Pop star Miley Cyrus and Oscar-winning actors Sandra Bullock and Leonardo DiCaprio pledged funds to help victims of storm Harvey, while Beyonce on Thursday said she was sending a team to her Houston, Texas hometown to help with relief efforts. A donation drive organized by Houston Texans NFL star J.J. …
your ad hereLike Destiny’s Child, Fifth Harmony Bounces Back After Drama
It’s been a year of transition for Fifth Harmony: The pop stars parted ways with member Camila Cabello, switched management teams, negotiated a new contract with their label and won greater creative control of their brand. Luckily the newly-minted quartet, who released their third album last week, had the …
your ad hereUS Agency Names 4 Firms to Build Border Wall Prototypes
U.S. Customs and Border Protection selected four construction companies Thursday to erect prototypes of the Mexican border wall that President Donald Trump has said he intends to build to deter illegal immigration and smuggling. The four firms, from four different U.S. states, are to build solid-concrete prototypes of the border …
your ad hereTesla Starts Production of Solar Cells in Buffalo, New York
Tesla Inc. is starting production of the cells for its solar roof tiles at its factory in Buffalo, New York. The company has already begun installing its solar roofs, which look like regular roofs but are made of glass tiles. But until now, it has been making them on …
your ad hereDel Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’ Makes Waves in Venice
Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water is an aquatic Beauty and the Beast, a transgressive fairy tale about a young woman’s love for a scaly creature from the Amazonian depths. Like the best fables, it’s also rooted in the real world: the story of a migrant from the south …
your ad hereNAFTA Nations Plan Talks Progress Under Barrage of Trump Threats
Trade negotiators plan to take small steps forward in a second round of talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) this weekend, trying to ignore daily threats from U.S. President Donald Trump to tear it up if he does not get his way. Trump has used Twitter, …
your ad hereFrench Labor Reform Gives Firms Flexibility
The French government said on Thursday it would cap unfair dismissal payouts and give companies more flexibility to adapt pay and working hours to market conditions in a labor reform France’s biggest union said was disappointing. The reform, President Emmanuel Macron’s first major policy step since his election in May, …
your ad hereStudying Black Holes in a Bathtub
Mysterious black holes, thought to reside in the center of every galaxy, are difficult to study because even the closest one, in the center of our own Milky Way, is still some 27,000 light years away. But researchers at the University of Nottingham’s Quantum Gravity Laboratory have found that some …
your ad hereTrump’s Immigrant Crackdown Could Slow Houston Rebuilding
In the coming weeks, as Houston turns its attention to rebuilding areas devastated by Tropical Storm Harvey, people like Jay De Leon are likely to play an outsized role — if they stay around. De Leon, 47, owns a small construction business in Houston, and he and his 10 employees …
your ad hereRecord-setting NASA Astronaut Ready to Come Home
Records are made for breaking, and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is breaking them in droves. When she returns to Earth on Sept, 2, she’ll have earned a place among the nation’s greatest space explorers. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
your ad hereMichigan, North Dakota Among States Likely to be Hurt by NAFTA Changes
Michigan is likely to be the state most hurt by changes to the NAFTA trade agreement, according to a Fitch Ratings report released Wednesday, as U.S. President Donald Trump renewed threats to scrap the deal. Trump has threatened three times in the past week to abandon the North American Free …
your ad hereUS-funded Ethiopian Abattoir Hopes to Help Herders During Drought
An abattoir located among herding communities in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region, known more for droughts and famine than business opportunities, is an unusual stop for a U.S. aid administrator. But USAID chief Mark Green stopped at the Jijiga Export Slaughter House (JESH) during a visit to the town of Jijiga …
your ad hereGrowing Commerce With India Gives Vietnam New Defense Against China
A flood of Indian business in fast-growing Vietnam has solidified commercial ties to help Hanoi upgrade an alliance with a powerful Asian neighbor and offset dependence on its historic rival, the more massive China. Indian investment in Vietnam has reached $2 billion and bilateral trade hit $10 billion over the …
