A former friend and adviser of Melania Trump said Tuesday that she made recordings of her conversations with the first lady because she needed evidence to protect herself amid questions about the costs of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, whose book “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the…
read moreLouisianians woke up Wednesday, Aug. 26 to news that Laura would be arriving as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm was expected to hit Lake Charles early Thursday morning. Throughout the day, doctors, nurses, maintenance and cafeteria workers filled Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. The plan was for several shifts of employees to be ready once the winds picked up that night. Whole floors were designated as sleeping areas for off-duty staff. Dr. Gary Kohler, a…
read moreThe United States says it will not participate in a global initiative to develop, manufacture and equally distribute a vaccine for COVID-19 because the World Health Organization is taking a leading role in the effort. More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, dubbed Covax, a joint project undertaken…
read moreFacebook said Tuesday that it removed a small network of accounts and pages linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency, the “troll factory” that has used social media accounts to sow political discord in the U.S. since the 2016 presidential election. Twitter also suspended five related accounts. The company said the tweets from these Russia-linked accounts “were low quality and spammy” and…
read moreTreasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Tuesday a second massive round of aid addressing the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is “still needed,” even as the U.S. economy is showing signs of recovery. Mnuchin’s testimony comes as talks for a second round of aid have remained stalled on Capitol Hill since $600 a week in…
read moreAfter a pandemic hiatus, more than a thousand mask-wearing Extinction Rebellion climate activists marched back onto London’s streets Tuesday, calling for swifter action to halt global warming as a huge contingent of police looked on. With Britain’s Parliament returning to work this week after a summer recess, protesters blocked the square in front of the building…
read moreA new Pentagon report predicts that China will “at least double” the size of its nuclear warhead stockpile over the next decade as it pursues its own nuclear triad to conduct nuclear strikes by land, sea and air. China’s modernization and expansion of its nuclear force is part of a broader effort aimed at matching, and…
read moreThe strongest typhoon of the year is on its way to the Korean Peninsula Wednesday after lashing Japan with strong winds and rain.Typhoon Maysak peaked early Tuesday with winds of 233 kilometers per hour, coming within a week of the first major storm and a few days before a third potential typhoon.Maysak, a Category 4 storm…
read moreSeveral experimental COVID-19 vaccines have reached the final testing stage, officials involved in their development have said.The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, said Monday the final testing stage in the U.S. will involve up to 30,000 adults from different racial, ethnic and geographical groups. A vaccine created by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and manufactured…
read moreA U.S. appeals court on Tuesday granted President Donald Trump’s request to delay Manhattan’s district attorney from accessing his tax returns in connection with a criminal probe of his business practices. The unsigned order by a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan was a victory for the president in his yearlong…
read moreThe U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it was implementing new compliance reforms at the FBI to minimize errors when it applies for wiretaps, following revelations it made numerous mistakes during its probe into President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. Attorney General William Barr released two new memos outlining sweeping changes, including the creation of…
read moreGetting an Amazon package delivered from the sky is closer to becoming a reality.The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it had granted Amazon approval to deliver packages by drones.Amazon said that the approval is an “important step,” but added that it is still testing and flying the drones. It did not say when it expected…
read moreBotswana says a string of mysterious elephant deaths has come to a halt since June, after at least 281 carcasses were found.Experts in the southern African country, with the world’s largest elephant population, said there were no signs of poaching or predators. Most of the blood samples sent abroad for testing indicate a toxin caused the…
read moreUganda and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) have placed one of the largest refugee camps in Africa, Kyangwali, under lockdown after a jump in confirmed cases of the coronavirus. The refugees there say they are feeling the pinch. Kyangwali, in southwestern Uganda, is home to more than 120,000 refugees. The lockdown is due…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump is traveling Tuesday to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where protests turned violent last week after a white police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back as officers tried to arrest him. Trump told reporters Monday he is not planning to meet with Blake’s family because they wanted a lawyer to participate. The president also declined to…
read moreAfter scientists determined that the coronavirus likely spread from an animal to a human, there came a flurry of statements from nations around Asia promising to ban the trafficking of animals. Now there is data to suggest that authorities, at least in Vietnam, are following through with enforcing the bans. Among the cases of trafficked wildlife…
read moreAfter years of planning, China now dominates the world’s production of new generation batteries that are key to transitioning away from fossil fuels. These new batteries are essential for electric vehicles and most portable consumer electronics such as cell phones and laptops. By 2040, energy analysts estimate over half of all passenger vehicles sold worldwide could be electric, according to 2019 report by Bloomberg…
read moreFacebook Inc said it would block news publishers and people in Australia from sharing news on Facebook and Instagram if a proposal to force the U.S. tech giant to pay local media outlets for content becomes law. The Australian government said in July it would require tech giants Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google to pay for…
read moreCanada reached an agreement in principle on Monday with both Novavax and Johnson & Johnson for millions of doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccines, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. Canada’s two agreements follow separate deals with Pfizer and Moderna announced weeks ago, and are the latest example of countries rushing to secure access to vaccines. Canada is also in…
read moreRacial tensions in America have taken center stage in the U.S. presidential campaign, following deadly confrontations between Black Lives Matter protesters and white supporters of President Donald Trump. VOA’s Brian Padden reports how the president over the weekend responded to the protests with a strong law and order message, while his Democratic rival, Joe Biden,…
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