WASHINGTON — Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell on Wednesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance to block a law intended to force the sale of the short-video app by January 19 or face a ban on national security grounds. The court has scheduled arguments on…
read moreHARARE, ZIMBABWE — A Zimbabwean national park is hosting relocated wildlife from a game park just outside the country’s capital after an autopsy report on Saturday confirmed that four rhinos and several other animals died after drinking contaminated lake water. Tinashe Farawo, the spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, confirmed to VOA the…
read moreA bipartisan effort to protect children from the harms of social media is running out of time in this session of the U.S. Congress. If passed, the Kids Online Safety Act would institute safeguards for minors’ personal data online. But free speech advocates and some Republicans are concerned the bill could lead to censorship. VOA’s…
read moreMADISON, Wis. — Community members in Wisconsin continued to wrestle with grief and called for change in the aftermath of a school shooting that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others. Several hundred people gathered outside the Wisconsin State Capitol for a vigil Tuesday night to honor those slain at Abundant Life Christian…
read moreCAPE CANAVERAL, florida — NASA’s two stuck astronauts just got their space mission extended again. That means they won’t be back on Earth until spring, 10 months after rocketing into orbit on Boeing’s Starliner capsule. NASA on Tuesday announced the latest delay in the homecoming for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The two test pilots planned…
read morePolice in Madison, Wisconsin, said Tuesday that they were working to establish a motive for the shooting at a small, private Christian school that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six other people. “Identifying a motive is our top priority,” Police Chief Shon Barnes said of the shooting Monday that he called a…
read moreWASHINGTON — The 2025 defense spending authorization bill is coming up to a final vote in the U.S. Senate. As the American Northeast buzzes with drone sightings and fears of foreign surveillance, the bill moves to ban products from the world’s largest drone-maker: China. In a procedural vote on Monday, senators voted 83-12 in favor of…
read moreParis — The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of using conflict minerals in its supply chain, lawyers for the Congolese government told Reuters. Congo is a major source of tin, tantalum and tungsten, so-called 3T minerals used in computers and mobile phones.…
read moreWASHINGTON — Congressional leaders are nearing the unveiling of a spending agreement that will keep the federal government funded through March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters. The stopgap measure would prevent a partial government shutdown…
read moreSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — A San Francisco jury on Tuesday found a tech consultant guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, which carries a sentence of 16 years to life. Jurors took seven days to deliver their verdict against Nima Momeni in the April 4, 2023, death of Lee,…
read moreTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a strong push to project Turkey’s influence internationally in 2024. He scored foreign policy successes with the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Turkey’s growing ties to nations in Africa. Still, tensions remain between his country and the West over Israel and his strong relations with Russia. As…
read moreLONDON — European Union regulators said Tuesday they’re investigating whether TikTok breached the bloc’s digital rulebook by failing to deal with risks to Romania’s presidential election, which has been thrown into turmoil over allegations of electoral violations and Russian meddling. The European Commission is escalating its scrutiny of the popular video-sharing platform after Romania’s top court…
read moreNEW YORK — An Alabama woman is recovering well after a pig kidney transplant last month that freed her from eight years of dialysis, the latest effort to save human lives with animal organs. Towana Looney is the fifth American given a gene-edited pig organ — and notably, she isn’t as sick as prior recipients who…
read morePresident-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg to be his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, where Trump has promised to bring a quick end to the war. VOA’s Tatiana Vorozhko looks into Kellogg’s career, his vision for ending the war, and the challenges he might face in his new mission. Rafael…
read moreIn a joint appearance Monday morning, President-elect Donald Trump and Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of the Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank Group, announced that the company would invest $100 billion in U.S. companies over the coming four years, saying that the infusion of cash would create 100,000 jobs in fields such as artificial intelligence. Son…
read moreNEW YORK — A judge Monday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to have his hush money conviction dismissed because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. But the case’s overall future remains unclear. Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan’s decision eliminates one potential off-ramp from the case ahead of Trump’s return to office next month.…
read moreWASHINGTON — The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who has been detained in Syria for more than 12 years, reiterated her call Monday for the Israeli military to pause strikes in a part of Syria where her son may be held. “I think it would be polite, to say the least, that perhaps they’re not…
read moreLos Angeles — A California man was sentenced Monday to nearly 3½ years in prison for running an extensive business that helped pregnant Chinese women travel to the United States to deliver babies who would automatically have American citizenship. U.S. authorities had sought a more than five-year prison term for Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, who…
read moreWASHINGTON — American forces carried out air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria on Monday, killing a dozen of its fighters, the US military said. “The strikes against the ISIS leaders, operatives and camps were conducted as part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade and defeat ISIS,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on…
read moreLOS ANGELES — A former FBI informant pleaded guilty Monday to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. Alexander Smirnov entered his plea to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge…
read moreIslamabad — Authorities in Pakistan reported Monday that gunmen targeted vaccination teams in northwestern districts during a nationwide campaign against the paralytic poliovirus, resulting in the deaths of at least one health worker and two police officers. The violence in the militancy-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, also injured several polio workers and police force…
read moreOn the U.S. West Coast, conservationists for the world’s largest dam-removal project are both celebrating initial successes and encountering short-term obstacles. VOA’s Matt Dibble has our story from the Klamath River on the border between California and Oregon. …
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