Some 1.3 billion people live with some form of vision impairment, according to the World Health Organization. A team of innovators at an Israeli technology company has developed a small device to help them. As Laura Sepulveda reports from Jerusalem, the device connects to regular glasses and helps people with visual limitations identify people and…
read moreNow in its 10th year, America’s economic expansion still looks sturdy. Yet the partial shutdown of the government that began Saturday has added another threat to a growing list of risks. The stock market’s persistent fall, growing chaos in the Trump administration, higher interest rates, a U.S.-China trade war and a global slowdown have…
read moreU.S. national parks will be left with just a skeleton staff during the federal government shutdown, and several states are using their own funds to make sure public restrooms get cleaned and visitor centers stay open. The shutdown of all but essential federal services because of a Capitol Hill fight over U.S. President Donald Trump’s…
read moreFollowing weeks of talks between President Donald Trump and congressional leaders, parts of the U.S. government shut down on Saturday after negotiators reached an impasse over a deal to keep the government fully funded. The majority of agencies and departments, including the Department of Defense and the Postal Service, already have secured funding and will continue…
read moreElon Musk’s SpaceX scrapped Saturday’s launch of a long-delayed navigation satellite for the U.S. military due to strong upper-level winds. The next launch attempt will be on Sunday at 8:51 a.m. EST/13:51 UTC, according to Space X officials. The launch would have been the rocket firm’s first national security space mission for the United States.…
read moreThis past week has been one of the most chaotic of Donald Trump’s presidency. A battle over the president’s border wall, a key military decision on Syria and the unexpected resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were all key moments in a week of turmoil that has become a hallmark of the Trump White House.…
read moreThe U.S. federal government has begun a partial shutdown of its operations. About a quarter of the government ran out of funds at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Washington time. More than 800,000 federal employees’ jobs have been disrupted and more than half of those employees are required to work without pay. The U.S. Senate and House…
read moreVoters who went to the polls last month in the United States’ midterm elections can rest assured that their votes were registered and counted properly. However, a new report by the U.S. intelligence community concluded Americans were subjected to ongoing influence operations and disinformation campaigns by several countries, a finding that could trigger automatic sanctions.…
read moreAfter almost 10 years, Wall Street’s rally looks like it’s ending. Another day of big losses Friday left the U.S. market with its worst week in more than seven years. All of the major indexes have lost 16 to 26 percent from their highs this summer and fall. Barring huge gains during the upcoming holiday period, this…
read moreU.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis Thursday announced he was quitting, personally handing his letter of resignation to U.S. President Donald Trump following a lunch meeting at the White House. While not mentioning Trump by name, the letter from Mattis outlined sharp differences between his views and those of the president, notably on the…
read moreAfter previously saying he would “proudly” accept responsibility for a partial U.S. government shutdown if Congress does not pass legislation that includes $5 billion for his proposed border wall, President Donald Trump declared Friday on Twitter “The Democrats now own the shutdown!” The Republican-led House of Representatives passed a temporary spending bill Thursday that includes…
read moreThe Canadian economy expanded by a greater-than-expected 0.3 percent in October from September, pushed higher by strength in manufacturing, finance and insurance, Statistics Canada data indicated Friday. Analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted monthly GDP would increase by 0.2 percent. Fifteen of the 20 industrial sectors — which Statscan says represents around 80 percent…
read morePlans to build another privately-financed power station in Nigeria to help end decades of chronic blackouts have been delayed because of concerns about persistent shortfalls in payments for electricity across the sector. The $1.1 billion Qua Iboe Power Plant being developed by energy infrastructure company Black Rhino and the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation won’t…
read moreUS growth in the July-September quarter was slightly slower than previously reported, dragged down by the large drop in exports amid President Donald Trump’s multi-front trade wars. With hundreds of billions of goods hit by retaliatory tariffs, US exports fell by the largest amount since early 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis.…
read moreAs 2018 draws to a close, the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller appears to be gaining momentum, built on an assortment of guilty pleas and convictions of former associates of President Donald Trump over the past year. Some analysts predict the probe could headed for an epic climax in 2019 that could…
read moreForests are often called the lungs of the planet because they produce so much oxygen. But they also store huge amounts of carbon. NASA scientists want to know exactly how much carbon, and so they have just launched a satellite that will finally give them an exact measurement. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
read moreU.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis will leave his post in February, President Trump announced Thursday afternoon. “General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years,” Trump tweeted. “During Jim’s tenure, tremendous progress has been made,…
read moreActing Attorney General Matthew Whitaker chose not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation even though a top Justice Department ethics official advised him to step aside out of an “abundance of caution,” a senior official said Thursday. Whitaker’s past criticism of the Russia investigation has raised questions about whether he can oversee it…
read moreIt was another miserable day on Wall Street as a series of big December plunges continued, putting stocks on track for their worst month in a decade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 464 points Thursday, bringing its losses to more than 1,700 points since Friday. The benchmark S&P 500 index has slumped 10.6 percent…
read moreAttorneys general from nine U.S. states sued the Trump administration on Thursday to stop future seismic tests for oil and gas deposits off the East Coast, joining a lawsuit from environmentalists concerned that the tests harm whales and dolphins. Seismic testing uses air gun blasts to map out what resources lie beneath the ocean. Conservationists say the testing, a precursor to…
read moreThe U.S.-China trade war is spooking potential investors in soybean crushing plants planned for Wisconsin and New York state, developers said, casting doubt on the future of a sector that had been a rare bright spot in the U.S. farm economy. Crushers in the United States have been posting near-record profits by snapping up cheap…
read moreWhen drones buzzing over the runway forced London’s busy Gatwick Airport to shut down, many travelers wondered why it’s so hard for authorities to stop such intruders. Shoot them down, some said. Jam their signals, others suggested. Experts say it’s not that easy. Britain and the U.S. prohibit drones from being flown too high or…
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