Every year the French Riviera town of Cannes rolls out the red carpet to A-list celebrities at the world’s most glamorous film festival. Now it wants to roll out a bigger beach too. The Mediterranean resort is shipping in 80,000 cubic meters of white sand — enough to fill 32 …
your ad hereAmazon Wades Into Health Care With Berkshire, JPMorgan
Amazon is diving into health care, teaming up with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and the New York bank JPMorgan Chase, to create a company that helps their U.S. employees find quality care “at a reasonable cost.” The leaders of each company, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Buffett, and JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, offered …
your ad hereAs Trade Tensions Rise With US, China Prepares to Retaliate
Executives at a top American business lobby group say China is preparing for a possible trade war with the United States, and concern is growing that foreign companies could get caught in the crossfire. U.S. President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address Tuesday is expected to touch on …
your ad hereLatino Civil Rights Site in Texas Named National Treasure
A Texas building connected to the Mexican-American Civil Rights movement has been designated as a National Treasure and will share part of a $450,000 grant in an effort to raise money for restore historic buildings damaged by last year’s hurricanes, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced Tuesday. The LULAC …
your ad hereNutella Scuffles: France Investigates Discounts After Frenzy
French consumer fraud authorities are investigating a promotional campaign for Nutella that prompted scuffles in several supermarkets – and even a police intervention. The Finance Ministry’s fraud agency said Tuesday it will examine whether the campaign by the Intermarche supermarket chain violated pricing regulations. An official with the agency would …
your ad hereTrump to Herald Economic Progress in State of the Union
President Donald Trump will herald a robust economy and push for bipartisan congressional action on immigration in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, as he seeks to rally a deeply divided nation and boost his own sagging standing with Americans. The speech marks the ceremonial kickoff of Trump’s second year …
your ad hereSomalis Train to Improve First Aid Response Skills
Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, has been rocked by explosions for years set off by Al-Shabab militants battling to overthrow the weak U.N.-backed government. The frequent bombings have killed or injured thousands of civilians. Now, first responders are offering first aid classes to help Somalis learn how to help their neighbors before …
your ad hereCar Manufacturers Boast of Fuel Efficiency
The annual Washington Auto Show is not the biggest or the most important convention of the year, but it still attracts a lot of attention, from enthusiasts and potential customers to automotive industry professionals. Self-driving cars are still some time off, so the focus this year continues to be on …
your ad hereShark Hunting Having an Indirect Impact on Fish Species
A recent estimate by researchers at the University of Miami suggests that 100 million sharks are killed every year. That overfishing is putting many species at risk of extinction. But it is also having some unintended consequences for other fish that sharks prey on. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
your ad hereConcern Fitness Tracking App Exposed US Military Bases Just the Start
The controversy over information gathered from GPS-enabled fitness devices and published online – in some cases highlighting possible activity at U.S. military bases in places like Syria and Afghanistan – could be just the start of an ever-growing problem in a world where more people and devices are connected to …
your ad hereCuba Tourism Slides in Wake of Hurricane Irma, Trump
Tourism to Cuba, one of the few bright spots in its ailing economy, has slid in the wake of Hurricane Irma and the Trump administration’s tighter restrictions on travel to the Caribbean island, a Cuban tourism official said on Monday. Although the number of visitors rose nearly 20 percent in …
your ad hereUN Environment: China’s Plastic Trash Ban is Spur to Recycle
China’s crackdown on imports of plastic trash should be a signal for rich nations to increase recycling and cut down on non-essential products such as plastic drinking straws, the head of the U.N. Environment Program said on Monday. Erik Solheim, a former Norwegian environment minister, urged developed nations to re-think …
your ad hereUS Senate Blocks 20-Week Abortion Bill
