The United States is preparing to impose “very significant” Venezuela-related sanctions against financial institutions in the coming days, U.S. special envoy Elliott Abrams said on Tuesday. Abrams did not elaborate on the fresh measures but his warning came a day after the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Russian bank Evrofinance Mosnarbank for helping Venezuelan state…
read moreOne of General Motors’ first self-driving test vehicles is going on display at an automotive history museum in suburban Detroit. The Henry Ford history attraction announced Tuesday that it has acquired a modified pre-production Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle. The GM-donated vehicle originally made its debut testing on the streets of San Francisco in 2016. Now…
read moreAt the ripe old age of 30 and with half the globe using it, the World Wide Web is facing growing pains with issues like hate speech, privacy concerns and state-sponsored hacking, its creator says, trumpeting a call to make it better for humanity. Tim Berners-Lee on Tuesday joined a celebration of the Web and…
read moreFormer US vice president Joe Biden dropped teasing hints Tuesday that he could soon announce a 2020 White House campaign, telling an enthusiastic crowd that he may need their energy “in a few weeks.” The Democratic elder statesman has been mulling a challenge against President Donald Trump for months. While he tops nearly all early…
read moreMaryland Gov. Larry Hogan will speak in New Hampshire next month as he weighs a primary challenge to President Donald Trump. The Republican Hogan, who remains popular in liberal leaning Maryland and won re-election last fall, will speak at “Politics & Eggs” on April 23. The program from the New England Council and the…
read moreThe U.S. is weighing a complaint at the World Trade Organization against “discriminatory” new taxes on digital giants such as a Facebook and Google which are being planned by France and other EU nations, a top US trade official said Tuesday. “We think the whole theoretical basis of digital service taxes is ill-conceived and the…
read moreFor the first time in recent years, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s annual Government Work Report did not mention Made in China 2025, the country’s ambitious plan to achieve high-tech dominance, and that has analysts asking whether Beijing is going to completely overhaul the plan or keep it going quietly behind the scenes. Made in China…
read moreFrance, Britain, Germany, Malaysia and Oman are the latest countries to suspend the Boeing 737 Max 8 passenger jet from operating in their respective airspaces, joining a growing list of countries taking precautionary measures involving the plane after its second fatal crash in five months. Airlines in countries across the globe, including China, Turkey,…
read moreHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi is setting a high bar for impeachment of President Donald Trump, saying he is “just not worth it” even as some on her left flank clamor to start proceedings. Pelosi said in an interview with The Washington Post that “I’m not for impeachment” of Trump. “Unless there’s something so compelling and…
read moreSpecial Counsel Robert Mueller and the team he assembled to investigate U.S. President Donald Trump and his associates have been funded through the end of September 2019, three U.S. officials said on Monday, an indication that the probe has funding to keep it going for months if need be. The operations and funding of Mueller’s…
read moreVenezuela’s state-run oil firm PDVSA has been unable to resume crude exports from its primary port since last week’s massive power outage, essentially crippling the OPEC nation’s principal industry, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Power remained patchy in most of the country after a blackout on Thursday that the government of President…
read moreBrazil on Monday thanked the global body that oversees internet addresses for extending until April a deadline for Amazon basin nations to reach a deal with Amazon.com in their seven-year battle over the .amazon domain name. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting this week in Kobe, Japan, decided to put off…
read moreEurozone ministers on Monday held back granting Greece debt relief because the government failed to implement reforms promised during the massive bailout that ended last year, officials said. Greece exited its third and final international bailout in August, a turning point in its progress out of the catastrophe that engulfed the country during the financial…
read moreDemocrats and Republicans are inviting NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to address a joint meeting of Congress next month around the 70th anniversary of the trans-Atlantic alliance. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with agreement from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other members of Congress, is expected to extend the invitation, the leaders’ offices said. The address…
read moreThe federal election oversight agency has levied a record fine against the Super PAC that backed former presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, who ran as a Republican in 2016, and a Chinese-owned corporation, according to a watchdog group that filed the initial complaint. The Campaign Legal Center had asked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to impose…
read moreIraq and Iran signed several preliminary trade deals on Monday, Iraqi officials said, as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani began his first visit seeking to bolster Tehran’s influence and expand commercial ties to help offset renewed U.S. sanctions. The deals, among them a plan to build a railway linking the neighbors, emerged soon after the start…
read moreBarking orders at a digital device that responds in a woman’s voice can reinforce sexist stereotypes, according to academics and creatives who launched the first gender-neutral artificial intelligence voice Monday. Responding to such concerns, a Denmark-based team has created a voice nicknamed Q that was presented at the South by Southwest (SXSW) creative festival in…
read moreBhadri Sarki used to walk for more than an hour to fetch enough water to irrigate just one apple tree. But since a solar-powered water pump was installed in her village, about 350 km (217 miles) northwest of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, she can hydrate her whole orchard in a few hours. “We have a sufficient…
read morePresident Donald Trump plans to seek another $8.6 billion for a border wall in his new budget to be released Monday, White House officials say. This new request would be on top of the nearly $7 billion Trump has ordered to be used to build a wall under his state of emergency declaration. The budget…
read moreInvestigators rushed to the scene of a devastating plane crash in Ethiopia on Sunday, an accident that could renew safety questions about the newest version of Boeing’s popular 737 airliner. The Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after taking off from the capital of Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on…
read moreWashington is increasingly focused on Venezuela, where a power struggle rages between embattled President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by more than 50 nations, including the U.S., as interim president. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports U.S. officials believe Maduro’s days are numbered but are downplaying the possibility of U.S. military intervention…
read moreAfter months of Brexit deadlock, this is it: decision time. At least for now. With Britain scheduled to leave the European Union in less than three weeks, U.K. lawmakers are poised to choose the country’s immediate direction from among three starkly different choices: deal, no deal or delay. A look at what might happen:…
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