U.S. counterintelligence officials will no longer brief lawmakers on threats to the upcoming presidential election in November, telling them such in-person briefings have led to leaks of “sensitive intelligence” and the politicization of information.Officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence verbally informed key lawmakers and congressional committees of the change Saturday, saying…
read moreChina’s new rules around tech exports mean ByteDance’s sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations could need Beijing’s approval, a Chinese trade expert told state media, a requirement that would complicate the forced and politically charged divestment.ByteDance has been ordered by President Donald Trump to divest short video app TikTok — which is challenging the order —…
read moreFacebook made a mistake in not removing a militia group’s page earlier this week that called for armed civilians to enter Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid violent protests after police shot Jacob Blake, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.The page for the “Kenosha Guard” violated Facebook’s policies and had been flagged by “a bunch of people,” Zuckerberg said in…
read moreBillionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s neuroscience startup Neuralink on Friday unveiled a pig named Gertrude that has had a coin-sized computer chip in her brain for two months, showing off an early step toward the goal of curing human diseases with the same type of implant.Co-founded by Tesla Inc and SpaceX CEO Musk in 2016, San…
read moreIt may not have been as large as he had hoped, but President Donald Trump got his wish to deliver his acceptance speech before a live crowd to close the 2020 Republican National Convention. Both political parties had to grapple with the reality that the coronavirus pandemic would not allow the staging of a traditional convention,…
read moreThe former hurricane known as Laura has so far been the most intense and dangerous storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, according to the U.N.’s weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization.Laura is now just a tropical depression, spreading heavy rain and thunderstorms across the east-central United States, forecasters said. But as the storm crossed…
read moreA study published this week offers evidence regarding how water originated on Earth, and the clues come from some of the oldest rocks in the solar system. Earth’s abundance of water makes it unique in the solar system, but scientists have never been sure how it got here. Some believed the water – or chemical compounds…
read moreThe U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee announced contempt proceedings against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, citing his refusal to comply with a subpoena for records into his “transparently political misuse” of department resources. The Democratic chairman of the committee, Eliot Engel, also cited Pompeo’s speech from Jerusalem before the Republican National Convention…
read moreHundreds of demonstrators gathered around the White House for a “noise demonstration and dance party” in an attempt to drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination. And later, a crowd enveloped U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky as he left the convention, yelling for him to say the name of…
read moreIn May, facing urgent international demands for action after a string of massive wildfires in the Amazon, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro put the army in charge of protecting the rainforest. Instead, The Associated Press has found, the operation dubbed as “Green Brazil 2” has had the opposite effect. Under military command, Brazil’s once-effective but…
read moreDuring his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.” Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, told a large crowd on the White House…
read morePresident Donald Trump said Thursday the U.S. will have a vaccination for the coronavirus “before the end of the year or maybe even sooner.”The announcement was part of Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, delivered from the South Lawn of the White House as part of the party’s national convention. Experts say vaccines can sometimes take decades to develop, test, and be proven safe before they are administered…
read moreDuring his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.”Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President…
read morePresident Donald Trump concluded the final night of the Republican National Convention with an acceptance speech delivered in front a live audience of about 1,500 people on the South Lawn of the White House. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this recap. Camera: Virginia Gunawan Produced by: Barry Unger …
read moreRepublicans have their turn this week holding their convention to renominate Donald Trump to run for a second term as president of the United States. As with the Democrats last week, the coronavirus pandemic forced Republicans to rethink holding a convention while remaining socially distant. VOA’s Steve Redisch examines how it is working. …
read moreWater covers 70% of the Earth’s surface and is crucial to life as we know it, but how it got here has been a longstanding scientific debate.The puzzle was a step closer to being solved Thursday after a French team reported in the journal Science they had identified which space rocks were responsible, and suggested…
read moreDemocratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is rejecting calls that he not formally debate President Donald Trump. “I’m going to debate him. I am going to be the fact-checker on the stage while I’m debating him,” Biden said Thursday during an interview with MSNBC. The former vice president added, “I think everybody knows that this man has a…
read moreFormer directors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the world-renowned American agency that has long taken the lead in fighting communicable diseases, are voicing unusual criticism of the U.S. handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the CDC’s limited role in that effort.COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed more…
read moreHurricane Laura, which slammed the Louisiana coast as a powerful Category 4, has weakened to a tropical storm but is still a dangerous and potentially deadly system.As of Thursday afternoon, Laura was inland, centered east of Shreveport, Louisiana, with top sustained winds of 100 kilometers per hour. It is expected to drop up to 46…
read moreThe White House and congressional Democrats made no progress Thursday on a coronavirus financial relief package that has been stalled for weeks, as benefits ran out for millions of unemployed Americans.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a Thursday afternoon call with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows “made clear that the White House continues to…
read moreU.S. Vice President Mike Pence accepted the nomination for a second term in office as Republicans met for a third day in a mostly virtual national convention. Mike O’Sullivan reports that, in the midst of civil unrest in many American cities, Pence offered an upbeat message with warnings about his Democratic Party opponents. …
read moreThe head of TikTok resigned Wednesday as tensions mount between the Chinese-owned video platform and the White House, which contends TikTok is a security risk in the U.S. Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayer announced his resignation days after the company filed a lawsuit challenging a U.S. government crackdown on the company over claims the…
read more