North Korea’s economy contracted at the sharpest rate in two decades in 2017, South Korea’s central bank estimated Friday, in a sign international sanctions imposed to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs have hit growth hard. Gross domestic product (GDP) in North Korea last year contracted 3.5 percent from the previous year, marking the biggest…
read moreIf there can be driverless cars on the road, why not driverless boats on the water? Faith Lapidus has details of a team building a robotic boat, and what they want it to do. …
read moreHackers targeted the campaigns of at least three candidates running for Congress in the upcoming 2018 U.S. elections, but the attacks were detected and thwarted, a Microsoft executive said Thursday. The attempted attacks tried to use a fake Microsoft domain as a landing page for phishing attacks, said Tom Burt, Microsoft vice president for customer…
read moreThe Trump administration wants to scrap automatic federal protection for threatened plants and animals, a move that would anger environmentalists but please industry. A proposal unveiled Thursday would no longer grant threatened species the same instant protection given to endangered species. It would also limit what can be declared a critical habitat for such plants…
read moreDays ahead of the first-ever ministerial talks hosted by the State Department to advance religious freedom around the world, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sat down with VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching on Thursday, addressing pressing issues including the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya, the repression of Uighurs Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists in China,…
read moreThe U.S. has no intention of allowing Russia to question Michael McFaul, Washington’s former ambassador to Moscow and a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told VOA on Thursday. “It’s not going to happen,” the top U.S. diplomat said in an interview at the State Department. Pompeo said Putin…
read morePresident Donald Trump lashed out Thursday after Brussels hit US tech giant Google with a record fine, and warned he would no longer allow Europe to take “advantage” of the United States. “I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Five Billion Dollar fine on one of our great companies, Google,” Trump tweeted…
read moreFor more than 30 years, doctors have worked to save people’s arms and legs. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, saving a limb after an accident or infection can take an entire team of specialists at a limb preservation center. …
read moreFacebook says it will begin removing false information from its site that could lead to violence. “There are certain forms of misinformation that have contributed to physical harm” in certain countries, the U.S. social media giant said in a statement Wednesday announcing the policy. The company says it will work with local organizations to identify…
read moreShe may not be the warmest waitress, but she serves a nice, hot cup of “Joe” at a café on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. Though this robotic barista is still getting help from her human counterpart, she is a signal that Asia is ahead of the curve in embracing new technologies ahead…
read moreA report in Wednesday’s edition of The New York Times reveals the extent of the intelligence U.S. President Donald Trump received about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s direct role in that country’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The report sheds light on President Trump’s consistent efforts to shift the focus away from any role Moscow…
read moreThe highest-ranking Taiwan officials to visit Washington in decades sat down to dinner Wednesday evening at Twin Oaks, one of the most elegant homes in Washington. Use of the Taiwan government-owned mansion has been limited since the United States formally recognized the Beijing government in 1979. But those rules were loosened by the Taiwan Relations…
read moreThe U.S. State Department denounced Russia’s request to question several U.S. citizens in exchange for allowing a U.S. investigator to interrogate 12 Russians indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for their efforts to derail the 2016 presidential election. Among the Americans the Kremlin wants to interrogate is a former U.S. ambassador to Russia. The White…
read moreLuxury air travel faster than the speed of sound: A US start-up is aiming to revive commercial supersonic flight 50 years after the ill-fated Concorde first took to the skies. Blake Scholl, the former Amazon staffer who co-founded Boom Supersonic, delivered the pledge this week in front of a fully-restored Concorde jet at the Brooklands…
read moreTesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has apologized for calling a British diver involved in the Thailand cave rescue a pedophile, saying he spoke in anger but was wrong to do so. There was no immediate public reaction from diver Vern Unsworth to Musk’s latest tweets. Musk’s initial tweet calling Unsworth a “pedo” was a…
read moreKnown as the largest education, and research complex in the world, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC is a collection of 19 museums that house more than 140 million unique items. It’s no wonder it’s been called “the nation’s attic.” But there’s a novel addition to the venerable complex — a smart new technology that…
read moreChina bolstered ties with the European Union this week with more large markets in the pipeline to keep its exports healthy as the United States levies import tariffs, analysts say. At the 20th China-EU leaders’ meeting Monday in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country stands ready to promote bilateral economic development. Premier…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump is once again defending his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a day after reversing his acceptance of Putin’s denial that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election. “So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki,” Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning. “Putin and…
read moreKnown as the largest education, and research complex in the world, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC is a collection of 19 museums that house more than 140 million unique items. It’s no wonder it’s been called “the nation’s attic.” But there’s a novel addition to the venerable complex — a smart new technology that…
read morePresident Donald Trump stunned many around the world with his refusal to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin as he stood beside him in Helsinki Monday. This coming after Trump’s harsh criticism of close U.S. allies, including British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the European Union and NATO. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine…
read morePresident Donald Trump accepted the U.S. intelligence community assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election Tuesday, just a day after saying the opposite as he stood alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump’s reversal came after strong criticism from both parties on Capitol Hill — prompting many lawmakers to consider further action, as VOA’s congressional…
read moreBoeing has received a $3.9 billion contract to build two 747-8 aircraft for use as Air Force One by the U.S. president, due to be delivered by December 2024 and painted red, white and blue, officials said on Tuesday. The Pentagon announced the decision on Tuesday, saying Seattle-based Boeing’s previously awarded contract for development work…
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