Bicycle highways, urban farms and local energy hubs — just some of the ways that yesterday’s smokestack cities are turning into tomorrow’s green spaces. The Urban Transitions Alliance (UTA), a network that brings together cities in Germany, the United States and China, launched this week to help members learn regeneration …

Former New York mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg is donating $50 million to help nations around the world shift from coal to combat pollution and climate change, expanding his funding outside the United States. The project would start in Europe and expand into other countries later on, his charity, Bloomberg …

The quiz games and ring tosses at factories around Vietnam are more than just amusement; charity workers are using them in their efforts against human trafficking, with the support of foreign governments and corporations. Factory workers play these games as part of training workshops to raise awareness about trafficking, held …

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that Janet Yellen has not said yet whether she plans to remain on the Federal Reserve board when her term as chair ends in February, but the administration is moving ahead with filling other vacancies. There are three vacancies on the seven-member Fed board …

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross plans to completely divest from a shipping company that counts a Russian gas producer with ties to the Kremlin among its major customers.   A commerce department spokesman says Ross plans to sell all his shares of Navigator Holdings. That company ships products from Sibur, a …

The European Commission said Wednesday it wants to cut emissions of carbon dioxide from cars by 30 percent by 2030 and boost the use of electric vehicles by making them cheaper and easier to charge.   The proposal stops short of imposing fixed quotas for emission-free vehicles and is more …

Emerging nations pressed developed countries Wednesday to step up cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to kick-start the Paris climate agreement, saying the rich were wrongly focused on 2030 goals. “We came here needing to hit the accelerator, not the brakes,” Brazil’s chief negotiator Antonio Marcondes told Reuters on …

Wine producers in Argentina, renowned for its plush Malbecs, are furious over a tax proposal they say would crush exports and domestic sales as vineyards struggle after two of their lowest vintages in recent history. The bill, unveiled last week by President Maurico Macri’s government, proposes a 10 percent tax …

An independent analysis has concluded the U.S. tax overhaul being advanced by Republican leaders in the House of Representatives would add $1.7 trillion to the country’s debt during the next decade, about $259 billion more than previously assumed. The Congressional Budget Office analysis was released Wednesday as lawmakers continue to …

As climate change-driven storms, floods and other disasters bring escalating financial losses, how will the costs be paid? That’s a crucial question at the U.N. climate talks in Bonn this week. Researchers say losses from droughts, sea level rise and other climate-driven shocks are likely to reach hundreds of billions …

The Chinese internet company Tencent has acquired a 10 percent stake in Snap, with the social media company struggling to boost user growth. Tencent runs the WeChat messaging app, as well as online payment platforms and games. Earlier this year, it bought a 5 percent stake in Tesla Inc.   …

Was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to scrap most currency overnight a year ago a “watershed moment” that helped clean up India’s economy or a “reckless move” that pulled down the world’s fastest-growing economy?   The contentious debate intensified on the anniversary of the measure as opposition parties held …

Players line up beside a small kiosk in a poor neighborhood to choose animals in a lottery game that has become a craze in Venezuela even as the oil-rich country suffers a fourth year of brutal recession. It seems more and more Venezuelans are turning to gambling in their desperation …

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee unanimously backed new sanctions targeting Chinese banks that do business with North Korea on Tuesday, just before President Donald Trump visits Beijing for the first time since taking office. As well as strengthening existing sanctions and congressional oversight, the measure will target foreign financial institutions …

Inflation in Venezuela’s crisis-hit economy was 826 percent in the 10 months to October and may end 2017 above 1,400 percent, the opposition-controlled National Assembly said Friday. The government stopped releasing price data more than a year ago but congress has published its own figures since January and they have …

Unless emissions can be drastically and quickly curbed, efforts by small island nations to adapt to climate change may be in vain, a leader of a group of small island nations said Tuesday. Hurricanes that hit the Caribbean this year were like nothing seen before, with Hurricane Irma so strong …

The United States and other countries hoping to host the 2026 World Cup should provide government guarantees on visa-free travel plus work permit and tax exemptions for their bids to be accepted, according to documents published by FIFA on Tuesday. The U.S wants to host the 2026 tournament in a …

The 2017 death toll in South Africa’s mines has already surpassed the 2016 figure, ending nine straight years of falling fatalities in the world’s deepest mines and raising red flags for the industry, government and labor groups. The trend reversal is likely to reignite investor concern over mine safety and …

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday that the Fed’s effectiveness critically depends on the nation’s confidence that the central bank is acting only in the public’s interest. Yellen said it is important for Fed officials to “demonstrate our ethical standards in ways that leave little room for doubt.” Yellen’s …

The restive Spanish region of Catalonia faces a potential $500 million financial hit in the fourth quarter as business-related travel dips following the attack in Barcelona and the uncertainty generated by the disputed independence referendum.   In an interview Monday with The Associated Press at the World Travel Market in …

Two weeks ago the glitzy Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh was the site of an international conference promoting Saudi Arabia as an investment destination, with over 3,000 officials and business leaders attending. Now the hotel is temporarily serving as a luxury prison where some of the kingdom’s political and business …

A revamping of the Federal Reserve’s leadership is widening with the announcement Monday that William Dudley, president of the New York Fed and the No. 2 official on the Fed’s key interest rate panel, will retire next year.   Just last week, President Donald Trump chose Fed board member Jerome …

The Pakistani province of Baluchistan has been well known for its coal production since British colonial times. Today, most of the thousands of people who work in the mines are contract laborers. According to many, condition in the mines are not safe. VOA’s Murtaza Zehri takes us for an inside …

While President Donald Trump continues an Asia trip with high geo-strategic stakes, Republicans in Washington are promoting an ambitious tax reform bill that could bring enormous fiscal, and political, consequences. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, a tax cut is Trump’s last hope for a major legislative victory in his first year …

The Republican tax bill unveiled last week in the U.S. Congress could disrupt the global supply chains of large, multinational companies by slapping a 20-percent tax on cross-border transactions they routinely make between related business units. European multinationals, some of which currently pay little U.S. tax on U.S. profits thanks …