North America

Thousands gather in Florida for 2018 Women’s March

By Klaudine Caday EBC Florida Bureau ORLANDO, FL (Eagle News) — Equal pay, pro-choice, sexual harassment, equal opportunities for women, and recent allegations against President Trump were just a few of the topics for discussion at sites for the 2018 Women’s March. A year following Trump’s inauguration and the first Women’s March, millions of women from different backgrounds and beliefs gathered in cities around the world to let their voices be heard. Some of these […]

Magnitude 8.2 quake strikes southeast of Kodiak, Alaska; tsunami warnings issued

  (Eagle News) – A magnitude 8.2 quake struck 278 kilometers southeast of Kodiak, Alaska prompting a tsunami watch for the US west coast and the state of Hawaii, and tsunami warnings for South Alaska, British Columbia and the Aleutian islands The quake struck at 9:31 a.m. (UTC or Coordinated Universal Time) or 5:31 p.m. Philippine time. It has a depth of 10 kilometers and was recorded 278 kilometers southeast of Kodiak island of the […]

US federal employees to return after lawmakers end government shutdown

  by Andrew Beatty Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US federal workers prepared to return to work Tuesday after Congress ended a three-day government shutdown, with President Donald Trump claiming victory in his standoff with Democrats. The House voted 266 to 150 to extend federal funding for another three weeks, hours after Senate Democrats dropped their opposition to the plan after winning Republican assurances of a vote on immigration in the coming […]

Congress votes to end shutdown, funding bill heads to Trump

by Andrew BEATTY Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Congress put the US government back in business Monday by voting to end a three-day shutdown, as President Donald Trump claimed victory in his standoff with Democrats in Washington. The House voted 266 to 150 to extend federal funding, hours after Senate Democrats dropped their opposition to the plan after winning Republican assurances of a vote on immigration in the coming weeks. “I know […]

US Democrats accept compromise to end government shutdown

by Michael Mathes Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States – The US Senate on Monday reached a deal to reopen the federal government, with Democrats accepting a compromise spending bill to end days of partisan bickering that forced hundreds of thousands of government employees to stay home without pay. The impasse, the first of its kind since 2013, cast a huge shadow over the first anniversary on Saturday of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. As the Senate convened, the […]

US government workers home without pay as shutdown drags on

  by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Hundreds of thousands of US federal employees were forced to stay home without pay Monday after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on ending a government shutdown before the start of the work week. Although leaders of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party and the opposition Democrats said progress had been made in a weekend of talks, they pushed back a scheduled late-night Sunday […]

US Senate postpones vote on ending shutdown to noon Monday

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Senate adjourned late Sunday without reaching a deal on re-opening government, as the Republican leadership postponed a vote on ending the shutdown until noon on Monday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had sought to move up a 1:00 am (0600 GMT) Monday vote to 10:00 pm Sunday night, but top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer objected. He said that despite continuing negotiations, “we have yet to reach agreement on […]

Lawmakers to vote on pulling US ‘back from brink’ on shutdown

by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The top senator from US President Donald Trump’s party urged lawmakers to “step back from the brink” as they gathered Sunday for a vote to keep the government shutdown from stretching into the coming work week. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are set to stay home without pay as of early Monday following the dramatic collapse Friday night of talks to agree on […]

New York vows to reopen Statue of Liberty, at its own cost

NEW YORK, United State (AFP) — The Statue of Liberty, temporarily closed by a US government budget shutdown, will reopen on Monday to once again beckon other countries’ “huddled masses” — as well as not-so-poor tourists with dollars to spend. “We will not stand by as this symbol of freedom and opportunity goes dark,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a tweet Sunday, announcing that the state had found funds to keep the iconic […]

China says US warship ‘violated’ its sovereignty

Beijing said it has dispatched a warship to drive away a US missile destroyer which had “violated” its sovereignty by sailing close to a shoal in the disputed South China Sea. The USS Hopper sailed within 12 nautical miles of Huangyan Island on the night of January 17 without alerting Beijing, the foreign ministry said, referring to the shoal by its Chinese name. Also known as Scarborough Shoal, the ring of reefs lies about 230 […]

Trump says Democrats put immigrants ahead of military after shutdown

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)US President Donald Trump on Saturday said opposition Democrats were more concerned with “illegal immigrants” than the military or the country’s border security after lawmakers failed to agree a stop-gap spending deal. “Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border,” he wrote in an early morning tweet. “They could have easily made a deal but decided to play […]

One year on, Trump leads divided US into government shutdown

by Dave Clark Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump marked the first anniversary of his inauguration Saturday with his government in shutdown, accusing Democrats of taking Americans hostage with their demands. From midnight Friday, in the absence of an agreed spending plan, federal services began to come to a halt or be scaled back, even as lawmakers continued to argue on the floor of the Senate. Essential services and military activity […]