RIYADMEDIA

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended Friday when President Donald Trump delayed his demand for funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, signing a three-week spending bill that will reopen shuttered agencies and get back pay to 800,000 federal workers. But as VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the short-term funding is meant to buy lawmakers time to address border security.
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U.S. President Donald Trump broke from his non-interventionist foreign policy this week, when he recognized Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guiado as the country’s interim president. The move increased tensions between Caracas and Washington, as President Nicolas Maduro kicked out American diplomats and the U.S. president said “all options are on the table.” White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more.
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Roger Stone, the Republican political operative indicted Friday by the grand jury investigating Russian election interference, is a longtime friend and confidante of President Donald Trump who helped pave the way for the real estate mogul’s unforeseen ascent to the White House.

A self-described “dirty trickster” with a taste for loud suits and colorful language, Stone, 66, has known Trump since the late 1970s when Stone, a young veteran of Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election team, was campaigning for another Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan, and courting supporters for his campaign in New York.

As Stone recalled in a 2016 interview with PBS’ Frontline program, Trump, a brash real estate developer and a registered Republican at the time, offered to help the campaign even though “he emphasized that he was a businessman, that he wasn’t that political.”

“For those who say he’s not a conservative, he’s not a Republican, he was there in the Reagan revolution,” Stone said.

​In Trump orbit

Stone has remained in Trump’s orbit ever since, by turns serving as a lobbyist, business consultant, and political confidante.

In the 1980s, Trump hired Stone, then a Washington lobbyist, to represent him in the nation’s capital to deal with “a number of small but important issues” involving the businessman’s Atlantic City casinos and other properties.

For his part, Stone, viewing Trump as a larger-than-life figure “who’s got it all” — charisma, wealth, standing — pressed Trump to run for president.

In 1988, as Reagan’s second term was winding down, Stone arranged for Trump to travel to New Hampshire, site of the nation’s first presidential primary, to address a crowd of 2,000 well-wishers. Trump liked the “publicity” and the “notoriety” but was not “serious about running,” Stone recalled in the interview.

Trump made a more serious albeit ultimately unsuccessful run for the White House in 2000, but it wasn’t until Trump declared his candidacy for president in 2015 that Stone began to see his decadeslong push to put Trump in the White House within reach.

Stone joined his friend’s long-shot campaign early on in 2015 but left shortly thereafter for reasons that remain in dispute. The campaign said at the time that Stone had been fired, but Stone maintained that he’d left on his own.

Whatever the case, the parting of ways did not stop Stone from serving as loud cheerleader of Trump’s presidential bid. He set up a super PAC, the Committee to Restore America’s Greatness, paying for a billboard in New York’s Times Square depicting Trump as Superman.

As the campaign shifted into high gear, Stone drew wide scrutiny after WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy activist group, released thousands of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Prosecutors say Russian military intelligence agents hacked the emails and then funneled them to WikiLeaks as part of Moscow’s effort to disrupt the election.

After the first WikiLeaks email dump in July 2016, Stone insinuated in social media comments that the website was planning to release Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails.

In an August tweet, Stone wrote, “Trust me, it will soon [be] Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary.” In October, WikiLeaks released thousands of emails hacked from Podesta’s Gmail account.

​Merely ‘bluffing’

Peter Flaherty, chairman and chief executive officer of the conservative National Legal and Policy Center and a friend of Stone, said Stone was merely “bluffing and double dealing as all political consultants do.”

“If you want to make that a crime, the jails around Washington, D.C., would be pretty full,” Flaherty said.

Flaherty said Stone’s role in Trump’s election has been exaggerated.

“Roger and Donald Trump have had an on-again, off-again relationship over the years,” he said. “Trump respected his opinion on many things but I don’t think he was his closest adviser or somehow quarterbacked the presidential race. It’s just not the case.”

Stone has long denied advance knowledge of the email release.

In September 2017, he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee, testifying that he had no direct contact with WikiLeaks during the campaign, did not direct anyone to contact WikiLeaks, and that he did not discuss his conversations with an intermediary to WikiLeaks with the Trump campaign.

But prosecutors say those statements were all false. Stone, they say, was in close contact with the Trump campaign as he was trying to find out when WikiLeaks was planning to publish its next batch of damaging emails and documents about the Clinton campaign.

After WikiLeaks released its first batch of the Podesta emails on Oct. 7, an associate of a senior Trump campaign official sent a text message to Stone that read “well done,” according to the indictment.

Stone was arrested by FBI agents at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, early Friday after a grand jury in Washington handed down an indictment, charging him with five counts of making false statements, one count of obstruction of a legal proceeding, and one count of witness tampering.

According to the indictment, not only did Stone lie to Congress about his interactions with WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign, but he also tried to prevent an associate, Randy Credico, from providing testimony to Congress that would contradict Stone’s version of events.
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While other Democrats around the country are preparing for presidential runs, a retired Army paratrooper and former West Virginia lawmaker Friday became the first to call off his White House bid after about two months as a candidate.

Richard Ojeda says he isn’t getting the money or attention needed to sustain a campaign.

“The last thing I want to do is accept money from people who are struggling for a campaign that does not have the ability to compete,” he wrote in a statement on social media.

The tattooed veteran who recently ran for Congress announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president on Veterans Day at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Ojeda said he was told as a child that anyone could grow up to be president.

“I now realize that this is not the case. Unless someone has extreme wealth or holds influence and power it just isn’t true,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

Ojeda was elected to the West Virginia Senate in 2016 and became a champion of teachers during their fight for better pay and benefits. He sponsored successful legislation to make medical marijuana legal, and has stressed health care and economic issues in a district reeling from lost coal jobs.

