Please excuse singer Phillip Sweet if he gets a little emotional when Little Big Town performs Friday night during the first-ever residency in the 125-year history of the Ryman Auditorium, a venue that helped popularize Country music. “I know I am going to get so choked up that it’s …
your ad hereNew Headgear Helps Legally Blind to See
Jeff Regan was born with underdeveloped optic nerves and spent most of his life in a blur. Then four years ago, he donned an unwieldy headset made by a Toronto company called eSight. Suddenly, Regan could read a newspaper while eating breakfast and make out the faces of his co-workers …
your ad hereEast-West Collaborations Excite Me, says Indian Pop Star Chauhan
Sunidhi Chauhan, one of India’s biggest pop stars, wants to collaborate with megastars like Justin Timberlake and Usher as she looks to push her career beyond Bollywood. “Collaborations excite me. The whole blend of two cultures coming together is a beautiful thing,” Chauhan told Reuters in London ahead of her …
your ad hereLibrarian of Congress to Make Huge Collections More Accessible
As riots convulsed the city of Baltimore, Maryland, in 2015, Carla Hayden kept a library in the heart of the chaos open. She says people in the neighborhood lined up outside the library to get in, even as a drugstore across the street was being looted and burned. “The people …
your ad hereBrazil’s Carnival Kicks Off With Parades, Street Parties
Revelers all over Brazil were getting Carnival celebrations started Friday, taking to the streets to dance samba, drink beer and other spirits, and blow off steam at a time of economic angst and fury with politicians over a sprawling corruption scandal. In Rio, home to the world’s most famous Carnival …
your ad hereDemocratic Senators at Odds With Trump Over Chinese Trademarks
Democratic senators are protesting the Trump Organization’s acceptance of a valuable trademark from the Chinese government without asking Congress first if doing so is constitutional. A group of 13 senators warned President Donald Trump in a letter Thursday that they intended to hold him accountable to his oath to uphold …
your ad hereNASA Weighing Risk of Adding Crew to Megarocket’s First Flight
NASA is weighing the risk of adding astronauts to the first flight of its new megarocket, designed to eventually send crews to Mars. The space agency’s human exploration chief said Friday that his boss and the Trump administration asked for the feasibility study. The objective is to see what it …
your ad hereRepublicans Work on Plan to Replace Obamacare
Republicans in the U.S. Congress are working to overhaul the nation’s health care laws in their effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, considered by some to be one of former President Barack Obama’s most significant legislative achievements. U.S. media outlets reported details Friday of potential replacements for …
your ad hereLibrary of Congress Head Focuses on Making Vast Collections More Accessible
The Librarian of Congress wants to upgrade its technology to make the eclectic mix of materials from books and photos to sheet music and baseball cards – available to people around the world. Carla Hayden became the new director of the world’s largest library five months ago, becoming the first …
your ad hereTrump Action on Transgender Student Rights Seen as ‘So Bad for Business’
U.S. companies led by tech firms Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft have criticized the Trump administration’s decision to revoke Obama administration guidance that allowed transgender public school students to use the bathroom of their choice. Their statements evoked the opposition expressed by many businesses last year when North Carolina passed a …
your ad hereZimbabwean Farmers in Pitched Battle Against Destructive Armyworms
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has predicted that Zimbabwe will be the country hardest hit by the invasion of armyworms in southern Africa. Farmers are already taking serious losses. The Gokwe and Zhombe areas in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province are among the most affected by an invasion of the …
your ad hereHollywood Overlooks Latino Talent, Some Complain
When the Academy Awards are handed out Sunday evening at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater, there’s a good chance that at least one of the honored films will have a protagonist of color. Four of the nine Best Picture contenders fall in that camp: “Fences,” “Hidden Figures,” “Lion” and “Moonlight.” That’s different …
your ad hereNASA Plans for Space-Based Observation of Snowpack
In dry northern regions, the melting from winter snowpack is crucial for filling reservoirs, irrigating crops and providing drinking water. In northern Colorado, communities get 80 percent of their water from snowpack, so knowing the water content of snow helps them plan ahead. But, unlike other weather data about rainfall …
