Nigeria moved closer to turning the first part of a long-awaited oil industry bill into law after the lower house passed the same version of the legislation approved by the Senate last year, a lawmaker in the House of Representatives said on Thursday. It is the first time both houses have approved the same version…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump says his plan for a controversial wall along the Mexican border has “never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,” after his chief of staff John Kelly suggested that Trump wasn’t “fully informed” when he promised to build it. Trump, on Twitter Thursday, said, “Parts will be,…
read moreChina’s economy surged in 2017, posting a 6.9 percent increase from the year before — its first annual increase in seven years. The figures announced Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics outstripped the 6.7 percent increase recorded in 2016, which marked the weakest annual expansion in 26 years. The final number was also well above…
read moreIraq and British energy giant BP have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop lucrative oil fields in the country’s north. The Oil Ministry’s statement quotes BP’s president for the Middle East region, Michael Townshend, as saying that his company will conduct surveys and studies to increase production to 750,000 barrels a day. It…
read moreThe Middle East’s largest airline, Emirates, announced Thursday it struck a deal with Airbus to purchase 20 A380 aircraft with the option to buy 16 more in a deal worth $16 billion, throwing a lifeline to the European-made double-decker jumbo jets. The Dubai-based Emirates already has 101 A380s in its fleet and 41 more…
read moreArikana Chihombori-Quao, the African Union ambassador to the US, spoke to VOA’s Cindy Saine about Africa’s reaction to derogatory remarks that President Trump allegedly made concerning immigrants from Africa and how, in general, the president is viewed in Africa. …
read moreU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday he would make a one-day visit to Britain next week where he hoped to visit the new U.S. embassy. Speaking to reporters while flying back to Washington from a visit to the United States’ West Coast, Tillerson did not make clear if he would formally open the…
read moreWall Street roared upward Wednesday, with investor enthusiasm sending all three major stock indices to record finishes, and the Dow to its first close above 26,000 points. The blue-chip Dow gained 1.3 percent to close at 26,115.65 — just eight trading sessions after breaking the 25,000 mark — with strong showings from Boeing, IBM and Intel. …
read moreFire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, the explosive best-seller about the inner workings of the Donald Trump White House, may be heading to the small screen. The rights to Michael Wolff’s new book have been bought by Hollywood entertainment company Endeavor Content, which plans to adapt it for a television series, The Hollywood…
read moreAlthough President Donald Trump got a perfect score in the cognitive test during his physical examination Friday, a new poll shows Americans are split on whether he is mentally stable. The Quinnipiac University survey shows 45 percent of voters think the president is mentally stable, while 47 percent say he is not. Of the men…
read moreAmid uncertainty over protections for young immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, a scholarship group that recently collected its biggest donation yet from Amazon chief Jeff Bezos said it is exploring ways to help students if they are deported. The Dream.US foundation, which received $33 million from Bezos on Friday, said it hopes it will…
read moreFinancial crime fighters at the U.S. Treasury are “aggressively” pursuing virtual currency platforms that lack strong internal safeguards against money laundering, a top official told a Senate panel on Wednesday. With more criminals using the emerging asset class to store and transmit their ill-gotten gains, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) will pursue malfeasant virtual…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday Russia is helping North Korea get supplies in violation of international sanctions and that Pyongyang is getting “closer every day” to being able to deliver a long-range missile to the United States. “Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea,” Trump said during an Oval Office…
read moreSteve Bannon’s attorney relayed questions, in real time, to the White House during a House Intelligence Committee interview of the former Trump chief strategist, people familiar with the closed-door session told The Associated Press. As lawmakers probed Bannon’s time working for President Donald Trump, Bannon’s attorney Bill Burck was asking the White House counsel’s office…
read moreApple is planning to build another corporate campus and hire 20,000 workers during the next five years as part of a $350 billion commitment to the U.S. economy. The pledge announced Wednesday is an offshoot from the sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code championed by President Donald Trump and approved by Congress last month.…
read moreResearchers have completed the first survey of valuable materials they say are waiting to be mined from Europe’s vast landfills and scrapyards. A group of 17 organizations on Wednesday launched an online database for “urban mining” detailing precious raw materials slumbering in discarded batteries, electronics and cars across the continent. The project, known by the…
read moreIndia will need at least $125 billion to fund its ambitious plan to increase the share of renewable power supply in the country’s grid by 2022, a top government official told Reuters, underlining the immense financing challenge ahead. The South Asian nation is one of the world’s most important growth markets for renewable energy. Millions…
read moreIn a modest apartment near a Caracas slum, nutrition professor Nancy Silva and four aids spread rich, dark Venezuelan cocoa on a stone counter to make chocolate bars to be sold in local shops that cater to the crisis-hit country’s dwindling elite. Like some 20 recently launched Venezuelan businesses, Silva uses the country’s aromatic cocoa…
read moreEl Salvador is discussing a deal with Qatar under which Salvadoran migrants facing the loss of their right to stay in the United States could live and work temporarily in the Middle Eastern country, the government of the Central American nation said on Tuesday. Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said that as of…
read moreCar dealerships in Mexico City have kicked off the new year offering “clearance sales” and free insurance as 2017 models collect dust on their lots, a reminder that consumer nerves over high interest rates could slow the economy ahead of elections. The first drop in auto sales in eight years is the most visible sign…
read moreA group of 21 U.S. state attorneys general filed suit to challenge the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to do away with net neutrality on Tuesday, while Democrats said they needed just one more vote in the Senate to repeal the FCC ruling. The attorneys general filed a petition with a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to challenge…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has been subpoenaed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify before a grand jury in a probe of alleged ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the New York Times reported Tuesday. It was the first time Mueller is known to have used a subpoena against…
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