On Friday, he said he’ll make an announcement soon about his future.
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Potential Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said Friday that Donald Trump’s presidency “cannot be helped” and was “dangerous” for the country.

The former New York City mayor also described the partial government shutdown, now at a record 35th day, as “a complete failure of presidential leadership.”

The billionaire businessman said that for fellow New Yorker Trump, “the art of the deal is simply cheating people and not caring about how badly they get hurt and now he’s doing it to the American people.”

Bloomberg also told a meeting of the Democratic Business Council of Northern Virginia that he thinks “it’s clear that this president, at this point, cannot be helped.”

The remarks by Bloomberg, a former Republican who registered as a Democrat only last fall, were some of his toughest against Trump since Bloomberg’s speech to the Democratic National Convention more than two years ago. Back then, Bloomberg warned of the prospect of a Trump presidency: “God help us.”

Bloomberg reflected upon that 2016 speech repeatedly on Friday, and he went further, suggesting that the government shutdown has proved that his initial warning about Trump was correct.

“The presidency is not an entry level job. There’s just too much at stake,” Bloomberg said. “And the longer we have a pretend CEO who’s recklessly running this country, the worst it’s going to be for our economy and our security.

He added: “This is really dangerous.”

Bloomberg’s warm reception at the business-friendly audience highlighted the chief political challenge should he enter the 2020 race. Liberal activists, who like to attack what they call “corporate Democrats,” play a far more prominent role in the primary process than do the kind of business executives who gave him a standing ovation Friday.

One of the most prominent early Democratic candidates, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has warned against the role of billionaires in the presidential primary process.

Bloomberg tried to make the case for both capitalism and a centrist candidate, suggesting that Democrats don’t need to choose between “energizing the base” and “pragmatic leadership.”

Asked about his 2020 intentions, he acknowledged that he has “a good life” and can make a difference even if he doesn’t run.

“Having said that, I don’t like walking away from challenges.”
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Jerome Corsi, a right-wing political commentator and conspiracy theorist, confirmed on Friday he is “Person 1” cited in the indictment of Roger Stone and said he no longer believed he would be charged as part of the U.S. special counsel’s Russia probe.

Stone, a self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” and ally of U.S. President Donald Trump for 40 years, was arrested on Friday on charges of lying to Congress about the release of stolen Democratic Party emails during the 2016 campaign.

The indictment details multiple communications about the emails and WikiLeaks’ plans to release them to the public between Stone and “Person 1” and “Person 2”, who are described in broad terms but not identified by name.

Corsi confirmed to Reuters that he was “Person 1.”

“I can confirm everything they report in the indictment about ‘Person 1’,” Corsi said. “I don’t see that I am being charged with any wrongdoing of any kind. I think that’s appropriate because I’ve done nothing wrong.”

July 2016 email

Among other communications, the indictment references an email from Stone in late July 2016 in which he urged Corsi to go to see Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks who is living in Ecuador’s embassy in London, and to “get the pending… emails”.

Corsi, who was in Europe at the time, responded to Stone in an email on Aug. 2: “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging,” Corsi wrote, according to the indictment.

Corsi has said he did not receive any inside knowledge or advance notice of the planned email releases from Wikileaks and figured it out on his own based on his own research.

Corsi said in November that he had received a plea offer from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office under which they were asking him to plead guilty to one felony count of providing false information to them in return for a lighter sentence.

Deal rejected

Corsi, who said he rejected the deal because he never intentionally lied during his 40 hours of interviews with Mueller’s team, expressed concerns at the time that he would be indicted as part of the special counsel’s probe.

Corsi said he would advise Stone not to underestimate the amount of information already in Mueller’s possession.

“The Special Counsel has everything and they are extremely thorough,” said Corsi, who has filed a lawsuit against Mueller, the FBI and other agencies, claiming the government violated his Fourth Amendment due process rights.
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U.S. authorities expect to soon hand down a sentence in the case of Maria Butina, the 30-year-old Russian woman now held in a U.S. jail who has pleaded guilty of conspiring to influence American politics, accused of conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent. VOA’s Ricardo Marquina-Montanana traveled to the Siberian city of Barnaul to speak with Butina’s family about a case being watched around the world. Igor Tsikhanenka narrates.
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The Trump administration on Friday will start forcing some asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases proceed through U.S. courts, an official said, launching what could become one of the more significant changes to the immigration system in years. 

The changes will be introduced at San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing, according to a U.S. official familiar with the plan who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity. San Ysidro is the nation’s busiest crossing and the choice of asylum seekers who arrived to Tijuana, Mexico, in November in a caravan of more than 6,000 mostly Central American migrants.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the Migrant Protection Protocols will return some asylum seekers to Mexico as they wait for their cases to be processed in the U.S. The announcement said Mexico will provide the migrants will all appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay.

DHS said the U.S. is “facing a security and humanitarian crisis on the Southern Border” and that is why it has implemented the MPP “to address the crisis and execute our missions to secure the border, enforce immigration and customs laws, facilitate legal trade and travel, counter traffickers, smugglers and transnational criminal organizations, and interdict drugs and illegal contraband.”

“Families and individuals traveling to the border are not a national security crisis,” said Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “They are people like you and me, except that many have left their home to seek protection form persecution and violence. We must not abandon those who have lost everything and are trying to rebuild their lives.”

Huang is a member of an international delegation traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border to observe the impact of the U.S. policy on migrants.

