Turkey announced Thursday that it would impose tariffs on $1.8 billion worth of U.S. goods in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The World Trade Organization said the new Turkish tariffs would amount to $266.5 million on products including cars, coal, paper, rice and tobacco. Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said…
read moreA report by the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights finds 40 million people in the United States live in poverty, 18.5 million live in extreme poverty and more than 5 million live in conditions of absolute poverty. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston called the United States the most unequal society in the developed…
read moreIndia, the world’s biggest buyer of U.S. almonds, raised import duties on the commodity by 20 percent, a government order said, joining the European Union and China in retaliating against President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes on steel and aluminum. New Delhi, incensed by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from the new tariffs, also imposed a…
read moreIntel Corp Chief Executive Brian Krzanich resigned on Thursday after a probe found his consensual relationship with an employee violated company policy. The head of the largest U.S. chipmaker is the latest in a line of powerful men in business and politics to lose their jobs or resign over relationships viewed as inappropriate, a phenomenon…
read moreFor six weeks, South Texas residents watched in disbelief as a “zero tolerance” immigration policy ripped apart migrant families in their communities. Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to reverse course and replace family separation with a policy of family unit detention, some residents breathed a sigh of relief. Weary from images of children…
read moreFor six weeks, South Texas residents watched in disbelief as a “zero tolerance” immigration policy ripped apart migrant families in their communities. Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to reverse course and replace family separation with a policy of family unit detention, some residents breathed a sigh of relief. Others, however, remained less convinced…
read moreA day after U.S. President Donald Trump reversed a policy of separating migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, the House of Representatives is set to vote Thursday on a pair of immigration bills that address the separations as well as other issues that have divided the country’s major political parties. The outcome of the votes…
read moreU.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross faced tough questions during a Senate hearing Wednesday on the Trump administration’s tariff proposals and actions. Senators on both sides of the aisle criticized the administration’s rollout of proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff has more on the fallout from Washington. …
read moreChina’s commerce ministry on Thursday accused the United States of being “capricious” over bilateral trade issues and warned that the interests of U.S. workers and farmers ultimately will be hurt by Washington’s penchant for brandishing “big sticks.” Previous trade negotiations with the United States had been constructive, but because the U.S. government is being unpredictable…
read moreSocial media app Instagram announced Wednesday that it would be increasing its time limit for videos posted on its platform from one minute to 10 minutes, as part of a general expansion of the app’s video capabilities. The photo-sharing app also announced it would be launching a stand-alone app called IGTV to host these long-form…
read moreA decent rating from Fitch this month has Vietnam riding high on the small victory, despite some of the less favorable economic trends connected to this first-of-its-kind rating. The state monopoly Vietnam Electricity, or EVN, clinched a “BB” score June 6 from Fitch Ratings, which until then had never officially assessed the credit of a…
read moreFour years after Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill co-sponsored legislation targeting tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, her husband began investing in a hedge fund registered in the Caribbean nation — an investment that has paid off handsomely. The Kansas City Star reported Wednesday that Joseph Shepard has invested $1 million in Matrix Capital Management…
read more“Indian Country remembers,” Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country Today wrote in Monday’s edition of the pan-Native news site. “This is not the first administration to order the forced separation of families.” He later told VOA, “I basically wanted to show the recurring nature of history. It’s a story so familiar.” President Donald Trump’s “zero…
read moreAs the United States and China teeter on the brink of an all out trade war and tit-for-tat tariffs loom, a European businesses lobby is urging Beijing to stop dragging its feet on reforms and using unfair trade policies to pamper Chinese companies. Each year, foreign trade groups in China roll out a laundry list…
read moreAmazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway have picked well-known author and Harvard professor Dr. Atul Gawande to transform the health care they give their employees. The three corporate titans said Wednesday that Gawande will lead an independent company focused on a mission they announced earlier this year: figure out ways to improve a broken and…
read moreAs Congress mulls over the future of two House immigration bills, migrant families who entered the United States illegally continue to be separated as a result of the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy. In South Texas, VOA spoke with activists seeking an end to the practice, along with migrants who were lucky enough to avoid separation.…
read moreBarely six months after inaugurating a tiny software-coding boot camp in a basement in Tokyo, Silicon Valley transplant Kani Munidasa stood before some of Japan’s top business leaders in February with a warning: software was threatening their future. A Sri Lankan native with a Japanese mother and wife, Munidasa was speaking at the invitation of…
read moreSameera Al Salam folds a discarded piece of newspaper into a long strip then loops it round her finger to form a tight circle, the first stage of making the upcycled handbags, trays and bowls the Syrian refugee hopes will help her earn a living. Al Salam, 55, was a hairdresser with a passion for…
read moreTwo men on motorbikes approached a broken-down vehicle in Caracas one day earlier this month in what could have been a nightmare scenario in one of the world’s most dangerous cities where roadside robberies and murders are an everyday occurrence. The men took up positions either side of the green four-wheel-drive vehicle, with a 33-year-old…
read moreThe White House aide who led the planning for President Donald Trump’s meeting last week with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has decided to leave the Trump administration to return to the private sector. Joe Hagin, the White House deputy chief of staff for operations, has served in every Republican White House since the…
read moreWhen Neha Maldar testified against the traffickers who enslaved her as a sex worker in India, she spoke from the safety of her own country, Bangladesh, via videoconferencing, a technology that could revolutionize the pursuit of justice in such cases. The men in the western city of Mumbai appeared via video link more than 2,000…
read moreChina calls President Donald Trump’s threat to slap more tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S. “extreme pressure and blackmail” and threatens to retaliate. Beijing reacted Tuesday to Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese goods “if China refuses to change its practices.” “China apparently has no intention of changing its…
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