your ad here‘Reprogrammed’ Stem Cells Fight Parkinson’s Disease in Monkeys
Scientists have successfully used “reprogrammed” stem cells to restore functioning brain cells in monkeys, raising hopes the technique could be used in the future to help patients with Parkinson’s disease. Since Parkinson’s is caused by a lack of dopamine made by brain cells, researchers have long hoped to use stem …
your ad hereChange in US Policy Makes It Harder to Rebuild for Future Floods
Two weeks before Harvey’s floodwaters engulfed much of Houston, President Donald Trump quietly rolled back an order by his predecessor that would have made it easier for storm-ravaged communities to use federal emergency aid to rebuild bridges, roads and other structures so they can better withstand future disasters. Now, with …
your ad hereDream Chaser Spacecraft in Captive-carry Test Over Desert
A test version of a spacecraft resembling a mini space shuttle was carried aloft over the Mojave Desert by a helicopter Wednesday in a precursor to a free flight in which it will be released to autonomously land on a runway as it would in a return from orbit. …
your ad hereIMF Says Transport, Food Costs Are Up in Qatar After Rift
The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that transportation and food costs in Qatar had “edged up” because of a diplomatic rift that led four Arab countries to cut ties with the small Gulf state. An IMF team visited the capital, Doha, this week, saying in a statement that Qatar’s government …
your ad hereMatt Damon Goes Mini in Venice Opener ‘Downsizing’
Downsizing has generated jumbo-sized buzz at the Venice Film Festival — not least as viewers debate how to describe it. Is it a science fiction film, a romantic comedy, a political parable, an apocalyptic thriller? Alexander Payne’s movie mixes all those elements in its story of a man, played by …
your ad hereFamed T. rex ‘Sue’ Will Get New Look at Chicago’s Field Museum
The world’s biggest T. rex is getting ready for a cutting-edge makeover. The Field Museum in Chicago said Wednesday that it would take down and remount the 40½-foot-long (12.3-meter) Tyrannosaurus nicknamed Sue, perhaps the world’s most famous dinosaur fossil, in a way that embodies the latest understanding of this ferocious …
your ad hereWaiting, Watching: Business Owners Worry About Harvey Damage
With the animals sent to safety before Harvey hit, the owners of CityVet in Houston kept watch on their empty practice by security camera, hoping not to see floodwaters rush in. But they lost the video stream Monday morning, apparently when power to the building near Houston’s Galleria failed. So, …
your ad hereUS Clears First ‘Living Drug’ for Tough Type of Leukemia
Opening a new era in cancer care, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first treatment that genetically engineers patients’ own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia. The CAR-T cell treatment developed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals and the University of Pennsylvania is …
your ad hereJordan, Iraq Reopen Main Border Crossing on Baghdad to Amman Highway
Tureibil, Iraq’s main international border crossing with Jordan and a key trade route, officially reopened Wednesday after being officially closed for three years. Privately-owned U.S. security firms, along with Iraqi ground and air forces, will be responsible for safety along the 500-kilometer route from Baghdad to Amman, which goes through …
your ad hereHarvey May Cut US Economic Growth as It Boosts Gasoline Prices
Energy companies, homeowners, and others are calculating the cost of Hurricane Harvey, which has already boosted gasoline prices and may slow the growth of the huge U.S. economy. Gasoline prices surged to a two-year high recently as record floods forced refineries and other oil industry operations to close in Texas …
your ad hereAlexa, Cortana Talk to Each Other in Amazon-Microsoft Deal
Microsoft and Amazon are pairing their voice assistants together in a collaboration announced Wednesday. Both companies say later this fall, users will be able to access Alexa using Cortana on Windows 10 computers and on Android and Apple devices. They’ll also be able to access Cortana on Alexa-enabled devices such …
your ad hereDubai Street Cleaners Beat the Heat With ‘Cooling Collars’
Street cleaners in Dubai are wearing new “cooling collars” to prevent heatstroke as they work in rising Gulf temperatures that can hit 45 degrees C (113 degrees F), Dubai said Wednesday. The Middle East emirate issued orange fabric collars containing a chilled gel, similar to the cold compresses used for …
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