Sorted by date Results 1 - 10 of 10
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cruising around Caracas in a convoy with five cellphones full of valuable contacts, Gen. Manuel Cristopher Figuera displayed trappings that befitted his reputation as a loyal soldier who rose from an upbringing in a dirt-floored hut to become Venezuela's spy chief. But as President Nicolás Maduro began to lean on the brawny 55-year-old to do his dirty work — in Cristopher Figuera's telling, ordering him to jail opponents and victims of torture — the Cuban and Belarusian-trained intelligence officer gradually lost faith....
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare confrontation, Republican senators declared deep opposition Tuesday to President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs on all goods coming into the U.S. from Mexico. But it's unclear they have the votes to stop him, and Trump said they'd be "foolish" to try. All sides, including officials from Mexico meeting with Trump negotiators in Washington this week, remain hopeful that high-level talks will ease the president away from his threat. But with the tariffs set to start next Monday — and Trump declaring them "more lik...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A World Bank arbitration panel ruled on Friday that Venezuela must pay U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips more than $8 billion as compensation for a decade-old expropriation dispute, roughly the same amount as the South American country's foreign currency reserves. The bank's ICSID tribunal had ruled in 2013 that the 2007 expropriation of ConocoPhillips investments in two heavy crude oil projects violated international law. "We welcome the ICSID tribunal's decision, which upholds the principle that governments cannot unlawfully exp...
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Canadian negotiators — facing a deadline at the end of the month — will extend until at least Thursday their negotiations to keep Canada in a North American trade bloc. After her second meeting of the day with U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland told reporters they plan to keep talking on Thursday. "Our officials now have more work to do and will continue to work this evening. Ambassador Lighthizer and I agreed to meet again tomorrow," she said Wednesday eveni...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump warned Canada on Saturday that it "will be out" of a revised North American trade agreement unless it's "fair" to the United States, and he threatened to scrap the current deal should Congress "interfere" with the negotiations. "There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal," Trump said in one of a series of tweets as he visited his Virginia golf club while three former presidents and a range of political dignitaries attended a Washington memorial for John McCain. Trump wasn't i...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Talks to keep Canada in a North American trade bloc broke up Friday and will resume next week with the two longtime allies divided over such issues as Canada's dairy market and U.S. efforts to shield drug companies from generic competition. President Donald Trump notified Congress on Friday that he plans to sign an agreement in 90 days with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement — and hopes Canada can brought on board, too. Congress eventually would have to approve any agreement. The U.S. and Mexico reached...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nada de nada — nothing at all. A year into the Trump administration, the White House website still has no Spanish-language content, unlike during the two previous administrations and even though nearly 1 in 5 people in the United States speaks Spanish. Even Iran and reclusive North Korea have made efforts to reach out to the Spanish-speaking world. In the U.S., meanwhile, President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric and his plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico are alienating some Hispanics. A year ago, the...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday it is ending a temporary residency permit program that has allowed almost 60,000 citizens from Haiti to live and work in the United States since a 2010 powerful earthquake shook the Caribbean nation. The Homeland Security Department said conditions in Haiti have improved significantly, so the benefit will be extended one last time — until July 2019 — to give Haitians time to prepare to return home. "Since the 2010 earthquake, the number of displaced people in Haiti has decreased by 97 perce...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two dozen House Republicans on Thursday pressed Speaker Paul Ryan to act quickly on legislation that would protect some 800,000 young immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children. The lawmakers said efforts to grant such deportation protection would easily pass the House, with dozens in the GOP set to join Democrats in backing any bill. These immigrants are facing an uncertain future after President Donald Trump's decision to end Obama-era temporary protections. Trump has given Congress until March t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — New sanctions on Venezuela aren't aimed at regime change but rather to push President Nicolas Maduro's government to restore democratic standards after he started a process to rewrite his nation's constitution, a top U.S. official said Thursday. The comments by Rick Waddell, the White House's deputy national security adviser, suggest a softening in America's position. President Donald Trump last month suggested the U.S. could consider military action against Venezuela and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson raised the idea of p...
