We’re launching the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, for the week ending May 13, 2017. The chart again rises to the occasion, giving us another big new hit. Number 5: Future “Mask Off” Future spends a second straight week in fifth place with …
your ad hereStrange Exoplanet Bucks Planet Formation Trends
An exoplanet located 437 light years away could shed light on the different ways planets form around their stars. HAT-P-26b, which astronomers call a “warm Neptune,” has a “primitive” atmosphere made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Its atmosphere is not cloudy and has a “strong water signature,” astronomers say. …
your ad hereReports Show Rise in US Inflation, Retail Sales
U.S. consumers bought more cars and hardware, and stepped up online purchases in April, after two months of sluggish sales. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department says retail sales rose four-tenths of a percentage point in April, and sales were a bit better than first reported the previous month. The …
your ad hereWHO Confirms Ebola Case in DR Congo
A person has tested positive for the Ebola virus in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo. A spokesman for the World Health Organization says officials declared an Ebola outbreak in Bas-Uele province after laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the virus. The spokesman, Christian Lindmeier, tells VOA English to Africa …
your ad hereSyrian Refugees Earn Money, Cultivate Understanding, Teaching Arabic Online
A handful of New Yorkers have gathered at New York University to practice conversing in Arabic. Their two conversation partners have joined via Skype, video images projected side-by-side on a TV monitor. The scene would be nothing out of the ordinary, save for the fact that the conversation partners, Ghayath …
your ad hereHarry Potter Prequel, Written on a Postcard, Is Stolen
A rare Harry Potter prequel handwritten by author J.K. Rowling on a postcard was stolen during a burglary in central England, police said Friday as they appealed for help from fans of the wizard across the world. The 800-word story, set three years before Harry Potter is born and which …
your ad hereFact Check: Trump on Tax Rates, Canada, ‘Priming the Pump’
In an interview with The Economist, President Donald Trump whiffed on a batch of economic facts. He got the Canada-U.S. trade balance wrong, misplaced the U.S. in the world ranks of tax burdens and claimed to have coined an economic phrase that’s been familiar to economists for some 80 years. …
your ad hereOld Nuclear Technology Giving Way to New Generation of Reactors
After several large-scale incidents at nuclear power plants around the globe, public pressure in some countries led to abandoning the technology. But manufacturers say the new generation reactors are much safer, and their use will dramatically lower the air pollution that causes global warming. VOA’s George Putic reports. …
your ad hereChina to Get American Beef and Gas Under Trade Agreement
A sweeping trade agreement, ranging from banking to beef, has been reached between Washington and Beijing, the U.S. Commerce Department announced on Thursday. “It was pretty much a Herculean accomplishment to get this done,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “This is more than has been done in the whole …
your ad hereCash and Chemicals: For Laos, Chinese Banana Boom a Blessing and Curse
Kongkaew Vonusak smiles when he recalls the arrival of Chinese investors in his tranquil village in northern Laos in 2014. With them came easy money, he said. The Chinese offered villagers up to $720 per hectare to rent their land, much of it fallow for years, said Kongkaew, 59, the …
your ad here‘Our Champion’: Bobsledder Steven Holcomb’s Life Celebrated
The sympathy cards came from places like Germany and Italy, where Steven Holcomb was their bobsled enemy. Mourners flew in from all across the country. Generations of Olympians packed a ballroom, sharing in grief. They wept. They hugged. They laughed. “Steven Holcomb was like no one else,” Olympic …
your ad hereDutch Inventor Years Ahead in Plan to Clean Up Massive Plastic Patch in Pacific
A Dutch entrepreneur has come up with an invention he says will allow him to start cleaning up a massive floating garbage patch in the Pacific two years ahead of schedule. “To catch the plastic, act like plastic,” Boyan Slat said Thursday in Utrecht. Slat’s Ocean Cleanup foundation plans to …
your ad hereAmericans Rush to Trademark Catchy Phrases
Ideas were flying at a brainstorming session to create a slogan for a group of North Carolina Democrats when Catherine Cloud blurted out a phrase that made a colleague’s eyes light up: “Because this is America.” The words were quickly scrawled on a notepad, and the New Hanover County Democratic …
