as grain merchants race to ship out a record-large U.S. harvest ahead of the U.S. presidential election and fears of renewed trade tensions with top importer China, traders and analysts said. Nearly 2.5 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans were inspected for export last week, including almost 1.7 million tons bound for China, …

THREE MILE ISLAND, Pennsylvania —  Giant cooling towers at Constellation Energy’s CEG.OThree Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania have sat dormant for so long that grass has sprung up in the towers’ hollowed-out bases and wildlife roam inside.   Armed guard stations at an entrance to the shut concrete facility, surrounded by barbed wire, sit empty. The plant, which would run so loud when operating …

FALL CITY, WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officials found five people killed in a shooting inside a home southeast of Seattle on Monday morning and took a teenager into custody, police said. Several people called 911 around 5 a.m. to report a shooting in Fall City, Washington, King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Mike Mellis said at a media briefing Monday afternoon. Arriving deputies immediately took one teen …

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government on Monday condemned the weekend killings by gunmen of two Mozambique opposition figures ahead of protests against a disputed election result, with Washington urging “a swift and thorough investigation into the murders.” Why it’s important The United States is the largest bilateral donor to Mozambique, providing over $560 million in assistance annually, according to the U.S. State Department website. Washington joined …

washington — A leading U.S. Democrat on China policy has called on an American web hosting company not to comply with requests from Hong Kong authorities to suspend the website of a media service founded by overseas Hong Kong democracy activists. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), wrote to web services company Automattic on Monday …

The men formerly known as the Central Park Five before they were exonerated filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. With Election Day two weeks away, the group accused the former president of making “false and defamatory statements” about them during last month’s presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is asking for a jury trial to determine compensatory …

WASHINGTON — Jill Biden unveiled Monday what she says is a reimagined White House public tour that will engage visitors’ senses to teach them about the mansion’s history and events that happened there.  New to the tour is the Diplomatic Reception Room, which previously had been off-limits. This ground-floor room is where President Franklin D. Roosevelt recorded his “fireside chats.” Snippets of some of those conversations …

Koror, Palau — Driving toward the center of Palau’s commercial city of Koror, election yard signs for presidential, senate and house of delegates’ candidates in this tiny island nation’s November elections line the street as waves of the pristinely blue Pacific Ocean lap the shore not far away. The serenity of the surroundings belies just how high the stakes are in this year’s elections. Palau sits …

Microsoft will allow customers to build autonomous artificial intelligence agents starting in November, the software giant said on Monday, in its latest move to tap the booming technology. The company is positioning autonomous agents — programs which require little human intervention unlike chatbots — as “apps for an AI-driven world,” capable of handling client inquiries, identifying sales leads and managing inventory. Other big technology firms such as …

Thelma Mothershed Wair, one of the nine Black students who integrated a high school in Arkansas’ capital city of Little Rock in 1957 while a mob of white segregationists yelled threats and insults, has died at age 83. Mothershed Wair died Saturday at a hospital in Little Rock after having complications from multiple sclerosis, her sister, Grace Davis, confirmed Sunday to The Associated Press. The …

Taipei, Taiwan — A U.S. and a Canadian warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait together Sunday less than a week after China conducted a new round of war games around the island, with Beijing denouncing the mission as “disruptive.” The U.S. Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait around once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, also …

Mount Rainier National Park, Washington — Two crew members who were missing following the crash of a fighter jet in mountainous terrain in Washington during a routine training flight have been declared dead, the U.S. Navy said Sunday. The EA-18G Growler jet from the Electronic Attack Squadron crashed east of Mount Rainier on Tuesday afternoon, according to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Search teams, including a …

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — John Kinsel Sr., one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages during World War II based on the tribe’s native language, has died. He was 107.  Navajo Nation officials in Window Rock announced Kinsel’s death on Saturday.  Tribal President Buu Nygren has ordered all flags on the reservation to be flown at half-staff until Oct. 27 at sunset to …

New York — Manhattan’s famed luxury store row Fifth Avenue is in line for a major makeover. New York City officials unveiled a plan last week to transform a central portion of the thoroughfare between Bryant Park and Central Park into a more pedestrian-centered boulevard. They propose doubling the size of sidewalks, reducing traffic lanes from five to three, as well as adding seating areas and …

miami, florida — Hurricane Oscar made landfall early Sunday in the southeastern Bahamas and was heading toward Cuba, an island recently beleaguered by a massive power outage.   The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm’s center arrived on Great Inagua island. It is expected to produce a dangerous storm surge that could produce significant coastal flooding there and in other areas of the southeastern …

MILWAUKEE — Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800. The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every …

Tens of thousands of students in the Southeast are dealing with school disruptions after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc so severe — on homes, campuses and municipal power and water systems — that some districts have no idea when they will reopen. While virtual learning helped during the COVID-19 school closures, that has not been an option for this crisis because internet and cellphone service has …

NEW YORK — Cher, Mary J. Blige and Ozzy Osbourne were among this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, an elite group formally introduced into the music pantheon Saturday at a star-studded concert gala. Kool & the Gang, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, and Peter Frampton round out the 2024 class of honorees, artists honored at the ceremony held in Cleveland, …