Michigan is considered one of seven key swing states that will likely decide the outcome of the 2024 presidential race. Although President Joe Biden won Michigan for Democrats in 2020, several factors have made a repeat Democratic victory there anything but certain. …
Leave a commentU.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump headed to political battleground states on Wednesday in search of any edge they could find six days before the presidential election that may be the closest in decades. Harris, the Democratic candidate, and Trump, her Republican challenger, both appeared in the mid-Atlantic state of North Carolina before heading to the Upper Midwest state of Wisconsin, with Harris also campaigning in another key state, Pennsylvania in the East. The three states are among seven, along with Michigan in the Midwest, Georgia in the Southeast and Nevada and Arizona in the Southwest,more
Leave a commentIn the U.S. presidential campaign, there is little to agree on between supporters of Kamala Harris and supporters of Donald Trump. From California, Genia Dulot brings us the story of two people selling rival campaign merchandise who are trying to lower the political temperature of their customers. …
Leave a commentWASHINGTON — Kamala Harris said she disagrees “with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” reacting after U.S. President Joe Biden’s reference to Donald Trump’s supporters and “garbage.” “I will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me,” the vice president said. Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, made the comment to reporters as she prepared to campaign in three states. Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden’s rhetoric with less than a week until the end of the campaign. The tumult began Tuesday night around the time that Harris was deliveringmore
Leave a commentThe run-up to the 2024 U.S. election has been full of twists and turns but, believe it or not, stranger things have happened in U.S. election history. From incarcerated candidates to electoral mayhem, America has seen it all. …
Leave a commentSuccessful Slovenian model turned U.S. first lady, Melania Trump has had a bittersweet experience in the limelight since her husband, Donald Trump, was elected president in 2016. With the possibility of Melania Trump returning to the White House next year, here’s a look at her life and some voter expectations for her potential second term. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the story. …
Leave a commentIf Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris makes history in November by being elected America’s first female president, her husband Doug Emhoff would also break barriers as the country’s first ‘first gentleman.’ It would be the second time the former entertainment lawyer has made history, after spending almost four years as the nation’s first ‘second gentleman.’ VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports. …
Leave a commentJIUQUAN, China — China declared a “complete success” after it launched a new three-person crew to its orbiting space station early Wednesday as the country seeks to expand its exploration of outer space with missions to the moon and beyond. The Shenzhou-19 spaceship carrying the trio blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 4:27 a.m. local time atop a Long March-2F rocket, the backbone of China’s crewed space missions. “The crew condition is good and the launch has been successful,” the state broadcaster China Central Television announced. China built its own space station after being excludedmore
Leave a commentThe two candidates for U.S. president are making what they call their “closing arguments” to voters in this final week before the election. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti brings us the sights and sounds from two rallies. …
Leave a commentThe outcome of the U.S. election and the possible changes in Washington’s foreign policy are of special significance to the 3 million American expatriates eligible to vote in next week’s U.S. presidential elections. In few places is that outcome more tangible than in Ukraine, where a few thousand Americans have, for various reasons, chosen to live after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Lesia Bakalets speaks to several expatriates in Ukraine and sends this report from Kyiv. …
Leave a commentThe Treasury Department on Monday finalized a new rule meant to prevent U.S.-based people and companies from investing in the development of a range of advanced technologies in China, thereby preventing Beijing from accessing cutting-edge expertise and equipment. The rule, which implements an executive order signed by President Joe Biden in 2023, focuses particularly on advanced semiconductors and microelectronics and the equipment used to make them, technology used in quantum computing, and artificial intelligence systems. When it takes effect on January 2, the rule will prohibit certain transactions in semiconductors, microelectronics and artificial intelligence. It also establishes mandatory reporting requirementsmore
Leave a commentThe U.S. Supreme Court denied a bid Tuesday by former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be removed from the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan for the Nov. 5 election. Kennedy has said he wants voters who would have backed him to cast ballots for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump. The court declined Kennedy’s emergency requests to order the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to take him off the ballot in those states. Michigan and Wisconsin are among a handful of closely contested states expected to decide the outcome of themore