DHS said MPP will “discourage individuals from attempting illegal entry and making false claims to stay in the U.S., and allow more resources to be dedicated to individuals who legitimately qualify for asylum.”

DHS said it is “working closely” with the Justice Department “to streamline the process.” The agency added that it is also looking to “conclude removal proceedings as expeditiously as possible.”

The policy, which is expected to face a legal challenge, may be expanded to other crossings. It does not apply to children traveling alone or to asylum seekers from Mexico.

The plan calls for U.S. authorities to bus asylum seekers back and forth to the border for court hearings in downtown San Diego, including an initial appearance within 45 days.

The Trump administration will make no arrangements for them to consult with attorneys, who may visit clients in Tijuana or speak with them by phone.  

U.S. officials also will begin processing only about 20 asylum claims a day at the San Diego crossing but plan to ramp up to exceed the number of claims processed now, which is up to 100 a day, the official said.

​’Credible fear’

The policy could severely strain Mexican border cities. U.S. border authorities fielded 92,959 “credible fear” claims — an initial screening to have asylum considered — during a recent 12-month period, up 67 percent from a year earlier. Many were Central American families.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy is President Donald Trump’s latest move to reshape immigration policy, though it may prove temporary. Other major changes have been blocked in court, including a ban on seeking asylum for people who cross the border illegally from Mexico and generally dismissing domestic and gang violence as grounds for asylum.

It is also an early test of relations between two populist presidents — Trump and Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office Dec. 1. 

Mexican officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. 

Roberto Velasquez, spokesman for Mexico’s foreign relations secretary, emphasized earlier this week that there would be no bilateral agreement and that Mexico was responding to a unilateral move by the United States. He said in an interview that discussions covering “a very broad range of topics” were aimed at preparing Mexico for the change.

Broad outlines of the plan were announced Dec. 20, but details were not revealed until Thursday. Mexico said last month that people seeking asylum in the U.S. would get temporary humanitarian visas while their cases were settled in the U.S., which can take years, and could seek permission to work in Mexico.

Mexico has started issuing humanitarian visas to Central Americans as another major caravan makes its way through the southern part of the country.  

While illegal crossings from Mexico are at historically low levels, the U.S. has witnessed a surge in asylum claims, especially from Central American families. Because of a lack of family detention space and a court-imposed 20-day limit on detaining children, they are typically released with a notice to appear in immigration court. With a backlog of more than 800,000 cases, it can take years to settle cases.

Tijuana’s effects

It’s not clear if Central Americans will be deterred from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they have to wait in Tijuana, a booming city with plenty of jobs. Tijuana doesn’t come close to matching the U.S. on wages, and asylum seekers generally have far fewer family ties there than they do in the U.S.

Incoming Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard has said Mexico will coordinate with the U.S. on the policy’s mechanics, which would ensure migrants access to information and legal services. Ebrard said Dec. 24 that he wanted more information to ensure “orderly and secure” protocols.

Rafael Fernandez de Castro, director of the University of California-San Diego’s Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies, said last week that Mexico had not fully considered the impact on Mexican border towns. 

“This could have lasting repercussions for Mexican border cities,” Fernandez de Castro said. “We have to assess the potential numbers and how to help them stay healthy. We don’t have that assessment.” 

VOA contributed to this report.
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A Republican U.S. representative on Thursday introduced White House-drafted legislation that would give President Donald Trump more power to levy tariffs on imported goods in an effort to pressure other countries to lower their duties and other trade barriers.

The measure offered by Representative Sean Duffy, which has been touted by Trump administration officials, has already been declared unacceptable by some Republican senators, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley.

Democrats, who control the House of Representatives and its legislative agenda, are unlikely to grant Trump more executive authority, especially as a standoff over the partial government shutdown drags on. A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Reciprocal Trade Act, which Trump was expected to highlight in his now-delayed State of the Union address, would give him authority to levy tariffs equal to those of a foreign country on a particular product if that country’s tariffs are determined to be significantly lower than those charged by the United States.

It would also allow Trump to take into account non-tariff barriers when determining such tariffs.

Trump has invoked trade laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s to levy tariffs on steel and aluminum on national security grounds and has applied tariffs on imports from China based on U.S. findings that Beijing is misappropriating U.S. intellectual property through forced technology transfers and other means.

The United States has lower tariffs than many other countries, such as its 2.5 percent levy on imported passenger vehicles compared with the European Union’s 10 percent tariff.

But increasing them and applying them in a country-specific manner would effectively be a violation of the World Trade Organization’s most fundamental rule, that tariffs must be applied globally and cannot be raised unilaterally except in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases.

“The goal of the U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act is not to raise America’s tariffs but rather to encourage the rest of the world to lower theirs,” Duffy said in a statement, adding that the authority would be a negotiating tool to pressure other countries to lower their tariffs.
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Republicans on the U.S. nuclear power regulator approved a stripped-down safety rule Thursday that removes the need for nuclear plants to take extra measures based on recent science to protect against hazards such as floods and earthquakes.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a board with three Republican seats and two Democratic seats, approved the rule on a 3-2 vote along party lines. Dissents are rare on the NRC and the two members who hold Democratic seats strongly disagreed with the approval.

They said the Republican decision could allow plants to avoid protections against risks of natural disasters that have become apparent with science methods that have evolved since most plants were built about 40 years ago.

A draft rule that included the measures was formed following the 2011 nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant that was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami, forcing more than 160,000 people from their homes. The draft was presented to the commission in 2016.

Arguments against

Commissioner Jeff Baran, a Democrat, said NRC staff had included the extra safety measures in the draft after years of work, but Republicans had jettisoned them.

