A newly enacted law rushed through Australia’s parliament will compel technology companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google to disable encryption protections so police can better pursue terrorists and other criminals. Cybersecurity experts say the law, the first of its kind globally, will instead be a boon to the criminal underworld by undermining the…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump Friday sharply criticized his former secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, after the nation’s former top diplomat described the president as “undisciplined” and someone who suggested policies and actions that violated the law. The president, who fired Tillerson by tweet in March of this year after months of turmoil between the two…
read moreWhile there may be a change in U.S. leadership at the United Nations as Ambassador Nikki Haley departs and State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert takes her place, analysts say there is unlikely to be a change in the direction of U.S. policy and attitude at the organization. “For better or worse, the administration’s U.N. policy…
read moreOil prices climbed sharply Friday after OPEC and other producers led by Russia agreed to cut output to reduce global inventories of crude oil. OPEC countries and the Russian-led coalition agreed to collectively slash oil production by 1.2 million barrels a day, said OPEC president Suhail Mohamed al-Mazrouei, more than the 1 million barrel cut the…
read moreThe U.S. International Trade Commission said on Friday it made a final determination that American producers were being harmed by imports of common alloy aluminum sheet products from China, a finding that locks in duties on the products. The ITC determination means that duties ranging from 96.3 percent to 176.2 percent previously announced by the…
read moreNissan announced plans Friday to recall about 150,000 vehicles sold in Japan due to improper inspections. “Nissan has recently found several non-conformities that may have caused inaccurate pass/fail judgements during the inspection process,” on brakes, speedometers and other systems, the Japanese automaker said in a statement. The recall covers at least 10 models including Note…
read moreHouse Republicans are set to interview former FBI Director James Comey behind closed doors Friday, the last time before they cede power to Democrats in January. The committee subpoenaed Comey last month to testify about investigations into the Donald Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia and Hillary Clinton’s emails. Comey resisted, arguing the GOP-led investigation in…
read moreFormer President H.W. Bush managed the peaceful aftermath of the Soviet Union’s breakup in 1991 and used American military force to oppose Iraqi aggression. Yet, as VOA’s Brian Padden reports, Bush’s legacy as a successful foreign policy president is complicated by the hardline campaign politics he practiced at home and by how the Republican Party…
read morePresident Donald Trump is now blaming the Russia probe for his historically weak poll ratings. Trump’s latest attack on the investigation comes as prosecutors are expected to reveal more information about two key figures in the probe, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone…
read moreU.S. stocks clawed most of their way back from a deep slide Thursday that at one point had wiped out the market’s gains for the year. An early plunge briefly knocked more than 700 points off the Dow Jones industrial average as the arrest of a senior Chinese technology executive threatened to cause another…
read moreU.S. stocks fell sharply again Thursday, following steep drops on Asian and European markets, with investors worried about the fate of trade negotiations between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies. Stock indexes in New York dropped 1.5 percent or more in early trading, following plunging losses on Tuesday. The U.S. markets…
read moreThe US trade deficit hit a 10-year high in October as Americans used a stronger dollar to snap up record imports, the government reported Thursday. The result showed the trade gap has continued to swell despite the punitive tariffs imposed this year on allies and adversaries alike by US President Donald Trump, who has focused…
read moreOPEC countries were gathered Thursday to find a way to support the falling price of oil, with analysts predicting the cartel and key ally Russia would agree to cut production by at least 1 million barrels per day. Crude prices have been falling since October because major producers — including the U.S. — are pumping…
read moreJoseph Wheeler and his team of students and faculty from Virginia Tech University are convinced they are building the house of the future. Judges at the recent Solar Decathlon Middle East agreed, awarding their future house first place in the December competition held in Dubai. “We set it up in two days,” Wheeler told VOA.…
read moreMany experts predict that the emerging 5G wireless technology will revolutionize the world’s economy. They say it holds the key to a smarter, more efficient, more connected and much wealthier world. But a recent congressional report outlines how China plans to use the transition to 5G and its access to billions of networked electronic devices…
read moreIt’s official: A team of faculty and students from Virginia Tech University has built what’s being billed as the world’s best solar home. The decision was made last weekend in Dubai when officials announced the winner of the Solar Decathlon Middle East competition. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
read moreThe family of George Herbert Walker Bush celebrated the life of the 41st U.S. president at a funeral service in his home church Thursday in Houston, Texas, before transporting his remains on a train to his final resting spot. Bush’s friend of 60 years, former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, told 1,200 mourners at…
read moreA key Democratic senator is warning the Trump administration not to lift sanctions against a Russian oligarch or the companies he controls. Oleg Deripaska holds large stakes in the Russian aluminum giant Rusal and the automobile conglomerate GAZ Group. New Jersey’s Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in a letter…
read moreFeverish media speculation had raged ahead of Robert Mueller’s sentencing recommendations for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, fueled by hopes the court filing would provide fresh insight into the special counsel’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. What emerged instead from the heavily redacted document was a deepening mystery and…
read moreFacebook Inc let some companies, including Netflix and Airbnb, access users’ lists of friends after it cut off that data for most other apps around 2015, according to documents released on Wednesday by a British lawmaker investigating fake news and social media. The 223 pages of internal communication from 2012 to 2015 between high-level employees,…
read moreOPEC and Russia moved closer on Wednesday to agreeing cuts in oil production from next year despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to reduce the price of crude. OPEC meets on Thursday in Vienna, followed by talks with allies such as Russia on Friday. OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, has indicated a need…
read moreEuropean Union authorities want internet companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter to file monthly reports on their progress eradicating “fake news” campaigns from their platforms ahead of elections next year. Officials from the EU’s executive Commission unveiled the measures Wednesday as part of an action plan to counter disinformation in the lead up to the…
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