She vowed to stay out of politics and even dropped the French far right’s signature name – Le Pen – from her moniker. But Marion Marechal, a former star lawmaker who’s still only in her 20s, is now tip-toeing back …
Month: July 2019
African leaders met on Sunday to launch a continental free-trade zone that if successful would unite 1.3 billion people, create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development. After four years of talks, an agreement …
Sofia Lysenko’s parents moved to the United States from the Ukraine when she was 3 years old. Today, at 17, some of the biggest American pharmaceutical companies want to team up with this teenage science prodigy because she has created …
Emergency workers in Ridgecrest, Calif., are assessing the damage after a second major earthquake struck the desert community northeast of Los Angeles on Friday night. No deaths or major injuries have been reported from either the Thursday or Friday quake, but as …
Hong Kong has long been seen as a good place to do business, thanks to its proximity to China and the one-country, two systems policy that provides a wide degree of economic freedom. But as Beijing expands its control, that …
A life-size rough wooden sculpture of U.S. first lady Melania Trump was unveiled Friday near her hometown of Sevnica in southeastern Slovenia. Commissioned by Berlin-based American artist Brad Downey and carved with a chainsaw by local folk artist Ales Zupevc, the statue serves …
An apparent gas explosion at a shopping plaza in Plantation, Florida, injured several people on Saturday, authorities and local media reported. Video posted to Twitter showed the force of the blast scattered debris across a parking lot and blew out …
A war monitor and first responders group say an airstrike has killed at least 13 people in a village in northwestern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the dead, most of them internally displaced persons, include seven children …
President Donald Trump roused a political tempest when he decided to plant himself squarely in Independence Day observances with a speech from the Lincoln Memorial. His words from that platform, though, were strikingly measured, except for some befuddlement over American …
Federal agents descended on the suburban Maryland house with the flash and bang of a stun grenade, blocked off the street and spent hours questioning the homeowner about a theft of government documents that prosecutors would later describe as “breathtaking” …
The International Organization for Migration warns massive displacement from renewed inter-ethnic fighting in DR Congo’s Ebola-affected Ituri province poses a serious health hazard. At least 160 people were killed during renewed clashes early last month between Lendu farmers and Hema …
Iraq is celebrating the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s decision to name the historic city of Babylon a World Heritage Site in a vote in Azerbaijan. Friday’s vote comes after Iraq bid for years for Babylon to be added to the …
The U.S. coal industry sank deeper this week as the nation’s sixth-largest coal company declared bankruptcy. Though the Trump administration has taken measures aimed at supporting coal, six of the 10 largest coal companies have gone bankrupt since 2014. Blackjewel …
Marilyne Tatang, 23, crossed nine borders in two months to reach Mexico from the West African nation of Cameroon, fleeing political violence after police torched her house, she said. She plans soon to take a bus north for four days …
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang recently announced a major economic reform move, saying China would scrap ownership controls on foreign companies investing in the financial sector next year, ahead of schedule. “We will achieve the goal of abolishing ownership limits in …
VOA Connect Episode 77 – Stories about people who are on a path they didn’t foresee, the career of a successful musician and the benefits of vinyl records …
The average monthly student loan payment is about $400 a month in the United States. Eddy Encinales, who used student loans to pay for college, talks to us about the effects of the debt and toll it takes trying to …
America’s annual Independence Day is celebrated a bit differently in Washington, D.C., this year, with a display of military might and a speech about patriotism by U.S. President Donald Trump. The event draws Trump supporters, as well as protesters who …
A single cigarette may have started the April fire that destroyed much of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Flames tore through the global tourist destination as firefighters struggled to find and extinguish their source. German authorities want to make sure …
The amount of sea ice around Antarctica has plunged from a record high to a record low in just three years, according to a new report released this week by the U.S. space agency NASA. Faith Lapidus reports scientists are not …
Australia’s government warned a student on Friday not to return to North Korea a day after he was released from detention by Pyongyang under mysterious circumstances. Alek Sigley, who flew to Tokyo on Thursday to join his Japanese wife, had …
More than two dozen countries Thursday formally called for a United Nations investigation into thousands of killings in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, activists said. Iceland submitted the draft resolution backed by mainly European states, they said. The …
Government ministers from some European Union nations sought Thursday to reassure their partners in the Western Balkans during a meeting in Poland that their aspirations to join the EU have full backing in the club, despite symptoms of a loss …
Vietnamese manufacturers should use domestically-sourced raw materials to avoid incurring U.S. tariffs, Vietnam’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, days after Washington said it would impose large duties on some steel products shipped through the Southeast Asian country. The U.S. Commerce …