“Instead of requiring nuclear power plants to be prepared for the actual flooding and earthquake hazards that could occur at their sites, the NRC will allow them to be prepared only for the old out-of-date hazards typically calculated decades ago when the science of seismology and hydrology was far less advanced than it is today,” Baran said after the vote.

Stephen Burns, a registered independent whom former President Barack Obama appointed to a Democratic seat on the commission, also voted against the measure.

Argument in favor

NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki, a Republican, said after the vote that the commission’s work since 2011 has resulted in “tangible safety improvements at every U.S. nuclear power plant.”

Svinicki said that although the Democrats were concerned that the rule ignores flooding and earthquake hazards, “in the view of the commission majority this is not the case.”

Regulations already in place already address the issues, she added.

A nuclear power safety advocate said new information showed that plants may experience bigger floods and earthquakes than they are now required to withstand, and that it is possible the commission will not require nuclear plants that face greater hazards to make upgrades.

“Nuclear plants must be protected against the most severe natural disasters they could face today — not those estimated 40 years ago,” said Edwin Lyman, acting director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
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President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would accept a deal to at least temporarily reopen the federal government if it contained a “pro-rated down payment” on the U.S.-Mexico border wall he has sought for two years.

Trump told reporters at the White House the country had no choice but to build a wall to keep out what he said was a “virtual invasion” by criminals, human traffickers and drugs.

Trump said he blamed himself for the large number of immigrants who want to enter the United States, crediting himself for a strong economy and what he said was a record number of people employed.

But he said anyone who wanted to come to the U.S. had to do so legally.

Senate bills rejected

Earlier Thursday, the Senate failed to end the shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — when it voted down two competing proposals that would have ended the 34-day impasse over funding for the wall.

A Republican measure incorporating Trump’s $5.7 billion request for wall construction, in addition to limited immigration reforms and government funding through the current fiscal year, failed to advance by a 50-47 vote.  

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had called the Republican bill, “a pragmatic compromise that could end this impasse right away. The choice is absolutely clear and the nation is watching.” 

McConnell emphasized that the Republican plan was the only one that would have received the president’s signature. But Senate Democrats pushed back against the White House offer.

“If it were a compromise, the president would have talked to us about it,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. He went on to say that policy disagreements over immigration could be worked out, but “the difference that’s hard to resolve is a party and a president who believe in government shutdowns.”

A Democratic proposal went down by a vote of 52-44, despite getting six Republican votes. The measure contained no border security or immigration provisions and was designed to reopen shuttered federal agencies and provide a two-week window for congressional leaders and the White House to negotiate a deal on immigration. 

Both proposals required 60 votes to advance in the 100-member chamber. Republicans have a 53-47 Senate majority.

Congressional action has not been limited to the Senate. The Democrat-led House of Representatives has passed multiple bills restoring federal spending authority but omitting wall funding from all of them.

A growing number of lawmakers of both parties have said compromise is the only way to end the political stalemate and reopen the government.

“It is long overdue for all sides to come together, to engage in constructive debate and compromise to end this standoff,” Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said. “Shutdowns represent the ultimate failure to govern and should never be used as a weapon to achieve an outcome.”

Some missing 2nd paycheck 

The shutdown has furloughed 800,000 government employees, with at least 420,000 forced to continue working without pay and the remainder sent home. Some of them have been forced to look for temporary work elsewhere to help pay their household bills. All are set to miss their second biweekly paycheck on Friday.

Some government services have been curtailed. About 10 percent of airport security agents ordered to work have instead called in sick, some food inspections have been cut back, and museums and parks are closed. Federal courts could run out of money by the end of the month. 

Trump said he understood that people need to keep their pantries full. He said he “loves and respects” federal workers and appreciated the work they do. 

But he did not try to explain a comment Thursday by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Ross, who is a multimillionaire, told CNBC television he could not understand why a furloughed federal worker would have to turn to a food bank for help when he could simply take out a loan from a bank or credit union. 

“So there really is not a good excuse why there should be a liquidity crisis,” Ross said. “Now, true, the people might have to pay a little bit of interest, but the idea that it’s paycheck or zero is not a really valid idea.”​

His remarks followed those by Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, who said Wednesday that missed paychecks and empty wallets caused “a little bit of pain.”

“But it’s going to be for the future of our country, and their children and their grandchildren and generations after them will thank them for their sacrifice right now,” she said. “But the president is trying every single day to come up with a good solution here, and the reality is it’s been something that’s gone on for too long and been unaddressed — our immigration problem.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the comments reflected a “let-them-eat-cake attitude.” 
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A U.S. Senate committee has subpoenaed President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to testify, a day after Cohen said he was postponing an  appearance that was scheduled for Feb.  7.

Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, said “we will comply and hope to agree upon reasonable terms, ground rules and a date.”

Cohen made no comments to reporters outside his New York City home.

Pleaded guilty

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to charges of lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee in earlier testimony concerning a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.

He acknowledged that talks with Russian officials did not end earlier, but were carried on deep into the 2016 presidential campaign.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller also accused Cohen of lying to the House Intelligence Committee.

Senators want to hear what Cohen has to say after he admitted lying to Congress and had extensive talks with Mueller.

Cohen said Wednesday he was postponing his highly anticipated public testimony in part because of threats Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, allegedly made against his family.

Both have urged the Justice Department to investigate Cohen’s father-in-law for crimes they did not specify, but allege his involvement in organized crime.

“If he (Trump) wants to criticize Cohen, he can,” Davis said Thursday. “Obviously, picking on his family publicly is a way of silencing him or intimidating him. And certainly he has engendered great fear in his extended family.”

Witness tampering?

Davis accused Giuliani of witness tampering, which is a crime. Some Democrats also accused Trump of the same crime.

Trump has called Cohen a “bad lawyer” and accused him of lying to Mueller to try to get a lighter prison sentence. 

Along with the conviction on charges of lying to Congress, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for paying off women to keep quiet  about alleged affairs with Trump, and for financial crimes unrelated to the president.
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U.S. President Donald Trump says he will delay giving his State of the Union address until after he and Congress resolve a partial government shutdown.

“I am not looking for an alternative venue for the SOTU Address because there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber,” Trump tweeted late Wednesday. “I look forward to giving a ‘great’ State of the Union Address in the near future!”

White House officials earlier said plans were underway for the annual address to be made from a different location — including at a political rally —depending on whether the partial shutdown of the U.S. government persists.

The president is required to annually submit to Congress a report on the nation, but there is no requirement that it be an address before both the House and Senate.

By modern tradition, though, presidents have been invited to address a joint session of Congress inside the House chamber. The speech is also broadcast on national television.

​Due to the government shutdown that began December 22, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had urged Trump to postpone the address or give it to lawmakers in writing. She expressed security concerns, noting the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security are part of the one-quarter of the U.S. government remaining unfunded.

Trump dismissed those concerns in a letter to Pelosi earlier Wednesday and said he looked forward to giving the speech as scheduled on January 29. 

Pelosi sent her own letter making it clear she had no intention of changing her position.

“I am writing to inform you that the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until the government has opened,” Pelosi wrote.

She said that when she extended her original invitation on Jan. 3, she had “no thought that the government will still be shut down” on Jan. 29, and that she looked forward to welcoming Trump to the House after the government reopens.
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A prominent American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television who was held in the U.S. as a material witness was released from jail Wednesday evening. 

Marzieh Hashemi, 59, was released from jail in Washington after being detained for 10 days, according to Abed Ayoub, an attorney with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Hashemi, who works for the Press TV network’s English-language service, was detained by federal agents Jan. 13 in St. Louis, Missouri, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area, her son said. She was then transported to Washington and had remained behind bars since then.

No details on role as witness

Hashemi appeared at least twice before a U.S. District judge in Washington, and court papers said she would be released immediately after her testimony before a grand jury. Court documents did not include details on the criminal case in which she was named a witness.

Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be detained if the government can prove that their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed.

Obligation fulfilled

A person familiar with the matter said Hashemi had fulfilled her obligation as a material witness and was released. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Hashemi is a U.S. citizen and was born Melanie Franklin. She lives in Tehran and comes back to the United States about once a year to see her family, usually scheduling documentary work in the U.S., her son said.

Asked whether his mother had been involved in any criminal activity or knew anyone who might be implicated in a crime, Hossein Hashemi said, “We don’t have any information along those lines.”

He didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment on Wednesday. 

Heightened tensions

Marzieh Hashemi’s detention comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal. Iran also faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual citizens and other people with Western ties.

Earlier Wednesday, dozens of activists protested outside the federal courthouse in Washington, where Hashemi was scheduled to appear before the grand jury. They held signs and chanted, “Free, free, Marzieh!” and “Shame, shame, USA!”
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The Republican Party’s governing body is set to offer its “undivided support” for Donald Trump and his “effective presidency,” lending its backing to the president and his re-election campaign. 

The Republican National Committee’s resolutions committee unanimously approved the measure Wednesday at a winter meeting in New Mexico, clearing the way for its passage before the full membership Friday.  

The expression of support comes as Trump’s re-election campaign is taking steps to scare off any potential primary challenger in 2020. 

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Wednesday shows Trump’s approval rating stands at 34 percent, its lowest point in more than a year.  

A more strident resolution, which explicitly endorsed Trump for re-election, was not taken up by the committee.
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The U.S. Senate is preparing for votes Thursday on separate Republican and Democratic proposals to end a partial government shutdown that is now in its second month.

A bill already passed by the Democrat-led House of Representatives would provide stopgap funding through February 8, allowing the shuttered agencies to reopen while the two sides debate border security. It does not contain money for President Donald Trump’s desired wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Republican plan is based on a Trump proposal to spend $5.7 billion on the wall and provide temporary protections for some immigrants. The White House said Trump is scheduled to discuss his plan Wednesday with conservative leaders as well as state and local leaders.

“Without a Wall our Country can never have Border or National Security,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “With a powerful Wall or Steel Barrier, Crime Rates (and Drugs) will go substantially down all over the U.S. The Dems know this but want to play political games. Must finally be done correctly. No Cave!”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who previously refused to bring up any bills that would not have Trump’s support, urged lawmakers to vote in favor of the Republican proposal.

“The opportunity to end all this is staring us right in the face,” McConnell said, describing the bill as “the only proposal, the only one currently before us that can be signed by the president and immediately reopen the government.”

Democrats, who can block most legislation in the Senate, heaped scorn on the proposal, noting it would only temporarily suspend the threat of deportation for a fraction of immigrants brought illegally to America as children — a group placed at risk by Trump’s own executive orders.

“The president’s proposal is one-sided, harshly partisan, and was made in bad faith,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said. “Now offering some temporary protections back in exchange for the wall is not a compromise, it’s more hostage-taking…like bargaining for stolen goods.”

“What the president proposed is granting what he had already taken away,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “DACA recipients had their protections. The Temporary Protected Status, TPS, had their protection. The president took it away and now he’s saying ‘well I’ll give you this back temporarily if you give me a wall permanently.’ Open up government.”

​Pelosi said there is “no excuse” for Senate Republicans to not support the bill that has already passed the House, noting they previously supported similar legislation.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida called for a compromise.

“This shutdown will tragically continue until there’s another side willing to negotiate,” he said. “It requires both sides to compromise. … The president has taken the first step.”

Even if the White House package cleared the Senate, it would be dead on arrival at the House. Pelosi has called it “a nonstarter” and promised House votes on border security bills that do not include wall funding. 

McConnell cautioned Democrats against a rush to judgment on the Senate Republican bill.

“To reject this proposal, Democrats would have to prioritize political combat with the president ahead of federal workers, ahead of DACA recipients, ahead of border security, and ahead of stable and predictable government funding. Is that really a price that Democrats want to pay to prolong this episode?” he said.

While the Republican bill appears unlikely to become law, it could be a starting point for further negotiations and deliberations, said one Democrat.

​”I do believe it is a proposal that deserves to be treated seriously,” Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said, adding that the bill should go through committee and be subject to amendments by senators of both parties in order to attract bipartisan support.

“These are issues we could debate. These are issues where amendments could be offered and we could find, I believe, a compromise,” Kaine said. “We ought to have that discussion and offer Democrats and Republicans the ability to take some sandpaper to it and try to make it better.”

The shutdown has furloughed 800,000 government employees, with at least 420,000 forced to continue working without pay and the remainder sent home, some of whom have been forced to look for temporary work elsewhere to help pay their household bills. All are set to miss their second biweekly paycheck on Friday.

WATCH: Shutdown continues

Some government services have been curtailed, as about 10 percent of airport security agents ordered to work have instead called in sick, some food inspections have been cut back, and museums and parks are closed. Federal courts could run out of money by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt the Trump administration a setback by saying it would not immediately act on an administration request to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program started by former President Barack Obama that protects nearly 700,000 so-called “Dreamers” from deportation.

Michael Bowman on Capitol Hill and Steve Herman at the White House contributed to this report.
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Senate Democratic and Republican leaders agreed on Tuesday to schedule a vote on President Donald Trump’s wall funding bill as well as a bill already passed by the House of Representatives to fund the government through February 8. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the vote on both proposals will take place on Thursday (January 24), a day before federal workers are likely to miss their second paycheck since the shutdown began December 22. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren promised to help rebuild Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria and support laws to give the U.S. territory equal treatment and debt relief as she condemned President Donald Trump during a visit Tuesday to the island, which has become an obligatory stop for potential and presidential candidates.

Warren demanded the resignation of Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And she criticized Trump for denying the hurricane’s death toll and for considering the use of disaster recovery funds to build what she called a “dumb” border wall, provoking laughter and applause from a crowd of a couple hundred people gathered in a small theater.

“Puerto Rico has not been treated with respect,” she said. “It is insulting. It is disrespectful. This ugliness has gone far enough. Puerto Rico has suffered enough. We will not allow anyone to sabotage your recovery, not even the president of the United States.”

Democrats are using official trips to Puerto Rico as an opportunity to criticize the Trump administration for how it responded to the hurricane and its aftermath. Last week, former housing secretary Julian Castro, who has declared himself a candidate, visited the island and toured communities still struggling more than a year after the storm.

The visits have perplexed some and annoyed others in Puerto Rico, whose people are U.S. citizens who can vote in primaries but are barred from voting in presidential elections.

Janina Cabret, a 28-year-old San Juan resident who attended Warren’s event, said she hopes whoever wins isn’t delivering empty promises about helping the island.

“Even though they use it for marketing, at least it puts Puerto Rico on the map,” she said.

Warren’s comments

Warren said too many homes still lack a proper roof and too many insurance claims have gone unpaid, among other problems that persist more than a year after Hurricane Maria. She also said many people who fled Puerto Rico after the storm have not been able to find a job, housing or health care.

Warren reminded the crowd that she voted against a 2016 financial aid package that created a federal control board to oversee the debt-burdened island government’s finances, a body that some complain has imposed an excessive amount of austerity. She also referred to White House comments on Puerto Rico, including a recent one opposing $600 million in nutritional assistance as “excessive and unnecessary,” which angered Gov. Ricardo Rossello’s administration.

The senator also talked about the island’s political status, long a key issue for many Puerto Ricans, though five referendums over the years have shown no clear consensus for statehood, the current territorial status or independence.

“Puerto Rico deserves self-determination on this question, and I will support the decision of the people of Puerto Rico,” she said.

Warren also called for auditing Puerto Rico’s huge public debt, strengthening unions, protecting the island from climate change, and supporting full child tax credits, Medicaid funding and nutritional assistance for islanders, all things that many Puerto Ricans have long demanded.

“Puerto Rico’s experience in recent years reflects the worst of what Washington has become, a government that works great for the rich and powerful, and not for anyone else,” she said as she mentioned drug companies, student loan outfits, fossil fuel companies and Wall Street bankers. “We need to take back our federal government from the wealthy and well-connected and return it to the people.”

Crowd’s reaction

Warren said she would demand that anyone running for federal office post their tax returns online as she has and touted her anti-corruption legislation, which in part calls for ending lobbying and stopping federal lobbyists from giving money to elected officials.

She also charged that Trump’s administration has used its power to inflict cruelty on immigrants and people of color. “With Trump, cruelty is not an accident, it is part of the plan,” she said.

The audience gave Warren a standing ovation at the end of her speech, many of them tourists thrilled that their visit coincided with hers.

Vandy Young, a tourist from Maryland, said she is hopeful about a presidential bid by Warren.

