A small city in the American Midwest is home to immigrants and refugees from 40 nations — and a blossoming ethnic restaurant scene. As VOA’s June Soh reports, Columbus, Ohio’s taste buds and economy are both benefiting. …
read moreFacebook reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Wednesday as it pushed further into video advertising, showing no sign of financial damage from the controversy over how Russia used the social network in an attempt to sway voters in the 2016 U.S. election. The company’s shares, which hit a record earlier in the day, initially…
read morePresident Donald Trump wants to abolish the U.S. diversity lottery, which he said was responsible for giving a visa to the 29-year-old Uzbek citizen suspected in Tuesday’s attack in downtown Manhattan. The diversity lottery grants visas to people from countries that have low levels of immigration to the United States. Not only is the president…
read moreTempers flared as U.S. senators grilled Facebook, Twitter, and Google representatives about Russia’s use of their platforms to spread disinformation in the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as the companies’ efforts to prevent a repeat. “You must do better to protect the American people and, frankly, all of your users from this kind of manipulation,”…
read moreInvestigators said Wednesday that the driver of a rented pickup truck who mowed down people on a busy bike path in New York on Tuesday carried out the attack on behalf of Islamic State. “He did this in the name of ISIS,” said John Miller, the New York deputy police commissioner. Miller told reporters that…
read morePresident Donald Trump has said the Uzbek attacker who killed people Tuesday night in Manhattan came to the United States on a diversity immigrant visa. In the wake of the attack, Trump says he wants to work with Congress immediately to end the diversity lottery program. “I am today starting the process of terminating the…
read moreThough the Trump administration has taken steps to undo regulations aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions, experts say economic forces are helping to push down U.S. emissions anyway. U.N. climate negotiators will meet in Bonn, Germany, November 6-17. It will be their first gathering since President Donald Trump announced the United States would withdraw from…
read moreCalifornia Governor Jerry Brown is continuing his international fight against climate change with an 11-day trip to Europe starting Saturday that includes stops at the Vatican and a U.N. conference in Germany. Brown is a chief adversary to Republican President Donald Trump in the battle over U.S. climate policy, promising to help the country reach…
read moreMembers of the U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday made three different recommendations for restricting solar cell and panel imports on Tuesday, giving President Donald Trump a range of choices to address injury to domestic producers. The recommendations range from an immediate 35 percent tariff on all imported panels to a four-year quota system that…
read moreThe head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday he intends to replace the outside experts that advise him on science and public health issues with new board members holding more diverse views. In announcing the changes, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt suggested many previously appointed to the panels were potentially biased because they had…
read moreHouse Republicans, straining to make last-minute changes to their far-reaching tax proposal, on Tuesday delayed the rollout by a day after they failed to finalize the details. The plan pushed by President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress is a top legislative priority. The details originally were to be unveiled on Wednesday, but that…
read moreA top Ukrainian official says Russia should provide U.S. investigators with access to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia after his rule was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan revolution of 2014. Dmitry Shymkiv, the deputy head of the administration of President Petro Poroshenko, said access to Yanukovych could prove vital to an understanding…
read moreArgentina’s President Mauricio Macri vowed to press ahead with reforms to the country’s tax, labor and retirement systems in a speech on Monday, a week after his “Let’s Change” coalition swept to victory at the polls in midterm elections. The government will present a tax reform proposal this Tuesday or Wednesday, and an amnesty plan…
read moreChile’s frontrunning center-right presidential candidate, Sebastian Pinera, on Monday unveiled a $14 billion, four-year spending plan focused on proposed reforms to the country’s tax and pension systems and new investments in infrastructure and hospitals. The former president, who governed from 2010 to 2014, said he would pay for his proposals by cutting “unnecessary” government spending…
read moreThe leaders of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia launched an 826-km (500-mile) rail link connecting the three countries on Monday, establishing a freight and passenger link between Europe and China that bypasses Russia. The line, which includes 105 km of new track, will have the capacity to transport one million passengers and 5 million tons of…
read moreThe African Development Bank has called off a loan to Nigeria that would have helped fund the country’s budget, instead redirecting the money to specific projects, a vice president at the lender said on Monday. The African Development Bank had been in talks with Nigeria for around a year to release the second, $400 million…
read moreA new war authorization is “not legally required” to conduct combat operations against terrorist groups across the globe, top administration officials said Monday. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that the current authorization should not be repealed, even if Congress approves a new…
read moreFor nearly 40 years, Paul Manafort has been one of Washington’s top lobbyists, paid millions of dollars to represent controversial figures from around the globe who needed to burnish their standing in the U.S. capital, including the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos, Zaire’s military dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and most recently Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych. At the…
read moreThe special counsel investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia took a dramatic turn Monday with criminal indictments of two former Trump campaign officials, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. Special Counsel Robert Mueller also revealed that a former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the…
read moreThe indictment against Donald Trump’s former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, and a longtime business associate alleged the two carried out an elaborate scheme that involved the use of a little-known outfit to mask years of lobbying on behalf of Ukraine’s former president, his pro-Russia political party, and the Ukrainian government. Manafort and his former business…
read moreThe White House went on the defensive Monday, distancing President Donald Trump from charges filed against two former campaign aides by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in connection with the probe into Russia’s attempt to influence last year’s presidential election. The pair, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and longtime business associate Rick Gates, were named in…
read moreU.S. President is expected to nominate Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell as the next chairman of the central bank, senior administration officials said Monday. Powell is a Republican centrist who appears inclined to continue the Fed’s strategy of gradual interest rate hikes. But officials say Trump hasn’t made up his mind and could change it.…
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