The online sale of sex slaves is going strong despite new U.S. laws to clamp down on the crime, data analysts said Wednesday, urging a wider use of technology to fight human trafficking. In April, the United States passed legislation aimed at making it easier to prosecute social media platforms and websites that facilitate sex…
read moreWhen Meghan Markle wore a pair of “slave-free” jeans on a royal tour of Australia last month, she sparked a sales stampede and shone a spotlight on the growing number of companies aiming to meet public demand for products untainted by modern-day slavery. Australia-based Outland Denim employs dozens of survivors of human trafficking and modern…
read moreTwo U.S. senators, defying opposition from top Republicans, vowed on Wednesday to push for action on a bipartisan measure that would protect a federal investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election. Republican Senator Jeff Flake and Democratic Senator Chris Coons said they would take to the Senate floor at around 4:15 p.m. EST,…
read moreU.S. vote counting is still going on, eight days after national congressional elections, with Democrats opposed to President Donald Trump gaining new ground with the latest results. The day after the November 6 election, Trump said at the White House, “It was a big day yesterday. The Republican Party defied history to expand our Senate…
read moreThe U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday defended the legality of President Donald Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general, which bypassed the usual line of succession at the agency. In a 20-page internal legal opinion, the agency’s Office of Legal Counsel said Trump could “depart from the succession order” and name Whitaker instead…
read moreBritain’s Theresa May scrambled Wednesday to sell to her Cabinet a draft Brexit divorce agreement British negotiators concluded after months of wrangling with their European Union counterparts. But the 500-page draft remains a source of deep dispute within Britain’s ruling Conservative party and also in the country’s parliament, which will have the final say on…
read moreRobots with rigid metal frames are being used to help the paralyzed walk and have applications that could one day grant military fighters extra power on the battlefield. The problem is that they’re uncomfortable and heavy. But researchers at Harvard University are working on lighter, flexible devices that move easily and don’t weigh much. VOA’s…
read moreSeveral hundred private cargo planes in the United States deliver millions of packages per year. The FedEx superhub in Memphis Tennessee works around the clock to get parcels delivered to customers and hopefully – on time. VOA’s Lesia Bakalets traveled to Memphis to learn what part of day is the busiest for the FedEx team…
read moreFor the second straight year, President Donald Trump will not be attending the Kennedy Center Honors celebrating cultural achievement. Neither Trump nor first lady Melania Trump will be at the Dec. 2 event, Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s director of communications, said Tuesday. Grisham also told The Associated Press it was “not likely”…
read moreNigeria’s Main One Cable took responsibility Tuesday for a glitch that temporarily caused some Google global traffic to be misrouted through China, saying it accidentally caused the problem during a network upgrade. The issue surfaced Monday afternoon as internet monitoring firms ThousandEyes and BGPmon said some traffic to Alphabet’s Google had been routed through China and Russia, raising concerns that the communications had been intentionally…
read moreThe European Union’s highest court has ruled that the taste of a food cannot be protected by copyright. The European Court of Justice said Tuesday “the taste of a food product cannot be identified with precision of objectivity,” thus making it ineligible “for copyright protection.” Dutch cheese maker Levola had argued that a rival company…
read moreFlying to Paris on Friday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, U.S. President Donald Trump sent out a tweet that may have been business as usual at the White House but sent shivers down the spines of some of this country’s intelligence and security officials: Less than an hour later, he tweeted again: More such tweets would soon…
read moreThe federal government recorded a deficit of $100.5 billion in October, a big increase from a year ago that was primarily caused by quirks in the calendar. The Treasury Department said Tuesday that the deficit shot up 59 percent from the same month a year ago. Last year’s October deficit was smaller because the government paid $48 billion in benefits in September — and that was because Oct. 1 fell on a weekend. The government has run…
read moreInflation in Zimbabwe soared last month to its highest level since 2008, official data showed Tuesday, after a severe dollar shortage led to a surge in prices of food, drinks and clothes. The annual inflation rate shot up to 20.85 percent in October, statistics agency Zimstat said, from 5.39 percent in September, after the dollar shortage led…
read moreIn an extraordinary move, Melania Trump called publicly Tuesday for the deputy national security adviser to be dismissed. After reports circulated Tuesday that President Donald Trump had decided to remove Mira Ricardel from her post at the National Security Council, Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s spokeswoman, released a statement that said: “It is the…
read moreNATO is developing new high-tech tools, such as the ability to 3-D-print parts for weapons and deliver them by drone, as it scrambles to retain a competitive edge over Russia, China and other would-be battlefield adversaries. Gen. Andre Lanata, who took over as head of the NATO transformation command in September, told a conference in Berlin…
read moreFacebook said Tuesday it had been unable to determine who was behind dozens of fake accounts it took down shortly before the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. “Combined with our takedown last Monday, in total we have removed 36 Facebook accounts, 6 Pages, and 99 Instagram accounts for coordinated inauthentic behavior,” Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity…
read moreIf you’re really lucky and live in the U.S. cities of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles or Sacramento, you now have access to a 5G network. If you live anywhere else, just be patient… a 5G mobile network is coming your way, and it’s already arriving in some countries. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
read moreThis is part of “Ocean Shock,” a Reuters series exploring climate change’s impact on sea creatures and the people who depend on them. Takashi Odajima picked up a cracked and faded photograph and dusted it off with his sleeve. He smiled a little sadly at the image from long ago, back when he was a…
read moreActing U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will consult with ethics officials about any matters that could require him to recuse himself, the Justice Department said on Monday, after critics called on him to step aside from overseeing a Special Counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. “Acting AG Matt Whitaker is fully committed…
read moreLiz Cheney has had a quiet first term as congresswoman, but that’s about to change. She’s seeking a House Republican leadership post that’s key to her party’s strategy against next year’s Democratic majority. If she succeeds, Cheney will be the only woman in House Republican leadership — and follow in the footsteps of her…
read moreNo, it wasn’t a blue wave. But a week after the voting, Democrats are riding higher than they thought on election night. As vote counting presses on in several states, the Democrats have steadily chalked up victories across the country, firming up their grip on the U.S. House of Representatives and statehouses. The slow roll…
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