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Hi, I'm VOA's Alexis Strope with your worldwide news update.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order formalizing his announcement earlier this week that he'll freeze assistance to South Africa for a law aiming to address some of the wrongs of South Africa's racist apartheid era. The White House says the law amounts to discrimination against the country's white minority. As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent, disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country, the White House said in a summary of the order. The White House said Trump is also going to announce a program to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees. The order also references South Africa's role in bringing accusations of genocide against Israel before the International Court of Justice. President Donald Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship faces another legal challenge. AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports. A federal judge in Boston will consider a request from 18 states to block President Donald Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the United States illegally. The hearing comes after a federal judge in Seattle blocked the effort and said Trump was trying to change the constitution with an executive order. Plaintiffs in the Boston suit also say Trump's order would cost states funding. They rely on it to provide essential services like foster care, health care for low income children and early interventions for infants, toddlers and students with disabilities. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell: "... but newborn babies are not criminals. This order targets innocent newborns that have done absolutely nothing wrong. They do not deserve to be punished solely because of their parents' immigration status." Audio courtesy of WCVB. I'm Haya Panjwani. This is VOA News. A federal judge is temporarily blocking the Trump administration from putting USAID employees on paid leave. AP correspondent Donna Warder reports. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, has sided with two federal employee associations in putting on hold paid leave for some 2200 staffers with the U.S. Agency for International Development as of midnight Friday. The workers associations argued that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to shut down an agency set up by Congress. Agency staffers around the world had begun packing up after being told if they stay in their work country for more than 30 days, they might have to pay for their own way back to the U.S. Donna Warder, Washington. North Korea said on Saturday its nuclear weapons are not meant for negotiations but are intended for combat use against enemies that threaten its people and world peace, its state media reported. The statement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House on Friday. The two leaders expressed their commitment to ensuring North Korea ends its nuclear weapons program. KCNA did not mention the meeting between the U.S. and Japanese leaders but instead cited reported comments by officials of NATO and the EU that reiterated demands for a complete denuclearization of North Korea. Canada's leader says the country must do all it can to avoid the Trump tariffs. AP correspondent Mike Hempen reports. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada's leaders must spend the next 30 days working with the U.S. to avoid what he calls the fentanyl tariffs. "We need to be very deliberate about how we continue to engage closely with the United States to make the case and demonstrate that Canada is responsible for a tiny part of the North American fentanyl problem." The audio courtesy of CTV. Trudeau has promised to appoint a new "fentanyl czar." Canada has announced a $900 million border security plan that includes drones, helicopters, more border guards and the creation of a joint task force. On Monday, Trump agreed to a 30-day pause on 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. I'm Mike Hempen. Bangladesh's interim government, headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, says his makeshift administration will contain vandalism and arson after a historic house tied to ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was demolished by angry protesters. It said Friday that stern actions would be taken against such acts of violence. Angry protesters vandalized the former home of Bangladesh's late independence leader and father of Hasina, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in the capital Dhaka on Wednesday night. That wraps up this update, but the world and news never stop. For additional updates, visit our website. I'm Alexis Strope, VOA News. |