“I’ve been waiting for her to run,” she said. “She’s one of the few candidates who can stand up to Trump. She’s not afraid of him.”
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Rudy Giuliani, the always colorful and outspoken lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, says he is afraid his tombstone some day will say, “Rudy Giuliani: He Lied for Trump.”

“I don’t think that will be it,” Giuliani told The New Yorker magazine in an interview. “But, if it is, so what do I care? I’ll be dead.”

Giuliani’s flip remarks about his gravestone came as the former New York mayor is again embroiled in controversy over comments he made about Trump’s links to Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Giuliani on Sunday told NBC’s Meet the Press that Trump’s discussions with Russian officials over construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow went on throughout the time he was campaigning for the White House leading up to the November election, months longer than previously acknowledged. The timeline was also at odds with then-candidate Trump telling voters three years ago that he was not doing any business in Russia.

“It’s our understanding that they went on throughout 2016,” Giuliani said of discussions former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen had with Russian officials, adding that there “weren’t a lot of them, but there were conversations. Can’t be sure of the exact date.”

Backtracking

By Monday, Giuliani sought to walk back his remarks.

“My recent statements about discussions during the 2016 campaign between Michael Cohen and then-candidate Donald Trump about a potential Trump Moscow ‘project’ were hypothetical and not based on conversations I had with the president,” Giuliani said. “My comments did not represent the actual timing or circumstances of any such discussions.”

Giuliani added, “The point is that the proposal was in the earliest stage and did not advance beyond a free non-binding letter of intent.”

Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s Moscow business deal, telling a congressional committee discussions ended in January 2016, to comport with what Trump was telling voters as he sought the Republican presidential nomination three years ago. But the New York lawyer more recently said he thought the talks about a Moscow Trump Tower ended in June 2016.
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A Kentucky boys’ school shut down its campus on Tuesday as a precaution and a small protest was held outside their diocese as fallout continued over an encounter involving white teenagers, Native American marchers and a black religious sect outside the Lincoln Memorial last week.

President Donald Trump tweeted early Tuesday that the students at Covington Catholic High School “have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be” but says he hopes the teens will use the attention for good, and “maybe even to bring people together.”

The recorded images that initially generated outrage on social media were tightly focused on the students wearing “Make America Great Again” hats who seemed to laugh derisively as they surrounded an elderly Native American beating a drum.

Longer videos from wider perspectives emerged later over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. They revealed that the drummer — Omaha Nation elder Nathan Phillips — had intervened between the boys and the religious sect, at a moment when the teens seemed to be getting rowdier and the black street preacher with a megaphone who had been making racist statements against both groups was escalating his rhetoric.

Soon, all sides were pointing fingers , speaking their own truths about feeling victimized and misunderstood.

“We just don’t know what the volatility of the situation is with these people that react and they don’t know the full story. And it’s very scary,” Jill Hamlin of Cincinnati, who was there to chaperone as the boys attended an anti-abortion rally, told FOX News Tuesday morning.

The American Indian Movement Chapter of Indiana and Kentucky held a small protest outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington, with activists outnumbered by the media. Meanwhile, the school’s principal, Robert Rowe, said that “after meeting with local authorities,” they decided to close the campus “to ensure the safety of our students, faculty and staff.”

Phillips, for his part, offered Tuesday to come to the boys’ campus and join with them in a dialogue about cultural appropriation, racism and the importance of listening to and respecting diverse cultures.

“Let’s create space for the teaching of tolerance to happen,” his statement said, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. “I have faith that human beings can use a moment like this to find a way to gain understanding from one another.”

The diocese, which issued a weekend statement criticizing the boys’ behavior, was unavailable for comment Tuesday morning. Both the school and the diocese websites were taken offline.

Kentucky’s governor also weighed in, saying he was saddened by what happened.

“It was amazing how quick those who preach tolerance and non-judgment of others were to judge and label some high school students based on partial information,” Gov. Matt Bevin tweeted. “In a world where we have a wealth of information at our fingertips, we have increasingly little discernment and wisdom… Facts matter…The truth matters…Context matters… A little more genuine caring for one another and a little less digital vitriol would be good for all.”

 
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is laying out her strategy on health care and first up is improvements to “Obamacare” and legislation to lower prescription drug costs. “Medicare for all” will get hearings.

Pelosi and President Donald Trump have been sounding similar themes about the need to address the high drug costs. But her plans to broaden financial help for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act are unlikely to find takers among Republicans.

Either way, Democrats believe voters gave them a mandate on health care in the midterm elections that returned the House to their control.

Pushing her agenda, Pelosi is working from the ground up through major House committees. Her relationships with powerful chairmen and subcommittee chairs stretch back years. She’s “playing chess on three boards at once,” said Jim McDermott, a former Democratic congressman from Washington state, who predicts Pelosi’s most difficult challenge will be “herding new members” impatient for sweeping changes.

Responding to written questions from The Associated Press, Pelosi called the ACA “a pillar of health and financial security,” comparing it to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

“Democrats have the opportunity not only to reverse the years of Republicans’ health care sabotage,” she said, “but to update and improve the Affordable Care Act to further lower families’ premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and expand coverage.”

Legislation from Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., and Workforce and Education Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., would broaden the number of people who can get financial assistance with their premiums under the Obama health law, and undo the “family glitch” that prevents some from qualifying for subsidies. It would also restore the HealthCare.gov advertising budget slashed by Trump and block some of his administration’s health insurance alternatives.

Those issues are separate from legal questions raised by ongoing Republican litigation to overturn the health law. The Democratic-led House has voted to intervene in the court case to defend the law.

