Egypt’s official statistics agency says the country’s inflation rate has jumped to 33 percent in July – up from 29.8 percent in June. The announcement comes as Egyptians struggle in the face of steep price hikes as part of the government’s economic reform plan. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics made the…
read moreEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday distanced herself from her comment earlier this year about the nation’s historically black colleges and universities being pioneers of school choice, saying that in the past “there were no choices” for African-Americans in higher education. “When I talked about it being a pioneer in choice it was because…
read moreChina urged the U.S. government Thursday to act “prudently” to avoid damaging economic relations between the two countries, in a strongly worded response to Washington’s preliminary decision to place anti-dumping duties on Chinese aluminum foil. In a statement posted on the Ministry of Commerce’s Wechat account, the government said the United States had ignored cooperation…
read moreMore than 20 million people are working as modern slaves, and a technology developer is hoping artificial intelligence can help clean up the world’s supply chains and root out worker abuse. Developer Padmini Ranganathan said mobile phones, media reports and surveillance cameras can all be mined for real-time data, which can in turn be fed…
read moreDevelopments in Washington, D.C., in recent days include North Korea threatening to take military action against U.S. territory Guam by mid-August, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis saying North Korea risks annihilation if it starts a war, and the FBI saying it raided former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s home last month as part of the…
read moreChina and Malaysia broke ground on Wednesday on a $13 billion rail project linking peninsular Malaysia’s east and west, the largest such project in the country and a major part of Beijing’s Belt and Road infrastructure push. The planned 688-km (430-mile) East Coast Rail Link will connect the South China Sea, large parts of which…
read moreThe extreme volatility of Venezuela’s exchange rate has the crisis-hit country’s shop owners hurriedly marking up their merchandise and consumers balking at the higher price tags. Just last week, the bolivar currency fell around 70 percent on the black market, according to DolarToday, the opaque U.S.-based website that dictates the black market rate. Although the…
read morePresident Donald Trump scolded his own party’s Senate leader on Wednesday for the crash of the Republican drive to repeal and rewrite the Obama health care law, using Twitter to demand of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, “Why not done?” Trump fired back at the Kentucky Republican for telling a home-state audience this week that the…
read moreU.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday that North Korea risks annihilation if it starts a war, and he told Pyongyang it must end its pursuit of nuclear weaponry. Mattis said North Korea “should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.” The…
read moreThe exchange of threats and harsh rhetoric between North Korea and Donald Trump has rattled many investors. Stock prices fell in Asia, Europe and the United States, while demand rose for safe-haven investments like gold. Key stock indexes in Hong Kong, Germany, and France were down by one percent or more. U.S. stocks were down…
read moreFive transgender members of the U.S. military, including Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, sued President Donald Trump on Wednesday, challenging his ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces. Trump said on Twitter on July 26 that the U.S. government “will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity” in the…
read moreU.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided the home of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief in the pre-dawn hours late last month, intensifying their probe of Russian interference in last year’s presidential election. The raid on the home of Paul Manafort, a long-time Republican political operative who has had deep financial ties to Russia…
read moreA U.S. proposal for Mexico and Canada to vastly raise the value of online purchases that can be imported duty-free from stores like Amazon.com and eBay is emerging as a flashpoint in an upcoming renegotiation of the NAFTA trade deal. Vulnerable industries like footwear, textiles and bricks and mortar retail in Mexico and Canada are…
read moreThe U.S. Marine Corps for the first time is eyeing a plan to let women attend what has been male-only combat training in Southern California, as officials work to quash recurring problems with sexism and other bad behavior among Marines, according to Marine Corps officials. If approved by senior Marine leaders, the change could happen…
read moreThe U.S. Marine Corps for the first time is eyeing a plan to let women attend what has been male-only combat training in Southern California, as officials work to quash recurring problems with sexism and other bad behavior among Marines, according to Marine Corps officials. If approved by senior Marine leaders, the change could happen…
read morePresident Donald Trump vowed Tuesday that the U.S. would “win” the battle against the heroin and opioid plague, but he stopped short of declaring a national emergency as his handpicked commission had recommended. Trump spoke at an event he had billed as a “major briefing” on the opioid crisis during a two-week “working vacation” at…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a stark warning to North Korea, saying if Pyongyang continued its threats against the United States, “they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” Trump told reporters North Korean leader’s Kim Jong Un had been acting in a “very threatening” manner since…
read moreAs President Donald Trump spends much of August at his New Jersey golf club, Democratic lawmakers are making a new push for information about how much money the federal government is spending at his for-profit properties. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday asked departments to hand over information about their Trump-related spending by…
read moreThe Trump administration has reversed an Obama administration stance and will support Ohio in its bid at the U.S. Supreme Court to revive a state policy of purging people from voter-registration lists if they do not regularly cast ballots. The Justice Department filed legal papers with the high court on Monday staking out the new…
read moreDozens of glistening pools in a small village on Croatia’s Adriatic coast stand testament to its annual salt harvests from seawater, which use a method largely unchanged for centuries. The salt works facility in Ston, which says it is the oldest in Europe, consists of 58 pools and covers about 430,000 square meters where the…
read moreTesla said on Monday it would raise about $1.5 billion through its first-ever offering of junk bonds as the U.S. luxury electric carmaker seeks fresh sources of cash to ramp up production of its new Model 3 sedan. The move to issue junk bonds — lower-quality investments that offer higher yields — represents a bet…
read moreFor Jisi Lazuo, the torch festival in her village in southwest China should be a celebration involving colorful ethnic clothes and eating freshly slaughtered pig. Instead, it’s a time of stress. “In my heart I always get worried when the torch festival comes along,” said Jisi, 37, who supports a family of two grandparents and…
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