U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv Tuesday, pushing to increase humanitarian access to Palestinians and to end Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon. Washington is calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and the enforcement of a U.N. resolution that ended the last major war between Israel…
read moreWASHINGTON — As the United States presidential election enters its final phase, more and more voters are expressing support for their favored candidate by wearing election merchandise. What they may not realize is that the “Make America Great Again” Trump hat or “Childless Cat Lady for Harris” T-shirt they’re wearing quite possibly was made in China.…
read moreThe war in Ukraine is reshaping the strategic landscape of Europe. While Western and Eastern European nations within the NATO alliance recognize the Russian threat, each day, NATO nations bordering Belarus and Russia feel the immediacy of the threat. In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze, Lieutenant General Charles Costanza,…
read moreWASHINGTON — Efforts by U.S. adversaries to divide Americans and sow growing distrust in the upcoming presidential election have already begun to intensify, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials, who warn some countries appear to be leaning toward additional measures to spark election-related violence. The latest declassified assessment, issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director…
read moreHealth officials say there have been six cases of polio reported in Ivory Coast in 2023, and one so far this year. It doesn’t seem like many, but any polio cases are cause for concern among health officials trying to completely eradicate the disease. VOA’s Yassin Ciyow reports from Abidjan, in this story narrated by…
read moreWASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the public disclosure of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, the bureau said on Tuesday. “The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community,” it…
read moreNEW YORK — Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries and two other men have been arrested on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Details of the criminal charges weren’t immediately available. They come after years of sexual misconduct allegations, made in civil lawsuits and the media, from young…
read moreBerlin — An infection with the new mpox variant clade 1b has been detected in Germany for the first time, the Robert Koch Institute health authority said on Tuesday. The infection occurred abroad and was detected last Friday, the institute said, adding that it did not see an increased risk for Germany but was “monitoring…
read moreChicagp — U.S. soybean export premiums are at their highest in 14 months, as grain merchants race to ship out a record-large U.S. harvest ahead of the U.S. presidential election and fears of renewed trade tensions with top importer China, traders and analysts said. Nearly 2.5 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans were inspected for export…
read moreTHREE MILE ISLAND, Pennsylvania — Giant cooling towers at Constellation Energy’s CEG.OThree Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania have sat dormant for so long that grass has sprung up in the towers’ hollowed-out bases and wildlife roam inside. Armed guard stations at an entrance to the shut concrete facility, surrounded by barbed wire, sit…
read moreHONG KONG — China’s National Health Commission (NHC) published its first set of guidelines to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of obesity, with more than half of China’s adults already overweight and obese, and the rate expected to keep rising. The guidelines, made public on October 17, come as China experiences an upward morbidity trend of…
read moreFALL CITY, WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officials found five people killed in a shooting inside a home southeast of Seattle on Monday morning and took a teenager into custody, police said. Several people called 911 around 5 a.m. to report a shooting in Fall City, Washington, King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Mike Mellis said at a…
read moreWASHINGTON — The U.S. government on Monday condemned the weekend killings by gunmen of two Mozambique opposition figures ahead of protests against a disputed election result, with Washington urging “a swift and thorough investigation into the murders.” Why it’s important The United States is the largest bilateral donor to Mozambique, providing over $560 million in assistance…
read morewashington — A leading U.S. Democrat on China policy has called on an American web hosting company not to comply with requests from Hong Kong authorities to suspend the website of a media service founded by overseas Hong Kong democracy activists. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist…
read moreThe men formerly known as the Central Park Five before they were exonerated filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. With Election Day two weeks away, the group accused the former president of making “false and defamatory statements” about them during last month’s presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. The…
read moreWASHINGTON — Jill Biden unveiled Monday what she says is a reimagined White House public tour that will engage visitors’ senses to teach them about the mansion’s history and events that happened there. New to the tour is the Diplomatic Reception Room, which previously had been off-limits. This ground-floor room is where President Franklin D. Roosevelt…
read moreKoror, Palau — Driving toward the center of Palau’s commercial city of Koror, election yard signs for presidential, senate and house of delegates’ candidates in this tiny island nation’s November elections line the street as waves of the pristinely blue Pacific Ocean lap the shore not far away. The serenity of the surroundings belies just how…
read moreWashington — When it comes to combating disinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential elections, artificial intelligence and chatbots are failing, a media research group has found. The latest audit by the research group NewsGuard found that generative AI tools struggle to effectively respond to false narratives. In its latest audit of 10 leading chatbots, compiled in…
read moreParis — French drugmaker Sanofi’s confirmation that it will sell a controlling stake in its consumer health unit to a U.S. investment fund sparked a new political backlash Monday, stoked by fears the deal marks a loss of sovereignty over key medications. Paris “must block the sale” using powers to protect strategic sectors, Manuel Bompard,…
read moreMel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included. But the uncertainty of how much she’s going to make on a daily basis is a constant source of stress. “For every good day, there’s three bad days,” said Nichols, who has been in the…
read moreMicrosoft will allow customers to build autonomous artificial intelligence agents starting in November, the software giant said on Monday, in its latest move to tap the booming technology. The company is positioning autonomous agents — programs which require little human intervention unlike chatbots — as “apps for an AI-driven world,” capable of handling client inquiries, identifying sales…
read moreBogota, Colombia — Global environmental leaders gather Monday in Cali, Colombia to assess the world’s plummeting biodiversity levels and commitments by countries to protect plants, animals and critical habitats. The two-week United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP16, is a follow-up to the 2022 Montreal meetings where 196 countries signed a historic global treaty to protect biodiversity.…
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