The United States has announced changes to its nonimmigrant work visa policies that are expected to make renewals more difficult. In the past, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would generally approve the renewals unless the visa holder had committed a crime. Now, renewals will face the same scrutiny as the …
President Donald Trump says he is “very close” to picking a person for the most important economic post in the United States, the head of the Federal Reserve. Current Chair Janet Yellen’s term expires early next year and she is one of at least five candidates for the job. Besides …
More than four decades after selling 1,000 Volvos to North Korea, Sweden is still trying to get paid for the cars. The vehicles were part of a $131 million trade package delivered to North Korea in 1974, during a period of openness. But Pyongyang never paid anything on the deal, …
Twitter is reporting a loss of $21.1 million in its third quarter, but turned in a better-than-expected profit when one-time charges and benefits are removed. Shares of Twitter Inc. soared almost 9 percent before the opening bell Thursday. The San Francisco company had a loss of 3 cents, …
Twitter is enacting new policies around hate, abuse and ads, but creating new rules is only half the battle – the easy half. The bigger problem is enforcement, and there the company has had some high-profile bungles recently. That includes its much-criticized suspension of actress Rose McGowan while she was …
Elon Musk was fed up. The seats on Tesla Inc’s new Model X SUV were a mess. An outside contractor was having trouble executing the complicated design, spurring frustration and finger-pointing between Tesla and its supplier. How would Tesla ever pull off mass production of the upcoming Model 3, the …
U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday ordered the Transportation Department to launch a test program to increase the number of drones for commercial and civil use. “The program will help tackle the most significant challenges in integrating drones into the national airspace while reducing risks to public safety and security,” the …
Ivanka Trump teamed up Wednesday with Republican legislators to try to ensure the tax overhaul package under construction on Capitol Hill includes an expansion of the child tax credit. The White House adviser and presidential daughter, appearing at a Capitol Hill news conference with GOP lawmakers, framed the tax credit …
Don’t want Amazon boxes sitting on the porch? The company hopes you’ll let a stranger inside to drop them off. Amazon said Wednesday it will launch a service called Amazon Key next month that will let people allow the door to be unlocked when they’re not there so packages can …
Facebook is partnering with a developer to build a wind power farm in northeast Nebraska that will supply energy for the company’s planned data center. The social media giant announced last week that it has partnered with Trade Winds Energy to build the Rattlesnake Creek Wind Project in rural Dixon …
Jordan’s high and rising public debt has worried the International Monetary Fund and prompted a downgrade from Standard & Poor’s. So the government is planning a blast of austerity by year-end. Tax hikes and subsidy cuts —- likely to be highly unpopular —- are on the agenda as the country’s …
A new strain of malicious software has paralyzed computers at a Ukrainian airport, the Ukrainian capital’s subway and at some independent Russian media. The Odessa international airport in Ukraine’s south, the Kyiv subway and prominent Russian media outlets such as Interfax and Fontanka on Tuesday reported being targeted. …
Sometime in 2014, a group of analysts walked into the office of Eugene Kaspersky, the ebullient founder of Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, to deliver some sobering news. The analysts were in possession of a cache of files belonging to the Equation Group, an extraordinarily powerful band of hackers that …
Head to the roof of the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies and you’ll discover row upon row of solar photovoltaic panels. The solar panels generate about 159 kilowatts of renewable energy, just a drop in New York City’s energy bucket, and are part of a citywide initiative …
An unprecedented Chinese financial and construction effort is rapidly developing Pakistan’s strategically located Arabian Sea port of Gwadar into one of the world’s largest transit and transshipment cargo facilities. The deep water port lies at the convergence of three of the most commercially important regions of the world, the oil-rich …
The U.S. economy is expected add another 11.5 million jobs by 2026, as an aging population and longer life spans raise the need for health care providers. The total U.S. workforce is expected to grow to 167.6 million people. Tuesday’s projections come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which …
After a deadly earthquake in 1985, authorities in Mexico City decided they must start constructing houses that can withstand strong shakes. Government buildings, hospitals and schools are now built according to stricter rules, while architects are pushing for their application to other structures too, especially high rise apartment buildings. VOA’s …
Facebook Inc said on Monday it was testing the idea of dividing its News F eed in two, separating commercial posts from personal news in a move that could lead some businesses to increase advertising. The Facebook News Feed, the centerpiece of the world’s largest social network service, is a …
Amazon said Monday that it received 238 proposals from cities and regions in the United States, Canada and Mexico hoping to be the home of the company’s second headquarters. The online retailer kicked off its hunt for a second home base in September, promising to bring 50,000 new jobs and …
Electric cars are steadily gaining ground in the global auto market, but it’s a slow process. Along with their high price, one of the main reasons for the consumers’ reluctance is the scarcity of infrastructure needed for charging the cars’ batteries. VOA’s George Putic looks at efforts to remove one …
The bumper sticker on the back of Scott Wilson’s car reads, “This is what the end of gasoline looks like.” And what does that car look like? A sleek, sci-fi experimental vehicle? A $100,000 Tesla luxury car? Nope. It’s just a Kia Soul EV, the battery-powered version of the Korean …
The sloping vineyards of New York’s Finger Lakes region known for producing golden-hued rieslings and chardonnays also are offering a splash of orange wine. The color comes not from citrus fruit, but by fermenting white wine grapes with their skins on before pressing – a practice that mirrors the …
Electric cars have been a futuristic promise for decades. And electric vehicles finally appear poised to enter the mainstream. Major carmakers, from Volvo to General Motors, are proclaiming the future is electric. VOA’s Steve Baragona has a look at how soon that future may arrive. …
The FBI hasn’t been able to retrieve data from more than half of the mobile devices it tried to access in less than a year, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Sunday, turning up the heat on a debate between technology companies and law enforcement officials trying to recover encrypted communications. …
A bakery in a low-income area of Johannesburg slashed prices of its popular bread, with unexpected results. What started as a way to help feed the community became a recipe for success as the bakery has a lot more business than ever. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports. ((NARRATOR)) …
President Donald Trump is considering nominating Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell and Stanford University economist John Taylor for the central bank’s top two jobs, in an apparent bid to reassure markets and appease conservatives hungry for change. Under that scenario, either Powell or Taylor would take the reins from Fed …