China’s central bank raised short-term interest rates for the third time in as many months Thursday, a day after the end of the annual session of parliament where leaders warned that tackling debt risks would be a top policy priority this year. The move came hours after the U.S. Federal …
President Donald Trump is to tell American autoworkers Wednesday in the state of Michigan that he is setting aside strict fuel-economy requirements imposed by the previous administration in its waning days. The Trump White House contends that action broke an earlier agreement with the auto industry to wait until 2018 …
China is warning about the possible impact of a trade war with the United States, even as the world’s two biggest economies take steps to map out relations under the administration of President Donald Trump. Speaking at an annual news conference Wednesday, at the end of high-level political meetings in …
Asia needs to make extra efforts to defeat hunger after progress has slowed in the last five years, including promoting so-called “smart crops” as an alternative to rice, the head of the U.N. food agency in the region said. Kundhavi Kadiresan, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in …
Airline industry group IATA said it remains concerned about protectionist rhetoric from the United States and other governments, but also sees the new U.S. administration’s plans to invest in infrastructure as positive for the industry. IATA’s Director General Alexandre de Juniac told reporters in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday that the …
Most analysts predict the U.S. central bank will boost interest rates slightly on Wednesday as the economy nears full employment and inflation rises modestly. Leaders of the U.S. Federal Reserve are gathered in Washington through Wednesday to debate interest rate policy. Experts at Moody’s Investor Service say the Fed …
Aspiring property moguls take note – the town of Tiller, Oregon, is for sale, asking price just $3.5 million. For an extra $350,000, you can have the old school too. The mostly uninhabited, unincorporated town about 225 miles (362 km) south of Portland originally went up for sale in 2015, …
U.S. President Donald Trump this week will unveil a budget expected to massively increase military spending while slashing other federal programs. The proposal, set to be released Thursday, will offer the most detailed look yet at how Trump intends to move ahead with his so-called “America First” policy. The budget …
U.S. chipmaker Intel agreed to buy driverless technology firm Mobileye for $15.3 billion on Monday, positioning itself for a dominant role in the autonomous-driving sector after missing the market for mobile phones. The $63.54 per share cash deal is the biggest technology takeover in Israel’s history and the largest purchase …
Vietnam will test U.S. President Donald Trump’s openness to one-on-one trade deals as it starts nudging Washington for an eventual agreement to replace its role in the defunct Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Official media outlets in Vietnam say Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told an American business delegation last week …
The risk of a steep slide in China’s economy has reduced, the head of a government research center said on Sunday, adding the country had moved through an “L-shaped” pattern of slowing to now “horizontal” growth. China’s economy grew 6.7 percent last year, according to the government, the slowest pace …
On Feb. 19, 2016, at a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, then-candidate Donald Trump gave a stump speech in which he railed against American jobs moving to Mexico: “We lose our jobs, we close our factories, Mexico gets all of the work,” he said. “We get nothing.” …
Thousands of Native Americans from across the Unites States marched in Washington to protest President Donald Trump’s decision to advance the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and Dakota Access oil pipelines. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more. …
The first jobs report on President Donald Trump’s watch is a good one. The private sector added 235,000 jobs in February, more than expected, and a sign that the economy and consumer confidence are healthy. But the jobs report also means that higher borrowing costs, for consumers and businesses, are …
President Donald Trump is embracing government numbers he once maligned as “phony” as he tries to take credit for the latest U.S. jobs report. The new administration on Friday promoted Labor Department statistics that show U.S. employers added 235,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.7 percent from …
Foreign ministers and other officials from 25 Caribbean countries met in Havana on Friday to discuss a joint response in the face of Trump administration threats to migrants and trade. Opening remarks at the closed-door event, attended by representatives from Colombia, Mexico, Cuba and other countries in Central America and …
A World Bank arbitration panel has determined that Venezuela will not have to pay $1.4 billion to ExxonMobil for confiscating company assets during a wave of nationalizations. ExxonMobil asked the bank’s investment dispute panel for $12 billion for the seizure of its Cerro Negro facilities in the Orinoco Basin …
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday he hopes to launch formal talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in a little over three months. U.S. President Donald Trump was strongly critical during his election campaign of NAFTA and other trade agreements that …
New U.S. solar installations nearly doubled last year, but slowing demand for both residential and large-scale systems, falling panel prices and concerns about looming federal tax reform are still dampening investor appetite for the sector. Solar installations soared 97 percent to 14.8 gigawatts in 2016, according to a report released …
It’s a major natural disaster that slowly grows in one place and then moves across a region, gaining intensity and size. As it spreads, it destroys land, ruins agriculture and tears apart communities, and it can kill people. It’s a drought. Researchers are just beginning to view droughts as this …
China has given preliminary approval to a raft of trademark requests from President Donald Trump’s business empire, renewing concerns of ethics watchdogs that the president’s private dealings conflict with his role as leader of a world superpower, and therefore violate the U.S. Constitution. Trump attorneys filed the 38 trademark applications …
China is seeking an international agreement to enhance state control over the internet in order to fight cyberattacks and cyberterrorism. Beijing wants to extend the existing idea of sovereignty over land and sea to cyberspace. Beijing has released its first white paper discussing how it will persuade different countries to …
On Pingtung jail’s sunlit roof, prisoner No. 24 has a view of a brighter future. Ex-cop Chen, serving time for bribery, is learning how to install solar panels in a program that’s part of Taiwan’s shimmering vision of a future without nuclear power. The 48-year-old is working on a project …
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday that substantial negotiations to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement likely will not get started until the latter part of this year and could take a year to complete. Ross, speaking to Bloomberg Television, said U.S. legal notification requirements with partners …
The productivity of American workers grew at a slower pace in fourth quarter and last year recorded the smallest annual gain in five years. The Labor Department said Wednesday that productivity grew at a 1.3 percent annual pace from October through December, down from 3.3 percent in the third quarter. …
Home-renting site Airbnb is providing women with a new way to earn money and build businesses with more women than men on the site and women in Kenya gaining the most, the company said on Tuesday. Airbnb said women have outnumbered men using the site since its 2008 launch and …