WASHINGTON -U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has so far withheld at least $436.87 billion of congressionally approved funding, the top Democrats on the U.S. Congress’ appropriation committees said on Tuesday. The frozen allotments span the federal government, according to the…

ALEPPO – Moussa Hajj Khalil is among many Syrians rebuilding their homes from the rubble of the historic and economically important city of Aleppo, as Syria’s new leaders struggle to kick-start large-scale reconstruction efforts. Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city and…

LONDON -A group of philanthropies including the Gates Foundation has set up a fund backed with nearly $500 million to help save the lives of newborn babies and mothers in sub-Saharan Africa, standing out against a bleak global health funding…

Canada’s ruling Liberals held on to power in elections on Monday, but fell short of the majority government Prime Minister Mark Carney wanted to help him negotiate over tariffs with U.S. President Donald Trump. Here are some reactions to the…

A coalition of more than two dozen labor unions, cities and nonprofits sued President Donald Trump’s administration, claiming that its broad federal workforce cuts were an illegal power grab. The complaint filed on Monday in San Francisco federal court said…

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a network based in Iran and China that it accused of procuring ballistic missile propellant ingredients on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to increase…

WASHINGTON -The National Academy of Sciences has canceled a workshop on preventing human bird flu infections after being told to stop work on the event by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an email sent to…

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG – China’s Big Five lenders on Tuesday reported narrower margins on their first-quarter earnings and some a drop in profits as the banking sector is hit by a protracted economic slowdown, with rising tariffs darkening prospects further. As…

CAIRO/GENEVA/GAZA- It took five hours of queuing at a community kitchen in Gaza’s Nuseirat district for displaced grandmother Um Mohammad Al-Talalqa to get one meal to feed her hungry children and grandchildren. But finding food may be about to get…

WASHINGTON -As billionaire Elon Musk scales back work for U.S. President Donald Trump, he’s laying the groundwork for a major role as a Republican political megadonor in next year’s midterm elections, according to four people with direct knowledge of the…

VATICAN CITY- Heavy is the white mitre worn by the pope. Whoever emerges from the coming conclave as the new leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church will face a myriad of problems. Among the pressing issues are a widening gap…

OTTAWA – Canadians go to the polls on Monday after an election campaign in which U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and musings about annexing Canada became the central issue. Trump’s threats ignited a wave of patriotism that swelled support for…

Morning Bid U.S. A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan The furious April for U.S. markets has calmed down a bit as the month draws to a close on Wednesday, and now its…

BEIJING – China’s foreign ministry said on Monday the presidents of China the United States “didn’t have a call recently,” when asked about Donald Trump saying in an interview with Time magazine that Xi Jinping has called him. China and…

VATICAN CITY – Roman Catholic cardinals will meet in a secret conclave to elect the new leader of the global Church starting from May 7, a senior Vatican source said on Monday. The date was decided during a closed-door meeting…

IBM said on Monday it plans to invest $150 billion in the U.S. over the next five years. This includes an investment of more than $30 billion in research and development to further the company’s American manufacturing of quantum computers,…

SINGAPORE -China has waived the 125% tariff on ethane imports from the United States imposed earlier this month, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, among a group of products that have been granted exemptions. The move…

MEXICO CITY – Mexico has received nearly 39,000 immigrants deported from the United States since the beginning of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, of which 33,000 are Mexicans, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted on Tuesday that China could lose 10 million jobs quickly due to tariffs and that Beijing will see over time that Chinese tariffs are not sustainable.

MADRID -Spain and Portugal switched their power back on after the worst blackout in their history, though authorities offered little explanation for what had caused it or how they would prevent it happening again. Traffic lights were back on, train…

WASHINGTON – A pair of Democratic officials recently fired from a credit union watchdog have sued U.S. President Donald Trump and other senior government officials, alleging that their removal was “patently unlawful.” Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka filed the suit…

RIO DE JANEIRO – Foreign ministers from the BRICS group of developing nations met on Monday to discuss a shared defense of the global trade system, coordinating their response to the barrage of new tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump….

DUBAI -The death toll from a major explosion in Iran’s most important container port of Bandar Abbas rose to at least 65, with over 1,200 injured, state media said on Monday, as firefighters battled a blaze that Iranian officials said…

NEW YORK -Amazon’s Prime Day is losing its luster among a critical group: sellers. Some third-party merchants who previously sold China-made goods during Amazon’s premier July shopping event are sitting it out this year or reducing the amount of discounted…

BOSTON – A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Monday to turn over the names of any migrants flown recently from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay to El Salvador so he could determine whether they were deported…

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service on Monday for the “liquidation” of top Russian military figures over the more than three years since the full-scale invasion by Russia. Zelenskiy’s remarks, on the Telegram messaging app, made no reference…

CAIRO -Negotiations held in Cairo to reach a ceasefire in Gaza were on the verge of a “significant breakthrough,” two Egyptian security sources told Reuters on Monday. There was no immediate comment from Israel and Hamas. Axios reporter Barak Ravid…

BEIJING -Chinese airlines and Boeing have been severely impacted by U.S.-imposed tariffs, disrupting regular trade and investment activities of many businesses, the Chinese commerce ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The ministry’s remarks came in response to media reports…

HO CHI MINH CITY/HANOI – As a young U.S. intelligence analyst in Saigon during the Vietnam War, Chuck Searcy never thought that 50 years later he would be living in Communist Vietnam and helping its people fight a different war…

WASHINGTON -The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said on Sunday federal law enforcement agencies carried out a raid in a Colorado Springs nightclub in which over 100 immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally were arrested. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT The raid…