your ad hereUS Official Urges American Small Businesses to Export Abroad
The head of the U.S. Small Business Administration urged American businessmen and entrepreneurs to enter the global market, telling the United Nations on Thursday that just 1 percent of small businesses are currently exporting overseas. Linda McMahon said the nearly 29 million small businesses in America “are the engine of …
your ad hereKushner Companies: No Investor Meetings in China This Weekend
The sister of White House adviser Jared Kushner won’t be attending an investor conference in China this weekend as reported after she was criticized for trying to raise money there last weekend, using the lure of a U.S. visa program. Nicole Kushner Meyer, who had been representing her family’s company …
your ad hereFeeling the Magic at Renowned Texas Park
As national parks traveler Mikah Meyer continued exploring the numerous national park sites within the vast state of Texas, he’s been overwhelmed by the beauty of Big Bend National Park and the Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River. Located in southwestern Texas, on the U.S. border with Mexico, the huge …
your ad hereEvaluating LA Bid for 2024 Olympics Requires Imagination
Evaluating Los Angeles’ readiness to host the 2024 Olympic Games takes some imagination. That’s because a lot of the pitch still relies on images on a computer screen, or a blueprint of what’s to come on a dusty construction site. Los Angeles Olympic organizers often say their plan for two …
your ad hereCoffee Flour, Beer Pizza on Menu as Innovators Fight Food Waste
Beer cookies, coffee flour and bananas that don’t brown are just some of the innovations on offer to fight food waste. Plus smart scales that measure exactly what chefs chuck then list the deluge of edibles they’ve unknowingly binned. As the fight against climate change increasingly focuses on food waste …
your ad hereAs Farmers Worry, US Agriculture Chief to Promote Trade
As farmers fret over President Donald Trump’s criticism of international trade agreements, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is trying to reassure them by creating a top post to oversee trade and foreign agricultural affairs. The new undersecretary position is a sign of Perdue’s efforts to promote the U.S. agricultural industry as …
your ad hereCommerce’s Ross: China’s Plans Threaten US Semiconductor Dominance
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross sees the U.S. semiconductor industry as still dominant globally but said he is worried that it will be threatened by China’s planned investment binge to build up its own chipmaking industry. Ross told Reuters in an interview this week that his agency is considering a …
your ad hereBulgaria Seeks Private Investors for Nuclear Project
Bulgaria is seeking private investors to build a nuclear power plant on the Danube River, which was canceled five years ago, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. Sofia canceled the Belene project in 2012 after failing to find foreign investors …
your ad here‘It Takes Up the Whole River!’ US Ports Welcome Giant Ship
The largest cargo ship ever to visit ports on the U.S. East Coast is so long the Statue of Liberty and Washington Monument could fit end-to-end along its deck and still leave room for Big Ben. The COSCO Development arrived Thursday at the Port of Savannah after cruising past …
your ad hereBrazil Says Its Zika Emergency Over
Brazil declared an end to its public health emergency for the Zika virus on Thursday, 18 months after a surge in cases drew headlines around the world. The mosquito-borne virus wasn’t considered a major health threat until the 2015 outbreak revealed that Zika can lead to severe birth defects. …
your ad hereHeroin Epidemic Pushing Up Hepatitis C Infections in US
The heroin epidemic is driving up hepatitis C infections, with the biggest increase in people in their 20s, U.S. health officials said Thursday. The number of new infections nearly tripled in five years, to about 2,400 in 2015. The virus is spread by sharing needles to inject drugs, and the …
your ad hereOrlando Tourism Grew in 2016, Despite Tragic Headlines
Visits to Florida’s theme-park mecca continued to grow last year, despite tragic headlines from the region, enabling Orlando to keep its bragging rights as the most visited destination in the United States, tourism officials said Thursday. Orlando tourism officials announced that more than 68 million visitors came to the area …
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