British-based startup ARC unveiled its first motorcycle model in Milan this week, one being described as fast, advanced and expensive. The so-called Vector costs more than $100,000, but ARC says it’s for good reason. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. …
read moreWith their grip on power set to loosen come January, Republicans in several states are considering last-ditch laws that would weaken existing or incoming Democratic governors and advance their own conservative agendas. In Michigan, where the GOP has held the levers of power for nearly eight years, Republican legislators want to water down a minimum…
read moreDemocrat Gil Cisneros captured a Republican-held U.S. House seat in Southern California on Saturday, capping a Democratic rout in which the party picked up six congressional seats in the state. In what had been the last undecided House contest in California, Cisneros beat Republican Young Kim for the state’s 39th District seat. The Cisneros victory…
read moreThe Sunday deadline for the end of the Florida election recounts is approaching, with Republican Gov. Rick Scott continuing to hold a lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson for a seat in the U.S. Senate. As of Saturday afternoon, Nelson trailed by about 12,000 votes, with no major changes expected. The Florida governor’s race was essentially decided after…
read moreDemocrats won the majority. Now they just need a speaker of the House. The standoff over Nancy Pelosi’s bid to regain the gavel intensified as Democrats left Washington for the Thanksgiving break in what has turned out to be an unsettling finish to an otherwise triumphant week that saw them welcome a historic class of…
read morePresident Donald Trump says he “very easily” answered written questions from special counsel Robert Mueller, though he speculated that the questions had been “tricked up” to try to catch him in a lie. “They’re all done,” Trump told reporters at the White House early Saturday before leaving for California, adding that his responses will soon…
read moreIt turns out there is more than one Trump who can employ a few well-chosen words as a poison dart. With a bombshell public statement this week, it was first lady Melania Trump who revealed her ability to carry out a political hit. Her extraordinary call for the removal of a top administration official forced…
read moreThe fight over President Donald Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general has reached the U.S. Supreme Court, with lawyers in a pending gun rights case asking the justices on Friday to decide whether the action was lawful. Critics have said the Republican president’s Nov. 7 appointment of Whitaker, who now will oversee special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role…
read moreSince his contentious appointment last week, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has gone about business as usual, signing Justice Department documents, issuing statements in support of White House policies, and crisscrossing the country to deliver speeches before law enforcement groups. Yet controversy lingers over his abrupt rise to the top Justice Department post, with questions…
read moreAndrew Wheeler, a former lobbyist who has led the Environmental Protection Agency since his scandal-plagued predecessor resigned earlier this year, got President Donald Trump’s nod Friday for the permanent job. Trump made the announcement almost in passing at a White House ceremony for Presidential Medal of Freedom honorees. Singling out Cabinet members in the audience…
read moreFederal Reserve policymakers on Friday signaled further interest rate increases ahead, but raised relatively muted concerns over a potential global slowdown that has markets betting heavily that the Fed’s rate hike cycle will soon peter out. The widening chasm between market expectations and the rate path the Fed laid out just two months ago underscores…
read moreInvestigative group Bellingcat and Russian website The Insider are suggesting that Russian intelligence has infiltrated the computer infrastructure of a company that processes British visa applications. The investigation, published Friday, aims to show how two suspected Russian military intelligence agents, who have been charged with poisoning a former Russian spy in the English city of…
read moreNow that South Africa’s highest court has relaxed the nation’s laws on marijuana, local entrepreneurs are trying to cash in on the popular herb. Among the latest entries to the market: several highly popular cannabis-laced alcohol products, which deliver the unique taste, though without the signature high. Marijuana activists say this could just be the…
read moreThe United States has announced sanctions against 17 Saudi Arabian officials for their alleged involvement in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Oct. 2, 2018. The news came on the same day Saudi Arabia announced it is requesting the death penalty for five individuals involved in…
read moreLand laws mean nothing unless communities can prove their ownership, researchers said Thursday, calling for better tools to map the land and stave off conflict over property. From South Africa to the Amazon rainforest, battles over land and who owns it are unleashing unprecedented conflict and labyrinthine legal cases as governments and companies seek to…
read moreOhio Gov. John Kasich said Thursday while he remains undecided about another presidential run, the midterm election results could suggest a greater opening for an independent or third-party candidate. Kasich made his second trip this year to New Hampshire, where he finished second in the state’s leadoff Republican presidential primary in 2016. “I’m…
read moreEthically driven businesses are becoming increasingly popular and profitable but they can face threats for shaking up the existing order, entrepreneurs said on Social Enterprise Day. When 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…
read moreWomen’s winning streak in this year’s elections has extended to statehouses across the country. More than 2,000 women will serve in state legislatures when those chambers convene for their upcoming sessions, representing roughly a quarter of all state lawmakers across the country. That mark will eclipse the record of 1,875 who served this year, according…
read moreAs world leaders land in Papua New Guinea for a Pacific Rim summit, the welcome mat is especially big for China’s president. A huge sign in the capital, Port Moresby, welcomes Xi Jinping, picturing him gazing beneficently at Papua New Guinea’s leader, and his hotel is decked out with red Chinese lanterns. China’s footprint is…
read moreCompanies could help refugees rebuild their lives by paying them to boost artificial intelligence (AI) using their phones and giving them digital skills, a tech nonprofit said Thursday. REFUNITE has developed an app, LevelApp, which is being piloted in Uganda to allow people who have been uprooted by conflict to earn instant money by “training”…
read moreFacebook says it is getting better at proactively removing hate speech and changing the incentives that result in the most sensational and provocative content becoming the most popular on the site. The company has done so, it says, by ramping up its operations so that computers can review and make quick decisions on large amounts…
read moreSuper-realistic face masks made by a tiny company in rural Japan are in demand from the domestic tech and entertainment industries and from countries as far away as Saudi Arabia. The 300,000-yen ($2,650) masks, made of resin and plastic by five employees at REAL-f Co., attempt to accurately duplicate an individual’s face down to fine…
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