President Donald Trump has broken his silence on the stock market. Trump tweeted Wednesday: “In the ‘old days,’ when good news was reported, the Stock Market would go up. Today, when good news is reported, the Stock Market goes down. Big mistake, and we have so much good (great) news about the economy!” After a…
read moreA growing number of farmers in Latin American nations renowned for their high-quality arabica coffee are starting to plant cheaper robusta — a crop still frowned upon or even outlawed in some countries. In locales such as Colombia and Costa Rica, many in the industry have feared the low-brow bean will spoil their reputation as…
read moreThe U.S. Senate will be the focus Wednesday in the effort to fund the federal government and avoid another possible shutdown as Republicans and Democrats stand apart on how long to extend domestic spending relative to national defense. With a midnight Thursday deadline pending, the House of Representatives voted mostly along party lines Tuesday night…
read morePresident Donald Trump has asked the Pentagon to plan a grand parade of the U.S. armed forces in Washington this year to celebrate military strength, officials said Tuesday. The Washington Post, which was first to report the plan, said Trump wants an elaborate parade this year with soldiers marching and tanks rolling, but no…
read moreIn the heartland of the tequila industry, in Mexico’s western state of Jalisco, a worsening shortage of agave caused by mounting demand for the liquor from New York to Tokyo has many producers worried. The price of Agave tequilana, the blue-tinged, spiky-leaved succulent used to make the alcoholic drink, has risen six-fold in the past…
read morePeru’s trade minister defended China as a good trade partner on Tuesday, after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Latin American countries against excessive reliance on economic ties with the Asian powerhouse. Eduardo Ferreyros said Peru’s 2010 trade liberalization deal with China had allowed the Andean nation of about 30 million people to post…
read morePresident Donald Trump has signed a national security memorandum establishing a new National Vetting Center within the Department of Homeland Security to better coordinate information on individuals who may pose a threat to the country. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the effort will allow law enforcement “to better identify individuals seeking to…
read moreAmong the countless Puerto Rico neighborhoods battered by Hurricane Maria is one named after another storm: Villa Hugo. The illegal shantytown emerged on a public wetland after 1989’s Hurricane Hugo left thousands homeless. About 6,000 squatters landed here, near the El Yunque National Forest, and built makeshift homes on 40 acres that span a low-lying…
read moreShaken out of many months of calm, Wall Street braced for a higher level of volatility in the days ahead, after a roughly 2 percent rebound in U.S. stocks on Tuesday followed the biggest one-day selloff in more than six years. The question that vexed traders: were the wild swings of the past two days…
read moreU.S. lawmakers grilled Trump administration officials Tuesday about the war in Afghanistan, saying the new White House strategy was inconsistent and was not producing results. The comments made at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing reflected growing frustration in Congress about the U.S.-led war, which is entering its 17th year. As recently as November, General…
read moreWill Disney’s upcoming streaming services be the mouse that roared … or squeaked? Disney already owns enviable entertainment properties including Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars. Now, it’s looking to add Fox’s TV and movie studios as it prepares to launch two streaming services, one for sports and another focused on entertainment. In announcing first-quarter earnings…
read moreU.S. Democratic lawmakers lashed out on Tuesday at President Donald Trump for labeling them as “treasonous” and “un-American” for the cold reception they gave him during his State of the Union address last week. “By calling us treasonous? Well, that borders on divisive,” No. 2 Democrat in the Senate Dick Durbin told reporters in a…
read moreDefense Secretary Jim Mattis castigated Congress on Tuesday over its failure to pass a budget establishing military spending levels for the fiscal year that began in October. Political bickering in Washington led to a partial government shutdown last month, hours after Mattis outlined a new strategy for dealing with threats to the nation and the…
read moreWhite House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the White House has received a Democratic rebuttal to a Republican memo alleging FBI abuses of power during a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and will follow the same process that led to the public release of the Republican document. President Donald Trump…
read moreAsia’s benchmark stock indexes collapsed Tuesday, as Monday’s massive selloffs on Wall Street rolled across the globe. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost as much seven percent of its value at one point during the trading session, before closing at 21,610 points, a loss of nearly five percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index followed suit, dropping…
read moreU.S. lawmakers on Monday voted to release the Democratic rebuttal to a Republican memo alleging that the FBI abused its power in probing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. More from VOA’s Bill Gallo at the White House. …
read moreLawyers for U.S. President Donald Trump are advising him not to agree to appear for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, the New York Times reported Monday. Mueller’s team has already talked to multiple White House officials and others involved with Trump’s campaign for president, as part of an investigation into Russia’s meddling in…
read moreAfter more than a week of finger-pointing between Republicans and Democrats over the propriety of the so-called Nunes memo, law enforcement veterans are increasingly concerned that the dispute is undermining public confidence in the Justice Department as an independent, non-partisan law enforcement body. President Donald Trump has seized on allegations of surveillance abuses at the…
read moreAs U.S. stocks plunged on Monday, President Donald Trump was speaking at an event in Ohio but noticeably not taking credit for the market despite doing so repeatedly when stocks were rising. The stark contrast was a sign that Trump may be absorbing a tough message, underscored by former White House advisers, that American presidents…
read moreEconomists at the European Central Bank say that the U.S. corporate tax cut should lift the world’s largest economy in the short term but warn it could erode the tax base in European countries by intensifying global competition for lower rates. In a short article released Monday, the ECB’s economists say that the cut in…
read moreThe U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let a court-ordered redrawing of congressional districts in Pennsylvania proceed, denying a plea from Republicans legislative leaders to block it. Justice Samuel Alito, who handles emergency appeals from Pennsylvania, rejected the request from the GOP leaders and voters that the court put on hold an order from the state…
read moreDigital currencies such as bitcoin demand increased oversight and may require a new federal regulatory framework, the top U.S. markets regulators will tell lawmakers at a hotly anticipated congressional hearing on Tuesday. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, will provide testimony to…
read more
