U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday hailed the start of the five-day festival of Diwali — the celebration that symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and is marked by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs around the world, especially in India. Biden began the White House festivities by lighting a small prayer lamp known as a…
read moreAnkara is watching the U.S. elections closely. Analysts say Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands to benefit from either a Donald Trump or Kamala Harris victory, but both scenarios come with risks for the Turkish leader and his aspirations. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …
read moreLOS ANGELES — McDonald’s announced Sunday that Quarter Pounders will again be on its menu at hundreds of its restaurants after testing ruled out beef patties as the source of the outbreak of E. coli poisoning tied to the popular burgers that killed one person and sickened at least 75 others across 13 states. The U.S.…
read moreSTOCKHOLM — Seven European countries have changed their laws to increase employee ownership in startups to rival the U.S. in attracting talent and investment, while other countries are lagging, a report by venture capital firm Index Ventures found. While stock options were integral to Silicon Valley’s success, Europe has been hampered by bureaucracy and by taxing…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden is set to speak Monday at a Diwali celebration at the White House. The festival symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and is celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs around the world, especially in India. Monday’s reception marks the latest in a line of presidential celebrations of Diwali that goes…
read moreJEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The ads promoting a November ballot measure to legalize sports betting in Missouri tout the potential for millions of new tax dollars devoted to schools. If voters approve the measure, it’s a good bet they will see even more ads offering special promotions for bettors. Many of those promotional costs — in…
read moreThe good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It’ll be dark as a pocket by late afternoon for the next few months in the U.S. Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time next Sunday, Nov. 3, which means you should set your clock back an hour before…
read morePITTSBURGH — President Joe Biden on Sunday marked the sixth anniversary of a gunman’s deadly attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue and called out what he called an “appalling surge of antisemitism” amid the war in Gaza. The 2018 attack claimed the lives of 11 worshippers from Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life congregations, which…
read moreNew York — “Venom: The Last Dance” showed less bite than expected at the box office, collecting $51 million in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, significantly down from the alien symbiote franchise’s previous entries. Projections for the third “Venom” film from Sony Pictures had been closer to $65 million. More concerning, though, was…
read moreSince it started as a hashtag in 2012, GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, has become one of the biggest fundraising days of the year for nonprofits in the U.S. In 2022 and 2023, GivingTuesday raised $3.1 billion for charitable organizations, according to estimates from GivingTuesday. This year, GivingTuesday is on December 3. How did GivingTuesday…
read moreThe divide between urban and rural voters is a key indicator in U.S. electoral politics. Cities favoring Democrats and rural areas favoring Republicans isn’t new. But since 2000, the gap has grown dramatically. What is behind this trend, and why is it so important? The answer is partly economic — but there are also complex…
read morewashington — A NASA astronaut who was hospitalized upon return from the International Space Station for an unspecified medical condition was released Saturday in “good health,” the U.S. space agency said. The four-member Crew-8 mission splashed down off the coast of Florida early Friday after nearly eight months aboard the orbital laboratory. NASA did not reveal…
read moreunited nations — More than 600 million women and girls are now affected by war, a 50% increase from a decade ago, and they fear the world has forgotten them amid an escalating backlash against women’s rights and gender equality, top United Nations officials say. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a new report that amid…
read moreThe Little Saigon district in California’s Orange County is home to a large concentration of Vietnamese people. In hopes of engaging these voters, candidates for public office are putting up signs and holding events. VOA’s Long Nguyen reports, Elizabeth Cherneff narrates. Camera: Vu Nguyen. …
read moreTAIPEI, TAIWAN — Kiribati President Taneti Maamau, who has led the Pacific Island nation to build closer ties with China in recent years, secured his third term in office on Saturday. He defeated two other candidates in an election closely monitored by countries around the world. Maamau won about 55% of the vote, while his nearest…
read moreRome — A major Vatican meeting gathering clerics and laity across the globe to discuss the future of the Catholic Church closes this weekend, thwarting discussion of women becoming priests or deacons in the world’s largest Christian denomination. But that didn’t stop a half-dozen Catholic women from “ordination” in a secret ceremony in Rome that was…
read moreShells fell on the Alaska Native village as winter approached, and then sailors landed and burned what was left of homes, food caches and canoes. Conditions grew so dire in the following months that elders sacrificed their own lives to spare food for surviving children. It was Oct. 26, 1882, in Angoon, a Tlingit village…
read moreMIAMI, FLORIDA — The last Kmart on the U.S. mainland sits at the west end of a busy suburban Miami shopping center, quiet and largely ignored. All around it are thriving chain stores attracting steady streams of customers in sectors where the former box-store chain was once a major player: Marshalls, Hobby Lobby, PetSmart and Dollar…
read moreMexico city — The fate of Latin American economies, deeply reliant on remittances from the United States, hangs in the balance with the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, Fitch Ratings said on Friday. Why it’s important The potential disparity in immigration policies between the Republican and Democratic administrations could significantly affect Central American nations, which are heavily…
read moreCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A NASA astronaut was taken to the hospital for an undisclosed medical issue after returning from a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton, the space agency said Friday. A SpaceX capsule carrying three Americans and one Russian parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico…
read moreLAVEEN VILLAGE, Arizona — President Joe Biden on Friday formally apologized to Native Americans for the government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a “blot on American history” in his first presidential visit to Indian Country. “It’s a sin on our soul,” said Biden, his voice full of…
read more