Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke is the latest entrant into the crowded Democratic presidential field. O’Rourke was little known nationally before he nearly upset Republican Senator Ted Cruz last November, and now he hopes to ride that rapid rise to fame all the way to the White House in 2020. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone…
read moreFacebook Inc said on Thursday Chief Product Officer Chris Cox will leave the social media network after 13 years, adding to a recent string of high-profile exits. Also departing is WhatsApp Vice President Chris Daniels, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post. The company does not immediately plan to appoint anyone to…
read moreThe United States’ top general said on Thursday that the Chinese military was benefiting from the work Alphabet Inc’s Google was doing in China, where the technology giant has long sought to have a bigger presence. “The work that Google is doing in China is indirectly benefiting the Chinese military,” Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman…
read moreThe U.S. Congress on Thursday formally rejected President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration to fund border wall construction, as the Senate voted 59 to 41 to disapprove the executive action, weeks after the House of Representatives did the same. Twelve Senate Republicans joined a unified Democratic caucus to pass the disapproval measure in the Republican-led…
read moreVeteran Conservative lawmaker Nigel Evans has been in Britain’s House of Commons for more than a quarter-of-a-century and, like most of his parliamentary colleagues, is stunned at the turn of Brexit events. “I got elected in 1992 and I don’t know if I have known any time more uncertain than now,” he told VOA. He’s…
read moreThe House voted unanimously Thursday for a resolution calling for any final report in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to be made public, a symbolic action designed to pressure Attorney General William Barr into releasing as much information as possible when the probe is concluded. The Democratic-backed resolution, which passed 420-0, comes as Mueller…
read moreFormer Texas lawmaker makes official announcement early Thursday, March 14 launching his bid for president of the United States. VOA’s Esha Sarai interviewed him in Houston during his 2018 Senate campaign about the issues he cares most about. …
read moreChina’s top legislature is expected to pass the country’s first Foreign Investment Law this week at a time when negotiators from Beijing and Washington work to hammer out a trade deal. Analysts and business groups say the legislation is a step in the right direction, but still falls short. In some ways, they add, it…
read moreInstagram is back up after suffering a partial outage for more than several hours, the photo-sharing social network platform said in a tweet, but its parent Facebook Inc.’s app still seemed to be down for some users around the globe. Certain users had trouble in accessing widely used Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook apps earlier Wednesday,…
read moreThe human rights situation in China has seen no improvement in recent years, according to a new report presented on Wednesday. The U.S. Department of State also condemns Saudi Arabia in its annual report on human rights abuses around the world. The U.S. ally is cited for last year’s killing of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was in no rush to complete a trade pact with China and insisted that any deal include protection for intellectual property, a major sticking point between the two sides during months of negotiations. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had been expected to hold a summit at…
read moreThe U.S. Senate defied President Donald Trump Wednesday and voted to cut off support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen. Seven of Trump’s fellow Republicans sided with Democrats in passing the measure 54-46. It now goes to the House, which approved its own similar measure this year, only to have the process stall…
read moreBeto O’Rourke, the youthful Texan who gained a national following with his long-shot election battle against U.S. Senator Ted Cruz last year, told a Texas TV station Wednesday he would seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. “I’m really proud of what El Paso did and what El Paso represents,” O’Rourke said in a text to…
read moreDemocrats in the U.S. House of Representatives gave a cool reception to the replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement on Wednesday as the top U.S. trade negotiator opened a campaign to win broad support for the accord in Congress. Several Democrats said a closed-door meeting between United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and…
read moreFacebook says it is aware of outages on its platforms including Facebook, Messenger and Instagram, and is working to resolve the issue. According to downdector.com, which monitors websites, the outages started around 12 p.m. E.T. on Wednesday in parts of the U.S., including the East and West Coast, parts of Europe and elsewhere. Both Facebook’s…
read moreSpotify has filed a complaint with European Union antitrust regulators against Apple, saying the iPhone maker unfairly limits rivals to its own Apple Music streaming service. Spotify, which launched a year after the 2007 launch of the iPhone, said on Wednesday that Apple’s control of its App Store deprived consumers of choice and rival providers of audio streaming services to the…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort is due to be sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Washington on two conspiracy charges. Judge Amy Berman Jackson can order Manafort to spend up to 10 years in prison. Last week, another federal judge sentenced Manafort to 47 months for tax and bank fraud. It…
read moreDemocrats are largely lining up behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her wait-and-see strategy on any impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Moderate and even some of the most liberal House Democrats said they were supportive of the speaker after she told The Washington Post that she’s not for impeachment, at least for now.…
read moreGoogle, Amazon and Apple have capitalized on technology that makes virtual personal assistants possible. Now a new application allows the user to have a virtual conversation with a video recording of a real person. How does that work and why is it needed? VOA’s Elizabeth Lee explains. …
read moreFormer Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn is not ready to be sentenced yet because “there may be additional cooperation” he can offer as he tries to reduce his potential punishment, according to a court filing Tuesday night. Flynn has been cooperating with prosecutors in Virginia in an ongoing case against two former…
read moreThe United States is working on a plan to lift tariffs from Mexican and Canadian steel and aluminum but preserve the gains that domestic producers have received from the duties so far, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Tuesday. “What I’m trying to do is a have a practical solution to a real problem…
read moreMexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday denied any delay to a flagship refinery project in his home state after the deputy finance minister was quoted as saying $2.5 billion for its construction will be moved to state oil firm Pemex. The planned investment for the Dos Bocas refinery “can go to exploration and…
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