McDonald’s has started testing mobile order-and-pay after acknowledging the ordering process in its restaurants can be “stressful.” The company says it will gather feedback from the test before launching the option nationally toward the end of the year. It says mobile order-and-pay is now available at 29 stores in Monterey and Salinas, California, and will…
read moreIt is tempting, says Godfrey Nwosu, to blame Nigeria’s rising food prices on something as simple as a drought that has battered the Lake Chad basin and sent crop yields tumbling across the region. If only it were that simple, Nwosu says. As the head of an organization that promotes Nigerian farming, he would be…
read moreA bipartisan group of U.S. senators Wednesday introduced legislation which calls for an increase in the number of visas available to Afghans who helped U.S. forces in positions such as interpreters. The bill calls for an extra 2,500 Special Immigrant Visas specifically for Afghans who assisted the U.S. military, often risking their lives. “This legislation…
read moreThe U.S. central bank is expected to raise interest rates slightly Wednesday afternoon as the economy nears full employment and inflation rises modestly. Leaders of the U.S. Federal Reserve have been debating interest rate policy for two days here in Washington, and most analysts predict they will raise rates one quarter of a percentage point…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, wiretapped him in the weeks before last November’s election is unfounded, the top leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said Wednesday. “We don’t have any evidence that took place,” Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, the panel’s chairman, said. “I don’t think…
read moreMoving forcefully against Obama-era environmental rules, President Donald Trump is set to announce in Michigan plans to re-examine federal requirements that regulate the fuel efficiency of new cars and trucks. Trump is expected to reveal his plans during an appearance Wednesday at the American Center for Mobility in Detroit where he’ll challenge the Corporate Average…
read moreThe release of two pages of President Donald Trump’s 2005 tax returns has sparked a legal dispute, with the White House and a major television network squaring off over whether a law was broken. The White House said MSNBC’s publication of the pages Tuesday night violated a federal law that prohibits the unauthorized release of…
read morePresident Donald Trump is to tell American autoworkers Wednesday in the state of Michigan that he is setting aside strict fuel-economy requirements imposed by the previous administration in its waning days. The Trump White House contends that action broke an earlier agreement with the auto industry to wait until 2018 to review the standards. “The…
read moreChina is warning about the possible impact of a trade war with the United States, even as the world’s two biggest economies take steps to map out relations under the administration of President Donald Trump. Speaking at an annual news conference Wednesday, at the end of high-level political meetings in Beijing, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang…
read moreOn this day, March 15 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, urging legislation that would guarantee voting rights for all, regardless of race or color. Using the phrase “We shall overcome,” borrowed from leaders of the civil rights movement such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Johnson declared that “every American…
read moreThe Congressional Budget Office report on a Republican health care bill set off an intense reaction in Washington, and some on both sides of the debate are playing loose with the facts. Republicans are overlooking President Donald Trump’s promise to deliver “insurance for everybody,” which the CBO makes clear will not happen if the legislation…
read moreMinisters and officials representing the 12 countries of the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership, plus China and South Korea, began talks in Chile on Tuesday, but any concrete decision on how a new trade pact might look seemed far off. The TPP, which would have included about 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, was effectively…
read moreSouth American trade bloc Mercosur expects to sign a framework accord this year for a trade deal with the European Union as the U.S. shift to isolationism under President Donald Trump encourages it to look outside the hemisphere for opportunities, Brazil’s top diplomat said on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes told Reuters in an interview…
read moreA Seattle federal judge on Tuesday recommended that his court hear the case of a Mexican immigrant with a work permit who is challenging his arrest by U.S. immigration authorities in February. In a report filed in district court, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Donohue recommended denying the U.S. government’s motion to dismiss the case brought…
read moreSteve Herman became VOA’s White House bureau chief in March after spending 25 years as a foreign correspondent. His previous post required Herman to travel often throughout the world. Now he reports from a small booth on the world’s biggest political stories. Here are his initial impressions of day-to-day work as a White House correspondent.…
read moreVisitors to Bangalore, India, these days can see street art, have beer at local microbreweries or take an Uber ride to a distant neighborhood to meet with venture capitalists about a recent startup that grabbed their attention. Gone are the days of a city dominated by call centers and American visa seekers. “There’s an artisanal…
read moreWith the start of the government’s revised travel order looming, legal challengers hope a court decision will forestall the administration’s second attempt to limit travelers and refugees coming to the U.S. Lawyers with three groups involved in lawsuits related to President Donald Trump’s travel orders said they are watching the actions of a Washington state…
read moreThe Kenyan doctors union on Tuesday called off its 100-day strike after reaching a deal with the national and county governments. The union and officials signed a deal on a return-to-work formula and agreed that a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2013 would be renegotiated in the next 60 days. The CBA covers doctor salaries,…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, said Tuesday that he was “awaiting instructions” from Trump on whether to support a restoration of the Export-Import Bank’s full lending powers. The U.S. government trade bank’s loans have been capped at $10 million for more than a year because it has too few…
read moreAn obscure U.S. agency, the Congressional Budget Office, has been thrust into the midst of the contentious Washington political debate over the fate of the country’s health care policies. Many Americans outside of official Washington likely have never heard of the 42-year-old agency, a group of about 235 non-partisan budget analysts and economists with advanced…
read moreA group of states renewed their effort on Monday to block President Donald Trump’s revised temporary ban on refugees and travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, arguing that his executive order is the same as the first one that was halted by federal courts. Court papers filed by the state of Washington and joined by California,…
read moreRussian lender Sberbank said Monday it was deeply concerned by protests against its Ukrainian subsidiary, which included a nationalist group walling up the entrance to one of its branches in Kyiv with masonry and cement. Periodic protests have been held against Kremlin-owned banks operating in Ukraine since bilateral ties broke down in 2014 after Russia…
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