President Donald Trump is re-opening for oil exploration areas that President Barack Obama had closed, a move that environmental groups have promised to fight. In an executive order Friday, the president reversed the Obama administration’s decision to prohibit oil and gas drilling in the Arctic waters off Alaska. The order also instructs the Interior Department… more

The United States issued about 40 percent fewer temporary visas in March to citizens of seven countries covered by President Donald Trump’s temporary travel bans than it did in an average month last year, according to a Reuters analysis of preliminary government data released on Thursday. At the same time, the data showed that the… more

Saturday, April 29 will mark the anniversary of the outbreak of riots in Los Angeles, sparked by the acquittal of white police officers accused of beating a black motorist, Rodney King.  Mike O’Sullivan spoke to police and community members about the state of race relations, 25 years later. …… more

Tensions between Russia and the West over security in Europe, the Middle East and Asia have surfaced at an annual defense conference in Moscow. Major flashpoints include the situation in Syria and NATO expansion. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave a stark warning about the expanding threat of terrorism and conflict across the globe at… more

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley ratcheted up her rhetoric against Russia on Thursday, saying more pressure needs to be put on Moscow to stop the war in Syria. “Many of you said we need to put pressure on the Syrian regime; that’s actually not the case. We need to put pressure on… more

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin says the decision to challenge President Donald Trump’s travel ban has its roots in World War II. While the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor painfully underscored the need to focus on national security, the decision to isolate Americans based on their status as immigrants still stands as a national… more

Just weeks after a public relations nightmare for United Airlines, there could be another headache for the company. The airline is investigating the death of a giant rabbit that appears to have died in the cargo hold on a trans-Atlantic flight from England to the United States. The owner of the rabbit, breeder Annette Edwards… more

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday directing his interior secretary to review the designation of dozens of national monuments on federal lands, as he singled out “a massive federal land grab” by the Obama administration.   It was yet another executive action from a president trying to rack up accomplishments before his first… more

Up to this day in 1954 in American history, even a president of the United States, later President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, could be struck down by the debilitating effects of paralysis that is the signature of poliovirus.  The irony is that very few Americans perceived Roosevelt as “handicapped,” according to presidential historians. On April 26,… more

The number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally fell to 11 million since 2009, largely because of a drop-off in the number of Mexicans without legal status, according to a study released Tuesday. The report by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center — using survey data from 2015 — showed the number of immigrants lacking legal… more

President Donald Trump will mark the end of his first 100 days in office with a flurry of executive orders, a tool he once derided. Trump’s frequent use of executive orders points to his struggles getting legislation through a Congress controlled by his own party, and few of the orders themselves appear to deliver the… more

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley has admonished the warring parties in South Sudan, saying they have done nothing to end the suffering of their people and are only exacerbating it. Haley spoke of the on-going violence, worsening food insecurity, massive displacements, and the dangers to humanitarian workers in the young but failing country.… more

Top officials in the Trump administration will hold a rare classified briefing at the White House for the entire U.S. Senate on the situation in North Korea. Officials say the briefing Wednesday will be conducted by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and chairman of the… more

The U.S. and China are launching four rounds of talks, as U.S. President Donald Trump heads to China later this year in a visit aimed at strengthening cooperation to reduce tensions in the Korean Peninsula. In a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday, Trump said he’s “looking forward to the state visit… more

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Syrian government officials in response to the alleged sarin gas attack that killed scores of civilians earlier this month. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin made the announcement Monday, saying the move orders a freeze on all assets in the U.S. belonging to 271 employees of the Syrian Scientific Studies and… more

U.S. President Donald Trump made a new push Sunday for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to thwart illegal immigration, with funding for the controversial barrier at the forefront of White House discussions with lawmakers to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week. Trump wants initial funding for the… more

Former U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday makes his first major appearance since leaving office, having chosen Chicago, the city where his political career started, to emerge from a three-month hiatus from the public eye. Obama will meet youth leaders and promote community organizing near the same South Side neighborhoods where his own activism blossomed… more

Silicon Valley isn’t the only place to find the next Mark Zuckerberg. Nearly 9,000 tech startups call New York City home, and their offerings reflect the unique needs of the most populous U.S. city.   At the recent NY TechDay event in New York, more than 500 startups were on hand to display their wares.… more

The U.S. Surgeon General under the Obama administration has resigned and been replaced, at least, temporarily, by his deputy. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that Vivek Murthy was asked to resign after “assisting in a smooth transition” from the Obama administration to that of President Donald Trump. Murthy’s replacement is his… more

Scientists are taking the unprecedented step of staging marches in more than 600 cities worldwide in the face of what they see as a growing political assault on evidence-based knowledge. Thousands of scientists and their supporters are attending March for Science events Saturday across the globe, including those in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cape Town, London… more

The desperate effort this week to find two hikers who disappeared at the bottom of the Grand Canyon represented the National Park Service’s most extensive use yet of drones in a search-and-rescue mission.   The Grand Canyon is the only national park with its own fleet of unmanned aircraft for locating people who have gotten… more

The United States will not make an exception for American companies, including oil major Exxon Mobil Corp, seeking to drill in areas prohibited by U.S. sanctions on Russia, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday. “In consultation with President Donald J. Trump, the Treasury Department will not be issuing waivers to U.S. companies, including Exxon,… more

A pilot from the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, which is sailing toward the Korean Peninsula, ejected safely from a fighter jet, the U.S. Pacific Command said Friday. Navy officials said the pilot of the single-seat jet was conducting “routine flight operations” over the Celebes Sea before he ejected. The plane then crashed. The cause… more

An Egyptian-American aid worker who was freed Thursday night after spending almost three years in an Egyptian prison met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday morning. Aya Hijazi and her husband, Mohamed Hassanein, an Egyptian, were acquitted earlier this week of child abuse charges stemming from an aid organization they… more

Marijuana enthusiasts in the United States celebrate April 20 — or 4/20 — as an informal holiday, but this year they have something else to get excited about: New polling data show support for legalization of the drug is at an all-time high. Sixty percent of Americans say they support the legalization of marijuana, according… more

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he will meet in Washington next month with U.S. President Donald Trump, who called Erdogan on Monday to congratulate him on narrowly winning a disputed referendum that will significantly expand the powers of his presidency. Erdogan said Thursday in an interview with Turkish broadcaster A Haber that the two… more