your ad hereMoody’s Analytics Chief Mark Zandi Shares Thoughts on US Economy, Trump
Before the 2016 presidential election, economic research group Moody’s Analytics released a detailed comparison of Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s economic platforms. The report concluded that both candidates could not be more different. The take away from Moody’s report was that Clinton’s economic plan would boost growth without dramatically increasing …
your ad hereNASA Plans to Measure Snowpack From Space
Data about snow is hard to gather from space. NASA weather scientists report that currently, worldwide estimates of the water stored in snow may be off by 30 to 50 percent. That’s why NASA’s launching an ambitious project to create a new “snow satellite.” The first steps start not in satellites, …
your ad hereUS Governors Annual Meeting to Focus on $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan
U.S. President Donald Trump’s $1 trillion proposal to fix the nation’s crumbling infrastructure is expected to be the primary focus of the country’s governors as they gather in Washington for three days of meetings. Health care reform, education, childhood hunger and cybersecurity will also dominate policy discussions at the annual …
your ad hereStudy: Heroin Overdose Deaths Quadruple Between 2010-2015
Deaths caused by heroin overdoses in the United States quadrupled between 2010 and 2015, according to a new report. The National Center for Health Statistics says there were 12,989 overdose deaths involving heroin in 2015. In 2010, the number was 3,036. In percentages, heroin caused 8 percent of drug overdose …
your ad hereChina Steams Past US, France to Be Germany’s Biggest Trading Partner
China for the first time became Germany’s most important trading partner in 2016, overtaking the United States, which fell back to third place behind France, data showed on Friday. German imports from and exports to China rose to 170 billion euros ($180 billion) last year, Federal Statistics Office figures reviewed …
your ad hereChina May Offer Aid, Investment, in Talks on South China Sea
Countries in Southeast Asia are talking one-on-one with China about shared rights to fish and fossil fuels in the contested South China Sea, but nationalism or lack of political trust may snarl any agreements and shift focus to informal economic deals. Senior leaders from China and Vietnam met last month …
your ad herePrime Minister: Greece Made ‘Honorable Compromise’ on Reforms
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras defended a deal reached between Athens and its foreign creditors for further reforms in return for bailout aid, saying it was an “honorable compromise.” Tsipras said he believed relations between Greece, the European Union and International Monetary Fund had turned a page after seven years …
your ad hereKenya Approved for Direct Flights to US
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says Kenya has complied with international safety standards and can have direct flights to the U.S. after waiting for more than a decade. The FAA in a statement Thursday said Kenya has received a category 1 rating under the agency’s International Aviation Safety Assessment …
your ad hereUS Scientists: Anti-Vaccine Campaign Threatens Children’s Health
The U.S. was declared measles-free 15 years ago, thanks to the development of a reliable vaccine against that virus, but many American doctors now are worried that could change, because so many parents are opposed to having their children inoculated against disease. VOA’s Carol Pearson has more. …
your ad hereA Medieval Skeleton Holds Clues to Leprosy’s Spread
Leprosy, despite its horrible reputation, is a very curable disease. But there are still more than 200,000 cases reported every year, most of them in India, Indonesia, Brazil, and parts of Africa. To fully understand the disease, doctors and archaeologists are examining the skeletons of people who had the disease …
your ad hereHow to Make Drones Behave in Flight
Unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones, have become a staple of everyday life. As more take to the air, the issue of how to avoid collisions between drones and aircraft, and other drones, is becoming a serious problem. As VOA’s George Putic reports, scientists are working on solutions. …
your ad hereTrump: Republican Border Tax Could Boost US Jobs
President Donald Trump on Thursday spoke favorably about a potentially export-boosting border adjustment tax being pushed by Republicans in the U.S. Congress, but did not specifically endorse it. Trump, who has lashed out at U.S. companies who have moved operations to countries like Mexico, has previously sent mixed signals on …
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