President Donald Trump’s hotel company did not break the law by doing business with other countries, a Justice Department lawyer told a federal judge Monday. The state of Maryland and the District Columbia have accused Trump of capitalizing on the presidency and causing harm to local businesses that compete with his Washington hotel. Monday’s…
read morePresident Donald Trump tweeted out more criticism of U.S. trade partners Monday, including allies in Europe and Canada, adding to his declarations that the United States will no longer tolerate what he has called “trade abuse.” That was part of a string of messages in which the president asserted the United States “pays close to…
read moreA radical plan to transform Switzerland’s financial landscape by barring commercial banks from electronically creating money when they lend was resoundingly rejected by Swiss voters on Sunday. More than three quarters rejected the so-called Sovereign Money initiative, according to the official result released from the Swiss government. All of the country’s self-governing cantons also voted…
read moreThe White House is assailing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying he “stabbed us in the back” and undermined U.S. President Donald Trump after Trump left the G-7 economic summit early for Singapore. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News, “There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in…
read moreDespite astonishing advances in robotics, today’s machines often struggle to accomplish what insects do routinely. So robotics researchers are taking advantage of nature’s billions of years of experience. They are learning from bees to build flying machines that can learn and navigate their environments. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more. …
read moreSouth Koreans are optimistic that U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will improve the prospects for a lasting peace in the region when the two men meet Tuesday in Singapore, even if no definitive denuclearization deal is reached. “What we want is peace. I wish that the summit works out…
read moreThe U.S.’s chief Mideast envoy and a key Palestinian official engaged in a sharp exchange of words Sunday over Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects and the role the United States is playing in trying to settle the decadeslong dispute. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat set off the verbal warfare with a recent opinion article in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper…
read moreItaly’s new coalition government has no intention of leaving the euro and plans to focus on cutting debt levels, Economy Minister Giovanni Tria said on Sunday, looking to reassure nervous financial markets. Italian government bonds have come under concerted selling pressure on fears the government will embark on a spending splurge that Italy can ill-afford…
read moreThe International Labor Organization reports 152 million children are victims of child labor, with nearly half forced to work in hazardous, unhealthy conditions that can result in death and injury. Twenty years ago, hundreds of people, including children, participated in the Global March against Child Labor. They came to the International Labor Conference in Geneva…
read moreThe Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)is holding its first summit since India and Pakistan joined the bloc which is widely seem by observers as a means for blocking American influence in Central Asia. The founding members of the alliance are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The summit is being held in the eastern Chinese…
read morePrime Minister Theresa May will gather together squabbling British ministers at her country residence after this month’s European Union summit to settle on details of a much-anticipated Brexit policy paper. May has yet to agree on some of the fundamental details of what type of trading relationship she wants to have with the European Union after Britain leaves next March. As…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump warned Saturday that his meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12 is a “one-time shot” for the reclusive leader. Before leaving the international Group of Seven summit in Quebec, Trump told reporters that he expects to know right away if Kim is serious about giving up…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had instructed his representatives not to sign a communique by all seven leaders attending the G-7 summit in Canada, citing statements by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made after he left. “Very dishonest and & weak,” Trump tweeted in response to Trudeau’s remark that the new U.S. tariffs on aluminum…
read moreFrench President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policy is viewed as favoring the rich and must change to address inequalities, according to a memo written by three economists who worked on his campaign program, Le Monde newspaper said on Saturday. The criticism is the latest sign of the trouble created by Macron’s economic reforms among the center-left…
read moreAustralia’s Commonwealth Bank has agreed to pay a $530 million fine for breaching anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing laws. The scandal relates to more than 53,000 suspect transactions that the bank did not immediately report to authorities. If approved by the Federal Court, this will be the largest civil penalty in Australian corporate history. At…
read morePope Francis has told the world’s oil executives that a transition to less-polluting energy sources “is a challenge of epochal proportions.” On the last day of a two-day conference Saturday, the Roman Catholic leader urged the executives to provide electricity to the one billion people who are without it, but said that process must be…
read moreShoppers in the Afghan capital are going online for everything from fashion to furniture to avoid bomb attacks and sexual harassment, with dozens of startups doing a brisk trade where there were few on the ground two years ago. Suicide bombings and other attacks in Kabul have killed and wounded hundreds of people this year,…
read moreDrones guided by artificial intelligence to catch boats netting fish where they shouldn’t were among the winners of a marine protection award on Friday and could soon be deployed to fight illegal fishing, organizers said. The award-winning project aims to help authorities hunt down illegal fishing boats using drones fitted with cameras that can monitor…
read moreSipping California zinfandel, eating deviled eggs and fretting about President Donald Trump, the guests attending a political fundraiser at a Silicon Valley executive’s home were the usual assortment of tech entrepreneurs and investors. But the congressional candidate they had come to meet that March evening in the hills north of San Francisco was anything but…
read moreThe very thought of visiting a hospital emergency department is stressful enough for many people, even without the discomfort or pain of an examination or treatment. Enter an immersive virtual-reality program created by three graduates being used in France to relax patients and even increase their tolerance of pain, without resorting to drugs. “What we offer is…
read moreEnvironmentalists on Friday accused the Trump administration of political interference and retaliation in the ouster of Yellowstone National Park’s chief after his disputes with U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke over the park’s celebrated bison. Dan Wenk, who has led one of the nation’s premier parks since 2011, on Friday described as “punitive” the decision by…
read moreDemocratic lawmakers blasted the Trump administration on Friday for its decision to temporarily transfer hundreds of detained immigrants into five federal prisons, calling the practice inhumane and un-American. Reuters reported Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has entered into a 120-day agreement with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the U.S. Marshals…
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