As much as $273 million in federal coronavirus aid was awarded to more than 100 companies that are owned or operated by major donors to President Donald Trump’s election efforts, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data. Many were among the first to be approved for a loan in early April, when the administration…
read moreTikTok, the popular short-form video app, says it will exit the Hong Kong market in response to the new national security law for the semi-autonomous city recently enacted by Beijing. A spokesman for the company issued a statement Tuesday saying it was ending operations in Hong Kong “in light of recent events.” TikTok’s announcement it would…
read moreMeet Kongonaphon kely, a pocket-sized dinosaur forerunner that was smaller than your cellphone. The creature, which predated dinosaurs and flying pterosaurs, was just shy of 4 inches (10 centimeters) tall, according to a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Some of these things would have been quite cute animals,” said study lead…
read moreThe United Nations says global HIV/AIDS targets for 2020 will not be met, and that some progress could be lost, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seriously impacted the HIV/AIDS response.“Our report shows that COVID is threatening to throw us even more off course,” Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS said Monday…
read moreU.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tromped through a strawberry festival in central Florida, detailing the government’s new trade pact. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked about foreign policy at a roundtable in south Florida. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler toured parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, where he boasted of the Trump administration’s efforts to…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump is firmly planting his flag on one side of the culture war in America. In a pair of high-profile speeches and in comments on Twitter, Trump rebuffed the growing movement that wants police forces to address racial bias and seeks the removal of monuments and flags of the Confederacy. Emphasizing patriotism and…
read moreSocial media platforms and messaging apps including Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Google and Twitter will deny law enforcement requests for user data in Hong Kong as they assess the effect of a new national security law enacted last week.Facebook and its messaging app WhatsApp said in separate statements Monday that they would freeze the review of…
read moreA Latino cook whose co-worker got COVID-19 waited in his truck for a free swab at a rare testing event in a low-income neighborhood in Phoenix. A Hispanic tile installer queued up after two weeks of self-isolation while his father battled the coronavirus in intensive care. He didn’t know his dad would die days later.…
read moreMore than 600 companies say they won’t advertise on Facebook and its sister firm, Instagram, in July, as part of a campaign called Stop Hate for Profit. The goal? Force Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to address his firm’s negative effects on society, says Jim Steyer, chief executive and founder of Common Sense Media, a children’s media education…
read moreA new Gallup poll showed Monday that 38% of Americans approve of President Donald Trump’s White House performance, a figure largely unchanged in the last month but off sharply from early May. Trump, facing a tough reelection contest in November against former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, tied his personal best approval rating of 49% two…
read moreKevin Mayer, a former executive at Disney, recently started his new role as TikTok’s new CEO. He must prove to American lawmakers, regulators and consumers that they can trust the Chinese-owned app with their data, which analysts say won’t be easy. VOA’s Adrianna Zhang has more. Camera: Yiyi Yang …
read moreThe U.S. Supreme Court has four simple words for members of the Electoral College who fail to back the winner of their state’s popular vote in presidential elections: “We the people rule.” In a unanimous decision, the nine-member high court Monday ruled that members of the Electoral College, the body that elects the U.S. president, are…
read moreTomas Kapler knew nothing about ventilators — he’s an online business consultant, not an engineer or a medical technician. But when he saw that shortages of the vital machines had imperiled critically ill COVID-19 patients in northern Italy, he was moved to action.”It was a disturbing feeling for me that because of a lack of…
read morePresident Donald Trump is understating the danger of the coronavirus to people who get it, as more and more become infected in the U.S. In his latest of many statements playing down the severity of the pandemic, Trump declared that 99% of cases of COVID-19 are harmless. That flies in the face of science…
read moreForty lobbyists with ties to President Donald Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump’s own ethics policy, according to a report. The lobbyists identified Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen either worked in the Trump executive branch, served…
read moreIan Martens, a rising junior at Furman University in South Carolina, says President Donald Trump has “done a great job building our economy up,” and he likes the fact that Trump “stands up for Second Amendment rights,” or the right to bear arms. “Most importantly, he is the most pro-life president,” Martens told VOA, calling that political issue for him “a…
read moreIan Martens, a rising junior at Furman University in South Carolina, says President Donald Trump has “done a great job building our economy up,” and he likes the fact that Trump “stands up for Second Amendment rights,” or the right to bear arms. “Most importantly, he is the most pro-life president,” Martens told VOA, calling that political issue for him “a…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump spent the 4th of July weekend at Independence Day celebrations in South Dakota and Washington. He used both events to deliver a strong message on law and order, the platform that his campaign is focusing on ahead of the November election. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara traveled with Trump to South…
read moreOn an average day, President Donald Trump sends about 14 posts to the 28 million Facebook followers of his campaign account. His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, delivers about half that many posts to an audience of just 2 million.The numbers are similarly skewed in other spheres of the social media landscape.On Twitter, Trump’s 82.4 million…
read moreThe practice of mining precious metals and stones from the Earth dates as far back as recorded human history. The prized possessions of previous eras give clues to a culture’s technological advancement. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports on a mineral-mining operation recently discovered in underwater caves in Mexico. …
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump spent the 4th of July weekend at Independence Day celebrations in South Dakota and Washington. He used both events to deliver a strong message on law and order, the platform that his campaign is focusing on ahead of the November election. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara traveled with Trump to South…
read moreThe British government is set to end the participation of Chinese telecom giant Huawei in the building of Britain’s 5G phone network — a policy about-turn that will further deteriorate London’s strained relations with Beijing, but will please Washington, according to British media reports. The major policy change follows a fresh reassessment by Britain’s National Cyber…
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