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This is VOA news. I'm Marissa Melton.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have unveiled legislation authorizing the next phase of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. The AP's Ed Donahue reports a vote is expected Thursday. The resolution calls for open hearings with a final recommendation on impeachment left to the House Judiciary Committee. Minority Whip Steve Scalise says this is a Soviet-style impeachment process. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will wait and see. "... if it passes, frankly, the smell test of providing the kind of due process protections that the president and his team are certainly entitled to ...." Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is tired of the complaints from President Trump. "Sometime you wonder how low this president can go. But he keeps getting lower and lower." Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney says Democrats are trying "to put a cloak of legitimacy" around the impeachment process. "They can't fix it. The process is broken. It's tainted." Ed Donahue, Washington. Embattled Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri announced his resignation Tuesday after unprecedented anti-government protests demanding political reform. His resignation came two weeks after people launched a largely peaceful protest movement demanding an overhaul of the political class considered corrupt and incompetent. ???, a Lebanese anti-government protester, tells the AP he's delighted Prime Minister Hariri is handing in his resignation and he hopes others will follow. "We are going to not come out of the streets until the government steps down and no government is gonna come up that their professionals and don't belong to any sectarianism, to any political association with any of the ones we have currently." You can find more on this story online at our website voanews.com. We have a mobile app. And from Washington D.C., this is VOA news. The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to officially recognize the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide. The historic vote was 405 to 11. It's seen as a rebuke to Turkey, which has spent nearly a century denying there was a genocide. Turkey's foreign minister immediately condemned the vote, calling it a "shameful decision." He said it was probably "revenge" for Turkey's incursion into northern Syria. There has been no reaction so far from the Trump administration. Also Tuesday, the House voted 403 to 16 to approve sanctions against Turkey in response to its offensive in Syria. On the first anniversary of a Boeing 737 Max crashing in Indonesia, the company is apologizing while being ???growled on Capitol Hill. AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports. It was the first of two crashes within about seven months that killed 346 people. "Both of these accidents were entirely preventable." Senator Roger Wicker chairing the first congressional hearing since then where Boeing executive appeared with CEO Dennis Muilenburg saying it's very sorry. "We've made mistakes and we got some things wrong." Senators blasted Boeing over a flight control system implicated in both crashes. Richard Blumenthal says Boeing lobbied the FAA to keep an explanation of the system out of pilot manuals and training and then blamed pilots for the crashes. "Those pilots never had a chance." Muilenburg says Boeing's working on fixes and hopes the Max will fly again by year's end. Sagar Meghani, at the White House. The NCAA appears to be moving toward allowing college athletes to cash in on their fame. AP correspondent Ben Thomas. The NCAA board of governors voted unanimously to clear the way for the amateur athletes to "benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness." The NCAA has long barred players from hiring agents and has steadfastly refused to allow players to be paid by their schools. But that's being challenged by states. A California law set to take effect in 2023 would prevent athletes from losing their scholarships or being kicked off their teams for signing endorsement deals. Now, board chair Michael Drake says the NCAA realizes it "must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes." I'm Ben Thomas. Hundreds of firefighters are struggling to contain wind-fueled wildfires Tuesday in the western U.S. state of California. The most recent fire broke out on Monday on the west side of Los Angeles. It burned down at least eight homes. The area is where some of the city's most expensive houses are located and the fire forced thousands to evacuate. It burned close to a major highway on Monday Interstate 405 and commuters posted pictures on social media showing hills around the road in flames. Marissa Melton, VOA news. |