U.S. Democratic senators have blocked a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, ensuring that the procedure stays legal through the later terms of a woman’s pregnancy. Republican leaders in the Senate knew the bill had little chance to pass, but wanted to pressure Democrats to take a …
your ad hereAmazon.com Opens Its Own Rainforest in Seattle
Amazon.com on Monday opened a rainforest-like office space in Seattle that it hopes will spark new ideas for employees. While cities across North America are seeking to host Seattle-based Amazon’s second headquarters, the world’s largest online retailer is still expanding its main campus. Company office towers and high-end eateries have …
your ad hereScientists Use Pocket-size Device to Map Human Genetic Code
Scientists have assembled the most complete human genome to be mapped with a single technology using a new pocket-size portable DNA sequencer, which they say could one day make genome mapping quick and simple enough to do at home. Using a device about the size of a mobile phone and …
your ad hereFossil of School Bus-sized Dinosaur Dug Up in Egyptian Desert
Scientists have unearthed in a Sahara Desert oasis in Egypt fossils of a long-necked, four-legged, school bus-sized dinosaur that lived roughly 80 million years ago, a discovery that sheds light on a mysterious time period in the history of dinosaurs in Africa. Researchers said on Monday the plant-eating Cretaceous Period …
your ad hereYoung Colombians File Landmark Climate Lawsuit
A group of young Colombians, one as young as seven, filed a lawsuit against the Colombian government on Monday demanding it protect their right to a healthy environment in what campaigners said was the first such action in Latin America. The lawsuit, filed at a Bogota court, alleges the government’s …
your ad hereAlibaba Looks to Modernize Olympics Starting in Pyeongchang
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., one of the few Olympics sponsors signed up until 2028, said it wants to upgrade the technology that keeps the Games running and will study the Pyeongchang Games to help find ways to save future host countries money. “Pyeongchang will be a very important learning opportunity …
your ad hereIodine Deficiency May Contribute to Women’s Fertility Problems
Women who are deficient in iodine and trying to get pregnant may have half the chance of conceiving compared to women with healthy iodine levels, according to a recent U.S. study. Researchers followed more than 500 women trying to conceive over about five years and found that, overall, those with …
your ad hereViolence, Insecurity Blocking Polio Eradication
After three decades and 15 billion dollars, just three countries still harbor polio. Those three countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, all suffer from violent insurgencies. A new study is one of the first to document how a lack of security sets back efforts to eradicate the paralyzing disease. VOA’s Steve …
your ad hereViolence, Insecurity Blocking Polio Eradication in Pakistan
Polio cases in Pakistan rose by 73 percent during the most intense periods of civil conflict there in recent years, according to a new study. The report, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is one of the first to provide concrete evidence of the impacts insecurity has on …
your ad hereNative Americans Applaud Removal of ‘Racist’ Sports Mascot
Native Americans took to social media Monday to celebrate the pending “death” of Chief Wahoo, the longtime logo of the Cleveland Indians baseball team which features a garish “Indian” caricature that is offensive to America’s first peoples. But the victory is only a small one for Twitter users, using the …
your ad hereBlue Moon, Supermoon, Total Lunar Eclipse Rolled Into One
The moon is providing a rare triple treat this week. On Wednesday, much of the world will get to see not only a blue moon and a supermoon, but also a total lunar eclipse, all rolled into one. There hasn’t been a triple lineup like this since 1982 and …
your ad hereAt Long Last: Beckham’s MLS Team in Miami Is Born
David Beckham finally has his Major League Soccer team in Miami. Beckham and MLS announced Monday that the long-awaited franchise is now born. It took Beckham nearly four years to bring the team to Miami. The Miami area had an MLS team from 1998 through 2001. It folded because of …
your ad hereGrammy Awards TV Audience Drops Sharply, Nears Record Low
The U.S. television audience for Sunday’s Grammy Awards show on CBS Corp. fell by more than eight million viewers and could be one of the lowest audiences on record, early Nielsen ratings data showed Monday. Variety and TVLine.com reported that 17.6 million Americans tuned in for the three-and-a-half-hour broadcast, a …
your ad here