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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Anne Ball reporting.
U.S. President Donald Trump is proposing a path to citizenship for 1.8 million young immigrants living in the United States, according to unnamed White House sources. The plan is aimed at "Dreamers" or people brought to the United States [when their] with their families when they were still minors. Senior White House officials told reporters Thursday that Trump's plan would scale back family-based immigration to include only spouses and underaged children. It would also eliminate the visa lottery program. The plan would also include $25 billion "trust fund" to build a border wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has yet to be released. President Donald Trump is in Davos, Switzerland, where he threatened to withhold aid to the Palestinians if they do not pursue peace with Israel, but he said there was still a way forward. "That money is on the table. That money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace, because I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace." Trump was hosting a dinner with European business leaders and other companies where some said the recent tax cuts are encouraging them to invest in the U.S. Thursday, scientists moved the symbolic "Doomsday Clock" ahead by 30 seconds, saying the world is at the closest to annihilation since the height of the Cold War due to world leaders' poor response to threats of nuclear war. For more on this, go to our website. This is VOA news. U.S. President Donald Trump's Homeland Security adviser says the United States would prefer that Turkish troops remove themselves from a conflict in the Syrian border town of Afrin. "Well, I think that the president will make decisions to de-escalate violence in Afrin and to normalize and stabilize pre-Afrin actions in that region and I think that he'll make that decision here with the full support of the United States." The United States has previously expressed concerns about Turkish efforts against the Kurdish-led SDF forces that drove Islamic State fighters from much of northeastern Syria with the help of the U.S.-led coalition. Two revered former U.S. secretaries of state on Thursday warned lawmakers of a marked rise in nuclear dangers stemming from North Korea's race to develop atomic weapons and the means to deliver them. George Shultz, who served in the Reagan administration, called nuclear proliferation "a major problem." "The more countries have nuclear weapons, the more likely it is that one is going to go off somewhere, and the more fissile material is lying around, anybody who gets fissile material can make a weapon fairly easily. So this is a major problem that can blow up the world." Henry Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, highlighted "a systemic failure of the world order" in dealing with nuclear proliferation. Venezuela [is seeing an Interpol] is seeking an Interpol red alert for former oil czar Rafael Ramirez. The Venezuelan Attorney General's office said on Friday Ramirez, the once powerful chief of the state oil industry and former ambassador to the U.N., was the alleged mastermind of a new corruption plot detected in a European subsidy of the oil company. Tarek William Saab said the damage is calculated at to be at least $4.8 million. Forcible displacement in the Central African Republic is at record levels. The U.N. refugee agency reports escalating violence is to blame. The fiercest fighting and greatest displacement is taking place in the northwest region of the country. I'm Anne Ball in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |