Britain’s cybersecurity agency has told government departments not to use antivirus software from Moscow-based firm Kaspersky Lab amid concerns about Russian snooping. Ciaran Martin, head of the National Cyber Security Centre, said “Russia is acting against the U.K.’s national interest in cyberspace.” In a letter dated Friday to civil service …
The world’s largest lithium ion battery has begun providing electricity into the power grid in South Australia. The project is a collaboration between the state government, American firm Tesla, and Neoen, a French energy company. Tesla boss Elon Musk, who was not in attendance at the switch-on, had boldly promised …
Airlines canceled more flights leaving the Indonesian island of Bali on Saturday, citing forecasts of deteriorating flying conditions because of a risk of volcanic ash from the erupting Mount Agung volcano. A Bali airport spokesman said the airport was operating normally, but airlines such as Jetstar and Virgin Australia had …
More than a century after being unearthed in Egypt, a nearly 2000-year-old mummy is giving scientists, museum curators and medical researchers a unique look at the ancient world. Faith Lapidus reports. …
President Donald Trump’s administration announced Friday that it won’t require mining companies to prove they have the financial wherewithal to clean up their pollution, despite an industry legacy of abandoned mines that have fouled waterways across the U.S. The move came after mining groups and Western-state Republicans pushed back …
Republicans pushed a nearly $1.5 trillion tax bill through the Senate early Saturday after burst of eleventh-hour horse trading, as a party starved all year for a major legislative triumph took a giant step toward giving President Donald Trump one of his top priorities by Christmas. “Big bills are rarely …
A Peruvian prosecutor asked a judge to jail executives of three local construction companies that had previously partnered with Brazilian builder Odebrecht, which has admitted to paying bribes in the country, chief prosecutor Pablo Sanchez said on Friday. Prosecutors started investigating the five executives of Grana y Montero, JJC Contratistas …
Venezuela’s socialist government and its opposition sought Friday to jumpstart negotiations on resolving the country’s economic and political crisis, pressured by international sanctions and a looming presidential election. The planned two-day meetings in the Dominican Republic are the first formal talks since anti-government protests collapsed in July with a toll …
Despite criticism from Washington over Cambodia’s crackdown on the opposition and accusations that the U.S. helped plot Prime Minister Hun Sen’s downfall, U.S. Ambassador William Heidt has said that America’s support for Cambodia’s economy will not be negatively impacted. Heidt told VOA’s Khmer service on Wednesday that the embassy’s mission …
From cellphones and cars, to televisions and refrigerators, more devices are being connected to the Internet. This network of connected devices is called the “Internet of Things” (IoT). Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States, is planning to use the prevalence of these IoT devices as a …
Most of us would be shocked and afraid if a doctor told us we needed brain surgery. But imagine how much calmer you’d be if you could get inside your skull to navigate the path the surgeon will take? Technology can now make that happen. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti takes us …
The world’s biggest lithium-ion battery has plugged into an Australian state grid, delivering on a promise by Tesla Inc. chief executive Elon Musk. Musk said he would build the 100-megawatt battery within 100 days of contracts for the project being signed at the end of September or hand it over …
Senate Republicans delayed a final vote on an overhaul of the U.S. tax code late Thursday amid furious, behind-the-scenes efforts to fine-tune the legislation to satisfy a small group of fiscal hawks whose support is needed to pass one of President Donald Trump’s core campaign promises. “Senators will continue to …
Google, which prides itself on developing simple, intuitive software that seems to know what you want almost before you do, is finding itself in a very different world when it comes to its own phones and other gadgets. Its new Pixel 2 phones, released in October, got high marks for …
Venezuela’s Avior Airlines has been banned from European Union skies after a commission determined it no longer meets international safety standards, another blow to troubled nation’s already beleaguered flight industry. The European Commission announced Thursday that Avior had been added to a list of international airlines prohibited from flying within …
The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season has finally ended In all, 17 named storms swept across the Atlantic this year and 10 rose to hurricane status. But the season will be remembered for the deadly trio — Harvey, Irma and Maria — that brought death and destruction to Caribbean nations and …
Fed Chair Janet Yellen appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday for what may be the last time she speaks before U.S. lawmakers. Yellen, whose term expires in February, will likely be succeeded by President Donald Trump’s pick, Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell. This week, members of the U.S. Congress got a …
Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Wednesday that Trump administration demands for a U.S.-specific automotive content requirement in NAFTA were “not viable,” and he declined to specify when Mexico would formally respond. At a news conference following a series of meetings with senior U.S. trade officials and lawmakers in Washington, …
Facebook Inc. said on Wednesday it was temporarily disabling the ability of advertisers on its social network to exclude racial groups from the intended audience of ads while it studies how the feature could be used to discriminate. Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, told African-American U.S. lawmakers in a …
For individuals, storing information in the cloud means it can be available to them anywhere they have a connection to the internet. It can be cheap, and it can be useful, but because all that data is going back and forth, it’s not quite as secure as storing everything on …
Opposition has grown among Americans to a Republican tax plan before the U.S. Congress, with 49 percent of people who were aware of the measure saying they opposed it, up from 41 percent in October, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday. Congressional Republicans are trying to rush their …
Snapchat is separating what friends share and what media organizations publish in an attempt to appeal to a broader range of users. The photo messaging app has not been gaining enough users, especially beyond its core of younger people. Parent company Snap Inc.’s stock is down sharply since its initial …
The world’s largest economy shook off the impact of several hurricanes and grew a bit faster than first thought in July, August, and September. On Wednesday, U.S. government experts said the economy expanded at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, which is three-tenths of a percent faster …
U.S. President Donald Trump is heading Wednesday to Missouri to tout his tax overhaul, trying to convince working class Americans that their taxes would go down and more jobs would be created if Congress adopts the plan. Trump is set to speak to about 1,000 people in St. Charles, a …
The price of bitcoin, the most widely used virtual currency, rose above $10,000 on Wednesday for the first time, breaking a symbolic threshold in what has been a vertiginous ascent this year. The cost of buying one bitcoin as measured by the website coindesk.com was at $10,673 by morning trading …
Microsoft says it’s overhauling its longtime headquarters with an 18-building construction project that will make room for another 8,000 workers. The announcement came ahead of the company’s annual shareholders meeting Wednesday. Microsoft’s decision to expand on the footprint of its campus in Redmond, Washington, its home since 1986, is in …