Nestled among the bustling city streets of Washington is a hidden oasis that many Americans don’t know exists. Congress established the U.S. National Arboretum in 1927. Vital scientific research is under way at the sprawling 183-hectare compound. VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports on the arboretum’s critical government mission. Camera: Adam Greenbaum …
your ad herePastors Find Role Ministering to Young Men Swept up in El Salvador’s Crackdown on Gangs
The smell of pineapple bread fills the kitchen of “Vida Libre,” or “free life,” a gang rehabilitation program founded in El Salvador by American pastor Kenton Moody in 2021. The trust that Moody puts in former gang members is not widely shared. Thousands of lives have been destroyed in this …
your ad hereEU: Powerful Illegal Drugs Inundating Europe, Sending Corruption and Violence Soaring
New harmful illicit drugs are inundating a flourishing market for traffickers amid violence and corruption hurting local communities across Europe, the EU’s agency monitoring drugs and addiction said Friday. The grim finding was part of the agency’s annual report. It also said that drug users in Europe are now exposed …
your ad hereSome US Lawmakers Unhappy With Proposed PGA-LIV Golf Merger
The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf have long battled in court over competing claims affecting men’s professional golf. But in a surprise move last week, the groups announced they would merge commercially. Some U.S. senators are alarmed. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports. …
your ad hereResearchers Studying Cancer in Wildlife Grapple With Why Some Get the Disease While Others Don’t
Researchers have been exploring the presence of cancer in animals from elephants to mollusks to learn about cancer in wild animals. They also hope their research will help with human cancers. “Studying wildlife cancer, and more generally the evolution of cancer across the tree of life, is extremely promising to …
your ad hereAustralia Activates First Renewable Power Station on Decommissioned Coal Plant Site
The first large-scale battery to be built at an Australian coal site has been switched on in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, east of Melbourne. The 150-megawatt battery is at the site of the former Hazelwood power station in the southern Australian state of Victoria. The station was built in the 1960s …
your ad hereUS Energy Dept., Other Agencies Hacked
U.S. security officials say the U.S. Energy Department and several other federal agencies have been hacked by a Russian cyber-extortion gang. Homeland Security officials said Thursday the agencies were caught up in the hacking of MOVEit Transfer, a file-transfer program that is popular with governments and corporations. The Energy Department …
your ad hereBeyoncé Likely a Factor in Sweden’s Unexpectedly High Inflation
Can you pay my bills? That seems to be what Sweden is asking Beyoncé after the star came to town. When the singer launched her global tour last month in Stockholm, tens of thousands of fans from around the world swarmed the Swedish capital. But it’s not all fun and …
your ad hereExperts Divided as YouTube Reverses Policy on Election Misinformation
An announcement by YouTube that it will no longer remove content containing misinformation on the U.S. 2020 presidential election has some experts divided. In a June blog post, YouTube said it was ending its policy — enforced since December 2020 — that removed tens of thousands of videos that falsely …
your ad hereSecurity Firm: Suspected Chinese Hackers Breached Hundreds of Networks Globally
Suspected state-backed Chinese hackers used a security hole in a popular email security appliance to break into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organizations globally, nearly a third of them government agencies including foreign ministries, the U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Thursday. “This is the broadest cyber …
your ad hereUS Regulator Panel Weighs Makeup of Next COVID Vaccine
Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration met Thursday to discuss and vote on whether to recommend targeting one of the currently dominant XBB coronavirus variants in updated COVID-19 shots being developed for a fall vaccination campaign. FDA staff reviewers in documents released this week said available evidence suggests …
your ad hereChinese EV Makers Make Progress in Bid to Dominate British Market
Chinese manufacturers of electric vehicles are stepping up their push to dominate the European market. As Amy Guttman reports from London, they are making progress in Britain, where car shoppers are eager to buy the lower-cost electric cars that Chinese automakers are offering. …
your ad hereBill Gates Visits China for Health, Development Talks
Microsoft Founder Bill Gates was in China on Thursday for what he said were meetings with global health and development partners who have worked with his charitable foundation. “Solving problems like climate change, health inequity and food insecurity requires innovation,” Gates tweeted. “From developing malaria drugs to investing in climate …
