Newsletter Archive

Every year, some 20,000 young foreigners come to the United States on special visas to work as live-in child care providers known as au pairs. It’s a cultural exchange program that gets good reviews from most host families and au pairs — but not all. Labor groups say au pairs are underpaid and exploited by a system that delivers a bargain for families. And when disputes arise, au pairs can be easily expelled and replaced.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has embarked on a long overseas trip with stops at the Munich Security Conference, Senegal, Angola, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Security, economic ties and shared values are likely to be a common thread at all of the stops.

Sudan’s transitional government says it has agreed to a settlement with families of those killed and injured in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen two decades ago. Al-Qaida suicide bombers trained in Sudan were responsible for the attack. Sudan, which maintains it had nothing to do with the bombing, is hoping to be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

China’s National Health Commission reported this week that nearly half a million Chinese citizens have had close contact with individuals with confirmed diagnoses of the coronavirus that originated in the central city of Wuhan.

VIDEO: Splintered results for Democratic presidential contenders in the first two state nominating contests have further muddled the race and divided the moderate wing of the party. With no clear front-runner, some see an opening for former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s media-driven campaign for the nomination.