Town Hall News

A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike. The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs. Schools and states say filling teacher and doctor jobs was already hard enough before the fee hike. President Donald Trump says he’ll said Wednesday that he will […]

NEW YORK (AP) — The Marguerite Casey Foundation plans to donate at least $500 million over the next decade, doubling its annual payout as leaders try to spur more urgent grantmaking throughout philanthropy — especially given what it calls the sector’s “suffering” under President Donald Trump’s policies. The White House’s cuts to federal funding, attacks on civil society and dismantling of diversity programs have amounted to what the National Council […]

A crackdown by Afghan authorities on a protest against the arrest and detention of more than a dozen women over dress code violations reportedly left at least three people injured on Tuesday. Eyewitnesses said armed police opened fire during the protest by more than 100 people in the city of Herat. Protests are rare in Afghanistan, which has been run by the Taliban since 2021 in the wake of the […]

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines has protested China’s deployment of what Manila describes as a floating “structure” with personnel on a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, fearing it could be a part of Beijing’s effort to turn the uninhabited atoll into an island base, Philippine officials said Tuesday. The Department of Foreign Affairs said, without elaborating, that it lodged a protest over China’s latest action on the […]

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Shops and businesses shut down, and public transport halted across Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Tuesday after a call for a strike by a recently banned group, known for violent protests. The Joint Awami Action Committee ‘s call follows clashes on Sunday in the city of Rawalakot between the group’s supporters and security personnel that left seven dead. The violence erupted after the Supreme Court of Pakistan-administered Kashmir […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans will look to get nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement over the finish line Tuesday, enough to fund a pair of Homeland Security agencies through the next three years and the rest of President Donald Trump’s time in office. Speaker Mike Johnson will need near perfect attendance and unity on his side to complete weeks of action on the bill. The legislation got sidetracked when […]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Humanoid robots struggling with tasks like grasping a cup have a new teacher — a person wearing an ultrasound wristband that captures the movement of muscles, tendons and ligaments beneath the skin. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed the tool to collect data of human hand motion that could eventually help robots achieve the dexterity that has been difficult for machines to master. “Imagine […]

A study commissioned by President Joe Biden’s administration to investigate alcohol-related health harms was released independently on Tuesday, after President Donald Trump’s administration decided not to feature the researchers’ findings in new dietary guidelines as it faced pushback from the alcohol industry and a congressional committee. The findings of the study, in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, were in line with years of research, saying that health […]

PARIS (AP) — French singer and actor Patrick Bruel is in police custody over allegations by at least 13 women of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault, the prosecutor’s office in Nanterre said on Tuesday. Bruel, 67, who has been in police custody since Monday, denies the allegations. The singer became a major star across the French-speaking world in the 1980s and 1990s with a string of hit songs that […]