WASHINGTON — America’s children have continued to lose ground on reading skills in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and have made little improvement in math, according to the latest results of an exam known as the nation’s report card. The findings are yet another setback for U.S. schools and reflect the myriad challenges that have…
read moreWASHINGTON — The U.S. military said on Tuesday it will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented migrants at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado, further widening the Pentagon’s role in President Donald Trump’s undocumented immigration crackdown. The decision comes on top of U.S. military deportation flights of undocumented migrants out of the country and…
read moreCaroline Kennedy, a member of the famed U.S. political family, urged senators on Tuesday to reject her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the top U.S. health agency, calling him a “predator” and his healthcare views “dangerous.” The daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,…
read moreWashington — Just one week after its initial release, China’s new artificial intelligence assistant, DeepSeek, has shocked American financial markets, technology companies and consumers, rocking confidence in America’s lead on emerging large-language models. The tool caused a nearly $1 trillion loss in market value for U.S.-based companies with connections to AI. DeepSeek has beat out ChatGPT…
read moreColombia sent air force planes to repatriate more than 100 nationals deported from the U.S. after a bilateral standoff over Bogota’s refusal to receive Colombians on U.S. military aircraft. The Colombian president welcomed the arrival of the migrants. Click here for the full story in Spanish. …
read moreCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday launched LA Rises, a private sector initiative aimed at raising money to help residents of Southern California rebuild their lives in the wake of the recent, devastating fires. Rebuilding will be expensive, with some estimates reaching as high as $40 billion. The fires, which began three weeks ago, killed…
read moreRussian disinformation narratives about illicit organ harvesting and biological experiments in Ukraine have no basis in fact. Russia intentionally distorts Ukrainian law intended to support vital medical procedures. …
read moreTAIPEI, TAIWAN — A little more than a week after Beijing and Manila reached an agreement aimed at easing tensions in the South China Sea, the Philippines has accused Chinese coast guard vessels of fresh incursions, harassment and “aggressive maneuvers.” Analysts say the pressure campaign, which has stepped up in recent days, is part of Beijing’s…
read moreConservationists in Kenya are using an artificial intelligence-powered application to monitor forest degradation and launch reforestation. The data collected by the application is also used to project the amount of carbon that can be stored by a growing patch of forest. Juma Majanga reports from Nyeri, Kenya. …
read moreWashington — U.S. President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Monday to remove diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, from the military, reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, and take aim at transgender troops. Earlier on Monday, Pete Hegseth, who narrowly secured enough votes to…
read moreWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday fired more than a dozen Justice Department lawyers who brought two criminal cases against him, an official said, as the Republican moves swiftly to exert greater control over the department. The officials were fired after Acting Attorney General James McHenry, a Trump appointee, concluded they could not be…
read moreA storm in a coffee cup this past weekend, as Colombia’s president tussled by tweet with President Donald Trump, pulling back from the cusp of a trade war after the White House insisted the South American nation accept deportees as part of Trump’s hardline immigration push. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.…
read moreChinese researchers backed by a Hangzhou-based hedge fund recently released a new version of a large language model (LLM) called DeepSeek-R1 that rivals the capabilities of the most advanced U.S.-built products but reportedly does so with fewer computing resources and at much lower cost. High Flyer, the hedge fund that backs DeepSeek, said that the…
read moreWASHINGTON — Google Maps will change the name of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” once it is officially updated in the U.S. Geographic Names System, it said in an X post on Monday. The change will be visible in the U.S., but it will remain “Gulf of Mexico” in Mexico. Outside of the two…
read moreNEW YORK — A full-scale replica of the secret annex where Anne Frank penned her famous diary opened in New York City on Monday as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The exhibit at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan represents the first time the annex has been completely recreated outside of Amsterdam, where…
read moreThe multibillion-dollar Stargate Project announced by U.S. President Donald Trump will focus on building data centers with the goal of turning the U.S. into a computing power empire, according to experts. Some believe the significant boost in U.S. computational capabilities will widen the gap with China in artificial intelligence. “And this is an industrial buildout…
read moreWASHINGTON — On Jan. 22, Donald Trump — just two days after being inaugurated for his second term as U.S. president — again called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the “ridiculous” war with Ukraine, but this time he added a threat. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have…
read morePentagon — New U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised more changes are coming to the country’s military before even walking through the doors of the Pentagon. Hegseth, a decorated veteran and a former Fox News host, was greeted just outside the Pentagon by General Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after arriving for…
read moreLONDON/SINGAPORE — Investors hammered technology stocks on Monday, sending the likes of Nvidia and Oracle plummeting, as the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model cast doubts on Western companies’ dominance in this sector. Startup DeepSeek last week launched a free assistant it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent…
read moreThe Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are set to face off in the National Football League’s Super Bowl, with the Chiefs looking to become the first team to win three consecutive championships and the Eagles trying to avenge their loss from two years ago. The Chiefs reached the Feb. 9 championship game in New…
read moreNEW YORK — For author Percival Everett, libraries have long been a source of knowledge and discovery and pleasure, even of the forbidden kind. “I remember making friends at age 13 with the librarian at the University of South Carolina, and she used to let me go through the stacks when I wasn’t supposed to,” Everett,…
read morePresident Donald Trump’s border czar said Sunday that the administration’s current priority is to deport undocumented immigrants who are deemed to pose security threats to the U.S. But he stressed that illegal immigration in general won’t be tolerated. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. …
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