your ad hereCambodian Facial Recognition Effort Raises Fears of Misuse
Experts are raising concerns that a recent Cambodian government order allocating around $1 million to a local company for a facial recognition technology project could pave the way for the technology to be used against citizens and human rights defenders. The order, signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and released …
your ad hereNASA Finds Key Building Block for Life in a Saturn Moon
The long hunt for extraterrestrials just got a big boost. Scientists have discovered that phosphorus, a key building block of life, lies in the ocean beneath the icy surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The finding was based on a review of data collected by NASA’s Cassini probe, and it was …
your ad hereAs Deepfake Fraud Permeates China, Authorities Target Political Challenges Posed By AI
Chinese authorities are cracking down on political and fraud cases driven by deepfakes, created with face- and voice-changing software that tricks targets into believing they are video chatting with a loved one or another trusted person. How good are the deepfakes? Good enough to trick an executive at a Fuzhou …
your ad hereBill Gates in China to Meet President Xi on Friday – Sources
Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp’s co-founder, is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday during his visit to China, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The meeting will mark Xi’s first meeting with a foreign private entrepreneur in recent years. The people said the encounter may be …
your ad hereEU Lawmakers Vote for Tougher AI Rules as Draft Moves to Final Stage
EU lawmakers on Wednesday voted for tougher landmark draft artificial intelligence rules that include a ban on the use of the technology in biometric surveillance and for generative AI systems like ChatGPT to disclose AI-generated content. The lawmakers agreed to the amendments to the draft legislation proposed by the European …
your ad hereWomen Want Fistula Treatment, End to Stigma in Tanzania
Six percent of all maternal deaths around the world are caused by obstructed labor, according to the World Health Organization. That’s when a baby can’t move through the birth canal. It can also lead to obstetric fistula, a condition that can have a long-term impact on a woman’s health, especially …
your ad hereEU Regulators Order Google To Break up Digital Ad Business Over Competition Concerns
European Union antitrust regulators took aim at Google’s lucrative digital advertising business in an unprecedented decision ordering the tech giant to sell off some of its ad business to address competition concerns. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch and top antitrust enforcer, said that its preliminary view after an …
your ad herePride Month Celebrations, Protests in Los Angeles
Pride Month in the United States includes a parade in Los Angeles that is one of the world’s largest LGBTQ+ events. This year’s celebrations come amid protests over school curricula and consumer boycotts of businesses marketing to LGBTQ+ customers. Genia Dulot has our story from Los Angeles. …
your ad hereInfluencers Overtaking Journalists as News Source, Study Finds
TikTok influencers and celebrities are increasingly taking over from journalists as the main source of news for young people, according to a report published Wednesday by the Britain-based Reuters Institute. The report found that 55% of TikTok and Snapchat users and 52%t of Instagram users get their news from “personalities” …
your ad hereWhat Peanuts Dancing in Beer Teaches Us About the Earth’s Crust
When peanuts are dropped into a pint of beer, they sink to the bottom before floating up and “dancing” in the glass. Scientists have dug deep to investigate this phenomenon in a study published on Wednesday, saying it has implications for understanding mineral extraction or bubbling magma in the Earth’s …
your ad hereBig Amazon Cloud Services Recovering After Outage Hits Thousands of Users
Amazon.com said cloud services offered by its unit Amazon Web Services were recovering after a big disruption on Tuesday affected websites of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and The Boston Globe, among others. Several hours after Downdetector.com started showing reports of outages, Amazon said many AWS services were fully …
your ad hereCormac McCarthy, Author of ‘The Road,’ ‘No Country for Old Men,’ Dies at 89
Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who in prose both dense and brittle took readers from the southern Appalachians to the desert Southwest in such novels as The Road, Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horses, died Tuesday. He was 89. McCarthy died of natural causes in Santa Fe, New …
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