Scientists are warning that honey bees are dying off – a threat to human survival. Bees’ legs and wings carry the pollen that allow crops to flourish. While pesticides protect those plants, they also kill the pollinators, a lesson being learned in Rwanda. We get more from VOA’s Arash Arabasadi. …
your ad herePacific Northwest Tribes: Remove Columbia River Dams
Two Pacific Northwest tribes on Monday demanded the removal of three major hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River to save migrating salmon and starving orcas and restore fishing sites that were guaranteed to the tribes in a treaty more than 150 years ago.The Yakama and Lummi nations made the demand …
your ad hereMargaret Atwood, Bernardine Evaristo Share Booker Prize
A panel of judges rebelled against the rules of a prestigious literary award by naming both Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo the winners of the 2019 Booker Prize in London.Peter Florence, the head of the judges, said they had been told “quite firmly” that they could only pick one winner. …
your ad hereTrump Calls for Spicer Votes on ‘Dancing with the Stars’
President Donald Trump is trying to influence votes on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” Trump on Monday tweeted that viewers should vote for former White House press secretary Sean Spicer. The president called Spicer a “good guy” and wrote “he has always been there for us!” Spicer tweeted his …
your ad hereColumbus Statue Vndalized: ‘Stop Celebrating Genocide’
A statue of Christopher Columbus in Rhode Island has been vandalized on the U.S. holiday named for him.The statue in Providence was splashed from head to toe with red paint Monday, and a sign reading “Stop celebrating genocide” was leaned against the pedestal.People stop to view red paint covering a …
your ad hereReport: South Korean Pop Star Sulli Found Dead at Home
News reports say South Korean pop star and actress Sulli has been found dead at her home south of Seoul. A report by Yonhap news agency said the 25-year-old was found Monday afternoon. The report said police have said there were no signs of foul play at her home …
your ad hereCoal-Heavy Wyoming Aims to Lead on Carbon Capture
Barely a wisp of water vapor streams from the smokestack into the clear morning sky at the Dry Fork Station power plant outside Gillette, Wyoming.Built in 2011, Dry Fork is “a great example of what a new, modern coal plant can do,” said Jason Begger, executive director of the Wyoming …
your ad hereCoal-Centric Wyoming Aims to Lead on Carbon Capture
Scientists say the window is closing to save the planet from a climate catastrophe. While clean energy from the sun and wind are growing by leaps and bounds, fossil fuels still make up the vast majority of the world’s energy. And experts say coal, oil and natural gas will likely …
your ad hereOn 2nd Anniversary, #MeToo Sees Some Backlash to Movement
Surveys show an increasing number of male managers are uncomfortable working closely with women since a string of prominent men lost their jobs after being accused of sexual misconduct. The #MeToo movement launched two years ago this month after accusations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein went public. Since then, people have …
your ad hereBiles Dazzles on Floor to Win Record 25th World Championship Medal
American Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in world championship history on Sunday when she won the beam and floor finals to take her career tally to 25 medals.Soon after securing a convincing victory on the beam in Stuttgart to overtake Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo’s record tally of 23 world …
your ad hereCalifornia Becomes First US State to Ban Fur Products
California has become the first U.S. state to ban all production and sale of animal fur products.Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill that will make it illegal to make, sell and even donate any new item made using animal fur starting in 2023.The bill excludes used items, taxidemy products, fur …
your ad hereWashington Celebrates Freedom to Read With List of Banned Books
Banned Books Week happens every year as many children in America begin a new school year. In honor of the occasion, local libraries organize readings of Harry Potter, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird and hundreds of other novels. Despite many of them being considered classical literature, they …
your ad hereUS Tech Firms Drawn Into Hong Kong Protesters Standoff With China
With Hong Kong anti-government protests ongoing, tech companies in the U.S. are being drawn into the crisis. The standoff between China and protesters has led some U.S. tech firms to curtail services. Michelle Quinn reports …
your ad hereRobert Forster, Oscar Nominee for ‘Jackie Brown,’ Dies at 78
