President Donald Trump huddled at the White House Thursday with the Senate’s top Republican over a vital COVID-19 rescue package, but hopes on Capitol Hill for a deal were souring and there was increasing worry that GOP negotiations with Democrats might collapse.The impasse in the negotiations is putting at risk more than $100 billion to…
read moreTensions between the U.S. and China are escalating at a dizzying pace, with July 24 marking the lowest point of bilateral relations in decades. On that day, the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, was closed and taken over by U.S. officials.FILE – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State…
read moreTwitter announced its decision Thursday to label the accounts of state-controlled media outlets. The new label will apply exclusively to “outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution,” according to a Twitter blog post. So far,…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump is predicting a COVID-19 vaccine might be ready by this year’s election, less than 90 days away. “I’m optimistic that it’ll probably be around that date,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn on Thursday. “It wouldn’t hurt” his reelection chances to have the vaccine available by the November…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump is planning to sign an order Thursday requiring the government to buy “essential” drugs from American companies rather than from overseas producers, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro announced. “If we’ve learned anything from the China virus pandemic,” Navarro told reporters Thursday, “it is that we are dangerously over-dependent on…
read moreThe day after Donald Trump’s election in November 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union posted a message to him on its website: “See you in court.” As president, Trump hasn’t personally squared off against the ACLU from the witness stand, but the broader warning has been borne out. As of this week, the ACLU has…
read moreIt depends on how widespread COVID-19 infections are in the community and the safety measures the school takes. In areas where the virus is poorly controlled, public health experts say in-person education would be too risky. In areas where the virus appears to be under control, experts say schools still need to make adjustments to…
read moreFacebook has deleted a post by President Donald Trump for violating its policy against spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. The post in question featured a link to a Fox News video in which Trump says children are “virtually immune” to the virus. Facebook said Wednesday that the “video includes false claims that a group of…
read morePresumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading in the polls over incumbent President Donald Trump but must rally and unite his party’s progressive wing while appealing to the broader electorate if he hopes to win November’s presidential election. The continuing coronavirus pandemic makes traditional campaigning difficult, and Biden campaign officials now say he will…
read moreAt a time when other branches of the U.S. government remain relatively unpopular, public approval of the Supreme Court has risen to its highest level in more than a decade, according to a new Gallup survey.The Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks during a panel discussion celebrating Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to be…
read moreCanadian researchers have discovered the first known case of cancer in a dinosaur, according to a study published in the August issue of the scientific journal The Lancet Oncology.A leg bone from a Centrosaurus was discovered by paleontologists in 1989 in the Canadian province of Alberta.Experts initially believed that the deformed bone had suffered a…
read moreConservationists in Australia are hoping infrared drones might help save the remaining koala population in New South Wales, one of the regions most affected by recent Australian bushfires. The infrared camera makes it easier to spot the iconic marsupials — not bears — which scientists say could be extinct by 2050. VOA’s Mariama Diallo has…
read moreBritish scientists say there are more emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica than previously thought based on evidence of bird droppings spotted from space. A study published Wednesday by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey counted 61 emperor penguin colonies dotted around the southernmost continent, 11 more than the number previously confirmed. …
read moreA history professor who has correctly predicted the outcome of every U.S. presidential election since 1984 says Democrat Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.Appearing in a FILE – Allan Lichtman of American University in Washington, D.C., is pictured at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, May 24, 2011.Six for TrumpTrump…
read moreThe U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday asked a federal judge to block California’s net neutrality law, arguing that federal law preempts the state statute.In October, a U.S. appeals court largely upheld the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repeal of landmark U.S. net neutrality rules. In 2018, California agreed not to enforce its own state net neutrality…
read moreFormer U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has decided to not travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to accept the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s national convention this month out of fear of the “worsening” coronavirus pandemic, convention organizers said Wednesday.The party said none of the planned convention speakers would go to the Midwestern city, in…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign and the national Republican Party have sued to block the western state of Nevada from sending a mail-in ballot to every registered voter in the state, even as Trump says absentee voting is fine by him in his adopted home state of Florida. The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday claims the Nevada…
read morePresumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden has delayed announcing his pick for his vice-presidential running mate, amid speculation of internal opposition to frontrunner California Senator Kamala Harris. VOA’s Brian Padden reports that other possible choices are emerging who are reportedly seen as more of a team player than Harris, a past rival for the Democratic nomination who clashed with Biden during the primary campaign.Produced by: Brian…
read moreFish and other marine life may have to flee thousands of kilometers to escape damaging heatwaves, according to research published Wednesday, highlighting the scale of disruption caused by these increasing surges in ocean temperatures. Hot spells can cause dramatic changes to ocean ecosystems, devastating coral habitats, killing large numbers of seabirds and forcing…
read moreFacebook launched a short-film product similar to the popular TikTok app in the United States and dozens of other countries Wednesday.The new product, called Reels, is embedded in the Instagram app and permits users to create 15-second videos set to music from a predetermined music library.The feature has been in production for at least two…
read moreIndia has banned some mobile apps of Chinese companies such as Xiaomi Corp and Baidu Inc, three sources told Reuters on Wednesday, in New Delhi’s latest move to hit Chinese companies following a border clash between the neighbors. India in June outlawed 59 Chinese apps for threatening the country’s “sovereignty and integrity,” including ByteDance’s…
read moreVoters in the U.S. state of Kansas have picked Congressman Roger Marshall from a field of 11 Republican candidates, including former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, to be the nominee for U.S. Senate in the November election. Marshall will now go up against Barbara Bollier in the contest to fill the seat of retiring Republican…
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