Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Saturday he will stop flying private planes on official business while an internal review of the flights is being done and that he welcomes the review. Price defended the practice of using private planes on Fox News. A spokeswoman has said Price tries to fly commercial whenever…
read moreU.S. ride-hailing firm Uber is prepared to make concessions as it seeks to reverse a decision by London authorities not to renew its license in the city, which represents a potentially big blow for the fast-growing company, a newspaper reported. The Sunday Times also quoted sources close to London’s transport body as saying the move…
read moreAccording the U.S. Travel Association, there are fewer people visiting the United States, even though international tourism as a whole is on the rise. Some tourism agencies blame Trump administration policies on immigrants as the reason people are not making the USA a travel destination. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
read moreNorth Korea’s cash-strapped regime has long sought workarounds to the increasingly harsh international sanctions aimed at tightening the financial noose around its nuclear and missile programs. Now, according to Recorded Future, an intelligence research firm backed by Google Venture, Pyongyang is making a foray into cyberspace, launching a bitcoin “mining” operation, which saw a…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump criticized Senator John McCain at a political rally in Alabama Friday for opposing the Republican party’s latest attempt to repeal the nation’s health care law. Speaking at a campaign event for Republican Senator Luther Strange, Trump said McCain’s opposition was “sad” and “a horrible, horrible thing.” “It’s a little tougher without…
read morePresidential job approval is a simple yet powerful measure of the public’s view of the president’s job performance at a particular time. It is important because it helps summarize how people are feeling about their president and measures the ability of the president to get things done. But it also has other implications, says Gallup’s…
read moreThe United States is considering new restrictions on who can enter the country. The rules could take effect as early as Sunday, when part of the current executive order restricting travelers from six Muslim majority countries expires. VOA’s Aline Barros has more. …
read moreWisconsin, Ohio and several other states said on Friday they were among 21 states that Russian government hackers targeted in an effort to sway the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump though no votes were changed. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed it had notified the states of the activity but declined to…
read moreU.S. Senator John McCain has announced he cannot “in good conscience” vote for the Republican health care overhaul, meaning the GOP is unlikely to be able to repeal and replace Obamacare by September 30. McCain joins two other Republicans who have pledged to vote “no” — Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Senator Susan Collins…
read moreRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday dismissed the notion of renegotiating the agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons development, maintaining U.S. concerns about Iran are beyond the scope of the deal. “This program is already finalized and endorsed by the U.N. Security Council resolution. Opening up this plan for negotiations basically would be disregarding this…
read moreThe U.S. Department of Education has withdrawn 2011 guidance on how colleges should handle accusations of sexual assault, saying the policy “failed to ensure fundamental fairness.” A set of interim guidelines has been disclosed. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a release Friday that the interim guidelines “will treat all students fairly.” “Schools must continue…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump will campaign Friday at a rally in Alabama on behalf of Senator Luther Strange, an establishment-backed Republican candidate who has trailed opponent Roy Moore in a special runoff election. Strange, who was appointed to the Senate seat vacated when Jeff Sessions became attorney general, was endorsed last month by Trump. The…
read moreCheap solar panels imported from China and other countries have led to a boom in the U.S. solar industry, where rooftop and other installations have surged 10-fold since 2011. But two U.S. solar manufacturers say the flood of imports has led one to bankruptcy and forced the other to lay off three-quarters of its workforce.…
read moreThe top homeland security official in the United States has suggested to President Donald Trump new standards for visitors and immigrants applying to enter the country. With less than two full days before temporary restrictions on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries are set to expire Sunday, the president has not yet announced his decision on…
read moreFor an administration that came into office nine months ago with precious little foreign policy experience, President Donald Trump and his team have made a remarkable splash at this week’s United Nations General Assembly gathering. From U.N. headquarters in New York, VOA’s Peter Heinlein reports Trump’s inner circle of advisers has taken on increasingly prominent…
read morePresident Donald Trump has improved his poll ratings in recent weeks. His public approval rating has reached 40 percent in several surveys after hovering in the mid-30s following his controversial comments in the wake of violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. Has Trump turned a corner, or is he enjoying a temporary respite from the low…
read moreGerman carmaker Mercedes-Benz has announced plans to invest $1 billion to start making electric vehicles at its manufacturing plant in the southern U.S. state of Alabama. The luxury automaker said it will manufacture electric SUVs under Mercedes’ EQ subbrand at the plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in just more than three years. The expansion is expected…
read moreThe United States will present new proposals and begin to weigh into thornier issues of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the third round of negotiations starting in Ottawa Saturday, U.S. chief negotiator John Melle said Thursday. The stepped-up negotiations come with four more rounds of talks left after Ottawa and a self-imposed year-end…
read moreWhen officials from Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon toured six European countries in June, they were hoping to drum up investment in transport, energy and education. Instead, they were bombarded with questions about the country’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have long complained of persecution by the Buddhist majority in the oil-rich, ethnically divided,…
read moreThousands of small factories in China, making everything from steel to chemicals, are scrambling for access to the country’s clogged rail network as Beijing curbs the use of diesel trucks in an effort to tackle air pollution. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) last month gave tens of thousands of companies in 28 cities until…
read moreMore than a third of migrant fishermen in Thailand clearly were victims of trafficking over the past five years, and even more workers in the industry were possibly trafficked as well, according to a report published Thursday. Routinely underpaid and physically abused, three-quarters of migrants working on Thai fishing vessels have been in debt bondage,…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a friend who gets “high marks” for “running a very difficult part of the world.” Trump’s effusive praise for the Turkish leader came on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday despite tensions between the two countries over the conduct of…
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