Leave a commentA U.S. judge on Tuesday dismissed a Republican lawsuit seeking to force election battleground state Pennsylvania to strengthen its procedures for verifying ballots submitted by military and overseas voters. Six Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives seeking reelection on November 5 had sued Pennsylvania’s top election officials on September 30. The Republicans had argued that the state was improperly exempting overseas voters from a requirement that their identity documents be verified, creating a vulnerability for fraudulent votes to be submitted. Pennsylvania is one of a handful of closely contested states that are expected to decide the outcome ofmore
Leave a commentNAIROBI, KENYA — Some companies are coming up with creative ways of making electric vehicles a more realistic option in power-challenged areas of Africa. Countries in Africa have been slow adopters of battery-powered vehicles because finding reliable sources of electricity is a challenge in many places. The Center for Strategic and International Studies described Africa as “the most energy-deficient continent in the world” and said that any progress made in electricity access in the last five years has been reversed by the pandemic and population growth. Onesmus Otieno, for one, regrets trading in his diesel-powered motor bike for an electric one.more
Leave a commentThe highly contentious, tightly contested U.S. presidential election is now a week away. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, is set to deliver her so-called “closing argument” to voters in a Tuesday evening speech near the White House. Republican former President Donald Trump is campaigning in Pennsylvania, one of the seven political battleground states likely to determine the overall national outcome. Both candidates, each disparaging the other as unfit to lead the country for a new four-year term, are looking for any small advantage to woo the sliver of voters who have not made up their minds in whatmore
Leave a commentAmericans go to the polls November 5 to choose the next U.S. president. However, the national vote tally does not determine which candidate wins the White House. The Electoral College has the final say. But how does this work? …
Leave a commentWashington — A group of accounts that regularly promote cryptocurrency-related content on X have amplified messages from Chinese official accounts and a China-linked disinformation operation covertly pushing Beijing’s propaganda toward Western social media users known as “Spamouflage”. Spamouflage accounts are bots pretending to be authentic users that promote narratives that align with Beijing’s talking points issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s human rights record, the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza. The cryptocurrency accounts were discovered by a joint investigation between VOA Mandarin and DoubleThink Lab, a Taiwan-based social media analytics firm. DoubleThink Lab’s analysis uncovered 1,153 accountsmore
Leave a commentU.S. farmers are facing economic headwinds as they head to the polls this election year. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Illinois …
Leave a commentIn the closing days of this U.S. presidential campaign, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are both targeting LGBTQ+ communities. These voters could make the difference in the seven key battleground states that could decide the election. From Los Angeles, Genia Dulot has the story. …
Leave a commentFormer U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed sweeping tariffs if elected for a second term: a 20% universal tax and 60% tax on goods from China. He argues that the policy will help create jobs, shrink the national debt and boost government revenue for public services, such as child care. Most economists, however, agree that it is ultimately U.S. consumers who will pay more. Economists also warn of unintended ripple effects that could do more harm than good to the U.S. economy. This explainer video explores how increased tariffs might affect U.S. buyers, domestic and foreign producers, and the budget.more
Leave a commentExperts say small modular reactors, called SMRs, are bringing affordable nuclear energy to less wealthy countries. But what are SMRs and why are proponents so excited about them? VOA reporter Henry Wilkins explains …
Leave a commentThe U.S. presidential election takes place Nov. 5. Here is a primer on some basic facts and information regarding the election. Who is running in the US elections? Apart from the most prominent contest — the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump — there are myriad other races on the ballot, spanning national, state and local levels. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election as they are every two years, with members of the House serving two-year terms. In the Senate, where members serve six-year terms, 34 of themore
Leave a commentWashington — A series of attacks on ballot collection boxes across the United States is ratcheting up the pressure on state and local officials, who are hoping to oversee a safe and peaceful presidential election, both for early voting underway across much of the country and for when millions of Americans go to the polls next week. The Northwest U.S. state of Washington confirmed to VOA Monday that local police and the FBI are investigating reports of a suspected “incendiary device” that was placed in a ballot drop box in Vancouver, Washington, early Monday. Officials said no one was injured butmore
Leave a commentwashington — With the U.S. presidential election coming November 5, the importance of social welfare — such as government-run programs for pensions and health care, known as Social Security and Medicare, along with affordable housing, and support for families — is again in the spotlight. More than 71 million people in the U.S. received benefits from programs administered in 2023 by the Social Security Administration, which helps retired workers and people with disabilities. But the Social Security Trust Fund and Medicare, a federal health insurance program for the elderly, are running out of funds, and without a new source of fundingmore
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