It’s been more than two months since Hurricane Harvey destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes across Houston and east Texas, and cleanup is expected to last 20 months, overtaking Hurricane Katrina as the most expensive rebuilding effort in U.S. history. Undocumented workers are part of the daunting task …
Access to education is key to ending child labor, but many countries are not investing enough to rescue 150 million children globally from often hazardous work, experts said. When schools offer meals, transport and occupational training, children can often stop working, experts said Thursday at the fourth annual Global Conference …
Mexico shot down a proposal by the United States to include provisions in the North America Free Trade Agreement that would benefit AT&T, Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Wednesday. “AT&T, which is North American, asked its government to reflect its interests in the negotiation,” Guajardo said in an interview …
In Mongolia’s Gobi desert, thousands of heavy-duty trucks laden with coal inch along a cluttered highway toward the Chinese border in a journey that can take more than a week. Truckers cook, eat and sleep in vehicles covered in coal dust, many subsisting on the same meat soup that fueled …
German sportswear giant Adidas led the pack as four companies won a global award on Wednesday for shining a light on their own supply chains to eradicate modern slavery from their operations. Adidas was revealed as the overall winner of the second Thomson Reuters Foundation Stop Slavery Award, which celebrates …
Mexico will respond to U.S. demands for changes in content rules for autos and an automatic expiration clause in the NAFTA trade deal when negotiations on reworking the accord begin again this week, a top government official said on Tuesday. A fifth round of talks to overhaul the North American …
Germany on Tuesday pledged $125 million to boost the work of an international insurance partnership that aims to cover 400 million more poor and vulnerable people against disaster risks by 2020. That goal was first set in 2015 by the G7 group of wealthy nations, but the effort has now …
How do you obtain the freshest, locally grown produce in a big city? For an increasing number of urbanites, the answer is to grow it yourself. Cam MacKugler can help. MacKugler was at the recent Food Loves Tech event in Brooklyn, New York showing off Seedsheets, roll-out fabric sheets embedded …
Japan is stepping up aid and investment in Southeast Asia to help its multinationals do business across the continent while vying with political rival China for long-term influence over smaller neighboring countries. The wealthy Asian nation is helping build a train line near Manila, a seaport in Cambodia and new …
General Electric’s new Chief Executive John Flannery on Monday outlined steps that will turn the biggest U.S. industrial conglomerate into a smaller, more focused company, surprising some investors who sold the company’s shares to a five-year low. Flannery’s plan to shrink GE’s multi-industry array of businesses was a reversal of …
Mexico’s government is preparing a macroeconomic response in case U.S. President Donald Trump makes good on threats to quit the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an event which could wreak havoc on the Mexican economy and hurt the peso. Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said on Monday the government …
Venezuela’s socialist government welcomed scores of creditors on Monday for talks intended to renegotiate a crippling foreign debt and avert a default that could compound the once-prosperous OPEC nation’s economic crisis. About 100 investors — including some bondholders from New York, and lawyers and representatives for others — gathered at …
The federal government began its new budget year with an October deficit of $63.2 billion, up sharply from a year ago. The Treasury Department reported Monday that the October deficit was 37.9 percent higher than the $45.8 billion deficit recorded in October 2016. Both government receipts and spending were up …
Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm on Monday rejected rival Broadcom Ltd.’s $103-billion takeover bid, saying the offer undervalued the company and would face regulatory hurdles. Shares of Qualcomm rose as much as 2.5 percent to $66.17, while those of Broadcom fell as much as 1.3 percent to $261.55. “The Board has concluded …
The United Nations says Asia Pacific countries need to address issues surrounding the rights of migrant workers as international talks move toward a Global Compact on migrant labor. The Global Compact’s rise, with a final agreement set for 2018, was a result of the migrant crisis faced by the European …
Venezuela’s foreign debt renegotiation committee will meet with creditors at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Monday at the government’s “White Palace” in downtown Caracas, the finance minister said on Saturday. “Once again, we invite investors to register their participation in this meeting,” Simon Zerpa, who is also the finance boss …
Emirates Airlines agreed to buy 40 Boeing 787-10s in a deal worth more than $15 billion. The purchase was announced Sunday at the Dubai Air Show by the largest airline in the Middle East. Deliveries of the wide-body, twin-engine planes are set to begin in 2022. Boeing’s website says the …
The biennial Dubai Air Show opened Sunday with hometown long-haul carrier Emirates making a $15.1 billion buy of Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners, as the world’s biggest defense companies promoted their weapons amid heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Other airlines also are taking part, but missing from the trade show …
West Virginia could produce profitable niche crops grown on reclaimed mine sites. At least that’s what Nathan Hall, president of Reclaim Appalachia envisions. Hall spoke about uses for reclaimed sites at the West Virginia Good Jobs Conference last Tuesday at Tamarack. The goal of the conference is to bring together …
Ranchers in the Midwestern U.S. state of Nebraska are raising beef for tables in China, reopening trade suspended more than a decade ago during concerns over mad cow disease. From Nebraska, VOA reporter Abby Sun tells us how U.S. beef producers are changing to meet Chinese food-safety requirements. …
Afghanistan has received an inaugural consignment of wheat from India through an Iranian port, opening a new trade and transit route for the landlocked nation that bypasses neighboring Pakistan. The strategic sea route, officials say, will help improve trade and transit connectivity between Kabul and New Delhi. It will also …
U.S. President Donald Trump heaped praise on Vietnam Saturday, saying the southeast Asian nation is “one of the great miracles of the world.” Trump’s remarks were made at a state banquet in the capital of Hanoi, the latest event on his five-country Asian tour. Trump, who arrived in Hanoi Saturday, …
Chinese consumers are spending billions of dollars shopping online for anything from diapers to diamonds on “Singles Day,” a day of promotions that has grown into the world’s biggest e-commerce event. China’s biggest e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group, said sales by retailers on its platforms had topped $19 billion by …
From Britain’s Queen Elizabeth to Formula One racing champion Lewis Hamilton — the leak of more than 14 million documents from firms involved in offshore finance, known as the Paradise Papers, has engulfed some of the world’s most famous names. The latest revelations show U2 frontman Bono used a company …
Maine’s wild blueberry crop fell sharply this summer to land below 100 million pounds (45.3 million kilograms) for the first time in four years, according to a trade group that promotes the industry. Preliminary industry figures show the crop coming in at about 65 million pounds (29.5 million kilograms), …
The large drop in global cocoa prices has hurt African farmers, leading some to abandon their plantations. In Cameroon, however, cocoa producers are mapping out ways to encourage more local processing. At Nkog-Ekogo in the center region of Cameroon, a cocoa post-harvest processing and treatment center is inaugurated. Farmer Petronella …