Robert Forster, the handsome and omnipresent character actor who got a career resurgence and Oscar-nomination for playing bail bondsman Max Cherry in “Jackie Brown,” has died. He was 78.Forster’s publicist Kathie Berlin said he died Friday at home in Los Angeles of brain cancer following a brief illness. He was …
your ad hereKenyan Breaks Marathon 2-Hour Mark
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge made athletics history Saturday when he became the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours although his remarkable effort will not be recognized by the sport’s governing body.The Olympic marathon champion and world record holder completed a course around Vienna’s Prater Park in …
your ad hereOn Amazon’s List of Principles: Regulate Facial Recognition Tech
Amazon is endorsing the idea of government regulation of facial recognition technology, as part of a wide-ranging statement of its principles on a range of social and political issues.The U.S. tech giant, which has come under scrutiny by antitrust enforcers and has been criticized over its use of facial recognition …
your ad hereIraqi Film Festival Focused on the Environment
From celebrities to paparazzi, media crews to music bands, hundreds gathered and attended the fourth annual Slemani International Film Festival in Sulaymaniyah city of Iraqi Kurdistan. This year, 154 films from 78 countries are competing to win awards in different categories. VOA’s Rebaz Majeed has more in this report narrated …
your ad hereNobel in Literature to Austrian Author Stirs Controversy
VOA’s Dzeilana Pecanin and Ivana Kostantinovic contributed to this report.Almost immediately after Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and Austria’s Peter Handke were awarded the Nobel Literature Prize, reactions started to pour in, lamenting Handke’s positions about war crimes in the Balkans.Handke won the 2019 prize for “an influential work that with linguistic …
your ad hereCalifornia to Require Public Universities to Offer Abortion Pill
California has become the first state to require public universities to offer abortion pills at campus health centers.California’s Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday signed the bill into law, which requires the states’ 34 universities to offer abortion medication beginning in 2023. The medication is a first-trimester procedure that involves …
your ad hereAfrican Women in Tech Look to Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence took center stage as African female technology experts met at Women in Tech Week in Ghana to promote women’s involvement in the field. When Lily Edinam Botsyoe was studying computer science at a university in Ghana, students wrote programming codes on a whiteboard because there were not enough computers. …
your ad hereArrested Japanese Stalker Used Pupil Image Reflections
A man arrested on suspicion of stalking a female pop idol used the reflections of her pupils in photos she shared on social media and Google Street View to find where she lived. Tokyo police declined comment on the specifics of the investigation but confirmed Friday that 26-year-old Hibiki …
your ad hereTime Out? China’s NBA Row Suddenly Cools
China’s state press and internet were notably lacking in fresh attacks on the NBA Friday, in a possible sign that authorities were working to de-escalate a bitter political row.The American basketball league suffered a ferocious backlash after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey voiced support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests …
your ad hereNigerian Students Join Global Fight for Climate Action
Sixteen-year old Faithwins Iwuh — who is sometimes referred to as Nigeria’s Greta Thunberg — wants Nigeria to contribute to the global fight against climate change.To achieve this, she started planting trees around her school and neighborhood, and recycles used plastic bags into shower caps.Iwuh says she has been concerned …
your ad hereHuman Embryos Have 250-Million-Year-Old Vestiges
Evolutionary biologists know that humans have traces of DNA that go back millions of years, well before humans were human. But thanks to some amazing new high-resolution imagery, scientists can now see how that ancient DNA shows up, then disappears in early human embryos. VOA’s Igor Tsikhanenka reports. …
your ad hereEPA Seeks to Rewrite Rules on Lead Contamination in Water
The Trump administration Thursday proposed a rewrite of rules for dealing with lead pipes contaminating drinking water, but critics say the changes appear to give water systems decades more time to replace pipes leaching dangerous amounts of toxic lead.Contrary to regulatory rollbacks in many other environmental areas, the administration has …
your ad here