The U.S. Midterm elections on Nov. 6 may change the balance of power in Washington, as the Democrats attempt to recapture control of the House of Representatives, the Senate or both. A new Democratic majority in either chamber could check Republican power on Capitol Hill and curtail some of President Donald Trump’s ambitious agenda. VOA…
read moreWashington ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday with new measures aimed at disrupting the South American country’s gold exports, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said. Bolton promised a tough stance by the Trump administration toward “dictators and despots near our shores” and singled out Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in…
read moreU.S. stocks rose on Thursday, as robust earnings reports supported a third day of recovery from a bruising selloff in October, but a drop in Apple’s shares ahead of results kept technology stocks under pressure. Chemicals producer DowDuPont Inc rose 6.6 percent after quarterly profit topped estimates and the company announced a $3 billion share…
read moreHundreds of Google employees in Asia walked off the job briefly Thursday as part of a worldwide protest of the company’s handling of sexual harassment cases and its workplace culture. Hundreds of other Google workers and contractors, most of them women, are also expected Thursday to walk out of nearly two dozen company offices around…
read moreGovernments around the world are increasing control over use of the internet and social media, according to the latest report by the Freedom House organization. In 2017, officials in many countries accused dissidents of spreading fake news as a pretext to silence them. Online propaganda and uncontrolled harvesting of personal data have permeated the internet…
read moreIn a sprawling California congressional district that includes some of the nation’s richest farmland and part of one of its poorest cities, a first-time candidate, a Cambodian-American woman, is taking on a well-entrenched Democrat, a white man. Neither reflects the 16th District’s majority, the 58 percent of residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino. Slightly…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump has not “set in stone” any decisions on escalating tariffs on Chinese goods and may withdraw some duties if there are promising policy discussions with China, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Wednesday. Kudlow said on CNBC that the meeting agenda between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at…
read morePresident Donald Trump on Wednesday kicked off his final campaign rally blitz before the midterm elections by accusing the media of sowing division and stoking fears about illegal immigration. Trump’s rally in Estero, just outside Fort Myers, was the first of 11 events he will hold across eight battlefield states over the next six days…
read moreThe National Rifle Association, long seen as a kingmaker in Republican politics, is taking a lower profile in this year’s high-stakes midterm campaign, a sign of the shifting dynamics of the gun debate as the GOP fights to maintain its grip on Congress. The NRA has put $11 million into midterm races this year, less…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s proposal to replace an Obama-era policy to fight climate change with a weaker plan allowing states to write their own rules on emissions from coal-fired power plants was criticized by coastal states, but applauded by coal interests on Wednesday. Under the proposed Affordable Clean Energy plan that acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…
read moreCuba’s foreign trade and investment minister said on Wednesday the country had signed nearly 200 investment projects worth $5.5 billion since it slashed taxes and made other adjustments to its investment law in 2014. Cuba began a major effort to attract foreign investment as socialist ally Venezuela’s economy went into crisis and has ratcheted it…
read moreU.S. Supreme Court justices, in an internet privacy case involving Google, disagreed on Wednesday over whether to rein in a form of settlement in class action lawsuits that awards money to charities and other third parties instead of to people affected by the alleged wrongdoing. The $8.5 million Google settlement was challenged by an official…
read moreFitch Ratings changed its outlook on Mexico’s long-term foreign-currency debt issues Wednesday from “stable” to “negative,” citing the potential policies of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The leftist Lopez Obrador has tried to smooth anxieties in the business community, but upset many on Monday by cancelling a partly built, $13 billion new airport on the…
read moreBitcoin was heading towards a year-on-year loss on Wednesday, its 10th birthday, the first loss since last year’s bull market, when the original and biggest digital coin muscled its way to worldwide attention with months of frenzied buying. By 1300 GMT, bitcoin was trading at $6,263 on the BitStamp exchange, leaving investors who had bought…
read moreParliamentary committees in Britain and Canada on Wednesday urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before a joint hearing of international lawmakers examining fake news and the internet. Damian Collins, the head of the U.K. parliament’s media committee, is joining forces with his Canadian counterpart, Bob Zimmer, to pressure Zuckerberg to personally take part in…
read moreWhen it comes to dealing with hate speech and attempted election manipulation, Facebook just can’t win. If it takes a hands-off attitude, it takes the blame for undermining democracy and letting civil society unravel. If it makes the investment necessary to take the problems seriously, it spooks its growth-hungry investors. That dynamic was on display…
read moreKimberly Williams acknowledges that she may not be what many people think of when they hear the phrase “evangelical Christian.” In fact, Williams herself isn’t sure she embraces the label these days, even though she leads worship at the District Church in Washington, D.C., which by any definition is evangelical in belief. “I’m still wrestling…
read moreAs the midterm elections approach, there’s been a lot of talk about record levels of evangelical support for Donald Trump and his Republican Party. But the evangelical community in America, which makes up a quarter of the population, is more divided than many think, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports. …
read moreWith less than one week to go before a crucial U.S. midterm congressional election, Americans are on edge in the aftermath of a massacre at a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh and the arrest of a man who allegedly sent pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and critics of President Donald Trump. Voters will elect a new…
read moreThe future economy minister tapped by Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro insisted on Tuesday that he wanted to fast-track an unpopular pension reform to help balance government finances despite mounting resistance to getting it done this year. Paulo Guedes, whom Bolsonaro selected as a “super minister” with a portfolio combining the current ministries of finance, planning…
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. A lobster tattoo covers Drew Eaton’s left forearm, its pincers snapping at dock lines connecting it to the American flag on his upper arm. The tattoo is about three-quarters done, but the…
read moreA landmark 11-member trade deal aimed at slashing barriers in some of Asia Pacific’s fastest growing economies will come into force at the end of December, the New Zealand government said on Wednesday. The deal would move forward after Australia informed New Zealand that it had become the sixth nation to formally ratify the deal,…
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