The United States is celebrating its Independence Day on Wednesday. Americans will mark the 242nd anniversary of the split from Britain with the customary day full of picnics, parades and fireworks displays across the country. U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, are hosting a picnic for military families at the White House. The…
read moreThe July 4 Independence Day holiday holds a special place in the hearts of Americans. Nationwide, citizens traditionally gather for picnics and fireworks to celebrate the country’s birth back in 1776 and reaffirm the vibrancy of U.S. democracy. For one day at least, the nation comes together to catch its collective breath and reflect on…
read moreChina is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump’s trade policies at a summit this month, but it’s facing resistance, European officials said. In meetings in Brussels, Berlin and Beijing, senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He and the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, have proposed an…
read moreSophia, one of the world’s most advanced and perhaps most famous artificial intelligence (AI) humanoid robot, was a big hit at this year’s Information & Communication Technology International Expo in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Visitors, including various dignitaries, were excited to meet the life-like AI robot as she communicated with expo guests and expressed a wide…
read moreThe July 4th Independence Day holiday holds a special place in the hearts of Americans. All across the country, citizens traditionally gather for picnics and fireworks on July 4th to celebrate the country’s birth in 1776 and to reaffirm the vibrancy of U.S. democracy. But in recent years, democracy has increasingly come under strain in…
read moreIn the busy summer travel period in Cuba, a long line of people wait for hours in the sweltering heat outside the Havana office of state-owned airline Cubana, many of them eager to visit families in the provinces. But they are not waiting to book flights. Instead, they hope to get their money back on…
read moreThe U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday granted a temporary reprieve to ZTE that allows China’s No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker to conduct business needed to maintain existing networks and equipment in the United States as it works toward the lifting of a U.S. sales ban. The authorization from the department’s Bureau of Industry and Services, dated July 2 and seen…
read moreWhen a CIA-backed venture capital fund took an interest in Rana el Kaliouby’s face-scanning technology for detecting emotions, the computer scientist and her colleagues did some soul-searching — and then turned down the money. “We’re not interested in applications where you’re spying on people,” said el Kaliouby, the CEO and co-founder of the Boston startup…
read moreIndia has asked Facebook to prevent the spread of false texts on its WhatsApp messaging application, saying the content has sparked a series of lynchings and mob beatings across the country. False messages about child abductors spread over WhatsApp have reportedly led to at least 31 deaths in 10 different states over the past year,…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump says he met with four “very impressive” candidates for the Supreme Court and will announce his nomination to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on July 9. Trump told reporters in Washington Monday that the candidates he met with are “incredible people in so many different ways, academically and in every other…
read moreWhat is July 4? July 4, also known as Independence Day, is the day in 1776 that delegates from the 13 U.S. colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the severing of ties with Britain. The day has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941 and is traditionally a day when Americans…
read moreThe U.S. government moved on Monday to block China Mobile Ltd. from offering services to the U.S. telecommunications market, recommending its application be rejected because the government-owned firm posed national security risks. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should deny China Mobile’s 2011 application to offer telecommunication services between the United States and other countries, the…
read moreHalima Sheikh Ali is the proud owner of one of the few ATMs in Wajir town in northeast Kenya. But rather than doling out shilling notes, it dispenses something tastier: a fresh pint of camel milk. “For 100 Kenyan shillings ($1), you get one liter of the freshest milk in Wajir County,” she says, opening…
read moreA Portuguese tech firm is uncorking an Android smartphone whose case is made from cork, a natural and renewable material native to the Iberian country. The Ikimobile phone is one of the first to use materials other than plastic, metal and glass and represents a boost for the country’s technology sector, which has made strides…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s opportunity to name a new Supreme Court justice to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy caps a reshaping of the U.S. federal judiciary that has already been long under way. Well before Kennedy announced his retirement last week, Trump began quietly and methodically naming conservatives to federal courts, including a record number…
read moreHey, did my congressman really say that? Is that really President Donald Trump on that video, or am I being duped? New technology on the internet lets anyone make videos of real people appearing to say things they’ve never said. Republicans and Democrats predict this high-tech way of putting words in someone’s mouth will…
read moreCarlos Garcia was three years into his first job in technology at Merrill Lynch when he first learned what a 401K retirement savings account was. He was floored when he learned that a colleague had already saved $30,000 in three years, and the company had matched it. The concept of making money off money…
read moreMichael Cohen, under criminal investigation for his role as U.S. President Donald Trump’s one-time lawyer, said Monday that his “first priority” is to protect his family and country, not the president. Cohen, a New York attorney, once described himself as “the guy who would take a bullet” for Trump, the real estate mogul turned politician. …
read moreThe European Union has warned the United States that President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 20 percent tariff on imported European cars would seriously hurt the U.S. economy and invite retaliatory levies on up to $294 billion in U.S. exports. In a 10-page letter sent to the U.S. Commerce Department last Friday, the European…
read moreTesla Inc nearly produced 5,000 Model 3 electric sedans in the last week of its second quarter, with the final car rolling off the assembly line on Sunday morning, several hours after the midnight goal set by Chief Executive Elon Musk, two workers at the factory told Reuters. The 5,000th car finished final quality checks…
read moreResearchers at a public university in Sweden are creating a 3-D, virtual reality model of the Milky Way. They say their work could change how surgeons separated by oceans collaborate on medical examinations. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports. …
read moreAbortion rights emerged as a major topic of discussion on Sunday among U.S. senators who will vote on President Donald Trump’s eventual Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is retiring at the end of the month. “My colleagues on both sides of the aisle [Democrats and Republicans] know that this could be…
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