In a warehouse outside Paris, university drop-out Celine Galland stacks palettes and fills out an inventory sheet, part of a logistics apprenticeship she hopes will put a decade of short-term contracts and unemployment behind her. France’s jobless rate has sat stubbornly above 9 percent for nearly a decade. President Emmanuel Macron blames a notoriously rigid…
read moreMany of the immigration initiatives launched by the Trump administration in recent weeks target one kind of migrant: children. The measures are aimed at expelling young people already in the United States illegally and preventing new ones from crossing into the country. Some of the policy shifts have generated headlines, including Trump’s decision in September…
read moreProminent Democrats are expressing outrage over revelations from former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile that Hillary Clinton’s campaign rigged the primary election against rival Bernie Sanders. Brazile, in an excerpt from her upcoming book Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House, claims that prior…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump said Friday federal probes into Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election to help him win are a “disgrace,” and he questioned why investigators are not looking into a disclosure the Democratic National Committee acted improperly in favor of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during last year’s primary election season. Trump raised…
read moreThe United States is considering designating North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House national security adviser said Thursday, a move meant to put additional financial and diplomatic pressure on the totalitarian government. The State Department faces a congressionally mandated Thursday deadline to respond to several U.S. senators’ request that North Korea be…
read morePresident Donald Trump is making his mark on the US Federal Reserve, naming former investment manager and central bank governor Jerome Powell to replace Janet Yellen, whose term expires in February. If confirmed by the Senate, the next chairman of the Federal Reserve will oversee U.S. monetary policy and maintain the stability of the world’s…
read moreVenezuela on Thursday announced plans to restructure its burgeoning foreign debt, a move that may lead to a default by the cash-strapped OPEC nation whose collapsing socialist economy has left its population struggling to find food and medicine. President Nicolas Maduro vowed to make a $1.1 billion payment on a bond maturing Thursday, but also…
read moreOfficials in the U.S. and Puerto Rico gave differing views Thursday on when power will be fully restored to the U.S. territory after Hurricane Maria hit as a Category 4 storm more than a month ago. Ricardo Ramos, director of the state-owned power company, said the utility has restored 35 percent of the electrical system’s…
read moreIvanka Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter and informal adviser, told a summit in Tokyo Friday that the world must boost women and minority participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Ivanka Trump, seen as an important influence on her father, has made women’s issues one of her signature policy areas…
read moreFacebook received several tongue-lashings during U.S. congressional hearings this week, but the world’s largest social network also got an assignment: Figure out how to notify tens of millions of Americans who might have been fed Russian propaganda. U.S. lawmakers and some tech analysts are pressing the company to identify users who were served about 80,000…
read moreU.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested Thursday that expanding the use of fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault. During an event sponsored by NBC News and Axios, Perry said using fossil fuels to power electricity can help villages in Africa and other developing regions. Perry said he met a young girl on a trip…
read moreThe iPhone X’s lush screen, facial-recognition skills and $1,000 price tag are breaking new ground in Apple’s marquee product line. Now, the much-anticipated device is testing the patience of consumers and investors as demand outstrips suppliers’ capacity. Apple said Thursday that iPhone sales rose 3 percent in the July-September quarter, a period that…
read moreSenior U.S. Republican and Democratic lawmakers proposed targeted sanctions and travel restrictions on Myanmar military officials on Thursday over the treatment of the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority, one of the strongest efforts yet for Washington to intervene in the humanitarian crisis. Announced the day before Republican President Donald Trump leaves on his first trip to…
read moreAs a choice to lead the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell defies any recent mold. He isn’t a trained economist. He’s produced no trail of research. He built a fortune as an investment manager. Yet by the reckoning of Fed analysts — those who know him and those who don’t — Powell is equipped to lead…
read moreGoogle is partnering with AutoNation, the country’s largest auto dealership chain, in its push to build a self-driving car. AutoNation said Thursday that its dealerships will provide maintenance and repairs for Waymo’s self-driving fleet of Chrysler Pacifica vehicles. The agreement will include additional models when Waymo brings them on line. Terms of the multi-year deal…
read moreVietnam is hoping leaders of the remaining 11 member countries of a Pacific Rim trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, may be able to discuss during next week’s regional summit a revised deal following the U.S.’s withdrawal. Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son said he hoped talks held in Japan this week will have narrowed…
read moreHouse Republicans are set to unveil their far-reaching tax overhaul Thursday, making major changes yet looking to preserve current tax rules for retirement accounts popular with middle-class Americans and to retain a top income-tax rate for million-dollar earners. GOP negotiators scrambled this week to finalize details of the first major revamp of the tax system…
read moreThe hackers who upended the U.S. presidential election had ambitions well beyond Hillary Clinton’s campaign, targeting the emails of Ukrainian officers, Russian opposition figures, U.S. defense contractors and thousands of others of interest to the Kremlin, according to a previously unpublished digital hit list obtained by The Associated Press. The list provides the most detailed…
read moreTuesday afternoon’s terror attack in New York has quickly become a political issue after President Donald Trump blamed a visa program he said the suspect, originally from Uzbekistan, took advantage of. VOA’s White House bureau chief Steve Herman reports. …
read moreHouse tours, ghost tours, monument tours … there are lots of ways to view a city. But maybe only Columbus, Ohio, has food tours. Columbus food blogger Bethia Woolf launched Columbus Food Adventures in 2010 in part because the city’s diverse immigrant population, now 9 percent of the total, has created a rich and diverse restaurant…
read moreThe indictment of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, has sent a chill through Washington’s foreign lobbying community. Manafort and his former business associate, Rick Gates, are accused of serving as unregistered agents of a foreign government in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The law requires anyone that carries out “political…
read moreFacebook, Twitter and Google executives testified in public before Senate and House investigations into Russian election interference for the first time Wednesday, amid disclosures that Russian influence on social media platforms was much wider in scope than previously understood. The lawmakers had tough questions for the Silicon Valley executives as VOA’s Katherine Gypson reports from…
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