The Fourth of July Independence Day holiday in the United States includes lots of fireworks. One town in Oregon is forgoing the noisy celebration that disturbs marine birds nesting on its rocky shore. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya takes us to The Great Puffin Watch Party. …
read moreNEW YORK — The parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue has signed a deal to buy upscale rival Neiman Marcus Group, which owns Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores, for $2.65 billion, with online behemoth Amazon holding a minority stake. The new entity would be called Saks Global, which will comprise the Saks Fifth Avenue and…
read moreJuly 20 marks the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. An interactive exhibit at Manhattan’s Intrepid Museum reminds viewers of the enormity of that undertaking and what went into the first moon landing. Evgeny Maslov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Vladimir Badikov. …
read moreOROVILLE, Calif. — Firefighters lined roads to keep flames from reaching homes as helicopters dropped water on a growing wildfire Wednesday in Northern California that has forced at least 26,000 people to evacuate, as the state sweltered under extreme heat. The Thompson fire broke out before noon Tuesday about 110 kilometers north of Sacramento, near the…
read moreWASHINGTON — General Motors will pay nearly $146 million in penalties to the federal government because 5.9 million of its older vehicles do not comply with emissions and fuel economy standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement Wednesday that certain GM vehicles from the 2012 through 2018 model years did not comply…
read moreWEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Nicole Lindsay thought she could beat the holiday-week travel rush by booking an early morning flight. It didn’t work out that way. “I thought it wouldn’t be that busy, but it turned out to be quite busy,” the Baltimore resident said as she herded her three daughters through Palm Beach International…
read moreSeoul, South Korea — The United States, Japan and South Korea last week held what in some ways could be seen as their most important joint military exercise ever — and an indication of enhanced future cooperation. The inaugural Freedom Edge drill involved a U.S. aircraft carrier and multiple Japanese and South Korean ships and planes,…
read moreBetween the southernmost tip of the United States and Cuba lies a body of water called the Florida Straits. Coast Guard vehicles patrol these waters daily, looking for migrants illegally trying to enter the U.S. VOA earlier this year got an exclusive flight with the U.S. Coast Guard on patrol. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn…
read moreNEW YORK — In the winter of 1789, around the time George Washington was elected the country’s first president, a Boston-based printer quietly launched another American institution. William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy, published anonymously by Isaiah Thomas & Company, is widely cited as something momentous: the first American novel. Around 100 pages long, Brown’s…
read moreNEW YORK — Robert Towne, the Oscar-winning screenplay writer of “Shampoo,” “The Last Detail” and other acclaimed films whose work on “Chinatown” became a model of the art form and helped define the jaded allure of his native Los Angeles, has died. He was 89. Towne died Monday surrounded by family at his home in Los…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden speaks out against Monday’s Supreme Court decision giving former presidents immunity from prosecution for actions falling within their official job duties. The ruling doesn’t dismiss former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case, but does delay it. Dora Mekouar reports. …
read moreWashington — New satellite images of Cuba show signs the country is installing improved intelligence capabilities at four military bases with suspected links to China, potentially providing Beijing with a network of facilities that could be used to spy on the United States. The imagery, presented in a report Tuesday by the Washington-based Center for Strategic…
read moreNEW YORK — Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and legal advisor to Donald Trump, was disbarred in the state on Tuesday after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. The decision was handed down by a New York appeals court in Manhattan. The court…
read moreWASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court took up an e-cigarette case Tuesday, weighing whether the Food and Drug Administration wrongly blocked the marketing of sweet, flavored products amid a surge in vaping by young people. Vaping companies argue the FDA unfairly denied more than a million applications to market fruit or candy flavored versions of nicotine-laced…
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