The 2010 health law belonged as much to Pelosi as to former President Barack Obama, said McDermott. “She’s taking `Obamacare’ and very carefully figuring out where you have to support it,” he said.

The House ACA package has little chance as a stand-alone bill. But parts of it could become bargaining chips when Congress considers major budget legislation.

On prescription drugs, Trump and the Democrats are occupying some of the same rhetorical territory, an unusual circumstance that could bring about unexpected results.

Both say Americans shouldn’t have to keep paying more for medications than consumers in other economically advanced countries where governments regulate prices.

The Trump administration has designed an experiment to apply international pricing to Medicare “Part B” drugs administered in doctors’ offices.

Pelosi wants to expand price relief to retail pharmacy drugs that seniors purchase through Medicare’s “Part D” prescription drug benefit, a much bigger move. A bill introduced by leading Democrats would authorize Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies using international prices as a fallback.

“President Trump said he’d `negotiate like crazy’ to bring down Medicare prescription drug prices, and since the midterm election he’s spoken about working with Democrats,” Pelosi wrote to AP. “We have an opportunity to enact the tough legislative negotiating authority needed to actually lower prescription drug prices for consumers.”

One of the top Senate Republicans on health care says he’s not inclined to do that. Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa says having private insurers negotiate with drug companies has worked.

“Part D is the only federal program I’ve been involved with that has come in under budget,” said Grassley. “If it’s working, don’t mess with it.”

Nonetheless, former Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, a Republican, said Medicare is “a good example of places where the administration might surprise.”

“Prescription drug pricing is in a category where both the president and the Democrats have made a commitment,” Leavitt added. “There will be a lot of division, but in the end there is a very good chance they will find a way that they can both claim victory.”

But the biggest health care idea among Democrats is “Medicare for all,” and on that, Pelosi is cautious. To those on the left, “M4A” means a government-run health care system that would cover every American. That would require major tax increases and a big expansion of government.

Pelosi has tapped two committees, Budget and Rules, to handle “Medicare for all.” Health care legislation doesn’t usually originate in either of them.

Says Pelosi: “We’re going to have hearings.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday described hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants working without pay during the partial government shutdown as “great patriots,” but there was no movement toward ending the record 31-day closure of a quarter of U.S. government operations.

Trump renewed his call for a wall along part of the U.S.-Mexican border, on Twitter.

About 800,000 federal workers have been affected by the shutdown, with more than half ordered to continue working without pay and the rest sent home.

During the weekend, Trump offered a compromise to resolve the shutdown spawned by a dispute with opposition Democratic lawmakers over his demand for $5.7 billion to build the border barrier to thwart illegal immigration.

In exchange for wall funding, Trump’s plan calls for three years of protection against deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the country illegally when they were children, as well extensions of protected status for people who fled Latin American and African countries because of violence or natural disasters.

Democrats object to the border wall as ineffective and immoral, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying Trump’s proposal is a “non-starter.

“They want Trump and Republicans to agree to reopen the government first and then discuss other border security initiatives, while offering $1.3 billion in new border security money, but none specifically for a wall.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he plans to bring Trump’s proposal to a vote in his chamber this week, although he will need some Democratic support to win approval.

Pelosi said she is planning votes this week on adding more immigration judges and money for scanning vehicles and drugs at the country’s ports of entry.

The House has already passed several measures that would reopen the government, but McConnell has refused to bring them up for a vote in the Senate, saying he will not consider any bill that Trump would not support.

Trump assailed Pelosi on Twitter on Sunday.

Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement there is “simply no reason” for the shutdown to continue while the two sides “are engaged in a complex policy discussion.”

She said protecting the immigrants from deportation “is the right thing to do.

“But Lowey said Trump “is wrong to hold them hostage over money for a wasteful wall that could be better spent on more effective border security measures. The president’s trade offer — temporary protections for some immigrants in exchange for a border wall boondoggle — is not acceptable.”

Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but major legislation in the chamber almost always requires a 60-vote majority. It is unclear if Trump will be able to convince at least seven Democrats to vote for his proposal.

Even if the Senate approves Trump’s plan, it would face defeat in the House. A Senate victory for Trump, however, could force new negotiations over his border wall plan and over reopening the government, as furloughed federal workers are set to miss their second paycheck next Friday.
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House Democrats are preparing to bring Education Secretary Betsy DeVos under the sharpest scrutiny she has seen since taking office.

DeVos has emerged as a common target for Democrats as they take charge of House committees that wield oversight powers, such as the authority to issue subpoenas and call hearings.

At least four committees are expected to push DeVos on topics including her rollback of regulation on the for-profit college industry.

Rep. Bobby Scott is a Virginia Democrat leading the House education committee. He says he’ll bring DeVos forward for hearings “as often as necessary.”

DeVos is also expected to face scrutiny from committees overseeing veterans’ affairs, government oversight and appropriations.

Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill says DeVos will work with any member of Congress who wants to rethink education.
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House Democrats are preparing to bring Education Secretary Betsy DeVos under the sharpest scrutiny she has seen since taking office.

DeVos has emerged as a common target for Democrats as they take charge of House committees that wield oversight powers, such as the authority to issue subpoenas and call hearings.

At least four committees are expected to push DeVos on topics including her rollback of regulation on the for-profit college industry.

Rep. Bobby Scott is a Virginia Democrat leading the House education committee. He says he’ll bring DeVos forward for hearings “as often as necessary.”

DeVos is also expected to face scrutiny from committees overseeing veterans’ affairs, government oversight and appropriations.

Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill says DeVos will work with any member of Congress who wants to rethink education.
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