Gasoline prices have been rising and oil costs have been changing as Hurricane Harvey’s winds and rising floodwaters slam into a part of Texas that has a significant portion of the nation’s oil industry, particularly oil refineries, shipping, and production. By Monday, gasoline futures rose by as much as seven …
Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been named Uber’s top executive, taking the difficult job of mending the dysfunctional ride-hailing giant and turning it from money-losing behemoth to a profitable company. Uber’s fractured eight-member board voted to hire Khosrowshahi late Sunday, capping three days of meetings and the withdrawal of …
In middle school, Junior Alvarado often struggled with multiplication and earned poor grades in math, so when he started his freshman year at Washington Leadership Academy, a charter high school in the nation’s capital, he fretted that he would lag behind. But his teachers used technology to identify his weak …
U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his threat to scrap NAFTA and ripped on trading partners Canada and Mexico in a tweet early on Sunday, days before the three countries were scheduled to hold a second round of negotiations on rewriting the 23-year-old agreement. “We are in the NAFTA (worst trade …
Ever so slowly, the world is edging towards the demise of the gasoline-powered engine. It likely won’t come for decades, but it’s coming. Two new entries in the alternative powered vehicle department are showing off ways that technology is slowly changing the automobile marketplace. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports …
Reports of cyberattacks against companies and governments around the world seem to be appearing in the headlines more frequently this year. Cyber security experts explain why the risk of being hacked is now greater, who is doing the hacking and what can be done to prevent or minimize the damage. …
Iranian media are reporting that Apple Inc. has removed all Iranian mobile apps from its App Store. In reaction to Apple’s decision, Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said Apple should respect its Iranian consumers. He also sent out this tweet: Apple, based in Cupertino, California, did not immediately …
People smugglers are using Facebook to broadcast the abuse and torture of migrants in order to extort ransom money from their families, the U.N. migration agency said on Friday. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) lambasted the tech giant for failing to police the platform and help crack down on …
The head of the U.S. central bank says the financial system is safer now than it was before the recession, and urges Washington to make some adjustments in financial regulations, rather than trash them. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen says the recession of 2008 cost nine million American jobs and …
South Korea this week pushed back against the United States’ demand to renegotiate the free trade agreement (FTA) between the close allies. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the five-year-old Korea-U.S. (KORUS) FTA as a horrible deal that created a $27 billion U.S. trade deficit with South Korea last …
When Ha Tran of Ho Chi Minh City shops for food, clothes or electronics, she avoids merchandise she can tell comes from Vietnam’s giant neighbor, China. It might not work, she said, and China is no friend of Vietnam anyway. “China exports many low-quality products to Vietnam, but we know …
Argentina’s government is investigating all options and reserves the right to take legal action over the United States’ imposition of steep duties on imports of Argentine biodiesel, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday. The statement said the imposition of duties above 50 percent, announced Tuesday, does not correspond …
Tesla next month plans to unveil an electric big-rig truck with a working range of 200 to 300 miles, Reuters has learned, a sign that the electric car maker is targeting regional hauling for its entry into the commercial freight market. Chief Executive Elon Musk has promised to release a …
A new, high-tech yarn that generates electricity when stretched or twisted could use ocean waves and human motion to lower man’s dependency on fossil fuels, researchers said Thursday. An international team of scientists said in a study they had developed a stretchy yarn made of carbon nanotubes — tiny strands …
Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan will be inducted into the Labor Department’s Hall of Honor. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta made the announcement Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, California. Reagan is the only union leader to occupy the White House. The former actor was …
In recent years, the U.S. space program has been supporting a broader range of commercial interests, which has led to more companies getting into the space business. One such U.S. company, NanoRacks, is a full-service operation that gets science experiments from around the world into space. The company made history …
President Donald Trump’s comments at a Phoenix rally that he will probably end up terminating the North American Free Trade Agreement brought cheers from the crowd but groans from the state’s top business group. Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Glenn Hamer posted a video calling any termination a …
Britain will set out a plan to cooperate closely with Europe on data protection rules after it leaves the European Union, hoping to reassure businesses and law enforcement agencies that there will be no disruption to exchanges of information. Minister for Digital Matt Hancock said Britain was leading the way …
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was willing to shut down the government to get funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, complicating two must-pass measures Congress will take up in September: a spending package and raising the debt ceiling. Here is what you need to know about both, and …
Els van der Heijden, who has cystic fibrosis, was finding it ever harder to breathe as her lungs filled with thick, sticky mucus. Despite taking more than a dozen pills and inhalers a day, the 53-year-old had to stop working and scale back doing the thing she loved best, horseback …
The U.S. Defense Department is making another multimillion-dollar investment in high-energy lasers that have the potential to destroy enemy drones and mortars, disrupt communication systems and provide military forces with other portable, less costly options on the battlefield. U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat who sits on the …
Just beyond the outskirts of Cairo on a desert road to the Suez Canal, a sprawling industrial zone is coming to life as Egypt’s leather industry leaves behind its ancient tanning quarters for modern workshops of Robiki Leather City. The new complex is part of a major expansion drive of …
White House adviser Jared Kushner and visiting U.S. officials were snubbed by the Foreign Ministry in Cairo on Wednesday in apparent protest over the Trump administration’s move to cut and delay aid to Egypt. Egypt’s top diplomat, Sameh Shoukry, was to meet with the U.S. delegation headed by Kushner, …
China has objected to new sanctions the United States imposed against a group of Chinese and Russian companies for allegedly supporting North Korea’s nuclear program. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a news briefing that the sanctions are not helping U.S.-China cooperation on efforts to rein in North …
South Korea’s top trade negotiator said Tuesday that Seoul will not discuss renegotiation of the free trade agreement with the U.S. without first looking into what is really causing the U.S. trade imbalance. Speaking after a video conference with U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer, South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyung-chong …
Starbucks coffee shops recently installed the fastest Wi-Fi we regular folks can enjoy. It’s a blazing 9 megabits per second. But researchers in the Netherlands have some Wi-Fi that leaves that in the dust. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …