Scientists have managed to wipe out a population of mosquitoes in a laboratory using a type of genetic engineering known as a gene drive. The intervention prevented the females from reproducing and caused the entire population to die off. Scientists …
U.S. consumer spending increased steadily in August, supporting expectations of solid economic growth in the third quarter, while a measure of underlying inflation remained at the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target for a fourth straight month. Economists said Friday’s report …
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has agreed to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee later this year over Republican concerns that the company is biased against conservatives, a senior Republican said Friday. Republicans want to question Google, the search …
Tesla without Elon Musk at the wheel? To many of the electric car maker’s customers and investors, that would be unthinkable. But that’s what government securities regulators now want to see. The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a federal …
Seven in 10 people worldwide die from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung diseases, according to a study published in The Lancet earlier this month. These diseases not only rob people prematurely of their lives, they cost enormous amounts …
A rise in violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is displacing more people and hampering humanitarian efforts, including operations to stop the spread of Ebola, the United Nations refugee agency warns. More than 20 people have been killed …
The security breach Facebook announced Friday that affected 50 million users was a setback for the social media giant, which has been working for months to regain customers’ trust over how it handles their data. In addition to the 50 …
VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren talks with Brad Smith, Microsoft’s President and Chief Legal Officer about the tech giant’s new Artificial Intelligence program. …
Italy’s stock market fell sharply Friday after the new populist, euroskeptic government announced a sharp public spending increase that will push the budget deficit to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product next year, risking a collision with the European Union. …
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello flew to New York this week on a mission: convince potential tourists that the hurricane-ravaged island was ready for their return. But Puerto Rico’s recovery from last year’s Hurricane Maria has been a “mixed bag,” Rossello told Reuters on Thursday, acknowledging …
U.S. securities regulators on Thursday accused Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk of fraud and sought to ban him as an officer of a public company, saying he made a series of “false and misleading” tweets about potentially taking the electric car company private …
Tuberculosis is a vicious epidemic that is drastically underfunded. That was the takeaway message from the first high-level meeting focused on the infectious disease at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Amina Mohammad, U.N. deputy secretary-general, said the disease …
A new report warns that wetlands are disappearing three times faster than the world’s forests, with serious consequences for all life on earth. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is a global treaty ratified in 1971 by 170 countries to protect …
An observatory in Barrow, Alaska, the most northerly astronomical outpost in the U.S., has become a key scientific instrument in studying climate change. Established in 1973, the Barrow Observatory is staffed year-round by two researchers who measure and track changes …
The United States and Japan have agreed to begin negotiations on a bilateral free-trade agreement, reducing the prospect that Washington might impose tariffs against another trading partner. “We’ve agreed today to start trade negotiations between the United States and Japan,” …
The ride-hailing service Uber has agreed to pay $148 million to settle claims that it concealed a massive data breach that exposed personal information of drivers and customers. In November 2016, Uber learned that hackers had accessed personal data of …
An estimated 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last winter, the disease’s highest death toll in at least four decades. The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, revealed the total in an …
After decades of disappointment in efforts to develop a malaria vaccine, researchers are starting to see promise in a new approach. While most vaccines trigger the body’s defenses to produce antibodies against a disease-causing germ, the new approach recruits an …
U.S. communications and social media titans are urging lawmakers to craft strong, uniform protections for Americans’ personal data without squashing innovation. The Senate Commerce Committee heard testimony Wednesday from Apple, Amazon.com, Google, Twitter, and AT&T executives at a time when …
Sometimes, all the hand sanitizer in the world cannot prevent the inevitable. College freshmen across the country are being introduced to a whole new world of pathogens and other infections at this time of year. It starts with just one …
Ford chief Jim Hackett on Wednesday ramped up his warnings about the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, saying his company was seeing profits slashed by $1 billion. Hackett said the global automaker could face more damage if the trade …
Somalia’s finance minister says World Bank grants to the government are a sign the country has “trustable leadership” again after decades of chaos and corruption. The World Bank said Tuesday it will provide $80 million in grants to Somalia’s federal …
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised a key interest rate for the third time this year in response to a strong U.S. economy and signaled that it expected to maintain a pace of gradual rate hikes. The Fed lifted its …
The Trojan Horse allowed the ancient Greek army to enter the city of Troy and defeat it. A similar strategy could help doctors destroy superbugs that are resistant to current antibiotics. The decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics is among the most …