Oct 22 Obama meets with Pakistani prime minister By Kathleen Hennessey and Robert Burns, Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama welcomed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the White House Thursday with talk of strengthening U.S. ties to a key player in brokering peace in Afghanistan. Continue reading
Oct 21 Watch Why Biden's 2016 campaign window has closed By PBS News Hour Vice President Joe Biden will not join the presidential race, despite months of pondering the possibility. What drove his decision and how does it affect the other candidates in the race? Gwen Ifill gets perspective from Glenn Thrush of Politico. Continue watching
Oct 21 Official: U.S. can't abstain from UN vote on Cuba embargo By Bradley Klapper, Matthew Lee, Associated Press A U.S. official says the Obama administration has concluded it must oppose a U.N. resolution criticizing the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba because the draft doesn't "fully reflect" the new spirit of engagement between the former Cold War foes. Continue reading
Oct 21 Obama says U.S. will tackle prescription drug and heroin abuse By Kathleen Hennessey, Associated Press WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will take steps to improve doctor training and ease access to drug treatment as part of an effort to help communities battling the scourge of heroin and prescription painkiller abuse. Continue reading
Oct 20 14-year-old student arrested for homemade clock visits White House By Kevin Freking, Associated Press Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas teenager arrested after a homemade clock he brought to school was mistaken for a bomb, capped a whirlwind month with a visit to the White House on Monday. Continue reading
Oct 19 Health law fine on uninsured will more than double By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The math is harsh: The federal penalty for having no health insurance is set to jump to $695, and the Obama administration is being urged to highlight that cold fact in its new pitch for health law sign-ups. Continue reading
Oct 17 Watch 3:29 After decision to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan, what happens next? By PBS News Hour President Obama announced this week that 10,000 U.S. troops will remain deployed for another year in Afghanistan to help quell the resurgent Taliban and keep training the country's police force. Austin Long, a professor of international and public affairs at… Continue watching
Oct 15 Whistleblower releases documents into U.S. military's drone program By Joshua Barajas For several years human rights groups have claimed that U.S. drone attacks have killed more civilians abroad than their intended targets. The Intercept published highly classified information Thursday that provided evidence, among other findings, that nearly 90 percent of people… Continue reading
Oct 15 Watch 4:11 What influenced Obama's decision to keep troops in Afghanistan By PBS News Hour The longest-running war in American history will go on even longer than expected. Hari Sreenivasan speaks to the Washington Post’s Greg Jaffe about what prompted President Obama to change course and decide to leave troops in Afghanistan. Continue watching
Oct 15 Watch 2:32 U.S. reverses plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan By PBS News Hour In a policy reversal, President Obama announced that U.S. forces will keep nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan through most of 2016, drawing down to 5,500 in 2017. Despite plans to leave the country completely by the end of next year,… Continue watching