China, the world’s third-largest bond market accounting for $9 trillion in debt instruments, has started the process of opening up to foreign investors. Two major investment banks, including Citigroup, have announced plans to join the fray and several others are expectantly watching the unfolding situation. It’s not a sudden desire to liberalize, but pressure from…
read moreGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke up for free trade at a major technology fair on Sunday with jabs clearly pointed at an increasingly protectionist United States. Both called for a free trade deal to be reached quickly between Japan and the European Union, in comments made after G-20 finance…
read moreU.S. House Republicans are working on changes to their health care overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday. Ryan said Republican leaders still planned to bring the health care bill to a…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s budget director says the proposed government spending plan is the vision on which the president ran and that he actually is following through on his promises to the American people. Mick Mulvaney told NBC television’s Meet the Press Sunday that means “more money for defense, more money to secure the border, more…
read moreA former North Carolina police chief who now works as a law enforcement consultant said Sunday that he’s disappointed with his country of 42 years after he was detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Former Greenville Police Chief Hassan Aden of Alexandria, Virginia, said he was detained March 13 on his return trip from…
read morePresident Donald Trump risks driving wedges between the United States and its closest allies, something America can ill-afford. So say lawmakers of both political parties as public disputes have arisen between the White House and Britain as well as Germany. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington. …
read moreThe eastern U.S. city of Philadelphia has canceled this year’s celebration of Cinco de Mayo, an event that attracts as many as 15,000 people. Edgar Ramirez, one of the event’s organizers, said the unanimous decision by the planners was “sad,” but it was the “responsible” thing to do because of “the severe conditions affecting the…
read moreBefore President Trump’s Supreme Court choice testifies before a Senate panel, Republicans are optimistic Judge Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed while Democrats face enormous pressure from progressive activists to block him. “Hopefully a week from Thursday, I’m able to tell you he [Gorsuch] has done such a good job in answering questions [at the confirmation…
read moreWith warm words from Chinese President Xi Jinping Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ended his first trip to Asia since taking office with an agreement to work with China on North Korea. They put aside trickier issues. China has been irritated at being repeatedly told by Washington to rein in North Korea’s nuclear…
read moreNorth Korea ground-tested a new high-thrust rocket engine, the country’s official news agency, KCNA, said Sunday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the test was successful and “emphasized that the world will soon witness the great significance of the epoch-making victory we achieved today,” KCNA reported. The test consisted of firing the rocket engine…
read morePresident Donald Trump has chosen the husband of White House counseler Kellyanne Conway to head the civil division of the Justice Department, The Wall Street Journal reported. George Conway was chosen to head the office that has responsibility for defending the administration’s proposed travel ban and defending lawsuits filed against the administration, the newspaper…
read moreU.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the meeting of finance ministers of the G20 countries was a success Saturday despite the ministers not reaching agreement on trade protectionism. “I will leave here confident that my colleagues and I are able to work in partnership to …foster and promote global growth and financial stability,” he said.…
read moreA U.S. House Intelligence Committee Monday will further investigate the extent of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election and President Donald Trump’s claim that President Barack Obama had his phones tapped during the campaign. During a public hearing, committee members will question FBI Director James Comey and Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of…
read moreOn Monday, the House Intelligence Committee will give FBI Director James Comey his first opportunity to publicly address President Donald Trump’s claims that former President Barack Obama secretly wiretapped his phones in New York’s Trump Tower. Comey will address his agency’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. VOA’s congressional reporter Katherine Gypson has…
read moreFormer U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she is ready to participate in the public discussion about the change in the country’s political climate since the November presidential election. “I’m like a lot of my friends right now, I have a hard time watching the news,” she said Friday at the Society of Irish Women’s…
read moreThe Florida prosecutor who thrust herself into the forefront of the anti-death penalty movement is a political novice who was elected just seven months ago. Aramis Ayala, a Democrat and former public defender and assistant state attorney, surprised many of her supporters when she announced this week that her office would no longer seek…
read moreThe top U.S. diplomat is in China on the third and final leg of his first Asia tour, focusing on North Korea and its controversial nuclear and missile programs. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday after meeting in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, tensions on the Korean Peninsula were at a…
read moreIn Greece’s grinding economic crisis, a home for abused children is now taking in those whose parents are struggling to feed them. It is perhaps the darkest sign of economic devastation in Greece, where traditionally strong family ties are starting to crumble after years of depression. A quarter of Greece’s workforce is unemployed and a…
read moreIt could be a Hollywood screenplay. Juliana Armelin and her husband Paulo Siqueira decided to radically change their lives in 2010, quitting jobs in Sao Paulo’s financial sector and moving to a farm seven hours away to start growing coffee. Seven years later, they clinched for a second consecutive year Brazil’s most prestigious coffee award,…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shook hands warmly at the end of a sometimes awkward “getting-to-know-you” session Friday at the White House that seemed to symbolize the difficulties ahead for the trans-Atlantic relationship. Trump and Merkel, considered the two most powerful leaders in the Western world, appeared to get off to…
read moreAirbnb expects to maintain its rapid growth in Africa this year and double its customer numbers to 1.5 million, its Chief Executive Brian Chesky and regional head told Reuters on Friday. The number of people using the online room rental service on the continent rose by 143 percent to about 765,000 guests in 2016 from…
read morePresident Donald Trump agreed to add fresh Medicaid curbs to the House Republican health care bill Friday, bolstering the measure with support from some conservative lawmakers but leaving its prospects wobbly. House leaders discussed other amendments calibrated to round up votes and scheduled a showdown vote Thursday. “I just want to let the world…
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