VOA news for Thursday, April 25th, 2019

VOA news for Thursday, April 25th, 2019
This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd.
President Donald Trump says that the White House will fight all the subpoenas that House Democrats issue while investigating his administration.
AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani has more.
Among those already facing subpoenas is former White House counsel Don McGahn, who cooperated in the special counsel's probe.
"The subpoena is ridiculous.”
The president says he figured after a two-year probe "we'd be finished with it" but he says Democrats continue investigating because they know they can't beat him at the polls next year.
"The only way they can luck out is by constantly going after me on nonsense.”
He'd earlier tweeted he'll go straight to the Supreme Court if Democrats try to impeach him. Problem is the high court itself has ruled impeachment is solely the jurisdiction of Congress.
Sagar Meghani, at the White House.
Perhaps the most significant question of the early 2020 election season should be answered on Thursday when former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to launch his presidential campaign.
AP's Ben Thomas reports.
After two terms as Barack Obama's vice president and nearly four decades as U.S. senator from Delaware, Joe Biden ranks as one of the most recognizable and most experienced names in U.S. politics.
His high-profile working class background in connection to the Obama years should help make the 76-year-old a frontrunner in a crowded Democratic field that now features 20 candidates.
Along with his experience, though, come questions about age. Only Bernie Sanders is older at 77.
A person familiar with Biden's plans says the former vice president will address union workers in Pittsburgh on Monday as part of his campaign rollout tour.
Ben Thomas, Washington.
A down day on Wall Street, with all three major indices finishing in negative territory.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un holds his first ever meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday, a move which Kim says is the initial step toward closer ties with Moscow.
At the Thursday summit, Kim is expected to push Putin for economic aid, specifically relief from the international sanctions that remain in place after nuclear talks with the United States broke down.
After a February Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi ended with no deal, the United States has insisted it will not relax sanctions on until North Korea commits to abolishing its nuclear weapons program.
Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, signed onto tougher sanctions amidst North Korea's nuclear and missile tests in 2016 and 2017. However, Moscow later called for sanctions against Pyongyang to be eased.
Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena has asked the national police chief and the defense secretary to resign after security forces failed to respond to warnings of the Easter bombings that killed 359 people.
Reports say that Indian intelligence agencies had gathered details about Islamic group NTJ, which is suspected of carrying out the attacks and had sent several warnings to Sri Lanka.
Deputy Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said Wednesday the government is investigating the group to see if there are more cells.
"We are conducting investigations to find out that there are other people who are involved in this, in this group. It is not just restricted to the bombers.”
The government also faces scrutiny over whether bitter political wrangling between President Sirisena and the country's prime minister contributed to the failure to act on those warnings.
Iranian's president says his country [must not] must resist U.S. sanctions because the Trump administration will not negotiate in good faith.
Ed Donahue of AP reports.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says people like President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo want to negotiate with his country.
"The leaders of Iran are racketeers, not revolutionaries.”
But Zarif says national security adviser John Bolton and key U.S. allies in the Middle East want something different - "regime change at the very least" and "the disintegration of Iran.”
At the United Nations, Zarif says U.S. economic pressure on his country must stop.
"This is the first time in the history of the United Nations that a Permanent Member of the Security Council punishes countries for observing a resolution of the Security Council, unheard of.”
Zarif spoke to President Trump directly, saying "Try the language of respect. It won't kill you.”
I'm Ed Donahue.