The World Bank on Tuesday approved a $500 million loan to support Tunisia’s budget, a government official for the North African country said on Tuesday. The funding followed the release by the International Monetary Fund of a delayed $320-million tranche of Tunisia’s IMF loan, after the government agreed to speed …
The United States is weighing imposing sanctions on countries that do business with North Korea and looking for ways to revive strained relations with Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday. At a committee hearing, he also defended President Donald Trump’s plans for steep reductions in U.S. …
British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron are joining forces in order to crack down on tech companies, ensuring they step up their efforts to combat terrorism online. Britain and France face similar challenges in fighting homegrown Islamist extremism and share similar scars from deadly attacks that …
Market demand for the dirtiest of fossil fuels is plummeting worldwide, according to industry data published Tuesday, even as President Donald Trump has made reviving the long-struggling U.S. coal mines the bedrock of his administration’s energy policy. The BP Statistical Review of World Energy shows global coal production fell by …
Fake news, propaganda and disinformation has always existed. What sets today apart from years gone by is its rapid dissemination and global reach, experts say. Concerns raised by the instant propagation of fake news in the digital age and the harmful impact it has on the credibility and independence of …
Apple Inc. offered a $1 billion bond dedicated to financing clean energy and environmental projects on Tuesday, the first corporate green bond offered since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement. The offering comes over a year after Apple issued its first green bond of …
The Trump administration is proposing to curb the authority of the consumer finance watchdog created following the economic crisis as it drives toward easing restrictions on banks and financial institutions. The Treasury Department issued Monday the first part of a review that was ordered by President Donald Trump in one …
Augmented reality is slowly entering everyday life, and Swiss researchers say it can be used to study children’s behavior. A new app for tablet computers helps them study whether playing computer games can lead to something called augmented creativity. VOA’s George Putic reports. …
Britain’s descent into political crisis just days before Brexit talks begin has sapped confidence among business leaders and infuriated bosses who were already grappling with the fallout from the vote to leave the EU. The failure by Prime Minister Theresa May to win a parliamentary majority in last week’s election …
The Trump administration has a backup plan to keep the government from defaulting on its financial obligations even if Congress misses an August deadline to raise the debt limit, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a congressional panel Monday. Mnuchin had previously set an August deadline for the federal government to …
Two cybersecurity firms said they have uncovered malicious software that they believe caused a December 2016 Ukraine power outage, warning that the malware could be easily modified to harm critical infrastructure operations around the globe. ESET, a Slovakian anti-virus software maker, and Dragos Inc, a U.S. critical-infrastructure security firm, on …
Researchers say they’ve discovered a worrying breed of power grid-wrecking software, saying the program was likely responsible for a brief blackout that hit Kyiv, Ukraine, late last year. Slovakia-based computer security company ESET and Maryland-based Dragos, Inc. said in a report published Monday that the malicious software has the …
General Electric says Jeff Immelt is stepping down as CEO. John Flannery, president and CEO of the conglomerate’s health care unit, will take over the post in August. The 61-year-old Immelt will stay on as chairman until his retirement from the position at the end of the year, with …
Bangladesh has begun training thousands of school girls to protect them from being blackmailed or harassed online following an alarming rise in cybercrimes. The Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Division of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Post, Telecommunication & Information Technology recently finished conducting a pilot project in which female students from …
The board of Uber was meeting Sunday to consider placing the CEO of the ride-hailing company on leave, according The New York Times and other news outlets. The Times reported that three people with knowledge of the matter have confirmed that Uber’s board was meeting to consider recommendations from …
Do you ever wonder what could be done with all of those street views and Instagram photos of your favorite city? Well, a group of technical experts has taken all that data and turned it into an amazingly detailed 3D city map. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
Anyone who has waited on a long, snaking line to get into a fashion exhibit at a top museum knows just how popular they’ve become — and more broadly, how fashion is increasingly seen as a form of artistic and cultural expression. Google is acknowledging this reality by expanding …
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is likely to impose a new sugar trade deal with Mexico even if final revisions to it fail to win support from the U.S. industry, trade lawyers and experts say. After announcing a deal this week that would dramatically cut the amount of refined sugar …
French cosmetics and luxury goods group L’Oreal has started exclusive talks to sell The Body Shop business to Brazilian makeup company Natura Cosmeticos in a possible 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) deal. Earlier this year, L’Oreal had announced it was reviewing its strategy for The Body Shop, which it bought …
Science is worthless if it isn’t motivated by basic human values and the desire to help people, Apple CEO Tim Cook told graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday, urging them to use their powers for good. In a commencement address, Cook — who as Apple’s chief …
Japanese internet, solar and technology company SoftBank Group Corp. is buying robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics from Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent. Terms of the deal, announced Friday, including when it might close, were not disclosed. Tokyo-based SoftBank, which offers the chatty childlike Pepper companion robot, said the purchase underlines how robotics …
Thanks to an explosion of bike share apps and providers, China is rediscovering its love of bicycles. In cities across the country and in the capital of Beijing, a colorful bike-share revolution is taking over on the streets, helping ease traffic snarls and keeping the air cleaner. It is also …
The recent attack by the computer virus WannaCry infected more than 230,000 computers in more than 150 countries. It is not clear who is behind it, but the attack was hardly unexpected. Months earlier, award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney released his documentary “Zero Days,” in which he warned of massive cyberattacks …
China’s open policy toward technology firms is rapidly transforming its society into a Western-style consumer environment, ever hungry for new gadgets. As a casual visitor at this year’s Shanghai Consumer Electronics Show could easily see, robots created the highest interest. VOA’s George Putic reports. …
Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand sought to distance itself from a Chinese manufacturer that has come under scrutiny after activists investigating labor conditions there were detained, saying the company last made its products three months ago. In a statement released Wednesday, the brand’s president, Abigail Klem, said Ivanka Trump shoes, which …
Days before the first supertanker carrying 140,000 tons of Chinese-bound crude oil arrived in Myanmar’s Kyauk Pyu port, local officials confiscated Nyein Aye’s fishing nets. The 36-year-old fisherman was among hundreds banned from fishing a stretch of water near the entry point for a pipeline that pumps oil 770 kilometers …