VOA NEWS

May 22, 2018

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Christopher Cruise reporting.



The U.S. Justice Department will expand its investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the White House said on Monday. The expansion will include President Trump's claims that the FBI planted an informant to spy on the campaign

The informant's actual role was to talk with two Trump campaign advisers suspected of having contacts with Russia. There is no evidence the FBI acted illegally.

But the announcement came after Trump's demand for an investigation on Twitter Sunday and a meeting Monday with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.



A report published Monday by the British Parliament's foreign affairs committee says the British government has turned a blind eye to the role that London's financial center plays in laundering the proceeds of Russian corruption.

The report says "the use of London as a base for the corrupt assets of Kremlin-connected individuals is now linked to a wider Russia strategy with implications for the UK's national security."



U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has released a long list of items that he said should be included in a new nuclear treaty with Iran. Pompeo spoke in Washington on Monday.

"We're prepared to end the principal components of every one of our sanctions against the regime. We're happy at that point to re-establish full diplomatic and commercial relationships with Iran."

In a statement published on Iranian state media shortly after Pompeo spoke, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani dismissed any threats from Pompeo, saying, "Who are you to decide for Iran and the world?"



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The CIA has its first female director. AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports.

gI, Gina Haspel, do solemnly swear ...."

Haspel is the first woman to head the nation's premier intelligence agency.

"There is no one in this country better qualified ...."

On his first visit to the CIA's headquarters since the day after taking office, President Trump praised its staffers as "the most elite intelligence professionals on the planet."

Haspel agrees. "The men and women who serve here are a national treasure." She spoke hours after the president blasted one of her predecessors, suggesting former director John Brennan is to blame for the Russia probe.

Sagar Meghani, at the White House.



A Syrian military spokesman says the army has recaptured the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp outside Damascus, along with two adjoining neighborhoods that were under the control of the Islamic State group.

Correspondent Edward Yeranian reports for VOA from Cairo.

American University of Beirut professor Hilal Khashan tells VOA other Palestinian factions loyal to the Assad regime negotiated with the Islamic State militants to secure the Yarmouk camp surrender. He expects the government to now attempt to recapture the largest rebel-held city of Idlib near the Turkish border.

"The completion of the battle for greater Damascus allows the regime to take the battle elsewhere. Now they have spare forces that they can commit to the battle in Idlib."

Edward Yeranian, for VOA news, Cairo.



Burundi's electoral commission says a large majority of voters have approved major changes to the constitution.

Correspondent Mohammed Yusuf reports for VOA from Bujumbura.

According to the electoral agency, 73 percent voted yes and 19 percent voted no in last Thursday's constitution referendum.

The amendments create the position of prime minister, increase presidential terms from five to seven years and will give current President Pierre Nkurunziza a chance to run for two more terms and extend his rule until 2034.

They also give the ruling party the chance to abolish the power-sharing deals between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis.

Mohammed Yusuf, for VOA news, Bujumbura.



The United States imposed economic sanctions Monday on Venezuela for what it said was the country's "fraudulent" re-election of President Nicholás Maduro to a second six-year term.

On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order that banned Americans from conducting oil transactions with Venezuela, which was once one of the world's top oil producers.



You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. I'm Christopher Cruise, VOA news.

That's the latest world news from VOA.